Speaker: Ken Pierpont
Place: Evangel Baptist Church
Date: December 14, 2014 AM
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Glory to God and Peace on Earth (Christmas)
In All Your Ways Make Him Known (Christmas)
We are only ten short days from Christmas. This weekend I preached at a Christmas Conference. I taught Scriptures and told stories to inspire people to make Christ widely known like the Shepherds did after they had witnessed the birth of Jesus. One of the stories I told I want to share with you today.
Charles Spurgeon once preached a Christmas message from the story of the demon-possessed man from Gadara. The heart of the message came from the instruction Jesus gave the man after he was delivered. Instead of Jesus saying “come and follow me” he said; “Go home and tell everyone you know what God has done for you.” Surgeon told his great congregation that day to go home for Christmas and make Christ know—His compassion and his power to deliver from the darkest bondage.
When Gary was just twelve they found his dad floating in the Detroit River. They say it was a suicide. Gary said his father never taught he or any of his siblings anything good. For a short period of time when he was a boy his mother allowed him to a ride a bus to church. They gave him a Bible which he kept even when he drifted away from church and into trouble.
Gary became a very troubled young man. He was suicidal. During this time in his life he would drive regularly down Telegraph Road past our church to buy drugs. One day he was planning to smoke Marijuana with his dealer but they couldn’t find any papers to roll a joint. The drug dealer picked up a Bible and said; “We can just tear a page out of this.”
Gary remembered his Bible and the experience frightened him and God began tug on Gary’s heart. That was a little over ten years ago and today Gary is a godly husband, a Christian dad and a faithful usher at Evangel.
One week I preached on the story of the Maniac of Gadara. Gary wrote me that week and said that before he became of follower of Christ he was oppressed daily by demons. He said; “I believe Jesus had compassion on me and he has forgiven me and delivered me.”
When I was a boy I had a favorite radio program. It originated from the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. Each week the program featured a new dramatization of someone’s conversion. The program was called Unshakled. I was always thrilled to hear of how Jesus can set people free of the worst kinds of sinful bondage. Gary’s story should be told on Unshakled.
A few years ago I received an e-mail from Gary. Here is what it said:
“Hi Pastor; You are the first person I’ve ever E-mailed. Your Love for the Lord is very encouraging. Thank you. I saw a light shinning in a dark place one night on my way to work I work midnights at a automotive warehouse. That light was you witnessing at a corner party store. I had to stop for gas on the way, seeing you witnessing reminded me of the Gospel tracts in the console of my car. I gave one to the man at the next pump. …please pray for me and my family to keep growing in the Lord.”
That night I was tired and eager to get home. I stopped for gas and took just a few minutes to befriend a Muslim man named Sam at the gas station. I didn’t know it but Gary was watching that night and my obedience to God inspired him to make Christ known.
Wherever you go make Christ known. Take time to care about people. Listen to them and have compassion. You never know what God will do with your witness. You never know who might be inspired by it or what will happen when they do what they do because you did what you did.
“…In all your ways make Him known…” (See Proverbs 3:5-6)
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
December 15, 2014
Christmas Thoughts
It’s a quiet Monday a little over two weeks before Christmas. The first of the year the family will be spread from Oregon to Michigan to Wisconsin to New Mexico but for Christmas we will be together at Granville Cottage.
Saturday afternoon Lois and I drove to Canada to speak for a Christmas Banquet. The roads were clear and the evening was delightful. We had fellowship with some old friends and made some new ones. The food was good, the hall was full, and the people were attentive. It was a beautiful Christmas occasion.
Two decades ago on a snowy December evening Wesley came into the world, born at home, feet-first. Kyle made of hot meal of barbecued chicken, potatoes and cheesy peas and took a plate up to his mother—ravenous from the long ordeal of childbirth. We all gathered around she and tiny Wes. There was such a secure and joyful warmth in the home that night. Wesley turns 20 on Wednesday.
Children Who Are Givers
Classic re-post from 2002
No one loves Christmastime more than I do. But when you are the head of the household it has its attendant frustrations. One of them is finding the money to cover regular expenses and the additional expectations of Christmas gifts and celebrations and trips.
