 And in Romans chapter 6 verses 15 through 18 the apostle Paul writes What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law? But under grace Certainly not Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey? You are that one slaves whom you obey Whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness But God be thanked That though you were slaves of sin Yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered and Having been set free from sin you became slaves of Righteousness so as I was considering what to share tonight. I Thought of simply sharing my testimony. There's a reason for it as mentioned a moment ago We're putting together a packet and all but tomorrow marks my My anniversary my spiritual birthday tomorrow December 27th I'll celebrate 48 years of walking with Jesus Christ And so I wanted to share a little bit about what led to that in my life, and I appreciate your Your your applause. It makes me feel so good. No, I do appreciate that. Thank you so much for caring Yeah, I've only given my testimony as I'm going to do tonight twice in 48 years the very first message I ever gave behind a pulpit when I was 2029 years old was my testimony that's the first time I ever really gave my testimony and and a few years ago I Gave my testimony somebody had asked me to teach and give my testimony and that's what I did So I've been teet. I've never really given my testimony though You're you're gonna recognize it, but I've never done it like this outside of two other times And so I wanted to share with you my testimony as I begin. Let me let me state this somebody says well What's a testimony the word testimony? Can be defined in various ways a testimony is a statement or declaration of a witness under oath or affirmation Usually in court, you know, they give their testimony a testimony is also used as evidence in support of a fact or statement it's proof or As in my case a testimony is an open declaration or profession of faith And so I want to share an open declaration or profession of my faith Now you might say why would you want to do that? Well Paul felt that giving testimony was a great way of communicating faith in Jesus Christ when you read your Bible You'll discover that on many occasions scripture records him sharing his personal testimony He gives his testimony in the book of Acts in chapter 22 and Acts chapter 26 in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 in 1st Timothy chapter 1 verses 15 through 17 in the book of Galatian chapters 1 and 2 in Philippians chapter 3 they all give insights into his conversion and so he wanted to give his testimony because it gives glory to God you see the purpose of giving Testimony is to bring praise and glory to Jesus Christ our Savior as it says in Psalm 22 verse 22 I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters I will praise you among your assembled people and that's what a testimony is It's to give praise to God in front of people So I want to give an open declaration of my faith in Jesus Christ now I'm a little concerned because when I give my testimony I have a tendency and I don't like that's part of the reason why I don't like to talk about it Is I have a tendency of not not simply giving facts But as I'm speaking my emotions go back to the event and and I don't like that about myself But it's just true if I start speaking about something not only am I talking about the details But I began to feel what I was feeling at that time. So in advance. I'm gonna tear up I've already asked the Lord, please know but he he doesn't answer all my prayers and so He usually does he says I'll do what I want But I I'm just it I'm just warning you in advance. So here we go. I was born in 1950 in Whittier, California My father and my mother were first-generation Americans. I'm supposed. Yeah, there they are. I knew it. See That's why I don't give my testimony They were They were first-generation Americans born to Mexican immigrants my family on my father's side came to the United States in the early 1900s and My my father's father was from a a town called Kerala north of Mexico City and My mom's parents came from Jalisco from Her mama was from Los Altos from what I understand and so they Both emigrated legally. I should say into the United States in the early 1900s and I My dad was born in LA. My mom was born in Whittier. I was Born in Whittier lived my first year of my life in Los Angeles and my dad bought a house in the city of Norwalk in 1951 My father wasn't a religious man My mom had deep religious feelings at four months of age She took me to be baptized at La Placita Church in Los Angeles in Alvera Street Right there. That's where I was baptized in December of 1950 And though my mom didn't go to church the way that she would have liked to you see my father Not being a religious man didn't like religion and didn't like the Bible Because the only person he ever knew who read the Bible was was to in his way of thinking was crazy so my father Wouldn't allow my mom to read the Bible But my mom being my mom decided that if she wanted to do it Well, that was one thing she disobeyed him with and so she had her little Bible that she would hide from my