Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the significance of walking with God, highlighting that God's ultimate goal is fellowship with Him, which transforms us into His image. He explains that true Christianity is about a deep, personal relationship with Jesus Christ, rather than seeking worldly benefits. The sermon stresses the importance of recognizing Jesus as our living Redeemer, whose life empowers us to overcome our natural tendencies and challenges. Beach encourages believers to maintain a posture of faith, continually confessing that 'My Redeemer liveth' as a source of strength and hope in trials. Ultimately, the call to walk with God is a call to experience His transformative power in our lives.

Who has a clock, a watch? Alright, just tell me when 30 minutes are up, and then I'll be able to go from my introduction to point one. Just kidding. Alright, let's pray, alright? Father, thank You so much for Your grace and Your mercy and Your truth and Your love and Your faithfulness, Lord. Father, we can spend all day and not even begin to touch the surface of talking about everything that pertains to You. Just to who You are. All of the features, all of the inherent qualities that make You God. Lord, we have no other topic to discuss. We have no other interests that we want to discover. We really don't even want to look into the Bible and just find interesting topics to talk about and subjects to discuss. We know the Bible was written by Your hand in order to give us a clear and wonderful revelation of who You are and what You're like. Lord, today we want to discover, by the Word of God, a greater capacity within our hearts to see You, to know You, to love You. Oh, Holy Spirit, we honor You today. We make much of Your ministry this morning that focuses on the Son of God. We make much, Lord, of the ministry of the Holy Spirit who delights, who eternally has a passion to reveal the splendor and the glory that belongs to the Father and the Son. Lord, we simply recognize today that the Holy Spirit has been given that our eyes might see Jesus and that we might be transformed to mirror His moral majesty. And so we commit the next few moments into Your hands and pray for amazing grace to transform us into the image of God through Christ. Amen. And amen. Walking with God. We began last week walking with God. We learned that God's passion, God's eternal and infinite passion is fellowship. He has had eternal fellowship with Himself for all eternity. Father, Son, and Spirit have enjoyed infinite fellowship. There is an amazing revelation of the heart of God as we discover the eternal unity and fellowship that the Godhead has enjoyed. We see the qualities of God, the qualities of His nature shine as we discover the love that the Father has for the Son and the love that the Son has to the Father. We see that the Father has given all things to the Son, and yet the Son has taken all things and has given them back to the Father. We see this fellowship and communion that the Father and Son have. We see the Holy Spirit has been given and He doesn't care to speak of Himself. He doesn't care to talk about Himself. He doesn't care to make much about Himself. But the Holy Spirit cares to make much about the Son and the Father. He cares to reveal to us, His interest is to reveal to us the glory that God has given the Son. When we get into fellowship with the Godhead through being born again and being a partaker of the divine nature and the Holy Spirit, we discover the beauty of the nature of God, the character of God that's revealed as the Lamb of God and the Son of God. And it is this inherent nature and character that defines God, that God is longing to pass on to us as His church. This is why He calls us into fellowship with Him. The highest good that we can experience by being called into fellowship with God is to be transformed into His image. That's the highest good. God has nothing greater to give us. It's unfortunate that today, oftentimes, the idea of walking with God and fellowshipping with God is reduced to and connected to what I'm going to get out of it. And it oftentimes has to do with worldly things. What I'm going to get. What's going to benefit me? But God's highest intention, beloved, is that we might hear the call of God as Abraham did in Genesis 12 and begin to walk with God. And as a result, over a lifetime, we are becoming more and more like God in His character, and less and less like sin and its character. Okay, walking with God part 2. Let's begin by turning our Bible to the book of James. We want to read a portion of Scripture in the book of James. Chapter 5. James 5, verse 11. Walking with God, part 2. Behold, you count them happy which endure, and ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of great tender mercy. Now, I want to point your attention to the phrase in this verse, and you have seen the end of the Lord. Walking with God, part 2. The end of the Lord. Now, this phrase, the end of the Lord, simply means, and you have seen the intended purpose, the goal. Okay? The question we want to look at this morning for a few moments is simply this. What is God's goal? What is His intended goal in calling us to walk with Him? We know that in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 9, God is faithful by whom you were called. So God is faithful, and He has called us unto the fellowship. The koinonia. So God has called us unto the fellowship, intimate communion of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. So, this Scripture here is telling us that God calls us into fellowship of the Son of God. Of the Son of God. We are called unto fellowship. That is another way of saying we are called to walk with God. Now, what is God's intended goal? James says, and ye have seen the end. So it is important for us to see the goal. It's important for us to see the intended purpose of why we are called into fellowship of the Son of God. Always remember, God's purpose governs everything