From Immorality to Immortality | Dax Saved by Christ

Apologia Utah

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Hi, my name is Dax Brady, I'm 18 years old, just recently graduated two weeks ago from Syracuse High School, born and raised in Utah all my life, never raised Mormon, I was always raised in a Christian household.

00:17

My parents didn't come to faith until I was really young.

00:20

I was probably only two years old, but as far as I can remember, I was always raised in a Christian church, going to church on Sundays in a Christian household.

00:29

I would say growing up in Utah, outside of the Mormon culture, it was definitely different.

00:35

I always had the feeling that I was never necessarily in with parents, teachers, higher-ups, anything, right? I always felt almost lower than everybody because they all had one thing in common, they would see each other at the ward on Sunday.

00:56

I just remember even when it came to going over to people's houses, I've been sent home from people's houses before because I wasn't Mormon, I couldn't sleep over there before because I haven't been baptized Mormon, or I couldn't hang out with this person because I wasn't Mormon.

01:13

I even remember, it was as young, these memories were as young as second grade, where me and my friend, my friend had a cross on his neck and we were playing on the playground, and our other friend said, if you came over to my house, my mom would rip that off your neck.

01:28

I just remember always feeling scared necessarily to go around parents, and I always felt like they didn't like me, and I always felt a need to almost prove myself to people, prove that I wasn't a bad kid even though I was, but prove that just because I'm not Mormon, I'm still fine for your kids to hang around or whatever.

01:52

Growing outside the Mormon culture, it was different, it was hard, even for neighbors.

01:59

Neighbors never wanted to come and meet us and talk to us, or once they found out we weren't in the ward, it was just different.

02:05

You felt looked at differently, it was different.

02:09

I remember growing up, I would always claim that I was a Christian, and I would always claim to walk with Christ, but I never was truly saved.

02:19

It was all just kind of my mouth talking, it was never really a way of my life.

02:23

I never had the faith instilled in me, so I remember just going, I went to public school my whole life, and I remember from a young age, junior high, and even starting in elementary, my goal wasn't to be, you know what I mean, right with God, or my goal wasn't to seek God, it was always to, how many friends can I get, and how many places can I go, and what does this person think of me, and what does this person think of me, and you know what I mean, just a lot of worldly thoughts, and that was my mindset.

02:55

So going to junior high, I would say that I was typically the popular kid who, you know what I mean, played sports, I played basketball my whole life, I was a good athlete in soccer and baseball, and that was my goal, was to be a good athlete and just, you know what I mean, make friends and all this stuff.

03:12

So I remember starting in junior high, I was, even seventh grade is when I first started to really kind of go off the deep end.

03:20

So seventh grade, it was the first time I remember, we were at my friend's house, and he had a vape with him, and he's just like, oh just do it, and blah blah blah, like, it's fine, it's just fun, and I'm like, you know what, let's just do it, like I'm just a young kid, you know, I guess necessarily my mindset was, kids do these things, it's normal, right, that was my justification for it, was everybody does this.

