Kenneth Copeland - Remember the Goodness of God
— Hello everybody, I'm Kenneth Copeland. This is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. This is Gregory Stephens, Professor of Kenneth Copeland Bible College. Anyway, it's there.
— It is there.
— And I'm glad.
— Yes, sir.
— And the Lord said, "Every available voice". Well, every available voice that just multiplies and multiplies and it will continue long after I'm gone. And that blesses me.
— Glory to God. And we're talking about the goodness of God and He is a good God.
— I want to look at the 136th Psalm. Well there's 26 verses but I'm going to read them all. Now when you're talking about in the sixth chapter of the book of Mark, and all of this crowd came and He looked at them and He was moved with compassion and He began to teach them. Jesus moved with compassion. Compassion is not a feeling, compassion is a person and He is a good God. Amen. It was the compassion of God. I've experienced that a few times not as many times as I'd like to, but compassion and mercy. I'm remembering blind Bartimaeus.
— Yes.
— "Son of David". He knew He was Messiah.
— Right.
— "How mercy on me. Have hesed on me".
— Yes.
— And they said, "Be quiet. Be quiet". "No, no, no. I'm not going to be quiet. I'm not going to be. Son of David, have mercy on me"! Jesus stopped and said, "Bring him here". And then he got him over there and he said, "Oh well, what would you have me do for you, sir"? Amen. "My sight". "Okay". Good God. Listen to this. "Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for He is good. For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks unto God of gods. For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord of Lords. For His mercy endures forever. To Him alone who doeth great wonders, for His mercy endures forever. To Him by wisdom made the heavens, for His mercy endures forever. To Him that stretched out the earth above the waters, for His mercy endures forever. To Him that made great lights, for His mercy endures forever. The sun to rule by day, for His mercy endures forever. The moon and stars to rule by night, for His mercy endures forever. To Him that smote Egypt in their firstborn, for His mercy endures forever. And brought out Israel from among them, for His mercy endures forever. With a strong hand and with stretched out arm, for His mercy endures forever. To Him that divides the Red Sea into parts, for His mercy endures forever. Made Israel to pass through the midst of it, for His mercy endures forever. Overthrew Pharaoh and his host at the Red Sea, for His mercy endures forever. To Him which led His people through the wilderness, for His mercy endures forever. To Him that smote great kings, for His mercy endures forever. And slew famous kings, for His mercy endures forever. Sihon the king of the Amorites, for His mercy endures forever. Og the king of Bashan, for His mercy endures forever. Gave their land for inheritance, for His mercy endures forever. Even the heritage under Israel His servant, for His mercy endures forever. Who remembered us in our low estate, for His mercy endures forever. And hath redeemed us from our enemies, for His mercy endures forever. Who giveth food to all flesh, for His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks unto the God of heaven, for His mercy endures forever". Oh. Oh. Forever.
— It started with goodness.
— Yes.
— And it endures forever.
— And this is what blind Bartimaeus did. Knowing that's the Son of David, knowing that's the Messiah he called upon that goodness and that mercy.
— And it stopped Jesus-
— In His tracks.
— No. Bartimaeus who is no longer blind dropped his coat.
— Yes.
— That coat was his badge to beg. He had to prove to the authorities that he was actually blind.
— That's right.
— And he dropped that coat and went to Jesus. That's an act of faith, I'm not going to need this thing any longer. Dropped that coat and went to Jesus, and that quick, and he followed Him. He followed Him. So he was there for the rest of the time, he was there at the cross, he was there at the resurrection, he saw it all. Because of God's goodness.
— Yes, sir. Philippians 5 we saw it. Or was it Thessalonians? Thessalonians yesterday, that to follow goodness it's like a hunter. He's following goodness from that moment forward.
— And think about what the Spirit of God said through the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:8. "Any good thing that anybody does, the same shall he receive of the Lord". Any good thing.
— Well He can't give you an evil thing.
— No, He can't.
— It's got to be a good thing. It has to be that way.
— Oh, Lord.
— This is when we act like Him.
— Don't forget all of this is in covenants.
— Yes.
— These are blood back words. Amen.
— And His goodness is for anybody that will receive it. For my favorite Psalm, the 145th Psalm said, "He is good to all".
— To all.
— To all. Thank you Jesus.
— He didn't say all believers.
— No, all.
— All.
— Gloria said, "The sun will shine on anybody that'll get out in it".
— When you hear all of this in that passage you read it, it sounded like He's bragging and boasting. Well He is.
— He is.
— Which is a good thing to do actually. In Hebrew... Let me read you Psalm 25:7 seven says this... I love this one. Psalm 25:7, I have used this one, "Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake".
— Goodness' sake. There you are, for goodness' sake.
— For that's who He is.
— Yes, that's who He is.
— And so that's a covenant thing. That word remembering, is it so important?
