Kenneth Copeland - Called By God To Love One Another
— Wednesday's here. One day closer to the resurrection. Glory to God.
— Amen.
— Hallelujah. Yes. Every day. I've said this for years. It's one day closer to the resurrection, it's one day closer to my birthday, and it's one day closer to Christmas. Yes. In that order. Hallelujah. Jesus is coming, brother. Everything has been satisfied with me. Everything is satisfied for him to come and I'm not going to be satisfied until it does. Praise God. He needs to do this.
— Yes. He wants to do this.
— He wants to do this. Yes. Amen. Father, thank You for the wonders of Your word, the power of Your spirit, and the written word. The written word of God is a manifestation of You, a manifestation of Jesus. Praise God for the spirit of God wrote this book. It is a book of covenants and promises, and we praise You, and we thank You that we are the recipient of it. And we glorify Your name, and that name is Jesus. Praise God forevermore. Now, we are really into something here. In 2 Peter, the more you read the more wonderful it gets. But these first four verses, "Simon Peter, a servant or a slave and an apostle of Jesus Christ". Well, when did he become an apostle? Let's go back to 13 John 34-35. Jesus said, "I give you a new commandment that you love one another as I have loved you, and all shall know that you are my disciples by the way you love one another". A disciple is a follower. Look at the word disciple and look at the word discipline. They're the same word. One corrects or disciplines. My dad, A.W. Copeland, disciplined me and it seemed tough at the time, but I soon became a disciple of Aubrey Wayne Copeland because he was right all the time. He disciplined me and I became a disciple. Well, they were the disciples until right before he left, he said, "Go, into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature".
— And I am willing, if I was a betting person but I'm not, to bet that you still have the attributes of your father.
— Yes.
— Because you were a disciple, that became part of your character nature.
— And my DNA was on my mother's side. And when I was just a boy, her older brother was killed in World War II. But, and this is funny... The one we called Uncle Bud was the oldest one. And he nicknamed people. And he was such a happy man. And the two of them went to Texas Tech and my uncle Pete went to play football, my uncle Bud went to get an education. Anyway, he nicknamed people. Now, my uncle Pete's name, wasn't Pete at all. He is Floyd Russell Owens. But he wore blue overalls, work overalls not those other striped ones. He wouldn't have them. He had to have blue ones. From the time he was a little guy and he bought them big rolled the legs of them up, when he didn't... And farm people didn't have any money. I'm saying this because of covenant name change. He called him Petey Edman Boy Blue. He was Pete Owens for the rest of his life. Nobody ever knew what his name was. Now, there was another other man there, and my uncle Bud called him Turkey Neck Shepherd. They called him Turk Shepherd until the day he died. And when the news came to us, and my dad knew him, I said, "Dad do you know what Turk Shepherd's real name is"? He said, "You know I don't". The name change. That is huge. What they name you be, you become.
— So when they called us Christians...
— We became.
— Oh, we should have become.
— Yeah. Christmas. Christ or anointing mass celebration. It's the celebration of the anointing because the anointed one was only here a short time, and only ministered roughly three and a half years. But we still celebrate the anointed one and his anointing on that. Well, we are supposed to.
— So historically we can prove that he was not born on December the 25th. It doesn't matter. The world accepts that's the day. And because it's that day, that day has become significant. So whatever is associated with him becomes significant. When you gave your life to Jesus, you became associated with him. You just became significant.
— And you became a carrier of that anointing. Now what I started to say. I look so much like my uncle Pete or uncle Floyd, that when I was a young boy, they thought that I was his son and I never did look anything like my dad. I looked like my mother. But then the things that he taught me, he discipled me and it's precious in my life. He really enjoyed swimming. I swam in a mud hole. And there'd be times that we'd be driving down a highway together, and there would've come a good rain and there'd be a lot of water running down that bar ditch. I'd say, "Daddy, stop the car and let me go swimming". He'd do it. And he'd say, "Don't you jump in there. You don't know what's underneath it". Now, I started learning these things. And I remember, and this goes to what we're talking about, his attributes. My dad was a very kind man. But he was very exact. If he said, "Kenneth, when I get home, I'm going to spank you for that," hang it on the wall because when we got home, it wasn't going to be "No, no. Don't you just don't ever do that again". No. He didn't lie to me. We got home. I got spanked. There'd be times he'd say, "I'm going to spank you for that," and that's all he'd say. "But when?
