God’s House, Where Dreams Come True | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter

i'm gonna do something a little different today i know you stood for the reading of god's word and i'm going to read it in just a moment would you would you be seated just for a moment one of the many reasons and i'm closing out today a series i'm closing out a series today on the house of god where dreams come true i believe that this would maybe be my fourth sunday of addressing the church on the subject of the house of god the value the value of the house of god the house of god where dreams come true one of the many reasons for attending church is faithfully discover your purpose in life your purpose in life when you attend the house of god on a regular basis you address the why do i exist question of your life the house of god helps you to become all that god has already designed for you and i wish today that i had time to sit down with you as an individual and be a man of god a pastor to you as an individual and to tell you as an individual god has a design for your life god has a design for your life god has a vision for your life god has a vision god already sees what he wants you to become he already sees what he wants you to become god's plan for you is not like we make plans how we make plans as we move through life and things change as we move through life god has a vision for your life right now whether you're a saint or a sinner god has a vision for your life god has a design for your life you will never be satisfied you will never be content you will waste your life away trying to find happiness and contentment but if you can just understand today it is in the house of god that god places you upon his workshop table and god begins to work and god begins to bring to light what was designed for your life do you believe that this morning god has a plan in the bible there is a word called election election the word election appears only six times and it only appears in the new testament this word that the apostle paul and the apostle peter uses in all the places it appears to denote it denotes an act of divine selection divine selection would you say those two words with me this morning divine selection the act of divine selection taking effect upon human beings so as to bring them into a special and saving relation with god it is a selection such as to be at once a mysterious thing it is a mysterious thing transcending human analysis of its motives transcending human analysis of his of its motives the selection the election it is a mysterious thing can i bring it to you today how we say it we believe it we just may not use the word election but how many of you have said to either someone else or yourself i don't know why god loves me i don't know why i don't know why god loves me i don't know why and i'm speaking for you also today i don't know why god has chosen to do the things in my life that he has done it's a mystery when i know the real me and you know the real you and you understand election selection it's a mysterious thing being honest with yourself you know you live in the abundance of blessings but at times you know the real you you may not tell your best friend you may have things about your life you've never shared with anybody but when the real you and the real god meet up there's the overwhelming mystery of i don't know why he loves me i don't know why he does for me the way that he does i don't know about you but maybe a good time to have a praise break right now hallelujah when man wants to say that god has is a mystery the godhead is not a mystery but i'm going to tell you election is a mystery why he has chosen the likes of you and i and chosen us with his rich blessings and stayed with us when we did not stay with him come on talk to me this morning stayed with us when it's seasons i'm talking now i'm not talking about a day or two of putting god on the back burner some of us have just splat out turn the stove off oh we kept coming to church we had that down in our dna schedule we kept coming to the house of god we never changed our wardrobe we never changed that and thus we developed a relationship with a clock that said sunday and wednesday and thus we just we developed a relationship with some rules and i'm not against rules but you got to have a relationship with a god that selected you and you don't know why he selected you it's not that you're you're you're here at church it's not that you've got five stars on your behavior chart god just simply it's a mystery there'll never be human analysis that'll figure it out i don't know why god loves us well the book of romans chapter 9 paul begins to address a good group of people that have it in their dna of salvation by works they please god because they eat the right bread and they please god because they offer the right animal and they please god because they obey the sabbath day and they they're all the way into their behavior first god's blessings second it would be the apostle paul that would try to correct this horrendous error in the book of romans chapter 9 and verse 9 the apostle paul says for this word of promise at this time i will come and sarah shall have a son so now he says a real relationship begins with the god who gives a word a promise verse 10 and not only this but when rebekah also had conceived by one even by our father isaac follow closely keep in mind election selection for the children being not yet born talk about a design talk about a god that's got a vision for you for the children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of god according to election might stand not of works but of him that call up so now paul begins to turn the tables and places this responsibility and this is where our faith needs to be in god paul says the responsibility doesn't begin with us the responsibility begins with god for the children not being yet born neither neither having done good or evil that the purpose of the