(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (audience laughing) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (audience laughing) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (audience laughing) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - Good morning, Church family.

Happy Lord's Day. Scripture says in 1 John 3, 1, "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God, and such we are." As we begin our service with the song, "You Made Us Your Own," let us reflect and rejoice in this great love the Father has shown to us through His Son, Jesus.

(gentle music) ♪ We were ruined, we were sinned ♪ ♪ We were guilty and undone ♪ ♪ When your love reached out with sovereign hands ♪ ♪ And beckoned us to come ♪ ♪ You sought out the wild and loose ♪ ♪ Made the prodigal son ♪ ♪ With a lavish face you welcomed us ♪ ♪ For you made us your own ♪ ♪ You have loved us like you love your Son ♪ ♪ We are pierced with Christ, bought by His blood ♪ ♪ Oh, how great the love that we've been shown ♪ ♪ Who are your children now ♪ ♪ You made us your own ♪ ♪ We are strangers to you ♪ ♪ But you're strangers to me ♪ ♪ We draw near and you're bound in confidence ♪ ♪ For all our fears are gone ♪ ♪ And when Christ our King returns ♪ ♪ We'll meet saints we've never known ♪ ♪ And forever we will be amazed ♪ ♪ That you made us your own ♪ ♪ You have loved us like you love your Son ♪ ♪ We are pierced with Christ, bought by His blood ♪ ♪ Oh, how great the love that we've been shown ♪ ♪ Who are your children now ♪ ♪ You made us your own ♪ ♪ You have loved us like you love your Son ♪ ♪ We are pierced with Christ, bought by His blood ♪ ♪ Oh, how great the love that we've been shown ♪ ♪ Who are your children now ♪ ♪ Who are your children now ♪ ♪ You made us your own ♪ (gentle music) - Well, good morning, church family.

Welcome to Berean Community Church. If this is your first Sunday with us and you're visiting and you wanna get to know more about our church, we have a table and a booth outside that you can get information on how to plug in, get involved, and even just find people who can sit and ask you or answer questions for you.

So we do have that in the back. I have a couple of announcements for us. If you have taken the shuttle over here, we may have had a couple hiccups today 'cause the golf carts weren't charged. So we're still working, we're working out the kinks, okay? But we do have a shuttle system.

So if you are a healthy-legged and you want to save the closer seat spots for people who are visiting and for young families, please do park at the far lots. The shuttle system, which launched today, it'll be available for you guys, okay? If you guys are wanting to become members of the church, we are a church that practices membership, and it's an eight-week course, and the next round of the classes starts in two weeks on Sunday, July 9th.

And so that's a prerequisite for membership into the class. If you have any questions, you can email Pastor Nate, who's currently in Korea, but you can email him for more information, or you could just pull me aside and ask me after the service as well. Speaking of the Korea team, they arrived there probably about, like, 25, 30 hours ago, and they had their first full day Sunday.

It was a worship service. Pastor Nate preached. And then starting tomorrow-- they're probably sleeping right now-- but starting tomorrow, they have a very packed, full, busy three weeks, so please do keep them in your prayers and that God would be magnified in the country of South Korea as the Christian population is rapidly declining.

Okay, so please pray for them. They'll be back July 15th. Okay, so until then, please be fervent in your inner session. We have our monthly praise and prayer this coming Friday at 7:30. We are going to remove the front chair, so if you guys want to come and just kneel and pray, it's a BYO, like, pad, right, so you can come and--or mat, so you can pray with us today-- or on Friday at 7:30.

And today is the last call to sign up for the All Church Retreat, where we take care of your lodging for you. Okay, if you want to sign up afterward, you can, but we are running--we're running out of space and time, so please do register for that by today if you're planning to join us and you want to be at the hotel that we're all at, okay?

After our time of offering, our brother Brian Lee is going to come and share his testimony, and then he's going to be baptized. And if you have your offering--it's a physical one. We do have a box in the back. You can put that there as you walk out or--and even during the time of offering now, or you can give your tithes and offerings electronically via Zelle, all right?

So let me pray for us, and then we'll continue with our worship service. Father, we're very thankful that you've just called us your own, and what a privilege it is for us to gather to celebrate our new life in Christ. And we acknowledge this morning that this worship service primarily is for you.

You are the audience. You are the center. And we pray, Father, that you would help us to engage appropriately to give you the honor that you do. And we pray that from the beginning of the service to the very end, Lord, that you would lead it, that you would guide it, and would your truth be proclaimed, and would we respond accordingly and appropriately.

Lord, we bring our gifts. We bring our tithes and offerings, but most importantly, we desire to offer you our hearts. So would you bless our time, and would you receive the glory that you are due this morning? We pray this in Jesus' name. Let us rise as we sing these praises.

And this next song is called "There is a Fountain," and the opening line goes, "There is a fountain filled with blood." And without context, this can feel like the opening lyric to some death metal band. But to the Christian, this is a precious truth to know that the costly and pure sacrifice of our Savior's blood signifies the full pardon of our sin and a restored relationship to our Heavenly Father.

Church, let us sing this next song together. There is a fountain. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

Dear dying Lamb, dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed Church of God be saved to sin no more, be saved to sin no more, be saved to sin no more. Till all the ransomed Church of God be saved to sin no more.

