Reverse The Search
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Hey, this is Stephen Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.

We're looking at the seven last words of Jesus Christ, what he said before he died, how it applies to our lives, taking some things we might be very familiar with or may not have been familiar with at all, but really owning them personally and incorporating them into our lives of faith on our personal journey with Jesus. It is a journey.

Sometimes on the journey you become so familiar with things that you don't notice them. They can just be right there. I grew up 30 miles from Charleston, South Carolina. I love going to Charleston with Holly when we want to get away for a weekend.

Typically, we will sneak away to Charleston. By the way, if it's a vacation, that means there are no kids. If the kids are there, it's a family trip. Vacation is me, Holly, a hotel, and some shopping. Maybe some carbohydrates too. We go to Charleston a little bit. It's only three and a half hours from Charlotte. The first time we went, she asked me, "What was it like growing up?"

so close to such a historic and beautiful place. I said, "Never thought about it." When I was a kid, it wasn't a thing. It was Charleston. We never really made it past North Charleston. That's where the mall was. I never really even made it downtown, the place I pay now to go and spend the night. I never even drove to. It was…

almost too close to notice until I got away from it. Even the other day, y'all, I was eating with the family. We go out to eat most Fridays, and we were eating at this burger joint, as the young people say. Isn't that what the young people call it? A burger joint over at the Five and Dime.

I'm going to get to my Scripture in a minute. It's Luke 24:13-35. Don't worry. I'm going there in a minute. You can meet me there. Lace up your shoes. Stretch your hamstrings. Do whatever you have to do, because we're going on a journey. Tell the person next to you, "We're going somewhere." We went to this restaurant, and the young lady who was serving us was really nice, but she kept looking at me funny, looking at me funny. Every time she came over, she was looking at me funny. She came up and said, "I just figured out who you are. You're the Facebook guy."

I said, "Am I?" She said, "Me and your friends send the clips of your Facebook preaching to each other, my friends in California." I said, "Cool. That's great." She brought Holly her fries and came back another time. She said, "They just told me in the back that your church is here in Charlotte."

I said, "Well, yeah. It's two miles from here, this restaurant where I preach from. We have churches in other places, not just in Charlotte, but it's based in Charlotte. We could probably throw a french fry at it and hit it." She said, "I didn't even know it." Now, she's two miles from the church. Y'all need to invite people more is what I'm saying. You are not doing your job.

That's what that said to me. But what it really reminded me of… I told her, "You can get it on Facebook, and there are little clips, but if you really want to see what makes that special, you have to get in the parking lot, see the people there, get a hug from a griever."

Have you got kids? You need to drop your kids off at eKids and watch how we teach them. You really need to get around the people. This is your lucky day, because you're going to be my special guest. I gave her an invitation, and she still didn't come, but that's not the point of the illustration. The point of the illustration is you can be so close. Elijah, my oldest son, the other day, I went to hand him my phone. He said, Daddy, what's that on your wrist? I said, On my wrist? What's on my wrist? He was talking about

My mom tells me, this scar is from a childhood incident. She says, "I was playing with a dog bowl, and it was made of glass. I dropped the dog bowl. The dog bowl cut my wrist." She said she thought I was going to die. I don't remember any of this. It's not traumatic for me.

I've always had this little Harry Potter thing right there on my wrist. Elijah never noticed it. That's crazy. These are the first hands that held his ungrateful butt and wiped his ungrateful butt, and he never even noticed. How many times have I changed his diaper with these hands? Probably not many. It's single-digit, probably. My point is it can be so close.

and remain unnoticed. So imminent and invisible to us, but that doesn't mean it's not there just because you can't see it. It doesn't mean it's not there. Let's go on the road. Seven miles. Yes!

Let's go. Are you ready? I probably shouldn't have worn my white sneakers today. They're going to get dirty because we're going on this Emmaus road. Luke 24. See, Jesus only has 40 days. He's risen from the dead. He is resurrected just like he said he would be.

