back to index2015-12-06 Baptism
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It is an awesome privilege for all of us to be gathered to celebrate the baptism of our 00:00:07.800 |
I want to begin by reminding you of an event that's happened not too long ago, but time 00:00:16.200 |
It's already been about six years, six years ago. 00:00:20.220 |
In New York, a plane took off, flight 1549, and immediately it ran into what they believed 00:00:28.920 |
Birds went down and they had to do an emergency landing, but where do they do an emergency 00:00:35.080 |
So pilot Sullenberger, now coined Sully, decides to land it in the Hudson, into the river. 00:00:44.080 |
Amazing story, amazing story where 150 passengers on a huge plane were all saved because of 00:00:51.880 |
the quick thinking of the pilot, because of the crew, and basically not a single person 00:00:59.000 |
An event like that is remembered and then afterwards, quickly, all the passengers are 00:01:07.160 |
Afterwards, quickly, there are documentaries written, the pilot is interviewed, and there 00:01:15.920 |
The reason why I tell you this is because baptism, it is a commemoration, a ceremony 00:01:24.520 |
Now, the greatest event in the world in history is God coming down as Christ in the form of 00:01:31.200 |
a man and him having been crucified on the cross, greatest event in history. 00:01:36.760 |
But for their lives, those who are being baptized, greatest event in their lives is their baptism 00:01:41.200 |
where they commemorate them being saved miraculously by the grace of God. 00:01:47.280 |
I want to tell you an interesting story about the Ark, but in order to tell you about the 00:01:52.440 |
Ark, you know, the Ark of Noah, Ark of God saving those individuals through the flood, 00:01:58.280 |
I want you to turn to a passage in 1 Peter chapter 3. 00:02:12.840 |
In 1 Peter chapter 3, Apostle Peter is challenging the believers to live a holy life, to live 00:02:19.480 |
appropriately to what they have received in deliverance of God. 00:02:24.800 |
And in so doing, he gives this interesting comment about the Ark. 00:02:31.400 |
I'm going to start reading from verse 18, 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 18, and it reads 00:02:36.800 |
It says, "For Christ also died for sins once for all, just for the unjust so that he might 00:02:43.640 |
bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 00:02:49.080 |
in which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison who once were 00:02:54.600 |
disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction 00:03:00.160 |
of the Ark, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through the water. 00:03:05.600 |
Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you. 00:03:10.160 |
Not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through 00:03:14.640 |
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven 00:03:19.720 |
after angels and authorities and powers have been subjected to him." 00:03:24.720 |
I would like you to think about this passage for a moment. 00:03:29.880 |
Christ sacrificed once and for all, what Christ was doing when he was preaching, but I'm highlighting 00:03:37.660 |
He mentions that eight were delivered safely through the waters, just eight. 00:03:42.400 |
He says, "Correspondingly, baptism now saves you." 00:03:48.560 |
Well, as we think about the Ark, when God commanded Noah to create this huge vessel 00:03:55.840 |
in order to save and preserve lives, let's think about that for a moment. 00:04:00.400 |
Just for the sake of time, I'm going to read to you that in the context of why God called 00:04:04.760 |
Noah to do that was because the land was riddled with sin. 00:04:14.200 |
He says in Genesis chapter six, "Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on 00:04:18.720 |
the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. 00:04:25.600 |
The Lord was sorry that he made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart. 00:04:29.280 |
The Lord said, 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land. 00:04:33.780 |
From man to animals, to creeping things and to birds in the sky, I am sorry I have made 00:04:40.280 |
And so rightly so, when we think of Noah and the Ark, we automatically think of the 00:04:48.880 |
This was a time in which God said, "I will blot out mankind." 00:04:52.120 |
So whether it was wives and women and children, whether it was the precious little animals, 00:04:59.520 |
God desired in that moment to put an end to the kind of wickedness that was pervading 00:05:05.760 |
And so rightly so, we look at that time and we say, "Judgment of God, judgment of God." 00:05:11.360 |
But today I would like us to think about not so much simply the judgment of God, but realize 00:05:17.080 |
that that was a time of deliverance in the midst of such judgment. 00:05:22.960 |
That it was God sparing the few, safely bringing those across, that the time of the flood and 00:05:29.320 |
the great judgment over the entire face of the world, God was delivering the few. 00:05:35.800 |
And so remember that this is a time in which although it was great divine judgment, it 00:05:39.560 |
says that in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7, "By faith Noah being warned by God about things 00:05:44.680 |
not yet seen, in reverence he prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by 00:05:50.080 |
which he condemned the world and came an heir of the righteousness which was according to 00:05:55.720 |
So God having warned him, Noah had faith and his household was saved. 00:06:01.760 |
Correspondingly, what are we thinking about when we think about baptism? 00:06:07.120 |
He says correspondingly, your baptism is not simply you getting clean and washed off of 00:06:13.480 |
Rather, you need to think about your baptism just like we think about the flood. 00:06:24.000 |
And what we have in baptism is you being brought safely to the vessel which is Christ. 00:06:34.360 |
The problem is in the days of Noah, people didn't pay any attention. 00:06:41.360 |
Noah and his family, his sons are putting together this ginormous raft. 00:06:45.960 |
I mean, I don't know if it looked even like a boat like we think of it. 00:06:50.480 |
You know, he talks about the measures and you almost think like, "Is this a ginormous 00:06:54.920 |
And we talked with the youth group students, I'm going over the book of Genesis and I tried 00:06:58.600 |
to measure out, to give them a picture of what it would potentially look like. 00:07:02.520 |
Their measurements would be something like a ginormous Costco. 00:07:08.320 |
I mean, to exactly how it looked, I don't know. 00:07:12.000 |
But that would have been some sight, wouldn't it? 00:07:17.080 |
Jesus says in his own words in Matthew 24, he says this, "For the coming of the Son of 00:07:26.040 |
"For as in those days before the flood, there were eating and drinking and marrying and 00:07:30.840 |
giving and marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark. 00:07:34.120 |
But they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away. 00:07:41.800 |
The problem at that time is they saw this thing, but they did not ask the question, 00:07:49.440 |
You know, what's really interesting is in the movies and a lot of the Bible stories, 00:07:52.480 |
they'll say Noah was building this ark, he was taking the logs and then the people gathered 00:07:58.760 |
Actually, I don't think people were mocking him. 00:08:01.720 |
The Bible never ever says people were mocking him. 00:08:06.960 |
But rather I think the people had such an apathy. 00:08:11.480 |
They had such a thought of God would never judge us. 00:08:15.360 |
