Kenneth Copeland - Faith Has Steppingstones to Victory
Joshua 24:15, "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day, whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served, that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord".
Now, notice there, that is again an act of the will. You do what you wanna do, but for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord. Now, I mean, that's just bottom line, me and my house we'll serve the Lord. We will serve the Lord. Now, I, I notice where people have their, their attention, for instance, my grandson, Jonathan, and single young man going to the University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio, is, is captain of the team and, and a quarterback. He's very good. And so he and John, my son, came over to, to visit with Gloria and me the other afternoon. And we're all sitting out just out on the back deck, is real pretty out there.
And so they came over and the two of them talked about football all the time they were there. Well, and that's what Jonathan's called to do. He's called into that and has committed his life. He's taking business courses. And really, I mean his grades are just tremendous. And his coach said, he said, "I have to run him out of my office because all he wants to do is study those films".
Now, he is in his calling. Well, when they're sitting there, you know, I wanna talk about the Lord, but what do I do? I'm gonna talk about football while they're here, see, Amen. And it, it always amazes me when now you really have to be careful with that. You can get leaning to where it becomes a god, I did this with airplanes. We would go over to our friends or they would come to our house, and all we talked about was airplanes. And you get a little bit nervous when you go take a physical "'Cause man, man, you know, if you bust this physical, what am I gonna do"? And I realized it. We, there's this one man, just a dear man, and, glory to God, was able to, able to lead him to the Lord years later.
Anyway, his wife told Gloria, she said, "I'll tell you one thing. I'm just gonna tell him, it's either those airplanes or me". Gloria said, "You better not". She said, "What do you mean"? She said, "If I were to tell Kenneth that he'd say, okay, I'll talk to you about it later, right now, I'm headed the airport". Well, she did it, "It's either me or the airplanes". He said, "Okay, take a hike". Well I didn't blame him. I wouldn't have lived with that either. I pray to God she changed later on in life, 'cause we were all young and stupid, but she, well I don't want to go in. But he, he went ahead and he came in to my, my little office there one day and he said, "Kenneth".
Now, all he had ever done was agricultural flying. I mean, he was a crop duster and sprayer, and that's all he'd ever done in his whole life. He came off of the farm and, and then he just started spraying crops and stuff like that, he'd never flown a passenger in his life. And he came in, he'd gone to work for the same little company where I was. And he came in and Spencer, he came in, he, and he said, "Kenneth, I need you to," he said, "I noticed you, you know, you sell and all that. And wonder if you could talk to me and tell me something about selling". I said, "Yeah, I mean, I can". I said, "Look at me". I said, "Shake hands with me". I said, "Emmett, look at me". Got him to look at me, got him to shake my hand. So the boss put him over the agricultural airplanes.
Back in those days, Piper built a Piper Pawnee, which, which was a sprayer and it was a good airplane. So he got out and started selling these things, and he's taken them in trade, and he's selling them and selling them and selling them. And finally the boss called him in and he said, "Emmett don't sell another one till you get all that other junk off this airport". He just covered them up in trade-ins and he just kept going and just kept going, and finally, he went in the jet business and, and became a very, very successful man. And we went down to, I told you about Dr. Reed, that called when I laid hands on Gloria then. Well, this was part of the deal there, we, an, an airplane that we flew down to him, and so then we were to fly it back to Little Rock.
And so I had flown it down there, so Emmett was in the left seat, he was flying it back. And Bill talked at about this level most of the time, and he said, "Now I don't want you boys going back without prayer". And so he grabbed me and there were mechanics working there and he grabbed me and he said, "Lord in the name of Jesus". Looked at Emmett and he looked over at me, "In the name of Jesus". And mechanics bowed their head, and we got in, Bill was not the least bit embarrassed about anything. And he laughed all the time. And we got in the airplane and it was very quiet, and Emmett was flying. And I'm just sitting over here thinking, wondering what Emmett is thinking. He looked over at me and he said, "Well, by God, we've been prayed for". And I was able to go ahead then and just lead him all the way into the Lord. And he did very well and eventually went home with cancer. And he's in heaven today. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.
So why, why I talk about all of this, well, all these are conglomerate experiences in, in life that make up the, the, the stepping stones of faith. For me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Now, here again, let's go back to Matthew 21:16. We've talked about this before but this is gonna lead us into a place of great victory. The 15th verse, "The chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying in the temple and saying Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna to the Messiah, and were sore displeased. And He said unto them, 'Hearest thou what thee say?' Jesus said, 'Have you never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou hast perfected praise?'"
