Richard Ellis Talks

Richard Ellis: The enemy is going to come back this week. There is stuff in my life I get clobbered with time after time after time. He doesn’t relent. He comes back—you think you have outgrown this temptation and you have graduated to a bigger temptation, but he comes back with the same old stupid stuff.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard’s going to take the next few minutes to share some great words of hope and insight for you. In today’s broken world, that is something everyone is desperate to hear. Richard shares unapologetically the truth of the Bible in a way that’s clear, relational, and uplifting.

Thank you for taking this time to listen. We know it will bless you. When you have a moment, you might want to check out our website so we can stay connected with you: richardellis.com. Right now, let’s go ahead and get things off and running with today’s talk. Here’s Richard Ellis.

Richard Ellis: The message titled today is Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush. Sometimes I think we get so focused on our own life, our own problem, our own stuff, and it’s almost as though we walk around—if you walk around with your head down all the time, do you know what you see? Your feet. Even if you raise your eyes up and you look, you can see around, but sometimes it does you good.

I used to do this when I pastored a little church when I was twenty-something years old. I’d drive four and a half hours one way, and some nights I’d get so tired I’d have to pull over. I’d pull over on the highway in the middle of the night, back on a dirt road, and I’d lay on the hood of my car on the windshield and watch falling stars.

There’s something about stopping and looking up and realizing we’re not by ourselves. There’s more to this life than just living and dying, as a song says, more than just trying to make it through the day. So many people only see themselves. They only see their own strength, their own problems, their own lives, their own resources, and they forget that we’re not alone. This isn't a message about aliens, but we are not alone. There is a whole other world of stuff out there, and if you don't believe it, I'm going to read it out of the book.

Let’s start in Joshua chapter five, verse ten. Joshua has just led the Jewish people out of the wilderness after 40 years. They've come into the Promised Land. Verse ten says: "Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover: unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day."

Remember they had been fed in the wilderness for 40 years with manna that fell from the sky. God fed them every day like clockwork. Every day, He took care of them. The day they hit the Promised Land and ate the food in the Promised Land, do you know what happened? The manna shut down. They were home and there was food there to feed them. The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land, and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

It came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him with a sword drawn in his hand. If I’m going through an alley or down a street at night and I look up and there’s a guy with a sword drawn, I’m going to ask some questions or I’m going the other way. Joshua comes up to this guy with a sword drawn. Nowadays it’d be like somebody having a gun drawn.

Joshua went to him and said, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" Are you on our side or are you on our enemy’s side? Who are you? Whose side are you on? I'm going to show you in a minute who this man is, and I want you to remember the question and what he said. He said, "No," in other words, "No, I'm not against you." But look who he is. He says: "No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come."

He is the Commander of the host of the Lord, the armies of the Lord. There is a whole other world that you can't see. There are angelic beings. There is all hell and all heaven colliding every day of the week. Back then, Joshua knew it and saw it. This man appears and it’s Jesus in the flesh appearing there to them. He draws his sword. Joshua has gone in the Promised Land, and he’s about to have to conquer the whole thing.

Many times we go into battle without having met the Commander of the Lord’s armies. We just take off and do our own thing. If you do not know Him and you don’t know that He is on your side and He is with you, you’re going to get clobbered. We attack our day, we attack our lives, we attack our problems as though He didn't even exist. We don’t even acknowledge Him.

Notice the sequence: he sees him, he’s a little nervous, it’s an awesome sight. He finds out it’s God Himself. He bows down and says, "What do you want me to do?" That takes humility because the picture here is Joshua walking up to this man with a sword drawn. He's got an army of maybe over a million people behind him. What’s one guy going to do to them? Nothing unless it’s God.

Don’t mess with the God of the universe because you don’t want Him against you. You want Him for you. The New Testament says, "Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world." If God be for us, who can be against us? But if God is against you, no one can be for you. You do not want the God of the universe against you. How can anybody possibly think that the God of the universe could be against you when He laid down His own Son’s life?

He let Him die on a cross, be buried and raised from the dead. He could have stopped it. Jesus could have stopped it. God could have stopped it. The whole thing didn’t have to happen except that God made a decision because He loved us. Verse 15 says: "Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, 'Take off your sandal, take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.'" And Joshua did so.

You've got a commander so far. Flip to Second Samuel chapter five and verse seventeen. We're getting to the mulberry bush, so you don't have to live in suspense much longer. Verse seventeen: "Now when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. And David heard of it and went down to the stronghold." These Philistines knew who David was. He had slaughtered their warriors.

The Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim. David inquired of the Lord. You've got people in the Bible asking God a lot of questions. If you do your thing without asking God what His thing is, you’re going to be in trouble. I can start at the front and go right through the room and say, "Tell me something in your life where you didn't ask God and you did it." A marriage, a relationship, a job. You just said, "I don't care what God thinks, I'm going to do what I want to do."

Beginning with me, you can tell me the consequences of doing your own thing and where it got you. David knew, Joshua knew; ask questions. Find out if they're for us or against us, and if it's God, make sure you're doing what God said. David inquires of the Lord. He says, "Shall I go up against the Philistines? Do I have your permission and will you back me if I go into battle against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand?"

The Lord said to David, "Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand." A battle has not even been fought yet physically. David has prayed and asked God what to do. God’s told him what to do and told him what’s going to happen. David doesn’t have to go into the battle wondering what’s going to happen. He’s already been told. That is faith.

If you wing it in your day and you just plow through without knowing what's up or asking God anything, you’re going to get pummeled. But if you start your day and say, "God, I am not leaving this house until I know you're with me, and that my plan is your plan, and we're going to do it your way today." God, I'm telling you upfront, I'm not interested in more temptation today or any more evil. I want your way, I want your plan, so tell me now.

Then God gives you this peace in your heart: "I'm with you, it's going to be okay, let's go." When you move out into your day like that, it doesn't matter what happens. God is in you, God is with you. No weapon formed against you will prosper. David goes into these battles like, "Let's get this over with, we've already won, we've just got to do this thing."

David went to Baal Perazim and David defeated them there. And he said, "The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough of water." Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim. And they left their images there, their idols, and David and his men carried them away and destroyed them. Verse 22 says: "Then the Philistines went up once again and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim." They’re coming back.

David inquired of the Lord. The enemy is going to come back this week. There is stuff in my life I get clobbered with time after time. He doesn’t relent. You think you've outgrown this temptation, but he comes back with the same old stupid stuff. Everybody in the room knows where they get clobbered. David inquired of the Lord and He said, "You shall not go up. Whatever you did last time, don't do that again. Don't use the same tactic because I'm not going to do it the same way."

Listen close: "And He said, 'You shall not go up. Circle around behind them and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees.'" Verse 24: "And it shall be when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For then the Lord will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines." You've got this army and God says to go by the mulberry trees and you crouch down. Do you know what you're listening for before you attack? The sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees.

We saw in Joshua we've got a Commander of the army of the Lord. David is instructed to follow God's army into battle. Don't move until you hear the sound of marching in the top of the mulberry trees. I don't know what it was like that day, but I guarantee you if your Commander has told you to sit still until you hear marching in the trees, you've got to know who God is because that is the craziest thing you've ever been told.

Imagine if you wait on God like you're supposed to. Out of nowhere, you're crouched down by these mulberry trees behind the enemy, and this sound of marching all of a sudden comes in the top of these mulberry trees. You know that the armies of the God of the universe are marching over you into this battlefield. That would be pretty comforting. Without faith, the whole thing is crazy. But at some point, you're just going to have to believe it or not.

It takes faith sooner or later or you’re going to be an atheist until the day you die. You have to exercise some faith sooner or later. You've never seen electricity, but you believe it every day you turn lights on and off. You see the effects of it, but you've never seen it. They didn't see the army's marching, but they saw the effects of it. They won again. Whatever it is that God is telling you to do and you think is so foolish, you better think again because He takes the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

He will ask you to do something like trust that Jesus came, died, was buried and raised from the dead, and because of that you're going to live forever and have a great life. That's the craziest story you've ever heard. But when you believe it, it changes your life. Who could have ever made something like that up except God? "And David did so as the Lord commanded him, and he drove back the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer."

One other passage: Second Kings chapter six. Verse eight says: "Now the king of Syria was making war against Israel, and he consulted with his servants saying, 'My camp will be in such and such a place.'" The man of God sent to the king of Israel saying, "Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are coming down there." Then the king of Israel sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him. Thus he warned him, and he was watchful there.

The heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing, and he called his servants and said, "Will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?" Every time this king made a move, somebody knew where they were going and the enemy would be there. He says, "Who is the spy?" And one of his servants said, "It's none of us, my lord, O king. But Elisha the prophet tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom." Somehow God reveals to Elisha everything you say. You can't get away from Him.

That makes Elisha the enemy. Elisha is the one that somehow knows everything the king says even in his own room. He can't make any move without eliminating Elisha. Verse 13: "So he said, 'Go and see where he is that I may send and get him.'" And it was told him, "Surely he is in Dothan." Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. Elisha is in this town with his servant.

