back to index2021-05-09 David Hyun Baptism
00:00:14.760 |
I'm a post-grad in BAM Ministry and this is my testimony. 00:00:19.200 |
Growing in faith has been a lifelong journey. 00:00:21.680 |
During my childhood, I was blessed to be raised in a Christian household and have the opportunity 00:00:29.480 |
My parents were active in church and served in many roles. 00:00:32.520 |
My father attended seminary and became a pastor with his own ministry. 00:00:36.400 |
I volunteered, served, and was involved in church in ways that seemed to grow my faith. 00:00:41.780 |
I checked off a lot of boxes as a Christian living in Southern California. 00:00:47.020 |
In reality, I had not even met God and wasn't pursuing His kingdom with all my heart. 00:00:52.440 |
My focus was always advancing my earthly goals and aspirations. 00:00:56.720 |
In my mind, I thought I was walking and living for God and that God was helping me carry 00:01:04.400 |
However, I was actually living for myself and mistakenly believing that I could glorify 00:01:12.960 |
I lived as if I was king of my own life and I did what was right in my own eyes. 00:01:17.920 |
At best, I was obeying only some of God's commands. 00:01:21.800 |
While in grad school, my eyes were opened to how fragile this world is and how incredibly 00:01:27.320 |
I was surrounded by brilliant individuals who were driven and willing to sacrifice every 00:01:32.080 |
moment to advance their careers, lives, and their own names. 00:01:36.600 |
I also sought after these things and continued to mistakenly believe that I was doing all 00:01:42.560 |
I thought that I could give more to God by pursuing my own interests, even though that 00:01:48.840 |
I was still attending church and serving in various roles, but was really wandering away 00:01:55.440 |
At best, I was obeying most of God's commands. 00:01:59.080 |
While wandering away from the presence of God, my soul became troubled because I knew 00:02:05.600 |
I became so preoccupied with my own life that I couldn't possibly live for God. 00:02:10.840 |
After grad school and coming home to California, I entered into a spiritual desert and recognized 00:02:15.960 |
I did not have a genuine relationship with Him. 00:02:18.840 |
No matter how much I prayed, read the Word, and attended church, I couldn't enter His 00:02:24.540 |
presence simply because I could not become righteous by my own efforts. 00:02:29.880 |
Through His mercy and grace, all the things I had placed my hope and trust in fell one 00:02:35.640 |
Only after I became sick and tired of living for my own life did I understand that His 00:02:40.520 |
love is greater than anything I could ever comprehend. 00:02:44.240 |
By grace, He allowed me to begin to understand when He said, "For my thoughts are not your 00:02:49.960 |
thoughts, nor are your ways my ways," and that "to obey is better than sacrifice, and 00:03:01.640 |
By grace, He showed me that He is Almighty God and that He shares His glory with no one. 00:03:07.120 |
By grace, God allowed me to understand how to seek after Him with all my heart, and only 00:03:15.480 |
By grace, He invited me to seek Him and gave me the privilege of possibly comprehending 00:03:22.920 |
In God's own brilliant way, He called me to build my life upon the foundation of faith 00:03:32.680 |
I have learned that for me, there is no prioritizing God over things of this world, and that there 00:03:40.960 |
Through Christ's sacrifice, I am able to be with God, and I have been crucified with 00:03:48.080 |
I can place my trust and hope in Jesus, who made a way back to God, and walk by faith, 00:03:53.520 |
believing that slowly but surely, I am becoming the man God has called me to be. 00:03:58.760 |
Thanks to Jesus' sacrifice, I can live a life where my joy, peace, and rest is in His 00:04:03.360 |
word and presence, and I look forward to a life of repentance, perseverance, belief 00:04:10.360 |
in the power of Christ's sacrifice, making God king, and giving my very best to obey 00:04:16.520 |
not some, not most, but all of God's commands.