They had such a thought of even if the judgment came, look how big that thing is. 00:08:22.920 |
I think now I'm just conjecture, now I'm just like assuming what probably happened. 00:08:27.880 |
But the scripture never says the people were mocking him blatantly and persecuting him. 00:08:32.280 |
Rather what Jesus Christ says is they just said, "We're just going to keep eating, we're 00:08:39.440 |
And Jesus uses that example to talk about the kind of problem that exists this day. 00:08:48.480 |
Is that although the messages being preached, just like in the days of John the Baptist 00:08:52.280 |
who came and said, "There is a kingdom to come." 00:08:57.120 |
And John the Baptist understood what that meant. 00:08:59.200 |
When he says the kingdom is coming, he didn't think, "Oh, look at it. 00:09:04.640 |
When he said the kingdom is coming, he said, "Christ the Messiah is coming with a sickle 00:09:10.480 |
And he's going to divide the wheat and the tare, so repent." 00:09:14.840 |
And the scripture says in Matthew chapter three, John the Baptist preached repentance 00:09:24.000 |
Our generation knows, I think, has a problem. 00:09:28.560 |
We hear the kingdom is coming, Christ has come and he's going to come again. 00:09:33.360 |
And automatically we don't know what to do with it. 00:09:38.760 |
Our generation just keeps on going like every day is the same. 00:09:42.560 |
Our generation doesn't know what to do with guilt. 00:09:45.960 |
Our generation doesn't know what to do with forewarning of the devastation to come. 00:09:52.120 |
And you know what I think is the worst of all that we can do? 00:09:56.480 |
The worst thing we can do is assume we're safe. 00:10:01.080 |
Just like in the days of Noah, they looked at the boat and they said, "We could probably 00:10:05.520 |
Likewise, we automatically think Christ is coming, he's on my side. 00:10:10.320 |
Just like Christ is on my side for my work, for my school, for my endeavors, for sometimes 00:10:22.160 |
There's an interesting thing that happened in the history of the Israelites. 00:10:26.880 |
You guys have heard this phrase, "Hosanna, hosanna in the highest." 00:10:33.460 |
We saw it in the time when Jesus came into Jerusalem in what's called the triumphal entry. 00:10:38.760 |
Millions of people gathered together and they're praising, "Hosanna, hosanna. 00:10:50.800 |
Hosanna is not a word of praise originally, but in the Hebrew it literally means, "God, 00:11:03.360 |
But over time, you know what that word turns into? 00:11:10.000 |
So the fact of the matter that I'm talking to you guys today this morning is this. 00:11:14.480 |
Let us not make the mistake of the generations ago in the days of Noah where everybody assumed, 00:11:24.360 |
Let's not make the same mistake when Jesus walked into the city, into Jerusalem and say, 00:11:44.320 |
So in the passage that I read in 1 Peter chapter 3, what's really interesting is this. 00:11:51.940 |
He points to the days of Noah, and then if you take a look in verse ... I'm going to 00:11:56.760 |
read from verse 20, he said, "Who once were disobedient when the patience of God was waiting 00:12:01.720 |
in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark, in which a few," that is eight 00:12:05.560 |
persons, "were brought safely through the water." 00:12:08.320 |
And in verse 21, "Correspondingly to that, baptism now saves you, not the removal of 00:12:14.760 |
dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience." 00:12:23.480 |
Baptism signifies that these individuals who are being dunked into the water, that they 00:12:37.640 |
I understand your kingdom is coming, and that means my position now should not be, 'Yay.'" 00:12:47.960 |
My position now would be, "Am I okay for his coming?" 00:12:52.920 |
And many of you will hear the various stories. 00:12:57.200 |
Some of them, it's been a long time coming for them to realize, "I am a sinner before 00:13:01.720 |
For some of them, more recently, they realized, "I need salvation. 00:13:15.000 |
But what needs to be true of every single person that is a genuine believer of God is 00:13:18.340 |
not simply affirming, "Yeah, I think Jesus is God." 00:13:26.440 |
For those individuals who are in dire need, if you're drowning in the waters, you need 00:13:32.200 |
For those individuals who are not right with God, we need to say, "God, have mercy." 00:13:42.200 |
It's because I think for many generations, we've been doing people a disfavor, saying, 00:13:53.800 |
That is a huge disfavor to everybody who hears that message. 00:14:00.560 |
Because the second half of what Apostle Peter is saying is we have an appeal to God for 00:14:10.720 |
Only through that understanding, the paradigm that we are going to be judged, but we are 00:14:14.880 |
going to be saved, and when we make that true for us because we have confessed, because 00:14:19.800 |
I've asked for it, only then can I actually feel cleansed. 00:14:26.640 |
Baptism, there's so much truth to what we're doing. 00:14:35.040 |
It's a union with Christ, but something that's happening to an individual when they get saved 00:14:39.680 |
is they are being cleansed by the precious and pure blood of Christ. 00:14:45.120 |
How are you going to experience that when you don't ask God for it? 00:14:49.320 |
How are you going to experience that when you do not receive, but rather you assume? 00:14:56.840 |
May we be a people who never assumes the grace of God, but rather, as he offers it, that 00:15:04.040 |
we would beseech the Lord for his mercies and grace. 00:15:07.280 |
The ones who are being baptized today, they are ones who are coming before us having experienced 00:15:14.640 |
Having experienced the great deliverance from not something as momentous as an airplane, 00:15:22.920 |
They're on a path of destruction, perhaps self-destruction, but more than that, the 00:15:27.120 |
destruction by the hand of the Lord, but they're delivered by that vessel, that vessel that 00:15:31.720 |
is Christ, they're delivered by the precious one, our Savior Jesus. 00:15:36.800 |
Let's take a moment to pray, and we'll invite up the first person to share his testimony. 00:15:41.240 |
Father God, we want to thank you, Lord, that you warn us, that you warn us of judgment 00:15:49.720 |
We want to thank you, Lord, that you convict us, that you convict us of the sin that resides 00:15:55.600 |
And we thank you, Lord, that through the blood of Christ, you opened the door for us to ask 00:16:03.200 |
Thank you, God, that you offer salvation, and we pray to you, Hosanna, Hosanna, would 00:16:09.680 |
And God, if there's anybody here who has not yet done so, I pray that they would take a 00:16:13.920 |
moment to go before you, that if they do not know that they are right with God, I pray 00:16:18.960 |
that they would ask by the name of Christ to be made pure by the blood of the Lord. 00:16:24.560 |
And God, that they be delivered from the wrath to come. 00:16:27.560 |
And Lord, as we hear now also the testimonies of those being baptized, may the congregation, 00:16:32.200 |
may we all be encouraged, and may you be glorified for the salvation that is found only in your 00:16:40.680 |
Let's give a hand to the first person, who is our brother, Eugene. 00:16:56.920 |
Hello, fellow brothers and sisters of the congregation. 00:17:11.320 |
My name is Eugene, and I've been coming out to Berean for a year, and it's definitely 00:17:19.960 |
So I was born in a non-Christian family in Korea, and none of my immediate families were 00:17:27.040 |
My first exposure to church was in seventh grade, when I was just at school hanging out 00:17:32.640 |
with my friends, and this random guy that I've never talked to before just came up to 00:17:38.600 |
