Richard Ellis Talks

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. If
you're looking for some encouragement, words of hope, and maybe
a laugh or two, that's exactly what Richard wants to
share with you today. We know life can get pretty
busy and complicated, so we're truly grateful you chosen to
take a break and listen to the program. Now, if
you're not able to hang out with us for the

(00:21):
entire program, you can always pick it back up at
our website, Richard Ellis Talks dot com. In fact, you
can find all of Richard's talks right there waiting just
for you Richard Ellis Talks dot com. So with today's talk,
here's Richard Ellis.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
The title today's message is sold Out. Now, let me
just ask the question right up front. Have you sold out?
He said, Well, what do you mean by that? Hopefully
we'll answer that by the time we're done. What does
it even mean to be sold out or to sell out?
Let me just read you a definition for selling out.
Selling out is the compromising of integrity, morale, or principles

(01:01):
in exchange for personal gain, such as money. Have you
sold out? I say, well, I'm not sure. Yet if
I know what you mean, you'll know in a little bit.
In terms of music or art, selling out is associated
with attempts to tailor material to a mainstream or commercial audience.
For example, a musician who alters his material to encompass

(01:24):
a wider audience may be labeled by fans who predate
the change as a sellout. Have you sold out? Have
you cashed in your chips and said, you know what, God,
I'm out. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of trying.
I'm tired of going after what it is you made

(01:44):
me to do. So I will compromise in some way.
I'm out go if you would to Second Kings, Chapter five.
Second Kings, Chapter five, And I'm not going to read
this entire story. I usually read this story trying to
talk about name and the guy at the beginning of
the story. I'll give you a little background on it

(02:04):
and let you see an example of this. Second King
Chapter five, Verse one says, now, name and commander of
the army of the King of Syria. So this guy
is over the armies of the King of Syria. Was
a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master,
because by him the lord had given victory to Syria.
So by this guy, look what it says the lord
had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty

(02:28):
man of valor, but a leper. So here is this soldier,
this military might, and he has leprosy. So they capture
some slaves on a raid. This girl ends up working
in his house. And then this girl says to her mistress,
this guy's wife, if only my master were with the
prophet who is in Samaria, for he would heal him

(02:50):
of his leprosy. So now the wife goes, wait, what
is this? So she tells her husband, and the King
of Syria said, go now, and I will send a
letter to the King of Israel. So he departed and
look at the and took with him ten talents of silver,
six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.
Clothes were big back then as well. So then verse six,

(03:12):
then he brought the letter to the King of Israel,
which he said, now be advised when this letter comes
to you, that I have sent naming my servant to you,
that you may heal him of his leprosy. Horrible letter
to get what are you gonna do? I mean it'd
be like you, you know, somebody in your company. The
CEO sent a letter saying, hey, heal this guy. You know, Like,
what are you talking about? So he tears his clothes. Elijah,

(03:34):
the prophet hears about this, and he goes to the
king says what's up. He says, en verse eight, please
let him come to me. He shall know that there's
a prophet in Israel. Then Namon went with his horses
and chariot and stood at the door of Eliza's house.
And Elijah sent a messenger to him, saying, go and
wash into Jordan's seven times, and your flesh shall be
restored to you, and you shall be clean. So Elijah

(03:54):
didn't even go out and talk to this general. But
Naman became furious went away and said, indeed, I said
to myself, he will surely come out to me and
stand and call in the name of the Lord his God,
and wave his hands over the place and heal the leprosy.
This guy had an expectation about what was supposed to happen.
Be really careful with this. He said, well, if God
shows up, this is how he's going to show up.

