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Citizen | Week 2 | Bill Bush · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Bill Bush · Mar 14, 2021 · 87 min watch · 3 min read

Citizen | Week 2 | Bill Bush

Playback speed 1×

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Hebrews 12
Hebrews 11:7
Genesis 6:8
Genesis 6:9
Genesis 6:11
Genesis 6:14

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Fix our eyes on Christ — not on trying to fix our world.

Drawing from the faith hall of fame in Hebrews 11 and the story of Noah, Pastor Bill argues that citizens of heaven are called to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus rather than expending their energy trying to repair themselves, others, or society. Just as Noah obeyed God in building an ark for things he had never seen, stayed faithful in the dark silence before the flood, and responded to a post-apocalyptic world with worship rather than worry, followers of Christ are called to run their God-given race with obedience, faithfulness, and thankfulness — all rooted in the grace God initiates toward us.

Key points

1
1Faith means the future becomes the present — we live now according to where God is taking us, seeing what others cannot see.
2
2We must fix our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith, so we do not grow weary and give up.
3
3God's grace came first for Noah — he found favor (the Hebrew word for grace) before he was righteous, blameless, and walking with God. The gospel pattern is the same today.
4
4Fix our eyes on obedience — Noah obeyed God's commands for things that had never happened before, spending 55–75 years building a boat for rain and a flood he had never seen.
5
5Fix our eyes on faithfulness — Noah and his family sat sealed in the ark for seven days before a drop of rain fell, and endured 375 days total, staying faithful even in the darkness while the world mocked.
6
6Fix our eyes on thankfulness — when Noah stepped into a post-apocalyptic world, his first act was to build an altar and sacrifice to God, declaring that God is the provider, not his own resources.
7
7The church's mission is to point people to Jesus, not merely to alleviate earthly suffering; making social relief the primary mission means helping people live more comfortably until they die eternally apart from God.

A story from life

Pastor Bill's high school baseball story about losing a game because he got distracted by gum on his hand at a critical baserunning moment

Application

Pastor Bill's call to action flows directly from Noah's three movements. First, receive the grace God has already fixed on you — you do not earn it, you accept it. Then ask honestly: where is God calling you to obey Him in something that makes no sense to the world around you? Second, stay faithful in the dark. When you have obeyed and nothing seems to be happening, resist the voices that say you are wasting your time. Third, choose worship over worry — especially when things look their worst. Give God your time and your money first, not as a tip but as an act of trust, and watch Him provide. Finally, keep the mission clear: love people enough to point them to Jesus, not just to a more comfortable life. That is what it looks like to be a citizen of heaven living on mission in this world.

Take it into your week

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Scripture in this message

Paraphrase of the transcript
let's jump back to chapter 11, not bankruptcy, but we're going jump into Hebrews chapter 12 really fast. Because Hebrews 12 starts off kind of explaining because of what happened in 11, here's what we need to do.
From the transcript
“let's jump back to chapter 11, not bankruptcy, but Hebrews chapter 11 verse seven. It says, it was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood”
From the transcript
“Verse eight of chapter six says this, but Noah found favor with the Lord. He's talking about how evil the world is, but Noah found favor”
From the transcript
“look at the the the verse nine. This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God”
From the transcript
“let's keep reading. It says, now verse 11, Noah saw that the earth God saw that the earth had become corrupt and filled with violence. God observed all this corruption in the world for everyone on earth was corrupt”
From the transcript
“he says, verse 14, build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar inside and out. I've already told you about this as far as I'm gonna go on this part”
From the transcript
“But in verse 22 of chapter six it says, So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him. He obeyed”
From the transcript
“Go down to verse four now. Seven days from now, I will make the rains pour down on earth, and it'll rain for forty days and forty nights until I have wiped from all the earth all living things I've created”
From the transcript
“in verse five it said, So Noah did everything as the Lord commanded him. Even in the darkness he had the type of faith that he stayed faithful”
From the transcript
“it says in chapter eight verse 15, after all that time, it says, Then God said to Noah, leave the boat, all of you, you and your wife and all your sons and their wives”
From the transcript
“look what it says in verse 20. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and there he sacrificed his burnt offerings, the animals and the birds that had been approved for that purpose”
From the transcript
“it really goes back to this. Genesis six:eight again. When it says, But Noah found favor with the Lord. Have you found has the grace of God found you”
From the transcript
“Lord, you you you went through all the shame, as it says in Hebrews 12, to die for us so we can live”

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

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

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Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

There is a phrase Pastor Bill used that is worth sitting with: faith makes the future present. It is not wishful thinking or positive self-talk — it is a way of seeing. Noah saw a flood that had never happened, in a world that had never experienced rain, and he built anyway. He ordered his whole life around a reality that existed only in God's word to him. That is the kind of faith the writer of Hebrews is pointing to — not a feeling, but an orientation. You live now according to where God is taking you. That means the decisions you make today, what you spend your time and energy on, who you love and how — all of it gets shaped by a future you cannot yet see with your eyes. This is not naïve. It is actually the most grounded way to live, because it is rooted in the character of the One making the promise rather than the circumstances around you. Noah's obedience looked foolish to everyone watching. But he was the one living in reality. The invitation today is simply to ask: am I ordering my life around what I can see, or around what God has said? Those two visions will always pull in different directions, and faith is what keeps you anchored to His.