This king sends an entire army—horses, chariots—and in the middle of the night, they surround this city. There is nobody getting out. When the servant arose early and went out, there was an army. He goes outside and looks up, and this entire city is surrounded with an army. His servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" Verse 16: "So he answered, 'Do not fear, do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.'"

If you knew that, you’d live differently. If you think you're by yourself today, you're in a heap of trouble. But if you know what Elisha knows, those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Where are they? Elisha prayed in verse 17: "Lord, I pray open his eyes." Elisha knew they were there. He said, "Open his eyes that he may see." Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw.

Behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. The city is surrounded by horses and chariots, but what they don't know is that they're surrounded by horses and chariots of fire. Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, "Strike this people I pray with blindness." And He struck them with blindness. If you keep reading, Elisha led them right into the enemy's camp and they were all arrested and it was over.

I've given you one story: Jesus standing with the sword, the Commander of the Lord of Hosts. I've given you another story: literally the angels of God marching into a battle. And here now you've got the equipment: horses and chariots of fire. You are not by yourself. You say, "But I'm going through all kind of hell." You are not by yourself. If you'll start your day instead of being doom and gloom, look up and say, "God, I don't understand it, I have never seen it."

By faith I believe it exists. I am not alone, and there is nothing that can come my way that you can't overcome. I don't care what anybody thinks or says about me. I am going to trust you because I've got nowhere else to go. I prayed this morning: Father, I have never seen one of these angelic beings. But as sure as I'm standing here, I know they're somewhere. And if my prayers are the thing that mobilizes these troops, I'm asking you to station an army of these warriors around this building.

If God opened your eyes and we could all go peek outside and see with spiritual eyes, I'm telling you there would be horses and chariots of fire. It would be like God Himself pushing back the enemy who wants to come in here and destroy your life. There are people whose lives are literally in the balance. If you will hear the spirit of God in your heart and you will respond to that, you might get screwed by somebody. So what? Do the right thing.

There is an enemy out there trying to shut your life down. God has a plan. For some people in this room there is a window opened, and you are hearing that God loves you, you're hearing that Jesus died for you, and something inside of you stirs. In a minute the window will close and you'll drive away and get sucked right back into the world.

I am begging you not to leave this building without the God of the universe in your heart. Don’t live without Him and don’t die without Him. There is too much at stake. This is a safe time and a safe place to maybe make the biggest decision you'll ever make: to receive this gift of eternal life or to say, "God, I've run far enough, I'm going to obey and do the right thing."

Guest (Male): 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.

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. Now, let’s get back to Richard with a final word on today’s show.

Richard Ellis: Let’s pray together. Our Father, there is a part of me that longs to see not just those chariots of fire and those horses, not just the marching army, but most of all the Commander of the armies of God. I want to see your face, Jesus, because nobody ever died for me. Nobody. And I thank you so much. I know this may be a funky thing for people who hear all this stuff, but I pray that somewhere through something that’s been said deep in their soul, you answer prayers today.

People’s eyes would be opened, their ears unstopped, their hearts broken. They’d realize they can’t do it on their own, no matter how smart or fancy they may be. We can’t keep ourselves alive. Just to say, "God, you’re able, I’m not, and I’m going to lay it down. I’m going to let you live in me and through me." Father, I thank you for the protection. I believe with all my heart there are angelic beings, there are horses and chariots of fire that protect us here today.

I thank you that they don't ditch, they don't leave, and that somehow you've set it up that when we pray, we mobilize the armies of heaven. I pray that we wouldn’t leave the house in the morning without our battle armor, that we wouldn’t leave the house without that angelic escort, and that we would understand that there are more with us than there are with him. We don’t have to live defeated, oppressed, or imprisoned lives spiritually.

Father, whatever’s going on in somebody’s heart, I pray that maybe somebody would say, "God, I know you love me." This is freaky, but "God, I do know you love me somehow, and I believe somehow that Jesus died for me. He was buried and raised from the dead and He’s alive, and I’m tired of hearing about it. I want Him to live in me and through me and change my life and my eternity. I receive this gift that you paid for."

For the people who have done that at some point in their life and they’re running alone, I pray that they’d come back into the security of the relationship with you where there’s protection in a family that cares about them. You’re an awesome God. There is no way anybody could manufacture what happens in a place like this because it’s you by your Spirit who walks through this room and touches hearts. I thank you for doing that today. We pray it all in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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