Kenneth Copeland - A Life Worth Living Plans To Live Long and Strong
Let's go over to the fourth chapter of Proverbs and we're going to take our medicine today. Proverbs chapter 4, "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them, my word, my sayings not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart for they are life". What life? A life worth living. Long life, till old age, a life worth living. Glory to God. Now Mark 10 verse 40 says, "They came to Jericho and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus son of Timaeus sat by the wayside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, 'Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.'"
Verse 48, "Many charged him that he should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal. 'Messiah, have hesed on me'"? Jesus stood still. Oh, I mean it stopped Him in His tracks. That cry, somebody in this crowd knows I am Messiah and somebody is calling for covenant hesed of my father. Oh yeah. Yes. "And commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man saying unto him," Oh, this changed their attitude. "Be of good comfort he's calling you".
Now listen, he had on a garment, a legal garment to beg. He had been examined by the priests. This meant that he could beg like the man at the beautiful gate was begging. He had a right to be there. He had proven to the authorities, which in this case were the priests, that he actually was crippled and could not walk. This man had to prove that he was blind and he wore a beggar's garment. Now this is corresponding action. Casting away his garment, he got up. I'm not going to need this any longer. Isn't that faith? Jesus said it was faith. He came to Jesus. He didn't even have to say anything to Jesus. Jesus answered and said to him, so what did Jesus answer? He answered his shout to Messiah for a hesed. Amen. And Jesus answered it by saying, He answered him with a covenant answer. "Bartimaeus, what do you want me to do for you, son"?
Now Brother Copeland, wasn't it obvious? Now wait, no. All that's happened is Bartimaeus called Him Messiah, have hesed on me. Bartimaeus, do you need finances? Is there a problem with your family? What do you need, son? What can I do for you? Because I'm your Messiah. And He needed to hear him say it. He could have just started in at the top. Well, I need my eyesight. I need my finances straightened out. I don't know where my children are. All of it would have come to pass, but the big thing was to receive his sight and then something else was about to happen. And what did He say? He said, "What can I do for you"? The blind man said, "Lord, that I might receive my sight". Jesus said unto him, "Go your way. Your faith has made you sozo, whole".
What did that mean? You have all your family. You have all your money. You have everything because hesed has been delivered unto you. You've been made whole. Glory to God. Faith did it. Faith did it. His faith. We know it was the anointing of Jesus. Now I noticed something. Immediately he received his sight and what did he do? He stayed right with Him. Now, as far as I know, Jesus hadn't touched him yet. It was the former blind man's request for hesed and his act of faith by casting off the robe. He settled it right then and there. And then he became a disciple of Jesus. What do you suppose happened after that? He became a disciple of Jesus. And before very long, soon and very soon, we'll get to meet him. We get to meet him. Amen.
Dear Lord even if Jesus doesn't return right away, which I'm totally convinced that it's at hand, but like some guy said to Gloria one time, he said, "You just keep saying that, it's the last days. It's the last day". She said, "Well, one thing for sure it's your last days". Well these are my last days. I'm in my 85th year. I'm still doing pretty good, but it's still my last days. There's fewer ahead of me than are behind me. Amen. Glory to God. And I intend to live them out with no sickness and no disease, praise God and stay strong all the way to the end, living out a life worth living. Glory to God, even in my old age, my older age. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Thank You, Lord Jesus.
Let's go back to Matthew chapter 20. "Behold two blind men sitting by the wayside. When they heard that Jesus passed by..." Now look at that, somebody has a ministry among the blind and they're finding out and believing that Jesus is the son of David. "'Have mercy, have hesed on us, O Lord, thou son of David.' The multitude rebuked them because they wouldn't hold their peace. They cried the more saying, 'Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David.' And Jesus stood still and called them and said, 'What will you that I do unto you?' They said unto him, 'Lord, that our eyes may be open'. Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes". This is not Bartimaeus. This is two other blind men. He touched these. He touched their eyes and immediately their eyes received sight and they followed Him. Glory to God. Hallelujah.
Now you'll find out this. When Jesus healed Jairus' daughter, his house was right up next to the synagogue. All of this has been excavated. Now, they thought it was Peter's house because it was so big, but it wasn't. It was Jesus'. This is the same house where from all over Jerusalem and Judea, they came to his house to hear him. And the place was so packed that nobody could get in there. I thought for years it was a hostile crowd, but it was not. They came to hear Him. This was not in a synagogue someplace. They came to hear Him. They just got sidetracked at something He said, because He said, "Son, thy sin, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee". And they said, they just thought it, this man blasphemes whose can forgive sins but God only. And He perceived it. But it says that He was in the house. That was His house. Packed out. And the healing power is working in here today. It's here right now. Glory be to God. Glory be to God. He had compassion on him and touched their eyes and immediately their eyes received sight.
Now I want to ask you something. What did we read yesterday morning? What did I touch on just a moment ago? He said, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me for he has anointed me to preach recovery of sight to the blind". Now we know why the blind people were coming around Him. He was preaching to them and the news got out. Messiah is preaching. He said, "The spirit of the Lord is on me. He has anointed me. And today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears". It got out to the blind folks. He's been preaching recovery of sight to the blind. He's Messiah, son of David. Son of David have mercy, have compassion on me. Hallelujah. And it got around town.
