The Word of Trust

Good morning! My name is René, I'm one of the pastors here. I want to say good morning to everybody here in the auditorium and everybody watching over in the venue service and everybody watching online. It is wonderful to have such a big crowd this morning on Palm Sunday.

Just a quick 2020 vision update. As you may know, we hope to build a building for our children's ministry and for our school here at church. But 10 days ago, the board of the Soquel Creek Water District declined to let our project advance. In fact, they refused to even consider it, even though it'll use substantially less water than we're using now without a new building.

But the good news is they have decided to reconsider their decision at a special water district meeting. And here's the date. Please put this on your calendar, pray about it, and be there. April 29th. That's a Tuesday over here at Cabrillo College. Now this is huge. This is a huge date in the history of this church. And I hope that every single person who's supported this project, who supports it, is there at this meeting.

You don't have to get up and say anything, but I think just your presence will mean a lot. Just a visible show of support. So you know, grab some dinner and make a date night out of it. And let's just enjoy this. Now I want to say as we move into this, please remember the water board are not our enemies. They have a tough job. They really do, and I don't envy them. So please pray for wisdom for them in this.

And remember the three P's that we talked about last weekend. Pray, be present at the meeting, and be positive about the potential outcomes. In fact, let's pray in that direction right now. Would you bow your heads with me again? Lord, we ask that you would work through all of this in our hearts and in our church and in our community. May we be an example of how Christ-like people approach these sorts of issues. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name we pray. Everybody say it together. Amen.

In 2010, 33 Chilean coal miners were trapped 2300 feet below the surface of the earth in virtual pitch darkness. They were trapped on August 4th, not knowing if they would be rescued or not. They ate out survival until they were finally rescued on October 13th. August 4th to October 13th. How many of you remember that story? Can I see a show of hands? How many of you had nightmares about that story? How many of you are breaking out in a cold sweat right now just thinking about this, right?

Man, if you got claustrophobia, this is just kind of setting you over the edge, even as I speak. I got a question for you. How do you survive months in deep darkness? You know how they survived it? Almost to a man. When they came up out of that little capsule that was the rescue capsule, they dropped to their knees in prayer and thanked God. And they said prayer and hope and God was the key to getting them through all of this.

In fact, you know what they called the little tunnel where they all huddled with only the light from their miners' helmets to for a few minutes every day give them some light? They called it Camp Hope. Camp Hope. Well listen, maybe you are going through a dark, dark time in your life right now. I want you to call this service Camp Hope for you because you're gonna leave with hope.

Grab your message notes. We are in a series called Cross Words studying the seven final sayings of Christ on the cross. It's been wonderful. We've gone through all six so far and today on Palm Sunday we look at number seven. We call it the Word of Trust. The Word of Trust, the very final word of Jesus from the cross. This is a saying, a single short sentence that can literally change your life, especially if you're going through a dark time right now.

By the way, if you're not in a dark time right now, you will be in a dark time. So you need to know this sentence. In fact, if you're under stress, if you're worried about something right now, if you really internalize what we're gonna be talking about, if you really get what Jesus was saying when he said this final sentence from the cross, you are going to leave without that stress that you walked in with.

Here's the story from Luke 23, the Gospel of Luke 23. "It was now noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon for the sun had stopped shining and the curtain of the temple was torn in two." Now let me hit pause real quick here. What was this all about? Well in the time of Jesus, if you went to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and if you walked up to the temple and you went through the big doors in this building and walked inside, there was a thick curtain that was separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple.

It was 36 inches, a yard thick of tightly woven material. It was meant to be a wall closing off the Holy of Holies from the rest of the world. Only one person was allowed to go past the temple and that was the high priest. And then only once a year on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur when he offered the sacrifices for the people. But when Jesus died, God the Father tore open that curtain from top to bottom saying, "There is now no more barrier that has to separate you from me." And now not only one person can come in but you can all come in and not on one day a year but seven days a week, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, you can have access to me because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

And right after that happens, here are the very last words of Christ on the cross. This is Holy ground here. "Jesus called down in a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.' And when he had said this, he breathed his last." And the centurion, this was the one who was in charge of the crucifixion. The centurion seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man." Now that centurion is a fascinating figure and we're going to be looking a little bit more closely at this guy and his reaction to Jesus because he had seen, he was an expert in execution, he'd seen hundreds and probably thousands of these things but there was something about this one that was different.

