Longing for Growth - Beacon Sunday Service: July 20, 2025

We're gonna be starting with just a reading of God's Word, and from 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. It reads, therefore, laying aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we pray, asking you to help us understand your truth. Help us to apply it with humbleness, with gratitude, with great joy. And I pray, Father God, that as we feed off of your word and as we seek to live it out in our lives, that you would be honored, and that your great name would be proclaimed, not only here at our church, but in our Los Angeles community, amongst our families and friends who don't know Christ and into the world.

Lord, we avail our hearts and our ears to you this morning. We thank you for just a proclamation of your word. Help us to hold it in the highest of esteems. We love you, Lord, and we pray for your help to hear well. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Go ahead and take a seat. So, as most of you guys know, um, I have a twin son and a daughter. Shortly after we found out that we were having a boy and a girl. Um, and from the moment we decided upon their names, I started praying very specifically for each of the two of them. We named our daughter Karis, which a lot of pastors' daughters are named Karis, but which in Greek means gift, grace, or favor. And from before she was born, I prayed daily that my daughter would be passionate, that she would grow up fiery to become a woman with both great zeal for the Lord and specifically a heart of compassion for the poor and for the lost.

It's interesting that that was what I prayed for. I think I kind of got it because she's she got fire. I prayed that she would become a champion for the orphans and the widows. I mean, I thought I would be at Compassion International forever, so I was praying for that. And then we named our son Matthias, and in Acts chapter 1, verse 26, it is written that Matthias was the one who replaced Judas Iscariot and took his place as an apostle. We don't know much else about Matthias. My dad didn't like that name because he just filled the number and disappeared, right? And so my dad's Korean. So only thing we know about him is the apostle. And that obscurity appealed to me greatly. No doubt Apostle Matthias did his part in building the kingdom of God.

No doubt Apostle Matthias bore great spiritual fruit. And like Matthias of the scriptures, I prayed from before our Maddie was born that he would become a faithful man of God, who loves the Lord, who loves the word, who faithfully helps to build the church of Jesus Christ, even if no one knows about it. And even if he does so in obscurity. So this is how I prayed for them while they were in the womb. The twins were born slightly prematurely, and they spent a week in the incubator. And that week was a very special and memorable time for me personally. I spent hours each day, uh, just in the NICU, which is the neonatal intensive care unit. Every day I took turns. There were two of them. Uh just placed them each on my chest.

Um, just spent an hour at a time snuggling, kissing, and praying for each of them. And so the prayers that I prayed for them while they were in the womb, I prayed again while I was holding them on my chest. And then over the years, we've developed a bedtime ritual where we would pray together. So, like my wife's in one room, I'm in the other, we pray, and then we switch, right? So it's always, it's always fun. And the contents of my prayer to this day have pretty much remained the same. And in preparing for this sermon, it kind of dawned on me that my prayers for both Karis and Maddie have always been mostly future focused, that they would become mature, faithful, godly adults. I've been praying my bar for them.

I've been praying my goals for them and my hopes for them. And I pray these things with expectation and with all my heart as a father. And so my job as a father did not end there at the hospital at their birth, or when we got their birth certificates, which basically makes them officially informally ours in the eyes of the state. I am their father still to this day. Right? Ten years ago, they barely knew who I was. And our relationship has changed over these years, and they've grown to trust me and to know me and hopefully to love me. Lord willing, my role as their father will continue as I shepherd and guide them all the way into adulthood. So my children are not to remain children. I don't ever pray for or I don't ever hope that my children remain children.

I want to see them grow up. Now, I have for sure said, I wish they could stay this small forever. And if you're a parent, you know that feeling, right? But in reality, I can't, and I don't actually mean that. In reality, it would be alarming if my child stopped growing. You will be concerned if your child stopped maturing. If that 20, if they still acted like they were five, you'd be alarmed. You would feel as though you had failed them. Similarly, children of God are not supposed to remain spiritually child-ish forever. Childlike, of course. Right? Childlike faith is rewarded. That's how God wants us to have in our approach to Him. But child-ish, no. So in our passage today, the Apostle Peter, he spells out for us an expectation.

