Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: The nightmare of life is that without Christ, you will never make the shot no matter how hard you try. You're going to shoot, you're going to shoot, you're going to shoot, and you're never going to make it.

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. 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. Thank you for taking this time to listen. We know it will bless you.

When you have a moment, you might want to check out our website so we can stay connected with you: richardellistalks.com. 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 "Dude Perfect". How many of you know what Dude Perfect is? Everybody under 40. Dude Perfect is the second biggest sports website on YouTube and it's in the top 20 easily all around. It's five buddies from Frisco, Texas, who were roommates at A&M. They created Dude Perfect, and it's mostly videos depicting various tricks and shots and stunts. Let me read you some of these; they're pretty extraordinary.

In 2009, the group set the world record for the longest basketball shot after shooting from the fourth deck of Kyle Field. In October 2010, they extended their record with a cross-tower shot from a height of 66 meters or 216 feet. The basket was located 150 feet away from the tower's base. They're shooting baskets, and if you've ever seen this stuff, it's just ridiculous. In March 2011, they officially broke their record again with a shot from the top of Reliant Stadium, which remained in the air for 5.3 seconds. That's how far the shot was.

In January 2014, the group successfully attempted a shot from the 561-foot tall Reunion Tower with two of the guys holding the basket at the base of the tower. Why are they successful? They're not successful because they show videos trying to make the basket, although that's a part of the video. They shoot it, they miss. They shoot it, they miss. You think they're never going to make it. But the reason you go to watch the videos is eventually they shoot it and they make the basket.

We go, "Oh my gosh, Reunion Tower, Reliant Stadium, what else are they going to come up with?" They make money and have an audience because we don't just like people trying; we like people hitting the shot. The nightmare of life is that without Christ, you will never make the shot no matter how hard you try. You're going to shoot, you're going to shoot, you're going to shoot, and you're never going to make it.

Matthew 5:48 says, "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." What is God's requirement? Make the shot. You say, "I can't make the shot." Basically, God's saying, "Dude, perfect. You've got to be perfect. In fact, you've got to be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect, and it doesn't get any more perfect than that."

Go to Luke chapter 6, verse 20. "Then he lifted up his eyes toward his disciples and said: 'Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake.'"

Let me read this again. It starts out with "blessed". "Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil." When they speak your name, they're referring to your name as evil for the Son of Man's sake. "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven; for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets."

Let me tell you something about taking a deep breath and saying, "Okay, Lord, I'll take a stand for You." It may not be perfect, but I'm going to take a stand for You. I'm going to tell you what's going to happen if you take a stand. If you speak the truth, even if you speak it in love, you're going to get clobbered. You cannot be shocked. Stop being shocked when you take a stand and you say, "Well, they're not nice." There's no "nice", especially when you speak what God tells you to speak. They're going to come at you.

Not only does it say to hang in there, it doesn't even say "hang in there". What does it say? "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for indeed your reward is great in heaven." Now, this is going to get interesting today because it's gotten interesting lately. We're losing our minds. The devil's a snake, and what he does is he gets us so wrapped around our own little axle on our own little boat that we've decided we are so right and everyone else is so wrong that we start hating each other.

Someone proudly boasted they had gotten rid of 200 people, followers, on Facebook. I don't say this casually. What is that? To hell with them? They don't agree with me, so they're gone. I'm looking for these verses. Keep reading with me, verse 24. "Woe to you who are rich, you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep." Giving contrast back and forth. Verse 26: "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets."

A prophet gets up and says something, and people say that was wonderful. I get this, and I rejoice and am exceedingly glad about all these things. When I get pushed back over the truth, it's backfiring on you. If you come after me for speaking the truth, it doesn't work. That does not slow me down. You say, "Dude, you're supposed to be perfect." I am not perfect. I am taking shots, trying to make the shots. I'm trying to speak the truth in love. I will not get all of it right all of the time. I am reading scripture; I am not speaking scripture. Thank God we have a book to read out of, by the way.

