Richard Ellis Talks

The Bible is full of stories of God using people who committed their lives fully to trusting and obeying Him. Once we receive Him into our lives and give ourselves completely to Him, He dwells in us and can do amazing things through us.

Too often we find ourselves reacting in the battles in our lives rather than acting only as God leads. When we worship God in the midst of our battles, our focus is on Him rather than the dangers we face and we can follow Him as He leads to overcome all that is in front of us.

The story of Samson shows us a man who continually made the same mistakes and ended up paying severe consequences. If we are watchful, we can see warning signs when we are approaching sins that we've paid consequences for in the past so that we can avoid it this time around.

Even though God is a big God who watches over everything, He also cares about every single detail in our lives. He watches over and protects us, and so therefore we can have peace knowing that we are safe in His hands.

Jesus was known for spending time with sinners and tax collectors, and it was the religious people that looked down on Him for it. Just as Jesus was sent to seek and save those who were lost, we have been given the same mission and need to be in the world spreading the Gospel.

Living in God's family involves putting our fears aside and letting people see us for who we really are, struggles included, so that we can get help and then help others. Growth in our relationship with God will only happen when we begin peeling back our layers and letting Him and others in.

In today's society it is easy to be swayed from what the Bible calls sin and begin believing that certain sins are okay. We, as Christians, need to be careful of this and stand firm in what Scripture says, while at the same time proclaiming the love and forgiveness that God has for everyone who believes and repents.

Without Christ working in us we are all bound to a life of sin and consequences that could've been avoided had we heeded wise instruction from Scripture. Rather than living childish lives that run after the pleasures of the world, we need to submit to God and allow Him to change us from the inside out.

Jesus modeled a life yielded to the will of the Father, no matter what sacrifice it called Him to make. Because Jesus obeyed, we now have access to receive the free gift of salvation and become children of God. As His children, we are called to submit our lives to His will and follow Him.

Jesus is the Son of the virgin, Mary, and God the Father Himself, making Jesus' blood directly from the Father. It was that blood that was spilt when Jesus sacrificed His life for us so that we can be washed clean and be given a new life, eternal life with Him forever. There is not one person who cannot receive this blood and be forgiven.

The reality is that we are in a spiritual battle, and the devil attacks us where he knows us to be weak. It is crucial that we put on the full armor of God and surround ourselves by our brothers and sisters in Christ so that we can help protect each other from temptation and the attacks of the devil.

The Bible is very clear in the simple instructions it gives us to repent, follow Christ and do what He says. No matter if we see how something is possible, if God tells us to do something we must respond in obedience, trusting that He can even do what seems impossible.

The Bible is very clear when it comes to sin that we, as believers, must abstain from when we choose to follow Christ. God disciplines those He loves, and we need to respond to His discipline with gratitude, repentance, and worship for His forgiveness.

God wants us to pursue Him because when we do that our hearts begin to change and He places specific desires in us to pray about. When we pray with persistence about these things that He has put on our hearts, He promises that He will give us those desires.

A jerk is someone who thinks they have the answer to all the problems and tries to quickly fix things so they can move on. What we need to be, as the Body of Christ, is a Church family who weeps together and rejoices together. The only way we can do this is if we stop trying to fix everything and simply sit and listen, loving well and patiently letting someone process however long it takes.

God always sees a bigger picture than we do and He often calls us to trust Him when we don't see how something is possible. When we put our faith in Him and step out as He leads, we will be astonished at what He can do.

The Bible tells us that we are all going to sin and mess up, however God made a way through His Son so that we can be forgiven and healed. No matter how far away we may have gotten by the poor choices we've made, we can always come back to Him, pick up where we left off and move on.

The Bible tells us stories of promises God made to His people and they had faith in His Word, even if those promises were not fulfilled until generations down the line. God has promised us that He will be with us, and that He will return to take us home to Heaven and we can count on Him to keep that promise.

As Christians we tend to point our fingers at other people's sins and ignore our own, however it is not until we can admit to our own sin that we fully experience God's grace and mercy and can extend it to someone else. Jesus is the only one who lived a perfect life and can say that everyone else has sinned, and it was His death that made it possible for us all to be made clean.

Hindsight gives us the ability to look back in the past to see a situation clearly based on the outcome, while faith allows us to have hindsight in the middle of any situation because we know that it will all be okay. When we trust God and focus on Him regardless of the trial we face, He will give us wisdom and strength to get through whatever it is we are going through.

We will constantly be tempted to sell out our Christianity for a certain reputation, job, relationship, anything that the devil might offer us. We must remember that our relationship with Jesus is priceless and He has already given us all that we could ever want in Himself.

We are born into sin and there is nothing that can cancel our debt to God except for Jesus Christ. He took our debt of sin on Himself and it was nailed to the cross as He died in our place so that all we must do is believe in Him and our sins will be completely forgiven.

God has promised to protect us and give us power over the devil, and since He lives in us we have access to everything we need when trials come. Rather than fearing the circumstances which leads to disobedience, we need to praise God and have faith in Him and His promises.

The thing about white toilets is that you can't hide any filth in them because the white exposes what is there. Similarly, if we choose to live in the light as God calls us to, the filth and sin in our life will be exposed. The way to keep our “white toilets” clean is by living in obedience to God daily, understanding that it is a process and choosing to live in truth.

The world is full of people who are on a broad path, filling their lives with their own pleasures all the while headed straight for destruction. Jesus commands us to enter the gate that takes a difficult road but leads to eternal life.

Rather than appearing on earth as a man without having to go through all that we go through and working some magic, Jesus chose to enter this world through Mary's womb as a baby, grow up and die a human death. He did this because He knew that this was the only way for us to enter a new life through Him and join Him in Heaven someday.