— So now you're carrying the weight of that spank with you.
— And it would come. But I never could talk him out of it. Now, Kellie, boy she'd start pleading her case with me. "I mean... I'm just... No, daddy don't do something you're going to regret. Now, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on". I tried my best to keep a straight face, but I would discipline her. And there was times she got it anyway. And I have to admit there's times she talked me out of it because of grace. But the whole point is I didn't... Proverbs 6:22. Could we turn there just for a moment?
— Yeah, let's do it.
— Because all this has to do with what we're talking about. Verse 20: "My son keep thy father's commandment and forsake not the law of your mother. Bind them continually upon your heart. Tie them about your neck. When you go, it shall lead thee. When you sleep, it shall keep thee. When you're awake, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are our way of life". It'll work with you all the time if it's final authority in your life. And the things that I remember that my mother and my dad taught me. My dad taught me how to dry my back. That sounds small. But for problems with my mother's health, I was the only child, and so I remember it. It's in my mind. We just got out of a swimming pool one day. I was just a little guy, and I couldn't figure out how to dry my back, so he turned me around and taught me how to dry my back. I still take showers and I dry my back the same way because my father taught me. My heavenly Father has taught me things over the last 55 years. Some of them were very expensive because I didn't obey. But I learned the hard way.
— But his grace in all of those.
— Oh, yeah.
— And his mercy.
— All he said to me, "Start walking and don't quit". That is a very simple commandment. I didn't take it as a commandment. I was overweight all the time and I started... But then I turned it into jogging. He said, "Well..." And I didn't do it, and finally, I just quit. But I would think about it and it would bother me, but I didn't do it. Well, judgment came. Judgment is the mercy of God. And judgment came and a disc exploded in my back and put me in the shower floor, screaming and howling and couldn't get up. But I made the decision then that day... Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not against surgery. But I made the decision that day, "They're not going to operate on my back. I am going to do what he said".
— Now, he didn't do that to your back.
— No.
— He gave you the instruction so it wouldn't happen.
— He gave to stop it. To keep it from happening. And over all those years, it finally blew up after Southwest in 2004 and I wound up in the floor. But now after doing what he said do, after that, I eventually wound up doing it on a treadmill and got it all back and did what I should have done in the first place. And now my diet is correct. I don't have any pain in my body, and I weigh what I should weigh.
— That Proverbs is like a rudder on your course.
— That's what it is.
— Somebody's got to be the navigator and somebody's got to be on the rudder.
— So, that's one of the scriptures that's right there by my bedside that I read to go to sleep by at night.
— Well, if you look at this, when God revealed himself to Moses with those attributes and that prayer, going back to your father, he said, it's an Exodus 34:6, "The Lord, the Lord, God merciful, gracious, long suffering, abundant in goodness and truth..." See all that's at the beginning. "...Keeping mercy to a thousand, forgiving inequity and transgression and sin". That will by no means clear the guilty. There you go. "Visiting the inequity of the fathers upon the children". In other words, if you keep going away from these things, it's going to be passed down. It's going to continue to pass down.
— Now people call that generational curses. Well, that's...
— I don't believe it. No, Jesus became the curse.
— It's generational teaching, And it's brought out in Ephesians 5. If you want to turn over there, let's look at that.
— This will set somebody free today.
— And chapter five, "Be ye, therefore followers". The Greek word is M-I-M-E-T-E-S. Imitate. The Classic Amplified says, "Be ye therefore, imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us". As dear children imitate their parents. That's what it is. It's not a generational curse. They're imitating their parents. They say what their parents said. They do what their parents do. They eat like their parents eat. So if the parent had a massive heart attack, probably the son's going to have one because heart attacks are not hereditary. Cancer is not hereditary. They're self-induced, but in different ways and different causes. But that's the way it goes. Now, I'm a...
— Jesus became the curse.
— Yeah. So it's not a curse. It's imitating parents. Parents don't know how to eat, the children don't know how eat.
— And you sow into your flesh.
