Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the concept of true beauty, which lies not in outward appearances but in the inner transformation of the heart through submission to God. He encourages the congregation to release their tightly held idols and trust God to turn their bitterness into sweetness, highlighting the importance of a meek and quiet spirit as the true adornment in the sight of God. The sermon calls for a deep, intimate relationship with God, urging believers to seek the beauty of Christ within themselves and to cultivate a spirit of love and forgiveness towards others. Beach Jr. warns against the dangers of rebellion and encourages a life of submission to God's will, which leads to spiritual maturity and true power in the Christian life.

We don't have any children's. Church this morning, so. We're going to sing one more song. And as we do. Let us pray that the eyes of our heart would be opened. That we might see him. He is here this morning. His greatest desire is that you. Would be able to see him. And hear his voice speak to you. OK. So let's sing this last song before we look to the ministry of his precious word. Which is going to speak to each one of us today in a very strong way, but let's look to him now. Oh, father, as we worship you in song now, this last song before we look to your word. How we thank you for your presence here, how we thank you for your love, how we sense, oh, God, that. You. You simply want us to find delight in you, father, thank you for those things that have failed us. That have left us sour in our mouth, thank you, Lord, for those things that we thought were sweet, but have turned bitter. Listen, beloved, this is this is the Holy Spirit exhorting us. Are you disappointed because something was so sweet and now it turned bitter? Oh, here, here, the voice of your shepherd this morning here, the Holy Spirit speak to you. He's saying. That which was sweet turned bitter, yes, but behold, that which is bitter will turn sweet. Trust him. Trust him, he knows what he's doing. He's taking your heart. And he's forming in it a singleness for him. He's teaching you how to enjoy all things, but make nothing an idol. He even required his servant Abraham to take his only son, Isaac. And lay it upon the altar, why? Because Abraham loved Isaac very, very much. Isaac was the fulfillment of all that God ever promised Abraham. But God was jealous for Abraham's love and God didn't want Abraham to so love Isaac. That he would lay hold of Isaac too tightly, oh, too tightly. What are you holding on to this morning too tightly? Listen, something is not secure when we hold on to it tightly, it's only secure when we let go of it and let father have it. We think that by holding tight, we're going to keep it, don't we? But we don't. Let go. Give it to father now. And God will turn sweetness out of that bitterness in your heart right now. Just let go by faith and say, father, take all things I give to you. And in exchange, Lord, just give me you, give me your love, give me your satisfaction, give me your joy, give me your peace. Forgive me, father, for I have demanded I have held on to something. And it's turned bitter. I release it by faith now into your hands. I trust you. I trust you now, Lord. Thank you, Lord. And may I know. Father, we are amazed at your presence this morning. Our hearts are filled with thankfulness and gratitude. Because you. Are absolutely faithful. Faithful. Even when we are fickle. And unfaithful and doubt you. And our eyes. Are removed from you and we look to circumstances, we look to our feelings, we see how our own needs are not being met and we get angry. And we become unthankful. Seeds of resentment and bitterness are then sown in our heart. And our words begin to have the scent of death in them. And we begin to grumble and complain. And our vision is clouded and we no longer see the way we used to see. We no longer see with a pure eye. We no longer have that rejoicing spirit, but we've been clouded by our own sin. Heal us this morning, Lord, we pray. Thank you for letting us become clouded. Thank you for letting us lose our vision. Thank you for letting us taste for a season the bitterness of our own selfishness. The Lord, we pray. That you will heal us, help us to learn our lesson, we humble ourselves in your presence and acknowledge that this, in fact, is what has happened so often in our life. We long for the day when we have that purity of heart once again and that ability to see with love and that ability to have a pure heart. And and Lord, we just pray you'll restore that back to us, Lord. It's not in ourself. We can't we can't make it happen, Lord. But heal us, Lord. Thank you for the season that you've let us go through. Help us, Lord, help us, Lord, to learn the lesson that you wanted to teach us during this season. Help us, Lord, to learn the lesson. And we're looking to you, Lord, we're ready, Lord. Our hearts are longing more now than ever before to have that close, intimate walk with you where. We're rejoicing and looking to you alone, your infinite wisdom amazes us, your ways are always other than our ways, your thoughts are always