Richard Ellis Talks

Guest (Male): Today on Richard Ellis Talks.

Richard Ellis: You say, "Well, but I've always done the right thing, and it's just been the last couple of months. I'm on my own. I've got it on autopilot. Maybe I'm not doing the right thing, maybe I am, but it doesn't really matter." Do you realize in a matter of minutes, walking outside of the spirit of God, you can make decisions that change your life forever?

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: A lot of people I talk to, whether they call it how do I know God's will for my life or where in the world am I going, and how do I know what the right thing to do is? The right person to marry, the right person to date, the right job to take. If you've only got one job option, it's pretty obvious. But if you've got two or three offers, which one do you take? Some of you headhunters or people that work with people in this industry, you might have three great offers. They're all similar money, maybe in the same city even. How does this person know what to do? How do you know what to do or where to go?

I'm going to take this not just locally but globally, in the context not just of life but ministry as well. Let's look at Acts 16, and I'm going to read you a portion to get up to the verses we're going to use today and give you the background. This guy named Paul, and I don't assume that everybody knows who he is, Paul is kind of the 13th apostle. He became an apostle after Jesus was dead and gone, raised, ascended into heaven. But Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus. He became one of the apostles. This guy had persecuted, killed Christians, and now completely turned around. He's going trying to help convert the Gentiles basically here.

He takes these trips. Some of you have grown up hearing about Paul's missionary journeys. That sounds very sophisticated. He just took trips all over the place and would go from city to city and either start a new church or go back through and check on a church that he had already started and help and encourage those people and tell them, "Don't do this, do that, you're off track," and kind of help redirect them.

It says in 16:1, "Then he came to Derbe." These are cities. If you've got a map, I recommend every once in a while you turn to those when you see a city and try to find that, because it'll help you get a feel for where they were going. It says 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, which implied that his father did not believe.

Timothy had a mom who was a believer. Some of you are raised in homes where maybe you have one parent that's Jewish, one who's nothing. One's Jewish, one's Protestant. Someone who's Presbyterian, one's Catholic, one's Baptist, one's Methodist, or maybe they're nothing. In this case, Timothy's mom was a Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek.

Timothy was well-spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go on with him. In other words, he saw this young guy Timothy and said he'd be a great help, somebody to go with me. So he says, "Would you go with me?" and it says he took him and circumcised him, which I don't read over these very fast. You've got a young guy, probably 20-something. You've got to really want to go with somebody to be circumcised to go with them. These are not small things in the Bible.

He took him and circumcised him because the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek. For some reason, Paul thought it would be necessary to circumcise Timothy so that when they go to all these places, they would acknowledge that he had a mother at least who was Jewish. He had his reasons. This happened, and it's a painful thing to read, but there you have it.

Verse four: "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." You can go back just a few chapters before that. You could go back to Acts 15:19-21 and following. It gives it a couple of times in that chapter. "Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath."

Some basic things they'd go in and say, "Look, you people are sleeping together, you shouldn't be sleeping together. Or you're married, you're having an affair, you shouldn't be doing that." Just basic no-brainer stuff, you'd think no-brainer stuff, but kind of still has to be reviewed today because people do the God thing, the Christian thing, and somehow get way off. Back then they had been involved in all kind of idolatry. So he says, "Abstain from things polluted by idols, sexual immorality, and things strangled and from blood." In other words, the way something literally was killed, stay away from that stuff. That's kind of what they went around, some of the basic stuff they encouraged and gave these decrees to them which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem.

Verse five: "So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily." That's what ought to be going on here and in any church. They ought to be strengthened in the faith, and as a result of that, they increase in number daily. It ought to be a no-brainer thing for you to be calling one another and saying, "I talked to my niece or my nephew, my brother, my sister, a coworker. Somebody became a Christian at work Wednesday at lunch. We talked, I shared my faith, and God is using me." It ought to be just the normal thing that goes on. You don't have to haul them to church to get them saved or to become a Christian. You can do this anytime, anyplace, as we talked about earlier.

In verse six, they're traveling, Timothy's with Paul, and in verse six, some amazing things start to happen that really seem kind of unusual. "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." Let me make a comment here on verse six. There are some people out there who will take a Bible or whatever they use and randomly, just anytime, anyplace, any street corner, anywhere, just whack people over the head with the Bible literally, just pounce on anything that moves, almost haphazardly. "Well, I'm out here preaching the gospel, and that's what you're supposed to do is preach the word and tell people about Jesus."

There are times when literally the Holy Spirit will tell you to be quiet. It is easier in some ways. You can be completely depraved and swing completely one direction and just be flat evil, but the other way is just as bad to be all sold out for God but just to do it in the flesh and on your own in your own strength and just hitting everybody. You've got to be walking and talking with God in order to hear him say yes, no, stop, go, whatever it is he's trying to tell you.

