Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: Every time I get in my car because I've been through enough wrecks, I can't even drive without a seat belt now. And the little alarms go off and some cars won't start without the seat belt being on. There's these reminders everywhere: no smoking, no standing, no loitering. These reminders everywhere to tell us how to live, and it's in here.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Thank you for allowing us to share this time with you. You may be stuck in traffic or stuck in life. Either way, today's message is going to help you get on the right track as you learn how much God loves you right where you are. Richard's unique style checks all the boxes with a lot of hope, insight, truth, and of course, humor.

Today's talk with Richard will get our conversation started, but we want to keep it going with you. So let's stay in touch through our website, richardellis.com. But right now, let's go ahead and get right into today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: Let me read you a definition for memo. Memo is really a short word for a word memorandum that comes from a Middle English word that means to be remembered, from Latin memorandus. And usually, if you write somebody a memo, you're trying to make them aware or remind them of something that's going on. One of the definitions is a written reminder, and another part of it is a communication that contains directive, advisory, or informative matter.

I'm not sure who this is for, I just trust God on these, but in some ways, this Bible that I hold in my hands is one of the most powerful memos ever written. Because it's not like He said this stuff yesterday. It's been over a period of hundreds, if not thousands of years, but somehow He left us this memo for us to read, to remind us of. I have people occasionally say to me, "I don't need church. I don't need to go to church somewhere." And biblically, we've already established around here that it's not possible to biblically go to church anyway. Church is not a place; it's a people.

But there is a time and we do pick a place to gather as a people. And the scriptures in Hebrews talk about the fact that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, getting together. You say, "I don't need anybody else to live the Christian life or to get the God thing. I can do it under a tree somewhere, in my car, or in my office. I don't need other people." You won't make it by yourself.

And there are people here today, people who don't know jack about Jesus, as I tend to say sometimes. All hell broke loose. Something happened in their life. And they don't even know that God wrote them a memo, they don't even know what He said to begin with, or maybe they heard it somewhere way back along the way. Something triggered a life crisis of some kind. Somebody invites you to gather with us as a church, as a body here, and you show up, and these things start to come back.

It's interesting to me to think of the word remind. If you have something in your mind, you've already got it. If you remind something, you have to bring it back. You think about it again. Maybe it's somewhere back there. So either today, I'm going to try to remind you of some things, or mind you of some things, put some things in that maybe you didn't even know were true or were available to us as human beings in terms of a relationship with God.

Now in Deuteronomy, and I've read through this, and I keep coming back to this for some reason, and there's going to be some stuff in here that will hit everybody a little bit differently. But God is taking the people of Israel through the wilderness experience. They've come out, they're going into the promised land. Let's start with Deuteronomy 8:1. He says, "Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply and go in and out and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers."

Now look at verse two: "And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness. Don't forget. Remember how you got through the wilderness." I don't know who this is for. I've got a guess. Some of it is for me. But look at this part of verse two. Why did He do this for them? There are a number of reasons, but He lists some right here: "to humble you and test you."

Now listen really close. I could shut it down after this, and some of you are praying I do, I'm sure. But some of what you're going through, if you've got crisis, you've got all hell breaking loose in your life, sometimes the reason that God allows these things in our lives is the same thing that happened with these people: to humble you. If you're all cocky and I got it all under control and I got my life and my portfolio and my 401k, He says, "I'm going to take you through a tough time for this reason: to humble you."

And to get you to a place where you'll listen, where you'll trust Me, and where you'll even need Me. Number one, to humble you and to test you and to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. The only way sometimes God can get our attention is to humble us, to test us, and to find out what is really in our heart. Are you only going to trust God when things are tough and then when things get going good, you bail on Him? He took them for 40 years through a wilderness. This is one of the reasons: to humble them, to test them, and to know what was in their heart whether they would keep His commandments.

