Richard Ellis Talks

Narrator: Today, on Richard Ellis Talks.

Richard Ellis: At some point, you have to stop looking around and comparing your life and your stuff and the neighbor's stuff and however they got their stuff. You know what? There's a lot of illegal, unethical ways to gain stuff. And you do not know what people are doing. There are ways to make money out there and you say, "Well, they got it, I want it." You know what? They may not have gotten it the way you want to get it. And you do not want to end up where they end up.

Narrator: You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard's style is unlike anyone else, 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.

Now, if you are not able to stick around with us for all of today's talk, you can always listen to, download, and even share this entire message with a friend right from our website, richardellis.com. So, let's jump right in with today's talk. Here is Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "Hardcore." And it's interesting when you hear this word anymore, it's kind of taken on lots of different meaning on our planet and it can mean either extremely explicit, intensely loyal, or stubbornly resistant to change or improvement. And in terms of the extremely explicit, there is something out there for a long time now called hardcore pornography. My personal opinion is, if you are into hardcore pornography, you are not just into it, you are probably addicted to it. Because the hardcore stuff requires some hardcore commitment and you have to cross a lot of lines to even be submitted to that. There is a commitment involved even there, but it's less of a commitment and more, I think, of an addiction.

Today, we are going to look more at this, not the resistant to change or the extremely explicit, but more the intensely loyal side of this thing or a commitment. Another way to say, another synonym, kind of for this for some people is "die hard." Somebody is a die-hard, kind of a fan or a hardcore fan of a band or something like that, strongly or fanatically determined or devoted.

Somebody said the difference between involvement and commitment is like an eggs and ham breakfast. The chicken was involved. The pig was committed.

Richard Schickel said that common cold of the male psyche, fear of commitment. And Warren Farrell said, "When women hold off from marrying men, we call it independence. When men hold off from marrying women, we call it fear of commitment."

And without going too far on this one, it is fascinating to me how many men will not commit. If you cannot even commit to a church, or a job, or anything, you know, look at a guy's track record. I am not saying ladies that guys cannot have challenges, but if a man cannot commit to jobs and church and certain things in his life and you think he's going to stick with you, you have another thing coming. I mean, you probably got what you signed up for unless you were drugged at the time.

Vince Lombardi said, "Individual commitment to a group effort, that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work, individual commitment to a group effort." And this applies to church, it applies to work. And, you know, very parenthetically here, if you do not support or believe in what's going on at your office, for instance, either get out or keep your mouth shut, or talk to God about it, or go to someone that can do something about it and say something constructive.

All of your yakking at lunch and the break and going around just undermining what's going on, it's not going to get you anywhere and it's not going to get that company anywhere. And if you do not believe in it, then get out of there. And if you're a Christian, you are undermining your whole reputation, in my opinion, by just saying, just, just contributing to the demise of the place. And people go, "You know what? That's not very positive or what kind of employee are you?" Either get in, get on the bus and go with it, or get out of there if you do not believe in it or you're not committed to it.

Now, I want to cite a few examples today out of the scriptures of people who, in my opinion, I think it'd be hard pressed, anybody say they're not, who were hardcore when it came to commitment. Joshua where he said, "As for me and my house, you know, choose you this day who you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." That is stepping up to the plate saying, "This is who I am, this is where I am going," not wishy-washy, but hardcore, die-hard, I am going to serve the Lord, kind of approach to life.

Another one is Ruth, chapter one, and you know that Naomi's husband died, her two sons have died, left these two girls, widows, and it's come time for Ruth to go back where she's from. And verse 14 it says, "Then they lifted up their voices and wept again and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her." In other words, Orpah was going to say, "Okay, I'm out of here," but Ruth is like, "I cannot leave you, you're my own mother-in-law." And she said, "Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law." In other words, go with her.

