Richard Ellis Talks

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Richard Ellis Talks with Richard Ellis. Richard's going
to take the next few minutes to share some great
words of hope, insight, humor, and relevance in today's lost
and searching world. That's something everyone.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Desperately needs to hear.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Speaking of that, we'd love to keep this conversation going
with you anytime through our website. Richard Ellis Talks dot Com.
In fact, there's so many ways to connect with us
from there that you really need to check it out
for yourself. Richard Ellis Talks dot Com. But right now,
let's go ahead and get things off and running with
today's talk.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Here's Richard Ellis.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
The title today's message is true colors. The expression which
really alludes to the antonym for it, which means false colors,
and that is sailing under a flag other than one's own.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Pirates would do that.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
They'd put a flag up another ship would approach and think, well,
that's who they really are, but it was false pretense.
They'd board the ship, ramsacke it and loot it and
steal a ship. So sometimes people fly under false colors
instead of their true colors. I'm going to go somewhere
that may be familiar for us, but people will beyond here,
listening somewhere on a radio or whatever, may say.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Oh, that's a little harsh.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
And so I want to say right up front that
I'm going to do everything I can to say what
I say today. It's going to be the truth, and
I'm going to try to speaking in love, but it's
going to go to the core of who we are,
even as Americans, and one of the greatest challenges we
have as a nation, but also as Christians because it
permeates our church in an incredible way. I have people

(01:36):
from time to time, and I grew up with this,
even who will almost hammer a table or a pulpit
and say, you know, they'll pick up their Bible and say,
I believe every word in this book.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
It's the inspired, infallible Word of God. And I agree
with you.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
But you know what, there is still some picking and
choosing that goes on. And my question to you is,
if you say you really believe all this stuff, then
we're going to look at some stuff today that sooner
or later, what it says, what it communicates, and who
we are is going to collide. And it's fascinating to me.
And I've talked about this before. You know, if a

(02:12):
single guy is sleeping with everything that moves, we say, oh,
you know what, you should be living a pure life,
and that's not good. And if a married man has
an affair and sleeps around and breaks up his marriage,
oh my gosh, that's terrible. If two gay guys sleep together,
it's an abomination.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
And you say, well, isn't it, And I said yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
But there's a whole lot more abominations in the Bible
than just homosexuality. But we like to pick the things
to point at that we don't have a problem with.
And so if Preacher, if you want to get up
and talk about gluttony, as long as you're not fat
and deep and wide yourself, knock yourself out. If you
want to talk about sexual temptations or alcohol or drug,
go after all of that, but don't come messing with

(02:53):
our prejudices.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Now we're gonna look at some scripture.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
We're going to start in Mark, chapter eleven, verse sixteen
to nine teen. Usually the story when you're reading this,
this is the bit about Jesus going in and turning
the tables over and driving everybody out of the temple.
But if you're just focused on that, you'll miss what
he's saying here in part of these verses, Mark eleven,
verse fifteen and following.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
So they came to Jerusalem.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive
out those who bought and sold in the temple, and
overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats
of those who sold doves. And he would not allow
anyone to carry whares through the temple. Then he taught,
saying to them. Once he cleaned the place out, then
he starts teaching, And he's not teaching about that. This

(03:37):
is what he's teaching about. Is it not written? My
house shall be called a house of prayer for what
for all nations?

Speaker 2 (03:46):
But you have made it a den of thieves.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
And the scribes and chief priests heard it and thaught
how they might destroy him, For they feared him, because
all the people were astonished at his teaching.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
When evening had come, he went out of the city.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
What he said made them so angry they started thinking,
not a way to just we need to remove him
from our gatherings.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
We want to destroy him, we want a kill him.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
What he said was so revolutionary, but yet was so biblical.
He's just saying what it says in the Old Testament.
And I go over to First Kings, chapter eight, Old Testament,
First Kings, chapter eight, and this is Solomon dedicating they'd
finally gotten this temple bill. David, his dad wasn't given
permission to do it, but Solomon was. So it's done.

