Richard Ellis Talks

Narrator: Today on Richard Ellis Talks. Who is it in your life that you look at and say, dude, I'm in trouble. Something's wrong. You've got to talk to me. You know how things should be, and I'm veering off, I'm avoiding you. I've disappeared. Something's not right. You've got to help me get back to being in step, my words with my walk, where it all is going together.

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 of today's message is Rawhide. One Sunday morning an old cowboy entered a church just before services were to begin. Although the old man and his clothes were spotlessly clean, he wore jeans, a denim shirt and boots that were very worn and ragged. In his hand, he carried a worn out old hat and an equally worn out Bible.

The church he entered was in a very upscale and exclusive part of the city. It was the largest and most beautiful church the old cowboy had ever seen. The people of the congregation were all dressed with expensive clothes and accessories. As the cowboy took a seat, the others moved away from him. No one greeted, spoke to or welcomed him. They were all appalled at his appearance and did not attempt to hide it.

As the old cowboy was leaving the church, the preacher approached him and asked the cowboy to do him a favor. "Before you come back in here again, have a talk with God and ask him what he thinks would be appropriate attire for worship." The old cowboy assured the preacher he would. The next Sunday he showed up back up for the services wearing the same ragged jeans, shirts, boots and hat. Once again, he was completely shunned and ignored.

The preacher approached him and said, "I thought I asked you to speak to God before you came back to our church."

"I did," replied the old cowboy.

"Well, if you spoke to God, what did he tell you the proper attire should be before worshiping in here?" asked the preacher.

"Well, sir, God told me that he didn't have a clue what I should wear. He said he'd never been in this church."

Recently, one of the guys in our church that happened to become a Christian on a trip down the Amazon River with me years ago. He thought he went on a fishing trip, but he really went to be caught himself. He shared his testimony with a group of men, 20, 30 men in a gathering on a Saturday morning.

If you are one of the guys that had the privilege of being there, it was one of the most sincere, without pretense, transparent, whatever words, real, authentic, raw things I've heard in a very long time. I said the word pretense, without pretense. I looked up this word pretense to make sure I had the right thing. It means pretending or feigning, make-believe, a false show of something, a piece of make-believe, the act of pretending or alleging falsely, a false allegation or justification, insincere or false profession.

What was so refreshing and amazing to me, is I knew this about him already, but he didn't even know what he didn't know. He had not been raised in church, he didn't have any of the lines to say. It was just a raw presentation of, this is who I am and this is what I'm trying to do. If you were there, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It was just completely transparent.

Here's what we're going to talk about today. Somewhere between raw and at the other end of the spectrum, hide, is the Christian life. Maybe it's just me. I grew up around enough church stuff that when it finally started to make sense to me, I had so much stuff to go with the reality that I was discovering that I could still fake it a little bit. I could still hide my stuff. I was sophisticated enough, I had enough skills to say, well, even if I don't get this, I can fool everybody else.

What his single testimony caused at least in me the other day was, what am I doing? What are we doing? What is our story? What is it we're telling not just with our words, but with our lives? The dangerous thing with him was, he's living, I mean, he's just living out loud, he's doing his thing. We get smart, not wise. We get smart, and we figure out ways in certain situations, certain places, we'll say things, do things, and keep everybody happy. But what is going on really in our hearts and does your heart match your life?

You say, well, you go back to these simple things all the time. But this is the challenge that I have, that we all have, is lining these two things up, where what we think about, what we feel, what we believe, and what we live, it all is just simultaneously being lived out. You say, but if I told people what I'm thinking or what's going on or how I'm living, they'd shame me, they'd ridicule me. No, they wouldn't. If you've been yourself along the way anyway.

I'm going to read you some verses that are going to kind of expose this a little bit, and I want you to start, we're not going to completely go left to right. I'll move around a little bit, but go to Ezekiel chapter 33 in the Old Testament. One of the great things about the Bible is some of this stuff is not just, well, there's one verse over here somewhere, and that's all it talks about. The Bible is replete with these principles and these truths and these challenges that we have.

Ezekiel chapter 33, let's jump in here in verse 30. God used the prophets, Ezekiel's one of these, to talk to his problematic people and it's just, if you read this stuff, you see it's an ongoing challenge as it is with us today. He says, "As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses. They speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother, 'Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.'" So, it's like everybody's saying, hey, come check this out.

