Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the divine origin and significance of family, rooted in the nature of the Triune God. He explains that the perfect fellowship within the Godhead serves as the model for family relationships, highlighting the importance of mutual submission and selflessness. Beach encourages families to turn their eyes from past hurts and failures to the healing love of God, who desires to restore and guide them. He stresses that true fulfillment in family life comes from reflecting God's character and relying on Jesus Christ for strength and love. Ultimately, he calls for families to bring their struggles to Jesus, who can heal and transform their relationships.

Let's again bow our hearts before the Lord and invite the presence of the Lord to be with us. Father, we thank you for who you are. We acknowledge that you are our King and our Lord. We welcome you into our midst. We welcome your Holy Spirit to be in our hearts. We welcome your Son as our Savior in our midst. We pray that you will open the eyes of our hearts and shine light from the face of Jesus Christ. And with this light enable us to see the beauty of who you are. And may we be transformed into that lovely image. We commit this time into your hands in the wonderful name of Jesus. Amen and Amen. It is a pleasure to be here with you today. I am very thankful to the Lord Jesus and his wonderful grace. Just a brief testimony. I was born a sinner, lost. As a young man I went my own way and got involved in many hurtful and sinful things. But over 30 years ago, Jesus revealed his love and his grace to me. And he changed my heart and gave me a desire to know him and to love him. And so I come to you today in his grace and in his strength. I have nothing to offer except the Lord Jesus Christ. What we'll do is have a time of study in the Word of God. And then afterwards we'll have a time of question and answer. And so there will be plenty of time for us to interact and then we can close our meeting. And you who have other responsibilities tonight, you'll be on time. I would like to invite everyone, if you have your Bibles, to open them to Genesis chapter 1. When you turn your Bibles to Genesis chapter 1, you can read the first two verses. The first two verses of Genesis chapter 1. Yes, you can read now. In order to understand the immense significance of family, we have to go all the way back to God. Now let's look at these few verses and we'll see how important this is. In the Scripture, when the Bible says, in the beginning God, the word God there is the Hebrew word Elohim. This word Elohim occurs over 2600 times in the Old Testament. This word Elohim, interestingly, is a plural word. And the reason why the Holy Spirit chose this word is because it reveals the Triune God. One God, but reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit enjoy perfect fellowship for all eternity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit possess perfect family for all eternity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit possess perfect family for all eternity. So when the Triune God and His desire to create. Now when God wants to create as Elohim, it's because He wants to demonstrate in His creation the harmony and perfection of what He possesses in Himself. The standard that God uses for all things that He has ever done is the perfection of Himself. So whenever we want to learn something about creation, we go to God Himself who is the origin of all creation. And so, in light of that, we read in verse number 2 that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Now, when the Bible says the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, the word moved there is a very carefully chosen word. This word moved is revealing the very first revelation from God regarding His desire for a family. The word in Hebrew means this. It describes an eagle hovering over a particular area wanting to build a nest to start a family. The idea here is an eagle not only seeking to build a nest for a family but the idea is a hovering and a fluttering to protect the baby eagles. God from eternity past had a desire in His heart. He wanted to create a family that would be just like His beloved eternal Son. And now this takes the Holy Spirit to help us to understand the fellowship that the Father and the Son has had for all eternity. The love, the intimacy, the enjoyment that they share with one another. God wanted to share with His earthly family. And so the whole concept of family originates from the reality of what already existed in the Godhead. This is why family is so sacred and so special to God's heart. If we see how far the idea of a family has fallen from that concept, it can break our heart. And so as we study the Scriptures and we learn of the wonderful harmony within the Triune God the love between the Father and the Son the amazing mutual submission one to another, Father to Son and Son to Father the amazing demonstration of the humility of God in the person of the Holy Spirit so many Scriptures tell us the Holy Spirit comes and He doesn't speak of Himself He's not self-centered He doesn't talk about His name but He comes to serve the interests of the Father and the Son Then when the Son comes He says, I speak not of Myself but I only speak of My Father He says, the works that I do they are not My works but they are the works of the Father