Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 71
March 6, 2018
Growing a Family; Remind Them (Sermon 3) Video
Growing a Family With A Life-Long Love for God
Remind Them (Sermon Three) Video
Bethel Church-Jackson, Michigan
March 4, 2018 AM
Pastor Ken Pierpont
March 4, 2018
HOW TO “MEZUZAH” YOUR HOME
The Jews place a Mezuzah on the doorpost of their home to remind them of their love for God and the Law of God. Here are some things that you can do to influence those in your home to love God and regard the law of God:
* Fill your home with reminders of the truths of Scripture and your allegiance to them.
* Listen to good, Christian Radio Broadcasts and iPod, etc.
* Play Christ-exalting, pure, joyful, scripturally-sound music constantly in your home.
* Have a copy of God’s Word featured prominently in your home. (Not a decoration)
* Place good, Christian literature all around your home. (Toilet-tank edification)
* Make craft items that feature Scripture quotations. Place them around your home or use them for gifts “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
* Have a family bookcase and invest in good biographies of Great Christians. Read them to your children in the evening or paraphrase them for smaller children. (Use the highlighter outline method)
* Record your family stories which illustrate the things the Lord has taught you and send them to your children or grand-children.
* Keep a Prayer Book and record answered prayer
* Make a special project of making a Missionary Prayer Book (card collection; stamp collection) (Jer. 5:5)
* Take one of your children on a missions trip.
* Go on an adventure to seek God. -One pastor took his son on his senior year to section hike the AT and taught him the Book of Ephesians on the trail. -North Manitou Island Adventure.
* Be careful not to grieve the Spirit of God with entertainment that doesn’t please Him.
* Have a world map in your home and show where world prayer needs and missionary endeavors.
* Have missionaries in your home.
* Display beautiful, balanced art— with a purpose or a story
* Invite those with needs to your home to help them.
* Bake and cook to give things to others.
* Be sure each child has his own Bible and learns how to treat it.
* Take advantage of difficult situations and see them as “aids to communion” (2 Cor. 12:7-9)
* Dad: Before you leave for work in the morning arouse the children’s curiosity by saying: tonight after dinner, I’m going to tell you “The BB gun mystery” The story of “Skipper the Missionary Dog.” etc.
* Mom: Devote yourself to meaningful homemaking. Turn on your creative skills toward it.
* Get your home neat and organized. Practice jurisdictional leadership, example.
* Have a time of family devotions regularly.
* Use scripture memory charts and small incentives.
* Put scripture memory cards on ‘fridge, shaving mirror, speedometer, wallet etc.
* Carry “ammo” for the devil in areas of temptation.
* Build a good Bible Study Library
Complete Concordance
A Word Study Bible
A good Bible Dictionary (teachers should have “ISBE” or Zondervans Pictorial Bible Dictionary).
A good Bible Atlas
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. (TSK)
* Come to prayer meetings as a family
* Worship as a family
* Teach your children to sit quietly in church (how to do it)
* Create a quiet bag
* Have a Saturday night ritual
Quarterly discussion
Shine shoes -this is a good time for the Father to “bless” each member of the family
Wash car
lay-out all clothes
* Have a Sunday Morning ritual (music, Breakfast, no time for selfishness here)
* Dress up and make the Lord’s Day special
* Develop a family ministry (sing in Rest Homes/ Adopt a Widow)
* Teach your children young how to tell others how to be saved.
* Make your own Wordless Book
* Sponsor a neighborhood 5-Day Club
* Teach them to distribute tracts
* Evaluate teaching, but never openly criticize spiritual leaders.
* Father should assume enthusiastic leadership in all these areas
* Mother needs to show great enthusiasm at whatever attempts the father makes in this direction.
* Remember that spiritual things are discerned with the spirit, so don’t worry if you think preaching is “over their head.”
* Cleanse home. Go through your house and ask God to show you anything that could cause your children to stumble… remove it.
* Study Scriptural and spiritual definitions of names and use them to “bless” your children
* Put the children into bed each night with a prayer.