He has the keys to death, hell, and the grave. He gave the Devil a big black eye when that stone rolled away. Now all of hell is trembling because the temple they thought they had destroyed has rebuilt himself just like he said he would. He is risen!

The women went to the tomb, and it's Sunday morning. They brought some spices, but they would not need them, because the angel said to the women, Why do you look for the living amongst the dead? I want to talk in this first installment of Seven Mile Miracle on the subject, Reverse the Search. Maybe we are missing the presence and the power of God.

The resurrection power of God, the redemptive power of God, the restoration power of God, the redeeming power of God. Because we're searching in the wrong places. We're looking for the living among the dead. He is not here. He's risen. What are you looking for? A living God in a dead place, a dead relationship.

A dead text thread. A dead Facebook page. Why are you looking for the living God in dead religion, dormant religion? Why are you looking for the living… Touch somebody and say, "Reverse the search."

He is alive, and he is real, and the presence of God is not meant to be an add-on or an accessory, but the operating system of the life of anyone who will choose to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. God has raised him from the dead, and he's risen from the dead, and he's got to go get the message out, get on the road.

He's only got 40 days. He's about to be taken up to heaven and seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. He has to go, and he has to show the world that he's living so they'll believe the proof of the power of his resurrection. He has to go. What should he do first if he wants to reveal himself to the world and let them know that the proof is that he is the Son of God and the fact

that death could not hold him and the grave could not keep him and the tomb was borrowed because it wasn't needed for very long. Where does he go? What does he do? Perhaps we should host a resurrection reenactment event. Maybe he can get Barclays. Maybe he can call Jay. Maybe he can do it in a cultural center. Maybe he ought to call Zuck. Maybe he ought to put this on social. Maybe he ought to get it out. Maybe it can go viral. Maybe he ought to make a meme. What does Jesus do on the day he defeats death?

Death. You might be surprised, because what he does next is take a walk. Come on, let's walk. Will you walk with me? I don't even care if you know where Luke is in the Bible. I just want you to walk with me to this passage of Scripture where we join two travelers who, as of yet, remain nameless. What's that? Jesus, on the day of his resurrection, with only 40 days to spare to tell the world that he is God and convince them with many signs and proofs.

appears to two travelers whose names we have never seen. I mean, at least go get Bartholomew. I've heard of him. But these two travelers were just like you and me walking along, and they were headed toward a village called Emmaus. I've been there. Five years ago we did an Easter presentation for our church by the name Seven Mile Miracle, and we decided it'd be cool

if we shot it there, but when we got there, how many of you would love to go to Israel one day if you could and see where Jesus walked? How many of you are fine just to watch it on National Geographic and you don't need all that and you're like, "Well, thank you for your honesty." But if you go, they'll tell you when you get there, they'll say, "Hey, this is Emmaus." And then if you have a really honest guide, they'll say, "I mean, it's maybe Emmaus." We don't know exactly where Emmaus was because it was such an insignificant place in its day

that there is no archaeological evidence that this was definitely the place. Why would Jesus go to a place that wasn't even significant enough in its day to be known in modernity or pinpointed on a map? We look for God in places that everyone recognizes. I mean, we think that Jesus needs a shout-out from Kim or Kanye. We act like Jesus needs an Oscar award.

for best resurrection. But instead he goes on this dirty road, this little road, real tiny road, the one that they say he might have walked. I walked there. And he meets up with two people, and it's not Zuck, and it's not Trump. Now watch. They're walking toward Emmaus. Jesus died in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the place where the Passover feast had just been celebrated. Jerusalem was the place where the promised Holy Spirit was to come. But Jesus leaves the place where the Spirit is coming.

to follow two people, and we don't even know who they are. What kind of God is this who would speak to you in a crowd of thousands and would bring you to this place at this moment? These men are walking along on that same day, the same day that Jesus got up from the grave. So picture it now. Two things are happening at once. The eternal Word of God, who was in the beginning with God, the fullness of his glory, full of grace and truth,

"…has trampled death, sin, hell, and the grave, made a mockery of Satan. And those who handed him over are soon to bow down and worship him. And every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And God has exalted Jesus to the highest place, giving him the name that is above every name." That's happening. These two unnamed people… Most scholars say probably a husband and wife. In a minute we get the guy's name. We don't get the woman's name, because

In Bible times, people didn't treat women too well. They were pretty overlooked, but that's the kind of people Jesus liked, is the people who were overlooked. He would work a miracle with a little kid's lunch. In their math, kids didn't count, but in Jesus' math, that's where the multiplication was, in the hands of the one who everybody else walked past. I'm just saying that because you might think you can only go on this journey if you're perfect.

