Good Motives for Bible Memory

00:00:00.000 | Bible memorization is hard. It requires time, willpower, concentration, and that means we

00:00:10.680 | need good motivations for doing it in the first place, which is exactly what John Piper

00:00:14.860 | offers us in his sermon titled "If My Words Abide in You," which he preached on January

00:00:21.160 | 4th, 2009. Here's a clip of what he said.

00:00:25.040 | The reason I began this message by reciting Psalm 1, Psalm 16, Psalm 103, Romans 5, 1-8,

00:00:37.800 | Romans 8, Matthew 6, 1, 25-34, 1 Corinthians 13, is in the hope and the desperate prayer

00:00:47.240 | that God would do for you what He did for me 31 years ago. I was 31 years old and I

00:00:53.360 | walked into the gym at Bethel College for chapel. I was teaching and I sat down and

00:01:00.520 | R. Lewis stood up, the Old Testament professor, and he recited Matthew 6, 25-34. That's all.

00:01:10.800 | He just looked at us and recited it. I was stunned. I was 31 years old and had never

00:01:18.900 | seen anybody in church recite the Scriptures. It blew me away. It set me on a trajectory

00:01:30.920 | of Bible memory. And all I want to do in this simple message is to give my testimony and

00:01:38.600 | mingle it with Jesus' testimony of the value of memorizing Scripture. I'm pleading with

00:01:46.600 | you. So here's my testimony. I can give it to you in eight sentences without exposition.

00:01:53.600 | Number one, memorizing Scripture makes meditation possible at times when you can't be reading

00:02:01.220 | the Bible and meditation is the pathway to deeper understanding. So if you're going to

00:02:06.600 | meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, you need to have some of it in your head.

00:02:12.040 | Number two, memorizing Scripture strengthens my faith because faith comes from hearing

00:02:18.720 | and hearing by the Word of God. And that happens when I am hearing the Word in my head.

00:02:25.600 | Number three, memorizing Scripture shapes the way I view the world by conforming my

00:02:31.160 | mind to God's viewpoint on everything.

00:02:35.280 | Number four, memorizing Scripture makes God's Word more readily accessible in overcoming

00:02:42.160 | temptation to sin because God's warnings and promises are the way we conquer the lies,

00:02:49.460 | the deceitful lies of the devil.

00:02:52.640 | Number five, memorizing Scripture guards my mind, making it easier for me to detect error.

00:03:01.020 | And the world is filled with error because the God of this world is a liar.

00:03:07.460 | Number six, memorizing Scripture enables me to hit the devil in the face with a force

00:03:14.120 | he cannot resist to protect myself and my family from his assaults.

00:03:21.220 | What are you hitting him with? He is millions of times stronger than you. And he hates you

00:03:30.620 | and your family and your marriage and this church and God.

00:03:35.820 | How anybody walks through this devil-ruled world without a sword in their hand is beyond

00:03:44.040 | me.

00:03:46.560 | Memorizing Scripture provides the strongest and sweetest words for ministering to others

00:03:52.240 | in need.

00:03:53.240 | Have you ever been caught off guard with somebody in need? You don't need to be caught

00:03:59.040 | off guard.

00:04:02.320 | And finally, number eight, memorizing Scripture provides the matrix for fellowship with Jesus

00:04:08.600 | because He talks to me here and nowhere else but oh, sweetly, powerfully, authentically,

00:04:20.720 | speaks to me here.

00:04:24.680 | And then I speak back to Him in prayer. And if this is here, we can talk anywhere. And

00:04:32.840 | it's sweet. It is very sweet.

00:04:37.440 | So good. That was taken from a sermon titled "If My Words Abide in You," which was

00:04:41.240 | preached on January 4th, 2009.

00:04:44.680 | Thank you to podcast listener Josh Grass, who found this little gem and sent it in to

00:04:48.480 | us.

00:04:49.480 | We received over 1,200 messages just like this one from John Piper in our archive at

00:04:53.820 | DesiringGod.org.

00:04:55.160 | On Wednesdays, we dip into that archive and pull out a classic quote for the podcast.

00:04:59.200 | And I welcome your suggestions.

00:05:01.400 | Like Josh, if you have a favorite John Piper sermon clip, please email us the name of the

00:05:05.200 | sermon and if possible, the timestamp of when and where the clip occurs in the audio recording.

00:05:10.740 | Please put the phrase "sermon clip" in the subject line of an email and send it

00:05:14.460 | to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.

00:05:18.460 | We are back tomorrow with a new episode from John Piper to address those times when we

00:05:22.940 | feel stuck.

00:05:25.020 | Stuck in sin.

00:05:26.020 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:05:28.220 | We'll see you tomorrow.

00:05:28.900 | [END]

00:05:29.400 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

00:05:36.880 | Today's session will conclude with a briefing on the latest

Good Motives for Bible Memory

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