We Are Rock Point | Week 2 | Bill Bush | Full Service

But we are Rock Point, if we are a part of a church, if I'm a follower of Jesus, what does that look like? What happens when I come to know Jesus? What does it look like to follow Jesus? And today, we're gonna unpackage this simple phrase. This this this big idea is we know Jesus personally.

If you're a Christian, if you're a follower, if you're a disciple, you know Jesus personally. What I mean is not just know of, just like Chris. Said, knew of God. They knew of church. They knew about him. They had information, but they didn't really know Jesus.

They didn't know him as a savior, as Lord. They didn't know him as someone to continue to get to. Because no doesn't mean meet. Meet is the first step of knowing somebody. But to continue to know. Matter of fact, the apostle Paul in Philippians chapter three was talking about having joy

in the midst of knowing the Lord. And he used to know about God a lot. He was a a Pharisee, he followed all the rules, he did all that stuff, but yet he didn't know Jesus. Then he met him and he continued to get to know him, and he actually said, you know what, I consider everything else I did in my life garbage compared to knowing Jesus,

and he's writing it about all this joy while he's in prison in chains. And here's what he said in chapter three verse ten eleven. He said, I wanna know Christ. That word for know there is a Greek word called It doesn't mean know about. It's not just inform. It's it's to understand

with intimacy. It's this idea of I wanna know. His goal in life is to continue to know Christ in a deeper way, and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I wanna experience the life that he died to give. I wanna suffer with him. See, now it's not prosperity gospel. I don't follow Jesus just to get what I want. He's like, I know that trusting him sometimes is hard.

And sharing in his death, so that one day or another I'll experience the resurrection from the dead. I wanna experience the life that Jesus died. I wanna know him. And the first step, the first key principle of a follower of Christ is our goal is to continue to get to know Jesus. To get him to him. How?

How do we get to know him? What does that look like? And what we're gonna see is what it looks like is you gotta be in the word. If you wanna know the Jesus, you gotta know the bible.

And you gotta let the bible know you.

We have to be a people of the word. We can't just be a people that if you are a Christian, it can't be the only time you hear the bible talked about and look at it is when I'm talking about it. Especially if it's Daniel or Clayton because those guys barely talk about the bible anyways. So I'm just ripping on them. Just joking.

Kind of. No. Just kidding. But we have to know the word because here here's the truth. The word of God brings us to the God of the word.

The bible is very clear that this is where we get to know God. We get it's revealed to us who he is. This is where we find out how life is supposed to work. Because here's the thing is to really know him is where joy really comes from. The problem is some of the things he's gonna ask us to go through are tough, and they're hard. And so sometimes if we don't understand that, and we don't understand the relationship,

we'll come to church all the time, but we're gonna be really confused by what's happening in our life. If we make knowing God and being blessed all about enjoying the things I wanna enjoy, you're gonna miss the real relationship. We're gonna miss what Paul said he considered joy and everything else garbage.

And if we're gonna know him, we gotta know the word. A matter of fact, I know that's central because why is the bible Why is what God says always attacked? Why is that the first lie that sent human beings into sin and death?

When Satan came, how did he challenge? How did he trick out of me? He said these words, did God really say? He challenged the word. And we still do that today. We avoid scripture or we say, hey, don't like what it says because we don't really wanna embrace the word of God and to really know the Lord and to know Jesus.

How does that work? That's where we're gonna spend our time. We're gonna be in Hebrews chapter four where it talks about the word of God. And how does the bible actually help us? Why well how does God's word help us work? Because it's not a book that you just read and study. We're gonna see that. We're gonna see what it is. But what's going on in Hebrews? Well this this is Hebrews is not just a cheesy name for a Christian coffee shop.

Thought I'd get the bad dad joke out of the way right ahead. There you go. You guys are better, you at least gave me some little ass, people groaned last service, that's fine. It's okay.

It's a book of the bible, and it's written to Hebrew believers because the when the church first started to grow, it's mainly Jews. And so what's happening is this is written to a bunch of discouraged Hebrew Christians who they started off knowing Jesus and really leaning into to what he had for them and trusting him. Not just to be saved,

not just to okay, you died on the cross, so now I have eternal life. But now I'm gonna trust and lean into submission to your word on how to live. Because there's two different things. You can be saved, but not submitting.

And you're gonna see here in a minute, he talks about rest a lot. This passage talks about a lot of rest. I'll explain that. But it has to do with resting in that. Like okay, you've rested in me saving you, but now will you rest in submitting to me?

And he compares it to what Israel did, because they're they're Hebrews, they know their past. That when God rescued them from slavery in Egypt, they rested in that, they followed him, but then when they got to the land, they wouldn't listen to him. They wouldn't submit to him. They still wanted it their way,

and so they they failed. Then they finally did get the land under with Joshua, and they so then they think now they've submitted. No. They got their land. They got the the their their country, but they still wouldn't submit, and it never worked right. So what he's saying is, don't just be trust me to rescue you from sin,

surrender and submit. Rest in my will for your life, and that's where you're gonna find what you're really looking for. Otherwise, fail. So that's kind of because what's happening in the Hebrew, they were getting discouraged.

