(Singing) I know my God
has made the way for me. I know my God has
made the way for me. ANNOUNCER: Did you know
that the BLESSING of God will work in your life when you
rest in Him? Learn how to put faith to work and receive God's
promises, next, right here on the Believer's Voice of Victory.
Now let's join Kenneth. KENNETH: Let's go back here now
in this 28th chapter of Deuteronomy. And let's--in
fact, let's start reading that again. "It'll come
to pass, if you'll hearken diligently." Hearken diligently,
diligently. This is the same consultation that we read
in the 112th Psalm day before yesterday. The man delighted
greatly in the commandments. That's what this is talking
about it. Look at it, and you'll see it. He delighted greatly in
the commandments. "--if thou shalt hearken diligently unto
the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his
commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy
God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: and
all these blessings shalt come on you, and overtake you, if
you'll hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." Now, I
want you to--I want you to see something, how this is worded.
God didn't have to individually go bless each one of these
people as they did whatever it was that they did. Why? The
blessing--God had spoken the blessing over that whole nation
because it belonged to Abraham. (Audience Agrees) All they had
to do was walk in it because it was there. It was on their
lives. Just walk in it. What? It comes on you and overtakes you.
Isn't that wonderful? (Audience Agrees) I mean, it is here. It's
here tonight. It's right in this room. (Audience Agrees) Amen.
(Audience "Amens") So--and this is big because we're going to
see something out of this here in a moment. Gloria and I came
home--this is back, oh, a number of years ago. And we came home.
We'd been gone for not a long time. We'd been gone for days.
And we got home, and there was a yellow Mercedes 500 convertible
sitting in our driveway. And I said, "Gloria, we don't know
nobody got a--" She said, "No. I don't know whose car that
is." So I called, and I said, "Somebody's parked in my
driveway. And, actually, my driveway's blocked." And they
said, "No. One of your partners sent that car to you." I said,
"Come on." (Laughter) "Yeah." Well, I--you know, after I kind
of got my breath--(Laughs) And, my goodness, what a gorgeous
car. But I went to the Lord. I said, "Lord, now, what's going
on here?" I said, "I didn't ask You for that car. I didn't--I
didn't use a nickel's worth of faith to get that car. What is
happening here?" He reminded me of that verse. (Audience Agrees)
He said, "You're doing that. You're hearkening diligently to
what I'm telling you to do." And He said, "And I appreciate it
very much. And you just got overtook, boy." (Audience
"Amens") "But that don't ever happen to me." I know.
(Laughter) Well, why not? Because you said, "It never
happens to me." (Laughter) And you revealed the fact that
you're not diligent about it. You're not diligent to listen.
You're not hearkening. Now, what--what, then, is this
designed to do? Don't lose your place here in Deuteronomy 28.
Let's go to the book of Isaiah. Oh, there's--there is so much
here. We could spend days and days and days just in this area
that we're talking about here. Go to the 51st chapter of the
book of Isaiah. Now, look at that first word. "Hear Ken."
(Laughter) Yes, sir. (Laughter Continues) "Hearken to me, you
that follow after righteousness, you that seek the Lord: look
unto the rock where you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit
in which you are digged. Look unto Abraham, your father--"
Now, remember what we read in the--in the 3rd chapter of the
book of Galatians? That He was made curse for us so that the
blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles; the blessing of
Abraham, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit, what
He promised Abraham. Well, if you just move on along there to
the 29th verse, "If you be in Christ, then are you Abraham's
seed, and heirs according to that promise." Now, here--here
is the job description of the blessing of Abraham. This is
what God had in mind with that force in the beginning. "Look
unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I
called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. For the
Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; he
will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the
garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein,
thanksgiving, and the--" filled with thanksgiving "--and the
voice of melody." (Audience Agrees) The reason for the
blessing to start with. When God blessed Adam, that garden that
God created and put the man in it, but the blessing of the
Lord--had he obeyed God instead of broken the blessing in his
life by connecting with Satan, that blessing would have
continued to produce the garden until the entire planet was the
garden spot of the universe. (Audience Agrees) And then--what
do you do then? You go to the stars, you go to the other
planets. Because by then, Adam would have been well up on how
this works. (Laughter) Amen. And so would his offspring.
