Commitment

And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last.

Intro

Into your hands I commit my spirit.

These words were first written by King David. A man of great valor, a man of great wealth and although he made his fair share of mistakes he had a true love for God. David wrote these words in the psalms during a particular season of his life to show God how much he trusted Him.

Likewise, a man by the name of Stephen who was a true believer in Christ and a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. One who defended the resurrection while being rejected by many angry Jews spoke these words unto the Lord as he was being stoned to death. As stones and rocks were striking him he called out to the Lord receive my spirit! As the first martyr of Christianity he showed his deep conviction for the Lord.

Lastly, Christ, who was innocent, was sent to a place where criminals are crucified. A place where the guilty spend their last moments on Earth. A place called Calvary. The journey that Christ took was a journey of great hardship and pain, one of deep distress and burden that which all of us could not even imagine going through. Yet and still our Lord Jesus Christ chose to suffer in order to complete the Father’s redemptive plan for all of mankind. We’ve heard 6 of His last statements on the cross, but there is one final statement that Jesus makes. That is, with a loud voice he cried “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”

Jesus’ Intense Conviction for the Father (unashamed)

After reading and studying Jesus’ final statement I found that there are several life applications we all should implement in our lives. When we look at the text Jesus last statement He cried out to the Father. Jesus is illustrating His earnestness (sincere and intense conviction) to the Father. You see, Jesus experiencing the greatest pain He’s ever felt in His entire earthly life.

He’s going through a crisis. He’s being humiliated in front of a large crowd of people. The suffering that

He’s experiencing is that of unimaginable proportion.

While Jesus was going through this crisis He shouted out with a loud voice to the Father. That means everyone watching heard Him. In other words, Jesus was not ashamed to call on the Father while others were watching Him suffer. You see, often times when we get into a storm in our lives we tend to lay low and isolate ourselves from others including the church because we don’t want people to see us suffer. And when we decide to come to church George has to work so hard by pumping and priming us to worship the Father. Many of us are too busy worrying about what others think about us instead of unashamedly crying out to the Father! Do you know that your circumstance can change when you decide to give God praise?

You see, I used to have this problem where I thought it was not manly to give God an outward praise so I would hold my praise hostage for the sake of my manhood. I’m not that old but I’m old enough to have gone through some things in my life and when I think about how He brought me through I can’t help but to give Him praise!

All of a sudden when you are in desperate times and need a blessing from God you will began to not care who's watching because all you know is you need to hear from God! Sometimes you have to tell yourself I don’t care what others think, I don’t care what they say, I

don’t care how I look because I need a blessing of deliverance from God! You

see, when we enter into worship understand the audience is not your neighbor, it’s not the Pastor or First Lady. It is God Only! Sometimes it is necessary to cry out to the Father!

Also, Jesus was not ashamed to call on the Father in front of His enemies. You know, sometimes you have to call on the Father and praise Him in front of your enemies! When you praise Him in front of the enemy it confuses him and he doesn’t know how to attack you! You see, when you praise God in front of your enemy God inhabits your praise and when God is in the building the devil has to flee!

Call on the Father 1st

Not only did Jesus cry out with a loud voice to the Father show His earnestness to the Father but He also shows us that we must call on the Father first especially when we are going through a crisis. You see, tells us that we should “seek first the kingdom of God” and when you seek the kingdom of God first your first thought when you are suffering is to call on the Father. The Greek term for seek is “zeyteo” and it is in the imperative mood meaning that it is a command that God gives us. In other words, God did not suggest we call on Him first, He didn’t ask us to call on Him first, no He has commanded us to call on Him first!

You see, on my job as a police officer I have a commander who is in charge of my division and when he gives me a command I am obliged to carry out that command. You see, the commander has the authority and power to give me an order to carry out. If I chose not to obey that command well then, I will have to suffer unfavorable consequences thus putting my career in jeopardy. You see, when you don’t obey the command of our Supreme commander, God, you are essentially putting your fellowship with God in jeopardy and when you fall out of fellowship with God it will keep Him from intervening in your life when you need Him the most. If you don’t believe me ask the children of Israel in the wilderness. They continually disobeyed God and worshipped false idols thus falling out of fellowship with God. And because of that they were not permitted to go into the promised land. Or you can ask Saul Israel’s first king who reigned for many years however he was only anointed for the first couple of those years because of his disobedience and falling out of fellowship with God.

Jesus didn’t call on Paul, He didn’t call on Peter, He did call on Mary rather He called on the Father. Typically, when we get in a crisis we call on mama first, we call on daddy first, our best friend first, our homeboy first, our Pastor first. God is saying that it is time to call on the Father first! You see, you will absolutely get into a situation where mama, daddy, best friend, homeboy, or even the pastor can’t help you and that’s when you will realize that the Father is the one who can get you through any situation you may face! Call first on the Father in heaven!