Why in the world would he say that? Well it's because he saw Jesus say those seven final sayings on the cross and we're going to look at the centurion on Good Friday. I hope you can make it this Friday night to our Good Friday services, the times that they're in your bulletins. I got to tell you this is going to be a rich experience. We're going to have communion. Now that we've been looking at the seven final sayings of Christ, we're going to be going back over them again very briefly, just reading them. It'll be powerful.

Tim Beverly in the choir, the orchestra have been working on this for months. Ryan and Lily Jones, our worship leaders in the venue service and Trent Smith, our worship leader here, have written new music for this and in fact I encourage you to just during Holy Week to get your mind in the right place. We have these free CDs of the new music. A couple of these are rearranged hymns that Ryan and Lily and Trent have put together. They're available at a table in the back. There's a donation box but you don't have to put anything in to pick up these CDs. Just grab a CD, put it in your car and help prepare your spirit for Good Friday and for Easter and share these with a friend as well.

So that's what we're going to be talking about on Good Friday. But for this morning what I want to talk about is the darkness. Because somehow a dust storm, thick clouds came over the land, an eclipse, something happened supernaturally, it doesn't specify. Somehow it got dark. And again maybe it's dark for you right now. Tough times. For Jesus his friends were gone, his strength was gone, his life was almost gone and now the light is gone.

And so I've got a question. Again how can I survive this kind of soul darkness? How can I have the kind of peace and trust Jesus had when everything's going dark? I want that. I need that. Well here's a tip again notice that Jesus responds with scripture. Remember how we saw two weeks ago that Jesus was just soaked in scripture right? Soaked in it. He quoted Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me on the cross?" Well this phrase, "Into your hands I commit my spirit," is also a direct quote from a psalm. This is Psalm 31:5.

And in the time of Jesus Psalm 31 was like the bedtime prayer of the Jewish families. Jewish moms would teach us to their little kids it was their equivalent of, "Now I lay me down to sleep." Every Jew knew this by heart, the whole psalm. And do you know what Psalm 31 is about? Psalm 31 is the greatest psalm in the Bible on how to trust God when times are dark. And I'm pretty convinced that the whole psalm was on the mind of Jesus because later in the psalm it says, "They conspire against me and plot to take my life but I trust in you O Lord." I say, "You are my God."

So do you see what's going on here? After six hours on the cross, things are dire, things are dark. Jesus' strength has ebbed away. Yet he is focusing on the Father and not the pain. Focused on the Father not the pain. And again, how can I be like that is my question because I gotta tell you when people are mocking me, you know, when I'm going through pain, when things are dark for me, naturally I am not a serene person. I don't know what you think your pastor is like, but that in my natural temperament is not Mr. Rogers, okay?

My natural temperament when I'm going through tough times is more like George Costanza on Seinfeld. You know, Serenity now! That's about as close as I get to peace of mind in my natural self. I've got to learn how to take my natural assertiveness and type A personality, super competitive personality, and find peace with stuff. The stuff going on right now that we're going through with the, you know, church waterboard things. I mean, I gotta be honest with you. The first two or three or four or five nights after that for me were sleepless nights and the seeming unfairness of it all just kind of got my goat. I felt like it was punched in the stomach.

So I need to learn this. How do I trust God when life gets dark? Because it literally got dark for Jesus and I don't know what's going on in your life these days. I've had a tough week, but maybe you're going through something way tougher than that. Cancer or family trouble or a financial crisis. Well, when times are dark, there's four truths to remember and they're all covered in Jesus Christ's last statement. Every single one of these words has huge significance. So jot these down.

First thing to remember. Number one, I have a father in heaven. I have a father in heaven. We mentioned that Jesus quotes Psalm 31:5 which reads into your hands. I commit my spirit, but Jesus adds a word. He adds one word to the beginning of the sentence. What is it? Say it out loud. Father. That's right. Jesus always refers to God as father. He told his disciples, pray like this. Our what? Father in heaven. You know, this is so important. God is not some, you know, galactic physicist who created the universe as a laboratory experiment and kicked it all off and started up all the laws of physics and then just walked away.

