Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the unselfish love of God, illustrating how God's love is purely for the benefit of others, as demonstrated through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. He contrasts this divine love with human love, which is often selfish and conditional, urging believers to seek a deeper understanding of God's unselfishness. Beach challenges the congregation to move beyond mere praise of God's love to embody it in their lives, becoming active participants in addressing the needs around them. He shares stories of individuals who, compelled by God's love, engage in selfless acts of service, highlighting the transformative power of unselfish love in the Christian life. Ultimately, he calls for a commitment to live out this love, which can break the chains of selfishness and bring about true change in the world.

and pray that the Holy Spirit will impart this vision that He has for us. This is something in His heart and we're going to look to Him. Father, we are totally dependent upon the Holy Spirit at this time. We're totally dependent upon the grace and mercy that flows from Your heart. We know that You love us so much and that Your love could never be demonstrated more fully than it was 2,000 years ago when You emptied Yourself from all the glory that was Yours in Heaven with the Father from all eternity, and You became a little baby and grew up. And as sinless as You were and are, and as perfect as You were and are, You willingly submitted Yourself to the wrath of God, the judgment of God, and the wrath of man, and the judgment of man, for no other reason than that of Your great love for Your Father and Your great love for the world and for us. Lord, we know absolutely nothing about this love in ourselves. The only kind of love that we know is a selfish love that is conditional at best. And we acknowledge, Lord, that we know nothing of this great love called Calvary's love. But we want You to teach us about this love. And we pray, Lord, during this time in Your Word that You would plant seeds into our spirit and that those seeds will grow and bring forth a harvest of that love. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord has put on my heart to talk about the unselfishness of God, the unselfishness of God. There is absolutely nothing that will break the heart of a human being more powerfully and more effectively than when that human being begins to see by revelation of the Holy Spirit and revelation of the Word of God the unselfishness of God. There is absolutely nothing like it in this whole world. God is purely unselfish. He is entirely unselfish. And by unselfish, the Scriptures mean He is motivated purely for the benefit and good of others, namely His creation. He is wholly motivated for the benefit and good of His creation. Human love is always motivated with a self-centered motive. What am I going to get out of it? But God's unselfishness was fully demonstrated at the cross of Calvary, where though He had the power, because He's God, to rectify, listen closely, He had the power to rectify the human condition by sitting on His ivory throne and speaking an executive word and dealing with it. He could have sent angels. He could have sent His holiest and strongest angels and said, I have a mission for you. I want you to set in order the problem that mankind has created. And I'm going to choose you, angel, to go down into the world and to bear the sin of humanity. What a great privilege that will be for you, angel. Now, I'll sit here on my throne and I'll protect you. And I'll make sure that you are always enveloped in my presence. And I'll make sure that after you die, I'll give you a great coronation and a great graduation. And I'll have all heaven adore you, almighty angel. Is that what the Lord did? No, He didn't. But He could have because He's God. And so, listen closely to one of the chief characteristics of unselfish love. Unselfish love looks at a problem and doesn't sit distant from it and try and figure out a solution and then find others to do it. But unselfish love always, always, always, always, without exception, brothers and sisters, unselfish love will always see a situation and always look for a solution by getting involved in the situation. It was David Wilkerson who testified that while he lived in Lyndale, Texas, he would come to New York City every year and hold street meetings. And every year as he came to New York City to hold street meetings, he would walk on the streets at night and he would pray, Oh God, oh God, I'm so burdened and so concerned about the degenerating situation in New York City. Why haven't you risen up a church in this city? Not that there wasn't churches in New York, but he had a particular need, a particular vision and he didn't see it being met. And he began to cry out to God. Every single year he would come, hold street meetings, walk on the streets of New York in the middle of the night and begin to cry out and say, Oh God, oh God, oh God, something is wrong. Something is wrong. Why don't you raise up a church? Listen carefully. He testified, and I heard him testify this, that he began to get angry at God. He got angry at God. Now listen carefully. There is anger in many hearts this morning because God hasn't intervened in a situation. But here's the Lord's answer to your anger. He got angry at God and it's as if he was shaking his fist at God. And he was saying, God, what's wrong with you? There's a great need and you've done nothing. And he said he heard the voice of God, the unselfishness of God. You see, God's greatest desire is to put into us the same kind of love that He has. He not only wants us to praise Him because of His unselfishness, He not only wants us to praise Him because we see Calvary's love and we see how wonderful it is and we sing about it and we praise