Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: If you boohoo alone, you've got a problem because you were never intended to suffer alone. The book clearly says that you will suffer, and you'll suffer for doing the right thing or the wrong thing, but suffering is a part of this life. But woe to the man or woman who suffers alone.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard's going to take the next few minutes to share some great words of hope and insight for you. And in today's broken world, that is something everyone is desperate to hear. Richard shares unapologetically the truth of the Bible in a way that's clear, relational, and uplifting.

So thank you for taking this time to listen. We know it will bless you. And when you have a moment, you might want to check out our website so we can stay connected with you, richardellis.com. But right now, let's go ahead and get things off and running with today's talk. Here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "Woohoo-Boohoo." Turn to Job chapter 2 if you would. Old Testament, may look like J-O-B 2 in your Bible. Ella Wheeler Wilcox said this, "Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone. For the sad old Earth must borrow its mirth, but has trouble enough of its own."

In Job chapter 2, I won't read the first chapter and everything that went down with Job, but pretty much one of the most catastrophic stories in history. His children were killed, wiped out in a day. Everything that he possessed pretty much wiped out in a day, and he was a very rich man.

The enemy had permission to do whatever he wanted to with Job from God Himself. And He said, "You can do anything, even take his health, but you can't take his life." So Job got hit hard, and not for being a sinner, some horrible person, but because God demonstrated to Hell itself he will trust me. He will stick with me no matter what.

And in the course of time, word gets out what has happened to Job. And in Job chapter 2 verse 11, we start there. It says when Job's three friends heard of all of this adversity that had come upon him, each one of them from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him and comfort him.

So these three buddies of Job made a deal, "We've got to go take care of our friend." And when they had raised their eyes from afar and did not recognize him. So they got together and they went to see Job. And from a distance they saw Job and he was so messed up, he was in so much trouble that they literally did not recognize their friend.

They lifted their voices and they wept. And each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven, which were signs of grief. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

When you're in trouble, are you alone? And why is that? Whether you're sitting in this room or listening somewhere beyond here, if you boohoo alone, you've got a problem because you were never intended to suffer alone. The book clearly says that you will suffer, and you'll suffer for doing the right thing or the wrong thing, but suffering is a part of this life.

But woe to the man or woman who suffers alone. And people say, "Well, I know God, and I trust God, and I've got this special kind of relationship with Him, and I don't really need church." You will. You will. Because one day you'll get hit with something that you can't do by yourself.

And you'll wish you had three buddies that showed up and wept and tore their clothes and just sat with you, because sometimes there's nothing to say. Now, part of being a family, part of being a church the way God intended, is that we are there for each other in these situations.

Now go to Job 42, the end of the chapter, end of the book. These friends show up, really show up, and they don't do such a great job once they start talking. Because like any of us, you would look at somebody in a lot of trouble, in a lot of pain, and go, "Wow, what did you do, dude? You must have really screwed up or this wouldn't have happened to you."

And so most of the book of Job is Job talking to God, and these three buddies going at Job and coming up with their reason for why all this happened. Then Job chapter 42 verse 1, "Then Job answered the Lord and said, 'I know that you can do everything, and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.'"

"Listen, please, and let me speak. You said, 'I will question you, and you shall answer me.' I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, 'My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.'"

"Now therefore, take for yourselves..." Now God goes after the three friends who have been after Job. And He says, "Now therefore take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you."

Now these guys showed up, and then they blast him however long that took. And God's not happy with these three friends. But He sends the guys to make a sacrifice and ask Job to pray for them. "For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."

"So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord commanded them; for the Lord had accepted Job." And if you don't know this, this is when Job's entire life turned around. In Job 42 verse 10, "And the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends."

Job had to be willing after taking this blasting and these guys wanting to come and apologize and repent and realize what they had done. Now Job had to pray for them. And when Job prayed for them, that's when God said, "I'm going to turn this whole thing around." Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Then all his brothers, all his sisters, all those who had been his acquaintances before came to him and ate food with him in his house. And they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the Lord had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold. So they come and realize it's turned around and they celebrate with him. They console him. He's not alone. He's not alone in the beginning. He's not alone in the end.

Now, some people have somebody on the boohoo end of the deal, but they don't have many people on the woohoo end of the deal. When there's celebration, when there's excitement, when something amazing happens for you. Go to Jonah chapter 3. A few pages to your right, Jonah chapter 3.

The story of Jonah a lot of people know bits and pieces about it. Jonah is sent to Nineveh, doesn't go to Nineveh, goes completely the other direction, and ends up thrown overboard in a boat before everybody on the boat dies because of his disobedience. God sends a great fish, doesn't say a whale, a great fish swallows him three days in this whale, spits him up on the beach, and Jonah finally agrees to go to Nineveh.

So look what happens in Jonah chapter 3. "Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time." It's amazing how merciful God is, He gave Jonah a second chance. Saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you." So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent.

