2020 Investigation: Week 1
In this sermon we see how Jesus gives us restorative health.
Darrell Ingram
Jan 26, 2020 28m
In this sermon Pastor Darrell talks about restorative health and how failure is not final. We are not doomed by our mistakes, even if we got what we deserved. God still knows us, believes in us and loves us. Let Jesus restore you. Video recorded at Pineville, Louisiana.
TranscriptionmessageRegarding Grammar:
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
Darrell Ingram: 00:00 Listen, I do want to thank Pastor James. For every time he's out, he gives me the opportunity to come and to preach, and I'm so thankful that he allows me to do that. You know, we're starting this new series on 2020 investigation. In 2020 investigation, what it does, and you can ask Richard the same thing, is it causes us to study, doesn't it? It causes us to study, because of the questions that you threw out. So, I'm going to attempt to answer four questions that were asked. If you are a Christian and you doubt God, are you lost forever? If you have sex before marriage, is it a sin? Is there such a thing as backsliding? And how do I get back in grace if there is? Once saved, always saved, how? I want to come out of Micah this morning. Micah 7:8 and it says, do not rejoice over me. Oh my enemies, the I fall, I will rise though I dwell in darkness. The Lord is the light of me, the light of my life.
Darrell Ingram: 01:03 Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I thank you. Father, I thank you for the opportunity Lord, for life, for your life, for giving us grace and freedom that only comes through you. Father, as we look at this scripture and we look at you and we look at your heart, Lord, that you'd begin to work in every one of us. Lord. The sins, Lord, that you would bring them present so that we can give them to you. Father, I know I'm a broke vessel. I know I'm a broke vessel, Father. Use me as your instrument, Father. Use me to glorify you, in Jesus' name.
Darrell Ingram: 01:46 I want to shout out real fast to Alexandria campus. I miss this morning, but you all rock, so let's rock together. Listen, I believe the price of life is full of mistakes and I believe mistakes are the price of having a full life. I believe that hell wants to maim you and mock you and hold you down with your mistakes, but heaven wants to transform you and change you. You see you and your mistakes. You know, you may think that you're a failure and failure should not be your prison, and failure should not hold you down or hold you hostage. It should not do that. That's not God's voice. That's not God's will. That's not God's plan for you. I'm not naive. Bev is here this morning, and you know, I love her more than anything in this world. I do have to understand that the enemy wants us to think that our failure is final.
Darrell Ingram: 02:55 Because we have seen or we have gone through things that where the enemy, tried to take us out by our failure, by our mistakes, by terrible choices. But, I want you to understand your failure, your mistakes, are not final. Rejoice not over me, oh my enemies for when I fall, I will rise again. When I sit in darkness, the light will come. He said, there's someone here today. There's someone here this morning that you maybe have made a mistake, but you're not one. You may have made some faults or mistakes or you've failed, but you're not a failure. You might be the one that's down, but you're not down. You see, that's not your destiny. There is a resurrection coming in your life today. To your dream, to your hopes. God says, I still have a purpose for you. You might be a man, you might be a woman. You might be a teenager, who came to journey last year, last month, last week or this is your first time, but between now and then you have fallen. You had sex before marriage, doubted your salvation, backslid, you've messed up, you did something and now you want the weight of it off. You want it to be gone.
Darrell Ingram: 04:04 You're thinking, you would give anything to go back and change that night or change that place. Change that situation, change everything in your life. Listen, I see students every day and I hurt for this generation. I hurt because when I was coming up, it wasn't like this. When I was coming up, there were different ways of doing things. Yes, I messed up, and yes I was tempted, but not like today. It's very different. Everything is at their fingertips. Everything is at their fingertips. When I grew up, if you wanted to see or go get a porn or see porn, you had to go to a convenience store. And you had to go to that convenience store, and you had to go to that counter after walking by all these people that were in a line and you walk by and you, you go up to the counter and you ask that guy, you said he was going to help you. Yeah, yeah, you look around. I want to get that Playboy magazine back there. You'd kind of like be quiet, keep your head down, so people wouldn't notice you or see you and that guy would walk back behind that counter in the back was a shelf and he would pick this magazine up, this Playboy up and he said, is this the one you wanted?
