Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 11
May 5, 2023
Bethel Men
Crafting A Holy Life 1. Prayer
Crafting A Holy Life 2. Obedience
Crafting A Holy Life 3. Mediation
Crafting A Holy LIfe 4. Worship
Men, Following Jesus,
Helping Other Men Follow Jesus
Brothers. Here are some notes for the studies on Crafting a Holy Life. Let me know if you have any questions.
Crafting A Holy Life 1. Prayer
Crafting A Holy Life 2. Obedience
Crafting A Holy Life 3. Mediation
Crafting A Holy LIfe 4. Worship
What Do You Do When You Are Confronted With Your Sin?
1.–When we are confronted with our sin we usually deny it. Hide it cover it.
2.–We tend to excuse it. We rationalize and “reason” out way out of it.
3.–We try to minimize it Call it “really stupid” confess only what is easily forgivable.
4.–We partially confess.We blame others and don’t take responsibility for it. Eve blamed the serpent. Adam blamed his wife.
5.–We feel remorse for it but don’t forsake it and hate it. (Why did God forgive David but not Esau?) (Hebrews 12:17; 2 Cor. 7:10) Grief over consequences vs. grief over broken relationship) (Psalm 51 “against thee and thee only have I sinned and done evil in Thy sight”Admit it but continue in it. Delay…
6.–What is the right response when we are confronted with the reality of our own sin? REPENT. It was the first command of Jesus. It was the first message of John the Baptist. It is the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. There are models of penitent prayers in the Psalms. (Psa. 6; Psa. 25; Psa. 32; Psa. 38; Psa. 51; Psa. 102; Psa. 130; Psa. 143) “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whosoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13) But what do you do when the burden of guilt is too great to bear? When you have a revelation of your own depravity?
November 9, 2022
Greetings men. Bethel Men will meet this evening and every Wednesday evening in the Bethel Library (the room just to the right of the main stairs as you enter the east doors). We meet from 7 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. We will take a break on Thanksgiving week (We will not meet Wednesday, November 23). We will not meet December 21 or 28 but we will continue beginning January 4, 2023.
Bring your Bible and a friend this evening.
November 1, 2022
Good brothers of Bethel and others. This morning I shared some material I called a “Holiness Hack.” Here I the notes I handed out and promised to include here.
The Principle of Imitation:
You will tend to become like
whoever you train yourself to admire
Who do you want to be like?
He who walks with wise men will be wise,
But the companion of fools will be destroyed.
Proverbs 13:20
Ultimately we want to be like Jesus, but we are “wired” to imitate others we can physically see. God intends for us to find others with admirable qualities of holiness and be like them.“He who walks with wise men will be wise…”
Galatians 4:19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you Luke 6:40 “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. 1 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me .Philippians 3:17 Brethren, join in following my example , and note those who so walk , as you have us for a pattern. Philippians 4:9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me , these do, and the God of peace will be with you.1 Thessalonians 1:6 And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,2 Thessalonians 3:9 not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.1 Timothy 1:16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.1 Timothy 4:12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.Hebrews 13:7 Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you , whose faith follow , considering the outcome of their conduct.1 Peter 5:3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; Acts 20:28-38 This is why older, godly Christians are so important in a Christian fellowship.Here is how the process works:
1. the behavior is modeled
2. the behavior is admired and imitated
3. I accept by faith that the behavior is God’s will
4. I trust the prompting/enabling power of the Holy Spirit
5. I repeat the behavior (Romans 6:18ff)
6. I continue over a prolonged period of time
7. I am among others who support the behavior
8. Over a period of time it becomes the behavior I deeply desire. (affections)
“…A companion of fools will be destroyed.”
Proverbs 12:26 The righteous should choose his friends carefully , For the way of the wicked leads them astray.Proverbs 22:24 Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go 1 Corinthians 5:11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “ Evil company corrupts good habits .”You don’t need many friends.
What kind of friends do you need?
1. You need friends who fear God and obey Him.
Psalm 119:63 I am a companion of all who fear You, And of those who keep Your precepts.
2. You need friends who refresh you in the things of the Lord. 2 Timothy 1:16 The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain;
3. You need friends who will stimulate you to love and good works. Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works…
Bethel Men
Men, Following Jesus,
Helping Others Follow Jesus.
