“The Best Day of My Life” – Evan’s Testimony
Why choose to say that every single day? In this powerful and authentic testimony, guest speaker Evan Dere shares the real story behind that introduction. From growing up in San Francisco and chasing athletic glory to navigating the freedoms of college life, Evan opens up about the hidden struggles that plague many young believers.
With refreshing honesty, Evan discusses his battles with overindulgence, a long-term fight with lust, and the subtle, dangerous creep of both physical and spiritual pride. Listen as he explains how God used a series of sports injuries to humble his ego (much like the Apostle Paul's "thorn in the flesh"), how a sudden call to a seven-day fast radically shifted his spiritual walk, and how the passing of his grandmother showed him the true victory we have in Christ. This is a highly relatable story of grace, reminding us why following Jesus makes every day the best day of our lives.
With refreshing honesty, Evan discusses his battles with overindulgence, a long-term fight with lust, and the subtle, dangerous creep of both physical and spiritual pride. Listen as he explains how God used a series of sports injuries to humble his ego (much like the Apostle Paul's "thorn in the flesh"), how a sudden call to a seven-day fast radically shifted his spiritual walk, and how the passing of his grandmother showed him the true victory we have in Christ. This is a highly relatable story of grace, reminding us why following Jesus makes every day the best day of our lives.
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Sermon Overview
My Testimony: The Best Day of My Life
Sermon by Evan Dere | Reader's Version
Introduction: The Best Day of My Life
Hi, my name is Evan, and I'm a servant and child of God. For those I haven’t met yet, I'd love to meet you after the service. I've been coming to C3 for over a year and a half now, and for those who do know me, it's great to see you again.
As I was preparing for today, I was struggling with how exactly to introduce myself, because I'm a lot of things. I could say, "I'm Evan. I'm a man blessed by God." Or, I could say, "I'm Evan, and it's the best day of my life."
All of those are true, but I usually go with the last one. I choose that one because I think it best represents what God has done for me. Every single day, I hope that by saying that, I can make someone else's day a little better or make them curious about God.
I’m here today to share my testimony. But before I get into my life story, I want to share my favorite Bible verse with you.
Psalm 91:14-16 (NIV)
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
This verse stood out to me very early in my Christian journey—specifically that first line: "Because he loves me, says the Lord, I will rescue him." It blew my mind. The Lord of the universe will do so much for me simply because I love Him back. That is incredibly powerful, and it’s one of the many reasons why I chose God.
The Roadmap for Today
Today, I want to highlight some key moments in my life where the Lord has led me closer to Him, but I also want to share key areas where I have fallen into sin and what I've learned from it. I’ll be the first to tell you: there are way too many instances of me messing up to share them all today. But I've managed to categorize the most impactful ones so that hopefully, you can walk away with two things:
Getting to know me better and understanding why I choose to be a servant of Christ.
Seeing how my own struggles with sin might apply to situations in your own life.
My hope is that you can either learn from my mistakes, or we can struggle together as we strive to get closer to God. I’m going to start with a little bit of my life story first, and then we will tie in the sin and how God ultimately worked in my life.
Growing Up in San Francisco
I grew up in San Francisco, California, for the first 18 years of my life. If you know anything about San Francisco—or California in general—you probably know it is not the most Christian place in the world. But I was fortunate enough that the Lord put amazing influences in my life.
My parents raised me and my sister in the church and put us in a small, Christian K-8 school. I was always that kid—the crazy kid getting sent to the principal's office, or the kid eating 18 packs of sugar straight from the church coffee station.
One of my earliest memories is from kindergarten, right around the time I started figuring out the concept of free will. I remember looking at my friends and telling them, "I don't believe in God." Now, at that age, especially in a Christian school, saying that was totally illegal! All the other kids gasped and said, "Ooh, you're going to be in trouble!"
Looking back, being that young, I don't even know if I meant what I said. I think I just said it to get a reaction out of the other kids. But that actually foreshadows one of the major sins I’ve battled in my life: pride.
The Fourth Grade Prayer
Fast forward to fourth grade. I vividly remember sitting at my desk in history class, looking at a list of countries around the world. It suddenly hit me: Wow, a lot of the people in these countries don't know about Jesus.
Right then and there, I thought, You know what? I'm going to tell Jesus I believe in Him.
I sat there in the classroom and had the first true, intentional prayer of my life. My vocabulary was extremely limited back then, so I'm sure the prayer wasn't longer than 15 seconds. But in that moment, I made a concrete decision that I believed God was real.
The Need for Attention
Even with that belief, I was still a kid with a lot of growing to do. As I mentioned, I got sent to the principal's office a lot. Partially, it was because I was just a bad kid, but mostly, it was because I did things for attention.
I would do absolutely anything for attention. I would take dares. I would be loud and disruptive in class just to get a few laughs. I was constantly obsessed with making myself look cool. This was where a massive part of my pride took root. Especially when it came to playing sports growing up, I was driven by a deep desire to get recognition for my achievements.
Fifth-Grade Baptism
In fifth grade, on June 2nd, my sister and I got baptized. From what I remember, it was entirely my own choice. Even in the seasons of my life where I was falling into sin, I never once regretted that decision.
That being said, I was in fifth grade. I definitely didn't understand the full concept of baptism, much less the full weight of being a Christian. But it was all I had known up until that point, and in my heart, it just seemed like the right thing to do. It made sense. I can't say for sure that my life changed all that much immediately afterward, probably because I didn't really know what I was doing.
