Kenneth Copeland - God's Christmas Plan
Kenneth: It's Christmas Eve, praise God. And let me tell you something, if I mean you got the whole family in there, I understand that. Hit that DVR, record it, and then go back to kcm.org and watch it. And watch it again and again and again, because there's gonna be some things said tonight, today. That's what's so wonderful about being on Dish and being on Direct. I mean, you can set all this up and watch it and enjoy it later. And then you have time, you order the study notes, and you get all of these scriptures and all of the outlines, and everything together, and you can teach on it and just love it and enjoy it.
Gloria: Amen.
Kenneth: Praise God. Let's go back to the book of Matthew now. Right where we were in the second chapter of Matthew, when we closed yesterday. Hang on, let me do a little rearranging here. Now, we found out again, all of this is in response and brought to pass because the prophets had spoken it, all through the years, not just this. There are places in this first covenant that actually called Judas by his name. And it says Judas but his name was Judah. Now, Professor Greg Stephens, who teaches Old Testament or first covenant survey in KCBC, and he has spent years studying this. And we had five broadcasts on all of this, and showing the uncanny timing...
Gloria: Perfect.
Kenneth: ...just perfect all the way through it, and then when Jesus left Nazareth and went to Capernaum, it wasn't just cause they ran Him out of town in Nazareth, it had been prophesied that He would leave and go to Capernaum. Every move was exactly what had already been said. And then, in His hometown in Nazareth, He had just turned 30 and He'd been baptized in the Spirit and spent a lot of time being tested of the devil and of course, the devil decided he better leave for a better time, and never did find it. So, anyway. And He began to talk about, and He read the Scripture from the 61st chapter of the book of Isaiah. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor," and so forth, "to preach, teach and heal". Anyway, and He said this day, the Scripture is fulfilled in your ears, not yesterday, today, today. Now, they were marveled at the the gracious words that came out of His mouth until He said today. And it made them so mad, "Who does He think He is"? And there, He could do no mighty work, not because you wouldn't.
Gloria: People are still like that today.
Kenneth: Yeah, He said He couldn't because of their unbelief. But it's the first covenant coming to pass. All of this, the first part of it is to tell us how it all started, the Book of Genesis. Moses spent great time in the presence of God, great time. He spent time in heaven, and seeing all of these things, these panoramas, and he said, "I want to see your glory". And God held it in a cleft of a rock, wouldn't let him look on His hinder parts, but then He revealed His glory to him. I mean, we read that like it happened in 15 minutes. Come on, that could have taken two days, three days to do that. The all of it, but just panorama, and he saw the beginnings. Well, that's the reason that it's also perfect. Now, let's go back here to where we were. We were talking about, when we left you off yesterday, the wise men. So, they came, it didn't say three, it said wise men. Let's back up to, well, I keep looking, I keep backing up. "Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is he born, King of the Jews? For we have seen a star in the East and have come to worship Him.' When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him". So, there was more than just three people that came, as we said yesterday. He had an entourage, they're kings and they traveled through a lot of dangerous territory, the guards. It is said anywhere from 250 to possibly 500 people in that.
Kellie: Escorts.
Kenneth: Yeah, in that caravan. It was a caravan of people, and they're very rich men, they've come from a long way. And when they gathered all the chief priests and scribes and so forth, they said unto him, "In Bethlehem of Judea for it's written by the prophet". He said, "Where is he"? He said, "Bethlehem". Then verse seven, "then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared". This didn't happen in a few minutes, a few hours, he kept talking, and talking, and talking, working out a time schedule, working with this thing, he wanted to know, he needed to know. He lied and said he's gonna worship Him he wanted to kill Him. He's a king.
Gloria: Yeah.
Kenneth: So, "And he sent them to Bethlehem," well, let me read this.
Gloria: He was a threat to him.
Kenneth: He was he was a bad threat. Verse five, they said unto him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus is written by the prophets. 'Thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the princes of Judah. For out of thee shall come a governor and shall rule your people'". That's in the book of Isaiah. "Then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time that star appeared. And he said to them, he sent them to Bethlehem and said, 'Go and search diligently for the young child, and when you find him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also". So, it was the prophets, the prophet Isaiah, the prophet, Micah, the prophets, God told them where it was gonna be. They inquired and they found out it was in Bethlehem. So, all this is supernatural. Supernatural that they should know it from, but there's something happening here that's vital to the life of Jesus. And then verse nine, "when they had heard the king, they departed, and, lo, the star that came in the East went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was". It was not at the manger. "When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy and came into the house where they saw the young child with Mary, His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented or offered unto him gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh". That's where the three kings tradition came from, because there were three gifts.
