Kenneth Copeland - You Take It When You Praise
KENNETH: Hello, everybody, we're Kenneth and Gloria Copeland. Welcome to the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. Did you have a good Thanksgiving Day yesterday? Hey, you remember the commercial, I believe it was an Alka-Seltzer commercial, years ago, and a guy's sitting on the edge of his bed and he said, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing".
GLORIA: The whole thing.
KENNETH: Oh, that really fits you, huh? Maybe not. No, praise God.
Father, we pray for all of those that ate the whole thing yesterday, and we praise you and we thank you, Sir. We're such a blessed people, and we worship you and we bless your name today, and we come before you with thanksgiving and praise. We honor you, Sir, above all others and above all else. We thank you for your Word. We put it first place and final authority in our lives, and we give you praise. In Jesus name. Amen.
KENNETH: We are talking about the life, and living a life, of thanksgiving, a life of gratitude, and developing a grateful attitude, an attitude of gratitude all the time so that it begins to control your consciousness, and it controls all your thinking and everything that you do. So, open your Bibles with me again to Romans chapter 1, and our golden text for this week verse 21, "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".
Now I want to go again today back to where we were in the book of Ephesians. We read... Now, you do realize that the book of Ephesians is written to a whole church of born-again, Holy-Ghost-baptized, tongue-talking, healing, believing Christians. Now, it was the norm back then to get born again and get baptized with the Holy Spirit. That was the norm. Now, tradition and so forth got mixed up in it, and religion and all of that, and then God had to renew it and bring it back right at the tail end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century. But now He's always had a people, always, always. Maria Woodworth-Etter received the baptism of the Holy Ghost in the 1850s, so always been a people filled with the Spirit of God. Glory to God. But now, this church he's writing...
Now here's another thing. Verse 17, "I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened" There he's talking about being on the dark side again. He said, don't be doing this. "Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness, or the hardness, of their heart". Now, come on down here. Verse 22, "You put off concerning the former manner of life, the old man", Put that old man off, you do it. Put him off. Amen. "The old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lust. Be renewed in the Spirit of your mind. Put on the new man which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness".
That is our true nature. We've been born again and made the righteousness of God in Him. Amen. Now, "Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down on your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more". He's talking to Christian people and having to tell them to quit stealing, and quit lying. "Well, Brother Copeland, I don't lie". Really? You told somebody you'd be there every morning at 9:00, and every morning you came in at 9:20, that's a lie. It's a very damaging thing, particularly if you're working out in the world. "That Christian, man his word ain't worth anything".
So he's having, "Let him that stole steal no more, but let him work with his hands that which is good that he may have to give". He's not earning a living, he's earning a giving. "As you sow", see, we're supposed to be believing God for return, and so our tithing and sowing should be producing our living, not just the job. Huh? You follow me here? Then, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace to the hearers, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed under the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking" He keeps talking about speaking, words, words. Words are so huge. They're the biggest thing there is. Amen.
Words are the most powerful thing known in this universe. It created the universe. Words did. Amen. It's upheld by words. Praise God. "Be put away from you with all malice. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you". Now, we're into something here. Christ. He didn't say for Jesus' sake, he said for Christ's sake. Christ, the Greek translation of the word, the Hebrew word Messiah, which literally means anointed one and His anointing. Jesus never did any miracle, He never did any, not one. He's just as much the Son of God when he's 29 as He was when He's 30. He didn't do anything until He was baptized in the Holy Ghost and power, and anointed, and anointed. That anointing, the burden-removing yoke and destroying power of the Living God.
Notice. "For the sake of the anointing, God's forgiven you". For the sake of the anointing in this congregation. All of this stuff has to do with the anointing. "Be ye, therefore, followers, or imitators, of God, as dear children imitate their parents. Walk in love as Christ also loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let not be once named among you has become a Saint. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking", there's talking again, "nor jesting", the dirty jokes and stuff that's not fit, "which are not fit, but rather giving of thanks". Thanksgiving, thanksgiving, praise and thanksgiving. Get it in your heart. Get it in your mind. Praise and thanksgiving is just woven all through here. Praise God. "The whole body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working of the measure of every part maketh increase in the body unto the edifying of itself in love".
