Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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All right, let's pray.
God, our Father, You are our strength.
We love You, Lord.
We wouldn't want to be anywhere else than
right here, God.
We love You.
We love our children.
We want to raise them for You, Lord.
Because we want to honor You.
So give us wisdom, Lord, and grace to
do just that.
Speak to our hearts, Lord, by the Holy
Ghost in this session.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
The foundation of a godly home.
This could be the most important message that
you hear in this whole series.
The foundation of a godly home.
What do I mean by foundation?
The foundation of a godly home is a
clear conversion.
Amen?
A life-changing salvation experience is the beginning
of a godly home.
Turn with me to Matthew chapter 7.
Read a couple of verses there for you.
Just to help us to understand this principle.
Before we read these verses about the house
in Matthew chapter 7.
I want you to know that this word
house, it also means household.
And we'll see that all through these sessions.
But even here, it means household.
Not just a building.
The scriptures are deeper than that.
Matthew chapter 7, reading from verse 24.
Jesus said these words, finishing up the Sermon
on the Mount.
After He told them, Not everyone that saith,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven, but he that doeth the will of
my Father, He said these words, Therefore, whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them,
I will liken him unto a wise man
which buildeth his house upon the rock.
And the rain descended, and the floods came,
and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house, and it fell not, for it was
founded upon a rock.
Glory!
And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine
and doeth them not shall be likened unto
a foolish man which buildeth his house upon
the sand.
And the rain descended, and the floods came,
and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house, and it fell.
And great was the fall of it.
First things first, brothers and sisters, when we
look at our homes, our families, first things
first, we don't want to get the cart
before the horse.
It won't go anywhere.
If we do that, it won't come out
right.
It's rather an odd picture when you think
about it.
Here's the cart, and here's the horse behind
it.
Where is he going to go?
He's going to go nowhere.
Oh, some undiscerning might look on and say,
Hey, there's a cart, there's a horse, everything's
fine.
But the cart is ahead of the horse.
And guess what?
They're not going to go anywhere.
I'm afraid it's the same way, brothers and
sisters, with our homes.
You know, if salvation is not ours, we
cannot have a godly home.
Now we might be able to pass on
some religion, but you can't have a godly
home.
You just can't.
To set out on a journey to raise
godly children without knowing Him won't come out
right.
To set out to raise godly children without
personal salvation, without a vital relationship with God,
is putting the cart before the horse.
It will not come out right.
I know that most of you that are
here are born again.
However, considering the present mixture in Christianity today,
there may be that some of you have
the cart before the horse.
You know, it's pretty difficult to try to
have a godly home without Christ.
Some of you, you may look back on
your salvation with uncertainty.
Maybe you stood in a meeting and sat
down again and everyone said, Oh, that's wonderful.
Now he's a Christian.
Maybe you prayed a little prayer at an
altar and everybody was happy for you, but
not much changed on the inside.
Some, at the age of five or six,
they hear a hot message about hell.
No five or six year old wants to
go to hell.
Or maybe they hear some beautiful message about
heaven.
All the five year olds want to go
to heaven.
Maybe you were one of those.
You prayed a little prayer when you were
five or six.
Lord Jesus, come in my heart.
I want to go to heaven.
Maybe you joined the church by baptism when
you were youth.
You know, everybody else is doing it.
I'm fifteen, I'm sixteen.
Time to join the church.
So you go through your instruction class and
you join the church.
Oh, everybody was happy for you.
They patted you on the back.
They were smiling.
It was the accepted thing to do.
But in reality, there was never a change
in your heart.
Very little fruit.
Very little reality.
Many are like this today.
Maybe not in this room, but many are
like this today.
According to the Bible, nothing short of a
personal encounter with Jesus Christ will do for
salvation.
Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus.
And he was never the same.
2 Corinthians 5.17 If any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature.
All things are passed away.
Behold, all things are become new.
Amen?
Oh, that's beautiful.
The life-transforming work of Christ in the
heart is a beautiful thing.
But Paul says, 2 Corinthians 13.5 Examine
yourself.
Examine yourself.
I don't want to unsettle anyone this evening.
But you know, if you're sitting here in
this meeting and you've never been born again
and it's religion for you and no relationship
with Him, frankly, I want to unsettle you.
I pray that God would send conviction upon
you and unsettle things in your heart.
Because the end is a glorious transformation in
your heart and your life.
And your children will be blessed for it.
We live in a day when many are
trying to live the Christian life without Christ.
What a burden!
You know, you hear them talking about trying
to keep the law without Christ.
