Richard Ellis Talks

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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.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
If you're not able to hang out with us for
the 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 the time.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Today's message is, I'm in In seventeen seventy six, fifty
six signers of the Declaration of Independence signed this document.
And you think, well, great, that's how country started, and
they signed it and that's it.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
But at what risk?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Signing their names meant treason again, Britain risking their lives
and fortunes.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
So he said, well, no.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
It turned out okay, but they all knew by signing
that Declaration of Independence that they were declaring war basically
against England. Well, apparently they were all in and it
turned out okay, but they had to step up, they
had to sign put their name on the line. Another
pretty I don't know on what level this is, it's

(01:25):
pretty astonishing, but Jackie Robinson nineteen forty seven, and it's
hard to comprehend what really happened. One of many things
in our culture, but only black player in Major League Baseball.
When he debuted, he faced death threats, insults, violence, but
still stepped onto the field alone and paved the way

(01:45):
for others. Basically, I'm in, he said, Well, I don't
know if I'm in if it's.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Going to cost me something.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
If you're going to do something that matters, especially for God,
it's going to cost you something. John Wesley said this,
give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin
and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether
they be clergymen or laymen. Such alone will shake the
gates of hell and set up the Kingdom of Heaven

(02:12):
on earth. Aw Tozer said, God is looking for people
through whom he can do the impossible. What a pity
that we plan only the things we can do by ourselves,
Hudson Taylor. There are three stages in any work attempted
by God.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Impossible, difficult, done.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Charles Spurgeon said, if sinners be damned, and I listen
to this, if sinners be damned, at least let them
leave to hell over our bodies. If they will perish,
let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring
them to stay. Go to Numbers, Chapter thirteen, Verse thirty

(02:56):
twelve spies sent into the land, the Promised Land. They
come back. Ten of them say there's no way. We're out.
We can't take them giants in the land. There's no way.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
But Joshua and Caleb came back and had a different view.
In verse thirty.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let
us go up at once and take possession, for we
are well able to overcome it. I'm in, And because
they were in, they were two that survived everybody dying
in the wilderness forty years over the age of twenty
I think it was. And Moses went in, joshup Caleb,

(03:34):
and they saw the Promised Land. Now they had to
wait because of the unbelief of others, but they believed
go to first Samuel fourteen, King Saul and his army
are outnumbered by the Philistines, who have better weapons, and
in this case Jonathan his actions lead to confusion in
the Philistine camp and a great victory for Israel. But
look what he says, first Samuel fourteen six, then Jonathan,

(03:56):
who was Saul's son.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
By the way, Then Jonathan said to.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
The young men who bore his armor, come, let us
go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may
be that the Lord will work for us now they're outnumbered.
What's the difference in crazy and courageous?

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Crazy? Just crazy?

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Courageous is something that wells up from within you, a
prompting from God himself, hopefully, and you go for Nothing
restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.
It's not how many. It can be of many or few,
but he is not restrained. This is so.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Important to think about.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
In whatever you're dealing with, you say, well, here's my situation,
here's my problem, and I don't know how I'm going
to solve it. That's where your problem is. It is
not just your situation. You belong to God himself. If
you're a Christian, he lives in you, and sometimes if
you're not a Christian yet, he will intervene on your
behalf to get your attention and say, why do you

(04:54):
keep doing this without me? Why do you keep trying
to live the life that I intended for you without
me as your life? And sooner or later we go,
what am I doing? This is crazy stuff? And even
as Christians, we go, I gotta fix it. I gotta
fix it. I gotta fix it. I says, no, you don't.
You have to trust me. I will tell you what
to do. I will involve you in some way. But
I'm God. I have no restraints. There's nothing I can't do.

(05:18):
He speaks universes into existence with words. You're dealing with
a God that says universe, and universe appears? Who is
this God? And you become a Christian? And he moves
in your physical body and so you have access to
that saying God, stop saying things are not possible. Nothing
restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.

