Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the dire spiritual condition of the church, likening it to a house in ruin, and challenges listeners to assess their desperation for God. He draws parallels between the story of a lunatic son possessed by demons and the spiritual insanity present in the church today, urging believers to recognize their need for divine intervention. Beach warns against self-deception and the dangers of living by sight rather than faith, calling for a return to humility and a genuine relationship with Christ. He highlights the importance of acknowledging our spiritual poverty and the necessity of being filled with the Holy Spirit to overcome the state of ruin. Ultimately, he encourages the church to seek restoration through repentance and a deeper understanding of God's Word.

Please follow along today in your hearts. If you are writing, please be sure you have fresh paper and pencil and take these thoughts down. We always make the tapes available and we need the Holy Spirit to truly confirm his word today. This will shed light and understanding to us all and help us to know what God is after, what he's looking for, what he wants to do in your heart and in my heart. Now, before we even begin into the word of God this morning, I want to ask this question. It's a rhetorical question. Okay, I want to ask this question and I want you to please ask yourself this question because the answer to this question is going to be a barometer, a thermostat that you can use as a gauge to determine where you're at in relation to the Lord's heart, the Lord's will. Okay, here's the question. I'm inviting everyone to ask yourself this question. Am I at the present time desperate for God? So desperate that I'm sick and tired of things. I'm sick and tired of myself. I'm sick and tired of my sin. I'm sick and tired of life. I'm sick and tired of everything. I'm so desperate for God. I am prepared while being in a prayerful state. While being in a prayerful state, I'm prepared to do whatever the Lord would require of me in order to know His fullness and to grow together with other believers in a meaningful relationship so that it's not only just me and Jesus walking together, but I'm learning what it is to be a member of a living body and under God's guidance, contributing into the life of others while allowing them to contribute into my life. Am I that desperate for God today? Now I would encourage you to ask the Lord to give you an answer to that inquiry. Are you desperate for God? Last week we looked at Matthew 17, verse 14, Mark 9, verses 14-29, and Luke 9, verses 37-43. And we learned about the story of a man who had an only son. And he was a lunatic. And he was controlled by demon powers. He was in a sorry, sad shape. He'd lost his mind. And secondly, we learned that when his father brought this lunatic to the disciples of Jesus, they could not cure him. They couldn't cure him. They were spiritually powerless, even though they were given power to cure the sick. That's a mystery, isn't it? There's an explanation, though. They were given power to cure the sick, and they couldn't cure this man. And then thirdly, we learned Jesus' response to this horrible situation. He chided them by saying, O ye of what? Little faith. And we learned last week that little faith could mean, O ye who live in an unreal world. O you who live by your senses. O you who live by what you see with your natural eyes, by what you hear with your natural ears, by what you feel with your natural feelings. O you who live on bread alone. And then in response to that statement, He said, I say unto you that if you simply had faith the size of a little seed, you can speak unto this mountain. We learned last week that the mountain the Lord Jesus was referring to was not the mountains in Galilee or Jerusalem. He was not at all interested in putting on a show. He wasn't telling His disciples that if they had power, they can go to Schooley's Mountain and look at that mountain and say, O thou mountain, be thou removed. And everybody would marvel, and everybody would say, Wow, you've got power with God. Not so. Jesus never displayed His power before men, and neither will those who truly know Him display His power before men. And those that are, are deceived. They are deceived. Those who are putting on a show for God's people in the name of the Lord are deceived. But we learned in Zechariah chapter 4 that the Lord spoke to Zerubbabel and indicated that the mountain which was hindering the completion of God's temple would be removed by the Spirit of God, by the Spirit of grace, by the cornerstone arriving on the scene crying out, Grace! Grace! We learned last week that the mountain that Jesus was referring to was that mountain which is currently hindering, preventing the completion of God's temple. Now we know God's temple is not made of stones. We know that God's temple is not a building like this, or a church building. But God's