Kenneth Copeland - Be Thankful and Acknowledge God
— Oh, happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Praise God, this is Thanksgiving week.
— Yes, sir.
— Amen.
— I don't know of another country that has a Thanksgiving holiday, but this one does.
— This one does. And that's what we're supposed to be doing instead of just pigging out is giving thanks.
— That's right.
— For the abundance of all things. And that is in the blessing of Abraham that you serve God with joyfulness and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things. And this nation has had more abundant blessing of God than any other nation in the history of mankind. And before this week is up, we're going to talk about why. And Father, we thank You today, we lift our hearts and minds up to You, and we praise You and honor You today. And we thank You. We are grateful to You and we praise You in Jesus' name. Amen. Now we began last week talking about words, our spiritual containers. That words were not originally just for communication. And the majority of the human race has no concept of that.
— But in the beginning, God said so the first manifestation we see of words, God spoke them. And when He said "Light, be," the King James says, Let there be light. And there was. Now day four, the sun was created.
— That's right. So he spoke about light energy, 186,000 miles a second. And the scientists talk about light years, because that's the only way you can figure out how big this universe is now, because it's still expanding at the speed of light.
— He didn't take it back.
— It's right. Let the speed of light be.
— Yeah. Light be. And in the first 24 hours, 16 billion miles of universe in 24 hours and that, dear one, is the same spirit that's living on the inside of you. If Jesus Christ of Nazareth is your Lord and Savior. Amen, do you think he had on your rent? He is the created God. And we know from more than one scriptures, or particularly in the book of Hebrews, he did it by faith. So F-A-I-T-H is the name of the spiritual force with which God created this universe.
— Amen. And so then we go to Hebrews and it says there very plainly, it is impossible to please him without faith, for those that come to him Must believe, must, must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Now, politicians who do not diligently seek him and pay no attention to him at all, then they're in a place of pride and he gives grace to the humble. But resist the proud. And that's the case in a lot of cases. So let's read it. John 6:63 and see what Jesus said. When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Does this offend you? What and if you shall see the son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickens or makes alive. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. So his words contain life. He also said, let's look in the 10th chapter. Now Jesus said this in the proper order. He didn't say kill, steal in his glory. He started off correctly. I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal what? The Word... To steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and they have had it more abundantly. Those are his words. So you can see what those words contain. They contain life and abundant living.
— That's it. He speaks to your spirit. He never did preach to the flesh, the people he was talking to. He didn't to speak to their mental realm or to their flesh. He spoke to their spirit. He got spirit for the spirit. He did that with Samaritans. He did that with Jews. He did that with Romans. He always spoke to their spirit, and their spirit would respond. We spent so much time focusing on our thought life or our flesh or those kind of things. We've got to hold... Listen, I grew up in a church of preachers that preached to the flesh instead of speaking to your spirit, if you'll speak to somebody's spirit, this life.
— Right.
— And that'll change the flesh;
— So much of the preaching. Now, I wasn't raised in this kind of an atmosphere. I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church. We heard a lot about there's none righteous. No, not one. And all the fallen short of the glory of God. But that's about it. We didn't hear about healing in one way or the other. And when I was a young boy, we called it going down front. And so and I told my mother and dad I wanted to go down front. That's a heart for God. But I got down there and I filled out a card, that was it. I left there lost as a goose. And it showed up almost that same time. But anyway, let's go in here now to the book of Romans and let's look at this, because we're talking about Thanksgiving. And so let's start here in the 15th verse of the first chapter of the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit is writing to them. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel or Christ, for it is the power of God. Now, isn't that amazing? It is the power of God under salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also the Greek for their in is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that with which be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own flesh, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. The cross references says a mind void of judgment and that enters into now, obviously into the political realm of this nation. That right there in centuries past has been the downfall of nations and the devil's trying to kill this one with it. But I'm going to tell you some, class. He can't do it. First words and first covenants count.
— That's right. That's right.
— The first act of Congress in the United States. Number one there was no Washington, DC. This is a in a chapel in New York City. And that chapel survived 911 when everything around it crashed. They used that chapel. It was a place where they brought wounded and hurting and some dying people. And they were ministered to in that chapel. And in that chapel, our first president, George Washington, prayed for this nation and he quoted Scripture, I'm telling you, the book of Exodus is all over this nation. There's a quote from Exodus on top of the Liberty Bell. And they rang it so hard, they broke it. They cracked that bell. They were so excited about it.
— But our first president, you get to heaven. I want to talk to this man. You'll be our God and we'll be your people. Now, God never forgets a covenant made in the name of his Son.
— That was done within minutes of him raising his hand, putting his hand on the Bible.
— On the Bible.
— And becoming the President of the United States. Within minutes, that's where they went from that moment.
— From that moment, the entire Congress.
— Brother Copeland... How'd they get to this place? All these bad things. And it's talking about homosexuality here.
— That's what it.
— And all these different things. How did they get there? You go back in Romans chapter one "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen. Our founding documents said we hold these truths to be self-evident.
— They are self-evident.
— I mean, when you see it, they're basically quoting this. And then down here, because that when they knew, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful. That's what turned... That's what brought all this other is that's the slide. Once you start that slide, once you've turned your back, you think you've turned away from God. You haven't you can't escape him.
— No.
— The psalmist Stephen said that even if I go to the pit, there you are.
— Yes.
