PROVE IT | Starve the Enemies | 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 grace and peace to you victory family wherever you are in the city of atlanta and to all of our friends the growing community of people that keep reaching out to us from cities all around the country we want to invite all of you uh to week two of our brand new series uh called prove it and uh before we jump into week two of our series our family i just wanna remind you that we are aggressively serving our city right now uh through outreach there are only two more weeks of paint the city green left family and we're just calling on all of you who are covet comfortable to join us in fulfilling the commands of jesus in matthew 25 to go outside the four walls of the church to demonstrate his tangible love to be his hands and feet to those who are the least fortunate in our community we have partnerships with organizations all around the city of atlanta and it's in this month of february the month of love man we want to mobilize our church man to demonstrate that through outreach and so you can go to paintthecitygreen.org and sign up for any one of the last couple events coming up in this month of february and join us in making a difference uh in our city now part two will prove it this is week two of a four week series and uh we are not using this series to be a big theological build out of every single nuance of love that's not what we're doing uh in this series but we are using this series uh to address man four very powerful singular axioms or truths surrounding the topic of love and so [Music] last week we opened this series with a message called check your vertical we said that love is the most powerful emotion we will ever experience or share uh in this life there is no intangible emotional need we have that is greater than our need for love there is no expression of divine or human will stronger than the expression of love where love is not present or where love does not function right unhealthiness and brokenness they both abound there are many of us who are dealing with a myriad of developmental emotional challenges and deficits where love was not properly experienced and my prayer is that many of you will be impregnated in this series with a seed that would grow and germinate to healing in your hearts all of us i'm praying will walk out of this series with a greater clarity and greater conviction about receiving and sharing love and i pray that none of us will be left the same and like i told you last week nobody will be left on the side of the road or that the holy spirit will pick us up and bandage us up as we walk through this four part series um together okay family are you ready for week two okay if you're ready for week two in the chats just drop i'm ready in the chats if you're ready for week two just drop i'm ready in the chats come on talk to me family if you're ready for week two just drop i'm ready in the chats and for all my note-takers this is a note-taking message i want to encourage you to get your notepads out your pens and paper out there a few things that you probably want to jot down in this message i want to continue our series with the second message we're just going to tag uh the message with this title starve the enemies starve the enemies so important eternal god and of a wise father you who called yourself love you who have poured out love on your children you have called us to this great ethic this great demonstration this great emotion of love father where there is so much brokenness uh in this room where there is so much misunderstanding in this room and where there is so much misappropriation of love in this room i pray spirit of the living god you will minister to your people in this series and in this moment for father there is nothing greater you have called us to but to demonstrate this in the earth you said the whole law and the prophets the whole scriptures from the old testament to the new testament and hangs on the commandments centered around love and that father if we can't get this right and everything else it doesn't matter it's just noise in your ears [Music] and so father i pray for the good of the church you've called me the past of the friends that are watching all across america those who are peeking in from countries around the world [Music] deliver us from our false opinions about love and in this touchy message i pray you would convict us i pray you would confront us [Music] i pray you will change us speak to our heart spirit of the living god we gotta get this right we gotta get this right we're causing too much hurt in our horizontal relationships we got to get this right help us [Music] in the mighty and majestic and matchless name of the lord jesus christ i pray amen and amen [Music] amen starve enemies terrence and brianna met each other while attending a very well-known church here in the city of atlanta they served on co-working ministry teams crossing each other's paths frequently and catching the eye of one another as they serve the lord at this very well-known atlanta church after a short time of optical flirting they broke their silence with an initial conversation that matured into a full dating relationship spontaneous rendezvous late night phone calls that kind of melted into the morning talks of marriage filled their dating relationship as they found themselves on route towards the altar on the surface terence and brianna had seemingly a good and godly relationship there were some things buried deep inside the character of terrence that brianna did not fully know had only picked up on subtly during their courtship these minor red flags that we skipped by pushing past those subtle red flags she married terrence the two began to build a life and family together now comfortable in what he wanted terrence began to exhibit signs of illness in his character their marital bliss quickly faded into misery for brianna misery she would endure not for five years or eight years or ten years but a misery brianna would do it for the next two decades for all of 20 years brianna will live in a very miserable and disabled marriage before a cold house and a tense marriage gave way to mutual stalemates and calls from both sides for divorce brianna she felt abused she felt deceived she felt