Participants: Christian Berdahl
Series Code: 14GYC
Program Code: 14GYC000003A
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00:13 Good morning, good morning GYC.
00:17 How are you guys doing this morning? 00:21 It is good to be here with each one of you. 00:23 Um, you know, as we're here 00:26 studying the theme of the cross, 00:29 I wanted to share with you guys a quote 00:31 before we get into our meetings. 00:34 It's found in the Bible commentary's volume 6, 00:38 it says, "As the sinner sees Jesus as he is 00:42 an all-compassionate Savior, 00:44 hope and assurance take possession of his sole. 00:48 The helpless sole is caste without any reservation 00:51 upon Jesus. 00:52 None can bear away 00:54 from the vision of Christ Jesus crucified a lingering doubt. 00:58 Unbelief is gone." 01:00 And that's my prayer for each one of us 01:01 here this morning that as we see Jesus, 01:04 we will not have any unbelief left. 01:07 So let's bow our heads. 01:09 If those coming in could just pause for a moment as we pray. 01:12 Let's bow our heads. 01:14 Father in heaven, Lord, we thank You so much 01:18 that You have given Your Son to die for us. 01:20 That you have made the most incredible 01:23 and magnificent sacrifice in the history of the eternal, 01:27 everything, Lord. 01:29 And God, we just invite Your presence to be with us 01:31 Lord, we pray that Your spirit will guide us 01:33 and he will keep us, 01:35 and Lord bless the speaker later on, 01:37 and I just pray that the message 01:40 that You will give him will be empowered to our hearts. 01:43 We love you Lord in Jesus' name, amen. 01:46 I also have the distinctive privilege 01:49 to introduce to you our speaker this morning, 01:51 Christian Berdahl. 01:53 You know, when I asked him earlier, 01:55 "What would you like me to say about him." 01:57 This was his answer. 01:59 "I am sinner, saved by grace through fate in Jesus Christ." 02:03 Amen. Amen. 02:04 Isn't that a beautiful answer 02:06 but, you know, I had to say a little bit more 02:08 because I say it's a distinct privilege for me 02:10 to introduce him because it really is. 02:12 Several years back 02:14 when I wasn't exactly in a close walk with God, 02:17 God use Christian in such a powerful way in my life 02:21 and I don't even think he realizes 02:23 how much he did for me 02:25 and or God did through him for me. 02:28 And so, I know you guys will be blessed today 02:30 as he shares his testimony 02:32 which incidentally later on this year in March, 02:35 Happy New Year by the way, it is a New Year. 02:38 But later on this year in March, 02:40 he will be releasing a video 02:42 that actually goes through his testimony, 02:43 a documentary type 02:45 where he's actually going to the different places 02:46 and people that you'll hear about today. 02:49 So now you are gonna be hearing about it today 02:51 so then later on this year, you can go 02:53 and actually see all the different places 02:55 and the people that he talked about. 02:57 So that will be really cool, 02:58 but I know that you guys will be blessed 03:00 and I just pray 03:01 that God will work in a special way 03:02 in each one of your lives 03:04 as I know He's already doing since you are here, 03:05 so God bless and have a fantastic day. 03:29 Amid the countless blessings 03:34 The Lord has given me 03:39 The light of truth and goodness 03:43 The Holy Spirit's peace 03:48 I see the many sorrows 03:52 That his children must endure 03:58 So much hurt I long to heal 04:02 How can I 04:05 Change the world? 04:12 There are hands I cannot hold 04:16 Hearts I cannot comfort 04:20 Tears that only miracles can stay 04:27 So let me love and serve and teach 04:32 Those who come within my reach 04:38 For miracles 04:42 Begin that way 05:00 The Savior walked in Galilee 05:04 Unknown in many lands 05:08 Yet touching every nation 05:13 By the labor of his hands 05:17 Giving light to all the world 05:21 By teaching but the few 05:26 He is my example in the work 05:31 That I must do 05:38 There are hands I cannot hold 05:43 Hearts I cannot comfort 05:47 Tears that only miracles can stay 05:54 So let me love and serve and teach 05:59 Those who come within my reach 06:04 For miracles 06:08 Begin that way 06:14 I will bear the burden of my neighbor 06:19 In his need 06:22 I will share my Savior's love 06:26 In every kindly deed 06:30 He will magnify my efforts 06:34 And I'll understand at last 06:38 That by these small and simple things 06:43 Are great things 06:45 Brought to pass 06:51 There are hands I cannot hold 06:56 Hearts I cannot comfort 07:00 Tears that only miracles can stay 07:07 So let me love and serve and teach 07:12 Those who come 07:14 Within my reach 07:21 For miracles 07:28 Begin that way 07:36 Miracles begin that way. 07:49 Amen. Amen. 07:54 Good morning. Good morning! 07:56 Thank you, young people, for that beautiful music, amen? 08:00 That is music that glorifies God. 08:02 If you know anything about our ministry, 08:04 you know that music is one of my little hot buttons. 08:07 Before we begin, I would like to have a word of prayer. 08:10 Let's pray together. 08:16 Gracious heavenly Father, we've come before You, 08:19 our knees bowed, and hearts bowed, 08:22 and we ask Father that You would bless us now, 08:24 as we go through this testimony of how amazing You are. 08:29 Lord, you said if I be lifted up, 08:31 I'll draw all men unto me 08:32 and so this testimony is not about me, Father, 08:35 it's about You. 08:37 And we want to meet You at the foot of the cross 08:38 this morning, so please, Lord, 08:41 bless us with the Holy Spirit now in Jesus' name, amen. 08:48 No matter what you've gone through, 08:53 no matter what you're going through, 08:58 and no matter what you will go through, 09:02 if you are the surrendered child of God, 09:06 you will get through it. 09:08 And that's good news this morning, 09:10 because I know a lot of us 09:11 are going through trials and tribulations. 