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- 30. Housholds On Fire
30. Housholds on Fire
Denny Kenaston

Denny G. Kenaston (1949 - 2012). American pastor, author, and Anabaptist preacher born in Clay Center, Kansas. Raised in a nominal Christian home, he embraced the 1960s counterculture, engaging in drugs and alcohol until a radical conversion in 1972. With his wife, Jackie, married in 1973, he moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, co-founding Charity Christian Fellowship in 1982, where he served as an elder. Kenaston authored The Pursuit of the Godly Seed (2004), emphasizing biblical family life, and delivered thousands of sermons, including the influential The Godly Home series, distributed globally on cassette tapes. His preaching called for repentance, holiness, and simple living, drawing from Anabaptist and revivalist traditions. They raised eight children—Rebekah, Daniel, Elisabeth, Samuel, Hannah, Esther, Joshua, and David—on a farm, integrating homeschooling and faith. Kenaston traveled widely, planting churches and speaking at conferences, impacting thousands with his vision for godly families
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Sermon Summary
This sermon emphasizes the importance of having households that are spiritually on fire for God. It calls for a complete surrender to God, yielding all plans, reservations, and sins to Him. The speaker stresses the need for continual revival in the home, connecting a godly home with revival and evangelism. The message urges individuals to build an altar of surrender, die to self, and allow God to ignite the fire of revival in their hearts and homes.
Sermon Transcription
The last session of our meditation will be, the title of the lesson will be Households on Fire. Households on fire. You could just get a little picture of that in your mind. First of all, just the analogy of it, a house with a fire flaming up over the top of it and out of it. Households on fire. I am sure that we would all agree that the house of Stephanus was a household that was on fire. And as I read in the New Testament about the household of Philip the Evangelist, the one who had four daughters who prophesied, it seems to me that his household was also on fire. This is what I want for my house. I want a house. A household that is on fire. We've come down to the last sermon in this series and what a blessed time we have had gazing into the heart of God for all these sessions, 28 sessions we've been gazing into the heart of God to see what God's heart is concerning our families. I have no... I know no other way to finish a series that has been filled with things to do than to finish with a sermon on revival. In this last session, I would like to make a clear connection between a godly home and revival. And I'm sure that I've done that a few times through the week. But I want to make the connection through this sermon this evening. I don't believe that you can have one without the other. I don't believe that you can have a godly home like what we've been looking at this week if you are not living in a continual state of revival or if you are not on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot have what we've been talking about. Don't misunderstand me. You can apply what I have shared thus far. You will get some good results from it. I have preached about many things that could bring changes in your lifestyle, home business and homeschooling. Those may be on God's agenda for you. These are good things. They bring good results. But if you will apply all of the many principles that I have given to you and unite them with the power of the Spirit of God in your life and in your home, you will get overwhelming results and generations of godly children. And that's what I'm after and I believe that's what God is after. Maybe you're feeling a bit overwhelmed this evening as we come to the conclusion of this series. I have a word for you that gives you a clear path to take as you leave this place. Hear this word. With men, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. Matthew 19.26 says, If you feel utterly helpless this evening, that can be good. Blessed are the poor in spirits. Nothing would bless your home more than if you fell on your face every morning at your house and wept before God for lack of ability to go and do these things that you've heard all week long. Nothing will bless your home more. Blessed are the poor in spirits. It comes down to how we see the Christian life. Is it a life of things that we do? Or is it a life that is done by the grace of God working in me? There's a big difference between the two of those. The one view, you can take a shot at it. The other view requires a total surrender of everything to God every day. Now that may sound radical to you, but I'm telling you, that is New Testament. God is calling every one of us to that. This is just one more means by which God can get our attention and that we realize, hey, I don't really have any choice. It's all to Jesus, I surrender, or the thing isn't going to come out right. That may sound radical to you, but I'm telling you, that's what God is after. I'm telling you, that's what the church in China is living like. I'm telling you, that's what the church, the persecuted church in Russia lived like. It's all to Jesus, I surrender, all to Him, I freely give. I will ever live and trust Him in His presence, daily live. That's what God is calling every single one of us to that. It doesn't matter who we are in this room. It doesn't matter if we have eight or nine children