Richard Ellis Talks

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard's going
to take the next few minutes to share some great
words of hope, insight, humor, and relevance in today's lost
and searching world. That's something everyone.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Desperately needs to hear.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Speaking of bet, we'd love to keep this conversation going
with you anytime through our website. Richard Ellis Talks dot Com.
In fact, there's so many ways to connect with us
from there that you really need to check it out
for yourself. Richard Ellis Talks dot Com. But right now,
let's go ahead and get things off and running with
today's talk.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Here's Richard Ellis. The title today's message is salt Shaker.
I actually brought one from the house. It's a little dented.
This better be returned to the house. I promise I'll
get it home, sweetie. It's been around a long time.
And I'll get back to that in a second. Maybe
you know what an anagram is. It's any word or
phrase whose letters, when they are scrambled, create a different

(00:57):
word or phrase. I'll give you some examples. Dormitory can
also spell dirty room. That one makes a lot of sense. Astronomer,
moonsterer the eyes they see the more's code. Here come dots,
mother in law, woman Hitler. I'm just I'm that's just what.

(01:21):
That's what the research shows, a decimal point. I'm a
dot in place, Presbyterian best in prayer, desperation, a rope
ends it. I thought that was fascinating. Listen to this.
One eleven plus two can be scrambled to write twelve

(01:42):
plus one. Think about that slot machines, cash lost in me,
election results lies, let's recount and then snooze alarms alas,
no more zase you can look them up yourself. Those
are all accurate it now. One that's not so good

(02:03):
is the word preserve and perverse. And we live in
a world where whether we know it or not. And
I've thought about using this analogy of the frog that's
in the pan of cold water. You put on the stove,
put the frog in there, and you heat it up,
and the frog will not jump out, He'll just die
in the pan. It's actually not true. People use that illustration,

(02:25):
but the picture of that that you just heat it
up slowly, slowly, slowly, and pretty soon you don't even
know what happened. What is going on in our world today.
It's not that it's never gone on in the world before,
because the devil says the same old bag of tricks.
He's got no new tricks, no new sins, no new temptations.
He's got just different tools and different set of people.
But the world has gotten completely jacked up before. We've

(02:49):
talked recently about the flood because of the violence that
was in the world, God said, do over eight people,
all the animals, and let's start all over again. You
have places like Sodom and Gomorrah where just got completely
out of control, and literally God sends angels in there
to evacuate Lot, his wife, his family if they would

(03:09):
trust God and get out of there, and said, do
not look back. And in that story, Lot's wife turned around,
and I like to describe what she had as Sodom eyes.
She could not stay forward, She cannot point it straight
ahead and just say I got to get out of here.
Something about that city and what was going on back
there was more important than following God. And so she

(03:30):
looked back, and the scripture says she turned to a
pillar of salt. So we're going to talk today about
being salt, but not that kind of salt. But if
you are a Christian, let's just start there, and I'll
address us mostly today. If you are already a Christian,
you would think, and I've said this repeatedly through the years,
you would think that a kind God, a God that

(03:50):
loves us so much that he would be willing to
send his own son, Jesus, to die on across be buried,
raising the dead, do all of this to make heaven
possible for us? What kind of twisted, demented God who
knows what it's like down here? Because Jesus has been here,
done this, Why would he leave us here a millisecond

(04:11):
longer than it took for us to believe? Just the
second you trust Christ, we should be beamed out of here,
get the heck out of this place, because Heaven is better.
Now you have to give some thought to that if
you are still here. And most of the time, when
Christians believe, unless they're martyred a few minutes later and
they won't recant. Most Christians become a Christian and then

(04:34):
they're here. They're left here. You have to figure out
why it is that God would leave you here and
not get you out of here. Now there's some big
words we use in the Christian faith. Salvation, that's what happens.
A salvation from eternity, separated from God, happens when you
believe and become a Christian. Then you got a word sanctification,
then glorification. The glorification won't happen till you die, till

(04:56):
we get to heaven. But there's a sanctification process and
that's what we're left here to be a part of.
And a huge chunk of that sanctification process is involved
with discipleship. Why are we so huge about discipleship, Because
if you just become a Christian, you pull your ticket,
you sit on your rear, and you wait till it's over.

