 I was asked to speak to you today. I've never had my voice this loud outside before. I was asked to speak to you today about the meaning of baptism, a short message on the meaning of baptism. So baptism is a symbol of a greater reality that we have with Christ. It's a symbol of our death, burial, and resurrection that we have when we're united with Christ. So when many of the people who are here are guests or new to Cornerstone, that you would know when we do this ceremony, it's a ceremony that the Lord told us to do 2,000 years ago, and it's a ceremony where when the person is put in the water of baptism and they're raised out, it's a symbol of how they die when Christ died. They rose from when Christ rose that in His death, in His resurrection, we have hope of eternal life. It's a symbol and not an actual, but a symbol of how our sins are washed away in what Christ has done for us. If you remember back in Acts chapter 2, there's a command from Peter, and Peter in a sermon he says, Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Remember this sermon with me. In Acts chapter 2, it was a time of Pentecost and Jerusalem was filled with many people from every different place around the Mediterranean. All sorts of tongues, all sorts of different languages, all sorts of different sorts of people, and they're there intermingling like we are here. Time, an important event happens. It's an event in history that is the coming of the Holy Spirit, and he comes at Pentecost. That coming is not like a repeatable event, but it's a one-time event like when Christ was crucified. That one event in history and how it has an impact, so the coming of the Holy Spirit is a one-time event there at Pentecost. And when that happens, the people begin to speak in all sorts of different languages to the crowd who has all different sorts of languages, and they begin to speak to them about the gospel, about the wonderful works of God. And as they do that, Peter sees an opportunity. In Acts chapter 2, he begins to preach. He preaches a sermon, and the sermon has three things to it. The sermon is bold, the sermon is biblical, and the sermon is Christ-centered. Bold, biblical, and Christ-centered. In Acts chapter 2, verse 14, it says, he takes his stand with the 11. So with a great crowd of people, Peter takes his stand. It's a bold sermon, because this sermon is going to be contrary to how the people think about religion. The same city had crucified the Lord just a couple months ago, and here he is to preach to them about the risen Lord. And he takes his stand in this bold sermon, and he begins to point to the scripture, and he takes them to the apostle Joel, and he says, do you see all of these languages that are happening? Do you see all of this work that's happening? That is a biblical event. So he was bold, he was biblical. And he points to Joel, and Joel has a near fulfillment and a far fulfillment. The near fulfillment is happening in their midst, and the far fulfillment will happen at the Lord's return. So after Peter, he stands, takes a bold stand, he takes a biblical position, he begins to explain more of that Bible in his Christ-centered sermon. In Acts chapter 2, verse 22, he begins to apply the sermon home with the people. And he says, men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you, by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and full knowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. Peter goes right for the point. He says, this Christ, this Christ, who you know was real. You know by the signs that he did, he was the genuine Messiah. And many people today, many of you are here, and you know Christ is real. You know that the Bible is true. You know that what Christ has to say about you should be respected, should be listened to, and should be followed. Just like they knew when Christ spoke that he was a genuine man of God, that he was the Messiah, and yet they crucified him. In the same way, consider your life. Consider your life and how you've treated Christ. You may have heard about him in some sort of respectable sense, but when you look at your best deeds, they are filthy rags, just in how you look at how you've treated Christ. Think about when you read the Bible. If you read the Bible, when you read the Bible, as a lost person, as a false Christian, we read the Bible for ourselves so that we can show how much we know. We read the Bible to earn our way to heaven. That's a lie. That's a lie. You cannot earn your way to heaven by any good work that you do, not by any baptism, not by any reading of the Scripture. And we use Christ's name habitually, repeatedly, to try and establish our own righteousness. It never ceases to amaze me how many people know the phrase, oh, we're not saved by works. And then you ask them, why do you think I would let you into heaven? And they say, well, I have a good heart. Or, well, by the way, I've lived my life. And yet out of the same mouth, they say, well, I know you're not saved by works. And yet they genuinely believe in their hearts. Many of us, almost all of us at one point, genuinely believed that we were good in God's eyes. And many of us would have said as well, well, you can't be saved by works. Well, how are you going to get to heaven? Well, I'm going to be a good person. I'm going to obey the commands of Christ. Desperately, you need Christ to save you, just in how you've treated Christ. The people here in Acts 2 had treated Christ with contempt. You have treated Christ with the same contempt. And it's shown in your religious works. And how you do them. You do them for yourself. Every one of us is born this way. But Peter continues to explain that this Christ whom you put to death, God has raised up. And he loose the pains of death. And Peter goes on to explain about how this was a prophecy by David, that Christ would rise from the dead. And he says, men and brother, and let me speak freely to you in verse 29 of Acts 2, he says, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he's