“Get your joy from just pleasing God”: Dr RT Kendall at Lift Conference 2024

I was brought up in the Church of the Nazarene, and I grew up hearing this story. 

My dad tells me that he and my mother were in a Nazarene church and heard a sermon that was, in his view, so powerful and wonderful that he put his hand on my mother’s tummy. 

She was six months pregnant with me, and my father put his hand on my mother’s tummy and said, “God, give me a son who will preach like this man.”

Fast forward 18 years later. I’m in Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee, and we had to go to chapel every day. Over the years at Trevecca, I had heard hundreds of sermons but I only remember one. 

A man came and preached a sermon based upon Hebrews 11:5, that Enoch, by faith before he was translated, had this testimony that he pleased God, and I remember how the preacher emphasised Enoch didn’t please people, he pleased God. 

“By faith, Enoch was taken away so he did not experience death. He was not to be found because God took him away. For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God. Now without faith, it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him, must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11:5

For some reason, I was so moved by that sermon that I went straight to my dormitory, got on my knees by my bed, and pleaded with God, “Lord, please, let me be like Enoch, a man who just pleases you.”

Well, an hour or so later, I got a phone call from my father. I said, Dad, “I heard a sermon this morning in chapel that moved me like I’ve never been moved in my life.” He said, “Well, who was the preacher? I said it was a man by the name of CB Cox. 

Dad said, “Son, that was the preacher who was preaching when your mother was six months pregnant with you, and I laid my hand on her tummy, that one day you would preach like that man.”

For many years, I wanted to preach on this subject, and I wrote a book a year or so ago. It’s called Pleasing God.

Enoch, before he’s taken away, had this testimony that he pleased God, and that’s my motive. I want to please Him by everything I say.

Prophetic integrity and hermeneutical integrity

Now, I want to say this before I get in to the context of pleasing God: Would you know what I mean by hermeneutical integrity? 

I wrote a book three years ago called Prophetic Integrity. The reason for the book is because open theism, a dangerous teaching has crept into the charismatic movement in the last 40 years.

The idea is that God does not know the future, but looks to us for input to know what to do next. They take the view, “We believe it. This is what we want. Let’s claim it.” The mistake they make is saying God wants that just because they want it. We’re dealing with many people who are well known, well respected by some, but are not giving us the truth. 

So I mentioned prophetic integrity, but there’s such a thing as hermeneutical integrity. 

Four things. Number one, what did it mean when Paul wrote to the Galatians? Second, what does it mean now? Third, is this what you believe, what Paul wants you to believe? And fourth, would you preach it? 

Those are four things for hermeneutical integrity. In other words, you’re treating the Bible with the deepest respect, and you want to convey what the Apostle Paul taught. 

And so I say, with fear and trembling, I would urge you to get to know the Bible so well, and to know the gospel so well. Because what I fear more than anything in the world is that we have departed from the pure gospel. 

There are three keys to pleasing God.

1. Do not depart from the pure gospel

“I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel, not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him, as we have said before. I’ll say it again if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you have received, a curse be on him. Am I now trying to persuade people or God, or am I striving to please people. If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:6-10

Apostle Paul warned: “So soon have you gone into believing another gospel?” He said, “Well, it’s not really a gospel, but it’s what you’re now believing.”

The hardest thing in the world to maintain is the preaching of the pure gospel. By gospel, I mean the good news as revealed mainly in two books in the New Testament: Romans and Galatians. 

Now, mind you, I believe all the New Testament, of course, but Romans and Galatians give us the teaching of justification by faith alone. That turned the world upside down in the 16th century, and many today have forgotten this gospel. 

Paul warned the Ephesians that one day the devil would get in. And when Jesus addressed the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2, He said: “The one thing I have against you, you have left your first love.” 

Now, many hastily jump to the conclusion and think that that means enthusiasm, passion, emotion, being excited. And I can see why they would say that, and there’s some truth in it.

“If it’s the approval of people you want, you should get out of the game altogether. This is for people who want just to please God,” said Dr Kendall at the conference.

But an examination of what was being preached toward the end of the first century and the early second century would show what Jesus meant by that: That it was not so much that they lost fervour, but rather they lost insight as to what the pure gospel really was. They lost a vision that we are justified by faith, plus nothing.

