Core Scripture: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” (Revelation 21:4)
Message: It was a sad day for Legacy Christian Church. This past Thursday morning, Senior Pastor Reggie Epps left our world to meet Jesus. His two-year battle with a rare form of cancer ended with family and friends at his side through his final days. Reggie was 65-years-old.
Pastor Reggie was one of those respected men that I knew mainly from the pulpit. Although I never had more than a quick greeting conversation in person with him, I felt like I knew him through his sermons, not to mention his family that attends Legacy Olathe. Reggie served as Legacy’s Senior/Teaching Pastor for 22 years. Today my goal is to share a little bit of him with you.
Why do I respect Reggie Epps? It was his boldness, the way he brought the truth. Sadly, so many churches of today have watered town the gospel to something completely different than what it was intended to be. Reggie never did that. He pointed out regularly that the gospel can be offensive to some, but he never let that dilute his sermons. It was always in a way that provided just the right amount of grace and truth.
He was brave and courageous. He never danced around issues that needed to be addressed. It was never Reggie speaking on the pulpit but more the Holy Spirit speaking through him. He peppered his sermons with plenty of scripture to back up the points he made. He taught us that the Bible can be taken out of context if you do not look at scripture around the passage, and you also need to weigh different sections of the Bible side by side.
Another reason I loved him was for his passion for football. Reggie was a two-time All Missouri Valley Conference linebacker at Tulsa and was inducted into their Football Hall of Fame. Whether it was wearing his lucky Mahomes jersey on the day of a big Chiefs game or finding that perfect football analogy to weave into a sermon, the gridiron oozed from his every essence. Reggie brought that tough linebacker mentality to the pulpit, refusing to back down from his stance as a Christ follower.
Reggie knew how to put God first in his life. He preached the importance of growing your relationship with Christ through a daily quiet time. Church was never just a Sunday thing or a small group thing for him; it was a lifestyle. You could tell the way the man lived his life gave nobody the right to say he was a Christian hypocrite. He was the real deal, and he represented Legacy Christian Church with dignity and class.
I could see Reggie in his family, and now his legacy continues through them, spilling from generation to generation. He continually poured into his three children, Angie, Abby, and Zach, and now they are raising their own children based on solid biblical foundation. I have seen that firsthand, teaching Sunday school over the past year. If there is ever a question about the Bible, I can always call on sweet Sophia, Reggie’s eldest granddaughter, to nail the answer. Thank God I have her for two more incredible years!
Reggie taught me that Satan is real and gave me numerous tactics to defeat him. I grew up in a church that never really talked about Satan, so when I first was exposed to it, I was slightly overwhelmed. Reggie helped me understand how temptations like anger, vulgar language, pornography, and materialism affect Christians. His gameplan to defeat Satan was the same way Jesus took him down in the dessert: through the Word of God. Three temptations. Three scriptures to provide the way of escape.
Reggie likewise brought sermons to life through impeccable description. Through stories from his own life or from historical figures. Through larger-than-life Bible stories where his commanding presence took over the stage. My favorite memory was the year we read through The Story. We had all heard the story of David vs Goliath, but never like that day. Reggie’s excitement painted a surreal picture in my head of a scrawny shepherd boy boldly taking out a giant.
It was in that sermon that Reggie brought to attention the amazing point that we cannot read our Bibles enough. In 1 Samuel 17:48 Reggie pointed out a small detail that blew my mind with one word he had never noticed before. David RAN to meet Goliath! There was no reservation. No fear. Just sheer confidence to take out the trash-talking monster of a man. If Reggie, our lead pastor, had never noticed that one word, how many verses had I skipped over myself?
You can never read your Bible enough.
Reggie was never shy on words. My wife, working lights, always had the script for the sermon in hand, and she would lovingly point out where Reggie inserted his own material. Sometimes it was a story that got cut from his original script. Other times it was just Reggie elaborating on an important point. But our church needed to hear his expansions! They helped hammer in points, crystalizing the message into something more applicable to our lives.
The downside? I just had a few less minutes to prep for teaching Sunday school second service.
It is hard to imagine our church without Reggie Epps. I feel like the transition to whatever comes next will go smoothly considering the number of times God allowed different campus pastors and youth ministers from our church to share the load over the past two years through Reggie’s health difficulties. God’s got this. I have full confidence in the transition to whomever the Lord finds to fill Reggie’s shoes.
Now, how do I end this? How can I wrap up writing about the face of Legacy over the past 22 years? Maybe the way to end would be a list. I am thinking a top five list. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the top five messages I attribute to Reggie:
- Put your Christian faith as your top priority in life. Everything you do, every decision you make, every word you speak, it should all funnel into Jesus Christ.
- Devote yourself daily to the Lord. Luke 9:23 says to take up your cross DAILY. Find a place, make an appointment with God, and keep that appointment.
- Romans 1:16 says to be unashamed Christian. Never hide your faith or be shy about it. Talk about it whenever you can to others.
- Pour into others to make disciples. In your family. In your church. In your workplace. Wherever God calls you to. Live out 2 Timothy 2:2. Be a disciple who makes disciples.
- Reggie reminded us over and over from the pulpit a fantastic thought from his mom, Darlene Epps. Whenever you mull over something not important, ask whether it will matter in eternity.
Challenge: The sermon today was different sermons through the last few years of Reggie speaking about heaven. How fitting considering he is waiting for us all there right now at what he calls the Hallelujah Square. The message is straight from Reggie’s heart, and if you know him personally, I suggest you watch the sermon with a tissue in hand. You are sure to need it. Here is the link …
Song application: “Home” by Chris Tomlin
This world is not what it was meant to be
All this pain, all this suffering
There’s a better place waiting for me
In Heaven
Every tear will be wiped away
Every sorrow and sin erased
We’ll dance on seas of amazing grace
In Heaven
In Heaven
I’m goin’ home
Where the streets are golden
Every chain is broken
Oh I wanna go
Oh I wanna go
Home
Prayer points: Please lift up the following areas to the Lord …
- Praise God for the life and ministry of Pastor Reggie Epps.
- Pray for healing in the Epps family and our church as we mourn the loss of Pastor Reggie.
- Pray for our church’s leadership team as they make decisions from here on out.
Just for fun: One of my favorite Pastor Reggie stories I will share came from his love for fantasy football. A friend of mine, Ryan Kluttz, shared that draft day was always a blast with Reggie. As you know, the best players get chosen in the early rounds, but Reggie would always try to draft someone like Peyton Manning in the 6th or 7th round. Whenever he found that person was already taken, shock and disbelief would overwhelm his face. The rest of the group would just laugh.
Prayer: Father, thank you so much for the life of Reggie Epps. His passion for You will spill into generations to come because of his legacy. May we all share the gospel with truth and boldness like Pastor Reggie. Amen.
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