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Last Words | Week 4 · Rewind

Rock Point Church

67 min

Pastor Bill Bush · Mar 31, 2019 · 4 min read · 67 min listen

The big idea

When you feel overwhelmed, remember that Jesus overcame — the battle is won even though the fighting isn't done.

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 7The battle is won, but the fighting isn't done
Point 2 of 7Joy and peace are not the same as being problem-free

Point 3 of 7'Take heart' only carries weight because Jesus backs it up
Point 4 of 7Every person craves love, faith, and hope, and only God can fully supply them
Point 5 of 7The Father loves you dearly because of your faith in Jesus
Point 6 of 7Believing in Jesus doesn't mean you won't stumble, but He calls you back
Point 7 of 7You are not fighting for victory, you are fighting from it
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

John 16
John 16:33
1 Corinthians 13
John 16:25
John 16:27
John 3:16

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 · Mar 31, 2019 · 67 min watch · 2 min read

Last Words | Week 4

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

John 16
John 16:33
1 Corinthians 13
John 16:25
John 16:27
John 3:16

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

When you feel overwhelmed, remember that Jesus overcame — the battle is won even though the fighting isn't done.

Jesus told His disciples the truth so they could have peace and joy even in a world full of trials. Real peace and joy aren't the absence of problems — they come from love, faith, and hope found only in Jesus, who has already overcome the world.

Key points

1
1The battle is won, but the fighting isn't done
Pastor Bill tells the story of his father, a 17-year-old Navy machine gunner at Iwo Jima, who watched the flag go up on Mount Suribachi four days into the battle — a symbol of victory — even though 90% of the casualties came after that picture was taken. He uses this to frame how Jesus comforts His disciples in John 16: they can know the war is won even while the fighting continues.
2
2Joy and peace are not the same as being problem-free
Pastor Bill explains that happiness depends on circumstances, but joy is exuberance despite circumstance and peace is a tranquility that can overcome us in a moment we'd expect to freak out. Jesus offers this even while promising many trials and sorrows.
3
3'Take heart' only carries weight because Jesus backs it up
Pastor Bill shares a story about telling his stressed wife to 'relax' when their son's car broke down, and how empty that word was because he had no power to actually fix anything. He contrasts this with Jesus, who alone in the New Testament can say 'take heart' because He has already made a way.
4
4Every person craves love, faith, and hope, and only God can fully supply them
Drawing on 1 Corinthians 13, Pastor Bill argues that people chase relationships, jobs, or possessions to fill a longing that only God can satisfy, and that having everything without love, faith, and hope still leaves people empty.
5
5The Father loves you dearly because of your faith in Jesus
Working through John 16:26-28, Pastor Bill unpacks the Greek word phileo (family love) used here, explaining that believers are adopted into God's family and can go straight to the Father without a curtain separating them, as Jesus modeled by calling God 'Abba.'
6
6Believing in Jesus doesn't mean you won't stumble, but He calls you back
Pastor Bill walks through John 16:29-32, showing that even though the disciples finally declared belief, Jesus told them they would scatter and abandon Him. He connects this to Peter's denial and to anyone who has tried to follow Jesus and kept falling back, showing that Jesus expects and welcomes the return.
7
7You are not fighting for victory, you are fighting from it
Pastor Bill lands on Jesus' statement 'I have overcome the world,' noting the Greek is past-present tense — a done deal. He ties this back to the Iwo Jima flag as a symbol his father could look to in the fight, just as believers can look to the cross on Calvary.

A story from life

Story about the preacher's father serving as a machine gunner at the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II, witnessing the flag raised on Mount Suribachi

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to stop fighting for victory and start fighting from it, looking past the battle to the hill where Jesus already won.