purpose of god according to election might stand not of works but of him that call it it was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger as it is written jacob have i loved but he so have i hated what shall we say then is there unrighteousness with god god forbid for he saith to moses i will have compassion upon whom i will have com i will have mercy upon whom i will have mercy and i will have compassion on whom i will have compassion so then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runeth but that god that show with mercy now he's trying to turn the tables i want us to have our faith in god because if we have our faith in god and not ourselves because i'm telling you you are going to disappoint you you are going to disappoint you there's going to be times you don't want to look yourself in the eye in the mirror because you have disappointed you and if you don't disappoint you somebody in this room is going to disappoint you but your faith cannot stand in you or me but it's got to stand in the election of the living god i've got to come to church not because i'm getting along with everybody i've got to come to church because god has a plan for me god has a design for me you didn't bless me you didn't save me you didn't heal me you can't watch out over me but god can't that's who i've come to worship now it's an interesting verse it's an interesting verse this verse number this uh this verse number 16 is an interesting verse so then it is not of him so then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runeth but a god that show up mercy now i read this verse of scripture and i thought who's he referring to him that willeth and who's he referring to him that runeth and who's it referring to but of god that show up mercy so begin to do a little research on this and it tied back to abraham and the abraham mistake oh you remember the abraham mistake one reason we love the bible right because the bible tells the good bad and the ugly the bible's a tell-all book and uh it's true what the bible says and abraham had the abraham mistake what was it god made him a promise and he began to kind of analyze it well sarah and i sarah's past the age of childbearing so i'll just take up just a little it was actually sarah's it was actually sarah's uh uh suggestion that abraham mary hagar an egyptian handmaiden and have children by her and he did had a boy by the name of ishmael and it was abraham's will as a matter of fact in the bible i'm a little bit behind time on my sermon today so i'm going to try to cut some things out but i could have read you the scripture where abraham begs god oh god it's my will for ishmael to live god it's my will let ishmael live and god said i'm going to let ishmael live and i'm even going to bless ishmael but ishmael is not my design some of us have made mistakes and if we'll let god take the mistake he could even bless the mistake god can even bless the mistake but you got to understand it's not my will your will but his will he said this thing that i'm doing is not he that willeth and so i i tied that to abraham and then i did some more research sister carpenter and i find out that he that runeth and i thought who's he talking about running and i found commentaries it said it's in reference to esau when esau ran from his father that said i'm ready to give you the blessing i'm ready to bless you i'm ready for you to get the blessing and esau ran into the field to get the venison or the deer meat to get the blessing but it the blessing did not come to him that runeth but who did it come to it came to the one that god's will was upon because before esau and jacob who were twins before esau and jacob was ever born god wanted to show election god wanted to show selection and before esau or jacob was ever born god spoke and said the younger always serves the elder but god said not with this one on this one i god have a design i god have a vision and on this one the elder shall serve the younger on this one long before that it ever happened before they were ever born god spoke a word over them genesis 25 24 genesis 25 24 tells about the birth now god has already spoken a word listen to this now god has already spoken the word before they're born can i tell you god did not get you and i on his mind when we got in the baptismal pool oh y'all gonna have to please just don't don't be in the aisles long today cause i i i'm liable man libel is a good word god didn't get you on his mind when you decided to put a suit or a dress on and come to church god had you on his mind and god had a plan for you when you didn't know what world you were in god had a plan for you oh i feel the holy ghost young lady god had a plan for you when you were two years old and your father walked out of your life young man god had a plan for you when you were la well you were labeled an unwanted child and turned over to the to the to the uh uh child care to be placed in somebody's home almighty god looked down at you and god said i know it looks rough i know it looks bad i know you've cried yourself to sleep i know you don't understand why others have a mom and daddy and you don't but god said if you'll let me i've got a plan in mind i've got to decide whoa i got to praise him for just a moment thank you lord i've got a selection i've got an election i've got a selection it's never going to make sense it's never going to be able to fathom i've got that election genesis 25 24. genesis 25 24 and when her days to be delivered were fulfilled behold there were twins in her womb the first came out red all over like a hairy garment they called his name he saw and after that came out his brother and his hand took hold of esau's heel and his name was called jacob and isaac was three score years old when she bare them esau was named please note this esau was named because of his appearance esau means a hairy man jacob was named because of his action he reached to get his brother's heel a surplanter isn't that