My Personal Testimony

This episode is a brief recount of how the Lord Jesus Christ changed the life of a drug addict! So thankful for how the Lord changed my life!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:36

All right, well, welcome to the very first episode of Daily Delight. This first episode is going to be my testimony episode. And if I had to choose a verse, it would be Mark chapter five and verse eighteen. It says, And when he was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. Albeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel. Nineteen years ago I did not know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior before July 16th of 2006. And I had uh I had grown up in a good home, as a broken home, didn't have both parents at home, but had a mom that loved me, cared for me, took good care of me, and great family and all those things. But I was uh bitter, bitter young man, certainly as a teenager especially, really began to become very bitter, and uh began to um try drugs and alcohol and different things like that, and um it wasn't very long before those things really got a great hold of my life. And it uh the Bible says that sin is pleasurable for a season, but soon seasons soon change, uh as we all know. And there was a time when it became something that I didn't just do on the weekends, but something that gradually consumed my life. And uh the worse that it got um the the more my life began to fall apart and all those things, and of course uh got to where couldn't hide it and things like that. And and my mom had been praying for me, and um my uncle and her came to me and had a kind of intervention. My um addiction had gotten to so where I was stealing and doing things in secret, or so I thought in secret and uh and everything, and and my life was just just basically it was falling apart and uh different ways, relationships broken, job being affected by it and all those things, and of course my home life as well. My mom and my uncle came to me and they said, You've got to do something. And I uh, you know, basically to get them off my back, I kind of agreed to go to a rehab and an outpatient program uh near where I live, and started going to that and kind of got my head clear. And all the time that uh that I had been on drugs and things, uh especially when it got bad, and I didn't seem to be able to control it anymore, I used to drive by Tabernacle Baptist Church here in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and I always felt like something was telling me that I needed to go here. And I remember hearing a testimony of another man that had gotten saved, and the Lord had changed his life, and uh something was drawing me here to this place. I was gonna get kicked out of rehab because I had a relapse, of course, is what they call it, continued to use. Um and so to for me to stay in the rehab in the outpatient program, I had to write down uh all the things, the events that took place for me to come to that place of relapse. And to be honest with you, that was something that was really helpful to me because I believe for the first time in my life I saw where my sin was not only affecting me, but it was affecting the people around me. And one of the other things that I had to do to stay in the rehab was I had to get a sponsor. And if you've ever been to any kind of uh AA or NA meetings or anything like that, you'll know that uh you have a sponsor to help walk you through the steps and all those things. And so the gentleman that I had read the story about, had I had heard that had gotten saved and the Lord had changed his life. I went to school with. Didn't know him very well, but I knew who he was, and so I thought, well, he uh he would be someone that would be easy for me to talk to because I know him and I'll choose him to be my sponsor. When I came to the church, I I uh sat in the parking lot for quite a while. I was very uncomfortable, didn't never hadn't been to church in a long time since I was a little kid, and I I was kind of afraid, to be honest with you, to go in. Uh, but when I finally did, worked up the nerve to go in, um, I heard stories like I'm telling you right now. I heard testimonies of other people that had accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and that had heard the gospel that uh God had changed their life. And so uh I, to be honest with you, I thought they were a little strange, thought they were different, they were very different. Nothing like I had ever been to or ever heard before. Uh, but I also uh they in the addictions ministry that I came to here, I had heard uh also the preaching of God's word. And this passage that I just read you from Mark chapter 5 is about a story of a man who was demon-possessed and uh met the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ cast the demons out of this man and changed and God changed his life in a great way. And that was the first preaching message that I ever really remember hearing that spoke to my heart. Uh my mom had told me when I was younger I had been to a church and made a decision and different things like that. I do not remember, I do not believe that I got saved at that time. I do not ever remember hearing the gospel uh before coming here to Tabernacle Baptist Church, but that night I heard uh I heard a preaching message and it spoke to my heart. I didn't get saved that night. The people that were here were very friendly and uh definitely trying to compel me to get saved, and I'm so thankful that they did, but I I didn't get saved that night, and so they invited me to church and of course invited me back to the addictions ministry. And I kept coming back for about five or six weeks and heard again, heard the testimonies, heard the uh gospel again that Jesus died for my sins, was buried, and raised again the third day, and that if I would call upon him, that he would save me. They also were uh one of the things that I had to do to be in the program was to memorize a Bible verse. And uh that Bible verse was in the book of Isaiah. It says, Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God who will abundantly pardon. And I didn't know it, but the seed of God's word was being sown in my heart. And of course, my mother was praying for me, and I had other family members and people here at this church that were praying for me, and God was working in my heart. I kept coming back, as I said a moment ago, for about five or six weeks, and finally came. They invite kept inviting me to church. I finally came on a Sunday morning, and once again I heard the gospel and uh was surrounded by the people that had been testifying of the grace of God and how the Lord had saved them and changed their life. And I knew that I was lost. I knew that I needed to be saved. And uh when the invitation was given, I raised my hand that I wanted to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. It