dad and so she wanted to be a Religious person because she wanted to be good and so that's why at the age of of Four months she took me to this small church and that's why she had me baptized There was one thing that my mom tried to teach me as a little boy that I've carried in throughout my whole life and That was to pray. She was she was somebody who believed in prayer though She didn't have a relationship with God She did believe that there is a God who does listen and so she tried to teach me how to pray And I can still remember the first prayer that I ever said out loud. I still remember it I was four years old My mom was bathing my sister Madeleine who was Probably around a year or so old. I was probably four or five at that time and at that time I don't know if it's still true today, but then Often the babies could be or would be bathed in the kitchen and my mom would close sliding doors and things and turn on the oven to warm up the room and That's where she would bathe Madeleine because it was warm in there And I can still remember she had that little pocket door closed my brother Frank and I were playing in in the front room when the there was a sound of something crashing on the ground and Then the pocket door began to move to vibrate you could hear it rattling and I opened it up I was about four or five and I opened it up and when I opened slid open that pocket door my mother's body fell into the room and she was having an epileptic seizure and She was lying between me and my sister Madeleine and I was afraid to get close to my mom because I didn't know what was going on But I was afraid my sister was going to slide off the sink because she was on the sink a little baby a year old and I remember pressing my shoulders against the the wall of the as my mom was at my feet and I remember praying God. Don't let my mother die. That's the first prayer. I can remember praying I was probably a little bit less than five years old my brother ran across the street got a neighbor who came and Helped my mom and that was the beginning of illnesses that my mother had until the day she died What that did in me is it developed a fear that my mother could die at any time and She had epilepsy and it became one of a series of illnesses that she suffered throughout her young life My mom began to have illnesses when she was around 24 years old and never never healed Ever for all those years over 60 years. My mom was one sick woman and as a little kid My mom was hospitalized on a few occasions and I began to fear that she wasn't going to come home When I was about six years old My mom was in the hospital again, and I remember I still remember crying myself to sleep And my father walked into the room and he said to me What are you crying about now? My dad was one of these men of his generation? He had very little emotion would show very little tenderness of any sort Is real rough my father's voice was real rough as I recall when I was little and he came walking in and he said What are you crying about and I said my mom mama's in the hospital, and I miss her and I was crying any And I'll never forget what he said to me He said if you're a good boy, she will get well and so when he told me that at that age I was baby maybe around six years old less than seven I Tried to be good and at that age I did the very best I could do to become a good person So my mom wouldn't get sick So I became a very good student I remember in in the second grade I don't know how they hand out the report cards today They're different than when we went to school those who are my age category used to get about 30 grades You'd had you remember that so maybe you remember you had about 30 grades So I wanted to be the best I could be I got 29 a's and a b-plus and I was upset about the b-plus You know I wanted straight a's I was a perfectionist I was going to be the best that I could be so that my mom would get well And so I remember that I remember getting upset and all of that trying to become a very good person I became very religious I At the age of seven or eight I received my first communion when I was 12 or 13 I received my confirmation Now at the age of seven my mom suffered severe depression and my mother became abusive And my mother became suicidal I Still remember couldn't have been more than eight years old That my dad and mom and my brother and I were in the car We pulled up to a like a precipice to a cliff and my dad and mom walked out And they were standing on the edge of a cliff and my mom comes walking in and climbs into the car And she turns to me and my brother and she says I almost jump, but your father kept me from jumping That's what I lived with. That's what I thought every day. I would run home from school every day See I don't like to remember sometimes She'd be on the ground Having a seizure I Was seven years old eight years old nine years old and I was getting alcohol and rubbing it on her and holding her I didn't have a childhood I was trying to be The man take care of my family They care my mom Then I had to take care of my sisters I don't even remember what my older brother did at that time But I think he found ways to bail pretty early