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Howdy Mars Hill. Pastor Mark here on vacation with Grace and the kids.

And it’s that time of year for Best Sermon Ever. We bring in some great Bible teachers to open God’s Word with you.

Today, I have got Jack Graham. Great guy. He loves Jesus and baseball, so you know he’s filled with the Holy Spirit. Jack pastors Prestonwood, a big, huge—and I mean huge— Baptist church in Dallas, Texas, and it’s unbelievable what God has done there. He is an amazing leader, he’s a great husband and father, and he’s a highly gifted Bible teacher. We’re very honored to have him. And part of what we did for him as well is guaranteed him some Mariners tickets if he came up to the great Northwest to enjoy our weather and to teach God’s Word. And Jack, I love you, I appreciate you, and I thank you for joining us. I’m honored that you would come and teach.

And one of the things we always like to do, because our Best Sermon Ever series is a little fun, we always give a gift to our special guest. And since my friend Jack Graham is a Baptist, we got him some grape juice. So there you go, buddy. Love you, God bless you, all the grape juice you can drink, and go Mariners!

All right, well, good to see you, Mars Hill. Great to be with you. Thank you, Pastor Mark. I love Mark and his family, and I’m so grateful for the privilege of being here today. We are actually on a break, and we often come to the West Coast out of Texas because it is an inferno in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas right now, 100 plus, so we love it here. And of course, I just want to get a little closer actually to a winning football team, because when you’re a Dallas Cowboy fan like I am and you’re perpetually 8, and 8, and 8, and 8, and you’re living in this world of mediocrity, it’s good be around the World Champions. So, yeah. Actually a Texas Ranger fan, and we’ve enjoyed being on top of the standings until this year. Now we’re on the bottom in the American League West. And I know you, among the Mariner fans, understand that because you’ve been there quite a bit lately. But we’re enjoying the bottom of the pile this year.

But anyway, we love to be here, and seriously love this church. Praying for you. I’m certain that the best is yet—that God is going to continue to pour out blessing after blessing upon Mars Hill. He has his hand upon you. And I know this, being confident of this very thing, “That he who began the good work in you will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ,” amen? And that’s really what I want to talk to you about today.

It’s rather intimidating when you’re assigned your best sermon ever. I’m not sure I ever preached one of those actually, but I do have the best text ever, and it’s found in Ephesians chapter 3, chapter 3 and down in verses 20 and 21. We’ll get to it in just a moment. But just as a setup—now, you know quite a bit about the book of Ephesians here at Mars Hill because your pastor taught through it beautifully. He’s one of the most gifted teachers and preachers of the Word of God that I know. And you had that Ephesians study, and you may remember that Ephesians, the way I outline it, is divided into three primary sections. You’ve got chapters 1, 2, and 3 which speaks of the wealth of the believer, our worth in Christ, who we are in Christ, our identity, and beginning with the fact that we’re chosen before the foundation of the world. We’re brought into the family of God, redeemed by the riches of his grace. And his Spirit has brought us into the family of God that we’ve been given an eternal inheritance. In fact, the way Paul puts it in Ephesians 1:3, “That we’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing from the heavenly places,” that that is our position in Christ, that we are standing firm, and that we are sitting really in this strong position of authority because of what Christ has done for us. Every spiritual blessing, and God just keeps pouring it on. He has and he will keep pouring on blessing after blessing in Christ. And so this is our position of strength. I know in athletics, the core position is so important, that you be strong at the core. And that’s the athletic position, and our position in Christ is strong at the core.

So you have these three chapters. You should read them again, of course, again and again, because it tells you just how much God has blessed us again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Then chapters 4 and 5 have to do with our walk in Christ, that we’re to walk in truth and walk in love. Because the Christian life is not only a life to be learned, it is a life to be lived, right? And it’s not just about what we know or how much we know, but who we know and how we live.

And so always in the letters of Paul he gives us first a doctrinal section, a truth section, great truths regarding the Christian life, and then he tells us how to live the Christian life, the personal application. And so that’s chapters 4 and 5.

And then chapter 6 is the warfare of the believer. I’ve actually written a book called, “Unseen,” about spiritual warfare, and it ultimately ends up in the hope that we have in heaven, but how we fight the good fight of faith and how we win spiritual victories. That we’re in an invisible war, and in this war we stand strong in Christ, in the armor that he has given to us. So there it is. You have the wealth of the believer, the walk of the believer, the warfare of the believer in Christ.

