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My name is Daniel.
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I'm 18 years old.
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And almost a year ago, God saved me.
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I stand here.
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I want to proclaim the Gospel
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in my own testimony
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and just how God did that work in me
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that you too may come to faith in Him.
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Most of all I want to tell you
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that there's no level of sin
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and there's no amount of wickedness
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that keeps a man from God,
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but it's his own pride not to come.
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And for a long time,
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I was prideful enough to
keep my sin in the dark.
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My dark deeds were
not exposed to the light
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because they would expose
them for what they are.
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And if that was true,
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God would have judged me.
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They were true
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and He would have judged me.
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But you need to know that now
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I serve a living Savior.
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He's alive in me.
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And He's done a work.
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Please hear this testimony
I have to tell you
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that you may come to saving faith.
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God shows His love for us
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in that while we were still sinners,
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Christ died for us.
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On April 23rd, 1991,
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I began my war with God.
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That's the day I was born.
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At age 5 or 6,
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though God created me to mature
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and to be holy and pure before Him,
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at age 5 or 6, Satan said
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your sexuality begins.
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And I said, yeah, you're right.
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And through elementary
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and throughout middle school,
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Satan said this perversion continues,
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and I agreed with him.
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And high school came and I stopped.
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I stopped living my secret sexual lusts -
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these actions that no one knew about
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except God.
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And the only reason it ended
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was the fear of man
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because I didn't want to stop doing it.
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I loved it.
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I loved what killed my conscience.
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And if it could have been seen,
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it would have been a scarred,
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brutally beaten body - almost to death.
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That's what my conscience was like then.
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And the only reason I stopped
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was because I was growing up
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and I knew what people would think
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if I continued this way
and they found out
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how I felt about people of my own gender
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and even my own flesh and blood
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and the things I did in the dark.
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The things that God's
law says are perverse.
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He absolutely hates.
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No, I truly didn't stop doing it
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because it was an abomination to God.
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I truly stopped because...
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I cared more about what people thought
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than anything in the world -
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even more than my lusts.
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That's how much I cared
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what people thought about me.
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Not because I hated sin.
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I loved sin.
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But in the midst of this -
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me growing up this way -
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I began to isolate myself.
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Fear and shame became my outer shell.
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And I began to collect
in the midst of all of it
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all types of materialistic idolatries,
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but never truly worshiping
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or considering the God who created me.
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And for that I am ashamed.
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I am so ashamed.
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With everyone applauding my good grades,
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I began the greatest abomination of all.
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In the midst of what I knew I was
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and had done and was
still doing in my mind,
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though I physically stopped it,
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I actually thought I was better
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than most everyone else.
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And I looked to people's approval
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of my behavior externally
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and my own conduct in school.
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I began to think of myself as good.
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But if I had faced God in those days,
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He would have ended my life.
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And if He would have brought
me right before Him,
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the angels would have been
the ones applauding.
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They would have been applauding
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my damnation.
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Then my teenage "churchianity"
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only multiplied what I can imagine
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God felt toward me - fierce wrath
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and wanting to pour out vengeance.
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Because I treated myself then
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at that point in my life as redeemed.
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And it was under a false Gospel.
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But God being the merciful
Savior that He was
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and He still is
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just showed me
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the consuming fire that He is,
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and in that blinding light
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He brought me face-to-face with Christ
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almost a year ago from today.
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And I felt like I could not escape then.
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And I felt outside of Him
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enough to proclaim to those
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giving me the Gospel
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that I had been hearing a false Gospel.
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I was able to admit it.
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Only in God's mercy was He allowing me
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to see that and believe that.
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The living Christ in these
pages of His Word -
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they came alive to me that night.
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And realizing God, I fled
to the living Christ.
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I fled to Him - that Savior.
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That Mighty One.
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He gave up His life
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and bled on that tree.
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I was able to live and see
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the way Christ lived
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and the way He saw God.
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I was able to live like Him.
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I was able to live like Christ.
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I was able to see the Father
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the way God the Son saw God the Father.
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And now, to some of you,
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I will see in that final day
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doing the very things,
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having done those very
same things that I did,
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hearing this truth -
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even doing worse things than I did,
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being poured into the lake of fire.
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That was what I deserve.
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But God responded to my hate
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with His own love and His Son
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in that while I was a sinner,
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He died for me.
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And many of you it is my prayer
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will stand with me as brethren on that day
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having done what I did,
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having lived what I lived,
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and rejoicing as He pours out His love -
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His undeserved love -
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and it is of light.
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And it is a consuming fire.
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A burning love and bright love
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that fills those heavens
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so that there is no sun,
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there is no moon.
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There's just Him.
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And all that thirst will come to Him
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because He has given them life.
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And all my false relationships
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and all my lusts
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and all my perverted sexuality
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and all of my pride and self-righteousness
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in the midst of those lies -
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He abundantly pardons
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and gives me a true relationship
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and a true love
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and a true romance
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that is Christ with His bride
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for all eternity.
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And amen.
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You alone are my heart's desire
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and I long to worship You.
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You alone are the true joy giver
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and Lord, I want to yearn for You.
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You alone are my strength, my shield.
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To You alone does my spirit yield.
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You alone are my heart's desire
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and I long to worship You.
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Amen.
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Everything that I would have owed God
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and never would have finished paying for,
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God justified me.
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God is love.
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But for some,
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they will be as metals cast into a furnace
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melting under the pressing
heat of His anger.
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Come to Him.
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He will justify you.
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Believe in Him
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that you may be saved.
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Romans 1:21-32
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For although they knew God,
they did not honor him as God
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or give thanks to him, but they
became futile in their thinking,
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and their foolish hearts were darkened.
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Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
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and exchanged the glory
of the immortal God for images
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resembling mortal man and birds
and animals and creeping things.
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Therefore God gave them up in the
lusts of their hearts to impurity,
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to the dishonoring of their
bodies among themselves,
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because they exchanged
the truth about God for a lie
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and worshiped and served the
creature rather than the Creator
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who is blessed forever! Amen.
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For this reason God gave them
up to dishonorable passions.
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For their women exchanged
natural relations
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for those that are contrary to nature;
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and the men likewise gave
up natural relations with women
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and were consumed with
passion for one another,
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men committing shameless acts with men
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and receiving in themselves
the due penalty for their error.
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And since they did not
see fit to acknowledge God,
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God gave them up to a debased mind
to do what ought not to be done.
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They were filled with all manner of
unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
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They are full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, maliciousness.
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They are gossips, slanderers, haters
of God, insolent, haughty, boastful,
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inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
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Though they know God's righteous decree
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that those who practice
such things deserve to die,
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they not only do them but give
approval to those who practice them.
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1 Corinthians 6:9
Or do you not know that the unrighteous
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will not inherit the kingdom of God?
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Do not be deceived: neither the
sexually immoral, nor idolaters,
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nor adulterers, nor men
who practice homosexuality...
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2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone
is in Christ, he is a new creation.
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The old has passed away;
behold, the new has come."