Michael's Testimony
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You Can Only Serve One Master
You Can Only Serve One Master
Who do you pledge your allegiance to? Where does your purpose reside? In someone or something.
Many may know you on the outside, but who are you really?
A question I have tried to answer throughout my life.
Early life
Born in Kalamazoo Michigan in a Christian home
Mom (Michaele), Dad (Mark), Older Sister (Makenna)
Moved to California at 2 years old
Away from the cold to new jobs, start something ‘new’
Desire to do things ‘right’ and be the best that I can be
Told my parents if I did something wrong. Always wanted to tell the truth
Attended First Baptist Hanford
Professed faith at about 6/7 years old and baptized at 11
Sports and other extracurriculars
Involved in many sports and extracurriculars from a young age, played football, swimming, baseball (not good), water polo, and many of the other sports
I was busy, active, but when I stopped every once and a while I felt small, feelings of finiteness and lack of purpose began to creep into my head at a young age
Thought deeply about everything in life; a lot of things were a big deal
Younger Years (MS/HS)
Middle school and High school were very formative years in my faith. Was a Christian in title but not identity.
Who will I serve?
Wasn’t into partying, drinking, or anything of that nature. Was more on the ‘outside’ of many groups. Was more shy, reserved, but opened up when I felt comfortable. Wanted to do the right thing in order to gain approval but didn’t have a greater understanding why
High school may have been ‘successful’ on paper and to others but internally I was lost, confused, and lacked identity
Involved with a few different girls. Felt a sense of identity in who I was to them. 2.5 year relationship. Compromised on my values in many ways.
Thinking deeply about life and made justifications for why I was doing what I was doing
Water polo teammate died
Are you going to continue to look at the things of this world or are you going to follow me? Are you doing what you are doing for the approval of others or for the Lord?
Senior year joined small group with best friend (future best man); become more in tune with the Lord and His desires for my life (fellowship with other believers)
College
Entered to be a CHP officer
Began to think deeply about what the Lord would desire for me to pursue. Felt immense pressure to have everything figured out.
Thoughts about what my dad had said growing up (money, stability, etc.)
What is this for? Is it about what I want or what the Lord wants of me? Are you doing what is right for the approval of others and for selfish gain?
Took a ministry class.
Changed my degree to Biblical Studies and also took Psychology classes.
If you didn’t need to get paid, what would you do? What job would you feel most fulfilled doing and that your gifts are being most used? Where you are serving Him and not yourself?
Dated another girl (ended in a weird position)
Will you serve the Lord even if it doesn’t make sense?
Fell in love with drama ministry and the arts, being creative and doing things outside the box
Began to understand more of myself and how God has created me through art and media (very visual person)
Felt the call to serve at a Christian camp (the Lord answered this prayer)
Met Mollie at a place in which we were both serving the Lord to the most vulnerable people
Mollie and I did long distance, skyped, called, eventually got engaged (she is the exact person I have wanted in a spouse); she’s goofy, fun, loves me for who I am
Marriage
Married during COVID
Boomerang from California, to Texas, back to California
Lots of instability and change throughout our marriage. Many highs and many lows. Trying to find consistency and sense of identity together.
Lived in parent’s back house, felt call to go to Texas, Texas didn’t work out and moved back
Learning what it truly means to love in being married to one another (What Christ’s love looks like and who He truly is is reflected in our marriage to one another)
Mollie and I have made it a goal and aspiration to live extraordinary lives for Christ. We desire to do things for His will to be done, not our own.
What does it mean to align your life with the Lord?
Story of Mollie’s roommate who ate junk food all the time.
Sometimes we have become so used to garbage and that which is of the world that what is truly good for us is off-putting, hard to swallow, and difficult to digest. I have felt personal pain growing from a point of being saturated by the world to being saturated by the Truth’s of God’s Word. It is sobering to hear of your own unworthiness before a mighty God and understand His overwhelming grace in it all.
Scripture
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
- What do you currently treasure and how is this reflected in your daily life?
One must understand the priority of spiritual richness. Being enslaved to the things of this world will lead to a life of finitude and misery. We were made for more than this.
Covenant relationship with God. Will you choose the seed of the serpent or of the Messiah?
What cures worldliness?
Humility
This is nothing of your own doing. You need the Lord. He is the one who grants Salvation
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
The Lord will humble those He exalts and exalt those who are humbled
What is your source? What are you drawing near to?
A.W Tozer: The More we are like God, the nearer we are to God
Deal with the sin in your life, not just outwardly but inwardly as well.
I was very proud in my life and had submitted outwardly but inwardly had no heart change. High school was a trying time of eventually realizing it is not about outward behavior but the heart.
GOD LOOKS AT THE HEART
DO NOT BE AT WAR WITH GOD. ALign your life to His will
2. Sincere Love for the Lord
Not a half-hazard faith but a faith built on doing something for the Lord
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
LOVE HIM AND DO HIS COMMANDS
Abraham’s faith was credited as righteousness. Abraham’s faith cannot be separated from his act of leaving Ur. Abraham believed and obeyed God
3. Repentance
Going one direction and then completely changing courses. True inward heart change
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
God tells Solomon the model to restored relationship with Him.
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Jesus has come to call us to repentance but one day He will come to judge the unrighteous
26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
where does your allegiance lie? Who are you loyal to?
Salvation invitation