Watchman Nee was a great Bible teacher from Asia. He had a little book called, “Sit, Walk, Stand.” Sit, Walk, Stand. So sit, that is, we are seated with Christ in heavenly places, we’re walking in Christ, and we’re standing firm in the faith that we have been given.

So that’s a panoramic of the book of Ephesians. And right in the middle of this great book written by the Apostle Paul, written from prison— this is not Paul in the pulpit, this is Paul in prison, and yet he is free in Jesus. And that prison house turns into a church house because Paul is on his knees praying. In fact, he tells us in chapter 3, verse 14, “For this reason I bow my knees.” That’s just one of the positions in which we can pray. But in a spirit of humility, he falls on his face and he begins to pour out this prayer. It is a prayer for the people of God.

If you want a great Bible study sometime, just study the prayers of Paul. How Paul prayed will teach you how to pray and how we are to fill our prayers with great truths. So Paul is praying here. He prays about just the incomprehensible riches of the grace of God and the infinite power and mercy of God, and he’s just pouring out these petitions to God for God’s people. And it’s a prayer that we should pray for one another. And then he closes. It says though he’s got this one long, long, long sentence going in this prayer, and he just keeps going, and going, and going, and going. And he catches a breath, and he finally, he gives us this doxology of praise, this final pinion of praise. As he says in verse 20, “Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly, more abundantly than we all ask or think, according to the power that is working within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.” So you can say amen. Yeah.

That’s the doxology that I bring you today, Mars Hill. That God has designed us to be a glorious church, full of grace and full of glory. He gives us more and more grace that we might receive more and more of his glory. And it’s all about the church. I am so big on the church. The church, God’s church— and of course, you know I’m not talking about buildings, but believers bonded together in the church. Don’t be like that man. He was filling out a job application and someone asked him, on the application it said, “What is your church preference?” and he said, “Red brick.” No, it’s not bricks, but it’s you and me, united in Christ. We are the temple of God, and therefore we are his church.

And there is the worldwide church, meeting together. Isn’t it fantastic to know that while we’re meeting here, that God’s church, God’s people are all across the globe worshiping and praising God. Some of our brothers in Christ and our sisters in Christ are persecuted. We should always pray for the persecuted believers around the world. Perhaps you’ve been reading about Christians persecuted in Iraq, beheadings, crucifixions. Oh how we ought to pray for God’s people everywhere. And we are united and connected in Christ, and one day we’ll all be together in heaven, from every nation, every tongue, every creed. We’ll be together in Christ. That’s his church.

But we’re also individual bodies of believers, like Mars Hill. You’re at multiple locations, but the church is localized. It’s global, but it’s local, and therefore the local churches is where it’s at. It’s all the parachurch groups, and denominations, and networks, and all the rest, these have shelf life. But the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is perpetual because it’s the only thing that Jesus started, and we’ll be here when he gets back, when he takes us on to heaven. And he said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against my church.” He didn’t say, “You will build my church” or “I will build your church.” He said, “I will build my church.” It is—we’re his, and we belong to him, and so does his church.

Years ago, back in the ‘60s—I was a teenager in the ‘60s. The Jesus Movement came from the West Coast all the way across the Americas. It’s one of the real revival movements that we’ve had in our generation. Truthfully was a work of the Holy Spirit. Began on the West Coast. It actually began in a local church in Costa Mesa. And it was therefore birthed in the church. Unfortunately, at some levels, the Jesus Movement became identified as separate from the church, just pockets of people meeting and not identifying with local churches. And, you know, I came to see that, and anything that is not connected, vitally connected to the church, anything that calls itself a Jesus Movement that is not connected to the church is not really a Jesus Movement, because the church is the bride of Christ. And oh, by the way, anything that calls itself a church that is not a Jesus Movement, that’s not fully focused on Jesus, is not really a church. It’s just a group of people getting together.

So I love the church because it belongs to Jesus and he has given us the privilege of being a part of his family.

