Devoted to the Word: Learning to Live What We Learn

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Series Intro

What does it really mean to be the Church — not just to attend, but to belong and live devoted? In this series, we explore the four pillars of the early Church and how we can be the kind of people God calls His Church to be: devoted to truth, to one another, to worship, and to prayer.

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Opening Prayer

Opening Song

Kids Time

Oliver, Charlotte, and Elliot.

Hey kids!

Today is Father’s Day!

Are you doing what the Bible tells you?

Sermon

Acts 2:42 ESV

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Devoted to the Word: Learning to Live What We Learn

Acts 2:42 Psalm 119:10-16 James 1:22

Not just hearing the Word, but being shaped by it

Cultivating a Bible-centered life — individually and in community

Call to love the Word because we love the One who gave it

Personal Sharing

Allison and I were talking the other day about our love for God’s Word, and how even with that love, there are still times we don’t feel like reading it.

The Problem

We may not always feel up to reading it.

It’s hard to understand and can even cause us to avoid some of it.

We sometimes may not share it because of our own insecurity in knowing it well enough.

Sometimes it’s not just hard to understand, it’s hard to face — because we know it will challenge us.

For many of us, these are just a few of the reasons we avoid it, or aren’t as devoted to it as we’d like to be.

The Devotion of the Early Church

The early church, devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching.

Many, in and beyond the Book of Acts, have died for the sake of sharing the Word of God. Some are still dying today for their devotion to the Word, and really to God Himself.

Today, the Apostle’s teaching is found in the Bible. Letters and books.

Even Acts, is a letter, a narrative, of the early church following the ascension of Jesus, written by Luke a doctor to Theophilus. The first letter he wrote, was of his own name, Luke. (He is named a doctor in Colossians. Possibly gentile, worked with Paul and Timothy).

Availability of the Word

Imagine the rarity of the Apostle’s words in those days. It was only available from word of mouth or letters that had been written such as Paul’s words written from prison cells.

Many of the Gospels were only just beginning to be written, for the purpose of expanding their teaching to where they couldn’t be physically.

Much like us today, trying to teach and share God’s Word from where we are to wherever it is you are watching us from. The Word is the same from the papyrus in those days to the digital Word we all have access to today.

Reliability of the Word

There are some who refuse to read or don’t believe the Bible as we have it today, is truly the Word He originally gave. Even the New Testament writings are nearing 2,000 years old today, and we know that what we have is copies of copies. So, it can’t be that reliable, or relevant can it?

The early church didn’t have what we have today — leather-bound Bibles, apps, commentaries.

They had letters. Word of mouth. Scrolls passed around from place to place.

And yet, they were devoted.

Today, we have thousands of manuscripts — some dating to within 100 years or less of the originals.

Historically and textually, the New Testament is more reliable than any other ancient document — but the bigger question is: Do we believe it’s God’s Word?

Before Devotion

Before we can be devoted to the Word of God, we have to believe it is the Word of God.

Even Billy Graham — the greatest evangelist of our generation — had to wrestle this question down for himself.

Was it all true? Could he preach it if he didn’t have every answer?

His story is a reminder that devotion doesn’t begin with perfect understanding — it begins with surrender.

Billy Graham

I had no doubts concerning the deity of Jesus Christ or the validity of the Gospel, but was the Bible completely true? If I was not exactly doubtful, I was certainly disturbed.

As that night wore on, my heart became heavily burdened. Could I trust the Bible? I had to have an answer. If I could not trust the Bible, I could not go on. I would have to leave pulpit evangelism. I was only thirty years of age. It was not too late to become a dairy farmer. But that night I believed with all my heart that the God who had saved my soul would never let go of me.

I got up and took a walk. The moon was out and the shadows were long and dark. Dropping to my knees there in the woods, I opened the Bible at random on a tree stump in front of me. I could not read it in the shadowy moonlight, so I had no idea what text lay before me. The old stump was an altar where I could only stutter into prayer.

The exact wording of my prayer is beyond recall, but it must have echoed my thoughts: “O God! There are many things in this book I do not understand. There are many problems with it for which I have no solution. There are many seeming contradictions. There are some areas in it that do not seem to correlate with modern science. I can’t answer some of the philosophical and psychological questions others are raising.”

I was trying to be on the level with God, but something remained unspoken. At last the Holy Spirit freed me to say it. “Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word—by faith! I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word.”

When I got up from my knees at that August night, my eyes stung with tears. I sensed the presence and power of God as I had not sensed it in months. Not all my questions were answered, but a major bridge had been crossed. In my heart and mind, I knew a spiritual battle in my soul had been fought and won.

If you don’t believe it, then maybe like Graham, you’re in the midst of a Spiritual battle.

