back to indexBCC Fall 2017 Baptism Service
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I grew up in Sacramento and both my parents were followers of Jesus. 00:00:09.280 |
They served in ministry at our local church and my mom played the organ and my dad sang 00:00:16.940 |
Now throughout my childhood I always attended church, always attended Bible school and always 00:00:22.100 |
went to youth group, yet the seemingly good track record that I had, the teachings of 00:00:28.200 |
faith during these years really never penetrated me. 00:00:31.800 |
By the time I was in high school I remember becoming really jaded towards Christianity. 00:00:37.280 |
I began thinking that the biblical stories of Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, Noah's 00:00:41.360 |
Ark were just made up stories told to us as kids, similar to Santa Claus or the Tooth 00:00:48.960 |
Also around this time I developed the perception that Jesus of Nazareth was just some guy with 00:00:54.360 |
a magical ability to walk on water, to heal people, to turn water into wine. 00:01:00.720 |
So I ended up developing this really distorted and spurious view of Christianity and of Jesus. 00:01:08.520 |
Fast forward to my college years, in 2008 I left home to pursue my engineering degree 00:01:12.640 |
at UCI and this started a new season of life for me. 00:01:16.520 |
I was fed a rich diet of science and reason, leading me to believe that truth could only 00:01:24.240 |
Basically believing in things that could only be proven or physically observed. 00:01:28.840 |
And this rational world view always made sense to me on a fundamental level, while events 00:01:37.680 |
Reconciling science and faith had always been a struggle for me, especially when it came 00:01:43.500 |
It seemed less and less plausible that truth could be found in scripture and this ultimately 00:01:48.800 |
led me to a point where I abandoned church, focusing on seeking answers through my education 00:01:58.000 |
Fortunately God is faithful and while we may abandon him, he will never abandon us. 00:02:03.080 |
For in Isaiah 42, 16, God says, "I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, 00:02:07.160 |
and paths that they have not known, I will guide them." 00:02:11.940 |
So as an act of grace, God began planning people in my life that he would use as tools 00:02:16.180 |
to demonstrate his love and faithfulness for me, starting with the first time I heard the 00:02:22.620 |
He asked me, "If you were to die today and stand before God, and God asks, 'Why should 00:02:26.500 |
I let you into my heaven?' what would you say?" 00:02:30.220 |
Well I said, "I think I'm a pretty good person. 00:02:37.780 |
He then introduced me to this foreign concept of being saved by faith and not by works. 00:02:44.620 |
Faith believing that Jesus lived and died for us and those who chose to repent and follow 00:02:48.580 |
him would be delivered from the penalty of sin and given everlasting life. 00:02:54.020 |
Hearing this planted a seed of curiosity in me and caused me to question what I really 00:03:00.060 |
I also had a really good friend in college whom God had used to display his love and 00:03:08.300 |
For two years this friend invited me to church and for two years I denied him. 00:03:12.460 |
But despite that he did not give up and he continued to invite me until we both graduated 00:03:19.220 |
Little did I know that these small gestures would in time play a big role and play a big 00:03:28.340 |
Leading up to my senior year in college, the hardening of my heart had rendered me blind 00:03:33.620 |
I was living in a selfish life where I actively sinned and invested all my time and resources 00:03:40.940 |
Before I got to a point where I could really start looking at faith with an open mind, 00:03:46.780 |
And in February of 2013 I found out my cousin passed away from sudden cardiac arrest. 00:03:53.580 |
It was just one week after his 20th birthday. 00:03:56.000 |
He collapsed while walking back to his dorm and by the time paramedics arrived he could 00:04:01.660 |
I know it's a cliche thing to say but my cousin was one of my best friends. 00:04:07.580 |
I was in complete shock after hearing the news of his death and was unable to process 00:04:17.580 |
In a blink of an eye I went from state of shock to all of a sudden realizing that I 00:04:26.420 |
That he would never be at another family gathering. 00:04:29.580 |
That he would end up missing all of the important events in my life. 00:04:35.740 |
I remember feeling so much pain, agony, confusion, being completely broken. 00:04:41.860 |
But to my surprise it was in this moment when I turned to God. 00:04:48.700 |
How could he take such an innocent life away from me? 00:04:56.380 |