Him and we talk about it. That doesn't satisfy God's heart completely. But what satisfies God's heart is when not only do we sing about unselfish love and we praise God for Calvary's love, but we come to the place in our life where we get so disgusted and sick and tired with our own selfishness that we can't stand it anymore, that it is so detestable to us, it makes us sick. Are you sick of your selfishness yet? Are you sick of your selfishness? God spoke to David Wilkerson and said, David, are you burdened for this city? Yes, Lord. Do you want to see a church raised up in this city? Where my word is preached and my glory is seen and thousands of souls come to know me? Yes, Lord. Then why don't you go to New York and start it? The Holy Ghost is saying this. There's going to come a time in the life of everyone here when God will no longer hear any of your prayers. He won't hear them. Until everyone uttered, has this addendum pinned onto it. Lord, you've got to do this. And if you want to use me, fine. God will no longer accept a prayer when He is placing children in the crucible of sonship. When it's time to grow up, God will not accept your prayers until they are prayed with an insatiable passion to be the answer. Lord, I will, by your grace, be the answer to the prayer that I'm praying. Not the pastor. Not the preacher. You. You. And so David Wilkerson, upon hearing the Lord, faced a crisis. A crisis that every single one of us must face in our Christian life. And here's the crisis. God has heard our prayer and He has shown us the way that it will be fulfilled. And it is no longer sitting in a certain place distant from and untouched from the thing that's bothering us. But now, it's God will answer the prayer, but I'm going to have to get my hands dirty. Are we hearing? But why should I get my hands dirty? The Lord says, I got mine dirty. Remember whose example we're to follow. Be ye followers of who? God, the Scripture says. The Lord is pleased that we've seen Calvary's love and we praise Him for it. But He's sad because all we want to do is sit on the pew and praise Him for Calvary's love, but not weep and cry that we ourselves would be reduced to Calvary's love. So that the same love that moved Jesus to go to Calvary for the sake of others is the same love that is rising up in our heart. First being seen in our family, then being seen in the church family, and then ultimately being seen in a lost and dying world. We've got to stop praying, Oh God, You've got to do this down yonder. We've got to pray, Oh God, I see the need and I've been unwilling to get my hands dirty. But I thank You for the blood. Remember the blood? Aren't you glad the Lord brought us through a season where He showed us how horribly sinful we are? Even though it got a little irritating and a little distressing? Aren't you glad He brought us through a season where we saw that no matter how unworthy we are and how selfish we are and how self-centered we are, all we have to do is admit it and tell Jesus. And then the power of the blood kicks in and God brings close to Himself unworthy sinners. Unless, of course, you're still holding on to your own sin. Your own good Christian righteousness. Then there's no hope. There's no hope. But if we're willing to say, Yes, Lord, I'm guilty. I'm guilty, Lord. I've prayed a thousand prayers in my executive seat waiting for someone else to do it. How many have prayed that way? Nobody, huh? Wow! Jesus says, Do you love Calvary? Yes, Lord. Do you love to see My love? Yes, Lord. He says, Well, guess what the church is? The church is supposed to become the full expression of what Christ is. And what is Christ? God is what? Love. We are to demonstrate to one another the same identical love that was demonstrated to us at Calvary. The same love. Not an inferior love. Not a human love. The same love we are to demonstrate. Not by our own power, but by coming to the place where we realize we have no bread. We have no patience. We have no love. I shared many months ago, I was praying one time and I said, Lord, please help me to love more. Lord, make my love more like Yours. And I felt a strange distance from God as I prayed that prayer. And I said, Lord, what's wrong? And He said, You prayed wrong. I said, Well, then show me how to pray, Lord. I mean, you know. He said, Don't pray make my love more like Yours. He said, Pray like this, Lord, forgive me. I have no love, but I have hatred in my heart. How many here have seen that your love has turned to hatred towards someone that you loved at one time? It turns to hatred. You've wrestled with feelings of hatred toward a very person that you actually love. How can that be? That's the nature of human love. Human love is fine as long as you don't get crossed. Human love is fine as long as you stay in control. But the moment you're crossed, the moment something happens that takes you out of control or disappoints you or betrays you, that human love in your heart reveals its true nature. Its true nature. Really, human love is simply the beautiful side of something evil. Oh, I know human love can go a long way, but not long enough to please God. Not long enough to please God. That's why families are being destroyed today. That's why marriages are being destroyed today. That's why the church is being destroyed today. Because we come to God and to one another with human love. And that's not good. It might last a year, two, five, ten, fifteen, but sooner or later, human love is going to begin to show its true colors and then we're going to be in a crisis and we're going to have to say, Oh Lord, have mercy. This isn't Your love at all. It's my human love and it's not good. And I come and repent or else we're going to become under its power. And so, the church is to be the depository of divine love. Brothers and sisters, that will mean that you and I