Kenneth Copeland - Honor Your Father and Mother
— Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. This is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast, and, of course, we have the professor with us. Praise God. And we've been discussing the commandments of God. And last week, we got over into the 10, but then you have to read between the lines because God, who is love, made the commandments. And the reason He made the commandments, He made them a command so you don't have any excuse for missing it. But when you read between the lines, the whole thing is based on the blessing of the Lord. And we know that the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He adds no sorrow with it. So, Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank You today, and all this week, on Your commands, and we receive them, and we thank You for them, in Jesus' name. Amen. And, as Brother Hagin used to say, our golden text for this will be Romans 12. And I'm going to need this in just a moment. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, listen now, Holy... You mean I have a holy body? It is if the Spirit of God lives in it.
— That's right.
— Amen. And the righteousness of God is not the holiness. But if you go to the fruit of the Spirit, that produces holiness, and the Scripture says, "Against such there is no law". Thank You, Jesus. Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world, be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man among you the measure of faith. Now, the renewing of the mind. Now, really, what does that mean? Well, Jesus, quote, chewed out the most religious people of the day. But listen to what He said. Your traditions make the Word of God of no effect. Their minds needed to be renewed. So, you can't fight thoughts with thoughts. Well, I was with David and Nicole in St. Louis, praying over this, and I had this Bible with me. I put this Bible in service July the 11th, 2023, Jesus is Lord. No one can defeat thoughts with thoughts. Let the Word fight its own fight, Matthew 6:25. Jesus said, Why take ye thought saying. It's stillborn until you say it. And you just jump the gun and say something. Words are containers, and once they're out there, you can't get them back. Now then, think his words and say them by faith until his words become my thoughts. That, then, is the renewing of the mind, according to Romans 12:2, David and Nicole Crank's church. So, that's the simple version. For instance, "Roll all your care". How do I get that off my mind? Second Corinthians 10, The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God for pulling down a stronghold.
— That's right. And those are strongholds, there's good strongholds and bad. So then, now commands, right? And you're just reading all these commands and there's ministry commands here. Not slothful in business, fervent in Spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing it, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what? Instant in prayer. Ha-ha-ha. But let's go back to the basics. Are you honoring your father and your mother? So read that, Greg.
— Okay. Well, and that's commandment number five. It's a transition. The first five are vertical, between God and ourself. The next five, now deal with man.
— Now, you know, you talked about that last week. I had never seen it like that. It makes it really easy to wrap your mind around it.
— So how do I do this? Exodus 20 says, Honor thy father and thy mother that they days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. So there's a promise to this commandment. So now we're transitioning to this other side. He caused Adam to go to sleep, made Eve of him. So he made it possible for marriage and made it possible for a mother and a father. This is when we're most like our heavenly Father. When your parents made you, they were acting like their father. That point, we have the power to create. He created. And so now he has given us that power. This is why it wasn't good for Adam to be alone, he can't create. He doesn't have any way to reproduce himself or to create. There are three things that God chose for me that I never had a choice in. You didn't have a choice. None of you, you didn't have a choice in this. I didn't choose my parents. I didn't choose my race, what color I am. And I did not choose my male or female gender. That's the only two. You're an XX chromosome or an XY chromosome. And so to try to change any of those or to fight battles on any of those is to say that he got it wrong. That's what's wrong with America, this trans thing.
— I want to step into this.
— Yes, sir.
— Uh, this is honoring black history...
— ...when we're recording this...
— ...and get it right. It should be. Well, I was in Birmingham, Alabama. I don't remember the name of the governor of Alabama. Oh, what's his name? He got shot in the back when he was running for president and put him in a wheelchair.
— Wallace.
— I was in Birmingham and we were having a meeting in the city hall. And, uh, someone said, uh, Governor Wallace would like to see you. Me? And he was in his chair. He rolled in there. He said, "Brother Copeland, had I known you were meeting here, I never would have booked this hall". Oh, I said, "Governor, that's fine. Why did you want to speak with me"? He said, "Brother Copeland, I was so wrong. I was raised like that. I was so wrong". And he said, "God woke me up. And I went back to the church in this chair and had someone roll me down the aisle. And I confess to them that I'm in this chair today because a man hated me and shot me in the back. And I have just come to repent". And he said, "Everyone was, you know, so stunned". But they came around my chair and then he began to weep. He came around my chair and he said, "They fell in love with me and I fell in love with them". See that's the rest of the story. And it's just etched into my memory. And so that, I always want to bring that out at a time like this.