And then when the Father speaks from Heaven He says, behold My Son in whom I am well pleased The Father says, I have given all My glory to My Son and all My riches to My Son The Father says, all that I have created I have made My Son the heir of all things In eternity past, when the Father saw that after He created man we would fall into sin What would He do? How would He solve this horrible problem? All God had to do was look within Himself and He saw the answer The fall of man simply brought out the true nature and heart of who God is God is who He reveals Himself as the Lamb of God And the Lamb of God is a perfect representation of the sacrificial selfless nature of the Triune God Now are we beginning to see a little glimpse into the kind of family the Triune God represents When man fell the Son willingly came to offer His life The Father willingly gave His Son There was no argument within the Triune God The Father didn't say to the Son Son, I don't want you to go and the Son didn't say, well Father I don't really want to go God didn't say, well let's find someone else to do let's ask an angel to go and become the sin sacrifice for the mess man has made God didn't sit on His throne and see the mess that we got ourselves into and say, well, I'm God and I'm not going to get dirty I'm just going to speak and He can clear it all up and I'm not going to get dirty No No, but when God saw the sin and when God saw the fall it brought out of Him a revelation of the depths of His true nature We say all of that and we're only touching the surface We could spend days hours and hours a day discovering the nature and character of God as He reveals it in the Word of God and that ultimately is displayed in His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ But we won't do that at this time We've said enough in order to prove the point The true model of what a family ought to be is revealed in God Himself So when we ask ourselves what is a family supposed to look like? We can't look at an earthly thing We have to go beyond earth to God Himself And so let me say if you and I desire to have families that truly bring glory to God if you and I truly desire to have a family that brings glory to God we must ask God to turn our eyes from our failures and from our struggles Some of us have parents that have failed us Some of us have parents that are not there for us Some of us might have had mothers that were not there for us Maybe we were hurt and abused and neglected And God knows this and He's very understanding and sympathetic toward our need But the way to healing is to take our eyes off the wounds and the hurts that are in our life and to turn them upon our loving Heavenly Father Because in Him there is perfect healing there is perfect family and He's able to be our perfect Father So now what do we do now that we see the standard, the model of a family How does all of this practically work? It practically works by taking one step at a time And as we take one step at a time we continuously look to Jesus Christ who becomes all that we need to make the family work Let's begin by turning our Bibles to the New Testament And now that we have laid a foundation that God is the author of family and is the role model of what a true family ought to be We can turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5 And we can read verses 22 through 29 And you can read out loud Here we see that God's Word is describing how a family should function Remember what His goal is to represent Himself in a family The answer to all of the questions of why can always be found in God Himself Why should wives submit to their own husbands? Why should husbands love their own wives? Why should husbands lay their life down for their wives? Is this just an arbitrary rule? Is God just throwing out rules now because He just wants to? See, if we look at this as just rules it's not going to make sense to us These aren't just rules that we are commanded to follow This is a revelation of the way God Himself with the Triune God functions within Himself There is mutual submission within the Godhead There is selflessness within the Godhead There is a laying down of one's own interests for the sake of others This language in Ephesians 5 22 all the way down to 33 is just language describing the divine nature working through and in husbands and wives This is so liberating brothers and sisters when we no longer approach this as rules that we have to try and follow Instead they are promises that God Himself will enable us to fulfill in and through the power of Jesus Christ Remember in Genesis 1 verse number 26 It was after God created all the physical universe He created the animal kingdom and the vegetable kingdom He created all of the beautiful stars in the sky and all of the mountains And all creation revealed the glory of God But not adequately enough There was one more thing that God wanted to do that could reveal His glory more splendidly than all of the physical creation And we all know what that was Why did God create man? Wanted man to represent on earth His divine image and likeness What a holy and sacred calling All of those lovely moral attributes in God that reveal His character He wants to be lived through you and I What a thought This is what revolutionizes families It is a revelation of God's purpose in creating the family Every husband and every father is called with a