Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: So there may be people that come in you go, I've known this guy for 40 years. He's a nightmare. And you're claiming that he became a Christian. Let's give God a shot. Well, what if he became a Christian and he goes back to his old ways? Well, welcome! That's what we all do. But let's pray for him, let's love on him, let's ask God to reclaim them, to bring them back, that they would forsake that sin and come back.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. We're taking the entire month of September to focus on something that is very important to Richard and I'm sure to you as well. And it all centers around the word "legacy." How do you want to be remembered? Who has influenced your life in a meaningful way? What would people say about you when you were gone? What's left behind?

Well, we're introducing a brand new exciting feature that will be a place where you can share your story. I'll share more for you at the end of the program. But for now, let's jump right in with today's topic. Here is Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "Wicked For Good." So go to Genesis Chapter 3. Maybe let me lay this out here before we get into this too deep. The way I grew up and the churches I grew up in, the people I was around were basically... I don't know if I'd say they're good people, but everybody kind of knew the rules. Even if you were completely jacked up and living a double life, you just didn't get caught.

And unfortunately, what I picked up on was that certain churches were looking for people like them. So if a church thought that it was moral and good and ethical and law-abiding and Republican and right-wing conservative, whatever, then that's what they scanned the horizon for. But what do you do with the wicked people?

Now you say, "Well, but there were wicked people in those churches." Yeah, but not like the wicked people that I come across. And what I mean by this is... and I'm going to read you some names out of the Bible. You say, "Well, but there's real evil out there." I'm with you. There's real wicked people. They're doing abomination stuff.

And here's my dilemma as I go into the world and try to reach people personally and then we as a church engage the world, the lost world, which is all there is. There almost feels like sometimes with churches especially, if not individual Christians, that there are certain people that it's just to hell with them. We don't want them around.

They got too many tats. They got too many pasts. They've probably killed people. They probably didn't pay their taxes. They probably raped somebody. They probably... they just probably did all these things and we're not those kind of people. And I'm about to read you a verse in a minute that pretty much states that if you're guilty of one sin, you're guilty of all of them.

So we get to be in all self-righteous thinking, "Well, I needed Jesus to save me, but I wasn't that far lost. I was pretty close anyway, so he didn't have to go to much trouble cause I was a good person anyway." So let's start in Genesis Chapter 3 and I want to recap a little bit where kind of all this went wrong and how fast it went bad.

Genesis Chapter 3, verse 1: "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said?'" Now, let me just put this out here again and again and again. The problems all start here in the Bible, in Genesis, in the universe, but also in our individual lives. One of the no-brainer things the devil starts with is this question: "Has God indeed said?"

And if you don't know what he said, you don't know whether if that's what he said, and the devil questions it. You don't know. But even if you do know what scripture says, then the devil comes along and says, "Hey dude, is that really what God said? He didn't mean that. There's wicked for good. You could be a wicked person, but maybe some good will come from that."

And we hear him ask these questions and we're pulled, the undertow of the world and sin and our flesh, and we go, "Well, maybe God didn't really mean that and I guess it's okay." And then you're gone. "Has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said you shall not eat it nor shall you touch it lest you die."

And I've told you this over and over again, nowhere does God say you can't touch it. She's adding to scripture now. She's adding to what he says. Find out what God says and just go with it. He says, "You shall not eat nor shall you touch it lest you die." Then the serpent said to the woman, "You're not going to die. My goodness, that's absurd. You shall not surely die.

For God knows that in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." And kaboom, the domino drops and she starts thinking about that, not sticking to what God said, really said, "Stay away from the tree. Don't eat it." She eats it. And now it's chaos for all of us. It's not just Adam and Eve; it's Adam and evil all of a sudden.

Then go to Genesis Chapter 6. Now, I don't know how much you read the Bible. Highly recommend it. But within a few chapters, the world has lost its mind. Genesis Chapter 6, look down in verse 5: "Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth." So the first thing, wickedness. They're gone. Sin enters into the picture and wickedness takes over all over the earth.

Second thing: "And that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Do you ever feel that way or have you ever lived that life? Where it's almost like your whole life is consumed with this kind of description. The intents of the thoughts of your heart is only evil. It's all the time thinking about doing something evil.

Now, you say, "Well, those people are out there. We don't want those people in our church." The problem is sometimes the people in our church are still those people. They're just all disguised. And people that come and proclaim that heaven is their home and that's their destination, but living secretly like hell like everybody else. Just as wicked as anybody else, but they don't get caught, so we let it roll.

