Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: Today on Richard Ellis Talks, we are drawn away by our own lust and enticed, so the enemy comes along and says, "Over here, over here. Come to the light." He disguises himself as an angel of light, and then you end up in a lot of darkness. So you say, "Well, I'm going to be okay. I'll figure it out." You will not figure anything out without Jesus. It's not going to happen.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks, with Richard Ellis. Richard's style is unlike anyone else's, where he shares the life-changing message of the gospel in a way that's real, refreshing, focused, and fun. We know that life is pretty challenging these days, but these talks will help you meet those challenges head-on with biblical truth, encouragement, and direction.

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Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is "Be Very Afraid." So turn to Matthew chapter seven. Now, I of all people don't gravitate the way I'm going to go here in a second because I grew up... turns out I became a Christian when I was six and had lots of questions that should have been answered by discipleship thereafter. For whatever reason, they did not get answered, and it was very confusing.

Simply put, let me just throw this out there. Churches in America and around the world are filled with people who would tell you that they are a Christian, but they are not. You say, "Well, if somebody says they're a Christian, they say they believe in God." The Bible says the demons in hell believe in God and tremble at His name.

So let me just read you this, Matthew 7:21. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day..." and here's how they'll start out. "'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'"

So who are these people? Are you these people? You say, "Well, how would I know that?" They are people who claim, "Lord, Lord," but practice lawlessness. And what did He say the people who enter the kingdom of heaven do? They're the ones who do the will of my Father in heaven. So do you have a basic desire to do the will of God? If you don't, you're not. It'll be really harsh when you say, "Lord, Lord," and He says, "I don't know you."

You say, "But I claim to know Him." You could claim to know a bunch of people. But if you walk up to that person and say, "Hey, I'm Richard," and they go, "Okay, and?" right? You told everybody you knew this person; they don't know you. You've got to make sure He knows you, not just that you claim to know Him.

Now, you say, "Well, is there an example of this?" And I've been perplexed by this for a very long time. Why would God come to Earth, Jesus come to Earth, and pick 12 men and burn a pick? Why would He pick Judas? You say, "Well, it was to betray Him." You can get anybody to betray you. Why would He burn a pick on Judas?

I've kind of arrived at this: to demonstrate that it is possible if Jesus says follow, you can follow. You can even use words like, "Lord, Lord." You can prophesy, cast out demons. He was with them. He did all of it, but as it turns out, he did not believe. So how can you get so close to Jesus, be with Him, near Him, and yet it turns out you don't even know Him? Or more importantly, He doesn't know you.

So now you say, "Well, I've already got enough questions and insecurities about my salvation." I can help you if you're a Christian and you have questions every once in a while. I had tons of questions about whether I was really a Christian because I couldn't make the Christian life work. But let me throw this caveat in: the desire of my heart was, is, and will be to please Him and to obey Him.

And if the desire of your heart... if you are not driven and propelled and ultimately, no matter how screwed up you get, how far you get away from Him, when you are His child, you will go home. And the thing about the Prodigal Son to me that is so fascinating is he was a son when he left and he was a son when he came home. He went home.

Now, you say, "Well, sounds like you're judging." I'm asking you to judge yourself. I'm asking you to ask yourself some questions and say, "Am I going around saying, 'Lord, Lord,' and proclaiming all these things, and really there's nothing there?" I had lunch with a man a few days ago, and he became a Christian when he was 52. And before that, he was a churchgoer and he realized at 52, "I don't know Him."

He was going through the motions. He was trying to keep all the rules. He was just punching the clock. And you say, "Well, he was in church and he was doing the deal." That is not the deal. You can be technically married and have a terrible marriage because your heart is not in the thing. So you say, "Well, what do I do?" I would sit down with somebody.

Because if you are claiming to be a follower of Jesus and your life at some point does not change and the desires of your heart do not change... you are in the world, you don't go back to something you never left. And that's where you live, and that's what you want, and that's what you hunger for, and that's where you land. Something is terribly wrong. You should be very afraid. Because the enemy has tricked you into thinking because you say certain words and do certain things and fool certain people that you're going to make it.

You just don't want to mess with a holy God because He's not kidding. And people say to me, "Well, I just don't see how if God loves everybody He would... He would send someone to hell." You end up in hell, you picked it. That's how it works. And as I said the other day, if I sat down with you and I said, "Look, I've been talking to God about you and it turns out He says He picks you," would you pick Him back? You say, "Well, I have no interest in that." That's not on Him.