09:13 Anybody here trial laden? 09:16 Wow! Only ten of you. Wow! Really? 09:19 If there is only ten of us having trials, 09:21 then we're probably not doing something right 09:23 in our Christian walk. 09:27 I told a brother last night, he said, how are you? 09:29 I said I'm blessed, but I'm trail laden. 09:32 And he said, then you must be doing something right. 09:35 'Cause, friends, when we come to Jesus, 09:37 when we meet Jesus at the foot of the cross, 09:41 the devil puts his crosshairs on you. 09:45 And he hates you, because you love God, 09:47 and he hates you, because God loves you, 09:49 and that's the only reason that he hates you. 09:53 What he wants to do is to dive into God's heart, 09:55 and he wants just to tear it apart, 09:57 and he does that every single time 10:01 that we surrender to the devil and not Christ, 10:04 the devil takes a little piece of God's heart if you will, 10:07 because he's taking each one us. 10:09 And today, I don't want to be that person, how about you? 10:13 I want to be the man. 10:15 Maybe you want to be the man or the woman 10:17 that stands for God even though the heavens fall. 10:22 That is what I want. 10:24 You might say but I'm going through stuff 10:26 you don't understand Christian. 10:28 I'm going through some things that are so hard right now, 10:31 I can't make it through this. 10:33 With God on your side and you surrender to Him, 10:36 you can make it through. 10:37 I stand here as living proof 10:40 you can get through a lot of junk. 10:42 And by the time I'm done with this testimony this morning, 10:45 you're gonna see that that's true. 10:48 Without God, you're right, you can't make it through. 10:54 With God, you will, not maybe, not sort of, 10:57 not maybe some day 10:59 but today right now with God, you can make it through. 11:02 I don't know what it is you're going through 11:05 but God knows 11:07 and that's the one that really needs to know about it, Amen. 11:11 1 Corinthians 10:11, 11:13 if you have your swords with you, 11:15 you may start wielding them now. 11:21 1 Corinthians 10:11 11:24 "There hath no temptation taken you 11:27 but such as is common to man." 11:30 So in other words, 11:31 there is nothing that you are gonna go through that, 11:33 probably somebody else already hasn't. 11:39 But God is faithful, who will not suffer you 11:42 to be tempted above that you are able. 11:45 In other words, 11:46 God is so good at helping us through our problems, 11:51 no matter what problem we have, 11:53 he is going to help us through it. 11:55 God is what? 11:56 Faithful, who will not suffer you 12:01 to be tempted above that you are able. 12:03 But with the temptation, 12:04 we'll also make a way to escape that you may be what? 12:09 Say it loud, able to bear it. 12:12 So if God is saying you can bear it, 12:14 if God is saying that you can get through this, 12:17 then maybe you are the one that's wrong. 12:20 'Cause God said it and I believe it 12:23 and that settles it for Christian Berdahl. 12:27 If we are the surrendered children of God, 12:31 notice there is a key phrase there, 12:34 not proclaiming just to be a child of God, 12:36 but if we are truly coming to God 12:37 and saying not my will but Your will be done. 12:39 If we're truly surrendered, 12:43 then there is power in the word of God for us. 12:53 If you've given you life to Jesus Christ, 12:55 I hope you have. 12:57 If you haven't, this will be a great weekend 12:58 to get on your knees and ask the Lord to do for you, 13:00 what He's done for many of us in this room. 13:04 He'll never allow us, so if we're surrendered 13:06 and we've given our life to Christ, 13:08 Christ will never allow, 13:10 God will never allow anything to come to us 13:13 that our measure of faith cannot handle. 13:18 So maybe you have little faith right now. 13:20 Well, God's not gonna send out of balance huge trials 13:22 that you can't handle. 13:24 Maybe your faith is grown. 13:26 You're gonna get some bigger trials. 13:28 In fact, friends, when you become a Christian, 13:30 trust me you are going to have trials 13:33 and you're gonna have issues. 13:34 But don't fool yourself into thinking 13:37 that the world doesn't have problems. 13:40 I used to be in the world, I was not raised a Christian, 13:44 and so, I understand 13:45 what it's like to be fully in the world 13:48 and it wasn't trouble free, 13:50 I had just as many problems but I had no helper. 13:55 But now as a Christian, 13:56 I have an ever present help in Jesus Christ. 13:59 Praise the Lord, that is so amazing to me, 14:04 that God has given His only begotten Son 14:06 that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish 14:08 but have everlasting life. 14:11 And while we are here on this planet, 14:14 we're gonna have trials. 14:15 And it really becomes a choice 14:18 to say well, are we gonna be big boys and big girls 14:21 and just say, okay, we're gonna have trials, 14:23 stop whining and complaining about it 14:25 and let's go forward in spite of those trials. 14:29 That was a great, perfect place for a hearty amen. 14:35 I know you are not awake yet. Last night was a late night. 14:41 In fact lot of people wanted to stay up 14:42 until the stroke of midnight just to say Happy New Year, 14:45 and by the way Happy New Year. 14:48 In fact, I hope and pray 14:50 that this is the most connected year of your life 14:53 with Jesus Christ, 14:55 because if you are the most connected in 2015, 14:58 then you are gonna be the most successful for God. 15:02 Most surrendered, 15:03 the greatest servant than you've ever been. 15:06 What an opportunity? 15:08 It's just, we cleaned the slate. 