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Refiner's Fire | Week 1 | Bill Bush · Rewind

Rock Point Church

84 min

Pastor Bill Bush · Jun 6, 2021 · 5 min read · 84 min listen

The big idea

Suffering will either define you or refine you, depending on whether you trust that God has redeemed you, is refining you, and will always hold on to you.

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 8Suffering will either define you or refine you.
Point 2 of 8First Peter was written by a leader who had already counted the cost of following Jesus.

Point 3 of 8Hope in Christ is not the absence of suffering but a peace that holds even through it, illustrated by sunscreen and jackets you have to put on every time.
Point 4 of 8God has redeemed me — He chose me before I chose Him.
Point 5 of 8God is refining me — sanctification means He is always at work in us, especially through trials.
Point 6 of 8God will always hold on to me — glorification means there is an inheritance suffering cannot touch.
Point 7 of 8The church is called to be gate-crashers, not gate-builders, even when that costs something.
Point 8 of 8His own knee injury and near-fatal reaction to medication show how God redirected, rather than canceled, a calling.
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

1 Peter 1:2
Philippians 1:6
Philippians 1:21
1 Peter 1:7
1 Peter 1:4
1 Peter 1:6

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 · Jun 6, 2021 · 84 min watch · 3 min read

Refiner's Fire | Week 1 | Bill Bush

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

1 Peter 1:2
Philippians 1:6
Philippians 1:21
1 Peter 1:7
1 Peter 1:4
1 Peter 1:6

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Suffering will either define you or refine you, depending on whether you trust that God has redeemed you, is refining you, and will always hold on to you.

Following Jesus was never a promise to avoid suffering — real hope is found in trusting God through the trial, not in escaping it. Peter, writing near his own martyrdom, shows that suffering for the right reasons is an opportunity to be refined like gold rather than defined by our pain, because God has already chosen us, is actively shaping us, and will hold on to us all the way into an inheritance that cannot be destroyed.

Key points

1
1Suffering will either define you or refine you.
Pastor Bill opens with a story of his daughter locked out of the house late at night, unable to reach her sleeping parents, having to work through discouragement and fear to solve her own problem. He uses it to frame the big idea for the new series through First Peter: the hardest suffering often comes precisely when we are trusting and honoring God, not despite it.
2
2First Peter was written by a leader who had already counted the cost of following Jesus.
Pastor Bill gives background on Peter writing around 63 AD from Rome under Nero, as Christians became an illegal, scapegoated group and persecution spread. Peter knew this letter would be nearly his last word, written knowing it would likely cost him his life, so his call to hope is not theoretical.
3
3Hope in Christ is not the absence of suffering but a peace that holds even through it, illustrated by sunscreen and jackets you have to put on every time.
He warns against a prosperity-gospel mindset that equates trusting God with avoiding hardship, and instead reads through First Peter 1:1-12 to show suffering is called 'tough and necessary.' The sunscreen and jacket picture shows that trusting Christ is a daily choice you make to go out into a hostile world, not a stockpile of past faithfulness you can coast on.
4
4God has redeemed me — He chose me before I chose Him.
Working through 1 Peter 1:2, Pastor Bill explains salvation as God's initiating work, not our own righteousness earning His love, using the childhood memory of being picked first for kickball as a picture of unearned, unmerited choosing. The comfort he draws out is that if our righteousness doesn't save us, our sin can't disqualify us either.
5
5God is refining me — sanctification means He is always at work in us, especially through trials.
He describes sanctification as God growing us to be like Christ whether we feel it or not, and ties the 'grace and peace' of verse 2 to a peace that defies understanding because it holds even when circumstances don't justify it. He references Job and the apostle Paul's 'to live is Christ, to die is gain' as pictures of trusting God fully in suffering.
6
6God will always hold on to me — glorification means there is an inheritance suffering cannot touch.
From verses 3-4 he points to the 'priceless inheritance... kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled,' arguing this world is the closest thing to hell believers will experience and the closest thing to heaven unbelievers will experience. He uses D-Day as an illustration of a necessary, costly sacrifice endured for something greater on the other side.
7
7The church is called to be gate-crashers, not gate-builders, even when that costs something.
He corrects the common misreading of 'upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail,' pointing out gates are defensive, so the church is meant to be advancing against the enemy, not hiding behind walls. He challenges the congregation to serve and sacrifice rather than circle the wagons in fear of persecution.
8
8His own knee injury and near-fatal reaction to medication show how God redirected, rather than canceled, a calling.
He tells the personal story of losing his baseball career to a catastrophic knee injury and toxic medication reaction right after committing his future to God, and being confronted in the moment with the question of whether he would let it define or refine him. Years later he realized God used baseball anyway — through a later coaching opportunity that helped birth Rock Point Church — even though it looked nothing like what he expected.

