The Way Back | Week 2 | Dan Fernandez | Echoes Church

Lord, he is he's just a cool guy. He does have a he does have a better mustache. I'm gonna acknowledge that. Exodus chapter two verse 11 through we won't read all of these verses, but just a few verses if you have your Bibles. If you don't, it's up on the screen here. It says this, one day

after Moses had grown up come on. Somebody say, grown up. Somebody say, grow up. Grow up. Look at your neighbor and say no. I'm just kidding. Don't say that to your neighbor. He went out where his own people were and watched them

at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian. Now, I want you to notice the wording here. I want you to notice the verbiage here. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people, Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

The next day, he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew? The man said, who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian? And he's like, oh shoot. They know what happened yesterday.

And then the pharaoh finds out, and so Moses flees for his life. And in Midian, verse 16, there's a priest in Midian who had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's slock. Verse 17. Some shepherds came

along and drove them away. Look at this look at this verbiage here. But Moses got up, he came to their rescue. Somebody say, rescue. Come on. 12:00. Help me out. Rescue.

Come on. He came to their rescue and watered their flock. When the girls returned to their father, the father was like, why'd you leave that guy? Bring him back in. Verse 23, we skip down. During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out,

for help. Their slavery went up, to God. Verse 24, God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned for them. He was concerned for them. I I wanna share a message for these few moments together. I've titled, this time

Is Different. This Time Is Different. Here's what's cool. If you don't like that title, I have another title. Look at that. Look at how God works. Come on, somebody. Praise the Lord. Okay, tough crowd. Alright. 12:00.

I want you to say this. Look. The second title is this. Try it again. Try it again. Look at your neighbor saying, try it again. Try it again. Would you pray with me? Jesus, we love you. We thank you for these special moments in your presence. We we acknowledge you in the room. We acknowledge every

story in this room. Would you speak a word in season in our life that we would leave this place encouraged in our faith in Jesus' name. Everybody said, amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, team. Just a little bit about me. I know you're like, who is this guy that has a mustache just like pastor Dan, also named Dan? Who is this guy?

Born and raised in Los Angeles. Yes, I am a Dodger fan. Sorry about that, but we are united by the blood of Jesus. Come on, not sports. When I was preaching in Houston, Texas last year, was like, guys, I'm a Dodger fan, and I literally got booze, you know. I'm like, hey, hey, okay. Astros,

it's fine. We're all united by the blood of Jesus. So

but, you know, I I part of what I do right now in this season of life is I my wife and I, we live and work at a Christian university called Life Pacific University in San Dimas, California. So our entire world, our entire life is working with college students. It's so much fun, it's so random too also. Like we live on the campus and we'll have texts from students that are like, Do you have a lemon I can borrow? And I'm like, That's interesting verbiage, you're gonna borrow a lemon, am I gonna get this back? You know, so like we're just we open our home to students, we cook for them, some of them are from out of state, out of the country, and so they they have a space in our in our house, and it's such a sweet season. We my wife and I got married five years ago, coming up in July, we literally got married, and two weeks later we were living on the campus. Our entire

married life has been on this campus working with college students. And part of my role as the campus pastor and jumping into more teaching roles, so I'll be joining the team to be able to teach a little bit more here in the fall. But one of the things I do is that I facilitate, I plan, I schedule our chapel experiences.

We have chapels on Tuesdays and Wednesday mornings, and part of what I do is I I invite chapel speakers, kind of like what you guys have here. You invited me out to speak. I invite speakers to come on out and speak in chapel. Well, couple weeks ago, we had a a chapel speaker, and I'd

known a little bit about his life, but he travels the world. He's incredible incredible story. And I was like, you know, come come preach in chapel. Well, as he's sharing the word in chapel, he he he has this moment where the whole room kind of shifted

as he's telling a story. And I got a little bit nervous, to be honest with you, because I'm like, is this going right now? He says this. He goes, hey, students. Twenty years ago, I was a student here at Life Pacific University, and I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. Look at God. Man, like God's working. Come on.

