Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the urgent need for the church to awaken from spiritual unreality, using the story of a boy possessed by a demon to illustrate the deeper spiritual condition of the church today. He highlights that many Christians, like the disciples, are spiritually impotent due to their reliance on their own understanding rather than on God's wisdom and power. The sermon calls for a return to prayer and fasting as essential practices to overcome this state of unreality and to truly see ourselves and our circumstances through God's eyes. Beach Jr. stresses that true healing and restoration in the church can only occur when believers recognize their need for God's intervention and live by His Word. Ultimately, he challenges the congregation to seek a deeper relationship with God, moving beyond superficial appearances to embrace the reality of their spiritual condition.

Matthew chapter 17 like to just spend a moment praying and asking the Holy Spirit to be pleased to take his word and to open up the eyes of our heart and enable us to see father we thank you that you are governed and all that you do on earth and in our lives by the purpose that is in your heart that nothing is done randomly or arbitrarily independent of this eternal purpose that has been with you from eternity past is currently present with you now and will remain with you forever Lord that eternal purpose that you have purposed in your son we thank you Lord that in your mercy and grace you have included us in your son and now Lord we know that your heart's cry is to cause everything that is happening in our life without exception nothing being excluded everything that is happening in our life you are intending to use as a means to more fully realize your purpose in our life and that is that Christ the fullness of his life the fullness of his character the fullness of his love the fullness of his eternal perfections might be ever ever ever etched into the depths of our being individually and corporately so that when people look at us the world looks at the church people see our lives individually they're touching something of your son they're touching something of his righteousness we pray Lord that this morning your word will help us to awaken to this truth more fully and that you will serve the purpose that you have for this word in bringing us more and more into the image and likeness of your son we pray for Jesus sake a man and a man as I had indicated we're going to be looking at in Matthew chapter 17 many of you are aware of a certain person who until his diabolical devious devilish heart was revealed appeared to be a totally normal guy his name Ted Bundy most of the adults here know the Ted Bundy was put to death he was in fact a serial killer of the worst kind ate his victims however we mentioned earlier that man looks on the outward but God searches the heart is that not true yes it is true and amazingly during the heightened media attention of Ted Bundy as well as the remarkable opportunity the doctor James Dobson had in personally interviewing Ted Bundy it was noted that those who lived among Ted Bundy never saw with their eyes the devilish deviant dark disastrous intentions of his heart never once saw it I can recall hearing some interviews from people who had known Ted Bundy and they said he was a pleasant individual always cordial always kind never displaying any behavior that would indicate he has a problem just think this man would go to the shopping center I'm sure we had to buy food sooner or later and he stood in the line and who would know that the man that was standing in front of them or the one that was standing in back of them was a serial killer of the worst kind who what cashier would have known in taking his money that was required for the debt of his groceries that they were receiving money from a man who was insane in the worst way we learned from this story brothers and sisters that appearances are oftentimes very misleading and that we cannot derive the truth about what's going on by a simple glance with our natural eyes our Lord knew this and therefore much of his teaching much of his acts and works in the New Testament while they stand on their own as being legitimate and bona fide and while the literal meaning of all that Jesus did in healing the sick and casting out devils is authentic and we will take away from it they prove his deity they prove his Messiah ship they prove that he truly was the Savior who not only forgave us of all our iniquities but heal us from all of our diseases and we see that in the Gospels don't we however we must remember that because we are very very blinded and do not see things clearly the Lord takes the things that he did in the New Testament and uses them to illustrate spiritual realities that we couldn't see for example the Lord calls those who are spiritually blind blind men he calls those who are spiritually dead in sin dead people he oftentimes associates sin with leprosy but those words don't mean anything to us they don't impact us so what is the Lord do he walks in the earth and he finds a blind man who is blind and he can't see and the Lord heals him and this results in a capacity did not have otherwise to be able to see the depths of our need spiritually you you would look at a blind man who would come in here and you would say oh my he is a needy person how unfortunate but do we recognize that we ourselves are most likely in worse condition than that blind person or maybe if someone had leprosy I mean an advanced condition where their ears were eaten away and the limbs on their hands were gone and their face was of an obnoxious nauseating visage and and and you looked at that person and you use you you sort of said to yourself oh dear God I hope they don't sit next to me I mean I know I'm supposed to have the love of God in my heart but Lord they are quite disgusting you know come walking in feature facial features destroyed because of this horrible disease called leprosy but remember brothers and sisters Ted Bundy he appeared to be a quite cordial individual when in fact God saw what God saw a serial killer of the worst kind and so when we see that leper we we cringe and we say oh dear God but God saying behold the leper see the the ugliness the the the the