Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the theme of the captivity of the righteous, drawing lessons from the story of Job. He discusses how God touches three major areas in Job's life: health, family, and wealth, revealing the potential captivities that can ensnare believers. Beach warns against the dangers of worshipping health and family over God, urging the congregation to seek true value and significance in Christ alone. He encourages a humble heart to allow God to search and reveal any inordinate concerns that may lead to captivity. Ultimately, the sermon calls for believers to forsake all for the sake of following Christ, leading to true freedom and joy.

Thank you Lord Jesus, as the children are quietly lining up, the children's church is up to sixth grade. Okay, beloved, let's bow our hearts for a few, for a moment, and let's ask the Holy Spirit to take the Word of God and speak to us this morning, okay? Father, we thank you for your presence, we thank you Lord for the privilege and honor of being called children of God because, and only because, of the finished work of Jesus Christ. How thankful we are that you have called us and opened up the eyes of our heart and have enabled us to see that Jesus is our Savior and our Lord and our Deliverer, the one who rescues us from a Christless eternity. But not only that, he rescues us from sin and from self and from the world, and he unites us to his Father. Oh God, we pray that the work empowered in the Lord and the work empowered in the Holy Spirit will continue that process of uniting our heart and mind and strength and soul into perfect harmony with you in your room. We pray God that you're doing a deep work within our hearts this morning for your honor and glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. As many of you know, we have been looking into the story of Job and we've been learning that the story of Job teaches us about the captivity of the righteous, the thing that all of us who know the Lord have to deal with. And we learned over the weeks that there are three major areas that the Bible says God touched in Job's life. Three major areas. The first area had to do with Job's health. The second area had to do with his family. And the third area had to do with Job's wealth. And we learned that in each of these areas, health, family, and wealth, there is the potential within us until God's purging grace and sanctifying power works deeply in us, there's a tendency for us to become captive to something in one of these areas in our life. For example, we learned that health, nowadays people are worshipping health. The scripture speaks in Romans where there would come a day when the creature would be worshipped rather than the creator. And there is an inordinate interest in the way we look. Our young people are suffering dreadfully, driven with this idea that they have to look a certain way in order to be accepted. Last night, I was watching an older Billy Graham crusade, possibly 15 years ago. God bless Billy Graham's heart, speaking to a stadium full of people. There must have been 50,000 people in that stadium. And he was mentioning, now this is probably 15 years ago. And if it was true 15 years ago, how much more true is it now? He was mentioning how the church needed to be alerted to the danger of worshipping their bodies, worshipping their physical existence, worshipping the things that pertain to the natural. And in doing so, he said that we're denying God, we're denying the creator. This is one of the captivities of the righteous, those who know the Lord. And then we see family, that we want to distinguish between the things that differ. There is a healthy, balanced concern for our health. There is a balanced concern for how we look. But we have to search God's word, and we have to let God search our heart. Because there's a fine line between a healthy, balanced concern about our appearance and how we look, and stepping over the threshold into an inordinate concern, which leads to creature worship. Many of God's children who hear the call of the Spirit of God to go to spiritual maturity, and hear the Lord saying, follow me, follow me, follow me, follow me in my word, follow me in my word, and let me walk the truth of my word in your life. Any child of God who hears the Spirit of God speak those words, will have to come sooner or later to the time when God begins to purge their heart, and search their heart, and begins to reveal the captivities that we have in relation to our physical well-being. Now I would encourage you, as the word of the Lord comes forth, to ask yourself, ask God, say, Lord, speak to me about these things. Have an open heart. Say, God, open my heart. Don't assume anything. Don't assume, well, praise God, I know brother so-and-so has a problem in this area in their life, but I sure don't. Don't come to God like that, beloved. Come to God with a humble heart. Even the young teenagers here, come to God with a humble heart. Say, Father, show me where I might have an inordinate concern about the way I look physically. Teenagers, remember this, remember, remember, your sense of significance, your sense of value, your sense of worth is not based on whether or not you look like the cover girl on CoverGirl magazine. That's not where you derive your sense of significance. This is what's happening to a whole generation of kids. They don't know who they are. They don't understand their purpose. And if they don't fit within that unrealistic stereotype of how a young person should look, they feel like an outcast. They don't feel like they're worth it. They don't feel like they have value. They don't feel like they have significance. Then they go around and they lose sight of the fact that God gives us value. Christ gives us worth. Listen, your worth is measured not by how you look, but by the fact that Jesus died for you. And I'm telling you right now, Jesus didn't die for junk. Jesus didn't waste his precious blood on junk. He shed his blood on something that was valuable to him. You are valuable to God. That is where a human being derives a sense of joy and rest and peace when they come to realize that Christ was crucified for you, young people who died for you. That's what places value in your life. That's what gives you value, not how you look. And so there is a great captivity that has ensnared the righteous in this day