The Athlete and the Ego
What I can say is that around that time, I started playing a lot of sports. I played almost every sport under the sun: football, basketball, tennis, soccer, karate. This is when I started to realize that I was a pretty good athlete.
There was just one problem: I’m pretty short. You would think that should have ruined my confidence, right? Wrong. I had a mixture of determination and confidence, but a whole lot of pride started seeping in.
Middle school passed without much spiritual development. Sports ended up playing a huge role in where I went to high school, because I only applied to schools that had a football team. I was dead-set on playing football and wouldn't even consider a school if they didn't have a team or weren't the best in the city. I ended up choosing a private Catholic school called Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep because they had a decent football program.
High School Priorities: Sports, Social Status, and a Little Bit of God
High school was a whole different ballgame. I divided my life into a few distinct categories: sports, friends, maybe some God here and there, and school. Honestly, school wasn't even a real thought in my head—it was just something I had to do. Let me break those categories down for you.
1. Sports & Pride My main priority was sports because all I cared about was having fun and getting glory for myself. I played football and lacrosse. This is where my pride spiraled completely out of control. I made the varsity lacrosse team as a freshman, which meant I was one of the very few freshmen walking around with a varsity jacket. For those who might not know, varsity is the highest level of a sport you can play at a school.
I wasn't actually good at football until around my junior year because I was super short and hadn't built any muscle yet. But by the end of my senior year, I was super puffed up and full of pride because I was the captain of both the football and lacrosse teams. I thought I was really cool.
2. Social Status Next came my friends, my social status, and girls—because that's what any high school boy cares about. I liked attention (and I probably still do), so I would be the guy willing to say anything or make any joke just to get people to laugh, no matter how rude or heinous it was.
But thankfully, I didn't understand girls that much. I was never really in a relationship in high school, which I guess helped keep me humble. I can't stress enough how grateful I am for that now, because I don't know who I would have become if I had been a "playboy" on top of everything else. It wouldn't have been good.
3. The Unanswered Questions of Faith Throughout all of this, I still went to church every Sunday. I still claimed to be a Christian because I believed God was there. But I was so wrapped up in my own world that I wasn't actually following Him, and I really didn't know anything about Him.
It didn't happen a lot, but occasionally my friends would question my faith or ask me why I was a Christian. I had no real answer for them. It would frustrate me so much because I knew in my gut I was right to believe in God, I just had absolutely no idea why.
4. Cruising Through Academics As I mentioned, school was the last thing on my mind. But you don't always have to try very hard in high school to get by. I thought I was a genius because I never studied once and still graduated with around a 3.7 GPA. When it came time for college, I only applied to East Coast schools that had a lacrosse program, because I was being recruited to play. I also decided I wanted to study animals, so those schools had to offer a wildlife degree.
College and the 75% Statistic
To summarize my mindset heading into college: I was young, and my actions were driven entirely by my own ideals.
There’s an interesting statistic you may have heard. Studies conducted by both the Barna Group and USA Today found that nearly 75% of Christian young people fall away from their faith and leave the church after high school. It makes sense; you get a ton of freedom in college, and people don't know what to do with it. I have no idea how those studies were conducted, but it's a shocking statistic nonetheless.
I was very close to becoming part of that statistic if it wasn't for a few very important people in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) at my school. I promised I would shout them out, so: thank you Connor, Kevin, Tanner, and Luke. And in my later college days: TA Rob and Benny Scoops.
As you might imagine from hearing about my high school days, I wasn't at college to "play school." I was at college to play lacrosse. Remember how I mentioned that I never studied in high school? Yeah, that quickly came back to kick me in the rear. A few classes quickly taught me that I actually had to learn how to sit down and study. But even then, through all of it, I still put sports and lifting first.
The Struggles: Overindulgence, Lust, and Pride
I struggled with quite a few things throughout those years, but the main ones were overindulgence, lust, and—though I didn't know it at the time—pride. There's no real timeline to these, so just stick with me as I try to explain them the best I can.
1. Overindulgence and the Hypocrisy of Sobriety Overindulgence came in a couple of different forms, the first being excessive partying and drinking. I was in college and on the lacrosse team, which operated basically like a frat, so my freshman year, I was very much an active participant.
At the end of that year, I was talking to my older friends Tanner and Kevin, who I mentioned earlier, because they had made the decision to be sober. This shocked me. They explained what the Bible actually said about being drunk, pointing me to verses like Ephesians 5:18, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and Proverbs.
I had been calling myself a Christian this whole time, but I realized I hadn't been walking the walk. Worse, I was a terrible representation of Christ. I felt convicted, quit drinking, and haven't gotten drunk since.
Because I did this, I thought I was such a good Christian. I thought I had it all figured out and was over the hump of my sinful life. But here is how hypocritical I was: I quit drinking because it was a sin and because I wanted people to look at me and say, "Wow, his life reflects God's love and mercy. I want to be a Christian, too." The problem was, drinking was the only thing I changed about my behavior. It was simple for me to quit because being drunk wasn't the sin I was truly addicted to.
2. The Addiction to Lust I started dating my first girlfriend—someone I knew from high school—a few months before I stopped drinking. As I just mentioned, drinking wasn't my most addictive sin. Lust was.
