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Actually decided that church is important enough to where they're willing to come back a second time to hear your word preach dear God and Father I just pray that you would use this service in the heart of everyone that's here dear God And please help us to learn some great truth from the Bible something that would help us to be in church 20 years from now something that would help us to be a productive soul winner for many years to come dear God help us to Grow and take our Christianity to new heights dear God in Jesus name. I pray amen Now tonight's sermon picks up a little bit where this morning sermon left off I started to talk a little bit at the end of this morning sermon about Memorizing the Bible and I talked about some of the benefits of memorizing the Bible I talked about the fact that the Bible says in both Psalm 1 and Joshua 1 8 that if you Memorize the Word of God if the Word of God does not depart out of your mouth if you meditate on these things day and Night as the Bible says that whatsoever you do Shall prosper I mean, that's a pretty big promise something think about that for a little while How would you like to and I'm not talking about money? I'm not talking about you to drive up in a in a you know in a Pontiac You know that's all decked out with leather seats and a sunroof, and it's got the P at the end for extra power That's all I'm talking about that kind of prosperity. Okay. I'm talking about a spiritual prosperity How would you like to go through life where everything you do prospers? How would you like to raise kids and prosper doing that be successful? Raising kids the word success is used one time in the Bible And it's in Joshua 1 8 when he says this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth But thou shalt meditate there and day and night then shalt thou make thy way prosperous He says then shalt thou have good success. I mean, how would you like to be successful in your marriage? How would you like to be a successful soul winner? How would you like to be successful in whatever you put your hand to doing how would you like to end up life as a success? Okay, that's a great promise It's a pretty broad Promise to if you'll meditate in the Word of God day and night as it says in Psalm 1 but number 2 we also heard that in that John 15 7 Jesus said if you abide in me and My words abide in you you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you Well, that's a pretty big promise to how would you like to say God? Here's what I want you to do and God will do it for you. That's a pretty big deal He says well, there's a way to do that abide in me and let my words abide in you And then number 3 we talked about this morning is just a quick review of this morning case you weren't here but number 3 we saw that being filled with the Word of God is Equivalent to being filled with the spirit. I might be the fullness of the Holy Spirit now That's not what the sermon was about this morning The sermon was about the verbal inspiration of God's Word But that's where I ended up on that note of an application if you remember But number 4 look if you would at Matthew chapter 4 in your Bible the first book in the New Testament the book of Matthew Chapter number 4 and we'll see the fourth reason to memorize the Bible Just getting right into the sermon here Look at Matthew chapter 4 verse number 1 My wife knows what that noise was Matthew chapter 4 verse number 1 the Bible reads then was Jesus led up of the Spirit Into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil and when he fasted 40 days and 40 nights He was afterward and hungered and when the tempter came to him he said If thou be the Son of God Command that these stones be made bread and in verse number 4 the Bible reads But he answered and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God now the Bible says of course famous verse Psalm 119 11 The Bible says thy word have I hidden my heart that I might not sin against thee Now here Jesus is putting that into practice where he's confronted with Temptation from none other than the devil himself and when he's confronted with being tempted by the devil What does he rely upon he relies upon the Word of God that he has committed to memory? Where the devil comes to him and points out a certain temptation and he answered said it is written How did he know that because he had it memorized he had memorized it from the written Old Testament scriptures He said it's written man Does not live by bread alone But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Read on a little further in verse number 5 the Bible reads Then the devil take him up into the holy city and said at the monopentacle of the temple and sayeth unto him if thou Be the Son of God cast thyself down for it is written He shall give his angels charge concerning me and in their hands They shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone Jesus said unto him it is written again thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Again the devil take them up into an exceeding high mountain and show them all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them And say it unto him all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Then sayeth Jesus unto him get thee hence Satan for it is written I shall worse at the Lord thy God and him only shall thou serve You see all three times three different temptations three different angles that the devil is coming at Jesus every single time He's combating it with the Word of God that he has committed to his memory That's why David said thy word if I hid in my heart Then I might not sin against thee now if you have a sin that you're dealing with we all do We're all sinners. There's not a just man upon the earth that do with good and sinneth not For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none righteous. No, not one They're all gone out of the way the Bible says there's none that do with good No, not one if you're honest, you know that just like I do you sin every single day I'll guarantee you that not a day goes by that you don't sin Now, how are you going to combat the sin are you even trying? I mean God willing I hope that you're trying to to combat some of these sins in your life Well, how are you gonna do it? Well, for example, if you're dealing with a certain sin You could memorize a verse from the Bible that has to do with that sin and quote it to yourself when you're tempted to sin For example, let's say you're having trouble controlling your eyes Let's say you're having you know, maybe this is more for men, but you're driving down the road There's all the filthy billboards that are up you walk into the gas station You're trying to pay for your gas and there's a whole big row of filthy magazines just before the service ten minutes before the service I walked up to buy something at the gas station and what did I see but it just a roll of filthy magazines And I had to avert my eyes immediately. I didn't want to be sucked into staring at the world's garbage I didn't want to look at the temptation that the devil had before me of all the filthy Pornography that's out on these aisles in the gas station in the grocery store. You know what I'm talking about. Yes, it's pornography Yes, it's ungodly. Yes. It's wicked as hell. Well What did I do? I walked in the gas station. I was thinking about my sermon, too I walked in there this roll of filthy magazines. I quoted Psalm 101. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. And so I quoted that verse I will set no wicked thing before my eyes and I hate the work of them that turn aside It shall not cleave to me and when I quoted that verse boy Looking at the magazine isn't appealing at all when you quote that verse because the spirit kicks in and says man I want to live for God. I hate ungodliness I want to be righteous and holy and clean and pure and good and godly and so that's how I was able to overcome that Temptation maybe you're timid and shy about soul-winning Maybe there's people that you know that you should be preaching the gospel to at work You know friends family co-workers and you know, you're supposed to give them the gospel But you find yourself just timid shy afraid. Well, you could quote a verse like this How about how about Ephesians 6 19 and for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth Boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel or maybe a verse like Mark 16 15 Go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and on and on you could you could memorize several verses about soul-winning for boldness Maybe you're trying to quit some kind of a sin. Maybe you're trying to quit something like say smoking That doesn't affect anybody in here. I know that but let's say you're trying to quit smoking How about this one what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you Which you have of God and you're not your own for your bod with a price therefore glorify God in your body And in your spirit, which are gods, you know, you could quote that kind of a verse if you're trying to quit smoking You know if you wanted to quit drinking alcohol You can say wine is a mocker strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived Thereby is not wise a verse that I learned that that was one of the first verses I memorized actually when I was four years old and so learning verses that have to do with your particular sin Can help you to overcome sin It's another great benefit of memorizing the Word of God all of us are dealing with something at any given time that we're trying to Excel in that we're trying to get out of our life or something. We're trying to get into our life Hey use the Word of God to strengthen you you'll find yourself Finding the sin not so appealing when you quote the Word of God and God's Word will cut to your heart and you'll say You know I can do this I can be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might But if you're not relying on Memorized Bible then you're trying to do it in the flesh is what it is And that's why that's why sometimes it's more difficult and so try this and that this can help you But I want to talk to you tonight about some memorization techniques that I use and that I've learned from people and that and so forth Now those are the four you know for good reasons to maybe get your attention to make you think about well You know maybe I should be memorizing the Bible. We'll get to more later Maybe this is something that I should be working on But I'm gonna tell you something and let me be a little bit personal a little bit tonight Maybe and tell some things about my life I'm gonna tell you something memorizing the Bible is my is the driving force Behind Steven Anderson. I mean that I mean that's the thing that keeps me going I mean the thing I mean they're a good night There are ups and downs in life aren't there there are ups and downs in my business There are ups and downs in this church You know there are ups and downs in my personal life obviously everybody goes through ups and downs There's no temptation that's taking you, but such as this common demand, and we all have bad things happen We all get in a rut so to speak and I'm going to tell you something if I had to pick the one thing That's the driving force with me the one thing that keeps me going The one thing that's my passion my greatest passion in life is Memorizing the Bible honestly, and I mean maybe I don't preach about it all the time But I preach about you know I try to preach the whole Bible I tried not to sound like a broken record You know I try to preach different things and a variety of things To give you the balanced diet of what you need to grow as a Christian But I'm going to tell you something this is the big thing for me I mean that now soul winning is is vital soul winning is everything. I mean I every week I'm out giving the gospel to people. I'm soul winning I try to give the gospel to people I know and that's important That's something that I do because the Bible commands me to do it And that's the main reason why we're even here on this earth as Christians But I'm going to tell you something this is that this is the thing that I spend more time on than anything This is the thing that I spend the most time and energy on is memorizing the Bible now. Let me tell you this Let me tell you how I got started memorizing the Bible when I was 16 years old I went to a summer camp, and this was a totally liberal summer camp This was the NIV I mean every service was started with rock music I mean it was like heavy metal rock music. I'm not I'm not exaggerating at all I mean it was it was in the lights were flashing and stuff These were the church services at this camp and the last it was called Hume Lake And so my dad actually went there as a kid too back when it was a little bit different You know oh yeah, that's where I went son It's not the same anymore dad, but anyway I went there, and it was like Baptist week when I went there so they toned it down a little bit But it was still just you know this heavy metal hard rock music you wouldn't even believe it, okay? Everything was the NIV everything was wrong, but one good thing. I got out of this camp I was 16 years old and they had a chapter in the Bible that the the week was emphasizing And it was Philippians chapter 3 was what was being emphasized And we would