Good morning, church family. My name is Nicholas Nguyen, and this is my testimony. So coming from a loving, non-Christian family, religion was a very small aspect of my life from an early age. The first time I attended church was when I was 13 years old. At that point, I was curious about the faith, but I was far from being saved.

I did not understand how Christ dying on the cross was an act of love, but I knew that He was the way to heaven. And since I just wanted to fit into the church setting, I would pray thanking God for saving us from something I could not understand—sin. However, seeing how some of my peers who called themselves Christians performed questionable actions, I thought that as long as I was a good person, I would go to heaven.

With this shallow understanding and a hardened heart, it did not take much for me to stop going to church. Entering college, I had no thought of joining a college ministry on campus or attending a church again. Through my experiences, I never understood the importance of attending church if people were just going to act the same as good people in the world.

In a sense, I thought of myself as flawless and self-righteous. I would constantly judge others to boost my own confidence, and I thought that I was heaven-bound because I was not a particularly bad person. With my ignorance towards sin and my earthly ambitions, I never thought much about my spiritual well-being.

However, even through my arrogance, God still brought me to a college ministry with my cousin. When I went to the meeting, I was met by a group of very welcoming people. That night, the thing that surprised me was how everyone pointed everything back to God. Seeing such a faithful community, it made me question why they were so intentional.

Through my curiosity, I started attending Breen Community Church. The first sermon I heard was about the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13, 24 to 30. This parable challenged me to think about the life of a Christian and the difference between a believer and a non-believer.

After hearing more messages, one message about compassion and selflessness caused me to examine myself. Before, I thought of myself as a pretty selfless person. I always wanted to help others when they were in a bad spot and would always make time whenever someone needed me. But in the realization that I was just doing all this to gain recognition and self-glorification, I understood my own sin and saw my own brokenness.

Before, through my own standards, I thought that I could judge if a person was good or bad, which was why there was a contradiction between God's love and justice in my head. But when I realized that even myself, whom I thought was righteous and was broken like the rest of the world, I was able to understand the need for a Savior, the need for Jesus Christ.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Ephesians 2, 4-6, which says, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ." Even though each and every one of us deserves eternal death, God's love pardoned us.

Through God's grace, I was able to receive Christ into my life. I felt a deep joy knowing that my debt from sin was paid. After being saved, I continue to see my own need for a Savior. My struggle with my own pride and lust continues to be present. However, knowing that God has released me from the bonds of sin and loves me, a sinful and broken person, I am able to find comfort and peace in Christ.

Thank you. >> All right. Nicholas you understand when you go into the water, you're being united with Christ and his death, and when you come out, you're being united with his resurrected life? >> I do. >> Then I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.