This message was preached by Colin D'cruz at Word of Grace Church on December 18th, 2016. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here
Earlier the
doctor would do a test on you, to see what was wrong with you. One of the
surest sign that someone is unwell is a lack of appetite. That’s why look at
their tongue. If that is ture for our physical bodies, it should also be true
for the spiritual body. The lack of desire to feed on the things of God is the
indicator that there is something wrong,
1 Peter 1:23- 2:3- “For
you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through
the living and enduring word of God. For, “All people are like grass, and all
their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers
fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”And this is the word that was
preached to you.” Craving means to have a great desire.
Q. Do you crave the word of God?
John 8:47 says “Whoever
belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do
not belong to God.”
John 8:31-32- ““If you hold to my teaching, you are really
my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”
If you know the word and you obey it, then we are his disciples.
In Psalm 1:2 the psalmist says, blessed is
he whose delight is in the law of the lord and who meditates on it day and
night.
Q. Is it a delight or is it a chore?
Sometimes, it’s our flesh that wars against
holy desires. We
say to people, youre in my heart. It means, you’re close to me.
Think about
this- you wake up late and you have to make a choice between having breakfast
or read the word. What would you do? Job
23:12 says I have treasured the
words of his mouth more than my daily bread! If he had the choice, he’d have read the word.
The normal
is that we need to desire and delight in God’s word. 1 Peter 2:1- like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk. Babies are
cuddly and lovely. But they are helpless. They can’t do anything. They are only
interest in milk! Peter is giving us a strong simile. Once the baby gets hungry
there is no more peace. This is the
aspect of new born babies that peter wants us to imitate.
Q. How does someone come to know Jesus?
It is only
through the word of God. Peter could have said, teach the word, meditate on the
word, hide the word on your heart, etc. they are all important, but he says,
crave for the word. The starting point is to crave it. We need to ask God to
change our appetite.
Q. What do you spend more time on?
It is not
what you say you crave, it is the amount of time you spend on what you’re
doing.
Peter is
reminding us that we are born again by
the word of God and so you will crave the word of God. Then he says, rid
yourself of all slander and malice,etc. If these things are in your life, you
cannot crave the word of God. If a
little child has had a lot of junk food, they won’t want to have milk.
The Bible will keep you from sin and the sin
will keep you from the Bible.
Pure spiritual milk- is uncontaminated word of
God. You need to be
careful where you are eating from. When you have kids, you sterilize whatever
goes into their mouth. In the same way, let’s start with the unadulterated word
of God. Hearing from God is not a very difficult thing to do.
1. Get a modern translation of the Bible
2. Start with the gospels if you are reading after a long time. Don’t read sporadically but
systematically. The Bible is a series of letters. If someone you love wrote
a letter, how do you read it? You start at the beginning and finish at the end.
3. Read it regularly. Feeding ourselves spiritually is similar to feeding
ourselves physically. You don’t eat one big meal once a week. We feed ourselves
many times a day- in bits and pieces. How
can you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So also read the Bible one
chapter at a time. There is so much in the Bible that great theologians can’t
understand it. But so simple that even small children can get it.
4. Keep a journal,
put the date and ask God to speak to you from the word. If you skip a few days,
you’ll know how often you’re reading.
Q. How do you know the Bible is true?
Just start obeying it and you’ll
see your life transform. As you keep doing it, you grow strong.
All the babies came out small and frail,
but as they craved milk and fed on it, they have grown big. The same thing will
happen in our spirit.