Relationship

The reason why Jesus was able to call on the Father is because He had a strong relationship with the Father. You see, it’s hard to call on someone that you don’t know. Perhaps the reason many of us fail to call on the Father first is because we have a weak relationship with Him. Usually we call on mama and daddy first because we have strong relationships with them and we trust their advice and guidance. What does that say about our relationship with God when we go to His last?

You see, throughout the Gospels it is recorded how Jesus built His relationship with the Father. In He prayed to the Father in solitude, in He praised the Father, in He prayed with reverence and submission to the Father. Not only did He fervently pray to the Father but He stayed in the Word. When He was tempted by Satan He quoted Scripture “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” . “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” . “You shall love the Lord God with all your heart and soul and mind” . Jesus builds a strong relationship with the Father by spending time on His knees in prayer and staying in the Word.

Saints, if you want to have a strong relationship with God you got to stay on your knees and in the Word so that when you’re going through a crisis you will call on the Father who will give you strength to endure! Jesus shows us that He trusted the Father through His crisis and the fact that He entrusted something so precious, so valuable as His spirit gives us an indication of how strong His relationship with the Father was. Because you don’t entrust something very valuable with someone you don’t know. How strong is your relationship with the Father?

Committed

Finally, we can see in the text that Jesus committed His Spirit into the hands of the Father. Jesus is showing us that there is an afterlife beyond our earthly life. The Bible says that this world is not our final home and that we are sojourners here for just a little while. Thus, we should be looking forward to our final home in heaven with our God. It always amazes me how many people will sell out for this world and push God away because this life we live here is short. They say the average male life expectancy is only 78 years old and females are about 81 years old. That is not long when you compare it to eternity. I remember when Drake came out with the hit song a few years back YOLO, you only live once. Brothers and sisters, I’m here to tell you that yolo is a lie from the enemy. Understand that there is another more meaningful life beyond the grave and what you do here in this life will determine where you spend eternity in the next life!

Moreover, the text says that Jesus committed His spirit into the Father’s hands. Jesus was committed to the very end. Although He was mocked, spat on, beaten, and humiliated, although He was going through a crisis in His life Jesus was still committed to the very end. He did not give up or give in to the crisis that was before Him. He could have called a legion of angels to rescue Him from the humiliation. He could have just given up and could let us all be condemned to Hell. But because of His unconditional love for us and His unwavering commitment to the Father He freely and willingly laid down His life for all of mankind.

When we are in a crisis we ought to remain committed to God and never give up because there is a higher purpose and higher blessing on the other side of your crisis. If Jesus did not endure through His crisis we would not be benefiting from the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Just imagine how life would be if we did not have the Holy Spirit residing in us. So, if there was a blessing on the other side of Jesus’ crisis then there will be one on the other side of yours. You just have to remain committed to the will of God.

Not only was Jesus was committed to the will of the Father here on earth but He was also committed to the Father beyond the grave. You see, the final statement from Christ was not just a mere spontaneous utterance, rather Jesus was quoting Scripture. Jesus died with Scripture in His mouth. My Bible readers know that Jesus was quoting written by David hundreds of years prior. And when we look at the context of what David was writing in we see that he was going through a crisis himself. We will see that David was facing some kind of opposition or enemy that threatened him. And so David wrote this Psalm unto God in confidence in God’s ability to deliver and protect him. You see, Jesus and David were both going through a crisis, however the difference is that David was praying that God will save him from death by the hands of the enemy and he trusted God to deliver him. Jesus, on the other hand, trusted the Father in death! He did not anticipate deliverance from death because He knew that He had to conquer Sin once and for all and trusted God in dying! In other words, Jesus was committed to the Father beyond the grave! Family, we too must commit to God beyond the grave! We are here just a little while and we ought to look forward to the coming day when the Lord comes back that glorious day when He returns and raises us from our graves to go into the new earth where paradise is found! And all of this would not be possible if it had not been for His commitment unto the Father!

Because He was committed we are no longer slaves to Sin

Because He was committed we are now slaves to righteousness

Because He was committed we can have peace in the middle of a storm

Because He was committed we no longer have to fear death

Because He was committed we now can live by the Spirit and not the Flesh

Because He was committed God doesn’t see the guilty in us and we are made innocent through the blood of Christ.

Because He was committed we shall rise again from the grave and put on our new heavenly bodies and spend eternity with the Father!

Because He was committed when they buried Him in that tomb 3 days later He got up with ALL POWER!

I was has broken but He saved me!

I was lost but He saved me!

I was on my way to Hell with gasoline drawers on but He saved me!

I was a victim of addiction but He saved me!

Are you committed? Are

you committed beyond the grave? It’s time to fully commit!