Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: He has a purpose, he has a plan, and it's not just to get you into heaven. It's between here and heaven. And you can say, "No, no, no, no, no. It's mine. I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it." And you can do that, but you're blowing through the only life you're ever going to get.

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's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "Raisinets." I got a box in the mail one day, a pretty good-sized box from a candy company in California. I opened it carefully because somebody's always trying to kill you. I opened it up: Styrofoam, ice pack, and a giant bag of Raisinets. There was no traceable anything, no way to find who it came from.

My internal immediate thought was somebody heard a sermon that I did somewhere in the country about me hoarding and hiding Raisinets in my home from my children. If you buy things and put them out where everybody can get them, that would be sharing, and I would not be interested in that. So you stuff things places so when you want your snack, it's there. I told that, so I thought somebody sent me a giant bag of Raisinets.

I had them and put them in my office where nobody could find them. About three days later, I thought, "Who sent me these Raisinets?" I called the candy company and did a little informative call. I just called to make sure this order number got delivered where it was supposed to, to see where it came from, and who it came from. Just general information about everything about the order. The person on the phone gave me the name and the number.

I called the number, and a guy answers the phone. I said I just called to thank you for the Raisinets. He was like, "How did you get my number?" He hadn't booked this online; he had even done it in such a way that he could not be found and was a little surprised that I got them but wondering how I found him. Here's why I think I found him. He had been in prison for 25 years and was Aryan Brotherhood.

In the short version of the hour-long conversation, he was in prison in a segregated unit with Aryan Brotherhood. If you want to Google that sometime, these are the baddest of the bad of the brand, as they're called. These are not the nice people. He said that out of nowhere, all of a sudden in prison, Jesus' name was on his brain, and he could not get Jesus out of his mind.

He said one day he went to lunch and sat down with two brothers who were also Aryan Brotherhood whose family had helped start the Aryan Brotherhood. He asked them, "What's up with this Jesus thing? Who is Jesus?" It turns out these two boys had been raised by a pastor and knew a ton about Jesus. He said to them, "Who is he?" They said, "He's God." He said, "If he's God, then why don't we worship him?" They said, "Because we do not submit."

I don't think I have ever heard a clearer explanation for why people, at the core, are not going to do it. He listened to that and couldn't get Jesus off of his brain. A few days later, he ended up in his cell with an impulse to get down on the ground. He said, "I had never gotten on my knees for anything or anybody," and he knelt in his cell and became a Christian.

Now, what is keeping you from submitting? Who is keeping you from submitting? Who is it that you have chosen to worship other than the God himself who has reached in your direction and given you every possibility, every reason, every goodness? Yet you stiff-arm him, you push him away, and ultimately say, "I do not submit." What is that going to cost you, and what is it already costing you?

We're going to start in Matthew chapter two and move as quickly as we can. Matthew chapter two, verse one, and this is actually the Christmas story. "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?'" Then look at the next statement: "For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him."

Now that, my friends, is something completely different because when you worship something or someone, you give obeisance, you give reverence, you acknowledge that is something greater than you. Think about that. You may have done that with a sin. You worship a sin. You have delivered your life over to a particular sin, a substance, a possession. No matter what happens, it could be a child. You say, "What's wrong with having a wife or a child or a husband, someone that you worship?"

We say these things: "Oh, I worship the ground she walks on." You better be careful because your god can die on you. People that say, "I love my children more than life," it sounds good, but just be careful romanticizing anything that can be over him. So what did they go to do? To worship. Verse three: "When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born."

So they said to him, "Well, we all know it's in the scriptures, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.'" Then Herod, who had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also."

He had no intent of worshipping this Jesus. When they heard the king, they departed, and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them till it came and stood over where the young Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. It's like, "Oh my gosh, we found him!" And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshipped Him.

Go to Matthew 27, and this is one of the saddest little pieces of scripture you're ever going to read. Matthew 27, jumping ahead, we've got him born, and now he's been arrested. He's going to be beaten within an inch of his life. Matthew 27:24: "When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, 'I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.'"

And all the people answered and said, "His blood be on us and on our children." Then he released Barabbas to them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. So these soldiers and now the entire garrison is around Jesus, and they stripped him. What does that mean? He is naked.

They stripped him, put a scarlet robe on him. "When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand. And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they took the robe off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and they led Him away to be crucified."

