Father, Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit - Life of Christ Part 106

This morning I'd like you to take a Bible and let's open it together to Luke chapter 23. And if you didn't bring a Bible this morning, we've got one we'd like you to borrow. You'll find it on the back of the seat in front of you. We're going to be on page 748.

Page 748 of our copy of the Bible or Luke chapter 23 in your copy of the Bible. This is what Newsweek magazine said about it. It is an area about the size of a living room. It's higher than most airliners fly. So high that it sits most of the year in the jet stream itself.

Storms blow in at 100 miles per hour. It takes about two months to walk up to it. And once there, nobody stays for more than an hour or two because if you reach there in the first place, you've probably used up most of your luck already. End of quote.

You know what they're talking about? Top of Mount Everest, that's right. 29,028 feet above sea level. And in human history, less than 600 people have ever climbed to that living room sized piece at the top. Over 140 have died trying. And two weeks ago, eight more names were added to that list in this horrible tragedy that happened over there where there were people strung all up and down going to the summit when a storm suddenly blew in from nowhere. The temperature dropped to 40 degrees below zero. The wind picked up to 75 miles an hour.

The wind chill was 140 degrees below zero. And eight people, including three Americans, died. Another dozen or so were fortunate to escape with their life.

Although some of them are going to have fewer body parts, thanks to frostbite. I'm a little bit obsessed with this whole story. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's just seeing these incredible pictures and seeing these people go up this mountain. But, you know, who are the people who do this? I mean, are these people second cousins to mountain goats? I mean, who are these people?

Actually, the truth of the matter is they're amateurs, most of them. And what you do is you pay $65,000 each to a guide and you go over there and for two to three months you entrust your entire life into the hands of this guide. And it takes that long to climb the mountain because you start at 17,000 feet and you start over the next eight weeks successively carrying equipment up to the next highest camp and the next highest camp and the next highest camp until finally you reach the final camp from which you're ready to kind of assault the summit. And during that time, people walk across 200-foot deep crevasses on metal extension ladders that have been thrown across these things like the kind you have in your basement. They walk on tightropes across these big gashes.

I mean, it's unbelievable. And when you're doing that, the guide is all you've got between you and death. And you learn to step where he tells you to, drink and eat when he tells you to, climb how he tells you to and do precisely what he tells you to if you want to live.

And even then it doesn't always work. Two of the people who died were guides. When it comes to putting your life in the hands of another person, I don't know that it gets any more real than this. And this morning I want to talk to us about putting our hands in the life of another person but not a guide to go up Mount Everest but into the hands of God himself. And if you remember, we're studying the last seven things that Jesus said on the cross and we're up to saying number five. And in saying number five, Jesus models this very important transaction of placing ourselves in the hands of God for us.

We want to talk about that today. So let's look right here, verse 44 of chapter 23. It was now about the sixth hour, that's noon, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. That's 3 p.m. For the sun stopped shining and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. During this three hour period when the earth turned dark, we said that that darkness last week symbolized what was happening during those three hours on the cross. During those three hours, God the Father transferred the sin and the guilt of the whole human race onto Jesus Christ, God the Son, as he hung on the cross. And during those three hours, there was a separation, a breach in the relationship between God the Father and God the Son because all the sin of the world now was on God the Son. And at the end of that three hour period when the sin of the world had been paid for, when Jesus had completed his mission, the son returned, the relationship between God the Father and God the Son was once again there. And the last three sayings on the cross then come in very quick succession and Jesus is gone.

They don't take an hour or two hours or 20 minutes. It's one, two, three, gone. Why? Because Jesus was finished. It was all done.

No reason to stay. Now the Bible does not tell us what order exactly these last three come in, but they all came within a matter of a few seconds, so it doesn't really matter. And here's this one, verse 46. And when it was three o'clock, the son in return, Jesus called out with a loud voice and said, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.

And when he had said this, he breathed his last. And what was Jesus really saying here? Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. Well, with the exception of the word father, this is an exact quote from the Old Testament. Psalm 31, verse five, into your hands, I commit my spirit, an exact quote. And the writings of the rabbis tell us that this was a very common bedtime prayer that was taught to Jewish children when they were little, kind of like now I lay me down to sleep, except that this one was kosher. You understand what I'm saying?

