Richard Ellis Talks

Guest (Male): Today on Richard Ellis Talks.

Richard Ellis: You think I'm the boss of me. The second you think you're the boss of me, you just got the devil out front saying, okay, where are we going? You think, oh, no, no, I'm not giving him an authority. You're following somebody. I'm following somebody. And if I'm following Jesus, in his name, I have the authority to say, Satan, get behind me.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. We're so grateful you tuned into the program. Richard wants to share with you some encouragement, words of hope, and probably a laugh or two. And in today's complicated busy life, that's exactly what's needed. Richard's talks are always straight from the Bible, filled with truth. Now, you may not be able to hang out with us for the entire program, but you can always pick it back up at our website, richardellis.com. In fact, you can find all of Richard's talks right there waiting just for you, richardellis.com. So, with today talk, here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is new beef. So, we'll try to explain where this is coming from. Some of you know this phrase, and I did a bunch of research trying to figure out where it comes from. You know, I have a beef with you. And all that means is you have some unresolved issues or some kind of complaint with somebody. So, we've talked about turning over a new leaf. And once you do that and you're trying to do the right thing in your life, then you need a new chief. And that's making Jesus not just savior of your life, but the Lord of your life, the boss of your life, and letting him run it.

But then you're going to run into some new beef. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So, I'd like you to start with me in Luke chapter 4. When you become a Christian, sometimes this happens after the fact, but a lot of times it's before. And it turns out your beef is with God himself. You have some type of complaint. You have some type of issue with God himself. And I sit down with people and they're angry with God. God did something. God allowed something to happen or did something. Someone died. Someone got sick.

Something went wrong. And they are I won't use the Greek here, but they are peeved about that. And they are upset with him. And so part of what keeps them from coming to him and trusting him is they don't think they can trust him. Well, look what he does. Look what he doesn't do. How can I trust a God like that? Babies die. All these things. So, you may have a beef with God and that's where you lock up. Or you become a Christian and then you discover he is not just handing out tickets to heaven, as great as those are, he's also expecting you to engage in a process that follows the new birth.

So, you're born physically. You're expected to grow. You're born again, as the Scripture describes it. Spiritually, you're born and now you're expected to grow. And then you start running into him and you're upset with him cuz you don't want to change. You don't want to do what he wants you to do. So, Luke chapter 4, we'll start here with verse 1. Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for 40 days by the devil. So, the Holy Spirit leads him. He's filled with the Spirit and he's led by the Spirit into the wilderness for the purpose of being tempted, to being tested.

That's amazing. And he's in there 40 days. And those days he ate nothing. And afterward, when they had ended, he was hungry. Well, duh. I mean, obviously, but the Bible states that. And the devil said to him, if you're the son of God, command the stones to become bread. And Jesus answered him saying, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Then the devil, taking him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, all this authority I will give you, and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

The devil's powerful. Don't kid yourself. Now, he's just an angel, but he makes deals. You've heard this phrase, you know, so and so, some star, some musician, some actor, you know, it seems like they made some kind of deal with the devil. I'll I'll serve you if you will make me famous or something. You say, well, nobody does that. Uh, maybe maybe they do, right? You say, well, that's crazy. What deal have you made with the devil? You say, well, I haven't made any deals. Keep reading. All authority I will give you and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours. And Jesus answered and said to him, get behind me, Satan. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. Then he brought him to Jerusalem, set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you. And in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

The devil quoting Scripture to Jesus. And Jesus made Satan. And Jesus wrote all the Scripture. And Jesus answered and said to him, it has been said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. Now, when the devil had ended every temptation, but look at this, he departed from him until an opportune time. Ever run into that? Like the devil is waiting for the next opportune time to come at you. But what did Jesus say to the devil? He wasn't going to banish him to hell, throw him in the pit at that point, but what did he say to him?

Get behind me. Now, let me give you just a little picture here. If your beef is with God, there's a good chance you're following the devil around. If your beef is with the devil, there's a good chance he's following you around. He is behind you. He is not ahead of you. You say, well, I'm not about to say to Satan, get behind me, cuz then then where am I going to go? You're going to go wherever the Lord tells you to go. You say, but yeah, but he's nipping at my heels. That's better than telling you where to go.

You say, well, you're implying that I'm following Satan around. Who are you following around? So, he comes if he's literally ahead of you and he's saying, oh, what about this? What about this? He presents you things. He presents me things. If I said to Andy, Andy's right here in the middle, I said, Andy, when's the last time you robbed a convenience store? Can you even remember? You've never told her about that? Okay, so let's pick someone else. Um, yeah. So, there's a chance you've never robbed a convenience store. Is there any chance you're going to rob a convenience store?

