Kenneth Copeland - One Word From God at Christmas
— Hello everybody and Merry Christmas, everybody. This is Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and welcoming you to the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. So let's just give the Lord a praise this morning.
— All right.
— Yeah. It's His birthday.
— Happy birthday.
— Thank You, Lord. Jesus. Hallelujah. you know, I uh...
— Nobody would have a birthday if it weren't for Him.
— I get amazed at some of the things that happen at Christmas. And I want to start by saying this. It is a very foolish thing to go in debt just to buy presents for children over Christmas.
— Well, that doesn't sound very exciting does it?
— And so, no, but now here, the reason I had them bring out Chef Boyardee, I don't remember which one of these delicious treats we had for Christmas dinner one year; but it was not four cans. Now, when I called Carleen, I said, I want a can. She brought four. So...
— Well, you got three for a gift.
— I think it was probably the chicken Alfredo, but that's all we had for Christmas dinner one year.
— And the worst part was we were glad to get it.
— Yeah, but it was... The thing we had a lot of fun with the kids. They were little.
— They didn't know any better.
— And, and I remember that all the money we had, we had to can a Chef Boyardee for Christmas dinner. And I bought a... I don't remember you got a dollar or something for Kellie? I don't remember what, but I remember I bought this little round can about this big round of little small firecrackers for John and that was it. But we had a hoot for Christmas.
— That wasn't very smart to give firecrackers to John.
— Well, I... They... I enjoyed them.
— Is he the same one that set the bed on fire?
— No, that is Stanley.
— Oh, okay. That was my brother.
— John set a whole lot fire, whole vacant lot on fire.
— Oh yeah.
— Yeah. Well, he was five. We came in, I came in, I'd been gone for a while and he and another little friend of his found his fake lot and they set that thing on fire and the fire trucks and everybody came. And so he came home and he and I was, I was gone. He came into Gloria and he said, "Do they put five year old boys in jail"? She said, "what did you do"? Well, Barry, Craig, and I was playing out there in that lot and we set it on fire. Well, they didn't know who did it. And so he, they ran home right quick. Fire trucks came and the whole thing. Gloria said "Well, you'll talk to your daddy about it when he gets home". Oh no. So when I got home, we had a talk. But I had learned for the Lord had said this to Gloria and me both, you don't raise your children on fear. You don't do that. And so I just set him down and I said, John, think about this. What if I had come home? And what if you and Barry could not have gotten out of that field in time and the two of you had burned in that fire? Oh, he looked at me. I said, but the good thing is, you didn't. And the Lord helped that helped you from that. But I don't ever, ever want to hear again of you playing with matches anywhere. If you're going to mess with matches, let's play with them together. And so when the, when the firecrackers came out, I said, now come on. And so we got out in the yard and we played with that little can full of firecrackers for a little while. And that was Christmas, but we just had a big time. Now, my point is...
— What is your point?
— I'm about to tell you Gloria if give me a chance. Oh, you're good looking this morning?
— Oh, thank you very much.
— Always are though, Gloria.
— You're very kind to forgive me for interrupting you, go ahead.
— Well, it's nothing new. Where was I?
— You were at Chef... No I don't where you were.
— Going into debt over Christmas is a foolish thing to do. Because it doesn't last very long. Well, I just need to get some presents. No, you don't. Brother Copeland. No, you don't. You need to teach your children and just level with them. Say, look, that's like we did over this and just, set the children down and say, listen, we know we're celebrating Jesus' birthday here. So the big thing is, he is the reason we're doing this. And so we don't have money for presents much right now. But as the Lord blesses us, you get blessed too. And we'll just do this thing together, glory to God. Amen. And, and then, and as things improve through the year and, and you have some extra money, then buy present, wrap it up real nice. And I mean, you know, maybe time for school to start again the next year and say, here's your Christmas ever. I didn't have it last year. I thought maybe you'd like to have it now. Well, hey, that's more thrilling. Then 15 minutes under the tree and unwrap a bunch of presents, throw it in the back of the closet and go on. It becomes a special gift to a special child because of a special child that was born many years ago. Father, we thank You today. And we praise You that a child was born. That changed everything.
— Praise You.
— And we're so glad for it. And we'll talk about that all this week in the name of Jesus. Thank You Lord. Now I want to say this in the beginning because this is when people of faith look at the Word. Cause faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So we look at the Word of God, the covenants of God. And we've learned in times past that nothing happens in the earth unless it has already happened in heaven by God speaking it. So God created the earth for mankind. He didn't create it for the devil and his bunch. He created it for mankind. And so now what God says things in covenant, you have to always remember these two covenants. This is a book of covenants and it is the spoken Word on paper so that we can believe it and receive it and preach it and teach it and receive faith from it. Now here's what we need to see when you pick up your Bible, in the first chapter of the book of Matthew and you see these words in the 18th verse, now the birth of Jesus Christ, Jesus, the anointed one was in this way. Well now wait a minute. And we see that a lot of good things happened here and, and that the wise men, and then Bethlehem comes into this. So there was an exact place and an exact time for this child to be born. Well, let's check that out in Micah, in the fourth and fifth chapters. Now in my King James Bible, it's 1,104 and 1,105. So it's going to be, somewhere in that neighborhood in yours and it over in the area of Joel and Amos. And you find Micah just before you get to Habakkuk.
— Is that Habakook?
