======================================================================== DENNY KENASTON 02 by Denny Kenaston ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of true righteousness found in God through faith in Jesus Christ, contrasting it with self- righteousness based on religious formalities. It calls for a genuine pursuit of Christ, seeking to know Him more deeply and to live a life abiding in Him. The speaker shares a powerful testimony of revival in a small church, highlighting the transformative work of God when His people earnestly seek Him and repent of sin, leading to a revival that impacts the community. The message urges individuals to return to the Lord, seek His face, and press on to know Him more intimately, believing in the promises of revival and the transformative power of God. Duration: 44:49 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of true righteousness found in God through faith in Jesus Christ, contrasting it with self-righteousness based on religious formalities. It calls for a genuine pursuit of Christ, seeking to know Him more deeply and to live a life abiding in Him. The speaker shares a powerful testimony of revival in a small church, highlighting the transformative work of God when His people earnestly seek Him and repent of sin, leading to a revival that impacts the community. The message urges individuals to return to the Lord, seek His face, and press on to know Him more intimately, believing in the promises of revival and the transformative power of God. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ He focused, concentrated, on being found in Him, in Him. And he goes on to say, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ. You see, Paul's talking about two kinds of righteousness here. And we may sit here this evening and say, oh yeah, that's for the formal church out there, that's for the Church of Scotland, that's for this church. Yeah, they're legalists, they're this, they're that. That's not what Paul's talking about. Paul is saying, I don't want to be found having my own righteousness. You see, we can have our own righteousness. We can go to church, and we can read our Bibles, and we can go through the motions, and we can praise God, and we can worship, and we can do all the things that our religious formality allows us to do. We can do all those things, but not be doing it in reality. And if we're not doing it in reality, it's simply righteousness which comes by the law. It's just different laws, that's all. We have a law in our church, you say amen every now and then while the preacher preaches. So he's saying, even though it doesn't bubble around in your heart, it's righteousness by the law. But Paul said, I don't want to be found having my own righteousness. I want to be found having the righteousness which is of God by faith in Jesus' hands. And brothers and sisters, I don't believe Paul was just talking about justification in that verse there. He was talking about the reality of a righteousness which flows out of the life that is in Christ Jesus. That's what Paul was concerned about. Paul wanted to bear fruit in his life, and Paul knew there's only one way to bear fruit in my life, and that is that I abide in the vine, that I live in Christ, that my heart's desire is after Christ every day. All I want to do is stay right with God. This was Paul's heart. This is what made him beat. My Lord, thou might be found in him, not having my own righteousness, but a righteousness which comes from within me as Christ is living inside of me, and he has the freedom to live his life out of me because all is clear and open. Heaven is open over my life. My heart is an open face. My conscience is clear. Remember the words of the Apostle Paul, Hearing have I exercised myself to have a conscience void of offense toward God, and man, that's what he was doing right here. And it was the passion of his life, and brothers and sisters, his passion was not just to keep his conscience clear. His passion was Jesus. He wasn't wrapped with Jesus Christ. He didn't want anything to be between his soul and his body. That was his motivation. He goes on to say some beautiful things which we did not have time to say here this evening or address, and he goes on to say that just sharing the longing of his heart that I may know him. Now, wait a minute, Paul. If anybody knows him, if anyone knows him, you know him. What are you saying that you may know him? I believe all he's simply saying is, How do you ever get to know all of an ocean? And see that God is vast, he's great, he's unfathomable, unmeasurable, infinite. I believe we'll spend all of eternity getting to know him. And here's Paul, stretching at the surface of the beautiful life of Jesus, and the knowledge, that excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus, and it's hard to say, oh, I want to know him. I want to know him. I want to know him. You know, that's kind of hard for me to have, man. I just want to know him. I want to know him more. I'm not satisfied with how I know him. I want to know him more. I'm not satisfied with the way I know him. I want him more. Now, God is the heart of it. Here we are. That I may know him. That I may know the power of his resurrection. Amen, Paul. I count all these things but done, that I may know the power of his