Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: What are we still doing here? If heaven is so great, and it is, and it cost Jesus His life to get us there, and it did, then what am I doing here? Get us out of here! Why would You leave us down here in this mess? Because there are people who don’t know Him that need to know Him, and people that do know Him that need someone to help them grow up so when we are gone, they can take over.

Guest (Male): You’re listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. We’re so grateful you tuned into the program. Richard wants to share with you some encouragement, words of hope, and probably a laugh or two. In today’s complicated, busy life, that’s exactly what’s needed.

Richard’s talks are always straight from the Bible, filled with truth. Now, you may not be able to hang out with us for the entire program, but you can always pick it back up at our website, richardellis.com. In fact, you can find all of Richard’s talks right there waiting just for you, richardellis.com. So, with today’s talk, here’s Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today’s message is "Way to Go!" Psalm 25:4. The Psalmist here is praying and saying, "Show me Your ways, O Lord. Teach me Your paths. Not my ways, not my paths. Show me Your ways, show me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation. On You I wait all the day." So, it’s about Him.

Here is some of the key stuff people use, and I didn’t know this growing up, just very basically out of Galatians chapter 5: walk in the Spirit and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. So, you say, "How do you do that?" Here are a couple of ways you can not walk in the Spirit. There are two things: there’s quenching and grieving.

First Thessalonians 5:19 says, "Do not quench the Spirit." So, what does it mean to quench the Spirit of God? You're walking along, let’s assume you’re walking in the Spirit. And how do you walk in the Spirit? You say, "Okay, God, is there any known sin in my life? Holy Spirit, do inventory. Go through my heart, my mind. Is there any known sin?" You confess whatever He brings to mind, and now you are walking in the Spirit.

You say it can’t be that simple. It is that simple. I’ve started encouraging people who pray for love, joy, and patience. Those are fruit of the Spirit. If you will just focus on walking in the Spirit, all that fruit will be manifest in your life and you’re going to live a different life.

Now, let’s say you are living that life, and somehow you have an opportunity to do something, but you quench it. Here is what the word for "quench" means in the Greek: extinguish, to put out, or to suppress, like putting out a fire. You quench it. God’s on fire in you, He’s got this passion to do something, He’s saying, "This is the way to go, this is the way to walk, do this," and you go, "No," and just douse that fire.

It’s not going to go well. You quench the Spirit. It means to stifle or suppress His activity in your life or maybe even in a church. You ignore His promptings. When He urges you to act or speak or pray, you resist. You neglect spiritual gifts, refuse to use them for God’s glory, rejecting what the Scriptures say in your life, replacing Spirit dependence on self-dependence, human effort instead of spiritual power.

So, that’s one way: you can quench it. There’s another way you can mess this up, and that’s to grieve the Spirit. The word "grieve" is out of Ephesians 4:30. "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." This means to cause sorrow, pain, or distress. It is possible to cause the Holy Spirit pain and sadness.

He’s like, "Okay, we’re on a roll, you’re walking with Me, you’re walking in the Spirit, you’re trusting, obeying, you’re following My lead." And all of a sudden, we don’t quench something, maybe we just all-out grieve Him. The word means sorrow, pain, or distress. It’s a word of relationship and emotion, showing that the Holy Spirit is not a force, but a person who can feel sorrow.

Things like lying, and if you go back in Ephesians chapter 4, some of these examples are listed there. Lying grieves the Holy Spirit. Anger and bitterness grieve the Holy Spirit. Stealing, corrupt or hurtful speech, unforgiveness, and malice also grieve Him. We have all kinds of people going through forgiveness stuff in our church.

When you have unforgiveness, you are grieving the Holy Spirit. He’s like, "What are we doing? I have forgiven you so much." Like Matthew 18, the king forgives all your debt, and then you grab some guy for 20 bucks. He’s like, "What are you doing? You’re not just hurting you and that person, you’re hurting Me." These actions break fellowship and pain the Spirit who desires unity, purity, and love among believers. Grieving the Spirit is when we hurt Him by sinful attitudes and actions.

I try to share some personal stuff. I hate to tell these stories a little bit because I should be farther down the road. I get invited to go speak in Jacksonville, Florida. The station’s turning 65, and they said, "Would you come down and speak?" I said yes. I fly down there and asked if Rebecca could come with me. They said yes and put us up in a hotel for two nights.

