Number of spam e-mails sent each day in 2006: 183 billion? Number of work hours U.S. employees spent deleting spam in 2006: 22.9 million?Each of these spam emails are sent in order to create a desire in you. They are sent in order to increase your cravings. What do you crave? One person craves horror movies while another craves attention. Some crave their mother’s approval… While still others of us simply crave junk food. The dictionary defines “crave” as “to long for; want greatly; desire eagerly.” Perhaps the word crave can best be defined by a picture rather than a dictionary. Picture a child opening his first gift on Christmas morning – the sports car the sixteen year old girl had been wanting for months.
The world has deep-seated longings. It tries to satisfy the longing with scenic vacations, stunning cinematic productions, sexual exploits, sports extravaganzas, hallucinogenic drugs. Nevertheless, the world’s longing remains. Yet, how many of us can say we crave God or we long for God Himself? Peter commands us to crave or long for God’s Word and God Himself.
“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:1-3).
If you are new to Christianity, you may think the Bible is a collection of rules. A book that tells you not to cheat, etc. Yet, this doesn’t give a totally accurate picture of the Bible. For the Bible demands more of us than simply to stop bad actions while starting better actions. The Bible commands us to experience a dozen different emotions rather than just to perform certain actions. This is a moment of discovery for many of you who are new to Christianity. For Christianity is based on the Bible. Some might suggest that such a practice might very well confine contemporary people. Instead of viewing this practice as a mental prison, we see it as an opportunity for growth. Instead of it confining us like a straightjacket, it releases us. For you to really see this, you see just how radical the Bible is. We are commanded to bear no grudge (Leviticus 19:18) but to forgive “from the heart”. Note, the Bible does not say, “Make a mere decision to drop the matter.” Rather it says, experience an event in the heart (Matthew 18:35). Similarly the intensity of the heart is commanded in 1 Peter 1:22 (“Love one another earnestly from the heart”) Other examples of emotions that the Scriptures command are hope in 1 Peter 1:13; fear in 1 Peter 1:17); grief in Romans 12:15; and desire in today’s text.
Peter’s main point is not to add rules to your already crowded life. Instead, Peter commands you to desire something. The Bible wants you to have zeal. Today we want to talk about Multiply Your Zeal for Christ. I want you to experience a radical transformation of life and not just a fresh coat of paint. There are a lot of people attending church and having the “life-change” equivalent of a fresh coat of paint.
A cowboy walked into a Texas bar, ordered three bottles of beer, and sat in the back room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finished them, he came back to the bar and ordered three more. The bartender told the cowboy, “You know, a bottle goes flat after I open it. It would taste better if you bought one at a time.” The cowboy replied, “Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Australia, the other is in Dublin, and I’m in Texas. When we all left home, we promised we’d drink this way to remember the days we drank together, so I drink one for each of my brothers and one for myself.” The bartender admitted this was a nice custom and left it there. The cowboy became a regular in the bar and always drank the same way. But one day, he ordered only two bottles. All the regulars took notice and fell silent. When he came back to the bar for the second round, the bartender said, “I don’t want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss.” The cowboy looked puzzled for a moment, then a light dawned and he laughed. “Oh, no, everybody’s just fine,” he explained. “It’s just that my wife and I joined the Baptist Church in Amarillo, and I had to quit drinking. It hasn’t affected my brothers though.”
This kind of change is this cowboy experienced was nothing more than a fresh coat of paint. Radical transformation comes from an experience with Jesus Christ. A radical transformation with Christ will cause you to:
1. Crave Authentic Relationships
2. Crave God’s Word
3. Crave God Himself
You’ll discover how your relationships can be free from deceit and malice and how you can achieve authenticity.
1 . Crave God’s Word
Peter explains at the end of chapter one (1) that New Life is generated by the Word of God. God’s word gives life: “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23) And God’s Word nourishes life: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2:2)
Webster defines “zeal” as “eagerness and ardent interest in pursuit of something. In some ways, many Americans are zealous for the Bible. A 2008 survey by The Barna Group asked 1,008 U.S. adults to list the books they considered holy. The only book to be listed above 5 percent was the Bible (84 percent). The Koran was listed by four percent; the Book of Mormon three percent; the Torah, two percent. While many Americans consider it holy, not many crave it. The simple fact of the matter is that not many of us realize what we have laying around in our homes. Peter gives us a picture of how we are to crave God’s Word.
During Superbowl XXXVII, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie Castaway, in which Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years. Looking like the bedraggled Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a suburban home, package in hand. When the lady comes to the door, he explains that he survived five (5) years on a deserted island, and during that whole time he kept this package in order to deliver it to her. She gives a simple, “Thank you.” But he is curious about what is in the package that he has been protecting for years. He says, “If I may ask, what was in that package after all?” She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, “Oh, nothing really. Just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds.” Like the contents in this package, the resources for growth and strength are available for every Christian who will take advantage of them.
Notice that Peter talks about craving spiritual milk. For those of us who have fed babies, we know how much they want milk - three a.m. feedings. We live in a sinful world where our cravings are honed in on what is right. In 1999, Elvis’ Graceland has a garage sale. Among the things auctioned off at the Las Vegas MGM Grande, was: a 1956 Lincoln Continental that went for $256,000; Elvis’ draft card for $22,500; as well as Elvis’ Bible which sold for $22,500. Too bad people purchased the Bible because of it’s owner and not because of Who wrote it. Albert Einstein said this about the Bible: “... The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.” Born to a Jewish family, Einstein once wrote of his loss of faith: “Through the reading of popular scientific books, I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies, it was a crushing impression.”