If you don’t understand it, note that even men of great faith have wrestled with many parts of it.

I don’t doubt the early church likely had difficulty in their understanding as well.

Even Peter mentions Paul’s words as being hard to understand.

Still we read, they remained devoted to the Apostle’s teaching.

Devotion Defined

Devoted - not emotional, but a voluntary, ongoing, daily decision.

It’s an all-in attitude and posture, relationship driven, and not a religious obligation.

The Early Church was devoted to the Word, to the teaching of the Apostles.

The Church is Formed by the Word, Not Just Gatherings

Acts 2:42 starts not with prayer, worship, or fellowship — but with teaching.

The apostles’ teaching was the foundation for everything else they did — because it gave them truth to stand on.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Not as an obligation, but part of our training. Like Paul says here, it is good for our training in righteousness.

Remember we learned last week that devotion is something we do with intense effort, despite difficulty.

Devotion to the Word takes discipline. Training. It’s like working out — it’s not always fun, but it produces strength.

Allison and I lost a good bit of weight a couple years ago, and we have both kept it off. Not just by dreaming or thinking, but by discipline and training.

Nina recently obtain her degree. It wasn’t easy as she shared many of her struggles along the way with us. But she fought through the difficulty with intense effort even when she didn’t feel like it.

Sometimes, being devoted to the apostles’ teaching — reading and living the Word — takes exactly that: intense effort and discipline, especially when we don’t feel like it or don’t fully understand it.

But here’s the encouragement — we’re not just reading words on a page. We’re engaging with something that is alive. Active. Powerful.

The Word Alive and Active

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The Bible doesn’t just inform us — it transforms us. It cuts deep. It reveals what’s hidden. It convicts and heals all at once.

And that’s why we stick with it. Because it’s not just about reading — it’s about growing.

Being the Church isn’t just about showing up to an event — it’s about growing up in the Word. And we grow by staying rooted in truth, even when it’s uncomfortable.

We read the Bible to grow. To grow in understanding, and to grow in Spiritual maturity.

The Word actively cuts out of us what shouldn’t be there and shows us what is truly in our hearts. It’s as though God Himself is wielding a surgeon’s knife to help remove the cancer of the flesh from our bodies.

We might not want to grow sometimes, as growth is difficult. We don’t want to go back to school to learn, because we hated it when we were there. And when we learn something, we come to the crossroads of “do I live it or ignore it?”

Devotion Means More Than Listening — It Means Living

We’ve confused access to the Bible with devotion to the Bible.

We have access, and maybe even look up something from time to time.

Maybe we’ve read it once and feel that was enough.

Maybe listening to me, or some other good preacher, is all you like doing. It makes you feel you’ve done your part for the week.

The early Church didn’t just attend a teaching, and they didn’t just listen to the teaching — they obeyed it, they lived it, they applied it.

James 1:22 — “Be doers of the Word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

Listening to good teaching, but not putting things learned into action, doesn’t change you.

Like a gym membership — showing up doesn’t change you. Doing the reps does.

Actually putting forth the effort and discipline to put what you learn into practice will help you become the man or woman God has called you to be.

You’ve gotta move from listening to doing. Devotion to the Apostle’s teaching is no good, unless we allow it move us to making changes in our lives.

Psalm 119 speaks to just this…

The Word Shapes Who We Are, Not Just What We Know

Psalm 119:9–11 ESV

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

God’s Word trains our desires, our decisions, our character.

When we seek Him with our whole heart.

When we remain focused on His commandments.

When we’ve kept His Word stored up in our hearts.

Devotion means letting the Bible form your identity, not just fill your head.

It’s not just about gaining information — it’s about transformation.

It’s about learning who we are, who God is, and what He’s calling us to become.

So let me ask you —

Do you treat the Word of God like a textbook… or like a love letter?

Like a checklist… or like your daily bread?

Closing Challenge:

Ask: Am I devoted to the Word… or just familiar with it?

What would change in your life if you truly built your day, your values, and your actions around Scripture?

A Word of Encouragement

Sometimes when we’re seeking to learn something, it isn’t clear or easy. That doesn’t mean it’s time to put the book away and give up.

Sometimes it may be like a test in school, where you go through the first time and you come to a question you don’t know the answer to and so you skip it. Then a little further in the test, you find a question that asks it in a different way and you have now found the answer to two questions.

That’s how Scripture often works.

You may not understand it all at once.

You might wrestle with it.

But if you stay devoted — if you keep showing up, keep reading, keep storing it in your heart —

God will reveal what you need, when you need it.

The early Church devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. And so can we — even in our weakness. Even in our wrestling. We don’t need to have all the answers. We just need to stay in the Word — and trust that the Word will stay in us.

Closing Prayer

Closing Song

Closing Encouragement