Kenneth Copeland – The Soldier's Promise of Success
I want to talk to you about love, the secret to success. The God kind of love. The agape love, not the phileo love. Agape, the God kind of love, is love on purpose. It doesn't have, it doesn't need. It's not necessary for it to feel good about anything. God loves because he is love and love is good. But Brother Copeland, this is a military meeting. I'm well aware of that. And that is from that angle that we will be talking about this. And particularly those of you that are in the military now or planning to be in the military, listen up. Listen up. And this could very easily help some people that have already been in the military and have seen some nasty stuff. So the first thing we'll look at is the soldier's Psalm. Well, we're going to look at two things together. The 91st Psalm. Thank You, Lord.
I tell you what. I'm going to do that from the Classic Amplified tonight. Now don't read, just listen. And probably put it up on the screen. But just listen here. "He who dwells, lives in the secret place of the Most High, who is love". Amen? He is love. He has faith. He is love. Shall. "He will remain stable and fixed under the shadow of Shaddai whose power no foe can withstand". We already there. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Now, but it's no good unless you say something. "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge. He is my fortress. He is my God. On him I lean and rely and in him I confidently trust for then he'll deliver me". He will. I said he will deliver me. No if, ands, or buts about it, he will. He is love. He loves me. And he will. Thank You Lord.
Now I want to go over here to the book of Numbers. This is the soldier's promise. A lot of people, champion over the years. I've had personal experience with this. A man, very, very close, Keith Kurber. Colonel Keith Kurber, Pastors in Wasilla, Alaska. Special forces, a bad pastor. He's a pastor that'll kill you if he has to, to defend the Constitution. Now we were there when he was about to be deployed. And so he said, "Now alright, here I go". So I talked to him about this and I said, "Keith, now there's record of this". And we discussed the record that happened in World War I and then again in World War II, where commanders taught their units the 91st Psalm, and you had to be able to quote it like you did the orders of the day. You had to be... I mean, if he called for verse five, you better come up with verse five. Hit a brace and say it until you just ingrained it in people. Just ingrained it. And he said, "You know, I'm taking over a unit that has had a lot of casualties, really too many". And he said, "I'm going to do that". And so I said, "Well, as soon as you get back, let me hear what happened".
Well, I didn't know he was going to call me at three o'clock in the morning, but he had just, I mean, just got back the state side. The phone rang there by my bed. And he said, "It's Keith". "Hey Colonel, what happened man"? He said, "It worked just like you said. We had no casualty. We had zero casualty". But he said, "Everybody there memorized that 91st Psalm". And he said, "Hey, it was an absolute for the whole two years. Nobody got a scratch". But he said, "Now Kenneth, I have a problem though". He said, "When I left and another commander took my place, he said they began to have casualties again. Not as many as they've had". I said, "Keith, that simple. Those guys were saying that and memorizing that because you ordered them to. Now there's some of them were saying it because you said to, but it still worked. Now you got a bunch of lazy ones that didn't believe it".
Now he didn't say this. This is just me. I expect those were the casualties. There were some of them stayed with it, but that's so easy to understand. It isn't even funny. It's the Word of God. He is my refuge. He is my fortress. He is my God. And in him I do trust. And I'm about to say so. And then he will deliver me. And when you go on down, then you come to the place where he says he has placed his love upon me. Now, listen, Michael Aiken. He has known my name. He has known my name. He's known my covenant. He's a covenant man. And I keep him. And with long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. That's a soldier. But now wait a minute. He cannot, he cannot be quoting that 91st Psalm, and then the next breath take God's name in vain. There's no way that's going to work. Well, Brother Copeland, I just don't see. Ah, well, because you don't see doesn't mean anything.
Now what about David? The warrior king. A lot of combat. A lot of combat. You think he just got in all that and just went and just loss of power of his tongue? No. David wrote 75 of the Psalms. Here's what he said. "I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth". When Absalom was after him, trying to kill him, you know what he said? I just laid down and slept. He was really afraid wasn't he? Then he said, "You alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety and my sleep is sweet". They get after me, I just go to sleep in God. But he kept praise in his mouth. He did some ugly stuff, but he kept his mouth. This is a man after God, who is love's own heart because when he missed it, he'd just fall on his knees and he kept praise in his mouth even in times of awesome combat. When he came against Goliath... Now Goliath had a nasty mouth, and he cursed David. Well, that was his final words. Things didn't work out too well for him. So David didn't say, "I'm coming after you and I'm going to kill you". That's not what he said. He said, "I come to you in the name of the Lord God of Hosts". He came in the name. He came in the name, in the Lord God of Hosts, Lord of Sabaoth, is the Lord of the angelic armies of God.