* Have them pray, but don’t have them pray “canned” prayers
* Go on special “adventures”
* Rise early and go on a walk to work on Scripture memory
* Get out on the lake to talk about a biblical principle
* Take “full moon” walks
* Establish scriptural convictions and educate your family to embrace them.
* tell stories of the spiritual journeys of your families.
* Use clothing that symbolizes your devotion to Christ.
* Praying together as a family
* Use your talents for Christ
* Listening to people and acting on needs as a family
* Bible memory
* Use character-building books—Christian
* Center around the local church. Always cast local church ministry in a positive light.
* Have the children serve under people who don’t have the same gifts that you do.
February 28, 2018
Growing A Family-Tell Them (Sermon 2) Audio
Series: Growing A Family With A Life-Long Love for God
Title: Tell Them
Text: Deuteronomy 6:7
Bethel Church, Jackson, Michigan
February 25, 2018 AM
Pastor Ken Pierpont
http://kenpierpont.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Growing-a-Family-Tell-Them-1.mp3
Growing A Family-Show Them (Sermon 2) Video
Series: Growing A Family With A Life-Long Love for God
Title: Tell Them
Text: Deuteronomy 6:7
Bethel Church, Jackson, Michigan
February 25, 2018 AM
Pastor Ken Pierpont
February 25, 2018
Bittersweet Farm Journal (Number 4) Around the Table
Bittersweet Farm Journal This Week
There’s really not a hint of spring around these parts yet, but the grip of winter is weakening for sure. We’ve been so busy getting adjusted to our new life here that I am embarrassed to admit that Hazard and I took our first real walk today (Saturday). I noticed that the ground around our home is not flat. You notice that more when you walk around then when you drive around. Hazard and I enjoyed a good vigorous stroll.
My new friend named David is teaching me about birds. I’m learning how to attract them to our little farm and how to identify them by sight and by song. I’m tuning my ear to notice them. On our walk I saw Canada Geese flying overhead in formation honking their way along. I heard a pigeon cooing off in the fence row and down at the edge of a pond I think I heard a red-winged blackbird calling. There were a few others, but I’m still a novice.
The other night I was driving out to the farm from my study listening to the radio when the announcer said: “Expect delays if you are traveling to the Upper Peninsula tonight. The Mackinaw Bridge is closed due to ice falling from the suspension cables.”
When I arrived home I stepped out of my car and heard a loud bird call overhead. I turned my head up to see a large solitary bird with a long neck and a wide wingspan high over Bittersweet Farm flying easily northwest. The sight of the bird somehow enlivened my spirit and sent me on a mission to discover the name of such a wonderful creature. It had a loud rattle-like call. It was a Sand Hill Crane in flight.
When I am afield with my dog and looking out on woods and fields and looking back on our little farm from far away my heart breaks into grateful worship. My walk was interrupted by a welcome call. A young man who has come to follow Christ since we came to Bethel called. God is setting him free from from drug-addiction. He was eager to meet for some fellowship and encouragement next week. So my worship walk was interrupted by another form of worship.
As I write its after nightfall and I’m up in my quiet corner of the house. I can hear the wind picking up and rain is beginning to fall. It should raid through the night an then blow through the morning, but by tomorrow evening the sun will be back. Maybe Lois and I will take a drive in the country. Maybe I will take another worship walk. I know Hazard will be willing. I’ll take my new field glasses this time to see if I can see some of the things I hear.
Around the Table
When we moved to our new farmhouse out on Bittersweet Farm we knew we needed to do something about our oak dinning room table. We’ve had it for well over 28 years. It is still sturdy but the finish needed refreshing. About a week after we moved in Lois went to work on it, bringing a new luster to an old heirloom. Things of value always have a story attached to them, don’t they? It’s been a while since I told the story behind that table. To read it again is remarkable when you see what God has done in the last year bringing us to Bethel and to Bittersweet Farm. Here is the story from almost thirty years ago:
I am privileged to do the pastorate along rural lanes and country-side and in quaint villages and small towns. My parish is a beautiful one. This time of the year the gentle hills and glens of Knox county are ribboned with ripening crops and rich with the colors of autumn.