will no longer be able to pray a prayer and not become intimately involved in its answer in some way, shape, or form. And this is what Jesus has been talking to me about lately. I had written an email this week and sent it to a number of people. I don't have everyone's email. And I told a story about a revival that's going on in China. Tremendous revival. Listen, brothers and sisters, God has found a people in China who are desperate for Him. They're desperate for Him. And in their desperation, they've cried out to God and God has met them in a most wonderful way. I have heard testimonies not only from magazines that I obtained, but also from brothers and sisters who have heard testimonies in Scotland and England and in other countries. God is moving in China. The glory of God is going from province to province, from city to city, from village to village, and in many instances, whole villages are coming to know Jesus Christ. Whole villages! But it is not because the Chinese church is sitting in beautiful plush temples made with hands, having prayer meetings and saying, Oh God, You've got to do something in China. No, it's because the children of God in China have been apprehended by the unselfishness of God and they've lost their lives. They've become living martyrs for Jesus Christ. They no longer have an interest other than that of being motivated by the unselfishness of God. Paul spoke of the unselfishness of God. And he said, The love of God constrains me. The Greek word there means to be controlled by, to be compelled by the love of God. You know what motivated Paul to go through such hardships that he went through? How many have ever done a study of Paul's life? Let me just say a few things here. And if I forget where I was at, remind me. We're on the church in China and the love of God. But let me just say this as I feel the Holy Spirit prompting me. If you want to know the genuine, authentic way of Christianity, study your Bible. Don't read most of the books today that are being printed telling you about what Christianity's supposed to look like. Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was able to say to all the churches in Asia, to all the churches in Macedonia, to the churches that God used him to birth, he was able to say to them, You follow me as I follow Christ. Paul was given by God a high calling that enabled him to tell the churches in his day and all the subsequent churches up to the very day that we live. If you want to see an authentic expression of what it means to die to yourself and to be under the power of the unselfish love of God through the person of Jesus Christ, you study my life. You study my example. You study my doctrine. You study the way that I lived in the world. You study the things I went through for the sake of Christ. And that's the standard of measurement that you use to determine how close you are to Jesus Christ. There is a great falling away today because men are no longer lovers of the Word of God. They are no longer lovers of God's Word. They are no longer weeping over God's Word. Letting God's Word set the standard to which they are to bow. But they're coming up with crazy ideas about what it means to be a Christian. And these ideas are foreign to the Word of God and to the truth and the testimony that's in the Scriptures. And so I want to encourage you, brothers and sisters, I sense that many Christians are confused today. How many agree? Many Christians are wondering what's the truth? Who's got the truth? Where's the truth? What kind of a Christian life should I live? What is God really saying today? Is God the author of a prosperity Gospel that promises you that if you serve Him, you'll have all the wealth in the world that you want? Is God the author of such a thing? Brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you in the name and love of Jesus Christ, if you want to know the truth and you want to be nurtured by Jesus, I encourage you to ask God to give you an insatiable hunger to know the Word of God and to get in Him and to pray that God will give you a few other believers who have the same insatiable desire that you do and together open up your New Testament and start reading through it and start letting God speak to you and start letting God show you what it looks like to have an encounter with Jesus Christ. What does it look like to have an encounter with Jesus? And behind everything that's happening in the New Testament church, you'll find the unselfishness of God conquering and compelling men and women who have met Jesus Christ, driving them with a power that was beyond human origin. And that's what empowered them to lay their lives down. That's what empowered them to become martyrs. That's what empowered them to watch their children beaten. That's what empowered them to allow their loved ones to be persecuted. How could you ever endure such a thing? You can't. But Jesus Christ has the goods. The church in China, there's a great outpouring of the Spirit going on. And these brothers and sisters are not praying prayers in their buildings. Oh God, you've got to do something. But the whole outpouring of the Spirit has started with believers having a life-changing encounter with the living Person of Jesus Christ. That's where everything begins. It is an encounter with Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters. You meet Him and you let Him pour out His love into your life. And you feed on His Word. And you allow His Holy Spirit to come and take up a permanent residence in your life where He becomes the resident boss. Where He becomes the one who's in control. And you pray, God, You never, ever, ever let me resist the Holy Spirit or quench the Holy Spirit or lie against the Holy Spirit or grieve the Holy Spirit. Lord, You help me to take the Holy Spirit and to let Him be the one who tells me the way things