And the expectation, according to the Apostle Peter, is that Christians are supposed to grow. Chapter 1, verse 15 to 16, God our Father expects his children to grow. There's an expectation there. A bar has been set. So God's will is very clear. Salvation is not a one-time event. We aren't just supposed to enjoy the legalizing of our salvation, the certificating of our salvation, if you will, right? We're not only to enjoy the benefits of adoption, we're also to grow in it, right? We are to go on to maturity in it. Hebrews 5.13, 6 uh 513 to 6.1. So it is God's will and expectation that Christians grow. Amen. In the sovereignty of God, every Christian will grow.

Are you guys following this? Romans 8, 26 to 27. We find that the Spirit of omnipotent God himself prays this. God prays for his children with groans, which words cannot express, with heavenly expectation. So scripture makes that exceptionally clear. Omnipotent God, what is omnipotent mean?

Nothing can stop it, right? Omnipotent God is praying for and willing the Christian's growth, that is his will. So a Christian cannot not grow. Romans 8 26, 27, in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. There's an aching and a longing in our God's prayer for his children, right? And he who searches and knows the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. So in God's power and in his sovereignty, the child of God will grow and mature. So we're looking at 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 1 to 3, and we're going to be thinking through how the sovereignty of God and the Christian growth works together.

Okay, so 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 1 to 3. I want to read this again for you. Therefore, laying aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord. So the logical flow of thought is in the reverse order of what is written. Okay, so we don't do this all the time, but with this passage, the logic is backward. So we're gonna be looking at this passage from back to front. Okay? So the text makes better sense in our minds, going from back to front. So first we're gonna be looking at the condition, the if clause. No matter how much real food I try and feed Caris' Barbie doll, will it grow?

Barbie doll, real food. No. Because it's an inanimate toy. Corpses who have a form and the appearance of life do not have life, and thus cannot and will not grow. They'll decay, it won't get growth, right? So there's a condition given here. If and only if someone has tasted the kindness of the Lord, he will grow. Verse 2, we have the Apostle Peter's primary exhortation and his only command, epipatheo to long for or to hunger for, to crave the word of God. Why? So that the Christian who has tasted the kindness of the Lord can grow. So there's a condition, and then there's a command. And this should be interesting if you think about it. It's not eat so that you can grow.

It's hunger so that you can grow. So that's interesting, and we're gonna be looking into that. And at the end, we're gonna be looking at verse one, the things that curb the Christian's appetite for the word of God, thereby inhibiting or obstructing the growth. So the outline is as follows the condition, verse three, the command, verse two, and at the end, the appetite curbs that need to be put aside, verse one. All for the purpose and the expectation and the bar for the growth of the children of God. Amen. So I'm gonna start with verse three. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. If you've got your Bibles open, physical Bibles open, some of you may notice, or it's on the screen, that the font is different for verse three.

You guys see this. In many of your physical Bibles, a differing font in the New Testament passage usually denotes a quoting of an old testament passage translated into the Greek. That's called the Septuagint, the Old Testament translation translated into the Greek. Okay, so this is a direct reference to the Greek translation of Psalm 34, verse 8. Okay. Psalm 34 is very important to the theology of Apostle Peter. He quotes it here in chapter 2, and then he quotes it again later in the next chapter, chapter 3. So Psalm 34 is an important Psalm, especially in the context of what Peter is writing. So in many ways, the Old Testament gospel, or it is the Old Testament gospel, that man is saved and made righteous by grace alone through faith alone in God alone.

Okay? The Messiah who is to come is actually alluded to Psalm 34, verse 20. Okay, so Psalm 34 is very important. It's almost the Old Testament presentation of the gospel. Okay. So Psalm 34 is written by King David, and it describes a man who has been delivered or rescued by Yahweh God. He's been saved by God. Psalm 34 describes a man who is completely helpless, absolutely helpless and in desperate need of saving. He is a man who is crushed in spirit. And a lot of times we read verse 34, 18, when someone dies or at a funeral, but no, this is a person who knows he has no hope in it of himself. That's the context. Okay. He is a man who cannot save himself. He is a man who cries out to Yahweh, his only hope.

