16. Father the Anointed Teacher — Denny Kenaston

The Father's Calling as an Anointed Teacher

This evening The title of the message is father the anointed teacher. Father the anointed teacher. We are now moving into other important aspects of training children very important aspects. Especially if you look at it in the light of the father being an anointed teacher.

One of the most powerful influences that you can have upon your dear little ones. You will have when you open up your mouth with the anointing of the Holy Ghost and teach them. My that's a powerful influence God says to you fathers.

You are a teacher. Just Like God said to Abraham You are a father of many nations. God says to you You are a teacher. There is no difference at all in these two statements. Both of them are true. The only maybe the only difference is that Abraham believed God when he said that to him and It's still a question tonight whether you will believe God.

But you are a teacher. The Lord has called each One of you fathers to preach and teach the Word of God to your family. You are the leader of your house and one of the prime Callings in this leadership is teaching.

The ability is in the call. Amen. We believe that don't we if God calls a man. To stand in a pulpits the ability is in the call. He may be a stutterer when God calls him. But when God calls a man the ability is in the call.

And God calls you fathers to be anointed teachers. God Who calls the things that be not as though they are says you are a teacher? Believe it step forward. Even if you have to stutter while you do it God will help you.

I promise you God will help you brethren. This is the nature of biblical faith. If you already sit here feeling overwhelmed by the words that I have spoken. I'm here to tell you tonight. This is the nature of biblical faith.

We are to be living on the edge of the impossible repeatedly. Amen. Without this kind of faith. It is impossible to please God. So this is your next assignment. Amen. You may as well get started on the impossibilities right now.

Remember faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen yet. It is the witness of God's Spirit in my heart that God will take care of me and do What he said he would do with me.

That's what faith is. Why am I speaking so firmly and confidently this evening. I'll tell you why. Because many men as they come to grips with the needs in their home. They say I can't do it. I can't teach.

I'm not like you brother Denny. Now you should have seen brother Denny 23 years ago. They say I can't teach. This is absolutely not true. It may be true that you in the flesh You cannot teach but I'm telling you in the spirit you are a teacher.

Thus saith the Lord. You are a teacher to say the other is like looking at an acorn and Saying it cannot become a tree. You may look at it and say it doesn't look like it can become a tree. It doesn't look like a tree.

But yet we all know that within that little acorn is all the power and all the ability and Everything that God has put in there to make a mighty oak tree someday. And guess what the ones who don't believe that it's a tree never planted.

But the ones that believe that it's a tree put it in the ground and bless God. They see a great big oak tree growing up. Which one are you going to do tonight brethren? Most men who can't teach in quotes Grew up without being taught by a father.

Amen. We must break the chain of this disobedience and pass on a legacy of teaching to the next generation of fathers and mothers. I Believe God will meet you at your point of need as you trust him and you obey him.

He will meet you at your point of need. Remember how God gave the spirit of the Lord to the craftsmen in the building of the temple. My dear brothers and sisters we are building temples for the Lord. Surely we can trust God for an anointing to build his little temples.

You do not have to be an apt teacher to teach if you have a longing to Communicate truth to your family and you start teaching. God will teach you how to teach. When I met that family in Canada 20 some years ago Nobody sat me down and taught me how to teach.

No way. All I had was a desire To make something happen. I stammered around. I made mistakes. I didn't do it, right. But there was something inside of me that made me keep on getting up and keep on going and there came a point in time.

When I realized as I was sitting in my family's devotion times that my children were grasping what I was saying God was making me a teacher. God has given us a door of opportunity brothers and sisters with our children.

Let us seize it. We spoke earlier about the natural desire to please parents which is inside of our children. God has placed several things like this in a young child it is a special period of grace so that we as Fathers and mothers can teach and guide and train and mold our children for the glory of God.

Natural Opportunities for Teaching Children

Consider a few of these Natural things which God in his wisdom has put in our children. Number one there is a natural desire in the heart of a child who want to please their father and mother. They feed on our approval and they live to see us smile at what they are doing.

