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Home-Field Advantage | Week 5 | Bill Bush · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Bill Bush · Oct 31, 2021 · 80 min watch · 3 min read

Home-Field Advantage | Week 5 | Bill Bush

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In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Psalm 139
Psalm 139:1
Psalm 139:2-3
Psalm 139:4
Psalm 139:5
Romans 8:28-29

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

To face it all, embrace the All — the omniscient, omnipresent God who knows you better than you know yourself and is with you in every season.

In Psalm 139, King David describes the omniscience and omnipresence of God not as dry theological abstractions but as deeply personal realities: God knows us better than we know ourselves, can sort us out when life is out of sorts, and chooses to be with us in every high, every low, every dark moment. When we stop trying to manage life by picking up a little of God and instead dive fully into who He is, we discover that even the toughest seasons — like the cross itself — are held inside a victory already won.

Key points

1
1God is omniscient — He knows you better than you know yourself, including what you do, what you think, and what you will say before you say it.
2
2Because God knows your thoughts 'when they are afar from you,' He understands you even when you don't understand yourself — making knowing God the truest path to knowing yourself.
3
3God goes before us and follows behind us, meaning He is already in our past, already in our future, and always present with us now — He knows what we need and will protect us.
4
4God is omnipresent — not just everywhere in space but outside the space-time continuum entirely, so no season, failure, or distance can separate us from Him.
5
5God promises to work all things — including painful seasons — together for good for those who trust Him, because He already knows the full arc of our lives.
6
6The infinite God stepped into the finite in Jesus Christ so that we could step back into the infinite — and because Jesus experienced everything we face, He truly is with us in it.
7
7The cross — the ultimate symbol of defeat — became the ultimate victory, and communion is our 'hoorah' declaration that no matter the tough season, the win that matters most is already secured.

In order to face it all, embrace the all

A story from life

Pastor Bill's hitting slump at the batting cages with his father, where Tony Gwynn witnessed his dad's perfect swing and affirmed the principle Bill had been ignoring

Application

Pastor Bill calls us to stop trying to manage the tough seasons of life by grasping at a little of God and instead to fully dive into who He is. Because God is omniscient, He knows you — your actions, your confused thoughts, your regretted words — better than you know yourself, and He loves you anyway. Because He is omnipresent, you are never alone, no matter how dark or distant it feels. The practical step is surrender: stop running, stop demanding the answer you already decided is right, and trust the God who is already in your future. In your hardest moments, remember the cross — what looked like complete defeat was the greatest victory in history — and let that be your 'hoorah.' That one win changes everything, and it is already yours in Christ.

Take it into your week

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“King David in Psalms one thirty nine is describing the omniscience and omnipresence of God in a way that how it applies to his life in a way that he's in a dark time”
From the transcript
“And the first one we find right here in verse one. Oh Lord, you have examined my heart and you know everything about me”
From the transcript
“Well, first look at the next two verses. You know when I sit down or when I stand up. He knew that. He knew that again”
From the transcript
“So he knows everything I do. He knows what I think. Look at verse four. You know what I'm gonna say even before I say it”
From the transcript
“look what verse five. Five is a transition. It's kinda tying God's omniscience to his omnipresence and telling you something else he knows about us. And”
From the transcript
“look at Romans eight twenty eight and twenty nine with that in mind. Paul's trying to deal with this. Look what Paul says in it. He says, and we know that God causes everything together work together for good”
From the transcript
“look, verse six, that's exactly what David says. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand”
From the transcript
“Look what it says. Verse seven, I can never escape from your spirit. I can never get away from your presence”
From the transcript
“That's what Ephesians three eighteen and nineteen is talking about when Paul says this. He says, and may you have the power to understand as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is”
From the transcript
“Jesus is the ultimate example of Romans eight twenty eight that he will work all things together for good even if it doesn't look good”

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. 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.

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Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

There is something both unsettling and deeply comforting about being fully known. Pastor Bill opened Psalm 139 by pointing out that God knows what you do, what you think, and even the confused, half-formed thoughts that you yourself can barely name. David writes that God perceives our thoughts 'from afar' — meaning even when your inner life feels like static, God is not confused by it. He reads it clearly and completely. Most of us spend real energy managing how much of ourselves others see. We present the composed version at work, the patient version at home, the 'I've got it together' version at church. But with God, there is no curated version. He already sees the unedited one — and He has not walked away. That is the thing worth sitting with today. The omniscience of God is not a surveillance camera cataloguing your failures. It is a Father who knows every room in the house and loves you in all of them. Pastor Bill put it plainly: God knows you better than you know yourself, and He loves you anyway. You do not have to earn your way into being understood. You already are — fully, and by the One whose opinion of you is the only one that ultimately holds weight.