that we live in. And we must pray and ask God to beg us. We must pray and ask God. We must beg God to free us from this captivity. We must pray for our children, that they will get a proper way of understanding this whole area of health and physical well-being, that they will see that their value is based on Calvary. We need to move along, although we could take each one of these and go for weeks. Secondly, family. We read many scriptures that pertain to family. I only want to mention a few at this time in Matthew. Let's look at Luke. I'm sorry, Luke chapter 12. Not only is there a captivity to health, but there is a captivity that has to do with the family today. Now, I appreciate very much the work that many are doing in relation to trying to build the family back up and restore the family. But as I've said before, I believe that there is a warning, a yellow light flashing regarding this emphasis of family. We're going to address that now. Because not only is there the breaking down of the family, but there's the building up of the family to the point where they're going beyond what is written, where the family becomes the most important thing in your life. And that can't be. That's against God's heart. The family is very important, but it's not an end in itself. We cannot derive our sense of joy and satisfaction exclusively from the joys and the pleasures and the happiness that comes with family. There is a higher joy that exceeds that of the joy that we experience in family. That's the goal of family. It is that we might together seek that higher joy and find a sense of pleasure from offering ourselves to God. Matthew or Luke chapter 12, beginning in verse 51. Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth, I tell you now, but rather division. For henceforth thou shalt be five and one halves divided, three against two and two against three. You see what the Lord is doing here? He's talking about division. Now he's talking about the family. Why is he saying that? Listen, listen, listen carefully. The presence of division means the absence of what? Unity. Why would Jesus be saying I've come to bring division to unity? Doesn't the Lord want a family united? Now listen to what the Lord's after here. The Lord is after the captivity, listen, of unity based on what? Simply mutual interest. There is a, listen, there is a unity that can come to families based on mutual interest but it is a unity that falls short of the unity that God wants. There is a higher unity. There is a higher calling that God has called families to enter into. And as I said, it is good that there's an emphasis on family in the day that we live in because many families are broken down. Many children don't have fathers. Many children don't have moms. Many children don't have the sense of that they're being loved and that is real good that there is a, that there is a building up of the family. But beware, beware of building the family back up simply to exist on the plane of unity based on mutual interests. Because a family that simply exists in the realm of unity based on mutual interest will not discover God's highest end for their life. Listen, it is so easy in America to have a family that falls short of God's idea for a family. It's so easy to connect and have mutual interest together and then indulge in the pleasures and the joys and the fun and the satisfaction and the good times that we get in that realm. Now is there a place for that? Yes. But beware, beware. The Christian family in America today is striving simply for this and Christ has come to bring division to such a unity. Why? Because he wants us, he wants us to go beyond that. He wants us to see what the true unity of the family is. It's not based on mutual interest. It's based on following him, obeying his voice. Okay. Verse 53, the father shall be divided against the son, the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, the daughter against the mother-in-law, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. How can Jesus say such things here? Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. Notice what we're doing. We're going to the word of God. You see, remember, we mentioned a few weeks ago, it's dangerous to simply call yourself a Christian nowadays because oftentimes being a Christian doesn't mean that I am a passionate follower of Jesus Christ. You can be a Christian and claim to be a Christian without recognizing the claims of Christ upon your life. And so God is now reaching into the body of Christ today and is requiring that all who name his name go beyond mere profession into a life of following Jesus, following him in his word, praying, oh Holy Spirit, walk within me the truth of your word. Walk within me the truth of your word. Jesus said, if you love me, you will what? Obey my commandments. Nowadays, you talk to Christians about obedience and they cry out, legalism, legalism, legalism. If it's commandments that are being, if you're trying to keep a commandment in order to obtain righteousness or to obtain favor in God's eyes, that's legalism. Or if you're trying to obey man's commandments, that's legalism. But brothers and sisters, obedience is not legalism. It's the result of God's love working in your heart. You will want to obey God when you love him, when he fills you with his Holy Spirit. And so we're going to move right along. We're not dealing with all the captivities, but we're just capturing the general captivities of this, this, and then this. Then we're going to go to the next transition in this series and we're going to see what begins to happen to the soul when God begins to free it from the captivities of these things. Oh, what a joyful occasion that is in heaven. And it is my belief that there is very little joy in the house of God today. Oh, I didn't say there's, there's not a lot of music. There's a lot of noise. There's a lot of activity, but you take all that away and very often there's no longer a song because the song needs all that stuff. But the true song, the true joy doesn't need that. So the reason why there's so very little joy in our homes and in our hearts is because we're entangled, we're captive to these things. Captive. The Lord wants to free us. The Lord wants to free your soul today. He wants to show you the joy of being an unfettered soul. You say, well, Phil, it doesn't mean I have to use everything. Does it