You might think you can only go on this journey if your life is profound, that God can only use you if everybody knows you, because we worship the idol of fame in this age. But the famous one, the name above every name, meets with two previously unnamed travelers, and only because he met with them do we know that the name of the man was Cleopas, Jesus Christ and Cleo. That's what his friends call him, and since we're going on this walk with him, we should

called by his nickname, Cleo. They're walking to a village called Emmaus, a village nobody even knows where it really is today. They can guess, but they don't… They're going toward Emmaus. Why would Jesus make one of his first resurrection appearances headed toward a place away from where the Holy Spirit was about to fall, toward a place no one would even remember? Could it be possible

that we look for God in the destination, but he is the God of the detour.

I'm trying to tell you that the perfect, flawless Son of God turned his back on Jerusalem, set out on a road toward an unknown place, followed two people we've never met before, because he is not the God of arrival. He is the God of the first step and the second step and every step. He's with me when I'm right. He's with me when I'm wrong. He's with me when I'm going forward.

He's with me when I'm stuck. He's with me when I'm high-stepping. He's with me when I'm crawling. He's with me when I'm strong. He's with me when I'm weak. He walks with me. He talks with me. They're walking the wrong way. Remember, they're walking the wrong way. If they really believed he was going to raise from the dead, they would have stayed in Jerusalem, but they didn't.

Hold them to the wrong place, because grace will chase you down. Something special is going to happen in this church today, something special, something significant, but it might start real small. See, we look for God in the dramatic, but he hides in the details. Sit down. Let's go for a walk.

This is just a setup week. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be seven last sayings of Jesus Christ before he died. Last words. We're going to study them, apply them to your life. This is going to be amazing. It really is. We're going to do a devotional on YouTube, Facebook… Did they tell you? Instagram? Everything. Myspace. I'll send a pigeon to your house with the devotion. Do you see what I'm saying? We'll do whatever we have to do as digital discipleship so we can see Jesus in 3D. The first D

It's not destination. It's detour, because God will meet you on the detour, the parts of your journey you didn't ask for, plan for, or pack for. "Feed these people. We didn't bring lunch. You didn't tell us to." Jesus said one time, "I need to go through Samaria." They were like, "That's not the most direct route." See, Jesus is… Lord, I don't mean this in an insulting way, but I think you'll agree. He's inefficient by human standards.

It says in Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. When you try to search for God with your understanding and you say, I'll start my journey when I understand, you will never leave Ur of the Chaldeans, Abraham, because it grows as you go.

with every step you see. So he walks up to them on the detour in the wrong direction toward a destination that has disappeared from our modern maps because it wasn't what happened when they got there. It was what he revealed along the way. What if Christianity is a journey, not a destination? What if salvation was a starting block, not a finish line? What if God's not done with you?

What if you don't have to find out to step out? What if you don't have to know the reason to stay on the road? That's all these two were doing, was walking. They didn't invite Jesus. They didn't pray to Jesus. They didn't go to church. They didn't sing a hymn. They didn't pray a prayer. They didn't memorize a verse. They didn't even join an e-group. But you should, but they didn't.

All they did was walk, and as they're walking along the road to a village called Emmaus, as I'm walking through my life, as I'm raising my kids, as I'm dropping them off, as I'm smacking them as we go toward Emmaus, a seven-mile journey. I'm glad I put that detail, because that lets me know

that he who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete." Seven in the Bible is the number of completion. God created the world in six days. On the seventh day he rested. He didn't rest because he was tired; he rested because he was done.

