Kenneth Copeland - Follow the Owner's Manual
— Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. There's something I want to say to you today that I've done for years, and so has Gloria. You remember Jesus said that, I'll just paraphrase it, don't worry about yesterday. It's over. Don't worry about tomorrow. It has trouble enough of its own. So what should we be saying? Today is my receiving day. I receive today. Yesterday's gone. I bless you for it, Lord, and I repent of the things for which I need to repent in the name of Jesus. And I forgive. If I missed something there, I forgive, if I have ought against anyone. Today is my receiving day, and I just forgive everybody today to start with. Because through the day, I don't know yet, but I've known the devil for a long time. I've known him longer than I've known God. And I know a lot about how he works, and unforgiveness is his key element. And judging people is a form of unforgiveness. Think about it like this. When I say I like you, I just said, I want to be like you. I don't like you. I don't want to be like you. There's judgment in that. So it's just so easy. So just start the day off I forgive and today is my receiving day. Glory to God. Start it off properly. Now let's go to the Book of Revelation. We started out on page one. In the beginning, God. And then the Spirit of God was moving. Well, God has no beginning and no end. Well, it's his Spirit, no beginning and no end. That's beyond our ability to comprehend. But when we get to heaven, there's a lot of things that we will comprehend because of some things that the Bible says, that at that time, I'll just paraphrase, he's going to straighten out all of our doctrine. And then he will praise us. I really had trouble with that, Greg, at first. But then I realized we've been through hell. Now we've been really blessed in this country, but a lot of people have gone through a lot in this country. The prejudice and all of that is just demonic as it can get. Over color.
— It divides. And that's what Satan does is divide.
— It's the spirit of division. It's what he started with. And all of that, the apostle Paul wrote that, and he used himself and Apollos as the example. And he preached. I preached. Some of you say you're of him. Some of you say of me. He said, "What are you talking about? We both preach Jesus". And that's the key. Amen. So today is our receiving day. Now the Book of Revelation. Oh, this book, this is a delicious book. Praise God. Now right here in the second chapter, I want you to see the phrase in the seventh verse. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God". Now come down here to the 13th verse. "I know your works". Now listen to this, "where you dwell, even where Satan's seat is". Well, now you just need to do some study about that because these are real places. These are real places on earth. "Where Satan's seat is you hold fast my name and has not denied my faith, even in the days when Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwells". All right. Now, he just kept saying that. To he that overcomes. To he that overcomes. To he that overcomes. To he that overcomes. Oh, look at 3:21. Look at it and shout. "To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am sat down with my Father in his throne. He that has an ear to let him hear what the Spirit has to say". And I got hold of that a long time ago. Then the Spirit had to say it in my life. Glory to God, man.
— Amen. This church in Pergamos where it's talking about or Satan's seat is, you do a little study of that. Get Rick Renner's stuff on it. Boy, he breaks that down. They had every kind of perversion. Those people were under terrible strain. But in verse 26 of chapter two, it says ... Well, let's go to verse 25. "But that which you have already hold fast until I come". 26, "And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give.. Power over the nations.
— Including that seat that Satan's trying to hold.
— Yeah. I'm going to give you power.
— Because his eternal ending is right here in this book.
— It is. Let's look at it. In chapter four of Revelation and go down here to verse 11, this is where the four and 20 elders fall down before him.
— Oh, yes.
— "Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power," this ties us to Genesis 1, "for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they were created".
— Praise God.
— Everything here was made for his pleasure, including you and I. Every single thing. And he's not going to lose.
— Well, the apostle Paul wrote that to Timothy. And he said, and it is a loaded question, but the apostle wrote in Philippians, "My God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory". Well, it is a good question. Then does he do that just to supply my needs? No, because he wrote to Timothy and said, "Those that be rich in this world, exhort them to distribute, for God gives us all things richly to enjoy".
— That's right.
— And Gloria and I started out, we wrecked our good car, but it wasn't really worn out. It was a good car. And the one I came about that Oldsmobile and a left-handed airplane swapping deal. It had 90,000 miles on it when I got it, and it was Gloria's car. But we came to the place where we enjoyed it because of the miracle that God did on it. I drove that car. I drove it from Tulsa to Lubbock, Texas, where I was born. But it's a long ways across there.
— Yes, sir.
