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 ellistalks dot com. So with today's talk,
here's Richard Ellis.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
The title of today's message is veneer real Disease. Let
me read you some definitions for veneer. A thin layer
of wood, plastic, etc. With a decorative or fine finish
that is bonded to the surface of a less expensive material,
usually would It can also be defined as a superficial appearance,
especially one that is pleasing, to conceal something under a

(01:00):
superficially pleasant surface, or to give a superficially valuable or
pleasing appearance to now listen really closely so you don't
misunderstand where I'm going. Even a gathering as real as
we try to keep this, there is a veneer to
a certain extent that everybody in this room carries. You

(01:23):
woke up, you decided to show up, You probably bathed
if you could, you brush your teeth. Even if your
life is hell right now, there's usually a way to
put at least a thin coat of beautiful the best
you got. But right between the veneer is real. So

(01:45):
is this hypocrisy? This is where I really want you
to pay attention. It's not necessarily hypocrisy. It is more fear.
Sometimes I met a lady today who came in before
we got going, and we talked a little bit. And
this can be very scary because you don't know how
I got an email from another lady talking about a

(02:07):
bad experience at a church. And you show up at
a church and you want to be real. But the
second you get out from under that layer that veneer
and you are real, then they treat you like you
got some kind of disease. And then you realize I
shouldn't have done that, I shouldn't have opened myself up.
Now I'm embarrassed. I'm ashamed. I can't do this anymore.

(02:27):
And then they run out the back door in front
door of a church because they just can't take it.
Another young man I met today, you know, with his mom,
great family, great neighborhood, great everything, and the kid made
some poor decisions, ends up in rehab. He's been sober
for a few months now. He's on the right track.
Where do you go when your life has sucked and

(02:48):
still sucks a little bit and you're trying to make it?
How do you get below the surface and really go there? Now?
Part of the thing I'm going to warn you early about,
and just put this out here. You shouldn't tell your
stuff to just anyone, and you should never tell someone
else's stuff without their permission. Go to Genesis chapter three.

(03:12):
I go back to this periodically because it kind of
all gets screwed up here. And this is very real
if you know anything about the creation. Everything's great. God says,
it's all good. The only thing's not good. Man shouldn't
be alone, that's not good. So he makes woman everything's fine.
The devil himself shows up and makes her run at him,
and he's successful, and he gets them to eat this fruit.

(03:35):
You say, oh, that was Eve. If you keep reading
your Bible, Eve doesn't take the fall. It's on Adam.
It's the man's responsibility. And when God comes asking what happened.
If you look down in Genesis chapter three, look at
verse six. So when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took
off its fruit and ate. She also gave to her

(03:57):
a husband with her, and he ate. Then the eye
of both of them were opened, and they knew that
they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and
made themselves coverings. And I think this is so astonishing. Still,
who are they hiding from. There's just the two of them,
and they were naked before and didn't know it. When
you sin, you get exposed, and then you start figuring

(04:19):
out a way. There's only one man and one woman
on the planet. And now what are they doing. They're
covering themselves. And they heard the sound of the Lord
God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the press
of the Lord God. So they covered themselves. Now they're hiding.
Then the Lord God called Adam and said where are you?
So he said, I heard your voice in the garden.
I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.

(04:42):
So now they're hiding from God. It turns out they're naked.
They don't want God to see him that way. Let
me tell you something. God already sees you. He knows
what's going on with you. He knows what you're doing.
And I'm still stunned that we turned the lights out
on certain things and think like, well, God doesn't see me.
I'm hiding from God. Two years old to think that's
going on. He says, have you eaten from the tree

(05:03):
which I commanded you that you should not eat? And
the man said, the woman whom you gave to be
with me, she gave me that I ate. So it's blaming.
So they're covering their hiding and they're blaming. So we're
doing the same thing. The first point of it is
you come in and the veneer is a hiding. You're like, well, yeah,
I'm dying inside, but I've got this thin layer en. If
I can just hold my thin layer together, you won't

