Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: People who will not deal with yesterday, people who will not let it go, something that happened to them, something they did, something that happened to them. They just hold on, hold on, and hold on. Day after day, yesterday becomes today, becomes tomorrow, becomes your whole life, and then you've got nothing but a yesterday life.

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, richardellistalks.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 The Day After Yesterday. I'd like you to start with me in Genesis 22. I sit with lots of people. I hear lots of yesterday stories. The tragedy is when you turn yesterday into today and tomorrow and the rest of your life. People who will not deal with yesterday, people who will not let it go, something that happened to them, something they did, something that happened to them. They just hold on, hold on, and hold on. Day after day, yesterday becomes today, becomes tomorrow, becomes your whole life, and then you've got nothing but a yesterday life.

Genesis 22:1 says, "Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, 'Abraham!' and he said, 'Here I am.'" Then he said, "Take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall tell you." Now, you say, "Well, it's pretty obvious here what this is. This is a test." So what if God comes after you with a test? You say, "Well, he hasn't told me that." Sometimes he doesn't have to tell you that.

Sometimes you're in the middle of a test, and sometimes the test you may or may not have studied for it. I believe that Abraham had studied for this test because God comes along and says something to him just point blank. "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering." So go offer him as a sacrifice on one of the mountains which I will tell you. "So I'll let you know which one. Go do this."

Then the day after yesterday becomes verse three. Look just how simple this is. "So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering." So look at what's going on. You say you want my boy? You're going to get my boy. In fact, I'm going to get up early and I'm going to split the wood that we're going to burn him on. You want to test me? I'm in. And rose up and went to the place which God had told him.

So what did God tell you yesterday? What did God test you with yesterday? What did God say, "Here's the answer, here's the test, here's what I require"? Did you rise up the next day, the day after yesterday, and say, "Game on, let's do it"? How many yesterdays have gone by and you still haven't done what he said to do? There is not any hesitation here. He's up splitting wood early in the morning like, "Let's go, load the donkeys, we're going, and we're going to do what God said."

You say, "This is crazy stuff. Why would God even go there?" Because he wants everything. He may even want to see if you're willing to give him what he promised you and he wants it back. Then what are you going to do? "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey. The lad and I will go yonder and worship." Look at this faith.

This is how you do today what he said to do yesterday and get on with it. He does not know how God's going to figure this out. Just do what God tells you to do and let God figure out what he's going to do. Let him be him, you be you. Look at the faith. "Stay here with the donkey. The lad and I will go yonder and worship and we will come back to you. We will come back to you."

"I know I'm going to sacrifice him on a burnt offering, but here's what I know. If this is God's kid that he promised me, even if I burn him on this wood, he'll raise him from the dead and we will be back. That's how this works." So you've got to see past the test, past God's dilemma, whatever he's asked of you, and see to the other side that you know it's going to be okay because you're dealing with God. So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. "You carry your own sacrificial wood."

He took the fire in his hand and a knife and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father." Now clearly Isaac isn't privy to what's going down here completely. "My father." And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? If we're going up here to sacrifice, don't we need a lamb?" And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together.

Still, Abraham knows what he's been told to do. They came to the place of which God had told him and Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order. And he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. Now you've got not only Abraham cooperating, you've got Isaac cooperating. You have a son who trusts his father so implicitly that he ties him up and lays him on the wood. Isaac's like, "Okay, what's going on? Here we are." No struggle, no fight, nothing.

Abraham stretched out his hand, took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I am." Get used to saying, "Here I am." God speaks your name, shows you something in scripture. Here's the test. "Here I am. Let's go." Because you're not going to be the person God has for you to be until you start taking these tests and passing these tests. You say, "I don't want suffering." You're going to suffer. "I don't want trials." You're going to have trials. "I don't want persecution." You're going to have persecution.

"I don't want tests." You're going to have tests. You don't get better without tests, without trials. The angel says, "Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. I know I got you. You fear me. You will give me everything." Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, offered it for a burnt offering instead of his son.

Abraham called the name of the place "The Lord will provide." You got any "The Lord will provide" places where it looked like you weren't going to make it and what he asked he was going to actually require and then he shows up with a substitute? "The Lord will provide," as it is said to this day. In the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, "'By myself,' in other words, 'I am swearing by myself,' says the Lord."

"Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice." So we all want God's blessing. We'd all say, "I'd love to have that be said about me." You don't get there without taking and passing the test.

So Abraham returned to his young men and they rose and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. You say, "That turned out good." Yeah, because Abraham got up the next day, did what he was told and got about his business and got that behind him. So how long am I, how long are you, how long are we going to postpone obedience? Because as it turns out, it looks like God takes care of us. We know that. He provides. And on the backside of obedience is blessing.

We want all of God's blessings without any of our obedience. God says, "Well, here's what I'm asking you to do." And we say, "No, thanks. Here I am not. I am not doing this." And I'm telling you, you say, "I'm a Christian, what are you saying?" I'm saying when we shut down and God says, "This is what I'm asking of you," you might as well drive a stake in the mud. You are stuck there until the day you die. You say, "Can't we move forward in other stuff?" There's a reason why you can't.

