Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: The things I've called struggles in my life, there wasn't really a lot of struggle going on. If you have a sin problem, you will find yourself fighting to be free of that sin. You will find weapons to say, "I am not living this way, I am not dying this way, not this way."

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.

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Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is Victorious Secret. I went back and found actually an author, a guy by the name of Rob Johnson, author and lecturer in the history of war from Oxford University. If you study war and you go back and look at war, you say, "Well, the person with more troops and more ammo beat the person that didn't have as much and that's that." That is never the case. There are secrets to being victorious in physical wars, and he goes through a number of these.

One of them is surprise attack. The Teutoburg Forest, 9 AD. Here the Germanic tribesmen, so often thought of as wild barbarians, succeeded because of their self-discipline in waiting for the right moment to spring their attack. Ultimately, their strategy was an example of effective and channeled aggression. So, surprise attack. Another one: envelopment. Operation Uranus, 1942. The unexpected appearance of enemy troops on a flank or from behind can damage an army's morale. If a force is encircled, it can be deprived of supplies or attacked from any side.

Envelopment is the classic example of maneuver warfare. The example he cites was employed at Stalingrad in Operation Uranus and took them down because they cut them off. Guerrilla warfare in China, 1934 to '49, where hit-and-run attacks and concealment within the operational environment were used. The world for millennia has had strategies and victorious secrets that were implemented to take out their enemy.

Before we even go too far with this, let me ask you a question: Who is the enemy? As it turns out, both sides are the enemy to the other side. We'll come back around on this. You say, "The other side's the enemy." That's what they think about you. So there are two enemies always. You just have to pick a side. If you go to Scripture—and I'm not going to take the time to read all of these, but if you take notes, I'd go back and read these stories—one of the great battles was Jericho.

If you go back and read the actual battles in the Old Testament, which is a great study—and I'll cite a few of these—it is interesting to contrast. I don't know of a single physical battle in the New Testament. But the Old Testament is filled with physical battles, weapons, people being slaughtered, and people dying. God mobilized troops to take territory. God was in that. That's how it worked out. But the battle in the New Testament shifts to a spiritual battle. The battles have not stopped; they have just changed battlefields.

If you go to Jericho, Joshua is told to take Jericho and given some very odd instructions. He's got a massive army. He comes in and God says, "Okay, here's what you're going to do. You're going to march around the city once a day for six days. The seventh day, you're going to march around it seven times, blow the horns, and the walls will fall down." That's insanity. That's not warfare. Unless you're dealing with a God who has proven himself faithful and true, and when he says to do something, he's come through when you do that. Then you start thinking, "You know what? I might ought to do that."

As we go through some of these battles and these battlefields and the instructions, this is what I'm encouraging you to think about. When you find instructions in the Scriptures, you say, "That's silliness. That's foolishness. That doesn't make any sense." It doesn't mean he won't back up his word, because things that are foolish to us tend to be the wisdom of God and you just have to trust him. What happens in Jericho? They do what he said, and bam, the walls fall down. They go in and take over just like that.

Who knocked the walls down? God knocked the walls down. You say, "That's crazy stuff." Then you're never going to see the victories you could see if you keep thinking everything God says is crazy. It is amazing how many battles God's people win when they do what he says. Now turn to Ephesians chapter six. You say, "I know where he's going to go." It's not whether you know where I'm going to go. I'm trying to figure out if you know where you're going to go with where I'm taking you. You can know what all the verses say and still be getting your butt kicked.

In the New Testament, it is not a physical battle; it is a spiritual battle. How in the world are you going to fight that? You fight physical battles physically. Then you would fight a spiritual battle spiritually. You have to have weapons to fight that battle. We as Christians have victorious secrets that the world doesn't know about, and these are ways that we win these battles. Who are your enemies? You've got the world, the devil, the flesh, sin, and death. You've got these things that are after you. Look at your life.