— Yeah. Now, my mother taught us how to eat. I just wouldn't do it. So later it came back. What my mother taught me was right, and I had to go back and begin to eat properly and exercise. I no longer had a weight problem. It was not a weight problem to begin with. It was a food problem. I was a glutton. That's just the bottom line of it. I didn't obey what she said about food.
— Well, that proverb you read earlier, it talks about the commandment and then talks about your mother. So all of this stuff is...
— Now my mother studied those things. She was a chiropractor and a naturopathic physician, and the people from whom she learned the naturopathic methods or natural methods, nutrition and so forth. And I should have known. This was back during the day she was studying during World War II. And these men would come by our home and teach her. I should have known through them. There was one man that scalded his hands. Somebody dumped scalding coffee on his hands in a restaurant, just burned them. Well, they wanted to do certain things and he wouldn't have that. He's a very godly man. And he kept picking at it. They said, "Don't pick at that. Don't pick at that. Don't pick at that". He just kept picking at it. And kept picking at it and kept picking at it, and kept picking at it, and kept picking at it, and kept picking at it, and it did not scar his hands and his hands turned out with no scald scar. But then you couldn't tell how old he was either. He looked so young, but come to find out, he was a very old man. I should have known by watching those men. And later, all that came back and then I went back and studied after some of those men, and one of them, in particular, he got up around a hundred and he quit telling people how old he was so they couldn't guess. Well, anyway, let's go back to this, but...
— No, I'm fascinated.
— I'm talking about that there's not a curse involved in that. It's children imitating their parents. Okay.
— So in that, the children of God will begin to imitate what happened.
— That's what I was getting to.
— In Exodus 34, and let me show you some examples, because this is a prayer. This is after the tablet had been broken, he comes up, he reveals himself. Let me show you in a couple places. The spies return, I'll just read you these verses in Numbers 14:19-20: The spies return to the people with the report that causes the Israelites' hearts to melt in disbelief, and it stops God's ability to have them enter into the land. And God is getting ready to wipe them out again, right there. But listen to the people here. Numbers 14:19-20. "Pardon I pray thee the iniquity of this people, according to your great kindness, as you have forgiven this people ever since Egypt". He went back to Exodus 34 there and began to call upon the kindness of God. "And you have forgiven them since Egypt". And the Lord said, "I have pardoned as you've asked".
— Praise God. Read that again. Read that again.
— "Pardon I pray thee the iniquity..."
— The first verse.
— Numbers 14:19 and 20. 19.
— And they cried out, "Pardon, I beseech thee the iniquity of this people, according to something..." Always watch for that according. It's right there in 2 Peter. "According as he has given us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might receive the divine nature". It's according. We do things according to Mark 11: 22, 23, 24 and 25.
— So if we'll learn to pray that way, "According to your word, Lord when you said..." Now that's covenant.
— That's where Abraham stepped in.
— That's it. That's faith.
— Like Abraham. Before him. Like him, he called things to be not as how they were.
— You'll see it again in Joel 2:13. For the sake of time I'll read it to you. "Render your hearts rather than your garments. Turn back to the Lord your God for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and renouncing punishment". There it is. That's that's Exodus 34. He's praying a version of that prayer in his own words.
— So let's go back to biblical study. Once this happened, once this was laid out, the attributes of God in the 34:6-7, then it flows all the way through the rest of the Bible.
— Yeah. Because he made a covenant of it right there.
— Yes, sir.
— He said, "This is how you'll keep from being destroyed. This is how you'll keep from this happening again. When I want to destroy, say this. Pray this". God prayed this for Moses to show them how to pray. To this day they will pray, at the day of atonement. They'll come in and pray along this line, these prayers...
— And it still works.
— ... And it still works. Psalm 145:8 is another one. "The Lord is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger". There it is again. Jonah will do the exact same thing. Jonah will say, "For, I know that you are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in covenant and kindness, renouncing punishment". That's why he didn't want to go to Nineveh, "Because I know what you're going to do".
— I know what you're going to do.
— I know who you are. He's a prophet and he knows.
— And he made him mad. He didn't want to...
— He didn't to forgive him. But God did.
— He did.
— And we're out of time. Oh, Lord God, we thank You. Glory to God. Hallelujah. And Greg and I'll be back in just moment.