Kenneth Copeland - God's WORD Commands Everything
— Hello everybody. We're Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and Merry Christmas. Glory to God.
— Merry Christmas.
— You're going to have a good Christmas this year.
— Yes. Amen.
— And in the name of Jesus, it's going to be the best Christmas you ever had.
— We agree. Say that, "We agree". In Jesus' name.
— The best Christmas you've ever had. We're talking about the birth of Jesus. We teach from these scriptures. We teach faith, we teach the Word, we teach the spiritual side and the spiritual aspect of it, which is really important. Again, we talked about yesterday in fact, that nothing happens on the earth, but what it's already happened before the foundation of the world, according to the scripture. God spoke by his prophets from heaven, and then things take place in the earth. Well, the prophet Micah said there is going to be a baby born in Bethlehem.
— Yeah.
— The prophet Isaiah got even more specific than that. He was going to be born in Bethlehem and he was. Now, we'll find out today, some very, very interesting things. Let's go back here to the book of Matthew, once more. Let's go to the second chapter 13th verse. "When they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, "Arise. Take the young child and his mother and flee to Egypt and be thou there until I bring the word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. And when he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night". He left in the middle of the night, just obeying what he saw in a dream, and what he heard God say in a dream. It takes a lot of faith to do that.
— Yeah, it does.
— He's already found out, this baby's dangerous. There's one side, they're wanting to worship him. And another side, they're wanting to kill him. Now we got to get out of here, but wait a minute. "Arise, take the young child and his mother and flee thee into Egypt. Be there until I bring the word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. And when he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled". That it might be fulfilled. So, God spoke all of these things. He called things that be not as though they were, back way long before. Because, his Word commands everything. He's a covenant making God. He had a covenant with Joseph and Mary because of Abraham. It's out of the tribe of Judah.
— Isn't it wild that he still commands everything after hundreds of years?
— Yes.
— Wow. It's just amazing.
— That's why we depend on himself.
— Yes it is. So, now all of this is taking place. That it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, "Out of Egypt, have I called my son". That's in Hosea chapter 11. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men was exceeding wroth and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men". Now he had a time span on this. So Jesus, by the time that wise men got there, Jesus was two years old. He was not a baby. But, all of this is important to have working knowledge and faith in the Word. Faith in the Word of God. Faith in what is written. Amen. "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah, the prophet saying in Ramah, was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not". But, when Herod was dead behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt saying, "Arise, take the young child and his mother and go into the land of Israel for they are dead, which sought the young child's life. He arose and took the young child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea, in the room of his father, or instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Not withstanding, he being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee". That's the reason Jesus was born in the Galilee. Had to be. Came to dwell in the city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene. Now, people take that at a glance and they show Jesus with long hair. No, not if the Apostle Paul was being led of the Holy Spirit. For he said, even nature shows us that, it is a shame for a man to have long hair. But then, he went ahead to say. This is me speaking. Amen. The Nazarites had long hair because of a Nazarite vow that you don't cut your hair ever, under that vow. So anyway, how did they have money enough to live in Egypt? Gold, frankincense and myrrh. Frankincense was a very, very expensive perfume. Not that they didn't have the plant, the hyssop plant from which it came. They had the perfume and it was extremely rare and expensive. They had more than enough. God is a God of more than enough. He's not going to send his people over there without enough to get by. And he won't send me somewhere without enough to get by. And he won't send you somewhere without enough to get by. We live and walk by faith. Joseph was living and walking by faith. Amen. And these scriptures were not unknown to him. They were not unknown to him. He's an Orthodox Jew. And God is leading him. Amen. The Jewish people then and now, do not believe that it's right to be poor. Why? Because, Abraham was not poor. And we are the seed of Abraham. Because we belong to Jesus. Praise God. I want to go over here to the gospel of Luke. No, I want to stay right here where we are. Thank You Lord. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth. In those days, John the Baptist preaching in wilderness of Judea saying, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". And, I want to... Lord, straighten this out for me. You want me to go here? Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's go over now to the gospel of Luke. There're some very interesting and very insightful things concerning this time. It just began to talk about John the Baptist being born. But, I want to get this account over here in the book of Luke concerning this. In the first chapter of Luke, verse five. "There was in the days of Herod the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abijah and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth. They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless".
— What's that all?
— All. Yes.
— Ooh. That's big.
— That's big.
— Yeah.
