Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the transformative power of suffering in cultivating humility and discerning love. He reflects on how trials can harden our hearts, but through God's mercy, they can also tenderize us, allowing us to grow in love and compassion. Beach encourages the congregation to thank God for their pain, as it leads to healing and a deeper understanding of His presence. He highlights the importance of humility, which is essential for recognizing our need for God and for loving others genuinely. Ultimately, he calls for a heart that is open to God's work, enabling us to discern what is vital and pleasing to Him.

For Your mercy and grace, I want to thank You, Lord, for the suffering that we have gone through. I want to thank You, Lord, for the suffering. I want to thank You, Lord, for the hard times and the difficult times. Lord, how merciful and patient and kind You are. How so often during the times when we have suffered, we have spoken rashly, and we have even become bitter and angry, and we've withdrawn, and we've gotten hard, and our hardness was felt by our family and by our brothers and sisters, and we withheld our affections and our compassions all because we didn't understand why You were letting us suffer. But Lord, in Your mercy and in Your grace, You come to us right at the right time, and You begin to take the veil off our eyes and off our heart, and You show us that You were there all the time, that You never left us, You never forsook us, and that in our suffering, You are wanting to soften us. In our suffering, You are wanting to tenderize us. And so we thank You, Lord. And we pray today, Lord, because of our suffering, we can hear a little bit more clearly Your Word. Amen. As I was praying, I couldn't help but think how the best meat you can buy is meat that's been what? Tenderized. And you know how they tenderize meat? Well, there's two ways. You soak it, and then you beat it. And you know, I've looked at the mallet that they use to beat meat. It's not a flat mallet. It's got prongs on it. How many have felt like over the past few years or maybe few months, you've been like a piece of meat being tenderized? You felt like the mallet of God has hit you, and it's hurt, and it's hurt. And you've wondered, what in the world is God doing? I thought He loved me. I thought He loved me. Right? I thought He loved me. Why am I being tenderized now with this horrible, horrible trial? How many have felt that way? Well, you know, He's here today to tell us, I know. I know what you're going through, and I'm softening you. Because when I soften you, your heart opens up to me. And when your heart opens up to me, I can come close. I can come close. Listen, right now in the presence of the Lord, in your heart, let's just begin to thank Him for the pain. This is what He spoke to me last night. He said, thank Me for the pain, and out of the pain will come healing. But if you don't thank Him for the pain, trusting Him, if you don't thank Him for the pain, for the disappointment, for the frustration, for the failure, then the serpent will sow bitterness in your heart, and you'll get hard on the pain. And God doesn't want us to get hard. How many have felt the temptation to get hard and bitter? Because you've had things happen to you, some of you 10, 12 years ago, and you felt bitterness. There is a healer here today, and it's not a man from earth. It's a heavenly man. His name is Jesus. And He can bring healing to the ailing heart this morning. And it begins by saying, I've had many tears and sorrows. I've had questions about tomorrow. There's been times I didn't know right from wrong, but through it all, You were there, Lord, and You helped me. Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that today the powers of Satan will be broken, the lies of the serpent will be dispelled, and that every ailing heart here who has felt the pain and the hammer of suffering and disappointment and misunderstanding, where they've been in such darkness, they've gotten numb almost, where they can't even feel anymore. I pray, God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that You would enable that heart to begin to say, Thank You. Thank You. Even though it hurts, thank You, God, because I know that through this pain, You want to reveal Your lovely Son to my heart. Are you there today where you can thank Him? Thank Him. And He'll bring healing. Guard your heart, beloved. Listen, this is a prophetic word. This is prophetic. Guard your heart against suffering. Suffering comes through disappointment. Suffering comes when our plans don't work out the way we hoped. Suffering comes when loved ones fail us. Suffering comes in many different forms in the life of those that trust God. Guard your heart against the temptation from the serpent in the midst of suffering to become too self-conscious and self-centered. Because when we become too self-centered and self-conscious during suffering, we become vulnerable to Satan's venom and poison and his bitterness and anger and resentment and hardness of heart. And that's like a canker. That's like a cancer. And it can eat you alive and destroy you spiritually. A thankful heart is a healthy heart. So let's be sure and pray and ask