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.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
The title today's messages or drvs who can actually spell
the word?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Or derv First of all, there's a.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Funky little oe thing that goes in here. Does anybody
know it?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Or dervs?

Speaker 3 (00:47):
What the word even means? Finger food? That is the
Greek word right there. Finger It's two words that mean
finger food.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
That's not it. My goodness, I should.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Have just left that out there, y'all would have just
spread that nonsense.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Do you know what? Or dervs?

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Are.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I learned it from a preacher. It must be true.
It is. Basically they're appetizers.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
But the words really are before work, okay or dervs.
The two words together in French mean before work and
really what it is maybe the eating of a meal
is work to some people, like in Italian they have
this thing kind of like orders called antipasta.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
I'm not against any kind of pasta.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
I'll eat pasta anywhere, but that's another way of looking
at it. It's something you eat before the main entree,
the main meal, the main work that's been done, maybe
of that meal. Let me read you a definition of
an appetizer, which or dorves are appetizers a food or
drink that stimulates the appetite and is usually served before
a meal. Now we talked before about cocktails and my decision.

(01:49):
There was an assessment there is, if you're going to
drink cocktails, literally you're doing that for some reason, you're
being sociable. But a lot of people drink to get
full of the spirits, we'll call it that. And if
you get full of the spirits, then that's going to
modify your behavior. A little bit of temporary happiness, little
buzz and if you just keep that going, that'd be great.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
The problem is you can't keep it going.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
If you keep drinking, you end up addicted to the
stuff an alcoholic and the buzz goes away and it
doesn't work. But there's a way to get buzz, to
get high, to get a longer lasting fix, and it's
through the Holy Spirit. So you don't get filled with
the spirits, you get filled with the Spirit. Now, if
you get filled with the Spirit, something is going to happen.
Because you can't get filled with the Spirit without being

(02:30):
a Christian. Okay, you cannot be filled with the Holy
Spirit of God without being a Christian. And so if
you become a Christian and you are filled with the
Spirit of God, something is going to happen pretty quick.
There is gonna be as the definition for appetizer says,
there's going to be something that.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Stimulates a hunger.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
There's gonna be something that stimulates your appetite for more,
and built into the process God gives you this desire
is exactly like a newborn baby. And without jumping to
John and spending all our time there to David John three,
Nicodemus goes to Jesus and says, you know, how can
I get into heaven? Basically says we've got to be
born again. Well, he's not saying physically. Nicodemus says, well,

(03:07):
how can a man climb back up in his mother's
women be born? She just says, you know, you're a
teacher of the law. You should know better. It's not
about physical, it's about spiritual. But the parallels are similar
in that if you are physically born, one of the
first things that happens, and where, by the way, where
there is a newborn baby somewhere, there is milk that
is produced to feed that newborn. And one of the tragedies,

(03:29):
at least the way I grew up in the system
that I grew up in, is that certain religious groups
are rewarded for making babies, not for raising them. And
we give African American community in this country all kind
of hell over making babies illegitimate, hirlen out of wedlock.
The church is worse than any community ever was for

(03:50):
throwing babies in dumpsters. We not the fuselage of the church.
We get out there and get them saved. I'm saying, okay,
now where are they if they got said somebody there
should have been some breast milk produced somewhere in that
congregation to take that person on.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
And if they don't make it, whose fault is it? Now?

Speaker 3 (04:08):
You say, well, the Holy Spirit can take care of them.
Let me tell you, the Holy Spirit takes care of
him through us. And you say, well, that's the preacher's job.
You know, even a preacher can only flow, can only
feed you at a time.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Let's just leave it to that. You know, you can
only feed so many babies at a time.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
It takes all of us doing our job. Now, let's
assume you've got people in your life who want to
help feed you. There should be something inside of you
that creates this hunger, this thirst, And.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
You say, okay, where is it?

Speaker 3 (04:37):
I do want to grow and you can't maybe go
into some heavy duty Bible study and deep into theological stuff,
but you've got this hunger, this thirst. The Bible describes
it as a hunger and thirst for righteousness. And the
promise that comes with that hunger and thirst is what
you'll be filled. So if you've got a hunger and
you got a thirst, the scripture talks about the fact
that you are going to be filled, and there is

(04:59):
food out out there for you, but you got to
look for it and be willing to take it when
it comes.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Now, one of the things.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
That usually churches try to do, or if you're a
kid and you going off to camp somewhere, sometimes somebody's
gonna say, well, you ought to get up in the morning.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
And have a quiet time right now for me.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
You know, I think a lot of people think, well,
the quiet time is that time between when the alarm
clock goes off and you turned it off and know
that about five minutes later it's going to come back on.
That's a really nice quiet time. That's not what we're
talking about. A quiet time. That's the word of devotional
time or something. You say, well, what is that? How

