Inland Empire: Riverside
Into Your Hands - Audio
The great end of last year and holiday, time to relax and refresh, but I'm excited for us to be able to come together and get ready for the New Year. I don't know how you feel about it, but for me, the brakes always tend to seem a little bit longer than what I really look forward to. Vacations are kind of that way for me. After a few days, I started getting a little bit antsy, I'm ADD, my whole life I'm kind of being one of those people who I need something to do or else I'm going to do something I don't need to do. And growing up even going to college over Christmas break, there was always about six weeks and that was just way too much time than what someone like me needed. So I would always take classes over the holidays in order to kind of fill the space to keep me off the streets, it was a condition of my parole to do what I could to protect women and their children, but it helped me to kind of get my head back in the game and I need to be able to come back in after a time of rest to get refocused, rejuvenated and then redirected so that what we do can be something that's worth doing well and what's doing because we're doing it for God, amen, I am grateful to be a part of God's kingdom. I'm grateful to be a Christian, I'm grateful for the blessings that God pours out on me every single day of my life. Some of those blessings don't feel like blessings sometime though and that's kind of how life can be. So many of the things that we value and that we look forward to, the process of getting to that is sometimes more difficult, more painful than what we'd like to see. A couple weeks ago I was watching a documentary about the Army Navy football game and it's a very storied rivalry, one of the most incense rivalries in all of football. They have played 112 years in a row. Every year they get up and they don't care nearly as much about the rest of the season as they do about that game and yet in the middle of that bitter rivalry, they are on the same team that they fight for the same prize and this documentary chronicled the entrance of two freshmen cadets coming in who were both football stars in high school, both of them have been prom kings, they were kind of a man about campus until the day they walked onto the academy grounds and it started off with their first day how one of them was really excited his whole life he'd wanted to go to West Point. The other one was not quite so sure but there were things about the idea of going to Indianapolis that really appealed to him as well. Number one, it was one of the top ranked schools in the country. If you can't get in the Air Force Academy so often what you do is you apply to the Naval Academy and if you can't get in the Naval Academy then you will buy virtue of default applied for West Point. But once they got in there there was a grand ceremony to welcome in the charity joint chiefs of staff. Greeting in had a special presentation to talk to them about what a story history each one of the academies had and how glorious it was for them to be there and after his speech he said you now have 90 seconds to say goodbye to your family and your former way of life and they all stood and have their family and then they got up and said parents you are asked to dismiss yourselves and the parents left and the doors closed and what we call beast began, it's the beginning of the transformation from a life that they know with very little expectation placed on to a life that was meant to forge and form them to becoming men and women of greater character and the purpose of that wasn't to prepare them for it was to prepare them to be the kind of men and the kind of women that those institutions were designed to create young men and women to be. The process was incredibly painful and it very early stages of their process both of them wanted to play, they wanted to get out and yet they stayed with it and because they stayed with it it helped to form their idea of what it is to be a man of integrity and character. We live in a world that is very short on integrity and character even in the spiritual world we have evolved to a devolved state where things that are accepted are so radically different than what God ever wanted for us to experience and when God looks at us he sees his prized possession, he sees beings who are created by our very nature to be more like him, to be of his character and of his conscience and yet the process of life sometimes pulls us away from that so much but in God's eyes and in God's heart he's always seen how much more you and I are meant to be. The name of my lesson today is in your hands I commit my spirit. I believe that the last several years of my life have been some of the most difficult that I've ever faced personally and just collectively in life. It's been a time when I look back at the end of the year say thank God this year was over and part of that means I'm looking forward to it being different the next year. The interesting thing is that each year it's been pretty much like the last year and so I'm starting to understand some God never promises that life will get easier but he does promises that if we will stay the course if we will trust in him then our ability to stand strong and stand firm no matter what life throws at us that's what will change because God believes in us and he wants us to become the shining stars there are examples in the world of what a man and a woman who trust in God should be and that's really what we want this year to be about we want this year to be about us all individually and collectively taking our dependence our reliance and our trusting God to a completely different