He does. God is always governed by purpose. There is a deep sense of security and a deep sense of godly significance that comes to our life as Christians when we begin to recognize that we are called out of darkness, out of the kingdom of darkness. We are called out of slavery to sin and self and Satan and the world. We are translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, the Son of His love, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are called into the fellowship of the Son of God. And it's all governed by purpose. God has an end in view. Have you seen the end? Have you seen the purpose, beloved, as to why God has called you out of darkness into fellowship with the Son of God? We've already learned that being a Christian is about fellowship with the Father and with the Son. We know that from 1 John. Let's turn to it. It's okay to lay foundation several times. It is important for us to remember this because we live in a day when Christianity has become somewhat of a state of confusion. It is somewhat of a state of misunderstanding. And the essential meaning of Christianity has become significantly blurred and it has become clouded and there is a mixture. And we want to be sure that God, through His Word, thoroughly keeps us from this because embracing this idea, these misguided ideas can truly, truly have a negative effect in our lives. 1 John 1. "...that which from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen, which our eyes have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of life. For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard and declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." So in these three verses, we see the essential meaning of Christianity. Never, ever forget this. Especially you young ones, never forget this. The meaning of Christianity is the revelation by God to the heart of man of the significance of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then being called into fellowship with Him. John's whole life at this stage when he was near 100 years old was all about one Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was all about fellowship with Him. And so, if we're truly on the right course in our Christian life, and it's truly the Lord that's leading us and guiding us year after year on our journey. Now, some of you might not have years and years behind you, but you eventually will get there. But one of the healthy signs that we're on the right course is the longer we walk with the Lord, the longer we are fellowshipping with Him, the more simple our Christian life becomes. Or the more focused it becomes. The less cluttered it is with things. And the more our Christianity derives its significance and its meaning from simply fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and a preoccupation and a continual hunger and longing for life. The life of God that was manifested in the Son. It's life. We want life. Christianity is life. It is emancipation from death. Emancipation from the death of what we are in ourselves by nature. The emancipation of what we are in our natural selves as far as the principle of selfishness. Oh my God! Christianity in its truest form becomes a passionate longing to touch life, to participate in the life of the Son of God, to fellowship with the Son of God, that we might be emancipated and freed from the law of sin and death. Freed from selfishness. It is God's heart and desire that we would become so in love with life, so in love with the life that is in the Son of God, that we would learn to hate unrighteousness. We would learn to hate death. We would learn to hate and despise any expression of death, any expression of selfishness, any word that comes out of our mouth that is unkind. Does it grieve us to the depths of our being when thought, word, action, or deed comes forth that is unlike our Lord Jesus Christ? Does it so trouble us that we cry out to God frequently, O God, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Who shall deliver me, O God, from saying unkind things? From proud looks? From wisdom that comes from my own heart? Who shall deliver me? O God, keep me close to Thy heart. Keep me close to Thy Son. Keep me filled with Thy Spirit and in Thy Word that my life might ever be an ever-increasing expression of the life, the moral beauty and righteousness that comes from Jesus Christ. This is Christianity, beloved. It is making much of Christ, making much of His life. It is seeing Jesus in our homes. Children, young people, listen. Christianity is possessing by faith in the Son of God humble hearts, broken hearts, obedient hearts, submissive hearts to mom and dad. Christianity is very practical. And this is what it means to walk with God. This is walking with God in the very practical, ordinary areas of life. In the kitchen, in the living room, in the bedroom, in the car, on the soccer field, on the baseball field, in the midst of whatever we're doing, looking to Jesus that it might be His moral image that is being seen. When we're talked about, what do we do? When we're ridiculed, what do we do? When you find out that somebody gossiped about you, what do you do? When someone's unkind to you, what do you do? When someone denies you something that you feel you deserve, what do you do? That's where walking with God really counts. The only thing we can do is go back to 1 John 1, verses 1-3 and embrace the true meaning of being a Christian. Embracing life once again. I'm sure some of you have experienced what I've experienced over the years, and that is I realize that I must constantly go back to the source of life in order to have what it takes to manifest life in my daily living, or else it is death that begins to come forth. It's death. And death produces grief and sorrow in the heart of God. And so, beloved, this is what life is. 1 John 1-3. This is the meaning of Christianity. Manifesting the beauty of Jesus Christ. Running to Him that we might be emancipated from death, from