Dwelling Place

Announcer: Today on the Dwelling Place.

Al Pittman: This is the destiny that we have as believers in the destiny of the church. To be a place of refuge and sacrifice to the glory of God. Unfortunately, rather than being a spiritual house, many times the church looks like the animal house, a frat house of rebellious and self-centered spiritual juveniles, rather than a house of faith.

Announcer: Thank you for tuning in to the Dwelling Place, a radio ministry from Pastor Al Pittman and Calvary Worship Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We hope today's message is a blessing to you. If you'd like to partner with us financially, you can go to cwccs.org/give or text give to 719-354-2778. You can give directly on the One Place app or mail in a check to 501 Castle Road, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80904. We appreciate your generosity and prayers to help us spread the gospel.

Today we continue our new series, Strategic Living: A Believer's Journey in a Strange Land, in First Peter. We as Christians know we are called to glorify the Lord and make disciples. But a lot of times we get distracted by temptations or think we know better than God. Today we hear a message from Pastor Al in First Peter chapter two, verses 1-10, identifying those obstacles and how we are to keep our eyes on Jesus. Now here's Pastor Al.

Al Pittman: We're in First Peter chapter two, verses 1-10. Boy, you were fed well while we were gone. We thank God for Pastor Nathan as we continue this study. Amen. Praise the Lord.

Tonight's message I'm entitling, concerning strategic living, is obstacles to our destiny. God has given each and every one of us a destiny in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we're honest, many of the obstacles that we face in our life many times are self-imposed. If we have an honest moment, we'll say that. Because of the disappointments and the failures and frustrations that we experience in life can leave us infected sometimes with an attitude or propensities which actually hinder our destiny in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In our text, the apostle Peter instructs the church to take responsibility for their own destiny by laying aside, that word laying aside, their carnal affections. The apostle knows the carnal propensities that we entertain can be like a spiritual boa constrictor snake. A boa constrictor, what does it do? It encircles its prey and it squeezes the breath out of them and, of course, renders them dead.

It's the same way with these carnal propensities that we have if we don't deal with them, these carnal spirits. It can constrict our faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and minimize our sense of destiny in the Lord. Despite the persecution the church was going through at this time, a lot of persecution going on in the church at this time, despite the persecution and all, rather than look around to blame somebody else, politicians or the economy and all this kind of stuff, Peter actually calls them to be accountable for the constriction of their faith, if you will.

I know a lot of times we want to blame who's in the White House, we want to blame our job and other people or people around us and what have you, but Peter calls them to look within themselves. Look within yourselves. Stop blaming other people. Paul declared this in Second Corinthians chapter 6 verse 12. He said, "You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections." The problem is within us, our own affections.

In verses 1-3 of Peter lists five enemies, obstacles if you will, to our destiny or of our destiny in Christ, which originate again within us. Five carnal propensities. Propensities are things that we have a tendency toward, anger or what have you, carnality in different fashions or what have you.

But let us read verses 1-3 here, the words of the apostle Peter where he says, "Therefore, laying aside all malice and deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." Amen.

Lay aside. The phrase laying aside, or lay aside, means to take off, to get rid of, cease from, to give up those things that will hinder us in our destiny in Christ. And notice, Peter did not say lay aside some, but he used the word what? All. Amen. He didn't say lay aside some of these things, but all malice, all deceit, all hypocrisy, all envy, all evil speaking.

I read where the word rekindle is a dirty word among firefighters. And the reason it's a dirty word is because after they have snuffed out a fire and it rekindles, it's very frustrating after they've extinguished a fire. And sometimes I think about that, that rekindle, that word rekindle. We wonder why arguments, divisions, dissensions readily flare up in our relationships or within the church many times. Could it be because we have laid aside some and not all?

Why are things so contentious? Why every time you talk to that person it flares up? Could it be, just a thought, that we've laid aside some but not all?

Heard a story the other day about two churches. They were very small, they were dying, and they thought, well, why don't we merge together? And of course, they started the process of merging together to become one church and they'll be healthier and all of that. But they had a problem they ran into. They prayed the Lord's Prayer differently. One church prayed it, forgive us our trespasses, the other church prayed forgive us our debts. And they had a squabble over how they should pray the Lord's Prayer. So heated that they divided again. One church went with its transgressions and the other went with its debts. They were both wrong. They were both in sin.

But that happens a lot of times within the church, holding on to our arguments and all of this contention and all because we have not laid down all. Carnality is the spark which ignites conflict and burns down relationships and hinders the destiny, the effectiveness of the local church.

The first carnal propensity that we find here that Peter mentions is of course malice. We're going to go through each of these and then we're going to talk about our destiny that we have in the Lord. Malice. It means, in other words, depravity, wickedness, hateful feelings.

The Roman philosopher Seneca the Elder said this, that malice, quote, "Malice drinks one half of its own poison," close quote. Isn't that the truth? Walk around with malice in your heart, you think you're hurting somebody else, you're drinking one half of the poison you're spewing out maybe against someone else.

The antidote to malice is mercy. Romans chapter 12 verse 21 says, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with what? Good." We cannot overcome evil, malice, within us or towards us unless we exercise goodness. Goodness extinguishes the smoldering embers of malice. Overcome evil with good.