Darrell Ingram: 05:40 By then I was ready to climb under that counter. They would come up to the counter and he would ask you, is this the Playboy that you wanted? But before I give it to you, how old are you? And he never got to that question with me because I was a gone, pecan after he held it up and asked if this was the one. But this generation isn't like that. This generation isn't like that. You see, sin is brazen and it's bold. Sin is stalking you. Sin is after you and I hurt for him. And I see students walk up and down the hall and my heart literally breaks, but not only for them. It breaks for you as you come in. And as you experience the world as you go out, because everything is at our fingertips. Everything is right there. You see, I'm not here to throw stones. I'm not here to cut you down. Because the truth is 68% of all men look at porn at least once a week. But 18% of women look at porn at least once a week. One out of five searches on the web is porn related? So, is this what I'm going to focus on? Is this what I'm going to talk about? No, I'm not going to focus on this. But what I am going to tell you, and I want you to understand that righteousness is not permission to sin, but righteousness is permission to come home.
Darrell Ingram: 06:56 God wants you home. God wants to give you peace. God wants to give you hope, and he wants to show you, I still believe in you and I still have a purpose for you. You might've failed. You might've fallen. You might have made a mistake, but you're not a mistake. God will never define you by your worst mistakes and choices in life. Critics will. Attackers will, haters will, because we know haters are going to hate anyways. People will, but God will never define you by your worst mistakes.
Darrell Ingram: 07:45 We need to thank him because great is his mercy, and I'm thankful that great is his mercy every day and every day they are new. I'm so thankful for God. You see, God, what he does is, he knows your name. He knows my name. In Jeremiah 1:5 he says this, he says, before you were formed in your mother's womb, I knew you. God knew you. He knew you before you even came here today. He knew you before you were even born. God knew you, and guess what? God has a plan for you. He has a purpose for you. He has a purpose for what you've been through. He has a purpose for what you're going through. God has a plan and a purpose for you. He has it, and listen, I'm just telling you, he knew you.
Darrell Ingram: 08:33 He's there for you and I love the story of Peter. I love that God loved him even after he messed up, even after he failed. You see, the angel came and appeared to them at the tomb in Mark 16:7 he says, go tell the disciples and Peter to meet me. Go tell his disciples and Peter. The same guy who denied Christ, the same guy who lied, the same guy who cut a man's ear off, the same guy who was violent, the same guy who failed and failed miserably. The same guy that denied Jesus three times. I think if someone would lose their salvation, it should have been Peter, because he totally turned his back on God. He totally turned his back on the savior. He even cursed. Oh, if salvation depended on us, it could be lost. If it depended on us, it can be lost. If salvation was relying on us to hold on to God's hand, it would be at risk. Thankfully, salvation does not depend on you. It does not depend on me. It depends on him and him alone. He promises to never leave you nor forsake you. He promises to never leave you nor forsake you.
Darrell Ingram: 09:42 Let me give you something on the side here. The more you sit quiet, the more I think you're not getting this. So, the more I'm going to go longer and longer and longer and go over the same points over and over and over to make sure that you're in it. So, you've got to have something. You've got to say something. But listen, here's the thing. You know, I'm thankful for his salvation. I'm thankful for him holding onto me. The angel said, you tell his disciples and Peter, he named him specifically. I believe because he wanted his critics to hear that Jesus still believes in his good disciples, but he still believes in the ones who doubted him, and the ones who failed, and the ones who messed up. Because I know God could take our mess ups and turn them into a miracle. I know that God can take something and make it new.
Darrell Ingram: 11:04 You see, there are some of you here today that made it messed up and you messed up bad. You had sex out of marriage, you had sex before marriage. You turned your back on God. The enemy told you that your dream was shredded. You don't have any hope. You have no future. You have lost your salvation. It's over. You might as well throw in the towel because you're doomed, but God brought you to Journey Church this morning.
Darrell Ingram: 11:36 He brought you to church Journey Church this morning to let you know that there's restoration. There's restoration available for you and he still has his hand on you and he still has a plan for you. It was Simon Peter who preached at the day of Pentecost. He didn't choose the other 11, he chose the one that screwed up. He chose the one that made the mistake. He chose the one that turned his back on him. He chose you. He chose me. Man, I'm thankful that God chose me because you remember what I said in Jeremiah 1:5, before I was formed. He knew me.