I had been addicted to pornography since I was 10 years old. Many of you know it’s something that warps your mind, not just spiritually, but physically and mentally. It can have effects and symptoms similar to, if not worse than, a substance abuse addiction. For me personally, it completely changed the way I thought about people and perceived them down to the smallest detail. I won't explain too much—otherwise, we couldn't post this on YouTube!—but thank the Lord He has guided me away from that path.
Lust affected my relationships. I would walk lines I wasn't supposed to, or do things with my partner that I knew were wrong, and I couldn't help myself or say no. It led to a toxic way of thinking that clashed completely with the life I was attempting to live as a Christian. It just doesn't work that way. I told myself I was trying to have a godly relationship, but that was impossible because I was actively living in sin. I'm not saying lust was the only reason my past relationships failed, but it certainly wasn't helping.
I tried to quit pornography multiple times in college, but that was before I had a real, strong relationship with the Lord. During my last year in college, I made the decision to quit on a random day without planning it, and miraculously, I was able to stop cold turkey.
Obviously, the enemy and the sin in my flesh try to remind me of the feelings it used to bring. But ever since that random day, I've been able to walk away and turn my back on that life. I attribute all of this to the Lord. That is what His power can do for you. I know it wasn't my own strength, because every time I relied on myself, I failed. It is a very common sin that ruins millions of people's lives, but the Lord can help you overcome those shackles.
That being said, I am still tempted by lust to this day, just like many people are. But now, I am able to properly run from it, because I have the safest place in the world to run to: God.
3. The Seed of Pride With lust becoming less prominent in my life, something else that had been with me the whole time started to take over: Pride.
I knew pride was a sin—it's one of the seven deadly sins—but its severity has been so watered down by our culture that it's often seen as a good thing. God has blessed me with a good life, an amazing family, talents, and wonderful friends, and I let all of that go straight to my head.
Let's go back in time and identify exactly where I started getting prideful. We have to go back to high school. It probably started before then, but the seed really started to grow there. Remember when I talked about getting that varsity jacket as a freshman? It seems kind of lame now, but man, that was a huge ego boost at the time. I was 14, and I thought I was really cool.
Cultural influences were everywhere. I watched popular shows like Dragon Ball Z, where characters like Vegeta used pride as their main source of power. We are taught to have pride in our schools and where we're from. Every kid is taught that one of the most precious things you can hear from your parents is, "I'm proud of you."
All of these things sound really good and innocent, until I learned what God actually says about pride.
James 4:4-6 (NLT)
"You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'"
There are plenty of other examples, but you can probably figure out that the main source of my pride was sports. I was obsessed with the idea of statistics and rankings in high school, especially when it came to being recruited to play in college. Thankfully, I wasn't good enough to be nationally ranked or recognized, because that would have been terrible for my ego! But I want you to understand how my mind worked: I was just obsessed with trying to be better than other people.
It got really bad in college when I discovered powerlifting. I found out I was strong, started getting awards for it, and began being recognized by people I didn't even know. I was finally getting good at lacrosse, I could jump super high and do backflips, and some of my professors would even talk about my physical attributes to other classes.
Humbled in Utah
After college, I felt like the Lord humbled me with an injury. I moved to Moab, Utah, for a few months to work in the Utah Conservation Corps. Long story short, while I was working out there, I was doing backflips, fell, and partially tore my MCL.
I actually viewed this as a good thing because I learned my lesson—well, kind of. The pain reminded me to pray constantly, to thank the Lord constantly, and to be in His Word every day. It led me to become closer to the Lord than I had ever been before. It also forced me to practice putting my ego aside and let my friends help me with physical tasks while I was recovering.
Welcome to Naples, Florida
After Utah, the Lord led me to where I am today: good old Southwest Florida, right here in Naples. I did an amazing cross-country road trip in a car that I thought was breaking down (and, to be honest, it still kind of is). I visited friends, ate great food in Texas and New Orleans, drove through a thunderstorm with a foot of water on the road, and finally made it down here to start an internship with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. I have been absolutely loving the work I do here.
Before I had even arrived, I already had my church—C3—and my gym picked out. Both communities have been such positive influences in my life, and I am so thankful for them. (Although I haven't been to the gym in the mornings in a while. So if you guys are watching, I love you and I'm not ditching you!) You guys became my family away from home, and you are really half the reason why I wanted to stay in Naples.
The absolute best thing that happened here, though, is that I met my wonderful girlfriend, Abby. We were both interns, and she has been a pillar in my life that I can always lean on. She helps keep me accountable, not only in reading the Word but in prayer and growing my relationship with God. I couldn't ask for anyone better. Thank you, Abby.
The Reality of Lust
So now you guys know my whole life story, right? But remember when I said my spiritual growth is kind of random? I want to go back and highlight a few key parts of my life that I've already mentioned, and talk about how they align with the Bible.
Let's get uncomfortable again and talk a little more about lust.
The way I dealt with it was very classic and probably relatable. I lived in denial. I lied to my parents and hid it because I was ashamed. But when I was with friends who were also influenced by it, I was bold. I openly joked about it and didn't hide it, because I knew they couldn't judge me since they did it, too.
Let's get specific: I somehow got exposed to it in the third grade. I was probably eight years old. At that age, I barely knew what I was doing, but I knew two things: it felt good, and it was wrong. I knew I had to hide it from my parents. Even at that age, I knew it was wrong, but I kept making the conscious decision to ignore that conviction. That created a habit in me of ignoring the Holy Spirit telling me to stop, years before I fully understood the addiction.
