Others — Denny Kenaston

The Two Great Commandments

Praise the Lord, this morning, for the Word that has already come to us. We, I feel like we've been well fed already this morning with the Word of the Lord. You know, when Jesus was talking and answering questions to the Pharisees, they asked Him what the greatest commandments were, there in Matthew chapter 22.

And Jesus very wisely said to them there that there are two. He said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and all thy strength, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

And then He said these words. He said, Upon these two commandments hang all the law and all the prophets. And I believe what Jesus was saying when He gave those two commandments, He was basically saying that you can trace every commandment, every principle in the Word of God, and find it touching those two things right there.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and thou shalt love your neighbor as yourself. Upon these two commandments hang all the law and all the prophets, and I believe even all the principles in the New Testament hang upon those two.

Very simple. I believe if you take those two commandments and you don't have a Bible, and you're stuck somewhere where there is no Bible, you take those two commandments and you meditate upon those and you filter your life through those two commandments, and I believe God will teach you how to live, and how to serve, and how to love Him, and how to live in the midst of the people where you find yourself.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Well, this morning, Brother Paul took care of the first commandment, and I'm going to take care of the second.

So we're going to get the whole thing in one Sunday morning service. Paul told us we're to love the Lord our God with all of our heart. That's right. That's a commandment. We're going to face that commandment someday, every one of us.

We're going to face it. Just as real as anything you've ever faced, we're all going to face that commandment, and in that day, all of our excuses will just flitter away, every one of them. We're also going to face the other one, just as surely.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So I'd like us to open our Bibles this morning, as we just continue the sermon on, to 1 John. If you can turn there, 1 John chapter 4, I want to talk to you this morning about living for others, living for others.

Living for Others as a Christian Calling

This sermon could change your life forever, absolutely. If you will grasp what I'm going to tell you this morning, and make it a part of your life, you will never be the same. What you do, with what I'm going to tell you this morning, will affect you all the way into eternity.

Nothing changed my life more than what I'm going to tell you today, except the fact that I got born again 30 years ago. Living for others is 50 of the Christian life. 50%. That's a lot to miss, isn't it?

50 of the Christian life is living for others. So this morning I want to talk to you about an addiction that I've had for a lot of years. I don't know if you understand what I mean by that, but that is a Bible word.

You'll find it in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians chapter 16, and it means exactly what it means to us as we're here today. We understand the word addiction. It's a very common word in our American society, but it's also a Bible word.

I'm so glad that God put it in the New Testament, because I, you know, I used to be addicted to some things, alcohol, drugs. I was addicted to them. They had me. I was out of control. They controlled me.

It was those addictions that brought me to the end of myself and brought me to the place where I said, OK, I need help and I don't know where to look for it. Well, once an addict, always an addict. You know, they used to say that of me when I was a young Christian.

Back home, they said, yeah, well, he was a hippie. Hippies are extremists and now look at him. So once an addict, always an addict. It happened about 28 years ago, the first time that I realized that I was addicted.

And it does take us some time to learn if we're addicted. And it took me a couple of years in my Christian life before I realized that I am hooked and I don't think I can get loose. The story begins with me and my addiction.

Bible School and the Beginning of the Bus Ministry

When I went away to Bible school, I don't necessarily believe in Bible schools. I believe they are they were raised up because the church is failing miserably to raise up leaders from among them. And the setting that I was in, if you love the Lord and you want to serve him with all your heart, they send you away to Bible school.

So I went to Bible school. Sorry about that, if that offends you. But I went to Bible school. And when I showed up at the Bible school there in Hammond, Indiana, not too far from here. They had all these registration lines and you went through the line and you signed up for this class and you signed up for this class.

And they and in the midst of all these classes that I was signing up for, there was there were these two little desks and they had a sign over them. And one of them said the bus ministry. And then the other one said Sunday school classes.

