Jason Morrow's Testimony: I Had Never Truly Rested in Christ's Work

I could start my story
in several different places.

I could start when I was 8 years old

and thought I had become a Christian.

I could start when I was
in high school or college

and had to continuously persuade myself

that I was a Christian,

but I think the best way to start my story

is in a small hospital room
in Lexington, Kentucky

where we didn't know

if my dad was going to make it or not.

Things didn't look good.

He had been sick so much

prior to that moment.

There were days where we
thought that was the end.

There were days that we thought

he was going to be better

and everything would be fine...

until he finally passed away.

When you stay for a long
time in a hospital room

and you're not the one that's sick,

there's a lot of waiting.

There's a lot of wondering

what's going to happen next.

There's a lot of conversation that happens

between you and the people
that are with you.

One of the topics that came up

when I was talking with my mom

was about dad's last sermon.

At the time, we didn't know

it was going to be his last sermon,

but mom talked about how powerful it was.

And she actually even said it was one
of the best sermons she's ever heard.

Dad had been sick a lot before that day

and I think at the time,

he was even having to sit
when he was preaching.

And he just didn't have
much strength left in him.

But the way my mom put it,

it was like... it was a miracle

just how much power he had

when he began to preach.

In his voice you can hear strength.

You can hear the passion

flowing through him.

And this was a man who
was just weak from sickness

and was hours I think
from going to the hospital

because he was so sick.

Dad always uploaded his sermons

onto Sermon Audio

where people around the world

could listen to his sermons
and learn from them.

And we learned that obviously

the last sermon hadn't been uploaded

to Sermon Audio.

I was going to do that.

I was in the hospital room.

I had an Internet
connection and everything.

I got the file for it.

I listened to a couple of seconds of it

and realized that the recording was off.

There was some kind
of setting on the recording

that just made it sound kind of strange

like there were no breaths in between.

And so, I kind of got frustrated with it.

Thought about uploading it,

then decided no,

I'm just going to save it

and not worry about it.

So, I just put it on my desktop somewhere

and didn't even think about it

for several weeks after that.

Something that will stick with me forever

is seeing how my father

handled himself in the hospital

in the worst of times.

My brother put it best

when he was speaking at his funeral.

I think he said that dad
finished his race sprinting.

And there's no better
way to describe that.

I remember the nurses
were putting in IV's,

central lines, things like that,

and dad would barely wince.

But one time, he looked
up at one of the nurses

who was trying to do a procedure

that he couldn't be asleep for,

and he just looked at him and said,

"You know, I was about your
age when God saved me."

And he's going through this painful,

traumatic situation,

and one person after another,

after another, after another,

he's telling them how God saved him.

I had seen my dad witness
to people all the time,

but not to this ferocity;

not to this degree.

He knew I needed to hear that too.

And he was witnessing to me

as much as he was witnessing

to those people in the hospital.

On April 29th, 2016, my dad passed away.

Over the next few days

just pounded with grief

mixed with conviction,

mixed with desperate feeling

and need to be saved,

a need for redemption,

all mixed in together,

I was in prayer more then than I think

I ever had been previously.

Just asking God to show me a way.

Show me something.

Show me how.

I understood what it meant to be saved.

I understood what it
meant to be a Christian.

I understood the "process," if you will,

but I didn't understand how to get there.

I didn't understand what did it mean

to truly have faith.

Yeah, I believe in Jesus.

I believe in all the
things that He's done.

I get it.

I don't understand at
what point do I have faith

and I'm saved?

At what point does that happen to me?

When does that transformation happen?

I have the belief, right?

I'm saved.

But I knew I wasn't,
so what was I missing?

So what I prayed for,
I prayed for an answer.

I prayed: God, I need an answer.

I need You to show me

what am I missing?

What am I not seeing that my father saw?

That other people I know have seen?

They believed.

They have faith.

They're confident in their salvation.

Where is my confidence?

Where is my salvation?

My father for his funeral

wanted the Gospel to be preached.

That's what he had always said

I think to my mom.

My brother spoke.

Michael Durham spoke.

Rob Pelkey spoke.

And then Paul Washer spoke.

I kind of thought in my head,

well, okay, there is this group of men

who know God, who are about to preach.

As the lineup went, it would be

Paul Washer who would simply

preach the Gospel to the crowd

that was there for dad's funeral.

Many people have been
saved under his teaching.

This whole funeral - I need to listen up.

I need to really pay attention

because God, I'm asking You

to show me how to have faith.

If I don't get it from this,

then I'm not going to get it.

The preachers spoke.

They sat down, spoke, sat down.

Spoke.

We dismissed.

And the Gospel was preached

and it was preached well.

What was said needed to be said,

but I still didn't get it.

I still didn't understand what I needed.

For the next week, my wife and I

stayed at my mom's house.

One afternoon, I was
alone in my dad's office.

And I was just going
through some of his stuff,

some of his pictures
from mission trips,

his journals.

Then I remembered I had
the file of that sermon

and I thought, well, you know,

the recording was kind of messed up.

I don't know what setting it was on.

I don't know why it was messed up.

But I never really did
listen to the sermon.

And mom said it was his greatest.

It was his last one.

I should just give it a listen

and see if it's worth putting up

on Sermon Audio.

So I played it.

She was right.

There were several things in the sermon

that jumped out at me immediately.

Things I had heard before,

but never heard.

I heard.

My ears heard it,

but I didn't truly hear it

until that moment.

Michael Morrow:

There's a lot of people that believe

Jesus was the Son of God.

There are a lot of people who believe

that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin.

There's a lot of people

who believe that Jesus came into the world

to save sinners

who have never personally trusted Him

as their Savior.

Jason: And then, the one thing he said

that really just tipped me over the edge

that was exactly what I needed to hear

to finally realize

what I needed for my salvation.

Michael Morrow: There is a time

when your heart quits trying to get to God

and rests on the finished
work of Jesus Christ.

Jason: I had never rested.

I had never just given myself to Him,

never given my full trust.

That's what trust is. It's resting

in His finished work.

And I prayed. I said,
"Jesus, I rest in You.

I rest in Your finished work

in dying on the cross for my sins,

in raising from the dead.

I rest in that.

You have given me life."

What's crazy is I've
heard this a million times.

Dad has preached this a million times.

I've heard people's
testimonies a million times

that it's not anything that I do.

I know it's not a prayer that I pray.

I know that it's not
anything that I can do.

That Christ does it for me.

Resting is letting Christ take over,

letting Him take control.

Because if you're trying to control it,

you're not resting.

And that is the moment
when my heart changed.

I'm thankful that God used my dad

to preach to me.

Not only did he preach to me

in the hospital room;

not only did he preach to me

throughout my whole life,

but he preached to me

in his final sermon

maybe before he even
knew I would ever hear it.

And God used that to help open my eyes

to what I needed.

Michael Morrow:

I'll tell you what the blessing of God is:

being in the will of God walking with Him,

hearing His voice,

staying in fellowship with Him,

knowing His Word,

loving Him,

seeing miracles wrought

because He's doing it through your life

and in your life

for His own glory,

where only He can get glory

out of your life.

That is the life of faith.

And it might mean that
you don't have anything.

Guys, this world is not what it's about.

This is not where your fulfillment is.

Here we live by faith,

not by sight.

Then, we'll see Him as He is

and we'll be like Him.

And then it will be by sight.