Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: He had a message to get across, but he had to get across to get his message across. You say, "I don't know what I'm willing to do." Well, your example here was willing to leave his throne in heaven and come down here and live and die and be buried and raised from the dead to save our butts. So what are you willing to do?

Guest (Male): Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Thanks for allowing us to share this time with you. You may be stuck in traffic or stuck in life. Either way, today's message is going to help you get on the right track as you learn how much God loves you right where you are. Richard's unique style checks all the boxes with a lot of hope, insight, truth, and of course, humor.

Today's talk with Richard will get our conversation started, but we want to keep it going with you. So let's stay in touch through our website, richardellis.com. But right now, let's go ahead and get right into today's talk. Here is Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is Get ACross. Turn to Mark chapter 2. If you have a message you're trying to get across, then sometimes you're going to have to get across some lines, you're going to get across some obstacles. There are going to be some challenges to your own comfort zone where you have to go, what you have to do.

In Mark chapter 2, let's start with verse 1. "And again he entered Capernaum," this is talking about Jesus, "after some days, and it was heard that he was in the house." There was some house he was in. "Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And he preached the word to them. Then they came to him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men." So there is some paralytic guy who is in desperate need, but somehow there are four guys who are willing to help him.

And when they could not come near him, in other words Jesus, because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof. These houses usually had stairs going up the side of them, a flat roof of some kind, tiles, whatever it was. In this case, tile. They couldn't get up there because of the crowd. They uncovered the roof where he was, and when they had broken through, they peel everything back and literally destroy this roof, and they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, "Why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" But immediately, when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, he said to them, "Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise, take up your bed and walk?' But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins," he said to the paralytic, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God saying, "We never saw anything like this."

Now here is what I am going to focus on in this story. Some guy is in trouble, and four friends—whether he hired them, we don't know, whether they were friends, we don't know—but these four guys did everything they could possibly think of doing to get this paralytic man who needed not just to be healed. More than needing to be healed, he needed his sins forgiven.

And let me point this out. You say, "I have been praying for someone to be healed." If you had to pick between someone physically being healed and their sins being forgiven and them becoming a Christian, let them be sick until they die. Because if you get healed, but you die without Jesus, you are in trouble. So if you are picking and choosing, what Jesus clearly in this case did is he forgave the guy his sins, then he also healed him, which I think is why the guys were bringing him there. This guy is in trouble, let us help him.

Now here is part of my question to all of us today. What are you willing to do to help someone who needs Jesus? What would it cost you? What would you be willing to lay down if someone else were to discover this thing that you have found? These guys are willing to tear up a roof, lower Jesus through the hole. This was probably a scary deal for the paralytic because he clearly could not walk, so what is he going to do, jump up and run? He is not going to do that. He is stuck with these four guys who were determined to get him to Jesus. We have got to think in terms of, "How am I going to get someone to Jesus?"

Go to the next few verses. Go to Acts chapter 10. In this story, things get very uncomfortable. You may have to cross some lines, you may have to cross—not some ethical, moral boundaries—but you may end up in a situation, in a place, with some people where you are not comfortable. And if that is what it takes to reach someone, you have got to get over these things, especially if God gives you some impetus to get over it and do it.

Acts chapter 10: "There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, a devout man, one who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, prayed to God always. About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in, saying to him, 'Cornelius.' And when he observed him, he was afraid, he said, 'What is it, Lord?' So he said to him, 'Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa and send for Simon, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. He'll tell you what to do.'"

So this guy in Caesarea, miles away from the other city Joppa—Joppa is on the west coast of Israel—Cornelius has this angel show up and say, "Call for this guy, your prayers have been answered, send for this guy in Joppa." So he sends for Peter, who is at Simon the Tanner's house. While his crew is on the way to go get Peter, Peter then has a vision.

If you read this whole thing, Peter is waiting for dinner, lunch, whatever. He is hungry, saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners descending to him and let down to earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, beasts, creepy things, birds of the air, and a voice came and said, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." But Peter said, "Not so, Lord. I will not eat this. For I have never eaten anything common or unclean."

