Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: So when you hear about people who need something, you say, "Wow, maybe it's even going to be sacrificial, but I know this is what God's telling me to do," and I'm excited. It's literally a cheerful giver, a hilarious giver. Like, this is great! I get to help these people.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks. With Richard Ellis, we're taking the entire month of September to focus on something that is very important to Richard and, I'm sure, to you as well. And it all centers around the word "legacy."

How do you want to be remembered? Who has influenced your life in a meaningful way? What would people say about you when you were gone? What's left behind? Well, we're introducing a brand-new exciting feature that will be a place where you can share your story. I'll share more for you at the end of the program, but for now, let's jump right in with today's talk. Here is Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title today's message is Need Feed Seed, and we're going to start in Leviticus 19. Turn to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and we will try to go as much as possible left to right, keep this simple. Leviticus 19, and we will start with need.

Leviticus 19, let's go down to verse 9. These are instructions for God's people, and He says, "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God."

What is the principle, the point here? You don't grab everything. You don't take everything. You leave something. Literally the corners, you say, "Well, you'd go all the way to the corner, take it all." No, the instruction was: leave the corners. What was supposed to happen? The poor, the needy would come through and not starve to death because you were generous, you had left something. Picking grapes, you say, "Well, we're going to take every grape off this vine." He said don't do it. Leave some for the poor and needy.

There are very basic things you can discover about yourself by the way even something like this sounds or the way you approach your life. People just don't let go easily. Yet I know people who would be just this way. They would say absolutely, and then they would watch to see if the poor and the needy showed up and would be thrilled that it had worked.

Let's go to the next verse, Proverbs chapter 3, verse 9. Look at the first part of this verse: "Honor the Lord with your possessions." Before you read anything else, ask yourself the question: are you honoring the Lord with your possessions, the things that you own? Could you say all of that you have honors Him?

And then He says, "And with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine." Here in Proverbs, the basic principle is firstfruits. You honor Him with your possessions. Firstfruits are what? You pick the fruit, the first bunch goes to Him. And then what comes out of that? Your barns will be filled with plenty, your vats will overflow with new wine. That is not a bad principle to live by.

Now go to Malachi chapter 3, the only Italian prophet, Malachi. Go to Matthew and then left, if that will help you if you can't find Malachi. Matthew, then the next one to the left is Malachi. I'm about to read you some verses that were given to a specific group of people. Are you trying to make this apply to us? I am reading you some principles in what was given to them and how God operated with them, and then we'll see if that applies to us.

Malachi chapter 3, verse 7: "Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you said, 'In what way shall we return?' Will a man rob God?" He asks. "Yet you have robbed me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation."

He's saying the whole nation has gone sideways, and what they were supposed to be doing, they weren't doing, and it has literally affected them. Clearly a curse would not be a good thing. He says, "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts; and all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts."

Literally, giving for them provided protection from the enemy affecting their crops. I have experienced this, and I'm not trying to make my experience your experience. I have literally had experience along the way where God took such great care of me and my family—I have seen Him do it with other people—that you almost can't breathe. It literally takes your breath away. And you say, "God, you've got to stop because I can't take it anymore," because you cannot take but so much. And by the way, you don't need but so much anymore than I do.

What do you need? You need food and clothing, and the Scripture guarantees that. You say, "What about shelter?" It does not guarantee that. Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me." If you read the context of that passage, being able to do all things is to be abased and abound. In other words, if I've got nothing, hardly anything, just food and clothing, I'll be content; and if I have plenty, I'll be content. That is tricky for some people on the rich end, just being content with a lot. How could you be content? Because it's never enough for some people. They want more and more and more.

Go to Matthew chapter 6. This is a very specific category, and you're about to find out a lot about yourself when we read this because it's either who we are or it's not. There are three things here in Matthew chapter 6. He says, "When you pray, when you fast, when you give alms," so there's no "if" to this thing. The assumption was you would pray, that we would fast, and that we would give alms.