In John 19, 9-2 Jesus indicated that God in his mysterious and wise providence sometimes 00:05:02.200 |
allows his children to go through hardship and suffering so that they can experience 00:05:11.260 |
So the point being if you see tragedy and you know God could have stopped it, which 00:05:22.580 |
After my cousin passed I could no longer sit idle and believe that we were just molecules 00:05:26.140 |
in motion, that my feelings were just a series of chemical reactions and nothing else. 00:05:32.780 |
There had to be a larger picture that I wasn't seeing. 00:05:39.340 |
This was the time when God allowed me to open my mind and seek truth in his word. 00:05:46.140 |
Now there's a Hebrew word that I've become really fond of in these past few weeks. 00:05:52.020 |
The literal definition of this word is to turn back or return. 00:05:55.860 |
And the prophets in the Bible picked up this word and turned it into a powerful metaphor 00:06:00.980 |
Life is a journey and we go down certain roads and some roads don't lead to life. 00:06:07.140 |
And when you find yourself on this road you need to shuv. 00:06:09.420 |
You need to turn away from sin or your current way of life and turn back to Jesus. 00:06:14.540 |
This is the point where I stopped wanting to live a life of sin and selfishness and 00:06:23.580 |
Standing before you today is a sinner, unworthy of God's love, unworthy to enter his kingdom. 00:06:29.420 |
In Romans 5a it says, "But God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, 00:06:35.340 |
I've come to realize that the mercy and God's grace shows by sending Jesus to the 00:06:44.380 |
Ephesians 2a, "For by grace we have been saved through faith, not of works." 00:06:48.020 |
Salvation is the greatest gift given to man, yet it's one that we never deserved. 00:06:54.060 |
God loved us so much that he sent his only son to become human and die on the cross for 00:06:58.980 |
And I find comfort knowing that God understands my struggles, my pain, and everything that 00:07:05.780 |
He knows me better than I know myself, for in Matthew 1030 God even knows the number 00:07:12.740 |
Before I even existed, God had his eyes on me. 00:07:17.860 |
How faithful, how marvelous, how wonderful is he that despite my continuous rejection 00:07:23.120 |
after all these years, he would still orchestrate his perfect plan to give me hope. 00:07:28.460 |
Hope in his word, hope in salvation, and hope in the promises rooted in the works of Christ. 00:07:34.700 |
Kevin, do you understand that when you go into the water you're uniting with Christ 00:07:39.540 |
in his death, and that when you come out you're uniting with Christ in his resurrected life? 00:07:45.020 |
I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:08:00.860 |
I am 52 years old, and I am only now coming to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior and accepting 00:08:14.700 |
Today I am asking him to be the ruler of my life. 00:08:27.380 |
I'm the older brother to Pastor Peter and the elder Philip Kim, and father of three 00:08:34.780 |
My father was a pastor, as was my grandfather. 00:08:38.020 |
Although I grew up in a Christian family and always been around people who were dedicated 00:08:42.660 |
to serving God, I never really seriously evaluated my own relationship with God. 00:08:50.820 |
I was a Christian by default, meaning I thought I was a Christian because I always hung around 00:08:56.900 |
the church, people I hung around with was Christian. 00:09:04.860 |
So I didn't really realize that I had to work at being Christian. 00:09:14.060 |
I was at church, but I didn't really have the faith. 00:09:21.780 |
I didn't really think there was a process to being a Christian. 00:09:29.580 |
I didn't realize that being a Christian was difficult. 00:09:47.140 |
Keeping faith was like every moment kind of thing. 00:09:51.700 |
I never thought I was a bad person, so I never really thought I had to accept Jesus Christ. 00:10:26.140 |
I know how to be a Christian, but I was too lazy to practice it and kept falling deeper 00:10:36.380 |
In 52 years of existence, I made many mistakes along the way. 00:10:43.340 |
I can honestly tell you every time I come to a fork in the road where I have to make 00:10:46.580 |
a difficult choice, I have consistently made the wrong choices. 00:10:59.220 |
My friends and family who cared about me witnessed the path that was conducive to a life of failure. 00:11:13.300 |
At 52, I know that I lived my life as a sinner. 00:11:26.180 |
I can honestly tell you that I made wrong choices despite people who were encouraging 00:11:39.580 |
I had the right answers with me all the time, I knew, but I refused to listen. 00:12:01.380 |
You know, the choices I made were conscious because it was easier to live as a sinner 00:12:26.940 |