15:09 Maybe you've been a heathen 15:11 and a mess this whole past year. 15:13 Maybe the whole past decade. 15:15 Well, today is a new day 15:16 and today we must choose whom we will serve. 15:22 I want to live my life for Jesus 15:26 and I know that I can live a life to glorify Him, 15:29 because He's promised this. 15:31 And this is only gonna happen 15:33 if we meet Jesus Christ at the cross. 15:36 Are you daily meeting Christ at the cross? 15:40 Or are you waiting and you are only meeting Him 15:43 on every seventh day? 15:46 It doesn't work, friends. 15:48 I want to encourage you to be seven day Adventists, 15:52 not just the seventh day Adventists. 15:59 Revelation 12:11, let's turn there together. 16:02 Revelation 12:11. 16:04 Before we read that, I just want to declare to you 16:07 because this is a testimony I'm supposed to give 16:09 and this testimony, 16:11 my testimony is I believe God can fix me, 16:15 I believe God can save me. 16:18 In fact I believe God can fix this universe, 16:20 what do you think? 16:22 I believe God can fix this planet, 16:24 what do you think? 16:26 I believe He can fix this church, 16:29 He can fix His people, He can fix this guy, 16:35 and He can fix you. 16:37 Revelation 12:11 and they, whose that referring to, 16:43 the church and they us, young people and old people, 16:46 and they overcame him, who's that? 16:50 The devil, that's right 16:51 and the church overcame the devil 16:53 by the blood of the Lamb. 16:56 Who is that referring to? Jesus Christ. 16:59 And we overcome the devil by the blood of the Lamb 17:04 and by the word of their what? 17:06 Testimony. 17:08 Well, I don't have a testimony Christian. 17:09 Yes you do, 17:11 because the overcomers have a testimony. 17:13 At the end of time, every single one of us 17:15 are gonna have a testimony. 17:17 Yeah, but mine's not crazy like yours 17:18 and we'll get into the craziness of mine 17:19 in just a minute. 17:21 I was raised in a Christian home, 17:23 I was raised-- 17:24 I married a Christian man, we have Christian children 17:26 and we love Lord and never left the faith, 17:28 praise God, that's the best testimony ever. 17:33 You don't have to go and become a scoundrel 17:35 and a drunk and doing drugs so you have a testimony, 17:38 Jesus brought me out of it, ha-ha. 17:40 I had a young man come up to me and say, 17:41 maybe I should go in the world so I have a better testimony. 17:48 Have mercy, he is right. 17:51 I said, let's back up, what did you, 17:53 did you just said what I thought you said. 17:58 I said, do you realize how scary that is. 18:00 I said brother, 18:01 you're not guaranteed you're coming back. 18:03 Why? 18:05 Because you're making the choice, 18:06 you're on the driver's seat now, 18:08 and you may stay off the interstate 18:10 that leads to heaven. 18:13 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb 18:15 and by the word of their testimony 18:17 and they love not their lives unto the death. 18:20 Man that is a committed people. Is that you this morning? 18:26 Amen. Amen, praise the Lord. 18:30 Over the years, I've been privileged 18:33 to go literally around the world now, 18:35 and to sing and to preach, but the thing that I love most 18:39 is to actually give my testimony. 18:42 And as Mark mentioned, 18:43 we are now gonna release a three hour version, 18:46 we're trying to edit it down more of my testimony 18:49 with full on interviews with my brothers, 18:52 and my father, and my mother, it's gonna be, it's already, 18:56 I sit there and I'm editing it and I'm just like bowling 18:59 'cause obviously it hits me the most. 19:02 But I love to give my testimony, 19:05 because, friends, this is how part of how we overcome. 19:09 In other words, you have, when you testify, 19:11 you don't just testify to a mirror, 19:14 you have to testify to people. 19:17 And so, if you're testifying we're witnessing, 19:19 therefore we're laboring for God 19:21 and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, 19:23 their connection to Christ, right? 19:26 And by the word of their testimony 19:28 and they love not their lives unto the death. 19:30 In other words, we're gonna go out 19:32 and we're gonna share them the message of Jesus Christ 19:33 and what He's done in our lives, 19:35 no matter what happens to us, even if we die. 19:39 The worst thing that somebody can do to us 19:41 is kill us, that's all. 19:45 In fact I think my time just jumped down only 28 minutes, 19:48 I better hurry up. 19:52 I was not always raised in a Christian home. 19:54 My mother was 16 years old, when she got pregnant with me. 19:58 My father was 18 years old. 20:00 What my mother didn't know 20:01 was that my father had started using prescription drugs 20:03 stealing it from medicine cabinets 20:05 when he was only 12 years old, 20:08 and he was a full on daily drinker 20:10 by the time he was a sophomore in high school. 20:13 And so they two meet up 20:15 and nine months later, here I am. 20:17 My mother finds out she is pregnant one week later, 20:21 they got married. 20:22 Sixteen, eighteen, living on their own, 20:25 married one week later. 20:28 Even my conception was a stressful situation. 20:32 I did not come into the world with everybody going, yay. 20:37 I came into the world with everyone going, oh, no, 20:39 what are these young kids gonna do with this baby. 20:43 Unfortunately that stress would be continued in our lives 20:48 for many years. 