memorize a different verses from this throughout the week one verse a night while we were there Well, there was a special prize for your team if people on your team would memorize the entire chapter of Philippians chapter 3 Just during this week of camp then we got more points for our team or what have you and so there were two other kids And myself decided you know we're gonna do this. We're gonna memorize the entire chapter of Philippians chapter now They were all doing it in the NIV okay, but I refused to do it You know I said no, I'm doing the King James Bible Okay, and I didn't really know why but I just knew that the King James Bible is right and this other one is dumb Okay, I'll put it that way and so I remember everyone in the cabin You know because everybody had to learn a few verses and a few of us were trying to memorize the entire chapter Well everybody's saying it in the NIV and it was messing me up You know it was confusing me because they're saying it a little bit different And so I remember just going outside the cabin just sitting outside by myself outside the cabin with my Bible Learning Philippians 3 by memory and by the end of the week I had memorized Philippians chapter 3 that was the first chapter that I ever memorized in the Bible when I was 16 Besides I think I learned Psalm 23 is a little kid You know just a little short chapter, but this was the first substantial chapter that I learned Well on the way home. I was on the bus, and I was so excited about it You know this wasn't really that hard I mean it took me all week, and I was working at it and working at that thought you know that It's really not as hard as I would have thought it would be to memorize the whole chapter I mean, I thought it'd be almost impossible, and so I said I said you know what I'm gonna learn Philippians chapter 4 And so on the bus ride home. I sat and worked on it. I learned about half of it on the bus ride home I learned about half of Philippians chapter 4, but I got home, and I just kind of forgot about it and Quit working on it, and I got to the point where I had forgotten both of them Both Philippians 3 and the half before that I learned well about a year went by and a year later I really picked up this thing for studying foreign languages And so I started learning all kinds of foreign languages as a hobby that I had and I want I really wanted to travel around And see the world you know I wanted to go to South America I really wanted to go to Europe and I wanted to travel around and so I started learning these languages And I I developed a system. I worked at a pizza place called roundtable pizza, and so I it's a really good pizza place I wish they'd open up in Phoenix It's really good. They don't have it in Arizona Unfortunately, but anyway I developed this system where I had three by five cards in my pocket And I would just write a word on there just one word in a foreign language Just a noun or verb or whatever and I put the word on one side And I put the you know the Spanish on one side the English on the other side the German on one side things on the Whatever, and I have those in my pocket and while I made pizzas at roundtable pizza every five minutes I would pull out that card and just read that one word And I would just say that one word over and over again and just chant it like 500 times and then five minutes later I pull out the next card, and I figured out that I could learn 50 words a day because if I just spent 10 minutes Chanting them over and over again times six you know so that's six words an hour And then six times eight hour day at the pizza place That's 48 words, and so I was able to learn a couple of different foreign languages really fast Just by memorizing the words, and then I'd get home and study the grammar, but I already had all the words memorized I mean how hard is it to learn a language when you already know every word? Memorize and so I started doing that for a while well. I planned this trip when I Graduated from high school. I was 17 and a half years old and I started college right away to set community college I did that for one semester and at the end of that semester I was turning 18 now my mom wouldn't let me go anywhere until I was 18 okay, so I said mom. I'm turning 18 Now I can do whatever I want I'm gonna go to Germany by myself you know on this trip And she didn't like that idea at all of course that I said I'm gonna do this you know there's something I want to do I want to travel around I want to see the world and so I planned this trip to Germany and and and I Did it to where I was going to go there and stay with some different pastors and things and and do something spiritual you know While I was there, but I went there, and and it was two months before I was going there I got out of that semester community college And I figured you know I'm gonna work two jobs For these two months until I leave to Germany so I can make some money so I can have some spending money because I was Gonna be there for three months, and so I got a job working for an amusement park called Thunderland Okay, and it was these little kiddie roller coasters going around everything like that. Well. This was my job literally at Thunderland I stood at the gate, and I opened the gate You know let the little kids come through and get on the ride I closed the gate, and then there were two buttons There's a green button and a red button you can probably guess what the green one did and what the red one did okay? So I pushed the green button, and then I'd look at my watch you know and two minutes later 120 seconds later I pushed the red button, and then I've let the kids off the ride And then I'd let you know and repeat as often as necessary for eight hours solid okay, so it's a very Tedious monotonous boring job, okay? So I decided well, I'm gonna start learning German You know I want to I want to master German in these two months so that when I go there I'm gonna be able to speak German when I get there, and but then I thought about it and for some reason I was thinking about it. I said you know what I Don't want to sit and learn German. I said you know I want to give God the preeminence And so I said instead of learning German I'm gonna try memorizing the Bible, and this is the first time I've ever messed with it since I was 16 on that camping trip I said I'm gonna. I'm gonna spend these two months instead of learning German. I'm gonna memorize the Bible Because I'd read this verse in John 15 where he says if you abide in me and my words abide in you You shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you, and I read that verse I said you know what I'm gonna spend two months memorizing the Bible, and