Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the profound love of God and the necessity of drawing closer to Him, highlighting that true satisfaction comes from His everlasting love. He encourages believers to turn away from worldly distractions and to seek spiritual maturity through the Word of God, which is essential for faith and obedience. The sermon calls for a deep introspection and a response to God's call, urging the congregation to recognize their unique struggles and to find peace in Christ alone. Beach Jr. reminds the listeners that their lives are observed by spiritual forces, and their responses to life's challenges can demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God. Ultimately, he stresses the importance of love as the foundation of spiritual growth and maturity, as illustrated in 1 Corinthians 13.

Jesus, draw me close, closer, Lord, to you. Let the world around me fade away. Jesus, draw me close, closer, Lord, to you. For I desire to worship and obey. Thank you, Lord, for your presence. Lord, we bless you. We bless you, Lord. We bless you, Lord, because you are worthy to be praised. You are worthy to be praised, Lord. And we thank you, Lord, for the ministry of your Holy Spirit, O God, faithfully testifying, speaking to our hearts, and revealing one thing and one thing alone, always, faithfully, every day, the splendor and glory and majesty and beauty and love of our Savior and God, Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, for drawing us. We thank you, Lord, for teaching us this morning that you love us with an everlasting love and that this love truly satisfies the deepest need of our heart, the deepest need of our life, the thing, O God, that we are in fact craving after, your love as demonstrated in your Son, Jesus Christ, is the answer to our heart's cry this morning. Thank you, Lord, for steering our hearts once again back in the right direction, away from the broken cisterns that we try and drink from during the week that leave us dry and empty and confused and hurt and filled with sorrow and pain. Thank you, Lord, for walking in our midst as the great shepherd, one by one, bringing us back to you, one by one, speaking into our heart, one by one, calling us by name, intimately acquainted with the unique struggle that we're going through, the unique pain, offering yourself as the answer. We thank you, Father, for your faithfulness. We pray, Lord, that thy word now, O God, would be a living word that is spoken to us by the Holy Spirit. We pray, O God, that it'll be a quickened word that'll find good soil in our hearts and that it will be planted there and grow and bring forth a harvest of righteousness, a harvest that you will be pleased with, that you will be satisfied with. We rejoice in thy word as over silver and gold. Thy word, O God, is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Thy word, O God, is forever settled in heaven. As newborn babes crave earnestly desire the sincere milk of the incorruptible word that ye may grow thereby. O God, I pray by the sovereign power of your Holy Spirit that you would create a hunger in our hearts for thy word, that you would open up the ears of our heart and enable us to hear your word. To hear your word, not with our physical ears, but with the ears of our heart. O God, we stand together with the Holy Spirit against all the evil and all the forces of darkness that would dull our hearing this morning. We pray in the name of Jesus, that name that is above every name, that name that is higher than every authority and every power and every principality and every devil and demon. We pray, O God, in the name of the Holy Child, Jesus Christ, heal our hearts from dullness of hearing. Speak a word and wither the things in our life that are causing us to be dull of the hearing of your word. We pray, O God, that you would take a searchlight and go into our homes and into our bedrooms and into our living rooms and into our kitchens and into our cars and that you would search us, O God. And that you would remove the things in our life, O God, that may be lawful, but that are contributing to dullness of hearing. Break the habits that we've developed, O God, that rob us from communion with you. Lord, it's time, the hour is upon us. It's time that we awake out of spiritual sleep and slumber. It is time, O God, for you to arise. It is time, O God, have mercy upon us. We pray for humility and pliability so that when you search our homes and our lives with your light, that we would be responsive to your call, that we would lay it at your feet, that we would not resist the Holy Spirit, that we would not grieve the Holy Spirit, that we would not lie against the Holy Spirit, but that in humility of heart we might be able to say, Yes, Lord, have your way. We pray these things, Lord, for the honor and glory and praise of your name. Beloved, the Lord Jesus is passionately in love with those that He has purchased with His own blood. There is a jealousness in the heart of God for us. It is a godly jealousy. It is a godly jealousy over you. If you were in love with someone and you sensed that someone else had their affections, that someone else made their heart piddle-paddle, how would that make you feel? Would that sadden you? Would that bring sorrow into your heart? Well, even so today, beloved, the Lord Jesus is earnestly longing that He would be able to capture the very affections of our heart, the very deepest affection of our heart, that it would belong to Him alone, that the