Verse three: "So He humbled you. He allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but he lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord." Sometimes your provision comes out of nowhere. God speaks and things happen that would never have happened otherwise. They had no food in the wilderness, and God speaks and it comes out of the sky literally.

"Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these 40 years. So you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord God chastens you." He disciplines His children. Verse six: "Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity and in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper."

Look at verse 10: "When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you." Verse 11, look at the first word: "Beware. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today. Be careful. Remember where you came from." Now let me just describe to you what I observe in a lot of people's lives. They get it going. They meet God. I got some in here today that are a few weeks old spiritually.

One person in particular, a few weeks ago now, he and I sat down and had a conversation. I explained to him he is going through some tough stuff. I said, "God loves you. He's got a purpose plan for your life. Jesus died, was buried, and was raised from the dead to give you eternal life and abundant life between here and heaven. Here's the deal." And he has all hell breaking loose. It's calmed down a little bit. But we bowed out in a courtyard together. We prayed, and he became a Christian. Now is that it? He's got a relationship with God, he's going to die and go to heaven. That's it, right? It's over.

Does everything get smooth as silk? Everything's fine? He's just going to go on his way, doesn't need God anymore really because he's got a ticket to heaven? He doesn't need church because he can do it on his own? He's getting hammered, and he's going to keep getting hammered. And he's going to need people around him to remind him. And the second he or any of us get to the place where we go, "Wow, this is cool, God loves me, I got a ticket to heaven, I got peace in my life now, I've been forgiven of all my sins, it's going to be great," and we start to drift away.

And now we miss a few Sundays. You say, "Who cares about Sunday?" Let me tell you something: this is a gathering. This is one of the places where you can be encouraged and be pointed back in a direction. You say, "I need more than just a Sunday." Good. There is other stuff going on during the week. You need to stay around other believers who can challenge you and encourage you. And part of the reason you're here is because you're getting clobbered and God has gotten your attention. He's humbled you again. And He's testing you again.

And He's seeing what's in your heart. And He's seeing if you're going to stick with Him through the good and bad like He sticks with us. And you're going to find out what's really going on in your heart. And through this humbling and testing because if things get a little better, if you bolt, then that tells something about who you are. He says, "Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments. Stick with it good or bad times."

Verse 12: "Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and your gold are multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage; who led you through the great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you, that He might test you, to do you good in the end."

"Then you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.' I did it by myself." Let me tell you something: I can't even keep my body breathing by myself. It is all God. And if something is stirring even in a spiritual realm in your heart, in your life, drawing you to even talk to God and ask for God's help, something is up. Now I want you to turn over to Psalm 103. Go to the right. It's a big book if you have a New and Old Testament, you open it in the middle and let it fall open, it's probably Psalms.

And we'll look at the first few verses in this chapter. Psalm 103:1. And David is using words here, he is freaked out. He is pumped, and he is excited. It's not a calm, "Oh God, thank you for who you are." It's "Bless the Lord, oh my soul." He's lit. "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Do not forget His benefits." What are some of the benefits? What is the benefit of knowing God and walking with God? Look at some of these that he lists.

"Who forgives all your iniquities." Being forgiven of all your sins is not a big deal until you've been forgiven of all your sins and you know what that feels like. If you're carrying around some sin, if you've got a past, and we've got some past around here, we've all got a past. You take your past and haul it to Jesus and say, "Man, this is all I got. I come not empty-handed but full of all this junk in my past. What are you going to do?" And He says, "Watch this." And boom, because of Jesus' death and His blood that was shed, He wipes all that sin away and you got a future. You got a clean slate. You're forgiven.

One of the benefits: He forgives all your iniquities, all of your sin. He wipes it out. The next line: "Who heals all your diseases." People say, "No, God didn't heal my diseases, I had treatment." Treatment doesn't always work. Sometimes they do treatment and the treatment doesn't work, and then God sometimes miraculously steps in and somebody's healed completely. Where do you think that came from? Their doctors can't even explain that. Why? Because ultimately, there is no healing but from God.