level than we've ever gone to before let's say prayer Father God we are so grateful that you chose us to be your people and I pray that as we begin to kick off this new year that you would help us to put out of our minds all of the things that can fill us up and distract us and that you allow the spirit to work through the music that we song the words of the songs through the word of the scripture through the spirit that ours and and moves in and on us and Father I pray that this year can be our most glorious year ever that as we rise to lifterize above that rim of flesh and see what we can be when we place our hands into your spirit God when we trust in you that this will be the best year of our lives. Father we pray that what we do and how we do it from this moment four we'll be done in a way that does truly bring honor and glory and praise to you. We love you and ask all this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. When are the songs that we sang earlier actually four of the songs the four of the six songs that we sung are all focused on the concept of relying in God. I've been a Christian now for over three decades and I would like to believe that I am down to a point in my life where I trust God where I rely on God and yet I want to take that understanding to a completely different level to understand what Jesus meant right before he died when he said into your hands I commit my soul I commit my spirit the essence of who I am that even the Messiah who was by nature God had to go through a process to transition to become what God intended for him to be and there are several things that took place now but I want to look at exactly what it was that helped Jesus to be the representation for us of God that brought he and God so much into unity because I want to be like him I want to be able to look at my life and say to what I've done has been done for a greater good for a higher cause over the holidays we have the opportunity to spend some time just with our immediate family with Jake and Kelsey and Scott living on and I just spent a lot of that time looking at him quite frankly and that's some of the case a lot of character just to be willing to do that when you look at our families when you look at our lives and you see the history for us there's some great things incredibly exciting moments incredibly point you moments but there's been tough things too in each and every one of our lives there have been different points where we weren't sure what was going to happen next and yet to look at them then and to see who they are and what they've become there was a pride the welled up in me not in them not in me but in God and what God's given to me and I couldn't help but think about my life and all the times that I had blown all the failures I've had how many times I've had great goals, great dreams, great New Year's resolutions only to see them fall by the way and yet I'm a little bit like a cockroach no matter what you do to me I'm still here and there's a part of me that I'm grateful for that that God has placed us in me a knowledge of him and awareness of him that no matter what happens I'm not going to give up I won't quit because there's nothing else this world has that interests me I believe that God is God and I believe it is an honor to be one of God's people but for me to change for me to continue to grow it's going to require me to be different and the first thing that I've really been thinking a lot about is the whole concept of what it means to trust in God the psalmist in Psalms 31 says in verse 1 in you oh Lord I have taken refuge let me never be put to shame deliver me in your righteousness turn your ear to me come quickly to my rescue be my rock of refuge a strong fortress to save me the psalmist even in this song of praise to God even in this plea to God doesn't see that it's in his talent that his hope lies but it's in God it's in God being God God be the great I am God be who God said he was he goes on he says since you are my rock of my fortress for the sake of your name lead me and guide me since you are my home since you are that foundation that keeps me strong lead me leave me for draw me and bring me close to you freely from the trap that is set before me for you are my refuge what is the trap that set before us it's all the stuff that the world tells us is going to bring peace and happiness and and prosperity I looked up real men in Google the other day and it was interesting that garbage popped up but there were several people of note or notoriety who have foundations based on helping men to become real men and yet as I went down so many to each one of them each one of them has had a very dramatic drop in their own characters over the last couple of years and yet the world holds them up there were press conferences there was all kinds of celebrity interest in some of the things they were saying and yet as their lives have played out their example has really shown how far we've come from what God wants us to be God has deeper dreams for us his dream deeper hopes for us into your hands I come in my spirit redeem me raise me up make me more oh lord the god of truth I hate those who cling to worthless I trust in the lord and as I read that song I have to stop and ask myself can I say I trust in the lord is that where I go for my confidence or my security or is it to my position my possessions or is it to my abilities my talent or my experience or is what gives me comfort is what gives me strength is what gives me the ability to know them no matter what happens to me I can face it is that that I trust in God that I trust that there's nothing this world can do to me nothing that can happen