And as I was there, you know, I'd never been there before. I mean, hey, I was only six months old in the Lord. I just learned how to sit on chairs and sit on the floor with my legs crossed. You know, I didn't know a whole lot.

And I went there to that Bible school and I needed it. I really did, because I didn't know a whole lot about the Christian life. But they told me these are two lines that you have to get into. If you don't get in these lines and sign up for the bus ministry and if you don't get in this line and sign up for a Sunday school class, you can't go to this Bible school.

Hey, I didn't know any different. So I said, fine, no problem. I got in the line and went up there and they signed me up and they said, you're on this bus route and you'll be in this Sunday school class.

You'll be teaching a Sunday school class and you're going to be working on this bus route. This will be your bus captain. He's in charge of you and you'll be working on Saturdays and you'll be working on Sundays in this bus route and teaching these children in the Sunday school class.

And I said, OK, thank you. And that was it. I didn't know what I was getting into. All I knew was, if I want to go to this Bible school, I have to do these things. So I just did it. I said, OK. Changed my life forever.

Serving Children in the Chicago Bus Route

Tell them. It changed my life forever. My weekend started at 6 a .m. on Saturday morning with a prayer meeting for all the little children that rode my Sunday school bus. 6 a .m. Saturday morning. After that, we had a bus workers meeting, which lasted about an hour and a half.

Then we jumped in our cars and drove for an hour and 20 minutes all the way up to the ghettos of Chicago. North Chicago ghettos is where my bus route was. There's a lot of ghettos in Chicago. If you've ever been there, it's an awesome sight.

You stand in the middle of those ghettos and you look every direction you can look and all you see is row after row after row of three and four and five story apartment houses as far as you can see in every direction.

That's the way it is there. We got up there in the North Chicago area about 10 a .m. on Saturday morning and we spent the day up there knocking on doors. Up and down the stairs we went and we knocked on the doors and we visited with the children and we begged the moms and dads to let us take their little children to Sunday school and could they ride the Sunday school bus.

And sad to say, it wasn't hard to get those children. I mean, those parents were very glad to get rid of their children and have a babysitter for their children for a whole day on Sunday. So it wasn't hard to get the children to come on the Sunday school bus.

And but we spent about 10 hours up there doing that from 10 a .m. and got home about 10 p .m. on Saturday evening after visiting all day long, being the only papa that most of those children ever had.

Up and down those steps we went. I mean, I went into places that gagged me. I almost vomited for the smell that I smelled in some of those apartment buildings. I stood in apartment buildings where cockroaches crawled all over the place and gave me the creeps while I stood there trying to visit with somebody and the cockroaches were jumping around all over the place, you know.

That's the way it was there, but that's where the people lived. And by the way, they still live just like that today, just like that. Sunday morning, we got up at 4 a .m. and went to the bus barn, went to the bus barn at 4 a .m.

All the buses were broken down. I mean, they hardly ran. We had to get there at 4 a .m. to make sure the thing was going to run to get to Chicago, which was a one hour drive. Get there and crank that thing up and and put the jumper cables on it and go get the mechanic and get your hands in there and get them greasy.

And finally, you get the old bus running again. Hallelujah. You may think I'm crazy, but I laid my hands on the hood of my bus a whole lot of times and prayed a prayer and said, God, would you please make this bus started?

It started. You may think I'm crazy, but I did it. And if you ever had a hundred Chicago bus kids on your bus on a hot Sunday afternoon on the freeway with a bus that's broken down and those children are crawling over the seats and you don't know what to do with them, they're used to a TV set all day long and you have nothing to entertain them with.

You'd put your hands on that bus and pray for it, too. And many a time I saw that bus go down the road we go. Hallelujah. Praise God. So anyway, about seven o 'clock, we got the buses all going and we pulled out of the bus barn and headed for Chicago, which is a one hour drive.

And we hit the streets running to pick up all these children. We had one hour to get a hundred children on our Sunday school bus. And many times they were not ready. And sometimes you had to go in and help them get dressed and and find the diapers for little Johnny, the two year old that's going along with Susie, that's five.