taken advantage of her heart was deeply void of love 20 years in a cold marriage 20 years without feeling real love this story grieves me because the story is all fact not fiction i'm just using aliens to protect the names of these two individuals who i know personally and the truth is family if i can be honest this sunday love i would venture to say maybe real love it probably never stood a chance from flourishing in the beginning of terence and brianna's relationship because far more nefarious is the counterfeit of love that was working in terrence to kind of win over brianna before his real issues began to surface early in their marriage and choke out any opportunity they had for real love to flourish man i think it's so fitting that we're having this conversation in week two of prove it on this sunday february 14th what we call valentine's day because right now man when you leave your house after this message you walk through any retail department store you see whole sections of department stores draped in red and pink by now some of those areas especially like in walmart it's probably raped no more cars left you were too late to get the flowers right we see all that red and pink in all these department stores as our culture and the entire nation kind of pauses for just a minute and pivots to think about and lean into this topic called love and today today on valentine's day today february 14th that counterfeit of love will be on full display today from sun up to sun down that counterfeit will be on display today before the sun goes down there will be great exchanges of cards and gifts and gestures all in the name of love and there's nothing wrong with these things but the scandal of valentine's day one of the scandals of the topic of love is that there will be another great exchange today not only the exchange of love but the exchange of the counterfeit of love and that is lust the counterfeit that was operating in terrence masquerading as love to just corner brianna in a marriage until his real self started to come out in the early days of that marriage it was this counterfeit that motivated this particular cultivator that motivated one of three major enemies of love in terrence i personally over the years saw all three of these enemies of love working in his life operating in his marriage these three enemies they are pervasive in our society they run rampant in the christian church we see them everywhere from black churches and white churches and mixed churches and young churches and old churches these three enemies of love they run rampant throughout the whole church they are at the center of many if not most marital and relational strife they hinder us from experience the joys and the real deep intimacies of love in the context of any relationship marriage dating friendship brothers and sisters a lot of us watch me right now look right at me let's just be honest right now in the chats a lot of us watching right now we have been hurt by these enemies of love uh many of you you are knowingly or unknowingly operating in these enemies of love some of us uh man we we desperately need to be set free and we desperately need to get healing from the baggage and the scars that are inflicted by these three enemies of love and for all of us who are followers of jesus you and i we need to recognize that it is absolutely listen to me family impossible not even plausible it is absolutely impossible to properly give love or even receive love when these enemies are operating in our lives i think i need to say that again it is not even plausible but i'm gonna tell you it is absolutely impossible to watch this word properly not based on your opinion but properly give love or for some people who are starving for it to even receive love when these three enemies are operating in our lives and so family i don't want to take this message to just expose these three major and massive enemies of love and then i want to land a plane with showing you what love is supposed to look like between couples between friends between brothers and sisters we're not gonna we're not gonna dance around the subject we're just gonna get straight in on this valentine's sunday the first enemy of love that i want to bring your attention to is this massive word called fear yeah that one hits hard for a lot of you watching me right now you you cannot experience true love when you operate in fear it is impossible because true love involves something that is an enemy or an opposite of fear and that is true love kind of involves vulnerability right when we are afraid to be vulnerable fear prevents us from opening up our hearts to receive love fear causes us to either be overly protective of our hearts if that type of heart will hinder love from flowing out of it and that type of love will handle love from flowing into it fear stimulates doubt and our ability to love and often our ability to be loved and in some cases we can be so desperate for love that fail will cause us to over commit and then we give too much of ourselves too early in our relationship for fear that if i if i don't give too much of myself too early they will leave me or we can be so nervous about the possibility of love that fear causes us to completely shut down all together that they are people watching right now dealing with so much fear you can't even open your heart to be loved you can't open your heart for god to love you you can't open your heart for your spouse to love you you can't open your heart for your friends to love you there was someone struggling to love you because you're so afraid to give love a chance you're so afraid to let someone in you don't want to be hurt again you don't want to be broken again you don't want to be taken advantage again so as long as fear is alive in our heart it blocks love from flowing in but as long as fear is alive in our heart man it hinders love from falling out when we are fearful in our relationships we struggle to be ourselves you can't even be fully known when you're dealing with fear i think i need to say that again you can't even be fully known in the context of a relationship when you're dealing with fear because you camouflage to be something that you are not you're always protecting your heart because you don't want to get wounded so you got