"Why doesn't God show me more stuff?" If you don't do something with what he's already shown you, why is he going to show you more? "I'm reading the Bible. I want God to show me his will." No, you don't, because he's shown you his will probably and you don't do anything with that. So if you think you've hit the ceiling, your prayers are going up and bouncing back, then just say, "Lord, is it possible that somewhere along the way I'm seeking after you and I'm chasing after you?"

And that sounds like I'm all about you and I'm not getting anything back. He says, "Interesting you'd ask me that. Because why don't we go back to the last thing I told you to do that we haven't even done that? I want you to stop this, give this up. This is where we left off. You say you want to go back where we left off and pick up where we left off? Well, this is where we left off." Psalm 92. By the way, people will tell you you need to just figure all this out and get on with your life. I don't recommend that.

I recommend getting on with his life, not your life. Because my life never worked out the way it was supposed to just me. Find out what he has, what his life is about in and through your life and get on with that life. Psalm 92, a song for the Sabbath day. It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to your name, Oh Most High, to declare your loving-kindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night. So you say, "I pray, I don't know what I should pray or sing about what I should do."

This is all in the scripture. Suggestion: every night, faithfulness. Why would you do that at night? Look at your day. Has he been faithful? Of course he's been faithful. So praise him for his faithfulness every night. Declare your loving-kindness in the morning. How's he been loving-kind? You woke up! That's part of his loving-kindness. You're alive! You say, "Well, my life sucks. I don't want to wake up." Let's do something to change that. Well, how are we going to change that?

"My life, look at my life, it's not changing." Why don't we work on changing you in the middle of your life? What's that going to do? It may not change your situation, but it's certainly going to change you. And sometimes when you change, your situation changes. But even if your situation doesn't change, you can change. And people seem to go back to, "Yeah, but you don't know what I'm going through and you don't know what happened to me." You know what? You've got to get off of this "what happened to me" stuff.

Because honestly, a ton of stuff that's going on in our lives has nothing to do with something that happened to you. We bring most of this on ourselves. Nothing happened to you. "Well, something did happen." Okay, then let's get past that and get on with his life. "I'm going to be upset." And that's it? Your whole life, you're going to be upset? "Yeah, I'm going to make somebody pay." Nobody's paying. You're paying. Matthew 6. Matthew 6, let's jump in at verse 24 just to give you some background to what I want to get to.

Now please, even if you've read these verses your whole life and you say, "Oh yeah, I think I can even quote this," I don't care if you quote it. I want to know if you know it by heart, not just by head where you're living it. No one can serve two masters. It's not possible. You can't have two bosses telling you what to do at the same time. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon.

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

They neither toil nor spin; yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith? Can you not trust and believe that if he's taken care of birds and flowers, that he doesn't care about you? And when you worry, now this is the implication, when you jump in and say, "Oh my gosh, what are we going to do?"

You are literally saying he cares more about birds and the flowers of the field than he does me, his own child. What in the world? Therefore do not worry, saying, "What are we going to eat? What are we going to drink? What are we going to wear?" For after all these things the Gentiles seek. That's what they're chasing. For your heavenly father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. So what is the day after yesterday? It's today. You say, "But what about tomorrow?" You don't have tomorrow. You have today. And he may or may not have told you things yesterday or way back, multiple yesterdays ago. What are you going to do about what he has told you to do today? And you're either going to spend it disobeying one more day, worrying about the implications of it for tomorrow and freaking out about a day you don't even have yet, or you're going to say, "Today, this is all I've got."

If you decided yesterday not to worry about tomorrow, then the day after yesterday should be worry-free. Let me read that again. If you decided yesterday not to worry about tomorrow, then the day after yesterday should be worry-free. Why? Because the day after yesterday is today. You shouldn't be worrying about yesterday, today, or tomorrow. There's no reason to worry. And what does he say here back in verse 30? "Oh you of little faith." Seriously, the tiny amount of faith you have that God cannot take care of food, what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink, and what you're going to wear?

He can't handle that. That's all you got. And these people are easy to spot. "Oh my gosh, what are we going to do? What if this happens?" Ephesians 4. Let's jump in here at verse 17. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, just total waste of time, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.

Who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Now this is very fascinating. The Bible says "Be angry." It is okay to be angry. What is not okay is to be angry in a sinful way. Can you be upset? Of course you can be upset. Can you be angry? You can be angry. But it says "Be angry and do not sin." You say, "How do I know the difference?" You know the difference.

Because you're not just angry, now you're angry so much that it turns into sin and you feel that inside of you. And he goes on with this: "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil." Now this is very simple from one day to the next. Why is this so dangerous? Because if you go to sleep angry, you give place to the devil. Why are you going to do that? Philippians 3. Now you say, "You're just reading a bunch of random verses."