decay, from defilement, and anything else that would seek to soil the testimony of Jesus Christ. So in James 5, verse 11, we discovered that there is an end. There is a goal. There is an intended purpose in being called into fellowship with the Son of God. This intended purpose includes, but is not limited to, forgiveness of sin. Certainly one of the reasons why God calls us to fellowship with His Son is that we might partake of the benefit of forgiveness that is brought to us as a result of the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ. But that is not the intended end in and of itself. That's part of, but not the end. Actually, forgiveness is a means. It is part of the means to accomplish the end. Without that, we can never get to God's end. So forgiveness and being accepted in the Beloved, Ephesians 1, verses 1-12. Being accepted in the Beloved. Being brought into fellowship with God in Christ is another benefit, but it's not the end. It's not the goal. It's not the intended goal. One of the steps we must go through, we bypass by faith being brought into Christ, we can never arrive at God's intended goal. That's why Jesus said in John 14, verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come unto the Father except by Me. No human being can ever enter in to the good of God's intended goal of bringing us into fellowship with Himself unless we come through Jesus Christ. He is the way. He is the way. So, what is this intended goal? James said that the readers saw. They understood the goal. Well, in order for us to understand the intended goal, let's just go to Job 19.25. Job is right before Psalms, right after Esther. Job 19.25. This is a very familiar portion of Scripture, beloved, but contained in this Scripture are volumes. And we're not going to be able to deal with this entirely today. We're not going to be speaking much longer. We'll just keep going and going as the Lord leads and build on this wonderful revelation of walking with God. Job 19.25. This is one of the profound confessions that Job made in the midst of one of the most trying tests in his life. Listen. For I know that My Redeemer lives. I know that My Redeemer lives. And that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after My skin worms destroy, this body yet in My flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for Myself, and My eyes shall behold, and not another, though My reigns be consumed within Me. The intended goal of God in calling us into fellowship with His Son is that our hearts may see what Job saw and make the same confession of faith starting at the beginning of our pilgrimage and carrying us through right to the end, right to the completed goal. Everything about the Christian life begins and is perfected by the confession of Job in Job 19.25. Job made the confession, My Redeemer liveth. The heart recognized its need for a Redeemer. The heart recognized its need for something outside of itself to heal it, to help it, and to bring it to God's end. My Redeemer liveth. And I know, Job said, that one day My Redeemer shall stand on the earth, and I will stand with Him. So, Job was making a confession of faith that all of his confidence and all of his hope rested in the fact that his Redeemer was alive and that his Redeemer was committed to redeeming him and bringing him all the way through so that he would arrive at the end being able to stand next to his Redeemer. It all hung upon Job's faith in a living Redeemer. Brothers and sisters, this whole Christian life from beginning to end is made possible only through a continued acknowledgment on our part by the power of the grace of God that our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, lives and that it is by Him and through Him and in Him that we have been rescued out of darkness, that we have been given the status of forgiven sinners, and that it is by Him and through Him and by His power that we will be brought to the end of our Christian life where we are conformed into His image and His likeness and will be able to stand next to Him, with Him at that great day when He manifests Himself to the world. Our hope that this happens has nothing to do with inherent strength. It has nothing to do with inherent confidence. It has nothing to do with evaluating how well we have done and then drawing from those resources and hoping that they will bring us through. Brothers and sisters, every one of us have to come to the place where we cease from looking anywhere to anyone as the source from which we're going to make it. And our eyes are focused on one confession. My Redeemer lives. And I know that His victory will bring me through. His victory will bring me through. Where is our hope today? Where is our confidence today? Where is our hope and confidence when the rubber meets the road and we're going through the difficult trials and tests that life brings? It has to become more and more where my Redeemer lives. What rescues us from the passions of natural life that war against the soul, tempting us to become angry, to become bitter, to become selfish, to become introverted, to become unconcerned about others and consumed with our own interests and our own desires and getting the things that only relate to our own lives and our own needs? What rescues us from that trap? A confession. A continual confession. My Redeemer liveth. My Redeemer liveth. We need to look at one another in the eyes during the time when we are being tested and say, My Redeemer liveth. My Redeemer Christ liveth. My Redeemer is the answer to my dilemma. The saving life of Jesus Christ moment by moment is what rescues me from the dying corpse of what I am in my natural self. Did you know that? Do you know how to be free from who you are? By faith, we say together and to one another, My Redeemer liveth. My Redeemer liveth. It is the Redeemer that liveth that will rescue me. It is His victory. It is His righteousness. It is His goodness. When you are overcome by a revelation of how selfish