back to index2020-8-16 Chris Choi Baptism
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Hello church family, my name is Chris Choi and this is my testimony. I was born into a Christian family to two loving parents at around age seven. 00:00:17.000 |
My father introduced the gospel to me, who's sitting here with us today. He introduced to me a man named Jesus and told me he died on a cross for you because he loves you and if you believe in him as your Lord and Savior, 00:00:29.000 |
then your sins will be forgiven. You won't have to go to a place called hell and you will be able to have eternal life in heaven with God as long as you believe in him. 00:00:38.000 |
I believe this was the beginning of my salvation because I hung my life to this truth, but at this point I mainly just did not want to be punished for eternity. 00:00:47.000 |
I only had a minimal understanding of the gospel, if anything just a piece of the gospel. 00:00:53.000 |
Growing up I attended a charismatic church where I was able to understand more and more of who Jesus was, how he loves us, understand more about his mercy upon us. 00:01:06.000 |
Life was good growing up. We lived very comfortably with little worries in life. 00:01:12.000 |
Yes, I was very much a sinner and had many flaws. Undeserving of his grace, was a liar, cheater, pursued my lust, disobeyed my parents in authority. 00:01:22.000 |
You name the sin, I committed it. But thank God I did have the desire to have my sins forgiven and wanted to repent before God. 00:01:31.000 |
However, growing up I would say my faith was only steadily growing. 00:01:36.000 |
Also, I remember thinking to myself, life is too good right now. 00:01:40.000 |
But when I read a Bible, it talks about how Christians will face trials of various kinds. 00:01:46.000 |
Well, in 2008, I was 18 years old, entering my senior year of high school. Everything came crashing down. 00:01:52.000 |
That year my grandfather passed away, my father lost his job, we lost our house, we lost everything. 00:01:58.000 |
And the worst news of all, my mother was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. 00:02:02.000 |
It was not a good time, but I knew a day like this was going to come and I knew in order to persevere I needed to depend on God. 00:02:09.000 |
The following year, I got accepted to UCI and needed to find a new church. 00:02:16.000 |
Through a parachurch, I was able to visit Brean. 00:02:19.000 |
At the time, Brean was meeting at some janky middle school and singing hymns that I was not familiar with. 00:02:26.000 |
As a boy who was used to jumping up and down and shouting to more contemporary music, I had to just stand there and sing to much slower songs. 00:02:37.000 |
At this point, I thought this was going to just be another church to check off the list as I was visiting other churches. 00:02:44.000 |
Then I listened to the sermon and thought it was unusual how Pastor Peter kept going back to the word after each segment. 00:02:52.000 |
And this type of preaching was very new to me. 00:02:55.000 |
I remember after church ended that day, I went back to my college dorm room and just laid there on my bed and thought, 00:03:02.000 |
"Perhaps it was the Holy Spirit tugging at me, telling me that I needed to continue to attend Brean." 00:03:07.000 |
Throughout college, I was on fire for the word. 00:03:10.000 |
I wanted to learn more and more about the Bible. 00:03:13.000 |
It was the thing that I was missing in my life. 00:03:16.000 |
I believe that even though I had the basic understanding of the gospel growing up, my faith was only barely steadily growing. 00:03:23.000 |
But once I started to indulge into the word, my faith grew exponentially. 00:03:27.000 |
Reading upon true doctrine helped solidify the foundation of my faith. 00:03:31.000 |
I was a starving, weak, spiritual child. I needed to be fed. 00:03:35.000 |
I would go to all the Bible studies, met up with older brothers and pastors. 00:03:39.000 |
Even during the summers when most students would go back home, I didn't want to go back home. 00:03:44.000 |
I wanted to stay in Irvine and learn more about the word. 00:03:47.000 |
The following year, in 2010, my sophomore year of college, my mother fought three good years but eventually passed away. 00:03:53.000 |
This was the most difficult time in my life. Death became real to me. 00:03:57.000 |
I knew death was imminent and life here on earth was temporary. 00:04:01.000 |
Everything I had learned from the Bible at this point helped me to persevere and understand that this was all part of God's will and plan. 00:04:07.000 |
And I was also thankful to God, praising God that He had saved my mother, 00:04:11.000 |
and I am confident that she is in a better place worshipping God in heaven today. 00:04:15.000 |
Most people would have despised God for losing such a loved one, but I had peace in my heart. 00:04:19.000 |
And this gave me confidence and assurance of my faith, and praise God for that. 00:04:24.000 |
To this day, today, still a sinner, I come before God repenting of my sins. 00:04:30.000 |
The older I get, I understand more and more of how utterly sinful I am, 00:04:34.000 |
but I also understand more and more how great God's grace is. 00:04:41.000 |
Still a student of the word, still so much to learn. 00:04:44.000 |
Today, my wife and I are looking forward to our first child, our daughter who is due to be born next week. 00:04:51.000 |
I look forward to having a glimpse, a different perspective and understanding more of God's love for His children, 00:05:00.000 |
Thank you all for witnessing my baptism today, and I thank God for this day, 00:05:05.000 |
and may all praise and glory be to our Father. Thank you. 00:05:33.000 |
All right, Chris, do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in His death, 00:05:38.000 |
and that when you come out, you're uniting with His resurrected life? 00:05:42.000 |
And I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.