This summer, we are walking through the story of God delivering the Jewish people from slavery and leading them into the promised land.  What makes this story incredible is that what should have taken around two weeks became a 40-year, two-generation story that covers five books of the Bible.  Why?   They didn’t trust God.  And it makes you wonder, ‘Who would do that?’  After experiencing what God did through the plagues of Egypt, after God walked them on dry ground through the Red Sea, after God destroyed the most powerful army to protect them, after experiencing the tangible presence of God in a pillar of a cloud and fire, who would ever struggle to trust God?  The answer is we would. We do.  Their story is our story.

Paul explains how important this story is to us today.

1 Corinthians 10:1,5-6, 11 All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life… But just experiencing God’s wonder and grace didn’t seem to mean much - most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased. The same thing could happen to us…

These are all warning markers - danger! - in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel - they at the beginning, we at the end - and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence. MSG

This story is written down so that we can learn from it.  Instead of being judgmental about their struggle to love and trust God, we need to realize we are just as capable of messing it up.  Scripture warns us, don’t be so naïve and self-confident.  Because of that, Sam and I hope that you will walk through this story with us.  We want you to read Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua.  It’s important to read this story, not just hear about it in a sermon, because the primary way God speaks to us today is through scripture.   As you read this story, God can impact you.

Last week, Sam gave us context for today.  Remember Sam’s talk last week?  Sam said the trip from Egypt to the Promised Land was around 200 miles.  For us, that’s like walking to New York City.  What is heartbreaking is that an entire generation died in the wilderness.  Why?   Because they could not trust God, they constantly fought against God.  Sam said God was using this journey to teach and shape them spiritually.  The whole journey was about taking a group of oppressed, broken, enslaved people and transforming them into free people, living an abundant new life.  But instead of a two-week journey, it was a 40-year beatdown.  It makes your head spin.  Who would do that after experiencing God?  We would.  We do.   Their story is our story.  Scripture warns us not to be naïve and self-confident.   We have so much to learn from this story.

Today, I get to talk about how this story began.  Do you remember the movie The 10 Commandments?  Charlton Heston played Moses.  When Moses was born, his mom didn’t want to see him killed, so she put Moses in a basket in the river.  And of course, it floated into the arms of Pharaoh’s daughter, who decided to adopt him.   Moses was raised as an Egyptian.  When Moses was around forty years old, he saw an Egyptian hit one of the Hebrew slaves.  Moses, a Hebrew by birth, tries to defend his relative, jumps in, and kills the Egyptian.  Pharaoh finds out and tries to kill him.  This forces Moses to escape to the desert.  

Moses is now eighty years old.  He is married and takes care of his father-in-law's sheep.  He’s living a very ordinary life.  He hasn’t accomplished anything.  He’s on the backside of a mountain watching sheep.  And that’s when the God story begins.

Exodus 3:1-2 Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the west end of the wilderness and came to the mountain of God, Horeb. The angel of God appeared to him in flames of fire blazing out of the middle of a bush. He looked. The bush was blazing away but it didn’t burn up.  3 Moses said, “What’s going on here? I can’t believe this! Amazing! Why doesn’t the bush burn up?” 4 God saw that he had stopped to look. God called to him from out of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” He said, “Yes? I’m right here!” MSG

This is Moses’ burning bush experience.  It’s undeniable that Moses experienced a miracle.  It’s amazing.  The bush was on fire, but didn’t burn.  And if that wasn’t incredible enough, God spoke.  When you hear about this, don’t you think, ‘It was easy for Moses, he experienced a miracle.  Of course, Moses did what God wanted; what God wanted was obvious.  If I had a burning bush experience, if God was obvious with me, then it would be easy for me to do what God wanted.’  

Do you wish you had a burning bush experience?  Maybe you go to the car to go to work, and it’s burning out of control, but not burning.   Then you hear God’s voice.  Would that get your attention?  Would that make doing what God wanted easier?  Here is the truth.  You had a burning bush experience.  Please hear me, God enters earth in the form of Jesus and speaks, and it’s recorded in the Bible, and when you read it, that is our burning bush experience.  The words of God are our burning bush experience.  What God wants couldn’t be clearer.  Let’s read what Jesus told us.

John 20:21 Jesus said to them [disciples] again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. GNT

Jesus said, ‘I send you.’   As clear as Jesus was to His disciples, Jesus is that clear with us.  This is our burning bush experience.  

Later, Paul gave us more details.

Ephesians 1:20-23 All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence. MSG

Let’s stop here.  How does that impact you?  Isn’t that incredible?  Jesus rules from deep heaven.  At the center of all that matters, the church is God’s body.  The church is where Jesus speaks, acts, and fills this earth with His presence.  I love how scripture says, the church isn’t secondary or on the outer edge of the world.  From Jesus’ point of view, the world is secondary or on the outer edge of the church.   I love that.  Is that how people in our culture view the church today?  

Let me ask you, do you believe that the words of Jesus in the Bible are your burning bush moment?  When Jesus said, ‘I send you,’ was Jesus only speaking to the disciples that day, or was He also speaking to you and me today, right now?  Could it be clearer that Jesus rules from deep heaven and is building His kingdom on this earth through the local church?  

This is why Sam and I couldn’t be more passionate about people being in a relationship with Jesus, being a consistent part of their spiritual family, and reaching out to people far from God.  Church is where Jesus speaks, acts, and fills this earth with His presence.  

