Richard Ellis Talks

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Thanks for
allowing us to share this time with you. Honestly, it's
our favorite time of the day where we get to
hang out together and talk about how the truth of
God's word can make a huge difference in your life.
And that's what we're going to hear from Richard in
a way that only he can do, with words of hope, insight,

(00:21):
and humor. You may be stuck in traffic or stuck
in life. Either way, today's message is going to help
get you on the right track as you learn how
much God loves you right where you are. So let's
get right into today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
The title today's message is Form ten forty Schedule A
line eighteen. Let me read your story before we get
into this, and then we'll turn to some scripture. There
was a man who had worked all his life, saved
all his money, and was a real miser when it
came to that money. He loved money more than just
about anything, and before he died he said his wife,
now listen, when I die, I want you to take

(00:59):
all my money and put it in the casket with me,
because I want to take that money to the afterlife
with me. So he got his wife to promise him
with all her heart that when he died, she would
put all the money in the casket with him. One
day he died, he was stretched out in the casket.
The wife was sitting there in black and her friend
was sitting next to her. When they finished the ceremony,

(01:20):
just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket,
the wife said, wait just a minute. She had a
box with her and she put it in the casket.
Then the undertakers locked the casket down rolled it away.
Her friend said, girl, I know you weren't fool enough
to put all that money in there with that man.
She said, listen, I can't lie. I promised that I
was going to put that money in the casket with him.

(01:40):
You mean to tell me you put that money in
the casket with that man. I sure did, she said,
I wrote him a check. Now, I don't do this
very often, and it's probably not a good thing, but
let me tell you right up front. Money has talked
about in the scriptures more than heaven and Hell. I mean,

(02:01):
Jesus talked about money over and over because it's such
a huge deal. I'm going to talk about some things today.
And before you shut it down and say, oh, here
we go again, just pray the little prayer and say, Lord,
if this is an area in my life or something
that I need to hear, then show me.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Because let me tell you something.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Everybody in this room and beyond struggles in some way
in this area, or the scripture wouldn't address it so often.
And sometimes it is easier to say, Okay, God, great,
you got my money, but you can't have me. And
as we'll see in a minute, if he doesn't have
all of you, you can give him a little money
and he's still not have you. This is about giving

(02:39):
God your entire life, everything you have, everything you are.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
And we'll go through some scriptures that talk about this.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Look at Matthew chapter six, verse nineteen and following, and
this is Jesus speaking here, and he's gone through a
number of things, from giving alms to the poor, prayer
to fasting, and then he makes this statement on nineteen,
do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where
moth and rust destroy and where thieves break.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
In and steal.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
So in one sense, he starts out by saying, do
not do this. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures
on earth. Why where moth? You know what a moth is?
I can't find them, but you know what, I see
evidence that they exist. There's nothing more irritating to buy
some black sweater. You know you really like it, You
put it in your closet, you pull it out in

(03:31):
the fall, you put that sweater on, and just all
it takes is one little snack, one moth, one snack
boom in the right place on a sleeve, and it's over.
So he mentions moths where moths and rust destroy. They've
got these crazy shows on the Discovery channel on know
what they all are a monster or whatever?

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Everything's monster something now And they get.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Four or five specialists and they go out in the
junkyard and find some old car and it is full
of holes, and most of the holes are created by
what rust. Over time, the prettiest, finest, sleekest thing just
starts to eat away. Time eats away that rust gets
ahold of us. So he says, do not lay up

(04:15):
for yourselves treasures. And by the way, this word treasures
is the word where we get our word the sarus
from the place in which good and precious things are
collected and laid up. A casket, a coffer or other
receptacle in which valuables are kept, a treasury, a storehouse
or repository, a magazine. The things laid up in a

(04:36):
treasury collected treasures. Now, what are you collecting that you're
not going to take with you? What are you stockpiling?
What is it you've got? You say, well, I'm safe
because I don't have any warehouses, don't have any storage.
I don't have anything in my house. They couldn't find it. Well,
how about your portfolio. But sometimes people stockpile, and if

