Richard Ellis Talks

A bummer lamb is a lamb that was rejected by its mother and is taken care of from birth by the Shepherd with tender loving care. Just as that lamb builds a special bond with the Shepherd, we respond to Jesus’ love for us by following Him closely and knowing His voice. He has constructed His Church to do this for the lost, and our job here on earth is to seek those that are lost and bring them to Christ.

As Christians, we are children of God and therefore we need to set an example for everyone around us of what it looks like to obey our Heavenly Father. There are always others watching how we live, especially children, and many will imitate us. We must instruct them to honor God in the way they live by living it out in our own lives.

Just like the Israelites in the Bible had seen God provide for them in miraculous ways over and over and still they turned from Him, we can easily get caught up in making idols for ourselves out of the things in this world no matter how much God has proven Himself to us. No matter how wild we may get wrapped up in our sin, the wildest thing is that He will always accept us back.

There are circumstances in our lives that can affect how we receive God’s Word, but despite our circumstances we can always choose to receive it the way He wants us to. When we hear God’s Word we need to allow it to take root in our hearts so that it can change us and we can begin to bear fruit and multiply the impact it has onto others.

It is easy to slip into believing what the world tells us about our sin, that it’s not bad and it doesn’t hurt us. The Scripture gives us God’s standard that does not change and tells us that sin is sin, and the more we sin the more He will discipline us because He loves us. We need to see our sin how He sees it, turn from it and obey Him.

We all deserve to be squashed like bugs because of the sins that we have committed, yet God has chosen to show us mercy and grace because of His love for us. When we humble ourselves and come to Him begging for mercy, we receive it and can then give it to others.

Too often we pick and choose what we want to relinquish control over in our lives but we don’t give God everything. He doesn’t want to share His rule over our lives, He wants us to completely surrender and let Him call all the shots.

The Bible teaches us that we only live once on this earth and that Jesus came to pay the price for us to live again with Him in Heaven. He promised that He would be coming back to take with Him all who are saved, but if He does not come back in our lifetime our earthly bodies will die. After that death, no matter how we die, the only way of living again with Him in Heaven is to be saved by His blood.

When we hold onto sin in our lives, we dirty our hearts more and more. God cannot live amongst sin and therefore brings us through fiery circumstances for the purpose of refining us and cleaning us up. When He searches our hearts and reveals sin in our lives, we need to immediately repent and turn away from the sin and towards God.

As Christians, we are called to use our time on earth wisely, doing the things God has called us to do and realizing that the stuff here on earth is just stuff and we can’t take it with us. God has called us to run a race, and so let us run that race to the best of our ability, investing all that we’ve got and bringing others alongside us as we run.