Richard Ellis Talks

Guest (Male): You have no idea what you have access to, what is possible. And when you connect rightly and are filled by His Spirit, not just His presence in you, but He doesn't just rest on you, He rests in you, He takes up residence in you, then all of these things that He can do, that He intended to do, that He did in and through Jesus, can be done in and through me and you.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard's style is unlike anyone else's, where he shares the life-changing message of the gospel in a way that's real, refreshing, focused, and fun. We know that life is pretty challenging these days, but these talks will help you meet those challenges head-on with biblical truth, encouragement, and direction.

Now, if you're not able to stick around with us for all of today's talk, you can always listen to, download, and even share this entire message with a friend right from our website, richardellis.com. So, let's jump right in with today's talk. Here is Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "That’s the Spirit." If you look up that phrase and the meaning of that phrase, it means an informal phrase used to approve of, encourage, or praise a person's positive, determined, or optimistic attitude. That's the spirit.

Go to Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter 1:2: "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 water." So this first mention of Him, it's dark, the earth has been formed, but everything else has not been created that's going to be created. But you have the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters.

Job 33:4: "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life." So now He's got the ability to make someone and give them life. Judges 6:34: "But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet and the Abiezrites gathered behind him." Judges 14:6: "And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him"—this is talking about Samson—"and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand, but he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done." So the Spirit of the Lord comes on Gideon, the Spirit of the Lord comes on Samson.

1 Samuel 16:13: "Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah." Three examples: Gideon, Samson, David. The Spirit of the Lord comes upon them and extraordinary things happen. Now, I'll get to the New Testament in a minute. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God came on people. In the New Testament, as believers, the Spirit of God moves in you.

So you cannot be a Christian without the Holy Spirit dwelling inside your physical body. He does not come and go. He's never going to leave you or forsake you. You say, "Well, I live like hell sometimes. Is He still there?" He's stuck with wherever you go, whatever you think, whatever you look at, whatever you do. He is not leaving. But the sooner you become aware that He is a holy God and He expects a holy life can help you live that, the better everything's going to go for you and for Him, because He's a rider in that house.

Ezekiel 36:26: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." So He's talking about the future. He's talking about us, what would happen.

Isaiah 11:2: "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." This is the stuff you want. Yes, you can become a Christian and sit on your butt and do nothing until Jesus comes or you die. That's not what He intended. This is the stuff. And here it says the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him—that's one thing. What if the Spirit of the Lord could rest in you? The Spirit of wisdom, understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. That's what you're after.

Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound." That's Isaiah speaking that. But look in Luke chapter 4:18. Jesus quotes it: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed," and it goes on. So Jesus says, "I'm the fulfillment of that."

Luke 1:35: "And the angel answered and said to her"—this is the angel talking to Mary—"The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. Therefore also that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." So Mary's told the Holy Spirit—it's Jesus about to be born, so it's not Him. He's about to be conceived. It is the Holy Spirit will come upon you.

Now, I've read you a bunch of these so far. That's the Spirit. It's Him. And He's done all these things. Got more to read you. When you become a Christian, or if you haven't become a Christian yet, you have a spirit. You have a soul, you have a spirit, you have a body. But if you have a spirit and you're not connected to His Spirit and the indwelling of His Spirit, you have no idea what you have access to, what is possible. And when you connect rightly and are filled by His Spirit, not just His presence in you, but He doesn't just rest on you, He rests in you, He takes up residence in you, then all of these things that He can do, that He intended to do, that He did in and through Jesus, can be done in and through me and you.

Romans 8:11. Listen to this closely and, by the way, Lord, give us ears to hear and show us what You're trying to say through Your word. Romans 8:11: "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." The question is, does the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you? He can't dwell in you unless you receive Him into yourself.

So when you become a Christian—a young man became a Christian this morning just a few hours ago in this building. What happened? Did the earth shake? Did the building shake? No, it can be a very quiet thing. But he went from death to life, from the power of Satan to the power of God, from darkness to light. Everything changes. And God goes from being just all around him; now God takes up residence inside his physical body. Now, he has no idea what he has capacity for because he's a newborn Christian.

But he will never get more of God than he has right now. You will never get more of God than you have now, and that's always true. It's just a question of: are we getting out of the way and letting Him not just live in us, but through us and do what He wants to do? John 14:16: "And I will pray the Father"—this is Jesus talking about the Spirit coming—"and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you."

