We have a new adventure going on in our house right now. It's called potty training. And yeah, someone's clapping. They're like, yeah, oh yeah, there we go. It's not a new adventure for me. It's actually the last of five of those adventures I've been on. And so this one's special for me because it's the last of five, okay? I'm telling you, I've bought diapers nonstop for the last 12 years of my life. I cannot wait to be done buying diapers. It's gonna be like I got a raise.
Like, I'm not gonna know what to do. Like, this is incredible. I can't wait. But here's the thing, when you're potty training, there's this sense of urgency, right? Because if one of the older kids says, hey, I gotta go to the bathroom, you're like, okay, cool, hold it. But when the two -year -old says they gotta go to the bathroom, there's utter panic that runs through your body. You're like, where's the bathroom? Where's the bathroom
right now? Right, you gotta find it. Like I've been driving around for the last two weeks with a tiny toilet in the back of my car. Right? Because you're like, you never know. It's going to happen. You're like, you never know. Right? So you got to be prepared. And we were in the store the other day and my two -year -old, she goes, hey, I got to go potty. And I'm like, okay, it's on.
Let's go. And so we get to the bathroom, we run there and I sat her on the toilet and she's sitting there and I look at her and I say, are you going to go potty? And she starts looking around and she goes, I don't like this bathroom. And I'm like, kid, I don't care if you don't like this bathroom. You got something to do in this bathroom. Let's go. And she's looking around. She goes, no, I don't like this bathroom. And I'm like, you are focused on the wrong thing. All right,
they're focused on the wrong thing. This doesn't matter. What matters is in front of you right now. That's what matters. And you focus on the wrong thing. See, I think when it comes to our faith, a lot of times we're focusing on the wrong thing. We care about things that don't. actually matter. And we put a lot of time, energy, and effort into things that don't matter. We focus on the wrong things, but I think Jesus is teaching us what matters most. Jesus wants us to understand
what matters most. And as Kathy said, we're in this collection right now where we are going through and we're looking at the last words of Jesus on the cross. We believe that every word that Jesus said is important. It's one that we wanna listen to, we wanna lean into, but there's something about last words, especially when they come from somebody who is being crucified because crucifixion takes your breath away. That is the point of crucifixion. So you don't have a lot
of breath to say words. And so if Jesus thought it was important for him to say these words, it's probably important for us to lean in and try to figure out what it is that Jesus wants us to learn from these words that he's saying. From these words that he's saying that he doesn't have a lot of breath to say, there's probably something important there for us. So we're gonna look in Luke chapter 23, verse 46. It says this, Jesus called out with a loud voice, Father, into
your hands, I commit my spirit. Into your hands, I commit my spirit. And Jesus right here, as he's saying these last words on the cross, what Jesus is actually doing is Jesus is quoting scripture. This is a Psalm that he's saying. This is Psalm 31 verse five that Jesus is saying, into your hands, I commit my spirit. He's quoting scripture in a place where he's hanging on a cross and he's dying. That is what comes out of him at
this moment. A couple of years ago, I wanted to do something fun with one of my daughters and she was really little, which. I already told you 12 years in diapers, there's always one that's been really little. But I decided, hey, this would be really fun because she thinks that juice only comes out of a bottle that you purchase from the store. And I told her juice actually is something that you can squeeze from fruit and it's pretty cool. So I'm like, this will
be really fun. We're gonna go to the store together and we're gonna pick out oranges. And so we got to pick out the oranges and then we're gonna juice them together. So we got home with the oranges that we picked out and we cut them up and we got to juice them. We squeeze every little. bit of juice out of that in order to get these two cups of fresh squeezed orange juice for us to drink. And we finally got to it. We got to enjoy the spoils of our labor. We got to sit
down with this fresh juice. And I remember she looked right at it and she goes, dad, I didn't want orange juice. I wanted apple juice. And I'm like, girl, that's not how it works. Right? We squeezed oranges. And so what you get is what is inside of an orange, which is orange juice. Because when you squeeze, whatever is inside is what comes out. What happens when we squeeze you, what comes out? Because what you've put