other than our thoughts. And we just marvel in your presence this morning and thank you. We thank you for the presence of your healing here. We thank you for the wisdom of your Holy Spirit. Enabling us to understand what we're going through and why we're going through it and where we're heading. Lord, we're heading back to you. We're heading back to restoration. We're heading back to a place where our hearts are pure again, where our hearts have been delivered from the fog. We thank you, Lord, that as our shepherd, you always do that, which is good. And we rejoice, Lord, and we look to you to perform your word this morning by the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen and amen. Hallelujah to God. Thank you for your presence, Lord. Thank you for your presence, Lord. Brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus stands in our midst through the power and presence of his Holy Spirit. And he stands as the one to whom all of our hearts and all of our minds and all of our spirits are in need. He's the one that stands in our midst this morning. And I trust that his Holy Spirit has ministered to you and has spoken to you. I would like to invite you, as we continue along this wonderful and heart-challenging theme of going on to spiritual perfection, going on to spiritual maturity, I want to invite you, as you have your finger in 1 Corinthians 13, which is the place that we have been looking at for several months now. But before we actually turn there, I would like to invite you to 1 Peter 3. And I would like to address a particular issue that is very important for the church to deal with in this late apostate hour that we live in. The Lord would want all of us, as his children, to maintain a heavenly perspective on all issues that pertain to our life. And there is indeed the presence in our world today, and particularly in the church world, there's the presence of confusion over many issues that have to do with practical Christianity. And I'd like to, by the Holy Spirit this morning, deal with one of those issues, because in dealing with just one of these issues, we're addressing what we've been talking about for months, particularly going on to perfection, and specifically 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit would take His Word, and that He would forever write it upon the tablets of our heart, that He would enable us to lay hold of this truth, and that in laying hold of this truth, we might be delivered from the lies that have been rooted in us, that are causing us to grasp after things that are causing many sources of conflict in our life, many sources of depression, many sources of insecurity, many sources, Lord, of trouble, all because we have bought into the lie of this age. And I pray that Your Word will rescue us, and cause clarity of thought to come back to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter chapter 3, the word likewise there is a word indicating that the previous thought is to be carried through. And the previous thought was that of learning how to be in subjection unto the Lord. Subjection to the Lord. Subjection to the Lord. Subjection to the Lord. Being subject to the Lord in our hearts. A quality that the Holy Spirit wants to put in all of our hearts is a subjection, a heart of subjection to God, to His sovereignty, to His Word. The Lord wants to uproot out of us rebellion. Rebellion. Rebellion was the seed that caused Lucifer to fall. Rebellion ought to scare us to death. Brothers and sisters, when we are alerted to the spiritual realities of what God wants to do, the presence of rebellion in our life will alert us, it will concern us. A healthy Christian cannot go week after week, month after month, year after year, and see rebellion in the heart manifested toward people, toward circumstances, and take a nonchalant attitude. A nonchalant attitude about rebellion indicates that our hearts have grown cold toward the Lord. Any kind of a nonchalant attitude toward any kind of sin or displeasure indicates that our eyes are becoming foggy, our vision is becoming foggy. The Lord wants to awaken us. He wants to alert us. This topic of submission is a difficult topic to deal with because within the human heart there is a resistance against submission. Within the human heart, the law of sin, the very law of sin, the very disposition of sin is one of rebellion against God. The Bible says in Isaiah that the rebellious dwell in a dry land. A dry land, the face of the Lord is turned against the pride of man, the rebellion of man. But to he that is of a broken and a contrite spirit, the opposite of rebellion, brokenness and contrition before God is the ground through which a submissive heart toward God, toward His Word and toward one another grows. And brothers and sisters, there will be no significant partaking, sharing of the true beauty of Jesus Christ, which is what 1 Peter chapter 3 is all about. There will be no partaking of the beauty of Jesus in our life without a heart of submission. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands that if any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives or the behavior of the wives, the way of life. Peter here, the Holy Spirit here is talking about the most powerful weapon that a Christian possesses. Listen, brothers and sisters, power is not in the loudness of your voice. Power is not in how much money you've got invested in Wall Street. Power is not in who you know and how many degrees follow your name. Power is not in how many cars you have or how many acres you own. Power is not being an entrepreneur. Power is not being associated with Microsoft. Power from God that the devil absolutely trembles over is the power, the power of a way of life that demonstrates the moral perfections of Jesus Christ in all of your responses to what happened to you. You don't have power with God if you can't bless the one that curses you. And I don't care if you've got theology. You don't have power with God if you can't pray for the one that despitefully uses you. You don't have power with God if you can't say, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Verse number 2, the latter part of verse 1, Without the word, they may be won by the conversation of the wives. This not only refers to the individual wife in a marriage situation, but it is prophetically teaching us the manner in which the bride of Christ is to live and conduct herself on earth. The manner in which the bride of Christ is to live. The strength of the church is not in political influence, brothers and sisters. The strength of the church is not in our numbers. Oh, if we only had thousands of people, we could do something for God. That's not what God thought when he looked down and saw Gideon. That's not what God thought when he looked down and saw his son needing some followers. He chose 12 and one of them was a devil. And through 11 men, God was able to change the destiny of the world. 11 people! God didn't take the Roman Empire and turn it into Christianity. He took 11 people. And might I say, if we do a character study of these 11 men, they weren't the sharpest. They weren't perfect. They had problems. They had difficulties. They had failures. They had shortcomings. Peter had a temper. James and John wanted to call fire down from heaven, which means they were men of vengeance. They didn't like. They didn't like to be ill-treated. They wanted to take things into their own hands. Does that sound like you and I? But God chose them. And He put in them the secret power of Christ. And through Christ, working in them, transformed the whole world. And by their writings, continues to transform the hearts of men who bow down and acknowledge Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords. There is a power that God is reserving in this late hour. And it is not a demonstrative power that will be seen by men. It is not a power that is connected to personality and ministry and numbers and money. It is a power connected to the broken and the contrite in heart. And it must start in our home. It must start in our family. It must start, men, with your wives. Men, every wife in here should be able to say, I'm married to a meek, gentle man, forgiving, caring, thoughtless. Not thoughtless in that he doesn't think of anyone, but thoughtless in that he doesn't think of himself. You say, Brother Phil, that's a tall order. It is, isn't it? But nevertheless, it's true. I'll never forget the story I heard many, many years ago from a well-known preacher who talked about how he knew a pastor who eventually got a divorce. And he said the strange thing about it is when it happened, the whole church nearly lost their salvation. The reason why is because this pastor was the nicest, sweetest, charming man to every person in the church except his family. And you know how it happened? His wife said, I can't take it anymore. He said, what's wrong? He says, you love everyone in the church except me. You hug everyone in the church except me. And the devil got in. Now, was she right in divorcing him? Absolutely not. But she was vulnerable. Vulnerable. Because she saw a double life. And she didn't have the strength that it took from God to persevere. When your needs are left unmet, you need a touch from God or you're going to get bitter. Yes? Are we hearing the heart of God when your needs are met, unmet? You're going to need a touch from God or you're going to get bitter. You're going to get angry. I just talked to someone recently. They're not here. They don't come here. And this person said, Phil, I've been told by another pastor to divorce my husband. And I know it was wrong. But oh, how I wanted to do it. I said, why? This person said, because for six months he's not slept in the same bed. Hasn't embraced me. I said, dear one, you're in need of multiplied grace. Not a divorce contract. Because there is a Savior in heaven who feels the pain of your heart. Who knows the struggle of your soul. And who is able to comfort you in your affliction. But you must turn to Him. You must cry out to Him. Lest you buy into the lie of the devil. And justify leaving because your needs are not being met. Brothers and sisters, we are in need of a beauty in this hour that we live in. It is not the beauty that can come to us when we join a health club. It is not