(05:40):
And then look at verse seven first Samuel fourteen seven.
So his armor bear said to him, do all that
is in your heart go, Then here I am with
you according to your heart i'm in.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Wow, powerful, powerful, having people around you that say, okay,
I'll go with you.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
I'm in.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
And they went and confused the Philistines and they beat them.
Shouldn't have been able to beat them. Look at first
Samuel twenty two. Now what I'm about to read you
started out for me to be a very encouraging thing.
And then I'll share something I missed in this story
that made me very sad, like really sad. First Samuel

(06:24):
twenty two, Verse one. David left Gath and escaped to
the cave of Abdullahm. When his brother's and his father's
household heard about it, they went down to him there
and listened to the crew that he had. All those
who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered
around him. Oh that's what you want as an army,

(06:45):
and he became their commander. About four hundred men were
with him, And this number will jump if you look
at first Samuel twenty seven to two. It says, so
David and the six hundred men with him left and
went over to a facious son of Mayok, king of Gath.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
So that went from four hundred to six hundred.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
So David had six hundred men that fought with him
while he was being chased by Saul, Saul trying to
kill him. He was anointed king, and I think it
took about sixteen years before he was actually crowned king,
but had to fight in the wilderness try to escape
from Saul trying to kill him.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
So he's got six hundred men.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
And then First Samuel twenty seven two says, so David
and the six hundred men with him left and went
over to the one I just read you, So four
hundred to six hundred.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Now go to second Samuel twenty three.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
So you say, well, it sounds like what you read
there in distress, debt, discontented, bunch of losers, not necessarily
Second Samuel twenty three eight. So this goes through the
top thirty six thirty seven ish of these men. These
are the names of the mighty men whom David had.
Joshev Boshhabeth. You don't know where, like the baby is born,

(07:58):
Like what are you gonna name it? Oh, don't call
it that. They'll never spell that at school. But they
didn't worry about that. So he starts to listening to
these people. The first one killed eight hundred men at
one time. These are the top three guys. The second
of the guys he arose verse ten. He arose and
attacked the Philistines until his hand was weary and his
hands stuck to the sword. Had fought so long and

(08:19):
hard that his hand was stuck to the sword handle
verse eleven. After him was Shamah, the son of ag
and the har right. The Philistines had gathered together into
a troop where there was a place of ground full
of lentils. So the people fled from the Philistines. But
he stationed himself in the middle of the field, defended
it and killed the Philistines.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
So the Lord brought about a great victory.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
So he listed three of the great men out of
the six hundred, and then there's another group, and they
did extraordinary things.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
If you read the rest.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
Of this chapter, they did extraordinary things, but they would say,
but they weren't one of the three, the top three.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Then you go down to verse twenty three. He was
more honored than.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
The thirty, but he did not attained to the first three.
And David appointed him over his guard. So David had
a personal guard like a security detail, to protect him.
And so I'm reading through this list, and by the way,
you say, well, yeah, but it sounds like they're a
bunch of losers.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
They're not.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
They were willing to fight. They got the cause they
were in all of them. I'm in, six hundred of them.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
I'm in. And they stayed with David. So I'm reading
down through this list.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
All these names are these tremendous men that he had
made part of his personal guard. And then how you know,
You say, well, how do you read the Bible and
miss stuff?

Speaker 2 (09:39):
I missed this big time?

Speaker 3 (09:42):
And verse thirty eight, the last of the thirty seven
and Uriah the hit tit thirty seven in all, now,
who is Uriah the Hittite? That is Bathsheba's husband, And
turns out uray In Bathsheba lived next door to the palace.
You don't end up next door to the palace unless

(10:03):
you're somebody. But the problem was they lived next door
to the palace, and their rooftop where Bathshiba chose to
bathe was below David's balcony. This year, Riah the Hittite
was not a stranger to David. He protected him. He
was in So when I read that, I was like
what in the world, God help me not be this person.