Robert Frost wrote of “being versed in country things…”, that is an ambition of mine. I love the old places in the country best. Bank barns and big family homes back long, tree-lined lanes. Houses with character and a history. Not cookie-cutter track-houses but unique homes with their own personality and atmosphere.
Our good neighbors, the Wheelers, have a home like that. It is nestled in a ravine back a quarter-mile lane in the middle of a one hundred acre farm. On the back porch is a sturdy wrought iron triangular dinner bell.
I can imagine little children, grimy with play, running for the house at the sound of that bell. Their daddy, coming in from the field, hangs his cap on a hook inside the back porch and rolls up his sleeves. He scrubs for dinner then cups his hands to drink the cold water. He takes his place at the head of the table and with all the family holding hands bows his head and says a humble, sincere prayer of thanksgiving. The aroma of good food and coffee is on the air. The home is marked by the bounty of God.
We don’t live at the end of a lane in a spacious farm house. We don’t have a dinner bell. I don’t work in the fields. But there are a couple things about his little scenario that we have been able to duplicate.
Every time we sit down to eat as a family, we join hands around a beautiful solid oak dinning-room table. I think if I tell you the story behind how we got that table and what we plan to do with it you will be strengthened in your resolve to have a godly home.
It is an unusual story involving the Amish and the Japanese, Athens and Tokyo, a lady who calls herself Anne, A niece of Sam and his cousin, the Honda Motor Company, and Disney World.
The table didn’t cost me a penny. Lois doesn’t have a job but she paid for it. One day, looking for an outlet for some home-made craft items, Lois called a friend named Joanna (who calls herself Anne). Anne/Joanna put her in touch with a lady from Athens (Ohio) who had a contract with the Honda Motor Company to supply American-made dolls for a promotion sponsored by Disney World in Tokyo. Lois called the lady from Athens, who told her she would buy all the dolls she could make. There was, however a stipulation. The deadline for the order was less than a week away.
We set a goal to make sixty dolls in three days. The whole family worked together. The oldest children stuffed doll arms and legs and torsos with polyester batting. I stuffed and stitched doll pantaloons. Lois did the rest. I helped with meals. We stayed up all night most of two nights. I carefully maintained my office hours and took care of my calls and study and meetings and administrative duties, but when the deadline came we delivered on our end of the bargain. Thirty days later a check for over six-hundred dollars arrived in the mail.
We went shopping for a table. The retail stores wanted more than we could afford but I could tell the tables were made locally. Not knowing how to locate the Amish man who make the tables, I stopped an Amish lady on the street in Sugarcreek and asked if she knew anyone who built custom furniture. She said; “Oh yes, my cousin, Sam Mast does. He lives near Mount Hope.”
We drove to Mount Hope. At a little country store we stopped again. I asked the girl at the counter if she knew where Sam Mast lived. From the middle aisle of the store a voice said; “Sam Mast is my uncle.” She told us how to find his house.
We drove to his home and described the table we wanted. Solid Oak. Five legs. Simple but sturdy. Bow-back chairs on the ends and benches on the sides. Light finish. Five leaves so it would open to ten feet. We held our breath as he looked up the price. All together it came to $600.00 dollars!
The man who custom-built our table was named Sam Mast. He signed and dated our table on August 10, 1990. We loaded the whole family in the van and went to beautiful Holmes County to pick it up. The big table should be in our family for generations.
So you see, it’s not just a functional thing. Our table is a testament to the goodness and the faithfulness of God to our family. Maybe you can join us some day out on Bittersweet Farm and gather with us around our table.
Ken Pierpont
Bittersweet Farm
Summit Township, Michigan
February 25, 2018
February 24, 2018
Camp Lesson #15; Salvation is a Gift (Three Questions)
If you heard me speak at camp you know I did my best to make the gospel plain. One of the ways I have learned to do that is with three questions, three clear passages from the Bible and three stories from the Bible that prove salvation is a free gift. In the next three Camp Lessons I will share the three questions, three passages, and three stories.