(05:36):
do you do that?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
I mean a lot of people have trouble praying for
five seconds.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
I mean if I sit, bowl your head and let's
pray for the next thirty minutes, Oh God, uh, thanks
for the lunch. Hope this is over fast. You know,
you said, well, what am I going to talk to
God about? You don't know how to talk to God.
Maybe so you start with something and you say, okay,

(06:00):
maybe have to write some stuff down, or maybe you
get a little book that gives you some sampling, some guideline.
Maybe say to a friend, you say, look, man, i've
been a Christian two weeks. I don't know what to do.
No one wants to look stupid. Stupid and ignorant are
not the same thing, but men especially are terrified to
look stupid, so they won't admit they're ignorant.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
And ignorant is just you don't know yet.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
You have got to get some breast milk in your
system or you will not make it.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Not you will go to hell.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
It's just you will feel like hell, and you'll slip
right back into your old way a living and think
nothing happened. The devil will comes snatch you away and
go whatever that was. If you're all that, now, why
are you still sleeping around with people? Why are you
still getting drunk?

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Why are you? Why you know? Why are you? Why
are you? Why are you so the.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Importance of early on getting him connected to some supply.
Now you say, well, okay, that makes sense. That's I
became a Christian five years ago, or ten years ago,
or twenty years ago. You could be two weeks old
for twenty years and when my life finally came to
a screeching halt. I had graduated from seminary. I was

(07:03):
sixth generation to preachers my family. I had pastored a
church for four years, and I realized I am sucking air.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
I'm dying.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
I got nothing and it's not working. I have a
head full of information, but this is not working. I
am starving to death for some reason. Somebody's got to
help me, and so I shut it down. I said,
I'm not going to pastor at church. I'm not gonna
teach anything else. I'm not gonna give this.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Hand me down.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Kind of like a bird getting a worm and holding
in his mouth and feeding somebody else. Breast milk is
predigested food. I got to find somebody who's eating this
food and had processed it and can feed me. Now
I'm not chewing it myself, maybe, but it's nourishment. Then
I can see it happening in somebody's life. Well, and
you've heard me sare this maybe before I shut down.
It's scared of people, I said, you know what, I.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
Don't care what you think anymore. I'm dying.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
I'm not playing this game for you. I'm not gonna
act anymore for you. I've got to find out who
I am. And I literally remember saying if I am
two weeks old, not mentally, not educationally, but if I
am two weeks old spiritually, okay, let's find that out
and let me go back where I really am and
pick it up where I left off and grow up.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
And if that.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Bothers some people, so what, let them, you know, fake
it till they make it, or if that's what their
plan is, I'm gonna at least try to figure out.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
How old I am and grow up.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Now, I'm strongly encouraging you to do this because if
you're just a religious person and you have filled your
head with stuff and you can quote verses, and you know,
I'm not against memorizing scripture obviously and quoting verses, but
if that's all you got, somebody who's got more than
that in their hearts spiritually is going to discern that
pretty fast. Because usually the people that could just quote
scripture with an empty heart are mad as hell. They're angry, judgmental,

(08:43):
finger pointing, condescending, condemning people. There is no joy, there
is no peace, there is no gentleness, there's you know,
if you're going to feed a baby, I mean, men,
it's a good thing God to not give men breast
to feed babies because we'd be rough housing.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
I mean, you know, either do this or don't. You know,
let's get to the bottom line.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
You know, women have some built in innate and the
Holy Spirit sends people, and we should be those people
where you take someone gently and you wait till they
get connected, and you help them and you hold them.
I mean, just to matter you've seen. You know, there's
nothing like watching a woman feed a baby, breastfeed a
baby from her perspective, from the baby's perspective, it's this

(09:23):
tedious but amazing thing where this child finally gets fed
and begins to grow. That's how it's supposed to work
in the body. So God sends along these little appetizers.
This may be an appetizer today for you. You say, well,
I can come to something and hear some guy speak
and I get that.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Well, then obviously in a matter of minutes, I can
only read so many scripture tell so many stories. What
I hope happens off of this. My job is to
be the saltiest cracker I can be, so that you
get this thirst, you get something in you and you
go wait a minute. If that was in there, what
else is in there? You're supposed to be going home.
I'm saying, okay, well, if John's a good place to start,