This is a perfect example of sins cooperating and feeding into each other. My pride kept telling me that I could stop whenever I wanted. My pride and my lust were working together, and they were kicking my butt. I had already talked about finally quitting, but I hope the message gets through: like many people, I reached a point where I couldn't stop on my own even if I wanted to. I tried, and I failed. That is one of the many reasons why I need the Lord.
Okay, I can breathe again!
Spiritual Pride: The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
Something I'm a lot more comfortable addressing is my pride, because I love talking about my achievements! As I mentioned, I’ve had a lot of pride in the past regarding sports. But as I grew a little bit in my walk with the Lord, I started getting prideful about my faith, too.
In my last year of college, I was put in a leadership position for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for my team. I would lead weekly Bible study meetings. While it's a great thing for a group of guys to get together and talk about God, the problem was that none of us had the proper biblical knowledge to really be teaching each other. But big-ego Evan thought he knew so much more than everyone else because I had been a Christian a little bit longer and proclaimed God a little bit louder.
I was acting exactly like the Pharisee Jesus talks about in the Gospel of Luke.
Luke 18:11-14 (NIV)
"The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
My way of thinking wasn't intentional, but while I was preaching love and compassion, my mind was secretly judging the people around me. I thought I was better than them. It didn't diminish my love for God or my friends, but it made it much harder to grow closer to Him or learn anything new. I later realized that some of the statements I confidently made in those Bible studies weren't even biblically true!
The Physical Thorn in the Flesh
On top of spiritual pride, I still have to be very careful today about my physical pride and the talents God gave me.
Last year, I was winning powerlifting meets. While training for my second meet, I failed a squat and hurt my leg. I competed on it anyway and won. That gave me a massive ego boost. I thought, "Wow, I'm so great. I'm so strong. I'm better than everyone at this."
God had to knock me off that high horse. Just when I thought I had recovered, I failed another squat and injured it again—this time, much worse. An MRI revealed my bone cartilage was cracking. If you're in the medical field, you know that takes much longer to heal than a muscle or tendon because of the lack of blood flow.
You would think I learned my lesson. Remember my backflip injury? I genuinely believe God uses my injuries to keep me from being prideful. The Apostle Paul talks about this exact thing in 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 12:7 (NIV)
"...Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me."
Much like Paul, I believe this is one way the Lord keeps me on the right path. But I didn't learn my lesson, because it happened again this past January. I was playing in a rugby game and got frustrated that I wasn't getting the ball as much as I thought I should. I was literally thinking—and voicing out loud—that I was so much better than everyone else and deserved the ball more. Looking back, I can pinpoint the exact timeline of me getting progressively more prideful throughout the game.
Sure enough, toward the end of the match, I got injured. I sprained my SC joint—right here in my collarbone—tackling somebody. It still hurts today.
Hopefully, I’ve finally learned my lesson now! Pray for me, because I still believe God can use my physical talents for His glory. If nothing else, I’ve been able to use these injury stories to talk to my teammates, people at the gym, and my friends about God.
Strengthening the Faith
There are a couple more experiences that, if I'm being honest, I didn't know where to put in my story, but they are extremely significant for me in answering the question of why I believe in God, and they are extremely significant for strengthening my faith...
The Call to Fast
The first of those experiences happened when I fasted for the first time in the summer of 2024. I had seen a lot of videos on social media about fasting by this point, so I knew it could be a great thing and something we should all do, but I never thought I would do it anytime soon.
One day, as I was lying in bed praying, the idea of fasting popped into my head. I immediately wrote it off because it would affect my work, my workouts, my health—blah, blah, blah. But immediately after making those excuses, a very clear thought entered my mind: "No, do it now."
It was unbelievably obvious to me that this message was either directly from God, or He was making my brain think that way. I highly doubt it came from me, because I definitely didn't want to fast—I love eating way too much! But more importantly, it aligned perfectly with God's will, as there is an overwhelming number of biblical examples of believers praying and fasting.
So then I wondered, How long should I fast for? Maybe one or two days? I thought that even that would be too long. But then another thought popped into my head, very clearly: "Seven days."
The very next day, I started my seven-day fast. I learned so much during that time, and I had never felt closer to God. I talked to my parents about my faith, read the Bible every day, read a book my parents gave me called The Meaning of Marriage by Tim and Kathy Keller, and prayed constantly. Fasting taught me how to actually do all of those things, and it helped my relationship with God grow closer than ever before.
O Death, Where is Your Sting?
Another experience that completely solidified my faith was when my grandmother on my dad's side passed away in the fall of 2024.
For years leading up to her death, she would often say, "I just want to die. I just want to be with Jesus." For a long time, hearing her say that would make me sad because I didn't want her to leave. But I realize now that she was able to speak about death with such confidence because she had a profoundly strong and true faith in the Lord.
Her words inspired me to strengthen my own relationship and trust in Jesus. I found so much peace within myself knowing that the Lord will be with me even after death. It gave me immense comfort because there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that my grandmother is in heaven with Jesus right now.
This directly reflects what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth:
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 (NIV)
"When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.' 'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Just as her words and the Word of God inspired me, I hope they can inspire all of you as well.