You know, most everything good that has ever happened in our lives has happened as a result of the work of Christ through his church. I started to church 9 months before I was born, when my mother began taking me to church, and my father. And I’m grateful for our Christian heritage growing up. I was birthed into the church, but then I was given a new birth and I received Christ as a child. I came to know Christ as my Savior because of the ministry of the church, because teachers were teaching me God’s Word. Never underestimate, if you’re teaching children, the impact and the influence you have on little boys and girls, teaching them the stories of the Bible and pointing them to Jesus. Because as a little boy, I came to receive Christ as my Savior. I didn’t have a big record of sin, but I would have one to come that I certainly needed the grace of God.

You do understand that about salvation right? That salvation, God’s grace, is for our sins past, present, and future. That it’s not just a new start, an upstart. It is a new birth and a new life, and every sin is forgiven. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin, and so past, present, and future. This is why I know that I’m secure in the grace of God, guaranteed eternity, because any sin that I commit—some people want to say, “Well, can you sin away your salvation? Can you sin so much that you sin away your salvation?” And I always want to say, “What kind of sin are you talking about? How many sins are you talking about?” How many sins do you have to sin to so-call sin away your salvation? What kind of big, horrible sins do you have to commit in order to say, “You’re out. You no longer have it.” Look, if there is one scintilla of a cent of sin held against my account, I’m lost forever. That’s why all sin is covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. We just worshiped him and sang about his blood.

And so I was saved as a little boy and I’ve lived in that grace. I was called to preach as a teenager in my church, and it was there the Spirit of God dealt with me and my heart. And the greatest decision I ever made was to fulfill the call of God upon my life. I’ve been doing it a long time now. I started preaching when I was a teenager and pastoring a church when I was in college, so I’ve been at this a long time. And I can tell you that being a pastor is the world’s worst profession if that’s all it is, but it’s the best calling possible for me. I am so grateful for God’s calling. And that happened to me in the context, in the connection of God’s church, by the people who—my pastor and others who poured their lives into me, and their example encouraged me to follow.

I met my wife, Deb, in the church. We were married at the church. We stood at the altar in front of a minister in God’s church and we committed our lives before Christ and before our family and friends in faith, and followed Christ as we walked together now in life. And then our children came along, and we dedicated our children to Christ in the church, both formally and informally. In times of dedication, we offered our children to the Lord, and they were birthed and then come to know Christ in the church themselves. And now they’re married, and their wives and husbands follow Christ. And now we’re dedicating our grandchildren to Christ in the church. And it just keeps going. And the best friends on earth and the most wonderful people I’ve ever known—

I know there’s a lot that can be said. There are many flaws in churches. We could rap the church all day long. There’s a lot to criticize about church and churches, but let me tell you something. The best people on earth are God’s people in God’s churches. And God’s people will be there for you when nobody else will. When all your other friends walk out, the friends that you have in Christ will walk in.

We’re having a problem down on the Texas border with the immigration issue, and maybe you’ve heard about that. And we have a political problem of course in securing the borders of our country, but we have a humanitarian issue at stake with these little children that are coming across the border, and what to do with children who are basically trafficked into this country and abandoned by the traffickers. So, what to do with these children? Well, the government doesn’t know what to do with them, but guess what? The church does. And guess who’s there serving those little children, and blessing those children, and being Jesus in the lives of those boys, and girls, and their families? The church. And the church is the first one to show up and the last one to leave. That’s God’s church. And that happens—that happens again, and again, and again all over the world.

I’m telling you that we should love God’s church. Don’t tell me you love Jesus and don’t love his church. That’s like saying, “Well, you know, I like Jack Graham. It’s Deb Graham I can’t stand.” Well, she’s my bride. You don’t love her, you don’t love me. And the church is the bride of Christ. You love Christ, you love what Christ loves. And so with—I pray that you love your church. I pray that you pray for your church and that you support with your life the fellowship of God’s church.

Now, having said all of that, Paul gives us this praise, this doxology, this devotion back to God, and it tells us what a glorious church is like, what a healthy, happy, holy church is about. Yes, a church is to be holy, a church is to be healthy, spiritually, and growing, and reproducing, and a church is to be happy, happy in Jesus, full of joy regardless of the circumstances. Because they ate their meat with gladness in the book of Acts, and they were filled with joy in the Holy Spirit, and so should we. So what does that—how does that flesh out? Well, it’s right here in our text. A glorious church is one in which we focus upon Jesus. Our focus is on Jesus, fully and forever. It says, “Now unto him who is able.” Now unto him. “Now unto him be glory in the church.” It’s all about him.