Irsitz by faith. Irsitz by faith I saw the stream of flowing wounds supply. Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die, and shall be till I die, and shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die. When this poor lisping, When this poor lisping, staring tongue lies silent in the grave, and in another sweeter song I'll sing Thy power to save, I'll sing Thy power to save, I'll sing Thy power to save.

And in another sweeter song I'll sing Thy power to save, I'll sing Thy power to save, I'll sing Thy power to save. And in another sweeter song I'll sing Thy power to save. When the darkness awakes and my heart is faint within, when the darkness overwhelm and my ears are dancing in, I will trust in You alone.

In the silence of the night I will stand upon Your throne. My solid rock, my salvation, my steadfast hope, my salvation, my soul, my soul, my salvation. My soul, my salvation, the best of every breath, no broken heart will win, in the lavish life of breath. Yes, I'm not out of control, Satan's evil plans will fail, Your power I'm secure.

You're my solid rock and my salvation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken, my soul will wait, my soul will wait for You. You're my comfort when I feel forsaken, my refuge and my sure foundation, my soul will wait, my soul will wait for You. This is not a fantasy, this is mercy on reserve, Your sacrifice so dear, I have peace and love deserve.

For the battle has been won and I fear no shame or loss, now the sting of death is gone. You're my solid rock and my salvation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken, my soul will wait, my soul will wait for You. You're my comfort when I feel forsaken, my refuge and my sure foundation, my soul will wait, my soul will wait for You.

Going out on arms before You, we will trust in You. Perfect Savior, strong defender, we will trust in You. Going out on arms before You, we will trust in You. Perfect Savior, strong defender, we will trust in You. Amen. You may be seated. I would like to first and foremost thank everyone who has helped and taught me to get me to where I am today.

And above all else, it was all thanks to God. As I was growing up, I had a pretty privileged life. I had two loving parents, amazing Korean food, and a roof over my head. My struggle started when I first came to America at the age of nine. I was often the target of bullying, so routinely I ate alone or hid in the bathroom.

I despised how pathetic I was and blamed it on my thick eyebrows or my shallow eczema. Although I had my parents to turn to, my problems felt insignificant amongst their sea of difficulty and constant hard work. I simply repressed it, and the longer I did, the more I truly felt alone.

I would spend countless nights contemplating whether dying would be less of a suffering. In the midst of it all, something told me to hold on and place my faith in humanity. All I wanted was to fit in, so I decided to pluck my eyebrows, sag my pants, sleep in class, I stole, fought, and left my family as an afterthought.

With a reputation and friends came a gaping pit of insecurity, a need to please others, and a belief that my value hinged on how others perceived me. I kept cultivating a picture of myself on what I believed others would find appealing. In retrospect, I realized that life without God is in vain, and my self-righteousness kept me from seeing the sacrifices given to me.

Eventually, I landed on a group of friends who I would have taken a bullet for. Ride or die, they were the only things that mattered to me, and of course, my new girlfriend. However, our friendship of eight years fell apart. It wasn't the first time I lost my friends, but it still hit me hard because they meant the world to me.

I felt betrayed and stopped seeing the point of trusting people or investing in the empty jar of people. I started to push people away, and inevitably, my pride, anxiety, and gaping insecurities also resurfaced. In my interaction with people, I frequently let my rage and feeling of disrespect get the better of me.

Drinking before bed was my muse to shut off my intrusive thoughts, and worst one yet, I struck my middle sister. Not once, but multiple times. I called her a monster, made excuses for why she deserved it, but no amount of good could clean my ass. I was a monster.

To fill the void in my heart, I tried to work on self-improvement in my career, money, and brokenness within my family. However, no matter what I tried, I was never able to make up for my emptiness. When I first came to Berrien, my goal at the time was to make connections and learn about good morals.

As I continued to attend the sermons and talk to individuals, my curiosity grew about what the truth had deepened. I knew firsthand, truth is not of this world. There was endless greed in each individual and priority of self-preservation. We trust ourselves to make the right decisions in this world.

If humans were perfect, as society claims, then no problem. I should be able to trust any decision I make, as the results should be perfect. But I am an imperfect being who yearns for perfect outcomes, and that is why I ended up empty. That our soul is not of this world, and I had desires for justice, equality, peace, and love in a barren place.

I was sick of waiting for my next fix of dopamine, and I yearned for the real truth. Pascal's wager was enough for me to believe in God that religion was relatively easy to pick. The one religion that stood above the rest, and that we were saved, Christianity. That we are not saved through works, but through Jesus Christ.

It says so in Ephesians 2, verse 8. There's no one way, there's no way one can put enough good works in this world to counteract evil. I knew that in my head, but my soul did not believe. Through my hypocrisy, I tried to put in the work to be a Christian, to have equalities and love without Jesus Christ.

No matter what I did, it wasn't enough. I only realized I was at the edge of a cliff when I spoke with Pastor Mark. Although God was urging me to jump and put my trust in Him, I felt undeserving and was doubting His authority. I told God, "My sins are too heavy, and let me do some work until I'm qualified enough." I was then told by Pastor Mark that our sins are too heavy to be worked off, and I have to ask to be saved.

So we began praying. God unveiled to me that pride was a source of my independence and my reluctance to ask for help. He revealed to me how much He loved me, and He would truth me over and over, that He is God, and that I did not become something I'm not just to be loved.