And those two guys said, "Hey, let's go over there to His house. Come on, let's go over there to His house". And so they just went in, just went on inside. And Jesus said, "Hey you all, what do you want"? They said, "Lord, we want to see you". He said, "Okay," and touched them. It's the easier one. He's the same Jesus today. He's the same Jesus today. And people are receiving healing in here right now. And I want you just to get ready to just start checking yourself out right now. Amen. Start checking on yourself. Amen. There's things that are happening in your body and I've seen it. Gloria's mentioned it a number of times. We've had testimonies of people in Healing School that got healed of things they forgot they had. You can be so chronic and put up with it all these years. God didn't intend for you to put up with anything. Gloria and I... He filled you like this. This was when now two things happened this day.
Gloria and I came in off the road and Brother Hagin was having a meeting there in town back when Bob Nichols, pastor at Calvary Temple. But this was before they had the big church and they bought an abandoned post office and made a nice church. Well, we got in late and we wanted to get over there. And I don't even remember now how I did it. I sprained my ankle and I started to say, "Gloria, my ankle, this thing is really hurting me and I don't believe I'll go over there tonight". And I thought, no, this is Brother Hagin over there. I need to hear some faith anyway and some healing so we went. Right straight in the back of the church, like these doors here only they were just two swinging doors like that.
Now they were full size doors. And we had just walked in. We were just in the foyer and this woman just burst through those doors. And she stomped out of there. She said, "I have been healed for 2,000 years and I just now found out about it". She was mad, and she's storming around. She's storming around, out there and then turned around and back in there she went. And you know who she's mad at. She's mad at whoever it was that been preaching to her, didn't say anything to her about it. I've been healed for 2,000 years and I just now found about it. And so then she went right back. We walked on in there and sat down and oh, it was like money from home. It was so good. And we just listened to faith and just listened to the preaching and the teaching of it. And we stood up to praise the Lord and we got up to walk out of there and I walked out and I got healed sometime and I didn't even know it. Thank You, Lord. I said, "Thank You, Lord. Thank You Lord".
Now in closing this, let's go to First Thessalonians chapter 5. Let's start with that 16th verse. I'll tell you, dear God how I love it. Rejoice evermore. Oh Brother, come on. What have I got to rejoice about? Hey, you're breathing. Rejoice. The joy of the Lord's your strength. I rejoice. I rejoice. What is that? I rejoice. I rejoice. Rejoice evermore and pray without ceasing. How can you pray without ceasing? May I demonstrate? You can do that standing in the grocery line. And you get out of there and you, and you get in your car... you turned to the radio and say, shut up. Oh, rejoice. Oh yeah. Say yes. Oh yes, rejoice. And someone starts coming. No longer be afraid of COVID-19 because it is definitely on its way out. I rejoice about that.
And another thing I rejoice about, I didn't have it the whole time. And it's not because I stayed inside the house. I've been out there laying hands on people and out there and all of that, no glory to God. I've got Holy Ghost immunity and I take my supplements. Glory to God. And what did Gloria say? You do what's right in the natural and you do what's right in the supernatural, then you live in divine health. "Glory to God," I said. 19, "Quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesyings"... No, I have to read that the 18th verse, "In every thing give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you". No, in everything, in every circumstance, give thanks. You mean even in this mess? Yes, this is the will of God for you. This mess was the will of God for me? No, the giving of thanks is the will of God for you. Amen. I said amen.
Well, you know Brother Copeland, all things work for good. No they don't. All things work for the good for those who love God and who are called according to His purpose. Hallelujah. Yes. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Why? Because in all that mess, I don't care what it is, well why did God let this happen to me? He didn't. You let it happen to you. Could it be, could there possibly be that it wasn't God that made the mistake, it was you and it was me? Oh, I can tell you a lot of stories I don't have time to tell this morning. "Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. Abstain from all appearance of evil".
Now, ministers that have TV cameras in your church and you have someone doing your makeup. Young woman, that's been doing my makeup, she didn't have a whole lot to work with but she does what she can. But after all these years and she's been around that makeup chair for a lot of years, but in all these years, I see to it that when she's down in my face checking all this, I don't ever allow myself to make eye contact with her. Not ever. Why? I'm not going to do that. And when she's moving around and she bumps into me, I move. Get away from that contact. She's a lovely young woman and not that my goodness, there's no way that she would ever intentionally do something like that.
If I thought she would, that'd be her last day. I don't care how good a makeup artist she is, I'd rather have mud on my face than to do that. I'm not going there. Yeah, but you a old man. Yeah, but I'm not dead yet. Abstain from all appearance of evil and, say and. Now you go through that little list there "and the very God of peace sanctify you zoe. Holy, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful as he that calleth you who also will do it". Glory to God somebody shout amen. Hallelujah to the name of Jesus. That's the way you stay well.