disgust you don't even want to look at him God says well that's how I see you that's how I see you now you see you don't see yourself like that and if you look at one another as I mentioned earlier we see brown hair we see brown eyes we see blue eyes but God sees lepers and thank God for the Lord Jesus Christ in his righteousness and the new heart but brothers and sisters apart from that God sees reality we don't and the burden of the Lord the burden of the Lord is that we would awaken so that we can see reality and not see what is not real last week Michael was sharing some things with me that the Lord had been teaching him and one of the significant things is that he said we live in unreality and that hinders us it hinders us from being able to lay hold of God's highest ends for our life because we live in unreality he was seeing it so clearly there's so much unreality in our life there's so much unreality in the world there's so much that we consider when we look at and we completely misinterpret what is valuable and so this morning we want to look into being awakened out of unreality awakened out of unreality how can we be awakened out of unreality so that we can become sober minded sober minded in our heart in our mind the way to do this is to pray that God will bring us to our knees and in brokenness and humility pray to our father in heaven that the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Word of God and the power of the mercy of God would so fashion our hearts and enable us to see the way he sees now we have spent quite a bit of time dealing with a very very important subject that being the house of God being in spiritual ruin and now brothers and sisters the first key to experiencing a cure a deliverance from this state is to properly see things the way they are to be shaken out of unreality unreality is this to see Ted Bundy and to welcome him to talk to him for a few minutes then to have him go on his way and for us to go to someone else and say oh I just met a man named Ted Bundy he was really a nice guy unreality he appeared to be so sweet unreality he was actually pretty good looking he had a nice smile unreality not true no truth to the statement at all reality we meet a man called Ted Bundy and God God in his sovereign power opens up the eyes of our heart and gives us the capacity to see beyond the physical appearance to see beyond the man to see beyond the the the the image that he is portraying reality and to see into the depths of his heart and to know that he is a deviant diabolical devil in sheep's clothing who preys on people who hunts the innocent and glories in destroying lives that's reality can you trust your own observation of a certain situation can you can you trust if you had met Mr. Bundy how many of you how many would have been able to look at him and know that he had murdered and named and cut to pieces and eaten human beings how many of you would have known it so much for your ability to know discern them why do we play so much confidence in our understanding and our reasoning and in our natural capacities as though they have the capacity to lead us to know the truth about life why do we trust them why do we lean on our own understanding you say well how am I mean on understanding any soul any soul that is not daily trembling in the presence of God and trembling at the Word of God and broken before God devastated daily crying out oh dear God God I need to know from your where I need to know from your spirit the way for me any condition other than that is a condition indicative of one who thinks they can guide their own steps one who thinks they can lead their own way may I say brothers and sisters in the love of God that such a condition will lead you to deception it will lead you to living in unreality claiming it is reality and all along missing the truth this is why the Word of God prophetically speaks to us as the children of God and declares trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on to your own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths be not wise in thine own eyes fear the Lord and depart from evil this is why the Apostle Paul trumpets to us in Philippians chapter 4 a portion of scripture that we are familiar with before we get Matthew laying a foundation this is why the Apostle Paul says in verse number 4 chapter 4 rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand be careful for nothing don't worry about anything worry is oftentimes rooted in a soul that is set on trying to find its own way worry is oftentimes rooted in a heart that is trusting in its own ability trusting in its own wisdom trusting in its own understanding and when my understanding and my ability and my knowledge fails me I worry because it's all on me it's all about me it's all about me trying to figure out what's going on and Jesus said five times in Matthew chapter 6 don't worry don't worry don't worry take no fall be not anxious for anything it is so hard for us to do that because we are so inclined in our natural selves to trust in something or someone other than God is it not true that's unreality that's the unreality that Michael was talking about unreality comes to us when we trust in our own senses when we trust in our own wisdom when we trust in our own discernment unreality will lead us astray unreality would move upon the heart of a father to allow his daughter to date Ted Bundy based on natural observations he's a nice guy he earns a good living he has a nice smile he drives a nice car go ahead sweetheart I'll pray God blesses you that's what a natural man or a Christian who's governed by unreality by light other than God's Word by wisdom other than the cross by power other than the cross when you're governed by anything other than the cross you are setting yourself up for a situation as bad as your daughter dating Ted Bundy because you don't know how to choose your own way you don't know the way you think you might know the way you think you might know what's best for you but you don't but you know what our problem is we don't know that we don't know we don't know remember what Jesus said to the Laodiceans thou sayest I am increased with goods I am rich I am in need of nothing what does that language represent it represents a company of people who claim to be