To bring my broken pieces as they are, that night as I broke down and felt the warmth of God, God's love and forgiveness wash over me, I realized that it really was that easy. Romans 8, chapter 8, verse 31 to 32, helped me understand the extent of His love.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own love, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Although sanctification is a process, I was set free of my shackles of anxiety, sorrow, and the fear of death.

I have now joy I cannot contain, but I had to question whether I was really believing this, because I found a place where I felt like I belonged, and had volleyball. I can confidently say that I would still believe, even if I didn't have all those things." Thank you.

Brian, do you understand that when you go into the water, you're uniting with Christ in His death, and as you come out, you're uniting with Him in His resurrection? I do. As you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Brian.

Just what a joy it is. I actually was probably one of the first people to meet Brian at the church, and just to see God's work in his life. It really is an encouragement just to see the many people that have prayed for him, that have loved on him, and it is a joy just to be able to baptize him this morning.

If you guys have your Bibles with you, please turn to 1 Peter chapter 2, and I'm going to be reading for you verses 1 through 3. 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. It reads, "Therefore, putting 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 us pray together. Father, we are gathered here to hear your truth, and I pray, Father, that you would feed your sheep, and may your Word spur us on to worship, and cause us to leave here as people who respond appropriately to the proclamation of your truth, and help us, Lord God, really to respond with much affection toward the cross of Christ, and that in turn, it would lead us to just love our people.

And so we thank you for just your provision of this time, and we pray for your protection over the pulpit, help our minds and our hearts to be both awake and alert and so soft. We thank you, God, for giving us this morning, and we pray for just your help to listen well.

In Jesus' name we pray. So as most of you know, I have a twin son and daughter, and shortly after we found out that we were having a boy and a girl, and from the moment we had given them names, I started praying very specifically for each of the two of them.

And we named our daughter Keres, which in Greek means gift. And from before the time she was born, I prayed daily that my daughter would grow up to become a woman with both great zeal for the Lord, and specifically a heart of compassion for the poor and for the lost.

And I prayed that she would become a champion for the orphans and the widows, and that was my prayer for her. I mean, I was working for Compassion International. I didn't think I would be coming back, but that was my longings for my unborn daughter. And we named our son Matthias, and in Acts 1:26, it's written that Matthias was the one who replaced Judas Iscariot and took his place as an apostle.

And we don't know much else about Matthias outside of that fact that he was an apostle. And for some reason, that obscurity really appealed to me greatly. And no doubt, Apostle Matthias did his part in the building up of the kingdom of God. No doubt, Apostle Matthias bore great spiritual fruit.

And like Matthias of the Scriptures, I prayed from before our Matty was born that he would become a faithful man of God who loves the Lord, who loves the Word, and who faithfully helps to build the church of Jesus Christ, even if no one knows about it, even if he does so in obscurity.

And this is how I prayed for them from the time they were in the womb. And the twins were born just slightly premature, and so they spent a week in the incubator. And that week was such a special and memorable time for me personally. I spent hours in the NICU every day, and I took turns with each of them, just placing him or her on my chest, and just spending an hour, like, snuggling and kissing and smelling and praying for each of them.

And the prayers that I had prayed for them while they were in the womb, I prayed again while they were against my chest. And over the years, we've since developed, like, a bedtime ritual with the kids where we would pray together. And the contents of my prayer to this day have not changed much.

And in preparing for this sermon, it kind of dawned on me that my prayers, both for Maddie and Karis, have always been future-focused, that they would become mature, faithful, godly adults. And that's the bar that I set for them in my heart. And these are my goals for them.

And I pray these things with expectation and with all my heart as their father every night. And my job as their father did not end there at the hospital at their birth or when we got their birth certificates to say that they're formally, in the eyes of the state, that they're our children.

I am their father still to this day. 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. I don't ever pray for or hope that my children remain children. I want to see them grow up.

Now, like, for sure, I've said, "Oh, I wish they could stay this way forever," but I actually don't really mean that. Okay? I can't and I don't actually mean that. And you may have said it too if you're a parent, but you would be alarmed if your child stopped growing.

You would be concerned if they stopped maturing. If at 20 they still acted like they were 5, you would be grieved. You would feel as if you had failed them. And similarly, children of God are not to remain spiritually childish forever. Childlike? Yes. Childish? No. And in our passage today, the Apostle Peter writes that Christians are supposed to grow.

There's an expectation there. A bar has been set. Salvation is not a one-time act. We aren't just to enjoy salvation. We are to grow up in it. We are to go on to maturity. And as the Spirit of God himself prays for his children with groans which words cannot express, with heavenly expectation, the spiritual growth of every Christian is expected and inevitable.

It cannot not happen. Scripture makes that clear. A child of God cannot not grow. And this growth isn't just passive. We are to be active in our pursuit of it. In Hebrews 6, verse 1, the author of Hebrews similarly exhorts us saying, "Let us press on toward maturity." And we're to be fed, to be trained, and then we are to be pressed toward growth.

God's children cannot but grow. God's children must grow. Corpses do not grow, but living children do. The spiritually dead cannot spiritually grow, but the spiritually living cannot but grow into the likeness of their spiritual father. So we who have the Spirit of God, who have had our hearts of stone replaced with hearts of flesh, we're supposed to press on toward maturity.