We need to teach them how to please us and I trust that how to please us comes out of this book right here. Because they want to please they have a desire to please. Number two there is a natural desire in a little child to want to learn.

You you've noticed it. They don't want to stay laying on their back bless God. They want to be on their belly. They don't want to stay on their belly bless God. They want to crawl. They don't want to crawl.

They want to walk. They don't want to walk. They want to run. They don't want to run. They want to talk. They don't want to learn how to talk. They want to learn how to read and that's the way it is with a child.

There is that natural ability in them. They want to go they want to grow they want to learn. Oh God. What have we done? We are missing the opportunity. There is a natural admiration in a heart of a child for its parent.

Because they are ignorant and because God has put it in there. Amen the glory of Children is their fathers. Remember my dad's the best dad in the whole wide world. Man we better take advantage of that.

But also because they're ignorant and they do not understand at this point. They do not see your needs there will come a day when they will see your needs, but they do not see your needs. Man, we need to take advantage of the opportunity that we have.

I remember I Remember one time that I When Elizabeth was about 10 years old I felt like I needed to Have a confession in front of my family and I opened up my heart and broke my heart before my family.

Confessing some of my needs and Elizabeth came to me afterwards sweet little Elizabeth 10 years old. She said Papa you don't need to do that. You there's nothing wrong with you. You're you're the best Papa in the whole wide world.

And I thought and I said to her well dear Someday you will know that's not true, but I'm glad you feel that way now and that is how they feel. God has put that in there for not for naught. But so that we can seize that admiration and fill their heart with the Word of God.

God has done it. They have the ability to learn quickly very quickly. They have quick minds. Their minds are not loaded down with cares and distractions and many other things. They have a mind that is pure from all of these and they can learn very easily.

We should seize the opportunity. Another one they are masters at imitation, aren't they? I mean the little cliche. This is where it comes from monkey see monkey do right? That's talking about children.

Children are just like that the little child sees and the little tide dues. Oh that God would give us the wisdom to show them an example so that the little monkey can see and do and lastly They are gullible.

They will swallow anything. They believe in you and they believe you. You can teach them anything you want they will believe it. I mean the nonsense of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are good examples of what a child will believe if you teach it to them.

They will believe that. Oh They are gullible. Shall we not seize the opportunity and plant the right things inside of their hearts? I Think it's very clear. God has given us a special door of opportunity.

We dare not pass this Open door of utterance by it will not always be there brothers and sisters. My observation is this that it lasts for about 10 years. For about 10 years now if you do your homework for those 10 years then you will be able to continue to teach and guide for many years after that, but for the most part if you have Neglected and you have not done what you should be doing.

It's very difficult to get them interested in what you're saying. Unless Salvation comes to the household and transforms everybody then you will have another door where you can put something into them.

The Teacher's Work: Instruction, Dialogue, and Example

That's my observation. What is a teacher. Webster says. This about about the word teach or teacher to teach is to instruct or communicate knowledge to one who is ignorant. Our children qualify. Another definition to impress truth upon the mind to admonish or counsel by words and Examples, this is what Jesus did and he was the master teacher, wasn't he?

Another definition of teaching is to catechize. Now that's an old English word and many of you may not know what it means. But here is exactly what it means. It means line upon line teaching with questions answers and open discussions.

Here we see a teacher engaging his students in meaningful dialogue with learning in mind. Then they're not just chattering they're not just talking but the teacher is engaging the students in Meaningful dialogue and his goal is that they will grasp the truth that he wants them to get into their hearts and make it part of their very life.

Again, do you see the Lord Jesus doing this with his disciples? That is exactly how the Lord Jesus discipled his disciples in those three and a half years. Isaiah 28 verse 9 and 10 is a beautiful example of this of Who to teach and how to teach hear these words?

Whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast that tells you the when and the who and The how for precept must be upon precept precept upon precept line upon line.

Here at line upon line here a little there a little that's the teaching program that the Bible reveals. Let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6. We want to read in Deuteronomy chapter 6 those precious Verses their famous verses on the responsibility of a father to teach his children Deuteronomy chapter 6 and we're going to read verse 4 through 7.

