Kenneth Copeland - Instill Love, Not Fear
— Happy New Year everybody. There's a lot of joy in this studio today and I was talking about when I was just a young child and we lived there in Abilene and there was a guy that would ride his bicycle by, in front of our house. I'd be playing out in the front yard and he'd say, "Hey, big head, I bet ya ain't got no brains in it". And if I ever get big enough, he'll never say that to me again. And well anyway.
— Well, did you get big enough?
— Yeah.
— Okay.
— But, but then one day, this big chunk of cement or something and he threw it and my football was laying there on the ground and it bounced off of the football and hit and broke my nose. So I got paid back.
— Walk in love.
— I didn't, but I love him now. And if you're out there, partner, hey, call me. I love you, man. Praise God. Father, we love You.
— Thank You, Jesus.
— Because You first loved us. And love is the key issue of life. Everything works around love. Faith works by love and grace works by faith.
— Praise God.
— So without love, there's no grace and without grace, we're in trouble. And we praise You and thank You today for the mighty Word of the living God, our covenants of promise. Thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.
— Amen.
— All right, let's go back to first John once again, please. This, as I mentioned before, the year before last, the Lord had me read the book of first John every day. I mean, I read it for weeks and weeks and weeks, and it's amazing. For instance, I made a note right here on, on first John 4:18, "there is no fear in love, but perfect or mature love casts out fear because fear has torment. He, that fears is not made perfect or not mature in love". And I wrote in red 4:18, "He's loved all the fear out of me". I picked that up, reading that every day, "He has loved all the fear out of me". And I've come to that place. I just don't have any fear. Well, and you'll like this, the Lord... Gloria and I went to our prayer cabin in Arkansas and we got all of the children promises we could find. And we were there up there and just got our concordances and everything out in the middle of the bed. And while we were up there and Kellie and John were just small. And while we were up there, the Lord spoke to us and said, "Don't ever, don't ever jump out from behind a wall and go 'boo!' And frighten them and think it's funny. It is not". He said, "My enemy is fear and the spirit of fear is the devil". So we never did do that. He said, "You teach them to be respectful and not afraid". So we did that. And I remember we were over at my dad's house and this had just happened. So I took Kellie and John by the hand. And we walked downstairs where our car was parked. I don't know whether you remember this or not. Anyway. I said, "Now guys, now look at this. Isn't that wonderful"? "Yeah", I said, "But look at the size of this thing. Now you don't need to be afraid of cars. Because one of these days you're going to want to drive and then eventually you'll have your own, but you need to respect them". You don't say, "Sweetheart, now don't be playing out in the street. A car might run over you and kill you". No. So we just taught them in love. And we said, "Now, when you start to cross the street, you need to look both ways and be very, very careful before you walk across that street, because look at the size of that thing. It'll squash you like a bug, but cars are good. You don't need to be afraid of them, but you need to respect them". Well, I kept teaching like this and John walked out. My dad's... There was a deck on top of their garage and he walked out there on that day. It was just about that same time. And there was a pigeon landed on the fence railing. John walked up there and said, "Bird, the world goes around and you may never see me again".
— What?
— Where on earth did you get that? And so then he was hanging out over that railing.
— That's very deep.
— Yeah, deep. So he was hanging out over that railing. And I got over there with him and I said, "Look down there". He said, "Yeah". I said, "John, if you crawl off there, it would break your head open, wouldn't it"? "Yeah". I said, "Well, don't be hanging off there like that". "Okay". No fear. Then later when we had the Full Gospel Businessman's Fellowship meeting in the Queen Mary, docked there in, where? At Long Beach?
— That huge. Yep.
— And so, as a speaker there, we had an upper suite and they took us in there to show us the suite and all. And then they were bringing the luggage up and Gloria and Kellie were looking all around and I turned around thought, "Where's John". I turned around, that little rascal, the porthole was open and he was about halfway out of it. So I walked up there and just hooked my finger in his belt loop and stuck my head out there. I said, "What are you doing"? He said, "I'm just looking". And I said, "Look down". He looked down. I said, "That's long ways down there, isn't it". "Yeah". I said, "Do you know how far"? "No". I said, "It's about 90 feet". So I said, "You're hanging halfway out the hole boy, now get back in here". "Okay". You don't teach fear. And both of them are still that way. They respect things, but they don't walk around, "Oh, I'm afraid to do this. I'm afraid to do that". No, they were never taught fear as children. So they didn't grow up with it. Fear is instilled in children. But if you instill love in a child and teach about fear, teach it, teach what it is and who is the spirit of fear, the devil himself and he uses fear as a weapon.