temple is made of living stones. And we have learned in the past that God is a great heavenly artist. And He has His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. This is the product that God is wanting His many-membered Son, the church. This is the product that God is looking for in the church. And so when the Scriptures speak of God completing His temple, it's referring to God seeing in the body of Christ the full expression, the full nature, the full character, the divine features being manifest in the church. That's the completion of the temple. Paul taught us that in Ephesians 4. He gave a five-fold ministry. Apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher for the purpose of ministering life, ministering Christ, ministering truth into the body of Christ so that we all would grow into the full manifestation of God's Son. All of His features. All of His righteousness. All of His holiness. All of His hatred for sin. All of His love for righteousness. All of His desire to do the will of God. All of His being dead to self. All of His being dead to hearing the call of the world to do His own thing. Being dead to all that. That's what God wants to place corporately into the body and to demonstrate to the world. And so we learn that Jesus, when He talked about having faith to speak to the mountain, that's the mountain He was referring to. The mountain being that which is hindering us from coming into the fullness of Christ. Or, another way of saying it is this, that which is perpetuating the state of spiritual lunacy, which is what that only Son represented. A state of spiritual depravity. A state of insanity. And so what we're going to look at this morning is a picture of this spiritual insanity that is seen in the only Son and then show how it is a vivid description of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Brothers and sisters, let me say this. Please listen to me. When we go into Luke 15 and briefly read through the descriptive language describing this boy, do not think in your mind, oh yes, how this relates to brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so. Oh yes, how so-and-so is in a state where they need to come back to the Lord. This is not a word for you and I to hear in order to apply it to someone else, but this is a word for you and I to hear to apply it to ourselves. We are the prodigals. The best one in our midst, whoever that may be, is a prodigal. And we're going to see from the Word of God the true nature of what it is to be a prodigal. Now, brothers and sisters, here's the words that describe that young man who is described in three different places in the New Testament. Here's the words that describe him. Hear carefully the Holy Spirit in the Word of God and let Him show you the seriousness of our condition before God. Remember last week? Now, I want to make this correction. I was told that Ted Bundy was not the one who murdered people and then ate the bodies. It was Jeffrey Dahmer. Now, I haven't confirmed that yet, but whatever. It very well may have been Jeffrey. I know Jeffrey Dahmer did the same thing. I thought Ted Bundy did it, but if he didn't, nevertheless, what he did was grievous enough. And I believe we would all agree on that, wouldn't we? But remember last week we learned how would you like one of your daughters to date Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy? How would you like that? Well, if you used your natural eyes and your natural ears and your natural judgment and looked at the guy, based on testimony, he seemed to be a pretty nice guy. But you would make a catastrophic mistake if based on your own puny human understanding, you decided that he was a nice enough guy for your daughter to date. And brothers and sisters, we stand in the presence of Almighty God today through the Holy Spirit. We give preeminence to the Son of God alone. We give preeminence to the Word of God alone today. And I believe that the Holy Spirit is standing in our midst, speaking to us the Word of God, saying this very thing. We have failed grievously because we have trusted in the sight of our natural eyes, in the hearing of our natural ears, and we have looked at ourselves and we have said, we're not too bad. We've come before God like the self-righteous Pharisee. Remember the self-righteous Pharisee? What did he say? I thank Thee, God. I'm not like this one. I thank You, God, that I pray regularly and I fast regularly and I read my Bible regularly and I give my tithes and offerings regularly and I'm just such a devoted servant of God and it's just too bad that many other Christians are not like me and we have assessed our spiritual condition through the eyes of spiritual pride and we have come to a false conclusion about ourselves and about the church. And in doing so, we have become self-deceived. And we learned months ago that when we are self-deceived, what happens to our vision? It becomes clouded about ourself and it becomes