back to indexBaptisms | March 1, 2020
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>> Hello. My name is Kevin, Kevin Lee, and this is my testimony. 00:00:14.380 |
Before conversion, I was lost and gave into many fleshy desires. 00:00:19.620 |
Often I was jumping from one worldly satisfaction to another, 00:00:24.260 |
and there were really three main things that I idolized. 00:00:28.520 |
None of these things are bad in nature, but the desires of my heart 00:00:38.680 |
Growing up, seeing other couples would naturally influence me into wanting a girlfriend. 00:00:44.200 |
When I got into a relationship, that was the thing that I idolized. 00:00:52.520 |
I was addicted to success and allowed the pursuit of worldly knowledge to take over my life. 00:01:04.300 |
I was always a people pleaser and rarely said no to going out, clubbing, drinking. 00:01:12.440 |
I lived my life the way I wanted to because I thought my life was my own. 00:01:19.060 |
I was blinded by darkness because believing that my life was my own completely contradicted God's word. 00:01:25.700 |
First Corinthians chapter 6, 19 through 20 says, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple 00:01:32.780 |
of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? 00:01:35.540 |
You are not your own, for you are bought with a price, so glorify God in your body." 00:01:40.880 |
After not attending church throughout college, I started attending Berean after I graduated. 00:01:49.980 |
Almost unconsciously, I began saying after sermons, attending Bible study, 00:01:55.460 |
and enrolling in BCC, the basics in Christianity class. 00:02:04.060 |
At one Bible study, there was someone who I got to know, and he hit me with the tough question. 00:02:12.220 |
Initially, my answer was yes because I had grown up in a Christian home like many of us. 00:02:18.780 |
But as we kept talking, I quickly realized, no, I was not a Christian. 00:02:22.420 |
I did not remember the last time I opened up the Bible. 00:02:25.760 |
I lived from my fleshy desires, and I had no idea who God actually was. 00:02:32.500 |
Over the next couple of weeks of reading scripture and just being blown away 00:02:38.500 |
by the things that God was revealing to me, I was convicted to the point 00:02:43.740 |
of ending the relationship with my girlfriend at the time. 00:02:49.000 |
And scripture says, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, 00:02:54.120 |
for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness, 00:03:03.300 |
My friends were -- my unbelieving friends were confused. 00:03:07.180 |
They were even more confused when I said this was to glorify God. 00:03:14.080 |
But it made so much sense to me because it was the first step in -- 00:03:19.880 |
I surrendered to my convictions, and I placed faith in Him. 00:03:23.800 |
Another night after Bible study, I was playing ping pong with Pastor Mark. 00:03:30.320 |
And I told him what had happened, and that although I was truly broken, 00:03:33.780 |
I was eager to know what I needed to do next. 00:03:36.340 |
Pastor Mark and I prayed that night, asking the Lord for forgiveness. 00:03:39.900 |
I needed to ask for forgiveness because I destroyed my relationship with God. 00:03:45.200 |
Just because I was going to church again didn't mean God and I were on good terms. 00:03:51.100 |
In submission, I asked, "Lord, please set me free from the kingdom of darkness." 00:03:57.240 |
And really, this was the start of my reconciliation with God and the night of my conversion. 00:04:03.380 |
Through no other power but His, He gave me the right to become His child. 00:04:14.580 |
And afterwards, Pastor Mark told me that those in heaven are cheering in joy, 00:04:20.500 |
After conversion, God has blessed me with an eternal perspective 00:04:27.700 |
that has killed the silly opinions I held before that I won't go into. 00:04:33.360 |
This eternal perspective has affected every aspect of my life, 00:04:41.540 |
By the Holy Spirit, I may now fight to kill the sins and idols that once enslaved me. 00:04:47.340 |
I feel the joy in fellowshipping with my brothers and sisters in Christ. 00:04:52.540 |
And most importantly, I'm excited to learn the truths of the Bible 00:04:56.100 |
and to hear what God has to say to me every day. 00:05:00.260 |
Looking back at all my defiance to God, it deserved eternity in hell. 00:05:07.980 |
Despite all of it, God has been present in my life 00:05:11.960 |
through all the uncles and aunts who stressed the importance of faith, 00:05:16.020 |
through my parents who never failed to remind me that God comes first, 00:05:22.020 |
and to my own brother, a younger brother, who prayed for my salvation. 00:05:27.320 |
I know now that Jesus, the perfectly obedient Son of God, 00:05:31.320 |
took on the Father's wrath for me, the wretched sinner, 00:05:57.320 |
Kevin, do you understand that when you go into the water, 00:06:03.320 |
and that when you come out, you're uniting with Him in His resurrection, 00:06:10.320 |
- I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:06:50.320 |
Actually, I'm kind of scared, so if I cry, sorry. 00:06:54.320 |
I was blessed to have been born into a Christian home 00:07:00.320 |
I remember going to church every day, or every Sunday, 00:07:05.320 |
but I thought it was just a place to hang out with friends and eat snacks all the time. 00:07:10.320 |
In Sunday school, I thought that these stories about the Bible and God were cool, 00:07:18.320 |
but I also thought it was something that I just had to learn, 00:07:23.320 |
As I got into high school, I started to serve more at church, 00:07:29.320 |
but I thought that that was something that I just had to do as a good Christian. 00:07:35.320 |
I thought that I could define my own idea of right and wrong, 00:07:42.320 |
that compared to other people, I wasn't a bad person, 00:07:48.320 |
that I didn't do the things that outwardly seemed bad, 00:07:55.320 |
I thought that the mark of a good Christian, yeah, was not doing bad things, 00:08:00.320 |
but trying to do good or going to all the events and all of that. 00:08:05.320 |
So I had a very small view of what it meant to be good, 00:08:09.320 |
and I didn't see that I wasn't good on my own. 00:08:13.320 |
So as a result of me thinking that I could be good on my own, 00:08:22.320 |
that in my service, I was taking all the glory for myself, 00:08:27.320 |
and thinking that all the good things I was doing was for myself, 00:08:34.320 |
and that deep down, it was all just in an effort to have people think well of me. 00:08:46.320 |
and that was the main motivation for a lot of the things that I did in high school. 00:08:51.320 |
And yeah, I didn't want to see or acknowledge the fact that I was a sinner, 00:08:57.320 |
and at the same time of not wanting to acknowledge the fact that I was a sinner, 00:09:03.320 |
I saw how I continued to struggle with different things, 00:09:15.320 |
I saw that on my own, I couldn't refrain from doing these things. 00:09:28.320 |
And so the summer after my senior year of college, I think my brother came home, 00:09:33.320 |
and on the outside he looked the same, same guy, 00:09:38.320 |
but I saw how he had changed in the little ways of being disciplined, 00:09:43.320 |
in his prayer and devos, and that was something that I hadn't seen before, 00:09:49.320 |
and it was something that I wanted for myself as well, 00:09:53.320 |
but I also wanted to continue to hold on to that idea that I could be good on my own. 00:10:03.320 |
and started to see the gospel even more fully, 00:10:20.320 |
I truly saw that I was a sinner, that I wasn't good on my own, 00:10:29.320 |
that I was an enemy of God in the ways that I live for myself and for my own glory. 00:10:35.320 |
And it was during this time, just learning all of these things, 00:10:47.320 |
he humbled me in my pride, allowing me to see all these things, 00:10:51.320 |