ought to be according to the Word of God. When we have that kind of an encounter with Jesus, something begins to happen. He, He starts to conquer us. And suddenly we realize the purpose of our existence. Is to be a body through which He reveals Himself. His love, His grace, and His mercy. And so, the church in China is seeing a great revival. But it's not without cost. They're involved. Their families are involved. Their very lives are involved. And there's a story told of a man who daily gathered together with other believers to pray. Daily prayed. And the word in their midst is they pray to get assignment from God. They take this so seriously that they get together and pray with an expectation of what will be the next assignment. They don't look at it as well, what's the next prayer request? What's the next assignment? They've come to realize these hands are God's hands. Not that they are God, but these are God's hands through which Christ touches the world. They realize their bodies are not their own. Their lives are not their own. You know the Bible says, lie not one to another. Well, you know the Greek says, do not continue in the lie. I don't believe the Holy Spirit is telling the church in Ephesus, now stop telling white lies. The Greek, the lie, the lie. Do you know what the lie is? The lie is not little white lies, although don't tell white lies because that's not good either. But the lie is living a life where you see yourself as independent from anyone else. The lie, the lie is to buy into the idea that it's all about you. It's all about you. It's all about what you want. It's all about what you can get. It's all about what makes you happy. Stop telling the lie one to another. And then the very next verse says, for ye are members one of another. In other words, the truth is, we are no longer people who have our own individual life unrelated and unaccountable to anyone whose chief desire now is just to reach for what we can get and get what we can reach. We are now members of the body of Christ. We have been bought with a price. We no longer belong to ourselves. Brothers and sisters, you don't have the rights in your life anymore. You don't have the rights. Christ has the rights. You've been bought with a price. I've been bought with a price. And so when the church in China prays, they pray for assignment. Assignment. That means they have to go in the power and love of Jesus Christ and get their hands dirty. Now one man prayed and the Lord gave him an assignment. There was a village. And in a certain village, there was a man with his family. And the Lord gave him an assignment to knock on the door and to tell him about the love of Jesus Christ. And he went the first time. The man of the house mocked him and scorned him and cursed him and drove him away. So he went and prayed again. And he heard the Lord tell him, go again. And so he went again. And this time, the old man opened the door and threw water on him. Covered him with water. Drove him away. And he went back and prayed. And the Lord said, go again. You see what we're looking at here? We're looking at something that is other than human. We're looking at a man who died to himself. Who died to his fears. How many of us would say, well, must not a builder do that? It must not have been the Lord's will. Must not have been the Lord's will. Forget about that one. So the third time, the Lord said, go. Knock on the door. And this time, the old man was so angry, he got rods and beat him. And drove him out to the end of the village. And this man in his blood-soaked clothes went home. And for seven days, he recovered. It took seven days for him to recover. And at the end of seven days, the Lord spoke to him and said, what? Go back. Go back. Go back. And tell this man that I love him. And he went back. And upon opening up the door, the old man was so overwhelmed at this Christian's love and persistence, he invited him in. Commanded his whole family to sit down. And he looked at the Christian and said, you tell us about this God. And he proceeded to tell him about the love of Jesus Christ and how he was beaten. Jesus was beaten for his sins. And the man was overcome and gave his life to Christ. And every one of the family members followed. And that family became part of the church in China. The unselfishness of God. Do we want that? What is possible when that unselfishness finds a place in our hearts? May I say, all things become possible with that unselfish love. The unselfishness of God. 2 Corinthians 5. Verse 14, for the love of Christ constraineth us. 2 Corinthians 5.14 For the love of Christ controls us. Brothers and sisters, Paul is not talking about a goose pimple, giddy feeling kind of a love, which has its place, but don't put too much credence in it because it's very selfish. It's very selfish. That goose pimple, giddy feeling kind of love. It's called romantic love. There's a place for it, but it's unreliable, isn't it? I remember years ago, someone was struggling about what true love was and they began to talk to me about romantic love. Is that love? And I said, well, imagine, guys, girls, imagine your own wife, your own husband, their physical beauty. You might say, well, they don't have much. And imagine the love that you imagine you have based on the physical part of your relationship. Just imagine that love. And you go to work one day and your partner was in a horrible accident and the car caught on fire and they were almost burned to death. Burned to death. But somehow the doctors pulled them through. No hair. The nose sort of burned away. The ears sort of burned away. Take the shirt off and you don't even recognize your own husband, your own wife. And the doctor says, I'm sorry, but there'll never be hair to grow back again. Never. And there'll be a physical deformity the rest of your life. Now's a chance to know