So it took three days to walk through Nineveh. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

Then word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, "Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink water."

"But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?" Then look at verse 10. "Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. He spared Nineveh."

Now look at chapter 4, Jonah chapter 4. So you think, "Wow, this is amazing. God gave Jonah a second shot. Nineveh is spared. I'm sure these people are thrilled. They respond to the message and God spares them." But look at verse 1 of Jonah 4. "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry." If you cannot rejoice when God rejoices, you've got a problem.

So it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord and said, "Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, one who relents from doing harm." Why did Jonah disobey God in the first place?

Because he knew that if he went and preached to the people of Nineveh that they might repent, and if they repented, God would spare them. And that made him angry. "Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." So now he's suicidal. Now he wants to die because God saved a city, and it says if you read on about 120,000 people I think, and describes them as people who didn't know their right hand from their left.

They didn't know any better and God spared them. Something has to happen in us where we have compassion, where we are brokenhearted for our friends, our neighbors, our city, our family, and that we cry out to God to save people, to rescue them, and use us in any way that He sees fit.

Go to Luke chapter 15. One of my favorite chapters in all of the Bible. God used this to change my life dramatically. And in Luke 15 the last story in the chapter is about a lost son who goes off, wastes his substance with riotous living. He came to himself, rehearsed his little speech, "I will arise and go to my father."

And then it says and he arose and went to his father. And while he was yet a long way off, his father sees him, runs, has compassion on him, falls on his neck, kissed him and begins to celebrate. There's an older brother who never left home and did the right thing supposedly, but was angry and cold. You do not want to be the older brother.

This is a strange thing for me to say to you, if I had to pick, I would rather be the lost son than the older brother. God help you if you're an older brother in this story. Luke 15:25, "Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing." And I was raised where you couldn't dance, so I love this verse.

I know how you hear music, but how do you hear dancing? They had to really be dancing. It may be that you don't know how to celebrate. You don't know how to rejoice. You don't know how to let go, especially when God does something amazing. So he comes near the house and he heard music and dancing.

So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. "What's going on?" And he said to him, and I'm not there, I'm just reading you words the way it's told here, "Your brother has come. And because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf."

Then look at one of the saddest verses in the Bible, "But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.'"

And my contention has always been that this kind of guy didn't have any friends to make merry with. "But as soon as this son of yours..." Won't even say "my brother," "this son of yours" came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.

And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found." If you can't celebrate, you've got a problem. You say, "Well, I'm just a conservative Christian." You just may be a cold Christian.

And I was raised around a bunch of cold Christians, and I didn't know what it was at the time, but they could not celebrate. They could not sing songs the way we sing songs. You say, "Oh, we're supposed to be reverent." Heaven is going to make you crazy. There is a time to celebrate. There is a time to weep. If you go read in Ecclesiastes, there's a time to laugh, there's a time to cry.

There is a time for both. And my contention is this: to the degree that you can weep, if you can swing this far on the weep scale, you can only go that far on the rejoice scale. And if you keep it really tight and you can't weep with anybody, you really can't rejoice with anybody. You say, "Oh, yes I can." No, I'm not talking about going to a party and drinking and getting all whatever.

I'm talking about straight up celebrate. And when someone has something great happen to them, you are right there with them. And I'll read you some verses about that in a minute. Go to Acts chapter 13. Another example of what we just read in Luke 15. Acts 13:44 says this, "On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God."

Paul is the one preaching here. "But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul." They couldn't take it, they were jealous. Now let me tell you how you know how healthy you are, and I'll read you some verses about this in terms of the body of Christ and the church itself.

When someone in our midst is honored, is celebrated, has something amazing that has happened to them, all of us, if we are healthy, celebrate around that. And when someone in our midst weeps and they have tragedy, all of us weep around that because that's how it works when it's healthy.

So if you catch yourself holding back, you say, "Well, that's not right. So-and-so got something, I didn't get anything." You're unhealthy. That's not right. That's not how it should work. You've got issues. You're envious, you're jealous. Something's wrong with that picture. Go to Romans chapter 12, one book over.

And this is a very simple verse, but it's basically what I'm trying to say today. Romans chapter 12 verse 15. Paul writing to the church at Rome and he says this, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep." Very simple. Are you doing that? You say, "Well, what do you mean? How would I do that?"

You have to be in relationship with someone to do either one. You have to be connected enough to know what's up in their life. You can't worship God out there under a tree by yourself. That's not what was intended. It's getting together, it's a family, it's connecting so that you know someone well enough and you love someone so much and you are literally part of a family so much that when someone tells you something that happened to them and they weep, instinctively, supernaturally, you weep because they weep.

And when someone shares something that's so amazing that your heart... I was with a guy the other day and he shared something, a great friend of mine, and he shared something amazing that happened to him and literally inside of me, it was as though what happened to him happened to me.

