Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: I can go a long time for whatever reason. I've done this in my life without reading these words. But let me tell you about this book. You'll be back. You can lay it down. You can put it on a shelf somewhere and say, "No maintenance. I don't need that book anymore." And God will go, "Okay, let's try it your way, big boy."

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. Now, if you're 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 today's message is "In the Red," simply defined as operating at a loss or being in debt. Now, I may reference here a little bit some financial stuff, but that's not really where I'm going. If you are taking out of an account more than you are putting in, you've got a problem. Now, in our country, we have a solution for that. It's called a credit card, because you really don't have to have the money in your account. You can spend into the future and fix all your present problems.

Until the future arrived, and it's probably here for you like everybody else. That little piece of help showed up when I was a freshman in college. It's amazing what happens when you go to college and what credit card companies know is they can mail you a credit card. Me, the student, I got that hot little thing in the mail and thought I'm in business, because even if I don't have money, they believe in me to the tune of about $1,200 in credit that I could go spend.

They didn't believe in me at all. They believed that if I was in college, I probably had parents that if I did something crazy, they'd back it up and pay the bill. It was like giving you crack. We'll give you free crack for a little while and get you hooked, then you can't get away because now you're using credit cards to spend, to spend, to spend. There is something about the first part of this definition: operating at a loss. This isn't going to be some newfangled thing. It's going to be a reminder message of sorts.

You cannot expect to withdraw more than you are depositing. And if you are operating spiritually in the red, you're probably not going to listen. If you're listening out there someplace, you probably won't listen much longer. Because sooner or later, you get so spiritually anemic, so weak, so worn down, so separated out that you don't have anything to replenish. Your solar panels aren't out. The battery dies. It goes down, it goes down, and you just can't muster anything anymore. You've got to make deposits.

You have to spend time in the Scriptures, in a relationship with Christ, or it is not going to work. You are going to get pulled out there to sea. The undertow is too strong. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches are too overwhelming. You will not be able to fight it. In the Scriptures, it talks about armor, the armor of God. And what is the only piece of offensive armor that you've got? The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Now, people say it's an old book. So, what is the point of this? "It's full of errors," that's what everybody tells me. You know what's full of errors? Me. I am full of errors. And my errors, when I go to this book and I read it, it's like a mirror. I look in the mirror and go, "Ooh, not so much." The older you get, the more dimmers you have in your bathrooms, the less wattage those bulbs have. There are people that like even run by mirrors. They sneak by them and don't want to catch a glimpse of themselves in that mirror.

This is hard to do sometimes. But if you actually want to see who you really are, then just give Him a shot. You say, "But it's old stories about old people. They're dead and they're gone." You know what? They're timeless stories. Certain directions for certain things haven't changed in hundreds and hundreds of years because they're still the directions. And everything is covered in here. You figure out this book and your life will make a whole lot more sense.

Now, if you just go to this book like just words and say, "Well, but it's just information," the only way you're going to have any transformation in your life is to have some application of the information to your life, and that's where you have the transformation. But you have to read it first. Let me take you first of all here to Nehemiah, and it's Chapter 8. There ought to be something in us. The Scripture talks about a hunger and a thirst for righteousness, for things to be right between me and God.

And see, for me at this point in my life, no matter how screwed up I am, no matter what I do, the cool thing about God and His love for us, at least this is how it works for me, is I can find myself in a really bad place and He comes after me. He comes after me. He comes out there and He goes, "Well, how'd we get here, son?" "Well, You know how I got here. What are You talking about?" "It didn't work again, did it?" "No, sir." "Would you like a ride home?" "I think I would." "You don't want to stay here?" "No, sir. I don't want to stay here because there's nothing here." "Well, okay. Hop in. I'll take you home."

And you say, "Well, you'd never leave again, would you?" Yeah. They come knocking on your window in the middle of the night. "Hey, dude. Come on. Let's sneak out again. Let's go again. Let's have some fun." Your heart races. Oh, we're going to have some fun. "Hey, Dad. Can you come get me?" What are you talking about? I'm talking about there's no place like home. There is no God like our God. Now, how do you know who this God is? How do you know what He's thinking? The no-brainer way. You say, "Well, I look at creation. There's order. There's purpose. There's plan. There's rhythm. There's seasons. It's just amazing how the thing all works, so there has to be a God."

But what is He really thinking? What does He have to say? I'm telling you guys, it's right here. It's in His word. Why am I saying read your Bible? Because we don't read our Bibles usually. We get busy, don't we? And how's that working out for you? Not too good. Look at how they felt about it in Nehemiah, Chapter 8. In verse 1, "Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel."

"So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. So Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood which they had made for the purpose; and beside him," he had people on his right and on his left.

Verse 5, "And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up." Do you know, just hold this thought, just about the book itself. You say, "Well, it's just a book. You don't worship the book." I can go a long time for whatever reason. I've done this in my life without reading these words. But let me tell you about this book. You'll be back. You can lay it down. You can put it on a shelf somewhere and say, "No maintenance. I don't need that book anymore." And God will go, "Okay, let's try it your way, big boy."

