Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: Today on Richard Ellis talks, it is possible that you are stuck with the pieces you have and you will not move forward because you just can't see it, you just don't know what's coming, but you're never going to see the big picture. You're never going to see accomplished in your life what God has for you if you will not take the steps that he's told you to take.

Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard's going to take the next few minutes to share some great words of hope and insight for you. And in today's broken world, that is something everyone is desperate to hear. Richard shares unapologetically the truth of the Bible in a way that's clear, relational, and uplifting. So thank you for taking this time to listen. We know it will bless you. And when you have a moment, you might want to check out our website so we can stay connected with you. RichardEllis.com. But right now, let's go ahead and get things off and running with today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

The title of today's message is Puzzling. I had a conversation with a friend a while back who has been working on a project for seven years, a business deal for seven years, and it kind of has come to a huge point of fruition. And some things that he had waited on literally for seven years in a very long process, finally came to pass. And it was almost anti-climactic because you're like, okay, well, that's it.

But if you go back and look at the process, and I've literally walked the entire process with him all along the way from inception and even before that, and I said to him the other day, I said, it's like you were given a puzzle box. Picture on the cover, you knew where you were going.

You looked in the box, and it was a 10,000-piece puzzle, but there were only 1,000 pieces in it. And so you say, well, how am I supposed to complete a puzzle that I don't even have all the pieces for? But you read the instructions, and the instructions read, this will get you started. There's a corner piece. So you begin to put what you can together, and the other pieces will show up when you need them.

Now, that can be very puzzling for a person that has no or little faith. Because you say, there's no way I'm going to waste my time embarking on this project, the pieces aren't here. Unless you trust the puzzle maker. And even what you can't see, and as we'll see, even if he reaches down and grabs a piece and destroys it, he has capacity to restore it.

You say, well, that would be a very puzzling process. Very confusing, very baffling. You're right, unless you have something called faith. So let's start in Genesis chapter 12. And in Genesis chapter 12, verse one. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house to a land that I will show you. So those are his instructions.

I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And then verse four is very important because God has told him what to do, and then what is he doing in verse four? Simple statement. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him.

Now, this is where your life is going to get screwed up. Somewhere along the way, God says something to you, and you lock up, and things get screwed up. Because you say, it's too puzzling, it's too uncertain. Where is that going to be? I want more information, I want more details. I want to know exactly what's coming, or I'm not going to take this trip.

And God says, well, that's all I'm going to give you, either trust me or not. And so you take a deep breath and say, okay. I'll depart as you've told me, and Lot went with him, and Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. So, a 75-year-old man, God picks him, says, I'm going to bless you, do extraordinary things, but you have to follow the instructions that you have. Put the pieces that you have together, and then I'll give you more.

Now, it is possible, before we read anything else, that you are stuck with the pieces you have, and you will not move forward because you just can't see it, you just don't know what's coming, but you're never going to see the big picture. You're never going to see accomplished in your life what God has for you if you will not take the steps that he's told you to take.

Now, if you keep reading about Abram, it's a messy story. He lies about his wife being his sister. I mean, it's jacked up, okay? So if you're thinking Abram's all that, it's not about God picking people that are all that. So go to Genesis chapter 22. So God makes all these promises to him. He's an old man, she's an old lady, his wife.

Old lady, child-bearing, nothing going to happen. God promises a kid. She laughs, and the child that's born is named laughter because she laughed. And she said, no, I didn't laugh. She laughed because that was absurd to her to think I'm going to have a kid. At, you know, 80s, 90-year-old woman. So they have this baby.

And it's a mess before the baby they have that's the chosen, the promised child is born. But they have this child. So God's fulfilled not everything he said he was going to do, but some big stuff to this point. In Genesis chapter 22, verse one. Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to Abraham, as name's been changed at this point, Abraham, and he said, here I am.

Then he said, take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. And look at verse three. What does Abraham do? So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place which God had told him. He did what he was told.

Now, what had God asked him to do? Sacrifice his son. That's absurd. Talk about puzzling, baffling, confusing. Okay, God, what are you doing? What is this? Some exercise in whatever? I've been through all this. I've gone when you told me to go, do what I told you to do. But there's no hesitation here. He goes, next day, boom. Now, how do you do that when you do that? You do that when you do that because you've done that when you've done that.

