Beacon Sunday Service - June 14th, 2026

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the beacon. What a great privilege it is to come before the Lord to worship him. We are just so truly blessed that we can gather together as we as his people to sing songs of his grace and mercy in our lives. May we just come to him this morning in prayer, just acknowledging that we can take refuge in him, that we can trust him, that we can look to him as our source of strength. And so as we uh begin in that manner this morning, may we just pray to him and just acknowledge him as our Lord and our refuge.

Lord, we thank you for just this great privilege to be called as your people, to come before you to worship you. I pray, Lord, that this time would not be about ourselves, but about giving you all the glory. May we not take any of that away from you, but ultimately, Lord, through our singing, through our praises, through our prayers, through our shared affections of you with one another, I pray, Lord, that you would be glorified in our midst today. I just pray that as we do so that we would trust in you and find our refuge in you because uh God, you are sovereign, you are Almighty, uh, you are immutable, and we can trust in you and in your promises. And so, God, we just want to thank you, O Lord, and we just want to sing uh these praises unto you.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Let us all rise. I just want to read from Psalm eighty-four, verses ten through twelve. It says, for better is a day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would choose to stand at the threshold of the house of my God and dwell in the tents of wickedness. For Yahweh God is a son and shield. Yahweh gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk blamelessly. O Yahweh of hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in you. And brothers and sisters, we can put our trust in the Lord today because our Lord uh is immutable, he's almighty. We know that he never breaks his promises or his words. We know that he is all powerful and almighty to save, and we can take refuge in him because he uh will protect us, and we can uh continue to go to him as our source of strength.

And so may we acknowledge that today as we sing to him. Sing tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know the saint, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace to trust him more.

Just to trust his cleansing blood, just in for faith to plunge, need a cleansing blood, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I proved him, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace to trust him more. Yes, tis sweet, yes, tis sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin and self to cease, just from Jesus simply life and rest and joy and peace.

How I trust him, how proved him more and Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace to trust him more.

Precious Jesus Savior friend, and I know that thou with me to thee.

How I trust him, how I proved him Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace to trust him. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I proved him Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace to trust him more firm a foundation, how firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word.

One more can he say than to you has said to you who for refuge to Jesus had fled. Fear not, fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, for I am thy God, and will still give thee all strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand up held by my rise, just omnipotent hand when through fiery trials, thy pathway shall lie. All sufficient shall be thy supply.

I only design thy cross to consume, and thy goal to revine my soul, a soul that on Jesus hath lean for repose. I will not, I will not desert to his both that soul though. All hell should endeavor to shape. I'll never know, never know, never forsake that soul though. All hell should endeavor to shake. I'll never know, never know, never forsake. What a great gift we have in his word. This morning we will confess our faith using a catechism for Christian growth.

In this question and answer, we will confess about the necessity of God's word for the believer. And so here's the question. Do we need the Bible in order to belong to God? And together, yes, the Bible is necessary to know God's gospel, to grow in holiness, and to discern how to glorify and enjoy God both in this life and for all eternity. Again, what a great gift we have in his word, fulfilled by his son Jesus Christ. May we just continue to worship our great God when the enemy so and my heart grows fake within when the darkness overwise and my fears are pressing, I will trust in you alone in the style and thy stand upon your word, you're my solid rock, and my salvation, my steadfast hope, and I won't be shaken.

You're my stronghold and my shame in the midst of every threat, though the wicked never they will vanish like a breath. Yes, I know the outcome shore, Satan's evil plans will fail in your power secure. You're my solid rock, and my salvation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken. My soul will wait, my soul will wave for you.

This is love I can explain.

So great.

Yes, it has. And I fear no shame or loss. Now the scene of death is on. You're my solid rock, and my salvation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken.

My soul will wait for you.

My refuge, my sure foundation, my soul will wait, my soul will wave for you are hearts before you will trust in you strong.

Sing that again.

Stronger we will trust in you.

Um gonna say the way that Jesus taught his believers to pray to God our Father. And in this we are reminded that in every deliverance of temptation and evil is a reason to rejoice in our God our Father and the work of our Son and of His Son Jesus Christ, and just the forgiveness that we have the sin that we've uh committed. So together let us say, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for yours is a kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Please be seated.