that it wasn't by my own ideas of being good that I was saved, 00:11:05.320 |
and began to acknowledge Christ as Lord over my life. 00:11:09.320 |
It was during this year that I saw the beauty of the gospel, 00:11:13.320 |
that sinners like me can be forgiven, redeemed, and adopted through Christ in his life, death, and resurrection. 00:11:21.320 |
And after this, I saw a change in the way that I was able to view my family, 00:11:27.320 |
that I was able to fight these sins of anger and impatience, 00:11:39.320 |
but now with the Holy Spirit, I was able to respond in love and patience to them. 00:11:49.320 |
to how he has continued to be faithful in my life, 00:11:53.320 |
and just allowing me to see him and my need for a savior. 00:12:01.320 |
"I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 00:12:06.320 |
And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, 00:12:33.320 |
Melissa, do you understand that when you go into the water, 00:12:37.320 |
and when you come out of the water, you're uniting with him in his resurrection? 00:12:42.320 |
I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:13:19.320 |
For those of you that don't know me, my name's Abby. 00:13:28.320 |
I grew up in a pretty conservative Chinese church. 00:13:32.320 |
We have one grand piano and a lot of hymnaries. 00:13:42.320 |
I previously believed that I was saved around the third grade, 00:13:49.320 |
and though sometimes I felt unsure, all that was on my mind was "once saved, always saved." 00:13:55.320 |
This prayer of salvation was based on Romans 9-10, 00:13:59.320 |
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, 00:14:01.320 |
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 00:14:04.320 |
With the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, 00:14:07.320 |
and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 00:14:11.320 |
This part in verse 10, "Jesus as Lord," meaning Jesus as your master, 00:14:18.320 |
I don't think I truly understood the meaning of what I was praying, or the weight. 00:14:24.320 |
It was during the beginning of my study of James here, in like October, 00:14:29.320 |
that first prompted me to question when I was saved. 00:14:32.320 |
Specifically, James 1-26, "If anyone thinks himself to be religious, 00:14:37.320 |
and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, 00:14:42.320 |
I read this, and I was kind of like, "Oh shoot, that kind of sounds like me." 00:14:47.320 |
It was really making me reflect on the way I was living my life, 00:14:57.320 |
I was thinking back to high school, or even prior to high school, 00:15:00.320 |
I know that I never bridled my tongue when I was angry, 00:15:09.320 |
I would grumble a lot, I would slander others. 00:15:13.320 |
Just thinking about who I was in high school, and how clear-cut this verse is, 00:15:17.320 |
really made me do a lot of thinking, and made me realize 00:15:19.320 |
that I did not truly confess Jesus as my Lord, or as my master. 00:15:25.320 |
I realized that I lived life as a nominal Christian, 00:15:30.320 |
under the title of Christian, while my actions said otherwise. 00:15:34.320 |
I lived for myself. I did things for my own glory and pride, 00:15:41.320 |
I never really saw fault in myself because of those things. 00:15:48.320 |
I rarely ever apologized for anything, and I wasn't reading his word, 00:15:56.320 |
In Judges 17.6, it says, "In those days, there was no king in Israel, 00:16:00.320 |
and every man did what was right in his own eyes." 00:16:03.320 |
That is how I was living, not recognizing Jesus as my true king. 00:16:08.320 |
After 18 years of being a professed believer, I knew that I did not know God. 00:16:16.320 |
Through all this living in sin, God was never on my mind, 00:16:22.320 |
I was really content with my life, which I felt was separate from God. 00:16:26.320 |
This life that I thought was a result of my own works and efforts, 00:16:36.320 |
I don't believe I ever truly confessed or repented any sin that I committed. 00:16:41.320 |
I remember going to all these conferences and retreats, 00:16:47.320 |
praying and confessing these sins of ignoring God or not reading. 00:16:52.320 |
However, when I returned back to, for lack of better words, the real world, 00:16:59.320 |
my life didn't look any different than it did before I went to the conference, 00:17:10.320 |
Living my life with this false notion that I did not need God 00:17:14.320 |
contributed to a big sin that I struggle with, which is pride. 00:17:19.320 |
My first two weeks of college were pretty difficult for me, 00:17:25.320 |
I wasn't understanding any of my basic courses for my major, 00:17:29.320 |
and my non-believing roommates, which I chose, 00:17:32.320 |
were fulfilling their earthly desires that may not have been so legal 00:17:52.320 |
I had never felt such feelings of loneliness and inadequacy that deeply before, 00:17:59.320 |
but I am really thankful to the Lord for that experience 00:18:01.320 |
because it was then that I truly turned to the Lord 00:18:06.320 |
and realized that my identity in Christ is more than sufficient. 00:18:13.320 |
I think it was the second to last message before Pastor Peter left for India. 00:18:28.320 |
"Sometimes the wide way is to keep going to church 00:18:31.320 |
if that's what you've been doing your whole life." 00:18:34.320 |
And just remembering that makes me so thankful that God revealed himself to me 00:18:40.320 |
and that I didn't continue this path of thinking that I was on the narrow way, 00:18:46.320 |
During that experience, in my first couple weeks here, 00:18:48.320 |
my eyes were truly opened to how nothing is of my own works 00:18:51.320 |
and that everything is by God's grace and mercy. 00:18:54.320 |
He humbled me, and I believe that I experienced true reconciliation with Christ 00:19:00.320 |
I believe that that is the moment that I truly acknowledge Jesus as the master of my life. 00:19:06.320 |
I remember in table groups on a Friday night, 00:19:08.320 |
we talked about how we need to make sure our reliance on Jesus is not based on emotion. 00:19:15.320 |
This again got me thinking because the experience was very fresh. 00:19:19.320 |
I wanted to make sure that I was acknowledging Jesus as my master, 00:19:23.320 |
not just because my circumstances were really difficult, 00:19:26.320 |
but I did come to see how easy it was to rely on God 00:19:29.320 |
when my earthly circumstances were harder or didn't go my way. 00:19:33.320 |
But I was reminded that God isn't like a safety net that is only useful if I fall. 00:19:40.320 |
He doesn't need us, and there is nothing that we can offer him 00:19:43.320 |
or that he would need that he cannot achieve himself within the blink of an eye. 00:19:47.320 |
Yet he loves us and cares for us so much that he sent his only son to be mocked and spat upon, 00:19:53.320 |
put to death in the most humiliating and gruesome way. 00:19:56.320 |
It is because of God's unfathomable love that I am able to stand here 00:20:00.320 |
and proclaim that I have died to my former self and now live this new life in Christ. 00:20:23.320 |
Abbey, do you understand that when you go into the water, 00:20:26.320 |
you're uniting with Christ in his death, and when you're coming out, 00:20:29.320 |
you're uniting with him in his resurrection so that you too can live a new life? 00:20:33.320 |
Okay, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:21:05.320 |
Hi, my name is Joe, and my Chinese name is Fang Qizhou. 00:21:10.320 |
I grew up in China, and I came to the United States in 2016. 00:21:22.320 |
My mom converted to Christianity at that time, but I haven't heard anything about the gospel before I came here. 00:21:32.320 |
I agree with her about the existence of God and supernatural beings, 00:21:40.320 |
but I don't think I have anything to do with the one who created me. 00:21:45.320 |
He just has authority over me and everything else that he created. 00:21:53.320 |
