Introduction
I was leading a prayer meeting and bible study on Thursday morning and I came across a verse I had a problem with. It’s in 1 Peter 2:2. It says “like newborns CRAVE pure spiritual milk.” I’m interested in the verb in this sentence this morning. Crave. In Greek “ἐπιποθήσατε - epipothēsate”. It’s an imperative form of the verb “epipotheó”. Everywhere else in the NT it’s used in the present tense – ‘I crave’ – only here is it a command ‘crave!’
Let me show tell you why I had a
problem with that verse. My wife and I
have had three children – and during each of the pregnancies she had different
cravings. The first pregnancy involved
me getting up at 6am and making fish finger sandwiches for a couple of
weeks. It’s pretty inconvenient but it’s
relatively cheap and a pretty easy way to show her that I was a good ‘involved’
husband – whatever that means.
The second pregnancy was a
problem. See we had a lower combined
income than before and when I got home from work and Emily said she was craving
fillet steak I was pretty frustrated.
Every night she was desperate to eat steak and spinach for tea. I’ve got no problem with steak – but our bank
account did, and to be honest I wasn’t super keen about going out to buy steak
when I got home after work.
Imagine then – if you dare – that I
turned round to Emily and said “craving steak is stupid – crave fish fingers
instead!” What do you think would happen
to me? I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t
have been a third pregnancy.
You can’t tell someone what to
crave. Can you?
Guard your heart
One of my favourite verses in the
Bible is Proverbs 4:23. It’s been
translated in different ways because the concept is tricky to communicate in
English – but literally Proverbs 4:23 says something like this:
Before doing anything else – before
guarding anything else – ahead of any other protection – guard, protect your
heart. Because it is the very source of
your life – all your life comes from it – everything you do flows from it.
Micah, my son, is five and he
invented a phrase last year – keep a care.
I think it helps us here – doesn’t quite work in English but you
understand what he’s saying – keep a care on your heart. Keep a care on your heart bigly. Is that a word now as well?!
We’ve been theology students for a
while now – so you don’t need me to tell you that ‘the heart’ from any biblical
worldview is more than our emotions. The
heart, as Oswald Chambers said, is:
"best
understood if we simply say “me,” it is the central citadel of a man’s
personality. The heart is the altar of which the physical body is the outer
court, and whatever is offered on the altar of the heart will tell ultimately
through the extremities of the body. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for
out of it are the issues of life.”
The heart is the seat of all our
cravings. Everything we desire, we
desire it because our hearts desire it.
So when Solomon says to keep a care on your heart bigly – he’s talking
about sorting out your cravings. Crave
pure spiritual milk.
Why? Because everything we do flows
from the cravings of our hearts. All our
ministry flows from the cravings of our hearts.
If we crave fame? We’ll be gutted when no one notices us, and
proud when someone does.
If we crave sexual
gratification? We’ll be angry when
something gets in the way – maybe an institution, a person or even our own
bodies – and led into all kinds of debauchery by what offers us gratification.
If we crave power? We’ll be dangerous when we don’t get our way
and easily swayed by who or whatever offers us power.
Brothers and sisters, keep a care on
your hearts bigly.
As Jesus himself said: out of the
overflow of the heart the mouth speaks, or:
"It is from
within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality,
theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy,
slander, arrogance and folly"
This morning I’m going to offer you
one thing you can do which will guarantee to keep a care on your heart.
Eyes on Jesus
Eyes on Jesus.
The author of Hebrews had it right
Let us throw
off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us
run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus... consider
him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary
and lose heart.
Hebrews knows that the heart is
always craving. The only way to stop a
heart from craving is to kill it. Surely
we must have a better solution – surely we must offer the heart something
better to crave after.
It’s all over the Bible – it doesn’t
matter how true your beliefs. It doesn’t
matter how right your actions. If your
heart is sick your life is sick.
There are two biblical solutions for
a sick heart. God has done the first one
– he has taken from us a heart of stone and given us a heart of flesh. The second solution – once we have a new
heart – crave well.
Someone in the Bible study I was
leading suggested that if they were to talk about chocolate for five minutes
then everyone would want to eat chocolate.
How much more with Jesus?
We don’t glorify Jesus because he is
on an ego trip – we glorify Jesus because as we lift up Jesus he wins our
hearts. You don’t sing his praises
because he needs it – we sing his praises because our hearts need to hear it. My heart needs to hear your singing.
The great Puritan pastor, John
Flavel, reflecting on our proverb, wrote that the heart is like a stringed
instrument that can be tuned – but needs retuning every day and in every new
situation.
“and
therefore every duty needs particular preparation of the heart”
Conclusion
Let us make much of Jesus today. Let us lift him up as the hero of our ethics,
our linguistics and our preaching. Let
us learn to glorify Jesus in our apologetics, our study of mission and our
biblical studies. For the sake of our
hearts.
As we do it we are protecting our
hearts – and helping each other to find life.
But more importantly – as we practice exalting Jesus in our studies we
will learn to exalt Jesus in our lives.
Lifting up Jesus is the only way to guard your heart. More than anything lift up Jesus – adore him
in your heart because from it flows the springs of life.
And maybe as we go and minister from
this place in days and weeks and years to come we will be known as people who
make much of Jesus – and by lifting up Jesus the people we serve will not only
learn to think rightly. They will not
only learn how to live rightly. They
will learn how to crave rightly – and that is the greatest gift a pastor can
impart.
