Good morning.
My name is Diego Medina.
I grew up in Puerto Rico.
And growing up, I have no recollection of my dad
ever speaking about spiritual things
or going to church.
And growing up, I think we went to church -
Catholic church - 4 or 5 times a year.
I remember having to go
to do my first communion.
So I had to go take the classes.
So my recollection growing up
of a spiritual life
was going to church
when it was the major holidays.
And as I prepared for my first communion,
learning that to be right with God,
you'd go and confess your sins,
do a couple "Hail Mary's" and "Holy Fathers"
and you're forgiven.
And it's a cycle.
You go sin again and go back and confess.
And growing up, I think I was about 14 years old
when I realized that if that was the case,
every time I prayed the Lord's Prayer,
I was condemning myself even more
because at the end it says,
"Father, forgive my trespasses,
just as I forgive those who trespass against me."
So I felt that the smart thing to do at the time
was to change the Lord's Prayer.
And I changed my prayer as
"Lord, forgive my sins
and teach me to forgive others."
And I thought at the time
that put me in a better place.
Then something happened growing up
with my priest - the pastor
of the Catholic church I was going to.
He made a pass and we had a relationship
that wasn't God-honoring.
And at the time, I realized,
why am I going to a man
that is as sinful and as fallen as me
to be right with God?
So, with not knowing anything really
about Christ and what He did for me,
I started confessing myself in private
trying to seek peace with God.
Then I grew up, joined the Air Force,
and completely forgot about church,
about God.
During that time of those four years
in the Air Force,
I used to be very moral in appearance.
I remember being proud
of my mom being proud of me.
I don't know if that makes sense.
So being taken from that environment
where my mom was an overseer
and my family
and trying to live up to their standards
and their expectations -
taken away from that
and going to Okinawa
where nobody knew me
and nobody had any expectations,
the Lord used those four years
to really show me the sin that was in me.
I couldn't recognize the man that I became
during that time.
All the sexual immorality
and all the things that I did
that were so sinful.
And if my mom or my family would have known
I would have been so ashamed.
But at the same time, I was glad
that they would never find out.
So I have no problem.
And through all that, I have no concern
about what God was thinking of me
and how I was increasing God's wrath
in my own life by my choices.
I came back to the states,
lost my job.
After I got out of the Air Force,
I got a civilian job.
Lost my job.
By God's providence, came to San Antonio
for a job offer.
At the time, I only had one family member living here.
She was a professing Christian.
And I had no friends in San Antonio,
so I started going over to her house.
And it was good food.
As a single man, I loved that.
She had Bible studies,
so I started going to the Bible studies.
And I continued my life of partying
and sexual immorality,
doing business that was crooked,
and just trying to make money
and pursue financial freedom.
And as I start going to the Bible studies,
I remember I had a Bible,
so I started reading my Bible.
And I started reading from Genesis
and came across the commandments.
Something happened as I started reading God's laws
and started reading about His 10 Commandments,
I started seeing in my life
how I was not living up to them.
I started changing myself.
I wanted to be good.
I started changing the way I behaved,
my night life - put it to the side.
And I tried to reform myself.
And I felt good for about a month -
maybe two months,
and I saw how impotent I was
of keeping God's laws
and how my conscience would tell me
how guilty I was before God
and how futile my efforts
of reforming myself were.
I remember coming one night
from the clubs.
It was 2 o'clock in the morning.
I walk into an empty house.
I felt great as I was with my friends
dancing and partying and everything.
The moment I walked into my house
I was confronted with the fact
that I'm not right before God.
And I'd been trying to be right before God
for so many months in my own strength,
and knowing that the more I tried,
the more condemned I was before Him;
the more sinful
and the more deserving of His wrath
and punishment and going to hell -
definitely, I was sure
that it was the right thing for my life.
And I was tired.
And I remember falling on my knees
and crying out and telling God
I can't do it on my own.
And if You don't save me, I have no hope.
And things started to make sense the next day.
I was able to go to bed, got up,
and I felt a relief and a hope.
I didn't understand what it was at the time.
I'm driving and I saw a church
and I felt that the very next step -
the logical step, the right thing to do
was to go to church.
So I go to church
and I met my brother Richard in that church.
And my Friday's became from going out partying
to going to his house and studying the Scriptures.
And it was such a beautiful time
to read the Word of God and understand
for the first time in my life who Christ was
and what He accomplished for me.
And how I didn't have to try to reform myself,
and how I didn't have to try in my own strength
to be right before God,
but how I was able to trust in Christ
and His promise of working in me
and changing my heart
and giving me new desires
which I was able to see
right from the beginning
that He had given it.
I was spending Friday nights
with other single men
studying the Word of God
until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning
and it was sweet. It was good.
A week before that, a month before that
I would have thought those guys were crazy
so definitely the Lord was changing me.
And it's just growing in knowing,
in appreciating what He has done for me.
I always share how in the beginning
I thought that my sins were that big.
Therefore, Christ dying on the cross
was that big - just enough to cover my sins.
And as a single man
growing in my faith,
I believed that I'd conquered my sins
and I was righteous.
And then the Lord gave me a wife
which has been such a blessing,
but the Lord has used her
in our dynamic, in our relationship
to show that He has so much work
to do in my life.
And the thing that I thought I'd conquered,
He exposed it.
He showed me how selfish I still was;
how short-tempered;
how sinful.
And I remember looking back and saying
wait a minute -
so if my sins are not that big,
but they're this big,
I have no hope.
But yet, being able to look at Christ
and appreciating how His dying on the cross
was not that big, but infinitely bigger.
And as I'm learning my life as a Christian
discovering things as the Lord revealed them
that were still in my life - that sinful nature;
those things that were not pleasing to Him
and being able to see that that sin
was so much greater in my life than what I thought.
It was good to be able to see that Christ
dying on the cross is so much bigger.
His righteousness is able
to cover all my sins.
And ever since, it's been a journey
of putting sin to death
and discovering how many more
I have to work and bring to the cross
and plead with the Lord to put to death.
But the hope and the assurance
that He promised that He will finish
the good work that He started in me
and that He has already ordained
good works for me to fulfill.
And I can do them
as long as I remember
that Christ's righteousness is sufficient
for the peace that I enjoy with Christ.
And I don't have to worry
as I was a young man
having to go back and confess
and finding hope in another man
and my work.
But my hope is in Christ
and His finished work.
And I can enjoy peace with God.
As I continue growing in my walk,
that's my hope and that's my testimony.
Amen.