Kenneth Copeland - The Core Values of a Believer
— Well, Friday's here. Praise God. Amen. Goes quick, doesn't it.
— Goes real quick.
— All right. Father, thank You so much for this week. It's been precious in our eyes. The precious things of God. And we thank You and praise You in Jesus' name. Amen. Now let's open our Bibles to the eighth chapter of Romans. To me, this chapter is... the gospel is in the eighth chapter of Romans. Amen. Now before we do, for classes benefit and for your benefit, and for those of you particularly that are thinking about maybe coming to coming to KCBC, these are the core values that are taught here. These are the core values that Gloria and I have in our lives, and this is actually where they came from. Number one, we put the Word of God first place. Whatever it says I am, I am. Whatever it says I have, I have. Whatever it says I can do, I can do, with His help by the Spirit. Number two, we live by faith. The just shall live by faith the scripture says more than once. And under that, faith makes prayer work. Prayer doesn't make faith work. Number three, we walk in love. Number four, we are led by the Holy Spirit. Number five, we pray about everything. Luke 18:1, men ought to always pray and not faint or give up. We honor God. 1 Samuel 2:30, and God said this, those that honor Me, I honor them. Those that despise Me, well, you know what the rest of that is. Not because God wants to despise anybody, but to despise is to mean just I just don't care anything about Him. Well, yeah, He's God, he's my God and all that, but I really don't have time to pray. People don't realize, but that's despising His Word, it's despising Him. Everything else is more important. We honor God. Number seven, we protect the anointing, because without it we can do nothing. Whatever you're called to do. You're called to teach school. You're called to be a car dealer. Thank God for a Holy Ghost car dealer in Camden, Arkansas. He was president of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship there. I didn't know it, but there I was stuck without a car, and I had to get back to Little Rock, and Gloria and I were planning on doing some things. And I didn't have but $135. And I went to see him. Now I had been a car salesman. And I went to see him and I said, "I've really got a better sense than to do this, but I don't have any choice". And I told him, "I don't have a car, and all I have is $135. Will that buy anything"? He said, "Okay, will you trust me in this"? Well, I didn't have any choice. We drove through the used car lot and around behind the repair shop, behind everything. And there's the ugliest looking thing I ever saw in my life. The headliner's hanging down in the back, and the top had leprosy. It had been green, and it wasn't green anymore. But he said, "Now Kenneth," he said, "now I traded for this thing". But he said, "I no more than traded for it, and the transmission went out. So, I overhauled the transmission". Then he said, "Then the engine went bad, so we had to overhaul the engine". He said, "I've already got $700 in this thing and I'll never get it out". And he said, "Well, I'll just put a new set of tires on you because if you need a new set of tires". $135. I got in that old Chevrolet. That thing ran like a new car. I wish I'd have kept it. It was ugly, but it ran. Now what happened here? A Spirit-filled man led by the Spirit of God had no... I wasn't going to be a preacher. I was going to fly airplanes. This was before that other incident took place, because this was before she and I were married. Spirit of God was taken care of it.
— Absolutely.
— Now we honor God, we protect the anointing. I want us to look in this eighth chapter of the book of Romans. We are led by what? By who? The Holy Spirit. That first verse, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life, who? The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
— Absolutely true.
— Glory be to God. And you come all the way down through this. And oh, verse 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, "Abba Father". Now my granddaughter Jenny started an orphanage and Thessaloniki, and the name of it is Abba House, Father's house. They don't have to translate it. They speak Greek. And I have a great grandson. I have a little Thessalonian as a great grandson, glory to God.
— Amen.
— Isn't that wonderful? And so, we are led by the Holy Spirit.
— In all we say and do.
— Everything.
— And that's why you're a Word person, because the Word and the Spirit agree.
— Yes.
— They absolutely agree with each other. The spirit responds to the preaching. The spirit responds to the Word. And it's the Word that's the power of the Spirit.
— That's right.
— That's how it works.
— I'm the high ground, sayeth the Lord. I stand and walk and think in a higher place. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways. So, come on up here with Me. Come up into this place where you accepted My son as your savior. I raise you up to sit with him in heavenly places. And you are looking down on the things of the earth and the things of the devil. Take the high place. Walk in honor. Walk in goodness and love. Keep My words. Walk in My words. My words are stout and they are strong. And if you put My words in your heart and in your mouth, then it will not only help and make you free, it will make others free that see and hear what you're doing and saying. For I am the Lord God, and there is now, now, now, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit or after my words sayeth the Lord. Rejoice and be glad in it for I'm coming soon.
