Richard Ellis Talks

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard's
style is very unique where he shares the message of
the gospel unlike anyone else. It's real, refreshing, focused and fun.
Whether you find yourself in a good place, maybe in
a difficult place, or possibly even in a very lonely place,
let me encourage you that you've come to the right

(00:22):
place 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 Richard Ellis Talks dot com.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
So with today's talk, here's Richard Ellis.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
The title of today's message is chicken.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
It's all in how you say this word, and in
a minute it will make sense. And I really don't
know what the etymology of this word is other than
it's a bird of some kind. But if you remember
as a kid, if you were afraid to do something,
what did somebody call you? They didn't say you are
a chicken? They just say chick in. And what I
want to talk to us today about is fear. And

(01:03):
just from knowing the people in this room and some
of you I know a lot about some of you
never met, don't know anything about.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
So I'm listing this message. You know, it's amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
No matter how confident you are, sooner or later fear
raises its ugly head and tries to scare you. And
the enemy comes along and through circumstances, whether it's legal, family, financial,
and just tries to rattle you and literally, and this
is an interesting phrase, scare us to death. And I
think about that word. I felt scared unto death. I

(01:35):
was scared to death. There is some fear that literally
you think you're gonna die. It is so overwhelming. Your
heart stops or it races, and you think, if this
doesn't go away, I'm not gonna make it. This is
gonna kill me. That's so much fear. And there are
people who live in fear. And I want you to
turn to Genesis chapter three, and we're gonna hit a
bunch of verses, and as usual, I'm going to try

(01:56):
to go left to right through your Bible. Genesis is
the first book in the Bible, and I'm gonna get
you wats of scripture today. I think it makes a
lot more sense to tell you what God says and
what I think. So we're going to see what God
says about this. But it's interesting that if you start
reading Genesis chapter one, two and you get to three,
there is no mention of fear until chapter three, and
there is no fear until there was a fall. And

(02:19):
when you are rightly related to God, as Adam and
Eve were before Sin came along, there was no fear.
They had no reason to fear. They walked and talked
with God in the garden and the cool of the day.
They had nothing to fear. They had God with them. Now,
the advantage to being a Christian now after Christ's life, death, brailer, resurrection,
is that you don't have God with you, you have

(02:39):
God in you. And what I want us to see
through the scripture today, it's one thing if you walk
into a room with bodyguards and with angels and whatever
your protection is around you. But when you walk into
a room with the God of the universe in you,
then whether anybody else sees that or not, the enemy
knows he's there. The devil who tries to scare you,
this to fear that tries to come on you, he

(03:02):
sees who's inside of you. Now, if you've put Jesus
on a shelf somewhere and said, you know what, I
like you being savior. I like the fact that I've
got a ticket to heaven. But I'm going to drive
my car now. I'm going to run my life. Now,
you just sit over here by me and we'll go
where I want to go. And if I need your help,
I'll ask for it. The devil sees that and says, well,
Jesus may be your savior, but he's not your lord.

(03:23):
You're running your life. Then he'll try to scare well,
he'll try to scare you pretty bad. We'll just leave
it at that. I look at Genesis chapter three, verse nine.
Adam and Eve had sinned. Then the Lord God called
to Adam and said to him, where are you? And again,
it's not like God didn't know where Adam was. He's
asking Adam, for Adam's sake.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Where are you? So he said.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
Listen to Adam's response, I heard your voice in the garden.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
He had heard that every day, and I was afraid.
Now why was he afraid?

Speaker 4 (03:53):
Because I was naked and I hid myself before sin
He didn't know he was even naked. But when he's
sinned and he discovered that he was naked, and what
that caused was fear. I was afraid because I.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Realized I was naked. Most of us, if.

Speaker 4 (04:08):
You look at fear, is somehow tied in a lot
of ways to being exposed. Somehow one of my great
fears growing up. I grew up as a pastor's son,
six generation pastors in my family, and I had this
shell around me, I had this crust around me that
looked religious. I could smile, I could wear the clothes,
I could talk to talk and fool a few people.