God's not like a cosmic CEO whose company you work for, but he could fire you. God is your daddy. He's your father. But some of you are going, you know what? What else do we know about God as father? Because frankly, if God's like a lot of human fathers, that's not necessarily good news, right? In fact, some of you could say, my dad was a bully. My dad was unpredictably prickly. My dad, you never knew what he was gonna get when he walked in the room. Was he gonna get the huggy bear or were you gonna get the growly bear? My dad, he was absent. He wasn't there for us. Some of you're thinking the idea of an eternally powerful father, not that appealing to me.

So what else do we know about God as father? Well, second truth you see here in this phrase, he is loving and powerful. He's loving and powerful as a father. Jesus says, father, into your hands. And I love that phrase, your hands. Look at the screen. I love those pictures where you can find big daddy hands holding little powerless baby hands. You know, do you love these kinds of pictures? I love these because these remind me of what my heavenly father's hands are like.

You know, when Jesus says, into your hands, what are the hands of your father in heaven like? You know, it's an interesting study to look up all the references in the Bible to the hands of God. They're referred to over 200 times. So what are some of the things that the Bible says about the hands of God? Well, for one thing, they're very powerful. Look at this verse, Psalm 95. "In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land." Man, if his hands did all of that, then his hands are powerful enough to see you through anything.

And check this one out, Isaiah 49:15. God says, "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born?" He's saying, "Fiercest love you can probably imagine is a mama bear for her cubs, right?" Fiercest love you can imagine is a mom protecting her babies. But once in a while, you can read in the news that even mamas can mistreat their children. And God is saying in this verse, "Not me, not ever, though she may forget, I will not forget you. I have engraved you on the palms of my hands." Now what's that all about?

Well, there was a tradition in Jesus's day and for about 200 years before Jesus's day that males who just love Jerusalem and love the temple in Jerusalem would literally tattoo a picture of the temple in Jerusalem on the palms of their hands. They'd get woodcut engravings and they would stamp them in charcoal, and then they would stamp the charcoal so it was like a hand stamp of the temple on their hands. Then they'd take two needles and dip them in ink and with a kind of a point method they would kind of point, not drawing blood, but they would put ink into the picture of the temple on their hands.

How many of you are breaking out in a cold sweat just thinking of that right now, right? But why they would end up with basically a tattoo of the temple on their hands, some of you are thinking, "But weren't tattoos considered not kosher?" Yes, but in Jesus's day some rabbis said, "If as long as you don't have the name of God or a picture of a living thing then it's okay," and so they put a tattoo of the temple on their hands. Why? So that they would never forget to pray for Jerusalem, so that they would always remember the temple which represents the presence of God. Because how often do you look at your hands? You look at your hands all the time, right? And so they would always remember it and never be able to wash themselves of their love for the temple.

Well that's the tradition that this verse is referring to. God is saying, "I have tattooed," not only is he calling you by name, he has tattooed your name on his hands. This is saying God is not fickle. God is not one of those dads that's unpredictable. His love is consistent. This is saying no matter what God will never wash his hands of you. And remember this is being originally said to an Israel that was very rebellious against God, but God's saying, "I'm never gonna wash my hands of you. You may be faithless but I will be faithful to you. I will be consistent."

And by the way, what else does this image remind you of? The nails of the cross on Jesus Christ, right? God is saying, "You are part of me forever. You're literally carved on my hands." So God's hands are loving. God's hands are powerful. And then Jesus says, speaking of those who trust in him, he says, "No one can snatch them out of my father's hands." You know I talk to people sometimes who say, "I'm afraid to give my life to Jesus Christ because I'm afraid I won't be able to keep the commitment." I'll be honest with you, you can't. You can't and you won't. You will mess up. Fortunately your salvation isn't based on you keeping the commitment, it's based on God keeping his commitment. His hands will never let you go.