(10:02):
I'm gonna go home and read John. You say, well,
I've tried that, and I start reading in John and
I get bogged down in the seventh verse. Keep going,
take notes, write it down. Go to your church. You say, well,
I don't have a church.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Get a church. For God's sake.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
My goodness, there's like a thousand of them in Dallas.
You could go to a different one every Sunday for decades,
and many of you are doing just that.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
I think.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
You've got to get in this book and you got
to get connected with God. Now you got to have
some cocktails first and say, God, you know what. I'm
not coming to you wanting to hold on anything in
the world. I'm coming to you saying I'm hungry, I'm thirsty.
You you got to help me, and you've given me. There's
this if we are really salt in the world that
creates thirst, people go, wow.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
I gotta get something to drink. What are you drinking?
And then they ask us.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
And we all were ready to give a reason, always
ready to give a reason for the hope that's within us,
because that hope is obvious at some point. And then
people go in here and they start reading. Just start reading.
Don't get bogged down.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Just read it. Just say, Holy Spirit, you live in
mean now I'm your child.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
God, talk to me. You wrote this thing, you live
in me, Talk to me. You don't give him enough chance.
Sometimes keep reading. You might sit down and read the
whole Book of John in one evening. It doesn't take long.
And if you get to a place and something hits you,
just stop and say, Okay, God, what's that.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
What are you trying to tell me?

Speaker 3 (11:18):
And meditate on it and read it with the intent
to do whatever he tells you to do. That's what
will change your life. I had to read the Bible,
to study it, to pass some tests, to play some role.
I didn't care about doing what it said. I didn't
really know very personally the author of the book. But
when you spend a little time getting connected to him,
then you want to read the book, and now your

(11:39):
life will start changing. And one Peter one Peter chapter
one without reading this whole thing. But this is written
by Peter to Christians who have been dispersed who've been
scattered because of persecution.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
All over the ancient world.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
There, they're everywhere, and they're suffering, they're going through problems.
Down in verse thirteen, he says, therefore, gird up the
l oins of your mind, be sober, and rest your
hope fully upon the grace that is brought to you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not
conforming yourselves to the former lust as in your ignorance.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Don't go back to the old way of life.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
But as he who called you is holy, you also
be holy in all your conduct, because it is written,
be holy, for I am holy. Let me just tell
you straight up, if you don't get connected to a
local church, don't spend some time with God almost every
day as much as possible.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
You can talk, you can pray.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
If you don't get something out of the scripture, even
some appetizer out of it, you are going back period.
Your old friends will suck you in. You will not
have the resistance, you won't have the know how, then,
know how to say, I don't want to go back there,
because you're so anemic, you're so weak, your resistance is down.

(12:50):
You're not hungry for God anymore. And the old way
seems better than the new way because the new way's
not working very good because you're not working the new
way very well anyway. Get new friends yet godly friends.
Get plugged into a church, find a Bible study at
your office or in your neighborhood. Do something to get
around some people who are hungry for the same thing
you're hungry for. Then let me jump down here to

(13:12):
verse twenty two. Since you have purified your souls in
obeying the truth through the spirit, and sincere love of
the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible
through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever.
Because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory

(13:32):
of man as the flower of the grass. The grass
withers and the flower falls away, but the word of
the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which,
by the Gospel was preached to you. And then he
goes right into First Peter chapter two, verse one, and
he used the word therefore, so he says, because of
all this I've just said to you, Therefore, laying aside

(13:53):
all malice, and I love the word malice in the
Greek is kakia.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Anyhow, leave that.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
There, malice, which is maliciousness, wickedness, naughtiness, ill will desire
to injure.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
You think, well, how can I be a Christian? Have that?

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Peter saying, put it down. If you're walking around with
malice thinking I'm going to hurt somebody, I'm going to
get somebody, and you claim to be a Christian, something's wrong,
and I'm will tell you what. If that's what's going
on with you, you are a tiny little baby spiritually laying
aside all malice, all deceit. The word here for deceit
is craft guile, if you're manipulative, if you were trying

(14:32):
to figure out a way to get things done, not
the right way necessarily. The other word here deceit hypocrisies.
Listen to the root word here for hypocrisy to take
up another's statements in reference to what one has decided
for oneself.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
You are saying someone else's lines. You were memorize.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
What I did for twenty something years was memorize lines
to be repeated on the stage of religious life. So
I memorize some verse isn't at the right time, the
right place I could do the praise the Lord, God,
bless you. God is good all the time, all the time.
See okay, so you know all these little you know,

(15:12):
you know, you can get up in some church and
the other priest says his line, you say you're lying,
So what you know?

