Kenneth Copeland - How to Destroy the Worry Habit
Kenneth: Hello everybody, this is the believer's voice of victory broadcast and we're Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and we want to welcome you again today to this beautiful place. Praise God. We got rained out in our, our place over in Arkansas in April and so came over here and last week like got rained out here. But look at this gorgeous day. It has just come out so beautiful, amen. And this is on the KCM property here in Fort Worth and out back behind our house, right on the Lake shore. In fact, this is all a part of our family area out here. And you can see the boat dock over there behind us. Praise God.
Gloria: The Lord is good.
Kenneth: He is good, hallelujah. And Gloria, the thing about it is He'd do this for anybody.
Gloria: That's right.
Kenneth: This is what belongs to covenant people. If they only knew it, He's do it for anybody that will walk with him and, and allow him to, amen.
Gloria: We allow him.
Kenneth: Yes, we do. Amen. Father, thank you for today and thank you for the abundance of all things. We praise you and worship you and bless you today. In Jesus name. Amen. Now we've been talking about casting the whole of care over on him. Now we're going to go to first Peter chapter five. Before we do that, I want to read you, you've, you've heard me pray this and say things about this. I want to read it to you. We are redeemed from the curse of the law in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy. The first 14 verses are the blessing of Abraham. Amen. And the threefold cord of the curse is spiritual death, sickness and disease, poverty and debt, the threefold quarter redemption is salvation, the new birth, healing, and Jesus as our high priest, our Melchizedek.
Now in the 28th chapter and from the 15th verse on, it will come to pass if you will not hearken under the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and do his commandments and the statutes which I come thee this day. All these curses will come on. You see, you make the command and you, when you obey the command then comes the covenant. You obey the command, all the people of the earth shall see that you're called by the name of the Lord. Amen. And so forth, so on. If you don't, then the results is the devil has access.
Gloria: So you choose the blessing or the curse.
Kenneth: Yeah, you choose. Deuteronomy 30:19, I placed before you life and death, blessing and cursing. You choose.
Gloria: I choose blessing.
Kenneth: How? Whatever he commands do it, and the result, the power is in the command and the result is the covenant. He'll do what he said.
Gloria: That's right.
Kenneth: Now I want to share...
Gloria: If you don't know what the covenant says, you can't, you can't receive it. You gotta find out what it says and you take it by faith.
Kenneth: And you have to make up your mind. I'm going to believe this and I'm going to do what it says, but I want to point out something here to you. In the, in Deuteronomy 28 they're still talking about the curses. Moreover, all these curses will come on you, pursue you, overtake you till you be destroyed, and they'll be under the for a sign and a woman on her seed forever. Why? Because you serve not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things.
Well, Brother Copeland, I don't have any abundance. Yes you do. You own everything that's in that 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, the first 14 verses. All of that belongs to you. You are a joint heir with Christ Jesus and you have abundance. God has offered it to you and it's when you began to rejoice, and again, I say rejoice for the abundance, all things, hallelujah. You can't do that and worry at the same time. So if you learn to do that instead of worrying and take command of your thought life, which is what we're going through right now, let's let's go over there again to first Peter chapter five verse six, humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.
How do you do that, Lord? Casting all your care upon him for he cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil is a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world, but the God of all grace who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After you have suffered. Whom resist steadfast. Now the word translated resist in verse nine is the same word translated suffer in verse 10. So after you have resisted him steadfast in the faith, Oh wow, you will be made perfect or mature, established, strengthen and settle you. Glory to God. That's a life without worry. Isn't that wonderful?
Gloria: Look at verse 10 it says, but the God of all grace. Well that's favor the God of all favor who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. He's the one that favors us and gives us whatever we need according to his word, and according to our faith, we receive.
Kenneth: That's part of the covenant.
Gloria: Favor is an awesome thing. God's favor is an awesome thing.
Kenneth: And you know, he promised it.
Gloria: It's blessing.
Kenneth: There's no way on earth to earn it. It's just the opposite. He wants to treat you and me. Let's go back to that for a second. Isaiah 43:25 and he said, Oh, okay, hang on. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my sake and will not remember your sins. Now what's he saying? He remembers what Jesus did. He remembers what he did when he laid our sins on him. Now we need to be remembered.
Gloria: That's right.
Kenneth: And the reason he did that is so he can treat us by grace.
Gloria: That old man's gone.
