Do We Have The Right Desire? | 1 Peter 2:1-3

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

There's one other thing I forgot to mention during announcements. We're having uh prayer meetings on Tuesday night, and uh it's been really good. And I encourage you if you get a chance uh on Thursday night or Tuesday night, it's about 7 o'clock, come up and have a prayer meeting. Uh it's been that's been really a blessing. Uh if you would take your uh Bible and turn to 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2, I simply title this, Do We Have the Right Desire? Do we have the right desire? Uh 1 Peter chapter 2, and we're gonna read verses 1 through 3. 1 Peter 2 and verse 1 says, Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking. Then he says in verse 2, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. It says, If so be, you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Let's go along the word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we just humbly Bible for you. Again, Lord is thank you for the beautiful day lies to have and the freedoms we have to come and worship you in spirit and in truth. And uh, Lord, this special day as we uh recognize the mothers. We are so so very thankful for the moms you've given us. And uh we do pray for those that uh may be in heaven with you today, that as a lost one love lost their mothers. We just pray, Lord, you comfort them. Uh it can be a difficult day for those, and we just pray you be with them. And again, Lord, we just rejoice in uh the great reunion someday for all that believe in you and trust in you and live for you. And I just thank you, Lord, so much for your word. I pray that we have the right desires for it, uh, that we would long for it as as babes desire the milk of the wor of nourishment, that we would we would have your word in our in our daily life to grow uh spiritually and and mature and be the people you've called us to be. And that begins with salvation. Uh, we do pray, Lord, if there's a lost one among us, that today might be the day that they would uh realize their condition, that they're separated from you because of sin, but realize the message of the cross, that uh their sin debt has been paid, all sin debt has been paid, but they would accept that free gift, that they would repent, and call upon you and be born again. And not just be saved, Lord, but grow in your word and become disciples. And so, Lord, we just pray for all that are here, uh any decision that needs to be made that be made today, all in accordance to your will. Again, we love and we praise you. We ask forgiveness of sins and we ask it's all in Jesus' name. Amen. So as we uh we all should have desires in our lives to live for the Lord, uh to work for the Lord, to do the physical things around the church, uh go witness to our neighbors, go do different things, go do good works. We're created to do good works. That's all awesome when it should be, but uh, we must have a desire first for what? His word. It's his word, it's his word that with the Holy Spirit that convicts us, that tells us the truth of who we are, that we're all sinners separated from God because we're we all sin. And so, but it's also God's word that tells us there's hope. There's hope in the message of the cross that Jesus Christ came and paid all our sin debt, that we don't have to worry about where we're going to spend eternity and eternity in hell, that we can have peace with God. Jesus all through the Bible tells us, He says, My peace I leave with you. He wants us to have a peace, an understanding of his word, his truth. And after we're saved, we have to have a desire for his word. It's so important. We have a desire for the word. Uh we have to have it. We have to have it. If we don't have, if we're not daily reading God's word, here to tell you, you are starving your spirit to death. And when your spirit is weak, what takes over? The flesh. You'll do the things in the flesh that the flesh always wants to do. And what's the flesh always wants to do? Sin. It's a struggle, it's a battle for all of us that are born again because we're in this flesh. Yes, we belong to God as children of God. We're saved, we've been bought with a price, we've been covered in his blood. But guess what? We're still in this flesh. So it's a daily struggle. Don't lie to yourselves. Say, well, I'm not struggling. If you're not if you're not struggling, you're not in the flesh. It's plain and simple. We all do because of the flesh. But when we feed the spirit, we are filled with the spirit. We are what it means to be filled with the spirit is we are led and we and we make the Lord uh Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives. And we yield to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to do the things that He would have us to do and not fulfill the lust of the flesh that Paul talks about. It's a daily, and we ought to have our have our armor on and do the things he would tell us to do, but we have to have a desire for the word. A true desire for the word. I'm here to tell you, if you don't have a desire for the word, you're either lost or you're backslidden. Plain and simple. Because you should, because I here in the physical flesh, what happens? If you don't eat four or five days, what happens? I get weak. After just a few hours, I have to eat. I like to eat. I think we all do. We like to have our favorite foods, our favorite desserts, whatever it might be. So here's the thing. If we get weak physically, guess what? We will get weak spiritually if we don't have his word. It's so important that we understand that. We're gonna look at three desires today. We're gonna look at the desires of Christ, the desires of the devil, and then our desires for the word. The desires of Christ. Keep your place here, but turn to Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. Getting close to the end of Jesus' life. He's about to go to the cross and die for all of our sins. And he has started his church. He has called the disciples on the seashores of Galilee. But the church, they're babes. They are babes in Christ, like all of us are when we are first saved, and they don't fully understand what's going on. We are so blessed to have the completed word, to be able to look back and see when the church began and how what's going to happen at the very end and all the different things. And Sunday school lesson was great today, uh talking about the second coming of Christ. And I encourage you, if you don't come to Sunday school, start coming. That'll feed your soul. It will feed your soul. But he's about to institute something that the New Testament church is all about, and that is the Lord's Supper. Things were about to change because the Passover began all the way back here in Moses' day when God led the children of Israel out of Egypt and they had the Passover. They were to take a lamb and they put the blood upon the post. And they would, when God said, When I see the blood, when the death angel sees the blood on your house, he will pass over you. So all this has been going on for generations, for thousands of years, and Jesus was here on this earth. Guess what? He partook of the Passover. Why? Because he was a Jew. But he has a special night this