20:49 My brother, my two brothers were born, 20:52 Aaron and Brandon 20:54 and my father David was not around 20:56 to do the things he needed to do, 20:59 he wasn't taking care of us. 21:00 He wasn't paying the bills and when you are drunk, 21:03 serious drunk and you're deep in drugs, 21:06 you don't really think you better get up early 21:08 and go to work. 21:09 And so by the time I was seven years old, 21:11 we had moved 13 times from house to house 21:14 even across the country and back, 21:16 'cause when you don't pay the rent, they kick you out. 21:20 My mother finally got tired of all of these 21:24 and when I was seven years old, she said, you know what? 21:26 I can't handle this anymore, 21:28 I can't handle you're not coming home, 21:29 you are not paying the bills, 21:31 you are not taking care of the family 21:32 and on coming home one night from a party 21:35 he was drunk and swerving all over the road 21:38 and my mother saying pull over, pull over, 21:41 we were all in the car with him and he will not pull over 21:43 'cause he's just blitzed and finally they get home, 21:48 we all get home safely and she says it's over, 21:52 I'm divorcing you. 21:53 So at seven years old and my brothers were four, 21:57 and two we left. 22:00 My mother had to start her life over. 22:02 She had to get a job 22:03 and she had to start working in the world 22:05 and so she put us in day care. 22:07 And a very traumatic event happened 22:09 after my dad had left, 22:10 they told us one day we're leaving 22:12 and so they told us that they're divorcing. 22:16 One of my earliest memories with my dad 22:17 was in the foyer of my ant's house 22:19 and I was standing there and I was holding his ankles 22:22 and he literally had to peal me of off his ankles, 22:25 as he walked out of our life. 22:28 And he would be in and out kind of for a while 22:30 then eventually just disappeared totally 22:32 for 20 something years. 22:36 My mother gets a new job, she puts us in day care 22:39 and at day care 22:41 one of the most traumatic events happened in my life. 22:45 The baby-sitter's older son 22:46 was molesting about six of us little boys each day 22:49 as we went down for nap time. 22:51 And that went on for some time, 22:52 and I remember this being 22:54 one of the biggest secrets that I kept, 22:56 probably the first big secret that I kept 22:59 and I didn't tell anybody. 23:02 In fact I didn't even tell my mother 23:04 until I was an adult. 23:06 I wish, I would have told somebody. 23:09 I wish I would have told-- 23:11 even if I was in my teens, 23:13 it would have been healthy for me 23:14 to tell somebody and then talk it out. 23:15 And if somebody has done something to you 23:17 sexually or inappropriately, friends, 23:19 you need to go and talk to somebody. 23:21 You know what? 23:23 We are not gonna keep these secret anymore in our homes 23:25 and in the church and in the conferences. 23:27 If we are having issues, we need to talk it out, 23:30 because if we don't, it's going to ruin you. 23:33 Trust me, I was messed up for a lot of years. 23:37 It's never okay for someone to make a sexual advance on you 23:42 until you are married and is that marriage night. 23:47 Amen. Amen. 23:54 And so my mother didn't know this, 23:58 I tell her when I was an adult 24:00 and frankly she just starts breaking down and start crying. 24:02 I wish I would have said something 24:03 because, friends, I don't know 24:05 how many other children that happened to, 24:08 and I live with that. 24:11 It's not just for us to save and help us, 24:15 it could be to protect someone else. 24:19 It's a good thing to talk, but talk to somebody you trust. 24:22 Talk to somebody that has some tools that can help you. 24:25 My mother got remarried about a year later, 24:27 she got remarried and unfortunately 24:29 this man turned out to be our worst nightmare. 24:32 This man, he was, from the day one, 24:34 he was very heavy handed, he was an authoritarian, 24:36 he took over the discipline and he was very heavy handed 24:38 and unfortunately this heavy handedness 24:41 turned into outright criminal abuse 24:44 and he was abusing all of us. 24:46 All three of us boys and my mother 24:47 mentally, emotionally, physically, 24:50 and these games that he would play were just horrific 24:53 and he would, he just twisted our little minds 24:56 and I was referred to as a cuss word 24:58 and my brothers had another cuss word that was their names 25:00 and we were just these horrible little creatures in his eyes, 25:03 and this went on and on and on for 10 years 25:09 until I was a sophomore in high school. 25:10 I've been whipped, I've been beaten, 25:12 I've been tied up, I was hit so hard in the head 25:16 after a long day of stacking firewood 25:19 and cutting firewood, I got hit in the head so hard by him, 25:22 I had grand mal seizure and wound up in the hospital. 25:25 So we're not just talking, oh, bad boy, 25:26 we're talking the real deal. 25:31 I started this message by saying, 25:34 no matter what you're going through, 25:35 you can get through it. 25:37 By the way the message is entitled 25:39 from Broken to Breakthrough, 25:42 'cause the breakthrough is coming. 25:43 Amen. Amen. 25:45 So unfortunately, we boys became very violent, 25:49 I was terrible to my brothers. 25:51 I would just beat them up 25:52 and they would try to beat me back 25:54 but I was the bigger brother and then they grew up 25:55 and passed me and they became like freight trains, 25:57 and I'm like, hey, never mind but, the reality was my... 26:05 I still had the mental edge though, right. 26:07 So they said they stood in line, I say basically 26:10 'cause they're big, what happened to you Chris? 26:11 I said, well, I stood in line twice for brains 26:13 and you guys stood in line twice for muscles I guess. 26:17 And so, what happens is my mom remarries this guy, 26:21 he is very abusive, we go through this for 10 years 26:24 and I got to the point 26:25 to where I started fantasizing about killing myself, 26:28 I did attempt to take my life one time. 26:29 I have a scar to reveal that. 26:31 My brother rested the knife out of my hand, 26:33 it was just a mess. 26:35 We were violent kids living in a violent home 26:37 and we were lying to everybody 26:39 acting like everything was okay. 26:41 It was the huge facade. 