Kenneth Copeland - How To Get From Here to There
— Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. This is my grandson, Jeremy. Hadn't he done a good job in this? I'm telling you what, I am very blessed at your outcome, young man.
— I appreciate it, thanks.
— Praise God.
— Glory to God.
— This is the one of the first men that I've ever personally known, well, another one was Kenneth Hagin, that never, ever wanted to do anything but preach. Three years old, I have a picture of him with his little suit on. Back then I wore a vest and a pocket watch... I may go back to doing that. I don't know.
— Yeah, sharp.
— And he said, "You get me a suit and a pocket..".
— Watch.
— A watch pocket and I'll preach". What were you, three?
— Yeah.
— Four.
— Three, four.
— I think he turned out pretty good, don't you?
— Glory to God.
— Now, I want to answer a question for them. Why do I end the broadcast with yeehaw? This is Texas, sweetheart. That's just the way we act. Amen. Hebrews, chapter four. I made the observation yesterday that this book is God. But the spirit of the Lord energized me to prove that. Hebrews, chapter four, verse 11. " Let us labor, therefore, to enter into his rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the Word of God is quick, it's alive, and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword". It did not say that it was a two-edged sword. "It's sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifested in his sight". The Word of God, He. The wisdom of God, He. Amen. Glory to God. I wanted to settle that and make sure that I don't just throw something out there without the Word of God to back it up.
— His Word is His wisdom.
— Yes, it is.
— And there's no wisdom apart from it.
— And it's His will.
— Yes, it is. And we've been talking all this week about the wisdom of God, but specifically, where the wisdom of God is found. And we started several days ago by looking in the book of Proverbs, chapter one. It talked about where wisdom is crying aloud, where wisdom raises her voice. That alone helps me. When I realize that wisdom is crying out at me. What does that mean? That means God wants you to have it. He's doing everything he can do to get it over to you, to get wisdom across to you. She's not hiding out there. She's out there in the streets, in the markets, in the intersections crying out, lifting up her voice.
— Praise God.
— And we are in a critical time, I believe, in the plan of God. But even right now in the beginning days of this year, these are decision making days. And many people treat the first days of the year that way, and I think it's a good thing. I do think sometimes people think that there's some sort of magical or mystical thing that happens when you flip the calendar page from one year to another. There's not. There's nothing miraculous about turning that page, unless you let that go to work in your heart and you see it that way. The Lord did this for us coming out of 2020 into 2021 and in our church and ministry, he used that as an example and he said, "Just as that year is ending and this one is beginning," he said, "so are ending the days of sickness and disease and beginning the days of life more abundantly". And using that, this time of year that we're in, the end of one thing and the beginning of another. In the book of Matthew, when Jesus talked and really made that invitation to you, and to me, and to everybody, he said, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest. Now, the verses leading up to that it said, at that time, Jesus said these things. The Wuest translation of that scripture, I really like it, because it says, at that epochal and strategic moment. Epochal. I didn't know what that word meant, I had to look it up. E P O C H A L. Epochal, I think, is another way to say it. It literally means the end of one era and the beginning of another. That's what was happening when Jesus said those words. Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. I'm ending one era and I'm beginning...
— You need to listen to the Lord in those things. Years and years ago, by divine direction, we bought that house in Steamboat Springs. And then over the years we sold it, in 1999. And then there was a personal financial miracle happened in this ministry, and then it came back up for sale in 2008. Only this time, the man that bought it just pushed... just bulldozed that first house and built this larger one. We went up there and looked at it in 2000 and it wasn't quite finished and we'd just finished building our home on ministry property. Of course, Gloria designed it. She'd been working on that house for 30 years, designing and so forth. And we'd done well up to then and then built the house... Anyway, we went back up there in 2008 and it was larger and so forth. But then, really enjoyed it. I knew it already in my heart in 2000 and I had it in my heart and it's what the Lord said. He said, this is the end of an era. It's time to sell that place. I drove up in front of it there, Jeremy. Right where the garage is here and the front door is here and there's a row of windows here, which is the hallway that goes from the living room to the kitchen. And I put my hands on the side of the house and I thanked the house. I said, you have been a blessing to this family over all of these years. And I speak to you, house, and I thank you, but this is the end of an era. The kids are all grown and they're out doing what they are led to do, and so forth and so on. I don't have to own a place there to take them up there skiing, you understand that, don't you? Okay. I said, there will be a man and his wife that will walk under this house and say, this is it, we'll take it. That's exactly what happened.
— Yeah. It's good to pay attention to those.
— Yes, it is. Because you can just hang on and hang on and hang on and then never go up there and still pay taxes on... Them taxes up there are high. Personal property taxes. And just because the Lord blessed you with enough money to pay it. That's bad management.
