Key points
1We have to actually read it — most of us struggle right here first.
He compares only hearing from God once a week at church to eating once a week — you won't be healthy. He points people who doubt the Bible's reliability to a past apologetics series, but says today's focus is simply the discipline of opening it and reading, pointing to the Foundations class and the Bible app's reading plans as starting points.
2Scripture is the very breath of God, so reading it means encountering Him.
Pastor Bill unpacks the Greek word theopneustos ('God-breathed') from 2 Timothy 3:16, connecting it to the breath of God that gave life in creation and to Hebrews' description of the word as living and active. To read the Bible, he says, is to experience the same life-giving presence and power of God.
3Scripture shows us reality from God's point of view, not the world's.
Pastor Bill explains that 'what is true' in the Greek means all-encompassing reality, not just moral lessons. Without reading it, we're bombarded by the world's version of reality and just sprinkle Jesus on top of it, which is why so many Christians believe in Jesus but never find real peace.
to see the word of God is to experience God
4We have to let the word read us, not just study it — that's reflection.
Using his own experience of writing sermons, he admits the temptation to study the Bible only to give to others without letting the Holy Spirit convict him first. He redefines biblical conviction as guidance rather than guilt — God pointing out FOMO, what we're missing out on, not condemnation for the past — illustrated by his 'masked man with a knife' turning out to be a surgeon story.
This conviction is not about guilt, it's about guidance
The conviction should be FOMO for what you're missing out on
Illustration
A hypothetical about a masked person with a knife turning out to be a surgeon, used to reframe conviction
A story from life
A story about staking and holding a mesquite tree upright during storms at his home
5We have to respond to what God shows us — that's where change happens.
He tells the long story of physically holding up a young, storm-bent mesquite tree in his yard for years until it grew straight, contrasting it with the crooked trees around it that were never held upright. He says being 'held upright' by God's word only works if we let Him — response by faith is what actually transforms us.
6Knowing without doing is the 'stupid tax,' and it keeps us stuck.
Drawing on his own struggle with fitness and his dad's distinction between 'dumb' (an honest mistake you learn from) and 'stupid' (repeating the same mistake you already know better than to make), he applies it to money, community, and purpose — we already know what God says to do and just don't do it, and that self-inflicted cycle, not God's punishment, is what keeps us frustrated.
I didn't get this because I'm dumb. I got this because I am stupid
A story from life
A story about cycling between fitness and weight gain despite knowing exercise and nutrition principles
7Paul's charge to Timothy is a warning that people will want teaching that only tells them what they want to hear.
Reading the opening verses of 2 Timothy 4, he explains Paul is preparing Timothy, a young pastor, for a congregation that will resist correction and go looking for teachers who scratch their itching ears. He applies this to his own role and to the church itself, saying he'd rather call things out than let people keep paying the 'stupid tax.'
we don't even have to run up Santan Mountain. All we have to do is open it, read it, reflect on it, and respond to it
A story from life
A video testimony about traveling to Greece on the church's trip retracing Paul's missionary journey
Application
Pastor Bill's charge is to read it, let it read you, and respond to it.
Read it
Start actually opening the Bible regularly instead of only hearing it preached once a week; use the Foundations class or the Bible app's reading plans if you don't know where to begin.
Let it reflect on you
Don't just study Scripture for information or to win an argument — sit still with it and let the Holy Spirit show you where your life is out of step with what's true.
Respond to what it shows you
When God's word corrects something, actually let Him straighten it out rather than just noting it, the way a bent tree only grows straight if it's held upright and allowed to change.
Stop paying the stupid tax
If you already know what God's word says about your money, community, or purpose and keep ignoring it, surrender and do what you already know rather than repeating the same struggle.
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
