PROVE IT | Check Your Vertical | Philip Anthony Mitchell

welcome to the victory broadcast if this ministry has impacted you in any way please consider supporting the spread of the gospel by visiting us online and choosing the giving option that works best for you now we pray that this message will stir your heart and build your faith get ready to receive the word of god we give you all the glory this morning come holy spirit come holy ghost have your way in this place have your way in our rooms open up our hearts open up our eyes jesus oh would you find us here in this place of worship in this place of adoration in this place of glory have your way out your way have your way have your way o lord have your way o lord have your way my lord have your way have your way come on put this on your lips we're gonna sing about jesus he has paid the highest price and he has proven his great love for us and we will praise him with our lives come on proclaim and proclaim my love for him come on he has paid the highest price y'all [Music] come on that's our starting [Music] we focus our eyes on you he has to take [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] and proclaim [Music] we proclaim our love to you jesus [Music] come on put your hands together right here come on we bless you with the clapping of our hands we bless you in the timbre and with the dance this morning you're worthy of all these things jesus we bless you right now we love you right now we adore you right now we fix our focus on you even now holy spirit move like you want to move be exhausted lord jesus be exalted or upon our [Music] and i have heard a sound [Music] changing hearts and minds healing brokenness i see gender ray shine breaking through despair we are a generation full of faith declares and our song it will be out of the darkness we will rise is come on [Music] is [Music] and [Applause] [Music] we will rise [Music] [Music] yes is [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] is has is the highest price [Music] he has proven his great love for us we will praise him with our lives and proclaim my love for him come on he has to has pay the highest prices [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Music] yes [Music] he has paid [Music] come on he has paid the highest price king jesus he has proven his great love for us we will praise him with our light [Music] and broke like my lover for him we sing right to you we sing right to you you have paid the highest price you lord you lord you lord you you have proven your great love for us we will praise you with our lives [Music] and broke like my love for you come on sing it right to him come on you have you have proven your great love for us for us for us [Music] come on take us in one more time come on you have paid you have you had [Applause] come on you did it only you could do it you did it jesus with nail pierced hands you say you love [Music] come on we'll me this chorus one more time and he is faithful and he is glorious and he is jesus and all my hope is in him he is freedom and he is healing right now he is hope and joy love and peace and light [Music] your name is life your name is life your name is alive what you give is fullness of joy fullness of peace let the fruits of your spirit arise in us today let it arise in us today break forth break forth break forth break forth break forth holy spirit break forth as we lift up the name of jesus as we glorify the name of jesus rise up in us holy spirit rise up in us holy ghost rise up in us oh send your ruach in the breath send the breath of god straight from heaven straight from heaven we wait on you lord we wait on you lord [Music] we wait on you lord we wait on you lord father we don't mind sitting still here we don't mind tarrying here lord father because we find safety under the shadow of your wings you give us a promise you say that they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength that they will mount up on wings like eagles and sore that they will run and not grow weary they will walk and never faint we wait on you lord we wait on you lord we wait on you lord we wait on you we love you we love you we love you we love you we love you we love you we love you we love you just tell them how much you love him minister to his heart we just wanna minister to his heart we just wanna bless him we just wanna move him we wanna put a smile on your face lord we love you we love you we love you we love you oh love is [Music] i love your presence [Music] i love you jesus yes i do yes i do yes i do yes i do come on say i love i love your presence [Music] is [Music] i [Music] i love you jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] come and this is feel him now let go [Music] is [Music] is [Music] if you want [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Applause] crying out loud for this love that he has freely given to you it's never end out so just let go of your head and feel him now feel him now let go of your heart and feel him down yeah just begin a feeling feel and wrap his arms around you come on the blessings of the lord are good and they add no sorrow your embrace my lord it adds no sorrow [Music] there is no depression in your presence [Music] there is no heavy weight in your presence jesus you already carried it you already carried it there is no anxiety in your presence come down now in the name of now in the jesus of jesus chains of the mind chains of the heart addictions come down in your presence in the name of jesus we decree and declare in the mighty name of jesus that your sons and daughters find their identity in you that they find their peace in you that they find their hope in you that they find their ability to love in you and you and you alone you are the father of light every good and perfect gift comes from you every good gift comes from you [Music] so here's the invitation as we close and if you want him come and get it for crying out loud this love that he has given you it's never in doubt so let go of your heart let go of your head and feel him now [Applause] now [Music] open up the windows holy spirit oh it's open it's open it's open it's open it's open it's open you fling light the gates of righteousness so your sons and daughters can run on in so run on in run on in [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] into the throne of grace he made a way made away with his blood and it's the gospel come on in come on into the throne of grace you made a way made a way made away you made a way just like you did for the children of israel when they stood upon the shore of the red sea they had a red sea in front of them and they had an army behind them they were stuck between a rock and a hard place but the lord began to trouble the waters he began to strike the waters and when he spoke at his whisper at the strike of the rod even the seas responded even the depths of the oceans responded to the vibration of the heart of god a highway was made for the people of god to walk through for the people of god to press through for the people of god to break through there was a highway that was made for the people of god to come through at the voice of the lord at the voice of the lord at the voice of the lord he's making a way for you he's making [Music] let the captain go free let the captain go previous morning [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] right there in the chats let the redeemed of the lord say so [Music] if you've been redeemed say so shout it out in the chat if he has given you a new name shout it out in the chat if there was a time you were blind but because of his love now you have sight shout it out in the chat today shout it out in the chats today shout it out shout it out shout it out shout it out shout it out shout it out shout it out shout it out shout it out shout it out shout it out shout it out shout it out you say shout it out shout it out come on [Music] yeah yeah jesus we thank you that we overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony