R.T. Kendall - For An Audience of One: Seek the Praise That Comes From God Alone

In a world filled with people trying to make their names great, Christians should aim to make Gods name great. R. T. Kendalls book For an Audience of One points out that in a world filled with people living for their popularity on social media today, Christians should concern themselves with Gods glory for all eternity. If your soul is weary of this foolish and fallen world, its time to start living for an audience of One. This is the one thing that changes everything.

MARK DRISCOLL

FOUNDING AND SENIOR PASTOR, THE TRINITY CHURCH

AUTHOR, WIN YOUR WAR, SPIRIT-FILLED JESUS,

AND REAL MARRIAGE

Not too long before my daddy died, he called me to his bedside and said, You must always remember to stay focused.

On what, Daddy? I asked.

On the cross and the person of Jesus Christ, he responded.

I have had the privilege of knowing R. T. Kendall for several years. When he told me the title of his newest book, I thought that R. T. knows what he is talking about because, like my daddy, his desire is to always focus on the cross and the person of Jesus Christ. And this is what living a life for an audience of One is all about.

GIGI GRAHAM

I cannot imagine a timelier book than R. T. Kendalls For an Audience of One. In it he points us to the true purpose of every believer: we are to lay down every aspect of our lives, giving God all of the glory. The dying time is essential for every believer, but the duration is up to us. It took Israel forty years; it took Jesus forty days. These pages are filled with true humility. They hold the priceless wisdom of a man who has walked faithfully with God over a lifetime. As you read this book, let R. T.s words challenge and focus you. We cannot discover our significance on the earth until weve truly come face to face with our insignificance. Everything good in us is by His grace. I absolutely love this book!

BILL JOHNSON

BETHEL CHURCH, REDDING, CALIFORNIA

AUTHOR, THE WAY OF LIFE AND RAISING GIANT-KILLERS

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For an Audience of One by R. T. Kendall

Published by Charisma House

Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group

600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, Florida 32746

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2020 by R. T. Kendall

All rights reserved

Visit the authors website at www.rtkendallministries.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kendall, R. T., 1935- author.

Title: For an audience of one / by R. T. Kendall.

Description: Lake Mary, Florida : Charisma House, [2020] | Includes

bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019037321 (print) | LCCN 2019037322 (ebook) | ISBN

9781629996738 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781629996745 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Christian life--Biblical teaching. | Judgment of God. | God

(Christianity)--Worship and love.

Classification: LCC BS680.C47 K46 2020 (print) | LCC BS680.C47 (ebook) |

DDC 248.4--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019037321

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019037322

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Let us thus think often that our only business in this life is to please God, that perhaps all besides is but folly and vanity.

NICOLAS HERMAN,

KNOWN AS BROTHER LAWRENCE (16141691),

THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD

To Toby, Timothy, and Ty

CONTENTS

NEXT TO THE apostle Paul, no evangelist has impacted the world for Jesus Christ more than the late Billy Graham. Included among the millions who came to Christ under his preaching was my own mother. For fifty-four years Dr. Graham was a member of First Baptist Church, Dallas, where I pastor, and he made an indelible mark on my life and ministry.

I am delighted that my friend Dr. R. T. Kendall has chosen Dr. Graham as one of the examples in his latest book. I have read a number of R. T.s books over the years. His book on the life of Joseph, God Meant It for Good, is one of his most popular and was a blessing to me years ago. The present book, For An Audience of One, will almost certainly stand alongside his book on Joseph. It is R. T.s unfolding of what he calls his life verseJohn 5:44: How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? (KJV). A quick way to grasp the point of this book, as he himself puts it, is this: Billy Graham preached to millions but in fact preached for an audience of One. R. T.s hope is that the reader will be persuaded to resist the praise of man and live as though only God was looking on. If we could live like this, truly our lives would be changed forever.

Born in Ashland, Kentucky, nearly eighty-five years ago, R. T. was a Southern Baptist pastor before attending Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He received an MDiv from Southern Baptist Seminary and went on to receive a DPhil in theology from Oxford University. His thesis, entitled Calvin and English Calvinism to 1648, was published by Oxford University Press. He was called to be the senior minister of Westminster Chapel in 1977, following men such as Dr. G. Campbell Morgan and Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Retiring from Westminster Chapel after twenty-five years, he has had an itinerant ministry all over the world and continues to write books.

It is my prayer that his latest book that honors Dr. Graham will be a motivation for you, as it has been for me, to live for an audience of One.

DR. ROBERT JEFFRESS

PASTOR, FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, DALLAS

I HAVE WORKED IN the harsh competitive world of finance for over forty years, and one thing I know for certain is that James Bond gets it right when he says, The world is not enough. There is a longing and thirst for purpose and fulfillment in life that the world cannot give. We are a generation looking for likes yet longing for love. As we desperately search for fulfillment and seek to find the secret to human flourishing, we frequently go to the wrong places and people to find it. As I have mentored many young millennial leaders over the years, the thread woven throughout the fabric of all our conversations is the pressure to prove oneself and to get others to affirm and validate ones worth. In doing so, we forget that we were created to live for an audience of One, the One who created, forgave, and redeemed us.