Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: Today on Richard Ellis Talks, politics, racial stuff, all of these things have created a nightmare for the body of Christ. Because we got people now who hate each other and they're believers. You are completely out of line. Completely out of line.

Announcer: You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. We're so grateful you tuned into the program. Richard wants to share with you some encouragement, words of hope, and probably a laugh or two. And in today's complicated busy life, that's exactly what's needed. Richard's talks are always straight from the Bible, filled with truth. Now you may not be able to hang out with us for the entire program, but you can always pick it back up at our website RichardEllis.com. In fact, you can find all of Richard's talks right there waiting just for you, RichardEllis.com. So, with today's talk, here's Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The title of today's message is Prune Juice 2. So I don't normally have to. I ran out of time last time with Prune Juice 1. So we're going to go back to Prune Juice. No, I'm feeling fine. It has nothing to do with my health. But let's go back at this a little bit. Go to John chapter 2, actually, before we go to John chapter 15. So John chapter 2 has always been a perplexity to me, and I'm not going to claim that I figured this out or this is what this is about.

But John chapter 2 verse 1 says, "On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there." Okay, so somebody got married, Mary got invited. Now both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. So Mary's there, Jesus, the 12 disciples, assuming that's they're all together, they all get invited to this wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, in other words to Jesus, "They have no wine." Now how in the world is that supposed to be his problem? Right? "Uh, Son, they have no wine."

And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come." So it was just a little bit too early in the process or something. But she keeps going. Verse 5, "His mother said to the servants." And if you feel comfortable underlining stuff in your Bible, underline this in your Bible. She looks at the servants and says, "Whatever he says to you, do it." Okay?

So what is he saying to you? What has he said to you? Because the best advice you can get is, whatever it is, do it. Keep reading. Now there were set there six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing 20 or 30 gallons apiece. So these are pots, they're empty pots, but they were used for the purification, these ritual washings, so they would fill them and go through these rituals. But they're empty at this point. Jesus said to them, "Fill the water pots with water."

And this is not where I'm going today. But when Jesus tells you to do something very specific, do it very specifically. Don't put a little water in the pots because it turned out that they got as much wine out of the pots as they put water in the pots. And they filled them to the brim. So these servants are paying attention all the way to the top. And he said to them, "Draw some out and take it to the master of the feast." And they took it.

Now, this is nuts. Okay? You're at a wedding party, it's not your problem. Your mom's bringing up, "Hey, they ran out of wine." Like, am I the wedding planner? Like, why are you asking me? Why are you telling me? And what does she think he can do about it? She knows who her son is. He's a 30-year-old man at this point. And yet she thinks he's got the answer, and it turns out he does. So keep reading.

"Draw some out, take it to the master of the feast," and they took it. "When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and did not know where it came from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew." We know where it came from because we know what we put in the pots and we know what you're drinking. "The master of the feast called the bridegroom," and he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have all well drunk, then the inferior." You don't serve cheap wine first. Right? Who would do that? You're trying to impress your guests.

But all of a sudden at this wedding, it's like the master of ceremonies, here goes the bridegroom, he says, "What happened here? You're serving the good stuff last?" "You have kept the good wine until now." And then this beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. So they're following him, but now it says, they believed in him. This is the guy. So why water to wine? Prune Juice, we're going to talk.

Go to John 15 and we'll pick up a little bit where we left off last time. We talked about pruning and we'll read through this again. The vine gets pruned so that the vine will produce more and more fruit. So the fruit, the purpose of a lot of the fruit, back in that day especially, was not just to eat grapes. And I love grapes. But the purpose of the fruit and bearing fruit, in the case of the vine and grapes, was for the grapes to be crushed and the grape juice, as a result of pruning, turn that into wine.

So Jesus' first miracle has to do with fruit that has been crushed and processed into something that you can drink. So his whole ministry, miraculous ministry, starts with something involving fruit. Fruit for God in your life as a Christian is a huge deal. Okay? A huge deal. Now, John chapter 15, verse 1. Jesus is speaking here and most commentators, theologians, would say that this is probably the night that he was betrayed.