we overcome we overcome we overcome we overcome come on sometimes you gotta say a thing a couple of times before you believe it we have overcome we have overcome we have overcome salah and it is so we have overcome we have overcome we have overcome we have overcome we have overcome we have we have we have so come on in come on into the throne of grace he made a way made away with his blood so come on in come on into the throne of grace he made a way made a way with his blood and body so jesus we thank you we thank you the redeemed of the lord thank you that though our sins were once like scarlet that once they were like crimson because of what you did on the tree you have made the crimson white as snow and we bless you we bless you we bless you we bless you we bless you father we ask that you would open up our ears to the word of god that is gonna go forth this morning we ask that you would open up our chest that you would burst open our hearts that we will see that we will testify and receive of the wisdom that only you can pour out that only you can freely give that only you can share straight from heaven let freedom go forth this morning let deliverance go forth this morning let healing go forth this morning in the mighty name of jesus if you receive it this morning shout amen amen amen amen have your way have your way [Music] have your way have your way have your way have your way [Music] do [Music] grace and peace to you victory family so glad to see all of you with us today this first sunday of february the month of love this first sunday in our ptcg outreach uh so glad that all of you are joining us wherever you are in the city of atlanta and to all of our friends watching in cities around the country we welcome all of you to the week one of our brand new series called prove it and i believe that this series is going to be a major blessing to you yesterday we launched our very first paint the city green outreach on saturday ministering to at risk children in our city in partnership with the ronald mcdonald house i want to say personally on behalf of my wife and i thank you to all of you who served yesterday in paint the city green be in the hands and feet of jesus if you are new to our family and you are unfamiliar with paint the city green this is an outreach initiative we started in the first year of our church we separated the month of february to say that in the month of february in the month of love we're gonna go out of the four walls out of our comfort zone into the city to be the tangible hands and feet of jesus demonstrating his love across the city that began with just one month of outreach each year it has since then grown into a 501c3 organization annual outreach throughout the entire year and partnerships with organizations all across the city of atlanta right now that organization's being led by shanties butler one of our leaders who's doing a dynamic job leading our church in honoring the words of our lord from matthew 25 when he taught us that we are to remember those who are least fortunate than us and that there is an eternal consequence for doing outreach and there is an eternal blessing for doing outreach and so uh there is a consequence when we fail to do that there is a blessing when we do do that so for everyone involved thank you so much for serving yesterday and if you need details on the next upcoming weeks just go to paintthecitygreen.org information is on the screen beneath me and you can sign up right now for an outreach today on sunday so you have an opportunity to join us in making a difference uh in our city and i thank you again for all of you who are serving now i know you're ready to jump into this series prove it week one of our brand new series and um i just want to ask you that you will lend me your heart and lend me your ears for the time that we have together and if you are single i don't want you to trip out this is not gonna be four weeks of marriage talk so you don't have to worry about all that this series is for you and if you are married this series is for you and wherever you are in that spectrum this series is for you the question is why why if there is no human emotion we will ever experience this more powerful than love in the name of love people have been driven to do great exploits and in the name of love people have been driven to commit murder there is no intangible need we will ever have that is greater than the need for love there is no expression of divine or human good will that is more impactful than love and where love is not present or where love does not function right unhealthiness and brokenness abounds there are a lot of us who are as i'm talking to you if we would just be honest this sunday morning a lot of us who are dealing with developmental and emotional deficits real brokenness because love was not experienced right there are many marriages and relationships that are stressed right now because love is not being expressed right there are a lot of us who are settlers for abusive relationships and abusive situations and unfortunately there are people watching me who are the perpetrators of abuse because love was never explained right and there are a ton of believers who are blocking people from seeing god and seeing jesus because his words about love were never examined right and if there is one legitimate charge that the unbelieving world or even other christians can make or lay upon another believer it is discharged right here if love is the hallmark of the christian walk if that's what you got on your post that's what you got on your ig page you call yourself a follower of jesus if love is the hallmark of the christian walk i don't want to just hear that prove that like prove it to me that love is on the inside of your heart i i i hear you talking but i don't feel that from you like there's there's women in relationships that know what that feel like like i i hear you talking i get your text but i don't feel that coming off of you right there's a lot of posting but i don't see that right i want you to prove it right prove it and my my prayer is that this series is going to bring about change it's going to bring about healing is going to bring about transformation in the hearts of singles in the hearts of married people in the hearts of those who are dating i believe that this series is going to be a major blessing to you wherever you're watching now look right at me family obviously um i can't address every aspect of love in one sermon or even in a series that is that is almost impossible to do that in four weeks and that's not my aim in this series my goal in this series is to just kind of focus your heart on one singular powerful axiom truths around singular topics and i want to use this first message to just lay a foundation and then i'mma build on this foundation weeks two three and four again this is not some big theological build out of every single nuance of love that's not this series so if you're looking for that that's not what this is this is me focusing your attention on a singular axiom a singular truth every single week that i think is applicable to you and i right where we are in the seasons of our lives and i want to start this new series with this first message i'm just going to call check your vertical check check your vertical eternal god and otherwise father we we just humble ourselves right now god in your presence you lord who said that you are the god of love creator of heaven and earth and father we know that this is a difficult subject for some a painful subject for others a fearful subject for some a joyful subject for others wherever we land on that spectrum spirit of the living god i pray you would speak to your people right where they are i pray you would arrest our attention you would drive away every distraction and that this seed will be planted so firmly in the hearts of your people cause we must see change in this area the world is watching and so father i pray you will just breathe