My Testimony part 1
Thesis: When you seek God you will discover that He is real and personal! I know by experience!
Text: Matthew 7:8 “For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (A promise from the Great I AM!)
Revelation 12:11 “They overcame Him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.”
Introduction: These two verses are why I am going to share my testimony over the next few weeks. I preface my testimony with this statement, “I do not share it to glorify my past before Christ but glorify my Lord who set me from the bondage of sin!” Many today feel it’s important to have a testimony that is dramatic and full of sin. I honestly wish I could say that “I grew up in a Christian environment where life was filled with the Lord!”
I did not. But the greatest testimony out there is one where you can say, “ I grew up in a Christian home and I have lived with the Lord my whole life- never backsliding or falling deep in sin.” That’s the testimony I wish I had! But reality sets in and here is How my search for God began.
I fore thought if I exaggerate at any point in my testimony I will stop after wards and tell I lied so you know what is 100% absolute truth. I will feel better for doing it!
I. My condition before Christ -the early years as a kid.
a. I grew up in Pittsburgh Penna. We lived in a place called Castle Shannon.
i. My family was Catholic- my mom took us to church and CCD for years but my dad was a workaholic and rarely ever home.
ii. My early year memories are filled with some good times but also some very bad times.
1. My mom and dad had several fights from the time I was born.
2. My mom and dad got married because my mom got pregnant when she was a senior in High School.
a. I have 3 brothers my older brother Bob and I my two younger brothers Mark and Bill.
3. They got married and my mom was kicked out of the Catholic school she was attending. The time frame was 1957.
4. They got married and my dad went off to work to support his family and during their early years my mom had an affair with a neighbor.
5. My dad found out about it and he brutally beat her up and we went to live with my grandparents. The affair occurred prior to me being born. The most hurtful words my dad ever spoke to me were, “ You are not my son.”- even though my mom told me I was his son!” My dad would later in time tell me “ I was his son and he knew it!”
6. They reconciled and the fighting and the anger from my dad never left.
7. My dad was a very angry hostile man. He was full of jealousy and demanded absolute submission of my mom.
a. He always accused her of having affairs.
b. He would come home from work a majority of time in a rage and mad at the world.
c. His rage would come from a person who cut him off in traffic.
d. I recall several times when he got out of the car to go beat someone up for their driving.
e. My dad was like Jeckel and Hyde – He could put on the charm when he wanted to impress and turn around and ring your neck.
f. He worked in a grocery store in management and I ran into some of his employees who hated him with a passion. One guy sat and told me once –not knowing who I was- How he wanted this one manager dead and was going to put a hit on him.
i. This was in my teen when I was heavily into the martial arts and benching 300 pounds.
ii. When he found out who I was He about died out of fear! He figured I was going to beat him up!
iii. His story changed real quick!
g. There where hit contracts put out on my dad and I recall one time him driving home and he discovered all his lug nuts where loosened on his car. Someone tried to kill him or at least hope I got injured.
h. I recall him getting into fights with employees outside the store in the parking lot.
i. His anger though always came home with him.
j. I really use to hate when he came home because the majority of the time the security in the home changed to fear of what he would do next.
k. My dad and I had our first fight when I was 11. He had been beating my mom around again-- viciously hitting her. She was crying for him to stop. My brothers and I where all in bed scared – I do not know where my boldness came from but at 11 and about 100 pounds. I ran out of my room and yelled at him to leave her alone. He did and came after me he grabbed by the throat and picked me up and threw me across the hall.
i. At this incident something changed, I decided at age 11, I would start to train to protect my mom and to beat up my dad.I would eventually pay him back for all his cruelty.
ii. I became angry and vengeful. So I began bodybuilding, and took up the martial arts 1st Judo then Akido.
II. My Life before Christ - the teen years.
a. By the time I reached 13 I was hitched up with a gang of kids called the Crazy 5 plus 1.
i. We hung together drank together and got in trouble together.
ii. We hung out at the local Ice Cream parlor with a larger gang of kids numbering about 35.
* Gangs of kids gave me security and friendship.
