Hi Berean family, my name is Brian Le and I'm a fourth year at the Berean College Ministry and I'd like to share how God has worked in my life. So it's hard to know what life was like without knowing God because all my life I felt that God was always there.

I was raised in a Christian household. My mom would take us to church every Sunday. We'd have nightly Bible studies and we'd pray every night. I grew up with friends and family who were Christian and it felt like I was surrounded by God's love. During this time I remember absorbing all the things from church and the things that my mom was teaching me and I took them as truth because that was the only thing I knew.

I was challenged though early on that I had to make my faith my own and that this can't just be second-handed for me. But even with that, naturally I'm just a very obedient person and I like to please my parents and so even making faith my own felt a little forced as well.

However there were times though growing up in middle school, high school where I felt convicted by the gospel and God's gift of salvation. I remember at a retreat I thought that I felt God's love and the idea of Jesus sacrificing himself on the cross really compelled me. So my eyes were really open to just sin in my life and what Jesus did on the cross.

As growing up I didn't really see my own sin. I thought just because I grew up in a Christian household that I was inherently saved but that was far from the case. I was a sinner and I was against God and just because I may have grew up set apart I still needed to look deep into my own sin.

And that was kind of shown throughout high school where at my home church things changed, leadership changed and every Sunday it started becoming just topical and it was very devoid of scripture and Bible and I knew that this was wrong. I knew that at this church I wasn't being spiritually fed and the only reason why I stayed was because of the friends that I had made since childhood.

And so even because of this I still continued to stay and I didn't even pursue God on my own. Before I knew that as humans we would sin and I always thought that even though I was a sinner God's grace, he forgives us. And even though that's true I neglected the importance of genuine repentance and fully surrendering myself to Jesus and that would break the cycle of sin.

So in college I started going to Bible teaching church but I failed to really integrate myself in the community and so each Sunday I would just go receiving head knowledge of the Bible and the scripture but never actually applying it in my life. And it wasn't until I came to Verion just this year was that I really felt convicted by what God was telling me that before God I stand before righteous God and that I am fully just and through his son's sacrifice that I can now have that relationship with him and that was something that I failed to connect all those years before that now talking to God is not just someone I'm speaking out just randomly or blindly but I now have a relationship with him and that has been restored through Jesus' sacrifice.

So from that I really started to see fruit in my life where I didn't see before. Now I have a need to spread the gospel whenever I can to any unbelieving friends or family. Just having now I have that faith even though before in college where it was just idle and dry and I would use Christianity as a crutch now I see it as my faith is unshaken.

I can completely devote my life to God and now I know that I am filled with the Holy Spirit and not something that I'm just surrounded by just because of friends and family. I have now a desire to build my relationship with Jesus because I want to read intently his word.

I know that my body was purchased by the death of Jesus and I need to submit to him through complete surrenderance and devotion to Christ. I want to strive to become a better brother, a better son not just in my family but with Christ and I know that truly it's only through Christ that I can accomplish all these things and everything I do is for the glory of God.

Now looking back at my life I know that God has been sovereign everywhere just from my upbringing from where I went to church to who I made friends with I know that his perfect plan has brought me from death and into his loving presence and the greatest showcase of his love I think is from Romans 5 8 where he says in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

Thank you. Brian you understand when you go into the water you're united with Christ in his death and when you're coming out you're united with his resurrected life. I do. I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (audience applauding)