The following sermon is by John MacArthur, pastor, author, and Bible teacher with Grace to you.

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And now, unleashing God's truth one verse at a time,

here is Grace to you Bible teacher John MacArthur.

Obviously, no one would anticipate going into ministry and ending up there for 55 years.

As you heard, that's very rare. The average pastoral length

is four years across this country, and that means there are a lot that never last four years

to make that the average. So it's a very unusual thing to find a

people who are that patient with one human being that they would allow over half a century

of ministry to be shared together. So I understand the privilege, I understand the joy, I understand the purposes

that God had in unfolding the ministry here over these 55 years. I never, ever would have

imagined anything like the ministry that the Lord has raised up.

I could think of a lot of things when I was young.

I still, I still am always thinking about ways to minister, but Ephesians 320 was on my

mind when I came out of seminary, now unto him who was able to do exceeding abundantly above

all you can

ask or think.

...