Kenneth Copeland - The Goodness of God Leads You To Repentance
— Hello everybody, I'm Kenneth Copeland. This is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. All last week and continuing this week, we're calling attention to the goodness of God. He is a good God. And for those of you that are just joining in. My father, in the faith Oral Roberts, I was so blessed to spend quality time with him. And I was in two of the last tent meetings that his ministry had. And I got to see the tent anointing in action, praise God. But his theme song was, God is a good God. The great song that's Stuart Hamblin wrote, "God is a good God". Now there's another one. See you can't copyright a title. You can copyright the words, but not the title. There's another, God is a good God, yes, He is. Oh... But He's a good God. And back in that time, which was, and of course he started before I got there. And it went back many years when he talked about God is a good God. And it stirred up a lot of trouble. And a pastor came to me in a Full Gospel Businessmen's meeting, talking about Oral. And he knew that the kind of relationship that I had with him, because I was with him a lot. "I wish he wouldn't say that". Well, see, I was a scripture illiterate. When I got born again, I didn't know, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John told the same story. I was just astonished. But I thought, yeah, God's a good God. I mean, yes, yes He is. And that, he said, "I wish he wouldn't say that". I said, "Well, what are you supposed to say? God is a bad God"? "No, no, no, but he gives people the wrong idea about God". Well, this goes back to the time that God was one that puts sickness on you to teach you something. And it was, and God would reign. And that tornado came through town, that was God trying to wake people up and all of that kind of trash. But He is a good God. He is absolute good.
— Oral Roberts had Pharisees that followed him around too.
— Oh, are you kidding? They called him on the... There was a group called him in. And I mean, called him on the carpet. And just really carried him out on the... "When we won't allow our people in any more of your meetings". And "Well, why"? And they just had this whole list of stuff that he was doing wrong. The denomination that his parents were in. And of course, he came into it. Every year at their meeting, somebody would bring up, we need to take Oral Roberts papers away from him. He's too extreme on this prosperity stuff. He's too extreme on all of this. And then of course, he got voted in. They didn't know that Oral Roberts' Evangelistic Association was meeting the balance of their budget every year. And they were getting on him because he talked too much about this prosperity business, the abundant life. And one woman came up and said, "I have it on good authority that he's in the insurance business. He's getting all that money from the insurance business". They really said that.
— Well, fire insurance.
— And they said "Well, what do you mean"? I have saved the abundant life building.
— So she thought.
— And then he started building a city of faith. What in the world do you need a hospital. And it just stayed on him all the time. They persecuted him.
— One of my earliest personal memories as a child was television. I grew up in Oklahoma. And I remember Jerry Lewis because I liked Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis with him. And I'll never forget in front of Jerry Lewis he said, "Something good is going to happen to you today". And then he said, "Expect a miracle".
— Yes he did.
— I thought he said that in front of Jerry Lewis.
— Well, he said some other things to him in private. That gives me strong reason to believe that Jerry Lewis was born again.
— Hallelujah.
— But he didn't care who you were. He going to talk about Jesus. And he's going to tell you right up front, He's a good God.
— Yes.
— And He needs you and you need Him. And somebody asked him, in my presence, "Dr. Roberts, do you believe that there's life on other planets"? He said, I don't know. But if there is, and they need a Savior, Jesus is it. It was just Jesus, all the time. And that He's a good God. That He loves you.
— He was pursuing goodness, all his life.
— All of his life.
— And goodness was chasing him like a stallion, all his life. I'm convinced based on that. If you'll pursue Jesus, goodness, and mercy, and prosperity, will track you down.
— Yes, it will. If you allow it.
— If you'll allow it...
— Because He's good.
— Praise the Lord.
— Well, I took what he taught. And what he preached concerning abundant life. What Brother Hagin taught and how to receive prosperity. And I just started doing that. And within, the Word of the Lord came to me. He said, "I'm going to hold you responsible, for teaching the laws of prosperity to the body of Christ. I'm going to hold you responsible for it. That I am a prosperous God that I will prosper your spirit. I will prosper your soul. I will prosper your body. I will prosper your family. I will prosper you financially. Because the financial is part of the pie". I got that from Creflo. Creflo Dollar said, "You look at it as a pie. Salvation, the Holy Spirit, and all of these things. But now wait a minute. Spirit, soul, and body. Your financial life is part of that pie. And you're not complete without it. If you can't pay your bills, you're not complete". Well, they got all over Creflo for preaching and on money too much, too. Well, the devil he's against you having anything. The most frightening thing he can think of is a preacher with money enough to do what God's called him to do. A pastor with money and knows how to bleed for it. And to take a scripture and take the Bible and set out and have and fight and win. Victory is the point of this whole thing. Victory in His blood, victory in His life, and victory in everything. And that's what set me on the road to victory way, way, way, way, way back. Long time ago. Very beginning of this ministry.