26:46 Another secret we have to keep, 26:48 act like everything is okay when it's absolute mess. 26:53 My mom was being beaten over and over and over again, 26:55 she had to wear certain kind of clothes 26:57 just to cover the bruising on her body. 27:00 He never hit my body, unless it was whipping me 27:02 or switching me with the belt or whatever 27:04 but it would hit our heads and he would grab our hair 27:07 and just shake us violently like this, 27:09 like little rag doll, and there were many times, 27:11 I don't know how many but many times I would wake up, 27:13 laying there in the hall and go what just happened 27:15 because I would be blacked out. 27:18 And so, I don't want to glorify the devil anymore, 27:21 I just want to tell you, we had a bad situation, 27:24 my mother finally put a plan together, 27:26 I don't know how she woke up, 27:27 but I went to child protective services at my high school 27:29 and before you know what? 27:31 I've got a plan and I sit down with my mom, 27:33 I sit down with my dad and I say, 27:34 I've been talking to some people at school 27:36 and the beatings are gonna stop, 27:38 you're not gonna touch one more hair on our head 27:40 and it's not like I stood up there and went, 27:41 listen man, I was just like, you know, 27:44 telling him this, my knees mould one to the other, 27:46 you know, when I was sitting and going, Lord, Lord, 27:49 I didn't cried to God, I wish I would have, 27:51 but nobody ever talked to me about Jesus Christ. 27:54 I never knew anything about it. 27:57 In America, to not know anything about Jesus, 27:59 that almost astounds me but I am one of those guys, 28:03 and now I'm here today, that's amazing. 28:06 So basically what happens is that we leave, 28:08 my mom makes a plan of escape and we get out of there. 28:11 We had a police standby, 28:13 we got all the guns and ammunition out of the house 28:15 because this guy was a little whoo-whoo, 28:16 and we didn't want anything tragic to happen 28:20 and so we escaped. 28:21 Praise God, we got out of that. 28:23 We escaped and we moved to a new little town name 28:26 called Lodi, California. 28:27 And as I'm there, I just reinvent myself, 28:30 I said, you know, I'm just gonna, 28:31 I'm not gonna deal with this, and let this defined me, 28:34 I didn't said all those words, but for some reason 28:35 I just went forward 28:37 and I didn't care about all the abuse. 28:38 I didn't care about the molestations 28:40 and I say molestations 28:42 because when my dad, when I was 10 years old, 28:44 for my 10 ten year old birthday, 28:46 I had my first beer with him 28:49 and he had rented some pornographic movies that night 28:53 and we little, three little boys sat there 28:54 and watch pornographic movies. 28:56 Why? 28:57 Because the guy was out of his mind, 28:59 drunk and on drugs 29:00 and that night he molested me and my middle brother. 29:05 Friends, tribulations, I get it, Jesus Christ, 29:10 praise God for him 29:11 and he can get us through anything. 29:15 And so, as I go forward to this new high school, 29:19 I get involved in theatre arts, 29:20 I just wanted to recreate myself, 29:22 and so I got involved in theatre arts. 29:24 I got a lead role in my first play. 29:26 It was singing, dancing and acting 29:28 and the creativity just like burst out of me 29:31 from being so oppressed as kids. 29:34 I didn't even know what to do with the freedom totally. 29:36 We were so controlled by this man 29:38 but now all of sudden, I'm free, 29:41 I didn't tell anybody about my past, 29:44 we just left because my mom got a divorce, 29:46 that's all I ever told anybody. 29:48 My brothers decided to go down the path of their father. 29:53 Drugs and alcohol. 29:55 Both of them, my youngest brother Brandon 29:57 starts drinking and doing drugs when he's 12 years old. 30:01 My middle brother fourteen 30:02 when they started, when he started, 30:05 eventually their lives would spin out of control. 30:09 My bio dad was in out of our lives, 30:10 as he dug deeper into his addiction 30:13 and unfortunately would have those 30:15 black out kind of weekends 30:16 and that was one of the weekends 30:17 where he did what he did to us. 30:19 So I began doing crazy things 30:21 to try to basically just kind of hurt myself. 30:24 At certain points 30:26 I would go forward with this new kind of guy, 30:27 but other times 30:29 I was just still like this trapped kind of guy. 30:31 Something was going on in my mind, I didn't understand it. 30:33 Something was going down in my emotions 30:35 but I didn't understand but I just kind of put it away, 30:36 tucked it away, pushed it down and said, 30:38 hi, I'm Chris Berdahl, 30:41 really on the inside, I was a mess. 30:46 Somehow, someway 30:48 I was able to navigate through my high school years 30:51 and unfortunately 30:53 my brothers didn't navigate very well. 30:55 By the time my brother was in his-- 30:57 My youngest brother was in his sophomore year, 30:59 he was already now in drug rehab. 31:00 My parents paying for him to get in there. 31:03 My mom, I said parents 31:04 'cause my mom remarried to the third guy 31:06 but he was a gem and he is a gem, 31:08 and they've been married now for over 20 years, praise God. 31:11 Third times the charm we say. 31:15 Eventually I get involved deeper and deeper into theater 31:19 and I go through high school 31:21 win awards at theater arts competitions 31:23 and earning this lead roles and enjoying what's going on 31:26 and then finally I graduate high school 31:30 and I go off to junior college, 31:31 and there I started studying communications, 31:33 my dream was to go into TV production. 