So he's having this conversation with the 11 who are left probably. Maybe the 12, we don't know if Judas had left already. But he said, "I am the true vine, my father is the vinedresser." So Jesus says, "I'm the vine and my father comes along as the vinedresser and the vinedresser does what? He prunes the vine and gets rid of all the branches that are not producing fruit." I actually never thought I would own this. I got a house now with a lot of trees and I have an Echo Extended, whatever this thing is. Right?

Does anybody know what I'm talking about? It's got a chainsaw on the end of it and you're, you know, you're doing this. Well, I am cutting limbs down. But you know what I'm looking for specifically when I go out into those trees? Dead limbs. Now I've cut some limbs that have leaves on them because I've watched the tree guy when he came and trimmed them and said, "I can do this." Almost been hit with some big limbs along the way. Um. But I go primarily after dead limbs because they're accomplishing nothing in my trees. They look bad, they're not working.

They come off and they get piled up and they're gone. Okay? So the Father is the vinedresser, the one that chooses what gets clipped. Verse 2, "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit." He is after more fruit. Now, so let's slow this down just a minute. The most important thing in your life first of all is not bearing fruit. You have to be sure that you are connected to the vine.

I don't mean look like you're connected. The other thing I found out, I didn't know anything about any of this stuff, but I got some dead limbs up in my trees. And when I go to cut them, they've already been disconnected. They just fell into the tree. So they look like they're connected to the tree. They're not connected to anything. I just got to pull them down. So you say, "Well, my parents were Christians." That's not going to do it. "My grandmother prayed for me." That's not going to do it. "I wear a cross." That's not going to do it.

You have to be connected to Jesus because he is the source of all life. And life flows from him to everyone who is connected to him. So anything that I have worth being or doing is because it flows from the vine, Jesus, into my life and through my life. But the point once that happens is that my life is to produce fruit. So you say, "Well, I'm connected." Where is the fruit? This at some point should be frustrating the fire out of you.

And then what happens when there's no fruit? You say, "Well, what do you mean by fruit?" We'll get to that in a minute. Then the devil says, "If you're all that Christian, where's the fruit?" And then you start second-guessing, "Well, maybe I'm not even a Christian because I got nothing to show for being a Christian. I've gone back to my old ways. I've gotten pulled into the world. I'm trying to, you know, get people to like me for being cool or whatever that is instead of saying, 'God, are you and I okay? Are we really connected where you are flowing to me, through me and my life is producing fruit?'"

Go back to John chapter 15. "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." So briefly again, you want to get your life cleaned up, get the scriptures in your life. Right? You're not going to get clipped and cleaned. What happens to me when I read the scriptures? The scriptures are the blueprint, the plumb line. They're the thing when I look at it and go, "Oh my gosh, that doesn't match up with me," and the Holy Spirit says, "This has got to change." And I can change it. "Are you willing to let me change it?" Yes, sir or no, sir.

And then if I say no, it locks down. If I say yes, he keeps moving and keeps changing and keeps clipping so that I can bear fruit. Next verse 4, "Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me." Abide means just stay connected. Constantly stay connected. "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing."

You cannot live the Christian life without Christ. You can't act like a Christian and be a Christian. You can't talk like a Christian and that make you a Christian. God is good. All the time. That don't make you a Christian because you know what to say. "If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you."

"By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. So you will be my disciples." So if you back into that, you say, "Well, am I a follower of Jesus? Am I a disciple?" If you are a disciple of Christ, you are bearing fruit. If that is happening, you are glorifying God and that's what your life is about. It all points back to him because we are so ridiculously changed, you can't explain it any other way. Verse 8 again, "By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples."

"As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. Stay connected to his love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love." So obedience and love, keeping the commandments, are all connected. Why are they connected? If I really love God, I'm going to want to serve him, obey him, follow him. If I really want to serve him, follow, obey him, it means that I love him. These things go together.

Now, so we got three categories. We got people who are not connected, and if you don't make a change and get connected, you're going to be thrown in the pile, burned up, you'll be separated from God in a real hell forever. You say, "I don't believe that." You will when you die. And you will remember this day that somebody tried to warn you. Then you say, "Well, I'm not that group. I'm connected, but something's disconnected. I don't have any fruit in my life. And I've gone back to my old life and I'm trying to make it work."

