Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: You cannot spend the rest of your life if you're living this way, thinking about you, your car, your stuff, your safety, your comfort, getting where you're going. God literally lets things happen around us sometimes to help the other person, but sometimes to help you in just helping someone and get you to wake up.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard's going to take the next few minutes to share some great words of hope and insight for you. And in today's broken world, that is something everyone is desperate to hear. Richard shares unapologetically the truth of the Bible in a way that's clear, relational, and uplifting.

So thank you for taking this time to listen. We know it will bless you. And when you have a moment, you might want to check out our website so we can stay connected with you, richardellis.com. But right now, let's go ahead and get things off and running with today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "Jumper Cables." I got some jumper cables up here obviously. Let me tell you about these jumper cables. For many, many, many years, I drove a car I was really grateful to have. It was the only car that we had in our family. It was an old '78 Lincoln. I still have it parked. I keep telling my kids they're welcome to drive it when they get their license. No takers yet. One of them's interested, yes.

But these old jumper cables right here, when you drive an old car, you don't go anywhere without these. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about. Okay. Now let me while we're raising hands, how many of you have jumper cables in your car right now? Raise your hand. Okay, now look at all the hands. Keep your hands up. Now let me ask you something. Keep your hands up. How many of you have jumper cables in your car for your car? Keep your hand up, everybody else put your hands down.

Okay, here's what I'm going to tell you. You can put them down, or just keep them up the rest of the time if you'd like. That's fine too. I may call on you eventually. When you've been in one of those cars, and I'm very grateful I got cars that start now, but I keep these in my car anyway. Now, I don't need these in my car for my car. But something happens to you when you've driven your own car and you've been in a situation where you couldn't get it going and you got in and you turned it and nothing. And you're like, "Lord, what the heck is going on now? Again?"

And when you're trying to be all sophisticated and impressive, driving an old car it's hard to do that anyway. So you polish it up and clean it up, trying to at least do the best I can with what I got, and then you still got nothing. And then when you get somewhere, the worst in the world is risking valet parking. Oh my gosh. The most embarrassing thing in the world is the valet park an old car and it never comes around. And it hits you what's happened. There's some dude out there and he's like, "Sir," and you better have some jumper cables just to get out of there.

Now here's what I'm going to talk to you about today. At some point, you carry jumper cables for somebody else, not for you anymore even if you don't need them. And what can happen to us as Christians and even as people is that we get our stuff together, we get our family together, we get our cars together, we get everything running, and we go, "Wow, thank you Lord, you've blessed me so much. Good luck everybody else."

And I know it may make my kids a little nuts. The other day I pulled up to an intersection, there was some guy, and this is what just stuns me. People honking their horns trying to get around someone who is stuck in the middle of the street in the intersection. Someone, unless the guy's huge and can drive and push at the same time, someone is going to have to get out and help the guy. And you may have to inconvenience everybody for a few moments, but somewhere you got to stop, turn your flashers on, and push the guy off the side of the street or something or he's stuck there by himself.

But we have gotten so stuck on ourselves we don't see anybody stuck anymore, except as an inconvenience, a problem. Get out of my way. You're slowing me down. Go to Luke chapter 10. Let's just go straight there. Talking about dead batteries, I saw a place one time that was giving out dead batteries free of charge. Give you a second to think of that while you're turning. Luke chapter 10. Now you're going to look down at this story maybe if you've got a Bible and go, "Oh, what the heck, already know this story."

Please don't say you know the story. I'm not interested in whether you can quote the story. I'm interested in whether you can do the story, okay? So listen, okay? Pay attention. Luke chapter 10, verse 25. Jump down to 25. "And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him saying..." Now this is a lawyer meaning a lawyer of the law, the Old Testament. This guy is doing the deal supposedly and knew every nuance. He could dissect it, short of killing it, he could tell you what was going on.

But he's not asking because he wants some spiritual answer. He's testing, it says Jesus. So he stands up, testing Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Big question. Everybody's got that question. He said to him, meaning Jesus, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?" Hey, what are you asking me? You're the lawyer, you know what it says. What do you think it says?

So he answered and said... now the reason I'm reading this first part is because you can't do the second part without the first part. So he answered and said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." And He said to him, "You've answered rightly. Do this and you will live." End of story. The guy you just want to say, "Okay, shut up. Don't ask any more questions because he's going to bury you if you push this."

And look at the next phrase. "But he, this lawyer, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'" Wow, what a stupid question. He got buried. "Who is my neighbor?" Now why did he ask the second question? It says because he was wanting to justify himself. The problem with this lawyer was he had selected his neighbors. He had decided who was and who wasn't his neighbor. So if I see one of my neighbors, someone who looks like me, then I'm going to love them the way I love myself.

