Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the life of faith through the story of Abraham in Genesis 12, where God promises him a land and a seed. Over 20 years, God refines Abraham, stripping away self-confidence and teaching him to build altars, symbolizing dependence on God. Each act of obedience leads to a deeper revelation of God's character, illustrating that faith requires patience and trust in God's timing. Beach warns against the temptation to take matters into our own hands, urging believers to seek God's counsel and remain steadfast in faith. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a commitment to live by faith, relying on God's Word and the Holy Spirit for guidance.

In Genesis chapter 12, God promised Moses what? He promised him a land and He promised him a seed. I'm sorry, in Genesis chapter 12, God promised Abraham a seed and He promised him a land. And you know, Abraham went over 20 years, over 20 years before he received the fulfillment of that promise in Genesis chapter 12. And during those 20 years, God was stripping Abraham, God was dealing with Abraham, God was working into Abraham's life the characteristics that are indicative of His Son in heaven. And He was stripping from Abraham the characteristics that are indicative in any kind of human being. He was refashioning Abraham so that what God does when He speaks a promise to us, and then it seems like it doesn't happen, and it tarries and tarries and tarries, what He's doing is He's working in us the qualities that are necessary in order to inherit the promise. So you follow Abraham's life and you see that God stripped him of self-confidence. You remember when Abraham went into the land of Canaan and the Bible says that there was a great famine in Canaan. So what did Abraham do? He went down into Egypt. Now mind you, he did not build an altar. He didn't seek the counsel of the Lord. And what happened was he ended up lying. He ended up coming up with a plan that telling Pharaoh that his wife was his sister, and it was a half-truth and half-truths are lies. So he lied and he got in trouble and the Lord sent him out of Egypt. And the Bible says that when he left Egypt, he went back to the place where he built an altar. He went back to the place of having an altar built to him. And so all during Abraham's pilgrimage from Genesis chapter 12, all the way up to the time when Isaac was actually born, God was teaching him to build an altar, build an altar and build an altar. And every time Abraham, listen closely, every time Abraham gave up something in obedience to God, he got something more from God. That is, more of God was formed in Abraham's life as Abraham in obedience built an altar and chose to refuse his way and go God's way. And likewise, every single time you and I come to a situation and we build an altar and we call upon God and we renounce our own way, we renounce our own choice, we renounce taking the thing into our own hands and go in our own way, and we call upon God to bear upon the situation and to receive his will regarding that matter. As we let go of our way, God then gives us more of himself. We get more of the Lord in our life. It's not just a knowledge of God that we get, but it's actually a greater participation in the very life of God himself. So you'll follow the story of Abraham's life. And each time he built an altar, God revealed himself. God spoke to him and revealed another aspect of his name, another aspect of his character. But that wasn't just so Abraham could be able to say, oh, I know another name of God, or I know another aspect of God. No, God did that because that very aspect, that very character of God was going to, at that time, actually become a part of Abraham, where Abraham would participate in that feature of God. It's indicative of spiritual growth and maturity. But the Scripture says in James 5, verse 7, Be patient therefore, brethren, be patient. This life of faith requires patience from God. But the Holy Ghost is speaking to my spirit and he's saying, patience. If you choose to accept the call of the Spirit of God in your life today, if you choose to hear the words that Brother Norman spoke that encouraged us to build an altar and to make a decision, Lord, from this day forward, by your grace, I am making a decision that I am not going to take anything into my own hands. I'm not going to try and figure things out with my own understanding. I'm going to build an altar. I'm going to gather together all the circumstances in my life. I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray with my wife. I'm going to pray with my children. I'm going to gather together and say, Lord, you have got to intervene. But once you do that, beloved, be prepared to learn patience. Because if God doesn't quickly intervene and you see that things are not changing, the next strategy of the devil, believe you me, the next strategy of the devil is to come and say, listen, this thing isn't working. You better take things into your own hands. You better make a decision apart from knowing that it's God. Be patient therefore, brethren, under the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. We have need of patience. You keep your finger right there in James chapter 5 and you can go to Peter, 1 Peter. And Peter exhorts us regarding this patience too. Beloved, this is such an important, important message from the heart of the Lord this morning regarding this issue of a life of faith and a life that necessitates patience if you accept the life of faith. Now, listen to what Peter said by the Holy Ghost here. 1 Peter chapter 5 verse number 10. But the God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. So, beloved, there is a suffering that comes when we live by faith and it has to do with continuing in patience and endurance. It is hard to be patient for God unless we are continuously drawing our strength and the grace from the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Now, there's another scripture. I believe it might be in James. I'm not sure. It says you have need of patience. No, I think it's in Hebrews now that I'm thinking of it. Let's try to see here. Hebrews 10. Yes, thank you. Hebrews 10. Listen to this, beloved. Verse number 32. He just gets done in verse number 25. He says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approaching. So, he is talking about the need for us to come together often and encourage one another. But then he goes down here in verse number 32. But call to remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst you were made a gangsta stock, that is, made a spectacle, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while you became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Verse number 35. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence or your faith, which hath great recompense of reward. Listen. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. The just shall live by faith. This not only refers to our initial need to believe that we are justified purely based on the blood of Jesus Christ, but this is also a lifestyle. Not only do we by faith believe that Christ is the son of God and receive forgiveness of sins because we've trusted in his blood, but once we become Christians, we must allow this same principle of faith to operate in our life, delivering us from the snare of living our Christian life based upon the wisdom and the understanding that comes from our own humanity and enabling us by faith to depend upon the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit and the word of God. The just shall live by faith. The Christian life is a life of faith in God, dependence in God's word, faith in the counsel of God, and a continuous need to renounce and to walk away from our own understanding and our own thoughts and our own ways. It's a life of faith. And in this life of faith, we have need of patience. How many have discovered the tendency to be very impatient? Very impatient with God. Very impatient when we have need of God. Very impatient when we need something and something's not happening. Verse number five, verse number nine, chapter five of James. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge stands before the door. Do you know what happens or can happen, beloved, when you are being tested in your faith and you are called by God to endure and to wait patiently for God to intervene on a situation? If you don't stay in the word and you don't stay filled with the Holy Ghost, you're going to find that you're going to start grudging against one another, and you're going to start murmuring and complaining against one another and to God. The greatest temptation while being tested is to start murmuring and complaining. You know what the children of Israel did in the wilderness when they were tested? They murmured and complained and grumbled. And as a result, fire of serpents came, and many of them lost their life. The Bible says in Galatians, listen carefully, regarding this grumbling and complaining. Galatians chapter five, beginning in verse 14. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, that thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Listen, verse 15. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. So the effects of murmuring and complaining has a devouring effect. You can devour each other. You can destroy each other by complaining, and by grumbling, and by grudging one against another, and by being critical one of another. Let me tell you something. If you accept this call of faith as a Christian, and not just the faith that saves you because you put your trust in the blood of Christ. A lot of Christians have put their faith in the blood of Christ, and by faith they know they're forgiven sinners, and that's good. But the rest of their life, they live by their own understanding. They use their own natural reasoning. They know nothing of prayer, and seeking God, and searching out the Scriptures, and letting the word of God govern their decisions, and every one of their decisions. So in fact, though they are by faith saved, yet they're not really by faith living their Christian life. They're simply living it based on their own understanding. But when a Christian awakens to the call of God, to not only by faith believe in the blood, but by faith believe that it is the word of God alone, and the word of God working in my spirit, and the spirit of God that is going to enable me to know, and to know what to do, and how to follow the Lord, when I make the decision that I'm not going to live my life based on the principles of this world, based on the way people think in this world, based on the goals that people in this world make, I'm not going to live my life based on the standards of this world, because the standards of this world are basically, I'm the most important person, and it doesn't matter what I do as long as I get ahead. If I get ahead by stepping on you, if I get ahead by knifing you in the back, in the presence of the boss, in order to put you down so that I look better than you, that's all right, it doesn't matter, because this is survival. I've got to survive. I've got to survive. If I don't look after myself, no one else will. Man, if I don't take care of my own needs, who will? That's the way the world lives their life. That's the way the world thinks. I've got this need. I'm going to get it met. I don't care if it's not God's way. That's the way the world thinks. Everybody else is trying to get rich, so I'm going to try and get rich. That's what the world says. But as a child of God, God has not called you to do things the way the world does it. If you're a child of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you, and you are born from above, and the Spirit of God in you cries out, Abba, Father, then you are called by God to re-evaluate the way you think. You are called by God to re-evaluate the way you decide things. As a child of God, you are called to seek the counsel of your Heavenly Father. And the way we seek the counsel of our Heavenly Father is we learn to meditate upon the Word of God day and night. So as I said, many people have faith in the blood, and they know by faith that it's Christ alone who saves them. But the rest of their life, they haven't come to understand that they need to live by the Word of God. So if you accept the call this morning, not only to trust the blood of Christ, but to trust your whole life to God and to His Word, then you are going to embark upon the life of faith. And the life of faith will necessitate an immediate cry to God for patience, lest in a short time you get discouraged in the life of faith, and you take back the control of your life, and do what you want. Not considering the consequences, not considering whether or not it's pleasing to God according to His Word, not considering whether God would want you to do that, but just, bless God, I've got to do it because it's the thing to do. