Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: Can we look at each other despite our differences and say, "I love you as a person," and if we're in the same family of believers, as a brother or as a sister? He'd say, "Well, but we're different." Don't start with the differences. Start with the thing you have in common. And when that thing is Jesus, you'd be amazed what you can do.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Here we are in May already as schools are getting ready to finish the school year and summer vacations are being planned. But at the same time, there are many right now who feel like their train came off the tracks.

They're shooting up the prayer flares and hoping God is listening. Maybe that's you who's calling out "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday." That's where we come in. We want to be that safe place of hope and encouragement to you. I'll share more for you at the end of the program, but for now, let's jump right in with today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of this message is "Black Blood." A few quotes: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, and that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Is that scripture? No, but that's a pretty big quote. The problem with these quotes outside of scripture, even though that's a great thing to say, you have to remember that you cannot pull certain things off unless a human heart changes.

If your expectation is that people are going to behave a certain way because a Constitution says that's what they're supposed to do, you are dreaming. It is not going to happen. It says it right there, "We have rights."

But you have to factor in that those people you're talking about that are equal are human beings. They're fallen human beings that hate themselves. Forget hating other people sometimes; they hate themselves. So we have this massive humanity, just in our country, moving around and sizing people up. You think, "Oh no, one day we're all going to be equal." That is not going to happen until heaven.

Let me read you something else. "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'" So Martin Luther King was quoting the first quote.

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi"—I think it's interesting he calls out Mississippi, I have family there—"a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today." It's a great dream.

Now, you say, "Are you saying that's not possible?" Listen to me: it is not completely possible without Christ. And to think that it is, you're dreaming. If you want to make these things a reality, then let Him change your heart. Let Him change your mind. Let Him change your life, and then you move into a world and say, "Because of who He is in me and how He sees the world, now these things can be a reality, at least with me and the people that I interact with."

Do I love what he said? Yes. But I'm telling you guys, these things are not possible without Christ. I do think it can get better, and we can be nicer. But at some point, I don't want you to be nice to me; I want you to love me. I want to know you love me just because I'm a person.

Go to Genesis 1:27. Now, you say, "Are you just talking about ethnic stuff and racial stuff, and is that it?" There's so much screwed up stuff in the world. If you just sit down with women and say, "What's it like to be a woman?" a lot of women say they love being a woman.

But if you try to say through the millennia, what has it been like being a woman and how have you been treated? What a woman goes through sometimes in certain industries—if not all industries—just to get a job. We find out more and more things are changing in that area.

I don't think they'll ever change. I just think women finally are empowered to stand up and say, "You can't say that to me. You can't treat me that way. I'm not doing this with you or to you to get the job. It's not necessary." So, has that been right? Has that been fair? No. Has it been going on for millennia? Yes. And will it stop just because it got called out? No. Somewhere it will still happen because it's a fallen world.

Genesis 1:27: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Now, He didn't say which one was better. Just male and female; we're going to have two kinds.

I'm not going there today, but I believe there's two kinds. You say, "But that's not politically correct," and I'm going to say this as gently as I can. That's as gently as I can say it right there. See, you don't want me to explain away scripture. You think you do, but you don't.

You don't want me to stand up here and make everybody comfortable, because not everybody's going to be comfortable. Because when the book calls something out, and I'm addressing male and female here, you say, "Yeah, but what about all this?" It's a fallen world. Fix that, but don't be touching me in my area of expertise, sin-wise.

Leviticus 19:33: "And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."

This is not complicated. Now, I know I've got some right-wing somebody somewhere going, "Ah, but what if they got here illegally?" You can address all that, but you cannot mistreat the person. Even if you say they got here however they got here, all I'm getting at today is this: when you see the person, if you think you're better than them for how they got here or what their status is, the problem is not with them; it's with you. It's me looking at them, sizing them up because of whatever. They're a human being, part of the human race.

Now, you say, "I don't care what you say." I get that. We lose a lot of people over quoting scripture. My nails have never been long enough to scratch your ears. It's probably not going to happen. Proverbs 22:2. If you just read the Bible, you're going to love this thing. It's amazing what's in the Bible.

Proverbs 22, verse 2: "The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all." Same God made them both. Please don't think you're better because you have money. God have mercy on your soul, or mine, or ours. But don't think you're lesser if you don't, if you're poor.

Poor people have problems, too. They can sometimes feel like they're not as good because they don't have as much. And now you have an issue because you don't see yourself the way God made you. So rich people can get screwed up, and poor people can get screwed up. You say, "Well, then one day I'll be rich and I'll be okay." You've got to be okay poor.

All right, I'm going to tell you my story. I sat with a couple that I love and have known. When I sat with them, they were in their 60s. African American, grew up in—I won't even say the state—but east of Mississippi, even a little northeast of there.

So we're sitting talking about some family issues they were having, totally unrelated, and then she tells me this story. When she was a little girl, a Black family lived where they lived, and one day her mom had a giant pot that she was heating of water. A big basin of some kind to wash clothes in, whatever it was.