(04:57):
you ever get to the place where you have any money,
it'll do funny things to you because what you do
is you just go online now and see you're not
gonna move any money. You're not gonna do thing with it.
You just go online and look at that total. Well,
look at there, it's still there today. Look how much
money I have? And you're checking that warehouse, the storehouse.
Some people don't do it once a day. Some people

(05:18):
it's all day long. They got PDA's, they got cell phones.
If a stock moves fifteen cents, it is gonna call
them and say do something. They're monitoring constantly, calling their broker,
moving that money around, trying to keep it all stockpiled
and building, and they're gonna get rich, consuming your life.
And here Jesus says, do not lay up for yourselves

(05:40):
treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy. And by
the way, this word destroy there it's translated, it's a
word that means to snatch out of sight. So what
was so beautiful moth or russ comes along and destroys.
And then look at the rest of the phrase, and
where thieves break in and steal. But now he says,
don't lay up treasure. But then he comes back and says,

(06:03):
lay up treasure. The question is where are you laying
up treasure, he says, Jesus said, but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys.
Now that's kind of semi proof. There are no bugs
in heaven, which is going to make heaven a really
sweet place. I mean, unless all those mosquitoes and flies
get saved or something and they don't bother you like

(06:24):
to do down here, lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy, and where thieves
do not break in and steal. And then he makes
this unbelievable statement in verse twenty one, for where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also. Now see
I would not have written it that way. I would

(06:45):
have said, where your heart is, that's where your treasure's
going to be. Doesn't that make more sense? That sounds right,
doesn't it? Where your heart is, Well, my heart's in
the right place. My treasure's going to be in the
right place. No, where your treasure is that reveals where
your heart is. Now, why is this message entitled form
ten forty Schedule A, line eighteen. I buried a friend

(07:06):
of mine a few weeks ago, and in the funeral service,
some of his buddies got up and shared things about
his life. One of his friends got up and told
a story about one year they were preparing their tax
returns and he had done his, and they were checking
each other, and somehow all the paperwork out, and this
buddy had got a hold of his ten forty schedule

(07:29):
A and he looked down on line eighteen, which reflects
what your total of your charitable contributions. This guy said,
I looked down and I was stunned and embarrassed at
the same time, kind of because he looked and it
was obvious as a result of where his heart was,
it was connected to his treasure. Where his treasure was. Now,

(07:52):
if I got a hold of yours and you got
a hold of mine, one line ten forty schedule a
line eighteen. Now you say, well that I give money
outside of that nobody knows about I'm allowing for that too.
But if we all passed around and I never met you,
I didn't know anything about you, what would line eighteen.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
Say about where your treasure is? About where your heart is?

Speaker 2 (08:16):
Somebody said one time to me, you know, if you
want to find out where somebody lives and what their
priorities are, get ahold of their checkbook or their charge accounts,
or if they keep receipts. Just kind of go through
used to be a checkbook. You could go through somebody's
checkbook and see where their heart was, see where their
treasure was.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
Sooner or later, whatever is real to you, whatever is.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Meaningful to you, is going to be reflected in where
you put your treasure, What are you stockpiling, what are
you doing with it. There's a great story about one
of the professional basketball players who signed up working, you know,
playing ball for a professional team making millions of dollars.
And he needed as a believer, strong Christian guy, and
he needed a VCR to watch his.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Films with at home.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
And this guy had all all this money and was
trying to live by faith and prayed and said, Father,
I don't want to trust this money, these riches. I
want to trust you. I don't want to get away
from this. I'm asking you to provide me with a
VCR to watch my film so I can do my
job better. And he could have bought a hundred of them,
a thousand of them. And he began to pray and

(09:20):
for some reason, some promotional deal he did as he
prayed through this wouldn't go buy it.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
And the guy said, hey, will you do this?