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, beginning in verse number 1. This is an account of the nation of Israel when they were brought out of the land of Egypt and were being led by God to the land of Canaan. It was God's intention to lead them into the land of Canaan that they might inherit the promised land. But it was necessary, once they left Egypt, you see, God taught them from the very beginning, their salvation was based upon the blood. Remember what they were instructed to do in order to be delivered from the death angel? They were to what? Take the blood of the lamb and what? Put it on the doorpost of their house. So that when the death angel came to their house and saw the blood, he passed over. And that was a picture of our salvation. God would pass over us, would not judge us, would not judge us based on our sins if he saw the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's the glorious truth of justification by faith. It's not what I do, it's what Christ has done. Hallelujah to God. It's the blood that saves me. God sees the blood over my life because I've hung my life by faith on the redeeming blood of Christ and therefore the death angel can't come to my house. I'm eternally saved. Praise God. That's the lesson. But oh my Lord, it's only the beginning. It's not an end, it's a beginning. Because once God took them out of Egypt and they crossed over the Red Sea and there they were in the wilderness, they had to learn a life of faith and dependence upon God while being tested. They had to learn to trust God when things weren't working out the way they wanted them to work out. So God was teaching them, not only was there a saving faith, but there was a living faith. A faith that they were to live by day by day. God wanted Israel to come to the place where they renounced their own human understanding, where they renounced their own human reasoning, where they renounced their own abilities, where they looked at the circumstance and instead of accusing God of being unjust and instead of looking at Moses and saying, Moses you fool, you should have left us in Egypt. He wanted them to bow their hearts before Him and say, Oh God, we call upon You. Lord, we don't have any food or we don't have any money or we don't have any guidance, Lord. We call upon You, Lord. We trust in You. We depend upon You. When you're being tested in this life of faith, beloved, you're going to find yourself in circumstances. You're going to find yourself in situations. You're going to find yourself passed about with difficulties that are so much greater than you can handle, that are so much higher than you. If you don't learn to call upon God, if you don't learn to build an altar, if you don't learn to bow down and cry out and say, Lord, have mercy, you will end up murmuring and complaining and biting and devouring and being consumed one of another. Moreover, chapter 1, verse 10, Brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea. Notice that word all, A-L-L. There wasn't one that came out of Egypt that was not a recipient of the blessing. Every one of them, all, A-L-L. That is inclusive. Every one of them escaped the death angel so they all were walking under the blessing of salvation by faith. Every one of them. That's what this is trying, this is what the Holy Spirit's trying to say. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea and they did all eat the same spiritual meat and all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. Verse number 5, But with many of them God was not well pleased. God is not pleased when his people do not trust him and depend upon him. He's not pleased. Watch what it says here. But with many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters as some of them as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them for examples and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall. For there is no temptation taken you but such as common to man. But God is faithful and who will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able. But will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear with it. God was not well pleased with the children of Israel because once they had gotten out of Egypt and were delivered by faith they entered into the wilderness and they forsook the life of faith and began to depend upon themselves and their own understanding and their own reasoning as the way to get through the wilderness. And God said no, no. It was by faith that you got out of Egypt and it's by faith that you'll get through the wilderness. Now I want you to see some of the things that will happen to us when we do not learn the life of dependence upon God and His word. When we are in a temptation, when we are in a trial, when we are in a test, this is what will happen if we don't learn to trust God. Number one, we will lust after evil things. Lust after evil things. Beloved, unless we learn patience while looking to God, unless we are prepared to pray, God, fill my heart with the patience of Jesus Christ while I'm trusting in your way, you'll lust after evil things. What are some of the evil things that men and women lust after in this day that we're living in? Their physical needs. Many times God's people are not content with God's provision for their