Gloria: Three gifts.
Kenneth: Well, now that makes sense. And, man, I can go along with that in a hurry. Now, something had to happen here. Now, I look at this. "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 angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, 'Arise, take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt. And be there until I bring you word. For Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him.'" You go. You go stay, you don't come back till I tell you. It doesn't say how long they were there. Now, this is what is so important about the Kings from the Orient, they brought money, gold, frankincense and myrrh. The frankincense and the myrrh in that time was worth as much or more than the gold, because they were very, very rare. Frankincense became medicine, it's used as medicine today. So, a lot of money, a lot of money. They brought their treasures. They don't say how much gold, it was more than enough to stay in Egypt, however long they had to stay, and it doesn't say how long they were there. But they had money enough to stay and take care of everything while they were there. God knew it was coming, God moved on those men and sent them from no telling how far, no telling how long it took them to get there and follow that star. And they knew He was a king. Every single second of it was supernatural, planned out by God, hallelujah.
Gloria: Yeah.
Kenneth: He has your life in mind. He knows everything you need, and if you will let Him, He'll send the kings, He'll send whoever it takes to get it to you, but not if you're gonna sit around and worry about it, "Oh, I don't know what I'm gonna do". I know what you're gonna do, you're gonna wallow in this thing, and as long as you're doing that, this is Bible, this is Scripture, right there in the book of Romans, anything that does not proceed from faith is sin.
Gloria: It's what it says, deal with it.
Kenneth: Those kings, you talk about faith. They had to believe that this was God, 'cause they took their lives and their treasures in their own hands and followed a star until it stopped. And they did it. And then, they knew Herod was lying, Herod went down there and killed all the babies. The very first martyrs were those little babies, right then. That hurt me so bad. I mean, I would read that and just cry. And those mothers didn't know what was going on either...
Gloria: That'd be awful.
Kenneth: ...that they were martyred. They were killed instead of Jesus. And so, here's Jesus taking, I mean, here's God, the Father, taking care of everything. Now, let's fast forward to the book of Revelation. And Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock". All of this took place because of God's blood-sworn oath. That's what made it so exact and so real. He said, "If you will open the door, I'll come in. And I will sup with you. I will eat with you". Now, this is an Eastern book, and we try to look at it with a Western mind and just lose most it. So, what was He saying? He's saying, "Kellie, if you will let me come in, if you will let me be Lord, then, I enter the provision covenant with you. And I'll take care of everything. You no longer have to worry about the bills because I'm gonna eat with you. I'm gonna pay for all the food, I'm gonna take care of the household because you allowed me in".
Gloria: In other words, Jesus is Lord.
Kenneth: Yes.
Kellie: But that's not something we did. Like, I opened the door way back, that's something we do every day.
Kenneth: Everyday.
Kellie: That's the daily manna. That's your daily bread.
Kenneth: That is it.
Kellie: It's daily to open up wider and wider and deeper and deeper, 'cause He will come in every day.
Kenneth: And not be afraid that He's gonna want something out of me that I don't want to give, or He's gonna want too much from me.
Kellie: He's gonna see some bad thing in me that I don't want to expose.
Kenneth: No, no, no. If it's something bad in me, I hope He sees it.
Kellie: Exactly, let him have it.
Kenneth: Oh, glory to God 'cause He knows it anyway. The only reason, He wants to let me know that He knows it, and not be afraid of Him.
Kellie: He wants to walk with me to get rid of it. Dad and mom, as old as I am, and as long as I've been listening to y'all and loving Jesus and growing up this way, He has radically changed my life in the last five years, just going deeper and deeper into that place with Him. I didn't know I wasn't open-hearted, I mean, when He's saying that in Revelation, it says He's knocking but he's talking to the church. What is there hard to knock on? Why is there a door there? Why is there something hard that would even make noise? You can't make noise on something soft. But there was a place in me that was hard and I didn't know it, but when I begun to worship Him, and I began to present myself to Him and I began to be okay hearing him tell me there was something about me He didn't like.
Gloria: You're growing up, that's what...
Kellie: Finally, aren't y'all glad
Gloria: We all growing up.
Kellie: ...you did it, you did it.
Gloria: We're all growing up. Not just you, but we're all growing up.
