03. the Foundation of a Godly Home — Denny Kenaston

Conversion as the Foundation of a Godly Home

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 a 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. He said. 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 built 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 house, unto a foolish man which built 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. 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 gonna go? He's gonna 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 gonna go anywhere.

Personal Salvation Before Raising Godly Children

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 are 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. It's time to join the church. I'm 15, I'm 16, it's 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, in 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 people 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? You remember the story? 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 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.

False Profession and Genuine Conversion

Hmm? 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 is going to speak on the home.

We're going to go and get our home 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, and this little lady, she put her hand up right away, shaking her hand at him. Husband looked over at him, wondering what's going on. My 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.

You know? I said, so how can I help you? And she just broke down and started weeping, and she said these words. She said, 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. Well, 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 thought, 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, and 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, there 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 of 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 then 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, okay, there 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.

And 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. 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 those 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. And, 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. And I said, okay, I want you to pray one more prayer. And I took her to Luke chapter 11, you know, 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. Beautiful prayer. 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 I 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 the home. Oh, it was beautiful. 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 clean. 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. 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. 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? 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.

The New Heart and the Indwelling Spirit

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 of 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? How is it for you? You say, well, Brother Dinny, 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 that 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 Denikeniston. 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?

Yielding to God in Family Life

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 it? You know, 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.

Examining the Heart and Responding to Conviction

Let me give you some good counsel. If your heart is feeling unrestful because I'm challenging your salvation experience do this. 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, we're not going to sing a song tonight.

I'm not going to make an appeal to try to get you to come down an aisle, sing a song, plead with you. No, I'm not going to do that. But 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, Father. Thank you for salvation. It's so beautiful.

Father, I pray. 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 to go 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.