Cherri Campbell returns with another enriching episode that underscores the vitality of feeding your spirit with the Word. Through a captivating tale of Terry Trial and Vic Victory, discover how spiritual readiness can turn daunting life challenges into smooth passages. Also, explore the profound insights of biblical parables that advocate for a life built on the firm foundation of active faith. Don’t miss this insightful continuation of the series ‘What is the Word?’ as Cherri encourages believers to grow robust in faith and enjoy the blessings of a steadfast spirit.
Good morning. Welcome to Victoria’s Faith. I’m Cherri Campbell. This morning I’m going to continue sharing with you the message I’ve been sharing with you in the last few broadcasts that I preached in a series of messages in our Victoria’s Faith services called, What is the Word? And this is message three in that series called, What is the Word? Spirit Food. So join me now in our live service for the continuation of this message, What is the Word? Spirit Food. The word of God is spirit, food, milk, water, meat, and bread. Everything you need for a full diet. However, you need to have a consistent and full balanced diet of the word. You need that. The physical body depends on the spirit man to produce enough strength to to live on. James 2 26 says the body without the spirit is dead. So as soon as your spirit dies, your body dies. Then you can also see that when your spirit is weak, your body will be weak or your soul will be weak or your faith particularly will be weak. You will be weak in your trials of life, daily work. You won’t have that strength that you need if your spirit is weak. Your spirit is like a generator that produces the electricity for the lights in a room. The generator has only a certain amount of power it can produce. Depending on the size of the generator, it can produce a little bit of power. It can produce a great amount of power, but every generator is limited to a certain amount of power it can produce. And when you begin plugging in lights and other electrical equipment, you draw from that power. If you keep plugging in more equipment and more and more and more, you will eventually draw the maximum power the generator can produce. And once you go past the maximum, if you plug one more thing in, it will either short circuit or a safety feature these days will cause it to automatically shut off. In other words, it will shut down. You know, that’s what happens when your spirit is weak. Your spirit is also a generator. It generates the life and the faith that you need to overcome every situation in life. Physically, physical trials, sickness, pain, family problems, work problems. Everything you face in life, you need faith to overcome it. And that means you need your spirit to be strong. Your faith is strong when your spirit is strong. So your spirit is also a generator. It provides the life force for your body. If you overload it with the cares of this world, the problems and trials, and all the idle, unbelieving conversation and bad reports, bad news in the world, you can put more demand on your spirit than there is power in it to handle. Spiritual weakness causes physical weakness and sickness. It causes financial weakness. It causes relationship weakness, marriage weakness, etc. But a strong spirit will carry you through every test and trial. Proverbs 18, 14 says a man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear a man’s spirit sustains him. A man’s spirit sustains him. And I heard this example of this story about Terry trial and Vic victory. There were two men, one named Terry trial and the other named Vic victory. And they were both driving their car, their vehicle, down the road of life. Now, Terry Trial always was watching TV and snacking and playing games and didn’t have time for the Word of God and just was going through life goofing off. and not going to church and studying the word. And he’s going down his road of life in this old beat up, what do you call those? Yeah, jalopy. That’s what I’m trying to think of. An old jalopy. An old jalopy just bouncing down the road. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And he was running on, he was short a cylinder, you know, one cylinder was missing. And he comes to this hill, and he’s hoping he’ll be able to make it up the hill. This hill was a test, a trial of his sickness in his body, or maybe it was in his marriage or his finances. But he’s just riding down the road in his jalopy, bouncing along, and he gets to the hill and just goes a little ways up, and he sputters, ch-ch-ch-ch. And then he rolls back down and he can’t make it over the hill. And finally, he got out and he pushed and he pushed and he struggled and he sweat and he cried. And he had to call all his friends, please come and help me. And they all got behind him and they pushed and they pushed. And finally, after hours and hours, and even I think it was a day or more, all of them, because they were all weak, they finally got this jalopy pushed over the hill. And then he gets to the next gas station and he talks about… Do you know what kind of a mountain I just faced? It was the biggest mountain. It was like Mount Kilimanjaro or Pikes Peak or something like that. Going up, it was this huge mountain, Mount Everest. And boy, boy, that was a big mountain. But we made it. We finally made it. That was the biggest thing we’ve ever faced. And then came along Vic Victory, brother Vic Victory. He’s driving a modern and well cared for, polished and shined and oiled and And good running. He just had all of the car checked up, you know, on all of its fluids and make sure the oil is full and everything’s running. All the cylinders are running on, you know, right on and everything’s working perfectly. Has his tires