Richard Ellis Talks

Guest (Male): Today on Richard Ellis Talks.

Richard Ellis: So let me tell you something about having power. You can't power on in your life, you can't power through any situations unless you've got the power on. And you can't have the power on unless you've got the power in. And you can't get the power in unless you do it God's way, and that's Jesus.

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

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

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is Power On. And I brought my cell phone out here, which is dead as a doornail. And as it turns out, without any power, I guess you could hammer nails, I don't know what it should be, a paperweight. Without power, no matter how much it costs, it's worthless. It does nothing. It can help you in no way.

Now, there's a simple button on my phone on the side. And if I push that and hold that and this goes like it's supposed to go, a little fruit comes up on the front, which is so fascinating. Everybody thinks that little apple with the bite out of it has something to do with the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible does it say—this is way aside—but you say, "Oh, that was the fruit that Adam ate." There's nothing in the Bible about Adam and Eve and apples. Not in there. So if you think these are cursed for that reason, then that's not the reason.

So, what is happening to that phone? It's powering on. It's coming on. Now, I think if you've survived a weather event of any kind anywhere, you have a category possibly for power being on and power being off. Rebecca and I had the experience of being at our home for 50 hours straight with power off. And I did not know what a nightcap was until that experience.

A nightcap is something you wear because you can't sleep completely under the covers. And when it's 50 degrees in your house, once you get in bed, I will say this: once you're under those sheets, if you can breathe your own air for a while, it gets pretty toasty. But the top of your head, the pillow, everything gets cold.

Now, why does that even happen? Because there's no power. And there is nothing like losing power to realize what having no power is like and how that affects your life. In the same way that that is true physically, it is true spiritually. Now, the difference for the world is that if you never have power to begin with, you can't power on if you don't have any power in the first place.

You can live in a house, you can have all the appliances, you can have everything in the world, and you can even go back and flip the big breaker on the back or side of the house to on. But if you are not connected to the power source, all your flipping breakers and doing whatever you're going to do is going to accomplish nothing unless you have a source of power to power on your house. And the same thing is true spiritually, the same thing is true in your relationship with God or not.

Now, God is described as being omnipotent, all-powerful. And I'd like you to turn to Genesis chapter one, and we're going to get a glimpse of this pretty quick. We've said this multiple times, you've heard this maybe, maybe not. Whatever you do with the first words, the first four words of the Bible determine your entire worldview. If you allow for the first four words, Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God," everything changes.

If you discount that, if you disallow that, if there is no God, the Bible says about you—and I'm not trying to be mean on this—the fool says in his heart there is no God. So if you say, "Well, I'm an atheist," and I'm going to try to stay this little gently for some reason, but I don't know how you tell somebody they're a fool gently. You're a fool, right? There's no God.

What in the world are you thinking? How dark does it get for you to come up with no God? Look around. Look at a baby being born. Look at flowers, just any number of things. And God has manifested his power in creation itself. Just read a few of these verses: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." So the macro, the micro in terms of the universe itself, the earth being this tiny speck of dust, not even that in the scope of the universe.

And then however big it is, he holds it in the span of his hand. You can't even begin to wrap your head around this kind of God, the power that he has. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."

And then this thing rolls out. He speaks and light—everything except for man. God forms man by the dust of the earth, breathes into him the spirit of life, comes to life, and it's power. It's power. And so when I become a Christian, when you became a Christian—and this is very hard to comprehend because I still don't get this—the same Spirit of God that hovered over the face of the deep, that same Spirit of God, God himself, when I became a Christian, when I said, "Okay, God, I can't save myself, I believe not just that you are, but you're a rewarder of those that diligently seek you."

I am seeking you, you've given me even that desire to seek you. I understand that Jesus died on the cross, was buried, raised from the dead to rescue me, I accept him into my life, I invite you to come live inside of my body, to not just reside here but fill me. The same Spirit of God that creates the universe now lives in me. Now, you would think that that would change your life. How can I have that God, that power, that access literally inside of this human body and that not change everything? Everything.

Romans 1:16: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." Why is he not ashamed? "For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." So you can't be ashamed of it. "Well, I'm just embarrassed to say this out loud." If you don't spit it out, there is no power unleashed. And I tell these stories repeatedly, I shared with a group yesterday even.