physical needs, so they start lusting after things. They start lusting and they get greedy. They get covetous. They want, want, want, want, want. And the reason why they want, it's not because God has put it in their heart. It's because they basically are not trusting in God's provision. And they're believing the lie of the devil. And that is this, God is not sufficient. God is not fair. God is withholding from you something. You better take things into your own hands. Beware, brothers and sisters, lusting after evil things. Number two, listen carefully. Neither be ye idolaters. Every one of these sins, listen, every one of these sins that we are reading is the direct result of failing to depend upon the provision of God, failing to build and alter when our circumstance and our situation is in front of us, failing to go to God and to get His counsel, but taking things into our own hands. Haven't you found that whenever you take things into your own hands, you start lusting after evil things? Haven't you found that when you take things into your own hands, you become an idolater? Now, let me tell you what an idolater is in the New Testament. Paul equated idolatry with greed and covetousness. So you say, well, Brother Beach, I'm not an idolater. I don't bow down and worship idols. The Bible says that you are an idolater if you are following greed and covetousness. Because what is greed and covetousness? Is it not the inordinate lust for something? And isn't it true that when you have an inordinate lust for something, you are in fact worshiping that thing? You want it so bad, you go after it. Let me say by the Spirit of God, beware, beware, beware of the spirit of greed and covetousness because it is the spirit of greed and covetousness that is destroying America today. Beware of the greed and desire for money. Beware of it, beloved. Beware of it. Don't find yourself preoccupied with wanting to get money, money, money. I'm telling you, beloved, a greedy, covetous man or woman will find ruin as their end and destruction as their lot. Greed and covetousness was a sin that the early church ran from like the plague. They avoided it like leprosy. Only the Word of God and the Spirit of God working in us can keep our hearts free from being driven with the impure motive of greed and covetousness. If you're after anything right now, anything right now, and it's greed and covetousness that's motivating you, I encourage you in the name of the Lord and by the mercy of God that you forsake that thing you're after right now. Forsake it. Next, verse number eight, neither let us commit fornication. Single people, but this also applies to married people too. The sin of fornication and the sin of adultery is committed when we do not believe that God's provision is sufficient. If you're married and you commit adultery, you're doing it because you don't believe that the provision God has given you in your mate is sufficient. So therefore, you're going to commit adultery. If you are single, hear this single people, if you commit fornication, the sin of fornication, it is simply because you are not trusting God's provision. If you are single, God promises that you are able to make it. He promises to meet your needs. Now, there's some physical needs that you're going to have, but if you take it into your own hands, you're going to say, the only way I can get these physical needs met is if I commit fornication. But if you renounce your own understanding and you renounce your own reasoning and you go to the word of God and the word of God says, be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. So we have to make a choice. The sin of fornication is the result of not living a life of faith. Now, we can take every one of these sins and show you, neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted Him. To tempt Christ is not to live by faith, it's to take things into our own hands. Murmur and complain. We murmur and complain when the circumstance is difficult and we don't like it and we don't go to God and trust Him to provide. We murmur and complain. So you see, beloved, this life of faith, and you can't separate the life of faith from building altars. This life of faith is not just some ambiguous, unreachable kind of a mystical life that you live. It is something that's very real, something that's very practical. It touches your everyday life, this life of faith. And so beware, beloved, of 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and the various different kinds of sins that are always seeking to seduce those who are living a life of faith. I was reminded of one of the things that the preacher said last Sunday night. He said, the devil is a thief and a robber. He said, now, let's think this through. He said, what thief do you know or what robber do you know? Who will go to a neighborhood stricken with poverty and find a house that is all run down and beaten and go rob it? Or what thief or robber do you know will go and find a person who lives on the street in a cardboard box, doesn't have a penny to their name, and stick a gun to their back and say, stick it up, I'm robbing you. You don't know a thief or a robber that'll do that. And you know why you don't? Because any thief or robber that's worth his salt will find the richest place, the richest neighborhood, or the richest looking person and stick them up and get as much as he can. So he said, therefore, beloved, I'm not sure if he said this or not, but this is what the Holy Ghost said to me. Sometimes I get mixed up between what the preacher said and what the Holy Ghost is saying to me. But whoever said it, this is the conclusion that I came to. The devil is not after those who are not living by faith. Because it is only those who live by faith who are rich in God. It is the one who lives by faith, like Moses did, like Abraham did, like Noah did. It's those who say, I believe in the word of God in spite of how I feel, in spite of what the devil says, in spite of whether people think I'm a fool or not. When the devil looks down and sees a people who by faith believe