Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: When they see the moon, what do you do? You start looking for the sun. Where is that light coming from? Because there's no light coming from that thing. It's just bouncing, reflecting, and that's what I see. So our lives reflect the glory of God, but they ought to always point people back to Him because He is the Sun. He is the source of that light. He is the source of that glory.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Thanks for allowing us to share this time with you. You may be stuck in traffic or stuck in life. Either way, today's message is going to help you get on the right track as you learn how much God loves you right where you are.

Richard's unique style checks all the boxes, with a lot of hope, insight, truth, and of course, humor. Today's talk with Richard will get our conversation started, but we want to keep it going with you. So let's stay in touch through our website, richardellis.com. But right now, let's go ahead and get right into today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: All right, the title of today's message is "The Glory Details." And usually when something terrible happens or some juicy piece of gossip comes along, somebody says, "I want to hear all the gory details." But today I'm going to talk to you about all the glory details.

People talk about, well, he always gets all the glory, she always gets all the glory. We do all the work, but they get all the glory. No guts, no glory. We think about the glory of Greece, or Rome, or Egypt, or Mesopotamia, Babylon, Nubia, Persia, Byzantium, Turkey, Germany. You go all down the road, there's all these great nations and all their glory, and they're gone.

And you say, well, that'll never happen to America. If we keep going the way we're going, our glory will be gone too one day. And we'll be history, literally history. But there's somebody's glory who never fades. Even Moses when he spoke with God and literally the glory of God was so intense and amazing, it made Moses almost glow in the dark.

And he came down and had to cover himself, it was so amazing, but then that glory started to fade even on Moses, having been with God he had to put a veil on so they wouldn't see it faded. But there is one God, there is one glory that never fades. Let me give you a definition for glory: praise, honor, distinction extended by common consent; worshipful praise, honor, and thanksgiving; a distinguished quality or asset; great beauty and splendor; something marked by beauty or resplendence.

Now, some people don't realize this, but if you are a Christian—and I'm not making the assumption that everybody is—but if you are a Christian, the ultimate goal of a Christian is not to witness, to go share your faith. The ultimate goal is not to feed the poor, to be a good citizen as it were. It's not to give money to churches, which that's not a bad idea usually. The ultimate goal of any Christian is to glorify God.

Now, let me tell you the difference in being a good person, in my opinion, being a good person and a godly person. The world, and this is what's amazing because people say, well, there's all these religious people, almost cults, and the people in these religious groups are some of the best people on the planet. They're good to other people, they help the poor, they do all these things. But the difference in being a good person and a godly person is who gets the glory.

Because you see, a good person can be a good person and they absorb all the glory and people say, "Oh, did you hear about old so-and-so? They did this and that and gave money to that." And they say, "Well, yeah, that's good, and yeah, thank you, and blah, blah, blah, I want to be humble about this." A godly person says, "You know what? That may be true, but it's all from Him. And to God be the glory."

And your life will be a reflection, and sometimes I use the example of the moon. Anybody knows anything about the moon, we've been to the moon, we've seen it, there are no lights on the moon, there's nothing. But the other night I'm looking up in the sky and it never ceases to amaze me. Whether it's a crescent moon, a full moon, whatever it is. If it's a full moon especially, you look up there and go, "Wow, look at the moon, it's beautiful tonight." It is always ugly.

The moon is never beautiful. It is a dead planet that orbits and helps move tides in the oceans back and forth. It's a dead planet. And it is only when the moon is in a place and the world gets out of the way and the sun can hit it that you see a reflection you go, "That's beautiful." But when the world gets in the way of the sun hitting the moon, it goes dark, you can't see anything. It's not worth seeing. It's not up there, it's gone.

Somehow the trick is to get yourself in a place where the world doesn't get in the way between you and the sun. Because basically without God, without Jesus, I am just a dead planet. But when I get in a place, when you get in a place that the sun, the light of the sun can hit your life and reflect somewhere else, then what do people start saying? "Wow, look at that beautiful person." It has nothing to do with your clothes, your appearance. It has to do with who you are and who's in you and whose you are.