31:36 And so eventually, as I dropped off the theatre, 31:39 I did get into vaudeville theatre which is kind of fun, 31:42 and then I also go into a professional theatre 31:44 for a while. 31:45 And I was going to school, doing theater 31:48 and had a full time job during the same time. 31:49 I don't even know when I slept. 31:51 I think back and go, how is that possible? 31:52 I'm 45 now I go, I could never do that, 31:54 but I was able to do it when I was 20. 31:56 So eventually I dropped off the theater 32:00 and I dove deeper into production, 32:02 and I started a company with two other friends 32:05 and we built three different companies, 32:07 three different businesses and we were widely successful, 32:10 it was going great. 32:11 And at 24 years old I eventually discovered 32:15 that one of my business partners, 32:16 the other one had left, one of my business partners 32:19 had embezzled our companies into the ground. 32:22 So at 24 years old, I lose everything, 32:26 everything, everything I had worked so hard for, 32:29 lost my businesses, we had 32 employees. 32:32 I was making money not like millions of dollars 32:35 but I was on my way and I lost it all, 32:38 and then God gets a hold of my heart. 32:42 God starts to get a hold, I got to really advance this, 32:44 I got 15 minutes left, Lord have mercy. 32:46 So, and I think I'm on page 2 of 20 or something like that. 32:51 If you want, go on our website in March 32:55 and you'll be able to watch testimony 32:57 or you can pick up your own and watch it in your home. 33:00 So anyway what happens is 33:02 I lose everything, I get deeper, 33:04 I have six figure bankruptcy 33:06 and now my credit's ruined, I'm failing, 33:10 all the programming of how I be a failure 33:12 and I was a loser, 33:13 all that came back alive in my mind 33:15 and I had all these emotional things going on, 33:18 it was just a mess, 33:19 yet I decided let's get back into TV production, 33:23 because by this time, I had already worked in production 33:25 and I was continuing to grow my skills. 33:28 I started off as a tape operator, 33:29 went to a cameraman, then to a director, 33:31 and then a producer and writer and I was only 24 years old 33:34 and I was loving it, 33:35 so I decided, you know, what? 33:37 I'm not gonna let that hold me down, 33:38 I'm going forward. 33:40 And so, I just went forward just out of sheer tenacity, 33:42 even though I had a rough terrible childhood, 33:45 it did strengthen me, 33:46 it did give me a thicker skin, 33:48 and I was like, I'm just going to go forward. 33:50 So I went forward, 33:51 and I was trying to rebuild my life, 33:54 and I get a phone call from a producer, 33:58 and he said, Christian, I've got a job, 34:00 it's four days long 34:01 and I would like to see if you want to take this, 34:03 you'll be director, we'll give you some camera people, 34:05 here's what it pays, do you want the job? 34:06 I said sure, and I said what is it? 34:09 He said it's a camp meeting. 34:10 I said what's the camp meeting 34:12 because I don't know meaning about camping. 34:13 I said, great, 34:15 I grew up camping, awesome. 34:16 So I took the job 34:19 and I find myself going to great festival grounds 34:21 in Lodi, California 34:23 looking for this guy name Danny Vierra. 34:25 And Danny was running this camp meeting. 34:27 And as I show up, there's motor homes, 34:29 you know, camping, right. 34:30 There's tents, camping, 34:32 ladies in dresses with hiking boots, 34:34 kind of weird but camping, right. 34:37 By the way that's a major fashion violation. 34:46 The Lord has to reel me in, reel me in Lord, 34:49 come back Christian, come back. 34:51 So, I'm looking for this guy named Danny 34:55 and he tells me so, we are here for, you know, 34:59 your camp meeting and where can we set up, 35:01 talking about cameras and maybe camera angles 35:03 and I said do you need like a hand held camcorder, 35:06 you know, and stuff like that for your remote demonstration 35:09 or something and he says what are you talking about. 35:11 I'm thinking like they're gonna, you know, 35:13 demo high altitude cooks stoves or something, you know, 35:16 and he's like can't, oh, no-no-no 35:18 these are religious meeting that people camp at. 35:23 Oh, 35:26 my production career is this low now, 35:31 and so I've seen there for four days 35:33 and there is all these different preachers 35:35 someone talking about American prophesy 35:37 and Jesus Christ, I'm just like, 35:39 and I literally started to see Jesus 35:43 through the eye of the camera. 35:46 And I see Danny up there, 35:48 I don't have enough time to get in all this 35:49 but he's is, this buffed guy, he's tan, 35:51 he's got a beautiful family 35:52 and he's talking about Daniel, Daniel's diet, 35:54 and he say give pulse, 35:56 Daniel ate pulse and I'm like pulse? 35:58 That's creepy. 36:01 I mean like there's vampires in the Bible, what? 36:04 I don't understand 36:06 and he's like no, and I finally figure out, 36:07 he is talking about food, so anyway, 36:09 my brain was just bent. 36:13 Less than 12 minutes. 36:16 Danny and I began a little bit of a friendship, 36:18 eventually I meet this young lady named Cobi 36:20 and Cobi is who I married to today, 36:22 which is really exciting. 36:24 My face always lights up 36:25 when I say her name or think about her, 36:27 so if I'm ever sad I just think of Cobi. 36:30 So anyway, 36:31 I wind up moving to Santa Barbara 36:34 to go to film school 36:35 and so I got involved with high end production there 36:37 working for Nickelodeon and PBS and ESPN, 36:40 professional sports and all kinds of things, 36:42 commercial production and my resume started growing, 36:45 and I decided not to go to film school, 36:47 because we had to move away eventually from there 36:49 'cause I got Cobi pregnant. 