They were they were wanting to go back to their old way. They wanted to believe that Jesus died for them, but they wanted to live the way everybody else did in the world. They wanted to run back to their old ways, And and because it was getting hard, there was it was getting hard to be a Christian. They were getting persecuted.

The economy wasn't doing good. Inflation rates were high on those houses. Gas prices for your horses for those chariots was getting expensive. You know, you didn't like the person who was Caesar or president at the time, you know. All these things were going on and they just acted like everybody else.

And Paul says that the the the the Hebrews is written to say, you're missing out on the glorious life that the great high priest Jesus actually has for you. And in chapter four, he kind of unpackages this, and right in the middle he talks about the word of God and it's primacy

in in how it changes our life. So here we go. I'm gonna read through this and we're gonna take it apart. So it says in starting in verse eight. Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest,

God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. So there's a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God's rest have rested from their labors just as God did after creating the world. So he wants us to have Sabbath rest. The same type of rest God experienced.

So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God as the people of Israel did, we will fall. For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow.

It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one whom we are accountable.

Now it sounds like he's talking about the power of the word of God. He says, and we you can't trick God. You can't do the show. You can't just he knows what's really going on in your life, and you will be accountable to him. That sounds scary. But then if

you really understand it's about knowing Jesus personally and a relationship with God, that almost sounds like, and you know what? If you blow it, he's out to get you. But he's not out to get you. He's out to get you. Get it?

Because he goes right back to the love of God and the grace of God to end this whole section. Look what it goes in verse 14. So then, since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. When he said hold firmly, rest in God's word. Trust God's word. He goes, this high priest of ours understands our weaknesses.

Jesus became a man. God understands how to he's he's felt what it's like to be human.

For he faced all the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. So he's saying, say, when you blow it, when you fail, when you're afraid, you he wants you to run back to him, not run away from him. To boldly, because of his grace, you can go before him. And he says, there we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. What we need it most is when we're afraid to trust his word, and we run away from it. And then we're afraid of God, because we think, well, I blew it. Now he's done. No. Run back to him.

So it ends with his mercy, his grace, his great high priest. Jesus is the one we need to know him. Paul said we need to know him. And then right in the middle of this passage, he says how? All through scripture talks about the word of God. And it's the word of God where we learn and get to know God the word, Jesus.

And we need to be people of the word. How does that work? How is the word of God so prime in our life? How does it change us? How is it? Because it's it's not like a book. A lot of us like to read lots of books about the bible.

We like to do quiet times that are a study that uses some verses, but you're really reading all about what somebody else thinks. We need to be a people that actually learn to get into the word of God and read it ourselves. And then more importantly, let it read us. That's what he's saying the word of God does.

Verse 12. I wanna put it up on the screen and I wanted to highlight some words in verse 12 of Hebrews four.

Here it goes. It says so there's four words I highlighted. Alive, powerful, cutting, and exposes.

It says this is what the word of God does. So here's how the word of God changes us. Here's why it's so important. It has these four things. It's alive, powerful, cutting, and spouses. The first one, alive. What does it mean that the word of God is alive? It means it's living. It's not a list.

One of the first mistakes we make with the word of God is and sometimes people, preachers have done this before. They said, this is a owner's manual. No, it's not. An owner's manual is just a list of what you should do and what you shouldn't do. Yeah. It involves stuff about how we should live, of course.

But it is more of like a loving letter from a father who loves us so much. He gave up his life for us and now he's showing us here's how to make it. Here's how to find what I know you're looking for. And it's a relational thing. It's alive. It's not a list. It's not just the to dos and the to don'ts.

And in that what it says is it reveals Jesus and it brings life.

And this is where a lot of people argue about, well, you know, we argue about ways to live life right now in our culture and you're like, well, God is love and love wouldn't say that. Well then you redefine love. If you read your bibles, the bible actually details out what love is.

But we don't listen to that. We take our definition of love, say, well, says he's love, therefore So we're basically not listening to the bible. And the bible reveals who Jesus is, so now you're misrepresenting God. And you so how can you be in a relationship with someone that you don't even know who they are?

So it reveals who he is, and there's something about it being alive that it brings life. And that's what that second word kinda does. It's connected to it. It's alive because it's powerful. This word powerful, it's the Greek word, Energos.

Energos, where we get energy. Energos, that's a sound weird sounding name. Doesn't it sound like the next Marvel super villain? Energos is coming from the multiverse. He's more powerful than Thanos. That was stupid, sorry. Energos, and it's where we get the word energy. It produces energy.