I'm not anti-medicine. I'm not saying let's not take medicine and let God heal people. God created it all and uses it all. And He gives us doctors and surgeons and scientists to discover things. They can't make something of nothing. They have to discover even the medicine that heals from something God provided for us. So another benefit: He heals all your diseases. Verse four: "Who redeems your life from destruction." I don't know what it is about me, but I'm driving down the road sometimes. I'm in my lane and it hits you. And if you think about this too much, you won't get on the road.

But I'm driving in my lane, and I look over to my left, and there are cars coming within four or five feet of my car. Flying by me on a street. And it dawns on you: if one of those guys sneezes, coughs, blinks, reaches for a cell phone, some crazy thing and swerves three or four feet, I'm history. How have I gone all week long driving down roads and I'm still alive? Look what it says: "He redeems your life from destruction." We could all be wiped out any moment. You say, "What is God doing up there? Why did He care about people? Why does He let innocent people, bad things happen to decent people, good people? What is He doing up there?"

At some point, you say, "There is no answer to these things except that God knows and you got to trust Him." If you don't, where are you going to go with it? What other explanation are you going to find? Who are you going to trust in the situation? "Who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies." I could camp out here a while. Let me tell you what I've thought about very recently. If I got what I deserved, I would not be anymore.

See, if we went around this room starting with me, went row to row, seat to seat, and said, "What'd you do this week? Where you been this week? What you been talking about this week? What you been looking at this week? What you been doing this week?" It would silence most of us. And in spite of who we are, what we think, how we feel, what we do, and where we go, we go to God and we say, "God, I've screwed up again. I don't want to live this way. I don't want to be this person." And what does He do? He crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies.

He keeps taking us back. We are all like unfaithful husbands or wives that cheat on this great God of ours, and He keeps taking us back. "Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles." Basic necessities. He takes care of us. Now you can read the rest of Psalm 103 because it goes on with the list there. Romans 15:14 says this, Paul writing to this church in Rome says, "Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another."

"Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points as reminding you because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit." Now go back up to verse 14. "I'm confident," he says, "I'm confident about you guys, brethren, that you are also you're full of goodness. You're good people. Filled with knowledge. You know the right stuff. You're able also to admonish one another, to encourage one another, to remind one another."

And guys, that's what these gatherings are about and these smaller gatherings that we break a body up into, is for people to get in a group and find out what's going on with somebody and say, "You're going to make it." See, some of you have got nobody cheering for you and nobody encouraging you. When you go down, you go down by yourself. It's amazing to me how many people will stand up in a public place and say, "I need help. Somebody come pray for me."

But who is going to stand with you tomorrow? Who is going to stand with you next Sunday? Where is your community? Where is your body of believers? Where are the people that when you're down, they go down and help you get back up? When you can't even walk or carry yourself, they lift you and carry you. They admonish you and they challenge you. If it's not here, if you live in this city or beyond this city, find a place, a body of believers, people who know God and know you and care about you. Because when it's your turn to take care of them and their turn to take care of you, there'll be somebody there.

Lions, if you watch these National Geographic Discovery Channel, they'll track these lions go out and hunt. And what they'll do is come on a herd of antelope or buffalo. They don't just randomly attack the herd. They wait and find some weak, sick, crippled, damaged, hurting animal. And they'll get close to that one and run everything off that's strong and that herd goes together and they'll isolate one person. And you say, "That doesn't happen with human beings." I can take you through this room and tell you people the enemy is trying this on.

You get sucked into some sin. You're weak. You get clobbered financially, emotionally, or relationally, whatever it may be. And the lion, this roaring lion, comes along and starts pushing you away from the group and says, "You don't want to go to that group, they don't want to hear your problem," and he isolates you and gets you farther and farther away from the flock. Wolves do this to sheep. They find a weak sheep who can't run with the flock. You have got to get a part of a flock that can admonish you, that can encourage you, that can challenge you, that can love you and help you through these tough times.

