Live Free with Josh Howerton - Greatness Within • Pastor Derwin Gray | Ep. 202 | Tuesday November 14, 2023

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

What if being challenged doesn't break us, but instead breaks open new possibilities within us? Join us as Pastor Derwin Gray share a story from high school and the coach's impact on his potential by giving him a second chance. This episode provides a powerful reminder to inspire others to achieve their best for God’s glory. 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, what's happening in Daily Drive, Lake Point Church podcast?

This is Pastor Durwin Gray, co-founder and lead pastor of Transformation Church in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. Have you ever had a moment that, like, changed the rest of the moments in your life? Well, I want to tell you about that moment. So I was a senior in high school, a Converse-Jutson high school, right outside of San Antonio, Texas. And Converse Jutson High School was like a state football power. And so I'm a team captain, senior year, and we got a chance to win a state championship. But something happened after the second game.

I'm sure, I really don't know how it happened the best I can explain is this. I started to inhale the poison call entitlement, and I felt like, you know, what, I'm a mispractice today because I'm tired. At my high school, you didn't miss practice unless, one, you were very, very sick, or two, you were abducted by a UFO. Well, I wasn't sick, and I didn't get abducted by a UFO. I just decided I don't want to go to practice, so I had a bad case of entitlement. Well, when I got to practice the next day, I was demoted from the starting defense. Friday night comes, I don't plan the game, and we win 45-2-0. My high school did not need me. I needed my high school. So that following Monday at practice, my coach, my coach, his name was

Mike Sullivan. He called me into the office, and he says, Dewey, because that's my nickname. He says, do we need to have a talk and tears begin to tumble down his face and he says I love you but you need to know I'm not going to let you play on this team unless you give me your all you can actually be great only you can tap into that at this point I'm crying and he cups his hands together and he says I have your future right here you could play college football and make a difference in this world, you can change your life, but it's up to it to you. So I'm crying, I'm getting ready to leave his office

and he says, hey, wipe your tears because the underclassman respects you. So the next few days at practice, I practiced hard and I've ever practiced. It was amazing, my intensity, my focus. Well, come Friday night, we're getting ready to play, and the starting defensive unit goes out to the field and I'm still on the sideline.

So I'm like, man, I must have, have ruined my chance for college football. Well, the very next play, as I was having that thought, Coach Sullivan says, do we? Get in the game. And like a bolt of lightning, I ran on that field. I played with intensity. I played selfless.

I played sacrificial. I played almost with like a superpower. I went from being a good player to at the end of the year, being first team all state, getting a football scholarship, and ultimately to the N-F-L. Why? Because there was a coach who loved me enough to challenge me. There was a coach who loved me enough who saw the greatness in me that I did not see.

So here's the gospel lesson. Through the life, death, resurrection of Jesus, God deposits his life in us because he wants to express his life through us. Who is in your life that you see greatness in that you need the challenge so that they can become the best God has created them to be? This is Pastor Durwin 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.combe.