Darrell Ingram: 12:34 What makes you think if he did, if he knew you then that he doesn't know you now? You see, we let the devil come in and we let them persuade us that God no longer needs us or he no longer knows us. God says, I know you and I knew you before you even set foot on this earth. The Bible said, listen, you know it's so good that he chose you. You know, and he gave his life and he gives life.
Darrell Ingram: 12:58 There's a guy in Acts 20 his name is Eutychus. And while Paul was freaking out, part of this this story is about Paul preaching and Eutychus was up on the third floor. And Eutychus was listening along. He had one foot in and one foot out of the church. He fell asleep and he fell out of church all the way down three stories. They said he's dead. He sent them in to scrape him up and I love what Paul did. The bible said, he left church service where he was preaching and he ran down to this man named Eutychus. You know why they called him Eutychus? If you'd fell down three stories out of a window, you'd have cussed, too. You would cuss about anything. I'm telling you, I cuss, but I love Jesus. He fell all the way down and they wanted to scrape him up. They wanted to throw him away because I thought he was worthless. They were saying it serves him right. He shouldn't have been half in and half out. Let's just mark him off. He knew better. He got what he deserved.
Darrell Ingram: 14:13 I mess up. You mess up. We all mess up. Thank God, because I mess up. Because if I didn't, I wouldn't need him. I thank God, I need him. Whoa. I need him every hour, I'm trying to sing, I need him. That's why they don't have me singing up here, but I can sing it here. I need him. I need him not just every hour, but I need him every second. I need him every minute. I need him every day. I need him every month. I need him every year. I need him all the time. I need him.
Darrell Ingram: 15:04 Listen, you may have gotten what you wanted, but you don't have to keep what you got. You can give it up. You serve a God who says, I make things all new. Oh, I love it. Paul fell on him. The guy who was in church, the guy who was in the praise team but fell out, the guy who had it all together and was doing amazing things and things in his heart was for God, but he fell out of church. But Paul ran down to him and the bible said, he fell on him and he said, these words, he's alive. Some of you have fallen, some of you did something wrong. Some of you messed up and now your marriages are falling apart, your families are falling apart. Everything in your life is falling apart and the Lord's telling you there's still life in your dreams. They're still life in your purpose. There's still life in what God wants you to do in his name. There's still life.
Darrell Ingram: 15:59 I heard a story of Steve Wynn, it's a true story. Steve Wynn was a billionaire, a multibillionaire. Steve Wynn, you know he finally made it, and he had his eye always on this one painting. There's one painting, was called the Le Reve, the dream, and he gave $50 million to purchase this painting by Pablo Picasso. He finally got it and he said, listen, I bought this painting the dream because it meant something to me because when I started, I started with nothing. I started with nothing but, yet I began to work and I began to build and I begin to stumble. But I built the empire that I wanted and this picture tells me that my dream came true. And then one day he had an opportunity to buy two more paintings, after five years, then this guy Cohen, he was an new investment banker from New York city. He called him and he says, I want to buy that picture, the dream. He said, yes. He said, but I'll give you $139 million for it. What an investment. What a turnover. $89 million in five years. That's a good profit, if I say it for myself. So, you know, he said, yes, I'll do it.
Darrell Ingram: 17:57 So, before he did it. He wanted to throw this big party, this going away party, for the dream. So, what he did is he invited all the who's who around the world, you know, the rock stars, the politicians, the millionaires. Let me stop there. The who's who, if you are in Jesus Christ and he is your savior, you are truly the who's who. You don't have to be rich. You don't have to have all these acknowledgements. You don't have to have all these political things in your life. All you need is Jesus. He is enough. That makes you the who's who.