Chapter 6, verse 1: "Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men." In other words, here I come with my gift. "Here, God bless you, you poor person, I have helped you, I have saved you." I hope you enjoyed that little moment because that's it. That's your reward. You say the person got helped. Yeah, but what are you doing?

How are we supposed to give? "Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly." The picture of this is you see a situation, a charitable deed where someone needs help. We are supposed to be so stealth in the way that we do this that I'm talking with my right hand and gesturing, and without my right hand knowing it, my left hand has slipped into my pocket. This is why I keep it in the left pocket, because I can trick my right hand because it's usually working.

You slip your hand in your left pocket, you find some money, whatever God's told you to give, and you find a way to do that so discreetly that your right hand didn't even know it happened. What is the point of that? It's what He said to do. God gets all the glory. This is going to get nuts if I keep doing that. No, it's going to get crazy fun. I'm going to give you some suggestions. I've had this happen. I've had envelopes left at my door that were not traceable—either cash or a cashier's check that was untraceable.

How many of you has God blessed out of nowhere like that before in your life? Raise your hand. Now look around this room. Do you know why that is even possible? Because someone was obedient. Someone was prompted and the Holy Spirit said to help them. Because you're obedient to Him, you hear His voice and you're willing to do what He says. Then someone gets helped because He knows what the need is and somebody's saying, "God, you've got to help me or we're not going to make it," and help shows up.

That was a lot of hands, by the way. I'll give you my address if you want to drop cash off. I could use some help up in here. Have some fun with it. Go to verse 19. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

I think it's interesting what it does not say. It does not say, "Where your heart is, that's where your treasure will be." It says, "Where your treasure is, that's where your heart will be also." Where's your treasure? Have you made deposits for the kingdom of God so that most of your investment is on the other side? Your heart is here to do what God has for you to do, but really your investment's over there. I'm working on my retirement account in eternity. Amen.

What about this side? A little bit, but I am more interested in my retirement in eternity and depositing whatever it is God has for me to push that direction. You should be doing whatever He tells you. But when you hear of needs, whether it's alms for the poor or people who are trying to reach people for Christ, you say, "Lord, is that me?" It's like witnessing. You say, "Lord, I'm going to witness to everybody unless you stop me. I'm going to give to all this unless you stop me."

You might say, "I only have so much to give." You've got to ask yourself first: are you giving anything to anything? If the answer is no, then your treasure's somewhere else and your heart's somewhere else. Next verse, 22. This one seems odd that it's in here, but look at this: "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"

How are your eyes? Spiritually, how are your eyes? How do you see the world? Because if all you see is what you can grab, what you can get, or what you can have, you're going to go dark fast. But if you see a whole different kind of world where you see where God is at work and He's using you and your resources and you're a part of that and your treasure's somewhere else... and this verse is sandwiched between God and mammon and, above that, "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

It is how you see the world. You say, "Lord, help me see the world the way you see it." See lost people, opportunities to reach people, and mobilize in such a way that we can take the planet. Then verse 24: "No one can serve two masters." This is intense because He's literally saying you have to pick a master. These are your options. You cannot serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other—it's a love-hate option—or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve, or be a slave to, God and mammon—wealth or avarice.

How do I know where I stand on it? If you're not liking me about now, it's probably not good. If you're unhappy with me and the verses, you're probably not doing too good. If you don't have issues with this, you're going, "Wow, this is great! I hope somebody else gets in on what I've gotten in on in my life." You're not tight, you're not greedy, you're not saying "mine, mine, mine." That's a two-year-old. That shouldn't be us.

Let's go to feed, verse 25. "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink"—very basic things—"nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them." You say, "There's my verse. The birds don't sow and reap. I guess I don't need to be sowing and reaping. I'll just wait until God supplies me food."