He's reaching out to you. Even in a moment like this, even in a moment like this where maybe you have professed things and said things, but if you examine your own heart and look at your life and what's gone on consistently, you say something's not right. And you want to change that. You can change that. He can genuinely save you.

Let's go to this verse some of you have heard me say it so much you know it by heart: John chapter 10, verse 10. "The thief does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy." Okay? So you've got to be aware of this, especially if you're not a believer. The devil's plan for your life is steal, kill, and destroy. You say, "But he offers me nice things." For the purpose of stealing, killing, and destroying.

The worm always looks good to the stupid fish until you set the hook, right? And we are drawn away of our own lust and enticed, so the enemy comes along and says, "Over here, over here. Come to the light." He disguises himself as an angel of light, and then you end up in a lot of darkness. So you say, "Well, I'm going to be okay. I'll figure it out." You will not figure anything out without Jesus. It's not going to happen.

So the thief does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy. "I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly." That's what Jesus said. You have to pick a plan. Steal, kill, destroy, or life, life more abundantly. Pick a plan. So you say, "Well, I'm having a good time. I'm doing what I want to do when I want to do it." Okay, let's say you pull that off for your lifetime. You're going to die.

Unless you're a believer when Jesus returns, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen to everybody: you're going to die. You say, "Well, you're being so negative." No, I'm just telling you. You better get you a ticket out of here or you're not going to make it. You say, "Well, people, I thought church was supposed to be nice." This is nice. I'm trying to help you.

Now, let's go back to the Old Testament, Psalm 27, verse 1. Actually, fear is spoken of in the scriptures more than 500 times, and I thought this was very fascinating: "fear not" is used 365 times. You've got a "fear not" for every day. So you say "be very afraid," I'm going to talk to you now about how to not be very afraid.

Psalm 27:1. "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Now, you say, "Well, that's cool. I don't have to be afraid anymore." Oh, that's not what it says. You've got to have the first part nailed down for the second to apply. Is the Lord your light and your salvation? Is He the strength of your life? If He is those things, then the following applies: whom shall I fear, of whom shall I be afraid?

Because if He is not the light in your salvation and the strength of your life, you should be very afraid because you're wide open, exposed to the enemy, and he'll bring it. Sometimes I sit with people, and they're just tired of getting their you-know-what kicked. They did what they wanted to do and now they don't want to do that anymore. They want to do what God wants them to do because doing what they wanted to do created nothing but pain and problems and destruction. And so now they're ready to yield, not just for eternity, but for life.

Psalm 56:11. Now let me tell you as we keep reading through this stuff why it is important not just for you to not be afraid and trust Him. You have a world of people watching, and you don't know they're watching. And people who say, "Lord, Lord," and are not really Christians, they're the ones that freak. What you're looking for are people who claim to know God, to trust God, and to follow God, and to have some peace and some joy and some calm in the storm. And that's what gives other people some hope that if that can work for you, maybe it can work for me.

And now they want to talk to you about your remedy, and your remedy is Jesus. Because they can't make happen what you've got going on, and you can't even make it happen without Him. So now you have an opportunity to give a reason for the hope that's within you because it is so obvious in your life. I've gone to see people dying of cancer, of all kinds of crazy stuff. And they've got every reason to be afraid and freak completely out. And they're laying there in a bed and tubes and all this.

And then you find out from the nurses and the doctors that this person's doing better than everybody taking care of them. In literally, they are dying and bringing life to everyone around them. Psalm 56:11. "In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" I don't know that I would even categorize this as a fear, but it's at least a concern. Every once in a while, me and Jesus have this little conversation like, "Okay, I'm going to get up and say this stuff, and I'm going to hold the line on these basic simple things, but You realize these people may leave. We might just empty the place." He's like, "That's all right. I'll still take care of you."

So you say, "Well, am I trying to scratch people's ears so they'll come back?" I'm not trying to get you to come back here; I'm trying to get you to go back to Him. And we've got enough alcoholics in this room that if you're going to drink, get you a bag and a bottle and let's go, right? Yeah, real drinkers, ain't no Jesus on the rocks. How many know what I'm talking about, a bag and a bottle? Let's just get a hand on that one. I appreciate the honesty, right?