as we break the seals on this series breathe on these messages breathe on the hearts of your sons and daughters we ask in the mighty and majestic matchless name of the lord jesus christ family if you want just just help me drop in the chats everybody dropping the chats check your vertical just start talking to each other in the chats drop in the chats check your vertical check your vertical check your vertical check your vertical y'all not listening everybody drop it in the chats check your vertical check your vertical check your vertical jennifer was raised in a quote-unquote christian home her parents were present in that home but they were very cold emotionally as jennifer grew older she knew she was supposed to be loved but had not really experienced love from her parents she had not heard the words in her formative years i love you she had little or no memory of experiencing love from her parents and she had not realized that in her formative years she was being raised with an emotional deficit that from the time she left her home as a teenager she left a home with a heart that was kind of bankrupt of that great emotional need called love jennifer went on to college in another state and with an empty soul she would give herself one to another in and out of bad relationships with men who aroused her feelings with a sense of worth every time she heard the word i love you or you were pretty or you were attractive she found herself hopping out of beds hopping out of apartments hopping out of her relationships because what jennifer was really searching for was what her parents did not give her and that was love from one man to the next and from one relationship to the next jennifer entered into adulthood unknowingly being driven by a deficit for love jennifer graduated from college and found herself in the church pursuing faith she began to feel some semblance of love from a small handful of older women who took her under her wing and they would cook food for her and she start to feel like maybe this is what love is supposed to feel like and for the most part she had found many christians in the church who were not loving but they were actually self-centered very egotistical and very cold jennifer struggled in her relationship with god she did not understand god as a father she could not connect with the love of god as a father so when she would read that god loves and when she would read that god is love jennifer couldn't connect with that in her heart she struggled when she got married later on in life she struggled in her marriage with deep emotional deficits jennifer's what we would tag as broken she swore to herself that if she ever had children she would love them the way she wished her parents had loved her something inside jennifer knew that love was more than just a word that it was something that needed to be seen and something that needed to be felt this is all fact this is not fiction i'm just using an alias name for the anonymity of which who jennifer really is and maybe this is not your story right maybe jennifer's story is not your story but in loosely connected experiences there are many jennifer's watching me right now in this chat room there are even men watching right now who are jennifer's in this chat room yeah even even the strongest of men are walking around some of them with deficits because they have not been loved by a father who abandoned them not loved by a mother who did not care for them and so they're not only female jennifer's watching me right now but there are also male jennifer's watching me right now and for those of us who are in the chat who are fortunate enough to say you know pastor phillip i have no emotional deficits i was raised in a great home with great parents who love me talk love experience love show love if that's you praise god for you i want you to help me minister to everybody else maybe jennifer's story is not yours but even if you have no emotional deficits at all you and i whether you are jennifer or not one are constantly bumping into engaging with around jennifer's all the time we have jennifer's in our church community we have jennifer's in our circle of friends we have jennifer's on our jobs for some of us you have a jennifer in your home it's the child you're talking to sleep every single night that does not feel love it's the spouse that rolls their back in a cold bed that does not feel love for some of us jennifer lives in the home for some of us we sleep next to jennifer every single night in the form of some broken spouse or some broken children and our dealings with people man we're bumping into jennifer's all around us and and all around us even in the church in our zooms in our small groups in our social media pages they're jennifer's all around us in the early days of our church one of our team members had went to kroger and when they went inside kroger they were standing at the checkout line and they saw a woman standing in check and she had a button on her shirt and this is what the button says the button says the button says does anybody love anymore and the person asked her what does the button mean and she said she was convinced that love no longer existed in the hearts of all people then the team member handed her a victory church invite card this was one of our old joints like we need to put this back on the new joints and at the bottom of the card it says we love people and then her heart lit up and what that person had found in that moment was watch this word hope that love was not gone obviously because of her experiences her past her hurts her disappointments she had thought from all the people that failed her that love no longer existed not only in her circle but she says no one loves anymore because if we look around the world that's so cold and so icy there is a deficit of love that woman lost hope through everything she was going through and it's for us the people of god to restore that hope to the broken world that is outside of our local gathering look at this scripture carefully in genesis 1 26 one of my favorite passages in the old testament god said let us make man in our image and after our likeness god speaking there in plural forms the pronouns in plural us and our god the father is speaking the son in the pre-incarnate version is with the father and the holy spirit is there we know this from john 1 and from genesis chapter 1. and so god the father god the son god the holy spirit says they have a conference among themselves in the godhead let us make man in our image and after our likeness i want to draw your attention to two words in that text first the word image in hebrew imago day which means that we were created with worth and value with some semblance of features resembling the unseen god i want to draw your attention to the second word which is more important this word likeness means we were created with traits like god let me let me say that again we were created in the image of god that we have worth and value every single person no matter who they are how good they are how bad they are has worth and value because they were created in the imago day every wife every husband every friend the homeless person on the street they all were created in the image of god and so they all have equal worth and value the imago day but it's that second word that is the anchor for where i'm going that we were also created with his likeness meaning in every human being there are parts of god on the inside of us that we were created with similar traits like god let's talk about one of those traits one of the traits of god that we find in human beings is this big powerful word called emotions and all throughout the old testament and the new testament we see the full range of god's emotions we see that god has the capacity watch to be angry we see god has the capacity to be frustrated have regret he's expressed grief he has shown empathy he's shown compassion he's shown concern but of all of the emotions that god has demonstrated in the old