Richard Ellis Talks

Guest (Male): Today on Richard Ellis Talks.

Richard Ellis: I will never get my head around everything that he is till I see him, then I'll know. But until then, I don't know. But I'm trying to do the best I can do with what I know and fight forward and trusting and obey and stay out of the way and remember who I am and whose I am.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Thanks for allowing us to share this time with you. You may be stuck in traffic or stuck in life. Either way, today's message is going to help you get on the right track as you learn how much God loves you right where you are. Richard's unique style checks all the boxes with a lot of hope, insight, truth, and of course, humor. Today's talk with Richard will get our conversation started, but we want to keep it going with you. So let's stay in touch through our website richardellis.com. But right now, let's go ahead and get right into today's talk.

Here is Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is Down to Earth. If you look up the definition for down to earth, it's unpretentious, sensible, realistic, interested in everyday occurrences, common, realistic, practical, forthright. And I think if you know somebody who's pretty down to earth, you know what that means, right? They're just down to earth, just basic. I have a an old friend here today. Surprised me showed up with his wife and for years took care of my cars. And when you got a wife and three girls, you got cars. And I would go see him and you'd think sometimes you go see someone and it's just about the car, right?

Just your mechanic. It turns out he turned out to be a godly man and we had a lot of conversations about other things than cars. But very down to earth, very practical, unpretentious, all of these things. Okay? We're going to talk about the importance of being that person. But I'd like to start at the end today, Revelation chapter 13. So no one has ever lived that can fully get their head around what's going on. If I had a clue as to the God that I'm dealing with, I would probably be way more terrified than I am.

Not in a afraid of him since, though a little bit, but so awestruck, you're almost paralyzed. And there are things that by faith we believe, we say that we believe, we read things out of scripture if you believe the Bible, and just something as simple as in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and then he speaks and universes appear. Who is this God? Why would a God like that, and you can't even say that big because it's beyond big. It 's not even a size issue. It's just why would a God so great have any thought about me?

Anything. And then you get to Revelation chapter 13 and again, this is at the end of the story of everything, at least on this side of eternity. Revelation 13:1 Then I stood on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising out of the sea having seven heads and 10 horns. And on his horns, 10 crowns and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard and his feet were like the feet of a bear and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And I saw one of the heads as if it had been mortally wounded and his deadly wound was healed and all the world marveled and followed the beast.

So this day is coming. You say, well, will I be here or not? Honestly, hopefully I don't want to be here for any of this. And people say, well, no, Christians don't be gone. Keep reading. So they worship the dragon who gave authority to the beast and they worship the beast saying and this is what the world this is where they're headed. Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? In other words, it's such an ominous, powerful beast that people literally worship him. And it's not talking about God, it's talking about this beast.

And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and he was given authority to continue for 42 months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. So you're a Christian. Obviously, there are Christians on the planet. And this beast for these months looks like he's in control and overcomes even the Christians. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. So somebody running the whole planet.

All who dwell on the earth will worship him. And look at this. All who dwell on the earth will worship him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. You got to get in that book.

Guest (Male): Amen.

Richard Ellis: Because on that day, if you're not in the book, you will worship him. And if you worship him, you're in trouble. So you either choose to worship God or you worship some anti-God, an anti-Christ figure. And it's not going to go well for you. So simply put, God has been up to this and this little phrase, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, this is this is too much for me. It's just too much for me. I don't know what heaven is really like. I know that the universe is a temporary existence. This is just God going say some words and boom, two trillion galaxies is that we know of and boom, this is it.

The Bible says all of this will be a loud noise and with fervent heat this will just go be gone and recreated. That's the kind of God you're dealing with. You just don't want to jack with that kind of God. You say, well, I'll do what I want to do and I want to do it. You know, now you're God. All I can tell you is it's not going to go well. And for some people, it's too late when it goes poorly for it to go well because you're given account. You will stand before a holy God as a non-believer and as a Christian, you'll stand before Christ himself and given account.