Christians who govern their own life I am rich I have competence I have resources I can take my wealth I can buy this I can do this I can buy I can sell the epitome of arrogance James said you who say I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that and I'm going to go here next year and I'm going to do this and that James says all such speech is evil boasting all such speech springs out of unreality he says rather you ought to say if God be willing we shall do thus and thus and thus if God be willing if God permit unreality unreality has become the snare that is holding the church captive to a life and a world view that is against the Word of God and against the heart of God and so this is why Paul says be careful for nothing don't worry don't take it upon yourself but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God the reason why do not make our request known unto God is because we still believe that we are able that we are competent that we have the wherewithal to govern our own life we just simply lay out the facts on the table we assess and we decide or we might do this Lord please bless my decision in Jesus name how lame how lame brothers and sisters I don't perceive myself to be speaking to spiritual infants this morning and this is why perhaps the Lord allows us to understand a little bit of the severity of his heart we're not spiritual infants we're not mere children apart from the teenagers who don't have a history with God but we as adults here we walk with the Lord for many years I can look at everyone here I know everyone it's time to grow up it's time to say Lord deliver me from this self-confidence I live in it's time the Lord has as he uttered by his Holy Spirit the Lord has so much more for us he has so much more depth and height and width and length of his love and of his heart but we have to lay aside our toys and we have to lay aside our lives and we have to offer them up in death to the Lord and so one of the things that God is saying to us through Paul here is this cry take everything to God in prayer and supplication supplication supplication it's a word that suggests intercession it's a word that suggests bringing your burden bringing your request to God continuously why does Paul say everything to God in prayer because he knows Paul was a man who was who was awakened by the Holy Spirit he understood that he could place no trust in himself Paul walked on earth not trusting in his degrees he didn't trust in his background as being a Pharisee he knew the scriptures he knew him he was taught the scriptures but he didn't trust his own understanding in the scriptures he needed to go to the desert of Arabia for Jesus to reveal himself to him and to reveal the meaning of the scriptures to him what are you trusting in this morning who are you trusting in this morning is it your competence is it your knowledge is it your history is it your education is it your pedigree is it your degree is it your past your present is it your future brothers and sisters in the name of the Lord by the love of God I I encourage you I plea with you don't trust in anything but God don't trust in anything but his word wait on God wait on God don't be quick and so God is wanting us to see that unreality unreality rooted in unbelief unreality is rooted in unbelief unbelief we simply do not believe what God says because we have more faith and confidence in what we say we believe more in what we see than what what God says if mr. Bundy came in the room and and you looked at him and he walked out and I by the Spirit of God said there's a ravenous murderer unbelief would arise in many hearts I don't believe that I don't believe it why cuz I don't see it I don't sense it I see no outward evidence of a ravenous murderer so the root of unbelief this morning is unreality the root of unbelief is this I trust more I believe more I depend more on what I see and what I know and how I figure and the way I assess a situation then I do the wisdom and counsel and might of God horrible condition isn't it now with that as a foundation let's go to Matthew chapter 17 as we mentioned earlier the words of Jesus are much deeper than simply what is happening but they are intended to reveal to us something always they're always wanting to teach us something about that which is not obvious to the natural mind that which we would never be able to see with just a glance with our eyes okay so I want us to read this story in view of this truth that Christ placed this story in the Bible not just to show us his might and his power and his ability to heal but to vividly described to us a condition that is currently prevalent in the house of God because remember the healing in the house of God will not happen until we are dramatically awakened from unreality and see things the way they are not the way we think they are ready Matthew chapter 17 beginning in verse number 14 and when they were come to the multitude before we read this I want to make note this same story is found in Mark chapter 9 verse 14 through 29 Mark 9 14 through 29 and it's also found in Luke chapter 9 verses 37 through 43 the same account there's slight different variations and what we want to do is put them all together this morning and we're going to learn something that if the Holy Spirit quickens it it will help awaken us out of unreality into the world of reality the world that God looks at and sees here's something I want to throw out I feel the Lord just prompting it we'll get right back to this listen how many knows that God does not hear our words that we own we only hear word God does not hear words what our words words are what huh verbal communication but where words come from though thank you the scripture says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh we say things with our mouth but God doesn't even listen to that because what comes out with the mouth is often a misrepresentation of what's really in the heart so God bypasses all that and he goes right to the heart and he sees exact see God listens to the language of the heart now I say all this to say this some of you have misunderstandings in relationships husband wife friends here's why because you're not understanding the language of the heart and you're stumbling over what's being said with the mouth you're