This cannot be stopped. It's in your spiritual DNA. You're either dead or you're alive and growing. You cannot be alive in Christ and not grow into his likeness. That is a theological impossibility. Our passage today is from 1 Peter chapter 2, and though there are specific situations and specific circumstances that the Apostle Peter is addressing, the bulk of his letter is actually very future-focused.

The first chapter of 1 Peter begins with the descriptions of the Christian's future, the Christian's bar, the father's expectations, and what the fullness of maturity for the Christian looks like. So we've studied this last year, so in some ways this is review, but chapter 1 is about what the Christian is supposed to become, and let me read that for you.

The Christian becomes more and more of these things as he is sanctified. So the first one, he grows in obedience to Jesus Christ. He takes ownership of his inheritance. He lives a life full of praise and glory and honor to Christ, and he'll continue to do so until Christ returns.

He is continuing to be saved. There's a theological word for this. It's called sanctification. So the Christian continues to grow in holiness, and as he walks with the Lord, he grows and develops a greater hunger and appetite for the eternal word of God, and all of that is in chapter 1.

And that's what the spiritual DNA of every Christian looks like. So that's chapter 1. And we find ourselves in chapter 2, and I said the first three verses of chapter 2 for us in the beginning. And 1 Peter 2 begins with the word "therefore," and most every "therefore" that we find in the Scriptures is important.

And whenever we come across a "therefore," you have to ask the question, "What is this 'therefore' there for?" Right? Usually a "therefore" connects what has just been said with an expected application. It connects what has just been said with an appropriate response. So in chapter 1, since the Christian is an heir to a future and eternal hope which is imperishable, unfading, and undefiled, he is "therefore," in chapter 2, to conduct himself in the following way in the present.

And I want to read the first three verses again for you. "Therefore, putting 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 in these three verses, in this passage, there is a condition.

And in this passage, you will also find that there is one single command, just one single imperative. And also in these three verses, there is only one attending participle that describes how the Christian is supposed to obey this command. And so I'm going to lay out the outline of this passage for you up front.

And the logical flow of thought in this passage, it's in the reverse order to what is written. So we're going to be looking at this passage back to front. The text makes better sense in our minds if you go from back to front. So first, we're going to be looking at the condition, the "if" clause.

Then we're going to look at the single command, "epipateo," which means to long for or to hunger, to crave the word of God. So there's that condition and there's a command. And at the end, we're going to look at the things that curb the Christian's appetite for the word of God, things that just quench.

So the outline is as follows. The condition, verse 3, the command in verse 2, and at the end, the appetite curbs that need to be put aside in verse 1. So the condition, I'm going to start with verse 3. It reads, "If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord." Now, once you've got your physical Bibles open, some of you may notice that the font is different for verse 3.

So if you have a physical Bible, a newer translation, a differing font in a New Testament passage usually denotes a quoting of the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. And this, verse 3, is a direct reference to the Greek translation of Psalm 34.8. And I'm going to read that for you.

"If you will taste and see that the Lord is good, how blessed is the man who takes refuge in him." In Psalm 34, it seems pretty important to the theology of Apostle Peter, because he quotes it here in chapter 2, and then he quotes it again in chapter 3.

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. He is a man who is crushed in spirit. He is a man who cries out to Yahweh, his only hope.

He's in despair. And this man, God answers, and He saves him from all his troubles, and he is no longer in want. And this helpless man in Psalm 34 is then given the title "righteous." And he is called righteous on three different occasions. So what makes this man righteous?

What makes a Christian righteous? In his utter helplessness, he takes refuge in Yahweh. He is rescued and changed by Yahweh. And having been rescued and changed, he exalts and praises Yahweh. He has tasted and he has seen the kindness and goodness of the Lord, and he's been forever rescued and changed.

And the righteousness of the Psalm 34 man is not earned by religious effort. The righteousness is imputed to him. It's a reward for his faith, not for his deeds. This righteous man, he sought and he found. He asked and he received. He repented and he was made righteous. And remember in our first Peter text today, I said that there is a condition, and it reads, "If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord." That's the condition.

So how do we know if a person has tasted the kindness of the Lord? What makes a person righteous? The Bible teaches us that the primary evidence of having experienced the kindness of God is this. It's a life lived in genuine repentance. A life lived in genuine repentance. In Romans 2, 4, Paul writes, "Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" Repentance is a complete change of mind.

It's 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 a cleaving to the Lordship of Christ. That's the evidence. 2 Corinthians 7, 10 tells us that repentance leads to salvation. If you've never repented, you've never been saved.

No matter what experience you might have had, no matter how many years you've been to church, if you've never repented, you've never been saved. It is impossible for a person who has tasted the kindness of God to live in unrepentance. Let me repeat this for you. It is impossible for a person who has tasted the kindness of God to live in unrepentance.

Impossible. The Old Testament prophets all preached repentance. John the Baptist, the first New Testament prophet, he preached repentance. Jesus Christ himself, he preached repentance. At Pentecost, the Apostle Peter, in his very first sermon recorded ever, he preached repentance. The Apostle Paul's entire ministry to the Gentiles could be summed up as a ministry of calling people to repentance.