You'll make heaven. But these are not casual things. And you have a real enemy and clearly here he's unleashed. And if you're on the planet at this time and your name is not in the book, you will find yourself worshiping a beast who has taken on God and will be defeated. It's all here. So go to Luke 1. So I read you these verses about the end which really make reference to before the beginning because in time, in eternity, there is no beginning. It's only in time is there a beginning and an end. So God has been up to something massive for millennia and you either going to get in on it or you're not.

And if you keep your head down and get afraid and overwhelmed all the time, you never look up, you never worship, you never trust, you never praise, you never thank, you never believe, you will miss everything that is possible. And the scripture says unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above anything we could ask or think, that's on this side. That's not even talking about heaven. Luke 1 Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, Do not be afraid. And it seems like everybody's saying do not be afraid. The angels always kind of start with this. Okay. First of all, fear not. You know, this is a little freaky, I'm sure. Fear not. Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus. And he will be great and will be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end. Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be since I do not know a man? In other words, I'm a virgin. And the angel answered and said to her, And this is got to be amazing cuz this is the message that is sent by this angel to Mary.

And even angels know how babies are made. This is what's going to happen, Mary. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is to be born will be called the son of God. Now from before the foundation of the world, this was the plan. And you have Jesus in heaven. And the plan all along was to send him in on a specific birth date that literally coincides with the planets. It's all planned together. And I 'm not saying that Christmas is not a big deal.

It's closer to March for me. And I 'm not saying it's March 25th. But I'm going to tell you something. There was a day when Jesus never ceased to be Jesus, but just like that reduced himself and a seed is planted in a virgin womb. And he goes from being thrown Jesus in heaven to microscopically bam, he's in that wound down to earth and it's game on. Now I don't know what God's thinking. I've dropped three girls off at college in my life. And those were not good days. I didn't drop them off for bad things to happen to them.

And I have no idea what went down in heaven, but I can tell you what I do understand is he ain't there anymore if he's here. And so that changed heaven. There's an empty throne and he went in down to earth. And something's about to happen. So you say, well, what is 33 years in terms of eternity? It's not long, but it is an eternity when Jesus, the son of God now, goes in and everybody knows why he was sent in. This is a death mission. So you say, well, but God said some nice things about Jesus.

This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. All that's true. And the father honored him and Jesus lived a sinless life and whatever he saw the father do, that's what he did. It all went great. But it all going great made it very expensive because he was the Lamb of God slain. He was already dead before he got here. So I still try to wrap my head around how hard this is for God. You say, but he's God. He still lost a son. You say, but it was only for a little bit. He had never been separated from Jesus at any point.

Literally Jesus crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Knowing he had done nothing but absorbs all the sin of the world to offer us life. So he gets here Matthew 13 We'll go back to Matthew 13. Part of the reason so many people missed Jesus when he came is he did not come in a down to earth manner. He came in a down to earth manner. He didn't come like they wanted him to come. They wanted a king, a king with a crown. He eventually got his crown being mocked as a king.

A lot of people miss Jesus because they don't like how he comes. He comes down to earth and literally is down to earth. Matthew 13:55 People who he grew up with said, Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Like dude, what's the big deal with Jesus? His dad's the carpenter. And then if you go look in Mark 6 verse 3 and Mark says it this way which changes it a little bit. Mark 6:3 Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon?

And are not his sisters here with us? So they were offended at him. If he's the son of God, we don't like this. We don't want to be him. There's a story in the Old Testament about a military guy who gets leprosy and one of his servants is a godly woman and she says, You need to go see the prophet. And so he goes to see this prophet. The prophet wouldn't even come outside. Sends instructions say, go dip yourself in the river. I think it was seven times and you'll be healed. The guy goes, You You didn't come out and talk to me.

