Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: I said, "I'm still stuck in this body, and I have desires, and I have temptations, and I go back to stuff." And the verses start making sense: "Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" I don't want to be this way. I don't want to live this life. And yet he keeps coming at you, and it's his kindness, his gentleness that leads you to repent even.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard's style is unlike anyone else's, where he shares the life-changing message of the gospel in a way that's real, refreshing, focused, and fun. We know that life is pretty challenging these days, but these talks will help you meet those challenges head-on with biblical truth, encouragement, and direction.

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Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "God Forsaken." If you think about the word "God-forsaken," it's not usually a good thing. If you end up in some God-forsaken place, you're in a bad place. And we'll see how this is even in the scriptures. I want you to go to Matthew chapter 3 first. I'm going to read you first of all here a bunch of verses where things are said by God to Jesus, Jesus back to the Father, and then track this, you'll see where we end up.

Matthew chapter 3, and this is early on in the process of Jesus's ministry. Matthew 3:17 says this: "And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" Jesus is God in a man. The Father is on his throne, and yet there is a conversation going on as though they are right there. Now, I don't know where all this is going on, but I'm going to tell you something. I don't think God's very far away. And the reason I know that is because he lives right here inside me.

So he can't be very far away. And whether he is light-years away, I don't think so. I don't know how all these realities mesh, but he is a very present help in time of need. So I don't need to be waiting for God to show up because I know he's already there. He's present. So Jesus and the Father are having these conversations at certain points in scripture you get to hear.

Go to Matthew chapter 12, another statement made here. "Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen," verse 18. "My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare justice to the Gentiles." Scripture stating this again. Matthew 17:5, a few pages over. Another situation. "While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!'" In other words, listen to him. He's the guy. You're not going to go wrong listening to Jesus. Find out what Jesus did, what he said, who he was, and do that.

John chapter 12. Let's jump in here, verse 1. "Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him." Then Mary comes out and pours this expensive spikenard on him. They start complaining this should have been given to the poor. Why was it wasted? Jesus makes a spectacle of their worrying about the poor and not about him, and honors her for doing this.

Keeps going down. He goes into verse 12. "The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!'" Then Jesus, when he had found a young donkey, sat on it, as it is written out of the Old Testament: "Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt." So even the donkey he rides into Jerusalem is prophesied.

His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him and that they had done these things to him. So he talks about Lazarus some more. Go down with me to 24. "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor."

"Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." Now, I have never heard God speak. I don't hear voices. And a lot of people hear voices. I'm not saying it's not possible. In my case, I have been in a room where I knew God himself was in the room with me. And I don't speak of this very often because I can't speak of it.

I think he doesn't do it a lot because then we'd start thinking, "Well, unless he shows up and speaks to me, I'm not going to do anything." And then we get addicted to that and we can't move. If you are a Christian, he has already showed up and he is already speaking to you because he lives in you and he speaks to you in the person of the Holy Spirit.

When you read the scriptures, the reason it is so important to read the scriptures is you say, "Well, I've never heard a voice." There is enough in this book to keep you busy your whole life. So stop sitting around waiting to hear some voice on a mountaintop somewhere. Read the Bible and pray and say, "God, talk to me, show me, reveal these things." You already have a gold mine to dig in. Don't go panhandling somewhere. Pick this piece of dirt and say, "Holy Spirit, you live in me. You wrote this book through these men all through the ages. So if you wrote it, you know what you meant. Then I'm going to read it. I need you to raise it from the dead for me."

And you say, "Well, I can't get it off the page by myself." Then get someone to disciple you and help you and maybe their faith, they have enough faith to raise the words off the page for you so you go, "Wow, that makes sense all of a sudden." Sometimes you'll come to me. Some of you come to me and say, "Wow, that made sense." Or I ask you if that made sense. You say, "Yes." Part of the reason for that is I may be a little farther down the road and I can explain it and God uses it and all of a sudden, boom, you get it. It doesn't mean you can't get it by yourself.

So don't give up. Keep reading, keep studying. But I have never heard an audible voice. And some of this, as we'll see here: "Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered." You say, "What does it sound like when God speaks?" They thought a clap of thunder had bust loose. Others said an angel spoke to him. Jesus answered and said, "This voice did not come because of me." I didn't need to hear the voice.

