NOW THAT YOU’VE TASTED THE LORD

1 PETER 2:1-3Steve Shepherd

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1 Peter 2:1 NET So get rid of all evil and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all

slander. 2 And yearn like newborn infants for pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may

grow up to salvation, 3 if you have experienced the Lord's kindness.

(Psalm 34:8)

Someone said: According to a recent article I just read on nutrition, they said eating right

doesn’t have to be complicated. Nutritionists say there is a simple way to tell if you’re eating right. Colors, fill your plates with bright colors. Greens, reds, yellows. In fact, I did that this morning. I had an entire

bowl of M&M’s. It was delicious! I never knew eating right

could be so easy.

A wife said: I have my changed my system for labeling homemade freezer meals. I used to

carefully note in large clear letters, "Meatloaf" or "Pot Roast" or "Steak and Vegetables or "Chicken and Dumplings" or "Beef Pot Pie.“

However, I used to get frustrated when I asked my husband what he wanted for dinner

because he never asked for any of those things. So, I decided to stock the freezer with

what he really likes.

If you look in my freezer now you’ll see a whole new set of labels. You’ll find dinners with

neat little tags that say: "Whatever," "Anything," "I Don’t Know," "I Don’t Care,"

"Something Good," or "Food." My frustration is now reduced because no matter what my

husband replies when I ask him what he wants for dinner, I know that it is there waiting.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Little Johnny and his family lived in the country, and as a result seldom had guests. He was eager to help his mother after his

father appeared with two dinner guests from the office.

When the dinner was nearly over, Little Johnny went to the kitchen and proudly

carried in the first piece of apple pie, giving it to his father who passed it to a guest.

Little Johnny came in with a second piece of pie and gave it to his father, who again gave it to a guest. This was too much for

Little Johnny, he said, "It’s no use, Dad. The pieces are all the same size."

What’s your favorite dessert? And what’s the best tasting food you ever had? We Americans are blessed with good food

everywhere, at home and in restaurants.

Our text talks about a different kind of taste; a taste of the Lord’s goodness. Have you tasted of His goodness? Wow! Who hasn’t tasted of the Lord’s goodness? Even if a person didn’t

know the Lord personally they have still tasted of His goodness. However, we who are in Christ should be quick to admit that we’ve

tasted of the Lord’s goodness.

HOW SO?

Have you counted your blessings lately? Both material and spiritual blessings? Have you

looked around lately?

A certified public accountant did something that maybe all of us should do. He decided to open a journal with God. He wanted to write

down everything that God gave him and everything that he gave to God. He started keeping a debit and credit book with God.

If someone did him a favor, he put it down as God’s gift to him. He credited God with the sun,

his food, his health, his friends and relatives, and a thousand other benefits he received.

On the other hand, he put down what he did for God. Finally he gave up saying, "It is

impossible for me to balance the books. I find that God is indeed my creditor and what I have

done for Him is next to nothing." YOU CAN’T OUTGIVE GOD!

We all have been given more than we have given back to God. We have indeed tasted of the

Lord’s goodness! And it may well be pay back time. At least, we should be trying to give back to

God for what He’s done for us. Because we have tasted of the goodness of the Lord, what should we do? Here is some of our

pay back to Him.1- We should rid evil

2- We should crave good3- We should grow spiritually

WE SHOULD RID EVIL1 Peter 2:1 NET So get rid of all evil and all

deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

A grouchy husband came to breakfast. His wife had prepared two eggs - one fried and

one scrambled. He said, "Yep, just like I thought, you’ve done it again." "Now what’s wrong?" she asked. He replied, "As usual,

you fried the wrong egg."

It could be that she married the wrong egg! Often, in marriage and in all of life, we are quick to point out wrong in others. We may

be completely blind to our own short comings, but we can see the errors of

others very easily. And we may even be quick to point them out.

Matthew 7:3 NET Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye, but fail to see the

beam of wood in your own? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye,' while there is a beam in your own? 5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from

your brother's eye.

