Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the importance of seeing the glory of God, highlighting that God's ultimate intention is to reveal Himself to creation. He warns against distractions that can obscure our vision of God's purpose and glory, urging believers to focus on the spiritual realities that connect us to God's sovereignty. The sermon illustrates how God's call is not about individual recognition but about fulfilling His divine purpose through us, as exemplified in the lives of biblical figures like Moses. Beach encourages the congregation to turn aside from worldly distractions and seek a deeper understanding of God's glory and purpose in their lives. Ultimately, he calls for a response of worship and surrender to God's eternal plan.

Father, we thank you and praise you so much for your glory. We thank you and praise you, Lord, for the Holy Spirit who is faithful to make known to us the things that pertain to your heart. We're thankful for the Lord Jesus, who is altogether lovely and deserving of all praise and glory and honor and majesty. And Father, we ask that you would impart your heart to us, Lord. May this confirm all that you have already showed us by your Holy Spirit as we gathered earlier around your throne and worshiped your Son. The Word and the Spirit always agree. The Word and the Spirit always work together in harmony, saying the same thing. And so, Lord, as your Word is released today, may your Holy Spirit quicken it and may your purpose be accomplished. We pray, Father, for Jesus' sake. Amen and amen. Let's begin in Revelation. We already read this, but we're going to read it again just so that it is before our eyes and before our hearts. The supreme intention of God is to give a self-revelation of who He is in all His universe that He created and to all the created beings. Now, that is a statement that is worthy to be pondered and worthy to be prayed about until the depths of its meaning dawns on us. The ultimate intention and passion of God is to bring a self-revelation of Himself. This morning, wonderful, wonderful testimonies and wonderful exhortations from the Word of God, but a theme that was present was the distraction theme. And indeed, the enemy's ploy, the enemy's strategy is to distract us and turn our hearts away from recognizing what God's purpose and intention is. All the distractions are intended to dim from the eyes of our heart a self-revelation of God, because it is only seeing Him that sustains us. It's only seeing Him that gives us life, vitality, health, restoration, perspective. And this is why in heaven, the preoccupation in heaven is seeing the Lord, seeing His glory, no distractions, no distractions. And the chief work of the Holy Spirit is to work toward a continual unveiling through the Word of God to the heart, the glory and honor and majesty and beauty of the Lamb of God to our hearts. Revelation chapter four, beginning in verse one, after this I looked and behold a door. Jesus said, I am the door and through Jesus the heavens are open to us. I am a door, Jesus said, and here behold a door was opened in heaven and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, come up here, come up here. Whenever we hear this kind of language, we often because of our being human and being limited to the three dimensions that we live in here, we often associate come here to a geographical call, right? If I am upstairs and I yell down, Colette, come here. She immediately equates that statement with the need to leave her present physical location and to make her way toward my physical location. But when God begins to reveal to our hearts the wonders of Christ and the spiritual realities that belong to Him and the desire for us to partake of those spiritual realities and see those spiritual realities, we are leaving the realm of geography. We're leaving the realm of space and time and we're entering into the realm of spiritual reality. And so to derive the significance of much of the words of the Lord Jesus in relation to our need to see Him and be with Him and to partake of who and what He is, we have to be lifted out of the idea of geography into the spiritual realm where there is no time, there is no distance, there is no space. While it is true Jesus Christ is physically in heaven, it is equally true that according to the book of Ephesians chapter 2, we have been made alive in Christ at His resurrection and we have been raised together with Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and we are presently, presently, we are seated together with Him in heavenly places. And so the spiritual reality that is wanting to be communicated through that is not a geography thing. And that's the realities that God wants to bring to us in this particular section of scripture here. Come up here and I will show you things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven and one sat on the throne. Our eyes when we are in the spirit and we are feeding on the word of God will always be brought to see the sovereignty of God. The first thing that John's eyes saw when he was in the spirit through the gate, this isn't mysticism, it's through the gate, it's through Jesus Christ. It is having eyes opened through Jesus Christ coming through Him, in Him, by Him, from Him, a throne. The sovereignty of God, the rule of God, the royalty of God, the royalty. This is what heaven is all about. This is what the eyes of heaven, those who are in heaven, see now. They are aware of the throne of God, the sovereignty of God. It is God who reigns in the kingdoms of men. It is God who is working toward His purpose. God's purpose governs all God's movements. God's purpose governs all His movements, His plans, and His interventions in our lives. Everything that God does is governed by this throne, this throne that's right here. God is governing from a throne. When the scripture reveals God is governing from the throne, it indicates