It's not likely. Do you know why it not likely? It's not an option. So, if you think about your sin, let's say you are a thief. You're thinking about robbing something because you've made that an option. Somewhere along the way, you engaged in that sin and now it's become an option for you. You got to take it off the table. And if you're following the enemy around and you really have no beef with him because he's presenting opportunities for you to do what you think is an option and screw your whole life up and your family and everything else, then that's where you end up.

But if you look at him and say, look, I'm not playing your game anymore. My beef is no longer with God. I got a new beef. It's with you. And I'm telling you to get behind me in Jesus name, get behind me. I'm following Jesus. You can follow me around all you want to, but what used to be an option for me is no longer going to be an option. You say, it can't be that simple. Who's the chief? You turned over a new leaf. Suppose you got a new chief. Now, you got to change who your beef is with.

It can't be with God. It's got to be with the enemy. Now, you say, well, will the enemy will the enemy quit? Apparently, in this case with Jesus, the devil didn't say, okay, I'm out. You win. I'll just sit by quietly till you die on the cross and, you know, we'll call it even. He's going to wait for another opportune time. Go to Mark chapter 8. Here's another opportune time. Go down to verse 31. Jesus with his disciples. And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed.

And after 3 days, rise again. This is not some shock, some surprise. Jesus has been given him this information for weeks or months. He keeps referencing this. We're going to Jerusalem. The son of man going to suffer, die, bury, raise from the dead. So, they should have known this was coming. And he spoke this word openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Be careful when you pull Jesus aside and start rebuking Jesus. You say, well, who would do that? I don't know. Who would do that? We do that. Jesus says, okay, this is what we're doing.

Here's where we're going. I got you forward. Oh, no, no, no, you don't understand. You think you're doing that. You think you're taking me with you. We're not doing that. And you start to rebuke him for his will, for his kingdom and for your life. And then you start telling him we're not doing that. He begins to rebuke him. But when he had turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. So, Jesus is speaking to the disciples. Peter starts to rebuke Jesus. And Jesus looks at the disciples and rebukes Peter and says what?

Get behind me, Satan. For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. Now, how in the world is he rebuking Peter by calling out Satan? So, what has happened in the sequencing between Jesus, Satan, and Peter? Jesus is trying to lead Peter and these disciples, and Satan gets between Jesus and Peter. And now Peter is listening to what the devil is telling him to tell Jesus instead of saying to Jesus, okay, we're in. Don't let the devil get between you and Jesus. Because if you allow that to happen, you will hear what Jesus is saying, but the enemy will tell you, well, that ain't right.

Don't do that. Don't follow him. He's going to get himself killed, going to get you killed. So, now because of what the enemy's kind of putting in your head, you start telling Jesus what you're doing or not doing and it's not going to work. So, Jesus here says, get behind me, Satan. When did he say that before? In the wilderness. And here at the end of the 3-year period with his disciples, the enemy pounces at least here an opportune time and says, oh, I'm going to take these guys out. So, who are you following? And is your beef with Jesus or is it with the enemy?

I just I try to figure out for myself personally, how angry am I going to have to get before I do something? Right? I've told this story before and it's what comes to mind, so just let me go with it. My dad was 6 ft 9. He should have been a king if he had been, you know, born 1,000 years earlier, he would have found a kingdom and been a king. He was he was my dad. And I put up with a lot of him running and ruling our little world for a long time. But 1 day in my house, he said something to my wife.

And I was 46 years old. And I stood up and almost threw him out of my house. And I said to him, you will never speak to my wife that way again. And if you don't think you can live under those terms, get out of my house. I've lost my mother. I can lose you. But we're not playing this game anymore. He stood up. I stood up. Looked him in the eyes. You say, oh my gosh, that sounds terrible. Yeah, it was terrible. But I'd had enough. Now, it was never the same after that. It was good.

If he walked in a room, I'd hug his neck, kiss him, tell him I loved him. But there was a little it was different. And he sat back down and things were different. Now, what happened that day? Unfortunately, I didn't take a stand for myself, but I loved my wife enough that I was not letting that happen. When are you going to say to the devil, dude, we ain't doing this anymore. You're not doing this to me anymore. You're not doing this to my wife, my husband, my children. I'm not playing your game anymore. Enough is enough.

I have the authority in Jesus name to tell you to get behind me, so get behind. I am following Jesus. You say, oh, that sounds dramatic. Let me tell you something about the devil and sin. You better have that conversation sooner than later cuz if you get to the point where you have to have it, it might be too far gone. And you'll wish you had it a long time ago. And you say, well, why wouldn't someone tell the enemy to back off and let's follow Jesus? We don't want to follow Jesus. We all do what we want to do.