then when I get to Germany I'm just gonna pray and say God help me to learn this fast while I'm here And so that's what I did I didn't learn German at all for those two months I decided and I knew a little bit from college and everything But I I just said you know what I'm just gonna memorize the Bible and so I stood there all day And I took these note cards and instead of writing just one word in German on there I wrote verses from the Bible on these note cards, and I'd write about three on one card I had a card and it disappeared on me. I was trying to have an illustration here But there I can use this card And I would just write about maybe three Verses on the card and I'd have a big stack of them And I put it in my pocket and what I would do right after I push the green button I'll pull out the card okay, and I'd study and I just get one little phrase remember I'd learned that just chanting one word is really easy So I pull it out and just maybe chant about five words of the verse like let's say I was gonna learn this verse You know Matthew 4 4, but he answered and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone I would just quote it like this, but he answered and said but he answered and said literally that much Just but he answered and said but he answered said but he answered and said but he answered said just while I'm the center But he answered and said is written, but he answered and said is written It is written man shall not live is written man shall not live is written man shall not live man shall live by bread alone man Shall live by bread alone bread. You know just on and on I Wouldn't move that fast obviously I'd say hundreds of times before I moved on to the next part And I just say him and say him and say him well in the course of that time doing that I learned These are chapters I learned I learned the book of Habakkuk which is three chapters long, and I learned the book of Joel Which is three chapters long, and then I was still you know really like the foreign languages So I learned the book of 2nd John in Spanish, and then I learned Psalm 11 in German 1st John 1 and Romanian, and then I went back and I I refreshed chapter 3 of Philippians And then I finished chapter 4 and then I just kind of got into chapter 1 But here's what I here's where I went wrong, so I learned a total of 11 chapters you know during that two-month period and By the way my little sister Lisa remember Lisa. She was here a few months ago I don't know if you had a chance to meet my little sister Lisa She saw me doing this One day, and I learned I was learning 2nd John in Spanish that day, and it's really short It's like 13 verses and so I was gonna do it in one morning because I had about four hours And I said I'm just gonna learn this and my little sister saw me doing it And you know what she learned it with me. She learned it in English, and she learned it the same morning I learned it only took her three or four hours either, and so it's not it's not that I'm some kind of a prodigy I mean, it's something that anybody can do if you just chant things over and over. It's not really that hard But here's the problem. I left for Germany. You know I flew out to Germany Right when I turned 18 years old and I got there And I just got so bored with quoting the same 11 chapters every day Because I I didn't really know how to retain them except I just have to say these every single day and so every day every day I just said the same 11 chapters every day well a couple weeks into my trip. I mean I'm having fun I'm busy, and so I just say you know I just do not have the discipline to quote these again You know I'm just can't do this anymore, and so I just went about my business about a month and a half later I said boy. I need to I need to tune those things up You know I need to I need to say those and you know a month and a half later. I couldn't say any of them All 11 of them were gone Okay, and it was so and it was depressing to me because then I tried to relearn them But you have no idea how frustrating it is to try to relearn something that you used to know Because you don't have the excitement of doing something new You know and it's not really that exciting to finish it because you've already done it and so it was just so depressing to me That I just pretty much just threw in the towel and said you know what forget it And I didn't even memorize the Bible again. That was when I was a 18 I started when I was 17 and I turned 18 right before I went to Germany and so that's when I pretty much just forgot those 11 chapters completely Well all the way from then until five years later when I was 23 years old five years later I didn't work on any memorizing at all really and five years later when I was 23 years old because it was in April of 2005 yes, I'm only 25 years old okay. Yes. I'm a little kid now I'm 25 years old, but I'm married with four kids all right. Give me a break and so when I was 23 Which is five years later. I Was I don't even remember what I don't remember why but I was having my wife look up something for me on the internet and She stumbled across this website. She's the one who found it I don't even remember what she was looking for But she was just surfing the internet about something and she found this website that said you can memorize the New Testament in five years And she told me about it. I said there is no way I mean that's that's insane That's impossible, and I sat down started reading it You know and it just intrigued me got my attention, and I started reading it and reading I said you know what this will work I mean this makes sense and I figured out that the reason that I failed the first time is because I was trying to say the chapters every day and You cannot keep that up forever. I mean to quote the same chapter of the Bible every day for years I mean we're talking about 700 times 700 days in a row you're gonna have the discipline to quote the same chapter from the Bible I mean, maybe you have that kind of character But I you know I don't have that kind of discipline that kind of mental training to do that because it's gonna get old After a while, and I mean I'm not trying to say that the Bible is not always new and exciting But to say the same chapter every day it gets boring I mean all let's face it and so I read this and it explained a system And this is what I want to tell you about quickly it Explained a system where once you learn a chapter of the Bible and by the way I recommend you learning by the chapter, and I know that's hard to learn an entire chapter But even if you even if you want to pick a short chapter You know learning chapters will help you remember it a lot better than than