— You know, dad, I think it's good to be aware that the enemy can plant fear without any help from parents.
— Oh yeah.
— And being aware of that helps you to, not only for yourself, but also for your children, but I want to tape out what happened to me not too long ago. I asked the Lord if I had a worry, a place of worry planted inside my heart and my emotion or soul. I said, my heart, I mean my soul, because you know that wasn't refined when you got born again. So we have to pay attention to his correction, which you said this is the year. This is a year. You're going to find this correction and it's compromise if we don't listen. So he said, I said, "Lord, do I have a worry door"? Because I've never felt like a worrier. And that word is double. It means divided into parts. So when you're worrying, you are double-minded. And so I just heard him say...
— "And a double minded man is unstable in all of his ways".
— Unstable. And so I just want to tell you how simple it is with the Lord to get that Word that you can stand on and let him fix the things out of you that need to come out. So I said, "Do I"? He said, "Yes". And I said, "Where did that door open"? And I wasn't even thinking about this till you brought this up. But do you remember, because I may remember it differently than you because I was three. But I remember in Tulsa, I didn't talk to you about this. A German shepherd jumped in our backyard.
— I remember that.
— The neighbor's, I remember you with a water hose, getting that dog out of the backyard. Now that probably... Now, I hadn't even thought about it, that scene would pop, I've talked to you about shame works that way, these scenes that play back in your mind and you don't think about it, stop and think about it, ask the Lord about it, "Why did that pop back up in my head? What is that rooted to"? Because it's never random, Satan's feeding you right then. And so just this other day though, I said, "Where did that open"? And that popped into my head. And, I realized that when that... The feeling that I had at three years old was worry for you. I was so worried for you. And to me always, even as a grownup, when that would pop back into my mind, I would sort of feel that without thinking about it, that I was concerned for you and probably to you that German shepherd was nothing. But to me, you were in danger. And soon as the Lord popped that into my head and answered my question where it opened and let me see it. I realized that every fear or worry that's ever had even a chance to get at me, had to do with my family and my kids. I mean, even when I've talked to you about, "Dad, I'm dealing with this or that or the other," what was it over?
— That's were you the most vulnerable.
— It was over my kids.
— Oh, your children and your...
— And that door opened. So I closed that door, but that's how easy life with him is.
— I remember that dog, there was that little house there where we lived while I was going toward you. And he had crawled under the fence and boy, here he came. And so I walked out there and I took the water hose and I said, "In the name of Jesus, you go back through that hole," and he stopped. And the minute I said, "The name of Jesus and squirted that water in his face, man, I mean, he jumped like he'd been shot.
— See what I lived with?
— Well, you can see that for 57 years, my heart had compromised. I didn't even know it, because I've always been very strong against fear and the Lord's helped me to resist it, rebuke it. But think about the ease of living without fear without that root. I just thought, I believe that helped somebody today.
— That's good. We taught them to never be afraid of storms, that we have authority over storms. And we were living there, our first home here in Fort Worth and we were all headed to church one night. We were going over to Grace Temple for service that night. And, we left the house, it wasn't wasn't dark yet. And there were two tornadoes out in front of us, one over here and one over there and that you could see that old green cloud bank across there and the kids were leaning over the seat. And I said, "Kids, you want to take this one"? Both of them at the same time, "In the name of Jesus, you go back up where you belong" and man, here they went. We have seen that so many times, but you can't walk out there in fear and do that. But, you go and you don't do it without the Word of God because Jesus did it. It's not because I'm such this big faith guy, because the two little faith guys did it, but they had been taught the power of the name of Jesus and Jesus stopped the storm and we have his name, therefore we can.
— You ... we did, right? We do have respect for the storm.
— Oh yes, absolutely.
— And its power.
— And would I go in a storm cellar? Absolutely. But it's going to hear from me before I go in there. And while you're in there.
— Yeah. And just a couple of nights ago we had thunderstorm come through, banging around. Gloria said, "Wake up". I so she said, "Check the weather".