— There's no repentance without God's goodness.
— That's right.
— None. Repentance is a proof of God's goodness in your life. "Well, He's never done anything good for me". Are you saved?
— Are you alive?
— Yes. Right. Did He fill you with the Holy Spirit? When you were saved and you messed up and you went to first John, 1:9, did He put you right back where you started? Well, you've got several things to put yourself...
— Problem is the doctrine of feelings. Do you feel saved? Do you feel baptized? It was always amazing to me. People come up, you give an invitation to receive being baptized in the Holy Spirit and people start frowning and groaning and looking around. This is the most joyous thing that ever happened to you. It's the easiest thing that ever happened to you. And Luke's Gospel. How much more will your Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him?
— That takes me back to what Jesus said one day, "You being evil or carnal, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more"?
— How much more?
— Your Heavenly Father, who is goodness. He is woo.
— ...wants to give to you. You just won't receive it.
— Well, it's the feel good, feel bad. I don't feel saved, I don't feel like I'm forgiven. And I've had people say to me, "Well, I just don't feel that I've I've received the Holy Spirit. And the answer that the Lord gave me". "Well, so you've received before, right"? "Well, no". "How would you know how you're supposed to feel"? Get rid of the feelings, have nothing to do with it. This is a spiritual thing. And receiving forgiveness. The bottom line is no concept of covenant. God said it, I believe it, so let's get on with it.
— And that's done by faith.
— By faith. Yes, sir.
— Not faith in me. If I have faith in me, I'll look in the mirror and the mirror'll tell me. See the mirrors like the law. It shows you what's wrong, but can't do a blessed thing. It's showing you your hair needs to be combed, but the mirror can't do anything about it. Now I say, "Oh, look, I see that. Now let me fix that". And I begin to work on that. And that's exactly what this Word is. It's a mirror that we look at ourselves in.
— Well because the most glorious part of our covenant is right here. First, John, you've talked about this.
— Yes.
— This is covenant. And like I said, "Every word of this is blood bought blood paid for. Every word of it". Verse five. "This then is the message which we have heard of him. And declare unto you, that God is light. And in Him is no darkness at all. Light is good. Darkness is bad. If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood". The blood, the blood. "The blood of Jesus Christ, His son cleanses us from all sin". Now stop right there. This is the message we have from Him.
— Yes.
— Are you getting this? This is the message we have from Him. "The blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful".
— My God, yes.
— He's good. He is faithful.
— Yes. And just.
— Amen. Just, righteous.
— Yes.
— Same words translated. Just, justified, righteous are all the same. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful, and just to forgive us, our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". When? When we confess them, not when we feel better about it.
— That's right.
— The feel good, feel bad religion is what started all that. People come up to receive the Holy Spirit. He said He would do it. And the night that I received, I mean, they gave the invitation. I turned around to my mother. I said, "Is that something we ought to have"? She said, "Yes". "Well, I liked to, went to hell". Man, I jumped and ran, so did Gloria. And of course there's old, Pentecost style. All the men gathered around me and all the women gathered around Gloria. And they're shouting and hollered, "Hang on, let go".
— Turn loose.
— No instruction at all. I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
— Right.
— But I wasn't sad about it. Hey, this is some you supposed to have. Let's get it. And so Gloria received the next morning. While I had to get back to work, I got to fly home that night. January in the cold and clear. And so I'm standing and... The men gave up on me. It was wonderful. I mean, it was magnificent and good. I felt good about it. And, and like I said, are we getting this on tape?
— Mm-hmm, yes sir.
— Okay, I just want to make sure you're good. Well, they gave up on me. So, wonderful friend, Dr. William Standish Reed. He was a board certified surgeon. And what turned him on to episcopal. Turn him on to God, a little child died on his operating table and he couldn't tell his mother. He said, "No, I can't do it, God help me". And got that little heartbeat again. And he just gave his whole life to God. Anyway, deep voice. He said, "Let's go pray for Gloria". I said, "Good, let's do it". We walked over there, and I walked up right behind her. Just to show you, "Lay your hand on her". I said, "No, why"? "Lay your hand on her". "No". He said, "Lay your hand on her". "Oh God. Oh Jesus". I stumbled backwards. And sit down on a chair up there. And he just walked up to me. I still didn't know what was happening to me.