AUDIENCE: Yes. KENNETH: That's the reason there's so many stars
out there. But God is the God of a second chance. (Audience
Agrees) Isn't that right? (Audience Agrees) Hey--
AUDIENCE: Hallelujah. KENNETH: --it's working. It's working
tonight. It'll come on you tonight. It'll make a garden of
Eden out of a mudhole-- AUDIENCE: Hallelujah. KENNETH:
--if you will allow it to. (Audience Agrees) Now, you want
me to go--okay, ha. Go back over here to the 28th of Deuteronomy
again. Well, yes, Sir, I'll do it. Okay. Continue to hold your
place there, and let's go to the book of Hebrews. Now, while
you're looking up the book of Hebrews in the 3rd and 4th
chapters, I want to remind you of something here. In the
book of Genesis, where we were reading, "Thus the heavens and
the earth were finished, and all the host of them. On the seventh
day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the
seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God
blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in
it he had rested from all his work which God created and
made." Now, God didn't rest because He was tired. He
rested because He was finished. AUDIENCE: That's right. KENNETH:
Now, let's go over, then--well, let me go over there. You're
already there. Book of Hebrews, in the 4th chapter. "Let us
therefore fear, lest, the promise being left us entering
into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For
unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the
word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith
in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter
into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall
enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the
foundation of the world. For he spoke in a certain place of the
seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day
from all of his works." Now, come down to the 11th verse.
"Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest--" It didn't say,
"Let us labor therefore to get the money to build a new house."
It didn't say, "Let us labor therefore to--we've got to
believe for a new car here. We've got to believe to get
healed"' No, it said, "Let us labor to enter into that rest."
AUDIENCE: Yes, sir. KENNETH: And it said, "like God," didn't it?
Let's look at it. "For he that is entered into his rest, he
also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his."
Now, you do your part. We stand on the Word of God. We believe
God. Roll all the care of it over on Him. And we do what He
says. We walk in love, and we walk by faith. Praise God.
AUDIENCE: Amen. KENNETH: Amen. And we're standing--but you
enter into the rest as God did His. Now, God created all
matter, created the garden. Then He created the man. Now, was
that when He finished? One more thing to do. You've got to bless
him. AUDIENCE: That's right. KENNETH: Then He's finished.
Because if He--if He doesn't bless him, there's
nothing--there's nothing there to run this thing with. So
what's He going to do? He created it all. He got it all
started. He created the man, and then He blessed him, and He
retired. (Laughter) Amen. (Audience "Amens") Had to come
out of retirement a few days later, but for a little
while there, He retired. Amen. AUDIENCE: Amen. KENNETH: Now,
that's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to do the
same thing He did. Look at it again. "For he that is entered
into his rest, he also has ceased from his own work, as God
did from him--from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into
that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief." Well, what are we going to do, God? "--the word of
God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of spirits--soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and the intent of the heart." Amen. (Audience
"Amens") The blessing will work if you will rest. (Audience
Agrees) Faith rests. I've stood on the Word of God here. "Yeah,
but I've still got this awful pain." Well, that means you're
going to quit standing on the Word of God? No. You keep doing
your part. You keep--you stay in the Word. But don't get to
jerking around here on this--no, no, you're not rested. You work,
He rests. You rest, He works. That ought not take you all that
long to figure out. (Laughter) Amen. AUDIENCE: Amen. KENNETH:
So let the blessing turn that mess into a garden of Eden.
(Audience Agrees) But Adam didn't create that garden; God
did and put Adam in it. He didn't have to create that
garden. If He had, He'd have made something different. Amen.
Are you seeing the analogy of that? God didn't intend for you
to fix all that. In fact, we see what is it like while you was
trying to fix it. But if you'll get on the Word, do what He says
in the Word, get into these commandments, it--"thou shall
not" this or that or the other. Of course, that's a commandment,
right? Well, so is "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and
his righteousness; and all these--all these things
will be added to you." That's a commandment. Jesus
wasn't suggesting that. Didn't He--didn't He say, "Do it"?