A story from life

Pastor Bill's daughter locked out of the house and climbing in through a balcony, unbeknownst to her sleeping parents

Application

Pastor Bill frames the charge around his three-part picture: God has redeemed you, is refining you, and will always hold on to you — so choose to let suffering refine you rather than define you.

Decide suffering will refine you, not define you
When trials come, especially for doing right, choose not to camp out in self-pity or find your identity in the problem, but let it be an opportunity for God to shape you.
Put on your faith every day, not just once
Like sunscreen or a jacket, trusting Christ through grace and peace is a choice made fresh each time you face hardship, not credit banked from past faithfulness.
Rest in being chosen, not in your performance
Stop trying to earn or fear losing God's love through your own righteousness or failures; remember He chose you first, so your sin can't disqualify you.
Stop circling the wagons and start serving
Step into serving at church and sacrificing time, talent, and treasure rather than retreating behind safety, because the church is called to crash the enemy's gates, not guard its own.
Trust God with what you don't understand
If you're in a season of pain or confusion like a hospital bed you can't explain, keep trusting that God is using it, even if you only see how years later.

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
“Look at verse two again. The first part of verse two. God the Father knew you, and he knew what a terrible wretch you were. So he said, get your act together or else”
Read the whole chapter →
From the transcript
“God is always working in me whether I know it or not. And the New Testament says, he is faithful to complete the good work he has begun in you. And that good work is to make us like Christ”
From the transcript
“says in the second part of verse two. It says, may God give you more and more grace and peace. That's what he's talking about. He goes, you need more grace and you need more peace”
From the transcript
“And that's why Paul was able to say, the apostle Paul was able to say, before he died, to live is Christ, to die is gain. What he was saying is, if I go on living, bonus, I get to still fulfill the mission”
From the transcript
“Well, look at verse seven. He says, first of all, there you should be truly glad in verse six. There's a joy ahead. But in verse seven, he says, these trials will show that your faith is genuine”
From the transcript
“look what he says starting in verse four. Go back through there again. He goes, where am I? Verse four. Where's verse four start? There's verse three. There's verse four. And we have a priceless inheritance”
From the transcript
“And that's why he's saying so true be truly glad. You should be glad when you suffer for the right reason because there's wonderful joy ahead even though you must endure many trials for a little while. You know, in in the Greek, that verse six where it says these trials”
From the transcript
“Peter was the first one a little bit later on and says, you are the Christ, meaning he's the first one to realize, you're the Messiah, you're the savior, you're the only way”
From the transcript
“He says, you're Peter, and upon this rock, Peter means rock, I will build my church. And people thought he's saying, yeah, right, Peter, and I'm gonna build the church on you. That's not what he said”
From the transcript
“I will build my church and the gates of hell will never prevail. Are gates an offensive or a defensive weapon? Defensive. Why do we freak out”

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 this passage by naming something most of us quietly wish weren't true: suffering is coming. Peter wrote his letter to people he called "strangers" and "scattered" — people already living at the edges of comfort and belonging. And his first move wasn't to promise them relief. It was to remind them who they were before the trial ever arrived. They were chosen. Sanctified by the Spirit. Covered by the blood of Jesus. That's where Peter starts, and it matters enormously — because when hardship hits, the first thing we tend to lose is our sense of identity. We start to define ourselves by what we're going through rather than by what God has already done. Pastor Bill's point was direct: God didn't choose you because you were lovable or capable or consistent. He chose you because He is love. Full stop. That means your worst failure doesn't disqualify you, and your best performance didn't earn you a spot. The security of being chosen isn't fragile — it's the one thing a trial can't undo. Before you walk into whatever this week holds, it helps to start there: not with your circumstances, but with the One who called you by name before the circumstances existed.

For reflection

When a hard season hits, what tends to become your default identity — your struggle, or the fact that God has chosen you? What would it look like today to lead with the second one?