You say, "Well, who would do that? I would never do that." Okay, then what's the difference in that and where you are? You won't bow, you won't submit, you won't yield. You are determined to go to hell if that's what it takes to say no to God. That's how it ends up. You say, "Oh, you're talking about hell." You're going to be thinking about it for a long time because it's a real place and you don't have to end up there.

You say, "Well, I would never disrespect Jesus that way." You already have. He knocks on your door and you go, "Hey, sorry, not interested." Knocks on your door, "Dude, I told you I'm not interested. Leave me alone. Not interested. I've got my own life. I've figured it all out. I can take care of myself. I don't believe what you say is true. I've got my own theology." I have no theology; I'm just going to die and that's it.

Yet God sends person after person, song, message, everything comes your way, and he continues to knock on your door, and you go, "No, thank you." Then you end up in hell and you go, "Oh, why did I end up here?" You picked it. Look at Luke four. Now, this is bizarre, but this is intense. Luke chapter four, verse one: "Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry."

I think that's a very profound biblical statement that's one of my "duh" things in the Bible, but okay, it's there. He was hungry. "And the devil said to Him, 'If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.' But Jesus answered and said, 'It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." ' Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, 'All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.'"

There's a chance you've been offered the same deal and don't know it. You say, "Well, I've never had a conversation with the devil." You might not have had one with Jesus either. So whose deal did you take? You say, "I didn't take any deal." Then why don't you bow? Why don't you submit? Because I've already submitted somewhere else. I gave my life to this. I'm going to be famous, I'm going to be known, I'm going to be rich, I'm going to be somebody all by yourself or with the help of him.

The devil had some authority to offer and tempts Jesus with that. You need to give some thought to what you're worshipping and who you have submitted your life to. You think you've submitted to no one, that you run your life, and how is that working out for you? Acts chapter 10. Here is an instance where you can get so overwhelmed even with the right motive you can worship the wrong thing.

Acts chapter 10, Peter's been sent from one town to the next to another to see a Gentile. He shouldn't be eating with them, shouldn't be mixing with them, but he goes. Verse 25: "As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him." But what happens? "But Peter lifted him up, saying, 'Stand up; I myself am also a man.'" Sometimes we confuse a person with God. We think, "Wow, this person is so godly, so amazing," that we find ourselves worshipping a person.

If that person has a brain, they will say, "Stand up; I am just a man. He is who you need." Unfortunately, there are a lot of people on this planet who pick a man and worship the man. That is not what God is after. He will share his glory with no one. He is worthy of all of our worship, all of our praise. Romans 12. This is going to get a little more intense as we go along.

At some point, you're going to discover that if you say yes to God, it will cost you everything. It will cost you your entire life. You will be owned. You will be a slave, a servant of the Most High God, and you will say, "I'm losing my life. I'm giving it to him." But the scripture says if you hold on to your life, that's when you really lose it. But when you lose it for his sake, that's when you find it.

You think, "Oh my gosh, I'm about to give him everything and yield everything and submit and obey and trust him and give my whole life to him. What if he screws it up?" Then the whole universe collapses. You will never do better with your life than the Creator of your life will do with your life. He has a purpose, he has a plan, and it's not just to get you into heaven. It's between here and heaven.

And you can say, "No, no, no, no, no. It's mine. I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it." And you can do that, but you're blowing through the only life you're ever going to get. Romans 12, verse one. Paul writes to this church at Rome, and he says, "I beseech you," I beg you, "therefore, brethren," writing to Christians here, "by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." Some translations say your reasonable act of worship.

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." In the Old Testament, they brought animals and they sacrificed animals. When you sacrifice an animal, the animal dies. It has no life. But that animal is sacrificed on behalf of the person bringing it as a symbolic gesture to say, "I probably deserve what the animal gets, but the animal got it, and I'm asking for mercy."

The New Testament: the animal is Jesus, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. So Jesus presents himself and is willing to die on a cross, be crucified, buried, raised from the dead to make eternal and abundant life possible, forgiveness of sins, mercy, everything you need. Then Paul comes along and says, "Now I'm begging you that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, which is an act of worship."

What does that mean? That means you show up to God and say, "God, I know if I present myself to you, it's not going to do you any good for me to be dead. I can't live for you dead. But I am going to present myself in such a way that it is like I am sacrificing myself to let yourself live in me and through me in such a way that the world is changed." You say, "Well, I'm going to lose me in that." Absolutely.