both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn by an oath to him that the fruit of his body according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. And he's saying, this prophecy is not about David. David's spoken, but this prophecy is about how Christ would be raised from the dead. How Christ is the one who is the fulfillment. And he goes on to explain that this God, Jesus, God has raised up in verse 32, of which we're all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured this which you now see in here. For David not to ascend into the heavens, but he says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit in my right hand till I made your enemies your footstool. David quotes this, and he says, the Lord said to my Lord. David says, the Lord in heaven said to my Lord. And everyone in this crowd, everyone in this Jewish crowd would know this is a messy, anic prophecy. The Messiah was to be the son of David. If David says, the Lord in heaven says to my Lord, who is going to be my descendant, how can the descendant of David be David's Lord? He must be the Messiah. He must be God in the flesh. And so Peter quotes this prophecy to declare that Jesus is God. Jesus is the one who is attested by signs and wonders. Jesus is the one who was raised from the dead. And we celebrate his resurrection this day. And then he brings this message home with the people once again about how they have treated Christ. And so I ask you once again, think about how you have treated Christ. Do you say you love him with your mouth? And then with your life, you treat him with contempt. Do you say I love Christ and I know adultery is wrong, but then you lost in your heart? You say I love Christ to worship yourself, your fame, your name, your reputation. You say I love Christ, religious works for yourself. And then when bad things happen in your life, you blame this God. You say, look at all the good that I've done. How could God treat me this way? How could I be hurt in this way? And you don't see. You don't see that all of those hurts have been to bring you to the Lord in His kindness to call you to repentance. So Peter's sermon is bold. It is biblical. And it's Christ-centered. You're going to hear testimonies about how people have understood who Christ really is. And how did they respond? They responded the same way Peter calls the people to respond here. In verse 38, then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He says to them, repent, turn from this lifestyle of self-righteousness. Turn from the way that you've treated Christ with contempt. Turn and admit in your mind admit down to the center of your being that you have treated God horribly. He has not treated you horribly. You have treated Him horribly. And He has been so merciful to save you. Crucified the Lord. Saved in this day here at Pentecost. Christ with contempt. Every one of you be baptized. There is baptism. If you go around, you will see baptism of children ages 5, 6, 7 and 8. And you ask the children, do they understand the gospel? Many of you have been baptized when you were a similar age. When you did not know the gospel. When you did not know your own sin. When you did not understand the work of Christ. When you did not understand the essential things to be a Christian. And yet how many children have been baptized? In that same sense, making a lie of conversion in Catholics in the world. Baptized as babies. Thinking that it washes away original sin. And it makes a mockery of baptism. It's to a symbol as though it was the Savior. It's a single sin washed away today in that lake. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to that have somehow thought that they're baptism as a baby or as an adult. That they're depending on that act to get them into heaven further from the truth. Instead, it is not the Savior but it is a symbol. It is a symbol of what the Savior has done. Do not mix the truth too. It can become damning. The reason why Peter mentions them together here now is because he's describing conversion. He's describing conversion as a whole. Just like if you were to say to a couple, okay, a couple that wants to get married, okay, you need to go make your vows, get your rings and get to the church. If you say to that couple, go make your vows, get your rings, go to the church. Getting your rings doesn't get them married. Getting to the church doesn't get them married. But their vows, before God and before the witnesses, that's where the marriage takes place. In the same way Peter is describing the experience of conversion here. This symbol. Just in the same way if I were to say the pen is mightier than the sword. Am I talking about actual pens and actual swords? No, I'm talking about what the written literature stands for and what a sword stands for with war. In the same way when Peter is commanding people here to be baptized here, he's speaking of what the impact of that symbol that they're to be baptized because their sins have been forgiven. They're to be baptized because of this reality. This is a great symbol of a great reality that Christ saves sinners. And we are a sinful people and we need a savior. Listen now with these testimonies and examine your heart as they talk about their savior how they were when they were lost how they heard the gospel and how Christ changed their lives. So that the symbol here that when we go to the lake it's a symbol of what Christ has done in his work on the cross. It is a symbol of his death his burial and his resurrection when the person enters the water of baptism and give Christ the glory for the work that he has done. So I say to you I say to you all God commands you to repent and believe in the gospel and then because of what Christ has done the forgiveness of sins be baptized. Amen. The privilege of sharing with you to tell you about my second birth I had nothing to do with my first birth and I had nothing to do with my second birth and thank God for that second birth that's why I'm here