Darrell Ingram: 18:17 Well, Steve Wynn, he got up and he began to speak as all these people were coming, and he had a problem with his eyes. And so he started to talk about the dream that was on an easel, and his arms got to flaying and he talked like I do a lot, you know, with animation. And he was talking and he lost his balance and he fell. He went to go catch himself. And his hand went right through the dream. It was broke, it was tore up, it was ruined. So he got on the phone and he called this investment banker and he says, listen, this dream I messed it up. I mean, I tore it up. It is ruined. But, what I want to do is I want to buy that ruined dream back from you for the same price that you gave me. $139 million. I'll buy it back, because I don't want it to get into anybody's hands because I love that painting and I love that art. And that guy said, okay, you're crazy, but go ahead. You just lost tens of millions of dollars. Steve Wynn did it because of his love for that painting. He was emotionally attached to that painting.
Darrell Ingram: 19:01 So, he went out and he started searching the world to find an art surgeon or an art restorer, and he found his man in Europe and he flew him in and the man, he looked at the torn dream. Then he made his final analysis. He says, I can fix it. I can fix it and I can fix it to where when you look at it, you can't even tell that it was ruined, or that it was torn, or that it was damaged, but it's going to take me some time. It's going to take a year because I can't restore it quickly. You see the word restoration? Does it only have restore in it? It has rest. It has rest. and if you're really going to let God restore your life. If you're really going to let God restore your dreams. The dreams that have been torn to pieces, you've got to give him time. And little by little God begins to piece your life back together.
Darrell Ingram: 20:50 You may not be where you want to be yet, but just you wait, just you wait. You put your life, you put your hands, you put your family, you put your wife, you put your husband in the nailed, scarred, hands of Jesus and see what he can do. See how he can move. Whoa. Sure enough, God took it and he kept it for a year and began to work on it again. To do this and began to do that is sure enough. One year later he brought it back and even the greatest art inspectors in the world couldn't look at the painting and tell that it had ever been ruined. They agreed that it was perfect. It had been restored. I had been restored. It was perfect.
Darrell Ingram: 21:10 You'll get this. What you see in front it looks like it's never been damaged, but if you turn it around, it's going to look ugly. It's going to look like you had to do some repair work. It's going to look like you had to have it restored. It had to have restoration involved and the people will see it like this, but those that know what it went through will see it like this and that. It was changed from the inside out. The reason why it looks like that in the front, I don't know who I'm preaching to this morning, but I feel like the Lord is saying to you, when you go through it, you're not going to be like what you were. You're not going to be like what you're going through. You're not going to be like that abuse. You're not going to be like that. That hurt. You're not going to be like that failure. You're not going to look like your mistake or you're not going to look like you made a bad choice.
Darrell Ingram: 23:16 You see, out of my family, man. I have a gorgeous wife, man. Listen, you all, she's the most beautiful thing in my life and I love her more than anything. And I've got two handsome young men that I'm proud of and I'm proud of who they are and what they've become. But if you want to see the real picture of the Ingram family, you've got to turn it around. You've got to turn it around. But out of the mistakes comes grace, and out of the pain comes mercy, and out of the ashes comes beauty. Don't say you want God to use you if you're not willing to go through this.
Darrell Ingram: 24:15 You want to see the scars on Jesus. His name is wonderful. His name is beautiful. He's the Redeemer. The restorer, the hope of all of us. He went through this, so we can look like this, a masterpiece, a masterpiece, but never forget what he went through to get you and me where we are today. Oh, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of the world was upon him. By his stripes, we are healed. We're restored. God is saying, I still have plans for you, because of what you've been through, because of what you've been through, you'll learn to praise me in your pain. Listen, anybody can praise God when everything is going good, when everything is right, but when you learn to praise me, when your promise looks like this, he'll turn your weeping in to dancing. Oh, that mountain that's in your way, will be moved. He'll restore because restoration is in him. He'll restore your dream.
Darrell Ingram: 25:41 The best part of this story is that same guy that wanted the painting, a year later called Wynn and said, I want to buy that back. So, now I want to buy it back, but I don't want to buy it back for $139 million. I want to buy it back for $159 million because it's worth more, because it's been through something and it's restored. It has been torn, but now it's brought together. You see, if you let Jesus store you and you will only increase in value, not decrease.