And a voice spoke to him again the second time, "What God has cleansed you must not call common." This was done three times, and the object was taken away into heaven again. Now while Peter was wondering within himself what the vision which he had seen meant, behold, the men who had been sent from Cornelius had made inquiry of Simon's house and stood before the gate. And they called and asked whether Simon, whose surname was Peter, was lodging there.

While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are seeking you. Arise therefore, go down, go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them." God is always working both sides. And if one guy is off in Caesarea somewhere and is trying to do the right thing and he's praying to God, he's doing everything he knows to do, and in this case an angel shows up and says, "Here's what you do, your prayers have been heard, send for this guy."

If the guy doesn't show up, there is a problem. Are you the kind of person that if the Holy Spirit taps saying, "I have this guy over here, there's a need over here, and I'm going to tap this guy over here, I'll get them together because this one is looking for me and this one is obeying me?" Arise therefore, go down, go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them. Stop asking questions, stop doubting, just do it.

Then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius and said, "Yes, I am he whom you seek. For what reason have you come?" They said, "Cornelius the centurion, a just man... he summoned you to his house to hear words from you." Then he invited them in, lodged with them. On the next day, Peter went with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And the following day they entered Caesarea.

Now look at this. This is how much this guy trusts God. Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. So he has his friends and relatives sitting there waiting for Peter to show up because he believed God would follow through. But the problem is God follows through, but he follows through us. And when we don't respond, then something is amiss, something is wrong. The message doesn't get across because we're not there to deliver it.

So you say, "I am sinning, I am doing some stupid stuff, but I am not hurting anybody but me." You cannot sin and not hurt somebody. It is not possible. Because when I sin, I take me out of the equation. I say, "God, I'm out. I have chosen to do this thing to go this place to be with these people. I don't want to do what you want me to do anymore. I am not available anymore. Stop tapping me. Leave me alone."

And then God is out there working on people's hearts and they are crying out. I believe there are millions of people crying out to God for help, and nobody shows up. And you say, "Whose fault is that? What's God thinking?" God's thinking everything right. We are not responding. He gets all these people in his house. As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, "Stand up, I myself am also a man."

As he talked with them, he went in and found many who had come together. Then he said to them, "You know how unlawful it is for a Jew... I shouldn't be here." He starts out by explaining, "Look, I am not comfortable here. I would not have been comfortable here to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Therefore, I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. I ask then, for what reason have you sent for me?"

So Cornelius said, "Four days ago," he tells the story, and he said down in verse 33, "So I sent to you immediately, and you have done well to come. Now therefore, we are all present before God to hear all the things commanded you by God." You better have something to say. You have to have a relationship with God in such a way that when you are tapped and sent, when you get there, you have something to say.

Acts chapter 26, go to the next one. If you read on in that story, everybody in the house gets saved, they get baptized, all heaven breaks loose. It is astonishing. Paul has appealed to Caesar because they are trying to kill him and as a Roman citizen you could appeal to Caesar and that stopped everything.

But in this process before he had been taken, King Agrippa, Festus, Agrippa, Bernice—these three people at least, other people in this court who got to hear all this, not in a courtroom setting but in this palace. Acts 26:1, "Then Agrippa said to Paul, 'You are permitted to speak for yourself.' So Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself. 'I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because today I shall answer for myself before you concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, especially because you're an expert in all customs and questions which have to do with the Jews. Therefore, I beg you to hear me patiently. My manner of life...'"

Then he gives his testimony. He tells his story. Verse 19, "Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance. For these reasons, the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand witnessing both to small and great."

"I'll talk to anybody. Saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come, that the Christ would suffer, that he would be the first to rise from the dead and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles." And he is so persuasive, if you go down a few verses to verse 28, "Then Agrippa said to Paul, 'You almost persuade me to become a Christian.'" Just came out of his mouth. It was so convincing.

Now is everybody you're going to share the faith with, share your story with, his story with, are they going to become Christians? No. But at least give them a shot. Give them a chance to hear it. Let me tell you a story. A friend of mine, he said to me, "I've got to reach my dad, Pops," he calls him Pops. He said, "My father is not well. He lives in Mexico City. I have talked to him. I will fly you to Mexico City. Will you go witness to my father?"