— And they'd done this for a long time. Most people don't realize the Levitical priesthood. We learn a lot about this in the book of Hebrews. Jesus, not being from the tribe of Levi, but from the tribe of Judah. He had to be from the tribe of Judah. Because, he's the son of David, the king. And Jesus is to be a king. So now, let's continue here. "They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless. They had no child because that Elizabeth was barren and they both were now well stricken in years. It came to pass that while he executed the priest's office. So, you entered into the office at 30. You start at the bottom, you entered into that and Jesus was 30 years old. There is so much here. Joseph and he was forgotten two years. But no, he wasn't forgotten two years and had to stay in prison two more years. Because, when Pharaoh called him out, he had just turned 30 years old. And so, he went into his ministry as prime minister of Egypt. Isn't that? Oh glory to God. Isn't the Word of God, just marvelous. So now, let's come back down here. "According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense, when he went into the temple of the Lord". You worked in the priesthood from the time you were 30, until you were 50, and then you retired. You still worked. You still had your part in your family, in the Levite family. But, that was extremely demanding. It was really hard to keep and do all of these things together and finally come to a place where you were righteous enough and clean enough to come on up into, and then become high priest one day. This man was in a strong position, but it had taken him a long time. He's an old man now. But, all of that is the reason why? And all of these things blameless. That means, he was very, very attentive to what he's doing. It's just 24 hours a day almost. Because, you have to get up earlier than anyone else. And, you're up later than anyone else. We see that from when Samuel was born and Eli. So, "While he executed the priest's office before God, in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense, when he came into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without, at the time of the incense". There was a lot of people praying. "There appeared unto him, an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense". No telling how big that angel was. Huh? They're not all big. There are some small. But, they're all important. An angel of the Lord, these tend to be very big from the ones that we see in scripture. Standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Now, that tells me that he was there all the time. That was his job, to be there all the time. When Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, "Fear not, Zacharias. For your prayer is heard. And your wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son and thou shall call his name, John. Thou shall have joy and gladness and many shall rejoice at his birth, for he shall be great in the side of the Lord and shall drink neither wine or strong drink. And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall turn to the Lord, their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit of the power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Zacharias said unto the angel". Now he shouldn't have said this. When he appeared to Mary. When Gabriel appeared to Mary, she asked him, "How shall I know this, seeing I don't know a man"? She had a right to ask that question. He didn't have any right to ask this because he'd already prayed about it. She had not prayed about that. She'd already been chosen. But, his prayer had been heard. He already told him, "Your prayer has been heard". Now he should have said, "Glory to God. We're going to have a baby". But, no. He said, "I don't get this". So really, he's grumbling about it in a bit. "Whereby shall I know this for I'm an old man and my wife, well stricken in years". The angel answered him and said, "I'm Gabriel". Now, we know who the angel of the Lord that stood at the right hand of the hornblower. Glory to God. "I'm Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and I'm sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings. Behold thou shall be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed, which thou believest not". Because, you didn't believe my Word. You didn't believe it. You prayed. It was answered, but you didn't believe it.
— Do you think he said then, "Well, that was dumb".
— Yeah. He didn't say it, but he sure thought it. You know, he did. "The people waited for Zacharias and marveled that he tarried so long". Tell me, how much time do I have? Oh, yea, good. ... So long in the temple. And when he came out, he could not speak unto them. They perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned unto them and remained speechless. It came to pass that as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days, his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months saying, "Thus, hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein, he looked on me to take away my approach among men". And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto the city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin, espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, "Hail, thou that are highly favored. The Lord is with thee. Blessed, are you among women". And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind, what manner of salutation this should be? And the angel said unto her, "Fear not, Mary". Isn't that amazing? So many times, fear is such a dangerous thing. But, he just stopped it right there.
— That's why it does. It stops.
— It stops faith.
— It stops whatever happened.
— "Fear not Mary for thou has found favor with God and behold thou shall conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name, Jesus. And he shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him, the throne of his father, David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there shall be no end". Then said Mary, unto the angel, "How shall this be seeing, I know not a man"? The angel answered and said unto her, "The Holy Ghost shall come up on thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore, also that holy being, which shall be born of these shall be called the Son of God".
— Praise God.
— "And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she has also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible". With God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, "Behold..". Oh, I love this. Oh, Gloria listen, "Behold, the handmaiden of the Lord. Be it unto me according to your Word". Or, be it unto me as you have spoken. I learned years ago, once you've prayed, you stand on something and it just doesn't look at all right. And I can just stop and say, "Well, glory to God. Be it done unto me as you have spoken". And we're out of time. Praise God. Come on, Jeremy. Merry Christmas.