And you go, and you go, and you go, and you will run out of gas. And then you'll get out of the car and start pushing your car to make it look like it's moving. And you'll push it and push it and finally you'll run completely out of gas physically. You'll find people to help push you. And then God will say, "Are we done? You need Me. You need My words. You need truth in your life. And where else can you go and find truth?" So Ezra gets up here. Keep reading with me. They stood up.

"And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. Then all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen!' while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground." Then he lists these people who helped the people, and let me read this list here. "Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub," these are like wacky names. There's crazy names in this book. But you know who these people are? These are people. It doesn't matter what their name is. They're people.

And if you'll notice here, Ezra is reading and then he gives this list of all these men. And what did they do? They helped the people to understand the law. And the people stood in their place. So they read distinctly from the book in the Law of God; and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading. Now, what is this exercise all about? Why do we make such a big deal about the Scriptures? Because you're not going to make it without the Scriptures. And we're not interested in you just gargling them and spitting them out. We are interested in you ingesting them and processing them and making, as it were, milk for someone else to feed someone else.

You ought to be growing and reading and learning and processing this so that there comes a time when you too can read the Scriptures and you can do what it says here, why they gathered. Look at what it says again. They read distinctly from the book. They gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading. For too many years, I think, in so many churches, people just read the book. You go to certain religious gatherings and they read something, but no one opens the can. This is a can of whatever, but they won't open it. They won't warm it up for you. They won't help you eat it, make it where you can get to it.

And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep." And why were they mourning and weeping? For the people wept when they heard the words of the Law. So much respect. And so starved. This is what is so scary to me, is that our ears just get completely used to this. We are overrun with truth, and we don't realize how desperate we are for it because we don't maybe do anything with the truth that we are overwhelmed with.

These people desperately needed God. They desperately needed His word. And so when they finally heard some truth, it knocked them down. They began to weep. "For all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, 'Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.'" I had this conversation with someone this week. It is built into our Constitution as a country: life, liberty, and what? The pursuit of happiness.

A couple's having trouble, and what do we say to them? "Well, dude, you know what? Things are going bad. Dude, you have the right to be happy. Dude, it's right there in the Constitution. You're supposed to be pursuing happiness. It's against the law not to pursue happiness. Pursue happiness. She's not taking care of you like she's supposed to. Find somebody who will. Pursue happiness." Now, am I knocking our Constitution? If that's all we're after, folks, it ain't going to work. Because we've already shot Life in the head. Life? Killing unborn children? Not so much.

Liberty? If we are a nation of free people, free to what? We think free to do whatever is right in our own eyes. That's not what the book talks about what freedom is. And the pursuit of happiness? There's more to life than being happy. Get you some joy. You get you some joy, you might be happy. But joy trumps happy. Because joy is sustainable. Happy comes and goes. "Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, "Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved."

And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them. If it doesn't make sense, it is not working. You need to look at your children and ask them, "Does this make sense?" Because if it doesn't make sense, it's not going to work for them. And something would happen here. This was read, and why were they so overwhelmed? Because they understood the words that were declared to them. They finally got some help. It made sense. Break it down. And you say, "Well, I explained it. They still don't get it." Then try again.

Break it down a little more. Make it simple. Jesus was a genius at this. Look at the birds. Look at the flowers. He broke it down. He wasn't trying to impress anybody. He was impressive. He didn't have to wow them with words. He could make up words they didn't even know existed. Go to Hosea, Chapter 4. Hosea, Chapter 4, verse 1. Now listen to this. "Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed."

"Therefore the land will mourn; and everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea will be taken away. Now let no man contend or rebuke another; for your people are like those who contend with the priest. Therefore you shall stumble in the day; the prophet also shall stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed," why? "For lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest before Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children."

Now, those are pretty harsh words to say to anybody. Lack of knowledge. You don't have the knowledge, the information, the Scriptures. You don't know what you're doing anymore. There is no standard. I had a couple come into my office the other day and they said they wanted to get married. They had history, they had story behind their life and where they had been, but they were trying to do the right thing. They had not slept together. You say, "Well, I've already blown that, so now what do I do?" You stop. There's a standard.

You say, "But, Richard, you're brain dead. Nobody's living by that standard anymore." The standard doesn't change just because a bunch of people decide there's no standard. And when you open your Bible and you go, "Oh, well, that was back in the olden days. I'm cool now, so it doesn't apply anymore. I'm going to do my way." And how is that working out for you? It doesn't work out because I end up with these couples in my office that cross these lines and they've got all kind of chaos. This couple sits there, we listen for a while. I said, "I'll marry you Thursday." I wouldn't wait six months because I think you're actually doing the right thing. I'm trying to move them up now.

Here's the deal. Truth works. It's just the way it is. It works. You go to Liberia, West Africa. You go down the road, you need gasoline. They sell gasoline in huge jars on the side of the road. The problem with buying gasoline on the side of the road like that is sometimes it's mixed with something else. And so you might get a little water in there. You might get a little something-something in there that's not all gasoline. But you buy it anyway because you're getting it cheaper. And you pour it in your tank, and all of a sudden your engine starts speaking to you. And "We are not happy with the fuel you put in here." Because it doesn't work. You can water the Scriptures down, but it isn't going to run. Your life will not run like it was intended to run.