Kenneth: The gracious thing here is to treat us like we never sinned, like sin never happened. See, and when you, if, if you, if you'll cast, if you stop that worry and worried about, that in itself is a sin because it's fear based. Amen. Now let's get back over there again and first Peter again, I want to read that out of the amplified. Oh, okay. I want to start with a verse six, therefore, humble yourself demote lower yourself in your own estimation, unto the mighty hand of God. Now what does that mean, Gloria? That doesn't mean, well, I'm just unworthy. I'm just no good. No, no, no, no, no. See you have been by worrying and caring. You have been acting like you can fix this and you can't and you worry about it cause you can't and you keep worrying and you keep worrying and all the time.
Gloria: Pushing him away from you all the time.
Kenneth: Yeah, and all of the time that's pride. I can fix this, I can do this. Well Lord, if you'll take about half of this, I'll handle the rest of it. Oh brother.
Gloria: That's dumb.
Kenneth: Now what happens see, God resists pride. He stands in resistance to it all the time. You get over in it, then it's, then he's resisting you. Not because he wants to. It's just because he resists pride. And when you get over in pride, then you get over into that resistance. No dump it, dump the whole care over on him. Take him at his word and the covenant is he'll take care of it. Listen how I said it, and that he may exalt you in due time. Doing what? How do you do this? Casting the whole of your care, all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all, on him, for he cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. Amen.
Gloria: So what do you do? You find the scripture that gives you what you want, what you need, and then you pray it out and then you, you roll the care of it over on the Lord and you don't, you don't contemplate any failure here. The Lord's going to help you. You believe him to help you. Whatever it is, healing, money, whatever. And you, you just believe you received it. I believed I've received this pen, this pen is mine. This is favor. This pen is favor. I believe I received the favor of God and we are debt free. Now what do you do? You stand there, you believe for that. You sow into that if you're believing to be debt free you sow. Whatever you believe for you sow.
Kenneth: Now you take that scripture, that's a covenant. Jesus made a covenant. Matthew 6:33, if you seek first my kingdom and my way of doing things, I will add all things to you. So the command was seek ye first the kingdom of God, and my we have done it. And the covenant is, I will add all these things to you. So now you take that scripture and make it part of your list over here. I'm not worried about money anymore and I've written down that money worry and I've written down. And then I've got, I've got the covenant and the promise here in Matthew 6:36.
Gloria: And you stay in thanksgiving.
Kenneth: I'm doing, I'm making this whole list of things like that. I'm finding scriptures that, that cover it. And then once and for all, and we talked about it yesterday, uh, there's coming a time. I meditate on this and I meditate on this and I meditate on Matthew 6:33. I've meditate on the healing scriptures. I meditate on the family scriptures. I'm meditating before God and I meditate and then comes that moment. Yes, I'm ready. And you go before God and you receive the, the, the, the communion. His body was broken. He was broken. He became a curse for me. He redeemed me from the curse of poverty. He redeemed me from the curse of sickness. He redeemed me from the curse of sin and it's broken for me and I take it and here's all my, I hand you all of these worries. I hand you all of this stuff that's been plaguing my life. I hand you this sickness. I hand you this, this pain. I hand you these children. I hand you this, my finances, all of this that I've been worried about all of this time.
Gloria: Roll the care of it.
Kenneth: In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the body and the blood and the covenant of God. I dedicate and commit myself and I make covenant with you, Lord Jesus. I will never worry, be concerned, be anxious about anything again in my life. Not one day that I'm on this earth will I worry again. By the power of the grace of God, the blood of God and the name of God. I receive this covenant, and I boldly declare the greater one that lives within me. Will help me, and keep me. And sir, I expect you. I hold you responsible for reminding me, taking authority, interrupting me anywhere, anytime, any place that I began to worry or be concerned about anything. And I'll take authority over it right there with your help, with your help, with your help. Now let's go back over here to Philippians chapter four where we were yesterday. Cause this is the process.
Gloria: Let me say this, you cannot be in faith and worry at the same time. There's no way you can do that. It won't work. Okay, I'm free.
Kenneth: All right, 4:12 here's the way you do it. See we, we've given it all now. Well then, where's the battle? The battles in the mind, and this is where you deal with it, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, the praise has got to come in there. Let your request be made known to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. Finally, brother, whatsoever things are true. Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are good report, if there be any virtue or excellence, if there be any praise, think on these things. Now you, that's the command when you and I are covenanted to obey that command. Now the the faith power of God will take authority over these things and something starts coming up and the Lord says, that's not lovely. That's not a good report. Don't think on that. I take authority over that. I'm not going to touch that in my thought life anymore.