"So they come to you as people do. They sit before you as my people. And look at this. And they hear your words, but they do not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Indeed, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument. For they hear your words, but they do not do them. And when this comes to pass, surely it will come, then they will know that a prophet has been among them."

See, this is not people who aren't willing to go to church or gather and listen to someone speak, but it's like, oh, what beautiful music. He sings so well. He plays his instrument so well. But we have no intention of doing anything that he's saying. We just enjoy listening. You say, well, isn't it better to have people who are willing to come listen? Doesn't that help? I guess.

I mean, if you feel better, but see, if I just said and we said, the elders of this church said, well, but look, we got enough people showing up and they look interested, and they listen, and they give a little money, and everybody's kind of excited. But you got to keep moving, you got to say, okay, but is it really working? Is this stuff that you're hearing and that we're reading and that we're going through, when you leave here, do we actually walk out the door and go, it said that and I'm going to go do that. I'm going to try it.

You say, well, is that measurable? Absolutely, it's measurable. And who you are, even in the most adverse situation, is going to come out. That's how people are going to go, wow, this must be real because you're under some heat. I am very encouraged when people gather and we get together and we do these things, but I want to make sure that we keep it raw, we keep it real, and we allow for people to keep moving, to keep thinking, to make sure that we're actually trying to do this, not just pretending that we are.

There's a certain amount of pretending that goes on with me and that's what rattles me to death. I sit down last night. I'm going through all this stuff, getting ready to do this, listening to music. You know, I got to get hit with this first and I go through my own heart and my own life and think, God, you know, I'm all encouraged by some guy giving his testimony, but how much of the time am I really, really, really tracking my heart with what I'm saying and living and thinking it's all one thing?

I don't know what the percentages are. I sure don't want God to tell me because it'd probably be awful. I don't even know sometimes how to get back because what happens to us sometimes is we get going and we get pretending. We get acting and the rawness, the realness, the authenticness of this thing gets lost. And it's what happened to me as a small child, they taught me how to act like a Christian, which I've shared all the time, and so I just fall back into my character, which really is no character at all, if you're pretending.

I go through my motions. We have got to have people around us. Women need to have women. Men need to have men. Young people, children, whoever this is, parents, you got to have people around you so that not only you are free to be raw and real and say, look, you know me. If you don't, something's wrong. You just need people in your life that can look at you and say, I have been authorized by you, whether we sit down once a week or not, you know I love you. I am in your life and now I'm in your face. I'm not judging you. You know I love you. Something's wrong and I'm not taking, I'm okay for an answer.

Who knows you like that? Who is it in your life that you look at and say, dude, I'm in trouble. Something's wrong. You've got to talk to me. You know how things should be and I'm veering off. I'm avoiding you. I've disappeared. Something's not right. You've got to help me get back to being in step, my words with my walk, where it all is going together.

You say, but it's embarrassing. If I really told somebody what I was thinking, what I was doing, what was going on, it'd be embarrassing. Let me tell you something, the old thing, whatever you cover, God's going to uncover. Whatever you uncover, God's going to cover, is true. You better start talking somewhere or it's coming out anyway.

Matthew chapter 23, New Testament. Matthew 23:25, he's going off on these scribes and Pharisees. He says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisees, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, then the outside of them may be clean also." What good is it if the outside's clean?

If you've ever unloaded a dishwasher that hadn't been run, anybody ever done that? You kind of look both ways and go, well, it looks okay to me. But you realize the outside of the cup might have gotten rinsed off, but if you really look inside and there's that kind of film of milk on the bottom of a cup or something, you're like, will anybody notice? Of course they're going to notice. But we put it all back in the cabinet, silverware back in, and maybe nobody will notice, but you know, and people do notice.

That's how ridiculous it is for us to go on like nothing's happening. You say, well, nobody notices. Everybody notices our pretense. Everybody notices our hypocrisy. They're just kind enough not to say anything, especially people who aren't Christians. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

Now, listen to me just a second. Forget sitting there saying, I need to get a copy of this to my friend Bob, or whoever it is. You know, forget everybody else for a second. Is this you? Is this me? Not I used to be that way. Have we been that way today already, recently, somewhere in the last week, where you look at your life and you go, that's me. I get all cleaned up on the outside, but I'm a mess on the inside. It doesn't matter if the outside's fixed if you're full of it on the inside.

