Rock Point Church
Pastor Nolan Tjaden · Oct 17, 2026
A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.
Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.
Sign inDay 1 of 7 · Acts 20:1-3
Pastor Nolan opened this message with a startling idea: there is a truth worth dying for in a world that often feels like it has nothing to live for. In Acts 20, Paul keeps moving — encouraging believers, pressing on through a region where a plot has formed against his life. He doesn't retreat into safety; he adjusts his route and keeps going. What strikes me is that Paul isn't fighting to earn a victory. Jesus has already won the fight against sin, Satan, and death. Paul lives out of that settled reality, not toward a reward he's still anxious about. That's the heartbeat of this whole week: we don't fight for victory, we fight from it. Pastor Nolan described evangelism as dragging an unseen spiritual war into the present by inviting people to change sides. That's bigger and weightier than a friendly conversation about church. It's real. And it starts not with striving but with remembering who already holds the field. Before you think about anyone else this week, let that truth sink in. The outcome is secure. Now you get to live like someone who believes it, one ordinary step at a time.
Prayer
Thank Jesus for the victory He has already secured, and ask Him to help you live from it this week.
Day 2 of 7 · Acts 20:19-23
It would be easy to assume that living on mission for Jesus means smoother days ahead. Acts 20 says otherwise. As Paul recounts his years in Ephesus, he describes serving with tears and trials, and then he names what the Holy Spirit kept telling him city after city: imprisonment and afflictions await. Not comfort. Not ease. Chains. And Paul went anyway, constrained by the Spirit, unwilling to count his own life as worth more than finishing the race. Pastor Nolan drew a sharp, honest line here. He pointed out how easy it is to call minor inconveniences 'persecution' when we aren't actually on mission at all. That's a gentle challenge, not an accusation. The Spirit didn't promise Paul a frictionless life; He promised presence in the hardship. If you've been quietly wondering whether opposition means you've done something wrong, hear this: real resistance has always followed real mission. It's not a detour off the path. It can be a sign you're on it. The invitation isn't to go looking for trouble. It's to stop being surprised by it, and to keep stepping forward with the same Spirit who kept Paul moving.
Prayer
Ask the Holy Spirit for courage to keep going even when the road ahead looks hard.
Day 3 of 7 · Acts 14:22
'Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God' (Acts 14:22, ESV). Pastor Nolan leaned into this verse to make a point we'd rather not hear: suffering is tied directly to being dangerous for the darkness. It isn't a sign that something has gone wrong in the Christian life. In this moment, Paul and Barnabas aren't recruiting new believers with promises of ease. They're strengthening souls and encouraging people to continue in the faith — and the encouragement itself includes the hard truth that tribulation is part of the road home. There's something strangely freeing in that. If I expect the Christian life to be comfortable, every difficulty feels like a betrayal. But if I take Jesus at His word, hardship becomes something I can walk through rather than something that unravels me. Pastor Nolan warned against the opposite error too — treating everyday frustration as warfare while quietly avoiding the real cost of actually sharing our faith. The honest question is which direction my heart leans. Not a pass-or-fail test, just a direction. Jesus doesn't promise His people an easy path, but He does promise the kingdom at the end of it, and His presence every step of the way.
Prayer
Pray for a settled heart that can continue in the faith through hard seasons.
Day 4 of 7 · Acts 20:7-12
In Acts 20, Paul talks so long that a young man named Eutychus drifts off, falls from a third-story window, and is taken up dead — only to be restored to life. It's a strange, almost comic scene, but Pastor Nolan drew out why Paul poured hour after hour of teaching into that room: he knew it might be his last time with them, so he gave them the Word. That hunger to teach and be taught isn't an accident of history. Pastor Nolan cited research showing that the people most immersed in their Bibles are statistically the ones who share their faith best. If you want to get better at the mission of God, you grow in the Word of God. The two aren't separate projects. This is where discipleship gets wonderfully practical. You don't have to feel equipped before you open Scripture — opening it is how you get equipped. Feeding your own heart the fuel of God's Word is how you learn to stand firm, how you pass faith to the people under your roof, and how you actually get better at living on mission. Start small if you need to. Just crack it open. The life is in the Word, and the Word is within reach today.
Prayer
Ask God to grow a real hunger in you for His Word, and for one small step to start.
Day 5 of 7 · Acts 20:8
'The upstairs room where we were meeting was lighted with many flickering lamps.' It's such a small detail that it's easy to skip. But Pastor Nolan noticed two things in it. First, Luke writes as an eyewitness — a credentialed physician saying 'we were meeting.' This isn't legend passed down secondhand; it's testimony from someone who was in the room. The Bible's credibility is woven right into its telling. Second, those many lamps reveal a crowd gathered late into the night, hungry enough for the Word to stay and listen to Paul for hours. Pastor Nolan made a striking claim: no major revival in history has ever happened apart from a hunger for Scripture. The lamps are a picture of that hunger, people leaning in toward the light of God's Word together. I find it convicting in the best way. My own appetite for Scripture often needs rekindling, and it rarely stays lit in isolation. Those believers gathered — they fed the flame together. That's part of why growing in the Word was never meant to be a solo act. There's a reason God's people keep lighting the lamps and showing up in the same room. Who are you leaning toward the light alongside?
Prayer
Pray for a renewed hunger for Scripture, and for people to pursue it alongside you.
Day 6 of 7 · Acts 20:11-12
Luke tells us the people took Eutychus home 'alive, and they were greatly comforted.' Pastor Nolan noticed that the text doubly emphasizes that word — alive. This isn't a throwaway happy ending. It's a sign pointing to something deeper: the world brings death, but God's Word brings life to all who hear and believe it. That life ripples outward — to a young man, yes, but also to his family, to the region, and to generations who would retell the story all the way down to us. This reframes the whole week. When Pastor Nolan calls us to be dangerous for the darkness, he isn't calling us to carry a message of condemnation. He's calling us to carry life. The gospel we share is the most hopeful news a dying world could hear. If you've hesitated to speak because you worried you'd come across as judgmental or pushy, remember what you actually hold: words that bring life, not death. Pastor Nolan shared how he was saved as a teenager simply through hearing the Bible taught. Someone carried life to him. The same Word that raised Eutychus and reached a young Pastor Nolan is still doing its work, and He's invited you to be part of carrying it.
Prayer
Thank God that His Word brings life, and ask Him to make you a carrier of it.
Day 7 of 7 · Matthew 9:37-38
Tomorrow a normal week begins — school runs, inboxes, grocery lines, the same familiar faces. Pastor Nolan's charge lands right there, in the ordinary: get in the fight, be dangerous for the darkness, and fight for just one more. Not a crowd. One. Someone close to you but far from God. Jesus said the harvest is great but the workers are few, and told His disciples to pray the Lord would send workers into His fields (Matthew 9:37-38). Notice where it starts — with prayer. That's the spirit behind the daily 1 p.m. alarm Pastor Nolan described, a simple reminder to stop and pray for and pursue that one person. So this is the forward-looking question of the week: whose name comes to mind? Write it down. Set a reminder if that helps. Then pursue them specifically — not with a script or pressure, but by loving them like Jesus and staying ready to speak the life you've been soaking in all week. You'll fight from victory, not for it. Opposition may come, and that's alright; you've been getting ready for that too. The war is real, but the outcome is settled, and today is the right time. One more. Start there.
Prayer
Pray by name for the one person God is placing on your heart, and for boldness to pursue them.
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
Sign in to save this message.