I Am With You In the Desert | I Am: The God Who Gets Close | Menlo Church Live Stream

Feb 22, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: God is with you in the desert, not just at the destination.

We often live our lives in a state of constant anticipation, treating our present circumstances as a waiting room for the life we dream of. We can mistakenly believe that God is waiting for us at some future finish line we have constructed for ourselves. The profound and disorienting truth is that God is not waiting for us at a distant destination. He is present with us right here, right now, in the midst of our current circumstances, whatever they may be. He meets us in the desert places of our lives. [28:37]

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Exodus 3:7-8a, ESV)

Reflection: Where in your life are you currently living in the "future tense," assuming that a closer connection with God or a sense of His peace is only possible after a certain goal is achieved or a circumstance changes? What would it look like to acknowledge His presence with you in the midst of your current reality today?

Day 2: Cultivate curiosity to notice God’s presence in the ordinary.

Divine encounters often happen on the most ordinary of days, in the middle of our routine tasks and responsibilities. God’s voice is not absent; it is often waiting for our attention. The moment that changed everything for Moses began when he decided to turn aside from his path to observe a curious sight. He allowed his curiosity to override his productivity and his schedule. This intentional pause created the space for God to speak. How many similar moments might we miss in our own busyness? [36:03]

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” (Exodus 3:2-4a, ESV)

Reflection: This week, where can you intentionally "turn aside" from your routine or your mental to-do list to simply observe and be curious? What is one practical way you can create a moment of pause to become more aware of God’s potential presence in your ordinary day?

Day 3: The desert dismantles our false self to reveal our true identity.

The wilderness experiences of life have a way of stripping away the layers of protection and false identity we accumulate. We often come before God while still clinging to our status, accomplishments, or self-constructed sense of control. The desert clarifies what is real and removes what deforms us, forcing us to confront who we truly are without our props. It is in this place of humility and honesty that we can finally meet God on His terms and allow our identity to be shaped by Him. [39:57]

Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5, ESV)

Reflection: What "sandals"—what layers of self-protection, pride, or false identity—might God be inviting you to remove so you can stand honestly before Him on the holy ground of His presence? What is one thing you rely on for your sense of self that the desert might be dismantling?

Day 4: Your qualification is found in God’s presence, not your resume.

When faced with a God-sized calling, our natural tendency is to look at our own resume, focusing on our gaps, failures, and inadequacies. We listen to the voice of disqualification, believing we are not enough for the task. God’s response is not to argue with our self-assessment or give us a pep talk about our hidden skills. Instead, He reorients us entirely away from ourselves and toward His enduring, empowering presence. Our primary qualification is not our ability, but His "with-ness." [45:26]

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you.” (Exodus 3:11-12a, ESV)

Reflection: Where are you currently feeling disqualified or inadequate, perhaps in a relationship, a responsibility, or a calling? How might your perspective shift if you focused less on your own resume and more on the reality that God promises to be with you in it?

Day 5: God’s name declares His eternal, present-tense presence with you.

The name God reveals to Moses, "I AM," is a declaration of His eternal, self-existent, and uncontainable nature. It is a present-tense reality. This means that the God who met Moses in the desert is the same God who is with you in your desert today. He is not defined by your timeline or limited by your circumstances. He is steady when you are not. The desert may try to rename you based on your struggle, but God calls you by name, affirming your true identity as His beloved child. [52:29]

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14, ESV)

Reflection: What name is your current "desert"—your struggle, pain, or waiting—trying to give you (e.g., failure, disappointment, alone)? How does the truth that God is the great "I AM," present with you right now, challenge that false name and reaffirm your true identity in Him?