(04:30):
But the thing that terrified me was if anybody ever
figure out who I really was, or who I really wasn't,
I'd be exposed. And that made me afraid because if
they knew what I thought and what I did and
where I went and who I really was, They'd find
out I was not what I reflected what I.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
Was claiming to be, and I'd be ruined.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
And there are a lot of religious people out there
who live in this way, and they're keeping a front up.
They claimed to be all these things, but inside they're empty.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
The basically afraid.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
So Adam says, I heard your voice in the garden,
and I was afraid. Because I was naked and I
hid myself. And he said, who told you that you
were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I
commanded that you should not eat? And somehow, guys, fear
is tied to disobedience. If you will walk with God
and talk with God and obey God, you will be
amazed at how little fear you can get.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
You may get hit with it, but.

Speaker 4 (05:24):
It bounces off of you because you say, I know God,
God lives in me. I know who I am, I
know who he is. Why would I be afraid? But
when you get out from under his arm and his
wing and his covering, now you've got reason to be afraid.
And a lot of us live out there too much
of the time, and fear comes. And you have reason
to be afraid a lot of the time because you've
gotten yourself out somewhere away from the shepherd, away from

(05:47):
the flock, away from God's providential care, his sovereignty.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Where he is right there covering you. I turn over
to Psalm chapter three. That's a short psalm.

Speaker 4 (05:58):
Let's just read verse one and following This is a
psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son
Lord how they have increased to trouble me. Many are
they who rise up against me. Many are they who
say of me, there's no hope for him and God.
God's not going to help you. See it's bad enough
to have fear on the inside, then you have people
mocking you on the outside, saying, what are you kidding yourself?

(06:19):
God's not going to come through it do anything for you.
There's no God, or if there is one, he's not
interested in your little problems.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
You're sunk. There is no help for him in God.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
But you, o Lord, are a shield for me, my
glory and the one who lifts up my head. I
cried to the Lord with my voice, and he heard
me from his holy hill. I lay down and slept.
I awoke, for the Lord sustained me elive. Verse six.
I will not be afraid. I will not be afraid
of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against

(06:52):
me all around. Some of you got only one person
who's against you, David says, you know what if ten
thousand people come against me, I got no reason to
be afraid. Why because the Lord is with them. I
will not be afraid who have set themselves against me
all around arise, O, Lord, save me, oh my God,
for you have struck all my enemies on the cheek bone.
You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongs

(07:15):
to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your people. And
if you go over and read, for instance, in Ephesians
chapter six, where it talks about it commands to put
on the armor of God, and it talks about putting
that armor on in the context of prayer and not
necessarily fighting going into battle.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
It talks about standing.

Speaker 4 (07:33):
Now, let me try to give you a visual thing
for this week or today. When you get hit, you
say God, all right, you're God, and I'm your child.
If I receive this gift of eternal life, so you
live in me and you want to live through me.
So you're going to save me from an eternity separated
from you in a real hell, and you're going to
control my life. If I let you, I'll make you Lord.
So you're the boss, I'm yours. And you step out

(07:55):
into your day and you stand there and the devil
comes along with some thought and says, what are you
going to do if this happen? How are you going
to pay your bills? What if she leaves you, what
if your kid doesn't come home, What if you lose
your job, what if you lose the court case? And
he starts hitting you with all those fears. Guys, don't
focus on the fears, focus on him. And I'm telling you,

(08:18):
if you'll just start praising him, the devil's got to
back off. And you say, father, wasn't that interesting that
the enemy would point that out? But you know what,
I don't care if ten thousand people come against me
and they surround me and they think they're going to
crush me. They can't touch me because you live in me.
And you start talking about what you don't have to
be afraid of, and about who he is, not who

(08:39):
the enemy is. And I tell you what, guys, they'll
back off because they realize they're not going to get you.
They can't get you because you exercise praise and you
step out in faith, and the enemy's got to back away.
So verse six again, I don't know if you underline
your Bible, but I highly recommend it. You'll need this
stuff sooner or later. Underline verse six, I will not
be afraid. You say, well, I don't believe that that's

(09:02):
your problem. Psalm twenty seven Psalm twenty seven to one,
a Psalm of David. Now listen to this stuff, and
if you can memorize it, because you don't always have
the book in your hand, but you can hide it
in your heart, and that'll protect you. The Lord is
my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Now

(09:22):
think about one of your basic fears? And I still
have this when I hate to admit this stuff, And
every once and while I still get hit with this.
I can walk out in my backyard in the light
of the day and not think anything. But you turn
all the lights out at two o'clock in the morning.
I'm gonna ease out there.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Why we are afraid of the dark?

Speaker 4 (09:41):
Basic thing? We are afraid of the dark, and we're
afraid of what death, the dark and death. And I'll
read your verse in a minute. There are people that
live around you that you know, and maybe it is
you who are terrified of dying. We spend billions of
dollars trying to off death creams and all this stuff.