Paul, in detailing his ministry, in describing it, he describes it like this before King Agrippa in Acts 26, verse 20. "But I kept declaring both to those of Damascus first and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance." So repentance in the Scriptures is always measurable.

It's not a feeling. It's always measurable. It always bears good fruit. And you cannot have truly experienced the kindness of the Lord and live in unrepentance. That is a theological impossibility. The non-Christian, when confronted with his sin, justifies and excuses his sin. Blame shifts and then vilifies other people and says things like, "Who are you to judge me?" That's the non-Christian response.

The non-Christian is hostile toward the call to repentance. The Christian, on the other hand, when confronted with his sins, sooner than later, the Christian always repents. So the primary evidence of having tasted the kindness of the Lord, it's a life of genuine repentance. That's the condition. So the command in 1 Peter 2, verse 2, it's written to those who have indeed tasted the kindness of the Lord.

A non-Christian cannot obey this command. So, if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord, the command applies to you. So, to the Christian, the Apostle Peter writes in 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 have tasted the kindness of the Lord." So here in verse 2, we find the only imperative, the only command in this entire passage.

Some scholars actually say that this is the central command of the whole book. If you miss it, you miss the point. It's the central command. "If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, long for His Word." That's the command. The word "long for," it's pretty intense. It's like an intense, insatiable desire, an obsession, or a passion.

That's the word. It actually has been used in Greek to talk about a newly wedded husband's longing for his wife. It's used to describe the longings for a deceased loved one that you might have. You're grieving, and you're obsessed with just sadness because you're longing for the deceased loved one.

It's also used in Greek literature to describe a parent who has lost his child, or a child that's gone wayward. Someone who is longing in this way has a one-track mind. He's obsessed. He cannot think about anything else. He is fixated on this one thing. Here in chapter 2, verse 2, it is used to describe a baby's single-minded focus, his obsession, his hunger for milk.

"If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, if you've been made righteous, if you have had your heart of stone removed and been given a heart of flesh, long for the word in the same way a newborn baby longs for milk." That's a command. A Christian must long and will long to be fed by the pure spiritual milk of the Word.

Here it says, "You are what you eat." More specifically, in the context of our passage, "You are what you crave." A baby bird will long for a bug, or perhaps even a worm. It's in the baby bird's nature to do so. A baby fish--you might learn something new this morning, I googled this yesterday--a baby fish will long for microorganisms called infusoria.

Baby butterflies. What's another word for baby butterfly? A caterpillar, right? Caterpillars, they're passionate about leaves. We have at our house a theologically very rich book called "The Hungry Caterpillar." If you have time, check it out. Theologically rich. Baby snakes will long for insects, small amphibians, and even rodents. A baby snake is hardwired to go after a rodent, even right after it's hatched.

A baby human will long for and scream his head off until he gets his milk. He doesn't need to be taught this. Baby humans are born hangry. If you guys are a parent, you know. It's not like a "Oh, I want some milk." It's not like that. It's like "Ahhhh!" Especially at 3am.

It's hangry for milk. That's how he's been designed. A baby human will not long for a bug. Or will be satisfied with a rodent, even if you puree it. It will not want it. A baby human cannot digest infezoria. It cannot digest leaves. What does a human baby long for?

Milk. What does a child of God long for? What is he hardwired to crave? What is his base root desire? The Word of God. It's in the spiritual DNA of every Christian to long for the pure milk of the Word. Being born again, you've been hardwired to long for it.

A child of God who has tasted the kindness of the Lord will not be satisfied only with community, comfort, success, strong morals, a sense of purpose, good praise music, encouraging words of affirmation from people who boost self-esteem, belonging. All of those things are good things, even though I make faces.

They're all okay. But a child of God will not be fed on those things. He doesn't long for those things. A child of God can only be satisfied with and will long to feed off of Christ and His Word. For a person to call himself a Christian and have no hunger or longing for the pure milk of the Word is holding on to a theological impossibility.

It's wishful thinking at best. It is not in the Bible. This kind of faith is not anywhere in the Scriptures. That's actually not even faith. That's superstition. It's biblical illiteracy. So that kind of a person who's at church, who serves, but has no craving for the Word of God is literally allergic to sound doctrine.

The non-Christian cannot handle the pure milk of the Word. The non-Christian will be repulsed by the pure milk of the Word. It will actually disgust and offend him. He will spit it out. If you quote the Word of God to a Christian, even if it's painful, they'll be like, "You know what?

You're right. Amen. I just don't like how you said it." But a Christian, or non-Christian, you quote him the Word of God, they'll be like, "Don't quote the Bible at me. Don't judge me. Who are you?" That's the non-Christian response when the Word of God is confronting the person's sins.

The genuine Christian will always reflect, "Is that me? Is this God's voice?" Some of you guys have recently done little experiments and have hatched chickens and duck eggs at home. It's all over Instagram. You know who you are. I'm absolutely certain you didn't give those chicks or the ducklings little shots of milk.

You'd be a fool if you did that. That's a waste of milk. As a baby bird and a baby human long for and are satisfied with different foods, the cravings and the longings of a non-Christian differ greatly from those of a Christian. Amen? You guys understand that? Are you tracking?

Now, for the great many of you here today, you know you are at a Bible church. And you know that the church holds the Word of God in high regard here. We value Bible study here. So you might just be nodding along and saying, "Amen," almost instinctively. "Amen? Amen." Right?