But for your sake, the reason the Father spoke to me and you heard what you thought was thunder, it was so loud. He did that and spoke to me for your sake. Why? "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth," talking about being raised on a cross, crucified, "will draw all peoples to Myself." This he said, signifying by what death he would die. Never be afraid to lift Jesus up.

You say, "What does that mean?" Don't back off of Jesus. I was at the beginning of an indoor football thing. What is that called? Arena football. And a guy who's now working for the Wranglers, I think it is out in Allen somewhere. So I'm in there at the beginning of this game, and some guy, I didn't know it was this guy, he gets up to pray and, man, he said "Jesus" probably I don't know how many times. I quit counting.

I'm like, "How is he getting away with this? What are they going to do out there and stop the prayer?" And it was "Jesus" and "Thank you, Lord Jesus" and "dying on the cross for our sins, Jesus." And I was like, this is unbelievable. These poor people have to pass the plate and give an invitation or something because it was all Jesus. You say, "Well, why would he do that? Is he just being obnoxious?" No, I know him. He had an opportunity to pray.

I used to get invited to go pray at City Hall. Now they don't invite me back because they send me this sheet of paper and say, "Now you've got to pray this." I'm like, "I'm not doing that." And some councilman will grab me by the arm and take me out in the hall and say, "Did you not get the email?" "Yes, sir, I got the email." "Did we not explain there that you cannot pray in those names?" I said, "Yeah, but dude, don't invite me back. If you don't want me down here praying, don't bring me back."

I told them when they called. I am not giving a speech. I'm having a conversation with God and I don't know any other way to get through but Jesus's name. And if some imam comes down here and prays in Allah's name, you're not shutting him down, so quit shutting me down. Wow, that almost went to preaching there for a minute.

All right, go over to Mark 14. Now, I don't think these are the only times that Jesus spoke to the Father. And I don't think these are necessarily the only times that the Father spoke to Jesus because I think they had a running conversation, which we should have as well. This whole thing in the Bible about praying without ceasing, you say, "Well, does that mean when you wake up, you should start praying?" You should be praying all night.

You say, "Well, how do you do that?" You have the Spirit of God living in you and he makes intercession. Jesus makes intercession at the right hand of the Father, the Spirit with groanings that can't be uttered. You can be praying all night while you're sleeping because the Spirit of God lives in you. So even when you go to sleep, you say, "Lord, I'm going to sleep. My body needs rest, but if you need to keep praying, knock yourself out. You can use me."

And then if you're on that frequency and you're dialed up and you're praying your whole day, it's everything. I don't really know how to explain this to you. It's everything. Yesterday, my youngest said, "Dad, let's go get some yogurt." And I went to a place that was cheaper. She said, "No, no, no, Dad, go to the other one." I was like, "This is cheaper. You usually want this one." Women.

So I said, "Okay." I kept driving, went in, boom, walked in, and there was the reason. You say, "Was it about yogurt?" It has nothing to do almost with the yogurt. She wanted yogurt and that got me where we were supposed to go. So pay attention. You can't come in here and punch your clock one day a week and go, "Oh, well, I wonder why my Christianity doesn't work." You've got to have a conversation.

What drives my wife insane is I don't communicate with her. I know that comes as a shock. And she tells me over and over, "If you would just tell me what you did or what you're doing or let me know what's going on, I don't freak out. I don't panic." But see, I like surprises. So I'm trying to surprise her and sneak around and do things for her and then she doesn't like the surprise because she wanted to know what was going on. So we're not doing too good in that category.

I've got to quit surprising her and just tell her. And sometimes you go to God and you say, "Okay, God, I'm talking to you. What are you doing? What's going on here?" And then you don't hear anything. You're like, "Okay, well, what's up with that? Or I asked for this. We had an example of this. I asked for this and you didn't do it. You did something else. Can you please explain to me what's going on?" And then you get nothing.

So what are you going to do? You're going to flip him off? I've seen a guy double-barrel flip God off and spoke God's name and just boom. You can get that angry, right? You say, "Oh, I would never do that." Think of the crap you've said to God when you're angry by yourself somewhere. I'm not always happy with him, but I don't always understand what's going on either, right?

