Father, Into Your Hands: The Power of Surrender

Today, we place our lives, Lord, into your hands, trusting that the God who

raised Jesus from the dead is faithful with every part of us. Free us from fear today.

Anchor us in hope, Lord. Fill us with resurrection life today and send us out

today as people who live differently because the tomb is empty and you are alive.

In Jesus' name, amen, amen.

I tell you what, we're in Luke 23, verse 46 today. We read it a little earlier.

Luke 23:46

We'll read it again in a moment.

But you know, there are moments in life when everything comes down to one question.

Can I trust God with this?

Can I trust him with my future? Can I trust him with my pain?

Can I trust him when I don't understand?

Can I trust him when things feel like they're falling apart instead of coming

together? Anybody been there?

Easter is a story of a moment like that. As Jesus hung on the cross,

y'all, after hours of suffering and betrayal, injustice, and unimaginable physical

pain, he spoke one final sentence before he died.

Not words of anger, not words of regret, not even words of defeat.

You know what he prayed? Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

These words are not just the end of Jesus' life.

They're the ultimate expression church of

trust in his darkest moment think

about this Jesus places himself completely into the hands of the Father does

he not and at first glance maybe we look at this text it looks like the story

might end here it has all the ingredients of the end right I mean you've got a lifeless body,

and then you have a sealed tomb, you have grief, you have silence, right?

But Easter tells us something extraordinary.

When Jesus placed his life into the Father's hands, the Father did not fail him.

Three days later, those same hands, church, that received his spirit raised him from the grave.

I'm telling you, I was trying to decide out when I came this morning,

which of these banners were my favorite.

I started out, okay, I like these two. I love this one. This is my most,

and then it was just like all of them, okay?

All of them, because they tell the story. The resurrection church is God's declaration

that trust in him is never wasted.

Surrender to him is never the end. What looks like defeat can become victory.

What looks like death can become

life. And that's why Easter is not just about what happened to Jesus.

It's about today. What's possible for us?

Oh, come on. What's possible for us? Because the same God that Jesus trusted

is still trustworthy today, Eastwood.

The same power, don't miss this, that raised Jesus from the dead is still at work.

And the same invitation stands before every one of us today.

Will we place our lives into his hands?

Today, we're going to actually explore these final words, what they mean,

why they matter for us today, and how y'all the resurrection changes everything

about where we put our trust.

Because church, he has risen indeed. Amen.

He has risen indeed. And as we start, as we stare at this passage here and we

look at the end of the Easter journey, so to speak, we see it's important to

notice how Jesus chooses to end it.

His final words, again, are not spoken to the crowd.

They're not to his enemies and not even about his suffering.

They're spoken directly to who? The Father.

And in that moment, Eastwood, Jesus shows us something essential about the road to resurrection.

We're going to look at our first point today in this next slide this morning.

You'll see our scripture, okay?

Surrender is an act of trust, not defeat.

Surrender is an act of trust, not defeat. As Jesus reaches the final moments

of his life, his last words, again, are not directed at the crowd.

His enemies are even about his circumstance. Like I said, they're spoken to

his father. What are they? Let's look on this next slide. We read them earlier.

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. In his darkest moment,

Jesus turns toward his treasured, his most treasured relationship.

And I think that tells us something essential about the road actually to resurrection.

Surrender, y'all, in the kingdom of God is never about defeat. It's about trust.

When Jesus spoke these words, he's not giving up. He's not giving himself over

in the sense of to defeat.

But who is he giving himself over to?

His father, he's given himself over to his father.

He's actually quoting Psalm 31, and it's an ancient prayer spoken by people

who were afraid, hurting, or surrounded by uncertainty.

It was a prayer people prayed when they didn't know how things would turn out,

but chose to trust God anyway.

Anybody ever faced a situation like that? You didn't know how things would turn

out, but you chose to trust God anyway? Some of you may be there today.

So even on the cross, else, Jesus actually anchors himself in the faithfulness of his Father.

And this is crucial for us to understand, Jesus chooses surrender.

Jesus chooses surrender. The cross is not the moment Jesus loses control.

It's the moment he places his life fully into the Father's hand.

