Live Free with Josh Howerton - God Is Faithful In the Storm • Pastor Derwin Gray | Ep. 204 | Thursday November 16, 2023

Episode Date: November 16, 2023

Are you experiencing a crisis, pain or tragedy? In today’s episode, Pastor Derwin Gray speaks encouragement and truth of how to find strength, hope, and meaning when the storms of life strike. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.compturch slash daily drive. In this week's episodes, we will be hearing from our special guest, Pastor Derwin Gray. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, Lake Point Church. Welcome to the Daily Drive Lake Point Church podcast. I am Pastor Durwin Gray, co-founder and lead pastor of Transformation Church in the Charlotte, North Carolina

area. May 17, 2004 was a day that I will never, ever forget. Because it's a day that my best friend, the greatest human I know, my wife, was diagnosed with Papalienable. carcinoma, which is called thyroid cancer in layman's terms. Now, let me back up. So I met my wife, Vicki, when I was 18 and she was 19. I was a freshman. She was a junior at Brigham Young. She was a track athlete. I was a football player. We had our first date, January 15th, 1990, and we've literally been together ever since. So on May 7th, 17th, when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, it was one of those moments where you never think that that's going to be you.

And I distinctly remember the doctor saying, you're not going to like this news. And it was like time just slowed down. And in my mind, I'm going, okay, I don't want to freak out because I don't know if this doctor is a Christian. And if he's not, I want to have a good witness. Is my wife going to leave? and you have all these conversations. And so we left the doctor's office and it was just silence. And I just remember putting my hands on the steering wheel and saying, oh, no, not my baby.

That first night of cancer, you can't sleep. Anxieties in your stomach and I'm crying. My wife is crying. And something that my wife does so well. I mean, that woman walks with Jesus. She loves Jesus. She's a woman of prayer. She's a woman of scripture.

And so while we're in a bed crying, all of a sudden she quotes a scripture. God works all things together for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. And then I quote the rest of Romans 8, 28, and verse 29. Says, for whom he forenue, He predest to be conformed to image of Christ, firstborn brother from the dead.

and all of a sudden she says a scripture, I say a scripture, she says a scripture, I say a scripture, and we're literally in the bed playing scriptural tennis. She hits one over, I hit one back, she hits one over, I hit one over, I hit one back, and we're going back and forth, back and forth. And in the midst of that moment, in the midst of that moment, those tears of fear became tears of faith. Those tears of uncertainty became tears of certainty that God was in the mix. So let me pause here. My wife is cancer-free. She's amazing.

We're grateful that God delivered us. But something that we never, ever want to lose, is that intimacy with him. So here's kind of what I want you to tuck away and put in your soul and marinate on. that even in the midst of the pain, there is divine purpose. Even in the midst of the tragedy, there is divine triumph. So I want you to play scriptural tennis with someone and hit verses back and forth and watch

hope rise up in you. Watch Christ rise up in you. And this is what I say to people all the time is they applaud and they clap that God delivered her from cancer. and I say, I'm so grateful, but even if he didn't, he's worthy of praise because there's a day where every grave is going to open. And every believer who followed Jesus is going to come out of that grave, that those graves are going to become gardens of grace. This is Pastor Derwin Gray. Marinate on that.

Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.com.