There were many times I regretted being so far away from God. 00:12:35.140 |
Despite being born into a Christian family where I could have found Jesus Christ easily, 00:12:45.620 |
I regretted because I did not like myself or where I was headed. 00:12:52.020 |
And there were many times I regretted because I have failed many times. 00:13:01.620 |
People ask me why after all these years, I am coming before Christ now. 00:13:24.740 |
You have to ask God because at 52 years old, I can tell you that all these years amounted 00:14:01.860 |
At 52, despite years of making wrong choices and living life as a sinner, I know. 00:15:01.140 |
For 52 years I tried and I couldn't do it on my own will. 00:15:33.620 |
And at 52, I thank God that I am saved before it was too late. 00:15:43.620 |
You understand that when you go into the water, you are united with Christ in the depth. 00:15:47.820 |
And when you come out, you are united with Christ, resurrected life. 00:15:52.620 |
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:16:06.620 |
Hello, my name is Matthew Yee and this is my testimony. 00:16:11.460 |
So very fortunate to have been able to grow up in a Christian home, attending a church 00:16:15.500 |
of the name Ocean View in Torrance regularly on Sundays. 00:16:19.460 |
As a result, during the early years of my life, I had been exposed to many different 00:16:24.900 |
However, these stories played very little significance to my life, possibly due to my 00:16:29.100 |
young age, but mostly because of my lack of understanding of God's character. 00:16:34.020 |
So my family attended Ocean View Church up until I was about nine years old. 00:16:37.620 |
My parents had decided to look for a new church, and we stumbled upon, at the time, a pretty 00:16:47.460 |
And I still remember on my first day, I was very intimidated, just because of the change 00:16:53.380 |
And I joined a younger kids for service where we played basketball with a younger James 00:17:05.060 |
And week by week went by, and my family had found a new fellowship at Berean. 00:17:09.740 |
And I attended the main service along with my older brother and the Kim boys, where literally 00:17:15.740 |
However, in a short while, God graciously provided a youth group at Berean under the 00:17:24.100 |
So under Pastor Peter Chung was where I believe God really began to work my life within the 00:17:29.580 |
I became convicted of my sins and my relationship to God. 00:17:35.620 |
And I can't pinpoint an exact day, but it was around this time in my life where I repented 00:17:42.500 |
I was convicted to read my Bible and pray to understand more about God and sought opportunities 00:17:47.180 |
to share the gospel with my middle school friends. 00:17:53.060 |
So high school quickly came, and with the change of scenery, also came new temptations 00:18:00.300 |
Throughout high school, I struggled greatly with my identity in Christ and constantly 00:18:03.460 |
had battles with two specific sins, idolatry and lust. 00:18:08.460 |
So first off, speaking on idolatry, I idolized high school sports, and I constantly wanted 00:18:13.700 |
to get better at football and basketball, even though I wasn't really much of an athlete. 00:18:19.220 |
I had many spiritual battles concerning sports, but I felt as if my faith was ultimately going 00:18:24.660 |
And sports slowly began to consume my thoughts, and it no longer became a matter of how I 00:18:29.820 |
could glorify God through sports, but rather how I could glorify myself. 00:18:34.780 |
And then secondly, lust, it became very apparent in my decision-making, where I began dating 00:18:42.100 |
And the effects of my decision to date her would carry over into my first years of college 00:18:47.420 |
So college, I had a ton of trouble adjusting to college and the college ministry at Bremen. 00:18:54.100 |
I was struggling with school, and possibly due to my awkwardness or antisocial tendencies, 00:18:58.300 |
I was having a hard time adjusting to the new ministry. 00:19:01.700 |
However, it was ultimately my sinful thinking and my commitment to my non-Christian girlfriend 00:19:05.860 |
at the time that convinced me to believe that I did not need fellowship. 00:19:09.860 |
I really struggled during this time, constantly being convicted to end the relationship and 00:19:13.660 |
pursue my faith and fellowship with other believers, but not being able to commit to 00:19:19.460 |
My heart felt like it was in a constant tug, and I was in and out of the relationship, 00:19:25.980 |
And just like Proverbs 26, 11 states, "Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool 00:19:33.500 |
I was constantly returning to my vomit, not my ex-girlfriend, but my sin. 00:19:44.700 |
And I was just that fool, making compromise after compromise to my faith, to the point 00:19:49.220 |
