Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes that God seeks committed hearts, urging the congregation to understand the importance of fully dedicating themselves to Him. He reflects on the story of King Asa from 2 Chronicles 16, illustrating how reliance on God leads to strength and victory, while reliance on man leads to folly. Beach challenges listeners to reaffirm their commitment to God daily, highlighting that God's grace empowers action and transformation in their lives. He encourages everyone to present themselves as living sacrifices, reminding them that God's eyes are searching for those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. Ultimately, he calls for a response to God's call for commitment, assuring that He will show His strength to those who seek Him wholeheartedly.

We have determined that nothing else will satisfy our hearts. So if you pray for us that God will definitely continue to lead us and make us sensitive, we will be forever indebted to you for your prayers. Amen? I want to invite you to turn your Bibles to 2 Chronicles 16 verses 1 through 9. 2 Chronicles 16 verses 1 through 9. I believe the Holy Spirit this morning has positively given us a living example in action as to how to fulfill this precious Scripture that I'm about to read. 2 Chronicles 16 verses 1 through 9. I'm going to begin reading in verse number 1. In the sixth and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Basha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. Now I want you to take special note to what Asa did as a result of the enemy coming. Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king's house and sent to Ben-Hadad king of Syria that dwelt at Damascus saying, There is a league between me and thee as there was between my father and thy father. Behold, I have sent thee silver and gold. Go, break thy league with Basha king of Israel that he may depart from me. And Ben-Hadad hearkened unto king Asa and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. And they smote Ijon and Dan and Abelmonium and all the store cities of Naphtali. And it came to pass when Basha heard it that he left off building of Ramah and let his work cease. Now let's read in verse number six. Then Asa the king took all Judah and they carried away the stones of Ramah, the timber thereof wherewith Basha was building and he built therewith Geba and Mizpah. And at the time Hananitha seer came to Asa king of Judah and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubins a huge host with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because thou didst rely on the Lord he delivered them into thine hand. And now the text this morning is verse number nine. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly, therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. Now I would like to read verse number nine in 2 Chronicles chapter 16 from the New International Version. Excuse me. 2 Chronicles chapter 16. Because I feel like the way that the NIV translators translated this verse helps us to understand what it is to have a perfect heart. Because I sense this morning the Holy Spirit is doing today even in our midst right here among this small group the same thing that he said he was doing back then. What will he find when he comes to you? 2 Chronicles chapter 16 verse number nine NIV. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the entire earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. The eyes of the Lord are seeking throughout the entire earth. The eyes of the Lord are seeking throughout our congregation this morning. The eyes of the Lord are seeking throughout Hackettstown in Washington and Easton and Bud Lake and Morristown in Madison and Manhattan and Long Island. The eyes of the Lord are seeking in Africa and South America and Asia, Austria and Russia. The eyes of the Lord are seeking throughout all the earth. And what is God looking for? If your heart at all has a desire to serve God then the thought of knowing what God is looking for should so stir you so that he can find it in you. I mean to think that we are so privileged this morning as a people to be able to know what God is looking for. I mean there are some people in the world who don't even have the least slightest understanding of who God is. And here not only do we know him through his son Jesus Christ but we are privileged to be able through the word of God to know what he is looking for. And I want to challenge you this morning by the love of Jesus Christ by the very compassion of God himself I want to challenge you this morning to understand what God is looking for and then to reaffirm to him on a daily basis that you will do everything in your power by his grace and by his power working in you to present to him that which he is looking for. God says he is looking for it. Will you? Will you give to God what he is looking for? The Holy Spirit is looking for a man for a woman for a group of people in whom he can show himself strong and mighty and powerful able to tear down the strongholds of the enemy able to tear down the strongholds of the flesh able to bring deliverance to others God wants to show himself to be that way in your life but he is looking for something first a heart that is fully committed to him. I want to challenge you this morning I want to challenge you beseech you exhort you by the grace of God commit your heart fully to him. For indeed, heaven takes notice of the one whose heart is fully committed to him. Indeed, the Lord will show himself to be mighty and powerful and strong and sufficient and able to the heart that is fully committed to him. I think in my mind if we were a secular people and I was a secular lecturer and I was here telling you a way that you could in three years make a million dollars and I could imagine myself saying would you be the one this morning who would accept my challenge and three years