(04:31):
It's time to dedicate the thing. And this is a
piece of what is said at this dedication, First Kings eight,
verse forty one, and following moreover, concerning a foreigner who
is not of your people Israel. So someone even then
he says, okay, let's cover the people who are not
even Jewish, not the people of Israel, not God's chosen people,

(04:53):
but has come from a far country for your name's sake,
meaning God's sake. Somehow they have come from a long
way away, maybe looking for God. For they will hear
of your great name and your strong hand and your
outstretched arm when he comes and prays toward this temple,
even if they couldn't. And if you go back and

(05:14):
look in the Old Testament, this place was a compound
the temple, you'd have these outer courts, inner courts, the
court of the gentiles, court of women. Back then they
discriminated in different ways. But you couldn't even get in
the inner courts unless you were a Jewish male, and
so some people were left out. So he says, okay, well,
let's just allow for this. If you draw them God,

(05:34):
and all they do is pray toward this place, then
this is what he's asking here in heaven your dwelling place,
and do according to all which the foreigner calls to you,
that all peoples of the earth may know your name
and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that
they may know that this temple which I have built

(05:55):
is called by your name. There ought to be something
about a place where God's presence is, and in the
New Testament it is where his people are gathered. If
you're a Christian, He's with you always. But wherever we
gather as a church ought to be a place of
prayer for all nations. It ought to be for anybody. Now,
I'm not naive or stupid enough to think they say, well, yeah,

(06:17):
I've been doing this long enough to know it doesn't work.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
And you say, well, why doesn't it work?

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Well, if you had a bunch of mature, godly people
who showed up and said, absolutely, I do believe it all,
and I think it's possible. Let's do this together. I
don't care where you're from, what your background is. I'm
in we're family. Okay, that'd be ideal. But the problem
is some people that come are not Christians, and some
that come are Christians, but they are marginal at best.

(06:43):
They are kind of picking and choosing smortgash board and saying, well, yeah,
I need some peace and joy. But I don't like
that person. I didn't grow up around those kind of people.
Even if we choose to try to do this, we
have a tendency to kind of gather and we say, well,
I've got something. We're kind of the same age, and
I like to hunt, he likes to hunt. I'm not

(07:04):
disallowing all of that. I don't think the Bible even
stops that. When you look at it, are we willing
to gather? And are we willing to love each other
and not just put up with each other?

Speaker 2 (07:15):
John Chapter thirteen.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
And this may end up being for me the verse
almost when it comes to communicating Christianity to the world.
And I don't think there's any way to overemphasize enough
what this says and what it means to somebody who
walks into a gathering. You know, they're not praying toward
a temple anymore, but we are the temple believers. So

(07:37):
when they get around us, there ought to be something
of this oozing out. John chapter thirteen, verse thirty four
and following. And I know I've shared this and that
some of this is a reminder, but he flat out says,
here a new commandment. When Jesus God and a man says,
I'm giving you a new commandment. There are ten in
the Old Testament, the big ten. There were more than
things that came along, obviously, but here are the ten

(07:59):
now I'm at and the eleventh. The eleventh commandment basically
is that you love one another.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
You think, well, that's no brainer.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
But our explanation for that interpretation of that is okay, hi,
how are you nice to meet you?

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Where'd you go to school?

Speaker 3 (08:12):
We even get it wrapped around the act lift somebody
didn't go to our college, Say well, I went to
A and M, and you went to Texas or I
went to somewhere in the northeast, and you're this or
that you know, forget color and economics. We find reasons
to separate from people, stupid stuff. He says, I'm giving
you a new commandment that you love one another as

(08:35):
I have loved you, that you also love one another.
And then what I can't shake is verse thirty five.
And this is the deal. Why is it so important
to love each other? Because he says in verse thirty five,
by this, all will know that you are my disciples
if you have love for one another. I think the
world's not buying our Jesus, our Christianity, our thing, unless

(08:59):
they're wanted just to be religious and pick up chicks
or whatever they're You know, I'm trying to find a
husband or a wife, and I hear that church has
a big singles program and they're probably all like me,
So there's a really high probability that I'll find someone there.
So I'll go to that church. Okay, Oh, say you
found a spouse. Is your life changed? Or the people
beyond that who are really sucking air and here because