and it was left on my shoulders To try and take care of my family And my mom began to drink on occasion and when she would drink she would get She'd go into rages She would scream and she would lash out At the smallest things and when she would drink and that alcohol would be mixed with their meds She'd have anger and I can still remember those times that you would get so angry and so violent One Christmas We didn't get gifts as a matter of fact We didn't get them for a while. My dad was working two jobs to try and pay for my mom's medical bills And so we didn't get Christmas gifts. We didn't get a Tree anything like that, you know, I was real embarrassed about that I can still remember my friends had the trees and all of that but we got what we called a Charlie Brown if anything and usually it would be like the last Day or two before Christmas and they gave him away at the lots It wasn't because my dad was poor. He he he wasn't that he was poor. It was that all of his money was going to medical bills And so we just didn't expect anything, but I do remember one Christmas. I was probably about eight or nine we got gifts and I was so excited about it that I went into the I looked in the room where the gifts had been wrapped just to just see him and my mom found out and She got so mad at me. She threw me on the ground and kicked me and Began screaming at me how much she hated me kind of took the sparkle up Christmas for an eight-year-old So I began to question What is love? If the one you love the most your mom does that Then what is love? Then what is love? so I began to wonder What does it mean to love and I didn't trust anybody and if somebody said that they loved me. I Never believed it Never did my dad seemed to be unaware of what was going on and So the more he withdrew I withdrew So my mom eventually started working to keep from being with us and hurting us and I began to grow lonely Eventually I just got tired of the anger and the hurt going on and at about 15 I began to drink and At that time I began to believe that if I had a girlfriend I could be emotionally healthy I began falling in love with anybody I thought could love me and none really did So at 15 I began to drink at 16 I began smoking pot at 17. I Experienced experimented with LSD Started using magic mushrooms THC We used to smoke something called keef hash I Started dropping whites and yellow jackets and reds But alcohol was easier to get because I would steal it Or I'd get somebody to score us some wine or some beer and I began to steal Mostly clothing, but also I would go into stores and steal alcohol At that time I was a child of the 60s music was more than something I enjoyed It actually set a tone for what I wanted to become as a California guy the beach boys established my picture of girls and Relationships and so I liked songs like surfer girl in California girls. I get around don't worry, baby Help me ronda when I grow up Wouldn't it be nice? God only knows those are the things that I would listen to and I like the song 409 too Because I like fast cars I Began to mix that music with the British invasion Then psychedelic rock then heavy metal. I know that anybody knows me at my age You think you know, you're just an old goat. I was a headbanger. You wouldn't believe it But I I liked I liked psychedelic rock a lot led Zeppelin and create the cream whom the who the animals yard birds stones Bob Dylan the birds Buffalo Springfield Simon and Garfunkel Crosby stills National Young Janice Joplin Santana Jefferson Airplane. There were all groups that I liked Especially was influenced by the moody blues and the Beatles the Beatles were more than then just a musical group to me They were for-profits. I actually listened to the things they had to say thinking that they had the keys to life And so they became very big in my life Around that time at 16. I was I got arrested for being a drunk I was drunk in public and threw me in jail in Washington's birthday at age 18 I stole some whiskey and burglarized the jewelry store got arrested. My dad got a lawyer Stanley H. Brown I still remember him and he remembered me for a long time as he would send me Christmas cards Hoping that I was in trouble again, and we could hire him My dad hawked his house He actually got a second on his home to get this Beverly Hills lawyer to keep me from going to jail Because of the crime that I had committed I could have gone to prison for it At age 19. I got arrested for drunken public again, and my dad sent me to a psychology Psychologist as this is all going on all the drinking and all the partying all the drug-taking My friends began to die. I had gone to funerals my cousin. I had a cousin named Richie and Richie Richie lived in in Venice Not in the nice area of Venice There was a time when Culver City in Venice was in a place that you thought was a nice place to go Some of you may know that it was a rough place, and I had cousins that if they didn't know it was me I could very well have gotten shot just go ahead and see my aunt I mean they were rough people they were rough people and so my my my cousin Richie died of a heroin overdose when I was 12 years old and They found his his