in is what comes out. Jesus on a cross, as he's being squeezed to the point of death, what comes out of him is he starts quoting scripture. When we start memorizing scripture, when we start reading scripture, when scripture makes its way inside of us, when we find ourself in a place in life where we start getting squeezed, what comes out of us is what we put in. So if we've just surrounded ourself and put in a whole bunch
of gossip, what do you think comes out? If we surrounded ourself and put in a whole bunch of opinions of everyone else and all of the people around us, what do you think comes out? All right, if we just continue to put in that one video on TikTok that has all the wisdom in the world, they know everything, what do you think comes out? What you put in is what comes out. And Jesus
shows us this. We will be squeezed in life. You will be times in life where you are pinched, where you are in a place where you're going, I don't know what's gonna come out of this. And what comes out is what you've put in. And I love this, what Jesus said here. It says, when he cried this out, when he said this, it said in a loud voice. Crucifixion steals your breath. Therefore, he does not have much to project in
a loud voice. So he took everything that he possibly had to declare in a loud voice, to make noise in a loud manner to declare his trust in God. I wonder how many of us, when we get in tough situations, we make a lot of noise, we get really loud, but we're not declaring trust in God. What is it that we declare with a loud voice when it comes to this? Because with everything Jesus had, the last little bit of everything he had, what did he say? He said, I'm declaring my trust
in God. Into your hands I commit. My spirit. That's what Jesus decided to do here. And listen, that's where you want your trust to be. That's where you want your trust to be. We look at the cross and we look at this situation that Jesus finds himself in. And for everyone watching and everyone looking, they're looking at him going, this is the end. But Jesus knew something that we need to understand. He knew that this isn't the end. His trust was in God because death and
the cross, They didn't win. Death was just a gateway to God. For all it was for him was a gateway to God. See, some of us, we live our life in so much fear of death. You are gripped with fear of dying when you need to understand death is not the end. Death is a gateway to God. Jesus understood this is a gateway to God. And
he's saying, my trust is in him. See, when we're going through it and we're going through the difficulty, when we're going through whatever it is in our life, there's no greater peace. than knowing that we are in God's hands. There's no greater peace than knowing we're in God's hands. He's saying, hey, I submit my spirit to
you, God. I'm placing it in your hands. It says in 1 Peter 4, 19, so then those who suffer, those who go through difficulties, those who are in difficult times, according to God's will, who continue to serve God, to push forward with God wants for your life. should commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good. When we go through those difficulties, when we go through tough times, we're submitting ourselves to God and we're continuing to do good
in those tough times. Man, I love stories of people who take their faith seriously and live out what it looks like to do good in tough times. famous missionary, Jim and Elizabeth Elliott, if you don't know their story, a long time ago, years and years and years ago, they decided that they were gonna go to the jungles of Ecuador and they were gonna go to unreached people groups who'd never heard about Jesus, who really were
unreached by any outside world. And so they knew that they were walking into something that could be a little intimidating and strange for this community and these rural people groups. And so Jim Elliott went with about four or five of his missionary friends, and they went into this village to talk to people and to build relationships with them, and it went exactly like you can imagine. They had no idea what the outside world was like.
They were completely unreached, untouched, and they ended up killing all five of these missionaries that went into their village. And so Elizabeth Elliot, Jim's wife, was left widowed with a 10 -month -old baby girl. I mean, I can imagine in this place, she's in a part where she's going, man, I am suffering, but I'm continuing to follow God. I'm suffering according to God's will. And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna commit myself to my faithful creator and continue to do good.
