Richard Ellis Talks

No matter what trial we are facing, we must remember to keep our faith and trust in God to the end because that is what will make our lives count. We can live our lives making easy choices without having any impact, or we can run the race, giving it our best, and make our lives count for God.

Rather than living to please ourselves, God has called us to please Him. Too often we question what He asks of us, or simply choose to ignore Him and please ourselves. The only pleasure we will find in life is when we live to please Him.

We may or may not have every reason to complain about the difficulties we face, but regardless of our circumstances we need to choose to trust God and not complain about what's going on. We can pray and ask Him to change things, but ultimately our joy comes from Him and so we need not complain.

Sin keeps us leaning towards testing the rules and breaking the laws. The laws were put in place to reveal our sin to us, but Jesus died so that we do not have to live under the weight of the law in our own strength. When we live in relationship with Him and follow in the steps of the Spirit, we no longer consistently check off the list of rules but instead find ourselves living freely within the boundaries God set for us.

Too many people stand in their pride and defiance to turn to God and submit their lives to Him. The truth is that everyone will ultimately submit to God, but we must not wait until eternity to do so. When we submit our lives to Him here on earth He is able to live out His good plan and purpose for us.

As Christians, the best way we can live out our lives is every day starting out asking God to use us and listen for His voice. He will lead our every step, and when we follow Him we can see Him work in and through us to change the world.

Rather than trying to act like Jesus, we need to let Him live in and through us, acknowledging Him as our Lord, not just our Savior. Jesus comes to live inside of us when we become Christians, but more than a ticket to Heaven, it's about letting Him be more and more Himself in our lives.

We tend to want to go to a church that is full of people who look right and know how to act right. Jesus came to seek the lost, and if we are going to follow Him that means we are going to encounter lost people whose lives are a mess. Rather than shy away from the mess of this world, we can introduce them to the Savior who came to offer hope and salvation.

The most important thing in life is not to do a bunch of good, even religious things, but rather it is to spend time building our relationship with Jesus. Life can get plenty busy and we can be easily distracted, but we must make sure to stop what we're doing to sit at Jesus' feet and just listen to what He might have to say to us.

The Bible is very clear about how God's people are supposed to give financially to His Church, as well as how that money is to be used. When we give begrudgingly, God is not pleased with our money. It is when we give cheerfully because we love Him that He is pleased with our gift and promises to always take care of all of our needs.

Many days we may not feel like we have the energy or the desire to witness to others and share the Gospel with people we encounter. Regardless of how our lives may be going in the moment or the season we're in, God has called us all to be ready to be put in the game when He prompts us to speak up.

We often long for things out of the ordinary, yet the Christian life is meant to be lived on an everyday basis. There will be times of trials and struggles, when life is pressing hard on us, but the hope is that God has promised that we will never be crushed.

When we have a growing relationship with God, He compels us to do things and live a certain way that may seem crazy to the world but makes sense to Him. We need to make sure that our motivation for everything we do comes from God, for His purpose and to bring Him glory.

Abortion has become another form of birth control, but the Bible is very clear on its stance about life and innocent blood. No matter what choices and mistakes we have made in the past, God offers us abundant life in Him and we can accept His forgiveness, mercy and grace, but first we must accept the truth of our sin.

God has promised that He will always take care of us, so there is nothing in this world that we should have any reason to fear. Rather than allowing the devil to lock us down in fearful dread, we should instead allow God's love to unlock us from that bondage.

When we become Christians and God begins transforming our hearts, He compels us to love deeply, to have mercy and compassion on others, and to be moved to the point of action. We must submit to His prompts and be His hands and feet in the world, showing others that there truly is something different about us.

Reading, knowing and studying the Bible are not enough to change us. It is not until we apply what we read, know and study that our lives begin to be different and we experience God's peace in our hearts.

God made it possible for us to simply respond to His offer of salvation that was made free to us by the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. It's not something we dabble in and get out of, it is what we give our whole lives to and never look back.

