Hi there. My name is Mark and many of you may not know me, but that's okay because I've only been coming to Berean for a few months now. And so today I have the privilege of sharing my testimony. So I was actually raised up in the church by my parents and growing up, I never really liked it or felt passionate about it.

It was something that felt like more of my parents' faith and not mine. And so as I grew up, I actually slowly started to despise it. But as I got older, I started having thoughts like, why do I have to follow all these rules that don't apply to most people?

And as I got, sometimes I even felt like I was an outsider at school, but I just chose to ignore this feeling because I just tried to fit in. So actually, because I was raised up in the church, it's always made me recognize how there is a God, yet I chose to just ignore him because I didn't want to feel guilty about any of my sins.

It seemed like a burden having to repent when I know that I'm just going to be making the same mistakes or sinning again in the future. And so I chose to just ignore him. I forgot about him. And sometimes I even twisted what God meant to me so that I can use him to serve myself instead of serving him.

And for a majority of my life, I've continued to think this way. But recently this summer, God actually made me realize just how sinful this world is and also how I am just so much like it. All I cared about was myself and what made me happy. So last semester when I was dorming at Cal State Long Beach, I wasn't attending any churches because quite honestly, I didn't feel like it.

I wondered what it was like having an entire day of the weekend all to myself. Again, as you can see, my selfishness. But thinking about it now, I realized that God was working in my life to bring me to Berean. Berean caught my eye with the realization of just how much there was to learn about God and honestly, also just how welcoming everyone was.

At first, this welcoming of the large ministry that I'm not used to was what kept me attracted to Berean and I kept coming because of it. But as I kept coming, I learned more about God and his word. And ultimately, I also just realized how short my understanding was in Christianity.

Before all of this, I actually thought that I was already saved because I knew that God died for me on the cross as a mere fact. But what I didn't know was like, I didn't live my life as if he was actually my Lord. And so God made me realize just how great my sins were against them and how Jesus is actually the only one who's able to save me.

So just as it is written in Ephesians 2.8, "For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God." He's shown me grace by giving me a new heart and making me alive so that I can now follow and love him by faith.

He's made me recognize what he's done for me and just how grateful I should be because of it. Now it's all about living a life that's glorifying to the Lord and having my own relationship with him. Without him, I'd still be just as dead in my sin and an enemy of God.

But because he opened my heart or opened my eyes and gave me a new heart, I now no longer desire to follow the world, but I follow Jesus as my Lord and savior. Thank you. >> Mark, thanks for sharing your testimony with us. Mark, do you understand that by entering into the water, you're expressing your union with Christ in his death and that by coming out of the water, you're expressing your union with Christ in his resurrected life?

>> I do. >> And I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. >> I'm Mark. I'm a pastor. I'm a pastor. I'm a pastor. I'm a pastor. I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.