Speaker 2 (09:28):
And by the way, they're throwing in a VCR if
you'll do it. And God had answered his prayer and
gotten him a VCR. He was dependent on God to
do it, not himself. Now see, some of you got
all the money in the world. You can buy whatever
you want when you want it. You know what you
can't it is not your money.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
Every once in a.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
While I'll go through a clothing store and think I
need to buy all this stuff, and I'll fill a
cart up and stand here and say, lord, do I
need this? And you know the answers probably know, and
I leave the cart and walk out. You better have
permission for what you're spending your money, because you're spending
somebody else's money and whatever you do with it and
wherever you put it. Now you say we does that
mean I can never have anything nice or go anywhere

(10:08):
and do anything. I'm not saying that, I'm just saying,
when you do it, you better have some backup and
somebody's permission to do it, because it is not my money,
it's not your money. Where your treasure is there, your
heart will be also. Do you want to know where
your heart is, then go looking for your treasure. Look
down at verse twenty two. We'll read through this and
get down to another piece of it. The lamp of

(10:30):
the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good,
your whole body will be full of light. But if
your eye is bad, your whole body will be full
of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you
is darkness, how great is that darkness?

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Verse twenty four.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
No one can serve two masters, for either he will
hate the one and love the other, or else he
will be loyal to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon. And this word mammon
means treasure. Mammon riches where it is personified and opposed
to God, that's when it means riches.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
And you get this battle.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
And Jesus knew it, he observed it, He knew the
heart of men, He knows our hearts.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
And what we struggle with.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
It's materialism, it's greed, it's consumption, it's all of these things.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
You cannot serve both.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
You may have two jobs, but you cannot work two
jobs simultaneously at the same time. You may have a
nine to five and a five to midnight, but you
can't have two nine to five jobs and have two masters.
You'll be split in two. It'll tear you apart. You
cannot serve two masters. So a lot of the challenge here,
the problem is who is the master? Is the money

(11:41):
the master? And see nowhere in this does it say
you're the master, never implies, never states that you are
the master. Either God is the master or money is
the master. It's one of those two things. It's nothing
in between. You cannot serve two masters. You'll either hate
the one love the other, or else you will be
loyal to the one and the other.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
You cannot serve God and Mammon.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
And then let me read you this next little bit
twenty five down to the end of this chapter. Therefore,
I say to you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or what you will drink, nor
about your body. What you will put on is not
life more than food, in the body more than clothing.
Look at the birds of the air, For they neither sow,
nor eat, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father

(12:23):
feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? Which
of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature?
So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow? They neither toil nor spin.
And yet I say to you that even Solomon and
all his glory, was not a rayed like one of these. Now,
if God so close the grass of the field, which

(12:44):
today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will
he not much more clothe you owe you of little faith.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
And it gets down to faith. Do I trust in riches?

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Do I trust in what I have, what I've accumulated,
that moths rust, thieves can steal. Or do I trust
in God to take care of me? Therefore, do not
worry saying what shall we eat, or what shall we drink,
or what shall we wear? For after all these things
the gentiles seek for your heavenly Father knows that you
need all these things. But seek first the Kingdom of

(13:17):
God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be
added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow we'll worry about its own things.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Sufficient, for the day is its own trouble.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Now, it does not say don't plan for tomorrow, don't prepare,
don't save. It's just don't put all your faith in
your treasure, in your stockpile, and that this is what's
going to fix it. I can tell you story after story.
Talk to anybody who's put all their stock. Literally this week,
a guy talking about he'd put all his stock in
a certain company here in town, all the portfolio. It's

(13:49):
going to hit big, and maybe they had millions, and
the stock went from whatever to fifty cents, and they
had nothing, and they had to plan on all these
great trips and all buying these properties, and all this
great retirement, and all of that treasure just was gone.
It was stolen. Basically, they put their trust in the
wrong thing. Flip over to first Timothy six. Let me

(14:11):
read you three in following, just to give you context.
We'll get down to the verses we're trying to hit.
This is Paul writing to Timothy, says, if anyone teaches
otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the
words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine
which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but
is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which

(14:31):
come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men
of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth. Who suppose
that godliness is a means of gain from such withdraw
yourselves that somehow being godly is a way.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
To get rich.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
And I'm telling you, guys, this stuff is out there
every day on the airwave, somebody telling you that if
you're godly, there's gain associated with it, And the reason
to give your life to God is you're going to
get rich.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
It's a god lottery of some kind. Verse six.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
Now, godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought
nothing into this world, and it is certain we can
carry nothing out, and having food and clothing, look at this,
and having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation

(15:24):
and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts,
which drown men in destruction and perdition.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
Is it wrong to be rich?