And Easter, y'all, proves that his trust was not misplaced because what looked

like defeat on Friday, I said what looked like defeat on Friday became victory on Sunday. Amen.

I mean, what looked like loss became life.

What looked like the end became a new beginning.

The resurrection, y'all, is God's declaration that surrender to him is never

wasted. It's never wasted.

Y'all may think of times in your life where you had some things come against

you and maybe you just couldn't handle it, right?

Maybe in your own strength, you're like, how do I do this? Maybe it's full of

anger, full of whatever it is, bitterness, resentment.

I had a situation many years ago that happened and it was not fair. It was really not fair.

But you know what? I had a choice to make. Whether or not I was going to fight

that battle in my own strength,

in my own flawed wisdom or whether I was going to surrender it to Jesus and

say, Lord, you said vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.

I mean, if something needs vengeance, you're better to meet it out than I am, right?

So I'm going to trust it in your hands because I may not see this clearly.

And I'm going to tell you that was not easy. It was not an easy time.

But I want you to know that that trust in him was worth it because he worked

it all out, y'all, in ways that I couldn't even comprehend.

Amazing what God does when we just surrender. For many of us,

I think surrender sometimes feels like weakness.

Because what? We're taught to hold on tighter, right?

We're taught to control the outcomes. How many of you like control?

You want to control the outcomes.

You want to protect yourself. You want to manage everything.

Think about holding on to something tightly. That clenched fist,

right? Clench your fist with me. Come on. Just like you're going to get blood drawn, all right?

You may be holding on to that thing in your life, that issue,

that heartache, that heart, whatever it is.

When we clench, we think we're protecting that that we have,

right? We're protecting it. But you know what we're actually doing?

We're actually limiting what God can do.

Hands that are open, y'all, can receive what closed hands never will.

They never could. when we just open our hands and surrender like Jesus to the Father.

Jesus shows us, y'all, a completely different way.

Because again, faith is not found in clenched fist.

Faith is found in open hands. Faith is found in surrender.

When we place our lives into the Father's hands, we're placing them,

y'all, in the safest place they could ever be.

Because the hands that receive Jesus, y'all, are the hands that raise Jesus. Come on.

And they're the same hands that hold you and I today.

Well, that leads us to point number two today.

Jesus trusted the Father through death. so

can we so can we jesus entrust

himself completely to god convinced that

death is not the end of the story that's what

makes this moment so powerful because trusting

god when life makes sense is one

thing trusting god when everything's falling apart is something entirely different

and yet that is exactly what jesus does from the very beginning y'all christians

recognize this moment as a picture of what faith looks like at the edge of the unknown, right?

Jesus does not cling to life, you know, like that closed hand, right?

He doesn't cling to life. You know what he does? He entrusts it.

He doesn't demand control.

He surrendered. He releases control to his father's will, right?

He doesn't face death with panic.

He faces it with trust. and that

kind of faith y'all stood in stark contrast to the

world around him and it does today too in jesus day security actually meant

power strength self-protection but y'all jesus dies without retaliation without

defending himself and without fear.

And the resurrection proves that his trust was not misplaced because the father, what?

Received his spirit and then returned it in resurrected power.

The grave did not win, Eastwood. Death did not have the final word. God did.

Woo, yeah, come on, amen. God had the final word, y'all.

Scripture tells us this was always the plan. Hebrews says Jesus endured the

cross for the joy that was set before him.

He could see beyond the suffering to what the Father would do.

And because of that, I want you all to know today, the pattern that Jesus lives

becomes the promise we receive.

If we trust God when things feel like an ending, you've been there,

you're there today, he can bring resurrection out of it.

Now, obviously, most of us are never going to face a Roman cross, right?

But we all face moments that feel like death, a diagnosis we didn't expect,

a relationship that breaks, a door that closes.

A prayer that feels unanswered, a season where God just seems silent.

And in those moments, we ask the same question that Jesus faced.

Can God really be trusted here? can God really be trusted here?

Easter answers with a resounding yes, because the resurrection tells us something

we could never know otherwise.

The Father is faithful with everything placed in his hands.

Have you ever had a surgical procedure before? You ever had been put under for

a little that moment before the anesthesia, you know what we have to do?