(10:26):
You say, ooh you Ryah. No, not your Riyah, because
if you read about you Rayah. When David saw his wife,
whether he knew or not, it'd be almost impossile for
him not to. They live next door, and it was
one of his guard's wives, and David should have been
off at war.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
He wasn't.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Takes one of his guard's wives his wife. And then
to cover up his sin, he calls Oryah back from
the front and tells me to go home and be
with his wife. Not to be with his wife for
his sake, but to cover get her pregnant, because she
was already pregnant, and make it look like he had
slept with her. He was such a great man. He
slept outside of his house at the front door. Would

(11:05):
not be with his wife. Why, he said, because my
troops are not with their wives. I will not be
with my wife. And then David realized that wasn't gonna
work and send him back to the front with a
letter in his own hand that condemned his life.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Put him on the front where he'll be killed.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
Wow, don't be that person to your friends now where
it messes me up is if I'm that kind of
friend to Jesus?

Speaker 2 (11:31):
What is going on?

Speaker 3 (11:34):
Somebody was one it come down here and die for you, suffer, die,
shut his blood, be buried, raised from the dead. It
just hit me really bad. These were some great men
in the scriptures. In Uriah was one of them. That's
the kind of man you want to be. He said, well,
look how he died. He died all in. Now you say, well, David,

(11:56):
we should hate David. No, because after all this God
said about him, after all this, that David was a
man after God's own heart. And he said, well, but
I'm like this David guy. I've screwed up. You can
screw up, but you don't have to end up a
screw up. He confessed his sin, he repented, he changed,

(12:18):
and he moved forward. You can end up a man
after a woman after God's own heart, and let God
use that tragedy to propel you forward and say, I
don't want to do that. I want to be this person.
I don't want to live this way Matthew four nineteen.
So this is part of Jesus picking his disciples. The twelve.
One of them was Judas, simple couple of verses here

(12:41):
Matthew four nineteen. Then he said to them, follow me,
and I will make you fishers of men.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
So that's his call to him.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
They immediately left their nets and followed him. If God
himself spoke to you and said, follow me, I'll make
you fishers of men, how long would it take you
to follow him?

Speaker 2 (13:00):
And take long? It should be immediately.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
So if God has come your direction, the Holy Spirit
has prompted you and said, hey, this is what I
have for you, this is what I want you to do,
this is what I want you to be a part of.
It's yes, sir, Thank you, sir. Immediate obedience, first time obedience.
Don't make Jesus count. He doesn't count. No scripture, Jesus,

(13:23):
I'm going to count to three.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
He calls it. He calls you.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
You're either enter, you're out. You say, well, what if
I'm out, then there's going to be consequence. Because the
gifts and callings of God are irrevocable. He does not
take his call back. So you either died disobeying, or
sooner or later you put it in here and let's
go and say, Okay, God, I'm in one hundred percent.
I'm in Matthew sixteen twenty four. You hear this a lot.

(13:52):
I read these verses a lot. Then Jesus said to
his disciples, not just one or two. If anyone desires
to come after me. Okay, I called you follow me.
You followed me. But if you want to keep following,
this is what it's gonna take. Let him deny himself,
take up his cross and follow me. It's gonna be suffering,
it's gonna be death. Let me say, well, it's too expensive.

(14:15):
See there's a difference in getting yourself a ticket to
heaven and following him all the way there. Oh no,
I just want my ticket, and I'm gonna do what
I want to do with my ticket. That's not what
he called you to do. A disciple is not just
someone who's going to heaven when they die. It is
someone who follows him to the death. Good to Matthew
nineteen And here's the flip side, the sad side nineteen

(14:37):
verse sixteen.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Now behold, one came and said to him.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
To Jesus, good teacher, what good things shall I do
that I may have eternal life? Everybody thinks they got
to do something to have eternal life. What do I
have to do to have eternal life. So he said
to him, why do you call me good? You didn't
get to his question. First of all, let's deal with
why you're calling me good. No one is good but
one that is God. So implicit there is if you're claiming,