(04:15):
He may not show up. Your way are not the
Abnah and the par Far, the rivers of Damascus better
than all the waters of Visraal. So he pops off,
gets angry. Could I not wash in them and be clean?
So he turned and went away in a rage. And
his servants came near and spoke to him and said,
my father, if the prophet had told you do something great,
would you not have done it? How much more then
when he says to you, wash and be clean. So

(04:37):
he went down, dipped seven times in the Jordan, according
to the saying of the Man of God, and his
flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child,
and he was clean. And he returned to the Man
of God. He and all his aides and came and
stood before him. And now this time Elisha comes out
to see him, and he said, indeed, now I know
that there's no God in all the earth except in Israel. Now, therefore,

(04:57):
please take a gift from your servants. All that's stuff
that he brought with him. Now he's wanting to express
his gratitude, and he says, take a gift. But he said,
as the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will
receive nothing. I am not taking a gift from you.
You can't pay for this, and he urged him to
take it, but he refused, so Naman said, then if not,

(05:19):
please let your servant be given two mule loads of earth.
So now this Naman asked for two mule loads of dirt,
and he wants to take him back where he's in Syria,
and he's going to put him out in his temple
so that when he worships, he's not worshiping on Syrian ground,
He's worshiping on their ground. So they do that. Then
down in verse nineteen, he said to him, go in peace,
so he departed from him a short distance, and then

(05:42):
the story gets sideways. Gahazi is Elisha's servant and he's
watching all this, and we find out what's going on
really with Gahazi in this story. But Gahazi, the servant
of Elishah, the man of God, said, look, my master
has spared naming this Syrian while he's not receiving from
his hands what he brought. But as the Lord lives,

(06:04):
I will run after him and take something from him.
I am not letting this happen. I know this guy
got healed. Elisha doesn't want anything, but you know what
I want something. I'm gonna get something. So he chases
him down. Look at this, so Gehazi pursued nam When
nam saw him running after him, he got down from
the chariot to meet him and said, is all well?

(06:25):
And he said, all is well? And then here come
when greed kicks in the lies follow. My master has
sent me saying, indeed, just now, two young men of
the sons of the prophets have come to me from
the mountains of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of
silver and two changes of garments. Makes up some story

(06:47):
and tries to get two changes of garments and a
talent for each you know, one change of garment, preach
of the guys, and a talent for each of the guys.
So Naman said, please take two talents. And he urged
him and found two talents of silver and two bags
two changes of garments, and handed them to the two
of his servants, and they carry them on ahead of him.
So now they're carrying all this back to town for him.

(07:08):
When he came to the citadel, he took them from
their hand and stored them away in the house. Then
he let them go and they departed. Now he went
in and stood before his master Elijah, and said to him,
where did you go, Gehazi? And he said, I didn't
go anywhere. That's what it says. Your servant did not
go anywhere. Then he said to him, did not my

(07:30):
heart go with you? When the man turned back from
his chariot to meet you, is it time to receive
money and to receive clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep
and oxen, male and female servants. Therefore the leprosy of
Nayman shall cling to you and your descendants forever. And

(07:50):
he went out from his presence lepros as white as snow.
Now I have hit this theme repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly around
here for quite a while. You can and not leave
out consequence. I am dealing with consequence in my own life,
from my life in poor choices. You cannot leave this out.
You can abuse the grace of God. But the grace

(08:13):
of God does not eliminate consequence. Sometimes it does, but
sometimes it doesn't. And so you say, well, I just
wanted to live like hell and then give my life
to Jesus. And he removed everything that you know, the
consequence of what I've done. I can get everybody to
raise their hand that knows that's not a fact, right,
There's some consequence. So when you sell out, you say, Okay,

(08:36):
I'm gonna cash it in here. I'm gonna go get
He didn't want anything, but I want something, and so
I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna go to get something
for me. You can't go taking something. You've got to
make sure God gives you what you have you don't
take it. Read another one, Matthew, chapter twenty six. And
by the way, there's no way to completely express to

(08:59):
you this sadness that comes out of these stories. I
mean Elisha and Gehazi. Gehazi had seen God do extraordinary things,
and bam, he knew better, and he let his flesh
get in the deal, and then his flesh gets consumed
with leprosy. Matthew, twenty six, verse fourteen. Now this is very,

(09:23):
very perplexing to me. There's a guy named Judas in
the Bible. You or heard of Judas. You don't meet
many little boys named Judas anymore. It's not a popular name.
But this Judas guy gets picked by Jesus as one
of his twelve that would follow him and it turns
out that Jesus turned over he was basically the accountant
for the ministry, and it turns out he was stealing,

(09:45):
and Jesus knew all this. Matthew twenty six fourteen. Then
one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the
chief priest and said, what are you willing to give
me if I deliver him to you? I got I've
got connection, I am close to him, I know his patterns.
No one better than me to betraying because I know