resurrection. We talk about walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what he was doing. And I count everything in Christ. All I want is the power of Christ to rest upon me. This was the super of Paul's strength. The fellowship of his suffering would be made conformable unto his death. If by any means I might have taken him to the resurrection of the dead. He just keeps going on and on there. And I'm not going to take the time to address all of those points in the Bible. I feel the Lord wants me to say, but I just want to lay a little bit of a foundation here. That we can see that this is what God is after. You say, brother, those are some pretty strong words. That's a pretty high standard you're giving us. I know that. I know, but we're talking about God. We're not talking about Christianity. We're talking about God. And should not that beautiful God that we heard about give our hearts love? Shouldn't he give our hearts love? The fire of our love. You know, he had it once. For some of us here, he had it once. Remember? Remember how a flame burned up inside your heart? Those first days when first you knew the Lord. You have no problem with that. Hold on. Verse 12, I'm so glad that in verse 12, they're there for all of us. If you just stopped there in verse 10, you'd probably all be just scary to say there's too much for me. Literally goes like the same verse 12. Not as though I are already attained. You see, He's helping us to see, I've not attained, but my heart is wanting that. I haven't attained, but that's where my heart wants to go. I haven't attained all these things, but that's where I'm going with all of my heart. And that's all God asks of all of us too. Not as though I've already attained, even though we're already perfect, but I follow after Him. Those are beautiful words. I'm not there, I don't have all that I want, but I'm following after Him. That's all God is asking of us these days. He's just saying, are you willing to follow after Him? He goes on to say, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended with Christ Jesus. You know, Paul's passion again. I want to apprehend all that God apprehended me for. That's what Paul is saying there. I mean, God apprehended you on the road to Damascus. God apprehended me in the front seat of my car 36 years ago. When did God apprehend you? Is it 5 years ago? Is it 7 years ago? Is it 40 years ago? But the question this evening is, am I apprehending that which God apprehended me for? Am I fulfilling the will of God? You know, I've noticed something about revival. When revival comes to a man, or revival comes to a church, or revival comes to a country, all of a sudden, the purposes of God, the will of God, the heart of God, the longings of God, they just begin to be being fulfilled in the hearts of God's people. And I wonder this evening, you know, if you've lost sight of that which you were apprehended for, amen? I mean, God doesn't save anyone that He doesn't have a plan for. Right? God don't waste His time on anything. If He saved you, if He washed you in His blood, He's got something that He wants you to do. He's got a plan for your life, but I'm not talking about a purpose-driven life. I'm talking about the God Christ Jesus coming into your heart and your life and controlling you, and you yielding your heart and life to Him so that He can control you in such a way that He lives His life out for you. Yes, God has a plan for your life, but are we willing to so open up our hearts, so yield our hearts to God that God can so communicate, control the earth and vessels that we're living in, and fulfill the beautiful purpose that He has for you. That was Paul's motivation. I want to fulfill the will of God. It's a new day. I want to fulfill the will of God. All you can do is yield to Christ. All you can do is make Him number one. All you can do is get in His rightful place. All you can do is get rid of anything that would stand in the way of that. And then the purposes of God begin to just unfold in your life. It doesn't matter who you are. Sunday night, I had the blessed privilege of going, and maybe some of them boys are here tonight, but I had the blessed privilege of going over to this ambassador hall where these poor souls, all messed up on drugs and things like that, and barely sitting, you know, they probably can hardly even think of the thought that God might even have something for them. But I'm telling you, God can save from the gutter most to the uttermost. And you say, how? How? He's God. And then God comes to the inside of you. I don't care how far down you went. I don't care how messed up you were. I don't care how fried your brain is. God can do something out of you. But we must let Him have that life, amen. We must let Him have that life. It's not just a matter of going to church and singing my songs and reading my Bible. It's a matter of letting the God of the universe live and control my life. And that's revival, isn't it? We know that's what it is. So Paul goes on to say in verse 13, Thank you, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. Thank you, Paul. But this one thing I do. And see, this was Paul. He was a man of one thing. He didn't have ten things that he was doing. He had one thing that he would do. He was, maybe he was a bit simple- minded like I am. I can't