God’s Holy Shift of Opposition Brings Freedom

Darrell Ingram: 00:00 You know, Pastor James always bugged me about the shoes that he wears, so I had to go and look for some that I know he would never put on and wear. Hey, Pastor James, I want you to check these out. You don’t even have to wear shoe laces. So I just had to throw that back at him. Every Sunday he tells me about his shoes, and both me and him have this thing about shoes.

Darrell Ingram: 00:22 But I do want to thank him for giving me the opportunity again to be here. Come to the main campus, and speak on God’s word. You know Pastor James has done a lot of things for me, and I want to thank him for being my mentor, and I want to honor him for doing that. And most of all, I want to honor God for what God has done in our lives, and what God is doing here at Journey Church. Because God is working a work not only here, but in Alexandria. See, we’re one church with two locations, and God is blessing that. You see when God laid it on Pastor James heart, he stepped out in faith, but you know who else stepped down in faith? All of us. And because we stepped out in faith, God honors that faith, so I am thankful for the vision that Pastor James had in taking me. I didn’t want to go, I wanted to stay right here, comfortable. But God takes opposition, and he’ll bring freedom into our lives. God will take something that Satan meant for bad, and bring us into a position that we are right with Him.

Darrell Ingram: 01:28 We’re coming out of Acts chapter six, and then we’re going to go back to seven. I’m going to throw you all the way back to Exodus chapter three. In Act’s chapter six, we see Stephen, the people around were accusing Stephen at this particular time. There’s where we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and change the customs which Moses delivered to us. So Stephen here, he’s getting accused, and God has given to him that this boldness, because this is what happens. After they accused him of changing their customs, they saw his face, and his face was the face of an angel,

Darrell Ingram: 02:16 And then at the beginning of chapter seven, “The high priest said is this so?” And guess what Stephen in his boldness did? He began to preach. He began to preach, he began to talk about Abraham, he began to talk about the Patriarchs, and talk about the faith, and the things that they did. And then he started talking about Moses, which throws us all the way back to Exodus chapter three, and this is what it says. It says, “Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of a desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.” And then Moses said, this is so neat. You know, he’s walking down with these sheep, and all of a sudden he kind of catches a glimpse of this burning bush. And then Moses said, in the King James version, he says, “Now I will turn aside and see this great sight. The Lord saw him at turn aside to see, and God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. Here I am, here I am God. (Reminds me of Isaiah when he saw the Lord high and lifted up, he said, here I am.) and he said, draw near to me, but put your shoes off, because the place in where you’re standing is holy ground.”

Darrell Ingram: 04:16 So let’s go back and let’s talk about Moses, and what was happening in Moses’ life. Moses walked to his neighborhood, and he saw this Egyptian hurting or one of the Hebrews, and he decided to take matters into his own hands. If you haven’t read the story, you need to read it, it would make a good movie. As a matter of fact, it did. But yet he killed the Egyptian, and he buried him in the sand. He thought he was helping God, by getting ahead of God. How many times, many of us, knowing that God has called us to do something. But because we feel like God is taking too long, take matters into our own hands. God, you’re moving too slow, so let me help you. I’m going to help you, and I’m going to go out, and I’m going to kill this man. You call me to a place of leadership but there’s not happening, so I’m going to do it my way and not your way, and I’m going to go out and kill somebody. You know we may be laughing, but how many times do we kill people with our words? How many times when we could have blessed them, and bless somebody, we whispered something else. Because we secretly wanted what they had, or we look down on them. The next day Moses sees two Hebrews fighting, and he asked them, why are you doing this? And the dude says, get your hands off me. You don’t even know me. What are you going to do, kill me like you killed that Egyptian?

Darrell Ingram: 06:07 You see the shift that God brings will always bring exposure. It will always bring exposure in our life. The problem is not that Moses killed somebody, he buried him in the sand, and you can’t bury anything in the sand because all it takes is a wind to blow, and what you buried becomes exposed. What you bury God is going to call you to face. Whatever opposition, whatever hurt, whatever pain, you’ve been trying to run from, whether it’s self-imposed or imposed by others. God is going to use the wind of the Holy Spirit to uncover it, to move that sand away, so you can face it and confront it. So you can become mature, and find freedom, into the person that God wants you to be.