You don't see God just dropping food out of the sky. Birds hunt for their food, but they find it because God provides it. This doesn't mean you don't have to work, but I know people that are willing to work and God still provides for them when they're out of work. We get so focused on these things and He says they don't sow or reap, gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

So why do you worry about clothing? "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." What are all these things? What He's just mentioned. You say, "I'm seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and I thought I was going to get a new car." It's not mentioned. It's food, it's drink, and it's clothing. You seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these things will be added to you. "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Seed. 2 Corinthians 9, verse 1: "Now concerning the ministering to the saints." Now this is a gift that one group of people was going to collect from them to go to another group of saints who needed help. He says, "Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you; for I know your willingness, about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal has stirred up the majority. Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that, as I said, you may be ready; lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to mention you) should be ashamed of this confident boasting."

"Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time, and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation." God is really interested in this. You might say, "I promised that I'd give that money. I felt better about doing it when I promised. I don't feel good about it now." Then get it out of your hot little hands when you feel good about it. "I found a boat. I'd rather buy the boat than help those people." Well, that's brilliant.

Verse 6: "But this I say"—now look at the seed principle, this is right here in this passage—"But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver." When you hear about people who need something, you say, "Wow, maybe it's even going to be sacrificial, but I know this is what God's telling me to do," and I'm excited. It's literally a cheerful giver, a hilarious giver. This is crazy! I get to help these people.

Look at the principle: you sow sparingly, you also reap sparingly. I use as an example another guy. In our conversation, he was about to sell some stock or a company, and he was running numbers—big numbers. He said, "My wife is going to have a hard time with this. Let's just take a big number, a million bucks." So what happens on a million bucks? He says, "I feel led. I think I'm supposed to do a hundred thousand off the top." I said, "If that's what God tells you to do, do it." He said, "She's going to think we should invest that, put it somewhere for the future."

If somebody hands you a million bucks, you had to pay taxes on it. By the time you give a hundred thousand, half of it's almost gone. But you'll give the government theirs because you don't want to go to jail. What farmer—and this is part of our challenge, we do not grow up in agrarian societies where we get this—what farmer would sow seed, harvest all that crop, and then eat the whole crop and have no seed? That's absurd. You keep some to put back in the ground, because if you don't put it back in the ground, it doesn't happen again.

A farmer with enough seed goes, "Okay, I've got a hundred acres. If I could get my hands on a thousand acres and had enough seed, I know what a hundred will produce. What would a thousand produce?" So you get excited about planting the seed. It takes a ton of faith if you've never done it. If you take a young child who doesn't know anything about agriculture, and you say, "Okay, we've got ten thousand dollars, we're going to go to the seed store and we're going to buy ten thousand dollars worth of bags of little seeds."

The kid's going, "Okay, and then what are we going to do? Are we going to cook it?" "No, we're going to go out and bury it in the dirt." "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I could do a lot of things, Dad, with that ten thousand dollars." "You can't do anything to beat this." "So you're going to stick the seed in the ground, we're going to lose all this seed, you're going to go bury it in the dirt." Yeah, but something happens when you bury it in the dirt. It's called sowing.

We put it in there, and God designed it so that a seed, when it gets in the dark in the ground, something happens miraculously and it germinates. The seed you put in is not what comes out of the ground. A little shoot comes out. Put corn in there and boom, this big old cornstalk's coming up. You can't imagine, the ratios are one to a hundred if not more. "Okay, Dad, whatever you say." And God says, "Trust me, here we go." If you've done it before, it's no big deal. If you've never done it before, it sounds pretty scary.

You start out, you just put a little seed in the ground because you're not sure it's going to work. And you go, "Gosh, I should have put more seed in the ground because now I'm reaping sparingly because I sowed sparingly. Why did I not give more?" You say there's nothing miraculous about seeds and harvests; that's just the way it was set up. Yeah, in the physical and in the spiritual realm. If you've got no issues with seed in the ground, then put spiritual seed in the ground and see what God does with that. It's right here.