— Now to mark our thinking once more of this is covenant, look at the 138 Psalm.
— Yeah.
— "I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise under thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for that truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above your name". Now what does that mean? The word is signed. You don't put your name at the top of the document. You make your declaration, you make your contract, you make your covenant, and then you sign it. So His word has been signed by His good name.
— Yeshua.
— Well it tells you in that verse who signed it. And for thy truth. John who knew Jesus maybe better than anybody else on the planet as a disciple, said in John 1 he referred to Jesus as grace and truth.
— Yes he did.
— And there's truth.
— There's truth.
— That's who signed it.
— Yes.
— And He's autographed, He signed my life. I'm written in the Lamb's Book of life, His initials are right there by it.
— Yes. Hallelujah.
— Oh, that's good news.
— Praise God.
— This is why He's rehearsing all these things. It's important for us, Brother Copeland, to remember the goodness of God, to remember the covenant. Sarah received strength to conceive because she judged Him faithful, that promised. In Hebrew there's a word it's called zakar and it means to remember. It means to remember, to call to mind, to bring to remembrance but it's more than that. It's to boast. Because if I start boasting about God I'm remembering...
— Yes.
— ...All of those covenant things. "God remembered Noah", it says in Genesis 8, "and the wind blew over the earth and the flood receded". He remembered Rachel and she was with child. "Remember me, oh Lord, when you show favor to your people". The Psalm...
— And he remembered Abraham and He did...
— ...He remembered the covenant.
— Yeah.
— He will remember Abraham and tell Moses, "It's time to go. Because the time is up and I need you to do this". And so when he remembers, here's the best part about remembrance according to the Hebrew. You can't just remember something it'd be in your head. For God to remember something He has to take action. So if I remind Him of something, of His covenant, He has to take action.
— Yes.
— So when Bartimaeus, who's not blind, said, "Son of David". He's reminding Jesus...
— Oh, yes.
— ...this is who you are, I know who you are, Jesus had to take action.
— That Syrophoenician woman.
— Yes.
— She kept screaming, "Son of David, have mercy on me. Son of David". They couldn't get rid of her. "Son of David. Son of David". And He marveled at her faith. Amen.
— And so we boast, it's okay to boast about God.
— Well Acts 3:19, "Peter and John answered and said unto them, 'Whether it be right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God, you judge. For we cannot speak of things which we have not seen and heard.' They got mad for the man was 40 years old when a miracle of healing was shown. Being let go, they went to their own company and reported that to the chief... And the chief priest and elders had said to them. And when they heard that they lifted up their voice to God with one accord". Now listen to what they did. They didn't just say, threatened us, "preaching it". They began to brag on God.
— Yes they did.
— They took some time to build this prayer, this didn't happen in five minutes. "And then they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, 'Lord, thou art God, which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is. Who by the mouth of thy servant David has said, 'Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.' For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel who were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and counsel determined before them to do. And now Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto us thy servants with all boldness they may speak thy word by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.' And when they had prayed the place was shaken". I mean it literally shook, it physically shook.
— Yeah.
— Bragging on God, bragging on Jesus before they said anything about themselves.
— That's how you have a suddenly.
— Yeah, it is.
— Suddenly and the Acts chapters, suddenly.
— Suddenly.
— That you get in there and you lay all your agenda down and you start praising Him, rehearsing, bragging, boasting about His works and His goodness and His mercy you'll a suddenly.
— I believe this happened over several hours.
— Sure.
— There are praying in the Spirit and finally the word of the Lord came and they put this whole thing together. And this is the way we're going to pray this and this is what the Spirit is saying to us. And they got it all put together and had it laid out in order, and they started in with the creation and they just went from there.
— Sure.
— And shook the place. Glory to God.
— How many times did I see it in my lifetime? You've seen it too with Brother Hagin in one of those Holy Ghost meetings. What was it he would always get up and say? And he'd say it several times to just keep saying it, "For the Lord is good and His mercy endures forever".
— He said it over and over.
— Well, amen. Say it again. Well, the Lord is good.
— And make you said it again, again, and again, and again.
— And all of a sudden he's getting us into a place where that can happen. He's getting us in one accord and unity, and that's when the Holy Spirit shows up.
— Yeah. And then that came to pass over here in the fifth chapter.
— Oh, absolutely. If you want a Holy Ghost service, brag on Jesus.
— Yeah.
— And all the things that He's done and I promise you you'll have one.
— And how easy it is to receive from Him. How good He is because He said, "If you've seen the Father who is good, you've seen me and He's good". Praise God.
— Let me read you a verse.
— The only bad Jesus ever did was to the devil.
— And he treated him horribly. But the devil had it coming, he brought it upon himself.