most holy and sacred calling Through the power of Jesus Christ we are called to demonstrate to our family the qualities that are in God Himself of love and self-sacrifice of guidance and protection of leadership and headship Where do we get these? From the author, God Himself What a wonderful plan, isn't it? Oh, brothers and sisters This is a living, real thing This meets the practical needs and the struggles that we have in our marriages We have to be lifted out of the struggles and see God See the provision in Jesus Christ God said that Jesus Christ in Him we have all that we need for life and godliness in this world And so in Jesus Christ we have all that we need to solve and work through every single problem that we have in our marriage And so I feel very strongly impressed by the Holy Spirit that God would want to emphasize the whole idea of marriage was born by Him And it was born by Him because He wants it to be a picture through whom His divine likeness can be seen And if He is asking us to do that then He is also providing Himself as the source and power that will enable us to do it So as we look into the Word of God at all the scriptures that talk about family and we begin to unpack the practical issues of family life we can't get lost in the earthliness of our struggles But we have to keep our hearts above seeing God's ultimate intention I can remember years ago I spoke with a husband and wife who were having great conflict in their marriage The husband would come home from work and he would sit down and he would put his feet up and he would begin to talk to his wife about the problems that he had during the day But she was a little distant She was sort of listening with one ear And he would do this week after week and month after month Every week, every month he would do this Because he felt that his wife didn't give him full undivided attention And this resentment turned into anger And so we began to talk And as he basically told me the same story I just told you The Holy Spirit whispered in my heart Tell this dear brother that his anger is because of selfishness He comes home and he has an expectation A feeling of entitlement You know what entitlement means It's that feeling that we have the right to something We who live in America feel very entitled about a lot of things But we must be very careful with this deep rooted feeling of entitlement Because when we come to our God in Heaven We see a Savior who gave up his entitlements He gave up his rights He was God And he became a man He remained God as a man But he gave up his right to be worshipped He gave up his right to be honored He gave up his prerogatives as deity And he became a servant And he healed people who didn't say thank you And he served Then he went even lower than that And he became obedient to death He who knew no sin He who knew no impurity He who only enjoyed perfect fellowship with his Father Who was a king by virtue of being the eternal Son of God Who was deserving and worthy of all honor and praise and glory and majesty He emptied himself, Paul said That word empty is kenosis It means to give up one's rights So what was the problem that this husband was having in his marriage? Are we listening? Are we listening to the Holy Spirit? He was coming home with the expectation that he deserved something He didn't get it But where's the nature of God in that? Husbands, love your wives Give your life for them Even as Christ emptied his life out for the church Now is it right for a wife to honor her husband and listen to her husband? Absolutely yes But what if our wives had a bad day? What if our wives had struggles with the children? What if our wives just were feeling low? What does love do? It gives up the demand It gives up the feeling of I have the right to be treated in this way It forgets about its own needs It forgets about its own wants It doesn't hold people accountable if they don't give what it wants And through the power of the Holy Spirit Through revealing the divine nature of the Father Heart of God the husband sits down begins to talk recognizes wife is only listening with one ear stops talking and says Sweetheart, how was your day? Talk to me about it How practical Doesn't Paul say Don't just think of your own interests but think also of the interests of others Now brothers and sisters by nature we can't do this By nature we're very self-centered By nature we love those that love us But if we don't get that love back we resent it Human love will never pass the test of time Even the love the human love that a parent has for their children can turn to resentment and hatred if the children grow up and disrespect and despise their parents Honeymoon love It's okay It's part of God's plan He made that kind of love to have its place But that kind of love does not last forever You can be honeymoon in love with one another one day and then you let wife cross husband's will or vice versa And all of a sudden those happy feelings of love turn into feelings of anger and resentment Has anyone ever experienced that? But Christ has come to save us Not only from our sins but from ourselves And all of that humanity that sinful humanity that we inherited from Adam When Jesus Christ died on the cross He brought that sinful humanity and our sins upon Himself And He became a curse And that was God saying I have cursed the first Adam and all of his sin and all of his