Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: Today on Richard Ellis Talks, you're gonna get off track, you're gonna end up in trouble if you get out of scripture and don't stay in it and get the stuff out of it you need to live your life. Instead of just making it up as you go or, "Oh, I heard this on the radio," or, "I read this in a book," or, "learned this at whatever class you," find out what God says in the scripture and live that out.

Announcer: You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. We're so glad you tuned into the program. Richard wants to share with you some encouragement, words of hope, and probably a laugh or two. And in today's complicated, busy life, that's exactly what's needed.

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

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is Mind the Gap. If you go to London and you ride a train, a subway in London, then everywhere you look and almost everything you hear is this little phrase, "Mind the gap." And they had to come up with a short phrase that could be used. The conductors would say it over and over again. Finally, they thought that's not practical, so they had recordings. And you get on the train, mind the gap. You get off the train, mind the gap. You look down literally in the tile on the ground before you get on the train, painted on the floor, mind the gap.

What in the world does mind the gap mean? Between the train and the station, trains are straight, straight edges. Some of the stations are curved. Some of the trains are a little higher depending on the equipment they're using than the station. And so there's always a gap between the station and the train. And you can trip, fall, hurt yourself. You can get caught in the gap. If it's a big enough gap, you could fall in the gap.

So the word mind the gap, what does the word mind mean? To pay attention to, to heed or obey, to be careful, cautious, or wary about, to feel concern at, care about, to pay attention, take notice, observe. So you say, well, I'm just living my life, I'm doing my thing. How could I possibly trip and fall? How could I stumble? By not minding the gap. I've got a very close friend who talks about closing the gaps in your life. Make sure that there are not any of these gaps where you can get in trouble.

So let's start in Psalm 37. It's interesting if you go back and even read some stuff about the phrase mind the gap, this is one of the phrases that I found. It's in the absence of a device to fill the gap, some form of visual and auditory warning is needed to advise passengers of the risk of being first of all caught unaware and sustaining injury by stepping into the gap. So unaware.

So let's go to Psalm 37. And for the sake of time, let's jump down to verse 23. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand." Now, I have this experience as a dad. I remember having it as a child. If you're walking with a parent or you're a parent walking with a child, even if the child trips, let's say they hit something, they can't keep up, they just lose their balance, I have literally suspended a child, grabbed them by that hand, by that arm, and lifted them and kept them—they're going down, but my hand sustains them and I pick them up, set them back on their feet, and we keep moving.

So you say, well, what would have happened if they hadn't had me by the hand, if I hadn't had my dad by the hand? And I got drug some places, too, and I'm not talking about that. But you say, well, you would have fallen, but you didn't. Now look at what he says here. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way." So this sounds like everything's going great. "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand." Make sure you've got God by the hand.

Now you say, well, I thought as a Christian He lives in me. The picture here, though, is walking so closely with Him that if you're following Him, this is like right beside Him. This is close enough where He's got you by the hand and even if you go down or start to go down, He's got you. Are you that close? Or when you go down, do you just go down?

Keep reading. "I have been young and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his descendants begging bread. He is ever merciful and lends, and his descendants are blessed. Depart from evil and do good and dwell forevermore. For the Lord loves justice and does not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell in it forever. The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom and his tongue talks of justice. The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide."

So what is the correlation here? That if you run from evil, that if you listen to God, do what He said, stay close to Him, let Him direct your path, that even none of your steps will slide. You're on solid ground. Now, if you look at your life and I look at my life, when I am not in the word—and I don't mean you're just reading the Bible—I'm talking about reading scripture, listening to scripture, in scripture, there is a direct correlation in most people's lives between being in the scripture and applying it to your life and the degree to which you fall.

So you say, well, I keep falling and I keep having these crazy things happen to me. I keep slipping, I keep tripping, I keep ending up in this same place. Start minding the gap. Where is the gap? The gap may be between you and God, not eternally but in terms of your salvation, but in terms of your being saved from these individual problems. You're not close enough, you're not in relationship with Him close enough that when those situations arise, you don't slip, you stand firm. Or even if you do fall, He's got you by the hand and you keep moving. Enough of landing on your butt already.

So as we'll read here today, you'll see that your connection to God—not being a religious person, but a personal connection—fills those gaps, and even if you do fall, He's there to help you back up. Go to Psalm 56. And this is a psalm about a prayer for relief from tormentors. This is David being persecuted, chased down. And he says, when I cry out to you, verse nine, go down to verse nine. "When I cry out to you, then my enemies will turn back. This I know because God is for me."

Until you understand that He is for you, that means like a perfect father, He's there to protect, He's there to provide, He's there to direct you, to teach you—not to punish you, but to discipline you. So He's on your side. He is for you. He is trying to get you up and running where you can live the way intended. And if you go down, He's there to help you up. He's not elated like, "Aha! You went down. That's what I'm about." It's not good for Him anymore than it'd be great for us as parents to see our kids not be able to walk and be constantly falling.