It's the kosher version. And so what Jesus was really saying to God was, Father, just like a little child entrusts himself or herself completely, that's what I'm now going to do. I'm going to place all of my trust in you. The Greek word here translated commit means to entrust or to give over or to surrender. And Jesus was saying, I'm now going to entrust my soul to you, Father. And it begs the question of, well, what was he entrusting his soul to God to do with?

What was he wanting God to do with his soul? Remember, Jesus, throughout the New Testament, had said, I'm going to be betrayed into the hands of the Romans. I'm going to be crucified. And then on the third day, I'm going to rise again. And so Jesus here on the cross had finished the first two of those. And now he says, Father, I'm entrusting my soul into your hands. And I'm trusting you to do what you promised to return my soul to my body on the third day and raise me from the dead.

That's what I'm trusting you to do. Now, I want to stop there in terms of the passage we're studying. And I want us to spend the rest of our time answering the really important question. And what's that question? So what? Right.

So what, Lon? What difference does this make to my life today, 20th century? Friends, the real essence of what Jesus was saying here, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. The real essence of this was that Jesus was surrendering control. Jesus was giving up control and he was giving it to somebody else. Now, surrendering control of all or part of our lives to somebody else is not something that most of us as human beings do very well. It's a tough assignment. And a large part of the reason for that is that many of us have tried this before and we've gotten nailed.

We've gotten burned. I mean, take the case of U.S. Congresswoman from Utah, Enid Waltos. Know her? Remember her? She's running for Congress from Utah.

She's pregnant. And so she gave her whole campaign, committed her campaign and all of its details into the hands of her husband, Joe. Well, the FBI says that Joe forged documents. He wrote millions of dollars in bad checks and he diverted nearly five million dollars in campaign funds to who knows where. His wife says she didn't know anything about it. Had no clue what was going on. I don't know whether she did or she didn't. I don't know. And I'm not here to decide that.

But either way, what this points out is it points out the risks that we take when we entrust ourselves into the hands of somebody else. Her career is over. Kaput, finish.

She was a bright and rising star in Republican politics. It's over. She said in her news conference, it was televised, that went on and on and on and on and on. Here's what she said. And I quote, I believe I was tricked. I was as stupid, as blind, as naive, as gullible, as trusting as anybody can be.

Everything I thought I knew about Joe Waltholz was a lie. I completely let my guard down. End of quote. And many of us here know the pain of letting our guard down. And then being betrayed.

By a parent, by a husband, a wife, an ex-husband, an ex-wife, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a friend at school we thought we could trust, whatever. Now the Bible says that Jesus knew what was in the heart of everybody and anybody. And what did Jesus see in God's heart that gave him the confidence that he could say to God, Father, into your hands I commit, I entrust my spirit and I'm not the slightest bit worried about it.

What did he see in the heart of God that made him willing to do that? Well, I got to thinking about that this week and I came up with four things. Now these may not be the only four, but four things, four requirements a person has to meet before we ought to be willing to entrust ourselves to them.

And here they are. Number one, requirement number one. We need to be sure that that person has our best interest at heart.

That's the first thing. That they're not out for their own personal profit, their own personal advantage, their own personal benefit, but they're out for whatever is best and whatever is beneficial for us. Why else should we commit ourselves to them? Number two, we need to be sure that they're trustworthy, that what they promise they're going to perform on and that we can count on them to do what they say, that they're dependable. Number three, we need to be sure that they're able, able to defend us, able to protect us, able to provide for us.

I mean, someone may be sincerely out for my best interest, but if they're so weak that they can't do anything, they can't take care of my interest, then what good are they? So number one, we need to be sure they're out for our best interest. Number two, we need to be sure that they're able. Number three, that they're trustworthy.

And number four, and finally, we need to be sure that they know what they're doing. I mean, why should I give control to somebody who doesn't know what they're doing? I feel pretty bad for those people who got on that value jet, huh? They surrendered control. You do that, you know, every time you get on an airplane. You surrender control to that pilot and that ground crew and everybody else. They surrendered control and somebody somewhere apparently did not know what they were doing. I don't know who's, what, where, why yet, but somebody somewhere didn't know what they were doing.