to put on a mass to protect your heart from being hurt we struggle to be ourselves we believe lies that watch we are either not good enough to be loved or we just don't know how to show love and in terrence fear of vulnerability led him to an opposite extreme that brother was so fearful of being vulnerable it caused him to not necessarily like block love from flowing out of him but something more nefarious flowed out of him control flowed out of him and because he was dealing with so much fear to just be vulnerable with brianna dealing with so much fear to be who he really was dealing with so much fear to deal with his shortcomings and his issues instead of dealing with that fear he became controlling in that relationship and he locked brianna in a prison for 20 years i'm too afraid to be vulnerable so i punish you but i'm too afraid to lose you so i imprison you right too afraid to be vulnerable so i punish you for my fear but i'm too afraid to let you go so i lock you up in a prison i create a world that makes you so terrified to walk out of this relationship i know there are a lot of brianna's in the room i know there's some terraces right now in the room this is like this is real family a lot of us watching and listening to this mess right now our hearts are so full of fear we can't even truly experience love and i know there's a lot of you you've been hurt you've been taken advantage of you've been wounded you're carrying the scars from some past relationship somebody you thought was supposed to love you and took advantage of you you came into the relationship you're in right now the marriage you're in right now the church you're in right now carrying the baggage of that hurt from fear that was operating in a relationship i know some of you you're so afraid to love you're so afraid to open up you're so afraid to be your authentic self man and trying to be someone you're not it gets exhausting it is tiring trying to pretend it is tiring trying to be somebody else it's so tiring being in a relationship that you can't be yourself or maybe you're you're like parents maybe you're in a relationship you're very controlling or maybe whenever you enter into a relationship you're always trying to control and manipulate because instead of dealing with vulnerability that leads to true love man fear leads you to be controlling and manipulative you have to dictate all of the circumstances of the relationship this is why you and i i see you i see you every one of you who are hurting because fair bruised you and because of that some of you watching right now you you're so terrified to open up your heart to true love you're so terrified to be vulnerable again i feel you and i see you watch and i don't even condemn you but this is why family we got to learn to carry our hearts into the presence of almighty god because it is as we carry our hearts into the presence of almighty god and we keep laying our hearts on the altar the lord be then begins to heal our heart from the bandages and the bruises and the scars that we incurred from a love that left us broken because fear was choking out love in a relationship or fear was choking out love in our hearts because fear is a blocker of receiving love and giving love fear is an absolute enemy of love look what john the disciple of jesus wrote about love and fear in first john chapter 4 verse 18 in his old age john wrote this about love and fear in john chapter 4 verse 18. there is no love or there is no fear in love there is no not not some not let me hold on to it for a season there is no fear in love why but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment is what terence did to brianna the one who fears is not made perfect in love and so john is connecting this thought to his previous encouragement about god's love for us the principle is this family when we encounter true love we must be willing to disarm our hearts from the fear of being loved and expressing love when we meet someone who finally loves us the way we're supposed to be loved we have to make the conscious decision to disarm our hearts from fear so we do not hinder ourselves from being loved there are so many spouses right now who are not disarmed they're living in marriages with fear and have met a godly man that won't give him a chance he's being punished for some fool you dated three years ago but when we encounter real love the onus is on you and i to disarm our hearts from fear the bible says to what drive it out of our hearts so that we can experience receive and pour out real love because where there is perfect love there is no fear how long will he be punished for somebody else how long will she be punished for somebody else how long are you going to keep punishing pastors for somebody else how long are you going to keep punishing the people around you for somebody else haven't you not encountered love haven't you not felt real love i'm talking to somebody who's punishing somebody who won't give them a chance but you've encountered real love you've encountered real love from a pastor won't give them a chance encounter real love from a spouse won't give them a chance and counting real love from a new boyfriend and girlfriend won't give them a chance we could go deeper than that some of you have encountered a love oh that is a i have that is a heretical statement let me take that back all of you have encountered love from the father and so many of us still won't give him a chance we don't trust him we don't open up our hearts to him we are nervous about his commands nervous about what he might make us do what he might say to us some of us god is still wrestling to get to the center of your heart because fear is blocking you from receiving love from him there's some of you hurting right now and this must be practice in the context of our relationships with god first and in the context of our relationships for other people marriage relationships brothers and sisters friends wherever love is found why because the love that god gave us the love that you all have received who belong to christ the love that some of our spouses have given us our pastor has given us friends have given us you got girlfriends that keep trying to love you but you most you're the most difficult person in the group you're the most difficult