Love Defined | Week 4 · Rewind

Love Defined | Week 4 · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Sep 19, 2026

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.

Key points

We see ourselves the way the Father already sees us, not the way we have to earn it.
1. 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.
2. 1
  1We 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.
1 John 3:1-3 (NLT)
We learn to recognize which father's voice we're actually listening to.
1. 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.
2. 2
  2The '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.
3. 3
  3The 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.
4. 4
  4Only 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.
1 John 3:4-15 (NLT)
We show the resemblance with our hands, not just our mouths.
1. 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.
2. 5
  5We 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.
1 John 3:16-18 (NLT)
We trust the Father's voice is greater than our feelings.
1. 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.
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.

Application

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.

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.

Take it into your week

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“The Bible even calls it, there's a way that seems right to man, the end that leads to death”
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From the transcript
“See how very much our father loves us? For he calls us his children, and that is what we are”
From the transcript
“but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do do know that we will be like him for we will see him as he really is”
From the transcript
“Paul talks about this in Romans seven. Why do I struggle with keep doing the things I shouldn't I know I shouldn't do”
From the transcript
“But then he goes into chapter eight and says, but thanks be to Jesus Christ and what he did, and how he adopted me and loved me”
Paraphrase of the transcript
Everyone who sins is breaking God's law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.
From the transcript
“he says, When you sin, when you sin, here's what you do about it. Struggling with sin is not the same as surrendering to sin”
Paraphrase of the transcript
Dear children, don't let anyone deceive you about this. When people do what is right, it shows they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous... So now we can tell you who are children of God and who are children of the devil.
From the transcript
“The Bible says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That word sin in the English is translating a Greek word that means to miss the mark”
From the transcript
“Well, Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, and life, and no one comes to the father but by me”
From the transcript
“Romans 12 talks about this exact principle and warns us. It says, Jesus died for us. So here's what he's asked us to do. Live for him. Be a living sacrifice”
Paraphrase of the transcript
This is the message, verse 11, you've heard from the beginning... We must not be like Cain who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother... So don't be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
From the transcript
“Psalm says, Taste of me and see that I am good”
From the transcript
“And you know what he ends up talking about in Timothy two? You should tell the people that have money that they should be generous and they should be giving”
Paraphrase of the transcript
verse sixteen and eighteen says, We show that resemblance with what I've been saying with our hands, not just our mouths... Let's not merely say that we love each other. Let's show the truth by our actions.
From the transcript
“I gotta stop and sit before the Lord and let him examine my heart. Says, Search me, O God, in Psalms 51, and show any things that's not right with you”
Paraphrase of the transcript
In verse 19, he says this, our actions will show that we belong to the truth so we will be confident when we stand before God... God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
Paraphrase of the transcript
Dear friends, if we don't feel guilty... We can come to God with bold confidence, and we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
From the transcript
“God says, Seek ye first the kingdom, and all these things will be added unto you”

7-day devotional

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Day 1

"See how very much our Father loves us, for He calls us His children, and that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1). Bill opened here, and it's worth sitting in before we do anything else. He pointed out that in Roman culture a natural-born child could be disowned, but an adopted child legally never could. That's the picture God gives us of ourselves. When He adopts us through faith in Christ, we aren't on probation, waiting to see if we'll be kept. We're already His, permanently and completely. That changes what obedience even is. It stops being a hoop we jump through to stay in the family and becomes the natural desire to look like the Father who already loves us perfectly. Most of us carry a quiet suspicion that we have to earn our place. Today is an invitation to set that down. You don't obey to become His. You already are His, so obedience is simply you starting to look like your Dad. Before the week asks anything of you, let it first tell you the truth about who you already are. Rest there for a day. Everything else grows from this soil.

For reflection

Do you see yourself the way the Father already sees you, or the way you have to earn it?

Pray

Thank God for adopting you permanently, and ask Him to help you rest in that security today.

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Love Defined

Week 4 · 7 messages

Where these passages are preached

Proverbs 14 1 John 3 Romans 7 Romans 8

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God's Love Identity in Christ Obedience Sacrificial Love Spiritual Growth Spiritual Warfare

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