— Listening to Brother Hagin's tapes, a big grocery sack full of old carbon batteries, of big fat ones, and listening to tapes in my car, driving across there, driving across there, holding this thing around 40 mile an hour. And I heard Brother Hagin preaching. I thought, oh listen, faith will hold this thing together. Well, I learned something about that. Well, then I got home. We drove then to Fort Worth again to preach at Grace Temple Church, and a young man and his wife that went to Grace Temple, and he was a mechanic. He said, "Brother Copeland, how about I tune your car for you while you're here"? I thought, "Oh, that's a good deal, man". And he said, "Where is it"? I said, "Well, it's over there at my dad's house". Because after we got there, as quick as I could, I started driving dad's car. He said, "I'll go over there and get it and tune it". And he did half ears to hear and listen. So he brought it back. And at church that night, he said, "Did you drive that car in there"? I said, "Yes, I did". He said, "I couldn't start it". I said, "It was running great when I drove it in there". He said, "It couldn't have been". I said, "Jim, what are you talking about"? Now, those of you that are non-mechanic, the point, this is a little stainless steel paddle that has little carbon points in the distributor. And this thing swings around to the different points and sends fire to the different plugs. And there's eight spark plugs in that car, and it's sending fire to the different ones. He said, "I towed it to my house". He said, "When I got in there, there were no points". He said, "It was a slick paddle". It drove great. I know it did. The last point slick off when I drove in the driveway. It was a miracle car. I enjoyed it.
— It was being held together.
— He held it together because I was on a mission, Gloria and I were on a mission to go preach. And that's what he told me driving back from Lubbock. He had a faith built in me, listening to Brother Hagin. And I said it out loud. I said, "Why, I'm driving 40 miles an hour". I said, "Well, you can hold this thing together at 50, 60 miles an hour the same as you can 40". And he rose up on the inside of me. And he said, "Yes, that's right, but the moment you go over that speed limit, you're out of my hands. Because when you got your driver's license, you...
— Signed it.
— ...signed it that you will obey the law". And I drove too fast all the time. I learned right then, now this is the way you don't get speeding tickets. Simplest thing. You don't need a little radar up there so you can fly until the police come. Beep, beep, beep, beep. Oh, urr.
— I had one once.
— I know. Everybody had one. I was watching a policeman. He had his radar gun and I enjoy that other stuff. And here he came this old worn out, great big Buick. Came around the corner and saw that radar set. And that old car went woh woh... That policeman was laughing. He said, "He thinks I'm dumb enough that I don't know what he's doing". So we stopped him. He walked over there, and he got to laughing and then he didn't give him a ticket. But faith worked, and I learned a lesson of obedience that day. And then that continued then from then each car was a better car. And then finally we had money enough to get Gloria a good car. And then they became better cars, and eventually they became new cars. But that's the way it worked.
— But it happened when you said that. You're listening to the tapes.
— And another thing, that's when he said to me, "You clean that car up. You treat it like it's brand new". Well, it became then a faith car. I found a really, really, really nice Buick that had 14,000 miles on it, and I got a $235 trade-in off my car. That's good. It wasn't worth $235. Scrap metal wasn't worth that much. But you hit a point right there. God didn't give you, bless you, provide this for you, for you to be able to, it's not your second bedroom, that car. It's not your garage. The Lord's done that with me, too. Excuse me. That's not your second bedroom. And I've really had to struggle with that one because here's the thing you didn't set off to say, "Now I listened to Brother Hagin here, and I'm going to use my faith". You just said that, and you put it into motion.
— That's right.
— And a lot of people don't realize what you say you're putting it into motion. Now you mixed faith with it when you said, "He's holding this thing together".
— I would get so irritated with that car, and it hurt me because Gloria was having to drive junk.
— I've been there.
— But don't ever curse that car. You sorry piece of trash. Don't ever do that. No. The Lord may call on you to sow it. That's not when you clean it up. That's when you polish it really good. You keep it clean all the time. If the kids mess it up in the back, say, "All right. Now you kids messed this up. You're going to help me clean it up. And I'm going to teach you how to wash it. And we're going to get out here together and wash this". Then you get the kids out there, washing it and squirt them with water and have a good time in washing the thing. And everybody laughs, but they learn how to wash the car.
— This is how you check the oil. This is how you put air in the tires.