Look up at the hill, not down at the fight
When you feel crushed by circumstances, look past the battle in front of you to Calvary, where Jesus already declared 'it is finished.'
Come home if you've run away
If you've been fighting Jesus' plan for your life or running from Him like the prodigal son, stop running and come back — He is still your family.
Put your faith in Jesus, not yourself
If you've never surrendered your life to Jesus, pray now and turn from trying to save yourself to trusting what He did on the cross.
Take communion as a moment to remember, not a ritual
Use the bread and cup this morning to fix your eyes on the fact that Jesus already overcame, rather than treating it as a mystical routine.

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
“we're gonna continue on. And today, we're gonna be in chapter 16 of John. And what's interesting is is to to really wrap our arms around what he's talking about”
From the transcript
“So so I'm gonna start with the end in mind here. So verse 33 says this. Jesus is trying to bring them comfort. He says, I have told you all of this so that you may have peace in me”
From the transcript
“It's talked about clearly in in first Corinthians 13, Paul writes all about it. And the three things are love, faith, and hope”
From the transcript
“So with that context, I'll show you how it comes out in this. Let's read. Starting verse 25. I've spoken of these matters and figures of speech, but soon I'll stop speaking figuratively”
From the transcript
“four verse 27, the father himself loves you dearly. He just said the father himself you know, I've loved you and you're worried about me leaving”
From the transcript
“In John three sixteen, the most famous verse in the Bible always held up at football games, for God so loved the world, the word there is agape”
From the transcript
“Well, chapter 15, what did Jesus say is loving him? Remaining in him. And he says, does it mean to remain in me? Obey me”
From the transcript
“Yes. Verse 28. I came from the father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the father”
From the transcript
“So then look what happens next. So he says it's the love through the faith. And then in verse 29, they say, then his disciples said, at last, you're speaking plainly not figuratively”
From the transcript
“s it worded? It says that he who began a good work in me will see it to the end. He's saying that if you know me, I will see it out. When you are faithless, I am faithful”

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 striking about the moment Pastor Bill opened in John 16. Jesus is hours away from the cross, and instead of rallying His disciples with strategy or courage, He speaks plainly — no more figures of speech. He tells them the Father Himself loves them. He is not softening the difficulty ahead. He is grounding them in something that cannot be shaken by what is coming. That is worth sitting with. Jesus does not promise His followers a smooth road. He promises something better: clear-eyed access to a Father who actually knows them and loves them anyway. Before the arrest, before the trial, before the silence of Holy Saturday — He speaks directly. There is an intimacy in that. The disciples had been following Jesus for three years, and here He is widening their view: the relationship you have with Me opens a direct line to the Father. Not through ceremony. Not through a priest or a performance. Directly. If life has felt distant from God lately — if prayer has felt like sending a letter to an empty house — this passage is an invitation to reconsider. The door Jesus opened on that Thursday night before the crucifixion is still open. You are not talking to a ceiling. You are talking to a Father who is already leaning in.

For reflection

When you pray, do you approach God as a distant authority or as a Father who is genuinely glad you came? What shapes that sense?

Pray

Pray for a renewed sense of direct, personal access to God as Father — not just as a theological idea, but as a felt reality today.

Day 2

Pastor Bill made a distinction in this sermon that is easy to rush past: God does not merely love you — He likes you. The word Jesus uses here for the Father's love is phileo, the love of genuine affection and friendship, the kind that belongs inside a family. That is different from a formal, obligatory love. It is the love of someone who is glad when you walk in the room. Most of us have a much easier time believing God tolerates us than believing He actually delights in us. We accept the doctrine of grace intellectually while quietly assuming God is just enduring our presence until we get our act together. But Jesus says the Father Himself loves you with that warmer, closer word — phileo — because you have loved Jesus and believed He came from God. This is not a love you earned. It is a love you are being invited to receive. And receiving it matters, because you cannot live from a love you keep at arm's length. The invitation today is simple but not easy: let this be true for you, not just true in general. God is not disappointed every time He thinks of you. He is a Father who likes His child. That changes how you pray, how you face the day, and how you carry whatever is heavy right now.