do a whole bunch of things at once. But I can do one thing real loud. Maybe he was that way. But he was a man of one thing. This one thing I do, Paul says. Forgiving those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before. I press for the mark for the prize of a high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And that's all I want. Oh, brothers and sisters, is that all you want? Or are there some other things over here? No. Tearing away. Pulling you back. You know how it is. We all live in a real world. Amen. Paul was a man of one thing. I struggled a bit this afternoon as I thought about some of these things that I'm going to say. And I thought, oh Lord, I don't want to blow these people away. I don't want them to think, whoa, what is this man saying? But dear brothers and sisters, we're talking about God. This isn't some religion. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. The only true and living God. And beside Him there is no other. Surely He should have everything. Surely that would be a right way to get this conference started. Amen. That He would have everything in all of us. But I thought, maybe the standard is too high here. Look at these verses. In verse 15 it goes on to say, Let us therefore as many as be perfect. And that means upright. Up to date. Are you here tonight and you're up to date? Everything is clear. Heaven is open. Let us as many as be perfect. And He goes on to say, see beautiful words. He says, and if it is, it is. Anything you'd be otherwise minded. God shall reveal you in this unto you. And I thought about that, you know. If that's where our heart is, if our heart is focused like that. If we have a single eye that's fixed upon Christ. Yeah. Anything that comes into our life that is otherwise minded. God will take care of it. God will reveal it. And the Spirit of God is very faithful, isn't He? You know what you need to do is drop down on your knees and say, Lord, what's wrong? Tell me what's wrong. Why? He wants to possess you. Why? He wants to control you. He wants to use you. He wants to be glorified through you. Even you. So because of that, if anything you'd be otherwise minded. God will reveal you in this unto you. God will do that. But you see, we get so far away from this reality. It takes us a few weeks to figure out what we want. But God wants us to walk close to Him. And when you walk close, you hear that voice. You hear it. And He says, That word you just said was right. Yes, Lord. Your eyes, they went where they shouldn't have gone. Yes, Lord. Just like that. He's faithful. He's quick. The problem is that we live pretty far away from this. And therefore, it may take us a few weeks before we figure out what happened. Things are a little cloudy in my life. What went wrong? I thought about you all yesterday. Today, I thought about you all. You know, again, I'm just kind of catching up as I'm here these last few days. But I understand that most of the churches are small. Not a big group here, a big group there. I thought about you all as I thought about this message, you know. You know, the Lord Jesus, He said some powerful words to Peter that I believe we can take into our own hearts this evening. He said to Peter, On this rock, I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And you know what that rock was? That rock is Christ. This Christ that the Apostle Paul is talking about, that rock is Christ. And you see, what Jesus was saying was this. Wherever there's a group of people who come together, who are willing to build their lives on Christ in this manner, I will build my church. And I'll build such a church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And brothers and sisters, pull back, go back through the pages of Christian history and you'll see it over and over and over again. God is not a respecter of people. He's not a respecter of lands. It doesn't matter who you are. You can be an ignorant Chinaman who doesn't even know how to read, but if there's a few of you that get together and God will want Jesus with all of their heart, God will begin to build a church in you. He promised. So here we are. And we live in Scotland. Or maybe England. Or Ireland or Wales. And it's just a little group, you know. Just a little group. God doesn't want that. That's not God's heart. God wants to build a church, a beautiful church, a glorious church, a church militant, a church that will get the respect of the community or the persecution of the community one way or another. And I don't mean by going out and being unkind to people. I mean because of the anointing and the holiness in your life. They don't want to have anything to do with you. That's the kind of church that God wants to build. That's the kind that Jesus built in the book of Acts. Which, by the way, is the beginning of the fulfillment of that prophetic promise that he gave back there in Matthew chapter 16. On this rock I will build my church, and it keeps a host of confidence. Oh brothers and sisters, do we believe that a person in awe of the Lord? Is that for some other age? Is that for the people back there? Is that not for the people in Scotland? Did Jesus still not do those things today? I'm telling you, he'll do the same thing today that he did before. Yes. He can do it again there. He can do it again. Oh God, give us