And she did what probably none of us in this room would do. She went right back to that exact same tribe that killed her husband. And she spent years with that tribe, seeing God move in incredible, incredible ways. And she was able to go back into a place where there was so much darkness. And so much brokenness because she said, listen, I'm gonna commit myself to him. I think of Paul and Silas. You can read about them in the New Testament, man. Paul and Silas. They went around
and they were teaching people about Jesus. They're going, hey, you gotta know about this Jesus guy. He's doing incredible things. And he started rubbing against the culture of what was happening in the day. And so there was someone who owned this slave girl that was possessed by demons. And so she was able to tell the future for people. And so he was capitalizing on the money that he was making from her telling the future. And so Paul and Silas show up and they cast this
demon out of her. And they're like, no, we wanna tell you about Jesus. This is where true life is. And her life was changed. Well, now that made the owner of this slave girl pretty upset. And so they threw them in jail. And so Paul and Silas find themselves in jail. They find themselves in this situation that nobody wants to be in. And you know what they do? They have a worship night in jail. They're like, hey, you play guitar, you play drums. Let's have a worship night right
here, right now. And they start singing. They start having a worship night. And they blow the doors off of the prison with their worship to God. And they're like, God, we're worshiping you right now. See, I wonder how many of us that find ourselves in a tough situation. go, listen, it doesn't matter because I've committed myself to God and I'm gonna continue to serve him and do good in this situation. All right, why can
they have this response? Why can these people that we look at throughout history that have lived out their faith have this response? And here's why. Because they know some things that Jesus was trying to teach us on that cross. They know a few things that Jesus was trying to tell us when he was on the cross. All right, what Jesus is showing us as he's hanging on this cross is he's showing us that we outlive our earthly bodies. You notice that Jesus doesn't say, into
your hands I commit my body. That's because we get a restored body. We get a restored body. All right, now listen, I don't know what this looks like. I have no clue. I'm not smart enough to tell you what this looks like. I don't know if there's an order form, right? If you can be like, all right, I want six, four, two, 10, a lot of abs, right? Like, I don't know if that's how it works. I'm gonna go ahead and say it's
probably not how it works. I'm not smart enough to know this, but what I do know is that we get a restored body and that is good news. You know why? Because I'm not that old, but I hurt pretty bad. I last weekend, I played in a kickball tournament. Listen, I didn't even know there was a kickball tournament. I didn't know that was a thing, but we got a group of people from Heights together and we said, Hey, we're going to play in this kickball tournament. And listen, you already
know we won that tournament. All right. I'm just saying, I'm just saying. Like, listen, in the name of Jesus, we kicked that ball down their throat, all right? And we won that thing. And that sounds great, but the problem is the more that you win, the more games you have to play. All right, so if you lose one, you're out, but we kept winning. That means we kept playing. That means I kept hurting. It's a week later and I'm still hurting. Me and Advil have been
great friends this week. I'm just telling you, I have muscles that are hurting that I didn't know I had. In heaven, there's no more pain. We get restored bodies. I'm gonna have beautiful hair in heaven. I'm just saying. Like it's gonna be flowing in the wind. I'm gonna look like Fabio on a horse. I'm gonna be like. I was talking to someone this week and I was telling them like, I think I'm gonna have beautiful hair. And they
brought up a great point. They said, so do you think baldness is from the fall and from sin? And I said. You're right, that's a great question. It is not. Bald is beautiful, okay? Bald is beautiful. I'm just saying. But listen, it's good news for us that we get a restored body. What that means is we don't have to fear death. We don't have to live in fear of death because death is a gateway to God and we get a restored body. We outlive our earthly body. Jesus is showing that on the
cross to us. He's showing us on the cross that our true rest is found in God. Our true rest is found in him. Into your hands I commit my spirit. How many of you need true rest? How many of you, the reason you need true rest is sitting next to you right now? Don't raise your hand. No, don't. Don't do that. That's not good. That's not good for you. Don't raise your hand. But the truth is this. We live in a world that's difficult. We live in a world where we're going
to have trouble. The Bible says that. The Bible says, listen, you're going to have trouble in this world. We need rest, man. I need rest. I'm so tired of just the busyness of life and just the things that go on in our life. We need rest. And what rest is, is rest is peace of mind. It's being able to have peace of mind. And a lot of times we try to get our peace of mind through a lot of things. We go, okay, and if my health is good enough. If I've reached a place of health,
then I have peace of mind. If my finances are good enough, if I've reached a place in my finances where my bank account's where I want it, then I have peace of mind. If the house is how I want it, or if I'm a homeowner, I've been working my whole life and I'm finally a homeowner, then I have peace of mind. That's what matters. If my kids are okay, that's my peace of mind. If my looks, if I paid enough so that my looks are how I want them to be, then I have peace of mind.
And we put our peace of mind and we try to get peace in all these things in our life that we go, listen, this is where my peace comes from. But there's some qualifications for things that you can actually put your trust in to get your peace from. A lot of the things that we've tried to put that in isn't worthy of us putting our trust in. What makes it worthy is this, is that it has to have power. It has to be powerful.