from now call me and say Sir, I am a millionaire I can sense the challenge I could sense the thoughts if we were a secular people I could sense individuals saying Oh, I've got to get his tapes Oh, I've got to get his books Oh, I've got to get together with my wife or my husband Oh, we've got to set our heart on this thing so that we can be millionaires It's so easy I can sense the response of a secular crowd if I was challenging you to a quick way to make a million dollars and I wonder whether the word of God and the knowledge of what God is looking for stirs our hearts even more than if we were a secular crowd Do you realize what we have understood in just this little time? Do you realize that I could close my Bible and say this is it, this is enough and actually I'm going to do that because I changed what God put on my heart I'm going to wait I want to wait but I don't want to get into it deeply I just sense that I just wanted to share these scriptures with you and then at another time we're going to get into it deeply and we're going to understand step by step what a committed heart is and what it is not what a perfect heart is and what it is not what the grace of God is and what the grace of God isn't God's grace is not passive, it is active when God's grace moves upon a heart it moves upon that heart to action action passive grace produces fatalism which is a deadly, deadly crippling, spiritually crippling plague that's got a lot of people the grace of God moves you to action the grace of God teaches you to say no to ungodliness and worldly lusts the grace of God doesn't teach you to say well, there's really nothing I can do well, there certainly is you can seek the Lord God until you get a dose of His grace I mean, there's nothing you can do in your own power but bless God, when God's grace comes on you it's not your power anymore, it's His power moves you to action well, you see what the men of old did when God's grace came on them they didn't sit around, they moved they went on, they took stands Joshua said, I don't know about you but me and my house are going to serve the Lord there's the grace of God in action, friends Peter, after being interrogated by an ungodly people said, judge ye yourselves whether I should obey God than man and he was out preaching the gospel there's the grace of God in action, my friends let's turn our Bibles to numbers this is really exciting stirs my heart it stirs me to want to know His grace because, see, I've been by God I've been in the place where I got up and ran without grace and I fell flat on my nose so I know that it's not the zeal of flesh but it's His grace Numbers chapter 14 Numbers chapter 14 this is a parallel text a parallel text this also reveals to us what God is looking for and He found it and a man whose name was Caleb and I like what God says about Caleb and my friends, I want God to say that about me this man's got a different spirit not an arrogant spirit not a self-sufficient spirit not a boastful spirit not a critical spirit not a judgmental spirit not a holier-than-thou spirit but a different one one that is characterized by verse number 24 but because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly I will bring him into the land he went to and his descendants will inherit it there's the promise that God has for those whose hearts are perfect toward Him now remember we've understood that a perfect heart is a heart that is fully committed what did the Holy Spirit do this morning? He taught us in action a fully committed heart is one that daily communes with Him that daily experiences His cleansing and His washing that is daily being reaffirmed in the joy and the peace of the Lord that's a fully committed heart now a different spirit I want to emphasize this a different spirit is not an arrogant spirit it is not a boastful spirit it is not a critical spirit it is not a sectarian spirit it is not one that causes division but a different spirit is a spirit from God that enables a believer to have a heart fully committed to Him that's what we want this morning this is what the Holy Spirit is looking for fully committed to Him He wants a soldier Carl a soldier a soldier one who says I'm called I've got orders from the King but I'm useless to God unless I humble myself in His presence remember a fully committed heart is not a self-sufficient person a fully committed heart is a weak man a humble man an honest man a fully committed heart is a vessel that daily yields itself to God because that's what attracts the grace of God that's what attracts the grace of God the Bible says God resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble He gives grace to the poor in spirit wow God is looking this morning the eyes of the Lord are going to and fro He so desires to reveal His love and power to us to reveal His strength and His might to us and all we have to do is present ourselves to Him Romans chapter 12 I beseech thee therefore brethren by the mercy of God that you present yourself what a beautiful word I mean that's music to my heart yay Lord I mean every time I read that yay Lord present myself present yourself as a living sacrifice offer yourself to God daily and you will have a perfect heart what's the song we sing? He can make a perfect heart when we present ourselves to Him He makes a perfect heart when God's grace comes upon you it moves you to action God's grace is not passive God's grace moves upon you enabling you you it enables you to make correct choices it enables you to say no to worldly lusts it enables you to submit yourself to God and resist the devil it enables you to make no provision for the flesh it enables you to exercise free moral choice in serving God I will serve the Lord I will say no to the devil I will love my brother in the name of the Lord grace enables you to respond to God by His power see God is the enabling God is the source God is the