the Lord to do that. He's here today, and He can do that for us. He can do that for us. We're reading from Philippians 1, beginning in verse 7-11. Father, thank You for Your Word. Philippians 1, 7-11. I'm reading from the Amplified Bible. And then we're going to look to God's Spirit and God's grace to hear God speak to us through His Word. This is a living Word this morning. Father, we pray that You will speak to us through Your Word, that You would minister to us, Lord. We need You this morning. We need Your Word. We need Your truth. We need Your grace. We need Your Spirit. We need help. And we pray today, Lord, that You'll give it to us as we humble ourselves in Your presence and acknowledge that You are our sovereign God and that You know all things that are going on. We pray in Jesus' name. Verse 7, chapter 1. Paul speaking. It is right and appropriate for me to have this confidence and feel this way about you all, because you have me in your heart and I hold you in my heart as partakers and sharers, one and with all, of God's grace, both when I am shut up in prison and when I am out in the defense in confirmation of the good news. For God is my witness how I long for You and pursue You all with love in the tender mercy of Jesus Christ. And this I pray. Please, mark this down in your Bible. If you don't write on your Bible, please write it down on a piece of paper. This is God's heart this morning. This is a living Word this morning. The only way that God is going to fulfill this living Word, particularly verses 9, 10, and 11, listen, is if He tenderizes us. He loves us too much to let us go on without being broken and humbled. He loves us too much. Listen, our best efforts, our very best, fall miserably short to God's high standard. And so God has to bring us to the place where even our best efforts we pour contempt upon them because it's not our best efforts that please God or enable us to love one another. It's not our best efforts, but it's His life and His Spirit and His Word and His power and His righteousness. It's the fruit of His Spirit working through us. But that doesn't happen until we're tenderized. How many have ever discovered that when you go through a time where God is putting you in the fire and He breaks you down that you experience an increase of the life of Jesus right in the midst of that? Why? Because He's breaking us down in order to build up His Son in our life. He doesn't do it, Carl, to destroy you and I. He does it to set us up to reveal the beauty of His Son. That's why He's doing it. And so when we're about to read this, this has got to go more than words. It's got to become a passion in our heart. There's no true love in this world. I don't care what it is that your heart is set on. If it's on earth, it is not going to last. It's not going to meet the deepest need of your life. The Bible says in Proverbs, My son, give Me your heart. Now listen closely. God requires that we give Him our heart alone. Nothing else. You can't give your heart to anyone or anything. The moment we give our heart to something other than God, we are setting ourself up for a miserable failure because the thing that we're giving our heart to will fail us. It will not satisfy us. Listen, it is within the heart of every woman to love her husband. That is a God-ordained thing. But beware, wives, when you give your heart to your husband. You're not to give your heart to your husband. You're to give your love, your loyalty, your service, but not your heart. Husbands, it's the same thing. We're to love our wives as Christ loves the church. But don't give your wife your heart. Oftentimes, one of the greatest struggles of a young marriage is that the woman wants her husband to have her heart. She feels that's the only way she can find true security and a true sense of identity and a true sense of love and a true sense of acceptance and a sense of feeling of safety. Number one, God never asks a husband to take the wife of his heart. Wives, don't give your heart to your husband. Give your love to him, but give your heart to Jesus. Don't set your heart on anything but God. Verse 9, and this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight, that your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment. We're touching something here that's not static. We're touching something here that's not a standstill thing. It's that your love may grow, that your love may be extended, that your love may surpass its present state and grow. God is looking for an expression and an explosion of His love in our lives that exceeds what it was yesterday or last week or last year. But in order for this process to occur, the Lord has to subject us in His love, like Robert said, to chastening and to suffering and to discipline and to child training. One of the significant facts about the Philippians, which is why they were such a dear church in the heart of the Lord and in the heart of Paul, was the Philippians were being subject to great suffering. They were in great suffering. They were suffering because of their faith in Christ. They were suffering because they would not withdraw their support from Paul. And Paul was suffering greatly throughout the entire region. And because they were not willing to withdraw