(09:21):
it is so traumatic out there. People accept you because
of what you drive, where you work, where you live,
what you do, how much money you got, all these things,
and there are people who don't have any of that
and feel completely rejected. And they walk into a congregation
and they look around and say, well, these people aren't
anything either like me or like each other even and
it looks like they're getting along. They've not heard a

(09:43):
lick of music, a word of preaching, because all that
doesn't matter if we don't love each other. And if
they stand in the back and look around and go,
are you kidding me? These black, Mexican, white Asian, whoever
it is rich for they're mixing together. Do not take
this for granted. It ain't and in everywhere, and it
should be the norm. The Church of Jesus Christ on

(10:04):
the planet, the body of Christ ought to be blazed
in this trail. We should be setting the example for
the entire planet about how to get people together and
work things out. Because we claim we're gonna spend you
believe all the Bible, we're going to be in heaven
forever together. You know what you're gonna hate heaven if
you can't do it for a couple hours.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
A new commandment that you love one another?

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Why, because that's how they're gonna know where as followers,
not how much we raise our hands, how great the
music and preaching is. They're going to walk in and go.
These people are followers of Jesus Christ because they love
each other. And that's how I know. Harry Blackman, Supreme
Court Justice, said this, in order to get beyond racism,
we must first take account of race. There is no

(10:48):
other way. And in order to treat some persons equally,
we must treat them differently.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
You are going to have to think.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
You cannot put it on autopilot, getting a conversation and
not be sensitive people around you and say something like,
oh my gosh, I slaved over this meal for three hours,
and there's a black person sitting there, you know what,
slaving over something and the nicest thing you can think of.
You say, well, that's stupid. That's just a phrase. That's
just a euphemism we use. That may be something white

(11:18):
people we use. Black people don't like that being used.
He said, well, I don't care, and I say that's
the problem. We've got to stop just thinking about me
and what I want to do. Martin Luther King day
comes along. You know what, white people sometimes say, what
are we doing celebrating some guy? You know, if we
start making holidays for every Black and Mexican on the
planet that does something, we'll never go to work.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Well, the rest of the holidays are for white people.
You say, well, I don't care about Martin Luther king Day.
It's a pain and it's whatever.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
You know what, there are people who do because it
affected their entire life. So even as a congregation, a
certain holiday comes around and you say, well I don't
know about that, well, you know what.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Find out about it.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
Then now if you're in you think, well, you know
what I'm hearing you, but I still don't care, then
we're not gonna get it done.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
You say, well, oh my gosh, you can't say things
like that. It's the truth.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Now. Am I against anybody? Absolutely not. But there's a
way to do things. And we have to talk about
these things and get to know each other and engage
with one another and care enough and say, well, how
does that Patrick who works here? We have hours of conversations,
and I say, we have enough relationship now where I
can ask some questions. And I say, Patrick, what does

(12:32):
this situation look like to you as a black man
in this country? And he starts talking and I'm like,
I never thought of that. Assumptions we make that things
are just going to be the same for everybody they're
supposed to be.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
But I'm telling you they're not. Turned to acts.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
Chapter two starts out talking about the day of Pentecost,
when the Holy Spirit descends, the Church is born, all
heaven breaks loose, miraculous things happen verse five. And there
were in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.
And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and

(13:08):
were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language.
And people say to me, but they're language barriers. You
know what, There been language barriers for thousands of years.
God can work around the barriers. And I'll read you
some in Galatians here in a second. The whole point
of Jesus coming, part of it is that he brought
the barriers down.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Everyone heard them speak in his own language.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Then they were all amazed and marvels, saying to one another,
look are not all these who speak Galileans? How is
it that we hear each in our own language in
which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those
dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea Cappadocia, upon Us in Asia, Phrygia, Pamphilia,
Egypt and parts of Libya, adjoining Syreene visitors from Rome,

(13:50):
both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them
speaking in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God,
something miraculous happen, and that gathered people, no matter what
they didn't have in common. It was the sound of
God declaring his greatness through these people in these languages
that drew them together. So they were all amazed and perplexed,

(14:12):
saying to one another, whatever could this mean? Others mocking said,
they're full of new wine. They're just drunk. I don't
think there's some coincidence that. Literally, the church is born
with diversity built in. It wasn't just a one little
sliver of people. God timed it Pentecost when everybody would
be there. They listened, and something exploded out of that.

