Good morning, church family. I invite you to turn open in your Bibles to Psalm 119, page 598 in your pew Bibles. And as you're turning there, I want to begin with a question. going to set any New Year's resolutions for this 2024? Are you going to make any plans to try to make some changes in your life or to resolve to do some things? You know, I don't know about you, but every year, it's a new year. but in the Bible it says that every day is a new day. And so I plan on doing tonight what I typically do, and that is to go to bed way before the ball drops, okay? I am not going to stay up watching Ryan Seacrest countdown to a new year. I just will assume that tomorrow morning the world will be as it is and I will be able to greet a new year, a new day, just like I do every single day. How about you? Is anybody going to say up for the ball drop? Oh, some of you are going to do that. Okay, good. Well, hopefully you can watch it for me so that you can attest to a fact that it did, in fact, drop at exactly 12 midnight. I might watch it in Australia. That way I get it done early in the day and it'll be done, right? Because the New Year's first in Australia, I understand. So New Year's resolutions are something we all tend to do. Some of you, you may want to lose a few pounds. Some of you want to be nicer. Some of you want to get a new job. Some of you may want to get into a new relationship or out of an old one maybe. I don't know what your resolutions are, but mine are very simple. I want to become more avid in my study of God's Word. You know, it's interesting. The title for today's message is Hide and Seek. To Hide and Seek. And I remember as a kid, I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. For those who don't know, that makes me a Baltimore-on. Okay? And so I was the youngest of four kids, and then my younger brother came 12 years later. But we used to play outside from sunup to sundown. even into past into dark. And we only knew when to come in when my dad would turn on the porch light. That's when he wanted us to come in. But almost every night in the summer months we would play hide-and-seek. Raise your hand if you ever played hide-and-seek as a kid. Okay, all of us did, right? And I remember having a premier hiding spot that I had found. It was behind the Newman house, behind the garage, underneath of a canoe. And there was only about this much room between the edge of the canoe and the ground. And I would have to shimmy myself into underneath the canoe. Now, it was a great hiding space. They never found me. However, when they called Ollie Ollie in free for everybody to come back in, it took Randy a little bit of time getting out from underneath of that canoe to make it back to home base. But I'll never forget those were some of the greatest times of my childhood as I would hide and seek. And as I've grown up and as I've become a believer in Jesus Christ and as I became a Bible student, principally during the time of my college years when I would go out to sea as part of our education, I would study the Bible and I would read it and I would try my best to do what the Bible teaches. And instead of hide and seek, What we're going to learn today is the spiritual discipline of seeking and hiding. To seek and to hide from under God's umbrella of the Word of God. So in Psalm 119, if you are able to stand for the reading of God's word, I want us to read just eight verses from Psalm 119, and I'll say a few words about the psalm itself, as well as the book of Psalms, and then we'll dig into the text. Verse nine begins this way. How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart. Do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O Lord, teach me your decrees. With my lips, I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes. as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees. I will not neglect your word. Father, this is your word. We humbly come before you now and we ask that you will open up our hearts and our minds to its truth. Lord, we live in a culture where your word has been relegated to a bookshelf. Oh, Lord, I pray that in this new year, this church will really dig even deeper into your holy word. And may it bless us richly by its treasures and its truths. And we pray this in the name of the one who is truth himself, Jesus Christ. Amen and amen. You may be seated. You know, as I think about this particular book, I'm amazed by the length of it. Psalms is actually the longest book in the entire Bible. 150 chapters. If you know anything about Psalms, you will know that there are five books of Psalms. The first book is, of course, chapters 1 through 41, and it corresponds to the book of Genesis, or the Adoration of the Lord. Book 2 goes from chapters 42 to 72, and it corresponds to Exodus, or the hope that we have in the Lord. Book 3 is from Psalm 73 to 89, and it corresponds to the third book of the Torah, Leviticus, or the holiness that we find in the Lord. Book four is Psalm 90 to 106, and it corresponds to the book of Numbers, or our submission to the Lord. And then finally, book five is Psalm 107 all the way to the end, 150, and it's correspondent to Deuteronomy. which is our submission and perfection, perfection in the Lord. The last five Psalms, 146 to 150, are what we call the Hallel Psalms. They are Hallelujah, and the word Hallel means to praise, and Yah is a shortened form of God, Yahweh. And so it is a way to close up the book itself with five praise hymns praising God. The Psalms were orchestrated and pulled together by priests during the Second Temple period after the exile. And of course, that's why this collection