For reflection

Is there a part of your inner life — a fear, a doubt, a wound — that you have been keeping at arm's length even from God? What would it mean to let Him see it?

Pray

Pray for the courage to stop curating yourself before God and to simply be known by Him today.

Pastor Bill made a point worth slowing down for: because God knows your thoughts even when they are 'afar from you,' knowing God becomes the truest path to knowing yourself. That is not a throwaway line. Most of us try to figure out who we are by looking inward — journaling, reflecting, analyzing. None of that is bad. But David is describing something deeper: a God who understands you from the outside in, who sees the full picture of your interior life even when you cannot. When life feels out of sorts — when you cannot explain why you are anxious, why you are stuck, why a relationship keeps going sideways — there is a temptation to dig harder into yourself for the answer. And sometimes we just do not have it. The confusion is real. But God is not confused. He sees the through-line of your life, the pattern you cannot yet make out, the reason behind the restlessness. This is not an excuse to stop growing in self-awareness. It is an invitation to hold that self-awareness inside a larger relationship. Bring what you know and what you do not know to the God who holds it all. Let being known by Him be the starting point for understanding yourself, rather than the other way around.

For reflection

Where in your life right now do you feel most confused about yourself — your motives, your emotions, your direction? How might bringing that confusion to God change how you carry it?

Pray

Pray for openness to let God's knowledge of you be a gift rather than something to resist or fear.

Before the word is on your tongue, God knows it completely. That is what David writes in verse four, and it is worth sitting with honestly. Think about the words you most regret — the ones that came out sharper than you meant, the ones you cannot take back, the ones you rehearsed until they landed like a weapon. God knew every one of them before they left your mouth. That could feel like indictment. But in the context of Psalm 139, David is not building a case against himself. He is marveling. The God who knows what you will say before you say it — including the worst of it — is the same God who, as Pastor Bill reminded us, does not flinch or withdraw. His knowledge of you is not a liability. It is the foundation of a love that cannot be surprised out of existence. This matters practically. When you carry shame about words spoken or unkept promises, you do not have to drag that weight into a confessional performance before God. He already knew. He has already accounted for it. Confession matters — it is how we agree with what God already sees — but it is not the moment you inform Him of something He missed. It is the moment you stop hiding what He already holds.

For reflection

Is there a word or conversation you are still carrying shame about? What would it look like to bring it honestly to God, knowing He already knew it and loves you still?

Pray

Pray for freedom from the weight of words you regret, and for honesty before a God who already knows and already loves.

Verse five is one of the most quietly stunning in all of Psalms. David says God goes before him and follows behind him — meaning God is already in your future and already present in your past. Pastor Bill unpacked this with real warmth: the God who goes before you has already seen what is coming and is already there. You are not walking into the unknown alone. You are walking into territory your Father has already entered. This changes how we approach the hard seasons. When we are facing something we cannot control — a diagnosis, a relationship fracture, an uncertain next step — the natural response is to grab for certainty. We want the answer, the timeline, the assurance that it will be okay in the specific way we have already decided it should be okay. Pastor Bill called this out gently: stop demanding the answer you already decided is right, and trust the God who is already in your future. That is not passive resignation. It is the most active kind of trust — choosing to move forward without the map, because you know and trust the One who holds it. God hemming you in from behind and before is not confinement. It is the safest place you can possibly be.

For reflection

What situation in your life right now are you most anxious to control or resolve on your own terms? What would it mean to trust that God is already there?

Pray

Pray for the grace to release a specific situation into the hands of a God who is already ahead of you in it.

Where can you go from God's Spirit? David asks the question and then answers it himself: nowhere. Not up into the heights, not down into the depths, not into the darkest darkness where night feels absolute. God is there. Pastor Bill was clear that this is not simply about God being present in every geographic location. God exists outside the space-time continuum entirely — meaning no season, no failure, no feeling of distance can actually remove you from His presence. That matters most in the moments when it feels least true. Depression, grief, and exhaustion have a way of making God feel very far away. The darkness that David describes in verse eleven is real — he is not dismissing the experience of spiritual or emotional night. But his conclusion is not that darkness wins. His conclusion is that even darkness is not dark to God. The night is as bright as the day to Him. If you are in a dark season right now, this passage is not asking you to pretend it is not dark. It is telling you that the darkness itself does not have the final word — and that you are not alone in it, no matter how alone it feels. That is the ground you can stand on even when you cannot see your feet.