Thou has protected praise. He is quoting the eighth Psalm, so let's go over there. Actually the eighth and the ninth Psalm. Psalms of David. Now, He said, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou has perfected what"? Huh, praise, right? All right. "Oh Lord our Lord how excellent is Thy name in all the earth, who has set Thy glory above the heavens, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast ordained strength". We're back to strength again. You have ordained strength, glory to God. Thank you.
"When I consider the heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars, which you have ordained what is man that Thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that you visit him? For You made him a little lower than the angels". No, that, that is, that is a very bad translation. You have made him a little lower than Elohim. You have made him a little lower than the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Elohim, God, plural. In the beginning, Elohim, let us make man. Hallelujah, glory be to God. I said, glory be to God. "You made them to have dominion over the works of your hands, and then put all things under his feet".
Now, when I went back to school, now I'm 30 years old, now, I had done a lot of, a lot of studying in, in aviation and, and, and all that. But I hadn't been in school, are you kidding me? I didn't like the last time I was there. And I, I get into class and oh, one of my very strong, he was a, he and I met him through the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship, and he was a, he was a Southern Baptist and he was an educator and just full of the Spirit of God, and full of the love of God. And then I went to see him because, you know, I'm just there by faith, in faith and just the, and I went to him, I said now, and I told him, you know, he said, "Will you trust me in this"? "Sure".
So he just picked out my courses for me. And he had no idea that I despised math. Now, I, I was a good English student, sometimes you can't tell it, but, but a good English student and I enjoy good English and you know, oh anyway. So and I had a refresher course in algebra, a refresher? No, no, and he said, "Good morning". That's the last thing I understood. That was it. I looked at him like a calf at a new gate. So I went over to the library and got me this algebra book, and so I'm trying to read this thing, and I tried to study and I realized I couldn't study very long. My, my, my, my mind was locked up and I'm doing my best here, I'm working at this, and it was, I mean, it had been so long since I'd been, since I had, had, had to apply that, that kind of mental effort.
And so, I just, man, it just choked me down. I had to look at my, look at my driver's license to see what my name was, but I couldn't find it. You know, just load up. And I said, "Lord, what am I gonna do"? He said, "Did you ever read in my Word, with a stammering lips and another tongue, I will speak to my people and this is the rest, this is the rest, this is the rest". I said, "Yes, yes I, yeah". So I just stopped and just prayed in the Spirit, and it kind of released a little bit. And I said, "Lord, I just had to put your hand of care on this". And so then I'd, I'd feel that coming on and so I just stopped and pray in the Spirit.
And I go over to the book of Hebrews. I labored to enter into that rest. I go over there at the book of Isaiah. This is the rest, and a little more and a little more and a little more and got to where if I wanted to, I could study all night. I didn't want to, thank you very much, but I was, my mind wasn't under pressure anymore. And I never forgot that, that you get to where you're really tired and all of that. Well, your tongue-talking is low. Get you some rest. And me, you know, I'm given to sing and I like to sing. And just sing, glory to God. And all of a sudden, and believe it or not, I actually passed that course. I got a C, but a C is good. Oh man. Oh, glory be to God. It is the, and you come on over. You're just sing oh Lord, the ninth verse, "Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth. I will praise Thee, Oh Lord with my whole heart. I will show forth all Thy marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in Thee. I will sing praise to Thy name oh Thy Most High".
When, when my enemies, when my enemies, not if. "When my enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at Thy presence. For Thou has maintained my right and cause, Thou sitteth in the throne judging right, Thou has rebuked the heathen, Thou has the destroyed the wicked, Thou has put out their name forever, Though Thou enemy destruction come to a perpetual end, and Thou has destroyed cities. Their Memorial is perished with them, but the Lord shall endure forever".
Hallelujah. And you just sing, and sing, and sing, and sing, and sing, and worship Him and worship Him. And you can go to sleep at night, and then you could just lay your head down, and you can say, "Oh Lord, He is my blessing, He is my song, and I care for Him. Oh, so very much, all the night and the day long. He's the one who lifted me up out of the mire and the depth and the clay. And He set my feet in a, on a high place and gave me this day". He's the one that called me by my name and said, "Kenneth, I love you". And when he said that, suddenly it seemed like I knew what to do. I knew that it was my God. I knew it was the One who set me free.