The word of God is an energy source of itself. It produces it. It's active and effective. It'll accomplish what it says. It gives the energy. That's why in

the beginning it kept talking about rest and rest and rest. Says we need to rest, and then it talks the word of God. Here's the problem when you think of rest. What do you think of when you think of rest? Nap. Three out of four services said nap. The other one said sleep.

It was the early service this morning. I think they had not quite woken up yet. They weren't ready for nap. They just didn't wanna get out of bed yet. Nap. Don't you think when you think of rest or moms with little kids you think of locking yourself in the bathroom for a few minutes?

But rest, we think of we think of rest as ceasing activity. But that's not what this rest is talking about. When he keeps saying you need to rest, you're gonna you're gonna miss God's rest. You're gonna What he's saying is, you can rest in your salvation, but we also need to rest in the submission to God's word.

That's where life is really lived. That's where the energy is produced. That's where life change happens. That's where you start to feel energy. You gotta rest in that. The problem is if we run from that. We don't rest in, we rest from our relationship with God.

You think it's sleep, you think it's tired, and a lot of us are tired. Like, know, all of us, I just wanna relax. Have you ever noticed that sometimes no matter how much rest ceasing of activity you get, you're still not got any more energy? Ever noticed that?

I woke up Saturday, I fell asleep really early, and I don't usually do that. And I slept in, I slept for over nine hours. I never do that. Six is usually good for me. Seven is like, wow, I got a lot of sleep. And I slept for over nine.

So when I woke up, do you think I just woke up? I have so much extra energy. I'm ready to go. Have you ever done that? You sleep extra long time? I didn't wanna get out of bed. It was like the more I slept, the more I wanted to sleep. The more less I wanted to move. So guess what I had to do? Had to make a decision. I gotta get out of bed. And then I realized I gotta go preach. I am so tired. I am not waking up. I go, I gotta exercise.

And that sounds like the exact opposite of what you wanna do. Right? Because exercise move. And so and I'm at that age now that everything hurts. And every time something starts hurting, I said, I guess I'm dealing with that the rest of my life.

So I start warming up. I start working out. Start exercising, and everything hurt. My feet hurt, my ankles hurt, my knees hurt, my back hurt, my my neck hurt, my shoulder hurt, my head hurt, my feelings hurt, because I'm realizing I'm old and this hurts. And I'm getting mad because I'm like, this

feels worse. I feel like Job. I feel like my wife should come and tell me just curse God and die.

And then she could marry a younger man that doesn't hurt so much when he tries to exercise. But then around the twenty minute mark something changed. Endorphin starts kicking in, you loosened up body energy.

That's what he means when he says to rest. Rest in the word.

So I wanna go back to that. That word rest that's used, what it really means is a spiritual inheritance in Christ. It means what we inherit by knowing Jesus. The power of the Holy Spirit. The word brings an energy we inherit. It's the victory of faith. It's completion and satisfaction.

It's when he says he wants us to rest like God did. God's Sabbath rest, do you think when God rested after creating that means he took a nap and he's been asleep ever since? He didn't stop working or moving. What he said is he rested in the satisfaction and the completion of what he had just created.

When he calls us to rest, it's rest in his word. Rest in his will, and relax knowing that he already saved us and knowing that he will complete the job, and his word will empower us.

But we have to rest in it, which means we have to be in it, and we have to be willing to get out of bed, because a lot of us, we have a hard time serving God because you're like, I just need a break. I'm just tired. I'm just tired, and you think doing nothing, resting from being involved is gonna somehow give you the energy to be involved, Just like doing nothing, it'll somehow give me the energy to exercise. No. The exercise is what gives the energy.

So some of you are like, well I am just tired and every time I come to church you're bugging me about something. You're like, we need to do this. You need to give to this campaign. You need serve. You need to stop coming to the 11:00 service. I'm tired. I can't So you do nothing. And you end up with less and less energy.

But when you lean into the word of God, it produces energy. And that energos means completion. It will do what it says. It means that the word of God will accomplish what it says. It's funny. People have tried to mock the word of God. Back in the seventeen hundreds, there was a preacher named George Whitfield.

Powerful preacher. He preached like clock crowds of 20,000. Just preached the word, preached the gospel. He was a good throw puncher too. I liked his preaching. He just crapped. Word of God. Listen to it. And thousands of people would come to Christ.

Well, was a group called the Hellfire Club that didn't like the preaching and so they would mock. They'd have their own little meetings and they'd take turns and this guy named Thorpe, one of the leaders, he got up once and he took a a Whitfield sermon and started preaching it.

But using mocking voice, yeah, you're gonna turn to Jesus. You know, I I don't know if he sounded like that, but he would like start mocking it, and they're laughing.

