Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 99

Cherished Like A Bride

Jesus wants to bless you,

Satan wants to curse you.

Jesus is your advocate,

Satan is your accuser.

Jesus wants to give you life eternal and abundant,

Satan wants you damn you to hell forever.

Jesus wants to favor you,

Satan wants to abuse you.

Jesus wants to grace you,

Satan wants to strip you of all that is good and honorable.

Jesus wants to gift you,

Satan wants to rob you.

Jesus wants to cherish you,

Satan wants to torment you.

Jesus wants to delight you,

Satan wants to plunge you into discouragement, depression, and despair.

Satan wants you to be disloyal to Jesus.

He wants to pull you into committing spiritual adultery.

He has a sophisticated world-system in place to seduce you and to destroy you.

Jesus wants to cherish you forever as his Bride–his glorious spotless Church.

Don’t let Satan sink his talons into you with temptation.

Run into the arms of Jesus over and over again.

April Evening

This evening I’m working

out on the porch with my lap desk.

I love that time of year

When the late afternoon is filled

With the laughter of children at play

And riotous birdsong

And the flowering pear is poised to burst

into fragrant blossom.

And I’m joined by the silent presence

of a napping dog.

Who Is He and Who Am I (Rev. 16)

Message Title: Who is He and Who Am I?

Text: Revelation 16:1-21

Place: Evangel Baptist Church-Taylor, Michigan

Date: April 10, 2016AM

Speaker: Pastor Kenneth L. Pierpont

An Ordinary Trip-An Extraordinary Memory

Our sixth and seventh-born children are Daniel Wesley and Wesley Josiah. The were born in Knox County, Ohio. Daniel at home in our farm house out on Rutledge Road and Wesley on in our home on Apple Valley Drive a few miles away. Daniel and Wes spent four of the most significant years of their lives living with the family on the sixth floor of a hotel-turned-Christian-ministry. 16 stories. 450 rooms. Huge ballrooms and public areas. Downtown Flint, Michigan. I got them out of the building every time I had a chance.

In mid-April of 2005 I was invited to speak to a group of churches in southern Illinois. Dan and Wes and I went together. During the daytime we went on excursions including bike rides in a beautiful hilly park filled with banks of daffodils. It was a sunny, warm, beautiful early spring week.

Today Daniel is in the Gulf of Mexico on a company fishing trip. He is sending stunning pictures of sky and sun and water. He works all over Texas. He will marry in June. Wesley married in January. He and his wife, Dylan live in West Michigan, but only the Lord knows where life will take them. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them in Africa some day.

But back in the spring of 2005 we had a few days together in the sun. We slept in the same room. We had a few meals together and some long, quiet car rides, as when evening fell we grabbed out Bibles and met with some brothers and sisters at the church and tried to be a blessing.

Sometimes in the spring of the year I remember that trip. It was just an ordinary trip, but it’s an extraordinary memory.

The Glory of God’s Justice (Rev. 15)

The Glory of God’s Justice (Revelation 15)

Evangel Baptist Church-Taylor, MI

Pastor Ken Pierpont

April 3, 2016 PM

Revelation Series (In Progress)

Revelation Series

Ken Pierpont

Evangel Baptist Church-Taylor, Michigan

Preached from September 2015 to Present

A Simple Explanation of the Book of Revelation


http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20150906_Ken_Pierpont_A_Simple_Explanation_of_the_Book_of_Revelation.mp3

The Time is Near (Rev. 1:1-3)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20150913_Ken_Pierpont_The_Time_is_Near.mp3

Finishing Faithful (Rev. 1:4-8)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20150920_Ken_Pierpont_Finishing_Faithful.mp3

A Vision of the Son of Man (Rev. 1:9-20)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20150927_Ken_Pierpont_A_Vision_of_the_Son_of_Man.mp3

How to Renew Your Love for God (Rev. 2:1-7)

The Church at Ephesus

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20151004_Ken_Pierpont_How_to_Renew_Your_Love_For_God.mp3

The Suffering Church (Rev. 2:8-11)

The Church at Smyrna

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20151011_Ken_Pierpont_The_Suffering_Church.mp3

How to Resist Becoming a Worldly Church (Rev. 2:12-17)