filled up with air and he’s going along praising the Lord because he’s been meditating on the word of God. and the word of God has been in his heart he’s just been in a meeting all week long of five days of messages he’s been listening to and all day long he’s listening to the word and and it’s just been feeding his spirit and he’s so excited and he’s praising the Lord hallelujah praise the Lord glory to God glory to God and he’s speeding down the road at 80 miles an hour and he comes up to this little hill and he goes right up and over it without a problem comes up to the next gas station and stops and he meets little terry tile there and terry child did you just cross mount everest and what that little hill yeah wasn’t that the hardest thing i never noticed it was hardly a hill I didn’t even notice it was hardly a hill. See, that’s the difference between those who are spiritually mature and trained in the word. They can face the same struggles and same trials and yet breeze through them Like it wasn’t anything or it just took a little bit of extra faith push. Believe God for this. Yeah, we got it. Thank you, Jesus. And be on their way and get victory over it. Whereas the skinny, scrawny Christian who doesn’t spend any time in the word and just is spiritually lazy and very carnal gets to a test and trial and it about destroys their life. It about destroys their life. You know, there is a parable about that. Let me turn to it real quickly. It’s in Luke 6. And verses 46 to the end, 49. Luke 6, 46 to 49. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and And puts them into practice. So he’s doing them. He’s hearing and doing. He is like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it. because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground, just on the surface of the ground, maybe a sandy beach even, without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.” And you know, I’ve heard this parable since my childhood, and among a lot of Christians, what did he build his house on? The one whose house didn’t fall? On the rock. And many Christians, you’ll ask them, what is the rock? And they’ll say, Jesus. Well, yes, Jesus is a rock, but that’s not the rock in this parable. Jesus said, the one who hears my words and puts them into practice, the doer of the word. So it’s the word of God. The rock is the word. The rock is the word. And not only hearing it, but doing it, putting it in practice every day. You’re exercising your faith. You’re living by the word, studying the word, speaking the word, meditating on the word and acting on the word, doing it. And that is building your house on the rock. And the sand is those who don’t hear the word at all, or they hear it and they forget it. They’re not living by it. They go to church for a 30-minute service on Sunday or an hour service on Sunday, and they go away and they forget everything and they don’t pay any attention to the word. They’re the ones whose house is on the sand, even if they’re Christians. So what this is comparing is people who hear the word. These are people in church. A lot of them. I mean, there are people who hear the word who aren’t in church, but these are even the people that go to church and you can divide a church. Now we don’t know, but God knows the people who come to church on Sunday morning. There are going to be those who go out and they don’t do anything with it. And there’ll be those who go out and they’re going to put it in practice. They’re going to live by it. They’re all Christians. The rock is being a doer of the word and not crashing. So notice it was the same storm. See, some people look at Christians who are strong in faith, strong in the word, and think, you just don’t have any problems. Well, for one thing, they probably don’t have as many because their faith is a shield. That shield of faith can stop a lot of problems. But everybody gets knocked once in a while. Even those strong in faith. Even the mature Christians. They’ll get knocked. But. When they’re grounded on the word, they will make it through that storm, that trial, without falling, without collapsing. They’ll make it through to the other side and not take as long. Much of the time, it’ll be faster going through it. And they will come through with victory. Whereas the weak Christians, they collapse. They fall apart. And some don’t ever get victory in this life. They just go on to heaven. And so being a doer of the word is building your house on the rock. So in that regard, the word is the rock and being a doer of the word is the rock. So I’m talking about tests and trials. The same test and trial can hit a strong Christian and a weak Christian, but the strong Christian can go through it much easier, much faster and get the victory faster. And it may look like they haven’t even been through anything. I mean, they’ll come out the other side and they won’t hardly have their hair They’re messed up. And the weak Christian comes through it. And they’re just sweating and crying. I can’t help. Pray for me. Pray for me. And they’re asking all their friends to pray for them. And they are dragging through the storm. And so don’t be that. Be a strong Christian. Strengthen your spirit. How do you do it? With the word of God. And so that’s what it says in Proverbs 18, 14, a strong spirit will carry you through trials. Proverbs 18, 14, a man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear. What you just heard was the continuation of a message that I preached in a series of messages in our victorious faith services called What is the Word? And this is message three in that series called What is the Word? Spirit Food. And we will continue this message again tomorrow. So join me again tomorrow and remember God loves you. You are blessed and highly favored by the Lord.