learning verses Well, I read on this chart that said that if you memorize a chapter in the Bible And you quote it every day for one week like once you really know it well once you got it down For example psalm 15 who's got psalm 15 memorized raise your hand all right you better have it because I took you out to eat And so otherwise you owe me some money But anyway, it's a joke, but anyway psalm 15 you got psalm 15 memorized, right? Do you want to just let psalm 15 slip away and forget it now you want to keep it memorized? You've already done all that work think about how much work. It was to learn it It's not going to take very much work to retain it But it'll take a lot of work if a month and a half from now you say you know I think I want to learn that again and take a lot of work, okay It's a lot easier to keep it in your mind and never lose it so here's what you do Once you have it down to where you can say it fairly quickly. You know you know it very well You don't really have to stop and think that much you quote it every day for one week So from here until next Sunday, just quote it every single day one time I mean how long is it going to take to quote psalm 15? It's probably gonna take you about 25 seconds is that about right? I mean it's about five verses long you probably quoted in about 25 seconds Well, then after next Sunday. You just quote it once a week for a month Okay, so then you quoted it every day until next Sunday. Well then after that you just quote it once a week For five times you know for four or five weeks for about a month Then once you quote it every week for a month you quote it every month For the rest of your life Now quoting it once a month for 25 seconds That's pretty easy, and you'll remember that chapter and not only that but you'll you'll get better and better at it month after month I mean month that even though you've got a whole month without saying it you will get sharper and sharper at it I mean chapters that I've known for years that I quote only once a month I can quote them better now than I could when I first learned them And so that's how you do it and really quoting it for 25 seconds a month You don't need any character at all I mean just even if you don't do it on the exact right day You can just you know because you got to pick a day and say this is the day I quote it every month, but even if you're a few days early a few days late Hey, I think you know what I got 25 seconds. I think I'm gonna quote this okay How hard is that right pretty easy so when I read this boy? I was excited this while I was 23 I was so excited because I it was a it was a goal that was reachable Where I could really learn a lot and not have to quote it every single day Because that's so tedious, and I just didn't have the strength to do that and so you know I jumped right into it now I was in Bible college and Flip over if you would to Psalm 119 in your Bible right in the middle of your Bible Psalm 119 verse number 97 Psalm 119 verse 97 Now I was in Bible college when my wife stumbled across that and So I had a lot of spare time on my hands because I'm and you say what spare time You know Bible cause busy schedule you're working full-time or school. Yeah, but you know what when I was in Bible college Sometimes it's a little bit boring. Okay. I'll be honest with you and Just sitting in class and there's a lot of dead time in classes where maybe the teachers working with somebody else Or you're waiting you finish the test early or everybody's passing in their work or blah blah blah There's all this dead time. You know what it's like to be in school in School there's all this wasted boring time my by the way I home school my kids you know long it takes us to home school our kids every less than two hours You send them to school. It's like eight hours, and they learn less And so there's just a lot of wasted time at any school that you go to whether it be a Bible college or a school Or what have you so I had all this time, so this was going to be a piece of cake Okay, read if you would psalm 119 verse 97 the Bible reads All how love I thy law It is my meditation all the day now ask yourself this question who is writing that verse right there Well, it's King David is the one that God is using to speak that verse Do you think that he was a busy man? I mean he's the king of Israel I mean he was running a whole nation. He was also directing their military at this time. He was the general He was the king he was a an important man, but he said you know what throughout the day I'm meditating on the Bible is what he said throughout the day. I'm learning the Bible look at the look at the next verse The Bible says thou through thy commandments has made me wiser than my enemies for they are ever with me I have more understanding than all my teachers for thy testimonies on my meditation I understand more than the ancients, but as I keep thy precepts now David was a man who memorized and thought about the word of God All day long he said and we'll see more verses where he talks about that So here I am in Bible college. What did I do? Well, I had my note cards every day. I've bought a big stack of three by five cars to school and while I was in school throughout the day While the teacher was talking you know I had my Bible out And I was copying down Verses onto my note cards getting ready for what I was going to memorize that night while I was at work working second shift You know about a shift of maybe two to ten o'clock or two thirty to eleven o'clock whatever I worked that day And so I was writing down the verses that I was going to be learning that night and while I was writing them down They're kind of getting in my mind a little bit too as I'm as I'm copying them down And then while I was at school also while I was between classes walking from one class to the next While I had a little dead time I would quote back the chapters that I was supposed to quote back that day And so during this time you'd not believe this I literally learned five chapters every week, okay? I don't know how I did it like I couldn't even do it right now But just sitting in school for five hours a day. I found a way to do it I've never been able to do it since okay, but when I was there in school I would do this and I would learn about 20 verses a day And it added up to about five chapters a week and so I sat there just writing out the cards while I was there and Then at night as I was at the job. I do the same thing. I'm working on the fire alarm I'm turning the screwdriver every five minutes approximately I pull out my card You know I'm walking to from point A to point B I pull out the car, and I would just get a new phrase just one little