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When I was at university,
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I was steeped in sort of lad culture,
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but with that just came
more and more misery.
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My name's Matt, and this is my story.
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I've always been in the church really,
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and then I walked away
from the Lord at about 17.
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I finished college, and
then I went to university
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and I just went out all the time
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and that's when I really
stepped away from the Lord
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and I really just went
out and gettin' drunk
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and I was gettin' into
some more and more trouble.
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I got into a fight at university
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and I damaged the guy quite badly,
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and I went to the police station,
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and I remember just before
I went in, I was prayin'.
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I said, "Lord, if you get me out of this,
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I'll change my life, I'll change my life,"
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Basically, I went straight
back to it once I got out.
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I quit university after two years
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and then I came back home
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and I got into another
fight with some bouncers.
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I got arrested, but I remember again,
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I prayed just before that.
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I said, "Lord," I said,
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"If you get me out of this, I'll change,"
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and I was put into the
back of a police car
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and my mates were put into another one.
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They drove my mates to the police station
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and drove me over to a Tesco carpark
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and just opened the door and
said, "Right, you can go."
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When I came home from university,
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I realised that I needed
to work really hard
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if I wanted to be successful
and that's what I did.
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I got my head down.
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Yeah, it was coming to a
point where I'd work my way up
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to be able to take over my own business,
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just a normal day, and my mate rang me.
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We're about to take it
over in a week time.
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He said, this is my partner,
he said, "Can I ring you?
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I'm having second thoughts.
Can we have a chat?"
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Yeah, he just says, "I'm startin' havin'
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all these second thoughts.
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I don't know if I wanna do it,
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I don't know if I do this in my life,"
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and I'm thinkin', "Okay,
this is not good for me."
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And then he says, "I'm
having all these questions
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as well about Jesus,"
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and I was like, "What?"
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And he just starts asking
me all these questions
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and yeah, right there, I
felt the Lord spoke to me
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and he said, "I'll give you
the answers if you trust me."
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And that sort of just
changed everything then.
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Suddenly this Jesus I'd heard about
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had suddenly begun speaking to me.
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I was like, "What's goin' on here?"
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I went back to work on my own,
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and I was just thinkin'
about what had just happened,
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thinkin' about my life, and I remember,
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I knew Billy Graham,
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and I put a Billy Graham
sermon on YouTube,
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and he spoke about from Joshua 24,
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"You've got to make sure
your choice for your life.
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Whom this day do you serve?"
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And right then and there I said,
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"Lord," I said, "I wanna change,
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I wanna choose you, but I can't.
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From the past I'd try
and change my behaviour,
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but it just doesn't work.
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I need you to come in and do it."
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And that was the first
time I really surrendered,
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and he came in and changed me,
and that was six years ago.
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It says, "Those who have
sinned much love much,"
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and that's very true for me.
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To know that I stand right now
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forgiven of my sins is amazing.
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I can live with real freedom.
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Jesus doesn't just make a
difference to your life,
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he transforms your life.