The Word of God is alive and active. It'll make you holler. It will. It'll make you scream. When the Word of God is alive to you, when Jesus shows up on the road and meets you in your sin and snatches you from your shame, it'll make you holler. You just jump up, and they're going along the road. Touch somebody and say, "I'm going somewhere. I'm going somewhere."

I don't have to know the destination, because every detour he will direct my paths. That's what Proverbs 3:5-6 says. He will direct my paths. That means the straight ones and the crooked ones. He'll bend them all together. That's what grace is. Seven. Seven is the number of completions. Seven times around the walls of Jericho, and they fell. Did you go to Bible school and remember this? Seven miles. They're walking. Cleo and Mrs. Cleo.

They're talking with each other about everything that had happened, how they hung the one they had hoped to be the redeemer on a tree, and how the Romans crucified the one who was supposed to deliver them from their oppression. Look at verse 15. Are you with me? As they talked and discussed these things, these events, the divorce, the job loss, the struggle, the wasted relationship…

that you didn't know how to handle. As they talked about the death of what they had set their expectation on, right there in the middle of it, Jesus himself came up, didn't politely ask to join them on their journey, walked along with them. Have you ever felt like God wouldn't leave you alone even if you wanted him to?

Like you tried to disable your conscience, and you still felt bad smoking it? Come on, talk to me. Don't look at me like you came in church riding in on a chariot, polished a halo. I will come at you. I'll walk right up to you. That's what he did. He walked right up to them, but they were kept from recognizing them. Have you been kept from recognizing resurrection right in front of you? We look for God in the dramatic, but he shows up.

in the details. He takes a walk. "Jesus, you do not have time for this. Let me be his press agent for a little while, okay? We have 40 days. We have to meet with people and make things happen. We have to get this show on the road." He says, "Yeah, on the road. Cleo. I have to meet with Cleo. I have to show myself to Cleo." But he was kept from recognizing. It didn't say he didn't recognize him. Something kept him from recognizing

Resurrection begins in your life when you ask the question, "What is keeping me from recognizing the presence of God that is right there not only beside me but within me?" Can I teach you about this a little bit? Just a little bit. This is an opening week, and it'll get better as it goes, but you have to start somewhere. The journey has to start somewhere, and every journey that is successful begins with the end in mind.

I know it seems kind of backwards that I want to teach you a series on what Jesus said before he died, and I'm starting with the spoiler alert that he's already resurrected and on the road, but when you begin with the end in mind, you see that no matter what I go through in life,

The result is that God will use whatever I go through to reveal his glory. I am convinced that the sufferings of this present time are not even worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in me if I stay on the road. See, I don't understand all the reasons, but I'm on the road. They were kept from recognizing him. How many times have I been kept from recognizing what God was doing right in front of me?

How many times have I been kept from recognizing ordinary moments of joy because I was waiting on things to be perfect?

How many times have I missed a miracle because all I saw was the mess? How many times have I missed the opportunity to give something because I was so centered on myself, how I feel, what I need, what I didn't get? God said, "If you'll change the question and reverse the search, maybe it's not about what is happening to you. Maybe it's what I want to do through you." They hung him high. He didn't come down because he had something to do.

They didn't recognize it. I didn't recognize it. I didn't recognize that my kids were growing up fast, so I didn't make the time. I didn't recognize. I didn't recognize the good things about the person I said I'd spend the rest of my life with, so I started focusing on the things about them that were mildly annoying, and eventually it became an insurmountable resentment. I didn't recognize it.

I didn't recognize that the people I was hanging out with were doing some things that were going to stick with me for the rest of my life, and it became an addiction even though it just started out as an attraction. I didn't recognize. And they were kept. What kept them from recognizing? You can be kept from recognizing the patterns that created your outcomes. You can be kept from recognizing the behaviors that are leading you to the destinations that you hate. You know you hate where you are, but you don't know how you got there. And they were kept.

from recognizing him. He was right there with them. Like that dude who prayed God would save him, and the helicopter came, and he didn't take the helicopter. You know this story. The boat came. He wouldn't get in the boat. He drowned and he died. He said, "God, I asked you to save me." God said, "That helicopter was me. That boat was me. That rejection was me." Yeah.

