Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: You'll be hard-pressed to find someone who is in a godly way repented, been saved from what they were doing and regretted having repented. They're like, "I am so glad that's over. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. It's a godly kind of sorrow. He changed my mind, he changed my heart, he's changed my direction, he's changed my life. I don't regret making the change. I don't want to go back."

Guest (Male): Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Thanks 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 is Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "Party Animal," Exodus 32. Now, while you're looking for Exodus 32, here's my question today. If I said, "Give me the name of someone who is out there," we'll use "party animal," but they are out there.

They demonstrate no interest in any type of change. You talk to them of Jesus, they are not interested. You talk about heaven or hell, they don't want to talk about it. They are gone. They are in their element, they are in their world, they are doing their thing. If you have someone like this and before you raise your hand, and you have been praying for this person, raise your hand.

Okay, so look around the room. That's a lot of hands. Those hands represent people who are praying for some people who are either or are going to be in a lot of pain, or they are those two things and they are inflicting a lot of pain on people that they haven't thought about. Because the truth is, yes, you can live like hell, but in doing so, you make someone else's life hell in the process.

Somewhere, if there is someone that cares about you, then you say, "Well, but that's not where I am right now." That's where they are every day, wondering if you're alive, wondering if you're injured, wondering if you're in a hospital, they don't hear from you. So this "party animal" thing, interesting definition, read a little description, but if you're on the other end of this, it is not so pleasant.

In Exodus chapter 32, we are going to read this fast, so I can't tell you the whole story, but I don't want to assume people know this stuff. You think, "Well, everybody's watched 'The Ten Commandments' and knows something," they haven't. If you've heard of a guy named Moses, there were a lot of God's people, hundreds of thousands of them, in captivity in Egypt, and God sends Moses to Pharaoh and says, "Let my people go."

He says, "No," a series of plagues ensues, and finally Pharaoh says, "Take what you want, just get out of here." And that was after the firstborn male of everything, animals, people, died. And Pharaoh finally had enough, snapped, got them out of there. So these people were enslaved and they have been delivered by Moses, taken into the wilderness, on the way to the Promised Land.

And Moses has left the crowd to go up into the mountain to be with God, and as it turns out, he comes back with the Ten Commandments written by God Himself in stone, and he's carrying these back, you'll see in a second. But something happens in the camp, all these people, these slaves that have been delivered by Moses, and here's where we pick it up.

Verse one: "Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, 'Come make us gods that shall go before us, for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'" And it doesn't say how long Moses was up there, how long he was gone, but isn't it fascinating how quickly we give up?

This Jesus, this God who has saved your life, preserved your life, taken care of you, and He doesn't answer fast enough, He doesn't show up quick enough, and what do we do? We're out. We're going to go worship something else, someone else.

And Aaron said to them... and there's no pushback. Aaron said to them, "Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron, and he received the gold from their hand and... this is important... and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molten calf.

So he makes this idol. Then they said, "This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt." So now all of a sudden, this earring-infested gold idol is the thing that got them out of Egypt. So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord."

Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. So it's "party animals" all over the camp. And the Lord said to Moses, "Go, get down, for your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them."

"They have made themselves a molten calf and worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.'" And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people and indeed it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them and I will make of you a great nation."

In other words, "I'm done with them, I'll stick with you, I'm wiping them out." Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God and said, "Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak and say, 'He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'?"

In other words, "God, you're going to look bad if you wipe out your people. Turn from your fierce wrath and relent from this harm to your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, 'I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants and they shall inherit it forever.'"

So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people. And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand. So he's carrying the Ten Commandments. And it's very strange that in the Ten Commandments that God is writing in these tablets are instructions, commandments not to do what they're down there doing.

The tablets were written on both sides, on the one side and on the other they were written. Now the tablets were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted and he said to Moses, "There's a noise of war in the camp." So this is such an intense, crazy party that it sounds like there's war in the camp.

But he said, "It is not the noise of the shout of victory nor the noise of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing I hear." So it was as soon as they came near the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses' anger became hot and he cast the tablets out of his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain.

Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire and ground it to powder, and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it. Like, "You want an idol? You're going to drink your idol." And Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?" So he says to Aaron, "What did they do to make you do this?"

So Aaron said, "Do not let the anger of my lord become hot." Don't get hot... that's where this phrase comes from. "You know the people that they are set on evil, for they said to me, 'Make us gods that shall go before us, for as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' And I said to them"... now follow this... "I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them break it off,' so they gave it to me and I cast it into the fire and this calf came out."

No responsibility. It's a miracle calf. And by the way, this calf is their party animal. Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained, for Aaron had not restrained them to their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp and said, "Whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me." If you're on His, not are you on my side, if you are on the Lord's side, come to me.

And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him, and he said to them, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel, let every man put his sword on his side and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor." Now this is the consequence of sin. You say, "Well, this is absurd."

The reason we think this is absurd is we don't like the consequence of our sin. And the Bible says what about sin? The wages of sin is death. We don't like that, but it takes people out every day. So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and about 3,000 men of the people fell that day.