And you think I'm the boss of me. The second you think you're the boss of me, you just got the devil out front saying, okay, where are we going? You think, oh, no, no, I 'm not giving him an authority. You're following somebody. I 'm following somebody. And if I 'm following Jesus, in his name, I have the authority to say, Satan, get behind me. Now, it doesn't mean I can't banish him to hell. I can destroy him. I can't do any of that. Now, you say, well, I don't think I want to do that yet.

Okay, now everybody all stop, listen very closely to what I'm about to tell you cuz I 'm trying to help you. If you don't want to do that yet because you love your sin, let me tell you something about the devil and your sin, Satan and your sin. The day is going to come if you don't die first, when you will hate him and you will hate your sin and you will cry out to God. Because the consequence of your sin will be way too expensive. And you'll wish you had told him to take a hike a long time ago.

And I can go around just this room and people that would raise their hand and say, get him out of your life. Follow Jesus. It's too expensive. Go to Hebrews 5. Hebrews 5 verse 12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers. Now, listen to me close. You're born again. You become a Christian. You're growing. There is going to come a day sooner than you thought or think when you are going to be expected to be one of the teachers. My wife did a women's mini retreat. And in the retreat, my understanding is there was a lady who observed all the stuff with these women and finally said something like this out loud.

I want what you all have. So, Rebecca's in a group of women, smaller group, and somebody's going to help her become a Christian. And so, I think my wife went around the circle, okay, you know, like here's the ball, lead her to Christ. And the hot potato keeps passing get back to Rebecca. And so, she did it. You got to stop passing the potato. I literally had a guy this week say to me, Richard, he says, you know, I meet these people and I bring them to you, right? Dude, clean your own fish. You caught it.

You clean it. Well, I just don't want to get it all messy. Like, dude, that's the job. Well, I'm going to get it wrong. I'll take a thousand people trying something and getting it wrong then 10,000 people just staring at me like, well, we don't want to get it wrong. Try. I promise you. You will figure it out trying. Cuz you'll have to rely on the Holy Spirit. What am I going to say? How about God loves you? And proof of that is Jesus died on a cross, was buried and raised from the dead to pay for your sin and offer you eternal life as a free gift.

Would you be interested in accepting that gift? Yes or no? When this guy the other day at lunch, he I mean, he would have jumped in my soup if I told him to. He was that ready to become a Christian. There was no coercion. He had waited for somebody to explain this for years. And he was ready to pray right then. Keep reading. By this time you ought to be teachers. You need someone else to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food, not meat.

For everyone who partakes only of milk. So, here's how you describe someone who only partakes of the simple, simple, simple basic stuff indefinitely. This person is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. He's just a baby Christian, unskilled. It's Kenny Armor, right? What do you do for a living? Mechanic? Take an engine apart? Put it back together? I can't. Could you teach me? You could teach me. And then I could take an engine apart and put it back together. Would I get it right the first time necessarily? I would probably need some help.

Is that because you think I'm ignorant or something else? Yes, something else. Practice. Okay. So, you say, well, I don't want to be a baby anymore. Then grow up. How do I grow up? Find someone who knows how to take an engine apart and ask them if they'll show you. Casey, where's Casey? Casey went with me the other day, helped me pick something up. He watched me share the gospel with a man. I didn't do anything Casey can't do. If Casey decides I'm in, I can do that. Then what I will want to do with Casey is, okay, I'll go with you and I'll sit there quietly.

And if you get stuck, I'll help you. You know what? He ain't going to get stuck, but if he does, I'll help him. And then Casey will go, oh my gosh, I got this. Like, okay. Take some motors apart, put them back together. Let's do this. And then you know what he ends up doing? Someone comes to Casey and goes, dude, I hear you're a mechanic. I've always wanted to do that. Could you help me? Sure I can. Instead of, oh, no, no, I'm a self-made man. I discovered all this by myself. Why am I so willing to disciple people and help people and do this?

Cuz someone rescued me. I knew nothing about engines. I didn't know how to make any of it work. I can get stuff apart. I couldn't put it back together. And then an old man came along and said, I'll help you. And I said, wow, thank you so much. I don't want to die a baby. You'll find out what you really want to do by the people you chase down to help you do it. And if you're a really good sinner, I'll tell you one of the reasons you're a really good sinner cuz you're chasing people down who are really good sinners and showing you how to do it even better.