I know it’s been somewhat cliché. It’s almost becoming a religious cliché to say, you know, it’s not about you, but guess what? It’s not about you. The church, it’s not about me, it’s about him. Always has been, always will be. Never been about me, never will be about me. There are ministries to me and you, there is service within the body of Christ to one another, but ultimately, the purpose and the plan of God for his church is to exalt Jesus Christ, to worship and witness of Jesus who he is and what he has done.

That’s what I love about Mars Hill. It’s a Jesus church. And when I listen to your pastor preach, when I read about what’s happened here from a small Bible study to this magnificent congregation that’s spread in multiple states and multiple sites, I love the fact that it’s built on the basics, and that’s the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus, the foundation that is in Christ. And while things may shake on the foundation, the foundation is firm. “How firm a foundation you saints of the Lord.”

And it’s like, you know, they said on Vince Lombardi, the Packers head coach, after he was disappointed with his team and the way they played. They weren’t blocking, they weren’t tackling, they weren’t running, all the basics. He decided just to start over with his team, and after a practice, he held up a football and said, “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

And I want to remind you that the church, the basics of building the body of Christ is the Word of God, the witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, ministries of mercy that care and share the love of God. It’s loving God and loving one another. It’s investing in the kingdom of God and advancing the work of Jesus Christ here and around the world. It’s global and it’s local, but it’s all about Jesus. All about him. And the first time it becomes about something else, that’s when I’m out.

We have a lot of ministries at our church. There’s this whole movement that we have now in America called the megachurch. I don’t even like the idea of calling a church a megachurch because it puts the emphasis in the wrong place. It puts the emphasis on the size of the church or the programming of the church. I don’t like being called a megachurch. I never set out to build a megachurch. I just set out to reach people for Christ, as many as possible, and to take as many people with us to heaven as possible, and to grow them up in the faith on the way. Be that as it may, the church, the megachurch idea really should be about mega-ministries for Jesus. Not how big the buildings are, but what is the size of the heart of that church for Christ and for people.

Just had a 25th anniversary at our church. Deb and I—not our wedding anniversary. We’ve had 44 of those, but 25th church anniversary. And talked about a lot of the ministries of the church. It was great to see the impact on people’s lives, and the focus on Jesus.

And here’s what we say. Look, we have a sports ministry in our church. We’ve got ball fields: football, baseball, otherwise. But I have no interest in having a sports program for the sake of having a sports program. But what I am interested in doing is using sports to introduce boys, and girls, and their families to Christ, because sports, by the way, is a language in Texas. It’s its own people group down there, right? And so we use sports, why? For Jesus. I don’t care about a sports program. What I care about is kids hearing about Jesus. We have a big student ministry like you do here with teenagers, but we don’t have a ministry just so kids can hang out, keep them out of trouble. We have a ministry because we want young men and women to know Christ and the power of Jesus to change their lives.

We have a pregnancy center, a crisis pregnancy center, Prestonwood Pregnancy Center. It’s on the street and our people are trained every day to minister to women who face a crisis pregnancy, and they’re there every day saving lives, saving babies, and introducing men and women to Christ. It’s a beautiful ministry. But as much as I love the pro-life movement and saving babies, it’s not just a pro-life movement that I’m interested in. I want people to know Jesus. I want people to be saved by the power of Christ who changes lives.

What I’m saying is that everything we do has to focus on Jesus. It has to be full of Jesus. And that’s what you’re doing. What did he say? He said, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.” Laying aside all this other stuff, laying aside the distractions, laying aside the diversions, laying aside all the weights that hold us back, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Mars Hill, keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep your eyes on Jesus because it’s all about him.

After they had some of the anniversary stuff and the 25 years of celebration, I stood up, and you know, how do you respond to that? And I thought about the parade on Palm Sunday when Jesus came riding that donkey into Jerusalem. And there were people lining the streets, hundreds if not thousands of people gathered there for the Passover. They’re welcoming Jesus, praying that he’s the Messiah, praising him, hallelujah. And Jesus is riding through on that borrowed donkey, and the palm branches are flowing. And you know, even that stupid donkey was smart enough to know that the parade was not for him. And I’m smart enough to know, and you are too, that all of this parade, the hallelujahs, are not for us. It’s for him. I’m just the donkey. I’ve been called worse. I’m just the donkey carrying the Master’s message.