Ephesians chapter six, verse 10. Paul writes to this church, "Finally, my brethren"—he's writing this to Christians—"be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." What is the purpose of the armor? It's that the wiles... the devil is a snake. He is evil. He is the epitome of evil. He is not on your side. People for years have said, "You need to trust God. He has great plans for your life." Let me tell you something about the devil. He has terrible plans for your life.

Put on the armor that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle or war or fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. What in the world is going to happen? I am so thankful there's a story about Elijah and Gehazi in the Bible. They're surrounded by the enemy, their enemy. Gehazi is all nervous. Elijah prays and says, "Open his eyes that he may see." He goes outside and sees that the enemy that has surrounded them is surrounded by horses and chariots of fire.

Honestly, if God chooses to do this to me, I guess I'm okay with it. I really don't want to see all that. I don't want to wake up every day... I already know all hell's breaking loose. I'd prefer not to see it. But if your eyes were opened that long and you could see what's going on in this room, in your house, and around your house. I remember one night, Rebecca and I in one of the homes we lived in, the kids were little. It was a long way from one end of the house to the other. We had to walk by a lot of windows. I am telling you as sure as I'm standing here, my house was under attack.

You say, "Could you see anything out the window?" No. But I'm telling you, I began to pray. I was almost scared to go from my room to the kids' room at the other end of the house to make sure they were okay. You say, "I don't know if I believe that." You get attacked, and you'll believe it. You get in a room or you get in a place when all hell breaks loose, and there won't be any more saying, "I don't believe in this." When evil is present, you'll know it. The Scripture says when you go to do good, evil is present with you. So there's a good chance you're surrounded by evil all the time.

Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. Here's the problem if you're not a Christian: greater is he who is in the world than he who is in you because there isn't anybody home. You're in trouble. You have no one to fight back with. It said be strong in the Lord and the power of his might, not your might. I have no might to take on that enemy. But I'll tell you what, that house that night, in Jesus' name, I prayed through that house. I was so grateful to have that name. My name didn't work. "In Richard's name, leave my house alone." Whatever, dude. You have nothing.

How about this one? In the name of Jesus and by the blood that was shed on the cross, you cannot have my house. You can't have this house. The book says if you submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, he'll flee. Why were they not attacking my house that day anymore? They had to go. You say, "I don't believe this stuff." Let me tell you something: you will. He's not playing. This is not a game. You say, "I'm not experiencing any of this." It's amazing how prisoners of war don't get shot at a lot. They don't waste their bullets on prisoners.

"Well, my life seems to be going well. I have some struggles with some sins." I'm not really sure that the things I've called struggles in my life were actually a lot of struggle. If you have a sin problem, you will find yourself fighting to be free of that sin. You will find weapons to say, "I am not living this way. I am not dying this way. Not this way." Instead of just running your finger through the flame hoping you don't burn the house down. Verse 13: "Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

What's the evil day? Pick any day. Sufficient for the day are the evils thereof. Plenty of evil. Just when you think you are good, boom, one of those attacks happens. One of his strategies he pulls on you. The book says, "Let him who stands take heed lest he fall." So pay attention. You say, "I don't want to live in fear." You don't have to live in fear. You just have to live in faith. Let me read this list. The things I'm about to read you are truth, righteousness, the Gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and praying. Lest those things get lost in what I'm about to read you.

Put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. Above all, take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. I'll read you another passage at the end here about faith. You will not live the Christian life without faith. You cannot become a Christian without faith. You cannot live the Christian life without faith. Usually when you sin, it's because you've been deceived. You've been told a lie and you believe the lie. The devil says, "This will be better for you than what God is offering you." And we go, "That does make a lot of sense."

Take the shield of faith. Verse 17: take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Be watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, and for me—he says—that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to. He's saying, "Pray I have boldness." He's locked up for living this life, but he asks for boldness because he is an ambassador even though he is in prison.