There's nothing new. You say, well, how did he do that? That's who he is. And he had seen God take care of him and provide for him and put the pieces out there when they needed to come together in spite of his own screw-ups. And so he says, okay, that's what you want to do? Let's do it. Split the wood, we're ready. Take some guys, there's two guys with him witnessing all this too, by the way.

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men, Isaac his son, split the wood for the burnt offering, rose and went to the place which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place far off. And Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey, the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you. Now, look at this one word. You might have just read over it.

What's the word you think I'm going to highlight? We. Where's the word we? And we will come back to you. Now, what's he been instructed to do? Take his son to a place and sacrifice him. How in the world is he going to get sacrifice his son and then we come back? Unless he knows something that he knows.

You say, well, how's that even possible to have that kind of faith? Now listen to me, it's not my problem. It's not your problem. If God asked you to do something and you go, well, that's puzzling, that's baffling, that's confusing, that's never going to happen. And you shut down because you say, I can't see how that's going to work, instead of saying, it's not my problem. I've been obeying God, doing what he told me to do. I'm going to keep doing that and let's see what he comes up with now, because he comes up with stuff.

So you go into it expecting something unusual to happen because that's just how you roll. That's how it works. You say, well, I don't have that experience. You need to get you some of that experience. Get moving on the basic stuff he's given you and you'd be amazed that when you make one choice that turns to the next choice, the next choice, and then all of a sudden you are on a roll, a faith roll, and you go, wow, I can trust him. Yeah, because he keeps showing up. The pieces keep coming together.

So keep reading. We will come back to you. So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac. It's so, so messed up. Like okay, you carry the wood, we're going to burn you on. On Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, my father. And he said, here I am, my son.

Then he said, look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? So, what's about to happen here? How are you going to make a sacrifice without something to sacrifice? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, so the two of them went together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him, and Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order, and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

Now you got to have to have a son who trusts you. There's no indication here of, Dad, what are we doing? Okay, this is what we're doing. Here we go. And Abraham stretched out his hand, took the knife to slay his son, but the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. So he said, here I am.

And he said, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. You were willing to give your son. I got you. I know you fear me. I know you trust me. Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, offered it for a burnt offering instead of his son.

And Abraham called the name of the place, the Lord will provide. And it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. Do you believe in the Lord that will provide? I've seen him show up. I've seen him show up like crazy show up. Impossible show up.

Now sometimes he waits till kind of the last minute. But he shows up. Now let me tell you what will lessen your anxiety in your life. If you begin to trust him as though he is the Lord that provides, then you don't sit around anxious about whether it's going to happen or not. You wait patiently and say, all right, I'm doing what he said to do, and he's going to show up.

And you say, well, what if he doesn't show up? That's his problem. He's got to take care of me, why? I am his servant. I am owned. He's got to take care of me. I'm owned. And on top of that, he's made me his child, adopted me in his family. How could I in a million years doubt whether he was going to show up? And yet we sit around wondering whether he's going to show up.

Keep reading. Says, don't lay your hand on your son. Seize the ram. Lord will provide. Then the angel of the Lord, verse 15, then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, by myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing, I will bless you. And multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. What does God have for you if you would just obey his voice?

So Abraham returned to his young men and they arose and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt in Beersheba. Was he perfect? No. Did he obey? Yes. So, the reason I tell you about him being a screw-up, because that's where we get locked up. You go, oh, well, God can't use me, I'm a screw-up. That's all you got in the Bible, are screw-ups.

You got nothing but that. And yet God says, you're all I got. Because there's no one perfect but my son Jesus, and I send him to save you, to make you holy, to make you perfect, complete, all those things, but that's a process. I'm putting that together. But until then, I'm going to trust you to trust me. Can you trust him? Because he's entrusted this whole thing to us.

Turn to Isaiah 30. Now, this is some tremendous stuff in terms of putting the puzzle together. Isaiah 30, verse 19. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When he hears it, he will answer you. And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers.

Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left. Now, you say, what in the world is that talking about? When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit moves in your body, you have to listen.

If I called you, if you've been sitting here long enough or beyond here, you listen, listen, listen. If I blocked my number and I called your number and you answered the phone and I'd said, hey, how are you doing? What's going on? And you said, who is this? Or you said, is this Richard? How would you know it was me?

Because you know my voice. Go to John chapter 10. Let's read about that. Now I'm about to read you something extremely simple that if you will latch onto this, figure this out, your life will change. If you want change, this is how your life changes. John chapter 10, verse 27. If you got a Bible, read it, look at this, and here we go.

Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. So these shepherds at night would bring all their sheep into a big fold and robbers, if you read prior to this, robbers could come over the wall, but the sheep went in by the door. So only the people that belonged would go in this sheep. So you had all these sheep in this fold, they would come in and put them all together.

But a shepherd could walk into those sheep the next day when it was time to lead them out to pasture, and what do you think happened? He would call his sheep, they would hear his voice. He knew which ones were his. You say, how's that possible? I've seen it. My father-in-law had cattle and he could look out the kitchen window at those cows and tell you, that mama goes, all I see is cows.

He knows when they were born, the circumstances, the cold nights, the whole story of every cow out there. So the shepherd walks in there, he calls his sheep, they know his voice, and what do they do? They follow him out, leave all the other sheep behind, they follow that shepherd. So what is the simplicity of this? Do you know his voice?

Now, I have never heard an audible voice, but I know when he says, stop, go, text, call, no, yes, I know what's going on inside of me. Someone lives in me as a Christian. Now if you're not a Christian, you do not have God living in you. You've got circumstances, you got people trying to steer you a little bit, but when God moves in, you have access to the same God who made the entire universe.

You would think we would finally believe that he can do better with our lives than we can. You say, but he's asking me to go somewhere I don't understand. You're going to be better off going wherever he tells you to go than just sitting there hoping it gets better. You say, I don't know his voice, then climb in a closet somewhere and say, hey Jesus, this is me.

Could you please help me get where I hear your voice? How do you do that? You read scripture. You talk to him. How do you learn someone's voice? The way you know my voice is you've heard my voice. So you start listening for his voice instead of your voice and everybody else's voice. Then all of a sudden your whole life changes because you get up in the morning and you start getting instructions.

Sometimes you don't hear anything. You spend some time with him, he speaks to you from his word. But when you know his word and you know who he is and what he's about, then when he speaks, you go, yes, sir, thank you, sir. This is going to be a blessing, sir. What if it cost me time or money? It doesn't matter. I know people in this room that when God tells them to write a check, they write a check.

When God tells them to wait, they wait. I know one guy that doesn't make any business decisions without praying and sleeping on it before he makes a big decision, because it's not his business. Oh, I made a business decision. It's my business. You're in trouble. You think it's your business? You belong to somebody else if you're a believer.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. And I give them eternal life. And they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. So he didn't just say they wouldn't be able to snatch them out of my hand. He said they can't snatch them out of my Father's hand or my hand. We're both one, you're not snatching.

So you think, oh, I've lost my salvation. It's not possible. If you get saved and you get put in God's hand, no one's snatching out of his hand. No one is greater than him. Now you may be living like you're lost, but that don't make you lost. And then I meet people who have screwed their lives up so much as Christians, they wish they were not saved so that they could say, well, I was really lost when all that happened. Now I'm going to get saved and it's all good.

Instead of taking responsibility and realizing, I screwed my life up as a Christian. Okay, one more, Philippians chapter one. Now this is either going to be extremely encouraging to you or very frustrating. Philippians chapter one and let's jump in at verse three. This is Paul writing to this church in Philippi, and he says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making request for you all with joy.

For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. Now look at verse six. Being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Just as it is right for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart in so much as both in my chains and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. What does he say in verse six? He finishes what he starts.

So you say, well, I'm locked up. I refuse to obey God, I refuse to do what he tells me to do, and I'm not changing. I hate to tell you this, but if you're his child, he has skills, he has tools. He knows what he's doing. And it is better to turn yourself in on a warrant than to get picked up.

