My Place in God's Eternal Purpose — Denny Kenaston

God's Eternal Purpose for the Church

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold.

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We only truly believe that which moves us to action. Well, we've come to the last message here, and in a sense I want to end where we started. I'd like you to open your Bibles to Ephesians, Chapter 3.

The title of the message this afternoon is, My Place in God's Eternal Purpose. And the burden here in this message is that each one of us, as we sit before the Lord, would have that heart and that question upon our own hearts.

Lord, what is my place in your eternal purpose? We started with these words here in Ephesians, Chapter 3, the beginning of the week. I'm not sure if it was Monday or Tuesday. I've lost track of that. But in Ephesians, Chapter 3, Paul says these words in verse 10,.

To the intent that now, under the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. According to the eternal purpose which He, God, purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now, we looked at those verses already. We came to grips with the fact that what God is saying here in these lofty words is this, that it was His purpose, that it was His eternal purpose, which means it was in His heart way, way back in eternity past, long before this world was even created.

It was in the heart of God that He would have an assembly, that He would have a body of people who would show to the principalities and powers His manifold and glorious, majestic wisdom. We also came to grips with the fact that we can hardly even grasp what that means.

And as we look ahead into the eternity future, I believe there's more reality there yet to come for these two verses that we read. But here we are, we're sitting here today. We've been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

We are here as God's people. It's 2004. We're still living in the world. The world is still here. Just like God had made it, it's still here. What is my place in all of this? It is very important that every one of you be filled with a personal, eternal, divine vision of what God's purpose is for your life.

There is not a person in this room that gets exempt from such a responsibility. It may be that you don't have any idea what that is right now. It may be, as you sit here, you don't have a clue. It may be, as you sit here today, you don't even care.

You don't even want to know. Nevertheless, it's still the same. It's true that God has a plan for every one of your lives, and that plan fits into the body of truth that we've been speaking about here all week long.

For every one of us, God is working out His will and His purposes on this earth, and you are in it. Like it or not, you are in it, young lady. Little girl. Young boy. Grandpa. You are in it. That will and that purpose gets worked out through the church, hallelujah.

You know, as I was meditating upon this, you know, I thought in the Old Testament it was through Israel and Jerusalem. But in the New Testament, God works out His will, His plans and His purposes through the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.

And here we are today. We don't need to look anywhere else. We don't need to read any biographies. We don't need to read what God did through somebody else somewhere else in some other age and time. It's now.

It's today. It's 2004. And I'm alive and well here on planet earth. What is God's plan and God's purpose for me? Why am I here? Young people, why are you here? The power and potential of these thoughts are tremendous.

Jeremiah's Calling and God's Purpose for Every Person

Like it's just to read a little bit over here in Jeremiah. Jeremiah, you want to turn there? Jeremiah 1. Jeremiah was a lot like you and I. God had something for him to do, but he didn't believe it. He wasn't ready to do it.

He thought somebody else was qualified better than he. I wonder how much God's work is hindered through attitudes just like that. But Jeremiah was very much like you and I when God called him and He said these words in verse 4.

Where the Lord came unto me saying, God saying to Jeremiah, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Now I don't know what you do with a verse like that. Maybe you think that's just a verse for God and Jeremiah.

But as I read that verse, that verse applies just as much to me as it does to Jeremiah. And it applies just as much to you as it does to Jeremiah. It applies to every little boy and every little girl that is in this room as much as it applies to Jeremiah.

Because God is God. And in His foreknowledge and His deep understanding of all things, He can say words like that. Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Jeremiah, this is what My plan and My will is for your life. I don't know how old Jeremiah is in this chapter right here, but I imagine he's at least 30 years old. He could be 40 years old. God has been working in his life.

God has been stirring in his life. God has been preparing him. God has been working in him in all kinds of ways and training him and bringing him through all kinds of circumstances. And now God brings the whole thing to a clear, full view in front of Jeremiah.