— Greg, Kellie got her first car. Oh, she was so thrilled. She'd got rid of that bicycle. And I said, "All right, young lady, where is the handbook on it"? "The what"? This is life's handbook. I said, "Where's the handbook on that car"? "I don't know". I said, "What? It's right here". I opened the glove box. It was packaged up. I said, "Get that out. We're going to read it". "We have to read that"? I said, "Oh yeah". So we read all the way down. I said, "Okay, where in there does it tell you how to change the tire"? "Why do I need to know that for"? "Well, because you need to know how to change it in case of emergencies". So I got out there with her. I said, "All right, young lady, open the trunk". So she opened the trunk. I said, "There's your spare. See it"? "Yeah". "Get it out". "What"? "Read the book. Find out how to get it out". So she's down there. She just sat down and started reading it. And I said, "What is this? Oh, okay. Yeah, that's how you ought to do that". Okay. We did all that. I had her jack that car up, change the tire, put the other tire in the trunk. Then I had her take that tire out of the trunk and put it back on there and operate the jack and everything. I said, "Now, Kellie, what have you just done"? "Well". I said, "You read the book, and you learned how to take care of yourself in an emergency by yourself. That's what this book is all about". So it was a Bible lesson, and she never forgot it. Well, I didn't have to do that with John because he is mechanically minded, but I did go through the book. I said, "Now, John, don't try to figure this stuff out on your own. You'll tear up more than you fix. Get the book out and read it". And I was always a book reader guy, and I got a new navigation piece of equipment in the airplane one time. And I was going to fly it from the installation place to Fort Worth. So I got that book out, and I read through the first part of it. And the first part of that manual said, "We know you're in a hurry to get home. So here was the quick start". So I flew that day with that book right there in my lap, instead of saying, "Well, and maybe this will work, maybe that'll work". Don't try that with this either. Maybe this'll work. Maybe that'll work. Read it. Believe it.
— Say it.
— Say it. You can't, you must not try to read a Ford manual driving a Chevrolet. That doesn't work. "Yeah, but I like this better". I don't care what you like. The manufacturer wrote the book on the Chevrolet. The Ford Motor Company wrote the book on the Ford, so don't use either one of them when you drive a Toyota. Go get the Toyota book. It's the manufacturer's handbook. That's what this is. He made it. He created all things. And he wrote the book. He created you, and he created me, and he laid out a plan for us. Gloria and I were talking about it last night. I said, "Gloria, the Lord knew that I needed you before I was born. He knew that I was going to need somebody to hold me together".
— That's right.
— Yeah, he knew.
— We used to sing that song, "Oh Lord, send the power just now".
— Oh, I made that mistake too.
— Oh, Lord, send that. No, he's already done that. Let me show you as we go today, the end of the book here, toward the end of the book in Revelation chapter 12, verse 10.
— Oh, wait a minute. I want to see it with my face here.
— All the things you're going through, all the things that the government's doing. "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now is...
— What kind of a voice?
— A loud voice.
— A loud voice saying in heaven.
— Now has come salvation and strength, the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.
— Now look at the last next line, the next line.
— "For the accuser of the brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony".
— Their testimony.
— "They loved not their lives unto death. Therefore, rejoice".
— There it is. Oh, there it is. There it is.
— This is the word of his testimony. Learn the handbook. Get in the handbook. Find out what he says about you. You are the power of his Christ.
— I said that. Oh Lord, send the power just now. And he said, "Where am I going to get it"? It rose up on the inside of me. I knew it when I said it. He said, "Kenneth, there's no one I can say Kenneth needs more power". He said, "I filled you with myself". That's when he said, "I could have filled you with an angel". He said, "What do you think of demon possession"? He said, "I could have filled you with a great angel, but I did not trust you to anyone but myself".
— Oh my. Well, you were created in the image.
— I just sat there and laughed and shook all over. Yes, he's in me. My hope of glory. He's in me. The power, the same power that raised him from the dead, pulled him out of hell is in me. I don't care about this little devil guy. I know what he is. I know he's got power, but he doesn't have this power.
— No, he doesn't.
— He doesn't have resurrection power. And after Jesus got through with him, he took his keys away from him in hell, the keys to death. The keys to the grave. Keys to grief. He took it.
— So that's why we resist him. He doesn't have it. We just resist.
— The only power he has is what you'll give him.
— That's right.
— Through fear. And let me say this. This really set me back. I had to meditate on this for a while, but oh, we're out of time, I'll do it tomorrow. Well, we'll be back.
— I'll come back.
— Let's give the Lord a praise.