you are, when you are overcome by a revelation of how your love is conditional, when you are overcome by a revelation of how you are addicted in your natural self to your own interests, and you're tempted to become discouraged, and you're tempted to feel condemned, and you're tempted to want to go run and find a hole and climb into it and say, I'm not going to deal with life anymore. I'm not going to deal with people anymore. I'm just going to go and I'm going to find a place and it's just going to be me and my lonely, pitiful self. What can rescue you and me from that? It is a confession. My Redeemer liveth. What happens when your marriage is tested to the point where it doesn't seem like there's no hope? You've tried so hard and it doesn't work. My Redeemer liveth. The answer to every dilemma and the means to which we arrive at God's intended goal. My Redeemer liveth and by faith I lay hold of His saving life, His saving grace, His triumphant power, His selflessness conquering my selfishness, His love for righteousness conquering my taste for unrighteousness. Hallelujah to God. Jesus Christ. My Redeemer liveth, beloved. My Redeemer liveth. When you fall into a hole and you're discouraged and you are overcome with your failures and you make a mistake and you're reaping the consequences of that mistake and you feel the pain of it and you feel the enemy condemning you and you feel your own conscience condemning you and others might be condemning you and pointing out to you, this is your fault. If you didn't do this or this, this wouldn't have happened. What's going to rescue you from the temptation to just flatly want to give up? Flatly want to throw the towel in and say, life, stop and let me off. Has anyone ever been there in part? Partially? Let me out of life. I can't go on. What's going to rescue me? There's only one thing that will rescue you and I from that. And it is the confession of faith. My Redeemer liveth. My Redeemer liveth. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that the saving life of Jesus Christ is available right now at this moment to rescue me from the sinking sand of what I am in myself and to lift me up into the glorious life of who He is in glory. It's all about faith in a living God. And the greatest time that you're going to need faith is when your own nature has been exposed and you realize that there's no hope in yourself. Absolutely no hope. That's when faith becomes more precious than silver and gold. Because it's by faith that you embrace what Christ is at that moment of deepest and darkest despair. What are you going to do when someone betrays you and hurts you to the depths of your being? What are you going to do? What if it's the one closest to you? What if it's a dear friend? Husband? Wife? What if your child betrays you? Or mom or dad? What are you going to do when you feel the pain and you feel the seeds of bitterness and resentment and anger and hatred begin to fester in your life? What are you going to do? My Redeemer liveth and He is able at this moment to rescue me from this black hole. Brothers and sisters, walking with God, as we bring this to a close, walking with God, part two, requires a posture in the heart where we have a continual confession of faith as Job did in Job 19.25, where we say, My Redeemer liveth. Every crisis, every difficulty, every challenge, every moment you realize you don't have what it takes to go on. You don't submit to that temptation or you'll stop going on. You'll give up. It's at that time when we've got to do what David did. You've got to encourage yourself. You've got to speak to your soul. You've got to say, Soul, why art thou cast down? Trust thou in God. Did you ever speak to yourself and encourage yourself? Did you ever tell yourself, Self, get off the pity pot. Self, listen to what I have to say to you. My Redeemer liveth. Did you ever tell yourself that? You've got to. You've got to learn to do it. There's no way out. There's no way to move forward. This is the Galatians 3 revelation. Who hath bewitched you? Who has cast a spell upon you? Let's close there. This is it. This is the revelation. Galatians 3. Oh, foolish or unthinking. That means unthinking. Faultless Galatians. Who hath bewitched you? Who has cast a spell upon you? That you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was evidently set forth. This only would I learn of you. Receive ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. The hearing of faith is what? My Redeemer liveth. That's the hearing of faith. The hearing of faith is acknowledging that it's because my Redeemer died. My Redeemer bore my sins on Calvary. My Redeemer judged my sin in His body. When my Redeemer died, I died. When my Redeemer was raised up, I was raised up. When my Redeemer ascended, I ascended. When my Redeemer was set down at the right hand of God, I was set down in Him at the right hand of God. It's by faith that I believe that my Redeemer liveth. He died. He became dead. Behold, He is alive forevermore. My Redeemer liveth. What is your answer to everything you're going through right now? I don't know what to do. I don't know what direction to take. I'm not sure about this. I'm not sure about that. Start out by saying, my Redeemer liveth. And keep saying it. And sooner or later, from that Redeemer will come exactly to the letter what you need. Why? Because He is the Redeemer that liveth. He bought us with His own blood. He purchased us on Calvary. We belong to Him! And He'll never miss the mark. So today, beloved, as we ponder these things, let us remember, walking with God requires a heart posture. My Redeemer liveth. And it is that posture that will get us to the end. It will enable us to fully partake of God's intended goal of calling us into fellowship with His Son. And that intended goal is to be transformed into the very moral image of Christ Himself. And we'll look more at that next time we get together. So, God bless everyone and may God's Word encourage us today.