Learn to go to war, surrounded by angels and depend on them and know how to depend on them. Know how to look toward the Lord of Sabaoth, and his name is Jesus. Hallelujah. So now let's talk about that's the soldier's Psalm. Let's talk about the soldier's promise. I've never heard too much about the soldier's promise, but it's huge. We have any people in here that were in Southeast Asia? Okay. Let me come around here. Let me visit with you a little bit. Now, first of all, welcome home, soldier. Now back there then my microphone wasn't big enough to make much noise, but I did the best I could. Now here is the answer. This is the answer to a combat soldier, particularly infantryman, Army, Marine Corps. I mean, you know, down in the weeds. This is it. And Moses said unto them, "If you will do this thing". Well, I'll put there if you don't forget it, because you're just a mud pounder like everybody else. But if you'll do this thing, if you will go armed before the Lord to war, that changes the whole formula. Armed before the Lord, answering to him with every word, every action, every thought.
I've heard this. I've known of it personally. Remorse and guilt because you're the only one left. That's no time for guilt. That's time for joy. But now here's the key. "And will go, all of you, armed over Jordan before the Lord, until he has driven out his enemies before him". You're just the tool. Now, when I was in the army, that's 65 years ago, this coming January, I mean the M1 Garand was our weapon. Heavy rascal, a little over nine pounds without the bayonet. It's just, it was a club of wood, brother. But it was a good weapon. It was good, but it was nothing but a stick without me. Just a big heavy club without the soldier. The soldier is no good if he or she takes all the responsibility upon themselves. That just won't work. You and I are not equipped to handle that. We weren't built for war. We were created by a God of love, but he's also a God of war. And it's when the Prince of Peace becomes the God of war. When mean, unreasonable, ungodly, unmerciful, doggy people get to the place where local law enforcement can no longer handle it, then somebody has to call the soldier.
It takes a soldier to step in there and make the difference. It takes a Marine to step in there and make the difference. It takes an airman. It takes a whole crew of people to make the difference. I believe in war. Thank God for it. I do not believe in going to war and fight a war you can't win, but then that's not my decision as a soldier. Now listen to this. "And the land be subdued before the Lord". Not before the soldier, but before the Lord who is love. Then afterward, listen, "You shall return". You're coming home. You do it this way and you're coming home. And you're not coming home all messed up either. You go to bed and sleep like a baby. Somebody said, "Yeah, I cried all night long". No, no. That's not... No, no, no. Look. "You shall return and you will be guiltless before the Lord and before Israel and this land shall be your procession before the Lord". Guiltless. Guiltless. That's where the devil just rips it to people. Be feeling guilty even when you did a good job, come home feeling guilty and he just tears you all the pieces. No you went before the Lord. You did it his way. And you did it because he needed you and you will return and you will be guiltless.
Now you'll have to contend for it. And when the devil tries to put it on you just put your foot down and say, "No, I'm a soldier, not a killer. I'm guiltless because I did it God's way. I came against his enemy". This is his nation. The first act of Congress in this country. Our president, George Washington, said, "You will be our God and we will be your people". God never forgets a covenant. I don't care if it is nearly 300 years old. What difference does that make to God? 300 years is 10 seconds to him. That's still in his face. And I'm glad because we've had some pretty goofy stuff over the last 245 years. But no enemy will be able to take this country down until he's done with it. Did you hear what I said? Amen. Now that we have that part settled, we can continue to explore that the God kind of love is the secret and it is the gateway to success.
John D. Rockefeller was born a very poor family, but he had a Baptist mother and she insisted that he tithed on what ever he got in his hands. He said, "If I hadn't tithed on that first million, I never would have on the second". But he continued and continued and continued to give. He was dying of ulcers, living on crackers and milk. And he thought... He was 50 some years old. And he said that he lay in the bed, couldn't sleep, pain. What is it? And he prayed like this. "What is it? I have all this money now. And I'm about to die. What is it that I have not done yet"? And the more he thought about it and the more he prayed about it, he began to realize, "I've never tried to give it all away. And that's what I'm going to do". Did you ever hear of the March of Dimes? Of course, you did. But the old John Rockefeller laid a mile of dimes. Not some 50 some years old. He got healed. He laid a mile of dimes. I think it was right down Fifth Avenue in New York. It was the way that the March of Dimes took part. To find a cure. Hallelujah. Why? Because a man decided to give and he got healed.