Special Address on the Historic Sanctuary by Dr. Robert Jeffress | July 21, 2024

There are so many people I would like to thank, and I could spend all day thanking people, but I want to say a special word of thanks to the one hundred firefighters and the untold number of police who risked their lives to save the First Baptist Church of Dallas. We are so grateful to them.

Have you noticed a lot of people have noticed what’s happening at our church? An interesting tweet I read was from the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Clint Pressley, who said, “If the Southern Baptist Convention had a Notre Dame, it would be FBC Dallas.” In other words, for those of you not familiar with evangelical Christianity, you need to understand that First Baptist Dallas is the Notre Dame of the evangelical Christian movement. And it’s not because of who we are. It has nothing to do with who we are; we’re nothing in God’s eyes. It’s what we believe. It’s the truth we rally around.

Again, I could thank so many people who have reached out—our iCampus viewers, our Pathway to Victory viewers and listeners. They want to organize trips to come to Dallas to remove the debris and help in any way they can. It’s been an amazing outpouring of love and support.

I want to thank our government leaders and others who have reached out. We are so indebted to our great mayor, Eric Johnson, who has been a real support to our church. And we’ve also heard from other leaders who have offered their support and help: Senator Ted Cruz, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, our friend Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mike Pence, and President Trump all reached out yesterday to offer their support in any way that they can.

As I stood there Friday night and watched the flames engulf our church, I can’t explain to you the emotion I felt. And I don’t have to explain it because you experienced it. You felt it just like I did. I’ve never been impacted by anything like that fire.

And I did a little bit of analysis yesterday. I thought, Why did that move me so much? Why did that affect me?

My rational side said, “Well, it’s because you got a lot of memories. That old sanctuary was a museum of memories for you and others.” And it certainly was. But I’ve got a lot of memories about Six Flags over Texas, and I don’t fall apart every time I go through the turnstile. If I heard they had destroyed the Runaway Mine Train, I wouldn’t be devastated. My world wouldn’t end. It has to be more than memories.

And I thought, Well, no, it’s more than memories; it’s the spiritual milestones that were there for me. And for a lot of you as well. I was baptized when I was six in that sanctuary, I surrendered to the ministry when I was eighteen, I was ordained by Dr. Criswell when I was twenty-one, and other significant events took place there. But that didn’t capture all of it either.

And then it hit me: It’s not that building; it’s what that building represented to me. It represented the truth, the bedrock foundation of God’s Word that never changes.

Remember what Peter said to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). And Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (v. 18). That is a great promise. And I think that’s why that Historic Sanctuary means so much to me.

You know, when we were designing the new campus, we had architects who told us, “You can’t build this new campus and leave that old sanctuary there, just feet away from the new campus. That would be an architectural monstrosity, trying to put those two things together.”

Well, it may have been an architectural monstrosity, but it was a theological necessity because we were painting a picture to people throughout the community and world that, yes, methods change for sharing the gospel, and media changes. But the message never changes. The message remains the same. And having that old Victorian-style building right next to a building filled with glass and all the modern technologies was a constant reminder that the truth of God’s Word never, never changes.

By the way, can I just say this? Do you realize what a blessing of God it is that we have this new campus? Because if we did not have this new campus, and we had lost our place of worship, we would be literally homeless as a church for months or even years. It would be a much-diminished church if we didn’t have that new place of worship to go into that we will enjoy very soon.

But anyway, I go back to that Friday night. That’s why I was impacted by it. It’s like those flames represented the flames of hell, and they were destroying the truth that I had banked my life and eternity on.

You know, as I watched that, I thought of what Jesus said. He said to His disciples, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). He was talking not about the physical temple but His body.

But His disciples didn’t understand that. When Jesus died on that Friday, when He was buried, when He was taken off the cross, the disciples had the same feeling we did on Friday—a feeling of despair and discouragement. But three days later, Jesus arose from the dead, and the story changed!

This last Friday night, it looked like the gates of hell were prevailing, that Satan was going to win. That was last Friday night.

But, ladies and gentlemen, it is Sunday morning! It is a day of resurrection; it’s not a day of death. And I am pledging to you that we’re going to rebuild that sanctuary. We’re going to recreate it as a standing symbol of the truth—the unchangeableness, the endurance—of the Word of God. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

We cannot allow Satan to have the last word. If we allow the Historic Sanctuary to remain in ruins, it will look to the whole world like we’ve been defeated by the evil one. So we’re going to rebuild; we’re going to recreate.

Now, what do I mean by that? I’m not saying we’re going to duplicate every square inch of that worship center. We have a planning and development committee. We have deacons who will look at all of that. What I’m saying to you is we’re going to remember that historic place of worship and do everything we can to honor it. And God’s going to bless us in doing that.

But let me say to you that a building does not win the war with Satan. It’s a first step. That building is a tool, but that building is not the church. It’s not enough to commit to rebuilding a building. We need to recommit ourselves to God’s mission. That’s what we need to be doing to defeat the plan of the devil.

You know, the mission is very clear for our church. We are to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And the best way I know to defeat Satan is to defeat his plan to deceive people and keep them from knowing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We need to move forward in our mission. We reach four million every week on our social platforms—let’s make it eight million. Pathway to Victory has six million listeners—let’s make it twelve million. Let’s do everything we can, as quickly as we can, to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

Now, I want to tell you something very practical. We’ve had people calling and texting us, both inside the church and outside the church, saying, “We want to give; we want to help. What can we do?” You know, it’s against the nature of a Baptist preacher to turn down money. It’s not how we’re wired.

I tell those people honestly, “Thank you for your offer of help. But frankly, the insurance company is going to take care of that. That’s their job; that’s their responsibility. They’re going to fund the rebuilding of that sanctuary. But they’re not going to give us one red dime to help us fulfill our mission. That’s our job.

“And if you want to see Satan defeated, and if you want to see First Baptist Church continue to remain resilient, you keep helping us like you are in Mission 1:8 and sharing the gospel with as many people as possible. Let’s have the world see and say what happened that Friday night was the best thing that ever happened to First Baptist Dallas because it caused them to double down on their mission and to grow like never before. That’s the best way to defeat the devil.”

And you know what, church? The Bible promises that if we will do that, if we will focus on our mission, God will be with us. I’m not just making that up; Jesus said in His final words to the church, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always” (Matthew 28:19–20). If we will do our part, Jesus, the Lord of the church, says He will do His part, and He will be with us individually and together as a church.

Somebody sent me a quote this week from A. W. Tozer. In his book The Attributes of God, Tozer said, “God is above all things presiding, beneath all things sustaining, outside of all things embracing and inside of all things filling.” We can count on the goodness and the power of God to sustain us in these days ahead.

Thank you, wonderful church, for the privilege of being your pastor. I love you. I’ve always loved you, but I’ve never loved you like I have over these last few days as I’ve watched you rally and promise to be faithful to the church. We’re going to make it through this. God has a great plan for the First Baptist Church of Dallas.