And churches have this "don't ask, don't tell" policy. If you don't ask what's really going with me, I don't have to tell you. And if you don't ask me what's going on with you, if we go either way, we don't have to talk about it and we're just kind of acting like we're okay. And then the enemy just laughs at us and goes, "Yeah, they're a church, they're dead as a doornail. They're going backwards."

And then a true wicked person shows up who's desperate for Jesus, and they look around and go, "This people are nuts." Cause they act like they got no issues. I love that we always have issues because that's reality. And then the last thing here in Genesis Chapter 6. Go down to verse 13: "And God said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.'"

The ultimate thing is it got so violent he shut it down. So God had had enough. Keeps eight people to... you know, a lot of animals died in those weeks. But he saved the animals, at least two of each on the ark, some more of others. And it's a do-over. So, man, this place has been a mess and it is still a mess.

But here's what's kind of messing with me about trying to engage a culture and engage a lost world. We see people that are quote-unquote "wicked." Their tattoos are wicked in some cases. Their choices are wicked. They're not just screwing around with other people; they're having orgies. They're wicked. They're doing drugs, they're doing alcohol, they're stealing, they're doing everything you can come up with and then pushing the limit, and they're wicked people.

And you say, "Well, I think I'm supposed to stay away from those people." You're supposed to be reaching those people. Why don't we change it from "to hell with you" to "how about to heaven with you"? Because when you meet those kind of people, the devil is beating their brains in sometimes, and even if they reach out and think that maybe God would take me, the church, the hypocritical church, screams back at them and says, "Dude, you are toast. You are damned to hell because you don't know Jesus." Instead of just saying, "Hey, let me tell you about my Jesus."

Isaiah 55, verse 7. Now, you say, "Well, where's all this coming from?" Because I mean, most of y'all look like pretty normal and nice. We got some crazies in here too, but I don't think it's crazy enough yet. You say, "But if you go out and seek and to save that which is really lost and we reach them and bring them in, then our normal people will leave." Bye-bye! Bye-bye!

You say, "What do you mean, bye-bye?" We're not here to make you happy; we're here to serve Him and to reach people. Because in some cases, the people that we really should be trying to reach, the "whosoever will may come" words mean everybody. And in some cases, that includes a sibling of yours, a parent of yours, a friend of yours, a neighbor.

And then all of a sudden, it's not a bad thing that everyone, truly everyone, is welcome. Isaiah 55:7: "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Now, who is this addressing specifically? What kind of people? Anybody?

This is not lost, unbelieving people because you can't return unless you've been there. So these are people who supposedly believe in God. And by the way, you just sit down and read the whole Old Testament. They're some of the most jacked up people that have ever existed. The Jews specifically, His people, who knew better, had been shown all these things, delivered from Egypt, miraculous things happened, and boom, they still just go, "Nope, I'm going to go back to my ways."

So He says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord." And what happens when you go back to the Lord? He will have mercy on him and to our God and He will abundantly pardon. There's a huge hospital not too far from here called Parkland Hospital. Does everybody know where Parkland Hospital is?

It is so nuts that they have security at the ER because a gang member might stab another gang member and then they come to retaliate at the emergency room. I've been over there a number of times. What I have never seen is someone out there with a little clipboard going, "So tell me where you live. Could we see your financial statement? You're going to need to go home and change because we don't take your kind here."

You pull up there in a car, you back up there in an ambulance, they don't care who you are or what happened to you; they will take you. That hospital does a better job than most churches because we start running a subdivision instead of an emergency room. And you have to qualify with the HOA or you're gone.

I think some of this I'm just tired of and some of it, honestly, I'm just tired of it with me. I'm tired of driving by this homeless guy on this corner that lays there and he was there this morning and he was sleeping in the median again. And I assume he's just a drunk, he's a throwaway. I got no time for him.

And I'm like, "Lord, why do I feel this way about certain people?" What if it's an angel been laying there for years and I still don't get it? What if it's an angel and I'm supposed to be entertaining him, unaware that he's an angel, and I'm failing at the test? Go to Acts Chapter 7. So one of the guys completely messed up in the Bible is a guy that his name was Saul.

In Acts Chapter 7:58, Stephen's being stoned: "And they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul." Acts 9. So he's right there: "Let's kill this guy." So he is witness and a party to the stoning of Stephen, one of the godliest people in the church so far at this point ever. And he's right there going, "Yeah, let's stone him."

Acts Chapter 9, verse 1: "Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord." It's what he's breathing. He went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of "the way," these Christians, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

As he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads."

So he, trembling and astonished, said, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" Then the Lord said to him, "Arise and go into the city and you will be told what to do." And what happens to him? He becomes a Christian. He went from being a nightmare, Jewish terrorist toward Christians, and his whole life changed. We would not have wanted Paul.

He was such a mess that when he was sent to the Jewish people, the new Christians, whoever it was, they were like, "We can't talk to him. We know who he is and what he was at least. What if he's still that person?" They were afraid. And God said, "Trust me, I got him. He's mine." So there may be people that come in and you go, "I've known this guy for 40 years. He's a nightmare."

And you're claiming that he became a Christian. Let's give God a shot. Well, what if he became a Christian and he goes back to his old ways? Well, welcome! That's what we all do. But let's pray for him, let's love on him, let's ask God to reclaim them, to bring them back, that they would forsake that sin and come back.

Romans 10:13. Now, you gotta read this carefully to really not complicate it because this is what it says: "For whoever..." Does anybody know what the word "whoever" means? It means whoever. Everyone. "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." You say, "Well, I don't like this guy." He just called on the name of the Lord and now I got to figure out how to love him and he's not like me.

Yeah, but he's packing Jesus like you are now. What are you going to do now? You better figure it out. Romans 5:20 says this: "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more." So look at the correlation. No matter how much sin abounds, the Bible says that grace abounded much more.

You cannot out-sin grace. You are never going to sin so much that you go, "Uh oh, too bad. We don't have any more grace to cover you, sorry." It says where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You are not going to out-sin His mercy, His grace.

The only unpardonable thing is for you to blaspheme Him, is to deny Him, is to say, "I don't need you," curse God and die and end up in hell. He cannot forgive you rejecting His Son. But everything else... now this is where it gets tricky. I sat with a person recently and they were trying to make a decision and they were afraid.

This is a believer, pretty strong believer, but the statement made to me was, "Well, I'm afraid if I make the wrong decision, I'm going to end up in hell." And I said to this person, "It is not possible for you to end up in hell. You are a believer; no one can snatch you out of His hand. So your decision may be good or bad, but it's not going to affect your eternity because that's already established."

You say, "Well, before I became a Christian..." and I, you know, I don't know where you live. For whatever reason, God is sending these people to me and I mean, I got my own crap to carry. But some people are carrying loads, loads of sin. Unspeakable things, sexual molestations. Things that we would say, "Oh, they should go be put in prison and put to death."

Be careful. Be careful sentencing sinners. You are not God. And He's a holy God, which means all of my sin... you say, "But I didn't do what that person did." But you're guilty of all of it. We have capacity for all of it. Self-righteous men who go, "Oh, I've never cheated on my wife," but they lust after every woman that passes by them.

And Jesus said, "Forget it. If you've looked on a woman that way, you've already done the sin." "Oh, well, I don't see it that way." It doesn't matter how you see it; it's what He said. So it's not just cleaning up your actions, our actions; it's cleaning up our minds, our eyes, and saying, "Lord, help me be what I'm supposed to be so I can do what I'm supposed to do."

Romans 6:14. Just read all of Romans 6; it's a good one. Look at this: "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." So what does the devil tell you? "There is no hope for you. Yes, okay, you became a Christian. Yes, you're going to spend eternity in heaven. But down here, there's no hope."

Whatever your sin is, meth, drugs, alcohol, porn, whatever your particular sin is. You're a thief, but you know what? God understands there's mercy and grace for that. We read those verses. The devil will quote you the verses. "Sin the more that grace may abound." The Bible says, "God forbid!" No, that's not what you're supposed to be doing.

But whatever it is, it is not supposed to have dominion over you anymore. Ephesians 2:12: "And this is how these people feel. That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise." And then look at how else it describes someone not a believer: "having no hope and without God in the world."

No hope. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. There's no way for me to explain to you how many people, at least I come in contact with and hear about, who are this close to blowing their brains out, doing something they're going to check out. Why do you kill yourself?

And by the way, do not kill yourself. Why would someone kill themselves? Here's the verse: no hope, without God in the world. That is my only option. The only option I have now is to kill myself. This week, guy told me a story. He said, "I bought a gun. I was going to kill myself. And I finally told a friend, they came and got the gun, got it out of their house."

You say, "Why would somebody do that?" They're hopeless. You say, "Well, that can't happen to Christians." Yes, it can. Because you get looped into your sin so long, so much, and no one teaches you that the sin is not supposed to have dominion over you, that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

You don't have to live that way anymore, but you believe you do and you keep doing it. You go, "I can't take this anymore," and the devil says, "You know what? Everybody including you would be better off if you just killed yourself. Steal, kill, destroy. Not 'I have come that you might have life, have it more abundantly.' Steal, kill, and destroy. You need to just check yourself out."