Not have power over you, but have power. But not just power, it also, if it's gonna be worthy for you to put your trust in, to put your faith in, to get your peace from, it not only has to be powerful, it also has to be wise. But not only does it have to have wisdom, it also has to have love. And there's only one thing that can have power and wisdom and love, and that is God, which is why the only thing that is worthy of you putting your faith and your trust in is
in God's hands. Jesus said, into your hands, I commit my spirit. Into your hands, I commit my spirit. I'm not gonna try with all the other things because it doesn't matter. Into your hands is what I commit my spirit to. But we like to put our faith and our trust and our stake in what doesn't matter. Man, my parents, every time that they come and visit me, And when I moved out, I didn't have much. So I kind of just took
my clothes and that's it. And so every time they come to visit me, they think it's important for me to bring all the things that I've left at their house when I grew up. Like, I don't know where they find it, in old closets, in my old bedroom, whatever, right? They'll bring me a pair of shoes that I had like, you know, 20 years ago. I'm like, cool, what am I supposed to do with that? All right, so last time they came, they're driving out from San Diego and they come
and they bring this with them. Thank you. So they bring this with them and they're like, listen, I think you're going to want these. And listen, this is how we know we're getting old. My wife looks at that and she goes, that's a real nice box. They don't make them like that anymore. And I was like, that is the oldest thing you've ever said in your life. So they don't make them like that anymore. My parents bring me these trophies. I'm like, listen, you would not believe
how much dust is on this. This is unbelievable. I don't know where they had them. In a dust factory, I'm not sure. But like literally there's like some of your allergies are already going crazy. So I'm not gonna like show you how much dust is on there. But man, it's crazy. But here's the thing. Here's why they brought these to me. Because when I was younger, man, I loved these. I had them set up in the house so that when you walked in, you could see them from every angle.
Like I would polish them. You know why? Because every single one of the trophies represents an accomplishment that I made. Each one of those shows you how awesome I am. And man, I love these things. And these were valuable to me. These were incredible to me. All right, and so I had these and my dad brought them to me. He's like, hey, don't you want these? And I'm like, okay, I don't know, man, because here's the deal. I have a lot of other things to worry about now.
Like I got bills to pay now. Like I got kids to raise now. Like those trophies, yeah, they're cool and all, but that doesn't really matter because I got a lot of other things I need to focus on. All right, it doesn't matter what happens to those. That holds no power over me. You know why? Because Jesus said these words. Matthew 6, 19, it says, do not store up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and vermin destroy and dust bunnies take over. It doesn't say that.
I added that part. And where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourself treasures in heaven where moth and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Let me ask you this. What are your trophies? I'm not talking gold plastic. What are your trophies? Because each one of us has trophies in this life and we live for those when we need to realize that they don't matter. They
don't matter. Your house does not matter. Your 401k does not matter. the people that the things that you have put in your life that you decided this is what I'm going to live for and this is what matters, it's gonna end up with dust on it and broken because you can't take any of it to heaven. It doesn't go with you. But a lot of us have stored up for ourself trophies on earth. And we've said, okay, this is what I'm gonna put my stake in. This is what I'm gonna
put my trust in. This is what I'm gonna put my life in because this is what matters. When in the end, hanging on a cross, Jesus said, into your hands, I commit my spirit. None of this matters. My friend was at the gym this last week and he was telling me something he overheard in the gym locker room. Man, if you're in a gym locker room, you hear a lot of stuff. It's a weird place because here's the thing, people come up to you and they try to talk to you with
no clothes on, right? And you're like, bro, I'm not gonna talk to you right now until you put some clothes on, right? I'm not looking. All right, listen, if some of you are the people that walk up and try to talk to people with no clothes on, in the name of Jesus, put some clothes on before you try to talk to people. We are solving the world's problems this morning in church, all right? If you don't hear anything else. Quit trying to talk to people with your clothes off.
But he's telling me he's in this gym locker room and he's hearing these two men that are probably in their mid 80s. And they're talking about their financial portfolio and they're talking about the money that's about to come in and they're so excited. And he said that the conversation went on for about 20 or 25 minutes. And I looked at my friend and I said, why are you in a gym locker room for 25 minutes? You are the problem. But here's the deal, man. That's so sad to me.