of where I stopped attending church for a while, due to the increased feelings of this 00:19:58.100 |
So at this time, the feelings of guilt and doubt were really weighing me down, and the 00:20:03.860 |
And I just began to turn to worldly things for my stress and anxiety, and just for comfort, 00:20:10.460 |
only to realize how temporary those things were. 00:20:12.740 |
And it was during this time that I just had a moment of repentance for the first time 00:20:19.660 |
I was at the lowest of my lows, and I admitted my weakness to God, just how dependent I was 00:20:31.580 |
I confessed my sins and asked for forgiveness. 00:20:37.140 |
However, the biggest difference between this time and throughout high school, I think, 00:20:43.100 |
was that I really relied on God to help me commit to my convictions, instead of just 00:20:48.580 |
being wavering and kind of shaky with my faith. 00:20:52.980 |
And so I really wanted to commit to my convictions, and I wanted to act with my faith out. 00:21:00.460 |
I disengaged in the worldly activities I was partaking in, and I started getting plugged 00:21:08.900 |
And the truth of the gospel has never meant more to me than it does now. 00:21:12.660 |
And as Philippians 1:6 states, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work 00:21:16.580 |
in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." 00:21:20.300 |
And despite my hardship through sin, by God's grace and God's grace alone, I'm here today. 00:21:26.740 |
And this all ultimately points back to the cross, that God being holy and intolerant 00:21:31.620 |
of sin, knowing of the sin I struggle with, the sin I may struggle with now and the sin 00:21:36.900 |
I might struggle with in the future, he still sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die for my 00:21:47.300 |
I'm not perfect, nor do I fully understand the character of God, but the truth of the 00:21:53.620 |
gospel is what allows me to persevere through trials and actually live up my faith. 00:21:58.580 |
And I just want to share Galatians 2.20, "I have been crucified with Christ. 00:22:03.140 |
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 00:22:06.100 |
In the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and 00:22:17.940 |
You understand when you go into the water that you are united with Christ in his death, 00:22:25.860 |
and then when you come out, you're united with his resurrected life. 00:22:29.060 |
I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:22:47.740 |
So I was born into a Christian home with a loving family. 00:22:51.460 |
I went to church every Sunday, and I thought, and like, although I could answer all the 00:22:55.740 |
questions during Sunday service or like Bible study, like, it took me 19 years to realize 00:23:03.560 |
In the seventh grade, I would use these little tests to determine if I was truly saved or 00:23:19.900 |
In fact, the only times I felt close to God was during retreats or during worship nights. 00:23:26.260 |
Truthfully, that was all because of like a spiritual high. 00:23:30.660 |
It was something that the music had done to me. 00:23:36.060 |
And when I resumed my everyday life, I lived for myself. 00:23:49.860 |
Despite this, I got baptized in the ninth grade because everyone else was doing it, 00:23:54.500 |
you know, and I wanted to take my faith seriously. 00:24:08.420 |
Every time something bad happened to me, I would ask God, "Why? 00:24:15.820 |
When I entered college, an older sister tried to go through a little gospel booklet with 00:24:20.220 |
me, but I told her straight up, I said, "I know everything. 00:24:27.340 |
Yet I still considered myself to be a Christian. 00:24:30.140 |
I believed that God was real, but I was living in sin without a second thought. 00:24:36.580 |
And the only time I would think about him was when I cursed him for doing something 00:24:46.380 |
Like, I have a friend who was Catholic at the time. 00:24:49.300 |
She invited me to check out CCM because her sister wanted to check it out because her 00:24:56.220 |
And I thought, "Oh, it's a Christian ministry. 00:25:04.820 |
But there was something different about these people. 00:25:08.780 |
They encouraged me to check out Burian, and I did. 00:25:12.140 |
The sermons, and everyone encouraged me to read the word and stuff like that. 00:25:19.180 |
But I decided to take my faith seriously again. 00:25:28.300 |
I worked so hard to stay holy, but nothing worked. 00:25:32.860 |
I was still giving into my sins, and I began to think that I would always live in my sin. 00:25:40.780 |
Every time God gave me a trial, I would hate him because I knew I wasn't able to do the 00:25:47.220 |
I thought he was trying to trick me into sin. 00:25:49.380 |
