Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: So you're saying God, not just what comes out of my mouth, but literally what I'm processing, the words of my mind, yes, but the meditations of my heart. What is going on inside here about people? And am I saying things that maybe don't come out of my mouth, but You know what I'm thinking about them? And it's just as evil.

Announcer: Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard is 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 up and running with today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "Rumor Has It." We're going to cover a lot of ground that you might not want to cover today. Sometimes people prefer that they hear sermons about other people's challenges. And this is a challenge that you may or may not have, but I can assure you your friends and family know if you have it or not.

People who deal in gossip, rumor, innuendo, tend to surround themselves with people who feed in the same trough. And if this is you, then it can get better, but here we go. Rumor: a story or statement in general circulation without confirmation or certainty as to facts. Gossip, hearsay. And the archaic form of this word "rumor," when you go back and read where it comes from, is a continuous confused noise.

If you've ever been on the end of this thing, where something is circulating, something is said, and it gets going, and unwise people repeat it, and it goes and it goes, your life can be destroyed by a rumor, right? And you think, well, I'm going to defend myself. And then if you try to defend yourself, it seems like you're being defensive, right? Well, maybe there's some truth to it.

Part of that definition is hearsay. And here's how I define hearsay: people that hear something and say it. Whatever they hear, they say it. Somebody tweets it, they forward it. Somebody puts it on Facebook—must be true, it's on Facebook. It's in Google—I mean, it has to be true. So boom, they send it out as though they found out something first.

And we'll get to this at the end. I'm going to make a very strong suggestion: be sure that what you are repeating is true before you repeat it, right? It's that simple. You say, well, I have a chance to be the first to share it. But what if you're the first fool to share something that's not true? And then they go, well, where did you hear that? Oh, so-and-so sent it. You can't trust anything she says, he says. We all like scoop, though. We want to be the first to repeat something so you can say, I heard it first. Again, what if it's not true?

I had a situation the other day. A friend of mine that I see regularly, he came in and he had played golf with a guy that I know. And this guy's reputation is not really great in the golf world. My friend kept telling me what a tremendous experience he had with this guy. And boiling up inside me was this thought to warn him, right? Well, sooner or later, this is what's going to happen. And the Holy Spirit said, check, check, check. No, no. And I never said a word.

But I'm telling you, these things boil up inside of us, and oh, I know something about that person, and sooner or later it's going to turn into this. You know what? That was not his experience, and that doesn't give the benefit of the doubt to the guy that he might have changed, right? So if you're praying for people to change, you want the best for them, then why would you hurl something where they're not even there to defend themselves?

Now, if what I was thinking proves to be true, he's going to find that out anyway. But I don't need to be the one shooting arrows at the guy who's not even in the room. Psalm 19. Part of the reason people don't read their Bibles is it says stuff. Have you ever noticed that? In my way of describing this, even if they do read the Bible, you've got these people that highlight everything they don't like in black marker.

Oh, that ain't right, and I don't want to see that again, so I'm just going to highlight that—that's gone now. Part of the reason you read the Bible is for encouragement, but some of the reason is to be challenged, for the Holy Spirit to convict you. So I'm about to read you a bunch of verses. Psalm 19:14. "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer." Very simple.

The words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart. Now, I'm going to give you an even more subtle nuance. Let's say you never speak the words out loud, but you're thinking it. You're gossiping internally. You're slandering internally. I'm thinking things about someone internally. If the same is true that Jesus said, you've said if you do this, it's a sin if you even do it in your heart, like if you look on a woman, you've already done it.

So committing adultery—oh, I've never committed adultery. Good luck if you've done it in your heart. So now Jesus goes internal. Same thing can be true. So you're saying, God, not just what comes out of my mouth, but literally what I'm processing. The words of my mind, yes, but the meditations of my heart. What is going on inside here about people, and am I saying things that maybe don't come out of my mouth, but You know what I'm thinking about them? And it's just as evil.