person circle because no matter what happens you just don't want to be loved and this is so important for you to understand because true love creates this powerful word called security and that security creates courage to relinquish fear that's the whole purpose of the text that where there is true love true love creates security it's supposed to make us feel safe and whenever we feel safety and true love then the onus is on us to take a chance to disarm ourselves from fear that keeps us from experiencing love and sharing real love then we can fully love because we are fully loved you know why i could fully love my wife and fully love my children and fully love the people in my church and fully love the people in the studio because i have been fully loved by god almighty and because that love from god almighty has created a security for me it allows me to love others also with vulnerability even if it means i get hurt somebody need to receive this because brianna loved terrence she did but he never disarmed his fear and instead he allowed it to drive him to control and there's so many of you right now man dealing with this enemy of fear and fear blocks us from experience and true love fear is an enemy of love let's go let's keep going family or maybe i need to pause to allow some of you to process that i feel the spirit of god working healing in your heart right now maybe some brianna watching me needs healing in your heart right now maybe some terrence needs healing in your heart right now receive from the lord who's speaking directly to you right now that when you have encountered real love you must disarm and if you have not felt that from your horizontal relationships surely you have gotten that from your vertical relationship the second enemy of love i want to bring your attention to is this big ugly word called pride pride is an enemy of love pride will always block people from experiencing true love it was pride that blocked lucifer a former archangel in heaven from the continual experience of enjoying god's love and according to isaiah 14 when pride welled up in his heart with the five eye wills when pride welled up in his heart he went against perfect love and was cast out of heaven and took a third of those angels with him who became the demonic forces we wrestled right now in the earth whether pride is motivated by feelings of superiority that is we think that we're better than someone else or whether pride is motivated by feelings of insecurity that cause us to kind of cover up our shortcomings we cannot receive or give true love when our hearts are full of pride when pride is being driven by superiority we are hypocritical of other people come on family you already know how this goes down you have met people like this some of you are like this and i'm talking to you right now when pride is being driven by superiority we are hyper critical of other people we have a critical spirit of other people we mask our own shortcomings we keep others at bay or we keep them at distance because we don't want to be vulnerable sometimes prideful people they come off like they're strong but they're not strong they're really weak they're afraid to be vulnerable so they put on a bravado they keep people at distance they don't want nobody to get close to their heart what they really don't want is people to see who they really are and so when we are prideful we can experience love and we cannot truly love when we have a hyper critical spirit if everything you see in me is wrong you will struggle to truly love me if everything in me is wrong you don't like my care my skin tone my size my walk my voice you don't like something if everything you see in me is wrong you will struggle to love me and if we're always critical of the people in our relationships we will struggle to love them if we're always critical of god we will struggle to love him and so when pride is being driven by superiority we think we're better than somebody else man that hypercritical spirit it blocks us from giving love and receiving love and then there are others who are full of pride being driven by insecurities you're not prideful because you're arrogant you're prideful because you're insecure you're a broken puppy on the inside you put on this bravado like you're strong but really you're desperate for a hug i see you somebody needs to see you and when pride is being driven by insecurities we are often unwilling unwilling unwilling to deal with our shortcomings you know what this looks like you could talk to me about anything but don't touch that area that i don't want to deal with then i get quote unquote offended don't confront me about this brokenness in my life and then i get offended every time my husband talks to me about this i get angry if my wife talks to me about this i get angry when my friends confront me about this i get angry i want to keep that area of my character in the dark right that's prideful that's prideful and when pride is being driven by insecurities we kind of keep people at bay we never give them a chance to get close pride listen to me is a destroyer of emotional security because you never feel safe around prideful people and this is so important because emotional security is absolutely necessary for love to flourish inside the context of a relationship where there is no emotional security love cannot flourish if i don't feel safe i'm not going to be able to be loved pride is a blinder to the areas of our life that need adjustment we all got blinders in our lives it is the humble who embraces critique it is the humble who embraces watch this big word that we hate in the church accountability it is the humble who's able to say tell me about myself but when we are prideful we don't want to be told about ourselves we don't want to deal with this dark area of our character we become runners and every time somebody touches this dark area of my character i run every time somebody touches this dark area of my character i'm in a new marriage a new relationship a new church a new pastor a new mentor and if you keep doing that you will go through your entire life prideful broken and never experiencing true love when pride is being driven by superiority watch watch this family it's all about me and that's a hindrance to love but when pride is