What about the New Testament?
What about trying to have a godly home
without Christ?
What a burden life can be trying to
have a godly home without the Christ of
a godly home.
What a miserable life that is.
Home responsibilities without Him who makes it a
blessing and a joy to live for God.
What a sad thing to enter in to
one of the most holy, awesome tasks this
side of glory without Him.
Some parents attempt it.
They hear some tapes.
They go to a seminar.
They get all excited.
They make some changes and stumble along.
But it just really doesn't work very well.
Are you a real Christian?
Remember the story about the young lady sitting
on a plane next to me?
I think I was flying from Memphis to
Nashville.
Are you a Christian?
I said to her with my Bible on
my lap.
Oh, sure!
I'm a Christian!
With a big smile on her face.
Well, I've learned already.
You have to put a few adjectives ahead
of that word.
It's been watered down quite a bit in
this land of ours.
So I looked her in the eye and
I said again, Are you a real Christian?
And she said, Well, I don't know.
What do you mean by that?
And I said, You know, a real one.
You love the Lord with all your heart.
You love His Word.
You read it.
You love to do what the Bible says.
You love to go to church.
You know, a real one.
And she said, Oh my, no.
I'm not one of those.
No, I'm not one of those.
Oh, brothers and sisters, pray tell me what
other kind is there?
But that's exactly, her answer is exactly a
commentary of this land that we live in.
Oh, I'm a Christian, but I'm not one
of those.
I'm not one of those.
I've got news for you.
That's the only kind that are going to
glory.
Are you a real one?
I hope you are.
Examine yourselves, Paul says.
Are you a real Christian?
If you're not, you just pass on a
religion to your children, which could inoculate them
for all of eternity.
There are thousands like that.
I met a couple at some special meetings
some time ago.
There were meetings on revival, the home, and
missions.
That's a nice combination.
Maybe you think that's an odd combination, but
really, the whole purpose of God is in
those three subjects right there.
You can sum up the whole of this
book in those three subjects.
Revival, the home, and missions.
Amen.
Well, this couple, they came to the meetings
to straighten out their home.
You know, they heard these home tapes and
they thought, this is pretty good, but this
guy's going to speak on the home.
We're going to go and get our homes
straightened out.
Things aren't going too well.
So they came to these meetings and I
was sharing on the home, but there was
another brother preaching revival messages in the evening.
And on one of the evenings, I think
it was Friday evening, he preached a message
on phony Christians.
People who have not been born again.
And gave an invitation at the end.
And this dear lady, she hit the altar
weeping her heart out.
Her husband, he didn't know what happened to
his wife, but she was so broken to
pieces he went up after her and knelt
next to her at the altar.
And in those meetings, he took all the
people that went to the altar out to
a little tent.
And there they divided them up to counselors.
And the man who was leading the prayer
tent that evening, he asked, is there anybody
in here who's not sure if you're born
again?
Because of the nature of the message in
this little lady, she put her hand up
right away, shaking her hand at him.
Her husband looked over at him, wondering what's
going on.
Her wife is not sure if she's a
Christian.
So she got up and headed to the
end of the tent and they gave her
to me.
So he came along too.
We both went into a room and got
down on our knees and started to counsel
with her.
And she just opened her heart.
She said, so how can I help you?
And she just broke down and started weeping.
And she said these words, it doesn't work.
I'm tired of it.
I'm tired of trying to make it work.
I'm tired of dry devotions.
I'm tired of the whole thing.
It doesn't work.
I'm not born again.
Those were her words.
Oh, my heart went out to her and
I saw the hypocrisy of her false profession
just roll off of her back when she
said those words.
I'm not born again!
But her husband looked, you know, and he's
like, oh no, my wife was.
She's mixed up here.
This message has shaken her.
And he starts trying to convince her, you
know, hey, it's okay.
Don't you remember?
You went to this meeting.
Don't you remember that seminar?
You prayed the prayer, you know, and all
that.
But she just kept saying, honey, it doesn't
work.
There's nothing on the inside.
My Christian life doesn't work.
My devotions don't work.
I'm tired of the whole thing.
I'm not born again.
And they went back and forth like this
for a while.
And then finally I just stopped him and
I said, brother, could you just trust me?
I think your wife needs to be born
again.
Would you just let me work with her
and then we can talk a little bit
later?
He said, okay, okay.
He backed away.
And then I looked at her again and
she just said, I'm not born again.
I know I'm not born again.
The whole thing is a fake.
I'm just putting on a show.
I'm just going through the motions.