If I could get on my knees and beg you, I would beg you, don't go back. There's nothing back there. If you want to go back, go back to Jesus. Don't go back to your old life. You are burning up the only life you're ever going to have. And it's not going to end well. Because you're trying to prove that you can do it the old way with Jesus, and you can't do it the old way with Jesus. Now, he'll do a ride along, right? He's stuck. "I'll never leave you or forsake you."

So everywhere you go, you take him. Everybody you sleep with, you're not married to, he sleeps with them too. Think about where you're taking him. Whatever you shoot in your body, you shot into his body. Whatever you put in your body, whatever you're doing, it's him too. It's never going to work without being connected to him and letting him begin to move through the branch of your life and say, "Okay, this is going to be a little painful. This has got to go. Clip."

And you go, "Jesus, anything but that. Please don't take that." And he says, "It's not bearing any fruit. And it's keeping you from bearing fruit, which is what we're after." Go down to verse 9, "As the Father loved me, I also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love."

"These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full." Not just his joy remain, but that it be full. Have you ever met someone full of joy? Full of joy? You're about to explode, you're so full of joy. Right? That's what he's after. And by the way, we'll see in a minute that joy is one of the fruit, the segments of the fruit of the spirit. You say, "Well, how can I be full of joy all the time? I'm not happy all the time." You don't have to be happy all the time, but you can be full of joy all the time.

Verse 12, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you." Now, there's a difference he compares here servant to friend. A servant doesn't know everything that's going on. A friend knows what's going on. I have friends that I share very personal things with because they are my friends. And Jesus says, if you're going to claim to be my friend and I'm your friend, then there's going to be one of the indicators, you're going to do whatever I command you.

That's how I know we're friends. "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all things that I heard from my father I have made known to you." That's intense. Everything the Father's told me, I've told you. "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you." I didn't pick Jesus, Jesus picked me. I just responded and said, "I pick you back."

And he appointed us that you should go and bear fruit, and that it be remaining fruit, lasting fruit. And that you're so connected to him that you ask the Father in his name, he'll answer it. This is just a different way to live. Verse 17, "These things I command you, that you love one another." Politics, racial stuff, all of these things have created a nightmare for the body of Christ. Because we got people now who hate each other, and they're believers.

You are completely out of line. Completely out of line. You say, "But they're on the left, they're on the right. They believe this, they believe that. I don't agree with that." You better go ask Jesus who you're supposed to be loving and not loving and why. And I promise you, he will send you back out. I may not be crazy about your politics, but if you're one of Jesus' kids, you're my brother or my sister. I'm going to love you. And if I don't, now I got the problem. Okay? You better be careful. Because the enemy is trying to blow even the church wide open with all this stuff.

"Oh, well she posted something on Facebook and," I'm gonna diss whatever you got to diss on there, you know, "I'm going to, I'm out. I'm going to unfriend, unlike, I'm going to call Facebook." Right? Or Meta, or whatever it is now. Are you nuts? Read your Bible. That ain't fruit by the way. That is not fruit. "Well, I'm angry." Well, you better get over it. And figure out a way to love people, not just hate on people. Or you're going to accomplish nothing.

Okay. So tells them to love each other, and then he gets into this, and I'm not going to take the time for this, but read the rest of this. Then he tells them you're going to be hated. And by the way, if you do everything right, you go out in the world, you live, you love, you serve, you're bearing fruit, the Father's glorified, you're his follower, everything's working, they are going to hate you. Hate, hate, hate, hate you. They hate us. Stop being surprised that if you follow Jesus and it's all working, they're going to hate you.

They hated him, they're going to hate you. You're just going to have to get used to it and get over it. Right? "I just want to be liked." Then you're never going to live the Christian life. Because you're going to have to go back to acting like you're not a Christian so you fit in with the world that hates Jesus. Okay. Galatians chapter 5. So this shouldn't take for just a few minutes to go through this list, but I want you to see what the lists look like. Okay?

So Galatians 5:16. "So if our lives are supposed to produce fruit, the fruit of righteousness, being rightly connected to Jesus, then what does it say?" Paul writing this church in Galatia says this, "I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts or wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish." Okay? They are totally opposite. If you're walking in the Spirit, you're doing the total opposite of what you used to do in the flesh.