Let us now take in a time of offering. If you're visiting today, please do not feel obligated to give, but if you are a member of the church, we ask that you give in accordance with Christ's Lordship over your life. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you for the gifts in our lives. We thank you even for the hardship that we have. And everything, Lord, through all outcomes, may we be able to glorify your name. We pray for this offering that it would be given to you, Lord, with just pure and honest hearts, Father, knowing that whatever we have received in this life is because of you. May we give a small portion back so that your kingdom can further in this place.

Coming from our brother Pastor Peter, which have come from Scripture, which have come from the way that you've worked in his life. We pray that you continue to bless him and encourage him. Guard his heart from the temptations and just the desires of Satan in the way that he would love to just take him away from us. But Lord, guard his heart, watch over him. And may just the truth of the word just strengthen his resolve. We thank you for all that you do today, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Children, you're dismissed. Please have a good uh great Sunday school with teacher Stephen. We're gonna go over a few announcements as they exit. Uh Father's Day Communion and Lunch. So Father's Day is uh the 28th of June.

Uh but it's actually the 21st. Oh, okay. So we're moving up uh our Father's Day Communion and Lunch. It'll be on, sorry, I'm I read that wrong. Uh we're having communion on Father's Day, the 21st of June. There we go. Uh so we're moving up uh the lunch and communion um and just to be able to celebrate that day together as as a community. Members meeting with fellowship lunch. Uh so we'll we're gonna be having a members' meeting. Um it would be great if you are a member to be, make sure that you're there for that that that day. It would be on June, or sorry, Sunday, July 26th. Uh, we're gonna be having a beacon beach day. Um, it's gonna be Saturday, August 1st at 9 a.m. Location will be at Docquaru Beach in Playa del Rey.

Uh if you would like to uh participate or bring something, I think I believe there's a sign-up sheet and just something that we can kind of um uh just do a potluck with. Uh 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, memory verse party. Uh so if you are currently uh doing your best to memorize 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, uh there's gonna be a small kind of gathering and kind of party and celebration of Sunday at uh August 23rd. And then at the end of uh our summer New Testament survey from August 2nd to August 23rd uh will be on Sundays after church uh from 1230 um onward, and it's gonna be a bring your own lunch thing. So please prepare your lunch beforehand so that you can go eat your lunch while you're having the New Testament survey.

That was a lot of announcements. So let's rise at this time. Uh welcome your neighbor with grace and peace to you. So the night soul.

I am my name.

You guys can uh stand back up if you're able. We're gonna read our passage for today. It's first Peter chapter two, and can I have the clicker? And we're gonna read one to three. And 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 to in respect to salvation if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Let's pray together. Lord, we know that it is never in the preparation of the speaker, nor is it ultimately in the preparation of our hearts for worship. You're the one, Lord, who chooses to move and to be gracious and to be kind and to pour out just a greater awareness of your presence, and you are the reason why we gather.

And so we pray just in weakness, in fear, and with much trembling, and we ask God that you would speak, and as you speak, help us to humble our hearts and submit them before your truth, and we know ultimately that is why we were created. You created us to be joyful reflections of your goodness, your truth, and your glory. So help us this morning as we reflect deeply on the things that we see to respond appropriately in adoration and worship. Remind us afresh that you are a good God, and that you are a God of love, and that you desire to bless your people abundantly. And so we ask for that this morning and pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take your seats. Well, you all know that we have twin uh a son and daughter.

So shortly after we found out that we were having a boy and a girl, and soon after we had decided on their names, I started praying very specifically for each of the two of them. Uh, we named our daughter Karis, which is in the Greek, it means grace, favor, gift. And so from before she was even born, I prayed daily that God would make her passionate and fiery even, that God would grow her up to become a woman with uh great zeal for the Lord and a great heart of compassion for the poor and for the lost. I prayed that she would become a champion for the orphans and widows, and that was my prayer for her. We prayed uh for our son Matthias. Uh he's named after the disciple in Acts chapter 1, verse twenty-six, who replaced Judas Iscariot, and he took his place as an apostle.