And and all those things. I mean, I did. You name it. I did it by nine or nine fifteen. We had them all on the Sunday school bus. And then it was an hour's drive back to Sunday school. And we preached to them and we taught them how to sing and we helped them memorize scriptures.

And and we just poured our lives into those children all the way to the to the to the church. And then it was Sunday school class. And and we we taught them Sunday school classes. I mean, we had there were thousands of these children that we worked with.

I mean, it wasn't a shock at all. There would have been some Sundays. We had ten thousand of those ghetto children in the Sunday school classes on Sunday morning. There were times when I preached to three thousand junior age children, that's eight year olds to twelve year olds.

And these aren't children that have been taught to sit like your children have been taught to sit. These are children that have been watching TV, you know, every fifteen seconds the TV changes a scene, you know.

And I used to preach to those children and hold their attention for twenty five or thirty minutes in children's church. When we got done, we loaded them back on the Sunday school bus and took them all the way back to Chicago.

And after we got them back in Chicago and dropped them all off, then we turned around and went back through our bus routes again and picked up all the ones that wanted to go back to church on Sunday night, drove all the way back down to Hammond, Indiana, went to church.

The church service got over at nine p .m., loaded them back up on the bus, took them all the way back up to Chicago and dropped them all off. By the time we got them dropped off, it was about eleven o 'clock on Sunday evening.

Then we all loaded on one bus and preached to each other all the way home. Brother Jason, we had a ball. It was fun. We were just a bunch of young preachers and we just preached to each other all the way home and got home about one o 'clock in the morning on Monday morning.

And I had a class at seven a .m. every Monday morning. There were times when my wife had to grab my foot and pull me out of the bed. I was so tired for all the things that I'd been through. I was exhausted, but she got me out of bed and I went to class.

I did that for three years while I was in Bible school every Saturday and every Sunday. And I loved it. I loved it. It hit me one Sunday morning. I was running down Kenmore Avenue. That was where my bus route was.

Picking up children, going ahead of the bus by about one block and making sure all the children were ready. And this one was there and this one was there. And I was so excited to see that that one made it out and that that was there.

And I was running down the middle of the street and all of a sudden it hit me. It hit me. I love this. I love this. I'm so fulfilled. I've never been so fulfilled in all my life. That was the first time I recognized that I was addicted.

That I was addicted to something. I've never gotten over that addiction. And all these years, I learned a poem. Paul tried to quote it. He didn't quite get it right, Paul. I learned a poem in those days that stuck with me so clearly.

It goes like this. Lord, let me live from day to day in such a self forgetful way that even when I kneel to pray, my prayer will be for others. Others, Lord. Yes, others. Let this my motto be. That while I have lived for others, I will have lived like Thee.

That bus route changed my life. I can't begin to tell you what it did to me. You know, you know a different Denny Keniston than what those bus routes saw when I got on that bus the first time. I was so afraid of people.

I was so insecure. I was an introvert. I couldn't say five words without being gripped with fear. I mean, when I walked down the hallways of that Bible school, I kept my nose on the ground because I knew if I caught somebody's eye in the hallway, they might talk to me and then I'll have to say something back to them.

So the best way to get from class A to class B was just to walk with my head down and that's how I went to class. Work on the bus route. Had to teach the Sunday school class. So I got in there and I did it.

First time I stood up in front of those 100 children on that bus route, I couldn't hardly say anything. Do you know what? I learned to preach on that bus route. I learned to preach with a bunch of little children this big.

That's why I learned to preach. I learned to give simple illustrations to a bunch of little children this big. I learned how to hold their attention so they would listen to me and hear me when I told them about Jesus.

That bus route changed my life. When I look back on those three years of my life, they are some of the sweetest memories of my Christian life. We didn't read the scriptures yet, did we? 1 John, let's read.