I've gotten on an elevator, an elevator going up so many floors. I get on the elevator, and the Holy Spirit will say something like this: "Share the gospel to that person right now." Total stranger on an elevator. I don't know how many seconds we got left on the elevator. And I've looked at a person and I say, "This may be the strangest thing that's ever happened to you, but I believe I'm supposed to tell you that God loves you, that Jesus died on a cross, was buried and raised from the dead for you. Boom."

Doors open, you get off and it's over. You say, "Well, what in the world could happen there?" That is the power of God into salvation. You plant that seed. How long does it take to run in your neighbor's yard and shove a watermelon seed in the middle of their beautiful lawn? Not giving anybody any ideas, but it is kind of fun to watch what happens. You say, "Well, nothing's going to happen with that."

Oh, just watch. One little seed in the right dirt, kaboom! Power. That seed germinates and here they come. Jack and the Beanstalk. You know, why do we love stories like that? These magic little beans. And look, boom, plant a seed and kaboom, this thing, this vine that goes to the heavens. I got the gospel. I got the gospel. And all I got to do is say the seed. Say the seed.

Jesus died on the cross, was buried and raised from the dead. And if someone hears that and that's all they hear, they can be saved. You say, "How's that possible?" It's the power of God into salvation. That is the gospel. So all these people say, "Well, I can't be a witness. I don't have all the answers." You got the seed, say the seed. "Well, I can't say the seed." Why can't you say the seed?

"I'm embarrassed." No, you might be ashamed. Why would you be ashamed of the gospel? Only reason I can come up for being ashamed of the gospel is I'm about to spit out something that don't look like what I'm doing, right? Why would I be ashamed? If you're not ashamed, you will share because someone else's life is at stake.

Second Corinthians chapter 12. So this is a really interesting one. You're not going to like this one necessarily. There are things in the Bible that come in threes. It's a really kind of fascinating deal. Jesus in the garden, what? He prayed three times: "If it's possible let this cup pass from me, but not my will, your will be done." Comes back, checks his buddies, they're asleep, goes back again. Makes a run at his dad again. "Hey, how about—" comes back, comes back, third time. Okay.

Similar thing with Paul. He's seen so many extraordinary spiritual things, revelations are coming to him so fast and hard. Second Corinthians 12:7: "And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me." Literally look at what this thorn is described as: "a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure." Now that's intense.

A messenger of Satan sent to keep him in check lest he be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing—so he realizes I'm coming up against something, a messenger of Satan, some kind of thorn in his physical flesh—and so he pleads with the Lord three times that it might depart. He's like, "Okay, three times, I'll make a run at it. Jesus made a run at you three times, I'll make a run three times that this thing would go away, depart from me."

And what answer did he get? He got a no, but even something better than what he had asked for. Because the answer comes back: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore—so he runs that trap and says, "Okay, so it's not going away, but the reason that it's here is that his grace is made perfect in weakness."

So this weakness, this area of my life that I see as weakness, is going to be used to make me perfect in terms of strength. "Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong."

Now, how does that work? It seems totally backwards. Why don't you just make me strong and then I'm strong when I'm strong? Because we tend to wander off when we're strong. "Ooh, I feel better." Think about it. Somebody gets sick, oh, you're on your knees in a closet somewhere. "Oh God, oh God, please be merciful, heal them, heal them, heal them."

They come out the front door. "Whew, glad that's over. What were we doing before?" Where's all that closet time? Where's all that begging and pleading and crying out to God and "Oh, have mercy"? I don't need mercy, the sun came out. Power's on. We're back. And so God somehow builds into the system weakness. These things that keep thorning us, sticking us, and cause us to say, "I can't do this without you." He says, "You're right."

So you'll know when you've kind of settled in on his answer because then you're not just going, "Okay, whatever you—I'll do it your way then." No, that's not what this is. This thing switched to, "I will gladly boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell on me." And not just that, "take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, distress. For when I'm weak, I'm strong."

So what's your problem? Come up with the worst thing you can come up with. I'll tell you what happened in my house. Those lights were off for 50 hours and we're dressed like we're going snow skiing just to go to the bathroom. You're just like, "What in the world?" I'll tell you one of the things that happened in my house. I'm walking around praising God for electricity. What in the world? I got a house, I wasn't seven degrees in my house. You just start thinking about things you didn't think about.