One December afternoon about ten years ago (actually it would have been about December 1992) a fresh snow had fallen so the girls made cookies and we put on Christmas music and we were all filled with Christmas enthusiasm. The little ones chattered excitedly about the things they wanted to buy each other for Christmas. I listened with a mixture of joy and frustration. Joy because it pleases me that they want to give to each other, frustration because all the income for all the purchases would have to come from me and we operate with thin margins.
I tried to keep a robust Christmas spirit intact and sent a quick prayer heavenward asking for a creative way to explain why the children should not make Christmas joy dependant on spending large amounts of money, especially my money.
As often happens, the light of creativity shone through the small crack where difficult circumstances met sincere prayer. Lois was working in the corner of the family room on some home-made Christmas ornaments. They were little skiers made of nuts and creativity. “Lois, how long does it take you to make those?” I asked.
“Not long.”
“Do you think you could have about thirty of them done by tomorrow evening?”
“Probably, but why?”
“When I was a boy I once gathered a box of nuts from beneath the three big hickory trees that grew up the hill from the pond on Grandpa’s farm. I put them in little bags and sold them door to door between Thanksgiving and Christmas. These ornaments would sell much better than that and the children could pay you for your time and material. They would still make enough to buy each other gifts for Christmas.”
She went to work and the next evening about dusk we headed through the snow-covered hills into Mt. Vernon. On the way we enjoyed the Christmas lights, listened to carols on the radio, and sang along. We picked out a nice part of town where people had decorated beautifully for Christmas. I taught the children a little sales presentation, gave them my best sales-manager motivational speech and sent them on their way. I prayed for them as they shuffled up and down the sidewalks with baskets of home-made ornaments in their mittened hands. In about an hour and a half the baskets were empty and the children’s pockets were full of money.
We turned up the heat and drove back home to celebrate with the manufacturing department and put in an order for more ornaments. The ornaments sold for about three dollars each. One especially nice ornament was called Ruthy Raindeer. We sold her for five and she was very popular. The next night we sold sixty ornaments. For the next two or three weeks we sold ornaments for a couple hours every night we were free and by Christmas the children’s sales totaled over two-thousand dollars.
God puts a longing to give in every human heart. The Heavenly Father loves to give good gifts to His children and he also loves to see his children give good gifts to each other. That is just what the Bible says. Paul the Apostle wrote it in the second Corinthian letter; “God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”
In other words, God is a giver and he loves to give us what we need so we can be givers, too.
The year of the big ornament sale the children were not even tempted to spend any of the money from the sales on themselves. All the money they made was used to buy each other gifts. That year will always stand out in our memory as a family. Each one of us had just what we needed to show our love for one another. On Christmas morning the children were able to exchange nice gifts with each other and they earned all the money themselves. It warmed my heart to watch it. They joked about it later saying that they peddled ornaments door to door for needy children. And the needy children were their own brothers and sisters.
Giving is a godly thing. That is what Christmas is all about. God started it himself when he gave us his only Son, Jesus.
Ann Voskamp Advent Video
(Holly and Jesse’s Fireplace in Oregon, ready for Christmas)
Holly pointed me to a simple, home-made advent video by Ann Voskamp… Ann said something wonderful and worth thinking about today….
“Maybe more than scientific conclusive evidence of God… maybe the dark depths of us long for a wounded weeping God who doesn’t write answers for us in the stars, but but writes answers for us in His scars. Maybe in ditches and deathbeds–maybe we aren’t seeking evidence of God as much as we are seeking an experience with God. Instead of explaining our suffering, God shares it. …because he knows mere answers are cold and his arms are warm. Remember Job? After losing his health, his wealth, his children… Job’s question is not “Why me, God?” but, rather, “Are you with me?” What ultimately comforts us is not knowing the plan—but knowing his presence.”
Watch the video here:
Meet Ann here. She has created a wonderful blog..
Free Advent Devotional Books
The pressures and business of December can completely crush the life out of Christmas if you let them. Here are a couple free resources that you can use to quiet your heart and think deeply and biblically about Christ and Christmas. They are books of advent devotional writings–a brief reading for each day, one written by John Piper and the other by Ray Pritchard.
The Dawning of Incredible Joy. John Piper’s Advent book is available free in PDF format here.
Why He Came. For the next few days you can get a digital copy of Ray Pritchard’s book here.
Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room. Here is another by Nancy Guthrie
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