that His government is based on purpose. It is the purpose that His sovereign will has determined. He's not governing in a shoot, hit and miss manner. It's not a hit and miss thing. He's governing from a throne. And so He sees a throne, and He sees one that sat on the throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone, and there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight like that of an emerald. And round about the throne were 24 seats, and upon the seats I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white raiment, and they had on their head crowns of gold. And from the throne proceeded lightning, and thunders, and voices, and seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like an unto crystal, and in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four living creatures full of eyes before the Lord. These different words that represent the spiritual realities that were around the throne, the infinite and eternal perfections of God, the different types of stones indicating the spiritual wealth, the spiritual richness, the spiritual value, the spiritual value that is intrinsically part of who God is, the value of who God is. And the 24 elders and the living creatures, those creatures and beings that surround the throne of God that are in agreement with His sovereignty, in agreement with His rule, they're in agreement with who He is. They're saying yea and amen to everything that He decrees. Yea and amen to His will. Yea and amen to everything He represents. Yes and amen. They are there to do His bidding. God surrounds Himself with that which bows in His presence and acknowledges who He is. His sovereignty, acknowledges His rule, acknowledges that all of His movements, all of His plans, and all of His inventions in the world and in heaven are all governed by His eternal purpose. And His eternal purpose is to make known a revelation of Himself, to make known a revelation of His glory, to make known a revelation of His excellence. This is what we're to be participating in now, in ever-increasing measure, in ever-increasing measure, as the Church of Jesus Christ. Oh the heavenliness of seeing the Lord, the heavenliness of seeing His throne, the heaviness of seeing His sovereignty, the heaviness of seeing His majesty, the heaviness of seeing His wealth, His intrinsic value, you to see Him. But all the warfare, the warfare that is connected to this purpose and vision of God. This is the nature of the distractions and the battles that we're facing today as the Church of Jesus Christ in our lives individually and as corporately. It is a battle intended to distract the eyes of our heart from the glory of God, from the glory of the Lamb, from the spiritual realities of what we're reading right now, the spiritual realities. Anytime God moves in history, which we'll see shortly, anytime God moves in history and comes out from eternity and apprehends a man, or apprehends a woman, or apprehends a nation, it is governed by His eternal purpose. When God apprehends a man, it's not about the man. When God apprehends a nation, it's not about the nation. When God calls Abraham, Abraham. When God calls Moses, Moses. It's not about Moses and Abraham becoming known. It's not about Moses and Abraham getting a national ministry. It's not about them. It's about God. It's about God. Everything God does is governed by His purpose. Why did God appear to Moses? Because Moses was some special guy that God wanted to make known? No. Moses was humbled and Moses was broken and Moses was brought down to the dust when he realized God appeared to him because God says, I am the one who swore to Abraham. Not swore at, swore. That is, I am the one who promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and I'm just moving along in my purpose and now I've apprehended you, Moses. Why? Because I am fulfilling my purpose and I have chosen to use you. But using you is connected to me, not you. Oh my God that we might see this. God has a purpose. God has a plan. That's ultimately why Jesus came. In the verse number 7, and the first living creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third like the face of a man, and the fourth like a flying eagle. All of those different descriptions have significance which we don't have time to get into. And the four living creatures had each of them six wings and they were full of eyes within and they rest not day and night saying, holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come. God's highest intention, God's highest purpose is being realized and revealed through the Word of God right here. What is happening here but creatures created by God are acknowledging who he is. They're acknowledging him and they're crying out, holy, holy, holy. Verse 9, and when these beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne who lives forever and ever, then the four and twenty elders. And so there's a domino effect, there's a domino effect. When these living creatures acknowledge the intrinsic value of God and give him worthy and give him glory and acknowledge him as worthy and give him honor, then the twenty and four elders, the twenty four elders representative of those who will live and exist for the purpose of acknowledging the sovereign rights and value of God himself. They live to acknowledge it. They breathe to acknowledge it. They cry out. They fall first down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne. Now what are crowns indicative of? What do crowns represent in scripture? Anybody? What is a crown? Exactly correct. Crowns are symbolic of royalty, they're symbolic of honor, they're symbolic of authority and power. But where do these crowns go when the eyes of the heart see the Lord? Where do they go? And that's where they stay. There's a whole generation of Christians today walking around showing off crowns and it only means one thing. The eyes of the heart have lost sight of the king. It's deception, it's massive deception. They cast the crowns down at his feet and they say what? Who is worthy? Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory, honor, power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. God's purpose is always related to his Son and making his name known. His name is his glory. His name being made known is representative of what we're reading right here in the scriptures. That's what it is. This is his name being made known. It's his glory being made known. It's his majesty, it's his intrinsic value, it's who and what he is being made known. And so God's purpose is always related to his Son and making his name known. God always calls us with his interests in view. His interests begin in eternity past. So important that we get the bigger picture here. His interests begin in eternity past. They don't begin in time, they begin in eternity past. His interests in eternity past was a self-revelation to all that he ever desired to create. The highest good that any creation that comes from the hand of God, listen closely, the highest good for any creation that comes from the hand of God, whether it's the physical creation of the universe or whether it's the creation of living beings, the highest good, the highest intention for that creation is for creation to, in response to being created, acknowledge the creator, give glory to the creator, praise the creator, become infatuated with the creator, and exist for all things were created for thy pleasure, to exist for the pleasure of the creator, no one else's pleasure, for the pleasure of the creator. So, God always calls us with his interests in view. Man's tendency is to use the call of God to serve his selfish motives. God's purpose in calling us is to use us for his purpose, that is, to reveal his name in the earth. Therefore, God's discipline in our lives is designed to deliver us from viewing his holy calling as it relates to us and enables us to see it as it relates to his holy purpose. Let's turn our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Now, you can go through Hebrews chapter 11 and start in the first verse and go all the way through to the very end, and you will find consistently, without fail, every single person that is mentioned in the book of Hebrews that was commended by God as having faith, great faith, faith that was able to conquer kingdoms, faith that was able to stop the hungry mouths of lions, and faith that was willing to die and be sold asunder, faith that was willing to live in dens and caves because they were not worthy of the world. Whatever God commended their faith for, it was always, without exception, in connection to God's purpose. So, God commends great faith that is demonstrated in our lives that is directly associated with believing God for his purposes to be accomplished. The Bible doesn't recognize faith that doesn't have that as its focus. The Bible doesn't recognize a man-centered faith. The Bible doesn't recognize a faith that we get and operate that gets us things or enables us to become something unrelated to God's purpose. The Bible doesn't recognize it. They are doctrines of devils and of demons that have infiltrated Christendom and leading massive amounts of people into error and deception because the glory of God is not in view. God's purpose is not in view. God's interests are not in view. The end is not bringing us to the feet of Jesus, taking the crowns and throwing them at his feet and crying out, thou art worthy, thou alone art worthy. And so, when we begin to read our Bibles from Genesis to Revelation, with this bigger vision and this bigger purpose in view, the whole Bible will become a new book to us. It will become a living book that will bring glory to God and cause our hearts to burn with passion and delight that God is calling us as it relates to his own purpose. And so, in Hebrews, you can go through it. I encourage you to do it. Let's just work our way up to 23. Hebrews 11, 23. For a few more moments, we come across Moses. By faith, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child. When Moses was born, God apprehended him for his purpose, God's purpose. And God repeatedly reveals to Moses throughout the entire time of his life that the purpose for which God called Moses was to reveal the glory of God. It was to reveal the glory of God. God wanted to reveal himself, so he took a man for that purpose and only that purpose. And so, everything in Moses's life that we read about is all the interventions of God, all the plans and all the movements in Moses's life were all related to his son before he came and making known his name. God is not working any differently today. It's the same God. He's not working any differently. The same God that was revealed in Genesis that called Abraham out. Remember last week, we saw the heart of God was broken. The heart of God was broken. So, he calls Abraham out or Noah. He calls Noah out and for his namesake, he builds an ark. And then after that, mankind goes astray again. God's heart is broken again, but he has a purpose. So, he calls Abraham out. But it's not about Abraham. It's not about Abraham. It's about God using Abraham as a vessel to preserve his own purpose. And his own purpose was ultimately to send his son. So, he's doing it for his sake. It's not man-centered, it's God-centered. And ultimately, Christ came not for us, though hallelujah because of mercy and grace were included, but it's not ultimately for us. It's for God. Christ came ultimately for God's purpose to satisfy the purpose of God. All the little pictures we have in the Old Testament of God doing something for his own namesake, doing something for his sake, all of them were just little pipes and shadows. The real fulfillment of all that God ever did in the Old Testament has been captured in his son. The gospel's been perverted. It's been corrupted. It's been distorted. Sinful man has got a hold