- Hi church family. My name is Jessica and I'm part of the family ministry. I'm married to Joseph and I'm also Anthony Rockmut's older sister. Anyways, this is my testimony. Like many of you, I was blessed to have grown up in a loving Christian home where most of my extended relatives are faithful believers.

I grew up going to Sunday school, church retreats, listening to worship songs in the car and I was even baptized when I was 10 because I thought I believed in God simply because it was just what I grew up with. And although I can see the seeds that God had planted in my childhood, I hadn't come to know him personally and what it meant to have him as my savior and lord until much later near the end of high school.

Before meeting Christ, I thought I was a good person. I had straight A's, was a goody two shoes, a teacher's pet, friends with everybody and a good Christian. I had so much pride in this image of myself that I had made. I also stubbornly believed that my life was my own and that I was entitled to get whatever worldly successes I could get with hard work and determination.

As a result, I was incredibly ambitious and one of my favorite things to do to achieve the success was to plan excessively. I like to plan year by year, month by month, hour to hour. I had a backup plan for every scenario and I arrogantly believed that I could make my life and future the way I wanted it to be.

My shallow faith, if I could even call it that, quickly diminished throughout high school when so much uncertainty was in the air. Because of my non-existent faith, I doubted God's existence every time something didn't go according to my master plan. But by the end of high school, I was feeling the strain of living a double life and trying to serve two masters, being a so-called Christian by label while at the same time idolizing the things of this world.

Luckily, through God's sovereignty, he eventually led me to a crossroads with my internal battle. I wrestled for weeks with conflicting thoughts, wanting to leave the life I built for myself but at the same time being scared to let go of control, wanting to follow Christ but not knowing the way.

Also, despite growing up in church, I didn't know how to read the Bible for myself or even who to ask. It's in this context where weeks of struggling culminated into a desperate prayer. I remember this prayer because it was the first time I openly and earnestly prayed to God and called out to him, the first time I was willing to relinquish my control and my will for his.

By God's grace and through the spirit, I realized how pointless and vain my previous pursuits had been, how extremely arrogant, selfish, prideful, and ultimately sinful I was living my life. I wanted so desperately to feel alive by chasing riches and success that I thought would lead to life, not realizing at that time that true life comes from Christ.

Finally broken down and exhausted after years of squandering my life, I was finally at a point where I was ready to give up control. And all I wanted was to be with God and to go wherever he would be willing to lead me. But despite realizing this conclusion, I still carried a heavy guilt and doubt.

Would God still receive me after everything I had done to ignore him and run the opposite way? I knew after everything I'd done, I had no right to come before God or even ask for forgiveness. But desperate, all I could do was pray. And I told God that I wanted to know him and that I would forsake my worldly plans if he would lead me.

It was through this prayer that my mind and heart were finally illuminated. Growing up in church, I had always known the facts of the gospel, but suddenly it became clear. It was like in an instant I was a new person redeemed, just like it says in 2 Corinthians 5.17.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away, behold, new things have come. I still had the memory of my old self, but it was now replaced by these new things, hope, joy, and extreme gratitude that I finally understood what it means to intimately know the resurrected Christ.

My outward circumstances back then didn't change after this prayer, but suddenly my prior worries seemed so small in comparison to knowing the God of the universe, my Lord and Savior, who died and rose again for my sins and forgave me despite how undeserving I was. Ephesians says, "In him we have redemption "through his blood, the forgiveness of sins "in accordance with the riches of God's grace.

"Through his rich love and mercy, "he not only received me, but embraced me, "like the father who was waiting "while still at a far distance "and ran to embrace his prodigal son." I realized that all those years I was running towards the world, he had been patiently waiting and pursuing me.

I had gained the unshakable love and comfort that if God was with me and I abide in him, who or what could be against me? This was about nine years ago, and I've gone through a few trials and life stages since then, but through it all, God continues to remind me every day of his grace and sovereignty in my life.

He continues to grow and sanctify me into the image of his son, constantly convicting me to live a life worthy of the calling that he has redeemed me to. I've stumbled more times than I can count, but when I am tempted to despair, I am reminded to look at the cross and the hope I have in Christ, knowing that my God has the power to bring my faith to completion.

Thank you. (audience applauds) (water trickles) - This guy, do you understand when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in his death, and when you come out, you're uniting with his resurrected life? - I do. - Then I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Okay, pinch your nose, all of it. (water trickles) (audience applauds) (audience applauding)