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I, Me, Mine | Week 3 | Message · Rewind

Rock Point Church

50 min

Pastor Bill Bush · Dec 8, 2025 · 4 min read · 50 min listen

The big idea

Fasting isn't about performing for God or others — it's about stepping away from good things to be honest in God's presence and trust Him more deeply.

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 7Fasting in Matthew 6 is about spiritual honesty, not spiritual performance.
Point 2 of 7Fasting is expected, but it's about surrender, not self-improvement.

Point 3 of 7Fasting is prayer with your whole body.
Point 4 of 7Fasting exposes the unhealthy coping mechanisms we've put in God's place.
Point 5 of 7Fasting reveals whether we believe in Jesus or actually believe Him.
Point 6 of 7We fill our lives with busyness and coping mechanisms to avoid facing what fasting would expose.
Point 7 of 7Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition shows what it looks like to be ruthless with what weighs us down in order to survive and trust.
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

Matthew 6
Matthew 6:16-18
1 Timothy 4:8

Rewind AI drafted the Big Idea and some point headings shown here from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Pastor Bill Bush · Dec 8, 2025 · 50 min watch · 2 min read

I, Me, Mine | Week 3 | Message

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Matthew 6
Matthew 6:16-18
1 Timothy 4:8

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Fasting isn't about performing for God or others — it's about stepping away from good things to be honest in God's presence and trust Him more deeply.

True spiritual life isn't found in performing religious activity to impress God or others — it's found in honest presence with Him. Fasting, rightly understood, isn't pressure to earn God's favor but a way to set aside good or necessary things so we can see reality clearly, expose what we really rely on, and trade self-reliance for trust in God.

Key points

1
1Fasting in Matthew 6 is about spiritual honesty, not spiritual performance.
Pastor Bill walks through Matthew 6:16-18 where Jesus contrasts hypocrites who fast to look miserable and impress people with those who fast quietly before the Father. The reward for performing is empty — it's paid in full the moment people admire you — while the reward for authentic fasting is God's own presence.
2
2Fasting is expected, but it's about surrender, not self-improvement.
He explains that Jesus assumes His followers will fast, not as a legalistic requirement but as a natural way into His presence. It's not about proving yourself better to God through what you gave up; it's about inviting Him to transform you, and refusing to let feelings define who you are.
3
3Fasting is prayer with your whole body.
Washing your face and combing your hair isn't about hygiene, Pastor Bill says, it's about hiding the performance so the heart stays pure. Giving something up you rely on turns your whole body into an act of prayer, creating a sacrifice that opens space and hunger that leads to honesty.
4
4Fasting exposes the unhealthy coping mechanisms we've put in God's place.
Using his own story of secretly binge-eating cereal with heavy whipping cream at 1 a.m., Pastor Bill shows how what looked like a food problem was really stress and an unquiet mind he'd never brought to God. He applies this to tithing, exercise, and other good things that become bad the moment they take God's place, and uses the 'monster at the end of the book' image to describe our fear of what fasting will reveal.
5
5Fasting reveals whether we believe in Jesus or actually believe Him.
He distinguishes an experiential, feelings-based faith from an active, obedient trust in God, arguing that many Christians believe in God but don't actually believe God enough to obey Him. Using a pitching balance drill his father taught him, he illustrates that instability (self-reliance) ruins accuracy, while learning to stop and find balance produced real fruit in his own life.
6
6We fill our lives with busyness and coping mechanisms to avoid facing what fasting would expose.
He tells the story of a woman who broke down crying every day in the shower because it was the only unfilled fifteen minutes in her day, showing how constant activity keeps reality from surfacing. The call is to get alone, let reality come out, and rely on God instead of self.
7
7Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition shows what it looks like to be ruthless with what weighs us down in order to survive and trust.
Pastor Bill retells the story of Shackleton's failed Antarctic crossing, where the crew had to abandon the ship, kill their dogs, and cross frozen seas and mountains, trusting their leader's hard calls. Every man survived, not because they reached their goal, but because they let go of everything that weighed them down — a picture of what trusting Jesus requires of us.

reality is our friend

fasting is about presence not pressure

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to go fast — identify what you reach for before you reach for God, and let Him take its place.

