Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: Today, on Richard Ellis Talks. It's not about us being homogeneous and separating out, it's about us just being Christians. About us reaching out to just people, not picking and choosing them. You can't find anybody in the New Testament saying, "Go find people just like you and try to evangelize them." It says, "Go to the whole world." Go get anybody. But bring them on. Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard's 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 off and running with today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is The Master Race. The Master Race is a concept in Nazi ideology which holds that the Germanic and Nordic people are innately superior to all other peoples. It derives from 19th century racial theory which posited a hierarchy of races which placed African Bushmen and Australian Aborigines at the bottom of the hierarchy, while white Europeans were at the top.

The racial theorist Count Arthur de Gobineau argued that cultures degenerate when distinct races mix. It was widely believed by such theorists that Southern European peoples were racially mixed with non-Europeans from across the Mediterranean, while Northern Europeans remained pure.

Hence in Nazism, the racial ideal was the blond, blue-eyed Nordic individual. The term Aryan Race was commonly used to name this ideal. The imagined superiority of these people supposedly made them born leaders or a master race.

The term Aryan derives from the ancient peoples who occupied Iran and the Indus Valley. Following the ideas of Gobineau and others, the Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg claimed that these were a dynamic warrior people who originated in northern climes, from which they migrated south, eventually reaching India. They were supposed to be the ancestors of the ancient Germanic tribes who shared their warrior values.

Following Nietzschke but distorting him, Rosenberg claimed that Christianity was an alien Semitic slave morality, inappropriate to the warrior Aryan Master Race.

Now, let me tell you right up front today, and anybody listening here and beyond, I'm going to say some words and we're going to go all the way in, and address some things that if any group on the planet ought to be addressing, it's the people of God. There's a certain amount of political correctness that has permeated our culture and our society and politics and everywhere, and there are certain things that just aren't said anymore.

And we think that because these things are not said out loud, you can have a leader of the Senate loses his job. Used to be that would never have happened. His position lost because he made an innuendo that no one will tolerate anymore publicly, where it was quotable, on tape, documented.

There are things that aren't said anymore. Maybe black to white. Maybe white to black. Maybe Hispanic or Asian to black or white. These things are not spoken out loud anymore, but even if they're not said anymore, are they thought? And are they said black to black about white? Are they said white to white about black? Are they said Hispanic to Hispanic about black or white? And as long as we're not out there where we get caught, it seems like everything's okay. It seems like it's all gone away. But in truth, the same heart, the same hatred, the same feelings that supposedly are gone, still exist.

Now, I'm going to say some words and I've warned you and I'm going to say these words, and I want you to listen to them. These are words that I was not raised speaking, hearing, putting up with. But I want you to hear the power of these words, and if there is a heart of hatred behind them, even if they don't get spoken, it's in there. I'm going to give you some words and I'm going to give you some stereotypes.

Jews are mercenary, greedy. Arabs are lazy. Asian students are good at math. Terms like dumb Mexican, spic, wetback. Crackers, a poor white Southerner said to be slow, redneck and fat. That's what a cracker is. Wops. Italian immigrants are said to be short, oily and hot-tempered. Wasps, greedy, emotionally cold and haughty. And maybe the toughest of all is N-word.

Supposedly are good athletes. Stupid, promiscuous, happy. Just generalizations, words. Now the N-bomb or the N-word itself, guys, I cannot even communicate to you how much emphasis, how much power that word has in our country. Because for so long there were white people in or whoever else would throw that word around and say it. You would no more say that out loud unless you want to lose your teeth.

Now, I'm a white man speaking that word. It's fascinating to me that black on black, they can use that word on each other all day long. And there are things that white people can call white people. There are things that Mexican people can call Mexican people. But there are certain things we can't call each other. So we remove the words. We say, "Well, we're not going to say that to your face anymore." But when you pass me on the street, and I'm in my car by myself, what am I saying to you then? What am I calling you then? What am I thinking about you then?

And in our church we have a certain amount of diversity. So you're sitting next to or near a black person, a Hispanic person, a white person, an Asian person. You got in the same building with them, but you're not going anywhere else with them. I'll tolerate it here because we're a church and everything, you know, it's got to work here. But is that all there is to it? Just some people that sit in a building with? Are they really family? And what I'm going to try to show you today is, we got to get somewhere beyond political correctness. We got to get beyond talking about these things and decide from a biblical perspective, are we a family or not?

Does it really have nothing to do with what your skin color is? Does it have nothing to do with the pigment? Does it have nothing to do with your education? Does it have nothing to do with where the railroad runs? And which side of the tracks you're on? If you remove all the differences, if the only thing we have in common, the only thing that's left, is that we are children of the king, that we are sons and daughters of God himself through Jesus Christ, that gives us everything we need to be family.