And he goes, I was kicked out of the university, and I'm like, oh, what's what's gonna happen here? What's where where is he going with this? I'm like, edge of my seat. What what's happening?

And he begins to tell a story with tears streaming down his face, and he says, twenty years ago as a student, my first semester here, a freshman, I made some really big mistakes that ended up in my dismissal of this university. And he said, Twenty years ago I was driving off of this campus,

and I said, I will never step foot on this campus again. And he said, Twenty years later,

he goes, guys, I've traveled the world, and he really has. He's preached all over big stages. He does executive coaching. He's like, can I tell you the most special room that I've been in in twenty years is this room right here at Life Pacific University? I'm like, Bro, we're just a small university. We just got like a couple 100 college students who are in our chapel right now. He said, This is the most meaningful

because a place that had caused so much pain and a place of failure, I could tell you twenty years later I'm preaching at a place that God is now bringing restoration to.

I tell you something just stirred up in my heart, and as I was praying for you, this literally happened two weeks ago, and what even stirred it up was he posted about it yesterday, and he talked about his story.

And I just think this is a reality for a lot of us. I felt this prophetically for you. It may not be for everybody, but I guarantee you it's for somebody that God is getting ready to to get a to have you to set you up for a full circle moment.

I'm telling you, God is getting amen. Come on somebody in the room believes it. God is getting ready to set you up for listen, a place that caused you failure, God is gonna use to bring restoration. Some of you are gonna get to stand in places like my friend just a few weeks ago. A place of failure

is now a place of restoration. And listen, is that not the power of the gospel of Jesus? He is a redeemer of all things. He is a restorer of all things. God can restore anybody and anything. Even if you've uttered these words, this thing is too far gone. It's too broken. God specializes in redemption and salvation.

He specializes in restoring his people. I mean, listen. Come on, somebody. I don't know if you've read. I got the same Bible you have. You wanna know what the one theme of the Bible is? You should still read it. But listen, this is what it's about. The whole story is about redemption. The whole story is God redeeming

broken humanity back to himself. And I'm just encouraged by this this life of restoration, this way back as you even heard last week, the prodigal son

restored back to his father's house. But I'm I'm thinking about this idea of the way back, and I think about how in scripture there's almost this tension because you have a story like Abraham. Father Abraham, how many sons, How many son?

You all heard that song here in Arizona? Awesome. Also, by the way, I love that Arizona is like, we're not gonna change the time.

Everybody else changed the time. We will not change it. Congratulations. That's amazing. Good on you. I was gonna say this morning like, oh, are you adjusting to the time change? But you guys are like, no, we refuse. I love it. It's amazing. I forgot what I was saying. What was I saying? Where was I?

Father Abraham. There we go. But even in the story of Abraham, you have God calling Abraham out of his father and mother's house, but he never tells them, go back.

It's like, leave and never come back. Amazing. But then you have other stories in scripture where God calls people out, but then he calls them back. And you're like, which one is it God? Am I supposed to leave and never go back, or am I supposed to just leave and then come back someday? But I think that's the nature of God and his process is that restoration,

and sometimes just the way that God works, sometimes it is just moving forward, but sometimes there are seasons in life that God goes, I want you to go back. I want you to try this again because this time you're gonna do it differently.

It's not gonna be the same. You're gonna do things differently. You're gonna see a different result. And you see this in the life of of Moses. You see this also throughout scripture. It's a thematic idea throughout scripture. Y'all remember the story of Hagar?

You know, this was the the the servant of of Abraham and of Sarah. And if you know the story, Abraham, they're attempting to fulfill God's promise over their life of bearing a child. This is God's promise through you. Genesis 12 tells him, through you, you will inherit. You will have an inheritance like the stars in the sky. Your fan all the families of the earth will be blessed. This is the promise on Abraham's life.