— You know, and so it started by not acknowledging what we know to be true, what science we know to be true. And not being thankful is what started that slide. That's where it's going to go to. Once you start that, that's where we'll end up. So the way back would be to be thankful. The way back would be to acknowledge him from the creation.
— Now, think about this, Greg. You're a war veteran.
— Yes, sir.
— Men in combat... could have very well been killed while you were there.
— That's right.
— I remember when they brought my uncle's body back from Europe and he could have come home. He had the million dollar wound, but he wouldn't, anyway. But now they folded that flag on top of his burial box. I despise the word coffin. The burial container. If we spoke in Hebrew, we would say the container of his bones.
— Yes, sir. Ossuary.
— Yes. They folded that flag and handed it to my grandmother. From a grateful God and a grateful nation. There are people scrambling and fighting today to take God out of that. How dare you? And just say from a grateful nation. Boy, you get on a fight inside of me.
— In Desert Storm, we were... The war hadn't started yet. We were just still... We just got in there in Saudi Arabia. And I'll never forget the moment it became real for me, because I'd we'd been exercises and things, you know, you do stuff all the time and it became real. I'll never forget, it was almost three in the morning. A big C-5 Galaxy pulls in, they dock on air base, and we were there to do the inventory, get this stuff off. And it was body bag after body bag after body bag and coffins. The entire plane. That's a big plane,
— That's huge.
— It was filled with them. And at that moment, three in the morning. I went, "This is real".
— Yes, sir.
— And a whole different mentality hit me that I am not on a exercise. I knew that the minute we got there and they gave us real rounds for the weapons, I'm like, this is different, this is real stuff. But the day that I saw that, the reality of the sense of whom I'm serving, what nation I'm representing, that patch meant something.
— During that war, there were chaplains that came out of Full Gospel Chaplaincy, and there were certain chaplains that I won't go into that. But anyway, they took... they took those coffins, lined them with plastic, and were baptizing soldiers that they'd won to the Lord while they were in the combat.
— I saw it with my own eyes.
— Praise God.
— Now, I was medical. And so one of the massive, or we call it, you'd know it as a MASH. It's a mobile air staging facility for wounded. You know, big Red Cross comes on that tent. They had to cover that Red Cross because of the Saudis. We covered it with a Islamic crescent instead of the cross because they were doing that to appease the sensibilities. By the time that thing was over, that thing had the wind blew it off.
— Sure.
— So but you were you were seeing the cross again. People were getting baptized. They were pouring water bottles on people's head. And part of what turned me around, I walked away from God. That was like one of these guys and I was stationed with a ORU grad and Rhema grad. But what got me, we had two chaplains that were for our flying wing and one of them was a grumpy, mean, chain smoking old thing, just... And you never saw him do anything? He's a chaplain. And the other one, I don't know what his problem was, but he was he would meet every flight. America loves you. I love you. God loves you. He'd hug you. I remember I got mad at him one time. Would you stop hugging me? And I didn't want him to hug me? And I actually asked him, "Are you a homosexual"? And I went, sir. And I caught myself. And he goes, "No, man, I love you. America loves you and we're so proud of what you're doing". And it started breaking that down.
— Yes. He was doing his job.
— He was doing his job.
— And I watched it happen. I watched people get baptized. I watched people speak in tongues in Saudi Arabia. They're not supposed to. But all of those things, because somebody was thankful, somebody was reminding us of our covenant, somebody was actually ministering to those people.
— Glory to God.
— And that's what we should be doing.
— You know why the southern part of the United States called the Bible Belt?... During the Civil War? you could hear the Southern soldiers singing, singing hymns and spirituals. A lot of the songs... Now people have a twisted idea of slavery and that it was that every slave was 100% badly treated. That wasn't true. There were people that owned slaves and people put down George Washington for owning slaves. If he got the opportunity to buy you out from someone else, he would just make you a family member and you just live there like everybody else and everybody's happy. And they wrote it within the purpose. All men are created equal. They put that in there like that to kill slavery in this country.
— The line of pursue happiness was changed from property to happiness for that very reason.
— Yes.
— Because in states in the South, they saw human beings as property.
— But in the South there was so much going on. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson both West Point graduates. Both of them said, we will never ask a man to risk his life in combat under our command without first seeing that he makes Jesus the Lord of his life. And so and they brought in preachers to preach to get soldiers safe.
— Well, of course, it spilled over into the north. And there were times they just had these huge revivals. Now the reason I brought this up, this is the same country. It's the same nation. And the Lord, according to that first covenant of Congress, got us through it, got us through World War II and all of that, got us through Vietnam. That was a terribly mismanaged war. And all these long...
— Korea
— and Korea and all of these things, and we're still here. And prayer still changes things. And God is still on the throne and Jesus is still Lord, amen. So I'm very interested, Greg and what you brought out and reading the notes. Oh, I don't like it in myself when I misjudge people. I want you to go into the situation with Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well and how much time we got here? We'll just introduce this and then we'll take it up tomorrow. I misjudged this woman.
— I did, too. I taught it wrong.
— I want you to go into that and introduce that, and then we'll get into it tomorrow.
— That interaction is a divided nation. There's a divided people and Jesus is restoring something. And I get chills when I start talking about it where he was when he talked with her. This is vitally important.
— Yes.
— He's sitting right there at the mountain of the blessing and the cursing. We'll do it tomorrow.
— Hee haw! Oh, glory to God. Hallelujah. Praise God. We'll be back in just a moment.