Even that pain, I let it happen because I wanted to produce a power in your life. The only way I could get it through… Open your eyes. They're walking, and here comes Jesus like a stalker. Come on. It's kind of weird, right? He just shows up in the middle of them, Cleo and Mrs. Cleo, and he asks them a question.

Just sit right down beside them in church, walk up on the road, and I love Jesus. This is comical to me. If you think the Bible is boring, I want to challenge the fact that maybe it's you that it's boring.

Like he doesn't know.

They stood still their faces down everything in this text seems backwards to me y'all he's going toward Emmaus away from Jerusalem That doesn't make sense. He's talking to people that don't seem important. That doesn't make sense He just got up from the dead if you just got up from the dead Would you want to hang around happy people I would want to find somebody who could celebrate Come on, we're gonna pop something I

But Cleo is sad because it didn't go the way he thought. It didn't end up the way he thought. Their faces were downcast, and all of a sudden they stopped walking. The Bible says they stood still, their faces downcast, and they stopped. Apparently Jesus stops with them, and they're sad. Apparently he enters into their sadness, and they start explaining to the one who created life how life was supposed to turn out. I love the Bible.

I'm fascinated by this journey. See, if you read the Bible like a magic rule book, you will never fully understand the extent to which it is meant to speak to your situation and guide your life. If you really get into this thing with me over the next seven weeks, I'm going to show you how God is not scared to walk right up.

In the details of your situation, a bird falls out of the sky, and he counts it and puts it on the ledger, and you think he doesn't know about your loneliness, your tears, your heartbreak, your questions. You think he's intimidated by your skepticism. You think your broken heart can chase him away. The Bible says a broken and a contrite heart he will not despise. The only heart he can't get into is the one that is closed up through pride. But if you open yourself, even with your face downcast…

And Cleo said, "Hey, man, are you…" This is ironic, huh? The host of heaven has come to earth. He died and rose again and lived a perfect life. And Cleo says, "Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem?" Remember, he made it, and they're treating the god of the world like a guest.

It's so funny to me how we get it twisted, how we get it out of order. We start thinking that God needs to consult our blueprint of how our lives need to be built. I can get this way as a pastor, telling God what he needs to do in my church. You get this way as a parent, what God needs to do with your children. Cleopas launches out on this long speech telling Jesus what happened to Jesus.

God has a sense of humor because he lets him talk. Cleopas gives him his speech, and Jesus lets him finish. Are you the only one who doesn't know what happened? The one it happened to is standing there, and Cleo wants to tell him what happened.

See, what had happened was Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. They are standing before the great I Am, and they start with "He was." There he is, and they're stuck in "He was." Are you missing what is because you're stuck in what was?

We hoped he was the one, but it took a turn for the worse. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. Jesus is nodding. Verse 21. Tell me all about it. But we had hope, and had I been Jesus, I would have stopped you right there, because hope that is seen is not hope at all.

If you had hoped and don't hope anymore, what you had wasn't real hope, because real hope can hold on even on Friday. I had hoped it would be over by now. I had hoped the medicine would fix it.

I had hoped they'd say yes. I had hoped they had asked. I had hoped. I had hoped. Hope is standing in front of hopelessness. Christ and Cleo and the cross clashed with Cleo's expectation, and now his experience has left him downcast. I had hoped that he was the one. I thought I'd be further along by now. I thought I'd be married by 26. I thought, hope, they

would be good to me and pay me back and appreciate me after all I did for them. I had hoped he was going to redeem. I had hoped he was going to heal me. Could it be that we miss God because we look for him in the dreams, but he is found in the disappointment? Their faces were downcast. Their hopes were dashed. From their standpoint, the story was over. Since I'm your tour guide on this seven-mile journey, let me give you a professional travel tip.