1 John chapter 4, and if you'll allow me, I'm going to cut this sermon a bit because of time here. I had in mind to read 1 John chapter 4. The verses we're going to read twice. But I'm just going to read them once for the sake of time here.

Reframing First John Around Living for Others

And you let me read it. Let me just replace one word with another word so we can understand a little bit more what love is all about. See, love kind of floats around up here for a lot of people. When love doesn't really float around up here, love is right down here where all of us live every day.

1 John chapter 4, verse 7. Let's read. Beloved, let us live for others. Will you allow me to do that in the places where it says love? I'm going to put a different word in there. Beloved, let us live for others.

For living for others is of God. Dear brothers and sisters, living for others is of God. And everyone that liveth for others is born of God and knoweth God. He that does not live for others knoweth not God.

Chew on that a while. You chew on that. He that does not live for others does not know God. For God is love. God lives for others. It's His very nature. It's who He is. In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.

Hallelujah. Herein is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. This is what love is. God gave His only begotten Son for others. Brothers and sisters, God gave His only begotten Son for others.

Why? Because God is love. Beloved, verse eleven, if God so lived for others this much, we are also to live for others. No man has seen God at any time. If we live for others, God dwelleth in us. And His love is perfected in us.

Now, there's a jewel in there, and I don't have time to mine it here today, but you just ponder that statement right there. If we live for others, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected or matured in us.

You know, lots of people think, and it's a wrong concept, I believe, lots of people think, when I get mature, then I'll start to serve God. And the fact of the matter is, not until you start to serve God will you ever get mature.

The fastest way for you to grow up in the Lord Jesus is to go give your life away for others. And some people will sit for years, waiting until maybe they get mature enough, you know, so that they can go serve God some way.

And you know what? They don't grow. I believe that's the reason why the American churches are cursed with millions of bench setters. The preacher does all the preaching. He does all the counseling. He does the Sunday school class.

Everybody else just sits and listens. And they don't grow.

I don't believe in that. I mean, I'm for stretching every child of God into some kind of service that they can begin to grow. If we live for others, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected or matured in us.

See? That's how it happens. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Hallelujah! Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we know, and we have known and believe the love that God hath to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth in love, living for others, dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Christ's Example of Self-Giving Service

Remember, we're talking about half the Christian life. Just reason with me a bit this morning here. If God said, Thou shalt love me with all your heart, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, God tied those two together.

And dear brothers and sisters, they are tied together. And you won't last long on one if you don't follow the other. I don't believe you can. Let me live from day to day in such a self-forgetful way that even when I kneel to pray, my prayer will be for others.

Others, Lord! Yes! Let this my motto be, that while I've lived for others, I will have lived like Thee. And oh, brothers and sisters, didn't He walk that way? If we say we abide in Him, we all also walk so to walk even as He walked.

Isn't this how He walked? Jesus lived for others. That's what His whole life was about. He loved His Father with all of His heart, soul, mind and strength. And He lived for others all of His ministry days.

That was it. Pretty simple, isn't it? Well, that joy that I began to taste there as I was running down the street there on that bus route, that joy, that fulfillment, that growth in God's love became an addiction to me.

And it is an addiction today. Are you addicted? Sometimes people come to me when we're having a lot of meetings and I'm preaching a lot, and you know, people come to me and say, oh, poor Brother Denny, I mean, you're preaching again.

You must be tired. You must be this. You must be that. And I just tell them, hey, you got it all wrong. Don't you feel sorry for me. I'm having fun. This is not a big burden to me. I'm having a blessing.

You know why? Because it's more blessing to give than it is to receive. So, I'm getting more blessing than you are. Did you ever think of that? I'm getting more blessing than you are. I mean, I didn't think, oh, no, I have to get up here and preach again this morning.

I'm getting more blessing than you are. You get less listening, but I get more blessing giving. And because of that, I'm addicted. I can't live without it. I don't know what I'd do. I don't know what I'd do with my life if my life wasn't filled up the way it is with all the things that God has filled it with.

