Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the significance of brotherly love as a remedy for faintheartedness, urging believers to adopt a servant's heart like that of Paul, who viewed himself as a bondservant of Christ. He challenges the congregation to reflect on their relationships with one another, encouraging them to pray for and support each other genuinely, rather than seeking recognition or authority. The sermon highlights that true strength comes from recognizing our weaknesses and relying on Christ, who empowers us to overcome life's challenges. Beach Jr. calls for a transformation in how we perceive and interact with our fellow believers, advocating for a love that mirrors Christ's own. Ultimately, he reassures that in our struggles, Christ is our strength and the source of our victory.

And I'd like to show you something into the heart of a man. We're going to look into the heart of a man now and we're going to see something beyond just a letter. We're going to see something beyond ink and pen. We're going to look into something that exposes our own hearts and encourages us to earnestly seek the Lord. Now, I don't know if God is going to permit or not, but eventually we want to get to what I have entitled the cure to faint-heartedness. How many have felt like you were fainting in your heart at times? And you have felt that you've had no strength? And that you said to the Lord or to your wife or to somebody, I don't know if I could go on. I just don't know if I could take it. Well, there is a word from the Lord's heart. There is a word from the Lord's heart to you this morning, dear saint of God. And Jesus is saying there is a cure to faint-heartedness. But I don't know if we're going to get to it. So, we're going to look in Philippians now for a moment. This relates, but it doesn't relate. But this is a living Word. Boy, this is a challenge to work with that fan behind me. But I'm going to endure by doing this. Because my pages always blow. But I'd rather have the fan and hold the pages than have a nice still Bible and sweat. Amen? But this is a very challenging living Word. And as I was reading through this over the past several weeks, the Holy Spirit just opened up my heart. And I saw, I saw what it was that was working in this man called Paul who was apprehended by Jesus Christ. And I saw something of his inward life. Something that men didn't see. Something that you couldn't gather by just looking at him as a man. But you'd have to see this by revelation. And as I was reading this, I heard the Lord. I heard His heart moaning and groaning. And how He longs for this to be raw in each and every member of the body of Christ. Now be prepared for a revelation that will shake you. A revelation that will stir you. And eventually a revelation that I hope will cause a change to go about in your heart and life. Beginning in v. 1 of Philippians 1. Paul and Timothy, the servants. First, let's stop right there. That word servant is doulos. And it means a permanent slave. One who is consumed with his master's will. Now I want you to know that Paul was a man who was apprehended by God. A man who was chosen by God. A man who had Jesus Christ Himself appear to him. A man who was called to be an apostle. A man who was given great authority by God to go about into many places and establish churches. But here is a man who though he had experienced all of this, was a man who didn't consider himself to be any greater than a servant. Here is a man who was not impressed with titles. He wasn't hung up on himself. And he called himself a slave to Jesus Christ. Let me tell you when trouble comes into our lives. When you consider yourself to be something more than simply a servant of Jesus Christ, under the authority of Him, and called to serve other people by His love. When you consider yourself better or more important than that, you have just begun to enter into a state that's going to eventually bring spiritual decline and ruin into your life. You and I cannot see ourselves. No matter what we think we are, no matter what other people think we are, no matter what our titles are, no matter what our income is, no matter what our worldly possessions are, no matter what our social standing is, no matter how much education we have, we can never see ourselves any more than simply servants. You remember several weeks ago, I had mentioned the way to know whether you're a servant. And that is when you're treated like one, it doesn't bother you. We need to correct this idea that as Christians, we're called to be something other than servants. And I fear that it is not within the heart of the church per se to desire servanthood as their ultimate goal. When was it the last time you had a dealing with the Lord, and you wouldn't rest until you knew that God gave you the desire of your heart, and that desire being, Lord, make me a true servant like You. Give me the capacity to serve without needing to be rewarded. Give me the capacity to serve without the need to be recognized. Give me the capacity to serve without needing a title, without needing to feel important. Give me the capacity to serve, even when I know the people I serve don't appreciate it. The problems that we're having in our families