And I go through this a number of times, maybe people think I'm being too hard. If you're playing musical churches, pick a lane, get in it, and get a church. You say, "My husband or wife might be at another church." And you're passing each other going to different churches probably on Sunday mornings. Pick a place, get plugged in, and let people love you. You're going to look up one day if it's God's plan for you to be married, you'll look up, you'll be serving next to somebody and go, "Where'd you come from?" And God works these things out. It happens here all the time.

He says, "I know that you know and you're able to admonish one another." Verse 15: "Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points as reminding you. I'm not going to let go because of the grace given to me by God. I'm going to keep telling you and reminding you." Now guys, this is how this whole quote-unquote church thing works. A lot of you in here today, listening today, wherever you are, you know the stuff. It's not what we know; it's what we do with what we know.

Sometimes it just takes somebody coming along that's observing us saying, "I know you know better, but let me just remind you," kind of sending them a little note, a memo like the scriptures are to us and say, "You know this in your head. If you keep going this way, you're going to screw your life up. Stop. What are you thinking?" And know them well enough. There are people in this church that I know well enough to pick up the phone or sit them down and grab them by the ears and say, "Look, this is dumb. You're done." I have a relationship with you.

And you have relationships with each other. And you say, "I don't want anybody getting that close." You better pray to God you have people that are that close to you that love you enough to sit you down and say, "You're going to wreck your life and everybody's around you if you don't do what you know to do," and remind them of these things. Hebrews 10, the writer says, verse 24, "And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching."

It's getting closer and closer to the end. Exhort one another, challenge one another. Don't stop getting together and doing these things. Now you can do it over the phone or you can write letters, but there's something about being with people. James talks about this in chapter one. He talks about being doers of the word and not hearers only, just deceiving yourself, just listening and not doing. Verse 23: "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his looking at himself in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was."

"But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." What is the best way to remember and not forget? It's to do what you hear. And if God tells you to do something today, don't just hear Him say it, go do it. What is up with this name tag thing? Let me tell you what happens to people with name tags. You go to a meeting somewhere, you go to a church like this, you gather as a church, and if you're new, this is what will happen.

Or if you don't know somebody, you go up and shake their hand and if they don't have a name tag, you go, "Hi, I'm Richard, what's your name?" "Bob." "Good to meet you, Bob." And you can count one, two, three, four, you don't know their name is Bob, you're not even thinking about their name being Bob. So you've already forgotten their name. That's one week. You come back the next Sunday. They don't have a name tag on. You don't have a name tag. You see them, you know you met them but you're terribly embarrassed you don't remember the name.

So you walk up, you go, "I met you last week, I'm Richard and you're Bob. That's it, Bob. How are you, Bob?" One, two, three, you've forgotten Bob's name again. Now what happens the third Sunday? You look across the room and see that person, and you'll do everything in your power to avoid them. You'll go anywhere to get away from them because you're so embarrassed you forgot their name. What is a name tag? It's nothing but a reminder.

And what happens is the more time you spend with that person and look down at their name tag, the more you remember their name and all of a sudden you know their name, you don't have to be reminded of it because you're using it, you're with them all the time. The more you know of the scriptures, the more time you spend with God in His word, and you say, "I know what it says, but I'm going to do what it says," it becomes a part of you. You don't have to be reminded of stuff you already know how to do.

Something happened when I was a kid, hadn't done it in a long time, let me describe it to you and see if this happened to you. How many of you ever somebody tried to get you to pat your stomach and rub your head in a circle at the same time? I want everyone to do that. Pat your stomach, everybody. Wow, y'all look pretty silly out there. Now, if you did that for a while, see, I can't even do it, I'm rubbing both. See, it would take me some practice. I'd have to be reminded about how to do that.