Conclusion: Waking Up from the Trance
My encouragement to everyone here today is that you can look at my life and hopefully find something relatable. I have struggled with things that are incredibly common. But because these sins are so common, they can easily get lost in the wash and not be taken seriously until they ruin someone's life.
I can tell you from personal experience that one of the most dangerous places to be as a Christian is becoming complacent with active sin.
But that is the beauty of our relationship with Jesus: He wakes us up out of the trance. Sometimes, like in my case, we need a bit of a smack in the face to wake up! I am so thankful to Him for that. I am thankful for this beautiful life He has led me through. I am thankful for all of my friends and family—even the ones I didn't get to mention today—who have kept me true to my walk with Christ. And I am incredibly thankful to have found this church that has truly become my family.
Thank you.
Sermon by Evan Dere | Reader's Version
Introduction: The Best Day of My Life
Hi, my name is Evan, and I'm a servant and child of God. For those I haven’t met yet, I'd love to meet you after the service. I've been coming to C3 for over a year and a half now, and for those who do know me, it's great to see you again.
As I was preparing for today, I was struggling with how exactly to introduce myself, because I'm a lot of things. I could say, "I'm Evan. I'm a man blessed by God." Or, I could say, "I'm Evan, and it's the best day of my life."
All of those are true, but I usually go with the last one. I choose that one because I think it best represents what God has done for me. Every single day, I hope that by saying that, I can make someone else's day a little better or make them curious about God.
I’m here today to share my testimony. But before I get into my life story, I want to share my favorite Bible verse with you.
Psalm 91:14-16 (NIV)
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
This verse stood out to me very early in my Christian journey—specifically that first line: "Because he loves me, says the Lord, I will rescue him." It blew my mind. The Lord of the universe will do so much for me simply because I love Him back. That is incredibly powerful, and it’s one of the many reasons why I chose God.
The Roadmap for Today
Today, I want to highlight some key moments in my life where the Lord has led me closer to Him, but I also want to share key areas where I have fallen into sin and what I've learned from it. I’ll be the first to tell you: there are way too many instances of me messing up to share them all today. But I've managed to categorize the most impactful ones so that hopefully, you can walk away with two things:
Getting to know me better and understanding why I choose to be a servant of Christ.
Seeing how my own struggles with sin might apply to situations in your own life.
My hope is that you can either learn from my mistakes, or we can struggle together as we strive to get closer to God. I’m going to start with a little bit of my life story first, and then we will tie in the sin and how God ultimately worked in my life.
Growing Up in San Francisco
I grew up in San Francisco, California, for the first 18 years of my life. If you know anything about San Francisco—or California in general—you probably know it is not the most Christian place in the world. But I was fortunate enough that the Lord put amazing influences in my life.
My parents raised me and my sister in the church and put us in a small, Christian K-8 school. I was always that kid—the crazy kid getting sent to the principal's office, or the kid eating 18 packs of sugar straight from the church coffee station.
One of my earliest memories is from kindergarten, right around the time I started figuring out the concept of free will. I remember looking at my friends and telling them, "I don't believe in God." Now, at that age, especially in a Christian school, saying that was totally illegal! All the other kids gasped and said, "Ooh, you're going to be in trouble!"
Looking back, being that young, I don't even know if I meant what I said. I think I just said it to get a reaction out of the other kids. But that actually foreshadows one of the major sins I’ve battled in my life: pride.
The Fourth Grade Prayer
Fast forward to fourth grade. I vividly remember sitting at my desk in history class, looking at a list of countries around the world. It suddenly hit me: Wow, a lot of the people in these countries don't know about Jesus.
Right then and there, I thought, You know what? I'm going to tell Jesus I believe in Him.
I sat there in the classroom and had the first true, intentional prayer of my life. My vocabulary was extremely limited back then, so I'm sure the prayer wasn't longer than 15 seconds. But in that moment, I made a concrete decision that I believed God was real.
The Need for Attention
Even with that belief, I was still a kid with a lot of growing to do. As I mentioned, I got sent to the principal's office a lot. Partially, it was because I was just a bad kid, but mostly, it was because I did things for attention.
I would do absolutely anything for attention. I would take dares. I would be loud and disruptive in class just to get a few laughs. I was constantly obsessed with making myself look cool. This was where a massive part of my pride took root. Especially when it came to playing sports growing up, I was driven by a deep desire to get recognition for my achievements.
Fifth-Grade Baptism
In fifth grade, on June 2nd, my sister and I got baptized. From what I remember, it was entirely my own choice. Even in the seasons of my life where I was falling into sin, I never once regretted that decision.
That being said, I was in fifth grade. I definitely didn't understand the full concept of baptism, much less the full weight of being a Christian. But it was all I had known up until that point, and in my heart, it just seemed like the right thing to do. It made sense. I can't say for sure that my life changed all that much immediately afterward, probably because I didn't really know what I was doing.
The Athlete and the Ego
What I can say is that around that time, I started playing a lot of sports. I played almost every sport under the sun: football, basketball, tennis, soccer, karate. This is when I started to realize that I was a pretty good athlete.
There was just one problem: I’m pretty short. You would think that should have ruined my confidence, right? Wrong. I had a mixture of determination and confidence, but a whole lot of pride started seeping in.
Middle school passed without much spiritual development. Sports ended up playing a huge role in where I went to high school, because I only applied to schools that had a football team. I was dead-set on playing football and wouldn't even consider a school if they didn't have a team or weren't the best in the city. I ended up choosing a private Catholic school called Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep because they had a decent football program.
