Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: If you want to get rid of the fears, get rid of the stresses, get rid of these anxieties, spend a little more time with God. Because when you spend time with God, let me tell you what happens. You start being more aware all the time how huge this God is, and how great He is, and how awesome He is, and how powerful He is, and what He is capable of doing.

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.

Now if you're not able to stick around with us for all of today's talk, you can always listen to, download, and even share this entire message with a friend right from our website: richardellistalks.com. So, let's jump right in with today's talk. Here is Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title today's message is Dread Locks. Now what is dread? It is defined as Webster's to fear greatly. An archaic use of it is to regard with awe. Now what do you dread? Some of the things I wrote down here, some of the things people dread: a report card that's not so good used to be a pretty scary thing that I dreaded taking home. Maybe you've got a surgery coming up you dread. Maybe you dread sickness. For some people, they just dread death.

Well, there's some people in the scriptures that had challenges, a ton of those. One of them we're going to look at in Exodus chapter two. If you'll turn there, we'll start there. We're going to deal with one in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament, and then I'll tell you one other story. In Exodus chapter two, a kid named Moses, a baby named Moses is born in Egypt to slave parents. And if you know the story of Moses, they're supposed to kill all these babies. His mom doesn't kill him, puts him in a little basket, Pharaoh's daughter finds him, and the story is that he's raised in Pharaoh's house.

And then we pick up the story in Exodus chapter two, verse 11. And it says, "Now it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, 'Why are you striking your companion?' Then he said, 'Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?'"

"So Moses feared and said, 'Surely this thing is known.' When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well there." And if you keep reading the story, he meets his wife there. He's out there for 40 years. Jump down to verse seven in chapter three. So Moses is out there in the land of Midian, and the Lord said, "I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows."

"So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to a place of the Canaanites," and he goes on to describe where he's going. So he says, "Moses, I've heard their cry." And then he starts to talk to Moses about going back. Now he's not been there in 40 years. Moses when he left, the Pharaoh himself was trying to get him killed. This is not some place you go back easily for obvious reasons.

Then verse 11, look what Moses says to God. God basically said, "You're going to be the one to get my people out of there." And Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" Number one, he can't go back to Pharaoh or he'd get killed. He doesn't bring that up. "Why me? Who am I?" So there's his first question. So He said, verse 12, "I will certainly be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."

In other words, one of the signs is you'll be back right here with these people. I'll get you out. So he goes on this conversation with God, and then look at his next excuse down in chapter four, verse one. Then Moses answered and said, "Okay, God's told him what He's going to do, all that. He says, 'But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice? Suppose they say the Lord has not appeared to you? What if they don't believe me?'" He dreads this thing that God's told him to do. He fears going back, and he comes up with all kind of excuses.

And God comes back and gives him answers to those. And look at verse 10. Then Moses said to the Lord, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent." They won't believe me. Who am I? They won't believe me. And you know what? I'm not a good speaker. "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant. But I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." So the Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say." In other words, enough excuses, Moses.

But he said, "Oh, my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send. You know what? I'm out. I'm not going." Now this doesn't go over big. God doesn't back off of Moses. And by the way, if God calls you to do something, He's probably not going away. And you can make excuses for a few minutes, for a few days, or even for a few decades, but He's not going away. And He's coming back. He gets pretty mad, and you don't have to go to this point.

But look at verse 14. "So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said, 'Is not Aaron the Levite your brother?'" In other words, let's take Aaron, get him to help you. I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. Okay, you're not going to let Me use you, and here's the problem: God was willing to use Moses by himself, was willing to give him the words, had picked him maybe because he wasn't eloquent, and said, "I will be with you, I will help you."

But now everything that God tells Moses, Moses has got to tell Aaron. Now Aaron's got to tell the people because Moses wouldn't do what he was supposed to do. And there's a handicap, there's a buffer there. It's going to get tougher on him because he's got to go through somebody else. So that last excuse is overcome by Aaron. Now look down at verse 19. "Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, 'Go, return to Egypt.'" And look at this little phrase: "For all the men who sought your life are dead."

Maybe one of the most important things that God said to him in the whole thing. "Go back, because this place that you left that you dreaded going back to ever because you thought they would kill you, everybody who was trying to kill you is dead now. You don't have to worry about that. I'm with you. I've given you this staff. You're going to have these miracles perform. You've got Aaron now, though you didn't need him, you're going to need Aaron. You've got everything you need, and those who sought your life are dead."