— He's the weather man at the house.
— So I went in there and got my iPad and checked it and, boy, sure enough, there it was. So I started to go back to bed. She said, "And you better go talk to that". And I said, "Yeah, I believe I will". So I walk out there and man, it was blowing and a lot of lightning, right? Just right there over the house. So, I walked out on the back porch at the top of my voice and told that thing what it could not do and what it would do. You cannot, there will be no hail. There will be no flood. There will be no tornadoes, not in this county. Because we live here and this county belongs to us and you'll not harm any of our partners in this area.
— Amen.
— I shut the door and went back and went to bed. And I noticed it got kind of quiet. That thing ended in about five minutes.
— I lived close and I'm like, "That was so fast". It just blew in and blew back out.
— Praise God. But we have authority in these areas. But faith works by love. You don't fuss and fight all day. And then that night go do that. Because the devil doesn't have to listen to you, he absolutely doesn't have to listen to you. Why? You're violating the commandment.
— You can clean up real quick.
— You could say power works by love.
— Lord forgive me.
— Power does work by love. Yeah. Because faith is the power.
— Repeat it real quick.
— Just really quick.
— Really quick.
— Now back in this book of first John in the... Oh the fourth and fifth chapters are just magnificent. In this fourth chapter again, seventh verse, "Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God". Isn't that good? Now, John was there that night and we're going to read it in just a moment. "And everyone that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not knows not God, for God is love". He has faith, but he is love. Now, if we want a good year this year, Peter said it like this. If you would love life, "If you would love life, let no guile be in your mouth," or no deceit be in your mouth, and love one another". Wow. And those apostles were taught love because they argued and fussed for the whole three and a half years. And it got then in trouble and all of that. But they came into that room that night after Jesus got Judas out of there. And then they settled into the seriousness of the night. I remember they said, and this will go back to what we talked about last week, about Judas' condition. Jesus offered him a sop out of his plate. That doesn't mean a thing in the world to Western-minded people, but to covenant-minded people, it means everything. You can find it in the book of Revelation. "If you invite me in, I will come in and I will sup with you". Now what that meant to covenant minded Greeks in Ephesus and where John was pastor, John was a member of the church at Ephesus and so was Jesus' mother and Timothy was the pastor. And that's the reason the apostle Paul said, "Don't let anybody despise your youth. Well, how would you like the pastor marry the mother of Jesus and John arguably the greatest apostle of them all. Because he's the only one they couldn't kill, and he's the apostle of love. He lived out his life. So, but love is the key issue in all these things. And when you read this, "he loves not, knows not God for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that love sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him here in his love. Not that we loved love, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation of the sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another". Glory to God and let 2022 be the year of love.
— Yes. Thank You, Lord.
— Amen. Praise God. "No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, love dwells in us and his love is perfected in us". Now look at the second chapter and the fifth verse, "But who so keepeth of his Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected or brought to maturity. Hereby, know we are in him. He that saith he abide him, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked". Oh, so what do we do? We walk by faith.
— Faith works by love.
— And faith works by love.
— Yeah.
— Amen. So, "I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which you had from the beginning, the old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness is past and true light now shines".
— Praise God.
— "He that saith he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness even until now. He that loves his brother abides in the light. And there's no occasion of stumbling in him".
— You really could say there is occasion of stumbling is in him that does not walk.
— Yeah. You don't walk in love.
— Yeah.
— Well, think about this. Jesus said, "There is a narrow way... There is a broad way that leads to destruction". Well, what is the narrow way? Let's find that in the book of Ephesians. Now, Ephesians chapter five in that fourth verse, fourth chapter, excuse me, 31st verse. "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God," now look, "For the sake of the anointing".
— Oh yeah.
— Has forgiven you. Be ye, therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love". Now listen to this. And in the Classic Amplified, I got 30 seconds just long enough to read this. "Therefore..". Now, the King James, said "followers". "Therefore, be imitators of God, copy him and follow his example as well beloved children imitate their father. We need to imitate our Father and walk in love. Esteeming and delighting one another as Christ loved us and gave himself for us as slain offering and sacrifice to God for you so that it became a sweet fragrance".
— That's good.
— And we're out of time.
— Praise God.
— Praise God. Come on, Jeremy. Give us a word here, son.