that we don't know how to raise. If we're just a single person sitting in this room tonight, God wants you. God wants all of you. He will have nothing but all of you. He will wrestle with you for the next 10 or 15 years, but when He gets done, He will be the victor. He will have all of you or He will not be satisfied. Sound radical? It's biblical. That is biblical. Listen to these words, paraphrased for you parents this evening from 2 Corinthians 9-8. God is able. That is, He is full of power. God is full of power to make all grace abound toward you in your home. That you may always have all the power you need for every situation in your home and that good things would burst forth everywhere in your household. That's a paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 9-8. This is what God wants to do for you as you come to Him bankrupt and empty and needing His grace to work in your home. That's what He wants to do for you. Many parents come to the end of a series of teaching like this and they are ready to go for it. See, there's two responses. Some come like this and they're just saying, Oh man, this guy gave me more than I can handle. But other ones, they come and listen and it's like, Man, let's go. I have a word for you too. They have gotten lots of new ideas and they are anxious to go home and try them all out. Let me encourage you zealous ones. The answer is not the new things that you have learned. The answer is first and foremost Jesus Christ. He is the reviver of every parent. The inspirer of all the sincere ones. Look to Him as your sufficiency and yea, go home and get it with everything you've got. If you keep Him in the right place, you'll have all the energy and all the inspiration to live these things out. But if you go home without Him being in that proper place in your heart and leaving Him there, you can run them up pretty fast and say, Man, this is more than I can handle. I've been to seminars like that. I mean, you go to them and out of the sincerity of your heart you say, Man, that's good. Let's go. But, it takes a bit more than a bunch of new ideas to absolutely transform your home. It's Jesus Christ, dear brothers and sisters. It's Him alone. It's all in Him and He is all. And until He takes that place in our life, it won't come out right. It just won't come out right. Let's look at a couple more promises in the Word of God. Turn with me to Isaiah again. Oh, blessed Isaiah. Amen. Isaiah 59 is where we're going to read right now. Isaiah 59. Reading from verse 19 of Isaiah 59. The blessing and promise that God gives to those who turn from transgressions. Isaiah 59 says these words. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against Him, the enemy. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion. And, someplace else He's going to come to. Bless God He comes to Zion, doesn't He? That's the church of Jesus Christ. But He comes somewhere else too. And, unto them that turn from transgressions in Jacob, saith the Lord, as for me, this is the Lord speaking, this is my covenant with them. Who's the them? Them that turn from their transgressions. This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord. My Spirit that is upon thee and my words, which I have put in thy mouth, and that in thy mouth means in your heart so much so that it comes out of your mouth continually, which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forevermore. Now the picture that I get when I look at these verses and I read them, I get the picture of somebody on their knees, repenting of their sins, turning from their transgressions. God says, I will come to him who turns from their transgressions. I, the God of heaven, the God of glory, I in very person and presence will come to him or her who turns from their transgressions. That is a promise from the word of God. And the beautiful picture here is that God comes and he will put upon that one who turns from their transgressions his spirit. Now the promise is very beautiful here. We turn from our transgressions and stay turned from our transgressions and God's spirit rests upon us. Isn't that beautiful? Not only does God's spirit rest upon us, but God's word abides in our hearts. Like John said in 1 John, the word of God abides in you. And he wasn't talking about you memorized the Bible. He was talking about in here. See when God's spirit comes, God's spirit takes God's word and reveals it to man's heart and he puts it in there. He writes it there on the fleshly tables of his heart. And that's a promise that God gives for those who will turn from their transgressions. That's revival brothers and sisters. But God doesn't stop there. He goes a little bit further and says not only am I gonna do that for you, I'm gonna do that for your children. Now you can do what you want with this promise, but for me I believe it. I mean you can do all kinds of things you want with it. You can say that's for Israel, that's for Jacob, that's for this, that's for a later time. You can do all those things you want with those verses, but for me I've chosen to believe them. Them are mine. God will do that for me. As long as I walk with him. He will put his spirit upon me and he will put his spirit upon my children and he will put his spirit upon my children's children. I'm gonna believe that one. Oh what a beautiful promise it is for us as we look into the word of God this evening. Hear these words from Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 23. God says, Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you. Amen? Then what does he say he's gonna