Didn't He say, "Seek ye--seek ye first"? If that isn't a
commandment I don't--I don't really know what a commandment
is. When He says, "Humble yourself under the mighty hand
of God...casting the whole of your care--" Greek text actually
says, "once and for all." "--over on Him," who cares for
you. AUDIENCE: Right. KENNETH: "Yeah, but I just don't
understand." You better sit down and shut up. (Audience Agrees)
You're about to sink the boat here. (Laughter) Amen. Let it
go. Let it go. AUDIENCE: Praise God. KENNETH: "You mean, let
it--really? Let it go?" Really let it go. Believe the love!
(Audience Agrees) Whew! Say it: "I believe the love." (Audience
Repeats) "Love is wanting me to let it go." So what do I
hang onto? My confession. Amen, right? My confession. Holding
fast to our confession. Amen. Seeing we have a great High
Priest passed into the heavens. You want me to go give you my
version of that? AUDIENCE: Yes. KENNETH: Seeing you have a great
high priest passed into the heavens, sit down, and shut up.
(Laughter) And hold fast to His Word, and rest at this throne of
grace. AUDIENCE: Praise the Lord. KENNETH: Where do I get
that? It says, "Come obtain mercy and find grace to help."
What does grace do? Gives you rest. Grace is at the heart of
the blessing. In fact, grace is the blessing. Amen? (Audience
"Amens") You tell me it isn't. Didn't the apostle Paul say, "I
labored more than them all, not me, but the blessing with me"?
AUDIENCE: That's right. KENNETH: The blessing on me, in other
words. Hallelujah. AUDIENCE: Hallelujah. KENNETH: I think we
just need to just praise God for a bit. I mean, you--glory,
glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory. (Praise) Let's go
back over here in Deuteronomy 28. And I want to look at this,
"Blessed shall be the fruit of your body," in the 4th verse.
"Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the fruit of your
ground, the fruit of your cattle, the increase of
your kine." K-i-n--not k-i-n-d; k-i-n-e, kine. It--this is an
agricultural community, and the word "kine" has to do with
livestock, and particularly oxen, working animals, animals
that work on this farm. What are you--what are you--what are you
seeing here? You're seeing God say, "I will supply you with
whatever it takes to do what I command you to do." (Audience
Agrees) "I put you on that farm. I'll send you the best oxen
there is to work it--" (Audience Agrees) "--and I'll keep them
healed. And I--" you know, see what he's doing? The blessing
will do this. (Audience Agrees ) Kine, to a man that's--that's
farming in this day and time, kine would be a great big old
John Deere. Yeah. Amen, no? One of them big 250-, $300,000
machines to--amen. (Audience "Amens") And He'll teach you how
to drive it, and He'll teach you how to plant with it, and then
He'll prosper your crop when you do. (Audience Agrees) And the
government will be coming to you asking you how to do it instead
of you having to go to them. (Audience Agrees) Because of the
blessing. Now, keep continuing following there. "Blessed shall
be your basket and your store." "Your basket and your store."
"Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you
be when you go out. The Lord shall cause thine enemies
that rise up against thee to be smitten before your face: they
shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven."
But now you're going to have to continue to walk in love. You
can't rise up and go to getting bad and mean at your enemies.
He'll start resting, and you're going to get whipped. (Audience
Agrees) Amen. (Audience "Amens") But if you will just walk in
love-- "Yeah, but, Brother, you don't understand. If I start
walking in love, this bunch will make a rug out of me. They'll
walk all over me." Not if you believe that. (Audience Agrees)
No. "Well, Brother Copeland, I just never did get hold of this
'turn the other cheek' yet." (Laughter) Jesus didn't say that
so that you could just get whipped every time you go to
town. AUDIENCE: That's right. KENNETH: He intended for you to
walk in this. AUDIENCE: That's right. KENNETH: He intended for
you to walk in the blessing of the Lord. AUDIENCE: Amen.
KENNETH: He intended for you to--when you do get in
situations like that, you depend on Him and those big old angels
you got following--following you around. (Audience Agrees) Look
at David's life. Huh? Look at his life. There wasn't anybody
come up slapping him around, did they? (Audience Agrees) But
yet on the other hand, he was a lovely man, a very tender man.
But, he was also the mightiest of warriors. But he was never,
ever very far away from honoring God and His commandments. And a
man of repentance. Man, he would repent. Read his writings. Read
the psalms. Repent. The man repent before God and just throw
himself on his face before God. What did God say? "Whew, that
boy's after my own heart." (Laughs) And he got it
too. (Audience Agrees)