So it causes you if it's working—or you can walk around, "Well this sucks and this ain't right and my neighbor—" and I—oh, I made some calls. I sat in my car one night for two hours on hold with a place called Oncor. I was very nice though, believe it or not. I was very nice. Lady finally answered the phone, was very kind.

And I said, "Ma'am, I'm sitting here in my car and across the street on all sides, the lights are on. I see light, right there. Why they got power, I don't have any power?" That's what the world's supposed to be looking at us the same way. Not lording it over and going, "Na-na-na-na-na, we got power, you're going to hell, na-na-na-na-na." That's not how it works.

My neighbor, also who had no power, guy right next to me, went and bought a generator, and he finally gave up and left and he said, "You can use my generator." So what is your infirmity? What is your distress? What is your reproach? What is your need? And you'll hear me pray this along the way, because this is something I saw in scripture, somebody showed me.

The Bible says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Do not jerk that verse out of its context, because the context of that verse is, "I've learned to abound and to be abased." And what he's talking about is contentment. So if you have food and clothing, the Bible says that's what he promised, you've got to find a way to be content with that.

Is it okay to say it'd be nice to have more? Yes. But until you get to the place where you can say, "Lord, I thank you, I praise you, I trust you, I have learned to be abased, to have only what you promised, food and clothing," I promise you in this country, you can pretty quick jump a little off of food and clothing. A few more things.

Another one in regard to the gospel: First Corinthians 1:18. A few more and we're done. First Corinthians 1:18: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." Never leave the cross out. Jesus died on a cross, was buried and raised from the dead.

There's power in the cross, there's power in the blood. We sing songs about it. Why? Because it's true. "Would you be free from your burden of sin? There's power in the blood." Why? Because that blood was shed and presented before the Father and our sins are atoned for and we're home. Power.

Look at Ephesians chapter one, verse 15. Let me read you some of these out of Ephesians and we're close. This one's kind of fun, actually. I don't give you a lot of Greek words because I don't think people really care about that. But maybe you do, so I'll give you a few. Ephesians 1:15: "Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling."

So what is he after? You've got to know what the hope of his calling is "and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places." You're dealing with a God who can literally raise someone from the dead. You got no problems.

And that power, that person lives in me. One commentary put it this way in regard to this passage: "The Apostle Paul gives us a glimpse of the power of God when he writes of his incomparable great power for us who believe, or his exceeding greatness. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above the rule and authority.

The Greek word translated great is *megathos*, which means strong or great and it appears only here in the New Testament. This word obviously wasn't sufficient for Paul to express God's great power, so he adds the word incomparable or *hyperballon*, related to a verb that literally means to throw beyond the usual mark or to excel or surpass. So the full idea of the expression *hyperballon megathos* is that of power beyond measure, a superabounding or surpassing power, power that is more than enough."

So you say, "Well God just gave me just barely enough." No, you can't come up with that. He wants us to know that his exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the work of his mighty power, it is beyond. You throw a javelin and somebody shove and throws it a mile past you. "What is that?" Exceeding. Exceedingly great.

So that's the God you're dealing with. That's the kind of power you're dealing with. You say, "I can't live the Christian life." It's a lie. It's a lie. You say, "Well I don't know how to live the Christian life. I'm a Christian, I know I'm a Christian, so I must have power." Yeah, but do you know how to work the power? Do you know how to ask God to unleash that power in your life over sin, over fear, over whatever it is you have? You say, "I don't know how to do that."

Well, get some help. If you're ignorant, you just don't know. If you're ignorant and you don't ask for help, I'm telling you as gently as I can, that's stupid. That's stupid. Two-year-olds say, "I can do it by myself." You can't be a two-year-old the rest of your life. There's maybe a time for that spiritually even, but at some point you go, "I can't do this. I don't know what I'm doing."

I was so desperate, wanted to die I was so desperate, that when God sent me help, I just was like, "Okay, let's go. I didn't care who the guy was almost. If you got help, help! I'm listening, show me because I've tried it my way, I am helpless. I feel powerless even though you're going to tell me I do have power to live this life. I don't know how. Help me know how."