And friends, whether it's flying or taking the train or undergoing surgery or any other situations where we place ourselves in the hand of somebody else, man, we want to make sure they know what they're doing, huh? Now, the question is, can God meet these four requirements? Can he?

Let's see. Number one, does God have our best interest at heart? I want you to turn over to John chapter 10, if you would, in your Bible. That's page 759 in our copy of the Bible, page 759. And let's see what Jesus said about this.

John chapter 10, verse 11. I am the good shepherd, Jesus said. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not out for the good of the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he's a hired hand.

Watch. And he doesn't care about the sheep. He doesn't have the best interest of the sheep at heart. But Jesus said, I'm not like that. I'm the good shepherd, and I'll lay down my life for the sheep. And by the way, could I remind you, he did lay down his life for the sheep? Folks, look at the cross. There is not one bit of personal gain for Jesus Christ anywhere in the cross. There's not one reason in the world why he went to the cross for any personal advancement. There is no personal advancement for him in the cross. He went to the cross for you, for me. That's what he went to the cross for.

The cross is the ultimate put your money where your mouth is act of being out for somebody else's best interest. Is God out for your interest in mind? You bet he is. Second of all, is he trustworthy? Can you count on him? Will he do what he said? Is he faithful? Numbers 23, verse 19, God is not a man that he should lie, nor does he change his mind. Does he speak and not act? No. Does he promise and not fulfill?

Uh-uh. Titus chapter 1 says God cannot lie. If God lies to you, God has to stop being God. God's not going to stop being God because of lying to you. God's going to do exactly what he said. Is he trustworthy?

Yes, sir. His godhood's riding on it. Number three, is he able to take care of you and me? Is he powerful enough?

Is he strong enough? Isaiah 40, I am God and there's none other. Behold, all the nations are like a drop in the bucket to me.

I regard them as a speck of dust on the scales. I do what I want in heaven and on earth and no one can hold back my hand. That's why when Sarah said, give me a baby at age 90, I don't think so, God said to her, hey, Sarah, is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Come on, Sarah, get with the program here. And that's why Jesus himself said the things that are impossible with people are possible with God. Is God able to take care of anything that you commit to him? Is he able to protect you, provide for you?

You bet he is. Hey, the nations are like a speck of dust on the scale to him. God can handle it. Fourth and finally, can we be sure God knows what he's doing? Well, listen to what the Bible says. The Bible says Psalm 147 verse 5, great is the Lord and mighty in power, his understanding is infinite. Isaiah 40, his understanding, no one can fathom. Folks, God not only knows what he's doing, but I'll tell you something else, God knows what's better for your life and your family's life than you know. So did God meet the test?

Yeah. Now, if God meets the test, if all four requirements are met, that he's out for our best interests, he's trustworthy, he's able, and he knows what he's doing, then let me end this morning by talking to you about where are the areas, what are the situations, where does God want us to do what Jesus did, to say what Jesus said, Father, in this area, I commit myself into your hands. What are some areas God wants us to do that? Well, I got a few written down here. Let's talk about them. Number one, how about our career?

Our career. I got a thing I cut out the magazine, and it's one of these Anne Landers wannabe people. And so they wrote her this thing, and here's how it starts. Girl writes in and says, I work for a 32-year-old egotistical pig.

That caught my attention. This is the first time my boss has ever had authority, so he's on a real power trip. He seems to have a hard time remembering and focusing on projects, and he always blames his mistakes on me. I'm his personal assistant. He's the department head. Other staff members are also sick of his condescending attitude, but nobody knows what to do because the people in top management, they think he's great. Now, whether you're in industry, whether you're in the military, whether you're in government service, whether you're even in the ministry, I mean, look, all of us want to have career success. And there will always be bosses, and there will always be promotion boards, and there will always be people in authority over top of us who will be up there as we try to climb the ladder, stepping on our fingers, trying to make sure we don't get one more rung, pouring hot oil down the ladder from above.

How are we going to deal with these people? Well, there's lots of different ways to do it, but the way God says to deal with them is to take our career and instead of trying to run it ourselves, commit it to him and let him take care of it. Can God take care of it?