testament and the new testament of all the emotions that god has poured out in the earth probably the greatest emotional capacity we see expressed in god is this emotion called love love in fact john one of jesus's first disciple wrote these powerful words god is love not that god just shows love god is love and so when we see god we see love when we hear god we hear love when people say we represent god there should be love it's like prove that i see your profile prove that i see you tweet pros you always got something to say on facebook prove that all these facebook preachers but prove that right right because god is love in a very real sense you and i look right at me have been wired for love why can i say that because god lives in you in the person of the holy spirit but even deeper than that you were created in his likeness and because you were created in his likeness you have been wired for love and what the faith demands and what our relationships demand and what our interactions with people demand is proof of that wiring evidence that love is in you the faith demands that proof our interactions with people on our job in our homes it demands that proof our relationships demand that proof is not enough to just say i love we need to be able to prove that for some of you proof is not an issue at all i feel you you doing good right like maybe the next sermon is for you next week right proof is not an issue you pour out love and everybody know you pour out love but there are some of you still searching for love some of you have abandoned love some of you have been hurt by quote-unquote love some of you you don't even want to be loved and some of you you don't even know how to love here's the facts all of us need love all of us have received love all of us who are believers should be conduits of love romans 5 5 the apostle paul wrote this to the church of rome and hope does not disappoint us because god has washed his words poured out his love in our hearts by the holy spirit whom god has given us did you see that let me read that to you one more time and hope does not disappoint us because god has poured out his love into our hearts by the holy spirit whom has who he has given us therefore the love of god is on the inside of you everybody look right at me if you belong to jesus god has shed abroad in your heart his love by the person of the holy spirit so that means any person who is a christ follower has no excuse not to love because god has placed his love in you so the love of god is in you and in me and the love god wants us to show others it is in you and it is in me so then why is there so much brokenness around the topic of love if god loves people perfectly if god is love if god is the image of love if god took every person who belongs to him and poured out in their hearts love if every christian inside them is the love of god then why then is there so much brokenness and so much unhealthiness when it comes to this topic of love especially with not the people in the world the people in church the people in the chats the people on instagram always got stuff in their profile the people always got a word on facebook but then you hate your wife you're always preaching a sermon on instagram live but you hate your husband you always got a word on social media but you are nasty person with a bad attitude and nobody wants to be around you you're always trying to keep a bible study but you can't keep friends right always want to be leading people in the scriptures but you can't keep friends you want to be preaching to people but you have bad personal relationships right and if the love of god is in us and if it's in you and in me then what is the problem right why is there so much brokenness and unhealthiness amongst believers when it comes to this issue of love perhaps the great old school theologian music soul child a former r b star perhaps he said it best in his famous song called love you should go youtube that when this is over he said love i don't want to sing it so i'ma just say it to you right i'm a preacher not a singer music soul child said love so many people use your name in vain love he said for those who have faith in you they have gone astray he said love he says through all the ups and downs of joys and hurts love is the last line we need for better or worse i still will choose you first right music soul child said that see where real love is absent hearts are unhealthy just look look right at me let's just be honest where real love is absent hearts are always unhealthy where real love is absent relationships are unhealthy where real love is absent marriages are unhealthy where real love is absent homes are unhealthy where real love is absent churches are unhealthy and the truth is many of us we misunderstand love we misunderstand the word like music soul child says we we don't understand that where we we we we talk about love we post about love but we don't really understand that and this is a very serious thing for us to think about because whenever we don't know the purpose for something we will abuse it because a purpose unknown makes abuse inevitable right a purpose unknown makes abuse inevitable if a child does not know the purpose for a chair they will stand on it thinking it's a platform when they fall and bust their nose they learn not to stand on that chair because a purpose unknown makes abuse inevitable and so if we don't know the purpose for a thing we will naturally abuse it and if we don't understand the purpose of love we will naturally abuse that thing that god put inside of our wiring from the hardest of thugs i see y'all right to the most sensitive of females i see you from the wealthiest of people in the upper echelon society to the homeless men on the street everyone needs love for we are all in a deficit where love is absent so what does real love look like where does it begin for you and i in practical expression not not not your post not your profile not not not not even your preaching all them songs you singing like like we we dope on stage but we nasty when we come off like nah where does what does real love look like and what does that look like in practical expression for you and i where does that begin listen to this powerful conversation that jesus had with a religious teacher a man who was well versed in the old testament of the bible a man named luke who the scripture tells us was a doctor and a historian he was not an immediate disciple of the lord jesus christ he wrote the gospel that bears his name luke and he wrote that gospel from compiling information about the life of jesus he did not walk with him personally i want you to listen to this account that luke records in his gospel a conversation jesus was having with a religious teacher luke records the incident like so in luke chapter 10 verse 25. listen to this family very powerful on one occasion we do not know when luke does not tell us when watch this next word an expert in the law pause that's tagline for i know the entire old testament back to front and if he's a jew which he is a jew that means he had memorized the entire torah so genesis exodus leviticus numbers and deuteronomy memorized did you peep that memorize let me say this again because i'm going somewhere with this memorized an expert in the law you got a lot of bible an expert in the law okay uh he stood up to test jesus that's a bad idea teacher he said he asked what must i do to inherit internal life now this is a very powerful question what do i have to do to be saved only if i wish more people would start asking that question i wish people in the r b world in the hip-hop world in the sports world i wish we had a culture where people were thinking about eternity and then more people be wondering what do i have to do to be saved so the expert asked jesus a good question but with a bad motive don't we see trolls like this on our instagram all the time like they come up on there trying to ask you questions but they're not asking because they