(15:02):
if you're agreed that I'm God, then okay, you can
call me good.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
But no one is good but God. But I am good.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
But if you want to enter into life, keep the
commandments Old Testament. This is before he died, buried, raised
from the dead. He said to him, which ones, Well,
that's kind of a stupid question. Keep the commandments would
be Keep the commandments, Jesus said to him. You should
not murder, you should not commit adultery, you should not steal,
you should not bear false swootness, Honor your father and

(15:29):
your mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
So the guy's listening, and this is not all the commandments,
but he ticks off these.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
The young man said to him, ching, ding ding ding ding.
All these I have kept for my youth. So what
do I still lack? I'm good?

Speaker 3 (15:44):
Then this is tremendous. Jesus said to him. If you
want to be perfect. He didn't ask you about being perfect.
He said, I just want to know how to get
eternal life, he said, he want to be perfect. Then
here's what you gotta do. Go so what you have
and give it to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven and come follow me there you go.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
Just do that, easy peasy.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
But when the young man heard that, he went away sorrowful,
for he had great possessions. No great possessions had him.
He was on the verge of all in until it
got too expensive. So what has Jesus come at you with?
He comes to you and says, okay, follow me, and
you go, okay, Well, let me just be sure what

(16:29):
you mean by that, Like, let's talk about let's count
the cost.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
I've got a verse about counting the cost.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
Well, you're gonna have to deny yourself, take up your
cross daily and follow me. Okay, that's what I thought.
Let me go pray about this Jesus because he might
be too expensive for me. And then you wonder why
you're losing your life. I'm not losing my life. I'm
making lots of money. I'd have nice things. I go
on trips, Like you're wasting your time. If your will
is not in his will, it's a waste.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
I had a friend a close for him the other day.
He's done pretty well.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
Another buddy of his really well, like one hundred million
dollars well, And he said, yeah. We were talking about
this the other day and thought, you know, if Ellis
wasn't a pastor, he'd probably be worth more than all
of us.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
And I said, yeah, but there's only one problem with that.
That's not what God told me to do. He said,
we know, we know.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
He said, well, why would you be a preacher if
someone thinks you can make hundreds of millions of dollars
and missed the whole deal? You think I'm waiting to
hear Jesus. So Jesus get there and say, wow, good job,
you made a lot of money. I want to hear
well done, good and faithful servant. That's what I'm after,

(17:43):
he said. But I'm getting left behind. My neighbor's got
a new car, probably that they can't afford, and they
got a new house, maybe that they can't I'm not
saying this about everybody, but people are leveraged to the
hilt for the Smiths, and they don't even know the
Smiths are.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
They don't even know.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
The Smiths keeping up with the Joneses there these people are, Oh,
I'm gonna keep up for what?

Speaker 2 (18:03):
Why don't you find out what God has for you
and give all that up and follow him.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
And then you start having the joy and the peace
and the fruit that manifests in a Christian life that.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Has yielded to him.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
Don't miss it as soon as you can, if you
haven't already. See Jesus, I'm in whatever it takes, whatever
it costs, and sure it's going to cost you something.
But living like hell is gonna cost you something too.
It cost you your life. You say, when I'm a Christian,
I'm going to heaven, you shouldn't be living like hell

(18:34):
on the way to heaven. That doesn't make any sense.
Luke twenty two, verse forty. This is Jesus in the garden.
There's eleven disciples left. Jesus is going to commit suicide
for betraying Jesus, so he leaves the eight, takes Peter, James,
and John a little farther, leaves them to ask them

(18:55):
to pray for him. He goes a little further a
stone's throw, and he's by himself. And look what he says.
When he came to the place, he said to them,
pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he
was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and he
knelt down and prayed. And this is what he said, Father,
if it is your will, take this cup away from me.