And this man is saved from all his troubles. And if you read Psalm 34 later, he is no longer in want. And that helpless man who seeks refuge in God is called righteous three times. So what makes that man righteous in his utter helplessness, he exalts and praises God. In his utter helplessness, he calls out, he is rescued and changed by God. And then he has tasted and seen the kindness and the goodness of the Lord. And then because he has tasted and seen the kindness and the goodness of the Lord, he is forever changed. And the righteousness of Psalm 34 is not earned by this man's religious efforts. Righteousness is given to him. Are you guys following this? Okay. It is a reward for his faith, not by not for his works.

He didn't earn righteousness. The righteousness of this man was sought and it was found. He asked and he received.

So what makes a person righteous? It is not his deeds. Right? Nobody is saved by meeting the requirements. Amen. It cannot be your deeds. Because if you wanted to earn salvation, you cannot. Because even your most holy of deeds is like a filthy rag in the presence of God. And I mentioned this before my wife was like, that's a gross illustration. But it is like a used pad for women. Imagine if you're given that, you'd be repulsed. That is what it is before God. Filthy rag. So a sinner's acknowledgement of his absolute helplessness, the repentance from his sins, and a turning in faith toward Yahweh is what makes him righteous. That righteous man has tasted the kindness of God, not the judgment of God, not the bar and the standard of God or the requirements of God.

He's tasted the kindness of God. So in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 3, the text provided us with a condition, right? If. If you've tasted the kindness of the Lord, if and only if. So how do you know if a person has tasted the kindness of the Lord? What makes a person righteous? And here's a misconception that's being thrown around in churchanity today. The Bible is very clear that we can judge, and that we must judge those who say they have tasted the kindness of the Lord. We are not supposed to pass judgment. Okay? We have no power or authority to condemn or justify anybody. But we are supposed to judge for the sake of discernment. You guys following along. So the primary evidence of having experienced the kindness and the goodness of God is a life lived in genuine repentance.

And we're gonna see Romans chapter 2, verse 4. Do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God, what does it lead to? Repentance. And remember, he's all powerful.

Okay? So the kindness of God leads to repentance. So repentance is evidence of a person's reception of the kindness and the favor of God. It is not an adding on of, okay, I'm gonna add on church attendance. I'm gonna add on mission strips. I'm gonna add on tithe. I'm gonna add on uh sponsoring a compassion child. I'm gonna add on, not cussing. It isn't that. Repentance is evidence of a person's reception and the kind of the kindness and the favor of God. So if there is no repentance, there has been no reception of the kindness of God. Are you guys following that? Repentance is a complete change of mind. It is a change of direction, it is a walking in the newness of life, and in its power, it's a turning away from sin and cleaving to the lordship of Christ.

It is a hatred of the old. We're weak. So we are powerless in and of ourselves to turn away from it, but it is a disgust with my old life, and it's a zeal for the new. That's the evidence. And that's supposed to be discernible. So if a person has never repented, they have never been saved. It is impossible for a person who has tasted the kindness of God to live in unrepentance. Let me repeat that. It is impossible for a person who has tasted the kindness of God to live in unrepentance. That doesn't mean there's no struggle. But to live in unrepentance, it's an impossibility. The Old Testament prophets, they all preach repentance. And some people are like, well, that's the Old Testament. Well, John the Baptist, the first New Testament prophet, he preached repentance.

Jesus Christ himself preached repentance. At Pentecost, the Apostle Paul's, or Peter in his very first sermon, he preached a message of repentance. The apostle Paul's entire ministry to the Gentiles is summed up as a ministry of calling people to repentance. Acts chapter 26. Are you guys following this? Every speaker found in the Word of God pushed repentance. So repentance in the scriptures is always measurable. It's always bearing fruit. You cannot have truly experienced the kindness of the Lord and continuing on in unrepentance. That's a theological impossibility. Okay. The non-Christian, pay attention here. The non-Christian, when confronted with his sins, justifies and excuses his sins, blame shifts, and then vilifies others, and saying things like, who are you to judge?