Speaker 2 (15:33):
No, But if you set your whole life focus on
I'm gonna be rich, and I don't care what God says,
don't try to stop me. It is my purpose, my goal,
my target. I'm going for it no matter what anybody says.
You are in trouble. You may get rich, but so what.
And look at the next phrase. Most people know this one,

(15:54):
but it gets misquoted. For the love of money, not money.
Money is not evil. The love of money is a
root of all kinds of evil, for which some have
strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves
through with many sorrows.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
The love of money, not money.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
But you, o man of God, flee these things and
pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness, fight the good
fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which
you were also called and have confessed the good confession
in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you, in
the sight of God, who gives life to all things,

(16:37):
and before Christ Jesus, who witnessed the good confession before
a Pawntius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot
blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ appearing, which he will
manifest in his own time, He who is the blessed
and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no

(16:58):
man has seen or can see, to whom be honor
and everlasting power.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
And then in verse seventeen, he goes at it again,
command those who are rich in this present age not
to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches, but
in the living God, who gives us right richly all
things to enjoy. Now I'm commanding you, every one of you.
You know why, because everybody in this room is rich.

(17:26):
We don't have a clue what poor is. You got
food and clothing, you're rich, you got anything beyond that,
You're filthy, rich compared to world standards. Command those who
are rich in this present age to what Do not
be haughty, always trying to figure out some way to
be better than somebody else. Command those who are rich

(17:49):
in this present age not to be haughty, nor to
trust in uncertain riches. But trust in the Living God,
who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Where are
you laying up treasure where moths can't get to it,
russ can't get to it, thieves can't get to it.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
It is set, It is invested forever someplace.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
Don't trust in uncertain riches, but in the Living God
who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them
do good that they may be rich in good works.
You want to get rich, get rich and doing something
for somebody else.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
Give.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Don't spend your whole life trying to take in. It
is more blessed to give than it is to receive.
Let them that do good that they may be rich
in good works, Ready to give, willing to share, storing
up for themselves a good foundation for the time to
come that they may lay hold on eternal life. Let
me just tell you briefly about this treasure, heart, thing

(18:44):
and possessions in particular. The second you have something that
if God said on a dime, hand it over to
somebody else and you hesitate, you do not own that
it owns you. Now what have you got in your closet,
in your garage, in your life, in your house that
you don't own anymore?

Speaker 3 (19:02):
You are a slave. It is the master. You are
the slave.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
It's got you. You cannot serve too masters. And the
two that are given there again were God and riches
are mammon. Let me just read this one Sagramentthan's nine
verses six and following, he who sows sparingly will also
reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
These are great biblical principles.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
You say, well, that sounds like if you're putting a
lot of seed in the ground, you're trying to get rich,
because if you sow bountifully, you're gonna reap bountifully. But
what's the purpose of reaping if you're going? Okay, God,
I got this principle down, and I see if I
take all my money and I invest in someplace, if
I put a thousand in, you're gonna give me one hundredfold.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
I won't be rich.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
It's not about getting rich, It's about being in a
position with God as the master of your.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
Life and your money and all that.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
You have to say, Father, you have done what you
said you would do, and I have more than I
could possibly use. Why have you blessed me? And what
do you want to do with your money? Not my money?
And then God looks down and says, okay, now we
got something going on.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
You trust me.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Now I know I can trust you, and you're gonna
do the right thing. Does it mean you never stay
in a nice hotel? Does it mean you drive a heap? No,
it means you have your focus on God and he
does allow you. In the previous passage where he said,
who gives us richly all things to enjoy, it's not
that God doesn't want us to enjoy life and enjoy
things that He's created, and go places and do things.

