Kenneth Copeland - Set Your Mind on God and His WORD
Now, then, the cares of this world, and we're talking about the cares of this world entering in, choke the Word. We talked about the parable from Mark 4:13, Mark 4:14, the Word is the subject. Cares entering in, Mark 4:19, Mark 4:23 and 24 from the Amplified, let's look at that. Mark 4:23, "If any man has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him perceive and comprehend. And he said to them, 'Be careful what you are hearing. The measure of the thought and study you give to the truth you hear will be the measure or the virtue of knowledge that comes back to you, and more besides will be given you who hear.'" I had the Lord say to me, "What you think about most of the time, you will eventually have or become. I'm not talking about something that just comes and drops. But what stays on your mind, you think about it a lot. You just think about it. You think about it a lot. Well, eventually, it'll get into your mouth, and you just think about it and think about it a lot, think about it a lot".
Well, I have a nice exercise room in our home that we designed when Gloria designed it. It's a nice one. And we come out of our bedroom, and I go through there, my bathroom, the area where my shower is, and there's the exercise room. My closet's right here, and I can get everything done. I have a big A-frame there. I never did like to exercise. And when I played football, I didn't like to have to work out. And I worked hard at it and used my weight, but I just hated exercise. And I didn't even like the thought of it. But I'm so excited, and I'm excited about it now. And I walked up there, and I walked to the edge of that A-frame, and I was all suited up. And I caught this thing, and I'm supposed to pull it down like this. I had a smile on my face. And I said, "God, I hate this". And tears came to my eyes. I said, "No, Lord, I love this".
I physically felt that spirit leave my body. That thing had dogged me all those years, but I gave God my word I would get my spirit in the best condition it could possibly be and get my soul, my mind, my will, and my emotions in the best mental condition it could possibly be and get my body in the best condition it can possibly be. And right now, I'm in the best physical condition I've ever been in my life. But the moment I said, I love this, oh, I fell in love with that exercise room. Amen. And that's what I'm talking about. You just think about it all the time. It'll eventually get in your heart, through your mouth. And there was a man, I didn't know him personally. Every time he'd leave, he'd say, "Well, I'll see you again if a train doesn't hit me". I thought, man. And sure enough, a train hit him. Didn't kill him, thank God, but it destroyed his car. If it hadn't been for God, it'd have killed him. No, he didn't say it anymore. That's no way to have to learn that. So this is the parable, and the Word is the subject, and the cares entering in, and the mighty hand of God.
Now, what are you going to do? How can you go to the covenant book? Well, you go to different verses, right? And find out what to think. Well, why not just go tell it what it says to think? How would that be? So, turn over to Philippians 4. Oh the book of Philippians. Oh, let's do this in the Classic Amplified. Philippians 4:6. Now are you ready for this? "Do not fret, do not". That's a commandment. It didn't say "try not to". It said "don't do it". If it says "don't do it", we can stop. We can obey it. "Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance, in everything by prayer and petition, definite request, with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God".
Now, there it is. With thanksgiving, you don't continue to ask. You make the petition and then thank Him for it. "And God's peace shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ. And so fearing nothing from God, being content with its earthly lot, whatever sort it is, that peace, which transcends all understanding, shall garrison and mount guard over your heart and minds in Christ Jesus. For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there's any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these. Fix your mind on them. Practice what you have learned".
Hey, practice it. Practice it. Whoa. You have to practice and weed out all that other trash. And the power of the Word, the mighty power of His Word, the dunamis power of the Word, since it's dynamite, it'll just blow that other stuff out of there. But don't go around saying, that just blows my mind. I'll tell you about that in a minute. "Practice what you've learned and received and heard and seen in me and model your way of living on that and the God of peace, untroubled, undisturbed well-being will be with you". Think on these things. Well, I'm telling you now it's true, but is it lovely? I'm telling you right now what that old girl did to me. Now, wait a minute. That's not good report. You can't think on that. You're going to have to forgive her. You have to, that whole thing has to be all combined together. One has to fit the other. And it has to match up with other scripture.
Jesus said, "When you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any". When you stand praying, you can't stand there for three weeks. Well, I'll tell you, we always forgive, but we wait until the last minute. No, no. That won't work either. Slow to anger, quick to repent. Turn to first Peter 2, verse 24. You're laying there in the bed. Oh, I shouldn't have done that. Boy, and you're just remembering it in your mind. Oh Jesus, I wish I hadn't done that. I wish I hadn't done that. Oh, God, I wish I hadn't done that. I don't even want to remember that. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Oh, that I, being dead to sins, should live under righteousness by whose stripes I was healed.