whether you know God's love or not. God's love. The love of Christ controls me. Not human love. Divine love. Divine love that does not hang upon anything that's physical or anything that's natural. The love of Christ controls. The love of Christ. This is a love, brothers and sisters, that controlled Christ, that compelled Christ, that controlled Paul, that controlled Paul and compelled Paul to the point where he became a living martyr. He lost everything because he was under the control of this divine love. Let me say something. The unselfishness of God will demand that you lay down at the feet of Jesus your selfish love. You cannot be controlled by the unselfishness of God and at the same time, retain rights over your own life. You cannot do it. It's impossible. And that's why Jesus said, if any man follow Me, and if any man would be filled with My unselfish love, he must what? Deny himself. Deny his natural instincts. Natural love says, Mike, I'm your friend. You're my buddy. But divine love embraces the one who murdered my son or raped my wife. Divine love embraces such a person and says, I forgive you in the person of Jesus Christ. And if you're homeless, I'm willing to let you have a place in My room, in My house. We're all found out, aren't we? Because none of us could do it. Not a one of us. Not a one of us could do it. But I know one who can. His name is Jesus Christ. What time does that clock say? For the love of Christ controls me because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. And He that died for all, and that He died for all, that they which live, that's us. That's us. We who live should what? Should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again. The unselfishness of God emancipates us from the horrible, horrible bondage of living for ourself and frees us to be able to live for Him who died for us. And when you live for Him, you live for others because He ever liveth for others. This is New Testament. Christianity. And this is what our blessed Lord is offering us now. With the promise, not that we will be loved, not that we will have any guarantee of anything in the natural, but with the promise, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I will be with you to the end of the age. Bow our hearts. The unselfishness of God. Father, we are here in Your presence today and together we ask that You would forgive us for our selfishness. Forgive us, Lord, by the blood of Jesus Christ. But Lord, we're not only wanting to know the joy that we're forgiven sinners, but we want to know the joy of being sinners forgiven and filled with the unselfishness of God. I pray, Lord, the Holy Spirit will confirm these words in everyone's heart today and that each person here will face a decision to come to You sometime and say yes to Your Holy Spirit and yes to the unselfishness of God's love. Brothers and sisters, I just want to say this by the Holy Spirit, that if you say yes to the unselfishness of God, God promises to fill our hearts with the love of God. But brothers and sisters, as your heart is filled with the love of God, you're going to enter into a war. And you know what that war will be? The war will be the things that the unselfishness of God puts in your spirit to do you in your natural life will rebel against. You won't want anything to do with it. And this is why Paul said he beat his body into subjection. Imagine Paul saying, I beat my body into subjection. Why? Why? Because if Paul for ever a moment decided to listen to the counsel of Paul, he would turn from the way that God had him because it was in contradiction to his natural taste, his natural life, his natural desires. Don't you think Paul wanted a woman? Of course he did. He was a man. Think he had physical needs? Of course he did. He was a man. You think he wanted an easy life? Of course he did. Don't you think Paul would have liked to have settled down? Got himself a nice church? Become the pastor? Have everybody shake his hand? We love you so much. Of course he did. But he was constrained by the love of God. And so every day he said, I die what? Daily. Now there's grace here to every person who would dare to pray. Myself. And be driven by the love of God into a life that I never imagined possible. Where heaven shows up. In Jesus' name, Lord. Do it. Let's just sing this song real quick. If anyone wants special prayer, you can raise your hand and a few of us will pray with you, okay? Now do it, Lord. Do it, Lord. You'll be amazed at the unselfishness of God. You know the first thing that'll happen? You won't be so concerned about yourself and how everything's affecting you, but you'll become a broken-hearted man, a broken-hearted woman. And you know what? Your broken-heartedness will be over. Nothing to do with you. It'll be over. One thing. God, you'll be broken with the brokenness of God Himself. God is broken because lives are ruined and His Son has the answer. You'll suddenly be broken about the things that break God's heart. What? Can you see a church, a company of believers with this in their heart? I'm telling you, it'll put the devil to flight. It'll put the devil to flight. He'll lose his power. Guess where the devil has all his power? In selfishness. One thing the devil can't conquer. Unselfish love. He might kill you, but while he's killing you, you know what you'll do? You'll pray. He might raise up someone to persecute you, but you know what you'll do? You'll pray for him. How can the devil conquer love? He can't! This is the answer, brothers and sisters. And God's given it to us today. God bless you. I want to go on, but I know I can't. This is just the tip of the iceberg. No, we can't. But God will keep giving this as we keep coming with hunger in our hearts for Him. Okay? So let's pray, Lord. Pray this week. Pray as a family, Lord. Give us Your unselfishness in Jesus' name.