The Devoted
Notes
Transcript
Good morning Church! I hope you are all finding things to keep yourselves busy so you’re not going too stir crazy. To those of you that are joining us from places other than Fernie B.C. welcome! It’s good to have you with us!
Just before I get started, our church still has bills to pay so if you feel that you would like to give this morning you can do so by sending an etransfer to the church using etransfer@snowvalleychurch.com
okay!
Have you ever met someone who is extremely devoted to something? It could be a hobby, a sport (playing or watching), books, music, gaming… whatever it is it takes up a massive amount of time and energy.
The word “Devoted,” in the English dictionary means: love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause.
For the sake of example lets look at the sports junkies out there who watch every game of every sport that they can. They know the names of all the players in the league, who’s good, who’s not, and what team is likely going to win whatever cup or trophy there is to win at the end of the season. Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoy watching sports quite a bit, but they have to be specific sports.
I can’t watch football, I like playing it but watching it puts me to sleep because I don’t know the game well enough. Hockey on the other hand, I can watch that and get excited about it. I know the game, how it works, and even some of the players on different teams.
Something that may be challenging to anyone watching this that is a massive sports fan… Are you so devoted to sports and the different teams that they have become an idol to you?
The overarching question I want to focus on is this,
Have the things that we enjoy in our lives replaced our faith and God on the devotion scale?
Have the things that we enjoy in our lives replaced our faith and God on the devotion scale?
We were created to enjoy these things, but we were created to enjoy God FIRST… then everything else.
Since Covid-19 got us all stuck in physical isolation has your time with God increased? Or has it decreased because you maybe have more times to do your hobbies?
If you have your bibles turn to
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
These are going to be our main points of focus this morning. Teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer.
Teaching
Teaching
(studying the bible, listening to christian podcasts and sermons)
Let’s start with teaching. V.42 says that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. The word devotion means: love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause. So the people were loved, and were loyal to the apostles teaching.
This teaching would have been about God, the Holy Spirit or Jesus. How to live a good faith filled life. What it looked like to be a follower of Jesus.
Are we Devoted to the teachings of Christ? To what the bible says? Reading the bible period?
Let’s pause for a second…
It says devoted to teaching… so the thing they are devoted to is learning about Christ.
Let me ask you a question… Why is this so important?
The answer to that question isn’t about us… it’s about our mission to share the gospel of Christ.
How are we going to be able to adequately share the gospel, for example, with an atheist who has dedicated their life to proving Christianity and Creation is false if we aren’t devoted to learning biblical truths in the context of exactly what Jesus taught?
Christians should to be scholars. If Christians aren’t scholars than we’re like a soldier in mid-evil times running into battle with a rock in our hand whilst the enemy soldiers have massive double handed great-swords. It’s just not going to work.
Just to clarify, we don’t need to be Scholars, but if we want actually live for Christ and follow his leading in our lives the best we can then we should be… or at least we should be striving to be.
I’m not saying that we need to know more than anyone else about what the bible says or about Christ and how he lived. What I’m saying is that we should be devoted to that end so that we learn exactly how to have faith and trust in God so that He can give us the knowledge and words that we need to defend our faith to someone such as the atheist who’s devoted themselves to the opposite.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
But we wouldn’t know that God uses our weakness to display His strength if we never read the bible right? maybe you’re thinking to yourself… “but God could just tell me that.” If that’s what you’re thinking then my question to you is how do you determine God’s voice from your own and satan’s? I use the bible… without the bible there is no way to determine whether the voice in your head is from God or not. Not only is the bible the only valid source to learn what God’s voice should sound like in your head, but it’s also the only source that you can trust to tell you what He would and would not say to you.
The only way that we can have the Kind of faith and trust that God will guide us regardless of our own knowledge and strength is to be devoted to learning about God. Reading our bibles daily, ideally more than once a day. Listening to podcasts like “The Bible Project,” and watching a sermons on subjects that interest you on youtube.
My point… We absolutely can not be effective at being Christians who are devoted and sacrificially following God and proclaiming the gospel without reading the bible.
Read your bible, learn to be a scholar in your faith
Fellowship
Fellowship
Breaking of Bread with each other and prayer
Our passage says that “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship. There are two forms of fellowship that this passage says they were devoted to. Now remember that devoted means love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause. So they enthusiastically engaged in breaking of bread and loved doing it. And they were loyal to God and met him in prayer with love and enthusiasm.