Now, those are easy words. When's the last time you as a white person went to lunch with a black person? Name if you're a white person, all your black friends. See, white people make fun of black people. Sheniqua, all these names we got. And there are things that are never said to black people. Black people sit around and make fun of white people. Mexicans make fun. Everybody makes fun of everybody, but we're not going to say it out loud because you can't do that anymore. But we're thinking it.

Guys, this goes way deep down inside somewhere, and you're not going to back up your bigotry and your racism in this book because it's not in here. You got a God himself who left heaven and in Jesus Christ, came to Earth and mixed and mingled with riffraff, culturally, ethnically, everybody on the planet. And when he died on that cross, he died and shed his blood for any and everybody, anywhere, anytime.

See, we start to think that, why would we go to some God-forsaken country? Where's that term come from? It's so backward, it's so out there. They're so poor, they're so peon, they're so ignorant. Why even bother going down there? They're not going to change the world for Christ. Let's go after some influential people with money that can change the world that are like me. And it's kind of literally to hell with everybody else. Because they're not one of us.

You know what, guys? The ground is level at the foot of the cross. It's not about education. It's not about your continent, your country, your culture, your languages, your anything. His blood was shed for everybody.

I mentioned a minute ago that at some point, guys, this has got to get beyond conversation. The church of Christ, God, Jesus' body on the planet, we ought to be the ones showing the world how to not just get along, but to love each other. School districts can't do it. City government can't do it. The congregate, nobody can do it. There's sides of the aisle and caucuses and all these little pockets of people. We're either one people or we're not. The difference in the world and God's people is in the world, you don't have God. You don't have the Holy Spirit drawing those people together. When you're a body, as we'll see in a moment, it literally describes us as a new race, a new nation, a new group of people. And God expects way more out of us as his citizens, as citizens of that nation, than he does the world. And we ought to be showing by example. One of the main reasons potentially that people don't turn to Christ is if they are redneck bigots, and they see you as you're a Christian and how much of our culture has been disguised in this, where Christians were the ones going around with hoods on their head.

Church on Sunday, out burning a cross on Friday night. And the world looks and goes, yeah, whatever, Christianity all gets washed in there together. We don't know where it starts and stops, but you can be whatever you want to be and stick a cross on it or burn it and you're okay. But when the world looks up and sees white, black, Asian, red, brown, yellow, black and white, all of us in a room, or in places and truly loving each other. They go, "There is no way this is happening without God." There is got to be something going on because it's not just in word, it's in deed. They take care of each other. They love each other like they're their own family. Because we are family. And that is appealing to people who have had enough of culture. And enough of political correctness outside but hatred inside and say, "I'm looking for a God who can so dramatically change someone's heart that their life changes, their feelings change, their friends change, and it becomes seamless." There are no lines across. We're just one.

Philippians chapter 2, verse 1. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. We get arrogant, we get haughty, we get proud. And you think, "Well, I don't do that." Let me tell you something, if you follow me around, I have thoughts. If I follow you around, you have thoughts. We speak words. We have deep-seated roots in us. And it's black or white, it doesn't matter what your background is. We all have stuff. And you are not born with it, you learn it.

We are teaching our children. The huge responsibility even of a church setting like this is we have the responsibility and the opportunity, these children that grow up, to see us interact with each other and truly love each other. They grow up with black, Hispanic, Asian, all kind of friends, and until a certain point that they see us making a distinction, they don't make distinctions. And all of a sudden they go, "Well, I heard daddy call so and so this," and that and, "Well, there must be a difference." And we start pulling away from people. Just people.

Let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. And he goes on and says how he left heaven, no reputation, died on a cross for our sins, was buried, raised from the dead, and God has given him a name. He did it all, made it all possible so that we could be this family, so that we could have this relationship.

Go to James chapter 2, beginning with verse 8. And he says here, "If you really fulfill the royal law," and I think it's very interesting, at least my translation says the word really, "not talking about it. If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin." And the word here for partiality means to respect the person, in other words, the external condition of man, to have a respect of persons, to discriminate. You cannot do it based on externals.

And I don't want to sound critical here in any way of other churches, but there's this thing out there in church growth called homogeneity. And it means basically that like kind gather, that if you go into a white suburb and you buy a corner and get some acreage and some land, and you get a bunch of white people with 2.1 kids and a car or two, that they'll gather for church. Well, duhh, they'll gather. They'll gather at a bowl and golf and whatever else you want them to do.

It's not about us being homogeneous and separating out. It's about us just being Christians. About us reaching out to just people, not picking and choosing them. You can't find anybody in the New Testament saying, "Go find people just like you and try to evangelize them." It says, "Go into the whole world." Go get anybody. But bring them on. You say, "Well, I'm not comfortable." You're not supposed to be comfortable. You're not supposed to be able to do this without God.