I suspect we’re all guilty of doing this kind of thing. However, if we go around pointing out the

errors of others, there may not be many others around very long. Often on TV, we hear this Hollywood couple and that Hollywood couple are getting a divorce and

the reason is often: IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES.

I think some of those irreconcilable differences could be criticism, or being judgmental toward

one another.

1 Peter 2:1 NET So get rid of all evil and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all

slander.So get rid of..... In other words,

you rid yourself of evil.

We all need to work on cleaning up our own lives more than we try to clean up the lives of others. I need to preach to me more than

I do to you!

Ephesians 4:25 NET Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak

the truth with his neighbor, (Zechariah 8:16) for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; (Psalm 4:4) do not let

the sun go down on the cause of your anger. 27 Do not give the devil an

opportunity.

28 The one who steals must steal no longer; rather he must labor, doing good with his

own hands, so that he may have something to share with the one who has need. 29 You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need, that it

may give grace to those who hear.

Colossians 3:8 NET But now, put off all such things as anger, rage, malice, slander,

abusive language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices 10 and have

been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the

image of the one who created it.

There are certain evils that need be removed, ridded or perhaps killed in our lives. Got any

bad habits that you need to shed or get rid of? Any anger, rage, malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander, unwholesome words????

I suspect we’re all guilty of some of these.In 1972, it was the title of a book, Pogo: We

Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us. Sometimes he is us.

Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.

C.S. Lewis wrote, "The greatest evil is not done in those sordid ’dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint...it is conceived and...moved, seconded, carried, and

minuted...in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white

collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise

their voices." THAT BE US! Could be.

Because we have tasted of how good the Lord is, we need to work at cleaning up our own lives. The Lord will help us to get the

job done but we have to personally do something about it.

WE SHOULD CRAVE GOOD

And yearn like newborn infants for pure, spiritual milk, 1 Peter 2:2a NET

When Ole quit farming, he discovered that he was the only Lutheran in his new little town of Catholics. That was okay, but the

neighbors had a problem with his barbequing beef every Friday.

Since they couldn’t eat meat on Friday, the tempting aroma was getting the best of

them. Hoping they could do something to stop this, the neighbors got together and went over to talk to Ole. "Ole," they said, "since you are the only Lutheran in this whole town and there’s not a Lutheran

church for many miles, we think you should join our church and become a Catholic."

Ole thought about it for a minute and decided they were probably right. Ole talked to the priest,

and they arranged it.

The big day came and the priest had Ole kneel. He put his hand on Ole’s head and said, "Ole, you were born a Lutheran, you were raised a Lutheran, and now," he said as he sprinkled

some incense over Ole’s head, "now you are a Catholic!"

Ole was happy and the neighbors were happy. But the following Friday evening at supper time, there was again the aroma of

grilled beef coming from Ole’s yard. The neighbors went to talk to him about this

and as they approached the fence, they heard Ole saying to the steak: "You were born a beef, you were raised a beef", and as he sprinkled salt over the meat he said,

"and NOW you are a FISH!"

That guy was bound and determined that he was going to eat beef no matter what! What do you crave? Beef, pork, turkey, chicken, or fish? Yes, all of the above.

And the truth is, there is nothing wrong with eating any of these.

And yearn like newborn infants for pure, spiritual milk, 1 Peter 2:2a NET

Fleshly/food cravings are a pretty normal part of our lives.

We may say, "Man, I’m hungry for...." And we go get it, if it’s possible.

However, we need to be reminded that we are more than flesh and blood. We are eternal

beings. We have eternity within us, in a sense. Consequently, there should be a certain amount of desire or craving for the spiritual things of life:

God, Christ, the Bible, worship, etc.

Steve Shepherd, the author of this lesson was baptized into Christ at the age of 20 at the Park Plaza

Christian Church in Joplin, MO, and after that he couldn’t get enough of church, sermons, and revivals.

He recalls going to hear preacher Roy Weece in a revival in Carthage, MO, not long after he had been

baptized. Roy was an excellent preacher.

He remembers leaving that revival saying, "Boy, if I hadn’t already become a Christian I would

now."

What has happened to that kind of craving for spiritual things? Do we still have it?

