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We Are Rock Point | Part 1 · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Bill Bush · Jun 25, 2018

Pastor Bill Bush · Jun 25, 2018 · 76 min watch · 2 min read

We Are Rock Point | Part 1

Devotional days

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7

Scripture in this message

Genesis 12
Genesis 12:1
Genesis 12:4
Genesis 15
Genesis 15:1
Genesis 15:2

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Life is about the journey, not the destination, end quote. — and that journey is knowing Christ in a personal relationship because God alone has taken care of both ends of the deal.

God doesn't call us to chase destinations but to walk a lifelong journey of knowing Him. Like Abraham, we get fearful and impatient when promises seem far off, but God alone passed through the covenant sacrifice, showing He alone is faithful. We're saved not by earning it, but simply by believing Him, the way Jesus later paid for both sides of that covenant on the cross.

Key points

1
1Life is meant to be about the journey, not the destination
Pastor Bill opens with a story of a 3,500-mile road trip where he had to fight his own urge to rush to the destination and instead learn to stop and notice things along the way, like the bubblegum wall in Seattle and Idaho Falls. He connects this to how believers often treat their walk with God as a race to the next milestone instead of a relationship to be lived out moment by moment.
2
2Abram was called to a journey, not just a promised destination
Pastor Bill reads Genesis 12, where God calls a 75-year-old, childless Abram to leave everything for a land and a promise of descendants, and Abram departs in obedience.
3
3Years later, Abram grows fearful and impatient, essentially asking God 'are we there yet?'
By Genesis 15, years have passed and Abram still has no child. God tells him not to be afraid, and Abram voices his doubt, complaining he has no heir. Pastor Bill compares this to a child in the backseat convinced the trip will never end, showing that God's promises don't always move at the pace we expect.
4
4Abram believed God, and that faith alone was counted as righteousness
God responds by promising descendants as numerous as the stars, and Abram believes Him. Pastor Bill highlights that this simple belief, not any accomplishment, is what made Abram right with God — though only one verse later Abram is doubting again, showing how human and inconsistent faith really is.
5
5God alone passed through the covenant sacrifice, taking on both sides of the deal
Pastor Bill walks through the strange covenant ceremony with the animals cut in half, explaining the ancient custom meant both covenant parties would walk through the blood, pledging their own death if they broke the agreement. But in the vision, only God — appearing as smoke and fire — passes through the pieces, meaning God alone bore the responsibility and the penalty, even for Abram's future failures.
6
6That lone walk through the sacrifice foreshadowed the cross
Pastor Bill connects God passing through alone to Jesus going to the cross alone, bearing the penalty for humanity's failure to keep the covenant. He shares his own testimony of trying to earn his way onto 'God's team' through good behavior and Bible reading as a 14-year-old, until he understood the gospel through a friend's invitation and an intern's explanation that no one can make the team through their own effort — Jesus already paid both sides of the deal.
7
7Baptism is a remembered moment of belief, not an act to earn God's love
Pastor Bill explains that baptism, like the covenant ceremony with Abraham, is a moment God gives us to look back on, not a requirement God needs to love us or a mark of spiritual maturity. It identifies believers with Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection so that when they fail later, they can remember the moment they declared belief and run back to God instead of away from Him.

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to stop treating faith like a deal you have to earn and simply believe God, the way Abraham did.

Trade destination mindset for journey mindset
Stop measuring your walk with God by whether you've arrived somewhere and start noticing and knowing Jesus in the place you're in right now, even the hard or boring stretches.
Believe God instead of trying to earn Him
Like Abraham, simply believe God rather than trying to perform your way onto His team through good behavior or religious effort — that belief alone is what makes you right with Him.
Put your faith in Jesus right now
If you've never truly believed, pray and trust that Jesus's death and resurrection paid for both sides of the covenant, and become a Christian today.
Get baptized as an act of obedience
If you already know Jesus but haven't been baptized, come forward now — not to earn maturity or God's love, but as a remembered moment you can return to when you struggle or doubt.

