(upbeat music) - Mr. Rovi Lopez, a listener from the Philippines, writes in to ask this. Pastor John, I love the Bible. I want my whole life to be gladly given to know Jesus Christ and the scriptures. So how do you memorize the Bible? And what would you advise a 20-year-old like me?

Where should I start? - Well, I do have a concrete idea where I'd like him to start. And it's partly because of where I'm starting here at the beginning of the year. I was asked at the Cross Conference several weeks ago in Louisville about Bible memorization, and I was very excited.

This was just before David Platt stood up to speak, which is kind of an amazing providence because David recited from memory the entire Romans 1 to 8 in front of 3,500 students, and we were all wonderfully blown away. In fact, it's interesting just to show the power of the memorized and recited word.

I know a young woman, 13 years old, who was saved, she says, between chapters four and five of that recitation. I heard about that the next morning after that. So I just want to encourage Rovi that it is worth whatever efforts you make to memorize the scriptures. The reason I told those students that I'm setting off on a higher level of commitment to Bible memory in 2014 is one, because I'm getting older.

Things don't stick. Short-term memory doesn't work so well in my brain like it used to, so I have to work harder to make things stick. And so I need to beef up the time commitment and the intentionality of my scripture memory efforts, which I want to do. And another reason is because I've never met a strong Christian who doesn't give themselves to Bible reading and Bible memory.

And all the weak and worldly Christians I know neglect the Bible, especially Bible memorization. Love for the word of God and attention to it and memorization of it has always been a mark of the mature, it seems like, a signature. It's a signature of the sanctified people. Low-level interest in the Bible and Bible memory almost always goes hand-in-hand with high-level interest in superficial things.

And whenever Christians with high-level interest in superficial things hear this, they instinctively protect themselves and their love of superficial things by calling this legalistic. They say this talk about focusing the Bible and reading the Bible and memorizing scripture is legalism. And of course, it's not about earning anything and it's not about keeping rules.

It's about what you love and what you're passionate about and what you feel a need for in your heart. Do you love God's word? Are you passionate about him and what he has said? Do you feel a need for his word every day? Well, I do, and I do more than just in the morning when I read my Bible, I feel it all day long.

And so I want to treasure the Bible. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. If you treasure God and his word, then your heart will be there, be there in his word. And you'll want it to be there in the word all day long. And one of the great ways to do that is to memorize scripture.

So I told those students, let's all memorize Romans 8 together. So that's my concrete suggestion. Where do you start? I would suggest that, there are a lot of people who've never memorized a whole chapter of the Bible in their lives. And I would just plead with Rovi to give himself to Romans 8.

And my guess is the vast majority of those who've listened to this have never memorized Romans 8. I had never memorized a chapter in the Bible before I was 28 years old. I had only worked on verses. And then I heard Art Lewis recite in chapel at Bethel College, Matthew 6, 25 to 34.

That's all, just those verses on anxiety. Don't be anxious about what you should eat or what you should drink. He just recited. And I was watching him and I said, I've never seen anybody do that. And isn't that amazing? I was 28, I was teaching at Bethel College, and I was watching a man recite one single paragraph from the Sermon on the Mount.

And I was blown away by it because I'd never seen anybody stand up and recite an entire paragraph of the Bible from memory. And since then, I've just given myself to do it and I've seen the power of it. I remember reciting Isaiah 53 from memory over a communion service one time and a woman just broke down with the power of it.

I remember reciting all of Revelation 5 at a New Year's Eve service some years ago. I did it again at Passion last year. I remember reciting all of Psalm 118 when the north campus of our church opened and I wanted to welcome the people with something significant. And so I just recited that Psalm.

But the reason I suggest that we all get going with Romans 8, if we haven't done it, is that this paragraph is probably the greatest. I mean, this chapter is probably the greatest chapter in the Bible and it's always relevant. It's always got something to say. I told the students, I don't think you'll ever be in a situation where Romans 8 will not be useful to you.

It goes from no condemnation to the substitution of Christ in our condemnation to peace and life that the Spirit brings, to the inability of the flesh to do anything, to the promise of the resurrection, to the assurance of our adoption and the witness of the Spirit, to the promise of glorification and the sufferings of the entire creation and the sufferings and groanings of us believers as we wait for redemption, the struggle of prayer and the Spirit's help in prayer, the great promise that everything works for our good, the foundation of that promise in predestination and calling and justification and glorification, the promise that He'll give us all things, the impossibility of separating us from Christ, the invincible love of God.

I mean, this chapter is just so full. And so I wish every believer would give the time and effort to memorizing this chapter. It's absolutely incomparable. And I would love to talk about how to do it, but maybe we've been probably going long enough. Maybe we should do that tomorrow.

'Cause I have really concrete suggestions for Rovian, for anybody else who wants to know, well, how would you even go about memorizing a chapter of the Bible? - Thank you, Pastor John. And tomorrow we'll get into those concrete suggestions. Until then, if you're looking for even more motivation to memorize scripture, look in the Ask Pastor John podcast archive for an episode titled Bible Memory as Ministry to Others.

That was episode number 131, Bible Memory as Ministry to Others. Bible memory has a key community dimension to it, and that episode addresses it. Also, for those of you who are writers, there's an old episode titled Writing Poetry, Where Do I Start? Which was episode number 24. And there, Pastor John commends the memorizing of the Psalms as a way to improve your stock of language as a writer.

And finally, speaking of the Cross Conference, that was mentioned earlier, you can watch all of the main sessions online right now at crosscon.com, crosscon.com. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you tomorrow. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)