Dive into an insightful exploration of love as a foundational Christian principle. Cherry Campbell discusses the significance of going beyond mere criticism and judgment to fully embrace the walk of love. By understanding love’s role, believers can prepare for a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Learn how criticism acts as a barrier and how cultivating love can open the doors to spiritual gifts and miracles.
Good morning. Welcome to Victorious Faith. I’m Cherry Campbell. This morning, I’m going to continue sharing with you the message that I’ve been sharing with you for the last couple of programs that is actually a sequel to the message I’ve shared with you for the last couple of weeks about God’s love for us. In this lesson now, we are studying how to walk in love. love. It is very practical. It is very insightful. It is very exhorting and building and yes, correcting. 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 when you click on the video in the description box below the video, There you will see the link to download the notes so that you can follow along. I encourage you also to study the scriptures and be a doer of the word and not a hearer only. Now join me in our live service for part three of what love does. 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. 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. Now, how will they know? By your love. The world is going to see a church full of love. It’s going to happen. And the Lord is teaching us now about it in more detail. Study it. Get it in your heart. Meditate on it, practice it, grow in it, develop, cultivate the fruit of love in you because God wants to use you. And yet he can’t use people who are criticizing. If you’re going to criticize, how can God use you to prophesy? If you’re going to criticize, how can God use you to heal the sick and raise the dead? So God wants to use you, but the gifts, the spirit all work by love. The power of the spirit works by love. The outpouring of the spirit will come upon those and through those walking in love. So you want to say, I want to be used. Raise your hand if you want to be used. I want to be used by God. I want the gifts of the spirit to work in me. I want to heal the sick and raise the dead. I want to be able to prophesy, give word of knowledge, word of wisdom. I want the working of miracles. Then develop love. That’s why we’re studying this. The Lord is saying, I’m getting you ready. I’m getting you ready because there’s something really big, big, big that’s coming. And it’s soon. Are you excited? I am. So even though, you know, these are kind of, they are strong words. They are. They should cut our heart. They should. But it’s in order to just kind of slap us into place, wake us up, say, hey, wake up, get ready. God’s getting ready to do something. If you want to be ready, if you want to be in it, get in it. And so this might sound like it’s a heavy message, but it’s a get ready message. All right. Praise the Lord. Matthew 7 verses 3 through 5. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite. First, take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. And another scripture that we’re going to read, usually when we point out somebody else’s faults, You know we’re guilty of the same. We have done it somehow, some way. Maybe not the identical situation. You say, well, I would never do that. But you’ve done something like that. And so you just condemn yourself. So… We are just as guilty as anybody, so don’t say anything. Now, what is slander? Slander means to speak bad about someone, to make a statement that causes other people to have a bad opinion of someone. That’s slander to speak bad about someone, to make a statement that causes other people to have a bad opinion of someone. Leviticus 19, 16. Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the Lord. James 4, 11 brothers do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping up, but sitting in judgment on it. So then number the third thing, criticism, slander, and judgment judging people. Like I just said earlier, people say, Oh, but I’m not judging. I’m just saying, you’re saying is a judgment. Judging is criticizing. When we looked at criticize, it’s in the definition. Criticize means to judge. And speaking against your brother, that is judging. So get rid of this idea, but I’m not judging. If it’s a negative, Critical statement. It is a judgment. I mean, you can judge good to judging is calling it good or bad. So you can judge it by saying, great, good job. That’s a good judgment. It’s how you call it. You call it good or bad. Great. Good job. You look nice. That’s a good judgment. And we’re supposed to do good judgments. Call good, but don’t ever call it bad. Now let me make a clarification here. We are supposed to discern what is good and bad, good and evil, right and wrong. But we are not supposed to declare what other people do wrong. We are to leave that judgment up to God. Only God is in the position to be able to make right judgments about what other people are doing, whether they are good or bad, especially when they are bad. So we are supposed to discern right and wrong. We are supposed to be able to see things and look at them and have the knowledge by the Holy Spirit or by the word of God. That is wrong. Yes, we’re supposed to have discernment, but we are not supposed to decree or declare that what other people do is bad or wrong because only God can make that judgment. Now, there are also some exceptions to that. Very few. But let me say this. There is the exception of when you are in a position of authority and you are supposed to bring correction to someone under your authority. whether it’s your child or an employee that is under you, or in some way you have authority over another person, then yes, you are responsible to bring correction and teach them that was wrong. That was bad. And so it is because you are in a place of authority. You are over them. You are to bring correction to them. That is one exception. And the other exception is not, Like I already mentioned, if it’s your child, you are to teach them what is right and wrong. You are to correct them when they do wrong. And when you see other people doing wrong or if they are around friends that are doing wrong, you need to teach them what is right and wrong and for them not to participate in what is wrong when their friends are doing it. And so that’s an exception to not saying that something is bad because you are in a role of teaching and instructing and correcting. And you use the word of God as the basis for that. And you do it with an attitude of no judgment or fault finding against the other person, but just saying, a neutral position about that person, but saying, son, daughter, you do not do that. That is not right. So of course there are these exceptions to declaring something is right or wrong, good or bad. But as we’re talking about walking in love, you do not speak bad or call other people bad, what they do bad, because we are supposed to overlook their faults, their their weaknesses and their mistakes. So Christians know not to judge. Many people say I’m not judging them, but criticism is judgment. Judging other people. The Lord showed me this one time as I was studying and the Lord, Holy Spirit spoke it to me. Judging other people hardens your heart. When you make a negative, critical, fault finding statement, it is harsh. And therefore it’s a hardening statement. of your heart, not a softening of your heart, but having mercy and compassion softens your heart. We want to soften our heart toward people, not harden our heart toward people. We are commanded not to judge others, criticize or accuse, but to have mercy. Everybody say mercy. Matthew seven verses one and two do not judge or you too will be judged for in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. And with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you. Luke 6, 37, do not judge and you will not be judged, not condemned, you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Romans 2, 1 and 3, you therefore have no excuse. You who pass judgment on someone else, for whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself. Now, notice the line condemning yourself because you who pass judgment do the same things. Like I said, you might not have done exactly that, but you’ve done something like that. So if you are speaking critical and judgmental of them, then you have just spoken judgmental of yourself. What you just heard was part three of a message that I preached in one of our victorious faith services called What Love Does. And if you want to listen to this message again in its entirety or share it with friends and family or 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 when you click on the video there in the description box below the video, you will see the link to download the notes. Now join me again tomorrow as we will continue this message. And remember, God loves you so very much. You’re blessed and highly favored by the Lord.
