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Essentials | Week 1 · Rewind

Rock Point Church

72 min

Pastor Hunter Jones · Aug 4, 2026 · 3 min read · 72 min listen

The big idea

Quoting the message: Our lives are shaped by the God we believe in, end quote..

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 7What we believe about God is the most important thing about us, because our lives are shaped by the God we believe in.
Point 2 of 7God is not left for us to guess about; He reveals Himself, and Exodus 34 functions as the Old Testament's 'John 3:16' of who God is.

Point 3 of 7God calls Himself Yahweh, 'I Am' — the eternal, uncreated, self-existent Creator who holds all things together, and who exists as one God in three persons (the Trinity).
Point 4 of 7Because God is the great 'I Am,' we are not — meaning we don't have to control everything, earn our own value, or earn our own love; we can surrender to Him.
Point 5 of 7God reveals Himself as compassionate, merciful, slow to anger, and full of chesed — an unbreakable, generous, covenant-based, overflowing love that is not conditional on our performance.
Point 6 of 7God is also just — He does not excuse guilt or let cycles of sin and hurt go unaddressed forever; He will make all things right.
Point 7 of 7When Moses truly saw God for who He is, his only response was to immediately fall down and worship; an accurate view of God always leads to humble worship, not a comfortable, self-made image of Him.
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

Exodus 34:4
John 3:16
Exodus 3
Deuteronomy 4:6
Exodus 34:6
Exodus 34:7

Rewind AI drafted the Big Idea and some point headings shown here from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Pastor Hunter Jones · Aug 4, 2026 · 72 min watch · 3 min read

Essentials | Week 1

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Exodus 34:4
John 3:16
Exodus 3
Deuteronomy 4:6
Exodus 34:6
Exodus 34:7

Big Idea Key points Application

Edited by the church

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Our lives are shaped by the God we believe in, end quote..

Kicking off the Essentials series, Pastor Hunter Jones preaches from Exodus 34, where God reveals His own name and character to Moses after Israel had distorted Him into a golden calf. The sermon argues that the smallest distortion in our view of God leads to major distortions in how we live, so we must let God define Himself rather than shaping Him into a comfortable idol. God reveals Himself as the self-existent "I Am," triune, overflowing in chesed (loyal, covenant) love, and perfectly just. Rightly seeing God produces the same response Moses had: falling down in humble, overwhelmed worship.

Key points

1
1What we believe about God is the most important thing about us, because our lives are shaped by the God we believe in.
2
2God is not left for us to guess about; He reveals Himself, and Exodus 34 functions as the Old Testament's 'John 3:16' of who God is.
3
3God calls Himself Yahweh, 'I Am' — the eternal, uncreated, self-existent Creator who holds all things together, and who exists as one God in three persons (the Trinity).
4
4Because God is the great 'I Am,' we are not — meaning we don't have to control everything, earn our own value, or earn our own love; we can surrender to Him.
5
5God reveals Himself as compassionate, merciful, slow to anger, and full of chesed — an unbreakable, generous, covenant-based, overflowing love that is not conditional on our performance.
6
6God is also just — He does not excuse guilt or let cycles of sin and hurt go unaddressed forever; He will make all things right.
7
7When Moses truly saw God for who He is, his only response was to immediately fall down and worship; an accurate view of God always leads to humble worship, not a comfortable, self-made image of Him.

What comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you

A story from life

Childhood story of taking Catholic communion by mistake and the family disagreement that followed

Application

Pastor Hunter calls the church to stop settling for a comfortable, self-made picture of God — like Israel's golden calf — and instead let God reveal His true self: the great "I Am," fully loving, and fully just. For those who feel God's love is conditional on their performance, he urges them to run toward God in repentance rather than pulling away in shame, trusting His chesed love. For those carrying unaddressed hurt, he calls them to release the need for immediate justice, forgive, and trust God as the ultimate judge who will make all things right. Above all, he invites the congregation to move from merely knowing facts about God to truly encountering Him, since a real encounter with who God is will reshape a life far more than head knowledge alone, and that transformation is meant to overflow into how we love and treat others.