(10:03):
Of course men don't use those, but yeah they do.
I've seen some guys hiding and putting them cream on
all that stuff. But Look what he says. The Lord
is my what, my light, and my salvation. You're afraid
of the dark. He's your light. You can't get in
the dark with Jesus because he is light. The Lord

(10:23):
is my light and my salvation. So who am I
going to fear? Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?
But who you're going to be afraid of? The Lord
is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I
be afraid? Verse two. When the wicked came against me
to eat up my flesh, my enemies, and my foes,
they stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me,

(10:47):
my heart shall not fear the war should rise against me.
In this I will be confident. One thing I have
desired of the Lord, that will I seek. Now listen
when he says this one thing I have desired the Lord.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
Now that's a narrowing it down to one thing.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life, to behold the beauty
of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. For
in the time of trouble he shall hide me in
his pavilion, in the secret place of his tabernacle. He
shall hide me, he shall set me high on a rock.
He puts you in a safe place. He puts you

(11:24):
in a high place. If you're a little kid. I
have a six foot nine dad, and I can remember
it being a little bitty guy. You get up high,
and you get up on his shoulders. Nobody's going to
mess with you. Now I can remember part of my fear.
And this is kind of personal. When you have a
father who is that big and he is strong, and
when he spanked you, you got spank and he didn't

(11:44):
want any more of that. Things like that. There was
a certain part of me that feared my father, and
that kind of was hard for me to translate to God.
But on the other hand, there wasn't anybody I felt
safer with because he'd kill or lay down his life
for mine. And if you're a parent, a father, a mother,
you have a father who not just would lay his

(12:04):
life down for you. You've got a father who did
lay his life down for you, and he let his
son live and die, be buried, race from the dead
so you could live not just forever, but so you
could not live here in fear. And if you're living
in fear, it is not God's plan fear life. And
if you are living in fear, then go to these
scriptures over and over and say.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
God, enough is enough.

Speaker 4 (12:27):
Maybe I am going to die, but I'm not going
to live in fear till it happens. And maybe I
will go bankrupt, but I'm not going to live in
fear if it happens. I'm going to live one day
at a time, trusting you whatever you say. Let's keep
reading here verse six. And now my head shall be
lifted up above my enemies all around me. Therefore I
will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle. I will sing, yes,

(12:49):
I will sing praises to the Lord. And by the way,
if you get afraid start singing, something happens when you
start singing.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
Verse seven.

Speaker 4 (12:58):
Here, o Lord, when I cry with my voice, have
mercy also upon me, and answer me. When you said
he's quoting God. When you said seek my face, my
heart said to you your face, Lord, I will seek.
Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn
your servant away in anger. You have been my help.
Do not leave me, nor forsake me, O, God of
my Salvation and the New Testamon. He promised he would

(13:20):
never leave us or forsaken, So that's nailed down. If
my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord
will take care of me. Teach me your way, oh Lord,
and lead me in a smooth path. Because of mine
enemies do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries.
For false witnesses have risen against me, and such as
breathe out violence verse thirteen. I would have lost heart

(13:42):
unless I had believed that I would see the goodness
of the Lord in the land of the Living verse fourteen.
Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he
shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.
Turn to Psalm fifty six Psalm six, verse two. Mine
enemies would hound me all day, for there are many

(14:03):
who fight against me, almost high. Whenever I am afraid
underlying it, whenever I'm afraid, what does he do? I
will trust in you. See, we get hit by fear,
we're terrified what's gonna happen, and we take control. We say, Okay,
I got a problem. I'm afraid this is gonna happen,
so I'm gonna fix it. You don't fix it. You say, Father,
I can't fix it. I can't fix my body. The

(14:24):
doctors they don't even know what's wrong with my body.
I can't fix it. So I'm gonna trust you God.
Immediately when you get afraid, say you know what, I'm
not gonna be afraid. I'm gonna trust you God. And
you start moving it this way, not this way or
this way, moving inside or reaching around. You go to
God with it Verse four. In God, I will praise
his word. In God, I have put my trust. I

(14:45):
will not fear. What can flesh do to me? All
day they twist my words, all their thoughts are against me.
For evil. They gather together, they hide, they mark my
steps when they lie in wait for my life. Shall
they escape by iniquity and anger? Cast down the people's
Oh God? And he goes on describing what you do
Verse eleven. And God, I have put my trust. I

(15:05):
will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Now?
All these people who are against you, you feel and
threaten and persecute and claim this and that and talk
about you and backstab? What are they going to do
to you? Let me tell you something about the book.
The truth always wins in the end, you say, what
they're telling lies about me. The truth always wins in
the end, and it may not be in this life.