Corrie ten Boom said this: "The first step on the way to victory is to recognize the enemy." What weapon is the enemy using to destroy your life? What lie has he told you? Alcohol's better, drugs are better, sex is better, porn's better, whatever he's told you. Power is better, money's better. He tells you that and you go, "I have to make more money. I have to work harder. I know I don't ever see my kids, but we have to have more stuff." You take the bait and you go down the road doing that, and it turns out to be a lie. Instead of stopping and saying, "Okay, God, what do you want me to do?" and he says, "Thanks for asking. This is what works."

Now, where are you going to find that out? He's not just going to reveal it to you through a falling star. Where does he do most of the revealing? In his Word. You say, "But I mean specific things." You are not likely to hear the specific things if you're not interested in the general stuff. You read his Word and you say, "God, I am desperate." As it turns out, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, this is my weapon. If you don't know the Scripture, you have nothing to swing with. You can't shoot back. You say, "But I've got faith. I can protect myself." But how are you going to fight your way forward? It's the Scriptures.

Why do we keep coming back to the Scriptures? In the same way in the Old Testament battles, God gave them specific instructions. They either lived by those or they didn't. If they lived by those, they lived. In battle situations, if they disobeyed, a lot of people died and they'd figure out this did not work. Same thing applies. You read the Scriptures and you say, "God, speak to me." And he says, "This." And you say, "Oh, I'm not really interested in that. Can we try again and see if there's another verse that works better for me?" And he says, "No, this."

You say, "Okay, but this is impossible. This is foolish. This is hard." He says, "Look, either you're going to trust me or not. Do the verse." What does it require to do the verse? It requires faith instead of believing the lie that you have been presented. You say, "I think that's the enemy lying to me. What is the truth and am I willing to believe that the truth is going to get me where I really need to go instead of this lie that's taking me out my whole life?"

If you ever make a move and swing the sword, you will realize it has unbelievable power. You win one time. You get in that temptation and you go to do the same thing you've been doing your whole stinking life and you say, "Okay, God. The enemy has hit me with this lie again. I'm not taking the bait anymore. I am going to believe by faith. I'm going to stand here and withstand this attack. I'm going to put my shield up of faith. I'm going to swing this Scripture and I know I'm going to win." Then you win. You go, "Wow, what was that?" All of a sudden, you thought you were free before, but you're really free now. You can use that anywhere, anytime. Unless you don't want to.

James chapter four, verse one: "Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have, you murder and covet and cannot obtain, you fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive." This is where people say the Bible says if I ask, God's going to give me whatever I ask for. It doesn't say that. You ask and do not receive. Why? Because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. You don't want God's will; you want to feel good.

Then what does he call us? Adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Now you say, "The Bible says if God be for us, who can be against us?" If you make God your enemy, if God be against you, who can be for you? You say, "It's not possible for God to be my enemy." What does that say? The terminology he uses is cheating on God. That involves not being faithful to God.

You say, "Are you saying he's going to come after and try to kill me?" He's going to come after you to get your attention and get you to switch sides. I promise you, you do not want to be against God. That does not go well and has never gone well with anybody. Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"? But he gives more grace. Therefore he says, "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble."

So then what do you do? You humble yourself. You say, "Lord, this is not good. It's not right. I'm messing my life up. I need you. This is not going to work. I see that now." You humble yourself and boom, he dispenses grace. Verse seven: "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." Go to First John chapter two, verse one: "My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin." I thought I had some kind of quota.

Do you wake up every day expecting to sin? Or do you wake up and say, "Lord, before I even get out of bed, I'm yours. Thank you for protecting my mind, or even if I got attacked in my sleep, I called out for Jesus and I was saved in my sleep." I'm awake now, Lord, and it looks like I'm not in heaven. I'm here. There must be a reason for me being here. What have we got today? I'm yours. I offer my body to you, laying here in this bed, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to you. Reasonable act of service to give you myself.

What are we doing today, Lord? Then you get up and you start going. Then you're tempted. What do you do with the temptation? Hold up your shield. A lot of people get dressed before they leave the house. I recommend getting spiritually dressed before you get out of bed. I recommend staying dressed spiritually. Things will go a lot better for you. To be tempted is not to sin. To sin is to sin. To be tempted is not a sin. The enemy keeps coming. But let me tell you something about your temptations. The enemy only uses bait that you bite.