This portion of Scripture is rich with a revelation of God's heart for us and for our children. From this text we are going to plumb the depths of what a father teacher is supposed to be. Will you allow me men?

Will you allow me to give the fullness of God's heart though? It may be way beyond where you are at this point in your life. Would you allow me just to give the fullness of God's heart that we can all look at it and say?

Yes, Lord, that is what you want. That is your design. That's what I want. You may not be there, but you need to see where God wants you to go. I Want to give you a glimpse of who you can be if you will.

Sincerely in brokenness cry out to God and begin to teach your children. Let's read verse 4 through 7 here. Oh Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.

And these words which I Command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house. And when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up.

Six Qualities of the Anointed Father-Teacher

In this most famous text we have a lovely picture of an anointed father. Teaching the next generation to love his God with all of their heart. We must look at this man with eyes with the eyes of the New Covenant.

Yeah, which is where you will find the grace to be this kind of a father. You won't find it in the Old Testament. You'll find it in the new but I'm telling you the grace that you need to be this kind of a father is Already bought and paid for on Calvary.

Hallelujah. I mean it's already done. It's a done deal. We just need to believe God and move forward. But just notice these six holy qualities that I would like to draw our attention to number one this father.

He loves God. He loves the Lord with all of his heart and God has first place in his life. This dear father has a single eye and that I the eye of his heart is fixed. Continually upon God to love him to worship him to walk with him.

There is nothing half-hearted about this father. Nothing half-hearted. Nothing shall turn him aside for very long. This is the inner foundation that supports every true teacher if you want to be this kind of a teacher.

You're going to have to begin right here. This is square one. I must love the Lord my God with all my heart. This must become a commandment that bears down upon our hearts and doesn't stop until we can say with an Overflowing heart.

I do. I do I do. Love the Lord with all my heart. This first point is without question the most important of all it is the prime reason for most of the devastation We see in our homes in this land. Though this series is on raising godly children I feel urgent to permeate its contents with this greatest need again and again.

Because it's futile if we don't. Number two he loves God's Word. He loves God's Word. These words shall be in thine heart. God says. These are basic principles for any teacher. We know this a teacher must love his subject and be excited about the textbook that he is using.

Have you ever seen a teacher like that that loves their subject? I mean a good teacher who loves his subject can take you and get you interested in math or English. Believe it or not. I've seen it happen and it's all because of the enthusiasm of the teacher.

He believes his subject. He's excited about it. He likes the textbook. He's using and before you know it you who hated English are interested. He loves God's Word. We wrote earlier about the power of the human heart.

Well that is implicated here. These words shall be in thine heart. The most powerful part of your being. Amen. Like John said in first John 2 14 out First John 2 14 the Word of God abides in you. We also know out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

This is the requirements for being a teacher. The natural outflow of a heart that is full is teaching. Amen. The natural outflow of a heart that is full is teaching. I don't care if you stutter. If your heart is full of your subject you'll be a teacher.

Amen. Number three. He loves to obey the Word of God. This anointed teacher is not merely passing on information. Amen. It is so much more than that to him. He has obeyed what he is teaching. He knows it works and therefore he wants to teach it to somebody else.

That's beautiful. Praise God. He loves to obey The Word of God. He lives his subject. This is the most powerful tool that a teacher can have to influence his students. He has done it. He has tasted and therefore he's motivated to transfer it to somebody else.

Like it says up in verse 3. He has Observed to do it and they know it by his life. This is not a have-to thing with a true teacher, but rather it is a I get to teach thing with a true teacher. Number four.

He loves to obey the Word. Number three. Number four he loves to teach the Word. Here we have the picture of a wholehearted teacher. Teaching is not done in a haphazard way. It is purposeful. Purposeful with enthusiasm.

He loves to teach. The Word says thou shall teach them. Diligently this father is not merely reading the Word to his children. But he is finding ways to put it into their heart like it is in his heart.