36:52 Starting to fall a little bit in my mom's footsteps 36:55 and unfortunately we lost the baby at five months 36:58 and that was very traumatic for my dear wife 37:01 and we moved to be closer to her family in Arizona, 37:04 and I could not find a job in production, 37:06 long story short, I find myself going back out to California 37:09 and I had an overwhelming desire to go and see my friend, 37:12 Danny Vierra. 37:14 And he is the guy running the camp meaning, right? 37:16 Well, he runs a ministry 37:18 and so we are seeing, I went there and hey man, how are you? 37:20 Hey, what are you doing? 37:21 And he always hugged me and gave kiss on the cheek, 37:23 you know, you know, but okay, so I don't mind it now 37:28 but you know 'cause I get it, right? 37:29 The Bible talks about greeting one another 37:31 with a holy kiss, right? 37:33 So anyway, 37:35 three days later, after we're talking 37:36 I can't tell you the whole story 37:38 but we wind up coming to an agreement 37:40 for me to work at his ministry, a heathen guy 37:43 working for a Seventh-day Adventist ministry, 37:46 because I could do some production, 37:47 and I can do some office work and I could do some design 37:50 and that type of thing, 37:51 he's like I can really use a guy like you 37:52 and I was just fed up of my life. 37:54 Everything was not going right 37:56 and finally I go to work for God, 37:58 that God works miracles, 38:01 Cobi and I've been separated for about 6 months now, 38:03 she is still in Arizona, Gods puts us back together 38:06 and I got to eventually lead, 38:08 I came to Christ, Danny led me to Christ 38:11 through the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy, 38:12 he baptized me, 38:14 the crazy pulse guy is the one that baptizes me, 38:19 isn't that cool? 38:20 That's awesome, I love you brother. 38:24 And so eventually 38:28 Cobi and I are now on the phone talking, 38:30 I'm witnessing to her, I fell in love with the Bible, 38:32 the Spirit of Prophecy, Steps to Christ 38:34 and Desire of Ages radically changed my life. 38:38 And so, I started 38:40 witnessing to her and before you know it, 38:41 he brings, God brings her back into my life 38:44 and she accepts the truth, we studied out, 38:47 she gives her heart to Jesus, 38:49 I got to lead the woman that would become my wife 38:52 to Jesus Christ, that's amazing, 38:57 and God started performing surgery on my heart 39:01 and He had changed so much of my thinking, 39:02 He started to help me with all these emotions 39:04 and all these emotional baggage 39:05 and it started kind of coming off of my shoulders 39:08 and I just became more free. 39:09 I was freed geographically before when we moved, 39:14 but now I was starting to become freed spiritually 39:16 and freed emotionally. 39:18 And Cobi saw a difference, 39:19 and she wanted what I had a hold off. 39:22 And I said, it's Jesus, 39:24 I have a hold of Jesus, not like you've heard, 39:27 but He is real and He is tangible 39:29 and He really helps and she's like this is awesome, 39:31 I wanted too. 39:32 Before, you know, we're married. 39:34 Guess who married us? The crazy guy. 39:41 So the joke is, 39:44 he led me to Christ, he baptized me, 39:46 he married me, we hope he doesn't bury me. 39:55 But I needed a miracle, friends, 39:56 I needed huge miracles. 39:58 My brothers were spinning off into drugs and alcohol, 40:01 deeper than ever before. 40:02 My biological father is nowhere to be found. 40:04 I knew where he was 40:06 but he had nothing to do in my life 40:08 and he was just gone. 40:09 I needed a new heart and I found Ezekiel 36:26, 40:12 "A new heart will I give you, 40:15 and a new spirit will I put within you 40:17 and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, 40:20 and I will give you a heart of flesh." 40:22 Not maybe, you go to God, you don't have to go, 40:25 okay, please give me a new heart. 40:27 No, He's like done. 40:30 I will give you new heart now 40:33 and I will mould and shape you for the rest of your life. 40:37 Thank you Lord, may I have another? 40:42 Psalm 91:4 40:43 "And He shall cover thee with his feathers, 40:44 and under his wings shalt thou trust: 40:47 his truth shall be thy shield and buckler." 40:49 When, Psalm 27:10, 40:51 "When my father and my mother forsake me and they had, 40:54 the Lord will take me up." 40:57 It's amazing, I finally discover, 40:58 I have a father in heaven who doesn't want to molest me, 41:01 who doesn't want to beat me, 41:02 but has every awesome possibility in store for me. 41:08 Amazing. 41:09 So I had gone through certain things 41:11 that bondage wise that I, 41:13 it took a while to overcome, 41:16 other things really fell off pretty quickly 41:18 and some wrong thinking, 41:19 but the thing that was hardest for me was the forgiveness. 41:23 Truly forgive. 41:24 People will always come to me and say, 41:26 if your's really gonna be a son of Jesus 41:27 and a child of Jesus, you have to forgive everybody, 41:29 you have forgive him completely, 41:31 and I didn't understand what that meant for a long time. 41:34 So eventually I did sit down with my mom 41:37 because I had a lot of resentment build up 41:38 that she kept us in that horrible situation 41:40 for almost 10 years, and we sat down, 41:44 and we had our crying, we headed out and, 41:46 you know what, I'm very close with my mom, 41:48 closer I've ever been 41:49 and we have a beautiful relationship, amen. 41:52 But, and then I also forgave her 41:55 and I also forgave my evil stepfather, 41:57 the one that was beating us 41:59 and tearing us down for that decade 42:00 and I forgave him. 42:01 God finally brought me to-- 42:03 Now that one took longer, God brought me to a place, 42:06 do I honestly forgive that man 42:07 because God gave us something very special 42:09 and He wants to give it to you too, 42:11 a different perspective of things. 