Learn them well and use them as the Lord directs you in gospel conversations with others or to strengthen your own faith and understanding.
February 23, 2018
Growing A Family-Show Them (Sermon 1) Video
Growing a Family With a Life-Long Love for God
Bethel Church-Jackson, Michigan
February 18, 2018 AM
Pastor Ken Pierpont
Growing A Family–Show Them (Sermon 1) Audio
Growing a Family With A Life-Long Love for God: Show Them (Sermon One)
Bethel Church-Jackson, Michigan
February 18, 2018 AM
Pastor Ken Pierpont
http://kenpierpont.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Growing-a-Family-Show-Them-1.mp3
February 22, 2018
Should Preachers Tell Stories?
Tommy Oaks, Storyteller
I believe all preachers and teachers of truth should be concrete and clear in their communication. They should answer the questions:
–Can you make that clear?
–What does that look like?
–Why do I care?
–How can I do that?”
I have learned, the way God has gifted me, that telling stories is a powerful way of doing that. Not all good preachers and teachers are good storytellers, but those who don’t choose to use them should be clear and concrete and they should avoid blanket statements condemning or denigrating those who do.
How I came to love stories is one of the best stories I ever tell. I’d be flattered if you would read it. You can read that here. I’d be especially enriched if you would send me a complimentary note…written on a twenty-dollar bill. But the story of how I came to love stories has many chapters. It’s a book I hope to be writing for years to come. If I add a chapter do you promise to read it?
A Spring Night in the Ohio Countryside
Years ago in central Ohio a friend invited me attend special meetings at a country church. We drove through hill farm-country in fragrant spring to the little stone church. I didn’t expect much. I was in for a pleasant surprise. My imagination was ignited that night by a story-teller. His name was Tommy Oaks.
Tommy is from Tennessee. I hear he is the first man ever to graduate with a Master’s Degree in Story-telling from East Tennessee State University. I love the sound of that, though-degree or not- I’m sure Tommy would say you can either tell a story or you can’t. You don’t have to have a master’s degree to be a good story-teller.
He wore a wrinkled shirt with a string tie. He had a salt-and-pepper beard and maybe a little more hair on his face than he had on his head. He moved the pulpit aside and spoke without notes. He had in his memory what he was going to say and he skillfully planted it into our memory. This is what he said;
“When I was a boy I went to church a lot. The preacher always seemed to have three points and a story. I couldn’t tell you what the points were later that afternoon, but I always remembered the story. Tonight I want you to remember what I am going to say so I am going to tell three stories and make one point.”
He told a story. It was a good story and when he finished the story he didn’t make any point but simply said; “Alright, that’s the first story. Now for the second one,” and launched into another. The first story was short and humorous. The second story was simple and short, too. Then Tommy said, “That’s the second story, now here’s the third.”
The third story was slower in telling and serious. Everyone, even little ones, held still and breathed quiet and followed him with their eyes. By the time he reached the end you could start to tell the truth that tied all three of the stories together. It was a profound and weighty truth. It didn’t seem like he had talked for a long time but looking out through the open window you could see that the sun had slipped from sight and the fireflies hovered over the grass. The air was cooler and all of us sitting on the wooden pews enjoyed the silence that a good story produces. We listened like we were smelling fresh bread or slowly savoring a piece of gourmet cheesecake.
Both And: Theological Faithfulness and Storytelling Skill
In the circles in which I run (that’s right I run in circles) we are pretty theologically-conscious. We take a dim view of messages that are not rooted in Scripture top to bottom. We have a carefully-drafted doctrinal position and we like to be able to tell our preachers are sticking pretty close to it. We don’t really think the pulpit is the best place to express our personal opinions or preferences. We like some meat in our preaching. We want to hear someone handle the Word of God with skill and passion.