(10:06):
where we're going, because we've been doing this for a
few years together. What do you give me? Now? Think
about it in these terms. Someone comes to you and says,
I understand you got some Jesus. Yeah, I got some Jesus.
What do you take for your Jesus? What'll it take
to shut you up? What'll it take? I'll give you

(10:26):
something if you'll give me your Jesus in exchange and
stop your madness. So what did it take? What did
it take? What did you trade in for your Jesus?
Now you say, or are you saying that I lost
my Jesus? No, because you can't lose your Jesus. Once
he moves in, he's in, But you can have Jesus
living in you and hide your light under a bushel,

(10:49):
and turns out the bushel might be you hiding that light.
So back to Judas, what are you willing to give
me if I deliver him to you? And they counted
out to him thirty pieces of silver, So from that
time he sought opportunity to betray him. So once you
make your deal, then your life is consumed with keeping
the deal. They gave me money, so now I have

(11:13):
to do my job. So now if you've cashed in,
if you've sold out, and you've been purchased basically by
the enemy, now your life is consumed with doing the deal,
basically with the devil. Whatever deal you cut, so you
have to chase that deal unless you stop and repent
and say, God help me, God help us all. I've

(11:33):
made a deal. I want to nullify the deal. I
went out of the deal. But see then we get
too proud, or we've spent too much time, too many years,
too much energy pursuing that deal, and so we just
go I can't get out. Now go over to Matthew
chapter twenty seven. You have to read the stuff in
between here. Obviously, Jesus gets arrested, Judas does his job.

(11:54):
He betrays ing Matthew twenty seven to one. When morning came,
all the chief priests and elders of the people plot
against Jesus to put him to death. And when they
had bound him, they led him away and delivered him
to Pontius Pilot, the governor. Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing
that he had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back
the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.

(12:16):
And it's interesting to me that he still had the money.
You say, well, if I just got me some money,
if I got me my clothes and these talents, whatever
it is, I'm in to deal for. If I get it,
then I'm gonna go do something with it. He didn't
even buy anything with what he got, so it didn't
fix whatever he thought. And he sold him cheap. And
this is the tragedy. We sell Jesus cheap. So he

(12:38):
takes it back and he says, I have sinned by
betraying innocent blood. And they said, well, what's that to us?
You see to it? Then he threw down the pieces
of silver in the temple and departed and went and
hanged himself. You say, there's no consequence. What he did,
he knew was so catastrophic, was so unbearable. Did he

(13:00):
win and hung himself? Now here's part of this story
that is perplexing to me. Jesus knew that he was
going to go hang himself, didn't send any disciples, anybody
to rescue him. You want to do a full thing.
God'll let you do a full thing. You said, well,
he didn't you know I was going to hang myself.
He didn't let me hang myself. Well, then he intervened
for whatever reason. But at some point when it's too late,

(13:23):
it's too late. He said, Well, now you're back to
trying to scare us. You know what, if I thought
I could scare you, I'd try to scare you. Because
this is one life. You get one shot down here,
at least Matthew. Go back a few pages to Matthew
chapter four, and I'll just mention this. In Matthew chapter four,
before Jesus starts his ministry, he goes out in the

(13:45):
wilderness forty days forty nights fast praise. The devil himself
shows up to tempt him. First two temptations, doesn't really
offer him anything, just kind of tells him, well, this
is what will happen. The third temptation here, and the
devil took him up. In verse eight, again, the devil
took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed

(14:06):
him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory.
And he said to him, this is Satan, who Jesus created.
Now saying to Jesus as a man god and a man,
all these things I will give you if you will
fall down and worship me. And he had authority over
the world, so he says, I will give you everything
you see. All I want is you to fall down

(14:27):
and worship me. And the devil had been after that
since the minute he was created. Almost then Jesus said
to him, away with you, Satan, for it is written
you shall worship the Lord, your God, and him only
you shall serve. Then the devil left him, and behold,
angels came and ministered to him. Thank God that Jesus
didn't make a deal, or we wouldn't be here. And

(14:48):
then people say, well, but he was God, he couldn't
have made the deal. You know what, I'm not smart
enough for all that. The option was there, The question
was put out there. The devil, Now listen to me.
The devil knows what your price tag is. He knows
everybody's number, he knows everybody's deal. Women sell out. Young

(15:10):
girls sell out. They say, well, I don't care what
it takes. That cute, hot boy, I will have him.
He will like me, and I will do whatever it
takes to land that guy. And you know what, they
do whatever it takes, and then they find out later
how expensive that boy was. Who threw them away? And
very rarely do girls not get thrown away who cut deals.

