1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,720 Gracious Father, we come to you this morning. Some of us, your arms are wrapped completely 2 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:14,120 around us. Others, we know we're leaning, and others, we have decided we're not sure 3 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:24,280 we want to lean, but we're leaning anyhow. Thank you, Lord, for a gentle spirit. Thank 4 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:33,800 you, Lord, for your Holy Spirit. Father, put me behind the cross, and let the word that 5 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:55,160 you want to be spoken come forth this day. We're all leaning in the name of Jesus. Amen. 6 00:00:55,160 --> 00:01:04,120 This is for us, and thank you for your service. Ms. Z, thank you for your service. Ms. Butler, 7 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:13,180 Ms. Brenda, and Ms. Vanessa. Ms. Allen, for your messages and notices to keep us straight 8 00:01:13,180 --> 00:01:19,640 going deep. For the confirmation students and their parents, and for all our visitors, 9 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:29,800 and for the family. We even say thank you for the service of the Lord, for his anointing 10 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:41,720 is strong, and we're grateful for all the miracles in this world. Turn to your neighbor 11 00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:52,280 and say, can you see yet? Turn to the other one and say, you know, I'm not blind, but 12 00:01:52,280 --> 00:02:06,680 I just want to know, can you see yet? The sermon title this morning is On the Road. 13 00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:20,160 The subtitle is Walking Until You See Again. On the Road, Walking Until You See Again. 14 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:26,120 Many of us are familiar with the Road to Emmaus story, and some of us are familiar to the 15 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:34,180 point where we just decide, well, I know that story. You see, two men were on the road. 16 00:02:34,180 --> 00:02:41,800 They were spiritually blind by disbelief and pain and anger. They had been into Jerusalem 17 00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:54,000 and the very Christ the King had been crucified. With their disbelief and pain, they said, 18 00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:02,720 my God, my God, I can't believe it. So rather than to stay around and see what was going 19 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:11,760 to happen on the third day, they began to journey to a town called Emmaus. Well, you 20 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:20,880 see, they were walking, some commentary say, to escape their pain. Yes, they communed with 21 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:29,480 one another. They talked amongst themselves, and then they ran into a man, and he didn't 22 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:36,160 seem to know what they were talking about. Don't you know what happened in Jerusalem? 23 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:44,640 Don't you, man? How did you hurt him? Didn't you turn on Channel 4? Don't you know? And 24 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:50,600 they realized they didn't know who he was, and they went on assuming that he was just 25 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:58,120 a man on the road. They continued to chit chat a bit and realized that he was a pretty 26 00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:11,320 nice guy. They realized this man was. But lo and behold, he wasn't just any guy. He 27 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:21,520 wasn't just a nice guy on the road. He was Jesus. And suddenly, when they realized who 28 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:26,320 he was, they had broke bread. They had said, hey, man, let's stay all night. Let's hang 29 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:33,720 out for a couple days. We're going to fellowship. We're going to get tight. And when they realized 30 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:42,720 who he was, he was. Well, you see, when they realized who Jesus was, just as they were 31 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:53,720 with him, he disappeared. And guess what they did? Ask them, what did those guys do to him? 32 00:04:53,720 --> 00:05:00,320 What did they do? Well, that's why we have this sermon today, because they went back 33 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:06,320 to tell others what they had experienced, what went on, what happened when they gained 34 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:11,320 their sight. You may be saying, Pastor, why are you implying that they gained their sight? 35 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:16,120 I didn't read anywhere in the passage that they were blind. I didn't read anywhere in 36 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:25,120 the passage that they needed their sight renewed and restored. Well, guess what? Some of us 37 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:36,520 aren't blind physically, but we cannot see yet. Can you say we cannot see yet? I know 38 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:39,920 that's a little weak, and we don't want to say it out loud, because we don't want everybody 39 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:48,120 to know we're yet blind. Can't see yet. Keep it down, Pastor. I've been telling people 40 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:54,920 about business. I wear these fine-looking glasses and sharp shades. I don't want to 41 00:05:54,920 --> 00:06:00,920 buy it now. I can't really see. You know, they were like the folks when they get right 42 00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:09,720 past 39. Miss Dixon's not there yet, but there's some of us that have gotten past 39. And 43 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:20,720 we start to take our glasses and do like this. We remove the glasses from our eyes, pretending 44 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:28,920 that we can still see out of these nice, cute, pretty little glasses. I'm suffering from 45 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:34,520 that from time to time, but I haven't yet gotten cured. I'm still working on it. The 46 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:39,920 thing is, we cannot see, and we don't admit that we cannot see, and we keep walking along 47 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:46,920 the journey. The road to Emmaus is a story about a journey. It's a story about a spiritual 48 00:06:46,920 --> 00:06:53,320 journey. Our young complements have just stepped into a new journey. They don't know that they're 49 00:06:53,320 --> 00:07:01,520 still blind. They know they said yes to Jesus. They said, I know who He is. We study some. 50 00:07:01,520 --> 00:07:05,520 We said, y'all are a little close to each other. They made some friends that they may 51 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:11,520 say they would have made not, because they're teenagers. And on that, they blind. Can't 52 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:20,120 see yet. Then there's folks that have been on the journey for a while, and the grief 53 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:27,520 of life on life's terms have just made them blind temporarily. They can't see either. 