Richard Ellis Talks

Guest (Male): God moved in my life when I opened the door of my heart and said, "Come in, save me. Give me a new heart, a new mind, a new life." And when He came in and did that, I got assurances. I got promises. The God of the universe has said to me, "Here's the deal. I'm not leaving, I'm not going anywhere. You've got facts to stand on by faith, and you don't have to be afraid."

Guest (Male): You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. We're so grateful you tuned into the program. Richard wants to share with you some encouragement, words of hope, and probably a laugh or two. In today's complicated, busy life, that's exactly what's needed. Richard's talks are always straight from the Bible, filled with truth.

Now, you may not be able to hang out with us for the entire program, but you can always pick it back up at our website, richardellis.com. In fact, you can find all of Richard's talks right there waiting just for you, richardellis.com. So, with today's talk, here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title today's message is "Ground Zero." Everybody knows September 11, 2001, a catastrophic tragedy not just for our nation, but the world hit. A term was used, at least about New York where the World Trade Centers stood. They keep referring that as ground zero. I want to read you a definition of ground zero out of the dictionary. The point directly above, below, or at which a nuclear explosion occurs. Technically, that's what it originally meant.

The second definition is this, listen close. The center or origin of rapid, intense, or violent activity or change. And the third definition is the very beginning, square one. I've had a lot of questions personally this week, and I've had a lot of people ask me questions. I want to start with the first one that seems to hit people, and that is fear. I want you to look in the scriptures with me at Psalm chapter 46.

Psalm 46:1 starts this way, the chapter. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore," because of who God is in verse one, "therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. God shall help her, just at the break of dawn."

Look at verse six. "The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God."

Now, when you get afraid, let me tell you what you do, unless your house is on fire and you've got to get out of it, which there is a time to run. You've got nowhere to run. Where are you going to hide? You're never going to fly again? You're never going into a tall building again? You're never going to get near a government building again? Yesterday, I heard airplanes. I was with a group of guys and a door opened and I heard an airplane. It was a sweet sound because it says, "You will not ground us. We will live, we will go on."

But let me tell you something, guys. There is a big difference in living and going on knowing these things about God and knowing God and knowing these things about God and not knowing God. Not because I'm good, not because I'm better, not because of anything, but the blood of Jesus Christ. I am a child of God, and I know that there is nothing that can separate me from my Father. Sin itself, I can choose to willfully sin and I wander off. But you know what He said? "I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. You take me someplace, that's where we're going because I will not leave you. I live inside of you."

It is not by works of righteousness, nothing I've done to deserve it. It is all by His grace. But people apply sometimes scriptures to our country and say we're one nation under God. Israel, they are and were God's people. The only people that are God's people are God's people, and you are one of His people if you are one of His children. Just because you live in America doesn't mean you're under some kind of protection. Now, you may find mercy and we may have God's hand withheld in judgment or different ways because there are believers here and because we pray and He answers our prayers.

But do not assume because you are American, you are godly. You are godly if you're godly, period. Nobody makes you righteous, nobody makes you right with God or godly but God Himself through Jesus Christ as the scripture say. At some point, guys, you've got nowhere to run. You have to stop, you have to be still, and you have to remember, "I am not God. Our country is not God." As powerful as we are, we are penetrable now, not impenetrable. We know that, we've discovered that.

But the safest place I can be is right here if this is where God wants me to be. Somebody asked me this morning, "Are you going to fly?" Sure, I'm going to fly. And let me tell you not in a macabre kind of morbid way, but there's a part of me, guys, that says, "You know what? If my ticket gets pulled, I'm not crazy about leaving my wife and kids, but to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. You can't lose."

You say, "Well, that sounds kind of cocky and confident, whatever." Let me tell you, it's not about me, it's about Him. God moved in my life when I opened the door of my heart and said, "Come in, save me, change me, clean me from the inside out. Give me a new heart, a new mind, a new life." And when He came in and did that, I got assurances. I got promises, not that you've made to me or a wife or kids have made. The God of the universe has said to me, "Here's the deal. I'm not leaving, I'm not going anywhere. You've got facts to stand on by faith, and you don't have to be afraid."

"Be still," verse 10, "and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." You want to run somewhere when you're afraid, run to God. Now, one of my great concerns about this whole process is that somehow we have foxhole faith out there and, "Oh my gosh, the sky is falling, let's run to God." And we run to God and things calm down and we forget what happened and get on with our life pursuing our goals, our dreams, our vision, our plans, and we go, "Well, God, everything seems to be okay. Thanks for your help and everything. We'll get back to you later."