Then verse 20. "Then finally here, then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt." And then jump down if you would to verse 30, just so you get a little taste of how it goes. And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people. So the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

They finally realized He had come, they believed what He had said. It didn't always go great like this. There's tons of problems that follow, but Moses finally obeys and ends up back in a very scary place for him, doing stuff he didn't feel comfortable doing, but God used it, and the people of Israel are delivered eventually. But at this point they bow their heads and worship. Turn to Psalm 56, three and four. Now on a very practical level you say, "Well, I don't have conversations with God face to face and, you know, I don't know what that's about."

But do you ever get afraid? Is there something you dread? And I say, "Well, what do you do when you get afraid? What do you do when you're alone? What do you do when you face something that you really dread facing and you get locked up with fear? What do you do? Is there anything you can do?" You say, "Well, I watch TV or go to a movie or ride my bike or go for a drive or something." You know what? At some point you're going to have to stop and say either, "I'm going to fix this by myself."

And some people medicate. Some people get afraid and what do they do? They drink a little, they smoke something, they go buy something. They've tried to figure everything out, but simply put, you've got to at some point figure out that if you will just stop and say, "Father, I'm afraid again, and I can't control this situation. I can't fix this. And I need Your help. And You're going to have to calm me, and You're going to have to either change this situation or change me because I'm anxious, and I can't be anxious and trust in You at the same time. Something's got to change. Help me."

Well, the Psalmist comes up with this stuff. Look what he does. Psalm 56:3, "Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God I will praise His word. In God I have put my trust. I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?" You say, "Well, you don't know where I work, you don't know my boss, you don't know my husband, you don't know my wife." You know what? If you're a believer, the worst thing they can do is kill you. Well, they could torture you and that would take longer to die, but one of the worst things you do is die. And if you're dead, you're fine.

So if you say, "Okay, God, I can trust You, no matter what they come at me with, no matter what they threaten me with. Am I going to say, 'You know what, Lord, I got to do the right thing. You're going to take care of me. I am not going to live in fear'?" And there are people who live every day of their lives consumed with fear, dreading certain things that are coming their way, or that haven't even happened yet, or you know what? They may never happen. They just concocted in their brain.

Go to Psalm 34. Psalm 34 we'll read about four verses here. "I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth." So what's going on? There's worship going on. "I will bless Him all the time. His praise will be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears."

Now the problem is we get afraid in a situation and then we go, "Oh God, help me." And the scripture talks about worshipping Him all the time. And in the midst of your worship, when you get hit with fear, then you say, "Wait a minute. I got God on my side. I can talk to God, walk with God, have a relationship with Him. When this stuff comes against me, why would I be afraid?" I sought the Lord, He says, and what'd He do? He delivered me from all my fears.

If you want to get rid of the fears, get rid of the stresses, get rid of these anxieties, spend a little more time with God. Because when you spend time with God, let me tell you what happens. You start being more aware all the time how huge this God is, and how great He is, and how great He is, and how awesome He is, and how powerful He is, and what He is capable of doing. And if He can keep your lungs pumping air and your heart pumping blood, and you can still walk and talk and move and breathe and have your being, you know what? He can take care of your situation. You don't have to be afraid.

He said He delivered me from all my fears. It doesn't mean He'll deliver you from the situation, it means you don't have to be afraid in those situations anymore. What can mere man do to you? Go over to Job chapter three. And if you know anything about Job, he lost all of his possessions. And then bam, all of his kids. All he was left with was his wife, basically, and she said, "Curse God and die," so she wasn't being much help. And then he lost his health, boils from head to toe.

And then you get some amazing insight here in chapter three on Job. Verse 25, 3:25. "What I feared has come upon me. What I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness. I have no rest but only turmoil." Now Job also said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." But you know what? There's a human side here. Now God picked Job. Devil comes in and says, "Oh, who you got?" He says, "You know what, have you considered my servant Job? He's going to stick with me."

Delivers almost Job into the hands of the devil to do whatever you want to do, just don't take his life. Ultimately you can't touch his life. But see what he'll do. But you know what? He was a human being, he was a man. And somewhere even in Job's heart and life and mind, what had he probably been afraid of? "What I feared has come upon me. I'll lose all my possessions. I'll lose my children. I'll lose my family." He lost everything except his wife, and even his health. "I'll lose my health."

Everything that he feared. What are you sitting around fearing? If God was going to come after you and address an area of your life based on what you're afraid of, what is He coming after? What is He going to get you with? Is it your health? You say, "Oh, I dread, I'm afraid I'm going to be sick." Then is God going to come along and say, "You know what, I'm not going to let you live in fear of being sick. I'm going to challenge you in that area so you'll trust me"?