(05:18):
You're going to be frustrated. You're gonna get sucked back
into sin and wonder why am I even here. You
can discover why you're here and get on with living
that life. And if you don't figure it out, you're
going to be tremendously frustrated. You're going to frustrate a
bunch of other people and things. Instead of what we
are supposed to do is be a preservative preserve the world,

(05:40):
we become part of it, becoming perverse because we are
not functioning the way we were intended to function. Go
to Isaiah chapter five. I'm not going to read you
this whole thing, but there's lots of woes in the Bible.
In Isaiah five eleven will jump in there, and he says,
woe to those who rise early in the morning that
they may follow intoxicating drink, who continue until night till

(06:02):
wine inflames them. So these are hard drinkers. He's warning them.
You know, if you're waking up in the morning and
you start drinking at breakfast, you got a problem. Okay,
I don't care what you say. You got a problem.
And he's addressing these people. The harp and the strings,
the tambourine and flute, and wine are in their feasts,
but they do not regard the work of the Lord,

(06:22):
nor consider the operation of his hands. So they're partying,
having a good time. But they do not what regard
nor consider the operation Lord. They don't regard the work
of the Lord, nor consider the operation of his hands. Therefore,
my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge.
Their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up

(06:42):
with thirst. Therefore sheol the place of the dead has
enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure their glory
and their multitude and their pomp, And he who is
jubilant shall descend into it. People shall be brought down,
each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the
lofty shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall
be exalted in judgment, and God, who is holy, shall

(07:04):
be hallowed in righteousness. Then the lambs shall feed in
their pasture, and the waste places of the fat ones
strangers shall eat. Woe to those who draw iniquity with
cords of vanity and sin, as if with a cart rope.
They say, let him make speed and hasten his work
that we may see it, and let the counsel of
the Holy One of Israel draw near in come that

(07:26):
we may know it. And then verse twenty woe to
those who call evil good and good evil, who put
darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter
for sweet and sweet for bitter, And it's gotten completely
turned around. It is one thing to call evil good.
It is another thing to call good evil. And this

(07:47):
is what's happening in our world today. There are certain
people who say, what you're doing you say is good,
we say it's evil. And then you flip it around
even more those who call evil good. So we we
say evil now is good. And not only that, what
you're doing that you claim is good is evil. Now
that's bad enough for somebody to say that's doing something evil.

(08:09):
And here's where this is going to get wacky. Who
are you? Who am I? Who are we to determine
what is evil or not? You don't have to worry
about me or you determining it. Look at scripture, look
at what God says about the world, about our lives.
But see, nobody wants scripture anymore. There is no absolute truth,
there's no authority. You can't go to the scripture and
quote scripture to someone. They say, well, that's your opinion,

(08:30):
that's what your book says. Who are you to judge me?
Let me tell you something about evil. Evil is evil,
is evil, period. It doesn't matter what you and I
think of it. And you say, well, I think this
is okay. If God calls something evil, it is evil,
And you can't call something evil good. And then go
beyond that and say, now what you claim is good,

(08:52):
we decide. And it's very fascinating We can't tell them
that their evil is evil, but they can tell us
that our good is evil. And where did they get
that authority? Because they don't want anything to do with God.
They don't want to hear anything about their lives having
to change or something being wrong. Go to Matthew chapter five.
And in Matthew chapter five it's pretty simply stated. But

(09:15):
Matthew five, verse thirteen, Jesus looks at these people following
him and says this, you are the salt of the earth.
He said, well, what's the big deal about that? Back then,
armies couldn't fight, You couldn't preserve food without salt. Salt.
They didn't know where all the salt in the world was,
so it was a commodity. Soldiers would get paid in

(09:35):
a salt allowance where they could literally take salt because
it was so valuable. You just couldn't live without salt,
and so as a preservative it was essential. As flavor adding,
it's essential, and it also creates some thirst. But you're
the salt of the earth. What does that mean? That
means if the world is going to be preserved and

(09:56):
not end up perverse, it will be traceable to Christians.
He said, well, how is that possible. That's what he said.
So in a community, in your business, in your everyday life,
when you walk into a situation, you are still alive
and have been preserved. Your life has been preserved until
you die down here, and he keeps you alive for

(10:17):
that long to be engaged in the population. Churches are
not salt warehouses. Churches are places where salt shakers get filled,
so that when God sees your life that you are
the salt of the earth and you get it. Then
during the week, God reaches down, picks up your life

