Faith to faith strength to strength and glory to glory is the path this Resurrection Sunday message lays out for every believer: we grow in faith by hearing God’s Word, in strength by standing together through trials, and in glory by becoming one with God in worship. The pastor teaches that the Eternal One invested Himself into time to redeem us from corruption, so this life of glory can begin now, not only one day in heaven.
He frames the whole Christian life as a race run for an eternal prize, and closes on the cross, Gethsemane and the empty tomb. The series continues in From Faith to Faith, Strength to Strength and Glory to Glory, Part 2 — The Two Sides of Redemption. Below are the full video, a structured summary, every Scripture linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway, a timestamped outline and practical steps.
Sermon at a Glance
This message was preached at NTC Ministries on Resurrection Sunday and posted on April 11, 2023. It runs about 68 minutes and ends with a prayer to receive Jesus. The pastor explains that he had already taught on going from faith to faith and from strength to strength, and that this message, the culmination of that teaching, turns to going from glory to glory and ends on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
He opens by praying that hearts would become tender to receive the engrafted Word, which is able to save our souls (James 1:21), and that holiness, love and grace would become real to everyone listening in the room, on the radio and online.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | The pastor (not named in the recording) |
| Series | From Faith to Faith, Strength to Strength, and Glory to Glory |
| Main text | 1 Corinthians 9:24–25, Romans 1:16–17, Psalm 84:4–7 and 2 Corinthians 3:18 |
| Key theme | The race of growing into God’s likeness until His glory rests on us |
| Length | About 68 minutes, ending with a salvation prayer |
Running for an Eternal Prize
The pastor titles the message around 1 Corinthians 9:24–25. In a race everyone runs, but only one gets the prize. Athletes discipline themselves for a prize that fades, but believers run for an eternal one. The prize, he says, is a relationship with the Ancient of Days, the One from everlasting to everlasting, and we receive it when we are willing to do it His way.
He grounds this in the meaning of Easter. The Creator watched corruption spread through everything He had made, and instead of abandoning it He invested Himself, the Eternal, into time to redeem us into eternity. That is what the cross and the resurrection mean: eternal life is not only a future hope but something we can have now.
Running this race means laying down the life we had planned. In Matthew 16:24–27 Jesus says that whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses it for His sake will find it. You may picture a life that seems the very best of all lives, the pastor says, but if you lay it down to follow Him, He gives a life beyond anything you could imagine.
That is the promise he points to in Ephesians 3:20: God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. Jesus adds that gaining the whole world means nothing if a man loses his own soul. Real gain, the pastor concludes, is allowing God to have an intimate encounter with us.
Praise Knows His Acts, Worship Knows His Ways
To explain the difference between praise and worship, the pastor goes to the Red Sea. Israel left Egypt with mountains on either side, the sea in front and Pharaoh’s army behind. Moses told the people to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, but God asked him why he told them to stand still and told him to tell the people to go forward (Exodus 14:13–16). The good things, he says, happen when we keep going forward with God.
The waters parted, Israel crossed on dry ground, and the sea closed over the pursuing army. Then Miriam took up the tambourine and the people sang that the Lord had triumphed gloriously and was their strength and song (Exodus 15:1–2, Exodus 15:20–21). That is praise: celebrating what God has done, is doing and will do. He is not a distant religious icon, and He wants our joy to be full when we ask in Jesus’ name (John 16:23–24).
Worship goes further. It acknowledges who God is. In the wilderness each tribe camped around the tabernacle, but Moses pitched a tent far outside the camp where anyone could meet with God (Exodus 33:7–11). Anyone could, but Moses did. So Scripture says God made known His ways to Moses and His acts to the children of Israel (Psalm 103:7).
Israel saw quail, manna and water. At Marah the water was bitter until Moses threw in a tree and it became sweet (Exodus 15:23–25), which the pastor calls a picture of the cross. When we seek His face, the parts of us that hinder fruit fall away, not by our strength but by grace, as Jesus invites the weary to come to Him and find rest (Matthew 11:28–30).
The Holy Guest and the Meaning of Submission
The pastor recalls a catechism class where someone asked why the Bible sometimes says Holy Spirit and sometimes Holy Ghost. He teaches that the word ghost comes from a root meaning guest. The Holy Spirit is fully God, but He is a guest who must be invited and welcomed. Instead of striving and begging God to throw us a bone, we lay our plans down and say, Holy Spirit, come, do whatever You want, however You want.
He will never refuse that invitation. The last chapter of the Bible says the Spirit and the bride say come, and let him who hears say come (Revelation 22:17). It takes courage, especially for new believers who are not yet familiar with God’s voice and keep asking whether it is God or just them. If you are in faith and believe you are hearing Him, the pastor says, God will back you.