Sometimes you've got to bring a lot of ammo because you never know what you're going to see on the prairie, right? So you say, "That verse wasn't for me." I'm getting to yours. Philippians chapter three, verse 13, and this is Paul speaking to Christians. "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended." He says, "I am not telling you I have arrived, that I've got this all figured out. But one thing I do." So I'm still working it out, but there is one thing that I actually have worked out and I do: forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I am not going to live yesterday the rest of my life. And if there is anybody who had a yesterday, it's Paul. I shared this with a buddy of mine who raises chickens, like competitive hens and roosters. He studied it in college. He will come to the State Fair of Texas, won't ride my rides, but he'll go in those hen houses and look at those birds. I don't get it, but there you go. I see him at Chick-fil-A, that's about it. So I shared with him the other day about a message I did years ago called "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo."

And it sounds really cruel to me, but Jesus, when Peter's saying, "Oh, I'll never deny you," Jesus said, "You know what? Before the rooster crows, you'll deny me three times." He denied him three times, the rooster crowed, and that's the rest of his life. The rest of his life. Peter could have been bitter with Jesus over picking the stupid bird to signal his denial. Seriously, a rooster that I'm going to have to hear the rest of my life? So maybe you got a yesterday.

And maybe your yesterday is tied to a bird that makes a noise. And every time you hear that bird, it triggers something. Why don't you let it trigger something else? Instead of the devil beating your brains in with the rooster call, wake you up and go, "There's my rooster, it's time to go." And what does that rooster remind me of? "You can remind me that I denied you, but I will not deny you today." That's what we're doing today.

So maybe all that stuff you can come up with about the past is true, but that was yesterday. But today we're not doing yesterday today. And the farther and farther away your yesterdays get, the more todays you got and the more of a future you end up with. So you say, "The devil just beat me to death with my past." Beat him to death back! Well, he brings up this. Here's how you do this. Now listen closely. I'm giving you a battle tactic.

The enemy brings something to your brain. "You did this. You had an abortion. You raped someone. You killed someone." Whatever he can come up with, and it may all be true. The second he brings that up to your mind and starts to pound on you with it, then you say, "Lord, I thank you for allowing the enemy to bring this up because this reminds me that this has been covered by the blood of the Lamb. And I worship you and I praise you that that's who I was, but that is not who I am anymore."

Now you think the devil's going to sit around, stay around and bring that up again? Because every time he brings that up, you bring Jesus up! That's not what his plan is. He's trying to find something to hit you with and knock you down, not make you rise up and worship the King. So stop giving him ammo. "Yeah, I did that, but I'll tell you what Jesus did about it. And I am whole, chosen, pure, blameless. Boom, boom, boom!" Shoot back. Swing the sword. Take him out. More than conquerors. I'm not just standing there holding ground, I'm going to whoop his butt. From the King James version.

Hebrews 13:8. Gotta love these verses. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." He does not change. He is going to be consistent, solid, foundational, everything you need today like he was yesterday, tomorrow like he was today and yesterday. Not going to change. Settled. He is who he is. He will always love you, no matter whether you're good or bad, happy or sad. He's always going to love you and that is always true. You say, "Well, my behavior." Your behavior has nothing to do with whether he loves you or not.

And then James 4, verse 13. And these are people who are not worried about tomorrow; these are people who are presumptuous about tomorrow. And James 4:13 says, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit.'" You say, "Well, that's their plan." So look what the scripture says. "Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." You're here and then you're just gone.

Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills." So go back to what they said. "Well, today, maybe tomorrow, we're going to go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit." There's nothing evil about the statement. What is he saying? Add this to the beginning: "Lord willing, today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit." Lord willing. But if that's not his will, that's not what he has planned, we're good with that.

"Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will do this or that.' But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin."

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, richardellistalks.com. You'll find today's talk right there in the "Talks" page along with all of Richard's audio and video messages. You can even forward them to a friend so they can hear them too. You'll also find the "Prayer Wall" to add your prayer requests, a link so you can connect with us, the "Contribute" page for you to be able to give to this ministry, all of our social media links, and much more. So check it out, richardellistalks.com. And Richard's back now to wrap up today's talk.

Richard Ellis: And if you go back to Hebrews chapter three, verse 15, the day after yesterday is always today. So what are you going to do with the day after yesterday, today? Well, here's one of the things the scripture suggests. "Today, while it is said, 'Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'" For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses? Now with whom was he angry 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?

As a Christian, if you hear his voice, obey today. It's that simple. You say, "Well, I'm still praying about it." You're going to pray your life away about things you don't even need to pray about. You don't need to ask God if it's his will for you to do his will, right? What are we doing? Now, you may be going round in circles with him going, "Lord, I'm struggling, I don't want to let them go." But you just don't understand by forgiving someone you let you go, not just them.

There is consequence to disobedience. And there is consequence if you're not a Christian, if you hear his voice today, do not harden your heart. Because sooner or later, you're not going to have another today. You'll be gone. You say, "Oh, you're just trying to scare us." You are exactly right, I am trying to scare you. If that will help you. It's nothing but your life and your eternity at stake. And someone is almost borderline pleading with you, "Do something with today, do something with Jesus right now." If you hear his voice and you know there's no mistake, it's God speaking to you by his Holy Spirit asking you to respond. He will not kick the door of your heart down, but today, if you hear his voice, respond.

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