Kenneth Copeland - The Tithing Covenant Enables You To Live Generously
— Hello, everybody. I’m Kenneth Copeland. This is my daughter, Kellie, and my son, John. And this is the Believer’s Voice of Victory broadcast. If you have any kind of a report that’ll help you live by faith, we want to hear about it, such as this one, Kellie D.
— Well, I’m so blessed.
— Oh, and you’re the partner girl, right?
— That’s your title for me is partner girl or partner relations manager. But I get to talk to partners and it’s really when we go to meetings, I get to meet and talk to y’all. I just love it. So come to our meetings so I can talk to you, anyway. But we have a partner named Chester and he sent me this testimony. He said in October of 2022, I sowed five thousand dollars into the KCM Studio production expansion. That’s where we do all the Believer’s Voice of Victory programming, believing for a restaurant business location in Hayes, Kansas. Within less than 30 days, we had a building secured. We had been looking for many months with no success. In March of 23, we opened the restaurant and by October 23, less than a year of the seed, we were able to pay cash for the building debt free. We sowed five thousand in October. In October 23, we paid five hundred and twenty five thousand dollars cash for the building.
— Let me in on that.
— It’s a great deal. But I’ve talked to them, sat with them and they just you know, they say I’ve just learned how to live like this, listening to y’all, listen to Believer’s Voice of Victory. And it’s that they always say, you know, people who are our partners, it’s not just they didn’t just partner with money. They partnered with God’s Word that they believed it. They acted on it. And the result…
— I was in Hereford, Texas, and I was there by myself. You and Gloria were at home. I don’t remember now why. But anyway, I was there alone. I’m right at the foot of the bed and I laid out my outlines. I said, «Lord, where should I start»? This is just the way I’ve been with him, you know. But I looked here for the answer, not here. Is there victory in salvation? Yes. Is there victory in baptism of the Holy Ghost? Absolutely. Is there victory in healing? I said yes. He said, «Every believer has a voice and it is the Voice of Victory». This was back before any magazine, TV. Well, TV was way out in the future. This was one of the first meetings in this ministry. We had two meetings in abandoned drugstores. One was in Wichita Falls, Texas. That was the other. And the one was in Hereford, Texas up in the Panhandle. And it is amazing to me, after all that’s been said and all that’s been read and all that’s been done, how little Christian people know or have faith entirely. A whole lot of it, of course, is the way you’re raised at home. I was, as we know, I was raised with a man that, tithing was right up front with him. And he said, my dad always told me to get up very early. And now, if you’re out of a job, get up early, be led, and go there. So, now, some of you that don’t know, a cotton gin is not where they make gin whiskey, no. You take cotton that’s picked out in the field. I don’t know why they call it a gin, it’s just always did. And it goes through there and the cotton is cleaned and all the burrs and everything are taken out of it. It’s a huge industry, it still is. Of course, now they do it with much better machines than they did back in the 30s during the Depression. And he said, «I got up very early and I was standing there. And the foreman stood up and said, 'What are you doing here? '» He said, «I came to go to work for you». He didn’t say, «You got any jobs»? No. My dad was a faith man. His dad was a faith man. I came to go to work for you.
— Can you keep books?
— Yes. So, I said, «Dad, have you ever kept books before»? He said, «Kenneth, I knew I could go through the ledger and see and make sure this is not the reason why this man doesn’t have a job anymore. Because if his figures were off, but as you know, I’m pretty good at math». Yeah, you are. He said, «I just followed his example». But then he said, «In my first opportunity, I went to John’s Business College and learned the proper way to keep a book and keep the ledgers on my own». Now, and he’s a tithing man. So was his dad. Now, listen to this. Hang on. Let me get over here. What if I don’t have faith to tithe? So then faith, Romans 10, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Now, it’ll come when you’re reading the Word out loud yourself. Faith will come. Faith is coming right now, whether you realize it or not, if you have any reverence for the scripture at all. Now, listen to this. Faith comes by hearing and hearing, but I wanted to read it out of the Bible. So it’s in the little book. Jesus taught that the faith the size of a mustard seed will grow to produce great things if planted. Even if your faith seems small, God will take up the challenge. There was a book written in the 1940s about a farmer named Perry Hayden. And that is Raymond Jeffries, anyway, who accepted the challenge. After hearing his pastor preach on Malachi 3:10, he decided to tithe and record the results and see just how much blessing tithing would produce. He started by sowing one cubic inch of wheat, 360 kernels on his farm. And committing to the Lord for the next six years, he would tithe 10% of the harvest and sow the remainder of the following season. The first year he planted 360 kernels in a four by four plot. In the second year tithing 10% of the harvest, he had to expand the plot to 24 by 60 feet to have room enough to plant the number of seeds. The third year after tithing the 10%, he had to expand the plot to three quarters of an acre. The fourth year he took 14 acres to accommodate the seed. The fifth year it took 230 acres. Year six, he needed a plot of 2,600 acres to have room enough to plant the 5,000 bushels of seed that he had to sow. 5,000 bushels, I say his farm was working.