(05:25):
know me, you know, don't ask don't tell, and we'll
just be here together. You're not gonna make it very
long here because someone's gonna ask, hopefully, because you're supposed
to be perceptive enough and discerning enough and mature enough
not to get in somebody's business. But you can only
fake it so long. You can only look into a
person's eyes so long before you look in their eyes

(05:46):
and go, You're not okay, are you? And they either
run away from you and hide or they stop and say, no,
I'm not okay. And the people that I deal with
that come in here at least that we attract are
not okay. They're not okay. And if they are okay,
you know, listen really close, you say, well, I don't
know who he's talking about because I'm fine, And let

(06:07):
me come back to this. If you're so stinking fine,
you ought to be the one spotting the people who
aren't okay, So don't tell me you're okay and you
don't need any help. If you're so hot and dog okay,
you're gonna be eyes open, taking time, sticking around, looking
what's going on, meeting people with the intent of saying
are you okay? Because you may be the very person

(06:31):
you say, well, it's too scary. I got a guy
sitting in this room and I've done it twice to
him this week in a situation, throwing my arm around
him and introduce him to somebody, and he is terrified.
Every time I do it. He probably avoid me now,
So I don't grab him introducing to somebody else because
he's a little insecure in some areas, he's afraid, he
doesn't know what to do, and so I'll get with him.

(06:52):
I'll say, tell him your story, like my story, like yeah,
tell him your story. So he gets to talk and
telling his story and he hears himself telling it. Why
am I pushing him in these situations? Because he's up
and running and there are people that this guy can
help that I can't help. I don't have his story.
I've never had a drink, you know, never been drunk
in my life. I don't think about being sober for
nine years. I've been sober for fifty something years. You
know what is that? So I sick him on him,

(07:15):
and all of a sudden they talk and go, wow, dude,
that's me. I get that. Okay, can you help me?
Maybe it's okay to share my stuff with somebody. I
was terrified for years. I thought, oh my gosh, oh
my God. Literally, if I tell somebody what's really going
on with me, I'll get excommunicated. And I wasn't even
sure what that was, or if they even did that.

(07:38):
Where I went, I just knew I'd be dead because
I didn't hear anybody else being real, I didn't hear
anybody else getting past a thin layer, which we all
knew was there, Psalm fifty five, verse sixteen. As for me,
I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save
me evening and morning, and at noon I will pray

(07:59):
and cry Altu, and he shall hear my voice. Verse
twenty two. Cast your burdens on the Lord, and he
shall sustain you. He shall never permit the righteous to
be moved. It's great stuff. Read your Bible. Read your Bible.
See what God has to say. See what you're trying

(08:20):
to say. You just don't have the words to say it.
But even if you're not trying to say it that way,
it's kind of what my mama used to say. Help Jesus, Help,
help Jesus, help, help Jesus help. And we have people
I've told this before. I sit with people every week,
and I hear story after story after story people who

(08:41):
drive up in our parking lot and they're not on
their way anywhere, because if you come downtown to this church,
you're not on your way anywhere. You're coming to church.
And they pull up in the parking lot and they
sit in their car for thirty minutes sometimes and then
they drive home because they can't come in. They just

(09:02):
can't come in. They're afraid, they're nervous, they don't think
they're going to be accepted. And you say, but we're real,
we're accepting, we're loving. I know that, But I need
you to put your Jesus glasses on, and we need
to all pay really close attention because in some cases,
this is the last shot somebody may ever have. And

(09:23):
they hurt about something that maybe Jesus is going to
be at some place, and they show up and they've
been burned, they've been hurt, they got all kinds of issues,
and you pray up, you know, you say, well, you
should be prepared, you know, like the preacher, he should
be prepared on Sundays. You know what, So should you
enough already expecting me to be prepared? Or Patrick? Everybody

(09:43):
else to be prepared. Are you prepared? Drag your butt
out of bed and come running down here like it's
some pain in the you know, to do it? Even
get up early, get your stuff together, get your heart together.
Say lord, I'm good today. You and I are? We
good because I want to go worship and get involved.
I also want to be used. I'll get there early,
I'll leave late. You could be a spotter in the