— Amen. Glory to God. Hallelujah, hallelujah.
— Yes, He is.
— Glory to God.
— Every military person knows the high ground is the place of victory. It is hard to fight your way up a hill because the high ground... Anyway.
— We're talking about the Spirit of power. That's that centurion with Jesus. He recognized you're a man of authority. You've got the high ground.
— That's right. Oh, that's it.
— You just say it and it'll be done.
— Man.
— That's what he was just calling us up to come up to that place.
— Come up to that place.
— You'll know that when you say it, it will come to pass because you're just saying what He says. Praise God.
— Praise God forevermore. And if children, verse 16, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him that we may be all so glorified together. Amen. Isn't that amazing?
— Everything born after itself has a voice.
— Oh, that's good.
— A cat meows, it doesn't bark. And a dog barks, it doesn't meow.
— And the bigger the cat...
— Now here's the thing, we're born of Him.
— Yes, we are.
— I have a voice now that's His voice.
— Oh my God.
— I sound like my Father.
— Yes, sir. And if it's His Word coming out of my heart, then out my mouth, according to Hebrews chapter three, He is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, then it is His voice and not just an echo. This has to be in my heart and mouth. It has to be in two places.
— Yeah. Abraham patterned himself after that man he saw make covenant.
— Yes, he did.
— And that's why he tried to sacrifice his own son, because he's patterned himself after the Father.
— Yes. Glory to God.
— David'll do the same thing. That's ways a man after God's own heart. All of those people, Hebrews chapter 11, all they did was in faith. They put the Word first.
— I like what Pastor George said Sunday. He said something, that God's people, the apple of his eye. And George said, "That's the most tender spot. That your eye, the pupil of your eye, is so tender, you guard it with... But that's the reason when you come against his people, you poke your finger in God's eye. And you badmouth the Jewish people, you poke your finger in His eye. And that's no good. He doesn't react well to that.
— No, that's your covenant brother. Joseph. We talked earlier in the week about Joseph. Joseph had two sons that were grafted in with full inheritance.
— Yes, he did.
— Ephraim and Manasseh, those two boys, they represent us. Paul will teach that. We've been grafted in. Don't think you can't be pruned off. You've been grafted into this thing. And that's poking your own brother in the eye. Ephraim and Manasseh never had strife with each other. They never had strife with the other tribes. And to this day, the Jewish people lay hands on their kids and say, "May you be like Ephraim and Manasseh".
— Praise God.
— That's us. And Jesus will say they'll know you, because you're grafted in, they'll know you by your love. Praise the Lord. But we have to do that. That's what's inside of us. We got that the moment we're born again. But to put it into action, we have to believe.
— I'm moved in my spirit right now about the law of sin and death. Those are laws, and a law is predictable. Over here you have the law of sin and death. Look at it again. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. You could just take a piece of paper and just draw a line down the middle of it. Over here is the law of the Spirit of life. It's in Christ Jesus. Over here is the law of sin and death. Well, that's also a spirit. Satan is the spirit of death. Everything about him is death. Jesus said, John 10:10, he comes but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy. He is the destroyer. And it's two different set of laws. God has never, ever become the killer, and the devil has never become the blesser.
— They're magnetic opposites.
— Yes, absolutely opposite of one another.
— Look at verse three. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. He condemned Jesus. Now this next part, I thought that, well, Jesus is the righteous God. But listen to this in verse four, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.
— Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. You could say who walk not after five physical senses, but after the Word.
— There it is.
— Yeah. I wrote that up here in that first verse. There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the five physical senses, but after the Word of God. Because when you're talking about the flesh, that's what it is. It's the five sense gates that we get our information, through these five physical senses. But the good information comes out of the Spirit.
— That's right. Because that's what's seated with Him.
— Yes.
— That has the fullness of the Godhead. That's what's complete in Him. This is not yet, but I'm one day closer to this being transformed.
— Every day.
— In the moment, in a twinkling of an eye. But if the Spirit that raised him, Jesus, up from the dead dwell in you, he raised up Christ from the dead, shall quicken your mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in you. He's saying that same thing. So, get your eyes off of all of this and how you feel about something or...