54 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:33,520 They can't see because they're anxious, or they're anguished, or they're envious, or 55 00:07:33,520 --> 00:07:43,520 they're tired, or they're something that's blocking them from seeing God. I did a lot 56 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:51,520 of work this week on where was Emmaus, and what was Emmaus known for? And one of the 57 00:07:51,520 --> 00:08:00,520 commentary writers said, Emmaus is not a well-known place. It's a little teeny town 58 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:07,520 right outside the big city, Jerusalem. Everybody doesn't know about Emmaus, but people 59 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:20,520 go to Emmaus to escape. Emmaus is not always a place on the map. It may be located right 60 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:27,520 in your house. Emmaus may be the place where when you get into a confrontation, husband 61 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:32,520 and wife, children and parents, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, you go in that place and 62 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:38,520 say, bam. We don't announce that we're going to Emmaus. We simply put up our attitudes 63 00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:46,520 and say, shut it down. I'm going to the cave. I'm going somewhere where you can't talk 64 00:08:46,520 --> 00:08:52,520 to me. Shut it down. And sometimes we go to Emmaus right in front of people. We be looking 65 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:59,520 at each other, and they got that funny-looking look. If you've been a parent of a teenager 66 00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:06,520 and you've lived in Tel Aviv, and your children have gone to Emmaus in your face, oh, I'm 67 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:15,520 talking to somebody, and somebody knows I've called them out. I preach this all by myself, 68 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:23,520 because we go to Emmaus because we want to escape. We go to Emmaus. Roads and alcohol 69 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:33,520 can take us there. Shopping can take us there. Getting on the phone at five hours at a time 70 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:39,520 can take us there. And be having these secondary conversations. Oh, yeah, she's in the other 71 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:43,520 room. Oh, yeah, he's in the other room. I don't want to say nothing too loud, because 72 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:53,520 the walls in this house have ears. Oh, we go to Emmaus from time to time. I've been 73 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:57,520 Christian most of my life, but I've been an African American woman all my life. We go 74 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:06,520 to Emmaus from time to time. And we pretend like we don't go there, because we don't want 75 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:17,520 to be discovered on the road to Emmaus. And sometimes when we do too much escaping, we 76 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:32,520 need, we need a first aid kit. Lots of band-aids, lots of medicine, and we get to Miss Tina's 77 00:10:32,520 --> 00:10:39,520 location in the emergency room and other places. They say, how did you get here? I don't know. 78 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:51,520 Who hit you? I don't know. I don't know. Emmaus is a place we want to escape the pain. That's 79 00:10:51,520 --> 00:11:00,520 a very human condition. And we do what we need to do to just check out for a moment. 80 00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:06,520 Some of us watch soap hours, soap operas for two, three hours in a day. One comes on, one 81 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:13,520 goes off. Some of us let the cable TV put us to sleep at night. We turn it on, click it 82 00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:19,520 in the morning, click it at night, click it in the morning, click it at night. We get 83 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:27,520 upset if the remote control suddenly removes itself from its normal place. Who got my remote? 84 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:34,520 I need to go to Emmaus and you got my remote? Can't stand these kids, take my remote? And 85 00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:40,520 the kids don't even have it. They don't know where it is. They've been in their own world 86 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:51,520 of Emmaus. They like this. You know, it's under the couch, under the ice cream box. Some of 87 00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:58,520 us go to the ice cream, Blue Bell. Is Blue Bell sold down here? Dryers, whomever they 88 00:11:58,520 --> 00:12:06,520 sell here. Emmaus was an escape for those two people. They wanted to escape their pain. 89 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:12,520 The commentary writers indicate that they wanted to leave where their dreams were. Their 90 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:18,520 dreams were for salvation. Their dreams were for a new world. Their dreams were for meeting 91 00:12:18,520 --> 00:12:25,520 a Jesus that was truly their King. And they sought the resurrection. I should say they 92 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:31,520 missed the resurrection because they left too soon. So point one, if you're going to 93 00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:40,520 be on a journey and you want to see again, don't quit before the miracle happens. If 94 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:46,520 you look at verses 13 through 16, it's about the men's connection to one another. And they're 95 