Proverbs 13:3. I guess this is why people don't read Proverbs a lot. Man, I was like, wow. Proverbs 13:3: "He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction." So you just blurt something out and you wonder why you've got problems. Proverbs 17:4. This is just like boom, boom, boom. This must be a thing because Solomon spent a lot of time on this. 17:4: "An evildoer gives heed to false lips; a liar listens eagerly to a spiteful tongue."

Now, I think every once in a while, maybe you do, maybe you don't, I wonder, what is my reputation? I kind of did a dirty pool thing today, actually. A gentleman showed up who's been listening for 20 years, and I had a mask on and I introduced myself before the service started. And he started talking about the pastor of the church and telling me that he had been listening, and so I should have—I mean, I'm just evil, I guess—but I thought, I'll let this go.

We'll see where this line of reasoning goes. So I, with behind my mask, tried to alter my voice higher so he wouldn't know it was me. And he went on and on, and I'd never said a thing. And then I finally said, very nice to meet you, shook his hand, and I said my name is Richard. And he went, "Richard?" And he said, "You didn't tell"—you know. So I said, sorry dude, it just happened.

So now, what is interesting about that? He was complimentary. I heard things that maybe I don't hear a lot to my face. Do you ever wonder what your reputation is? Let me tell you something about your reputation. A lot of my reputation has a lot to do with who I run around with. And if I run around with a bunch of lying, stealing, cheating, gossiping, rumor-slandering kind of people, there's no way that other people are not going to assume I'm one of them.

So a lot of your reputation has to do with who you run around with. But a lot of your reputation has to do with just what comes out of our mouths. Would anyone share anything personal with you, or would they fear that it would just take off? Can you be trusted with information? Do you betray confidences? Do you repeat things, or do you shut it down? See, we all have a reputation. And a lot of it is tied to the stuff that we say, that we repeat.

And then people say, well, if they would say that about that person and they're not in our presence, what are you saying about me when I'm not in your presence? And then it gets a little scary. Proverbs 18:8. "The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles; and they go down into the inmost body." Salacious. There's some kind of satisfaction. We go, oh my gosh, I can't believe I heard that.

And I bet it's true, and I hope it's true, because I hate that guy. So who's got the problem? Even if something somebody says about the person is true, let's say it was true, it's not a rumor. What does it say about me that I am so—I have such an appetite for these things in the first place? I don't want to hear this. And what do you hear growing up sooner or later? If you can't say something nice about somebody, say something bad about somebody else.

You know, that's what I was taught. No, what is it? If you can't say something nice about somebody, just don't say anything. Proverbs 20:19. Proverbs 20:19: "He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with one who flatters with his lips." You say, well, what kind of friends am I going to have? I don't know, what kind of friends are you going to have?

You say, well, I just end up with these crazy people. There's a chance you are a crazy person, right? Isn't that interesting? I just am surrounded by fools. Find you a mirror and there's your answer, right? Young man in the room, I talked to him this week, and he was talking about how his friends changed because they didn't change and he did. You say, well, I'm not going to abandon all my friends.

If you get in a car with somebody and you say you're going to New York, and they say they're going to LA, there's going to be a problem pretty quick. Somebody's got to get out, or you don't know where you're going. Well, this is where I'm going and I'm driving. Well, sorry dude, I'm out. Now, you give those people the possibility of seeing your life and they're going another direction, they go, your life's working a lot better than mine is now, would you talk to me about your Jesus? And now you've got a shot.

Proverbs 21:24. And this gets to some of the subtleness of these things. "A proud and haughty man—'Scoffer' is his name; he acts with arrogant pride." So look at these words: proud, haughty, and arrogance. And these things a lot of times go with scoffer, people who just have this attitude. Proud, haughty, arrogance. Better than everybody else. You're going to be hard-pressed to come across humility and find someone who's a gossip. Those things just don't go together.