When God gets ahold of you, you start to reflect His glory. And anybody who knows anything about the sun and figures out there is no light up there, when they see the moon, what do you do? You start looking for the sun. Where is that light coming from? Because there's no light coming from that thing. It's just bouncing, reflecting, and that's what I see. So our lives reflect the glory of God, but they ought to always point people back to Him because He is the Sun. He is the source of that light. He is the source of that glory.

I'm going to read some verses and I want you to go, though, so you can be there when I get there, to Daniel. All right, let me read you some verses. I'm not saying you can't turn to these if you want to, but find Daniel 4, hold that, and then if you want to go somewhere else you can. But I'm going to read some scripture because honestly, I'd rather hear what God says than what I have to say anyway.

Listen close. Exodus 15:11: "Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" Psalm 19:1: "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork." Psalm 29:1: "Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness."

"The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars, yes, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon. He makes them also skip like a calf." And you go down to verse 9: "The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in His temple everyone says, 'Glory!'"

That's what they say in His temple. "The Lord sat enthroned at the flood and the Lord sits as King forever. The Lord will give strength to His people. The Lord will bless His people with peace." Psalm 113:1: "Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to its going down, the Lord's name is to be praised."

"The Lord is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth? He raises the poor out of the dust and lifts the needy out of the ash heap that He may seat him with princes, with the princes of His people. He grants the barren woman a home like a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord!"

Listen to Psalm 145, and I don't know if you underline your Bible, you make a note to go to this later. "I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts."

"I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts and I will declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness and shall sing of Your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all and His tender mercies are over all His works."

"All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your saints shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts and the glorious majesty of His kingdom." And it continues on there. You go to Isaiah chapter 6. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, says, and His train filled the temple, and Isaiah got a glimpse of God on His throne.

The seraphim with six wings, two they covered their eyes, two they covered their feet, and two they flew back and forth over the throne. And what do they cry out over that throne? "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory." Isaiah 42 starting with verse 6: "Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it."

"I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, nor my praises to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass and new things I declare. Before they spring forth I tell you of them."

I'm going to read verse 8 again. God says, "I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another." He will not share His glory with you, with me, with this church, with anybody. Because He is holy, He is worthy. He is selfish about these things. If God could ever be right and be selfish at the same time, He is jealous, He deserves everything you can give Him.

And there's not many people on the planet you can say that about. And He is here, but He is on His throne and He is worthy of this praise. Now I'm going to read you a story out of Daniel chapter 4. And I may have to jump through this a little bit, and I read these things to you because I want you to go home and read the scriptures. If you will go home and study the scriptures and read them and let God get ahold of your heart and your life and your mind, then things will change.

There's a story in Daniel about Daniel and a king named Nebuchadnezzar. And in Daniel chapter 4, verse 1, this is what happens. "Nebuchadnezzar the king to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you." And this is Nebuchadnezzar relating this story. "I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me." This is his testimony.

"How great are His signs and how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and His dominion is from generation to generation. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house and flourishing in my palace. I saw a dream which made me afraid and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me. Therefore I issued a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream."

"Then the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the soothsayers came in and I told them the dream, but they did not make known to me its interpretation. But at last Daniel came before me. His name is Belteshazzar according to the name of my god, and in him is the spirit of the holy God. And I told the dream before him saying, 'Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy God is in you and no secret troubles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I have seen and its interpretation.'"

"These were the visions of my head while on my bed." And he goes and recounts what he saw and it's not a good dream, it's not a good thing, but he doesn't understand what has happened to him. And let me jump down here, he gives some examples of some things. Verse 18, let's go down there. "This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, declare its interpretation."

And I'll explain what he saw by his interpretation. "Since all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able for the spirit of the holy God is in you. Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonished for a time and his thoughts troubled him. So the king spoke and said, 'Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its interpretation trouble you.'"

"Belteshazzar answered and said, 'My lord, may the dream concern those who hate you and its interpretation concern your enemies. I pray to God it's not about you.' But he knew it was. 'The tree that you saw, which grew and became strong, whose height reached to the heavens and which could be seen by all the earth, whose leaves were lovely and its fruit abundant and in which was food for all, under which the beasts of the field dwelt and in whose branches the birds of the air had their home, it's you, O King, who have grown and become strong.'"