He has tasted it has changed him. He knows that the Lord is good. And now he wants to put it in the hearts of his children because he knows they will prosper. Just like he is prospering. That's a teacher.

He loves to teach the word teach means to sharpen or wet like sharpening of a sword or a stick and the picture there is to take the Word of God and Break it down or sharpen it or simplify it and make it easy to understand.

So you can take a sharp portion of the Word of God and stick it into the heart of your children. That's the picture there. The other word we want to look at here is the word diligently that means again and again.

You see if this thing is in his heart. He's not gonna play around at this thing. I mean this is what is gonna change his children's lives. He's gonna do it again and again. Because he knows what it will do to them.

The next point I'd like to look at is number five. He loves to talk of them. Here I would like to make a difference. We have here a second method of teaching the word To our children as I see it. The previous method is planned prepared for and Carried out with purpose at specific times of the day the father studies.

He gets a word he breaks it down. He sits his family down. He sticks the word in their heart, but then Because it is in his heart He talks about it all the time. Now shall talk of it. When thou citizen thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou risest up in the morning and when thou sittest down At night and what I see there is he's just talking about the word all the time.

He's walking down through life and saying oh. You know that reminds me of that verse over there in such-and-such a place. And do you see how that animal is doing that reminds me of this verse? Boys, do you see how that one cow over there is pushing all the rest of them away?

You know what? The Bible says about things like that just on and on and on and on and on thou shalt talk of them by the way. Because it's in his heart and he likes to talk about it and because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh amen and lastly On this portion.

He is anointed with the Holy Ghost. Now I can't point you to a portion here in this passage of scriptures that says that but we're living in the new covenant. And it's the will of God. This needs to be done.

By the power and the anointing of the Holy Ghost. I think this is obvious. He cannot be and do all that we have listed here except the Spirit of God be upon him. And you can't either and you know that this is the New Testament standard of a godly father we fathers and mothers.

We must come to grips with our greatest lack in light of our greatest responsibility. Which is our children? Humble ourselves. Seek God's face turn from whatever is standing in God's way. Then God will hear us heal our hearts and anoint us with the Holy Ghost.

Pentecost and the Promise of the Holy Spirit

To be the parents that God wants us to be. On the day of Pentecost and all through the book of Acts. They were filled with a Holy Ghost and they did prophesy. You know what that means speak forth the mind and will of God in the power of the Holy Ghost.

That's what it means. That's for you. You say brother Danny. I can't do that stuff. You're talking about Welcome to the club. Neither can I? But by the grace of God I can do what I'm supposed to do. God has made a way.

So maybe you say yeah, well, I'm just a nobody. Well I got a verse for you nobodies to act 218 says. And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit. And they shall prophesy.

Beautiful verse. Hallelujah. God has provided everything dear fathers. Do not be discouraged. Do not be discouraged. This is where God wants to take you as a father. This is where God wants to take you.

And let me just say to you mothers here. You know if your husband walks out of here and he goes home and says, okay I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but bless God brother. Then he said I am and so I'm gonna do it.

Let me give some counsel to you dear ladies that are sitting in this room tonight. He may stutter and stammer at it. It may not be the best sermon that you heard. He may not be able to match the preacher that preaches on Sunday morning.

But I want to give you some counsel. You sit on the edge of your seat. You fold your hands. You put your eyes wide open and bright. You be excited about what he has to say. Enter into the conversations that he opens up and be in there with everything you got.

Don't you remember why I invited you all here? Because I need you and dear ladies your husband needs your Undivided support when he tries to make this whole Family teaching program work. He needs your eyes fixed upon him with a smile and a support.

I mean bless God give him an amen face, right? Listen there are people in this room. There are people in this room that I've already found them. I found them they have an amen face, and I look at them very often while I'm preaching.

I Do I find them and once I know where they are I watch them and you know when I look their way. You know what they give back to me. You know that's like get him brother Danny get him. So I look at those every now and then you know the ones that are frowning at me.

I don't look at them too much while I'm preaching. I just don't look their way very much. They're not a lot of encouragement. I'm not gonna let him intimidate me, but I don't look their way cuz they don't give any encouragement amen.