And I kind of thought about it, it didn't happen, and then finally I realized he wasn't kidding, he was serious, and this is what got my attention. Some crazy things had happened to this guy. His dad is a piece of work. And the stories that my friend tells about his father and the way he lived and the insanity of it all, you say, "I am not going to go tarnish myself with a person like that." And who do you think you are, Mr. Untarnished yourself? There ain't nothing but tarnished on this planet.

And if you're not tarnished, it's because God himself washed you in the blood of the Lamb, and that's the only reason you're clean. And if you got that, that means you're supposed to be going after unclean people. So he booked the flights, and we flew down there. So we're down there to see his dad.

Well, as it would happen, we get there and his brother is there, who is there for business. His brother's having a lot of problems. Plenty of money, but a lot of problems. Separated from his wife, and so he's with his girlfriend, his Mexico City girlfriend. And I find out we're going together with his brother, he and his brother and the girlfriend. We're going to dinner. It's about 10:30, 11:30 at night.

So we go sit out on this deal outside of a restaurant, and I'm thinking, "Okay, Lord, I'm already down here. This could be I have a two-for-one coupon. Maybe this would be good." When you're in this mode, and by the way, you should always be in this mode of, "Okay, what are we doing here? What's up with the brother and the girlfriend being here?"

So we sit there, have dinner, talk, laugh, I make jokes, be my stupid self and we're fine. The whole dinner goes by and seemingly there's nothing going to happen in that conversation. At the very end of the conversation before we left, it turned. And when it turns, God shows up and says, "I'm here, baby. Let's go." So I realize something's happening. And this guy is under a lot of pressure, a lot of pain and doesn't have the answers.

I ask him the same thing, "If you died, what would happen to you?" He says, "I don't know." And I said, "Has anybody ever told you you could be sure?" And he said, "No." I said, "Have you ever heard this story?" And I explained the gospel to him. Took my watch off and offered it to him as a gift. And he accepted it, and I said, "Would you like to do this right now?" He said, "Absolutely."

So we all held hands. So here we are outside in this little street restaurant holding hands, 11:30 at night, and this guy starts praying. And then his girlfriend chimes up in Spanish with him. Now I still do not know what happened to the girlfriend. This guy finishes praying, asks Christ to come into his life. We stand up, we're hugging, we're crying. He kept my watch. That usually isn't part of the deal, but he kept the watch.

I'm going to have to start buying cheaper watches. Anyhow, you know what, there's part of my point. Okay, you lost a watch. Who cares? He got saved. What are you willing to lose? So he gets saved. You say, "But his life is a mess." You know what, so is mine, and I'm a Christian. It's tough. Life is tough. It's complicated, it has challenges. But he's not by himself. And I told him this, I said, "Dude, you can never be by yourself again the rest of your life. He will never leave you, never forsake you."

So my buddy is completely overwhelmed by that. That happens. We go to bed that night, get up the next day, and we're going to see his dad. His father was a very wealthy Mexican businessman in Mexico City, back and forth to Dallas. A few years ago, he had checked himself into the Camino Real, the nicest hotel in Mexico City, into the Presidential Suite, stayed there 30 days at $3,500 a night. He was running and going and blowing.

70-something years old now, lives at 61 Myer Blanco in a backside of Mexico City in a little bitty house, a mess. Diabetes, in a wheelchair, Parkinson's shaking like a leaf. We show up, we go in, we sit down and talk. And my friend had said, "There could be these distractions, it could be chaos." We went in there. We sit down, I start hamming it up, being myself, laughing. The guy speaks French, Italian, Spanish, English, an unbelievably brilliant man.

And it was like a window opened. His woman he had been with forever stayed in the kitchen. He and I are sitting there at the table, my friend sitting there, and all of a sudden I realize I have an opportunity to share the gospel. I start talking to him. I normally use my watch to tell the story, but his son had kept my watch.

So I have nothing now to explain it the way I explain it. And I look down on the table and there was a lime. And I thought, "Lord, watches are better than limes, but hey, that's what we got, so okay. I go with a lime." I picked the lime up, and I said, "If I offered you this gift of eternal life, if I told you it's yours and you believe it's yours, is it yours?" He said, "Yes." I said, "What's missing here?" And he said, "I would have to take it."

