Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the profound calling of Christians to live a life that reflects the glory of Christ, urging believers to focus on their identity in Him rather than their own efforts or fears. He draws from Paul's letters, particularly to Timothy and the Philippians, highlighting the importance of recognizing the immense grace and purpose bestowed upon them by God. Beach warns against distractions and the temptation to seek popularity or comfort in the world, reminding the congregation that true Christianity is about being transformed into the likeness of Christ. He encourages families to cultivate a Christ-centered life, fostering love and discernment that aligns with God's calling. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a deeper understanding of the Christian life as a manifestation of Christ's life through believers.

Father, we thank you so much for your presence. We thank you for your Son, Lord. The delight of your heart. We thank you for the precious Holy Spirit. Who loves to make much of the Blessed Son of God. We pray for your release to occur today. We pray that light will shine from the face of Jesus. And illuminate the eyes of our hearts. And enable us to see in ever increasing measure and clarity the immensity and vastness of Christ Himself. We trust you to do this, Lord. Amen. It's a joy to be with everyone over the past week. The past week has been a great blessing to us. We thank the Lord for your... for allowing Doug and I to stay in this home. Extremely important for us. Demonstrated and revealed. To continue right along. Word from God's heart. Let's begin. We're going to begin in the book of Philippians. Together. Starting in chapter 1. This is 27. All the way down through chapter 2. This is chapter 3. You have to suffer for him. You are in the midst of a great sin. So in the book of Philippians. What kind of compassion is there? What kind of compassion and mercy is there in your heart? You have to... Don't worry about your own business. Don't worry about other people's business. You have to... You have to... Chapter 5. And read through to 7. And read through to 8. We're going to begin here in 2 Timothy. Paul was no doubt... Paul was an old... He called himself an old... The man Paul was reduced... He had been covered... He had no other aspiration but Christ. Things, how they affected the man Paul. He didn't make plans that related to how they benefited Paul. He had become a prisoner of Jesus Christ. He had a man here. In Philippians he indicated... That for the sake of Christ he had... Not only did he lose all things. He considered all things to be rubbish and trash. We're not touching a young believer here who is yet divided between... Touching, when we read this epistle, a man who was expecting any day his execution. This is a man who was facing death. Everything had faded from his eyes. He was truly a prisoner of Jesus Christ. And he writes to a young man who he loves very much. He's concerned because he wants the... And so he... Draws out of the heart of the young man... This information for his last epistle that he wrote. And he thanked God for his dear son Timothy. And he thanked God that he recognized in Timothy a genuine faith. That was in his grandmother and his mother. And then in verse 6 we see God beginning to speak through this vessel to this young man. And he says, I want to put you in remembrance. Paul is saying, Timothy, you must remember. You must remember, Paul, what God put into me and that I demonstrated to you. You must remember, Timothy. The gift, the grace, the call of God that is in your life. And Paul actually says to fan into flame. This gift, this grace of God. Paul here is seeking to awaken into Timothy. The understanding of the immense calling that was upon his life. This calling calls Paul his life. This calling is more than just being a Christian. And finding a nice church to attend. This calling is more than just working for the Lord. All may have its place. But the immensity of this calling far supersedes that. We'll see what that calling is. As we walk through these scriptures. But we'll continue in verse 7. Paul tells Timothy, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Paul recognized that the temptation that Timothy was wrestling with was the spirit of fear. The fear of drawing back. For whatever reason. Maybe the fear of being rejected by men. Maybe the fear of being misunderstood by people. Maybe the fear of losing his reputation. Whatever the reason, Paul warned young Timothy, God has not given us the spirit of fear. God's heart to us today in this little scripture. We must be reminded of the immense calling that we have been called to. Our brothers spoke about this calling this morning. This great calling from one kind of humanity to an altogether different kind of humanity. The calling of coming out of a kind of humanity and being created into another humanity. Oh dear friends, Christianity is so much more than just trying to serve God. Or being involved in activities. Christianity is a transition. Christianity is being translated out of one kingdom into another kingdom. This is the deposit that God put into