night. He wants to have a Passover with his church, with his disciples. Look at verse 7. Luke 22, verse 7. He says, Then came the day of the unleavened bread, which is when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John saying, Go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, Behold, when we are entered to a city, into the city there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house where he entered in. And ye shall say unto the good men of the house, the master saith unto thee, Where is the guest chamber? Where shall I eat the Passover with my disciples? And he shall show you a large upper room furnished. He says, There, make ready. And they went and found as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down with the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them with desire, with eagerness or urgency, he says, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Why was Jesus so eager to have the Passover with his disciples? Because it was going to be the last one. It would be the very last time that there would ever be another need to sacrifice a lamb. Yes, the Orthodox Jews and stuff today still want to do those things, but they have no temple. Because why? They have missed the boat when it comes to Christ being the Messiah. For all of us that place our faith in Christ, we realize and understand that the last lamb, what did John the Baptist say? Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. We understand and realize that the Passover is no more needed. That Jesus is, as it says in 2 Corinthians, he is our Passover. He died for us. His blood covers all sin. So there's no more need. So this was going to be the last Passover. And so he says in verse 15, he said to them, With desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. He was going to explain to them, trying to explain to them, that the Passover Lamb, that He was going to be it, that He was going to die, his sacrifice on the cross, which was about a few hours away, was about to happen, and He was going to die for them. But also importantly, there's a transition, a transaction here from the Old Testament to the New. When God fulfills one covenant, He makes a new one, a better covenant, what Paul says, I think it's in Galatians, the new covenant. That's why we're a New Testament church today. Because of what Christ has instituted. He has instituted the Lord's Supper. And it's one of the two ordinances that we are to recognize. That in scriptural baptism. That's how important it is. How important is it to be baptized? Very important. How important is it to partake of the Lord's Supper? Very important. Very important. There's two ordinances. I mean, of all the things that God could have said, that Christ could have said, that's two things. Remember me, you know, the Lord's Supper? And be scripturally baptized to show the world what's already happened inside of me spiritually. So he goes on and he says this. It's so important. You know what? It's with his followers, his believers, with his church, and not with the world. Who's there? It's just him and his disciples. How many public miracles did Christ do? Thousands. John says, well, you couldn't write enough books. The world ain't big enough to hold all the books. But here, where did he have his where did he institute the Lord's Supper? With him and his church. Think about the Passover. Nobody, nobody outside a Jew could have could partake. So help us understand that. It really helps us understand what Jesus is doing, how serious this is that he would institute this Lord's Supper for His church. Again, becoming a New Testament. Look what he says. In verse 16, he says, For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup and gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. He says, For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took the bread and gave thanks and break it and gave it to them, saying, For this is my body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. Almost every communion table you see in almost every New Testament church, what's it say? This do in remembrance of me. It's not something some slogan that somebody came up with. No. It's to remember why we take communion. To remember what Christ has done. His broken body and his blood was shed for us. Then he says in verse 20, likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup, here it is, is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. Jesus did not come to destroy the law. What did he say? He said, I come to fulfill the law. And all the things that the law had, Christ was the only one to fulfill it. And so when he comes, things were going to change. There was no meant need for the dietary laws. There was no more need for the right of circumcision. There was no more need for all these traditions and things that man had added, but God warned him to do. Then, of course, man added two more of them, made it more and more difficult. So God fulfilled all those things. Christ fulfilled all those things. He said, I'm doing what? I'm starting a new testament, a new covenant. We're not under that anymore. We're under the new. We get to come to what do we do? Jesus told women at the will. Well, he said, today is, now is. We worship God in spirit and in truth. That's why we're here today. Nobody has a lamb tied up. Nobody brought a bloody offering today. Why? Because it's all done. Christ is that offering. We come and worship in spirit and in truth from our heart of hearts. And God sees our hearts. He sees what our lives, He sees if we come in today, if we have prayed, we've asked for forgiveness, and we offer our lips of praise to Him out of sincerity and truth. I can't see it. But guess what? He sees it. He sees our hearts. He sees the reason you're here today better than we could see a lamb that's laid here on this stage. He sees your heart. And he wants your heart to be clean. He wants your heart to be pure. He wants your heart to belong to him, to live a life for him. And that's what he tells them. The New Testament. I mean, how awesome is it that Jesus had such desire to show them what was about to happen to his established church, that they were going to grow and understand. But they really didn't fully understand the moment, what was going on, and what Jesus was actually telling them. Like so many people today, they don't really understand God's word. Why? Because they won't read it. They won't read it being God's word. Read it for yourself. Don't ever take my word or anybody else. Read it for yourself. And as you read it, read it like God is speaking to you because He is. It's a communication. He talks to us through His Word. It's a mirror. It shows us outside and inside, more importantly, inside who we are and what God wants us to do for him. It's so important that we read God's Word. But they didn't have it because they were living in it. The New Testament hadn't been written because it's about them and about Christ. So in that moment, they didn't really understand. They didn't have the Holy Spirit inside of them. We have the Holy Spirit today. We have the completed Word today. So there is no excuse. There is no excuse not to know God's word.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