Don't be too proud to admit that you're wrong. That's the only way you got saved in the first place. I'm a sinner. So you've been trying to go your way, prove your way, put the pieces together when they don't fit. If you've ever put a puzzle, I mean, I've done this, I've done this recently, but I get in the middle of a puzzle in my life, and you find a piece and you're just positive, this is it.

And it's not it. And you start cramming that piece into a slot that it does not belong in. And at some point you have to pick it back up and say, this piece does not go here and stop forcing it. Now, part of my contention is this. I believe we do hear his voice, we do know his voice.

We just put our fingers in our ears and go, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. And try to block it out. You know exactly what he's telling you to do. I've been in relationships before I got married where I knew as sure as I was breathing, God said, you are not supposed to be with this person. There's a redhead waiting. He didn't say that, but that was the.

But see part of trusting him in that moment is I really didn't know there was a redhead waiting. But she was worth the weight. Because those pieces fit. And so you say, I'm terrified, God, if I obey you, I'm going to lose what I'm holding onto. But the whole puzzling thing about the gospel is that he says, if you hold onto your life, you'll lose it. If you lose your life for his sake, that's when you find it.

You say it doesn't make any sense. Faith makes it make sense. Because you go, I don't get it, I don't see what he sees, but he's the beginning, the end. He knows everything. He can take care of me or he can't. He can take care of me. I'm going to trust him, do it his way and let's see what happens. And you're in a room at least here where you're surrounded with people who have experienced this, some who are experiencing this, and some who are thinking about getting in on this experience.

All right, one last one in Hebrews chapter 11 that'll take us back to Genesis chapter 12. And I said that it's all very puzzling unless you have something called faith. And in this chapter of faith, Hebrews chapter 11, verse one, says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

So you say, God, I can't prove it. Faith proves it. Faith gives something that you do not have, you cannot see, substance as though it already existed, you just don't have it yet, you can't see it yet. You say, well, how do you know you're going to end up in heaven? The universe will collapse if I don't end up in heaven.

Because he promised. Now have I seen it? Have I touched it? No. But I read about it. I do not have a death wish, but I will make it there. And it is real by faith. Because it is real and my faith gives it substance. Now go over a few verses to verse eight. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. You say, well, I don't know where I'm going. If I trust God, I don't know where he's going to take me. I promise you, wherever he takes you, it'll be better than where you're going by yourself.

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.

This church would probably not exist if I had gotten my way. Because I knew it was time to leave the church where I was, and I sent out letters. And when you're the sixth generation of preachers in a family, when you come from a denomination where your dad, your grandfather, your great, everybody knows everybody, you can get a church somewhere, and not a single door opened. Because if a single door had opened, I would have gone anywhere but where I was.

And so God had to close everything, shut everything down that was humanly possible and get me in a place and say, okay, this is what you're going to do. Trust me. And I remember I had fasted for quite a few days, walked in the backyard. Rebecca was outside. I said, we're starting a church. I got my answer. And she said, okay.

And we had no outside support. We had no idea where anything was going to come from, except that we knew where everything was going to come from. From him.

So I am not just talking hypothetical about something here. He gave me a corner piece. Turns out the cornerstone is him. And he gave me a few pieces and the pieces keep showing up. And when I see Jesus, my puzzle will be finished. And the picture on the box is him. So when you put Jesus together, you put your life together. And it's not as puzzling as you thought.

You've been listening to Richard Ellis Talks. We really appreciate that you spent this time with us. But we want to keep the conversation going with you. So give us a call anytime at 855-6-RICHARD. That's 855-6-RICHARD. Or through our website, RichardEllis.com. By sending an email to us so we can stay connected with you. We love bringing you the program every day, but it means even more to us when you let us know how the program has helped you. Call us at 855-6-RICHARD or through the website, RichardEllis.com. Your story needs to be heard, and we're listening, caring, and encouraged. 855-6-RICHARD or RichardEllis.com. Finally, if you enjoy the program, let us know by your generous support to join us on our mission to reach the planet. We can't do it alone and need your help on this mission. RichardEllis.com. So till next time, have a great day and thank you for listening to Richard Ellis Talks.