DEEP - Week 2
Day 2
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” - Psalm 119:11
If God’s Word disappeared from our daily routines, how long would it take before we noticed? That question matters because we can value the Word in theory while neglecting it in practice.
The Psalmist said, “I have hidden your word in my heart.”
To hide God’s Word means we take it seriously and consider it valuable.
Think about how we treat something valuable.
We would not take our jewelry and place it in the driveway where anyone could see it, pick it up, and walk away with it.
We would not post the combination to our safe for everyone to see.
We would not put all our passwords on social media.
We safeguard valuable things.
Why?
Because we understand they can be stolen and abused.
The Psalmist says that is how we need to treat God’s Word.
We hide it.
We protect it.
We take it seriously.
We consider it valuable.
That becomes very personal when we remember Jesus’ warning in Mark 4: Satan wants to steal the Word.
So where is the Word in our lives right now?
Is it going deep?
Or is it staying on the surface?
It is possible for us to hear the Word without allowing it to shape us.
It is possible to sit in church, hear truth, agree with truth, and then return to life without applying truth.
That is where neglect becomes dangerous.
Our greatest danger is not always that we do not know what God says.
Sometimes we know exactly what He says.
The danger is that we do not take it seriously enough to change what we are doing.
This becomes especially important when we look at Simon in Acts 8.
Simon had lived a completely different life before Jesus.
He practiced sorcery. He amazed the people of Samaria. People gave him their attention and called him “the Great Power of God.”
People followed him.
Simon had influence.
He had attention.
Then something incredible happened in Samaria.
God’s Word was planted.
Philip proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, and people believed.
Men and women were baptized.
People left behind the mixture of paganism and Judaism that had controlled the city.
Then Simon himself believed.
Simon was baptized.
Simon followed Philip.
The man who had been known as “the Great Power” discovered an even greater power.
But Simon’s story teaches us something important:
Radical conversions require radical commitment.
Simon had spent years being formed by something else.
He had been the spiritual influence of that region.
People revered him.
People listened to him.
People gave him money.
People hung on his every word.
His ego had been fed for a long time.
So following Jesus was going to require Simon to become extremely intentional.
His old ways of thinking were not automatically going to disappear.
And neither will ours.
Some of us have been exposed to things for a long time.
Some patterns have been reinforced for years.
Some ways of thinking have gone deep.
That means we cannot treat discipleship casually.
We have to ask ourselves where this shows up in our lives.
Where are old ways still trying to shape new lives?
Where are old thoughts still hanging around?
Where are old appetites still strong?
Where are we trying to follow Jesus while keeping something from the old life alive?
Simon’s story forces us to examine ourselves.
We cannot live like we used to.
The places we go, the people we run with, and the things we focus on may have to change.
For some of us, killing our flesh is going to require harder work and more intense effort.
For some of us, renewing our minds will require daily concentrated effort.
We have been exposed to too much to treat discipleship casually.
We need the Word.
Not sitting on the surface.
Hidden in our hearts.
Taken seriously.
Treated as valuable.
Because we know there is an enemy who wants to steal it.
WATCH THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE HERE: https://youtu.be/o2mLEz0ZpTo?si=dT6ZvLDylPv9Z7Sg