Then Moses said, "Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother." Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, "You have committed a great sin, so now I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, "Oh, these people have committed a great sin and have made for themselves a god of gold."

"Yet now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not"... so now this is Moses cares so much about these people and he prays, "If you will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray blot me out of your book which you have written." And if you read in the New Testament, Paul says a similar thing when he talks about the people of Israel, literally says, "I'd be damned if my brethren Israel would be saved."

Like, "I would be willing to be damned to hell if they would be saved." That's how much he cared. And Moses here is saying, "If you won't forgive them, then blot my name out, don't blot them out." And the Lord said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book. Now therefore go, lead the people to the place which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you."

"Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin." And the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made. Party animal number one. Now I don't know who's in the room and I definitely don't know who all's listening beyond here, but every once in a while, we get some people in the room and plenty out there who are hitting a radio button, listening somewhere online, wherever you're listening.

And you are not headed home yet, and you are not done with your party animal life. But yet there you are listening. Why are you listening? Because you know it's running out. You know it's not working. You are empty. It takes more and more and more and you can never fill that emptiness. And so you're listening, you're thinking about it.

One of the toughest things in all of my years of dealing with people, what the almost number one miscalculation is something called consequence. And until a person gets to the place where they say, "I am willing, no matter what, I am willing to do what God wants me to do including deal with the consequence." Now you say, "Well, I thought God was full of grace and mercy and I'd just be left off the hook."

Some people get unbelievable mercy and it looks like nothing happened, but other people have consequence. You cannot quit just because there is consequence. You say, "Well, it's too painful, I'm going to go back to my old life." You wouldn't be thinking about leaving your old life if it was so great. The reason you're thinking about this word... whether you know it's this word or not... repent.

You say, "Oh, these big Bible words." This is a very simple word. Repent means what? It's two Greek words... I don't usually give you Greek words, but it's two Greek words and some people translate repentance as a turning around. That is not what it means. That is the effect of it, that is not what it means. And some people say, "Yeah, that guy repented and did a 360," and that's the problem.

If you repent and do a 360, you're still headed the wrong way. Repentance is two words: change and mind. You change your mind. You decide that what I am saying is right, what I am saying is okay, what I am saying is the right thing to do is not okay, is not right. So when you change your mind, yes, you ultimately change your direction, but your mind has to change first.

Now let me read you some verses on this. Go to Romans chapter two. Romans chapter two and verse one: "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are, who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things." So if you want to know what your problem is, observe what you judge other people for, and God will go, "Wow, isn't that so interesting that you hate that about that person? That's you."

"But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?" We think, "Well, I feel better because I'm pointing it out in somebody else." The hammer is going to hit you just as hard as it's going to hit them if not harder.

"Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?" So what does God do to cause us to change our mind, to repent? It's His goodness, or the word also can be His kindness. So He comes along and says, "Look, you've got to change. Look, I'm trying to help you here. I'm giving you a little bit of consequence. I'm not wiping you out, I'm not destroying you. You're doing this thing, this is the consequence."

And He's gentle with us. Now you say, "Well, but these terrible things are happening." Think about when it started and how He gently came along and tried to get you to change. And you said, "No, no, no," and now the dial gets turned up and the consequences are so great, you can't take it anymore. Respond to His goodness, His gentleness, His kindness early and you will not end up in the pain you're in.

So you don't know that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. Go to Second Corinthians chapter seven. Second Corinthians chapter seven, let's do verse eight. And he's writing to them about something they should be sorry for. In verse eight he says, "For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while."

"Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow"... a godly kind of sorrow... "produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death."

So someone says, "Oh, I'm so upset I got caught. I'm so sorry." They're just sorry they got caught. They're not sorry about what they did. They'd go do it again, and do. That leads to death... in other words, nothing changes, you're just on the same course. But godly sorrow produces repentance, a change of mind which leads to salvation, and when you run that track, it's not to be repented of.

Some translations say it's not to be regretted. You'll be hard-pressed to find someone who is in a godly way repented, been saved from what they were doing and regretted having repented. They're like, "I am so glad that's over. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. It's a godly kind of sorrow. He changed my mind, he changed my heart, he's changed my direction, he's changed my life. I don't regret making the change. I don't want to go back."

Now go to Luke 15. Just when I thought there was nothing else in Luke 15 for me, and this is why I say pray before you read the scriptures. You say, "I've read that, I've seen it all, I know what's in there." Maybe you don't. Luke 15, one of my favorite chapters in all of scripture, lost sheep, lost coin, lost son, you've heard it maybe described as the prodigal son or the parable of the lost son.

Luke 15:11. So now you say, "I know the story." I thought I did too, so listen. Okay? Maybe say a little prayer and say, "Lord, help me see what's in the story." "Then He said, 'A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me." So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.'"

It doesn't say what he did, just says prodigal living. Party animal. "But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine." Worst-case scenario for a Jewish little boy. "And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything."