do? I will make known my words unto you. That is exactly what Isaiah 59 is talking about. God says, You get down, you repent, you turn away, you get rid of all the sin, I will come to you, I will pour my spirit upon you and I will give you a revelation of my word in your heart. And by the way that's where we need it. It's not enough just to get some good ideas up here in the head. God wants to write them on the tables of our heart and that can't be done unless the heart's clear and that can't be done unless the spirit of God is on the heart. When the spirit of God is upon the heart, oh God through the ministration of the spirit writes upon the fleshly tables of our heart the principles of the word of God. He puts them deep inside of our heart so we don't have to be reminded again to love our children. Amen? That's what we need. Dear brothers and sisters, God's word upon me and his words planted in my heart by revelation of his spirit. And all the blessed promise that comes to us is that he will do the same with our children. The God who made the children and knows the children and knows the plans that he has for each one will be ever present in our homes through the Holy Ghost. That's revival, my dear brothers and sisters. And revival makes godly homes. There are many enemies that fight against a godly home. That's no problem, not at all. When you're under God's covenant, when the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against it. We have those promises. We can believe them. We can trust in them. Turn over to Isaiah 61, just one page over in your Bible. Isaiah 61 and verse 9. Let's read verse 8 and 9. For I, the Lord, love judgment. I hate robbery for burnt offering. I will direct their work in truth. I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Who? Those who allow God to direct their lives in the truth. Look at verse 9. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles and their offspring among the people. All that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. Now in Isaiah chapter 61, we have one of those beautiful prophetic chapters which prophesy of the day, the coming of the Messiah and the day of the anointed Messiah's ministry. It is giving to us beautiful explanations of the work of the Spirit upon the hearts and lives of God's people. Now Jesus said when he was here upon the earth in his earthly ministry, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and he has anointed me to do all these things that are mentioned in Isaiah chapter 61. But dear brothers and sisters, that wasn't just for him. Now the Spirit of the Lord is supposed to be upon me and all the beautiful things should be happening in my life just like they happened in his life. And one of those beautiful promises is it will have an effect upon my children. God will lay his hand upon my children because I have chosen to serve him and live for him and allow him to direct my life in truth. This is a promise from the word of God. In my studies of home histories, I have noticed it in every single case. One of the fruits of the blessings that fall on the children is that God will use them to win the heathen. That's what it means. Your seed will be known among the Gentiles. God will use them to win the heathen. That's awesome. Think about Hudson Taylor. It was that way with him. Hudson Taylor's father. It was that way with William Booth and William Booth's children and William Booth's children's children. It was that way with John Patton because of the father that he had. It was that way with Amy Carmichael because of the mom and dad that she had and Andrew Murray because of the dad that he had and on and on and on the list could go. In fact, it was that way with Andrew Murray's dad because of the dad that he had back in Scotland. Andrew Murray's dad went to the heathen. Andrew Murray grew up in heathen land because Andrew Murray's dad went to the heathen to win the loss because his dad loved God with all of his heart. That's how the whole thing works. I was pondering it this afternoon. I don't know if all these things are dawning on you like they're dawning on me. But I see all these things just coming together so beautifully. I think about these three issues. Revival, the home and evangelism. Those three are so closely tied together. I don't think you can pull them apart. They are so closely tied together. They are so dependent one upon the other that you cannot pull them apart. They are like one whole even though there are three different subjects. Revival and the home and evangelism. And I wonder if because we have failed to do our tasks that we are in the mess that we're in today. God sent revival to the people, to the churches, to God's people in this land a hundred and twenty and thirty and forty years ago. God sent revival to the people of God in this land. What did they do with it? They sat on it. That's what they did with it. They sat on it. What did God want them to do with that revival? God wanted them to raise up godly children and send them out to a lost and dying world. That's what God wanted them to do with the revival. But instead they sat on it and they enjoyed it and they kept it for themselves. I'm telling you, these three are intricately tied together. You cannot have them if you do not have them all. There are a lot of people talking about revival these days. I mean, every kind of flavor of revival that you can imagine. But I'm here to tell you tonight, listen, if revival does not impact a home, I question whether it's any kind of real revival. Oh, you say, but souls are getting saved