And we run off our merry way. The goal now, guys, is to get to God and stay there. Because if a terrorist doesn't get you, time will. Jesus coming back or death, somewhere it's going to intersect and we're out of here. What are you doing with the only life you've got? You don't have to live in fear. Anger, the second one. Romans 12. Go to the New Testament, Romans chapter 12, verse 19. "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord."

Therefore, if it's not our place to take revenge... You say, "Well, then what is our government going to do if we go attack somebody?" There are consequences to things. You defend a country, but revenge is a different thing. "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Now, I want you to go back over to Proverbs and I want to read you something out of Proverbs 6. And I don't want there to be any misunderstanding about where God is on this stuff, and we'll see it in a minute.

Proverbs 6:16. If I told you that I could tell you for a fact seven things that I am positive that the God of the universe hates, He absolutely abhors, they're an abomination to Him. Here they are. "These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him." He starts out with what? A proud look. You know where more proud looks are on this planet? Right here in this country. We are the cockiest, most arrogant people alive. We've got everything, we know everything, and now all of a sudden we may not be all that anymore.

Proud people don't turn much to God. Something's going on all of a sudden. Our pride has been crushed, and maybe we do need God after all, maybe we are not God. He hates a proud look, He hates a lying tongue. You've got a problem with lying? Stop lying, repent, change from that. Look at the next one. Hands that shed innocent blood. So where was God when all this happened? I'll tell you what, sitting on His throne, hating every minute of it because He hates these things, and it breaks His heart.

But God has set a system up, a world up, where man chose to sin. So sin gets entered into the equation, and unless God comes down and shoves all this stuff down our throat and makes us live and do things we don't want to do, then we don't have a free will anyway to choose. He stands back and until the end of the age when everybody that's going to hear about Jesus has heard and the deal folds and it's over, until then, you've got to deal with evil, you've got to deal with sin. We sin all the time and rationalize and configure it and make it work.

God is the same place when we're sinning that He was when this atrocity happened. He hates hands that shed innocent blood. Verse 18, He hates a heart that devises wicked plans and feet that are swift in running to evil. We run to evil. We have so much pleasure out there, so many ways to satisfy every whim that we have. We run to stuff, we don't even think about it anymore. We go on the internet, wherever it may be. We go wherever we can get pleasure immediately. It's all about me, and God sits up there and says, "I hate this stuff."

Verse 19, a false witness who speaks lies, not just lying but lying about someone else, and one who sows discord among brethren. People who stir it up, make trouble, just troublemakers. He hates this stuff. Now, why does God hate this stuff so much? Because it got His Son strung up on a tree, that's why He hates it. Because it's sin. And when sin entered into the world, something had to happen, somebody had to pay. You've got a holy God and you've got a sinful world and God says, "I love them, I made them, I want to be with them, but I can't mix with them."

So He sends His own Son down here to live a perfect life, born of a virgin, dies on the cross, sheds His blood there, pays my way, your way, is buried and God raises Him from the dead and says, "I've conquered sin, I've conquered the grave, I've conquered death, I've conquered everything." But I can't even shove eternal and abundant life down your throat. You still got to choose that. And here you sit today listening to a message. You say, "Well, I'm not a religious person." You know what? I pray to God you never become a religious person. I pray you find a relationship with God or a person that has a personal relationship with this God.

I got to thinking this week and praying, "Where are terrorists in the Bible?" And I found one, and I'm going to read you some verses about a terrorist in the Bible. Acts chapter 7, we're going to start there. There's a guy named Stephen here. They cast him out of the city, verse 58, and they stoned this guy, a great godly guy named Stephen. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, and Saul stood there and watched them stone this guy and let it happen.

They stoned Stephen calling upon God, he's crying out to God and saying... He's not saying, "God help me." He knows he's dead. Look at this calm assurance he has. "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Beam me up, I'm coming home. These rocks may hit me, but I'm going to be out of here in a minute. Take me, I'm coming home. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." In his dying is praying for the group that's stoning him, and one of those guys is a guy named Saul. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. He died.

Verse one of chapter 8. "And Saul was consenting unto his death." Look down at verse 3. "As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women and committed them to prison," got them arrested. Look over at Acts chapter 9, verse 1. "Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of," look at the word, "the Way." I am of the Way, and the Way is not some plan. It is a person that involves a plan for salvation.

