Richard Ellis Talks

When Jesus was alive on earth, the Pharisees believed that obeying the law was the way to God, so they read the Scriptures religiously. Yet for all of their studying, they still didn't believe that He was the Christ, the Messiah. But when we "do our homework" to learn what the Bible has to say and compare how His life matches up with prophecy after prophecy made centuries before His birth, we can clearly see that He's the Son of God who came to save us for eternity.

The devil doesn't need to attack those who are trapped in their own sin, because they're already right where he wants them. But his greatest fear is that we'll equip ourselves with spiritual armor and trust in God as we fight the battle against evil. So the question is: are we living in such faithfulness and obedience to the Lord that our lives are a threat to hell?

The Bible has a lot to say about submitting to authority in different parts of our lives, including marriage, our relationship with our parents, elders, governing leaders, and more. But the ultimate authority we're called to submit to is that of our Heavenly Father. God wants to direct us to the things that are best for us, but in order for Him to lead us, we've got to be willing to follow and obey.

We all come from different backgrounds: some of us had idyllic families growing up, and some of us, not so much. But here's the good news: we've all been adopted as children of God, and no matter what kind of earthly father each of us has, we've got a Heavenly Father Who's promised to always love us and call us His own. When we're adopted into His family, there's no undoing that -- so let's live in such a way that other people see Him when they look at us!

As followers of Christ, we're all part of the family of God -- and that means we need to root ourselves in the "family gathering" of a church! As God's children, we need spiritual family members to help guide us so one day we can help guide other people. And when we're rooted deep in the soil of a healthy church, we're better able to bear healthy fruit that benefits God and others.

When it comes to listening to what God tells us to do, the Bible describes Jesus as a shepherd and His followers as sheep. Even though He promises to come after the sheep that stray, He wants us to listen to His voice and obey Him from the beginning. Life on earth is short -- are we going to waste our time in disobedience, or trust His direction from this point on?

Today's culture teaches us that it's fine to believe whatever we want to believe, and that every religion is equal because they all lead to God. But Jesus tells us in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." There's only one path to eternal life with God, despite what other religions say, and that path is through salvation by way of His only Son, Jesus.

Sometimes we bring suffering upon ourselves, but other times, suffering just seems to happen to us and we wonder why God allows it. The answer is: because He wants to grow us and strengthen us in our relationship with Him. He's promised to meet all of our needs, and He's always been faithful to that promise -- so when suffering comes our way, let's respond by pressing into Him and trusting His care for us.

Scripture tells us that we're meant to be light in a very dark world. Yet too often we find ourselves hiding the light that God put in us, afraid to let it shine. When we follow Christ into the light and find fellowship with other believers, we have the ability to together "contaminate" the world of darkness in a good way -- with the light that will lead people to Jesus!

It's been said that of the things we worry about on a daily basis, 40% never happen, 30% have already happened and can't be changed anyway, and 20% are petty, miscellaneous issues that were never worth worrying about in the first place. In short: we do a great job at worrying! But that worry turns to burden, and that burden eventually weighs us down and exhausts us. Jesus told us to take our weariness to Him, and when we allow Him to lift the burden from our shoulders, He blesses us with rest.

Ever wondered about the "secret" to success? Here it is: seek after God first! We tend to give all our energy and time to everything except the thing that matters most -- our relationship with the Lord. But the Bible tells us we can't serve two masters. When we serve God first, everything else falls into place. True eternal success is found when God says to us, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"

Anybody can know about God, but as believers, God wants us to know Him, and to know Him intimately. When we spend time with God, our relationship with Him naturally grows, and we get to know Him on a deeper level. And the better we know Him, the better able we are to hear His voice and obey Him.

The story of the Gospel message is so crazy, it could have been a movie plot! That's why only the Holy Spirit can give someone the faith to believe it. It's not our job to convince people of God's truth -- but it is our job to plant the seeds of that truth in their hearts and then pray that the Spirit will make them grow. Jesus died so we could live, and even though it sounds like the most "cray cray" story ever, it's also the story we should be telling to everybody we meet.

It's important to take our obedience to God seriously, because God Himself is very serious about our obedience to Him! But He also knows we can't obey Him perfectly on our own. No one can be perfectly like Christ, but He gives us the power and strength to obey Him when we ask -- and He transforms our lives from the inside out in the process.

It's important to take our obedience to God seriously, because God Himself is very serious about our obedience to Him! But He also knows we can't obey Him perfectly on our own. No one can be perfectly like Christ, but He gives us the power and strength to obey Him when we ask -- and He transforms our lives from the inside out in the process.