Usually that's immediately the mark of a non-Christian to me. It's because my dad. It's because this guy made me do this. Oh, it's because you don't understand how I grew up. You don't know what evils I faced. The non-Christian responds that way. Look in the Bible. Whoever meets God, they're like, woe is me. The non-Christian is hostile to the car toward the call to repentance. Why? Because he's in love with his sin. He doesn't want to let go of his sin. He wants to just add on an excuse for his sin. The Christian, however, when confronted with his sins, doesn't deny it. Is terrified, of course, but sooner than later, repents of those sins. He is disgusted by his sins.

You guys all saw what happened at the cold play concert this week? It's all over the internet. Do you think Mr. Man, husband CEO, is he sorry? He issued an apology. He blamed coldplay. He's like, what was supposed to be a private moment was made public. Well, you're in public. You guys know when an apology is not really an apology. The Christian response of repentance is, I have no excuse. So the primary evidence of having experienced the kindness of the Lord is a life of genuine repentance. So the command in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 2, it's written to those who have indeed tasted the kindness of the Lord. A non-Christian cannot obey this command. Because what's the command? Long. If I'm a snake, I'm not longing for milk.

If I'm a fish, I'm not longing for an incense. Okay, never mind. I might be, right? But if I'm a human being, I'm not longing for seeds. A human baby longs only for human milk. Verse 2, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. If you've tasted the kindness of the Lord. So here in verse 2, we find the only imperative, the only command in the passage. Some Bible scholars actually say this is the central command of the entire book. All 105 verses. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, here is the command: long for the word. And what's interesting is that the command is not to consume it, to eat it, to hear it. That's not the command.

It's epipotheo. What it means is to desire it, which is interesting. It's a strong word. The word long for means to have an intense, insatiable desire or passion. The same word is used for a newlywed husband missing his wife. It's used to describe for a mom and a dad who's lost a child, longing for the child. So a longing person is a person who has a one track mind. He is obsessed. He can't think about anything else. He is fixated on this one thing. So here in 1 Peter 2 2, it's used to describe a baby's single-minded focus. Not a Gerber, not a big baby. Not a baby who's like eating both solids and formula and milk, right? And snacks. No, this is a newborn. He doesn't even understand why he's longing for it, but he's longing.

So here in 1 Peter 2 2, the word long is used to describe a baby's obsession for milk. So if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord, if you've been made righteous, if you have had your heart of stone turned into a heart of flesh, you're gonna long, and you must long for the word in the same way a newborn baby longs for milk. So you are what you eat. Or more specifically, you are what you long for. Amen. So in our spiritual DNA, if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord, it's hardwired into you.

No human baby is taught. First, out you come from the womb. And then hunger and cry and scream until some adult comes and feeds you, or the female adult comes and feeds you, right? You don't need to teach that. They come out hangry. Okay. So Mary, be prepared. All hours of the evening. Being born again, you've been hardwired to long for the word. A child of God who has tasted the kindness of the Lord will not only be satisfied with community, comfort, success, strong morals, a sense of purpose, good praise music, nice church building, a good children's program, encouraging words from friends who always boost your self-esteem. All of those things are good things, but a child of God will not be satisfied with just those things.

He doesn't long for those things. It's nice to have.

Without milk, the child dies. Without the dangly toys. Even with the little pacifier, will the child, it's nice to have.

That's why it's called pacifier, right? A child of God will only be satisfied with Christ and his word. Amen. So what happens when a person longs for the pure milk of the word? I'm going to describe this to you as a process that we find in the scriptures. This isn't an exhaustive list, but someone who longs for the word of God looks like this. Those who first desire to hear God's voice. There are many voices all over the internet, all over the world, but I want God. John 10 27. This desire then produces faith. Man, this voice of the shepherd is a trustworthy voice. I believe him. Even if I don't see it with my eyes, I believe. Romans 10 17. Then these children believe eagerly and then are zealous to put the word into practice and obey it.

They want to. John 14, 15. It doesn't burden the child, it liberates them. That's why churches that just push rules on you are doing a disservice. If you magnify God, the rules will naturally want to be desired, or they're absolutely hated. You don't follow the rules to get to please God. You fall in love with God, and therefore you want to do things that make him smile. That's what happens there, right? There's a freedom. It's this truth sets you free. The word then just guides John 16, 13. The word sanctifies his children, and there is a visible market increase in holiness, John 17, 17. Then the child perseveres through all kinds of rocks, thorns, entanglements, and they bear fruit. 360 a hundredfold, Mark 4.