matter? See how captive we are? See? Well, let's get real Phil. Not everyone has to sell everything they have. Oh, does that bother you? Does that bother you at the thought of having Jesus say to you, sell everything you have? Well, not everyone's called to do that. Well, what if you are? Well, he won't ask me to do that. Oh, how captive we are. Oh, is it really that important to hold on to? You see? You see how without realizing it, we get feisty, we get mad. You know, lots of times when Christians get upset, they go home and have the preacher for lunch and like what they heard. Then they talk and they talk until they can justify how they feel. Then they feel good. You can have the preacher for lunch. That's all right. But I'll tell you right now, it's not going to change anything. God's word is still true. God's word is still true. Watch this. Matthew chapter 10. Same truth. Verse 34 and 35. Let's go to 36. A man's foe shall be they of his own household. Watch this. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. And he that finds his life shall use it. And he that loses his life for my sake shall find it. Now what possibly could these words mean? The captivity of the family. The family in America, even in the church, is seeking to find unity based on mutual interest and such a unity does not result in undivided devotion to Christ's will. It simply results in undivided devotion to mutual interest. It basically throws Christ out of the family and his will and the passion that should be burning in everyone's heart in the family to know and hear his voice and to obey him it throws that out and puts in its place a unity based on mutual interests. Of course we are engaged in our interests in the name of the Lord. Jesus. Do you remember the story where Jesus was teaching? We mentioned this last week and his mother and brothers came and wanted to talk to him and his disciples said Jesus whoa whoa whoa whoa your mom and brothers are out there and they want to talk to you. What did he do? First of all let's say what he didn't do. He did not disrespect his mother. He did not disrespect his brothers. He loved them. He loved them deeply but he was putting things in proper perspective. He stopped and he pointed to those that were there listening to him. Listen to those that were following his word. For those that were following him around seeking to be his disciples he said behold and he pointed to his disciples behold my mother my brethren are those who hear and do my word. So are we saying that Jesus is against the family? Absolutely not. Are we saying that Jesus is against mutual interest within the family? No not necessarily but what Jesus is saying is the highest goal of the family is not simply mutual interest. The highest goal of the family is to build a family altar and everybody bowing down before that family altar recognizing that the ultimate purpose of our family is to hear God's word and to obey God's word and we put that above any interest that any of us might have. So you know what that means? That means there's a responsibility in a family to seek to know the mind of God. Remember months ago when we were preaching on the book of Hebrews and in Hebrews chapter 2 there was a warning lest you should drift. Remember what the word drift meant? It was a word that was used to describe what happens to a boat when it is drifting in the tide and it drifts right past its mooring the anchor and we learned that the tide of life the tide of busyness listen the tide of mutual interest family mutual interest can cause us to drift right past what God is saying right past what he's saying. Thirdly God touched Job's wrath. Brothers and sisters there's really a very clear need in the day that we live in today for the church to get perspective on wealth. What does God have to say? We read last week in Acts chapter 2 that the early church sold everything they had. What did that represent? It represented the heart condition about its wealth and that is what God is after now. The Bible says in first Timothy chapter 6 we've all read it that we came into the world naked and we're leaving naked and it's a fact that we can't take anything with us. I just want to read one section of scripture there in the first Timothy and then we want to take a transition here. We want to take a transition. Listen to this verse 6 chapter 6 first Timothy. Godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out and having food and raiment let us therewith be content. The present day passion for things is springing out of discontentment. The present day passion for wealth is springing out of greed and covetousness. God does not condone desiring to be rich. I know that that is a difficult saying. God condones such a thing. Verse 9 first Timothy chapter 6 but they that will be rich. Another translation says but they that are desiring wealth. They that are constantly desiring more wealth. What does it say about such a heart condition? Fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil while some coveted after they have erred from the faith. Hear the word of God this morning if you are coveting after wealth you have erred from the faith. Now I know there is an entire gospel being preached worldwide now because of the satellite because of TV that is promoting in the body of Christ through this preaching a desire for wealth a desire for things and the idea is that you're not really blessed until you've got these things and if you don't have these things it means that you're just a second class Christian. Brothers and sisters I admonish you in the love of God beware beware having food having raiment let us therewith be what? Content. I realize the word contentment doesn't even exist in the American vocabulary and it's quick listen it is quickly disappearing from the church's mind. Shall we be a follower of Jesus or shall we be a contemporary Christian? Contentment. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5. Let your conversation now many months ago we preached on and you remember what the word conversation the word means behavior but if you put the if you put the Greek words together what it means is this. Oh boy I'm a bigger blackboard. What it means is this listen to this this is really good this is heart-searching let your conversation be what? Without covetousness. All right here's what it means the word conversation implies the entire revolution of your life and everything that's in it so every aspect of your life the entire revolution of your life and everything that is in it let there not be any sign within the revolution of your life that there be no evidence of greed covetousness love of money discontentment unthankfulness wow oh god have mercy upon us let there be no discontentment without covetousness and be content with such things as you have be content with such things as you have you remember a few weeks ago we talked about contentment is destroyed by comparison as soon as you compare yourself with what someone else has behold your contentment disappears that's why it is so corrupting to make it a habit to look through magazines you know what they do to your heart you know what they do to the children they open up the door for discontentment how can you be content with what you have when every magazine that you pick up pictures people that are better looking than you better off than you nicer homes than you nicer cars than you nicer gardens than you nicer kitchens than you nicer machines than you nicer videos nicer vcrs nicer everything how can you be content you can't usually i i just look at it doesn't affect me that's like eating nothing but garlic all day long and say well it won't affect me no no you just get around somebody you're weak like garlic your breath will smell like garlic your sweat will smell like garlic everything about you will smell like garlic and brothers and sisters be assured by god's word this morning that if you give yourself over to a life where you are constantly comparing yourself with others you will never know the joy and the freedom and the shout and the victory of being able to say i am content with what god has given me bless god i am content i'm content i'm content what a joy the soul that can say i am content is free unfettered that soul will be able to show the what it means to love god content in the captivity of the righteous and the bible says in job that god put his hand on everything that job had his health his family his wealth why because god was being cruel because god was wanting to punish job no because job because god wanted to humiliate job no no no saying you're a liar don't believe an accusation when it comes to that god is being cruel or god is being unkind the the greatest blessing that job could ever imagine was what god was setting him up for let me tell you brothers the greatest joy you can know is if god your father in heaven places his hand upon everything in your life and frees you from your captivities you don't know what joy is until you've been free until you've been free from these captivities and your soul is unfettered and you can be able to say nothing matters but god and his will wow that's spiritual authority not religious cantations not formulas not name it claim it blab it grab it that's not spiritual authority spiritual authority is a soul that follows jesus even unto death and out of that death arises saying god is my refuge god is my joy god is my strength god is satisfaction god is my wealth god is my significance god is my all and all their spiritual authority so many christians are looking for power power i'll tell you when the holy ghost gives you power it won't empower you to do something great it'll empower you to lay your life down to be a martyr okay let's keep moving thank god for his word thank god for his word check this out luke luke chapter 14 listen closely beloved listen closely this is where we're at now this is where we're heading now why does god put his hand on every area of our life why does god let the enemy come and do things why does god do it because he's after something and look what he's after listen listen the captivity of the righteous he is after turning our captivity freeing us from the things that we are captive to this is the scripture that jesus wants to speak to our heart chapter 14 verse number 33 so likewise it is so ever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple forsaken guess what that word means i'm glad you asked i'll tell you this is powerful get your notes because this gives meaning to the suffering of job and your suffering and my suffering this gives meaning to why god puts his hand on our health and on our family and on our wealth and all the things that spring out of those categories the word forsaketh means to place away from oneself so as not to become a part of it to place away from one's self so as to avoid becoming a part of that thing behold the wisdom of god the scripture says that god gives us all things richly to enjoy doesn't he he gives us health to enjoy he gives us family to enjoy and he gives us physical blessings to enjoy but our captivity is that when god gives us these things they become a part of us and becoming a part of us listen we end up with a divided heart what is god doing in your life what is god doing in my life what is god doing in the life of he's processing us he's purging us so that we are able by god's grace to place listen everything away from ourselves to avoid being entangled by anything listen to what jesus said this is why this has to happen mark chapter 12 verse 28 and one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together and perceived that he had answered them well asked him what is the first commandment of all here you go there you go and jesus said to him the first of all the commands is here oh israel the lord our god is one word listen and thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind with all thy strength you and i cannot love god with all of our heart mind strength and soul while at the same time captive to something else and so in god's wisdom and in god's mercy and in god's love and in god's goodness as a father he submits us to child training and purging and suffering and difficulties and these things expose our captivities they expose the areas of our life our mind our soul our heart's affections our desires they expose them as being on things other than him you see it is possible to enjoy all things but to only love god it is possible to enjoy family and health and everything else but to love god alone with all of your heart mind strength and soul and that is where god is leading us he that forsakes not everything cannot be my pupil my disciple a follower of me matthew chapter 13 these parables teach us the spiritual truth contained in