Transformative Power of Scripture in Daily Life

The Holy Spirit awakens through the word, transforms through the word 1 Peter 1:23 Born Again by the spirit through the living and abiding word John 17:17 sanctify them in the truth your word is truth so new birth and sanctification are the work of God not any other way than by the word the word is huge so you need to ask well how then does it work this is the word so going to make a little harness sort of like a pistol the FBI going to wear this all day on my heart and I'm going to walk around will God sanctify this to me and transform me because I have I'm carrying it here what's the answer oh the answer is no the answer is no sorry about that we talk afterwards you probably have a really good idea in your head what you meant the answer is no because God created you with a brain he didn't have to he created you with a Consciousness he created you with a will and emotions and thought and the way he ordains for Christ to be magnified through his word is for there to be a connection created with these words and this brain and then this will and this heart. [00:01:01]

Meditate on the law of the Lord day and night is because a connection is established and by the connection of the meaning of God In His holy word and my construction of that meaning in my brain and its effect on my will and my heart I'm Changed by the holy spirit's using all that seemingly natural process for our change so my answer to what's all this got to do with memorizing the scripture is this when we memorize the scripture we make that connection between this and this and this more constant more deep and more transforming I'll Venture this realistically nothing can replace it nothing can replace it Bible memory in doing what it was designed to do in forging a connection between this and this and this. [00:03:14]

Closing closing testimony from Noel and me on December 21st we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary we went away for 2 days and among other things we read this is funny Psalm 40 and Isaiah 40 we talked we talked about the year and the years that's what anniversaries are for right past and future taking stock regretting repenting resolving and we thought back how many many times we had sat at a lunch say at edington's or Famous Dave's or Leanne chin or Jimmy John's this is our style how many times we did our date lunch on Monday and we sat across from each other and rehearsed for a half an hour the pain of the ears and the reasons for discouragement now and never once quoted Any scripture at all and then we read in Psalm 40 verse 5 and we paused and we said we've never done this before we are going to make a verse our year marriage verse we've never had a year if we have I've forgotten it a year a year marriage verse psalm 40 verse 5 we're working on memorizing it and for some reason I'm finding it a tough verse to memorize you have multiplied oh Lord my God your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us none can compare with you I will Proclaim and tell of them uh when yet when I tell of thank you no say it again yet they are more than yet they are more than can be told now here's the relevance the number of the wondrous Deeds of God of God is uncountable the number of his thoughts toward our marriage his thoughts as our father toward us our children our grandchildren our marriage the number of those thoughts is beyond counting and as a as a as a husband now this is little little tiny exhortation here to the men I believe those lunch times of God's silence is my fault the number one responsibility of a husband is to lead with the word of God and when a thousand Reasons are being accumulated and moped over for why we are sad it's my job to rise and call down some of the wondrous Deeds of God some of the thoughts of God and Proclaim them and tell of them that's what we decided we would do so you can ask us in June or July how's Psalm 40:5 going because I went to my little Apple computer and I entered it as a daily reminder for every Monday at 11 a.m. in the year you will sink folks you'll sink in your marriage you'll sink in your parenting you'll sink in your singleness you'll sink in your studies if you're a student you will sink if you only listen to the voices of the circumstances that are giving you problems because they speak so loud and they have nothing good to say and God has this is a very very thick book he has so many wondrous deeds and so many thoughts towards his children hundreds and hundreds of thoughts towards his children I will Proclaim and tell of them yet they are more than can be told well that's my my testimony and our marriage testimony may the Lord make his word dwell richly this year so good hearing Noel's voice and this clip is just Priceless I love that this one was sent in from Andrew a listener in Salt Lake City he writes quote I love this clip as it ties together both scripture Memory and meditation and it ties together leading and encouraging your wife as a husband amen thank you Andrew and it also ties in the New Year too as you heard there at the very end so good this sermon is titled if my words abide in you Jesus's uh phrase from John 15:7 it was preached 13 years ago yesterday on January 4 2009 uh the full sermon is on Desiring God's sight as always thanks for listening most of our Clips are now crowdsourced you tell us what bits of Piper sermons uh stand out to you and we share that clip with the apj audience if you got one email me give me your name Hometown the sermon title and the time stamp of where the clip happens in the audio and tell me how it impacted you put the word clip in the subject line of an email and send it to me at ask Pastor johd desiringgod.org uh that's an email address Ask Pastor John desiringgod.org well why does God hide himself from Believers it's a question we've touched on on the podcast but we need to address it headon why does God hide himself from Believers we're going to ask that question next time when Pastor John is back in studio with me on Friday we'll see you then. [00:04:52]