Kenneth Copeland - A Life Worth Living Puts First Things First
Father, we thank You tonight. It is so wonderful to understand and to know how to live by faith. Thank You. I praise You for it and I worship You tonight. We're learning more and more and more in these days that those of us that live and walk according to the laws of faith never have to change our lifestyle because of the times. We just stay steady on Your Word and You always give us the victory, You always cause us to triumph, and we worship You and praise You in Jesus' name.
I had the Lord minister this to me several years ago. Now, it was one of those things I knew it, but I didn't know it. He said this just so plainly to me. He said, "Kenneth, I want your desires met and I have provided a way for your every desire to be experienced". I said, "Lord, what is that"? He said, "whosoever shall say". I thought, "Oh my, I've been looking at this thing all these years". Whosoever and all of a sudden whosoever just kind of got all over me. Whosoever shall say under this mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea. Who's with me? And shall not doubt in his heart, but believe that those things, which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says.
Therefore, I say unto you whatsoever thing you desire when you pray believe you receive and you will have. But when you stand praying, forgive if you have aught against any. And all of a sudden something that I'd been preaching for 50 years just got all over me. Think about the magnitude of that. The Master Himself said those words, but when He said what He did, He said, "I want your desires met and I've provided a way". I want to talk to you tonight about first things first. So go with me to the Book of Matthew, please. And we'll go to the sixth chapter of Matthew where there is recorded the greatest sermon ever preached. And let's begin with the 24th verse. "No man can serve two masters for either he will hate one and love the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money".
You can't serve God and the money system. One of them has to be first. And of course, God is priority, right? God is priority. That kingdom is priority. "Therefore, therefore or because of that, take no thought for your life. What you shall eat, what you shall drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body more than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to your stature? Why take you thought for raiment"? "Why are you so hung up on that? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not neither do they spin. Yet, I say unto you that even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God's so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith"?
Now listen to what He just said. Jesse, He said, Solomon in all of his glory is not arrayed like this and I want to take care of you like I take care of the plants, which is greater than what I did for Solomon. Huh? That's the kingdom. That's the kingdom. Solomon did not have the relationship with the king that you and I have. At best, he was a servant of God until after Jesus went to the cross, went to hell, paid the price, raised from the dead and glorified, seated at the right hand of the Father. Hallelujah. You remember what Jesus said about John the Baptist, the greatest prophet? Yet the least one, come on, the least one where? Is greater than he. They didn't know what he was talking about, but we crossed over the river, brother. We became new creatures. They were servants of the kingdom. We are citizens of the kingdom. Amen. Are you going along with me so far?
Well, I'm believing it's going to get better than this. Now wait a minute. "Wherefore, if God's so clothed the grass of the field, which today is tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith"? Now notice verse 31 is a powerful revelation. Take no thought saying. Take no thought saying. The way you take a thought is by saying it. There are thoughts you don't have any business saying. Now maybe some goofy thing the devil put across your mind. Don't say it. Let it die stillborn. If you say it, repent and kill it right there. Abort that thought. Take no thought saying. Oh, there's a lot of things I could tell you about that, but that's a very, very, very important rule of faith. Amen. And another place Jesus said, "Take heed what you hear. Take heed what you say".
All right, now notice this. "Take no thought saying what shall we eat, what shall we drink, wherewithal shall we be clothed for all these things do the Gentiles seek, your heavenly father knows you have need of all these things". He knows you have need of all these things, but you seek first. First things first. Food is not first. Clothe is not first. Family's not first. No, family's not first. The kingdom is first. Seek you first the kingdom of God, but now it doesn't stop there. And, and His righteousness. You see that? You can't stop with just seek first the kingdom of God, "and His righteousness and then all these things shall be added to you".
Now, wait a minute, wait a minute. Don't start worrying about tomorrow. Tomorrow gets here and do the same thing. Don't start your day off seeking all that other mess, go right straight to the kingdom of God. Now I want to read this to you from... Let me get back over there. And we will go to the Book of Matthew chapter six and verse 33. Now I wanted you to hear this in the Classic Amplified. "Why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and learn thoroughly how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you even Solomon and all his magnificence, excellence, dignity and grace was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow's tossed into the furnace will he not much more surely clothe you? O you of little faith".
Now wait a minute. Yes, He will. So I'm no longer of little faith. I believe that. Praise God. It's written in red and I believe it. Therefore... You believe that? "Then therefore, do not worry and be anxious saying, 'What are we going to have to eat? What are we going to have to drink or what are we going to have to wear for the Gentiles, the heathen wish for and crave and diligently seek all of these things. Your heavenly father knows well you need them all. But seek, aim at, strive after, first of all, His kingdom and His righteousness". Listen to this. "His way of doing and being right". He knows what He's doing. Don't argue with Him about it. Amen. "And then all these things taken together will be given you besides. Don't worry or be anxious about tomorrow. Tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient is each day to its own trouble". Amen.