You did that because I said to. Right? That's what happens. You may think you agree with everything that I've just said about a Christian's appetite for the Word, but I want to briefly caution you by pointing you to a couple sobering examples of what could be mistaken for the longing of the Word of God.

Being intrigued and fascinated and entertained by good preaching is not necessarily a longing for the Word. You can enjoy good preaching and still have zero longing for the Word. I'll give you an example. There's a guy named Herod in the Scriptures. Mark 6, verse 20. He's a king. "For Herod was afraid of John, knowing that John was a righteous and holy man.

And so Herod kept John safe. And when John preached, when Herod heard him, he was very perplexed. But he used to enjoy listening to him. When John the Baptist told Herod to repent, he was so intrigued, but he put John in prison. Herod later put John the Baptist, his favorite preacher, to death.

Enjoying and being moved occasionally by Bible teaching is not the same thing as longing for the Word. You can be moved to tears by a good sermon. But remember, worldly sorrow still brings forth death. An eagerness to learn lots of things about the Bible may not necessarily be a longing for the Word.

You can be puffed up with a lot of knowledge and still remain unchanged by it. You can enjoy the process of inductive Bible study, be intrigued with the process of just learning through the pages of the Scriptures, and still not long for the Word. You can search the Scriptures and land on correct doctrine and still have zero relationship with Jesus Christ.

Knowledge of the Word and acknowledgement of doctrinal truth, sometimes they masquerade as a longing for the Word. The Pharisees and the demons are two groups that serve as examples of this, and I want to show it to you. John 5, verse 39 to 40, you search the Scriptures because you think that in those Scriptures you have eternal life.

It is these that testify about me, and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. James 2, verse 19, this is written to a bunch of monotheists. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe. Oh, and they shudder. They know better than you.

So what is a longing for the pure milk of the Word? I'm going to describe it here as a process. It's going to be provided for you on the note, so you don't need to try to scramble to write everything down. It is a list. It's not exhaustive. But someone who longs for the Word of God looks like this.

First, those who are his children desire his voice. They know his voice, John 10, 27. And that desire produces faith in his children, Romans 10, 17. These children then believe eagerly and are zealous to put the Word into practice and to obey, John 14, 15. And this is not a struggle.

It doesn't burden the children. It's the perfect law of freedom. It liberates them, John 8, 32, John 1, 25. The truth has set them free. And then the Word of God continues to abide in those who are his children, John 15, 7. And then the Spirit guides the Word onto the heart of a believer, and he guides them into all truth, John 16, 13.

And then the Word of God sanctifies the children, so there is like a marked, visible, tangible evidence of holiness, John 17, 17. And these children persevere through all kinds of rocks or thorns or sunlight, and they bear fruit, 30, 60, 100 fold, Mark 4. And then these children no longer satisfied just with milk.

They start craving meat, solid food, Hebrews 5, 14. And that implanted Word produces Christ-like love in these children, 1 Corinthians 13. That's an evidence. If you are knowledgeable about the Scriptures but you have no compassion for people, I don't think that's a longing for the Word. True biblical literacy, a greater longing for the pure milk of the Word, always results in humility, terror, holiness, and great love.

True biblical feeding and literacy always produces in a person humility, terror, holiness, and love. There is a zeal to know God and not just to know a lot about Him. So over time, the spiritual baby grows to look more and more like his spiritual daddy. If with the passage of time, you don't resemble God, the explanation is not complicated at all.

He's not your daddy. If you've been a Christian 20, 30 years and you are no more like the person of Jesus Christ than when you made that altar call profession, He's not your daddy. His DNA is not in you. And you are devoid of the Spirit no matter what your subjective experiences might tell you.

It is a theological impossibility. So are you longing for the pure milk of the Word? Who's your daddy? Who do you resemble? So how does the Christian long for the Word as a newborn baby longs for milk? And this is a command. And the commands in the Scripture are meant to be obeyed.

And the tricky thing about this command, "long," is not a command that we can just obey on cue. Right? Be hungry. I don't know what to do with that. So if I were to command you, "Thus saith the Lord, uninstall Netflix from your phone," you can apply. If I were to say, "Hey, next time you exit the MacArthur exit off of the 55 and there's a homeless person there asking for money, give him $5." "Thus saith the Lord." Those are very specific commands and they're pretty clear.

And then it would be more of an issue of whether or not you want to obey, but those are easy to apply. But if I were to tell you right here, "Be thirsty." How would you apply that? Or if my wife were sitting right there and I said, "Hey, babe, miss me." You know what she would say?

"Go away." Literally. That's the only way. If you were to take a cup of water, I would say, "Be thirsty." And you took a cup of water and drank. You didn't obey that command. You just tried to figure out an application just to appease your guilty conscience and get me off your back.

That is not an obedience to the command. What I find fascinating with this command, "Too long," is that this is one of the few imperatives in the scriptures that are almost obeyed passively. Almost instinctively. This is a command that can be actively shrugged off or disobeyed. But this obedience to this command actually will come naturally.

"Be hungry." Basically, that's what's being commanded here. It will come naturally, but it's not something that I can necessarily immediately obey on cue. But I can obstruct and I 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 must be saved.

