God's Word

Scripture

1 Peter 2:2–3 NIV

2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Background

We often need encouragement. We need it in our jobs. In our families. In our friendships. And we especially need it in our Christian life. Living as faithful witnesses for Christ in a world that does not recognize Him can often lead to suffering and adversity. It is in those times that we most need encouragement from our Christian brothers and sisters.

This was especially true for the earliest Christians. As a small community of faith spread throughout a Roman Empire that viewed them with suspicion and hostility, the earliest Christians often lived on messages of hope and encouragement. This is the context in which today’s text was written.

People in work bad talk you

Peter wanted his writers to be encouraged to grow

Intro

All of us have cravings

Me going by Eddie

Chocolate

Ice Cream

KFC

Chow

Babies need milk. They will cry if they do not get it.

Have you ever tried to reason with a newborn when he or she is hungry? Have you ever tried to explain that supper is only fifteen or twenty minutes away; and if they will just be patient, they’ll get fed on schedule? There’s no reasoning with them. They must have their milk now—and they’ll communicate that desire intensely until it is met!

And that’s how earnestly—how yearningly—we are to desire God’s word. Peter uses a compound word to describe this. He doesn’t just use the Greek word for “desire”; but rather the word for desire with a suffix to it that intensifies it. It is to “desire upon” an thing! It is to long for it with great longing! And that’s how intensely you and I are to desire the “pure milk of the word”.

Don’t only need to be food

Money

Exercise - Dave and his episode of Migraine

We need to crave God’s Word

if we want to grow we need to crave his Word

The bible song

Peter wanted his readers to be as eager for the nourishment of the Word as babies are for milk

God’s Word has life, gives life, and nourishes life.

When I was a child, I did not like to drink milk (and my father worked for the Borden Dairy!), so my mother used to add various syrups and powders to make my milk tastier. None of them really ever worked. It is sad when Christians have no appetite for God’s Word, but must be “fed” religious entertainment instead.

As we grow, we discover that the Word is milk for babes, but also strong meat for the mature

Hebrews 5:12–13 CSB

12 Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. 13 Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant.

Hebrews 5:12 CSB

12 Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food.

Most things in life go in a certain order. Babies crawl before they walk and drink milk before they eat solid food. Little kids ride a bike with training wheels before they take off on a two wheeler. Teens get a temporary driver's permit that allows them to drive with an adult before they're allowed to drive on their own.

The Christian life goes in a certain order, too. When we're newborn Christians, we need to master the basics: knowing our own sinfulness; needing God's forgiveness and love through the gift of his Son, Jesus; desiring to forgive others. As we grow in Christ, the lessons we learn go deeper as we face the day-to-day decisions between right and wrong.

Hebrews 5:12 CSB

12 Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food.

Growth is natural for the believer in Christ. It’s not God’s plan for us in Christ to remain in the same level of infancy we were in when we first believed on Him; but that we grow and mature

Eg me being 20 years and I still in primary school

Could be in church for years but not be mature simply because we never craved God’s Word.

in order for us to mature into the image of God’s Son, our souls need nourishment that God the Father Himself has provided for us. And that nourishment comes from His written word.

Do you want to have a stronger faith? Then you need to be nourished in the Scriptures; because says that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Do you want to live a more holy life? Then you need to be nourished in the Scriptures; because says, “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.” Do you want to be wise in spiritual matters? then you need to be nourished in the Scriptures; because Paul writes that the Holy Scriptures “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” ().

Growth takes work; but it can be yours

If we stop feeding on the Word, we stop growing, and we stop enjoying (“tasting”) the grace that we find in the Lord. When Christians are growing in the Word, they are peacemakers, not troublemakers, and they promote the unity of the church

We aren’t strong enough in our own power to live the life God calls us to live. And in our desperate need for the nourishment of our soul, we may eat and drink things that are harmful to us or that can destroy us. We need to be under the nurturing care of the Holy Spirit; and the food that the Spirit gives us in order for us to grow up in Christ is the written word of Scripture.