I've got something for you to do, Jeremiah. Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. That's kind of how we are too, isn't it? Not me, Lord, not me. The Lord said unto me, and the Lord says unto thee, Say not, I am a child.

Say not, I can't do it. Say not, I'm not old enough. Say not, I'm not wise enough. Say not, I'm not talented enough. Say not, I am a child. For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak.

Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

You see, that's the difference. That's the difference right there. Reached forth his hand and touched my mouth. And then said, I have put my words in your mouth. In eternity past, God had a plan for Jeremiah's life.

God was working behind the scenes, preparing a young man to be the weeping prophet. The weeping prophet. A prophet unto the nations. The man who's going to bear the burden of God in the very last days, before Jerusalem and the temple and everything comes crumbling to the ground into nothingness.

There's a man who's going to bear the burden of God and speak forth God's word to the people in the last few moments of their history in Jerusalem. And God has prepared him to speak forth his will. God has a plan for your life.

And God has a plan for my life. And it's just as clear in God's heart as this one is. Just as clear. For you also are fearfully and wonderfully made with a purpose. God makes nothing for naught. Every single one of us sitting in this room can go to Psalm 139 and say, Amen.

God formed me in my mother's womb. God made me just the way that I am. God gave me the eyes that I have. God gave me the nose that I have. God gave me the family that I have. He placed me in the time in history that I'm living in.

God did that. God is the one who brought me into being. I'm sitting here in this room today because the God of the universe brought me into being. And when God brings something into being, He, you can be sure, He has a purpose for that person.

Every one of us. My place in God's eternal purpose. We've been sitting here, and we've been looking, and we've been dreaming, and we've been gazing, and we've been just meditating upon all these beautiful things.

We've been looking at high and lofty thoughts all week long. But, oh, my brothers and sisters, God has a place for you in all that that we've been looking at all week long. God has something that He wants you to do.

Like Jeremiah. When we become rightly related to the God of the universe, the God who made us, the God who has a purpose for our life, it's only natural that as soon as we become rightly related to that God, we begin to flow in the direction of His will and purpose for our lives.

Do you understand what I'm saying? I've seen people that were fifty years old go off to a mission field. And you say, why fifty? Why not twenty? They didn't get rightly related to God until they were fifty years old.

Conversion, Calling, and the Example of Paul

All of a sudden, it dawned on them,.

There's a reason why I'm here upon this earth. God has something that He wants me to do. I think, oh, I think of that thrilling testimony of Brother Keith Daniels as he shares about his father and how his father didn't get converted until he was fifty years old.

What did he do? Immediately, immediately, he looked at everything differently. Whoa! God! Me! God's will! God's plan! God's work! Where have I been? I'm way behind! He sold everything. He gave everything away.

He cut His work back down to nothing and gave Himself to God for the last ten years of His life. You know why? God's eternal purpose for His life settled down upon His heart. When a man or a woman gets rightly related to the God of the universe who made them for a specific purpose, they immediately begin to flow in the purposes for which God made them for.

I've seen it so many times, it's a thrill to watch. Paul is a beautiful example of this to every one of us. He knew enough about God to know that God don't call anybody for nothing. When he heard the voice of the God of the universe calling to him, Saul!

Saul! He knew God don't call anybody for nothing. God don't call anybody just to say, Hello! God calls because God plans, and God purposes, and God wills to work out all the counsel of His will in your life and in your heart.

And Paul knew enough about God in his Old Testament understanding of God. He knew enough about God to know that. So, when he heard the voice of God calling him there on that road to Damascus in the midst of the blinding light, he said, Who art thou, Lord?

Who art thou, Lord? And as soon as he found out who God was, he knew instinctively that God don't call anybody for naught. But, he immediately said, What wilt thou have me to do? Why are you calling me God?

And that's a good question that every one of us need to ask here before the Lord even today. Why are you calling me God? You know, some people don't get converted because they're afraid of what God's gonna do with them.