today, and in the church today, are springing out from an unwillingness or an inability to pray that we would be servants. We want to be lords. We want to be masters. We want to be in control of our life. We want to be in control of our destiny. We want to be in control of our circumstances. We want to sit and dictate how things go. You can't bring that spirit into Christianity. You can't bring it into Christianity. Dearly beloved, it will get you in trouble. And so immediately we see that God wrought within this man called Paul an attitude that comes out in everything he does. He saw himself as nothing but a bond servant, a slave to the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to be great in the Kingdom of God? Do you want to be great in your home? Do you want to be great on your job? Do you want to be great in the world? Not in the world's eyes, but be great in the world. Because the church can be great in the world, though they might not be great in the eyes of the world. The way to greatness is to become like Jesus, who was in fact the servant of all. He said, I have come not to be served, but to serve, and to give my life a ransom for many. There is a need in this hour that we live in to hear the cry of the Holy Spirit saying, Who among you, who in your midst will allow me to work in you a servant heart? We need servants in the church of God, not lords and masters. We need servants in the home, not belligerent dictators. We need servants. We're too busy to correct a person's wrong, rather than to walk alongside of him and show him the right way. Because it's easier to sit on our throne of authority and correct, but not get our hands dirty. But I say to you that Jesus Christ looked from heaven and saw our mess and saw our problem and saw our sin and saw our crookedness. But instead of sitting on his throne and make an executive judgment, thou art a filthy sinner. He came and he humbled himself and he clothed himself in humanity and he walked along our way and he wept with us and he cried with us and he showed us how to clean the dirt up in our life. He didn't sit and command, but he came and served. Happy are you and me if we do likewise. God will show us a way, but it's not the way of man. When was the last time after you saw a person's struggle or a person's problem you spent a week praying? Not that you might have a chance to rebuke them. Not that you might have a chance to stand in their life and correct them. But when was the last time you prayed, God show me how I can walk alongside this brother or alongside this sister and help them through serving as the heart of Jesus. If you want to be great in God's kingdom, learn to be the servant of all. That's the song. Verse 2, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, verse number 3, help us, Lord. Help us to go beyond words right now into what these words are representing. What are these words revealing about the reality of your work and life in this man and help that reality to be raw in us. I pray, Lord, watch this, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Stop right there. Here is a man who under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was able to say every single time I remember you, I thank God for you. Here we see through revelation of the Holy Spirit a window into the heart of a man who was so filled with Jesus Christ, so filled with the reality of Christ, that every time he thought about God's people, he thanked God for them. How much of our life is filled with moments of thanksgiving for the people of God that are in our life as opposed to the moments that we grumble and complain and are critical and judgmental of the people of God in our life. Here's a man whose heart was so caught and captured by Jesus Christ that he was able to say, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Verse 4, always in every prayer of mine for you, all making requests with joy, every prayer that Paul prayed, he included this intense love and passion that he had for the saints in Philippi. And as I was reading this, I read it again and I read verse 3, I said, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Always in every prayer of mine for you, all making requests with joy. And I said, oh God, oh God. I began to see how desperate we are as a body, how desperate we are as believers to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ to the point where our hearts are filled with love and compassion and desire for our brothers and sisters. Not this fake religious stuff, but the reality that is springing out of the heart that is truly, deeply in love, that truly bears, bears in it. The saints takes with it in prayer, the saints. This isn't something you manufacture. It's not something you can do after the flesh. It can only come as we walk with the Holy Spirit and let Jesus empty us and empty us and empty us of all of our self-interest and then He'll fill us with His interest. And one of the chief interests of Christ's heart happens to be His people. Always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. Oh, may God show us the treasure of possessing a heart that is capable of bearing in prayer our brothers and sisters, springing and bursting with thanksgiving for our brothers and