If we are attempting to do things that we can do without God, then don't call it a church. Let's just, you know, start paying dues and we'll make members and get rid of people we don't want. Make a club out of the thing. Whosoever means whosoever.

You know, I've just gone through racial stuff, go into sexual stuff. The things we call queers, fags, the names we throw out. He say, "Well, I don't agree with their lifestyle." It doesn't mean you have to belittle them and call them names. "Well, I was okay with bringing all those ethnic people, but don't bring those people in. We were okay until you talk about that." Our literature says, "Reunion Church, a church for all." And the all in Dallas is bold. And there are people that think we're a gay church because we use the word all in our advertising. Because all means all, and they they they think, "Oh my gosh, they even take homosexuals."

No, we don't just take homosexuals, we take you. It's about everybody and treating everybody a certain way. But guys, it's not about positive thinking. It's not about, "Oh, I'm going to choose to love this person." It is about going to God himself and saying, "Father, left to myself, I am a bigot. I am prejudiced. I am mean. I am hateful. I will say and think and do things that I know it's not right. God, if you don't give me a new heart and a new mind and a new life, I am stuck. And I will be who I was my whole life. But if you will give me a new heart, and a new way of thinking, a new way of feeling, and a love for these people." God, I do love people that are not like me, but not like you love them. I want to love them like you love them. God, get a hold of me and make something happen in my life where when somebody sees me loving other people, they know it's got to be you, and I can't get any credit for it. Because it's not about me, it's about you. Guys, this stuff is so pervasive and it's it's church, it's everywhere.

Verse 9 of James 2 again, "But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he's guilty of all. For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' said, 'Do not murder.' If you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty, for judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy, mercy triumphs over judgment."

Go to 1st John chapter 4. And if you thought it was heavy so far, here we go. 1st John chapter 4. Guys, the Bible will disembowel you. It will slice you surgically in two, and it goes down. The scripture says to the dividing asunder of the bone and marrow. God is not just removing moles. He's going after your heart. He will open you up and expose us for who we are and what we really are and what we really think and say, "I will not tolerate this in my children." And God says, "You know what, it's not just about words. I'm going after your thoughts. I'm going after your attitudes." And you can smile all you want to, but if that's in there, I'm coming after what you think nobody knows and sees. I see it and I'm not putting up with it in my children, period.

1st John chapter 4, verse 7. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." This isn't talking about infatuation love or friendly love. This is God kind of love that crosses all kind of boundaries. Regardless. It just says, "Love one another." You know who one another is? It means anybody, one another, any another.

"In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another." Now, what kind of love is that? It's a love that doesn't wait. "I'm going to wait until you start loving me. I'm black and I've been disenfranchised and I've lived in this country and nobody's given me and blah blah blah blah. And I'm going to wait you white people got to love me." No, you don't. You say, "I don't care what's happened for the last thousand years, I am a Christian. I am not black. I am a human being that has a relationship with God and I'm going to go your way and choose to love you whether you ever accept me or not."

I am not going to succumb to these racial tensions and racism and cultural stuff. You're going to get above that and choose to live the way God said to live and do it. And it knocks down all kind of walls. You know what? People forget what color you are when you're just a person. White, black, Hispanic, whatever. I grew up as a minority in Brazil. But you've got to get beyond these things, these thoughts, these feelings and say, "God, forget all that. I'm just going to choose to love the way you came our way. I'm going to go somebody else's way. I'm going to love them the way you loved us."

Verse 12. "No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit." Now guys, let me just stop right there, verse 13. You're not doing this without the Holy Spirit. If you're a nice person that is determined to be racially and politically all these things correct and you just willfully choose to love people, you're not going to make it. You'll make it so far, but God will send somebody along who'll just unearth you. And you'll realize, "I don't have it. Not by myself. I don't have the love I need to do what this is talking about." But when the Spirit of God lives in you and through you, when you run out, that's when he is still kicking in saying, "You know what, get out of the way, watch this."

Why do you think God sends these irritating, frustrating, any kind of people into our lives? It's to say, "Now what are you going to do about that?"

All right, 1st John chapter 4, go down to verse 17. "Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world." Now let me tell you something, what is this boldness about? How do you get bold on the day of judgment? I would think we'd all go, "Oh my God, literally. Oh dear God, what have I done? It's all over, the world has ended and here I am, and I'm have to give an account and I know I was this and that and I said that and, "Oh, I got to scramble quick and get everything straight and I'm here God, okay, hit me, you know, hit me. I deserve whatever you give me." He says, "boldness. I'm here, God, I got nothing to hide. You love me that way, I chose to love everybody else that way, and I'm here, I got nothing to be ashamed of. Jesus died for my sins, covered me completely, and to the best of my ability and you living in me and through me, I am here to face you and I know because of Christ and the boldness that I had in my life to love the way you loved, I can stand before you." Guys, these are strong words. "Love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us," repeating that same thing as the previous verses.

