Richard Ellis Talks

We are either serving God or our riches; it is impossible to serve both simultaneously. No matter what or how much He entrusts in our hands, we must seek His permission for how we use every bit of it, trusting Him to provide for us all that is needed.

Instead of looking to become rich and take care of ourselves, we must rest in trusting God to take care of all of our needs. Whether we are blessed with little or blessed with much, He promises that our needs will be met and we can freely give to others.

Because of the inevitable sin in our lives, we deserve death, our own blood shed, and yet it is death that has saved us. The blood of Christ is the only thing that can cover us to make us clean. May we seek to be covered in His blood so that we can find the forgiveness of our sins because of the sacrifice that He made on our behalf.s

A guarantee in this life is that we will face pain, sorrow and struggle. The Bible promises us that there can be joy and peace in the midst of any trial because God is faithful, and He will bring all these things to pass. We must look to Him, trust Him, and persevere.

Even the Bible says that believing the Gospel is a seemingly foolish thing, but those who do believe it find life in it. When others look at us who believe as though we are out to lunch, we need to keep proclaiming the Gospel anyway because when their lives take a turn and they need some answers they will come to us for help.

When we choose to follow Jesus, we go from stumbling around in the darkness to living in the light. Like a baby sees the light of day for the first time when they open their eyes at birth, God reveals His light to us by opening our eyes when we're born again spiritually. And when His Spirit draws us out of the darkness, we then become His light in the world.

We may not always see the result of God's work until we get to heaven. That doesn't lessen our responsibility to obey when He directs us to pray and to act! The Holy Spirit is in all those who believe and trust in the Lord, and as we walk in the Spirit, we need to be ready to respond when we're prompted.

When we decide to follow Jesus, He offers us a clean slate and a fresh start. But when we continue to live in sinful ways, sooner or later, God can say, "Enough already!" and leave us to suffer our own consequences. Before we get to that point, let's turn to Him and repent, knowing it's not in our sin that we find what we need but that He alone provides us more than enough.

We’ve all messed up, and God is holy, so He takes sin seriously. The punishment for sin is death, but because of His love for us, He sent His Son to die in our place, so His blood can wash away our sins. We’re called to share this amazing news with others, so they can find forgiveness and be saved too.

One of the most difficult parts about following Christ is this hard truth: most of the time, things don't change overnight. Our lives don't suddenly become problem-free. Even after making the decision to follow Him, we'll still face struggles day in and day out. The difference is that when we keep ourselves focused on Christ, He gives us peace, joy, and strength to overcome those battles in a way we couldn't manage on our own.