I'm not a big fisherman, but I know something about bait. If you're working hard throwing bait and they aren't biting, you change your bait. So the enemy says, "Uh-oh, we're in trouble. That bait isn't working anymore. We have to escalate." Now you're getting hit with something you've never been hit with before. You go, "Wow, if I can win over this, I can win over this." Then all of a sudden, you don't live on your butt your whole life. You are standing, armor on, fighting.

It doesn't make you better than anybody; it just means you figured out I'm not going to be knocked down the rest of my life. These things are written so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. We have somebody that can mediate for us. The idea is not that the stronger you become as a Christian, the more you sin. It's that you sin less. It doesn't mean you'll be sinless; it just means you will sin less if it's working.

Where is your excitement and pleasure going to come from? In his presence is fullness of joy. At his right hand are pleasures forevermore. You've just never gotten in on the real pleasure. Keep reading, verse three. "Now by this we know that we know him." This is very simple, so please don't complicate this. You say, "I'm a follower of Jesus. I know Jesus." Well, here's what it says. "By this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says, 'I know him,' and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

So you say, "But I'm not going to get to do what I want to do." If you're doing what you want to do and it's not what he wants you to do, it hasn't been working out for you very long anyway. Jesus says, "I've given you all this information. If you're a Christian, I moved in. I live in you. I'm the power for this machine. He will and do of his good pleasure." I'll give you the willingness to do it and then I'll do it. It's all me. If you'll just get out of the way, I'll live in and through you like I did when I was here.

He's done all this for me and he says, "Look, I know what your life is supposed to be. I have a plan, and my plan is going to outdo your plan every day, any day. Trust me." So you say, "Okay, Lord, I'll listen. Where are you telling me to go? What are we doing today?" And he says, "Okay, now we're going to have ourselves a day." First John 5, verse 1: "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." He is the Messiah. Everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who is begotten of him.

That means if you say you love him, then you love other people who have been born again the same way you have. "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments." It's the same thing. Somehow this victorious secret is somehow tied to just doing what he says because I know he loves me and I love him. An indicator of that would be I obey and do what he says, then I win. Why would you not want to win?

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. 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 you.

Richard Ellis: For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. So what is the victorious secret? It's faith. You say, "It can't be that simple." It's that simple. How does that work? God says, "I love you. If you do not put your trust in me, you'll end up separated from me for eternity in hell." You say, "I don't believe that." You will.

How do I become a Christian? He says, "Believe that I am the Christ, the Messiah. Believe that the Messiah lived, died on a cross, was buried and raised from the dead, and you'll be saved." You say, "That's foolishness." Until you do it. That's as crazy as the Old Testament battles. March around a city and the walls will fall. Believe that some guy because he got crucified like thousands of other people got nailed to a tree, and he bled and he died and he was buried, and they say they raised from the dead, if I believe that crazy little story, my whole life will be changed. That. Exactly.

What does it take to believe that? Faith. What does it take to believe anything you read in the Bible? Faith. And how are you going to prove it right or wrong unless you test it? If you believe this nuts story about Jesus dying and that was going to save you, and that saved you, then what if the rest of it works? What if you just exercise the saving faith that's going to keep you out of hell to get you through life? He says this and you say, "Wow, that sounds crazy, Lord, that?" He says, "Yeah, that. Just do that."

Then you find yourself doing crazy little things that change the whole world. You go, "Wow, that's nuts. I wonder what else is in here." Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the son of God? It's not a secret anymore. You know the answer. It's just a question of what you're going to do with it.

Guest (Male): This has been Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. The message of the Gospel is one we take very seriously in our mission to reach the planet. And you have a vital part of doing that along with us. If you've been encouraged by these talks with Richard, be sure to tell someone about the change they've made in your life. You can even share today's talk with them through the website, richardellis.com.

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