Good morning, church family. My name is Peter, and I've been part of the family ministry here at Beroean for the last 12 years. I'm married to my wonderful wife, Kelly, and we have three kids, Noel, Trevor, and Carter. I have the privilege this morning of briefly sharing my testimony with you and to partake in the ordinance of baptism.

When I look back on my life, I see the gods and Indian faithfulness and care over my life. At the age of seven, I moved to the US to live with my grandmother. And not having my parents around throughout my childhood and teenage years, I was forced to grow up quickly.

I learned to be independent, to make decisions on my own, both good and bad. Looking back, it's only by God's grace and protection that I stayed away from trouble. In high school, I hung out with the good kids, you know, the ones that didn't care much about girls or popularity as much as AP classes and GPAs.

And one good kid, Conrad, who would eventually become my closest friend, would always drag me, I mean, invite me to his church. But Christianity was new to me, and this John 14.6 idea that Jesus is the only way to God ran counterintuitive to my Taiwanese culture of idol and ancestor worship and the common belief that all roads lead to one.

But slowly, God opened my eyes, exposing me more and more to his great love, to his church and its people, and ultimately to the good news of Jesus Christ. Eventually, in 1999, as a junior in high school, I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. It was during one of those harvest crusades at Angel Stadium.

I still remember Pastor Greg Laurie saying, "If you feel Jesus tugging at your heart, I invite you to come down to the field to respond in faith and to make a commitment to him." In that moment, it was definitely the work of the Spirit drawing me, and before I knew it, I was down in the field with hundreds of others, praying to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

Praise God for that special day. In the formative years of college, I attended an on-campus fellowship called AACF, where I found much-needed fellowship with other believers. I found the prayer support I needed to navigate the ups and downs of college life. And best of all, I found my future wife.

But in all seriousness, God truly sustained and deepened my faith and knowledge of him during these years. He opened my eyes even more to the truth of the gospel, to his holiness and my sinfulness, to his amazing love and my desperate need for him. It was during these crucial years that my theology shifted from a man-centered gospel to a God-centered gospel.

It was no longer about me and my worth. It was about God and glorifying him and enjoying making much of him forever. I learned that I was not the center of his redeeming work. The magnifying of Christ in my life was the center of his redeeming work. And if I could narrow my college years down to one singular event that God used to change and shape me for the years to come, it would be hearing Pastor John Piper preach on God's holiness at the 2003 Passion Conference.

Based on the Isaiah 6 vision of the incomparable holiness of God, his sermon hit me like a ton of bricks. Piper preached, "God's holiness is his infinite value as the absolutely unique, morally perfect, permanent person that he is and who by grace has made himself accessible." It would be foolish of me to not pursue this God of infinite value, like in Philippians 3.8 when Paul says, "I count all things as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus." In 2005, during my senior year of college, I was baptized at my old church, EFC Irvine, by the sprinkling of water.

I believed it to be sufficient, not questioning how it was performed. In 2008, Kelly and I got married and we started coming to Bremen. It's been 12 years since. If I could quickly, though unfairly, sum up the many lessons I've learned from the faithful preaching and study of God's word here, it's this, that there is nothing more valuable, more worthwhile than to pursue Christ above all things for my joy and for his glory.

To abide in Christ and his word where there is true life and to be anchored in Christ in order to stand firm in the midst of life's many storms and trials, all the while remaining sober and alert, awaiting his return. I thank God for always, always for how our pastors and elders set a good example of this for us to follow.

They have impacted my life more than they know and more than they want to take credit for. So why am I getting baptized now? Well, it's quite simple, to do what the Bible says in the way it says it. In recent years, I thought more about the mode of baptism and it became clear to me that immersion was the expression of salvation shown in scripture.

But my own pride prevented any further consideration or action. I still held on to thinking that so long as my intentions were good, mode didn't matter. But I'm thankful to our leaders who in this past year have really encouraged us to look at and study the scriptures and what it says regarding baptism and how it was practiced.

Thus, after much study, meditation, and prayer, I want to respond in obedience. To be clear, it is by grace that I have been united to Christ through faith and justified by faith alone. But if baptism is to signify this great union with Christ, especially in his death and resurrection, then I want to honor him by doing so in the way that he has prescribed in his word.

To God be all the glory. Thank you.