(15:32):
To Glenn, boys are men getting situations at work, wherever
it may be, and say, you know, the devil says,
you're not happy at home, you're not getting enough sex,
you're not this, this, and this, and he parades some
young thing in front of you and says that'll be
the answer. And you cut a deal and it lasts
about eight minutes, and then you find out how expensive

(15:53):
it was. Go to Mark chapter eight and by the way,
if I didn't get to your issue, you already know
what it is. Anyway, Mark chapter eight thirty four, when
he had called the people to himself with his disciples. Also,
he said to them, And this is in the Bible
over and over, and I read this over and over.
Whoever desires to come after me, this is Jesus speaking.

(16:17):
You want to follow me, let him deny himself and
take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires
to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses
his life for my sake and the Gospel's sake, will
save it. For what will it profit a man if

(16:40):
he gains the whole world and Jesus was offered the
whole world and loses his own soul. Or what will
a man give in exchange for his soul? What will
you give in exchange? And see somebody listening today here
beyond here is not even a Christian. So what you
have signed four? Is this? You have said, Okay, God,

(17:03):
I am not interested in your heaven. I have cut
a deal. And you think, well you haven't you have.
I have cut a deal with Hell itself that if
my business prospers, that if this this then happened, then
forget Heaven, forget Jesus. I want this so bad I
will give my very life and soul to have it.

(17:23):
And then you end up in hell for all of eternity,
and then you realize I made a bad deal. This
doesn't work, but it's too late at that point. Then
he goes on in Mark chapter eight to say, for
whoever is ashamed of me and my words and this
adulterous and sinful generation of him, the son of man
also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory
of his Father with the Holy angels. No one is

(17:46):
going to take better care of you than God. No
one wants better for you than God. And I wasn't
sure if I was going to share this, because there's
some people that, you know, get jealous and feel that's
not right. If I had connived my entire life. There
are things that I have been able to do that
I never would have been able to do. A few
days ago, a few weeks ago, a guy calls me

(18:08):
and says, would you be interested in going to play
pebble Beach? And I said, oh, I couldn't do that.
You know, no, I didn't say that. So so what
I did say to the guy was this. I said,
I got kids in school, I have nothing, I don't
have any I cannot I'm telling you straight up, I'm

(18:29):
not being anything weird. I'm just telling you I'd love
to do it, but I can't nothing. Do you know
what happened? The guy flies me out there, puts me
up in a hotel, feeds me every meal, pays my
green fee, tips all the caddies. So why would I

(18:50):
sell out? Who's going to treat me better than God?
What do you got? I don't even know where to
go play anymore? I am working on Augusta. But that's
another sermon. Now you say, well, that's not God. Let
me tell you something. My God, we sing about it
is an awesome God. What is he gonna have to

(19:13):
do past sending his own son down here to be
born of a virgin, live down here, sinless life, be
slaughtered on a cross, buried and raised the dead? What
is he gonna have to do to demonstrate that he's
on your side? And then we get in these moments
and go, I can't wait for God. I'm gonna jump
in here and fix it. And you're not gonna fix it.

(19:34):
You're gonna screw it up even more. I know I've
done that too, you know, And I got things I regret.
Has He forgiven me? Yes? But there's still consequences in
my life right now from stupid stuff I've done in
my past, and he hadn't removed those consequences yet and
may never. So it's a reminder for me when he

(19:55):
leaves that stuff to say, Okay, you're about to do
something stupid again. Do you do you really want to
go down this path? What have I got to do
to show you that I care about you and I'm
gonna take care of you and that what you're about
to do is not gonna be worth it. We've done
this before. Why are we doing it again? Gosh, I
got more verses hesh. Just go to Philippians three. Now