For reflection

When has God felt most distant to you — and looking back, where can you see evidence that He was present even then?

Pray

Pray for a renewed sense of God's nearness in whatever feels dark or distant right now, and for the trust to believe His presence even before you feel it.

Pastor Bill brought Romans 8:28 into the sermon as the natural landing place for everything Psalm 139 builds toward. God is not just present in all things — He is working in all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Verse twenty-nine extends that promise: the good He is working toward is conforming us to the image of His Son. It is easy to hear Romans 8:28 as a promise that circumstances will eventually feel better. That is not quite what Paul is saying. The 'good' here is not necessarily comfort restored — it is character formed, likeness to Jesus deepened, the full arc of a life brought into alignment with the purpose God designed before you were born. That is a bigger and more enduring good than any single season resolving the way we hoped. This is also where the omniscience of God from Psalm 139 meets real life. Because God already knows the full arc of your story — beginning to end — He is not reacting to your hard seasons. He is redeeming them. That is a different posture entirely. You do not have to make sense of everything happening right now. You are invited to trust the One who already sees how it fits.

For reflection

What current difficulty in your life is hardest to believe God is working for good? What would it take to hold that situation with open hands rather than a clenched fist?

Pray

Pray for faith to trust the bigger story God is writing, especially in the chapters that are hardest to read right now.

Paul prays that we would have the strength to grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is — and that we would know this love that surpasses knowledge. That is the same territory Psalm 139 covers. David could not fully contain what he was trying to say about God's omniscience and omnipresence, and Paul says something similar: this love is beyond full comprehension, and yet it is meant to fill us completely. Pastor Bill tied the whole sermon together at the cross. The infinite God stepped into the finite in Jesus Christ so that we could step back into the infinite. And the cross — the moment that looked like total defeat — became the greatest victory in history. That is the 'hoorah' he described: in your hardest season, the win that matters most is already secured. Communion is how we declare it out loud together. This week, you have traced the whole sweep of Psalm 139 — being known, being understood, being covered, being held in the dark, being worked toward good. All of it finds its fullest meaning in a God who loved you enough to enter your story personally. Stop managing with a little of God. Dive fully into who He is. The water is, as Pastor Bill put it, already warm.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, where has God felt most real to you — and how does the truth of the cross change how you face whatever is still unresolved?

Pray

Pray for a full, unhurried surrender to the God who knows you completely, loves you completely, and has already secured the victory that matters most.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. 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

Psalm 139 is one of the most personal poems in all of Scripture — David isn't just describing what God can do, he's describing what God is doing, right now, with him. Let's dig into what that actually means for real life.

Discussion questions

1
In Psalm 139:1-4, David lists the things God knows about him — his actions, his thoughts, even his words before he speaks them. What picture of God is David painting here, and why do you think he's recounting all of this?
2
Psalm 139:2 says God understands our thoughts 'even when I am far away.' Pastor Bill made the point that because God knows us better than we know ourselves, knowing God becomes the truest path to knowing yourself. What does that idea open up for how people think about self-understanding?
3
Psalm 139:5 describes God going before us and following behind us. What does that image of God already being in our future — and our past — change about how we might face a season that feels uncertain or out of control?
4
Pastor Bill drew a contrast between 'picking up a little of God' to manage a hard season and fully diving into who God is. What's the difference between those two postures, and what tends to make one harder to choose than the other?
5
In Ephesians 3:18-19, Paul prays that we would grasp how wide, long, high, and deep Christ's love is — love that surpasses knowledge. Pastor Bill connected this to the Incarnation: the infinite God stepping into the finite so we could step back into the infinite. How does Jesus experiencing human life shape the way we understand God being 'with us' in hard moments?
6
Pastor Bill described the cross as the ultimate example of what looked like complete defeat turning into the greatest victory in history, and called that our 'hoorah' — the win that changes everything. How might holding onto that reality shift the way we as a community walk through seasons that feel like defeat?

Pray together

Gratitude that God already knows us fully and loves us anyway — and trust that the victory of the cross is already secured, whatever season we're walking through

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Home-Field Advantage

Week 5 · 5 messages

Where these passages are preached

Psalm 139 Romans 8 Ephesians 3

Explore related topics

God's Omnipresence God's Omniscience Knowing God Personally Surrender and Trust Victory in Christ

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