sisters in Christ. And thanking God for the fellowship that we have with one another in the gospel of Jesus Christ. You're looking at a man here who had in himself the very life of Jesus Christ. Now watch this, verse 6, being confident of this very thing that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it to the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is neat for me to think this of all of you, because I have you in my heart. You see, we're not talking about doctrine here. We're not talking about a letter, a nice letter. We're talking about something that Paul wrote that is a window into the very depths of his being. Why could Paul make such statements about these Philippians? Because he said that he had them in his heart. Do you have in your heart your brothers and sisters? Are they in your heart? Are they gripping you? Do you feel the love of Jesus Christ for them? Do you desire to be with them through the love of Jesus Christ? Do you rejoice at the mention of their name? Do you rejoice at the thought of being able to fellowship one with another in the love of Jesus Christ? Are God's people in your heart? Now, this is costly. It's costly because if you let God put his heart in your heart, you'll have to lose your own. You'll have to lose your own. But the Lord's looking for people who will bear on this earth the burden that's in his heart. Now, here's verse number 8. Some of the most precious words that I think we could find in the New Testament. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you in the bowels of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, may I ask you a question? Have you tasted of the spiritual reality of verse number 8 where you are able to actually say in honesty, I long after you, my brothers and sisters, in the bowels of Jesus Christ? Now, when that says the bowels of Jesus Christ, what Paul is basically saying is this. My life is so in union with Christ that I am longing for you with the very longing that is in Christ himself for you. Paul's saying, I am right now, as I write this letter, sharing in a union with the Savior that is enabling me to feel his passion and longing and desire for you so that I can actually say that I myself long for you because I in Christ am one. And when I feel this longing, I know it's coming from Christ. Have you tasted, even for a moment, the longing that Jesus has for your brothers and sisters? Have you just tasted it? Let alone, do you feast upon it every day? This is what qualifies us to serve. This is what qualifies us to truly be a ministering member in the body of Christ. It's not a professional thing. It's not an outward religious thing. It's an inward working of the very life and compassion and love and virtues of Jesus Christ bursting through this earthen vessel for the church. Incredible, isn't it? Absolutely incredible. This so stirs my heart. This so calls us meet along to know the depths and the height and the width and the length and the unsearchable riches of Christ. I want to know his heart for you. I want to know God's heart for you so that I can love you like he does, so I can serve you like he does, so I can share in his longing for you that he has. Because I know that he is the only one that truly loves us. And only as I know his love and am able to express that love can I be useful in the body of Christ. Have you touched the very inward passions that Jesus Christ has for the one sitting next to you? We wouldn't touch one another. We would tremble at the thought of backbiting or speaking evil or being critical if we ever knew a teardrop of God's love and God's passion and God's jealous desire for each one of his children. We would be so careful that when we had a word of reproof, it was coming from his heart. We would be so careful. And the reason why we're so careless when it comes to our relationships and to our words one to another is because we are still trusting in our own goodness as Michael shared this morning. We haven't come to the transition yet where we can say the Lord is my strength, the Lord is my fortress, the Lord is my goodness, the Lord is my life. No, we're too into ourselves still, aren't we? We're too infatuated with the one we see every morning when we look in the mirror, aren't we? We spend more time dressing that person up than we do our hearts, don't we? We do. We do. Come on. We do. And that's why when we see one another, we don't burn with passion. We get on each other's nerves. You know why? You know why we get on each other's nerves? You know why we fight and get irritated one with another? Because we're seeing how little we really know of Jesus' heart one for another. How little. But here is a man that is showing us volumes through just eight or nine verses. Volumes as we open up by the Holy Spirit and see the depths of what these words imply. We are amazed. We say, oh Lord, how I lack. How I lack. How I need Your love. How I need Your enlargement in my life. How I need to know Your compassion, Your desire for the one sitting next to me. One glimpse of Calvary love. The love that nailed Jesus to the cross. The love that enabled Him to endure the sin of the world and the wrath of His Father and the torments of hell. One glimpse, one teardrop of that