— Well, go over here to the book of Hebrews, second chapter. And in fact, you mentioned this last week. Fourth verse, God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with different miracles and gifts and the Holy Ghost according to His own will. For under the angels hath He not put subjection to the world and came so forth and so on. And he comes down. You have made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of your hand. You've put all things under subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in a subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste death for all men. Tasted.
— Yeah.
— Now look at this. You can see it when you die. You can smell it, you can taste it, and you can hear it. You just do. And to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord if you know him as your savior.
— Right.
— You take care of that right now if you don't. If something happened to you right this minute, are you sure? Are you certain? Well, fix it. Just say, "Jesus, I receive you as my Lord and savior. I see here where you tasted death for me, and I receive you. I want this. Come into my heart. Take my life. Fill me with Your Spirit. Thank You. I believe it". Now you're a new creature. "Copeland, it can't be that easy". I didn't make it that easy.
— He did.
— Listen, Jesus did all the hard part. He went to hell, but he couldn't pray your prayer. Gloria, all she knew to do is she just said, "Take my life and do something with it". Well, he certainly did.
— Yes, he did.
— She had never heard the phrase born again until after she's baptized in the Spirit. I mean, that's how little we knew. But it sure worked, glory to God. Now notice this. He tasted death for every man, for it became him for whom are all things and by whom, bringing many sons under glory. Can you see it? To make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Both he that sanctifies and they were sanctified are all one. Because he's not ashamed to call you his brother.
— No.
— He's not ashamed to call you brother and sister. He's the firstborn from the dead of many brethren. We're family. We have a blood brother, glory to God. My little Cherokee self wanted a blood brother so bad.
— And you got a good one.
— I got a good one. That's what thrilled me so when I first read that little book by E.W Kenyon, The Blood Covenant. Just a little red book about that big. And back in those days, you could ride to shuttle back forth from Houston to Dallas and so forth, and our airplane was in the shop. And somebody stuck that book in my pocket. And I'd get right up front. And they had carpet on that bulkhead up there. I don't care nothing about looking out the window. I like to look forward out of an airplane, not sideways. And so, I just sat down up there and I thought I'm going to read that little book. And I put my foot up there on that carpet on that thing and I read. I thought, look at this. Jesus Christ is my blood brother.
— Yes.
— Oh God. Oh Jesus. And the lady has the booze thing. She came up there and she said, "Would you like... Oh no, you've had too much already".
— Right. Right, yeah, yeah.
— Yeah, I was drunk all right, on the Spirit. But in the morning I'll still be drunk. I won't sober up. Glory to God.
— And not have a hangover.
— No. I'm still hungover by that one.
— Yeah, yeah. Right. Good. Absolutely. I love it in here where it says that he crowned him with glory and honor. That's one of the core values is honoring God, because God honored him.
— Yes.
— And we honor Jesus by keeping his commandment.
— Isn't it so good.
— It's really easy.
— You can live in this second chapter of the book of Hebrew, just live there. And the place that's so good in that 14th... again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold I and the children which God had given me. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same. Are you seeing that? Took part of the same that through death he might destroy, the word actually says paralyze, him that had the power of death. He doesn't have it anymore.
— No. Tries to scare you with it, but he doesn't have it.
— That is the devil. And deliver them. Get it church. Deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage because of the fear of death. "Why, Brother Copeland, I'm not afraid of death". "Well, no, wait a minute. Are you afraid to fly"? "Well, I don't like getting on that airplane". "No, you're not afraid of flying. You're afraid of dying". There have been people that I've talked to that say, "I just get on there, and hit those bumps". And I said, "Well, wait a minute. The problem is you can't see the bump. Have you ever been in a boat"? "Well, yeah". "And you're going across the lake. Is it smooth all the time"? "Well, no". I said, "Well, you can see the water. The same things happens with the air. It's got waves in it and you can..". "Oh, is that what that is? Oh, okay". But the fear is a basic fear of death. You're up off the ground. Well, maybe I look up, it won't bother me. There are times that things would bother me. I don't let that bother me anymore. I used to didn't like high bridges, so I just hunt all the high ones I could find.
— That's right.
— First elevator, Hyatt Regency, elevators on the inside. I looked up there and my toes curled up. We're out of time. But I rode that elevator. I went up, down, up, down, up, down like this, and I said, "Fear, you're not going to curl my toes. I like this elevator and I'm going ride this thing". Oh, we'll be back in a minute.