But Ruth said some astonishing words and I think reflect an amazing commitment to a relationship with another human being. She says to Naomi, "Entreat me not to leave you." In other words, please do not ask me to leave you, "or to turn back from following after you, for wherever you go, I will go. And wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me and more also, if anything but death parts you and me."

And then it says, "When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her." And I want to after reading all that, let me just point out this word determined in verse 14. It means to be determined, to make oneself alert, strengthen oneself, confirm oneself, persist in, prove superior to. She said, "You know what?" Naomi noticed, "She's determined. She is not leaving me. I'm stuck with her." Whether she felt stuck with her or not, she realized that Ruth was going with her no matter what. And it was not a mild commitment. She was when it's far to say, "I'll die where you die." That's how committed I am to this relationship.

Now sometimes this gets read at weddings and it's a nice sentiment, but this is a relationship between two women who love each other, have been through some tough stuff together, lost their husbands, and this is an unwavering, determined, strengthened, "I'm going with you" kind of commitment.

Over in Psalm 37:1, a psalm of David, "Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land, feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday."

At some point, you have to stop looking around and comparing your life and your stuff and the neighbor's stuff and however they got their stuff. You know what? There's a lot of illegal, unethical ways to gain stuff. And you do not know what people are doing. I am not saying everybody with 22-inch rims is a drug dealer, but I am just saying, you know, there are ways to make money out there and you say, "Well, they got it, I want it." You know what? They may not have gotten it the way you want to get it. And you do not want to end up where they end up.

You have to make a decision, am I going to commit my life to the Lord, doing what the Lord wants me to do, or am I going to constantly compare myself to somebody else and what they got and where they're going? I love this commercial. There's a guy, big old house, mowing the grass, he's smiling, driving this car, and, you know, going through all these things, the country club, playing golf. And he says, "Do you know how I have all these things? I'm in debt up to my eyeballs!"

You've seen that commercial? He's smiling, but you know what? He's buried. And we see people living a certain way and in debt up to their eyeballs and doing everything wrong to get to what they think is the right place and then it comes crashing in. Bankruptcies, there are people scrambling to file bankruptcy now before the law changes so they can just wipe out all the nonsense they've created in their lives.

Stop looking around, being envious of workers of iniquity. Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass. You have to commit at some point to God in this process.

The other passage in Proverbs 3:5 and 6. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." That means all of it. "And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path." At some point, you have to make a decision either to be hardcore in your Christian life, in your commitment to God and understanding His commitment to us, and trust Him and follow Him and obey Him, or just quit. And I'll read you one about that toward the end here today.

In John chapter 6, Jesus got into some really heavy-duty stuff in John chapter 6. And it sounded like cannibalism, "unless you eat My body and drink My blood." Everybody that had been following went, "What in the world is this? What is He talking about?" And you get down here in verse 60, it says, "Therefore, many of His disciples when they heard this said, 'Man, this is a hard saying. Who can understand it?'"

"When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, 'Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.' For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray Him. And He said, 'Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.'"

And it's fascinating that John 6:66. Listen to this. John 6:66. "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more." They ditched. It got too hard. It required too much belief, too much commitment, too much sticking with it, and just trusting Jesus even. Then some of His disciples left, the 12 stayed. Verse 67. "Then Jesus said to the 12, 'Do you also want to go away?'"

Now, either He knows what they're thinking, and I think in all fairness, if you're absolutely honest, we all have moments in our lives when we want to quit. And maybe some of us have quit. We all have these moments where we say, "You know what, God, You did this to my husband, my wife, my kid, my mom, my dad. I lost my job. If you're who you say you are and you cannot come through, you know what, I'm out of here." And Jesus sees everybody else leave and He gives this opportunity to the 12. He says, "Do you also want to go away? Here's your chance."

And listen to what Peter pipes up here and we're not going to beat Peter up yet. Later he denied Him three times, but this was a good moment. And I think sincerely because of the fact that Peter, though he denied Him three times, came back, this is really Peter's heart. Listen to what Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?"