to me that God cannot supply me with the strength and the ability to handle and the truth is it was a very sobering thought process for me because it forced me to see how often I trust in so many of the things Psalms 37 verse 1 says do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong today who are the people that you look up to and admire how many of you can say is someone in here that you look at the outcome of their way of life and their desire to be badly and they are what you want to be there was a time as a young Christian where I looked at the men that you're the leaders in the church and all I wanted to do is to grow up to be like them and then at some point something happened and I wanted to be a little like them and I saw myself drifting more and more to trying to figure out what I wanted to be and yet what he's talking about here is the idea that we are drawn we have a trap a snare set of force that leads us away from being like men of God that leads us away from being like God we're attracted to sports heroes to movie stars to business heroes to all kinds of people in the world who at the end of the day will stand before God and God will say I never knew you as I looked at my kids you know what my dream for them is it is not that they go off and do great things and lead churches and do this it is that on the day they breathe their last breath God looks at them and says well done good and faithful servant and whatever it takes for them to get to there I want and I emphasize I want to trust that God knows better than I do what they need to face because of the parents so often I want them to have the easy path I want to grease the skids so that they don't have so much struggle and there's a part of me that I look at the things that I went through and I don't want them to go through that and yet that's a humanistic thinking that it is a very struggles of life that help us to become what God created us to be you're not afraid because of evil man or be envious of those who do wrong for life the grass they will soon wither like green plants they will soon die like trust in the Lord and do good dwell in the land and enjoy pasture delight in yourself and or take your pleasure in your closeness to God it's what brings you comfort it's what brings you strength so brings you hope walking closely with God to close your eyes and to hear the alphanio mega calling you because you've been chosen as his ambassador that you and I he doesn't say it's going to be easy doesn't say you'll get to stay in southern california or that you'll have it this way that way but he says trust in me he will make your righteousness shine like the dawn the justice of your cause like the new day said it may not be now it may not even be during your lifetime but God is faithful forever God is faithful and the wings of the Lord will stand true you know maybe not many fun people may look down on us and think the work just looking for a crutch but in the end we'll hear well done good and faithful servant if we stay the course Peter was one of them closest to Jesus he saw amazing things he experienced things i've never experienced i have yet to see someone raised from the dead i would love to walk on water i would love to just see one little provider from a small portion Peter saw that he experienced things he saw heaven open up and it Moses Elijah talked to him after who Jesus was and yet Peter fell so short and like so many of us when we fall short and every one of us is falling short of the glory but we turned our back on a week tonight in a different way the different times and there's a part of us that this shame of that can bring us down just as it was bringing Peter down but Jesus lifted him up and simply he didn't say Peter he didn't bother you haven't made any mistakes you're not a sinner he said trust in me Peter do you love me first Peter chapter two towards the end of his life Peter wrote this and it's very interesting because he was unique and qualified to make the statement therefore reading yourselves upon malice and all deceit hypocrisy envy and slander of every kind like newborn babies high pure spiritual milk long for the things that feed you spiritually so that by act you may grow up in your salvation now that you've tasted that the Lord is good do you believe that the Lord is good do you have any good thing because of God is that any blessing he said well you have an icy people in the world that their lives aren't so bad either there's not not everybody's getting divorced now nobody's saying that but what God says is that he is good his life is good and yet Satan messes with our heads he wants to confuse us and confound us and deceive us as you come to him the living stone rejected by myth but chosen by God and precious to him you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood you want to know what we're here for we are here because we are being built into a spiritual house a world priesthood we can become pillars like the son of God offering spiritual sacrifices except we'll go through Jesus Christ for in the scripture says C.I.A a stone is on a chosen and a precious cornerstone and the one who trust in him will never be put to shame you know they don't have to live ashamed if we trust in God if we trust in his word how do you believe this stone is precious when we trust that when we trust the God is we claim to be we trust that Jesus is who he claimed to be then being a Christian is precious to us it's not a burden to us it's when we stop trusting that it's when we stop believing that and we start believing the Lord something at them might be better our kids grow up in the church and they grow up almost with an