Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
Transforming Your Spiritual Journey Through Scripture Memorization
Have you ever wondered how memorizing scripture can reshape your spiritual journey? Join me as we unlock the secrets to not just knowing God’s Word, but living it. Drawing from pivotal passages such as Romans 5:1-8 and Psalm 103, we embark on a quest to transform scripture from mere head knowledge to profound heart knowledge. This episode promises to guide you in memorizing one scripture each month, empowering you to carry God’s wisdom with you wherever life leads, even when your Bible isn’t at arm's reach.
Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
Here we go. We are back today. Now I'm going to start off with a few scriptures that I recommend that you should learn, and the reason is this is going to be all about memory scriptures and why we need to do these. Now I'm going to give you a few of them. I'm only going to read a couple, otherwise I won't get through my whole message, and the purpose of this is to make sure that I can get my whole message through. So please write these down, get a pen and paper, and while you're doing that, I will read the first couple of scriptures. The first one is Romans 1 sorry, my bad. Romans 5, 1 to 8.
Speaker 1:Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our suffering. But we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, but because God's love has been poured into our heart through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, for while we were still weak, at the right time, christ died for the ungodly, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person through. Perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, christ died for us.
Speaker 1:Now, as you can see, some of these are fairly lengthy, and this will be revealed with you as we go through the message today. Now the other ones to take into consideration. If you've got your pen and paper, can you write down Psalm 1, psalm 16, and Psalm 103. Now remember also the one I just read out to you Romans 5, 1 through to 8. And also Romans 8 itself. But let's go to Matthew 6, 25 to 34. And we'll do one more, and then I'll explain why this is all about Matthew 6, 25 to 34,.
Speaker 1:This is Jesus speaking. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body. What you will put on Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valued than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can be added a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even solomon, in all his glory, was not a ray like one of these. But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, oh ye, of little faith. Therefore, do not be anxious saying what shall I? Verse 2. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself Sufficient, for the day is its own trouble.
Speaker 1:Now, I think that is a very, very important one to be aware of, and the other one, which is called the love chapter, is 1 corinthians 13. Now, I'm not going to read through that because of time, but the point of reciting these scriptures is to motivate you by way of an example, and I'm putting the challenge to you today that over the next 12 months, okay, try and memorize 12 scriptures, and that is basically before Christmas 2025. Because this message is an example of my testimony in relation to the value of memorizing scriptures in line with Jesus' testimony in the Gospel of John. Now we are in the Gospel of John at the moment, but it's something that I think everybody needs to try and achieve. But it's something that I think everybody needs to try and achieve and it's not like it's a big challenge and you don't need to try and memorize scriptures like 1 Corinthians 13 or sort of go into Romans 5, 1 to 8. Romans 5, 1 to 8.
Speaker 1:So the thing is, yes, you can, in theory, cheat a little bit by memorizing ones you already know and count them as on your list of 12, or you could pick real simple, easy scriptures to memorize, simple, easy scriptures to memorize. Like Jesus wept, or perhaps John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Who ever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now I'm not going to show off or try to boast myself, because Jesus wouldn't do that. So why should I? But common sense would tell you, my listeners, that as an ordained pastor, then I should relatively know a large amount of scriptures, which I do, but the point of this is not just for me, as you'll find out later on.
Speaker 1:So memorizing scriptures makes meditation on his word, that's God's word, possible at times when we can't read the Bible for a variety of reasons and we cannot meditate, or should I say, recite over and over again scriptures that we know it's the pathway of a deeper understanding of your relationship with the Lord. Now, memorizing scriptures strengthens us by faith, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. There's a clue, there's another one, and that happens when I'm hearing the word in my head. So this is why I often tell a lot of people faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God. So as you're memorizing the scripture, you read it out loud, and I'll give you a clue that I learnt a long time ago because I'm not a real academic.