Identify your comfort idol
Get alone and ask what you reach for first when you're stressed, tired, lonely, bored, or insecure — whatever isn't the Lord first is what Pastor Bill says to start fasting from.
Replace the comfort with communion
Don't just subtract the thing — every time you're tempted to reach for it, sit down and spend that time with God in prayer instead.
Expect resistance from yourself
Recognize that the fight against fasting mostly comes from inside you, not from other people, because you already sense what it will reveal.
Be ruthless with what weighs you down
Like Shackleton's crew abandoning gear and dogs to survive, be willing to set aside good or necessary things that are keeping you from God's presence.
Move from believing in Jesus to believing Him
Stop settling for a feelings-based faith and start actively trusting and obeying what God says, even when it doesn't feel comfortable.

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 that's what we're gonna look at in this series, I Me Mine. Talking about Matthew chapter six where Jesus has been in this sermon called the sermon on the mount”
From the transcript
“So starting in verse 16 to 18, he says, and when you fast don't make it obvious as the hypocrites do. For they try to look miserable and to shell so people admire them for their fasting”
From the transcript
“The Bible says exercise is of some value, but godliness has value in all things. So if you are someone that exercise is your only go to for stress”

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

Jesus opens His teaching on fasting with the word 'when,' not 'if.' That small word carries a quiet assumption: He expects His followers to fast. But notice what He is not after. He is not after a performance. The hypocrites in this passage fasted loudly — disheveled, downcast, making sure the whole neighborhood noticed their sacrifice. Jesus calls that out plainly. The reward they were seeking was human approval, and they got it. Full stop. No further reward coming. What Jesus describes instead is something almost counterintuitively private: wash your face, comb your hair, go about your day — and let the fast be between you and your Father, who sees in secret. That phrase, 'who sees in secret,' is not a warning. It is a promise. It means God is already paying attention to what is happening inside you, beneath every performance and presentation you offer the world. Fasting, done the way Jesus describes, is not about looking spiritual. It is about being honest — maybe for the first time in a long time — with a God who already knows you completely and is not waiting to be impressed. That is actually a relief if you let it be. You do not have to earn His attention. You already have it. Fasting is simply you choosing to show up to what is already true.

For reflection

When you think about fasting, is your first instinct to wonder what it will produce in you — or what it might open between you and God? What does that instinct reveal?

Pray

Pray for honesty about your own motives — where you might be performing for God rather than simply being present with Him.

Day 2

Pastor Bill described fasting as prayer with your whole body. That image deserves some time. Most of us think of prayer as something we do with our minds and mouths — words, requests, maybe silence. But when you fast, your body joins the conversation. The hunger you feel is not background noise to push through; it is part of the prayer. It is a physical amen to what your heart is trying to say: 'I want You more than this.' That is why Jesus does not frame fasting as a discipline of subtraction alone. He says anoint your head and wash your face — live your day, stay present, but let the fast be the thing quietly running underneath everything else, like a low note that holds the whole song together. There is something beautifully ordinary about that picture. You are not excusing yourself from life to be spiritual. You are carrying a posture of surrender right into the middle of your ordinary hours. The meal you skip, the habit you set aside, the comfort you do not reach for — each of those moments becomes a small, unspoken prayer. And Jesus says the Father sees those moments. Not to grade them, but to meet you in them. Fasting creates honest space. And honest space is exactly where God does some of His most significant work.

For reflection

What would it look like for your body — not just your mind — to participate in prayer this week?

Pray

Pray for a willingness to let an ordinary, physical act of going without become a genuine conversation with God.