And the first thing he says to me was, "What church do you go to?" 00:17:43.080 |
And this was when I didn't go to church, so I was with my friends, and they're all the 00:17:48.400 |
people who went to church, so I didn't want to stand out as like an atheist. 00:17:52.120 |
I was thinking of a church name to say to him, and it was really embarrassing because 00:18:02.400 |
And because of that, I was like, "I'm going to go to church, so if someone asks me next 00:18:08.480 |
Actually, funny thing is, I invited him over today. 00:18:12.920 |
He's actually one of my very close friends today, and I go to him for a lot of advice 00:18:20.200 |
And I can confidently say I have the answer now. 00:18:29.640 |
So I started going to church in seventh grade, and one of the things that really stood out 00:18:33.960 |
was I guess after the first week, no one really came out of their way to approach me. 00:18:41.640 |
So one of the things that I really look for in church when I first started was fellowship, 00:18:48.820 |
And I guess because my reason for going in the first place wasn't really a solid reason, 00:18:56.560 |
And so in ninth grade, after first semester, I just stopped going to church. 00:19:01.360 |
I just considered it like a fad, just like a lifestyle. 00:19:05.920 |
And ever since then, my high school experience was pretty negative. 00:19:11.880 |
I got into a lot of anxiety issues, depression, things like that. 00:19:17.160 |
And basically my life reflected a very sinful life. 00:19:23.320 |
And sometimes I did have a little guilt, but most of the time I just didn't really mind 00:19:29.200 |
And this continued on until college when I first came into college thinking party and 00:19:36.920 |
And I remember through that I met a person, and one of the things we actually talked about 00:19:44.520 |
And we both had the same agreement that people were hypocrites in the church because we see 00:19:50.600 |
them being pretty nice in the church, but when we talk to them outside of it, they don't 00:19:58.360 |
And so we're like, "These guys are total hypocrites. 00:20:03.280 |
And then while we're talking about that, I just remembered my cousin. 00:20:07.560 |
And I know he goes to church, and I was like, "Hey, he's a good guy. 00:20:13.400 |
And through that idea, I contacted him, and I started coming out to Berean last fall because 00:20:20.280 |
And when I first came, I realized the first thing was that everyone's super friendly. 00:20:26.680 |
There's a community that actually talks to you day to day." 00:20:31.000 |
And they always approached me outside of church like, "Hey, how are you doing? 00:20:36.680 |
And that made me feel really welcome when I first came to church. 00:20:39.760 |
And I feel because of that, I continued to come out, not because I loved God, but because 00:20:46.800 |
And so because of that reason, at the end of my first year, I actually just thought 00:20:55.880 |
And I wasn't feeling like I was growing as a Christian because I was still pleasuring 00:21:00.840 |
myself in worldly values and just sinning still. 00:21:06.080 |
And so I decided maybe this is what happened in junior high. 00:21:11.720 |
And so I stopped coming out during the summer. 00:21:14.920 |
But some people contacted me over the summer, including my cousin, just asking how I was 00:21:22.360 |
And I felt really encouraged by that because I just started thinking about all the people 00:21:28.640 |
And everyone's ... They actually love God, and they have that genuine heart for it. 00:21:33.960 |
So I kind of asked myself if they could come to love God, why can't I do it? 00:21:40.960 |
And so because of that, after summer ended, I decided to come back, give it a final try. 00:21:46.440 |
If I don't see any growth in my faith, then I'll just stop coming out again. 00:21:51.240 |
And so for a while, I feel I was really pushing myself to just listen and see if I can really 00:22:01.000 |
And it's kind of like a little growth, but I was still not really having that loving 00:22:09.120 |
And during all this time, I was still anxious and all that. 00:22:13.440 |
And so one day it was really bad where I just came back from school, and I was just in my 00:22:24.600 |
I remember I talked to some of my friends too, just to help me out, because I was going 00:22:28.000 |
through a lot of issues during that time as well. 00:22:31.680 |
And I just felt like no one could really help me out. 00:22:35.400 |
I was just kind of stuck in an endless cycle. 00:22:38.240 |
But I was like a last resort, just super broken. 00:22:42.440 |
I was really just pleading with God, "Please help me out, because it's really not fun experiencing 00:22:53.040 |
So I just really just prayed to God, "If you're real, just please help me out. 00:23:03.960 |
He didn't just say, "Here you go, you're healed." 00:23:06.920 |
But what he did was showed me the state of my heart. 00:23:11.080 |
And I remember all these, everything just came into my mind. 00:23:20.000 |
And I remember just really feeling just disappointed and disgusted at myself, just for having all 00:23:26.760 |
this inside my heart, but not recognizing it. 00:23:32.200 |
And I remember my first just natural reaction to that was to just repent. 00:23:38.240 |
Even though I've never really had a genuine repentant in my entire life, at that moment, 00:23:46.120 |
And so I started just to really pray to God, just asking for forgiveness, just to really 00:23:52.040 |
... Yeah, I was just really apologetic, just not recognizing what was going on inside me. 00:23:58.240 |
And once I was done with my repentance, I opened my eyes. 00:24:02.880 |
And I remember it was a really strange feeling, because during the whole day, I was just ... Not 00:24:07.800 |
even the whole day, but for a while, not really positive. 00:24:11.040 |
It was kind of just like, it was a real negative experience. 00:24:14.640 |
But I remember right afterwards, and then I started smiling. 00:24:23.440 |
I just felt all the burden just come out of myself, and I just felt really overjoyed. 00:24:29.200 |
And that's when I realized God is real, and he really worked in me that day. 00:24:35.420 |
So from that moment on, immediately I just knelt down. 00:24:41.640 |
And I really proclaimed myself for him during that day. 00:24:46.880 |
And I knew this was a genuine experience, because I remember Pastor Peter, at the same 00:24:53.840 |
time, was going through Romans 1, was talking about how if God gave up on you, you would 00:25:04.880 |
I recognized that God was still with me during the whole entire life, that I didn't believe 00:25:12.800 |
And so through that, I really just came to just believe in God. 00:25:17.600 |
And ever since then, everything just involving, whether it's just ministry, fellowship, just 00:25:25.880 |
reading the Bible, everything has been just really enjoyable. 00:25:30.240 |
I felt a lot of excitement when I talk about God. 00:25:33.440 |
I remember Pastor Mark and Preston approached, or when they just told me, "Hey, when you 00:25:39.080 |
come out to church nowadays, you look more happy and excited." 00:25:46.120 |
So just hearing the fact that there's the genuine excitement of learning God, just knowing 00:25:54.880 |
about God, I just really felt encouraged by that. 00:25:57.960 |
And really, I just wanted to just really ... Now I know that this isn't a fad or anything. 00:26:05.920 |
And a verse that really just touches me is 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. 00:26:13.160 |
And it says, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for 00:26:17.280 |
they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually 00:26:22.600 |