Sermon Summary

In a culture fixated on arrival and future achievement, the life in constant “future tense” becomes a commute toward a self-made promised land. People assume rest, meaning, and closeness to God will arrive only after the next milestone, but when plans fall apart the map breaks and life can feel like a desert. Exodus 3 provides a counter-narrative: God meets people in the middle of ordinary, painful, and stalled seasons rather than waiting at the destination. Moses’s life unfolds in three forty-year chapters—royal privilege, violent exile, and decades as an unremarkable shepherd—and the crucial moment comes not on a mountaintop of success but beside a burning bush that does not burn up. That encounter hinges on attention: the voice of God waits until Moses stops, turns aside, and listens.

The desert functions both as a dismantler and a clarifier. It strips away protective layers—status, control, reputation—so persons can feel what is real and see themselves without insulation. Removing sandals symbolizes abandoning false security to stand on holy ground shaped by God’s presence. The passage reveals God’s posture toward suffering: active, attentive, and coming down into the mess to deliver and lead people toward a promised future not defined by a ZIP code or title but by God’s presence. When Moses protests that he is unqualified, the response reframes the basis of mission: not human resume but divine accompaniment—“I will be with you.”

God identifies himself with the covenant name rooted in “I am,” signaling uncaused, eternal presence and an everlasting readiness to act. The desert does not disqualify; it often prepares and reveals the true destination—being known and led by the God who comes down. During the season of Lent, this motif invites honest attention to current deserts: the places of loneliness, failure, grief, or waiting. Those places can become the setting where God calls by name, reshapes identity, and offers presence now rather than at an imagined finish line.

Key Takeaways

1. God meets in the desert The divine presence often arrives amid stalled seasons and ordinary hardship, not after achievement. Desert experiences expose pain and create space where attention can turn away from performance to presence. Rather than signaling abandonment, the wilderness becomes the locale where deliverance and vocation take shape through divine proximity. [49:33]
2. Pause to notice burning bushes Attention matters more than activity; God’s voice frequently waits until a person stops to look. Pausing interrupts productivity-driven avoidance and opens ordinary moments to extraordinary encounters. Small deviations from a to-do list can become the turning point between missed signs and life-altering callings. [36:03]
3. Desert strips false identities Wilderness seasons peel away protective layers—titles, resumes, and self-reliance—so true character and dependence emerge. Removal of those layers allows honest seeing: of one’s limits and of God’s sustaining presence. The loss of former identities clears room for being reshaped by God’s reality rather than by circumstances. [39:57]
4. I Am: God comes down The covenant name reveals a God who enters human history rather than requiring humans to ascend. Divine action flows toward suffering—seeing, hearing, and coming down to deliver—so mission roots in accompaniment, not in human qualification. The revelation of “I Am” anchors hope in an unending presence that outlasts every timeline. [46:55]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[25:53] - Obsessed with arrival
[26:24] - Living in future tense
[29:07] - Beginning Lent: I Am series
[31:57] - Moses: three life stages
[33:12] - Forty years in Midian
[34:39] - Burning bush encounter
[36:03] - Stop, turn, and listen
[38:32] - Holy ground and sandals
[40:31] - God sees and acts
[45:05] - Presence over qualifications
[46:55] - The meaning of “I Am”
[49:33] - Desert refines, not disqualifies
[53:24] - Come to God in the desert

Bible Study Guide

Based on the sermon summary and transcript provided, here is a Bible study discussion guide.

Bible Reading
Exodus 3:1-15 (ESV)
1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

Observation questions

In verses 1-3, what was Moses doing when he first noticed the burning bush, and what specific action did he take that preceded God speaking to him?
What reason does God give in verse 5 for instructing Moses to remove his sandals?
In verses 7-8, list the four active verbs God uses to describe His response to the suffering of the Israelites in Egypt.
How does God answer Moses’s two questions about his own identity (v. 11) and God’s identity (v. 13)?

