GYC Great Lakes 2011

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GYC Great Lakes

Vikram Panchal

Scripture Memorization

So this is the fifth or the second last session of our series on practical spirituality.

And our focus today will be on scripture memory.

The very first thing I want to look at with you is the need for scripture memory.

So why do you need scripture memory anyways?

Our key text for today comes from Romans chapter 12 verses 1 & 2 and this is in the King James Version and Here Paul says I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice Holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service Now the key words here are living sacrifice.

That to you may seem like a contradiction of terms, right?

How can a sacrifice be living at the same time?

But Paul was making reference back to the old Levitical system where there were animal sacrifices that were presented before God in the sanctuary.

However, 1 of the sacrifices that was made was actually a grain offering.

Now a grain offering doesn't involve any blood, doesn't involve any death.

It was in fact a grain offering which represented consecration before God.

So any Israelite who wanted to consecrate himself or herself before God would bring a grain offering.

And the word sacrifice comes from the Latin and it comes from 2 words which means make sacred.

So when Paul is saying offering yourselves, your bodies as a living sacrifice, he's saying offering yourselves as a consecration to make yourself sacred before God.

Offering yourself completely holy before God.

But he continues as well in verse 2, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Now if you've been coming along to the last few sessions we've had, we find that Paul has this consistent theme.

He tells you what to turn away from, but he doesn't just leave you there.

Okay, so first he says, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Now the word for conformed is a Greek verb, which is, sus kei matizo mai, which means be conformed to, be shaped by, or live after the pattern of this world.

So Paul is saying don't be molded after the things of this world.

Don't be patterned after the things of this world.

And the word for transformation in Greek is metamorphisomai.

And that's where we get our English word metamorphosis from, right?

Which essentially means be changed and formed, be transformed entirely, completely by, and he doesn't tell us what exactly, but by the renewing of your mind.

So this is here our key text, But how do we actually become conformed?

Paul here tells us what to do, but he doesn't tell us how to go about doing it.

And that's where we have to compare Scripture with Scripture.

Now, if you go to John chapter 17 and verse 17, Jesus here says, Sanctify them by thy truth, thy word is truth.

So Paul says, Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, but how are you transformed by the renewing of your mind?

In John chapter 17 verse 17, Jesus himself gives us the key.

He says, be sanctified by the truth, thy word is truth.

In other words, if we want to experience true sanctification, it comes by the Word of God.

Psalms 119 verse 105 says, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

And it is easy for our minds to become corrupted when they are not centered upon God's Word.

Whatever we place into our minds, whatever mental pictures we allow to come into our minds influences what we're actually thinking about.

What we think about influences our actions, our behavior, and if we perform those behaviors a certain set of number of times over and over again, it turns into a habit.

If you group a set of habits together, it forms your character.

So at the very root of it, we need to change our thoughts.

We need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

It comes from the Spirit of Prophecy, Ellen White's writings.

And I found this in an article in Bible Echo in October 1st, 1889.

Okay, I'm just going to read this to you.

It says here, "...those who have dishonored their minds and affections by placing them where God's word forbids will not scruple to dishonor God by various species of idolatry, and they will be left to their vile affections.

It is necessary to guard the thoughts, to fence the soul about with the injunctions of God's holy word and to guard constantly against being betrayed into sin." So clearly Ellen White is talking about being transformed by the renewing of your mind by saying it is important or it is necessary to guard the thoughts, to fence the soul about with the injunctions of God's holy word.

So notice that she links the renewing of your mind with the Word of God, right?

In other words, using the Word of God as a fence or as a blockade to prevent anything that's impure from entering into your mind.

Okay, so we've looked at the need for scripture memory.

Because it cleanses our minds, it renews us, It allows new thoughts that are not of this world, but that comes directly from the Word of God.

You're taking the junk out, the past data you entered into your mind, and replacing it with new data from the Word of God.

Okay, so we've looked at the need for scripture memory, but what about the reasons for scripture memory?

The first and most important reason is that God commanded scripture memory.

In Proverbs chapter 7 verses 1 to 3, it says there, My son, keep my words and treasure my commands within you.

Keep my commands and live and my law as the apple of your eye.

Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tables of your heart." Similarly in Deuteronomy chapter 11 verses 18 to 21, let's turn there if you've got your Bibles, Deuteronomy chapter 11 verses 18 to 21.

And I'm going to read from the New King James Version.

It says here, Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul and bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontless between your eyes.

You shall teach them to your children, Speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." So how important was it to talk about the Word of God, to have the Word of God laid up in our hearts, to meditate upon God's Word wherever you go?

It is clear, according to Moses' instructions, or more specifically, according to God's instructions, that we are to talk about it wherever we are.

When we are with our friends, we are to talk and meditate upon God's Word.

When we are doing Bible study, we are to talk and meditate upon God's Word.

It is supposed to be a rule of life such that it guards our soul against anything that is impure, anything that is worldly from entering into our hearts and into our minds.

So God wants the Word of God stored deep within us.

Job himself, the weeping prophet, a faithful prophet of God, says in Job chapter 22 verse 22, Receive, please, instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.

So Job is pleading with God's people, the Israelites who had apostasized, who had gone into rebellion.

He pleads with them, receive, please, instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.

Now, why do you think Job says, lay up his words in your heart and not just in your mind?

If you've been here for the last couple of sessions, yesterday especially, you would have, we would have actually gone into this in more depth.

And I'll be going over that again with you in a couple of minutes.

But the reason why God wants His Word in our heart is so that it is not just a mere intellectual understanding.

It's not just something that we read and understand or comprehend.

But He wants it in our heart so that we've internalized the Word of God, and it becomes easy for us to do it, right?

If someone tells you to do something, you can do it intellectually, but if you have it in your heart, obedience becomes much easier, right?

In John 14, verse 15, Jesus says, "'If you love me, keep my commandments.'" Jesus could have just said, keep my commandments.

But if you love God with your heart, with your soul, it becomes easy to keep his commandments.

Also in Matthew chapter 28, verse 19 to 20, Sikhu went through the Great Commission with us, but I'm just going to read through it again.

Jesus says here, and you can turn there, Matthew chapter 28 verses 19 and 20, Jesus says, go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age." The keyword I want to look at here is not, there's many different keywords in the Great Commission, but the 1 I want to focus on is the word ptereo from Greek, which translated into English means observe, Or you could also translate it as keep, obey.

But specifically it could also mean keep under guard, keep under custody.

That's what the word tereo or observe actually is better defined as.

Now if you've got a concordance you can look for the word observe or you could look for the word tereo in Greek and you will find that there's an interesting passage where the word tereo is used and that's in Acts chapter 16 verse 23.

Now, in Acts chapter 16 verse 23, it is a story of where Paul and Silas are imprisoned and this is a story of the Philippian jailer who eventually becomes converted.

And the Philippian jailer is given specific clear-cut instructions to bind Paul and Silas in shackles, in chains, so that they cannot move, so that they cannot be set free.

The word for binding them is the word Tereo, right?

So Paul and Silas are to be so firmly bound by these chains that they cannot be let go.

In other words, when you use the word tereo now in the Great Commission, Jesus is saying, teaching them to observe, tereo, all things whatsoever ever I've commanded you.

Scripture Memorization

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