And it's a really reflective verse for me because this was basically my entire life 00:26:29.800 |
I always thought resurrection, Christianity, all those things are super fake. 00:26:34.480 |
It sounded really dumb, but now it's like I'm on the other side where it's so real. 00:26:42.040 |
And I just can't imagine my entire life I had that kind of thought. 00:26:47.760 |
I'm just really thankful that he was able to lead me away from my destructive path and 00:26:53.920 |
that I finally understand why everyone says, "I love God." 00:27:01.880 |
It's something that's actually important to me, and it's something that just defines my 00:28:26.800 |
I'm 22 years old, and I've been coming out to Berean for about a year now. 00:28:32.520 |
So I was born into a Catholic household and grew up to be very active in the Catholic 00:28:36.080 |
church from attending Sunday school and attending mass every week to actually leading youth 00:28:42.640 |
Since I had been taught that it was solely by good works that God will allow me into 00:28:45.840 |
heaven, I thought I was considered to be a devout follower of Christ because I memorized 00:28:50.140 |
every prayer they told me to and I served in church. 00:28:53.280 |
But in actuality, I had almost no knowledge of who God is or what his word says. 00:28:58.640 |
I had no thought of trying to fight sin, but only thought of works that would make up for 00:29:04.120 |
I saw God only as a God to fear, and my faulty knowledge of his impending judgment led me 00:29:11.400 |
So I grew up trying to be the perfect daughter, the perfect student, the perfect friend, but 00:29:15.760 |
I still felt like I wasn't doing good enough. 00:29:18.520 |
So when I came to college, all I desired was to be part of an elite group of people, and 00:29:23.800 |
in my mind that came out to be an Asian social sorority. 00:29:27.760 |
I fully immersed myself in their partying lifestyle and allowed myself to go through 00:29:34.400 |
I compromised all my values and principles to fit in, and through that I stopped going 00:29:38.560 |
to Catholic church and I completely forgot that I even believed in a God. 00:29:42.680 |
I was failing classes, I was betraying my closest friends, and I just completely lost 00:29:47.600 |
who I was to chase after all my worldly desires. 00:29:50.720 |
But all the while I was popular and I was still dating my high school boyfriend, so 00:29:55.720 |
Eventually, the cattiness of being in a sorority took its toll on my insecurities and I left 00:30:03.280 |
However, the community I had built in college was suddenly destroyed overnight since when 00:30:10.400 |
I became really depressed and gave up on trying to rebuild a community in college, and instead 00:30:18.040 |
I gave everything I was and had, physically, spiritually, and emotionally to him. 00:30:23.640 |
I let myself become completely consumed by my relationship because he gave me the affirmation 00:30:31.240 |
So I went through the next two years of my life with him literally being my only friend, 00:30:37.560 |
Then at the beginning of my senior year in college, my then boyfriend broke up with me 00:30:42.520 |
and it felt like my whole world had fallen apart. 00:30:45.840 |
But for the first time in three years, I acknowledged God, but in fury. 00:30:50.160 |
I was angry at God for taking away the most important thing in my life when I felt I did 00:30:55.280 |
I bargained that if he fixed it, I would go back to church and try to be a better person. 00:31:00.640 |
I was bitter, but confused why I was even acknowledging him at all. 00:31:07.520 |
So all my yelling at God and crying on my own wasn't getting me anywhere, and I ended 00:31:12.040 |
up reaching out to my closest high school friend, and his advice was just to put myself 00:31:16.800 |
in a new, positive environment and try to move on. 00:31:19.320 |
He went to a different school, so he ended up contacting his friends that he knew from 00:31:23.880 |
UCI that are plugged into churches, and the first one to reach out to me actually invited 00:31:32.560 |
And I really didn't want to go because it's a church and I wasn't Christian and I was 00:31:42.240 |
Yeah, okay, so then at Bible study, I honestly don't remember what we went over, but it was 00:31:51.440 |
during our table group discussions that God really broke me to finally see how much I 00:31:55.840 |
didn't know who he is and how much I depended on man instead of him. 00:32:01.040 |
So as uncomfortable as I was, I also felt really safe at Breen and ended up just spilling 00:32:09.960 |
But what really convicted me was when my table group leader willingly shared her life with 00:32:19.640 |
She told me that no human being can complete us or fill our needs because only God can 00:32:24.120 |
do that and how if God chose to take away her husband today, she would be okay because 00:32:28.580 |
she trusts in his sovereignty and can rejoice in Christ in any situation. 00:32:33.440 |
I was so confused on how she could love a God that could so easily give and take away 00:32:39.200 |
when my first instinct was just to be angry at him. 00:32:42.920 |
But I know now that my greatest examples of love were nothing compared to the love God 00:32:47.320 |
has shown by allowing his only son to die on the cross for sinners like me. 00:32:51.880 |
She continued to share that my constant need to do good works was not how we attain salvation, 00:32:58.000 |
I stood there so ashamed to be completely drenched in sin, but I finally understood 00:33:04.000 |
that I can't do anything on my own to rid myself of it. 00:33:07.720 |
That it is just through Christ's death and resurrection that my sins are paid for and 00:33:11.280 |
God truly does forgive if I repent and ask for forgiveness. 00:33:15.840 |
So from there I knew I hadn't, I hadn't actually never heard the gospel and I desperately wanted 00:33:21.560 |
So for the first time I went home and prayed, not because I was trying to bargain with God, 00:33:27.200 |
but because I wanted to know who he is and I prayed that he would allow Christ's blood 00:33:33.820 |
So just in the past year, God has placed me in a really healthy environment with an amazing 00:33:38.360 |
community of brothers and sisters at AACF while I was in college and here at Berean 00:33:43.080 |
to really guide me, hold me accountable and push me to pursue Christ. 00:33:48.080 |
I know God had to strip everything I valued in my life to realize how weak I am and how 00:33:54.640 |
My decision to follow Christ doesn't mean I'll stop struggling with sin, but that instead 00:33:58.480 |
I can fight to live a life pleasing and honoring in his sight. 00:34:01.900 |
That it's not by my strength that I'm able to do anything, but only through his strength. 00:34:06.400 |
I realized that I can never be perfect under his standards, that I can never do enough 00:34:10.560 |
good deeds to gain his favor, but that all he asks for is that I obediently and follow 00:34:18.520 |
So do you understand about being baptized today? 00:34:35.100 |
We're being united with Christ and it's back in our direction. 00:34:37.100 |
God value in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:35:11.520 |
I started coming to Berean about four months ago. 00:35:15.560 |
Much of my life has been characterized by me knowing of God, but not knowing God. 00:35:23.680 |
Early in my life, I was a Catholic churchgoer. 00:35:26.300 |
My parents took me to church on a casual basis and I didn't complete any of my sacraments 00:35:32.940 |
And when I went to church, my heart wasn't really there. 00:35:36.600 |
Because I hadn't completed any of my sacraments, it was discouraged to go up to accept the 00:35:45.280 |