(10:05):
parking lot, not a greeter, a spotter you know what
you want me to do? Walk around looking in cars
for people who are afraid to get out, knock on
their window. You know, I know you're in there. You
can't leave anymore. He said, well, who would do that?
I don't know what if it was you? And see

(10:27):
you think, well, who are these people he's talking about?
Take out your little mirror out of your person just
looking at it? Could be you? You know you got
stuff going on. Yeah, but I'm too sophisticated and smart
for you people. Then go somewhere else. Yeah, but you
need me? Okay, then why do we need you? What
exactly are you contributing to this? You said, well, here

(10:48):
you are running people off again. No, this is a
family and I need your help. We need your help,
and people need your help. Now there are some things
I have never told but one person on the planet,
and was terrified when I did that, about my life,
about my stuff. I have a man I meet with

(11:09):
for years, for years and years and years, every Thursday
of my life unless some reason we can't meet. And
there's some tough questions asked, and he loves me, and
he's gonna love me no matter what I tell him.
But it's important for me to have somewhere to sit
down and say who I am. And if I'm struggling,

(11:30):
someone else knows that. I'm not going to tell just
anybody that, So I get that. But you have to
engage enough and get close enough to at least one
human being, and it may take you a while to
get there. But where you can sit down and say, look,
I'm gonna go down by myself if I don't risk
letting you in. This is where I really am. I've

(11:50):
got this addiction. I could be an alcoholic, I could
be this or that, and I don't let anybody near me,
but I'll let you near. Please be gentle, please be firm,
but please help me. You say, oh, that's too scary.
It wasn't that I was going to die. I wanted
to die because I didn't let anybody in. Go to
Mark chapter nine. I'll read you a few more and

(12:13):
then i'll quit. You know, it's interesting when the pendulum swings,
and part of what is so sweet to me about
broken people when we just finally get to the place
where you've got nothing else. We got guys that come
in here who are in recovery and rehab all that
kind of They show up, you know what, They're not
hiding anything. How you doing, I'm okay, I'm struggling. I've

(12:36):
been sober seven minutes, you know, whatever their deal is,
and they'll tell you what's going on why, because they've
been hiding and covering and blaming somebody else their whole life.
So finally they get real. That's very nerve racking to
get around a person like that, because you go, oh,
I don't think I want to be around you, because
you think I'm going to be real and I'm not.
And they'll just tell you their stuff because it's life
and death. You get enough pain, you'll start telling the truth.

(13:01):
Situation here Mark chapter six, The Disciples try to heal
this kid verse twenty. Then they brought him to him,
to Jesus, and when he saw him, immediately the spirit
convulsed in him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed,
foaming at the mouth. If you got a kid with
that kind of trouble, you got problems. So he asked
his father, Now, if you're looking for hearming the bible,

(13:22):
this is great. Okay, we got a kid. What did
it say he's doing convulsing? He just fell on the ground, wallowed,
foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked the father a question.
How long has he been happening to him? Like, do
something already, your God? Why are we asking questions? Help
the kid? And he said from childhood, and often he
has thrown him both into the fire and into the

(13:42):
water to destroy him. So there's something. There's a spirit
in this kid trying to kill him. Literally. Now listen
to this cry of this parent. But if you can
do anything, have compassion on us and help us. There's
no hesitation here on the part of this parent, just
it's like, look, we need your help. If you can
do something, please help us. Isn't it interesting how your

(14:06):
slick sophistication everything goes out the window when you're desperate,
and I'm gonna tell you something about God. He loves
you enough that he will let you get desperate at
some point where you will cry out to him, where
he's your only hope and the reason so many people
get lukewarm and take it or leave it. Jesus is
not their only hope. He's just one of their options.

