Hide and Speak - Pastor Stacey Shiflett

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Hide and Speak

Psalms 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Intro: We all love playing a game called Hide and Seek. This message is about hiding God’s Word in our hearts so that it can speak to us and guide us and direct us. This message is called Hide and Speak.

Two reasons why I named this message HIDE AND SEEK:

            1. When we hide God’s Word in our heart, it will speak to us.

·       It will remind us.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

·       It will reprove us.

·       It will rebuke us.

·       It will refresh us.

·       It will revitalize us.

·       It will reinforce us.

            2. When we hide God’s Word in our heart, it will enable us to speak it to others.

ILLUSTRATION: Philip was able to explain Isaiah to the eunuch because he had hid it in his heart.

So when we hide God’s Word in our hearts, it will speak.

It will speak TO us, and it will speak FOR us.

I. The Pursuit – Thy word have I hid

HID: to hide, treasure, treasure or store up; secret place

This is not done by accident; it is a premeditated, planned, deliberate pursuit of God’s Word.

A. Read it

Seven times in the Gospels, Jesus asked, Have ye not read???

·       Matthew 22:31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,

B. Meditate on it

·       Psalms 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

·       Psalms 119:15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.

C. Study it

·       2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

ILLUSTRATION about talking to 2 Mormons when I was 14 in Georgia and they came back that night to congratulate my dad for teaching me the Bible.

D. Love it

Turn to Psalm 119

·       97 O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

·       113 I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.

·       127 Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.

·       161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.

·       165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

E. Memorize it

·       Psalms 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

II. The Place – in mine heart

The heart is one of our greatest battlegrounds.

·       Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Filling our hearts with God’s Word gives us a great advantage.

·       Jeremiah 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.

III. The Purpose – that I might not sin against thee 

It kept Jeremiah from quitting

·       Jeremiah 20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

It helped Jesus fight temptation

Turn to Matthew 4:1-11

Three times Jesus responded with IT IS WRITTEN.

Jesus could answer Satan’s temptations with Scripture because He had hidden it in His heart.

It will help us live clean

·       Psalms 119:9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.