pretty well the way it is today don't we get our name by our appearance or don't we get our names by our actions you can get your name by your appearance or you can get your name by your action but god's got a plan your name may be of chosen you because of your appearance or you me your name may be given you because of your actions they may call you such a name such as ex-con they may call you such names as divorcee widow they may be a lot of names they may call your names like trouble unwanted but regardless of the name anyone ever places on you don't you ever lose sight that in the house of god god can change your name he can change your name verse 27 of the same chapter and the boys grew and esau was a cunning hunter a man of the field jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents esau is described as a man of the field jesus would tell us in matthew 13 38 that the field is the world esau is a man that sought out a living in the world he sought out his identity in the world but jacob was a man the bible said that was a plain man was a plain man dwelling in tents all the bible research that i can do about his uh dwelling intents is that in that day elders wise men men who had memories of god taught in the tents it's very possible that jacob would go down to the tents and listen to the old men tell about jehovah god but time would go on and verse 29 of chapter 25 said in jacob's sod pottage and esau came in from the field and was spanked esau said to jacob feed me i pray thee with that same red pottage brian faint the stew the beans that he made was read esau desired jacob's stew or jacob's pottage he said notice verse 30 he desires this he desires this esau said to jacob feed me i pray thee with that same red pottage he desires this i am faint he desires this therefore was his name called edom edom means red don't you know you'll always be renamed by what you desire his first name was esau a hairy man but now in life he begins to desire this bowl of stew that was red therefore he's named and his descendants now he will be called edom refer to him as esau because he's going to make a major mistake in his life he's going to give something away that's most valuable he's going to give something away that he can't get back he's going to give something away and because of that they will call him not esau harry man he won't be known for his appearance anymore he will be known for his decision well there's edom there's edith edom means red why they call him red well he sold his birthright he sold his birthright for a red bowl of beans but you got to understand something today that god not only has a plan for you mom and daddy but he's got a plan for all the children that are in your loins in the fact that the decisions you make today i held up and kissed a beautiful little infant they brought to me this morning i began to pray over that baby because that mama's making the right decisions by bringing that child to the house of god that mama's been bringing that child she'd been pregnant for months she'd been bringing that child into the house of god mama's making some difference in that life of that child because wherever you got to eat them you're going to have some therefore was his name called edom verse 31 jacob said sell me this day thy birthright esau said behold i am at the point to die what prophet shall this birthright do to me jacob said swear to me this day and he's swearing to him and he sold him his birthright jacob gave esau bread and pottage of lentils and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way thus esau despised his birthright esau given the new name edom and his new name all of his descendants would be referred to as jacob gets his birthright jacob is material driven simply put don't give jacob any accolades jacob is self-centered jacob is a self-centered person and you know as well as i do the biggest battle we got is not the devil you saw the biggest battle this morning when you stood in a mirror don't give jacob accolades he wouldn't even feed his brother without having something in return given back to him jacob is self-centered sometime later it would be time to receive the blessing man how's this for an honor roll guess how jacob got the blessings of isaac by deception jacob's all about getting things for himself he's self-centered won't even give his hungry brother a bowl of beans without something in return now he's not only self-centered he is he is he's a deceiver because you know how he gets the blessings of isaac he dresses up in his brother esau's clothes and stands before his dying father of which his dying father said are you esau yes father i don't know where you come from that's called a lie see this is this mysterious selection election thing because i don't read at any time where god ever said that's it jacob you messed it up boy you little liar liar pants on fire no i'm not gonna have anything to do with you ever again oh how the devil wants to work with people and tell them you might as well stop going to church you might as well stop trying don't you know what you did you messed up all of god's plans listen to me i'm about to get real deep the devil is a liar the devil is a liar because there's something beautiful called election that i can never understand how that god will stay with a man or a woman when that man and woman's not being all they can because god sees the big picture do you hear me god sees the big picture god sees what you can become he sees the big picture yes i'm esau well come near to me he hugs his father and his father hugs him and his father says i'm i don't understand this this is the feel and the smell of esau it's the voice of jacob this self-centered deceiver now finds himself on the run and this self-centered deceiver found himself in a place he had no knowledge of this self-centered deceiver found himself at a place called bethel what is bethel the house of god see jacob god's got to get you on us on a workshop bench god's