Well, the problem is this sermon was straight up the gospel and putting your faith in knowing Jesus. You know, like John three sixteen and stuff like this. And right halfway through, he started mockingly quoting the scripture

about how Jesus died for our sins and by faith we turn to him and we have his grace and his mercy and it was about the love of Christ. And he started mockingly saying that. He got parted way through and also he just stopped. He went

He went and sat back in his chair. So he just put his hands his face in his hands and started bawling. And he admitted in that moment, he confessed Jesus as Lord. He like led himself to the Lord by mockingly preaching God's word. It's like, you know what, the bible says God will not be mocked.

As he was mockingly preaching God's word, God's word punched him in the throat and woke him up.

See the reason we need to be in God's word, it's not just a book you need to study. It's not just a list of do's and don'ts, and some of you you're tired because I got just so tired. It's just gonna be one more thing I gotta do, but you don't understand.

When you're in that and you rest in it and you will respond to it, it produces the power and the energy. You just gotta be willing. You just gotta be willing to go there and do it. So it's alive because it's powerful,

but it's also cutting it says. This is the way I think a lot of us avoid it. If you really dive in, it's cutting. What it's saying there is it goes deep into our hearts. And it says when it talks about this word heart in the bible as it cuts into our hearts,

the problem when you hear heart, for us when you hear your heart, like even when you hear a scripture, love the Lord God with all your heart, don't you think that means with all of your emotions and all your feelings? Heart in the bible, the word in the culture, it doesn't mean feelings.

It involves feelings. We say it means feelings. In this culture, if you're just talking about emotion and feelings, you use the word guts, which we still have a phrase in English that reverts back to that old Greek thinking. I have a gut feeling.

That's where that comes from. I think we changed it because I don't think guts on a Hallmark card for Valentine's Day would be that appealing to anyone.

But it's what what it really means, cardia means this. That's the word where you get a cardiologist. If you're old like me, you know what that word means now. And a cardiologist, the cardia is the heart. It means it was the central seat of your personality. It's the heart, the central part of who you are.

Your spiritual, your intellectual, your emotional, and your moral self. So when it says love the Lord with all your heart, it doesn't mean feeling.

It involves feelings, but it means this. You choose to spiritually engage. You choose to intellectually look to it. You take God's point of view. You emotionally decide to engage in that. And your moral, you you you it's all of who you are.

And a lot of us get fooled by that because you're like, well alright, when we worship, we should worship

Declaring God's word together is one of the ways we get to know Jesus. That's why we come in here and sing. And a lot of you won't do it. I don't like music. It doesn't feel good. Or some of you do like music but I'm just not feeling it today. And you think you gotta feel it to do it. That's an incorrect view.

Matter of fact, you are worshiping the most when you choose to sing to God and declare with God's people who he is when you feel the least like doing it. Just like those days you didn't want to exercise and you did, you had the best workout you ever had.

You actually truly worshipped at that point. Some of y'all will be in here crying with your hands up and you're still not worshipping. You're having a nostalgic moment.

Oh, that's my favorite song. I remember back when I was in middle school at camp. It's like when you hear like an old REO Speedwagon song for me or it's where I was like, wow, it brings back all these old feelings. Is it really a current act of worship or are you just experiencing some nostalgia, spiritual nostalgia?

And you run to one feeling experience to the next and you never generate the true inner gods. And the bible wants to cut into that. It wants to cut to the center of our heart of who we are. Go right down into the

middle of it. And then what's funny is when it says this double edged sword, you think a long sword. Don't you think of it like, you know, like He Man, by the powers of grace, God. That's an old reference.

But but you you think and it's not even talking about the Roman short sword. The the word there it uses kind of is the small dagger.

It really was it's the same type of knife that Peter used to lop a guy's ear off when they tried to arrest Jesus. Why did Peter have that type of knife? Because he wasn't a soldier. It's a fisherman's knife is what it's describing. And a fisherman's knife is very precise. A soldier's sword is dull. It's more for stabbing and hacking,

but more only thrusting. The fisherman's knife is sharp on both sides. Double edged. It's really sharp, and it's used for very precise cutting. So it's not just to hack. It's not to kill.

It's it's it's a knife that's used to precise cut the right thing away, leave the right thing, remove something. In other words, it was their equivalent of what they didn't have back then is like a scalpel. A good description would be like like it cuts like a surgeon's scalpel.

And that's what he's saying is when God wants to cut, when his word wants to cut into us, he's a surgeon trying to remove and bring healing. Expose the sickness. Cut out what nuts need to be there to help you be healed, but it still hurts. It hurts to be operated on, doesn't it? And here's the problem. You can have two guys come at you with a knife in their hand and a mask on. One wants to mug you and kill you. The other one, you know, just wants to save you.

So when God's word comes at you and tries to cut, tries to challenge you, tries to expose what's going on. How do you take it?

And here's the thing, you usually shoot the messenger because half the time, especially if you're not in the word of God a lot, the one time you hear it is from me. So when I get up here and say, hey,

we need to give to this building because that's who we are as a church. And if you're a part of a church, it's we, not me, not you individual, it's we. And collectively, God's empowered me to be a leader along with a bunch of other leaders, and this is where we need to go, and I'm challenging you to do it.