These men have so much life behind them and not very many in front of them. And all they care about is things that they can't take with them. All they've done is live a life for things that they cannot take with them. All they've done is live a life for trophies that end up broken and dusty and doesn't matter because they can't take them with them. Jesus says, live for eternity. Don't live for now, live for eternity. This isn't our final place anyway. And listen, that's such
a relief, man. That's such a relief for us. That's a weight off of our shoulders. How'd you know that feeling when something is done? How'd you get a lot of yard work to do? And then it's finished and you're able to just go, ah. When something is finished, for me, that was this last year's 49er season. I was just glad when it was over. All right, it's just done. I don't have to deal with that anymore. I don't have to listen to any of your comments anymore. I'm done with that.
All right, when you've got a tough conversation you've got to have with someone and you're just thinking about it, you're just stressing about it, it's just building up inside of you and then you finally have that conversation and you're like, it's done. I'm glad it's over. I'm glad it's finished. Jesus says this, his last words on the cross. John 19, verse 30. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, it is finished. And with that, he bowed his head and he gave
up his spirit. It is finished. See, I don't know what it is in your life, but I know this, we go through a lot of it, right? It happens. Sometimes it hits the fan. And I said it, do not write me an email, I said it. But here's the thing, we have a lot of it in our life. And I don't know what that is in your life, but we deal with a lot of it. We deal with a lot of stuff. We deal with a lot of bad situations. And sometimes we get to a place where we're going, when is
this gonna be done? When is this gonna be over? When can I move past this? And I'm just so tired of handling all this stuff that happens in our life. See, Jesus said, it is finished. And when he said that, what he was talking about is his assignment was finished. Assignment done. He came to this earth, from heaven to this earth, lived the perfect life that you and I cannot live. And then it ended for him on a cross. And in doing so, he came to fulfill his mission.
He said, mission accomplished. It is finished. And that phrase that he said on the cross, it is finished. In our English Bibles, we see it, it is finished. But the word that Jesus uses here is tetelestai. And the word tetelestai, if we truly get to the meaning of this, it has a few meanings, right? In a business context, it's to indicate a literal debt has been paid in full. He's saying tetelestai, the debt has
been paid in full. But that word was not only used just for a debt in a business context, it was also used in a judicial context in court when a sentence was fully served. Tetelestai, the sentence is fully served. But we also see it used in a context of the military. And in the context of the military, the word tetelestai was to say that the battle was won or the victory
had been achieved. And so when Jesus on a cross said the words, it is finished, when he said tetelestai, what he is saying is your debt of sin has been fully paid. He's saying the judgment for your sin has been served and the victory has been won. And that is what Jesus was saying. He was saying, Tetelestai, it is finished. The struggle in this world, the things that we try to grasp onto, all the things that we try to put our stake in, he say, it doesn't matter.
It is finished. It is done. It has been paid. Weariness and hunger and temptation, they are finished. Grief and pain, they are finished. Sin and death, they are finished. Man, my wife, She's wonderful. She's beautiful. She's amazing. And she can lose anything. She's never had anything she couldn't lose. I'm the only thing she hasn't been able to lose yet. I just keep coming back. I'm right here. I mean, she can lose anything.
I'm not kidding you. The other day she went and she started the car and then she realized, she's like, I don't know where my keys are. And she ran back inside to look for her keys. Some of you are listening slow today. She started the car and then went and looked for her keys. I used to make fun of her when she, she always loses her glasses. She can't find them anywhere. And I'm like, don't you need those to see? Shouldn't you take, keep track of them? She's like, yeah,
I know. About a year and a half ago, I got glasses and I'm so ashamed to admit this. I lost my glasses, man. I couldn't find them anywhere. All right, I started looking for them. This is so embarrassing. I looked for like five minutes until I found them. On my face. And some of you are like, man, you're an idiot. You looked for what you had the whole time. But that's exactly what we do is we are looking for what we had the whole time. We are looking for our approval. We're looking
for love. We're looking for all of these things that we go through in our life. And we go, okay, listen, I need to find this. And so I'm gonna look for meaning and I'm gonna look for purpose and I'm gonna look for validation and I'm gonna look for approval. I'm gonna look for all of this. And Jesus said, listen, you already have it. It is paid to Telestai. It's paid in full. You don't need to serve the sentence. The victory has been won. And the whole time you have it.