You say, "Well, but I've already screwed everything up." No, you haven't. If you're breathing, there's hope. Matthew, Chapter 12. Now, I'm really not even after the story I'm about to read you, but watch this. Matthew 12:1, "At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, 'Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!'" But He said to them, what's the first thing Jesus comes back with? "Have you not read?"

You know why you don't know the answer to a lot of the questions people ask? You haven't read. It's amazing how much easier tests are when you know the answers. Extraordinarily easy. "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?"

"Yet I say to you that in this place there is one greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." Read. You don't know what's going on, and someone says, "Well, I heard this." You know what? Stop listening to what you heard. Figure out what the book says. And when people have a question, tell them what God says. The reason I get up here and read Scripture after Scripture is because, whether you know it or not, you are not interested in what I think. You are interested in what God says. Because what I think is not going to change your life unless it lines up with what God says.

Have you not read? The answer's probably "no" there. Again in Matthew, Chapter 19, same little phrase here. "The Pharisees also came," verse 3, "The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?' And He answered and said to them, 'Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning "made them male and female," and said, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh"? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.'" You know what? That's what the Bible says. That's the truth. And by the way, it says "male and female."

Luke, Chapter 4. You know what? You don't have to be obstinate or obnoxious to believe something either. Did you realize this? There is a way, and the whole point of this is to speak the truth in love. Someone comes in all at screaming and hollering, arguing, "Well, I think this is okay." Like, I get that. You think it's okay. I'm telling you I don't believe that. You can even whisper it. "I think you've lost your mind. I think you're crazy. It's never going to work. You're making God very upset. There are consequences." You don't have to get all militant.

Luke, Chapter 4, verse 13. "Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region." And look at, now this is what Jesus did, and it's right here. You say, "Well, what was He doing?" "And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all." So part of His deal was Jesus would go into a city and what He did was He'd go in and teach in their synagogue.

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. Jesus is even demonstrating this. People say, "Well, this should be obsolete. There's no place for preaching or standing up and reading the Scriptures." It's what He did. Because there is something that happens when you stand and read the Scriptures. And the Bible says about these things that the preaching of the Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who believe, it is the power of God. So there is power in this.

All right? So He stands up as was His custom. He stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written. He goes through there, finds this specific passage. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

Then He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." So all bore witness to Him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?" And look at how it says: the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth. You know what I find? That angry Christians are angry witnesses.

If you are an angry witness, you need to climb back in your closet and don't come back out until you settle down. Because the problem is not out there. It's between you and God, possibly. "Well, they should be doing... those people are going to hell!" And you have to say "hell" just right. Okay. And why is that such an exciting thing to you? Man, you ought to be going out to people and going, "Look. You're going to think it's none of my business and that I should stay out of your life and let you do what you want to do. But I've been praying for you every day and I care what happens to you."

"And I have screwed my life up so bad doing my way that I'm going to risk our relationship and try to tell you a story about a man named Jesus, who is not just some religious figure to me, but someone who literally has saved my life. Have you got a minute for that?" Now, they may flip you off and throw you out. You know what? It's not likely. Because how you approach someone has everything to do with whether they listen. And someone who already feels like they're going to hell. Time after time, I'll end up in a conversation with people, ask a man, "If you died today, where would you go?"

And you know what is the most amazing moment is when a man or woman looks at me and said, "You know, I think if I died right now, I would end up in hell." That is a very, very tender moment. Because that person is saying, "I'm lost. And please don't ask me to drop trow without helping me. Don't leave me standing here vulnerable." And then you realize that moment, and you say, "You know what? I've got really great news for you because you don't have to live that way another day. There's a story about a man named Jesus who came and He lived and He died and was buried and raised from the dead and He did it all to come after little old you, little old me. And if you'll trust Him, then just reach out as it were the hands of your heart and say, 'Help, Jesus help, my mama's prayer.'" It's not that hard, guys.

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: Let me read you one more. If you want to just listen, you can. If you want to read it, that's good too. 2 Timothy, Chapter 3, verse 14 and following. This is Paul writing to a young kid named Timothy. And he says, "But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures," and listen to why the Holy Scriptures are so important, "which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."

And then he says this, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," breathed by God, "and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," and then why? "That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." So if you're in the red spiritually, the answer is in the red words. The answer is in what is read, all the words. Because they'll all help you. Now, I know as sure as I'm standing here, and I'll do this again one day, some of you are going to go, "Wow, that was inspirational. I think I cried. I laughed."

And then you're going to go do whatever you've been doing. When you get out there and run out of gas, I recommend you keep one of these close by just in case. Because sooner or later, the road gets tough and answers are hard to come by and you will find yourself somewhere in a quiet place with this book open looking for help. I recommend you stay in it along the way. Don't wait until you get in trouble.

Guest (Male): 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.