wasn't the raising of my hand that saved me. Um, it was faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. My friend, he took me to the preacher's office, and he showed me from the Bible that uh that I was a sinner. He showed me that Christ died for my sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and raised again the third day according to the scriptures. And my friend took the Bible and he showed me that by faith I could accept Christ as my Savior. And that day, as Romans chapter 10, verses 9 and 10 says, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. I called upon the name of the Lord that day, and just simply by faith, trusting what God had said, I don't remember the words that I said when I prayed or anything like that, but I by faith accepted Christ as my Savior that day, and I remember, and I and I'm not basing my salvation on a feeling, but something happened to me that day. My life changed, something changed on the inside of me. And I remember stepping out of the preacher's office, and I felt like I had stepped into the world for the very first time, but could remember my life before. And from that very moment, God changed my life. The Bible says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. God forever changed my life that day. I believe he saved me that day, and I have not been the same since. And ever since then, as this man that was possessed with the devil and had had the legion, as he came to Jesus, the Bible says that he went from crying and cutting himself with stones and all the things that he was doing and being bound with chains, he was sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And the Lord Jesus Christ changed me that day. And Jesus told this man, he said, he wanted to be with Jesus. He just wanted to go on and stay with Jesus, but Jesus told him, it says in Mark 5, 19, howbeit, Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed and began to publish into capitalists how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel. And that's what happened to me. The Lord Jesus Christ saved my soul, and he changed my life that day. And I wanted to tell other people about it. Uh I wanted to share the good news that they could be free as well. And I began to do that. I began as best as I knew how, I began to tell people that uh what Jesus Christ had done for me. And I began to learn about the Bible, and I began to grow as a Christian, and and certainly was not perfect. I still had a lot of the baggage of my old life on me and struggled for many years with different things, but uh there's not a doubt in my mind that the Lord changed me and saved me that day, and I have not been the same since. Um, not long after God began to really deal with my heart about preaching, and I really struggled with that. I had uh a lot of things from my past uh that were that would uh hinder me from certain positions and certain offices in the ministry and things like that, but uh but God has never left me alone for 20 years almost now. He has never left me alone about preaching his word. And so I began to uh the church here had a Bible college. Of course, I started coming to church. I followed the Lord in baptism two weeks after getting saved, and uh just just started coming to church and being faithful and listening to the preaching and teaching of God's word, and uh started coming to the Bible college and things like that here and and just just really had a hunger and a thirst for the word of God, and it really began to do a work in my heart and and change my life. And uh ever since then I have been trying to study, been trying to learn and grow, and just share the things that God has given me with other people. He's opened many doors for me to be able to preach and teach and do different things and work in the ministry and things like that, and I'm so thankful for that. Uh, but the Lord changed my life. And I guess if I was to move, so there's three parts of a testimony, uh, as uh we we learned in a lesson not too long ago in a Sunday school class, uh, or life before Christ, how we came to know Christ, and I've shared those things with you now uh just a moment ago, but now uh what Christ means to me now, He has put me into the family of God, He has made me a child of God. God is now my father. I I grew up in a broken home. My dad wasn't around much when I was young, and so you know I I kind of missed out on the father figure, but God has been that to me. He has been my teacher, he has been my provider, he has been my friend, he has been my father and given me the love and the care that I've needed, and I'm so thankful for what he's done in my life. And um I cannot explain to you how important the word of God is in my life, and that's what this podcast is all about. It's my desire to share with you the things that God has shared with me from his word. I'll be honest with you, I don't understand. I there are people that I know that have accepted Christ as their as their Savior, and I don't know that they spend time in God's Word every day. To me, it has become something uh that is is a necessity in my life. It's not something that only that I need, but something that I want. You know, Jesus said um in Matthew chapter four and also Luke chapter four, he said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live. And to me, the word of God and has just become something that is a daily part of my life. And I desire to be able to share the things that God shares with me, uh, but also to put a hunger and a thirst in the hearts of others so that they also would find that the Lord is daily their delight. And that's what this podcast is all about. I just want to I want to get the gospel to people. I do believe it's what God has called me, and I believe as well as uh every Christian, He's called all of us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and uh that's what he wants with our life. And so um my desire is to share those things that God has shared with me, and uh and I hope this will be a blessing to you. But we will be uh our first book that we're gonna start in is the book of 1 Peter, and it's something that I have taught through a couple of times now, but has become a very special book to me. It's uh it's about basically some Christians that are suffering and about how to live life as a Christian. You know, just because we're saved doesn't mean that we're gonna be exempt exempt from trouble and difficulties and all those things, and Peter deals with that uh during the time that he wrote that book that Christians were suffering great persecution, and he shared some things with them to give them hope during that time of suffering and that time of difficulty. And so I hope that you will uh share this with other people. I hope that you will listen to it, and I hope that it will be a help and an encouragement to you. But until then, may the Lord bless you and have a good day.