So I'm looking for bag and bottle people spiritually, where you say, "You know what? If we're going to do this, let's do it." Because the world is getting crazy right now, and this thing's getting separated out. And you better figure out what you believe, because when the moment comes to speak up and you don't know what you believe, you will be silenced. You will be canceled. You will be shut completely down. And if you don't speak along the way, when it gets to the moment where you need to speak, you won't have anything to say. This is going to get trickier. And it's sheep and goats, and it's not a situation of "Lord, Lord" and playing some game and sounding spiritual and quoting some verses. Your life has to change. There has to be fruit on the tree.

There was someone, I can't remember who said this, but never be afraid to go out on a limb because that's where the fruit is. "In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" What are you going to do to me? You kill me, I'm home. Now, I understand there are some terrible things that can happen, but not unless He allows them. And if He allows them, it is ultimately for my good and His glory, so I've got to be okay with it.

Isaiah 41:10. Keep going to the right. Now, again, why is scripture so important? Because if I stand up here and say, "Don't be afraid," you go, "Okay, well, whatever." If I read it out of scripture, the Holy Spirit says, "That's a fact. That's true. That is Him. Apply it to your life, believe it, and then things start to change." Isaiah 41:10. "Fear not, for I am with you." Old Testament, "I am with you." New Testament, He's in me. "Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Get you some right-handed God on your life.

I've shared this before, tricky things about my dad. My dad had a hand. He was 6'9", and that hand could do some damage, but man, if that hand was on your side, nothing was going to hurt you. And when he'd reach down and grab you by the hand and take off as a little boy, you had to keep up because his big old stride... it was like three or four steps of mine to one of his monster steps. But when he had you by the hand, you knew you were going to be okay because nobody was bigger than my daddy. And nobody is bigger than my God. And He says, "I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." So He's got you. So what's got you? Fear? Or has He got you?

John chapter 10. Now, this applies to people who genuinely believe. Not just throwing "Lord, Lord" around, but genuinely understand they can't save themselves. It's all Jesus, died on the cross, buried, raised from the dead. He's their only hope, and here's what Jesus says about these people. John 10:28. "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand." Back to His hand. "My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one."

So He's mentioned His hand, the Father's hand, and then said, "We are one." If you get in God's hand, you cannot be removed from His hand. So on the one hand, I am challenging you to be sure that you're in the faith, to be sure that you are truly a Christian, not just throwing "Lord, Lord" around. But once you determine that you are genuinely in the faith, that you have believed from the heart, that your life is changing, you have been placed inside the hand of God, so to speak, and no one... there is no hand bigger. There is no one who can grab you out of His hand. There are a lot of churches, a lot of faiths that'll scare you to death with this stuff and tell you you can lose your salvation. You cannot lose something that God gives you, but you can find out you never had it in the first place and do something about that.

The man I had lunch with the other day that got saved at 52, and then there's another guy in the room that was with us. All I had to do was ask him about Jesus. And this guy is a way high-up businessman, and his eyes filled with tears from a very tender heart, and you knew he knew Jesus. Every once in a while I think people think, "Well, why do you get so emotional?" How do you ever get over somebody dying for you? I don't understand that. How'd you get over it? Because I got a life because somebody got death. And for some reason, once I understood that, I never got over that. And I don't want to get over it.

When you share your faith with people and they see that you understand that someone died for you and then you tell them the same person died for them and what has been made available to you is available to them, you'd be amazed how emotional they get. Because nobody gives a you-know-what. And now you're telling them there's hope, there's answers, there's a reason for their fear and their doubt and their questions and everything they face.

John 14:27. "Peace I leave with you," Jesus said, "My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Genuine peace. I had no idea what that was until I really... someone showed me how to walk with Jesus. I didn't know what peace was. And if you ever get peace, His peace, which is a person, and then you make choices and your peace starts to go away, you will hightail it back to Him. Because I have lived without peace too long. I have no interest. The enemy still tricks me and baits me and tries to get me over here, over here. And maybe every once in a while you take the bait, but I tell you what, your peace goes out the window and then you're running home because I lived too long without it. I don't want to live another minute without it.

