Let me tell you about something that I used to struggle with. I grew up in a Christian home, and trusted in Jesus Christ as my personal Savior when I was around 12 years old. While I was far from perfect, and wandered from the path more than a few times, God, in His grace, didn’t let me wander far. Early on I had a desire to serve Him and develop the gifts that He had given me. But here’s where I struggled…I didn’t feel I had much of a testimony. The guys with great testimonies of God’s grace were those who lived far from God, into sex and drugs, crashed and burned, and then God brought them to Himself from a lifestyle of sin. People would say, and still do today, that guy has a great testimony. Maybe some of you listening can relate. You feel like you have to apologize for a boring testimony. Let me tell you there is no testimony of God’s saving grace that is boring.

• Whether you came to Christ as a young child and grew up in the faith, or whether you were plucked, as it were, from the fires of hell, you have been fully rescued and graced by God.

• Whether you were saved at 12 in church, or 24 in prison, you have been fully rescued by the saving grace of the living God.

• Whether your life before Christ had the appearance of morality, or you were saved from an immoral pit, it took the complete work of Jesus to pay for your sins on the cross.

• Whether you knelt by your bed with your mom or dad in your early years to ask Jesus into your life, or like one of my friends, woke up in his own vomit after a night of drunkenness and there decided to trust in Jesus — in both places a miracle of Christ took place.

When the Bible says all have sinned — it means all have sinned and are liable for eternity without God. Sin is not graded on a scale; it is missing the mark and we all have missed the mark. None of us, at any age or from any situation, can be good enough for God. Every child of God, regardless of his or her background, is a child by God’s grace.

Each of us was dead and now we are alive.
Each of us had hearts blackened with sin and now they are cleansed.
Each of us has been made righteous.
Each of us have been adopted as children of the living God.

Every believer has a great testimony. We have been fully rescued! And every believer must respond with a great love for the great work of Christ.