Is it financially? "Oh, I dread we're going to be broke and not be able to pay our bills." That's maybe already happened so you don't have to be afraid of that anymore. What is your deal? In Job's case, for some reason and God picking him, Job admits here, "What I dreaded has happened to me. I was afraid this could happen." You know what? You don't have to be afraid of anything happening because no matter what happens, if God's got you, and ultimately Job knew that, you're going to be okay.

Now jump over to the New Testament, Acts chapter eight. Another switch here. Moses in the Old Testament, Job facing fear. Everybody faces fear. Verse one, Acts chapter eight. "Now Saul was consenting to his death." In other words, the death of Stephen, who had just been stoned, and Saul's standing there when Stephen, and Saul is holding the garments of the people who were stoning him. So Saul was basically a Shiite terrorist Jewish, I mean, he was a nightmare, hunted down Christians. And we'll see that in a minute.

Look at verse three of chapter eight. "As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison." That's who Saul was, that's what he was known for. The Christians dreaded Saul. Then over in chapter nine, verse one and following, flip over there. Acts 9:1 and following. "Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, in other words were Christians, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem."

He goes to the high priest himself and says, "I need authorization to go to the synagogues in Damascus, and when I get there, if I find men and women who claim to be Christians, I'm going to have them arrested and I'm going to bring them to Jerusalem." He was a huge threat to the church. And if you know the story, you read the story on his way to Damascus, he basically God knocks him down. The light shines brighter than the sun at noon, and God speaks to him and says, "You're persecuting Me basically." And Saul's whole life is changed.

He's blind for a few days, then his sight returns to him and things completely change. Now jump down to verse 26 of that same chapter, chapter nine. So he's a believer now, and it says, "And when Saul had come to Jerusalem." Now think about when he was in Jerusalem when we were there a minute ago. He's got letters going to Damascus, threatening Christians, going to take them out. "And when Saul had come to Jerusalem," now he's back as a Christian, "he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him and did not believe that he was a disciple."

Look at verse 27. "But Barnabas," somebody stepped up to the plate and said, "You know what? I know him, and I'll vouch for the change." But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road and that He had spoken to him, and now he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. Saul went to Damascus to arrest Christians and got saved and ended up preaching in Damascus. So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out. God changed his life, took him back to a place a completely different man.

Go to 2 Timothy chapter one with me. 2 Timothy 1:6 and 7. "Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." Fear is literally described as a spirit. And if you've got fear, it's like you've got some spirit on you of fear. And so the devil comes along, the enemy comes along, whatever you want to call him, and he says, "How about some fear?"

Ever been sitting somewhere and everything's just absolutely fine, and all of a sudden a thought hits your mind, you start sweating, you get nervous, you get anxious like, "Oh my gosh, what if that happens?" Like what of what happens? I wasn't even thinking about anything. It's like the devil comes along and says, "Would you like some fear this morning?" Now what is your response? You say, "Oh, thank you so much, I didn't have anything to do today, I believe I'll be afraid all day. Thank you, and I'll take that."

Or you do what? You say, "You know what? No thanks today, I think I'm going for the power, love, and sound mind today. Thank you very much." Now you have that option. God hasn't given you a spirit of fear. You got a spirit of fear, you got it somewhere else and it's not from God, because He's given us what? Power, love, and a sound mind. And the word here for fear is timidity, fearfulness, cowardice.

Let me tell you a story. About 20 years ago, I guess it is almost to the day, I graduated from a seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. And for some people going to school, going to seminary is a great experience. For me, it was a disaster. I became a Christian when I was six, God called me to preach when I was 14. I went off to Baylor, I graduated from Baylor and I just got in this thing. I knew I was supposed to go to Baylor, I was supposed to go to seminary, and I was just going, I was paddling, I was doing what you're supposed to do.

But I had really zero relationship with God. And I was so overwhelmed, so messed up, so just almost depressed, and I was just grinding through it and trying to make it through it. That when I finally got done, and it went full circle literally yesterday, my niece got married in a church in Fort Worth and I had to go to Fort Worth. And I ended up back in this church where she got married and it was where my graduation ceremony was from seminary.

When I graduated from seminary and finally escaped Fort Worth, and I got nothing against Fort Worth but it was a bad place and a bad time for me. For the last 20 years of my life, even coming out of Waco, Texas up 35, 35 splits and one sign says to Fort Worth and one sign says to Dallas. When I would get to the split, the thought of going West Fort Worth, I would get overwhelmed. And I couldn't go but to a certain point because what had happened to me in that town was such a dark place, such a terrible time, which should have been a wonderful time.