So very important.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

They didn't understand. They really didn't know what was going on. It's like so many today, they'll say, you know, reading the Bible, it's like people don't understand God's word today. The reason you don't understand God's word today is either one there's two reasons. You're either you're lost or you're not reading it, wanting it to change your life. That it's a message from God. If you read it, it's like, well, there's some kind of thing to inspire me, or I'll read a verse today, and then I'll go about my way, it won't change you. It's like chewing up your favorite food and just spitting it out. You can drink protein shakes, you can do all the different things, but if you don't swallow it and have it in your system, guess what? It will not have an effect. It's like going to the doctor, you're sick, the doctor says, Well, you have to have this medicine. This medicine will save your life. And you're like, well, uh, you take it and put it in your mouth, and you spit it right back out. Guess what? The medicine did not get inside of you. And so many people will read God's word and just like basically just spit it out. It won't change their life, it will never change their life. And they say, Well, what's going on? Well, you're not letting the word work in your heart and in your life. Jesus was telling them what was about to happen. And we'll see in the next few verses the lack of an understanding the disciples really had. They were so hung up on the flesh, and they had the wrong desires. Because what's it say? Look in verse 20. Verse 21, he says, But behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on this table. One of the disciples, Judas, is going to betray him. And he says, And truly the Son of Man goeth as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom it was betrayed. He is betrayed. And look in verse 23. And they began to inquire among themselves which of them it should, it was that should do this thing. And I'm almost stop and pause every single time that we have the Lord's Supper here. When I read this, I usually read Matthew's account. Because when Jesus says, Someone's going to betray me, they all look at each other and they say, Who is it? That's how good the devil is. That they could not have a vote and say, okay, it's going to be Judas. They could have taken a vote and said, No, it's going to be John, or it's going to be Peter, it's going to be Matthew. They could have taken a vote. They did not know that it was Judas until Judas left. And then they still didn't really understand what had happened. That's how good the devil is at deceiving. But he will never deceive, deceiving us. He'll never deceive God. Never. And so he tells them that. And he says in verse 23, look at what verse 23, we see they have the wrong desires. And he says, they begin to inquire among themselves, which of them that should do this thing, and there was also strife among them about which of them should be accounted the greatest. Golly, can you imagine Jesus? He's about to die. He has just instituted the New Testament church, giving it power, the ordinance of being a New Testament church. And there they are worried about who's going to be the greatest. You know so many churches struggle because people want to be the greatest, want to be a boss, want to be this, want to be that. We're all servants to the Lord. The Apostle Paul starts his letter so many times. I'm a servant of the Christ, I'm a servant of Jesus, I'm a servant of the Lord. We're all servants of the Lord. We're to walk humbly in spirit and truth, worshiping in spirit and truth, walk humbly before him. Because they're wanting to be the greatest, look what Jesus says. Okay, you want to be greatest. Look what he says. And he said to them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they exercise authority upon them, are called benefactors. But you shall not be so. For he that is greatest among you, look what he says. Let him be as the younger, and he that is chief as he that doth serve. You want to be great in the church? Guess what? Serve in the church, and you'll be great in the eyes of God. That's it. That's it. He says, For whether is greater, is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth, is not he that sitteth at meat. He says, But I am among you as he that serveth. Remember what Jesus did? Perfect example of him, his servant attitude and his humility. He washed the disciples' feet. I mean, the lowest of the low, he was willing to wash the disciples' feet. And he says, And he says, Uh, ye there which have have continued with me in my temptations, yeah, been through a lot of struggles, a lot of difficulties, but they were still yet there. They were growing. There