Why would God do that? Maybe because that person's not ready at that moment. Maybe because it would do more damage to run them over with the gospel than it would just to back off and love them a little bit. Some people say, "Well, that's what I'm all about. I just want to love people. Actions speak louder than words." That doesn't work. That's like some guy who's dating some girl and he says, "I'm showing her that I love her." Sooner or later, you have to get down on your knees and ask her to marry you. Sooner or later, words are necessary. You've got to speak up, you've got to commit, you've got to say something.

In this case, Paul of all people, only God could shut this guy down. But it says here in verse six, they go through this area and they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. Asia wasn't ready. They get through this, and this is huge expanses of geography. They're not flying from airport to airport. These people are going through a massive area of geography, and it says the Holy Spirit says don't preach the word in Asia. So they keep going.

If you're not walking and talking with God, you're not going to hear God about specific stuff. I grew up a very religious person. I knew what to wear, what to say, where to go, how to act. I knew the whole gig. I could do whatever it took to make anybody around me think that I was a good Christian kid. I could just go through the motions. Read my Bible every day, say a little prayer to God, and think that's going to get it. You can't put this thing on autopilot. You have to manually, day by day, one day at a time, talk to God, listen to God, walk with him, ask him what to do, where to go, and be sensitive all day long.

I don't know what even to equate this to, except that if I put a headset on you, some kind of implant, and could lead you around all day, not blindfolded necessarily, but I could literally lead you blindfolded if necessary and just say, "Okay, walk." And until I tell you different, keep walking. And I say take a left, and you take a left. And you obey me, you would spend your whole day, "Stop!" And what if I told you to stop for 20 minutes? I'm getting bored, I don't want to stop. It may be something that saves your life. You may be on a corner where there's traffic coming. You don't know what God's doing. If you don't talk to him and listen to him, you could make a huge mistake.

My contention is that we do this every day. We screw our lives up. We walk along, and God's not screaming at us, but through circumstances and that still small voice we hear inside of us, if you'll get quiet enough to hear it, he'll say, "Hey, what are we doing? Stop. Don't do this anymore. Stop, don't go there. This is not the best thing." I remember a specific issue in my life. I thought for sure God wanted us to do a specific thing as a church. I was pushing, and I'd go to make it happen and push some more. And it's like God said, "Go ahead. I'm not going with you. I'm going with you, but I'm not blessing this because I'm telling you no."

I said, "Well, I think I got really bad indigestion. That's what it is." You know how you get that sick feeling inside? I must have eaten something the same thing for three months now because it doesn't go away. There's no peace, there's no nothing. I'm feeling bad, and I'm like, "But God, you can't be backing out on this. We got to do this." And he says, "No, we don't." You push, and finally I said, "Okay, what do you want?" He said, "I don't want you to do that. Pull the plug on that."

I'm like, "God, it's going to be embarrassing. It's going to be hard." He says, "Either you're going to do what I want you to do or you're not. Pull the plug." Yes, sir. Now, if I'd said yes, sir three months before, I wouldn't have gotten in the mess I was in or gone so long. How do you know that? Here's what I hear. People come, how do you know if you're dating somebody if they're the right one to marry? I say, "Have you ever dated somebody you knew they weren't the right person to marry?" "Oh, yeah." "So you're telling me you think you can know when somebody is not right, but you don't think you can know when they are right?" If God can tell you no, can't he tell you yes? But we're so shocked that we get a yes every once in a while, we don't know what to do about it.

Listen, if you are walking down the path of your life and the Holy Spirit, if you are attuned in at all, and the God of the universe says no or stop, you better listen and think about it and shut it down. You may have to shut an entire business down because of it. I've been there with my wife, and it was a tough thing when God said, "It's time to shut her down." We shut it down. It was expensive, it was costly. I found out later my father was praying that it would fail because he had an idea that God wanted me doing this and not that, and the sooner we got to this, the better.

You may literally have people praying out there that you will stop whatever it is you're doing. The sooner you agree to it and yield to God's will for your life, the better it's going to get. It may be tough for a little while, but long term, it'll be better. So here Paul's going through this area, he's forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. What does he do? He keeps going.

"And they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them." This ought to be the characteristic of your life. You ought to have conversation with people who say, "Well, you know Tuesday I got in the car and I was going to this place and all of a sudden the Lord told me no." "How you don't hear God? I mean what does he got this GPS, God positioning system in your car that he moves your car around or something?" I'm telling you, I have turned right at places because God told me to turn right. I have gone a different way than I usually go to something and I've thought, "Why am I doing this?" And it's like God's saying, "You don't have to ask why, just obey. I'm taking care of you."

For all I know, if I had gone the normal way I go, I could have been in a wreck. You say, "Yeah, you're just guessing and dreaming, that ain't going to happen." I don't know that. Just obey him. You get an impulse and you know you're walking and talking with God and God says take a right, you take a right.