I am big time. And the servant girl says, Look, if he had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done that? Let's just try what he said. And he dips seven times and he's healed. So someone comes along and says, Look, you're not going to make it. You not going to make heaven unless you believe this, that God loves you, that Jesus died on a cross, was buried and raised from the dead. He shed his blood for you. And if you believe that and receive that payment in your behalf, you'll be saved.

You'll make heaven. You go, I don't believe in that. That's stupid. I want to do something. I want to give some money. I want to work for a charity. I want to I want to participate. I'm somebody. I got something to offer. All of our righteousness, the Old Testament describes all of that stuff we think is righteous, like it's going to contribute something. It says that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. And people don't like it when you translate the Bible. But filthy rags in the Old Testament, the translation on that is literally menstrual cloths.

They didn't have sophisticated hygiene stuff like we do. So women had cloths. They use that. And what that verse says is is when we hold up something to God like we have something to offer, it's like a woman holding up her menstrual cloth and saying, Yeah, I got something for you, God. Thinking we have something to offer. You say, well, that's terrible. Yeah, that's terrible. Don't do it. So what do I do? You come with nothing. You come with nothing and you come humbly and you say, Woe is me. I got nothing. And it's hard for people to do cuz we got something.

I got to have something good. I got to have And none is good but God, the scripture says. So I'm not good. I'm not perfect. I'm not holy. I 'm not anything he requires. But Jesus is and was and will always be. And God says, Here's my deal. You say, well, I want something fancy. I don't know how to get much fancier than God sending his own son to die for you. That's pretty fancy. John chapter 13 Go to that one next. So in Jesus coming, the way he came born into a carpenter stepdad father, that family, even where he was born in Nazareth, he shows up.

He doesn't know anybody. They don't know anybody. You know, if you're somebody, you go, Hey, we came into town. Is the presidential suite should be available for us? Hey, I got the king in there. They got nothing. And because it's so down to earth, then who are the first people to get to come see this baby? A bunch of shepherds. It didn't get more down to earth than that. And they could go where he was cuz he's in a barn. Be careful and I'm going to get to this a little more in some verses. Be careful trying to be someone that you're not.

And by the way, it is almost impossible to be who you're supposed to be if you don't even know who you are. Right? People that are insecure put off airs and try to prove something and and the Pharisees, the Sadducees did this. They dress up, put all their trappings on and oh, you know, go out and their prayers were God and you know, trying to impress people. Impress people with your relationship with God and be down to earth, be simple, be real, approachable. I haven't told this story in a while, but the end of the story is this.

God uses circumstance to help me understand that I am a servant of the most high God. And on top of that, I'm his son. I'm his child. You have nothing to offer me that excels and exceeds that. You're not going to invite me to some event. You're not going to give me a title. You can offer me nothing that I would be willing to trade in on servant of the most high God. If you find out who you are, it's a whole lot easier to be yourself and just get out of the way. I went to a party recently and invited this thing every year and looked up and there was a woman who at another gathering had attacked me basically, not physically, but jumped me and said some things and why aren't you know, and I got a little defensive and could justify my being defensive and that didn't go over big and so I hadn't seen this woman in uh in quite a while.

And her husband, I'd seen him after that encounter where she jumped me and he was not happy. So that's kind of been out there. So I met this gathering and I look up and see her. And the Holy Spirit said, Go apologize. And I said, I'm eating cashews right now. Right. So Now what are your options? If you are a servant or an obedient child of God, the answer should be pretty quick. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. So I don't have as much lag time as I used to. I said, Okay, Lord. All right.

And I kept watching her walk through this party and finally she was by herself and I approached her. You'd be amazed what you can do if you'll just get out of the way. You say, well, I'm going to lose face. I'm going to lose something if I apologize. Dude, you're losing already cuz you don't know what that did, right? I don't know what that did for her. Let's say she was wrong. I said, I did not intend to offend you. Now I'm sorry. You know, find something to apologize for. You say, I'm not apologizing. It's not my fault.