He said, "If I find any who were of the Way," in other words, followers of Jesus, "whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." Acts 22, flip over a few pages, verse one. Now, you'll notice in Acts 22 the guy's name is changed from Saul to Paul because something has happened to him on a road going out to arrest and terrorize some more Christians. The God of the universe, Jesus Himself, stopped him on the road to Damascus, spoke to him, and his whole life is turned around.

Now, let me tell you something. For Paul, that day was ground zero. And I don't know who you are and where you're going and what your life's about, but I'm telling you, you can be going hell-bent in the absolute wrong direction and in a moment's notice the God of the universe encounter you and your whole life be changed. And this happened to this guy named Saul. He encountered the living God, the living Christ, and his whole life was changed. And in Acts chapter 22, he's telling about some of this.

Verse one, "Brethren and fathers, hear my defense before you now." He's speaking to some religious leaders. And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept the more silence, they were impressed. Then he said, "I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel," best teacher you could have. "Taught according to the strictness of our fathers' law and was zealous towards God as you all are today. I was one of you."

But look at this, verse 4. "I persecuted this Way to the death." He wanted these people dead and got them killed. "Binding and delivering them to prisons, both men and women, as also the high priest bears me witness and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished." He said, "You know what I'm talking about because you gave me the letters and authorized me to go get them."

Go down to verse 19. "So I said, 'Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believe on You; and when the blood of Your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by consenting to his death and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.' Then He said to me, 'Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.'" Acts 26, turn a few pages, 26:9. "Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them."

"And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities." You say, "Well, I'm not that bad. I've never done anything like this." Then there's hope. But see, someone out there says, "You don't understand, I've killed somebody. Nobody knows it. I've never turned myself in. I've murdered somebody. God will never take me, He'll never forgive me." Then what are you going to do with Paul?

First Corinthians 15, 1 Corinthians 15:1. "Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures." You've got to start by saying, "God, I'm a sinner." As sad as it is the things that have happened, guys, there's something even more sad and that's to die a sinner and to carry the load you're carrying: the sin, the pain, the fear, the guilt, the shame, whatever you carry.

You have a place to take it, you have a God who has already paid for it. You hand it over, you trade it in. You take all your crap and trade it in for all His glory, all His forgiveness. And Paul says to them, "I declare to you that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried." He died on the cross, He was buried, "and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures." Now, guys, that is the gospel. And if you will believe those facts not in your head but in your heart and say, "God, I believe that Jesus, that He is God and He died on a cross for me, that He was buried for me, that He was raised from the dead for me."

"And that all my sin was put on Him, and I accept the forgiveness of sins that You offer to me and I ask You to come live in me and through me and change me forever. If You can change a guy like Saul to Paul, then You can change me into anything You want to, God. My way sucks, it doesn't work. You got to come get me, God. And I'm throwing myself at Your mercy. You got to help me because I got nowhere else to go, I got nowhere to hide, and nobody's ever loved me enough."

The thing I tell people repeatedly, I have never gotten over that somebody died for me. I am alive and I will live forever because somebody died for me. And it's not just somebody, the God of the universe in the person of Jesus Christ came here, lived here, went through everything we've got to go through, yet without sin, died, was buried, raised from the dead, and I get a life. And I don't live it perfectly all the time, but I have the possibility of living a great life if I'll submit to His will for my life.

Look down at verse 9. Paul says, "For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain." Paul said, "I didn't deserve it, but because of His grace, the giving of His goodness when I had no way to pay, because of that goodness, I am what I am." Guys, that is all I am. The only reason I am anything that I am is absolutely the grace of God. Any goodness you see in me or anybody else can be attributed to nothing but the grace of God or it'll be a waste. Goodness without grace is a waste.

Now go to Luke 13, go back to your left. 13:1. And this is some people around Jesus, and verse one says, "There were present at that season some who told Him," Jesus, "told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices." Pilate, the ruler in that day, had gone in... a sacrifice was taking place, probably in the temple, in the priests' court some think, and he had sent soldiers in somehow and they had been killed and the people's blood was mingled with the sacrifice. It was just a terrible act.

And Jesus answered and said to them, "Do you suppose that these guys were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things?" "Do you think that happened to them that Pilate did it to them because they were worse people than all the other Galileans? So maybe somehow it happened to them because they were just really, really, really bad people?" He says, "I tell you, no." He says, "It wasn't about the people that were randomly killed there. It's not that they were worse than anybody else, they were just the ones killed."

