Live Free with Josh Howerton - The Power of the Gospel • Pastor Derwin Gray | Ep. 203 | Wednesday November 15, 2023

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

Pastor Derwin Gray shares a personal story of how he saw the power of the Gospel come to life as he shared his testimony with his coach. The Gospel brings people together and can create transforming life change. As you tune in today, will you accept Pastor Derwin’s challenge to share your testimony with others? 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. Lake Point Church, welcome to the 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. We were together recently, and we were having a conversation about that time. I decided to miss practice, and I had a conversation with my high school coach, and he challenged me and brought the best out of me. It's funny how tables turn. So that happened in 1988. Well, in 1998, it was my sixth year with the Carolina Panthers. I was living in Charlotte, North Carolina with my wife and our baby girl Presley. And I get a phone call from coach Sullivan, the high school coach that saw greatness in me and challenged me and pulled it out of me. Well, he calls me and he wants to talk about the Panthers and talks about the NFL, talk about what I'm doing. I stopped him and I said, coach,

I don't want to talk about football because something has happened to me. I met Jesus. Like, coach, I've given my life to Jesus. Like, there's a God that loves you in spite of you that forgives you, it gives you a new life and a new power. And so I was just telling him my testimony, basically, and he was really quiet. And after I was done, he said,

son, I need you to come to Texas. So a week or so goes by, we fly down to Texas and I meet him at a new school where he's working and he calls me into his office just like he did 10 years previous. But now I was the coach and he was the student. Now tears are tumbling down his face for a new reason. I magically begin to cry as well. And he says, Dewey, I've lost my marriage. I've made mistakes. My life is a mess.

Will you coach me in the spiritual life the way I coached you in football? And so I looked at coach and I grabbed his hand and we're having this moment where the student becomes the teacher and the teacher becomes the student. The adult and the child becomes two adults together. And Jesus is right in the midst of it. And I look at coach. And I say, coach, I want you to pray this with me. Jesus is here. I want you to acknowledge to him that he is the forgiver of your sins, that everything you've ever done wrong, that on the bloody cross, he covered it.

He, he forgived it. Do you, do you want this forgiveness? Do you want to experience this love? Yes. And I said, coach, do you believe that on the third day Jesus rose from the dead? dead, not just to send you to heaven when you die, but to give you resurrection life now as a part of his eternal family. And coach said, yes. And in that moment, the roles had reversed. So much has happened in 10 years. Since that moment, I have coached him in what it means to follow Christ

and to walk with Christ. Every time coach and I get off the phone, this is what we say, to each other. He says, son, I love you. And I tell him, I love you as well. Coach has recently gone through some health scares. And he said this to me. He said, son, I don't know how much time I still have left. But when it's my time to see Jesus, I want you and some of your teammates who are now ministers to officiate my welcome party into the embrace. grace of Christ. So what does this story mean? It means this, that the gospel has power to bond people together to transform lives.

Who is in your life that God is calling you to share the life transforming, soul feeding, sin, healing, death-defeating gospel with? 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 lake point.church slash daily drive.