Love Defined | Week 7 · Rewind

Love Defined | Week 7 · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Oct 10, 2026

Overview verified by Rock Point Church. This version of the overview was approved for publication on October 11, 2026.

Big Idea

Love makes room for the name.

Jesus already made room for us — washing feet, preparing a place, humbling Himself to death on our behalf — so our response is to clear out the clutter of our lives and make room for Him to be first. This isn't performing for God's love; it's letting that love organize our homes, schedules, resources, relationships, and church around His name.

Key points

DON'T TAKE ROOM, MAKE ROOM
1. 1
  1Third John commends Gaius for welcoming and partnering with the mission, which is really about making room for the name of Jesus.
  Pastor Bill explains that John wrote this short letter not to a church but to a man named Gaius, praising him for hospitality that was more than friendliness — it was true partnership in ministry. He connects this to Rock Point's own story of planting and supporting over 40 churches, including a video update from church planter Nando, as a modern example of making room for the name.
2. 2
  2Diotrephes shows what it looks like to take room instead of make it.
  Pastor Bill walks through 3 John 1:9-11, describing Diotrephes as a church leader who believed correct theology about Jesus but loved to be first, refused to welcome the brothers, gossiped about John, and ran people out of the church who wanted to serve. He notes John says such a person has not seen God clearly, even though he had the right doctrine.
3. 3
  3Seeing God clearly, like Job did, produces the fear of the Lord that frees us from every other fear.
  Pastor Bill retells Job's story — his suffering, his friends' bad counsel, his demand for an explanation — and God's response of revealing Himself through creation rather than answering Job's question directly. He highlights Job 42:5, 'Before I had heard about you, but now I have seen you,' as the turning point where seeing God rightly removes the need to fear anything else.
4. 4
  4Church membership is for us, but it is not about us.
  Building on the Diotrephes example, Pastor Bill stresses that being part of the body of Christ benefits us without being centered on us. He illustrates this with the 1980 Miracle on Ice hockey team, where the coach told players the name on the front of the jersey (the team) matters more than the name on the back (the individual).
3 John 1:9-11 (NIV)
Where is my name taking space Jesus wants to use?
3 John 1:5-8 (NIV)
FOR JESUS TO BE FIRST:
1. 5
  5Making room for Jesus means cleaning out, not just adding more.
  Using a childhood story of stuffing toys and trash into his closet rather than truly cleaning it, Pastor Bill explains his dad's two-pile method — trash to throw out, and things to put back in their rightful place. He applies this spiritually: we don't need more space in life, we need to throw out what doesn't belong and reorganize what does, which produces real peace rather than performed happiness.
Make room in my HOME.
1. 6
  6Making room in our home is letting Jesus be Lord beyond Sunday appearances.
  Pastor Bill challenges the gap between acting like a believer at church and not believing Jesus the rest of the week at home, asking what needs to be thrown out and what needs to be put on the right shelf domestically.
Make room in my SCHEDULE.
1. 7
  7Making room in our schedule means prioritizing community, ministry, and service over clutter.
  He argues that claiming 'no time' for the things God calls good really means time is being spent elsewhere, since God will not add hours to the day; the fix is reorganizing the schedule rather than finding more time.
Make room in my RESOURCES.
1. 8
  8Making room with our resources, especially through tithing, literally creates room in the church.
  Pastor Bill states plainly that if everyone tithed the church would already have more seats, and connects this to the push for members to move to Saturday night services, noting 300 have already switched and nearly 400 people have come to Christ in that same window.
Make room in my RELATIONSHIPS.
1. 9
  9Making room in our relationships means actually sharing Jesus with the people in our lives.
  He asks whether people actually tell others they're a Christian, share their story, pray for others, and invite them to church, framing this as making the gospel the goal of our relationships.
Make room in this CHURCH for more people to meet Jesus.
1. 10
  10Making room in the church for more people to meet Jesus is itself an act of love.
  Pastor Bill directly asks members who are free to do so to switch to Saturday night service so newcomers have room on Sunday, promising that doing so will mean leading someone to Jesus, just as it has for the 300 who already moved.
2. 11
  11Jesus went first in making room for us, so our response flows from love already received, not fear of earning it.
  Pastor Bill points to John 13 (foot washing), John 14 ('many rooms... I go to prepare a place for you'), and Philippians 2 (Christ's humbling to death) to show Jesus made room for us before we did anything for Him. He contrasts believing in Jesus with actually believing Jesus, and says the fear of tithing or giving time dissolves when we trust God with 90% further than we trust ourselves with 100%.
3. 12
  12The simplest truth of the gospel — Jesus loves me — is the deepest one, and overcomplicating faith breeds fear and bitterness.
  Pastor Bill cites Paul's teaching that God uses simple things to confound the wise, and Ephesians-like language about the height, width, and depth of God's love, concluding that embracing 'Jesus loves me, this I know' simply is what frees people from fear.
4. 13
  13A young man named Johnny modeled simple, fearless faith by giving Pastor Bill a drawing that said 'Do not fear, I am with you.'
  Pastor Bill shares how Johnny, a 24-year-old in the Adapt ministry, gave him a hand-drawn picture reminding him not to fear because God is with him, and held it up as proof that simple, uncomplicated faith sees the truth clearly and acts on it without needing deep theology.

Application

Pastor Bill frames the charge as clearing out your closet so there's room for Jesus to be first, not adding more to an already cluttered life.

Make room in your home
Stop acting like a believer at church only to ignore Jesus the rest of the week at home; identify what's trash and what needs to go back in its rightful place domestically.
Make room in your schedule
Reorganize your time so community, ministry, and service actually have a place, rather than claiming you have no time while filling it with other things.
Make room with your resources
Begin tithing and giving generously; trusting God with 90% will go further than managing 100% on your own.
Make room in your relationships
Actually tell people you're a Christian, share your story, pray for people in your life, and invite them to church, making the gospel the goal of your relationships.
Make room in this church for more people
If you're able, switch to the Saturday night service to free up seats on Sunday so newcomers can come to Christ, as roughly 300 people already have.

Take it into your week

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7-day devotional

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Day 1

Pastor Bill opened the week with a man most of us have never heard of: Gaius. John writes him a short, personal letter, praising him for welcoming traveling workers he had never even met. That welcome wasn't just good manners. It was partnership — Gaius was making room in his home and his resources so the name of Jesus could travel further than he ever could. Pastor Bill pointed to Rock Point's own story of helping plant and support over 40 churches, and to a video from church planter Nando, as the same thing happening now. Here's what lands for me: Gaius is remembered not for a sermon he preached or a title he held, but for the space he cleared for someone else's ministry. Love makes room for the name. That's a quiet kind of greatness, and it's available to every one of us this week — a spare seat, an open door, a willingness to back what God is doing somewhere we'll never see. You don't have to be the one on the mission trip to be a true partner in it. Where could your small act of welcome become someone else's wide-open door to Jesus?

For reflection

Where is my name taking space Jesus wants to use?

Pray

Ask God to show you one place this week where your welcome could become real partnership in His work.

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Love Defined

Week 7 · 7 messages

Where these passages are preached

John 3 3 John 1 Job 42 John 13

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Discipleship Generosity Hospitality Sacrificial Love Surrender to Christ

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