It's a great thing to rejoice when people rejoice because you get in on their celebration and they're not alone in their celebration. When someone shares their heart, their excitement, their exuberance, their joy, their rejoicing, you need to be there and be healthy enough to do that with them.

And then in turn, when it swings the other way and their heart is broken, your heart is broken. You say, "But that sounds like it's going to be painful and it's going to cost me." That's the deal. You get to rejoice when they rejoice, you get to weep when they weep. And that's what He said to do.

Golda Meir, some of you are old enough to even remember who she is, she said this, "Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either." Now listen to me. If you're keeping it really tight in the middle, you don't weep with anybody, you don't rejoice with anybody, you are borderline frozen.

You've kept it so safe that no one can touch you, no one can affect you. You think you're in control. You're losing out on life. It's not what God intended and it's really not what we need. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And in this chapter again, Paul is writing and he's writing to another city, Corinth.

And he's talking about spiritual gifts and how they all fit into the body. You can jump down in verse 4. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. There are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all."

"For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized or put into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many."

"If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, am I not of the body?' Is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?

But now God has set the members, each of them, in the body, just as He pleased." You are a part, if you're a Christian, of the body of Christ, and He has decided what you are and what part you play. And you have to get okay with that. You have to be aware of it first of all that you have a part to play.

You are a part of the body of Christ and there's a role you play. And then he goes on and describes it some more. "And if they were all one member, where would the body be?" If you're that "thumb thumb" thing from whatever that movie was years ago, you're just one big thumb running around, that doesn't work.

"But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you'; nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty. But our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which it lacks, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it." You think you're not a big toe until you're walking through the house in the night and you stump your big toe. All of a sudden your whole body becomes a big toe because everything goes to alleviate the pain in that big toe.

In the same way, if a woman with a group of people and someone says, "Wow, you have such beautiful eyes," all of a sudden that whole body becomes a pair of eyes. Why? Because when you hurt, your whole body hurts for whatever part it is. And when you're celebrated, your whole body... you don't have your stomach going, "Well, nobody said I'm pretty! I'm not celebrating with the eyes, I've been upset with them for years."

See, you laugh, you think that's all silly, but that's what we do as a body sometimes. Someone honors someone or says something or sees something, we go, "Well, that's not fair." It is fair. Be okay with where God puts you and do your job and rejoice when people rejoice, weep when they weep, honor, suffer, whatever it is, do your part. Be a part.

You don't have to be the whole thing. Find out what God made you to do and do that and be okay with that. You say, "Well, I don't get any recognition." You say, "Well, nobody sees me." The things that really make my body work, you will never see. You will never see.

My heart beats, you'll never see it. I hope not. My lungs pump all day long, you'll never see them. My stomach does what it's supposed to do. I've got organs that you'll never see, but I cannot be alive without them. Our church cannot be alive without you. Be who you're supposed to be.

Guest (Male): We'll get back to Richard in a moment to close out today's talk. But first, I want to share something with you about the program. Our mission is actually very simple: to take the planet. So it's our prayer that these daily talks from Richard aren't something you only hear and enjoy, but that they inspire you to share with others.

Together we can do this. The message of the gospel is something everyone needs to hear. And that's why it's a huge priority to us. And you can join us in this important mission. Call us at 855-6-RICHARD to say you're in, or you can get on board with us through our website richardellis.com. Well, here's Richard with some closing thoughts for us.

Richard Ellis: When something is honored about the church or something is noticed, get in the game and go, "Wow, that's amazing! I'm a part of what God is doing." And when some part suffers, we gather around that. Guys, church is not some place you come and watch and listen and give five bucks and leave and go, "Wow, what a great show. I'm out." It is a family. It is literally described as a body.

And if we are a healthy body, then we rejoice with those that rejoice. We weep with those that weep. We get in the game. And as he puts it here, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, and if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

I love this. I did not grow up with this. I didn't have this. But I know now and I see that it is possible. And I want it for us. I want it for you. You say, "Well, I'm just looking for some church that I can kind of go to and punch my card and get out. I don't want all this stuff you're talking about."

Then this is not for you because this is where we're going. This is where I and I know the elders are trying to point this thing, to where it looks like Jesus. Where when Jesus sat with somebody, when they wept He wept, when they rejoiced He rejoiced. That's who He is. And it works.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Richard Ellis Talks. We really appreciate that you spent this time with us. But we want to keep the conversation going with you. So give us a call anytime at 855-6-RICHARD. That's 855-6-RICHARD. Or through our website richardellis.com, by sending an email to us so we can stay connected with you.

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Finally, if you enjoy the program, let us know by your generous support to join us on our mission to reach the planet. We can't do it alone and need your help on this mission. richardellis.com. So until next time, have a great day and thank you for listening to Richard Ellis Talks.