(20:18):
I'm gonna read you a little bit, and I think
I am done. This is a little passage here from
a guy who got it and lived it and left
this for us. Philippians chapter three, verse seven, And this
is Paul writing this church at Philippi. And he says,
but what things were gained to me? These? I have
counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all

(20:42):
things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ,
Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and count them as rubbish. Why that
I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not
having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but
that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness was

(21:02):
just from God. By faith that I may and by
the way. You'll hear A lot of people quote these
next two little phrases, but not the whole thing. A
lot of people say that I may know Him and
the power of his resurrection. You ever heard that. Look
at the rest of it, That I may know him,
the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being conformed to his death. Everybody wants to experience resurrection power.

(21:24):
But what is required for resurrection is death. You can't
raise something from the dead unless it's dead. Not that
I have already attained or am already perfected. But I
press on that I may lay hold of that for
which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brethren, I
do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing
I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forward

(21:48):
for those things which are ahead, I press toward the
goal for the prize of the upward call of God
in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature,
have this mind. And if anything you think otherwise, God
God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the
degree that we have already attained, let us walk by
the same rule. Let us be of the same mind. Brethren,

(22:09):
join and following my example. And note those who so
walk as you have us for a pattern. For many
walk of whom I have told you often, and now
tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of
the Cross of Christ, whose end is destruction. And look
who he's talking about. How he describes them, whose end is destruction,
whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame,

(22:32):
who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship
is in heaven, from which we all so eagerly wait
for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform
our lowly body that it may be conformed to His
glorious body, according to the working by which he is
able even to subdue all things to himself. And Paul
lost nothing that was worth keeping because he got Christ.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
We'll get back to Richard in a moment to close
out today's talk, but I want to share something about
our program. Our mission is actually very simple, to take
the planet. So it's our prayer that these daily talks
from Richard aren't something you only hear and enjoy, but
that they inspire you to share with others. Together, we
can do this. The message of the Gospel is something

(23:18):
everyone needs to hear, and that's why it's such a
priority to us. So join us in this important mission.
Call us at eight five five six Richard to say
you're in, or you can get on board with us
through our website Richard Ellis talks dot com. Well, here's
Richard with some closing thoughts for us.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
I can't cut a better deal than I cut with Jesus.
If you're going to sell out, sell out to him.
It is interesting. Once you're sold out, you got nothing
left to sell. So the devil comes and says, well
what about this? You go, dude, I'm out. I'm sold
out already. I got nothing to trade with you. I
got nothing to sell you because I've given it all
up for him, and when I get something back, it

(24:01):
is from his hand. He said, well, how does this work?
Sometimes God will come along and say put it down,
and you grab it tighter, and he says, I'm asking
you to put it down and give it up, and
you say, but Lord, I can't live without that. What
are you gonna do? How are you going to take
care of me? He says, I'm telling you put it down.

(24:21):
If you let go of something you're holding on to
put it down. God, this is where people miscalculate. God
can hand you something even better, or he may just
reach down and pick it back up and say, okay,
you can have it back now. But now you didn't
take it. You got it from me. Now you really

(24:42):
have it, and you can hold it loosely because you
know where it came from. You own nothing. You can't
even keep yourself alive. What are you thinking? If you're
looking for a great boss. He's a great boss, and
being a slave sounds like a horrible thing to be.
But when he's the master boom, how are you gonna
beat that?

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Thanks for tuning in today to Richard Ellis Talks. With
the busy schedule everyone has these days, it means the
world to us that you would take this time to listen.
Let us know how it has touched your heart by
calling us at eight five five six Richard. You can
also connect with us at our website, Richard Ellistalks dot com.
One last thing Richard Ellis Talks is a daily program

(25:25):
but also has daily costs and being a listener supported
program means we rely on the financial partnership of our listeners,
which means you maybe you've given to this ministry before
or have waited for the right time. Well, we believe
that these talks with Richard are making a difference in
your life, so this is how you can make a
difference to ours. You can contribute by giving us a
call at eight five fives six Richard or at our

(25:46):
website Richard ellistalks dot com. Thank you for your very
generous gifts. It truly means so much to us. God
bless and thanks for listening to Richard Ellis Talks.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah.