Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the urgency of recognizing the spiritual state of God's people as reflected in Psalms 79 and 80. He highlights the importance of humility and the cry for God's mercy in times of distress, suggesting that such brokenness will lead to a divine awakening among believers. The sermon calls for a collective recognition of our need for God, urging the congregation to seek His face and expect His intervention. Beach draws parallels between the cries of the psalms and the New Testament teachings, particularly in James, reinforcing the message of dependence on God's grace. Ultimately, he encourages believers to support one another and remain vigilant in their faith as God works within them.

79 and Psalm 80. We're going to read these two psalms tonight. And may God quicken His word to us tonight. This reflects what God is doing in this hour among His people. And the awakening, the life, the reality of these two psalms are being birthed within the hearts of men and women all over. This will precede. This will go before. This will become an incense that will rise continually before the Lord God. And He, with His nostrils, will smell it and be pleased. And this will be what God will cause to arise right before He begins to stir Zion and arise within the midst of Zion. And may God give us eyes to see and ears to hear that we might be able, through the Holy Spirit, to begin to share in the reality of the groanings of these psalms. And then, as we groan, we might have the expectation of God who will not forsake His inheritance. Psalm 79, beginning in verse number one. O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance. Thy holy temple have they defiled. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them. We are become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us. How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry forever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee. And upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling place. Oh, remember not against us former iniquities. Let thy tender mercy speedily prevent us or go before us. For we are brought very low. We are brought very low. I like the next two words, help us. Oh my, oh my, I begin to smell that fragrance, don't you? Do you smell the fragrance? The fragrance of brokenness, contriteness. The fragrance of feebleness. Lord, help us, have mercy upon us. Help us, oh God, our salvation. For the glory of thy name. And deliver us and purge away our sins. For thy name's sake. Oh, the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God. Verse seven again, for they have devoured Jacob, laid waste his dwelling place. Oh, remember not against us former iniquities. Let thy tender mercy speedily go before us. For we are brought very low. As God brings us very low. Verse nine begins to transpire into our life. Help us, oh God, our salvation. For the glory of thy name. And deliver us and purge away our sins. For thy name's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, where is their God? Let him be known among the heathen and our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee. According to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die. And render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom their reproach. Wherewith they have reproached thee, oh Lord. So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks forever. We will show forth thy praise to all generations. Continuing to read, it's the same spirit, the same cry, the same burden here. Give ear, oh shepherd of Israel. Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and save us. Do you see here that as God allowed His own inheritance to be brought into the captivity of enemies, it caused them to be brought so very low, so very low, so very low, that they began to recognize their state and they began to cry out, oh God, help us, oh God, have mercy upon us. This is indeed the very setting that inspired the great prophet and leader Nehemiah to go and begin to labor and build Jerusalem again. There was a recognition of the ruin. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come and save us. Turn us again, oh God, and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. Oh Lord, God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears. The valley of Baca, B-A-C-A, is a reference. Thou feedest them with the bread of tears and thou givest them tears to drink in great measure. Psalm 80, verse 5, verse 6, thou makest us a strife unto our neighbors and our enemies laugh among themselves. Turn us again, oh God of hosts, cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt. Now, of course, he's talking about Israel here, but there is incredible spiritual application that we can find here as the Holy Spirit enlightens us and applies the precious Word of God to our situation now, individually as Christians and corporately as God's spiritual Israel in the world today. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt. Thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. He led captivity captive. He spoiled the principalities and the powers. Oh, God truly wrought a great deliverance. Thou preparest room before it and didst cause it to take deep root and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea and her branches unto the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts. Wow. And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself, it is burned with fire, it is cut down, they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. So will not we go back from thee. Quicken us and we will call upon thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts. Cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. Here in the word of God we find a burden that expresses what the Holy Spirit is doing in His people in this hour. May I just read a few New Testament passages now. First of all I want to invite you to read to the book of James. We have indeed read this before. I want to encourage you, beloved, that as God begins to allow you to see how you are indeed flesh and that your strength is weak and that you are inclined to failure and mistake, not to be consumed in guilt, not to be consumed in condemnation. This is where we need to keep our minds upon the word of God and remember that God has saved us and though He bring us low, it is not unto our destruction but unto our salvation. He brings us low that we might begin to say, Lord help us, Lord have mercy upon us, Lord come into our midst, Lord save me, Lord deliver me. He does it in order to cause the incense of brokenness, the incense of contriteness, the incense of humility, the incense of a sense of need for Him. He brings us low that we might cry out to Him and then it is His delight, it is His pleasure then as we cry to come and begin to minister to us. He will do it. Now, James. Very familiar portion of Scripture. We've read it many times. James chapter 4. Very, very wonderful portion of Scripture. Here the apostle James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is writing a portion of Scripture that the Holy Spirit is inspiring him to do which is a New Testament version of Psalm 79 and Psalm 80 that we just read. It's a New Testament version. It's the new way the Holy Spirit spoke to the church. It's the same burden, same vision, same cry of Psalm 79 and Psalm 80 with the same intent, but now He words it a little bit differently so that we can understand how it relates to the New Testament. From whence comes wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members? That is, the external conflicts are the result of internal conflicts. Ye lust and have not. Ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war. Ye have not because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Here verses 1 through 3 describe the state of flesh, the state of human strength, the state of carnality, the state of independence from God. Now watch what God says. Verse 4, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy, but he giveth more grace? Wherefore, he saith, God resisteth the proud, here it is, but giveth grace unto the humble, unto the low. Now watch. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners. Purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. God is working the reality of this portion of Scripture into our lives, into the lives of all his children in this late hour. It is the same Spirit, the same work that God did in Psalm 79, in Psalm 80, in Israel. Now he's doing it in our life. It's the same message. Here it is in James chapter 4. God himself is doing it. God himself is doing it in our lives. Do you see the hand of God working this in your life? Now let's turn to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians. And here again there is an affirmation. An affirmation regarding the Lord's desire for his people. Chapter 5. In chapter 4, verses 13 through 18, Paul speaks about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're all familiar with that portion of Scripture. And in verse 18 of chapter 4, Paul closes that thought by saying, Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. May I say that God himself is committed in bringing His Word to pass in our life. And when the Scripture says, Let us not sleep, I tell you right now, beloved, only God can wake us up. Only God can wake us up, and that's what He's doing. He's waking us up in this hour. If God says, Don't sleep, and He sees we're snoring, He says, If I don't wake them up, they'll snore on. So you can be sure that the faithfulness, it was the faithfulness of God that brought Israel to the place that produced Psalm 79 and Psalm 80. It was the faithfulness of God. It was God's commitment to them that allowed them to be brought to such lowness so that they would cry out, and then God would minister to them. May I say that God's Spirit is indeed going to do this very thing. He has got a lamp, and He's going through all the spiritual Jerusalem, and He is waking up. He is waking up all those that are His. Let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night, and they that be drunk are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober. The word there, sober, in the natural, to be sober is not to be under the influence of alcohol. Spiritually speaking, the word sober is don't be under the influence of this ungodly world, this ungodly generation. Don't be under the influence of it. Don't think the way the world does. Be sober-minded. Don't walk to the drum of this world. James just said, to be friends with this world is to be an enemy of God. So be sober-minded. As we search the Scriptures, as God works in our life, you're going to find that God will cause to arise within you a cry, and this cry will be, Lord, cause me to be sober-minded, cause me to walk uprightly before you. God himself will cause you to begin to desire that through working in your life. How many have found that these things already are beginning to arise within your soul, these desires? Sure, God's doing it. He's waking us up. He's waking us up, preparing us to be vessels where he can entrust us with the very life of his Son. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. So God is indeed working in our lives, bringing us into places of difficulty so that he can manifest his power in our life. And as the Scripture says, may we comfort and encourage one another, and continue to strengthen each other, and hold each other's hand up, and pray one for another, and exhort one another in holy fear, and tenderly and humbly ask God to help us respond, yield to his wonderful working when he deals with us, and trust in his faithfulness. Amen? Thank you, Lord. What time is it? Where's the watch on? 825? This is good. First Thessalonians chapter 5, beginning in verse number 12. And these are final instructions. And we beseech you, brethren, to know them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. There, Paul is simply saying, know what people believe when they're teaching, instructing. Know them. Know them. And be at peace among yourselves, meaning let's all live together in peace. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn. Now the word warn there means to admonish with instruction. To admonish with instruction. Warn them that are unruly. Comfort the feeble-minded. The feeble-minded are weak-hearted, powerless, the wavering. Comfort them. Support the weak. Support means to hold firmly. Hold firmly the weak. Little strength. Be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves to all men. What beautiful advice, isn't it? Marvelous advice. Here we see there's a place to warn. There's a place to comfort. There's a place to support. Comfort and patience is for every occasion. Then we see that we don't get snared with vengeance. Don't be vengeful. If you see revenge spilling up in your life, how many have been tempted to be revengeful? To want to afflict revenge upon someone? When you see this to be a temptation, confess it to God. Acknowledge it. Say, Lord God, deliver me, Lord. I know that Christ is greater than this revenge that burns in my soul. I know He's greater, Lord, but You've got to make that real to me. All I can do, Lord, is confess this vengeance that lurks in my soul. Lord God, take this vengeance away from me and put in it that intercessory prayer. Lord, help me bless them that curse me. Help me, Lord, find ways to do good to them that have despitefully used me. Oh, what a blessing when God can lift us out of that realm of vengeance and walk in His love and just pray for those and pray for those and just know that God is in control. God is in control. Don't render evil for evil, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. And in everything, give thanks. Three specific challenges. In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit. Despise not prophesying. Quench the spirit. Don't put out the spirit to quench it. Don't deny the spirit its desire. Despise not prophesying. Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. In context, this is not necessarily talking about moral evil or the evil that you would find on 42nd Street, but in context, Paul here is talking about prove all things, hold fast that which is good, and abstain from evil. So in context, we could derive a possible idea that the Holy Spirit is saying, don't despise prophesying, prophesying being the declaring of the Word. Prove it, though. Prove it. Hold to what's good and avoid and stay away from what's evil, from what takes you from the Word. And in this hour that we live in, it's very important to do this. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord. Paul made no... Paul made no excuses or no apologies. I charge you by the Lord. That this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.