love. In our life would change us forever. It would change your perception of people forever. It would heal your heart forever. It would cause you to walk softly with people. This is the only hope that we have as the church to satisfy God's heart. The only hope we have. And the mess that we find ourselves in, in relation to people, oftentimes, if not all the time, is springing out of that root problem. We don't know. We haven't seen. We haven't touched yet this aspect of Christ's heart. May I challenge you this morning to consider the words of the Scripture and ask God to quicken them to you. Lord, let me know the reality of these things. Let me weep. Let me love. Let me serve as You do. Start in your home. Start with your family. Start with your children. Start with your husband. Start with your wife. And then go to the body of Christ. Your life will be changed. Turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians, please. Most likely, we'll just begin this for a few moments and then we'll look to the Lord to continue this. The cure. The cure to faint-heartedness. To wanting to give up. Has everyone been there? Has everyone experienced the pain of feeling like you can't go on? The pain of not even wanting to go on. 2 Corinthians 12. 2 Corinthians 12, beginning in v. 9, And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure. Let's read that again. Therefore, I take pleasure. One more time. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, in distress, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong. Romans 8, beginning in v. 31. Romans 8, beginning in v. 31. What shall we say to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is it that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for Thy sake are we killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors. Through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. For when I am weak, I am strong. Who shall be able to separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness? Shall the thing that you're going through right now be able to separate you from the love of God? Is the thing that you're going through right now able to cause you to be destroyed? Is the thing that you're going through right now really your enemy or is it in fact your friend? What are you going through right now? Whatever it is. Tribulation, perplexity, confusion, luck, difficulty, pain, sorrow. Things present, things to come. Maybe things from the past. Whatever you're going through. God has a word for you this morning and it is this, for I am persuaded that this thing cannot, will not, shall not separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. I don't know what you're going through, but God does. And I don't know what kind of pain it's inflicting upon you, but God does. And I don't know how long it's going to last, but God does. But this I know, that it cannot and will not separate you from Jesus Christ if you will just cry out to Him and believe in His mercy and His goodness. There is a place in God where we begin to no longer grumble and complain at the tribulation, at the trial, at the sword, at the peril, at the misunderstandings, at the pressures, at the lacks. We no longer grumble and complain, but we begin, as Paul said, to what? We begin this insane thing. To the world it's insane. To the world it is something not to be understood. Listen to what Paul says. Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities. Have you come to the place with your walk with Jesus Christ where He is teaching you how to glory in your infirmities? What about verse 10, 2 Corinthians 10, chapter 12? Therefore, I take pleasure, that Greek word means, to be well pleased in something. Do you know where you're heading as a Christian? On the road to spiritual maturity? You are heading as a Christian to the road of spiritual maturity where you're going to have the capacity to cease from grumbling and complaining and bickering when you experience diverse difficulties and troubles. And you are going to see that those are the very things that God is using to display the triumphant power of Christ in your life. How else can God show the world and angels and devils that you're an overcomer unless He allows you to go through difficulties and then gives you an opportunity to glory in Christ and let His life bring forth in you a testimony in the midst of the furnace. Oh, it's nice to say, I believe in the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It's good to say it when you're in a nice cool room with a fan blowing on you. But what about when you're in the furnace? Don't say, God, why did You put me in this furnace? Say, thank You, God, that I'm going to see in reality now the thing I've always professed. It's one thing to say, I believe in the Son of Man who stands in the midst of my trial. But it's a whole other thing to be in the trial and to rejoice and say, thank You, Lord, You are going to manifest Yourself. Do you know that the most important work that God has to do is not through you, but in you? Did you know that the thing that pleases the Lord's heart the most is not what we do, but what we are becoming? And did you know that therefore the Lord is bringing us through extreme measures so that in the midst