Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: If you decide to engage in the battle, sooner or later you're going to take a bullet and you're going to go down. You're going to need some other soldiers around you to haul your butt back across some safe lines and say, "Are you okay?" And you say, "No, I'm hit, I'm hurt, I'm down. I don't know if I can go back." Well, then we're going to take care of you and get you back up on your feet, and then we're going back in there together.

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. 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. So, with today's talk, here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title today's message is "Work In Progress." I love words. I love definitions. One of the phrases used is this: a piece of work that is not yet finished. That's all we got. Everyone of you is a piece of work. All of us are a piece of work.

Where this one's coming from today is that I think sometimes people say, "Man, you're just putting the bar too high. You keep reading all these verses about impossible things that probably you can't even keep." The standard is so high. The book itself says, "Be holy as I am holy." That's what God says. How many of you are doing that? I'm not.

It's easy for me to get up here and tell you, "Hit the mark, hit the mark, hit the mark." We've missed the mark. All of us have fallen short. And yet preachers and Bible studies keep telling people, "Do the right thing, do the right thing." I'm not even doing the right thing all the time.

If I'm not even doing the right thing, how can I expect you to do the right thing all the time? You say, "Wait a minute. What do you mean you're not doing the right thing? You should be doing the right thing. You're one of the leaders." The leaders aren't doing the right thing. Read your Bible. You can't find one who did the right thing all the time but Jesus. Everybody else but Jesus is screwed up and needs help.

The dilemma that I've been trying to process is that we're all idiots. Nothing's working. It's a mess. Then supposedly somebody tells us about Jesus, which is the most bizarre thing still to me. You got all these religions, all this stuff in the world, just crazy stuff. Then another crazy story comes along about some guy dying on a cross who was born of a virgin. That's impossible. Supposedly dies on a cross, is buried, raised from the dead. It's just preposterous. If you believe all that, you'll die and go to heaven. That's the nuttiest thing you've ever heard in your life.

At least the good person story makes a little more sense. Just be a good person and if there's a heaven, there's a God, you'll make it and have a nice life. That sounds right. But none of that even works, and all you got to do is believe in some Jesus dude that died and he's supposedly not dead anymore and got beamed up to heaven. If you ever stop and think about what you believe, it's wacky. The book says it's foolishness to those who are perishing because you tell them and you go, "What do you think?" "I think you're nuts." Or they go, "Oh my gosh, that's what I've been waiting to hear my whole life."

You believe this crazy story, and supposedly that changes your life. Let's just assume you really got it when you got it. You got Jesus, you got the gospel, you became a Christian, and wow, it's amazing. Then you start drifting back to this old life. Everybody around you, if they're not really telling the truth and telling you, "Look, you're struggling, aren't you?" "Yeah." "Guess what? I'm down the road. I'm still struggling. It's okay. This is a work in progress. It's a process. You're not going to get it all right up front immediately."

You're going to walk, fall, walk, fall, walk, fall. You're going to bust your butt. You're going to land on your rear and not be able to get up for a year. It's going to be a disaster. It's just life. It's okay. If we don't keep it real, who are farther down the road than some people who are behind us, then what they say is they see all these Christian religious church people acting like it's all perfect. They go, "Oh my gosh, I could never. I don't know how they're doing it because I go out in the real world in my job, around men, around women, around temptations, and I'm getting clobbered." But it looks like they don't get clobbered because they never talk about it.

In the real world, in my job, around men, around women, around temptations, I am getting clobbered. But it looks like they don't get clobbered because they never talk about it. So then we get these young Christians acting like Christians and acting like it's really okay when it's not. They're dying. You know what? We're all dying. You say, "Well, what are you doing that's so messed up?" I'm doing the same thing you are, just different categories.

Sinning less and less? Good for you. Then come alongside somebody who is all messed up and say, "Look, I've been where you are. It does get easier, it gets better, it gets harder in some ways, but this is a long trip and you are going to make mistakes and that is okay." I'm not saying it's okay to sin, but it is a reality.

Go to Acts Chapter 14. Let me give you some verses at least. You'd think we'd read something out of the Bible. Before I forget this, let me just throw this in here. If it weren't for screwed up Christians, you wouldn't have half of the New Testament. It's written to crazy people. Stuff like, you can't sleep with your father's wife. That's in the Bible. Do you think there's a lot of question about whether you should be sleeping with your father's wife? Obviously there was, and that had to be addressed.