Kellie: But it's changed my life and I didn't work hard at that.
Kenneth: Take that picture, that picture of the Last Supper is just off the wall Gentile.
Kellie: Okay, I'm sorry. Mother used to tell that story, you said, "Now if you want to be in the picture, sit on this side of the table".
Kenneth: Get on this side, oh brother...
Kellie: I'm sorry.
Kenneth: There wasn't a table there, but if it was it was very... They were seated in Jewish tradition.
Kellie: Yeah.
Kenneth: And you didn't sit at a table like you do today, they sat on the floor and lounged on the floor, and it's the middle of the night. And they had supper, but it was the Seder meal, it was the Passover meal, and they ate. And then, He began to talk with them, what is He doing? They were having supper. They had eaten together, and now they're listening to Him over supper. And then the miraculous began to take place. He took the cup of the Messiah, it is always traditionally upside down, and turned it upright. But you know that the room was so quiet, but He's making everlasting covenant with them and with us.
Gloria: Praise God.
Kenneth: Then the three pieces of unleavened bread, called Matzah today, take the first one out, put it back, second one out, put it back, third one out, put it back. Take the middle one, which is Isaac, and break it. Why do we break Isaac? Then He broke it and said, "This is my body broken for you. Eat it. This is my blood of the new covenant, all of you drink all of it". So, what He's saying now in the book of Revelation is referring to the same thing. "Let me come in and we will sup together. We will have supper together, we will covenant-commune with one another". In other words, "I'll serve you communion".
Kellie: Or I will lay down in your green, He will make me lay down at that table.
Kenneth: Yeah.
Kellie: That's a table.
Kenneth: Yeah.
Kellie: It's the same covenant. It's the same place.
Kenneth: When He does that, that includes the whole household, that includes all your needs met according to his riches and glory. And knock, ask, listen. Whoever knocks, it'll be open, whoever asks, it'll be answered. I mean, come on.
Kellie: And then when he was talking to them, he said, "I'm telling you these things so that". And when you're in that position before Him, at the table, he may say, "I've heard you talk about how He's corrected you, He's correcting me, you've got this". Or, "You're letting this get with," and He's saying these things so that we'll have victory, so that we won't feel abandoned. So that Satan cannot have victory over us. And then in Revelations, he who has an open heart is the one that has the victory.
Gloria: Praise God. Yeah, that's rights.
Kenneth: It's the time that you spend in His presence. It's the divine supper all the time. It's a sense of, I heard Bill Johnson did his Southwest Believers' Convention when he took his pocket square and talking about when John saw the Holy Spirit land on Jesus like a dove. And he laid that one picture of that little handkerchief on Bill Johnson's shoulder just went widescreen with me. And I've always been aware of that, but not like that. That he said that dove is a nervous little bird. And you need to know that he's right there all the time.
Kellie: Oh, he's being aware.
Kenneth: He never leaves my shoulder, he sits right there. And I don't want to ever do anything to, no, no, don't grieve him. I never, we never, Gloria never, Kellie never, we never, never tried to alter the Word to fit our lifestyle.
Gloria: No.
Kenneth: No. Thank God, we came before Him and He says, "What are you gonna do about this"? Nothing. I didn't plan on doing anything.
Kellie: You tell me, Lord.
Kenneth: I'm yours to command, sir. You're the boss here, I just work here. And I'm willing to be willing, I only have one will. I'm very strong-willed, my will is not broken. I have yielded my will to his will, so that mine has lined up with His, the very best I can get it there. Because I'm gonna give you a revelation, Jesus is not a baby anymore.
Kellie: You know what he said to me? He said, "Kellie, your sacrifice of doing everything right is the wrong one to bring to the table". He said, "That's my sacrifice. I did it all right, you just have to come to the table, and take it, and eat. Eat all of me". Eat all of His rightness and not look at my wrongness or where I'm missing it or I'm not enough, or if I did this wrong or I'm not good enough, whatever the enemy is trying to say or you're abandoned, that's the wrong, the thought that I have to be all these things, I just have to lay down.
Kenneth: Now, we've got 30 seconds, you know what you just did?
Kellie: No, sir.
Kenneth: You just opened your Christmas Eve gift.
Kellie: Yeah.
Kenneth: Yes, that's why I did it.
Kellie: Yeah.
Kenneth: He's the gift of all gifts, and we're out of time. We'll be back in just a moment.
Kellie: Merry Christmas.