Derwin L. Gray's Blog, page 8

Millennial Christian Have You Discovered Your Calling?

Dear Millennial Christian,

Hi, my name is Derwin. I’m the founding and lead pastor of Transformation Church.

I want to share a couple of thoughts with you pertaining to discovering “your calling”?

WHAT IS A “CALLING” FROM GOD?

A calling from God is an invitation from God Himself, inviting you to partner with Him in redeeming the world as you use your grace-infused gifting, personality, and skill set.  Discovering your calling is lot like falling in love, when it happens you know.  You have an internal passion that matches your external gifting.

“For we are partners working together for God.” 1 Corinthians 3:10 GNT

ALL CALLINGS FROM GOD ARE SACRED VOCATIONS

Being a Gospel-empowered middle school teacher or a Gospel-empowered Wall Street Executive is just as important to God’s kingdom as being a pastor or international missionary. God has no second string on His team!  We need more Gospel-infused, Jesus-adoring, Spirit-empowered Christ followers in Hollywood, in politics (in both parties), education, music, and in technology.

As the Apostle Paul says,

“Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.” Colossians 3:22-23 NLT

FOCUS ON JESUS, NOT YOUR CALLING

You will discover your calling, not by focusing on your calling, but by focusing on Jesus, the One who called you to be loved by His Papa. Your greatest ministry will be a ministry of receiving the limitless love of God the Papa through Jesus.

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1 NLT

YOUR CALLING FLOWS OUT OF YOUR HEALING

As you delight in Jesus, as His the unsearchable riches of grace captures your heart, you will want others to be captured by His grace too.  And that’s your calling. Out of your hurt and healing, God the Spirit will match your gifts, skill set, and personality with a sacred vocation that will allow you to do something in the world that displays Jesus.

BE PATIENT, BE PERSISTANT AND PLEASE BE HUMBLE

This short excerpt from book, Limitless Life: You Are More than Your Past When God Holds Your Future, will help you:

“I’ve logged quite a few miles flying over the years, traveling the country and preaching at various conferences, churches, and business gatherings. As I travel from one city to the next, I often fly into an airport and have a layover before I board another plane to reach my final destination. Discovering your sacred vocation is like flying from one city to the next, with a layover in between. You may start in one career, spend some time there, learn some things, and then move on, just as I spent a summer working at Geneva Steel in Orem, Utah. I learned some things there that have helped me in life, but Geneva Steel was not my final destination. It was just a layover where I learned and grew as a man. Just because your current job may be a layover, however, doesn’t mean that you do not give your all for the glory of God. Often people were created for something else, but because they were not faithful in their “layover season” the layover become their final destination. Be faithful with the job you have now because you are worshiping Jesus through your work.”

YOUR CALLING IS A COMMITMENT, NOT A EUPHORIC FEELING

Discovering and walking in your calling means that you will do a lot of mundane, uneventful, boring tasks. Never forget that your “heart being alive” is a commitment to the task God has called you to, not constant feelings of euphoria.

And please don’t expect to have things and positions within an organization that people in their 40’s and 50’s have.  It took us a long, long time, and it took a lot of hard work to get where we are.  It will be the same for you too.

Let these drip into your heart, you will need them:

“In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm; in the real world, all rests on perseverance.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I believe in you!

Marinate on this,

Pastor Derwin

@Copyright Derwin L. Gray 2013

Millennial Christian

Dear Millennial Christian,

Hi, my name is Derwin. I’m the founding and lead pastor of Transformation Church.

I want to share a couple of thoughts with you pertaining to discovering “your calling”?

WHAT IS A “CALLING” FROM GOD?

A calling from God is an invitation from God Himself, inviting you to partner with Him in redeeming the world as you use your grace-infused gifting, personality, and skill set.  Discovering your calling is lot like falling in love, when it happens you know.  You have an internal passion that matches your external gifting.

“For we are partners working together for God.” 1 Corinthians 3:10 GNT

ALL CALLINGS FROM GOD ARE SACRED VOCATIONS

Being a Gospel-empowered middle school teacher or a Gospel-empowered Wall Street Executive is just as important to God’s kingdom as being a pastor or international missionary. God has no second string on His team!  We need more Gospel-infused, Jesus-adoring, Spirit-empowered Christ followers in Hollywood, in politics (in both parties), education, music, and in technology.

As the Apostle Paul says,

“Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.” Colossians 3:22-23 NLT

FOCUS ON JESUS, NOT YOUR CALLING

You will discover your calling, not by focusing on your calling, but by focusing on Jesus, the One who called you to be loved by His Papa. Your greatest ministry will be a ministry of receiving the limitless love of God the Papa through Jesus.

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1 NLT

YOUR CALLING FLOWS OUT OF YOUR HEALING

As you delight in Jesus, as His the unsearchable riches of grace captures your heart, you will want others to be captured by His grace too.  And that’s your calling. Out of your hurt and healing, God the Spirit will match your gifts, skill set, and personality with a sacred vocation that will allow you to do something in the world that displays Jesus.

