We Are Rock Point | Part 3 · Rewind

We Are Rock Point | Part 3 · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Jul 9, 2018

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

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.

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

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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 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.

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?
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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?
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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?
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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

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Topics

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

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