Lay it Down to Grow Up

Gerry (0:01): Wake up. It's time to kick start your day. You are listening to ScriptureLink's daily dose of inspiration. Let's go.

Gerry (0:14): Good morning, and welcome to this brand new day. This subscription links daily dose of inspiration for Thursday, 04/09/2026. And today is National Cherish and Antique Day. There isn't a whole lot of things in my opinion to celebrate today on the list, and I put that one on here because I figured I'm close to an antique, so maybe it's time to cherish that. Anyway, if you're reading along in the bible with us today, we're in Matthew chapter twenty and twenty one.

Gerry (0:56): And, you know, antiquing is a big thing here in East Tennessee. It seems that every town has at least a few antique shops that are generally pretty packed. So if you're someone that cherishes antiques, what's the neatest thing or the most unusual antique you ever found? Let me know. I'll be interested in that.

Gerry (1:22): If you visit our website, www.scripturelinks.org, we have our first ever small group or personal bible study on there, and it's totally free of charge. You can get it. It's called what god sees. And in a world focused on appearances, performance, and public perception, what god sees invites us to look deeper into the places that matter most to him. This five episode series explores how God examines not just what we do, but who we are from the inside out Through scripture centered teaching and practical application, we discover that God sees our heart, the hidden motives, desires, and conditions shaping our lives.

Gerry (2:16): He sees our speech, the words that reveal what fills us within. He sees our our walk, the daily choices that reflect our faith. He sees our love, the sincerity of our devotion to him and to others, and he sees a love that shows up, the visible evidence of faith expressed through action. Each episode challenges us to align our inner life with word obedience, reminding us that genuine transformation begins in the heart and is revealed in how we live. What God sees is is a call to authentic Christianity, faith that is not just heard, but lived, not just professed, but practiced.

Gerry (3:09): You can get that free of charge by visiting our website, www.scripturelinks.org, and you can click on the study links tab on the site and get that for yourself or for your Sunday school class, your small group, whatever. Today, I want us to continue our study here about living a life that is set apart for God. That's what we've been studying all week, and we got today and tomorrow left here. But as a quick reminder of what we've talked about, if you haven't listened to any of the episodes this week, I encourage you to go back and and listen to each one as this will all make better sense as you connect the dots here as we go through the week. But Monday, we discovered and we talked about how the foundation of our faith must be in the shed blood of Jesus and his death and his resurrection, and that our faith is not something that's temporary.

Gerry (4:09): The the payment for our faith or the redemption for our faith wasn't temporary. The work of Jesus wasn't temporary and neither is our faith. And then Tuesday, we talked about how we must live being set apart for Christ and how we cannot blend into the ways of this world. And I think so many of us, and I said this Tuesday, I'll keep saying it over and over again because I believe it. It was my whole heart that so many of us are trying to straddle the fence and walk with one foot in the in the church and one foot in the world.

Gerry (4:48): And, friends, we cannot do that. Yesterday, we talked about about the love that we have, one for another, and how that is what defines us as Christians. That's how people know about our faith is because we love in a different way than everybody else loves. Because of Jesus' shed blood and because we are living holy set apart lives, we must love others with a set with a genuine love. Much like our faith, our love shouldn't be temporary.

Gerry (5:25): And that brings us to to today's episode. We're gonna look at first Peter chapter number two starting in verse one, and we're gonna go down to verse number three. Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby. If so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Let's break this down, see what Peter has for us today.

Gerry (6:05): Verse number one tells us some stuff that we must put away. He says, wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings. Friends, basically is what he's saying here is that we must put away all sin. The word laying aside there, it's interesting. I looked that up this morning because I had prompted in my mind this morning to look and see the definition for that.

Gerry (6:33): And this is interesting. To lay aside means to actively put away, remove, or discard sins, habits, or spiritual hindrances, often likened to taking off filthy garments. Did you get that? You see, for years and years on this on this podcast, I've been doing this for eleven, twelve years now, I've always been talking about how we can't as new as Christians, as as born again Christians, we cannot live the way the world lives. And numerous times, and these are the ones I'm gonna list are just a few here.

Gerry (7:23): But numerous times in the old testament, especially in Paul's letters, we see that he's telling us to to take off our old life and put on our new life. That's what we need to do. We can't continue living in the old life. We can't continue living in the dirty garments. And we read about about taking off the old and putting on the new in verses like Ephesians chapter four verses 22 to 24, Colossians three verses nine and ten, and then again in twelve and fourteen.

Gerry (7:59): We read it in Romans chapter 13 verses 12 through 14, and there's other spots that this is mentioned in there, and it's something we have to do. Now in very rare occasions, just about every day, people get up, we get cleaned up, we put on new clothes, and we go out and show the world. We go out into the world. And and as Christians, we need to make sure that we continually each and every day put on this new life. That means getting rid of the sin.

Gerry (8:38): That means not walking into sin no more. And look at one of the things here, discard sins and habits. I think that's where many of us get tripped up is that we have these habitual sins that we do all the time, and we don't think there's anything wrong with it. And all the while, it's actually killing our relationship with God. It's a spiritual hindrance.

Gerry (9:02): And next week, we're gonna talk about our habitual sins. I don't know if it'll be a series or not because he just laid that on my heart and on my mind today. But we're gonna talk about these habitual sins and how they're damaging our relationship with the Lord, how they're a hindrance to our walk. And if we remember, we saw this phrase laying aside back here in Romans 12, and we just talked about these verses a few weeks ago. Hebrews chapter 12 verse one says, wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with with patience.

Gerry (9:51): The race that is set before us. It was said in Hebrews and Peter said it again here in in his letter, we need to lay aside. We need to lay aside everything that's gonna be a spiritual hindrance. We need to take off the old life. We need to put on the new life.