If we are able to come and go as a body, as a family, as a church, and things are going wrong, and no one says anything, something's wrong. This is a dysfunctional family if it's not working like a family is supposed to be, a healthy family. We're in love. We can speak to one another and care about. I'm not talking about gossip and just taking somebody out for the sake of it.

But we ought to be able to communicate. We ought to be able to look at each other and say, look, I'm concerned. Go to Mark chapter 1 for the sake of time. Let's jump in just verse 21 and 22. "Then they went into Capernaum," this is Jesus and his disciples, "and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught." And listen to what they were astonished by, verse 22. "And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."

I am not crazy about having someone teach me to do something that doesn't know how to do it themselves. And Jesus came along and he didn't say and not do. Everything he said he did, and they were astonished it says, like, we've never seen this. This is amazing. And it made them want to listen because he was real. It was raw, it was together. Everything he said they saw and it made sense finally. It was like he had authority. He knew what he was talking about because he was living what he was talking about.

Go to Luke chapter 18. This is about, maybe you've read this story before, I've probably read it before, but this is about as clean a way to demonstrate this. You may glance at it and go, oh yeah, yeah, I already know that story. Pay attention. You may not know what the story is about. A lot of times we know the little characters, but we don't know the principle. And the principle's put out here right up front. Luke 18:9, "Also he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others."

Here's the flip side. On one end you have people who are raw, it's real, it's authentic, it's transparent. On the other end, you have the hide people who don't want anybody to know what's going on and what's going on with them. They trust in themselves that they're righteous. They don't really need God. If they're religious, they have to say God, but they don't need God to do what they're doing. And they despise others. "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector." And this is raw and hide in the same room.

"The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men.'" Starts his prayer out. "I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, and even as this tax collector." He has the guts to point across the room at the tax collector who's there supposedly doing the same thing he's doing. Now, look what he does in 12. "I fast twice a week." Now, let me tell you something about this. That's not a bad thing.

What he makes a list of here, that what he does is stuff that we should probably be doing but for the right reasons. I think on the fasting thing, parenthetically, Jesus assumed that we would fast, and fasting twice a week would change your life for the right reasons. Anybody can religiously give up food. I'm talking about fasting for the heart reasons, for the right reasons. He says, "I fast twice a week." The next thing. "I give tithes of all that I possess." Nothing wrong with that for the right reasons. But some people give it for show and get a plaque on something or name a window after me, or whatever your motivation. Man, you ought to be giving in such a way, the right hand knows what the left hand's doing anyway, where God gets all the glory.

"And the tax collector," so that's his little spiel, "the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast." He is back there in a symbol of grief, of repentance, hitting himself on the chest, because he just felt it. This is not about saying words. What is the last time you stopped and got real with God and said, look, I'm tired of this. And I've been tired before, but I'm more tired. And I am sorry.

Were you literally somewhere in your chest, inside your physical body, you go, God, I don't want to live this way. I feel it inside of me. The remorse, the grief, the repentance, change me. This is what you've got with this tax collector. He won't even lift his head. He's beating his breast and he says, "God, be merciful to me a sinner." He knows what he is. He knows what he's done. He knows what he thinks, what he's like. And he's come into the temple, he's here praying, and he is sincerely repenting, where this other guy who really should have been the one repenting and has got all the stuff going on, but really hiding who he really is, is not even there for the right reasons.

"Be merciful to me a sinner." Look what Jesus says. "I tell you, this man, the tax collector, went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Where am I going with this? What is this raw hide thing about? I am trying to move us from hide to raw. I understand that keeping hitting this and harping on this, not many people want to hear this, or they're tired of listening to me. We may call this thing down where there's nobody left.

I'd rather end up with a handful of people who we looked at each other and said, we're going to do this, aren't we? And you say, yeah, we're going to do this. We're not going to pretend, are we? No, and I'm not going to help you pretend. I don't want you enabling me, helping me pretend. We're not going to be dysfunctional. Help me live this Christian life. And making sure we have people around us doing that. It is so easy to slip away and say the lines and live the life and it be nothing from the heart anymore.

We get sophisticated, where we get smart, where we figure out ways to diffuse people and push them away where they never really know. If you want to turn to these fine, if not, I'm going to read them fast. I want you to just listen a minute, preferably, you can write them down and go back. This is my last kind of raw hide that made all this possible. It's in Isaiah 50 verse 6 first.