And then over time, these children start craving spiritual meat, not just milk. Hebrews 5 14. Deep theology, rich doctrine. I want more. And then the implanted word produces Christ like love in these children. 1 Corinthians 13. True biblical literacy, a greater longing for the pyramid of the word will always result in three things humility, terror, and love. Humility and terror and love are immediately the things that take place, and gradually the things that take place when someone truly is hungering for the word of God. There develops a humility, a terror, and a love. And there's a zeal to know God, not just to know a lot about him. So with time, the spiritual baby grows to look more and more and more like his spiritual daddy.

The children of our church, especially if you guys are here for the first time, you probably can, it doesn't take you long to actually match the child with the parents.

But you cannot have a child that is so different from what you look like, because that's that the DNA won't allow that. With the passage of time, if you don't resemble God, the explanation is not complicated. God is not your daddy. You are devoid of the spirit. It's not hard. We've had a weird theology where it's an easy believism. So then anyone who professes something, they become a Christian. Biblically, the Bible doesn't allow for that. So what does the Christian long for? How does how does a Christian long for the word as a newborn baby longs for milk? Now the tricky thing about a verse like this, long. Oops, is this is not a command that you can obey on cue. You may not be quite sure how to immediately give application to a command to long.

If I were to say, hey, don't watch Netflix, can you obey that? Yeah. Give five dollars to the next homeless person you see when you exit Olympic, give them five dollars. Can you apply that? I mean, you would know what obedience or disobedience looks like, right? Easy. Those commands are very specific, they are very clear. Now, if a command was to eat, would you be able to apply that? Yeah. It would just be a matter of whether I want to or not. But if I were to sit here and tell you, here's my command. I'm gonna give you, this is the thus saith the Lord. Be thirsty for water. Or if I were to sell it, say to my wife, miss me. It's difficult to apply. She might throw a command at me, go away. Right?

That might be, that's the only way. So let's say if I were to try to drink some water, is that obeying my command to thirst? No. You wouldn't know what else to do. But if you were to obey my command to be thirsty, and you drink water, you know what you just did. The very opposite of what I commanded you to do. Are you guys this very important so you have to track? What I find fascinating in the command to long is this is one of the few commands that are to be obeyed almost passively, almost instinctively. This is a command that can be actively disobeyed or shrugged off, but this is a command that is only obeyable passively and almost naturally.

Now you can obstruct that.

So in order to be appropriately hungry, the appetite must be saved and reserved. So here's a quote from John Piper's Hunger for God. It's actually about fasting. If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you've nibbled so long at the table of the world, your soul is stuffed with small things, there's no room for the great.

So we see Apostle Peter instructing the Christians in Asia Minor to put off, to lay aside, to abstain from the things that curb the spiritual appetite. Okay, in verse 3. The food will always be there because God is generous. God wants to feed. So our obsession, the thing we need to focus on is not the feeding of it. Our primary obsession is to always come hungry. Howard, it was over there. Howard and Phil. They make amazing stakes. Have you guys had their stakes? Any of you? Some of you are like, no. Okay, no pressure. All right, don't ask them. Okay? Or maybe ask and you shall receive. I don't know. When Howard or Phil invite us over for stakes, we save our appetites. I make sure I arrive at their homes hungry, and I stay there hungry until the stakes are ready.

They may try to distract me so I eat less by putting nuts and cheese and crackers. I will not touch those things. I obey by saving my hunger for their food and only for their food. So the apostle Paul, Peter starts out with a mini list of things that believers must put aside or abstain from in order for the Christian to long for the pure milk of the word. Here's chapter 2, verse 1 to 3. Therefore, laying aside all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord. So, what are the things that curb our spiritual appetites? What are the things that obstruct our longing for the Word of God?