So our focus must stay on him, strong and clear. But there’s something else. Our faith is in him. Our faith is in him. “Now unto him who is able.” That’s our focus, but now unto him who is able, God who is able to do what? Exceeding abundantly, more abundantly than we could ask or think, dare to dream, or dare to imagine. Don’t you love that? That we cannot out-ask him, out-dream God, out-innovate what God wants to do. That God wants to do so much more in our lives than we ever imagine by the power that works in us.

Now before we go on with that, let me tell you what kind— let me show you what kind of power that is. This is not some Mickey Mouse power. This is the power of God.

Look in your Bibles. You’ve got your Bibles open to Ephesians 3. Look in Ephesians 1:19. And for those of you who are watching on the screen, we’ll have it there for you. But it says, “What is the immeasurable greatness of his power.” Okay, what kind of power is this? “Toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might,” there’s another word for power, “that he worked in Christ’s energy,” that’s another word for power, “in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion,” another word for power there, “and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” And then he goes on to say he’s put everything under his feet. This is the power of his authority, the power of the authority of Jesus. You say, “What are you saying?” Well, there’s a difference in strength and authority. Here’s a police officer on the street, let’s say, and he holds up his hand or blows a whistle, stops the traffic, stops a Mack truck, whatever’s coming his way. Why? Not because he’s personally strong that he could physically stop traffic, but because he wears a badge or she wears a badge and has the authority of the law to stop traffic. That’s the difference in power, physical power, and the power of authority. Jesus has been given all authority, all power. And guess what? He has given that same kind of authority to us. You need to understand who you are and your authority in Christ. It is this kind of power that enables us to overcome the powers of the devil, the power of the enemy. Against any power that would rise up against us, we have the wonder working, all mighty power of God through Jesus Christ. Guess what? It’s resurrection power. The same power that raised Jesus out of the grave is living in us. His divinity inhabits our humanity.

That’s power and that’s what Paul is praising God about, that God is able, therefore, to do anything but fail. He is able to save, he’s able to keep, he’s able to secure, to strengthen, to sustain. Look up all the times in your Bible where it says, “God is able,” and see what follows. God is able. And let me tell you something, God is able to meet any challenge that you as a church face, more than able to meet any need that you have in your life.

Unfortunately, some of us are kind of living in between salvation, the new birth, regeneration, and when we are glorified with Christ in heaven, and in the middle, we’re sagging a bit. It’s sort of like an old bed. When Deb and I got married, we were college students and someone gave us an old bed. They said it was an antique. It was really just a hunk of junk to be honest with you, but it was what we had. And we had this bed and the mattress that came with it, and it was firm on both ends, but sagging in the middle. I kept waking up with a backache and couldn’t figure out why. Had a firm headboard, a firm footboard, but sagging in the middle. You know, a lot of Christians are like that. You’re firm on your faith in that you have trusted Christ. You’re firm, you’re certain that you’re going to heaven when Jesus comes for you. But in the middle, you’re sagging a bit. Why? Because you don’t know the strength and the power of Jesus Christ in you.

The greatest spiritual lesson that I learned as a young Christian was the power of God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Christ living in me. Yes, Baptists do believe in the Holy Spirit and in the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Without me, you can do nothing.” What about nothing do we not understand? He didn’t say, “Without me you can do a little bit or so much.” He said, “Without me, zero, nada, nothing.”

And when I learned that the Christian life—say, the Christian life is not hard. The Christian life is impossible in your own strength. Nobody can live the Christian life but Christ who lives in us, and as we receive and respond to the work of the Holy Spirit in us, then we live out the presence of Christ, the power of Christ, and yes, God is able. But unfortunately, a lot of Christians, they’re afraid to attempt great things for God. Fear of man, fear of failure, fear of the past, fear of the future. And so many Christians never attempt much or do much because they don’t trust in a God who is able and available.

How do we access the power of God? It is through prayer. I wrote in my Bible as a young Christian the words of F.B. Meyer who was a British pastor, and he said this, “You never test the resources of God until you attempt the impossible.” Are you testing the resources of God by doing things? Look, if we only do those things that we can handle ourselves, how then could we experience the supernatural power of God in our lives? And how often have we come to learn that it is when we’re at our weakest and our lowest that the power of God shows up? In fact, Paul said, “I was given a thorn in my flesh. “I was given this weakness in order that the power of Christ might be made manifest in me so that I wouldn’t rest or trust in myself, but that I would rely and depend upon God’s Spirit in my life.”