So the devil lies to you. He says, "Okay, okay, you're going to heaven. Okay, that's all you got." And you go, "Wait, but it's not all I've got. I took notes. I'm reading these scriptures, and it seems like the same Holy Spirit who hovered over the deep in the very beginning and did all these other things, the Bible says He moved into me and He's all-powerful, omnipresent, all these things. But you're telling me that He doesn't have the power in me to live the life... Oh no, no, that doesn't work for you. That only works for other people. It's not for your kind of person. You're too screwed up. Can't possibly be true."

This is one of the few moments where you can use language like this. Why don't you just tell him, say, "Look, why don't you just get the hell out of my life? I have had it with you. All you have done is lie to me, cheat me, steal, kill, destroy everything I've got. Why don't you get your hell and go back to hell where you belong? I know what is possible. I know what the book says, and I'm going to choose to live this."

Why is it so important to gather as a church? Why is it so important to have small groups, to have discipleship, to encourage one another daily? Because we all get sucked into stuff. The devil gets in our heads and starts lying to us, and we believe the lies and, "Oh, woe is me, and I'm only human." You can't be Christian and be only human. That's a lie. I am not only human. I am born again. I am a new creation. Old things have passed away; all things are made new.

1 Corinthians 2:12: "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God." So the Spirit of God explained to you what is given to you by God. "These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." It's just how it's supposed to work. So if you let the Holy Spirit who lives in you teach you, explain these things, show you what God has given you, you go, "Wow, that's amazing."

Anybody remember the sermon I did, Bugatti Chiron? Anybody remember this? Maybe not. Anybody know what a Bugatti Chiron is? Well, there we go. We need to get out more. We're going to go for a test drive. Bugatti is a very expensive sports car. Bugatti Chiron has a very specific feature. It has two keys. You get in the Bugatti, you turn the car on, you run. It has a speed key separately in the car. And when you pull that key out and you put that key in, the car will examine the surroundings and decide: are you in a place to do what you're about to ask it to do?

And if it's not in a place to do it, it will not do what you've asked it to do. But if you are—and there's only a couple places in the world, I think one in France, where there's a track—and this car will do like crazy speeds, and it'll go faster, but the wheels disintegrate if it goes too fast. It's the wheel problem, not the car problem. You say, "Well, who needs a speed key?" As a Christian, the Holy Spirit will say to you at some point, "You ready to go?" But you'll look around and go, "There's no way." He says, "Are you going to trust Me, or are we going to do it your way?"

"But I can't. What about the surroundings? What about these people? What about the intimidation, my fear, inadequacies, my insecurity? I'm nobody." He says, "Look, will you just let Me be Me and just settle down and watch what I can do in and through you, and just go with it?" And the devil's a snake. What does he say? "Oh, you're nothing but a dumb Mexican. You're nothing but a stupid redneck. Idiot cracker. You ain't nobody. You got nothing." And you go, "Wow, well, maybe that's true."

What are you talking about? Read the scriptures. Find out what God says about you, who you are, who He is. And He has decided to make your body His temple, live in you and through you. What in the world could happen if you go, "No, I'm not believing this anymore. He is going to be able to do whatever He wants to do, and I'm going to observe it and go, 'Oh my gosh, this is crazy. I could never do this on my own. It has to be Him.'"

And think of the things that He tells you. It goes on and on. Oh, you can't do anything; you've had too many abortions. Oh, you can't do anything; you've screwed too many women. Oh, you can't do anything; you killed someone. He just tells you everything that you've done that, if you're a believer and you've confessed your sin, He's covered all that—supposedly—which He has. So then all the devil can do is accuse you. He can't convict you of anything. He can't judge you of anything.

So if you believe his conviction, his lie, instead of what the Judge says—"not guilty"—and you move forward, I don't care where you've come from. I don't care what color you are. I don't care where you were born, who you were born to, what you don't have. If you have God, you have everything. Ephesians 5:18: "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit." So the Bible doesn't say don't be drunk. It just says don't be drunk on wine. It does say be drunk on the Spirit.