They instinctively know that God has a plan for their life. They don't get converted because of that. I know of a young man who is now an old man, but when he was a young man, his dad was a preacher. And some people don't treat preachers very nicely.

And as a young man, he grew up saying, I'll never be a preacher. But instinctively he knew, God wants me to be a preacher. And he wouldn't give his life to God because he didn't want to do what God wanted him to do.

He went to Vietnam in the war, running from God like a Jonah. He ran to Vietnam in the war. And there on the battlefield, a bomb blew off both of his arms and both of his legs. And there he lay in a hole in Vietnam.

And there in that hole in Vietnam, no arms and no legs. He surrendered to God. I'll preach, Lord. Today, he's a preacher. He's a preacher. No legs. No arms. A voice. A broken, anointed voice for God. I am Jesus.

Imagine what those words must have meant. Those words must have stuck in his heart like a sword. You are Jesus. I am Jesus. What will thou have me to do, Lord? That is exactly what every one of us need to answer God with.

Even today. What will thou have me to do, Lord? You know, I look around the room as I speak. You know, I see old men. I see men my age. I see young men. I see young teenage boys. I see little boys. I see little girls.

Sweet little two-year-olds. I see youth. I see mamas. I see grandmas. There is not a one of us that is exempt from that call of the voice of God. Not one of us. From the beginning, Paul had a sense of God's calling upon his life.

From the beginning. He spent those three days alone with God. Sitting there in utter blindness. Pondering the words that he heard. All through his life it was a guiding principle in his life. That I may apprehend that for which I was apprehended for.

That's all Paul wanted to do. He wanted to apprehend the will of God. He wanted to be in the will of God. He wanted to do what God's will was for him every day of his life. He pressed into that every day.

That's all he wanted to do. Nothing else mattered to Paul. I want to do the will of God. There's a reason why God apprehended me on the road to Damascus. And I want to fulfill all that God apprehended me for.

That's the way it is for every one of us. It's not just Paul. Oh sure, he had a miraculous conversion there on the road to Damascus. But is it any less of God's voice when he called you? No. All through his life, those were guiding principles.

That he might apprehend God's will for his life. You know, I've often been intrigued with the words in the Scriptures about David. The prophet David. King David. It says of David, he served his own generation by the will of God.

You know, I've been intrigued with those words many times and challenged by them. And took that challenge to my own heart and said, God, how do you want me to serve my generation? And then it goes on and says,.

And then he fell asleep. That's what every one of us want to do. We want to sell out and burn out for God all the days of our life. We want to serve our generation. Who knows how that is? But we want to serve our generation.

We want to fulfill God's will for our life. And then, bless God, lay down and fall asleep. Be done. All through his life, that was a guiding principle to Paul.

Oh, I remember when I got born again.

A sense of God's purpose and plan for my life was instantly upon me. Instinctively, I knew. Uh-oh. I have been totally wrong for all of these years.

God really is God.

There is a God. He did make all these things. He saved my soul. He has something for me to do. Now, I don't know what you do with that. I'm not sure where you fit your theology into what I'm saying, but I'm one that believes that God has something for every one of us to do.

God did not specially call me to do something for Him, and He has nothing for you to do. I don't believe that. Our bookshelves are not filled with biographies that God just had something special for them to do.

Our bookshelves are filled with biographies of men and women, just like you and I, who gave their hearts and lives to God wholeheartedly, every day, for many days and many years. And God laid there His hand upon those people, and they did mighty exploits for God, and it was recorded in a book somewhere, and now we all read it, and hold them up like they're somebody special.

And all God is doing, I mean, God is just saying, who's going to be the next biography? I mean, come on, how long are we going to keep reading biographies? How about living one? How about being one? A sense of God's purpose settled down upon my life, and I have not been able to shake that for thirty years.

Thirty years! It gets stronger, not less. It gets stronger as the days go by. Sense that God has a place for me.

In this eternal purpose.

