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OLD SCHOOL WISDOM | Week 5 | Full Service · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Bill Bush · Jul 3, 2023

Pastor Bill Bush · Jul 3, 2023 · 76 min watch · 2 min read

OLD SCHOOL WISDOM | Week 5 | Full Service

Devotional days

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

Scripture in this message

Proverbs 16:1-3
John 6
John 6:41
John 6:47
John 6:66
John 6:67

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Real success isn't about the gain you chase — it's about pursuing God's goal for your life, which means trusting and surrendering to His love rather than your own idea of how life should work.

True success isn't measured by possessions, power, or prestige — it's found in knowing and showing the love of Jesus. God doesn't want us to order our own lives and ask Him to bless our plans; He wants us to surrender to His love first, and let that love transform how we live.

Key points

1
1Success is about the goal, not the gain
Pastor Bill opens with the story of Bartholomew Roberts, an extraordinarily effective sea captain who was actually the pirate Black Bart — the most successful pirate in history, but successful at stealing, robbing, and murdering. He uses this to introduce the big idea and a Thomas Merton quote about spending a lifetime climbing a ladder only to find it's leaning against the wrong wall.
2
2We naturally order life our own way and then ask God to bless it
Working through Proverbs 16:1-3, Pastor Bill explains that 'we make our own plans' really means we order life the way we think it should work, but the Lord examines the heart and motives, not just the outward action. He illustrates with the absurd picture of ordering unhealthy fast food and then praying for it to be healthy, and warns that people can look like faithful churchgoers — 'pirate Christians' — while still chasing the wrong goal.
3
3Even devoted followers of Jesus can chase Him for the wrong reasons
He walks through John 6, after the feeding of the 5,000, where the crowd tracks Jesus down because they want more free food, not because they understood the miracle's meaning. Jesus repeatedly throat-punches them with truth, telling them not to seek perishable food but the eternal life only He can give, and reveals He is the bread of life who gives His flesh for the world.
4
4Many who look like disciples desert Jesus when His goal doesn't match theirs
Pastor Bill notes these were church people, synagogue-goers, even Jesus' disciples beyond the Twelve — and John 6:66 records that many of them turned away and deserted Him because they wanted a political or physical rescue, not a Savior who called them to trust and sacrifice.
5
5The world's version of success — possessions, power, and prestige — can never satisfy
He names the 'big three' the world chases and says they aren't bad in themselves, but they're not adequate to fill the eternity God placed in our hearts (Ecclesiastes). He compares them to chips and salsa — enjoyable but never truly filling — and warns that when they become the goal instead of a byproduct, they turn into idolatry and identity, especially through the comparison trap of social media.
6
6Peter's answer models the only real response: there's nowhere else to go
When Jesus asks the Twelve if they will leave too, Peter answers that Jesus alone has the words of eternal life. Pastor Bill contrasts this with the crowd who wanted a political Messiah to fix Rome, noting many Christians still want a political savior today instead of trusting who is really in control.
7
7True success is knowing and showing the love of Jesus, even when it looks like failure
Pastor Bill shares his own struggle to feel close to God and a sense that God told him he works out even when he doesn't feel like it, applying that to spiritual endurance (Hebrews 12). He then tells the story of his family's disaster-plagued Albania mission trip, where lost luggage and missed flights turned into an unexpected blessing for a shopkeeper — proof that faithfulness, not outward success, is what God actually measures.

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to quit trying to get God to bless your mess and instead surrender fully to His love as the goal itself.

Check what your prayer life is really about
Ask whether your prayers are only 'God, give me this' or 'God, take this away' with nothing about what God wants to teach or change in you — that's treating God like a waiter instead of Lord.
Stop listening to the lies about identity
Quit looking for identity in status, job, money, friends, sexuality, or gender identity; those things were never designed to hold it, and chasing them only leaves you feeling inadequate.
Make a real decision about Jesus this week
Pastor Bill says some in the room are drifting toward deserting Jesus while still attending church; he asks everyone to decide what they truly believe about God's love rather than staying stuck.
Trust God even when the trip goes wrong
Like his family's disaster-filled Albania trip that still produced a God-sized blessing, lean into faithfulness over outcomes, trusting there's something God is doing even when circumstances make no sense.
Give sacrificially toward the church's mission
Pastor Bill directly asks the congregation to give toward expanding the special needs ministry, noting the church has enough in the room to meet the need if people get serious about giving.