Verse 27: "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies." Even if you here in the room or beyond say, "I hate you because you said such and such," you have no verses for that. You've got nothing. "Well, it sounds like you're angry." And who said I don't love you? This is intense, so just listen. I'm discipling a young African American guy right now. He came to see me the other day, and we're in our weekly deal. We spent time together and had a great conversation.

I said, "You understand that I am a white supremacist, insurrectionist Nazi. But here I am with you. So what am I doing here with you? I'm secretly conniving some way to destroy your life because you're black." It's not true. He looked at me and I looked at him like, "Dude, you know I love you. That's not what this is." You can't paint everybody into some corner on either side of the equation. Even if you can come up with something that you vehemently disagree with that someone says and borderline hate what they believe, you can't hate the person.

You've got zero verses for hating the person. Let me read it: "Love your enemies." You say, "I don't feel like I'm their enemy. I feel like they think I'm their enemy." Your job is to love them anyway. "I don't want to love them. I want to be upset." You've got no verses for that. Bring verses. You've got emotion, opinion, something you made up or you feel strongly about. Bring verses. "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you." So on top of them hating you and thinking you're the enemy, do good to them.

"If they curse you, bless those who curse you." There's nothing about this that's our natural tendency. You cannot do this. This is the kind of perfection God demands; you cannot do this without God. "Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you." What are we supposed to be doing? Loving, doing good, blessing, and praying. Is that what we're doing, or are we running our thumbs on some social media, deleting people, attacking people? You're crazy! It's not about attacking people.

Somehow we are supposed to be salt and light in the world, and we're supposed to stand for truth and do these things with people who see us as enemies, hate us, curse us. We're supposed to do good to them anyway. Pray for them if they spitefully use us and be smiling all the way through it instead of, "That's not right! That's not fair! I'm going to get back at them!" How's that working out for anybody? Keep reading. "To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks you.

And from him who takes away your goods, do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise." Golden rule. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Is that how we're treating people in the world today? You say, "The people I like, I'm treating that way." Anybody can do that. "I've only got this pool of people who are just like me, come from where I come from, think what I think, everything like me. I've gotten rid of all those other people."

Keep reading. "But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?" How hard is that? You just love the people that love you. Do you love the people that hate you, that don't love you, that curse you, that spitefully use you? "For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back."

He goes at it again, verse 35: "But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High." Why does he say we'll be sons of the Most High? Because we look like His kids finally. "For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." What are we dishing out and why are we shocked that that's what comes back? You say the world is doing it. Forget the world. We're not supposed to be the world. Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Again, God says, "Dude, perfect." But then He also says, "Dude, you're not perfect." All have sinned. What does it mean to fall short of the glory of God? Every time you throw the ball, you miss. It falls short. You never make it. You will never make it without Him. This life that's been described in Luke 6, you say that's crazy stuff. "I don't want to live that life. I want to be angry. I want to be mean. I want to retaliate. I want to get revenge. I want to show them. I want to delete them."

You've just got no verses for it. If all you've got is you, that's you. But if we claim to be the sons of the Most High, then we have to live a different life. We have to be different people. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21: "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." The dude that's perfect is Jesus. He knew no sin. But God made Him sin, He who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Now we can be made perfect, holy, complete because of what Jesus did, but not without Him. It will never work without Jesus. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, talking about the church: "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up."

No longer children, grow up! "Grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." If it's working, then all of us together come together to the fullness, to the stature, the measure, the perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Then we together look like, sound like, are Christ, His body, letting Him be Himself in and through us. Is that what's happening?

Philippians chapter 3, verse 12. Paul's talked about all his credentials. "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on." That is all of us. If you're a believer, you are not claiming perfection. I have been declared holy, blameless, chosen, all of these things, and one day when I am glorified in heaven, all that will be a fact. But I am in process, being sanctified like you are. We have to be patient with one another. People too many times pick churches the way they get rid of wives. "I'm not happy anymore. This isn't working out for me. I have the right to be happy. I'm going somewhere else."

