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We Are Rock Point | Part 3 · Rewind

Rock Point Church

65 min

Pastor Bill Bush · Jul 9, 2018 · 4 min read · 65 min listen

The big idea

Living intentionally means keeping Jesus the point and stretching your whole life — your time, talents, treasure, and testimony — toward Him instead of pulling in multiple directions at once.

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 6What is my attitude toward suffering?
Point 2 of 6What is my reason for serving?

Point 3 of 6What is my heart for people?
Point 4 of 6What is my source of strength?
Point 5 of 6Living intentionally means giving God my time, talents, treasure, and testimony
Point 6 of 6Keep the rock, Jesus, the point of your life
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

Colossians 1:24
Colossians 1:25
Colossians 1:28-29
Colossians 1:29
Colossians 2
Colossians 2:8

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 · Jul 9, 2018 · 65 min watch · 2 min read

We Are Rock Point | Part 3

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Colossians 1:24
Colossians 1:25
Colossians 1:28-29
Colossians 1:29
Colossians 2
Colossians 2:8

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Living intentionally means keeping Jesus the point and stretching your whole life — your time, talents, treasure, and testimony — toward Him instead of pulling in multiple directions at once.

God has called every believer, not just pastors, to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. That calling only works when we stop trying to stretch our lives in competing directions and instead live intentionally around Christ, drawing our strength from His power rather than our own.

Key points

1
1What is my attitude toward suffering?
Pastor Bill walks through Colossians 1:24, where Paul says he's glad to suffer for the church. He contrasts three views: the masochist who insists on suffering, the escapist who avoids all discomfort, and the realist (Paul's view) who can rejoice in the right kind of suffering — the kind that comes from loving others like Jesus loved us.
2
2What is my reason for serving?
From Colossians 1:25-27, Pastor Bill explains that Paul served because he was given a responsibility, a commission, from God. He argues this same calling to point people to Jesus belongs to every believer, not just pastors or ministry staff.
3
3What is my heart for people?
Working through Colossians 1:28-29, Pastor Bill notes Paul's goal was to reach 'everyone' and present them 'perfect' in Christ. He warns that churches and Christians naturally turn inward and selfish, illustrated by his daughters' overwhelmed, messy rooms, and urges starting with the local church body rather than being paralyzed by the world's endless needs.
4
4What is my source of strength?
Pastor Bill highlights Paul's phrase 'depending on Christ's mighty power that works within me.' He teaches that doing God's work God's way taps into God's power, while trying to add ministry on top of an already stretched life in our own strength leads to burnout and quitting.
5
5Living intentionally means giving God my time, talents, treasure, and testimony
He unpacks four concrete areas — serving with our gifts and time, giving financially, and living a testimony that points people to Jesus — arguing that failing to serve or give while claiming to love Jesus is living a lie, since we spend money on what we truly love.
6
6Keep the rock, Jesus, the point of your life
Reading Colossians 2:1-8, Pastor Bill closes by warning against 'empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense' that mixes a little Jesus with worldly thinking, and calls the church to let their roots grow down into Christ so their faith overflows with thankfulness rather than resentment.

trying to stretch in two different directions at the same time is not very effective

The point is the rock. The rock of Jesus

A story from life

Pastor's birthday and his youngest daughter's scratch-off card revealing 'you're old'

A story from life

Pastor's hamstring and abdominal cramp simultaneously in his office, becoming the sermon's central metaphor

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to stop stretching in every direction and go all in, living intentionally with your time, talent, treasure, and testimony.

Check your attitude toward suffering
Ask whether you're a masochist, an escapist, or willing like Paul to get uncomfortable and suffer for the sake of loving the church like Jesus.
Own your calling to point people to Jesus
Recognize that the commission to share Christ isn't just for pastors — every believer received it the moment they declared Jesus as Lord.
Serve with your time and talents
If you attend church but don't serve, Pastor Bill says plainly you're not doing what God wants; find your gifts and use them in the body.
Give your treasure
Examine whether you spend money on what you claim to love; if you say you love Jesus but won't give, he calls that living a lie, and urges cutting other spending to make room for giving.
Live a testimony that points to Jesus
Make the story of your life one that helps lead others to Christ, since this is the one thing with an expiration date that won't continue into eternity.