I thought he was throwing me into temptation just to get back at me for cursing him. 00:25:55.340 |
That was the case until the summer of my freshman year. 00:25:58.620 |
I read John 3, 17, which states, "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn 00:26:03.220 |
the world, but in order that the world might be saved." 00:26:15.260 |
He was the one who revealed himself, and he was the one who saved me. 00:26:20.860 |
He wasn't out there to trick me into sinning. 00:26:29.020 |
Rather than thinking, "I'm safe," I felt so ashamed. 00:26:37.100 |
I repented, and I understood that I was completely deserving of his wrath. 00:26:46.380 |
Now rather than trying to find security in my works, I find security in Christ. 00:26:51.740 |
It's my love for Christ that makes me yearn to learn more about him, that makes me pray. 00:27:01.480 |
And whenever a trial comes my way, I trust in God, and I trust in the plan he had all 00:27:11.300 |
So when I asked my mom about this baptism a couple years ago, she's like, "Why do you 00:27:24.500 |
So there was a time when I wondered if I was really saved during my baptism in ninth grade. 00:27:29.700 |
I used to struggle with that a lot, but then I came to realize, no, I was not saved. 00:27:39.900 |
My desire to get baptized again is because I know the importance of baptism in my saving 00:27:46.900 |
I'm not proclaiming this because my friends had done before me, but I'm proclaiming Christ 00:27:57.900 |
I already have been baptized by the spirit in his death and resurrection. 00:28:03.540 |
So you understand that when you go into the water, you're united with Christ in his death. 00:28:08.540 |
And when you come out, you're united with Christ in his resurrected life. 00:28:12.100 |
And I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:28:19.580 |
My name is Alex Chang, and I'm here to share my testimony. 00:28:30.260 |
As I kid, I grew up in a Christian household, and I also went to a private Christian school. 00:28:37.940 |
I always felt that I was Christian just because of all the people that I was surrounded by. 00:28:44.860 |
Just always being in that environment, I just assumed that I must be Christian because that's 00:28:57.660 |
I even loved going to Sunday school and learning about God and Jesus. 00:29:00.500 |
I felt that all these stories that I was learning was just so crazy that there's such a thing 00:29:14.620 |
But as a kid, I only really wanted to just have the knowledge about him, not really knowing 00:29:20.660 |
and trying to develop a relationship with him. 00:29:25.260 |
So as a kid, I idolized popularity and knowledge. 00:29:30.820 |
And so I'd always ask, like during Sunday school, who God was. 00:29:41.260 |
I just treated Sunday school like regular school, just wanted to know everything for 00:29:47.620 |
So as a kid, my concept of Christianity was just to be nice to others, especially because 00:29:52.320 |
as a kid, I was taught the golden rule, treat others as you would have yourself be treated. 00:29:57.480 |
And since I believe I was just being a nice guy, that was the only thing I needed to do 00:30:02.020 |
In seventh grade, did I truly grasp and understand the significance of Christ's death? 00:30:10.660 |
Every year prior to that, I just thought, since I knew everything about it, that I was 00:30:16.340 |
But luckily, on a Good Friday service, my youth pastor finally revealed the significance 00:30:25.460 |
of it, the gravity of what Christ had done for us. 00:30:30.360 |
Even at that point where Christ, he already performed all these miracles for all these 00:30:38.960 |
On that day, they still decided to turn on him. 00:30:42.160 |
And he was so willing to go to the cross and save them, those who cursed him, mocked him, 00:30:48.080 |
even spat on him, but he saved every single one of them. 00:30:52.160 |
Not just them, but even me, to save my sins past, present, and future. 00:31:01.000 |
At that time, a huge wave of emotions crashed over me because I was just so ignorant and 00:31:06.800 |
I was overlooked at what God has given me, his grace. 00:31:11.800 |
And I thought to myself, me, an undeserving sinner, has been given another chance to be 00:31:18.120 |
reunited with him, a God who created me and loves me. 00:31:23.160 |
I realized that I was just trying to be a good person and be better than everybody else. 00:31:28.200 |
But then finally realized that I would never be able to live up to God's standard, which 00:31:35.560 |
I repented from my sins and asked for forgiveness. 00:31:38.920 |
I asked God to forgive me for claiming to be a Christian without truly knowing him. 00:31:44.960 |
From then on, I had this passion to serve others and truly care for them and to be able 00:31:54.280 |
So luckily I had opportunities such as Mount Hermon, this Christian camp, where I was able 00:31:58.080 |