03:44

So I remember I just did it, and kind of laughed about it, whatever, shook it off, and really didn't think much about it, and then a little bit after that, I smoked weed for the first time with some friends, and they're just telling me, you know, it's normal, it's normal, everyone does it, and I was like, you know what, okay, sure, everyone does it, can't be too upset, like I'm just a normal kid, I go to, you know, normal kid, go to normal school and all this stuff, so I smoked weed, I didn't necessarily like it, I wouldn't say I was ever really addicted to these things, it was more just to do it to fit in, more to do it to be cool, to have a lot of friends, and in coming to that, this is where I really started to find a dark place in my life, is I was really at the lowest, right, when I started to first found like pornography, and stuff like that, I was introduced to this at a very young age, and for a little while, I was hesitant, all my friends did it, and I was just like, no, I'm not doing this, like, it's just gross, I never really thought of it, but I remember I was in the seventh, or no, eighth grade, and that's when I was like, you know what, everybody does it, justify it, that was my mentality, was just justify it by, this is fine, it's a normal act, so I started watching porn when I was 13, I believe, and just, it was a daily practice for me, and I became very enriched in the culture of it, and just the idolatry of it, and at the time, I didn't know it was idolatry, and I remember even talking to my parents one day, my brother asked the question is, you know, is masturbation a sin, and my dad looked at him like, yeah, of course it's a sin, and that shook me, I had no idea, I thought it was just a normal thing, and I was like, whoa, like, you know what, but that still didn't save me, so I just began to hide it, and I just, at a really low point in my life, that brought into, I had a girlfriend at the time, and we were doing premarital stuff we shouldn't have been doing, and just lots of sexual sin, and I was just so addicted, and I remember I got caught, eventually, and I used almost Christ as like, when I needed Him in the moment, so I was like, no, no, no, I'm sorry, like almost like a fake repentance, I don't even know what real repentance was, but it was just kind of all fake, I was like, oh, I didn't mean to do this, I'm a Christian, all this stuff, and then I kind of backed it, pushed it under the rug, and a couple weeks after that, once I learned my lesson, I dipped right back into the same sin, I never had real faith that was backing my doing, I remember I was almost living two separate lives, essentially, there was the go-to-church DACs, and then there was the school DACs, and I remember even we were running on the track one day with my friends, and they were talking about just religion, and I remember me and my friend were like, oh, yeah, we're Christian, like, no, you're not, and I was like, yeah, no, we are, like, they were shocked, like, you guys don't, like, what, like, we thought you guys were just atheists, or whatever, and I feel like that, even at a young age, kind of struck me, but not to the sense, and I was like, well, they just don't know what they're talking about, so I would go to church, and my parents would, like, boast about me, and I would always come up to them, oh, I read this, I read this, and, oh, I did that, and I remember I was really humbled when my dad asked me, I was like, oh, I read Romans 1 and 2 today, he was like, okay, what was it about, I couldn't even tell him, I wasn't really reading to, you know, enjoy scripture, to see what God is saying in His word, I was just reading to please my parents, I was reading for them to, you know what I mean, see how good of a kid I am, and so that maybe they can give me a better Christmas present, or something, like, that was my mindset, was I want them to believe that I'm this, but it was never for Christ, it was never, you know what I mean, to glorify God, right, so I never truly felt bad in my heart, I felt bad because I hurt people, and hurt my friends, and family, or whatever, but it never changed my heart, my heart was still the same in the ugly place, so, recently, or about a year ago, I was, I remember, I was, a couple days before that, I just watched porn again, it was the typical, what I always did, and I remember I came across this sermon, I don't remember what the name of the sermon was, it was just on YouTube, I was just scrolling on YouTube, I think it was called, something about, like, sexual sin, or just what is real sexual sin, and I watched it, and I remember I just broke down, in tears, and I was just crying, and I was just like, you know, Lord, please, like, what am I doing, I don't want to keep going down this path, and I remember going through that, it was on a Sunday, and we came to church, we rode up to church on that Sunday, and I was still listening to the sermon, just still, like, my heart was broken, and I was just, you know, scared, and sad, and I go to church, and I remember the sermon was around, some sort of around those lines, about just trusting your brethren, and Christ can take the pain for how I lived, and that's truly when I would say I was saved, because I never, I would always claim, right, always claim this, you know, I'm fine, I can just move on if I feel bad, and my mindset really was, oh, I'll become a Christian, and I'll do this later when I'm older, but right now, when I'm young, I'm going to live my life, I'm going to enjoy the things I want, I'm going to do the things I want, but when I'm older, when I have a family, that's when I'll come back, right, almost as using Christ as a means to an end, but I remember reading a book, and the quote in the book said, you know what I mean, you're not guaranteed to live the lives that you think you're going to live.

09:22

I feel like it's typical for people my age to think they're going to live until 70, and they're going to have many kids, and they're going to have a wife, and they're going to have a home, and all this stuff, but I remember, even around this same time, God is so gracious that even seeing a kid in our school, he passed away from a car accident, and I was like, wow, life is precious, it's scarce, you're not guaranteed to live for all this life, and I just remember, I was like, no, I need Christ now, so I started just pouring into the Word, and I was really just realizing that, you know, it says that Christ lived the life that we couldn't live, right, that He's our Savior, and I never understood that until I realized how low in life I was, and even all the sins that I committed, and all the agony, and the pain, and the idolatry that I committed was paid for, and to realize that at my age was, it was crazy, like, I was like, you know what I mean, how, it was almost like I believed that I could, in a sense, work for what I wanted, like, if I'm just a good kid later in the future, I'll be fine, and I'll earn my way back to Christ, or whatever, but it just realizes, once you realize, and you see how deep sin can take you, and how disgusting and horrible it makes you, and you realize that Christ can pay for that, and that His blood can wash you free of that sin, and He can free you from anything that you're enslaved to, that was a pivotal verse, when I was reading Romans in my first Bible study, after being saved, it was talking about being, you're a slave to something, right, you're either enslaved to sin, or, you know, if Christ has purchased you with His blood, you're now enslaved to Him, I live for Him now, I don't live for the normality of my peers around me, I don't live to please my parents, I live solely because Christ died on a tree for my sins 2,000 plus years ago, and I remember when I was first saved, the period after that, I was reading for myself, I was reading to just see, you know, God, I'm a sinner, how can you change my heart today, like, I remember I also listened to a sermon by Paul Washer, and how he was saying that the scriptures are essentially a mirror, you're to look at them, and to compare your life to how the scriptures are, right, how do you stand the test? And every day I was just pouring into the Word, and I could easily tell that there, God instilled a spirit into me, that He gave me the faith to look up to Him, to aspire after Him, that, you know, it says in John 6 that God will give Jesus the ability to call His people, you know, that no one can come to the Son unless the Father draws Him, and that was essentially it, as I always claimed to, you know, be a Christian, but I was never a believing profession, I never had that faith until God called me through His sovereign grace, and once He did that, I could easily tell that there was a difference.

