Gracious Father, we come to you this morning. Some of us, your arms are wrapped completely
around us. Others, we know we're leaning, and others, we have decided we're not sure
we want to lean, but we're leaning anyhow. Thank you, Lord, for a gentle spirit. Thank
you, Lord, for your Holy Spirit. Father, put me behind the cross, and let the word that
you want to be spoken come forth this day. We're all leaning in the name of Jesus. Amen.
This is for us, and thank you for your service. Ms. Z, thank you for your service. Ms. Butler,
Ms. Brenda, and Ms. Vanessa. Ms. Allen, for your messages and notices to keep us straight
going deep. For the confirmation students and their parents, and for all our visitors,
and for the family. We even say thank you for the service of the Lord, for his anointing
is strong, and we're grateful for all the miracles in this world. Turn to your neighbor
and say, can you see yet? Turn to the other one and say, you know, I'm not blind, but
I just want to know, can you see yet? The sermon title this morning is On the Road.
The subtitle is Walking Until You See Again. On the Road, Walking Until You See Again.
Many of us are familiar with the Road to Emmaus story, and some of us are familiar to the
point where we just decide, well, I know that story. You see, two men were on the road.
They were spiritually blind by disbelief and pain and anger. They had been into Jerusalem
and the very Christ the King had been crucified. With their disbelief and pain, they said,
my God, my God, I can't believe it. So rather than to stay around and see what was going
to happen on the third day, they began to journey to a town called Emmaus. Well, you
see, they were walking, some commentary say, to escape their pain. Yes, they communed with
one another. They talked amongst themselves, and then they ran into a man, and he didn't
seem to know what they were talking about. Don't you know what happened in Jerusalem?
Don't you, man? How did you hurt him? Didn't you turn on Channel 4? Don't you know? And
they realized they didn't know who he was, and they went on assuming that he was just
a man on the road. They continued to chit chat a bit and realized that he was a pretty
nice guy. They realized this man was. But lo and behold, he wasn't just any guy. He
wasn't just a nice guy on the road. He was Jesus. And suddenly, when they realized who
he was, they had broke bread. They had said, hey, man, let's stay all night. Let's hang
out for a couple days. We're going to fellowship. We're going to get tight. And when they realized
who he was, he was. Well, you see, when they realized who Jesus was, just as they were
with him, he disappeared. And guess what they did? Ask them, what did those guys do to him?
What did they do? Well, that's why we have this sermon today, because they went back
to tell others what they had experienced, what went on, what happened when they gained
their sight. You may be saying, Pastor, why are you implying that they gained their sight?
I didn't read anywhere in the passage that they were blind. I didn't read anywhere in
the passage that they needed their sight renewed and restored. Well, guess what? Some of us
aren't blind physically, but we cannot see yet. Can you say we cannot see yet? I know
that's a little weak, and we don't want to say it out loud, because we don't want everybody
to know we're yet blind. Can't see yet. Keep it down, Pastor. I've been telling people
about business. I wear these fine-looking glasses and sharp shades. I don't want to
buy it now. I can't really see. You know, they were like the folks when they get right
past 39. Miss Dixon's not there yet, but there's some of us that have gotten past 39. And
we start to take our glasses and do like this. We remove the glasses from our eyes, pretending
that we can still see out of these nice, cute, pretty little glasses. I'm suffering from
that from time to time, but I haven't yet gotten cured. I'm still working on it. The
thing is, we cannot see, and we don't admit that we cannot see, and we keep walking along
the journey. The road to Emmaus is a story about a journey. It's a story about a spiritual
journey. Our young complements have just stepped into a new journey. They don't know that they're
still blind. They know they said yes to Jesus. They said, I know who He is. We study some.
We said, y'all are a little close to each other. They made some friends that they may
say they would have made not, because they're teenagers. And on that, they blind. Can't
see yet. Then there's folks that have been on the journey for a while, and the grief
of life on life's terms have just made them blind temporarily. They can't see either.
They can't see because they're anxious, or they're anguished, or they're envious, or
they're tired, or they're something that's blocking them from seeing God. I did a lot
of work this week on where was Emmaus, and what was Emmaus known for? And one of the
commentary writers said, Emmaus is not a well-known place. It's a little teeny town
right outside the big city, Jerusalem. Everybody doesn't know about Emmaus, but people
go to Emmaus to escape. Emmaus is not always a place on the map. It may be located right
in your house. Emmaus may be the place where when you get into a confrontation, husband
and wife, children and parents, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, you go in that place and
say, bam. We don't announce that we're going to Emmaus. We simply put up our attitudes
and say, shut it down. I'm going to the cave. I'm going somewhere where you can't talk
to me. Shut it down. And sometimes we go to Emmaus right in front of people. We be looking
at each other, and they got that funny-looking look. If you've been a parent of a teenager
and you've lived in Tel Aviv, and your children have gone to Emmaus in your face, oh, I'm
talking to somebody, and somebody knows I've called them out. I preach this all by myself,
because we go to Emmaus because we want to escape. We go to Emmaus. Roads and alcohol
can take us there. Shopping can take us there. Getting on the phone at five hours at a time
can take us there. And be having these secondary conversations. Oh, yeah, she's in the other
room. Oh, yeah, he's in the other room. I don't want to say nothing too loud, because
the walls in this house have ears. Oh, we go to Emmaus from time to time. I've been
Christian most of my life, but I've been an African American woman all my life. We go
to Emmaus from time to time. And we pretend like we don't go there, because we don't want
to be discovered on the road to Emmaus. And sometimes when we do too much escaping, we
need, we need a first aid kit. Lots of band-aids, lots of medicine, and we get to Miss Tina's
location in the emergency room and other places. They say, how did you get here? I don't know.