God for the blood to cleanse them, who by faith believe God for the word of God to guide them, who by faith believe God to fill them with the Holy Ghost, who by faith believe Him to give them the heart that is free from covetousness and greed, that has a holy aspiration after God, by faith to live by the word of God and to believe that God is going to bring a harvest of souls, by faith to believe that God's going to save drunkards and prostitutes, by faith to believe that God's going to raise up a testimony that's going to shake the kingdom of darkness. When they have a faith that believes in the word and renounces their own self-understanding, the devil says, there are some wealthy people, we better rob them. We better go and steal. You know who the devil's after? He's not after the backslider. He's already got you. He's not after the cold in heart. He's got you just where he's got. He says, leave them alone. Don't bother them. He's after the one who rises up in the morning and builds an altar in Mormon and begins his or her day by saying, Almighty God, Father in heaven, this day I give to you. I look to thy word, Lord. I read thy word. Speak to me, Lord. Govern my steps today, Lord. Keep my eyes from looking at evil. Keep my tongue from speaking evil. Keep my heart pure before you. There's the devil's after that person right there. The one who's rich in faith. So remember, the wealth of living by faith is constantly going to be under attack by the enemy. Constantly. He will try and rob you. And I'll tell you how the devil will rob you of your faith. He'll try and bring something into your life or into your heart or into your mind that will move your heart from depending upon the word of God and move your spirit from communion with God. And however he can do that, if he does it, he succeeds and he robs you. Because when you cease from living by faith and you cease from having the testimony every day, it is God's word that I'm going to live by. Prayer is going to be the fuel through which I am energized and I am going to live by the Holy Ghost and I'm going to live by Jesus Christ. When you cease from that testimony and start walking in the abyss of your own understanding and your own feelings, you have become no longer a threat to the devil. You are not a threat. Testing one, two. Thank you. Testing one, two. So beloved, beware. Beware. I'll close in verse number 10 of James chapter five. Take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy, which endure. The word endure means to stay under, to remain and abide, to bear with a situation. We count them blessed to endure. And you have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and tender mercy, full of tender mercy. So beloved, may the Lord encourage us this morning and take this word that he has sown into us and may the Lord find good ground in our lives and may we make the commitment to God this morning by faith that we're going to live by faith. We're going to trust the Lord by faith. We're going to depend upon his word by faith. There's so much more that I wanted to share, but I know I can't. It's time to stop. We don't want to give an overload. But Joshua chapter one, the Lord has given me a number of times where God told Joshua to meditate in the law day and night and then you'll be prosperous in whatever you do. Joshua chapter one. Read Joshua chapter one. The words that God spoke to him. Meditate. Don't depart from the law. That's the secret, brothers and sisters, of being able to endure this life of faith. When you get in the life of faith, you have nothing to strengthen you but the Word of God and the presence of God and the Spirit of God. If you turn from the Word and the life of faith, you'll turn from the life of faith. The Word strengthens and builds us up. The Word becomes the thing that we live by in the life of faith. And also too, Psalm one. Read Psalm one. The blessed man whose meditation is in the law day and night. Father, thank you for the grace that we stand in. Thank you, Lord, that it's not what we are. But it's what you are in us. It's not our ability. But it's the Word of God living in us that strengthens us. That energizes us. Thank you, Lord, that we have come to know, Lord, and I pray everyone will come to know more and more that apart from you, we certainly, Lord, have no ability to endure. Lord, teach us the life of dependence upon you and your Word. We choose this morning before God and the holy angels to be followers of Jesus Christ and living a life of faith in the Word of God. We renounce the tendency to take things into our own hands. Deliver us from the sins of 1 Corinthians chapter 10. And let us live a life governed by the altar and prayer. Give us patience, Lord, because I know prophetically from the Lord that there are some here who's going to take a hold of this, who's going to start praying, who's going to build an altar, who's going to start getting excited about it, but you're not going to move quickly and they're going to get discouraged and be tempted to build and to tear the altar down and take things into their own hands. I pray for that soul. You'll bring to their remembrance this message and the words you have need of patience. We commit the Word into your hands. Prosper your word. We look to you, Lord. Bring glory to your name. And we want to, I want to go down this morning, Lord, as saying before the congregation and before heaven, the devil's a liar. You're going to bring a harvest. You're going to give us thousands of children, thousands of young people, and a testimonial raise up of thousands of hundreds of people, Lord, who will stand for the testimony of Jesus Christ in this town. Lord, I believe your word. And I'm asking you, Lord, to fulfill it in your timing. And we continue to believe, Lord. The devil's a liar. We are taking by the power of Jesus Christ, that which is God's. The strong man has been bound. His goods have been spoiled. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus name, for the provision and the miracles that you are and will do. In Jesus name. Hallelujah.