Every time people walked past me to get a communion, I felt ugly, judged, and embarrassed. 00:35:51.840 |
I felt like a bad person and thought, why did I feel this way in church? 00:35:56.480 |
What's worse is that I always thought it was too convenient to my time and my life to attempt 00:36:02.120 |
to grow spiritually so I could one day take part in the communion. 00:36:10.500 |
When I went to college at UC Irvine, I almost completely forgot about God. 00:36:14.720 |
I was too involved in my own life, making friends, my relationships, partying, school. 00:36:21.240 |
And in the few times I went to church, I felt the same embarrassment and judgment. 00:36:26.140 |
And it wasn't that people were judging me, but I felt like I was judging myself. 00:36:31.160 |
I was allowing myself to be this heathen who didn't try to know God. 00:36:35.480 |
And I went less and less to church and rejected God more and more. 00:36:40.360 |
I found myself even asking, does God really even exist? 00:36:46.300 |
Is religion just man's warm hope of life after death? 00:36:52.720 |
And I found more solace believing there was a God instead of not existing. 00:36:58.420 |
My faith turned into really just a cautious optimism that someone was out there looking 00:37:05.240 |
In optometry school, I was blessed enough to have met my fiance, Connie Sy, who in the 00:37:11.140 |
beginning of our relationship asked me about my faith. 00:37:14.740 |
Giving my testimony to that point and even admitting that I had weak faith, I wanted 00:37:22.920 |
She having a Christian background herself was looking for a man to lead her in her faith 00:37:34.940 |
We both decided to seek God together, read the Bible together, pray for each other. 00:37:40.180 |
But I still say that I was still lost in the beginning. 00:37:44.620 |
I felt like I couldn't really feel the Holy Spirit in church, and I still had a lot of 00:37:51.500 |
And I felt like my attempts at prayer and pursuit of Christ at times was in vain. 00:37:56.960 |
We struggled to maintain our commitment to God, putting other worldly things before him, 00:38:01.420 |
like school, work, fun, sleep, amongst other things. 00:38:06.620 |
We lived together, got drunk with friends, and prioritized things above God in our lives. 00:38:13.440 |
When I proposed to Connie, which is when I soon realized I wasn't the man God wanted 00:38:20.320 |
Even though I made a larger effort to go to church, worship God, and play the Christian 00:38:24.980 |
role, I still was accepting sin freely in my life. 00:38:31.180 |
It was even absurd to think that we would stop living together since we were already 00:38:36.860 |
Talking to different pastors, questions were asked that really got me thinking about this. 00:38:43.460 |
Like, is it your intention to be married pure before God and Jesus Christ? 00:38:55.460 |
And that Jesus Christ died and was resurrected for our sins? 00:39:00.460 |
The last question that really got me was asked by my very own fiance. 00:39:08.780 |
Just thinking about these questions, God gracefully gave me my answer, which was also a simple 00:39:15.720 |
I realized through all my struggles, I only thought about me, how my life is affected, 00:39:24.300 |
I was making the choice not to fully commit to him, not to fully believe he was in control 00:39:30.980 |
I wanted to make a new choice, the most important choice of my life, to accept and have the 00:39:36.480 |
saving faith that Jesus Christ died for my sins and that I needed to put trust in him. 00:39:42.320 |
I see now that in that choice, I was also freed from those sins in my heart. 00:39:48.480 |
No longer do I rely on those sins for happiness or gain. 00:39:51.900 |
No longer do I see those sins as a part of who I am. 00:39:54.440 |
I am ready and willing to have made my decision to trust in Christ. 00:39:58.440 |
I'm so grateful and excited that God has saved me and has made me one with Christ. 00:40:04.840 |
With that, decisions that first seemed ridiculous now become clear and necessary. 00:40:10.360 |
Connie and I have decided to live apart before our marriage so that when we get married, 00:40:14.320 |
we could come as pure and with good conscience as we can before God. 00:40:20.000 |
In Romans 5, verses 4 through 5, it says, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, 00:40:29.100 |
knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character 00:40:35.740 |
And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts 00:40:40.180 |
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." 00:40:44.080 |
I'm not only grateful that God has touched my heart and helped me to realize my faith 00:40:48.220 |
in Christ, but also for the journey he has me on, struggles and all, which has helped 00:40:53.680 |
shape my heart into accepting him today and has taught me to persevere in him tomorrow. 00:41:00.100 |
Vince, do you understand that by going into the water, you're uniting with Christ in 00:41:24.060 |
When you come out of the water, you're uniting with Christ in his resurrection? 00:41:26.060 |
Baptize you in the name of the Father, the name of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:42:05.300 |
So I'm an introvert, so this does not come naturally to me. 00:42:17.140 |
I am relatively new to Berean, but I've actually come here on and off for about 10 years because 00:42:26.420 |
my relationship with Christ was really on and off. 00:42:28.660 |
So I'm going to tell you the whole story right now. 00:42:36.180 |
A lot of my personal values came from hard work, getting good grades, doing skills like 00:42:48.220 |
And I had my first taste of God when I started going to church in high school. 00:42:57.020 |
In high school, I actually served on the worship team and a choir mission team. 00:43:02.740 |
So this was actually my way of being around God, even though in my heart I knew I wasn't 00:43:10.180 |
fully there as a Christian, but this was the only way in my mind that I was able to be 00:43:17.780 |
So I continued to serve and my church was lucky enough to, well, I was lucky enough 00:43:23.020 |
My life was generally pretty disciplined, so God pretty much fit right in there. 00:43:28.540 |
It made sense to let God be my reasons to escape all the peer pressure of high school, 00:43:36.940 |
But when I did go to church and I did the worship and the missions trip, I remember 00:43:42.940 |
those moments of being really spiritually high was what I really yearned for. 00:43:48.260 |
That's when I felt the closest to God, when I could feel really spiritually high. 00:43:51.220 |
When you're in that moment and your hands are raised and you're just praising God, that's 00:43:56.780 |
And in one retreat in particular, a church retreat, so for those who don't know, those 00:44:01.860 |
last about three days and it's just a time for you to immerse yourself with God. 00:44:08.700 |
Usually that's the most intense because that's when everyone's feeling the most holy. 00:44:13.820 |
And I was feeling really broken, so I was on my knees, I was like crying my eyes out. 00:44:21.780 |
There was probably around a hundred some kids there and he put me on stage and he said, 00:44:29.460 |
One day you're going to speak in front of thousands and your words are going to move 00:44:36.040 |
And I was really shocked because I did not expect that at all. 00:44:39.620 |
And my friends who were there at that retreat actually still remember that and they still 00:44:44.740 |
But that was a really important moment for me because I knew that I was never going to 00:44:49.500 |
forget God and God was never going to forget me. 00:44:54.340 |