sinful nature And when Jesus died He brought all of what we are and our sinful self into death with Him And He buried it And then when Jesus rose again from the dead He rose as a new man out of death with a glorified divine nature And in that divine human nature all the fullness of God's attributes and all of His character is invested That perfect love that never fails That perfect patience That gentleness And now through the new birth and the power of the Holy Spirit we become partakers of that divine nature And He becomes the source from which we draw all that we need To be what we ought to be in our marriages and families Now in Ephesians chapter 5 we see that God is asking wives to submit and husbands to love And God is asking this because that represents the divine order and character that is in the Godhead But now Paul tells us in verse number 28 He says men ought to love their own wives as their own body Then he makes a profound statement He says he that loves his wife loves himself Oh, can we see this mystery? When God the Father loves the Son who is He really loving? Himself It's not three gods It's one God We don't serve three gods Here O Israel the Lord thy God is one One God One Triune God Father, Son and Spirit Distinct but the same And so when Father loves Son Father loves Himself And when Son loves Father He is loving Himself And now Paul takes this eternal principle and brings it down into marriage Because marriage is supposed to represent the eternal principle of God And that's why he says that men love your wives as your own body For whoever loves his wife loves himself For no one hates his own body but nourishes it and cherishes it And then he says even as the Lord the Church And then he says in verse 32 this is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the Church So Paul is taking the earthly institution of marriage and showing that it is a picture of the spiritual union between Christ and the Church which is a picture of the harmony and union in the Godhead So both the earthly family together with the heavenly family, the Church are called by God to reveal the harmony and divine qualities that are in the Godhead Some of the children here and possibly the adults Have you ever wondered why God gave us 10 commandments? I have many times talked to my children and many others and I've asked them Why does God say 10 times Thou shalt not Why does He do that? Is He just trying to make my life miserable? If we look at the 10 commandments as just rules that we have to obey because God said so, it can be frustrating If we view marriage the same way it can be frustrating Why do I have to love my wife to the point to lay my life down? Wives, you mean I have to submit to you? If we only take it to that level it can be frustrating But if we go to a higher level the frustration disappears Every young person, listen carefully God gives us commandments because these commandments teach us something about God That's what God is always wanting to do In all the lessons of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation God is trying to teach us something about Himself Remember God says at the very beginning I created you because I want you to be like me So why does God say don't worship any other gods before me Because He wants us to be like Him and He does not, there's no other gods Why does God say to love your neighbor? Why does God say children honor and respect your parents Because God doesn't have any disrespect or rebellion in Him and wants us to be just like Him Young person, listen carefully to the Holy Spirit The only way to truly be happy and to be truly fulfilled and to really know what joy is is to be like God Not to become God but to be like God in character and nature The devil lies to us and says if you want to have fun if you want to really know how to really have joy do your own thing follow the dark ways of this world But God's word is here to say that that is a lie and us adults need to remember that too Always remember, fulfillment does not come any other place than in God Himself The root cause to all the problems that we experience as Christians and all the problems that are in the world today no matter what they are we have turned from the Living God and we are trying to find meaning and significance outside of Him and that is impossible God is the perfect eternal being and God says all things were created by Him and for Him Everything that God created can only fulfill its purpose when it turns back to God and in God alone finds its rest So why does God say Don't steal Why does He say that Because God is not a thief God doesn't steal and He wants us to be like Him Why does He say Don't lie Don't take His name in vain Don't be greedy and covetous Why does God put these rules on us They are more than rules brothers and sisters They are showing us the way that God They are showing us what God is like and in the person of Jesus Christ we see all of these wonderful qualities displayed No man has ever lived without sinning No man has ever lived without turning from the Living God and following their rebellious heart except one the man Christ Jesus Jesus is the perfect man Don't look into yourself to try and find perfection brothers and sisters Husbands don't look into yourself to try and find the love you need to love your wives Your human love will fail Wives don't look into yourself to find the