Oh dear sisters get behind that man of yours and give him the Smilings amen and the support that he needs. He's gonna stumble. But listen if you'll bear with the stumbling bless God someday. He'll prophesy.

He will I believe it so. That wasn't in my notes, but I got time bless God. So I can jump away from these notes dear fathers. Don't be discouraged. This is where God wants you to go. Will you go? Will you step into the River Jordan and watch the waters begin to part?

Will you be one of those who will testify of the God's all-sufficient grace in a few years and look back and said I Changed my mind about that and set my heart and God has made me a teacher. I've seen it many many times brethren you have to many of you have.

Ordination to Teach the Family

In our settings men are called into the leadership of the church. They're called they're ordained to preach and lead out in the churches without any Theological seminary training and many times they aren't much when they first get up.

Are they? But you know what? God has a call on them. The church recognizes the call they get up there. We support them. We give them an amen face. We come up afterwards and say that was a good sermon brother.

So-and-so we're praying for you keep on going guess what about two years later brother. So-and-so is holding the attention of the whole congregation. Dear people, that's how it works. God will do that with you.

You have just been ordained to the ministry of preaching to your family tonight brothers. You have been ordained. Go for it. Okay. Let's look at family devotions at our house for just a little bit. Devotions are very important at the Keniston household.

Establishing Consistent Family Devotions

It is up there on the top of the priority list right next to eating. How many of you have eating pretty high on your priority list at your house? Let me see your hands. Come on, come on. Let me see them.

Yeah, you all do every one of you. It's right up there. Well, this is right up there with eating and that's something none of us miss very often. We spend about 45 minutes in our devotional time and it often goes longer.

It just depends on this fella who's leading it how much he has to say and how much everybody else has to say. I mean if if the thing is rolling and the children are talking we don't stop. I just keep my eye on mama sitting over there, you know.

She has a lot of things going on and you know, she's watching the clock but bless God. She sits right there and supports right through to the end when the children start talking. It's not time to stop.

Recently we have gone to morning and evening time of sharing. After studying all these home histories I was convicted that we should follow the twice a day pattern that so many of these godly homes that I've Studied was following.

So we've changed that at our house and it's a real blessing. Right now we are reading and meditating on the daily light. For the whole this whole next year daily light is a is a compilation of scriptures put into categories Morning and evening so the whole family reads the morning meditation.

Writes down their thoughts about it. Then we all come together and have a beautiful discussion and Papa takes the teachable moment and I you'd be surprised how many different subjects. Come up as the children share what God said to them as they read those verses and wrote their thoughts down.

We go we can go ten different ways in one meeting. Bless God. It's beautiful. This is a morning and evening reading and we enjoy it very much. Let me say this about family devotions fathers. Be a bulldog on this one.

Somebody has to be the bulldog. You know what? I'm talking about. Make it a priority everything in our society. Fights against this there is always something else on the agenda that could be done. But whatever those exciting things are brethren we all eat don't we we need to put this up there on the priority list like eating and I believe if we get filled with a Holy Ghost we will.

As I travel I meet very few families who actually have this whole thing down on a consistent Basis. I meet very few and many times. I'll ask for a raise of hands and I'm not gonna do that to you here today.

But I'll ask for a raise of hands. I see very few hands ever go up when I say how many of you have Consistent family devotions with your family. I mean day after day after day in the thicken and the thin and the good and the bad in the high times.

In the Low times you're right there. Not too many hands go up. We must become a bulldog dad. Somebody has to direct the thing and I believe it's us. This has to change. It is a danger sign. It is a danger sign.

Every now and then is the norm and that won't get it. Amen. We have a good time during devotions at our house. It is not a dry ritual. It's not a have-to thing. We are free we share we have a good time.

We have sharing times if One of the children has something interesting to say they say it if somebody says something funny. We laugh about it and get right back into the word. It's a good time. We have a good time of wholehearted singing and When the children were younger we sang 25 hymns.

