Kenneth Copeland - Don't Run From Your Goliath
Hello everybody. How about Wednesday? Don't you like Wednesday? Don't you like Wednesday? I like Wednesday. Glory to God. Oh, thank you, Lord Jesus. And we are here at KCBC, and praise God. Students are here and you're here and we're glad. Come on, give the Lord praise. And as I told the students a moment ago, I think maybe I said this to you yesterday. Here we are Wednesday, maybe we'll kill Goliath today. We've been after him all this time. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Father, we do praise you for the revelation of the Word, and we praise you and we honor you today, in the name above every name, the sweet name of Jesus. Amen.
Open your Bibles with me today to first Samuel 17 chapter one. "Now, the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Sokoh, which belongs to Judah and pitched between Sokoh and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gather together and pitched by the valley of Elah and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on one side and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, and there was a valley between them. There went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath, of Gath. Whose height was six cubits and a span". Six cubits.
Somebody got your calculator with you? He was ten feet. Smart Alec. I'll steal your thunder one of these days. No, he's right. 18 inches is a cubit. Now a span. If you want to know what a biblical span is, you can look it up and the Classic Amplified. Isaiah, what is it? 40, 12. Verse 13. "He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He'll gather the lambs in his arm. He will carry them in his bosom and will gently lead those that have their young who have measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, marked off the heavens with a nine inch span". A nine inch span. You do the calculations that's roughly, nine feet 10 and a half inches tall. That's a big man. His coat of mail weighed 125 pounds.
This man, suited up in armor, he could have easily weighed what? Six, 700 pounds. A trained warrior. No wonder they wanted to run and get in a hole when they saw this thing come walking out there. He didn't look like a man, he just looked like some kind of machine. It was frightening. No one don't cared what he said. Nine feet, 10 and a half inches tall. Now, I wanted you to understand "that's when all the men of Israel, when they saw the man ran from him and were sore afraid". It was the size of him. And as I said yesterday, what's the size of the Goliath in your life? Well, don't run from it.
Now, David ran, forget what Hollywood did. He's running. He ran towards him. On the run, loaded that sling. On the run. Right there. Right there. Verse 48, "it came to pass when the Philistine rose and came and drew nigh to meet David. David ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag and took from there a stone slang it and smote the Philistine in his forehead that the stone sunk into his forehead, and he fell upon his face on their earth. David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smote the Philistine, and slew him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran, stood up on him, stood on top of him. Took his sword, drew it out of the sheath therefore and slew him. Cut off his head therewith. And the Philistines saw their champion was dead".
Now, wait a minute. Did the rock kill him, or did the sword? Complete Jewish Bible. "Thus David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone, striking the Philistine and killing him. But David had no sword in his hand. Then David ran, stood over the Philistine, took his sword, drew it out of its sheath, and finished him off". He finished him off, isn't that good. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. He just finished him off, and he's standing on top of him. Cut his head off. Here's David, roughly 170, 180 pounds. He cut this guy's head. He's big as a basketball. This thing gotta be this big. Think about it. I mean there's teeth, hair and eye balls all over everything. He's got blood all running down his arm, and here's the irony.
Verse 51. "Therefore David ran, stood upon the Philistine and took his sword, drew it out of the sheath thereof and slew him. The Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. The men of Israel and Judah rose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines until they come to the valley into the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way Shaaraim, even unto Gath".
All the way to the big boys home town. Right down Main Street with his head. This is a picture of faith right down Main Street, COVID-19. That's right. Not my house you don't. No, you don't. You don't come here. No, nothing is going to come in my house, that can be killed with a mouthwash. Not here. Not here. Don't you love it? See, those are the images of faith. That's the reason God put these things in the book. That's the reason all of this is in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews The hall of fame of faith. Amen.
You remember Abraham, the champion or faith. David's champion. The man of faith. He's the one that God gave him as an example for us, we have the same faith as Abraham. Yes we do. And he's in here. We're inside out people, glory to God. Everything you need is on the inside of you since you was born again. I don't care how big it is, he's in here. You want me to tell you how to get wealthy? I'm big time wealthy. Find out the perfect will of God, do it for 54 years and don't quit.
I'm going to tell you this story. I tell it every time I get an opportunity. First partner meeting I was, in my father in the faith Oral Roberts. I'd never heard a partner service. He was talking about $10 a month 1967. And I'd never heard anything like that. And I got, I have to be a partner. I don't have $10 in the whole wide world. What am I going to do, I need to be a partner. And they passed out these little envelopes, and back then there were little church envelopes and had a little wooden pencil, in case you didn't have anything to write with. And some of your kids don't have any idea what I'm talking about.
But I remember, I remember the day, particularly coming from a country church, ain't that right. And you'd get out a little envelope with a little wood pencil, you can fill that out. You put all your little stuff on there, you know? And so man, I thought, Hey, I had promised God I'll never let an offering get by me without putting something in there. If I have to pull a button off my shirt, I'm going to put something in that offering. I'm a giver, and I'm a sower, I learned that from Brother Roberts. And so, I'm going, that pencil's mine, I stuck it in that little envelope.
