Richard Ellis Talks

Remember the saying, "Those who don't learn from the past are destined to repeat it."?When it comes to sin, the biggest hurdle for us to overcome is ourselves. However, by being armed with God's strength through Bible study, prayer, and accountability to others, we can have victory over sin and avoid the consequences!

As a believer, if our life is going to change, we have to let the Holy Spirit drill down to the foundation of our "house", to expose those things that we then have to allow God to start to rebuild from scratch!

Serving God can get uncomfortable. We have to cross the line of our comfort zone and put Him and others before ourselves. And we can only do that in a healthy way if we remain spiritually flexible!

God wants what's best for us. That's what a loving Father does! So we should trust Him with boldness, asking in faith the desires of our heart, being assured that He knows what's best for us, and then yielding our will completely to His.

There's something about "family" that can only be done TOGETHER. The family of God needs each other! And we need to come together for support, encouragement, and accountability, serving each other in love.

In the military, there's constant training so that each and every soldier is fully prepared and ready if war breaks out. The same mindset applies for the believer, and there's no "retirement" for spiritual warfare! We need to prepare ourselves by memorizing Scripture and working to make a difference in other people’s lives.

God encourages us to persistently pray, and even if He doesn’t answer the way we want Him to, He'll change our hearts in the process. No matter the words that we use, big or small, our prayers need to be from the heart, and we must not quit asking!

"If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you." If we seek Him, His kingdom, His righteousness, everything we need will be provided!

When we gossip or slander, we're allowing our tongue to destroy not only the person we're talking about, but also ourselves! Rather than speaking harm against others, it's vital that we speak life into them with encouragement and uplifting words.

In order to be prepared for meeting Jesus when we die, we need to live the days of our life in obedience to Him. No matter our profession, God calls us to represent Him in this world, so we must live every day as if it's our last doing just that!

A true friend is someone who mourns when we mourn and rejoices when we rejoice. These kinds of friendships should be among believers, because others will look at those relationships and believe that they too can be loved and accepted!

While the message of the Gospel sounds foolish, there are still some wise people who God chooses to give faith to believe. No matter our occupation, earthly wisdom or influence, God can still grant us faith to believe and use our societal status for His glory!

When we try to take control of our lives, we learn (sometimes the hard way!) that we ultimately have no control. What we need to do instead, is trust God to be in control, and that no matter what happens, He loves us and will provide for all of our needs!

God created men and women, each with a unique and particular purpose within the relationship. In a husband/wife dynamic, men are to become a GODLY SERVANT leader in the home, and women are to submit to that leadership as if they're submitting to Christ.

When we choose to follow Christ, we're also choosing to suffer as He suffered, even in the form of temptation. When we're tempted in an area that we know we struggle in, choosing to do the right thing might cause us some short term suffering, but we'll be rewarded, because righteousness is addictive!