WE ARE ROCK POINT CAMPAIGN | Vision Weekend | Sermon · Rewind

WE ARE ROCK POINT CAMPAIGN | Vision Weekend | Sermon · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Sep 2, 2024

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Love gives and love goes, end quote. — genuine faith proves itself when we trust God enough to sacrificially give our time, talent, and treasure to reach the next generation and the world for Jesus.

God doesn't promise that following Him is easy, only that it's better, and that better is eternal. Like Jesus in the garden, like David facing Goliath, we each come to a moment where trusting God with our finances and our lives feels scary — but that's exactly where victory and blessing are found.

Key points

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1Following God doesn't remove the hard, it just puts you on the side that wins
Pastor Bill points to Jesus sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking if the cup could pass, and then submitting to the Father's will anyway. He argues both the person who follows God and the person who doesn't experience hard things, but only one side ends in victory, so believers must choose their hard and come to an 'I can't not do this' moment.
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2Love gives and love goes — that's the pattern Jesus set and calls us to
Working from John 3:16, Pastor Bill shows that God's love was demonstrated by giving His Son, and Jesus's last command in Matthew 28 was to go and make disciples. He argues giving and going aren't separate from loving God and others — they are how that love is expressed.
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3Money creates cognitive dissonance because we know love gives, yet we withhold it from God
Pastor Bill uses the marriage illustration — saying 'I love you' while never acting on it doesn't hold up — to show believers often do the same with God, especially with finances. He shares Rock Point's own giving numbers, noting many attendees give less than $1,000 a year, to press the point that this is a real, present issue in the room.
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4The parable of the sower shows only the fruitful soil represents a true believer
Reading Matthew's parable and Jesus's explanation of it, Pastor Bill walks through the seed on the path, the rocky soil, and the thorny soil, landing on the seed choked by 'the worries of this life and the lure of wealth.' He argues that only the soil that produces a lasting crop represents someone who has truly understood God's word, and a life that produces no fruit through giving of time, talent, and treasure raises a real question about whether someone is a believer at all.
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5Rock Point wants to multiply itself by planting and strengthening churches, not just building satellites
Pastor Bill explains that continued 20% annual growth would require space for 35,000 people, so instead of satellite campuses, Rock Point has chosen to raise up leaders and plant churches, showing the wall of plaques representing churches they've helped start since 2006, including church-planting movements in Zambia, India, and Essex, England.
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6David didn't wait for the right armor — he ran at Goliath with what he already had
Pastor Bill retells David's story: faithful in small things as a shepherd, refusing Saul's ill-fitting armor, and running straight at Goliath with only a sling and five stones because he trusted the battle belonged to the Lord. He applies this directly to the room — money is many people's Goliath, and the call is to throw what you have at it right now rather than waiting until conditions feel safe.

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to stop waiting for the right conditions and run at your Goliath with whatever you already have.

Examine your heart around money
Ask honestly why you resist giving, and recognize that resistance as a heart issue rather than a distraction the pastor created.
Give something now, then grow it
If you've never given, start with even one percent and move forward from there; if you're comfortable, consider pushing past 10 percent as your margin allows.
Give immediately, don't waffle
When the service ends, take a concrete step toward giving right away rather than feeling moved and then walking out and forgetting it.
Settle your relationship with Jesus first
If you've never confessed you're a sinner and trusted that Jesus died and rose for you, do that before you even think about giving.

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.

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Day 1

Pastor Bill opened the sermon with a simple but staggering observation: the very definition of love in Scripture is giving. 'God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.' Love did not stay put. It did not calculate the cost and decide it was too high. It moved, it sacrificed, and it gave the most precious thing possible. That pattern — love expressed through giving — is the heartbeat of the whole sermon. Before we get to questions about money, courage, or commitment, we start here: with a God who loved first and gave first. Nothing we are ever asked to give comes close to what He already gave. That is not meant to shame us; it is meant to free us. When we understand that the One asking us to give is the same One who gave everything for us, the invitation stops feeling like a demand and starts feeling like an echo. He is not asking us to do something He has never done. He is inviting us into the same rhythm He already lives. Today, sit with the reality that you are loved — not because of what you have done or given, but because of what He has. That is the foundation everything else this week is built on.

For reflection

When you picture God asking something of you, do you instinctively picture a demanding God or a giving God — and where do you think that picture comes from?

Pray

Pray for a fresh, personal sense of how deeply and freely God loves you.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message centers on a simple but challenging idea: that genuine love — the kind Jesus showed us — always gives and always goes. Before we jump in, what's one word that comes to mind when you think about what it means to love the way Jesus loves?

Discussion questions

1
In John 3:16, the connection between God's love and God's giving is direct — 'God so loved the world that He gave.' What does that link between loving and giving suggest about the nature of love itself?
2
In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus describes several kinds of soil — including soil where wealth and worry choke out whatever was growing. What does that image tell us about why comfort and anxiety can be so effective at crowding out what God wants to produce in a person?
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Pastor Bill pointed out that Jesus talked about money more than He talked about heaven — not because God needs our resources, but because money is where the battle for trust in God is most fiercely fought. Why do you think the heart and the wallet tend to be so closely connected?
4
The Great Commission in Matthew 28 tells us to go and make disciples of all nations. How does that outward movement — going toward people who haven't heard — connect to what Pastor Bill described as love that is real always moving outward?
5
Pastor Bill drew on David's story to make the point that faithfulness in smaller, daily moments — shepherding the flock, fighting the lion and the bear — was what equipped David to run toward Goliath rather than away from him. What does that progression suggest about how courage is built over time?
6
Pastor Bill challenged us to move from an 'I can't do it' posture to an 'I can't not do it' moment — and he named starting somewhere, even small, as a real next step. How might a community of people taking small, courageous steps together look different from one where everyone is waiting to feel ready?

Pray together

Courage to move from 'I can't' toward 'I can't not' — and trust that God is our provider as we take the next step

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Topics

Generosity and Giving Overcoming Fear Stewardship The Great Commission Trust in God

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