I love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. My neighbor as myself. I got eternal life. And then he says, "But I got problems with who the neighbors are, so who is my neighbor?" And hopefully Jesus will justify my answer. Well, Jesus, and I'm going to try in some current terms to explain this. "He wanting to justify himself said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'" Then Jesus answered and said, "Do not ask Jesus a question if you don't want an answer, because He will answer your questions."

And He tells a story that most of us are familiar with. Maybe you've never heard it, so this will be even better. A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed leaving him half dead. Now by chance, a certain priest came down the road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite when he arrived at the place, came and looked... onlooker traffic. Looked... and passed by on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. Why? Because he's my neighbor. Now what's twisted about this is Jesus is talking to a Jewish guy, one of the lawyers, an expert in the law. In the story, He uses a priest and a Levite who go down the road and then completely turns it around on this guy. And instead of it being a Jew checking on whoever this guy was that got beat up, He yanks a Samaritan into the story.

So let's put it in some ethnic terms. If you're white and you're asking the question, you're not looking for black or Mexican or Asian or whatever. You're wanting a white story to go with your white Bible. I want a white question to my spiritual answer. So Jesus says, "Well, there was this guy got beat up. One white guy comes by, another white guy comes by, and then a black dude comes by and helps the guy." He's like, "Oh, I don't want to hear that." Because now you're not only saying that my kind wasn't willing to help, but now you say the black dude was, or the Mexican guy was.

You say, "Well, is it all about being white?" No. You're the black guy asking the question and now it's a white guy helping and he'll say, "Well, that's not right. I would have helped." If you would have helped, you wouldn't have asked the question in the first place. The point is this poor guy, this lawyer, asked it because he didn't want to help everybody or anybody. So he's looking for a way to justify his choices. And Jesus says, "You can't decide who your neighbor is. Your neighbor is anybody next to you."

So verse 33 again. "But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him. He bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, his own donkey King James says, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, two silver coins, gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend when I come again, I will repay you.'"

Now all I'm talking about today is jumper cables. This guy says, "I'll fix your car." Now I'm asking you to simply start with this and I'm encouraging you to go buy some jumper cables if you don't have any and keep them in your car if nothing else as a reminder to do something. You cannot spend the rest of your life if you're living this way thinking about you, your car, your stuff, your safety, your comfort, getting where you're going.

God literally lets things happen around us sometimes to help the other person, but sometimes to help you in just helping someone and get you to wake up. And in my experience has been that a lot of times it has nothing to do with the person's dead battery. It has everything to do with their life. Because you know if somebody's got a dead battery, they can't start their car, they're feeling like you felt when you've been in that same situation.

So remember that and when you get there go, "Lord help me understand. I got this car that starts every time. This guy's probably embarrassed. She's frustrated. Whatever's going on, let me be patient and see what else is going on beyond the battery." And before I forget this, if they say they got all kinds of junk going on, they're upset, stuff's going on, then say, "Look you don't know me, but would you mind if I pray for you and your situation?" And then stop right there and pray for them.

Now let me go before the battery. In this story, let me finish the story and then back up a minute. Verse 36. Jesus says, "So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" And he said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." I think it was Martin Luther King who said this. The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?"

But the good Samaritan reversed the question. "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" We are so worried about our inconvenience. I've told you this before, shared this along the way. You do finally get a nice car. You drive by a wreck or something and if your first thought is, "If I load up the person that's hurt and bleeding, they're going to ruin my seats," if that's what you're thinking, you are completely screwed up. If your leather seats are more important than somebody's bleeding body, you're nuts.

If you got a pickup you can put them in the back. That's one advantage of a pickup. I'm just, we're all in this together. We cannot go through this life not seeing people around us and doing something. Now go back to the beginning of the story back in verse 25. The first two questions, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?" He says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." It's got to start with a working relationship with God. Your engine has to be running.

If your engine is running, you got belts that tie to the engine, whatever these things are called, and one of those belts in my car turns an alternator, right? And the alternator recharges the battery. You have to have a spiritual alternator or your battery will be dead. You have to be connected to the power that is in that engine in such a way that while you're going, you are recharging so that your battery's ready for you to do what you need to do, but it is also prepared and there's enough juice there that while you're running, you can hook this thing up.

You get these cables. One end's got to be connected to, let's call it, my car, and then I go over here and my car's running. I say, "Okay, let me help you." If I don't have juice here, if my alternator's not working over here, I can put this on your battery, you know what's going to happen? You're dead and I'm going to be dead. We're just going to be sucking dead current back and forth. The assumption is if I pull up and say, "Can I help you?" I got a way to connect what I got to what you got and make something happen over here that's not been happening.

So this is not just about you getting something going on with God and having this amazing life. You got this power not just for you. It's about looking for somebody else and saying, "Can I help you?" It looks pretty ominous this way, I know. But you say, "Well, whatever you're talking about, I don't have that going on. I can barely keep my own life running. It's not working for me." Well, then why don't we check your alternator? Are you hooked up? Are you generating enough power? Is there enough power even under your own hood to keep you going?

Now if that's not going on, then something's wrong with the first part of this. You have to get to the place where you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength, everything you've got. And then out of that you love your neighbor as yourself. And what that causes you to do is do something. And your neighbor is anybody. Now you say, "But aren't there situations where it's dangerous and if I'm a woman and I see a carload of men broken down I shouldn't stop?"

I'm not saying don't use common sense. What I'm saying is listen to the Holy Spirit. We left our house yesterday. Got out, pulled out, it's kind of a crazy little neighborhood and there was this woman. She's walking down the street with her purse. There's a car next to her going down the street with flashers on, a guy driving it, window on the passenger side down, and he's yakking at her and she is not acknowledging him at all. And she walks, she walks, she walks, one block, two blocks, they keep going.

Well, I got myself, the girls in the car. Something ought to go off in you. And I said, "You know what? She might be in trouble. Let's watch her." So from a distance we watched to make sure she went to a payphone, called for some help. I called 911. I don't think this is good. Please have somebody come check this woman out. She got back in the car with the guy, they drove off, then there's nothing I can do. You can't drive away from these situations.

That's my neighbor. I don't know who that person is. But see, things like that happen. The Lord lets you see stuff and you observe and if you don't do anything then you watch the news and say, "Well, some woman was, murdered by some guy in a certain neighborhood." "Oh my gosh, it was that lady. It's, why didn't I do something?" That is a good question. Why don't we do anything? Now I don't know what your deal is. For me, I'm just selfish. I don't want to get into it.

I don't want to hear anybody else's problems. I don't want to get my jumper cables out and have to hook them up to my car and your car and then if I know it's not going to be that, then I'm going to have to have some conversation with you about God. Heaven forbid. You got to drive not just going somewhere to get you somewhere. You got to live your life paying attention to other people around you. What is really going on? Why did God leave you alive for another day?

Is it just to be served? Jesus said, "I didn't come to be served but to serve and give my life a ransom for many." You say, "But I give money to the church. They're the ones that are supposed to have the jumper cables, aren't they?" We are the church. Who are you thinking? Am I it? I'm the only guy with jumper cables? Is that the deal? "Yeah, we pay you, preacher, to have the jumper cables." Good luck with that. "How'd that preacher burn out?" I don't know. I saw him pulled over helping somebody the other day. I don't know. He just couldn't keep up.

All right, let me give you one or two more. Galatians 6, verse 1. And then one out of Philippians and I think I'm done. Galatians chapter 6, verse 1 says this. "Brethren..." and this is written to Christians. "...if a man is overtaken in a trespass..." any kind of sin. He's dealing with a sin. He's overwhelmed by that sin. She can't do it by herself anymore. "...you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness considering yourself lest you also be tempted."

Somebody stands up in church and publicly says, "I am struggling with two kinds of drug addiction. I'm going into rehab this week." Something ought to go off in all of our brains but beyond that especially in the case of people who know what drug addiction is, have had jumper cables in their car ever since. You ought to have alarms go off and say, "Father I'll do whatever it takes to help that guy make it. His family, his children. If I got to give him money, my life is yours God. I don't even have a life unless you came after me and sent somebody after me, namely Jesus, and then the rest of the church that came after me.

I'm it. God whatever you want me to do, I'm standing here with my jumper cables." Instead of, "Whew, hope somebody helps that poor family. That sounds rough. Where are we going to lunch?" You get involved no matter what it costs you and then there's one more guy on the team when he gets up and running. Now it also says in this passage if you still have struggles, you don't go over and say, "Hey, let's smoke some pot and talk about your problem."

You got to be careful going in. You don't go in by yourself. You got to be wise about these situations. What does he say there? "You who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, but still even if you claim to be spiritual, considering yourself lest you also be tempted." Now I'm going to give you a very practical and very personal example of this. Yesterday, the women had a meeting. At the end of the meeting, one of the girls in this meeting was having a rough time, bunch of kids, sorry husband.