(10:37):
and says, okay, you're ready. I'm ready. I know why
I'm here, and he starts dumping salt and you say, well, Lord,
I don't want to go there. He said that place
needs salt. And this is where he gets really screwing
for people. They say, well, I lost my job. I
get that can be traumatic. And you say, well, and
I've been offering a job over here and it's a
terrible job. But I really feel like God. I believe

(10:57):
that God is telling me to go take the job.
It's not about the job, it's about the salt. So
you said, well, it's gonna suck having that job. It's
gonna suck if you missed the opportunity, and just if
you would trust him. You think Joseph in the Old
Testament wanted to be a slave. No? Do you think
he wanted to be running a prison? No? He ended
up running all of Egypt. How did that happen? Because

(11:20):
he was willing to trust God no matter what, and
God used him in Potiphar's house, in that prison and
then saved Egypt and his own family. He said, well,
I want control of my life. If you end up
controlling your whole life, you may run your life. You're
gonna run your life into the ground, and then you'll
stand before God and you go, wait, this is all
I got to show for my life, A little bag,

(11:41):
little sack of gravel from the judgment from the Beamas
eat the fire hit my life. I got nothing to show.
But I was successful down there. You better be successful
up there or you're not successful. He said, why do
you keep pounding us on this, because you're just gonna
stare at the walls till the day you die if
you don't put the clutch and put it in gear

(12:01):
and let's go. We are the salt of the earth.
There are things going on on this planet and have
been going on. And our culture, our world, our country
just talk about here is going down the tubes. And
if you look around the country, and if you look
beyond our country at the world, places in Europe where
there used to be Christians, very few left. And those

(12:24):
places are dark places spiritually now. And if you talk
to any believer who's gone to try to do mission
work in these places because there is no Christianity, because
Jesus is not present in the lives of people in
that country, it gets very dark and starts to rot
because there is no standard anymore. It took the Romans
five hundred years and they were gone, We're gonna get

(12:46):
it done quicker. We're bigger and better. We are going
to self destruct in no time because we have no standards.
We've just black marked God right out of the equation.
They can take him out of the schools, they can
take him out of the government, they can take him
out of slogans. Let me tell you where they can't
take him out of. They can't take him out of me.

(13:07):
And if you're a Christian, they cannot take him out
of you. So if you're going to let him live
in you, and you have no option as a believer,
Then let him be in you and live through you
in such a way that we are what he says
we are. You are the salt of the earth. But
then he goes on to say, Matthew five thirteen. But
if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

(13:27):
The nature of salt, it has to have that preservative,
that taste, that flavor, or it's not salt. It is
then good for nothing but to be thrown out and
trampled underfoot by men. You know what you do with
bad salt. You throw it out in a snowstorm and
an ice storm so people can walk on it. That's
not what we're supposed to be. Then he goes on
to say, you're the light of the world. A city
that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor

(13:48):
do they light a lamp and put it under a basket.
But a lamp stand and it gives light to all
who in the house. Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works and glorify your
father in heaven. This is why we don't change the world.
Our salt has lost its flavor. It's savor. We are
not penetrating the culture. We are not going to work
and realizing that yes, we're there to do some job

(14:10):
and get a check, but we are there to be
a preservative, to have an impact. You say, well, if
I take a stand, I'm gonna get fired. Get fired. Well,
who's gonna take care of me? Who do you think
has been taking care of you all these years? Anyway,
if he could get you that job, he gets you
another job. Well, I'm just nervous. You better be nervous

(14:31):
because this thing is collapsing and it's happening all around us,
like we don't even know what's happening. So he says
we're salt. He says, we're light. It's interesting, there's an
old This is actually in a phrase in Earth. Used
to be in our culture. You'd see some old man,
some old woman man, that guy, he's the salt of
the earth. What did that mean? It's defined as a

(14:52):
person or group considered as embodying simplicity and moral integrity,
a person or group considered the best or most worth
the part of society, the salt of the earth. Christians literally,
Jesus says you are the salt of the earth. Is
that how they describe me or you, where we live,
where we work, everywhere we go, or is there just

(15:13):
absolutely no difference one Corinthians five. We'll do a couple more.
Turn to first for Corinthians five. Okay, so this is
an internal thing inside of the church at corinth and
Paul is addressing it, and follow this very closely. He
writes them, it is actually reported that there is sexual
immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not

