Kenneth Copeland - God Is Love And Love Is Always Good
— Hello everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. And this is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. Let's have a word of prayer. We get right into the day's Bible lesson. Father, we thank You. We give You praise and we honor You today. We honor in praise and bless the name that's above every name that's named. And we praise You and worship You today. It is our privilege today to teach and study Your goodness. To study You, because You are good. And we thank You for that goodness. Oh, and that goodness brought Jesus into this earth. And that goodness today is so powerful. And we thank You. And we pray it in the name of Jesus. Amen. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Welcome everybody. Praise the Lord it's a good day. Psalm 1:36. "Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good".
— Beautiful.
— Now good.
— That's covenant.
— Yes.
— Endures forever.
— Oh yes. Good, mercy, compassion. All of these things refer to one thing. The absolute goodness of God. I have become... I've used this, talked about it for all these years. But just recently, the Lord's said... I want you to begin teaching and preaching on that and bring it to the forefront. Now the Lord spoke to Gloria in 1998 and said, "I want you to teach on the goodness of God regardless and take no thought of what men say about it". My father in the spirit, Oral Roberts, Granville Oral Roberts.
— Yes, sir.
— Think of that. His initials were G.O. Roberts.
— And he did!
— Did a lot of going. He talked about it all the time. Something good is going to happen to you today. And he would say it all the time. God is a good God. And he would use Stewart Hamblin's great song. "God is a good God". And that was his theme. And it was just good. Just God is good all the time. Back in the days of Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship. I was so blessed to not... And T.L. Osborn said to me this one time he said, "Kenneth, you were born free". "What, what do you mean, sir"? He said, "You didn't have any religion to unlearn". And Gloria, neither one did. And so I was amazed. I said, "Gloria, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell the same story. Did you know that"? ... about a scripture a little illiterate, I mean... Absolutely. That's my two good friends right there, glory to God. Well, I should've worn the other watch this morning. You going to be here tomorrow? Ahhh! Well, thank you, Jesus. This pastor came up to me and said, "I wish he wouldn't say that". I said, "What"? "That God is a good God". I said, "Well, what do you want him to say? God's a bad God"? "No, no, no, no, no. But it gives people the wrong idea about God". "What other idea is there"? Well, you know where that came from. You just go over to the blessing of Abraham, the curse of the Lord, and God will smite you. And God will kick you. And God will kill your children. I heard a man, stand... This is not hearsay. I heard a man stand in the pulpit and say, "God will break your leg to prove to you he can heal it". I thought that's not my God. That's not the God I know. Because I would have to say, A.W. Copeland would break my leg and just to prove something to me. Well, now some fathers might do that. Mine didn't and wouldn't. Well, neither would my heavenly Father, he's a good God.
— I know why the Lord is doing that with you because I get the privilege of doing the news for Victory, where you hear the news. The truth, not just the bad stuff in the spirit of faith. And when you do the news, you have to do a lot of researching. And you have to do a lot of fact checking. And there's a movement out there right now, Brother Copeland that is preaching that again, that we should not say, "God is good". Because of all the bad things that are in the earth. That's why he put that.
— God has impressed me to do. Now two things. The two things that are just on my heart. So strong right now, and the Lord just kept pressing against me. You teach and you preach about my goodness and you tell people I'm coming sooner than they think.
— And the other one, I didn't finish telling you. The other one is there's a big teaching right now that there is no rapture. That is the two things that you see trending a lot in Christian circles right now that you're getting people's hopes up for something. That's a fairy tale. That you can't say, "God is good". When all these wars are happening and COVID is happening and all this other. And that you shouldn't say these things. Well, no, that's when you should be saying these things.
— Yes. I went into a very impoverished country. And the leadership that brought me in there said, "Now, Brother Copeland, don't be preaching prosperity here". I said, "Why"? He said these people are too poor. And the whole idea was, "You do teach that you sow in order to reap". I said, "That's absolutely the truth". "Well, these people are too poor for that". I said, "That's like going, go into prison and tell him not to repent. No use because you're already in jail". And he looked at me kind of strange. He didn't like it at all. "Well, I'd already promised God a long time ago that I'm not going to change what I preach for anybody or anything as long as I stay with the Word". And so I just preached it and taught it like I did everywhere else, and received offerings. They were absolutely shocked at the size of the offerings. The only poor man in there was the pastor.
— You got that right.
— His poor thinking. And he preached that poverty on the people. And when they heard some good news, man, they started giving.
— Right.
— And the Lord was able then to increase the people.
— It's like a farmer. He sows while I'm just sowing, but I don't expect to reap anything. Well, that makes no sense in the natural. When they heard that, they jumped on it.