body in a field and it had been consumed by ants And so it was a closed casket funeral and so now I'm starting to see relatives and now friends I had a friend named Dave Smith Dave and I used to party a lot together and Dave was on his motorcycle, and he was driving under the influence of alcohol acid and reds and He drove his motorcycle into the back of a a parked truck and Hit it face first and had a closed casket funeral I had a guy that I don't even remember his name, but I used to party with this guy and and and I was 19 I used to be working for a florist and I would deliver flowers and funeral wreaths, and I had to go to Excuse me to Rose Hills and I went in and I read the card of the wreath because I had to place it on the casket and It said this kid's name, and I thought I know someone by that name and I'll never forget the shock I felt when I placed the wreath on the casket and looked into the face of a guy I had been partying with just a couple weeks before he had died of a drug overdose. I had a friend named Billy Billy Cogar Billy Cogar was at a tasty freeze just hanging around. He got stabbed to death The one they hit me the worst was my friend Ray Casada Ray and I had been friends since we were five years old and He was very dear to me in very many ways He was a guy that my mom didn't like me hanging around because Ray was always in trouble Always doing something wrong, which why I liked him. We were so much like he had an alias His name was Augustus Romero. His real name was Ray Casada, but his his alias was Augustus Romero And so I had an alias mine was Don Johnson. I saw I look more white than Mexican. So I'll be Don Johnson But Ray was very dear to me I could tell you stories about him how he came knocking on the door one day and said David's go we're going for a ride. I see who's got a car. We're only 15 He says well, we went down the street and we borrowed one and they had they had gone to the international Harvester, which was just up the street and they have found some keys and they pulled out in this big suburban like Harvester and all not one of us knew how to drive. There were six of us in this thing driving through the neighborhood You we used to do crazy things like that all the time. We used to go to Stanley Chevrolet You know Stanley Stanley Stanley Chevrolet, you know two blocks off the Santa Ana freeway 119 80 East far So it's Stanley Chevrolet. You remember that one We used to go to Stanley Chevrolet and they used to leave the keys in the cars Some of you might remember that they used to leave the keys in the cars And we would find them the furthest from the from the office and we'd climb in those cars We'd turn them on we'd put our the put the brake on drop it into drive We'd rev it up until we were smoking the tires and then we just watch all the salesman come running out to chase This down the street. That's what we would do during the summer. We had a lot of fun and never got caught My mama didn't like me hanging around with Ray, and I just don't know why it was because he had all those ideas That's the way he was Ray and I were very good friends from the time we were in kindergarten and now we were in high school and And Ray was across the street from my house. It was a party And my mom had said to me son, I don't want you go to that party. Please don't go to that party I have a bad feeling and For you know once I obeyed her and I went to visit some other friends when I got a call From my mom. She said Ray was shot tonight and What had happened is Ray had gone to that party and when Ray went to that party There was a guy named Pete that he and Pete had a running Beef running conflict if they fought more than once they did not like each other Pete showed up at the party. There they go my friend Mikey Mikey Taurus another kid that I grew up with in the neighborhood Mikey saw Pete was there and Mikey went a couple blocks home got his gun and came back and when he came back Ray and Pete started to have a fight in the International Harvester's parking lot and Mikey leveled to shoot to shoot Pete and When he leveled and fired Ray dove at Pete to take him down and he got shot in the head and the next day my friend Bill and I and some of the kids went to Studebaker Hospital and We climbed on each other's shoulders and looked into the ICU and I saw my friend Ray hooked up with all of these tubes and he died in a couple of days and that started to hit me I started seeing friends dying and One day I was at a pastor's conference and a young man approaches me And he says to me David. He said I'm an assistant pastor at a church in Lahabra He says but I wanted to ask you did you grew up in Norwalk and I said yeah, I did he said Did you have a friend named Ray Casala and I said yeah, he was one of my very best friends He said did you know a guy named Mikey Mikey Torres? I said yeah, Mikey shot Ray. Yeah, I I know I know Mikey Yeah grew up with him. He goes. That's my dad That's my dad. He said I heard you sharing on the radio about Mikey He said and that's my dad and I want you to know that my dad got saved Now Mikey the one who shot my friend Ray Mikey spent 30 some years behind bars 30 some years