clouded about other people so that you cannot trust what you sense about yourself or other people when you are self-deceived. You can't trust yourself. It's clouded. It's wrong. No matter how much we think we're right, we are wrong. As long as that state is present in our heart and we don't see ourselves just like this lunatic. Now, I know this could be offensive. But you know what, brother? Jesus is a rock of offense. When Jesus shined the brilliancy of His light, religious people wanted to kill Him. And they did! Because He's so offensive. He takes the wind out of our sails. He reduces us down to what we really are. So, I just want to encourage you by the grace of God, please listen to the Word of God this morning and don't apply this stuff to somebody that you know. Don't be a Pharisee today. Come before God as a person who is in great need. Come before God as one who recognizes that apart from the working of Christ in your life, you fit the profile of this lunatic quite perfectly. And we'll see that by God's powerful, precious Word this morning. Number one. Now, this list is combining all of the phrases that were used to describe this Son that were found in the three different passages in the New Testament. So you won't find all these phrases in one particular one. So the best thing to do is just mark down these references and listen carefully because I'm giving you nothing but the Word of God. Absolutely nothing but the Word of God this morning. I'm not giving you my opinion. I'm not giving you some thoughts that I thought up last night and considered them to be quite clever. This is the Word of God. Number one. The Bible says that He was a lunatic. The word lunatic simply means crazy. Moonstruck. Implication. One who loses his mind. The word lunatic is derived from a word which means attracted to that which is brilliant. Attracted to that which is brilliant. That's why the moon is oftentimes associated with a lunatic. Because a full moon at night represents what? Something that is brilliant. Something that is attractive. It also is derived from a word which means to take for oneself. Oh my Lord, have mercy. To take for oneself. To grasp in order to find and lay hold of. To prefer something and therefore grasp after it. Now brothers and sisters, before I go on in the list, I must show you in the Scripture. Go to Genesis 3 if you would please. And I would like to show you by the Holy Spirit and by the counsel of God's Word the greatest picture of what it means to be a lunatic. I want to show you the most vivid, clear example in the Bible that demonstrates how you and I have fallen into this state of being a lunatic. Genesis 3. Beginning in verse 1. 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not die. For God knows that in the day that you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Verse 6 begins the process of becoming a lunatic. Prior to verse 6, we see God's creation. We see someone that is perfect. Someone that is without sin. Someone that is innocent. Someone that is pure. Someone that is undefiled. Someone that represents what God's thought is. And then we see the spirit of lunacy enter in. I want you to see what the features are that characterize this Son. And how they carry over into the spiritual realm and show us exactly our condition before God without being filled and continuously filled with the Holy Spirit. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, what was the definition of lunatic? Someone who loses their mind because they are attracted to something that looks brilliant to them in order that they might obtain something for themselves. Do you see a lunatic being formed in Genesis 3? I do. Do you see a lunatic? I do. Do you see this principle working in your own life apart from the grace of God and the Word of God and the Spirit of God? I do. I see it working in my own life. Do we recognize the seriousness of this condition? This is the root cause of why the world is in a total state of chaos and why the church is making Christ sick to the point where He is warning her, repent or I will throw you up out of My mouth. How could a loving Savior say such a thing? Because the spirit of being a lunatic has taken hold of our lives. And the disciples cannot cure it. The leadership cannot cure it. No one can cure it. What do we do? Notice. Good for food that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise. She took the fruit thereof and did eat it and gave it unto her husband with her and he did eat. Now I'm wondering how many of us have ever read this story and after reading these few verses we bowed our head and began to sob quietly as we saw exactly what was happening. Or perhaps we read it and really didn't see the impact of what was happening. Because what happened to Adam and Eve happened to us. The condition that they were hurled into was the condition that we were born into. Now consider these things as we go down the list. Number two, the Bible says