Not he's not sorry, just all husbands are sorry. And at the end of it, I'm standing there, everybody's leaving and I said, "Are you okay?" She said, "Yeah." And she said, "Could you give me a ride home?" And for a split second I thought, "Oh yeah, I'd be willing to do that." And then I looked at her, I said, "No, I can't give you a ride home." I said, "I don't put women in my car with me by myself." And I thought, "Oh my gosh, this is going to be a horrible thing. I am denying someone help."

And then another woman walked up and said, "I'll take you home." And then they kind of said, "Man, I remember that's your policy. I respect that. I'm okay with that." You know why I don't do that? I don't need those problems. You say, "Well, didn't you trust that woman?" It's not about that one. Sooner or later there is going to be one that comes along that says, "Hey will you give me a ride?" And I'm a human being and go, "Sure, I'll give you a ride."

You say, "Well you would never think that." Wake up. I'm breathing. Look at this. It's a human being up here. You people think preachers are all holy and never see women or check out anything. Get a life. I'm one of us. So I do things trying to be wise and not getting myself in situations, but it's not that you leave her standing there. Can somebody else take her? And you take care of business. Be careful though where you put yourself. Be wise. Have some boundaries. Do the right thing.

Last verse, Philippians chapter 2, verse 4. You can read the whole chapter. Most of these chapters got really good stuff in them. Let's do verse 3 and 4. "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others." Now here's my simple challenge for you today.

Leave here today, go throughout the rest of your day, wherever you are, whatever you're doing listening to this and say, "Lord, okay number one, I don't even have an engine in my car. I got this body all painted up, looks good, seats are nice. There is nothing under the hood. Nobody knows it. I'm just sitting here faking it." Get you an engine. Get the God of the universe in your car to begin with where you got power. You got an alternator. You got a battery that's charged up so you can do something.

If that's where you are, start there. God, I'm a mess. I cannot live this life without You. I understand I'm a sinner. Jesus died on that cross, was buried, raised from the dead, shed His blood to offer me forgiveness of sin, offered me this gift of eternal life. I accept it as a free gift. Come live in me, through me. Get me what I need in order to live this life and have the power to do it not on my own anymore. And then help me see that it is not just about having a vehicle to get me through life and into heaven. I'm here to serve.

And if you've already got the engine, you already got the alternator, or it's busted you need to get that worked on, let somebody who knows something about alternators get it fixed, get it working where your battery's charged. You got you some cables and now you're living every day like, "Lord, I'm looking for hoods that are up, people that are broken down. Use me. This cannot be the only reason I'm here is to make money, raise some happy kids, and it all be about me. God, let it be about somebody else for a change."

And you find what Jesus said is when you try to hold on to your life, that's when you lose it. When you lose it for His sake, that's when you find it. The coolest things in the world happen when you are serving in Jesus' name and it's inconvenient and you walk away with dirt on your hands and somebody else's problems on your heart. But you go, "Thank You God, I have a reason for being here. He is alive in me. He is alive in 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: All right, let's pray. And our Father, I thank You personally today just getting these jumper cables out of my car and the memories that came back of all the people who helped me when I was embarrassed and humbled or humiliated and I needed all that anyway, still do, Lord. Help me keep them handy, Father, and not just be talking about this all the time, but to always be ready, Lord, always be willing and realize that I don't own myself.

I don't own my cars. I don't own anything. You own me. You own everything I've got and it is Yours for the asking. And whatever it is You want me to do, whatever it is You want me to give, wherever it is You want me to go, whatever You want me to say, Lord, it's all You. Father, we got all kind of people listening today. Some of them don't know You, period.

Maybe they know some religious stories and sat through some ceremonies, but really it's just empty. They don't get it. It just doesn't make any sense. Maybe today's their day, Lord. I pray so, that somebody'd reach out the hands of their heart and say, "God, I'm in. I need You to be in me and live through me. And not just get me into heaven with You forever, but get me through this life with some meaning, with some purpose, with something that matters."

So I give You my life. I accept Your life in exchange for my no life. Thank You for dying for me, Jesus. Use my life now to change the world. And those of us, Lord, that claim to know You and turn out being more selfish than some of the people in the world who don't even never claim to know You. Father, we can't even outdo the pagans half the time. Help us get outside of ourselves, Lord, and put these jumper cables to work.

Father, You're the best. I thank You that this stuff works. Whether we work it or not, Lord, it works. Help us to join You in what You're doing and get after it. And we thank You and praise You, and pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

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