today to share with you the good news of what Christ did in my heart. I was brought up in church my mom went back to church I was 10 years old and I was overwhelmed by what I heard the word being preached that way and growing up I came through the years I had seen a lot of heard a lot of testimonies and see a lot of lives changed and some of them just I was overwhelmed by the change because I saw some of them in their old life and I saw them their new life and the sense that there must be a God and I grew up thinking well it was a combination of things that would always go through my mind as a young person you know you struggle with what do you believe how do you believe it even who you are and at times I thought well I'm cool I'm good because I don't do the real bad stuff so I'm good I'm alright I thought I had to help God with my testimony so I could have a good testimony a big testimony so people could see wow there really is a God and there was one day where I got home from school I was really super really low and really depressed my goal was to turn 16 and quit school because I hated school so much struggle with reading and writing and I just couldn't wait to turn 16 and quit I had a plan I thought I was going to turn 16 and just go get dirty go to the dumps then have a testimony I thought to the extent where I thought I had to go do the real bad stuff quote unquote and then one day when I went into my room it was really a small bedroom it was almost like the size of a closet it would only fit a twin bed and a nightstand I knew what hunger was I grew up poor I was ready to wait as long as it took I prayed out to God I said I'm going to stay here until you show up there are times where I want to believe you're real and there are times where I truly doubt that you are so if you are real show up come and show me yourself and I was willing to stay in that room until he did and it wasn't too surely after that that he did show up to the point where he showed me my condition before him I saw my sin I felt my sin I just had a sense of his holiness and I felt so filthy and dirty this is a kid that's in church and never went out and messed around and done right but he showed me my condition it's like the Holy Spirit reminded me the word and said if you can be one you're guilty of them all and that kept and it was so clear to me this is I'm guilty I'm guilty as everybody else that I consider to be worse than me and all I could do with that moment was repent I broke down and cried and I felt such so much shame for my sin and the fact that I even thought those words the fact that I even challenged him and I had a sense at that moment of forgiveness I had a taste of grace and mercy over me to the point where all I could do was thank him then for my prayer changed from repentance and brokenness to just a grateful heart and I'll never forget that day I was only 16 years old but I knew that it was real this time because I knew that I wasn't going to be perfect and I knew that he was going to hold on to me my prayer was Lord till the day you come till the day I die I want to serve you with all my heart, soul and strength and I know that it was God that brought me into that room that day to show me my condition before him and I'm so grateful that I know I didn't deserve it and yet he did that for me called me in my room and I went looking for my dad in Puerto Rico not surely after that I didn't know my dad, I grew up without a dad and again I had a sense of I had to forgive my dad the way God forgave me that he forgave me first and whatever thoughts whatever I had in my heart for my dad it just went away and I went looking for my dad I thank God I was obedient to that and again he gave me the strength to do so again thank you for this opportunity and I just worshiped the Lord I thank him for calling me saving me, rescuing me and looking at me now as if I were as if I were Jesus Christ knowing that I got a long way to go I got a long way to go but I thank him that he continues to teach me and grow me and I'm sorry if I took more than my three minutes be blessed last thing was on law today an incredible experience attending Cornerstone we've been coming since October and I just can't tell you how overwhelmed George and I have been with the love and just I feel like I know a lot of you for years and it's just been an awesome experience here I had to write mine down because as a child I stuttered and when I get nervous I start to stutter so I figured let me write this down I was brought up in what was supposed to be a Christian home my dad rarely attended church and my mom was the one that brought all five of us to church Christianity was not clear nor was it biblical but since my mom did bring us to church and since God's word does not come back void I would feel convicted at Sunday school and during services there was one evening though when the minister was preaching and was talking if we were to die where would you go I was not able to answer that question as he proceeded to explain I realized how sinful I was and that I needed to repent and turn to Jesus for me attending church was an escape from my home life but I was truly lost and also suffered from severe depression many times in my depression I had the urge to run away from home but all that changed when I repented and turned to Christ my longing became knowing Jesus more I was baptized a few months later and through the years and my youth and now as an adult God continues to refine me though I have challenges sanctification is a wonderful journey trusting God each day and there's something that I want to do that God impressed in my heart today George and I were having difficulty because George had the truth and I wanted to continue going to a charismatic church or I just wanted something else and I just thank God for George's faithfulness he never gave up on me God never gave up on me and though I have repented I still want to say I'm sorry to George for the hard time that I gave him but