42:13 He wants you to see them through His holy eyes, 42:18 their fallen children making bad decisions 42:21 and is impacting other people, that was my life. 42:24 It doesn't excuse what happened, 42:26 don't misunderstand me, but it does explain it. 42:29 Do you understand? 42:30 Doesn't excuse it but it explains it, 42:34 and God gave me forgiveness for my biological father. 42:38 That was actually the hardestone for me 42:40 'cause after he got clean and sober 42:42 which he's been clean and sober now for 20 years, 42:43 he still not in my life for that 20 years. 42:47 What's wrong here? 42:49 Now you're sober, right thinking 42:50 but now the guilt of all of his decision, 42:53 the guilt of everything that he had done 42:55 is controlling him and he is oppressed by this, 42:59 and so he is out of my life for a long time. 43:03 Eventually, 43:05 I do forgive him completely in my heart 43:07 and I just say, Lord, I give him to you. 43:09 My brother start to come to the Lord. 43:11 Brandon finds sobriety eight years ago. 43:16 He is now married. 43:17 He is now a Christian, 43:18 and he has given his heart to Jesus Christ 43:20 and now he goes back into the prison 43:21 'cause they, both my brothers 43:22 got involved in drug manufacturing, 43:24 drug trafficking, and prison, 43:27 so my brother Brandon now goes back into the prison 43:29 witnessing to those who he was once like. 43:33 My brother Aaron, drug trafficking, 43:35 prison, three different prison terms, 43:37 he winds up finding Jesus one day. 43:40 And by the way, come by our booth 707 43:43 and we have a little seven minute loop 43:45 and you can see the interviews of my mom 43:47 and with my brothers and just come and watch, 43:50 we're having a constant loop all weekend. 43:52 It's so powerful what God has done, 43:55 not only in my life, 43:56 not only in my wife's life, in my children's life 43:59 but also in my brother's life, in my mother's life. 44:02 God is like good with healing 44:04 and fixing everybody by the way. 44:08 So now my brother, you'll see, 44:10 he is wearing a black hat that says S-O-T-C, 44:12 Soldiers of the Cross. 44:14 He rides his Harley Davidson, 44:15 they go and they witness to inner-city kids 44:17 about drugs and all those kinds of. 44:18 It's so awesome how God will use anyone of us. 44:22 Do you want to be used by God? 44:25 Then simply surrender and say, Lord, 44:27 not my will but Your will be done. 44:29 My mother continues to grow 44:32 and she suffers for many years with my brothers, 44:35 but she starts working with salvation army 44:40 in a battered women shelter. 44:42 You see, all of these things in our lives, 44:45 yes, they were horrible 44:46 but with God, they can all be used for good. 44:54 I don't know what's going on in your life 44:56 but God does, 44:57 and don't let the devil have you another moment. 45:01 So I work with Danny for two and half years there, 45:05 learn the health message, loved it, embraced it, 45:07 learned the Seventh-day Adventist message, 45:08 from there we went to another ministry 45:10 and did TV broadcasting 45:12 and evangelistic broadcasting for many years there, 45:15 and then God calls us out to start our own ministry. 45:17 Don't have time to get into all that 45:19 but God calls us to a ministry of singing, 45:22 of preaching and of doing media production. 45:24 There's three things that I probably love most 45:26 in this world and God goes, 45:28 will give you a ministry just like that. 45:30 What is it that you love to do? 45:32 If it's something God can't work with, 45:34 He will if you surrender to Him. 45:36 And so, eventually, 45:39 God works miracles in my father's life, 45:44 my biological father's life. 45:46 And as we were getting ready to go out to California 45:49 in the summer to go videotape 45:51 and interview all of my family members, 45:53 I get a phone call and my father-in-law 45:57 works in the ministry with us and he says Christian, 46:01 there is somebody on the phone, he says he knows you, 46:02 I can't remember what is, I don't know, 46:03 what he said his name is, sorry but he wants to talk to you, 46:06 he says it's very important. 46:07 I pick it up and he goes, hi Christian, it's dad 46:13 and my heart skipped to beat, friends, 46:16 and I went, hello. 46:23 I said why are you calling? 46:26 He says because I'm ready. 46:32 You're ready? 46:33 'Cause every time I'd go to him, 46:34 over and over and over and say, friends, listen to me, 46:38 I would go to him over and over and over again 46:40 and he would say, I'm not ready. 46:43 Now he says I'm ready and we start talking 46:46 and then I fly him out to meet us 46:49 because this man is a converted man 46:50 and found Jesus Christ Himself 46:52 and now he wants a relationship with us three boys 46:56 and so I fly him out to California 46:58 and I interviewed him, 46:59 I haven't seen him in almost 20 years, 47:01 and we're sitting and talking face to face 47:03 and I'm interviewing him, you can see it, 47:05 he's crying on the video, 47:07 it's just God is amazing at fixing people. 47:11 My whole family is being fixed. 47:15 And if God can do this for my family, friends, 47:17 He can do it for you. I'm living proof. 47:23 I'm living proof that God is alive and well. 47:30 None of this would have been possible 47:32 if I had not met Jesus at the cross. 47:38 "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, 47:40 and by the word of their testimony, 47:41 and they loved not their lives unto the death." 47:45 From Broken to Breakthrough. This is my testimony. 47:50 Amen. |
Revised 2016-07-11