October 26, 2022
This evening we talked and studied the scriptures about what it means to walk in the Spirit
“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:18–25, ESV)
“Walking in the Spirit is continually obeying
–the impulses of the Spirit in
–the power of the Spirit which produces
–the fruit of the Spirit.”
When a man discovers his life filled with the works of the flesh, he should examine his heart and ask himself, “When did I ignore or disobey in impulse of the Spirit, a teaching of scripture, or the example of Jesus, which led to this?” He should then return to the area he left the path of obedience and obey in the power of the Spirit until it produces the fruit of the Spirit.
April 24, 2023
When I Met Lois…
The Story of How Lois and I Met
44 years ago on Friday night, September 8, 1978 I went par-3 golfing with a friend Jeff Tokar. After our round of golf we were hungry so we stopped at a little pizza place across the street from the college we attended. They sold cheap and tasty pizza by the slice. While we were waiting for our pizza a girl walked over from the college. She was pretty with long brown hair and her eyes were brown. She wore a light blue top and a jean skirt with tennis socks that had a blue and pink stripe around the ankle. She wore white tennis shoes. She had her hair pulled back from her face with a headband. She wore no makeup. She didn’t need any. I said ‘Hi” and she returned the greeting but looked quickly away. She was either quiet or she didn’t like me or maybe both. I wished there was a way I could have gotten her name but I was just not that bold.
The first place I ever saw Lois
The next day in the college cafeteria, popularly called “The Cafe” pronounced like calf… I saw her again. It was Saturday September 9, 1978. She was sitting at a table with friends at lunch and she was wearing a brown dress with three-quarter length sleeves and a floral inset on the front. Friends were gathered around the table to sing happy birthday to her. In I gesture that looked like wiping away a tear, she brushed her finger across her face under her eye. She later denied that she was crying, said it was just a nervous mannerism, but it made my heart tender to her. I still didn’t know her name.
That night I attended a church picnic sponsored by United Baptist Church where my roommate attended. I drove, parked along the road and walked up the farmhouse with my friend. Standing there with a big young man with the young lady from the pizza place–the birthday girl. I said, “Where is the picnic?” They pointed toward the west and then they walked off to the east. I kept an eye on her that evening.
As evening fell the a number of the students were playing volleyball on one of the two courts. I could not get on the same court as the pretty young lady but I could not arrange it. As night feel and the games broke up they called us over to the fire for a devotional time. I noticed the pretty girl lost her headband and volunteered to help her. I said, “Wait here. I have a flashlight in my car.”
I hurried back with the flashlight and we found her headband. I walked her over to the circle of the fire and we sat and listened to a passionate young man preach. When he was done we all enjoyed watermelon. I got her a piece. I was sticking with her, she was not following me. I made conversation and I remember thinking that I needed to act quickly. A beautiful girl like this would get picked-off quickly. There would be some stiff competition and I could not imagine a man on in our large student body that would not be interested in this fetching young lady with the big, beautiful brown eyes and long brown hair.
I discovered her name was Lois Hatton and that she was from Ypsilanti, Michigan. I pronounced it Yip, like yippie and she quietly corrected me… “IP-silanti,” she said. I asked if she attended Calvary Baptist.
“No,” she said. “Southside Baptist.”
She had a beautiful mountain accent. She explained that she was born in Kentucky. I thought it was charming.
I got her a piece of watermelon and within a short time asked her, “Would you like to go out to eat with me?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, my mom would not want me to go out with someone I don’t know,” she said.
“She is wise,” I said, “But that is how you get to know somebody.”
“I better not.”
I said, “Well, what about this. Why don’t we eat together in the Cafe, that way you will feel safe and we can get to know each other, then when you are comfortable we can have a date off campus.”
“Well…”
“Listen, you don’t have to decide right now but you have to eat. Why don’t I wait for you at dinner Monday at 5:30 with the Cafe doors open?”
“Well…”
“You don’t have to decide. I will be there. If you show up we will eat together.”
On the way home my roommate says, “How did it go with the pretty girl?”
“We are going to eat together on Monday night,” I said, and then thought, “I’m pretty sure.”
Monday evening I was standing at the door at 5:30 as I promised. She was not there. I waited for what seemed like fa very long time and about 5:35 she came around the corner of the building with a cluster of girls. She didn’t look up. She kept her gaze on the ground ahead of her. She walked to the top of the steps.