the Lord really impressed it in my heart during service today that I needed to do this in front of you all because I truly gave George a hard time I really thought he was losing his mind and my life has been changed I am not the same person and I just thank God for George's faithfulness and just the way he leads me the way he serves the Lord I just automatically listen submit gladly I just felt like I had to share that today thank you CBC how we doing today for those who don't know me, my name is Augustine Estrella I've been coming to Cornerstone for about 6 months I didn't know God I was a problematic child to see Jesus to seeing him around the age of 16 that's when I realized there is a God who passed away at 16 so I went to church with my brother and they were having that sermon or in that play but they were saying they're happy and they go about to come I shrink back from what Mr. Matugi and we were going through saving faith you shall name his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins never saw it and so I knew he came to save people for his sins so that stuck with me I continued to go to Cornerstone but again I shrunk back I professed to know God but in my works I denied I denied him the brothers the leaders here were beyond gentle with me lovingly, patiently calling me to repentance calling me to I said forget it I'm not going to come to church tomorrow I can't do it the truth of the matter was I did not know God came to my house and he said hey bro I just want to talk to you I don't even want to talk so we started talking we talked he told me a little story happened to a brother and sister here in this church that happened to a loved one of theirs and that story stuck out to me and I was like wow man a conversation in my brother coming to me which I believe the Lord sent him to me prior to that I got angry with God just going through the motions and I'm like man dude I can't live my life like this I know I can't live my life like this and I got mad with God saying God I didn't even ask to be born I didn't even ask to be here it's not fair that I got to suffer because I didn't even ask to be on this earth he comes along and he talks to me after that conversation God just gave me a desire to just start seeking him listening to sermons and I heard a sermon on apostasy I was listening to the sermon and I was just sick to my stomach and I was like man I'm an apostate I'm done this is not good listening to sermons okay I'm gonna sum it up sorry the sermon got scared so I started searching through scriptures and so I was listening to Psalm 78 and in Psalm 78 there's a guy named Ash and he's talking and he says this Psalm 7813 this is what stood out to me he says and he divided the season to pass through and he made the water stand up like a heap in the daytime also he led them and he also led them with the cloud and all the night with the light of fire he split the rocks into wilderness he gave them drink in abundance like the depths he also brought streams out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers but they sinned even more you know I wasn't there in the wilderness but in my life you know God has shown himself to be real you know and just man if I tell you the story you'd be like wow alright so and it says but they sinned even more against him by rebelling against the most high in the wilderness and they tested God in their hearts by asking for the food of their fancy yes they spoke against God they said can God prepare a table in the wilderness behold he struck the rock so that the waters gushed out fast forward okay and then it says therefore the Lord heard this and was furious so a fire by the way I always thought that God was mad at me when I sinned and so therefore he didn't want to be he didn't want to look at me you know I had a misuse a misview of God and then because they didn't and it says so a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel because they did not believe in God and did not trust in his salvation and that was the root of it all unbelief that was the root of it all and that's when I said Lord I am Israel I don't believe in your power to save me I don't believe that your power is more powerful than my sin and um it was like a light bulb went off like Lord you are more powerful than my sin you are you can save me and then going through and listening to the sermons in Isaiah where it says that if you would just turn to me I will forgive you of all your sins all of them every single one of them and I believed them it's like a light bulb went off and I believed them and um and that's how it all started and I've been coming here and um I believe the Lord changed my heart you know I love the Lord I want to serve the Lord with you guys with my church this is my church you guys are my people CBC for life um and um sorry for taking over your time but that's it you know if there's more I mean there's more of you guys like you know if anybody's interested you know I'll be willing to talk to you aside we get more in depth and we'll talk about it you know the Lord really changed my heart and he changed this heart of stone into a heart of flesh and caused me to um to obey his commands and that he will persevere me to the end all right hi everybody well for about two years we love you too sir in a Haitian home where I was taught to love God growing up in a tradition um um essentially every day the church I used to attend was a Pentecostal church where you will come to display um your looks and your popularity on Sunday you were disobedient to God I got baptized at the age of 15 but from that point on I lived my life as a liar a thief, an idolater a sexual and moral person as Purse Corinthians spoke of I was a very moral person but in God's eyes I was his enemy I was always angry and I was always ready to curse someone out people who didn't care about me I put myself in situations where I could easily be killed um I did a lot of dirty work in secret but I was never caught deep in my heart