(14:28):
When Jesus becomes your only option and your only answer
and your only hope, now you're on fire. Now you
got something. But if you can do anything, have compassion
on us and help us. Jesus said to him, if
you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.
And I love this answer. Immediately, the father a child

(14:50):
cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe, but
you got to help my unbelief. If my kid's life
is determined on my I believe, Then if I don't
believe enough, you're gonna tell me my kid's not gonna
make it. So okay, I believe, but you gotta help
my unbelief. If there's something gonna prevent this from happening.
Have you ever prayed that, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

(15:15):
I don't know that I have enough. You gotta help
me even there. And when Jesus saw that the people
came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it,
deaf and dumb spirit, I command you come out of
him and enter him no more. Then the spirit cried out,
convulsed him greatly, and came out of him, and he
became his one dead, so that many said he's dead.

(15:36):
But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up,
and he arose, I'm reading you these stories because these
are real people, nothing to hold back or to hide.
Who just come to Jesus and go help Jesus. Help
my veneer is gone. It's real. Help me. Go to

(15:56):
Mark chapter fourteen. Unless you think it's just a bunch
of people. These things happen pretty close to each other.
And Mark fourteen and Mark fifteen. Jesus before he's betrayed.
After dinner, he goes with the eleven that are left
into the garden of gusseimone and verse thirty two, let's
jump in there. Then they came to a place which
was named gussemone, and he said to the disciples, sit

(16:18):
here while I pray, And he took Peter, James and
John with him, and began to be troubled and deeply distressed.
Then he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful,
even to death. Stay here and watch. So he tells
his three buddies that went with him a little farther. Look,
my soul is exceedingly sorrowful. I could die here in
this garden. Stay here and watch, so protect me even

(16:41):
if you don't pray. He didn't tell him to pray.
He said, stay here and watch, give me some time,
give me a buffer. Just stay here and watch, because
I gotta go over here and talk to my father.
And this is not dear father. I will be killed soon.
I will be there soon. Pray this goes well, your son, Jesus,

(17:02):
It's not that kind of deal. This is a god
man man God, and he's telling his buddies, my soul
is exceedingly sorrowful. Have you ever been exceedingly sorrowful? I
have been exceedingly sorrowful before. I don't like even thinking
about it because it wasn't good. You say, well, there's

(17:23):
different kinds of tears. Exceedingly sorrowful tears are not good tears.
And this morning a woman stands up and reads a
verse and tells about her mom being healed. But what
you don't know is, a few years ago, a little
boy was born into that house with a lot of trouble.

(17:44):
He's one of my favorite kids on the planet. And
he comes and finds me every Sunday and he hugs
me and I hold him and I could talk to him,
and he can't talk to me. And we've fasted and
we've prayed, and nothing's changed. And he may be that
way his whole life. And you have exceedingly sorrowful moments
in a deal like that. And that's who is out there,

(18:08):
and that's who is in here, and you have to
pay attention. You've got to get past your own crap.
You say, oh, but what about me, I'm okay with
that for a while. You've got to grow up. You
got to get some people, get some support, get some love,
get some help, and get up and run. And so
you can help people who are barely hanging on. You say, oh, well,
they're doing this and that wrong. Forget all the stuff

(18:29):
they're doing, find out who they are, ask someone how
they're doing, not judging for what they're doing. Usually what
people are doing is just an outcropping of who they are.
You know, I said, I've never been drunk. You know what,
I can see a reason for getting drunk every once
in a while. If that's all you got, go for it.
You say, well, that's not a very good advice. Okay,

(18:51):
Well what do you got? What are you showing people
that you say, no, don't get drunk? Do what I do? Well?
What are you doing? Is there any joy? Does? Look
like you got the answers? So we keep our mouths shut.
We don't say anything to anybody because it's our deals
not working. Get your deal working, Walk with God, Talk
with God. Then when someone says, man, I'm gonna get wasted,

(19:11):
you say, no, I got a great idea. Why don't
you try this? This is what makes me. Maybe you've noticed,
you know, this is where how I live. And you
have a conversation. So Jesus here, even exceedingly sorrowful, even
to death. He went a little farther, fell on the ground.
He prayed that if it were possible, the hour might
pass from him, and he said, ah ba, Father, all
things are possible. Now this is Jesus talking to God

(19:33):
the Father. He says, Father, all things are possible for you.
You're God, for God's sake or for my sake, or
whatever you would say. Take this cup away from me,
you say, well, this was exciting. Let me tell you something.
When you're about to die for the sins of the world.
Sure there's some joy that's set before him, but this
is not fun stuff. Crosses are not fun places. Take

(19:57):
this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will,
but what you will real struggle, Jesus, I love that
this is how he is. I love that this is
recorded because it is real. Go to the next chapter fifteen,
and here he is literally hanging on a cross, dying
for our sins. The Father did not answer that prayer.