Too often we let our mistakes take us out rather than choosing to pick ourselves back up and accept God's forgiveness right away. No matter how many times we mess up, God is always willing to give us another chance. Just as God forgives us and allows us to start over with Him, we should also show the same grace to others when they wrong us.

The Bible says that the prayers of a righteous man are heard by God. If we feel like our prayers are not being heard, we must first ask God if there are things in our lives that we must repent for. When we are made righteous through Jesus Christ, we can know God's will and pray anything according to it and the Bible says that He hears and answers.

Once we become Christians, the devil does not give up but rather he fights harder for us to be pulled back into the sins of our past. When we start to feel that pull we need to ask God to give us the wisdom to see the way of escape and to take it. We also need to help others who have been pulled back out and are drowning to get back to the shore.

Just because we receive salvation and become spiritually alive doesn't mean we are spiritually living. It's a daily choice to not just wake up physically but to wake up spiritually and offer our lives to God to use as He pleases in the world He has us in for a reason.

We all have certain sins that we keep falling into whether frequently or on occasions. When Jesus lives inside of us He gives us the power to overcome those sins if we would just tap into Him.

When God calls us to give our lives to Him, He does not intend for us to follow Him alone. We need to be involved with other people, letting them into our lives to keep us accountable. That is the only way that we will be able to stand strong against the attacks of the devil and to continue to remain in God's truth, unwavering.

The world is full of people who will try to get us off course when we make the decision to follow Jesus. It is essential that we study and learn Scripture and that we have godly people around us to help teach and protect us. As Christians, we have the most protection of all because we are held in God's hands.

When we face difficult times, it's easy for us to fall into the mindset that no one cares about us or what we're going through. Scripture tells us that God cares for us, provides for us, meets all of our needs and wants to be with us in close relationship as we walk through the trials of this life. Instead of sitting there questioning if anyone cares, we need to believe what He says is true and walk with Him.

We are all born once into this world, but if we stay born once we will die twice, first our bodies in this world and then our soul in eternity. If we get born a second time by salvation through Jesus Christ who overcame death, then we will only die once as our bodies in this world die but our soul will live forever with Him in eternity.

We don't have to understand how prayer works, but we do have to trust God when He tells us to pray. The Bible tells us to pray without stopping, meaning that we need to be constantly open to the Holy Spirit prompting us to pray, whether it be for our own situations or for other people.

There are numerous passages in the Bible that talk about giving money to the church. Although we may choose to keep our money from the church, we end up spending it somewhere else anyway. Everything we have really does belong to God, so we should obey Him by giving the first fruits to the church, and allow Him to direct us in how to use the rest of it.

Mothers often show an example of putting others before themselves. However, mothers are not the only ones called to this way of thinking. The Bible teaches us to think of others above ourselves in all situations.

Being a mom is a great calling that God gives to many women, but it is not an easy calling. The Bible instructs women to live and raise their families a certain way. God chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus, to raise the man who would save the world, and what a job it was.

While the world may see us from the outside and cast us aside based on what we look like or where our talents are lacking, Jesus wants to come inside our hearts and live through us. When we let Him in, we join God's family and we can no longer be on the outside of what matters most.

God has put us in certain places and among certain people so that He can use us to make a difference for Him right where we are. We must be available to Him and willing to let Him use us however He pleases. That is how the world will be changed.

All temptations fall into three categories: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. God has provided a way for us to escape the consequences that come with falling into these temptations by giving us His Spirit to walk with. When we stay in step with Him by submitting ourselves to His leading, we remain in the will of God and our lives become about Him instead of ourselves.

A common problem with American Christians is they are more tied to their American culture than to Christianity and spreading the Gospel. The Apostle Paul models for us the importance of not relinquishing his beliefs while adapting to different cultures and people groups.

When we are in the presence of Jesus through His Church, we cannot deny the truth that He is alive. His tomb is famous because it is empty, and it is because of His resurrection that we have the choice to become spiritually alive in Him and let Him use us to reach the world.

The Bible tells us that not only did God make us, but that He also cares for us as His children. When we come to that realization, we can no longer think too highly of ourselves nor on the flipside think of ourselves as worthless. He gives us value, and we can humbly walk as His child, sharing with others the gift of this new identity that is only found in Christ.

The Bible is filled with instruction for living our lives to avoid facing moments of wishing we could have, should have or would have done something differently. We must spend time in God's Word, heed His instructions, and take a stand when necessary for what He tells us is the right thing to do.

It is so easy to look for answers or for things to fulfill us, but it is only being in the midst of God's presence that our life will make more sense. We need to seek Him only, not the benefits He has to offer, and He will be with us to face any trial that may come.

It's okay to be a new Christian for awhile, but at some point we need to step up and take responsibility for the way that we live, following the standards that the Bible sets up for us. Men must stand up as leaders in their families and in their church, and godly women need to seek this kind of godly man.

We can read in Genesis that God saw the evil in the world and destroyed the earth with a flood, leaving only eight people and the animals to rebuild. The New Testament promises that the heavens and the earth will be completely destroyed by fire when Jesus comes again, and we must respond to His free offer of salvation for our only chance to be saved.

As Christians, we are given the task of reaching others as we continue moving forward and pressing on towards the finish line. It's okay to get tired and rest, but we must pick back up and get moving so that we don't coast to the end.

God calls us as a Church to be in communion and relationship with one another, carrying each other's burdens, praying for one another, and sharpening each other. The more time we spend with God, in His Word and with other believers, the more His Gospel truth will spill out of us when we're in a situation to share this truth with non-believers.