of poems and worship songs was put together. Many of the authors you may know, David wrote 73 of the Psalms. But you've also got Psalms that have been written by Moses, by Solomon, by the sons of Korah, by Asaph, and there are a whole host of them that are anonymous. And so the book of Psalms is really a collection of writings that really talk about two major emotions or expressions that a follower of God would have. One is lament. That is, that they are in lament. They are struggling through their life. Many of us, when we go through difficulty in life, we find comfort in the Psalms because we see that the authors of the Psalms are experiencing the same emotions that we are experiencing. But not only are there psalms of lament, but there are songs of praise. Praise. And that is for us to remember that God is still on His throne. No matter what we go through, God is going to carry us through. Well, in the fourth book here, we see Psalm 119. Actually, the fifth book, Psalm 119. If you know anything about Psalm 119, you'll also notice that it is the longest chapter in the entire Bible. There are 176 verses in Psalm 119. And you will also notice that Psalm 119 is broken up into 22 stanzas. Those 22 stanzas represent the Hebrew alphabet. So every single letter of the Hebrew alphabet, beginning with Aleph and ending with Tov, all of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet make up Psalm 119. And it's interesting that we're looking at Beit, which is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and it's interesting that when you put Aleph and Beit together, Or in the Greek, you put alpha and beta together. What do you get? Alphabet. That's where we get the idea of an alphabet. It begins with the first two letters. Now, why would I skip over aleph and go to bait? Because bait actually means house. means house or dwelling place. In fact if you go to Jerusalem and outside of Jerusalem we just talked about Bethlehem. Beth and then Lehem. Lehem is bread so it's the house of of bread. Bethlehem is the house of bread. But it's interesting, the reason I chose this particular stanza here, bait, is because the word is house and it begins with a question. It is the only one of the 22 letters in Psalm 119 that actually opens up with a question. And the question is this, how can a young man keep his way pure? How can a young man keep his way pure? I've read commentaries about this and why a man, why the young man. But the idea here is that this is a psalmist. It's anonymous. We don't know who wrote Psalm 119. But we can imagine that this is a man who has actually lived a little bit of time, maybe has children, young children who are young men. And he is trying to teach them the purest way for them to live. I think today would be a good time for us to start teaching our young men how to live pure lives. It's important for us because ultimately it will help lead us the way God wants us to go. Many times we look at the Word of God and we say, well, I've got that. I'm convinced that the Word of God has more treasure than any of us have ever uncovered. And so when we think about how to build our house, our body, our dwelling, our place in the Christian walk, do we start with a roof? Put the roof on there and let it suspend in the middle of air, and then all of a sudden, after a little while, we start putting walls up? And then after we put the walls up and they're all set in place, then we start putting in the foundation? Is that how you build a house? No, how do you build a house? You start with the foundation. I believe that the psalmist here is helping us to see that there are foundational principles that need to be put into place in order for a person to lead and guide a pure life. I believe that that is exactly what he is doing here. And so the two keys to leading a life of purity are first, to seek God with all of our heart. To seek God with all of our heart. Look at what it says there in verse 10. I seek you with all my heart. Do not let me stray from your commands. Do not let me stray from your commands. Oftentimes, whenever you read Psalm 119, you're going to see a number of words that all mean the Word of God. You'll hear words like laws. decrees, statutes, commands, precepts, principles. All of those words the psalmist is continuing to use to refer to God's Word and the foundations that we have in life. Do you realize there's only two religions in the world? There's only two religions. There's a religion that is founded on God's Word. And then there's the religion that is founded on man's word. That's it. And if you want to found your life on God's word, then God's word has to be what you are seeking after. And that's what the psalmist does here. He is telling him, I will seek God with all my heart. How do we do that? We seek his word, his will, and his way. With respect to his word, the Bible uses numerous metaphors to refer to it. Herman just read it earlier in 2 Timothy 3 16 where it says all Scripture all of the Bible is God breathed. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Do you believe that this is in fact the very words of Almighty God? Do you believe that? I mean, you know, belief is something that has to have something that stands up under it. It's not just some historical narrative for us to take in, or information for us to glean, or for us to gain comfort from some of its words. No, these are the very words of God. And we cannot, we cannot establish our life on any other foundation than that. We want to in our world, we want to go our own way, we want to somehow say man's got it figured out. But friends, I don't care what church you go to. I don't care what group you're part of. I don't care what friend group you're part of. If you're not hanging out with people who literally believe that this is God's inspired word, then you're going to lead a life of confusion and chaos. You will. As we go into the new year, we have to come to grips with the fact that there's a lot of information that is out there on the internet that we can get into our brain. But starting with me, I'm going to put away the device. I'm going to exit out of the YouTube videos. I'm going to dig back in to God's holy word and let it speak to me. It will change you from the inside out. It is God's inspired word. In fact, Peter even said that men who wrote the Bible, the prophets that wrote all the prophecies of the Old Testament, they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Do you believe that? I mean, if you really get down to it, it really comes down to, do you really, really believe it? That these words are not from the prophet, they are words that flowed through the prophet by the Holy Spirit. Who is God? Who is the inspiring God? So we have, of course, that it is God breathed. Number two, it is truth. It is truth without any mixture of error. It's inerrant. It is infallible. The most fallible part of my sermon is when I am not reading the Scripture, because it's subject to a man saying it. But when I read the Scripture, it is pure. It is truth. It is unadulterated. It doesn't have to apologize for its harshness because God wants us to come into a right relationship with Him. And the Word will absolutely inflict some uncomfortable feelings on you. There are things in the Word of God that you're going to say, I don't like that. If you were to write the Bible, you probably would have left out several chapters or books altogether. But they're there for a reason. And our job isn't to sit there and say, well, now this chapter really doesn't square with our culture, so we're going to remove it and let culture decide how we're going to live. Uh-uh. No. Instead, what we're going to do is we're going to say, I don't like this, but culture here We'll have to adapt to this. We have to live according to the Word of God. It is the only infallible part of our lives. Not only that, it's our daily bread. When Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, I was in Marcus's class this morning, he talked about that. Jesus was led by the Spirit, by the way, to be tempted of the devil. And how did he respond to the devil's temptations? It is what? Written. Even Jesus Christ, who is our example and everything, he used the Word of God to refute the devil's temptations. Remember, the devil said to him, hey, listen, you've been starving for 40 days. For 40 days he hadn't eaten. Turn these stones to bread. Turn these stones to bread. What did Jesus say? written. Man does not live by bread alone, but by what? Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. That's every word Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God is inspired, and it should change us. It should comfort us. It should give us a sense of comfort in God, knowing that He is our guide in life. He's given us His love letter. It's right here. The Word of God is a lamp. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a what? A light for my path. That's a psalm as well, 105. But then he goes on to say here that the word is like a hammer. Did you know that the word is like a fire and like a hammer? If you go to Jeremiah chapter 29, you'll learn that the word is like fire. It sets our hearts ablaze. It's like it's a consuming kind of truth. It's like it leaves us bare. The Bible really does help us to see that God is trying to change us from the inside out. It's a purification process. That's what fire is used for. Purification. How does a man keep his way pure? Letting the fire, that is the Word of God, change us, shape us, mold us. But it's also a hammer. That's what it says in Jeremiah. It's a hammer. God says, my word is a hammer. It breaks rocks to pieces. You want to soften your heart? You want to come to a place of humility, true humility? I thought it was amazing Anne Marie sang that song, O come all you unfaithful. Most of us in this room would say, well, we're pretty faithful. We're here. It's Christmas Eve. I mean, on New Year's Eve. But if we read the Bible the way God intends for us to read it, we would claim with Paul, I am the chief of all sinners. You understand that the Bible is a mirror That's what James says in chapter 1, James chapter 1. The Bible is a mirror. It's kind of like you read the law of God, the words of God, you read it, you are looking in the mirror. And then all of a sudden, you walk away. You're no longer in the mirror. And what does James say? You completely forget everything you had just read. That's why it has to be a daily diet of His Word. You can't read it every once in a while. You can't use it as an opportunity to get you out of a bad situation. You can't read it, as Mark Twain says, looking for loopholes. You have to have a daily diet of the Word of God. Psalm 119 says, how can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your Word. Furthermore, the word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing soul from spirit, bone from marrow. Think about that. Judging the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The Bible judges your heart. I mean, there is a sense in which the Bible convicts us. It brings to us this understanding that we really are missing it. You see, and that's a powerful thing because once you start to study the Word, it brings so much conviction. But listen, that