Pray

Pray for a deep, settled sense of who you are in Christ — not based on how things are going, but on the fact that He chose you first.

Day 2

There's a phrase Pastor Bill used that's worth sitting with: an untested faith is an untrusted faith. That's not a comfortable idea, but Peter didn't write comfort — he wrote truth to people whose faith was being pressed hard. Verse 7 pictures trials the way a refiner pictures fire: not as something meant to destroy the gold, but as the very process that proves it's real and brings out its worth. The fire isn't the point. The gold is the point. But you can't get to the gold without the fire. What's quietly important here is the word "though" in verse 6 — "though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials" (NIV). Peter doesn't pretend suffering is small or easy. He calls it grief. He says it's real. He just refuses to let it be the final word. The refining process is active. God isn't absent while you're in it — He's the Refiner watching closely, knowing exactly what temperature is needed and when to bring you through. That's not a cold theological fact; it's meant to be personally comforting. The trial you're in right now is not evidence that God has looked away. It may be the most attentive He's been.

For reflection

Is there a current difficulty you've been asking God to remove — and what might it look like to instead ask Him what He's refining in you through it?

Pray

Pray for eyes to see your present trial as something God is actively working through, not a sign that He has stepped back.

Day 3

Peter uses three words to describe the inheritance waiting for believers, and each one is doing serious work: imperishable, undefiled, unfading. He's stacking those words intentionally, because every good thing we've ever held in this life has eventually been touched by at least one of them — things decay, get corrupted, or lose their luster over time. The inheritance God is keeping doesn't. And then verse 5 adds something stunning: you aren't responsible for guarding it. God is shielding you by His power. Pastor Bill's phrase was plain and worth repeating: God will always hold on to us. Not "God will hold on as long as we hold on." God holds. Period. This matters most when a trial makes you feel like you're losing your grip — on hope, on certainty, on the future you thought you had. The inheritance isn't stored somewhere you could accidentally lose access to. It's being kept by the same God who chose you before you could do anything to deserve it. That kind of security doesn't make suffering disappear, but it completely changes what suffering can actually take from you. It can take comfort, health, relationships, financial stability — real and painful losses. What it cannot take is the thing God Himself is holding.

For reflection

What in your life right now feels most at risk of being lost or taken away — and how does the truth that God is holding your eternal inheritance speak to that fear?

Pray

Pray for a loosened grip on the things of this world, and a growing trust in the inheritance God Himself is keeping for you.

Day 4

Pastor Bill referenced Paul's declaration — "to live is Christ, to die is gain" — as an example of faith that has been stretched to the point where it actually holds the weight of life and death. That's not a slogan Paul arrived at easily. He wrote it from prison. He wrote it knowing that either outcome — living or dying — was held securely in Christ. And that's precisely the kind of tested, proven faith Peter is pointing his readers toward. When Paul says "to live is Christ," he means that life itself has been reorganized around one center. Not comfort. Not reputation. Not survival. Christ. And when he says "to die is gain," he means the inheritance Peter described — imperishable, kept by God — is so real to him that even death can't threaten it. This is what an enduring faith looks like when suffering has done its refining work. It doesn't mean Paul had no fear, no grief, no struggle. It means those things no longer had the final vote on how he lived. Pastor Bill's challenge was similar: stop waiting for the trial to end before you trust God. Paul's example shows what it looks like to trust in the middle — not after — the hardest chapter.

For reflection

If Christ were genuinely the center of your daily life right now — not just Sunday or a crisis — what would look different about this week?

Pray

Pray for the kind of settled, Christ-centered confidence that holds steady whether circumstances improve or don't.

Day 5

Related passage

Pastor Bill described the peace that surpasses understanding as something that only becomes real when faith is genuinely tested. That's an important distinction, because we often think of peace as what happens when problems go away. But Paul's description in Philippians 4 places this peace squarely inside anxiety, not after it. He writes to people in the middle of worry — "don't be anxious about anything" — and the peace he describes isn't the absence of hard circumstances. It's a supernatural calm that guards the heart and mind while the circumstances are still present. The word "guard" matters: it's a military image, a stationed sentinel. This peace isn't passive. It actively stands watch over a heart that would otherwise spiral. And the condition for receiving it, in Paul's framing, is prayer — bringing your real concerns before God rather than carrying them alone. Pastor Bill's sunscreen analogy is fitting here: you don't put on sunscreen after the sunburn. You apply the truth before you walk into the heat. Practicing prayer and trust before a crisis is what makes the peace accessible when the crisis actually arrives. Fear is a very human response to real and painful things. The invitation here isn't to feel less — it's to bring what you feel to Someone bigger than what caused it.