So Mars Hill, you’re good. You’ve done great things, marvelous things from a small beginning to this burgeoning, growing congregation. You’re good, but you ain’t that good. God did this. The power of Jesus working through his people enabled you to become the people that you are, reaching the world with the message of Christ. God is so able. And I want you to once again to trust in him, believe his promises.

You’re walking through something personally in your life, let’s just pull up a chair and have a cup of coffee with me. You got plenty of coffee in Seattle, okay? You, me, a cup of coffee, right now. You’re going through something in your life, a breakup of your home or your family, a breakdown of your own life and spirit. You’re going through a financial crisis or you wonder, you know, where’s God in the midst of all this pain and all this suffering? Get on your face like the Apostle Paul did in this passage. Cry out to God realizing who you are in Christ, the indescribable love and grace of God that he has given you. And then praise him that he is a God of grace and a God of glory that is able and more than able to out-think, out-dream, out-act, out-imagine anything you could possibly attempt for him. Amen?

The third thing is that our focus is not only on him and our faith is in him, but faith in Christ who can do anything, but our fellowship is because of him. Now, real quickly on this. He says, “To him be glory in the church throughout all ages, world without end, forever and forever.” So the church, the focus here is on the church. We have been brought together, built together by God’s Spirit to become his body. And what on earth would bring people together like you this morning? From all walks of life, cross-generational, cross-cultural, economic strands, all the rest. We’re here worshiping Christ together. One day, we’ll be around the throne. Every color, every creed, every nation, every ideology who has responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ will be there, and God brings us together as an eternal family. What brings us together is what we believe. We’re not here just for a big group hug on Sundays or the fellowship of—you know, you can have fellowship with coffee, but that’s not the fellowship we’re talking about. The fellowship that we have is that we have a common Lord Jesus. We have a common life. We have received the life of Christ. We have a common labor. We are serving together in the name of Christ. You want to know what real fellowship is? Get together with other Christians and serve Christ together, and the connection that you make praying together, working together, serving together, that’s fellowship. We have a common Lord, a common life, a common labor, and that’s the fellowship that we have in Christ. We are believing together. We’re held together. What holds the church together? What’s holding you together is who you are in Christ. It’s what you believe about Jesus, the essentials of your faith. And you are founded upon the foundation of the doctrines of God’s Word. You are built upon the Bible and the testimony of Jesus Christ. These essentials of faith, this is what unifies us. And so we can have a lot of backgrounds, we got veteran believers, we got new Christians, but we’re all together in Christ and growing together in Christ. We are believing together, therefore we are belonging together. And yes, I believe that the New Testament teaches that we should belong, that we should personally identify with a local church, with a local body of believers, get connected to the church so that you can be accountable, so that you can serve God. We are belonging together, we are becoming together. We’re not there yet. We’re not where we ought to be, we’re not where we’re going to be, but we’re becoming the people and we’re allowing Jesus to grow us up in this faith. And therefore, because of him, because of him we are together today and triumphant today.

Mars Hill, I’m looking at you, talking to you. I’m telling you, you are together and triumphant in Christ.

One final word, and that is our future as God’s people, God’s church, is with him. That’s glorious. The same nail-scarred hands that opened to us the doors of grace to salvation will one day come again and open the doors, the gates of glory. Yes, Christ is coming for his church, his bride. And I say with the Apostle John, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” Every believer should live on tiptoe of expectation, anticipation. Perhaps today could be today. I pray today. Because that day in which we will be caught up with him, that day when we meet the Lord, either through death or through our being taken away into his presence when he comes again, either way, we will be with him and his church forever and ever. That’s why he said, “The gates of hell will not prevail against my church.” Read the book of Revelation. It’s full of Jesus, and his church, and his people. It is full of the glory of God.

What is the glory of God? It’s making him large. When you glorify something, just like you’re glorying in your Super Bowl championship—when you glory in something, you make it big. You tell everybody. You make it known. You put it out there and up there where everybody can see it. And when we magnify Christ, when we glorify Christ now and forever, it is all to exalt him and to lift him up so the whole world can declare his glory that every knee and every tongue will confess that—every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.