the beauty that can come to us when we begin to eat healthy foods. It is not the beauty that comes to us when we have perfected the art of making ourself up. It is not the beauty that comes to us when we have on our prettiest dress or have on our nicest suit. There's a place for that beauty. But that beauty is only temporal. Many months ago, many, many months ago. Someone was talking with me about love and the mystery of love. And how do I know that I love someone? And this person began to describe certain physical features about a particular person. And said, well there are certainly lovable features. Does this mean I love that person? And my response was, what if this person was in a car accident and the car exploded. And 98% of their body was charcoal broiled. And they come out black. And they lost their hair. And their features were gone. Would you still love that person? That's what love is. Oh yes, God gives us the pleasure of physical affection and physical love. God's not against it. And it doesn't make people more holy when they deny it. As long as it's a lawful thing. And we're not saying that. God's not saying that. But that is not that perfect love. That agape love. There is a love that God wants to put in our hearts for one another. That transcends the physical, the mental, the emotional. And goes into the very depths of the spirit. That's the love that we have need of. Verse number 2. While they behold your chaste, pure conversation or way of life. With fear. Your way of life. With fear. We're looking here and we're seeing true beauty, brothers and sisters. Do you long for this beauty? Do you pray for this beauty? Young people, listen please. Teenagers, listen please. There is a beauty that God wants to beautify you with. It is the beauty of a inner life. Listen closely as we read. As they behold your way of life. Coupled with fear. Who's adorning? Let it not be that outward adorning. Of plaiting the hair or braiding the hair. Or of wearing of gold. Or of putting on of apparel. The Holy Spirit is not saying. In this portion of Scripture. Don't comb your hair. He's not saying don't wear jewelry. He's not saying throw your makeup out. He's making a statement. Let it not be this. But let it be this. He's giving a comparison. He's addressing Christians who lived in a world at that time. As we do in this time. Where the whole emphasis of beauty has to do with the outward appearance. And this has come in and seduced the church. Let it not be in the braiding of hair. In the wearing of gold. Or the putting on of apparel. But let it be the hidden man of the heart. In that which is not corruptible. Even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Which is in the sight of God great price. Beauty. Where is your beauty? What beauty are you seeking to enhance in your life? Brothers and sisters. When the Holy Spirit lays hold of our hearts. And we are able to see the beauty that Peter is talking about here. And our lives become through the Holy Spirit's power. Driven to enhance the beauty in our hidden man. In the hidden part of our heart. When we desire to enhance that beauty. With that which is not corruptible. That which cannot be decayed. That which cannot be fermented. That which cannot be destroyed. When we aspire with all of our hearts. Oh God. Beautify me with the eternal beauty of your Son Jesus Christ. When that awakening comes into our life. Young people. When this awakening comes into your life. And you finally realize that the reason why we are called Christians. Is so that we can be beautified with Jesus. Your life will never be the same. Your life will never be the same. You will discover true power. Ladies. Listen. Don't ever think for a moment. That true power is found in the ability to manipulate a man. Don't ever think that true power is found in the ability to entice a man. And wrap him around your finger and get him to do what you want. That's not beauty. That's the art of deception. That comes from the serpent. Do you want power young lady? Oh please. Please Holy Spirit. Open up the ears of our heart. How many young ladies are here and they want beauty. You want power with God. I want to encourage you by the Holy Spirit. And by the love of God. You married women too. Listen. Do you want to be attractive to your husband? Do you want to be attractive to him? Do you want him to honor you? And do you want him to be amazed at you? Well it's okay to make yourself pretty outwardly. It's okay to do that. It's okay. But if you really want power to attract him. Let him see in your eyes the meekness of Jesus Christ. Let him see in your eyes the beauty of Jesus Christ. Let him hear in your voice the gentleness of the shepherd. And I'm telling you. You'll get that man. If he has any heart for God. It'll humble him. It'll break him. You're dealing with a proud husband. You're dealing with an arrogant husband. Get on your knees and pray. Oh God give me meekness. Give me gentleness. And if there's any Holy Spirit in him. He'll see that meekness. He'll see that gentleness. And it'll humble him. It'll humble him. He'll repent of his pride. Because he'll see the beauty of Jesus. And it'll convict him. You want power with God? Church, do you want power with God? Then forsake the thinking of this world. Forsake the ways of this world. And cry out to God for meekness. Cry out to God for godly, holy fear. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And the fear of God is to depart from evil. Do you want power with God? Pray, oh God, let me fear evil. Let me run from evil. Deliver me from evil. Give me such Holy Spirit grace and power. That I run like Joseph from the appearance of evil. You remember what happened to Joseph? Young people, do you know the story of Joseph? Most of the children here, thank God, have a pretty good knowledge of the Bible. Thank God they do. Well, you remember Joseph was in Potiphar's house. And he was entrusted by Potiphar as the manager of his house. And Potiphar had given Joseph the oversight of everything in his house except one thing. And guess what that was? His wife. And he was a faithful young man. Loved God. And the Bible says that Potiphar's wife had an evil eye after him. And Potiphar's wife, young people, wanted Joseph in a physical way. And so he found himself in the house at times with only Potiphar's wife there. And she would entice him. And she would plea with him. And she would beg him. And that's just the way she is. This morning is sin crying. Do you hear the voice of Potiphar's wife crying out to you? Do you hear the voice of Potiphar's wife? Come, sleep with me. The master is not home. Potiphar's not here. He won't be here for probably not until tomorrow. He's gone away. He's a businessman. Just let down your guard. Just let down your guard. Nobody will see. Nobody will see. Is anybody really looking? Oh, may we hear the heart and cry of God's Spirit this morning. And Joseph, because of God's grace, because of God's mercy, at the moment of crisis when she actually grabbed him and said, come sleep with me. He ran. He fled. He fled from evil. That's why Joseph was a wise man. Because wise people run from evil. But fools walk right into it. May I say that I am a fool? Because without the grace of God, I will walk right into the trap set by the devil. Have you come to see that about yourself? Have you come to see that about yourself? Or when you hear this kind of stuff, do thoughts like this go through your mind? Oh, I wish brother so-and-so was here. I wish sister, sister, sister was here. Sister more holier than thou and brother self-righteous. Boy, if they were here, they would get a good earful. Brothers and sisters, sisters self-righteous and brother know-it-all might need to hear this, but there's one that needs to hear it more than they do, and it's the one sitting in the pew you're sitting in and the one I'm standing at. We need to hear this. This is a message from God to us. Never does God speak to a people and want them to think, thank God we got it. Too bad everybody wasn't like us. God help the ministry. God help the shepherd. God help the church that gets this idea that they begin to get a hold of something of God, and now it's us and them. God help anyone who ever thinks that way. God help you when you see the son or daughter of another family fall and you say, thank God my kids aren't like that. Thank God my kids aren't like that. Oh, you better pray for mercy, brothers and sisters. You better pray for mercy. Because your kids are just like that if it wasn't for the grace of God. Don't get a self-righteous attitude about anything. Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord, to stay humble. And so Joseph fled from Potiphar's wife. That's the kind of holy fear that God wants to put in our heart. You say, brother, I just don't have this in me. I don't have it in me. Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened to you. If we would spend less time asking for things that have to do with our own selfish ambition, and spend more time asking for things like, God, give me the holy fear of Your Word, then we would grow up spiritually. We would grow up if we spent more time looking for heavenly beauty. Heavenly beauty. There is a warning from the Holy Spirit to all the church today, myself being number one, and that is awake. Wake up. Oh God, help us to wake up. Help us, Lord. Help us. We're like the proverbial frog that's slowly being boiled in a pot of water and doesn't realize it. Doesn't realize it. And all of a sudden the water gets so hot the frog dies, but never knew that it was being boiled alive. Listen, the only thing that's going to wake you and I up is the presence of Jesus Christ. It is the Word of God being quickened by the Holy Spirit coming to us like a sword awakening us. Let me tell you something, only Jesus can wake us up. Only the heavenly environment of His Word, the heaviness of communion with Him, the heaviness of meaningful fellowship one with another, where our hearts are open to one another and to God, and we share our struggles and burdens, and we communicate the truth of God's Word one to another on a daily basis. That's the only thing that'll keep us alive. Don't think you can keep yourself. Only God can keep us. So there is the hidden man of the heart, which is not corruptible. That's