For reflection

Is there a worry you've been carrying without bringing it to God in prayer — and what's one specific thing you could lay before Him today?

Pray

Pray for the peace that stands guard — especially over the specific fear or anxiety that's been loudest in your mind this week.

Day 6

Toward the end of the sermon, Pastor Bill made a sharp turn — and it's worth slowing down here. He referenced Jesus's declaration to Peter: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will never prevail against it." Most of us hear that as a promise of protection. And it is. But Pastor Bill flipped the image: gates are defensive structures. If the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, the church is the one moving forward — pressing toward those gates, not huddled behind its own. That's the gate-crasher posture he was calling for. The church isn't a fortress you retreat into when the world gets hard. It's a people sent outward, carrying the love of Christ into places that are hostile to it. The same courage that makes endurance possible in personal suffering is the courage that makes outward engagement possible. When you know God chose you, is refining you, and will never let go of you — you're free to move. You don't have to protect yourself from the world. You can actually go toward it. That freedom is not recklessness; it's the natural overflow of a faith that has been tested, proven, and anchored in the three truths Pastor Bill laid out from First Peter.

For reflection

Where has fear — of rejection, failure, or conflict — led you to build walls instead of walk through gates? What would one small step outward look like this week?

Pray

Pray for courage to engage the people and places around you with the love of Christ, rather than retreating into safety.

Day 7

A week of sitting with these truths deserves a moment to hold them together. Pastor Bill's sermon wasn't primarily about suffering — it was about who God is in the middle of it. He redeems: He chose you before you could earn it, and your failures don't change that. He refines: He is actively at work in whatever trial you're carrying right now, using it the way a refiner uses fire — purposefully and with care. He holds: the inheritance He's keeping for you is imperishable, and nothing this world does can reach it. These three truths aren't meant to live only in your head. They're meant to change how you move through a day — how you serve, how you give, how you risk, how you stay present with people who are hurting. The peace Pastor Bill described isn't a feeling you manufacture. It's what settles in when you keep returning to these anchors, especially when circumstances push back hard. You don't have to have it all together. You don't have to feel brave. You just have to keep bringing yourself back to the God who chose you, is refining you, and will never let you go. That's enough to take the next step — today, and every day after this one.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, which of the three truths — redemption, refinement, or God's hold on you — did you need most? How do you want to carry that forward?

Pray

Pray for a faith that doesn't just survive suffering but is genuinely deepened by it — rooted in who God is, not in how circumstances feel.

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

Peter wrote his first letter to scattered, suffering believers — people whose faith was being tested in real and costly ways. This message asks what it looks like to hold on when life is hard, and whether we actually believe God is at work in the middle of it.

Discussion questions

1
In 1 Peter 1:1-2, Peter addresses believers who are scattered and living as strangers in the world. What do you think Peter wants those early readers to understand about their identity before he says anything else about suffering?
2
In 1 Peter 1:7, Peter compares trials to fire that purifies gold. What does that image suggest about what God is actually doing during a season of suffering — and what it might produce?
3
Pastor Bill said that an untested faith is an untrusted faith. What do you think he meant by that, and how does it shape the way we might think about hardship rather than avoid it?
4
First Peter 1:4-5 describes an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and kept in heaven for us. How might holding onto that reality change the way people face circumstances that feel permanent and crushing right now?
5
Pastor Bill drew a contrast between a 'fortress church' that circles the wagons and a community that carries the love of Christ into a hostile world. What might it look like practically for a group of people like us to move outward rather than inward?
6
Pastor Bill challenged us to stop waiting for suffering to end before we trust God — framing it like choosing each day to put on sunscreen before heading into the sun. What makes that kind of daily, deliberate trust feel possible, and what tends to make it feel out of reach?

Pray together

Trusting God as the one who chose us, is refining us, and is holding our inheritance — and for courage to carry that confidence into the world around us

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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Refiner's Fire

Week 1 · 9 messages

Where these passages are preached

1 Peter 1 Philippians 1 Matthew 16

Explore related topics

Eternal Inheritance Finding Peace in Trials God's Refining Work Identity in Christ Suffering and Faith

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