That is why submission matters. He breaks the word apart from his own life: in the Navy he served aboard the submarine USS Thomas Edison, and while living in Brooklyn he rode the subway. Sub means under. Submission simply means being under a mission, the mission of letting God change us and give us the greatest life possible so that He is glorified.
It is not a mean master waiting to club us for every mistake. God corrects the way every loving parent corrects a child (Hebrews 12:6), but he describes the Father as never mean, always caring, loving and good.
Faith to Faith Strength to Strength and Glory to Glory: The Three Stages
The pastor sums up the series in three movements, each tied to its own passage and its own source of growth. The table follows his teaching.
| Stage | Key text | Where it comes from | What it builds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Faith to faith | Romans 1:16–17; Romans 10:17 | Being given over to God’s Word, read daily | Trust that grows in rightness with God |
| Strength to strength | Psalm 84:4–7; James 1:2–4 | The assembly of the saints and trials endured | Endurance that can carry His glory |
| Glory to glory | 2 Corinthians 3:18; John 17:22 | Face-to-face worship and becoming one with Him | Being changed into His image |
Faith to faith comes from Romans 1:16–17: the gospel is the power of God to salvation, and in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). He urges everyone to read the Bible daily, and like the Bereans, to search the Scriptures for themselves (Acts 17:11).
To someone who says they do not remember what they read, he answers that he cannot remember some meals his wife made last year either, yet they fed him and he is here today because he ate them. We must keep hearing, because the thief comes to steal the Word sown in our hearts, but Jesus came to give abundant life (John 10:10).
Strength to strength comes through the house of God. Psalm 84:4–7 blesses those who dwell in His house, whose strength is in Him, and who, passing through the Valley of Baca, the valley of weeping, make it a spring; they go from strength to strength. We need church not only for a message but for relationships that encourage us through the week.
He compares it to the witnesses at a wedding, who stand to remind a struggling couple that they saw God put love in their hearts. Married fifty years, he jokes about dying a thousand deaths, then explains that both he and his wife had to die to themselves, and a real strength grew in that marriage. God already died to Himself; now we die to ourselves to become one with Him.
Trials are part of the path. James 1:2–4 says to count it all joy, because the testing of faith produces patience, so we become complete, lacking nothing. He likens it to furnishing an empty first home one chair at a time. 1 Peter 1:6–8 adds that tested faith will be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Meanwhile we set our minds on things above (Colossians 3:1–3) and think on whatever is pure and lovely (Philippians 4:8).
Built for the Weight of His Glory
If we do not go from strength to strength, the pastor warns, we will never go from glory to glory. He tells of a visiting apostle, a very heavy man, who declined a pastor’s dinner invitation. The pastor would give him his best chair, he explained, and it would break, because the house was not built for him. Many people want God’s presence, the pastor says, but are not willing to be built for the weight of His glory.
He describes one morning when he arrived at 4:30 for a 6 a.m. prayer meeting and was pressed to the floor by God’s glory all day, unable to get up, until the skin wore off his cheek. The others could only watch through the door. It followed a terrible season for the church, and he says the strength God gave during that season is what could hold some of His glory. The greatest outpouring he has ever seen followed.
Commitment builds that strength. Early in his walk, a van arrived to take his family to church and the driver pointed out that his chimney was on fire. He insisted they were going to church; when the others pleaded a few miles down the road, he went back, ran a hose down the chimney and went anyway, with a flooded basement to show for it. That, he says, is when God told him He needed him in the ministry, because he would do what he said.
The key text is 2 Corinthians 3:18: beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. Moses asked to see God’s face and was hidden in the cleft of the rock while God passed by (Exodus 33:18–23). Afterward his face shone so brightly that the people could not look at him (Exodus 34:29–35).
Gethsemane, the Resurrection and the Eternal Weight of Glory
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2–4), which the pastor calls the law of our own strength. Keep your word even when it costs you, he adds, citing the one who swears to his own hurt and does not change (Psalm 15:4), because that commitment builds the strength His glory rests on.
In Isaiah 42:8 God says He will not give His glory to another. The pastor explains the covenant name there, Yahweh or Jehovah, as covenant keeper and grace giver who dwells with His people, the intimate side of God, while Adonai means owner, master and ruler. Isaiah 48:9–11 repeats it: He refines us in the furnace of affliction, yet will not give His glory to another.
So how can we share it? In John 17:1–5 Jesus asks the Father to glorify Him with the glory He had before the world was. Then He prays for all who will believe through the apostles’ word (John 17:20–23), that they may be one, and says the glory the Father gave Him He has given them. God will not give His glory to another, the pastor says, so you must become one with Him.
Gethsemane, he teaches, means the olive press, the place where our own will and plans are crushed so the precious oil, which gives energy, flavor and light, comes out. Jesus prayed, not My will, but Yours, be done (Luke 22:42). God promises to be with us through the waters and the fire (Isaiah 43:2), and He offers no sales and no compromise, only His way.
He contrasts this with a Wizard of Oz mentality: going to a wizard for a brain, a heart and courage. That is the way of the world. The path of the just is like the shining sun, brighter and brighter unto the perfect day (Proverbs 4:18). Forsaken by all, Jesus suffered silently like a lamb, and rose, so that death, hell and the grave have no bearing on us.
After we suffer a while, the God of all grace who called us to His eternal glory will perfect, establish, strengthen and settle us (1 Peter 5:10). Our light affliction works a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). He redeemed us when He died, the pastor says, and when He rose He made the way for the Father’s glory to come upon us.
Running the Race This Week
The pastor closed by leading everyone in a prayer to give their life to Jesus, asking Him for a new heart and the grace to pick up the cross and follow Him. Here are practical steps drawn from the message:
- Feed your spirit daily. Read your Bible every morning, even when you cannot remember every word, because it still builds you up.
- Move forward, do not stand still. Like Israel at the Red Sea, take the next step God has shown you.
- Grow in worship, not only praise. Thank Him for what He does, then seek to know who He is.
- Invite the Holy Guest. Tell the Holy Spirit to do whatever He wants, however He wants, in your day.
- Stay in the assembly. Find a prayer partner and people who will remind you what God said when trials come.
- Keep your commitments. Follow through on what you promised God, even when it costs you.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 The Eternal invested Himself into time
- 1:11 Opening prayer
- 2:25 Running for the prize: 1 Corinthians 9:24–25
- 3:31 Praise and the Red Sea
- 6:38 Worship and Moses’ tent outside the camp
- 9:55 Losing your life to find it: Matthew 16
- 12:09 The Holy Ghost as a holy guest
- 14:29 Submission means under a mission
- 15:47 From faith to faith: Romans 1:16–18
- 18:13 Faith comes by hearing: read your Bible daily
- 21:59 From strength to strength: the assembly
- 26:43 Psalm 84 and the Valley of Baca
- 29:17 Count it all joy: James 1:2–4
- 32:40 Not built for the weight of glory
- 37:18 The chimney fire on the way to church
- 39:09 From glory to glory: 2 Corinthians 3:18
- 42:17 Isaiah 42:8: Yahweh and Adonai
- 45:48 Refined in the furnace: Isaiah 48
- 48:25 Jesus’ prayer in John 17
- 51:50 Gethsemane, the olive press
- 56:07 The Wizard of Oz mentality
- 58:52 The eternal weight of glory
- 1:01:38 Hebrews 12:2 and Resurrection Day
- 1:04:14 Prayer to receive Jesus
From Faith to Faith Series
This Resurrection Sunday message is, in his words, the culmination of his faith-to-faith teaching at NTC Ministries: number three. Continue with the next message:
- You are here: From Faith to Faith, Strength to Strength, and Glory to Glory — Running for the Eternal Prize
- Next: From Faith to Faith, Strength to Strength and Glory to Glory, Part 2 — The Two Sides of Redemption
Frequently Asked Questions
Can anyone see God’s face and live?
The pastor notes that some preachers stop at God telling Moses that no one can see His face and live. Yet Scripture repeatedly invites us to seek His face. He teaches that this is not about physical sight but about pursuing God so closely that we become like Him. When we see Him, the parts of us that keep Him from bearing fruit through us die and fall away, not by our own strength but by His grace.
Why does the pastor call the world’s way a Wizard of Oz mentality?
In the story, each character goes to the wizard for what they lack: a brain, a heart that cannot be broken, or courage. The pastor says that is exactly how the world works, always looking for an outside source, whether more education, a new method or another expert, to supply what is missing. The kingdom works the opposite way: you pick up your cross, follow Jesus, and His glory comes upon you.
Is the Christian life supposed to be free of trials?
No. The pastor says that everyone on earth goes through trials, believer or not. Without God, trials only show how weak and helpless we are, so people reach for anything that might help. Following Jesus does not remove the trials, but it changes what they produce. The same pressure that would crush us becomes the furnace where God refines us and builds the strength that can carry His glory.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- 1 Corinthians 9:24–25 — run to win the eternal prize
- Psalm 103:7 — His acts and His ways
- Romans 1:16–17 — from faith to faith
- Romans 10:17 — faith comes by hearing
- Psalm 84:4–7 — from strength to strength
- 2 Corinthians 3:18 — from glory to glory
- John 17:20–23 — the glory You gave Me I have given them
- 2 Corinthians 4:17 — an eternal weight of glory
- Hebrews 12:2 — the joy set before Him
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
Watch More Messages
If this Resurrection Sunday message encouraged you to keep running, there are hundreds more teachings from NTC Ministries waiting for you. Browse the full sermon archive and keep growing from glory to glory.