And it's interesting that in this this moment of attempting this, they go, well, we can't really accomplish this on our own, so let's ask Hagar to try to do it for us. They they couldn't do it. They go, hey, why don't we invite Hagar into this and Hagar could bear the child and then this could be God

could fulfill his his promise through Hagar. And so she ends up getting pregnant, and then Sarah is still not pregnant, and this is the tension of you you have the thing that I want. And so so Hagar is like in a hostile work environment, so she's like, I'm out of here. So she dips out, goes to the desert, takes her son Ishmael,

and now she's in the middle of the desert. I want you to understand this significant moment though, because if I were to say by show of hands hands, do you know who David is in the Bible? King David. Come on. Everybody knows David. Do you know who Abraham is? Do you know who Moses is? Y'all know who Jesus is? Amazing. Right? We know these characters, and yet the Bible, the story of God shifts from the narrative arc of the patriarchs

and zeros in on a woman who is not part of the main story, her name is Hagar. All of this to reveal God

to this woman. And I just felt this prophetically for somebody. And by the way, the way that God reveals to this woman is this, you this is the God who sees you. God sees the season you're in. God sees the the weird, crazy, dynamic, hostile

situation that you're in. Is there anybody in the room that needs to hear this today? That God sees you, God knows what you're going through. Listen, I'm telling you, you're not alone.

And you some of you feel like Hagar right now. I'm in the middle of the desert. I feel like I'm by myself. I feel like I'm not the main character of this story. God interrupts the regularly scheduled programming to interrupt it and to say, Hagar, I see you.

That is the God that we serve. But here's the crazy part, is that God doesn't just say, I see you. You know what God says? Go back. I'm like, but God, that's a hostile work environment. You want me to go back to hostile to hostility?

And God's like, go back. Because there are moments in life where God uses the go back as a comeback. There's a moment, moments in life where where God is using

this these moments and you see this throughout scripture from Jacob returning to Esau, from Elijah in first Kings, go back the way you came. Israel going back from exile. In the New Testament, you see in Luke chapter eight and Mark chapter five, the demon possessed man is freed. And he goes, Jesus, can I go with you? And Jesus goes, no, you need to go back home because you're gonna be more effective home than coming with me. I need you to go back. There's something about the go back.

There's something that God wants to do with the go back and you see this in the life of Moses. The go back was a moment where God is essentially saying in the life of Moses, I need you to go back and try it again. I know that you did it and it failed, but I need you to try

again. Is there anybody in this room that feels like I've tried it, I've tried it, I've tried it. It's failed. God, I don't wanna do it. But listen, this word is for you. It's a prophetic moment for your life. It's a word for this season. God says through his word, through the life of Moses, go back, try it again.

Because this time it's different. This time you've got a few advantages and I think Moses speaks to this reality. We see this in his life. His life is demonstrating the try again life.

In Exodus chapter three, we just read or we read the story of Moses, but this is a specific moment that tells us what the heck was Moses doing for forty years in the desert. Like what? Bro was fleeing from Egypt,

and now what are you doing in the desert? Well, this scripture tells us in Exodus chapter three, Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. So we have this idea of Moses during the forty years is

tending flock. He's a shepherd. Now it is in this moment that God chooses to reveal his plan to Moses. The interesting thing about this revelation of the plan is that the plan of God does not include a lot of instructions. Has anybody ever felt that way? God, what do I do? And God's like, see you. God's like, I want you to go.

I want you to to to go back. It's it's interesting because I'm I I again, I teach in college courses and stuff, and one of the things that students always come to me with is they go, I didn't get anything from these classes. You ever felt that way in college? Right? You're just like, I didn't why did I even take this

accounting class? Right? Like, I have no idea how I'm going to use this science class. You know what I tell my students who go, I didn't get anything from this class. You want to know what I tell them? I said, you know what you learned? You learned how to learn when you don't feel like learning.

Don't you think that's an invaluable lesson in life? Because maybe that muscle, that lesson is gonna help you in life when you don't feel like learning something, but you have the discipline to learn when you don't feel like learning.