And we don't know much about Matthias outside of the fact that he was an apostle. And this obscurity appealed to me greatly. Because no doubt, Apostle Matthias did his part in building the kingdom of God. So no doubt, Apostle Matthias bore great fruit. And like the Matthias of the scriptures, I prayed from before our Maddie was born that he would become a very faithful man of God, who loves the Lord, who loves the word, and who helps faithfully to build the church of Jesus Christ, even if nobody knows about what he's doing, even if he does so in obscurity. So this is how I prayed for them from the time they were in the womb. And then the twins were born premature, and they spent a week in the incubator.

And that week was very special for me. I got to spend hours in the NICU, the neonatal intensive care unit every day, and I took turns with each of them and placing him or her on my bare chest, and I just spent an hour just snuggling them, smelling them, kissing them, and praying for each of them. And the prayers that I pray for them while they were in the womb, I prayed again when I was holding them on my chest. And then over the years, we've developed a bedtime ritual where we would pray together at night. And the contents of my prayer to this day have pretty much remained the same. And it kind of dawned on me as I was preparing for the sermon that both my prayers for both Karis and Maddie have always been mostly future focused.

But they would become mature, faithful, godly adults. So 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 expectations and with all my heart as their father. My job as their father did not end there at the hospital at their birth. It didn't end when we got a birth certificate. I am still their father to this day. About 11 years ago, I didn't really know them, but now I am daddy. And our relationship has changed over these years, and they've grown to trust me and to know me and the and to love me. And Lord willing, my role as their father will continue as I shepherd and guide them into adulthood. My children are not to remain children.

Now, I have for sure said, Oh, I wish they could stay so small forever. Now they're like this. But I wish they could stay this small forever. But in reality, I can't, and I don't really mean that. You guys may have said the same thing if you're parents. In reality, you would be alarmed if your children stopped growing. And you would be alarmed and concerned if they stopped maturing. If at 20, your children still acted like they were five, you would be disturbed. You would almost feel as though you had failed them. Similarly, children of God are not supposed to remain spiritually childish forever. Childlike, yes, but childish, no. So in our passage today, the apostle Peter spells out for us an expectation.

And the apostle Peter writes that Christians are supposed to grow. It is the will of God the Father, 1 Peter 1, 15 to 16, that Christians grow. And so there's an expectation there. There is a bar that's been set. God's will is clear that salvation is not a one-time event, right? We're not supposed to just enjoy the legal moment of salvation. We aren't supposed to only enjoy the benefits from salvation through adoption. We're supposed to grow up in it. We are to mature in it. And Hebrews chapter 5, verse and chapter 6, talk about that. It is God's will and expectation that Christians grow. And in the sovereignty of God, every Christian will grow. Every Christian cannot but grow. I had a truly impactful and a humbling thought a few years back.

God loves me way more fiercely than I love my children. And that kind of floored me.

And I desire with all my heart for their well-being, their happiness, and their wholeness. And I will gladly put myself in harm's way to see that my children are well, happy, and whole. But God, the perfect Father, desires this for me exponentially more than I desire it for my kids. He desires growth in well-being, happiness, and wholeness for me and for you. Zealously, perfectly. And unlike this incompetent father that's standing before you, God our Father is omnipotent and perfectly good. Right. The Spirit of omnipotent God himself prays and wills for growth. God prays for his children with groans that words cannot express with heavenly expectation, with the bar set very high, and the Bible makes that very clear.

So omnipotent God is praying for and willing for your growth. So as children of God, you cannot grow.

Can we click that? And 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. And he who searches the heart knows what 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 will mature. So we're gonna look at 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 to 3, and we'll think through what Christian growth and church growth entails. So I'm gonna read. This again. 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.

So the logical flow of these three verses is in the reverse order of what is written. So we're gonna be looking at the passage from back to front. 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.

Corpses who have a form and appearance of life, they do not have life, and thus cannot and will not grow. So there's a condition here. If and only if someone has tasted the kindness of the Lord, he will grow.