inherent belief that God has gotten yet they tell the point that in every one of us when they struggle and they question and they actually think that people at their classes are somehow living better lives why because they stop believing in the cornerstone and we begin to start playing games in our head about what it would be like if we didn't serve God but to those who do not believe the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone and a stone that causes men to stumble in a rock that makes them fall they stumble because they disobey the message which is also what they were destined for but you are chosen people we've got to believe that we've got to seal up God look down and shows us a royal priesthood a holy nation a people belonging to God you are possessed so you look more possessed than others every one of us in here is possessed and i'm not being facetious the other question is what possesses you well better at who possesses you and the amazing thing about God is God let you choose the best marketing campaign in the world is saying he's convinced us to death his life he's convinced us try living together to find out if you're really compatible he's convinced us if we just get to the next level of employment or the next level of possessions then we'll be happy then we'll have peace God says you're piecing your happiness rest in my hands entrusting in me that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful life my life's not easy it's been tough it's been hard but it is a wonderful life a life forged in the blood of the lamb a life forged in the battle of life but there is nothing in my life that i would want to trade for what the world has offered me i have friends relationships who love me with the depth that i only dreamed of in the world so many people think well there's your style of the friends the only thing that all just scatters and we're part of the church and yet we go out and we search for those think that relationships and you are going to be sorely disappointed i have people in my life that will tell me what i'm wrong and help me when i'm right i have people in my life that are interested in my marriage more than they are than my comfort i have people in my life that's seeing me things i have not yet begun to see i am a chosen person i was willing to sell my soul as a young man to belong to people care about me to feel successful but i had bought him to the lie of what those things meant and what it produced was emptiness and security and death the absence of life my life hasn't gotten any easier but it's gotten so much richer the relationship i have with my children although can be difficult at times because they're sinful wretched ungrateful and godly sons of their father and yet together a bunch of sinful messed up people can have something better than what we could have ever created apart from god once you were not a people the now you're the people of god once you're noticing mercy and now you have received mercy dear friends i urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from simple desires or to war against your soul with such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong they may see your good deed and glorify god on the day that he visits us we are god's people it starts with trusting in god but the second thing i came to falls right on the heels of that and that is that we've got to listen to god to trusting god is not enough i have not got seen the maze it's like seeing a red flashing danger sign that the road is closed ahead and you just keep it right on the road and several years ago living out in Phoenix Arizona and we were uh there for some meeting i had spoken to church and a dear friend of ours brother in the church is driving us the airport and he's a guy that i trust tremendously he's not feeding surgeon he's one of the closest friends and we're on the freeway and we're just driving along we're talking and all of a sudden i noticed that the on-ramp that we've gotten on to they're barricades at the end of it and sure as he's talking about it he's looking right at him and he's not torn down and let me turn the back seat says hi and i knew what you were saying because i'm going oh my gosh and literally we're going he was he was speeding he's a sinner blood Steve Steve was speeding this morning i saw it in the distance from behind him but he's going up this ramp and he's not stopping falling and screaming at him and he finally locks the brakes up and we get up there and the old pass isn't finished and we look at that i said what are you doing he said i have no idea he said it was like i was blinded yeah it was freaky i feel like we're a lot of times driving with some of you but i absolutely believe that Satan wanted us off that overpass sometimes God screams in our face to give our attention because he sees what's at the end of the road and we use voice don't do this don't do that be like this don't be like that and it's like we're in a trance we just keep driving him on to destruction part of 14 verse 8 says the wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways but the folly of fools is deception it's wise for a distinct stock and take time to think about how are you living what are you doing fools mark and making amends for sin man i have to make amends for sin because i'm sinful when i first went into the ministry as an intern i was incredibly fruitful the truth is i was one of the most fruitful people i knew as far as reaching out to people introducing them to a relationship of God and converting them 90% of those were people i had to go back to and apologize to because i'd sinned against them what would have happened if i'd been too