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:51,520 connected to one another by the story. It doesn't say they're related. It doesn't say 96 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:57,520 their names. It just says they were part of. It doesn't even say they were the first group 97 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:03,520 of disciples. It just says that they were two guys on the road. And then from verses 98 00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:11,520 17 through 27, they begin to have conversations, first with one another and two with a man 99 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:17,520 they meet on the road. Have you ever met somebody on the plane? Have you ever met somebody on 100 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:23,520 Greyhound? Have you ever met somebody that you simply have never seen in your life? And 101 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:28,520 you just give me your whole testimony in life. So let me tell you what happened last week. 102 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:37,520 You wouldn't believe. And they get up in their life, chatterbox. Jesus probably thought these 103 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:43,520 two guys were kind of like a chatterbox. They were just talking, having conversations, just 104 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:55,520 complaining. I wish he had rose. I was expecting something else in Jerusalem. Man, things happen. 105 00:13:55,520 --> 00:14:02,520 But Jesus doesn't put them down. So the next thing you have to recognize is sometimes you 106 00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:09,520 going to meet people who are going to bless you, and you don't even know them. But take 107 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:17,520 the time to at least ask who they are. But it's good to know Jesus knew them even though 108 00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:24,520 they didn't really know who Jesus was. You'll catch that. Jesus knew who the men were, even 109 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:28,520 though the men were not named. But they didn't know the identity of Jesus at the moment. 110 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:38,520 They only knew he was a nice man on the road that they happened to connect with. Then they 111 00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:45,520 built camaraderie. Do you know what camaraderie is? Compromise. Do you know what camaraderie 112 00:14:45,520 --> 00:14:52,520 is? Friendship. You connect. This is your posse. This is your crew. These are the people 113 00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:59,520 you hang with. You build camaraderie. That's a special type of connection where you can 114 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:09,520 call somebody late, late, late at night and say, hey, I'm in trouble. I need some help. 115 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:14,520 That's only if you give permission from your parents to use the phone after 10 PM, okay? 116 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:20,520 Don't be saying, pastor said I can call on any time to my boys and my girls. Now, your 117 00:15:20,520 --> 00:15:29,520 friends, your comrades, are your friends. And they make invitations. They invite Jesus 118 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:37,520 to become a comrade. They say, Jesus, hang out with us. Stay awhile. And when they broke 119 00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:43,520 bread, can somebody say broke bread? When they broke that bread, they weren't just breaking 120 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:49,520 any bread. It was the revelation. It was the opening of their eyes. It was the situation 121 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:58,520 of being a ship. Hello. This ain't just any friend. This is Jesus Christ. By the time 122 00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:05,520 they got to verse 30 through 32, the discovery zone came along. They realized they weren't 123 00:16:05,520 --> 00:16:09,520 just breaking bread with anybody. They weren't just hanging out with one of their boys. It 124 00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:17,520 was one of those, wow. This is Jesus Christ. So they meet Christ. So first they have a 125 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:22,520 connection. Then they have a conversation. Then they become pally and they become comrades. 126 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:32,520 And then out of all things, they recognize Him to be Jesus Christ. Then along the way, 127 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:41,520 He disappears. But they don't see that as a sadness. They recognize He's going on to 128 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:49,520 be with God the Father. They see the disappearance as wow, He was really who He said He was. 129 00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:59,520 Thank God Almighty, He is who He says He is, even when we don't know. Recognize that at 130 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:05,520 that point, the scripture doesn't say they arrived in a mania. The scripture doesn't 131 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:13,520 say they got to their destination. The scripture simply says they came in and went back to 132 00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:25,520 hell. That's where we are now as Christians. You were yet blind and you now see. Tell somebody 133 00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:37,520 what God has done to you and you and you and you. Awake and then the sight that only God 134 00:17:37,520 --> 00:17:49,520 can give. Recognize sometimes we escape and it's not a good thing, but God's there too. 135 00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:57,520 Sometimes we try to run away via other things, other people, and other places. God is there 136 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:05,520 too. Discover that wherever you go, in the pit or in the palace, Jesus is there. Recognize 137 00:18:05,520 --> 00:18:13,520 that whether you want Him to be there with you, He's there. But will you recognize Him? 138 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:21,520 This day I invite you to open up your eyes and see Jesus as your Savior. If you don't 139 00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:27,520 know Jesus as your personal Savior, there's time for you to get to know Him. Will you 140 00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:43,520 stand this morning and sing the hymn of invitation? Page 454, open your eyes that I may see. Amen.