Darrell Ingram: 26:40 Proverbs 24:16 says, a righteous man, righteous woman, falls seven times. Righteousness is not determined on how many times you fall, but the Bible says, rises again. Righteousness is not determined by how many times you fall or how many failures you have, but whether you get backup. Whether you get back up when you get back up, when you started allowing God to work in your life, he'll turn those ashes into beauty. He'll restore you more than you can ever imagine because my God is good. He is good all the time. you all stand up and bow your heads real fast. Bow your heads as Mike and them begin to come and say these words with me.
Darrell Ingram: 27:35 In Jesus' name, I come, I surrender it all to you, Jesus. Take my life. Forgive me, do your will with it. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for cleansing me through the blood. I praise you, Lord, that I am forgiven in Jesus name, Amen.
Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.
Darrell Ingram: 01:03 Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I thank you. Father, I thank you for the opportunity Lord, for life, for your life, for giving us grace and freedom that only comes through you. Father, as we look at this scripture and we look at you and we look at your heart, Lord, that you'd begin to work in every one of us. Lord. The sins, Lord, that you would bring them present so that we can give them to you. Father, I know I'm a broke vessel. I know I'm a broke vessel, Father. Use me as your instrument, Father. Use me to glorify you, in Jesus' name.
Darrell Ingram: 01:46 I want to shout out real fast to Alexandria campus. I miss this morning, but you all rock, so let's rock together. Listen, I believe the price of life is full of mistakes and I believe mistakes are the price of having a full life. I believe that hell wants to maim you and mock you and hold you down with your mistakes, but heaven wants to transform you and change you. You see you and your mistakes. You know, you may think that you're a failure and failure should not be your prison, and failure should not hold you down or hold you hostage. It should not do that. That's not God's voice. That's not God's will. That's not God's plan for you. I'm not naive. Bev is here this morning, and you know, I love her more than anything in this world. I do have to understand that the enemy wants us to think that our failure is final.
Darrell Ingram: 02:55 Because we have seen or we have gone through things that where the enemy, tried to take us out by our failure, by our mistakes, by terrible choices. But, I want you to understand your failure, your mistakes, are not final. Rejoice not over me, oh my enemies for when I fall, I will rise again. When I sit in darkness, the light will come. He said, there's someone here today. There's someone here this morning that you maybe have made a mistake, but you're not one. You may have made some faults or mistakes or you've failed, but you're not a failure. You might be the one that's down, but you're not down. You see, that's not your destiny. There is a resurrection coming in your life today. To your dream, to your hopes. God says, I still have a purpose for you. You might be a man, you might be a woman. You might be a teenager, who came to journey last year, last month, last week or this is your first time, but between now and then you have fallen. You had sex before marriage, doubted your salvation, backslid, you've messed up, you did something and now you want the weight of it off. You want it to be gone.
Darrell Ingram: 04:04 You're thinking, you would give anything to go back and change that night or change that place. Change that situation, change everything in your life. Listen, I see students every day and I hurt for this generation. I hurt because when I was coming up, it wasn't like this. When I was coming up, there were different ways of doing things. Yes, I messed up, and yes I was tempted, but not like today. It's very different. Everything is at their fingertips. Everything is at their fingertips. When I grew up, if you wanted to see or go get a porn or see porn, you had to go to a convenience store. And you had to go to that convenience store, and you had to go to that counter after walking by all these people that were in a line and you walk by and you, you go up to the counter and you ask that guy, you said he was going to help you. Yeah, yeah, you look around. I want to get that Playboy magazine back there. You'd kind of like be quiet, keep your head down, so people wouldn't notice you or see you and that guy would walk back behind that counter in the back was a shelf and he would pick this magazine up, this Playboy up and he said, is this the one you wanted?
Darrell Ingram: 05:40 By then I was ready to climb under that counter. They would come up to the counter and he would ask you, is this the Playboy that you wanted? But before I give it to you, how old are you? And he never got to that question with me because I was a gone, pecan after he held it up and asked if this was the one. But this generation isn't like that. This generation isn't like that. You see, sin is brazen and it's bold. Sin is stalking you. Sin is after you and I hurt for him. And I see students walk up and down the hall and my heart literally breaks, but not only for them. It breaks for you as you come in. And as you experience the world as you go out, because everything is at our fingertips. Everything is right there. You see, I'm not here to throw stones. I'm not here to cut you down. Because the truth is 68% of all men look at porn at least once a week. But 18% of women look at porn at least once a week. One out of five searches on the web is porn related? So, is this what I'm going to focus on? Is this what I'm going to talk about? No, I'm not going to focus on this. But what I am going to tell you, and I want you to understand that righteousness is not permission to sin, but righteousness is permission to come home.