High School Priorities: Sports, Social Status, and a Little Bit of God
High school was a whole different ballgame. I divided my life into a few distinct categories: sports, friends, maybe some God here and there, and school. Honestly, school wasn't even a real thought in my head—it was just something I had to do. Let me break those categories down for you.
1. Sports & Pride My main priority was sports because all I cared about was having fun and getting glory for myself. I played football and lacrosse. This is where my pride spiraled completely out of control. I made the varsity lacrosse team as a freshman, which meant I was one of the very few freshmen walking around with a varsity jacket. For those who might not know, varsity is the highest level of a sport you can play at a school.
I wasn't actually good at football until around my junior year because I was super short and hadn't built any muscle yet. But by the end of my senior year, I was super puffed up and full of pride because I was the captain of both the football and lacrosse teams. I thought I was really cool.
2. Social Status Next came my friends, my social status, and girls—because that's what any high school boy cares about. I liked attention (and I probably still do), so I would be the guy willing to say anything or make any joke just to get people to laugh, no matter how rude or heinous it was.
But thankfully, I didn't understand girls that much. I was never really in a relationship in high school, which I guess helped keep me humble. I can't stress enough how grateful I am for that now, because I don't know who I would have become if I had been a "playboy" on top of everything else. It wouldn't have been good.
3. The Unanswered Questions of Faith Throughout all of this, I still went to church every Sunday. I still claimed to be a Christian because I believed God was there. But I was so wrapped up in my own world that I wasn't actually following Him, and I really didn't know anything about Him.
It didn't happen a lot, but occasionally my friends would question my faith or ask me why I was a Christian. I had no real answer for them. It would frustrate me so much because I knew in my gut I was right to believe in God, I just had absolutely no idea why.
4. Cruising Through Academics As I mentioned, school was the last thing on my mind. But you don't always have to try very hard in high school to get by. I thought I was a genius because I never studied once and still graduated with around a 3.7 GPA. When it came time for college, I only applied to East Coast schools that had a lacrosse program, because I was being recruited to play. I also decided I wanted to study animals, so those schools had to offer a wildlife degree.
College and the 75% Statistic
To summarize my mindset heading into college: I was young, and my actions were driven entirely by my own ideals.
There’s an interesting statistic you may have heard. Studies conducted by both the Barna Group and USA Today found that nearly 75% of Christian young people fall away from their faith and leave the church after high school. It makes sense; you get a ton of freedom in college, and people don't know what to do with it. I have no idea how those studies were conducted, but it's a shocking statistic nonetheless.
I was very close to becoming part of that statistic if it wasn't for a few very important people in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) at my school. I promised I would shout them out, so: thank you Connor, Kevin, Tanner, and Luke. And in my later college days: TA Rob and Benny Scoops.
As you might imagine from hearing about my high school days, I wasn't at college to "play school." I was at college to play lacrosse. Remember how I mentioned that I never studied in high school? Yeah, that quickly came back to kick me in the rear. A few classes quickly taught me that I actually had to learn how to sit down and study. But even then, through all of it, I still put sports and lifting first.
The Struggles: Overindulgence, Lust, and Pride
I struggled with quite a few things throughout those years, but the main ones were overindulgence, lust, and—though I didn't know it at the time—pride. There's no real timeline to these, so just stick with me as I try to explain them the best I can.
1. Overindulgence and the Hypocrisy of Sobriety Overindulgence came in a couple of different forms, the first being excessive partying and drinking. I was in college and on the lacrosse team, which operated basically like a frat, so my freshman year, I was very much an active participant.
At the end of that year, I was talking to my older friends Tanner and Kevin, who I mentioned earlier, because they had made the decision to be sober. This shocked me. They explained what the Bible actually said about being drunk, pointing me to verses like Ephesians 5:18, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and Proverbs.
I had been calling myself a Christian this whole time, but I realized I hadn't been walking the walk. Worse, I was a terrible representation of Christ. I felt convicted, quit drinking, and haven't gotten drunk since.
Because I did this, I thought I was such a good Christian. I thought I had it all figured out and was over the hump of my sinful life. But here is how hypocritical I was: I quit drinking because it was a sin and because I wanted people to look at me and say, "Wow, his life reflects God's love and mercy. I want to be a Christian, too." The problem was, drinking was the only thing I changed about my behavior. It was simple for me to quit because being drunk wasn't the sin I was truly addicted to.
2. The Addiction to Lust I started dating my first girlfriend—someone I knew from high school—a few months before I stopped drinking. As I just mentioned, drinking wasn't my most addictive sin. Lust was.
I had been addicted to pornography since I was 10 years old. Many of you know it’s something that warps your mind, not just spiritually, but physically and mentally. It can have effects and symptoms similar to, if not worse than, a substance abuse addiction. For me personally, it completely changed the way I thought about people and perceived them down to the smallest detail. I won't explain too much—otherwise, we couldn't post this on YouTube!—but thank the Lord He has guided me away from that path.
Lust affected my relationships. I would walk lines I wasn't supposed to, or do things with my partner that I knew were wrong, and I couldn't help myself or say no. It led to a toxic way of thinking that clashed completely with the life I was attempting to live as a Christian. It just doesn't work that way. I told myself I was trying to have a godly relationship, but that was impossible because I was actively living in sin. I'm not saying lust was the only reason my past relationships failed, but it certainly wasn't helping.
