June 28, 2026 | Gratitude for the Lord's Faithfulness

This is the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.

When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine.

And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come.

His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you.

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, Fill the jars with water, and they filled them up to the brim.

And he said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.

So they took it.

When the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now.

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Pray with me, please.

We pray, come, Holy Spirit, Lord, we need you.

I need you.

Lord, open your word to us today that we might hear it with fresh ears, and Lord, that we might respond with willing hearts, that we might grow more and more into your likeness.

For it's in Jesus' name.

We pray.

Amen.

I invite you to please be seated.

The apostle Paul today, if you were listening, he said today that he has fought the good fight, that he has finished the race, that he has kept the faith.

This is the great apostle Paul.

Paul who was called by God, not by man, called by God to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to people like you and me, to non-Jews, to Gentiles.

Paul was called to not just plant one church, but he was called to plant many churches in the kingdom of God.

And he says that I have fought the good fight.

I've finished the race.

I've kept the faith.

Paul is writing to his protege.

Paul's writing to Timothy, Timothy, whom he poured himself into.

He mentored Timothy.

And in fact, he would say, Timothy, I've been poured out like a drink offering.

Paul is at the end of his ministry, and he knows it.

And he says, I have given my life completely to the Lord.

I have held nothing back.

And he says, now I fought a good fight.

What does that mean?

What does that mean to you?

What does that mean to me?

What's so good about a fight anyway?

Paul's talking about the battle for faithfulness, the struggle to keep Jesus in the center of everything.

I had a doctor's appointment.

Imagine that.

I had a doctor's appointment about five or six weeks ago.

And I was telling him that we are approaching the end of our ministry here at St.

Paul's Church.

Olivia and I are called to let go.

He didn't quite understand what that meant.

And but he asked a question.

He said, How long have you been there?

I said, 15 years.

He said, Okay, in 15 years, you know your flock.

What is the one message that you think is the most important message for that flock to hear over the 15 years?

I said, that's easy for me.

Well, what is it?

I said, it's surrender.

It's letting go.

It's submitting to the Lord.

I said, that's hard to do, especially for men, because you see, we want to be in control.

We don't want to submit to anyone, more or less our wives.

Jesus says it this way if you want to be my disciple, you've got to deny yourself.

You see, this is the struggle that Paul is talking about.

It's denying self.

Because you see, we want to preserve self, we want to elevate self.

This is the culture that we live in.

We want to be successful in the eyes of the world.

And Jesus says, you got to deny yourself.

Surrender your own desires.

Take up my purpose.

And this is what Paul is telling Timothy.

I have fought the good fight.

I have denied self.

I've given it all to him.

He says, I finished the race.

Y'all know if you've been here for 15 years, and you know, you know me, you know my favorite verses are found in Hebrews 12.

Since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.

Don't you just love that?

Think about those who have died in Christ.

Think about our loved ones.

We're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

Since we're surrounded.

Let us throw off the sin that so easily wants to entangle us.

Throw it off.

And run with perseverance the race that's marked out for us.

We run it with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfector of the race.

And Paul is saying, I have run the race.

I have trust and I have obeyed Jesus.

I have followed him with my eyes fixed completely on him.

And then Paul says, I have kept the faith.

What does that mean?

I've kept the faith.

He's remained loyal to Jesus over the course of the whole race.

He's followed him through every season of life.

So then he tells, Timothy, Timothy.

Preach the word, Timothy.

This is my charge to you.

I'm at the end of my ministry, but my charge to you, Timothy, preach the word.

Preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, his life, his death, and his resurrection.

There's no other name, the name of Jesus by which man can be saved.

Preach that word.

Preach Jesus, Timothy.

Because Timothy, guess what?

There are going to be people that are not want, they're not, they're not, they don't want to hear that word.

They're going to want you to compromise that truth.

They're going to want you to water down the truth.

Timothy, preach the word.

There are going to be people that they're going to want you to tell them what they want to hear.

Preach the word, Timothy.

And endure the afflictions that come with it.

The persecutions that come with it.

There are going to be people, Timothy, that are going to sneer.

You're a radical.

And fulfill your ministry.

Run your race, Timothy.

These are the words that Paul was passing down to his protege, Timothy.

He's passing the baton.

He's doing it with great hope.

He's doing it with great anticipation that what's next is going to be even better than what Paul has done.

St.

Paul's Church, we are passing the baton today.

I don't know who I'm passing the baton to, but I think he's out there.

In fact, I know he is because I trust the Lord enough to know that the Lord has already anointed the person that's going to be the next rector here at St.

Paul's Church.

The Lord knows who it is.