behind bars and One day I was teaching here at a men's conference and here comes this this guy And they say someone wants to talk to you and I walk down there and there's this guy standing. He's got you know The tats the whole nine yard just kind of standing and he says it is you like that. I'll never forget that it is you He goes you got blue eyes. It's you Yeah, he goes it's Mikey man How you doing and Mikey is serving the Lord now with his son and a Calvary into the light ministry in La Habra You know, but he's the one and and I mean we're he's still very dear to me and He he accidentally shot his best friend when that happened and made me start thinking about death Because I was getting crazier and crazier's I Was I was with a friend of mine named Angel and we were together with the couple guys I didn't know in the backseat of my Volkswagen and We had pulled over because we thought a party that was going on was That that our friends were there and so so my my friend Angel opens drove rolls down the window and these two girls were walking by and he he wanted to ask him about the party but they got smart with him and they said things to him and so he got mad and We we some guys came out and before you know it they're throwing beer in his face and they threw a bottle at my car and You know, I said we don't want any beef with you man We just you know, so we were driving away and that got me upset So we went up on Pioneer Boulevard in Norwalk any of you guys are familiar. There's a there's some apartments That are on Pioneer by the by the park and and we went into a party There were the Majestic's a car club was having a party there And we got seven carloads of guys and we went back to the party and when we went back to the party We found the guy who was starting the trouble one of the guys and my friend Angel started to fight with them and when Angel started fighting with him some guy I didn't know said Angel I still remember this and and he had a switchblade and he and he opened it up and put it in Angel's hand and Angel stabbed the guy right in the lower chest and The guy started to bleed and the guy grabbed hold of me and started, you know Crying and stuff and and blood was on and I shoved him and it got crazy it got crazy and and I went home and My brother looks at me and I've got blood on my t-shirt and he says what are you doing? What's happening to you David? What happened to you and I said I don't want to talk about it, but I was starting to spiral. I was starting to go down. I'm seeing friends Die. I'm starting to be places. I shouldn't be and then right around that same time. I almost died I I I took five reds barbiturates and I drank over a quart of wine and I almost I Almost Odeid I was laying in the back of my car. I was about 18 19 years old and I started to want to vomit and that's a sign of barbiturate Poisoning and I knew it and I was paralyzed I couldn't move and I remember that's the first time that I remember praying saying God help me I'm too young to die and so that was going on all at this time. It was getting crazy and everything You can see a picture me in the hallway. I think we might have it here That's me at that time. That's that in my left hand is I think that's either gin or rum and you can't see my mouth, but I have a joint in my mouth and Flashing the peace sign because yeah pieces all of that right and that's in front of my parents house I mean I didn't hide it I mean in the neighbors knew that I was a doper and a drunk and it was one of those things like so What if you don't like it who cares, you know, that was the way I was at that time and I started getting worse right around that time I in 1969 I got drafted they had what they called the draft lottery. I never won anything, but I won that And so I was supposed to be inducted into the military on August 25th and And It was 1970 I was yeah August 25th 1970 my birthday is August 23rd I have a friend who was born the 24th another friend the 25th So we combined our birth dates and we got loaded and drunk with a lot of people all night and I came home at 3 in the morning and then at 6 I got up to be taken to the induction Center in LA and My mom and my dad and my two sisters were in the kitchen when I walked in and My dad had his arms folded my mom was crying my sisters were crying and my mom says why couldn't you come home? Your brother stayed home when he went into the Navy. Why didn't you stay home? And I said you don't have anything to worry about I'll be gone. You won't see me again for a couple of years I'll be out of here. What's the big deal? And so my dad was so disgusted with me. He put me in his car and drove me to the induction Center But because I had been arrested for for that burglary charge even though I'd had been Dismissed I came home and when it came home I started getting even worse I threw it to a three-day party at my house Well, my parents were on vacation they came home and I had to take off for a while and I was just going down the tube I was taking so much drugs and drinking so much that in a month. I dropped I dropped 30 pounds because I wasn't eating. I was just drinking and smoking dope and just partying and Going