of the gospel and has turned it into something for them. Paul said it's another gospel, another spirit, and another Jesus. The New Testament is not inconsistent with the Old. The New Testament is the fulfillment, the highest fulfillment, of all that the Old Testament was teaching us in different ways and in different manners. Like it says in Hebrews, God who in many ways, in times past, spoke in many different ways, different parts, different aspects, through different prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us in his son. In other words, he's gathered together all that he ever intended to do in his son. And so his son came with a mission, and his mission was to satisfy and fulfill the very eternal purpose of God. And so when the son intervenes in the lives of people, when the son intervenes in our lives, and the gospel is preached, and men and women hear about Jesus Christ, and they repent of their sins and turn and cry out to God for mercy, they're just hearing the call of God that's been sounding from the beginning of time when God began to call Adam, and he called Seth, and he called Noah, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. Oh my God, Jacob cried out, this is the house of God. I didn't even know it. God revealed himself to me. And you go all the way down the Old Testament, Jacob, and the 12 sons of Israel, and Joseph, and in the land of Egypt, and then Moses, the call of God. Why is God calling all these men? Why? Why is God doing this? It's one call that each generation, men hear that one call. It's the one call of God's heart. It is God calling men, so they get a self-revelation of who he is. A self-revelation of his glory, so that they can become in line with the reason why they were created. But ultimately, that call was captured in the Son of God, who hung upon a tree, and now when men look at the cross, and they hear the gospel, and they see Jesus, they're not hearing a different call. It is the same heart of God, the same call of God that has been captured, and gathered, and finalized in the Son of God, with the same purpose and view. How we have westernized the call of God, or easternized it if you go to the east, or hawaiianized it if you live in Hawaii. We've tainted the call of God with the culture. And God needs to take the word of God into our hearts, and get that word so much into us that we can separate the culture, and contamination, and mixture of the call with the pure call of God that comes from his heart, that is revealed in the word of God. And when we hear this pure call of God, we fall down like all the men did that ever saw God. And we cast crowns at his feet, and our tongues start talking about him. Our tongues start speaking of his glory, and his majesty, and his beauty, and his glory. And our lives begin to live in a manner that is a movement toward his glory, a movement toward him satisfying his ultimate intention. The things of this life grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. We start to see why we heard the call of God. The reason why Abraham heard it. The reason why Moses heard it. The reason why Jacob heard it. The reason why Paul heard it. The reason why the twelve apostles heard it. The reason why Philip, and Andrew, and Bartholomew, and all the apostles heard it. The reason why the New Testament church heard it. And the reason why subsequent generations from the New Testament church heard it. God calls us that he might reveal his son through us. Because that is the passion of God's heart. Now closing, Exodus chapter 3. Exodus chapter 3, verse 1. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. This is the purpose of God revealing. This is the purpose of God being revealed to Moses. Moses was just living a very honorable life. He was shepherding the flocks of his father-in-law in the wilderness. He was just doing what he knew to do best. And the God of glory, the God of eternity, begins to reveal himself. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, but it was not consumed. And now this is where we're going to close. This is where God is bringing us. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight. Why the bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw, listen. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside, to see, God called him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And the Lord said, draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet. For the place where thou standest is holy ground. Again, geography, no. The place, what place? I've turned aside and I've sought to see this eternal God, his eternal purpose, his eternal passion. I've turned to see the movement of an eternal God. Take your shoes off there, that's holy ground. If the Lord appeared in this room, we wouldn't make this room holy. We wouldn't forbid people to come into this room and say, oh, we no longer can come and gather here unless we take our shoes off, brothers and sisters. Because last week, and everyone is here to attest, the Lord revealed himself and it was holy. No, no. Moses is standing on sacred ground. He's been lifted out of time and he is beholding and sharing in an eternal reality. That's holy ground. And you know what that holy ground is? Seeing God's purpose, but not just seeing it, but turning aside and hearing God call you into the fellowship of his son, who represents the purpose of God entirely. I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Moses hid his face for he was afraid. And we could read on, but we won't. Brothers and sisters, we're standing now on holy ground in the presence of a holy God. And he's saying to us what he said to Moses, turn aside. And when he sees that we turn aside to look at him, we'll hear our name. He'll call us. And he'll more fully and more completely enable us to see that we're called to participate in his holy call. So let's just bow our hearts in a word of prayer and ask God to bless us.