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
“In in chapter one starting in verse 24, we find the first question comes out of this first verse. He says, I'm glad when I suffer for you in my body”
Read the whole chapter →
From the transcript
“verse 25 says, God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you. This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past”
From the transcript
“Verse twenty eight and twenty nine says this. Now watch how he brilliantly transitions from talking about himself and here's why we know he's saying this to everyone, including us. So we He went from he to we. Didn”
From the transcript
“that's where I think the next question comes out is the last part of verse 29 when Paul said, I can work and struggle so hard. How? He goes depending on Christ's mighty power that works within me”
From the transcript
“Let me read the last couple verses here. Chapter two, he says, I want you to know how much I've agonized for you in the church at Laodicea and for many other believers who have never met me personally”
From the transcript
“And then verse eight, don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from spiritual powers of this world rather than Christ”

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 question most of us quietly avoid: What is your attitude toward suffering? Not suffering in general, but the specific discomfort that comes from giving yourself to something bigger than yourself — the body of Christ and His mission in the world. Colossians 1:24 is one of the stranger verses in Paul's letters. He says he rejoices in his sufferings for the sake of the church. That's not a typo. Paul isn't pretending the cost isn't real. He's a realist who has done the math and concluded that sacrificial investment in God's mission is worth it. Pastor Bill pointed out that this kind of attitude doesn't come naturally. We are wired toward comfort and self-preservation, and there's nothing shameful about that. But intentional living — the kind that actually points people to Jesus — asks us to hold comfort a little more loosely. The invitation here isn't to manufacture hardship. It's to stop flinching when following Jesus costs something, whether that's time, energy, money, or social comfort. The person who can do that, Paul says, does it with joy — not because the suffering is pleasant, but because the mission behind it is worth everything.

For reflection

Where in your life right now are you flinching away from a cost that following Jesus might be asking you to accept?

Pray

Pray for an honest, open heart toward the discomfort that faithful obedience sometimes requires.

Day 2

One of the most freeing things Pastor Bill said was also one of the most sobering: every believer is commissioned to share this message — not just the pastor. Paul calls himself a servant of the church, and he describes his commission as making the word of God fully known. But the mystery he unpacks in verses 26 and 27 is meant to be shared, not hoarded. That mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Think about what that means. The living hope of the world is not housed in a pulpit or a program. It lives in ordinary people who belong to Jesus. If you are a believer, you carry that hope wherever you go — to your kitchen table, your workplace, your neighborhood. That is not a metaphor. It is a commission. This doesn't mean every conversation has to be a formal gospel presentation. It means that the way you listen, serve, forgive, and stay when things are hard is itself a form of proclamation. The call is to be intentional about it — to know what you carry and to stop treating it like it belongs to someone else to share.

For reflection

In what area of your everyday life are you most tempted to think, 'That's the pastor's job — not mine'?

Pray

Pray for a fresh sense of the commission God has placed on your life as a carrier of the hope of Christ.

Day 3

Paul's stated goal in verse 28 is to present every person mature in Christ. Not some people. Not the easy ones. Every person. Pastor Bill drew attention to the phrase 'everyone we tell' — the repetition is not accidental. It reflects a genuine, expansive heart for people that refuses to narrow the circle. And that kind of heart is something we have to cultivate, because the pull in the other direction is strong. When life gets full, the easiest thing to do is turn inward — to focus on your own family, your own circle, your own problems — and tell yourself you're too overwhelmed to think about anyone else. There's real grace for hard seasons. But Pastor Bill was honest that this inward drift, left unchecked, becomes a posture that works against the mission. A genuine heart for people doesn't mean you fix everyone or carry every burden. It means you stay oriented outward enough to notice, to show up, and to care. It means you resist the lie that someone else will do it. Cultivating that heart starts with a simple question: Who around me am I not seeing because I've turned inward?

For reflection

Who is one person in your life right now who might need someone to simply show up and care — and what would it look like for that person to be you?

Pray

Pray for eyes to see the people around you the way Jesus sees them, and for the courage to stay outwardly oriented.

Day 4

The second half of verse 29 is easy to read past, but Pastor Bill slowed down there for good reason. Paul writes that he labors, struggling with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in him. That phrase — all the energy Christ so powerfully works — is the whole game. The mission God calls us to is not something we can sustain on willpower, good intentions, or a longer to-do list. It runs on a different fuel. And the way you access that fuel, Pastor Bill said, is not by adding more to your plate. It's by aligning your life with what God is actually calling you to do, and then trusting that His power will meet you there. This is a genuinely different way of thinking about capacity. Most of us assume the question is 'Do I have enough left to give?' But the better question is 'Am I giving in the direction God is calling me?' When the answer to that second question is yes, Paul's testimony suggests something shifts — not that it gets easy, but that the energy available to you is no longer just yours. That's worth sitting with.

For reflection

Are you currently serving and giving from your own reserves, or do you sense that your efforts are aligned with what God has called you to — and therefore sustained by something beyond yourself?

Pray

Pray for discernment about where you are striving in your own strength, and ask God to reorient your energy toward what He is calling you to.

