NEW NORMAL | Week 5 | Sermon · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Sep 4, 2023 · 53 min watch · 3 min read

NEW NORMAL | Week 5 | Sermon

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Live with margin so you can live on mission, end quote..

The early church in Acts 6 thrived because believers personally invested their time, talent, treasure, and testimony in both serving the body and reaching the world. Today, most followers of Jesus want to engage that way but feel they simply cannot — not because the calling is unreasonable, but because they have allowed lifestyle inflation, consumerism, and a culture of identity built on 'what I do and what I have' to crowd out every last bit of margin. The only path forward is not to add more onto an already overloaded life, but to intentionally replace lesser things with what God has actually called us to, trusting that He always provides what we need to do what He asks.

Key points

1
1Growth in the church brings both blessing and burden — discontent is a sign something important is happening, not a reason to stop.
Related passage
2
2The role of church leaders is to preach, teach, pray, and equip the saints — not to do all the ministry themselves — so that the church remains a church and not merely a charity.
Related passage
3
3Personal investment in the church requires all four currencies: our testimony (story), our time, our talent, and our treasure.
4
4Americans lack margin not because they lack money or time, but because of lifestyle inflation and a consumer mindset that keeps expanding to fill every resource available.
5
5The root cause of the margin problem is a cultural identity built on 'what I do and what I have' rather than on who God says we are — and that identity crisis puts the American way of life in direct conflict with a biblical one.
6
6To build margin you must replace, not add — deliberately cutting lesser commitments so you can say yes to what God has called you to.
7
7Jesus commands us to seek the kingdom first and live righteously, promising that when we do, God will provide everything we need.

Application

Pastor Bill's challenge is straightforward but demanding: stop trying to add God's mission onto an already overloaded life and instead make the hard, intentional decision to replace lesser things with what actually matters. Practically, that means arranging your finances so you can give generously and save consistently — living on less than you earn rather than on 123% of it. It means recovering time from low-value habits (the average American spends 15 hours a week on social media alone) and redirecting even six to ten of those hours toward being in community, serving in the church, spending time with God, and sharing your story with someone who needs Jesus. The goal is not a monk's life; it is a focused one — because when you seek the kingdom first and live the healthy habits of knowing Jesus, He promises to provide everything you need.

Take it into your week

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7-day devotional

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Related passage

There is something quietly reassuring about the fact that the early church had problems. Acts 6 opens with a complaint — a real one, about real people feeling overlooked. And yet Pastor Bill pointed out that this discontent was actually a sign that something important was happening. The church was growing. New people were coming in. The blessing was producing friction, and friction was producing the need for a decision. It is easy to look at the tension in your own life — the overstuffed calendar, the stretched budget, the sense that you are always behind — and assume something has gone wrong. But what if some of that pressure is a sign that God is moving, not a sign that He has abandoned you? The early believers did not respond to the strain by scaling back the mission. They responded by leaning in with greater intentionality. That is the posture this week invites you into. Not denial that things are hard, and not guilt that they got this way. Just an honest look at where the pressure is coming from — and an open hand toward what God might be asking you to do with it. Growth requires adjustment. The question is whether we are willing to adjust toward what matters most.

For reflection

Where in your life right now does tension or friction feel like a sign of failure — and could any of it actually be a sign that God is at work?

Pray

Pray for eyes to see the pressures in your life as God sees them, and for the courage not to retreat from them.

Related passage

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

This message pushes on something most of us feel but rarely name out loud: the gap between wanting to invest in what matters and actually having the margin to do it. Before we dig in, what's one word that captures how you felt as you listened?

Discussion questions

1
In Acts 6, the Jerusalem church is growing fast — and the first thing that surfaces is a complaint. What does it tell us that discontent showed up right in the middle of genuine growth, and what might that mean for how we read tension in a community today?
Related passage
2
Acts 6:2-4 shows the apostles stepping back from food distribution so they can stay focused on prayer and teaching — and then asking the community to raise up others to carry that work. What picture of church does that paint, and how is it different from a model where a small group of leaders does all the ministry?
Related passage
3
Pastor Bill described four currencies people invest in a church community — story, time, talent, and treasure. Looking at those four together, why do you think all four matter? What tends to happen when a community is strong in some and thin in others?
4
Pastor Bill pointed out that the average American spends around 15 hours a week on social media, and argued that the margin problem isn't really a shortage of time or money — it's lifestyle inflation and a consumer mindset that expands to fill whatever's available. Where do you think that dynamic is hardest for people to see in their own lives, and why?
5
In Matthew 6:19-33, Jesus tells His listeners to stop storing up treasures on earth and to seek the kingdom first — and He ties those commands directly to worry and to where our hearts end up. What does Jesus seem to be saying about the connection between what we arrange our lives around and what we actually trust?
6
Pastor Bill's core challenge was to replace lesser things rather than just add more — to make intentional cuts so there's room to say yes to what God is actually calling us to. What makes the 'replace' move harder than simply trying to add good things on top of a full life, and how might a community help each other take it seriously?

Pray together

Courage to honestly look at what has crowded out margin, and trust that God provides what we need when we seek His kingdom first

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

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