The Church at Pergamum

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20151018_Ken_Pierpont_How_To_Resist_Becoming_A_Worldly_Church.mp3

He Searches Minds and Hearts (Rev. 2:18-29)

The Church at Thyatira

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20151025_Ken_Pierpont_He_Searches_Minds_and_Hearts.mp3

Will Christ Confess You? (Rev. 3:1-6)

The Church at Sardis

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20151101_Ken_Pierpont_Will_Christ_Confess_You_.mp3

Enduring Opposition (Rev. 3:7-13)

The Church at Philadelphia

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20151108_Ken_Pierpont_Enduring_Opposition.mp3

Eager Repentance (Rev. 3:14-22)

The Church at Laodocea

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20151115_Ken_Pierpont_Eager_Repentance.mp3

The Control Center of the Universe-Part One (Rev. 4)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20151129_Ken_Pierpont_The_Control_Center_of_the_Universe_-_Part_1.mp3

The Control Center of the Universe-Part Two (Rev. 5)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20151206_Ken_Pierpont_The_Control_Center_of_the_Universe_-_Part_2.mp3

Life is Not Fair But God is Just (Rev. 6)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20160103_Ken_Pierpont_Life_is_Not_Fair_But_God_is_Just.mp3

God’s Mercy and Protection (Rev. 7)

http://kenpierpont.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/GODs-Mercy-and-Protection.mp3

The Trumpet Judgments Begin (Rev. 8)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20160124_Ken_Pierpont_The_Trumpet_Judgements_-_Part_1.mp3

Sin Makes You Stupid (Rev. 9)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20160131_Ken_Pierpont_Sin_Makes_You_Stupid.mp3

The Great Angel and the Little Book (Rev. 10)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20160207_Ken_Pierpont_The_Great_Angel_and_the_Little_Book.mp3

What Lasts is What Matters (Rev. 11)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20160214_Ken_Pierpont_That_Which_Lasts_Is_What_Matters.mp3

Who is On The Lord’s Side? (Rev. 12)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20160306_Ken_Pierpont_Whose_Side_Are_You_On_.mp3

A Hideous Evil (Rev. 13:1-18)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20160313_Ken_Pierpont_A_Hideous_Evil.mp3

The God of the Bible is the Judge of the Universe (Rev. 14:1-20)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20160320_Ken_Pierpont_Where_Will_You_Be_In_The_End_.mp3

The Glory of God’s Justice (Rev. 15:1-8)

http://evangelbaptist.com/podcast/20160403_Ken_Pierpont_God_Is_The_Judge.mp3

The Road to Emmaus (Easter Sermon)

A Warm Gesture

In 1994 we leased a big farm house in west Knox County, Ohio near our church. It was a huge 4500 square foot drafty barn of a house which was heated with fuel oil. We loved the space, the great hardwood floors, the big windows looking out on the fields and all the room for the children to play, but it was very expensive to heat. On winter nights I would lie awake and listen to the old furnace kick on and imagine the fuel oil just sucking out of the tank in the basement. Sometimes I would go down into the dark basement and watch the float and imagine I could see it visibly descending. I would worry and pray about how to keep the house warm. We prayed for a mild winter and an early spring. But it was harsh and cold and the winter lingered on. The house was in a prairie like setting with no trees or obstructions for miles west of the house so the wind just raced across the fields and howled around the house.

If the weather was especially harsh it was especially expensive to heat the house and the attendance at church and offerings would be thin because of the weather, so our income was sometimes tentative. This added to my worries. During the winter the heat alone was between 300 and 400 dollars a month. We just couldn’t afford it on our small salary with our large family and other expenses.

We closed off parts of the house and turned the heat as low as we could. I took extra work to make ends meet. I turned the heat down so far that pipes froze creating more expense and difficulty.

It was a very hard time for us. When the children would get sick I wondered if it was because we couldn’t afford to heat the house properly. Our landlord was a selfish and insensitive man.

I would leave for work on winter mornings and commute to Columbus for my job with Nationwide Insurance feeling guilty because I was warm while the family was cold and didn’t have much. Lois made crafts and sold them to buy food that we needed. I longed to be able to spend more time working the build the church.