— He's getting you in faith.
— Yes.
— You were using your faith.
— Yes.
— Hallelujah.
— And I got in the airplane. See, I don't have any Pentecost in me at all, none. And I'm just flying along there in that little airplane. And like I said, it was cold and January and beautiful night. And I said, "Lord, it never dawned on me that I happened to get the wrong thing". This is God.
— Yes, that's good.
— And I said, "Lord, I'm going to say some of those words again". I'm still just all smiles. "I'm going to say some of those words again". I said, "I don't really know... Well, all I know about this, I'm going to say some of those words again. And if there's anything to this, anoint it please". And so I just thought back to something. I said... Oh man, here it came again. And I got to thinking, hey, I got to call... I could see the lights of little rock and I said, "I got to talk to these people". And I'm still talking in tongues, just fast and hard as I could, just enjoyed every second of it. "I got to talk to them". You getting this on tape?
— Mm-hmm.
— Okay.
— We got it.
— So I said, "You're going to have to do something with their ears or do something with my voice". I didn't know anything about it. And I said, "Little Rock approach". Well, that came out in English, isn't that wonderful. But I didn't know anything. I was a scripture illiterate. And got on the ground and got out of that airplane. I mean, I blessed... Now, let me tell you something. When a cussing devil came on me when I was nine years old. And I thought I'd die if I said a bad word, but I didn't. And that devil took me over. Well, I got rid of that and he is gone. And the night I got born again, I just felt like I had a square block in my mouth. I never used profanity again after that. And so now glory to God and I'm out there on that ramp. I'm telling you, when I was a little kid, I mean, I cussed rocks, I cussed everything I could see. And I blessed everything I can see.
— For goodness.
— Are we getting this on tape?
— Yes, sir. It's the goodness.
— It was His goodness. And I blessed that airplane. I blessed the hanger. I blessed the moon. I blessed everything I could see just talking in tongues, just as fast and as hard as I could.
— Yes.
— And I still do it.
— That's what He created you to do. Like Adam, to be able to bless things, and to talk.
— Yes, the blessing of the Lord.
— I had a similar thing, I'll tell it real fast. The goodness of God touched me. I was raised Pentecostal. So at 13 called into the ministry, filled with the Holy Spirit, walked away from it because of some life circumstances, joined the Air Force. And my dog tag said, no religion on them at all. "You have to be Protestant or Catholic". "Well, no, I'm neither one". "Don't you believe in God"? "No, just put whatever you want on there". And they put no religion on my dog tags. And I'm laying there on the firing range with an M16. I get one chance to shoot expert Air Force. Because you don't shoot it everyday. And I looked down there and I could hardly see the target. And I said, "Oh God help". Next thing that came out of me. I spoke in tongues. And it scared me. Because it's not possible, because I've walked away from Him. But He never left me. God was with me.
— The night we got into Fort Bliss, Texas in the middle of the night. And they had us all ganged up around there. And last name first, la la la. And so religion. Well, I said, "Baptist". And this young... He looks much like Jerry Lewis. And I don't know what, he was funnier. He said, "Reformed Hebrew". That's what they put on his dog tags. I said, "What is reformed Hebrew"? He said, "You think I'm going to miss Christmas"? He was one of the funniest man I have ever seen in my life.
— That's wonderful. But see, all of those moments are the goodness of God. We read your Romans chapter two verse 4.
— Be careful, we're getting this on tape.
— Despise us now the riches of His goodness. Don't despise the riches of His goodness, and the forbearance along suffering. Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. That's what we're talking about, this whole program is how He leads to repentance.
— Praise God. This whole third and fourth chapters of the book of Exodus, the 12th verse. And he said, "Certainly I will be with thee". Certainly, this is a certainty, I will be with thee. I'll be with you. I should certainly will.
— Because God was with him.
— Yes.
— Even though he walks through the valley of the shadow of death and no matter what he does, He'll never leave you, nor forsake you, for the Lord is with you. And the Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their task-masters for, I know they're song". We're out of time. Help us, Jeremy. Thank you, Papa. God always wants good for you. Now His goodness can show up sometimes and surprise you. But if you pursue God's goodness and mercy, it will follow after you all the days of your life. And God said, "Certainly I will be with you". No matter what happens. He will not leave you. He will not forsake you.