that this poor only son of the Father was sorely vexed, which means badly grieved and afflicted and tormented. Thirdly, he was taken by and gotten hold of a foreign spirit. A foreign spirit. Now as you go into the derivatives of these statements, you'll find that this statement comes from the idea of a foreigner. That which comes from a foreign land and takes hold of someone. Next, this young son was mangled and experienced convulsions. Next, this son was crushed. This son was broken up into pieces. The idea there is to take something that is whole and break it into parts and pieces. Next, the Bible says that this affliction that came upon the son was a state that resulted in great difficulty in his freedom. It was extremely difficult for him to find freedom, to find relief from this state. It essentially controlled him all the time. Even when it appeared like he was okay. It was hovering there all the time. There was a dark cloud over his head. Listen carefully. Even when it appeared that he was sane, he was still insane. It was just a temporary thing. But the true nature of what had got a hold of him always overruled. The house of God lies in ruin. We've spent weeks and weeks and weeks ministering this in the Word of God. This is the picture in the New Testament that explains and describes our spiritual condition. But I do not believe that we have come to the place yet where we see it. And that's why things continue on as normal. That's why. This young man had a mute spirit, unable to utter intelligent speech, to lose one's capacity to speak with meaning. Life lost its meaning when Eve decided that she was going to grasp. Life not only lost its meaning, but her words lost their meaning. She couldn't make sense of life. She couldn't make sense of anything. She could no longer speak the language of heaven. Her speech was no longer pure. Her speech was no longer that which indicated a creature that wanted to bring glory to the Creator. But now her speech defied her. Her speech revealed her insanity because now her speech was what? I want this for myself. I want this because it looks good for me. Self-advancement. Self-glory. Self-preservation. I become the center of my world. I am no longer related to God as the center. A mute spirit has gotten a hold of the Laodicean church. And our speech defies us. Everything we say has to do with ourself. It reveals the insanity of our hearts, brothers and sisters. It reveals the depths of how apart from a mighty, powerful intervention of the grace of God, we speak and want and desire and are attracted to that which benefits us alone for the creature's glory. And we have no consideration for the glory of our Creator. And when we do, it's usually tainted. It's tainted. We want God to be glorified, but we sure would like it if we can share in some of it. Just a little bit of it. Okay, God? We know You alone are worthy. But let's face it, You're not that bad. I'm not that bad, God. I mean, after all, I do pray and fast. God, insanity! Insanity has gotten ahold of us! We're driven by evil! We're thrown into the fire! Lastly, it is said of this young man that he was withering away, pining away, and on the verge of perishing. What a picture! Now, you're going to be amazed when you discover in Luke 15, beginning in verse 13, we're not going to read it, but listen again. I give you nothing but the Word of God. Listen to the state of this young man and you'll see that Christ in His eternal wisdom speaks of a son who has departed from his father and vividly describes the spiritual condition not only of a sinner who comes to the Lord, but of a son who strays. A church who is overtaken by a foreign spirit and becomes insane. This young man went on a journey to a foreign, faraway country. He became a foreign traveler in a foreign land, absent from his own people, his own home, and his own speech. The Bible says in addition that this young man wasted, to dissipate, to disperse, to scatter, resulting in total loss. This word, to waste away, is derived from a word which means the bite of a scorpion, to be pierced as with the sting of a scorpion. How vivid, how clear, to see the language of this prodigal son being driven by a foreign spirit, going into a foreign land, and there, wasting, as if having been bitten by a scorpion, and is now infested with the poison of the venom. He engaged in riotous living. Wasteful. A word that is the opposite of being whole, and healthy, and well, and preserved. Brothers and sisters, when our spiritual condition is that of Eve and Adam, where we grasp for that which attracts us in our natural, sinful desires, we end up in a state of riotous living, and the wholeness, and the health, and the beauty, and the preserving power of our Lord Jesus Christ disappears, and we're in a state of ruin. In this land, there was a mighty famine. Destruction. Forceful. Boisterous. Powerful. Destitution. No food. Great hunger. A dearth. It comes from a word which