I'm pretty passionate, I get that. You should turn it down. The way the world is right now, you can pick a church with any oven setting you want. "Oh, 350's too hot for me. I believe I'm going with a 125." Look up 125 on the search. Oh, that'll be all fluffy and nice and no one's going to say anything to ruffle us and Jesus. I'd like that. No challenge, no calling you out, no pushing you forward. But you're like 350, 375. I'm trying to be more gentle. I don't know if I am or not. I guess I am. I'm supposed to speak the truth in love; I just read it.

I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear. That's not going to help you. Where do you want to get? Where do you want to go? I'm not going to look at anybody—I don't care what color you are, where you're from—and go, "Oh man, you're from there? You're that color? You've got no chance." Because my book says if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things passed away; all things are new. Who's going to stop you with God inside you anyway? "Oh, but you can't be because you'll never amount to anything, you're from there, you were told that, you can't overcome that."

Stop listening to what the world's telling you and see what God says about you in His Word. Let Him decide where you're supposed to be and what you're supposed to do. Colossians 1:28, talking about Jesus: "Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." What is my responsibility? I can tell you every week, which I do, I love you. I try to show you that. It may not be very perfect, but I hope nobody questions whether you're loved by this church, by this pastor, by these elders, by this leadership.

We love you. We want the best for you. We are trying to do everything we can to gently challenge you and move you so that you end up that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Here she is, here he is! We did what you asked us to do to teach them, challenge them, love them, encourage them and get them to this place. Colossians 3:12: "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do."

Look at those words. These are not, "Power! I'm the baddest! I'm going to kick your whatever!" These are tender mercies. You say, "That's how you should be with me." That's how you should be with me! "I'm going to another church." Let me tell you something about church jumping. You have no more right to pick another church than you have to just go randomly pick another wife. You don't just pick churches; you should be praying about where God wants you. If He put you somewhere, until He says you can go, you don't go.

"I don't like it here." Who asked you? I belong to Him. I've been in churches myself before where I used to beg God, "Can I leave now? Can I leave now?" And you know what I got? "No, you stay." I said, "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." And you do what you're told. "Oh, I can do what I want to do." That's a child. That's a little kid who has not grown up. That's not any maturity. "Well, now you're judging me." No, you can spot a kid anywhere.

Go to James 1, verse 1: "James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." You say, "Dude, I want to be perfect." How do you get there? When you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Great, here's a trial.

That means I'm going to have patience when I get done with this. When patience has its perfect work, I'm going to be perfect and complete, nothing missing. Wouldn't that be nice? Then you start making those shots that you could never make before. James chapter 2, verse 13. I'd like for anybody still listening in here and beyond to really think about what I'm about to read you. "For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment."

Let me tell you how this works out for people who have no mercy: they get no mercy. If you are out there dishing out merciless judgments, canceling, getting rid of people, angry, running your thumbs, and then it comes back on you, do not be shocked. Judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Show mercy. You say, "But I don't like that person." You've just got no verses for that. "They hate me." Oh, we've got verses for that. "I don't want to bless them. I don't want to pray for them. I don't want to love them." Then you're just going to miss the rest of your life.

If you say, "Lord, I don't want to, but that's what You say to do, so I'm going to get out of the way and let You love them, let You pray for them, let You bless them, let You be You in and through me."

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, richardellistalks.com. You'll find today's talk right there in 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. Check it out: richardellistalks.com. Richard's back now to wrap up today's talk.

Richard Ellis: Last one, 1 John chapter 3, verse 1: "Behold, look! Look what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! What in the world? He loved me so much that He figured out a way to get me in His family and be called His child. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin." The only Dude Perfect was Jesus. But if you get you some Jesus, then you drop dead one day and you look at heaven and go, "Dude, perfect." And you look at Him and you go, "Dude, perfect." And then He looks at you and says, "Dude, perfect."

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