For reflection

Is it easier for you to believe God loves you or that He likes you? What is the difference, and why might it matter?

Pray

Pray for the courage to receive God's affection — not just His forgiveness — and to let that reshape how you see yourself today.

Day 3

One of the more honest moments in this sermon came when Pastor Bill addressed why we stop feeling God's love. Not because He withdrew it. Not because He changed His mind. But because we run. Disobedience and self-sufficiency create distance — not on God's end, but on ours. John 15 gives us the language for it: remaining. Abiding. Staying in the place where love flows. Jesus connects obedience not to earning love but to remaining in it, the way a branch stays connected to a vine. When we drift — when we start white-knuckling life on our own terms, managing our fears privately, or keeping God at a convenient distance — we are still loved. But we stop experiencing that love because we are no longer in the place where it reaches us most fully. That is not a verdict. It is a description. And the way back is not a long penance — it is simply returning. Coming home, as Pastor Bill put it. The Father in Jesus' other parables does not require his returning child to explain himself before being embraced. The son is still far off when the father starts running. If today you feel like you have been running, or drifting, or just quietly doing life without much room for God — this is an invitation back. The distance is shorter than it feels.

For reflection

Is there any area of your life where self-sufficiency has quietly crowded out trust in God? What would it look like to return?

Pray

Pray for honesty about any distance you feel from God right now, and for the willingness to take one step back toward Him today.

Day 4

Pastor Bill built a significant part of this sermon around a claim that is at once obvious and profound: every human being is wired for love, faith, and hope. These are not religious concepts bolted onto human experience from the outside. They are the shape of the longing already inside every person. First Corinthians 13 does not present love, faith, and hope as a checklist for religious performance — it presents them as the enduring substance of a life rooted in God. Everything else, Paul says, passes away. Prophecy. Knowledge. Even the most spectacular spiritual experiences. But these three remain. Because they are not about what you can do or demonstrate — they are about what you are oriented toward. Love keeps you connected. Faith keeps you trusting through what you cannot see. Hope keeps you moving when the present is hard. When any one of these is missing, you feel it, even if you cannot name it. The restlessness, the cynicism, the exhaustion that sets in when life seems to be running on fumes — that is often the sound of a soul that has lost its footing in one of these three. The good news Pastor Bill kept returning to is that God is not the answer to a religious question. He is the answer to the deepest human one. Only He can fully satisfy these longings. That is not a slogan. It is an invitation to come and see.

For reflection

Of the three — love, faith, and hope — which feels most depleted in your life right now? What might that be telling you?

Pray

Pray for the specific longing that feels most hollow today — ask God to meet you there, honestly and without performance.

Day 5

It would be easy to assume a verse this familiar has nothing left to say. Pastor Bill did not linger on it for sentiment — he returned to it because the sermon's entire foundation rests here. God so loved the world. Not the cleaned-up version of the world. Not the people who had already figured it out. The whole broken, running, doubting, striving world. And He gave — past tense, completed action — His only Son, so that whoever believes would not perish but have eternal life. The structure of that verse is the structure of the whole sermon: the love came first, the gift was given before any response was made, and the invitation is simply to believe. There is no fine print requiring you to earn access or maintain a certain performance level before the offer applies to you. Whoever. That word does a lot of work. It means you do not have to sort out whether you qualify before you come. You come, and you find out you were already included. For those who have carried the cross as a familiar image for so long that it has lost its weight — sit here for a moment. A Father who so loved sent His Son into the very worst of it so the door could be opened permanently. That is the flag on the hill. That is the finished victory Pastor Bill pointed to. Look up.

For reflection

Has John 3:16 become so familiar that it has lost its force? What would it mean to hear it today as if for the first time?

Pray

Pray for fresh eyes on the cross — that the familiar would become real again, and that gratitude would replace any sense of routine or distance.