You know one of my earliest memories is my father taking me off the diving board over the hill at the Lascatas Swim and Racket Club. It's just on the other side of Highway 17 and there they are now calling me thanking me for the plug. But the Lascatas Swim and Racket Club, and I know it's one of my earliest memories as some of you know my dad died just before I turned four and so for him to be in any one of my memories that's a pretty early memory, but I remember he was taking me and he was holding me and I thought it was a high dive, it was probably just the regular dive, and he said, "Let's jump off the diving board together."

And I was kicking and screaming going, "No, no, I don't want to do it." I thought he'd throw me off, I thought he'd let me go, I thought it would be a disaster, and he said, "It'll be okay, I'll be right with you." And we jumped and I screamed and of course he didn't let me go and it was a blast. And what do you think I wanted to do right after that? Do it a hundred more times that afternoon, right? Well listen, your Heavenly Father is waiting for you to go off the diving board with Him and He will never let you go.

For some it's the diving board of initial trust in Him as your Savior and for others it's another diving board of an adventure of faith that He's calling you to. His hands are powerful, His hands are loving, and His hands will never let you go. You just need to trust Him and that's the third truth we see here. My Father can be trusted. My Father can, I can trust Him with whatever I'm going through right now. That's why we call this the word of trust.

Jesus says, "Father, into your hands I commit." Now in the English language sometimes we get this word commit mixed up because commitment can mean two things in English that are almost totally opposite, right? There's one definition of commitment that's like, "Try hard!" Like the Raiders slogan. Anybody know the Raiders motto, Oakland Raiders? What is it? Commit. The two Raiders fans here know it. It is, thank you, it is commitment to excellence. But that kind of commitment means trying hard. Commit. I got to commit to excellence. I got to put my nose to the grindstone and try really hard. Commitment to excellence, right?

Then there's another definition of the word commitment in English and that word means more like surrender. Like I'm going to commit myself into the hands of the surgeons when I go to get my operation, right? I'm not going to be on the table going, "Here's my infected gallbladder." Right? You know I have nothing to do with it. I'm giving myself into their care. I'm surrendering. I'm yielding. And that second sense of commitment is what Jesus is using here and is what we mean when we say commit your life to God. It doesn't mean try harder. It means yield. It means surrender. It means entrust.

In fact that's how some of the other translations render this word. I entrust. It's interesting the Greek word is used most often in the first century to mean to deposit something with somebody for safekeeping. It's kind of like everybody here knows what a safety deposit box is, right? You have some valuables you take them to the bank. You don't want to lose them. You don't want to be lost in a fire or theft or something. So the bank puts them in a safe deposit box and keeps them safe for you. You entrust them to the bank. That's what this verse means.

Jesus is saying I'm entrusting my life into the care of God my Father. And this is huge because one of the great questions of life that everybody eventually has to answer is who do you trust? Who do you trust ultimately with your life? And your answer to that question and your practice of that answer is going to determine your peace of mind because let's run through the options. You're gonna say ultimately I'm gonna put my ultimate trust in the government and the justice system and the bureaucrats to do the right thing. I'm gonna put my ultimate trust in public opinion to tell me the right thing to do. What are the options?

I'm gonna put my ultimate trust in the economy and money. I'm gonna put my ultimate trust in my own brain and figuring out the right thing. I'm gonna put my ultimate trust in just my feelings and whatever I feel I'm gonna let my heart lead me. If you decide to do that you're gonna be manipulated your whole life by people who know how to manipulate your feelings. So what are you gonna put your trust in? There's only one thing or person that you can put your trust in that never changes. Only one and that's God. His character never changes. His word never changes. His promises never change. So if you want an unchanging object of trust it's going to be God.

That's the only option if you really want to be secure in life and that's what Jesus is saying here. Now you say well that sounds okay theologically how's that work practically? How many of you know who James Durbin is? The American Idol. He was one of the top four American Idol singers. He's from Santa Cruz. He goes here to Twin Lakes Church with his wife Heidi and their son and I went over to Cabrillo College a couple of weeks ago to watch him being interviewed by Wallace Bain at a great little presentation and what I was surprised but delighted to hear is that James like at every opportunity talked about his faith and about his church specifically about Twin Lakes Church.