— So he had bad parents that influenced him. Maybe you had some bad parents, but my parents were partners with God in bringing me into the earth.
— He made the statement that even birds know better than that.
— That's right. That's right.
— But that was so long.
— So we have an honor problem in America. This is why all of this is happening. So Paul, does that apply to us today? Well, thank you, brother Paul. Ephesians chapter six, verse one, two, and three.
— And it is so vital too. And this is the only nation I know of that'll do it. That is so vital to go back and to go back into true black history and go back and the women, black evangelists.
— Well, they fought for our nation. They fought the Civil War. The Revolutionary War they fought, always been part. Tuskegee Airmen in World War II, my God. Bill Winston was a Tuskegee Airman. I told him, I said, "Bill, my instructor said, 'you want to learn how to fly or just woller around in the sky?'" Said, "Well, I want to learn how". I said, "But Bill, there wasn't anybody shooting at me". He said, "Well, they sure were shooting at me". These stories need to be told. Need to be told. Anyway, glory to God. What was it Paul Harvey used to say? Now you have the rest of the story.
— That's absolutely true. Let's go over here. Paul brings this fifth commandment over into Ephesians chapter six. That happens to be in the New Testament in the age of the church, the age of grace, if you want to say it that way. The children, this is a commandment.
— Yes.
— Obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou may live long on the earth. He's actually quoting from Deuteronomy five version of it. If you can't just honor your parents for your life alone, then you're going to have problems ever honoring God.
— Class, let's look at this from the Classic Amplified. Therefore be imitators of God. The King James says followers. Therefore be imitators of God. Copy him. Follow his example as well beloved children imitate their father and walk in love, esteeming and delighting one another as Christ also loved and gave himself for us. A slain offering and sacrifice to God for you that has become such a sweet fragrance. I honored my father and my mother and I did it last night. I was taking my shower and I could just see it in my mind. I just said, thank you, daddy. We were in a swimming pool and my dad had his swim trunks on, had a little white belt around them. And we were in there, we'd gotten out of the pool, you know, and come out and put your feet in that Clorox dip for protection. And I said, "Daddy, how do I dry my back"? He said, "Well, Kenneth, get your towel by this ear and you get the other end by this ear and you do it like this". Oh yeah, that works.
— I thought you were doing the Trump dance for a second. Well, amen. And so Ma Dear had to teach Gloria. But we had parents... God's Word were their lives. Anyway, go ahead.
— We get here in the Wuest in chapter 6 of Ephesians, Children, be obedient to your parents as a Christian duty for this is right, capital letters.
— Yeah, that's a way he does.
— Honor your father and your mother. He's shouting it to you. So that it may be well with you, that you may live long upon the earth.
— And let's go to Hebrews 8.
— Oh yeah, that's a good one.
— Praise God. And you know, like a little boy said, I got to get me one of them. Hebrews 8. For there are days... all in caps. There are days, says the Lord, when I will establish with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant, a covenant unlike the one which I made with your fathers. On the day when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt, for they would not remain faithful to my covenant. So I turned them over, says the Lord, but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their mind. The renewing of the mind. And I will write them upon their hearts and I will indeed be their God and they shall be my people. There shall be no need for them to teach each one his fellow citizen.
— Now, let me point something. There's two covenants in there. There's a covenant that I made when I brought them out of Egypt. That's Moses. That's at the 10 commandments. But why'd he do it? Why'd he do it? He says right here, But this is a covenant... No, see, for they would not remain faithful to my covenant. What covenant? That's Abraham. That's faith. There's a covenant of faith. So they wouldn't remain faithful to a covenant of faith. So I gave them the other covenant, but I'm going to give them another covenant.
— You preach me happy.
— Look at, look at it because he says right, right below that by using the words, a new covenant, he's made the first one obsolete, but whatever's decaying and showing signs of old age is not far from disappearing altogether. So yes, we honor the 10 commandments. Here's the problem. Everywhere... You mentioned Jesus with the religious leaders. Everywhere Jesus went, there was a revival and a riot.