Darrell Ingram: 07:08 Here’s the thing about sand, did a little research, heat it up enough and it becomes glass, it becomes a mirror. God
says, no, you can’t bury anything without looking at yourself. God is telling us today you can’t bury anything, Darrell, without looking at yourself. He said, what I want you to do, you know while you’re opposing God, while you’re opposing him. He said, I need you to stop. I need you to take a little look in the mirror, and look again and see what you see, because it’s just small part of what I want you to be and who I want you to be. It’s just a small part. You see God uses opposition to shift us all the way back to zero. He’ll bring us back to the foundation. You see God is saying, lay down your own will, pick up mine. But since you’re opposed to me, or an opposition to me, doing things your own way, we’re just going to redo the lesson.

Darrell Ingram: 08:17 You see Moses was 40 years in, he was 40 years in. He says, you almost graduated, but because you took matters into your own hands, you got to start all over. How long was Moses in Midian? Forty years. One day for one day, one year for one year. Why? Why did Moses, at the age of 40, go to Midian, flee to Midian, and then stay another 40 years? Because God had to bring him all the way back to the base foundation? He had to have nothing on his foundation, so that God could start building him back up again. You see, God wants to move all the opposition out of our lives. He wants to move to the opposition out of your lives, he wants to move the opposition out of my life. How hard was it for Ole’ Mo to live in Midian day in, day out, surrounded by sheep, dumb sheep, smelly sheep. Sheep stink! Mo is 80 years old, he doesn’t even own his own sheep, they’re his father in laws. How would you feel if you were Mo? Every day you wake up regretting the decisions that you’ve made over the last 40 years. Going over the memories, the 40 years of memories that you have, years of monotony, years of the average. Little knowing that the years of monotony and average, that God is producing, in you, something that you will need to lead a nation to freedom.

Darrell Ingram: 10:07 Listen, please don’t despise the season that you’re in. Don’t despise the season that you’re in, because the season that you’re in, God is developing you for what’s coming next. You see all it does is you need to take a step, and stop, and let Jesus take residence in your life. You need to let him park and stay. Call the name, call the name, I’m talking about the precious name of Jesus. It will never, never lose its power. You see, that’s the power that you and I can gain, that’s the freedom that you and I can gain, but it comes through Jesus. And that’s something that you and I can get excited about. If you’re not excited, then something’s wrong. You see sometimes it’s not easy, clock in, clock out, sitting in traffic, go home, help cook dinner, help the kids with homework, watch Sponge Bob, take a shower, go to bed, the next day, same thing. Day after day, month after month, year after year, and it seems like nothing is changing, but you need to know, while nothing is changing, everything is changing. Because God is developing in you, he’s preparing you for what’s coming next. See all you need to do is stay in the season that you’re in. You want a break out, but in that place of opposition, God wants to remove it. That place of opposition is only temporary. The strife is only temporary, that is in your life. You’re in a temporary holding pattern.

Darrell Ingram: 12:01 I remember me and Beverly, we were, it’s another story. We were coming back from Miami, not Miami, Orlando, Disney World. That’s a whole other story, I’ll tell y’all one day, very few people know it. Beverly tricked me, and I ended up there, that’s a whole other story. I’ll tell you that news, it wasn’t a good day for Darrell. I was holding on tight to Beverly while I was going through Disney World, okay, enough said. So we got on the plane and we left Orlando, we landed in Houston, we got on another plane and was started to fly here. And five minutes from Alexandria, I mean I was looking out the window on the other side and I can see the tower at Alexandria regional airport. And as I’m looking I see something fly, a bunch of things fly, and it goes right through that jet engine. I see a little smoke from that jet engine, and I’m going we need to hurry up and get down. Next thing you know the stewardess comes out, I don’t know if they call them stewardess. but the stewardess comes out and she looked out the window. Beverly says, “What’s going on?”

Darrell Ingram: 13:18 “Nothing at all, baby.”

Darrell Ingram: 13:21 Next thing you know, the captain, the pilot, comes out and he’s looking. He’s looking out the window, and Beverly said, “There’s something going on.”

Darrell Ingram: 13:28 “Baby there’s nothing going on. Don’t worry about it.” Smoke coming out of that engine. She’s sitting next to this window, and can’t look at that engine. “You just look out that window right there baby. Everything’s going to be all right.”

Darrell Ingram: 13:40 Captain goes back in the cabin, and he says, “Excuse me, excuse me everybody, having a little technical difficulty. We’re going to hold in a holding pattern for a few minutes.”