(19:16):
If there's a way around me drinking of this cup,
what I'm about to have to endure, take it away nevertheless.
And here's the prayer, not my will, but yours be done.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
I'm in.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
I get that it's going to be expensive. It's not
just that I will have to suffer and die. I
will become sin for them, that they might be made
the righteousness of God in me. But if there's a
way around it, I'm asking. But if there's not not
my will, your will be done.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
That's how you pray. I'm in.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
You say, Lord, if there's a way to go this
way or that way, or somewhere around this. But you know, Lord,
my ultimate answer is not my will, your will be done.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
What are you willing to give up to it? Achieve
that his will? What is he asked for? What is
he said?

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Lay down, put it down, follow me, and you hold
on to whatever it is, like your life depends on it.
The thing you hold on to is Jesus, because your
life depends upon it. On him and then John fourteen twenty.
So Jesus said, I'm in, went to the cross, died, buried,

(20:26):
race and the dead. It's not enough for Jesus to
be all in himself. You've got to hear him say
about you.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
I'm in. Now watch this, John fourteen twenty.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
At that day you will know that I am in
my father and you and me, and I in you.
If you die without Jesus being able to say I'm in,
you're not going to make it. He's omni present. You say, well,
God's everywhere. The only place he cannot be is inside

(21:02):
of you. If you don't receive him to as many
as received him to them, he gave the power to
become the children of God, the sons of God. So
you say, well, I don't think he's in me, Well,
then get him in you already, and then ask him
where are you?

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Jesus? He says, I'm in right here. Now.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
I'm telling you things I don't understand. I can tell
you all day long that when I became a Christian
as a six year old little boy that the Holy
Spirit of God moved into my physical body, and he
has been here ever since, and he will be here
till the day that I die, until I step into
Jesus presence. So I have had God himself living inside

(21:39):
my physical body, and no one can change that.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
But I can't explain it to you.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
I'm probably going to get to heaven and have a
little conversation about what could have been done if I
had had a little more understanding of what it is
to have God in me, the authority. When you pray
in Jesus's name, there is no higher name you can drop.
Ows Jesus Christ, God's damning all these things, and like
they throw the names around. But in the person of

(22:05):
the Holy Spirit, a believer saying, in the name of
Jesus fill in the blank. You got something going on.
You have called down the name above all names, and
at that name, the name of Jesus, every name will bow,
every tongue confess. Even the people said I will never bow,

(22:25):
Everyone will bow, whether they wanted to or not. Here
you will bow. You say no, I won't, I promise
you you will. You'll be on the hell side of bound,
but you will bow. Don't push your luck.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
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 (22:44):
Let's be honest.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Real life isn't about living some highlight reel for.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Others to see.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
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

(23:09):
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 on today's show.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
And then Galatians two twenty, Paul said, I have been
crucified with Christ.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
You think Paul didn't understand that the New Testament, before
Jesus dies, he's with them. He's with them, He's with them,
And now all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit comes
and now he's in them.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
That is a totally different thing.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
But Paul knew Christ lives in me and the life
which I now live in the flesh, in this physical body.
I live by faith in the son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. Once you accept Christ,
then he can say I'm in, and that has made
all the difference. So let's start with some who's not
a Christian. He say, well, I'm not in, and I'll

(24:04):
tell you that. Jesus says, well, he's not in either,
not in you. He said, well, I don't like the
sound of that. I'd like to change that. Here's how
you change it. Jesus, I'm a sinner. I need your forgiveness.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
I believe that you.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
Died on the cross, buried race and the dead to
pay for my sin and offer me eternal life, free gift.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
I accept.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
I receive the forgiveness of my sins. I receive you
into my life. Come live in me through me, change
my life.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
He said, what will happen? I don't know.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Try it and see, and the question I get is
how can it just can't be that easy? And my
answer always is easy for who, easy for you? You accepted
this priceless gift. Not so easy for him, He say, well,
I've already done that. Well, then he's all in in
terms of you. Are you all in? Are you in

(24:54):
in terms of him following him, obeying him, trusting him,
going where he's leading, and if not, you need to
have a conversation about 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

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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 website,

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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. Yeah.