prideful to go back and say you know what that behavior was horrible i'm a christian matter of fact i'm not just a christian i'm an intern and i'm so sorry because every one of us is going to blow it and people need to see what do you do when you blow it otherwise we're doomed but good rules found among the upright each heart knows its own bitterness and no one else may concierge joy the house of the wicked will be destroyed but the ten of the upright will flourish there's a way that seems right to a man all of this is leading up to this simple phrase there's a way this seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death in the end it takes away from your life when you and i trust ourselves when we listen to our feelings and our thoughts and our emotions above what God says God's word says it will lead us to death over the overpass even in the last of a heart make and joy may end in grief the faithless will be repaid for their ways and the good man rewarded for his sometimes in life it seems like the bad guys always get ahead the people in don't serve God seem to have such a better life but in the end they will stand before God for judgment a simple man believes anything but a prudent man gives thought to a step a wise man fears the Lord and shuns evil it is time that we develop a healthy fear and respect and awe i've got into church i want my relationship with God to go deeper i need it to go deeper i want my trust in him to be better i want to hear God's word saying to me i want to hear God's word directing me and leading me that it starts with me being willing to listen the very first human relationship God had with man in the garden of Eden Satan did to them what he does to us and it's very simply he got them to question God in Genesis chapter three and he did it by a series of questions did God really and we do the same thing we read the scriptures that the minister mind you will become the son and yet when we have an opportunity to start we hope someone steps up we hear God's word talking about each one of us being valuable but you are necessary when you came into this how necessary did you feel did you feel like if i'm out here it's no big deal or did you realize no God put you at the right place at the right time because you're the right person to help someone else didn't use a little spark of God's word in use a little spark of hope that can motivate them how to redirect someone back to where they need to be when we're coming to see do we do we just lie again and hope that we get them before the service is over or do we recognize that our presence that's the tone and the spirit for God to open the door to work on our lives do we listen to the Lord in Hebrew chapter six at a time when Christians needed focus direction and encouragement God reminded them of Abraham he said when God made his promise to Abraham since there was no one greater friend to swear by he swore by himself saying i will surely bless you and give you many descendants God made that promise to Abraham early on his life God's made a lot of promises to us and so many of us were like Abraham we eat him patient we think well we've been around a while we're not five years ten years and things don't seem to be any easier they don't seem to be anybody and you see Abraham is known as the man of faith but it wasn't because he was the man of faith it's because of what he endured he became a man of faith the last thing verse 15 says and so after waiting patiently that is one of the most gracious statements in the bible after waiting patiently i mean in a long way was anybody impatient he tried to manipulate and sidestep all over and over again but in God's eyes the end product produced a man of faith and so after waiting patiently Abraham received what was promised God's timing is not my timing and it's not your timing but God's timing is God's timing we've got to listen to the word the Old Testament was written to remind us of God's historical faith the New Testament is written to get us to look forward to the faith in our lives Peter is such a great example this over and over again because for all of his mistakes he stayed the course and with his last dying breath he gave honor to God second Peter chapter two he warns all of us verses 12 through 2022 against trusting in ourselves kind of understanding and he says when we do that we're like brutal beasts do you know what that means you're like a stupid animal you're like a stupid animal good all to be caught and to be killed and when we do that we do it to our own destruction Jude says the same thing in Jude chapter one about godless men he said godless men are those men who trust their instincts one of the things i see in us is that we've gotten away from trusting God and God's people and God's word and we trust in ourselves a whole lot more it's amazing to me how many people have such a high opinion of their idea of how to get ahead they've had to have a successful relationship and yet they can't point to a single successful relationship they've had Satan seduces us he gets us to listen to him and to love ourselves and to lower eyes below that we're in the flesh and only see what we can see through our eyes because he doesn't want us to hear God sing he doesn't want us to hear the word speaking to us one of the things that i'm committing to in my life right now is still listening to God more I have become an incredibly prideful and opinionated person and I know that confession shocks you and I do have strong opinions I think I've even got some good experience and some spiritual understanding but my track record has not been wrong an awful lot I've been sure that was right thousands upon thousands