Richard Ellis Talks

Regardless of how we see ourselves, God sees us as His own sons and daughters -- people of greatness because Christ made it so. When we look in the mirror, we might not see ourselves as anything special. But when we choose to follow Jesus, we're adopted into God's family, and He instills greatness in us.

We believe God is all-knowing and all-powerful, and that He is more than capable of intervening on our behalf. But He's also invited us into the practice of intercessory prayer. There have likely been more times than we realize that we've been held up by the power of people's prayers; we have a responsibility to obey the Holy Spirit's prompting and lift others up in prayer, too.

Life comes with suffering and tragedy -- they're a package deal in our broken world. But trusting God through our trials allows Him to use them (and us) for His greater good. Let's allow Him to work through us in every circumstance, knowing He is greater than anything we face.

When people encounter Christians, they're coming so close to Christ without even knowing it. We're carriers of God's love to the world -- and that means we have to take advantage of every opportunity to spread the Gospel. Whether or not they choose to be close-minded, we have a responsibility to obey the Lord's leading to share the Good News.

We don't have to do huge things or make grand gestures in order to please God. On the contrary, it's when we sacrifice ourselves for His sake in little, everyday ways that we honor Him. The key is to start small and obey His leading, so that when He prompts us to make bigger changes down the road, we'll be available to be used by Him in amazing ways.

The true mark of a Christ follower is that we bear spiritual fruit that points to God's work in us. When we repent, He takes the "dung" in our lives - our sin - and uses it to fertilize us in a way that produces fruitful impact, which in turn glorifies Him.

When we accept Jesus as the Lord and Savior of our lives, we're born again spiritually. And when we've been born again, we need to be cared for and nurtured like...well...a newborn! When we're new believers, we've got to seek out mature Christians who can disciple us. And when we're mature Christians, we've got to seek out new believers who need help to grow spiritually.

No matter who's in charge of governments here on earth, here's the good news: God is sovereign over all. We may not always understand His reasons for putting those in authority in charge, but Scripture commands us to honor and submit to them. Not only that, but as Christians, it's our job to lift our leaders up in prayer to the Lord.

Entertaining temptation is like playing with fire: no one gets out without getting burned. The Bible gives us specific instructions on resisting the temptation of sexual sin. The devil will always try to lure us with tempting thoughts in order to distract us, and in those moments it's as important as ever that we go to God in repentance and receive His forgiveness.

Have you ever looked at the Bible and thought it was like reading a foreign language?! That's why discipleship is such an important part of our spiritual development. We all need people along the way who can help us to connect the dots of Scriptural truth -- and in turn, we need to be those people for new believers in faith.