Proverbs 26:20. I love this. You say, well, how do we stop it? "Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no talebearer, strife ceases." Unless you've got a gas fireplace; I'm allowing for that. Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no talebearer, strife ceases. It is so interesting, if you somehow could remove the talebearer, these people who live this life of rumor and gossip and slander.

If you can get them out of a situation, what does it say will happen? All of a sudden the strife ceases. There's nobody stirring it up. How many of you have got somebody where you work that is this person and it's just constant chaos around this person? Raise your hand if you know this person. We're not gossiping about them; we're just saying it's a real thing. See, everybody knows that person. Don't be that person. Don't be that person because they just live for strife and turmoil and trouble. Let's just say something else.

Matthew 10. Now, you say, well, okay, well, I said it and I confessed it and no big deal, and God's going to forgive me. Matthew 10:26 says this: "Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetop." So verse 26: nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.

You say, well, I didn't say it out loud, it's in my heart. I'm telling you, you say, well, that could take some time just to go through my life. In eternity, there's a whole lot of time. In fact, there is no time. So as long as it takes, this is coming. Go to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians 4:29. "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers."

Now, what would that cut out? I mean, a lot of people just sit there quiet. What am I going to say, then? I got nothing else to say. Perfect. Perfect. Let's try that for a while and see what happens. What if the only thing that came out of my mouth was what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers? Now, you say edification, it could be something challenging.

But is my intent to impart grace to the person that is listening, or am I trying to put them down? Make you look bad so I feel better about myself. Grace, humility. You approach someone where they know—the whole thing where the Bible talks about getting the beam out of your own eye when you're trying to get the speck out of someone else's eye. If you've ever had something in your eye, your whole body becomes an eyeball.

This has got to get out of here. I mean, you'll go to the doctor, you'll do whatever. You're opening your eye, you're flushing it out. The person that comes towards you to say, okay, be still, let me help you with that. And if they are swinging a board and hitting you in the head trying to help you, you don't want that person. And that whole passage says first get the beam out of your own eye so that you can see more clearly to remove the speck.

We are supposed to be in the speck-removal business, but not in the beam-in-the-head speck-removal business, right? So my job, your job, part of being a Christian is to approach someone and say, you're in pain, aren't you? Yeah. Let me help you with that. You've removed the beam from your own eye, and they know that. And they know you're not approaching them saying, oh, I got it all figured out and you're an idiot and let me get that out for you.

You want someone humble, gentle, careful, saying, it's going to be okay. Let me help you. That's the kind of person that it may impart grace to the hearers. Go to Ephesians 4, I think back up just a few verses. 15. "But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head." This thing about speaking the truth. So here's a failsafe method: speak the truth in love.

You say, well, I spoke the truth. I am positive that this happened and all I'm saying is what happened. Are you speaking the truth that you have in love, or are you just speaking truth? Just because something is true doesn't necessarily mean it's supposed to be repeated. I remember a situation, a man that ran a pretty big ministry and he had a guy that I knew—pretty good friend, close friend—working in that ministry.

And you could kind of tell the guy running the ministry had something out for this guy. And it turns out the guy that worked in that ministry had a moral lapse. And I ran into the guy that ran the ministry at a party, some social deal, ministry-related. And he walked up to me and he said, did you hear about so-and-so? And then he told me what happened. Now, what he said turned out to be true.

It's the way he said it. It was like he was almost glad this guy had fallen and this terrible thing had happened to him. And I immediately called the friend who had fallen, and are you okay? Don't get satisfaction from somebody else going down or it's not going to go well for you when it's your turn. Because people like that end up by themselves when trouble comes their way, and it all comes our way sooner or later.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And the reason that's so important is because it comes around. I want to extend grace, I want to help people, because when I get in trouble, I need all those people coming after me. And if I've been wagging my finger and telling you how evil you are and I got no problems—I mean, I try to tell you as much as possible, I got problems. I got challenges, I got trouble.