Before I move on, I want you to think through this a little more.  What are the two things people struggle to do in our culture today?   They struggle to love and trust God.   And they struggle to see what God wants to do through the local church.  That’s not a coincidence; that’s an all-out spiritual war.  There is a reason people struggle to surrender their lives to God and be a part of what God is doing through the local church.

Okay, back to Moses.   Let’s read what God says.  

Exodus 3:7 Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey - the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. 9 Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. 10 Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.” NLT

These four verses are the foundation of the story we are about to walk through.  They reveal who God is and what God’s intentions are toward us.  They reveal God’s character.  

The first thing we see in these verses is how deeply compassionate God is.  God sees their pain.  He hears their cries.  So, he personally gets involved.  It’s God’s desire to rescue them and lead them to the promised land.  This tells us something about God.  He is deeply compassionate.

Secondly, God is redemptive.   God knows Moses killed an Egyptian 40 years earlier.  Moses tried to stand up for his relatives and was chased off.  God knows Moses is living a very ordinary life in the desert.   He isn’t a powerful man.  He isn’t a well-spoken man.  He isn’t a leader.  And yet, who does God invite to help rescue the Hebrew nation?  Moses.  This tells us something about God.  God is redemptive.

Last, God is personal; He wants Moses to experience Him.  God could have freed the Hebrews from the Egyptians by Himself.  God didn’t need Moses.  And yet, God invites Moses into what He is doing.  This tells us something about God.  God wants us to experience Him.

Let me ask you, when you hear these verses, do you think they apply to us today?  I think it’s common today for people to read this story and think, ‘This is wild, it’s big, it’s violent, and it’s filled with God miracles.’  And without much thought, we can conclude our lives aren’t in an epic battle that’s wild, big, violent, and filled with God miracles.  So, we walk away from this story to scroll social media, find lunch, and to do the next fun thing we have planned.  And we think, if I was Moses, if God spoke to me, if I was in an epic battle, then, of course, I would be all in.  Remember, scripture said, we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident.

Let’s talk about what is happening in our world for a second.  The next generations are dealing with things that we have never seen before.   And it’s more intense than ever before.   What makes it strange to those of us who are older is that the next generation seems to have more things than we did.  Family.   Houses.  Families with so much more wealth.  Better health care.  Vacations.   Travel.   Pay to play sports.  Cell phones.  Endless streaming services.   

While they might have a lot, they are experiencing higher levels of anxiety, burnout, and loneliness.   They were told, ‘Do what we did, and everything will work out.  Go to school, get good grades, go to college if you want, work hard, and it will all work out.’  And life hasn’t worked out as they were told.   Marriage, a house, and financial stability all feel like they're taking longer than in previous generations.  They are struggling to figure out dating, friendships, housing costs, student debt, and finding a job that can pay for those things.  

To make things worse, they were raised in the world of social media.  It’s a fake world that has created new problems like catfishing.   Creating a fake online identity to trick someone into a romantic relationship.  People are falling in love without ever meeting each other.  How is this even a topic?  

If you think that is wild, listen to this stat.  According to a report by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), nearly 1 in 5 (19%) high schoolers say they or a close friend have had a romantic relationship with AI. [https://www.npr.org/2025/10/08/nx-s1-5561981/ai-students-schools-teachers]

Through social media, they have learned that image is everything.  And because they are comparing themselves to others, they are always feeling like they are falling behind and not measuring up.  And the backdrop to the world they are trying to navigate is a culture of sexual confusion, vicious political drama, and a pandemic that changed everything today.  

In all of this, there is confusion and depression about life.  It’s creating a generation that might look good on the outside but is torn up on the inside.  And it’s more intense than ever before.  

Remember what Sam shared last week?  Suicide now kills more people than car crashes. [https://www.namd.org/journal-of-medicine/1251-suicide-now-kills-more-people-than-car-crashes.html]

What has happened?

I want to read it for you. It explains what is happening today.

Ephesians 6:12 We are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies - the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world; and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world. TLB

I would suggest that we are in an epic battle.  I think it is wild, violent, and it demands God miracles in our world today.  

The problem is, we live in a world that has worn us down and distracted us.  And if we do see it, we are so overwhelmed by it that we don’t know what to do about it.

Please hear me, God is compassionate today.  God cares deeply about what is happening today.  

God is redemptive today.   The primary way God wants to change the world around you is through you.  I want to give you a quote.  

“When you believe that nothing significant can happen, though you, you have said more about your belief in God than you have said about yourself.” Henry Blackaby

God is personal and wants us to experience Him.  God wants you involved because that is how you can experience God most.  

I want to close with questions.

First, this God story of rescue begins with Moses’ burning bush experience.  Do you believe you have had a burning bush experience when you read the words of Jesus: ‘I send you’?  

Second, God shows us His character.  He is compassionate, redemptive, and personal.  Do you believe that God is compassionate today, redemptive today, and personal today?  

Third, do you believe you have a role in the local church where Jesus speaks, acts, and fills this earth with His presence?  And I want to add, do you believe we are living in an epic war that is wild, violent, and it demands God miracles?

Last questions.  Do you think you will look back to today and think, who would do that?  Who would hear scripture and not think it’s a burning bush experience?  Who would hear about what Jesus is doing and not get involved?   Who would see a world torn apart an not conclude they are in a spiritual war?