MARCUS: My name is Marcus Smith. I grew up in beautiful Menomonee, Wisconsin where we now find
ourselves, and my dream growing up was to play college football at the highest level possible.
So I began playing tackle football in eighth grade, and the moment that I began playing
football, I was in love with it. I loved the acclamation that came with it. I love hearing
people clap for me in the stands as I scored touchdowns as I made tackles or had interceptions,
whatever it was. That was my lifelong dream, was to be able to play in the
Big Ten conference especially. I grew up in a Catholic church upbringing and I was a very
religious kid. I was a very devout, spiritual kid who was very thought well of by his peers,
but at the same time, I was living a completely double life and the Lord really brought me to my
knees through a book written by Kyle Idleman. And he wrote a book called, "Not A Fan," and I
started reading it and Matthew chapter 7 verses 21-23 and Luke chapter 9 verse 23, really
hit me like a ton of bricks. And Jesus basically just calls out false followers, those who say,
"Don't I know you, Jesus? Didn't I cast out many demons in your name and in your name do many
mighty miracles and works, and these types of things?" And Jesus will look at them on that great
and dreadful day of judgment and say, "I never knew you. Away from me you practicer of iniquity.
I never knew you." And I just knew that that was me. It was as if Jesus Christ Himself were looking
me dead in the face saying, "Matthew chapter 7 verse 21 to 23", to my soul. I was reading
the Bible for the first time in my entire life, and the words were jumping off the page for me
and I knew after that summer, in the middle of that summer, I knew that I could not pursue this
dream of playing division one football any longer. And so I called up the college that I had kind of
spurned during the recruiting process and I asked them if they still had a spot for me to
be able to go play football and study the Bible and the coaches actually told me once I called
them in June or July they said, "Marcus not only do we still have a spot for you at Wheaton, but
we've actually been praying for you ever since you committed to this other college."
When I was at Wheaton, the most important thing to me was believing in God,
just simply believing in God and following Jesus Christ. But when I got out of college and moved
down to the desert, wrestling with my Bible, wrestling with God for a couple years down there.
What became most important to me was, "What do I believe about God? What do I believe about god
and what hills am I theologically willing to die on if necessary?" Weighty doctrines such as the
Sovereignty of God, where do I stand on that? And as I started to look into issues on the
Sovereignty of God, issues such as predestination, issues such as the authority of Scripture,
as I started to do more research for myself, I noticed that another ministry started popping up,
namely Ligonier Ministries. And so that's where I just kept going time and time and time again
for answers to my theological questions. And I was hooked on Ligonier Ministries.
Any R.C. Sproul teaching that I could get my hands on, especially the free stuff I absorbed.
My dad and I, we used to come here a lot and play catch. Whenever we weren't playing catch in
my backyard with him, behind his house and so got to play in this wonderful facility from
middle school, all the way through high school and even when I came back on a few occasions during
college, I'd come and get some workouts in here. Nobody remembers, hardly, that I wore number 34
here, made this play, or that play, or the other play on a Friday night here in Menomonee football
stadium. Nobody remembers some of those things, but I do know that the work that the Lord has me
doing in ministry right now, that will endure forever. The one who is righteous and the one
who does righteousness endures forever. And I want to be consumed with that work I praise God
that he rescued me in a lot of ways from what I thought was my dream for myself growing up,
and he gave me a better dream that I could not have dreamed up for myself. He had better plans
than even I could have planned for myself far more fulfilling, far more abundantly fulfilling
than anything I could have asked or thought, and that's all because of God and his grace alone.