But college rolls around, I got to UCI and then all the feelings that I had repressed 00:44:59.620 |
in being disciplined, doing all the things like piano and just trying to be a good girl, 00:45:09.460 |
I felt like I was finally free of all of that and I wanted to live that independence. 00:45:22.060 |
And for the next few years I knew I was really far away from God. 00:45:27.620 |
I actually ended up in a really emotionally abusive relationship for about a year. 00:45:32.540 |
And that was probably the darkest time in my life. 00:45:36.700 |
But then, even then, I knew that God didn't forsake me. 00:45:40.860 |
And once it was over and I had a time, a chance to heal from everything, I realized what I 00:45:50.500 |
Now there's a really famous quote in the Bible about love. 00:45:53.420 |
I'm sure you all know it's really popular because even non-religious people know it. 00:45:57.780 |
And the first time I read this passage, it really resonated with me because it was so 00:46:05.700 |
So in 1 Corinthians 13, 4-7, it says, "Love is patient and kind. 00:46:19.940 |
It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 00:46:25.580 |
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." 00:46:30.540 |
Now a few weeks ago, we actually studied this passage in Bible study. 00:46:36.380 |
And it was extremely convicting to me because I just learned and it was shown to me just 00:46:52.220 |
And when I read that list, I knew I failed every one of them. 00:46:56.740 |
And knowing that I don't meet God's love of definition of love, it really stresses me 00:47:02.060 |
out because I'm one of those people that likes to make lists and I have to check it off and 00:47:10.180 |
And I feel like this is like an internal list I can never check off. 00:47:14.740 |
But it's also really encouraging to me as well because it shows how God wants me to 00:47:19.940 |
He wants me to turn away from my sins, improve myself, and thank Christ for dying on me, 00:47:27.260 |
dying for me on the cross because he has already paid the price for my sins. 00:47:32.860 |
And this ultimate sacrifice from God, from Christ is what makes the entire gospel so 00:47:37.420 |
beautiful because I know that no matter how ugly I am, not just through my own eyes, but 00:47:42.380 |
through God's standards, I'm forgiven because I trust Christ and because I trust what he 00:47:49.260 |
So once I got to this point and I knew I was able to completely and utterly surrender myself 00:47:55.100 |
to God, everything just kind of fell into place. 00:48:02.340 |
It was about what God wanted, what he thought and not what I thought. 00:48:13.220 |
So the pivotal moment was finally submitting that he was the driver, not me. 00:48:18.740 |
I just had to get in and just stop fighting it. 00:48:22.700 |
And I realized there's no side seat driving either. 00:48:24.800 |
I can't, even if I see the shortest route and I know it's a direct straight shot with 00:48:30.040 |
nicely paved roads and I say, Hey God, let's go this way. 00:48:34.300 |
I can't because he might want to take me through the trees. 00:48:38.300 |
He might want to take me through a swamp off road into the mountains, but yet I will trust 00:48:43.260 |
He has a reason for taking me through these detours and I'm going to trust him. 00:48:52.020 |
Christ is the seatbelt who tethers me to God, the driver, because it can be a bumpy ride. 00:48:59.020 |
God could be a crazy driver and there's no way I'm moving out, flying out of a moving 00:49:04.060 |
So I cling to him, not just for the rewards of heaven or because of the promise of a better 00:49:11.020 |
I'm in absolute awe in love with the originator and creator of truth. 00:49:16.180 |
John 14, six says, I am the way and the truth and the life. 00:49:21.060 |
No one comes to the father except through me. 00:49:23.320 |
God is loves what I've been looking for all this time. 00:49:25.700 |
And the more I study scripture and learn about him, I realized that he's so right. 00:49:33.000 |
The question I ask myself now is what can I get from God? 00:49:43.740 |
My job is to follow him and trust him and through his teachings, that life becomes clear 00:49:49.900 |
and I can finally understand what my purpose is, is to worship him. 00:49:53.980 |
So the truth is I've actually wanted to be baptized for years. 00:49:56.780 |
I felt ready for a long time, but it was really hard for me to find a home church because 00:50:02.380 |
I lived on the East coast for three years and outside of freezing to death, I've been 00:50:07.380 |
really itching to come back to California, dedicate myself to Berean because it wasn't 00:50:12.340 |
until I was away that I realized what I had here. 00:50:15.540 |
Vince and I have been talking about this for years. 00:50:20.060 |
Both of us are ready to give our lives to Christ and we want this. 00:50:36.420 |
Tati, do you understand that by entering the water, you're uniting with Christ in his death? 00:50:49.420 |
When you come out of the water, you're uniting with Christ in his resurrection. 00:51:23.420 |
Alright, my name is Travis and this is my testimony. 00:51:30.420 |
My parents were deacons and taught me at a young age the authority of God's word and 00:51:35.420 |
God's gospel of forgiveness by grace through faith. 00:51:38.420 |
I thank God for my parents who are here today and their prayers. 00:51:43.420 |
I learned at an early age to start my prayers like this. 00:52:00.420 |
"Dear Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. 00:52:03.420 |
I went to more church retreats than I could count. 00:52:06.420 |
I have enough VBS and youth ministry t-shirts to last two weeks. 00:52:13.420 |
I always had the most star stickers for the memory verses I memorized. 00:52:17.420 |
I would sing a VeggieTales song when I got scared at night. 00:52:22.420 |
I was not allowed to watch The Simpsons and wasn't allowed to listen to Spice Girls. 00:52:31.420 |
The church life was all I ever knew and it was such a blessing, 00:52:37.420 |
In fifth grade, my mom shared the gospel with me and I asked her for forgiveness 00:52:44.420 |
I was baptized in seventh grade due to a counselor correcting my incorrect view of baptism. 00:52:50.420 |
He said, "You don't need to be a mature Christian, you just need to be a Christian." 00:52:55.420 |
"So why am I here getting baptized again?" you ask. 00:52:59.420 |
In short, I'm not sure that I was a Christian in seventh grade. 00:53:03.420 |
Okay, fast forward to three years ago at Berean. 00:53:10.420 |
At Berean, we were studying through the Book of Acts, 00:53:13.420 |
a book where baptism was a reoccurring theme in the book. 00:53:16.420 |
I began to understand baptism as a lot more important than I originally thought. 00:53:21.420 |
At that moment, I dwelled on a question that I had asked previously. 00:53:24.420 |
Was I a believer when I got baptized in seventh grade? 00:53:28.420 |
Every month for the last three years, I've been really wrestling with this question, 00:53:32.420 |
going back and forth on whether I should get baptized again or not. 00:53:35.420 |
Alright, so rewind to freshman year in college, where God really convicted me of my sin. 00:53:42.420 |
I went to a campus ministry called Crossroads Campus Ministries. 00:53:46.420 |
At the winter retreat, I heard the message on Isaiah's vision of the Lord. 00:53:53.420 |
God is so holy, and I've got to read my Bible. 00:53:56.420 |
It was while reading Ephesians 2, 1-10 in my dorm room, that God really convicted me of my sin. 00:54:03.420 |
Ephesians describes how God sees all of sinful humanity, dead in sin, following the world and Satan, 00:54:10.420 |
living in the passions of our flesh, sons of disobedience and a child of wrath. 00:54:15.420 |