means absence. Absence of sustenance. Absence of food. The absence of drink. The absence of that which nourishes. What a vivid picture of our lives. Spiritually bankrupt. Yet, Christ as I am, the way, the truth, and the life, the very wealth of heaven is available to the church. And yet, we live in spiritual ruin and littleness. Why? Why? Why? Because we're living in a land that is barren. A land that is full of famine. A land that has no food. It's the land of, I want, I grasp, I desire. For me, there is no food in that land. Please, teenagers, listen. I speak to my own children. I speak to the children of everyone here. That land is a barren land. When we're set on living our own life and governing our own actions, it is a land full of famine and drought. No water. It will leave you dry. It will leave you dead. Okay, listen, brothers and sisters. The Bible indicates that this young man joined himself to a foreigner who sent him to feed swine. He was joined to a foreigner. And being joined to a foreigner, he ended up feeding swine. And while feeding the swine, listen, and this is so important, why does the church end up eating the things of this world? Why does the church, the house called by God's name, fall after the things that the world is feasting on and eating? Why? What kind of things are you talking about? I'm not talking about hamburgers and hot dogs, although I'm not sure how good they are for us. I'm talking about pizza and lasagna. I'm talking about the things of this world love not, desire not, grasp not. Why is the Laodicean church full of materialism and the love of money? Why is the Laodicean church looking to find significance in positions and protocol? Why is the Laodicean church trying to fit into the world and trying to look like the world and smell like the world? Why are we so insecure? It's because we're living in a land that is full of famine. Spiritually speaking, there's no bread in the world. There is nothing of God in the world. The world and the ways thereof are like the fading glory of a flower. It's here today and gone tomorrow. The reason why the world is eating the things of this world is the same reason why the prodigal did. The Bible says that when he was joined to a foreigner, he began to feed the swine and he became so hungry. He became so famished. He became so thirsty. He said, I've got to eat the swine's food to survive. That's why backsliders end up indulging in the world because they're hungry. They're hungry. They've got no other food to eat. And so they start eating the very food the swine eat. Now remember, don't you start in your mind saying, oh, how true that is for my son. How true that is for brother so-and-so. Boy, that's just what my daughter's doing. Boy, that's what my nephew's doing. That might be true. But do you see, that is your condition. That is my condition. And that's why we need God to bring a sovereign move of His Spirit and to rescue us from this insanity. Something that impressed me about my brother Ian in Scotland, when he wrote me an email, he didn't tell me about the problems of the people I was going to be ministering to. He didn't tell me about all the problems that they were going through. You know what he did? He said, Phil, I'm in need. I am desperate. I am barren. I am cold. I am hard. I am confused. Brother, I'm praying that when you come, God will visit us with a Word from Heaven that will refresh our souls. Are you so aware of your brother's sins and your sister's sins that you can't see that your heart is cold and calloused and that you, you, yes, it might be true, you might know someone that is in this state, but don't look at them and see yourself as the Pharisee. You're no better. There's only One that stands in our midst that is holy and righteous and His name is not yours or mine. His name is Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. He's the Holy One of God. And if any of us ever come to the place where God entrusts to us the power and the glory of His kingdom, it will only be because Christ is the preeminent One in our life. Has nothing to do with anything in our self. Don't you love the Word of God and how there's no place for man? Listen, man is ruled out when you get into God's Word. There's only one man that has preeminence in the house of God. That's Christ and His holy features. Man is ruled out. The best of man looks like this insane, demon-possessed man. The best of the saints in the world today, apart from Christ, look just like this insane man, this prodigal son. And whenever there is any temptation in your heart, no matter what God has done in your life, no matter where you've come, I don't care if God is speaking to you with visions and dreams. I don't care if God is opening up His Word to you. I don't care if you pray two hours a day. I don't care if you read through your Bible every three weeks. The moment you begin to think that your spiritual advancement puts you in a position where you see