were bumps in the road, but guess what? They were growing. How many times did Jesus tell them, Oh, yeah, a little faith. But guess what? They were still there. We will all have struggles, but guess what? We're to continue on. Bible says, A righteous man falleth seven times, but rise again. It's through the spirit's strength that we just keep going on. And he says, I have appointed you a kingdom as my father has appointed unto me. Now look at verse 30. That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Don't you imagine their eyes just getting bigger and bigger? You're going to be in heaven with me, sitting at my table in heaven, not just sitting there, you want to judge the 12 tribes of Israel. I believe it's the 11 plus the Apostle Paul. I mean, it's amazing to think about the reward that they're going to have for their faithful servants to God. But they were struggling at this time, wanting to be great. What were they struggling with? They were struggling with the flesh. They had the wrong desires. And so many people today, so many Christians today have the wrong desires. Why do they want to be? They want to be great in this world. It's okay to be great in this world as long as Christ is first and he's Lord in your life. I love it when these athletes and stuff have amazing victories and do amazing things. And the first thing they say when they go interview, and they say, well, first and foremost, I don't think my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for give me the strength or the talent, the ability to do these things. They have things in order. Because God wants us to be great. Yeah, but be great for him first. But understanding that. And Jesus told them some amazing things that were going to happen to him and to them in the future. You know what the devil was? The devil was furious. He was furious. Let's see his desire, the second point, the devil's desire. Look at verse 31. And the Lord said, as Jesus said, Simon Simon, which is Peter.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

He says, Behold, Satan has desired to have you. That he may sift you as wheat. Put yourself in that room. Everything that's happened. Judas has left. He has betrayed Christ.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Or about to, he's going to make a deal to betray Christ. Can you imagine Jesus looking at you straight, looking straight at you, and calling you by name and saying, he says, Peter.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Peter. Satan desires to have you.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

And the devil wants to shake you so hard it will shake you to your core and will shake you to the core of your faith. Imagine that. I want you to imagine it because it's happening today. If you're here in the Lord's house, worshiping God in spirit and in truth, the devil is furious and he wants to shake you to the core of who you are. He will. He's doing it. He's trying to distract you with all the different things going on today. It's Mother's Day, his graduation, all the different things. Don't think on those things. Take a pause, take a second, and thank God for everything He's given you and worship Him and praise Him. And when you're doing that, the devil is furious. He's furious. He's trying to shake you. But why can't He shake us? Because the Holy Spirit's around us.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

So when He can't get us, if you're walking close with God, doing the best you can do for the Lord, He will shake those closest to you. To distract you, to discourage you. So what do we do? Pray one for another.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Pray one for another. We don't want to see any child of God be shaken by the devil.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

He wants to. The devil's desire hasn't changed. To shake the church to its core. But it hasn't testified. Look around. Look around. The devil is trying to shake the church today like he's never shook it before. We're still here. We're here for a purpose. To do the things that God would have us to do, but we have to understand we can be like Peter.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

What did Peter say? When you see what Jesus says first, he says, But I pray, but I have prayed for thee. Faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen my thy brethren. I bet Peter's like, What, Jesus? Satan wants me? And Peter said, Yeah, Jesus said, Yeah, he does. But I have prayed for you. That when the temptations come, the shaking comes, that you will be able to stand again. And it's not only strengthen yourself, but you'll strengthen your brethren. And look what Peter says in verse 33.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