Darrell Ingram: 06:56 God wants you home. God wants to give you peace. God wants to give you hope, and he wants to show you, I still believe in you and I still have a purpose for you. You might've failed. You might've fallen. You might have made a mistake, but you're not a mistake. God will never define you by your worst mistakes and choices in life. Critics will. Attackers will, haters will, because we know haters are going to hate anyways. People will, but God will never define you by your worst mistakes.
Darrell Ingram: 07:45 We need to thank him because great is his mercy, and I'm thankful that great is his mercy every day and every day they are new. I'm so thankful for God. You see, God, what he does is, he knows your name. He knows my name. In Jeremiah 1:5 he says this, he says, before you were formed in your mother's womb, I knew you. God knew you. He knew you before you even came here today. He knew you before you were even born. God knew you, and guess what? God has a plan for you. He has a purpose for you. He has a purpose for what you've been through. He has a purpose for what you're going through. God has a plan and a purpose for you. He has it, and listen, I'm just telling you, he knew you.
Darrell Ingram: 08:33 He's there for you and I love the story of Peter. I love that God loved him even after he messed up, even after he failed. You see, the angel came and appeared to them at the tomb in Mark 16:7 he says, go tell the disciples and Peter to meet me. Go tell his disciples and Peter. The same guy who denied Christ, the same guy who lied, the same guy who cut a man's ear off, the same guy who was violent, the same guy who failed and failed miserably. The same guy that denied Jesus three times. I think if someone would lose their salvation, it should have been Peter, because he totally turned his back on God. He totally turned his back on the savior. He even cursed. Oh, if salvation depended on us, it could be lost. If it depended on us, it can be lost. If salvation was relying on us to hold on to God's hand, it would be at risk. Thankfully, salvation does not depend on you. It does not depend on me. It depends on him and him alone. He promises to never leave you nor forsake you. He promises to never leave you nor forsake you.
Darrell Ingram: 09:42 Let me give you something on the side here. The more you sit quiet, the more I think you're not getting this. So, the more I'm going to go longer and longer and longer and go over the same points over and over and over to make sure that you're in it. So, you've got to have something. You've got to say something. But listen, here's the thing. You know, I'm thankful for his salvation. I'm thankful for him holding onto me. The angel said, you tell his disciples and Peter, he named him specifically. I believe because he wanted his critics to hear that Jesus still believes in his good disciples, but he still believes in the ones who doubted him, and the ones who failed, and the ones who messed up. Because I know God could take our mess ups and turn them into a miracle. I know that God can take something and make it new.
Darrell Ingram: 11:04 You see, there are some of you here today that made it messed up and you messed up bad. You had sex out of marriage, you had sex before marriage. You turned your back on God. The enemy told you that your dream was shredded. You don't have any hope. You have no future. You have lost your salvation. It's over. You might as well throw in the towel because you're doomed, but God brought you to Journey Church this morning.
Darrell Ingram: 11:36 He brought you to church Journey Church this morning to let you know that there's restoration. There's restoration available for you and he still has his hand on you and he still has a plan for you. It was Simon Peter who preached at the day of Pentecost. He didn't choose the other 11, he chose the one that screwed up. He chose the one that made the mistake. He chose the one that turned his back on him. He chose you. He chose me. Man, I'm thankful that God chose me because you remember what I said in Jeremiah 1:5, before I was formed. He knew me.
Darrell Ingram: 12:34 What makes you think if he did, if he knew you then that he doesn't know you now? You see, we let the devil come in and we let them persuade us that God no longer needs us or he no longer knows us. God says, I know you and I knew you before you even set foot on this earth. The Bible said, listen, you know it's so good that he chose you. You know, and he gave his life and he gives life.