and people are coming and the crowds are there. I don't know about the crowds. I want to know about the home. Is it affecting the home? Is it turning the heart of the father toward his children? Is the spirit of God brooding over that man and turning his heart toward his children? I question the revival. If he can just walk away from his children and go do something else. I question it. According to Isaiah chapter 61 and verse 9, one of the blessings that God puts upon those who allow him to lead them in truth is that he will use their seed to win the heathen. So grateful for the little meditation, the family verses and song this evening. God is always short on laborers, amen? You have 10,000 of them? He'll use every one of them. If he had 10,000 of them, he'd use every one of them right now. Guaranteed. He's always short on laborers. Remember when the Lord Jesus blessed the little children? Remember that there in the gospels? How he was there healing people and doing other things and some of the parents, I don't know, moms, dads, I'm not sure if it says in the word if it's moms or dads, but parents were looking on and they thought, my, this man is amazing what he does. I want him to bless my children. And so they kind of tried to get in the line there, you know? Jesus was ministering to people that were blind and things like that. They got in the line, you know, they're going to get a blessing for their children. But the disciples looked at that, and in their natural mind they thought, little children, he's healing blind eyes. Oh, you take your little children and get them away from here. The master can't be bothered with things like that. Don't you realize he's opening the eyes of the blind over here? But Jesus, being the express image of the father, the stamped out image of the father upon the earth, doing all things according to his father's heart, he looked at it, and his father's heart welled up with a burden within him. That's what happened. And Jesus said, wait a minute, wait a minute. Suffer the little children to come unto me. You let the little children come unto me. Oh, thank you for that one, Lord Jesus. I mean, he put the little children right in their proper place, way up there on God's list, amen? Way up on God's list. Imagine what it must have been like. I mean, how would you like to have been one of those parents, huh? I mean, the whole scene, everything's happening, the disciples try to push you away, Jesus stops them, and now it's your turn, and here you come with your little fella, or your little girl, and you walk up there. I wonder what it was like. How do you think the Lord Jesus blessed those little children? I've thought many times, and imagined in my own mind what he must have been like. He probably looked at them with those sweet eyes, just like we do, you know, when we see a little child. He probably looked at them that way. His warm, affectionate heart made them feel relaxed, instead of, I mean, sitting on the lap of a stranger, you know. Some children don't handle that too well. I can just imagine his warm eyes looking at those children, and he just invited them to come and sit on his lap. I imagine some of the beautiful words he must have said. I can just imagine his face shining when he saw the children coming to him as he picked them up and put them on his lap. Maybe he'd said a few words to them to set them at ease. Kind words, loving words. They probably felt like they were the center of attention. And then the Bible says that he put his hands upon them, and he blessed them. I wonder what kind of words he said. Hmm? I wonder what kind of words he said. He grew up in a Jewish home. His father, Joseph, blessed him every Sabbath Eve. I wonder what kind of words he said as he spoke to those children, as he spoke words over them while he laid his hands on them. Yeah, that's beautiful to imagine that. It's beautiful. Well, Jesus loves the little children. He loves all the little children of the world. He still loves all the little children of the world, brothers and sisters. Even like he did there, his heart is exactly the same as it was there. There's only one difference between now and then. Now, he has no hands. He has no hands. He has no feet. He has no eyes to look at them and let them feel the smile of his shining face. He has no tongue and lips by which to speak words of blessing over their life. He has no hands that he can lay upon them and bless them and give them a benediction. He has no hands, no eyes, no lips anymore. He has none but yours. He has none but yours. The only thing is, with your hands and your eyes and your mouth, there's one requirement that is very, very important. And that is, he needs a yielded vessel. If God has a yielded vessel, Jesus can still bless the little children, all the little children of the world. He will bless them through you, dear father. He will bless them through you, dear mother. He, in fact, by his very presence in your heart, in your life, can reach out with his hands and bless your children with his very words. He can speak words of blessing, prophetic words, words of blessing, words of good blessings and future, future blessings upon your children. He can do that through you. But he needs a willing vessel to do it. And there's a big difference between going through the motions of blessing your children when your heart is not right with God and blessing your children when your heart is right with God. Which one do you think will have a greater effect? When Jesus was upon the earth, he lived out his father's life to the full. Do you