Paul. When Paul met Jesus Christ in Acts chapter 9, he saw in the face of Jesus Christ a man in whom the righteousness and glory of God was perfected. And when he saw that man in glory, his own righteousness was devastated. Putting hope and confidence in his own religion was destroyed. When he saw this great light in the face of Jesus Christ, all of his righteousness according to the law became in his own eyes rubbish. Paul was a very zealous man. He was a Pharisee. He had a blameless righteousness according to the law. He was an esteemed teacher. He had a very good reputation. All of these things meant very much to Paul. He saw Jesus. He gathered together all of those things that meant so much to him. All that Saul of Tarsus was All of his blameless righteousness before the law All of the praise and honor and respect that he had as a religious leader He gathered it all together and put a title on it. Rubbish. Worthless to God. Filthy in the eyes of God. Altogether unclean. Has that happened to us? When we see Jesus. Paul became a hated and despised man. Can you imagine that? Going from being a man that was loved and esteemed to a hated and despised man. And it was because he met the man in glory. He truly met this man. And he was devastated. He was brought to zero. He could no longer boast or trust in anything that he could do. And in that death and devastation God opened up his spiritual eyes Gave him the Holy Spirit And once his eyes were opened He saw one man and one man only for the rest of his life. The man Christ Jesus in all of his glory In all of his exhortation In all of his moral perfection That man ruined all of Paul's pride. That man ruined all of Paul's religion. That man ruined all of Paul's righteousness That he was seeking to obtain Through upholding rules and laws. That man ruined all of the rituals And all of the religious activities that Paul was doing In hopes that he could gain something. Brothers and sisters This man Christ Jesus ruined Paul permanently. This is Christianity. But in his ruin and devastation God opened his eyes. Before his eyes were opened Paul was in love with himself. He was infatuated with himself. He was continuously looking at how well he was doing before God. The man that Paul had in view Before he met Jesus Was the one he saw in the mirror every morning. This man, Paul Awaiting his soon execution Forsaken by everyone The Bible says that Demas Was a man that traveled with Paul For a short time. Matter of fact, in 2 Timothy Chapter 4 Verse 10 Paul tells us about Demas. We can read verse number 10. Now Demas had traveled with Paul. He had sat under the ministry of Paul. He had heard excellent teachings. No doubt he had also heard The word Demas Literally means Popular The name Demas Reveals something about Paul About the man Demas The Bible says that Demas Forsook Paul Having loved this present world And departed to Thessalonica So why did Demas For a while Follow Paul And then eventually Forsook Paul What was Paul doing? Why did Demas forsake Paul? It doesn't say Demas Forsook the Lord It says he forsook Paul I'm sure there was a church In Thessalonica Demas probably went there But why did he forsake Paul? What was happening in Paul's life? Didn't Paul say that He at one time was very popular? He was loved by a lot of people He was esteemed by a lot of people But when Paul met the man in glory He lost his popularity Because Paul was Delivered from himself And his life became a passion Governed by one desire Paul's one desire Was that the man in glory Would be seen Through his mortal body Paul was no longer interested In revealing who he was As Saul of Tarsus He saw Saul of Tarsus Had been buried In Christ's death That man Saul died Paul was no longer interested Now that man wants popularity Just like Demas wanted popularity Just like we all in our Human nature want popularity We want to be accepted by others We want to be loved by others But Paul met a man Who wasn't interested in being popular The man Christ Jesus Does one thing alone He reveals the exact representation Of his father's moral likeness Brilliant light And so when Saul met this man His one passion became Revealed Revealing him If that meant Losing everything So be it If that meant being pursued By Judaizers And men that hated him So be it If that meant being stoned And beaten with rods So be it Paul wasn't living on the basis Of who he was in his old man He was living on the basis Of who Christ was And controlled him And so why did Demas Forsake Paul Demas forsook Paul Having loved this present world And went to Thessalonica And so we're starting to see The kind of man This is why Paul said Timothy, God has not given us The spirit of fear But of power, dunamis And of love Verse 8 Begins to again Unveil The heart of Paul Notice what he says In verse 8 Be not therefore ashamed Of the testimony of our Lord Nor of me His prisoner Notice how Paul Used both The testimony of the Lord Nor of me His prisoner Paul had come Into a union With Christ In so much that The sufferings That Paul was going through Were the direct result Of the measure Of the stature of Christ That was working through Paul Paul was living In a functional