this message that the holy spirit is giving us chapter 13 matthew beginning in 44 again the kingdom of heaven is like to a treasure hidden in the field the rich when a man had found he hides and for joy thereof goes and sells all and buys the field do you see the spiritual principle working here you've got joy connected to what selling everything that you've got verse 45 again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls when he found one pearl of great price went and sold all that had and bought it was behind god seeking to purge philippians chapter 3 this was the heart condition of paul this is why paul was used by god as an example for the church to follow listen carefully to the heart of this man listen to what this man is saying this man is saying the reality of this whole message this man had more in him the spiritual realities of this message verse number 7 chapter 3 philippians paul talks about all his religious heritage and all of the things that at one time were important to him but now listen to what he says but the things which were given to me those i counted lost for christ they doubtless i count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of christ jesus my lord for whom i have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dumb garbage trash that i may win christ the soul that is unfettered the soul that is freed lives in this world becomes content with the things that god provides but has been enabled by the purging power of god to forsake all things has been enabled to separate from them self all things so as to avoid becoming contaminated or avoid becoming a part of anything so that that soul can remain undividedly devoted to christ and seeking him that's the passion of our father's heart for the church that's the passion for the believer and we are hapless to make this happen we don't have it in ourself we can't conjure up the only thing we can do is bow on me before our father in heaven and say father do it in me by your power what is the most important thing in your life this morning what is it job we're closing job father thank you for your word thank you for the holy spirit thank you for your presence thank you for searching our hearts thank you for truth truth cleanses truth washes us truth convicts the truth always has an enemy of hope truth takes our eyes off ourself and puts it on our redeemer our lord jesus who alone is worthy and who alone is able to do this work in us thank you lord for taking our eyes and putting it on you help us to see these last few verses lord and to see where we're heading if we will follow you to the end if we will follow you to the end and not be like demus help us father remember demus what does the bible say about demus well first of all demus was a a disciple of paul he sat under paul's ministry he heard the greatest teachings that any man had ever heard he went on a few of paul's missionary journeys with him but the bible says in second timothy regarding demus paul said demus hath forsaken me having loved this present world now you say was was demus a believer i believe he was because i don't believe paul would have had tagging along with him an unbeliever paul had discernment paul could have recognized that demus was a following matter of fact paul had told some of the churches in writing demus sends his greetings and then we read at the end of paul's life he's telling the churches that demons forsook him why why because demus valued his own life and the things this world can offer more valuable than christ and losing everything that's why he forsook paul now watch this this is at the very end of job's suffering listen to what job says we're just going to go through it in a second and then we're going to touch we're going to get back to this next time we get together then job answered the lord after job after the lord asked job hundreds of questions that he couldn't answer then job answered the lord i know that you can do everything and that no thought can be withholden from thee at one time job was saying i know you can do anything out there but now job had come to the groups god we can do anything we want right here seems easy for us to say god can do anything he wants until it touches us see god can do anything he wants until he puts his hand on our wealth and then we get mad at god it puts his hand on our family it puts his hand on our reputation see god can do anything but don't touch that world but job was brought to the place where he was saying god you could do anything you want with me who is he that hides counsel without knowledge therefore have i uttered that i understood now things too wonderful for me which i knew not you know what job's saying in verse three i said some stupid things while i was suffering god i made some pretty stupid conclusions about myself about you and about other people i said things i shouldn't have ever said and isn't that the truth when we go through suffering we always end up with my foot in our mouth and saying dumb things verse five i have heard of thee by the year but now my eye has seen you wherefore i appear myself and repent in dust and ashes the soul humbled by god broken repenting giving god the rights to do what he wants there's the place of having forsaken all things free from everything that's it right there that's where god is bringing us okay we're going to have a moment now for my school right to come we just want to give a few moments we have some time we want to give a few moments for the holy spirit to speak to us all perhaps this morning you have heard through god's word who have heard the holy spirit speak to you and god wants to do something in your life listen if god has stirred your heart today this is your day this is your hour today and i want to admonish you and encourage you to find a place of quietness in your heart and let god speak to you and do exactly what he wants to do in your heart today will you hear his voice and follow him you'll never know the joy you'll never know the joy that is in heaven right now until your soul has been unfettered because heaven's joy has nothing to do with things it's all about him and that's the joy god wants to give the church today let's sing this song together father we pray take your word and speak to us now do the work that only we can do in our hearts in jesus name Thank you for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.