Darrell Ingram: 12:58 There's a guy in Acts 20 his name is Eutychus. And while Paul was freaking out, part of this this story is about Paul preaching and Eutychus was up on the third floor. And Eutychus was listening along. He had one foot in and one foot out of the church. He fell asleep and he fell out of church all the way down three stories. They said he's dead. He sent them in to scrape him up and I love what Paul did. The bible said, he left church service where he was preaching and he ran down to this man named Eutychus. You know why they called him Eutychus? If you'd fell down three stories out of a window, you'd have cussed, too. You would cuss about anything. I'm telling you, I cuss, but I love Jesus. He fell all the way down and they wanted to scrape him up. They wanted to throw him away because I thought he was worthless. They were saying it serves him right. He shouldn't have been half in and half out. Let's just mark him off. He knew better. He got what he deserved.
Darrell Ingram: 14:13 I mess up. You mess up. We all mess up. Thank God, because I mess up. Because if I didn't, I wouldn't need him. I thank God, I need him. Whoa. I need him every hour, I'm trying to sing, I need him. That's why they don't have me singing up here, but I can sing it here. I need him. I need him not just every hour, but I need him every second. I need him every minute. I need him every day. I need him every month. I need him every year. I need him all the time. I need him.
Darrell Ingram: 15:04 Listen, you may have gotten what you wanted, but you don't have to keep what you got. You can give it up. You serve a God who says, I make things all new. Oh, I love it. Paul fell on him. The guy who was in church, the guy who was in the praise team but fell out, the guy who had it all together and was doing amazing things and things in his heart was for God, but he fell out of church. But Paul ran down to him and the bible said, he fell on him and he said, these words, he's alive. Some of you have fallen, some of you did something wrong. Some of you messed up and now your marriages are falling apart, your families are falling apart. Everything in your life is falling apart and the Lord's telling you there's still life in your dreams. They're still life in your purpose. There's still life in what God wants you to do in his name. There's still life.
Darrell Ingram: 15:59 I heard a story of Steve Wynn, it's a true story. Steve Wynn was a billionaire, a multibillionaire. Steve Wynn, you know he finally made it, and he had his eye always on this one painting. There's one painting, was called the Le Reve, the dream, and he gave $50 million to purchase this painting by Pablo Picasso. He finally got it and he said, listen, I bought this painting the dream because it meant something to me because when I started, I started with nothing. I started with nothing but, yet I began to work and I began to build and I begin to stumble. But I built the empire that I wanted and this picture tells me that my dream came true. And then one day he had an opportunity to buy two more paintings, after five years, then this guy Cohen, he was an new investment banker from New York city. He called him and he says, I want to buy that picture, the dream. He said, yes. He said, but I'll give you $139 million for it. What an investment. What a turnover. $89 million in five years. That's a good profit, if I say it for myself. So, you know, he said, yes, I'll do it.
Darrell Ingram: 17:57 So, before he did it. He wanted to throw this big party, this going away party, for the dream. So, what he did is he invited all the who's who around the world, you know, the rock stars, the politicians, the millionaires. Let me stop there. The who's who, if you are in Jesus Christ and he is your savior, you are truly the who's who. You don't have to be rich. You don't have to have all these acknowledgements. You don't have to have all these political things in your life. All you need is Jesus. He is enough. That makes you the who's who.
Darrell Ingram: 18:17 Well, Steve Wynn, he got up and he began to speak as all these people were coming, and he had a problem with his eyes. And so he started to talk about the dream that was on an easel, and his arms got to flaying and he talked like I do a lot, you know, with animation. And he was talking and he lost his balance and he fell. He went to go catch himself. And his hand went right through the dream. It was broke, it was tore up, it was ruined. So he got on the phone and he called this investment banker and he says, listen, this dream I messed it up. I mean, I tore it up. It is ruined. But, what I want to do is I want to buy that ruined dream back from you for the same price that you gave me. $139 million. I'll buy it back, because I don't want it to get into anybody's hands because I love that painting and I love that art. And that guy said, okay, you're crazy, but go ahead. You just lost tens of millions of dollars. Steve Wynn did it because of his love for that painting. He was emotionally attached to that painting.
