back to index2021-03-21 Mark Wu Baptism
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My name is Mark and many of you may not know me, but that's okay because I've only been 00:00:17.200 |
And so today I have the privilege of sharing my testimony. 00:00:20.780 |
So I was actually raised up in the church by my parents and growing up, I never really 00:00:29.580 |
It was something that felt like more of my parents' faith and not mine. 00:00:34.480 |
And so as I grew up, I actually slowly started to despise it. 00:00:38.760 |
But as I got older, I started having thoughts like, why do I have to follow all these rules 00:00:50.560 |
And as I got, sometimes I even felt like I was an outsider at school, but I just chose 00:00:56.580 |
to ignore this feeling because I just tried to fit in. 00:01:00.700 |
So actually, because I was raised up in the church, it's always made me recognize how 00:01:06.340 |
there is a God, yet I chose to just ignore him because I didn't want to feel guilty about 00:01:13.300 |
It seemed like a burden having to repent when I know that I'm just going to be making the 00:01:17.740 |
same mistakes or sinning again in the future. 00:01:25.760 |
And sometimes I even twisted what God meant to me so that I can use him to serve myself 00:01:35.660 |
And for a majority of my life, I've continued to think this way. 00:01:39.700 |
But recently this summer, God actually made me realize just how sinful this world is and 00:01:49.740 |
All I cared about was myself and what made me happy. 00:01:53.140 |
So last semester when I was dorming at Cal State Long Beach, I wasn't attending any churches 00:01:59.980 |
because quite honestly, I didn't feel like it. 00:02:03.100 |
I wondered what it was like having an entire day of the weekend all to myself. 00:02:12.500 |
But thinking about it now, I realized that God was working in my life to bring me to 00:02:17.460 |
Berean caught my eye with the realization of just how much there was to learn about 00:02:22.980 |
God and honestly, also just how welcoming everyone was. 00:02:27.300 |
At first, this welcoming of the large ministry that I'm not used to was what kept me attracted 00:02:37.820 |
But as I kept coming, I learned more about God and his word. 00:02:42.500 |
And ultimately, I also just realized how short my understanding was in Christianity. 00:02:49.540 |
Before all of this, I actually thought that I was already saved because I knew that God 00:02:58.020 |
But what I didn't know was like, I didn't live my life as if he was actually my Lord. 00:03:05.420 |
And so God made me realize just how great my sins were against them and how Jesus is 00:03:13.660 |
So just as it is written in Ephesians 2.8, "For by grace you have been saved through 00:03:23.740 |
He's shown me grace by giving me a new heart and making me alive so that I can now follow 00:03:31.580 |
He's made me recognize what he's done for me and just how grateful I should be because 00:03:38.220 |
Now it's all about living a life that's glorifying to the Lord and having my own relationship 00:03:44.960 |
Without him, I'd still be just as dead in my sin and an enemy of God. 00:03:51.140 |
But because he opened my heart or opened my eyes and gave me a new heart, I now no longer 00:03:57.380 |
desire to follow the world, but I follow Jesus as my Lord and savior. 00:04:13.860 |
>> Mark, thanks for sharing your testimony with us. 00:04:35.860 |
Mark, do you understand that by entering into the water, you're expressing your union with 00:04:41.380 |
Christ in his death and that by coming out of the water, you're expressing your union 00:04:47.300 |
>> And I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:04:53.300 |
I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.