Memorizing Scripture: Shaping Hearts and Lives

We are talking today about this piece of our scripture practice that is most challenging for us because memorization is something we feel like we are not good at. Fair and honestly I agree that we are struggling to be good at memorization. I think about the ridiculous amount of song lyrics that are stored in my brain. useless facts and trivia, football players numbers, things that don't matter at all that I can immediately recall. That's information that lives in my brain. I know that it is capable of remembering things. But I also recognize that back in the day, it was more than just that one phone number. [00:11:54]

There were many friends phone numbers that were stored in my mind because I used them regularly. I I didn't want to grab the phone book and try to open it up and figure it out every time. Eventually, you dial it enough and you start to remember it. We use information regularly, it becomes easier to store. The problem is we live in a society where we don't have to remember really anything. I don't have to remember my calendar for this week because my calendar for this week is right here. [00:12:44]

We used to pass down stories and information. In fact, in the earliest days of scripture, families would sit around their homes reciting passages of scripture that they had committed to memory because they did not have a scroll in the house. They're large, expensive, hard to get a hold of, hard to make, hard to maintain, hard to use, and not everyone is even capable of reading all the words as they were there. And so from the earliest times sitting in a home this information was spoken, passed on, recited very carefully amongst families, amongst children, amongst everyone until it was said over and over and over again. [00:14:09]

And we still like scripture memorization when it comes to children. We'll have vacation Bible schools and we'll give out prizes for the kid who memorizes the most memory verses. When I was growing up, we had Bible quizzing. In Bible quizzing, there were questions that particularly pertain to memorizing specific passages. You would study a whole book, but there was a list of the memory verse questions. I don't know why I got stuck with that job. I was always bad at it, even back then. But they would say, "Hey, we don't want to mess with it. Nick can take those." And I was the memory verse guy. [00:15:04]

However, my question for us is why was it so important at vacation bible school and in Bible quizzing and wana and all these things we have for kids and yet we as adults so rarely put an emphasis on committing God's word to memory storing it in our hearts. Part of the reason they would sit around in their homes and talk and share were passages like this in Deuteronomy 6, the Shama, an important passage. [00:16:16]

These words that I am go giving today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road. When you lie down and when you get up, bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates. Now, sometimes this was taken quite literally. Not sometimes, a lot of times. These little flactories or little boxes that contain scripture would literally be hung up on the doorposts of the house worn by the priests and the Pharisees and different religious leaders to wear around these little boxes with scripture stored in them. [00:16:59]

We now walk around in theory with God's word close to us at all times. We have a Bible app. We stick it in our pocket and we carry it around everywhere we go. It is close to me. I actually literally It's the internet knows what you're doing and what you're working on. It just knows. I was on the internet this week and got an ad. It's also close to Mother's Day and this was why the ad was showing up. Just a warning for everybody out there. It's close to Mother's Day. Just that's your that is your preemptive warning. [00:17:47]

But if that hangs on my wall then I never look at it. Does it help a thing? If I carry this in my pocket with complete access at all times to looking up any kind of passage I want. In fact, I don't even have to use the Bible app anymore. There's a chat GPT chat GPT app. There's Google itself. And we just do a quick search. Hey, give me every passage where Jesus talks about this. Boom. I have all of them. I don't even have to think about what was going on around it. I just need to kind of remember Jesus said it and I can pull up that information. [00:19:20]

The brain amazes me. Like, if there was ever a thing that God created that makes me just beyond convinced that he is real, it is our brains. The way they function, the way they work, the way they work for us when we are not thinking about anything. I've always been fascinated and love this idea and this concept that part of your brain just controls the fact that you need to breathe. You don't have to think about it. You just breathe. And if you make an unwise choice to try to shut down that function and hold your breath, what happens eventually? [00:20:12]

Our brain is fascinating and amazing and yet we are constantly finding ways to use it less and less. And we are constantly finding that has negative side effects because we as a culture continue to make really silly dumb mistakes because we don't learn. We don't grow. We don't value other opinions or other input. We don't listen. We just talk. We just regurgitate the stuff we want to say and we don't use our minds to take in useful information to hold on to it as something true. We let our minds fill up with other junk to the point where Jesus tells us, [00:21:55]

What has been stored up? What has been held on to as a treasure and a value in our life and in our minds? What does your mind dwell on and think about all the time? If it only dwells on and thinks about this, if it only focuses on these information, on this movie, on this music, on this stuff, our hearts, our minds are turned that direction. We dwell on those things and we are always being formed and shaped into something. It's that Dallas Willard quote we talk about all the time. We are always being formed and shaped into something. The question is, is it something valuable or not? [00:22:59]