Be filled with the Spirit. You want to drink? Drink new wine. Drink living water. Then you start getting a little goofy and giddy. You know how drunks kind of laugh out of control? They cry, "Oh man, I love you, man." They look so stupid. But if you're sober and you do that, people go, "Dude, are you wasted?" Go back and look at Pentecost. Early in the morning, they thought they were drunk. They're not drunk; they're drunk on Jesus.

I've been trying for years, decades, with this body of believers to do at least one thing. If I see Anthony and I leave Anthony, what's the last thing I'm going to tell him? That I love him. He knows what I'm going to tell him. Shelby, go down the line. Last thing I'm going to say to you, "Hey man, good to see you. Love you. I'll see you later." Some men, I still got guys that get all freaked out. Now, if they were drunk, "I love you, man!" Like, why can you do this drunk, you can't do it sober?

Why can you go to a ball game and scream at the top of your lungs with your hands up and sing the songs of the team and cheer for the team, but then you come in here and you're like some dead white dude? Get a couple of beers and now the real me's coming out, telling men that you love them and hugging on men. I try to be careful with women, but men I'm not careful with. I'm going to hug you and tell you I love you. And why is that? Why would we not do that?

I promise you, if Jesus walked in the back door right now, I'd haul back there and I would throw my arms around Him, kiss on Him, and tell Him how grateful I am and how much I love Him. And I promise you He would tell me that He loved me, too. And He'd show me some scars to prove it. Acts 13:2: "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, 'Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'" So the Spirit spoke.

Now, I have never heard an audible voice, okay? Let's get this all out in the open. Maybe you have; I have not heard an audible voice. You have human ears that you hear sounds with. When you're born again and you're a new creation, you get a new set of ears that can hear the Spirit. The new man has ears and has a voice. That's a dangerous thing. People say, "Well, God told me this" or "God said this." That makes me nervous. I watch a person's life.

If you are hearing the Spirit of God speak to you, whatever He is telling you will never violate scripture. So if you are in the scripture and walking with God and filled with His Spirit and He speaks to you, it will go completely together with everything else. But when someone comes to me and says, "Well, I met this great girl and the Holy Spirit has led me to move in with her before we're married and, you know, we're having sex." I'm like, "Whatever, dude. That is not the Spirit." You are talking to yourself and the devil's chiming in, and you've made yourself think, rationalize by believing rational lies that it's God. It's not God.

Acts 16:6: "Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. And they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them." You have to pay attention to what the Holy Spirit is telling you, directing you. You cannot be a whack-a-mole Christian. You have to walk in the Spirit. You have to be sensitive to the Spirit. You can't just go whacking everything that breathes and moves because the Spirit may tell you to back off of somebody because it's not time. "Well, I'm going to talk to everybody and you can't stop me." How about the Holy Spirit could stop you?

Acts 9:31. We're almost done. Acts 9:31: "Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied." Fear the Lord, comfort of the Holy Spirit. Now, I'm going to tell you where He hits me. I've been at this for almost three decades with this church. And where the enemy will take a shot at me is if we operate daily bread.

You give, we have funds. You don't give, we don't have funds. We have no debt, but that's pretty tricky—daily bread. So then the enemy will say, "What you going to do? Money's getting tight. Oh, it came in last year, last month, but no money's coming in. What you going to do?" I'm not going to get up here and beg. I'm going to trust Him to speak to you and trust that you are going to hear Him and respond to Him and do what you're told.

But if I freak out and, "Oh my gosh, what are we going to do? Now I'm afraid. Now I'm going to go find verses... instead of preaching this message, I'm going to go preach about giving and try to sneak up on you and guilt you into giving." You may do that once or twice, but that's not how you're supposed to live. God loves a cheerful giver. And I am more interested in you walking with Him in such a way that you understand He owns all of you and you are a steward of whatever you have.

Forget 10%—it's a good place to start—but if He says write a check for X, you say, "Well, how do you know that?" I am given numbers. I don't know how this works for you, but I have situations and the Holy Spirit says, "Give this much specifically." And if you are one of those people who go, "I have no idea what you're talking about," then at best you're barely a Christian, still sucking up to everyone else because they gotta cover it because you're not mature enough to give anything. I'll tell you how you know if you're growing and mature: you're a giver. "Well, I don't like the sound of that." Whatever.