For reflection

What is one area of your life where you are making decisions based on what you can see rather than what God has said?

Pray

Pray for eyes to see your life the way God sees it — from His promises forward, not from your circumstances backward.

Pastor Bill made a point that is easy to miss if you read Genesis too quickly: the order matters. Genesis 6:8 says Noah found favor — the Hebrew word for grace — and then verse 9 describes him as righteous, blameless, and walking with God. Grace came first. Noah did not earn his way into God's attention; God's attention produced the life Noah lived. This is the same gospel pattern we see fulfilled in Jesus. We do not clean ourselves up and then come to God. We come to God — or more accurately, He comes to us — and that encounter is what changes us. It is worth letting that land personally. If you have ever felt like you need to get your act together before God can really use you, or before you are really worthy of His grace, Noah's story gently pushes back. The favor was there before the faithfulness. That does not mean faithfulness does not matter — it clearly did in Noah's life. But it means you are not its source. God is. The righteousness that follows is a response, not a resume. Today is a good day to simply receive that — not to earn it, not to explain it, just to accept that grace moved toward you first.

For reflection

Where do you find yourself trying to earn what God has already freely given? What would it look like to receive it instead?

Pray

Pray for the grace to simply receive God's favor today — not as something earned, but as something given.

Genesis 6:22 is a short verse — just one sentence — but it carries enormous weight: Noah did everything God commanded him. Pastor Bill pointed out that this obedience stretched over somewhere between 55 and 75 years of building. That is not a moment of courage; that is a life shaped by obedience. And the thing Noah was building had no precedent. There was no rain, no flood, no reference point. He was not following a pattern someone else had laid down. He was following a voice. That is a significant thing to sit with. Obedience to God will sometimes — maybe often — look unreasonable to the people around you. It might look like a waste of time, talent, or money. It might invite criticism or quiet skepticism from people you respect. Noah would have known all of that. And he built anyway. Pastor Bill's question is worth bringing personally into your own life: where is God asking you to obey Him in something that makes no sense to the world around you? It might be in how you spend your time. It might be in a relationship you are choosing to stay patient with. It might be in how you hold your resources. Whatever it is, the call is the same as Noah's — do what God said, even when the sky is clear.

For reflection

Is there something God has been asking you to do that feels unreasonable or unexplainable to the people around you? What is making you hesitate?

Pray

Pray for the courage to take one concrete step of obedience in the area where God has been prompting you.

Seven days. That is how long Noah and his family sat sealed inside the ark before a single drop of rain fell. They had obeyed. They had done everything God asked. And then — silence. Pastor Bill described this as one of the most overlooked parts of Noah's story, and it might also be one of the most honest pictures of what faithfulness actually feels like. You say yes to God. You do the hard thing. And then nothing seems to happen. The silence can be louder than opposition. It opens the door to questions: Did I hear God right? Is this ever going to work? Am I wasting my life? Noah had no way of knowing the rain was coming in seven days. He just stayed. There is a kind of faithfulness that only gets built in that waiting room — where the only thing you have to stand on is that God said it. Feelings have gone quiet. Results are not visible. The world outside may be mocking. Faithfulness is not the same as certainty, and it is not the same as comfort. It is staying put when leaving would be easier. If you are in a season where you have obeyed and the sky is still clear, you are not in the wrong place. You may be exactly in the middle of the story God is writing.

For reflection

Where are you currently in a season of waiting after obedience? What voices are telling you that you are wasting your time?

Pray

Pray for the quiet faithfulness to stay where God has placed you, especially in the silence between obedience and answered prayer.

When Noah stepped off the ark, he stepped into a world that had been almost entirely erased. Everything familiar was gone. The landscape was devastated. The people he had known outside his family were dead. And his first act was to build an altar and worship. Not to take inventory. Not to start rebuilding his own security. Not to ask what comes next. Worship. Pastor Bill held that moment up as one of the most countercultural acts in all of Scripture — and one of the most instructive for how we are called to live. Choosing worship over worry, especially when things look their worst, is not denial. It is declaration. It is saying out loud, with your actions, that God is the provider — not your own resources, not your own plans, not your own hustle. The way Pastor Bill connected this to how we handle our time and money is worth sitting with. Giving God your first — in time, in treasure — is not a transaction. It is an altar. It is the same gesture Noah made on that devastated hillside: acknowledging that everything you have came from Him, and that He can be trusted with what comes next.