down so in September of 70. I went to Monterey for the Monterey music festival and I dropped magic mushroom and was smoking pot for the weekend and I remember seeing a young couple with a small child They were all dressed up in clothing that they had made out of bed sheets and it hit me That's my future if I don't get it together. I'm just going to be I'm just going to be Without anything and I was there listening to the moody blues and I was smoking pot and I was in Pacific Grove and I was thinking what am I going to do with my life because something's got to change I'm messed up and around that time my a friend of mine invited me to go to church. I didn't want to go So I went to my parish priest because I was raised Catholic So I if I'm going to get counsel from anybody it's going to be a priest And so I went to my parish priest at in Santa Fe Springs St. Pius the 10th church and I made an appointment to speak to the priest and I remember walking in and I said I got a friend who's all weird. He's a Protestant and He's telling me I need to receive Christ as my savior, but I told him that he's he's he's he's wrong But I need your answers to give to this guy Can you help me because I want to argue with him because I know Catholicism's the right way She said I knew that I was going to marry a good Catholic woman. She was going to pray my soul out of purgatory I had it all down, you know, and so I said, you know, you got to give me answers And I'll never forget that priest looking at me and kind of folding his arms and saying well, you know He goes I I I tried Eastern religion and I tried other things He said I came back to Catholicism. So will you so I walked out of that room there I was about about about 20 then and I said and this was my response I said he doesn't know God If he knew God He'd be trying to convince me to know God the way my friend is and that started I started thinking about that if he knew God He'd be talking about Jesus and so my friend Bill once again says you got to go with me to church And so I went I went to Calvary Chapel. Do we have that picture of the church? And that's what it looked like when I went That was a small chapel there. You see all the kids on the floor everywhere there was no there was There's there's no seats you you actually use the person in behind you you use their knees as your Backrest that's how it was and they would fill that place up And that was the first this isn't a picture of the first time but I went when it was like that and I I remember walking in and All of these hippie kids and and I had I had smoked some pot. I had drank some beer. I was barefoot I was long hair. I was sure I was gonna get kicked out and and when I walked in I I was very surprised. I had never felt what I felt there again. It was love It was the purity of the love of God. I I felt that I sensed it well As I mentioned I had been drafted I was supposed to be appearing for induction because they started sending me notices and every month I'd write back and say I'm sorry I can't make it because you could do that at that time so I got a doctor's appointment You know, I've got to go to the DMV or and you could do that So I became a pen pal with with somebody wrote me several every month You are hereby ordered for induction and I'd write so I can't do it my foot hurts, you know, and I was doing that And I finally said I Got to do something about this because again in December I Was invited to go to a Christian concert in Hollywood at the Hollywood Palladium And that's the kind of concert that I went to that is a picture of one of the concerts at the Hollywood Palladium and I went to that Christian concert and I tried to get out of it. I Didn't want to go. I had a friend who was receiving a kilo of marijuana from from Thailand and At that time, you know, that was that was the stuff you wanted and so and it was free so if it's free it's for me and so I I So I went to my friend Bill's house and I said, you know, man, I can't come I know I promised that I'd go with you But I can't and and he had his van parked behind my car And and I was waiting in the car for them to move and I saw all these heads go down Then they all came back up and he climbed out and taps on my window and he says we prayed and told God that we want You to go and God said you have to go so you have to turn your car off And you have to come with us and I figured, you know, if God told him that, you know, he must be serious, you know I So I turned my car off I did and I climbed into the van with them and off I went to the Hollywood Palladium and And and that that there was a concert and there was Pre-cheating and and I still remember them singing this song love love love love Christians This is your call love your neighbor as yourself because God loves all and again You gotta remember the one thing I didn't have was that The one thing I didn't have was that and I heard him singing and I remember Standing with my hands in my pockets feeling like I don't belong here and I had my hands in my pockets and my friend George Adams and a young lady named Laurie were right behind me and Adam and George said to me Dave and I turned around and they