Operational way The manhood The humanity Of the glorified man Paul's deepest Longing Was that Timothy Would not Draw back From laying hold Of the full calling Of God That is connected to Manifesting The full measure Of Jesus Christ Because it's that Full measure of Christ Being formed in our lives That results In the persecution And the trouble That we go through Paul said But be a partaker Of the afflictions Of the gospel According to the power Of God The afflictions Of the gospel The gospel being The good news That Christ is not Only the Savior And forgives us Our sins But the full gospel Which includes We become New creations In Christ And it is now His life That is revealed Through our mortal body The full gospel Is not only To stop sinning And to forgive There is a deeper Step which is Jesus Christ Coming alive From us And manifesting Himself in us Verse number 9 Who has saved us And called us With a holy calling Not according to our works But according to His own purpose And grace Which was given us In Christ Before the world began And so here The aged Paul Is laying hold Of his spiritual son And he is reaching Into eternity past And reminding Timothy Of the nature And magnitude Of the calling That Timothy was Participating in The calling That was In Christ Before the foundation Of the world This calling Was in the heart Of God Before anything Was created It is a Holy calling And we are Saved With this Purpose in view Remember We are saved With a purpose And it is A And our need Is to see The purpose Of why we are Saved more and more And verse number 10 But is now Made manifest By the appearing Of our Savior Jesus Christ And so This great Holy purpose Was revealed Through the appearing Of Jesus Christ Who has abolished Death And has brought Life And immortality To life Through the gospel What an immense Calling We need to We need to See this calling We need to Meditate upon God's word So that the Depths The comprehensive Depths Of this calling Grips our hearts This is the heart Of this epistle And Paul Paul was concerned For his young son Because it's possible To fall short Of laying hold Of this holy calling What happened to Demas Was possible Was possible To happen to any of us For shaking The calling For shaking The affliction And the persecution That comes from The calling Brothers and sisters If we have Given our allegiance To anything Other than the man In glory And his purpose There will come A conflict one day We cannot participate In the immensity Of God's call In Christ And at the same time Have our allegiance Anywhere other than him God will Challenge And search Each one of our hearts And he will demand That our allegiances Would be to him alone God is committed To one thing And one thing alone God has committed Himself to his son Alone Brothers and sisters This Christianity Is not about us It's not about Our religion Or our denomination It's not about Our traditions It's not about Our programs Or what we can put together God is not committed To these things When Paul Was struck down With the light He didn't meet These things He didn't meet A religion He didn't meet Rules and regulations It wasn't a new Judaism that God introduced It wasn't a better Reformed religion Of the Jews It was a man Christ Jesus God introduces A man There is no other Allegiance That God will accept Anything other than Devotion to And the expression Of that man Is destined to burn It is combustible It is combustible So Jesus Christ Manifests The holy purpose Of God So Jesus Christ Manifests The holy purpose Of God If our Christianity Listen closely Consists of anything Other than Jesus Christ And the Growing expression Of who he is In divine nature Through us It will be shaken To pieces And destroyed Remember Jesus Christ Nothing else Is what we think about He's saying Timothy Don't let it turn Into a form Don't let it turn Into a ritual Don't let it turn Into a polish Ceremony Don't let it turn Into the natural man Trying to serve God By becoming religious Timothy Guard the deposit That was put in you Timothy Don't draw back in fear Timothy Keep focused Keep your eyes On Jesus Christ Timothy God's eternal purpose Is about Jesus Christ Timothy Be alert And be diligent So this is the deposit That Paul is seeking To give To his young son This is the deposit That God is seeking To give to us Brothers and sisters It will cost us everything The book of Philippians Was a book That Paul wrote And he also was in prison Just a note here On passing Paul's imprisonment In Rome Was a time In Paul's life That was Defined A very specific work When Paul was Imprisoned In Rome All that God Intended Paul To see When he first Saw Jesus Way back In Acts chapter 9 All that he Intended Paul To see In the face Of Jesus Christ Was gathered Together Matured And came To completion And so The prison epistles Are very unique In that they Represent A completed Revelation Of all that God intended In his son Jesus Christ And so There's an amazing Deposit That this man By the power Of the Holy Spirit Gives us In the epistles And so When we read The epistles That were written In prison We're reading Epistles from a man Whose heart is burdened He has nothing left