their sympathy and their compassion and their support, they were sharing in the very sufferings that Paul was sharing in. They were a suffering church and yet they are a model church. And so we see that out of suffering, out of pressure, out of difficulty, out of pain, God models His Son. God reveals His Son. When human pride and human self-centeredness and human vainglory and human arrogance and human strength and human self-centered pursuits are smashed in suffering and brought down and we are reduced to just men and women crying out to God, Christ is revealed. Christ is made known and that's God's intention to reveal the beauties of His Son in and through you and I. Verse 10, so that you may surely learn to sense what is vital. Notice now that this love is more than a feeling. We're touching a love that is able to discern. A discerning love. A love that is able to recognize what is vital, what is essential, what is good, what is acceptable. God is not satisfied with just a tickle love. God is not satisfied with just a nice feeling love. And you know as well as I do that those tickle loves are fleeting. They're here today and gone tomorrow. Right? They're not always there. God wants our love, Pedro, to go beyond a feeling. He wants it to grow into a spiritual capacity to discern, to recognize what is vital, what is essential, what is excellent, what is good, what is pleasing to God, and what isn't, and to embrace what is pleasing to God and run from what is not pleasing to God. This was the longing of the heart of Paul for the Philippians. Those that he was so close to that we'll see momentarily. We'll see that it might develop into keen insight. Verse 10, that you might learn what is vital and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value. True, growing love enables a believer to recognize what is true and valuable as opposed to what is invaluable and not worth applying yourself to, not worth devoting yourself to, not worth preoccupying yourself with. How many knows that it's not an excellent thing to harbor a grudge? How many knows it's not a worthwhile thing to pursue vengeance? These are the things that love begins to discern. When love grows in your heart and you sense that there's something going on in your heart that would lead to unforgiveness or bitterness or gossip, growing love enables you to recognize that and say, no, no, I can't. I can't. That is not real. That is not vital. That is not excellent. That is not approved by God. I can't embrace that bitter spirit that you may approve what is excellent and of real value, recognizing the highest and the best and distinguishing the moral differences that you may be untainted and pure and unerring and blameless so that with hearts sincere and certain and unsullied or unspoiled, unsoiled, no soil. How many knows this isn't talking about the soil that comes when you work in the coal mine? This isn't talking about the soil that comes when you work a hard day at the job if you happen to be a landscaper in the middle of the summer. You're going to come home pretty dirty. That's not the dirt it's talking about. The soil, the spot, the wrinkle has to do with any kind of an expression of the flesh. Any kind of an expression that comes out from the sinful flesh within the heart of man. As we grow in love for God, our keen discernment to recognize the moment flesh begins to work in us is sensitized. It's sharpened. We become focused. And we are empowered by God to say no. No, the moment it happens. So the devil doesn't get a foothold. So that you may approach the day of Christ not stumbling or causing others to stumble, and you may abound in and be filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ to the glory and honor of God. Now, listen carefully. Father, we pray, Lord, now that You'll help us by the Holy Spirit to extract from Your Word. What are You saying in Your Word to us? What is Your Word saying? Forget about what we think. What is Your Word saying? Lord, help us to extract from Your Word what You're saying and help us to realize that the very suffering that we have endured under, whether it's been for 10 years or three years or the past two weeks, is intended by You to soften our hearts adequately so that we can receive the very truth that You want to teach us this morning. Please, Lord, soften our hearts. Take the fight out of us. The fight. That natural tendency and inclination to react. Forgive us, Lord, for that fight. Forgive us, Lord, that when You're using a husband or a wife or a child or a brother or a sister to do something in our life, forgive us, Lord, for that often knee-jerk reaction where we react and get mad and get defensive. Forgive us, Lord. Thank You that You don't hold our sins against us because if You did, we'd all perish today. Help us, Lord, to be gentle. Help us, Lord, to be teachable. Lord, deliver us from that unteachable spirit. Help us to be teachable, Lord, as we hear Your Word. Help us, Lord. The key to entering in to all that Christ has deposited into the book of Philippians and all the wonderful things that we so far talked about and all the territory that we yet must talk about. Philippians is a hard book to minister because it can't just be a doctrinal dissertation and we're