— That's right.
— It just depended on what side of the fence you want as to how you viewed it. If you viewed what Jesus was doing as a riot, you're one of the religious leaders. Here's the thing. We don't follow the interpretation of the law. See, they had made an interpretation of the law and they would yell at Jesus by saying, you're not supposed to heal on the Sabbath. He'd say, "Wait, this is a child of Abraham" And then he would shoot back at him. Now he is the fulfillment of all, the whole law. All the 10 commandments point to one person who was going to fulfill it. Jesus Christ Himself with his own blood sealed this covenant. And so they're actually resisting him. They have so much faith in the things they added to it. So every time you make a law, you have to make new laws to explain that law. And that's what they had done. So no, this is why the disciples said, "Should we obey God or should we obey man"? If a law in the United States requires me to break the law of God, I don't obey the law of the United States.
— That's right.
— And so what they had done is by their tradition, Brother Copeland, they had added things to the law other than what it really said. And the teachers of the law would speak to the person who gave the law and not... and they didn't recognize him. They had a veil over the face, just like Moses had a veil over his face when he came down. I'm telling you, I love it. I love it so.
— You got to love this book. 40 authors over thousands of years. Glory to God. So in second Corinthians, well, let me just, I had, I marked it here in this wonderful little Bible. Second Corinthians chapter three, such is the confidence which we have through Christ toward God, not that of ourselves. We are competent to decide anything for our own judgment. Our competency comes from God. That's rolling it over on him. He has also made a competent servants of the new covenant, which is not written code, but a spirit for the written code killed, but the Spirit gives life. But if that service that brings death is the code being engraved in writing of stones, he's only talking about one thing there, Came with glory and it did so that the children of Israel could not look steadily on the face of Moses because of the brightness of his face, a transient luster will not the service of the Spirit be far more glorious for if the service which pronounces doom had glory, far more glorious still has the service that offers righteousness. We now are in his presence unveiled. Moses had to unveil his face from people who couldn't believe, that's not us. He has fulfilled this. He is the author and the finisher of my faith. This is why I keep my mind on him.
— That word "finisher" can be translated developer. Like the finished carpenter. You don't, you don't, you don't want...
— You don't have a roofing hammer,
— Or a big old hammer in there on your cabinets, have moon dance in your cabinet.
— The joy of the Lord, Brother Copeland is our strength. This is where we renew our mind to his work and what he did.
— I'm going to give you a little peek. That's where we go on next.
— Amen. Well, didn't know that.
— Well, this has, uh, the truth of this, and it's not just one statement. They were grieving. There was a lot of grief going on there. He said, "Don't be doing that. The joy of the Lord is your strength". But now go ahead with what you were saying.
— Worry, Brother Copeland is focusing on myself. I've gotten my eyes off...
— What am I going to do?
— How are we going to do this? Well, that's the answer. That's all their five commandments. I worry about if I'm going to have enough to eat. I worry if I'm going to have enough of this, I'm worrying if I'm going to have that, you know, and so therefore I'm going to covet something else. I'm going to steal something. Those are all answers to a worry problem. All of those are symptoms of that. When I focus on myself, I become... here's what'll happen. You'll become a victim.
— Well, that is, yeah.
— And you'll become victimized. And it causes me to be defensive then.
— And you get so depressed then.
— I'm defensive. Uh, somebody comes up and says something to me and I get all, I get all edgy with them and defensive with them to seek refuge in my own plan. Then I have my own plan and I have my own device.
— Greg, I had the Lord say that to me.
— I don't believe Jesus had a plan B.
— No. And when they're in 12th chapter of Romans, there it is. You can be in partial of it or you can be in all of it. But anyway, I was just praying. I thought I've done pretty good. And uh, and praying in the Spirit there for a while. And the Lord said, "You have mistaken my anointing for your strength".
— Oh my goodness.
— That took me back. And it sounds like it's over a few minutes, but this was over a period of days just seeking the will of God and praying. And he said, you pick up on something... we don't have about 30 seconds. And he said, "You get out and announce, we're going to do this and we're going to do that. And now you're publicly stuck with it. And you didn't bother to ask me what the plan was", and I'll take it up here tomorrow. Praise God. We're out of time.