I remember thinking, "I don't think that describes me. 00:54:18.420 |
Maybe my dorm friend down the hall, who gets wasted every night, but not me. 00:54:24.420 |
Always knowing God's word to be authoritative, then I thought to myself, 00:54:28.420 |
"How arrogant would it be of me to stand before God, and God tell me how he saw me in my sin?" 00:54:35.420 |
And I stare back at God and say, "Nah, that's not me." 00:54:38.420 |
God blasted through my self-righteous heart and caused me to realize that not only pagans need to be saved, 00:54:44.420 |
but a nice, moral Chinese kid who grew up in church needs salvation. 00:54:48.420 |
Then I read the life-giving lines, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 00:54:55.420 |
even we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. 00:55:01.420 |
I remember thinking, "So this is what grace is, and this is what grace feels and tastes like." 00:55:07.420 |
I repented of having a self-righteous and prideful heart. 00:55:10.420 |
I believe with all my heart that Jesus died for my sins. 00:55:14.420 |
The gospel that I learned at an early age became so precious to me, not because the gospel changed, 00:55:20.420 |
but because God opened my eyes to see the gospel as precious. 00:55:24.420 |
My life is a testimony to the power of God's word. 00:55:26.420 |
I wasn't going through any hard situation in life during freshman year. 00:55:30.420 |
I was just reading the word of God, and God chose to deflate my inflated view of myself 00:55:35.420 |
and show me that even a church-going guy needs salvation. 00:55:38.420 |
So for the past ten years here, God has sustained me with its ups and downs. 00:55:45.420 |
God has placed a desire to read the Bible and know my Jesus. 00:55:49.420 |
That's a pretty drastic change for someone who hated reading and survived on spark notes throughout high school. 00:55:55.420 |
I no longer see church as only a place where a good Christian goes, 00:55:58.420 |
but as a people who are all redeemed by the blood of Christ. 00:56:02.420 |
I no longer see Jesus as only a means to get me into the pearly gates of heaven, 00:56:07.420 |
but as the God who loved me enough to die for me and who I love in return. 00:56:12.420 |
I no longer see my testimonies as boring, but as a miracle of God to save this church-going guy. 00:56:18.420 |
I'm being baptized today in faith because I stand as one who was dead in my sins, 00:56:24.420 |
I do not get baptized today because I'm some super-mature Christian, 00:56:28.420 |
but I get baptized today as a Christian who belongs to God, 00:56:31.420 |
who is united to Christ in his death and resurrection, 00:56:34.420 |
who has been cleansed from sin, and who was a child of wrath, but now a child of grace and mercy. 00:56:51.420 |
Hey guys, do you understand that being baptized today represents your union with Christ in his death and resurrection? 00:57:03.420 |
I baptize you in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Spirit. 00:57:42.420 |
My name is Essie Liu, and I'm a third year at University of the Pacific, which is up north. 00:57:50.420 |
I've been here for roughly four to five months. 00:57:54.420 |
I wanted to say that I grew up in an atheist household. 00:57:58.420 |
I would view my church exposure as really superficial. 00:58:02.420 |
When I first moved to the United States, I was invited by my neighbor to come visit her church. 00:58:08.420 |
After Bible study class for my first church visit, I saw another Bible study teacher with a lot of my favorite candy. 00:58:18.420 |
She asked me if I had received any treats yet. 00:58:22.420 |
And with a fistful of treats from my own Bible study teacher, I lied to her and I said no. 00:58:27.420 |
We sat down and she just shared the gospel with me. 00:58:32.420 |
And I feel like that was the first time that I truly repented. 00:58:36.420 |
After dealing with burning years for a couple of minutes, I unfortunately went along my church days, running around with kids my age for the sake of companionship and nothing more. 00:58:47.420 |
After we moved to another place in the Bay Area, we were too far away for me to carpool to the same church. 00:58:54.420 |
So naturally, I didn't attend church anymore. 00:58:57.420 |
I don't think that that really affected me greatly, which just really signifies how much I didn't grow in my faith. 00:59:05.420 |
I didn't think about God until the end of my high school career. 00:59:10.420 |
My maternal grandfather, whom I was very close to, passed away suddenly. 00:59:15.420 |
This left me very distressed and threw my family into a lot of turmoil. 00:59:20.420 |
I distinctly remember crying in my room and my father coming and opening the door. 00:59:30.420 |
He held my hand and he asked if he could pray for me. 00:59:35.420 |
During this prayer, I felt this immense pressure, but at the same time, this overwhelming lightness of being. 00:59:44.420 |
Looking back, I can only attribute this to the presence of God coming and covering me. 00:59:51.420 |
It's been a long time since I had felt peace, and then my tears just began gushing out. 00:59:58.420 |
After this experience, I really could not deny the presence of God. 01:00:05.420 |
He came to me during one of my darkest moments. 01:00:08.420 |
Before I left for college, I promised myself that I would explore religion in general and really take it seriously. 01:00:15.420 |
At the first booth of a multicultural fair, one of my college fellowships in Traversity was tabling. 01:00:23.420 |
Someone adamantly coerced me into putting my contact information down. 01:00:30.420 |
I felt very uncomfortable, and especially uncomfortable going to small groups with other people who I assumed were really, really, really Christian. 01:00:42.420 |
But one of the leaders actually reached out to me and offered to do one-on-one Bible studies with me. 01:00:48.420 |
I remember the first passage that we went over. 01:00:51.420 |
It was Luke chapter 5, where Jesus calls his first disciples. 01:00:55.420 |
I remember being so amazed by Jesus' authority, how he could have filled two boats with fish, 01:01:02.420 |
to the point of sinking when no professional fisherman that day could have even caught one fish. 01:01:08.420 |
This Bible study lasted for three hours, and it continued every single week. 01:01:14.420 |
It was through other people pouring into me, using Scripture, 01:01:18.420 |
and seeing the Lord's grace working in their lives and my own, that I came to recognize Christ as my Savior in February of the following year. 01:01:28.420 |
Afterwards, I became really excited about Christ, but I didn't understand the necessity of going to church. 01:01:34.420 |
I considered my college fellowship as a church and deemed it enough. 01:01:38.420 |
As the year progressed, I led a really sinful life. 01:01:42.420 |
I found myself getting further and further away from God. 01:01:45.420 |
I would put academics or sleep before any church or any small group meeting. 01:01:50.420 |
By the end of my sophomore year, last year, I came to the realization that I always put God on the back burner. 01:01:58.420 |
When I was going through stressful times, I never turned to God. 01:02:03.420 |
It became very clear to me that if I went on to go to pharmacy school with this lukewarm attitude towards my faith, 01:02:10.420 |
that I would most likely come out of graduate school as an atheist. 01:02:16.420 |
This made me very afraid, the dire fear for my salvation. 01:02:23.420 |
I made the decision to take a year off this year, partly because I wanted to reevaluate my spirituality and make it a priority in my life. 01:02:31.420 |