And our search team and our vestry, they are they're they're going to align with the Lord.

And I'm so excited.

Because you see, the best is yet to come for St.

Paul's Church.

Isn't that what we heard in the gospel today?

I love this gospel.

You know, you get this picture of Jesus.

We all have our pictures of Jesus.

But John records that here he is.

He's at a wedding.

He's not only at the wedding, he's celebrating.

A lot like what we did Friday night, St.

Paul's Church.

All the joy of the celebration.

And there's Jesus.

He's celebrating marriage, marriage between a man and a woman, the way that God designed marriage to be, and he's celebrating it.

And his mother comes to him and says, Guess what, Jesus?

They've run out of wine.

And Jesus doesn't say, oh, they shouldn't be drinking wine.

He says, Well, I'll take care of that.

And he turns, he turns these water basins into wine.

And the master of the of the ceremony takes the wine and he's, oh my.

This is the best wine.

Usually you serve the best at first, but you're waiting to the last.

And I can just see Jesus.

I've got a picture of him in my office.

It's a picture of Jesus, and it's got his head back, and he's laughing.

I love that image because I can see Jesus at this wedding reception.

Ha ha ha! I took care of it, Mom.

And you think about it in terms, that's his first miracle that John records.

He turns water into wine.

And you think about that in terms of healing the blind or feeding 5,000 or raising the dead.

It seems like that's pretty insignificant.

But listen to this miracle.

He takes the ordinary that is given to him and he transforms it.

St.

Paul's Church.

I have seen that here.

We have offered up water and I've seen him turn it into wine.

Good wine.

I've seen the transformation in you over 15 years.

You've come here, you're hungry, you're thirsty.

You're beaten up.

And I've seen the Lord move in your life where you've grown from one degree of glory to another, and it's beautiful.

I've seen the water turn into the wine.

I think it's the greatest miracle.

And he's not finished.

He who began a good work in you, he's gonna see it to completion.

That's his promise.

He's gonna continue to turn the water into the wine.

St.

Paul's Church.

I think I told you that I've been clearing out my office.

And y'all know over 15 years I've used different props to kind of illustrate a point.

I mean, after all, Jesus did that, didn't he?

And as I was clearing out my office, I came across a couple things that I thought would be helpful, maybe to jog our memories over the last 15 years.

Couple things.

Do y'all remember this?

It's not the child bell.

You might not remember that.

That was over in the heritage building.

We were talking about the good shepherd and how the good shepherd knows the sheep.

And the point of the bell is that the shepherd would put the bell on the on the sheep that knew his voice the best.

So that in the darkness, in the storms, when the shepherd would call out to the sheep, that lead sheep would follow the voice of the shepherd, and all the other sheep would follow behind.

St.

Paul's Church.

Be bell people.

Point.

Point to Jesus.

Point to him with your lives.

Maybe if you don't remember that, maybe you might remember this four years ago.

Almost to the date, it was the last day in July four years ago.

Y'all remember this?

These crosses were made, it was a tree cut down before we even began construction here.

These crosses were made from that tree that was there at Second Baptist Church that had been there for many, many, many years.

In fact, someone told me that used to go to Second Baptist.

They used to climb that tree when they were a little girl.

And before Maven started to do anything here, they they put together 500 crosses from that tree.

It's a reminder of the faithfulness of God.

It's a reminder to us that He is the Lord of St.

Paul's Church.

You probably don't know this, that I had the I had the honor to place the steeple or the cross on top of the steeple.

They put me in a in a big crane and I went up there and had my hard hat on and had this big big cross.

And Grand Prophet and Jason Metterns and I met in the heritage building and we we wrote on the cross.

You know what we wrote?

You probably don't know this.

You need to know this.

I'm not gonna be here to remind you.

We wrote on that cross the very same words that you find on that mural in the heritage building.

Not my will be done, but your will be done.

There it is again.

Surrender.

We surrender Lord Jesus before he goes to the cross.

Father, take this from me, but not my will be done, your will be done.

Submission, surrender to the Father.

And aren't we happy about that?

Maybe some of y'all will remember this.

This happened over in the heritage building.

Let me get it up for you.

Y'all remember this?

This has nothing to do with Jesus, but it it has everything to do with the national championship in 2016.

Y'all remember uh it was the Sunday, and I had no idea that Coach Ford was gonna be here.

So, Danny, here you go.

In your honor, uh but you remember I I put this on, I put it on my backside in the robes.

So, you know, when when I when I was in the heritage building and I was doing the announcements of something, and and I said, wow, I think it's I think it's hot in here, and I and I was gonna go adjust the thermostat, and I turned around and and I can wipe tears now with it, so the glory days are gone, I think.