There's nothing To give He has nothing To say Except Jesus Christ The revelation Of God In his son And the body Which is one With him Nothing else And the practical Outworking Of the life Of Christ In the body So that All that Christ is Is fully expressed Through the body Paul has nothing Else to offer He has nothing else To say He's not interested In anything else He has no interesting Subjects to talk about He doesn't come up With methods Or programs Or methodologies To do the work of God He's been reduced To one passion Christ Corporately manifested In his church Which is his body And so That one Governing purpose Defines All of Paul's Prisoned epistles You read each one And each one Has as its Essential substance That theme And so God is bringing us To this place He has nothing else To say He has said it all In his son And so Paul here Loves these believers In Philippi But he has the same Heart that he had When he wrote 2 Timothy He has a concern He has a concern That the Philippians Would continue on In their pursuit Of the man in glory He doesn't want them To fall short And become sidetracked He doesn't want them To start running off In different directions And lose focus On the man in glory And we can see that In chapter 1 Before we get to the section Where we already read That he begins In verse number 9 Of chapter 1 He begins to pray For them that their Love would abound More and more You see Paul is concerned With increase He doesn't want Their Christianity To become static The church is The fullness Of him That fills all and all Our identity As the church Is not A religious system Our identity As the church Is not A denomination Our identity As the church Is not In a particular Spiritual leader Or a particular Spiritual father Our identity As the church Is the head Christ himself And this is not Just the doctrine Objectively Christ the head Of the church Although that's true But it is a Growing active Participation Of the fullness Of the head In our lives And And we must Guard against Anything And everything That hinders Or sidetracks Us from that Single focus Are we drinking From the rivers Of living water Flowing from the head Or are we trying Real hard To build a religion We can't have both And so Paul Is groaning For increase Increase Increase Increase Remember what John the Baptist said I must decrease And he must increase Increase cannot happen If we get sidetracked Increase cannot happen If we get distracted And begin to derive Our identity From something Other than Christ Now our Christian Religion can continue Our outward Form can continue And we can learn To make things Work smoothly But increase Is significantly Hindered And at times Stopped And so this is What Paul is Crying here In verse 9 That your love Would grow More and more But he's not Talking about a Fuzzy feeling here He's talking about A love That is Capacitated With the ability To have knowledge And judgment Now remember Paul is writing As a man That has been Reduced down to zero He has nothing In view But the man in glory Paul has no way To define The church Except one way The church Is Christ Incorporate Expression Through the power Of the Holy Spirit And so When Paul's praying I want Your love To grow and grow With the capacity To have Full knowledge And judgment He is referring Specifically To this revelation I want you To approve Those things That are Excellent Or I want you To approve Those things That have come Through the fire And have remained In other words Paul is saying I want you to be able To have Spiritual eyes And with these Spiritual eyes I want you to be able To look at your lives I want you to look At your families I want you to look At your assembly And I want you To be able to see What is according To Christ And what is not According to Christ What is there That is the expression Of the man in glory And what is there That is not the expression Of the man in glory And I want you To depart From all that is not According to Christ I don't want you To touch What is not according To Christ I don't want you To associate What is not according To Christ Inherit within this Paul is saying Every father I want you to pray For spiritual sight And look and examine Your family And in love And tenderness But in firmness And boldness I want you to declare To your family That which is according To Christ And that which is not I want you to define For your family The reason why We exist as a family So that Christ Might be living his life Through our mortal bodies So that Christ Might be living his life Through our mortal bodies All the selfishness Of the natural man Is ruled out At Calvary This is the discernment That Paul was praying These Philippians Would grow in Their discernment Was starting to lack A little bit They were beginning To permit divisions And strikes among them They were getting Off the ground of Christ And on the ground Of the natural man They were losing Sight of the holy calling That Paul talked about In 2 Timothy With A love That has the capacity To know And judge What is coming Out from Christ What is truly Of and by him In our lives And what is not Then we may Then we're able To approve Those things That are excellent