That's why I tell my kids at 3 o'clock when they ask for Pringles, I said, "No. Save your stomach." I'm kind of weak-sauce, so they'll get the Pringles. And then my wife complains, "How come you guys aren't eating all your food?" And I just stay quiet. But the appetite can be curbed.

In order to be appropriately hungry, my appetite needs to be saved. And we see the Apostle Peter instructing the Christians of Asia Minor to put off, lay aside, or abstain from the things that curb spiritual appetites. So the Apostle Peter in verse 1, he starts out with a mini list of things that believers must put off, put aside, or abstain from.

Too long for the pure milk of the word. So I want to read the passage again for you. "Therefore, putting 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." Now let me ask you guys a question.

If you were to assess the things that rob your spiritual appetite of its hunger and its zest, what are those things? What are the things that obstruct your longing for the word of God? Verse 1 gives a list, right? Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. When I think of the things that curb my spiritual appetite, things that kill my hunger for the word of God, these are not the things that are on my list.

Think about that with me, right? Are they on your list of things that curb your appetite for the word of God? Here in Orange County, when we think of stuff that takes away our hunger for God, aren't they things more related to like entertainment, lust-related struggles, materialism, rat race, right?

Where would malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander rank on your list of curbs? Entertainment, lust, ambition, materialism, for sure. They obstruct an individual's longing for the word of God, and they ruin individuals. But in this list that Peter provides, malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, those are things that destroy communities.

Peter exhorts us to be like newborn babies, plural. The command "too long" is written in the second person, plural. It is not written for individuals, but for the entire church body. In fact, every "you" in this entire section is all in the plural. All of you grow up. All of you long.

And put aside this stuff that curb your desires. The list of things that Peter mentions can destroy an entire community's longing for the word of God. The sins listed here tear through and ruin churches. And Satan's favorite and most effective strategy has always been--he's not that creative, he's just efficient-- it's always divide and conquer.

Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, they divide and ruin relationships and churches. And these are the things that our collective body here at the church need to glean from this passage. These are the things that we need to be mindful of. Because this is not about you, it's about all of us.

Are you guys tracking along? For some context, we're going to need to understand what these churches of age and minor were encountering. In this period of time, the Christians, they were known as followers of the way. They were very misunderstood, they were persecuted, and often viewed as troublemakers. And I want to just point you to some passages, Acts 19.9.

"But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus." Acts 19.23. "About that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the way." Acts 22.4, Paul describing his former way of life in Judaism.

"I persecuted this way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons." So there was confusion as to what the followers of the way really believed. And what their gatherings really entailed. The early church was very exclusive. You were denied access and entrance into the church if you were not born again, if you were not baptized.

So people on the outside looking in had some misconceptions of the followers of the way. Some thought that Christians were a cult. And in their cultic meetings, they engaged in homosexual practices because they do Philadelphia too? Brotherly love? That's so weird. Some people thought the Christians in their gatherings practiced cannibalism because they ate their leader's flesh.

They drank of his blood. That's a weird religion. They didn't have Google. Those are the things that they heard. Some viewed Christians as traitors to Rome. Some viewed Christians as insurrectionists. Some viewed Christians as primitive and backwards. Some entire economies, like that's written in the first Thessalonians, in Macedonia, were ruined because all Christians were boycotting all idols.

Christians were very easy scapegoats for society's woes. They were seen as meek. So when they were captured and arrested and their leaders were thrown to lions for sport and hoisted onto stakes to light the streets of Rome, panic and confusion and fear struck a lot of congregations. But for some reason, nonetheless, by the power of God and the grace of God, the Christian groups kept growing and multiplying and expanding so that the leaders were stretched.

The leaders were strained. That's why later in 1 Peter 5, he says to the shepherds, "Shepherd the flock of God, overseeing it not out of compulsion but willingly, with eagerness." I know you're being strained. So imagine being part of a community that's always being slandered, being mistreated, heavily persecuted, and even executed as a group of people.

Christians were despised. They were hated. They did not always feel like a 1 Peter 2, 9-12, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. Why is this happening if God is in control? That's why this is written. Peter had to remind them of their identity, so I'm going to read the rest of this passage for you.

"So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has 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. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts." And he's not talking about entertainment and pornography.

You know what he's talking about? Desire for action, vengeance, retribution. "Abstain from these lusts which wage war against your soul, and keep your behavior among the Gentiles excellent, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God on the day of visitation.

When you are mistreated, ridiculed, beaten, and scorned, when we see our values maligned, let's say on social media, no doubt there is a temptation for malice." Malice, the Greek word is kakia. It's an all-inclusive word meaning like a desire to harm or to exact retribution. It's a desire to fight fire with fire.

And some of you guys have that. But Peter says that malice in this group can curb the group's longing for the pure milk of the Word. The next one on the list is deceit. There is a possible temptation to lie, to escape harm. When there is animosity toward Christian groups, when there's animosity at the workplace or at schools, there may be a temptation to just kind of tell half-truths, to wiggle away, to downplay, to deceive.

Hypocrisy is the next one. The church is supposed to be known to be a holy, living, members are supposed to be above reproach, full of love, no matter what the circumstance. Members in the church of Christ are supposed to be free of hostility. They're supposed to be united. But in difficult situations, when you feel wrong, when you feel hurt, when you feel offended, what happens?