But when we finally get out of the way, what happens? The God who has moved into us begins to live through us, move through us and into a world that desperately needs him. You say, "Well, where am I going to end up?" Wherever he wants you to end up. "What if he makes me say something to somebody I'm not comfortable with?" You're going to get comfortable with it because you'll finally realize this is impossible; you can't even make this stuff up. And you end up in situations and speaking into someone's life that desperately needed it.

Philippians chapter two. I'm going to read you a verse here now about what's coming and that you don't have to wait until this comes where it's mandatory. You can do it voluntarily. Philippians chapter two, verse five: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation." Are you willing to be of no reputation? What if no one knows who you are, what you've got, where you've been, where you live? Nothing. Have no reputation.

He made himself of no reputation, "taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." Therefore, because he was willing to do all of that, "God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name." This is very fascinating. What's in a name? This name gets thrown around, but when someone says it the way it's supposed to be said, when someone speaks the sweet name, Jesus. Jesus. That'll mess you up if you know him.

You say, "Well, all you said was a word." No, I said a name. Why is that name so powerful, so potent, so impactful? Here's why. God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. There is no name bigger than this name. You want to drop a name? Drop this name. And that's what happens when you pray. You basically walk into the throne room of heaven and say, "How are you, Father? Jesus." Now, what's he going to do? You dropped the name. There's no bigger name. You have immediate access because you used the name.

"At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Now, let me tell you something horrific. You say, "I will not submit," and I say back to you, "Yes, you will." But it will be too late because once you're dead and you submit, it will not be by choice. It will be because when that name is called, everybody goes down.

In the heavens, in the earth, below the earth, every name, every knee will bow. You say, "I will never bow." Everybody will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So I am begging you, I am beseeching you, bow now. Submit now. Don't wait until it's too late because the consequences are eternal. You say, "I don't believe any of that," and I tell you, "You will." But you will also remember that someone tried to warn you.

I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. If I told everybody in this room that I had arranged a pretty cool thing for us all to do and you had to be here today for it to happen, but I found out that the Queen of England was going to make a visit to Dallas and we were going to be invited to a reception if you were able to go. There'd be a little bit of a briefing before we did it, and the Queen would stand in a room and we would all be able to go through.

You know what would happen? We'd all get all dressed up in whatever they told us, how to curtsy. You don't bow from the waist; that's only in Japan. You bow from the head. We'd go through all the deals and say, "Okay, I think it'd be a great experience." And what would happen? We'd all line up, we'd go into some room, there the Queen would be, and we'd go through the line: "Your Majesty. Ma'am." We'd use all the proper protocol.

And then what would we be able to say? "I met the Queen. I was in the presence of the Queen." Did you go to lunch? No. Did you have tea? No. Did you chat for a while? No. So you got all dressed up to go bow and say, "Your Majesty." Yep. Why'd you do that? I met the Queen. Very few people turn that opportunity down. Then why would you turn down the King?

Why would you turn down the King? And yet he says it's way more. I don't just want to meet you; I'd like to come live in your house. I'd like to show you what I really meant and intended for your life and what's possible with me inside and where I can take you and what we can do, what I can do if you'll just get out of the way and let me live. I can change your life and I can change the world because I'm God. And it won't be just a handshake, a curtsy, a bow. It'll be every day, all day. Who wouldn't sign up for that? Revelation five.

All of this stuff in Revelation is talking about the future. You say, "Well, this is absurd; no one can know the future." I do. I know the future. You think you know the future? I got it written down right here. As sure as I'm standing here, I'd stake my life on all of this happening because this is the word of God, and he would not have left this for us if it wasn't going to happen. You say, "Well, you can't prove that." You just give me a little time. I'll prove it because I'll be here.

Revelation five, verse 11: "Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!' And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: 'Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!' Then the four living creatures said, 'Amen!' And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshipped Him who lives forever and ever."

You say, "Well, I won't bow." If you make it there, you'll be on the ground because worthy, worthy is the Lamb.

Guest (Male): Before Richard comes back to wrap things up for us today, I'd like to share a couple of 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.

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Richard Ellis: Revelation 19 and verse nine: "Then he said to me, 'Write: "Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!"' And he said to me, 'These are the true sayings of God.' And I fell at his feet to worship him." Similar thing with Peter and Cornelius. So here John is so overwhelmed, he said, "I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, 'See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus.'" And then some great advice: "Worship God." I'm not God. Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

If God can take my new friend, Aryan Brotherhood, terrible criminal—I'm not sharing what he did—and put his name that is above every name on his brain, and finally a man who does not submit, submits, there's hope for you. You can submit.

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