And God has a way listen, guys. Y'all listen. This is crazy. This is the fourth service. I'm going a little crazy today. God's sneaky sometimes. He's sneaky where God will teach you without letting you know he's teaching you.

You wanna know how I know that? Because in Exodus chapter three, when God says, I'm sending you back, do you wanna know what God says to to to Moses? He doesn't say, alright. Hey, so in order to prepare you for this season, we're gonna go through 18 units this semester of how to deliver the people of Israel.

Okay. Class number one is gonna be how to understand Egyptian culture. We're gonna talk about hieroglyphics. We're gonna talk about the different aspects of things that you missed out, Moses. Alright. Second class is how to use the staff in different contexts.

And that's gonna be a sixteen week course, and it's gonna be really helpful for you, Moses. You're really gonna wanna lean into this class. You're gonna need this one. And and this is the most important class, okay, is, is how to part the Red Sea.

So Moses, the way you're gonna it's really gonna come with to stance. Okay? You're gonna have to stand just a certain way, and then you gotta hold the staff, and then you have to just practice it again. No, that's not the way. Just

No, I'm just kidding. But just just move the No, that was wrong Moses. You Isn't it amazing that he there's no lesson, there's nothing. It's go back. And Moses goes, well, what do I do? And he says, what's in your hand? In other words,

what have you been doing for forty years that you did not know was actually preparing you for the next forty years? God has a sneaky way of training us in seasons that prepare us for new seasons. Does it all the time.

This is why Moses and you go, well, how? Well, forty years in the wilderness. You know what's wild? How many years did he spend in the other wilderness? Forty years. You learned how to live in seasons for extended periods of time.

Well, was a shepherd. How would this lesson as a shepherd teach you in the next well, you have to learn how to shepherd people in the new season of your life. And guess what? This muscle of shepherding is gonna help you shepherd an entire nation, Moses. Well, how about this one, my favorite,

stewarding, shepherding his father in law's sheep. They weren't even his sheep, people. They were his father in law's sheep. You want to know what the lesson here is? Is that can you steward someone else's things? You've been faithful to steward what other people have. And don't you think this might be a great

tool, a great skill to have that God is entrusting his most prized possession, his people to Moses. You've passed the test Moses. You stewarded well forty years. You were a shepherd. You stewarded sheep that were not your own sheep. You're ready to deliver the people. What's in your hand?

Can I tell you God is saying in the life of Moses, he said, I want you to try it again, but this time you're trying it with what you've learned in this season of your life? Imagine what your this this season could look like to try again with what you've learned in this season. The second idea

is I love this one. I just it's so it's comical to me that Moses attempted to deliver the people

in Exodus chapter two verses 11 through 15. Do you all remember that he saw his own people? He saw the Egyptian beating a Hebrew. He went up to try to help and he killed the Egyptian. It's interesting that then God calls him over here and what does God say? He says, I want you to go back, but I want you

to take the people out. Do you see the two strategies? Moses, that wasn't a good strategy. You kill one Egyptian thinking that you're gonna deliver all of your people. That's not a good strategy bro. Let me give you the God strategy. I'm I'm I'm so big that I don't need to destroy

all of Egypt to deliver. I'm gonna do something so miraculous. I'm gonna take them out of that environment into a new environment. I mean that's wild to me. Do you see the different strategies? And what I tell you today is that we have attempted in life, oftentimes when we failed,

we failed because we've been attempting it with our own strategy, Exodus chapter two. We've tried to do it our own way with our own strategy. And I wanna tell you

that God through the life of Moses is speaking to us that there is a divine strategy that God wants to give you. There's a divine strategy he wants to give for your business, a dream, an idea, a vision. Listen, there are ideas that you thought can I just I I feel this for somebody? Okay? This is the 12:00. We're this is crazy. Okay? How much time do I have? Six minutes. We're gonna do it in Jesus' name.

Can I tell you, some of us, you have failed in ideas that you had simply because you told the wrong people? You told people that won't believe with you. You told people that you that really? Well, you know how much money that's gonna you know what I tell people? Shut up. No. I'm just kidding.