— Yes they did. Yes, they did. And it began to grow in that whole area. Praise God.
— Hallelujah. And that's the goodness of God.
— Yes it is.
— And so what, what Dr. Roberts was doing is, he was renewing his mind to the fact that God is good, saying it all the time.
— God is good.
— It becomes a reality to you when you do that. God is good. And his mercy endures forever. He's good to me, he's my Father and his mercy endures forever to me.
— I have a way of renewing my mind about things. And it's... I don't know, it's kind of strange, but I was reading 12th chapter Romans, and I'm offering my body as a living sacrifice. And I corrected myself and judged myself for it. I said, "I haven't been doing this. I need to get that working in my mind all the time". So for a long time, I didn't refer to my body. I referred to my sacrifice. Until it began to grow, then the Lord began to deal with me about the 120. He just asked me if I'd do it. Absolutely, that'd becomes a mandate.
— Sure.
— Then the next step in that revelation was, "Kenneth, I sacrificed my body for yours. Now you're sacrificing your body for mine". Because I wasn't all that thrilled about working out as hard as I work out today. But now I've started that with this. God is so good. And God loves me because he's so good. And God heals me because he's so good. Amen.
— So God is good. Good did that. Good did that to me. Good did that for me.
— Is love good or bad?
— Love is good.
— Love is good.
— Because...
— God is love, so love is good. And God is... Yes.
— You start renewing your mind to it.
— If I had asked that is God love? He would have answered that quick, yes he is. Well love is good. Love is never bad. I wasn't that smart. I wasn't that quick to answer him like that.
— And he's holy and he's good. And he's righteous. You start renewing your mind to all these different, all these things about God-
— Because he is so good.
— Because he is, faith is, God is, love is, good is. They get happy.
— Oh yeah, you bet. Well, that's what Pentecostal folks do.
— We either cry or run.
— Now think about that. I was in a place of prayer and there was a give and take there for good while. And I was following along with the traditional oh God send the power just now. And I kept praying that and he interrupted me, as he should have. He said, "Where am I going to get it? Where will I get that power"? Well, I didn't know how to answer that. He said, "Kenneth, I don't have anybody to turn to. I'm it"? He said, "I am the power". Now he said, "I could have filled you with an angel". I said, "Now wait a minute". He said, "Well, no, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What is a thoroughly demon possessed person"?
— Right, fallen angel.
— Filled spirit, soul, and body with a fallen spirit being. "No," he said, "I would trust you into no one, but myself. And my self is on the inside of you right now. And all the power you need is right here".
— The same power that raised Jesus from the dead, that kind of power.
— Dwells in you now. And it's good.
— It's good.
— It is good.
— And that's what Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and went about doing good, Acts 10:38.
— Yes.
— And healing, all that were oppressed.
— Let's go, let's go over and look at it. Acts 10:38. This is a very packed chapter in the book of Acts. Because we learn some very, very, very, very important things. The Centurion, not several centurions in Jerusalem. And in that area. The Centurion of that area. That built the synagogue in Capernaum where Jairus is leader of the synagogue, which was Jesus' hometown synagogue. And he's the one that saw absolutely that Jesus had authority in his words, you remember that? And then, then Pilate inquired a Centurion, if Jesus was actually already dead, he said, "Yes". When I think about this, that same Centurion said, "When Jesus cried with a loud voice after the others were already dead," he said, "this must have been the son of God". Well, we know now that that man's name is Cornelius. Because that right there, that he lived in the same vicinity of Pilate's headquarters.
— Yes.
— So now we know this now about this man. So that makes this a particularly special place in God. And this magnificent sermon that Peter preached. Oh, and look at the 37th verse, "That word I say, you know, which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism, which John preached". In other words, after the baptism, which John preached, Jesus started preaching it. This is what he preached.
— A couple there, let me interrupt with verse 37. If this is the same Centurion, and I believe it is, look what he said in verse 37. "I say, you know, which was published through all Judea began in the Galilee".
— Yeah. Because he was there.
— He was there. He knew.
— He knew that. That's what impressed him.
— Yes.
— The preaching of Jesus is what impressed him. And Jesus absolute, complete willingness to do what anyone asked him to do. I'll come and heal him.
— No, I'm not important enough for you to come under my roof, just say the word. So what did Jesus do? He said the word and his servant was healed.
— He knew, he'd heard all these things. He heard how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good and healing. Healing is good. Doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him. Now someone said, "Yeah, but Brother Copeland, that was Jesus". No, it was God. It was God that anointed him. It was God that anointed him and the good God anointed him to do good and heal. Thank God he's never changed and neither has Jesus. He's just as good as he ever was.