That we've been looking at for this whole week. God's plan, His vision, His heart, His desire for the church, His witness upon the earth, God has a place for me in all of that. Even me. And even you. You know, you can just kick back and put it in cruise all you want, but I guarantee you, when you come face to face with the reality of this God who made you, you won't be kicking it back, and you won't be putting it in cruise.

You will be in attention. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Why are you here? What do you think? Have you connected with the God who has a purpose for your life? Let's turn over to 2 Timothy. Can we do that?

Stirring Up God's Gift and Overcoming Fear

2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6. Paul speaking to Timothy. Wherefore, Timothy, I put thee in remembrance. That thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. That word, stir up.

You know how it is in the early morning, when you had a fire burning through the night, and it's kind of died down, and there's just some ambers there, and you get up in the morning, and you put a piece of wood on there, and you stir the thing around a bit, you know?

That's what that word means. And we all know what that's like, you know? We know that God has things that He's put inside of every one of us. We know that He has deposited His blessings, His gifts, His work in our own hearts.

He's given us talents and abilities. We all know that, but we also know what it's like for those things to just kind of settle down, and they're just little ambers there burning, and what God was saying to Timothy was, go stoke the fire in your heart, Timothy.

Revive the fire in your heart that the gifts that I've put inside of you can be a blessing to other people. For God had not given us the spirit of fear, and as we look at this whole matter of God's purposes and how we fit into this beautiful plan and purpose of God, you know, probably the greatest thing that hinders most people in this room for doing anything for God is just fear.

You know? Just afraid. Afraid to open up our mouth. Afraid to say something at the grocery store. Afraid to go alongside of somebody and admonish them or encourage them. You know, we're just afraid. And God said to Timothy, and God says to us, God has not given us a spirit of fear.

No. He's given us a different spirit than a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. That's just the three-fold definition of the power of the Holy Ghost in the life of a believer.

That's what that is. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. Not according to your own power, not according to your own ability, but according to the power of God.

I like that. Now, I'm not telling you to get out and do something in the flesh. I'm telling you to do what you do according to the power of God. But then Paul says these words, and this is the verse that I'd like to focus on.

According to the power of God, who, God, hath saved us and called us with a holy calling. I like what my son Daniel says about this verse. He says, here we can see how long the gap is between being saved and being able to serve.

The gap is A-N-D. He hath saved us and called us. Remember Paul? God saved him and called him. And he took three days until he got his sight back. And immediately, he was about the Master's business.

Amen? Some people think, well, someday I'll serve God. Someday I'll grow up enough. Someday I'll mature enough. Someday I'll do something for God. But now I'm just going to sit and learn and grow. I've got news for you.

If you just sit and learn, you won't grow very much. We grow as we serve. And that needs to be balanced and qualified. God doesn't put a 20-year-old in a place of a pastor who's 40. But there's something for you to do, my friend.

He has saved us and called us with a holy calling. And I studied that little phrase, and holy calling, it means a sanctified calling, a sanctified purpose, and a sanctified calling that is filled with holiness.

It is a sanctified calling. It is a sanctified purpose. And it is filled with a sanctified life. And if you put the three of those together, you have got a winning combination right there. God has called me.

God has a sanctified purpose for why I'm here. And God will fulfill that purpose as I walk in a life of holiness. That's it. That's... I don't know if you believe this verse, but this verse tells me that every one of us whom God has saved, He has also called.

We have been saved so that we can serve. Again, I feel like the evangelical church has so lowered the doctrine of salvation that all you do is get saved so you don't have to go to hell and so that someday you can go to heaven.

And that is not scriptural. God saved me because He had something that He wanted me to do. And it's absolutely absurd to think that God would save my soul and then let me sit on the bench for the next thirty years with nothing to do.

That's ridiculous! God saved me because He had something for me to do. I heard His voice just like Paul heard his voice. Have you heard His voice? Are you realizing that voice? Are you walking in the paths of holiness that you might find the fullness of the reality of all that God has for you to do?

