Good morning, Church family. My name is Abby Young, and this is my testimony. I grew up in a very loving home with Christian parents and the best older brother anyone could ask for. My parents were very intentional with my brother and me, even praying for us while we were each in the womb that we would come to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

I was born with an extremely competitive nature, and as a star-struck little sister, I had always aspired to be just like my brother. However, it wasn't an "imitate me as I imitate Christ" sort of goal, but rather a "how can I be as good as Gaga, if not better than him" mentality.

Everything Gaga did, I wanted to do. One night when I was four and my brother was seven, my brother accepted Christ, so I thought, "Well, if Gaga is doing it, of course I want to do it." I accepted God into my heart, but in all honesty, I had no idea what that meant.

A few years later, when I was nine years old, my understanding of goodness changed. I had a good group of nice friends. One day we took a photo together, and a girl who had developmental delay named Sharon wanted to be in our picture. I knew nothing about health care at that time, so from my understanding, Sharon was born with her heart upside down.

We begrudgingly said yes, because isn't that what nice girls do? I went home with my best friend at the time, and we agreed that we would just crop her out of the photo. Two weeks later, Sharon passed away. This was when God revealed to me the truth. I cried, recognizing that I was a sinner and I had nothing that could earn any semblance of goodness.

I had thought that I knew how to love others, but I couldn't even take one photo with someone different from me. I realized that it wasn't just Sharon that was born with her heart upside down. It was me. That night, my mom walked me through the sinner's prayer yet again, but this time it was different.

This time, I wasn't praying to God asking him to make me a better person. I was asking him to save me from myself. I truly believe that this was the point that I was saved. A couple years later, after that moment, I chose to be sprinkled at my home church as an outward expression of inward faith.

However, the journey from justification through sanctification was and continues to be one requiring lots and lots of patience. While I finally had a grasp of my depravity, instead of being liberating, at many times it was debilitating. I found myself burdened under the weight of my imperfection, knowing in my mind that I was saved through faith alone, but having difficulty understanding why a perfect God would love someone as imperfect as me.

There were days when I would frustratingly sit in the school bathroom wanting to inflict self-harm on myself because I didn't deserve the body that God had given me. I wrestled constantly with my competitive nature, not being perfect enough, whether it was in academics, sports, or more importantly, godliness. When I moved to Irvine to attend UCI for nursing school, God sovereignly placed me at Berean and surrounded me with individuals whose passion for the Word was palpable.

This was when I began to take the study of God's Word seriously. I understood more deeply that the gospel was not simply a tool to bolster up my sense of self-worth, something I craved throughout my entire life. Instead the truth was even my foolish attempts at perfection were filthy rags.

They were ways in which I was rejecting God, claiming that I did not need him to make me holy. I recognized that those motives, though they may appear shiny and clean on the outside, were heinous and reeking of death, much like whitewashed tombs. My niceness was a manipulative tool to convince myself and others that I deserved some sort of reward, rendering the work of Christ on the cross as worthless instead of myself.

The worst part of it all was that my sins separated me from my heavenly Father and the giver of life. I was not just some kid that God didn't want to take a photo with because I was different. I was an enemy trying to usurp his authority and deserving of wrath and eternal condemnation.

I made life about myself, but all the while he was the one deserving of praise, not me. What I'm still continually growing in my understanding of day by day is that despite all that, God chose to send his only son to die on a cross, take upon himself the burden of my guilt and shame, and rise again so that I may have life abundant in him.

I no longer live for temporary accolades, fearful of man's rejection of my shortcomings. Rather, I now live to be like the Samaritan woman at the well, unabashed, yelling, "Come see the man who told me all the things I have done." I now live for his glory alone, wanting the world not to see me but him.

Philippians 3, 7-9 says this, "But whatever gain I had, I counted as lost for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith." Today, I am choosing to be baptized by immersion as a response to what the Lord has revealed to me in scripture and to fulfill all obedience to his command.

As a representation of the work he has accomplished in me, I want to proclaim my union with Christ in his death and resurrection and be a tool for his glory. Praise be to God. Thank you. >> I would 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.

And I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. (audience applauding) (applause)