In Days past God spoke through his prophets

But now

He primarily speaks to us through his Word

The word is what guides us

Gives us the rules for living a righteous life

The word answers life’s most difficult questions

And if taken in daily

Will change our lives

We should crave God’s word

None of us have a desire problem

We all crave something

Long for something

The problem is we desire the wrong things

We crave the wrong Things

We long for the wrong things

And we get ourselves into tight spots

By Not acting like the believers that we are

Crave God’s word

Open God’s word

Read God’s word

Think about God’s word

Apply God’s word to your lives

Peter tells us to long for the word because it will kill sinful desires and grow us into our salvation.

But like babies must learn to rollover

Then crawl

Then walk

Then run

We grow into our salvation

Simply meaning we understand it more

Prayerfully appreciate it more

And desire to become more like the one who gave it to us

Peter describes the word as Milk

Pure spiritual Milk

Not contaminated by the world

We Desperately Need This Spiritual Milk

The world desperately needs this spiritual milk

You don't have to tell a baby to desire their mother’s milk.

They will make it loud and clear that they want to be fed.

They will nurse on demand if you let them.

But nursing is not just for feeding; it is also for comfort and relational connection with the mother.

When they lose their appetite you become alarmed, something must be wrong

I want you to notice here

Peter does not tell us to just read the bible

Or even just study the bible

He tells us to long for it

Desire it

Once again, the issue is not with our desire

But that we desire the wrong things.

Lactose intolerance issue

Neisha

Some people treat the word like they lactose intoleramt to the Word

If they only drink some they will go off...

Why Crave

We should do these things because we have received a taste of God’s kindness

Because God loved us enough to give his Son Jesus as sacrifice for us

We should desire these things because we are not going to receive what we deserve

We should

Because we are new creations

With a new heart

Have a new desire

And that desire is to be more like Christ

In all we say and do

And here is our instruction manual

Sin destroys our appetite for God and the word destroys our appetite for sin.

This book kills sin but you must spend time in it

study it

mediate on it

and apply it to your life

Bible is food for the soul

Elsewhere in the Scriptures, we find commands to read God’s Word, study God’s Word, teach God’s Word, meditate on God’s Word, search God’s Word, to hide God’s Word in our hearts and to proclaim God’s Word. And we certainly should do all those things. But those are all merely outward actions that flow from the command that Peter gives us here to long for the Word of God.

The verb “to long” that Peter uses here is a compound word that means “to yearn for deeply”. So this is not merely reading the Bible out of some sense of duty. That is clear from the illustration that Peter gives us here. He commands us to long for God’s Word in the same way that a newborn baby longs for his mother’s milk.

No one should have to tell us to read it or badger us to do that. We should have a deep innate desire to do that.

self and shelf

In order to become

who God made us to be in Christ

we must long for His Word

To put it simply, we need to drink our milk. That necessary milk is the word of God

Conclusion

Life Application Bible Commentary, 1 & 2 Peter and Jude Living Building Stones for God’s House / 2:1–10

One characteristic all children share is that they eagerly want to grow up—to be like big brother or sister or like their parents. When we are born again, we become spiritual newborn babies. If we are healthy, we will yearn to grow. How sad it is that some people never grow up. The need for milk is a natural instinct for a baby, and it signals the desire for nourishment that will lead to growth. Once we see our need for God’s Word and begin to find nourishment in Christ, our spiritual appetite will increase, and we will start to mature. How eagerly do you desire God’s Word?

truth is out there

ask God to give you a desire just like x

https://bethanybible.org/new/sermon/sermons-2012/2012-10-14/drink-your-milk-%E2%80%93-1-peter-21-3

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/longing-for-god-s-word-pat-damiani-sermon-on-bible-203368?page=3&wc=800

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/wayfaring-strangers-part-7-got-milk-randy-edwards-sermon-on-obedience-in-faith-229370?ref=SermonSerps