The second propensity that he lists here, carnal affection that we must lay aside, is deceit. Deceit. And each of these I'm going to give you what it is and then give you the remedy as well. If you're taking notes. Deceit: treachery, fraud, play acting, insincerity. These are the things that should lay this down, this should not be in our relationships.

The antidote of course to deceit is truth. First John chapter 1 verses 6 and 7 says that "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. Amen. And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."

Thirdly, the third thing we need to lay aside, carnal affection that works against our destiny in the Lord, is all hypocrisy. The Greek word hypocrisis, it means actor on a stage, just acting. And the antidote to hypocrisy is authenticity. Authenticity in the Lord. Authentic love, even more specifically.

The problem with inauthentic love is that one day the real you will show up. We can only act for so long. Inauthentic love. And we show up, the real person shows up one day and exposes themselves as simply being an actor. Romans chapter 12 again, 9 through 11, says, "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor it."

What does love without hypocrisy look like? He gives it to us here in Romans 12. He says, "Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord."

How do I not walk in hypocrisy? He just gave it to us, Romans 12. There's the list there. Being kind to each other and all. This is the antidote against an internal spirit, internal spirit of hypocrisy. Because hypocrisy is easy to hide. But if we would walk in what Romans 12:9-11 tells us here, we'll overcome that spirit of hypocrisy in Christ.

The fourth propensity that Peter gives us here that we must lay aside is envy. Jealousy, spite, insult. People like to talk about people who have what they don't have. Insult. I think a lot of the crime and people going in stores and ripping off stuff and all this, it's envy. It's envy. And when people have what I don't have or live in a nicer house than I have or drive a nicer car, I just talk about them. They probably selling drugs. I think I saw them down Prospect Lake selling drugs. Envy.

The antidote is contentment. Amen. The reason some believers struggle with envy is they have not found contentment in Jesus. And we talk about Jesus and we talk about how the Lord is our provider and all that kind of stuff, but are we really content in Him? We will not be content until we have a little more. I have Jesus, praise the Lord, but I need a little more. Then I'll really be content. If I can just have one more, then I'll really be content.

If we have Jesus, He's supposed to be our everything, right? Contentment in the Lord. And of course Paul told young Timothy in First Timothy chapter 6, "Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out." You know the old saying, I've never seen a U-Haul in a funeral procession. Never. Done a lot of funerals, no Ryder trucks. Just a casket.

And lastly the fifth carnal propensity that we must lay aside, again he's calling to lay these things aside, is evil speaking. The Greek word katalalia for evil speaking. It speaks of that which is involved in backbiting and defamation, slander, false damaging statements about a person's reputation. Evil speaking.

During COVID, there was a lady that went to the Gazette newspaper and was telling them that I was threatening people if they didn't come back to church, that if they didn't come to church they would go to hell. And the Gazette ran the story. And it wasn't true. But I thought, whatever it takes to get them in. No, but it was slander and all of that. The first thought was like, I didn't say that. And then I thought, hmm. No, it was slander and all of that.

The antidote to slander is here, listen, write this down. You ready? Stop it. You remember, some of you around my age, remember old Bob Newhart was a comedian. He had that one skit where he was a counselor and a person would come in and say, with a bleeding heart, "I'm doing this and that," and he would look at them and say, "Okay. Stop it!" That was his counsel. Anyway, I thought sometimes that's the best word you can give people. Just stop slander. Stop it.

As believers we are to speak life rather than death. Proverbs chapter 18 verse 21, you know it, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit." And then Ephesians chapter 4 verses 25-27, "Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another." You badmouth another believer, you're hurting the body. It's like taking a hammer and smashing your toe. You're hurting the body of Christ through slander. "Be angry, and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil." Evil speaking gives the devil the opportunity he's been looking for. And we just open the door, front door of our house, and we just invite him in, or the front door of the church. Evil speaking gives the devil an opportunity in our relationships.

And note, when we lay aside our carnal desires, it must be replaced with a much greater desire for the word of God. And so verses 2 and 3, Peter said, "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." Amen.

So you can't just have this carnal desires and then leave a void. No, replace it with the pure word of God. Pure milk of the word of God. Our desire for the word of God, like a newborn baby's desire for milk, nurtures a healthy spirit within us. You know that's why I'm always saying, get in the word, be in the word. I'm in the word, I'm reading through Isaiah, I'm always, that's my regimen. I just start with a book and I read all the way through. And a couple of chapters, sometimes three chapters a day. But I meditate on it. It's not sermon prep or anything, it's just for me. A lot of times I'll be reading and be like, "Oh that's a great illustration!" God says, "Hey, that's for you. You need to correct that." And that's good. That's what you need. We need the milk of the word within our lives.

Our desire for the word of God again is like a newborn baby's desire for milk and it nurtures us as well. The Greek word for desire, it means to pursue with love, to long after. Do we pursue God's word that way? And if not, then Lord, grant me a hungry desire for Your word. I can't live without it. I know you can't either, if you're a follower of Christ. Newborn infants are generally protected by the antibodies they receive through the placenta from birth and through their mother's breast milk after birth. I thought that was interesting, desire the milk of God's word. And so it is with the milk of the word of the Lord. It provides spiritual...