what God wants to put in our hearts today, a desire for. I pray for every single person here, including myself, particularly the young people. I pray, and parents, if you ever want to know a prayer to pray for your children and your grandchildren, you have a prayer in 1 Peter 3, verse number 4. You mention every child by name, and you say, Oh God, let Christina, let Rebecca, let Sarah, let every one of them, Oh God, let every one of them, Lord, be adorned with the beauty of Jesus in their hidden heart. Let them see how wonderful it is to desire the beauty of Jesus in their life. I pray for every young teenage girl here that you will make it a point in your life to seek God that you might become beautiful inwardly, because if you want a spiritual man one day, then you've got to have beauty on the inside. And if you focus all your attention outwardly, you might get a man that likes that stuff, but might be very shallow inwardly. You might get that very thing. You might get a Brad Pitt, or whoever else is out there that's hot. And this is not an indictment against that young man. I don't know his heart, only God does. And he could become the future David of this generation. But he represents, he represents that which is outwardly appealing. Young ladies, that's not what you want. That'll lead you dry. That'll lead you sorrowful. That kind of pleasure is like the dew in the morning. It's here, and as soon as the sun shines, it's gone. We need the beauty of Jesus Christ. Don't be discouraged, parents. Don't be discouraged, grandparents. Keep praying for your children. Keep praying for your grandchildren. Beg God, lay hold of God upon the altar every night. Every night. This is a whole other message, but I want to ask you, what are you doing with your spare time? What are you doing when you get a few hours? I trust, I trust and pray that you are seeking God during those times. Another message, another time, entitled Christians in Crisis. Christians in Crisis. And when God makes the right time, we're going to begin to look at this. We're going to begin to look and see the crisis that we as Christians are in. The crisis, who will we follow? God is looking for a people who will pray for contentment and be satisfied with what they simply need and not be after everything else that the nations are after. That they will create a lifestyle based out of contentment and that they will begin to pursue after God in their spare time rather than having no spare time for God. God is looking for a people who will be hard after Him. Who will say no to the way of the world. Who will say no to making prosperity and making money and making outward success and idol. But who will say, Lord, Lord, my heart, because of Your grace, is hungry for You. I want to spend my time seeking You. I want free time to seek You. Let me tell you, if you don't make a conscious decision to do that, you'll never have it. You'll never have it. How many have found that to be true? If you don't make a conscious decision and you don't get down and say, God, oh God, help me. Help me be a wise steward of the free time I do have. I'm not saying everyone is called to spend ten hours a day praying and seeking God. But everyone's got time. Everyone's got free time. And I want to ask you in the presence of God, honestly before Him, what do you do with your free time? Do you worship the TV idol? True beauty. Okay. This is what we've been looking at over the past several months. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We mustn't look at this as simply good doctrine. We mustn't look at the study of 1 Corinthians 13 as simply good information to have, brothers and sisters. 1 Corinthians 13 is addressing the ingredients. Listen, 1 Corinthians 13 is addressing the ornament that we should be arraying our hidden man with. You put on pretty dresses and nice clothes outwardly, but you don't put them on inwardly. What do you put on inwardly? The beauty of Jesus Christ. And we have found as we've walked through this portion of Scripture, brothers and sisters, we have found that the beauty of Jesus Christ is seen in the inner man. Beware, we live in a society where everything is outward and we avoid inward issues. Listen, don't let your family and your home become a place where you avoid heart issues. If we're not dealing with heart issues at home, we're lost. We've lost the battle. We've lost the battle if it's not going on inwardly. We've got to pray, God, help me see the inward beauty. Now, we're going to look a little bit at some ornaments, some heavenly ornaments that God wants to dress our inner heart with. Okay? Now, you don't get these from Avon. And who's that place where they give away pink Cadillacs? Mary Kay. You ever see one of those pink Cadillacs? Years ago, they used to have these things. On the back window, it's something like, I got this from Mary Kay. This is not stuff you get from Mary Kay. And another female's name, she's real popular with health food. Monica Lewinsky went in with her for a while. Jenny Craig. This isn't beauty that Jenny Craig can give you. This is not the beauty that comes from these sources. This is the beauty that