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 and we're gonna pick up a story. First, I wanna read a few verses out of Genesis chapter 12 because this is when God calls Abram. He says, He calls them and he says, hey. I want you to go on a road trip with me”
From the transcript
“And here's what it says in in verse one. It says, the lord said to Abram, leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you”
From the transcript
“And says in verse four, so Abraham departed as the Lord had instructed. So he's alright, I'm in. Let's go”
From the transcript
“Well, then if you jump over to chapter 15, chapter 15 starts off with sometime later. Now here's the deal. Chapter fifteen, twelve to 15, what is that? Do the math. Three chapters of the bible”
From the transcript
“he says sometime later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, don't be afraid Abram, for I will protect you and your reward will be great”
From the transcript
“And so Abraham replied to him in verse two, oh, sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don't even have a son? Since you've given me no children, Eleazar of Damascus, a servant of my household will inherit all my wealth”
From the transcript
“So then verse four, the Lord said to him, no, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir. Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, look up into the sky and count all the stars if you can”
From the transcript
“And I love verse six. It says, and Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith”
From the transcript
“Then the Lord told him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession. And verse eight, but Abraham replied, oh, sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it”
From the transcript
“And verse eight, but Abraham replied, oh, sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it? Wait, he just said, I believe god and god counted his faith as righteousness”
From the transcript
“Says the Lord told him in verse nine, bring me a three year old heifer, a three year old female goat, a three year old ram, a turtle dove, a young pigeon, and a partridge in a pear tree”
From the transcript
“it says as the sun was going down in verse 12, Abram fell into a deep sleep and a terrifying darkness came down over him. Then the Lord said to Abram, you can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land”
From the transcript
“It says, after the sun went down and darkness fell, Abraham saw a smoking fire pit pot and a flaming torch. All through scripture, smoke and fire represented the presence of God”
From the transcript
“And it says, and they pass between the halves of the carcasses. So so God shows up. The presence of God walks through to make the deal. But it says in verse 18, so the Lord made a covenant with Abraham that day”
From the transcript
“It's the gospel right there in the fifteenth chapter of the Old Testament. So he says, Abraham, you need to just believe me and make your life about the journey, not about the destination”
From the transcript
“he started reading verses like John three sixteen, for God so loves the world that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life”
From the transcript
“He read in the book of John where it says, Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father but by me”
From the transcript
“he told us Ephesians two eight and nine that we are saved by grace through faith, by believing God like Abraham did, and that no man should boast. We can't do it on our own. We just need to believe God”
From the transcript
“In Romans, where it says, I confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. Where says, I need to confess my sins and believe that Jesus died for me”
From the transcript
“I believe baptism, just like communion, but baptism is a one time thing. It's a symbolic moment that God gave to us. It's not for him. God doesn't sit there go, if you don't get wet, it doesn't count. It's the baptism is very similar to what God wanted to show Abraham in Genesis 15”

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

Pastor Bill opened with a road-trip memory — kids in the back seat asking 'Are we there yet?' before the car even left the driveway. It's funny because it's familiar. But he pointed to something deeper: many of us bring that same restless question into our walk with God. We fixate on the destination — the answered prayer, the cleared-up situation, the life that finally looks the way we pictured it — and miss the One who is right beside us in the car. Abram's call in Genesis 12 is striking precisely because God gave him so little information. 'Leave your country … and go to the land I will show you.' No GPS coordinates. No arrival date. Just a voice, a promise, and a first step. And Abram went. Not because he had the full picture, but because he trusted the One speaking. That is where every journey of faith begins — not with clarity about where things are headed, but with a willingness to move toward God rather than past Him. Today is a good day to ask yourself whether you have been so focused on a destination that you have stopped paying attention to who is with you on the road. The journey of knowing Jesus is not a detour from the good stuff — it is the good stuff.

For reflection

What 'destination' have you been fixating on lately — and how might that focus be keeping you from noticing Jesus right beside you today?

Pray

Pray for a genuine willingness to trust God's direction even when the destination isn't clear yet.

