Richard Ellis Talks

Of all the blessings God's given us, one of the greatest is the chance to repent. We'll be forever bound to our sin until God breaks us of it -- but we have to allow ourselves to be broken. When we accept His forgiveness and His gift of salvation, He can transform our lives and replace the ugliness of our sin with the beauty of His grace.

Before time began, God's plan was for Jesus to leave His heavenly throne and come to earth to serve the lowest of low people, and to give His life for all. Jesus left His own glory behind to take on a life and death of servanthood -- and God calls us to live in the same way. When we walk out our identity as servants of the Most High God, we impact the world with His Gospel, and the result is Kingdom impact.

You can tell the weight of the load you're carrying based on whether you feel rested or exhausted when you're carrying it. Sometimes, we say yes to things that aren't necessarily "bad", but they aren't what God's calling us to say yes to, either. And when we say yes to too many good things that aren't God things, we find ourselves burned out. We'll know we're following His direction when we feel rested instead of weary because He'll give us all the endurance we need to accomplish His work.

We can never hear this message too many times: you and I can't fix broken people! But we can lead them to the only One who can. The devil's whole purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. It's our job as Christians to look out for "wreckers" who are vulnerable to his attacks and in need of healing from their brokenness, and bring them to the feet of the Father so He can do the fixing.

You check your car's oil by pulling out the dipstick. In the same way, God measures the health of the Church and of individual Christians by pulling out our spiritual "dipstick" whenever and in whatever way He chooses. One of the ways He does that is by checking our relationships -- and the only way for us to be in relationship with other people, including non-believers, is to reach out, listen, and be genuinely involved in their lives.

Nobody ever got fit just by showing up at the gym and never walking through the doors! In the same way, we don't get spiritually fit just by showing up at church but never plugging in or getting involved. When we engage in community with other believers who are bold enough to ask us hard questions, and gracious enough to help us work through our struggles, then real, long-lasting change happens.

The Christian life is meant to be raw. Often, we want to hide behind our sin while we do all the right things on the surface, but heart change doesn't come from living that way. Jesus hung exposed on the cross so that we could live freely under the cover of His righteousness -- and as His followers, we're called to live exposed with transparency and authenticity.

The only way for you and me to be prepared for our departure from this earth is to do a "cross" check of our relationship with God. Have you accepted that Jesus died on the cross for you, or in your mind, did He die for someone else? We've all got to live ready for the Lord to take us home at any moment -- and to do the work of spreading the Gospel to other people in the meantime.

"Stare decisis" is the doctrine that says courts will adhere to precedents already set when making their decisions. That principle is what safeguards the rule of law and preserves wisdom in the court. In the same way, the wisest thing we as Christians can do is stand with what was decided as truth before Creation even began. When we look around us, everything points as evidence to the living God -- and when we align our lives with that truth, we're choosing to walk in the wisdom of the Lord.

You are going to die a physical death one day -- but that doesn't mean you have to die a spiritual death, too. We're all born into sin, but everyone who accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior during their time on earth is promised eternal life with Him. We've got to start taking the reality of salvation seriously and take every opportunity to spread the Gospel with others before it's too late.