comes through the power of the Holy Spirit. Listen, devastating our pride. Devastating our ego. Devastating our desire to want to be something. This is stuff that's born in brokenness and in contrition. This is stuff that's born when you've been discovered wrong. When you've been found out. When you've blown it. And God's given you an opportunity to acknowledge your sin before your brother, your sister, your children. This is the stuff that comes when we confess our faults one to another. This is why it's so deadly not to deal with these issues. This is why it's so deadly to create a lifestyle at home that's all about outward things. Listen, God did not create us to have communion and fellowship with inanimate objects. That's what's happening in the Christian home today. We're trying to get our needs met from TV and from the PC. There is an alert going on in the Spirit. God is warning us. Just like if you are crippled or you break your arm and you don't use it, what happens? Atrophy sets in. Atrophy is a condition where the muscle breaks down. And it doesn't have any strength. I remember I dislocated my elbow when I was 13 or so wrestling. And I had to have my arm in a sling for quite a while. It was a bad dislocation. The bone popped out this much. And as a result of my arm not being used, I remember when I first got the sling off, I couldn't move my arm. It was stuck like this. It was my left arm. And I had to do exercises. The doctor told me that I probably never would straighten my arm, but I can almost completely straighten it. But it was weak. I couldn't use it because it had grown weak through not being used. Now listen closely. Listen closely, brothers and sisters. There is a part in us that was created by God. And it grows. It's in our spirit. It grows only through meaningful fellowship with God and living people. Not people that are being projected on a screen through electronics. And I can't go any deeper as to how that happens because I still don't know how you can get a live satellite picture from California into Munich, Germany. But that's not the fellowship that meets the need of the heart. Every single child is born with a need to have eyeball-to-eyeball contact with another human being and to hear, How are you? I love you. Tell me your struggles. Tell me what's going on in your life. And God would speak to his beloved through his word and would warn us all, Don't let that vital part of our Christianity be destroyed. Don't let it be destroyed. Stay in touch with each other. Stay in communion with each other. Husbands and wives, the most important thing you've got is a heart relationship one with another. Don't let anything rob that. Children and parents, the same thing. We don't like that though, do we? It makes us uncomfortable. It makes us uncomfortable to have to look at each other eyeball-to-eyeball. I want to encourage you to pray about these things. Pray about these things. Pray that God will restore meaningful communion back into your home, back into your relationships. And don't use your spare time to promote further atrophy in this spiritual part of your life because one day it will backfire. We lose how to communicate with one another. We lose how to communicate with God. That's why the enemy's doing it and he's not coming in as a raving devil. He's coming in in a subtle way. A subtle way. And so we've learned these qualities of love. We want to look at one just for a few minutes. Last week we looked at it's not easily provoked. And we learned that God must clothe our heart by grace with the divine capacity to stop being so irritated so easily. We have too short of a fuse. And being easily irritated sows bad stuff into the hearts of our family. And remember the Word. Be not deceived. Whatever you sow, that you also will reap. If you sow gentleness and meekness into your family, then there's a good chance that you'll reap that. But if you sow words that come because you're easily irritated, you're going to reap that into your children. And as we mentioned last week, when you see them get old and you see them acting awful with their own husbands and wives, and you get upset and you hear God say, what are you upset about? They're only reaping what you sowed into them. How we need Jesus. How we need His meekness. How we need grace. How we need grace during the day when things don't go our way, when we're set on something and it can't work out. How we need grace when all of a sudden everything goes wrong in 24 hours. The car breaks down. The heater breaks. There's leaks in the ceiling. I'm describing my house and family now. The new budding artist in the family is drawing pictures on the wall with permanent magic marker. Yeah, I'm talking about you. He's there drinking his water. All of a sudden, he looks over at me and opens his eyes. Come on, let's bring this stuff right down to where we live. That's what it means to get easily irritated when you let these things take the victory from you. I'm not condoning irresponsibility, but I'm saying this and I believe I'm saying it by the Spirit. So what? Let the whole house burn down. So what? There's a fine line in being concerned about