What is the context of this? Ministering to the saints. The purpose of giving is not to get rich. Even if you say your purpose is to get rich, if your heart is right in the context, the purpose for getting rich is to help even more. Now it just turns into a fun game. I had a guy tell me years ago, "You cannot out-give the Lord." You say you probably could. Okay, let's try. Knock yourself out. Let's see who accomplishes that goal. You can't out-give Him.

Keep reading, verse 7: "So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written: 'He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.' Now may He who supplies seed to the sower..." Where does the sower get the seed? You got nothing that God didn't give you.

"Now may He who supplies seed to the sower"—in the physical realm—"and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness; while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God, while through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men."

"And by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" How can you not get into giving when the whole point of the gospel is He gave? God so loved the world that He gave. It's a gift. So He comes along and says, "Look, I'm going to show you what this looks like. I'm going to literally give you my life." Jesus is going to die on a cross, be buried and raised from the dead to make eternity possible, eternal life, abundant life. All I'm asking you is to get that same thought and be a part of this lifestyle.

Galatians 6, verse 6: "Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, and he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith."

I've got a bunch more verses, we don't have time to read them, so we're going to leave it at that. You're either a giver or you're not. And if you're not a giver, you're a taker. How's that working out for you? Probably not very good. You can usually almost tell if someone is a giver or not. Givers usually have tremendous joy; takers are angry, bitter. How do you know that? Because the Book says you either love God or you hate Him; you're loyal to Him or you despise Him. And all that is tied to God and mammon.

When someone gets this, it's hard to love God and be loyal to Him and pick a lane, and He's your master—He cannot be your master and you not have joy unless something else is not working. You're going to get a test pretty quick. I don't mean about the offerings about to come up, but I'm talking about somewhere during your week. I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. I had a lady came up to me the other day after church and she said, "I was downtown in the Dallas-Fort Worth area."

She said, "I was walking down the street and a young girl was either coming by or was next to her, and the Holy Spirit told her: speak to that young lady." She obeyed and spoke to the young woman. The woman said to her, "I have been praying and asking God to send me someone." They went to lunch, inseparable, and this woman is walking with this complete stranger. You say that's crazy, I'm not going to live that way. Then live your way, and how is that working out for you?

You're living your life, you're going about your day, and the Holy Spirit says, "Put a hundred bucks in an envelope, mail it." Whatever He tells you to do, just do it! Stop arguing with God; you're not going to win that argument. Once you do it, you can't imagine the joy that will come from just unclogging yourself and just starting to let God not only work in you, but through you, even in this category. I wish we could come back next time and tell these stories, but usually the right hand won't let the left hand speak. Usually somebody will see it on your face.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Richard Ellis Talks. We so appreciate you taking the time to be encouraged by Richard's unique way of challenging us to become more like Jesus every day. But it doesn't stop there. We want that same inspiration to be passed on from you, too, for others to be encouraged by your life in their own walk with the Lord. And most of us have seen great examples in someone else firsthand that has significantly touched and inspired our life, so much so that we want to pass it on to others as well.

This legacy should be what we all inspire to. Even the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Follow my example, as I followed the example of Christ." So who is it in your life that was a great example as a Christ follower that has inspired you to do the same? And what is it that you want to make sure others know about? What is most important to you as a believer? Well, I have some really great news to share with you.

We have just added a Legacy Wall on our website for you to tell your story. Who has made a difference in your life? And what is it that you want to share with others and leaving a legacy of your beliefs and values? We want to hear about it. Go to richardellis.com and share your story today. We love bringing you the program every day, but it means even more to us when you let us know how the program has helped you.

Call us at 855-6-RICHARD or at richardellis.com. And while you're there, you can help us greatly by giving to this ministry. This program is making a huge difference in people's lives and you can make a big difference to ours, too. We really do need to hear from you on this. Go to richardellis.com to support this ministry and share your story. Thank you, and until next time, thank you for listening. We look forward to coming alongside you again for more Richard Ellis Talks.