I’m going to be that close to the beach and I think, "Why would I stay downtown in a terrible hotel without Egyptian cotton sheets when I could be with my wife out there?" Before I go down there, I find the right place on the beach, but it’s too expensive. I find out who owns it, and I didn't know how big this resort was until I got down there. It’s a massive resort owned by an oil company.

So, what do you do? I called the CEO of the oil company. Why did I call him? He owns it. He can do what he wants to. I got a voicemail. "Hey, this is Pastor Ellis. I'm coming down there to speak." I told him what was going on in the voicemail. "I'm not asking for free, just would love a deal if you can help me." Nothing’s going to happen if you don’t ask.

Next day, boom! The guy from the hotel calls me and he is on it. "Mr. Ellis, we’re so glad you called. How can we help you?" He was like, "We’ll make you this deal." And then he said, "You called the owner. Nobody calls the owner." So, we end up at this hotel. It’s very nice. I can see the ocean. It rained for two days while we were there, so we were stuck in the room.

Anyhow, you think, "Then what was all that about?" I’ll tell you what it was about. The night before the day I spoke, we had a nice dinner in this restaurant, great deal, and Ryan waited on us. This sweet lady, I don’t know how old she was. And so we’re sitting there, and I’m sure by now Rebecca knows, here we go. So she’s praying, and I said, "Ryan, I'm going to ask you a really intense question. If you dropped dead tonight, where would you go?"

She said, "Well, I'm a really private person and don't—" I said, "Too late for that, I already asked the question." So she laughed. So I shared the gospel with her, and she’s got this amazing story. And so she kneels down, kind of squats down by the table. Rebecca, me, and she’s right here. And I said, "Look, there's nobody in the restaurant anyway, I'm going to pray. Don't say anything you don't mean."

So I started praying and I said, "Pray out loud after me." And she prayed, and Ryan became a Christian. So I told her, "Ryan, you need to understand something." I told her how I ended up at this hotel, how we were there. I said, "This whole thing, me speaking at this radio station, the whole thing is probably about you."

It turns out she’s from North Richland Hills, Texas. You say that’s just all coincidence. You've got to get rid of "coincidence" in your vocabulary. There is no such thing in the kingdom of God. This is all orchestrated. Before the foundation of the world, God has these things, and He’s like, "Okay, I'm going to build into this Ryan story. You get to sleep on really high count Egyptian cotton sheets, I'm going to make it rain so you get to be in the room for two days, but it's all about Ryan. Don't miss Ryan."

So we go into our days and we plan all this stuff. Now, here is where it took a bad turn. So we speak, the next day we’re flying back, and this stuff drives me insane. I flew out of one terminal at DFW and flew back into another terminal at DFW, but I parked my car at the other one. Now, this is a nightmare because it ended up taking us an hour from when we got off the plane to catch the shuttle, which never showed up, to get to the car at this other terminal.

So I’m upset. I’m like, "Dude, when are you going to stop? When are you going to stop complaining?" So I said to Rebecca, "You stay with the luggage that we have, waiting for my golf clubs to come out of the oversized stuff, and I'll go outside to catch the shuttle." And there’s this sweet, beautiful girl standing on the curb with a contractor label on, she’s just standing there with a little vest, and her job is to help people get on the shuttle.

And so I stand there and said, "Hi, how are you? What's your name? What do you do?" We're in this conversation, and the shuttle would not come. And I’m finally calmed down enough that the Holy Spirit’s like, "Dude, are you going to talk to her or not? I had to switch terminals for you. And for her." So it turned out she had been searching.

And she said, "Well, what do you do?" I said, "I pastor a church." She said, "Oh, wow," she lit up. And I said, "So if you died today—I'm not hoping you do—what would happen to you?" She says, "Man, I hope I'd go to heaven, but I don't know." I said, "How would you like to know?" She said, "I would." So we’re standing on the curb, and she prays right there. Rebecca’s watching through the terminal window watching this, and she becomes a Christian on the curb.

So what was that all about? My inconvenience. Will you stop already being inconvenienced by God’s plans? What is it going to take? We are such spoiled brats that it’s been about us for so long that when God says, "Look, will you just trust Me? I let you stay in a nice hotel, I redirected because this girl’s been praying for help, and I figured out a way to get her help because I know if you'll get a better attitude, you will talk to her, you'll fish, she's ready to be caught, and she'll come into the kingdom."