— 2,600 acres he needed.
— Yes. In six years, the original 360 kernels multiplied to become 55 billion and Perry Hayden had made $288,000. That was a lot of money in 1940. The war hadn’t started yet. I was born in 1936. The depression was still on.
— You know, dad, I’ve heard people say, well, when it says the sower sows the Word that wasn’t talking about money, but the Bible says that the Kingdom of Heaven is as a man sows the seed. So if you just want to break it down to that, as a man sows the seed, that’s the harvest you get. That’s a rule and a law.
— If you expect it. Now he was proving something. Why? That’s what Malachi said. Prove me in that, saith the Lord. So he proved it. But you have to do it by faith and with the joy of the Lord and a smile on your face. I was working with my grandfather and it was hot, but he’s preparing the land out there in that heat. He’s getting it ready. That’s when the hot part comes. That’s when the hard part comes because harvest, he has harvest on his mind. So he’s out there in the heat and he’s just dragging that. There are different kinds of holes where one of them is like that you cut weeds in the garden, but out there in the field, it’s larger than that. And it has a blade on it about that far. It’s not a sickle. It’s just a long handle. And you just swing that thing and cut up the briars and the sticker goat heads and stuff. And he’s just swinging that thing. Well, there was an Hispanic man there and I was with him. And he turned to look to me and said, «When does that old man fall down»? I said, «He never falls down». And so I asked him, I said, «Papa, how come you left us»? He said, «Well, Kenneth, you have to set your jaw».
— Set my jaw?
— You have to be determined. You have to mean it. And he just kept on talking. He said, «Well, Kenneth, you’re not going to have a crop if you don’t get out there and get the trash out of it». Oh, you better set your spiritual jaw and get the trash out of here and forget all of the mess you ever heard about it and get in it with your whole heart, with a full expecting to deal wisely in the affairs of life. Praise God. Because tithing is the wise thing. To have the God of the universe to be your financial partner.
— What would you say to somebody that maybe they used to tithe, they quit or they’ve never tithed? I know I’ve had times where for some reason or another I had missed tithes or whatever, but didn’t really have the ability to go back and make it up. Wouldn’t you say just start like right where you’re at?
— Well, of course you go to first John. I mean, yeah, you go to first John and repent of it and say, Lord, I knew better than that. I repent of that and I received my forgiveness. And so we’re not going to talk about it anymore, except I want to thank You. Now, and I’m a tither now. And if You’ll help me and reveal it to me, I’ll make it up to You. And You’ll show me places that I can meet someone’s need. And offerings are not just through church. You see someone that meets a need or someone that’s never had anything before much and their eyes get big. And I was in Beaumont and the Lord said, «This is going to be the best financial year you’ve ever had». But it looked like the worst because nobody was coming except Dad Sutton, his wife and two women. And anyway, he just he just took all the change and put it in a sack. And of course the checks and things. So we got in. Well, I had driven that old car in Beaumont. I was tired. She said, come on. She went to Cox’s department store.
— Who, mother?
— Yes. Take that change.
— Oh, the bag of money.
— The bag of money. And she and I, a red patent purse, some red spike heels. And they said, we broke you. She said, «There’s more where that came from». Well, I realized how important purses are to women, particularly the LV purses.
— She likes those. And of course, Jerry Savelle had a Louis Vuitton cover for his phone. So what do you do? I checked out and I found out that someone very, very close. In fact, Yvan and Abigail Banda, both of them. He’s my trainer and both of them prepare food and so forth. And so I wanted to know if she ever had one. No. Well, I said, will you do now? Why?
— That’s just generosity.
— Well, and she wanted it. She didn’t need it. But Gloria didn’t need that red purse. She already had a purse. That was a birthday present. And then others that need, just desperately need things. When you’re a tither, you meet the need of the poor.