In verse 1, Peter gives us a list. Hopefully now you're understanding why I'm going backward. Okay, verse one, he gives us a list. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. Now here's an important question. You got to turn your brains on for this. When you think of things that curb your spiritual appetite, that kills your hunger for God or for his word, what are the things that are on your list? Are these the things that you would come up with? Here in America, when we think of the stuff that takes away our hunger for God, aren't they things related more to entertainment or materialism or rat race struggles or acceptance kind of struggles? Where would malice, deceit, entertainment, or lust relate or uh slander rank on your list of curbs?

Think about this. Interesting, huh? Entertainment, lust, ambition, materialism. For sure, they will obstruct the individual Christians longing for the word. And those things quickly will ruin individuals. But in the list here that Peter provides malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, they're not things that destroy individuals. These are things that destroy communities. Are you guys tracking? Peter exhorts us like newborn babies, plural. And the command to long is written in the second person plural. It's not written for individuals, it's written for the church. In fact, every you that is found in 1 Peter in this section is all in the plural, you all, y'all. So the list of things that Peter mentions here destroys entire communities longing for the word of God.

The sins listed here tear through and ruin churches. So Satan's favorite and most effective strategy has always been to divide and conquer. So malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, divide and ruin churches. Usually people who are entangled with lust and materialism, the symptoms will be this. Satan wants to ruin churches. And these are things that our collective body here at Beacon need to be mindful of and watchful for. So, for some context, we need to understand that these churches of Asia Minor, they weren't quite encountering things that you might immediately think of. Okay.

So in this period of time, the Christians, they were known as the followers of the way. The word Christian was derogatory. It meant little like a little mini Christs. It's like calling someone a trumpist or a bidonist. Some might be offended, right? But this is the word Christian was little Christ. So Christians in this time called themselves the followers of the way. They were misunderstood and they were persecuted often, and they're viewed as troublemakers. Okay, so I'm gonna walk you through a little bit of the context. Acts chapter 19, verse 9. But when some were becoming hardened and not believing, speaking evil of the way before the multitude, he left them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

Acts 19, 23. Now, about that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the way. Paul on Acts 22 verse 4, I persecuted the way to the death, binding, delivering, binding and delivering both men and women into prisons. So there was confusion as to what the followers of the way really believed and what their gatherings entailed. And I mentioned this before, but the early church was extremely exclusive. What was early church? Very exclusive. Alright. You were denied entrance and access if you were not born again and baptized. The church, early church was extremely narrow minded. They preached a very narrow-minded salvation. They preached that salvation only was by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

They taught that there was absolutely no other way to be reconciled to God, no other name given under heaven, Acts chapter 4, verse 12, than who? Jesus. They preached an exclusive gospel. And they preached repentance and holiness. And they did not let people into their gatherings until they genuinely, the person genuinely believed and then was baptized. So people on the outside of the church who are looking in had some misconceptions of the followers of the way. Some thought that they were a cult. And some thought in their gatherings, they practiced homosexuality because they're practicing Philadelphia. And so that they assumed it was a code name for what they did. Brotherly love. Some people thought that they were cannibals.

These Christians, every time they gather together, they eat their leader's flesh. They drink their leader's blood. I mean, you can understand where that comes from, right? Some people said Christians are all traitors to Rome. They are not patriotic, they're insurrectionists. So Emperor Nero actually blamed them for a lot of the fires that he started. Some viewed Christians as primitive and backwards. Rome wanted their citizens to be progressive, but these Christians were too conservative. Some economies like Macedonia were ruined because Christians started boycotting idols. So in that context, Christians were easy scapegoats for society's woes. And so when you captured these Christians and arrested their leaders, and you threw them into the Colosseums for sport to be torn apart by lions, or hoisting the leaders up on a big stake and lighting them on fire to light the streets of Rome.

There was panic and confusion in the church. There was a lot of fear. You can imagine that, right?

So, but nonetheless, by the grace and the power of God, the Christian group kept multiplying and growing. You kill one leader, two more grow. But the leaders were being strained, obviously, and that's why they're told not to lead under obligation, but willingly in 1 Peter chapter 5. Lovingly. So imagine being part of a regularly slandered, mistreated, heavily persecuted, and even tortured and executed community of people. These were Christians who were despised and hated. These Christians, they did not always feel like a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. Does that make sense? So the devil does what he can to distract, to mar to hurt, divide and conquer is a strategy.