going to miss it. It's hard because the book of Philippians is words from the heart of God to broken, desperate, suffering, humble people. And when broken, desperation, humble hearts are not present in us, it's hard to be able to touch the life and the truth of this book. It's hard. We can come away with doctrine. We can come away with teaching. We can come away with lofty ideas, but we're not being touched. Christ isn't being revealed in and through us. And that's why it's hard to work through this. That's why God is working with His Word in bringing us just the measure of suffering each of us need in order to bring us down a little lower. How many are suffering in some way today? Some way you're suffering. Some way you feel the pain. Maybe it was something that happened years ago and you still feel the weight of that suffering. Thank God for it because it's bringing your heart to where it's at today where you're able to hear and receive the Word of God. The greatest quality of Christ in the book of Philippians that we see is the quality of humility. As Pedro said, God help us to be humble. The word humility literally means lowliness of mind. To offer oneself as lowly and submissive. The idea of humility is all wrapped up and demonstrated in the Person of Jesus Christ who was the King of Heaven. The pure rose in Heaven. The sinless One who had never done any evil or harm to any human being because His love was so great for you and I. Humility was first seen in the Son of God by His willingness, listen, His willingness to leave Heaven's court and to give up His rights, to give up His comfort, to give up His fellowship with His Father, to give it all up. He was in Heaven and He came down. He humbled Himself. He lowered Himself. And He became a man. Then once He became a man, He lowered Himself again and became a servant. Listen carefully. This is what humility is. He started out as the Prince of Heaven. And He humbled Himself and became a man. Then as a man, it wasn't enough. And He showed us a deeper humility. He became a servant. A servant is a man who loses his personal rights. A servant is a man who loses the prerogative to decide for himself. A servant is a man who claims to be owned by someone else. A servant is one who says, whatever my Master wants, whatever my Lord wants, that I will do. But having done that, it wasn't enough. He went down further. Brothers and sisters, are we hearing? If we touch the Son of God, and if we beg Him for true humility, we're going to find our own lives on this very path. So He goes from the throne to a man. From a man to a servant. And then, as a servant, He goes lower, even willingly embracing the death of the cross, which is the most humiliating way a person could have died in the day of Rome. It was the death that was set aside for a vile criminal. He humbled Himself and became associated with the death of a cross, which was the death of a vile criminal. And tell me what motivated Him to do it? His love for God. His love for God. And His love for you and I. Humility is the spirit of lowliness. To present oneself as lowly and low-lying in mind. To be of low degree, low rank in one's own eyes. The Scripture says do not be high-minded. Do not be proud. Do not be haughty. Do not be arrogant. Do not be selfishly assertive. A humble person may have a high position, but carries himself in a spirit of lowly submission. Humility results in a person coming to Christ and learning of Him. When we come to Christ, we are immediately forced to evaluate ourselves the way we truly are. Not the way we think we are and not the way others believe we are. True humility requires honesty in heart before God. The only way we could truly see who we are and what we are is if we confront Christ in His Word and see the splendor of who He is. Honesty. We must be honest before we are humble. A man who is dishonest with himself will not know the humility of Christ. A man who is dishonest with himself, a man who refuses to see himself the way God sees him, to see his utter need for a holy God, a man who refuses to agree with God. And that brings us right down to our life. When we refuse to admit and acknowledge when we have been exposed in our day-to-day dealings with people, if we refuse to admit that we were proud, arrogant, selfish, vengeful, spiteful, wrong in our judgment of our husband, wife, spouse, brother, sister, the preacher, if we will not admit it, we cannot know humility. And so the first step in humility is blatant, bold honesty. Brothers and sisters, if we had to be honest before a judge who was sentencing us to hell, it would be very difficult. But we're not having to be honest with a judge who is sentencing us to hell. We're being honest with a judge who when we look into his eyes, we see a Savior. We see a Savior. If we come now, now, now... See, this is the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. The Christian will admit now. Now, when the judge confronts him. Because Christ is both Savior and judge. Savior to those who believe now and the judge of those who will not believe now. So when we come to Christ and we see Him judging us and showing us what we really are and life reveals the true depths of what we are and we're willing to admit it and