another chance. Give us another chance, Lord. Close with this, this little testimony. Twenty years ago, our little church back in Pennsylvania was a little church. We started with five families, and five years later we had ten. Not very good church growth figures, is it? Five to ten. Oh, and by the way, we lost one, and gained one, and lost one, and gained one through the years. But we believed in revival. And we believed in the promises of revival. And we believed that God was a covenant-keeping God. And for those five following years, we prayed, Lord, send revival to us here. After five years, we decided to have a little week of meetings with the community. Oh, that would be nice. We would invite the community into our church. God sent us an evangelist who was a little bit different than the status quo. On Monday night, he preached on sin. On Tuesday night, he preached on sin. On Wednesday night, he preached on sin. I mean, he just kept putting that gospel plow down a little deeper every night. But you know what happened? All of a sudden, things started to break up in our nice little fellowship of people who look so right and so nice on the outside. And junk started coming up, and sin started coming up, and sins of witchcraft, and immorality, and all kinds of stuff that I thought to myself, these are my people. I'm the pastor of these people. Look at how they're living. You know what? Night after night, as the people began to get honest, and I mean, we went to like one o'clock in the morning every night dealing with these people. But every night, the atmosphere got clearer. You know what I'm talking about? And the presence of the Lord just started to hover there. Thursday night, more sin Friday night, more sin Saturday night. And by Sunday night, the presence of God was so real in that place that the preacher didn't want to get up to preach. You know how that is. You think, I'm not going to touch this thing. I may mess it up. God is here. Who needs a preacher? Amen? Amen. But you know, by Sunday night, it's as if God was watching, and he was. And he realized, now I can trust these people with the community. And the community started to come. They started coming. And hardened sinners started coming. And that husband that that wife had been praying for for 10 years started coming. And another one came. And another one came. And beautiful things began to happen. And the presence of God just continued to draw closer and closer. One visitor came in. He snuck in a little bit late. He didn't want anybody to see him going to these odd meetings. And he snuck in a little bit late. And came in the back door and went down through the basement. And he was going to go upstairs. We heard a prayer meeting going on over here in this room. So he stopped over there and put his ear up against the door. And it scared him what he heard in there. Because he'd never heard anybody praying like that, you know. He'd heard lots of, you know, now I lay me down to sleep prayers. But they were praying in that room. They were interceding in that room. That's what they were doing. This went on for two more weeks. Finally, at the end of these three weeks, one o'clock every night, one o'clock in the morning, one o'clock in the morning, finally, we were more out of time. And she closed the meetings. But the church has never been the same since that. All of a sudden, suddenly, it turned into worship. And prayer became intercession. Oh, yes. And the presence of God was in the meetings. And the church became a body. And I could go on and on and on. But from that day till this, the church has not stopped growing in numbers, in maturity, and in influence. Five little families. Oh, God can do that. God can do that here. God can do that in your church. Maybe your church is small. Maybe it's just a little handful. God doesn't care if it's a little handful. God can take a multitude out of a handful. He can do it. He's done it many, many times. But you have to be willing to get serious with God, you know? And this is a corporate thing. It's not just put it on your preacher, you know? Come on, preacher. Be a hot servant of God. Then stay prayed up and give us good service. I'm telling you, that's not Christianity. That isn't. If that's your mindset, if you come to church on Sunday morning and say, Okay, bless me, preacher. You don't understand what the body of Christ is like. I don't know that. It's all of us getting in. It's all the same, okay, God. All for you and nothing for me. You come this day forward. And when you start doing that, you can take ten and turn it into a multitude. He can do it. He'd be delighted to do it, wouldn't he? Wouldn't he be delighted to do it in Scotland? Yes, he would. These words enclose us. God, these beautiful words that we hear. We've had a conference in Georgia last month or so. And I just thought I'd read them to you in the book of Hosea. I'm going to turn their Bibles away. God has a controversy with his people here in the book of Hosea. He's pretty burdened about the way they're living. And how they've lost all the reality. And he's talking about judgment. Bringing judgment upon them. And at this stage, you know, God's still wanting to give them a chance. You know, that's the way God is. He's very patient and he's very merciful. And he wants to give us another chance. But