"For your greatness has grown and reaches to the heavens and your dominion to the end of the earth. And inasmuch as the king saw a watcher, a holy one coming down from heaven and saying, 'Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its stump and roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven and let him graze with the beasts of the field till seven times pass over him.'"

"This is the interpretation, O King, and this is the decree of the Most High which has come upon my lord the king." And he goes on to tell him what's going to happen. He's going to be driven out of his throne, out of his kingdom, like a wild animal. It's basically a term like lycanthropy, where he takes on the temporary form of insanity where he thinks he's an animal. This king has elevated himself in his pride and in his glory and his greatness.

He starts believing his own stuff. "I am somebody." And God comes and says, "You know what? I'm going to humble you and show you that you are nobody without me and that I am somebody and worthy to be recognized and praised." Verse 28: "And this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of the 12 months, he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon."

Let me tell you something, guys. This is about repenting, this is about changing your mind, this is about giving God the glory. And it is a dangerous thing that we all succumb to and are faced with. We want recognition, we want to be noticed, we want to be recognized, we want somebody to know what about me? I was a good mother, I was a good father, and those things are not bad. I'm a good husband, I'm a good wife, I was a good kid, I want somebody to notice me.

It's encouraging and it's helpful, but eventually you've got to deflect and reflect that glory somewhere else and come to the place that you say, it's not about me. Without Him I would be nothing. I could do nothing. I can't even wake myself up in the morning. It is God, it is His goodness, it is His glory that must be reflected.

12 months later he's walking about the royal palace of Babylon. Verse 30, the king spoke saying—now listen to what he says, he did not get it: "Is not this great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?" While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven: "King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you."

"They shall drive you from men and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen and seven times shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives to whomever He chooses." Let me read that again. This is what's going to happen to you, Nebuchadnezzar. You are going to end up in this state until what? Until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He chooses.

Let me tell you something, guys. It is better to bow now. It is better to bow out of choice. And you say, "Well, I'm going to hold on, I'm going to do my thing. I got plans, I got purposes, I got my own ideas about my life, you get out of my way, leave God out of this, I'm going to go where I want to go and do what I want to do." You know what? He loves you enough to come after you. And He will break you, He will humble you, He will take you down if that's what it takes to lift you up.

That very hour, verse 33, the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from men and ate grass like oxen. His body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws. And at the end of the time, "I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever."

"For His dominion is an everlasting dominion and His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, 'What have you done?'" At the same time my reason returned to me and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me.

"My counselors and nobles resorted to me. I was restored to my kingdom and excellent majesty was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, all of whose works are truth and His ways justice, and those who walk in pride He is able to put down." We know better if you know it. You say, "But I don't feel like doing the right thing." You better do the right thing whether you feel like it or not because you're going to feel like it sooner or later.

It's all about your tolerance for pain. And I got people around me with some unbelievable tolerance for pain. And they're trying all kind of medication, anything they can to alleviate that pain. They don't want to face it. Sooner or later, guys, your tolerance for pain and the glory of God and His rightness and righteousness, they're going to intersect and you're going to have to make a decision. Let it be today, let it be now. Say yes to God, no to sin, whatever it is that's got you cornered, tied down.

Now you say, "Well, what about the grace and mercy of God? I can just do what I want to do, show up, say, 'Hey, I got one of my vouchers here to say aren't you going to forgive me and it's all going to be okay?'" You know what? That is all true. Jesus died, shed His blood to provide the forgiveness of sin. It's all available. There are consequences. Sure you can go cheat on your wife. God will forgive you. It may cost you your marriage. Is that what you want? Or cheat on your husband? You can do whatever you want to do, but don't miscalculate consequences.

Now why are there consequences? Because this God loves us like a parent disciplines a child, this God loves us enough to say, "I am not going to let you get away with it because if you get away with it, you'll get away from me." And I am going to draw you back one way or another. I'm going to get you back. It cost me too much to get you in the first place. You're not getting away. And He comes tracking you down. And I got people in this room that tried to outrun Him and me. You can get away from me, but you will not get away from Him.

Turn over to the New Testament. I'm going to skip a bunch of stuff in here just to go to this. Acts chapter 12. Acts chapter 12, verse 21. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts if you've got a New Testament. There's a king named Herod who was not a godly king and it simply says in Acts 12:21: "So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them." He spoke.