So keep reading here. "This I know because God is for me. In God I will praise His word. In the Lord I will praise His word. In God I have put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Vows made to you are binding upon me, O God. I will render praises to you. For you have delivered my soul from death. Have you not kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?" Have you not kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living? That's what He's about.

Go to Psalm 106. And I'm doing these left to right, and we may reference back to this. This is a different kind of minding the gap. Verse 21, and this is talking about what's not going well for God's people. Verse 21: "They forgot God their savior who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach"—or the word can also mean the gap—"to turn away His wrath lest He destroy them. Then they despised the pleasant land, they did not believe His word but complained in their tents and did not heed the voice of the Lord."

If you look at where things go poorly for God's people and us, it is when they do not know His word or heed His word. You're gonna get off track, you're gonna end up in trouble if you get out of scripture and don't stay in it and get the stuff out of it you need to live your life. Instead of just making it up as you go or, "Oh, I heard this on the radio," or, "I read this in a book," or, "learned this at whatever class you," find out what God says in the scripture and live that out.

So remember that phrase: "had not Moses his chosen one stood before him in the breach." Now this specifically, this minding this gap is about helping someone else and being in a spot to intercede and intervene on their behalf.

Proverbs 3, a few pages to the right. Now this chapter—we got a lot of young people, a lot of kids around here—Proverbs chapter 3, this is a father trying to teach his son what works. And he says, verse 1: "My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you." You're like, well, who doesn't want that? Then how do you get that? Length of days, long life, and peace. If you want that, then you say, well, what does that come from?

"Let your heart keep my commands. Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man." So it changes your how you are viewed by God and the relationship you have with Him, but also other people. And then a lot of people know this one by heart. If you don't, I recommend learning this one: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and what will happen? He shall direct your paths," or some translations say He will make your paths straight.

In other words, you're not weaving and bobbing and going all over the place wasting time. He makes your paths straight. It's A to Z, you get there—you know, bee flying back to the hive—you go straight. "Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the firstfruits of all your increase. So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction. For whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights." Then verse 13: "Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding."

Go down to verse 21—you can read all this other stuff on your own: "My son, let them not depart from your eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. So they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck. Then you will walk safely in your way and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes, when you lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught."

Proverbs 4, just a page over, Proverbs 4, verse 11. Look at this again: "I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in right paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, and when you run, you will not stumble." And the Bible doesn't talk very much about running, by the way. The only time God is ever depicted as running is in Luke 15, running to meet his son who's come back. This is such confidence that even when you run, you will not stumble.

You say, well, why do you keep reading all these verses? Because somebody might connect these things and go, wait a minute, so scripture, God's way, His commands, His law, His words, His truths, Him—this is a better way to live. It's gonna go more smoothly for me if I do what He says than doing what I want to do. Exactly. Now you say, well, that means nothing bad's gonna happen to me. I'm not telling you that. But even when something tough happens, you are so connected to Him and so connected to His word that He calms you. There is peace and He says, trust me. Don't get freaked out.

In our house, doesn't happen a lot. I thought it was gonna happen recently and started looking around my house like something freaky was going on in my house. And I have decided that if the enemy pulls that stunt in my house again, greater is He who is in me than he who is in my house. So if God allows it or I have authorized it in some way because of my own sin and the enemy comes in, then you better throw some armor on and push back and realize that it's not God and Satan, they're neck and neck gonna see who wins. There is no comparison between God and Satan. You can't put your hands far enough apart.

He's nothing but an angel, a fallen angel. He has power, he has authority, but not greater than God. So you know, "Oh, I'm so afraid." Stop being so afraid. Get in a confident relationship with God and His word so that you have scripture, the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. You're all suited up and you quote scripture to the devil and tell him to get out of your house. Literally get the that out of my house. All of that hell out of my house. I thought I cleaned that up pretty nicely. Trying to be more sensitive.

Now look at this one, Proverbs 4:19, just a few verses down. Listen to this: "The way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble." Just falling, can't even—it's so dark when you're wicked you don't even know what's knocking you down anymore. Don't even know how you ended up on the ground.

Alright, now go to Ezekiel 22, very sad passage I'm about to read you. And this is gonna connect with what I said to you over in Psalms 106. And this is very—if you go back and read this whole chapter—very intense. God's people are in a very bad place. Bad things they're doing wrong and they're suffering the consequence of that.

Ezekiel 22, look at verse 23: "And the word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Son of man, say to her, you are a land that is not cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation. The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured the people. They have taken treasure and precious things. They have made many widows in her midst. Her priests have violated my law and profaned my holy things. They have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.'"

Verse 27: "'Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain. Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, "Thus says the Lord," when the Lord has not spoken.'" Be very careful when someone comes up to you and says, "God told me this." You go, "Wow, somebody said something over me." And sometimes what they say should literally go over you and keep going. Just because someone says something doesn't mean you land on it. Back it up with scripture and find out who that person is.