(14:33):
And their problem is the farther we get from it,
the farther we get from it, and we have separated
ourselves out. It is not biblical. You say, well, I
believe the Bible. It's not biblical. You say, well, but
there's no churches like this didn't get involved in one
that's trying at least. Go to Galatians Galatians, Chapter three,

(14:54):
verse twenty six and following, and he says, for you
are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ
or put into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither.
Now look at this, and we believe that. We say
we believe this stuff. But look what it says. There
is neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither a slave nor free.

(15:17):
There is neither a male nor female. For you are
all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ,
then you're abram Seed and heirs according to the promise.
It's one. You can't separate out over these things. You
gotta figure out a way to get together, because it's
what the Bible is made possible. It may be just economics,
and the white rich people and the poor rich people
are separated out of economics. You can't do that stuff

(15:40):
you said, but it's being done. There's enough people doing it,
Isn't it okay? It's not okay if you can't back
it up with scripture. Martin Luther King Junior said this
lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than outright rejection, and his wife,
Greta Scott King said segregation was wrong when it was
forced by white people, and I believe it is still

(16:02):
wrong when it is requested by black people. So this
isn't just about a bunch of white people being off track.
When black people say, you know what, we're staying to ourselves.
We appreciate the option to integrate into society, but we
choose not to.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
We don't want to go that far.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
Now you're in trouble, it is your responsibility say no,
we're not gonna huddle up as black or white. We're
gonna come together our Mexican or Asian or whatever it is.
We are going to do what the book says and
show the world we love each other in spite of
all of our differences and what the world says.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
It's not possible.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
There is too much that happens in church that is
possible without God. You cannot combine people that are different
without God unless there's a government mandate, and then they
hate each other.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
But just put up with each other.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
I'm not talking about just putting up with somebody I'm
talking about its genuinely loving one another and then the
world being changed. Ephesians chapter two. Let's read some more.
You know what, everyone in a long have these thoughts, Richard,
this is going to cost you. You get up and
say all this stuff. Nobody ever invites you to speak anywhere.
They don't anyway, You're going to pay some price that's

(17:09):
too high. You know what. The biggest price I'd have
to pay is standing before the God of the universe
and coming up with some excuse as to why I
could not preach the scripture and not challenge people to
get off of it and do what we could do
with him. But we refused to do because we were
just too comfortable. And the world goes to hell, and
we go, well, what a shame. They don't buy into
our Jesus thing. It doesn't make any sense. The people

(17:33):
that I get around every once in a while, that
are lost as a goose in a hailstorm are looking
for a god that is real, that can do stuff
that no one else can do. They don't want subcultural
gatherings of economic and racial groups. They're looking for a
god that can do extraordinary things, powerful things. And Solomon
even that passage we read in First Kings is saying, God,

(17:54):
when they pray, to wear this temple, answer their prayers
so they'll know who you are, that you're a great God.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
I'm not after religious people.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
We just want to get tired of some preacher and
don't like the new pew.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Pads they bought, and want to get to another church.

Speaker 3 (18:08):
I'm looking for people who are looking for God and
say let's try something impossible, and when it happens, nobody
gets the glory but God and people are saved, and
all heaven breaks loose and a city is healed, and
people say, we why are you downtown? Nobody lives downtown
the thousand people live downtown Dallas. But there's also a line,
an invisible line. And this nutty thing about this particular

(18:30):
city is the name of the line is the Trinity River.
And nobody from the hoods going into that, you know,
up north, and nobody north's going south. And we keep
this line.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
We are on the line.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
And if we stick to this and do this thing
and say God, we're not quitting, we're not giving up.
We believe it's biblical. I think He honors that stuff.
And there's something brewing in the world today. The spirit
of God, I think is moving, and the return of
Christ is not getting any farther away. But he is
not coming back or busted up bride. He is coming