Speaker 1:So I struggle from time to time doing things like studying the Word or preparing for a sermon or something like that. I read a lot more now than what I used to before I went to Bible college, but we're getting a bit off track here. But this is the principle I use. You may have your own way of doing it, but this is the principle I use. You may have your own way of doing it, but this is what I do. Now just say, for instance, we look at, say, john 10.10. You go, john 10.10,. The thief has but come to rob, kill and destroy, but I have come to give you life and give it to you more abundantly, john 1010. So what I've done is I recite chapter and verse okay, and then I read the scripture out loud so I can hear it in my ears, which helps get it into my heart. And then I say what the scripture is again, because even myself I can rattle off some scriptures and if someone says, oh, I like that, where is it? And I go, um, I don't know, it's in Luke somewhere. But you've got to have that information available. And I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1:Memorizing scriptures shapes the way that we view the world, by conforming our minds to God's point of view, especially when you're in pain or you're in hospital or you don't have direct access to your Bible. And for those that are saying, oh, yeah, but it's on my phone and I've always got my phone with me, well, okay for you, new millenniums and all this sort of stuff and I don't know what the Gen Z I think it is now. Whatever configuration it is, it's great to have it on your phone, so you've got it with you always, but you need to put your phone on airport mode because the phone is, I think, devil's playground. Phone is, I think, devil's playground Because if you're using your phone to go through scriptures, and every now and again you're going to have alerts popping up and it's going to be oh, someone just posted something on Twitter. Oh no, someone just did something on Instagram or someone sent you a text message. And these are distractions and, believe it or not, these are distractions which are put in place for the deceiver to conquer you and allow you to slip into sin.
Speaker 1:Memorizing scriptures guards my mind, and hopefully yours as well, by making it easier to detect errors and the things not of God, and the world is filled with errors. Since the God of this world is a liar, he comes to kill, steal and destroy. Destroy. Your phone is one of these. I got a friend of mine who calls it the antichrist, and I know he's only joking, but the thing is, yes, everything's so busy, busy, busy these days and everybody's trying to do everything all at the same time, and so they cram all of this stuff on their phone and then, when they really want to spend some time with the Lord, the phone is the biggest distraction. But memorizing scriptures enables me to hit the devil in the face with the force that cannot be resisted, and so protects myself and my family from his assault.
Speaker 1:Memorizing scriptures provides the strongest and sweetest words for ministering to others that are in need, for ministering to others that are in need. The reason I say that is because you may find yourself in a situation where somebody needs you to help them out and you can't say, oh, let me go to my car and get my Bible, or let me go home and get my Bible. You need to be ready, always be prepared. Memorizing scriptures provides the matrix for fellowship with Jesus, because he talks to me through his word and I talk to him praying, reminding him of his word and his promises, and that's what he wants us to do. So, basically, that's my testimony about why I learn scriptures, and it should be something that you should be trying to achieve yourself for your own purposes. I hope it will motivate you to make your own discoveries, but what matters most is the testimony of Jesus.
Speaker 1:So focus for a few minutes with me on the passage of John 15.7. Now, this is where Jesus is saying If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. Let's simply linger on that for a few moments. And it's talking about his words abiding in you and your words in him. The vine is in the branch. So what does all this mean, and why do words of Jesus have the effect that they do? And what does this have to do with memorizing scriptures? Well, in a nutshell, my answer to that it has everything to do with it.
Speaker 1:As you memorize scriptures, it goes from head knowledge to heart knowledge. First of all, having the word of Jesus abiding in you is more than memorizing it or having it in your head. We know this for several reasons. First, we know it because the devil can memorize scriptures, and he quoted those to Jesus when he was in the wilderness to tempt him. Matthew 4, 1 through to 10. Now should I read this? Okay, well, I will. Matthew 4, 1 to 10. Now should I read this? Okay, well, I will. Matthew 4, 1 to 10. I'll read this, just so there are people that are out there that may not know this.
Speaker 1:This is when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, it said. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But Jesus answered and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that cometh from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacles of the temples and said to him If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written. And as the devil's knows the word of God, that the devil also knows the word of God. In Matthew 4, you know 7, jesus said to him Again it is written you shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test. And again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all of the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him All of these I will give to you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him Be gone, satan. For it is written you shall worship the Lord, your God, and him only shall you serve. And him only shall you serve as a clear indicator that scripture is also used by the deceiver himself.
Speaker 1:Now, moving on, we know this because of what Jesus said in John 5.38. He said to the Jews who were questioning him you do not have God's word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom has sent me. But these people knew much of God's words from memory. Jewish people who are very serious about their faith always memorize scriptures, and a lot of this is done before their bar mitzvah, when they're sort of classified as going from a child to an adult at the age of 13. They know the first five books of the Bible, the first five books of the Bible. What this means is that the words of Jesus take root and bear fruit of faith and holiness. John 5.38 connects the word and faith. You do not have to Hang on, wait a minute. You do not have his words abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he being sent from god if the word abides in you and you believe in the word. And the one who spoke spoke it. See. So Jesus is basically calling out the Pharisees these are the religious leaders of the time and he's saying that the word doesn't abide in them. But he's not saying they don't know the word. They do know the word.
Speaker 1:And I've come across quite a lot of people and I had someone I used to work with. He could read both the Bible and he could also read it in Hebrew and he could rattle off scriptures left, right and center. But the one thing I noticed about him, there was no flavor to his words when he was speaking these scriptures. He was just reciting them from memory. So he had all that head knowledge. He did not have the heart knowledge.