Acts 14, Verse 21: And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned unto Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples. Why do they need strengthening? Because they're weak. They got Jesus. They go back to work, go back into the world, go back into the idolatry that surrounded them, and they get punched in the nose. Everybody says, "You're nuts for believing that. We're having a big time. You're a loser, sitting around praying to God and not doing what we're doing anymore. You've left the good times."

Strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. I don't know where you are in the process. Let me talk first of all to the people who are not Christians. If you're not a Christian, none of what I'm talking about makes any sense. Your life's a mess. You need Jesus. Not believing that he exists, but having a relationship with him personally.

If you already have Jesus, let me tell you, from this second forward till Jesus comes back to get us and take us home or you die and hit the finish line, you're going to have tribulation, trouble. You say, "Well, I don't like that." You're going to have to get over it. It's the deal. You got problems coming your way. You have obstacles between you and heaven.

If you intend to follow Jesus, the first thing you hit is a cross. Then you read about anybody in scripture who kept following him. Horrible things happened to some of them. I'm not wishing that on you, but you better put your seatbelt on and hold on because it's coming. If you try to serve God at all, there are going to be challenges.

How many soldiers do we have in the room that have ever had someone in battle fire a gun aimed at them and shot at them? Raise your hand, please, if you've ever been shot at on a battlefield because that's a scary deal. Someone is on the other end of a gun aiming it at you and their intention is to take you out. If you don't want to get shot at, get off the doggone battlefield.

If you're not getting shot at and you're in the army of the Lord, then there's a good chance you're a POW. They'll feed you, entertain you, bring you whatever you had from your previous life. All they say is, "You can't get out there and shoot at us anymore." And you say, "Well, I don't like that. I'm getting back in the battle." You're going to get shot at. You're going to get hit. You're going to go down.

Military concept is that you don't leave anybody on the battlefield. Dead or alive, you don't leave them on the battlefield if you can help it. You pick their body up, you put it on your shoulders, and you take them home. Sometimes somebody goes down out there on the battlefield and some idiot runs out there to take them back and get them home. They get shot in the process of going out to get their buddy.

Who would do that? People who get it. That's who would do that. Who literally have lost any sense of protecting themselves, saving their own life, and it's about saving somebody else's life or a country or a cause. If you don't get in the battle, you're already on your butt.

If you decide to engage in the battle, I'm promising you, sooner or later you're going to take a bullet. You're going to go down. You're going to need some other soldiers around you to haul your butt back across some safe lines and say, "Are you okay?" And you say, "No, I'm hit, I'm hurt, I'm down. I don't know if I can go back." Well, then we're going to take care of you and get you back up on your feet, and then we're going back in there together.

How long do I have to recover? Let's just see how long it takes. Every once in a while in this church, someone walks through the doors wounded, full of bullets, barely hanging on. They're not short-term soldiers. These are people that have been in the battle for decades in some cases. They come in and tell us they need help.

Sit here for a while before you start pulling the trigger again. Let us love on you and take care of you and get you back up on your feet where we can fight together. That's okay. I'd rather you walk in here shot to pieces and let us nurse you back to some health, whether it's to stay here and fight or go somewhere else and fight, instead of you coming in here full of bullets and acting like everything's okay when it's not. It's okay for it not to be okay.

Frederick Douglass, who was an American abolitionist, lecturer, author, and slave, lived from 1817 to 1895, said this: "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." The fact that he was a slave causes me to take note of what he says.

Romans Chapter 6, Verses 1 and 2: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Here's the dilemma. You say, "Well, I know someone who says they're a Christian and they just continue to live in sin." Just find you a mirror.

We usually pick out somebody else's sin out there that we don't have a struggle with and say, "Well, they shouldn't be doing that." I just want to hold up a mirror to myself and everybody else and say, "Let's talk about yours before we go chasing theirs." What sin are you continuing in? Your excuse is, "Well, there's grace. It's amazing grace. I can do whatever I want to and God's going to take me back." Except for this sound.

Maybe you believe in corporate punishment then. The book says if he loves you, he disciplines you. If you never feel the belt of God on your backside, you might be checking out whether you're even in this family to begin with because he disciplines those that he loves. I'm not talking about deciding to continue in sin and just live a life of sin. I'm talking about being on the battlefield and the reality is you're going to be tempted. You're going to get hit.

Talk about yours before chasing theirs. What sin are you continuing in? I get clobbered. There's a guy sitting in this room I meet with every Friday of my life and I try to tell him what's going on. I hate doing it. I don't want anybody to know my junk. I don't even want God knowing what I don't even tell my wife the stuff that I tell you. It's beneficial to her, trust me. If you guys are telling your wife everything you're thinking, you are nuts.