Let’s look at breaking of bread for a minute...
Breaking Of Bread
Breaking Of Bread
Food! Food is important!
He “set food before them… and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God”… “They received their food with glad and generous hearts.”
It is debatable whether or not we actually need to be able to taste things, but we can taste and God made taste a beautiful thing. The very idea that we can enjoy the food that we eat is a wonderful thing.
But aside from the fact that we must nourish our bodies with food, food brings joy. It is present at every celebratory gathering whether it’s some sort of cake or appetizers there’s food. Even when it’s time to relax there’s food.
Most times we see Jesus in the bible with his disciples and they’re not actively travelling somewhere, they’re either snacking on something or having a meal together. It is probably important to note that they weren’t feasting all the time. They were breaking bread, having a simple meal. I think that the significance and the purpose of this can be found in Acts 16 when the Philippian Jailer and his family were saved and came to know Christ.
33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
The common denominator in the bible surrounding the topic of food and breaking bread with a community of people is either gladness and joy, close relationship, or praise and thankfulness to God.
The breaking of bread together allows us to do one thing every single time we do it… be thankful. Food is a reminder of just how blessed we are and how much God is a God of abundance. We not only have food but we have good tasting and healthy food that we love to eat. That is definitely something to be thankful for, but also… There is a pattern displayed in the bible surrounding the theme of thankfulness and praise. When we begin to praise God and be thankful to Him for something such as food, we naturally start to think of all the other things in our lives that God has blessed us with.
The reason we say grace before we eat is not so that we can bless the food to our bodies, sure that’s good but that’s not the purpose. The purpose is to thank God. The purpose is to include God in our time of eating. To include Him in the FELLOWSHIP of the breaking of bread which God enjoys because food brings joy. Think about any time you have been gathered together with family or friends to eat food together… what follows that start of that gathering is joy and gladness.
The really cool part of all this is that God loves us so much that He just wants to be with us and included in our joy and gladness when we eat food because I’m pretty sure that God enjoys watching us enjoy food. Imagine you’ve created amazing tasty food and you’re with people while they eat it and the people are raving over the food you created and loving how it tastes. God just want’s to be with us when we enjoy the things that He’s created for us to partake of.
So break bread together, often! And always include God in that time.
This brings me to prayer. the last thing that is mentioned in v.42 of our passage.
Prayer
Prayer
Prayer is the way we communicate with God. It’s how we have conversation, cry out to Him, thank Him, and just be with him.
I would bet that when you first hear the word, prayer… your mind probably jumps straight to prayer as a you and God thing. But we’re talking about fellowship, and in that fellowship breaking bread and Prayer…
Prayer fellowship.
and when I say that you probably automatically think of something like a prayer meeting. which is fair, that’s where my mind went at first as well. But we’re not talking about prayer meetings. We’re talking about including God in our fellowship with each other.
Imagine the father who desperately loves his children, but the only time they ever included him in anything was if it was an official meeting where people could ask him stuff and then praise him for answering and providing for their needs. That father is more than willing to be a part of every official meeting his children invite him to, but what he wants more than anything else is just to be included in any kind of meeting.
There’s so much evidence in scripture, that God just wants to be with us. He wants relationship with us, that’s why He created us in the first place… He wanted relationship, someone to share His love with.
In Dallas Willard’s book the Divine Conspiracy, there’s a section near the end where he starts talking about why we are in the picture. We mere humans in relationship with the all powerful creator of the universe. He asks what’s the point…
He the says this:
“The purpose is to meet what can only be described as a need of God’s nature as totally competent love. It is the same purpose that manifests itself in his creation of the world. Only in the light of such a creation and such a redeemed community is it possible for God to be known in his deepest nature. They make it possible for God to be known. And love unknown is love unfulfilled. Moreover, the welfare of every conscious being in existence depends upon their possession of this knowledge of God.”
Part of God’s very nature is love which means He has to share it with someone whether they receive it or not. Love unknown is love unfulfilled, so in order for God’s very nature to be fulfilled He needs to share His love.
That’s amazing! And that’s only a one way love. God just needs us to know that He loves us. But how much better is love when it goes both ways? When we not only include God in prayer during a specifically prayer oriented meeting but also a family gathering?
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
We have been adopted into Gods family! He is our father and we’re His children.