— Anyway let's go back to this again, Greg. Where we found out in Matthew 25:41 Jesus said hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. It was not prepared for people. It was not prepared for people. God has never created anything that was bad.
— No.
— A jail is not bad.
— You have to have it. Because of the devil you have to have jails. And I've seen miracles after miracle, I've preached in a lot of prisons over the years. And oh, we ran the interview that we had with Mickey Whitehead and while we were in Detroit. Boy, his goal in life was to be a master criminal and he made it. And he was doing life. And got to reading our material in prison, and before long he was out. And he just couldn't get enough of Jesus he just kept preaching Jesus, just kept talking about Jesus that's all he could get. And then he married a godly woman. And he had a stroke for about 30 minutes. But he just kept going and started building churches.
— Praise God. The captive was set free.
— ...Yeah. And he said, "Well you know," and he's a black man and really funny. He's funny. And he said, "Well you know, all my family is criminal. Well they used to be". That whole interview with him, and the moment I saw it I thought, that man, that is a picture of what we're talking about right here. That's a picture of what we're talking about. This man was a committed criminal, that's what he wanted to be. Never heard anything about God, didn't know anything about it, didn't want to hear anything about it. His whole family is crooks. But then he woke up in prison, but the goodness of God set him free.
— That's right. Let's read this first Psalm 145:7. Psalm 145:7.
— Yes. I love it.
— Oh, it's good. David's Psalm of praise is what this is. "They shall abundantly utter the memory," remember, "They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness".
— Yes.
— "And shall sing of thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all".
— Yes.
— Praise God...
— That's my favorite Psalm right there. The 145 Psalm.
— ...Memory of thy great goodness. That's exactly what they did.
— That 16th verse, "You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing". He's not tight-fisted, He's open-handed.
— "The Lord is righteous in all His ways," verse 17 "and holy in all His works". He's absolute holiness, that hadn't changed.
— No.
— In grade on the curve, He can't change that that's who He is. He can't change being good, He can't change being merciful. The minute He changes He's no more. He can't. And because He's holy, we weren't allowed to approach Him. There was more talk about Him being holy in the First Testament than there is the Second Testament. Because the Second Testament the Spirit of God now lives in us, which gives us access. His goodness is what allows us to approach the Holy God.
— Now and in this Psalm, the same one verse 19, "He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him or reverence Him, He also will hear their cry and will save them". Now look at that 18th verse, "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him". You have to call upon Him. Then you go to the 91st Psalm. "Then I will be with Him. In trouble He'll call up on me and I will answer Him. And with long life I will satisfy Him and show Him my salvation". Glory to God.
— Verse 20, "The Lord preserveth all them that love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. Will He destroyed". That's what we talked about.
— Bless His holy name forever and ever.
— Yeah.
— Oh, Psalm of praise by David.
— Lucifer is going to be destroyed. In the future he's done. But not you, not me.
— That's right.
— Because I'm part of His goodness, I'm a partaker of His goodness.
— Yes.
— Taste and see that the Lord is good. He's good. I can testify of it.
— And think about this, to the believer to be absent from the body...
— To be present.
— ...Is to be present.
— And this is why we don't grieve.
— No. No grief. Grief is dangerous. Well in fact we touched on that last week. And the Bible says plainly, don't do that. Well if you follow Jewish tradition, you get together and you mourn that situation and then it's over.
— Now Gloria's little brother he was in a pickup with a friend of his and Stanley was asleep. And I know right where this highway is there in Arkansas, it's just a little ways from our prayer cabin, and it's a strong curve but it's an adverse curve. Instead of that highway going like this it goes like this, and he was driving so fast that that truck flew and crashed and burned. And we did that. I called all the family together, Gloria and I did, at our home we all got together and we talked about Stanley and we told funny stuff about him. He's one of the funniest kids you ever met in your life. I mean, we were third at Pop's house, and he was playing with matches and got under the bed and set the mattress on fire. And when something happened everybody just hollered Stanley. And so ran in there and he pulled him out and they said, "Why"? And he said, "I didn't do that". "What do you mean you didn't"? "A rabbit did it"? Well you can't spank a kid that the rabbit started the fire. Well, well. And of course Gloria and I had led he and his wife to the Lord, so anyway. And there was a woman in a women's meeting, and she told about her time in heaven. And she went up to Gloria and said, "Gloria, I don't..". We're out of time, but anyway she describes Stanley. And Stanley buy him a new suit he'd cut the sleeves out of the shirt. And she said this young man ran up and said, "Would you tell Gloria I was not in that truck when it burned"?
— Hallelujah.
— To be absent from the body, he had no recollection of it. And we're out of time. Come on, Jeremy. Thank you, Papa. You know it's important to keep the memory of God's goodness fresh on your mind. Be quick. Be quick to remember His goodness and show Him praise, give Him thanksgiving it will keep His goodness flowing to you.