Good morning and welcome in today. Today we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture from 1st Peter chapter 2, but before we do that…
For many years now, we’ve had a lot of chickens on our property. We go to the feed store occasionally and buy a hundred pounds of corn, oats, and layer feed. We eventually mix these ingredients all together, and then in the morning we head out to the chicken pen.
The chickens always seem to know when their food is coming. They line up around the chicken feeder like they haven’t eaten in a month. They desire that food so bad that sometimes you have to dump it on top of their head to get it into their feeder!
When we desire something, it means to have a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. When we desire something, it means to want or to wish for something earnestly.
1 Pet 2:1-3
Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
2 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.
Have you ever filled up a baby bottle and warmed it up on the stove? When you bring that newborn child that warm milk they go absolutely crazy for that milk! You can take the end of the bottle and slowly pull it away from their mouth but they will grab harder with her hands, just like a pair of vice grips that you would grab from the toolbox. They do not want to release their grip on it as you pull it out of their mouth. Each of us need to have that same kind of desire for God’s Holy Word.
Just as a child desires milk, each of us should desire the sincere milk of God’s word.
Each year living out here in the wilderness, the kids always have a strong desire to go out and look for raspberries. We get on the four-wheelers and take a little trip through the woods. Eventually we find a big patch of them somewhere.
It seems like none of the raspberries ever seem to make it home with us. The reason why is the kids sit down by the plants and they eat them all while we are there. That is the same desire that we are supposed to have for the milk of God’s word.
Milk causes a baby to grow. When a mother feeds that little infant breast milk, it provides the ideal meal and perfect nutrition. I’ve read that it has nearly a perfect mix of vitamins, fat and proteins and everything that your baby needs to grow. The interesting thing is it’s provided in a form that is very easy to digest. Breast milk also contains antibodies that helps your baby fight off viruses and bacteria.
Look at all the benefits that milk provides for a child. In the church, you can also apply all these things to the Word of God in our lives.
The scriptures are the perfect nutrition for those who have become born again christians. When we become born again, we are like a child all over again. We need to start spiritual growth and it begins with biblical nutrition. Nutrition is the process of providing or obtaining the food that is necessary for our health and grow up. The Bible does all these things for us when we study it and hear it preached. It helps us to become stronger in our Christian faith.
As a baby consumes milk through it’s mouth, we consume God’s word through our ears and our hearts and our minds. It’s spiritual food for us. Just like babies milk helps them fight off viruses, God’s word helps us to fight off all the lies of the devil.
We’ve milked goats on our property for years. I laugh each time when I see one of the young babies underneath their mother banging her milk bag with its head. It’s like they’re screaming I need milk I need milk more more more! Those little goats would proceed to drink that mother until she’s almost dry. They are thirsty aren’t they!
That is the desire that we want to have for God’s word. The more milk you get, the more you’re going to grow. Makes sense doesn’t it.
Have you ever grown pumpkins? A pumpkin blossom will drink up milk without ceasing. It drinks and drinks and drinks. The extra nutrition allows the pumpkin to grow even bigger and heavier then the pumpkins that grow without milk.
I read recently read that there was a 2600 pound pumpkin. That’s amazing isn’t it!
Matthew 13:31-32
31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
We all need the milk of God’s Word so that we can grow into a spiritual adult. We start out as a small little child in this world but just like a child needs milk every day, we need Scripture every day to grow.
Some people only hear the Word of God preached once a month. Some only hear it once a week. The scriptures teach us that we need it every single day.
Hebrews 3:13
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
We are exhorted through the teachings of scripture. To exhort means to strongly encourage or to urge somebody to do something. That is done by the preaching of scripture.
It means to urge strongly to do the right thing or to give warnings and advice. That’s why we need to have milk every single day to grow. Imagine giving your little infant milk once a month or once a week. What’s going to happen? They are going to grow weak. You need to have God’s milk every day.
In the church we need to hear the preaching of Christ and the teachings of scripture every single day otherwise people can become weak in their faith.
1 Timothy 4:13
13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
The more food you get, the more you’re going to grow. In the church the ministers are supposed to be exhorting the church from the scripture. (2 thess 3:12)
You are supposed to use the faithful Word of God that you have been taught to exhort and convince the gainsayers. (Titus 1:9)
I guess I think of ministry as having a huge bottle full of milk, and you’re giving that bottle full of milk to the church. But remember Jesus taught that it would be like the days of Noah before his return. Before the return of Jesus Christ, how many people are ctually going to have a desire for scriptural truth? Not many.
God’s word has to be provided but it’s up to the church people if they’re going to come and drink it up, so that they can grow into a spiritual adult.
If you take that milk away what happens? People become weak. You need to have a strong desire for that milk and somebody needs to be there to provide the milk for others.
God is helping us to grow into what He wants us to become. He does this through the teachings, corrections and admonishments found in His Word.
Jesus is a spiritual dad who is placing us on a new path in life. There are a lot of children who have grown up in this world with parents who didn’t lead them to Christ and his truth. They’ve had role models that lead them in the wrong direction and point them to evil. In the church we are led by somebody who is perfectly righteous and good. His name is Jesus Christ. He is guiding us and showing us the right way to live.
Just a personal story before we part today,…
many years ago I got up really early in the morning and I was at a neighbor’s place and I went out to the barn. They had a pile of milk cows. I can never forget when they began milking those cows. Standing in the rafters and by the stanchions we’re about 50 or 60 cats watching as that milk begin to flow. Their mouths were practically drooling as they saw it going into the buckets. They couldn’t wait to get some spilled milk or any leftovers that were placed outside. Cats love milk. It seems like the more milk that you give them the more cats there are around.
Milk causes each of us to grow into maturity, but like we talked about the other day, you need to seek after what you really want in life. You need to go looking for it. You need to desire it because just like a tree that needs water to become big and strong, we need to be thirsty for God’s Word so that we can become big and strong in our faith.
Have you ever noticed how the military feeds their people? They feed them very well. In the church we need to be fed with the Holy scriptures so that we can become big strong soldiers for Christ in this world. Are you thirsty for some milk today? Are you men ready to be a soldier for God?
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Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching tlkjbc, or by going to hipcast, buzzsprout or amazon, or by going to our blog at tlkjbc.com, or I suppose, you can find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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