By Rebecca Johnson // Scandal // EEW Magazine Online

When Pastor John Gray was stricken with a serious illness a month ago, his hospitalization came on the heels of his latest adultery scandal—one of multiple alleged extramarital affairs over the past few years.

But, after surviving a near-fatal saddle pulmonary embolism, the Relentless Church leader returned to his South Carolina pulpit Sunday, August 14, with a praise in his heart and an apology on his lips.

“I want to apologize to my church for any moment where I obfuscated the name of God with foolishness from my flesh,” said Gray, 49, during his first sermon.

Contriteness was in order, since he had not too long ago been put on blast by celebrity news blogger, Latasha Kebe, known online as Tasha K.

According to Kebe, Gray was involved with a Florida-based adult entertainer who specializes in providing erotic massages. The woman had allegedly been communicating and facilitating virtual sex with the husband of Aventer Gray and father of the couple’s two children, Theory and John IV.

“I was looking at my life, and I realized that the life that I was living was antithetical to Scripture in critical areas,” admitted the former OWN reality TV star who periodically sat in a chair during his sermon, as he continues to recover.

According to Gray, he had previously been prideful and unwilling to take accountability, characterizing his leadership philosophy as, “Stay out of my business, and I’ll stay out of yours.”

However, the I Am Number 8 author had an epiphany: “That’s not how it works when you’re in leadership. I wanted it to work that way.”

It seems that his July stint in critical care, with his wife making pleas for prayer on his behalf, served as a major wake-up call.

“Everything that I do matters,” he told congregants, expressing a fresh perspective.

Prior to his latest health battle, Gray explained that he had become “bitter at the rat race of contemporary church culture.”

Describing himself as “cynical,” he said he had been focused on the wrong things, like, “Who can go viral the fastest? Who can dress the coolest? Who can kill us with some awe-inspiring revelation? When the victory is who can be faithful in their marriage?”

Announcing his exit from the rat race, he told members, “My goals have become very small: love God, love my wife, love my kids, serve this church.”

To reach those goals, he admitted, “I have to stop participating with the enemy.”

During the message, Gray, who is aware that many have been turned off by his unbecoming life choices, stressed, “My issues have nothing to do with God’s holiness, and no one should conflate the two.”

He also pointed out, “Holiness still matters. Integrity still matters”—true statements that he has admittedly failed to live up to.

However, the former associate pastor of Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church is adamant about his readiness to turn over a new leaf, since God has given him “a second chance.”

When nearing the end of the sermon, the controversial minister issued an ominous word of warning, saying, God is “about to remove people who think they have power.”

He then added, “But those who have been corrected by humility and adjusted by character are now being redeployed.”

Watch the full sermon below.