got to get you on a potter's wheel you'll fight the church you'll find a house of worship you'll fight it the enemy and this is why i pray every sunday morning every time we meet together i pray this prayer i bind the binder i bind the adversary when you walk through the doors of this church and the praise to almighty god of sins and the preaching of the eternal word of god goes forth and god begins to unroll his plan and you feel the grip of the holy spirit you feel the warmth of god's presence and you don't understand it because you're a lying deceiver you don't understand it because you're self-centered you don't understand it but a god is standing there saying i've known you for a long time before you were in your mother's womb i had a plan for you i had to design for you out of work for you to do come on let's work together and get the job done you'll never understand it you'll never comprehend it it'll be election and you'll never figure it out oh i wish you'd give him a thunderous praise right up here on the corner of william blind right up here on the corner of william blind at 3 21. as a young evangelist driving home driving home to get to to get to my girlfriend's house before curfew coming from louisville kentucky brother edward driving as hard as i can just to have an hour or so before curfew topped that hill right there at 321 in william blunt brother tommy i looked out over that city if you've ever been there at night right at the crest of the hill you see the lights of the city and i saw the lights of maryville and those lights begin to almost begin to just kind of kind of go off and on go off and on and i began to cry and my tears almost blocked my vision of driving the car and i began to pray for this city i began to pray for the city but can i tell you if god could have stopped me right there at the intersection of 321 and william blunt god could have said young man in a few years just less than a quarter of a mile on the right you'll need a building program and you'll build a 10 000 square feet auditorium you'll need a group of people from a little house on the other side of town you'll need them from a little house on the other side of town you'll build a ten thousand square feet auditorium a few years after that you'll build another 16 000 uh square feet gymnasium there'll be a school there there'll be a daycare there the building will fill up they'll people come for a couple hours they'll come for a couple hours to get a good seat on any church service and then young man if i could just go ahead and show you about a mile and a half on the right you'll build you'll need a group of people that'll build an 80 000 square foot building it'll be known as the maryville miracle can i tell you that just happened god knew it from the beginning god knew it from the behold hallelujah oh god knew it from the beginning can't understand it can't comprehend it can i tell you you've got a husband gonna be saved you got a wife gonna be saved you got kids gonna be saved you got grandchildren that are gonna preach the gospel you've got some great things that are gonna happen jacob you deceive are you self-centered thing but let me get you in the house of god i'll tell you the ground you lie on i'm going to give it to you i'll speak to your descendants i'll tell you that they're going to be as the stars in the sand i'll tell you i'm going to ever be with you yes you are a self-centered deceiver but self-centered deceivers receive a promise from god in the house of the lord but just like esau got a new name edom and that new name of esau went to edom in the edom with the jacob is a deceiver and a self-centered person but he gets tired of it you see if you'll stay in the house of god long enough you'll get tired of the way you're living you'll get tantalized and teased with the promise of god till you'll just get tired of the way you're living you'll get tired of low living you get tired if you keep coming to the house of god the house of god is always going to show you the man you can be and the man you should be and the lady you should be and the young person you should be but if you ever stop coming to church you'll become satisfied with the world so jacob gets alone one night and there god said it's a good time to change your name your brother got his name changed from edom to esau from esau to edom and his descendants are the wrestle boy come on boy there's some things in you that need to be wrestled out that's why we love an altar you know what really happens in this altar flesh and spirit lock up flesh says don't go down spirit says you are going down because the elder is going to serve the younger we going to turn things around i'm tired of serving my flesh it's time these legs have taken me to a lot of places these legs are going to take me now to the altar this mouth has sung a lot of songs that have glorified a lot of wrong things but buddy now this mouth is going to sing a new song of praise a new song of thanksgiving oh these old eyes have looked upon a lot of things it should not but now i'm going to come into the house of the lord and i'm going to behold the beauty i looked at a lot of things and thought it was beautiful but there's nothing any more beautiful than getting in the house of god and watching the beautiful thing of grace touch the ugliness of our sin it's beautiful beauty oh let me musicians come we've got a a beautiful sight you're going to see here in a few moments in a few moments you're going to see someone in the ugliness of their sin meet the beauty of grace as these words will be spoken sister so and so brother so and so upon the profession of your faith and in obedience to the word of god i now indeed baptize you in the name of the lord jesus christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost can i tell you your lot may be ugly but you're in a beautiful house this morning and god's got a beautiful plan for you today oh stand with me right now come on boy i want to