— It's good to identify when one thing is ending and another thing...
— That's it.
— And that's what Jesus was saying.
— You had to know that it was time for you to pastor.
— Yeah.
— Not one minute before. But you had to know that and not hang back and not do it thinking, well, maybe I'm wanting to pastor just because my dad is good pastor. I don't want to be that. Look at the trouble he had. And just bang around and bang around until you get in trouble.
— Yeah. Yeah.
— This would be good time to tell this and we can talk about it more next week. About how you came to that final conclusion. You're called to the pastorate and now it's time to enter that ministry.
— I always thought it would have been a much more pronounced moment, and there might have been horns blowing or something, where oh, I know it. I realize it. But I know better than that. I've watched it and anything else we've ever come into in our lives, it's like we've already talked about this week, you take steps into it. Like Mimi said when I asked her that question, how do we get from where we are to where we're called to be? You just keep walking. And what we have realized along this way is that everything we did in the years leading up to this was preparing us for this.
— That's right.
— And I finally got to the place as young man in my teens and twenties when people would say, Jeremy, what's your 10-year plan? What's your 20-year plan? I didn't know how to answer and it frustrated me. But I finally got to the place where I said, I want to be doing, in 10 years, whatever it is I'm doing right now just 10 years bigger. In other words, what I was saying was if there's nothing 10 years from now that looks like what I'm doing right now, then what I'm doing right now is... I'm wasting time somewhere. I hope that's making sense to you. All I'm trying to say is there was such a preparation time and such a foundation-laying time. And what I was looking for before we stepped into pastoring, because I was like, Lord, I just want to burn with it. I just want to be so passionate about it. Until finally he helped me see. He's like, Jeremy, you got to grow into that. Even that you grow into. But Sarah and I would sit for years knowing that this was on the inside of us, her particularly. Her life was just... It was in the church. She grew up in the church and she... Their whole lives as a family revolved around the church and as a young girl she was serving in the church and leading worship in the kids classes and their whole lives were built around it. And she and I spent 10 years or more traveling together, we loved it, and we took our kids all over the world. But the whole time we were doing that, we knew this church was on the inside of us and we kept looking for it. Lord is it here? Lord is it there? And we'd look, and I'll be honest with you, there were tears shed over it. We would sit on the couch in the living room going, Lord where is it? When is it? And it seemed like a long time, but when we look back on it now, we realize how quickly things were moving. To the point where we were actually at dinner with several ministers. We were up at Faith Life Church in Branson. Keith and Phyllis Moore's church, which is where Sarah was going to church when I met her. And I remember thinking, man, if this girl has got half of the things she's heard over this last several years, she's solid, she's awesome. And I was right. So, we were up there at the church for a conference, and the Lord spoke to Sarah that night getting ready for church. She said the Lord said to her, they're going to sit you by Mrs. Moore, listen to what she says. And sure enough, we walked into dinner that night after the service was over. Probably 120 ministers in there. And they had put our names right there by Brother Keith and Mrs. Phyllis. And Sarah sat right next to Mrs. Phyllis. And we talked through the evening and it was great, it was fine. Mrs. Phyllis finally looked at her and said, Sarah, Jeremy... She looked at both of us... She said, you guys find out where you're supposed to go. It's time. This is a big key in receiving the wisdom of God. Listening to your elders.
— Yes.
— I know that sounds so elementary. But there's a reason we say it to our young ones. Listen to your elders. Why would we say that? Because they know stuff.
— Yes they do.
— Because they know things. And that verse we quote so much out of third John, verse two. Beloved, I pray above all things that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. The verse before that has become so precious to me. It just simply says this: the elder. It was John the elder writing to Gaius.
— And John was the only one of the apostles that died a natural death. The apostle of love.
— Love, yeah. But everything he said out of that, even these words: I pray that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. That's an elder saying that. It's an elder saying, listen, there's something more to prosperity than just your money.
— Yes, sir.
— Your soul prospering. And I'm so thankful for our elders, parents, grandparents, Brother Keith and Mrs. Phyllis who've been pastors to us for so long. That was a critical moment for us. When she said, it's time. I've got a handful of people in my life. It's not a big group, but it's a handful, that I trust their voice. This man's one of them.
— Praise God. Thank you, son.
— That if he were to say to me, this is good. I could put confidence in that. And if he were to say to me, Jeremy, slow down boy. You're moving too quick, this isn't right. As much as I might want it to be right, or think it's right, I have a voice in my life that I trust. This is a big part of receiving and walking in the wisdom of God. It's a big part of correction. And there are a lot of people that think well, yeah, I'm good with being corrected, but I get it from God. You're kidding yourself.