Don't judge the journey before it's over. I don't know who that was even for. Don't judge the journey of seven miles when you hadn't even been two yet. See what the end will be. If you trust his promise, you have to trust the path. It might be winding, and it might lead to a cross, and it might not feel good, and it might be confusing, but he is the God of the detour.

It might not be spectacular. He might not prove himself to you with signs you can see or sense or feel. It might not be a goose bump that proves his presence. He might show up in the details.

You know, the little things. It might be in the little ways. He's right there on the road. He's walking with them. They almost can't recognize him because it's so common. What's happening is so common. He looks like just another guy. They are standing next to resurrection, and they don't recognize it, and it's right there. He's right there. He is here now. He is. He was. He was.

He is to come, and he's with you in this moment. Hope he was the one. What is more, Cleo says, to make matters worse… Look at verse 21. It's the third day… It's funny. You all don't know that's funny. I'm sorry. I'm just a nerdy little pastor. I get kicked out of weird stuff. It's the third day.

The whole time he was on the earth, he said, "This is going to go bad on Friday, but come Sunday, don't look for me in the tomb they buried. I'm getting up out of here." What they thought was the dead end was really just the beginning. You want to see him in 3D? Look for him in the detours.

You want to see him in 3D? Not this flat little coloring book Jesus with a lamb on his lap, but the living risen Son of God under whose all feet things still sit and stand and strong, seated at the right hand of God. You want to see him like that? Don't look for him in just the dramatic. Look for him in the details, that little thing that God has been doing in your life.

You want to see the Son of God? You want to see Jesus? How many of you want to see him? How many of you want to see God active in your life? I mean with the eyes of your heart to know him. He can be found at the dead ends when you used to hope, and now it's hard to hope. That's where he meets you on your Emmaus road. I'm glad they can't find Emmaus. I'm glad they can't, because that means we each get to have our own. That means I get to have my own Emmaus.

I'm on my own journey. I'm on my own path, and I'm not alone. I don't even like walking very much. I don't have a Fitbit. Everything about this seems backwards, doesn't it? He spent his whole life telling people, "Follow me," and now he's following them. He's come down out of heaven, and instead of people making their way to God, now God has come to us.

He has reversed the search. You weren't even looking for him, and he was looking for you. You weren't even seeking for him, and he was showing himself all along. Cleopas said, we had hoped he was the one. In addition, he said, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning. Wrong place. He's not in the tomb. He's on the road. He's not in religion. He's in relationship. Please help me preach this. I need to know you're receiving it, because…

God told me that some of you are going to come out of tombs, tombs of tradition, and really experience the presence of God. How many want to experience his presence? On the road, our women went to the tomb. They didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. And then some of our companions went to the tomb. This is still Cleo talking, telling Jesus about Jesus.

Still not recognizing what's right beside him. Some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but this is the most ironic verse in all of Scripture: they did not see Jesus. He is telling Jesus about other people who didn't see Jesus, and he doesn't know it's Jesus. Have you ever realized how easy it is to judge somebody else's journey and not even recognize what God is doing in your own?

You better stand up so I can close this message. Jesus said to them, "How foolish you are and slow to believe." That's the problem. Look at me. Every location, watching on television, watching online, I want you to look at me. If you can't look at me, look at the screen. Look at me. It starts in the heart. He said you're slow to believe. You keep trying to make sense of things in your life with your head. You keep trying to figure out the reason for what's happening to you.

and when you can't figure out the reason, you want to jump off the road. You want to stop following. You want to stop trusting when you can't figure it out. But if you would reverse the search and believe in your heart what you have not yet seen with your eyes and believe the goodness of God… Who am I preaching to in the top level of Valentine? If you would get it in here,

This journey doesn't start with making sense. This journey starts with faith. Have faith in God. He's with me on this road.

Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter in his glory? You keep wanting to see the glory, but you're only going to see it in the suffering. He is the God of the detour. He is the God of the detail. He is the God of your dead end, and he has brought you to this moment today. The Spirit of God is in this place. I am preaching out of my mind for somebody who has been on the road.