Those things That have passed The test And have been proven To be the genuine Lasting life Of Jesus Christ That you may be Sincere And without offense On the day of Christ You see beloved Being without offense Is directly related To the fullness Of Christ In our lives Because when God Brings that day Of assessment And judgment To our lives When Christ comes And stands in our midst As the son of man He's going to evaluate Everything by one standard Not a religious rule Not how smooth Our religious format was That has nothing To do with it Not our allegiance To a denomination God looks for one thing And one thing alone Where is my son And how much of his measure His moral measure Is manifesting in our lives Period He's not interested In any other humanity He won't put his blessing On any other humanity There is only one righteous one He's the anointed one He's the sanctifier He's the beloved son That God is well pleased with And it is he That is the author And substance Of the new creation And it is his life And presence That makes the church And it is his fullness In the church That defines God's burden For this last hour God has one mission In his heart The church Emptied of everything That's not according To Christ So that it becomes The vessel In and through whom The fullness of the man In glory is displayed That is the governing mindset In all of Paul's epistles That was his mindset Even when he wrote Thessalonians The first letter But as he went Along with the Lord And he suffered And he had Other revelations From the Lord This one passion Dilated and dilated And dilated And it came to a head When Paul was Imprisoned at this time In his life And he gathered it All together And deposited it Into these epistles And so when we read These epistles That's what's in view Everything we read In the epistles Is governed by And in relation To that all important truth And so verse 11 As a result We are filled With the fruits of righteousness Which are by Jesus Christ Unto the glory And praise of God Now in light of that Turn your Bible To Philippians chapter 1 And begin in Verse number 27 Paul is just Overflowing With this revelation Of the man in glory Brothers and sisters You are not called To try and live This Christian life In your own strength And energy Oh I just sense That God wants to Emancipate us From this burden Of trying so hard To be a Christian Trying to make Our Christian religion work May God Deliver us From this mindset May God Deliver us From this bondage Listen carefully Everyone Christianity Is not man Trying to please God Christianity Is God Finding all His pleasure In the man Christ Jesus If the eyes Of your heart Are still looking At you Pray for a holy Emancipation today Pray for a liberation To come God wants to Liberate us today From trying To live This Christian life And from seeing Our failures And struggles And bondages And all that He wants The eyes of our heart To see His Son In a minute We're going to see Paul turning the eyes Of the Philippians Back on the Son He's saying There's strife And there's a little bit Of jealousy In your midst You're coming Off the ground Of the Son You're slowly Being deceived You need your eyes Back on the Son Don't allow The serpent To deceive you Watch The poison Of the snake It is in Christ He is my righteousness In yours You don't have to Find it in yourself Maybe you just said To your husband Or wife I'm such a failure Who has said That recently I'm such a failure Here's what God says I know But I have one That is not a failure It is my Son The Lord Jesus Christ And in Him Is your righteousness In Him is your power To do what is right Take your eyes Off yourself Beloved God Has found A man I feel like Heralding this To all the world The good news Is this The mystery Of the gospel The good news That Jesus came To preach The good news That the apostles preached God has found A man In Him Is all the righteousness Of God In Him Is all that God Was ever looking for The burden For mankind To try and find A righteousness Has been abolished In Jesus Christ The burden To try and be right With God Is not by devoting Yourself to Obeying Jesus Christ Jesus says Come unto me All you who are weary And heavy laden Come to me You who are burdened With trying to please me You who feel The weight of guilt And condemnation Come to me This is the good news Of the gospel Of Jesus Christ Come to me And Jesus says I Will give you rest Really what He's saying is I Will become Your rest All your life You've looked for A righteousness And you've defined it By what you could And couldn't do But that comes To an end When we see Jesus It's not me Trying to find A righteousness In myself It's me Finally coming To the righteousness Of God In Christ Jesus A perfect righteousness The only righteousness That God accepts Verse 27 Only let your way of life Be as it becometh The gospel of Christ That whether I come And see you Or else be absent I may hear Of your affairs And ye stand fast In one spirit With one mind Striving together For the faith Of the gospel How is our way Of life To be pleasing And to be appropriate For those who have Embraced the gospel Simply Paul is saying Let your life Be