mention of His name, the thought of entering into His presence, would cause us to pant. The call of the Spirit, beloved, this morning to you and I as His little children, is a call to come back to the Savior in the midst of our struggles, in the midst of our failures, in the midst of our pain, in the midst of our suffering. He stands with outstretched hands this morning. Come unto Me, all ye that are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jesus Christ offers a rest this morning that your soul cannot find anywhere in this world. There is no place, young people, middle-aged people, older people, there is no place in this world that you can go to satisfy that deep craving in your heart. There is no relationship that you can find that can satisfy that deep craving within your heart. God has reserved for Himself the answer to that deep craving in your heart. And we who have been awakened by the Holy Spirit, we who have been illuminated by the Holy Spirit and have a knowledge of God are ever so aware of that deep longing and craving within our heart for peace, aren't we? How many here know that your heart longs for peace? Longs for meaning? You long for significance. You long to understand, why am I here? There is a God in heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, who stands in our midst this morning saying, your peace is in God alone. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. He's crying out to us, Come unto Me. Hallelujah to God. I want to read a portion of Scripture from Isaiah chapter 40 and the book of Romans before we go into 1 Corinthians chapter 13. And we'll just see how the Lord leads us and how we're able to minister this Word. But this is a Word, listen, this is a Word for at least one person this morning. And I would pretty much be assured that it's most likely for everyone. But I know in particular there is a soul here this morning and you've been asking God some questions. And this is God's answer to your heart. Isaiah chapter 40, beginning in verse number 28. Listen closely. Father, I pray that You will open up the ears of our heart. Father, I know that there are so many distractions in our life. And I know that there are so many things, O God, even as Jesus said, the cares of this life, the desire for things, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the fruitfulness of Your Word. Choke the life that You would want to bring to us. And I know, Lord, that that's where the battle is this morning. The battle is over. The distractions. The battle is over. The desire for things. The battle is over. There are so many things going on and our attention is in so many different places. But I pray, God, that by the sovereign power of Your Spirit and by the sovereign power of Your grace, You would quiet us down for a moment and enable us to hear Your Word. This is an answer to someone's cry in particular. And this is the answer to all of our cries in general. Hear the beautiful, precious Word of God. Isaiah 40, beginning in verse number 28. Hast Thou not known? Hast Thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not? Neither is weary, for there is no searching of His understanding. He gives power to the faint and to them that have no might. He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall exchange their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. Here is a message from the Holy Spirit to someone this morning and to all of us in general. God is saying to us, Hey, little lamb. Hey, my child. Hey, my loved one. Have you not heard? Did you forget that your everlasting God, your Creator, your Father in heaven, does not become weary or faint? Hey! Hey! Check this out, loved one. There is a God in heaven who is not tired right now, even though we are weary, even though we become faint-hearted, even though the tribulations and the trials and the anxieties and the difficulties of life are weighing heavy upon us, aren't they? Aren't they? Come on. Where are you at right now? Do you feel the pressure and the pain of where you're at? The Holy Spirit is saying in the midst of our storm, in the midst of our difficulty, Blessed be God forever. There is a God in heaven. He is speaking. And He is saying, Hey, I've got good news for you, loved one, I've got good news for you today. There is no searching of His understanding. He gives power to the faint. And to those who have no might, He increases their strength. Do you feel like your might is withering? Do you feel like your strength is withering? Do you feel that under the heaviness of the trial, you're losing ground? God is saying, Hey, loved one, I am not tired. Everything shall get tired. Everything is going to faint. New cars get tired, don't they? New furniture get tired. New vibrant bodies get tired. The flair and strength of a young person going into the teenage years, approaching young adulthood with vision and desire and passion and goals, eventually will become tired. Everything will get tired. Everything will get weary. Everything will take on the nature of fainting. But there is a God in heaven who comes to the rescue of their fainting. Tired, weary people and says, Hey, I do not get tired. Even the youths shall faint and the young men shall utterly fall. Beloved, everything is going to get tired. And in the hour when you realize either you or the thing you have been trusting in or the thing you've been hoping in becomes tired, you will hear the voice of your God and Father, Hey, hey. You know, when things begin to get tired, we get