want to learn they're just asking because they want to manipulate and antagonize and frustrate i deal with trolls like this all the time and somebody said oh somebody said to me the other day on my facebook page oh my oh my instagram little pastor you need to you need to turn the other cheek and no but every now and then you got to check a hater right because jesus did that right yeah he knew when to turn the other cheek but he knew when to check haters like like those pharisees he wasn't turning the other cheek to pharisees he was calling whitewashed tombs evil men know who's going to save you from the wrath of hell right and so all sometimes these trolls come up on your page just like this expert in law and they're not really trying to learn right they're asking questions because they're trying to antagonize you know what you don't want to grow you just want to be an annoyance on my page so so i'm just warning y'all right now i will check you quick right if you come with the wrong spirit somebody came up on my life my life i'm doing with my wife talking trash y'all see i'm still dealing with this right just pray for me don't talk trash on my life right um i will i will handle you um in that room right um pray for your pastor i'm still a work in progress and so verse 26 jesus says to him what is written in the law he replied how do you read it so powerful jesus does not leave the answer to his opinion he sends him back to the word of god okay you want to know how to inhere eternal life what does the word say not what google says not what this this thing you got online says not what not what the hebrew israelite says or or this religion says or no no you want you want to know the role to salvation jesus points them back to the scriptures what does the law say that is tell me what the word of god says about the path to eternal life not not what you got off yahoo whoever still uses yahoo what does the word of god say so jesus pointed them back to the word why because the word not a cute sermon is the source of conviction that brings transformation right acute sermon doesn't bring transformation an argument does that the word of god that the spirit rides on the word brings conviction that leads to transformation what does the law said he replied verse 27 now the expert responds to jesus and he says this everybody watch very important love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind love your neighbor as yourself right these two commandments the golden commandment of the scriptures the scripture says upon this all the law and the prophets hang that is if we fulfill this we fulfill the entire scriptures verse 28 you have answered correctly jesus replied now watch this do this and you will live just do this watch and everything else will fall in place y'all miss that all right love the lord your god with all of your heart not half your heart all of your soul not half your soul all of your strength not half your strength and with all of your mind and then love your neighbor do this and you will live do this and everything else will just fall into place in your christian life you have answered correctly jesus replied do this and you will live verse 29 but he wanted to justify himself we are guilty of this so he asked jesus everybody watch uh yeah that god thing i hate you but who is my neighbor right notice the expert in the law watch this he knows the command of god right he's he's full of scriptures like we we got notes and notes in our journals right he he knows the word of god he gives jesus a correct answer but he did not think that the word applied to him so it's good enough to teach but not good enough to practice right it's good enough to sing about in songs but not good enough to practice it's good about the play about but not good enough to practice it's good enough to keep posting about but not good to pray we see you which which is with your scripture post that you put every single morning ig it's good enough to do that but not good enough to practice right it's easy to go on canva and put together a post but do you practice what you're posting right right and he gave jesus the correct answer but he didn't think it applied to himself and it is in this the tactic of what i call selective submission that keeps so many of us from growth and spiritual maturation and spiritual transformation is what i call selective submission i'll obey this chapter i won't obey that one i like what he says about blessing right there i don't like about forgive my forgive my husband right there man i like this word about prosperity i don't like this word about giving right so we got this like selective submission i'll submit to what i like and i'll get rid of the rest never mind all of it is god's commandments to us right so this man has selective submission and i find it so interesting how this man was full of the knowledge of god's word but he was empty of the very thing they were talking about you knew the word but he was bankrupt of love what a great picture of modern religion full of piety without compassion full of self-righteousness without selflessness faith leaders with hermeneutical excellence and dope christian attire but their hearts are bankrupt of love you can move a room but you can't move a heart you could grab a microphone and sing and move a room when you come off the platform you can't touch a heart watch how jesus responds to this question he says to him and jesus responded and he said amen watch how jesus replied in reply jesus said to him jesus is so smart he thinks about something that happened in jerusalem some theologians said this was a parable i don't believe that from my study this was a true story that jesus would be a fool to just make up the story because he knew it would get him in trouble so he pulled from a story that he heard and he repeats the story to the expert in law listen to the story carefully a man was going down from jerusalem to jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers they stripped him off his clothes and they beat him and they went about their way leaving him half dead now my wife and i was in jerusalem in december 2018 jerusalem is built on a hill so if you leave the city of jerusalem it doesn't matter what direction you're going north south east or west if you leave the city of jerusalem you always go down i think god was wise when he put that city there the city that bears his name you must go up to jerusalem and when you leave you go down from jerusalem and in those days the first century indeed the roads leading out of jerusalem were busy dark and dangerous people always got robbed on these roads verse 31 a priest happened to be going down the same road when he saw the man this is what religion does he pass by on the other side so to a levite and he came to the place and saw the man he passed by on the other side two men who were taught the ways of the lord what excuses did they have to pass by the man that was on the side of the road what was the excuses too tired from being in the temple all night we we had an outpouring of god's spirit in the temple too tired to show love on the way home from the church service right too tired to care for the man that was on the side of the road uh what's another excuse oh that's somebody else's responsibility uh you know i'm teaching i'm posting because listen it's much easier to teach and post than it is to practice right verse 33 but a samaritan a race of people that the jews hated they were half jews and half non-jews and so the samaritans was a race of people that the jews hated the man laying on the road more than likely was a jew one jew passed another jew passed holy men passed by but a samaritan an enemy of the man laying on the side of the road as he traveled he came to where the man was and he saw him right there's so many people broken right now you just need someone to see you god there's so many people battling deficits of love we just need somebody to see us there are people in uh we in our zooms we in our