Day 5

Paul's instruction in these two verses is almost architectural. Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him — rooted and built up, strengthened in the faith. The image is of a tree whose growth above ground is only possible because of what's happening below it. Intentional living, the kind Pastor Bill described, requires that kind of rootedness. You can't direct your time, spiritual gifts, treasure, and testimony toward God's mission if your foundation keeps shifting. Rooting yourself in Christ is not a passive thing. It looks like returning to the Word consistently, staying connected in community where you are known, and making choices day to day that keep Christ at the center rather than the margin. What Pastor Bill made clear is that this isn't about becoming more religious. It's about building your actual life on the one thing that holds. When you are truly rooted, the next step — living outwardly, sacrificially, with an orientation toward the mission — flows from that place of stability rather than exhausting you. You don't have to manufacture the fruit. You have to tend the roots.

For reflection

What does your current daily rhythm reveal about where you are actually rooted — and what is one concrete thing you could do this week to tend those roots?

Pray

Pray for a deeper rootedness in Christ that overflows naturally into how you spend your time and energy.

Day 6

Paul's warning in verse 8 is sharp: Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense. Pastor Bill applied this directly to one of the most comfortable lies in our culture — the idea that you can love Jesus and stay disconnected from His church. It sounds reasonable. You can worship anywhere. Community is everywhere. Church has hurt people. All of that may be true in various ways, and the pain of church hurt is real and deserves to be taken seriously. But the logic that leads someone away from the local church and calls it spiritual maturity is exactly what Paul is warning against. The church is not incidental to God's mission. It is the body through which He accomplishes it. There is no plan B. To direct your time, gifts, treasure, and testimony toward the mission means doing so in and through the church — imperfect as it is — because that is where God has chosen to work. Pulling away may feel like freedom, but it cuts you off from the very place where the mission gets lived out together. The call is to stay, to serve, and to trust that the church is worth the investment.

For reflection

Is there any way — subtle or obvious — that you have been pulling back from the local church, and what might be underneath that pull?

Pray

Pray for a renewed love for the local church and the humility to stay committed to it even when it's imperfect.

Day 7

Related passageColossians 1:24-2:8

Looking back over the whole passage, a single thread runs through every verse: intentional living is not about doing more — it's about being all in on the one thing. Pastor Bill's challenge to stop stretching your life in multiple directions and go all in on the mission is really an invitation to simplify around what matters most. The five heart-check questions he raised — about suffering, commission, heart for people, source of strength, and foundation — are not a checklist to pass. They are honest mirrors. They show you where you are, so you can move toward where God is calling you. The mission itself is plain: point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. Your time, your spiritual gifts, your treasure, your testimony — all of it is raw material for that calling. And the promise woven through this passage is that on the other side of sacrificial, all-in obedience is not depletion. It's the thankfulness and joy that Paul radiates in every line. That's not an accident. It's what happens when your life is aligned with the reason you were made. The invitation this week, and every week, is simply to keep saying yes to that.

For reflection

As you look at the five heart-check areas from the sermon, which one feels most like an honest next step for you — and what would going all in look like in that area this week?

Pray

Pray for the courage and clarity to go all in on the mission God has given you, and ask Him to produce in you the joy that comes from that kind of wholehearted obedience.

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 invites us to step back and ask a simple but honest question: what is my life actually organized around? Pastor Bill walked us through Colossians 1–2 to help us answer that together.

Discussion questions

1
In Colossians 1:24, Paul says he rejoices in his sufferings for the sake of the church. What do you think Paul means by that — and what does it tell us about the kind of life God calls His people into?
2
In Colossians 1:25–27, Paul describes the mystery now revealed: Christ in you, the hope of glory. Pastor Bill made the point that every believer — not just pastors — is commissioned to share that message. What does it look like practically when a whole congregation owns that calling together, rather than leaving it to the professionals?
3
Pastor Bill described a temptation to turn inward — to look at the need around us, feel overwhelmed, and do nothing. Looking at Colossians 1:28–29, what does Paul's example suggest about how we move from being overwhelmed to being genuinely present for people?
4
Colossians 1:29 says Paul labors with all the energy Christ powerfully works within him — not his own energy. What's the difference between striving in our own strength and drawing on Christ's power, and how might a community tell the two apart in practice?
5
In Colossians 2:6–7, Paul pictures the Christian life as being rooted, built up, and overflowing with thankfulness. Pastor Bill challenged us to direct our time, spiritual gifts, treasure, and testimony toward the one mission God has given His church. What might it look like for a group of people to honestly evaluate whether those things are actually aimed at that mission?
6
Colossians 2:8 warns against being taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophy built on human tradition rather than Christ. Pastor Bill pointed to a cultural lie that we can love Jesus while staying disconnected from His church. Where do you think that idea comes from, and how does this passage push back on it?

Pray together

Ask God for the clarity and courage to align what we have — our time, gifts, and relationships — with the one mission He has given us, and for genuine thankfulness and joy on the other side of that obedience

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

Continue the series

We Are Rock Point

Week 3 · 7 messages

Where these passages are preached

Colossians 1 Colossians 2

Explore related topics

Church Involvement Living Intentionally Loving Like Jesus Mission and Calling Sacrificial Service

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