(15:26):
But I'm telling you this a day coming when the
truth will come out. And for some that's not a
good thing. All right, Look at Isaiah forty one. Go
to the right just a little bit. Isaiah forty one,
Verse nine, you whom I have taken from the ends
of the earth and called from its farthest regions, and
said to you, you are my servant. I have chosen
you and have not cast you away. Verse ten. Fear not? Now?

(15:48):
Why is he saying to them to not be afraid?
Fear not?

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Why?

Speaker 4 (15:51):
For I am with you? And the New Testament would
say for I if you're a believer, not as I
am with you, I am in you. Fear not, for
I am with you. 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. Do
you ever feel like you can't even stand, You're so afraid,

(16:13):
or you're in so much trouble and you just think
you just got to sit down. It literally says here
that he says, I will uphold you with my righteous
right hand. It's like when you have no strength and
you think you're going down, God himself takes his hand
and says, wait a minute, and he picks you up,
and he holds you up, and he says, I've got you.
I've got you. You're going to be okay. Turn to

(16:35):
Romans chapter eight, just a few more. Romans Chapter eight,
Verse twelve says this, Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not
to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For
if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
But if by the spirit you put to death the
deeds of the body, you will live. For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, these are
the sons of God. How do you tell whether you're

(16:56):
a child of God or not. You live a life
that's led by the Spirit of God, not by your
own flesh. You don't do all the time what you
want to do. You do what the Holy Spirit wants
you to do. You are led by the spirit. You
walk in the spirit, as Galatians five talks about verse fifteen.
For you did not receive, now listen to these words.
You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear.

(17:19):
Fear is described as a spirit, and what that spirit
does is lock you up and prison you. And there
are people listening to me today. You're not just afraid.
You live in fear. It's like yoursel has fear written
over it and you've checked yourself in and you don't.
You're not afraid here and there you live there. You

(17:39):
are afraid all the time. And some of it's insecurity,
whatever the words you want to use, but it's fear.
It's being afraid. You don't have to live that way.
And he says, I haven't given you this spirit. You
haven't received the spirit of bondage again to go back
to being afraid, but you receive the spirit of adoption
by whom we cry out Abba, Father, and it's I

(17:59):
think it's an Aramaic word abba that literally we would
say dad, or some people may use the word daddy.
And when you've got the God in the universe living
in you in his holy spirit, there he's given you
a spirit that tells you you have been adopted into
this family. You belong. He is your father. You can
pick up the phone anytime, you can walk into his
room anytime. And the picture I have of this is

(18:20):
the oval office the president of the most powerful person
on the planet. And if he's my dad and I'm
a little kid, they can be having whatever kind of
meeting they want to have. But I know that's my daddy.
I bust the doors open, come running in the room,
and everybody stops and they look at the president and
they look at me. What are you going to do? Well,
we're gonna take care of the kid that's my son.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
And we come crawling up to the door.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
I hate to bother you, God, but I know I
haven't been here in a long time and everything. But
if you decide to go talk to him, push the
doors open and say you know what, you and I
both know. I have screwed up and I'm wrong and
I am sorry, and I am back, and you are
my and I got problems and I don't say they're
all going to be gone today, but we're going to
work through this. And I need your help and I

(19:06):
got nowhere else to go, and everything I've tried on
my own is not working. And I am back and
I need your help, and you promised you'd help me,
and I don't deserve it. And I know that but
I'm here anyway, So take care of this. You can
cry out to him, Abba, Father, Dad, you got to
help me.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
Verse sixteen.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
The spirit himself bears witness with our spirits that we
are children of God. And if children, then heirs heirs
of God, and join heirs with Christ, if indeed we
suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.
I am in God's will. I think about what I
just said. We talk about God's will, that I have

(19:44):
been written into God's will. Now, what has to happen
for a will to be executed. Somebody's got to die.
Somebody died, So you think you're waiting on somebody to
die and get some inheritance. He already died. The will
has been executed. You are in God the will of
your believer, and you've received all the benefits that come
from being in his will. Everything that Jesus has is yours,