resources to honor and respect and submit to your husband You'll find a rebellious heart but together husband, wife, and children we turn our eyes away from ourselves and we turn them to the perfect man Jesus Christ In Jesus I see the love that I need for my wife Wives, when you see Jesus you see the love you need for your husband When I see Jesus I see the love I need as a father for my seven children because without Him constantly energizing me and working in my life I can't love my children the way I need to How can I be patient with my children and give them the attention that they need I can't but through Jesus Christ I can do all things Do you see dear brothers and sisters where our lesson is bringing us Isn't it liberating to see everything as it relates to God and His Son Jesus Christ I've been married for almost 30 years and when I first got married I had just been a Christian for a couple years before I got married I was a teenager when I became a Christian and so I was just a young man and I was about to get married I had been engaged and an older man came to me a few days before I got married and he was talking to me about how happy he was that I was about to get married and he looked at me and he said Phil you think you know Colette now Colette was the name of my fiance who became my wife he said you wait until you get married you just wait and see you're going to really see who Colette is I pondered what he said I thought about it a few nights later while crying the Holy Spirit spoke to me and here's what the Holy Spirit said he reminded me what this man told me and then he said but I say to you you think you know yourself but you wait until you're married and you're going to really come to know yourself and that defined the direction of my marriage for 30 years I don't look into my wife and say you're my problem or do I look into my children's lives and say you're my problem if I have a problem it's my problem and I've got to find more grace in Jesus Christ many years ago my son had a computer and it broke and he asked me permission to take it apart to try and fix it he spent two full days taking that computer apart piece by piece and after two days he came to me and he said dad I've taken it apart piece by piece and I can't fix it what are we going to do I said son let's pack it up in a box and send it to the manufacturer so he said good idea and we did that within a couple days we got an email this is what it said we got the computer it's all fixed and we've already sent it back to you and within a couple days later we got it back and there it was completely fixed and my son was happy but as that happened I pondered that whole story and the Holy Spirit again spoke to me and he said Phil you can't fix other people you can't fix your wife you can't fix your children you can't fix your own life only the manufacturer can only the creator can you see my son had a desire to fix the computer but he did not understand all of how it was made but those who made it did brothers and sisters God alone knows how to fix us it is not our mission in life to try and fix people if you make it your mission as a father or a husband to try and fix everything that you think is broken you're going to make things worse not better do you remember in the New Testament there was a man that was crippled and he had some friends he had good friends they were good friends because they heard about Jesus and they knew their friend was broken he couldn't walk and they knew they couldn't fix him so each one took a corner of the bed that he was on and together they brought him to Jesus and when Jesus saw the broken man because his friends brought him to Jesus the people said that Jesus fixed them he made them whole today in our marriages we have problems we have difficulties we have struggles but we also have a God who knows just how to fix us and as a family if we will learn to bring one another to the feet of Jesus Jesus will work on all of us that doesn't mean at times we can't correct and instruct but don't try and fix leave the fixing to Jesus Husbands, we need to lead under the guidance of the Holy Spirit we need to care and nurture our wives and help guide our children but don't try and fix bring your family to Jesus bring them to Jesus in prayer every husband should know what it is to weep in private for their family and bring them to Jesus every husband and father should weep in public too during times of family devotions and bring their family to Jesus set the example show them by example what it means well brothers and sisters we can go on and on this is a wonderful, wonderful revelation of our Lord in our midst but I do want to leave an opportunity for any questions that you might have of course we did not go through the 8 pages of this newsletter this little message at this time I did feel that the Lord wanted me to do that instead to lay this foundation and with this foundation these 8 pages make much more sense and so now if anyone has any questions or any kind of interaction if it's okay with our brother Timothy then it's perfectly fine with me but before we do that let's bow our hearts in a word of prayer our Father in Heaven thank you so much for your great love thank you for your Father heart it is so large and full it is your Father heart that conceived the idea of a family a family that would be before you in love for all eternity Father