A Farewell to Friends
Ernest L. Easley
Acts 20:15-38
So how do you say farewell to friends? There was a man trying to express his feelings to a co-worker after hearing he had been transferred to another city. Here's what he wrote in the farewell card:
''No matter how far away you move, you'll always be a dear friend several of us think about sometimes.''
That wasn't as bad as another co-worker who wrote: ''We are really going to miss trying to avoid you around here. Good bye and Good luck!''
When it comes to farewells, you might feel like Snoopy who said to Charlie Brown one day:
''Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos.''
So, how do you say farewell to friends? Well, that's what I want to talk to you about today on this final day as your pastor. Take God's Word and turn with me to Acts 20 where we find another pastor saying his final farewell to his friends. And what he said to his friends, I want to say to my friends: the members of of Roswell Street Baptist Church.
Now before we look at chapter 20, we need to go back to chapter 19 where we find Paul serving and preaching and witnessing in Ephesus for three years. It seems that a businessman named Demetrius, a silversmith, heard the gospel from Paul and decided to follow Jesus.
Now when Demetrius got saved, he no longer wanted to make little shrines of Diana so he called a meeting of the other craftsmen in Ephesus and explained how now that he was saved, he could no longer help them make a profit through these little figurines of the goddess Diana.
May I just say that when a person meets Jesus in salvation, there are some things that will change! Your priorities will change! Your passions will change! Your purpose will change. And if you have a salvation ...
Ernest L. Easley
Acts 20:15-38
So how do you say farewell to friends? There was a man trying to express his feelings to a co-worker after hearing he had been transferred to another city. Here's what he wrote in the farewell card:
''No matter how far away you move, you'll always be a dear friend several of us think about sometimes.''
That wasn't as bad as another co-worker who wrote: ''We are really going to miss trying to avoid you around here. Good bye and Good luck!''
When it comes to farewells, you might feel like Snoopy who said to Charlie Brown one day:
''Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos.''
So, how do you say farewell to friends? Well, that's what I want to talk to you about today on this final day as your pastor. Take God's Word and turn with me to Acts 20 where we find another pastor saying his final farewell to his friends. And what he said to his friends, I want to say to my friends: the members of of Roswell Street Baptist Church.
Now before we look at chapter 20, we need to go back to chapter 19 where we find Paul serving and preaching and witnessing in Ephesus for three years. It seems that a businessman named Demetrius, a silversmith, heard the gospel from Paul and decided to follow Jesus.
Now when Demetrius got saved, he no longer wanted to make little shrines of Diana so he called a meeting of the other craftsmen in Ephesus and explained how now that he was saved, he could no longer help them make a profit through these little figurines of the goddess Diana.
May I just say that when a person meets Jesus in salvation, there are some things that will change! Your priorities will change! Your passions will change! Your purpose will change. And if you have a salvation ...
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