Take it into your week

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“So we're gonna be in Exodus chapter 34 verse four. So if you have your Bibles, I'd love it if you'd open up and join me in reading”
Read the whole chapter →
From the transcript
“this, what we're gonna read today is actually the old testament equivalent of John three sixteen”
From the transcript
“Exodus 34 verse four, So Moses chiseled out two tablets of stone like the first ones. Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai”
From the transcript
“In Exodus chapter three, we hear for the first time God giving his name”
From the transcript
“Deuteronomy four:six says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God. The Lord is one”
From the transcript
“So let's see the attributes that God talks about Himself. In verse six it says, The Lord passed in front of Moses calling out Yahweh”
From the transcript
“The latter part of verse seven it says, But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren”
From the transcript
“Look at his reaction. Verse eight, it says, Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshipped”

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

Edited by the church

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

Pastor Hunter Jones opened the Essentials series with a bold claim: what we believe about God is the most important thing about us, because our lives take the shape of the God we believe in. Just before this moment, Israel had shrunk God down into a golden calf — a version of Him they could see, manage, and feel comfortable around. So God does something stunning. He calls Moses back up the mountain and reveals His own name and character. He does not leave us to guess or invent Him. Pastor Hunter called Exodus 34 the Old Testament's John 3:16 — a concentrated revelation of who God actually is. That matters for you and me, because the small distortions we carry quietly reshape how we live. A God we imagine as distant makes us anxious. A God we imagine as harsh makes us hide. This week is an invitation to set down the calf we've built and let God tell us who He is. Start by admitting you have a picture of God at all, and asking whether it came from Him or from you. The God who revealed Himself to Moses is still willing to be known.

For reflection

What picture of God have I been living from lately, and where might it be more my invention than His revelation?

Pray

Pray for honesty about the picture of God you've been carrying, and openness to let Him reveal Himself.

Day 2

When Moses first asked God for His name at the burning bush, God answered, "I Am Who I Am." Pastor Hunter drew this thread through the whole message: God is Yahweh, the great "I Am" — eternal, uncreated, self-existent, the One who holds all things together. He does not depend on anything or anyone. He simply is. That truth can feel abstract until you sit with it. Everything you and I know has a beginning, an origin, a cause. God has none. He was not made; He makes. He is not held; He holds. There is something deeply steadying in this. The One you are invited to trust is not a bigger version of you, subject to the same limits and moods. He is the ground under everything. When your circumstances feel like shifting sand, the "I Am" is not shifting. He is the same today as He was on the mountain with Moses. Notice how this reorders your worries: the things that overwhelm you are not too big for the One who spoke existence into being. Let His self-existence become a place to rest rather than a puzzle to solve.

For reflection

Where am I treating God as small enough to be shaken by my circumstances, and what changes if He truly is the great "I Am"?

Pray

Pray for a settled trust in the eternal, unchanging "I Am" over the shifting circumstances you face.

Day 3

Related passage

"Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone." Pastor Hunter anchored the sermon here: the great "I Am" is one God, revealed in Scripture as three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not a riddle to master but a wonder to receive. The God who calls Himself "I Am" has always existed in perfect, self-giving relationship. He did not create us because He was lonely or lacking. He was already complete, already overflowing in love within Himself. That reframes why you exist. You were not made to fill a gap in God; you were invited into a love that was already full and overflowing. And notice how Deuteronomy responds to who God is — not with a debate, but with wholehearted love: heart, soul, and strength. Rightly seeing the one true God draws the whole self toward Him. Today, resist the pull to reduce God to the part of Him you find most comfortable — the tender part, or the powerful part, or the just part. He is fully Himself, all at once. Let the fullness of who He is call out the fullness of your response.

For reflection

Which part of God do I lean on while quietly ignoring the rest of who He is?

Pray

Pray for a whole-hearted love for the one true God — heart, soul, and strength.

Day 4

When God finally speaks His character aloud, the first words out are mercy: "compassionate and merciful, slow to anger and filled with unfailing love." Pastor Hunter lingered on that Hebrew word chesed — a loyal, covenant, overflowing love that does not turn on and off based on your performance. This is where many of us quietly disbelieve God. We assume His love rises when we do well and drains away when we fail, as if He were keeping a ledger of our best and worst days. But chesed is not earned; it is given. Pastor Hunter made a specific plea here: if you feel God's love hinges on your performance, the answer to your failure is not to pull away in shame but to run toward Him in repentance. Shame tells you to hide the mess until you've cleaned it up. Chesed says come as you are, now. The golden-calf God has to be appeased. The real God is slow to anger and rich in love toward people who have genuinely failed Him — which is exactly the moment Exodus 34 describes. If you've been keeping your distance until you feel worthy, that distance is the very thing His love means to close.

For reflection

Where have I been hiding from God in shame instead of running to Him in repentance?

Pray

Pray for the courage to move toward God's chesed love in the exact place you feel least worthy.

