Bible memorization is hard. It requires time, willpower, concentration, and that means we need good motivations for doing it in the first place, which is exactly what John Piper offers us in his sermon titled "If My Words Abide in You," which he preached on January 4th, 2009. Here's a clip of what he said.

The reason I began this message by reciting Psalm 1, Psalm 16, Psalm 103, Romans 5, 1-8, Romans 8, Matthew 6, 1, 25-34, 1 Corinthians 13, is in the hope and the desperate prayer that God would do for you what He did for me 31 years ago. I was 31 years old and I walked into the gym at Bethel College for chapel.

I was teaching and I sat down and R. Lewis stood up, the Old Testament professor, and he recited Matthew 6, 25-34. That's all. He just looked at us and recited it. I was stunned. I was 31 years old and had never seen anybody in church recite the Scriptures. It blew me away.

It set me on a trajectory of Bible memory. And all I want to do in this simple message is to give my testimony and mingle it with Jesus' testimony of the value of memorizing Scripture. I'm pleading with you. So here's my testimony. I can give it to you in eight sentences without exposition.

Number one, memorizing Scripture makes meditation possible at times when you can't be reading the Bible and meditation is the pathway to deeper understanding. So if you're going to meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, you need to have some of it in your head. Number two, memorizing Scripture strengthens my faith because faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

And that happens when I am hearing the Word in my head. Number three, memorizing Scripture shapes the way I view the world by conforming my mind to God's viewpoint on everything. Number four, memorizing Scripture makes God's Word more readily accessible in overcoming temptation to sin because God's warnings and promises are the way we conquer the lies, the deceitful lies of the devil.

Number five, memorizing Scripture guards my mind, making it easier for me to detect error. And the world is filled with error because the God of this world is a liar. Number six, memorizing Scripture enables me to hit the devil in the face with a force he cannot resist to protect myself and my family from his assaults.

What are you hitting him with? He is millions of times stronger than you. And he hates you and your family and your marriage and this church and God. How anybody walks through this devil-ruled world without a sword in their hand is beyond me. Memorizing Scripture provides the strongest and sweetest words for ministering to others in need.

Have you ever been caught off guard with somebody in need? You don't need to be caught off guard. And finally, number eight, memorizing Scripture provides the matrix for fellowship with Jesus because He talks to me here and nowhere else but oh, sweetly, powerfully, authentically, speaks to me here. And then I speak back to Him in prayer.

And if this is here, we can talk anywhere. And it's sweet. It is very sweet. So good. That was taken from a sermon titled "If My Words Abide in You," which was preached on January 4th, 2009. Thank you to podcast listener Josh Grass, who found this little gem and sent it in to us.

We received over 1,200 messages just like this one from John Piper in our archive at DesiringGod.org. On Wednesdays, we dip into that archive and pull out a classic quote for the podcast. And I welcome your suggestions. Like Josh, if you have a favorite John Piper sermon clip, please email us the name of the sermon and if possible, the timestamp of when and where the clip occurs in the audio recording.

Please put the phrase "sermon clip" in the subject line of an email and send it to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. We are back tomorrow with a new episode from John Piper to address those times when we feel stuck. Stuck in sin. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

We'll see you tomorrow. Today's session will conclude with a briefing on the latest