When the liberal theologians abandoned the authority of Scripture around the turn of the 19th century they substituted moralistic stories about social themes in their place. As a result we often rightly assume that story-teller preachers don’t quite have all their theological marbles. They aren’t always playing with a full theological deck. They are armed but they are no danger to the enemy because their homiletical gun is loaded with blanks.
Tall Tales or True Truth
I met a guy like that a few summers ago. He was a very good story-teller. I was eager to hear him because he was a pastor. He was from a denomination that is not well known for wearing out their Bibles so I was not surprised to find that he was not obsessed with truth. His specialty was tall tales. He sure could spin out a yarn and lay a whopper on you. Sort of a liar for hire, I guess. You could tell from listening that his was a sort of smorgasbord theology, you take what looks good to you and if you see something that you don’t think would taste good to you, you just leave it alone.
After he “told” I talked to him. I congratulated him on his skill and his style. I said; “I understand you are a pastor.”
He must have seen me coming or read my mind. Before I could speak again he offered, “Don’t try to make any sense of my stories. They are strictly for entertainment.”
I smiled politely but the idea went against my grain. I don’t think I have ever told a story without a specific lesson or point. As I see it if you don’t have anything to say that tells me something. You are making the point that you don’t think it is important to make a point. I’m not suggesting you have to assault people with truth. If you tell a good story you shouldn’t have harangue them to get a point across. A good story well-told mostly applies itself. You just lay it on the table and walk away.
My favorite preachers are story-tellers who know the Story of stories and tell it well. The stories of the Bible are often left untold or they are not told well. Secular story-tellers commonly tell tall tales, myths and legends. There is a place for different kinds of stories, but my own niche is true stories. Usually I know they are true because they happened to me, but in my story-telling repertoire I have a few well-chosen favorites that I have picked up from others too.
In my view it is illegitimate to tell stories in the pulpit and inconsistent to try to make a point with them if you don’t believe there is a major “over-arching story” that gives purpose to all the other stories. They say that post-moderns are opposed to an over-arching unifying narrative. That’s too bad because there is a meta-narrative. God is the author of the great story, and it gives meaning to all other stories ever. To reject the big story is to lose your place in the story of God.
Jesus, The Master Storyteller
Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Psalm 78 by being a storyteller. You can tell a lot about Jesus by the commands he gave, by the questions he asked, the prayers he prayed, and the stories he told. Do you remember when Jesus told three stories to make one point on Luke 15? You have to agree that in telling three stories he made one of the most memorable points any teacher ever made. The first two stories climax into one of the most powerful stories anyone has ever told–the story of the Prodigal Son. They were three stories of lost things found. In every story everyone rejoiced when the lost things were found, including the Father. At the end of the third story there was a twist–an exception. There was one who would not rejoice–the older brother refused to rejoice. People will be telling those Jesus stories long after he returns. They are powerful.
My Ambition
Men are filled with ambition from boyhood. They want to fight fires, fly to the moon, populate planets, win championships, subdue kingdoms, and capture fame, honor and beauty. I just want to be a really good story teller. My ambition is the Kingdom of God and my calling is to stir people up to press into the Kingdom with the Story and with stories.
Ken Pierpont
Bittersweet Farm
Summit Township–Michigan
February 22, 2018
February 21, 2018
Billy Graham; My “Grandfather”
This morning I got word my grandfather in the faith died. He never knew me. The man who led me to the Lord (my Dad) was saved after reading Billy Graham’s book “Peace with God.” So, you see, there is a sense in which my grandfather in the faith died today. He was 99 and he finished faithful to God. God be praised.
Thanks be unto God for his faithfulness and his heritage. Thanks be unto God for his initiative to preach and evangelize and write and make the gospel plain.
Makes me think. What initiative should I take today to help someone understand that good news that Jesus died for their sins and they can have peace with God?
In honor of Billy Graham’s life and legacy I’m going to call a friend today and invite him out for lunch and tell him the good news that changed all our lives when my dad read that book…
Ken Pierpont
Bethel Church
Jackson, Michigan
February 21, 2018