— Habakook. Yeah, that's good. And you see in the fourth chapter in the eighth verse, "Oh thou, oh tower of the flock". So a tower is involved in this, "the stronghold of the daughter of Zion unto thee, shall it come even the first dominion, the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Zion". Now, if you look my cross reference, there references the word tower of the flock to Migdal Eder and the tower of the flock. So the Spirit of God, through Micah set up the fact that where this would take place and the tower, notice, the tower of the flock. Now the manger was not a little basket. Now these things are brought together in tradition and shows the whole picture all together, but we need to know more than that. So there was a tower involved. The manger was the place where the sacrificial lamb shepherds lived and they kept watch over their flock at night from a tower where they could see that whole area. And the manger itself was not just this little basket of hay, that's involved, but that was after the baby was born. Anyway, the manger was the birthing place of lambs that were sacrificial lambs. And then we know later John Baptist said behold, the lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. So all of it ties together over many, many years. And then over in the fifth chapter, But thou Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah yet, out of thee, shall he come forth under me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. So God spoke exactly where this birth would take place, 715 years before it happened. Isn't that amazing. Now think about that. You know, Gloria, it, it looks like to me, it's over 715 years. That word from God through his prophet, Micah, arranged armies, kingdoms, people. So that exactly right on time, 715 years later, right on an exact day at an exact place in a manger tower.
— Wow.
— Prepared for the birthing of lambs.
— So don't you think God can figure out your life.
— Well, that's the whole point. Then people say, I just don't know what's going to happen to me. Well, God does, so relax. That's the reason he said, seek ye first. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Not later after everything crashes. Seek ye first, the kingdom of God. That's what turns your life around. Back there years ago because Gloria had never heard the term new birth. I had because I was raised in a Baptist church. But Gloria had not...
— You might not have paid much attention to it.
— No I, but I'd heard the Word, the term. Let me put it that way.
— Yes. That's good. Okay.
— I heard it. I didn't pay any attention to it. So now let's go 715 years of Bible. Isn't that good. 715 years. Matthew chapter one, verse 18, now the birth of Jesus Christ. Now the birth... Joshua Actually, his name was Joshua, but it's been Englishized to Jesus, which that didn't bother me a bit. Now the birth of Jesus, the anointed one was on this watch as his mother, Mary was his spouse to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband being a just man... A just man, that word translated just as a righteous man. He's a good man. And not willing to make her a public example. He wasn't willing to do that. This is a good man. And you can, you begin to see why God chose him to be the father of this child. Cause he need to be raised, right? "But while he thought on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take under thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son and thou shall call His name Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins. Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled". Now this is what I venture to say, people that really do know God, don't take the time to realize that everything we have anything to do with is something that's being fulfilled that was already spoken. We just have it on paper written. But then Jesus said to the devil, it is written.
— Yes he did.
— And he defeated him totally with the written Word of God. Amen.
— Which we have.
— Which we have.
— That's right.
— And should spend a considerable amount of time in it. So we connect all of these things together? Now, all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying behold... Now this is in a seventh chapter of Isaiah, the 14th verse, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son. And they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Excuse me, please. Then Joseph being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife, and knew her not until she brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus. Now Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Well, of course he was. He had to be born in Bethlehem. Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem saying, where is He, that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him. When Herod, the king had heard these things, he was troubled and all of Jerusalem with him. Now, you know our tradition, as I say, you take the manger scene and you have the little baby in the little straw basket. I need to speak a little more about that. Well, in a moment later; but, and the wise man, all there, and there's three of them there, actually, there were more than that. There were three gifts. When you study this, you find out there was they were kings. They were very, very wealthy people. And that was for a purpose. So, but when they came, the entourage that was with them, all of their food and their... These are Kings. They had soldiers with them that there was upwards of 500 people traveling across the country a long, long ways, and got there unharmed by, you know, bandits, and small armies and so forth. There was a lot of people here. There was enough people here to stir up all of Jerusalem, Please, excuse me. Now, I want you to notice here; where is he, that's born king of the Jews. We've seen his star in the East that came to worship him. "When Herod had heard these things, he was troubled and all of Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded to them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea for thus, it is written by the prophet and thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the princes of Judah for out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule his people Israel. When Herod had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently, what time the star appeared". That is a very important statement. Because it puts a time on everything. What time did the star appear? And they followed that star all the way from the east to get there. "He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search diligently for the young child. When you have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him". So this was not at the manger scene. But you know, like I said, we bring it all together and that's wonderful. We should do that, but it's good to teach your children and your grandchildren; And, and as they go up and get older, there's a lot of grown people that don't know this. And as far too many of them don't care. But do you ever wonder why it's such a point of contention, this manger scene, get that out of here. I don't want that in my place. Well, they've been trying to get rid of him for 2000 years and can't to it. Amen. And you think about it, it is important. It is important, particularly in this country, to have the freedom and the right to walk up to someone in a store and say, Merry Christmas, everybody.
— Praise God.
— And that's what I, instead of happy holidays, give me a break. It's not everybody's holiday... Happy holidays. Anyway. And back when they did that only I made a point of saying Merry Christmas; and I never did find anybody that got upset about it, particularly.
— You never did care.
— No.
— They did.
— I really didn't care. And we're out of time. My, my, my, my. Praise, God, everybody. Come on, Jeremy, help us out.
— Praise God.