* Yet sex, drugs, alcohol where all that happened in these groups.
iii. My life at this time was school, working out on the weights, and training at the Dojo 3-4x a week in the martial arts.
1. Hanging out with the gang was focused more on the weekends.
iv. By the time I was 15 I was fighting regularly at the dojo in matches called (randories).
v. I was starting to peak in my weight training because I worked out every other day. I was starting to become very agile and quick as a result of my martial arts training.
1. When I reached my peak I was strong, agile and quick.
a. One time a person grabbed me from behind around my chest and I threw myself up over his head landed on my feet behind him and took him down.
vi. My brother Bobby and I got in many fights. One time my mom came out with a wiffel ball bat and hit us with it to make us stop. She did it because we were fighting so severely she felt she had to stop us. In one fight with my brother earlier he ended up breaking his hand when we where fighting. I ducked and he hit the wall.
1. Like father like sons!
vii. In my High School years I peaked at 185 pounds with no body fat and went off and fought in the Nationals in 1975 taking fourth place. The next stop would have been the Junior Olympics.
viii. I got into more fights and scraps having other kids pull guns, or tire irons on me.
1. I recall one fight with one of the tough guys in school he stole my brothers coat.
2. So I cleaned his clock.
3. I hit him so many times I broke my hand.
4. Later we hung together- old warriors turned friends.
ix. At this point in time I worked in a grocery store at night went to the dojo and weight lifted. My job paid for my car and the good life.
x. The big fight.
1. My mouth was out of control and I became enemies with one of the 5.
2. He lied about me to a big twenty year old who came over to pick a fight with me. I was about 15 maybe 16. He weighed 265 pounds and he started swinging at me and we got into it. I ended up dropping him twice to the pavement with roundhouse kicks.
3. The last time he was down I took shots at his head.
4. He kept getting up and then he asked me If I gave up. I told him “No, did he.” We called it a draw and he left.
5. I went home banged up. My dad was home he asked what happened I told him. He said if they brought more back come and get him and he will kick there______!
6. After cleaning up I went back to the street corner.
7. Two cars pulled up and this time it was a bigger guy weighing close to 300 pounds he came up to me and said I heard you called me names. I told him it was a lie. Yardy went and got my dad while I was face to face with this guy.
8. My dad showed up pushed me out of the way shoved the guy back into the wall and is all over him. The guy looked scared and moved to the car to get away. The guy who I had fought earlier was there he said something so my dad went after him. My dad chewed him up and down and the gang got back in their cars thinking,” This guys dad is a mad man.” Lets get out of here.
a. I appreciated my dad that day- He saved my butt!
xi. Later on Ron and I made up and became good friends again.
xii. The Crazy 5 plus one drew closer we lived it up cutting school and taking breaks and I just signed my notes with my dad’s signature and a way we went.
1. We painted our name on a mountain top where all could see that we were the greatest.
a. We were so proud of our deed!
2. I continued in fighting matches I earned the nickname at the Dojo of Chui-which meant penalty point. I received this name because I did too many illegal things when I fought my opponents.
3. I recall coming home drunk one night and my dad pulverized me beating me up. I was so blasted I could not even defend myself. By the way I had driven home even though I could not walk.
4. The anger and hatred kept getting deeper.
xiii. One night my dad came home angry at the world and he started on my mom and I challenged him. We got into a fist fight and I was hurting him bad so he picked a ceramic vase and hit me over the head with it. The blow almost knocked me out and the blood started to flow out all over. As I fell to floor I saw his foot by my head I rolled over on the floor and picked up the phone and smashed it into his toes breaking one of them. We fought more but my mom got me out of house and to the hospital where I received several stitches.
xiv. After this my dad moved out for a while. Life was great then!
1. I partied and worked and trained.
xv. My dad moved back in after about 6-8 months.
1. Life was on the edge again.
2. So I was never home!
xvi. I graduated and even received honors at graduation.
1. At my last class reunion I was the talk of the class.
2. No on could believe I had become a pastor.
xvii. Right after graduation my mom and dad moved to Minnesota because my dad took a new job.