And if we don’t, what’s wrong? I believe that it’s the principle of use or lose it. The more we read it and practice it, the more we’ll want of it. And this is especially true when it comes to the things of God.

God has created within us an inborn desire to know Him and have a relationship with

Him. There should be a craving within us for Him

and His Word. If we don’t have it then we need to start reading until we get that good craving

again.

WE SHOULD GROW SPIRITUALLY

1 Peter 2:2 NET And yearn like newborn infants for pure, spiritual milk, so that by it

you may grow up to salvation, 3 if you have experienced the Lord's kindness.

(Psalm 34:8)The idea is this: you’re already saved, but you need to grow in your salvation or grow

up in your salvation.

Dr. Scott Peck is the author of the best-selling book titled,

"The Road Less Traveled." As a psychiatrist, Dr. Peck spent a great deal

of time working with patients in a large psychiatric hospital. He says that he has

discovered in his practice an almost universal apathy: lack of interest; no desire to ask

questions; no desire to seek the new and to grow; "no taste for mystery" as he puts it.

He says he has discovered also that if he can cultivate in the patient a willingness to want to

search and to grow, then there is some hope. But if not, he sees little hope.

Interesting observation. Apparently, there must be a desire to grow in some form in order to

make progress in life. This is especially true in the spiritual realm. We need to grow up in Christ

but if the desire isn’t present, nothing may be done about it. And we’ll just be a bunch of

whiskered babies.

Let’s read what Paul has to say about growth.

2 Corinthians 10:15 NET Nor do we boast beyond certain limits in the work done by

others, but we hope that as your faith continues to grow, our work may be greatly

expanded among you according to our limits, 16 so that we may preach the gospel in the

regions that lie beyond you, and not boast of work already done in another person's area.

Ephesians 4:15 NET But practicing the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into

Christ, who is the head.

Colossians 1:10 NET so that you may live worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects — bearing fruit in every good

deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

2 Thessalonians 1:3 NET We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters,

and rightly so, because your faith flourishes more and more and the love of each one of

you all for one another is ever greater.

Growth is a natural part of maturing! Of course, some mature more than others. We generally want our kids to do better in life

than we did but what about better spiritually? It should be obvious to us that if we want our children to be spiritual then we must be spiritual. If we want them to go to church then we must be faithful in going to church. If we want them to grow spiritually

then we must grow spiritually.

How does a person grow even if the desire isn’t present? You may have to force-feed

yourself. How’s that? Force-feeding is feeding a person against their will. This

might be done to someone who has gone on a hunger strike or perhaps they are so ill

that they can’t feed themselves. AND THIS COULD BE THE PROBLEM

WITH SOME CHRISTIANS!

Some are on a hunger strike spiritually. They don’t want to be fed with God’s Word or with anything spiritual. That may be why they don’t come to church. Or they may be so spiritually sick that they don’t want to be fed. Either way they must be fed with the Word of God if they are to survive. People

may be so steeped in their sin (or soaked in sin) that if the Word of God doesn’t get to

their hearts, they may die spiritually.

How do we get a desire for growing spiritually if we don’t have it? We force-feed ourselves with spiritual things: reading the Word of God

or perhaps reading some author who is spiritual enough to whet our appetite.

Maybe author Max Lucado does this for you. Perhaps he presents God in such a way as to

make you want more of Him! Not many authors can do that.

We may need to force ourselves to read the Word, go to church, listen to Christian

gospel music (my favorite gospel group is Accapella), read Christian books, associate with good, Christian people, etc. Whatever we do, we must do something to grow in

Christ if we have indeed tasted of His goodness, even the tiniest little bit.

You all know my fondness for eating! I think my favorite “All You Can Eat” buffet is Ryan’s lunch for $4.99. Whenever we have to be in Springfield I try to plan the trip to

include being at Ryan’s around noontime. After the meal my thoughts are always,

“Let’s come back to Ryan’s the next time we’re in town for more great food.”

Wouldn’t it be great if we always felt that way when it comes to the Lord?

His Word? His church?

His fellowship?If you have tasted of the Lord’s goodness

then surely you’ll want to go back for more!