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
“And so the proverb I wanna look at is found in Proverbs 16 verse one through three. And it says this, we can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer”
Read the whole chapter →
From the transcript
“I wanna go to a story that involves Jesus and some people that had the wrong idea that he was trying to help them out, but they just couldn't get it. And you'd be surprised to know”
From the transcript
“Jumping down to verse 41, He says then people began to murmur man murmuring. They're murmuring now not just replying not just asking they're now murmuring”
From the transcript
“You jump down to verse 47 and after he told him to stop complaining, he goes on and on and then he gets even more throat punchy in verse 47. Says, tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life”
From the transcript
“me. In verse 66, kinda ironic, John six six six is one of the saddest saddest verses in the Bible. It says at this point, many of his disciples turned away and deserted him”
From the transcript
“So after the the disciples these the other disciples left, it says, Jesus turned to the 12 and asked, are you also going to leave”
From the transcript
“He says this, Lord, to whom would we go? Where else would we go? He goes, you have the words that give eternal life. We believe and know that you are the holy one of God”
From the transcript
“That's why the Bible says in Hebrews, run this race with endurance. Endurance means it's gonna be tiring sometimes. And he says, how? By throwing off the things that slow you down and the sin that entangles”

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

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

There is something quietly revealing about the plans we make. We sketch out what we want our lives to look like — the career arc, the family situation, the financial security — and then, almost as an afterthought, we ask God to show up and make it all work. Pastor Bill pointed to Proverbs 16:1 as a gentle but firm corrective to that habit: we can arrange our thoughts and intentions, but the answer that actually comes out of our mouths belongs to the Lord. In other words, God is not a co-signer on a plan we already drafted. He is the one who has the right answer from the beginning. That is not a threat — it is actually a relief. It means we are not carrying the weight of figuring everything out on our own. The question this verse invites is honest and a little uncomfortable: when you sit down to think about your life, who is doing most of the talking? Are you presenting God with conclusions, or are you genuinely open to His? Surrendering the pen on your own story is not weakness — it is wisdom. It is the starting place for the kind of life that actually holds together. Today, just notice where your planning begins. That noticing is itself a kind of prayer.

For reflection

When you make plans — big or small — at what point, honestly, does God enter the conversation?

Pray

Pray for the humility to hold your plans loosely and genuinely open today's decisions to God's direction.

Day 2

Most of us are pretty good at looking spiritual on the outside. We show up, we serve, we say the right things. But Proverbs 16:2 cuts right past the surface: all a person's ways seem pure to them, but God weighs the motives. Pastor Bill drew attention to this because it is so easy to perform religious action while the heart underneath is still angled toward personal gain — toward what we can get out of God rather than what we can give to Him and to others. This is not about manufacturing guilt. It is about honest self-awareness. The same action — serving, giving, praying — can flow from completely different places inside us, and God is not fooled by the packaging. The good news here is just as important as the warning: if God examines our motives, it means He is genuinely interested in what is happening inside us. He is not just checking a box. He wants the real you, not a polished version. So today's invitation is simple: bring your actual motives into the light. Not to condemn yourself, but to let God into the real conversation — the one happening underneath the surface of your day.

For reflection

Is there an area of your life where you are doing the right things for reasons that feel more self-serving than God-honoring?

Pray

Pray for honest self-examination — ask God to show you the motives underneath your actions today.

Day 3

Pastor Bill was direct about this one: committing your work to the Lord does not mean making your plans first and then asking God to bless them. It means surrendering to Him before the plan is set. Proverbs 16:3 says to commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed — but the order matters. Commitment comes first. This is where so much frustration in the Christian life is born. We design life around what we want, we work hard for it, and when God does not seem to be blessing it the way we expected, we wonder what is wrong. But the question Pastor Bill pressed on is worth sitting with: did the plan start with surrender, or did surrender come as a late addition? This is also where prayer becomes a diagnostic tool. If your prayers sound mostly like a list of wants — things you need God to do for you — that is worth noticing. Not because wants are wrong, but because prayer shaped entirely around our own agenda can reveal a heart that has not yet fully trusted God with the wheel. Surrendering a plan is not the same as having no plan. It means holding your plans with an open hand, genuinely willing to let God redirect them.

For reflection

Think of one significant goal or plan in your life right now — did it begin with surrender to God, or did you bring it to Him afterward?

Pray

Pray for the courage to surrender a specific plan or goal to God today — genuinely open to whatever He says.

Day 4

The crowd that followed Jesus across the lake in John 6 was enthusiastic, large, and completely missing the point. Jesus told them plainly: you are not here because you saw a sign — you are here because you ate bread and had your fill. They wanted the benefit without the relationship. They wanted Jesus to keep solving their immediate problems without asking anything deeper of them. Pastor Bill used this to hold up a mirror, because the pattern is not unique to first-century crowds. It is possible to follow Jesus — to attend church, to pray, to participate — while actually organizing everything around personal comfort and gain. The crowds were not bad people. They were hungry people who had seen something real and wanted more of the good feeling it produced. Jesus did not condemn them for being hungry. He invited them toward something better: food that endures to eternal life. The shift He was asking for was not from receiving to earning — it was from shallow wanting to deep trust. If following Jesus has started to feel routine or disappointing, today's question is not what is wrong with God, but whether you are following Him for what He gives or for who He is.

For reflection

What are you most often asking Jesus for — and does that reflect a desire for Him, or mostly for what He can provide?

Pray

Pray for a genuine hunger for Jesus Himself — not just for the good things He can bring into your circumstances.

