Richard Ellis Talks

Guest (Male): Today on Richard Ellis Talks.

Richard Ellis: Why do they say don't text or do all these things in the car when you're driving? Because you look down and when you look back up, you've gone so many feet and you don't know where you are. It's the same thing spiritually. You just look down and you look up, how did I get here? Because the danger is all around you, the ditch is right there and bam, you're there again. Enough already. Pay attention.

Guest (Male): 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. Richardelllis.com. But right now, let's go ahead and get things off and running with today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is '78 Lincoln. I'm going to have to tell you a story to make sense of this. When I was in college, I met a guy in Waco, and I've been buying cars from him since then.

Well, we hit a period of time when I was going to leave the business world and go back into full-time ministry, and we needed a car. We didn't have much money, and we were winding our dress business down. I called my buddy and I said, I need a car, and we don't have much. And he said, well, there's this attorney, this old couple, they're both attorneys, they park their car at the house, they park the garage, but it's a '78 Lincoln. And it has 32,000 miles. It's an amazing car, but you never asked me for one like this. I said, I'll take it.

So Rebecca drove that car, and, 460 engine. I don't know how many tons it weighs, but it was a tank. She drove that, I'd ride the bus, and they were not good days. It was about the seventh year of our marriage, and we almost didn't make year seven. It was not a good time, little bitty kids, a lot of stress financially. But that old car was a part of our lives during that time. Well, then things turned around a little bit, but I kept the car. We started this church.

I parked the old Lincoln at the office down on McKinney Avenue. It was in the garage, and I'd check it every once in a while. I'd go try to start it, put a new battery in it. I wasn't driving it. One of my girls said, Daddy, one day I'd like to have that, but you wouldn't put your daughter in one of these things because you had a trick to starting it, you had to pump it a hundred times and then turn the key. We'd break down in it, and thank God we weren't driving it anymore.

So, when we moved offices from that spot we were for 14 years to the new office, I knew the car was there and I had to move it. But I thought we'd been there so long, I'll wait. Well, I waited a few weeks after we moved out. I waited a month. I waited two months. I waited three months because I didn't really want to jack with the '78 Lincoln. Then it started to kind of weigh on me. Like I got a responsibility. I can't just abandon that old car in there, and they're going to call me and say come get it out.

So one day, I was right there by the office, and I had to sneak in the gate. I don't recommend that, but that was what happened that day. Somebody went through the gate that came up. So I parked my car, walked through the gate, and I'd parked it, they asked me to park it way up at the top. So I started up one ramp, made the turn, went up the other ramp, went all the way up that ramp, made the turn, went up the other ramp, and I kept going and kept thinking, what if that old car is not there?

I got all the way to the top where I knew that old car was supposed to be, and it was not there. You say, well, it's just a car. I had been through a lot of stuff in that old car. And I really didn't want to mess with it, but didn't want to lose it that way. So I called the towing company and they said, yeah, if we pick it up, we keep it a month and then we sell it at auction.

I asked the guy to see if he could trace it. It's not a valuable car. I saved a ton of money just having somewhere to park it like that. But that old car is gone. It could be smashed, you know, in a little block somewhere. Now, how did I lose that '78 Lincoln? You know how I lost that car? Neglect.

Was it a big sin of some kind? You know, is it going to run my life? No. But here's what I'd like us to think about. Some of you have lost, are losing, or are going to lose stuff, people, relationships, children, marriages, all kind of stuff over nothing but neglect. You just won't deal with it. You don't want to go there. You don't want to talk about it. You don't want to make that call. You don't want to go get what you're supposed to go get.

Now, the longer I live, the more people I talk to, there is a lot of neglect in the world and a consequence of that that just keeps snowballing on you. And there are people who say, you know, if you had to live your life over again, would you change anything? I have no regrets. Let me tell you something, if you got no regrets, you probably haven't met Jesus yet. Because part of meeting Jesus is realizing you do have regrets, and you got problems, you got shame, you got issues, you got sin in your life that you can't deal with. And just by saying, oh no, I wouldn't change anything because I've learned all these things, I'm okay with you saying that after you meet Jesus, that you know, he brought good from it. But the bad stuff that we do or that happens to us is not good. And some of it is brought on by nothing but not paying attention.

Let me read you some definitions. Neglect, to pay no attention or too little attention to, disregard or slight. To be remiss in the care or treatment of. To omit through indifference or carelessness. To fail to carry out or perform, to fail to take or use, disregard, negligence.

Now let me read you the definition for regret, because if it dawns on you that you have neglected something, then at some point when that hits you, you're going to have some regret. What happened to me in that garage is I came around the corner and stood there staring at the space where I had neglected to remove the car that I left, and I had regret. I got hit with this weight now of, it's gone because I didn't take care of business. And now I have to deal with the reality of that, and I was sorry that I hadn't gone and gotten it before.

