Kenneth Copeland - Be Imitators of God and Walk in Love
Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland and this is the student body of Kenneth Copeland Bible College and we thank you for joining us on this Thursday today. And we are searching the Word of the Living God. Jesus said, "O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, where you killed all the prophets, but all the prophets die in Jerusalem". He was foretelling his death, he called himself a prophet. A prophet is not without honor, save in his own town, in his own country. Amen. So and where was he crucified? Jerusalem, had to be. He became the Lamb of God. And I mentioned this earlier, but go back to the Book of Exodus and study that lamb, the Passover lamb. Read it in detail. Search the words behind it.
I mentioned this earlier in the week. It had to be a male lamb, well of course it did. A male lamb burned with fire, that's Jesus in hell. It said, "You cannot boil it". No, no, no, no, no, no, no, you can't. It has to be burned with fire and you have to consume the whole thing. Every word is God breathed, every word. This is the reason people just... I know of one young lady that her professors... Brother Hagin said you need to be careful of experts. They're just a little spurt out of town. Her professor said, ah... professors... ah, just a bunch of old white guys trying to tell everybody what to do. No it wasn't... wasn't a bunch of old white guys. They were Middle Eastern Jews. A specific group. Not a bunch of old white guys trying to tell people what to do. No, it was God speaking through Middle Eastern Jews.
Now that comes from the word Judah. That's the tribe of Judah. That's where the word Jew came from. But it was God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit trying to tell people what to do. Cause it works. Amen. My dad, Aubrey Wayne Copeland, a man of his word, a tithing man. I go to the bank with him and he had two accounts, his account and God's account, he wouldn't even let it go in the same account. That's how picky he was about the tithe, amen. He said this to me one time, he said, "Kenneth, if I found out there was no God and no Jesus, I'd live this way anyway, because it works. But because it works I know there's a God and I know Jesus personally, and I'm filled with his Spirit". He was a member... they were members when I was in high school, the Sagamore Hill Baptist Church. Good people, good people. But they got crosswise on the tithe.
So they moved over to Polly Baptist Church and then both of them got baptized in the Holy Ghost and like Brother Hagin said, "They got the left foot of fellowship from over there". No, they're good people, now listen to me. The Baptist, there's no way to know how many people are in heaven today because they preach Jesus Christ as your Savior. Billy Graham... his audience, for the most part, were Baptist. But there's all kinds that accepted Jesus all over the world through this great evangelist ministry, Oral Roberts, this great evangelist ministry, my father in the faith. Amen. So when you understand and realize these things, it's the same devil and it's the same God. The only difference is God's never changed and the devil was forced to change. Amen.
So let's go back here to the book of Ephesians once more and that's in the fourth chapter. We'll begin where we were yesterday, verse 11 or verse nine. "He ascended, what is it, first descended first into the lower parts of the earth". In Matthew 12:40, it says the core of the earth... "He either descended is the same also ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fulfill all things. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints". But don't let the word saint bother you, for the perfecting of the ones that have been born again, it just simply means those separated, praise God. For the work of the ministry, which is the edifying or the building up of the Body of Christ. The Anointed One. "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect or mature man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Anointed One, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro".
You can be born again 50 years, be a child being tossed to and fro, to and fro, get all upset, bent out of shape because the pastor didn't smile at you on Sunday morning and just gripe and argue about everything he preaches. Now when you become a pastor of a church, those of you that are called a pastor, you have somebody that's just crosswise everything you preach and do, maybe he's in or she's in the wrong sheepfold. So bring that person in, in love and talk to them. Talk to the family about it. Why are you so crossways with what I preach? What is this? Don't keep talking. Then when they get through with that say, in addition to that and in addition to that, now this third one is when you're going to get to answer.
I learned that from my dad, who's a world class salesman. He said "Kenneth, keep your mouth shut". And he said, "You'll have to ask it three times before you get what's in a person's heart". And why they are for or against anything, because they really don't want to look bad. But you get right down to the nitty gritty of it and if it's just little frivolous things, maybe there's some things pastor needs to apologize for. I know in my case... now I've been studying this book in January it'll be 56 years and I teach and preach faith based on that. But I have to be very cautious about this because if I'm not, I'll start where I am and people sit there and look at me, you know, like a calf in a new gate. They don't, where this where I belong or not have any idea what I'm talking about. So we need to be where people are.
Jesus ask Peter, "Peter do you agape me"? He said, "Lord, you know I phileo you". He asked him the second time, "Do you agape me"? "Lord, you know I..." Natural love. He said it three times, the third time Jesus came down on his level. So he could agree with him, stay it. That's the reason the BLB is such an outstanding app, because you can see the difference in those words. In the Greek words, you can see the difference in the Hebrew words. Great, great study tool, praise God. So, now, "but speaking the truth", now what is the truth? Well, to get that, you have to go to the eighth chapter of John. Continue in my Word and you shall "ginosko" the truth and the truth will make you free, not set you free, make you free, it's authority, make you free.
That word "ginosko" is used in the book of Matthew and he knew not his wife until after her firstborn was born. Intimate relationship with the Word and Jesus said, "I am the truth, the way and the life", glory to God. This book is truth, it is truth, this is truth. It's not "a"truth. It's not "my"truth, well that's just not my truth. I can't think of anything to say about that. That's worth repeating. Anyway, you'll know you'll have intimate relationship with this book and it'll make you free. You know the truth about healing. It'll make you free.