Gloria: No more worry.
Kenneth: Now let's go to Corinthians and we'll find out how to do it. Second Corinthians chapter 10. See, God never commands anything in his word that He didn't tell you exactly how to go do it. He didn't intend for you to do it on your own. So now look at this in verse four or verse three, though we walk in the flesh. We do not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Casting down imagination. So the, here's the way you win, the battle of the mind, the thoughts. That's the only thing Satan get through you on and make you worry is the only way he can get at you at all.
Gloria: The reason there is imaginations is that Satan's a liar and truths not in him. So he gives you images of things that aren't even...
Kenneth: And if you will take them and start worrying about them. They don't stay the same. They get a little worse all the time and capture your imagination. But remember, remember what God said do about that meditate in his Word then. That's the reason that little devotional is so good. You got something you can use all day long. You read those scriptures all day, every day. Get your mind on these. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience. What disobedience? Disobedience of thought. You're, you're standing ready all the time. You get a thought in there that this goes back to that worry list. No, you don't. No, you don't in the name of Jesus.
Gloria: Now what is it about that scripture you don't understand?
Kenneth: Amen, this just plain right there. Now here, here's, here's where it is. Gloria, you cannot fight thoughts with thoughts. You have two thoughts. One of them doesn't have any authority over the other. You have to fight thoughts with words. Now, the Lord's had me demonstrate this for for years and I want you to do it right now. Begin counting silently to yourself from 1 to 10 now. Now out loud say your name. Kenneth.
Gloria: Gloria.
Kenneth: What happened to your thinking?
Gloria: Quit counting.
Kenneth: Your mind. Your thoughts had to stop and see what your mouth had to say. Then when you speak scripture, Whoa. It brings authority in on the scene.
Gloria: The angels listen. God listens.
Kenneth: Oh, glory.
Gloria: The God head listens.
Kenneth: Oh glory. Hallelujah.
Gloria: Preached yourself happy?
Kenneth: Yes I did. And here you are. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou hast ordained strength because of the enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and the Avenger. That's the eighth Psalm. Matthew 21:16, Jesus quoted this out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou hast ordained praise. This says strength. He said praise, same thing. The ninth, I will praise thee, oh Lord with my whole heart. I will show forth all your marvelous work. I'll be glad and rejoice and be. I'll sing praise to your name oh thou most high. When? Not yet. When my enemies are turned back, they'll fall and perish at your presence. The devil hounding you with those thoughts. You just rise up. I don't care if it's in the middle of the night and I don't care where you have to go to keep from waking up the whole house. Glory to God hit might not hurt anything to wake up that whole bunch and just read this, read it out loud. Glory to God. I mean tell you the devil pack up his stuff and get out and you say, Jesus, I turned this over to you. Now fix it. I'm going to bed. Good night. Hallelujah.
I remember back, John had a fever and his skin turned just almost red as that strawberry. And it kind of felt like crepe paper and any kind of light, in particular sunlight just gave him pain. He's hurting, he's little boy. And I prayed over him and he got better, but then just got worse. And so I, I'm, I'm praying over him and I went in there and laid hands on him, and prayed. And I went on back and got in bed and a little while I got up, went back in there, check on him. And the Lord, the Lord said, uh, you rolled that care over on me, why didn't you leave it with me? He said, the fear that he said you, you go in check on him. You took it out of my hands. Whoa.
I was worried about it. I didn't realize it, but I was. I went in there and I laid hands on him. I said in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, my boy is healed of this and I thank you for it, Lord Jesus. You're my healer and you're his healer and I roll all the care of it over on you. Went on back to bed. I woke up, Oh, an hour I guess. My feet were already out on the floor and I said, no, Jesus, that's your care. You take care of it. The devil said, what a sorry parent you are. I said, I am not. Well, his cover has fallen off. I said, I don't care, let the angels put it back. Jesus take care of this. The next morning went on over to the morning service that morning and after the morning service, I felt this tug on my coat and I turned around. It was John. He said, look at me daddy, I'm healed, and he pulled his shirt up like that. He said look at me, daddy. I'm healed.
Gloria: Hallelujah.
Kenneth: We'll be back in just a moment.