I think I said this in the beginning.

This is a day of thanksgiving, it's a day of gratitude to what the Lord has done.

Over 15 years, we have we have lived a lot of life together, St.

Paul's Church.

I remember the very first baptisms.

Anna Davis Pelletti and her brother Henry and McCall Darnell, the very first baptisms over in the heritage building.

Those of you that have been here, you know every month all the children that are being baptized.

It's a testament to the to the faithfulness of the Lord of what he's doing here.

I remember, I remember the the first wedding that we had.

And it was it was Bennett, our daughter, and Hunter and Terrell was officiating.

Y'all know how many weddings we've had since then?

A lot of y'all are in here, and what a blessing it is.

Gone full cycle, they get married, they have children, they get baptized, they get confirmed, they go off to college.

We've experienced all that here at St.

Paul's Church.

We've experienced the good times and the bad times.

We have persevered.

We made it through COVID, which was the most polarizing time in the course of the human human history.

But the Lord was faithful and led us through that time.

I just want to say thank you.

Thank you.

I want to begin with Tom and Deb.

Thank you.

And Tom reached out, and he actually wrote a letter and said, T, Deb and I feel the very same call, and and we'd like to offer our services to St.

Paul's Church, and we will come for one dollar a year.

I said, Tom, we don't even have a dollar.

But I I just want to say that there would be no St.

Paul's Church without Tom and Dev.

They have been loyal, they have been faithful, and they have poured themselves out like a drink offering.

They have given everything that they have to give to the glory of God.

So I I thank you.

I thank you.

I am so excited about the new rector because he's coming into a situation with a staff.

You can read the the team on the back.

Every person that serves here at St.

Paul's Church, they offer, it's just like the water, they offer their gifts to the Lord to be used to his glory.

And you see the fruit of that.

Look at the flowers, look at look at the LEMs, look, look at everything, look at the teaching that goes on.

It's all to the glory of God.

And I'm so excited for the new ritual because he's going to be coming into what's been laid.

And it's a good foundation.

It's laid on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

And St.

Paul's, I know that y'all will receive him.

Y'all will be patient with him, and y'all will love and honor him just like you did Libby and me on Friday.

And I cannot get out of here without saying, thank you to my family.

Thank you to Libby.

I think I told you a couple of weeks ago when I was ordained as a priest in this church, I was given a charge.

And the last charge was to pray, pray for the flock.

And Livy and I have prayed for you.

For 15 years, just like we've prayed for our children, we have prayed for you.

And we will continue to pray for you because the Lord has great things in store for you.

I want to close with a with a story that I heard Terry Fulham tell up at St.

Paul's Darien, Connecticut.

He was at the end of his ministry.

And he tells the story of an eagle, a mother eagle that prepares this huge nest for the eaglets.

And she flies and she grabs these big branches and twigs and she puts them all together.

And then she goes and she gets fur and grass and she inlays the nest so that it'll be comfortable for the eaglets.

And as the eaglets begin to grow, the mother's there nurturing the eaglets, caring for them.

But when they get of age, she begins to dismantle the fortification of the nest.

She begins to take the branches away.

And she removes the inlay.

And she makes what was comfortable uncomfortable.

Not because she's punishing them, but she's preparing them for what's next.

And when they get of age, she pushes them to the edge of the nest and pushes them off.

She knows that those eaglets are meant to be eagles and they're meant to fly.

And they're meant to soar.

And this is my word for you, St.

Paul's.

Soar like an eagle.

Be all that the Lord has created you to be.

Nobody can be a better St.

Paul's Church than St.

Paul's Church.

You are unique and you are different because you have followed the cloud by day and the fire by night.

The Holy Spirit is here and he's leading you.

Do not stop following the Holy Spirit.

Do the work of an evangelist, preach the word, endure afflictions, and fulfill your ministry, St.

Paul's.

So this is our farewell.

We love you.

And we're going to move into a season where we trust the Lord.

The word that he's given us now, after letting go, is to abide.

We're going to abide in the Lord.

We're going to just soak in what he has for us, and we're tired.

We're going to rest.

But we're going to come out of that full of energy for what he has next.

And we don't know what it is.

I promise you, we don't know what it is.

But we're going to be here in Greenville until we're not here in Greenville.

Vote for me.

I'm running for governor next time.

But we love you.

And I thank you for being here.

I thank you for celebrating this moment.

You know, throughout all the years, we've always celebrated the St.

Paul's First.

Whatever that first happened to be.

And well, today's the St.

Paul's First.

We love you.

Goodbye.