Day 2

Years passed after Abram's first 'yes' to God — and the promise God made was still just a promise. No son. No land. No visible evidence that anything was changing. So when God showed up again in Genesis 15 and said 'Do not be afraid,' Abram's response was honest and a little raw: 'What good are all your blessings when I don't even have a son?' Pastor Bill pointed out something important here: Abram was not in rebellion. He was not walking away. He was voicing the fear and doubt that had quietly built up over years of waiting. And rather than rebuking him, God met him in that moment. That tells us something real about what this relationship is like. Doubt and fear are not disqualifiers. They are part of the journey. The longer you follow God, the more likely you are to hit a stretch where the gap between His promises and your present reality feels impossibly wide. Abram felt that. The disciples felt it. Honest people of faith throughout history have felt it. What matters is not that you never feel afraid, but what you do with the fear — whether you bring it to God or let it quietly pull you toward a destination mindset that says 'this isn't working.'

For reflection

Is there a promise from God or a hope you have been holding onto for a long time that now feels shaky? What would it look like to bring that honestly to Him today?

Pray

Pray for courage to bring your real doubts and fears to God rather than keeping them just beneath the surface.

Day 3

One short verse sits near the center of the whole sermon: 'Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.' Pastor Bill returned to it more than once, and for good reason — it is one of the most theologically significant sentences in the entire Bible. God did not say, 'Abram performed well enough, so I'll count him righteous.' He did not say, 'Abram's track record earned this.' He said Abram believed — and that was what God counted. Not achievement. Not moral resume. Not finally arriving at some level of spiritual maturity. Just faith. Just taking God at His word. That is still how it works. Pastor Bill framed it as the difference between living for God's love and living from it. When we live for His love, we are always performing, always trying to earn what we are afraid we might lose. When we live from it — when we actually believe that God is who He says He is and has done what He says He has done — the whole posture of our lives changes. Faith is not a feeling you manufacture. It is a direction you turn. Abram turned toward God's word, even when circumstances said otherwise, and God called that righteousness.

For reflection

In practical terms, what does 'living from God's love rather than for it' look like in your daily life right now?

Pray

Pray for a deeper, more settled trust in what God has already declared to be true about you in Christ.

Day 4

The covenant ceremony in Genesis 15 is strange to modern readers, but Pastor Bill unpacked it clearly: in the ancient Near East, when two parties made a binding agreement, they would cut animals in half and both walk through the pieces. The act said, 'May what happened to these animals happen to me if I break this covenant.' Both parties bore responsibility. Both walked through. But in Genesis 15, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and it was God alone — represented by a smoking pot and a flaming torch — who passed through the halves. God took both ends of the agreement. Abram made no such walk, carried no such weight. The covenant's security did not rest on Abram's faithfulness. It rested entirely on God's. Pastor Bill called this a direct foreshadowing of the cross — and that connection is worth sitting with today. The God who passed through the covenant alone is the same God who, in Jesus, walked the full weight of our failure all the way to Calvary. He did not split the difference with us. He took it all. That is not just good theology — it is the most stabilizing truth you can carry into a hard day. Your standing before God does not rise and fall with your performance. He already walked through alone.

For reflection

How does knowing that God bore both ends of the covenant — not just His side — change the way you think about your own failures or inconsistencies?

Pray

Pray for a fresh sense of security in what God has already done, rather than what you still need to accomplish.

Day 5

If Genesis 15 shows us the covenant structure, John 3:16 shows us where it reaches its fullest expression. 'For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.' Pastor Bill named this plainly: Jesus is God who passed through alone, picking up the cross and paying the penalty for our sin, taking care of both ends of the deal on our behalf. The word 'whoever' is worth noticing. It is about as wide an open door as language allows. Not 'whoever has earned it.' Not 'whoever has it together.' Just whoever believes. That is the same logic as Genesis 15:6 — faith, not performance. Pastor Bill's invitation at this point in the sermon was direct: if you have never placed your faith in Jesus, today is not a tryout — it is an invitation to be on His team. And if you have known Him for years, John 3:16 is not just a verse you memorized as a child. It is the ground beneath everything. When the road gets long and you feel far from your destination, this is the verse that tells you the most important thing was already settled — not by you, but by Him.