BE PATIENT, BE PERSISTANT AND PLEASE BE HUMBLE

This short excerpt from book, Limitless Life: You Are More than Your Past When God Holds Your Future, will help you:

“I’ve logged quite a few miles flying over the years, traveling the country and preaching at various conferences, churches, and business gatherings. As I travel from one city to the next, I often fly into an airport and have a layover before I board another plane to reach my final destination. Discovering your sacred vocation is like flying from one city to the next, with a layover in between. You may start in one career, spend some time there, learn some things, and then move on, just as I spent a summer working at Geneva Steel in Orem, Utah. I learned some things there that have helped me in life, but Geneva Steel was not my final destination. It was just a layover where I learned and grew as a man. Just because your current job may be a layover, however, doesn’t mean that you do not give your all for the glory of God. Often people were created for something else, but because they were not faithful in their “layover season” the layover become their final destination. Be faithful with the job you have now because you are worshiping Jesus through your work.”

YOUR CALLING IS A COMMITMENT, NOT A EUPHORIC FEELING

Discovering and walking in your calling means that you will do a lot of mundane, uneventful, boring tasks. Never forget that your “heart being alive” is a commitment to the task God has called you to, not constant feelings of euphoria.

And please don’t expect to have things and positions within an organization that people in their 40’s and 50’s have.  It took us a long, long time, and it took a lot of hard work to get where we are.  It will be the same for you too.

Let these drip into your heart, you will need them:

“In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm; in the real world, all rests on perseverance.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I believe in you!

Marinate on this,

Pastor Derwin

@Copyright Derwin L. Gray 2013

I AM The Way, The Truth and The Life

Jesus is the embodiment of the way, the truth, and the life, and now He lives in and through us to be conduits of His love and grace on earth. When we experience the love of the One who gave His life so we could truly live, we can’t help but express it. Watch this video and see a beautiful depiction of this through the lives of several who’ve been transformed by His love.

8 REASONS WHY THE APOSTLE PAUL WANTS LOCAL CHURCHES TO BE MULTI-ETHNIC

The Apostle Paul did not go into a Greco-Roman city and plant a church for the Jews and then a church for gentiles (non-Jews) because it would have been out-of-step with the Gospel he loved, lived, and proclaimed (Galatians 2:11-21).

Paul relentlessly believed that the power of the Gospel could create a new kind of humanity that was an altogether new ethnic group called the Church. The Church would be a community where racism, classism, and sexism would be defeated by Gospel-love (Galatians 3:24-28).

The Apostle Paul was so committed to the glory of God through the local church that eventually He was imprisoned and killed for planting Jew and gentile (multi-ethnic) churches throughout the Greco-Roman world.

“And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.” Acts 22:21-22

 

The Following are the 8 Reasons Why the Apostle Paul wants local churches to be Multi-ethnic, whenever possible:[1]

SOTERIOLOGICAL (Doctrine of Salvation)

“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”  Ephesians 2:14-16 ESV

 

According to Ephesians 2, in Christ, Jewish and gentile (African, Asian, Arab, Greek, etc.) congregations in Ephesus were: “One new man” (vs. 15); reconciled to God and each other. This new humanity was birthed through the cross (vs. 16). In addition, they were members of God’s household (vs. 19), God’s temple (vs. 21), and God’s dwelling place (vs. 22).

CHRISTOLOGICAL & MISSIOLOGICAL

For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you , how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. “When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Ephesians 3:1-6 ESV

 

The Apostle Paul was on mission to reach Jews and gentiles and incorporate them into one, local body because the Gospel demanded it.

 

“This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Ephesians 3:6 ESV

GOSPEL

“Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,  and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things”  Ephesians 3:7-9 ESV

 

Apparently, the Apostle Paul believed that the Gospel of God’s grace not only caused people to love Jesus, but love each other in such away they formed “one new man”, in spite of the 1st century Greco-Roman culture that said they should hate each other.

THEOLOGICAL & ECCESIOLOGICAL (Doctrine of the Church)

“so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.”

Ephesians 3:10-12 ESV

As the ethnically, multi-colored congregations in Ephesus read Paul’s letter, they learned that the church is composed of a variety of colored people (manifold).  And this unifying display alerted the rulers and authorities that is the angelic and demonic world that Jesus had indeed won.

 

“In our present context, however, this variegated wisdom has particular reference to God’s richly diverse ways of working which led to a multi-racial, multi-cultural community being united as fellow-members in the body of Christ.”  (O’Brien, P. T. (1999). The letter to the Ephesians. The Pillar New Testament Commentary (245). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.)

SACRIFICIAL

“So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.” Ephesians 3:13 ESV

 

The Apostle suffered greatly to see God’s new society, comprised of multi-ethnic, socio-economically diverse people formed on planet earth.

 

“From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” Galatians 6:14 ESV

 

I personally have suffered greatly, planting and leading a multi-ethnic church.  It’s hard work.  But it’s Gospel.