wrestle with you stay with me now come on boy i want to wrestle with you and jacob and god begin to wrestle i want a blessing god i want a blessing you want a blessing i want a blessing god i don't like the man that i am self-centered deceiver you want a blessing yes god their feet shovel the dust goes up it's a headlock it's a grip and god says somebody say god said god says what's your name now the last time jacob was asked what's your name he lied he said esau but you'll never go forward with god lie to god i said boy what's your name i'm deceiver i'm self-centered i've lived my life to please myself and none other i didn't care who it hurt life was all about me i know you're going to let go of me right now god and you're going to leave me in the dust because now i've told you who i am but that's exactly what god's waiting on he already knows who you are he's waiting for you to understand who you are and who he is he's the god of election stay with me now please stay with me i'm jacob good thank you for being honest but your name's not gonna be called jacob anymore your name's going to be israel for as a prince you have power with god and when people call your name they're going to call you jacob they'll call you israel now follow me now esau desired a bowl of beans got his name changed to edom all of his descendants were named after his mistake jacob got honest with god god changed his name to israel it's okay but you've got to understand what's in this room right now you have now what's called israelites because you first had an israel now you've got israel likes i'm not an edomite i'm an israelite and i'm heir to the promises of almighty god i am an israelite somebody help me preach this morning somebody help i am not a jacobite i am an israelite jesus meets peter in the flesh for the first time but he had already met him in the spirit and when he meets peter for the first time or simon is his name he just cuts to the chase how you doing my name's jesus simon i know who you are thou art simon son of jonah i not only know who you are i know who your daddy is you're a simon son of jonah i know who you are and i know who you've come from but doubt shout be called cephas which being interpreted is a stone can i tell you today god knows who you are why don't you just shake his hand today and let him tell you what he has designed for you i i just don't think there's any way oh yes there is a way oh yes there is a way oh yes there is a way i just don't think you you don't know me you don't know the drugs i've been on you don't know the mess that i've made in my life you don't know you know what i'm hooked on you don't know what i've got in my car you know what i've got at home in the bedroom you don't know anything about me preacher shut up you don't know anything about my life you don't know there's no way oh yes there is a way because jesus said i am the way i am the truth and i am the light there is a way there is a way all you gotta do is step out of the aisle this morning and come down here and say i'm jacob i take oh i'm jacob i'm jacob wait a minute i i had you stand a little bit too soon and i i'm trying to be mindful of you business listen listen this preacher it says in the bible that we are the vessels of mercy vessels a vessel is something that a potter makes it'll never be about you it'll be about his mercy who would like to become a vessel of mercy today you're a vessel of destruction right now your master has got you doomed to a devil's hell of which he'll be a part of but would you be willing to hear mercy mercy is calling you this morning come out of that view come out of that pew mercy's calling you that's the thumb of your heart that's the grip in your vocal cords this morning that's the that's the quenching of the pew listen to mercy listen to mercy listen to mercy church pray right now we're gonna pray some people out of the views is is god oh i know where there is help us is see illusion for you into the holy place grace is cover me his beloved is in the darkness where everything is unknown what is in this house the lord is at his house right now mercy is flowing you just may need a little help this morning church i'm going to ask you to be sensitive man to man woman and woman when you lay your hand over on somebody right now there's a a surge of mercy as a surge of mercy there's a surge of mercy oh there's a surge of mercy oh god there's a surge of mercy there's a surge of the power the recreative power of god oh i make all things new if any man be in christ he's a new creature any man be in christ he's a new creature old things have passed away and behold all things are new i pray for you my brother i pray for you my sister that the fullness of god be revealed in your hearts how long the holy ghost is moving lay your hand over on somebody um don't you sing it one more time brother of a place i could go where i could find a way to heal my wounded soul where is mercy where jesus said his is see where jesus is jesus is see see see where is see see come on let's give jesus a big hand oh yes hey let me tell you something beautiful let me tell you something beautiful right now something beautiful right now brother donny was up here in the altar praying this morning now donny a few weeks ago on a friday night came to church and got a bible study and got baptized in jesus name donny received the holy ghost last sunday night in a prayer line all right donny went got a hold of his friend greg and greg got baptized this morning come on give jesus some praise come on give jesus some prayer oh if you can't understand election give him some pray if you know why he loves you if you know why he loves you you are not right you're rotten you got to leave here today saying i don't know why he loves me because if you ever think you know you've you you've taken works up and you've not taken the election well i tell you are we ready to hit the parking lot and evangelize are we ready for our community tonight