We loved having our large family all together at home. He were committed to homeschooling them, but we were never able to afford the curriculum that we really wanted for them. Sometimes I just felt suffocating guilt because I wasn’t providing well for the family I loved so much. The children’s teeth needed care, but we could not afford dental work.

One cold evening we saw headlights coming down the road. A small truck turned in to our drive. I went out to meet our guest. It was Cliff Carpenter.

Cliff had visited our church about a year and a half earlier. I called on them a few times. One day I asked him to breakfast and offered to be his “spiritual trainer.” He liked the idea and for the next year I visited his home about every Thursday evening. I took he and his wife Amy through a series of discipleship lessons. Early in our meetings Cliff trusted in Christ for salvation. I baptized him the day Holly was baptized in a farm pond nearby. He then baptized his wife Amy. He read through his Bible for the first time that year. God began to change his life in ways all his friends noticed. They faithfully attended our church.

Once, while I was in his home I noticed he supplemented his heat with a kerosene heater. I showed some interest in it. We made some conversation about it. He recommended that I get one for our home. It would save us a great deal of money. On the way home I thought about it but I knew I could not afford the heater.

When I walked out to the truck to greet Cliff, he quietly said; “I have something for you.” He then reached in the back of his truck and lifted out a brand new heater for us. We used it every winter day thereafter. It took the chill off our home and provided a nice little place for this children to gather around on winter mornings to warm their hands.

When I would leave for my commute to Columbus I would often pause in front of the house and pray for the family in my absence. There at the base of the front stairs in the darkness of morning I would see the warm glow of that heater. I’m still grateful for the warm gesture of generosity.

Ken Pierpont

Granville Cottage

Riverview, Michigan

March 29, 2016

Hope for a Dying World

Grabbed a plate of hash browns and some coffee today in a local coffee shop…. This week you can feel something different in the air.

Spring comes slowly and deliberately to Michigan. But it comes. The redbuds won’t open and the dogwoods won’t blossom, the flowering pear won’t flower until mid-May but still, the days are warmer.

Last night we started a fire. But soon it won’t be chilly at night and we will open the windows and migrate out into the back yard and chat with the neighbors on the walk out front. The forsythia will open bright yellow. The birds will fill the trees. The grass will green and grow. The laughter of children will drift through the windows with a hint of lilac. The smell of grilling meat and cut grass will linger on the evening air.

Tomorrow many of the faithful of Evangel who can will gather to sing and pray and read the Scripture in reverent worship. I will preach and the choir will sing. It will be Good Friday. The Evangel auditorium is decorated with fresh spring flowers. Sunday is Resurrection Sunday.

I finish my coffee and pray over the noisy breakfast crowd… “Lord, open the hearts of people to deeply understand what this is all about.”

Now more than ever people need to see the the One who conquered death is the only hope of this dying world.

Daffodils in the Corner of the Parking Lot

You only are the maker

of all things near and far.

You paint the wayside flower,

you light the evening star.

The wind and waves obey you,

by you the birds are fed;

much more to us, your children,

you give our daily bread.

-Matthias Claudius

Yesterday was Palm Sunday and the first day of spring. I preached at Evangel with spring flowers at my feet. Some of them were daffodils. They are among the first flowers of spring. Along with the arrival of the Robin in significant numbers, and the blooming of the crocus, the blooming of the daffodils has become a quiet ritual that moves me to worshipful tears every year.

In the far corner of the north parking lot at Evangel every year in late March or early April a cluster of daffodils blooms bright yellow like a patch of sunshine. It is a small thing but I watch carefully for it every year. Shortly after dawn yesterday, with a cup of coffee in hand, I stood there in the chill of early morning and noticed that the plants have faithfully pushed their way through the soil again this year right there beside my car in the corner of the parking lot.

Much of our life is spent planning, plotting, and hoping for big momentous things or worrying about tragedies that may never occur. Every spring I stand over a cluster of yellow daffodils nodding in the breeze and I remind myself that the sweetest things in life are quiet and simple and easy to overlook.

I remind myself to breathe deep, walk slow, hold tight to those you love, and enjoy simple and beautiful things like the return of the Robin and the blooming of the daffodils every spring. I have a deep instinct within me to trust my life to the One who created daffodils.

Ken Pierpont

Granville Cottage

Riverview, Michigan

March 21, 2016