know why? Because he was absolutely yielded to his father through the spirit in every area of his life and in everything he did. Awesome! Did you ever think of that? In everything he did. I mean, there were times when it didn't make sense what he did. But he was yielded to his father in everything that he did. I mean, here comes the news. Your friend Lazarus is dead and he doesn't go. Why? He was yielded to his father in everything he did. Now he waits to live out his life through us to the blessing of our children. The only way he can do it is if we are yielded, absolutely yielded to God. This we must come to grips with. Brothers and sisters, it's been a beautiful week. You have been blessed. I can tell that you've been blessed. I can tell it by the shine on your face. I can tell it by the way you sing the songs. I can tell it when I slip into the prayer meeting and listen to the prayers that are being prayed. God has blessed you, no doubt about it. However, if there are issues in your life that you're holding on to, if in fact you're still just going to do kind of so have in your Christian life, all of what God is doing in your heart, it will have very little effect upon your home. Did you know that? Very little effect. You say, brother, that's so strong. The standard's so high. But I'm telling you, God wants your whole heart. That's the bottom line. You can be sitting here. You can sit through all these meetings for all this time. You can hear all these challenges and you can go home with two or three reservations in here. Yeah, well. Yes, amen, Lord. I'm going to do better. Yes, I'm going to try harder. Yes, he's right. I need to do better on this. Yes, I'm not going to spank in anger anymore. Lord, I'm not going to do that. But all the while, there's just two or three reservations right in here of your way, of your will, of your plans that you're going to do. And I'm telling you, I'm prophesying ahead of time. If you go out of here that way, it will not work. Not in the long run. The only way it will work in the long run is if the revival fires burn in your heart continually and those revival fires will not burn unless your heart stays on the altar. It will not burn. It can't. Maybe you're sitting here again tonight and you say, I just can't do it, Brother Denny. It's too much for me. Well, you're right. You can't do it. But I know somebody who can do it. I know somebody who can do it, who will do it through you in ways you never imagined. I know somebody. His name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. Praise God. He'll do it. He'll do it. I remember the young man who came to the prayer room one evening, so frustrated, so tired of trying to do it. Amen. So tired of trying to make it all work. He came to the prayer room at the end of a meeting. It's probably during the youth meetings, youth Bible school. He came to the prayer room and I sat down in a chair before him and said, how can I help the young man? And he just let it all out. He was so frustrated. He was crying tears. I think they were tears, some tears of brokenness and some tears of bitterness. He was so frustrated with trying to make this whole thing work. He just unloaded. He said, I quit. I can't do it. I can't make it work. It doesn't work for me. I've tried so many times. I'm so sick of trying. I just quit. And he just bawled like a baby, just broke and began to bawl. Well, after he settled himself down a little bit, then he looked up to me, you know. Well, what's the counselor gonna tell me now? You know. He looked up at me and I said, good. Good. God's been waiting for you to get to that place for a long, long time, boy. You're right. You can't do it. You're right. It doesn't work. You're right. You're frustrated with it. You're right. The whole thing's confusing. And then I proceeded to tell him what God was after in his heart, in his life. And I told him, God has brought you to this place of frustration and undone-ness so that you will quit trying to make it all happen in your own strength and just sell out to God lock, stock and barrel and let Him do it because He can do it. And I'm telling you tonight, I don't know who I'm telling, I don't know who I'm talking to. I haven't been in the counseling rooms all week long. I wish I could have been, but I wasn't, so I don't know who I'm talking to. But I'm telling you tonight, you can't do it. Maybe you're at that place of nervous frustration and you're saying, jeez, let me get out of here. This guy has loaded me down so many times, I don't know what to do. Listen. You are frustrated because you are trying to make this whole thing work with two or three reservations back in here that you're gonna hold on to, the things you're gonna do, the way you're gonna do it, the plans you have for your life and how you're gonna work it all out. Sure, you'll play around at this Christianity thing and you'll do some of this and some of this and some of this. But oh, how frustrating to try to raise these children with those reservations settled in there. It won't work. It won't work. The best thing you could do, dear father, dear mother, is to fall on your face in utter undoneness and weep and weep till you yield everything to God and give up. That would be the best thing you could do. Isaiah 57 verse 15 has these words for us who feel undone this evening. Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place. I'm God. I am the God of eternity and I dwell in the high and holy place. But God says there's one other place where I also dwell. I dwell with Him also that is of a contrite and a humble spirit. Why do you dwell there, God? To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite one. And guess what? He'll do that every morning. If you come to Him that way, every morning, broken, undone, giving up, yielding everything. If you come to Him like that every morning, guess what He'll do every morning? He'll revive the spirit of the humble and revive the spirit of the contrite one. And lift up the heavy hands that hang down and renew your vision and give you the strength on the inside that you need to face the day and handle the task of raising those dear children to the glory of God. He'll come in and strengthen you with might by His Spirit in the inner man. And all of a sudden, you'll be seeing again those things that you saw this week. Your vision will become clear again. You'll get up and move forward and begin to live out the things that you learned. And dear brothers and sisters, that's the only way you will ever be able to live out all the things that you've heard this week. One of the burdens on my heart all this week long is that this would not just be some seminar on all the how-tos of raising children. It's got to be more than that, my dear people. There's enough of those around, and look at the condition of this land of ours. Obviously, it takes more than a nice how-to program to turn out godly children. I'll tell you what it takes. I'll tell you how much more it takes. It takes a father and a mother that will fall on their face before God and just give it all to God and yield it all to God and turn from whatever transgressions they need to turn from and yield whatever they need to yield and give up whatever they need to give up and deal with whatever issues need to be dealt with and deal with those things that are in the closet that nobody knows about. Whatever it is, get it clean! Get it clear! Get it all yielded! Get it all on the altar! And the fire will fall on the sacrifice! According to the Word of God, it'll fall on the sacrifice and He will revive the spirit of the humble and He will revive the spirit of the contrite one and all of a sudden you'll find an energy moving inside of you that you will know without a doubt this is not me. Amen? This is not me. And that's what God wants for every one of us. This is the counsel I gave to that young man who came to the prayer room. I told him, he needs to crawl up on an imaginary altar and die there. Giving up his whole life, selling out lock, stock and barrel for the Lord. Then I told him, he must be willing to fall on that rock daily, yielding his heart, his plans, his every choice to the Holy Spirit's leading. I mean, there it is in a nutshell. Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and Romans chapter 8 verse 1. They're both there in the counsel that I gave him. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. That's 12-1. Romans 8-1. There is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. There it is. There's that continual yielding of your heart and your life to God from the day that you got down off of that altar. That's exactly how you can live the Christian life. That's the only way the Christian life works my friend. I don't care. Take the whole family thing, lay that aside. You can't do anything in the Christian life if you don't get to that place. That's square one my dear friends. That's square one. Blessed be the Lord. One of my dear friends, a minister in a growing Baptist church came to this place some years ago. I will never forget what he did. I heard the story of what he did and I will never forget what he did. Sometime I'd like to be in the circumstances where I have to do it because I'd love to do it. This is what he did. He was a successful businessman and God was calling him to give all his future plans up and enter the work of the ministry full time. This was no easy choice. He had a promising future. He had a good paying job. He had two cars in the garage. He had the whole American dream all at his fingertips. And a dear wife who was enjoying the American dream to the fullest. And God said, give it all up for me my son. I want you to get busy and do my work. He wrestled for days with this decision. One day as he was out walking in the woods, wrestling. You know how it is with us men? Arguing with the Lord. Lord, don't you know this God? Don't you know I need... But what about this God? What about my family? And how am I going to pay the bills? He was out there wrestling all these things as he was walking out and wrestling. He came to the place in his heart where he was ready to sell all and follow the Lord. Out there in the woods, he started gathering large stones into a pile and he built himself an altar. This took him a while, but that was no problem because he was building one in his heart while he was building one in the woods. And he knew what he was going to do when he got done building the altar. And this thing was stirring inside of him and he would go around through the woods and he'd find another stone and bring it over here and place it in a place to the altar. And all the while he knew, when I get done making this thing, I'm going to crawl up on it. And there he was weeping, stumbling through the woods, putting rocks together until he had himself a nice little altar of stones in the middle of the woods. With tears running down his face, he crawled up on that stone altar and he wept and he wept and he wept before God as he gave up all of his own plans and all of his precious dreams and all what everybody's going to think and all what his wife's going to think and all what