I tried to quit pornography multiple times in college, but that was before I had a real, strong relationship with the Lord. During my last year in college, I made the decision to quit on a random day without planning it, and miraculously, I was able to stop cold turkey.
Obviously, the enemy and the sin in my flesh try to remind me of the feelings it used to bring. But ever since that random day, I've been able to walk away and turn my back on that life. I attribute all of this to the Lord. That is what His power can do for you. I know it wasn't my own strength, because every time I relied on myself, I failed. It is a very common sin that ruins millions of people's lives, but the Lord can help you overcome those shackles.
That being said, I am still tempted by lust to this day, just like many people are. But now, I am able to properly run from it, because I have the safest place in the world to run to: God.
3. The Seed of Pride With lust becoming less prominent in my life, something else that had been with me the whole time started to take over: Pride.
I knew pride was a sin—it's one of the seven deadly sins—but its severity has been so watered down by our culture that it's often seen as a good thing. God has blessed me with a good life, an amazing family, talents, and wonderful friends, and I let all of that go straight to my head.
Let's go back in time and identify exactly where I started getting prideful. We have to go back to high school. It probably started before then, but the seed really started to grow there. Remember when I talked about getting that varsity jacket as a freshman? It seems kind of lame now, but man, that was a huge ego boost at the time. I was 14, and I thought I was really cool.
Cultural influences were everywhere. I watched popular shows like Dragon Ball Z, where characters like Vegeta used pride as their main source of power. We are taught to have pride in our schools and where we're from. Every kid is taught that one of the most precious things you can hear from your parents is, "I'm proud of you."
All of these things sound really good and innocent, until I learned what God actually says about pride.
James 4:4-6 (NLT)
"You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'"
There are plenty of other examples, but you can probably figure out that the main source of my pride was sports. I was obsessed with the idea of statistics and rankings in high school, especially when it came to being recruited to play in college. Thankfully, I wasn't good enough to be nationally ranked or recognized, because that would have been terrible for my ego! But I want you to understand how my mind worked: I was just obsessed with trying to be better than other people.
It got really bad in college when I discovered powerlifting. I found out I was strong, started getting awards for it, and began being recognized by people I didn't even know. I was finally getting good at lacrosse, I could jump super high and do backflips, and some of my professors would even talk about my physical attributes to other classes.
Humbled in Utah
After college, I felt like the Lord humbled me with an injury. I moved to Moab, Utah, for a few months to work in the Utah Conservation Corps. Long story short, while I was working out there, I was doing backflips, fell, and partially tore my MCL.
I actually viewed this as a good thing because I learned my lesson—well, kind of. The pain reminded me to pray constantly, to thank the Lord constantly, and to be in His Word every day. It led me to become closer to the Lord than I had ever been before. It also forced me to practice putting my ego aside and let my friends help me with physical tasks while I was recovering.
Welcome to Naples, Florida
After Utah, the Lord led me to where I am today: good old Southwest Florida, right here in Naples. I did an amazing cross-country road trip in a car that I thought was breaking down (and, to be honest, it still kind of is). I visited friends, ate great food in Texas and New Orleans, drove through a thunderstorm with a foot of water on the road, and finally made it down here to start an internship with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. I have been absolutely loving the work I do here.
Before I had even arrived, I already had my church—C3—and my gym picked out. Both communities have been such positive influences in my life, and I am so thankful for them. (Although I haven't been to the gym in the mornings in a while. So if you guys are watching, I love you and I'm not ditching you!) You guys became my family away from home, and you are really half the reason why I wanted to stay in Naples.
The absolute best thing that happened here, though, is that I met my wonderful girlfriend, Abby. We were both interns, and she has been a pillar in my life that I can always lean on. She helps keep me accountable, not only in reading the Word but in prayer and growing my relationship with God. I couldn't ask for anyone better. Thank you, Abby.
The Reality of Lust
So now you guys know my whole life story, right? But remember when I said my spiritual growth is kind of random? I want to go back and highlight a few key parts of my life that I've already mentioned, and talk about how they align with the Bible.
Let's get uncomfortable again and talk a little more about lust.
The way I dealt with it was very classic and probably relatable. I lived in denial. I lied to my parents and hid it because I was ashamed. But when I was with friends who were also influenced by it, I was bold. I openly joked about it and didn't hide it, because I knew they couldn't judge me since they did it, too.
Let's get specific: I somehow got exposed to it in the third grade. I was probably eight years old. At that age, I barely knew what I was doing, but I knew two things: it felt good, and it was wrong. I knew I had to hide it from my parents. Even at that age, I knew it was wrong, but I kept making the conscious decision to ignore that conviction. That created a habit in me of ignoring the Holy Spirit telling me to stop, years before I fully understood the addiction.
This is a perfect example of sins cooperating and feeding into each other. My pride kept telling me that I could stop whenever I wanted. My pride and my lust were working together, and they were kicking my butt. I had already talked about finally quitting, but I hope the message gets through: like many people, I reached a point where I couldn't stop on my own even if I wanted to. I tried, and I failed. That is one of the many reasons why I need the Lord.
Okay, I can breathe again!
Spiritual Pride: The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
Something I'm a lot more comfortable addressing is my pride, because I love talking about my achievements! As I mentioned, I’ve had a lot of pride in the past regarding sports. But as I grew a little bit in my walk with the Lord, I started getting prideful about my faith, too.
