Hello everyone at Berean Community Church and online viewers. My name is Joshua Chun. I've been a member at Berean Community Church for two years. I first attended in 2014 during my extended breaks from school. I've been regularly attending since 2017. Yeah, this is my testimony. Okay. So before receiving Christ, I knew God only as a merciful God.

I pictured him as an old grandfather ready to see me whenever I please with forgiveness in his hand. Although this is true, that God, although it is true that God does have mercy and forgiveness for me, the single faceted view of God led me to abuse the love and grace that he has given me.

The Bible says that God is King and Lord, but my actions never reflected that truth. Born and raised in the church, I learned what the gospel was at a young age. Soon after, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and was sprinkle baptized in middle school. Reflecting back on my baptism and life after baptism, I didn't truly understand the Lord part of my confession.

I still kept forging my own path, doing as I pleased and attached Jesus to my goals to keep them aligned with his will. My view of God was small and wrong. He is so much more than just the one I pray for to relieve my guilty conscience. I always wanted a miraculous moment, a feeling of enlightenment, an aha moment where all of a sudden I know God and I knew his will, but that wasn't the case.

Like many of you, it was just a gradual growth in the faith. With the help of older brothers and the community around me, and of course the Holy Spirit, God has revealed so much more than just his mercy. The holiness of God, his sovereignty, and his Lordship have changed my faith greatly.

About three to four years ago, I understood and accepted the kingship part and all the groundwork that had been laid in my life was solidified. As it says in Philippians 1.6, for I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in me, or in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

I'm still not perfect, far from it, but I have faith that God will lead me the entire way. After receiving Christ, my view of God and also myself has been transformed. The chasm between God and man is no longer great, but impossible. A sinful man can only come before a thrice holy God by the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.

I have no means of my own to be washed clean of the filth we call sin. Reading from Ephesians 1.13, and you were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.

It is such a big burden lifted off my shoulders knowing that there is nothing that I could do to make it into heaven. That it is an impossible feat not attainable by anyone here, or anyone, but only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ. And by that grace I stand here today, a reborn man.

Or at least I will be after I get into the law. So God is King, and we are his bond slaves, but there is no place I'd rather be than in his courts. We serve a good King, the only King. To know him and do his bidding is the greatest gift of grace that we could receive.

Thank you. >> Doctor, you understand when you go into the water, you're united with Christ in his death, and then when you're coming out, you're uniting with his resurrected life? >> Yes, I do. >> I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

>> Amen.