depressed. We get discouraged. We get despondent. But we hear God saying, Hey, hey, hey. And then He calls us in the moment of our tiredness, the moment of our fainting, He calls us to wait upon Him. Wait upon Him. Be still and know that I am God. The Scripture says, and in waiting upon God, in quieting ourself in His presence, He says, they that wait upon Me shall exchange their strength. As we wait upon God, we are enabled by the power of His Holy Spirit to exchange our strength which has fainted. Our power which has become weary, we exchange that for His strength and His power and His might which does not become weary. Oh, fainting one. Oh, weary one. Oh, weak one. Look to the Lord that you might find His strength being made perfect in your weakness. Do not despair when you begin to faint and your strength begins to wither, but come to Him. Romans 10 10 Verse 17 Brothers and sisters, again, please, let us listen to God's Word as He is speaking to us now. He lavished us with His presence. He gathered us as a mother hen gathers her chicks. He embraced us in His love. Now He lovingly warns us that in time everything is going to get tired and faint. The newness of everything will become oldness. The greener grass on the other side will fade. But He rescues us by pointing us to Him. And now, number two, a word of admonition from the heart of the Savior to each and every one of us this morning. Romans 10 Verse 17 So then faith comes. It does not say faith comes by having heard. Past tense. It says faith comes by hearing. And hearing comes by the Word of God. The Savior is calling each one of us to recognize this morning that faith, the divine ability to trust God, the divine ability to obey God, comes by hearing, present tense, the Word of God. Brothers and sisters, what are you listening to? Faith does not come by hearing the noise of the world. Faith does not come by hearing the noise of our own thoughts. Faith does not come by hearing the ramblings and philosophies and ideologies of this world, brothers and sisters. But faith cometh by hearing. And hearing, the ability to hear, comes by the Word of God. God is calling us to hear His Word every day, to sit at His feet in the morning or at night. He has things He wants to say to you. Did you know that? Did you know there's something in God's heart that He's been longing to say to you? Why are we so interested in hearing what others have to say? Why? Why do we live in a world where we would rather sit and listen to something other than God? Why? Do you want faith to grow, faith to trust God, faith to obey God? Faith comes by hearing. What are you hearing? You will not get faith listening with these ears. You won't get faith. What are you hearing in your heart? Father, please help us to look to You and exchange our weakness when it comes for Your strength. And help us, Lord, hear Your Word. Free us, Lord, from the many things we're listening to but are keeping us from hearing Your Word. Free us, Lord. We pray for Jesus' sake. Amen. There's something about the evil nature. It would rather hear an evil report than God's Word. Oh, brothers and sisters, God help us to desire to hear God's Word. God's Word. There's a war going on right now in your home. Did you know that? You know what the war is over? The ears of your heart. That's right. The devil's fighting an all-out war because he trembles at the thought of you hearing the Word of God, hearing it in your heart. What are you listening to in your home? What are your children listening to? 1 Corinthians chapter 13. These days we've been learning about Jesus. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is all about Jesus. 1 Corinthians 13 are things that show us what we are not in ourself, but what Jesus is and what He can make us through the power of His presence and the power of His life working through us. We learned that 1 Corinthians 13 captures the character and nature of the call to spiritual maturity and spiritual adulthood. It captures the meaning of growing up in God. 1 Corinthians 13 puts on public display the character of God. And you remember a few weeks ago we looked at Ephesians chapter 3 and we learned that the purpose, the eternal purpose of God. Brothers and sisters, I pray that we will get this by revelation this morning. This is vitally important to understand. The reason why we have been called out of darkness into the marvelous light of God's Son. The reason why God snatched us out of darkness and has given us life in His Son is because God has a grand scheme of an idea. A glorious plan and He has included us in it. A glorious plan. But in order for this plan to come about, we have to realize that the fulfillment of this plan is vitally connected to the Lord Jesus Christ. This plan cannot happen if our Christian life simply revolves around ourself, Norman. Simply revolves around ourself. And that's why we're praying that God will bring an emancipation. A proclamation of emancipation. A proclamation of deliverance, Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Jesus said. What for? To proclaim liberty to the captives. The giving of sight to the blind. And to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and the inworking of that chapter in the depths of our spirit will be our emancipation. It will free us from the bitterness of ourself. From the tyranny of the law of sin inside of us. And bring us into a fellowship with God. And a fellowship with one another that is so lovely. But this grand scheme of God's plan, Ephesians chapter 