(15:34):
even named among the gentiles, like the lost people aren't
even doing what you're doing. That a man has his
father's wife. Now things have changed and there's all kinds
of programs about this. Now I'm sure where a guy
can sleep with his dad's wife. And you are puffed
up and have not rather mourned that he who has
done this deed might be taken away from among you.
For I indeed am absent in body, but president spirit

(15:56):
have already judged as though I were present, him who
has done this deed. In the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together along with my spirit,
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, delivers such
a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
that his spirit may be saved in the day of
the Lord Jesus. People say to you, believe in the
security the believer that you want your saved. You can't

(16:16):
be lost this guy, literally, Paul is saying, he will
not repent, he will not change. And by the way,
this is a category deliver this guy to Satan for
the destruction of the flesh. But what but he will
be saved in the end, that his spirit may be
saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Now, if

(16:38):
you lock up as a Christian so hard on sin
that literally it gets to the place where we say, Lord,
this person is not going to change, and we were
to deliver you to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
meaning okay, you can have him and you're going to
die as a result of that. You would think that
would get somebody's attention, but no. Sometimes we lock down
so hard, hold on so tight to our sin, we

(17:01):
refuse to repent, and it literally cost people their lives.
So you think God's not serious about sin, And clearly
Paul is sin. We don't care about this stuff anymore.
If we just went with what's possibly going on in
this room today and we won't repent. And he said,
what's the big deal, dude, leave us alone. It's my life.
It's not your life, it's his life. And the problem

(17:22):
if you get neutralized you say, well, I'm not going
to do what God wants me to do. But look,
I've even got more verses now I can live like
hell and still make heaven. It's that you are not
accomplishing what He's left you here to do. You're missing
your mia, and then some other troops have got to
cover your ground because you refuse to let him live
in you and through you, and obey him and trust

(17:42):
him and let your life be his life. Keep reading
your glorying is not good? Do you not know that
a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out
the old leven, that you may be a new lump,
since you are truly unlevened. For indeed, Christ our passover
was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast,
not with old leaven, nor with the eleaven of malice

(18:04):
and wickedness, but with the unloven bread of sincerity and truth.
I wrote to you, and my epistle not to keep
company with sexually immoral people. But verse ten, this is astonishing.
Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral
people of this world, or with the covetest or extortioners
or idolaters, since then you would need to go out

(18:25):
of the world. I didn't tell you don't interact with
these people in the world because you can't do that,
but don't do it in church. So you said, well,
what are you running off the sexually immoral people and
the covetous and extortioners and adolaters. We're encouraging you to change.
If you don't change, there's a good chance if we're
preaching the gospel, you're gonna leave anyway. It's amazing what

(18:46):
truth does in a pruning process. I don't have to
listen to this. You are so right click. But what
if you're listening and it's gonna help you, you go, Well,
maybe I'll give it another minute. Give it another minute.
It might change your life. You might figure out why
He saved you, what you're here for, and then your
life changes as He uses your life to change other
people's lives. Verse eleven. But now I have written to

(19:10):
you not to keep company with anyone named a brother.
Someone says, I'm a Christian who is sexually immoral, or cubagist,
or an idolat or a viler, or a drunkard or
an extortioner. Not even to eat with such a person.
Don't even eat with them. Oh my gosh, I'll be
eating alone the rest of my life. Maybe sooner, Lady,
you got to find some Christian who's not these things.

(19:31):
For what have I to do with judging those also
who are outside? In other words, Paul saying, it's not
my job to judge those people in the world. Why
do you not judge those who are inside, but those
who are outside? God judges. Therefore, put away from yourselves
the evil person. So as we interact with the world,
you say, well, I can't go to lunch with that guy.
He's cheating on his wife. That's why you're going to

(19:53):
lunch with him if he's not a Christian. Well, I
just don't want to get involved. It is impossible to
be this and not get involved. You're gonna get lost
in the equation. But that's the point. Holy does not
mean you lock yourself in a salt shaker, because this
is clean salt in here, baby, this is clean, protected.