I literally, geographically, could not get near that place, even thinking about it. I couldn't point my car that way consciously. You say, "Well, that's silly." You know what, then so is your deal. Now I got in my car yesterday and I drove all the way to Fort Worth twice this weekend with nothing. And I sat in that building, and I drove around that town, and I had absolute peace. And it took me a long, long time. But you know what, whether it takes a couple of days or 20 years, God's got a way of fixing this stuff.

And there may be a little town someplace where some bad stuff happened to you. There may be a house somewhere where some bad stuff happened to you. But God is saying, "You know what, for some reason I got to take you back there and we're going to solve this." And it's been 10 days or 40 years, "but I'm going to use you now that I've worked on you and I'm going to work through you now and I'm going to help you help somebody else." But you're going to have to get out of the way and let Me do this. I'll take care of you.

Now let me read you some verses to this effect out of 1 John. Look at 1 John 4:17. "Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world." When love has been perfected in you, when you know that God loves you and you love Him and because He loves you, you love yourself, you can love somebody else, when that thing is working, you don't have to be afraid of God anymore.

I have an awe and a respect for God, but there's a certain amount of excitement. If I don't have sin in my life and if He shows it to me and I confess it, I don't have to live in dread of God himself, because I got nothing to fear. How could I dread a God who said, "Look, I love you, and you know what? I love you so much, to get you back in relationship with Me, I'm going to let them kill My own son, let him be born of a virgin, live a sinless life, they got no reason in the world to kill him, but they're going to crucify him. He'll shed his blood, they're going to bury him and I'll raise him from the dead and guess what? I'm doing it all for you just because I love you."

How am I going to dread that God? The only way you dread that God is to say, "You know what, nice story, bucko, but I don't need your help. I can do it by myself." You dread that kind of situation, because if that's your attitude, when you face that God who's done that for you and for me, you got a problem. Because this kind of love doesn't bring about fear, it brings about boldness in the day of judgment. Look at verse 18. "There is no fear" what? "In love."

If the love category is working between you and God and with other people, you got no fear. There is no fear in love. When you love somebody or loved by somebody, the relationship is working, you don't have to be afraid. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. How do you get rid of fear? Perfect love, it'll cast it out. It can't stay because fear involves torment. Now think about this: how much of your life you're in fear and there's torment? It's torturous.

It's mind-boggling. You're thinking about what's going to happen and what could happen and what am I going to do and you're just freaked completely out. You don't have to live that way. I should not have to get in my car and headed toward Fort Worth, have any kind of fear whatsoever. And you know what? I don't anymore. But you know what? I did for a long time. Something wasn't right. I don't have to fear anything.

And there are still situations in my world and in your world where I get there and I think, "Okay God, what are You going to do? This is too big for me. We haven't been here yet. I can't go back there, I can't do this. What's going on?" And He says, "Trust me. I love you. I can handle this. Trust me. Be still, I can get us through this." And how do you know the love thing's working between you and God? It casts out the fear. And all of a sudden there's peace. You don't have to be anxious anymore. Because fear involves torment, but he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

So what's the problem? You say, "Well, I'm still afraid." You know what, so was I for 20 years. So what happens? God says, "You know what, we're going to work on the love thing."

Guest (Male): Before Richard comes back to wrap things for us today, I'd like to share a couple important things with you. Let me encourage you to take a minute and check out our website, richardellistalks.com. You'll find today's talk right there in the talks page, along with all of Richard's audio and video messages. You can even forward them to a friend, so they can hear them too.

You'll also find the prayer wall to add your prayer requests, a link so you can connect with us, the contribute page for you to be able to give to this ministry, all of our social media links and much more. So check it out, richardellistalks.com. And Richard's back now to wrap up today's talk.

Richard Ellis: It took me a long time to just get to the place where I understood this simple thing, that God was for me, that God really loved me. For some reason, I thought He was after me. I thought He wanted to hurt me, to destroy me. If I was good, that was just the way it was supposed to be, if I was bad, He was going to crush me. And I dreaded any encounter with Him.

And finally, He revealed himself to me along the way, and people helped me see this, that He was for me, He was on my side, He cared about me, He loved me. And it changed everything. And now I don't have to live in this fear. Now go back up in 1 John 4:12. "No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us." Another indicator of whether His love is perfected in us is whether you love each other.

Now listen to me: you find somebody you don't love, there's fear in your life. When you find yourself loving anybody and everybody, there's no fear in your life. Dread locks, love unlocks.

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