It means to long for or to hunger for or 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 there's a command, and that should be interesting if you think about it, because it's not eat the word so that you can grow. It's long. It's hunger so that you can grow. So that's interesting. We're gonna be looking at that. And at the end, we're gonna see in verse 1 the things that curb the Christian's appetite for the pure milk of the word, thereby inhibiting or obstructing the growth. So the outline is as follows: the condition in verse 3, the command, verse 2, and then at the end, the appetite curbs that need to be put aside.

Verse 1. And all of this is for the purpose and expectation and the bar for the growth of the children of God. So I want to start with verse 3. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. So if you've got a physical Bible open, some of you may notice that the font is different for verse 3. You guys notice that? I mean, it's on the screen. In many of your physical Bibles, a differing font in the New Testament passage usually denotes a quotation of the Septuagint. And that's the Greek translation of the Old Testament. So this is a direct reference to the Greek translation of Psalm 34 8. Psalm 34 appears to be important to the theology of Apostle Peter. He quotes it here in chapter 2, and then he's going to quote it again later in chapter 3.

So Psalm 34 is an important psalm. Okay, and in many ways, it's the Old Testament summarization of the gospel that man is saved and made righteous by grace alone, through faith alone, in the promised Messiah alone. Okay. So the Messiah to come is alluded to in verse 20 of Psalm 34. You guys see that verse? None of his bones are broken, right? And that's a full fulfillment of prophecy. Psalm 34 is written by King David, and it describes a man who has been delivered or rescued by Yahweh God. Psalm 34 describes a man who is completely helpless, absolutely helpless, and desperately in need of saving. And Psalm 34, the man is extremely crushed in spirit. He's a man who cannot save himself. And he's a man who cries out to Yahweh, his only hope.

And if you read Psalm 34, you'll read that this man is safe from all his troubles. He is no longer in want. And then this helpless man in Psalm 34 is called righteous on three different occasions at the end. What makes this man righteous? In his utter helplessness, he takes refuge in Yahweh, and then he is rescued by Yahweh, and then he is changed by Yahweh. And then having been rescued and changed, he exalts and praises Yahweh.

So the righteousness of the Psalm 34 man is not earned by his religious efforts. Righteousness is imputed to him.

So the righteous man sought and he found, he asked and he received, he repented and he was made righteous. So I'm going to pause here. What makes a person righteous? It's not his deeds.

Right? Because even the most righteous of our deeds are like filthy rags. A sinner's acknowledgement of his absolute helplessness, the repentance and hatred from for that sin, and then a turning in faith toward Yahweh, that's what makes him righteous. This has always been the case. So the righteous man has tasted the kindness of the Lord. What does it mean to have tasted the kindness of the Lord in Apostle Peter's paradigm? He opened the letter with the description. I want to review that for us. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So in 1 Peter 2 3, it gives us a condition. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, so if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord, you have a living hope. The hope is solely in heaven and not for this life, verse 4. And if you'll notice, a person who is righteous and has a living hope, he has been born again, but still undergoes fiery trials, even though he is protected by the power of God.

It's actually quite the opposite. So this person who has tasted the kindness of the Lord has now become an exile in the world. And that's how Apostle Peter opens the letter, right? Christians are sojourners and exiles.

If it's not, then there's something wrong. And as a result, this life is difficult because a Christian does not belong here.

They are joyful and steadfast, but they are longing for a sinful or a sinless reality with Christ. So I trust that this is a description of your life. You do not belong here. Amen.

Because there are so many things at war against your soul.

And the longer you're a Christian, you actually feel more tired and bedraggled from the fight.

Sin and toil free, delighting and delighting fully in the presence of the Lord. Nothing in this life truly satisfies. No success, no amount of money, no fun experiences, leaves you ever feeling fulfilled. There is nothing really worth living for here. Amen. But while you are here, because you want to glorify God, you persevere in holiness. And while you're tired here, you love because he first loved you, and you have a growing compassion for the lost, and you're grieved by the deeds they commit in their lostness. You press on as a citizen of heaven, living in a cursed and depraved world, and you press on in hope for God to redeem.

