In today’s episode of Victorious Faith, Cherri Campbell continues her enlightening series on ‘What Love Does.’ This segment focuses on the significance of controlling our speech and conduct to prevent grieving the Holy Spirit. Through scriptural references and real-life applications, Cherri illustrates the transformative power of love that does not criticize or condemn but encourages and uplifts. Learn how to apply these timeless teachings to enrich your personal and spiritual journey.
00:08:00 Love Covers Faults and Promotes Reconciliation
00:10:00 Judgment and Criticism vs. Love and Acceptance
00:12:00 Conclusion and Invitation to Listen Again
SPEAKER 01 :
Good morning. Welcome to Victorious Faith. I’m Cherry Campbell. This morning, I’m going to continue sharing with you the message that I began sharing with you yesterday that is a sequel to the message that I’ve been sharing with you for the last couple of weeks called God Loves Me, where we studied God’s great unfathomable love for us. In this study, we are learning how to walk in love and how to put this greatest commandment and our highest calling into practice. And And so join me now in our live service for part two of what love does. The grieving of the Holy Spirit is when unwholesome talk comes out of your mouth. That’s what grieves the Holy Spirit. That’s the context, not building others up, not benefiting those who listen. How many of you, after you said something that you knew you shouldn’t have said, your heart was grieved? You felt bad about it. You know what? That is the Holy Spirit in you grieving also. So the grieving of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit goes, ooh, because your own heart feels it. Ooh, I shouldn’t have said that. Lord, forgive me. I’m so sorry. Saying something and you know, you shouldn’t have said it. You feel bad about it. Afterward, your heart is grieving because the Holy Spirit in you is grieving. You grieved the Holy Spirit by what you said. Your words grieved the Holy Spirit. It was unwholesome talk. It was not helpful for building others up. And it does not benefit those who listen. So the grieving of the Holy Spirit, we know when we grieve the Holy Spirit, when our own heart is grieved, when we feel that grief in our heart, we know we’ve grieved the Holy Spirit. So then we say, Lord, forgive us. Forgive me. Forgive me, Lord. I shouldn’t have said that. Lord, I ask you to forgive me. And if possible, go back and apologize to the person that you said it to. I ask you to forgive me. I should not have said that. I’ve grieved with the Holy Spirit and I ask you to forgive me. It’s good to go to that person and ask them to forgive you as well. Love encourages others. Love helps others feel confident. Love compliments others, helps them feel good and feel like they can accomplish what they set out to do. We’re talking about love builds up. When you talk to people, be that encourager, be that exhorter, help them to feel confident. You can do it. complimenting them. That’s a nice shirt. I like that. Your blouse, your pants, you look great today. You said that you did that well. Everybody likes to be complimented. Everybody really needs that even for their own self-esteem. You know, it’s like you want to hear that you did good. And yet when we talked about pride, pride does not want to compliment other people. Pride wants to receive a compliment but doesn’t like to give a compliment. But humility will pat other people on the back. Say, good job. You did well. And yeah, I mean, you think of those that are closest to you, your family, your best friend that, yeah, you’re going to build them up. You’re encouraging them. But don’t just do it for those that are your best friends and your closest family. Do it to everybody you see around you. Walk in love with all people. I’m showing you how does love act. These are practical things that we can all do. You know how to give a compliment. You know how to encourage somebody and say, good job. You can do this. You did well. Help them to feel good. And so that’s what love does. And love is not choosy to only do it for the people you like. Actually, the Bible says, bless your enemies and bless those who persecute you. So that means encourage the people you don’t like. Compliment the people that you don’t like. Build them up. And in so doing, the Bible says you keep burning coals on their heads. But you’re walking in love even with your enemies. Love does not put people down. So the opposite love builds up. Love does not put down. Love does not insult. Love does not discourage. Does not make people feel bad. Love does not intimidate or minimize other people and what they are doing. So never, never, ever put people down. Never make people feel low. Never embarrass people. Never make them feel embarrassed or discouraged or insulted. Love does not do that. Love makes other people feel valuable, feel beautiful, feel smart. Have you ever had anybody make you feel stupid? I have. Make me feel stupid in front of a whole bunch of people. Like that wasn’t love. the way they said something and just make you look like you’re so stupid in front of a bunch of people, that’s not love. But you make people feel smart, valuable, beautiful. You talk well of them in front of other people. You never talk bad about people in front of other people. That’s what love does. So how do we walk in love? Love builds up. Number three, love covers people’s sins, weaknesses, faults, et cetera. This is such a huge, huge, huge thing. Love covers over. Proverbs 10, 12, hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs. Wrongs as well as faults, weaknesses, mistakes, stupid errors, all of that. Proverbs 17, 9, he who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter, separates close friends, repeats it, talks about it. You are embarrassing, you are shaming, you are disgracing when you talk about something. 