God requires obedience from His children, even on hard things like forgiving others who have hurt us. When He asks something of us that feels too hard to do, we tend to put it off and then wonder down the road why He's not active in our lives. We need to stop putting off obedience and rather us this day that He has given us to follow Him no matter what He has asked.

We need to make sure that our lives are in check and that we have others who hold us accountable in our sin so that we can come alongside others who are struggling and gently call out their sin and help them grow. When God prompts us to speak to another believer about their sin we need to obey and face the possible awkwardness for the sake of their soul.

It is not only her own body that a woman is choosing for when she makes a decision to end a life inside of her, but it is also that body of a baby. As Christians, our bodies no longer belong to us anyway, and we are instructed to yield our bodies to God as living sacrifices.

One of the most dangerous places to be in this world is in a womb due to the increasingly high abortion rates. If we will believe what the Bible says about a person being a person in a womb, maybe that means we need to seek forgiveness from past mistakes but it also helps us care for that life in ourselves or others and we always have the opportunity to walk in and be ministers of restoration.

In order to make a difference in the people around us for God's glory, we need to make sure that we are investing in our relationship with Him and that He is at work in us. God wants to use us to be transformers in the world, but we have to first let Him transform us from the inside out so that He gets all the glory from the change that takes place in and around us.

We have all made the mistake of taking a verse from Scripture out of context to make it say something that may sound good, but in the end is not truthful and relevant with the rest of Scripture. In order to really understand what the Bible says and apply it to our lives, we must read it in its entirety, keeping the verses within the context they were written.

When we practice truly listening to God's voice and obeying what He says, we will be able to hear not only His heart but the heart of others. God will lead us to speak with when and what to say with all those we come in contact with if we just trust in and follow His guidance.

In order to walk in power in our lives, we must have Jesus living in us through His Holy Spirit once we've accepted the forgiveness of our sins and given our lives to Him. There is nothing in this world that could overtake us when we walk in His power, and in doing so it draws others towards Him.

The Bible warns us to stay focused on Scripture so that we can avoid stumbling into sin. God may use us to intercede on someone else's behalf and help draw them to spiritual safety. Ultimately the first gap that must be crossed is the one between ourselves and God and that is only done through the cross of Jesus Christ.

We often fall into the habit of only going to God when we need something from Him, but we fail to build intimacy in the relationship. Just as we need to tell our spouse that we love them, it is crucial that we tell God we love Him and thank Him for all He's done for us. It's in remembering to praise Him, even in small ways, that we can truly minister to and bless His heart.

Many people in this world are indecisive and full of doubt, and the mess that their lives are in is a result of that. God wants us to choose to follow Him, giving up all fear and doubts, trusting and believing in all of His promises, and He will take care of us.

It's easy to feel sympathetic towards someone, but having compassion on them is a different story because that is what will actually cause us to get up and do something for them. Jesus was the perfect example in reaching out to meet others' needs and He instructs us to follow through in our knowledge and words by our actions.

People in today's world get so caught up with judging each other, anger arguments, and removing people from their lives that they don't get along with. God calls us to a standard of perfection while also teaching us how to show mercy to ourselves and others when that mark is not met. Jesus was the only perfect dude that made a way for us to have Him living through us to be perfect, too.

There are many people who claim to be Christians and who live like their faith is completely wrapped up in a political viewpoint rather than in Jesus Christ Himself. When we preach the words of Christ, we may be hated by others, but we are still called to share the Gospel no matter what the consequences because to die for Christ, not some other controversial topic, is gain.

It is good for us to pray and ask God to change difficult circumstances, but sometimes His answer is no we and we have to be okay with that. God often chooses to use the situations where we feel weak to give us His strength and use us to reach others that we couldn't have reached if He had taken the difficulties away.

Since our purpose in life is to glorify God, He will use situations to break us if necessary so that His glory is made known. Rather than having to face consequences from our own choices, we need to live our lives in obedience to Him and allow His glory to shine in and through us.