yourself better than someone else, you have become a lunatic. A lunatic. And unless you recover and God delivers you, you will go into spiritual decline and self-deceived and be of no value for the Lord's interests. There you have it. There you have it. The prodigal son, after eating the husks that he was feeding the swine, the Bible says, he came to himself. He was recovered from the state of insanity. Brothers and sisters, hear the Word of God this morning. The church. You and I. The church here. Not here in this building in Hackettstown. The church everywhere. The Laodicean age that we live in will remain in spiritual ruin, in spiritual death and disaster until the sovereign Spirit of God awakens a remnant and they respond in humility and brokenness and God awakens us and we come to ourself and we are recovered out of the state of insanity. And you know where that will bring us? Right to the Valley of Acre. The Valley of Acre. The place of the skull. The place of the cross. The place of judgment. The place where we must come to an end. The place where our sin must be confessed and forsaken. It's not only the place of judgment, it's the place of empowerment. The Spirit of God meets those who come to Calvary and out of the death and ruin of sin and depravity, the righteousness of Christ is imputed. And then the righteousness of Christ is then released in our life and we're able to live and behave the way God wants us to. The Valley of Acre is the place where God is building His church. Mount Moriah was the place where who was offered up? Isaac was offered on the Mount Moriah and also Mount Moriah was the place where the temple was built in the Old Testament. Mount Moriah is the place of what? Sacrifice. The cross. It's Calvary. The Laodicean church will not be recovered from her backslidden state until she comes back to Calvary, comes back to Mount Moriah and experiences the bitter waters of depravity and acknowledges her need before God. We've got to come back to God and say, God, we have done as Eve. We've grasped after our own things. We have fallen captive to a foreign spirit. We are insane. Our lives are insane. There's no meaning to life if God is not everything. Lord, we come to You and we pray, God, restore sanity back to us. Restore sanity back to us. You ask, what is sanity? What is sanity? Sanity is the condition that we'll look at in a few moments. Listen carefully, beloved. There are two words that define the essential nature of this insane state. We don't like to be devastated. We don't like despair. Most of the churches today pump everybody up, make everybody feel good, and it's ridiculous. It's insanity. God doesn't want us to feel good. He wants us to know the truth because truth is going to set us free, not feelings of goodness and happiness. God wants us to see our condition as so hopeless and so horrible and so despairing that we cry out, God, if You don't do something, I don't know if I'll be able to live. That's what God is looking for. Desperation. Not this thing where, well, yeah, I think I will walk with the Lord. Insanity. Two words. The first word found in Revelation 3. It's the very word Laodicea. You'll notice, brothers and sisters, that the Holy Spirit addresses seven churches in Asia Minor. He addresses the church that is in Ephesus. This is how He words it. The church that is in Smyrna. The church that is in Thyatira. The church that is in Philadelphia. And so on. But when He comes to the last church, He doesn't say the church that is in Laodicea. He says the church of the Laodiceans. Very, very, very interesting. The word Laodicea comes from two words. One, it means the people. Two, it comes from a word that means the right to judge, execute, and make decisions. The people. The right to judge, execute, and make decisions. The Laodicean spirit, which is controlling the end-time church, was birthed in Genesis 3 when Eve decided that she had the right to decide, to judge, and to make a decision of her own accord without counsel from the Almighty God. And the prevailing spirit of the Laodicean church is people. Man is center. Man rules. Man decides. Man governs. Man sits in the place, and God is pushed out. And so Jesus says unto the church of the Laodiceans. The Laodiceans have a church. It's called Christianity, but it's all outward religion. But inside, the heart sits as the sovereign judge making decisions, doing what we want, saying what we want, living how we want, considering once in a while what God might say. And we know that God ultimately says to the Laodiceans, repent. I love you. But if you don't repent and turn from your ways, if you do not see your insanity and your self-righteous state and come to Me, because the disciples can't heal you, the preacher can't heal you, God is calling the Laodicean church and He's saying, you must come back to Me. Christ alone healed that young man who was insane. Come to Me, or else you'll make me sick. Number two, another