back to index2020-08-02 Sam Cho Baptism
00:00:15.220 |
You can commonly see her rocking out on the keyboard. 00:00:19.480 |
And I have two daughters, Carol and Cadence, who are four, and Cadence just turned two. 00:00:25.380 |
I'm going to share my brief testimony about how I'm being here baptized today. 00:00:30.680 |
I was born into a loving Christian home and just simply thought being a good kid was enough. 00:00:38.080 |
Everything was good until my junior year of high school when my sister, Diane, went off 00:00:45.040 |
And life became a bit more lonely and a bit more depressing. 00:00:49.720 |
One weekend, Diane came home to visit and she simply asked me, "Do you think you know 00:01:02.400 |
I answered with a "no," and she proceeded to share the gospel with me. 00:01:07.360 |
This is the moment where I can truly say to myself that I started seeking after the Lord. 00:01:12.760 |
During this time, the Lord continually revealed my sins, such as selfishness, lust, and pride, 00:01:21.200 |
and that my circumstances was caused because of my total depravity. 00:01:25.160 |
I recognized that my wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in 00:01:33.280 |
I also realized that I needed to make Christ my Lord and I wanted to pursue to be obedient 00:01:38.320 |
So, from then on, late at high school, I accepted Christ as the Lord over my life. 00:01:44.360 |
Life as a believer has been different with each life stage. 00:01:49.160 |
In my early college years, my sins were very clear. 00:01:52.320 |
It was constant struggles with lust and girls. 00:02:00.320 |
But now in my early 30s, my sins have become a little bit more subtle and harder to pinpoint. 00:02:06.280 |
A recent sin that I've been wrestling with is just making my kids a top priority. 00:02:12.600 |
It's been a huge struggle as a father to give what I think is best for my kids, as opposed 00:02:16.800 |
to discovering God's will and prayerfully deciding. 00:02:21.600 |
Every waking moment, I am fighting to choose Christ as my Lord and that life is not about 00:02:25.640 |
me or my kids, but more so about how can I die to myself each and every day. 00:02:32.600 |
God's word in Galatians 2.20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer 00:02:40.200 |
And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved 00:02:47.960 |
So after years of being a believer, why get baptized now? 00:02:52.480 |
I was infant baptized and confirmed in college through the Presbyterian Church. 00:02:57.800 |
And you know, even after my own personal studies on baptism and rejecting the idea of infant 00:03:02.400 |
baptism, I just thought to myself, "What's the point of getting baptized now?" 00:03:08.840 |
After just navigating through my own heart, the answer to that is very simple. 00:03:13.560 |
It's because Christ is my Lord and I want to be obedient to him. 00:03:18.240 |
I want to uphold God as high as I possibly can. 00:03:21.520 |
I want to be obedient in every possible way that I can. 00:03:24.400 |
And this means getting baptized, not confirmed. 00:03:28.240 |
So I'm here with my shortcomings as a sinner, understanding that through this baptism I'll 00:03:33.200 |
be uniting with Christ in his death and uniting with Christ in his resurrection, which my 00:03:42.360 |
I'm excited to be obedient to his call and to continue to navigate through life, being 00:03:50.000 |
Today not only marks my baptism, but also marks my daughter's second birthday. 00:03:55.560 |
So I'm excited to be baptized by Pastor Peter, who has shepherded me. 00:04:01.840 |
And yesterday I just found out that James is also going to be a part of it as well. 00:04:06.360 |
And I joke about letting James marry my sister, but in all seriousness, James has been a huge 00:04:14.000 |
mentor, a brother that helped me grow in so many ways. 00:04:19.620 |
Not just me, but I know so many other brothers feel the same way. 00:04:53.140 |
Do you understand, Sam, when you're going into the water, you're uniting with Christ 00:04:56.500 |
in his death, and when you come out, you're uniting with his resurrected life? 00:05:01.180 |
I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.