Sure, he can. Listen to the promise of Proverbs 21, verse 1. The king's heart, the boss's heart, the professor's heart, the review board's heart, the coach's heart, everybody's heart is in the hand of the Lord, and he, the Lord, directs that heart wherever he wants it to go. And what that means is, can God get you in your career where you need to go? Have you ever had a boss like this? You say, what do you mean, have I ever?

I got one now like that. Okay, so what? His heart is still in the hand of God, and God can turn that heart wherever he needs to turn it to get you exactly where he wants you to be in your career. Folks, the best way to go up the ladder is to put it in the hands of God and let God climb the ladder and you just go piggyback.

That's the best way to do this. Can you commit your career into the hand of God? Number two, how about your children? Your children. You know, we have child dedications here, and we can't even keep up with all the children that want to be dedicated in this church, and that's great. I mean, we have a very reproductive church here, and it's good.

We believe the Bible. You know, be fruitful, have lots of little babies, and we do that. And we've had some very humorous things happen when we do baby dedications up here. We've had microphones yanked off and all kinds of stuff, but without a doubt, the one that is most memorable for me is that one time a number of years ago, I was holding this cute little baby. He's a boy, as I remember, and he was just cute as could be, little old thing, and I had him up on my shoulder, and I'm talking about what a great little kid he is, and without warning, I mean, there was absolutely no advance notice.

He just simply goes, blah. And all of a sudden, I look down, and I got to tell you, there's this big old glob of sticky, gooey, smelly white stuff all over my suit. Now, you know what? I couldn't believe that anything that looked so cute on the outside could smell so bad on the inside. I was like, oh, my goodness.

Well, I survived. Suits get cleaned. But you know one question we ask parents every time they bring their children up here? We ask every set of parents.

Here's one of the vows we ask them. We say, will you release your child to the will of God, whatever that might be, without bitterness or resistance? You know what we're really asking those parents? What we are really asking those parents is, will you entrust your child into the hands of Almighty God 100%? And folks, God loves our children more than we love them.

God has a perfect plan for each of their lives, and God is faithful and able to work that plan out if we'll put them in his hands. Now, I don't know about you if you have children, but I'll tell you, it's a scary thing to give up control of your children to God. I mean, we've all heard these terrible stories where somebody feels they did that and this tragedy happens. I mean, it's scary.

But I was able to work through this years ago when I was reading a book by A.W. Tozer called The Pursuit of God, and he had a couple sentences to say about this. If you've never read the book, you owe it to yourself to read it, The Pursuit of God, but here's what he said. He said, we are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety.

This is especially true when those treasures are loved relatives like our children. But we need to have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy, but to save. And then last sentence, listen to this. Everything is safe which we commit to him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed.

You know what that said to me? That said to me the most dangerous place my child can be is in my control, and the safest place they can be is in the hands of God. Listen, everything is safe which we commit to him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed. Can you take your children and can you entrust them into the hands of God?

That's the safest place for them to be any other place, my friend, and they're in jeopardy. Number three, how about our status in life? I mean, there are some of us here who are single, and we don't want to be single. We want to be married now. And we've done everything we can think of to get married short of hanging a sign around our neck that says, please marry me, I'll be good to you.

And nothing's worked. Okay, can we take that and can we put it in the hands of God? Can we give that up? Some of us here are married, but we don't have any children, and we want children so bad, but we just can't seem to have children. Can we put that in the hands of God, that status in life? Some of us are divorced.

Some of us are single parents. Some of us are widowed, and we don't like our status in life. But, folks, can we commit our status in life into the hands of God? And can we trust God to alter our status when it's his perfect will to do so? And can we trust God to give us supernatural joy right in the status that we are until he decides to change it? Can we take our status in life and say, Lord, here's my status in life.

Into your hands I commit it. How about number four, our personal reputation? I mean, some of us have been involved in divorces, where we don't think the whole story came out. Some of us have been involved in job actions, where we don't think the whole story really got out, and there are people walking around believing things about us that aren't even close to being true. Some of us have been involved in tragedies and legal actions, where we know the whole truth didn't get out, and there are people believing horrible things about us and our families. And we want the whole story out, and we want the truth to be told, and we want our reputations to be redeemed. Is anything wrong with that?