He kept saying things like Twin Lakes it's right next door you should check it out if you haven't gone there yet and I was like wow he was talking more about Twin Lakes than I would have in an interview with Wallace Bain right it was great but Wallace asked him a really good question this is just one example Wallace said how did you handle the stress the pressure of auditioning for American Idol and James said well you know what religious people and then he checked himself what people of faith do is they when they're going into a stressful situation they turn it over to God and they trust God for the results you try your best but then you entrust the results to God he said that's what we do that's what it means to be a person of faith and I just felt like standing up and going yes preach it you know it's fantastic but that's exactly what it means.

You know no matter what you're facing whether it's surgery or you've had a tough time sleeping or you're in school you're facing the stress of a test you turn it over to God you trust God with it you put it into his hands for safekeeping. Now some of you are going well what does God care about an American Idol audition or or my test results in school or whether or not I can sleep at night you know God does care about those things you know why? Because God cares for you and God wants you to grow in character.

Here's another example I got an interesting text this week from my friends who go to Twin Lakes Church Jim and Sue Ellen Calcagno their teenage son Dante had a quite a severe biking accident a number of months ago last year and here's Dante he was paralyzed actually from about his chest area down he was essentially a quadriplegic and basically the accepted wisdom was that he would never walk again.

Now how's Dante doing now? Well I'll tell you in just a minute but how do you handle that kind of dark time right? I asked Sue Ellen and her text to me I said I said how do you handle this how do you go through all this because they've handled it with such joy and she texted me back basically what we're talking about this morning she said you you just have to turn it over to God you try your best but then you you trust God for the results specifically she said we prayed for divine guidance for healing and for taking one day at a time trusting in God she said you told us that we wouldn't be alone and that was so true.

She said I have a hundred stories about the incredible generosity of family and friends they had friends who were members here at TLC and wheelchairs who were also fighting the same fight helping them out and all out they also had two world-class parents and that didn't hurt Dante either so how's Dante doing now? Well slowly he began using a wheelchair and then a walker through grueling physical therapy tons of challenges and this is now he is not just walking but he is dancing isn't that a great picture now he's got a way to go but as Sue said Dante's getting back in the game of life now but you know they they the their faith was put to the test in that moment and they could have squandered the moment and just wrung their hands and and worried and wailed and fallen into a deep dark pit of despair but instead they had such an amazing attitude they just said we're going to trust God with this.

So what are you going through? You know trusting God doesn't mean that there's not going to be tough times there's still going to be a fight in this world we have trouble that that was Jesus Christ's promise to us but when you have trust in God you can go through that fight with faith. You know listen I'll be very honest with you I always try to be totally honest about it whether or not I'm actually applying the things I talk about right and for me this has been a very tough week because here we spent all those years and months on the pledge drive and putting the building plans together and and then by three to two vote to have the water board say no man I was I was stunned and so I thought I need some biblical encouragement and I remember that saddleback down in Lake Forest California went through several incidents like that as they were trying to build and so I kind of looked up well what did their pastor Rick Warren had to say about it and he actually in the midst of it all preached a great sermon that he called the six phases of faith.

He said when you go back into the Bible and you see God promising things to people he said you almost always see a pattern and it approximately follows this pattern no matter when God is promising you can go to the promised land you're going to have a son you're going to be king there's almost always this pattern and this isn't in your notes but you can jot it down on the margins or something first there's a dream God gives you a dream a vision a goal and ambition a picture of how things could be and then phase two is a decision you have to make the decision to go after the dream and then along comes delay are any of you familiar with this phase right where God gives you a dream but he almost never fulfills it instantly the people of Israel being freed Joseph and his dream coming true again David's promised to be the anointed King Daniel's vision of the people returning to Jerusalem he's thrown to the lion's den Sarah is promised a baby she's barren there's almost always delay if you look at scripture.