being driven by insecurity believe it or not it's still all about me and that too is a hindrance to love when pride is being driven by insecurities like you i'm insecure but even in that it's still all about you in this relationship and when pride is being driven by superiority it's all about you some of the most difficult people to love or receive love from are people who are filled with pride terence is an extremely prideful man and his pride hindered vulnerability it's scoffed at the idea of counsel or help or mentorship and caused brianna to eventually watch shut down she could bear no more she would open up her heart no more she would have intimacy with him no more his pride was so deafening she just shut down all together and shut down for 20 years pride is an enemy of love pride is a killer of love and the third enemy of love i want to bring your attention to is this family it is a derivative of pride pride gives birth to this third enemy of love and that is selfishness when it's all about you and it's all about me it is impossible to express love to others when it's all about you or me when it's all about you and i it is impossible to properly receive love from others nowhere is this more damaging than in the context of a relationship or marriage right like it's one thing when friends are selfish you kind of like you know you'll be selfish and you keep dealing with your friend like man she the only one in the group every time we come together the con it's all about you but y'all kind of just deal with her like but this is more damaging in the context of like relationships like when we're dating or courting or when we're in marriage this is when it is most dangerous and most damaging selfishness affects these things that make it impossible to build a good relationship with anybody it affects communication when you are selfish it affects the way you communicate everything that comes out your mouth is centered towards you when you are selfish it affects conflict resolution it's hard to resolve conflict with someone who is living in selfishness when we are selfish man it affects time management i'm not going to go home because i don't want to see you i'm not going to come out the house because i don't want to see you i'm not coming out the man cave because i don't want to see you i ain't coming out my diva then because i don't want to see you when we selfish man we don't even care about the time we're supposed to be given to our spouse supposed to be given to our children supposed to be given to the people that love us so man when we are selfish man it's all about us and when it's all about you and when it's all about me it is impossible to express love properly it is impossible to receive love fully when it's all about you when we are selfish we are difficult to love i could just pause because some of you know people like this some of you are married to people like this some of us are dealing with people like this look don't look at them if they're sitting next to you right now y'all gonna talk about this later right when we are selfish we hinder love like and i i i see y'all right all us christians i've seen them books you got on your shelf in your room like the five love languages and you know i and mine's just is my personal love language is is is is service and and quality time like i need to be with my wife and man if she hooks me up with a salad like i feel loved and hers is like you know affirmation and she likes gifts and and all that stuff but but hold on before we even get to the third fourth and fifth one the five love languages that don't work when you're selfish i don't care how much you read that book it don't work when you're selfish oh his needs her needs i see that book on your shelf that don't work when you're selfish whatever book you're reading about marriage and love they don't work when you are selfish it does not work it's impossible to love right when you're selfish terrence chope the life and love out of his marriage with his selfishness why because selfishness is a serious enemy of love selfishness is a killer of love and why are fear and pride and selfness why are they the ultimate enemies the most nefarious enemies of love i know you thought that maybe hate was the enemy of no no hate is not the enemy of love that's just the antithesis of love when somebody hates you at least you know where they stand it's much worse when you when i'm sleeping with you and you're prideful god it's much worse when i'm sleeping with you and you're selfish it's much worse when i sleep in with you and fear won't allow me to properly love you and family you want to know why fear and pride and selfishness you want to know why they are the ultimate and most nefarious enemies of love watch because real love is not me centered real love is others centered did you hear that real love is others centered it doesn't matter what you read in a book or what you read on google i'm gonna tell you what i learned from the word of god real love is others centered and you can't be others centered when you're filled with fear you can't be others centered when you fill with pride you can't be others centered when you're filled with selfishness love and fear cannot coexist in the same heart one will always dominate the other love and pride cannot coexist in the same heart one will always dominate the other love and selfishness cannot coexist in the same heart one will always dominate the other and because today is valentine's day i want us to examine what love should look like in the context of a relationship and if you're single don't check out on me don't log off the stream because the text i'm about to read to you it applies to you also and perhaps the best example we should examine about what love looks like in the context of any relationship it would be wise for us to examine the most important relationship god created in the earth the covenant marriage look at this admonition in this scripture family of what love is supposed to look like between man and woman paul wrote to the church in ephesus ephesians chapter 5 some very tough words verse 25 husbands look look look right at me husbands boyfriends fathers with daughters yeah love your wives your girlfriends your children you just fill in the blank love your wives just as christ loved the church watch these powerful words and gave himself up for her to make her holy so love transforms to make her holy y'all miss that love transforms to make her holy cleansing her by the washing of the word because real love purifies from filth to present her to himself a radiant church because love makes us bright and illuminate right without stain wrinkle or any other blemish but holy and blameless and then watch how he connects us to christ in the same way husbands are to love their wives boyfriends love your girlfriends fathers love your daughters but let's just stick to the text husbands love your wives as you love your own bodies he who loves his wife loves himself after all no one ever hated their own body but they feed powerful word and care powerful word for their own body just as christ does the church for we are members of his body drop down in verse 32. this is a profound mystery this is for you all you single people like i don't want to hear about married couples on valentine's day all right this is for my singles this is a profound mystery but i'm talking about christ and the church pause so for all my singles who are saved you're part of the church and the bible calls christ a groom it calls you a bride so y'all two are married so this applies to you okay there you go right this is a profound mystery that i'm talking about christ and the church husbands and wives jesus and every follower of jesus even if they are single however each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must respect her husband now paul is speaking to husbands and wives about the man in which they should love one another and honor one another i'm almost done family if you're single this passage applies to you because you are married to jesus so technically you two are married even though you're not physically married notice the admonition of love for the highest relationship and love for christ the love that he has towards you who is single the love that he has towards all of us notice what you don't see in that text you know what you don't see in that text family did you read that let me tell you what you don't see in a text you don't see fear in that love you don't see pride in that love you don't see selfishness in that love what what type of love do you see in that right what type of love do we see there where it says love your wife as christ loves the church now before we talk about what kind of love we see there and i pray for you it's very important for us to remember that the new testament that you read in english was written in hebrew and was written in greek and aramaic and in greek and aramaic all throughout the new testament you read the word love in english but if you read it in greek and aramaic you're going to keep bumping into these three different words of love all throughout the new testament one of those love you'll bump into in the original language is phileo right which means a brotherly kind of love like let me jab up my homeboy kind of love it's that greek word they use to name the city of philadelphia the city of brotherly love another greek word you'll bump into the new testament is this word called eros another word for love in the new testament this type of love is more passionate it's more erotic it's like what lena and i have between each other what we gonna have tonight like victoria won't be no secret by the time tonight is over right that type of love but in this text that's not the type of love we see in this text right because the problem with phileo and the problem with arrows is that those kind of loves they are situational and they can be lost by the change of feelings and circumstances the writers of the scriptures by the holy spirit are so profound but the new testament writers they understood this and then they attempt to properly convey a new type of love that jesus was introducing to followers that challenged human selfishness beyond the borders of our emotions and our pride and our fear and all of these things they chose a different greek word for this text not phileo not eros by the type of love that goes beyond feelings beyond emotions beyond bright smashes pride it destroys selfishness it crushes fear to pieces the greek word they used was agapeo it is a type of love that has nothing to do with all of that gooey stuff that wears off after the first couple dates it is the type of love where i make a daily decision to love you independent of anything you have done it is the type of love you have received from above all of us who are wretched and unlovable people have been poured out on us from the father agape your love a type of love that is independent of feelings and emotions shifting it crushes pride it destroys selfishness it tames fear and brings security this type of love goes beyond circumstances paul says here in the context that of the ultimate relationship of husbands and wives husbands are supposed to agapeo their wives as christ uh godpayo the church what does that love looks like uh land the plane with these three that type of love it is a self-pruning love the prune means to cut away and what did christ cut away to demonstrate his love for the church watch this is so powerful he cut away his personal agenda and will how do you miss that in the new testament when we see the cross we forget that christ did not want to go there gosh he said father if there is any other way let this cup pass from me he did not want to be separated from his father but nevertheless not my will but your will be done and then the writer of hebrews tells us for the joy set before him glory the souls that will come unto him he endured the cross he he pruned his own will and and subjected it for the greater good of you and me because real love is self-pruning i deal with those issues in my heart so that i can love i deal with pride in my heart so that i can love i deal with selfishness in my heart so that i can love i deal with fear in my heart so that i could love when i'm truly loving i am self-pruning i don't have to wait to always be told i am wrong gosh that's why the scripture says jesus gave himself up for the church he pruned himself for real love that type of love it is providing okay it is moved with an intent to promote the well-being for another person the scripture says christ feeds the church meaning he provides for the one that he loves where there is real love there is provision there is no lack in real love saying my husband don't make enough money i ain't just talking about that kind of provision where there was real love there is a there's a provision of security a provision of safety a provision of of of of you are okay in this relationship christ provided that love for us he provided security that destroys fear he gives us everything we need for life and godliness and that love we see in christ it is a love that is protecting the scripture says christ cares for the church he protects he takes care of there's a love that is a love in the man in which christ protects the church protected us from the wrath of hell protects us from the wrath that is coming it is the kind of love that protects the object of its affection paul tells the wife to respect the husband and i'm gonna say to husbands who feel like man my wife is not honoring me are you loving her in a way that makes it easy for her to honor you because when a man loves this way i would wager to say it makes it easier for the wife or for any woman to love a man that loves them this way like brothers you should be taking notes husband you should be taking notes boyfriends you should be taking notes minister to these people frank ultimately family what should love look like between husbands and wives pastors and sheep sheep and pastors parents and children friends look look look look right at me because this is very important because we got us we got to stop exporting hurt because these broken horizontal relationships are bankrupt of understanding true love for all your mama taught you for all the books you read what about the book what what what should love look like amongst all of us paul probably said it best this way to the church at corinth love is not prideful love is not full of fear love is not selfish if love is not those three things which are the enemies of love what is love love is patient love is kind love does not envy it does not boast to crush the person you're in relationship with and it's not proud to see that it's not full of pride it's not rude and nasty or you keep telling me you love me when it's not rude or nasty watch this to my selfishness it's not self-seeking you got a bad temper love is not easily angered man you always keep reminding me of what i did to you last year two years ago ten years ago love keeps no record of wrongs it wipes the debt clean it's the type of love in which god doesn't keep reminding you of your failures it doesn't remind you of the things that make you feel ashamed it does remind you of the things you had in your closet there's some season that you fell some mistake that you made you know who reminds you of all that stuff the enemy the holy spirit not going around punishing you and reminding you of everything you did when you've already repented for that and maybe i need the pause to tell somebody you need to forgive yourself cause god has already forgiven you for that love doesn't keep reminding us of what we did wrong because if it does that man we can never move on from some season some mistake something in the past [Music] love does not delight in evil so i'm not gonna wait to get lena back because she got me that's evil she did that to me i'm gonna do that to her they ain't speaking to me i ain't gonna speak to them that's evil and immature ah this is too real i know this is too real i know y'all don't want this right you you want me to to move you and make you shout and run around your house you don't want the word of god love rejoices with the truth there's the truth right there watch the scriptures it always protects not sometimes it always trusts can't do that with fear it always hopes can't do that with fear it always perseveres it doesn't give up easy and then in verse 8 he tells us the staying power of this kind of love in verse 8 he says this type of love it never fails this is the picture of the kind of love that the father would want to see in the lives operating in the lives of his children between husbands and wives between brothers and sisters in the church between parents and children and children and parents and pastors and sheep and sheep and pastors at all costs we must recognize and fight against the enemies of love that's operating in us and around us that is even when i see it operating my friends i tell them this ain't right when i see that operating in my children i say this and right man for our church community we gotta fight against the enemies of love operating in us and around us why because if we don't starve the enemies of love in our hearts they will starve the experience of love in our lives let me let me say that to you one more time family if we don't starve the enemies of love that keep rising up in our hearts they will starve the experience of true love in your life and what a broken painful and miserable existence it will be to have passed through this life and never have experienced real love you are i am um amongst people most miserable and deficient and so if we don't starve those enemies they will choke out our experience of enjoying real love in this life if you're past the stage of marriage or dating maybe your widower or widow let this wisdom of god be taught to others through you if right now i'm talking to you in a relationship you're dating somebody or you're married [Music] let this love be cultivated in you and if you're single all my single ladies and all my single brothers watching me right now i pray this type of love that will find you this is the type of love that we need and we got to starve our enemies to death if we want to experience it [Music] you know family ayah today i had to go take care some business for [Music] the roberts it's a couple in my neighborhood who my wife and i met one day doing yard work and they were elderly couple and we kind of went into their yard and helped them finish up their yard work they sat down in the chair they watched my wife clean up the leaves and the grass my wife and i did all of that and since then it's been about two years we've had a good relationship with them and and i care for them my wife and i we help care for them their biological daughter lives in north atlanta very far away my