Because we need each other. Not punching us when we're down. Because that isn't how God operates. So speaking the truth in love. And sometimes the Holy Spirit will tell you to keep your truth to yourself if it's about someone else and it's not going to help the situation. James chapter one. I'm going to read you this verse, but if you're not walking with God, it ain't going to help you.

So let me explain. James chapter one, go down to verse 17. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God."

You want to be swift to do something? Listen. You want to be slow to do something? Be slow to speak. Now, I'm telling you straight up, if you got an issue with any of this and you're not walking in the spirit, you are going to fulfill the lust of the flesh and it is going to come out. You can't contain yourself. If this is just who I am as a person, I could not any more not sin and participate than if you're a coke addict and somebody piled 100 pounds of coke on a table and you're not going to go dive in headfirst if that's your issue.

So you say, I don't want to be this person anymore. Then you got to yield. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, he will flee from you. You say, well, this isn't some kind of big sin. If it's destroying your life and somebody else's, it may turn out to be a bigger sin than you think. James chapter three, if we haven't explained it yet. James chapter three, verse one.

"My brethren," so this is written to Christians, "let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things." So we all got issues. "If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, also able to bridle the whole body." So if someone is out of control in their mouth, I can assure you they got trouble somewhere else in their body.

Now, you say you're judging. I'm just reading scripture. If you can't control your mouth, there's a good chance you can't control other parts of your body. It could be food, it could be sex, it could be addiction of some kind. These things just go together. Your mouth, my mouth gives me away. And anybody with a brain from God and some wisdom, they're not judging you; they're just going to listen to what comes out and say, I'm out.

I'm not going to engage in this because whatever I say, I'm going to be complicit in whatever he's saying or she's saying. "Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!"

I'm always fascinated when these fires break out in California, wherever they break out. And it's all—unless it's lightning—unfortunately, it's not always the case. It's some nutcase that is an arsonist and has set one little fire, and then millions of acres and dollars, billions of dollars later, it's all up in smoke. One little fire in the right place. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. So if my tongue is fire, who set the fire? Hell set the fire. So you say, I don't want that to be my tongue. Then give it to God. Say, Lord, I don't want anything I've got set on fire by hell.

For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man—now look at this—no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. You say, well, then there's no hope for me. Read again what it says in verse eight: no man can tame the tongue. You got an untamable tongue, I got you a trainer. I got you somebody who can break that tongue.

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Richard Ellis: Now, I prayed me a little prayer before I got into this today because I have capacity for this. And it came out the other day when I wanted so bad to say something. And why would I want to say something bad about this guy who played golf? What is that about? What is wrong with me? That's just the enemy going, say this, let's beat that guy down some more. That's not from God.

You say, well, where does that come from? Hell. That's where that comes from. Hell. The thief comes not but what? Steal, kill, destroy. I'm come that you might have life, have it more abundant. We need to want for ourselves and other people what God wants for us personally: life and it more abundant. So if it involves steal, kill, destroy, get away from it. I don't want any part of it.

I'm not participating. Oh, you think you're better than us, you can't say anything bad about somebody. Okay, maybe that's it. I'm just not doing it anymore. You say, well, I'm not sure what you're talking about. It's coming. And probably before the end of this day, you're going to hear something or go to repeat something you do not know is true, and you've got to make a decision: am I going to further crush this person who is defenseless and not even present, probably?

Or am I going to stop and say, Lord, I do not want anything in my life that reflects hell? And we even have a phrase, "give them hell." If you're involved in this kind of life, you are giving them hell, because that's where it comes from. So what's the answer? Jesus. My only hope. "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness." I got nobody else that can help me.

And there are times I don't even want His help because I want to be me, I want to do me. I don't feel good about me or Him, and then I want to take somebody else out. I don't want to be that person. And if you don't either, then stay really close to Him, because He's not just close to you, He lives in you if you're a believer. And if you're not, you can be.

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