But if I did that for a while, I could do it just like that. There is stuff in the scriptures we know but we get away, we start drifting. We stray, and we get out there. I pray to God you're going to come back, maybe it's not here but somewhere. Because it doesn't work out there by yourself. Some of you are here today because somebody invited you to come attend a church, hear some music, hear a message, and you're going, "This really sucks, I don't want to come back here ever again," or you're saying, "This is what I need. I need to get back into this. What was I thinking? Why was I trying it out there on my own? I need a body of believers, I need a community to get involved with that know me and I know them and can remind me of these things and do it together."

All right, last one: Second Peter. Second Peter 1, and we're going to pick up with verse 12. And Peter is getting old, he is probably close to dying, and he is concerned about these people that he loves. He says this: "For this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things. Sometime go back and read verses 1 through 11. I'm not going to be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right as long as I'm in this tent or in this body," he says, "to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent or put off that body, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me."

He knows he is going to die. Verse 15: "Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease." Now guys, what is it? It's this. And what do we gather around? I don't get up here and read out of the paper. It makes some people nuts. You say, "You're going to so many scriptures, I don't know where these things are in the Bible." I'm going to try to cover this as much as I can and get you in this. This is the memo. This is the reminder. This is what God left us.

If you say, "I don't want to read the Bible," then get in a Bible study with somebody and let them help remind you and show you what it says, and we work together through this thing. The scriptures were left. Peter writes these letters because he knows I'm going to die and he says I'm leaving you a memo, I'm leaving you a reminder so that long after I'm gone, you can go back and read it and go, "Oh yeah, that's what I'm supposed to do."

Every time I get in my car because I've been through enough wrecks, I can't even drive without a seat belt now. And the little alarms go off and some cars won't start without the seat belt being on. There are these reminders everywhere: no smoking, no standing, no loitering. These reminders everywhere to tell us how to live, and it's in here. And for some of you, this is the first chance in a long time and it's the last shot I'll get because you're here, you made it in. And some of you have been here for a long time and you're about to bolt. The enemy has got you isolated, he's going to attack, he's pulling you away. You've got stuff going on in your life you haven't let anybody know about, you're not connected, and he starts peeling you away and before you know it, he pounces on you. Stay close to the flock.

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: Now you say, "You're not reminding me of anything. I didn't even know any of all this existed." What's the bottom line here? What has He left us? The fact that Jesus is God's Son, lived a perfect life, died on a cross, was buried, and was raised from the dead to give us an eternal relationship in heaven with God that begins here and now, if you want it to. Now see, some of you have heard that. But I'm reminding you of what you've heard maybe as a kid and saying, "You didn't do anything about it then. Do something about it now."

I got a lady that I'm thinking of right now who I had a chance to sit down for two hours and explain the gospel to her, that God loved her and died for her, the whole deal. I sat on a bench with her and I said, "Do you want to accept this gift?" She said, "Not now, I want to think about it." I said, "Well, let me warn you something. Every time you tell God no, it will get easier to tell Him no. Your heart will get a little more hard, a little more calloused, and a little more hard. It'll get tougher to say yes every time, a little more."

And I call her now, and she won't call me back. Because it's getting a little easier to get away and a little harder to say yes. And maybe somebody's in that category and the voice used to be loud, you used to hear God talking to you and now it's gotten like this faint, somebody turned the volume down. But maybe you still hear Him today. If you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Respond to what He's saying.

Guest (Male): This has been Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. The message of the gospel is one we take very seriously in our mission to reach the planet. And you have a vital part of doing that along with us. If you've been encouraged by these talks with Richard, be sure to tell someone about the change they've made in your life. You can even share today's talk with them through the website, richardellis.com.

And we'd love to hear your story, as well as how these talks have made a difference to you too. Give us a call at 855-6-RICHARD. You can also reach us through our website, richardellis.com. And while you're there, check out all the pages we put together for you, richardellis.com. Also, be sure to click on the contribute tab to send your very generous gift. If the program is making a difference to you, your gift will make a big difference to us. Until next time, thanks so much for listening to Richard Ellis Talks.