For reflection

When life feels most uncertain or losses feel most real, what is your default response — worry, or worship? What would it take to move toward worship first?

Pray

Pray for a heart that moves toward worship before it moves toward worry, especially in the moments when worry feels most justified.

Hebrews 12 opens with a picture of a crowd of witnesses — all those men and women from Hebrews 11, Noah included — and then gives us a simple and demanding command: fix your eyes on Jesus. Not on the problems around you. Not on the state of culture. Not on the failures of others or the weight of your own. On Jesus, who ran His own race to the end and is now seated in the place of completion and authority. Pastor Bill was direct about why this matters: if you spend your energy trying to fix yourself, fix other people, or fix the world around you, you will grow weary and give up. That is not pessimism — it is just honest about where human effort runs out. The antidote is not trying harder. It is looking at the right thing. When Jesus is the fixed point, the race you are running gets its shape from Him — His endurance, His joy set before Him, His willingness to go through suffering because He knew what was on the other side. This does not mean ignoring hard things. It means you face them with a clear reference point. The weariness Hebrews warns about is real. The prescription is not willpower. It is worship — returning your gaze to the One who already finished the race.

For reflection

In what areas of life have you been trying to fix something in your own strength? What would it look like to fix your eyes on Jesus in those same areas?

Pray

Pray for the discipline and grace to return your gaze to Jesus when fear, weariness, or the weight of circumstances pulls your eyes elsewhere.

Related passageHebrews 11:7-12:3

Across this week, a single through-line has run under every day: grace comes first, and it changes everything that follows. Noah did not earn God's favor — he received it, and from that reception came obedience, faithfulness, and worship. The great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11 is not a hall of perfect people. It is a hall of people who, however imperfectly, kept saying yes to God in the face of things they could not see. That is the race you are invited into. Not a race to fix yourself or your circumstances or the people around you. A race run with your eyes on Jesus, the One who started your faith and is committed to completing it. Pastor Bill closed with a clear-eyed reminder about mission: the church's calling is to love people enough to point them to Jesus — not just to a more comfortable life, but to the only life that lasts beyond death. That is what citizens of heaven do while they are still living on earth. They run their race. They stay faithful in the dark. They worship when it costs them something. And they keep pointing — with their time, their talent, their treasure, their testimony — to the One in whom the whole race finds its meaning.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, where did one of Noah's three movements — obedience, faithfulness, or thankfulness — speak most directly to where you are right now?

Pray

Pray for clarity about the specific race God has marked out for you, and for the grace to run it with your eyes fixed on Jesus rather than on what you can or cannot see around you.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message traces the story of Noah as a picture of what it looks like to live as a citizen of heaven — someone who sees what others can't see and keeps moving anyway.

Discussion questions

1
Hebrews 11:1 describes faith as confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. In this message, Pastor Bill described faith as 'the future becoming the present.' What do you think he meant by that, and how does Noah's story illustrate it?
2
In Genesis 6:8-9, grace appears before righteousness — Noah found favor with God before the text describes him as blameless and walking with God. What does that order suggest about how God's relationship with people actually works?
3
Noah spent decades building something for rain and a flood that had never existed before, and then sat sealed in the ark for seven days before a single drop fell. What does that kind of faithfulness in the silence look like for people trying to follow God today?
4
When Noah stepped out into a devastated world, his first act was to build an altar — not to assess the damage or secure resources, but to worship. What might that instinct to lead with thankfulness instead of worry look like for us practically?
5
Pastor Bill drew a distinction between pointing people to Jesus and pointing people toward a more comfortable life, and argued that making social relief the primary mission can leave people better off for now but still lost eternally. How does a community hold both genuine care for people's real needs and that larger mission together without collapsing one into the other?
6
Hebrews 12:1-3 calls us to fix our eyes on Jesus as the one who initiates and perfects faith, so we don't grow weary and give up. Where do you think people most commonly shift their gaze — what tends to pull our focus away from Him and toward trying to fix ourselves, others, or the world around us?

Pray together

Eyes fixed on Jesus — grace received, obedience chosen, faithfulness sustained, and worship given even when the world looks its worst

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Citizen

Week 2 · 3 messages

Where these passages are preached

Hebrews 12 Hebrews 11 Genesis 6 Genesis 7

Explore related topics

Eyes Fixed on Jesus Faithfulness in Darkness Grace and Gratitude Heavenly Citizenship Obedience in Faith

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