We have been saved that we might serve the God of glory and listen, we don't just get to serve Him down here. Bless God, yes, when this whole thing is done down here, we get to go to glory and we get to keep right on serving Him for all of eternity.

How ridiculous to think that I can just sit down here and do nothing and then I'm going to serve Him for all of eternity in heaven. That doesn't make any sense. Brother Denny, you're whooping on all of us here.

Everyday Work, Eternal Purpose, and the Danger of Distraction

I feel like I'm not doing anything. All my burden is this afternoon is that God would open up the eyes of our heart and we would begin to sense that there's more to life in my little world that I live in.

There's more to life than being the mechanic that I am. There's more to life than building a house or building a barn. There's more to life than milking your cow. There's more to life than all of that.

Bless God! There's something greater than that. I mean, Paul was a tent maker, but he didn't build the biggest tent maker when he was there. That wasn't his plan. He made a few tents so he could get a little cash to support the ministry team that was traveling with him and on and forward he went.

Today, we don't look at it that way. We see, oh, looks like we can make a little money around here with tents. Let's see now. Let's get this program together. Hire about five or six workers. Put a little advertising in here.

Before we know it, we'll have a full-fledged business rolling through here making tents, cranking them out as fast as they can go. No, no, no, no, Paul. No, Paul. That's not my calling upon your life.

In eternity past, in the eternal counsels of the living triune God, there was no discussion up there. We need a tent maker someday, so let's make Paul so he can make tents all of his life. No, that's not it, Paul.

And it's not that way for us either, brothers and sisters. But I'm afraid, especially in the plain circles, we've lifted this business thing up so high that we almost think we're really sanctified and holy if we have a business.

Seriously! Preachers give dry bread on Sunday morning for 20 years and the people endure it while he builds his big business and goes on and on and on. I'm telling you, it is a curse. And none of that's in my notes.

I didn't write any of that down and say, remember to tell the brothers in Cleveland that no, that's just from the Lord. Why are you here? Is there a sense of God's purpose and calling upon your life? Do you hear that voice in the night brooding over your heart and saying, my son, my daughter, come close, come close.

I have work for you to do. I have plans for your life. You say, well, I'm just a sister here. Well, how about being a Susanna Wesley and raising a John and a Charles? Do that for your life's work. Or be a Fanny Crosby's grandma and fill that little blind girl's heart with chapters and books of the Bible.

Oh, God has beautiful ways to work out His plans and His purposes. All He's looking for is utterly yielded, cleansed, open vessels. And He will pick them up and He will use them in ways that would stagger us.

Well, brothers and sisters, rejoice this afternoon. Rejoice. These high and lofty words that I'm laying upon you, they come to your hearts as you sit here today and you sit in a church. You are in a church.

Rejoice. Because this is the place where all of these things get worked out. It gets worked out in a New Testament local church. And you are in a church. Services are here. You've got a bunch of leaders around here who love to see all of you get busy and do this and do that.

I mean, you're in a great place.

You have got it made. I told the brothers already back home, I said, look, fellas,.

You've got it made. I mean, where else can you go fishing where the fish jump into the boat on Sunday morning? And that's just kind of how it is. I think it's kind of that way around here too. Then get your fishing pole out, boy!

The fish are coming! The back door of the church. Brother Manny, what an opportunity! There are so many things to do around here. Bless God. Oh, listen. It's not that there's nothing to do. God is looking for sanctified vessels who are cleansed, in whom the Spirit of God is flowing and working in their life.

And listen, there will be plenty to do. A man without purpose is miserable. A man without a purpose fritters his life away. Days and weeks can just fritter away into nothingness. And you turn around and you look at him and say, what have I even done with my time?

A man without a purpose, an eternal purpose, a divine purpose, God's plan for his life, a man who has no idea what God has for him to do, is unfulfilled. He has nothing to live for. He's easily tossed here and there.

He lacks direction. And he's filled with distractions. Every little voice that comes by pulls him this way, pulls him this way. But a man who's filled with the reality of God's eternal purpose burning in his breast, that voice clearly seen in his heart, he's not led away by all the little things that can take a man away.

