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DriveTime Thursday: Memorizing Scripture
The big idea: God’s Word is worth knowing before we need it.
This week on DriveTime, we’re talking about the spiritual discipline of memorizing Scripture—not just to know the right words, but to have God’s truth ready when we’re scared, tempted, frustrated, or facing a hard choice.
Why it matters: In Matthew 4:1–11, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. Again and again, He responded with Scripture: “It is written…” Jesus knew God’s Word and remembered what was true when He needed it.
Play along: Get ready for Three-Second Showdown! You’ll have three seconds to name three things in some seriously silly categories. No supplies or prep needed.
Try this at home: Choose one short Bible verse as a family. Hear it. Say it. Talk about what it means. Then come back to it throughout the week.
Talk about it: When could remembering God’s Word help you?
Remember: Learn God’s Word now so you can remember what’s true when you need it.
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Come on in. Let's roll. Three point smiles all in a row. Snack, back, pack. Hands on the wheel. We're heading out and it feels real.
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It's black time.
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Hey Northside Kids families. Welcome to another episode of the Northside Kids Drive Time Podcast. My name is Pastor Rich. Glad you are joining us for our Thursday edition. And you know what that means? It is part of our discipleship boot camp. We are learning what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, how we how we can become more like him. Because a disciple is someone who does what Jesus did. So today we're going to be learning about scripture memorization. Did you know the Bible says specifically that I have hid your word in my heart so that I won't sin against you. We put God's word in our heart because it helps us be more like Jesus. It also helps us know that we can stand up against the temptations that we have. And kids, you know, all of us have temptations. Matter of fact, this morning or this afternoon or evening, whenever you're listening, before you put your head on that pillow tonight, you are going to face temptation. And how do we withstand temptation? By leaning on the scripture from the Bible. Well, before we get into our Bible story, before we talk about our our try, our Bible truth, we want to have a little bit of fun. So here we go. Here is today's game. Alright, today's game is called the Three Second Showdown. The three-second showdown. So here is how it's going to work. I am going to give you a category. And then I am going to silently in my head, I am going to count one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi. You have three Mississippi's three seconds to name three things that fit in the category that I just gave you. So are you ready? Three seconds, three things in the category. On your mark. Get set, go. Name three things you would not want to find in your bed. Alright, did everybody say three things? Moms, dads, you play two. I don't want to fire fire. I don't want to find fire ants in my bed. That's one for sure. Alright, next category. Name three animals that would make terrible babysitters. Three animals that would make terrible babysitters. If you said alligator, absolutely not, not a good babysitter. Here we go, next one. Name three foods that would be really difficult while riding a roller coaster. All right, the next category. Name three things that you would do if you woke up tomorrow and discovered that you could fly. Alright, here is the last one. Are you ready? You're gonna have to think fast. Think fast. Everybody in the car on this one, name three things that always make you laugh. Alright. Well, kids, it's always good to have a little bit of fun right there in your car. So now we're gonna get back into our discipleship boot camp for the day. So here's what we need to know. Memorizing scripture is not always easy. It can be fun because we can play some games, we can use some tools to help us, but memorizing scripture is not always easy. It's a spiritual discipline, and it's something that we should be doing all of our life. You see, you don't just get past fourth grade or fifth grade and have and get be able to stop memorizing scripture. When we look at our spiritual disciplines, it is something that we practice to help us grow closer to God or help us to become more like God. And memorizing scripture just means that we are learning words from the Bible, Bible verses, so that we can remember them when we don't have the Bible in front of us. And so we put God's word in our heart because we don't have the Bible right there for always, so that we can use it as a guide. Sometimes things happen fast, temptation comes fast, and so we need to be able to make the wise decision, the right decision. And so we need to memorize scripture. And did you know that's exactly what happened to Jesus? In Matthew chapter four, remember we find the stories of Jesus and the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They're the first four books in the New Testament. In Matthew chapter four, and at the end of chapter three, um, Jesus is baptized, and we go into chapter four, and it says that Jesus went into the wilderness, and he was there for 40 days and 40 nights. And during that time, the devil came and tempted him. And the devil tried to get Jesus to do things that weren't God's way. But do you know how Jesus responded? Each time Jesus used Bible verse, he used scripture against the devil. That was how Jesus fought against temptation. Jesus said each time, it is written. He didn't have to go find a scroll, he had it memorized. He didn't have to say, hang on here. I I think that I think that's somewhere in the Bible, somewhere. I think I well, yeah, let me try to figure out what to do. No, God's word was already with him. And so when Jesus faced temptation, he remembered what was true. And so that doesn't mean that memorizing a Bible verse will suddenly make every hard thing easy. No, temptation is hard, but what it does do is it helps us with something really important. You see, God's word is worth is worth knowing before we need it. Think about that for a minute. We memorize Bible verses, we memorize God's word before we need it. So if you're worried about a test at school, maybe you're thinking about your spelling test, or maybe a friend does something that um that hurts you or makes you sad. We can use God's word and those times to help us not worry, help us to know how to treat our friends when they're mean to us, or how to know that we can cast all of our care. We can the Bible says we can we can throw all of our hurts, our pains on him, and he will be with us. And then there's times when you're tempted to make the wrong choice, you're tempted to be mean to your brother or sister, or you say things that you shouldn't, or sometimes you roll your eyes when your parents ask you to do something. You see, in those moments we need to use scripture to catch ourselves to say, I am to honor my father and my mother, I'm I am to obey my parents, I'm to treat my brother or my sister in the same way that I want to be treated. You see, it doesn't matter if you're in the car, if you're at school, on the playground, in the lunchroom, at a ball practice, or at home. Wherever we go, we need to withstand the temptation. And so we learn God's word now so that we can remember what's true when we need it. So this month we've been memorizing our Bible verse. Matthew 5, 16. It says, Let your light shine before others so they will see your good works and give praise to your Father in heaven. How you live, Jesus says, you shine your light, is a way that you can point people to follow Jesus. So kids, this week I want you to really think about one Bible verse, one Bible verse. Moms and dads, I want to encourage you to memorize scripture with your kids because we need those Bible verses in our heart as well. So it's a family thing. It is a family thing. So your family challenge this week is simple. Find one Bible verse, write it down somewhere, maybe put it on the refrigerator so everybody can see it. One Bible verse, one week, talk about it, say it, memorize it, and do that together. Well, this has been another episode of the Northside Kids Drive Time Podcast. I can't wait to see you on Sunday. September is going to be full of fun. So don't, don't, don't miss out. September, right after Labor Day, September 13th, the 20th, and the 27th. More information's coming soon, but please mark those days on your calendar. They're gonna be three great Sundays back to back to back. It's gonna be great. Pastor Rich, I'll see you next time.