At some point you realize this is your family, this is the church you're a part of. You have to support what's going on. You say, "Well, but if I give the money I think God's telling me to give, I won't be able to go to Starbucks." Grow up! Quit Starbucks. "Oh, I won't be able to buy a boat this summer." Okay? Seriously? "Oh, I was going to buy a real nice watch." Okay, give up the watch. Give up anything. Do what He's telling you to do.

John 16:14. Now, this is powerful. This is talking about the Holy Spirit. "He will glorify Me"—Jesus talking about the third person of the Trinity, Holy Spirit—"He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you." One of the number one jobs of the Holy Spirit is to not draw attention to Himself; He is always pointing to Jesus. Now, the whole sermon today about Holy Spirit—if you go to a church and everything all the time is about Holy Spirit, you better be careful, because the Holy Spirit is very careful to glorify the Son. That's how He operates. That's how the three of them work together, and the Holy Spirit is pointing everything to Jesus.

2 Corinthians 13:14: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen." The communion of the Holy Spirit—this relationship with Him. Then Revelation 2:7: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." So the question is, do you have an ear to hear? If you do, hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And what is He saying to you?

And the last one is Revelation 22:17: "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." That's the Spirit. That's who He is. That's how He operates. So if something's working in your life, that's the Spirit. It's Him. You say, "Well, I don't experience any of this." Then become a Christian if you're not. And if you are, just here's how simple this is.

How many couples in the room are kind of having a weird time right now? Just a little weird right now. Raise your hand, too. You got wives and husbands, both of you. Okay, I know those two are having a little rough time. Raise them high. You and your wife having just kind of a rough time, a little bit of challenge? A little bit of challenge back in the back? A little bit of challenge... now some hands are going up.

So when things are not right with me and Rebecca, I made a decision the other day about not going quite so fast down to my oldest daughter had had a baby and I said let's find out what she wants, and she was chomping at the bit to go and things got weird in my house when we didn't go when she wanted to go. She was not happy. I'm not saying she was pouting, but she was not a happy camper. And I knew that my decision in my leadership in trying to do best by my daughter didn't hit her right.

So I'm aware of that because I'm married to the woman. If something's wrong with me, she knows when something's wrong with me. So if you love each other and you have a relationship with somebody, what do you do? You go, "Hey, what's going on?" And then you go, "Yeah, I think I do know what's going on." And if you're wrong, don't ask questions. Just say, "Hey, I was out of line. I apologize. I'm sorry. I was wrong. I don't want this feeling. I want us to be back together the way we're supposed to be."

So if a couple can be that way, even people that are dating can, even friends. I went through a weird deal—I shouldn't even tell you this out loud because it'll prompt something. I had a few months where I was like, "You know what? I got people just that are my friends, but I'm always checking on them. They're never checking on me." You know what I said? "I'm done. I ain't checking on them anymore. I'm finished. If we are really friends, I will check on you, you will check on me. I won't have to ask for that because it's a friendship. It's a relationship. It goes both ways." I let them go. And it was hard.

And then one day my phone rang. "Hey, what's going on?" I didn't tell them what I'd been doing. But things get awkward between couples, between friends, between coworkers, whatever it is. It gets the same way with Him. So what do you do? You climb in a closet somewhere or driving down the road, you go, "Hey, something's not right, is it?" He's like, "Yep." Now here's the sweet thing with God: you never have to ask Him how He screwed up. It's never Him.

So when things aren't right, you go, "Oh, it's not You, I know that. So it's me?" "Yeah." "So what am I doing? What have I not done?" And then you start listening. And He says, "You got no time for Me. I'm supposedly your best friend, stick closer than a brother. You got no time for Me. You blow in and ask me for stuff. I need some conversation. I'd love for you to just put a big some arms around me and tell me you love me. Sing me some songs, tell me how great I am. I miss you. But you're too busy to be my friend now."

And then you start realizing what you're doing. And He says, "And besides that, you've gone back to this stupid sin that was destroying your life. What are you doing? Come back to Me. Change your mind. It's never going to work." And you go, "You know what? You're right. I'm wrong. I'm sorry. I admit it." And then all of a sudden that relationship is mended. And that's the Spirit.

And then you take a deep breath and go, "Wow, Lord, we're back." He said, "Yeah, let's go! What do you want to do today? I'll show you. Just stay out of the way, listen to Me, and we'll go through our day." And then He starts to do things that are exceedingly abundantly above anything we could ever ask or think.

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