Sometimes we've tried things, we failed, and we just leave it. But I'm telling you today, the Lord, I feel this for somebody. Try again. Listen, not just with the lessons you've learned in this season, but you're going to try again with a God directed strategy.

I really believe this write down. That's why the Bible says write down the vision and make it plain. Write down the vision. What is the strategy? God, I've attempted to do it my way here, but God is saying, would you do it my way? I'm going to take them out of that place. That's my strategy. And the last thing

that we find here in the life of Moses is don't you find it interesting that in Exodus chapter two verses 11 through 15, Moses attempts deliverance. Let's say it this way, Moses attempts to rescue his people in Exodus chapter two.

Well, shortly after that the Bible says, some shepherds came, drove them away. He drove them away. And look at the verbiage, he came to their rescue. Wait, woah, hold on. Moses, you tried to rescue the people here, and then you tried to rescue the women that were being attacked here by the well, and now God

is asking you to go back to rescue the people, but you don't want to do it. My question is, what happened to Moses that he stopped being the rescuer? It's always been a part of his DNA.

It's always been a part of who he was, the rescuer. If you we don't have time to go through it, but if you read that entire narrative I would encourage you to do that.

It's amazing to me how much dialogue there is between Moses and God. God's like, I'm gonna send you, and Moses is like, but how are they gonna know? And God's like, they're gonna know I am has sent you. And there's just and he's like, put your hand in the cloak and look at the staff. And he's like, I'm gonna go.

God does not get angry that there is one moment that the Bible says, and the anger of God came against Moses. Do you wanna know when it was? It was when Moses said this, send someone else. And the wrath of God, the anger of God came against Moses. Woah. Woah. God, what happened here? Of all people, Moses, you should know

that these people need a rescuer and a deliverer. You've tried to do it multiple times, and now when given the opportunity you're declining, but not just declining, you're saying, send somebody else so the wrath of God came upon him. He said, some people go, well, why is God angry at this moment? What happened to Moses

in this moment? Some people would say that Moses was insecure. Some people would say that Moses was afraid. But do you want to know what I think happened with Moses? Is that Moses was triggered by a failure that he had not dealt with. And here's the question I want to ask for us today. Are you really healed

or are you just really good at avoiding the triggers? And I think we need to be careful in life. And I think that's why these moments of the go back, this kind of go back are healing moments

because they expose at times, God, don't want to go back because when I tried that I failed, and I'm dealing with the results of failure in this moment. I don't want to go back. Send somebody else. No, no. You're the person. It's always been in you. That that calling has always been in you. Try it again.

Here's the beauty is he ends up going back. And I want to say this, we know the story. He delivers the people. I want to say it this way. Try it again, but this time try it with a healed heart. Did you know that God wants you whole? I feel like there are some of us

that we are like those people that go to the gym that only work out certain parts of their body? You know what I'm saying? Like, their arms are really big, but they got little tiny legs. I'm not looking at anybody specifically. I'm just making that general statement. If that's you, we love you. Welcome to church.

But isn't it amazing that we do that in our faith as well, is that we work out certain areas? And God is like, That's awesome, but I wanna work out some other areas of faith in your life.

I want to heal you holistically. And the story Moses tells us through God's act, I want you to go back

and try this again. Would you lift your hands? I want to pray for you. I want to declare this over you. And I want you to if you believe this, if this is a word for you, listen, declare it over yourself. Lord, we're gonna try again. In Jesus' name, we cover this beautiful community at Echoes Church. Lord, we thank you

that there is healing happening from failures that they would be able to stand on stages. Whatever that stage in their life, they can stand on stages that once were places of pain are now places of restoration and healing. But God, it starts with going back.

It starts with trying it again. And Lord, we're gonna try again with what we've learned in this season. We're gonna try again with God directed strategies. And Lord, we're gonna try again with healed hearts. In Jesus' name. Amen and amen.