So to you, the Christian who has tasted the kindness of the Lord, then the apostle Peter has given a command. 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 this passage. Some Bible scholars view this as the central imperative, the central command for the entire book. So this is an important verse, okay? So verse 2 is the main command for the whole letter. All hundred five verses, this is the main command. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, then long for his word. That's the command. And what's interesting, again, is not that it's a command to eat or to hear his word.

It is epipatheo to hunger for, to crave the word of God. And that's very interesting. It's a strong word. The word epipatheo, it means to have an intense, insatiable passion or desire. So in other Greek literature, it's used in describing a newly wedded husband's lust-filled obsession for his wife. It's not lust, but it's a passion for his newly wed wife. That's how epipatheo is used. It's used also in Greek literature of someone who's just lost their loved one, longing for their loved one, like just crying for the someone that they just lost. It's sometimes used to describe a parent's heart of grief for a wayward child. So someone who is longing in this way has a one-track mind.

He is obsessed.

He is fixated on one thing. So here in 1 Peter 2 2, it's used to describe, epipatheo is used to describe a baby's single-minded focus, his obsession for milk. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, if you've been made righteous, not because of your deeds, but because of your helplessness and your faith, if you've had your heart of stone turned into a heart of flesh, long for the word. The same way a newborn baby longs for milk. So a Christian, it's a command, must long and will long to be fed by the pure spiritual milk of the word. You are what you eat, or more specifically, in the context of our passage, you are what you long for. You are what you crave. Think about this. You are what you crave.

So a baby bird will long for a bug, or perhaps a worm. It's in the baby bird's nature to do so. A baby fish will long for microorganisms in the water called infusoria. Baby snakes will long for insects and small amphibians and even rodents. A baby human will long for and scream his head off until he gets his milk. Baby humans do not need to be taught this. For the older people over 50, I'm gonna teach you a word that's somehow found its way into a young person's vocabulary. Okay. Only if you're over 50. Please repeat after me.

It's a combination of the words hungry and angry. Okay, it's a new English word. It's in the dictionary now. It means anger or foulness of mood caused by hunger. Hangry. So I have a confession. I struggle with hanger. Baby humans are born hangry. It's in a baby's very nature to be hangry for milk. A baby human will not long for a bug, nor will he be satisfied with a rodent. He can't digest leaves or infusoria. What does a baby human long for? Milk. What does a child of God long for? What is he hardwired to crave? What's the base desire? The word of God. It is in the spiritual DNA of every Christian to long for the pure milk of the Word. So being born again, you've been hardwired to long for it.

So a child of God who has tasted the kindness of the Lord will not be satisfied only with community, comfort, success, strong morals, degrees, a sense of purpose, good praise music, encouraging words from fellow believers to boost self-esteem. All of those things are good things. But a child of God will not be satisfied with just these things. He will not long for these things. A child of God can be only satisfied with and will long to feed off of Jesus Christ and his word. Amen. So if you're a genuine Christian and you're at a church, but you're not hearing God's word, you're not hearing God's voice, you're gonna start feeling sick. But no matter how shabby the church building, no matter how bad the praise music, no matter how few programs that the church has, a child of God who's hearing the voice of God and being filled to his soul, will leave strengthen.

That's rule, right? So how does a Christian apply long for the word as a newborn baby longs for milk? Remember, this is a command, and the commands in scripture are meant to be obeyed, and if this is a central command in the letter, it's really tricky. The tricky thing about the command long is not something you can obey on cue, right? You may not be sure how to immediately make application to obey the command to long. And I'm gonna illustrate.

Or if I were to say, there's a homeless encampment right behind that wall, give them five dollars. You would know what obedience looks like and what disobedience looks like, right? These are very specific, they're very clear. And the issue would be more whether or not we want to obey. If I were to command you, eat, it would be easy to apply. But if I were to command all of us today, be thirsty. How would you apply this? Someone may say, you drink water. No, dum-dum. You just did the opposite of what I commanded. Think about it. Be thirsty. You're like, okay, look, look, look, okay. You just went the other way. You moved away from thirst. If I were to tell my wife, miss me. It would be very difficult for her to discern an immediate application, and my wife would have no choice but to respond with, then go away.