Regret, to feel sorrow or remorse for, to think of with a sense of loss, a sense of loss, disappointment, dissatisfaction, a feeling of sorrow or remorse for a fault, act, lost, disappointment. Regrets, a polite, usually formal refusal of an invitation. Could be that. A note expressing regret at one's inability to accept an invitation.

Now, let me camp on that one a minute. If you had to write God a note expressing regret at your inability to accept his invitation, what would that note read like? I have neglected all of the ways that you have tried to come at me, God, and talk to me and get my attention. You've sent people that love me, some crazy people on TV, maybe the radio, wherever you heard it, but it's still the message is coming at you. A family member prays for you.

A son, a daughter, a mom, a dad, a friend, someone at work, and God keeps sending the message, sending the invitation, you know, come unto me, come unto me. And you neglect it and you neglect it. And then finally, you say, you know what, I'm not interested, and I'm going to respond. My RSVP will be regrets. And not that I'm sorry, it says, I regret to tell you, I'm not interested in your invitation. Because if you ever stopped to think about what you are saying no to, you are saying no to God himself who said these people before they're ever even born, we're going to have to go in after them. So they make a deal. Jesus says, I'll be willing to go in. So he agrees that one day he will be born of a virgin, live a sinless life, die on a cross, be buried, raised from the dead. And all of that to get you an invitation to the party. All of that to get you into the family because there's no way you can get in without an invitation.

And you have to RSVP, you have to respond. And if you respond with regrets, that's what you're going to end up with, but it's not just in this life, it'll be forever. Hell will be filled with regrets, just too late. So if you wrote your little note, dear God, I regret to inform you that in spite of the fact that you clearly say you love me, you sent your son Jesus to die for me and to rescue me and save me from myself and what I face in this life and in the hereafter. I regret to inform you that I will not be able to attend your big party in heaven one day, that I have chosen hell here and in the hereafter. Sincerely, me, whoever you are.

You say, I'm not saying that. Well, what are you saying? It's either yes or no. Well, I'll do that one day. At some point, God is trying to not pin you down where you can't move, but get you to commit where you can live. Finally live.

Now let me read you some quotes. Sydney Smith, back in the 1700s, English clergyman said, regret for the things we did can be tempered by time. It is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. Alexander Graham Bell, when one door closes, another door opens, but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which is opened for us. Adlai Stevenson, the journey of a thousand leagues begin with a single step, so we must never neglect any work of peace within our reach, however small. Robert Louis Stevenson, perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.

First Timothy 4, turn over there. One of the trickiest things about this process is you neglect something, you regret something, and then it's how are you going to correct or protect yourself from that happening again? If you do not respond, and this is why repentance is such a huge piece of this. If when you are confronted with your sin, with your neglect, with whatever it is that's going on, if when you feel that feeling, you don't respond and go God's way with it, instead you go, oh, I'm such a screw up and I've it's a disaster and oh, what the heck? I can do whatever I want to do, then you start spiraling downward. When people get in this place of regret, they usually go back to their medication. They go back to alcohol, sex, drugs, buy something. They go on a shopping spree. They go try to fix it somehow because I feel bad, I want to feel good, and in that moment when you feel bad and you should say, okay, let me face reality. I made choices. This is the consequence. Now what am I going to learn here that will not get me in this spot again? And make some correction in that moment.

First Timothy chapter 4. This is Paul writing to one guy, one young guy, and I don't have time to read all this chapter. Let's just jump in like in verse seven. But reject profane and old wives' fables and exercise yourself toward godliness. He's given him advice on some things. He says, for bodily exercise profits a little, but it says, but godliness is profitable in all things. So working out, being in shape, that profits a little, but if you really want to see something, exercise godliness for it's profitable in all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end, we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God, who is the savior of all men, especially of those who believe. These things command and teach. So he's telling him, this is what you need to be sharing out there. Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. So he says, till I get there, this is what you need to teach and share with the people. And then look at verse 14. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. He had been given some kind of gift. And let me tell you something, everybody, if you are a Christian, you have a spiritual gift. It's not a maybe, possibly, you have at least one. And if God has gifted you in some way, and given you some skill set, some passion, something that is in there, and he touches that, he stirs that up, and he says, okay, let's go. You're in the game. This is the position you play. You're in the body of Christ. They're feet, they're hands, they're eyes, they're ears. You're one of these pieces. Find out what piece you are and then do that. Don't neglect that. Because if you neglect that, you're just going to go limp. You'll have an arm that just hangs there because you don't exercise it. You don't participate.

