Kirk Cameron Shares His Testimony

Takeaways: Kirk Cameron shares his testimony and his experience from acting on Growing Pains to finding Jesus Christ.

• Jesus Died and Rose Three Days Later
• Kirk Shares His Testimony
• Growing Pains
• Understanding the Gospel
• Hearing About Jesus
• What About Science?
• We Don’t Have Forever
• Trusting God’s Word
• If You Are on the Fence
• Prayer

I heard all about Jesus. I heard how Jesus came and, and willingly died on a cross to pay the price for the selfishness, pride, wickedness, and rebellion of the human race and how he was buried in a tomb.
And he rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven and then sent his Holy Spirit into the hearts of those people who would come to God in repentance and faith.
I’m Kirk Cameron and I’d like to share my faith story with you.
I don’t know what background you come from.
Uh whether you grew up in a church, going home or like me, you didn’t go to church.
In fact, when I was a little kid, I, I called myself an atheist and that wasn’t because I could prove that God didn’t exist.
I, I simply never really thought about God.
Uh In fact, when I was younger, uh I was working on a television show called Growing Pains.
Maybe you’ve seen it. And I played Mike Sear for 67 years.
And uh during that time, I, I think that I was fed a steady diet of ego inflating information.
You know, that, that I could be the God of my own world.
I could be the master of my own destiny and certainly being on a television show, like, growing pains and knowing that millions of people were watching made you feel pretty important.
So, I didn’t need a God. I didn’t need someone to tell me what to do.
In fact, I, I guess I thought that religion was just something that people made up to, well, just to stop people from doing bad things.
But, and it kind of wound up being in my mind, a wet blanket on all of the fun that you could have as a teenager.
So, as a professing atheist, uh who thought that God was part of a different Trinity, you know, uh like Santa Claus, the Easter bunny and God, uh I really never gave him a second thought.
And so I was working on a, on the show Growing Pains and right in the middle of all of its success, there was a, a young girl who invited me to meet her at church and because she was cute, I thought, well, I’m not gonna turn down the invitation for a first date.
Never been to church before. But hey, uh you know, uh there’s a first for everything.
And so I went and I met her family sat in the back row of this church and heard things I’d never heard before.
And the preacher held up a Bible and he talked about how God, the creator of all things was holy and pure and, and, and all powerful and all knowing.
And he helped me to understand the message of the gospel.
And even after I heard it, I didn’t believe it, but it certainly got me thinking that that although God created man in his image, he gave man this choice to either honor and obey God and be in fellowship with him or to disobey him and break fellowship and go his own way and suffer the consequences.
And, and if you’ve read the Bible, you know that, that that man chose the latter option um creating the need for God to implement a rescue mission.
And rather than leaving Adam and Eve and the whole human race on a course toward destruction, the Bible says that God promised he would send someone to reverse the curse and to rescue us from the consequences of our first parents, Adam and Eve.
And uh this was starting to sound like a great Hollywood movie that there was this great rebellion in the garden.
And then there was this split between God and man.
And then there was this rivalry and there was a, there was an enemy named Satan who came in the form of a serpent and deceived Eve.
And it was a great movie that started to sound like the Avengers, you know, and, and who would, who would rescue them from this, this terrible situation that they had gotten themselves into and God was gonna send a savior.
And I heard all about Jesus, I heard how Jesus came and, and willingly died on a cross to pay the price for the selfishness, pride, wickedness, and rebellion of the human race.
And how he was buried in a tomb.
And he rose again on the third day and ascended into heaven and then sent his Holy Spirit into the hearts of those people who would come to God in repentance and faith and they would be changed and they would be made new on the inside and they would be restored into fellowship with their creator.
And then they would be used by God to heaven, the whole world and have an eternal life with him.
And I didn’t know what to do with this message again.
I, I didn’t believe any of it but the preacher sure did and the people in the pew sure did.
And so I started to ask this girl’s father lots of questions like, how do you know the Bible is true?
What about other religions? What about science?
I mean, are we really gonna believe that there’s someone there behind the clouds that we’re gonna give an account to one day?
How could a man rise from the, from the dead?
And he gave me a lot of really good answers to these questions.
He took me back into, into science and history.
And he gave me a book by Josh mcdowell called more than a carpenter and that little book helped me to open the door intellectually to examine whether or not the Bible was a trustworthy book.
And whether or not Jesus could really be who he said he was.