phrase you know But he answered and said it is written, but he answered and said it is written, but he answered and said it is written You know on and on and I would quote that for five ten minutes And then when I had a spare second I pulled out you know man should not live by bread alone man Should not live by bread alone man should not live by bread alone man should not live by bread alone Then I do that for eight hours when I got done with that. I'd get in the car, and I'd drive home and While I was driving home I'd already said every phrase in that chapter 300 times and so then I would try to put the whole chapter together on my way home on the drive home Because I'd already had the pieces and so it wasn't really that hard to put the whole thing together on the drive home And then the next day I'm back in school And I would quote what I needed to quote daily what I need to quote weekly what I need to quote monthly and what have you? Well now I'm a lot busier, okay So I'm not able to do it at that rate anymore because I don't have any part of my day where I'm sitting Down in a room being forced to sit still for five hours, and so now here's what I do I don't even have time. I don't even write out the cards anymore I have a Bible software program called a sword who's ever heard of that before got it, right? You know if you don't have it you should get it and talk to me after the service I'll tell you about it But if you download it for free and what I do now is I just print out a page like this takes me a couple minutes And I just print out a chapter like this and now I just keep this in my back pocket while I'm working or in my tool belt or Sometimes if I don't even have time to print this out I got my pocket New Testament and by the way if you don't have a pocket New Testament take one of these for free after The service they're yours grab one just make sure nobody's looking look both ways and then grab one and seven in your purse now these are for you of course to take as many as you want and I'm telling you. I just pull this out. I mean if I don't even have time to print this I just pull this out while I'm working and think you you say well. I don't have time. You don't understand my life It's so busy. It's so hard I'm telling you you have so much dead time in the day that you don't even realize that you have I mean that I mean You know what sometimes I don't have my New Testament with me and sometimes I don't have this with me, and I'm not memorizing the Bible. I just find myself thinking about stupid things You know an idle mind is the devil's workshop You know the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked the Bible says who can know it And I just when I don't do this You know I'm just some stupid song will pop into my head that I heard you know at the last job site Somebody was playing the radio You know some stupid TV show that I watched ten years ago or something will pop into my head Just dumb things will come into my mind. Hey, I'd rather spend that time Meditating on God's Word, and I mean I find myself throughout the week in line at the post office in line at the DMV Standing at the gas pump pumping gas Waiting for the manager at a job. I pull up somewhere. I'm waiting for somebody. I'm waiting for this person I'm waiting for that person. I'm in the shower. I'm brushing my teeth. I'm shaving I mean there's so much time in your mind is just Floating around doing nothing and boys you could get this if you could get this at your hand all the time If you could have this in your mind all the time you'll find yourself. Just quoting a chapter of the Bible Hey, I got a couple minutes. I think I'll quote a chapter of the Bible that I know all right I've got a couple minutes. I'm gonna pull this out and learn some new verses I'm telling you you will you will learn so much Bible And I'll tell you this right now the people that I've looked up to throughout my life Heroes of mine preachers and and great spiritual men they would get up in the morning Very early in the morning, and they would read the Bible for two hours every day or read the Bible for one hour every day Now that's that's that takes a lot of character. That's hard to do, but I'm going to tell you something You if you do what I'm talking about tonight if you meditate in the Word of God day and night as David did You will read the Bible more than two hours a day equivalent I mean think about you could quote the Bible you could learn your verses for four hours Six hours seven hours. There's no way anybody in this room is going to sit down and read the Bible You know for six or seven hours every day consistently But this is a way you could know that's why David said look down at your Bible and in Psalm 119 Look what he says in verse number 90 Verse number 99 look what he says I have more understanding than all my teachers For thy testimonies are my meditation I understand more than the agents because I keep and keep their summer retaining the Word of God Remembering it because I keep thy precept He said I have learned more Bible what David is saying then the people who taught me the Word of God He says I know more Bible than the old ancient man knows the Bible because he said I Discovered that not just reading the Bible for 15 minutes when I wake up in the morning Not just before I go to bed reading the Bible for 15 20 minutes He said I've learned to meditate on God's Word throughout the day Day and night having God's Word ever with me as it says in verse number 98 You see there's a secret that David discovered of meditating on the Word of God throughout the day that allowed him to learn more Bible that allowed him to be More wise that allowed him to understand more that allowed him to get more done because he'd learn this great secret from the Bible Now Psalm 19 7 don't turn there, but this is what the Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect Converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure Making wise the simple now I have my children memorize the Bible because the Bible says that it will make Wise the simple and if you hear this morning You'll this sermon will make more sense to you also because you know the power and the value of God's Word that we talked about This morning, but see these kids they yes, they're homeschooled You know, yes, we teach them the science and the math and the English and history and all that stuff but I'm going to tell you something 10,000 times more important the most important thing that these kids do is memorize the Bible and If they have to live the sacrifice the history or the English or the math one day that will be sacrificed But learning the Bible verses never sacrificed and these