Darrell Ingram: 13:51 I’m going holding pattern? Alexandria is right there. I said, I don’t know how to fly, but I’m not dumb. We need to land that thing quick, because if that engine falls off, we have no engine over there, and planes aren’t meant to fly. So we’re in a holding pattern, and then he comes on, he said, “Excuse me again, passengers. I was in touch with the control tower, and I was waiting to get information.” We are two miles away from Alexandria, 300 miles to Houston. He said, “We’re going back to Houston, because they can’t handle us there.”

Darrell Ingram: 14:40 I’m saying they can’t handle us in between, if we go down. I’m like, I’m not dumb, let me get over there and I’ll call the shots, and then we’ll land and we’ll be all right. Engine could fall off, wings could fall off, but we’re on the ground, and we’re saying, okay, God, thank you. Man, some people.

Darrell Ingram: 15:02 But sometimes God puts us in a holding pattern, so that when you land, you walk off, and there’s no delay walking into the thing that God created you to do. Hey, check this out. Mo, one day…Hey Pineville, you’ve got to do like Alexandria. Hey Alexandria, you got to do exactly like they do. Mo, check this out, one day…somebody say one day.

Congregation: 15:35 “One day.”

Darrell Ingram: 15:35 Oh, you got to get better at that, because Alexandria go ahead and say it, one day. Because I know they’ll scream at the top of their lungs, any time Pastor James asked them, they are like (hollering sounds). And then one day, somebody say, one day.

Congregation: 15:47 “One day”

Darrell Ingram: 15:48 Amen! It was a regular day, and Ole’ Mo was chilling. And he was walking in the Middle Eastern Desert, and he sees this brush fire. That’s what happens in the deserts, deserts are hot, and the bushes burn up, it happens all the time. But on this day, 40 years, Mo is walking, and suddenly he sees something that’s weird. And he says to himself, self, I’m going to turn aside and see this strange thing. See why this bush burns, and it’s not consumed, see why this is happening. And he sees it, he stepped, and he thinks. And we all are thinking, just picture it. Bush burning bushes, usually burn up, but this one is not consumed. Then he takes one step. Somebody say one step.

Congregation: 17:01 “One step”

Darrell Ingram: 17:01 You see, when you get ready to quit, when you get ready to give up, it only takes one step. It takes one step to overcome, it takes one step to pass the test, it takes one step to kick the addiction. But here’s what happens to us before we take that one step, we stop, and there’s no blessing. Because God just says, take that one more step, and see what I can do for you. See the glory, see the hope, see what I can do. I’m going to move a miracle in your life, but you got to take one step. We give up, and we don’t take it. He took one step, and this is what you heard, Moses, Moses. Not the voice of an angel, not the voice of a preacher, not the voice of your favorite singer, not the voice of your favorite TV host, but the voice of the living God. The one who created the universe with his mouth, was in the middle of the desert waiting on Moses to turn. You may be in the middle of the desert right now in your life, but God is waiting for you to turn. Turn and take one step and see what God can do. Because my God is able, he is able. He’s waiting on Moses. You see, you need to quit fighting, you need to quit opposing God, and turn and take that one step. It’s your turn to be free from the what ifs in life. It’s your turn to be free from the strife’s of living in the shadow of bad decisions. It’s your turn to get set free of the bad decisions of yesteryear. The regret, the regret of this next season will not follow you. Yes, I messed up, I failed God, but His grace and mercy covered me in the blood. You see that blood, it will never lose its power. Never, never, no matter what day, no matter what hour, no matter what year, the blood is powerful and it will…If I could see I would sing that song. But I know it will never lose its power.

Darrell Ingram: 19:47 See, God says, Mo, don’t come any closer, don’t come any closer. Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place you are standing is holy ground. And I need you to understand this, He didn’t say the place that you’re approaching. Mo had been standing there for 40 years, what changed? His perspective. I need a sign. Mo was in the natural desert, and he spotted something super. When was the last time you spotted something super in the middle of your natural, the extraordinary in the ordinary? Mo was walking when he saw a bush, and God says, don’t, don’t, don’t move any closer. The place on where you’re standing, take your shoes off. Forty years of labor, 40 years of opposition, and finally he finally caught it, you’ve been right here. God had been right there the whole time, but it took Moses forty years. God had to erase 40 years, because you cannot approach God as the Prince of Egypt, you can’t approach God in your position, you can’t. Your status doesn’t get you an audience with God, your family doesn’t get you an audience with God, what you. wear doesn’t get you an audience of God, the money that you have doesn’t get you an audience with God. The only thing God receives is a broken spirit, and a contrite heart. Mo is at the lowest point, eighty years and he didn’t even own his own sheep. He was finally able to discern that God was right there in front of him, he was hiding in plain sight.