That's the only way, right? What I find fascinating about this command to long is this is one of the few imperatives that are obeyed almost passively, almost by instinct. This is a command that can be actively disobeyed or shrugged off or curbed, but the obedience of this command is passive, and it is the default setting for the believer. Pay attention here. Longing for the pure milk of the word is a command that is obeyed naturally because it's the default setting. You live here long enough as a Christian, you're gonna find yourself slowly being weaned off of this world. You're gonna start growing dissatisfied with this world. It will happen. You're gonna develop a great distaste for the things that this world has to offer.

Fancy car, nice job, nice home, clothes, none of that will satisfy. You're like, this is vanity. All is vanity. Why do I need this? You will, in your living hope, long only for the things of God. So the command is literally be hungry. That's what's being commanded here. And being hungry is not something I can force upon myself. It will come naturally. It's not something I can immediately obey, but it is something that I definitely can disobey by obstruction. My spiritual hunger, my appetite for God's word can be curbed. So in order to be appropriately hungry, my appetite has to be saved. So here's a quote from John Piper's A Hunger for God. 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's because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is so stuffed with small things. There is no room for the great.

So verse three, the curbs, or verse one, are the curbs or the things that we nibble on. So we see the apostle Peter instructing the Christians of Asia Minor to put off or to lay aside and to abstain from the things that curb the spiritual appetite. The food will always be there. So the obsession, the thing we need to focus it on is not the feeding of it. Our primary obsession is to always come hungry. At my previous church, there's a brother who went to culinary school, and so he's a legitimate chef. He's a professional chef, and he's worked at Michelin Star restaurants. So it's good to have people like that in your life. Okay. We don't have any of those in our church yet. But anytime, his name's Ryan.

Anytime Ryan would invite people over to eat, it was customary for everybody invited over to not eat that whole day. Nobody's eating Doritos because they're hungry. Nobody. Because Ryan's cooking, we're gonna go.

So the apostle Peter is telling us in verse one, he's giving us a mini list of things that we need to put aside to save our appetite for the pure milk of the word. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander. 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. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. Now here's an important question. When you think of the things that kill your hunger for God, that obstruct your desire for his word. Are these the things that you would come up with on a list? Here in America, when we think of stuff that takes away from our hunger for God, a lot of people share things related to like entertainment, lust.

When I'm struggling with lust, I don't want to read the word. When I'm struggling and I've binge watched movies and Netflix, I don't want the word of God. I don't want to pray. When I'm so focused on materialism, I want stuff. Oh yeah, I don't want to pray. I don't want to read. Oh, I'm too busy working hard in my career so I could advance. I don't have time for the word. So in our world, these aren't the things that take away our appetite for God's word. Right? Where would malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander rank on your list of appetite killers? Entertainment, lust, ambition, materialism, of course, they're all gonna obstruct the individuals' longing for the word. Those things ruin individual people's faith.

But the list that Peter provides malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander, are not things that destroy individuals. Those are things that destroy communities. You guys tracking. Peter exhorts us to be like newborn babies, plural. The command to long is in the second person plural. This is not written to individuals, this is written for the entire church body. In fact, both the words you in verse 2 and 3 are in the plural, meaning you all, all of you. So the list of things that Peter mentions can destroy an entire church's longing for the word of God. Rather than growing a distaste for the things of the world, which is a Christian's default setting, if these five things come into the church, a Christian might develop a distaste for the church.

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 and deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander divide and ruin church bodies. So these are things our collective body here at the church need to be mindful of and watchful for. Every member needs to be vigilant in this. So I would like to think of us as a Bible church. Praise God, right? That God is feeding us his word at this church. But if malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander start taking root here in the church, we're gonna find ourselves to be a Bible church in name more than in practice. So for some context, remember, the churches of Asia Minor were encountering difficult times.