So Christians do not fit in. Verse 11 and 12, it calls us sojourners in exiles. Christians are not ever to try and fit in. Repeat after me. Christians are not to try and fit in. And that's where a lot of churches are in danger right now. The world needs Christians to look very different. But churches are trying to make the Christians very world-like.

Not Katia, Kakia is malice, alright? Katia is a sister over there. Malice, kakia, is an all-inclusive word meaning a desire to harm or exact retribution to get revenge. Man, I want to fight fire with fire. They say something bad about the church. Ooh. But Peter says that malice curbs a group's longing for the pure milk of the word. I can see how that happens when you get so distracted with the wrong fight over there that you stop turning to the scriptures. Next on the list is deceit. There is possible temptation to lie or to deceive to escape persecution or harm. When there is growing animosity toward Christians and Christian values at school or at the workplace, isn't there a strong temptation to downplay, to divert, or even deceive?

I remember I had a friend in college who put on her Zanga page. This is many years ago. She said, I feel so embarrassed.

And all of this because I wanted to get into the medical school. That's what she wrote. Hypocrisy. The church is supposed to be known as a place of holy living. The members are supposed to be above reproach, full of love, no matter what the circumstance. The church is supposed to be free of people who are hostile. Church is supposed to be a place where people are united, right? But in difficult situations, it's not always easy to practice what we preach. Hypocrisy also curbs people's longing for the word of God. One of the ways to destroy someone's desire to hear good preaching is to live like a hypocrite in front of that person whom God is trying to reach. Envy. Tough times might cause a Christian, and this envy, you have to be careful here, pay attention.

It might cause a Christian to envy non-believers who seem to have no problem in fitting in. To envy those who are taking shortcuts to avoid and escape persecution, Galatians chapter 6, verse 12. So in context of 1 Peter, the envy is not talking about the envy of wealth or cars or material goods. It's an envy of circumstance. Man, if I wasn't a Christian, I would have these circumstances. Envy also curbs a community's spiritual appetites. And all slander, right?

And then when a crisis happens, who do all the fingers usually point to? Leadership. That leader abused me. Oh, that leader is like this. Oh, they're like this. If we only had a better leader who was filled with the Holy Spirit, that's what happens. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. These five things obstruct the community's longing for the pure miracle of the word. So what is the command? It's not to eat. What is a command? To long. But the application for the whole of our church, the primary application then is the weeding out of these things. In order to do that, you have to eat, obviously. Are you guys following this? These are the things we need to focus on, to weed out of our church, so that we can be a healthy church, not a healthy bunch of individuals only.

Individual growth, of course, it's important, and every person here needs to grow. Every child of God is important. Every saint is important. Every member needs to individually also long for the pure milk of the word. But these three verses in 1 Peter are not directed at individuals. They are directed at a church. So I am my brother's keeper when it comes to helping him grow in his understanding of the word of God. Amen.

Right. It's like my wife saying, stop eating those chips. Howard and Phil steaks are coming. I was like, ah. And the appropriate response is thank you for that reminder. It's not like, how dare you? My stomach is large enough to handle both, right?

We need to be diligent to long. It's like a couple steps there. I want to turn our attention back to the very first word of 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 1. We're going really backward, okay? Therefore. Every therefore in the scriptures is important. Whenever you come across a therefore, you have to ask the question, what is this therefore? Therefore. Okay, usually a therefore connects what's just been said to an expected application. Therefore, is connect what has just been said to an expected application. Alright? So the first chapter of 1 Peter describes a Christian's future, the Christian's bar, and it describes God who is sovereign. It describes God's word who is forever. Which is forever. Okay?

Chapter 1 of 1 Peter describes a Christian's relationship with his sovereign God and this sovereign God's sovereign word that endures forever. So I want to read verse 22 to 25 for you. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls, this is another if, okay? For love of the brothers without hypocrisy, fervently love one another from the heart. Why? For you have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible through the living and enduring word of God. All flesh is like