I moved down to SoCal this summer with my family, and this year has been filled with a lot of firsts. 01:02:38.420 |
It was the first year that I actively sought out churches. 01:02:41.420 |
It was the first year that I was truly aware of the frequency of my sin and was convicted by them. 01:02:47.420 |
It was the first year that I opened my Bible to read scripture on my own. 01:02:52.420 |
It was the first year that I found my spiritual growth essential. 01:02:56.420 |
It was the first year that I took my one-on-one relationship with God seriously. 01:03:02.420 |
It's the first year that I truly understand what it means to love God. 01:03:07.420 |
I am incredibly thankful for all the ways that Christ has worked in my life. 01:03:12.420 |
I really did not deserve this chance, and it was only through God's grace that I am here now. 01:03:18.420 |
I am truly excited for how much I have yet to learn and grow. 01:03:23.420 |
My family is here for the first time at Brayen, and I wanted to say a couple words in Chinese. 01:04:57.420 |
Dear church family, friends, mom and dad, and Grace, 01:05:02.420 |
my name is David. Thank you for being here on the day of my baptism. 01:05:07.420 |
It's a privilege to share my testimony with you, and I pray that it will encourage you and glorify God. 01:05:12.420 |
This is not the first time I've been baptized. 01:05:15.420 |
I was baptized in high school when I was not a Christian. 01:05:18.420 |
On that day, I believed that going into the water would cleanse me of my sins. 01:05:22.420 |
It was not a proclamation of a transformation that had already taken place, 01:05:27.420 |
but an act for what I hoped would take place. 01:05:30.420 |
I hoped that the water would cleanse me and give me powers to never sin again. 01:05:34.420 |
Obviously, nothing changed that day, and I sinned like ten minutes later. 01:05:41.420 |
I thought that maybe my pastor did it the wrong way. 01:05:46.420 |
I count that day as a day I went swimming with my pastor, but not a true baptism. 01:05:56.420 |
This is what God commands me to do, and I want to obey. 01:06:02.420 |
I grew up in a church and in a Christian family. 01:06:04.420 |
My parents brought me to church every week and tried their best to teach me how to live the Christian life. 01:06:10.420 |
I remember my dad buying our family matching study Bibles that we would study together once a week. 01:06:16.420 |
At the time, I believed that God existed, and I thought that I was a good enough person to earn his favor. 01:06:21.420 |
However, after each Bible study that our family had, my heart grew harder towards his word. 01:06:27.420 |
I wanted to live my life based purely on my own desires, and I did not want a book to dictate what I could or could not do. 01:06:37.420 |
"While we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way." 01:06:42.420 |
I wanted to fit in at church so I would modify my behavior enough to make friends. 01:06:47.420 |
I even was baptized because I thought it would give me credentials that I needed to fit in. 01:06:52.420 |
I lived the life of a hypocrite, believing that I had a relationship with God while blatantly living my life as far away as possible. 01:06:59.420 |
I craved sin in all aspects of my life, and I cared about nobody except for myself. 01:07:03.420 |
You can ask my mom and dad because I'm sure I made their lives really miserable during those years. 01:07:08.420 |
By God's grace, I started to regularly attend Berean and CCM my freshman year at UCI. 01:07:14.420 |
I started to hear great teaching from Pastor Peter and Pastor Aaron, and I couldn't stop watching John MacArthur destroy Deepak on Larry King Live. 01:07:22.420 |
I signed up for CCM small groups, hoping that it would help me piece together all that I was learning. 01:07:28.420 |
I remember right before the small group interviews, a friend told me that the leaders would ask you about the gospel. 01:07:34.420 |
I remember typing to Google, "What is the gospel?" right before the interview. 01:07:39.420 |
If I didn't cheat, I might have put down Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 01:07:46.420 |
I was put in Travis's small group, and he assigned us a reading over winter break. 01:07:51.420 |
Initially, I was upset because not only were we the only small group assigned a special reading, but I had to spend my own money on the book. 01:07:57.420 |
The book was called "Crossing Our Life" by CJ Mahaney, and I absolutely avoided reading it for most of the break. 01:08:06.420 |
When I finally started to read the book, I couldn't put it down. 01:08:10.420 |
The life story of Jesus was fascinating to me. 01:08:14.420 |
For the first time in my life, I learned about who Jesus was. 01:08:17.420 |
He healed the sick, fed the poor, and dined with the rejects. 01:08:24.420 |
As the book went on about Jesus' life and character, I wanted more of him in every way. 01:08:29.420 |
He was a spectacular God that I had never encountered before. 01:08:32.420 |
After my dad dropped me off at the dorms, I went straight to Starbucks on campus to finish the book. 01:08:37.420 |
When Jesus was betrayed and arrested, I remember feeling disturbed. 01:08:41.420 |
When Pontius Pilate gave the shouting crowd the opportunity to let Jesus go, I remember feeling angered by their determination to crucify him. 01:08:49.420 |
My heart cried out for the crowd to let Jesus go. 01:08:53.420 |
I hated the Pharisees for committing this action towards the perfect Son of God, not realizing that I was one of them. 01:09:00.420 |
That night, I learned a very haunting truth, that I myself was shouting in that crowd. 01:09:05.420 |
I looked at my life and realized that I did not love Jesus at all. 01:09:08.420 |
Instead, I hated him just as much as they did. 01:09:13.420 |
For the first time, I understood why Jesus died on the cross. 01:09:16.420 |
He was not only crucified by men, but executed by his own Heavenly Father in my place. 01:09:27.420 |
Upon him was a chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we were healed. 01:09:32.420 |
God has blessed me by preserving the memory of this night to help me remember how numb I was to my own sin, and how much I needed his grace every day. 01:09:40.420 |
Shortly after God revealed this truth to me, I truly repented of my sinful life and trusted in Christ as the only way to salvation. 01:09:48.420 |
I am grateful that he pursued me, even as I rebelled against him. 01:09:52.420 |
I did not wake up one day and choose to live my life for him. 01:09:54.420 |
Instead, he saved me according to his own mercy. 01:09:57.420 |
Today I live a life of joy and contentment in Christ. 01:10:04.420 |
I'm 25 years old, but I'm addicted to video games. 01:10:07.420 |
The Bible tells me that I serve the resurrected Christ, who has given me his Holy Spirit and enables me to be his workmanship. 01:10:15.420 |
I'm thankful that I have a great church body to keep me accountable, 01:10:19.420 |
pastors to lead me towards Christ, and a family to show me his love. 01:10:23.420 |
A passage that has been challenging me recently is Luke 14, 26, where Jesus says, 01:10:29.420 |
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 01:10:37.420 |
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." 01:10:41.420 |
Please pray for me as I continue to live my life, that I would have a love for Christ so strong that everything else would fade in the background. 01:11:01.420 |
Do you understand that by entering the water, you're guiding with Christ, and in death, you come out of the water, guiding with Christ, and in resurrection. 01:11:09.420 |
I pray in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit.