12/13/2022
Good evening friends
This will be my last post on Agape Church's page.
A Word of Thanks
First, I would like to thank you all for your service in the name and in the power of the LORD Jesus Christ. You have been so gracious to allow me to be the pastor of Agape Church over the last three years. And as in any body, there were many different ways which you played a part. Some of you attended faithfully, others supported financially, others encouraged as friends. You endured my long sermons with grace and kindness. You tolerated my inexperience as I made mistakes in judgement as a bi-vocational pastor. But most important, you have allowed me to preach the Word of our LORD. I remember these words most which would come to my mind while preaching “I am preaching to me, and you are just along for the ride!”.
Over these three years, we walked through John 13-17, through Galatians and through the first five chapters of Hebrews. We took the Word as it was presented to us. It was my intention to allow us to peer into the written Word, that we might discover and behold the Living Word of God. We preached and re-preached some of these concepts and you endured with kindness to me and demonstrated your steadfast love for God and for His church.
Over these three years we met at Cross Style Church for a short period until we met at the Harris Warehouse. We met at Southside Elementary and when the pandemic hit, forcing us to adapt again we met at the Reed Barn. We met there until we relocated to the present location on Beckwith Rd in Mount Juliet.
Pastoral Resignation
As we announced this morning, Dawn and I have tendered our resignation, effective 24 December 2022. At this time, we hope to be relocating to the Lafayette Community so that Dawn and Caleb can be closer to their school. We have some re-building to do in our family and need to take the time to accomplish this. I hope to continue writing, possibly publishing a podcast or some other preaching media. We will be in prayer over these and trust in the Lord’s guidance. Jesus is everything to me.
We never backed away from the revelation of Jesus through the Word, by the Spirit for the salvation of our souls and the sanctification of our lives to His service. And so, I ask that as we go in our new directions, that you take the words of the Apostle Paul to heart. “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Galatians 6:6 ESV”. Those good things that we share with each other are the fruits of our relationship with Jesus. These fruits are not ours, but they are the Fruit of the Spirit of God. I pray that you will continue in the Word and by doing so, you will find the Lord Jesus Christ personally and majestically revealed to you.
Closing Thoughts
I close with this final thought from the Word. It is Paul’s confirmation of the Corinthian Church. It is not our sermons that survive. It is not our books that survive, but the lives surrendered to Christ which survive the day. They will stand, because they are not standing on their own, but exist in the power of the Spirit of God, hidden in Christ Jesus.
You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3:2-6 ESV
Blessings in His Name,