And I said, would you like to give
your heart to the Lord tonight?
Oh, she said, I would.
I would.
You willing to sell out to God?
You hold nothing back?
Oh, I'm ready.
I'm ready.
That was her response.
Well, they're on her knees.
I told her, all right, I want you
to confess your sins.
I want you to dump out your sins
before God.
Tell Him who you are.
Tell Him what life is like.
Confess them to God and repent them.
Let God wash them away.
She just broke her heart.
She got honest with God and began to
clear her conscience.
And she just brought everything out in the
open.
She was so ripe.
I mean, she was a ripe piece of
fruit.
Easy to pick off the tree.
Praise the Lord.
She wept.
She prayed.
She confessed.
She repented.
And all of a sudden, it was quiet.
And I asked her, Are you clear in
your heart?
Oh, there was a sigh of relief.
And she said, Yes, I'm clear.
Praise God.
Well, I said, OK.
They're on your knees.
Here's what I want you to do.
I want you to just picture the Lord
Jesus on the cross.
You know He died on the cross for
you.
Oh, she knew that.
She was a good religious evangelical.
She knew all the theology.
Yes, I know Jesus died on the cross
for me.
I said, I want you to just picture
Him there on the cross.
I waited a moment.
And I said, Can you see Him there
with your heart?
She just started crying.
She said, Yes, I can see Him.
I said, Well, you know, He died on
the cross for you.
He shed His blood to give you a
whole new life.
I want you to call upon Him.
And the Bible says, Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved.
You call upon the Lord.
Ask Him to wash all your sins away
and ask Him to save you.
Lord Jesus, have mercy on me and save
my soul.
Well, I left her to herself, you know.
She had all her theology right.
She knew what to pray.
She just started praying and crying out to
God to save her.
All of a sudden it got quiet again.
And I asked her, Did the Lord save
you?
Oh, she said, Yes, He did.
Well, I said, Then thank Him.
Praise the Lord and thank Him that He
has.
She just took off praying and thanking God
for all that He had done.
The more she prayed and the more she
thanked God and the more she rejoiced, the
more her heart was filled with the assurance,
the witness of the Spirit within, that she
was born again.
And by the way, I was convinced too
as I was listening to her.
I thought, Oh, this dear lady, she'll never
be the same after this.
Then it got silent again.
And I said, Okay, we're not done here
yet.
I want you to pray again.
I said, It is your reasonable service that
you lay everything on the altar of sacrifice
right here while you're on your knees.
God in mercy has saved you.
I want you to lay everything on the
altar.
And she went back to prayer again.
You know, she went down the whole row.
She sold out lock, stock and barrel.
Lord, whatever, wherever, I'll do whatever you want.
She laid her whole life on the altar.
It got quiet again.
Then I said, Okay, I want you to
pray one more prayer.
Then I took her to Luke 11 where
Jesus said to His disciples, If ye, being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto
your children, how much more shall the Heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that
ask?
And I told her, I said, You need
the Holy Ghost.
You can't do it on your own.
God promised, you know.
You're His daughter.
He promised to give you the Holy Ghost.
You ask the Lord to fill you with
His Spirit and believe that He will.
She went back to praying again.
When she finished, I laid my hands on
her and I prayed the same prayer I
prayed, God, fill this dear lady with the
Holy Ghost full and running over.
Give her the witness of the Spirit.
Give her the wisdom and the grace she
needs.
And I prayed a prayer for her.
And then we were done.
She got up off her knees.
That lady was so bright.
She was aglow.
She was so excited.
She was so full of joy.
She looked at me and I looked at
her.
We both were just rejoicing.
Then all of a sudden I remembered.
Oh, her husband.
And I looked over at him.
He was not very happy.
But I looked his way and I said,
Well, what do you think?
And he said, Brother Denny, I want to
do that.
I mean, he was indignant.
He said, They cheated me.
No one ever showed me anything like that.
No one ever told me to do that.
I want to do that.
I want to get on my knees.
And I thought, Well, no.
I said, You think about it for a
day.
Let's put it before the Lord.
And I prayed a prayer for him.
And told him that if God convicts you
all through the day tomorrow, you respond at
the altar.
And guess what?
He was the first one at the altar
the next night.
Hit that altar.
We took him through the same thing.
He prayed.
God saved his soul.
Sunday morning they got up and gave a
testimony.
They told all these people.
We came to get our homes straightened out.
And God straightened out our hearts.
Which, by the way, takes care of a
home.
Dear parents, this is where it must begin.
The foundation of a godly home is a
clear, sound, solid conversion.