Growing up as the only child, the world was all about myself. 00:21:59.320 |
As a self-conscious person, I didn't care about others at all, 00:22:05.320 |
but I pretended to be considerate and nice to others so that they would speak highly of me. 00:22:13.320 |
I felt jealous of those who were more popular than I am. 00:22:18.320 |
I hated them and slandered them when I was behind them. 00:22:24.320 |
When I was in junior high school in China, I often showed off how smart I was 00:22:32.320 |
by talking endlessly during class discussions. 00:22:37.320 |
One day I was enjoying others' worshiping, amazement, and appreciation of how much I knew. 00:22:47.320 |
However, other students who equally wanted to look smart and become popular 00:23:02.320 |
"You don't have the right to speak because you are not a good student," 00:23:23.320 |
I realized I hurt others while pursuing my own reputation the same way they did to me. 00:23:32.320 |
Then I began to reserve my opinions and distrust people, 00:23:43.320 |
When I came to the U.S. as an international student, I felt increasingly left out. 00:23:50.320 |
It turned out that although I missed my friends, 00:23:56.320 |
they don't really consider me as part of their life that they couldn't afford to lose. 00:24:10.320 |
but even myself hated just me most of the time. 00:24:22.320 |
I'm being selfish while acting to make people think I'm altruistic, 00:24:28.320 |
being arrogant while trying to make people think I'm humble. 00:24:33.320 |
I began to refuse talking with people, even if I had to. 00:24:43.320 |
I felt hopeless. I lost my passions and my goals. 00:24:48.320 |
The only thing I was sure about my life was death, which would happen sooner or later. 00:24:55.320 |
I had to escape reality by playing video games excessively. 00:25:05.320 |
Last April, my bike was stolen, and I was sitting on a bench trying to recall where I lost it. 00:25:13.320 |
A staff from Bridges, his name is Justin, he's here. 00:25:20.320 |
He came to ask if I was okay, and he invited me to his home for their Friday dinner, 00:25:34.320 |
People are nice at Bridges, which is the name for their ministry, 00:25:41.320 |
and I get to truly act as if I'm at home, even though I'm not at home. 00:25:51.320 |
At the dinner, a student shared her testimony. 00:25:55.320 |
She said we are all sentenced to death, which I totally agree with. 00:26:01.320 |
However, she told us that Christ died in our place and took the punishment for us 00:26:08.320 |
so that we don't need to die anymore, and our relationship with God is restored through Christ. 00:26:17.320 |
I thought my relationship with the supernatural being was not restorable, 00:26:22.320 |
for I thought I was unworthy, but when I heard there is life, 00:26:27.320 |
my hope was reignited, and I no longer felt I was living in a nightmare of fear, 00:26:39.320 |
I also wondered why other Christians seemed to care about me. 00:26:44.320 |
I thought it was impossible for them to care about me unless they are loved by their God, 00:26:52.320 |
and I can see their prayers for me are sincere. 00:27:00.320 |
As I learned more about God, I began to know that I was not the abandoned kid I thought I was. 00:27:08.320 |
Even though the world would love its own, John 15, 19, 00:27:14.320 |
God loves me, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, 00:27:19.320 |
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life, John 3, 16. 00:27:26.320 |
Although I didn't deserve anything, it's only his grace which is far greater than all my brokenness, 00:27:37.320 |
and then I decided to follow him and see how deep he loves us. 00:27:43.320 |
As I understand more about how holy and faithful God is, 00:27:50.320 |
in contrast to how unbelieving and ungrateful I am, I began to appreciate God's love more. 00:27:57.320 |
I became more willing to admit my weaknesses and trust God more. 00:28:04.320 |
I am able to love others without thinking too much how they will repay me, 00:28:10.320 |
and able to love those who are hard to love because that is how I am loved by God. 00:28:22.320 |
I'm not willing to talk with people and build relationships with them 00:28:32.320 |
Although sometimes I feel the hate and distrust inside myself still, 00:28:39.320 |
but I can pray to God and appeal to him, for I trust that he is the one who is in power. 00:29:11.320 |
Chi-Jo, do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in his death, 00:29:15.320 |
and when you come out of the water, you're uniting with him in his resurrection, 00:29:22.320 |
I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:29:59.320 |
Hi, my name is Kaitlyn, if you guys don't know me, and this is my testimony. 00:30:06.320 |
Being born into a Christian family, I've always had the privilege of going to church every week, 00:30:12.320 |
but honestly, I never really saw it as a privilege. 00:30:16.320 |
I always identified as a Christian, but I didn't really know what that meant 00:30:20.320 |
other than going to church on a daily basis and believing that God was real. 00:30:25.320 |
Throughout elementary school, I had seen church as more of a chore, 00:30:32.320 |
I struggled in a big church because I couldn't recognize people, 00:30:36.320 |
and I was always disinterested in the actual lessons that were being taught. 00:30:40.320 |
After we moved and came to Berean, it was a shock to me how small the youth department was. 00:30:46.320 |
At the time, the lessons seemed so much more personal, as there was only a few kids, 00:30:51.320 |
and I enjoyed going to church and took in whatever was being taught. 00:30:55.320 |
However, this feeling was short-lived as middle school came around, 00:30:58.320 |
and I began seeing church as a chore once more. 00:31:01.320 |
Although I didn't mind going as much, I also didn't care about missing 00:31:04.320 |
and sometimes even tried to skip Friday nights or Sundays. 00:31:07.320 |
Going into senior year, I became pretty distant from my school friends, 00:31:11.320 |
and I tried to rely only on myself when I ran into any problems. 00:31:19.320 |
Although I had asked some church friends to pray for me whenever I ran into difficulty, 00:31:24.320 |
I never really prayed to God or asked him to help me in any of my problems. 00:31:30.320 |
I tried not to act like it and refused to believe it, 00:31:34.320 |
but I had become very self-reliant and prideful. 00:31:37.320 |
I wanted to help out as much as possible--oh, sorry. 00:31:44.320 |
Later on, my parents had decided to open a ramen shop, 00:31:47.320 |
and I was really excited for them and also for myself. 00:31:51.320 |
I wanted to help out as much as possible, and seeing the amount of work they had put in, 00:31:59.320 |
But I ran into a lot of problems and eventually found myself 00:32:02.320 |
complaining about the other workers and--sorry-- 00:32:17.320 |
My pride had gotten the better of me as I tried to make things my own 00:32:31.320 |
One night after work--for those of you that don't know, 00:32:35.320 |
I really like talking to my parents about everything that happens during the day. 00:32:41.320 |
But that night I had just been complaining pretty much about one of the workers 00:32:48.320 |
and kind of slandering her and just talking bad about her. 00:32:54.320 |
My mom had pointed out that I had absolutely no reason to dislike her. 00:33:01.320 |
It was just certain things like how she was working 00:33:09.320 |
She questioned me why I was so focused on making only her look bad, 00:33:15.320 |
and that made me feel really uncomfortable, being told so directly about my flaws. 00:33:27.320 |
I realized why I had been so quick to bash on her 00:33:40.320 |
I still had been thinking about these thoughts all day long. 00:33:46.320 |
On the car ride home, I finally thought just how sinful my heart really was 00:34:01.320 |
It was such a simple statement that my heart was full of sin, 00:34:14.320 |