How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping your word. I have sought you with all of my heart. Don't let me wander from your commands. I have treasured your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you. David is crying out saying, I have I'm trying to hide your word, your commands, your instruction, your ways in my heart to let that be the thing that is stored up and valued within me so that I may not stray away from your path so I won't be formed and led in some other direction, taken hold of by other things that this world has to offer. [00:24:02]

It is one thing we've been talking about to read scripture. We all know that I can sit down and read. Have you ever I'm sure all you had this moment. I just sat down and I just read two pages. I have no idea what they said. anybody like there's other things going on in our minds. There's other distractions. There's just maybe even a blank slate up there. It's just our mind is not focused on anything. It is possible to read and never take in any information. [00:25:00]

But again, sometimes I don't know about you, my mind is not that sharp. And what I find a week later, especially if I didn't journal, write it down, something like that, I will come back a week later and go, I remember having such a great quiet time the other day. I remember I was wrestling with something, but a lot has happened since then, and my mind has been pulled in so many different directions, and I kind of feel like it had something to do with this. I have these moments because I'm like, "Oo, that's something I should pull into this sermon and use this week." What was it I was thinking about? Should have written that down. [00:26:08]

We can study information. And again, if we are not testing our minds, we are not expecting something and sharpening this tool and using it. the ways of the world, the voices of the world, the distractions that I've had to deal with this week, the weight of that problem that just landed in my lap at work, the confusion that's been going on around about this, that, or the other, the worries and concerns of the world are weighing in, and all of a sudden, I'm not thinking about what I studied two weeks ago. I am simply overwhelmed by the moment and I'm not relying on the word that has been stored in my heart. [00:28:02]

There are some passages because we went somewhere once upon a time maybe where they said you need to memorize this verse and we work to memorize it and because as young kids our brains are sponges and it is a great moment and time to memorize and to learn. Thankfully some of those come back to us in the moment. We hear things like John 3:16 for God so loved the world and we can rattle off that quote. We may start to pray in a service and say the Lord's prayer. Our father who art in heaven. And depending on when you memorized it, you'll know what version you were using because when I say our father who art in heaven, you're like, yeah, he memorized that whenever somebody was teaching him out of a King James Bible, which he hasn't read in a really long time. [00:29:14]

And my question is, what have I added to it? I have a few go-tos that I can cling to, but there is a lot more information in the broad text of God's word. The instruction he has given us, the calling he has placed upon us to rely on that truth to live in him. He is the word made flesh. It was his teaching that we're to gain this truth from that creates new life in us, that resurrects us into new life. And it is one thing to read it and say, "Yeah, I should really do more of that in my life. I should really get better at that in my life." [00:30:05]

The problem is is that when difficult things come up in my life, I'm not thinking about those words. John Mark Comr in his book Ruthless Elimination of Hurry says, "When scripture is stored in your mind, it is available for the Holy Spirit to bring to your attention when you need it the most." when other things are stored in my mind, I quickly recall those. The question is when we are faced with those moments of uncertainty like Jesus was in the wilderness when he is being tempted, the enemy has come to him as he's fasting, as he's facing this moment that says there's a shortcut path around a way through this. If you'll just do this, what does he turn to? Scripture. [00:30:44]

Not just scripture that he pulled out. He didn't get out his phone and say, "Hold up. I got a verse that I remember reading something about that a couple weeks ago. Let me find it." No, he immediately quotes back God's word and says, not only quotes it back because eventually the enemy starts quoting scripture him, but there is a grasp and an understanding because there has been meditation. He's engaged with the text. He has meditated on the text. He has studied the text. And he has hidden the text away in his heart in such a way that in that moment, he uses it as the defense in the moment to overcome the circumstances. [00:31:36]

Scripture is not this just magic tool we pull out to get through something, but it is the truth by which we build our hope and the things that we stand and depend upon as truth in our life that help us navigate through difficult moments. My kids probably get annoyed with me at times because we start talking about dealing with people and hardships that come in relationships and different moments that arise and I say, you know, I know at the risk of sounding like the preacher and making you the preachers's kid. I'm not trying to beat you over the head with the Bible, but I genuinely believe that when Jesus told us we can't stay mad and hold that stuff in, he was saying that because he wanted to protect us from what it would do in our heart and life. [00:32:14]

When you start recalling the things that he has said in that moment, there is hope. There is strength in wisdom to know the right path forward. And there are promises to remind us that we are not walking that difficult path alone. And the more we hold on to those promises, the more we cling to them, the more that they become the foundation upon which we build everything, the easier it gets to take steps through a world that is broken, that doesn't hold on to those truths. The easier it gets for us to navigate forward and trust in the presence that is with us. [00:33:19]

Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had chose between all of the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization because it is the fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That's where you need it. How does it get to your mouth? Memorization. You see, we are storing all kinds of things in our mind. They may not be the important things. And I do think that more and more all the time it is less and less. [00:34:12]