I don't know what I'd do. I don't know if I could make it. The life of the Lord Jesus was a life of living for others. Hear the words. Out of Luke, I believe, is where it came from. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, to live for others and to give His life for others, a ransom for many.

That's why He came. That's why He left us here, friends. That's why He left us here. John chapter 15. Shall we turn there just for a minute? Let me show you what Jesus told His disciples. Last words of Jesus.

John chapter 15. John chapter 15, verse 9. As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. That's what I was experiencing that morning. I was running down that street on that bus route. Verse 12.

This is My commandment that ye live for others as I have lived for you. This is My commandment. John 13, verse 34. A new commandment I give unto you that ye live for others as I have lived for others, that ye also live for others.

By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples if you live for others. And I'm taking the liberty here to put that little definition in there wherever the word love is. But are you grasping what God is saying there?

Jesus is saying this. I abided in My Father's love because I live for others. That's what Jesus is saying. I mean, look at the power, the joy, the blessing of the life that flowed into Jesus from His Father.

Where did it come from? Oh, He got all that because He's the Son of God. Now, that's not what He says here. He says here, that love from My Father flowed into Me till it was full and running over again and again and again because I lived for others.

Secret! Secret! Wake up! Wake up, dear people! Wake up! And I don't mean if you're sleeping in this tent this morning. I mean, did you hear that? Did you get what I just said? A new commandment I give unto you.

Live for others. That's the new commandment. I have loved you, says God. I sent My Son to die for you. I have bought you. I have sought you. I have drawn you. I have redeemed you by the precious blood of the Lamb.

Now, go live for others. That's why we're here. You know, many times, the evil words of men often are words of commendation upon the people of God. I mean, you know, they called the Methodists, Methodists.

It was a derogatory word. The critics called the Anabaptists, Anabaptists. Rebaptizers. It was a derogatory word. Listen to the words of condemnation that came out of those who surrounded the Lord Jesus when He was on the cross.

Jesus Saves Others at the Cross

Listen to their words. He was hanging on the cross. They were looking there up at Him. They were mocking Him. They were making fun of Him. And they spake some of the sweetest, most commending words that they could have ever graced upon the Son of God.

They looked up at Him and said, He let Him save Himself. He saved others. Only thing is, they didn't understand what He was doing up there. Let Him save Himself? He will not save Himself because He's going to save others and that's why He's hanging on that cross.

But their testimony, their critical testimony of His life while they watched Him, while they walked upon the earth was,.

He saved others!

What a beautiful testimony to crown the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords with while He's hanging on the cross. He saved. But then they went on to say, Himself He cannot save. But they didn't have that one right.

It is Himself He will not save. That was it. Jesus said, He that saveth His life, who lives for Himself, who saves Himself, shall lose it. But Jesus also said, He that loseth His life, who lives for God and for others, guess what?

You will... Look up here. Let me tell you this morning. That's my testimony. I found my life. And dear brothers and sisters, I didn't find my life just hiding in a closet talking to God, although I believe in hiding in the closet and talking to God.

I found my life by losing my life, giving it away. That's how you find it. You don't have to be some preacher to do that. Some of us can lose our life completely and find it in God and others. See the Savior.

Look at the Savior there hanging on the cross. He's God. God incarnate hanging on the cross. He is about to die. Dying words are important words. I mean, when a man's about to die, people draw near to see what the last words are that he's going to say.

Here He is. God incarnate hanging on the cross and He's about to die. I wonder what profound theological revelation will come out of His mouth just before He dies. I wonder what revelation of theology we're going to hear out of the mouth of a son of God.

Listen. Listen. And you'll hear it. Father, forgive them. They know not what they... Woman, behold your son. Or, Mama, He's going to take care of you now. Son, behold your mother. Or, John, would you please take care of Mom?