"But if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident." Okay? So if I read off one of these words and this is part of your life, I'm telling you straight up, unless you decide to change this, you are not walking in the Spirit. Adultery, fornication, now pay attention. "Oh, I love Jesus." You can't be shacking and following at the same time. Okay? So this is where you start losing your mind. "I'm following Jesus, but I'm going to sleep with my girlfriend, my boyfriend or I'm having an affair."

"That we're just two in." Uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outburst of wrath. You out of control with your anger? It's the flesh. Selfish ambitions. It's not about getting anybody else where they're going, it's all about me. Dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

So if that's the life you've chosen apart from God, it's not going to work. That's the world. "But the fruit of the Spirit." So the deeds of the flesh, the works of the flesh, that's what comes out naturally is that list I just read you. But if you're connected to the vine as a branch and you're bearing fruit, the fruit, and by the way, it is singular fruit. You can look it up. It does not say the fruits of the Spirit.

So here's how this works. This fruit tree, this vine, when it produces fruit, it's like if you had grapes on a vine and you have a cluster of grapes, each one of the grapes is a different grape. And I'm about to read you all the types of grapes that will come out as fruit on the end of your vine. So if you're walking in the Spirit, you're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh, but this is what's going to come out of your life. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

"Against such there is no law. And those who are in Christ have crucified the flesh and its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another," in other words, going back to the first list. Now here's what's so mind-boggling about this stuff. You're connected to the vine. You let him come in your life and clip these things that have got to go. His life starts flowing through your life. At the end of your branches the fruit starts coming out and it's love, and it's joy, it's peace.

These clusters of fruit are all of these things. So it's not like you say, "Well, I'm going to start working on love." When you walk in the Spirit, it all blows up in your life. So when you meet someone who is walking in the Spirit, you cannot explain it any other way. It's Jesus. He is the only one who can produce this life. And you don't have to work at it. You can't work at loving. You can't work at joy. You can't work at peace. It's something that he produces in your life. And then you start to have the impact that we're supposed to have.

Man, I grew up with some mean Christians. I'm talking mean Christians. In fact, I've passed out tracts before in my life, you know, the little leaflet with the gospel. And the only when I do that, when I pass those out, the only people who are rude to me when I pass those out are Christians. "Well, I don't need that. I'm already a Christian." Okay, you know. Looks like that's working out really well. Right? We're the worst. We do more damage for the kingdom as believers because we claim to be Christians.

We got the bumper stickers and we wear the cross, you know, tattoos. And then we're mean as hell, literally. So you go out there in the world and, "Well, I'm supposed to witness." Let me tell you something about witnessing. If you're walking in the Spirit, it's not going to be complicated because you're not going to be able to stop it. Because you're going to be so overwhelmed with how he's changed your life. And when you meet someone, you're going to be so brokenhearted that their life obviously sucks because you know yours did and still does when you go back to that.

I'm not saying you're going to end up crying. I cry because I just, I can't get over it. You know. He keeps taking my sorry. It's in the King James, but I won't say it. He keeps taking me back. But I'm getting tired of leaving because it goes so much better when I just stay connected, close to him.

Announcer: Richard will be back in a moment to wrap up today's talk. But first, I want to share a couple thoughts with you. Let's be honest, real life isn't about living some highlight reel for others to see. Most people have deep hurts, questions and struggles. We get it, and want to help you in any way we can. So, let's keep this conversation going. Give us a call at 855-6 Richard or connect with us at our website RichardEllis.com. You can even put in your prayer request right there on the prayer wall so others can pray for you as well. Call us at 855-6 Richard or online at RichardEllis.com. And now, let's get back to Richard with a final word on today's show.

Richard Ellis: So the Prune Juice actually turns out to be wine when it's all said and done. Because the grapes are harvested, they're crushed and they're available to drink. And then Jesus on the night that he was betrayed, same night, he takes a glass of that juice, that wine and turns the wine, not from water to wine, but wine to blood basically, and says, "I'm about to do something else miraculous." And every time you drink of this, remember that this is my blood shed for many, for the remission of sins. And without him you got nothing. And without him you can do nothing.

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