Do you see me as a monger that's just trying to take your wallet?

Or am I actually the physician's assistant? Saying, hey, Jesus wants you to trust him this way.

Because both involve cutting.

Neither one's painless. But on the other side of a surgeon's scalpel, is healing. And if I don't understand that and pursue that, you know what we look for? Why we run to a lot of churches that just make you feel good all the time? Is I just want a pill for the symptoms.

Give me five things to help my marriage be better and make it funny, which I can do that with the best of them if you want it, and sometimes I do. Or just give me this or give me, why are you talking about reading the word all the time? I've real problems. Yeah. And you need the scalpel.

Willed by the holy spirit from the word of God to cut in to your heart and expose what needs to be exposed. And bring the inner gods of change and power. We need to know Jesus. Because that's what that word exposes. It means critic or judge. It reveals our innermost feelings and intentions.

In other words, it cuts in and it gets to the heart of the problem. If you really spend time in the word of God and you're feeling I feel bad, feel this way, feel like, you know, you're frustrated, you're mad, and you start reading the word of God and you trust it and you let it read you, it will expose what's really going. You might be mad at that person,

but you might find out it's a you're you're deflecting as they say in psychology. It's like, you're really mad at yourself.

And the reason you judge a lot of people and a lot of times, this is funny. Science, you know, psychology has discovered stuff the scripture already said a million times. It's it's like funny how they discover something that God's word already talks about. Like half the time, you will judge people on the things that you hate and struggle with the most. It's why you're the hardest on the kid that you have that's the most like you.

Because you're like, I wanna help them not become that. And so you are just wailing on them. That's why I fight with my son the most. Because I hate to admit, he's the most like me. It's like looking in a mirror. A mirror with smaller biceps than me, but still. Hope he hears this service.

In other words, it gets to the heart of the problem. And here's the truth, the heart of every problem is a problem in our heart.

The heart of every problem you're dealing with is not that I need to make more money. I need to live in a different place. I I I need to have a different spouse. I need to have different kids. I need to have this. It's it's it's not an address issue. Paul wrote about knowing Christ at this level

and continuing to know him was the absolute joy and he was imprisoned and he ended up getting put to death for his faith. And he did not think that was bad. Because he had the intergosse. He had the actual power of the holy spirit.

Understood. He was resting not just in Jesus saving him. He was resting in the submission that Jesus knew what he wanted for his life. How about you? Because what's the problem in your heart? Because at the the heart issue, everything you will not trust God's word in means you are afraid of something.

And it's almost always 100% you are believing something not true. And it usually starts this way, I can't give because of. I can't serve because of. I can't sing and worship because. I can't love my spouse like Christ loved the church because.

I can't It's always you can't, and here's the reason, you can't. But guess what? He can through you, and that's why you need to be in the word of God, and be empowered by God's word, empowered to know Jesus. But it's gonna cause We have to choose it. Gotta surrender. Get to the heart of the problem.

Quit fighting the symptoms. Quit trying to find a cure for the symptoms, and get to the heart. How do you do it? Almost like I already said, here's the practical thing for us to challenge us with here. I would challenge you to choose every day. And like I said, you'll blow it.

But if you try to meet with Jesus through his word every day and you only get it three or four times a week, how much better is that than what you're doing right now? If you never talked to your spouse, would you think your marriage would get better if you talk to him four days a week? Or continue to occasionally

every couple weeks a month? You just gotta move towards him. And remember, you can boldly enter the throne room. He boldly wants you to be with him. So how do you do it? Classically, I'd say, you know, continue commit to church more frequently.

There's a power in public worship. Hearing God's word proclaimed like we are now, and then singing together and praying together and having a united unity as a church body of where we're going. But the other critical part is the private practices. That's being in the word on your own.

It's it's it's They call it daily devotions or quiet time. And the simplest way to do it is this. Study God's word. Let it study you. That's what meditation is. Build the time in to think of let it talk to you. Where in what I just read

does the holy spirit kind of have me kind of tapping on my shoulder and saying, let me cut into this with you. You got to give yourself the time to do that. And then pray.

Prayer should be a result of that. Lots of times, I don't really know what to pray about. I get bored when I'm praying. You know why? Because you probably didn't spend the time studying and then reading the word and letting it read you. Meditating on it. When you have meditated and let God's word start cutting, you have plenty of stuff to talk to God about. You can even talk to God, I don't wanna do that. I don't know why. I don't get and sometimes if you're just honest, I have no interest doing that and I don't know why, so you're gonna have to help me even understand what's going on here.

Have a conversation with them about what's really going on. And let them peel back the onion for you. And then worship. And worship is a response. It's not just singing. It's get up and step towards them in faith. We just gotta choose to do it.

