Richard Ellis Talks

Christians live under the canopy of God’s grace due to the forgiveness that's been offered to us through Christ. However, His forgiveness isn't a license to continue sinning freely! God still disciplines those He loves, but out of love He's also given us His Word as a tool to fight temptation.  

Just as a little bit of debris can prevent water from coming out of a showerhead, a "little bit" of sin in our lives can keep God’s living water from flowing out to those around us. When we take our sin and surrender it to God, He unclogs the spiritual showerheads of our lives, so His goodness can move freely in us and through us!

Generosity has a way of blessing the giver as much as (if not more than) the receiver! God's promised to provide for our every need. When we follow His lead by freely, joyfully giving that which He's blessed us with, the blessings that come back to us are often greater than we could ever have imagined!

Our time on earth is just a blink in the grand scheme of eternity. Rather than wasting this precious time choosing to follow the ways of the world, why not follow God's calling instead? When we figure out what He created us for, we're given the opportunity to honor Him in everything we do!

We can choose to live for ourselves, or we can choose to die to ourselves! When it comes to living God’s way, He calls us to take up our crosses and follow Him. The road to following Jesus isn't always smooth sailing; it's often marked with trials and tribulations. One day, however, we'll each stand before God. And when we do, we can either say, "I did it my way", or we can hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"  

It's easy to get caught up in seeking recognition from others or "winning trophies" for our earthly accomplishments. It's not that those things are (always) necessarily bad, but our focus and our desire should be first and foremost to bring God glory. The crowns He places on our heads as children of the King are worth far more than any prize you and I could ever win on earth!

God's given us the Holy Spirit to guide us in our everyday decisions. When we walk with the Spirit closely and continuously, we're in tune to His direction for our lives, but when we fail to let Him lead us, the choices we make apart from Him can have serious and lasting consequences.

God doesn't offer us salvation so we can sit around just waiting to go to heaven; He redeems and restores us, and then He calls us to accomplish His plan, which is to seek out and save the lost. If we're always waiting until "later" or "someday" or "the right time" to serve God, we'll never live out His calling on our lives!

The term “about face” means to turn completely around and go in the opposite direction. When Jesus died and rose again, He made it possible for us to turn from the sinful life we’d been living, and follow Him instead. Not only that, but God Himself turned His face away from Jesus when He was on the cross, all so that we'd be able to spend eternity face-to-face with Him.

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose." We're made in God's image and He has a plan for each of us. When we genuinely believe this, we're better able to understand who God is and who we are in Christ -- and live differently because of it.

The words we speak about others often reveal what's inside our own hearts. Words can be used to encourage and build people up; likewise, they can also be used to destroy lives. Rather than using our speech to cause damage, let's use it to share Christ and spread the Gospel!

It's been said (probably by someone who had a rotten church experience) that "Church would be a whole lot more fun, if it weren't for the people!" As silly as that sounds, it's sadly more common than we care to admit. So let's be sure to love our church family as God loves them, showing others that it's a welcoming, accepting, non-judging place where everyone can belong and feel valued!

Part of the purpose of gathering together regularly is to be refreshed, refueled, and restored. And another important part is to be equipped, then given opportunities, to serve God by using our gifts, talents, and skills to minister to others. In order to operate correctly and in proper health, the Body of Christ needs and depends on each and every individual part of the Body!

"Oh, dear mother in thy kitchen, wouldst thou display thy kindness upon your child, as I harken back to how thy hast bestowed thy merciful blessings heaped upon the head of thee, might thy, in your great power to disperse, shower thee with thy advocacy agreement of a thirst quenching portion of water?" OR... "Hey mom, may I have a glass of water?" Lesson: When speaking to God or about God, let's just communicate normally!

To our "5 senses", it would seem impossible to reach everyone with God's good news, as He's called each and every believer to do. However, reaching everyone begins with reaching one, then reaching one more, then one more, and so on. Let's simply focus on God, obey what He's called us to do, and let Him take care of the "big picture"!