And then while you're in God's waiting room you come to phase four which is difficulty now you want not only get to wait but now you gotta have problems while you wait right it seems like it's not gonna happen well listen you've got to realize that when you're in the delay phase and then you're in the difficulty phase that in almost all biblical stories just around the bend is a dead end and that's where it looks humanly impossible for the vision to become reality and maybe you're there my marriage is never gonna turn around I'm never gonna get a job I'm never gonna graduate I'm never gonna see this dream fulfilled with hey when the disciples were seeing Jesus crucified that was a dead end quite literally it was overdone but then what do you see deliverance in story after story biblically where God supernaturally does a miracle right when you think it's hopeless listen God specializes in turning crucifixions into resurrections and by the way that's what we're gonna be talking about on Easter.

Can I just say please come to Easter and invite your friends because that message in all of them it's gonna be amazing music I've heard these guys practicing and the message I've been working on it for a number of weeks now trying to make the most inspiring resurrection related message possible your friends and family will be uplifted and so will you we've got these invitation cards everywhere around church and in your bulletins grab these put them up somewhere let people see them at bulletin boards at your coffee shop they will be encouraged and people need encouragement right now.

But trusting God trusting your father doesn't mean that there won't be trouble so how do you get through that trouble times? Well you know I have a heavenly father he's loving and powerful I can trust him and finally there is more happening than I can see. There's more happening that my loving powerful father that I can trust is doing stuff behind the scenes. Jesus said father into your hands I commit my spirit so much to say but I'll keep it to this in his dying breath his last word Jesus is acknowledging there is more to life than this material stuff more than his dying body more than his wounds there's his spirit and of course we know what God was doing behind the scenes we know that his spirit would be taken care of by the father and reunited with his resurrected glorified body in just three days.

God was working behind the scenes and God is working in your life behind the scenes in ways that you don't even realize right now and so here's the question what do you need to entrust to God today? What do you need to put into that safe deposit box for his safekeeping? Well I'll tell you what it is it's whatever you're worrying about so what are you worrying about ask yourself what's worrying me right now look at that phrase there in your notes on page 3 father into your hands I commit my blank what's bothering you write it down in that blank you know maybe your kids are worrying you maybe your elderly parents your marriage father into your hands I commit my family and you give it to God.

Maybe you stay up late worrying about your future father into your hands I commit my future maybe you just got a dire diagnosis from the doctor father into your hands I commit my health or what about this I kid you not this is no joke this past week I've been praying every day father into your hands I commit our building project over and over again what is worrying you you know worry is really acting like you're a spiritual orphan and you don't have a heavenly father and his loving hands aren't powerful enough to help you and you can't trust him and he's not working behind the scenes you're a spiritual orphan so trust him.

But I'll tell you what I know something else through personal experience when you're going through a painful time when you're going through a deep dark time in the darkness that's when it's the hardest to trust God right when you should and the Apostle Paul knew this but Paul knew that when you're in pain that's when you need to trust God the most look at these last verses can you relate to these he the Apostle Paul says we were really crushed and overwhelmed and we feared we'd never live through it we we felt we were doomed to die and we saw how powerless we were to help ourselves but that was good for then we put everything into the hands of God who alone can save us for he can even raise the dead.

You know in some churches people would be like excited about that right now they'd be clapping or saying amen or something or smiling he can even raise the dead and so where do you need to trust God right now don't leave without putting it into his hands and let's take an opportunity to do that would you pray with me let's bow together heavenly father I just pray that all across this room spiritually would just if we could see the cares going up to you it would be like helium balloons going up to the sky because people would not be hanging on to their worries and their frustrations and their anger and their guilt anymore they would just be saying God I know they're still gonna be a fight I know there's still gonna be difficulties and delays and dead ends but I'm entrusting in you my situation and trusting you for my deliverance just like the people of old just like the people in Scripture God I know I can trust you and so hour by hour day by day I want to place my life in your hands safe and warm and protected because you're my father and you love me so I throw myself on you I run into your arms now.

And some of you maybe for the very first time you've been lingering you've been checking out this Christianity thing not sure what it is you know what it is it's running into your father's arms and saying God saved me God has called us all by name he's called us all to the cross and so now that we're at the cross together would you say Jesus I trust in you my Lord and Savior thank you Lord in Jesus' name we pray amen.