But what do we do? "Oh, my wife was mean to me, now I'm going to be miserable for a week." You’ve got to grow up. We’re going to encourage the people that are doing it right. So this is kind of what it boils down to me: What are we still doing here? If heaven is so great, and it is, and it cost Jesus His life to get us there, and it did, then what am I doing here? Get us out of here!

Why would You leave us down here in this mess? Because there are people who don’t know Him that need to know Him, and people that do know Him that need someone to help them grow up so when we are gone, they can take over, and so that we can comfort other believers. We can come alongside each other and use the gifts that God has given us to be a church in the world and be His presence: light, power, everything that He was, He is in and through us.

So there’s a reason for us being here, but if you miss out on that reason, then you turn into a grumpy old person. It’s so sad, some of the meanest people I’ve ever met are old Christians. They just turn into religious nightmares. Don’t be that person. Where’s the joy? Where’s the peace? Where’s the Spirit of God moving in and through your life?

Go to Acts chapter 15. I’m going to read this as an example so you can see that it’s even in scripture. Acts chapter 15, look at verse 36. "Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.'" So it’s follow-up.

Paul traveled to share the gospel, but he didn’t go, "Oh, good luck, I'll see you in heaven." He made back. One missionary journey starts the process, then a second missionary journey follows it up. Go to Acts chapter 16. So they’re traveling, doing this deal. "Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek."

That’s very important. Mom’s a Jew, dad’s a Greek. "He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go with him." So this is where Paul meets Timothy. "And he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region." Now, if you’re having your quiet time as a man and you read that, it’s going to take you a couple of days to process.

So why were they going to circumcise him? For they all knew that his father was Greek. Now, hold that spot. Go to First Corinthians 9:19. What does Paul say here? And if you go back and read the Scriptures, they had had a stink about this and went to Jerusalem and decided that you didn’t have to be circumcised to believe because that was the deal.

"Well, yeah, you can believe in Jesus, but you still got to be circumcised." They said, "Nope, that's not the case." So if they said that, then what is this about? Here Paul says, "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more; and to the Jew I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be a partaker of it with you."

John Stott says Paul refused to circumcise Titus lest the truth of the gospel be compromised; he circumcised Timothy lest the progress of the gospel be hindered. So the reason he circumcises Timothy is not to demonstrate that he was saved; it was so that his presence among those Jews would not be something that would hinder them receiving the gospel. His mom’s a Jew, his dad’s a Greek, so he was willing to do it to further the gospel.

Go back in there to verse 4. This is in Acts 16. "And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily. Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia."

Look at this: they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. What is that? That’s an all-stop. So how did they know that? Because they’re listening. John 10: "My sheep hear My voice." This is not whack-a-mole Christianity. Just because something is moving and breathing doesn’t mean you slap it on the head with the gospel. You’ve got to be led by the Spirit of God.

And when He says now, it’s not so much about you speaking, it’s letting Him speak. "After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them." So they’re going on these journeys and they go, "Okay, let's go over here." The Holy Spirit says, "No, absolutely no." And they say, "Okay, well we'll go over here." And the Spirit says, "No, you can't go over there."

So do you feel like, do you sense, are you aware that the Spirit of God is moving and directing your life in this way? So the Holy Spirit’s directing them. Go down to verse 8. "So, passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.'"

So now he’s having a vision about where to go. "Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them." So, no voice, no Holy Spirit saying, "No, don't go to Macedonia." Look what they do. "Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days."

"And on the Sabbath day," so they’re in town just doing that’s where they’re told to go, so they’re there. "On the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made." So they find out where are people praying? Down by the river. "And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul."

See, so you say, "How does he end up by the river in this city in Macedonia with this lady?" He pays attention and goes where he’s told. These details are all throughout the Bible. So God opens her heart, she hears and heeds what he says. "And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.' Come stay with us. So she persuaded us."

"Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling." So this possessed girl is following Paul around. Verse 17: "This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, 'These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.'"

"And this she did for many days." So she’s followed around saying this same thing. "But Paul, greatly annoyed," see, so I get annoyed, even Paul gets annoyed, "turned and said to the spirit, 'I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.' And he came out of her that very hour. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities."

