Bittersweet Farm

6. Your Life is In His Hands (Daniel 6:1-28) Video
Bethel Church | Jackson, Michigan
July 10, 2022 AM
Pastor Ken Pierpont

Much of your joy in life depends on how you approach it. Some people see every day as a trial to endure. Some see each day as mundane chore. But did you ever look at a day as an unopened gift from the Lord?

That is the best way to approach a day. You don’t know what’s inside. You do know that whatever happens to a child of God passes through the providential care of a loving Heavenly Father who knows just what you need. He can take the darkest trial and bring unspeakable good from it. (Read the Bible and you see this in every book).
Some days he has arranged a test or trial to strengthen us or deepen our faith. Sometimes it is an opportunity to bring glory to God. Almost every day he arranges a thousand delights for those who a spiritually sensitive enough to notice them.

So look around a little today and tear into the day like a beautifully wrapped gift. You never know what you might find inside.

I was reading in Daniel 6:24 today and thinking about the terrible judgment people will face who do not know God and submit to God. They will suffer. Their wives will suffer. Their children will suffer. Those who reject God do suffer and they will suffer. The innocent suffer because of the sins of others around them…

John wrote: ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16–17, ESV)

This is so plain. Either you believe and have eternal life, or you reject Jesus and perish (die and suffer judgment).

All around us people are bleeding out. They are perishing, dying and going off to face the judgment of God.

We who are Christians and pastors have a tendency to soften the warnings of judgment, because we are afraid of offending people, but we should, instead soften our hearts and be afraid of offending God!

Don’t soften the warnings of Judgment.
—Soften your heart!

Don’t be afraid of offending people…
—Be afraid of offending God!

People all around us are perishing. God help us rescue the perishing.

Who are you praying for? Who are you loving? Who are you inviting? Who are you engaging in gospel conversation?

I read this story this evening from pastor John Van Pay. He is the pastor and founder of Gateway Christian Fellowship in San Antonio, Texas. It broke my heart and stirred my soul…

“I met Val when we were both picking up our daughters from school and discovered we had common ground in a love for mountain biking. We struck up a friendship and shared rides together. A few months after meeting him, he told me he couldn’t ride with me anymore. A nurse practitioner at a local hospital, Val had a brain tumor. When he told me, I said; “Hey Val, do you mind if I pray with you. He said; “I’d rather you not.” He told me if he ever made a decision to follow Christ I would be the first to know.

I visited Val in the hospital while he was having a CT scan. During the scan, he had a brain seizure and never recovered. A couple of days after his death, his wife, Debra, asked me to officiate his funeral because I was the only minister they knew. She handed me a stack of journals he wrote in. The second to last entry disclosed his confession of faith in a metaphor of a ship coming back to harbor. I shared Val’s story at the funeral.

Debra invited everyone who came to the funeral to our church. 41 people excepted her invitation. 18 of those friends gave their lives to Jesus at our grand opening service on February 10, 2008. They had Val cremated and his wife gave me a vial of ashes in a necklace. Sometimes I wear it as a reminder to everyone in this community needs to know Christ and life is way too short. From the start, our church wanted to pursue people just like Jesus pursued us.”

God help us to build relationships with hundreds of people who are still far from God.

Camp Barakel | Fairview, Michigan
July 6, 2022