(PM Service) Baptism Testimony of Marc Mike

Preached on March 07, 2010.

Topics: Testimonies

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Marc Mike's Testimony

Over the last few weeks I have been wrestling with whether or not I should be baptized again. After talking with Pastor Eric a couple of times, I've decided not to. Pastor Eric told me that he advises people not to be baptized a second time unless they are confident that they were not saved the first time; I'm not completely confident. Pastor Eric did, however, ask me to share my testimony with you this morning. My childhood was probably very similar to most of yours. I was raised in a Christian home. I can't remember very many Sundays when I wasn't in church. I recall being taught the many stories of the Bible and how God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world. I remember struggling with this truth as a child. I had questions like, "Why did Jesus have to die?" "Why do I sin?" "What is sin?" "Why do I need a savior?" These were difficult concepts for me as young child to understand. I'm sure my parents and my Sunday School teachers answered these questions during class or Bible time at home, but it never really set in until...

One Sunday morning we had a special guest come in to our fourth grade Sunday school class - his name was Ed. I knew him as a friend of my parents and remember being very interested in why he was in my class and what he was going to talk to us about. This was twenty some years ago so of course I don't remember a lot of what he said, but I do remember him giving a simple Gospel presentation. Then, he followed it with an activity to illustrate to us why we needed a savior and what sin was.

He had brought with him a nerf basketball and hoop, placed the hoop on the door about four feet off the ground and drew a line on the floor a ways back. My fellow classmates and I all got in line and started to shoot, one at a time. If you made the basket you got back into line; if you missed you had to sit down. From what I remember I made a couple of baskets before I had to sit down. There were a couple of other kids who continued to make baskets, then one, and then all of us had missed. Ed then used this opportunity to explain to us that all men have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and that God demands perfection from us. Even though some of us made a few baskets, we eventually missed one and therefore our 'perfect' score was over. He then told us that if we disobeyed our parents even once, or lied once, we were no longer perfect. We had sinned and were in need of a savior.

God really spoke to me through this illustration and the Gospel presentation he gave. From what I remember, this led to me letting my parents know that I wanted to be baptized shortly thereafter. I asked my dad a few weeks ago what he remembered about this time in my life, and he said I had approached him and my mom with this request to be baptized and they were not sure why. They had not brought it up to me that I should be baptized. My dad then told me they made an appointment for us to meet with our pastor and made sure I understood the gospel message and what baptism signified. Shortly after this meeting I gave a brief testimony to the church and was baptized.

As I grew older I found myself drifting away from God as friends at school and around my neighborhood became the focus of most of my time and interests. I was still going to church but my main groups of friends were not Christians. I began to have many influences around me that were far from Godly. Being so young in my faith and not understanding how to live this faith out I began giving into outside pressures to sin. In one sense I knew what I was doing was wrong, but then in another I just thought this is what kids did at my age.

When high school came around my relationship with God was almost nonexistent. I still believed and there were a few times throughout those four years when I defended my faith in Christ, but as I said before I was not living it out. As high school went on I began falling deeper and deeper into sin. At first it started with smoking cigarettes here and there. Then I started to have a beer or two at a party on the weekends. By my Junior and Senior years of high school, I was no longer occasionally doing anything. Instead, I was addicted to cigarettes, getting drunk on weekends and sometimes weekdays. I began experimenting with drugs, having sex out of wedlock and getting into fights with peers.

After high school it was more of the same. I failed out of my first year of college. I began to hit rock bottom. My relationship with my parents who truly loved me seemed broken. I had said and done many things that caused them pain. I found myself surrounded by people who didn't truly care for me and I was struggling with multiple addictions. I had tried everything the world had to offer and I found that instead of gaining happiness and fulfillment, I reaped emptiness and pain. I'd become a slave to sin just as Paul describes in Romans. But praise be to God this is not the full story of my life!

A turning point for me was during a ski trip to Colorado with a couple of friends from high school. I remember driving on I-70 in the mountains toward Vail, Colorado, and as I looked out the window I was struck by the awesomeness of our God and all of the beauty that He has created. I proceeded to tell my friends about what I was experiencing and remember running into resistance from them to what I was saying. At this time a disconnect happened between my friends and I. I felt God telling me it was time to stop seeking the approval of my friends but instead to give over the reins of my life to Him and allow Him to lead.

God began revealing to me the many sins in my life and the need to repent and ask for forgiveness. I then realized there is no greater feeling, as Michael Card states in his song Jubilee, to look into your judge's face and find a savior there. When I deserved nothing but punishment, he showed me mercy, grace and forgiveness through the blood of His Son. I then really began to understand the depth of the forgiveness I was receiving.

I cannot explain the relief and freedom experienced from this moment forward in my life. God began freeing me from the chains of sin. He gave me the power to overcome my addictions, mended relationships and totally changed the way I view Him, myself and the world around me. He taught me that faith in Christ is so much more than a onetime confession of belief, but instead as Luke 9:23 states he was calling me to, deny myself and take up my cross daily and follow him and to put his kingdom first.

Over the past ten years it has been a joy getting to know my creator. I don't know if I was saved as a young child, but I do know that God revealed himself to me in a mighty way in my latter teenage years. I am so grateful for the grace and mercy he has shown me and the wonderful family and friends he has given me.

In conclusion I would like to encourage any parent who is struggling as my parents did during my time of acting out the prodigal son, I would ask you to consider what they did. Continue to love your kids, pray and give the situation over to God, knowing that as Paul taught us in Romans 8:28, "...that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."