We had a disaster. Rebecca and I checked into a hotel on Friday. I highly recommend this for married people, but we checked into a hotel on Friday. Got in there, they upgraded us, everything was great. A friend of ours had gotten a babysitter, gone to a great place here in town, gotten flowers, this big basket of food, like a 70, 80 dollar basket of food and dropped it off at the front desk and asked them, giving a big tip, to put it in our room. They're going to surprise us.

So we get in our room the next morning, we get a call from these people. "How was your anniversary? Great. Did you get the food?" "What food?" Well, they had upgraded us to a nicer room. The food had gone to the old room. Those people were eating our food. Now, for some reason, I don't get as upset as I used to get. I was like, "Okay, God, they're eating our food, they're smelling our flowers, but that's okay." And you start not to ask God why are you doing this to us, but what's the purpose for this?

So we chill. This woman calls the hotel. They do all this stuff. Turns out they give us lunch for two free at this hotel, nice hotel, and lunch for them free some day to come back. So I'm still thinking this is pretty nice. What about that food we didn't get? It's still down there. These people down here, "Wow, this is a great hotel. They bring you food from Eatzi's."

So we go to lunch. And because of this fiasco, the hotel's all in a stir, and the head chef, they're bringing out these hors d'oeuvre things, they're trying to do everything they can to say we're sorry. So the head chef comes out. When he walked out and stood there, I knew why we didn't get our food. He had just moved to town two months before. Didn't know many people. And I pulled out a card and I said, "You're new to town. If you can get off on a Sunday morning, come up the street and worship with us."

Now, what does that have to do with anything? God redirected our life. Would we have had lunch there? Maybe not. If we hadn't had a problem, would that guy have come out? Maybe not. God is orchestrating stuff that you have no idea. And the fiascos, the problems, the flat tires, the delayed flights, the change of plans, all this stuff that you think is a disaster and you're complaining and screaming at people and getting all bent out of shape, God said, "If you'd just chill, I'm trying to help you and I'm trying to reach somebody else. Just go with it." And to say nothing of the embarrassment you are to yourself and God when you're standing there cussing somebody out at a gate or at a rental car place or whatever it is. Just chill, because the greatest testimony you have is to stand there and these people go, "You should be really upset. Why aren't you upset about this?"

And all of a sudden, you have a reason for the hope that's within you. You can share that and say, "Why would I get upset? I'm breathing, I'm healthy, and I just figure God's got a plan for my life and something's going to happen. He's going to bring some good from this." That really makes sense. Then do it. Live that way.

So Paul's told don't preach the word in Asia. He comes to Mysia, he's trying to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. You ought to have a life that's in "Okay, God, I'm going to say something unless you stop me." And he says don't say it. All right, I'm going to say it. And let him speak to you and then let him speak through you when you have these opportunities. But listen, walk with him step by step.

All right, look at verse eight. "So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas." If you look at your map, it's a port kind of in the northern part of what is now Turkey. They come to Troas, and they're about to make a huge decision. They're stuck there. God didn't let them go to Bithynia which is east. It's up by the Black Sea. He would have gone completely another direction. He's waiting to hear what God tells him to do though.

And in verse nine, "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 that night he sees a vision. Whether it's an angel or someone, it's just someone from Macedonia, he knows that in this vision, and this guy is standing there pleading with him, "Come help us."

Some of you know we're going a bunch of this church, 20 or so people are going to Liberia. Why in the world Liberia? We went Friday morning to get shots. I got a nurse there giving a shot trying to talk me out of going to Liberia. She says, "I wouldn't go anywhere you got to get a yellow fever shot." "Oh, that's fine." She says, "I was in the military, and we had to take malaria and all this stuff, and I wouldn't go anywhere they had malaria." I said, "Well, I'm in the service too, ma'am. I understand. Just a little bit different army."

The State Department says don't go to Liberia. They don't recommend traveling in Liberia. Let me tell you something. I don't care if everybody doesn't recommend going to Liberia. If God calls you somewhere, you better go, because you're at more risk—and I told this woman, I said, "Lady, you can get killed on Central Expressway with a gun by cutting somebody off. If I'm supposed to be in Liberia, I'll be a whole lot safer in Liberia than I'd ever be in America if that's where God wants me to be." It's the only way to live.

So Paul sees this vision. This man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." And sometimes that word help, I'm going to key in on that. What we're going to do in Liberia and what you end up doing a lot of times on these mission trips is just helping people. We're not going in there as the great white hope. "We're going to come in here in Liberia and help you people." They're smarter than we are. They know their country, and a lot of times we misunderstand. "I'm going to get up and preach, and I'm going to do this." Sometimes you just go and help. It's practical help. That is ministry as well. It's going alongside someone and just saying, "What can I do to help you? How can I serve you?" So this vision he has, this man says come to Macedonia and help us.