acknowledge it, then we see a Savior and mercy and grace. When a person looks at Jesus Christ, he sees what he should be and it motivates him. He sees where he needs improvement. He sees where his life falls short. Humility requires an honest evaluation of ourselves. Humility comes from seeing Jesus and learning about ourselves just the way we really are. It comes from an honest appraisal of ourselves. Are you afraid of an honest appraisal of yourself? Don't be afraid. Do you want to hide? Don't hide. Let God. Let the suffering. Let the brother. Let the sister. Let whatever it is in your life awaken you to an honest appraisal of yourself. Don't be afraid of that. Embrace it. It's the gateway to knowing Christ. It's the gateway not only to an initial conversion, but it's a gateway to growing spiritually in maturity in Christ. It takes courage to look at ourselves and it takes honesty to see ourselves as we really are. Basically self-centered. A bundle of self-admiration and self-love. We tend to dramatize ourselves. Listen to this quote from Barclay in his devotions. We tend to dramatize ourselves. We tend to see ourselves unrealistically. We see ourselves at the center of action as the hero of some spectacular rescue. As the great politician marching to victory. As the renowned sportsman saving the game in the last second or bagging a record catch. As the beauty queen dazzling the crowds. Come on, ladies. As the laborer of brilliance. As Prince Charming or Cinderella sweeping others off their feet. We are always at the center of the picture. Humility begins to come when we honestly face ourselves and admit our self-centeredness. Self-centeredness weakens and limits our relationships with God and our relationships with others. But humility is the gateway into fellowship with Christ. Humility requires great courage and honesty. Romans 12, verse 16. You don't have to turn there, but listen carefully. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. 1 Corinthians 8, 2. If any man thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing as he ought to know. Galatians 6, 3. If a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Psalms 10, verse 2. The wicked in his heart persecutes the poor. Proverbs 11, 2. When pride comes, then comes shame. But with the lowly is wisdom. Humility is a virtue that we should cherish and long for, brothers and sisters. Where do we stand today in relation to this humility? Where do we stand? That your love may grow more and more is what Paul said. Listen carefully as we see. Robert, you'll recognize this definition of love. We just looked at pride and how horrible it is. Now listen to love. This is what is to be growing. When Paul said that love might grow more and more with all discernment, with all ability to recognize. It is these qualities that love is to recognize and to embrace. And the antithesis of each one of these qualities, the opposite of each one of these qualities is what love will teach us to put away from us. Keep away from us. Love involves the display of these moral attributes which are seen in the Person of Jesus Christ. Love suffers long, endures long, and is patient when it is under hard and trying circumstances. The quality of love enables us to both suffer long when we are in a difficult relationship. How many have ever been in a difficult relationship? Maybe you've had a hard time with your husband or wife. Maybe you've had a hard time with an in-law. No, I don't think that's true. We all get along real well with our in-laws, right? We know this is the typical arena where difficulties arise. But when we are in Christ and under the hand of God's discipline, God is always teaching us to say no to the natural tendency. What's the natural tendency in ourselves when we get under a situation and we have to endure under it a long time and it's painful? What's the natural tendency? I'm going to get out of this thing. I want out. And God, I'm going to give You three days and if You don't get me out, I'm going to make my own way out. How many have been there? How many have plotted a plan on how to get out from under the thing that you don't like? And in trying to fulfill your plan, you made it a lot worse. Come on. What do single people do when they don't like being single and they tell God they can't handle it? They commit immorality. What do people do when they don't have a lot of money coming in and they want, want, want, want, and they can't get what they want? What do they do? They take the credit card and they just get it, Norman. And when the bill comes, they stick it in the drawer. And then a year later, they come crying to a financial counselor. I'm $42,000 in debt and I don't know how it happened. And a wise counselor will say, one stupid mistake at a time, that's how it happened. I hope that's not hitting anyone. One stupid mistake at a time, that's how it happens. I was just talking with someone recently about someone who had a bitter, bitter pill. Do you ever meet anyone or ever experience this? Where the pain is so horrible that you're going to make a plan. You're going to move. You're going to get out. You're going to move to Texas or Wyoming. Washington. Montana. A ranch. Those cattle don't give me problems like people do. I'll just milk