“Hi”
“Hi,” she said and kept walking. I fell quickly in beside here there among her friends and began to monopolize her conversation which I have been doing pretty consistently now for over 42 years. By the end of the week I had talked her into a date to Wendy’s and Putt-Putt Golf. She wore a purple dress tied at the waist. I hope it is not inappropriate to record a vivid memory that she smelled beautiful, she looked beautiful and she had a very lovely form that was hard for me to get out of my mind. She had three holes-in-one that night and beat me at the game.
Just a few weeks later we were walking around the campus on a cool autumn night. Walking past the north end of the Field House (pictured here) I said to her, “Do you feel like you want to marry a pastor?”
She immediately she said, “O no.”
We walked on in silence. I was devastated. What was she doing at a Bible College if she didn’t want to marry a pastor, I naively thought. More silence. Finally she broke the silence.
At home I used to listen to Christian radio when I went to bed at night. I listened to a preacher named Lester Roloff. He had a home for troubled girls. I thought maybe I would help troubled girls.”
“Oh, that’s what pastor’s wives do.”
When I was in high school I listened to Christian radio at night and I have always loved the thought that while I was lying in my bed in Ohio listening to Christian radio, she was lying in her bed in Michigan doing the same and the Lord brought us together in Springfield, Missouri. Her church encouraged all the teens to spend at least a year at BBC. I attended there, even though it was not my usual brand of Baptist, because it was a place where you could work and earn your own way through college. My sister Melony and her husband Jim were married students there for a bit.
FieldhouseIt was in September we met and started going out every weekend. It was early November when I first kissed her. She was pretty shy and passive about it, but she eventually warmed to it. At Christmas we travelled together home to Michigan (my parent moved to Michigan after I left for school. They now lived in Pontic). We had a chaperone both ways and the return trip was during a historic winter storm.
On weekends we usually went roller-skating with about 200 other college students from BBC and others from Evangel University and Calvary Bible College across town. Lois went to High Street Baptist Church with me.
One night in February we were out for diner and then went to a city park to walk in the snow. The snow was think in the park that night and lois was playful. She wore boots and a very pretty burgundy wool suit. She had curled her hair in big loops that night. We played in the snow and laughed and, standing on the bridge I kissed her and said, “Will you marry me?” She laughed. I had no ring. It seemed like a joke. I should not have said it, but I told her that night that I would ask her every month to marry me until she agreed. That was February 8th. I asked again on March 8, April 8, May 8th, June 8th and I think in July I brought a very modest ring to see her on my weekend visit to her home in Ypsilanti. I arrived, got out of the car and walked up to she and her mother and opened the ring box and asked again.
She said, “Is this real?”
Honestly it was a very poor way to handle something so important, but I was hurt that she asked if it was real. We worked out the kinks and made our way to the altar at her home church by September 8, 1979.
The Footbridge in Fassnight ParkEvery day Lois and I would walk to the campus post office. Back then the standard mail was must more important than it is in the day of e-mail, cell phones, and text-messaging.
Campus Post-OfficeLois ran every night in the good weather making loops in the women’s parking lot.
The Women’s Parking Lot The year I met Lois I was living in Harper Hall.
Harper HallThere is so much more to the story but this evening noodling about on Google and looked up some pictures of our old school and these memories came to me.
When I think back I’m so thankful to God that he so gently and faithfully protected us, provided for us and forgave us. He has poured out blessing upon us, eight children, and soon twenty grandchildren and hearts full of thanks for his kindness.
Bittersweet Farm
April 24, 2023
2. Blessings Over Curses (Eph. 1:3-14) Audio
Ephesians Series | Bethel Church, Jackson, Michigan
2. Blessings Over Curses (Eph. 1:3-14)
Pastor Ken Pierpont
2. Blessings Over Curses (Eph. 1:3-14)
Ephesians Series | Bethel Church, Jackson, Michigan
2. Blessings Over Curses (Eph. 1:3-14)
Pastor Ken Pierpont
April 15, 2023
The Pierpont Project | 365 Lessons for Boys and Men
Check out The Pierpont Project on Instagram.