(20:18):
The cup was not removed. Jump into verse thirty three.
Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness
over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at
the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice,
now where is this coming from? Elo Eloyd Lama sabacthany,
which is translated my God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? And God had to turn his back some

(20:40):
meal on Jesus in order to turn his face toward
us and accept us in Jesus' name. You're not the
first person with trouble, you won't be the last. Don't
do it by yourself. There is a cure for veneer
real disease, and only Jesus has the cure. And it's Jesus.
It is him, it is his family, it is his body,

(21:04):
And it is scary. I get that. I've been there,
done that. I am too scared of where I will
end up without engaging with a family than I am
of doing it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna tell somebody,
I'm gonna get some help. And chose to do that
years ago. There's the verse in James that says this

(21:25):
five sixteen, confess your trespasses to one another, and pray
for one another that you may be healed. The effective,
fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much so let
me go back to my fear. My fear was if
anybody knew me, they wouldn't have anything to do with me.
Let me tell you something I already know you. There's
only so much crap you can be doing. You're not

(21:46):
some specialist. You may be special, but like there's just
only so many screwed up things you can be doing.
Oh but nobody knows. Really, there's like an eighty something
percent chance with the average guy in here, I can
guess what your struggle with. This doesn't take you know,
like any kind of PhD. Right, Oh but nobody knows. Whatever. Dude,

(22:07):
right you're breathing. You're a problem. So what's the problem
with sharing that with someone else? The reason we don't
go there is that we don't want to change anything.
If I tell someone, someone will know, then it won't
be my little secret that I have covered hidden and
blame somebody else why I can't get on my life.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
We'll get back to Richard in a moment to close
out today's talk, but first 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

(22:48):
something 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 (23:08):
I had an extraordinary conversation this week with a twenty
something year old guy. He comes to see me, and
he may be in the room. I don't know. I
don't think. So comes to see me. He's going for
a job interview, and he's trying to do the right thing.
He's trying to get his life together. And I said, okay,
I get that. I said, if you take a yearine test,

(23:28):
are you going to pass it? He said no, But
I got a way around that. Used to work in
a pharmacy and knows how to, you know, take synthetic
year in with him and he can pass the tests.
And I said, look, you've got to start doing the
right thing somewhere sometime. I said, here's what I'm gonna
encourage you to do. Go back to the interview, walk in.
Tell the guy, hey, can I talk to you a minute,

(23:49):
Tell him what's going on. You're trying to do the
right thing. This is what's up. You're not going to
pass the test, you'd really like the job. You're being honest.
You know you'll be willing to be tested every day
for the rest of your life necessary. But right now,
this is what's going to show up. And trust God
in the situation. What if I don't get that job,
what's going to happen? You made a decision in the

(24:10):
right direction. Now what do you think the kid did?
He called me the next day. You know what he said,
couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. I'm not there yet. Now.
You know what I love about that call? He called me.
He called me to tell me he couldn't do it.
That's progress. He say, what do you mean he probably
went in lied and faked the urine test. He admitted

(24:33):
that he faked the urine test. He said, you're crazy.
Do you think that's progress? It's communication. Don't throw people
away just because they don't get it right the first time. Right,
I don't want you throwing me away. But he heard it,
he got it, and he respected the conversation enough to
call me and said, hey, I heard what you said.
I got in the situation. I couldn't do it, But

(24:53):
I'm calling to tell you I couldn't do it. So
now I say, okay, what's the next step? Work with
people is if you ever get in the game, you're
going to need somebody to work with you.

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