But at that moment, I praised God for just being so gracious to me. 00:34:19.320 |
I see I used that moment to really break me down. 00:34:24.320 |
I finally turned to him for help and really came before him, 00:34:30.320 |
just asking for help and just being so thankful for him. 00:34:37.320 |
Halfway through the car ride, I began to cry, which is really scary while driving. 00:34:47.320 |
I was really thankful there was traffic, so then there was a lot of stopping. 00:34:52.320 |
But because of that traffic, I had so much more time just to think and reflect on myself. 00:34:59.320 |
At the same time, just really ask God for forgiveness. 00:35:03.320 |
I used that time to just pray for him for help because I had realized how useless I was. 00:35:15.320 |
Just kind of reflecting on all the past lessons I've heard of, all the sermons that I've been taught, 00:35:29.320 |
I was so thankful for him sending his son because only through Christ I had already been forgiven. 00:35:39.320 |
Although this was a truth I've heard pretty much all my life, 00:35:42.320 |
I never really rejected the idea, but I never really accepted it either. 00:35:47.320 |
But in that moment, it just felt so real and very close to heart. 00:35:56.320 |
All my life I've been hearing the gospel, and yet I always refused Christ as my Lord and Savior, 00:36:05.320 |
and yet he still had the mercy to reach down to me and save me. 00:36:16.320 |
"And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 00:36:21.320 |
yet he has now reconciled in you his freshly body through death in order to present you before him 00:36:30.320 |
It was so crazy to me that despite how much sin I had, Christ had made it possible to reconcile with God. 00:36:35.320 |
And understanding and accepting that Christ is the only one who can save me, 00:36:39.320 |
I think I also had great relief in that moment that nothing I could do would have been able to redeem myself. 00:36:46.320 |
Even though I tried so hard to be a good person and a good Christian, 00:36:50.320 |
seeing how far from God I am and how much sin filled my heart, 00:36:53.320 |
I'm so thankful that it's not up to my works or anything that I do. 00:37:00.320 |
"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift 00:37:05.320 |
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." 00:37:08.320 |
After all that, although I still had a difficult time dealing with sin, 00:37:12.320 |
God truly changed my heart, attitude, and mindset. 00:37:15.320 |
I think our Friday night table group had hit it right on the nail when we discussed that 00:37:20.320 |
although we still sin, for us as Christians, it is a struggle. 00:37:26.320 |
And I wasn't, after that, I wasn't just cruising along with sin and just allowing it to just take over my life. 00:37:33.320 |
Now I'm like, I'm struggling with it and trying to fight back. 00:37:38.320 |
And I'm very thankful that God has been with me and has just really blessed me throughout my life. 00:37:44.320 |
Even now, I'm very scared of public speaking, and yet I have confidence to share the gospel. 00:37:54.320 |
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, 00:37:59.320 |
to the Jew first and also to the Greek." And that's in Romans 1:16. 00:38:26.320 |
Do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in His death, 00:38:30.320 |
and when you're coming out, you're uniting with Him in His resurrection, 00:38:36.320 |
I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:39:13.320 |
For those of you who don't know me, I've been a member here at Berean for about four or five years. 00:39:19.320 |
And if you're wondering how I've not been baptized, well, I have the privilege of sharing that with you today. 00:39:25.320 |
Hopefully it will be a source of encouragement and God will be glorified through it. 00:39:29.320 |
So I grew up in a Presbyterian church. I was baptized as an infant and raised in the church. 00:39:34.320 |
I think for me, and I'm sure a lot of people who grow up in the church have a hard time 00:39:39.320 |
discerning what it means to be a genuine believer. 00:39:42.320 |
Every week it was a consistent pattern of just going to church with family, 00:39:46.320 |
and my understanding of being a Christian was just doing that, just going to church. 00:39:54.320 |
Not that I believed I was perfect or anything, but there was just no genuine fight or struggle against it. 00:40:01.320 |
On top of that, I was just very self-righteous. 00:40:04.320 |
I took a lot of pride in having the title of being a Christian, 00:40:08.320 |
and I even looked down on those who didn't know Christ, although I myself didn't know Him personally either. 00:40:13.320 |
For example, I have this one distinct memory from fourth grade. 00:40:17.320 |
I had this classmate who was Jewish, and I just looked over and told her, 00:40:22.320 |
"You're going to hell because you don't believe in Jesus." 00:40:25.320 |
And then she started crying, and then I got sent to the principal's office. 00:40:29.320 |
And then I told my principal, you know, I was just sharing the gospel with her, and then I got released. 00:40:38.320 |
I think just that silly example just sheds light to my self-righteousness 00:40:42.320 |
and how skewed my understanding of my own spiritual condition was. 00:40:47.320 |
My assurance of salvation at the time just came from, you know, 00:40:51.320 |
just coming from a family who were Christians and by external works, 00:40:55.320 |
like going to church, trying to read the Bible, and praying. 00:40:58.320 |
But I think God really just used a difficult childhood for me to humble me 00:41:02.320 |
and to show me that being a Christian isn't by heritage or any type of external works, 00:41:06.320 |
but really by having faith and knowing Him personally and finding life and joy in Him. 00:41:11.320 |
I lost my father traumatically at a very early age, and my family suffered a lot of financial hardships. 00:41:17.320 |
And I think just generally for me, I lost hope. 00:41:20.320 |
I was very unhappy with my circumstances and had a hard time just accepting that all of it was fair. 00:41:27.320 |
Shortly before I entered high school was one of the most difficult times for us, 00:41:30.320 |
and having come to such a low point of my life for the first time, 00:41:34.320 |
I actually got on my knees and prayed and asked the Lord to help me have faith. 00:41:41.320 |
I understood His ultimate power and authority over my life 00:41:44.320 |
and realized that it wasn't by my works or heritage that makes me a believer, 00:41:52.320 |
Gradually from there, I had a desire to know the Lord deeper, 00:41:55.320 |
and I slowly started to recognize that I was a broken and sinful person who needed a Savior, 00:42:00.320 |
not just to pull me out of difficult circumstances, but rather to be my source of life and joy, 00:42:06.320 |
so that no matter what happens, I have something greater to hope in, 00:42:11.320 |
Philippians 3, 8, "I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, 00:42:17.320 |
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ." 00:42:22.320 |
There really is no life, hope, or joy outside of Christ, 00:42:25.320 |
and I am so blessed and grateful that God chose to reveal those truths to me. 00:42:30.320 |
So, fast forward 10 years, which brings us to why I'm getting baptized now. 00:42:35.320 |
I had mentioned earlier that I grew up in a Presbyterian church, and I was infant baptized. 00:42:40.320 |
I got confirmed later as a genuine believer, and at the time, I believed that that was my baptism. 00:42:48.320 |
Once I came to a Baptist church, I realized baptism was done differently, 00:42:52.320 |
but I hadn't given much thought further than that, because I knew I was saved at the time of my confirmation. 00:42:59.320 |
However, it wasn't until a couple months ago when I was asked by my brother-in-law, 00:43:03.320 |
who is a pastor who practices infant baptism, why I decided not to get baptized by immersion, 00:43:09.320 |
if that's what my church practices and believes. 00:43:12.320 |
I couldn't really give an articulate answer, because I had no confidence in what I believed. 00:43:19.320 |
And aside from knowing I was a genuine believer at the time of my confirmation, 00:43:24.320 |
I never really questioned if my infant baptism counted as a true baptism or not, 00:43:29.320 |
and I didn't have any personal conviction to be immersed. 00:43:33.320 |
I think from that point on, I realized I needed to do my research 00:43:36.320 |
and look to Scripture to come to my own terms of what I believed. 00:43:39.320 |
Although I wish I had done this much earlier, I was thankful to be challenged in this way, 00:43:44.320 |
to use this opportunity to practice searching the Scripture to see what was true, 00:43:48.320 |
rather than kind of passively accepting and blindly believing what the church does. 00:43:54.320 |
And as overwhelming as it was looking into the theology behind both views, 00:43:58.320 |
I knew this was important for me to study, because it would ultimately dictate how I view and interpret the Word. 00:44:05.320 |
So to put what I ultimately concluded from all of this into concise terms, 00:44:09.320 |
my conviction comes from Romans 6, 3-4, which says, 00:44:12.320 |
"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? 00:44:18.320 |
Therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into death, 00:44:22.320 |
so that as Christ was raised from the death through the glory of the Father, 00:44:28.320 |
So if baptism is given as a sign to represent being united with Christ in his death, 00:44:35.320 |
it should have not been given to me as an infant when I was not united with Christ. 00:44:41.320 |
Therefore, I cannot confidently say my infant baptism was a true baptism. 00:44:45.320 |
So out of obedience and out of personal conviction, 00:44:48.320 |
I'm excited to stand here to get baptized for the first time through immersion 00:44:53.320 |
and proclaim to you all that I am living a committed life to Christ. 00:45:18.320 |
Do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in his death, 00:45:22.320 |
and as you come out, you're uniting with him in his resurrection? 00:45:25.320 |
And I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:45:56.320 |
Hi, my name's Joanna, and I'm going to share my testimony. 00:46:02.320 |
I was born in a Christian family and grew up going to church for most of my life. 00:46:06.320 |
The image of God I had in the beginning was of someone who was a spiritual figure 00:46:13.320 |
He was someone who would be there for me only when I needed him most. 00:46:17.320 |
I thought of my relationship with God as being more of, 00:46:20.320 |
if I did my part of the job, then he would do his. 00:46:24.320 |
I did not have much communication with him, but it was much more of a work relationship. 00:46:29.320 |
I knew who God was and learned about him every Sunday at church. 00:46:34.320 |
I spent my college years living as a Christian by going to church, 00:46:41.320 |
But most of the time, my spiritual motivation came in waves. 00:46:45.320 |
Sometimes I was very active, and sometimes I was not. 00:46:49.320 |
Being young and wanting to have a lot of ambitions and goals for the future 00:46:53.320 |
made me realize that my purpose was not to live for myself. 00:46:57.320 |
The world I lived in, which I always thought was amazing 00:47:01.320 |
because it offered me many opportunities to achieve my goals and desires, 00:47:05.320 |
appeared broken when I found out it was covered with sins. 00:47:09.320 |
I thought since I lived as a Christian for many years 00:47:12.320 |
and was a better person than most in the world, I was saved from all the brokenness. 00:47:18.320 |
But I realized I still lived in the broken world 00:47:21.320 |
and was a sinner like everyone else who looked for worldly things to find satisfaction. 00:47:26.320 |
Jesus was the only one who could save me from my brokenness, 00:47:30.320 |
only I still was separated from God because I did not know how I could be with Christ. 00:47:36.320 |
I continued to live my life thinking I was a believer and knew what the gospel meant, 00:47:40.320 |
not realizing there was so much I didn't know. 00:47:44.320 |
In around fall of 2019, I started to realize the meaning of the gospel and what it meant to me. 00:47:50.320 |
Admitting that I was a sinner and didn't deserve the love of Christ, 00:47:54.320 |
the fact that Jesus died on the cross and conquered death, 00:47:57.320 |
made me realize that there was no one greater than him. 00:48:01.320 |
I was very unworthy of everything he gave me because I mostly took advantage of things. 00:48:06.320 |
The only way for me to be with Christ was to reconcile my relationship with God 00:48:12.320 |
that was broken from all the sins I had committed. 00:48:15.320 |
I said a prayer to confess my sins and ask God to accept me. 00:48:19.320 |
After becoming a believer, I felt a heavy weight that was lifted. 00:48:23.320 |
I felt secure in Christ and knew that my relationship had been restored. 00:48:28.320 |
I now know what my purpose is as a believer and try to live my life 00:48:32.320 |
communicating and strengthening my relationship with him every day. 00:48:49.320 |
Go ahead and give me your left hand and then take a seat. 00:48:52.320 |
Joanna, do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in his death, 00:48:56.320 |
and as you come out, you're uniting with him in his resurrection? 00:49:00.320 |
I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:49:31.320 |
So I'm just going to read, but bear with me because I didn't read as a kid. 00:49:39.320 |
So my name is David, and I've been coming to Berean since November of 2018. 00:49:45.320 |
Priscilla and I had visited Berean several times as visitors from Tucson, 00:49:53.320 |
So when we finally moved to California, we didn't have a reason to look elsewhere. 00:49:58.320 |
We anticipated the transition to be difficult, since we both were used to our small church in Tucson 00:50:07.320 |
I thank God for connecting us to Berean, and we're truly grateful for all the Bereans who welcomed us with open arms. 00:50:15.320 |
To tell you about how I came to Christ, I grew up in a Christian home. 00:50:19.320 |
We'd have Bible study every night, singing worship songs, and recite the Lord's Prayer, and say grace every meal. 00:50:27.320 |
I practically grew up at church, spending most of my Saturdays and Sundays with the church choir 00:50:35.320 |
And I think because of this, it was always challenging for me to share my testimony, 00:50:40.320 |
since I'd never really had a road to Damascus moment. 00:50:43.320 |
It wasn't until I left my first stable job, I can truly say, I sensed Christ leading and guiding over my heart and my life. 00:50:52.320 |
My parents struggled financially when I was attending college, so I also had a lot of student loans. 00:50:59.320 |
There was a constant fear around money, and that I would not be able to support my future family, let alone myself. 00:51:08.320 |
So when I think about the time I left my first full-time job in North Carolina, 00:51:13.320 |
packed all my things from my parents' place, drove 30-plus hours to marry Priscilla, who was studying in Arizona, 00:51:20.320 |
I can now say that Christ led me to Priscilla and our marriage, but back then I was just being young and fearless. 00:51:26.320 |
I was finally on my own, away from my earthly parents and away from free housing and being financially more responsible. 00:51:37.320 |
But Christ really took the wheel as he introduced me to a community of believers, got me plugged in to church. 00:51:45.320 |
Things I really wasn't praying for at the time, but he knew exactly what I needed to grow as a man leading a family. 00:51:52.320 |
It was then I truly knew after 20-plus some years growing up in the church that he truly is the Lord and the ruler of my heart. 00:52:02.320 |
I can't remember when I had ever been baptized by immersion. 00:52:07.320 |
I attended several churches growing up because I just followed my parents and didn't really think much of it when we moved from church to church. 00:52:16.320 |
I want to say that I mostly attended Presbyterian churches and I can only guess that I had been sprinkled as a baby. 00:52:22.320 |
And I do vaguely remember being confirmed in middle school. 00:52:26.320 |
Spent the last seven years at a Southern Baptist church where they required members to be baptized by immersion before they can serve. 00:52:34.320 |
But somehow I ended up serving as a music director for the three, four years without being asked to get baptized. 00:52:40.320 |
And not that it was something I refused to do, but I also didn't feel strongly about the difference to speak up 00:52:47.320 |
because I didn't think I needed a second baptism to prove my faith to anyone. 00:52:52.320 |
After the recent members meeting, Berean's meeting, I felt the conviction to speak up, realizing how prideful I was, 00:53:00.320 |
selling short the symbolic meaning of baptism. 00:53:04.320 |
Colossians chapter 2 verse 12 reads, "Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith, 00:53:12.320 |
in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead, this burial and cleansing which signifies death to the old life of unbelief 00:53:22.320 |
and purifying from pollution of sin, not only I found baptism powerful but biblical." 00:53:29.320 |
Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 reads, "All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." 00:53:41.320 |
Not only was I prideful in thinking that I didn't have to follow baptism the way it was written in the Bible to somehow validate my salvation, 00:53:50.320 |
but I was also wrong to believe in my own interpretation of the scriptures without truly studying the Bible. 00:53:56.320 |
Priscilla is baptized, and I hope that as the head of the family, I can be a spiritual leader of the family and not become a stumbling block. 00:54:05.320 |
I look forward to celebrating and experiencing the rekindling of love to God for all he has done for me 00:54:12.320 |
in making me part of the new covenant in Christ through repentance and faith. Thank you. 00:54:39.320 |
David, do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in his death, 00:54:44.320 |
and when you come out, you're uniting with him in his resurrection so that you may continue just to walk in the newness of life? 00:54:50.320 |
I baptize you—not yet. I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:55:30.320 |
Hi, I'm Brenna. I'm a junior in college, and I've been attending Berean for, I think, two and a half years, 00:55:36.320 |
and I've been a member for a little over a year. 00:55:40.320 |
Like many people here, I was baptized once before in a way that didn't really count, 00:55:49.320 |
and so I felt convicted to be baptized again in a way that truly reflects what Christ has done for me. 00:55:56.320 |
I grew up going to church because my family went, and that was what we did, 00:56:00.320 |
but I think my heart was hardened against the gospel from a pretty early age. 00:56:04.320 |
I had no genuine love for the people in my life, especially my family. 00:56:09.320 |
As a kid, whenever I'd get in trouble, which was a lot, and my mom would reprimand me and point me to a Bible verse, 00:56:16.320 |
I would outwardly nod my head and listen, but on the inside roll my eyes and just kind of hate the way that she preached to me. 00:56:26.320 |
I was a smart kid and a good student, and that was kind of dangerous for me because I let that feed my enormous sense of pride. 00:56:34.320 |
For as long as I can remember, I was constantly comparing myself to others and judging myself to be superior to everyone. 00:56:41.320 |
As I got older, I was bitter, I was angry, I was selfish, and I knew those things, but I didn't really see a problem with that. 00:56:52.320 |
I stayed in church because youth group was fun, and it was my main way of socializing, 00:56:58.320 |
and I was baptized around the age of 14 because I think all my friends had been baptized, 00:57:04.320 |
and I figured I might as well do it, and a youth staffer had approached me and asked me if I had been baptized, 00:57:10.320 |
so I kind of just did it out of an obligation. 00:57:14.320 |
Even though I constantly wavered between thoughts of belief and unbelief, I was baptized anyway and just kept living my life. 00:57:20.320 |
Things started to change when I was like 15. My health basically just took a nosedive. 00:57:29.320 |
I would eventually be diagnosed and learn to manage my symptoms, but before that happened, I just got worse and worse, 00:57:36.320 |
with no answers and no diagnosis, and when my body was just failing like that, I think my mind just started to follow, 00:57:46.320 |
and I became severely depressed. People knew that I was going through something, but nobody really knew what it was 00:57:54.320 |
because I just built my identity around being arrogant and just isolating myself and relying only on myself and keeping secrets, 00:58:03.320 |
and I had spent so long either using people for my own gain or just pushing them away for the sake of my own privacy and pride 00:58:09.320 |
that I didn't know how to reach out to others to get help, and I was too broken to keep relying on myself. 00:58:16.320 |
I didn't understand it at the time, but this brokenness was God's grace. 00:58:20.320 |
He had to drive me to a point of utter despair so that I would see my need for him. 00:58:27.320 |
As I was consumed by illness and depression, I felt that nothing I had done or would ever do mattered. 00:58:33.320 |
I wasn't even sure if I would live past 20. Nothing brought me joy. I hardly ate. I stopped going out with friends. 00:58:43.320 |
I was just empty. I kept up a facade of faithful churchgoer and A student because I felt like I had to, 00:58:51.320 |
but I was just crumbling away inside. I thought there was no reason why I should continue to exist if my existence was so worthless. 00:58:59.320 |
It kind of all peaked about four years ago. I was 17. I had a depressive episode so acute. 00:59:08.320 |
It was one of the most terrifying things I've ever been through. I don't really have the words to describe how it felt. 00:59:15.320 |
I kind of just felt like I wasn't real anymore. I was numb, and I could see that my life was futile, 00:59:24.320 |
but I had this overwhelming sense of urgency, like I had to do something right then and there. 00:59:30.320 |
But at the same time, I felt trapped and stifled by something that I could not name. 00:59:35.320 |
It was a very bizarre experience. It was terrifying. I'm no medical professional, but I may have been having a nervous breakdown. 00:59:41.320 |
I don't know. Yeah. So in order to suppress that panic, I just laid down on my floor and turned on some random music 00:59:52.320 |
just to distract myself or, I don't know, just to try to get myself to feel normal again. 01:00:01.320 |
And in God's great mercy, he allowed me to hear the gospel through the words of a songwriter who had been just as lost as I was. 01:00:09.320 |
And when I heard the message of a God who died for the sake of love, it kind of just broke me, 01:00:16.320 |
even though I'd heard the gospel a thousand times before, for some reason this time it clicked. 01:00:22.320 |
I had come to a crossroads. I understood there was—it was like there was a hand extended to me, 01:00:29.320 |
and if I did not take that hand, I knew I would die, because I had led myself to this point. 01:00:36.320 |
My selfishness and my futile human efforts to be self-sufficient and—yeah, to be self-sufficient and just above everyone else, 01:00:48.320 |
it was so entirely sinful. Even though I was just breaking down in tears at this point, a wave of peace came over me. 01:00:58.320 |