Interpretation questions

Why might a desert wilderness be a significant location for God to reveal Himself and call someone, rather than a place of power or success? [33:12]
The act of removing sandals symbolized abandoning a layer of protection and false security to stand on holy ground shaped by God’s presence. [39:11] What are the modern equivalents of "sandals" that we use to insulate ourselves from feeling what is real in our lives and from encountering God on His terms?
When Moses protests his qualifications, God’s response reframes the basis of mission: not human resume but divine accompaniment. [45:05] How does this shift the focus from our ability to God’s presence, and why is that so crucial in moments of feeling unqualified?
God identifies Himself with the name “I AM,” signaling an eternal, uncaused presence. [48:25] How does this name provide a different foundation for hope than a promise that is tied to a specific timeline or set of circumstances?

Application questions

We live in a constant state of future tense, treating our current lives like a commute to the life we really dream of. [26:24] What is one area of your life right now where you are tempted to believe that rest, meaning, or closeness to God will only arrive "when" a certain milestone is achieved?
Attention matters more than activity; God’s voice frequently waits until a person stops to look. [36:03] What is one practical way you can intentionally "turn aside" from your routine this week to create space to notice where God might be at work in your ordinary moments?
Wilderness seasons peel away protective layers—titles, resumes, and self-reliance—so true character and dependence emerge. [39:57] What is one layer of your identity or one source of false security that a current or recent "desert" experience has exposed or stripped away?
The desert does not disqualify you; it's where God often delivers your destination. [49:33] How can the truth that God meets you in your current desert, not at some future finish line, change the way you pray about and engage with a difficult situation you are walking through right now?
God does not meet Moses in the desert and ask for a resume; He calls him by name. [52:05] What name is your desert trying to give you (e.g., failure, disappointment, burnout)? How can you actively receive the name God gives you instead—son or daughter—as your true identity today?
The destination is not a ZIP code or a title; it's knowing that God is with you. [52:29] In light of this, what would it look like to measure the success of your current season not by what you achieve, but by your awareness of and reliance on God's presence with you?

Sermon Clips

42s

“I want you to imagine not waiting for the finish line, not assuming that God is somewhere out there, but that God is right here right now. He's standing with you in it. He's calling your name because that's what he did here. Remember he said, Moses, Moses, he didn't say leader, he didn't say murderer, he didn't say disappointment, he didn't say washout. He said, Moses, for you he's saying, son, daughter. If God can call Moses by his name in Midian, he can call you by your name today.”

51s

“But I wonder how many of us kind of sound a little bit like that with with God. And we're asking, like, God, am I there yet? God, am I to the part of my life that my life will finally make sense, where anxiety will finally subside, where I finally feel like I'm enough, like I've arrived? See, we spend our whole lives leaning forward, trying to get a head start, get around the slower car, choose the right lane, straining to see the destination, convinced that God is waiting for us across the finish line. But what if he isn't? What if the most disorienting fact about the wilderness reality of our lives is that God is actually waiting for us in the desert, not at the destination? That the thing you think, I I'll finally spend time with God when I get to where he is and he's been with you the whole time.”

47s

“But in this moment, Moses turns and he looks. He deviates from his deadlines. He allows his curiosity for God to override his productivity in the moment. When's the last time you did that? Here's a question for you. How many burning bush moments have you missed this week on your way to your own self constructed promise land? How many times has God, just stopped and tapped you on the shoulder in a conversation with your spouse, a moment with your colleagues, your kids, your classmates, your neighbors, and you just optimized it away. In your mind, even in the midst of it, you were already thinking, how can I be done with this? What if your efficiency has squeezed out encounters with God in your life? Not in the distant past, not decades ago, days ago.”

43s

“So as we worship, whatever it looks like for you to come back to God, if you've been running, if you're feeling numb, if you're feeling angry, if you've been tired, don't climb up to God today. Remember, that's how every other faith works. If you try to climb up somewhere, you're gonna realize God was waiting for you where you left. He's here right now with you today. Wherever that finds you, whatever you feel culture pressing in and asking you to achieve or perform to gain the status of, God is the only entity, the only being in the universe, the great I am, Yahweh, where you you have nothing to prove.”