I'm going. And He turns over to one of the thieves on the cross and says, Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise. Those were the last words of Jesus. And that is profound theology, brothers and sisters.

That is profound theology. Others! That was the testimony of a critic who watched His life. Lord, let me live from day to day in such a self-forgetful way that even when I kneel to pray, my prayer will be for others.

Turning Outward in Pastoral Care

Others, Lord! Yes, others! Let this my motto be. While I have lived for others, I will have lived like Thee. Some time ago, a lady came to her pastor. She said, Pastor, I need some counsel. I'm in desperate need of counsel.

Would you talk to me? And he sat down in the study and they began to talk. And she basically said to him, Pastor, I'm going to crack up. I'm going to have a nervous breakdown. My whole life is falling apart.

My mind is just going every which way. Please help me. I think I'm going to lose my mind. The pastor waited for a moment in silence, and then she turned to him again and said, Do you have any counsel for me, Pastor?

And he said, Yes, I do have some counsel for you. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go home and bake a cake. I want you to go home and bake a cake. And after you bake that cake, I want you to cut it in little squares and put it on plates.

And after you get all that cake put on plates, I want you to go to the rest home and give those pieces of cake out and visit with the people. She was a... I'm going to have a nervous breakdown and you tell me to go bake a cake?

And he wisely just looked at her and said, Yes, my dear. That's what I'm telling you to do. And she huffed out of the office and that was it. She went home, you know, and she stewed a while, you know.

Who does he think he is? A talk too tall. My! And she stewed that one over for a little while and praise God, the Spirit of God just drew near and said, Do what He said. Just do what He said. Finally, she decided, well, she may as well try it.

So she baked her cake and she put it on little plates and she went to the rest home and she passed out all the cake, you know, and she visited with all the people in the rest home and by the time she got done visiting with all the people in the rest home, she forgot about all her problems and she decided not to have a nervous breakdown.

The pastor started two weeks later. She was going down the hall this way and he was going down the hall that way. She was busy living for somebody else and so was he. And he went by and said, Hey! I thought you were going to have a nervous breakdown.

And she said, I put it on. And that's a true story, by the way. That's a true story. I wonder how many nervous breakdowns we could take care of if we would just turn our attention away from me and put it on somebody else.

Missions Trips and Becoming Addicted to Service

One of the designs of our little mission trips, you know, we send young people over to Africa, a couple teams of them every year. One of the designs of sending those young people over there is this subject right here.

For six weeks, they do nothing but live for others. Solid for six weeks. Day in and day out. In the thick and in the thin. Praying for others. Fasting for others. Preparing sermons. Suffering. Vomiting.

Diarrhea. Malaria for others. Everything for others. Misery. Sleepless nights. Lay on their bed and sweat until the sheet is soaking wet. For others. And they do that for six weeks. By the time they come home, I've never seen one yet, I've never seen a young person whose life was not absolutely changed by one of those six week trips.

Never seen it yet. You know why? They live for others for six weeks, 24 -7. And it changes their life forever. We send them over there on purpose for that. You know why? We want them to get addicted. We want them to get hooked.

First John and the Practice of Self-Sacrificial Love

Real good. Because we know that it will be a guiding principle in their life all the rest of their days. Let's read a couple of verses out of 1 John again here. Let's just look a little more deeply into these words.

1 John 2 .10. He that liveth for others abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. Look at that verse. Powerful. Look at it. He who lives for others abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

That's an awesome verse. Chapter 3, verse 11. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should live for others. Verse 16 of chapter 3. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he lay down his life for others, and we ought to lay down our lives for others.

But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his vows of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not live for others in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

And verse 23 This is his commandment. Note this. These are foundational words. I hope you're getting what I'm saying here. This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and live for others as he gave us commandment.

That's it. Fold up. Go home. We've just got it all right there. God is sharing with us the secrets of an abundant, fulfilling Christian life. Fifty percent of the Christian life is living for others. I want to challenge you this morning to give your life away for others.