Bittersweet Farm

Bittersweet Farm

Archives for August 2011

Bad News Baptists or Good News Baptists

Filed Under: Past Ministry

We Are Good News Baptists!

We live in the greater Detroit area. The Cubs will win the World Series before there is any economic good news here. Here in our neck of the woods the economic news has been bad for a decade. In the last couple years it has been catastrophic. If you believe what you hear on the news, the polar ice caps are melting-threatening an environmental apocalypse, and we should feel real guilty for drinking our morning coffee since, unless it was obscenely expensive, it probably wasn’t “fair-traded.” [Read more…] about Bad News Baptists or Good News Baptists

Speaking at Barakel

Filed Under: Current Thoughts

This week I have been speaking at Camp Barakel in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan. This is my twelfth year to minister on the shores of Shear Lake on the northern edge of the Huron National Forest.

I wish you could be there on Friday and Saturday night, after the campers have been there for a week, and hear them sing. It one of the sweetest sounds on earth.

Please pray that God will forever change the hearts of the young people who camp and counsel and work at Camp Barakel this week.

How Could a Loving God Send People to Hell?

Filed Under: Current Thoughts, Discernment, Sermons

Tim Keller inspired me to preach a series of messages based on honset questions people have about the Bible and Christianity. His book The Reason for God got me thinking about it. This post is a link to my message on hell.

Re-posted from 2008

11:00 AM
Ken Pierpont
Series: Straight Answers for Honest Questions; Luke 16:19-31

Ken Pierpont
Ken Pierpont - Sermons
How Could a Loving God Send People to Hell?
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Summer’s Swift Passing

Filed Under: Current Thoughts

Summer swiftly passes and my bike is still hanging on hooks on the ceiling of the garage. This year I never made it to the Metroparks to get a sticker for my car. Last night I wanted to spend some time with the Lord and didn’t want to buy the sticker because summer is so near being gone. I had to find a new spot that didn’t require a pass.

I’ve kept my nose to the grindstone this summer until last Monday when our family vacation began. This week I head north to Barakel to push young people into the Lake… the Great Lake of God’s Love… Twice a day I will speak to them. My plan is to plunge them into Psalm 139. In the afternoon I will have the sun on my head and my feet in the water of Shear Lake. I’m planning some prayer walks and I’m longing to hear the call of the loon on the lake.

Why Talk About Hell?

Filed Under: Current Thoughts, Fireside Academy

Re-posted from 2008

It is unpopular and uncommon in most churches in America to hear a message on Hell. I am going to preach on Hell Sunday morning. It would be a good service to invite people to if you care about their souls. Let’s admit it Hell is not a popular subject, so why would we preach on it? What good can come from preaching on Hell?

This should be answer enough: Jesus preached about Hell. Jesus had a lot to say about Hell. Why did he talk about Hell so much? It must have been good to talk and think about Hell. Here are just a few of the good things that happen when we talk, think, and preach about Hell:

– It makes us we examine ourselves.
– It stimulates efforts to evangelize.
– It magnifies God’s grace.
– It illustrates God righteousness, holiness, and justice.
– It reminds us to examine ourselves.
– It causes us to hold God in awe.
– It causes us to hate sin more.
– It sobers us and we are often told to be sober.
– It makes Heaven sweeter.
– It makes the things of this world smaller.

In American colonial days Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon; Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Listen to a version here. Read it here. Was Jonathan Edwards wrong to preach that way? Is it possible that one of the reasons there is so little fear of God in America and so much disregard for God, because there is so little preaching on Hell in America? We believe there is a hell. Why don’t we warn people about it? If we don’t warn people about it, is it because we really don’t believe in Hell?

Let’s talk about Hell. It will do us good.

Pastor Ken Pierpont
The Study – Evangel Baptist Church
June 6, 2008

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