I was saved because I got baptized no matter how many times I sin all I had to do was ask for forgiveness and I would be okay there was neither no repentance or sorrow over my sin but one day my brother came over my house to tell me about the church he found and how he's been living um a completely different life and how we've been against the Bible he continued to evangelize to me to the point where I was his words began to be offensive I started to distance myself from him and I didn't I didn't want to hear him talking much about the grace of God in 2012 I was in a car accident um that really hurt me and I was overflowed with tears um the people thought I was crying because I was hurt but at that moment I realized if I would have died I wouldn't went to hell I fell into a deep depression and loneliness my old church family didn't have any concern for me if I was alive or if I was dead I became very bitter and angry just thinking about all the good works that I did in the glory of men but not in Christ I finally decided I would visit cornerstone because my brother wouldn't stop talking about me was talking about it so I came to visit after I visited I didn't like it my reasons were the people were too friendly and they asked too much questions and the preacher preached too long and I remember getting more and more confused and found myself thinking about how I was a hypocrite I hated myself but still remain to show anger towards my old church for not pointing this out for me for 20 years I've been there but instead I worried about I'm sorry 22 years I've been there but instead I worried about coming back to church and I've seen the work but all they worried about was me coming back to church so I can work with the youth months later I decided not to go to church anymore when my brother would ask me to come to church I would have an excuse why I can't go from the time of not going to church my brother kept talking to me about believing God and how God changed his heart I started attending a small group from there to open and realize that I needed Christ and how sinful I was before him I went to my old church leaders to ask him a question about these things and what I've been learning and all he kept doing was shrugging his shoulders to eventually he told me to eventually he told me to leave I was crushed and surprised that a person I saw as my shepherd would let his sheep go straight all the while God had a plan and I just didn't know what it was I continued to come to Cornerstone from all the Biblical teaching and encouragement from the body my desires and thoughts and visions and dreams and life and heart started to change through Christ I started to put my trust and faith in Christ in him alone I don't know when exactly I got saved but all I know it was the grace of God if it wasn't for the grace of God I would be here surrounded by faithful God seeking people and caring for my soul I thank God for placing me in a Biblical church I praise God every day for the mercy he has shown me and I pray that I can be a good example to Sabrina that God has blessed me when I was 18 my life has shown nothing but growth and I praise God every moment I am alive to spend it with faithful servants Good afternoon, how you doing? Good to be here good to listen to all the testimonies that God's been working on and everybody here are standing here and many of you also I want to start by saying that my name is Vasco I'm 33 years old and I grew up a Catholic but I didn't know I didn't want anything to do with God's will nor didn't understand what God's will was and purpose of life my understanding was that God has three persons he created all things predestined men to heaven or hell I knew there was a God but I didn't know him in 2001 I remember having a conversation with someone who just mentioned me the two commands you shall not have another God before me and you shall not make yourself any carved images in the likeness of anything in heaven above in the earth beneath in the water under the earth and those two commandments just caused me to realize that I had many many idols besides the one that you can easily understand that the Catholic Church teaches so due to that next day I remember calling my mom and I told her that I no longer wanted to be a Catholic because I had been deceived for so long by traditions that I didn't understand yet I didn't know God nor how much weight my sins carry but I sure love them because I didn't have any desire direction or zeal towards God's word after that I kept living in my sin hating hating him and I can say taking advantage of God's grace with my lifestyle which let me start to start having a better taste of my own ways at this point in my life God had granted me a family that without realizing how careless I looked over them with my life put them in dangerous situations my wife and I were not married at that time living in fornication in 2010 I remember hearing, I mean praying with my kids reading a kids book of the Bible you saw the kids Bible story intending for all to read it as a family and learn about it but I didn't want to participate we kept living in a sinful life teaching our kids hypocrisy mocking God by our lifestyle eventually all this was bringing great shame on myself but focusing more that I didn't want to lose my family I wanted to change my ways but I still decided all the wrong things Proverbs 419 says the way of the wicked is like darkness they do not know what makes them stumble one night desperately for a change I cried out of God to help me change my ways I told them I know you're real I don't know how to do this but I beg you that you help me I don't know if you've heard my supplications or somebody else's prayers Isaiah 59 verse 1 and 2 says behold the Lord's hand is not shorting that he cannot save nor his ear heavy that he cannot hear for your inequities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you that he will not hear around that time on March 2011 I have found a new place of