And a lot of those things that had been consuming me suddenly didn't really matter anymore. 01:01:05.320 |
All that mattered was that I began to understand why God died, and it was truly good news of great joy, 01:01:12.320 |
that he defeated the grave for a desperate and broken sinner who had spent her whole life running away, 01:01:18.320 |
thinking that she could live a life apart from God. He took my sin and endured horrific sorrow so that I wouldn't have to. 01:01:25.320 |
I had been forgiven, and it was through no merit of my own. 01:01:29.320 |
God had pulled me out of rebellion against him, even though I had been kicking and screaming. 01:01:35.320 |
He washed me and justified me and gave me a new heart. 01:01:41.320 |
And so from that night on, sanctification and my long road to recovery had begun. 01:01:47.320 |
It took many years for my mind to recover, and my body may never recover. 01:01:54.320 |
But all of that mattered so much less in the light of my new gift of life and hope. 01:01:59.320 |
I started to find joy in reading the word that I had once despised. 01:02:02.320 |
And on my second day of being a Christian, I was able to make things right with a person that I had formerly hated. 01:02:07.320 |
And I was so confused when this was going on. I was like, "What am I doing?" 01:02:10.320 |
But I knew that this was God. I knew that the only way that this could happen is because he had changed me. 01:02:19.320 |
My priorities and my very identity started to shift, and I was learning how to love my family and repair my relationships with them. 01:02:26.320 |
And I was learning to love the church, how to value kindness and forgiveness instead of clinging to my bitterness and my anger. 01:02:33.320 |
God has continued to soften my heart and give me a love for him and for his people. 01:02:37.320 |
And he has been faithful to put me through even more trials since my conversion to refine me even further, and I am grateful for that. 01:02:46.320 |
I just want to leave you with one of the first passages I read after I became a Christian. 01:02:51.320 |
1 Corinthians 15.10 says, "By the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain." 01:02:59.320 |
It was true for Paul when he wrote it. It's true for me now, and I hope that it is true for you. 01:03:22.320 |
She said, "I can't see without them," so she'll keep them on. 01:03:27.320 |
All right. Bernard, do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in his death, 01:03:31.320 |
and as you come out, you're uniting with him in his resurrection so that you too may live a new life. 01:03:37.320 |
I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 01:04:08.320 |
Hello. My name is Jacob Hahn, and I'm wearing my wife's membership shirt, so it's a little tight, so I apologize. 01:04:18.320 |
So I grew up in a Presbyterian church. I was infant baptized. 01:04:22.320 |
I took a baptism class given by Pastor Peter Chung, so thank you, Pastor Peter. 01:04:28.320 |
But I'm up here because I'm being baptized because I truly do believe it's biblical, now more than ever, 01:04:35.320 |
and more importantly, it's because that's what my Savior Jesus did. 01:04:39.320 |
I've grown up in church pretty much all my life, but I wasn't saved until I entered high school. 01:04:46.320 |
That's when my sheltered suburban life was rocked. 01:04:49.320 |
Up until high school, I thought my parents were happily married, but that was far from the truth. 01:04:54.320 |
To this day, I'm unsure what exactly triggered my parents' divorce, 01:04:58.320 |
but regardless, it was actually the beginning of my journey to salvation. 01:05:01.320 |
When my parents' marriage began to fall apart, I tried to turn to things that the world had to offer, 01:05:06.320 |
but by God's grace, I never went too far off the deep end. 01:05:10.320 |
When I was in ninth grade, I started attending a church, Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church, 01:05:14.320 |
where Pastor Peter Chung was my high school youth pastor. 01:05:17.320 |
I had befriended some good friends who encouraged me to talk to Pastor Peter 01:05:21.320 |
because he, too, had come from a broken home. 01:05:24.320 |
Talking and meeting with Pastor Peter and spending time with my friends at church 01:05:28.320 |
helped me immensely with my difficult situation, but I still had not accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. 01:05:35.320 |
I had grown up knowing that I was a sinner. Jesus loved me, and he had died for my sin, 01:05:40.320 |
but I never believed it and never accepted him into my heart as my Lord and Savior. 01:05:44.320 |
I distinctly remember on a Friday night at a praise and prayer night. 01:05:48.320 |
If you went to a Korean church, you know what I'm talking about. 01:05:50.320 |
The setting was the lights were dimmed, and it was getting emotional, 01:05:53.320 |
and that's when the praise leader--it was just him and the guitar--and he told the congregation, 01:05:59.320 |
"If there's anybody that's hurting, I want you to put your hands on him and pray for them." 01:06:04.320 |
That's when my best friends Jay and Sam put their hands on me and started praying for me. 01:06:09.320 |
It was at that moment I felt this immense conviction in my heart, 01:06:13.320 |
and that's when I accepted him as Lord and Savior. 01:06:15.320 |
Still to this day, I know God used Jay, Sam, and Pastor Peter to turn me to Jesus. 01:06:21.320 |
Though that day started my Christian journey, it took me a while to truly actually understand the gospel. 01:06:27.320 |
When I became saved, I quickly began studying, memorizing. 01:06:30.320 |
I was hungry for his word. I'd wake up early in the morning memorizing, 01:06:33.320 |
but the more I knew, the more legalistic I became. 01:06:36.320 |
I started spitting out verses to my friends when they were doing stuff wrong, 01:06:40.320 |
and I started thinking, after all, I wasn't that bad compared to that guy over in the corner that was committing sinful things. 01:06:46.320 |
It wasn't until I transitioned from high school to college when I heard a sermon by Tim Keller preached 01:06:52.320 |
that I started beginning to understand the gospel a little more. 01:06:55.320 |
Throughout college, I continued to serve in a leadership capacity, 01:07:00.320 |
and in that way, I think I started thinking that, you know what, I think I'm okay. 01:07:05.320 |
And it wasn't until that I actually transitioned from college to becoming a police officer 01:07:10.320 |
that I truly understand the depravity of my heart. 01:07:13.320 |
I became a police officer for the LAPD during my final two months of my senior year of college. 01:07:17.320 |
I applied during my senior year of college, expecting the hiring process to take a year, 01:07:24.320 |
Due to the recession at the time and the uncertainty of the academies in the future, 01:07:31.320 |
So here I was as a college student on Friday, May 24, 2009, and a police officer May 26, 2009, that Monday. 01:07:39.320 |
My transition from a college student to a police officer was an abrupt one. 01:07:43.320 |
The academy wasn't so bad, but when I hit the field, I began to see the world for what it was. 01:07:48.320 |
I did nine of my 11 years in South Central LA, and if you're not familiar with that area, 01:07:52.320 |
that's the birthplace of the Bloods and Crips, 01:07:55.320 |
and it is a different world from the comforts of Orange County. 01:08:01.320 |
And in my 11 years, I can tell you I've seen several hundred shootings, homicide, violent crimes, you name it. 01:08:06.320 |
I won't go into detail. If you want to know, you can talk to me in private, 01:08:09.320 |
and I'll tell you everything because I remember it all. 01:08:12.320 |
And not only that, I was being cussed out and being called every name in the book, 01:08:18.320 |
I was becoming cynical, jaded, and I was becoming angry. 01:08:21.320 |