So in this period of time, the Christians were a misunderstood group, right? They were persecuted and they were viewed as troublemakers. So Christians today, we're troublemakers, right? Just read the news. We're backward and we cause problems. We're the hateful and divisive ones. Okay. Now, in the early church, there was a confusion as to what the followers of the way really believed, because the church was so exclusive. The church preached an exclusive gospel, they preach repentance and holiness, and they didn't let people come into their church until they were baptized. So the Christians were the scapegoats. And when they were captured and arrested, their leaders were thrown into lions for sport and hoisted on the stakes of the streets of Rome.

There was a lot of confusion in the churches and panic and fear because the churches were regularly getting raided and the leaders taken away, right? So imagine being part of a regularly slandered, mistreated, heavily persecuted, and then in even an executed community of people, Christians were hated. Our generation of Christians, we're trying too hard to be liked. No, we love, but we're hated because of our message. But these people were hated. So they didn't always feel like a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for God's own possession. 1 Peter 2 9. So Peter had to remind them of their identity. And this is what it reads in verses 9 to 12. So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So, beloved, I urge you as just sojourners in exiles to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul by keeping your conduct excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing which they slander you as evildoers, they may be because of your good works, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. So Christians, by definition, do not fit in. We are sojourners and exiles. Amen. That's where churches get in trouble when the church is trying to become like the world, the message gets diluted. We're never supposed to try to fit in. So when we are mistreated, ridiculed, beaten, and scorned, when we see our values maligned on social media, there is a temptation for malice.

Right? Malice, khakia is an all-inclusive word. It means to desire retribution or harm. You want to fight fire with fire. But Peter says that malice curbs a group's longing for the pure milk of the word. When a church starts engaging with the world for the sake of righteousness, very angrily, it actually doesn't get the message across so much as it can harm your church. We don't fight fire with fire. Amen. When a church gets too political and too passionate about a certain cause that is not the gospel, it will hurt the church. The next on the list is deceit. There is a possible temptation to lie or to deceive to escape persecution.

That's what it's meant by deceit there in verse one. When there is growing hatred toward Christians and Christian values at school or at your jobs, isn't there a temptation to downplay your faith? To divert or to even deceive.

Hypocrisy.

Christians are supposed to be free of hostility. Christians are called to be united, but in difficult situations, it's not easy to always practice what we preach. So hypocrisy, too, is a curb for the longing of the pure milk of the word. Envy, tough times might cause a Christian to envy non-believers who seem to have no problem of fitting in.

So in the context of 1 Peter, envy is not talking about an envy of someone's wealth or their material goods. It's an envy of circumstance. Envy also curbs a community's spiritual desires.

I wish I was like her, that where she doesn't get persecuted at work because she works at like a Christian organization. That can kill the appetite for the pure milk of the word. All slander, crises, intense times can often divide a family or a group or an organization. Many churches does not survive COVID. Not because of the disease, but because people started blaming each other, hating each other for what COVID did to the culture of the church. You guys remember that? It was like five, six years ago. Leaders become easy targets for blame when there's a crisis in the church. Even if they've made a correct decision. And then when we are disappointed in our leaders, and when we are hurt or frustrated by one another, we badmouth and slander one another.

So malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, those five things obstruct a community's longing for the pure milk of the word. Many people have left churches using these things as excuses for why they don't go to a church anymore. Those are poor excuses that mask their lack of genuine faith, but they kind of are valid excuses nonetheless. The preaching of God's word does not drive people away from church. You guys track it along? Malice, hypocrisy, envy, slander, deceit, those are the things that drive people away from church. That cause them to be apostate, and that's not the church's fault. That's just exposing what's already in their heart. But these are the things that destroy the church's longing for the word.

So remember, a longing for the word is a church's collective default setting. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander, throw chaos into that default setting. So the command for you and me is to long for the word, but the application for our whole, all of our churches is the weeding out of these five things. And as these curbs are put aside and weeded out, you're gonna see the church naturally hunger for the word. And then the longing is longing is unobstructed. And that's what Peter is saying. So the primary exhortation that this passage leaves us with is not that we all individually grow to become better Christians, individually. Of course, our individual growth is important. Amen. Every single Christian needs to grow.

