Richard Ellis Talks

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.

Just as God worked out the impossible to have the virgin Mary conceive and birth His own Son, God can do anything in and through us to accomplish His plan and purpose. When His Spirit lives inside of us, He will instruct us in things that may seem impossible but He fills us with the power to do it as we walk in obedience.

The Bible described the necessities for the Messiah to be a perfect Lamb sacrifice in order to completely fulfill the stipulations of our sin debt. Jesus had to be born of a virgin, grow up as a minor living in fully human form yet without sin, and only after all of that could He die as the spotless Lamb to take away our sin. He did all of this so that we may be truly saved.

Many times there are people who get saved by accepting salvation offered by Jesus through the cross, but they continue living their lives in their own power and trying to fix their own sin. God empowers us through His Spirit to overcome sin if we would just submit our lives to Him every day.

When God tells us something, whether directly or verified by others, we need to obey immediately no matter what it is He's telling us to do. The only safe place to truly be is exactly where He has called us.

Family issues seem to often come up around the time of the holidays. Instead of growing more bitter towards one another, God calls us to love each other and to make things right. While we can't control others, we can take responsibility for ourselves and do what we can to make peace.

Just as the shepherds and wisemen chose to worship Jesus when He was born on earth, we are given the opportunity to lay our lives down in worship to Him. Whether we choose to worship Him or not, in the end we won't have a choice. It's better that we choose now to worship Him so that we can spend eternity singing His praises.

God is so powerful that all He had to do was speak and the whole universe was created as vast and as detailed as it is. Within that creation, He ordained that a star would be near enough to the earth to proclaim the birth of His Son who was sent to save the world.

Every detail about Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection was fulfilling of every prophecy ever made about this Messiah. At some point, we have to come to a place of choosing to believe in Him or not because we will all face His throne one day and answer for the choice we make.

We didn't get to be there when Jesus walked the earth, but we have God's truth in Scripture to believe that He came. Another evidence of Jesus is the change that takes place when we believe in Him. We may not see Him face to face until we die or He comes back, but we can see His work in others and believe.

The same Jesus who was miraculously born of a virgin comes to live in us when we surrender our lives to Him, and He works in us in seemingly impossible ways to make us more like Him so that we can't help but to speak His name to others around us. Rather than looking at what is humanly possible when God is involved, we should give ourselves to Him, trusting that He can do whatever He pleases.

The gift of salvation through Jesus Christ is offered to everyone, but we must choose to receive it. If we accept this gift, we get to spend the rest of our lives unwrapping all we are given in Him.

The Bible teaches us the importance of fasting and praying and the difference that can make in our lives. When we are faced with a situation, whether it be a sin struggle in our own lives or in another person's life, we need to be willing to give up something our bodies need so as to pray more fervently.

In order for gold to be refined to purity, it must go through many instances of being in a burning fire until all the dross and other impurities have been removed. This is the way that God refines us to be more like His Son, Jesus. Once we have accepted His free gift of salvation, we have Jesus inside of us and must encounter times of “heat” in our lives until Jesus is clearly seen.

We may often find ourselves comparing our sin with others in order to try and look better than we really are. The truth is that we all fall short of God's standard and we need to humbly accept our status as a “sinner” and allow God to come into our lives to change us. When we are repentant and let Him work in us, all of our goodness can point directly back to Him and bring Him glory.

If we are not faithful to give when we have very little, we will not be faithful when we have a lot. God wants to help us live a life that is pleasing to Him which in turn brings us joy and satisfaction, but we have to let go of our possessions to let Him take and give as He pleases.

The guilt and shame of all our sin is nailed to the cross with Christ when we repent. He washes us clean through the blood of Jesus, and we must not give into the accuser who keeps trying to pull out our past sins and hold us back from living in freedom. We have to forgive ourselves and leave our sin in the past, looking ahead with clear eyes and a clean conscience to live in the freedom that Christ bought for us.

Oftentimes we can find ourselves angry at God when bad things happen, but we must realize that He has not sinned against us but instead is present with us through our trials. He is gracious and merciful, forgiving our sins and offering us a way of life. We can trust that He is good, repent of our sins and move forward in the way He directs us towards deeper relationship with Him.

When we become Christians, we are part of the Body of Christ and together we all make up His bride. Jesus gives us a new life and we must submit our lives to Him as He continually works in us to clean us up to be presented to Him in the end.

There are times when it is necessary for marriages to have separation during difficulties, but in those times we need to make sure that we are listening to God's voice and obeying Him. We will all suffer in life, but rather than giving up we need to work through that suffering and forgive each other when necessary.