word that's found in the book of Revelation. It's called the deeds of the Nicolaitans. And Jesus said, which deeds I hate. That's Revelation 2, verse 6. And the Laodiceans, Revelation 3, verse 14. The Nicolaitans. It comes from two words. Listen. To conquer. To have victory over the people. The idea is to conquer as a means to obtain success. To conquer as a means to obtain success. Jesus said that He hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans. This simply speaks, brothers and sisters, of anything going on in our lives or in the church that is seeking to usurp the place of Christ in our lives. Anything that's trying to conquer you. Anything that's trying to conquer you or me other than Christ Himself. Some have interpreted the deeds of the Nicolaitans to be the doctrine of the clergy and laity. The clergy being those who are called of God to rule over the laity. Conquering the people. I believe there's merit to that because I do not believe that Christ is pleased with such a doctrine. There are no divisions in the body of Christ where there are those called to rule over and conquer others. We're all equal at Calvary. Christ alone is the One who is to conquer. And so this is the essential nature. The essential nature of this insanity spirit. I'm wondering. I'm wondering. Do we see our need before God today? I'm wondering if the Word of God has shed light into our hearts. And I'm wondering, is it resulting in a burning desire within us to cry out to God? To be delivered from our insanity and to be restored back to a position inside where we say, Lord, conquer me. Conquer me, Lord. Be my everything. We have vividly seen over the past several weeks the condition of the house of God being in ruin. We've covered it from many different angles. Intentionally, to hammer the point. To hammer it so that we could see our dreadful need. And now as God leads, we're going to begin to look at what a restored, healed church looks like. Because once we see our desperate need, and if God could get us to the place where we'll cry out for mercy and deliver us from all of our crazy delusions about how good we think we are, and deliver us from that Pharisee spirit, if He can get us desperate enough before Him, something beautiful will begin to happen in our lives and in our homes and in our gatherings. Something beautiful. The Lord will begin to manifest Himself in our lives. And I want to encourage you to start reading through your book of Philippians. Because that's where we're going. We're going to go into Philippians and we're going to see that Philippians was given to the church and in it is the seeds of a healthy church, a vibrant church. And just as a little appetizer, the book of Philippians opens up. Paul and Timothy. You say, well, what does that mean? Oh, what significance. Paul and Timothy. Those two men represent the nature of a healed church. Laodicea and Nicolaitans represents the nature of a ruined Laodicean church. Just very quickly, we'll go into it more deeply next time we gather. Paul literally means to come to an end. To come to an end. To cease. And Timothy means to esteem more highly than anything else God Himself. Incredible. We can't even get into the book of Philippians. You can't touch the truth in the book of Philippians. You can't touch it until you go through Paul and Timothy, spiritually speaking, and God develops those features in you. You want to unlock the truth of what it means to be a part of a church that is healing and healthy and vibrant and full of the glory of God? Then stop right there, Paul and Timothy. God's got to bring you to an end. Your nature. Your stubbornness. Your self-will. Your pride. And He's got to give you a heart that says, I esteem more highly than anything else God Himself. Once that begins to happen, we'll begin to scratch the surface of what's in the book of Philippians. I hope God will give us that privilege together. Let's bow our hearts. Father, we honor You. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your love and mercy and grace. I pray, God, that You will use Your Word and the faithful messenger of the Holy Spirit to awaken our hearts to the exact condition that we are in in this hour that we live in. Deliver us from a Pharisee spirit that thinks we're better than someone else and help everyone to see here they are chiefest of sinners. And Lord, once You do this work, I pray that You will prepare our hearts to meet Paul and Timothy next time we gather and to meet the spiritual meaning of their names. And to give us that so that we can begin to get into the book of Philippians and partake of the wealth and treasure of Christ Himself. Build up Your kingdom, Lord. Honor Your Son, the Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen and Amen. What's that song? Sing, He is all I need. Let's just sing it. Go ahead. You want to do the piano? He is all I need. Jesus, You're all I need. Let's just spend a minute or two because of time.