(20:07):
Everything that's in heaven is yours. Here now, if you're
not writing checks on that account, that's your problem, not
God's problem. If you're not living the life He's made
possible for you, that's your problem, not his problem. That
is his problem, because he cares and he loves you
and doesn't want you living in fear whatever you're going through.
So get in the house, draw on the account. He's
your attorney, he's everything. Hey, look, I understand I can

(20:30):
hear too much of stuff. I want to know what
I got. It's in here. This is the will. Read
the will, and he'll show you what's available on what
you've got. Coming all right? One more two Timothy one seven.
Turn to that, and I would memorize this. It's not
a long verse. Tewod Timothy one seven. And this is
Paul writing to Timothy. And this is what he says.

(20:52):
Underline it. For God has not given us a spirit
of fear or of timidity, but of power and of
love and of a sound mind. So the devil comes
along now this afternoon and walks up to you and
literally says, hey, how about some fear? Could I interest
you in some fear? How about a spirit of fear?

(21:14):
Anybody who want a spirit of fear? Oh my gosh, yeah,
I think so you're right about all that. Oh I'm
not going to make it probably Yeah, yeah, I'll take
some of that. And oh my gosh, what are we
going to do? And he gets you all freaked out
and afraid, or he offers you the fear and you say,
you know what, thanks, but no thanks, because every time
you offer me that, I remember that God's offered me power,

(21:34):
love and a sound mind. The ratios three to one.
I'm gonna go with the power, love and sound mind.
No thank you, and you walk away. You say, it's
not that easy. How do you know if you've been
taking the fear of your whole life? You don't know,
and you are surrounded by people for whatever reason, they're afraid.
You may be one of these people, but you don't
have to be if you choose not to be.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
Richard will be back in a moment to wrap up
today's talk, but first I want to share a couple
of thoughts with you.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Let's be honest.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Real life isn't about living some highlight reel for.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Others to see.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Most people have deep hurts, questions and struggles. Well, we
get it and we want to help you in any
way we can. So let's keep this conversation going. You
can give us a call anytime at eight five five
six Richard, or connect with us at our website Richard
Ellis talks dot com.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
You can even put in your prayer request right there.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
On the prayer wall, call us at eight five five
six Richard or online at Richardellistalks dot com. And now
let's get back to Richard with a final word on
today's show.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
If your ultimate fear, guys, is of dying and not
knowing where you go, I can get rid of that
one in about two seconds and help you pray a
simple prayer. Let's do that. Let's bow our heads and pray.
And if you're one of these people, you're not scared
of just dying, you're scared of living. It's just not
working your way. I'm going to give you as simple

(22:57):
as I can how this deal works. You pray a
simple prayer. Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner.
I have screwed up. I know it, and you know it.
And I deserve whatever I get on my own. I'll
never be good enough to get heaven. But God, I
believe all this stuff about you and your son Jesus Christ,

(23:20):
and I believe that he is God, that he came,
he lived a perfect life, he died a perfect sacrifice
on the cross, and he shed his blood to pay
for me and my sin. And they buried him, but
you raise him from the dead, Father, and I believe
that he paid my way, that he purchased a place

(23:41):
for me in heaven, and he offers it as a
free gift. And right now I receive that gift of
eternal life, and I ask you to come live in
me and through me, and to change mine now and
mine forever. I thank you for loving me, God, and
for confirming in my art that I am now your child,

(24:02):
not by purchase but by adoption. That I don't have
to be afraid to live or to die. I just
have to trust you and let you live in and
through me. Thank you so much for loving me, Father,
and for coming to live within me. And Father, I
pray for the Christians who already know where they'd spend eternity.
I pray today, Lord that the fear would flee as

(24:24):
we submit ourselves to you and resist the devil and
know that he's got to go and lay our lives
down and let you live in and through us the
way you desire to. Father. Thank you that Jesus lived
and he died to not just save us from eternity
separated from you, but he can save us from a
life separated from you and save us from ourselves and
our sin. So do that in many lives. Father, give

(24:47):
us the confidence in who we are in you and
who you are in us to stand and when all
is said and done, to still stand. We love you, God,
We thank you so much for loving us, and we
pray all these things in Jesus. This name makes it possible. Amen.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
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(25:24):
at the website, there's a ton of great stuff there
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Speaker 2 (25:31):
Prayer request, and a whole lot more.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
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Until next time, God bless you and thanks for listening
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