So you say, "Now it's going terribly wrong. They met Lydia, her house gets baptized and saved, that's going great. And now he takes their livelihood away by casting this demon out, this spirit out of this girl, and now they're in trouble." Even when you get in trouble doing the right thing for doing the right thing, God is in that.

"And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, 'These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.' Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods." This is not going well. I’m following Jesus, I’m trusting Him, I’m obeying Him, and I’m being beaten with rods. What is going on?

"And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely." Now, I’m going to tell you, spoiler warning here a little bit. You say, "Well, this is horrible. Why would God let these people be beaten with rods?" It was about the jailer. They’re never going to end up in the jail with the jailer except this way.

"They laid many stripes, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks." So he secures them the best he knows how. "But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God." You cannot be praying and singing hymns to God at midnight in prison unless you trust Him and know that He is going to work it out for some reason, and that you were beaten almost to death for a reason.

"And the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled," he’s like, "my life is over," "drew his sword and was about to kill himself."

"But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, 'Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.' Nobody's gone, don't kill yourself. Nobody left. Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' So they said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.'"

Verse 32: "Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized." Now, this is very important, pay attention. A lot of people will say, "Well, when the jailer got saved, everybody in the house was covered because he got saved." That is not what it says and that does not work.

Every individual person believed what the jailer believed or they wouldn’t have been baptized and they couldn’t have been saved. This is not a herd deal: "Oh, dad got saved, now we're all saved." That is not how this works. "And when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household."

"And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, 'Let those men go.' So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, 'The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.' This is great news, you can leave. But Paul said to them, 'They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans.'"

They screwed up. You can’t do to a Roman citizen what you could do to other people. They didn’t think to ask, "Are you Romans?" And now that city, those magistrates are in trouble. "And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out." And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans.

Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out and asked them to depart from the city. So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. That’s just one little story about Paul, his life, how he goes and what happened to him. You say, "Well, I don't want to be beaten, I don't want something bad to happen to me." Something bad happened to Jesus to reach you.

So what are you, if it is God’s will for you to suffer, what is it you’re willing to go through to reach someone? "Well, I don't want to be inconvenienced. I thought God was going to bless me." Maybe He is going to bless you with inconvenience so you can reach someone.

Guest (Male): Richard will be back in a moment to wrap up today’s talk. But first, I want to share a couple of thoughts with you. Let’s be honest. Real life isn’t about living some highlight reel for others to see. Most people have deep hurts, questions, and struggles. We get it and want to help you in any way we can.

So, let’s keep this conversation going. Give us a call at 855-6-RICHARD or connect with us at our website, richardellis.com. You can even put in your prayer request right there on the prayer wall so others can pray for you as well. Call us at 855-6-RICHARD or online at richardellis.com. And now, let’s get back to Richard with a final word on today’s show.

Richard Ellis: For those of you living this way, way to go. But there are people, and the point of this is we’re trying to reach these people, they don’t know which way to go. And what did Jesus say? "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me." So you say, "Well, I got to get to Jesus first." That’s right.

How do I get to Jesus? It’s so simple. It’s as simple as saying, "God," what did they say there? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." It doesn’t mean to believe that He existed; it’s to put your faith and trust in Him. Both situations with both of these women who became Christians, all I prayed was, "God, I know that I'm a sinner. I need Your forgiveness. I believe Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and raised from the dead to pay for my sin and to offer me eternal life. I accept the gift of eternal life, the forgiveness of my sins. Come live in me, through me, change me. New person, new life. Thank You for loving me, for saving me today."

And I pray it in Jesus' name. It’s that simple. You could have done that just now, you could have done that sometime in the past, or you could still do that sometime in the future. But don’t complicate it. And what I tell everybody, people say, "Well, it can't be that easy." And I say, "Easy for who?" Easy for you because He got everything done that needed to be done to make it easy for you. So you’re looking for a way to go, He’s the way to go. Is it going to have challenges if you follow Jesus? Sure, but if you don’t follow Him, you’ve got all kinds of challenges too.

Guest (Male): Thanks for tuning in today to Richard Ellis Talks. We all have busy schedules these days, so it means the world to us that you would take this time to listen. Richard would love to know how today’s talk has touched your heart, so give us a call at 855-6-RICHARD. That’s 855-674-2427. You can also share your story with us at our website, richardellis.com.

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