Kenneth Copeland - The Uncanny Timing of God at Christmas
Kenneth: Hello everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland, Merry Christmas, this is Wednesday, day after tomorrow, oh. My mother, of course I was born December the sixth. So Christmas was so huge in our house.
Gloria: Oh it was.
Kenneth: And mother always wanted to get the tree up by my birthday. And I was the only child and I couldn't stand it from the 6th to the 24th. I mean, oh.
Gloria: That's not fair, is it?...
Kenneth: It was torture, you know, and I just, I lived for it and it was just such a wonderful time in our house. And it still is in our house today. And when we're still traditionally Christmas Eve openers, I couldn't stand it till Christmas morning. I just forget that and mother would say "Okay, we'll do it Christmas Eve" but we always, my mother, she was such a Christmas person and, but always, always before I go to open any present, I mean, I'm standing there like this. I wanna rip into this, not till we pray and thank Jesus for the whole thing, every time. And here we are, it's only day after tomorrow.
Gloria: Little boy, settle down little boy.
Kenneth: It was always there, day after tomorrow, are you kidding? And of course school was out. It'd be the Christmas holidays and ah, it was just the most wonderful time of life. And it still is. And I praise you, Father. Oh Lord, we thank you. We just praise you. We worship you today. You're just so wonderful and so good to us, we're just blessed beyond measure. And we thank you, for being born. Thank you Lord. All this week we're, like, you've heard me say it before, particularly if you are a part of this ministry. You go along looking at things and suddenly you see some, I see scriptures that I have been reading for 50 years and all of a sudden and it just goes wide screen, ah. And you just see more and more and more.
Gloria: from black and white
Kenneth: Yeah, yeah.
Gloria: To technicolor, is that it?
Kenneth: And wide screen. And I mean, you know, Gloria and I go back far enough to where particularly, when I was a little kid, you know, movies were black and white. And I remember when color came in, ah it was such a wonderful story. It demanded to be filmed in color. And we thought, is it ever gonna get any better than this? Anyway.
Kellie: Well, I remember when I was your personal remote control.
Kenneth: Oh yeah. Kellie change it, will you change that? Oh, praise God. Let's go to the book of Matthew. We looked at John, we've looked at Luke, but there's some things in Matthew that are very unique and give us real insight into this wonderful story. Let's go to the 18 first, of the first chapter. "Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. When, as his mother, Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband being a just man, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privately". A just man will not make a public example of his wife.
Kellie: No.
Kenneth: You don't go, when friends come over or something and then just start belittling your wife and just talking her down in front of them. Are you kidding me? I wouldn't say something crosswise of her,
Gloria: Praise God.
Kenneth: Under any circumstances. There's no way. I mean, I've been married to this woman 58 years and I love her more today than I did at first, and I fell in love with her the first day I met her. And hey, no, listen, she's still this little glow to me. And, but I've seen people do that and just making fun. No, that's not making fun, it's stupid.
Kellie: I can attest to in almost 57 years, I have never heard you say anything but wonderful things about my mother.
Kenneth: Well, there's not anything about her that's not wonderful.
Kellie: She does make that easier.
Kenneth: Yes she does.
Gloria: You all are sweet.
Kellie: I've watched you just...
Kenneth: Just men and just wives don't do that.
Kellie: Nor she about you.
Kenneth: No. You just don't do that. Anyway,
Kellie: It is possible.
Kenneth: "While he thought on these things". So he took time to meditate on this. He didn't just jump up and accuse her and then, but now look at this. "The angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying 'Joseph, thou son of David fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife for that which is conceived or begotten in her is of the Holy Ghost" of the Holy Spirit of God. "She shall bring forth a son and thou shall call his name Jesus or Savior". That's what that word means. Yeshua, Savior in Hebrew. That's it. Now "For He shall save his people from their sins". Now, all this was done and look, hey, get this. See all this, all this on the left side over here, this first covenant? It's all about Jesus. It's all about him. Now, listen, this is so good. "All this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son. And they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us". All right. Isaiah 7:14. "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name Emmanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good". Isn't that wonderful?
Gloria: Yeah.
Kenneth: It had already been spoken by God so it had to come to pass and it had to come to pass on that day.