— That's right.
— Because you do get it from God, but how does He give it? It starts here, with His Word. He corrects by His Word, by His spirit, and by His people.
— Judgment is coming. And judgment is an action of seed, time, and harvest. Judgment is not always bad. The scripture says that at the time of receiving communion, and you should take communion a lot. But at that moment... and see yourself in that dark room, see yourself right there, and see in your own mind, judge yourself and you'll not be judged with the world. Not be condemned with the world. And I pray this every night before I go to sleep. I love the Lord, my God, with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, and all my strength. I love my neighbor as myself, and I just... right now... I can see the thirteenth chapter of John, the 34th verse. And I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. And all men will know that you're my disciples by the way you love one another. So, I have to judge myself on love. All the time. All the time. Every day. Day in, day out. All the time. Are you going to be condemning, or are you going to be loving? And over the years... and all you have to do, Jeremy, to incur a lot more persecution is buy two airplanes. All of Colorado will rise up in arms.
— But in the words of Gloria Copeland, you'll get over it.
— You'll get over it. She said if you live long enough, you get respectable. If you just stay in faith, and just stay in love, and just keep walking the same way before God, be still and know that He's God.
— Yeah.
— Amen, and walk in love.
— Now, what he just said is coming from the place of an elder. Which means, if you're connected here, and if the Lord's put you here, those of you watching this broadcast. You're partners with this ministry. This is a voice that the Lord has put into your life, and one that you can put trust in. And we've been talking all week about why people miss their turn. What did we talk about? Moving too quick? Bad directions? Let me give you one more before we wrap this up. People miss their turns because they think they know a better way. And this is where these voices come into our lives. The voices of the ones the Lord has put in our lives. There are those He has assigned to us, and assigned us to them. There is a lot of really good teaching and a lot of really good preaching out there in the world. I'm not out there looking for all of it. I know the few that the Lord has told me, get what they've got. You put a lot of pressure on yourself if you think you've got to hear from everybody. You don't have to hear from everybody. Who has the Lord put you under? Who has the Lord assigned to you, with the Word for you? And then when they give you that Word, just like we just heard, judging yourself according to love. Don't hear that and think, it's probably fine, but I'm going to try this other way. You ever tried a shortcut? Driving somewhere that took you an hour and a half longer? People miss their turn thinking they know a better way.
— That is so good. I didn't want to go to ORU. I didn't think... I didn't want to go back to school. And like died because of it. But I laid in the floor talking in tongues just as fast as I could. I was supposed to register the next day. And I thought, well, hush here and maybe He'll say something to me. He said, it's about time. I hadn't been able to get a word in edgewise. Get up on your feet. I'm an old soldier, man, I jumped up, hit a brace, and did everything but salute. He said I sent you here and I'll keep you here, your ministry starts now. They can't make a minister out of you, I've already made a minister out of you. All they can do is train you. So, I said okay. All right. I'll stay the whole 12 years. I'll go all the way through graduate school. And I was willing and happy to do it. I even had my landlord, who was a lawyer, I had him make out the Kenneth Copeland Evangelistic Association in Oklahoma. Because I was going to stay there 12 years. Well, at the end of that first semester, he has already talked to me about nations, he had already talked to me about all of those things. I learned how to use an airplane in the ministry, but flying for Oral Roberts. And in prayer and just worshiping God, we still lived there. He said, I am ready for you now. For me to have hung on without an original idea would have gotten me right back in the same stupid place as before. I just said, whatever you say. Because now, my will is your will, because your will is my will. Your will be done. I had no more fear of the future. No more fear financially. Because of what I'd learned from two elders. Oral Roberts and Kenneth E. Hagin. They spoke into my life and both loved me and mentored me, and Gloria.
— Thank You, Lord.
— And we had some experiences with our little children. And a seminar, and of course Kellie just slapped him real good. John just slapped him...
— Just slapped Brother Hagin.
— Yes, just slapped him. I'm just standing there, and Kellie walks up and says, my little brother eats boogers. My little girl didn't say that. Yeah, she did. We got in the airplane one night. Late. Of course, the first thing I did was get Brother Roberts clothes off first and handed it to him... he was staying there and it was cold. She walked up in front of him and said, do you love Jesus? He said, "Yes I do". She said, "If you love Jesus you'd share your toys". He said, "Well okay". She said, "If you'd loan your airplane to my daddy then we could fly home and see my nonny".
— Oh, boy.
— He still, until the day he went to heaven, thought Kellie was it. And we're out of time again today. Come on, give the Lord praise. Glory to God. Jeremy and I will be back in just a moment.