One of the craziest moments I have had in a very long time is this old man sitting there shaking with Parkinson's. And he could barely lift his hands. I offered this lime out just like that to him. And he couldn't reach it. His arm went up, his right arm kind of went up shaking and he came my way trying to reach it. And I got a little bit closer and he grabbed it out of my hand and he took it. And I said, "Do you understand that we can have a conversation with God and you can do that same thing and he can come live in you?" We prayed, the old man becomes a Christian, tears coming out of his eyes. And I'm going to tell you something, this old man got saved from a lot of stuff.

The book says that someone who loves much has been forgiven much. He who has been forgiven much loves much. When you meet someone who knows what a piece of work they are, and they realize that that load has been lifted, that is an amazing moment. So we sat and I looked at my buddy and we're like unbelievable, the brother, the dad.

The wife then, she's got a blender going at the wrong time, it's a little noise, but I've had worse. All of a sudden, she appears from the kitchen, reaches down to grab the lime on the table, like she's going to go make some juice out of it. And all of us went, "Uh-oh, you can't have that lime." The old man picks the lime up and puts it in his pocket.

Now he has nothing anymore. His sons are trying to take care of him, his life is not over. But he's going to be with me forever. Now how did all that happen? You say, "Well, but it was you." Let me tell you, the only piece I played in that was I said, "Lord, here am I, send me."

You say, "Well, I don't know if I'm willing to do that." Let me tell you what Jesus was willing to do. Jesus has him a nice throne right by his dad, but we have problems down here because we've all screwed up, nobody's figured it out. The only way to rescue us is somebody has to go in. The Father says, "We're sending you, because if I go they'll think we love them, but if I send you, they'll really know we love them. So you're going in," this was determined before the foundation of the world, "you're going in, you're going to have to be born of a virgin, you're going to have to live down there with those people."

While we're discussing this, turn to Philippians chapter 2. Look at this. Philippians chapter 2 verse 1. "Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery or a thing to be held on to to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. And because of that, therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."

He had a message to get across, but he had to get across to get his message across. You say, "Well, I don't know if I'm willing to do that." Well, your example here was willing to leave his throne in heaven and come down here and live and die and be buried and raised from the dead to save our butts. So what are you willing to do?

Go back to Luke chapter 9. Jesus here in Luke chapter 9 is asking the disciples who do the crowds say that I am? So they answered and said, this is down in verse 19, "John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some others say that one of the old prophets has risen again." And he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered and said, "The Christ of God." And he strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day."

Then he said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." And then look at the rest of it. "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man, if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and in his Father's and of the holy angels. But I tell you there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God."

You're going to have to deny yourself. You say, "It's not comfortable." Forget going to Mexico City, how about next door? How about the coworker? How about the person in the cubicle next to you? Do they even know you're a Christian? You say, "I don't want anybody to know I'm not living right." Then live right. Do something already. Change.

Stop being a hypocrite. You say, "It's not that easy." It's that easy. Make a decision, make a choice. You say, "Well, I'm struggling." Get some help. Tell somebody. Is it hard? Are you going to stumble and fall? Absolutely. Get back up.

Listen, obey. There are people's lives at stake just because you got your little ticket doesn't mean it's over. If you're still breathing, you're still alive, then you are the person on the other end of the equation, and the Holy Spirit that's listening to their prayer says, "Okay, look. Stop telling me you hate your job. It's not about the job. I have people in here praying. Thank me for the job. Go to work. Get in there. Pay attention. Who is it here that's crying out to me? And when you're prompted, say something to them, and I'll get you out of here as soon as we get them saved, I'll get you out of here."

"What about me? I'm not happy here." Forget about you being happy. Have some joy. Thank him anyway. The book is written from prison in a lot of cases. Paul saying, "I don't like my situation here, I'm not going to write anymore scripture until you get me out." These guys are singing hymns and praise. You say, "I don't have that kind of game." Then get around some people who do and learn to sing, learn to praise him anyway.

God have mercy on our souls if we do not let him use us because there are people's lives at stake. This Jesus came after me, and it is my job to let him use me to come after you or anybody else.

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