And something happened and her little sister was running around this and either tripped or fell or something and fell backwards into this scalding hot water and completely burned the back of her body. They pulled her out, and it was like a 30-minute ride, however they had to get there, to the hospital.

They're trying to care for her; she's in severe, just crazy pain going to the hospital. They get to the hospital and they pull in, and here's this little girl burned. She's frantic, the mom is frantic to get care for her child. And this is what she was told: "She's going to need some blood, but we do not have any Black blood. So she's going to die. You need to accept that because that's what's going to happen."

Now, you say, "What is Black blood?" Black blood, turns out, is blood taken from Black people to be used for Black people when they have an emergency because you couldn't possibly use white blood on Black people. I didn't know that.

So then she says, "I am going to cause myself harm in your hospital if you do not help my child." And they believed her and came out and said, "We have located some blood." Now, where does that come from? How is that even possible? Now, you say, "Oh my gosh, that's a horrific story. I'm so glad I'm not like that." Please don't be cleaning yourself up too fast. Sin is what causes that. And the problem with sin, the book says, if you've committed one, you're guilty of them all. So they got her help, and she's alive. She lived.

Now, let me read you some Jesus. John chapter 13. Now, what I'm about to read you, some of you have never heard, some of you know it and go, "Oh yeah, I know that verse." I am still not interested in the verses you know in your head; I am interested in whether you know them in your heart.

People say, "I know that verse by heart." No, you might know it by head. When you know something by heart, you'll never be the same. It changes your life. When you know it by head, you can repeat it.

So Jesus says, John 13:34, "A new commandment"—so this is like we had ten, I'm adding one—"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. And by this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another."

So this is what is so impossible about a gathering like this and for people who are not here and can't see this. It's a little bit of everybody. But just because we can get in a room together is not the issue. It's, can we look at each other despite our differences and say, "I love you as a person"? And if we're in the same family of believers, as a brother, as a sister.

You say, "Well, but we're different." Don't start with the differences. Start with the thing you have in common, and when that thing is Jesus, you'd be amazed what you can do. So what's the point? You either love people or you don't.

Now, I love a lot of people. I love kids, I love people of different backgrounds, but I'm telling you, I still got some areas where I lock up. I judge, I jump to conclusions, I get angry, irritable, impatient. I don't want to have anything to do with those people. So I'm in process. Hopefully, you're in process. Because if you're not in process, you're stuck.

Acts chapter 10. For the sake of time, we're going to read through these fairly quickly, so track with me. Acts chapter 10, verse 34. Peter had some challenges with this because of where he came from and what he even believed.

"Then Peter opened his mouth and said: 'In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.'" That's it. Every nation. There's no Jew or Gentile anymore; just anybody, you're in.

Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and following. Some people spend a little time on 1 and 2 and don't keep reading. Romans 12:1: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say," so he keeps going, "For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith."

So does it say don't think highly of yourself? This is an important distinction. You say, "Well, I feel good about myself." Just don't feel better about yourself than you should. Think highly of yourself, but don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. When you start getting too highly, you think you're above someone.

So do I feel good about myself a lot of the time? Yes. Does that make me better than anybody else? No. Do I have moments of fear and moments of insecurity? And so I think, "Oh, that person's better because they have that or something." The older you get, the longer you live, you sort those things out a little quicker, but you can get off balance pretty quick and start thinking, "Oh, I'm nobody," or "I'm somebody because I have this or I can do that or go there."

Just think highly of yourself; just don't think too highly of yourself, more highly of yourself than you're supposed to. But to what? But to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

Go to Galatians chapter 3. Keep going right. Galatians 3:26: "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Therefore, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise."

So this is where some people go, "Okay, wait a minute. It says here then that there's neither male nor female, so they're equal." Listen close. You can be equal to someone and have different responsibility than someone. So this thing, there's no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, all one in Christ.

Ephesians 2. And by the way, most of us—or I guess the people listening to me wherever you are—we're Gentiles. Thank God for this stuff, because we'd be in trouble without this stuff. Ephesians 2, verse 11: "Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." So it's not white or Black blood; it's Jesus' blood you need. Now, that you do need. And that's available freely. And if you go on and read the next piece of that, it talks about, "He's broken down the wall of separation," verse 14. Then down in verse 19, "Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God."

Let's go to Colossians 3, just so you'll know it's not just one isolated spot. Colossians 3, let's jump in at verse 8: "But now you yourselves are to put off all these things." Now, think, I'm reading this on purpose. Because if I just jump in at verse 11 and leave this out, you don't get to live verse 11 if you don't do 8, 9, and 10.

"Put off these things: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all."

So if you don't put off the old man, what does the old man do? He says, "I'm better than you." Because I don't feel good about myself, I have to find someone to put down to make me look better. Or if I want to feel bad about myself, I say everybody around me is better than me. You've got to stop comparing yourself to everybody else and let Christ live in you if He does and get on with your life.

Now, this is where it gets a little tricky. You live in a world where people don't believe these things and don't live these things. What do you do? You have to be healthy in spite of that. So let's say whatever your grievance—you're a woman, you're Black, you're Hispanic, you're white, you're somehow, you've been mistreated in some way and we sit and I listen.