1. They felt life would be better in another place.
2. The turmoil moved with the move.
xviii. I lived in Pittsburgh with friends for a while still getting into trouble. I ended up getting in trouble at work for locking my boss in the bathroom and throwing ammonia bottles in against the wall and letting the gases cause him to get sick. I made him beg to get out! He then went to hospital.
1. At work we stole and threw things at each other even jars that would break. One night we where throwing cans at each other and I hit one kid on accident and knocked him out. Needless to say I became known as a guy not to mess with at work.
a. I always got everyone back 2times worse than they got me.
2. After my reprimand from the big boss- my uncle kept me from being fired- I quit. I went to work for a construction outfit as a laborer.
xix. After a while of living with friends and living the party life– I ended up playing a street football game with a bunch of tough guys. During the game from all the roughness I received a black eye. Then later on in the game I broke my leg
1. When I was hit from three different ways you could here the snap.
a. I harassed the pile saying, “Someone broke a bone< Someone broke a bone”
b. When I stood up I discovered who it was. Me!
2. Two days before I had totaled my new car at 80 miles an hour. I had crashed it into a hillside never getting a scratch.
3. The reason I was going so fast is on this stretch of road there had been a sniper who was taking shots at cars and the police had never caught him.
4. So I was late for work and took the short cut down the snipers road. I figured if I went fast he would never get a good shot at me.
a. He got me even though he was not there- Fear took over and put me into the hillside.
xx. I could not work with a broken leg so – I decided to go to Minnesota to recover.
III. My life in Minnesota before Christ.
a. When I arrived in Minnesota. My dad met me at the airport. He never said a word at first.
i. I looked at him down the tunnel he looked at me and shook his head. I was standing there with a big black eye, on crutches, unable to work for 8-10 weeks. And one brand new car almost totaled.
ii. I hitch up with Mike Hodge. His family and him were Christians!
1. He gave me the book by Carothers, “Prison to Praise”
2. I got Mike in trouble once on a motorcycle.
a. I ran from the law with him on the back.
b. I got away and they got him.
c. They called his dad and he was mad.
d. But they prayed for me! This Mike became their focus for salvation.
b. I recovered in Minnesota getting to know the city and state and “I loved it!’
i. Pittsburgh was never like this beautiful country.
ii. I made friends with some neighbors and got into board war games.
iii. I got my cast off and worked in a factory for awhile.
iv. Enjoyed weekends with my new friends climbing rocks and drinking.
v. They did drugs but I never really did.
1. I wanted to keep physically fit!
c. The big show down in Minnesota.
i. I got into a fight with my dad over the dog. My dog was sleeping on the sofa so I moved him and he grabbed my hand so I smacked him. My dad jumped up out of his chair and yelled at me, “Do you want me to finish what I started in Pittsburgh!”.
ii. I saw red! I went right after him.
iii. I was going to kill him that day. The time had come to teach him a lesson he would never forget.
iv. It took two friends and my brother to pull me off him.
1. I had pinned him to the wall and was pounding on his ribs.
2. I ended up cracking one of them
v. It’s the first time I saw fear in my dad’s eyes.
vi. When they got me off he called the police.
vii. I then moved out for a while.
d. My dad then got me a job with Ryan Construction who did a lot of work for Super Value.
1. I entered into an apprenticeship program to become a Carpenter Journeyman.
2. Never knowing that I was on the path to meeting Jesus.
IV. The path to meeting Jesus.
a. The path to Jesus started on a construction site in South Minneapolis.
i. At this time in life I was lonely and afraid.
1. One night I said my prayers like a good Catholic. I said My Hail Mary, The Lord’s Prayer and then added my own quick Prayer! “ Lord if you ever want me to do something for you, let me know!” and jumped into bed.
ii. I had made some new friends in Minnesota. My best friend was my carpenter partner “Bear”.
1. He was a Vietnam vet who had earned a Bronze star by killing 30 plus of the enemy. He had received a few Purple hearts.
2. He taught me how to kill someone. He said shoot them in the stomach and then they cry for their buddies. When their buddies come then I shoot them.
3. The first night I met him we went out for drinks then went to his place to have a few more and to look at his photo album. He had pictures of kills from Vietnam.