69s

“Now we might wanna be hard on Moses in this moment, but consider this, what we're hearing him describe is the voice of disqualification. He's saying, I'm not good enough. Moses looks at his resume. Right? He sees a significant gap in his work history. He would have to disclose to any future employer a conviction for murder. That feels career limiting. Right? He can't have a strong first impression because he has a debilitating stutter and speech impediment. And at age 80, he qualified for Social Security decades ago. Moses' question is about identity. He thinks he can't measure up to the mission, but he's measuring the wrong qualities, the wrong qualifications. God's response is not a pep talk. It's not affirming specific sovereignly appointed qualities that Moses has had and didn't realize. He actually doesn't argue with Moses point at all. Instead, God says, but I will be with you. In other words, Moses says, who am I? And God says, mine. Do you see the shift?”

81s

“See, Moses, he needed to know that in the desert, and you probably need to know it today too. Because deserts, they don't just drain your energy, they try to rename you. The desert is going to try to name you what you're going through. For some of you, you feel like the desert you're going through is trying to rename you failure or delay or divorce or depression or diagnosis or job loss or relapse or infertility or grief or loneliness or burnout. And if you stay in the desert long enough on your own without God and without people, you start to introduce yourself with your dysfunction. I'm not Phil anymore. No. No. I'm the one who couldn't. You're not a daughter anymore. You're the one who lost. You're not a husband anymore. You're the one who blew it. You're not a believer anymore. You're the one that God forgot. And I need you to hear this clearly so that you can hear, hopefully, what God has for you. God does not meet Moses in the desert and say, let me see your resume. He says, take off your sandals. And then he says a name that outlasts every desert you will ever face. I am. Not I was, not I will be someday. I am. Right here, right now, in this place.”

36s

“God didn't speak until Moses stopped, until Moses listened. In a moment like this, we can catch the fire very easily when we read this passage, but we miss the moment if we're not careful. The voice of God was not absent. It was waiting for attention. We should pay attention to that. Sometimes people ask me why we don't hear God more regularly in twenty twenty six, and I think there are a lot of good answers to that question, but it's certainly not because God has less to say in 2026. Think at least part of the answer is we have less time, less attention, and less interest to listen.”

37s

“See, he isn't gonna live forever. God is not going to live forever. God is forever. Pharaoh's reign that seems unshakable had a timeline. Israel's suffering that felt like it would have no relief, it had a timeline. Moses' exile that felt like it was the final word had a timeline. But Yahweh still to this day, thousands of years later, still has no timeline. Moses needed to know that in the desert, and you need to know it too, that you worship a God. A God loves you who has no timeline.”

30s

“He had let the desert shape who he was and who he believed he could be. And that's what the desert can do if we're not careful. See, the desert reminds you what defines you. It will show you and me the things that we have let seep into our character and calling. But if you remember nothing else from our time today, remember this. The desert doesn't disqualify you. It's where God often delivers your destination. If you want clarity, it never happens in comfort. It happens in the desert.”

28s

“See, God wasn't asleep at the wheel. He hadn't forgotten about his people. He had always been watching. He had always been waiting for the right moment, the right circumstances, and the right leader to bring them out of captivity. Did you catch the verbs that God uses in his conversation with Moses? God saw their pain. He heard their cries. He knew their suffering, and he came down to deliver them, active, attentive, concerned.”

30s

“In the Bay Area, we are obsessed with arrival. Have you noticed that? Even the ways that we get places, it will tell us the time that we plan on arriving. We live our lives in a constant state of future tense. We are all tempted to tell the story of our lives kind of this way in our minds, whether we realize it or not. When I get the IPO, when we get acquired, then I'll finally be able to rest.”

28s

“When I get that house in that neighborhood, then I'll finally choose to invest in real community. When I get married or when we have kids, then we'll be happy. For some of you, it's like when my kids move out, I'll finally be happy. We treat wherever we are right now, whatever moment we're in today, like it's the waiting room of where we hope we'll eventually be. We ultimately treat our actual lives like we are commuting to the life we really dream of.”