— What an honor to be the hand of the Lord. Oh! To be the hand of the Lord, to bring someone, turn someone’s heart towards him. That’s what 2 Corinthians 9 talks about. You’ve caused a heart of generosity. Your generosity is called thanksgiving to go up to God. What an honor to be his hand. One time I asked you, because I was younger, a lot younger, and you taught us he’s the Lord of the tithe. So he tells you what to do with it. And one day we’d sold a house and I was sowing some money and I felt like I should give it to this widow. And I’d seen it in the scripture that it talks about your tithe, the storehouse, because the storehouse would feed the orphans and widows. And I said, Dad, can I do that? Because I feel like that’s what the Lord’s telling me. And you said, «Well, he’s the Lord of it». And so if he feeds the orphans and the widows and he leads you in that, what an honor to be his hand. If you’re putting into the storehouse, then you’re making it available for him to do whatever he’s asking.
— The scripture on that’s 54th chapter of Isaiah. And Jesus, the apostle Paul said the same thing in light of that.
— And I think the Lord knows that he can go beyond the 10% with you and he can show you a need or a desire. Somebody just asked for something. I just love it. I love that generous life, Dad, that you’ve taught us to lead.
— We were on vacation and Jerry Savelle and Jesse Duplantis and me, we walked past a restaurant and it wasn’t noontime, but it was open. And we’re just walking along the sidewalk. And I heard the Lord say, «Go in there and give that man a hundred dollars». What if I hadn’t had a hundred dollars? What about the Samaritan? The Jews wouldn’t have anything to do with the Samaritans. That’s where Franklin Graham got the Samaritan’s Purse because he said, you take care of this man. And if I owe you more, I will pay when I return. This man had been beat and robbed. He met his need, but he had to have money enough to do it. Anyway, I just turned and went in there. They didn’t know what I was doing. I just walked in there and I had my money clip in my pocket. I said, «Sir, I heard the Lord say to give you a hundred dollars». And I gave it to him. And Jerry said, «Not without me, you don’t». And Jesse said, «Not without me, you don’t». And you can see he began to tear up. He had the need. I expect he was thinking about it at that time. And the answer to it just walked past the door over and over. I can’t tell you how much, that was an offering. No, it was a gift. The blessing of the Lord maketh rich and he adds no toiling with it. That’s in the book of Proverbs.
— And he’s unwilling to do without a cheerful and quick to respond giver. There’s so much in that. Let’s close this on Mark 10. Oh, Copeland promises his donors a hundredfold. No, I never have. No, I never have done that. I never have said that. The 10th chapter of the book of Mark, 17th verse. When he was gone forth in the way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why do you call me good? There’s none good but one, that’s God. They’ll know it’s the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not fraud or bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. That’s not 10. Do you notice that? That’s not all 10 of them. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these I’ve observed from my youth. Jesus beholding him, loved him and said unto him, One thing you lack, go your way, sell whatsoever you have and give to the poor and you shall have treasure in Heaven. Come take up the cross and follow me. He offered him apostleship right then. He was sad at that saying. He went away grieved for he had great possessions. Jesus looked around about to his disciples and how hardly it is they that have riches into the Kingdom of God. The disciples were astonished at his Word. They were not poor. He answered again and said, Children, how hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God. Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man that trusts in his riches to enter the Kingdom of God. They were astonished at a mater saying unto themselves, can anyone be saved? He looked upon with men it’s impossible, but not with God. For with God, all things are possible. Peter began to say unto him, Lord, We’ve left all and followed you. Jesus answered and said, now Jesus answered and said, There is no man that has left house, brethren, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, lands for my sake in the gospel, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time houses, brethren, sisters, mothers, children, lands with persecution and in the world to come eternal life. Well, of course the devil’s after the money. Any preacher that has money or any Christian that has money enough to meet all of their needs and then they begin to sow and give, he’s going to talk ugly about you and everything else. I’ve had ugly books written about me about it. I had sense enough not to read them because I preached the prosperity of God. He just preached about money all the time. Spirit, soul, body, financially and socially. It covers the… prosperity covers that.
— There’s a really, this jumped out at me in my Bible. So this is the Passion. You know, there’s a, there is an anointed title in this Bible. You know how they put these little titles above the chapter, The Revolutionary Values of the Kingdom. It’s revolutionary to live like this.
— Yes it is.
— That can change everything.
— And the American Revolutionary War. And we’re out of time. We’ll be back in just a few moments. So give the Lord praise.