So at some point, you go, "Okay, I don't get this. I don't know why a baby died. I don't know, but I've got nowhere else to go. So I trust you, but let me tell you something: this better be good. And even if I don't get it on this side, when I get to heaven, it better have been good. And I know it will be because you are good and I can trust you." Talk to him. Let him talk to you.

Mark 14, part of this conversation, verse 36. Jesus, I think he's in the garden here, right? He's taken the 11 that are left. He's taken three of those a little farther into the garden. He goes a little farther by himself and starts going at it with his Father. And the reason I'm giving you this one, if you go read the other accounts in the Gospels, it's a little different how what Mark gives us here is very interesting.

Because Jesus, it says in 36: "And He said, 'Abba, Father.'" It's not just this "Father." Some people say "Father," and it's really a term of endearment. I call my dad "Daddy." Or I'll say "Dad" every once in a while. But you don't just go around calling somebody "Daddy" unless they're your daddy. So you cannot use these terms, and Abba, by the way, in the scriptures, is a very, very, very close thing.

It's not a stale, distant—have you ever seen these men that walk up to their kids and shake hands and step back like they're complete strangers? You know why they do that? Because they're complete strangers. You watch a man, my dad walks in here, I will grab my father around the neck and I will kiss him on the cheek and I'll tell him I love him because I do. I get frustrated with him, but I don't have any problem loving on my dad.

The Father loved this kid. And they have and had and always will have a relationship that is unbelievable. And Jesus knows what is coming in a matter of hours. He's about to be arrested. He's got his buddies as close as he can keep them, and even they are falling asleep on him. And he goes a little farther and here's his prayer: "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will. Not my will but your will be done."

Now, that I know nothing about because that little exchange between Jesus and the Father is very, very intense. You say, "Was Jesus trying to get out of it?" He's saying if there's any way around what this cup I'm about to drink of, but if there's not, "Not my will, your will be done." Sooner or later, and you probably have already been here, you've hit a moment like that—not in terms of dying for the sins of the world, but you're going to have a moment if you haven't had it when Jesus basically, God himself says, "This is where we're going. And this is what it's going to take and this is the cost."

She's not going to live. She's going to die. He's not going to make it. You're going to end up divorced. And that's the cup. And all things are possible for me, but this is the deal. You are going to lose, you are going to suffer, and I need you to take the cup and drink it and trust me. And pray not my will, but your will be done. You say, "Well, I'm trying to avoid those cups." At some point, you're going to have to face it because they come.

Look at Luke 22. Luke 22:41, and this is the same scenario, a little bit different details. Jesus has taken the 11, the three a little farther. Verse 41: "And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, 'Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.'" And then look what happens. "Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him."

Something really interesting starts to happen here. The God-forsaken begins and it's almost as if God starts to pull away because everything starts getting dumped on our Jesus. The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, it starts to happen. But the Father is trying to take care of his son and an angel is sent to strengthen him because he's got a long road to go.

Now, one of my curiosities when I get home, when I get to heaven, is going to be to find out and maybe meet some of the angels that came along my way when God himself knew I needed to be strengthened and there wasn't anybody around, so he sent what seemed to be a stranger. But I had entertained angels unaware. You and I have no idea how much this God cares about us.

You say, "Well, I think he just sent Jesus to die for me and I got my ticket to heaven and then it's like good luck, knock yourself out, see you later, hope you make it. And then just jacks with us for about 30, 40, 50 years till we get home and laughs in our face." It's not that way. How can you come up with anything but concern and compassion and care? You're dealing with a God who basically abandons his own boy to get you into his family.

So why do you think he'd quit there just to get you some ticket? It's about your whole life. You say, "But I struggle." I struggle too. You say, "I'm still stuck in this body, and I have desires and I have temptations and I go back to stuff." And it's kind of like the verses start making sense: "Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" I don't want to be this way. I don't want to live this life.

And yet he keeps coming at you, and it's his kindness, his gentleness that leads you to repent even. You've got to stop thinking if you believe that God is against you, then you're in a heap of trouble. If he is for us, and he is, who can be against us? You say, "But I don't get that. I don't believe that." I didn't get that till I was in my 20s. And all of a sudden for me, it was one day, on a dime, my whole world changed and I realized that he loved me.