He says, "I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." You're worried about whether they were good or bad or what was going on there. Don't worry about that, they're gone. It wasn't about that. If you don't repent, if you don't change your mind, Jesus said you're going to die the same way or in other words, you're going to die. What are you going to do about you? Now, what does the word repent mean? You read this in the Bible, we don't use it a lot today. It means to change your mind.

It means you're going down the road of your life and you say, "Well, this is okay, this is okay. Yeah, there's a God, but I can get there my way, and I'm a good person and my good deeds will outweigh my bad deeds and I'm going to be okay." That's what you think, that's not what God says. He says it's a gift. It's not by any works of righteousness that we have done. It's a gift. You can't pay for it, you'll never be good enough. So when you repent, you change your mind. You say, "God, I've been saying and thinking this, but the truth is I don't have a chance in heaven or hell without You."

"So I'm changing my mind. I'm going to say what I've been saying is wrong and what You're saying is right and I'm going to go this way." You've got to think different, you've got to repent, you've got to change. And if you're not a Christian, you repent and realize you are a sinner. You're not just a, "Well, I'm an okay guy and I've got some bad habits." Sin is sin. You acknowledge you're a sinner. If you're a Christian, you say, "God, I've sinned. I'm not going to play games with me or You anymore, anybody else. There's behavior, there are things in my life You've been after. I'm done. You're right, I'm wrong, and I'm going to do the right thing."

And He says to them, "Don't worry about whether they're bad or not. If you don't repent, you'll likewise perish." Look at verse 4, and He cites a historical tragedy in that day. "Or those 18 on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them. He said, 'Do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?'" It was like because the tower fell on those 18 people, they were all evil people and got what they deserved. He said it's not that they were worse than anybody else. The tower fell, it hit them.

Is it that God judged those thousands of people in Washington and New York because they were some kind of evil people because they were in that building? No, they were people that happened to be there when evil was perpetrated and they died. Jesus says don't get caught up in saying is it this or that. He says again to them though, "I tell you, no; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." Don't get caught up asking questions about all that. People say, "Well, is it the judgment of God?" It's sure got our attention, and we're aware.

Guys, God doesn't need nuclear weapons, airplanes going into buildings. He can fold His hands and it's over. And you keep reading the scriptures, you're going to find out there's a day coming when the moon will be darkened, the sun will be darkened, stars will fall out of the sky. You'll wish it was planes running into buildings. There is a terrible day of the Lord coming when there will be judgment, when there will be a time to pay, there will be a standing up before God and saying, "Okay, what are you going to say?"

You say, "Well, you're trying to scare the hell out of us." Let me tell you something, it isn't about scaring you. It's about you saying, "God, I see it, and I'm going to do something about it. I believe it or you don't." Second Chronicles 7:14, and it's simply this: "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." God, help us to humble ourselves, and pray, and seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways. Because, guys, unless we do that, there is no hope for America, there's no hope for anybody. And God won't settle for partial adoration, He wants everything from all of us.

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, richardellis.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.

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Richard Ellis: The center or origin of rapid, intense, or violent activity or change, the very beginning. For some of you, ground zero is right here, right now. This week, Thursday after lunch, I sat down with a girl who had some questions and we talked. And I asked her, I said, "If something happened to you today, where would you go?" She said, "I think to heaven." And I said, "Do you know that you could be sure?" And we talked through it and I explained to her that Jesus died for her, that heaven was a gift.

You reach out the hand of your heart as it were and say, "God, I got nothing to offer You in exchange. I'm asking You to come and live in me and through me. I'm accepting the gift of eternal life and the forgiveness of sins." And sitting together in a building downtown, she was a little afraid, she was a little unsure, biggest decision you ever make in your life, and she bowed her head. We bowed our heads. I didn't have a script and I prayed a simple prayer and she prayed it out loud with me.

And she'll never be the same. She went from darkness to light. She went from the power of Satan to the power of God. She passed from death to life and she will never be the same. Will she never have any problems? No. Will there never be any threats against her life or surroundings? No, that doesn't guarantee that either. It just means if she lives, she's okay; if she dies, she's okay. And there are a lot of people that don't know that assurance. It is a battle, but you got to decide who's going to win. And only you decide that.

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