according to Christ Let your life Be derived From the fullness Of that man in glory Because if we Get off the ground Of deriving our life From Christ Then we will not Hold fast one spirit And one mind But divisions Will come in Denominations Will be built We'll begin to get Our little favor Then we'll choose The one we like This pastor That church I'm of this brother And I'm of that brother And that is not The ground of Christ That's the ground Of the natural man That's the birth Of religion It may have The appearance Of godliness It may have The appearance Of righteousness But it is not According to Christ And it will burn On the day of visitation Because only what Is according to Christ Passes through the fire And remains And so this is Paul's great burden For these dear friends And so Paul Is now going to introduce In chapter 2 Go ahead He's going to introduce In chapter 2 The revelation Of Christ The believers In Philippi Need to be Stirred on To fullness And so the Holy Spirit Masterfully He shows Paul What to do Whenever we need Fullness Whenever we need To be delivered From a static Spiritual state Whenever we need To recover From spiritual decline God's Spirit Will always Reintroduce us To the man Christ Jesus And so Paul Begins now By saying Therefore If there's any Consolation in Christ Any comfort of love Or any fellowship Of the Spirit Bring my joy To completion That you be like-minded Now he's touching On like-mindedness again In chapter 1 In verse number 27 He talked about it And he's touching On it again He's concerned About this He doesn't want Fullness to be hindered He wants to see The fullness Of God's intention Realized in these believers But he knows It can't happen Apart from Them Re-establishing Themselves Under the Headship of Christ Fullness comes From the head Not from devotion To a denomination Not from devotion To an external Christian religion Fullness comes Only by a living Organic relatedness To the head And Christ Jesus And in continuing Drawing from that fullness And assimilating Into our lives By the power Of the Holy Spirit That must be What we're doing In our homes That must be What we're doing When we gather together That must be What we're doing When we're driving In the car In the midst Of practical issues Practical problems We are learning To draw from the fullness Of Christ And growing His capacity Whatever we're doing If that's not happening It is worthless To God Worthless One thing matters To God The fullness of His Son And now Paul begins To introduce We're bringing this To a close Let nothing Be done Through strife Or vain glory Now the Greek Says this Nothing Not even one thing Be done Through strife Or vain glory Who's the author Of strife and vain glory? It's that natural man That was ruled out At Calvary So why is the Holy Spirit Now bringing it up? He's showing his ugly head And God's about to introduce The solution But in lowliness of mind Let each esteem others Better than themselves Now that is The spiritual reality Of the new humanity That is not something The old humanity can do You can try as hard As you want But in your flesh You'll never esteem others Better than yourself You might say it With your mouth But it's not true So here we see A contrast between An old humanity And a new humanity And God is ruling out The old And bringing in To pre-eminence The new Look not every man On his own interests But every man Also on the interests Of others Oh How do we do this? How is this going to happen? Verse 5 Let This Mind Be in you Which Is In Christ Jesus You see what the Holy Spirit Is doing? God's solution To this potential problem Is a Rediscovery Of the fullness That is in this man Christ Jesus And the kind of humanity In him That humanity Must find Continual ascendancy In our mortal bodies And the rest of the verses Simply Describe What that humanity Is And what it did In obedience to the will of God And now As we bring this to a close Let's read verses 12 And 13 God's answer To that old humanity That was beginning to corrupt The testimony of Christ Was a presentation Of the humanity Of the man in glory And it is in that context That verses 12 and 13 Are to be understood In light of this humanity Work out Verse 13 Or verse 12, I'm sorry Work out Your own salvation With fear and trembling What is Paul saying here? Is this a call to works? Absolutely not It is a call To work out through faith And through healing to the Holy Spirit That humanity of Christ And in through our mortal bodies To rule out the old man To rule out the deeds of the natural man So that we may grow more and more and more Into the full expression Of all the moral attributes Of that man in glory How is this possible? Verse 13 For it is God Who is continuously working in you Both to will and to do Of His good pleasure And His good pleasure In all of His fullness Displayed in living stones Called the Church of Jesus Christ To commit your heart To work out Your own salvation With fear and trembling What is Paul saying here? Do what only you can do And make real to us The deposit of your word Resulting in the fruit That pleases you For the glory and honor Of His name For the glory and honor We pray to you Amen