work and on the month of July Brother Augustine started working there by God's grace God sent Augustine to work right next to my working station I introduced myself to him and throughout the days we engaged into conversations about God's Word that in his mercy used all of me to tell me the condition of my heart how rebellious it is towards God's laws that he knows it better than I do Jeremiah 17 9 and 10 says the Lord says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it that either Lord search the heart test the mind even to give every man according to his ways according to the fruit to the fruit of his doings there was a particular day that he spoke to me how I deserve God's wrath because of my sins that I've broken all God's laws and God being a just judge I prepared a place for the unrighteous I guess there was an expression on my face that led him to plead with me not to harden my heart from these sins he told me how God hardened Pharaoh's heart and that really stood out to me I remember going home that day with great conviction of my sins if we can harden our heart imagine God hardening your heart you know that is a scary thing and I say because it was to me we can harden our heart to his word all the time and him taking that action it just led me to think not being able to sleep how I was going to go to hell if I was to die on that day in my spiritual state throughout time Augustine preached to me the reason why Christ came to the world was crucified which is for our sins for those who turn away from their sins by trusting in his finished work on the cross 2 Corinthians 521 for he made him who knew no sin to be sinned for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him as time passed by I started to have desire to know more about Christ I started listening to sermons from Cornerstone and many other pastors conviction came over me from different areas John 16 age says and when he has come he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment my thoughts, my desires behavior, language were slowly but radically progressively changing I started to feel disgust by lying a shame of lusting at other women admitting my wrongs asking for forgiveness when I got angry at anyone even when they didn't know it I started hungry for God's Word prioritizing it above many other things God has shown me to be more thankful and content with everything that he has given me and not given me the work of Christ on the cross has broken me by showing the love for the Father the Father to him and the unconditional love to wicked sinners Christ has given me the strength and boldness to preach his Word even to strangers which that was a difficult thing for me and I'm pretty sure for many of you teaching me to do it lovingly with compassion pleading with others to consider his message of reconciliation God is the only one that saves there is nothing in this world that can save us my infinite thanks and praise to God I was made by and for him for his glory he fulfills the meaning of life and having no other place to go whenever I grow weary I want to throw in the towel he reminds me that I have nowhere else to go everything else will lead you to destruction and I just want to serve him I want to thank Cornerstone Pastors the brothers who have encouraged me in different ways and I just want to keep serving here with you guys and just praise God for that I've always been that good kid who did what their family said I was a man pleaser the thing with me being a man pleaser was that I took all my emotions and my opinions and I hid them away where no one could see them I externally followed a script that I thought was acceptable to others while on the inside despised everyone and everything around me although I showed my hatred for God in my actions I didn't think I hated him at the time but I didn't also think I loved him I barely even knew if there was a God let alone the God of the Bible growing up I attended both a Catholic and a Pentecostal church on a regular basis depending on the member I was with and that skewed my ideology of God on one hand I saw the mindless rituals and empty works while on the other hand I saw a bunch of people jumping up and down doing really strange things I was confused I would think if these things are what God wants for worship then he must be bipolar I never bothered to read the Bible to find out there were so many other great books to read besides a boring Bible in short I was lost, foolish, and going nowhere fast except Hell the first time I heard the Gospel was roughly three and a half four years ago in a car leaving a bookstore spending some quality time with my brother despite living so near to one another I really took the time to be with him it was different I remember him going through the law with me and piling on the bricks real high the more bricks he piled the more the tears started coming but I wasn't crying because I was soft or broken over my sin I was crying tears of pure hatred my brother caught me without a script I had nothing to say no lines to follow I was cornered and I hated him for it not too long after they came the cornerstone and by God's grace they were saved and naturally I didn't appreciate that miracle because now I was going in a church full of people I didn't have anything to say to I started reading my Bible going evangelizing morphing in order to act the right way to say the right things all along the testing everyone in the process little did I realize I was starting to understand sin more I was starting to see hints and glimpses of the gospel but I didn't react to it at all and if anything the knowledge that I was receiving was puffing me up feeding my pride making me more and more self-righteous as someone who has never partook in any obvious displays of sin I found myself judging others unrighteously at my school for evangelizing downtown I hated the things I would witness but not because it was an offense to God but because it was distasteful to me last year I saw my