And he said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee both into prison after death. So many people today will say, Yeah, I live for the Lord. I believe in Christ. I'm a member of a church. I have all these different things, I do all these different things. Well, it's all lip service. It's all lip service. You know whether or not you're faithful to reading God's Word.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

You know whether or not you're faithful to this house. You know whether or not you're faithful to giving. You know whether or not you're really doing the things that Christ and Holy Spirit put on your heart to do. You know those things. So if you say, Well, I'm doing this, I'm doing what I need to do, I'm doing my part, and you're not, guess what? You're not telling the truth. Jesus as Peter is like this. He thought, I'm ready to die with you, I'm ready to go to prison with you, I'm ready to go all these different things for you. And what did Jesus say? Jesus said in verse 34, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before thou shalt deny thrice deny that thou knowest me.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Peter was very bold in his words, but very weak in his actions. And I've been guilty of that so many times in my life. I just shake my head that God keeps forgiving me. Keeps setting me back up, saying, I have a purpose for your life. Point people to Christ. Like we talked about last week. And Jesus reminds them of what all he's done for them, what he wants them to do.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Peter would fail the test of the shaking of the devil, and he would deny Christ three times. And at the end of the third time, the Bible says he went away wept bitterly. Because not only it broke Peter's heart, but also what broke Peter's heart was he knew he broke Christ's heart. And that's what a sign of a true disciple of Christ is. When we drop the ball, guess what? It hurts because we know it hurt the one that saved us. So we want to do better. And Peter wanted to do better. And so after Christ was resurrected, turn to John chapter 21. A proof that God never gives up on us. Never. Regardless of how far we get, that He is always there searching, waiting for us. I kind of like the story of the prodigal son, waiting for us to come back. But here Jesus comes to him. After Peter had failed miserably from the shaking of the devil and his own arrogance. John 21, verse 15, Jesus has been resurrected from the dead. You know, he's on this earth 40 days before he ascended. And when they had dined, they've been fishing, they come to the shore. Jesus is there and he's cooking and he pauses and he says, When they come and when they had dined, Jesus said unto Simon Peter, verse 15, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? I don't know if it's the disciples he's talking about or all the fish they had caught. It doesn't really matter. Is it anything in your life? Do you love it more than you love Christ more than anything in your life? That's basically what Jesus is saying. And he says, He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest I love thee. He said unto him, feed my lambs. And again, a second time he says, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest I love thee. And he saith unto him, feed my sheep. And he said to him a third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? And Peter was grieved, because he said unto him a third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest I love thee. Jesus said unto him, feed my sheep. It's so important that we understand that. That God had never given up on Peter and He had a plan for his life. And what was his plan? To feed, to feed his sheep. To feed his sheep. And Peter got the lesson. Yes, Peter would go on and make mistakes like we all do, but he would grow and would be a pillar upon the foundation of Christ. And would be used mightily of the Lord when he had the Holy Spirit given to him at the day of Pentecost. And he would stand and he would give one of the greatest sermons recorded for us in the Bible in Acts chapter 2, verses 14 through 37. It's an amazing message that Peter, the one that denied Christ three times, was bold enough to stand up in front of those that those that hated, really hated Christ and present a message. And it's such an example for us today. The third point is our desire for the word. I can't make you have a desire for the word. You can't make me have a desire for the word. Like the old saying about taking a horse to water. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can buy all kinds of fancy Bibles. You can do all these different things. You put all these apps on your phone, all these different things. But it's the Holy Spirit, when we yield to the Holy Spirit, that will make us read the word. Yes, and the flesh will be tired. There'll be some days like, man, I just, I just I just don't feel like it. I don't I haven't read the word all day. I just don't feel like it. But the Holy Spirit says, read some of the word. Read some of the word. Next thing you know, you might read it. Okay, I'm gonna read one verse, like Proverbs, whatever, or whatever it might be. Like read one verse. Next thing you know, you spent five, ten minutes reading God's Word. Because it's the nourishment. It's the nourishment, how it refreshes us, how it refreshes us. So turn back to 1 Peter, where we started. And look what it says in verse 2. He says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. I thought about this story so much this week. Me and Sister Tina, believe it or not, had three little babies at one time. And uh we were home with them all the time, doing everything with them. And uh I'm not sure if it was our class reunion or what it was, but we decided we was gonna be gone for a night. Friday afternoon, evening. And so Tina's mom came down, she's watching Heath, and he's just a baby. And uh he's probably three or four months old. And uh she's she's breastfed him and feeding him. She has the stuff ready to prepare for her mom. She said, We're gonna take off. We'll be back just a couple hours. Man, it was almost midnight. We got talking to some friends from school, and it was almost midnight. He's like, we have to get home. Mom's gonna be so stressed. And we come home, and as soon as we got door, Kathy's like, feed this baby. Because she had tried everything, everything to get that baby to be quiet, rocking him, running, doing whatever, music, feeding, whatever she could feed him. She ran out of milk, this, that, and the other.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