But I do believe that what we put in creates this pool and source of what will come back out. That's not just the words we speak. It is also the actions we live, the temperament we demonstrate when other people are around. It is the character that shapes how people remember us and know us. There are a lot of people who are really good at running their mouth in the world right now. And very quickly you can tell what has been stored up inside by what adamantly comes back out. And therefore we get a glimpse of whether we are actually holding on to the truth of God's word or some distorted version where we just tag him in there. [00:34:58]

It is incredibly important in the age in which we live to stand on the truth of God's word and not not the malformed broken versions of it that people spew out of their mouth all the time. I've heard way too much of it lately in God's name and I'm like that doesn't match God's word. How do I know that? because I have not been perfect at memorization, but I have spent a lifetime of trying to put as much of it in here as I can to hold it dear to my heart and hang on to it. [00:36:00]

But sometimes the pressure we have put on ourselves is not to actually memorize it to where it sits here. We try to memorize it. So, it's just recall information that sits up here. And just like the answers to that math test, I can hold on to a lot of things for a short amount of time that sit and reside up here for the sake of regurgitation. Michelangelo's words don't hold any true value here. I tip the pizza guy just fine, even if he's a little late. It's okay. Because Jesus's words live here. And I know that showing that delivery guy who's probably had a rough day love and grace and forgiveness is way more valuable to me than never pay full price for late pizza. [00:36:59]

There is a difference between storing the words here and hiding them in your heart. Not getting every word and syllable perfectly correct, but letting them take up residence in here to where they form and shape how we live and what comes back out. Scripture and the practice of reading it is incredibly valuable. scripture and meditating on it, chewing on it, sitting in it is incredibly important. Studying to make sure we have the context and our understanding as best sorted out as we can is incredibly important. But at the end of the day, if I'm not letting it take root and take hold in my life, I'm still missing one of the most valuable pieces of engaging with God's word. [00:37:37]

But things that are that valuable, as Jesus said, his kingdom, his word, his teaching is so valuable, his kingdom is so valuable that if you were to find it in a field, you would go sell everything you have to purchase that field and take a hold of it. You know how I know that? Because I've hidden that story here. and I believed that his kingdom is valuable here. And so I want to encourage you start with a couple of simple verses. Maybe ones that you love that you haven't gone to. Or maybe you're like the ambitious type who's like, you know what, I love Psalm 23, but I'm really bad at actually like saying it. [00:39:28]

Well, find some passage that you love and value that has been a comfort, that has been something you have built upon, and just find one and work on it for as long as it takes. I don't know how many times I watched that stupid movie, but eventually it stuck. I think that eventually if we just keep reading it enough day after day and spend a little bit of time day after day, it's one that is locked in and then I take a little more time to dig a little deeper and to find another one. [00:40:10]

Take a note card, write down the verse, and stick it write it down a few times and stick it in several places where you find yourself sitting on a regular basis. Keep one in the car because I'm picking somebody up and I'm got a few minutes to wait and I can read over my passage. Put it on a mirror in the bathroom. I've got a few minutes to brush my teeth. I can read this passage over and over again. Surround yourself with what you are think is most valuable to obtain and work towards obtaining it. [00:40:58]

Hiding God's word here so that we may not stray from his path or sin against him or do the things that are contrary to his ways is so important because we are constantly being shaped by something. I would much rather it be him. [00:41:32]

Memory is a thing of recall. Taking that time to let information come back to the forefront of our brain. Like I said, there are things we can do to consciously take on a task or to try to consciously hold our breath or stop some sort of thought. And you know how that goes. The more sometimes you try to stop thinking about something, the more you think about it. The harder you try to get to sleep, the harder it is to get to sleep. Our brain is such a weird thing. In these moments, we have an opportunity to remember and to focus on, just like we did last week, this idea that Jesus died on a cross for the sake of bringing us back into relationship with him. [00:47:55]

But we also remember that part of holding on to the truth of that story is we repeat it over and over and over again and it becomes something that takes root in here. And there is a danger and risk. The more we repeat something, the less valuable it can be or the more we repeat something, the more valuable it can be. The more we can recall and think about and bring back to mind easily. And I would say of all the things we remember and recall, this is one of the ones that most quickly comes to our mind because of how frequently we re we revisit the fact that we were once slaves to sin, lost and broken, chasing our own ways, our own understanding, and being formed by everything else in this world other than him. [00:48:36]

But his word and the truth of his word teaches us that we no longer are in bondage and in slavery to that sin. We have been set free by the sacrifice of Jesus and his resurrection. And we do this in remembrance of him, holding on to that valuable truth that we let live in our hearts above all else. [00:49:32]