I don’t know if that’s the best sermon I’ve ever heard or preached, but I do know this. It’s the best truth you can ever believe. It’s the truth. It’s the truth.

When I was 31, 1981, I went to be pastor of the First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach, Florida. I was a Texas boy; been landlocked my whole life, and now we’re on the Southeast coast of Florida. Loved it down there. And this church, it looked like a wedding cake church. You know, tall steeple, and it was historic in many ways, and had Corinthian columns, and it was struggling. God did a great work in the 1980s, and our time there, we’re grateful. But when I got there, one of the things that I had to deal with was this massive pulpit. Now, some of you maybe who grew up in church have seen some of these huge, massive pulpits. You have to walk up in them, you know, and it wraps around you, and you’re standing up like this. And you know, there’s no place to move. As you may have noticed, you know, I move around when I preach, but I’m just locked down in this pulpit. I’m thinking, “How am I going to get rid of this pulpit?” Because in those days, you know, you’re the young pastor. You don’t come in and take out the church’s pulpit, okay? You just—you know, maybe today, not then, okay? So I’m saying, “How in the world am I going to get rid of this massive weight?”

And one day, I was walking through the church, opened a closet door just for no reason. Looked in there and there was a small pulpit. It really looked like just a speaker stand. It had—it was about this size and about this height, and it had a rail like this. A lot of the old pulpits had a little rail that came out with spindles. And so it was a beautiful thing, but it was beaten up. It’d been stuffed in this closet. I think they were using it for every now and then for somebody to have a Bible class, but it was just junked in the closet. And I asked one of the old timers who’d been around the church because it was a beautiful pulpit. I said, “What is this pulpit?” And he said, “Oh, that pulpit has a great story.” I said, “Tell me.” He said, “In 1928, a massive hurricane hit the Southeast coast of Florida, and West Palm Beach took the brunt of it.” He said, “In those days, the church was a big, wooden structure. It was almost a tabernacle built with wood. So when that hurricane came through, it tore down everything in the city—it was horrendous—including that church. That church building was on the ground, splintered into pieces, except for one thing that was left standing. That pulpit.” And I said, “Hot diggity dog, I got my new pulpit now.” And my new pulpit was an old pulpit, because we took that pulpit and we cleaned it up. And I told that story, and they started cheering, you know, that we had this great old pulpit that was standing there. But then after that, one of the members of the church who was around in those old days came up and said, “Hey preacher, there’s something else about that pulpit and about that hurricane. The only thing that was left on that pulpit, and it was left, was the pulpit Bible. And that Bible was open on the pulpit and survived that storm.” And it reminded me of the truth that the flower fades, the grass withers, but the Word of our God shall stand forever.

And when the winds blow, and when everything seems to be on the ground in a rubble in your life, in your church, count on the fact that the Word of God will stand. Count on the fact that Jesus is Lord and that forever, and ever, and ever, and ever, he will be worshiped as King. Mars Hill, keep your focus on Jesus. Keep your faith in Jesus who is able to do above and beyond what you ask, or think, or hope, or desire, or dream. Keep your fellowship, loving the Lord and loving each other because of Jesus. And know that your future is with him because of Jesus.

If you don’t know him as your personal Lord and Savior, if there’s never been a time in your life when you have repented of your sin, which means to turn from your sin and then trust in Jesus who died on the cross for your every sin, who rose again so that you could have eternal life. If you’ve never repented of your sin, responded by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, my prayer and my plea is that you would do it today. Today.

Would you bow your heads with me in prayer? Lord, we pray for those right now who are responding to your Word, inviting Jesus into their lives, trusting you, Lord, as Savior and God. Help them to know that they belong to you. Give each of us the assurance that we have life forever in you. I pray for the believers in this room. Lord, strengthen us because you are able to do so much more than we can do for ourselves ever. Strengthen us in you. Supply our every need, we ask you. Minister your grace and your healing to your people. And Lord, when winds blow against us, thank you for the promise that nothing will prevail against your church and that your Word and your people, because of your Son and our Savior Jesus, will stand forever. Amen and amen.

Pastor Sutton Turner here. The sermon just finished and you can still play a role at Mars Hill church. Whether you’re part of one of our local Mars Hill churches, or part of our global Mars Hill community, if you value this sermon, please consider making a donation by visiting marshill.com/give.

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