Richard Ellis Talks

The term “about face” means to turn around completely and go in the opposite direction. When Jesus died on the cross He made it possible for us to turn from the sinful life we’d been living and follow Him. When we choose to follow Christ we begin a relationship with God, and when we die one day we will have a familiar face to face encounter and we will live with Him forever in Heaven.

We all experience suffering at different points in our lives, whether brought on by ourselves, others, or God Himself for the purpose of refining us. He always has purpose in every suffering that He allows, and when we look to Him we can find the strength to make it through. As we are led by Him, He will also use us to comfort others and help them through their suffering.

People are looking for something that is making a difference, and having knowledge of Biblical truth does not make a difference unless we are applying it to our lives. When God’s Word is made known to us and we take further steps of application, transformation takes place and others see that and are pointed to God.

When we are caught up in sin and chasing it with all of our lives, we find ourselves being burned by the sin we’re chasing with consequences and destruction. The fire that God can light in us through His Holy Spirit can burn away the desire for sin and stir an all consuming passion in our hearts for chasing after Jesus.

When Adam and Eve ate of the tree in the garden that God told them not to eat from, sin entered our world and brought spiritual death to all of us. God offers us a bite from the tree of life but in order to receive that life we have to take Jesus in by accepting His sacrifice for our sin and letting His life replace our spiritual death.

Rather than being wrapped up in one single event, the Christian life is a work in progress that involves struggling through sin and temptation. If we are not struggling, we are not moving. We will never arrive at completion until we see Jesus, and until then we need to continue to grow and mature.

Most of us have people in our lives that we would consider an enemy, someone who dislikes us and picks at us constantly because of their disdain. The Bible tells us that rather than lashing back at them we are to respond in kindness, and it is that kindness that inevitably heaps coals on their head, which will eventually cause them to question why we respond in love.

Jesus had many followers while He was here on earth, but at one point or another most all of them ditched. The opportunity to pick up and follow Him is always there, the question is simply whether or not we will choose to give up our own lives and follow Him closely or not.

When we let God have our whole lives, He transforms us just like planting a seed in the ground produces a new plant. God wants to use us to multiply His Kingdom but we must first give ourselves to Him to plant as He pleases.

David lived his life faithfully serving God, perfecting his skills and protecting what God gave him to care for. Because David had been faithful in facing the battles with the bears and the lions to protect his sheep, he was prepared to face the battle against Goliath, knowing that God is the one who has always given Him the strength to win.

God may be telling us to do something and we’ve been ignoring it for any amount of time. When we listen to Him with a willingness to obey, He forgives us for running away and gives us another chance to do what He’s asking us to do. It is better to live in obedience and bring life to others around us than to live in sin and negatively affect everyone else.

God created us as part of His plan to bring Himself glory when we become His children. We may not know all of His plans for us, but we can know our purpose and follow Christ so that our lives have meaning here on earth before we spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

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.