Gloria: Hmm. Exactly.
Kenneth: And Gabriel came down and talked to her, but see remember what Jesus said? "If you receive the one I send you receive me. And if you receive me, you receive the one who sent me". God sent Gabriel. So he came from the presence of the most high God and brought that message. So, it was literally God standing in the room,
Gloria: Right. - Because... It just gets to me, that's all there is to the accuracy and the uncanny timing of God. Amen. So...
Gloria: Praise God. Exact, everything is exact.
Kenneth: it's just absolutely exact.
Gloria: Yeah.
Kenneth: "Then Joseph being raised from sleep did, as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him, his wife. And he knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son and she called His name Savior". She called his name Jesus. I love it. "Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold there came wise men from the East".
Kellie: About that time, the New Living says.
Kenneth: Yeah about, yeah.
Kellie: About that time.
Kenneth: And I think the Classic Amplified says that, about that time.
Kellie: About that time. There's time for it.
Kenneth: Yeah, right on time. Now, no telling when they had to leave to get there on that time.
Kellie: It's true.
Gloria: It's true.
Kenneth: Now, it just says "Wise men from the East saying, 'Where is He that is born King of the Jews. Where is He? For we have seen His star in the East and are come to worship him'. When Herod the King had heard these things. He was troubled and all Jerusalem with him". Now, wait, just a minute here. Just said kings, didn't say three kings, but they are kings. Now, they brought three gifts we'll see that, but there were enough of them to stir up all of Jerusalem. So they didn't just kind of sneak in to town and sneak out again. Now, I mean, hey, they're kings. They've got an entourage with them. They have guards of protection cause they came from the East and they came through some really dangerous places, no telling how long they were on the road to get there. Camel travels not all that swift, it's better than that donkey but anyway, I mean these guys came a long ways. So there was enough there to stir up the whole city of Jerusalem. The whole thing was all all up in the air, over all this. So "When Herod the King had heard all of these things, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, in Bethlehem of Judea for thus, it is written by the prophets". And everything goes back to the prophets.
Gloria: Yeah. That's what prophets are.
Kenneth: That's what they do. "Now Bethlehem in the land of Judea are not the least among the princes of Judah for out of these shall come a governor, that shall rule my people Israel". All right. "Then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men, inquired of them diligently, what time the star appeared".
Gloria: They definitely had his attention.
Kenneth: Oh they had his attention and he's not liking what he's hearing and all of Jerusalem is all up in the roar about it. What is this? Well, you know what they were all saying. "You mean to tell me this might be Messiah, come on, what? What's going on? Look, who are all these people? Look at this fancy bunch. I mean, they're rich, they're... Where'd they come from"? I mean, all of Jerusalem was buzzing. So, "And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search diligently for the young child. So traditions, now there's nothing all that wrong with them. But the nativity scene is a composite scene. The wise man, were not there. And it's, you know, Mary and Joseph and the wise men and so on and so on. It's a composite scene and it's sweet and I love it, but it goes deeper and further than that. And if that's all you know about it, you're completely ignorant of everything that happened here. So politicians and demonic people can belittle it and well, they shouldn't take that away from me. Well, and then somebody comes up and says, why? I don't know why, but now I know what that represents. I know what was going on. I know all of this. It was all prophesied in exact days and exact hours. And the time that Mary and Joseph, took them over 20 days to get from Nazareth to Jerusalem. And just in time for her to have the baby in a manger. Well, what does that mean in a barn? No. No, no.
Gloria: Have you ever thought about what that would have been like for Mary?
Kenneth: Don't do that Gloria.
Gloria: I'm telling the shoes of the great faith.
Kenneth: Well, cause it took over 20 days for them to get there. And when you stop and think about, "Oh Lord, but now she's got to be in Jerusalem. He's got to be circumcised at eight days, she just had this baby, how's she gonna walk back"? She didn't walk back. It's only five miles from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. And she's miraculously healed.
Gloria: Yeah.
Kenneth: And they went to Jerusalem and were there on the eighth day and the Son of God was circumcised. Isn't? I just...
Gloria: Praise God.