Speaker 1:His word needs to find a home in us and if there's anything else in you that is not of God, this is a good way to push that out. The abiding of Jesus' word in us means that his word finds a home. They fit together, they belong. In John 8, 37, jesus said I know that you are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my words find no place in you. That's the opposite of words abiding in us. When the word abides in us, it finds a place, it finds a home. It finds a home. It's not foreign. You know, when we get something wrong with our stomach or our body and we get an infection, that means it's something that is foreign in our body and the antibodies that we have in our body sometimes are enough to attack that foreign virus and kill it or eradicate it. Sometimes we need to go to the doctor and we need to get medication which is a higher level of antibiotics to fight the infection that is in our body. It's the same with the word of God.
Speaker 1:You know, as you've gone through your life now, I know that this won't pertain to everybody. There are some people that found Christ at an early age or they've been brought up in a Christian environment, which is great. But unlike me, I come I'm Johnny come lately when it comes to the word of God. So the thing is there's a lot of stuff in my body, in my mind, in my thoughts, because we are a spirit, soul and body. So I'm being fed by things of the world which are not things of God, and so that is feeding me and it's deep inside of me. You know, you may get there and you're doing a bit of woodwork out the back and you get distracted and all of a sudden, the hammer, instead of hitting the nail, hits your thumb and straight away these words flash through your head and if you're not careful, they come out and they're all the profanities that you have learned or heard over a long period of time. But if you are strong in your faith and strong in the word of God, you can muzzle that and suppress it and only say what you want to say, which is things that edify and lift up God.
Speaker 1:Because in John 8, 37, when Jesus says that I know that you are offspring of Abraham, right, and yet you seek to kill because my words find no place in you.
Speaker 1:That's the opposite of words abiding in us. When the words abide in us, it finds a place of home. It's not a foreigner, it's not a disease, it's not something nasty, it belongs to you because it connects to your spirit. You move other things around and even get rid of these things, and sometimes there's no more room for the things of the world because you feel at peace and you feel at home. In other words, you push some of the or hopefully all things that are not of God, are of the world, and it says in the word of God that we live in this world, but we're not of it. So I know personally, you know, because of my background in the military, working in security, working in Department of Corrections, I was coming across so much filth of the world and the language was phenomenal and I was part of that. But then when I become born again, that slowly but surely pushed its way out of my body because I was making room for the word of God and got to a stage where I mean I have to think really, really hard if I wanted to use a swear word because it's foreign to me now.
Speaker 1:But the word of God isn't the words of Jesus. Don't abide without having an effect on you. Just remember when they take root, they produce faith and holiness, sanctify it and they bring truth. Jesus says your word is truth, john 17, 17. I'm not going to read all these other scriptures, otherwise I'm going to run out of time. So when his word abides in us, sanctification happens. We are transformed by the renewing of our mind to have holiness, so Christ-likeness happens. So my challenge is to you to just try to remember and abide in Jesus' word means that the words of Jesus take root and bear fruit of faith and holiness.
Speaker 1:So why do the words of Jesus have this effect? Well, there's at least three main things that I can think of. Jesus' words are the words of God. John 3.34,. He whom God has sent utters the words of God. John 3.34. When the apostles taught in their office as apostles, they spoke the truth and the authority of God. But every time Jesus opened his mouth we are actually hearing the word of God, and the word of God is powerful. That's the first and main reason why abiding in Jesus' word is in us and has the effect that it does. It says it's sharper than a two-edged sword, cuts deep to the deepest marrow. And I'm getting carried away with all these scriptures. I've got to stay on track. I've got to stay on track.
Speaker 1:Number two reason the words of Jesus are life-giving. Jesus said in John 6, 63, it is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. The Spirit of God gives us life through the words of God, and Jesus' words are those words. So his words are spirit and life. I'll say that again. God's words are spirit and life. They quicken the spirit and impart eternal life. That's why Peter says five verses later Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. It's John 6, 68. Verse 68.
Speaker 1:Finally, the third thing. So the words of Jesus are the words of God and they impart eternal life. And thirdly, they produce the faith and the holiness because they conquer the devil. We have a supernatural adversary, the devil. He hates us, he hates our marriages, he hates our children, he hates our church and he hates God In ourselves. We are not as strong as he is. That is why John says that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. That's 1 John 5.19. The world has no defense against the devil. From the natural perspective, absolutely no protection.