small groups so we just need somebody to see us there are grown men hurting that just need somebody to see you dealing with father wounds just need somebody to see you dealing with mother wounds just need somebody there's so many young women hopping in and out of bad relations because you just need someone to see you i pray the spirit of god see you this morning or whenever you're consuming this message and when he saw him he took pity on him in the heart of the samaritan we see the mercy the compassion the love of god we see the heart of god verse 34. he went to him this is powerful watch he bandaged his wounds pouring in oil and wine and he put him on his own donkey took him to an end took care of him the next day he took out two silver coins and he gave it to the innkeeper he said please look after him he said and when i return i will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have in this act we probably see the high costs of caring for people caring for people is not easy caring for children is not easy loving your spouse not loving your boyfriend or girlfriend it's not easy we see the high cost of caring for people but when i consider what happiness takes you know what is more costly not caring for people it's more costly how many adults right now are broken adults because a parent did not care for a child how many people right now are all broken because a former spouse did not care for them see i've learned from my own pain that there's a higher cost for not caring than it is for caring it's actually cheaper to care than to not care because caring may cost us tangible things finances money let me live in your house but the cost of not caring sometimes are broken hearts broken souls broken spirits for years and sometimes even decades and some people even go to the grave broken because somebody did not care not so for anybody watching right now you need to just receive that in the name of jesus i preach healing over this chat right now in the name of jesus nobody's coming out of this series broken in the name of jesus see i'm speaking to you should just be dropping amen all in the chat no one is coming out of this series broken in the name of jesus god will pour in the seeds of healing in the name of jesus not loving is more costly the priests and levites lost right far more they lost their neglect from the samaritan right what did they lose they they lost more than their neglect of the samaritan did they lost more the samaritans showed concern they sure neglect the samaritan had to spend money they lost more than what the samaritan lost he lost money he lost time he lost resources but they lost more than what he lost what did they lose they lost the opportunity to become better men in that moment like some of us like some people have lost the opportunity to be good fathers and we got to re we got to recover that they lost the opportunity to be better stewards of the truth that god entrusted to them they lost the opportunity to be good influencers in a dark culture we lose just the same when we step over opportunities to show love we lose more than just pausing enough to show care for other people but the samaritan's one deed of love that happened in the first century a.d here it is the year 2020. it has inspired selfless merciful compassionate love and outreach all around the world for 2020 years now watch how jesus finished the talk i'm almost done family he says to the lawyer after you heard the story which one of these do you think was a neighbor to the men who fell into the hands of robbers the expert in the law of replied the one who had mercy on him now watch what jesus says he says go and do likewise he says go and do likewise jesus is having this conversation with this expert in the law he knows the word but has no intention of doing it for himself in fact he quotes deuteronomy 6 and 5 in leviticus 6 19 18. but jesus used this incident to drive home a singular powerful truth a singular powerful axiom and when properly understood it has the power to transform hearts and relationships now in this incident that jesus taught that he rehearsed really watch me there is a powerful uh there is a powerful lineage or chain of revelations that is almost numeric starting from four down there are there are four key people three major themes there are two massive commandments and one inescapable application let me walk you through these really quickly and then i'll pray for you what can we deduce from jesus's teaching uh number one the direction of love okay love has a direction look right at me love has a direction the lord said you need to love the lord your god with all your heart with all your mind with all your soul with all your strength and then love your neighbor as yourself now i want you to notice the direction in which love flows it flows between us and god first then between us and others god shows us right here in this text jesus shows us the route to perfecting love in my heart it starts vertically first first it is vertical at the more i grow in love this way vertical the better i am able to love horizontal right the more i grow in intimacy vertical the better i can love horizontal and so god teaches us the route to perfect in love it is vertical first and then it's horizontal second it is no reason then so many of us don't know how to love right because we have not got the vertical right there's so much broken horizontal relationships because we don't do the vertical relationship right the more we grow in our love for god our intimacy with god our submission with god the word of god the more we know how to love people right okay the more i grew in love for god the more i understood his love for me the more i understood his ways the better i was able to love horizontally some of us we can't love right horizontally because we don't love write vertically and god says if you would grow in horizontal love with all these people you keep hurting abusing mistreating manipulating this will begin to die off if you just get this right no wonder we need to spend time in his presence no wonder we need to spend time in his word no wonder we need to listen to biblical teaching no wonder we keep need to lay in our heart on the altar some of us man we are just a conduit for trouble and drama and brokenness and bad relationships because we're trying to do christianity apart from intimacy with god but he gives us the direction of perfecting love love is not perfected horizontally i know she cute i know she got hips and lips and all of that right i know he handsome and he dark and he's sexy and he chocolate and all that he looked good and all of that but does he love god god does she love god because if they don't love god you're already in trouble that you may not be loved right man that if i was a woman dating somebody for the first time i'll be checking what's up with your vertical yeah be before we go too far down the road what's up with your vertical or maybe i'll roll a dice and drag him to the altar and he might get changed after no we need to be checking a vertical before the altar oh do nobody want to say amen oh this is too real i'm so sorry no i'm not we need to be checking the vertical before we get to the altar right right how you expect him to love you right when he don't love god right what what authority will come upon him to tell his heart this is wrong don't talk like that don't say that don't treat her that way watch go back and apologize to lena i don't want to you know what i said philip if you don't apologize to your wife i'm not going to hear your prayers but lord i got to preach tomorrow well you know what you got to do then but lord it was her fault don't go to sleep with that anger in your heart but lord i gotta preach tomorrow you know what the word says philip lena i'm so sorry for what i did please forgive me for what i did i did not mean to say that it came out the wrong way i apologize this is real this just happened two weeks ago right right because that vertical right forces me