(20:13):
And then God comes along and says, here we go,
what stop? Look where I'm gonna land? But then what
happens to our country, our culture, our world? People go, Wow,

(20:33):
things are different around here. You noticed since we hired
that lady, things are different around here. I've heard about
guys going to workplaces and it's Goddess Jesus, you know,
it's everything, everything, And one guy goes in there and
that's not how he talks. And slowly but surely, all
that stuff starts going away, not judging anybody, just all
of a sudden, you hear what you're saying. Are they

(20:55):
hear what they're saying and what you're not saying? And
things start to change. Okay, so here's your homework. You
wake up tomorrow or the rest of this day and say, Lord,
I'm in You're in me. I'm in you, and I'm available.
I am now logging in as a Christian, and I'm

(21:15):
telling you I'm going to spend some time in the scriptures.
And if I've got sin in my life, you said,
if I confess my sin, you're faithful injustin forgiving you
my sin to cleanse me from all in righteousness So
let's start there. Let's get this sin out of the way.
And even if I do it again, I'm coming back
because I don't want to miss out. And it can't
just be I see now that salvation is great, that'll
get me into heaven. But I'm still here. There's a

(21:36):
reason why I'm still here. You've got to show me
what that is. If you have never been discipled, someone
come alongside you and walk with you and get you
up and running. That is the mission statement of this church.
Disciples making disciples, that is what we are about. Because
unless you get born again, but if you don't get

(21:56):
raised by somebody where you can function the way he
intended as a sure believer, it's not going to go well.
And most newborns don't do well alone. So you say, well,
I want help, then ask us for help. We got
people in this church that will take you on in
a heartbeat and walk with you and help you. You
don't have to do this by yourself. And then I
promise you this is what's going to happen. You're gonna

(22:18):
wake up, you're going to go to work, and he's
going to start pouring you out and you're gonna start
going Oh my gosh, I have been missing this all
these years. This is crazy, amazing, the conversations, the prayers,
the impact that he starts to have through you, just
because you got available.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Richard will be back in a moment to wrap up
today's talk, but first I want to share a couple
of thoughts with you.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
Let's be honest.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Real life isn't about living some highlight reel.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
For others to see.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Most people have deep hurts, questions and struggles. Well, we
get it, and we want to help you in any
way we can. So let's keep this conversation going. You
can give us a call anytime at eight five five
six Richard, or connect with us at our website, Richard
Ellis Talks dot com. You can even put in your
prayer request right there on the prayer wall. Call us

(23:07):
at eight five five six Richard or online at Richard
Ellis talks dot com. And now let's get back to
Richard with a final word.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
On today's show, he said, well, how do you know
about all these things? If I could take you for
a day, and please please don't I mean, my wife,
my children will tell you I am not all that.
I get that. So I got plenty of leveling going
on there. But if I'm firing on all cylinders, it
goes better. And I got the same Jesus living in

(23:37):
me that you got living in you. Now, if you
don't have that Jesus living in you, we're about to
change that right now. So anybody listening beyond here in
this room you say I got none of that. I
think God has been after me. I feel him close by,
but I don't think he's inside. Here's how you get
him inside. You say a simple prayer like this, Dear God,
I know that I am a sinner and I need

(23:58):
your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus died on the cross,
was buried and raised from the dead to pay for
my sin and to purchase a place for me in
heaven that he offers as a free gift. Right now,
I accept the forgiveness of my sins as a free gift.
Come live in me through me, change me, show me

(24:18):
how I am to be salt light, and change this world.
Not just change my world, change this world. Thank you
for loving me, for saving me, and that now you're
going to begin a process of making me holy and
setting me apart to live the life that you intended
so that one day I can be with you in heaven,
glorified in heaven with you, and I thank you and

(24:38):
prayed in Jesus's name. Amen. Now you say it can't
be that simple, That's how simple it is. If you
confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and you believe
in your heart that God raised me from the dead,
you will be saved. That's what the book says period
in the story, but that's not the end of the story.
That's just the beginning of the new story and then

(24:59):
seeing what God can do living in and through your life.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
You've been listening to Richard Ellis Talks. We really appreciate
that you've spent this time with us, but we want
to keep the conversation going with you. A couple of
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eight five five six, Richard. Another way is through our website,
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(25:24):
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Speaker 2 (25:32):
We love bringing you the program every day, but it.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
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Speaker 2 (25:48):
It would really mean a lot to us.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Richard Ellis Talks dot com. So until next time, have
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Ellis Talks. Yeah.