Love needs to be praised. God is love. God is love. We need to be talking about love, and praising God. Thank you Lord Jesus. Thank you for a wife like I have. Glory to God. Amen. You can be the wife that you wanted to be. You can be the husband you always wanted to be. You can be the child to your parents you always wanted to be. "Well, but you don't know how my daddy treated me". Well, praise God for him. "Well, what do I got to praise God for him about"? Well, you're here. Amen. You're here. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. You can praise God. You can praise God, and start thanking God for what you have. Start thanking God for what you don't have. That could be on the dark side and the light side.
I'm thanking God, and like we read in Philippians 4:6, we continue to make our wants known to God through... And everything in prayer with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. The Amplified, "Continue making your requests known to God". I have taken the scripture, I believed I received, and now I'm giving thanks. I'm giving thanks. I'm praising you and giving thanks. I'm praising you and giving thanks. I'm big on the moment that I did it? I have certain moments, and times, that I make note of the time, and the day, and the date. That's when I took this. I learned that from Gloria. That Word received. Believe you have received them and you shall have them. The Greek word is take, to take as ownership, and so you take it when? When you pray. Well, that's when you praise. That's when you praise.
"Well, I'm going to have it some of these days". No you ain't, some of these days never comes. I believe I receive it. Well, what would you do if suddenly there was a miracle and it was just already there? Well, you'd be shouting and praising God. Well, now you believe it's yours, so take it. Start the shouting now. Start the praising now. Start the worship now. Glory to God. Rather the giving some thanks, the giving of thanks. I give you thanks and I glorify your name. "Yeah, but Brother Copeland, you know what that boy of mine done? He just spent all our money and wrecked our car. Now, He's in jail". Well, what are you believing? "Well, I don't know what to believe". Really? How about this? How about this? I said, "How about this"?
Praise God, my mother, she said she could have done this a long time ago had she known how. She didn't know yet about 1 Peter 5:6, "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God... Casting all your care over on Him for He cares for you". She finally just got so fed up praying over me, she threw her Bible down on the kitchen table and she said, "If he goes to hell it is your fault, not mine. I'm not praying for him anymore". Gloria got saved in two weeks and I got saved in three. She'd been praying for me for 13 years. She said later, she said, "Huh, if I'd have known that I could've done that at the beginning, and just start praising God, just start thanking Him. Thank God Kenneth's in the church. Thank God Kenneth's all right, thank God Kenneth's saved. Thank God for". Every time she'd get to where she's feeling a little bit better about it I'd do something else stupid, you know.
GLORIA: Surely not.
KENNETH: She'd come back and say, "Oh God, don't let him do nothing so crazy". But, she finally just rolled all the care of it over on God and there it was. She just started thanking Him, and Mama was big on praise. I mean, even back before, she was a thank you, Jesus woman even back there before she and dad received the baptism, she had received the Spirit. She was big on thank you, Jesus, just thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. I'd come up with something, I'd say, "Well, didn't", and she'd say, "Kenneth, God is not going to fall off his throne because you did that, just give Him thanks, just thank Him".
Thank you, Jesus. Just thank you, Jesus. Then later... I'd get so tickled at her. We'd ask her to pray over something, or tell her about something that was going on. She'd say, "Hit it in tongues, boy. Hit it in tongues". What's she doing? Praise. Praise and Thanksgiving. Glory to God. You can just praise till you get happy. Pray in tongues till just... Pray till something happens. Glory to God. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Glory to God. Now, "Controlling the words of your mouth with praise and Thanksgiving". Now, here we are on Friday. Let's go to the book of Hebrews. My, my. The most powerful book, the advanced book of the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 13. Oh my, my, my, my, my. Well, where should I start here, Lord?
Let's go to... Yeah, let's do what I always, that is land on the 8th verse. "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever". There is enough to praise God about right there. Thank God He doesn't ever change. He never changes. There's not anything so bad, and terrible, and horrible that you can do to stop Him from loving you. You can commit the most horrible crime that has ever been committed in history. Now, I'm going to say this. This is hard on people, but people like the, the worst human beings in our time, the worst human being of our time was Adolf Hitler. Jesus loved him. He loved him.