The prophet says, and it's prophetic here, "I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting." Isaiah 53:5, "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes, we are healed." Listen to this, and it's in Matthew, Mark, Luke repeatedly. Matthew 20:19, "And they delivered him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify, and the third day he will rise again."

Mark 10:34, "And they will mock him and scourge him and spit on him and kill him, and the third day he will rise again." Luke 18:33, "They will scourge him and kill him and the third day he will rise again." It doesn't just talk about him being crucified. It talks about what happened before. Every time the scourging is mentioned. Rawhide, strips of leather, cat of nine tails, stuff put on the end to inflict tremendous pain. This Jesus took a whipping that you could not withstand. Forget getting crucified, dying and buried, raised from the dead.

Before he even got nailed on a cross, he got clobbered. If you've seen The Passion of the Christ, I have seen it once and I can't watch it anymore. I've thought about it. I've tried to go back and watch it again, and I can't take it because of what it does to me, because it's probably not too far from what really happened. The only inaccuracy as far as I know in The Passion of the Christ is they covered up a naked body because audiences of all the stuff that was in that movie would never have been able to withstand the shame of him hanging on a cross, completely naked.

I get kidded a lot and people say, well, he's going to share the gospel, he's going to cry, he's going to do these things. Let me tell you something. The day you quit crying, you're dead meat. If this doesn't move you anymore, then something is bad wrong. You say, well, I'm not emotional like you. I don't care who you are. Somewhere, sometime in secret, if you give this thought, it will move your soul. You will find yourself in a place by yourself, beating your chest, wanting, I know what this cost.

We sing these songs about never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross. I don't want you getting cool with it. I don't want you getting intellectual about it. It has to stay raw. It has to stay fresh. It has to stay real or you will just be pretending. You will be living a life with no passion, no purpose, no anything. Then we wonder why people are not drawn to our Jesus or to us because they don't need more blase, bland religion. There's plenty of places to get that. People want life.

One more place. 1 Peter 2:24. "Who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed." Jesus got a raw deal, but there was really no hide. He hung in shame, unashamedly on that cross for you and for me.

I actually looked up the lyrics to Rawhide. You're not going to believe this. Just listen and I'm done. "The obvious, rolling, rolling, rolling, though the streams are swollen, keep them doggies rolling. Rawhide, rain and wind and weather, hell bent for leather. Wishing my gal was by my side, all the things I'm missing, good vittles, love and kissing, all waiting at the end of my ride. Keep moving, moving, moving, though they're disapproving. Keep them doggies moving, Rawhide, don't try to understand them, just rope, throw and random. Soon we'll be living high and wide. My heart's calculating, my true love will be waiting, be waiting at the end of my ride."

You better think about these things. You're thinking, someday I'll die, someday I'll be in heaven. Someday could be today. For God's sake, for your sake, for the people around you sake, go back to raw, away from hide, and live this thing for God's sake, for his glory. The interesting thing about it is, you end up benefiting because it's such a better way to live. Keep it real. Keep it raw. Let's pray.

Father, I just thank you so much personally for not stopping to come after us, not stopping to come after me. It is so easy, Lord, just to get in a groove and just to go through the motions. For me, at least, Lord, it's just saying the words, just a simple reminder of the fact that you suffered there, just maybe in our prayer time, if we have one, where we spend some time with you, Lord. It's just a few words away. A simple thank you for suffering there for us, for what you endured to pay for our sin, that you were buried, that you were raised from the dead.

Father, just simple stuff like that gets me going. It reminds me of what it took and who you are and and the great price that was paid. Father, help us get back to being real if we've slipped away from that, and to begin to talk about where we really are, what we're really not doing, or we are doing, what's going on, and give you an opportunity to just give us a fresh breath of air. Take a deep breath of you and and just begin to move forward without pretense, without pretending.

Help us not play this game for the rest of the people on the field with us, Lord. Help us be a functional family and take care of one another and be sensitive to one another and challenge one another in a godly, biblical way. Thank you for saving people today, Lord. Thank you for saving us from ourselves, those of us who claim to know you. I do pray that you would fan that fire in us today. Give us a hunger and a thirst for righteousness if we haven't had one in a while. A passion for you, a passion to know you. A passion to make you known and realize how high the stakes are for us and those around us who don't know you. We do love you, God. And we thank you so much for loving us. And may our lives point only to you and give you the honor and the glory that you are due. And we pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen.

Narrator: 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 in 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.