Verse 10: "Now after he had seen the vision..." the next word is huge. "Immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them." He'd told them not in Asia, not in these other places, but he says go. It was west, and because of this decision and Paul's obedience, the gospel goes to Europe. Goes a whole another direction.

In verse 10, the pronouns change. And now all of a sudden, the word we. After he saw the vision, immediately we sought to go. And now it goes from he to we. He includes himself in this. I've just parenthetically here, people say, "How do you join this church? I want to sign up. How do you join this church?" This isn't the only way, but this is one of the ways: your pronouns change. At first they say, "Your church this and your church that," and then you hear them talking and saying, "Our church is going to Liberia and our church is doing this and we are involved in that." Your pronouns will change on you when you belong to something.

That's not enough. The main thing is to have a personal relationship with the God of the universe through Jesus Christ who died on the cross, shed his blood, was buried and raised from the dead to purchase a place for you in heaven that he offers as a free gift. And you receive that free gift, he comes to live in you and through you. Now you're not part of this church, you're part of the church. And if you connect yourself and identify yourself with this church, you're part of this church.

The scripture says and everybody who did that was baptized, so basically you have a personal relationship with Christ, you're baptized. That doesn't get you into heaven, but that sure is a first step statement of faith on this side. And you show up. A lot of churches, people are members. It's like country clubs have members and they haven't ever picked up a golf club in their life. But they're members. I'm interested in active members, people who get it, and if you don't, we'll help you get it.

But the "we" is not only our church but here. And 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. And if you keep reading on in chapter 16, you can see that some bad things happened. Some great things happened, but they had some tough stuff. Don't think, "Well, if I obey God, it's all going to be great." It isn't all going to be great. It isn't going to be great if you do obey him, it isn't going to be great if you disobey, but I'd much rather suffer for doing the right thing than the wrong thing. Stop long enough to say, "Okay, God, am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing? Am I going where you want me to go, or am I just out here winging it?"

You say, "Well, but I've always done the right thing, and it's just been the last couple of months. I'm on my own. I've got it on autopilot. Maybe I'm not doing the right thing, maybe I am, but it doesn't really matter." Do you realize in a matter of minutes, walking outside of the spirit of God, you can make decisions that change your life forever? You talk to a married man, been faithful to his wife for 20 years. He gets out on one business trip, one time, one bar, one drink too many, gets a little tipsy. One woman comes along, says one word or two or three, and next thing you know, he's up in her room, his room, and he's wiped out the trust and the marriage vow in just a matter of minutes.

What difference does one time make? It can make all the difference. You are either walking in the spirit or you're not walking in the spirit. You're either walking with God or you're not walking with God. And if you're on your own in a lot of ways, you are on your own and God's going to go with you, but he is not in control of the situation. He is just being dragged into it with you.

Guest (Male): Before Richard comes back to wrap things up for us today, I'd like to share a couple important things with you. Let me encourage you to take a minute and check out our website, richardellis.com. You'll find today's talk right there in the talks page, along with all of Richard's audio and video messages. You can even forward them to a friend so they can hear them too. You'll also find the prayer wall to add your prayer requests, a link so you can connect with us, the contribute page for you to be able to give to this ministry, all of our social media links, and much more. So check it out: richardellis.com. And Richard's back now to wrap up today's talk.

Richard Ellis: It's very important to listen. It's very important to talk to him, but even more important than either of those, it's to obey when he speaks. Immediately. And I can give you situation after situation. People the Bible talks about fleeing youthful lusts, literally getting up and running out of somewhere. At some point in your life, you got to worry less about what somebody else thinks about you, worry about what God thinks about you and what the consequences are if you don't get out of there.

If a building's on fire, you don't sit around and go, "Wow, what a cool fire. Look what it's doing to the chairs. Wow, the curtains burn fast." If there's a fire that breaks out in here, you'll get out of here. And there are situations in your life where God says get out and we go, "Ooh, I can run my finger through this fire," and we play with it. Get out.

Or if God says now, do this, do the right thing, we say, "Yes, sir," and immediately. And you say, "Well, it may not affect me," but it may affect someone else. You literally take a job. How do you know whether to stay here or move to some other town? You better know it from God. It isn't about your money or your career. It's about someone's life.

You say, "It's inconvenient for me to move over there." There may be somebody there that's not going to get it any other way than if you go and you tell them. And it's not even about your convenience or about your life. It's about moving you to a whole another city literally to share your faith with someone. Why would God do that? Because it cost him his son to get the job done, that's why. And he'll go to any means that it takes. So it's being able to know when to say, when to not to say it. And whatever it is, when he does speak in verse 10 again, do it immediately. Because they concluded that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.

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, 855-6-RICHARD. You can also share your story with us at our website, richardellis.com.

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