Born again by the Spirit of the living
God.
Transformed from the kingdom of darkness into the
kingdom of His dear Son.
Amen?
That's what salvation is.
That's what you need.
The prophet Ezekiel so beautifully described these things.
In Ezekiel chapter 36 he describes what happened
to that dear lady.
Let's read there.
In Ezekiel 36 from verse 24 to 28.
God speaking through Ezekiel prophetically prophesied of the
glorious salvation that that dear lady got that
night on her knees.
God says, I will take you from among
the heathen.
That's what He did with me.
And gather you out of all countries and
bring you unto your own land.
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you
and ye shall be cleaned from all your
filthiness and from all your idols will I
cleanse you.
Isn't that beautiful?
That's what happened to her.
Then in verse 26 He says, A new
heart also will I give you and a
new spirit will I put within you and
I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh and I will give you
a heart of flesh.
A new heart.
One time I was counseling with a man
and I turned to these verses and read
them to him and he stopped me right
there at that point.
And he said, Wait a minute.
Do you mean I can get a new
heart?
And I said, Yes.
Yeah, you can get a new heart.
And he said, Man, that's what I need.
What do I do?
How do I get one?
Well, he knew.
He knew he needed a new heart.
The first time he heard those verses he
thought, That is exactly what I need.
My dear friend, maybe that's exactly what you
need.
You know, to try to go through the
motions of this whole thing without a new
heart is a miserable life.
You mean, I can get a new heart?
Yeah, you can get a new heart.
What do I need to do?
Where do I start?
My dear friend, do you need a new
heart?
That lady got a new heart.
Her husband, he got a new heart the
next day.
And guess what?
They got a new home when they got
new hearts.
But God doesn't stop there.
He says, I'm going to put a new
heart in you.
I'm going to take out of you that
old stony heart.
And I'm going to put in you a
soft heart and flesh.
But not only that, He goes on to
say, And I will put my spirit within
you.
I will put my spirit within you.
I'm going to give you a new heart.
And then I'm going to put my spirit
in your new heart.
Oh, that's salvation!
And He finishes by saying, And then I
will cause you to walk in my statutes,
and ye shall keep my judgments and do
them.
What a beautiful description of the Christian life!
God puts a new heart in us.
He puts His spirit in our new heart.
And then He gives us the desire and
the power to do His will.
And we just find ourselves being led to
do God's will.
That's how God wants us to raise our
children.
Being led by His Spirit to raise our
children according to His ways.
Can't do that unless you get a new
heart.
And then He goes and finishes in verse
28, And ye shall dwell in the land
that I give to your fathers, and ye
shall be my people, and I will be
your God.
There it is.
A relationship.
A beautiful relationship.
Well, how is it for you?
You say, well, Brother Denny, I didn't get
converted the way you just described.
Well, join the group.
Neither did I.
I wish someone would have worked me over
like that.
At that day when I was under conviction,
it would have saved me a lot of
trouble in my Christian life.
But that's not the important thing here.
This evening is to begin to examine and
say, well, I didn't go through all that.
I know I'm a Christian, but I didn't
go through all those things.
It doesn't really matter.
The thing that's important is you need the
kind of cleansing, the clearing, the blessing, the
surrender that that dear lady got on her
knees.
That's what you need.
Whether you're born again here tonight or whether
you aren't, you still need the same kind
of open heaven that she had when she
got up off of her knees.
That's the way to head down the road
to have a godly home.
Right there.
Get up off of her knees.
Bright, clear, open heaven.
Happy, joyful, ready to go.
Anointed by the God of heaven.
Now you're ready to have a godly home.
So, you either need a clear salvation experience
or you need an old-fashioned revival in
your cold heart.
You need one or the other.
And I trust that you will, before these
meetings are out, you will find either one
of those if heaven is not open over
you.
Let us reason together.
Except the Lord build the house, they labor
in vain to build it.
Amen?
How can the Lord build the house?
Is God talking about a physical building?
No.
He's talking about my house.
The house of Denny Keniston.
That's what He's talking about.
My household.
How can the Lord build my house if
He's not sitting on the throne of my
heart?
He can't do it.
It won't work.
If we are not going to get right
and stay right, yielding to God continually, then
how can He build our household?
We must be a willing, that's a yielded,
clear, clean, open vessel in God's sight.
You know, I thought about it as I
was preparing this message.
God really has us in the corner.
You know what?
We love our children.
We want the best for our children.
And yea, us, we've gathered here because we
want a godly family.
We want our children to rise up and
serve God with all their heart.