So he's eating pig food and that was all he had. "But when he came to himself"... now if you've got someone out there that you're praying for that they'll repent, they'll turn around, their mind will change, they'll come home not to you necessarily primarily but to Jesus, this has to happen: "But when he came to himself," you finally come to your senses.

And he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger? My dad's employees are doing better than me. I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you and I am no longer worthy to be called your son, make me like one of your hired servants.'" So he came to himself, he considers it'd be better off with his dad, and he starts rehearsing his speech.

And then verse 20 is where his whole life changed: "And he arose and came to his father." You cannot spend the rest of your life thinking about repenting, you have to move, you have to take action. "And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him, had compassion, ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." By the way, the only place in the scriptures where God is depicted as running.

The Father, running. You want to see God run, then repent. He will run to you. "Had compassion, ran, fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him"... starts his speech... "'Father, I have sinned against'"... so this is not a bad speech by the way, he is confessing. "'I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son.'"

But the father said to his servants... now watch this: "'Bring out the best robe and put it on him.'" Okay, I get that there are robes, there's a best robe, go get the best robe. "'Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.'" The rings have been there, the sandals have been there. But then verse 23: "'And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry."

Now here's what I'd never seen. What's with this fatted calf? What is the only reason you have a calf that's been fattened? You only keep a fatted calf, you only fatten up a calf if you're constantly ready for a party. So what's the dad been doing? Keep a fatted calf around. Why would you keep a fatted calf around? Because my boy is coming home.

Now here's my question to you. As you pray for that person who is out there, the party animal, are you fattening up a party animal at your house? Turns out the fatted calf is the party animal. Specifically, you're praying for this person, are you believing God to the extent that you're feeding a calf as though their return was imminent?

Now what does that mean? It means this. Sometimes we pray for repentance, but we are not prepared for it when it shows up. You prayed that they'd come home, you prayed they'd get sober, you prayed they'd get clean, you prayed they'd whatever you're praying that they'd repent and that God would get hold of their life, that they'd repent, it would lead to salvation, they would be like, "And I'm not sorry, I'm home," and then you're like, "Oh, now I've got a problem. They came home."

And now the consequence of all their choices that is landing on them possibly is now landing on you. It is a dangerous thing to pray for someone who's out there and not prepare for their return. Everybody got it? As a church. So what are we waiting on? We are waiting for people who are not saved to be saved and we are here and exist in a large part for the sake of people who when they finally come to themselves and they arise and go to the Father, the Father says, "I've got a place for you," and they walk in with all their mess, all their past, all their problems.

And they go, "Okay, I'm here. I don't want to go back. What are you going to do with me?" And hopefully we've been feeding a calf that's going to be slaughtered and throw a party for these people. And if you look at the end of all of what I love about Luke 15 is that at the end of every one of the stories, there is a party that beats the party they had somewhere else, the good time they had somewhere else. So does God party? Absolutely. But He also prepares and provides a party animal.

Just for the sake of anybody who doesn't know the rest of the story, the father said to his servants, verse 22: "'Bring out the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his hand, sandals on his feet, and bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry."

"Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing." And I've said this before, I know how you hear music, I don't know how you hear dancing. I mean if you can hear dancing, something's going on. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant, and he said to him, "Your brother has come home. Your brother has come and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf."

It's like he's killing animals now, there's a party. "But he was angry and would not go in." Now this is what you've got to be careful of. You say, "Well, I'm praying that my brother will come back," and then you're mad as you know what when he comes home. Who had the problem? It's not the little brother that left, it's the big brother that stayed home.

"Therefore his father came out, pleaded with him, so he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you, I never transgressed your commandment at any time, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends.'" In other words, "Forget the fatted calf, you didn't even kill a goat for me, a young goat to have a party with my friends." I'm going to guess he didn't have any friends.

Usually miserable people don't have many friends, and the friends they have are miserable. Ever notice that? Bitter people tend to be surrounded with bitter people. "But as soon as this son of yours"... not my brother, this son of yours... "who has devoured your livelihood with harlots"... and I'm always fascinated by this, how he knew he had been out there with harlots.

He hadn't even spoken to him, won't go in the house. How do you know that's what he's been doing? All it said was prodigal living, riotous living. My contention has always been that his problem was harlots. And judging his little brother who he hadn't even seen or talked to, the big brother's home wishing he had been out there with his little brother. And by the way, there's nothing in the story that says the big brother couldn't have left when he got his money too.

So you say, "Well, I stayed home," bitter. "'Devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.' And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.'" Are we ready when they come in? Are we praying they come home? Not primarily to us, but to Him.

You say, "Well, I don't know what you're talking about." Ask a family who has a party animal out there somewhere what it's like when they do come home. There are challenges, but that's part of the process. And you pick up where they left off and you move it forward. It's messy, but there's nothing like seeing God change a life, and that would be us.

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 to how these talks have made a difference in your life too. Give us a call, 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.