Oh yeah, but... Get into combat right now, but don't start at the 24th verse. There's 23 verses ahead of it. And there's some tough stuff here. "Wherefore laying aside", oh, we're going to have to lay aside something, "all hypocrisy". You know what a hypocrite is? Have you ever seen the two masks? One is the mask, the sad mask, and the smiling mask. That's a hypocrite. Play actor. An actor on the stage can go through all kinds of emotion and really not mean it. But I'm going to tell you something, my friend, and my brother, and my sister. Your body, no actor or actress's body knows the difference of when you're acting and when you're not. And when you act a mad rage, it does the same thing to your body as it does if you're actually in a mad rage. It doesn't know the difference.
You remember Redd Foxx? That was his stage name. His real name was Sanford. I mean, that's his real name. And Sanders and Son, you remember that? And you remember he'd say, oh, this is the big one. This is the big one. This is the big one. Well, they came on set one day, and he walked up there and he said, "Oh, they thought he was doing..." And he had that heart attack that he played like he had all the time. He had the big one. Now, I've done enough in that field to know how to protect myself from it. And there are other actors that did that, such as Jimmy Stewart. This man waited and married late in life to the love of his life. Now, he acted with a lot of others, but he just waited. Good man, strong man. And you protect yourself from that. And you thank the Lord, that Lord...
Now, this, I'm portraying someone. This is not me. I am portraying someone. And I protect myself from any spirit that would latch itself to me, because I learned that early on. Any spirit that would attach itself to me and try to act like this thing is real, I will not allow that in the name of Jesus. Praise God. I heard one man that was an outstanding impersonator, and he said that he could sing notes as impersonating another singer than he could sing himself. I thought, ooh, this is dangerous. You're having some help.
And Wayne Cochran, old CC Riders, we became such close friends. And he contacted me. He said, "Kenneth, I had so much fear. I'd never been to church but twice. And the Bible I was reading, I stole it, and that bothered me. And I stole it in a hotel". I said, "Wayne, was it a Gideon Bible"? Yeah, but he said, "I didn't pay for it". I said, "Wayne, that's what they put it in there for". "I still stole it". He said this to me. He said, "I would get so frightened that it would shake the cover of my bed, afraid to die and afraid to live". And he said, "The band that I had, I did not allow any drinking, no drugs, nothing. What you did on your own time was one thing, but you had to be so tight when we played". But he said, "There were times that the room would fill up with a blue kind of funny-looking smoke, but I couldn't see it until we got on into the music". And he said, "I know of more than once on one of my guitar players that took his hands off of the guitar and it continued to play. And there were needles stuck in the ceiling of the place where people had shot up and threw stuff up in the ceiling".
Folks, these things are real. Well, you remember Wild, Wild West? You know, as that goofy Western. Well, he had a part on that. And he wore this long coat and had his guns. And so he was on several episodes. I don't remember what his name was, but he was on that. And he said, "I did that for a while. And I got to thinking that's who I was". And he said, "I'd get up and go to my closet and put that costume on and put the guns on all day long because I was so fouled-up. I thought that's who I was". But then he got born again and baptized in the Holy Ghost, started pastoring a church and changed all that. This is dangerous place to live, particularly when you're in that environment.
So now we have learned, "Wherefore laying aside all malice and guile, hypocrisies, envies, all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. If so be you have tasted, the Lord is gracious to whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious". Yes, very.
"You also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone, elect precious he that believes on him shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe he is precious, but unto them that are disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the Word, being disobedient. Whereunto also they were appointed, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood."
Oh, we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar, actually the Greek says, a very special people "that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your conversation or your conduct honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, that may be your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake".
Hear that? "For the Lord's sake, not for your sake, for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men". Now, he's talking about you're going to have to get right with the government, whether you like it or not. Well, we've talked about this. I am obligated and so are you. Now, the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and said, "I beseech you first of all, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks be made for all men, kings and all that are in authority, all that are in authority, that the church might live in peace and honesty, that there's one in peace and honesty and godly, and believe that there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as ransom for all to be testified of in due time".