Speaker 2 (15:17):
A bunch of lines? What's your heart look like?

Speaker 3 (15:21):
And we give all the Catholics and episcopalions all this
time they get up and read out. You know what,
Baptist preserder, we all got our own set of lines.
He says, lay aside all this malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy,
You got envy.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
If you rejoice, I to go, wow, that's great for you.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
But when you come in here and say, well, I'm hurting,
I'm in pain, and you got tears, you know what,
something got to go off in me too, and wow,
you hurt?

Speaker 2 (15:44):
I hurt? Why? Because we're family for God's sake. That's
how it ought to work.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
So he says, lay aside all these things, malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy,
and all evil speaking. That covers a lot of ground,
all evil speak. And then look what comes after that?
Lay all those things aside as new born babes desire
the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,

(16:10):
if indeed you have tasted that, the Lord is gracious.
Now it appears to me that if you got all
these things malice, guile, evil speaking, hypocrisy, you're going to
have a hard time drinking this milk. If you're not
willing to lay that stuff down. You say, well, I'm
not letting go of the evil speaking, I'm not letting
go of the mouth. Somebody hurt me, I'm going to

(16:32):
hurt them. Then you're not going to grow. It's over.
You're shut down. You may die and go to heaven.
You may get there quicker than you thought, because it
might kill you. You'll eat yourself up with anger, with envy,
with all these things. And I'm telling you lay it down.
The book says lay it aside, put it aside. Don't
live that way.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
You said, well, you don't know what those people did
to me, and you don't know what hating them is
doing to you. And it's not accomplishing thing.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
I have conversation with people who hate dead people. They
are angry and vengeful and full of evil and mouth
all these things towards someone who is dead, and you
look at me, say they're dead. How are you hurting
a dead person? They are dead. Oh, I don't know,

(17:19):
but I'm gonna get them. I'm like, and how are
you gonna do it? Listen to yourself. Why won't you
forgive a dead person? They're already pretty much where they're
gonna be. Something is already figured out. You are destroying
no one's life but your own. Lay it aside and
get on with your life.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
Grow up?

Speaker 3 (17:38):
And what does he say to how do you do it?
As new born babes desire the pure milk of the
word that you may grow thereby. You can't grow without
this milk. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord
is gracious, and you know what, maybe that is the question.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Have you ever tasted that the Lord is gracious? Go
back to that.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Couples come in for counseling and then well, we don't
love each other anymore. I hate her and I don't
even want to be in here, and I don't know
how I got here? Are all this, you know, animosity?
And if you take a little time you go back
and say, you know what, let's just kind of stop
this a minute. Let's go back somewhere. Was there ever
a time when y'all just loved each other? Well, yeah,
you know that's been five hundred years ago or whatever.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Let's go back there. Tell me about your first date.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
And all of a sudden you get back in there,
and buried in all those the dust and the ashes
is a little bitty ember.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
And they both poke around there a little bit and
look in there and go, well, yeah, and she was this,
and he was that, and he used to do this,
and she used to do that.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
And all of a sudden, you stoke that fire a
little bit, and they're looking at each other, and a
little tear comes and they went back where they quit,
and all of a sudden you could rekindle some stuff.
You say, well, it's too much time has gone by.
I don't know when it comes to Jesus. The only
reason too much time come by because you said it has.
He'll always take you back. Let's go back where we
left off and grow up and get on with this

(18:58):
and enjoy this life, in this living that he intended
for us. I got just a little more time here,
So let me read you some other verses. You can
go read this on your own if you want to,
and the stuff around it. First Corinthians three, verses one
and two. And this is Paul writing to another screwed
up bunch of Christians.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
So here we go. And I, brethren, could.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
Not speak to you as to spiritual people, I brethren,
So he's speaking to Christians. And I, brethren, could not
speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal,
as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk
and not with solid food, for until now you are
not able to receive it. And even now you are
still not able. Now is it a bad thing to

(19:38):
be a baby, to be a babe in Christ and
need milk?

Speaker 2 (19:42):
No?

Speaker 3 (19:43):
The bad thing is after five, ten, fifteen, twenty thirty years,
you are still drinking breast milk?