Day 5

After the hard teaching in John 6, many disciples walked away. Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked one of the most direct questions in the Gospels: 'Are you also going to leave?' Peter's answer is one of the most honest and beautiful responses in Scripture — 'Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.' Peter was not performing confidence he did not feel. He was naming something real: there is no better option. Pastor Bill held this up as the posture of genuine faith. It is not the faith that stays because everything is going well. It is the faith that stays because it has looked around and recognized that nothing else holds. The crowds left when Jesus got costly. The Twelve stayed — not because they had it all figured out, but because they had tasted something they could not find anywhere else. This is also what Pastor Bill meant when he talked about faithfulness as a daily choice made not on emotion but on the knowledge of who God is. Some days following Jesus will feel rich and full. Other days it will feel like a discipline, a decision. On those days, Peter's words are worth making your own: where else would I go?

For reflection

When following Jesus feels difficult or unrewarding, what keeps you — or what do you wish would keep you — from walking away?

Pray

Pray for the kind of settled trust that chooses faithfulness not because of how it feels today, but because of who Jesus is.

Day 6

Jesus said it simply and without qualification: 'I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life.' This is the anchor underneath everything Pastor Bill was building toward. The whole sermon rested on this foundation — that the love of Jesus is real, that it is freely given, and that it is meant to be the center of everything. Not possessions. Not power. Not prestige. Not even a life well-organized around good goals. Just this: belief in the One who loves you completely. Pastor Bill's point about true success is only coherent if this is actually true. You cannot live from love you are not sure you have. That is why the sermon kept coming back to the question of how you see Jesus' love — because if that love feels distant or conditional, then surrender will always feel like risk rather than rest. The invitation of John 6:47 is not complicated. It is deep, but it is not complicated. Belief here is not just intellectual agreement — it is the kind of trust that reorganizes your life around what you know to be true. You please God not by performing for Him but by trusting His love. That trust is where transformation begins, and it is available to anyone — starting right now.

For reflection

Does Jesus' love for you feel like something you know intellectually, or something you actually live from? What is the difference, for you?

Pray

Pray for a deeper, more personal experience of the love of Christ — not just knowledge about it, but a lived sense of it.

Day 7

Across this week, the whole arc of John 6 has been doing something in you — if you have let it. A crowd followed Jesus for bread. Jesus offered eternal life. Many walked away disappointed. A few stayed because they had nowhere else to go. And underneath all of it, Proverbs 16 has been asking the same question from a different angle: whose plan are you actually living? Pastor Bill ended where the gospel always ends — at the cross. What looked like total failure on a Friday became the most successful act in human history three days later, because God's definition of success is entirely different from the world's. That reorientation is not a one-time insight. It is a daily practice of choosing to trust Jesus' love as the foundation of everything — your time, your relationships, your generosity, your faithfulness in seasons that feel fruitless. The invitation this week was never about performing better or organizing life more efficiently. It was about surrender — real, honest, ongoing surrender to a love that is bigger than any version of success the world can offer. If something this week stirred a question you are not sure how to answer, or if you felt something shift, that is worth bringing to someone in your church community. You do not have to carry that conversation alone.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, where did you most feel God pressing on your definition of success — and what would it look like to respond?

Pray

Pray for the grace to live this week from the love of Christ — letting that love flow outward into your relationships, your generosity, and your faithfulness.

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

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Think about the last time something you worked hard for turned out completely differently than you planned — and it somehow ended up better. That tension between our plans and a different outcome is right at the heart of what Pastor Bill explores in this message.

Discussion questions

1
In Proverbs 16:1–3, the writer describes a person who arranges their plans and then discovers that God has the final word. What do you think the writer is saying about the relationship between human planning and God's purposes — and what does that suggest about where planning should start?
2
In John 6, Jesus tells the crowd they are following Him because they ate bread and were satisfied — not because they saw the deeper meaning of what He was doing. What do you think Jesus is getting at with that distinction, and why does it seem to matter so much to Him?
3
Pastor Bill pointed out that possessions, power, and prestige are not wrong in themselves — they just can't fill the longing placed in every human heart. How might that idea change the way we as a community talk about what a 'good life' actually looks like?
4
After many disciples walked away in John 6, Jesus asked the Twelve whether they wanted to leave too. Peter answered, 'Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.' What does Peter's response reveal about what had shifted for him compared to the crowd that left?
5
Pastor Bill described true success as living not for Jesus' love but from it — letting that love flow outward into relationships and faithfulness. What would it look like, practically, for a group like ours to build our shared life around that kind of love rather than around shared comfort or common goals?
6
Pastor Bill observed that the crucifixion looked like total failure and yet became the most successful act in history. How does that reframe the way we might think about seasons of life when faithfulness doesn't seem to be 'working'?

Pray together

Surrendering our plans to God, and asking Him to shape our definition of success around His love rather than our own comfort

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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Topics

Surrendering Your Plans The Love of Christ True Priorities Trusting God's Definition of Success Worldly Success vs. God's Purpose

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