At the beginning of a year there is a sense of new beginnings to make things different and better in our lives. Our finances are one thing the Bible maps out to show us where we need to be responsible. When we give our first fruits to God by placing our treasure in our church home, it also indicates that we are committed to belonging to a body of believers like He has called us to. Above anything else, the only thing that will keep us on track in all categories of responsibilities is spending time every morning talking with God.

Too many Christians today think that they can follow Jesus without being involved in the Church Body with other believers. No matter how we have been hurt by our own Christian brothers and sisters, we must commune with one another in fellowship, living peaceably and living to build each other up.

It is absurd for us to think that we can approach God and seek forgiveness and that He will freely give it to us while at the same time we withhold forgiveness from someone who has wronged us. We must, by the power of His Spirit, forgive others no matter how evil the grievance and let it go.

No matter how good we try to be or how much we can clean up our lives, our own goodness will never be good enough to save ourselves from the consequence of death for sin. Jesus came to pay in full, taking our unrighteousness on Himself and giving us His righteousness. Now, only because of Him, we can be just before God.

Our sin brings on difficulties in our lives because of consequence and God's discipline. God will use those difficulties to get our attention and draw us to repentance. Rather than waiting and making things worse, we need to go to Him and repent, essentially telling Satan to go away.

Just as there is a mess after the birth of a new baby, there is a mess in the life of a Christian after they are born again.  To grow in the Christian life means to confess our sins.  When we do sin, Jesus Christ is our highest-powered attorney who bails us out every time.

Before creation, God knew that there would need to be a plan for salvation and He incorporated that plan in every aspect of His handiwork. Since Jesus' life, death and resurrection, we are now offered the gift of salvation entirely free. We must lay aside our attempts at payment and simply receive this gift.

When God made man and woman and placed them in the garden, He gave them one command that they did not obey which resulted in the need for a sacrifice to cover their sin. Jesus came in the flesh, died and was raised back to life in order so that His sacrifice would cover all of our sin.

When we let Jesus in, He changes our hearts and our lives from the inside out. Summary: Jesus came to earth in a humble manner so that no one can say He was more privileged than them.  Many of us put up a “No Vacancy” sign on their heart and do not let Him in, but when we finally turn off the “No” we realize that Jesus can change our heart of stone to that of flesh and it can change our lives.

There are so many different elements of the Gospel story that would have to be ignored because of how much proves that Christ truly was the anointed Son of God who died to take away the sins of the world.  It is not bad to question things, but at some point we have to believe what the Bible says or else claim that the whole thing is a hoax.

Just as the Israelites wasted 20 years because they would not repent and follow the Lord and therefore heaped more consequence on themselves, we sometimes wait to repent and God brings more consequence to draw us back to Himself.  God's deliverance always comes when we call on Him, and it is important that we remember His help.

The Bible is full of prophecies that Jesus fulfilled, statistically proving that He really is the Messiah. Instead of arguing the facts and choosing to not believe what is clearly written, we need to have faith in Scripture, believe and spread the Gospel message with others.

When God calls us to something, we need to not get hung up on the impossibility of it but rather trust Him to provide whatever is needed. At Christmas time, there are so many opportunities to tell others the Gospel, so may we embrace those moments with boldness, trusting God to give us the words and the courage when necessary.

It is easy, almost natural, to be owned by our stuff. Yet Jesus says that we are to care for the poor, which sometimes means we must sell something we have in order to do that. It may not be appealing, but as Christians we should ask God what He wants us to sell so that we may help someone in need who may potentially become a brother or sister in Christ.

God called Mary to bear His Son to be born into the world to save the world, and there is no way she could have followed through with this unless she had faith in God to do what He said and equip her with everything she would need. God calls us into situations where we have to rely on Him to grow our faith and show the amazing things only He can do through us.

Jesus came to earth with a purpose and a job to do that He accomplished. Now, since He lives in us if we believe, we have a job while on this earth to continue the work that He started to seek and save those who are lost.

Just as the Israelites in Exodus needed the blood of a spotless lamb to save themselves from physical death, we need the blood of God's Lamb, Jesus, to save us from spiritual death. When we understand that there is nothing else that can save us but His blood, then we can share this news with others.