The pure gospel: That Jesus died on the cross having lived a perfect life. 

He said in Matthew 5:17, “I have come not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it.” If I could quote my mentor Martyn Lloyd Jones: “(In) Matthew 5:17, Jesus makes the most stupendous statement he ever made. He said, ‘I will fulfil the law’.”

When it came to the time to die on the cross, His last words were in the Greek: “Tetelestai”, which is a colloquial expression found in the ancient marketplace that meant “paid in full”. 

When Jesus said, “It is finished”, it meant that He’d kept His word. He had fulfilled it, and He had gone through everything He was required to go through, including the suffering. So that those who transfer their hope in good works to what Jesus did for you – that’s how you’re saved. 

2. A true prophet admits it when he’s wrong

This is the thing Paul wrote to the Galatians: “I’m amazed that so soon you would turn to something else, because the devil does not want you to believe that you’re saved by what Jesus did.”

(The devil) wants to put the emphasis on you, on your good works, and before you know it, you’re always testing for good works to make sure you’re saved.

(In my book) Prophetic Integrity, I urge all these prophetic people to come clean and tell the truth if they got it wrong. But I found out that these people don’t want to admit that they got it wrong, because they say, “People won’t believe in my credibility, and I can’t admit to making a mistake.”

Can I tell you the proof of a true prophet? It’s when you’re willing to admit you got it wrong. 

Take Nathan the prophet. He comes to David the king, and he knows what David wants to do more than anything in the world: David wants to build the temple. And Nathan the prophet says, “God is with you. Go for it.” And David is so excited. 

And then as soon as Nathan gets home, God says to him, “I didn’t tell you to say that… You go back to David and tell him the truth.”

If Nathan were like so many, he’d say “I’m never going to admit I made a mistake. I’m just not going to do it.” But Nathan was a man of God. He knocked on David’s door and said, “Sorry about this, but I messed up. You’re not the one to build the temple.” 

Now, that is prophetic integrity. 

My question to you, dear friends, is how much do you want a greater anointing? How important is the anointing to you? If you want a greater anointing, you’ve got to be a true man or woman of God and be willing to be embarrassed if you make a mistake. 

Because if it’s the approval of people you want, you should get out of the game altogether. Stop. Just go to do something else. Get a different job. This is for people who want just to please God. 

3. Get your joy from just pleasing God

Now it says of Enoch that he had this testimony before his translation, that he pleased God. I would hope that you would want that more than any thing in the world: That you pleased God. It doesn’t say that Enoch pleased his parents. 

See, God will find you, but maybe you’ve grown up knowing that you didn’t have the affirmation that you wanted of your father or mother, and that can affect you for life. But you see, God will take you as you are and get your joy from knowing you’re just pleasing Him. 

I take the view that there’s a reason John 5:44 became my life verse. In 1956, John 5:44 came to me and so gripped me that it became my life verse, and as far as I know, governs everything I say. 

John 5:44 – the words of Jesus to the Pharisees who did not believe in Him: And Jesus said to them, How can you believe, who receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that comes from God only? 

People ask: How could the Jews have missed their Messiah? It’s because they were not consumed with the honour of God. They only wanted people to affirm them. They didn’t want to be put out of the synagogue, and they just made sure everybody believed what they believed, and the honour or praise that comes from God wasn’t even on their radar screen.

That should have been the first thing to govern them, that they want the honour of God. No. Jesus said, “The trouble is, you want honour one of another, and you don’t want the honour that comes from the only God, and that’s how you miss your Messiah.” 

You see, these Jews were so sure that “When Messiah comes, I’ll know Him. I’ll know Him.” Now here He was, right in front of them, right in front of Him, and they missed Him. The reason you can miss an authentic work of God is because you’re only thinking, “What will people say if I affirm that?”

Get your joy from pleasing Him. A  long as you’re looking to each other, you’ll miss what God is in.

The apostle Paul said, “If I please man that I’m not a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10) So Enoch had this testimony. It didn’t say he pleased his parents, didn’t say please his friends. And it didn’t even say that he pleased himself. It just says “he pleased God”. 

It says of Jesus in Romans 15:3, “Christ pleased not himself.”

This excerpt was taken from Dr RT Kendall’s first session at APCCS’s Lift Conference, on September 25, 2024. It has been edited for length and clarity.

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