Kenneth: But when he put all these pieces together that I don't worship that nativity scene, I love it. It's nice. And I'm not gonna let somebody take it away from me just because they don't like it. No, no, but it's not the nativity scene that stirs me up. It's the uncanny accuracy of the Bible, the Word of the living God, everything right, exactly when it needed to be, on time. In every incident in the Bible, every single one of them, all of the types.
Gloria: You know God has a history of that.
Kenneth: He does, he really does.
Gloria: I mean.
Kenneth: He invented time. There was no time. He's always now.
Gloria: He invented it and then he controlled it.
Kenneth: The way he invented it. When he puts the planets in their place. Now, that meant that they were all timed perfectly. That created time, because this little planet, was the garden spot of the universe, the most important thing God ever created, because upon that, he put his man.
Gloria: Praise God.
Kenneth: And so time began.
Gloria: Yeah.
Kenneth: It took the earth so many seconds, minutes, and hours to rotate in this direction. It took so many minutes and hours to rotate at the same time in this direction around the sun. Time was born.
Gloria: Right. And it's, Oh, I'm just, this is, I'm just, I'm just sitting here kind of floating away.
Kenneth: Exact, everything exact...
Kellie: And all we have to do to fit into those times, the Word says that he holds my times, all I have to do is to let him do that. All I have to do is have an open heart to what he's telling me and walk by faith cause the heart that Mary had to have to just say, "Whatever, you know, I'm your handmaiden". But then I was just, I've never struck me before, how much of an open-heart Joseph had to have, cause he was not, he didn't react, he was considering. He had a heart that was open to possibilities of how he was gonna react, you know, he was considering before the Lord. And that's when the angel came and said, this is what you need to do, he's like, "okay, that's what we'll do". But he wasn't just reacting with, well, I have to do this because she did that. He had a open, God chose him just as surely as God chose Mary. And the things that he's chosen us for, all we have to do is
Gloria: Follow God.
Kellie: Yeah, is just let him do it.
Kenneth: He was already in love with her. He didn't fall in love with her after he found out she's gonna give birth to the son of God. He was already in love with her. He loved her and he didn't want to make a public example of her. He just loved her, and took care of her, and did exactly what God told him to do.
Kellie: God chose well for Mary and Jesus.
Kenneth: He is so good. Praise the Lord. Now...
Gloria: Where are you?
Kenneth: In the eighth verse, "Search diligently for the young child, and when you've found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. And when they had heard the King, they departed and lo the star, which they saw in the East, went before them, till it came and stood over the young child, over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house," See that they were not at the manger, they came into the house. We know that he was at least two years old because Herod diligently searched from them. And so he killed all those children, the first martyrs of the church, he killed them. anything two years old and under, just to get them all,
Gloria: What kind of an animal, would do that.
Kenneth: A demon possessed one, that's what kind. "When they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts". It still only said they, it didn't say three. And so it's obvious where this tradition came from and it was right here. "They opened onto him their treasures, their treasures. They presented or offered" the cross-references says "unto him, gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh". I mean, Hey, I mean, you can google this. You can find it as easy as I did. In that time the frankincense and the myrrh was worth as much or maybe more than the gold. They were very rare. They were obviously as rare as the gold, and very sweet perfume and incense, but at the same time they were used for medicine".
Gloria: Hmm.
Kenneth: Frankincense is still used for medicine today. And so there, they were herbs and so forth. So keep that in mind. When, let's keep reading, "Being frankincense and myrrh, being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And when they were departed behold the when they left, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph". This is not in a dream. The angel himself came to him. Now what angel? The angel of the Lord, the same one that spoke to Mary, the same angel. Now he gets to see him, he only saw him in a dream, but Mary had seen him and talked to him face to face. And the thing that she said, "How shall I know this thing? I don't know a child". And then he told her, it is of the Lord. She said, "Be it done unto me, according to your word, be it done unto me as you have spoken". That has become a word on the inside of me. I found it in the Word, Oh my Father, Oh Lord Jesus. Be it done unto me. According to the way you have spoken. And we're out of time.
Gloria: Praise God.
Kenneth: That only took three minutes. Gloria, Kellie and I will be back in just a moment.