And I really encourage you to ask yourself this question when you're on the verge of giving up. If you're going to be wishy-washy somewhere in the middle, you know what, you're not going to stick with anything. But if you decide to do this thing and to keep moving and to trust God and to follow God, you're going to hit the wall somewhere. And if Jesus were to ask you, "Do you also want to leave?" then the question comes back to Jesus, "Where would we go? Where are you going to go?"

Peter in this moment, speaking for the 12, or at least for himself, says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you the 12 and one of you is a devil?" Now, you think He'd give them a break. He's punched everybody in the nose this whole chapter. Bunch of them leave, he asks the 12, Peter comes out with a great thing and he says, "Well, that's nice Peter, but one of you is a devil." Not just a bad guy or going to betray me, one of you is a devil.

And he spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him being one of the 12. He says, "Peter, I hear what you're saying, that's nice, that may be what you think, but one of these guys is a devil." So now they're all going, "Oh my gosh, maybe we should leave, one of us should." And eventually, he did.

Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. Now, this is one of those deals I've almost heard too much. I'm immune to it when I read it. You got any scripture like that, you read it and go, "Yeah, I know what that one is" and you just jump down to something else. But try to think about this if you've heard it before. This is Paul writing to the Romans. He says, "I beseech you," almost, "I beg you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Now, it's interesting here, it's not like the chicken and the pig. He wants you to present yourself a sacrifice, but he doesn't need you physically dead. See, dying for Jesus in some ways is a whole lot easier than living for Him. If you wake up this morning, you wake up tomorrow morning, and the next morning, and you say literally, "Lord, I present my body, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to You, because it's just a reasonable thing, the way that I can serve You."

"Here are my hands. I'll do with these hands only what You want done. Here are my eyes. I'll look at only what You want me to look at. Here are my feet. I'll go only where You want me to go. My heart, my mind. I'll think about what only You want me to think about." It's a PG-13 crowd. "My sexual organs, my body, a living sacrifice. I'm not taking this body, doing anything with it you don't want me doing with anybody anywhere."

And let me tell you something, you wake up and put yourself on the altar, so to speak, like that, and offer yourself a living sacrifice, you're going to avoid a whole lot of trouble. If you turn yourself in. Now, the difference in turning yourself in up front as a living sacrifice, is you come dragging your butt in that night as a mutilated Christian, torn to pieces, eaten up by the devil, shot holes through you, the wolves just devoured you. You say, "Well, why do I feel so bad? Why am I so tired? Why is my life such a mess?" You didn't present yourself to begin with.

And the whole day, the temptations that come to be what? Conformed to the world. Everybody's doing it. You cannot commit. Everybody's going this way and you say, "Well, if I say no, I'll lose my friends." You know what? They're not your friends. They are not your friends.

Second Timothy 4, verse 1 and following. And this is a reminder to me, so I'll read it. "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ." This is Paul writing to young Timothy. "Before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at the appearing of His kingdom, preach the word. Proclaim the word, be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching."

Now, what does this mean in season and out? When it's convenient and when it's not convenient. When you want to and when you do not want to. And I do not know, maybe someday this is going to change with me. Yesterday I was driving and went by this place, something happened my exhaust pipe just broke somewhere. My kids thought this was a hoot because I got this. It was fun for about 30 minutes and I'm like, "I'm going to get this fixed." So I'm like, "Okay Lord, do I do this later or now?" And I have to, you know, kind of, "Okay, kids, do it now."

So I'm driving around looking and I found this place that had these, I needed some floor mat covers. I mean, I've never seen that place so I whip in there. I go in this place and I'm buying some mats and I'm looking at this sales guy and I'm thinking, "You know, I came in here for mats, but this is probably about him, isn't it?" I'm having this conversation in my head. So I said, "Well, maybe it is, but I got my mats, I'm out of here." So I went out in the truck and he says, "And what about him?"