to truly apply what I learned and also go on to mission trips where I can truly share 00:32:03.520 |
God's love to others by witnessing to them, as well as have the opportunity to build houses 00:32:11.480 |
You understand when you go into the water, you're reunited with Christ and his death. 00:32:19.560 |
And then when you come out, you're united with Christ and his new resurrected life. 00:32:23.160 |
And I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:32:38.480 |
There's a lot of you guys, so I'm pretty nervous. 00:32:43.160 |
So I was born and raised in the Bay Area, where I grew up in a house with two God-fearing 00:32:47.960 |
parents who brought me to church every Sunday. 00:32:51.360 |
Despite this, I would say I did not truly know or love God for most of my life. 00:32:57.960 |
I went to church, but if you asked me at the time what the gospel was, I probably wouldn't 00:33:07.400 |
To me, church at the time was just a place to go every Sunday to see my church friends, 00:33:12.240 |
with the possibility to hang out with them afterwards. 00:33:15.480 |
Who God was and what Jesus did on the cross on my behalf had no impact on my life, and 00:33:25.120 |
During high school, my worldliness manifested in the way that I disobeyed my parents constantly, 00:33:31.840 |
and in the things and relationships that I pursued. 00:33:35.760 |
I know it was bad because sometimes I talk to my parents now, and they tell me, "Yeah, 00:33:41.920 |
I was bad," and they didn't know what to do with me at the time. 00:33:46.480 |
It's humbling to look back now and think that they were constantly praying for me, despite 00:33:55.960 |
My heart was hardened to both my parents and, more importantly, to God. 00:34:01.580 |
So during my junior year of high school, a friend invited me to a praise and prayer 00:34:08.400 |
I went mostly because I didn't know how to say no to that friend. 00:34:13.320 |
I don't actually remember much about that night, other than the praise and prayer being 00:34:17.640 |
really loud, and remembering that, feeling convicted that if I continued living the way 00:34:28.680 |
I remember praying that night and confessing that I was helpless in my struggle towards 00:34:36.440 |
I don't think I was actually saved after that, but I see that as the time where God started 00:34:43.880 |
to soften my heart and when I started seeing the need for God in my life. 00:34:50.460 |
When I entered college, I began to check out campus ministries and eventually wound up 00:34:58.680 |
I think one of the things that stuck out and convicted me in the ministry was I remember 00:35:04.240 |
seeing a lot of guys there being genuinely excited to go pray and read the Bible and 00:35:10.040 |
witness and me kind of wondering why I didn't share the same fervor as them. 00:35:17.620 |
Also growing up, I always thought that if I acknowledged that God existed, that that 00:35:26.940 |
So when a friend invited me to join him in listening to a sermon by I think Paul Washer 00:35:33.120 |
on Matthew 7 and hearing him preach on how not only is the gate narrow, but the way leading 00:35:41.600 |
to the gate is narrow, I remember feeling completely devastated and walking away questioning 00:35:53.440 |
So I don't know if any specific event triggered me to go, "Oh, now I'm saved," and I don't 00:35:59.960 |
know the exact time or day when God saved me, but I would say during that time, the 00:36:06.080 |
first couple years in college is when God began to remove my heart of stone and replace 00:36:14.880 |
Somewhere during that time, I began to understand that despite how surely on my own I was heading 00:36:20.520 |
towards the gate that leads to destruction, God still chose to send his son down to pay 00:36:30.900 |
I remember growing up on Sundays, I would sometimes confess sins that I committed throughout 00:36:37.160 |
the week, but I think there's a difference in repentance when I finally understood the 00:36:45.640 |
weight of who God was and what he sacrificed in order that I might be saved. 00:36:52.520 |
Today I'm far from a perfect person and I often struggle between my natural tendency 00:36:58.360 |
to sin and my desire to be obedient and to submit to God in every part of my life. 00:37:05.880 |
Despite my imperfection, I am still able to identify in Christ and his death as I put 00:37:12.240 |
down my old self and continue to deny myself daily. 00:37:16.920 |
I'm able to also identify with him in his resurrection in which I can share Jesus' 00:37:23.920 |
James, do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ 00:37:28.400 |
in his death, and then when you come out, you're uniting with Christ's resurrected 00:37:32.480 |
And I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.