Day 3

Pastor Bill pointed out that fasting exposes what we are actually trusting — not just the obvious vices, but the good, neutral, and even necessary things we reach for first when life gets hard. Jesus makes a similar move just a few verses after His teaching on fasting. He says where your treasure is, your heart will be also. That is not only about money. Treasure, in Jesus's language, is whatever you store up, whatever you protect, whatever you return to when you need to feel okay. It could be a financial reserve, yes — but it could just as easily be a reputation, a relationship, a routine, or a refuge you have quietly built outside of God. The ache that shows up when fasting is not weakness. It is information. It tells you what your heart has been returning to, what has been doing the work you thought only God could do. That is not a verdict on your character. It is an honest look at where you have been living. Jesus is not trying to shame that out of you. He is offering something better: a treasure that cannot rust, fade, or run out. The fast is not punishment for loving the wrong things. It is an invitation to discover that what you actually need has been available all along — and that no comfort you can reach for on your own comes close.

For reflection

When you are stressed, lonely, or bored, what is the first thing you reach for — and what does that habit tell you about where your heart is storing its security?

Pray

Pray for clarity about what you are actually treasuring, and for a growing desire to trust God with the places where that comfort used to live.

Day 4

The Bible acknowledges that physical discipline has real value. Exercise, rest, nutrition, the habits that keep a body healthy — these are not nothing. But it draws a clear line: godliness holds value in all things, not just some. Physical training helps in this life. Godliness reaches into the next. That distinction matters when you are thinking about fasting, because fasting can easily drift into self-improvement territory. You skip a meal and feel accomplished. You go without social media for a week and feel more disciplined. And discipline is not bad — but the goal Pastor Bill kept returning to is not a better version of yourself. It is surrender. There is a real difference between those two destinations. Self-improvement keeps you at the center: you are the project, and the practices are the tools. Surrender moves God to the center: He is the point, and the fast is just a way of clearing the room so He can work. Godliness is not the fruit of trying harder. It is the fruit of trusting more. Fasting, done honestly, is not a workout for your willpower. It is an act of placing your willpower down and asking God to be enough. That is the exchange that produces something self-discipline alone never could: a peace and a transformation that actually lasts.

For reflection

Is the spiritual practice you are most drawn to pointing you toward God, or quietly pointing you back toward a sense of personal accomplishment?

Pray

Pray for the humility to want transformation more than self-improvement — and for a clear sense of what the difference feels like in your daily life.

Day 5

Pastor Bill drew a careful distinction between believing in Jesus and actually believing Jesus. The first can be mostly experiential — a feeling of faith, a warmth when worship is good, a sense of assurance on good days. The second is something more: active, obedient trust that holds even when the feeling is gone. Jesus presses directly into this gap in the Sermon on the Mount. He asks why you are anxious about food and clothing and tomorrow, when your Father already knows you need all of it. That is not a rebuke for feeling anxious. Anxiety is deeply human, and Jesus knows that. But He is pointing to something: the worry itself reveals that at some level, you are not yet fully living as though God is actually providing. You believe in a providing God. You may not yet be believing that God provides — for you, right now, in this. That is the gap fasting is built to address. When you go without something and notice the anxiety that rises, you are standing right at the edge of that gap. And instead of immediately filling it with whatever you usually reach for, you can take one step toward Jesus instead. Not because the anxiety is wrong, but because He is trustworthy. Every time you do that, the gap narrows a little. That is not performance. That is faith being built.

For reflection

Where in your life are you believing in God's provision in theory, but not quite living as though it is real for you right now?

Pray

Pray for the courage to name your specific anxiety honestly before God — and for faith that He already knows and is already present in it.