Consciously surrender control to the surgical team. Not the funnest thing in the world, is it?

We can't control the outcome, can we? We got to trust the skilled hands to do

what our hands can't do for themselves, right?

And you know what? When we wake up, healing has begun.

More so with God, man. You can trust him just like Jesus did, y'all.

And that changes how we live, by the way. It means that when we entrust our

future to God, we're not stepping into uncertainty.

We're stepping into hope, church. we're stepping into hope.

When we entrust our pain to God, we're not losing control.

What are we doing? We're placing in his hands, the one who redeems.

When we entrust even our lives to God, we're not moving toward darkness,

are we? We're moving toward what? Resurrection.

Because the God who raised Jesus, Eastwood, can be trusted with everything we place in his hands.

That leads us to the third point today, as we see in this next slide.

Easter, y'all, is an invitation to place your life in God's hands.

Jesus' final words on the cross are not only a declaration. You know what? They're an invitation.

Remember them? Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

These words are not meant for Jesus alone. They become, y'all,

the posture of everyone who chooses to actually follow him and follow the road he traveled.

Because Easter, y'all, again, it's not just about what happened to Jesus.

It's about what's possible to us because he rose from the grave, amen?

Yes, Easter celebrates what God has done.

Sin defeated, death conquered, the grave emptied. But Easter also asks something deeply personal.

Will you trust God with your life? and don't just look at that trivially come

on think about it will you trust god with your life,

not just your beliefs not just your sunday mornings not just your eternity someday,

your life do you trust him with your life 24 7 control do you take the wheel

or do you give it to Jesus all the time, your future, your heart.

Do you have to, can you never be wrong? Are you always holding control?

Or can you just say, Jesus, it's yours.

And I get it, y'all. To place something into somebody's hands,

it's a scary act of surrender.

It means what? Releasing control.

Letting go of what? Of self-reliance, admitting we can't save ourselves, can we?

And that feels risky, I think, because the world teaches us the opposite.

The pervasive message we hear is

stay in control right stay guarded you

don't want to get anybody get too close stay strong

you can only depend upon yourself but

the resurrection i want y'all to know tells a different story surrender to god

is not loss it's the pathway to eternal life and that's where easter y'all becomes

personal for us today because some of us are holding tightly,

possibly to guilt we can't erase, things we regret,

choices we wish we could undo.

Others are carrying shame that follows us everywhere.

The quiet belief for some people, we're not enough, not worthy, too far gone.

Some here might simply be exhausted. You ever been exhausted?

Tired of striving, tired of pretending, Tired of trying to hold life together on your own.

And Easter, I want y'all to know, speaks directly into all those places.

Because Easter doesn't say fix yourself first.

It says trust the one who's already finished the work.

An empty tomb, y'all, is God's declaration that what we entrust to him, he redeems.

What we place in his hands, guess what?

He raises. Have you ever heard of the Japanese art, kintsugi?

You can say it with me, kintsugi. It just means golden joinery.

And as you see in this next slide here, we'll let you see it.

It's actually a traditional Japanese art

form where broken pottery is

repaired using lacquer mixed with powdered

gold sometimes silver or platinum but

most time gold and instead of hiding the cracks kintsugi actually highlights

them turning those fractures y'all into shimmering veins of beauty look at it

and you know what else rather than disregarding what's broken Then,

Kintsugi actually declares this,

that the break is not the end of the story.

It's where beauty actually begins.

Here's the process. You got the break. A vessel is shattered. You got the gathering.

Every piece is carefully collected. Then you have the repair.

Cracks are filled with and bonded with lacquer. And then you have the honoring

where gold dust is applied, making the scars visible as you can see. but guess what else?

Also valuable. The result is not the same bowl. It's a redeemed one, stronger.

It's more unique. It's more valuable.

Kent Sugi, I think, offers a powerful picture of what happens when we surrender our lives to God.

God does not disregard the broken, amen? We often think our failures disqualify

us, but scripture tells a different story. You know what it says?

Psalm 34, 18, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted.

Psalm 51, 17, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise.

God leans toward brokenness, church, not away from it.