There was a,... Oh, I don't... I almost said her name right then. Anyway, little red-headed missionary, and she was so powerful, and somehow she got permission to go in and pray for the Japanese warlords that were in prison to be hung, and she just kept witnessing to them, witnessing to them, and finally the leader of them... I think there was three or four others, anyway, that were right under him. He said, "Lady, you don't know". She said, "Yes, I know, I know who you are". "And all the things that I've done"? She said, "Yeah, but you don't know Jesus, yet". She just kept on, and just kept on, and just kept on, and just kept on, and just kept on.
Now, this was the leading Japanese warlord of that whole mess and those right under him. Got all of them born again. Their final request was to be baptized in water before they were hung. Can you see what I'm talking about? He loves you. He loves you, and that's enough right there to just praise God. When that struck me, struck me with such a force. Back when I was a student I'd just be started there at ORU in 1967, and I came across that scripture in the 17th chapter of John where Jesus said, He prayed to the Father to show them He loved them as much as you do me, and that just hit me. I didn't know I was a new creature. I was just finding out things like that, and I thought, "That can't be so. He loved me as much as he does Jesus"?
See, I still had my sin on my mind, and I didn't know that it... I knew I was born again, filled with the Spirit. I didn't have any trouble with that, but I didn't have revelation of being a new creature. I decided I'm just going to start saying that, and I said it with trembling. I really, I just, you know, to say that out loud that God loves me as much as he does Jesus, and I just started walking the room saying that God loves Kenneth as much as He does Jesus. Then, all of a sudden it started making sense, started making faith to me.
Well, of course He did, He gave Jesus to get me. Then, the verse of scripture, Christ died for the ungodly, and I thought, "Boy, I qualified for that", but then His mercy endures forever, and I qualified for that. Oh, now you can begin to praise God, and you can begin to worship Him, and it begins to change your life, and you come down to that 15th verse. Glory to God. By Him, therefore, or by Jesus, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. Giving thanks to that name. Glory to God. Come on, let's do it right now.
GLORIA: Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
KENNETH: Oh, God, we thank you. Join us, You're right there on television, just wherever you are, or if you can just join us, just begin to praise him and just worship Him. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, my Heavenly Father.
GLORIA: We're so grateful.
KENNETH: Thank you, Holy Spirit for being my teacher and my comforter. Thank you for being "Greater is He that's in me than he that's in the world". Hallelujah. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah.
GLORIA: Praise God. Praise God. Praise God.
KENNETH: Oh God...
GLORIA: Praise God. Thank you, Lord.
KENNETH: Do you not understand sayeth the Lord, that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world, and as you praise Me, and as you worship Me, particularly in the Spirit, you rise up above all of the dead, and the horror of this world, and you reach out into that space where there is no time, that place in the Spirit where there is no time, where My Presence is King. My Presence is full, but I want you to know My Presence is just as strong right where you are, right in the dirty mess where you are I'm there. Right in the most terrible place I am there, and if you'll call on me I'll build a wall around you by the blessing power of the Almighty God that the devil flat can't get through.
GLORIA: Thank you, Lord.
KENNETH: I told you in the 54th chapter of Isaiah that terror would come, and oppression would come, and fear would come but not by me sayeth the Lord, and no weapon formed against you can prosper because I'm your God. So, give forth praise...
GLORIA: Thank you, Lord. Praise you.
KENNETH: And give forth thanksgiving, and develop a life of thanksgiving, and a life of praise, and you'll see manifestations of great power, and significant miracles will be a part of your daily life. Oh hallelujah. Glory to God. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Someone in the television audience, or someone here in the studio today, a nervous condition. It just, sometimes you just get to the place where you just want to just grit your teeth and just scream and just want to just kind of come apart for a little while. That's gone. That's gone. The peace of God has come in this studio today and it's come for you right where you are right now, and you ought to just start praising God and thank Him for it, but it's right there. It's on you right now.
GLORIA: Praise Jesus.
KENNETH: Those of you that have never accepted Jesus Christ as Lord, do it right now. Hey, He's right there. He's been there all the time. Just say, "Lord, I just like what Gloria prayed", she said "Lord, take my life and do something with it". Well, He certainly did didn't He? And we're out of time.
GLORIA: Thank you, Lord, thank you.
KENNETH: Oh, this has been a wonderful week, hasn't it?.
GLORIA: Praise God.
KENNETH: Glory to God. Let's give the Lord a praise and thank Him for it.
GLORIA: Thank you, Lord. Glory.
KENNETH: Praise God.