1 Peter 4, 8, above all, love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins. And I’m just going to summarize this story in Genesis chapter 9, verses 20 to 27. Noah, after the flood, planted a vineyard, drank some of the wine, and in verse 21, became drunk. He lay naked inside his tent. Verse 22, his son Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness. And what did he do? He, verse 22, he told Noah, his two brothers outside. Verse 23, but Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders. They walked in backward and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness. Verse 24, when Noah woke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, cursed be Canaan, the lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. 26, he also said, blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem. May Canaan be the slave of Shem and may God extend the territory of Japheth. May Japheth live in the tents of Shem. May Canaan be a slave. Notice the blessing came on those that covered and the curse came on the one who exposed. Ham, the father of Canaan, received the curse and Shem and Japheth were blessed. Love does not expose people’s faults and mistakes publicly to bring shame and disgrace to them. In other words, not even talking to one person and telling, hey, did you see that? Look at that. And to point out somebody’s fault, weakness, a bad thing about them. If you expose, criticize, and comment on people’s faults and weaknesses, you are hating and hurting, not loving. To expose is to hate. To cover is to love. The Lord has been showing me that to expose is to hate. To criticize and talk about and comment is on somebody’s fault or weakness or error or something that they did wrong, then that is a hatred. That’s an act of hate and it is hurting them. Number four, this goes right into then love does not criticize slander, which means speak bad about or judge other people. And there’s way too much of this, even among Christians. Love does not criticize. If you love people, you will not criticize them. Criticizing means to find fault with, to judge. And I’m going to show you and point it out again. We keep seeing the word judge in here. And most Christians know it is wrong to judge. Do not judge or you’ll be judged. Do you know what most Christians will say? Oh, but I’m not judging. I’m just saying. If you said a negative comment, that was a judgment. By definition of criticize, it means to point out and discuss the faults of, to examine and judge, to make judgments about, to judge unfavorably. Any negative comment talking about a fault, a weakness in somebody else, which we know as criticism, it is judgment. So when Christians are saying, oh, but I’m not judging. I’m just saying it is judging. That’s what judging is. Criticizing is judging to find fault with, to judge, to point out and discuss the faults of that is talk about them to express disapproval of something. Oh, can you see that? I can’t believe they did that. See how they made a mess over there. See what this, you know, what they did here to talk about and to express disapproval of something or someone to examine and judge, to make judgments about, to judge unfavorably or harshly. Now I know every one of us in here has done this. Everybody has. When you know you’ve done it, you repent, right? I’m pointing this out because we need to learn. And actually, let me remind you what the Lord is doing in us. We started out with the message of the year of the Holy Ghost and fire. Fire bringing cleansing and purging. Why? So that the fire of the Holy Spirit and the gifts can be poured out. The cleansing comes before the Spirit is poured out, before the gifts of the Spirit can manifest. And that’s what God’s doing. We are getting ready for the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit the world has ever seen worldwide. And I’m going to be in it. But God says he’s getting his people ready. And this year in these meetings that the Lord has directed me to, we have been studying growing up spiritually. We did that lesson. The stages of spiritual growth, moving from a baby to a child, youth to adult. We’ve talked about pride and humility. Get the pride out. Now we’re learning. This is what love is. And this is what love does. Jesus said, they will know you are my disciples by your name. Your denomination? Your title? No, how will they know? By your love. What you just heard was part two of a message that I preached in one of our victorious faith services called What Love Does. This is a very important, practical, and insightful lesson on how to fulfill the greatest commandment of all, the commandment to love one another. And this is also our highest calling. And if you want to listen to this message again in its entirety, and if you want to download the notes… you can go to my YouTube channel, which is under my name, Cherry Campbell. C-H-E-R-R-I Campbell, C-A-M-P-B-E-L-L. And there in the top category called Radio Broadcasts, you will see this message called What Love Does. And you can click on the video and under the video in the description box, you can see the link to download the notes. I encourage you, study these scriptures and put it into practice. This is the greatest commandment and… your highest calling. And it brings the richest rewards both in this life and in eternity to come. So I encourage you, join me again tomorrow. And remember, God loves you. You are blessed and highly favored by the Lord.