thank you for your Son who willingly gave His life for us who showed us what kind of a sacrificial heart you have who never complained never demanded His rights never was there a harsh word in His mouth and He died for our sins and Father we thank you for the precious Holy Spirit who never speaks of Himself who never brings attention to Himself but delights to reveal the glory of the Son and the majesty of the Father I'm asking you Father to everyone here today give us a revelation of who you are by the power of the Holy Spirit and let us see in you all of those qualities that you can reproduce in our family every struggle and problem that we're having every failure and hurt may we be healed from as we see Jesus Christ I pray Lord if there's anyone struggling with bitterness and unforgiveness those who have been hurt perhaps some who have not had a mother or a father or whose mother and father failed them I pray Lord Jesus that you will heal them that they will confess to you their struggle and their sin and find perfect cleansing and healing through the blood of Jesus Christ where there's a lack of love may you fill that heart with the divine love of Jesus where the devil has lied to some and said there's no hope for your marriage I pray you'll cast the devil out and you'll fill that marriage with hope through Jesus Christ help us to bring one another to the feet of Jesus so that he can touch our lives and make us whole do we know the chorus? it's all the same the chorus of Hallelujah Hallelujah Thank you Jesus Jesus all that your light any bitterness or anger or hatred any unforgiveness we forgive one another we admit that we have failed one another we receive the healing through Jesus Christ and together we look to Jesus the perfect one we release our rights to you Lord and we pray that you'll fill us with selfless love control by this love and be able to live through Jesus Christ sacrificial lives He is here He heals us He gives hope where there was no hope He gives love where there was hatred and bitterness maybe you just want to share I'll answer that by saying everything in relation to conflict comes down to learning to distinguish the difference between what Christ is like and what we are like in ourselves Christ possesses that perfect divine humanity and in ourselves we possess a broken humanity that can't be fixed and so in answer to our dear brother's question we approach it by recognizing with an honest heart those imperfections and failures that we see within ourselves and in our relationships with others and admit it we admit our failures we admit our sins we admit the conflict and as we admit it we acknowledge our need for appropriating the otherness of what Christ is my lack of love for His love my impatient critical attitude for His loving non-critical attitude and that's how we go about resolving conflicts it requires a truthful heart before God and one another and a willingness to give place to the perfections that are in Jesus to be appropriated in and through us by faith in Him Do you have another follow-up question? Did that help you? Yes Yes That's the key God says I am the High and Holy One and I dwell in eternity but I also live with broken contrite humble hearts We never have to come to God and pretend we're someone we're not Take the mask off You don't have to wear it You can come just like you are to God and to one another because our righteousness is in the Lord not in ourselves Our perfections are in the Lord Jesus not in ourselves so there's freedom to take the mask off You say, I don't know if God will love me the way I really am Listen, He died for us while we were His enemies He does love us the way we are and we are not condemned if we fail He doesn't love us less if our marriages and families get all broken He just says, come to me just the way you are in all of your frustration with all your broken pieces and talk to me about it What did God say to Adam when Adam sinned? He asked him a question, Adam where are you? God knew where Adam was He wasn't asking Adam where his geographical location was He was trying to get Adam to talk about his sin He was cultivating relationships Adam, where are you? Adam, what happened on the inside? Adam, what do you feel? Adam, what did you do? That's all He's saying now Can you hear God calling your voice? Your name? Where are you? Don't pretend Don't lie to yourself Tell Him Say, God I'm really angry now God, I'm really confused He won't reject you He will accept you He will offer you perfect forgiveness through His blood and perfect hope through His Son Jesus Christ Just like that That's how you talk to your children Don't preach Adam Don't scream at them and tell them what they should be Come down alongside of them and sing Tell me where you're at Talk to me It's okay if you're mad It's okay if you're confused It's okay if you sinned with your friends last night and you know you shouldn't have done it It's okay if you looked at that magazine that you shouldn't have looked at Talk to me about it I'm not going to condemn you for it Let's together go to the Lord Jesus That's the Father heart that He showed us When we sinned He didn't say, get out of my sight He sent His Son He got dirty with our dirt He came right down to where we're at He says, come to Me Talk to Me about anything you're going through I'm there for you to heal you to forgive you and give you My Son