Automatically Generated Transcript

Okay, hi everyone. So before I start, I just want to say thanks to everyone who could make it today. I really appreciate you all coming. Yeah, so my name's Susan, for those who don't know me, and today I'm just going to share with you about how I'm getting baptised today and why.

Yeah, so I grew up in an awesome Christian home. I have two really cool and good parents that were really committed to the Lord and to each other and to our family. So that's great, so just shout out to them, love them. But as a kid with six sisters, I feel like there was a lot of comparing going on, like yeah, and anyone who talks to my mom will know that me as a child, apparently I was one of the hardest to deal with in our family. So yeah, you can ask her about that later.

But anyways, I remember one day after getting my fourth like smack with a wooden spoon, I was like in my room and I was crying, and I remember asking God, "If you love me and you created me, then why did you have to make me in a way that was like such a terrible person who could never do anything right?" And I didn't understand why he couldn't make me in a way that pleased him or in a way that was more like my sisters.

But that was before I got to play basketball. Basketball for me was kind of like a gift from God because I can get angry and I can fight and I can get really competitive, and it's encouraged, like it's a good thing. So I feel like through basketball at a young age, God really started to show me that he made me on purpose and he made me the way he made me on purpose because, you know, he can use me and I can be good at things and yeah.

So fast forward a bit and I'm like an early teenager and I still was playing a lot of basketball and training a lot, leading up to a state tournament coming up that I was really keen about because I wanted to make a state team and I thought I could. But the week before that tournament, I was on a camp, like a Jesus camp. It was like an SU one, I think. It was really good. I remember being on fire for Christ. I remember thinking, like, just being in awe of what God's done for us and how much he's loved us and yeah, but before I remember being picked up, like right before I was picked up by dad for this camp because I had the tournament the next week, right before that, I broke my finger. And I just remember being gutted and I was crying a lot because I just I really wanted to make that team, and I knew that if I wasn't at that tournament, selectors couldn't pick me, so I was really upset.

But yeah, through that camp, though, I felt like I was kind of at peace with it all, even though I hated the situation. But yeah, and then a couple weeks later, I was actually, surprisingly, I was actually picked for that team, and I remember thinking, because I didn't even play, I didn't know how or like that just still doesn't really make sense to me how, but I just remember knowing that that was God because and it was him, like teaching me that actually you think you have a plan for your life, you think you know what you're gonna do, but you know, I've got it planned out for you, and it's better than what you could imagine. And so through that, I feel like that really taught me that I can actually trust this God that actually wants to, you know, live like actually wants to hold my hand and take me through life. So that's just when it felt like legit, and I was like, okay, I actually want to live this way because this person, like, he's got me and he'll never leave me.

But then, like recently, like past years, I felt like I've been really like on and off with my faith, and it's been like, I'm either really on fire or I'm really distant, and I just felt like I hadn't been growing. I've just been staying the same in my faith and in my walk. And then pastor Jim has been talking a lot about sanctification and about how that means wanting to be more like Jesus all the time and wanting to actually grow and to become more like Jesus. And with that, I was like, okay, I don't want to waste any more time. I don't want to have those distractions of like, you know, like all the worldly things of like, I don't know, my Instagram page or like boys or something. Like, I wanted to actually live in a way that was, you know, honouring God, and I didn't want to waste any more time.

So I remember talking to dad about it one night, and he was helping me realise that we can actually focus in on what's important in my life and being intentional about things. So that's like, be intentional about who I spend my time with, how I spend my time, reading my Bible, just all the little things. And yeah, with that, he also introduced me to my now favourite verse. It's also his favourite verse, Micah 6:8, and it says, "What do I require of you? To act justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." And that one just really hit home because it's like, it's so simple. We don't have to, like, you know, there's like, it's just, I don't know, it's just kind of amazing because it just really helped me realise that, like, I'm not here to please people or to be liked. I'm here to love everyone, but to, you know, I'm not here to make, like, to please anyone. I'm actually here to just, like, actually just do life with God. And that's just really cool because that's, like, how life's the most fulfilling. And yeah, I just really wanted that. So yeah, I'm just kind of getting baptised today because I feel like recently I've just been, like, what's, what's, like, there's nothing worth waiting for when, you know, I can actually just live life with God, you know? And I want to, like, I have the joy of the Lord, so I want to share that with everyone. And it does say somewhere in the Bible, I don't know where, definitely says somewhere in the Bible that God wants us, like, Jesus wants us to get baptised, to have that declaration of faith. So yeah, that's why I'm getting baptised today. Thanks, guys.