And I go, "Dude, that's crazy stuff. I believe you. I hear what you're saying. I don't understand, but I acknowledge that's your experience. And I see how that would be terrible. How are you going to move forward?" "I don't know. I'm so angry. It's not right. I'm so frustrated."

Can you forgive? "I just can't forgive." It's not going to go well for you. It's already tough enough. How do you move forward? And then how do you help anyone else move forward if you don't move forward? And what's fascinating about this is everybody thinks I'm talking to them about their deal.

So certain people that are hearing me talk go, "Oh, he was talking about that." And yet other people go, "Oh no, he was talking about this because this is my deal. This is what I'm eaten up over." Let Him change your heart and then when you go into a world of injustice, unfairness, all these things, and all of a sudden you are healthy and you are whole and you know that you are equal—you know that.

Then people meet you and go, "Man, aren't you angry?" I was. "How can you not be angry? Look at all the injustice." Well, this is how He changed my heart. People don't want to die and live angry. That's a crazy way to live.

But when Christ moves in your heart, in your life, and starts to live in you and through you, you say, "But the world's still going to get away with these things." That's never going to change until the whole world changes. And that's not going to happen. You say, "That doesn't sound good." It's a fact. Not everyone is going to be saved.

So there's oppression, there's all these things. But when they meet the oppressed, when they meet the male, female, minority, whatever your deal is, they meet you and go, "How are you not eaten up with what's going on?" And your answer is Jesus. Then they go, "Wait, what? So you're free of that?"

"Don't you think there's still things wrong?" "Yeah, I do. But I'm not going to die angry. I'm not going to live angry. I'll take a stand. I'll speak up, but I am going to have joy." Now listen to me: if you have an issue and you're going about whatever you're doing in a godly way, you will have peace and you will have joy, and everyone around you will know that. Because you can't do that without Jesus.

Okay, maybe one more. James chapter 2. And this will help all of us, I think, if we think we have no issues, especially as Christians. James chapter 2, verse 1. And this speaks directly to this thing.

"My brethren"—so he's writing to Christians—"My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality." So he's addressing this issue of being partial to someone and not someone else.

"For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, 'Oh, you sit here in a good place,' and say to the poor man, 'You stand'"—notice one's going to sit and one's going to stand—"'You stand there,' or 'Sit here at my footstool,' have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?"

Now, what does that mean? The fact that he even wrote this to them says that this is possible. This is how Christians can think. And how many people go to churches and go, "Ah, that preacher's sucking up to the rich people"? Why would you suck up to rich people? "Ah, he's probably going to build something. He's going to need their money."

Let me give you a newsflash. I try to suck up to all of you because I am not raising money to build anything. We are trying to build a church, a family, that requires all of us getting this so that the world sees not a building somewhere—I've got nothing against buildings—but sometimes the building is more beautiful than the church.

And what Jesus said is they're going to come in and this is how they'll know that you are My disciples: you love each other. So if we suck up to each other across the board and love on each other, then a person who walks in the door goes, "What the heck? Before I even heard music or a sermon, I thought they loved me."

I can only cover so much ground and suck up to you, but you've got other people talking to you. And you either leave here going they love me, they love each other, or you don't. I can't do that. We can have a set of tone, we can probably lead in that direction, but that's a God thing.

So if you leave loved, that's Him. And that's what makes you say, "They must be following Him. I'd like to know that kind of guy." Not a guy who hates people and calls them names and thinks you're better and they're worse and trying to blow people up. He's trying to bring people together forever.

Okay, so here's the simple ending to this: you do need blood. It is not Black blood; it is Jesus' blood. Just listen. This is out of 1 Peter 1, verse 17: "And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers," verse 19, "but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

Old Testament: sin, animals were sacrificed because without the shedding of blood, there is no atonement for sin. God demands blood. You say, "I don't get it." It's okay. That's the deal.

So finally, Jesus comes as a lamb without blemish, without spot. The perfect Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. Jesus is born of a virgin, lives a sinless life, and is crucified on a cross and sheds His blood. And that blood, sprinkled in heaven in the holy place, the Holy of Holies, and God says, "That'll work."

So I come to Jesus and I say, "I have no hope in this world. I am lost. I will never make it. I can't make it here and I certainly won't make it there. It's not because I'm better than anybody else and I can't bribe You, so I come empty-handed and I accept Your offer.

"I understand that Jesus died on the cross, was buried and raised from the dead to rescue me. I accept the gift of eternal life, the gift of the forgiveness of sins. Save me." And as I say repeatedly, people say it can't be that easy, and I say easy for who? Easy for you, not for Him. Because it cost the Father His only Son to make that so easy.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Richard Ellis Talks. We deeply appreciate you taking the time to be encouraged by Richard's unique way of challenging us to become more like Jesus every day.

Here we are in the month of May, and we want to take a different kind of twist to these days. There's a common distress signal that is used for life-threatening emergencies where those who are facing dire circumstances declare, "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday," in hopes that someone will come to their rescue.

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