sin hurt a lot of people around me usually that would make me happy because I was very petty but it pained me to see my family in pain by the time summer came around every sermon every evangelism conversation every time I opened up the bible I could feel the hardness of my heart being shipped away I could finally feel the weight of my sin the notion of hell, judgment and wrath got to me they plagued me to the point where a good night's sleep was utterly impossible it was by God's grace and mercy to break me in this time he lowered me to my knees and had me crying out pleading for him to pluck all my wickedness from my heart to grant me the ability to repent from my sins and lead me to the cross and in that time by God's grace I was saved since then I've actually been able to love for a change loving my family, my brothers and sisters and above all Christ instead of just seeing glimpses and hints of the gospel the glorious picture was unraveled to me before my eyes painting the wondrous work of the cross in fine detail although I battled with assurance a couple times in the last year I just feel so blessed that the Lord would choose to give me a love of the scriptures a love of the brethren and a love for Christ and the zeal to follow him and follow his commandments I'm so thankful for my family for the church leadership for being faithful and everything they've been doing and for God for blessing me with so much and showing me incredible mercy Catherine and I grew up in a Christian home and was sent to a small private Christian school by the age of six I said the Sinners prayer I did everything that I knew I was supposed to do I read my Bible and I was baptized and was very involved in my church however I did all these things for my family and not out of love for Christ I was a light wash tomb I looked good on the outside but the reality of my heart was that of a disobedient covenant line the blasphemous idolater I was spiritually dead and heading to hell in November 2010 I came down to visit Stephanie Jones during my visit to Cornishstone one of the ladies went through the beatitudes with me and my eyes were open to the fact that God with all my heart so much strength I wasn't even trying to I began to see myself as an enemy of God deserving hell and all my good works were just filthy rags there was nothing I could do to save myself from my eternal punishment I have offended a holy and righteous God and my heart was far removed from him the only hope I had was Jesus Christ he lived a perfect life that I could never live he satisfied God's wrath by dying on the cross and he took upon himself the sins of the world he overcame death proving once again he is God and only turning for my sins and denying myself and following him whole heartedly would make me right before God for demands of perfection through God's mercy and grace in the spring of 2011 God saved me I no longer seek man's approval but God's and any good that I do is be held because of Christ for I have been crucified with Christ there is no one on my eye but Christ who lives in me part of mission at Children's Church they told me how important it is to ask Jesus into your heart so that you could live for him I can't count how many times I went to the altar and said the prayer to ask Jesus into my heart and it never seemed to work I continued on trying to uphold the values and morals that my parents taught me by not doing what typical teenagers did and was seen by my friends as the church girl I did not see myself as needing a savior because I had much pride and self-righteousness using the standard of my unsafe friends and family when I turned 18 and was about to head off to college I decided I was an adult and could do whatever I wanted hope I deserve to have fun after being such a good daughter friend and student but my parents were quick to let me know that I don't get a reward for good behavior after that I felt like well if my parents don't appreciate my goodness I might as well live for myself and that's what I did my first two years of college I had a boyfriend with party and drink all still while believing I was a Christian and God would understand I would pray almost every night to ease my guilty conscience but it never worked I knew God was angry and not pleased with me several times I would have people in my life to call me to him like my co-worker who would always provide me a church and Bible study I would go although I knew I was living for the Lord I knew I was a hypocrite and that God would give me over to my sin like it says in Romans 1 28 to a depraved mind and my life would forever be in the devil's hands out of this fear I broke up with my boyfriend lost several friends and decided to dedicate my life to Christ my last two years of college my life got better I got invited to a college Christian group so that I could meet like minded friends and went to church consistently again I would thank God for my new life yet started to miss my sin I kept moving forward graduated and moved back home to Orlando and had spiritually plateaued I met a friend named Scott who introduced me to the doctrines of grace and realized I had a very low view of God I was invited by a woman's group by cornerstone by Kevin Scott who introduced me to Tye Burden then so we could carpooled a small group together I noticed instantly that the woman's group at cornerstone was different than what I was used to in a great way I had true motivation to read understand and apply biblical teaching and had true accountability I eventually wanted to visit the church as well and the preaching was very difficult to hear because it was preaching against sin and that there is a choice to either turn or burn I was thinking for myself this is too harsh I went home after church actually read my Bible about the passage from the sermon I Google search turn or burn and Charles Spurgeon came up I started reading his sermons and realized this pastor is preaching from the Bible and it's convicting me this is