of whatever it is that we're going through, the triumphant fragrance of Christ is radiating out of us and not the grumbling, complaining, bickering heart of flesh? You see, God's design in bringing Israel out of Egypt was to bring them through the wilderness not so that they would be borrowed from the land of Canaan and there their carcasses die, but He was wanting to bring them out of Egypt in order to set them up to see the glory of God in the midst of impossible situations. But they refused to believe and continue to cater to their sinful nature and therefore missed the opportunity. And Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10 that we should take heed to the example that they set. What you're going through now is God's opportunity for you to find that you don't have it in yourself. But we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. More than conquerors through Him. Did you ever wonder why we're more than conquerors? How can you be more than a conqueror? I mean, a conqueror is a conqueror is a conqueror. How can you be more than a conqueror? Well, one way that we can be more than a conqueror is that an ordinary conqueror starts from the position of starts from the position of being defeated and then has to work his victory up so that he can conquer. But the church is more than a conqueror because we start from the position of being in Christ who has conquered. So we are more than a conqueror because our conquering is springing out from the one who's already conquered. And as we have that perspective we can go through any difficulty in life knowing that He has the resources that we have need of. And therefore we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ that loved us and gave His life a ransom for us. We're gonna close now and I'd like to ask you a question. Are you experiencing a fainting heart? A fainting mind? Discouragement? Despair? Despondency? If you are, here's God's word to you. When I am weak I am strong through Him. I am more than a conqueror through Him. The cure to faintheartedness is keeping God in the equation. I don't feel like a conqueror, brother. I don't feel like an overcomer, brother. I feel defeated. I feel weak. I feel discouraged. I feel the pressure of these difficulties. That's the road to be a conqueror. Because the Bible doesn't say that we are more than conquerors, period. The Bible doesn't say that we are victorious, period. Christ is always in the equation. When I am weak, I am strong in Him. And so the cure to faintheartedness is remembering that in your weakness, in your tribulation, in your difficulty, in your struggle, in your night, in your darkness, in your perplexity, in your confusion, in your pain, Christ is there to be your victory. Christ is there to be your strength. Stop praying, God, get me out of this situation so that I can be strong. God's saying, no, that's why you're in this situation, so you can't be strong and I can be your strength. God changed this in my life. I don't like how it feels. God says, that's why I'm doing it. I'm teaching you how to feel no strength, how to feel like you have no wisdom, how to feel like you have no answer. I'm teaching you how to crawl on your knees and trust me like a child. We want to be strong. We want to be great. We want to look good. We want to impress everybody. We want the answers. God says, not so. If you're destined to be one of the sons and daughters of the kingdom who are going to reign with Christ, be assured, beloved, you will know the agony and pain and sorrow of being reduced down to nothing. And God will use all different types of situations and people in your life to bring this pain to you. And at first, you're going to project your anger on people. You will. You're going to get mad at God. You're going to get mad at people. You're going to get mad at circumstances. You're going to blame the whole world for the condition you're in until the day of grace dawns on you and you realize it was Father's hand all the time bringing you to that place where you can look and see Jesus is here. I don't like the pain. I wish I didn't feel it. But God doesn't want to give you the victory in yourself. He wants to give it to you in Christ. You can't love someone until they're unlovable and you see your inability to love them and then you get mad at God because of the situation and you've got to go through all that and then you finally realize I can't love them. They're unlovable, but Jesus is here. Teach me your love. And you still might struggle with feelings in yourself. God might not take them away just to remind you from whence cometh the source. Him. Now, this is where we're heading. Is everybody wanting to go this way? Let's pray. I've got to stop. Father, we thank You and praise You for the cure to faintheartedness and that it's not in trying to find a way to escape the trial. It's not trying to find a way to avoid it. It's not finding a way to blame you or God or people or circumstance. The way to faintheartedness, the way to breathe when there's no breath, to have joy when there's no joy, to have light when there's no darkness is by faith to believe that in my infirmity there is the One who has said be of good cheer, for I have overcome. He is my life. He...