initiator and we cooperate with Him God's grace being manifested in a life will enable that life to take a stand for what is right and a stand against what is wrong God's grace will transform a believer day in and day out why does the scripture say don't fall from His grace because when we fall from His grace it does not mean that we lose our salvation when we fall from His grace what it means is we become blinded to our sufficiency as coming from Him and we start running things our way and you know what results? a fall we fall flat on our nose it is only the grace of God that enables a man to move in God outside of grace we move in ourself and you know if you've been with the Lord any length of time what happens when you take the reins and move outside of God's grace the end thereof is bitter but when we fall the Lord is there and He says alright now now you're getting things in perspective the Lord says I like this now you see that you can't do it without my grace now that you have fallen and you've made a mess of things and you've hurt some people on the way I've hurt people on the way in this lesson of learning oh I've hurt people I've hurt myself I've hurt my wife I've hurt my parents but God is sovereign He causes all things to work together thank God He does He causes all things to work together when I'm out of God's grace Satan intends what I do for my destruction he wants to destroy me and everyone else but God in His power takes what Satan intended for my destruction and turns it around and somehow makes it for my good didn't Joseph get that revelation? when we come to the end of ourself God magnifies His grace and whispers to our hearts try it my way grace moving by His power moving by His might I like what the Bible says about the prophets of old they spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost we need to move and live as we're moved upon by the grace of God we need to learn how to flow in His grace we need to know the limits so that we don't walk outside of His grace and there find ourself a prey to our own strength these are spiritual things Paul says listen I speak wisdom among you not the wisdom of the world but I speak wisdom that comes from God and these things are spiritual thoughts these are spiritual perceptions when I say grace don't step up to a natural man or to a Christian that's unspiritual he can interpret that to mean 101 different things I can't help it a lot of people twist the word of God for their own destruction you've got to understand these things by the Spirit that's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians but God will teach you these things as you come to Him so God teaches us the boundaries of His grace you learn that I want to do this oh I'm walking out of His grace if I do that doesn't mean you're walking out of salvation it means you better not do it because if you do the Lord's not going with you you know Moses had that understanding when he said Lord if you don't go I'm not going see he learned that unless he walked in the grace of God and flowed with God he was on his own and God doesn't promise to keep us from falling flat on our nose when we're on our own God is looking this morning I'm going to stop God has done a lot for us this morning the word of God has confirmed what the Spirit has done when you commit yourself fully to God grace grace becomes your all sufficient source of strength and ability and power to take a stand for God and to live for Him pleasing in His eyes not captive or overcome by the wicked one or the enemy and all there needs to be is a decision I will by His grace commit my heart to Him not a one time bang in service this morning but a daily reaffirming of my commitment I know the will of God His eyes are seeking throughout the whole land did you know that means that His eyes come to your house oh my these things thrill me here you are in your house and in your car and suddenly the eyes of the Lord are there what's He looking for? a committed heart young people a committed heart you're young young people where's all the young people? Bobby he's looking for a committed heart he's looking for a heart that says Lord here I am do with me what you want He's gonna visit your house tonight you might be eating you might be sleeping you might be relaxing but when the eyes of the Lord come to your house I submit to you He's looking and He's piercing and He's saying where in this house is there a committed heart that I can show myself to be strong are you ready? I am let's sing that song He can make did you have another one prepared? no? He can make a perfect heart do we have that in the book? 1.42 how precious He is this morning 1.42 who reigns in beauty bless the Lord who reigns in wisdom and with power bless the Lord who reigned my life with so much love He can make a perfect heart the Lord who reigns in beauty bless the Lord who reigns in wisdom and with power bless the Lord who reigns my life with so much love He can make a perfect let's sing it again from the top bless the Lord who reigns in beauty bless the Lord who reigns in wisdom and with power bless the Lord who reigns my life with so much love a perfect one more time He can make He can make a perfect heart praise the Lord thank you Jesus amen it's just getting more and more difficult to say all right service is closed you just can't turn God on and turn Him off but once again I want to just encourage you let the Lord have His way in your life remember what He's looking for and remember His eyes will come to your house one day again we want to give a special honor and recognition to our mothers God bless you thank you for putting up with all of us children Mom, thank you for putting up with me Dad, you too thank you for taking care of me amen I mean I wouldn't have made it if Mama didn't change my diapers can't imagine her changing my diapers though, I can't but she can imagine it, right?