conviction leads to obedience. And that obedience leads to a peace, contentment that you've never experienced before in your life. Your worldview opens up to God's view. It's no longer you trying to wrestle through life. God gives you peace that surpasses all understanding because His Word brings you into a relationship with Him. It's kind of like this, you're done getting in the driver's seat, behind the wheel, saying, I'm going to go to such and such a destination, not having a map, not having a GPS, not having a cell phone, not having anybody to help you. All you have to do is start driving. And every turn you take, you're wondering if it's the right turn. Every place you go, you're wondering if it's on the road to where you want to go. And here's the beauty of it. God says, get out of the seat. I will drive. You sit in the passenger seat. Isn't it wonderful? Sometimes I even like Susan to drive so that I can just sit in the seat in the back with Seth and say, whew, I get to relax. I don't have to be stressed about the drivers around me. I don't have to be stressed about where we're going, what time we're going to get there. Why? Because the beauty of it is is that I'm sitting there and I am trusting It takes a lot of trust. Trusting Susan to get us where we want to go. Isn't it great though that you can literally get to a place where God is driving the car? It's living and active. It's a mirror. It's enduring. Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away. I mean, I'm not kidding you. The Word really tells us about it. We'll never return to God empty. In Isaiah 55, he says, my word will go out and it will not return to me void because it will accomplish what I desire and it will achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Amen and hallelujah. God's Word, He doesn't send it to us for us to go, well, that one doesn't work. That's no good. No, all of it is fruitful. and it's productive in our lives if we will read it. Have you ever noticed that the Bible reveals to us the Trinity in the Word? That at the beginning of the Bible we see God the Father speaking audibly to humankind. He spoke to Adam. He spoke to Cain. He spoke to Abraham and many others. He spoke to Noah. He spoke audibly. The spoken Word of God. And then, of course, we have the Son of God, the living Word. In John chapter 1, what does it say? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And He's the one who, through Him, all things have been created. Nothing's not been made that has been made. Jesus is the Word, the living Word. But then there's the inspired Word, and that's by the Holy Spirit. So the Trinity is active in the Word of God. Well, that's His Word. How about His will? Do you realize that there are four specific places in the Bible where the will of God is identified specifically? Did you know that? The first one is in John 640. It says that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life. That's God's will. That's comforting, isn't it? That everyone who looks to the Son and then believes in Him may have eternal life? No. Will have eternal life. I don't know about you, but that is comforting that that is God's will. God's will is also that we would be sanctified, set apart, purified, it says in the Scriptures in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, that we are to be sanctified. set apart, purified for Him. God's Word is a purifying fire on our lives. Thirdly, that we should, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, that we should, it is God's will, that we should one, always rejoice, two, pray continuously, and three, be thankful in all circumstances. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. So his will is that we would look on and believe in the Son of God, that we might have eternal life, that we would be sanctified, set apart for him. It is his will that we would always rejoice, that we would pray continuously, and that we would be thankful in all circumstances, good, bad, and ugly. Be thankful. And then there's the fourth one, which I find fascinating. It's in 1 Peter 2, verse 15. It says this, that it is God's will that by doing good, we should silence ignorant talk from foolish people. Listen to that. You don't think the church is supposed to have an influence on our culture? Read that verse again. It's not God's will that we would be good. That is true, okay? But it's God's will that by our doing good, we can show the world the right foundation upon which to build a life. That's the key. And so God's word, God's will, and then finally His way. We want everything to revolve around us. Serve our interests. But I'm reminded from Isaiah chapter 55, again, Isaiah didn't write these words. The Holy Spirit moved him to write these words, and these are the words that Isaiah wrote. My thoughts, this is God speaking, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. You know, God Himself can be known only by revelation. He's given it to us. He has provided us who He is in His Holy Word. All of His attributes, all of His will, all of His actions, everything He is about, everything we need to know about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit is right here in the Word of God. So God himself can be known only by revelation, and his ways can only be known through submission. You know, you have to trust. You have to trust God. Without God indwelling or unveiling himself to us, we cannot accept his ways. Proverbs 3 tells us, trust in the Lord with what? of your heart. And what? Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him. And who will make your path straight? He will. He will. That's a promise of Scripture. Trust the promises of Scripture. Now, if you're not reading the Bible, you don't know the promises. But you read the Bible and you hear the promises of God and God cannot lie. The Bible tells us God cannot lie. He is truthful. And when he says he'll do something for you, he will do it. That's what Marcus said this morning. He was talking about Malachi. Malachi chapter 3, where it says it's the only time when God says, test me. Bring all your tithes into the storehouse. Test me in this and see if I will not pour open all the blessings from heaven. God will do what he tells us he will do. If he says he will save you by the shed blood of Jesus Christ and his resurrection, guaranteed you are going to heaven if you believe on that. That's the truth, the assurance of God. Proverbs 3 tells us that there is wisdom that comes from fearing God, from reverencing God. And we'll talk about this next week, but Jesus said this, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and then all these other things will be added to you as well. You see, we have the priorities all mixed up. The world wants to seek after all the things that are going to make us happy. And we completely bypass God, His kingdom, and His righteousness. His kingdom and His righteousness are revealed to us in His Word. If you want to seek His kingdom, you must do so first. We don't come to God as a call a friend. We come to the Lord every morning. Psalm 119, I will seek you with all my heart. Do not let me stray from your commands. I will seek you. I will find you when I seek you with all my heart. I will be found by you, God says. Amen? Secondly, we have to hide God's word in our heart. hide God's word in your heart. Look at what it says there. This is our memory verse for today. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not, what, sin against you. I think it's interesting that he is articulating the reason that he's hiding it. Now, when you hide something in your house, in your heart, what you're doing is you're not allowing the world to snatch it out of your heart. It's something that you're hiding for safekeeping. It's something that's treasured. It's something that's personal and important to you. And that's what he's saying here. I'm going to hide it in my heart. But not only that, that we might not stop sinning, but also that we would resist temptation and we would have access to the wisdom of Almighty God. I'm convinced that the more you read the Word, the more you store up the Word of God in your heart, This is why wisdom comes after years and years and years and years and years and years of study. You study God's Word. I can read a commentary, walk away, and not be a lick wiser. I can be a lot wiser if I read God's Word. It's the truth, okay? And so I'm convinced that we hide God's Word in our heart, and we do so four ways, and I'll finish up this way. How do we hide God's word in our heart? The scripture kind of leads us here. What's the first thing? Verse 13, with my lips, I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. With my lips, I recount. So we recount. What does it mean to recount? To proclaim, to publicly say out loud, to tell others, It's to proclaim, it's to read, remember, and recite God's Word. The psalmist said, give praise to the Lord, proclaim His name, make known among all the nations what He has done. And Peter encourages us with these words, always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. Let me ask you a question. Many people that I know, not only in our church, but Christians the world over, they are uncomfortable if somebody says, tell me about your faith. Why do you believe in Jesus? Why not just somebody else? Why not? Isn't it the same thing? There's many paths to God. There's many pathways up the mountain to heaven. Why not just Why just Jesus? Why are you so exclusive? Why are you so intolerant? The Bible has errors in it. Can you explain to me why the Bible has errors and yet you consider it to be the Word of God? How many of you are under, like right now you're feeling a little anxious, right? Peter tells us we need to always be prepared to give an answer for the question that's asked. Give me the reason why you follow Christ. I'm convinced, I am persuaded. When we get to Genesis, it's going to revolutionize the way you see the creation, the way you see the early civilizations, the way you see the way God moved in a way that's just unbelievable. We're not going to be focusing on all the stories that you learned in Sunday school. We're going to be looking at the stories underneath those stories, the real truths, the nuggets of wisdom that are in the Word of God. You realize the problem that we have in the world is that the world, we think we've got answers that the Bible doesn't supply. So what we do is we go, let me bring the answers that the mankind has brought in and we get, we inject it into the word of God. That can't happen. I will not do that in this church. This church is about the word of God. And he says, with my lips, I will recount all the laws that you have given to me. Number two, I rejoice in following statutes as one rejoices in riches. Can you imagine how many of us, let's be honest with ourselves, how many of us have read the Bible with the joy that comes from winning the lottery? No, I mean, I'm guilty, right? I sit here and I read it and sometimes it is difficult. Let me just be honest. Sometimes as we read through it, I mean, you know, you may be reading through the Bible in a year. How many of you want to do that this year? You want to read through the Bible? Okay, good. Go for it. And then I'll check back with you sometime late February, early March when you're in Leviticus. Okay, and then I'll say, hey, how's it going? You know, because it's a grind, right? But I promise you if all you're doing is reading it, it won't come alive for you. I am convinced of this. You have to cross-reference people. You have to cross-reference. And when you cross-reference the Word of God, you take a word, you take a phrase, and you start cross-referencing it throughout the Bible. It's almost like a beautiful mosaic, and it all comes together for you. but it takes time, it takes discipline, and you have to rejoice in it. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says, James would say. Thirdly, we have to meditate. Look at what it says there in verse 15. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. Meditation is an important discipline. Meditation is this. It is deep contemplation. deep contemplation. You read a verse of Scripture, and you let the words speak to you. You don't bring your presuppositions into the text, because then you just kind of gloss over it. You kind of read over it fast. Meditate on it. And it says day and night, meditate on it. God commanded Joshua, keep this book of the law always on your lips, meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Now, if Joshua needed that instruction, don't you think you and I could benefit from it? Joshua meditated on God's Word every day and night. delight in it. Verse 16, I delight in your decrees. I will not neglect your word. To delight means to enjoy, to relish, to bask in even. It's the idea of the blessed man is to delight in the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night. That's what Psalm 1 says. The blessed man delights in God's law to take it to heart. And so you've heard me use this acrostic before, but I'll share it with you this morning. It's be smart. Be smart about God's Word. Be, believe it. Believe it. E, engage it. Open it up. I know we have the Bible apps and all that, but I'm promising you, you've got to get on the heart. I'm sorry, this is just the way I'm going to preach it. You've got to get the pages turning, OK? Because you will then be able to pull back and forth. And you can highlight. It's OK to highlight your Bible. It's not against the law, OK? But engage it. And then S, study it. Study it. Don't just read it. Study the Bible. And then M? What do you think M is? Meditate on it. Meditate. Contemplate. Deeply think through what that verse means. The larger context of what that passage is there for. Ask yourself, who is writing? To whom are they writing? Why are they writing? When are they writing? Why do I need this passage? How, God, teach me how to use this passage in my life. And then A is apply it. Apply it to your daily living. Application. If all you're doing is reading the Bible for head knowledge, you're missing the boat. Because the Bible is designed to not only come into your brain, but then to go down into your heart. And it is to be a treasure trove in your heart, and it should change your attitude toward others. You should be humble. You should be thankful. You should be kind. All of this should flow out of you if you read the word of God. And then, of course, apply a remember. You must remember it. Remember God's word. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Remember. The best way to remember scripture is this. Number one, say it out loud. Read out loud. Number two, try to remember it in phrases, by the punctuation. And then number three, write it out. To write it, get down to the, you know why? There's something supernatural that happens between your hand and your brain when you write something out. We type. None of that transference happens. You see? See what's happening? If you write it out, I promise you, you will be able to remember. Now, you shouldn't feel made to remember, but it should be a healthy discipline for you to take on. And then lastly, T, teach it. Teach it. When you teach God's Word, you then become a student yourself. When you become a student, you then can then articulate God's Word, and you can convey the truth of God's Word to others. Be smart. Teach it first to your children. Teach it to your friends. Teach it to your co-workers, your neighbors, your friends. That's how it works. Now, all of that to say, we read in Deuteronomy chapter 6, the Lord our God, the Lord is what? One. He's one. He's represented in essence as one, but he is in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. But then he says this, these commandments that I give to you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. For you young parents out there, my encouragement is for you to read the Word of God to your children. Impress it upon their hearts. Make sure that they understand its value to you. And I promise you, you'll get to the end of your days And you will never regret the time you put in to studying His Word. Seek God. Hide His Word in your heart. And 2024 is going to be awesome. Let us pray. Father, we love You. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Psalm 119, the psalmist who wrote it. But what we really know, Lord, is that the Holy Spirit wrote it. And he asked the question, how can a young man keep his way pure? Lord, I pray that you will really convict us today As we march into 2024, that we will set real spiritual discipline goals for ourselves. Many of us have physical discipline goals that we have set. I pray, Lord, that there will be spiritual discipline goals. And we pray all of this in the name that is above every name, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Amen.