But that baby longed for one thing the mother's milk.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

And as soon as he was able to be fed, he quit crying, started, you know, everything was fine. It was peaceful. But when there's not, when there, when that baby's hungry, guess what? There is no peace. There is no peace. And they know all human babies have one thing in common when they get hungry. You know what it is? They want to be fed. They want to be fed. And it's not just the things of this world. What is it? The one thing they want more than anything that won't, the only thing that will satisfy them is what? The mother's milk. And so you know where I'm going with this. The only thing that satisfies a born-again believer spirit is the word of God. It's it. It's the only thing.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

We have to have it. We have to have it. Just like those babies.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

And a thirst for the mother's milk. What did Jesus say in Matthew chapter 5, verse 6? He says, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. For they will be fed. You know when we find the righteousness of God, we find it in Christ, we find the Holy Spirit, we find it in His Word. We ought to have a thirst and hunger for His Word. For His Word. So important. So why is it so important to be fed the Word of God? It's the only thing that nourishes our spirit. Look what he says in verse 4 and 5. It says, To whom coming into a living stone, that's allowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Then he says, Ye also. I'm talking to every one of you, God's speaking to every one of you here this morning that are saved, that are born again. What's he say? As lively stones. He says, You're alive. Yeah, we all may be getting older, more aches and more pains, but guess what? We belong to God. We are alive and we are eternally forever be alive. He says, Ye are lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. We are alive, and we are that next generation. Waiting to pass the baton to the next generation if the Lord tarries. The Holy Spirit's inside of us. We are to live for the Lord. And how do we do it? Through his word, by the strength of his word. Because what's he saying, verse 6? Wherefore also is contained in the scripture, behold, a land Zion, a chief corner, he's quoting Isaiah 28, 16, a chief cornerstone, elect precious, and he that believeth on him should not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallow, the same made the head of the corner, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word. What's the world's biggest problem today? They deny Jesus Christ, they deny the word of God. And they stumble over it. But we see it as what? Precious. If my house was on fire, the sooner person I grab is Tina, the same thing I grab my Bible. Over everything that I have. I cherish the word of God. We ought to cherish God's word. Cherish His Word. And because look what he says. I love verse 9. Please don't miss verse 9. He says, but ye are you are a chosen generation. A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. Guess what? You're very peculiar to be here today. To come and worship God. You could be a million other places. But you're here today to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. You're peculiar people. Continue to be that. Continue to be set apart for the Lord. He says that you should show forth the praise of Him who hath called you out of darkness into this marvelous light. Then he says, which in time past were not a people, but now are the people of God. Think about where you were as a lost person in the dark. I say it so often. If there's any benefit in my life waiting 25 years to be saved, I realized where I was and where I am today. And it's nothing I've done, it's everything that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit have done in my life. And he says, which in a time past were not a people, but now a people of God. Never forget that. Never forget that you're a child of God. And he wants you to grow and represent him the right way, to point others to Christ. He says, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. We are the people of God, and the people of God must have what? A desire for the Word. If you would please stand. Miss Michelle and Brother Matt will come forward. The desire for the word comes after salvation. Because right now, if you're lost, you're trying to understand what God's Word is telling you. What God's Word is telling you is that you're a sinner separated from God because of your sin, and that God loves you and He sent His Son to die for you that you might have eternal life. So I'm here to tell you if you're lost, if you'll repent of your sins and accept Jesus Christ your Savior, be the greatest decision you ever make. And once you are saved, you will have a newfound desire that's that Holy Spirit inside of you, desiring to know the truth. Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will lead you into all truth. He wants you to live a life to glorify him, and it takes his truth, his spirit, but it begins at salvation as we pray.