My senior year in high school, I showed up at a new high school, my senior year, tried out for the basketball team. The coach was a piece of work. I made the team because I was senior, I was decent. And he pretty much told me up front, you're not going to play in this season. You'll be on the bench. Another friend that I'd met, who was a senior, he quit. I said, you know what, I'm going to teach this coach a lesson. I make your team, I don't quit. And I'll sit on this bench all season if I have to, whether you play me or not, I made the team, you're going to have to deal with me. Now that guy neglected me, neglected me, and finally he'd start putting me in a little bit. I wanted to play ball, or I wouldn't have gone out for the team. So if you say, God, I want to do something. He's not playing hide and go seek. He isn't some kind of move the coconuts around and try to trick you. Climb in your closet and say, God, look, I want in the game. I want to find out what it is I'm here for. It can't just be to go to work every day and be a good husband and a good dad and all these things I'm doing. Those are great, but there has to be some purpose for me being alive.

And when you're driving around town, you go to the office, wherever you are, you are going to get stirrings. And the Holy Spirit, something inside of you stirs, and you feel compassion or some pull. Pay attention to these things because if it is God doing the stirring, then he is trying to point out, look, this is you. This is your groove. This is where you fire on all cylinders. Pay attention. Because you'll get to the end of your life and how many old people you talk to, and they go, I missed it. I neglected these things and now the only life I have is just gone right through my fingers. And I can't make up for lost time and they have regrets. And then sometimes they'll engage even at 60, 70, 80 years old. So it's never too late to get in the game, but why not do it early? Why not find out what God made you to do and do that? Let him live in you and through you and change you and change the world.

Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Then he says, meditate on these things, give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. Go to Hebrews chapter 2. I don't really want to share this example, but I think I'm going to have to.

An 80-something-year-old man that I'd go to lunch with, great old guy, and he had a stroke. I'd beat everybody to the hospital. I'm there first, there with the family. One side of his body's not working. I'm trying to lighten it up and make jokes, and he's laughing trying to laugh. It's not a good situation. I was there at the hospital for that. And then I didn't go back to see him. And a week went by, and a month went by, and I did not want to see that old man that way. I didn't want to see him in pain. I didn't want to see him not like I saw him before. And so a month, two months went by, and every day I think about this old man, about Joe.

And then finally one day, I couldn't take it anymore, and it had been way too long. So, I may have been the first one there, but I didn't show up when I was supposed to along the way. I found out he's in a hospice situation, in a great situation, went there. And to my amazement and just overwhelmed, one of the guys in the church had been showing up, been taking care of Joe and his family.

You say, well, but if you're doing your job, you're supposed to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, and you can't be everywhere during everything. I should have showed up way before that. I neglected that old man because of my own issues. Because I didn't want to see him that way, and I don't want to end up that way. But God had bailed me out because a man in the church who did not neglect that old man and had done what he was supposed to do was there. And I appreciate that.

So you see, these things aren't just about you. Neglect, you can neglect yourself, and that will affect a certain number of people. But if the Holy Spirit, for instance, says, go see that old teacher of yours in that nursing home, and you go, oh, I don't want to go to a nursing home. She loses, all that staff loses, and you lose because you don't get the blessing of going in there and doing what God told you to do and made you to do, or he wouldn't be telling you to go. Because he's not going to ask you to go do something that he hadn't equipped you to do, and then he doesn't want to use you to do.

Now, you don't have to do a lot of guesswork to figure out what I'm talking about, I don't think. All you got to think about the stuff that you do this to, I'll think about that tomorrow. I don't want to do that. I'm neglecting that.

Hebrews chapter 2, verse 1. The writer here says, therefore, and you'd have to go read chapter one to get the therefore. He says, therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away, lest we flow by, carelessly pass, let slip. You have got to pay attention. We must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. Now this is how this works right now. Wherever you are listening, I got just that long. I got a shot. The Holy Spirit has a limited window of opportunity because whatever you hear comes blowing through, and if it doesn't take root, if the seed doesn't grab hold in that ground and bear some fruit, it is gone.

And you may be feeling it. You may be getting it. You may be responding, going, I know what he's talking about. I hear God speaking to my heart. I have neglected my wife, my kids, my whatever. I regret that. I'm going to do something about it, but if you do not apply what you hear, nothing is going to change. And you don't have much longer to do something with what you're hearing even today. And every time you let something come through and it doesn't take root, it'll get easier to let it slip by the next time, the next time, the next time. And then pretty soon, the world comes back in and says, hey, what about this, what about that? It's funny how there's nobody neglecting the world, neglecting to get into trouble.