opened a space between them and Welcomed me and I put my arm around their shoulders and I didn't know the song. I Just knew that something was going on and so an evangelist named Arthur blessed it came up And he gave a message and at the end of the message he said if you need Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior stand to your feet and I say God I'm so uncomfortable here and Lord has spoken in my heart Why are you uncomfortable? I said I'm not like these people Well, what makes you different? I'm not a Christian. That was the first time. I even admitted to myself. I thought I was speaking to myself It was conviction of the Spirit But I said I'm not a Christian and so when Arthur blessed said If you need the Lord Jesus to forgive you of your sins to cleanse you and give you a new life Because I had started at that time praying and I started saying to God. I can't do this anymore I've hurt too many people, you know I can't tell you all of my story. You don't want to hear it, but I wouldn't want to tell it It just I was just not a good person. Just not a good person Filled with anger filled with hate Filled with bitterness just and I knew it. I was over I was hurting people all the time I was stealing from friends. I just I hated what I was doing but I didn't know a way to get out of it and and and Now I'm sensing something and I finally say I'm not a Christian and That's when Arthur blessed said if you want the Lord to come into your life Stand to your feet and I prayed and I said God I I need you. I know I need to become a Christian I know I need you, but I'm shy. I can't stand in front of anybody But if somebody would would stand with me I would stand and That's when Arthur blessed said if if you're afraid perhaps you're afraid to stand up by yourself But if somebody would stand with you Would you stand and my friend George tapped me on the shoulder and he said I'll stand with you And that's how I got saved. I stood up December 27th 1970 I gave my heart to Jesus Christ And I have stood for him ever since I want to close with a couple of thoughts here What can God do with a broken life? I? went out and that night I witnessed to my friend's mom To my friend's younger brothers and sisters I went home. I walked into my parents den I said to them and mom and dad my two sisters. I love you praise the Lord My sister Madeline came and asked me what happened to you and I said I gave my heart to Christ tonight I my sister Madeline went to her bed that night and she said whatever you did for David God Please do it for me, and she got saved that night three weeks later I was reading the Bible as you've heard me say this before Revelation 9 You know men with iron teeth and women's hair and scorpion stings and I'm just well What is this, but I went and spoke to my dad and mom and I read that passage to them and said I don't know what this means, but I do know this it's not talking to me It's talking to you and I said to my dad. I said daddy I said you're a good man. You are the best man I will ever know but you will be the best man in hell if you don't give your heart to Jesus Christ I said daddy I love you, and I don't want to go to heaven without you bow your head You're gonna receive Christ right now as your Lord and Savior and that's what my dad put his head down And my mom put her head down, and that's how they came into the kingdom Well, I still had to go see uncle Sam. He still wanted me to spend time with them So I volunteered for the draft meaning I could choose my induction date and my friend Bill and I went into the army in in March of 1971 my son Joseph asked what I learned in the army that helped me in ministry and Well in this service I learned things about personal discipline about following orders about working as a team of Doing good for the benefit of others and lessons like that I was honorably discharged in December of 72 and in 73 I began attending Biola College As a Christian service assignment, I began teaching a home Bible study first in Norwalk in September of 1973 But on August 4th 1974 my brother got saved and I began to teach a small study in his apartment in November A young lady named Marie attended this study and three weeks later She got saved my sister Madeline led her to Christ and then she needed discipling in 77 we went to a small Calvary Chapel in Claremont in 1979. I was ordained as a minister 1981 I planted Calvary, Ontario now Chino Valley and over the last 37 years God has done marvelous things. I was rebellious lonely angry aimless and Now I'm a Christian a husband a father a grandfather a member of the Calvary Chapel Association The council and I have a beautiful church that I love with all of my heart. I have seen that God delights in performing his work on the platform of human human impossibility and It's all by his grace. It's all by his grace Again, what then shall we sin because we're not under law, but under grace certainly not Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey you are that one slaves whom you obey? Whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine To which you were delivered and having been set free from sin you became slaves of righteousness