The bible tells us to pray without ceasing… why should that stop when we’re together with fellow believers breaking bread together in fellowship?
What devoting ourselves to fellowship in breaking of bread and prayer means is that we’re devoted to the breaking of bread with each other and God. God is a part of every interaction and every experience we have whether we choose to acknowledge Him in those moments or not.
Devotion.
love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause.
Are we truly devoted to God?
Do we truly love God?
Are we truly loyal to Him? (Loyal according to the dictionary means unswerving in allegiance.)
Are we truly enthusiastic about Him? About the mission He’s called us each individually to?
Devotion is something we all have in our lives but is it possible that most of us have misplaced most of the devotion in our lives?
Write this question down...
Have I misplaced the devotion I should have given to God? Have I given it to something else?
God has a beautiful plan for our lives and it revolves around us surrendering everything. surrendering what we desire for what He desires for us. Just so we’re clear, if God’s nature is love, and that love has to be known for His nature to be fulfilled, then what God desires for us is the God level of best for us. It completely overwhelms whatever it is that we could want for ourselves.
Sure, being devoted to God might seem hard, maybe the hardest thing we might ever endeavor to do. But, stereotypically speaking, the best times in a persons life are in conjunction with the hardest times in a persons life.
So if being devoted to God is Hard, then we should embrace that because from my experience, the harder something appears to be, the greater the fulfillment or reward at the end of the task.
Devote yourself to God because nothing else matters.
Our passage says that these believers attended the temple together and engaged in this fellowship day by day. Every day they did this with joy and gladness in their hearts. It doesn’t say anywhere that they stopped their lives, their work, or their obligations in order to devote themselves to this relationship with God. That’s why it’s hard, because the things we have to do still have to get done. But when we prioritize God, when we’re truly devoted to Him before everything else, all other things in our lives fall in to order… Because everything works better when God is first.
Do you want to be on fire for God? Do you want to be so full of Him that when your spirit is bumped by hardship or the enemy coming against you the presence of God spills out of you?
Get devoted to God! And if you’re sitting in your living room thinking to yourself that you’re already devoted to God, let me tell you you’re making excuses because you know that you could be more devoted. And if you could be more devoted then I might suggest to you that you aren’t devoted at all. Devotion is unswerving loyalty, not partial loyalty when it fits into your desires for yourself. When you’ve come home after a long day at work and you’ve just finished dinner and you’ve had that show on your mind and you want to watch it, or you’ve been itching to read the next chapter in your book or do whatever it is… and God puts it on your heart to read your bible and spend time with Him what do you do? If you consciously make the decision not to spend that time with God because you want to do your thing, you are not living devoted to God in that moment
When God asks us to pray for that person walking down 2nd ave and we don’t because it’s a small town and everyone knows everyone and we give in to the fear of what others might think of us, “that Christian who prayed for someone randomly in public… heaven forbid a Christian has prayed for someone. If we do this we are letting our own fear and our own desires overtake God’s and we are no longer in a place of devotion to Him.
26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
This is exactly what it looks like to be a christian who accepts christ and then doesn’t truly devote their life to Him.
“But I have faith in God! That’s all that maters!” Do you have faith? Are you sure of that faith? If you give in to the fear of praying for someone do you really have faith? In order to be devoted to God we have to be living out that faith in action. Devotion and action go hand in hand
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
Even the demons believe. Faith apart from works is dead. Without an active faith in God devotion is false.
Put aside the fear, it won’t go away but put it aside and walk through it. God is a God of walking through fire not around it. Put aside the wants and desires of your heart and put God’s first! He knows what’s in your heart, what you desire. Don’t be surprised when you let those things go for God if He plops them back in your hand.
God loves each and every person who is watching this video. He loves more than you could ever love anything and He does it unconditionally. No matter if you never find the will power to devote your entire being to God or not, He still loves you.
Let’s love Him back… Let’s invite him into our fellowship times and our meal times and our adventures. Let’s actually ask God to be a part of our lives, and be devoted to Him! I’m pretty sure that when we do that, when we’re successful in that, our lives now will be but a pale reflection of what they would be when God is in every part of our existence.
Devotion. Let that be your word to focus on this week.
You are a Kingdom people, You are the hands and feet of Christ, Let’s show the world who we serve and why we serve Him.
Blessings to you, and bless others this week.