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

If you've never contacted Grace to you, we want to send you a free booklet by John called How to Prepare for Christ's Return.

The Bible says to fix your hope on the Lord's return, but until Christ comes back, how should you spend your days?

This booklet answers that important question.

Request your free copy of How to Prepare for Christ's return by writing to prepare at gty.org.

That's prepare at gty.org. This offer is good in North America and Europe through December 2025, 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 lasts 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 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. And I, you know,

meditated on that and thought, how can the Lord do beyond, exceedingly, abundantly beyond what

I can ask or think when I can think of so many, many things.

Well, the Lord has far exceeded my wildest expectations for my life and my time here at Grace Church.

There are a lot of ways that the story of Grace Church could be chronicled. I can look back

over 55 years and follow the history of this church by just following the development of my own

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