For reflection

When life feels uncertain or your faith feels thin, what does it mean to you personally that God gave His Son not because of your faithfulness, but because of His love?

Pray

Pray for someone in your life who has not yet accepted that invitation — and for an opportunity to point them toward Jesus simply and honestly.

Day 6

Pastor Bill used a team analogy that landed with a lot of people: we come to Jesus not by trying out — proving ourselves good enough to make the roster — but by accepting His invitation to simply be on His team. Ephesians 2:8-9 is the theological backbone of that image. 'God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done.' Grace means the gift is genuinely free — not free as in 'no cost was involved,' because the cost was enormous, but free as in 'you don't pay it.' Jesus already did. You receive it by faith, the same way Abram did, the same way every person who has ever been saved has done it. The destination mindset shows up here too, subtly. Sometimes we treat our ongoing relationship with God like a tryout that never quite ends — always performing, always afraid that one bad week will get us cut from the team. But Paul says that is not how grace works. You were saved by grace through faith. You are kept by the same. The journey of knowing Jesus is not one long audition. It is life with Someone who already chose you and already paid your way in.

For reflection

Where in your daily life do you find yourself slipping back into a 'tryout' mentality with God — feeling like you have to earn your place rather than live from it?

Pray

Pray for a heart that genuinely rests in grace — and for the ability to extend that same grace to someone else today.

Day 7

We began this week with Abram leaving home without a full map, and we end with the whole sweep of Genesis 15 in view — the fear, the honesty, the covenant sealed by God alone, the faith counted as righteousness. It is a complete picture of what the journey of knowing God actually looks like: not a straight road to a clear destination, but a relationship that holds through the waiting, the doubt, and the long stretches between promises and their fulfillment. Pastor Bill's closing challenge was simple but worth returning to: stop asking 'Are we there yet?' and start paying attention to who is in the car with you. That shift happens one day at a time — in the Word, in honest conversation with people who are walking the same road, in small acts of obedience that say 'I trust You even when I can't see where this is going.' If baptism is something you have been putting off, the sermon named it this week as a step worth taking — not because you have arrived, but because it is a stake in the ground you can always look back to. Whatever your next step is, the God who passed through alone is already ahead of you on the road, and already right beside you. You don't have to earn your way to Him. You just have to keep walking with Him.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, what is one concrete step — in your time, your relationships, your obedience, or your witness — that reflects a journey mindset rather than a destination mindset?

Pray

Pray for the courage to take whatever next step God has been quietly putting in front of you — and for trust that He will be faithful to walk it with you.

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

Think about a long road trip — sometimes the hardest part isn't the miles, it's resisting the urge to ask 'are we there yet?' This message explores what it looks like to stop fixating on the destination and start actually knowing the God who is with us along the way.

Discussion questions

1
In Genesis 12:1–4, God calls Abram to leave everything and go — without a full picture of where he's headed. What do you think it would have felt like to obey a call that specific and that open-ended at the same time?
2
By Genesis 15:1–3, Abram has been following God for some time, and yet he's voicing real doubt and fear. What does that moment tell us about what the journey of faith actually looks like — even for someone God called 'righteous'?
3
In Genesis 15:6, God counts Abram's belief as righteousness — not a performance, not a track record, just belief. What does that say about what God is actually looking for from us?
4
In the covenant ceremony of Genesis 15:9–18, God alone passes through the sacrifice — Abram is in a deep sleep. Pastor Bill pointed to this as a direct foreshadowing of the cross. How does it change the way we think about our relationship with God when we understand that He took responsibility for both ends of the agreement?
5
Pastor Bill drew a distinction between living for God's love — trying to earn it — and living from it, because the covenant is already secure. How might that shift in starting point change the way a community of believers treats one another day to day?
6
Pastor Bill described baptism as an act of obedience rather than an act of maturity — a moment people can look back on and run back to when they fail, because God already took care of both ends of the deal. What does that frame say about the kind of confidence God wants us to have?

Pray together

Gratitude that God passed through alone — and the courage to believe Him and walk with Him wherever the journey leads

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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Topics

Destination Mindset God's Faithfulness Grace Through Faith Journey of Faith Living From God's Love

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