Richard Ellis Talks

The devil is after destroying our lives, sometimes even to the point of contemplating suicide. Jesus offers us a complete release from our old lives to step into a whole new life with Him as He lives in and through us, but we must first die spiritually so that we can yield ourselves completely to Him and His leading.

The Bible is clear that we face battles constantly that are unseen and in the spiritual realm. We must acknowledge the powers that are fighting against us as well as those fighting for us. When we submit to God, He gives us all we need to fight, and He uses us to help others fight, as well.

God has designed His Church to have shepherds that lead the flock and protect them from wolves whose only intention is to devour them. When we plug into a church and submit to its godly authority, we have leadership and protection that is necessary for ourselves and to help us pull others in.

When we invest in and love other people in God’s family, we are showing the world what the Church is supposed to look like. Everyone needs a place to belong, and they need to see that they can belong in God’s family.

Today’s society amplifies the idea that we should all be happy, and if our marriage relationship is not making us happy then we have the right to leave it. The Bible teaches that marriage is a covenant, not a contract, and is not based on happiness but rather on commitment to see it through to death. The only way this works well is when both the men and the women are committed to God so that the men, being led by God, can lead the women who willingly submit to his leadership.

We often find ourselves feeling guilty and condemning ourselves because of our sin, but Jesus’ death on the cross made a way for us to live without guilt and shame. Receiving His gift of eternal life does not mean that we will never sin again, but instead it means that we are forgiven and we can look up with hope instead of down in shame.

Jesus is described in the Bible as the Way, the only Way to God the Father. Instead of being in the way as a hindrance to ourselves and others for finding real relationship with God, we need to put our excuses aside and live in the Way, in Christ, so that we can lead others to Him as well.

We can all look back on our lives and see that God has provided all we have needed time and time again, yet we still find it difficult to trust Him. Rather than sitting around being comfortable our whole lives, we need to hear whatever God is calling us to do and step out and do it. Just as a loving father will catch their child every time when that child jumps from a high branch, we can trust that God will catch us every time we take a leap of faith.

Adam and Eve screwed everything up in the Garden of Eden when they decided to sin and eat of the tree God had commanded them not to eat from. Sin continued in the world, yet in the midst of all of the mess we’ve made God had a plan all along that His own Son would be born into this world, take on human form and be the perfect sacrifice to pay for all of our sins so that we may be restored to a perfect relationship with God Himself.

The Bible talks about the value of a virtuous woman, and for a man to find one he must pursue virtue himself through Christ. When a woman is found to be virtuous and honoring God in the way she cares for her family, she should be publicly recognized by each of her family members.

We see on TV the mansions and houses of rich people but the truth is that the most expensive “Crib” on the planet is us as believers.  God gave His Son so that He can take residence in us even though our lives are messy.  That is exactly how God wants us to come to Him so that He can do the work to make us clean.

The devil started his entire interaction with human beings by planting seeds of doubt for what God really said. Throughout Biblical history people have had to come to a place where they choose to keep doubting or trust and believe. We must do the same, allowing ourselves to bring our questions to God and then coming to a place of deciding what we will put our faith into.

We live in a fallen world where racism, sexism, prejudice and other sins are commonplace, yet God calls us to take of the lens of the world and see each person equally. We may have different responsibilities, but every one of us was created in God’s image and has value given to us by Him.

Too many people think that once they are saved their lives should be all good from then on. The reality is that sanctification kicks in and begins undoing our lives in such a way that tears out all the unnecessary parts so that God can rebuild us to best please Him.

It’s easy to overlook new Christians and put expectations on them to live and act in certain ways. They will not meet those expectations because they are just baby Christians and they need our help and guidance by feeding them spiritual milk until they are ready for solid food.

Too many Christians live off of the frozen fruit in their lives, acting like religious believers but not having God’s work actively present in changing them from the inside out. When we stay connected to Him, as a branch is connected to the vine, He does all the work in our lives that continues to produce fresh spiritual fruit.

It does not matter where we’ve come from and the mistakes that we’ve made in the past. God wants to give us a new life and write a new story for our future if we would just give our lives over to Him.

We need to be fully present where God has placed us and focused on where He is moving us forward. Rather than being like a fish who jumps out of an aquarium because they think it’s better on the other side, we need to be content where God has put us because it is there that He provides all that we need.

As believers, we are representations of the change that God can make in someone’s life and we need to be willing to share His message of truth with others. When we spread the Gospel we are making war on hell and it will not be easy, but it is what God has called us to do so He will give us the strength to do it.