Now see, God already had this planned out. He already knew. Now, I'm driving the car. I'm in a hurry. He's on his way out. I gotta get it on man. And I put my pencil in my envelope, and put it in the offering container. There was a woman, Oh, when I get to heaven, I'm going to get to meet her. I mean, God had her right when I needed her. And the Lord told me in the very, very beginning days of this ministry, that the black community would be a large part of our lives well, it's just really been there all my life. But she was sitting. I'm standing here, she was right there. We were in Georgia.
And so, man, I'm on the way and she says, hey, hey, you. I said, me, yeah you. The Lord made a way, wanted me this whole meeting to give you $10. Oh, lady, give it. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I called the usher, got the pencil, put it in my pocket and put my $10. I'm a partner with Oral Roberts. This ministry started with a pencil. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Literally. You can say that. I got home, I said, Gloria, I'm so excited. Gloria, we are partners with Oral Roberts, for $10 a month. She said, Kenneth, where in the world are we gonna get $10 a month. I said, sit down here, girl. Then I preached it to her just close as I could. And my closing argument was, Gloria, we can have Oral Roberts anointing for $10 a month. Glory to God. Amen.
Faith. Cause see, Gloria and I are both scriptural illiterates. The first messages we ever heard, I heard Oral Roberts teach on faith. Talk about faith, acting on faith. I thought this man uses his faith, like a mechanic uses a tool He uses it on purpose. He goes to his toolbox. In the invalid room, my first day in there, he pulled me over and he said, you're going to do the praying. You're going to do the laying on of hands. And I've never laid hands on anybody. And boy, there's some really sick people in there.
You know, the reason they had an invalid room is because really, really sick people get nervous around crowds. And he pull my anchors, you know, you see me changing colors. He laughed, he said, don't worry about it. He pulled me up here. He said, I'll be right there. If you make a mistake, I'll fix it. And then he wasn't smiling anymore. He said, don't touch them, till you're ready to release your faith. Now he had preached that night on the point of contact, that point where you release your faith. And I thought, I was studying under Brother Hagin, the three ways Jesus received the power of his name. The name of Jesus.
See that's what David did, I come at you in the name, with the name. That's going to be my point of contact. The first one we laid hands on was a woman. Oh, her little old tummy all pooched out there with malignant stomach tumor. And she was weak, and she was just on an old army cot and her nurse was behind her, and she had to put her hands behind her, so she strength enough, so we can lay hands on her. And I'm just remembering here, about, oh yeah I'd say probably about as far from me to you. And just about that angle. And I was a little closer than that. It was about like this, I guess, and he's standing right here. I mean, he's really close to me.
I walked over to her and I said, in the name of Jesus, and that's as far as I got. Dear Lord, this is something you can't imitate it, because it was under that power. Just thinking about it now just runs all over me, right here, and I thought, my God, the Lion of the tribe of Judah has roared. The Spirit of God said through Oral Roberts, in the name of Jesus, whom I serve. Take your hands off of God's property. She went, and spit that tumor out on the floor. He said, whose I am, and whom I serve. I just stood there in amazement.
A thing just laying there on the ground. I thought, that thing looks like a jellyfish, just had tentacles and just nasty looking thing. She jumped up and shouted, and took off around that tent running. Her nurse right after her thinking she going to die any minute. I'm heal, I'm healed. She going around, going around that thing. The power of that name. Not only that, faith in that name did that. Now, let me ask you something. For those that say, well we believe that's passed away. What's your name?
- Matthew.
- Matthew, has faith ever passed away?
- No, it hasn't.
- Notgoing to either.
- Never will. Is James in the New Testament?
- Yes.
- I think so.
- Yes, it is.
- Particularly if it's written by Jesus' half-brother, I'd qualify that, wouldn't you?
- Yes, sir.
- Is there any sick among you. Today you would say, is there any among you that's not sick. And there shouldn't be any sick among you. Any sick among you, let them call for the elders of the church. Now wait a minute. You have a faith part to do that, if you're going to do what the Bible says do. You're going to have to call you. Can't just lay there and say, God, send somebody over here to me. No, you call somebody. Amen. Call and what? The elders of the church. And what'll they do? Lay hands on them, and anoint them with oil, and... Pray the prayer of faith. Faith in what? Faith in the name. Faith in the name. And the prayer of faith will what? Save the sick. Look up the word saved. Sozo, small wars have been fought, that could have been stopped with a concordance. It's the same word translated, healed. By his stripes you were healed. By his stripes you were saved. Oh, praise the Lord. Hallelujah. I said, hallelujah. That took care of the passed away stuff.
If healings passed away, when did he change his name? On what day that God change his name? Is he still Jehovah Rapha? Jehovah Rapha? Yes, he is. If I believe healings passed away, and I don't believe that then I don't have any right to believe that he is Jehovah Shalom. I don't have any right to believe that he is Jehovah Tsidkenu. He's not my righteousness, he's not my peace. He's not the banner over me. He's not the God that'll never leave me nor forsake me. Glory to God. He is the God that said through the mouth of his son, pray, I will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And we're out of time.