You say, "Well, do you have a gun? Would you kill yourself?" Nope. But the devil still trying to kill me every once in a while. It hadn't happened for a while, but the way he come after me, I'd be driving down the highway, and I've shared this before, and I would have this thought, this impulse to just turn the wheel. Boom, just go off the edge of the road into a ravine.

And then I'd grab the wheel and start praying like, "Lord, what in the world is going on? Someone is trying... it's not you. Someone's trying to kill me." Anybody know what I'm talking about? Look at those hands. Give you a thought. You say, "Well, how do I have these thoughts in my head?" He can get in your head. He can lie to you.

1 Timothy 1. I'll just give you random samples here a little bit. Verse 15: "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Now, who is writing this? Paul. And what does he say about this? "Of whom I am chief." We're going to have a tribe of sinners? I would be the chief. I'm the main sinner.

But we think, "Oh, Paul's all amazing." Stop glorifying Paul and leaving out his past. You say, "Yeah, but he changed." Then if you're going to give him some slack, you're going to have to give the wicked some slack because he was one of the wicked. He had a rap sheet, crazy long rap sheet. "However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life."

So what does Christ have that he has to have? Is longsuffering. That means you suffer long. And He brings you a totally lost person who will double barrel flip God off. "F-you, f-you God, I don't care." You're loving on them and you're being longsuffering with them and you share the gospel. Then one day they get saved and their life starts to change, but it's still messy.

And they go back to their old ways and you check on them. They go, "Man, this sucks, why did I go back?" Here's why. And you stay with them, you stay with them, you walk with them, you disciple them until they get their legs up under them. Then one day they change and nobody can even remember what they used to be like.

That's God's heart. He has been putting up with my crap for decades. Merciful, kind, longsuffering. And on the days where my sin is premeditated sin... it is not "oh oops," it is premeditated, deliberate sin, presumptuous because I know if I choose to sin, He's got to forgive me when I come back around. Be careful with your God.

Titus 3:3 says: "For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit." Not that I did anything; it's all Him. He saved me.

Hebrews 8:12: "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." James 2:10: "For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." In case you were wondering where that was. And I've got a whole list in my notes here; I'll read it through quick.

The devil, created being, not a person, but that's where the sin originates. Adam and Eve, Rahab, Samson, Saul, Solomon, Jezebel, Ahab, Asa, Manasseh. Go read about Manasseh. 2 Kings 21, 2 Chronicles 33. The most evil king in the Bible, Manasseh. Child sacrifice, idolatry, innocent blood. Captured, he repented and was restored.

So he was evil, but he repented. But there was still consequence to his sin. Josiah, Nebuchadnezzar, Haman, Herod the Great, Mary Magdalene, Zacchaeus, Judas Iscariot, Peter, and then I've talked about Paul. Persecuted and killed Christians, converted on the road to Damascus, called himself chief of sinners. We just read that. Was evil and repented.

John Newton was born in 1725, died in 1807. Was a slave trader and captain of slave ships who converted and wrote this song, and I'm going to read you one little phrase from this song: "Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I'm found; was blind, but now I see."

So the devil says, "Nothing you can do. You're just wicked for good. There's no changing it." And God says, "That's a lie. I'm going to make you holy for good. I'm going to make you righteous for good. I'm going to change you and change the world through you."

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Richard Ellis Talks. We so appreciate you taking the time to be encouraged by Richard's unique way of challenging us to become more like Jesus every day. But it doesn't stop there. We want that same inspiration to be passed on from you to others, for others to be encouraged by your life in their own walk with the Lord.

And most of us have seen great examples in someone else firsthand that has significantly touched and inspired our life, so much so that we want to pass it on to others as well. This legacy should be what we all inspire to. Even the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1: "Follow my example as I followed the example of Christ."

So who is it in your life that was a great example as a Christ follower that has inspired you to do the same? And what is it that you want to make sure others know about what is most important to you as a believer? Well, I have some really great news to share with you. We have just added a legacy wall on our website for you to tell your story.

Who has made a difference in your life? And what is it that you want to share with others and leave a legacy of your beliefs and values? We want to hear about it. Go to richardellis.com and share your story today. 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 855-6RICHARD or at richardellis.com. And while you're there, you can help us greatly by giving to this ministry. This program is making a huge difference in people's lives and you can make a big difference to ours, too. We really do need to hear from you on this. Go to richardellis.com to support this ministry and share your story. Thank you. And until next time, thank you for listening. We look forward to coming alongside you again for more Richard Ellis Talks.