I had a marked out this one this one this one and we just stayed on those 25. But you know you can move around quite a bit. But we stayed on those 25 because I wanted the children to know how to sing 25 songs very well and because I wanted the doctrines in those 25 hymns to be sunk deeply inside of the hearts of those children when they were small.

So mama had endure that. It doesn't bother Papa. I can sing the same songs. It doesn't bother me, but mama she had endure some of that. She'd like to have few more songs, but We're there to put the doctrines into the children and to teach them how to sing.

So we have a good time of singing. Solid hymns full of doctrine. When we had little children we often sang children's songs, you know. Everything's all right. In my father's house, you know and the wise man build his house upon the rock and the wise man Build his house upon the rock.

Teaching Through Scripture, Singing, and Object Lessons

We sang songs like that children love it. I mean they sit on the edge of their seat. They can get into those little songs and we sang some of those. If singing is extra worshipful, we'll sing longer. Then I sit in front of the family like a teacher and teach the and preach the Word of God to them.

That's the way that I do it. It doesn't matter to me how you do it. But that's the way I do it. The family is here and I am here sitting in the chair with my Bible in my hand to teach my family the Word of God.

That's the way that I do it at our house. It Is open it's an open time like I described. We have dialogue we have questions we have answers. We share struggles. We have confession meetings. We do all kinds of things like that.

In our times I use simple object lessons to teach important truths on the level where the children are. I do this continually. One time I got up right in the middle of family worship and Disappeared out into the shop.

Just left them all sitting there. Well, you can be sure they were watching when I walked back through the door. I came back through the door the children didn't have a clue where I was going. I came back in with a rope in my hand.

I grabbed little David put him down on the floor took the rope wrapped it around him tied him up. And Josh was looking on wishing boy, I wish I could be there. I Mean he wanted to be there and then we had a lesson.

Well David laid in the middle of the floor tied up with a rope. We had a lesson on how sin can bind you and destroy your life. Somebody heard a story like this somewhere and I got a letter some dear lady Reproving me.

She said how dare you do that to your poor little boy? She didn't have any idea. He loved it. He loved it. One other time I just jumped up just like that right in the middle of Studying in the book of Proverbs and took off into the kitchen came back with a butcher knife in my hand.

Everybody was watching that morning. Here came Papa with a butcher knife and they're all watching and we had a lesson on How evil it is to use our tongue and how we can hurt people with our tongue and and it's just like a knife sticking it into their heart when when we say bad words to people or about people and we had a lesson like that and I'm telling you they remember things like that and by the way Jesus used objects all the time to teach didn't he.

And he did that with grown men. Surely we can find ways that we can break the Word of God down to our children. So they can understand what we're saying so that they can take deep truths and grasp them into their little hearts and those truths will Grow like beautiful plants in their heart into beautiful beautiful portions of Scripture in days to come.

We do that. We have had confession and repentance meetings where we all fell on our faces and wept together. Confessing our needs one to another and praying one for another. It's good to have a family revival meeting every now and then.

Prayer, Repentance, and the Father's Responsibility

We also have a time of prayer this varies in length Depending on the time and Depending on the circumstances. Sometimes it will be a longer season. Depending on where we are at as a family if we're facing some very difficult things we may take more time to pray.

Sometimes there's difficult things going on in the church and we'll take more time to pray and Sometimes our loved ones who are missionaries are facing very difficult things. We take extra time to pray at times like that in our devotions.

Well, I must draw this lesson to a close. I have much more to say but not enough time to say it read in the book. I Want to encourage you fathers to begin? God will help you. The whole motivation for this message right here is not only instructional.

But it is to create a desire in your heart. I do believe if you have a desire you will find a way where there is a will there is a way. But we must first have the desire and where the desire is there.

God will make a way. I promise you He'll make a way. He'll make a way through the wilderness for you. He'll make you something that you never thought you could be. In fact some of you men in this room.

God has a call in your life to be in the ministry someday. But that call will never take place if you don't give yourself to the responsibilities that you have in your home. God trains ministers in the home brethren not at Bible colleges where you sit in a classroom and hear a bunch of words.