And how many Christians walking around with no power manifest in their life, ashamed a little bit because they can't even make it work for them? "Why am I going to tell you to give your life to Jesus when I did it and I can't even make it work? Well, you'll get a ticket to heaven too." Yeah, but I'm embarrassed that I can't make the rest of it work. Show me, help me. And it'll change your life because that's the mechanism that he left in place: discipleship. It's just spiritually raising kids so they're not by themselves.

Ephesians three. Let me read through just—I don't want to leave these out, so let's do them quick. Go to Ephesians 3:14. Another way he describes this thing. Ephesians 3:14: "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man."

So how does this work? You're strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man. It is not me being stronger. I am weak. It is him being strong in me. Okay? So you unleash him to be your strength. "You are the strength of my life," we sing these songs.

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height; to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church of Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."

Able to do exceedingly abundantly. If you are barely just crawling along in "If I can just make it to the pearly gates, it's all going to be okay. What are you doing? I'm just hanging on waiting for Jesus to get me." You got no verses for that. That can happen, that's not what he intended.

It is possible to have thorns in the flesh and be stronger than you ever could have been without them. And whatever the distress, infirmity, need, whatever it is, you say, "Lord, I don't care whatever you allow, you would not allow this with one of your children unless it was to benefit your child." So I trust you.

So what are we doing? I'm going to take pleasure in this thing then. There's something good. So if he allows something in your life, it's for a very surgical specific reason. Pay attention, praise him anyway, trust him and say, "Okay, Lord, what are you doing? If this was the only thing that you could allow to get my attention, you got my attention. Let's get this over with and get on with it." And if you don't remove it and that's how I'm going to be strong, I want to be strong in the power of your might.

Let's do one more. Second Timothy 1:7. Second Timothy, a lot of people know this one, but if you don't, this is good. Second Timothy 1:7: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear." And it describes it literally as a spirit of fear. So, "Ooh, what are you going to do? What's going to happen? Ooh, fear, fear, fear, fear."

So the devil comes along and says, "Hey, how about some fear?" You go, "Oh yes, I love fear, because then I can stay here and that's my excuse for not getting along with my life." And then God comes along and says, "Well I got a three-to-one ratio here. He's offering fear, but today our special is power, love, sound mind. Would you like some of that?"

"Oh no, I'll keep my fear because if I go with power, love, and sound mind, I'll have to live a life. I'll have to get out of this depression, this hole that I've dug. Woe is me." So he says, "Here's power, here's love, here's a sound mind. You can think the way you're supposed to think." And then goes right into verse eight: "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings of the gospel according to the power of God." Back to the power.

Guest (Male): Before Richard comes back to wrap things up for us today, I'd like to share a couple important things with you. Let me encourage you to take a minute and check out our website, RichardEllis.com. You'll find today's talk right there in the talks page, along with all of Richard's audio and video messages.

You can even forward them to a friend so they can hear them too. You'll also find the prayer wall to add your prayer requests, a link so you can connect with us, the contribute page for you to be able to give to this ministry, all of our social media links and much more. So check it out, RichardEllis.com. And Richard's back now to wrap up today's talk.

Richard Ellis: So my phone is now on, right? It's on. But I've got this little trick thing here. I can push that button one more time, and guess what it says on the top of my phone? "Slide to power off." So let me tell you something about having power.

You can't power on in your life, you can't power through any situations unless you've got the power on. And you can't have the power on unless you've got the power in. And you can't get the power in unless you do it God's way, and that's Jesus. So my power-generating person, God himself living in me—he would not kick the door of my heart down.

He's not going to impose himself on me. He gives me faith, he gives me the universe, he reveals who he is and he says, "Are you in? And are you in for me being in?" And you got to come up with an answer. And I was confronted with that question many years ago, and I said, "I'm in. I want you in. I want the power in. I don't want to just have power around me. I need power in me or I'm in the dark and I cannot live the way I'm supposed to live."

So you say, "Well, how do I get the power in?" You say, "God, I know I'm a sinner. I've screwed up. I'm the reason you came. I'm one of the reasons. I believe that you sent your son Jesus. He died on a cross, was buried and raised from the dead to offer me the forgiveness of my sin and eternal life, all of it as a gift. And so I'm saying thank you, I accept. Come live in me."

And as you've heard me say repeatedly, people say it can't be that easy, and I say easy for who? Easy for you because all you've got to do is accept it. Not so easy for him. It cost the Father his Son, it cost the Son his life to make it that simple.

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