misunderstanding because you're not understanding the heart and so I just wanted to throw this out pray that you will develop with your friends and with your relationships and your family husband wife children parents pray that you'll go deeper than what you hear because you know if you concentrate on what you hear you can argue you can challenge you can get into all kinds of foolish debates based on picking apart words what do you mean well what are you really saying this that all this garbage and it can get ugly can it get deeper than the words understand the heart of that person what are they really trying to say they might not even be saying it right and if you would pray God help us to go deeper than our words help us to understand each other's heart a lot of unnecessary strife and debate and hard feelings will disappear now that was free okay did that hit on the nose for some of us I think so don't you make a judgment based on what you think based on what's being said when you don't really know the heart because you're good your judgments going to be wrong you're a misjudge and you're gonna best a relationship or friendship okay brothers and sisters there you go and when they were come to the multitude verse 14 there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him and saying Lord have mercy on my son now I'm just gonna add in the parts that are not here but are in the other Gospels by the other gospel we know that this was his only son okay so he's actually saying Lord have mercy on my son for he is my only son how did he know his son had a problem well let's read and see for he is a lunatic now this was obvious by the natural eye wasn't it this you didn't need to be a rocket scientist to know that this boy was in need he was a lunatic he had obvious physical problems that anyone without even the Spirit of God could look at and say this guy's got a problem now all of this language that we're about to read is describing the condition of this son only son of a broken-hearted father but within the words of this story reveal a deeper truth and that it is revealing the spiritual condition of God's only corporate son not his only begotten son our blessed Lord Jesus but his corporate son the church now at first you're gonna say this is radical this is radical and that's good because we need to be awakened out of unreality and see things the way they are now let's look at a description of this boy a lunatic sore vexed oftentimes he falls into the fire and oftentimes in the water other places say he foams at the mouth another place says that he has a dumb spirit and is unable to intelligently talk another place says that his teeth often grind and horrible sounds come from the grinding of his teeth and he makes muttering and moanings and he cries out verse 16 take note first we see the condition of the Sun secondly we see the impotence of the healers the impotence of the healers what did Jesus what did they say here and I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him now if you will go to Matthew chapter 10 you'll find that these very disciples were given power by Jesus to heal the sick these disciples were given power by Jesus to heal the sick to cast out devils and to perform miracles and here this brokenhearted father cries out and says and your disciples could not cure him and thirdly listen listen number one the condition of this son number two the impotence of the physicians the healers the cures the disciples and thirdly Jesus's response Oh faithless and perverse generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I suffer you bring him to me and Jesus rebuked the devil he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour or another another possible rendering not here but in another place would be and the child returned to sanity he returned to sanity then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said why could we not cast him out why couldn't we cure him Lord why couldn't we make him well notice the words of Jesus because of your unbelief Michael listen because of the fact that you are living in unreality that's it Michael unreal unbelief is unreality unbelief is putting faith in what you see with your eyes and not trusting in what God has says because of your unbelief therefore it is safe to conclude as we can from the facts of the story Jesus anointed a group of disciples and gave them the power to cure all sicknesses and diseases and they stood before this poor boy the only son of a broken-hearted father and could not cure him and Jesus said it's because you live in unreality because faith is the only basis of true reality faith in God is a stand a position in the soul that God gives that says I am living in reality I'm not trusting in what I see with my eyes I'm not trusting in my judgment I'm not trusting in my wisdom I'm not trusting in my education I'm not trusting in my ability to direct my own steps but I'm trusting in the living God I'm waiting on God every day I'm living by his word I'm feeding by his spirit that's faith is it not unreality verily I say unto you if you have faith if you have reality if you are empowered by God to see the invisible and to trust in the Word of God and to live by the Word of God and to renounce all trust in self if you have that as a grain of mustard seed you shall say to this mountain remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you how be it this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting Jesus talks about a mountain in this passage of Scripture he suggests that if we have reality faith just the size of a little seed we could speak to the mountain the mountain here is not simply referring to schoolies mountain or some mountain in your area or your town Jesus wasn't wanting men and women to walk around speaking the mountains and to put on a big show his his words go beyond his the mountain here is referring to the obstacle the thing that is preventing the full purpose of God from being accomplished in our lives Zechariah chapter 4 verse number 7 Zechariah 4 7 is a vivid picture teaching us the mountain that Jesus was really referring to in this particular portion of Scriptures we're going to be closing in a moment please hold steady there were those Jews who came out of Babylon out of captivity back to Jerusalem they had started