Darrell Ingram: 19:01 So, he went out and he started searching the world to find an art surgeon or an art restorer, and he found his man in Europe and he flew him in and the man, he looked at the torn dream. Then he made his final analysis. He says, I can fix it. I can fix it and I can fix it to where when you look at it, you can't even tell that it was ruined, or that it was torn, or that it was damaged, but it's going to take me some time. It's going to take a year because I can't restore it quickly. You see the word restoration? Does it only have restore in it? It has rest. It has rest. and if you're really going to let God restore your life. If you're really going to let God restore your dreams. The dreams that have been torn to pieces, you've got to give him time. And little by little God begins to piece your life back together.
Darrell Ingram: 20:50 You may not be where you want to be yet, but just you wait, just you wait. You put your life, you put your hands, you put your family, you put your wife, you put your husband in the nailed, scarred, hands of Jesus and see what he can do. See how he can move. Whoa. Sure enough, God took it and he kept it for a year and began to work on it again. To do this and began to do that is sure enough. One year later he brought it back and even the greatest art inspectors in the world couldn't look at the painting and tell that it had ever been ruined. They agreed that it was perfect. It had been restored. I had been restored. It was perfect.
Darrell Ingram: 21:10 You'll get this. What you see in front it looks like it's never been damaged, but if you turn it around, it's going to look ugly. It's going to look like you had to do some repair work. It's going to look like you had to have it restored. It had to have restoration involved and the people will see it like this, but those that know what it went through will see it like this and that. It was changed from the inside out. The reason why it looks like that in the front, I don't know who I'm preaching to this morning, but I feel like the Lord is saying to you, when you go through it, you're not going to be like what you were. You're not going to be like what you're going through. You're not going to be like that abuse. You're not going to be like that. That hurt. You're not going to be like that failure. You're not going to look like your mistake or you're not going to look like you made a bad choice.
Darrell Ingram: 23:16 You see, out of my family, man. I have a gorgeous wife, man. Listen, you all, she's the most beautiful thing in my life and I love her more than anything. And I've got two handsome young men that I'm proud of and I'm proud of who they are and what they've become. But if you want to see the real picture of the Ingram family, you've got to turn it around. You've got to turn it around. But out of the mistakes comes grace, and out of the pain comes mercy, and out of the ashes comes beauty. Don't say you want God to use you if you're not willing to go through this.
Darrell Ingram: 24:15 You want to see the scars on Jesus. His name is wonderful. His name is beautiful. He's the Redeemer. The restorer, the hope of all of us. He went through this, so we can look like this, a masterpiece, a masterpiece, but never forget what he went through to get you and me where we are today. Oh, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of the world was upon him. By his stripes, we are healed. We're restored. God is saying, I still have plans for you, because of what you've been through, because of what you've been through, you'll learn to praise me in your pain. Listen, anybody can praise God when everything is going good, when everything is right, but when you learn to praise me, when your promise looks like this, he'll turn your weeping in to dancing. Oh, that mountain that's in your way, will be moved. He'll restore because restoration is in him. He'll restore your dream.
Darrell Ingram: 25:41 The best part of this story is that same guy that wanted the painting, a year later called Wynn and said, I want to buy that back. So, now I want to buy it back, but I don't want to buy it back for $139 million. I want to buy it back for $159 million because it's worth more, because it's been through something and it's restored. It has been torn, but now it's brought together. You see, if you let Jesus store you and you will only increase in value, not decrease.
Darrell Ingram: 26:40 Proverbs 24:16 says, a righteous man, righteous woman, falls seven times. Righteousness is not determined on how many times you fall, but the Bible says, rises again. Righteousness is not determined by how many times you fall or how many failures you have, but whether you get backup. Whether you get back up when you get back up, when you started allowing God to work in your life, he'll turn those ashes into beauty. He'll restore you more than you can ever imagine because my God is good. He is good all the time. you all stand up and bow your heads real fast. Bow your heads as Mike and them begin to come and say these words with me.
Darrell Ingram: 27:35 In Jesus' name, I come, I surrender it all to you, Jesus. Take my life. Forgive me, do your will with it. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for cleansing me through the blood. I praise you, Lord, that I am forgiven in Jesus name, Amen.
Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.
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