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Are you abandoned? Even that? Something's not right, something is
not working. Now.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
For a while, he said, I couldn't speak to you
as the spiritual because we got the breast milk. We
got you growing, but then you leveled off, you flatlined,
and you didn't keep going. So now I'm speaking to
you like your carnal, not spiritually. You couldn't get it.
You weren't listening, and he says, and still you're not able.
First Corinthians, chapter fourteen, verse twenty Paul right into the
same church, brethren, do not be children in understanding. However,

(20:17):
in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature. In
Hebrews chapter five, verses twelve and thirteen. For though by
this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone
to teach you again the first principles of the oracles
of God. And you have come to need milk and
not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk

(20:39):
is unskilled in the Word of righteousness, for he is
a babe. Now, being a babe is a great thing
in some categories out there, but when it comes to
the Bible, being a babe indefinitely is not a good thing.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Now, my simple challenge for you today is to grow up.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
If you take a teenager or a twenty or thirty
and they're acting very childish, what does that mean. They're
being selfish, They're being envious, they're being spiteful, they're being evil.
We say, you know what, you need to snap out.
You need to grow up. You know what the Holy
Spirit says to me and us. You need to grow up,
snap out of it. What are you doing?

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Lay that stuff aside, and let's get on with this.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
And you don't like it in little kids are in,
coworkers or people in your own family or neighborhood or relatives,
then don't be that. Put aside all this stuff that's
stunning your growth, and get in a position, get into
place and say, God, you know what.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Enough's enough.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
I don't know how old I am, but somewhere this stopped,
and all this other junk has come in.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
I went back.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
It's all come in my life. I go to Bible study,
I go to church. I even give some money. But
I'm mean as the devil. I'm angry all the time.
I'm trying to hurt me and everybody else around me.
And I don't want to live this way anymore, and
I don't want to die this way. You got to
help me and go looking for some pure milk and
ask God to send you somebody to breastfeed you if
that's where you are.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Before Richard comes back to wrap things up for us today,
I'd like to share a couple important things with you.
Let me encourage you to take a minute and check
out our website. Richard ellis talks dot com. You'll find
today's talk right there on the talks page, along with
all of Richard's messages. You can even forward them to
a friend so they can hear them too. You'll also

(22:20):
find the prayer wall to add your prayer requests, a
link to connect with us, the contribute page for you
to be able to give to this ministry, a radio
station finder, all our social media links, and much more.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
So.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Check it out Richardellistalks dot com and Richard's back now
to wrap up today's talk, All.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
Right, let's pray, Father, I thank you for this bunch
of people here and some listening beyond here. I know
what it feels like, Lord, to have a head full
of bunch of information and just be reciting a bunch
of lines and it not be real, not be personal.
And I pray for anybody Lord today who's feeling like
they've had enough of it and it is time to
grow up, and they got to lay aside a bunch

(23:02):
of stuff to do it. But anything can be better
than living and dying this way. So Lord, for people
who have tasted, I pray they'll go back to what
they tasted first and say, Lord, let's pick up where
we left off. Get all this junk out of my life.
Before I can do any work. You're going to have
to grow me up so that I can really serve you.

(23:22):
I ought to be teaching, ought to be the one
out here sharing this information, but there's not any love
in my heart to back.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Up the information in my head. So let's just pick
up where we left off. Help me grow up.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
Send me somebody find If I don't have a church, Lord,
get me a church. Surround me with people who can
help me grow. Lord, maybe there's somebody here going you
know what, I'd love to have the problem wanting to grow.
I don't even feel like i'm alive. I pray for
those people Lord that just are alive physically but spiritually
they feel dead. That maybe today they'd understand they can
be born spiritually and that's where they get the new

(23:57):
life and this hunger and this desire to know you
and to know you, hunger that you put in there. Lord,
May somebody today just say, God, I need to be born.
I'm obviously alive physically, but I'm dead spiritually. I want
to be alive, really alive, forever, alive with You. I
understand that Jesus died on that cross, was buried and
raised from the dead to purchase a place for me

(24:17):
in heaven that he offers as a free gift, and
to offer me not just eternal life with you, but
an abundant of full life between here and heaven. I
accept the forgiveness of my sin, and I accept this
gift of eternal life. Come live in me and through me. God,
fill me with your Holy spirit, and help me grow
in my heart, not just my head, in a way

(24:37):
that people who know me know that I know you,
and that I love you and you love me, and
you're loving them through me.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
Change not only my life but the world around me.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
Lord, use me, I pray, Father, thank you for your word,
Thank you for your patience. Thank you that we can
pick up where we left off, even though there are consequences.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
We can pick up there and move ahead and grow up.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
May somebody do that today, Lord, make that decision, and
we pray it in Jesus' name.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Thanks for tuning in today to Richard Ellis talks. With
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(25:24):
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(25:46):
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