"Oh, I built my whole life on somebody came up and said something to me." What? Build your life on scripture first and then make sure that if someone says something, it connects with what God, the Holy Spirit says, "Yes, that's of me." Because we are listening more to random voices than the voice of God that we can't hear in our own body. So when you walk and talk with Him and you know His word and you're connected so closely to Him that you test the spirits, someone walks up and says something and the Holy Spirit that lives in you says, "No, that is not of me. Do not listen to that." And you keep moving.

"The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy, and they wrongfully oppress the stranger." So look what God says, verse 30: "'So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land that I should not destroy it, but I found no one.'" No one. What a catastrophic, not a single person who would build a wall to protect and stand in the gap and help them.

Now you say, well, what are you talking about? What does this mean? Let's say my house is under attack. And let's say it's hit so hard that they blow the front door off of my house and I have no front door and they're coming back. What do you think I as a father and a husband in my house am gonna do? I'm gonna get me a weapon and I am gonna stand in my front door to protect my family. That's where you belong. Does everybody see this picture? That's the gap. That's where they're coming in.

You say, but you're risking your life. Exactly, that's what it's about. So these times that you're awakened in the middle of the night or these situations where someone is so overwhelmed, they're overtaken in a fault as I think it's Galatians 6 talks about, and you—they're not gonna make it—then someone comes along and literally stands in the gap and holds it together and provides protection for them they can't provide for themselves at that point. You say, but that's too much responsibility, too much work. It's the deal!

I can name you person after person, serious stuff, intense stuff, that I would probably preferred if I had the option to not get involved with. But these people—you say, well, you can't save anybody—no, but you can stand in the gap and pray for them, pray protection for them, provision for them, and help walk them through it because they're too weak, too hit, too down to stand and fight for themselves. Now, if you've ever been in a bad place and had someone do that, you know what that looks like. Then part of growing up and being who you're supposed to be is you say, "Okay God, it's me now." He goes, "Exactly. I'm looking for a man, for a woman to stand, to build a wall and stand in the gap for what I'm trying to accomplish."

You say, well, I feel like I'm by myself. If you're by myself, do it by yourself if that's what it takes. There are too many people that don't make it because there's just simply not someone who says, "Hey, grab my hand. I'll pull you in." "I can't pull myself in." "I got you. I'll take care of it right here." You say, well, how long can I do that? It's not about you doing it anyway. You have the God Himself living in your body and if He says this is what you do, you stand until all is done and you're still standing.

One last verse is in John chapter 14. How many of you know who James Dean is? The actor. All the old people raise their hand. So listen to what James Dean said: "If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he's dead, then maybe he was a great man." Now I will not live on after death in heaven with Jesus because I'm a great man. I will live forever with Him because He's a great man. He's a great God.

Now you say, well, you're talking, sound like you're just, you know, talking about Christians and all this. A lot of this is directed at Christians. And if you're not a Christian in here or just beyond here somewhere and can hear all this and you've stuck with it this far, here's your problem. If you're not a Christian, the gap that you have to mind and pay attention to is the gap, the abyss between you and God. And there is no way to Him but one way. And this is where I lose a lot of people and a lot of people in the world get uncomfortable and go, "Oh, you're about to go after this Jesus thing."

So I will not say any more, I will quote Him. Jesus said to him, John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Now you say all roads lead to God. I used to not agree with that, I do agree with that now. All roads do lead to God. But only one road leads to heaven. All roads will land you at God, but they will not all land you in heaven. Only one road, only one way.

So you say, well, I'm not a Christian, how do I get into heaven? How do I get to God? There's a gap. What do I do about the gap? As it turns out, there's also a bridge created by a cross that'll get you over. You say, well, I'm gonna find another way. And I'm gonna say this very gently: no, you're not. Because He is the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father but by Him. You say there's got to be another way. Knock yourself out. He said He was the only way.

So at some point, the pride, the arrogance, the whatever you self-sufficiency, whatever you've come up with, you finally have to go, "I'm lost. I will not make it without Him." And now you're getting somewhere. But this is how simple it is. You mind the gap, you pay attention that it's there, but you still got to get across. And the only way to get across is to get across. His cross.

Announcer: 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, richardellistalks.com. Well, here's Richard with some closing thoughts for us.

Richard Ellis: So if you come to a big chasm, a big canyon, you can't get across. And you keep walking, you keep walking, and all of a sudden you look up and there's a bridge. And you go, "Wow, there's a bridge." And you were trying to get to the side, what would you do? You just cross the bridge. You say, "Well, it can't be that easy." What else you gonna do? "Oh, I couldn't possibly believe that that bridge would get me over there." But it's right there! "Oh, I'll just stay here because that can't be the answer." He's the answer.

So you go, "Okay God, this seems too easy, but you're the answer. So I'm gonna try to get across. So it's the cross that I need to get across. So alright, so what do I do?" You simply say, "I believe that you are God and I believe that you love me. And I see now that Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sin. I'm a sinner, I need your forgiveness. I believe that He was buried and raised from the dead to defeat Satan, death, the grave, everything I face, sin, everything. So I pick your bridge, I pick your cross, and I accept your payment in my behalf. Come live in me, come live through me, change me from the inside out. I have minded the gap, but I've found a way over my gap through the way and His name is Jesus."

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