the temple but because of circumstances the temple's completion was not done they stopped building there was opposition there was difficulty and there was trouble and so the temple lied half finished for 16 years and then all of a sudden the Prophet began to speak in Zechariah chapter 4 verse 6 then he answered and spoke unto me saying this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel not by might not by power but my spirit saith the Lord who art thou O great mountain Jesus said you shall speak unto this mountain you see the connection this is the mountain Jesus was talking about he was burdened about the purpose of God he wanted this young man the only son of his father to be healed but there was a mountain in the way it was a mountain of unbelief it was a mountain of living in unreality and here's what Zerubbabel here's what God says who art thou O great mountain before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain God spoke to Zerubbabel and told him prophetically that is hindering the completion of my natural temple is going to be removed and I'm going to empower you by the Spirit to finish it and God is saying to us through the words of Jesus in the New Testament that the mountain of unbelief the mountain of unreality the mountain of living a life being spiritually impotent spiritually powerless to bring healing to the spiritual condition that plagues the whole church will be removed by the power of the Spirit of God bringing us back to the Valley of a core bringing us back to Calvary bringing us back to the place where we realize our lives belong to him and we have no rights the language of Matthew chapter 17 Mark chapter 9 and Luke chapter 9 descriptively describe the spiritual condition of the last day church something that would not be obvious by our natural glance something that would not be obvious if we just looked at it it not only describes the spiritual condition of the Laodicean church but it also describes the spiritual impotence of the disciples the leaders the preachers anyone the impotence in that they're unable to cure the condition even though we have been given the Holy Spirit and even though many of us profess to possess the Holy Spirit which is the power of God their spiritual impotence I think it was Suzanne that mentioned in her testimony we don't even have the power to deal with the evil that's penetrating our families we cannot cure this spiritual condition we see it running rampant everywhere not only do these person leadership but it reveals to us the solution the words of Jesus because of your unbelief because of your unreality because of living in a world that is governed by what you see and what you hear and what you think rather than a world that is governed by the Word of God on your knees getting direction from God not doing a thing to you know God is in it and then we see the hope this mountain shall be removed only when our hearts are filled with faith and we're delivered from unreality we will see that our lives will be empowered to be able to speak life into brothers and sisters and they'll be delivered from the state of being a lunatic spiritually one driven by the devil let me tell you God sees a backslidden church just like this young man we don't it doesn't bother us does it doesn't trouble us does it but if we saw this young man come walking into our midst and all of a sudden started groaning and screaming and throwing himself into the fire and kill you'd go oh my god that's terrifying that's how God sees the layout to see in church backslidden going her own way do we see it like that you say oh brother this is so radical I mean yes it is I know this kind cometh that not out but by prayer and fasting in closing those words tell us they reveal to us the truth man shall not live by what bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Jesus is saying this kind this spiritual condition of the church that is prevalent in the last hour will not be cured until a company of beavers begin to pray and fast and come into the good of living by the Word of God not just by bread alone by natural life natural impulse natural understanding natural decision natural what seems good to me well let me tell you brothers and sisters what seems good to you probably doesn't seem good to the Lord this kind cometh not out but by prayer and fasting this is a call from Christ to whoever will hear come aside begin to ask me to give you a heart that wants to live by my word abstain from food pray fast let me fill your heart with reality and let me deliver you from unreality and you will suddenly find yourself empowered with a word of life to speak into the spiritual condition of your own life your children and the church and you'll see the Lord begin to cure and heal and restore and he'll be glorified next time we get together we're going to see from the Word of God that the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15 has a journey that is a that is almost identical to the language that's described in these stories about the lunatic demon-possessed mute deaf and dumb boy that's right the prodigal son what he did is seen by God like this boy spiritually and we're gonna see how he was cured and how he was healed and how he was restored back to his father's house let's bow our hearts in a moment of prayer father thank you for your Holy Spirit thank you for your word thank you for challenging us and stirring us now Lord we ask that by the power of your grace and your love you would take your word planted deeply in our heart and as we asked earlier you would accomplish the purpose of your word etch into us more of your heart deliver us from unreality and establish us more in a life fixed on you living by you and by your word we commit these things into your hands Lord and know that you will perfect all that concerns us we who trust in Calvary and Christ alone for our salvation for Christ's amen and amen I close by saying this are you prepared for God to awaken you out of unreality into reality there's a cost there's a loss but the gain far exceeds the loss so much that when you begin to gain out of the loss you will laugh and say I lost nothing but gained everything may God give everyone in here a heart to be willing to count as rubbish all things that we might gain him amen and amen