12:40

I started to really look at who I was surrounded around, I wanted to kind of get away from the friends I was with, I started praying, you know, a lot more, I used to pray whenever I kind of just thought that I haven't prayed in a while, and it was always the same prayer, I felt like almost I was just talking to myself, essentially, I was just praying to, you know, once every month, you know, like, it was just weird, like, it was never a real prayer, but I remember I was just on my knees daily, Lord, I'm so sorry, take my sin, you know, you're so gracious, allow me to be better today, and that's, I knew that that was a change in my heart for sure, because just the spirit that I was filled with was definitely one from God.

13:27

So life after high school, definitely, I was confused before I was saved, I didn't really know, it was the general normality, I believe, to just go to college.

13:38

Get a degree, start your life, work for a couple of years, get married, have a family by 28 or so, and I remember when I was first saved, I was 100%, God called me to just be a married man, God called me to be ready for marriage, He, you know, instilled in me a want to progress the kingdom through a family and to have a family-driven faith, essentially, so my goals right now is to just glorify Christ as much as I can in my life.

14:10

I want to start working for electrician work, to just glorify God with my hands and to work unto Him as my master, not working for money or working for, you know, a status or anything, it's just to glorify Christ and whatever He blesses me with, then I'll use that to further His kingdom.

14:32

I want to, Lord willing, whenever He prepares a wife for me, I want to just engage in that, I want to be ready to be a man who can lead a household, who can further the kingdom through children and discipleship and being a protector.

14:51

I just want to, with my life, the life that has been given to me from Christ, to just glorify Him with it.

15:02

And I really want, my focus point on that is to just start a family, hopefully raise young believers who are ready to further the kingdom and glorify Christ through what they can do, and the main point to that is just to do what the Lord says and just abide in His word daily and wherever Christ takes me on my life, whatever plan He has established for me, I just, I want to just lay my life down for that reason and for that purpose.

15:33

Life is very precious, it's, you only get one life, right, now there's, and eternity is a very real thing, you know, you can push it off as much as you want, you can run from it, you can hide from it, but at the end of the day, you're, you know, there is life after death and you're not guaranteed all the lies that the culture feeds you, that you'll have this great life and you'll have a good retirement with a good wife and all these things, you could die tomorrow.

16:06

And, you know, I would just make the point is you need Jesus today, that today you seek for Him, today you lay down your life for Him, today you turn to Him, turn away from your sin, your sin feels so good at the time you're engaging in it and I believe it's in Proverbs when it says that gravel fills the mouth but then afterwards it gives you like a bad taste, right, it's the same thing with the sin I was engaging in, it would fulfill my life for that short little moment but Christ is so much greater than that, you know, He's everything you could need no matter where your life's at, in what sense, no matter how much money you have, no matter how much friends you have, Christ is all you need and turn to Him today and you'll have eternal life, that's all you can ask for on this earth and the big thing is, is just don't feed into the lies that the culture feeds you, that the most important thing in your life is money, right, it says in Matthew that what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but yet forfeit his soul and I think that's just so important for kids to hear is that don't chase after things that give you this temperance of happiness, right, just turn to Christ and your life will be fulfilled, your pleasures, your joy will just be turned onto Him and He's a good Savior, He's a good Master and it's just a freeing thing to be purchased by Him, so I would just say to turn to Him and find eternal life.