what going to church is all about it is not the pastor's opinions or ideas that convict people it is the Bible that pierces the heart and makes one recognize our sin and our need for God I also realized it wasn't truly converted but had a proud and self-righteous heart seeking man's approval for God and didn't love his commands I saw myself in the mirror of God's perfect holy law and when held to his standard alone I was a liar a murderer an adulterer at heart blasphemer by calling myself a Christian while practicing sin idolater by creating a God of my own imagination to justify my sin and had broken God's laws repeatedly intentionally with no remorse I was encouraged to read the book of John by Anya Dempsey to study the life of Christ I realized during a soteriology class that I needed to put all my faith trust and confidence in the righteousness of Christ and not my own if you truly repent of your sin God will faithfully impute you with the righteousness of Christ and he will be a substitutionary atonement for your sin God has humbled me tremendously through the preaching of his word the love of the brethren that have had concern for my soul my mind and my heart had been transformed to a desire to obey the will of God you have to die to yourself pick up your cross daily and follow Christ or you are not worthy of your life pull yourselves under the mighty hand of God and he will only lift you up as Ephesians 2 1-10 says I want to encourage you all today here and now to examine yourselves do not put your trust in traditions formal prayers good deeds or more reformity it all leads to pride you need a righteousness that is not your own you don't know what tomorrow may bring our lives are nothing more than God says James 4 8 so today is the day to repent and believe the gospel good afternoon everyone my name is Barbara Denise Jackenetta most of you know me like Barbie I just want to say I really thank Lord for today's baptism I'm really grateful to be here John 1633 I have said all this things to you that in me you might have peace in the world you have tribulation but take heart I have overcome the world I've learned that the only way to overcome this world is to Christ I was a girl that loved to party and to get drunk I was an adulteress I was a liar to the point that I believed my own lies I think I shopaholic in other words covetous and prayful one and two on the best brand clothes Michael Corvax Dolce Gabbana Jimmy Choo I wanted to be different than the average girl my vocabulary was spoiled with horse words I was selfish I saw my own gain I lacked health control as a result I suffered from an eating disorder I was prescribed antidepressants to fix my problem which only made worse I was in my heart I was obsessed I'm having a successful career and a lot of money my desire was to become a remarkable federal agent for ICE for online security and travel with that job I traveled to England and Wales to study abroad through UCF and I was obsessed with moving there then I learned that God's will was for me to serve from here at Cornerstone I started then working at Coals with loss prevention my supervisor was Lena Sierra she saw my struggle and a moment of frustration and tears she shared the gospel with me as she opened the word of God I felt that God was talking to me in my trouble time God's word became to my ears a soothing comfort because she's shown me that he wasn't God's will for me to be measurable in this simple situation that I was in I started crying with Lena she then invited me to Cornerstone Baptist Church 10 years later I finally decided to come November 2012 was when I first started coming finally however after several months I was still not repented I didn't fellowship nor didn't come to evening service I only saw myself self gain and what helped me back from coming to church was my ex-boyfriend I was going to move in with him in Texas and I had no intention to marry him because of my sin and my idolatry and immorality he said to him even though he was manipulative abusive and unfaithful one night I became bitter and frustrated and jealous to the point that I almost had violence with those girls but the Lord was so gracious to me and good to me that that night I happened to call sister Debbie Davis she answered her phone and witnessed to me she has showed me how my ex truly didn't love me even though he said he did in 2013 about how love is patient love is kind it does not dishonor others it is not self seeking it is not easily angered it keeps no record of wrongs law never fails now I will never find anyone outside of self defense I am very grateful on how sister Debbie Davis has been discipling me as well as sister Anya because of her trials in her life one day I was at the grocery store there was a girl standing in her truck she was on my way from Meadow Park I honked her for her to move but she told me there were more spots and I reacted by apologizing instead of the old me saying what is your problem and started a drama then I realized the Lord had truly changed my stunning heart for a flesh one as I walked away I started crying and praising the Lord for changing me entered through a narrow gate for the gate is wide the wide is easy that leads to destruction and there are many who entered through it for the gate is narrow and for the way is hard that leads to life and there is only a few who find it Matthew 713 I praise the Lord so much for allowing me to find a way that I kept all these years I kept neglecting neglecting every time someone tried to talk to me about Jesus Christ now Christ is my life I am no longer my own who were bought and redeemed by his precious blood that he shed on the cross a listing I can and want to do is to pick up his cross and follow him for as long as I live I praise God for bringing me to Cornerstone Baptist Church I am very grateful for my soul to be here and to belong to this amazing biblical church through the gospel of Jesus Christ that has changed my life I love you all, bless you