(20:35):
Don't be consumed with that stuff. He who sows spearingly
will also reap spearingly. And he who sows bountifully will
also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he
purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of a necessity.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
For God loves a cheerful giver.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
And we get the word hilarious from this Greek word
that we translate cheerful. God loves hilarious givers, who in
the US get pasted at the.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
End, You go, this is awesome. I get to give back.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
I can't wait to see what God's going to do
with this money because I'm investing it in his kingdom.
And I know this principle works, and I know some's
gonna come back. But I got everything I need. I
got food and clothing and even shelter beyond that in
a car and whatever, and God blesses me and I
get to do things. But God, what are you giving
me this money for? Show me where you want it
to go. I am nothing but a financial steward of this.

(21:28):
It is not my money. So let each one give
as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity.
You know what, Let me just suggest something. Keep God's
money for a while and see what happens. I don't
know how else to say this to you. You better
get his money out of your hot little hands, or
he is coming after you. You may not give it

(21:52):
to God, but you will not keep it. It will
end up some other place where your treasure is. That's
where your heart is. God loves a cheerful giver, not grudgingly,
not of necessity.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
God loves a cheerful giver.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
And God is able to make all grace abound towards you,
that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may
have an abundance for every good work. Look at all
those auls. You're not gonna be without. He is going
to take care of you.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Before Richard comes back to wrap things up for us today,
I'd like to share a couple important things with you.
Let me encourage you to take a minute and check
out our website, richardellistalks dot com.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
You'll find today's.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Talk right there on the talks page, along with all
of Richard's messages. You can even forward them to a
friend so they can hear them too. You'll also find
the prayer wall to add your prayer requests, a link
to connect with us, the contribute page for you to
be able to give to this ministry. A radio station Finder,
all of our social media links, and much more so.

(22:57):
Check it out Richard Ellis Talks and Richard's back now
to wrap up today's talk.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Luke twenty verses twenty and following conversation with Jesus, these
religious nuts following him around and harassing him and asking
stupid questions, trying to trap him. So they watched him
and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they
might seize on his words in order to deliver him
to the power and the authority of the governor.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
They were there for no other reason but to tricking.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Then they asked him, saying, teacher, we know that you
say and teach rightly, and you do not show personal favoritism,
but teach the way of God and truth. Is it
lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, why
do you test me? Show me a denarius, give me
a coin common coin, whose image and inscription does it have?

(23:51):
They answered, and said Caesar's. And he said to them,
render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and
to God the things that are God's. And maybe you
filed your taxes and maybe the government got theirs. Let
me tell you something, you better be real careful that
the government doesn't get theirs and God gets left out.
He said, well, the government's got to get theirs or
there's consequences exactly. You said, well, they could audit me

(24:15):
and have me arrested and levy my accounts, and I
can't do that. You know what, exactly, You're just dealing
with the government there. When it comes to money, you're
dealing with the God of the universe. You want to
see your account levied. He can allow things to happen
in your life to your situation that'll cost you every
dime until he gets your attention. It's not that he's
trying to take something away from you. God sent his

(24:38):
son to bless us to give. It was all about life,
an abundant life. He's not trying to withhold any good thing.
But you got to learn this stuff. You got to
figure it out at some point. And it all goes
back to that verse where your treasure is, that's.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
Where your heart is going to be.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Also FOURUM ten forty schedule a line eighteen taken to
the Where's your treasure?

Speaker 3 (25:01):
Where's your Heart?

Speaker 1 (25:03):
This has been Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis, there's
only one reason we do this program, to take the
planet with the good news of Jesus Christ. That's our
message and our mission, and you have a vital part
of doing that along with us. If you've been encouraged
by these talks with Richard, be sure to share with
someone about the change they've made in your life. And
we'd love to hear your story as to how the

(25:25):
talks have made a difference to you.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
Give us a.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
Call, we'd love to talk with you eight five five
six Richard. You can also reach us through our website,
Richard Ellis talks dot com, and while you're there, check
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