You don't need to search for it. You don't need to try to be fulfilled with what you have in this life because it doesn't matter. You're focusing on the wrong thing. You've been bought and paid in full. So let me ask you this. Do you live like this life is not yours, but it's his? Do you live in a way that if he paid for it, do you live in a way that it's not yours, but it's
his? Because when you live like it's not yours, you're willing to give your time, you're willing to give your talent, you're willing to give your treasure. What you start doing is you start living a life of generosity because you say, it's not mine. And I wanna invest into what actually matters. And so I'm willing to give it because I can't take it with me. You start living a life of generosity. But when your things or anything becomes the thing that you're living for, what you do is
you create an idol. And we think about idols in the Old Testament. Yeah, they made a golden calf and anything made out of gold that they would worship, that's an idol. But the truth is that we have things in our life that are idols for us. We have things in our life that don't matter, that you can't take with you, that just collect dust, but you've put so much stake in. And your idol's not a golden calf, but your idol might be that truck that you've always wanted.
Your idol might be the house. Your idol might even be your own children. And here's the thing, they're not a bad thing. But the problem is when we make a good thing, a God thing. And we start putting our faith and our trust and we say into your hands, I commit my spirit into something other than God. So I think we have to ask ourselves some questions today. Questions we need to ask ourselves is what am I holding on to? What is
it that you're holding on to? And a follow -up question to help you understand what it is you're holding on to is this. What are you not willing to give up? What do you have in your life that if it wasn't there, you say, I can't do that. I gotta hold on. I can't give that up. Because if there's something in your life that you're not willing to give up, then you're living for the wrong thing. Jesus is saying, listen, don't
live for this life. Live for eternity. Quit striving in this life because I've already paid for it. It doesn't matter. Live for eternity. Live for the things that are gonna last. I come to Jesus today. Jesus has his arms wide open and some of you need to come to him today and say, listen, I've been focusing on the wrong thing. I've been putting my trust in the wrong thing. I've been putting my faith in the wrong thing. I've been trying to get my peace from the wrong thing.
And I know that only comes from you. Some of you need to come to Jesus for the very first time. You've never given your heart to Jesus. Church is just something you do to check off your list because you think you're doing the right thing. But you need a relationship with Jesus. Some of you need to reorient your priorities to say, God, I'm coming to you today to say I'm giving up what I'm holding on to because I know
what truly matters. I mean, I don't wanna leave us in a place where we're just like solemn and introspective and beat up on you. That's not what this is about. This is an opportunity for us to praise God, to worship with reckless abandon, knowing that it is finished. To praise him, to say, God, we are so grateful for you. We praise you, God, because some of us, you've made the king of your heart and the king of your life
is not Jesus. And so we're gonna declare to him, we're gonna praise to him that God, you are the king of our heart. And God, we are so grateful that you went to a cross to pay our debt in full, to serve the time that we deserved so that we could have victory. God, we praise you today. God, we love you today. God, we are so grateful for what you did for us on the cross, that you showed us how to live, that we don't have to live for all the things that are around us right
now, but God, we can live for eternity. That we have the assurance of being in your presence. God, I pray for each one of us that we would commit our spirit to be in your hands, not in our hands, God. God, I pray for each one of us today that we can let go of the thing that we are holding onto. That we don't have to put our faith and trust in something that is never meant to have our faith and trust. That it can only
be in you. And God, I pray in the name of Jesus today that you break chains of what is holding us back from being all in with you because you already paid for it all. It is finished, God, and we declare that to you. We worship you, God. We praise you and we give this time to you as our hearts are aligned with what you have called us for them to be aligned to, God, because our trophies end up in a dusty old box somewhere. These don't matter. They don't go with us. But
God, it is you that matters. And God, we pray that you convict our hearts, that you work through us. that you allow us to let go of the things that are holding us back so we can praise you fully this morning. It is only because of you, Jesus. We love you, Jesus. We are grateful for everything that you have given us. And we pray this in your matchless name. Amen.