View this profile on InstagramPierpont Project (@pierpontproject) • Instagram photos and videos
April 11, 2023
Schedule Regular Celebration | Bittersweet Farm Journal | April 10, 2023
Three of Chuk and CC’s dressed for Easter
Wes and Dylan’s Girls (Texas)
Dan and Kate and Crew (Texas)
Saturday night I picked out my clothing for Resurrection Sunday morning. Blue suit. A bright white shirt with crisp collar and cuffs. Freshly-shined boots. A bright hand-tied bow tie, the reversible one with lime-green and purple, blue and pink stripes. (I know it sounds like a clown costume but it really is pretty sharp and fairly shouts “celebration”).
I always tell my friends, “If I am wearing a bow tie, ask me what I am celebrating.”
Reasons To Get Out of Bed in the Morning
One of the keys to happiness in life is to always have something to look forward to. I call it “Reasons to Get Out of Bed in the Morning.” I keep a list of things running in my mind of things I am looking forward to, celebrations I am planning. Life is full of hard things, you don’t have to schedule them, they just keep coming at you. You can get so busy wrestling your duties to the ground and scrambling out from under your pile of obligations and deadlines, that forget to party. That is not good for your soul.
Every Lord’s Day is a celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus, but for a follower of Jesus and especially for a Gospel-preaching pastor, Easter—Resurrection Sunday is an annual parent, fest day, holy day, and grand celebration.
At Bethel Sunday we started with a full breakfast (I had a biscuit and gravy). The sky was clear, the sun was bright, and the temperatures were warm for Michigan in April. The service was well-attended. Ken Wyatt opened up our wonderful organ, David Parsons lead a brass ensemble, Jerry Glazer lead a large men’s group in singing a song he wrote about the resurrection. Our worship leaders spread across the platform to lead us. We had folks on drums, guitars, a piano and keyboard and a full congregation up to the balcony of uplifted voices to sing songs old and new exalting the risen Christ.
Leaking Hope and Losing Faith
Then I stood to tell the story. I told the chapter of the Resurrection story where two disciples are trudging the road home to Emmaus with their heads down and their hearts confusing, leaking hope and losing faith. Suddenly there was a stranger alongside. They did recognize it was Jesus himself, raised from the dead. He corrected their misunderstandings, restored their faith and set their hearts afire again. They invited him home. He acted as the host and took the bread. Maybe that reminded them of the other times he broke the bread, maybe they saw the nail scars in his hands, but God opened their eyes. They realized who he was—that he was alive and said, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us while we walked on the road and he taught us.” That very hour they returned to Jerusalem to meet with the eleven and celebrate that Jesus was alive.
Sometimes we trudge the road to Emmaus losing faith and leaking hope. We walk away from Jesus when we should be running to him, but he is merciful and follows us down the road and answers our questions and explains the Scriptures and draws us into fellowship, and we see him clearly again in the breaking of the bread.
I know life is hard. Sometimes things go wrong in threes. I know we live in a world that is broken. I know disappointments can be crushing sometimes. I know it can be hard to hold on to faith and hope can leak away, but keep your bow tie handy, Jesus died and rose again and someday he is coming back to right every wrong and spread his love and benevolent rule over all the earth. Those who believe will be swept, by his grace into his Kingdom forever.
Someday, maybe soon. Keep a bow-tie handy or lay out your favorite Easter dress. Don’t put away your dessert recipes. Keep your guitars and horns all tuned up. We serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today.
Bittersweet Farm
April 10, 2023
Click here to watch a video of the message.
April 10, 2023
A Stranger on the Road to Emmaus
My Resurrection Sunday morning message..
March 27, 2023
Marmalade Preserves
The Mitford CookbookToday I stopped at the market to get some apples. A small lady said to me, “Excuse me sir, when you are done there can you help me. I can’t reach the marmalade preserves.”
“No trouble,” I said, happy to be of some use and to make a new friend. I reached for the preserves thinking, “But for the grace of God I could be a short people…”
“That is wonderful stuff,” she said,
“Have you read the Jan Karon novels?”
“Every last one of them.” she said.
I had a hunch. “Are you a church-goer.”
“I am.”
We explored our common experiences and went our ways. She with her Marmalade Preserves in her cart and me walking just a little taller and a little warmer in my heart.
I got to tell her the story of recommending the books to Bea, and then about the time Bea surprised me on my birthday with Esther’s Marmalade Cake from Jan Karon’s books…
Always puts a smile on my face
March 24, 2023
March 22, 2023
How to Walk in the Spirit
How to Walk in the Spirit-Bethel Church | Jackson, Michigan | Pastor Ken Pierpont
