Rewind — the teaching platform built on your church’s own preaching

The big idea

Love is seeing the family resemblance.

Because God has adopted us permanently and completely as His children, obedience is not a hoop we jump through to earn His love but a natural desire to look like the Father who already loves us perfectly. We struggle when we listen to the enemy's voice instead of trusting God's love, but as we grow, we increasingly show the family resemblance through real, active love.

We see ourselves the way the Father already sees us, not the way we have to earn it.

1 John 3:1-3 (NLT)

Point 1 of 4

Bill explains that in Roman culture a natural-born child could be disowned at any time, but an adopted child legally never could — so when God adopts us through faith in Christ, we are permanently and securely His, not on probation. He stresses that obedience is not a condition for staying in the family; it flows from already being loved and accepted as sons and daughters.

Point 1 of 4 · part 2 of 2

We see ourselves the way the Father already sees us, not the way we have to earn it.

Supporting insight: We are saints who still battle sin, not sinners trying to force ourselves to act like saints.

Bill draws on seminary categories of justification and sanctification to explain that a Christian's new nature is already declared righteous even while the battle with sin continues. He points to Romans 7 and 8, where Paul wrestles with doing what he shouldn't but then finds power through the Holy Spirit, to show obedience is about living out who we already are, not earning who we hope to become.

We learn to recognize which father's voice we're actually listening to.

1 John 3:4-15 (NLT)

Point 2 of 4

Working through 1 John 3:4-10, Bill clarifies that 'continuing in sin' doesn't mean occasional struggle but a settled decision that a known sin is acceptable — a sign someone doesn't actually know the Lord. He warns that Satan's tactic isn't to make people disbelieve in God but to make them not believe God, just as in the Garden of Eden.

You lean into who you actually are and let God help you

— Pastor Bill Bush

Struggling with sin is not the same as surrendering to sin

— Pastor Bill Bush

People draw a circle around their truth and call it a bull's eye

— Pastor Bill Bush

A story from life

Encounter with a woman after an Easter sermon who disputed the idea that Christians still battle sin

A story from life

The preacher's father illustrating relative truth with a dot and circle drawn on paper

Illustration

The six-or-nine perspective image used to critique relative truth

Point 2 of 4 · part 2 of 4

We learn to recognize which father's voice we're actually listening to.

Supporting insight: The 'six or nine' illustration exposes the lie that truth is just a matter of perspective.

Bill uses the common image of two people arguing whether a shape on the ground is a six or a nine to show that perspective describes a point of view, not truth itself — someone built the shape and knows definitively what it is. He applies this to relative truth in the church, warning that circling your own opinion and calling it a bullseye is what the Bible actually calls sin, missing the mark.

Point 2 of 4 · part 3 of 4

We learn to recognize which father's voice we're actually listening to.

Supporting insight: The story of Cain and Abel shows what happens when we refuse to trust God with our resources.

Bill retells Genesis 4, noting Abel brought his firstborn in faith while Cain waited until he had enough and offered leftovers, which God rejected as evil. When confronted, Cain didn't get angry at God directly but took it out on his brother and killed him, which Bill likens to being triggered — misdirecting our own unresolved distrust of God onto someone else.

Point 2 of 4 · part 4 of 4

We learn to recognize which father's voice we're actually listening to.

Supporting insight: Only about seven percent of the congregation tithes even though most give something, revealing where trust in God is thin.

Bill shares that though roughly 70 percent of people who call Rock Point their church give something, only 7 percent tithe, meaning most are giving Cain's kind of leftover offering rather than trusting God first. He invites people to test God the way Malachi and the Psalms describe, saying God cannot show His care if we won't trust Him with our resources.

Related passage

We show the resemblance with our hands, not just our mouths.

1 John 3:16-18 (NLT)

Point 3 of 4

From 1 John 3:16-18, Bill contrasts sacrificial love, modeled by Christ laying down His life, with love that is only spoken. He notes that people who say 'I love you' constantly but never show it usually reveal a love that is missing in action, and challenges listeners that real love is a choice and an action toward those in need.

Illustration

Story about college sororities and GLP-1 weight-loss drugs used to illustrate focusing on stopping something without starting something healthy

Point 3 of 4 · part 2 of 2

We show the resemblance with our hands, not just our mouths.

Supporting insight: We get stuck repeating sins because we focus on stopping something instead of starting something new.

Bill compares this to the trend of young women using GLP-1 medications to lose weight without changing diet or exercise, ending up 'skinny fat' — thinner but weaker and malnourished. He argues that just trying to stop a sin without pursuing the new, healthy thing God calls us toward leaves us in the same unhealthy cycle, quoting Psalm 51's plea for God to search the heart.

We trust the Father's voice is greater than our feelings.

1 John 3:19-21 (NLT)

RESPOND

Daily this week: ask God “What's Your verdict on today, not mine?” Then wait.

Let conviction point somewhere specific; let peace actually rest.

Point 4 of 4

Bill reads 1 John 3:19-21 to show that even when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our feelings and already knows everything about us, so guilt doesn't have to mean fear of rejection. He explains that confidence in prayer and receiving what we ask comes from a heart that is listening to and pursuing what God wants, not from perfect performance.

Dumpster diving does not make him reject you as family

— Pastor Bill Bush

Not because we have to for your love, but because we can't be stopped because of your love

— Pastor Bill Bush

A story from life

Long-running disagreement with his wife over an old, worn-out Cardinals t-shirt he keeps wearing

Take it into your week

Bill frames the response as choosing to trust the Father's love enough to put on the new clothes instead of digging the old ones back out of the drawer.

Application

See yourself as already adopted
Stop treating obedience as something you owe to stay in God's family and instead rest in the security of already being His son or daughter through faith in Christ.
Name which voice you're listening to
Test whether a belief or excuse in your life is God's truth or the enemy's lie dressed up as your own perspective, especially around areas you've called relative or 'my truth.'
Trust God with your money
Test God with tithing rather than giving leftovers like Cain did, and examine whether fear or over-accusing is keeping you from trusting Him with your finances.
Show love with actions, not just words
Move beyond saying 'I love you' or 'I love the church' and actually give your time, talent, treasure, and testimony to people in need around you.
Pursue something new instead of just stopping something old
When you keep returning to a comfort sin, ask God to search your heart for what you're refusing to submit to, and actively start the new thing He's calling you toward rather than just trying to white-knuckle stopping the old.

Keep going

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