It's not always easy to practice what we preach. Hypocrisy, too, curbs the longing for the pure milk of the Word. Envy. Some of you guys struggle with envy. But the envy that Peter is talking about is Christians envying how non-Christians have it so easy. There's no persecution on them.

They can be materialistic. They can be worldly. They don't have to take up their cross daily and to follow. Man, in some ways, it would be nice not to be a Christian. Galatians 6.12 talks about how people actually are trying to twist the Scripture so they won't be persecuted for the cross of Christ.

And slander. And there's a lot of that among some of you here in our church. There's all kinds of slander. Crises, intense times can often divide a family or a group or an organization. If things don't go your way, the first instinct is to blame the leadership. And you slander the motivations of the leaders.

And then you slander other people. You're like, "Yeah, he's doing this. Oh, she's doing that." And when we are disappointed or hurt by people or frustrated by one another, we badmouth and slander. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. These five things obstruct a community's longing for and proper proclamation of the pure milk of the Word.

The command here is to long for the Word. And the application for the whole of our church is to weed out these five things. And when you weed out these five things, guess what happens to the Word of God? There's an insatiable desire in all of its members. The longing is then unobstructed.

So the primary exhortation that this passage leaves us with today is not that we all individually grow better to become like better Bereans. That is, of course, implied, but that's not the passage. Every single one of us here needs to grow. Every child of God is important. Every saint is important.

And every member needs to individually long for the milk of the Word. So if you're not doing well and you are a Christian, I'm going to come after you because you are important to this body. Like if you guys are parents, which of your children can you most do away with?

Which of your children is least important? Which of your kids can you sacrifice? I only have two, so it's easy, one or the other. But which of you guys, if you have multiple kids, are willing to just let one go? No, every sheep in the fold is important. But this command is for the church body.

And I am my brother's keeper when it comes to trying to help you flee from malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. 1 Peter 2, 1-3 is not a note to the individual believer. It's to the community. And as a community, we do need to be diligent to obey. Amen?

Let me close with this. I'm going to backtrack a little bit into 1 Peter 1, so that you can better see the context of the three verses we looked at this morning. "Since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.

For you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable, that is through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass, all its glory is like the flower of grass. Grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

And this is the word which was preached to you. Therefore, putting 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 all grow in respect to salvation, if indeed you all have tasted the kindness of the Lord." Our second vision, and our four-fold vision, is to equip every saint with the inerrant word of God.

We cannot do that if our church is full of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander. So, in order for us to properly feed off the word, let's join together and get rid of those things. Amen? Let's pray. Father, help us, especially those of us who are struggling, especially with relationships, with fear, with insecurity, with doubt.

If we have tasted the kindness of the Lord, I pray that you would draw us near, and remind us of our identity in Christ. And I pray for the people in here that do not have a relationship with Christ, even though they have a strong interest in Christianity, I pray, Father God, that you would reveal yourself to him or to her, and that you would shine brightly in that person's changed life.

Lord, we need your grace, especially as the church gets bigger. People become more sinful as there are more sinners gathered. So we pray for your help, so that nothing will mar the proclamation of your word in our lives and in this church. To you be the glory. We pray all this in Jesus' name.

Let us rise as we sing our closing praise. For my waking breath, for my daily bread, I depend on you, I depend on you. For the sun to rise, for my sleep at night, I depend on you, I depend on you. You're the way, the truth, and the life.

You're the well that never runs dry. I'm the branch and you are the vine. Draw me close and teach me to abide. Where the spirit leads, as I follow, I depend on you, I depend on you. For the victors still that front of me, I depend on you, I depend on you.

You're the way, the truth, and the life. You're the well that never runs dry. I'm the branch and you are the vine. Draw me close and teach me to abide. Be my strength, my song in the night. Be my all, my treasure, my prize. I'm yours forever, you're mine.

Draw me close and teach me to abide. When I pass through death, as I enter rest, I depend on you, I depend on you. For eternal life to be raised with pride, I depend on you, yes, I depend on you. You're the way, the truth, and the life. You're the well that never runs dry.

I'm the branch and you are the vine. Draw me close and teach me to abide. Be my strength, my song in the night. Be my all, my treasure, my prize. I'm yours forever, you're mine. Draw me close and teach me to abide. Be my strength, my song in the night.

Be my all, my treasure, my prize. I'm yours forever, you're mine. Draw me close and teach me to abide. Lord, would you help us to long appropriately and really to respond appropriately in worship, in kindness, in sacrificial love, in great humility, and in holiness, so that this world would know that we indeed are your disciples by how we love one another and how we live our lives, so that on the day of visitation, Lord, that even the Gentiles and the nonbelievers would give you the glory.

And we pray, Father, that you would strengthen us, equip us, empower us, and cause our fellowship that arises from this service really to just please you and to exalt and magnify Christ. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each and every one of us who has indeed tasted the kindness of the Lord, now and forever.

Amen. (piano music) God sent his Son They called him Jesus He came to love Heal and forgive He lived and died To buy my heart He lived and died He lived and died He lived and died He lived and died He lived and died He lived and died He lived and died He lived and died He lived and died He lived and died Just because he lives (music fades) (music fades) (music fades) (music fades) (music fades) (music fades) (music fades)