Partly in and partly out

On Victory Baptist Church's 24th anniversary, Pastor Jason Hall of Newark Christian Center, the church that has opened its building to Victory, preached from Luke 9:23, where Jesus says that anyone who would follow Him must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Him. Pastor Hall's subject was giving your life to Jesus, and by that he meant all of it. Most people get saved and are partly in and partly out, he said. God has a plan and a purpose for each believer, and it is more than sitting on a pew and putting twenty dollars in the offering plate.

He pointed to Romans 12, where Paul urges believers to be a living sacrifice and not to be conformed to this world. The world says it is all about you. We put Jesus second when we should be seeking first the kingdom of God. A pastor, he said, is a servant who is there to help people know Jesus and not to take His glory. First Corinthians 6 reminds us that we are not our own, because we have been bought with a price. Our prayer should be, "Lord, here's my life. Lead me. Here's my finances. Direct me. Here's my family. Let me do it Your way."

Come and see

Pastor Hall then spoke about inviting people to Jesus. In John 1, two disciples heard John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God and began to follow Him, and Jesus told them, "Come and see." One of them, Andrew, went and found his brother Simon and brought him to Jesus. Philip found his friend Nathanael, and when Nathanael had questions, Philip did not argue. He said, "Come and see." Have you told someone in your home or a friend at work? Sharing the gospel is not only for pastors and evangelists, he said. You are all ministers. He and his wife often offer to pray for people they meet at restaurants, and some of them begin to weep, because they are hurting and need an answer.

You never know whose life you will change

He told the story of a boy whose father owned a bar. The boy was invited to a revival and stood up to ask for prayer for his daddy. When his father found out, he was furious and told him never to do it again. The boy asked again the next night, and his father beat him so badly that he passed out. Pastor Hall called that pure evil. Later the father came to the boy's room in tears and asked, "Are you a Christian?" The boy answered, "Yes, I am." The father asked him to pray, and that day the father got saved. He went on to become a deacon and gave the bar to the church. Someone invited that little boy, Pastor Hall said, and it changed a family.

At the wedding in Cana, Mary told the servants to do whatever Jesus said. They filled the pots with water without asking questions, and they saw a miracle no one else saw. When Jesus tells you to do something, he said, do not hesitate. Pastor Hall recalled a hard season in Arizona when he was broken and found every reason not to do what God had asked, and God told him it was not about him. When he said yes, God used him and people were saved.

Would you die to you?

Pastor Hall challenged the church to begin each morning praying over an open Bible and asking, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" How do we talk and act when we are not at church? He said he wants to be the same all the way through, so that someone can look at him and say that man walks with Jesus. You may never see the end result, because some plant and some water and God gives the increase, but you can give someone your testimony and tell them what God did for you. Love is thinking about somebody more than yourself, he said, and God so loved that He gave. Would you surrender your whole life to God, and go share Jesus with somebody this week?