Gerry (10:09): And if we're gonna live a life that is set apart for the Lord, then we need to make sure that we're we're taking off the old life and putting on the new, that we're getting rid of everything that hinders us, everything that trips us up, everything that weighs us down. And we keep our focus on him, and we start walking after him, and we start living after him. Verse number two of first Peter chapter two says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. We have to get the sincere milk. You know, when you have a newborn baby, and I use this illustration all the time.

Gerry (10:55): When you have a newborn baby, you don't go and feed it a T bone steak. It's not ready for that. Body is not ready for that. Its systems are not ready for that. And for somebody that's a new Christian, you can't dive into the deep things of God.

Gerry (11:13): You gotta start with the basics. You gotta start with the foundations. The thing is, so many of us as Christians are satisfied with with the basics, are satisfied with the foundations. We don't wanna go deeper. We don't wanna strengthen our faith.

Gerry (11:32): We don't wanna grow spiritually. But you know what? A newborn baby doesn't stay a newborn baby, does it? No. It does not, and neither can the Christian.

Gerry (11:42): We have to grow and mature. And we can only do that if we start with the basics. Start with desire the sincere milk of the word. Desire the things of God. In first Corinthians chapter number three, first Corinthians chapter number three, let's look here at verses one through three.

Gerry (12:10): Paul says, and I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able, for you are yet carnal. Whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? Paul is admonishing this this church in Corinth because they're not growing spiritually. They either are just stuck in a dead zone or they have no desire to grow.

Gerry (12:50): And Paul's saying, I wanna talk to you about the spiritual things. I wanna teach you the deep things. He says, but I can't. Why couldn't he? Verse three says that they're carnal.

Gerry (13:02): They're yet walking as men. They're yet living for the world and in the world. And until we get that change, until we get that thought pattern changed, until we get our heart changed, we continue to live in the world, and we cannot do the deep things of the Lord. That's why that's why just like what he said here in in in first Corinthians, there's envying, there's strife, there's divisions. There's divisions in our houses.

Gerry (13:32): There's envying in our churches. There's strife in our communities. And and it's because we are not taking off the old life and putting on the new. It's because we're not growing spiritually. We're not becoming the people that God wants us to be.

Gerry (13:49): We have to desire that sincere milk of the word back here in first Peter chapter two verse two. We have to desire that so that we can grow. So that we can grow. We must grow. We can't stay an infant forever.

Gerry (14:08): And verse then we get to verse three here. And he says, if so be, ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. If so be, that does not imply doubt, but it assumes that the readers have experienced the grace of God. Peter is assuming that they've experienced the grace of God through their salvation. And and for those who have personally experienced God's kindness, that's the word tasted there, will naturally desire his word reinforcing their identity as newborn believers.

Gerry (14:56): You see, we we we have to grow. We we have to understand who we are in Christ, and we have to put that identity on even though the world isn't looking favorable like Christians now. But that doesn't mean that we cover it up. That doesn't mean that we become undercover believers or silent witnesses. That's that's I just can't get over that.

Gerry (15:26): I remember several years ago, there was a CD that came out, and there was basically a whole movement on this CD about silent witnesses, people who were big stars in the country music or in any kind of music and and TV and radio and all this, but they were silent witnesses. Friends, God doesn't need silent witnesses. Remember what Jesus said on what we call Palm Sunday today, when the Pharisees and religious leaders was telling Jesus to get the crowds to quiet down, They were disturbing the peace and he said, hey, if they don't praise me, these rocks will. God doesn't need no silent witnesses. He needs people that's gonna go out and live for him and grow, become spiritually mature so that they can lead others and disciple others in their walk with the Lord.

Gerry (16:24): And we're talking now about about our identity and about growing and and tasting of the Lord. Verse number three provides the motivation for the for the commandments in verses one and two. If you've tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious, if you've experienced the Lord in your life, then that should motivate you to get away from sin and to start growing and to start living for him. And if it didn't, then you need to get get some examination done there because you're not where you should be. Friends, if we're gonna live a life that's set apart for God, a life that is set apart that we're not walking the way the world does, then we need not only to know where our foundation is from, we need to not only submit ourselves and to get that thought train changed so that we can start focusing on him and following him.

Gerry (17:34): We not only need to to display and have a genuine love for others, but we also need to be growing spiritually ourselves. And the only way that we can do that is to get into the word, have a desire to get into the word, have a desire to learn the things of God. Do you have that desire today? Think about that as you go through this day and remember, get into God's word and allow God's word to get into you. Then share that word with someone today.

Gerry (18:09): Have a blessed day.

Alan (18:10): We're here at the International Airport where amazing Alan will have a tug of war with this seven forty seven jumbo jet.

Co-host (18:16): Guys, this rope's gonna slip right through my hands.

Alan (18:19): Tie the rope around your waist, Alan. Oh, good idea.

Co-host (18:23): So why am I doing this?

Alan (18:24): To illustrate the effects of an unforgiving heart. The Bible says when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him.

Co-host (18:32): So how does my holding onto this rope illustrate unforgiveness?

Alan (18:35): When we are unforgiving, we hold a grudge and are pulled through the muddy pit of anger, drug over the brutal pavement of bitterness, and tossed into the ravaging winds of revenge.

Co-host (18:45): That doesn't sound good. That's why

Unknown Speaker (18:47): the Bible says we should let go and forgive those who offend us. Okay. And action. Somebody help me

Co-host (18:53): untie this knot. Woah. Guys, the jet is moving. Just

Alan (18:58): as Alan lost this tug of war, we lose when we don't let go of our desire for revenge. Are you willing to forgive?

Speaker 4 (19:04): Another message from Lifeline Productions, the comic strip of radio at lifelinepro.com.