September 10, 2023 | 10 AM
Together is Hosted at our Heritage Park Campus

As I’ve gotten older my faith has gotten stronger and I’ve had it on my heart to want to make this commitment in an outward way to God. It’s been heavy on my heart and I’m excited.

Before I decided to really come to Jesus, I always felt so alone, worrying a lot, and always doubting God and a lot of times I just set God aside because I didn't want to deal with it at the moment, but then I went to the Summit View church camp with my friend, and I started to reconnect with God and actually put my faith in Him. Since camp I have been going to church and youth group, and even outside of that I have been praying and talking to God constantly and started reading the Bible. I've finally gotten the clarity I needed, and now I want to commit to following Jesus. I trust and love the Lord so much and I want to follow him forever, and I want to take the next step in walking with Christ because He saved me and my relationship with God is the most important thing to me.

I am a born again Christian. Raised as a Christian my whole life, I never quite understood where I stood with God. I fell to sin when I was twelve years old. The grips of the sins of lust started early, I became a porn addict and felt there was no way out. I lived through my early teens attending church but never feeling like I belonged, continuing to sin against my flesh and listening to satan's lies. I was alone and afraid, falling again and again to sin and depression. One evening at the age of seventeen, I heard God speak to me in the darkness, His words resounded in my ears. You are Saved. These simple words lifted weights off my shoulders. In that moment, I saw a glimpse of what it was to be redeemed. My journey into living in salvation started then and there. After six more years of trials and tribulations at the mercy of my flesh, I have found my place, at the feet of My lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Sin is dead to me, I no longer dwell in my flesh. I give it all to you Lord! You are My rock, My salvation, My everlasting peace! All praise to the Glorious one! Satan tempt me no more. For I am Saved by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" Romans 6:1-2. We have been saved. I'm finally beginning to understand what that means. My flesh will die with this world, but my spirit will live on forever in God's Glory! I repent of my sins, Christ take these of my soul. The devil has used me for his wicked ways and I repent! May we be washed clean!

I was baptized as a baby. So why am I getting baptized now? Because God has called me to. He has healed my heart through my first year of marriage and brought me back to Him. He has taught me the truth and offered me new life. God has loved me and guided me all my days. But life got really hard for a few years there. Emotional and verbal abuse filled my household, which caused me so much pain. And I was sexually assaulted. Looking for escape, I fell into a generational sin of alcoholism to numb the pain. Jehovah-Rapha found me. God thwarted my way with thorn bushes and spoke tenderly to me. He took off my blindfold and I saw my sin and repented. I am a sinner which has led me to the end of myself. When all my hope was lost, I found Jesus. I come before you today to declare victory over death.

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. This is what I tattooed on my left harm after coming home from my first Iraq combat tour. Not knowing I would have another tour less then a year from the 1st, I got this verse thinking IT WAS ME! I was going to church on and off my hole life. Coming from a teen mom who became a dancer at the age of 16 and having 4 kids before the age of 21. I grew up fast and hard, in and out of foster homes and family members trying to help through my youth. I found church while at my favorite foster home. I didn't find God for several more years after years of abuse, alcohol and trouble with school and the law. Eventually I met my second wife. A devote Christian born in to the life of the church and a strong relationship with God and Jesus. She was the first to show me the power of walking with Jesus. I didn't exactly walk with them but I listened to her and pretended to understand and go along with what she was trying to have our life be. I struggled to follow fell hard and fast from not just church but from all respectable lifestyle. I failed myself my career and my family. She seen something in me not to many people had ever seen. She got me to church got me baptized. I failed to follow the word. I fell further in alcoholism and poor choices. Left the military alone, broke, broken and lost. I went to church a few times the next few years but I still thought I COULD DO LIFE MYSELF. The last 6 months I made a life changing poor choice and have been in a very dark head space. After getting lucky and got a small window of opportunity to really change my life. I grabbed it but this time I found a few people at my new job. They pointed me to WESTSIDE. Day 1 I said to myself "I can't do it anymore" since then I been going to almost every Sunday service and even a couple bible study nights. The guys at work have helped me see how much prayer and giving myself to Jesus has completely revamped my life. Cleaner lifestyle deal with depression and anxiety. I am better at dealing with troubles in my poor life choices. I have included my family in this and I can see our family is healthier than before giving myself to God. I'm committed and willing to walk with Jesus and let him take me through this life. This is my testimony as I see it and know that making this step to be baptized is not the end but the beginning of a life that I want. there is so much more I could say with so much more detail but I'll leave that for another time.

I want to get baptized because I love god and I want to love him even more. I will never stop loving him ❤️