Jimmy Hester, one of my very, very, very good friends. He's in heaven now. Someone took him to my mother's prayer group. He was telling me about this, and she said, "What is this"? He said, "Well, my grandfather died with a bad heart. My father died with a bad heart. And I have a bad heart now". She said, "Tell me the truth about that". "Well", he said, "My grandfather died with a bad heart. My dad died with a bad heart. And I have a bad heart now". She said, "No, tell me the truth". He said, "Lady, I told you". He said, "Kenneth she boxed my ears..." She slapped me. I know she saw death on me. She slapped and boxed my ears and shouted, Isaiah 53:4 and 5 is the truth about this, by his stripes you are healed, and he was, and he lived into his eighties and they told he wouldn't live past 60.
And Jerry Savelle and I were privileged to be part of his homegoing. Hal-le-caluka. That's what a young woman said, she wanted to be baptized in the Spirit. She was in Gloria and my's kitchen. And so we both praying with her, "Oh", she said, "Brother Copeland, Sister Copeland, how I want to talk in tongues so much, oh, I want to talk in tongues"... And she said, "Oh, hallelujah, hallelujah". I said "Quit". Not so much English because hallelujah, hallelujah, she's hal, hal, Hal-le-caluka, Hal-le-caluka, Hal-le-caluka. She said, "I want to talk in tongues". I said, "Would you tell me what Hal-le-caluka means"? She said, "What"? I said, "This is what you've been saying". I've been saying Hal-le-caluka... oh Hal-le-caluka. You may need to get into Hal-le-caluka here in a minute. Oh, Brother Copeland, I wouldn't want to say it, that would be me. Yes, that's right. It will be you. As the Spirit of God gives you utterance, but you can't speak two languages at the same time.
I didn't know that... I was, like I said, I was raised free. Well, the night I received, all the men were praying for me and all the women praying for Gloria, and they just gave up on me. So Dr. Reed said, "Let's pray for Gloria" so we walked over there and he said, "Lay your hands on her". I said, "Not on my wife". I didn't know what I was supposed to do, I had no idea. Anyway, I laid hands on her. Oh, and he walked by and said no more English and I just took off. I had to fly back to Little Rock that night, this January of 63. And so I'm flying along there in January... airplanes really like cold weather. And this little fellow was really flying good. And I could see the lights of Little Rock, and I'm flying along there. I said, "Lord, I don't know what all I know about that, but I'm going to say some of those words again. And if there's anything to this, anoint it".
I don't know where I got the word anointing except maybe they probably brought it up in that meeting, so I just tried to remember... Glory to God. Oh, I sit there in that airplane and I could see the lights of Little Rock and I thought, I'm gonna have to talk to these people here in a minute and I thought, Lord, You're going to have to do something with my talking or their ears. Because I got to say something. I said, "Little Rock", well I thought that worked. I've been doing it ever since. That was a long time ago. It belonged to me and I didn't know it. If you're raised Pentecostal, you have a fear of that because you try to tarry. That was in the beginning. They had to wait for the Spirit of God to get in here. He's in here now and he's not going anywhere. This room is filled with angels and the Spirit of the Living God. Amen. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hal-le-caluka. That just came out of me... anyway, praise God. Thank You, Lord Jesus.
Now let's go back over there to the Book of Ephesians, and we'll go back here. Now, we've covered this in the fourth chapter. Look now in the fifth chapter, "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children". The Greek word there is M-I-M-E-T-E-S, mimic or imitate, "Be ye therefore imitators of God as dear children". Now the Classic Amplified says, "Be therefore imitators of God as dear children imitate their parents and walk in love". Well, all right there you have it. What do we know that comes from the Book of Galatians, by the same Spirit, through the same writer. Faith works? No, but by faith which works by love. What do we know from first John? God is love. He is love. He has faith, he is love.
And you just continue... Take off for a while and just read I John over and over and over. It's a very short little letter. You just read it over and over and over and over and two or three translations and then just continue to read and read, read, just get it really... where you do have an intimate relationship with this love of God, this benevolent person, that when you accepted Jesus, you accepted his Father. Hallelujah. He said, "If you receive me, you receive him who sent me", and he is our very own Father, and we're his very own children. And the difference between now and centuries ago, the firstborn always had the greatest inheritance. Amen.
Jesus is no longer the only begotten Son of God. That's what he was in John 3. But to him gave he the authority to become the sons of God. Amen. But now we find out that he brought many sons to glory. Don't get upset over the pronouns. Oh...He called me a he. This is mankind, not womankind. It's the human race, not the hu-woman race. Quack! Even a duck knows that... Now you go on and tell, you know what my professor did today. He talked like a duck and we're out of time. But I'm very serious about this. I mean, people all over this nation are fussing and fighting over the proper pronoun. Whether you call me a "he" or "he", maybe I'm a heshe... Jesus said it... Strain out a gnat and swallow a camel and the devil standing by with a smile on his no-good face trying to split this nation so he can destroy it. Well, he can't have it. It's covenanted to God, and we'll be back in just a few minutes.