True North | Week 3 | Bill Bush

71 min

Pastor Bill Bush · Jan 25, 2021 · 4 min read · 71 min listen

Quoting the message: We need to connect to God, not just collect from God, end quote. — trusting Him one day at a time instead of demanding He hand over what we want.

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Scripture in this message

Big Idea

God isn't distant or moody; He wants a real relationship with us, not just to be a vending machine for our requests. Like the Israelites gathering manna one day at a time, we grow strong by relying on God daily, resting weekly, and remembering His faithfulness always — not by trying to collect blessings and skip the relationship.

Key points

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1The Israelites kept complaining even though God was visibly taking care of them, and we do the same thing today.
Pastor Bill walks through Exodus 16, where the whole community grumbles about food just a month after God miraculously parted the Red Sea for them. He notes they had a pillar of cloud and fire guiding them and still moaned, 'if only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,' which mirrors how believers today keep worrying even after God has proven Himself faithful.
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2God's 'test' isn't punishment — it's refining, meant to make His people stronger and draw them closer.
Pastor Bill explains that the Hebrew idea of testing is like refining metal with heat to remove impurities, not a spiteful pop quiz. He contrasts this with a personal story of giving disrespectful middle schoolers a punitive pop quiz as a substitute teacher, to show that's NOT how God's testing works — God tests to strengthen, not to punish.
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3Rely on God daily — manna had to be collected fresh every morning, and hoarding it only produced maggots.
Pastor Bill reads how Moses told the people not to keep manna overnight, but some tried anyway and it bred worms and smelled. He tells the story of a father who cuts his adult son's allowance to weekly payments just so the son has to come see him, showing that God provides one day at a time so we'll keep coming back to Him rather than living independently.
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4Jesus, the true bread from heaven, made the same claim in John 6, and many walked away when they realized He wasn't just there to hand out free stuff.
Pastor Bill connects the manna to John 6, where Jesus tells the crowd that followed Him for free food, 'I am the bread of life,' and many disciples abandoned Him once they understood following Him meant daily trust and sacrifice, not just getting their wish list filled. He contrasts wanting the King of Kings versus wanting 'Burger King' — having it your way, fast.
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5Rest weekly — the Sabbath was a gift for the people, not just a rule for God's sake.
Pastor Bill reads how God commanded a day of rest from gathering manna, and some people went out anyway looking for extra food and found none. He points out God's own words that the Sabbath is a gift to the people themselves, and applies this to modern over-scheduled lives, including kids' packed activity schedules, as a driver of rising anxiety and depression.
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6Remember always — keeping a physical and mental record of God's past faithfulness builds courage for the next trial.
Pastor Bill notes God had a jar of manna preserved and placed in the Ark of the Covenant as a permanent reminder for future generations. He ties this to his own father's experience on the USS Missouri at the end of World War II, arguing that remembering God's past victories — and the hard road it took to get there — is what lets us face the next battle without falling apart.

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to rely on God daily, rest weekly, and remember always so connection with God, not collecting from Him, becomes the daily pattern.

Rely on God daily
Go to God every day the way the Israelites went out for manna each morning — reading His Word, praying, and talking with Him rather than treating one weekly service as enough.
Rest weekly
Actually set aside a Sabbath day where you shut down social media, work, and the constant hustle to refocus on God, instead of running your family ragged with nonstop activities.
Remember always
Keep a record — in a journal, in stories told to your kids, in time in the Word — of the times God showed up, so you can draw on that memory of His care during the next hard season.

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“So what does this look like? Well, we're gonna go into the story to Exodus chapter 16. What's happened since the Red Sea, this takes place about a month later”
From the transcript
“Then verse two. There too the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron. There too. It seems like every place they go, they start complaining”
From the transcript
“Verse three, if only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt, they moaned. So like, if only the Lord had killed us. But first it was, we used to have free vegetables”
From the transcript
“As matter of fact, if you look in verse 31, then we'll come back. Verse 31 says, the Israelites called the food manna. It was white like coriander seed and it tasted like honey wafers”
From the transcript
“It says in verse 19, then Moses told them do not keep any of it until morning. Don't try to hoard extra. Don't try to I'm gonna get extra, I'm gonna keep it so I have more”
From the transcript
“even right there it says I will rain down bread from heaven. Well if you go into the New Testament in John chapter six, Jesus had just done this thing where he fed 5,000”
From the transcript
“and in John six thirty five it says this. There it is. Jesus replied, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”
From the transcript
“And it says in ironically in John six sixty six, six sixty six, good number. It says that at that day many disciples abandoned Jesus. Disciples, people that were already following him”
From the transcript
“rest weekly. Verse 23 through 30 He says, he told them when it came to collecting the manna every day. He said, he told them this. This is what the Lord commanded. Tomorrow will be a day of complete rest”
From the transcript
“But verse 27. Some of the people went out anyways. Some of the people went out anyway on the seventh day, but they found no food. Surprise”
From the transcript
“And then finally verse 32 of this passage says, Then Moses said, this is what the Lord has commanded. Fill a two quart container with manna to preserve it for your descendants”