Darrell Ingram: 21:51 We need to look for the super, in the natural. Look for God in the strange places. Look at opportunities to discern the divine, in the midst of our everyday routine. Moses did nothing special, it was a regular day, and he turned. And the moment he turned, his labor, his questions, his pain, his process brought him into the presence of God. He couldn’t go in. He couldn’t go into the presence of God with his pride, with his opposition. He said, your shoes are nice, they’re nice, yeah, they’re real nice. He said, but the place in which you are standing is holy ground. That’s so profound. It is so profound. God said, the place in where you were standing, he had been standing there the whole time, how come it just became wholly in Moses’ eyes? Because he just became aware that God was there. See, you don’t know what’s fixing to happen, you’re fixing to be on holy ground. God is fixing to take you, and turn you, but you got to take that one step. You got to turn to him and take that one step, and as soon as you do it. Oh, you’ll hear Darrell, Darrell. I want to hear from God. I want to hear from him every day of my life, but I got to turn, and I got to take one step to his word and let him speak to me.

Darrell Ingram: 23:39 See, you’re on holy ground, you’re about to experience freedom. God is developing you through pressure, through pain, and through opposition. This is what God does, it is what he does. Why am I still anonymous? Why hasn’t God elevated me? Doesn’t need care? Doesn’t he see what I possess? Look at me, look at me. Huh, who wouldn’t want to use me? Huh? Come on. Doesn’t he see what I possess? Yes, he does, but until he stripes away everything that you think you’re owed, you’ll stay in Median, until you know the only reason that you are where you are is because of God. And the moment you realize that I don’t deserve this, God steps in, and grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within. But you got to experience the grace, and the only way you’re going to experience the grace, is if you turn to him and you take one step, God says, take your shoes off. Why? Because you’ve been tracking in dirt, and he says, those shoes got dirt from the past, I don’t need you to bring them into the next season of your life. Leave them right there, take those shoes off, you been walking around in a bunch of mess. He’d been tending sheep now, you’ve been hanging around sheep, it’s a mess on your shoes and they stink. I love you, but leave those shoes outside. Leave your own way of thinking, leave your own effort, leave your opposition outside, because you’re about to see what it means for God to shift your life. You’re about to see how you are separated, how you are covered, how you are protected, and how you are blessed. The place in which you’re standing is holy ground.

Darrell Ingram: 26:11 Can you spot the super in the natural? Take your shoes off before you approach God in prayer, before you read his word, consider taking your shoes off. Before you go in and say, Lord, I’m coming in and I’m coming to you without the dirt of the day, without the dirt of my life, I trust that you’re going to keep me covered. I’m inviting you, I’m stopping, I’m going to stop opposing you God. He loves you. He loves you. All you need to do is take a turn, and take that one step that God [inaudible]. Let God shift your selfishness into salvation, your fear into boldness, your weakness into power, your hopelessness into usefulness. Let God shift what you’re going through into something that’s good, that will give him honor and glory for the rest of your life. Let him shift your hopelessness into peace, but it takes one step. You see Jesus is calling.

Darrell Ingram: 27:25 You all go ahead and stand and close your eyes as Trey begins to sing. Jesus is calling and he’s calling you out. You know you’ve been waiting. You’ve been experiencing years of hopelessness, years of not having peace, years of being bound and having bondage, years and years and years, and God has been waiting for this day for you to turn and take one step. You see, you come in every Sunday and you leave lost. You know it’s there, but you leave without hope. God says, I’m your hope, you need to accept my son. You see, Jesus told us I’m the way, the truth, and the light, and no one comes to the father, but by me.

Darrell Ingram: 28:25 Father right now, I thank you. I thank you for your goodness, I thank you for your mercy, I thank you for your grace. Father, I thank you for taking the time to care for us. Father, right now I know there are many people that are hurting, I know there are many people that are bashed up and banged up. Maybe they’re an addiction, maybe something has happened in their lives, and they don’t know where to go. Father, prompt them right now, to turn towards you, and take that one step. Because we know it only takes one step. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.