Who hit you? I don't know. I don't know. Emmaus is a place we want to escape the pain. That's
a very human condition. And we do what we need to do to just check out for a moment.
Some of us watch soap hours, soap operas for two, three hours in a day. One comes on, one
goes off. Some of us let the cable TV put us to sleep at night. We turn it on, click it
in the morning, click it at night, click it in the morning, click it at night. We get
upset if the remote control suddenly removes itself from its normal place. Who got my remote?
I need to go to Emmaus and you got my remote? Can't stand these kids, take my remote? And
the kids don't even have it. They don't know where it is. They've been in their own world
of Emmaus. They like this. You know, it's under the couch, under the ice cream box. Some of
us go to the ice cream, Blue Bell. Is Blue Bell sold down here? Dryers, whomever they
sell here. Emmaus was an escape for those two people. They wanted to escape their pain.
The commentary writers indicate that they wanted to leave where their dreams were. Their
dreams were for salvation. Their dreams were for a new world. Their dreams were for meeting
a Jesus that was truly their King. And they sought the resurrection. I should say they
missed the resurrection because they left too soon. So point one, if you're going to
be on a journey and you want to see again, don't quit before the miracle happens. If
you look at verses 13 through 16, it's about the men's connection to one another. And they're
connected to one another by the story. It doesn't say they're related. It doesn't say
their names. It just says they were part of. It doesn't even say they were the first group
of disciples. It just says that they were two guys on the road. And then from verses
17 through 27, they begin to have conversations, first with one another and two with a man
they meet on the road. Have you ever met somebody on the plane? Have you ever met somebody on
Greyhound? Have you ever met somebody that you simply have never seen in your life? And
you just give me your whole testimony in life. So let me tell you what happened last week.
You wouldn't believe. And they get up in their life, chatterbox. Jesus probably thought these
two guys were kind of like a chatterbox. They were just talking, having conversations, just
complaining. I wish he had rose. I was expecting something else in Jerusalem. Man, things happen.
But Jesus doesn't put them down. So the next thing you have to recognize is sometimes you
going to meet people who are going to bless you, and you don't even know them. But take
the time to at least ask who they are. But it's good to know Jesus knew them even though
they didn't really know who Jesus was. You'll catch that. Jesus knew who the men were, even
though the men were not named. But they didn't know the identity of Jesus at the moment.
They only knew he was a nice man on the road that they happened to connect with. Then they
built camaraderie. Do you know what camaraderie is? Compromise. Do you know what camaraderie
is? Friendship. You connect. This is your posse. This is your crew. These are the people
you hang with. You build camaraderie. That's a special type of connection where you can
call somebody late, late, late at night and say, hey, I'm in trouble. I need some help.
That's only if you give permission from your parents to use the phone after 10 PM, okay?
Don't be saying, pastor said I can call on any time to my boys and my girls. Now, your
friends, your comrades, are your friends. And they make invitations. They invite Jesus
to become a comrade. They say, Jesus, hang out with us. Stay awhile. And when they broke
bread, can somebody say broke bread? When they broke that bread, they weren't just breaking
any bread. It was the revelation. It was the opening of their eyes. It was the situation
of being a ship. Hello. This ain't just any friend. This is Jesus Christ. By the time
they got to verse 30 through 32, the discovery zone came along. They realized they weren't
just breaking bread with anybody. They weren't just hanging out with one of their boys. It
was one of those, wow. This is Jesus Christ. So they meet Christ. So first they have a
connection. Then they have a conversation. Then they become pally and they become comrades.
And then out of all things, they recognize Him to be Jesus Christ. Then along the way,
He disappears. But they don't see that as a sadness. They recognize He's going on to
be with God the Father. They see the disappearance as wow, He was really who He said He was.
Thank God Almighty, He is who He says He is, even when we don't know. Recognize that at
that point, the scripture doesn't say they arrived in a mania. The scripture doesn't
say they got to their destination. The scripture simply says they came in and went back to
hell. That's where we are now as Christians. You were yet blind and you now see. Tell somebody
what God has done to you and you and you and you. Awake and then the sight that only God
can give. Recognize sometimes we escape and it's not a good thing, but God's there too.
Sometimes we try to run away via other things, other people, and other places. God is there
too. Discover that wherever you go, in the pit or in the palace, Jesus is there. Recognize
that whether you want Him to be there with you, He's there. But will you recognize Him?
This day I invite you to open up your eyes and see Jesus as your Savior. If you don't
know Jesus as your personal Savior, there's time for you to get to know Him. Will you
stand this morning and sing the hymn of invitation? Page 454, open your eyes that I may see. Amen.