So there I had to get something out of the car about church and go back in there and invite the guy to church, you know, like that's some pain. "It's a great church if you want to come. I happen to be the pastor." And, you know. Now, do I tell you these things because I'm proud of these things? No. I tell you these things because I'm in the same boat you're in. You haven't invited anybody to your church in months, probably. If you have one, that may be the first problem is getting you a church.

By the way, if you think this is a church, if you've got any baskets, we better take an offering then while we're at it. Make it official. No, do not get that's a true Baptist right there. He was working on something else till he heard the word "offering" and then he jumped. Now, what is it about this thing? We cannot even invite somebody. What are you afraid of? Are you embarrassed of your church and what are you doing in that church? Are you embarrassed of Christ? You cannot tell anybody about Jesus?

That's a complete stranger. He would not have known if I was a hypocrite or anything. How easy is it to say, "Hey, how are you doing? You know what, I came in here for floor mats, but how are you doing? I came in here to see you." And it may be about something else. You just never know. And you say, "Well, but it was about my muffler." You know what? It's not about your muffler. It's about people.

And instead of complaining when your muffler breaks, "Oh, what's that going to cost? And God, why are you doing this to me and I got all these problems." Say, "Okay, Lord, I know you're going to take care of me. Where are we going with this muffler?" Because there's somebody at the end of this muffler somewhere that's going to fix this, that may be needs some encouragement and I'm going to be ready when we get there to say what I'm supposed to say. Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that's within me.

Now, if you do not wake up presenting yourself a living sacrifice, you're not going to have any interest in doing any of this, because it's your day, not His day. It's a wishy-washy, you know, it's God in the nursing home syndrome. We build these beautiful buildings, we have a place for God to live during the week and we go visit Him on the weekends. "Everybody be quiet, he's old, you know, be quiet."

It's not about worship, it's just, you know, "We'll be gone in a minute. Good to see you, God. Have a good week." "Whoo, glad that's over, where are we going for lunch?" Let me read you another quote here. I do not know who said this. "There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results."

How many men I know, you cannot get their butt out of bed for church for a prayer meeting on a Friday morning at 6:00. You tell them we're going deer hunting, man, they are dressed in some weird stuff with, you know, they'll smear animal urine on them, all kind of mess, and go outside someplace, propped up in a freezing tree. Sit there for hours, nothing's going to happen, you know, they cannot shoot anything, they cannot, you know, it never happens, but they sit out there to hunt. If we were as committed to Christ as we are to hunting or to fishing or to a shoe sale, I just do not want to leave anybody out. You know, I do not want anybody leaving offended that he didn't.

You know, think about it. Women will just march through malls and sales and just do crazy stuff. Fight over clothes. "I saw that first!" And zero commitment to sharing Christ anywhere. You are going to offend somebody if you speak the truth. You can speak the truth in love, they're still going to be offended, but you know what, they'll respect you some point for spitting it out and they may come back around later and say, "You know what? You believe something, I'm looking for something to believe."

All right, let me read you a couple more. Philippians 1:21, listen to what Paul said. This is die-hard. "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." I'll just read through this last one and it'll probably be enough just to read it. Revelation chapter 3, writing to all these churches, "And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write. These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. If you would just be one or the other. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."

Now, think about it. How awful is it to get to the place where we make God want to spit, want to vomit, get us out of His mouth? You know what? If it's hot tea, great. If it's cold tea, preferably sweet tea, hot or cold, but do not be serving me any lukewarm anything. "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed. And anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent."

Be zealous. Be die-hard. Be hardcore. Pick a lane, get in it. Live for something. I remember a conversation I had with a guy about a four-hour conversation. He was into all this, it's just the wackiest stuff you've ever heard in your life. Walking on fire. He was a fire walker and he'd go in and speak to people, he'd make them walk on fire and he'd get a big old steel piece of rebar and he'd put it on their neck right here and on his neck, they'd get two people and he'd have them chant, "Pooma, chant, Pooma, Pooma," you know, some God or whatever. And they'd bend this piece of rebar by forcing their necks together and just all these powerful things.