Now, I know one of the reason that there's two reasons. One, people say I don't have time. Jesus did this. Jesus, as God the son, would leave the disciples and get off alone for hours and pray, talk to God, spend time with the father. So if God the savior, God the son needed to do this, and he's God, he found the time,

you don't have enough time? You're busier than God?

It's usually you don't have the time because the first thing he wants to cut is some stuff out of your schedule. You want a real throw punch? Start spending the time you're looking at pornography studying the word. A lot of us in this room would become bible scholars within a year.

Stop spending the time on social media arguing about politics, Steadying the word of God. And you know what? You'll stop getting so angry.

There's lots of things that you can do. That's the heart of the problem.

It's it's it's it's it's it's your you gotta find the time. The second reason, which I totally understand, is for a lot of people, it's just hard to understand the bible. You've tried. You know, like, tried, but it just seems vague. I seem even further away. That doesn't feel like I know anything. I feel, like, confused, and I get it. I get it.

You know, we didn't all go to cemetery. I mean seminary. I'm not sure if seminary helped my bible reading, but but you can. There's there's helpful tools. Practical application here, Go to rockpoint.io under weekend messages,

and we have a link there. You can go to what's and you can fill out. You can get access to what we belong to. We pay for it. Right now media, there's videos on there, tons of stuff you can look for that talks about bible reading and all that kind of stuff. But there's also some videos under there, and you can go directly to their website called the bible project. Anybody use the bible project?

It's amazing. That's solid theological. The guy is awesome. And what you do is you can you can start reading through the bible. You know, like I'm gonna read this book of the bible. And rather than be confused, you watch. He'll have a video on every book of the bible. It's like ten minutes long. And he just basically in normal language explains like, hey, here's what's going on. So as you start to read it, you kinda understand what's happening.

And the other thing I would do along with that is get a good study bible. I'd recommend the n l t study bible. If you don't have a bible, we'll give you a bible. But but the n l t study bible is great because as notes, it's solid theologically.

So as you listen to those videos, you start reading something, there's notes. As a matter of fact, the study bible's huge because it might be this much of it as bible, this much is kind of like trying to say, here's what's going on culturally, here's why you wouldn't understand what that word means, here's why. And just read slow. Just start You don't have to try to go, I'm gonna read the whole bible in here. Just read a little bit. Wow, that was that was interesting.

At first, you're gonna get enamored with knowing stuff and you're gonna get all interesting. You just gotta make sure you spend the time. Okay. That's interesting to know, but what does God want me to do with this? And take the time to let it talk to you. And then talk to God about it.

And I get it. It's hard. My wife is a perfect example of this. She grew up in church, would listen to messages, could never understand the bible when she she read it. Then she met me, I taught her everything she knows, now she's awesome. So just listen to me. No. I'd confuse her even more.

But if several years ago when our kids were still little, she decided I need to do this. This passage itself was one of the passages. She goes, I just need to to get to and she's the one she she got the study bible. She actually reads the chronological bible

because it makes it more under because the old testament, a lot of times you read, if you're reading and you're in Samuel then you go to Kings, you're like, why does this sound vaguely familiar? I'm all confused. It's because they're talking about the same things from a different point of view. So the chronological takes all those passages and puts them all together. So it's like you're reading one story straight through.

And she gets up at like 5AM in the morning, reads when I started waking up early, she'd get mad at me, stay in the other room, leave me alone, and and and she she'll she still to this day, every time she starts a new book of the Bible, she goes to the Bible project, watches the video again,

and then starts reading it again with her study bible. Reads through the whole bible, she starts over again. She reads her bible more than Jesus, I think. And she's like many of you. It was difficult. It was confusing. But she's a Godly woman that gives me incredible wisdom and challenges me to be in the word.

And I have watched it change her drastically.

That's the practical. You gotta be willing to do it. It's not some fancy pill that makes all your problems go away. Matter of fact, it'll probably lead to some pain. It's like really going to the expert,

the doctor that can really fix your problem. He goes, well here's what it's gonna call. We'll fix your shoulder, but it's gonna be a painful surgery. The rehab afterwards is gonna hurt a lot. But you know, within about a year, you're gonna have a whole new shoulder. You're like, can I just have more pain killers?

Which ends up killing you. We need to be people of the word because we need to know Jesus personally. And and and in the end of that, let me let me explain it this way. Let me close with this. I know this is true because this is the way Paul said to continue to know him.

He wants us to become more like Jesus so you don't ever get to the point that you're perfectly mature. We take the first step as I'm going trust Jesus' love and I'm going to believe that he died for me. I'm going to turn from my sin

and put my faith in what he did on the cross. I'm going to become a follower. I'm going to meet Jesus. And we're gonna see in a few minutes, you then say, okay. He asked me to make a public declaration of faith. It's a scary step, I'm gonna get up in front of people and get baptized. Then he asked you to take

another step and and it never stops. The word of God will always be cutting. Always from like, I've been a pastor for years and years and years and years. I was happy. I was suffering for Jesus at the beach.