Romans Chapter 12: Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Transformation process is what we're in. You are a work in progress. You're a piece of work in progress is what you feel like. We are so stinking addicted to events. We want something to happen. I want it now. "Save me Jesus now. Fix it now. I don't want to learn anything. I want you to just load it in my hard drive. I got it and I don't have to work or struggle or anything."

Metamorphosis is a process. It doesn't work that way. Everybody's heard the butterfly story. A butterfly's trying to come out of a cocoon. The kid sees them struggle and rips the thing open. When they rip it open and let the butterfly out, the butterfly dies. It can't fly because it has to have the struggle getting out of the cocoon. That's part of what develops it at that moment to be able to fly.

Group story is that about 30 guys in a room and one guy raised his hand and said, "Well, I quit smoking pot recently." I didn't know the guy was smoking pot in the first place. Not that he was smoking pot, but he actually said out loud that he quit and felt comfortable enough in a room to go, "Hey, here's where I am. It's getting better. I was over here a few months ago and now I'm right here and I'm moving." I don't care how screwed up you are, what scares me to death is if we're stuck.

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. 1 Timothy Chapter 4, Verse 12: Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy, by the laying on of hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all.

1 Timothy 4:12-15 talks about your progress being evident. So that people watching your life don't say, "Man, he's made it. He's arrived." There is no such thing in the Christian life as arriving unless you're looking at Jesus. If you're staring at Jesus and you're dead or he's come back, you have arrived. Until then, you have not arrived. You are in process, you are growing, you are maturing, but it's not over till you're looking at Jesus.

Beat forward definition is advancement in the Greek. It comes from a word to beat forward, to lengthen out by hammering as a smith forges metals. You've got a piece of metal, you heat the thing up, you hit it on the anvil with a hammer, and it moves it. It stretches it. Live this kind of life, give yourself entirely to this that your progress, that people watch you as a piece of metal get moved apart, get beat forward. God is at work in your life and he's molding you, shaping you into something.

Frustration for me is that I want to arrive. I don't like this anymore. I'm tired of sinning. I'm tired of trying to justify and rationalize in my head, "Okay, I say this and I really believe all this," and then in a millisecond, I'll think this, do this, say this and I go, "Well, that's not possible. How can I claim all of this and go do that?"

Watch each other. We better start talking about our stuff. We better start watching each other. Galatians 6:1 says, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, one of your others, you who are spiritual, if you're so all that, then you ought to have some kind of discernment."

Scouring the horizon and look at me or someone else in the eyes and go, "You know what? How you doing? How you doing?" Ask it again and say, "You know what? You're telling me everything's okay. I love you enough I'm not buying it. If you can convince me otherwise, we'll sit and talk a minute. If your eyes don't lie to me more than five minutes, I'll let you alone. But I'm telling you my spirit's checking your spirit. I'm not judging you. I just care enough to ask a few more times to see what's going on because I want you to be okay because I know what it's like to not be okay and have to act like I am."

Make sure there is progress and you don't land on your butt and stay there. It's okay to get hit and to go down because you're a work in progress. Make sure there is progress and you don't land on your butt and stay there. There's grace for that. But don't be using it up because it was grace that was bought by precious drops of blood belonging to a lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. They're not to be trifled with. Let's pray.

Prayer today is Our Father, I thank you for the process and that we are all a piece of work in progress. I pray for people especially, Lord, who are perfectionists, who are just beating themselves over the head and if they do one thing wrong, they go, "Well, I must not even... I'm not even in the family. I'm out. It must be something wrong with me."

Finish line struggle is going to be there. Father, until we get home, until we hit that finish line, there is going to be a struggle. Paul himself, who seemed like one of the big dogs in this thing, at the end of his life praying, "The thing I don't want to do I do, the thing I do that I don't want to do, who deliver me from the body of this death?" Jesus was the answer.

March on gates with an army. Father, if he struggled, I struggle, we struggle. Help us to do it together, to keep it real, and to keep moving forward on this battlefield. As the scripture says, the gates of hell cannot prevail against us. I pray that we individually would not try to march on those gates alone anymore, but we as an army, a band of soldiers, men and women, young people, boys and girls, would point this thing toward the gates of hell to bring out some prisoners of war that are already in the family, but also, Lord, to rescue some people who will be lost forever if we don't mobilize. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your grace. Thank you that you understand that we are clay pots. Also we thank you, Lord, for putting such great treasure in us. May we be dispensers of that treasure this day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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. You can also share your story with us at our website, richardellis.com.

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