to love horizontally right god that vertical creates accountability that a vertical creates standards it takes the opinion out of the way we're supposed to love but we want to bypass the vertical because we're so thirsty to do the horizontal and that's why we keep messing up the horizontal because we don't do the vertical right the second thing we learned from this story number two is the deficiency of love the man fell upon robbers going down from jerusalem and then it says a priest a jew who knew the scriptures who knew the word indeed he knew the word in intellect but he did not practice it indeed man what a what a perfect picture of just empty religion right always preaching always in church got on your long skirt trying to be holy don't wear the red lipstick but you are evil person on the inside we got all of this outward piety but we are cold and nasty how many of us knew we had either parents or loved ones they had all this piety in the church and punching us in the mouth on the way home from the gathering then the levite the assistant to the priests right he too had knowledge of the word and he failed us right this is like pastors and leaders who are assistants to god and we keep failing people because we don't know how to love they're a good picture of the american pulpit and the american pew one is teaching one is learning none are practicing right what a beautiful picture of the american american church one is preaching one is learning but few are practicing isn't that the american church a lot of people preaching a lot of people learning very few people practicing right we have good learners we need more practice stories we have good teachers we need more practitioners right we need practitioners right i know you can speak and i know you can take notes but can you practice what you're writing can you practice what you're preaching can you practice what you are singing they both pass by right a notch we i know some of y'all read this and y'all judge the levite and you you judge the priests right but but hold on before you judge them right oh how could they pass by i would i would never pass by but but let's look right at me you and i we passed by people we're supposed to love all the time right and and how do we pass by people look right at me we pass by loving people when we put criterias on love right look right at me husbands right you i will love you when you lose this amount of weight right look look right at me spouses i will love you when you stop acting this way look look right at me parents i will love you when you start getting good grades look look look right at me boyfriend the girl i will love you when you perfect i will love you when you don't have no more floors i will love you when you stop i will love you when you do i will love you when it is a performance-based love and anytime we put criteria's on love we pass by people who need to be loved right we put criterias on love right when you check off all my boxes then i will love you or win or watch or when you're no longer here's a big one when you're no longer my enemy then i will love you didn't jesus say in the sermon of mine even love your enemies we don't do that no no when you stop hating on me then i will love you no you love them even in the middle of that's why that hater that came onto my life i caught myself fussing him out and then i stopped man i got 80 people looking at me i prayed for that hater in love why because i got to love even my enemies it's not enough for me to just preach to you on a sunday and not practice that on a live on a tuesday night right so we got all this criterias for love when you do this i will love you when you lose that i will love you when you bring those grades love you and and let me ask you a question let me ask you a question how is that working out for your parenting how is that working out for your marriage how is that working out for your relationships how is that working out for your friendships how is that working out in the church it's not what's the last thing we see from the story that jesus told the demonstration of love the samaritan a mixed race of human being he's what a good picture of god we see in him the love of god an example of how god calls us to love i want you to notice something about this story i'm almost done family the samaritan did not even know that person personally this is deep to him he's just a stranger pastor i don't get it he's he's he's not a jew he's not part of my ethnicity he's just a stranger i don't get it but he he loved him anyway what was what was the criteria for the love the samaritan poured out on that man here was the criteria i am the lord love others the way i have loved you watch the only criteria for love is god and what he has done for you the only criteria for loving others is god it's not when they're perfect it's not what they change it's not of the only criteria for loving is god first john 4 9 says we love because he first loved us there is no criteria to love people that's connected to the object of love i don't love my wife because she weighs this or because her hair looks like this god is the criteria for love the love that god calls us to demonstrate it is unconditional it is sacrificial it is patient and it is kind somebody said well man i don't i don't i don't really i don't really want that love well the only exchange is if you if you don't want to love the way god calls love then just give back your salvation because the only the criteria for love is salvation love the way i have loved you god is the criteria and really quickly notice the blessing of love and action then i'm going to pray for you watch the scriptures when he saw him he took pity on him that's powerful because love and action it brings compassion he says he bandaged his wounds that's powerful because love and action can bring healing to broken people he says he poured in wine which in the bible represents joy doesn't mean get drunk it represents joy because love and action can break heaviness he says he put him on his donkey and he took him to an end that's powerful because love and action can bring you from a place of desperation and put you in a place of stability that how many broken people right now found true love in a second marriage or a third marriage or a better boyfriend because true love can take you from a bad place and it can plant you in a better place there are people in this child who could testify man that you was in a bad place but the love of god the love of friends and the love of a new spouse a new boyfriend or girlfriend a new person brought you from a bad place when you didn't even believe love was possible and brought you to a place where you'll flourish you're now in love because god will he will meet us where he are where we are but he loves us too much to leave us where we are he'll meet you on the side of the road but he's not going to leave you on the side of the road he said the next day the man took out two coins and paid it and said i'll come back and pay the rest because love and action is generosity then jesus asked the expert in the law question which one of these men did to his neighbor what what they were supposed to do in a sense he said the one that helped him then jesus said to him the one application for people right the priests the levite the samaritan the man three revelations right the direction of love the deficiency of love right the demonstration of love two commandments love god with all your heart your soul your mind your strength love your neighbor one application jesus said go and do likewise some of us says oh pastor i can't i can't love people like that you don't you don't know what i've been through i've been too hurt i'm too broken i don't know if i can really love like that i feel you i used to be there too but you know god would never actually do anything that he did not give you the grace to do if he calls us to love this way he's given us the grace to do it and that's why god anchored love in the vertical