In other words, what He's saying, "Seek my kingdom". It was here yesterday and it'll be here tomorrow. So enjoy it today. Don't be worried. Don't waste your time trying to figure stuff out. Spend that time in the Word and praising Him. When I had back in 2004, Sunday morning after Southwest Believers' Convention, I won't go into all the reasons why, but it was spiritually a hard-fought meeting. It turned out to be a great meeting, but there were a lot of circumstances in that meeting. Anyway, Sunday morning I'm just standing there in that shower with hot water running all over me just glad that meeting's over with. And I turned to pick up my washcloth and I had dropped it off, just pitched it over on the little shelf there in my shower stall. Well, I missed it and it went in the corner. Well, I didn't turn and do this, I did this. And when I did, I'm telling you, there was a disc exploded in my back, knocked me flat on the floor and I couldn't get up. Well, the pain was excruciating and I screamed at the top of my lungs it hit me so hard.
And so of course, Dr. Wheater, I mean, Gloria called him and they came and drug me out of the shower. And immediately he and his wife and just tied in and praying over me. Then I went to see Dr. Colbert and he worked on me. He and Dr. Wheater, I mean, man, they're all over me. And I was just doing a little better, but I was in a lot of pain, just excruciating pain. So it took my lightning fast mind a little while to get ahold of this, but Jesus said, "Take no thought saying". This is when this really became big to me. Of course, it was in August so I got two heating pads, took the sashes off of two robes and tied them both to my left leg and turned the heat on both of them up as high as it goes so maybe that'll hurt worse than this other thing, this nerve in my leg. And I'm sitting out there in the backyard praising God just as loud as I could, just hollering this loud. "I thank God for the birds. I thank God for the green grass. Thank God my other leg doesn't hurt". And to thank God for my hand, my fingers, my eyes, my hair, anything I can think of. And when I'd quit praising God, then the pain would just get all over me.
Oh, this had gone on for days. And one day the Lord ministered this to me, Jesse. He said, "Is pain in the mind, in the brain"? "Well, yeah, all they have to do is put you to sleep and cut you open. You don't know anything about the pain". He said, "Don't take the pain saying". Thank God I'm healed, not Oh God, I hurt. You remember that? And so I started doing that. I don't take the pain saying. I don't take the pain saying. So everything, glory to God, thank God I'm healed. Thank God I'm healed. Thank God I'm healed. And there were those that suggested surgery and all that. I'm not against surgery, but I checked in on it and there was just too much failure rate with that low back surgery. I said, "No, I'm not going that way. I'm not going to do that". Thank God in the name of Jesus, I'm pain free. I call myself pain free. I call myself pain free. I don't take the pain, glory to God. And just make a long story short, I stand before you tonight absolutely pain free.
Now I had a lot of help, but I'm pain free. Glory to God. It's time we began to live and to think like citizens of God's kingdom. But now notice He said something here in the 14th chapter of John, verse 12. "Verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also". And greater works than what? "Greater works than these shall he do because I go to my Father". Well, I've read that over the years and Brother Hagin's interesting teaching about it and I believe every word of it. And we'll never do greater works in quality. No, you can't do greater in quality. And I was reading this very scripture right here one day and the spirit of God said, "Kenneth, there's the greater works in verse 20". "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power, the dunamis that works in us". I said, "Lord, what? Tell me that". Jesse, here's what He said. "You think about the greatest miracle that you've ever seen, I can do better than that. You believe me and I can do better than that".
That's some of what was coming out of my spirit tonight by the Lord. He said, "I can do better than that". He said, "You need to be saying, 'Okay, that's the best I've ever seen. What's next?'" Then comes with greater works and then more greater works and then more greater works and then more greater works. And we're walking over into those greater works right now. We're going to see limbs put back. Now Jesus has seen it, but we haven't. I doubt seriously if there's anybody on earth today that's seen a new arm. Now there was a woman, she was born crippled. And she was walked up to Brother Hagin and said, "May I speak to you please"? She said, "This is the first new pair of shoes I've ever had on". Well, he said, "Well, I thought maybe she never had a new pair of shoes or something". She said, "No, no. Let me explain". She said, "I was born crippled". She said, "I just had to stay in the house all the time and somebody gave me your tapes, and I've been listening to them for six months". She said, "During that six month time, the Word of God completely straightened out my foot and I grew a little toe on that foot".
Now just to make sure that I'm not just telling a wild tale. She said, "I was raised in the church of one of your close friends and told her who it was". And so the next time they saw them, she mentioned to the pastor's wives her name. She said, "Oh, the little crippled girl". She said, "She's not crippled anymore and she's got a new toe". Aw, Brother Copeland. Don't go, "Aw Brother Copeland me. I don't believe that". Well, you'll never get a new toe or new anything else if you're not careful. Hey, you think the kingdom doesn't have toes? We were in a meeting a number of years ago and we went in healing service, Gloria and I both. And this woman came up, we asked for testimonies and this woman came up. Her little boy was standing right in front of her and he was 12-years-old. And I noticed... and I thought maybe he's gotten healed of chronic sinus trouble or something. And I said, "What is your testimony"? She said, "Well, it's my son". And I mean, he was having such a good time breathing. She said he was born without any nostrils. And they were going to wait until he got older and got to the place where he wasn't growing much, and then go in there and fix him some nostrils. And she said, "Jesus just gave him nostril right in the service".