So we went on and on, I shared Christ with this guy for four hours and finally I looked at him and I said this. I said, "You know what?" I said, "I've read all your stuff, you're into all this, whatever you think is important." I said, "You know what you need to do? You need to find something you're willing to die for." I said, "Name one thing you're doing you're willing to die for." And he said, "Well, I wouldn't die for any of this." I said, "You know what? I got something I'd die for. Because somebody died for me."

What have you got? You're die-hard enough, you're hardcore enough that if it came down to it, you'd say, "You know what? I'll take a bullet. I'll give my life for this because I get it. He gave His life for me. He died for me." For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. I cannot lose either way. Take my life, a living sacrifice. I'll go where you want me to go. I'll do what you want me to do.

Narrator: Richard will be back in a moment to wrap up today's talk, but first, I want to share a couple thoughts with you. Let's be honest, real life isn't about living some highlight reel for others to see. Most people have deep hurts, questions, and struggles. We get it and want to help you in any way we can. So, let's keep this conversation going. Give us a call at 855-6-Richard or connect with us at our website, richardellis.com. You can even put in your prayer request right there on the prayer wall so others can pray for you as well. Call us at 855-6-Richard or online at richardellis.com. And now, let's get back to Richard with a final word on today's show.

Richard Ellis: Let's pray. Father, thanks for the example that Your Son set, and not just talking about these things, and not just being a good idea, but the commitment that was made before the foundation of the world that Jesus would be born of a virgin, live a perfect life, die on that cross to pay for our sin, to provide for us not only the gift of eternal life, but the forgiveness of our sin, that He was buried and raised from the dead.

And no matter how many times we tell the story or repeat it, it is never any less powerful, because the Gospel is the power of God into salvation to those who believe. And I pray that someone today would reach out the hands of their heart and say, "God, I have got to make a commitment. I have got nothing worth living for and certainly nothing worth dying for and no answer for my life if I die. I've tried to be good, but that's not good enough. I need some purpose, some direction, some meaning. So I choose to repent, to be zealous, to be hardcore about something finally, Lord."

And I am not saying I'll never stumble, even Peter denied you three times after all that talking about nowhere else to go, only You have the words of eternal life. But Lord, I, I make a commitment to one day at a time, chase after You. And I know that even on the days that I run from You or however much time goes by, that You'll chase after me because You love me. You'll discipline me. Help me be hot or cold, Lord, and I pray it's hot.

And Father, for those of us who claim to know You, and yet our lives do not reflect much commitment whatsoever. And we think punching the clock on a Sunday and giving a little money to a church is what You ask for. You want our whole lives. Hardcore commitment, Lord. And as we make these commitments, Lord, I ask that You would use us, that our light would so shine among men that they would see our good works and glorify You, Lord, as a result of these decisions that we make to trust You, to follow You, to obey You, to commit our lives and all that we have and are to You. Use us this day, we pray, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Narrator: Thanks for listening today to Richard Ellis Talks. We're confident that the program blessed you and we want to hear about it. One way is to give us a call and let us know. The number is 855-6-Richard. Another way is to drop us an email. Jump on over to our website, richardellis.com and click on the connect tab at the top. We'd love to hear from you. And while you're there at the website, it's the best way to stay up-to-date with all the audio and video talks with Richard, post on the prayer wall, how you can join the team, and even a place where you can ask any questions you have to get straight biblical answers. Check it out, richardellis.com. Finally, we're grateful when you help us with the cost to bring you this program. Call us at 855-6-Richard, or you can contribute through the website, richardellis.com. That's 855-6-Richard or richardellis.com. Until next time, thanks for listening to Richard Ellis Talks.