Get away from them. There's some guys in the room right now who are cyclists. They wear the funny pants with all the padding to not kill themselves down there, you know, all that stuff. So, if I decided, oh, I'm going to be a cyclist, I'm not going to pick somebody that doesn't ride a bike. I'm going to go find one of those guys and say, okay, will you teach me how this works? What do I need equipment wise? Right? You go find people who are going where you're going, doing what you believe you're supposed to be doing, and get around them.

Does this make sense so far? I can give you more examples about different sports and crazy outfits. Okay, finish this little Hebrews deal. Verse 14. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, mature believers. That is and now this is how where the milk person is described is unskilled in the word of righteousness. This person who is of full age is described as a person who by reason of use their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Who's that person? That person goes out into the day and goes, that's not right.

I'm not doing that. We're a baby in Christ, unskilled like, so let's go do this. Okay, well, what is that? And okay, I'll think about that. I guess that would be okay. You got to know what's right and wrong and pick a lane. Businessmen, a group of guys. I got a friend who's a doctor, medical school in in medical school, these doctors would go to strip clubs in his particular little practice. You'd think you'd seen enough naked bodies, you know, at the office. And so, what was his challenge? They would say, hey, we're going to the strip club.

Let's go. He go, you know, I'm out. I'm married and I'm not going. Oh, I'm going to lose friends in business. Who cares? You got to figure out what's right and wrong and pick a lane. Some things are no-brainer unless you're a baby Christian. And then it's not no-brainer. You're unskilled. You don't know how to exercise what it describes here. You have no use and you're not used to exercising your senses to discern both good and evil. You should be able to go, that's not right. It's like a mathematician goes through a test, all the equations where I'd be totally lost and goes, that's the wrong answer.

Dude, there's a mess of equation up here. How do you know that? Because there is an answer contrary to what our culture is saying. Math is not racist by the way. It's math. And you say, oh, you said that out loud. You know why? Because it's true. I'm not afraid to say things that are true out loud. Oh, but someone's going to be offended. If you're offended by things that are true, then you really got a problem. Spit it out if it's true. Speak the truth in love and spit it out. So, when you decide your beef is not with God anymore, you turn over a new leaf, you get a new chief, someone else under new management in your life, and then you stop having this beef with God and start saying, you know what, Lord, I got a beef with the devil now.

I got a beef with sin. I got a beef with the world. You're not my problem anymore. I want what you want for me. And you'd be amazed how things change. I hesitate. I don't ever use these names, but I saw a friend, a guy I've known for probably 15 years. And when I met him, he was a traveling guy, consultant and nice looking man, blew his whole life up. And he was just, you know, living the life because he could. It was an option. And he, over the last 15 years, I've tried to walk with him and encourage him.

And he is changing. He is not the same man. You say, well, how did that happen? He made some choices. You say, well, I thought it was all miraculous. It is miraculous, but it involves choices. When I became a Christian, I responded to God's call on my life. I realized he loved me and I made a choice to receive him, to believe. And then over the years I've made choices to following or not following. And if you do not choose to follow him, let me tell you what will happen. You will not end up following him.

All the people Jesus looked at and said, follow me, you know why they were behind him? Because they followed him. How did I end up here? I can't imagine. So, if he says, follow me, following. And if the devil comes along and says, hey, let's go over here, you go, I ain't following you anymore. You hate me. You're trying to steal, kill, destroy. I don't want that plan for my life anymore.

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: One last piece of beef is in Revelation chapter 2. And without reading you this whole deal, these seven churches are addressed. And Jesus beef with one of these churches in Ephesus, down in verse 4, he says, nevertheless, I have this against you that you have left your first love. So, you say, well, I've been a Christian a long time and now I realize I've just been a baby Christian a long time and I've gone back to who knows what. Go back to when you remember you loved him. And pick up where you left off. He hadn't gone anywhere.

It's like the old man in the pickup truck and his wife looked at him and said, you know, we used to sit next to each other in the truck and hold hands. He said, well, I didn't move. Just slide back over. Pick up where you left off and grow up. And let your beef be with the enemy, not with God.

Guest (Male): Thanks for tuning in today to Richard Ellis Talks. We all have busy schedules these days, so it means the world to us that you would take this time to listen. Richard would love to know how today's talk has touched your heart, so give us a call at 855-6 Richard, 855-6 Richard. You can also share your story with us at our website, richardellis.com. One last thing, Richard Ellis Talks is a daily program that is always expanding to reach the world with the good news of the gospel, but it also has daily costs. And being a listener supported program like ours means we rely on the financial partnership of our listeners, which means you.

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 calling 855-6 Richard or at our website, richardellis.com. Thank you for your generosity. God bless and thanks for listening to Richard Ellis Talks.