Rebecca's out of town. I went to the store to buy some milk, and you know what I came home with? Captain Crunch. I had a couple of bowls of Captain Crunch for supper, a couple of bowls for breakfast. Captain Crunch. That's really good for me. Now, why would I work out, almost kill myself working out, and go buy Captain Crunch? Because I'm tired of working out. I'm tired of doing the right thing. I want some Captain Crunch every once in a while. Read it again. We must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. You know what that means? You are or will drift away if you don't listen and apply it. You've got to connect. You've got to apply. You say, I drift away. Then get somebody, get tied to a rope somewhere where somebody can say, hey, where are you going?

Keep reading. We must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. You know, neglect means neglect. The definition we read. You don't pay attention. You just let it go. It's no big deal. This is a big deal. How much bigger deal is it for God to send his own son down here to this hell hole, be born, live, die, go through all this. That's a big deal. And why did he do it? To rescue you, me.

Well, yeah, but you get all stirred up about it. You need to get stirred up about it. Jesus saved my butt and he is still saving my butt and will save my butt. That's a very technical way of saying. And as it turns out, I don't just need a ticket to heaven. I'm trying to figure out how to make it through today. One more. Second Peter 1. So this is Simon Peter. Go to verse five. He says, but also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. To virtue, knowledge. To knowledge, self-control. To self-control, perseverance. To perseverance, godliness. To godliness, brotherly kindness. And to brotherly kindness, love. And by the way, that is just a very logical progression. Where you start is you say, giving all diligence, add to your faith. You say, I have faith. So add virtue. Virtue, you add knowledge. So you say, I need information. You with information, then you get some self-control. You say, I don't have to go home and do this anymore. It is not controlling me. I have self-control. God has given me a way to say no to that. So self-control, to perseverance. And you say, okay, I said no once. I'll say no again, again, again, and then you persevere through the temptation. To perseverance, godliness. To godliness, brotherly kindness. And once things start working on the inside, you look up and go, I love people. How is that possible? And to brotherly kindness, love, for if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. You've forgotten. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble. Wouldn't that be nice to never stumble?

What if I never brought Captain Crunch again? You see, you're being silly. Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So whatever I put in my body, it better be glorifying God or not. Whatever I put in front of my eyes, whatever I do, wherever I go, it should glorify God. If not, I got a problem. You will never stumble for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For this reason, look what he says to him, for this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. You know and are established, but I'm going to keep reminding you, why? Because we forget, we neglect, we drift. We just shift off away and go like we've lost our minds. Out of sight, out of mind. It's more like out of sight, out of your mind. Why do you think we keep coming back? Read some scripture every day, talk to God every day, because it only takes a few days and you're off track. You know, I get in the car sometimes, I'm tired, whatever. I'm driving, I'm falling asleep. I'm, you know, and you think this, that's very dangerous. Yeah, it's dangerous. You're going to hit something. You're going to end up in a ditch. And the ditch is usually just feet from the road. Why do they say don't text or do all these things in the car when you're driving? Because you look down, and when you look back up, you've gone so many feet and you can't stop in time. You don't know where you are. It's the same thing spiritually. You just look down and you look up, how did I get here? Because the danger is all around you, the ditch is right there and bam, you're there again. Enough already. Pay attention. You say, well, I don't care about that. I'm telling you, you will. There are people who have had enough because the consequences of not paying attention have all of a sudden intersected with the pleasure of doing what they wanted to do, and it's uncle, time out, I'm done. I don't want this consequence anymore, so I will listen and make a change.

For this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, he called his body a tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. And as it turns out, we have got an amazing reminder, it's called the Bible.

Guest (Male): 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, Richardelllis.com. You'll find today's talk right there on the talks page along with all of Richard's audio and video messages. You can even forward them to a friend so they can hear them too. You'll also find the prayer wall to add your prayer requests, a link so you can connect with us, the contribute page for you to be able to give to this ministry, all of our social media links, and much more. So check it out, Richardelllis.com. And Richard's back now to wrap up today's talk.

Richard Ellis: So what are you neglecting? Who are you neglecting? And if there is any regret over that, are you willing to correct and protect your life in such a way that you learn something from that and make a change? You say, well, that other person, you know what, forget the other person. Forget your husband, forget your wife, forget the other side for once. Do something about what you can do something about. And then let God determine whether that person responds. Do what he tells you to do. I got to do what he tells me to do. I got to step it up. You say, I don't know what to do. Yes, you do. Get back to the basics.

Guest (Male): 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 8556 Richard. That's 8556 Richard, or through our website, Richardelllis.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 8556 Richard or through the website, Richardelllis.com. Your story needs to be heard and we're listening, caring, and encouraged. 8556 Richard or Richardelllis.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, Richardelllis.com. So till next time, have a great day and thank you for listening to Richard Ellis Talks.