I found this quote by Alexander the Great, and he said, "I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep. I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion." And that's what we are. And He is the Lion of Judah. Second Timothy 1:7. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear." And there is such a thing as a spirit of fear. And it's clearly possible to receive a spirit of fear. But I can promise you this, God did not give it to you. So if you have a spirit of fear, it didn't come from Him. "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

So you say, "Well, I'm tired of being afraid." Well, trade it in. Power, love, and a sound mind. You say, "Well, the spirit of fear won't leave." I'll tell you how to get rid of any spirit. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. By the blood that was shed on that cross, you have no right here. In Jesus' name. Resist the devil, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. You say, "Well, how do you know that works?" No fear. Where's that spirit of fear? Gone. What do you got? Power, love, a sound mind, all day long. And if you ever start living power, love, and sound mind, I promise you you don't want the spirit of fear back.

Hebrews 2:14. Couple more. This is so fascinating to me that this stuff is just like in the Bible. Hebrews 2:14. "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood..." in other words, we're flesh and blood people, physical... "He Himself likewise shared in the same." He became... took on flesh... "that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

Did you know that you can be so afraid of death that it is literally... in bondage to a fear of death? You are trapped by that fear. You say, "Well, how do I get away from that?" Do something that'll take away the fear of dying. What's that? Jesus. Look what it says He did. "He likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." You meet somebody who's terrified of dying and they meet Jesus and that fear goes away... now you talk about being able to breathe and live and like, "Oh my gosh, I don't have to be afraid anymore." Because they live every day terrified they're going to die. What if this happens? What if I'm in a car wreck? I could die. What happens to me when I die?

Let me go ahead and read you this. Kurt Cobain. You may not be a big Nirvana fan... it's interesting listening to Kurt Cobain, and it's a total disaster these people die so young. Like what in the world? Listen to Kurt Cobain. "If you die, you're completely happy and your soul somewhere lives on. I'm not afraid of dying. Total peace after death, becoming someone else is the best hope I've got." And that's what he had built his... that was his plan.

In other words, for him, okay, even if I die, it's going to be better on the other side somehow. So this is what people are processing. They're thinking, and you say, "Well, they're this or they're that." You know what? Stop expecting non-believers to act like believers. When you meet a screwed-up person who's living like hell and they don't know any different, forget all that. Just tell them about Jesus. Don't be, "Oh, well, you could come to my church, but we're going to have to cover those tattoos up of these naked women or you can't come in my church." Like, dude, who cares about the tattoos? Care about their soul.

Hebrews 13:5. Now that we've quoted Kurt Cobain, we can go back to the scriptures. Hebrews 13:5. "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have." For He Himself has said... for the context here of not wanting what somebody else has, just be content with what you have... "I will never leave you nor forsake you." I'm not going to ditch. I'm not going to abandon. People have fear of abandonment. He doesn't abandon His children. And you mix all this up... well, my dad said he would show up, he didn't, and he left us and blah, blah. You know, you get these parental problems in your head. He's not like any father you've ever had. He's the real deal. He will never leave you or forsake you. Period. "Well, it just feels like I can't hear Him." It doesn't mean He's not there. "I just don't think He's answering my prayers." Be patient. Maybe He's teaching you to trust Him when you can't hear anything. But straight up, and this is in the Old Testament, too: I will never leave you or forsake you.

Guest (Male): We'll get back to Richard in a moment to close out today's talk. But first, I want to share something with you about the program. Our mission is actually very simple: to take the planet. So it's our prayer that these daily talks from Richard aren't something you only hear and enjoy, but that they inspire you to share with others. Together we can do this. The message of the gospel is something everyone needs to hear, and that's why it's a huge priority to us. And you can join us in this important mission. Call us at 855-6-RICHARD to say you're in. Or you can get on board with us through our website, RichardEllis.com. Well, here's Richard with some closing thoughts for us.

Richard Ellis: First John 4:18. Last one. "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment." Anxiety, stirred up all the time. "But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." Once I understood that God loved me, my fear went out the window. Until then, man, I was terrified. He's going to whack me with that big stick or whatever He's got up there; He's just out to get me. And once I realized He loved me, He was on my side, He was inside, I wasn't having to worry about where I was going to end up, because I already knew that was settled. It's just a matter of whether I'm going to trust Him and obey Him or live in fear and, you know, do what He said to do.

So you say, "Well, should I be very afraid?" If you're not a believer, you should be very afraid. And if you think you're a believer and you're not, you should be very afraid. Because the day is coming where you've been told you're going to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant," and what you're going to really hear is, "Depart from me; I never knew you." And that's not what you want to hear, but if you're breathing, that's not what you've got to hear either. And if you're a believer, something's changing. And one of the main things that can change is you don't have to be very afraid anymore, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

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