Now, look at verse 20. "If someone says, 'I love God.'" Look at me, I love God. I can sing all the songs. I got both hands in the air, I love God so much when I sing. Sometimes I dance around, sometimes I bow. I love God. "So someone says, 'I love God and hates his brother.'" Now who is your brother? Let's just start, forget people who don't know Christ. Let's just start in this room. Your brother or your sister, your family, is anybody in this room who is a believer and going to end up forever the same place you are and you hate him. You say, "Well, I can explain why I hate him. A black man raped my aunt and blah blah blah." You know, I don't care about all that. You're not going to back any of that hatred up with this book. Or a black man shot or a white man did this or a white judge put my uncle in jail. And you can come up with all you want. If you are two believers and you are brothers and sisters in Christ, you are required by grace, not by law, but by grace to love that person, period, end of story.

So you can say all day, he says, "I love God, but if you hate your brother, you are a liar." That's what he says. You are lying, and everybody around you knows it. You know, "I don't really hate him. I just dislike him vehemently." "If someone says, 'I love God and hates his brother,' he's a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also."

Now guys, this is so simple really, because it's not rocket science. You know when you love people or you don't.

Now I do want you to turn over to 1st Peter chapter 2. We'll read this and that'll be the last passage we'll look at. Let's start with verse 4 and we'll read a few of these verses. Talking about Jesus, "Coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also, as living stones," and the example he's given here is that we are a building. It's not a church building in the sense of brick and mortar, it's a physical building made up of people, individual people, Christ being the cornerstone that's set and then we build off of that and this structure is assembled. "Coming to him as living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the scripture, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame.' Therefore, to you who believe, he is precious, but to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and the stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation." Who is he talking to? To Christians. "A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people, but now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."

We were nobody. People, Americans, Africans, whatever we originated. But now God says, "You know what, I'm taking all you people from all over the world with all of your differences and I'm going to make you a new nation, a holy nation, a chosen people. My people. Now you've got new citizenship, new nationality, and new behavior that comes with being my child. And I'm the king of this domain and it is me and mine and it ought to be about me and mine, and you are going to do what I've made you to do and be who I made you to be and love the way I loved you and live this out one day at a time."

Guest (Male): We'll get back to Richard in a moment to close out today's talk. But first, I want to share something with you about the program. Our mission is actually very simple, to take the planet. So it's our prayer that these daily talks from Richard aren't something you only hear and enjoy, but that they inspire you to share with others. Together we can do this. The message of the gospel is something everyone needs to hear. And that's why it's a huge priority to us. And you can join us in this important mission. Call us at 855-6-Richard to say, "You're in." Or you can get on board with us through our website, RichardEllis.com. Well, here's Richard with some closing thoughts for us.

Richard Ellis: Let me read you a definition for the word master. One having authority over another, one that conquers. I think we're the master race. That's what I think. And he is the master. And we are his people. And something ought to be different. And it ought to be a family and a race and a nation and a group of people that lives like he lived, that speaks like he spoke, that loves like he loved and says, "Whosoever will may come." And that we are out to seek and to save those that are lost. And when one of our own goes down, we get around him and help him back up. And when somebody rejoices, we rejoice with those who rejoice. And when somebody weeps, we weep with those that weep, and it has nothing to do with the color of their skin, where they're from, how they speak, their education, any of that, economics, any of that.

And I've never said we all have to go on vacation together. We may not enjoy doing the same things, but if we can't worship together, we're in big trouble because we will do this forever together whether we like it or not. You and I are part of the master race, the Master's race. And it ought to make a difference in our lives.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Richard Ellis Talks. We really appreciate that you spent this time with us, but we want to keep the conversation going with you. So give us a call anytime at 855-6-Richard. That's 855-6-Richard. Or through our website, RichardEllis.com. By sending an email to us so we can stay connected with you. We love bringing you the program every day, but it means even more to us when you let us know how the program has helped you. Call us at 855-6-Richard or through the website, RichardEllis.com. Your story needs to be heard and we're listening, caring and encouraged. 855-6-Richard or RichardEllis.com. Finally, if you enjoy the program, let us know by your generous support to join us on our mission to reach the planet. We can't do it alone and need your help on this mission. RichardEllis.com. So until next time, have a great day and thank you for listening to Richard Ellis Talks.