Dinnertime

Goodmorning and welcome in today.. Today we are going to take a look at some scripture from 1 Peter but before we do that I had a question for you.

A few years ago I was notified by my family that our housecat was just starting to go into labor. She had gotten really big in the past week and her daily routine consisted of going to her food dish and then plopping down on the kitchen floor.

The time for new babies had come. All of the children were excited to watch this big event in our home. After an hour had passed, one of the children ran outside and yelled to us that our cat had just delivered the first one. As the next hour progressed, she had another, then another. When she finally finished, she had created 7 little hungry kittens.

After the mother cleaned them off, do you know the first thing that they went searching for? Milk. They didn’t waste a lot of time but we’re craving and searching desperately for their first dinner meal.

I sat and watched as those tiny little kittens found a spot to latch onto their mother, even to the point of trying to kick one of their siblings off in order to get a spot where they could drink till their hearts content.

God wants each of us to be filled with this same desire for the milk of His Holy Word.

1 Pet 2:2-3 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

³ If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

When we desire something it means to wish or to long for; crave. Crave means to to long for and to want greatly or desire eagerly.

Desire is certainly a very strong emotion, it just depends on what you’re going to place your desire on. When children get hungry or thirsty they go look in the refrigerator for something. Their desire led to an action.

Matthew 5:6 – Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

When you truly desire something with your heart you’re going to go looking for it to try and find it.

Prov 2:2-5. So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;

³ Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

⁴ If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

⁵ Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

The scriptures teach us that becoming a Christian is about being Spiritually reborn. All of us have been physically born into this world, but to inherit eternal life someday we need to be born twice. One birth is physical and the second is spiritual.

Just as milk and food helped us to grow physically during our youth, the spiritual child in a believer needs the milk of God’s Word constantly in order to grow and mature.

In the same way that you might crave a bowl of ice cream or cheeseburger, we need to crave Christ and His Word. Instead of fulfilling our physical needs, we need to fill up on our spiritual needs. We need to be hungry for God’s word. The heart is like a spiritual stomach that need to be fed with spiritual food regularly.

Sometimes when I think about people going to a restaurant downtown to sit down and have a nice dinner, I think of the church as a spiritual restaurant, the difference is that in the church our souls are fed with the thing that we need most of all, the teachings of Jesus. Just like children who are filled with desire and anxiously waiting for a meal at the supper table, we need to be hungry for scripural truth. A minister is like a spiritual waiter bringing spiritual food to those who are hungry.

Jeremiah 29:13 – And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

When you are filled with desire, you will seek after what you want.

Lamentations 3:25 – The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

The Apostle Peter wants us to be hungry for God’s Word like a baby is for milk. Milk helps the body to grow and mature physically. Gods Word causes the new man to grow and mature Spiritually.

For something to grow it needs to be fed. Just says you feed your children each and every day, God’s children need to be fed in the church.

1 Pet 5:2-4 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

³ Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock.

⁴ And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

Imagine a restaurant that is open and waiting to feed people but nobody wants to come because they’re not hungry for what they are serving.

Imagine ringing a dinner bell on a farm somewhere but nobody shows up because they are not hungry for a good meal.

We need to be hungry for God’s Word each and every day. In in in order to grow spiritually we need to be fed daily from scripture.

Grow means to undergo natural development by increasing in size and changing physically. Its to progress into maturity. God gives us Grace and forgiveness so that we can grow into the people that he wants us to become, but just like a baby eventually matures into adulthood, it takes a little while to grow from a spiritual baby into a mature Christian.

God wants us to grow but we must desire to be fed.

Ephesians 4:15 – But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

The physical nature of man needs physical food to survive. The spiritual man needs to be fed daily with spiritual food.

1 Peter 1:23 – Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

2 Peter 3:18 – But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. 

God gives us the water of forgiveness and the milk of his word to help us to grow into spiritual maturity. The supper table is ready, who’s coming for dinner?

That’s why I’m stopping right now good Lord willing, I’ll talk to you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye-bye everybody.♥️