And so now that relationship is broken and how's that working out for you or anybody else? And it's even worse when you're not making it up, when you know his voice and he says, Do this and then try not to. And that's where we get crossed and screwed up and twisted with God and he's like, Look, I told you and I didn't change my mind. What are we doing? I got a reason for right now. And he didn't ask me to do this before. It was right then. John 13:1 Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come that he should depart from this world to the father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end and supper being ended, the devil having already put it in the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.

Very fascinating the Bible adds that little phrase by the way. Judas Iscariot, Simon's son. That's somebody's kid. Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself. So the last thing he does at dinner before he's arrested in the garden, he goes out there to pray. Here comes Judas. Here come the soldiers. He gets arrested and it's game on. Beatings, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, but he's already talking about he's out of here.

Just got to go through that little thing. Girds himself with a towel. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. So he wraps a towel around him. He's down over the basin washing their feet, takes the towel that's wrapped on him and uses that to dry their feet. Then he came to Simon Peter and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? Jesus answered and said to him, What I'm doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.

What's the last thing he does? The most servant down to earth, humble. You can't get any lower than this. I don't want you touching my stinky feet and I don't want to touch your stinky feet. And of all the people, why is he doing that? He is trying to say the pyramid is not top down, it's bottom up. It's servant leadership. It's be down to earth. It's don't try to lord it over people. And you say, well, how am I supposed to live? Read your Bible. What did he do? Do that. Do that. Watch people with the poor and I'll tell you about their Jesus.

And who knows how many angels dress up like poor people just to jack with us. Like see, Lord, I told you he's full of it. Like do something already. Praying big prayers, writing big checks, and then somebody rolls up on you that doesn't smell right, doesn't look right, something's not right and you're like, Oh my gosh, how did we get here? And well, God bless you. Go in peace and get me out of here. I can't even touch those people. And then you got Jesus walking up on lepers. People no one wanted to touch. If you figure out who he is and that he wants to move in and when he wants to move in, he wants to move through your life and use your life.

It's just mind-boggling what can happen. Get the heck out of the way. Literally get the hell out of the way. Right? Because too much of what we still are is hell. It's the enemy's grip trying to stop or shut down what God is trying to do in our lives.

Guest (Male): We'll get back to Richard in a moment to close out today's talk. But first, I want to share something with you about the 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 everyone needs to hear. And that's why it's a huge priority to us. And you can join us in this important mission. Call us at 855-6 Richard to say you're in.

Or you can get on board with us through our website richardellis.com. Well, here's Richard with some closing thoughts for us.

Richard Ellis: Okay, last one. Philippians 2 Gosh, this is too much fun. I honestly woke up today and I was like, oh, if I could call in sick or tired, man, I'd love to just lie here cuz like warm and You ever have that feeling? That's how those people out there feel. Okay, so Philippians 2 Philippians 2:5 Okay, look at this. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men.

Okay, so look at just that. No reputation. He is nobody. A carpenter's son ends up a carpenter and nobody. No reputation, form of a bond servant comes in the likeness of men. And being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, was willing to be so obedient to the father. He was willing to die even the death of the cross, which is not just dying. Somebody shoots you in the head, you're dead. Someone nails you to a cross, you're not dead immediately. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth.

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. He is Lord. And I am a servant of the Lord God, the most high God. I will never get my head around everything that he is till I see him, then I'll know. But until then, I don't know. But I'm trying to do the best I can do with what I know and fight forward and trusting and obey and stay out of the way and remember who I am and whose I am. And it'd be as down to earth as possible with anybody, anywhere, anytime.

And let him use me.

Guest (Male): This has been Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. The message of the gospel is one we take very seriously in our mission to reach the planet. And you have a vital part of doing that along with us. If you've been encouraged by these talks with Richard, be sure to tell someone about the change they've made in your life. You can even share today's talk with them through the website richardellis.com. And we'd love to hear your story as well as to how these talks have made a difference to you too. Give us a call 855-6 Richard.

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