of times only to see my path was leading me to destruction so I'm really committing myself to listening to the word which means I've got to be in the word and to trusting God and to trust that God has given me through the word and through the spirit everything I need so that with all my flaws and with all of my weaknesses I can be worthy of being chosen by God to represent him the third and final thing and I want to talk about is what it means to honor God there is within me and there is within I think each one of us a desire to matter a desire to be important and it's so easy for us to look at what we've done what we've built and what we've become rather than seeing what God has done and what God has built and what God has helped me to become in Numbers chapter 20 verse 12 one of the great men of faith one of the heroes Moses who led God's people at a time when they were almost unreadable and yet at this time when God is talking to Moses it's at the end of Moses life when he's looking back on everything else and God is explaining to him and reminding him of some thanks in Numbers 20 verse 12 the Lord said to Moses and them because you did not trust in me enough they didn't say you didn't trust in me he said you didn't trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of Israelites you will not bring this community into the land that I give him God saying to them that because you took it upon yourself the honor and the praise and the pride you'll never extend it the purpose that you recalled it will go to someone else at the end of my life I don't want God to look at me and say if it could have only been about me but instead it was about you there was all you Mike and so you have gained your compensation you accepted your glory and that reflected me I came to think that somehow if I get to be the guy then that gives me meaning and yet to be his guy there's really where meaning comes from what we're doing and what we're talking about it's not about you it's not about me it's not about the church getting a great name it's not God don't God has done for you and what he's done it for me but it means to stand in the presence of God and be called sons and daughters of the most high and I want you to get excited I want you to motivate but I want you to do that because this is your chance this is your chance to reflect what God has done for you when the boy man was brought upon Pharisees and they said who is it that he opened he really didn't know and said I don't know but I do know this I was blind and now I see I was blind and now I'm beginning to see I don't want the story to be I got my sight back I want the story to be who gave me my sight before he died Paul said to Timothy second Timothy chapter one do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord but your job don't worry about what they're going to think about you just scrolling your neighborhood don't worry if they think you're a Jesus freak what better freak to be let's get a freak on he's nuts about the morning for shame to be his pleasure we don't stop in the shame of each other we were sent for him and so we don't even look all that good but we've been chosen we need to be proud of God's people and God's church to join with me in suffering for the gospel for the power by the power of the who saved us call us to our Lord not because of anything we've done but because of his own purpose and grace this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time but now it has now been revealed to the appearance of our Savior Jesus Christ who has destroyed death by life and immortality to light through the gospel and of this gospel I am appointed a herald an apostle and a teacher you and I are chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation belonging to God stand up and be proud of who you are but you've heard from me keep his pattern sound teaching the faith in love in Christ Jesus and he'd respond it says that during Jesus life he offered up prayers and petitions in that of Christ to the one who could save him and because of what he was willing to endure he became the author of salvation I don't know that there's been a ton of love in the word rise up oh men of God means more than what it means right now it is time for us to rise up to pitch in and any out because we are his representatives therefore prepare your minds for action be self-control get your self under control set your own fully on the grace to be given you in Christ reveal as a beauty child children do not conform to the evil desire you add when you live in ignorance but just as he called you is holy so be holy in all that you do for it is written be holy because I am holy Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke chapter 22 for God to take the cup from him and I don't know what cups been placed before you I'm only starting to see some of the cups been placed before me and I prayed that my heart would be what Jesus heart was to trust and God to listen to his words and at the conclusion of the day to honor God so that just as my Lord said I can say to him into your hands I commit my soul this prayer Father you are an amazing God you have shown us through time and trial how faithful you are and how much you love us how much you believe in us and God as we gather now to take communion to remember Jesus example the way that he laid down his life and lived his life for us I prayed that as we are grateful for now we are going to recommit ourselves to fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith and to forge ahead with the same spirit and the same soul trusting in you and saying into your hands we commit our souls in Jesus name amen
Sunday lesson by Mike Rock.