But I did feel like maybe something next was coming because the way I was gifted and wired, I was gonna become a lead pastor. I started to get asked to be a lead pastor. I like the idea of being the guy up front. I liked the idea of getting paid better than a youth pastor.

I liked the idea of being able take care of my family, and that sounded great, and I was getting interviewed by churches, and I wanted to it, and then my wife was the first one that spoke biblical truth into me. She says, I don't think we should do this. You shouldn't do this. I go, why? She goes, well because the way you're wired, and she used accurate scriptural ability to talk to me. Like we were supposed to be stewards of our gifts. If you don't understand that you're supposed to be a steward, you blame God when you make it all about feelings.

You will ignore your gifts and the best use of them because well, I just feel like God wanted me to do this. Did he? Because were you really wired to do that? He says to know yourself accurately. Don't be arrogant. Don't think too little. Look at yourself accurately.

And my wife looked at me accurately. She says, the way you're wired, if you go to an established church, the reason I wanted to go there, I was tired. I thought it'd be easy just to lead, have a secure paycheck. I'd still be doing ministry. And she goes, yeah, the problem is within six months those people would hate you.

I'm like, wait, what? She goes, they'll hate you because you're not gonna be tired anymore. Then you're gonna wanna lead in a certain direction. You're gonna be so bold like you are, which I love about you, and they're gonna get mad at you because they were there before you. Who are you?

Don't try to lead us, and then you're gonna be fighting. It's gonna end bad. I go, so what am I supposed to? She goes, think we should start a church. Then you're there first. I can look at all you guys and say, well, you came here after me. I was already here preaching what I'm preaching. You showed up here.

I didn't come track you down, and and and and some other things with the giftedness and the ability to reach more people, and then to go to an area like out here where there's new houses and there's no churches,

to really have an impact. And and she said, you're wired like Paul said. Paul said he never wanted to build on someone else's foundation. It wasn't arrogance, he just knew he was designed to build stuff. And so are you. And I think you'll never be happy if you do it the the easy way.

And I knew the holy spirit was speaking to her because she used God's word and also she's never the aggressive one. I knew she was saying, let's take the job that has no pay. We have two little kids. Well, I've already been a youth pastor and a family pastor. We have hardly any money. The only way I could do this, I'd have to cash out what little retirement I had, and then hope to God something happens.

It was terrifying. When I quit my last church and came out here, I had no money. I had no idea if it was gonna work. I had to choose to do that. Even after being in ministry for a long time, it was scary. And guess what? When she suggested it and I was reading God's word, you know what I I immediately said to that idea? No.

I don't want him. I was just like a lot of you when it comes to this next step in really trusting God and really being a part of a church. I was like, no. I'm content at the level I'm at right now. I didn't want to rest in God's word. I wanted to rest from. And then I went to a conference in Georgia

and it was for pastors under 40, young pastors. So all the guys on stage talking were the guys that are like my age now. All the old guys. And and they were talking about what they learned in in life and the challenges of all that. And then one of the the last speakers was a guy named Doctor Bill Bright.

I don't if you guys know him. He started Campus Crusade for Christ, led millions of college students. Dynamically helped an entire generation of of of college age. Age of students when people start walking away from the faith, engaged people in the faith. He's friends with Billy Graham.

He was one of the greatest evangelist, pastors of all time. Well, he was dying. Turned out this was the last time he ever spoke publicly. He died within a month. They wheeled him out. He had oxygen thing in his mouth, in his nose.

He had a nurse that got him with him to keep an eye on him. He got there. He only agreed because it was a room full of next generation pastors. And he knew this would be the last time he could talk. He willed himself. He had a friend who had a jet that got him there, a private jet so he could get even get there.

And he wheels out and he forced himself. He willed himself one last time to get out of that wheelchair and he stood to talk. And he just talked about rest in God's will for your life. Take what he's given you and find what Paul said, that joy of knowing Christ and helping other people know Christ.

Be about the mission God has for you, and that's where you really find peace and contentment. He goes, I'm only here because he he shared, I'm done.

He quoted Paul from second Timothy before Paul died. He goes, I'm being poured out like a drink offering. I have finished the fight. I have you know, I've ran the race. I fought the good fight. I'm done. This is it for me. I'll probably be dead within two months, and he was.

And he challenged us and he said, and here's the problem. The only way it really works to really lean into what God has, experience everything you think you're gonna get by running away from God and not trusting him, by running away from those scary things is, he said it was like running the relay.

He ran relay in college and he pulled out a baton. He said, it doesn't matter how fast your forerunners are. If you can't properly hand off the relay, the baton, you lose. You have got to hand the baton off. And he said, I'm done. And you're the next generation of leaders.