3, beginning in verse number 9, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery. Paul's great passion was that all would see the fellowship of the mystery. The fellowship. Listen, listen. The church is called to a fellowship. A koinonia. A communion. An intimacy with Christ. The fellowship of the mystery. We know the mystery is Christ in you. Christ in me. The hope of glory. Here the Holy Spirit was crying out through Paul that all men might see, might grasp this plan of God to bring you and I into intimate communion and fellowship with the blessed Son of God so that we can be transformed and bear His likeness and bear His image. Verse number 10. To the intent. That is the purpose. Listen. The purpose of the fellowship and the mystery. The fellowship with Christ. The joining of the two. The Scripture says that he that is joined to the Lord is what? One spirit. To the intent. Why are we called into fellowship with Christ? Essentially for ourself? No. It's not for us, essentially. Though we benefit from it, God has a bigger picture. God has a bigger scope. And the journey to spiritual maturity involves being freed from the little picture. You remember several weeks ago we talked about children and we realized that everything that happens in a child's life is all about them. Everything is related to themselves. Christmas is not very spiritual in this day that we live in, is it? Why? Yeah, there's a lot of excitement, isn't there? It's all about us. You know why some are angry and bitter and resentful? You know why? Because it's not all about you anymore. And you don't like it. You flat-like don't like it. It's a hard thing when God says it's time to grow up. It's a hard thing when it's not all about you. All about your wants. All about your needs. All about your desires. How many have felt the resentment well up in your heart when life couldn't revolve around you? Yeah. Yeah. That's our condition. But Father in Heaven wants us to be stretched so that we can be free to the intent, get a hold of this, that now, now, that's now, that's not in the future, that's not in the age to come, that is now, in this age that we live in, that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God. Oh God, help us to see, help us to see the significance of what you're going through in your life has great impact on the whole world. What you're going through now in your little home, it seems so insignificant, doesn't it? But it's not. Great things are at stake right now. You see, being called a Christian and coming into the family of God is something bigger than we think. God's plan is now the principalities and powers in heavenly places. That's all the powers of darkness that are currently in this age, manipulating the world, manipulating nations, manipulating cities and towns, ruling in governmental positions, sowing into the earth all of the filth and pollution and corruption of their own inherent nature of evil. Unto them God wants to reveal through you the manifold wisdom of God. And I'll tell you what the manifold wisdom of God is. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. The manifold wisdom of God. 2,000 years ago, angels appeared to Joseph. Behold! Tidings of great joy! The manifold wisdom of God is about to appear on the scene. The wisdom of God taking His own nature, His own likeness, and putting it in a man. And this man was born. His name was Jesus. And He grew. And He was baptized. And He was publicly revealed. Listen! Listen! This man walked on earth, but the devil and all the principalities and all the powers in heavenly places had nothing in Him. Norman, they couldn't get Him to walk by their drumbeat. They appealed to pride, because they know pride is deep in our heart. But Jesus didn't respond. They appealed to vainglory, but this man was the manifold wisdom of God. There was no vainglory in Him. They promised Him the kingdoms of the world. They appeared to power, prestige, protocol, position, covetousness, greed, on the head honcho. Ooh! Everyone looks up to Me. But the manifold wisdom of God said, Get thee behind Me, Satan. Jesus demonstrated before the world and displayed before the evil principalities and powers in heavenly places the manifold wisdom of God. He demonstrated the likeness of God. He demonstrated what it was to walk on earth, but not to be seduced by earth. He demonstrated what it was like to live in the earth, but not be of the earth. He demonstrated 1 Corinthians 13. And now, brothers and sisters, what is the church called? His body. Ephesians chapter 1. My God, brothers and sisters, this is the truth of God's Word. This truth will revolutionize our homes. It will revolutionize our way of thinking. Listen, this truth will put sweetness in every trial that you're going through because you come to realize that your life is being watched. Not just by brothers and sisters or husband and wife and children. Your life is being watched by principalities and powers. The whole church is being watched and God is waiting for the day when through the church, the manifold wisdom of God, Christ, will put to open shame the principalities and powers in heavenly places. God, give this to us, I pray. Give this revelation to us. Every time we go through something, every time we come up against a bump or a difficulty, or when we come into prosperity, whatever it might be, we are openly being observed. And God's plan. Ephesians 1. Listen to this. Verse 20. Verse 19. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe? According to the walking of His mighty power, which He wore in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and has put all things under His feet and gave Him to be the head over the church. Listen, verse 23. The church. Which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all and all. What this means, brothers and sisters, is the church is to be the depository of the fullness of Christ's character, the fullness of Christ's likeness, so that when the principalities and the powers look down at the church, what do they see? Do they see a bunch of people doing their own thing? Living a life of covetousness and greed? Backbiting, gossiping, loving money, grasping for things in this life? Or are they supposed to see a corporate expression of the Son of God? That's what they're supposed to see. They're supposed to see Jesus. And that testimony, that testimony will disarm them. Will put them to open shame. It will frustrate them. It will cause them to draw back. They don't know what to do with Christians when they fall in love with Jesus. The devil won't know what to do. Can you see it? Can you see it? I'll tell you, God, God is going to make this known. It comes by revelation. So what's happening in your life today? Something insignificant? Something small? No. I challenge you to reconsider. I challenge you to reconsider and to think about what you're going through right now and recognize it as an opportunity for God to demonstrate, to display through you to the evil powers in heaven what? The likeness of Jesus. Has someone cursed you? Has someone betrayed you? Has someone lied against you? Bless them. Do good to them. Pray for them. Do you know what that does to the devil and all the principalities and powers in heavenly places when they see a Christian respond to betrayal by love or by cursing, by blessing or by when you're despitefully used or abused, you pray and weep. Do you know what it does to the devil? It causes him to tremble because that is stuff they can't touch. It disarms him of all his power. The church now is running around trying to have power over the devil doing incantations and religious spells and lifting up their voice and giving all kinds of formulas. That's not going to do anything but provoke this response. Jesus, I know. Paul, I know. But who are you and all of your religious potions? You know why the devil knew Paul? Because Paul knew the fellowship of the mystery. And he walked by the drumbeat of heaven. And he defied the temptations to make a name for himself. He defied the temptations to build a church for himself. He defied the temptation to become rich off God's people. But he chose the way of being unknown, the offscoring of the earth. And the devil didn't know what to do with this man because in and through him was a continuous demonstration of the life of the Son of God, the wisdom of God. Brothers and sisters, we are united to a strong one. We are united to a resurrected one. We are united to one who when the prince of this earth came, he said, he's got nothing in me, Carrie. Nothing in me. And the church in Christ, in Christ, can discover that same life. He that abideth in Him walks even as He did. God, I pray that You will take Your Word and sow it into our hearts. Plow the ground, Lord. Plow the ground, O God. Cause us to see, Lord. Lord, cause us to see this mighty revelation of the manifold wisdom of God being put on display, frustrating and conquering the principalities and powers. Let us see, Lord, 1 Corinthians 13 as the wisdom of God that will disarm and frustrate and overcome any scheme or device or strategy that Satan would seek to bring against us. Father, I pray this revelation will come. I pray it will come, Lord, and grow that our hearts will be captured by this, Lord. Oh, let me tell you something. Until we see this and until God makes it real in our life, brothers and sisters, we're loved of God, we're kept by God, we're forgiven by God, but we're powerless. We're powerless. All the devil has to do is rub the wrong cord in your life and you're off bittering and grumbling and complaining and you're unforgiving and your heart is full of grumbling and you're angry and you're ready to get up and do this and you're going to go and you're not... The devil looks and says, no need to fear. No need to fear. They're still under our power. We can still control them because we know just what cord to pull. But it doesn't have to be that way because we are united to a greater one and we have to beg God, Lord, let me know the truth of Romans 6 and 7 and 8 and Galatians 2. Where are we at today? Where are we at? I'll tell you where we're at. We're in the hands of God who is lovingly calling us, embracing us in His love, but showing us things that are to come. Things that are to come. And if we will say to God, yes, this is where we're heading, that Christ might be all and all. We're going to pick up next time in 1 Corinthians 13. Love is kind. And we're going to see that the word kind there is connected to our speech. And we're going to see how the devil has not yet seen kindness in our life. And that's why he's still got so much power over us. But there's good news. Love is kind. God is love. And we are born of God. Father, do what only You can do. Thank You for Your presence and Your Word. We'll take this up next time, Lord. And I pray You'll walk us through. Work on us. Prepare our hearts to receive Your Word. And be faithful, Lord, to do Your work. I pray in Jesus' name, amen and amen. God bless everyone. The Lord be with you and keep you.