Day 6

Jesus does not end His teaching on worry with a command to try harder not to worry. He ends it with a direction: seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. That is the substitute Pastor Bill was talking about. Don't just subtract the thing you are fasting from — replace it with something. Every time the urge comes, go to God instead. Pray, read, sit in His presence. Seek. That word is active and directional. It implies movement, intention, a turning toward something rather than just a turning away from something else. Seeking His kingdom first is not about spiritual productivity or logging enough quiet-time hours. It is about reordering what gets your first attention — your first instinct when the day is hard, when the loneliness hits, when the inbox is full and the margin is gone. What if the first thing you reached for in those moments was not a phone, not food, not a distraction, but actually the presence of God? That is not a small shift. It is a reorientation of where your heart goes when it needs something. And Jesus is saying: that reorientation is where the peace lives. Not after everything is resolved, but inside the seeking itself. That is the reward the Father gives — not a better set of circumstances, but Himself.

For reflection

What is one specific, ordinary moment in your week where you could practice seeking God first — before reaching for your usual comfort?

Pray

Pray for a genuine desire to seek God's presence before seeking relief — and for the patience to stay in that seeking even when the peace feels slow to come.

Day 7

Looking back over this week, Matthew 6 has been doing something quiet and consistent: it has been asking where you are actually living. Where your treasure is. What you are anxious about. What you are performing, and for whom. What you seek first. These are not academic questions. They are the questions of a life. Pastor Bill said the goal of fasting is not self-improvement — it is surrender. Moving from believing in Jesus to actually believing Jesus. And that movement does not happen in a single act of willpower. It happens in the small, repeated choices to go to God instead of going to the thing that used to do the job. Over time, that is what changes a person. Not from the outside in, through discipline and display, but from the inside out, through honest presence with a God who sees in secret and rewards what is real. The whole stretch of this passage is an invitation into that kind of life — a life where your treasure, your trust, your attention, and your seeking are all moving in the same direction. Not perfectly. Not without resistance. Jesus knew there would be resistance; He named it in how He taught. But He also promised the Father sees, the Father knows, and the Father rewards. That is not a transaction. That is a relationship. And this week was just the beginning of living inside it.

For reflection

What is one thing that shifted in you this week — in how you see fasting, or in what you noticed yourself reaching for first — that you want to carry forward?

Pray

Pray for the grace to keep moving from believing in Jesus toward believing Jesus — one honest, un-performed, surrendered moment at a time.

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

This message takes a close look at a spiritual practice Jesus assumed His followers would do — fasting — and what He says it is actually meant to accomplish in us.

Discussion questions

1
In Matthew 6:16–18, Jesus opens with 'When you fast' — not 'if you fast.' What do you think that assumption tells us about how Jesus viewed fasting in the life of a follower?
2
The message drew a distinction between fasting as a performance and fasting as an honest act of stepping into God's presence. What does that difference look like in practice — how would someone on the outside even be able to tell?
3
Pastor Bill described fasting as something that exposes the coping mechanisms and comfort habits we reach for first — even good or neutral things — when we are stressed, lonely, or bored. What makes something that is genuinely good or neutral still worth fasting from?
4
Pastor Bill drew a distinction between believing in Jesus and actually believing Jesus — the first being experiential and feeling-oriented, the second being an active, obedient trust that produces real peace. How would you describe what separates those two in the way a person actually lives?
5
The message frames fasting not as subtraction alone but as substitution — every time the urge hits, going to God instead. How might that 'substitute, don't just subtract' approach change the way a community of people talks about or practices fasting together?
6
Pastor Bill said the goal of fasting is not self-improvement but surrender — moving from self-reliance to God-reliance, and that the reward Jesus promises is His presence, which changes us even when circumstances don't change. What does it look like for a group of people to hold each other to that goal rather than drifting toward treating fasting as another spiritual achievement?

Pray together

Honesty before God — asking Him to reveal what we reach for instead of Him, and the courage to exchange self-reliance for trust in His presence

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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Go deeper

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I, Me, Mine

Week 3 · 4 messages

Where these passages are preached

Matthew 6 1 Timothy 4

Explore related topics

Active Obedience Comfort Idols Fasting God's Presence Surrendering to God

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