I mean, after all, he claimed to be the son of God.
He claimed to be uh one with the creator of the universe.
He claimed that he would rise from the dead.
And eyewitnesses said that he did three days later. Well, those are such crazy outlandish claims.
They were either false or they were true or they were just legends.
And this little book helped me to examine all three of those options.
And I came out the other side of that little exercise, convinced that Jesus really is who he said.
He was so intellectually. I felt like I either had to believe in God or admit that I had a hidden agenda to not believe in God.
And then I remember sitting in my, in my sports car one day parked on the side of the road thinking about the fact that I didn’t have forever to think about this and make a decision because one day I would die.
In fact, I could die that day. Maybe I got hit by a drunk driver.
And I would find out in an instant if God was real and if heaven and hell were real also, and I knew that if heaven was real, I would not be going there because I had never once even said thank you to the God who made me.
In fact, I didn’t even believe in his existence.
And so I thought I should pray and I didn’t know how to do that.
It was probably the clumsiest prayer ever prayed.
But I just closed my eyes and I said, God, if you’re there, I wanna know if you’re real, would you please show me, would you forgive me for the things that I’ve done that that are wrong, that have been offensive to you?
Uh I don’t know anything about you, but would you show me the way and make me the person you created me to be if you’re listening?
And I thought about the fact that if God was there and he made and designed my ears, surely he could hear the prayer of an atheist in a sports car parked on the side of the road who didn’t know anything about the Bible or church.
And I just had this desire to share what had happened with a friend of mine.
Well, it turns out he invites me to church. He gives me a Bible.
I start reading it and I start to understand so much more about who I am, why I’m here and where I’m going.
And as I continued to ask questions and find answers to my questions, I became persuaded that Jesus really is who he said he is that the Bible really is the word of God.
And the most important decision I could ever make would be to humble myself and trust Jesus Christ as the Lord of my life to rely and depend upon him.
Like I do the air that I breathe and trust God’s word to guide me into the future.
And I can tell you that of all the things I’ve ever done in my life, of all the people I’ve met the places I’ve, I’ve been all the cool experiences.
I’ve had nothing compares to the joy of knowing Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, of being in a right relationship with God by faith and following his word as the road map in my life.
Let me just encourage you that if, if you’re on the fence, if you’re, if there’s a fog with regard to spiritual truth, Jesus said that if you will humble yourself and you will recognize that you’ve sinned against God and you come to him in humility and faith that he will reveal himself to you in a way that is unmistakable that he will show himself to you.
And, and, and I think that that shows up in a variety of ways for different people.
But at least for me, it showed up in a softening of my heart.
It showed up in helping me to see that, that even the atheist has to exercise faith, to hold his world view.
The atheist has to have faith and trust that God does not exist in spite of all of the evidence.
How else do you explain a universe that screams such design?
How else do you justify things like morality and beauty and truth without a God?
Who is the author of those things?
If you take God out of the equation, you have to throw truth, beauty and goodness out the window and you wind up with a world that you and I don’t want to live in.
So I’d encourage you before you let your head hit the pillow tonight.
Ask God to show you the truth about who He is.
Talk to him like you talked to a friend because even though you may be on the wrong side of God, even though you may be even an enemy of God.
God will make you his friend and change your heart and heal your past and give you a purpose and a future if you come to him on his terms.
Hey, listen, I, I wonder if you, if, if it’d be ok, if I just prayed with you right now, we don’t know each other.
We’re not in church. But uh I, I would just like to offer up a prayer for you if you’re, if you’re watching or listening right now.
Dear God, II, I thank you that you’re a God of mercy and kindness.
Dear God. I know that you’re also uh a God of truth and, and holiness and that every single one of us have violated your moral law and we need your forgiveness.
Thank you God for not passing over us, but extending your grace and offer of peace.
God, I pray for anybody who’s watching or listening right now that if they have questions that you would answer them, if they are lost, that you would show them the way and that she would give them the courage to confess their sin and trust you with all of their heart and experience what you call the, the new birth.
And that you’d make them a new, a new creation and set them on their path uh to being all that you’ve created them to be.
We love you God and we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Hey, thanks for watching and uh God bless you.