the boss is going to think and all what the business executive's going to think and all what the buddies at the country club are going to think. He gave it all up on the altar that day as he wept his heart out before God. When he crawled down off of that altar, he was a different man. He was a different man. Dear fathers and mothers, just picturing it again stirs my heart. Maybe some of you need to do this for your family's sake. I have brought you many challenges through this week and those challenges had real life issues in them for sure. The Lord knows our hearts. He knows what it is that is hindering us from having a godly home. By His Spirit in your heart, He bears witness even while you sit here tonight. If there is a controversy between you and God over your home, you know what it is. God is telling you right this moment. Maybe it's time for you to build an altar just like that man did. An imaginary altar somewhere and crawl up on that altar and lay on those stones and die. Just die. Just die. You say, Brother Denny, those are pretty strong words. Don't you know I'm a lady? Listen, this is not for preachers. This is for Christians. God says to every Christian, get up on that altar and just die. Ladies, gentlemen, young people it doesn't matter who you are. This is not for preachers. This is not for specially called prophets. This is for Christians. Christians are supposed to die. Give up their life. Give up their will. Give up their plans. Give up whatever sins they're holding on to. Give them all up. Get them all cleaned away. Sacrifice everything. And then God can come and light the sacrifice on fire. And when God lights the sacrifice on fire, you won't have much trouble having a house that's on fire, I guarantee you. When God lights the sacrifice on fire. I just plead with you this evening to do that. Oh, the potential of a whole family that is sold out to God. Dad walking under the anointing, being led by the Word and by the Spirit. Mom filled with wisdom and a fervent prayer life. Young people anointed with the Holy Ghost. Living like we described earlier. And children being guided by their parents in the sound principles from the Word of God. This is a godly home. This is what God wants. This is how you pursue a godly seed for His glory. This way. This is the only way. You know, I noticed as I was meditating again upon the promises in the Word of God that in every situation where God gives the promises of what He'll do with our children, in every situation, God says He will make them ministers. Now, I don't mean ordained ministers. I mean people in whom the grace of God flows into and out of. I believe we need to come to grips with the foundation of what God is after and realize God wants my children for His service. God wants my heart my whole life. If He gets my heart my whole life, He will sanctify my children and get them for His service. And my task will have been well done while I was on this earth. Let's bow our heads and close our eyes. Many more things that I wanted to say were not said. But that's alright. What was said was enough. It was enough for every one of you to get God's heart concerning your family. We're going to have an invitation this evening. And I'm going to ask you to come to the front because I think you'd all come. I mean, after all that we've been through all these ten days, I think you'd probably all come. So here's the invitation this evening. You fathers and you mothers and even you that have some of your children gathered around you and near you, I want you to just turn around in your seat and get on your knees right there and just talk to God about all the things that you've heard in this message this evening. I don't know where you're at with God. Maybe you need to do business with God. Maybe there's some things in your life, some issues in your life. If there are, then deal with them. If they're not, then just pray out your heart. Pray your heart out for all these things that God has laid before you. I want you to do that as we close this meeting this evening. Any parents that are here, your heart is bearing witness with you that you have need in your heart and your life. I want you just to get down on your knees and pray. And don't worry about the others. Just pray out loud. Don't worry about the others. Once everybody starts praying, nobody will hear you. Don't worry about what everybody else thinks. You just lay these things before the Lord and let God take care of the rest.
30. Housholds on Fire
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Denny G. Kenaston (1949 - 2012). American pastor, author, and Anabaptist preacher born in Clay Center, Kansas. Raised in a nominal Christian home, he embraced the 1960s counterculture, engaging in drugs and alcohol until a radical conversion in 1972. With his wife, Jackie, married in 1973, he moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, co-founding Charity Christian Fellowship in 1982, where he served as an elder. Kenaston authored The Pursuit of the Godly Seed (2004), emphasizing biblical family life, and delivered thousands of sermons, including the influential The Godly Home series, distributed globally on cassette tapes. His preaching called for repentance, holiness, and simple living, drawing from Anabaptist and revivalist traditions. They raised eight children—Rebekah, Daniel, Elisabeth, Samuel, Hannah, Esther, Joshua, and David—on a farm, integrating homeschooling and faith. Kenaston traveled widely, planting churches and speaking at conferences, impacting thousands with his vision for godly families