God gave Joseph a dream that took years of hardship until it was fulfilled. Joseph’s story is encouraging to us because God used specific places and people to give Joseph a leg up along the way to finally get him to where He needed him to be. God can use our lives, no matter how messy it seems, if we would just trust Him with the pieces and take every step at a time.

We all face giants in our lives that seem impossible to overcome, but with God backing us up and filling us with His power He is able to overcome those giants through us. God wants to bring us to a place where we are stepping out in faith and giving Him the necessary opportunity to intervene so that He gets the glory from the work that is accomplished.

There are many stories in the Bible of men who stood strong in their faith and God used them to change the world. God wants to use us the same way if we would just yield our lives to Him, stand firm in our faith, and allow Him to use us as the light in the world.

Just as a gardener plants seeds and waters those seeds in the ground, it is not him that makes the growth happen. His job is to create the environment where growth is possible. As Christians, this is how we are to approach other people, planting and watering seeds of the Gospel and depending on God for the growth.

The devil offers us many deals that seem good in the moment but that carry heavy consequences. We need to stop falling into his traps and begin reading the Bible, allowing God to speak to us through His Word. As we study and learn the Scriptures, we must cling to God’s truth and live our lives according to His instruction.

The Bible tells the story of a widow who continually asked an uncaring judge for retribution on someone who wronged her and he eventually gave in because she wouldn’t stop asking. This is how God wants us to come to Him when we ask for something, with faith believing that He can and with persistency.

Our lives are always producing fruit, but we only produce good fruit like love, joy, and peace when we are connected to Christ. Others see when our life is transformed and we start producing good fruit and they want to get connected to Christ so that they can be transformed as well because they want what they see that we have.

We tend to think that God can’t use us because of mistakes we’ve made in the past. Though we may suffer consequences because of those mistakes, God still has a plan and a purpose to use us to reach others for His sake.

We are incapable in and of ourselves not only to be willing to do what’s right, but even to follow through and do it. God walks with us through the process of making us willing first, and as we allow Him to work in us He follows through with the doing.

The Bible is clear that there is no amount or measure to sin that could be unforgiveable by God, and He freely offers us complete remission from the debt that our sin has brought on. We must accept His free gift before it is of any use to us, and when we are forgiven then we are able to forgive freely.

It takes courage to persevere when we encounter tough times. When we recognize that God lives in us and there is nothing that could come against us stronger than Him, we can walk with our heads high and face whatever battles may come. As we are going, we should encourage those around us to do the same, knowing that it may just be a little encouragement someone needs to keep going.

It’s one thing to pray that someone comes to a place of repentance towards God and their lives get changed. It’s another thing to pray as if we are expecting it to happen and ready to party as well as sort through the mess of consequences from their sin.

God designed a plan for salvation before the world was even created, knowing that sin would enter and we would all need a Savior. His Son was chosen to die for our sins, and now we have the opportunity to choose Him and be saved.

We must be willing to open our mouths and speak when God prompts us to because He will give us the words to say and we can trust Him to use what we say to reach the people we’re talking to. God wants to speak to us and through us but we have to let Him use us the way He wants to.

God’s love was made known to us through the sacrifice of His Son in order to offer us forgiveness and relief from our guilt and shame. We must let go of our past and remember Christ’s blood that washes us clean so that we can live in right relationship with God.

God has promised us a future and a hope, but we cannot grab hold of those until we let go of the sin that marks our past. When we access God’s power to overcome sin and safeguard our lives from repeating it, we can then walk in the future that He has set for us in freedom.

Just because we have the right to do something without it being a sin does not mean that it’s always the wisest thing to do. Rather than living for ourselves, we need to be willing to make sacrifices for the sake of not causing others who may struggle with something to sin.

It’s easy for a lot of people to put off a decision for change in their lives, but that indecision is a decision to forfeit the benefit of change. When it comes to salvation, that decision needs to be made immediately because eternal life is at stake.

The Bible teaches us that our lives or like a vapor, here one moment and gone the next. We must value the life that God gave us by using every moment to honor and obey Him.

Jesus lived a sinless life, died on the cross, was buried and resurrected from the dead. He offers to us eternal life that He paid for by His sacrifice and made possible by His resurrection. We must now decide to either accept His offer and follow Him or reject it and die spiritually forever when our earthly bodies die.

Jesus was God forsaken when He submitted to His death on the cross so that we could be in right standing with God and never be forsaken. Not only does His death give us eternal life, but it puts us in right relationship with God so that He can help us walk through the trials and difficulties of everyday life.