Essentials | Week 4 · Rewind

Essentials | Week 4 · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Aug 24, 2026

Big Idea

Quoting the message: God talking changes my walking, end quote. — when we read, reflect on, and respond to Scripture, God's own power transforms how we live.

God still speaks to us today, not through a mountaintop encounter but through His word, which carries His very breath and life. As we read Scripture, let it search us, and respond in trust, God corrects, teaches, and equips us for the life He made us for.

Key points

1
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.
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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.
3
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.'

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

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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

"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true." Pastor Bill pointed out that the word behind "inspired" — theopneustos — literally means God-breathed, the same breath that gave life in creation. That reframes the Bible on the shelf near you. It isn't ink and paper waiting to be studied when you're in the mood; it's the living breath of God, available right where you are. You don't have to climb a mountain or wait for a spiritual high to hear from Him. He already spoke, and He keeps speaking through what He wrote down. Pastor Bill was honest that if we only crack it open when a pastor preaches on Sunday, we're quietly starving ourselves. Left to ourselves, we see the world through our own limited, feelings-driven lens. Scripture hands us God's view of reality instead. This week isn't about racking up guilt over the reading you haven't done. It's a simple invitation to breathe in what God has breathed out — to actually open it, regularly, and let it feed you. Start small and start today. Knowing Jesus through His Word is where the whole thing begins.

For reflection

What has kept the Bible feeling more like a book on a shelf than the living breath of God to me?

Pray

Thank God that He speaks right where you are, and ask for a fresh hunger to open His Word this week.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Pastor Bill started with the idea that you don't have to hike a mountain to hear from God. What's a spot where you'd actually go looking for peace and quiet?

Discussion questions

1
Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17 aloud together. What does Paul say Scripture actually does for the people who spend time in it?
2
Pastor Bill made a distinction between studying the Bible for information and letting it study us. What's the difference between those two ways of coming to Scripture, and why might that matter?
3
Pastor Bill compared God's correction to a surgeon coming at you with a knife — an attack unless you know you're in the operating room and trust the doctor. What does this passage say about the Word that fits that picture?
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The word for 'corrects' in this passage means to restore something bent back to upright, like Pastor Bill holding up that young mesquite tree in the wind. What might it look like for people to let God's Word hold them upright rather than fixing themselves?
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Pastor Bill said the goal of being in the Word isn't just personal improvement but being prepared for every good work — connected to the church and its mission. How might reading Scripture this way change the way we live it out together?
6
This message drew a line between knowing the truth and actually responding to it, where real change happens. Quietly between you and God this week, what's one thing you already know He's inviting you to do — and what would trusting Him with it look like?

Pray together

Trusting our Father enough to not just read His Word but to let it read us and to respond, and asking Him to grow us into deeper community and service.

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Topics

God's Word Heart Transformation Obedience Spiritual Disciplines

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