them and sell it. Slice them up. Love suffers long. Love is patient. Love that comes from God endures. That's why God says to the Christian, divorce is not an option. Because love suffers long. Love is patient. You can't control your partner, but you can suffer long. Love is kind. Love does not envy. Love is not jealous. Now, brothers and sisters, the opposite of every one of these moral virtues is rooted in pride. Love and humility are two sides of the same coin. Where there's love, there's humility. And the opposite is pride. If you want to know what pride looks like, you figure out the opposite of every one of these moral virtues and you've got a picture of what's in your heart apart from grace. How many have ever been unkind to someone with your words? Now, this is what Paul's praying. You see, this is the depths here. That your love may grow more and more. We might say, oh, that's a nice happy thought, but when we dig into it, oh my God! We see love does not vaunt itself. Love does not brag. Love does not boast. Now remember what 1 John 2 says? Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, and the lust of the eyes. Love does not brag. Love does not boast. But pride constantly brags and boasts about what it is, about what it's got, about its plans, about its accomplishments. But love doesn't. Love doesn't brag. Love doesn't boast. Love is not puffed up. It's not full of vain glory. Love does not move us to pursue self-centered ambitions, self-centered goals. Love does not inspire us to want to grasp for something that essentially is just for us. Love always has God's glory and God's interest in view. Always. Always. Love does not behave itself unseemly. It's never rude. Love is never indecent. Love is never unbecoming. Love always acts appropriately with respect. Love does not disrespect people. Where is such love? O Thou Son of God, in Thee do I find such love. Love seeks not her own. It's not selfish, self-seeking. It does not insist on its own right. It does not insist on its own way. Love gives up its rights on non-essentials so that peace and harmony can be maintained in the home. How many here just always have to have it your way? Your way. Your way. And if anybody gets in the way of your way, all hell's going to break out. That's not love. That's pride. That's control. That's being a control freak. You've got to die. Now, it doesn't mean you give up when someone's steering you in a direction that's morally wrong. Okay, you want me to go out and get drunk? Okay, I will. I'm a servant. Baloney. You never, ever succumb to someone that seeks to lead you to sin against God or to sin against any other human being. That's when you rise up in the name of Jesus and say, thank You, but no thanks. You don't let anybody beguile you into believing that to be a Christian is you have to just submit to anything. You never submit to something that will compromise your moral convictions before God. Never. But I'm talking about non-essentials. You know, things that you don't need to argue about that we so often do because we're proud. And so, hip on ourselves. Love thinks no evil, harbors and plans no evil thoughts, takes no account of a wrong done to it. Listen, love does not remember the wrongs that have been done against it. How many have ever gotten into a feud with someone and you start going fishing? You start going fishing and start pulling out the past and throwing it in their face? Love doesn't do that. Now, God reminds us of our past sins, but He never does it with the intent to harm us. It's a redeeming quality. He does it in order to show us His kindness and His mercy. Be careful when you dig up the past. Love doesn't take account of the wrongs done to it. Love is not happy when someone gets hurt. That means love doesn't seek vengeance. You leave vengeance to God. He's the only just God that knows how to seek vengeance. We're not to seek vengeance. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes in everything and under all circumstances. Love does not weaken. Love does not give way to failure. Love always, always stands. Now, brothers and sisters, that's a picture of God's love that we see in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul is after here. And the discerning quality of love we're going to be closing now. The discerning quality of love is its ability to recognize and embrace these moral qualities and value them as real. Value them as the thing that is worth following after. Value these qualities that I just read. That's what discerning love does. And at the same time, distinguishes between these things and their opposites. The works of pride and the works of flesh. And makes a clear, marked distinction between the two and has nothing to do with pride and its works, but is constantly pursuing after love and its virtues. All in the Person of Jesus Christ. We don't have these things in ourselves. But as we come to admit that and be honest with ourselves and not lie, we find Jesus then says, alright, come to Me and in Me you'll find all that you need. Amen? Could we for the next few moments, since we're not really at a rush this afternoon, could it be possible that we might just spend a few moments in prayer? And let's let Jesus minister to us and help us.