Watch this. "…beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them…" He took it all the way back to show them that the one the prophets had looked forward to was standing right in front of them. "…and he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." Man, he broke it down. He broke it down on the way, on the road. That's where you learn. It's on the journey.

You don't wait until you understand to get started. You grow as you go. You know as you go. Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking. You'll understand it better by and by. Give it a chance, man. Give him a chance to show you who he is. Hold on to his unchanging hand. Trust his heart.

Even if you can't trace his head. God, I don't get this, but I'm going forward. It's a decision. It's a decision. Can I give you one more thing? I don't want to cheat you. Some people drove a long way to get here. How many of you drove over an hour to be at church today? Over two? Over three? Over four hours? Over five? Six? Seven-hour miracle? Six-hour energy? Whatever.

Touch seven people and say, "We're going somewhere. We're going somewhere. We're going somewhere. We're going somewhere. God didn't save us to leave us like he found us. God didn't save us to leave us like he found us. God didn't create me to stay stuck in one place, one frame of mind, one way of looking at things." Eugene Peterson said, "Every step is an arrival." You got that? Every step. So by the time they arrived, they had already arrived. What was revealed on the road was only recognized in reverse.

What was happening to them as they walked only made sense once they sat down. The same one who got up from the grave… Watch what he does next. They approached the village to which they were going. They got a lot more than they bargained for along the way. They didn't plan for this. They didn't wake up on that morning expecting a miracle. They were mourning the loss of what they had thought was the answer. The answer walked up to them and asked them a brand-new question. I love it. I'm excited about this series.

This is just the beginning. We have a lot of ground to cover. I want you online every day at 7:00 a.m. in the car, treadmill, whatever, under the covers, eye boogers, whatever. Join the journey. You see he's there all along in the little things. They got there to the place. Look at 28 again. They approached the village, and Jesus continued on.

as if he were going farther. The journey starts where you are, but where it ends depends on you. Because they got there, right? And Jesus is like, "Thanks for the company. I'll see you later. See you, Cleo." "Yo, Cleo! I gotta go, Cleo! Got Peter to see. Things to do." Cleo said, "Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Look at verse 29." They urged him strongly. Cleo said, "Although we've come to the end of the Emmaus road,

Still I can't let go. It's unnatural. You can't leave me now. You can't leave me now. You started something. God, you started something in my life. Stay with me till it's over. Stay with me. Hold my hand. Walk with me. Talk with me. I need you. Every hour, stay with me. So he went in to stay with them, and they sat down.

Remember he's this the same God who sent angels to a tomb. He's the god of the dramatic But he's also the god of the details because the Bible says while he was at the table with them. He took bread He's always taken over. He takes over conversations. He takes over supper time He's supposed to be a visitor and he becomes a host and he takes the bread God wants to take your life over today. Don't you see it? You've been doing it on your own

You don't have to do it alone anymore. They invite him in. He takes over, takes the bread, breaks the bread like he was broken, blesses it. "Thank you, Lord." He says, "Grace." And he breaks the bread. He gave them the bread that he had just finished breaking. The Bible says that when he broke the bread to give it to them… I want to show you this. When he broke the bread to give it to them, verse 31, then their eyes were opened.

What was revealed in the routine of the breaking of the bread that was not revealed all along the road? What did they see at that moment that they had not seen before? They saw it in his scars. They saw it in what he suffered. Do you see it? Do you see it? Sometimes you see him in the broken places more than you see him in the blessed places. Sometimes you have to see it in the scars.

And the hands that had held them all along revealed to them when they saw his scars. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. Open our eyes, Lord. Open our eyes. Close your eyes. Quit focusing on what you have to do next. Ask him, "Open my eyes, Lord." Ask him what the disciples asked him. Say, "Stay with me." Tell him, "Come on in. We're going on a journey."

He's with you in this journey. Every mile. Every mile. Every detour. Every detail. Every dead end. Every scar. Every struggle. He's with you.

Thanks again for listening. God bless you.