— And he's got the Holy Spirit that God sent. Into him, the Holy Spirit landed on him like a dove that day in the river. Because Peter is talking about his baptism by John. So he's talking about how this goodness came into Jesus. It came by the Spirit.
— Yes it did.
— And it's one of the fruit of the Spirit.
— Goodness.
— It's one of the fruit of the Spirit.
— Oh goodness. Oh goodness.
— So everything he's doing is flowing by the Holy Spirit. I went to... I started thinking about this meditating on this verse and I went to the Greek master, Rick Renner.
— Oh, we need to pray over him right now.
— Yes.
— Father in the name of Jesus, we hold our dear Brother, Rick Renner up to you right now and the power of the Spirit of God. And we thank you for him. And we thank you for his family. The situation that we know about there, we've already agreed and prayed. And we thank you for their total absolute victory. Hallelujah. Victory.
— Amen, amen, Victory.
— Victory, yes. Go ahead.
— So, I went to that Sparkling Gems, volume two, from Rick Renner because I'm dealing with Greek words for good here. Now, in Hebrew for God is good. You would say, God is good. But I needed to know what it said in the Greek. He started talking about this. Now this is volume two page number 719. If you want to look it up for yourself, he states that most people focus on the part of the verse that describes the healing and deliverance of this. But the phrase doing good, indicates a benefactor, a philanthropist, a person who uses financial resources to minister to the disadvantage. That's what that phrase in the Greek means.
— Now say that again.
— Well, I'll do it. He says the phrase, doing good, indicating a benefactor, a philanthropist, a person who uses his financial resources to meet the needs of the disadvantaged. A major part of Jesus' ministry was blessing people.
— What was the first thing he said he was anointed to do? Preach the gospel to the poor.
— Right.
— Well, what's he going to preach to the poor? Poor man, you don't have to be poor anymore, I'm here.
— And so Rick Renner said that when he saw that, it changed everything for him, in the way he saw this verse. It's not just focusing on the healing of people, that's important. But the fact that he blessed people, this is why he had Judas taking care of the money. It was a common thing for him to bless people financially, to take care of their need. He fed 5,000. He met the need. So Galatians 5:22 tells us one of the fruits of the spirit, goodness. The word is Agathosune from the word agathos meaning being good. It's just you're being good. And in particular being good to somebody, you're so good that it just flows out of you and you can't help, but be good to other people.
— Glory to God, that is good.
— It is good. It's very good. And so when you put this all in perspective of that, Jesus went about doing good and healing. That's why he said doing good and healing. Because it's the same thing, they're both good. But it means he's taking care of people as well, besides healing them. I mean, he's known as a philanthropist. Now that changes everything when you see Jesus in that light.
— It really does.
— And then when you get into account of the rich young ruler, which probably getting into tomorrow or something. It all starts to come clear and you begin to see, why do you call me good? And what's the one thing he talked to him about? Go do this, sell what you have and give. He's trying to get him into the same lifestyle that he's in.
— Look at that in 18 chapter of Luke. He said it also in Mark, but it's Luke's gospel, and the book of Acts are documentaries.
— Right.
— And he's questioning people and he's looking, he's listening. And he looks at things through the eyes of a physician. And so he has the mind of a healer to start with. And he uses words that Peter's mother was sick with a fever. Well, you think COVID maybe? No. Luke said it was a great fever, I'm thinking typhoid. She was about to die. But he said he rebuked the fever and touched her. Now 18th chapter of Luke, 18:1. "And a certain ruler", that's where we are, "ask him saying good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life"? Eternal life is good.
— Yes it is.
— But Jesus cut him off right there. He wouldn't allow you to call him good. He wouldn't do it. He said, "'Why callest thou me good?' None is good, save one that is good. You know, the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor, thy father and thy mother. And he said, all of these things I've done from my youth up. Jesus heard these things. He said unto him, 'Yet lackest thou one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute unto the poor. And you shall have treasure in heaven, come and follow me.' And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful, for he was very rich". One says he got mad. The other says he was sorrowful when got mad and sorry at the same time. And he left. And Jesus went ahead and answered his question. That over in the book of Mark, I mean, he really went into it in Mark.
— Same in Matthew. You see the same.
— Yeah, he really went into this and all the man had to do is just hang around. He was going to answer him. But like so many, not realizing God is good. Jesus would never, ever ask him to give up anything. He is offering, he said, "Come and follow me". Wouldn't this have been a marvelous replacement for Judas? Only people he said, "Come and follow me". Were the apostles of the lamb.
— That's right. That's exactly.
— And we're out of time.
— Oh.
— Oh my, my. Well, okay, we'll do this again tomorrow. Come on. Hey Jeremy, come help us, son.