No, not at all. But can we entrust ourselves to God on this and let God do the redeeming of our reputation? Can we trust ourselves to God and let God do the vindicating for us? Listen to what David prayed, Psalm 43. He said, Vindicate me, O God, and you plead my case. You deliver me from deceitful and unjust people, for you are the God of my strength.

Here's David saying, I'm not going to go out here and vindicate myself. You do that for me, God. Is God able? You betcha.

You betcha. God knows the real truth. And you give him the time and the space, and God will see to it the truth gets out.

And if there's reputations that need to be redeemed, he'll take care of it. Man, I've seen this. I've been part of this. I mean, there are people all over Northern Virginia who, when they hear my name, you know, they envision somebody with one big old eyeball right in the middle of their forehead and a horn growing out right on top of it. And they've heard all kinds of things that I've supposedly done or said, and I mean, they have the worst outlook on who I am and what I've done.

And a lot of that stuff is just patently untrue. But you know what? I decided a long time ago, I don't have the time or the energy or the interest to run around dealing with all that stuff. I've got a church to pastor, people to take care of, a family to watch over, sheep to feed, and a God to serve.

And I don't have time to run around worried about that. My God's big enough, he can worry about that without my help. And so I've given it to him, and it's amazing how stuff happens. And the neatest part about it is, people then can't point the finger at you and say, well, you did this, and you were vindictive, and you didn't do anything. You're just serving God and minding your own business, and God stepped in and took care of it. Hey, friends, can you take your personal reputation if it's been damaged, and can you commit it into the hands of God?

And there's other things. We could talk about finances and future plans and all kinds of things. How about last of all, how long you live? Can you take that and put it in the hands of God, your health, your longevity? Psalm 31 says, my times are in your hands, Lord.

Not in my hands, or the doctor's hands, they're in your hands. I love when I fly. I don't like sitting next to people when I fly. You say you're antisocial.

I don't know. I just like a little space. Give me some space. So when I go, I'm always looking for a row on the airplane where there ain't nobody else. There's usually one row like that. You know which row it is?

Yes, sir, 13. And I always go up and say, is there a row with not all, oh yeah, I can give you row 13. I'll take it. You sure?

Yeah, I'll take it. Doesn't bother you to sit in row 13. I'll have people all the time say to me at the airport, no, no, no, doesn't bother me to sit in row 13 at all.

You know why? My times are committed. It doesn't matter what row I sit in. I'm here until God's done, and the row doesn't make a bit of difference. So I can get on that airplane and sit in row 13, and if God's not through, not a thing's going to happen to me. If it's not my time, I'm not going anywhere. You say, but what if it's the pilot's time? Don't think like that.

Not healthy. You don't want to go on a plane thinking like that. Just forget that kind of stuff. But I don't worry about ladders. I don't worry about black cats. I don't worry about broken mirrors, all that nonsense. Hey, folks, I'm here because my times are committed into the hands of God, and a broken mirror and a black cat and a ladder, and they're not going to make a bit of difference.

And that's the way it is, and that's the way when you live like that, you can have peace. The point of all of this is question. As a Christian, what does God want me to entrust into his hands? Answer, what doesn't God want you to entrust into his hands if you're a Christian? See, I think he wants it all.

Everything, every piece of your life to be entrusted into his hands. And remember, we already said that you can be confident to do that because he's out for your best good. He's trustworthy.

He's able, and he knows what he's doing better than you do. So it's a good deal. It's a good transaction. If you haven't made that transaction with every part of your life as a Christian, then I hope what we've studied today will challenge you because folks, any part of your life or my life that we're holding onto ourselves, it's in grave jeopardy. The safest place for us and everything in our life to be is in the hands of a loving God. Let's pray together. Thank you so much, heavenly father, that you are the kind of God to whom we can commit every part of our life without fear, without anxiety, because we know that you've met the test of being out for our best good, being trustworthy, being able, and Lord, you know what you're doing better than we do. And so I want to pray for us here as Christians this morning, that if there are areas of our life that we are still holding on to, that we would be motivated by your spirit this morning to say, father, in those areas right now, I hereby entrust myself into your hands.

I'm riding piggyback now. Help us to do that, Lord, so that the peace of God that passes all understanding can be ours. And thank you that you will take care of each one of these pieces of our life much better than we can. Thank you. We can trust you with that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.