kids come out smarter Studying the Bible because the Bible's wisdom is so much better than man's wisdom any history book any science book any math This will make give you understanding this will make you a wise person this will make wise the simple my son Solomon Let me tell you this Right about the same time this actually before I discovered this I did an experiment with with my son Solomon when he was two years Old just a couple years ago. This is about the time Experimenting on your son. He's like a guinea pig. Okay a couple years ago My son Solomon. He just turned two years old. Here's what I did I read to him just to try this out just to see what would happen I read to him the book of Jonah form just very short chapters four very short chapters book of Jonah I read him the book of Jonah every night for about two or three months So I read it like 90 times Okay, and every once in a while I would talk to him and explain to him what some of the words meant some of the more difficult vocabulary words But the story of Jonah seemed like a pretty understandable story even for a two-year-old And so I read to him the book of Jonah in its entirety and boy sometimes I did not feel like reading the book of Jonah again, okay? But I read it to him every night just to try this out And you know what he almost had the book of Jonah memorized at the end of days two years old Just from listening to you wasn't even trying, but I just read it to him every night every night and about three months later What I started doing was I would leave out words, and he would fill in the blanks I would just leave out a word and he would fill in the word and I believe that different words every night He could he could fill in any work, and I don't know if he could have quoted it verbatim because he was so young I couldn't even tell him okay. You know say it to me. You know he's just Cuz he's two years old right, but this is something that anybody can do I mean something that even a tiny little child can learn Later on I taught him 2nd Timothy chapter 2 which has 28 verses this is when he was about 3 years old. I think three and a half and I told him I was gonna buy him a soldier outfit if he learned it, okay So I taught him this and and he learned it he memorized my wife taught him a lot of it And he learned when he was three 2nd Timothy chapter 2 and I took him down and bought him you know the camouflage the army helmet You know the fake machine gun and so you know the boots I got him the whole decked out thing and then he learned Romans chapter 10 after that now He's learning the book of Ecclesiastes you probably know that and he's almost done with chapter 9 Which is over 180 consecutive verses and he's 77% of the way to getting his swing set in the backyard when he finishes the book of Ecclesiastes See there's something that anybody can do I mean it's not even a little kid can do it I Mean a five-year-old boy has more Bible memorized than probably the typical preacher Probably the typical Bible scholar probably some guy with a bunch of letters after his name And may be a BS MD and yes, I did emphasize those two letters, but you know all these stupid degrees that he has behind his name. Hey my son Probably has more wisdom than he does because he's got 10 chapters of the Bible memorized That's better than some degree on your name on the wall somewhere And I'm going to tell you something memorizing the Bible will give you more understanding my son here I've been here to say and he say oh he's a prodigy. He's a child, but he's not a prodigy at all You know he just learns the Bible because my other son Isaac He learned he's got a few chapters under his belt my younger son John's got a few chapters under his belt because these kids when they learn the Bible it gives them intelligence Tell the public school that we don't need smaller class sizes and more computers and more chemistry labs We need the book that you kicked out in 1947 that's what would bring up the SAT scores. That's why the scores have gone down the toilet Hey That's why there's gangs and shootings and violence and and a police officer walking up and down the playground with the orange vest on Hey, I'm going to tell you something. It's the book that you kicked out in 1947 That's why you're turning out a generation of idiots because you kicked out the Holy Bible. That's why This is the textbook that I will rear my children with this is the number one two three four five and six and seven Eight nine and ten textbook that I'll rear my children with because this is God's Word. This is from the mouth of God This is the Holy Bible. This is the wisdom of the ages right here But turn are you still in Psalm 119, I think I still have you there Let's finish up this this little section here where it says in Psalm 119 Let me find my place here First number 100. I understand more than the ancients because I keep thy precepts I have refrained my feet from every evil way That I might keep thy word. I have not departed from my judgments for thou has taught me How would you like God to teach you the Bible? How sweet are thy words unto my taste? Ye sweeter than honey to my mouth through thy precepts. I get understanding Therefore I hate every false way. Let me read these other verses to you Psalm 63 6 You don't have to turn there when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on the in the night watch as David said I will Meditate also of all thy work and talk of thy doings I will meditate in thy precepts talking about the Bible and have respect unto thy ways Princes also did sit and speak against me But thy servant did meditate in thy statutes my hands also while I lift up unto thy precepts Also while I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved and I will meditate in thy statutes Let the proud be ashamed. I'm reading several different verses Let the proud be ashamed for they dealt perversely with me without a cause but I will meditate in thy precepts Listen to this mine eyes prevent the night watches That I might meditate in thy word. He said I'm I'm memorizing and reading the Bible so much that my eyes are falling asleep I'm so tired, but I want to stay up and just read one more verse from the Bible You see I don't know what that's like. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good Hey get into this thing of the Bible and you'll find yourself wanting to stay up a little more just to read one more chapter Just to memorize one more verse And then the verse that we started out with tonight in first timothy chapter four Paul told timothy meditate upon these things Give thyself holy to them that thy profiting may appear to all he said Here's the advice that i'd give to you timothy. Just give yourself completely To studying the bible meditate on these things day and night give yourself. Holy W-h-o-l-l-y. Holy holy to the study of god's word. He said your profiting will appear to all Now i'm going to tell you something I wish that I could get you to understand how important this is and I wish I could get you to understand That this is what will keep you in church Year after year This is what will help you to understand the bible so that when some false prophet and some false teacher and some charlatan comes along You'll be able to say that's not true Because it is written Fill in the blank whatever you've learned And so back to the story I I learned This method, you know when I was 23 years old memorizing about and you know the first few months, you know You start out with kind of a jump start you're excited about something and I had all that dead time Just sitting around in college Boring my brains out and so I sat there and I learned the bible and I memorized a lot But you know, I came to a point after doing that for a couple of months You know, I was on like five chapters a week. Okay, so I got to where i'd learned about 50 chapters And I was just learning like too many And so I just kind of hit a wall Where my mind just fried and I couldn't I just couldn't keep it up anymore What I was trying to pull back everything and so I lost a lot of the chapters that I learned You know, I forgot a lot of them and it was frustrating but because I had this method I thought you know what? I can get back into this I can keep this going And so I went back and relearned and relearned and got caught up and I did it again. I got up to about 80 You know and again I kind of hit a wall where I lost a lot of them and I had to go back and learn more And it's a little bit frustrating, but I realized to just limit myself to about you know, one or two chapters a week Was about the max that I wanted to learn because if I learned more than that it just got too much You know your mind is only capable of so much I guess And so I got to where I would just do one or two chapters a week and that's where i'm at right now You know, I do about one to two chapters a week and I work on you know Refreshing the ones that I know and and keep going back and learning them and learning them and learning them And my goal is to memorize the entire new testament and i'm one third done And my goal after that is to memorize the entire bible which I believe is is possible with god all things are possible And even just humanly speaking it's very possible to do that now You say well, I don't know if this is for me, I don't know if i'm ready to do this Well, look start small start with something small. You've already done psalm 15 Pick something that you already maybe know a little bit maybe psalm 23 The lord is my shepherd I shall not want, you know things like that that you know Pick something small and learn it and whatever you do. Just don't forget what you've already learned And you can just keep learning more and learning more and learning more and learning more I'm gonna tell you something. It'll revolutionize your understanding of the bible I mean, it'll give you insight into things that you've never seen before You'll learn more than you ever thought possible from the bible I mean, it's something that will revolutionize your study of the bible. I'll tell you right now. It'll it'll Keep your mind occupied. It'll get some of the junk out of your mind, you know from your from a sinful past You know, we've all done things in our past that we don't like to think about Hey just so clean out your mind And fill it with the things of god fill it with something good and productive and right to be doing with your time And so I would encourage you to just start small with it maybe But just get some cards write down some verses pick a small chapter pick a small book of the bible and just try it Just put it in your pocket and just whenever you have a dead time whenever you have a few seconds Just pull it out and just begin to go over it a little bit And you'll see that you have dead time like that all the time You'll find yourself all throughout the day learning And you'll be able to take it to new heights and you'll learn more bible than you ever thought possible I'm telling you this this will change your life If you would get into this, I mean it'll revolutionize your life and I mean that And I mean this is this is something that I wish I literally wish I could just spend you know my whole Life on it, you know, I get so busy at my work Sometimes I can't spend as much time on it as I want to or sometimes I used to be able to But I just I find a way to just make time to do it because it's so important And so I hope you know Tonight's sermon was not a typical sermon for me. Usually my sermons are all just bible, you know I told a lot of stories a little bit of of myself and and how I came to these things and learned about these things But i'm going to tell you something The reason that I did that is because I I want you to just decide that tonight right now That you're going to work on this and try and do this and you know do it at your own level You know, i'm not saying I mean it took me years of working up to it You know first I learned a couple chapters I failed, you know, I got back into it I learned 11 and I failed, you know, and now i'm learning more and i'm going to fail No, okay. Hopefully I don't fail this time. But anyway, hey start out with something and and learn it And uh, there's nobody in this room that couldn't learn a chapter of the bible nobody in this room and so I encourage you to just decide that you're going to work on it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer Father I just pray that you would please just help everyone in this room to understand that with god all things are possible And not to let people's man-made barriers and just people's ideas that things Can't be done or that it's not for me. God help everyone to realize that This is something that you would have them to do to memorize the bible to learn the bible and to meditate on it day And night father and please help everyone in this room to understand the joy of going through the day With jesus christ right there side by side with you Quoting the bible throughout the day With the presence of god and the presence of the holy spirit right there through his word Father please just help no one in this room to say well this isn't for me And god, please just encourage the people in this room to just maybe start with something small start with a few verses And to learn the bible and to memorize the bible so that they could be in this thing for the long haul and