Bittersweet Farm
Text: Ephesians 2:1-10
Date: June 20, 2011 (Father’s Day)
Place: Evangel Baptist Church–Taylor, Michigan
Speaker: Pastor Kenneth L. Pierpont
Series: A Flyover of the Bible
Text: The Book of Proverbs
Date: June 12, 2011 PM
Speaker: Pastor Kenneth L. Pierpont
Text: Matthew 7:21-23
Place: Evangel Baptist Church
Series: Matthew’s Gospel
Date: June 12, 2011 AM
Speaker: Pastor Kenneth L. Pierpont
On a summer afternoon years ago our oldest son Kyle came in from playing out in the back with a friend looking serious.
The conversation went something like this:
“Hey, Kyle. You OK?”
“Yea.”
“Watcha’ up to?”
“Rusty was here.”
“Were you playing?”
“We were talking. I was witnessing to him.”
“Well, that’s good, Kyle. How did it go?”
“OK, I guess,” Kyle says—lines in the forehead.
“OK?” We ask.
He shuffles his feet and says; “He was sittin’ in the tree swing and I was witnessing to him. I told him that Jesus died for his sin and he said, ‘Cha-ching.’ When I told him about heaven he said, ‘Cha-ching.’ I don’t think he understood.”
“Kyle, you’re right. I don’t think he understood. Let’s pray for him. Maybe someday he will understand.”
It’s been years now. I don’t know what’s become of Rusty. I don’t know if he understands the gospel yet. I don’t know where he is, what’s become of him, or what he believes. I do know that he needs to know that the gospel is more than hitting the celestial jackpot with God.
What’s sad is that most people don’t understand the gospel and if they think they do they see it as a cheap and easy free-ride to heaven when they die after a life of living any way they want.
You tell them about Jesus and they say “cha-ching.” You tell them about Heaven and they say; “cha-ching.”
They really don’t get it and we should have a concerned look on our face to say the least.
If anyone is qualified to talk about the way to Heaven it is the One who came from Heaven, made a way for men and women to get to Heaven and is seated in Heaven now… the Lord Jesus.
As Jesus began his conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount he had something shocking and sobering to say about who goes to Heaven and who doesn’t go:
“Enter by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and here are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
I don’t know what you think, or what you have heard, but that’s what Jesus said about how hard it is to get to Heaven.
You really don’t hear people talking that way much, do you?
Ray Comfort is an evangelist from New Zealand who is all over the web. He noticed how many false professions and how many false converts there were in his ministry. He began to study the Scripture and the lives of great evangelists of the past and noticed that his evangelistic strategy was lacking something that Jesus and effective evangelists of the past emphasized… They often didn’t give people the gospel until they were silenced with conviction by the law of God.
Ray Comfort began to teach the law before he gave people the gospel and he began to see more people genuinely converted to Christ.
Most of you know that Kyle is a pastor in northern Indiana now. I called him to tell him that I was going to tell this story about Rusty and confirm the details. He said, “Do you remember that you had taken me to hear Ray Comfort speak and when I came in from talking to Rusty I was thinking, “I don’t think I gave him enough law…”
If you tell people about Heaven and they say “Cha-Ching,” and if you tell them about forgiveness and they say, “Cha-Ching,” you probably didn’t give them enough law.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
May
Seeking a way to comfort families grieving the loss of their loved ones I wrote this story:
There was a boy who always grew deathly ill of carsickness on long trips. It happened especially on the way to his grandparents home when the hills began to roll. He was in such pain, that he would complain to his father;
“Daddy, you have to do something. I think I am going to die. I can’t take it anymore.”
His Daddy wouldn’t say much. He would just keep driving toward the farm. “Well, if you get sick, don’t make a mess, son. Tell me if I need to pull over. Look outside the car. You’ll be better when we get there.”
Finally, mercifully, he would arrive at his grandparent’s farm and his suffering would end.
When he got to the farm he would take off his shoes and roll up his jeans and wade in the stream-
cold water washing over his feet
Smooth rocks beneath.
He would run in the grass,
Pick flowers for his mother.
And chase butterflies
He would fish
He would swim
He would climb trees
He would swing in the barn
And jump in the hay
And chase the dogs
He would lay on his belly in the field
and eat wild strawberries…
Then they would call him for dinner…
He didn’t eat too much…
Then after dinner they would put a piece of warm pie in from of him with a big glob of melting home-made ice cream.
And then as evening came he would lie on the porch and he would look up into the night sky at the bright stars.
Then he would climb the wooden stairs to bed
Crawl into the big poster-bed
And lost in the soft covers
With hay-scented air billowing the white curtains he would listen to the murmuring and the soft laughter of adult voices from down below and sounds of the frogs and the crickets out in the night.
Lying there with the weight of his grandmother’s quilt on him he couldn’t even remember what it felt like to be sick. He was so happy to be in such a wonderful place with people he loved
and with people who loved him.
We may be car sick on the way but there will come a time that the beauty of eternal life and the presence of perfect love will make us forget all of it and remember it no more.
Paul said it like this: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)
Message: Hell’s Welcome Wagon
Series: Matthew’s Gospel
Text: Matthew 7:15-20
Date: June 5, 2011 AM
Place: Evangel Baptist Church–Taylor, Michigan
Speaker: Pastor Ken Pierpont
Recent Comments