Day 5

The same breath that reveals God's overflowing love also declares His justice: He "does not excuse the guilty." Pastor Hunter was careful not to let us split these apart. A God who is all softness and no justice is just another comfortable idol — a God who shrugs at the wrongs that have wounded you and wounded others. The real God takes evil seriously. He will not let cycles of sin and hurt run forever unaddressed; He will make all things right. For anyone carrying an old, unhealed wound, this is meant as good news, not merely warning. Pastor Hunter invited those weighed down by unaddressed hurt to release the exhausting need to be their own judge, to forgive, and to trust that God — who sees fully and judges perfectly — will settle every account better than we ever could. Forgiveness is not pretending the wound didn't matter. It matters so much that you're handing it to the only Judge who can truly weigh it. That release is hard, and some hurts run deep enough that you shouldn't carry them alone — a trusted friend or a pastor at your church can walk with you. But the invitation stands: you can lay down the gavel because God has never put it down.

For reflection

What hurt am I still trying to judge myself, and what would it look like to entrust it to God the perfect Judge?

Pray

Pray for freedom to release a specific hurt into the hands of the God who will make all things right.

Day 6

After all that revelation — the name, the mercy, the justice — Moses does one thing: "Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshiped." Pastor Hunter pointed to this as the tell of an accurate view of God. When you truly see Him, you don't stroll away analyzing; you fall down. Worship is not the response we manufacture; it's the response that rises on its own when the real God comes into view. This is why Pastor Hunter kept pressing us past mere facts about God toward an actual encounter with Him. You can know every attribute in Exodus 34 and still stand upright, unmoved, treating God like a subject you've studied. Head knowledge alone doesn't reshape a life. An encounter does. Notice that Moses didn't need to be commanded to worship — he was overwhelmed. If your times with God have felt flat lately, the issue may not be that you need more information but that you need to actually see Him again. Slow down today. Read Exodus 34:6-8 aloud. Let it move from your notes into your knees. The God worth studying is the God worth falling before.

For reflection

Has my knowing about God lately produced any real worship — and if not, what would help me actually encounter Him?

Pray

Pray for a genuine encounter with God that moves you from knowing facts about Him to worshiping Him.

Day 7

Step back and take in the whole passage the way Pastor Hunter framed it: God reveals His name, His overflowing love, and His justice, and Moses falls down in worship. But Moses didn't let it end on the mountain. A true encounter with who God is doesn't stay private — it overflows into how we love and treat the people around us. Israel's distorted picture of God had produced distorted living; a right picture is meant to produce right living. So the fitting close to this week is not just a warm feeling but a changed life. If God's chesed love has met you in your failure, let that same patient, generous love shape how you handle someone else's failure this week. If you've begun to trust God as the just Judge, let that free you to forgive rather than keep score. Living this out is where the truth takes root — with your time, your talent, your resources, and your testimony of what God is actually like. And you were never meant to do it alone; growing in this happens best in community, in the ordinary rhythm of a church walking together. What you believe about God is the most important thing about you. Let this week's God — the real one — set the direction of your days.

For reflection

How could my truer view of God this week change one concrete way I love or treat someone?

Pray

Pray for God to move this week's truth from your heart into how you love the people around you.

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

Edited by the church

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Think of a time you pictured someone a certain way, then met them and realized they were quite different. What was that like? This message kicked off the Essentials series with the idea that who we believe God to be shapes everything about us.

Discussion questions

1
In this message, Israel had reshaped God into a golden calf they could see and control. What are some ways people today shape God into a more comfortable version of who He really is?
2
Instead of leaving us to guess, God reveals Himself in Exodus 34 — Pastor Hunter called it the Old Testament's 'John 3:16' of who God is. What stands out to you about how God chooses to describe Himself here?
3
God names Himself 'I Am' — the eternal, self-existent One. Pastor Hunter said that because God is the great 'I Am,' we are not. How might really believing that change the way we try to control things or earn our own worth?
4
The sermon described God's chesed as an unbreakable, covenant love that isn't conditional on our performance. Why do you think people so easily assume God's love rises and falls with how well they're doing?
5
This message held together two things we often keep apart — that God is fully loving and fully just, the One who will make all things right. What does it do for us to hold both of those truths at once?
6
When Moses truly saw God for who He is, his immediate response was to fall down and worship. Pastor Hunter invited us to move from knowing facts about God to truly encountering Him — what might that shift look like for us, and how could it overflow into how we treat others?

Pray together

Ask God to reveal Himself as He truly is — the great 'I Am,' full of loyal love and perfect justice — and to move us from head knowledge into humble worship that overflows in how we love others.

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Essentials

Week 1 · 4 messages

Where these passages are preached

Exodus 34 John 3 Exodus 3 Deuteronomy 4

Explore related topics

Covenant Love God's Character Idolatry Knowing God Worship

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