Jesus said of the same book: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18).
“for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead’” (Luke 16:28-31).
I love this quote: “The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home” (Augustine of Hippo). Yet, there are some obstacles to craving this book.
1.1. The Bible Is Long
The Bible itself has both an Old Testament and a New Testament. The Old Testament contains 929 chapters and over 23,000 verses. The New Testament has 260 chapters and just under 8,000 verses. The entire Bible is categorized in 1,189 chapters and 31,095 verses.
1.2. The Bible Is Strange
Because the Bible is ancient, it is also strange to our ears. The Bible’s world and customs, when compared to our own, cause us to scratch our head. The Bible requires a “bifocal” approach. First, enter the world of the Bible, and then look through that world to your own.
Where Should I Start to Read the Bible? You can read the Bible profitably anywhere within its pages. There is a broad chronology to the Bible (as noted earlier in the Flow of the Book section), but in the final analysis the Bible is such a large anthology of separate pieces that you will not be able to hold it all in your mind at once. In a sense, the Bible is a reference book. Here are a couple of helpful tips when trying to read your Bible.
1. The four Gospels are the place where you can learn most directly about Jesus and His saving work.
2. The book of Psalms, a collection of poems, gives expression to the emotional side of the Christian life, teaching as well how to pray and worship.
3. The book of Genesis informs you about how the world and basic human institutions such as the family began.
4. The Letters toward the end of the New Testament explain the doctrinal and ethical principles of the Christian faith and teach what it means to belong to the church of Jesus Christ.
5. The book of Revelation is the most complete (not the only) place to find information about the end times.
The overall shape of the Bible’s story is like a U in which events begin in perfection, fall into corruption, and painfully wind their way back to the final defeat of evil and the triumph of good. The crucial turning point is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because the Cross entails the horrific death of God’s Son, it is the lowest point of all. Yet, paradoxically this proves to be the basis for elevating humanity to salvation, as the Resurrection proves.
2. Fight for the Right Desires
“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (1 Peter 2:1). “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).
Have you ever poured concrete? If you have, then you know you can’t just go out and pour it. You must prepare the place where the concrete is going to be placed. Have you ever painted your home? You must prepare the surface to paint. You can’t just slap on the paint. Some of men are excellent cooks. The cook in my family is my wife. With the holidays coming upon us, she’ll prepare well over half of the day for a meal that we’ll eat in 45 minutes. Doesn’t it seem logical that when God has a Word for us that we must spend some time preparing ourselves for the meal?
In verse one, Peter describes relational sins that will hinder your growth as a believer… Your desire for God’s Word… And your love for others. Verse one begins with the words “so” or perhaps in your Bible, the word is “therefore.” Peter is telling us that what he is saying is connected to chapter one. “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart…” (1 Peter 1:22).
Peter tells us to “put away” and it’s the picture of taking off dirty clothes.
? Malice = a desire to hurt someone.
? Deceit = a desire to gain some advantage by tricking others.
? Hypocrisy = a desire not to be known for what really is.
? Envy = a desire for some privilege that belongs to another coupled with resentment.
? Slander = The placing of another person in a worse light. It is the act of revenge
This is the other side of longing for the spiritual milk of God’s kindness in the Word. If you want to experience desire for God's Word… if you want your desires to grow… if you want to taste fully the kindness of the Lord… realize that as our satisfaction in God’s kindness rises as the controlling desires of malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and slander are destroyed. And the reverse is true: as you resist them and lay them aside, desires for God grow stronger and more intense. Peter’s point is: don't think that they can flourish in the same heart. Desire to taste and enjoy God’s kindness cannot flourish in the same heart with guile and hypocrisy.
3. Experience God
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2-3). I end this message just as I begin this message, the Bible and Christianity is not a rulebook. Instead, the Bible commands your heart.
The Bible commands us to experience a dozen different emotions rather than just to perform certain actions. A person who has no taste for the enjoyment of Christ will not go to heaven. “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed” (1 Corinthians 16:22). “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37) “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” 1 Peter 1:8). Loving Jesus, not just “deciding” for him or “being committed to him” or affirming all the right doctrines about him, is the mark of a true child of God. Jesus said, “If God were your Father, you would love me” (John 8:42).
Spiritual fatalism is tragic in the church. It leaves people stuck. It takes away hopes and dreams of change and growth. It squashes the excitement of living—which is growth. It’s like saying to a gawky little girl who feels like her body is all out of proportion: well that’s the way you are, and you will always be that way, when in fact she is meant to grow and change. That would be tragic to convince her of a kind of physical fatalism — that her growth is stopped right there at thirteen. So it is with the spirit. Only spiritual fatalism is much worse. Because greater things are at stake, and because we never do get to a point where we've arrived at the final stature like we do in our physical bodies. So thousands of people live year after year without much passion for God or zeal for His name or joy in His presence or hope in His promises or constancy in his fellowship. They feel — well, that’s just the way I am. And they just settle in—like an adolescent who stops growing and lives with pimples till he's 80. Not so, with believers in Christ. Your growth and your hunger for God just continue… “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God” (Psalm 42:1).
“AS THE DEER” LYRICS
As the deer pants for the water,
So my soul longs after You.
You alone are my heart's desire,
And I long to worship You.
You alone are my strength, my shield;
To You alone may my spirit yield.
You alone are my heart's desire,
When the rich young ruler walked away from Jesus because he delighted more in his riches than in following Christ, Jesus said: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). The disciples were astonished at this. They knew that a camel cannot go through the eye of a needle. That’s true. And humans cannot make themselves delight in Christ more than money. So Jesus answered: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