4. He then told me his story. He was in a bunker in a fire- fight and they where running low on ammo so he went to get more. When he got back his friends where being killed by a soldier he killed the Vietnamese soldier. He then got on the machine gun and cut down dozens of enemy soldiers. He was wounded twice but kept firing. He said it was like a nightmare. But reality was his friends were all dead.
5. We went on hunting trips with each other. We would drink and party. And the scary thing was we carried guns.
6. The bar scene was our life!
iii. When Thomas came to the job site we witnessed a real life Holy Roller. I had never met anyone like Thomas before.
1. Thomas had shared with us his testimony about how he was a drug addict and pimp at one point in his life. But he had discovered the Lord Jesus Christ and he was “ Born Again”. A new person with a new life!
2. Our break-room turned from a den of sinners to a Bible Study over a period of months because of Thomas’ influence.
3. Thomas was a man sent from the Lord. He was a genuine evangelist in doing God’s work on a hard core construction site. He led many to Jesus: They would agree to go to church with him on Friday and come back with a new Bible and a glow in their eyes and a smile across their face. You could see Jesus! There always was a major change in them.
a. Connie- One of his first converts off the site!
b. Henry
c. Bob
d. BJ
e. Others
f. Bear’s conversion- This one made a difference in my life. His quote to me after accepting Christ was “ I never slept as well as I did last night!” He suffered from nightmares all the time from the war.
i. He had been delivered.
ii. He quit drinking.
iii. I could see the glow in his eyes.
iv. I knew It was genuine! This impacted me!
4. Thomas and I had many discussions about the Lord.
a. I told him to leave me alone.
b. I argued with him and harassed him for being a Christian.
c. In one argument he told me “I was going to Hell!” I responded back, “That if he was going to Heaven I would rather go to Hell with my friends!”
5. Then one day in the break-room Thomas was in a discussion with a new laborer named Grant. Grant was an atheist and was telling Thomas that God did not exist and he was just a crutch.
a. I jumped into the conversation saying I may not be like Thomas but I knew God existed and he needed to shut up.
6. Then I got the question from Thomas, “ Mike, if you believe in God why do you not go to church?”
a. I paused for a moment and this was my deep reflective statement, “Because I party on Saturday night and I sleep in on Sunday’s!”
b. But I added, “But if you had a service like tonight I would go!”
i. Now I was raised Catholic and you had church on Saturday or Sunday never on a Wednesday. So I was blown away when Thomas said we have a service.
c. My immediate response was how will I get out of this!
i. I tried weaseling out, but then Bear stepped in big and assuming.
ii. Bear’s comment, “ You promised!”
iii. I thought “Okay big guy!”
V. The service at Outreach. A close encounter of the God Kind!
a. Thomas ‘ wisdom from the Lord on how to deal with me.
i. Dinner and a show!
1. He took me out to dinner and then we both went to church in our work clothes. Thomas knew if he did not take me out for dinner that I would never go to the service.
a. But he did not want me to feel out of place so he to church just like me.
2. We went to church. I had never experienced a African American Pentecostal before.
a. They swung from the lights, danced down the aisles. ( I lied)
b. Went into spiritual trances ( I did it again!)
c. We sang songs for 10 hours ( I lied again.)
d. I sat back taking this in thinking, “Is this legal- I thought you could not do this in church.”
e. I never knew church could be so exciting.
f. But above all I could feel the presence of the Lord.
g. I could see Jesus in their lives and he was real!
ii. Thomas gave his full testimony that night and it impacted me.
iii. The minister’s sermon rang in my ears speaking directly to me. I asked myself, “How did he know?”
iv. Their words rang through my mind all night long after I went home.
b. The day after the service.
i. I rushed to the job site that morning looking for Thomas.
1. I found him and said, “Thomas do you have service tonight!’
2. Yes he said. I blurted out,“ I need to go and get saved!” I need to go to a service tonight and get saved.”
* He said they had one, “I thought man they have church every night of the week!”
3. So we went and guess who met us there Grant!
a. A lot of the guys from work where there because they had a new convert class. The church had so many saved that they had started a “ New Believers Class.”
4. I went that night and made the big Decision to accept Jesus!