And you need to go show your people to bake the baton. God wants to hand you the baton. He died for you. He says, hey, I identify with you. You identify with me. I want you to become like me. I'm handing you the baton. He told the disciples, we'll see as we go and make disciples.

I'm handing you the baton, and I'm giving you my word and my spirit and my power, and you need to take that and run with it, but you gotta be willing to hand it off. And he goes, this is it for me. And then he had the will. He, as sick as he was, got down and started walking amongst us.

And the whole time he's sitting there, I could feel the holy spirit saying, you know what this means, buddy. You know what I'm telling you to do. You gotta take that baton. And I was like, no. I

get where you're at. Some of like, I will not get involved in this church. I will not serve. I will not give to that campaign. I am not. I'm happy where I'm at. I get it. And you're gonna walk out here thinking the same thing, but listen to me, please. I was there. I was already a pastor saying that. I get it.

And then he walked right by me. And I don't know why 3,000 people he stopped in this whole room, looked down, tapped me on the shoulder and said, son, will you take this baton?

Me, of all the people, he asked me to take it. He handed it to me. And I knew in my heart, if I say yes to that, I'm saying yes to God. I know what's going on. That word of God was cutting and exposing my heart so cleanly, so clearly,

and I get it. I still wanted to say no. There was no incredible feeling like, oh, I feel so good about saying yes. I was more like, God, why? What the hell? I can't believe I couldn't hide in a group of 3,000 people. You found me right here, and some of you feel like that right now.

You're like, I hope he does not jump down here and start tapping me on the shoulder.

So even though every feeling in me was afraid and thought that's too hard, what am I gonna do? How am gonna support my family? How am I gonna take care of this? It sounds terrible. I don't have any of the skills to be a church planter. I don't understand it. It doesn't sound like the thing, but I know.

And I found myself looking up and saying yes, and I took that baton. And if I had said no, we wouldn't be sitting here right now. And I'm not saying that lucky you guys, because I think God would have done what he needed to do. And those of you that found Christ here, I think God would have found you some other way.

It's me that would have missed out.

I understand what Paul was saying when he said I consider all that other stuff garbage because I've been doing this with y'all for twenty years.

And all those fears I was afraid of, the hard things financially, all those, they happened. But somehow God got me through it, and I didn't die. And what I got to experience is all the things I didn't know I would get. And I almost hyperventilate

if I think back. You ever think of an old memory and go, what if I had said the other thing? I almost hyperventilate thinking, I so was close to saying no.

Guys, I cannot express how much I love even with all the crud, even with you guys refusing to listen to me, and you keep coming to the 11AM service.

I love getting to be the pastor here.

I love what God has allowed me to do. I love that he just let me kick a snowball off a hill, and I got to watch his power just explodes all over the place. And I didn't do any of it except take a stupid baton and say, okay. So right now, I am saying, I mean, I'm not going to hope I live more than two months,

but my job is to hand every one of you a baton. And you have to listen to God's word. And you have to be willing to fight the fear and say yes. Rest in that. Rest in his love. Rest in his relationship. Rest in his word. Because that's what it means to be a follower of Christ.

That's what it means to be a part of a church, and that's why we are Rock Point. So you know what? We're gonna do something here to end this this day to to to kinda emphasize and celebrate

exactly what I'm talking about, but we get to do because what we're about to watch does involve every one of you that has said yes, every one of you that's been a part of this church, every one of you that is engaged,

that's been a fully engaged follower of Christ. This is part of your victory as well that God handed us, and that is the idea that we have been able to point lots of people to Jesus by loving and like Jesus. We have baptized over 500 people already this year. And by the end of this weekend, there'll be another over 600.

So I want you to stand up. Everyone stand up. Because what we're gonna do is we're gonna actually see the results. We're gonna get to see some people taking that baton early on. People said, I found the love of Jesus, and I'm gonna declare it before y'all. I'm accepting that baton to step into this relationship of baptism.

And we're doing it inside this time, first time ever so we could watch it right here, live. And what this means for a lot of you that aren't here, baptism doesn't make God love you. It's a declaration that says, I identify

with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ by going down under the water. My old life's dead. I come out in the new life in Christ, a new creation. I've taken that baton of new life in Christ, and we get to watch this happen. And this, the reason we keep doing this, is the reason we keep running out of room. It's the reason I asked you guys to go to another service. It's the reason I asked you to serve. It's the reason I asked you to give. It's the reason I asked you to sacrifice because God has allowed us to do this, and he's handing us the baton, and the baton comes with his power and his love, and it's really what he made us to do.

But let's do it. Amen? Amen. So as we watch these people be baptized, we are gonna sing like we always do, and then we are gonna cheer every time we see someone come out of the water. Right? So let's practice one, and then let's do it. One, two, three. Yeah. Amen.

Going

do that. That.

For joining us that. Online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on Rock Point dot for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.