Rock Point Church
Pastor Bill Bush · Oct 31, 2026
A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.
Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.
Sign inDay 1 of 7 · Matthew 6:19-21
Pastor Bill opened by admitting he resisted physical therapy for a pinched nerve, masking the pain with creams and pills until his wife told him to treat the source, not the symptoms. That's where this week begins. The heart of the matter, as Rock Point put it, is a matter of the heart. We tend to treat our money worries as the problem itself — if the numbers were different, we'd be fine. But Jesus says something that rearranges the whole thing: "Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." Notice the order. Pastor Bill pointed out that our heart follows our treasure, not the other way around. We like to think our heart leads and our spending follows, but Jesus says the money goes first and drags the heart behind it. That's unsettling and freeing at once. It means the way to move your heart isn't to white-knuckle your feelings — it's to move your treasure. This isn't a guilt trip; it's an invitation to look honestly at where you've been sending your heart. Before the week asks you to change anything, let it ask you to notice. The source, not just the symptoms.
Prayer
Ask God for the honesty to see where your heart has quietly been following your treasure.
Day 2 of 7 · Matthew 6:24
"No one can serve two masters," Jesus says. "You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money." Pastor Bill drew the contrast plainly: a heart controlled by money, or a heart surrendered to God. There isn't a third lane where we quietly keep both. He reminded us of the Proverbs warning about a way that seems right to a person but in the end leads to death — because from our vantage point, God's way can look backwards. Pastor Bill used the picture of looking at a car wheel: depending on where you're standing, it seems to be turning the wrong direction. God's way of handling what we have only looks backwards because we're standing in the wrong spot, assuming we own what's really His. This is less about accusation and more about perspective. Which master are you actually serving — not in theory, but in the quiet decisions nobody sees? Surrender isn't losing. It's finally standing where you can see the wheel turning the right way. Today, rather than tallying up your failures, ask simply: where does my functional trust live? Naming the master is the first honest step toward handing Him the keys.
Prayer
Pray for a willingness to be re-positioned so God's way stops looking backwards.
Day 3 of 7 · Colossians 3:5
Paul writes, "So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you... greed, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world." Pastor Bill was careful here: idolatry isn't a shrine or a statue in another country. He told the story of literal idol worship he'd seen in Bali, then turned it toward us — idolatry is anything created that slips into the place God alone should hold in the heart. And here's the striking part he made: idolatry doesn't threaten God. It threatens us. It hijacks our ability to live from His love, and it turns Jesus from the source of our life into merely a resource for the life we've already decided we want. That's the subtle drift. We don't usually bow down to money; we just start treating God as a means to the security money promised us. The question worth sitting with isn't "Am I a bad person?" It's "Has something good quietly taken the place only God should hold?" Naming an idol isn't about shame. It's about getting your heart free again to live from the love it was made for.
Prayer
Ask the Holy Spirit to name anything that has slipped into God's place in your heart.
Day 4 of 7 · Exodus 20:1-3
Before God gives Israel a single command, He says, "I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery." Pastor Bill lingered on that order, because it changes everything. God rescued first, then spoke. The commands flowed out of grace, not a Godfather-style threat that keeps you in line. We often read God's call on our finances as a transaction: do this, and earn His favor. But Scripture reverses it. Obedience is a response to a God who already saved us, not a payment to make Him love us. That reframes even the word blessing. Pastor Bill was honest that we hear "blessing" and picture more of what we already want. But the blessing God offers isn't a bigger version of our wish list — it's the very life He died to give us. When you trust Him with what you have, you're not negotiating with a distant boss. You're responding to a Rescuer who went first. Let that settle before you do anything else this week. The God asking for your trust is the God who already proved it by coming for you.
Prayer
Thank God for rescuing first, and ask Him to free your obedience from fear and bargaining.
Day 5 of 7 · Mark 10:17-27
A man runs to Jesus and kneels — eager, sincere, successful. Pastor Bill noticed what he's really after: he wants Jesus to tell him he's already good enough. Self-justification, not surrender. And then comes the line that's easy to rush past: "Jesus felt genuine love for him." It's love that says, "Go and sell all your possessions... then come, follow me." The man walks away sad, "for he had many possessions." His money had his heart, and he couldn't let go. Pastor Bill asked the room directly, "Is that you?" — and it's worth not dodging the question. But notice how Jesus asks. Not to shame the man, but in love, because He could see the one thing standing between this man and the life he was actually looking for. The call to surrender is never God grabbing something away for the fun of it. It's love naming the thing we're clutching so tightly it's clutching us back. The disciples are stunned: "Then who in the world can be saved?" Jesus answers, "With God everything is possible." What feels impossible to hand over is exactly where His power meets us.
Prayer
Pray for the courage to let Jesus, in love, name whatever you've been clutching.
Day 6 of 7 · 1 Timothy 6:9-10
"People who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires." Pastor Bill named the trap specifically: money makes three false promises. It promises security — that enough means nothing bad will happen. It promises satisfaction — the "just a little more" that Howard Hughes reportedly admitted when asked how much is enough. And it promises freedom — while quietly enslaving us instead. Each promise is real enough to keep chasing and empty enough to never deliver. He compared satisfaction to chips and salsa: you keep needing more just to feel what you felt at first. The honest move is the one Pastor Bill urged — don't avoid the question, examine it. What do you actually trust money to give you? Not in the abstract, but in the fear that wakes you at 2 a.m., in the purchase you were sure would finally settle you. Hard circumstances are real, and financial pressure is genuinely heavy; this isn't about pretending otherwise. It's about noticing that the thing we've been asking money to be — our security, our satisfaction, our freedom — it was never built to carry. Only One is.
Prayer
Ask God to expose the false promise you've been leaning on and to carry the real weight you're under.
Day 7 of 7 · Matthew 6:19-34
The week ends looking forward, into the ordinary days starting tomorrow. Jesus points to the birds who don't store up barns and the wildflowers dressed better than Solomon, and asks, "Aren't you far more valuable to Him than they are?" Worry, Pastor Bill said, comes from trying to serve two masters — if I don't trust God, then I'm convinced it all rests on me alone. But here's the picture he left us with: God is not a repo man backing a truck up to your house to take your stuff. When you give first in trust, He drives away with your anxiety, your image management, your need for control, your discontentment — and leaves behind the fruit of His Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience. So what does that look like Monday? Pastor Bill was practical: give first, even with a little. Don't wait for the comfortable amount that may never come. Trust God with the small thing now, because the small thing is where trust is actually learned. Money can fund a church, but only Jesus transforms a heart. This week was never really about your finances. It was about who holds your heart — and a God worth handing it to.
Prayer
Pray for the faith to trust God with a little now, and for eyes to see what He gives back.
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
Sign in to save this message.