I know that's what we want.
But God has us in the corner.
We want a godly family?
Amen.
But, we will only have a godly family
if we do it God's way.
It's the only way.
He wrote the rule book, didn't He?
And I've learned this about God.
He doesn't change.
He doesn't budge.
He's very stubborn.
If He says something in His Word, you
can count on it, it'll be that way.
If He gives you a warning in His
Word, and you don't heed it, guess what?
Things won't go well for you.
God doesn't budge.
And God has us in the corner in
this whole matter of our homes.
We want them.
We want that kind of home.
We want it desperately.
But God says to us, I want you.
You want a godly home?
I want you.
Give me your heart.
Give me your life.
Get your heart clear.
Get born again if you need to.
But I want your heart, God says.
If you will give me your heart, if
you will yield me your life, I will
pick you up and use you to give
you a godly home.
That's what God says.
And He has us in the corner.
It's like this is the only way.
So, hey, guess what?
You can get all that figured out here
on Friday evening, or you can wait and
get it figured out by next Saturday night.
But I would encourage you to get it
all figured out sooner.
You'll get much more out of all the
sessions, all the nuts and bolts, all the
how-tos, all the principles, all the illustrations.
You'll get way more out of it if
from the beginning you will get everything right
with the living God.
If that means to be born again, then
do that.
If you just need an old-fashioned revival
meeting, then do that.
But do it sooner rather than later.
I would encourage you that way.
Have you been born again by the Spirit
of God?
Does the Spirit bear witness with your spirit
that you are a child of God?
Do you know that witness?
That witness of the Spirit that makes you
lay down on your bed at night and
your heart is rejoicing?
You know, who cares?
So, I'm just going to shut my eyes
and go to sleep.
It really doesn't matter what happens.
I could wake up in heaven.
The witness of the Spirit does that.
The lack of the witness of the Spirit
makes you feel miserable sometimes when you lay
up on your bed at night.
You think about the second coming of the
Lord or all of a sudden you start
gasping in the middle of the night or
your heart starts beating a little fast and
you don't feel very good if you don't
have the witness of the Spirit.
Fear grips the heart instead of that calming
witness of God's Spirit.
Is there victory in your personal life, dear
brother, dear sister?
Is God a living reality to you?
I know these are probing questions.
These are all marks of true Christianity.
Every one of them.
We must be real Christians to lead our
children into the true faith.
It won't work any other way.
We must be real.
Are you feeling uneasy?
You say, brother, you are unsettling me.
I'm feeling uncomfortable.
Why do you keep asking those probing questions?
Because I love you.
And I love your family.
And if you need to hear those probing
questions, then you just gonna have to squirm
a little bit.
Let me give you some good counsel.
If your heart is feeling unrestful because I'm
challenging your salvation experience, open your heart up
to God and just simply say, Father, I
know you love me.
Am I a Christian or am I not?
You pray that little prayer with an open
heart, I guarantee you, God will either confirm
you or convict you from this moment forward.
If you pray that little simple prayer with
an open heart, in sincerity, okay, Lord, these
words do unsettle me.
They make me feel bad.
Father, am I a Christian?
You know, He loves you.
He'll show you either way.
He will.
He'll show you because He loves you.
I would encourage you to make that little
simple prayer for light in your heart.
And then trust God that He will make
it very, very clear from that moment forward.
And if God then unsettles your heart, then
you need to do something about it.
There are people here who would love to
take the Bible and lead you through just
like I said.
Wouldn't that be a blessing?
Get a start like that?
Some of you might think, hey, I want
to start over like that.
No, you can't do that.
But listen, if God unsettles your heart, you
make your need known.
Someone will be delighted to take the Bible
and show you and lead you just like
I described.
And God will give you a new heart.
And with that, you are on the road
to a new home very, very quick.
Let's bow our heads.
Close our eyes.
As you're here, as I pray, if God
is convicting you of this very need in
your life, I would like you just to
get up out of your seat and just
come down to the altar and kneel here
and pray.
And someone will see to it that you
get some counsel.
You do that while I pray.
God our Father, we bow down before you
again.
In Jesus Christ's name, thank you for salvation.
It's so beautiful.
Father, I pray for all those that heard
this message.
Would you convict their hearts, Father?
Yes, Lord, would you even unsettle their hearts
if they're not born again?
God, I don't desire to unsettle any who
are truly settled.
But I just commit them all into your
care, Father.
And I pray, you do your quiet work
in each and every heart in this place.
This I ask in the name of Jesus
Christ.
Amen.