I wasn't able to attend church because in my first year, you didn't get to choose your schedule, excuse me. 01:08:27.320 |
So I would often go months without going to church. 01:08:30.320 |
And on top of that, I was becoming angry at church members for how sheltered they were, 01:08:34.320 |
how they were not seeing what was going on only 20, 30 miles away from their homes. 01:08:38.320 |
And on top of that, my dating relationships were not working out, 01:08:41.320 |
and that continued to make me upset and angry. 01:08:43.320 |
Even some of my friends started telling me that they didn't like what I was becoming, 01:08:49.320 |
My job was changing me instead of Christ changing me. 01:08:52.320 |
About two years into my job, something changed, and to this day, I know it was only God. 01:08:57.320 |
I slowly began to realize that I was the worst of all sinners. 01:09:02.320 |
Through my transition as a police officer, I began to realize that through my mistakes, 01:09:08.320 |
I was no more deserving of grace than the rapists, child molesters, murders that I arrested. 01:09:19.320 |
All I can say is God was allowing me to see the world through his eyes. 01:09:22.320 |
The turning point for me was when I walked into church on a Sunday after missing just months, 01:09:27.320 |
and a particular song was playing, and it said, "I will be still and know you are God." 01:09:34.320 |
And it reminded me of the verse Psalm 46.10, "Be still and know that I am God." 01:09:40.320 |
And I understood, despite my circumstances, the noise and the distractions that were surrounding me, 01:09:45.320 |
he was still God. And as Pastor Peter Kim so beautifully and simply put it a couple weeks ago, 01:09:50.320 |
despite our circumstances, despite what I was going through, the answer is always Christ. 01:09:54.320 |
And I knew that, but that day, it just pierced the depths of my heart. 01:09:59.320 |
And from then on, I've understood that I am, as Paul says, the worst of all sinners. 01:10:05.320 |
My Christian journey is far from over, and I'm still being sanctified. 01:10:09.320 |
Every day is a struggle to seek him and not to things of this world. 01:10:12.320 |
Every day I sin, but in the words of Isaac Newton from the movie Amazing Grace, 01:10:17.320 |
as he's getting old, he says, "Although my memory is fading, I remember two things. 01:10:22.320 |
I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior." Thank you. 01:10:40.320 |
Alright, Jacob, do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in his death, 01:10:45.320 |
and as you come out, you're uniting with Christ in his resurrection? 01:10:49.320 |
I baptize you, whew, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 01:11:28.320 |
Hello, my name is Michelle, and this is my testimony. 01:11:33.320 |
I grew up in a Presbyterian Christian home and was also baptized as a baby. 01:11:38.320 |
Growing up, I attended church regularly and was taught to be a good person. 01:11:42.320 |
I never had a problem with this, as I always liked following the rules and striving to be perfect in everything. 01:11:49.320 |
But unfortunately, there was a lot of turmoil at home, and so my parents fought regularly 01:11:54.320 |
until they finally separated and then got divorced when I was in the eighth grade. 01:11:59.320 |
During these two years, my brother and I were separated from my mom. 01:12:02.320 |
I could only see her for brief periods of time due to custody battles and things like that. 01:12:08.320 |
And during that time was when bitterness towards God took root in my heart, 01:12:12.320 |
and it revealed the absence of faith and love for God. 01:12:17.320 |
I felt absolutely justified in my anger, thinking that I deserved to be blessed 01:12:21.320 |
because that's the reward I should have received for being good. 01:12:24.320 |
But in that year, I moved to a new church where I attended a retreat 01:12:28.320 |
and fully heard the gospel for the first time. 01:12:31.320 |
The words of Ephesians 2, 4-5 highlights the transformation that took place in my heart. 01:12:37.320 |
"But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, 01:12:40.320 |
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, 01:12:45.320 |
Once I understood that God loved me so much to the point that he would send his son down for my sake, 01:12:50.320 |
and that in his grace he blessed me with the greatest blessing he could give me, 01:12:54.320 |
I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior and surrendered my life to him. 01:12:57.320 |
Afterwards, I was confirmed at that church as a genuine believer, 01:13:01.320 |
but as a baby Christian, I didn't understand the significance of publicly professing my faith to the church 01:13:08.320 |
and was simply eager to do so because my mom and church family encouraged me. 01:13:12.320 |
But as I deepened my understanding of the gospel and learned that baptism symbolized the union with Christ 01:13:18.320 |
in his death and resurrection, I realized that being baptized as a baby did not signify that 01:13:23.320 |
because it was not out of my own desire to commit my life to the Lord, 01:13:28.320 |
but rather an act done by my parents on my behalf. 01:13:31.320 |
I needed to make that choice and proclaim my faith for myself 01:13:34.320 |
because God had saved me from the depths of my sin when I was completely dead in my trespasses 01:13:41.320 |
As it says in Romans 6, 4, "Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, 01:13:46.320 |
so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, 01:13:54.320 |
When I was a baby, I was still dead and sin reigned over my life, 01:13:57.320 |
but now I can confidently say I have been crucified with Christ, 01:14:00.320 |
it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, 01:14:03.320 |
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God 01:14:24.320 |
You're supposed to sit a little bit closer up. 01:14:31.320 |
Do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in his death, 01:14:34.320 |
and then when you come out of the water, you're uniting with him in his resurrection 01:14:38.320 |
so that you too may walk in the newness of life? 01:14:41.320 |
I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and Holy Spirit. 01:15:03.320 |
Okay, we're going to invite the worship team to come on up, 01:15:13.320 |
and as they do, just some free beef announcements. 01:15:16.320 |
What a great time again for us to fellowship, 01:15:19.320 |
and hopefully, especially if some of you guys have been Christian for a long time, 01:15:23.320 |
a great time to remember, reflect upon God's work in our lives 01:15:29.320 |
After the service is done, we're going to continue to just fellowship outside. 01:15:33.320 |
I encourage you guys to stick around, and then again, fellowship with each other. 01:15:37.320 |
As you can tell, over here, it's wet and a little slippery. 01:15:41.320 |
After the service is done, although I know you guys want to come up and congratulate 01:15:45.320 |
and take photos with the people who've been baptized, 01:15:47.320 |
please do so on my left side here or outside in the courtyard, 01:15:51.320 |
but please don't walk around on this area, okay? 01:15:54.320 |
And then finally, again, for those of you who are visiting with us, 01:15:57.320 |
who you're hearing the testimonies, and perhaps you're wondering, curious, wow, 01:16:04.320 |
but you haven't yet experienced that for yourself, 01:16:06.320 |
we really encourage you to come ask, you know, 01:16:09.320 |
to ask the questions about how do you connect with the Lord, 01:16:13.320 |
in what ways are we sinners, what are they talking about when they say forgiveness, 01:16:16.320 |
what are they talking about when they say repentance. 01:16:20.320 |
You'll see the pastors here up in the front, and again, also, 01:16:22.320 |
we have resources outside with free Bibles and books for you to look at. 01:16:25.320 |
to look at. So again, please visit with us. Thank you.