Day 6

Pastor Bill referenced this promise — that the One who began a good work will see it through to completion — and it is worth its own day, because it speaks directly to the fear that God might give up on you before the story ends. The disciples Jesus spoke to in John 16 were about to scatter. They would fail, hide, and doubt. Peter would deny Him three times before morning. And yet Jesus had already said: the Father loves you. The Spirit is coming. I have overcome. God does not start things He intends to abandon. That is the nature of the One who began a good work in you. If you are somewhere in the middle of your own story — not at the triumphant end, not at the clean beginning, but in the messy, uncertain middle — this verse is for that place. The completion of the work is not dependent on your consistency. It is dependent on God's faithfulness. That does not mean your choices are without consequence. But it does mean the outcome of your life in God is secured by Someone whose commitment to you does not fluctuate with your performance. You are a work in progress in the hands of a God who does not abandon projects. Whatever you are facing, you are not facing it as someone whose future is in doubt.

For reflection

Where in your life do you most need to trust that God is still at work — even where you see little evidence of progress?

Pray

Pray for trust in God's faithfulness to finish what He started in you — especially in the places that feel stalled or uncertain right now.

Day 7

Coming back to the whole passage at the end of the week feels right, because Pastor Bill's sermon was not a collection of separate ideas — it was one sustained invitation to take heart. Jesus gathers everything in verse 33: trouble is real, His overcoming is past tense and permanent, and the command to take heart is not wishful thinking. It is a command only He can give because He alone has already done what backs it up. This week you have sat with direct access to the Father, the phileo love that likes you, the call to remain, the three longings every human soul carries, the scope of John 3:16, and the faithfulness of a God who finishes what He starts. All of it flows from this passage. All of it is meant to do the same thing: shift your gaze from the fight in front of you to the finished victory behind you. The cross is not a symbol of defeat redeemed. It is the flag on the hill — the declaration that the war is won. Communion, as Pastor Bill reminded us, is the regular, tangible practice of looking up and remembering that. Whatever this week held for you, you do not carry it alone, and you are not fighting toward an uncertain outcome. Take heart. He has overcome.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, which day's truth landed most deeply? How do you want to carry that forward into the weeks ahead?

Pray

Pray with the whole week in view — bring what felt hard, what felt hopeful, and what still feels unresolved, and place it under the finished victory of Jesus.

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

Jesus' last words to His disciples before the crucifixion weren't a pep talk — they were a promise backed by power. This message looks at what it actually means to 'take heart' when life is pressing in hard.

Discussion questions

1
In John 16:33, Jesus says, 'I have overcome the world' — past tense, already done. What difference does it make that He frames the victory that way, rather than saying 'I will overcome' or 'we can overcome together'?
2
Pastor Bill pointed to 1 Corinthians 13 and said every human being is wired for love, faith, and hope — and that only God can fully satisfy those longings. What does that suggest about why people search so hard for those things in other places?
3
In John 16:27, Jesus describes the Father loving His followers with phileo — a family love, the kind that not only loves you but actually likes you. How might that specific word change the way people picture their relationship with God?
4
Pastor Bill observed that we often fail to feel God's love not because He stopped loving us, but because we run from Him — and he pointed to John 15:10 as a picture of what returning looks like. What does that 'way back' look like in practice, and what makes it hard to take?
5
Pastor Bill described communion as a regular, tangible moment to lift our eyes from the fight in front of us to the finished victory of Christ on the cross. What does it look like for a community — not just an individual — to practice that kind of perspective shift together?
6
Jesus says in John 16:33 that in this world we will have trouble, and then immediately says to take heart. How might the way we support one another through hard seasons look different if we really believed we were fighting from a victory already won, rather than toward one still in doubt?

Pray together

Thankfulness that the victory is already finished — and courage to live and love from that place

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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Last Words

Week 4 · 3 messages

Where these passages are preached

John 16 1 Corinthians 13 John 3 John 15

Explore related topics

Communion God's Love Jesus' Victory Peace in Christ Taking Heart

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