things that need to be done and having a concern that's really a covering for idolatry. There's a fine line. And I would challenge everyone in here to ask God to reveal the motives of your heart. I'm all for responsible responses. But I don't like responses that indicate we're putting too much value on these things. God will try your heart on these issues if you let Him. Paul said it's God who tries our hearts. It's God who tries our hearts. Not easily irritated. We're going to look just for a few moments at thinketh no evil. Verse 5, 1 Corinthians 13. The last part. Does not behave itself unseemly. Seeketh not her own. Is not easily provoked. He says, thinketh no evil. Micah chapter 7 captures the meaning of this verse. Captures the meaning of what the Holy Spirit is trying to say. Micah chapter 7. Verse 18 and 19. Everyone know where Micah is? It's in the Old Testament. It's after Jonah. It's before Habakkuk. Micah chapter 7. Listen carefully to God's Word. Who is it God likened unto Thee that pardons iniquity and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever because He delights in mercy. Listen. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities and Thou wilt cast all their sins in the depths of the sea. And after God takes our sins, we mentioned this a few weeks ago, and casts them into the depths of the sea, what is He put on the beach of that sea? A sign that says what? No fishing. Thinketh no evil. Simply means that we do not have a running ledger in our mind of all the wrongs that have been done against us and being able to quickly and accurately bring up those wrongs, holding people to them, punishing them in our own subtle, sneaky way. Love thinketh no evil. Love does not calculate the wrongs against it. But love is able through the gift of grace to bury the transgressions into the sea of forgetfulness and never to go fishing. Love is able to release every sin against you who has dealt with you unjustly. An employee, an employer, husband, wife, children, friend, mother, father. Are you still thinking about it? Does it still haunt you? Does it still have a grip in your heart? Oh, brothers and sisters, love thinketh no evil. Let me tell you, if you want to be of any value to the Lord in His house, with His people, any value, anyone who aspires in here to be in a position of oversight, oversight meaning the capacity to shepherd people, watch over their souls, care for them, the position of elder as the Scripture speaks of, you will not be able to properly shepherd God's people as Christ shepherds them if you cannot find the grace for this truth to work in your life. You can't do it. You cannot do it. The only way you can serve God's people the way Christ serves them is to think no evil. Because the moment someone fails you, the moment someone hurts you, the moment someone disappoints you, without the grace of God working in your life, freeing you from the temptation of giving way to an offense in your heart, you will no longer be able to serve that person in love. You won't do it. You'll pretend, but you won't be able to do it. The only way we can truly serve one another is by the grace of God working in our hearts, rescuing us from the temptation to calculate the evil that's been done against us. We have to stop now. But before we stop, I want to invite... Where did Mom go? They have a song that they want to sing and I feel that it's very appropriate. Go ahead and look for Mom. It's okay. See where she is. But brothers and sisters, listen carefully just for a few moments, okay? True beauty. True beauty. Let's just bow our hearts for a few moments. Thank You, Lord. Lord, we recognize that You are here to bring healing. You are here to restore. Lord, we recognize that You are here to perform Your Word. Lord, we want to give You these few moments now. By Your Word, Lord. By Your Holy Spirit, Lord. Perform Your Word. Speak to us, Lord. How many times have I turned away? The number is the same as the sand on the shore. But every time You've taken me back. Now I pray You do it once more. Please take from me my life when I don't have the strength to give it away to You. Please take from me my life when I don't have the strength to give it away to You, Jesus. How many times have I turned away? The number is the same as the stars in the sky. But every time You've taken me back. Now I pray You do it tonight. Please take from me my life when I don't have the strength to give it away to You. Please take from me my life when I don't have the strength to give it away to You, Jesus. to give it away to You, Jesus. Please take from me my life when I don't have the strength to give it away to You. Please take from me my life when I don't have the strength to give it away to You, Jesus. to give it away to You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Change us, Lord. By the power of Your Holy Spirit we give You our life. And by Your love, Lord, free us and transform us. May we do what we were unable to do when we come and get filled with Your love and grace, saying we're sorry, seeking reconciliation, and experience healing through Jesus' power. Amen and amen. God bless everyone today.