Speaker 1:But listen to what John says to young Christians in 1 John. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one, and that's 1 John 2.14. You see, again, it's about the abiding in you and abiding in him. You've got to see the connection. The word of God abides in you and you have overcome, conquered the devil or the evil one, and he cannot stand against you because the indwelling of the word of God is in you If the word of God abides in you, you overcome the evil one.
Speaker 1:A while back, someone asked me if I thought that a Christian or a Christian family could be cursed, and rather than saying yes or no, I did a bit of Jesus' thing, you know, like he answers a question with a question or whatever. So my answer is this he answers a question with a question or whatever. So my answer is this If the word of God abides in you, you overcome the evil one. No demonic curse can stand against the gracious, liberating, transforming, devil-defeating word of God when it abides in your heart, when it abides in your heart. But if the word of God is absent from you, you leave open the door for the devil to come in. So we ask, finally, what does all of this have to do with memorizing scriptures? Well, I come to that with a broad biblical answer and then a practical personal answer. Firstly, the broad biblical answer.
Speaker 1:The Holy Spirit awakens life and faith and personal transformation, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and more. In Galatians 5.22,. God, the Holy Spirit, does that, but he does it through the word of God. 1 Peter 1.23,. John 17.17. How, if you carry your Bible around all day and never read it, will the Holy Spirit make the nearest of the word of God enter into your purse or your pocket, effectively changing your life? No, of course not. It won't, because you're carrying the word of God but you're not using it unless you hit a robber over the head with it, because he won't help you, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing of the word of God or Christ. Romans 10, 17. God gave us conscious minds. He gave us violation and emotion. The Holy Spirit makes the words of Jesus effective when they attach with understanding of our minds, and then our wills, and then our emotions, and then our wills and then our emotions. Christ is glorified when his word is heard and understood and affirmed and enjoyed. So that is how God has ordained for changes to happen. Therefore, anything that brings the word of God into correction with our minds or our will or our work, strengthens and promotes understanding and brings about the fruit of the spirit and that transformation out of mind more constantly and more deeply than any other transforming aspect that you may have, realistically, nothing else can take its place than the broad biblical answer for this question. Now, I probably should have done this in two parts, but I just feel that you know if you really want to take hold of this, then perhaps you will endure and bear with me a little bit longer. Bear with me a little bit longer Now, making God's word practically in our lives and in our marriages. Now, this is something from me and Maria right Now.
Speaker 1:On the 28th of July was our 40th wedding anniversary. Now, we couldn't even go away for a couple of days because of a bundle of reasons, but I won't elaborate, so during that time, I read and prayed over Psalm 40 and Isaiah 40. Don't know why those two come to mind and I decided I needed to focus on them. We, as a couple, talked about the difficulties of the year gone by and we pondered how easy it was to get discouraged with painful circumstances. We recalled many times when we rehearsed, a dozen things that were discouraging in our lives, including the fact that we couldn't even celebrate such a milestone in our marriage due to these circumstances. But we still were blessed and had some dear friends of ours take us out for a lovely barbecue lunch.
Speaker 1:But this is the thing that we were focusing on all the negative things, and as it became clear to us that what we needed to do was stop letting the voice of negative circumstances dominate our conversation. Yes, you have to be realistic. The painful things that really are there, yes, okay, you have to be aware of them. But we realized that the word of God, the promises of God, the works of God and the thoughts of God, the person of God, that voice was not being spoken into those moments. There may have been you know, I'm still doing my devotional, still doing my Bible readings and everything, but at that moment God's word was silent because you know and this is mainly this is what I'm saying this is our fault. As the husband, it's my role to lead with the word of God. Any negative thoughts that are spoken are not his.
Speaker 1:So I lingered over Psalm 45 and decided to make it a year-long marriage verse in 2024. You have multiplied, o God, my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us. So I'm memorizing it and we aim to make it the banner that flies over our lunches, that we have in our special place down on the South Perth foreshore, and all of our conversations. God's wondrous deeds and his countless thoughts towards us. We will proclaim and tell of them. We will proclaim and tell of them. To that end, I rededicate myself to memorising the wondrous deeds and the thoughts of God towards us. Pray for us as we pray for you, and may Christ make his word dwell richly in you, the way it does in us and for everybody listening.
Speaker 1:For this year and for 2025, I know it's not New Year's resolution yet, but come up with 12 scriptures and see how you go, try and memorize them and get them into your heart. It says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So stuff that is inside of you, that is of the world, needs to be suppressed or it needs to be got rid of, and the best way to do that is with the word of God. That'll do it for now. Sorry for going over, and we'll talk to you next time on Great Vine. That'll do it for now. Sorry for going over, and we'll talk to you next time on Grapevine Ministries. Bye for now.