He gathers every piece. Nothing is wasted. No hurt, no failure, no season of pain.

In all things, God worked for the good, it says in Romans 8, 28.

What feels like shattered fragments, y'all, to us are just raw materials in

his hands when we entrust it to him.

And you know what else? He restores, not by hiding the cracks.

God doesn't pretend that the past didn't happen. Instead, you know what he does? He redeems it.

He redeems it. Think of Paul the Apostle for a moment.

Once a persecutor, later a preacher, wrote much of our New Testament.

His past wasn't erased, was it? It became part of his testimony.

Your scars don't disqualify you. They become evidence, you know what? Of God's grace.

God's grace. You know what? The gold is his grace. The gold is his grace.

In Kintsugi, gold fills the cracks. and spiritually that goal is the grace of God.

My grace is sufficient for you. It says in 2nd Corinthians 12 9.

When you were weakest, when I was weakest, God's power shines the brightest y'all.

Kent Sugi actually teaches this. It says brokenness plus surrender equals transformed beauty.

Not brokenness plus self-effort not brokenness plus hiding not brokenness plus

shame but brokenness placed where in god's hands.

When we try to fix ourselves, you know what happens? We often glue the pieces

back together and pretend nothing happened.

But when we surrender to God, He doesn't just repair us. He redefines us.

The cracks actually become places where His grace is seen. Stories that help other people heal.

Reminders that, y'all, we were never whole apart from Him to start with.

Never. don't hide your cracks hand

them over father into your hands hand them over god doesn't do cosmetic fixes

he does kintsugi work okay turning

the places you were broken into places y'all where his glory shines.

Come on, you want some of that resurrection in your life? You want some of that?

Places where his grace is seen, y'all. Places where he redeems.

So today on this Easter Sunday, I think the question is simple,

but it's life-changing for us as we draw to a close today.

As you see in this next slide, will you place your life in God's hands?

Some of you today need to do that for various reasons,

not because you understand everything, not because your faith is perfect,

not because you've earned it, but because the father who raised Jesus from the

dead can be trusted with you.

When Jesus committed his spirit church into his father's hands,

it did look like the end, but resurrection proved what? It was the beginning.

Some of you guys can have a resurrection today. If you've never experienced

the forgiveness and the grace of God all over you, today you can be washed clean.

The same is true anyone who chooses to trust him today.

Maybe there's something in your life that maybe you've been holding on to,

and you just need to put it into his hands.

You need to let go of control of it.

Stop fighting. Surrender like Jesus did.

That could be your prayer today. Father, into your hands, I commit this.

As Jesus hung on the cross, y'all, his final breath, again, he prayed,

Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.

Not defeat, trust.

He placed his life fully into his father's hands.

And for a moment, again, it looked like the end, didn't it? A body in a tomb,

a stone in place, silence.

But Easter morning tells the real story, doesn't it?

The father received what Jesus entrusted and then the father raised him.

The resurrection, y'all, again, is God's declaration that he's faithful with

whatever we place in his hands.

What do you need to place in his hands today?

Will you trust him with your life?

Everything again not just talking about sunday morning not just talking about

someday with your life today is the moment y'all to trust him some of you may be for the first time,

if you've never received his forgiveness his grace and the new life that you

could not ever earn on your own it's time to surrender for others again it's

a time to release something that you've been holding on to what could it be

let the spirit speak to you guilt fear control, pain, uncertainty.

Place it into God's hands, because surrender to God is not losing your life.

You know what it is? It's finding it.

Christ is risen, and because he lives, new life is possible for you and me today.

So right now, I challenge you in your own heart, you can pray the same prayer that Jesus prayed.

Father, into your hands.

I commit my life. Let's pray together. Father God, I thank you so much for your word today.

Lord, I thank you that you are here to redeem us, Lord.

God, I pray that anyone today that may be struggling, whether it's with salvation,

placing their life in your hands for true forgiveness and grace,

or whether it's something else that we've been trying to hold on to and control

instead of surrendering it to you.

I pray today would be the day when people say, Father, into your hands,

I just lay all of this, Lord.

Bring resurrection to this in my life, Lord, in Jesus' name.