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Day 1

There is something uncomfortably familiar about the Israelites in the wilderness. They had just watched God part the sea, walk them through on dry ground, and close it behind them. And yet, weeks later, they were standing in the desert telling Moses they wished they had died back in Egypt — at least there they had food. It sounds dramatic until you recognize the pattern in your own life. A prayer gets answered, and within a season you are anxious about something new, quietly wondering whether God is really paying attention. Pastor Bill pointed out that this is the human tendency to treat God like a vending machine: insert prayer, receive blessing, move on. The Israelites were not uniquely faithless — they were simply human. Their complaint reveals something real about how quickly our hearts drift when the visible evidence of God's care fades from view. The wilderness was not abandonment; it was a place of formation. That reframe matters. When life feels sparse or uncertain, the instinct is to assume something has gone wrong. But sometimes the lean season is exactly where God is doing His most patient and personal work — not punishing, but pursuing.

For reflection

When was the last time a season of scarcity or uncertainty made you pull away from God rather than toward Him — and what do you think was underneath that response?

Pray

Pray for honest self-awareness about the moments when you treat God as a resource to extract from rather than a Father to draw near to.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Think about a time you had just enough to get through a hard day — not extra, just enough. This message from Exodus 16 asks why God so often works that way, and what He might be after when He does.

Discussion questions

1
In Exodus 16:1-3, the Israelites have just witnessed God rescue them from Egypt, yet they're already complaining that life was better as slaves. What do you think is going on in them when they say that — and what does it tell us about how quickly people can forget what God has done?
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Exodus 16:4 says God gave manna one day at a time as a test. Pastor Bill described that test not as punishment but as God's way of drawing His people into daily reliance. What's the difference between those two readings of the same situation — punishment versus invitation — and why does the distinction matter?
3
In John 6:35, Jesus calls Himself the bread of life. How does that claim reframe what God was doing with the manna in the wilderness — and what might it mean for how we actually come to Jesus day to day, rather than just in a crisis?
4
Pastor Bill described the Sabbath in Exodus 16:23-30 as a gift God gives us for our own restoration, not just a duty we perform for Him. How might approaching a weekly rest that way — as something received rather than something achieved — change how people actually experience it?
5
In Exodus 16:32, God tells Moses to preserve a jar of manna so future generations can see it. Pastor Bill encouraged building a personal 'ark' of remembered moments when God showed up unexpectedly — writing them down, sharing them with kids, treasuring them over time. What makes that kind of remembering spiritually significant rather than just nostalgic?
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Pastor Bill closed by saying that spiritual strength builds the same way physical strength does — through repeated difficulty faced in relationship with God, so that what would have broken us earlier becomes more manageable over time. What would it look like for a community like ours to support one another in building that kind of day-by-day resilience?

Pray together

Gratitude for God's daily provision, and openness to the reliance He's inviting us into

Ask Rewind about this message

Scripture in this message

True North | Week 3 | Bill Bush

Big Idea

Key points

Application

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

7-day devotional

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Small-group discussion guide

Open

Discussion questions

Pray together

Go deeper

HOW GOD GIVES NEW IDENTITY | Sermon

CONTROL FREAK | Week 1 | Sermon

PROVEN | Week 1 | Sermon

Deserts Week 1 | Sermon

OLD SCHOOL WISDOM | Week 5 | Full Service

Names of God | Week 4 | Daniel Goulding | Full Service

True North | Week 3 | Bill Bush

The big idea

Ask Rewind about this message

Scripture in this message

Big Idea

Key points

Application

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

7-day devotional

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Small-group discussion guide

Open

Discussion questions

Pray together

Go deeper

HOW GOD GIVES NEW IDENTITY | Sermon

CONTROL FREAK | Week 1 | Sermon

PROVEN | Week 1 | Sermon

Deserts Week 1 | Sermon

OLD SCHOOL WISDOM | Week 5 | Full Service

Names of God | Week 4 | Daniel Goulding | Full Service