Hopelessly Devoted to Jesus?
Hopelessly Devoted • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 471 viewsNotes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
When I was in high school in the late 70’s, there was this singer I had a crush on. Every time I heard her sing, my heart would flutter and I would think I could be the answer all of her problems. One day I heard sing about a love that would not return her love. The song was Hopelessly Devoted to You and the singer, Olivia Newton-John. I remember thinking as a skinny high school kid how in the world could someone have Olivia Newton-John hopelessly devoted to her and not return such a love? I kept waiting for her to call.
Since then as I have heard that song over the years, I find myself asking, “what am I hopelessly devoted to?” In other words, what am I pouring out my heart and soul too that in return am not getting loved in return? It may be a relationship, it may be a job, it may be a lifestyle. It may be be some type of thing that does not honor our Lord, but it consumes us in a way that pulls us away from the things of life that should matter.
We become devoted to things that ultimately disappoint us like the writer of the Book of Lamentations:
Moreover, our eyes failed,
looking in vain for help;
from our towers we watched
for a nation that could not save us.
Lamentations
Hopelessly devoted is like putting all your eggs in the same basket, but there is a hole in it. There is nothing to hold on to and certainly nothing to get back in return.
We often become hopelessly devoted to the things of this world when we should become faithfully devoted to the One that made this world.
However, the Bible gives us many instances of
The Bible gives us many instances of what happens when we move from being hopelessly devoted to things of this world and become faithfully devoted to the things of God.
You were wearied by all your ways,
but you would not say, ‘It is hopeless.’
You found renewal of your strength,
and so you did not faint.
The disciples found this renewal in the companionship with Jesus. Many of them had been hopelessly devoted to a life apart from Jesus, like many of us. We try to do religion instead of relationship. We do selfishness instead of selflessness. Jesus called them to a life that was different and that in turn caused the to a life of being faithfully devoted.
After the resurrection of Jesus, their lives were changed forever. We learn from Acts that Peter stood up and preached about Jesus, who He was, what He did and how His devotion to them caused the disciples to be devoted to Jesus. Peter called for the people to repent and be baptized and become devoted followers of Christ. When he did, the Bible says that 3000 were added to their number!
Those that became followers of took that which had been modeled to them, and moved from being hopelessly devoted to the things of this world to becoming faithfully devoted to the things of God.
We see this told in our passage for today:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Acts
This one verse gives us four strategies that you and I can do in order to make that same transition, from being hopelessly devoted to faithfully devoted. We see these strategies as learning, loving, loyalty and leaning.
Learning
Learning
They, being the believers who were converted and became followers of Christ, devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching. The apostle’s teaching was the teaching of Christ. They were fulfilling the commands of Jesus when He told them what we have as the great commission:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:1
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
When you are one that is hopelessly devoted to something, you are stuck in a scenario that has beyond any hope of improvement. You are devoted to something that has no hope. When you are in that kind of situation, you do not have room to learn.
Faithfully devoted means you are in a position to learn, grow and have a productive life.
Titus
Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.
let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance—
The Apostles’ teaching was based on sound scripture teaching.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
Making the shift from being hopelessly devoted to faithfully devoted involves learning from sound teaching. It also involves loving.
Loving
Loving
We see that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship. Fellowship is when people love on each other. When true love is expressed, it comes out in being together. Our church does well with fellowship. Whenever our people get together, there is joy and lots of smiles. I believe that is what we are called to be and do.
In fact, Scripture teaches us this very idea.
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
1 Thessalonians
I have never seen anyone be encouraged by being ripped to shreds or tore down, have you? Encouragement comes when we build each other up. This is manifested in through love and the result is fellowship.
We have this modelled from the Lord Jesus Himself. Jesus is the light of the world.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
1 John
Walking in the Light of Jesus causes our lives to spill over into other lives and gives us great fellowship with Him and with others.
What we learn will teach us how to love. What we love will help us to become loyal.
Loyalty
Loyalty
The people devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, which in turn produced a loyalty to practice the very things they had learned. Jesus taught the disciples to break bread and drink the cup to remember that His body was broken for our sins and His blood shed for our atonement. When we practice the Lord’s Supper, the breaking of bread as described in this verse, we become loyal t what it stands for.
Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.
Guard the deposit indicates a loyalty. The breaking of bread is only one kind of practice that takes place in the church today. As the people of God, we express a loyalty to other believers and the assembly in which we best practice our faith.
What you are loyal to determines if you are hopelessly devoted to something or faithfully devoted to what God has called us to be and do.
Now please understand, you do not have to do anything to become a Christ follower but turn from your past and turn to Him, accepting Him as your Lord and Savior. However, when you do that, everything in your world will change as well as the things which you are loyal to.
Leaning
Leaning
The believers devoted themselves to the teaching. They learned. The believers devoted themselves to the fellowship. They loved. The believers devoted themselves to the breaking of the bread. They became loyal to the practices of the church. There is one more thing we see these believers devote themselves to, prayer.
Prayer is the practice of engaging in conversation with God. It is sharing out thoughts and needs as well as listening to His still small voice and discerning His will for our lives. Thousands and thousands of books are written on prayer and the Bible has much to say about prayer.
Jesus spent much time in prayer. We have those recorded in all of the Gospels. His example was to give praise, to request guidance and to understand and follow God’s will.
When we pray, we are acknowledging that we cannot do things on our own and we must LEAN on the One from Whom we receive strength, security, and supply.
The Lord graciously gives us strength because He is the source of strength.
The Lord is the strength of his people,
a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
Psalm
Our prayers should always recognize the strength and power of our God. As our fortress of salvation, He gives us security.
About Benjamin he said:
“Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him,
for he shields him all day long,
and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.”
Deuteronomy
This verse reminds me that my strong God gives me a sense of security that I cannot find in anything else. Therefore, I pray with the assurance that whatever I give to my God, He can handle it!
I can pray also knowing that God will supply everything I need.
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
We get this strength, security, and supply through the Lord in prayer. We are able to lean on the One who is the source of all strength, all security, and who is able to supply all our needs in Christ Jesus!
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
What a promise!
I had a friend message me this week and simply said, “I am drowning,” indicating that they were overwhelmed with life at the time. I thought about how I should respond. The Lord laid it on my heart to say this:
You have three choices that I see.
You can swim.
You can reach out to the Lifeguard.
You can drown.
I went on to say that number three is an option, but not a choice because God desires for us to always choose life. Number one is an option, but you will eventually wear out and then you will unfortunately experience number 3. So it seems that the best choice is to choose the man in the middle. After all, the one in the middle hung on a cross between two thieves, died a criminal’s death as an innocent man and as the atonement for everything wrong and painful in our lives. Jesus is our life guard, our Savior. When move from being hopelessly devoted to our situation that seemingly has no room for improvement to being faithfully devoted to Jesus, everything will be okay.