(19:02):
back for a bride that will say we are one,
not one separately, but we are one.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Ephesians two. Let's jump down.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
We're almost done Ephesians two, verse eleven. Let's jump in there.
He's already talked to him about the fact that it's
by grace that you're saved through faith, and that not
of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works.
List anyone should boast. Then, he says in verse eleven, Therefore,
remember that you once gentiles in the flesh who are
called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in

(19:35):
the flesh by hands, that at that time you were
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and
strangers from the covenants of Promise, having no hope, and
without God in the world. That's what most lost people
feel like. But now in Christ, you who once were
far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

(19:55):
For He himself is our peace who has made both one.
He has taken Jews and Gentiles and said.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
You are one.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
If you think black people hate white people, white people
hate black people, you have never seen anything like Jew
and Gentile problems. And to say to the Jewish Christians
you are one of them, and they are now one
with you. You cannot be separate anymore. It rattled the
whole Jewish community. And still does you say, well, I'm

(20:24):
not a gentile. If you're not a Jew, you are.
And the Jews, who don't appreciate gentiles still to this day,
they may be polite to you, but they're not crazy
about gentiles. To this day, only Christ can take these
walls down and take two opposing people, or aver many
we have, and blend those together and make one out
of them, which he says here verse fourteen, who has

(20:45):
made both one, and has broken down the middle wall
of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, that
is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as
to create himself one new man from the two thus
made peace, and that he might reconcile them both to
God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to

(21:05):
death the enmity. Now let me tell you something all
these people march and reconciliation stuff. You will have zero
reconciliation without the blood of Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Period.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
You try to reconcile groups of people and get them
to love each other and shake hands and sit on
podiums and act like they're okay. You got the blood
of Jesus, it might happen. Without that, it's not going
to happen. And we got the blood of Jesus and
we're still struggling. Now, what is it the core of
this problem. It's not racism, it's not prejudice.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
It's sin.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
And if you don't call it what it is, you
can't deal with it.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
It's all sides.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
This isn't just white on black, it's black on white,
it's Hispanic, it's everybody getting this mix. Now, I took
you to first Kings, the temple where Israelites God when
they pray. Here.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
I took you to acts too.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
The church is born diversity, people from all over the planet,
and that's where it explodes. Now I'm going to take
you to the end Revelations, Chapter seven, verse nine.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
This is in heaven.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
After these things, I looked and behold a great multitude
which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples,
and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb,
clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
and crying out with a loud voice, saying, salvation belongs

(22:29):
to our God who sits on the throne and to
the lamb. My contention is, why can't we do that now?
Why are we going to have to wait till it's
just the deal where every knee will bow every time
will confess they don't have an option. I choose now
to gather with all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues and say,
you know what, this is not just happened two thousand

(22:51):
years ago, and it's not going to happen one day
in heaven. It can happen here and now, and if
we do it, it will make a miraculous statement to
the people who see it hear about it, because it's unexplainable.
It's not what we do naturally.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
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. 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. 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

(23:29):
connect with us at our website, Richard ellistalks dot com.
You can even put in your prayer request right there
on the prayer wall. Call us at eight five five
six Richard or online at Richard ellistalks dot com. And
now let's get back to Richard with a final word
on today's show.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
All right, one more first, John one, verse five, six
and seven.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
This is the message.

Speaker 3 (23:51):
Which we have heard from him, and declare to you
that God is light and in him is no darkness
at all. If we say that we have fellowship with
Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not
practice the truth. And I think it was Isaac Newton
who was the first one to demonstrate that white light

(24:12):
was composed of the light of all the colors of
the rainbow. And if he took a prism and ran
the light through it, it would split it up where
you could see it. There is no light without color.
Now look at this next phrase verse seven. But if
we walk in the light as He is in the light,
then what's going to happen? We have fellowship with one another,

(24:35):
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us
from all sin. They'll know that we're His disciples because
we love one another. And you say, well, I'm walking
into light, you know what? And then you're going to
have fellowship with one another. And the one another does
not mean everyone who is like me. You will find
yourself with someone who is not like you, but who

(24:55):
is your brother and sister in Christ. And now you've
got a choice to make. If you're walking to light,
it's not hard. You will have fellows.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yet you've been listening to Richard Ellis Talks. We really
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That's eight five five six, Richard. Another way is through
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(25:23):
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(25:43):
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