wife and i live in south atlanta area i take care of their yard i go buy them their groceries i bring them their medications my wife takes them to their doctor's appointments we go sit down in their home and they have one of the most beautiful and healthy and vibrant relationships i've ever seen in my entire life when i see them i see love i don't i don't see pride in their relationship [Music] i don't i don't see selfishness in their relationship i don't see fear so much security and safety in their relationship so much selflessness they got a real love a love that has kept them in marriage not for five years not for 10 years not for 18 years like lena and i this year not for 20 years not for 25 years since they've been practicing biblical love not 30 years not 40 years not 50 years not 60 years this biblical love that i see in them has kept them for over 75 years of marriage they are in their late 90s living alone and loving the hell out of one another it is one of the most beautiful [Music] and inspiring things i've ever seen in my life in them i've changed my prayer about legacy yeah i want to leave something for my children's children i got a stock portfolio i want to leave an inheritance for my family i i invest in dabble in some things but but maybe the greatest legacy i'll leave for my children and it's it's not it's not it's not just the money or whatever i leave for them and i want to leave a legacy of i i lived well and i loved well you know and when lynn and i walk in the neighborhood we have talks we dream of if god spare life we'll grow to that ripe old age our late 90s where we both grey-headed and sipping wine and we eating a steak and cabbage we don't eat that kind of meat but maybe we'll go back to it i don't know but we eating a salad and sipping some wine and we in our 90s and i got a cane and she she's calling me out of the room because she made breakfast in the morning and we've we've given birth to great children and we've finished our race in our ministry like that for me is legacy now i want to grow old with lena claire mitchell enjoying all of the beauties and the depths of real love and for all of the brokenness in this chat my prayer for you is that you would uh you would you would join me in the journey i took early in my marriage when i was not starving my enemies but feeding them and hurting my wife [Music] i want to pray that you would join me on a journey of going on a fast from what past not from food but from pride and selfishness and fear that you will starve the hell out of those enemies that you will begin to experience real love from above and from all around you and that is my prayer for you family that is my prayer for you in the mighty and majestic [Music] and matchless name of the one who has loved you this way [Music] the lord jesus christ now whether you got tears in your eyes or you are all good would you just tell me you received that let god know you received that by dropping amen in the chats come on don't log off because i need to holler at you just drop amen in the chest if you receive that come on wherever you are in atlanta you're in your bedroom in your living room you on the car pull over on the side of the road don't do this while you're driving we don't want you to go to heaven on valentine's day just everybody dropping come on there you go blow up the chats family drop it amen i see y'all come on blow it up blow it up drop a amen in the chest amen means so let it be that we're gonna starve those enemies of love so we can experience true love in our lives amen amen family look right at me look right at me really quick i just want to remind you two more weeks of ptcg please man join us and paint the city green to make a difference in our city also i want you to do me a very personal favor if this message spoke to you in any way even if you got one thing out of this message would you do me a favor when this message hits our youtube page would you copy that link and text it to somebody or share it on your social media page would you help me be a spreader of gospel ministry a spirit a spreader of biblical truth it will mean the world to me if you would take this message if it blessed you and share it with somebody else text it to a family member a friend somebody that needs it that would mean the world to me and i want to personally thank all of you like this means so much more to me now especially during the pandemic all of you who are faithfully supporting this ministry financially with your gifts your financial gifts i want to thank you whether from this studio to our staff to the food that's on my kitchen table you you keep food on my table i want to thank you for supporting gospel ministry for helping us do outreach for providing for god's house and praying that god will continue to provide for your house and if you are not a faithful supporter you can do that no pressure you can go to our website and pick a given option that is best for you family i love you if you are single that is not a crime or a curse jesus is your valentine go celebrate your own darn self go get yourself a steak in a bottle of wine you celebrate you girl or you celebrate you my do and if you're married man love on each other today if you're in a relationship love on each other but keep it holy i'm talking all y'all victory love on each other keep it holy before the lord our mc is coming behind me to share some words with you and i'll see you all next week right here at victory church online for part three my favorite message in this series of prove it don't miss that and invite somebody to it and after the emcee we're gonna hang out in the chats for a couple minutes and just love on each other i love your family go in peace on this valentine's day thank you for listening to the victory broadcast we prayed that message was a blessing to you if you have a story or a testimony to share we want to hear all about it send us an email to share at victorychurchatl or visit us online under share thanks for listening go in peace

Channel: Victory Church

Views: 1,561

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: pastorphilip, PROVEIT, Love, Series, Truth, Healing, Victorychurchatl, enemies

Id: _g_KjI21ay8

Length: 64min 36sec (3876 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 15 2021