62s

“Now this is like a wild moment, but it's wild because of how ordinary it is. This was just a random workday for Moses. And while Hollywood may have added some other things to it in whatever version you've seen, or if we could do this now, we'd probably add a bunch of CGI onto whatever was happening. For Moses, this was just a bush in a desert full of bushes. Scholars believe that this was likely an acacia bush, a desert weed. This was not unique, and, actually, it wouldn't have been that unique to see it on fire. You're in the middle of a desert, and it was a dry plant in extreme heat. What made it unique, what made it different was that this bush kept burning. It didn't burn up. It didn't drop ash. But note the detail in verse three. Moses, he decides to stop and observe this unique moment on an ordinary day. That moment, that pause is what God used as the moment to call him closer.”

37s

“He had lost his status as a prince. He had lost his power in the pharaoh's court. He had lost his platform as a revolutionary. He had lost control over his destiny, and now God is asking for his shoes. See, the desert, it dismantles your false identity as you can finally meet God on his terms. Whatever level of self construed control, whatever self protection stuff we put up, God will just use the desert to pull it back. See, it's hard to come before the great I am when in the back of your mind you're thinking, does he know how great I am?”

31s

“Moses is wondering how he can do all of this work and God is reminding him he isn't the one that's going to do all of this work. God is, and God will be with him. See, in the desert, we often learn that our qualifications are not what we see primarily in our resume. They are really, if you're a follower of Jesus, found in the presence of God in your life. The desert did not disqualify Moses. It diagnosed his self sufficiency, all the areas he had been depending on himself unsuccessfully and unsustainably.”

35s

“Moses is basically saying, if I'm gonna do this crazy life threatening thing that you asked me to do in a place that I'm wanted for murder and even law abiding people that look like me have been slaves for centuries, I'm gonna go ahead and need some instant and extra support. I'm gonna need the helpline, God. And if you're unfamiliar with Hebrew literature, God's answer is wild and confusing. This is what he tells Moses to tell the ruling court in Egypt. God said to Moses, I am who I am, which I mean, I just think about that as Moses at the time and I'm like, God,”

29s

“And so when God says, I am who I am, he is speaking actually from the same root word that gives the covenant name Yahweh, the name that Israel would use to refer to him as he is. It's like God saying, hey, know how you talk about he is? That's me. God is speaking of himself, and he's revealing his eternal nature to a group of people who thought that hundreds of years was a long time. But to Yahweh, to the God that was writing to them, it was nothing. It was like the next day.”

31s

“God's name means that God who met Moses in the desert is the same God who is meeting you in your desert, in your life, in your circumstances today. He hasn't changed. He hasn't retired. He hasn't gotten older. He hasn't lost interest. He doesn't love you less. Don't miss this anchor for your soul, this Lent, as we prepare for Easter. As we wait for Easter, both the holiday that we'll celebrate and the remembrance of the hope of the resurrection in the midst of our circumstances and lives, the desert doesn't disqualify you.”

35s

“It may be where you finally discover the destination that wasn't about arriving somewhere anyway. As a matter of fact, it's always been about God appearing with you right now today wherever you are and whatever you're going through. That's the God that gets close. The burning bush, just like the resurrection, it wasn't an escape hatch for God. It was an introduction to ordinary people, to the reality and invitation of a God who loves them and would go to any lengths necessary, even all these thousands of years ago, to communicate that hope, it really is for everyone.”

36s

“But Exodus three, it tells us the opposite. It tells us that the desert doesn't disqualify you. It's where God delivers your real destination, what he actually wants to do in and through you. And the destination is not a ZIP code. It's not a title. It's not a relationship status. It's actually not rooted in your circumstances at all. The destination has always been that wherever you are, you would say, I know that God is with me, and I'm gonna walk with him, allowing God to name you again, God meeting you again. God is steady when you are not. Thank God.”

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