And the people kept shouting, "The voice of a god and not of a man! The voice of a god and not of a man!" He's deity. The voice of a god, he's not just a man. Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him. Now why did an angel of the Lord strike Herod? It's right there: "Because he did not give glory to God." He absorbed it. He believed it. He took it as though it were him, he were what they were saying. He did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.

You say, "Well, now you're trying to scare the hell out of us. Now you're trying to threaten us with worms and stuff. I've been taking credit for years and no worms even got near me. I took medicine for worms, they're not getting near me." It took Nebuchadnezzar a year for his crop to come in. See, you think you can sow your wild oats and then pray for a crop failure. It ain't going to happen. Sooner or later it comes down, it comes in, it happens.

Now let me close with this. The scripture is replete with the glory of God. Even the Lord's Prayer itself ends, "For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever." Get in a place where your life points to Him, to His honor, to His glory. If you don't reflect the glory of God, then someone's left in the dark because you absorb it, you keep it, and no one else sees Him because you think it's all about you, it's all about me.

The last thing I want to talk to you about are not all the glory details, but all the gory details. And this God in all of His glory was fine without us. He made us, we sinned, we got away from Him. But He said, "Mercy!" Before time itself was ever created, He said, "I've got a plan. I know man will sin and when they do, before the foundation of the world, there was a Lamb that was given, that was slain."

And God in all of His glory sent His Son Jesus to live a perfect life, a miraculous life. But it ended up with all the gory details of a mock trial, a tragic ending for the disciples, a devastating, disastrous, torturous death. There is nothing that anybody's come up with in history itself more torturous than a crucifixion. Nails in His hands, a crown of thorns on His head. For what? That we might see His glory, know His glory, and experience His glory and be glorified, as the scripture says one day ourselves in heaven with God.

But not without pain, not without torture, not without sacrifice. And Jesus lived, He died, shed His blood, was buried and raised from the dead so that all those glory details could be turned into glory details for us. And it is right there for the asking. It's God saying, "Here's a gift for the taking." You either have it or you don't. Take it, receive it.

When you've got it, do everything in your power to say, "Father, keep me humble, keep me down, keep me where I need to be so that my life reflects Your glory, Your goodness. And when people see me they see Jesus. When people know me they come to know You. That everybody who knows me, sees me, whether I eat, whether I drink, whatever I do, may it all be to the glory of God."

Let's pray. Father, thank You so much for today, for who You are. And I pray that You would give us wisdom, Father, to do all that we can to humble ourselves before You. And if we can't humble ourselves, Lord, then humble us and get us to a place where we see You, and as a result of that, where people see You through us.

I pray especially today, Father, for those who do not know You, that maybe for the first time in their life understand that Jesus died and why He died. That He died for us, for each of us, to pay for our sin, to purchase us a place in heaven that He offers as a free gift. That He was buried and raised from the dead. He overcame life, He overcame death. There is no enemy, there's nothing we face that He has not faced already and conquered.

And that right now eternity is offered as a gift in heaven with You, Father, forever. And an abundant life between here and heaven where You're not just the Savior, but You're the Lord, the boss of our life. Father, may someone today, whoever it is that needs that hope, that needs that help, reach out the hands of their heart and be willing to admit, "God, I've been proud, I've been stubborn, I've deliberately tried to do this on my own, to save myself, to be a good person, but all it's brought is me glory, not You, Lord. And it's not turned out for any good. I'm still empty, there's still no peace."

Father, I understand that You gave Your Son to take my place, to pay my price, to buy me back, to redeem me. And I accept this gift of eternal life, this gift of forgiveness of sin. I ask You to come live in me and through me and cleanse me and give me a new heart, a new life, a fresh start, a new beginning. Show me how to live. I don't want to live without You, I don't want to die without You. God, help me. Thank You for saving me, for coming after me. Now use my life, fill my life with Your glory, with Your goodness, so someone else can come to You through my life, in my yielding to You.

We love You, Father. We thank You for being so patient with us, so merciful and so good to us. And we pray it all in Jesus' name who makes it possible. Amen.

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