Blessed is that man or that woman who has that sense of divine destiny upon them.

Do you sense that voice?

Purposeful Christian Living for Young People

What about you boys? Girls? I wonder what God has for you to do. He made you. You know that. Young people, young people who have no purpose are bored. Are you bored, young person? I'm bored. What do we do tonight?

There's nothing to do, they say. I tell you what, you didn't get a glimpse of God yet if you don't have anything to do. I'm telling you, young man, young lady, God, if you got a glimpse of God, if you got a glimpse of His plan and His purpose for your life, you would have so much to do.

You would be filling your time with such beautiful things. Young person who has no eternal purpose of God upon their heart, they waste their time. They're restless and unsettled and they're always trying something new and they're never happy and, you know, just something always under their craw.

God sits in heaven and waits, waiting for you. He's watching. He knows. If I can get a hold of that young man while he's young, if I can get a hold of his heart while he's young, oh, what I'll do with that boy.

He waits and he waits and the years go by. He watches and he waits and he tries to get in here and get in there and he just watches and you just fritter your life away. Another year goes by, another year.

More scars, more foolishness, more waste, more dumb things that you should have never done and all the while God just keeps waiting and waiting. Maybe, maybe now, maybe now he'll get serious. Blessed is that young person who has a sense of divine destiny upon their heart.

I tell you, they won't fool around. They won't waste their life. They won't do it. They can't. It won't go that way. It just can't go that way. Some time ago I was in a meeting, in lots of different kinds of meetings so I have lots of stories to tell.

I was in a meeting and a young man stood up to share a testimony. He was a boy, 13 years old. And you know, a 13 year old boy is a 13 year old boy. This young man got up behind the pulpit to share a testimony.

He put his hands on the pulpit like this and he stood up and looked out at the crowd of people like this. And he opened up his mouth and he began to speak. He spoke and when that young 13 year old boy opened up his mouth, the spirit of a man came out of that boy.

It wasn't a 13 year old boy. It was a godly young man with a fire burning in his 13 year old soul and he spoke words that staggered the whole group of people. He couldn't believe it was coming out of his mouth.

13 years old. Why? Where did that come from? All his life, that boy sensed that there was something that God wanted him to do with his life. All of his life, even before he was born again, he just felt and sensed that God had something for him to do and he didn't waste his life and he didn't waste his time and he didn't fritter it away and he didn't just foolish it away and play it away and nonsense it away.

He gave himself to God and he learned the Bible and he read his Bible in the morning and he wanted to please his mom and dad and he stayed under their authority and did what they told him. One day, God called that boy when he was 12 years old and he heard the call of God to salvation and as soon as the call of God to salvation came, the call of God to serve came right with it and he was ready to go.

Oh, I give you that challenge, boys. Not long ago, I was in a fellowship meal and I was sitting there eating my lunch and a young boy came up and asked if he could sit across from me. He was 16 years old and he sat down across from me and for one hour, he asked me questions non-stop.

Non-stop. 16 years old. He wants to talk about preaching. He wants to talk about serving God. He wants to know how I prepare sermons. He wants to know how much I pray. He wants to know how much I fast before I preach and he rippled me with questions like that for one hour.

I was impressed. 16 years old. Most 16 year olds wouldn't even come up to talk to Brother Denny and he pushed his way right up to the front of the line and sat right in front of me and started asking questions.

What am I saying, brothers and sisters? All I'm saying is this. All these lofty things we've been talking about all week long, they come right down here to where we live every day. It comes right down to our hearts.

It comes right down to the fact of what do we do with our hearts before God. It's not just some nice teachings. We've heard these things all week long. Isn't that wonderful? And this and this. This is God's plan.

No, it's right down here, brothers and sisters. Listen. What wilt thou have me to do, Lord? What wilt thou have me to do? That's it. That's where it's at. Even the little children. Even the little children that are in this room.