first because even if i'm broken even if i'm hurt or even if i've been abused in the past the more i grow in vertical love the more i'll be able to love horizontally the more i grow in vertical love the more i'll be able to love horizontally this is what transformed me philip anthony mitchell from being selfish and self-centered to knowing how to love people right okay everybody watching right now look right at me you know what the truth is you have received love you have been wired for love you have been commanded to love you have been given love and now the onus is on you and i who calls us those christians [Music] to prove it love is not simply what one says love is what one does love is not empty words love is tangible demonstrations of actions you know i took the time to look up every place love is mentioned in the scriptures and almost every single place love is mentioned in the scriptures is connected to action i want to mention two really quickly before we go i love this psalm 85 10. love and faithfulness they meet together you see that it means love and faithfulness love and action they are married you cannot love if you do not act love is a demonstration and probably the most powerful example of love and action you'll find anywhere in the scriptures romans 5 8 but god watch this next word you see it demonstrates his love for you and i that while we were yet sinners christ died for us that the proof of god's love is seen on the cross you might say well i don't have the house i want god does not love me no no the proof of god's love seen on the cross i know the heart will always be the symbol of love in our community in our society and rightly so that's where love flows out of but the best symbol of love it's probably not the heart it's probably the cross every time we look at it we know what love really looks like it is sacrificial it is unconditional it is unmerited and this is the way god called us to love now just imagine with me for just a second family right here in week one this unmerited unconditional sacrificial love just imagine what would happen if husbands and wives started loving each other that way a marriage would change just imagine what would happen if parents started loving their children don't matter how they got here whether a condom broke or you were drunk you didn't plan for them but if you start loving your children already just imagine what would happen in them imagine what happened in our relationships if we start loving each other that way imagine what would happen between boyfriends and girlfriends so friends best friends bffs fffs all these f's if we start loving each other that way if love is the hallmark of christianity it's not enough for you to just say our love for those of us who are christians prove it talk is cheap the world is dark and unbelievers are watching you know why so many people don't want to be connected with god it's not that they have a problem with god they got a problem with the people who represent him and if we who are christians the followers of jesus that love of god has been shut abroad in our hearts and is not enough to just post it or tweet about it we gotta prove it they gotta be seen family and felt in the lives of the people around us starting in our homes the way you handle your wife the way you handle your husband the way you handle your children the way you handle your friends your boyfriend your girlfriend your relationships the way you handle your enemy i'm not gonna go on social media and fight my enemy keep posting about me on facebook i'm praying for you and if we call ourselves followers of jesus this got to start with us like god help the world if this does not begin in the house of god right the world don't need to keep hearing christians preaching about love they need to see us modeling love they need to feel that coming off of us you said you're a believer you say you're a follower of jesus the bible says the love of god is in you then i challenge you to prove it in all of your relationships even with your enemies let me pray for you family eternal god and of a wise father father we come to this moment the end of the first seal broken on this series call proven god you are love it is the strongest emotion we will ever experience it governs everything from genesis to revelation is your love that will bring us into eternity is your love that rescued us with the sacrificial death of jesus on the cross father deliver us from passing people by as we go down from jerusalem deliver us from being priests and levites with piety and no compassion deliver us from putting criteria on husbands and wives and children and friends and people and even enemies for how we show love remind us that the only criteria to love is i am the lord and that you've taught us to love the way that we have been loved i pray there would be an outpouring and an explosion of love in our church in homes and marriages and friendships and relationships that we won't just talk it and post it but we will demonstrate it and by their we will see transformation in our homes transformation in our relationships transformation in our marriages maybe we'll even have reconciliation with enemies i pray god we would not be a people who preach play sing serve and dance around the concept of love but we will demonstrate that and how we hold others and how we serve and how we give and how we forgive and how we reconcile and how we sacrifice and how we pick up people from broken places and carry them to a place of safety i pray that over my brothers and sisters that we would prove it in the mighty and majestic and matchless name [Music] of the lord jesus christ i pray amen and amen family don't log off everybody just in the chat right now just drop check the vertical okay check check your vote just encourage each other check your vertical check your vertical check your vertical i see you talking but check your vertical because when we get this right man this right here begins to fall into place it's a powerful powerful truth listen family um i want to take an opportunity personally um to just tell you thank you we've gone through a very difficult year in the pandemic we're now into the second month of 2021 and for all of you who are uh just uh serving and praying and giving i just want to thank you on behalf of my wife and i we would not have made it this far without you do me a favor family if this message spoke to you in any way i'm asking you to just do one thing for me when it comes up on youtube tomorrow monday morning just copy that link just share it take it and text it to somebody somebody's broken some marriage is in trouble some some young woman is hopping in and out of beds searching for love she needs to hear that she has worth and value take this message and share it with someone who needs to hear it and and for those of you who are supporting our ministry you're helping to keep gospel ministry going forward thank you so much for your faithful support and i want to ask you to continue to do that without you we cannot continue to spread the gospel family i love you so much you mean everything to me i can't wait to see you right here next week at victory church online for part two of prove it we're going to hang out for a couple minutes in the chat to just greet each other and love on one another and then enjoy the rest of your afternoon i love your family uh y'all hang out and then go in peace [Music] thank you for listening to the victory broadcast we pray that message was a blessing to you if you have a story or testimony to share we want to hear all about it send us an email to share at victorychurchatl.org or visit us online under share thanks for listening go in peace

Channel: Victory Church

Views: 1,517

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: PhilipAMitchell, VictoryChurchATL, PROVE IT, LOVE, month of love, emotion, vertical, relationships, help, relief

Id: uP4RofUjCKE

Length: 93min 13sec (5593 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 08 2021