In my last year of college, I was put in a leadership position for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for my team. I would lead weekly Bible study meetings. While it's a great thing for a group of guys to get together and talk about God, the problem was that none of us had the proper biblical knowledge to really be teaching each other. But big-ego Evan thought he knew so much more than everyone else because I had been a Christian a little bit longer and proclaimed God a little bit louder.
I was acting exactly like the Pharisee Jesus talks about in the Gospel of Luke.
Luke 18:11-14 (NIV)
"The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
My way of thinking wasn't intentional, but while I was preaching love and compassion, my mind was secretly judging the people around me. I thought I was better than them. It didn't diminish my love for God or my friends, but it made it much harder to grow closer to Him or learn anything new. I later realized that some of the statements I confidently made in those Bible studies weren't even biblically true!
The Physical Thorn in the Flesh
On top of spiritual pride, I still have to be very careful today about my physical pride and the talents God gave me.
Last year, I was winning powerlifting meets. While training for my second meet, I failed a squat and hurt my leg. I competed on it anyway and won. That gave me a massive ego boost. I thought, "Wow, I'm so great. I'm so strong. I'm better than everyone at this."
God had to knock me off that high horse. Just when I thought I had recovered, I failed another squat and injured it again—this time, much worse. An MRI revealed my bone cartilage was cracking. If you're in the medical field, you know that takes much longer to heal than a muscle or tendon because of the lack of blood flow.
You would think I learned my lesson. Remember my backflip injury? I genuinely believe God uses my injuries to keep me from being prideful. The Apostle Paul talks about this exact thing in 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 12:7 (NIV)
"...Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me."
Much like Paul, I believe this is one way the Lord keeps me on the right path. But I didn't learn my lesson, because it happened again this past January. I was playing in a rugby game and got frustrated that I wasn't getting the ball as much as I thought I should. I was literally thinking—and voicing out loud—that I was so much better than everyone else and deserved the ball more. Looking back, I can pinpoint the exact timeline of me getting progressively more prideful throughout the game.
Sure enough, toward the end of the match, I got injured. I sprained my SC joint—right here in my collarbone—tackling somebody. It still hurts today.
Hopefully, I’ve finally learned my lesson now! Pray for me, because I still believe God can use my physical talents for His glory. If nothing else, I’ve been able to use these injury stories to talk to my teammates, people at the gym, and my friends about God.
Strengthening the Faith
There are a couple more experiences that, if I'm being honest, I didn't know where to put in my story, but they are extremely significant for me in answering the question of why I believe in God, and they are extremely significant for strengthening my faith...
The Call to Fast
The first of those experiences happened when I fasted for the first time in the summer of 2024. I had seen a lot of videos on social media about fasting by this point, so I knew it could be a great thing and something we should all do, but I never thought I would do it anytime soon.
One day, as I was lying in bed praying, the idea of fasting popped into my head. I immediately wrote it off because it would affect my work, my workouts, my health—blah, blah, blah. But immediately after making those excuses, a very clear thought entered my mind: "No, do it now."
It was unbelievably obvious to me that this message was either directly from God, or He was making my brain think that way. I highly doubt it came from me, because I definitely didn't want to fast—I love eating way too much! But more importantly, it aligned perfectly with God's will, as there is an overwhelming number of biblical examples of believers praying and fasting.
So then I wondered, How long should I fast for? Maybe one or two days? I thought that even that would be too long. But then another thought popped into my head, very clearly: "Seven days."
The very next day, I started my seven-day fast. I learned so much during that time, and I had never felt closer to God. I talked to my parents about my faith, read the Bible every day, read a book my parents gave me called The Meaning of Marriage by Tim and Kathy Keller, and prayed constantly. Fasting taught me how to actually do all of those things, and it helped my relationship with God grow closer than ever before.
O Death, Where is Your Sting?
Another experience that completely solidified my faith was when my grandmother on my dad's side passed away in the fall of 2024.
For years leading up to her death, she would often say, "I just want to die. I just want to be with Jesus." For a long time, hearing her say that would make me sad because I didn't want her to leave. But I realize now that she was able to speak about death with such confidence because she had a profoundly strong and true faith in the Lord.
Her words inspired me to strengthen my own relationship and trust in Jesus. I found so much peace within myself knowing that the Lord will be with me even after death. It gave me immense comfort because there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that my grandmother is in heaven with Jesus right now.
This directly reflects what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth:
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 (NIV)
"When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.' 'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Just as her words and the Word of God inspired me, I hope they can inspire all of you as well.
Conclusion: Waking Up from the Trance
My encouragement to everyone here today is that you can look at my life and hopefully find something relatable. I have struggled with things that are incredibly common. But because these sins are so common, they can easily get lost in the wash and not be taken seriously until they ruin someone's life.
I can tell you from personal experience that one of the most dangerous places to be as a Christian is becoming complacent with active sin.
But that is the beauty of our relationship with Jesus: He wakes us up out of the trance. Sometimes, like in my case, we need a bit of a smack in the face to wake up! I am so thankful to Him for that. I am thankful for this beautiful life He has led me through. I am thankful for all of my friends and family—even the ones I didn't get to mention today—who have kept me true to my walk with Christ. And I am incredibly thankful to have found this church that has truly become my family.
Thank you.