he says this in chapter 5 in verse 15. He says, This is what I will do with the children of Israel. I will go and return to my place. I'm going to go to my place. And stay there. And leave them over there. Wow. That's quite a picture, isn't it? That's a tragic picture. I will go and return to my place, says God. Till they acknowledge their offenses. And seek my face. In their affliction, they will seek me early. God knows. God knows what he's doing. He's going to go over to his place. And just kind of let us by ourselves. Let us spin our wheels. Let us keep on trying. Let us try to move it up. Let us try to sing it up. Let us try whatever else up we want. Whatever our methods are. That we've tried to adapt to. To try to get in the presence of God. And God's over here. I want you to know we do get tired of doing that. We do get tired of doing that. And God knows we're going to get tired of it. And then this is what's going to happen. And our hearts will rise up. Chapter 6, verse 1. And say, come. Let us return unto the Lord. This is terrible. How can we live with this mess any longer? Let's return to the Lord. Hallelujah. For he hath torn us. He hath. And he will heal us. He hath smitten. Will you abide beside him? See that element of faith rising up in their hearts? They remember the mercy of God. They know what God will do. When they get serious, they know what God will do. After two days, will he revive us? And in the third day, he will raise us up. We shall live in his sight. That's just the way I hear it. And we shall live in his sight. Then. Shall we follow on? If we follow on to know the Lord. We shall follow on. And keep on following on. Keep on following on to know the Lord. More and more and more. That's what that verse is saying. We're right back to the apostle Paul, aren't we? We're right back to him. His going forth is prepared as the morning. He shall come on us as the rain. As the latter and the former rain. Those kind of promises still stand tonight, brothers and sisters. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises to us. He's not slack. He's still the same. And I want to listen. Don't you think it would be a good idea if we just. I mean, let's get serious on Tuesday night. We want revival. I do believe we want revival. But you know. Revival has to start with me. Man, it's beautiful. Some of the prayers I heard. The prayer that just broke my heart. As I heard you dear people. Pray for your country. Just broke my heart. But you know what? It has to start right here. Right here. Maybe the Lord has left you his place. He's left you there. Spinning and trying to do this thing. And trying to get it going. And trying to be what you're supposed to be. And trying to read and go to church. And there's nothing on the inside. That's a pretty tough bill to fill. Without the reality of God. I'm going to try to do this Christian thing. Can't do it. Aren't you tired? I'm trying. I'm going to give an invitation. You see, that's what these chairs are up here for. So you saw that. For any of you who want to do business with God. And you know. This isn't a group of people off the streets. You know. I don't think we need to sing a song. And play some music. And all that stuff. You need to do business with God. Just come. Just come in front here. Meet with the altar. And let God deal with you. Who will come? Father in Jesus name. We thank you Lord. We thank you for your beautiful word. We thank you for making Sam. The life of the apostle Paul. Oh Father. We pray this in the name of God. That you will have him in your name. Lord in us. Do not pass us by dear Lord. Yes Lord. We want a visitation in Scotland. Oh God. We need a visitation right here. In this place. Even tonight Lord. Father. Would you send down upon us all. Would you. A sister who sang for us. Where is she? Would you just come and sing for us. You do that. You are wonderful. Because that is really what it is all about. Brothers and sisters. That is what it is really all about. Sorry about that sister. Maybe you just need to kneel right there in your seat tonight. Talk to God. This one thing I need from Sam. One thing. All I want is Christ. Do you? Oh God. I love you. I love you. Holy Christ. You know a little bit how Moses felt. Looking to the presence of God. Holy Grail. We need to say a few things. If you want to stay here and pray you can. Tomorrow. At eleven thirty the speakers. Have been invited to have. A lunch. With the city council. By the invitation of the mayor. And we are going to meet in the back of the room. Are any of the council members here? Or the mayor? Okay. We want to pray for God's blessing on this town. Peace of God be upon this town. So all the speakers. Will meet back there at eleven thirty. And then those of you that. Chauffeured them will need to come back. At a certain time. I guess we'll tell you that later on. So that's tomorrow. You'll pray with God. That's incredible. Incredible. That also there are eleven blind Africans. On the hill. In prayer. In Africa. Right now. For this meeting. I believe we're going to see some incredible things. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/BRDOMYlNawE.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/denny-kenaston/denny-kenaston-02/ ========================================================================