I had no idea how much he loved me. And people say, "Well, you cry and you get all emotional and you get all passionate." It's impossible not to. I had no idea how much he cared about me. Had no idea. And if that ever happens to you, you'll never get over it either. And God help you if you do. You say, "Well, nobody's—whatever you're describing, nobody's ever loved me that way." Let him love you that way. You say, "Well, but you had other people to give you an idea of that." Nobody can out-love him. They can give you a little taste of it.

So an angel appears to him from heaven, strengthening him. "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." He is sweating profusely. Luke 23:34. Now, you've still got Jesus. Now you've got Jesus on a cross. And now he's still talking to his Father. You're nailed your hands and your feet to a cross, you're pulling yourself up on the nails trying to catch a breath, the way it works when you're hanging that way.

Suffering and dying, you've been beaten out of him. And there he hangs and he's still talking, but look what he's saying. "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." And they divided his garments and cast lots. What kind of guy, what kind of man, God-man, man-god, can hang on a cross and still be talking to a Father who's gone silent on him, and is not only dying that we would be forgiven, but already praying that we would be forgiven?

Matthew 27, go backwards a little bit. Matthew 27:45. "Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' that is, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'" Now it's not "Daddy" anymore. It's not "Father" anymore. It's "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

He quotes scripture off the cross. Of course, everything he says is scripture, but Psalm 22 is what he quotes. "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?" And by the way, I'd recommend you go read Psalm 22 by yourself sometime. Some theologians think he might have quoted the whole thing, but that's not in the text. Go read Psalm 22 by yourself sometime and see where he was quoting from. He knew the context of that passage.

Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, "This man is calling for Elijah." Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to him to drink. The rest said, "Let him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save him." And by the way, a lot of stuff gets screwed up in the world by misquoting. He did not call for Elijah. But someone heard, "Oh, I think he called for Elijah." That gets passed on and all of a sudden it's all about Elijah. See if Elijah will come. It has nothing to do with Elijah.

He's calling out "Eli, Eli," my God, my God. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And he dies. God-forsaken. Dies. Now, let me read you three more passages, three more verses or so. One out of Psalms 37. Psalm 37:23: "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand. I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread." I have not seen the righteous forsaken.

Go to 2 Corinthians 4:8. "We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." And the last one is Hebrews 13:5. Listen to Hebrews 13:5. "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'"

Guest (Male): We'll get back to Richard in a moment to close out today's talk. But first, I want to share something with you about the program. Our mission is actually very simple: to take the planet. So it's our prayer that these daily talks from Richard aren't something you only hear and enjoy, but that they inspire you to share with others.

Together we can do this. The message of the gospel is something everyone needs to hear. And that's why it's a huge priority to us. And you can join us in this important mission. Call us at 855-6-RICHARD to say you're in. Or you can get on board with us through our website, richardellis.com. Well, here's Richard with some closing thoughts for us.

Richard Ellis: Jesus was God-forsaken so that we would never have to be God-forsaken. And if you end up God-forsaken, it will be of your own choosing. You have a decision to make because if you've listened this long and somewhere along the way, God himself has called out your name and you sense the person of the Holy Spirit—you don't know, maybe that's him, but God is literally after you.

And you know that. You have a part to play. God gives you the faith to believe. Let me make a suggestion: believe. You say, "Well, it can't be that easy." It's that simple. You can't even come up with the faith. So if he's given you the faith, then act on it. Do something with it. Believe. You say, "Well, how do I do that? What does that mean?"

You just say, "God, I don't get everything I know about this. I don't even know very much. But I get you love me. I have heard finally that if you let your own son die for me—you gave your only son to die, that whoever believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life—that's me. I want that." Then believe.

And say, "God, I believe. I believe you died. You sent your son to die for me. That he was buried, he died on the cross, shed his blood, was buried, raised from the dead for me personally. I am tired of this being for everybody else in the world. It's got to be about me, too. I do not want to be left out. I don't want to feel forsaken. So save me, God. Save me and change my life and use me to help somebody else get this." It's that simple. You want a more complicated God? The world's full of religions with complicated whatever. The book says don't get away from the simplicity that is in the gospel. And that is how simple it is.

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