There's an expectation there. Every child of God is important, every saint is important. But in these three verses in 1 Peter, it's not directed at individuals, it's directed at the community. It's addressed to the church, the body of Christ. So I am my brother's keeper when it comes to helping him grow his understanding of the word. I am my brother's keeper. When someone is temperamental and fighting, I'm the one who needs to say, hey, there's a lot at stake here. Calm down. If you find someone cowering and being tempted to deceive people, it is our responsibility to uproot those things. If someone is living a hypocritical life, and the witness toward the world is bad, it is my job to be like, hey, brother.

You listening to that kind of music, you speaking with that kind of language, you pursuing that kind of ambition, you purchasing that kind of thing, you going on vacation to that kind of a place, that actually ruins your witness. And that ruins our witness. And ultimately, it destroys our desire to know God's word. So these are things that we need to protect in our community. And that's the bar that our heavenly Father has for us. Are you guys tracking? That's the bar that the Heavenly Father, while he has us in his bosom, is praying for us over. And unlike human fathers, he's going to will it to be.

Amen.

The word has to be central in season and out of season. Because nothing else can cause a heart to turn to Christ. Nothing. No programs, no fancy gimmick. It has to be the proclamation of the word. So I want to turn our attention back here. Chapter 2, verse 1. In the beginning, there's a word therefore. And what do I say about the therefore? Whenever there's a therefore, what do you do? You ask, what is the therefore? Therefore. The therefore is always connect to what has just been said to an expected application. Right? What has just been said to an expected application? So I'm going to review with us what had just been said in the last few weeks. Since you have in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a love of the brothers without hypocrisy, fervently love one another from the heart.

For you have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, that is through the living and enduring word of God. All flesh is like grass, and all their glory is like the flower grass, the grass withers and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever, and this is the word that was proclaimed to you as the gospel, 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 again, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord and become righteous and born again. So in appropriate application, may we unwaveringly be a word-centered Bible church.

May our community's appetite be reserved for the word and primarily for the word. Amen. Whatever money we spend, whatever strategies we have at church, no matter what the fellowship is, all of those things are fine, but our central focus is that the hunger for God's word is present. May we all be righteously hangry for the word of God. Amen. May we long for growth, may we long for salvation and maturity, and may we long for it all together because this is for the church, not for just an individual. And I think, just like my kids, I didn't try to make them grow. I just I did I did it. Becky just fed them. Good food. Eleven years have passed. Now they're at mommy's height.

We didn't try to make that happen. It just happened. Why? Because they're eating. Amen. May our church, I don't care about the number, but may we grow and mature because we're constantly eating together. Let's pray together. Father, I pray for your help that you would keep this church pure, that we would never be coming here to get to see people. Lord, we know that that is a good byproduct. That is never the goal. Help us to never come with our appetites already hindered by divisive attitudes that we have toward one another. Would you protect this church? And any element that comes into this church that is divisive, that is full of malicious intent, envy, slander, a loose tongue, all of those things I pray that you protect this church from and teach us how to be quick to weed those things out.

Lord, ultimately, so that from now until the day you call all of us home, that our longing for the word will be constant for your glory for our growth and joy. And pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's all rise and respond in worship. May we be a church that hungers for his word. May we just stand upon it as we go forth from this place.

From the king of the dawn to the setting of the Son. I will stand on every promise of your word. Words of power strong to say that will never pass away. I will stand on every promise of your word for your community, and on this I am cure. I can stand on every promise of your word when I stop and I send condemnation blessing.

That in freedom I might be. So I stand on every promise of your word. Guilty winno you remember sins no more. So I'll stand on every promise of your word when I'm faced when I'm faced with anguish choice. I will listen for your voice, and I'll stand on every promise of your word through the dark and troubled land. You will guide me with your hand as I stand on every promise of your word, and you promise to complete every work begun in me, so I'll stand on every promise of your word hope, hope that lives me from despair love that casts out every fear as I stand on every promise of your word not forsaken, not alone for the comforter has come, and I stand on every promise of your word grace of grace for me, grace for all who will be stand on every promise of your word grace sufficient, grace sufficient, grace for me, grace for all who will be stand on every promise of God our Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each and every one of us as we collectively long for the Word for His glory and for our joy.

Amen.