ESCHATOLOGICAL (Ultimate Destiny of the Church)

 And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God

from every tribe and language and people and nation,

 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,

and they shall reign on the earth.”

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing!”  Revelation 7:9-12 ESV

 

The eternal church will be multi-ethnic. There’ll be no white church, black church, Latino church, or Asian church. There will only be Jesus’ multi-ethnic Church.  If this is the future, let’s pray for it today.

 

Marinate on that,

Pastor Derwin

@Copyright Derwin L. Gray 2013

[1] If demographics doesn’t allow for a local church to be multi-ethnic, then it can’t be multi-ethnic.  I also believe 1st generation immigrant churches are still needed because of the linguistic and cultural issues.

We Are His Hands

The Bible calls Christians “the body of Christ”. Have you ever stopped to consider the implications of that statement? Are you curious as to what that means for your life and for those you come into contact with on a daily basis? It’s exciting! Watch as Pastor Derwin explains.

Click here to view the sermon

How Have Negative Labels Affected Your Life?

I recently asked a question on my Facebook Page:

“What are some of the “labels” that have been attached to you that have had a negative impact in your life?”

The answers I received was heartbreaking:

“Slut”
“Stupid”
“You Will Never Amount to Anything”
“Failure”
“Divorced”
“Alcoholic”
“Gamableaholic”
“Fat”
“Black Sheep of the Family.”
“Nobody Wants You.”
“Pizza Face”

Can you imagine waking up every morning and carrying these negative, life-stealing labels with you?  I can, and I have.  It’s terrible.

How we see ourselves impact how we live.

Negative labels attack and chip away at that fact that we are made in the image of God.

One of the glorious realities of the Gospel is that Jesus restores the image of God in us and adorns us with an array of life-giving, new labels.

The more we speak the truth in love of who we are “in Christ” to ourselves, and the more we have others in our communities of faith do the same, we journey towards freedom.

I wrote Limitless Life: You Are More Than Past Because God Holds Your Future, so set people from negative labels that limit and ruin our lives.  Begin your journey to freedom today!

Click hear to get your copy to day.

Marinate on that,

Pastor Derwin

 

 

 

 

Baptism Celebration!

This past weekend at Transformation Church we had a great baptism celebration! Not only did we celebrate at our campus, we were also able to celebrate the baptisms of nearly 50 inmates at Kershaw Correctional Institution. Check out this video and be inspired!

The Church is More Than a Super-cool, Hollywood-produced Worship Experience on the Weekend

The Bible uses over eighty beautiful and life-giving metaphors to describe the Church.

Here are just 5.  As we integrate these Gospel-identities into our lives by faith and the Holy Spirit’s power, deep, seismic-shifts will take place in our souls.

The Church is called the “Bride of Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:32). This identity points to the Gospel-reality of the intimacy that God the Papa longs to have with His beloved people. God the Father pursues us and wins our hearts with love, as displayed through Jesus on the cross.
The Church is the “Body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). This identity points to the Gospel-reality that Jesus’ mission and ministry are continued on through His people. Every member of the Body of Christ is needed and has a role to play. As each member grows and matures, the church is built up in love (Ephesians 4:11-16).
The Church is a “Royal Priesthood;’” a “Holy Temple;” and, a “Spiritual House” (1 Peter 2:9; Ephesians 2:20-22; 1 Peter 2:4-8). This identity points to the Gospel-reality that we collectively exist to worship Jesus in all of life. In the 1st Century Jewish context, the Temple is where heaven and earth would meet. Now heaven and earth meet in God’s people, individually and collectively.
The Church is a “Family” (1Timothy 5:1). This identity points to the Gospel-reality that we are the precious, beloved children of the most-high God. We are brothers and sisters with the same divine DNA pulsating in our veins (2 Peter 1:4).
The Church is a “Holy Nation” (1 Peter 2:9). The word nation is the ethnos. It means ethnic groups. Before Jesus arrived on earth there were two peoples groups: Jews and gentiles (everyone else). After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, a new group of humans populated the earth, a multi-ethnic, blood-bought, blood-covered people called the Church.

The Church is more than a super-cool, Hollywood-produced worship experience on the weekend.

To explore this topic more, check out my new book, “Limitless Life: You Are More Than Your Past When God Holds Your Future.”

Marinate on that,

Derwin

I Am the Door

Jesus alone is the Door that leads to God the Father. When we come to realize this, we’re able to abide in Him and live an abundant life. Take a few moments to watch and see the life transformation of those who’re living out this reality!

I AM The Light of the World

We all have a past, a time in our lives before we became Christ followers. Most of us, if we’re honest, would admit that our past, our life before encountering Jesus was shrouded in darkness. The story of Yvonne and Darren is a movingly beautiful picture of how Jesus, “The Light of the World” came in and overcame the darkness they were walking in. Take a few minutes and watch!

Click here to view the sermon