March 21, 2025 • 50 mins
On the day He defeated death, Jesus took a walk with two previously unknown travelers headed in the wrong direction. The itinerary may seem unusual, but Pastor Steven reveals that what we see as a lack of God's presence may actually be a lack in our perception.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope
it gives your 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.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
How it applies to our lives.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Taking some things that 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. And it
is a journey. And sometimes on the journey you become
so familiar with things that you don't notice them.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
They can just be right there.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I grew up thirty miles from Charleston, South Carolina, and
I love going to Charleston with Holly when we want
to get away for a weekend. Typically we will sneak
away to Charleston. And 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
(01:05):
and some shopping, maybe some carbohydrates too. But we go
to Charleston a little bit, and it's only three and
a half hours from Charlotte. And she asked me one time,
the first time we went, She said, what was it
like growing up so close to such a historic and
beautiful place? I said, never thought about it when I
(01:28):
was a kid. It wasn't a thing. Just you know,
it was Charleston. We never really made it past North Charleston.
That's where the mall was. And I never really even
made it downtown, the place that I pay now to
go and spend the night, I.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Never even drove to.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
It was almost too close to notice until I got
away from it. And 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 a burger restaurant,
burger joint, as the young people say, and that what
(02:08):
the young people call it, a burger joint over at
the five and dime. And I'm gonna get to my
scripture in a minute. Man, it's Luke twenty four or
thirteen through thirty five. 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 got to do, because
we're going on a journey. Tell the person next to
(02:28):
you we're going somewhere. We're going somewhere. So 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 come over. You're
looking at me funny. And 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
(02:51):
send the clips of your Facebook preaching to each other,
my friends in California. I said, cool, that's great, you know,
and all of that. And she brought her fries and
came back another time and she said, they just told
me in the back that your church is here in Charlotte.
(03:11):
I said, well, yeah, it's two miles from here at
this restaurant where I preach from. We have churches in
other places, not just in Charlotte, but it's based in Charlotte.
Like two like we could probably throw a French fry
at it and hit it. And and she said, I
didn't even know it now she's two miles from the church.
(03:33):
You don't need to invite people more, is what I'm saying.
You are not doing your job. It's what that said
to me. But what it really reminded me because I
told her, you know, you can get it on Facebook
and there's little cliffs, but if you really want to
see what makes that special, you gotta get in the
parking lot, see the people there, get a hog from
(03:54):
a greeterer. Have you got kids, You need to drop
your kids off at eat kids and watch how we
teach him. I mean, you really need to get around
the people. This is your lucky day because you're gonna
be my special guest. And 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,
(04:17):
I went to hand on my phone. He said, Daddy
wants said on your wrist. I said, on my wrist?
What's on my wrist? And he was talking about my scar.
I've had this scar since I was four. This scar
is my mom tells me from a childhood incident. She says,
I was playing with a dog bowl, and it was
(04:39):
made of glass. I dropped the dog bowl. The dog
bowl cut my wrist. She said she thought I was
gonna die.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
I don't remember any of this. It's not traumatic for me.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
But I've always had this little Harry Potter thing right
there on my wrists and.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Elijah noticed it. That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
These are the first hands that held his ungrateful butt
and wiped his ungrateful.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
And he never even noticed.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
I mean, how many times have I changed his diaper
with these hands? Probably not many, single digit probably.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
But my point is it can be.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So close and remain unnoticed, so imminent and invisible to us.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
But that doesn't mean it's not there.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Let's go on the road. Seven miles. Let's go. Are
you ready?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I probably shouldn't have worn my white sneakers today.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
They're gonna get dirty.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Because we're going on this Amaeis Road loop. Jesus only
has forty 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.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Eye when that stone rolled away, and.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Now all of Hell is trembling because the temple they
thought they had destroyed has rebuilt himself, just.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Like he said he would. He is resten, he is resin.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And the women went to the tomb, and it's Sunday morning,
and 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
(06:57):
presence and the power of God, the resurrection power of God,
the redemptive power of God, the restoration power of God,
the redeeming.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Power of God.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Because we're searching in the wrong places. They were 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,
(07:33):
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 say, reverse the search?
He is alive and he is real, And the presence
of God is not meant to be an ad on
in or accessory.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
But the operating.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
System of the life of anyone who will choose to
believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that
Jesus Us as Lord and God has.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Raised him from the dead. And he's risen from the.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Dead, and he's gotta go, get the message out, get
on the road, because he's only got forty 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.
And he's got to go, and he's got to show
the world that he's living, so they'll so they'll believe
the proof of the power of his resurrection.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And so he's got to go. What should he do first?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
If he wants to reveal himself to the world and
let him know that the proof is that he is
the son of God in the fact that death.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Could not hold him in, the brave could not keep him.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
And the tomb was borrowed because it wasn't needed for
very long. Where does he go? What does he do?
Perhaps we should perhaps we should host a resurrection reenactment event.
Maybe he can get Barclays, Maybe he can call Jay,
maybe he can maybe he can do it in a
cultural center. Maybe he ought to call Zuck. Maybe you
ought to put this on social Maybe he ought to.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Get it out.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Maybe he can go viral, maybe ought to make a Mean,
what does Jesus do on the day he defeats death?
You might be surprised, because what he does next is
take a walk.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Come on, let's walk.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
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.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
What's that.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Jesus, on the day of his resurrection, with only forty
days to spare, to tell the world that he is
God and convinced 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 watch this just like you and
(09:51):
me walking along, and they were headed toward a village
called Amaeis.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I've been there. Years ago.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
We did an Easter presentation for our church by the
name seven Mile Miracle, and we decided to 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.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
How many of you are fine just.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
To watch it on National Geographic and you don't need
all that, And you're like, well, thank.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
You for your honesty.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
But if you go, they'll tell you when you get there,
they'll say, hey, this is a Maus. And then if
you have a really honest guide, they'll say, I mean,
it's maybe a Mais. We don't know exactly where a
Maais was because it was such an insignificant place in
its day that there is no archaeological evidence that this
(10:43):
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,
(11:04):
we think that Jesus needs a shout out from Kim
or Kanye. We act like Jesus needs an oscar for
best resurrection. But instead he goes on this dirty road,
this a little road, real tiny road.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
The one that they say he might have walked. I
walked in.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
And he meets up with two people. And it's not
Zuck and it's not Trump. Now watch, they're walking toward
to Mais. Jesus died in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the place
where the Passover feast had just been celebrated. Jerusalem was
(11:49):
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.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
What kind of God is this?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Who would speak to you in a crowd of thousands
and would bring you to this place at this moment?
And 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. It once,
the eternal Word of God, who was in the beginning
(12:25):
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 need will bow and tonge confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father, and
God has exalted Jesus to the highest place, given them
the name that is above every name, that's happening, and
these two unnamed people most scholars say probably a husband
(12:49):
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 life is, the
people who were overlooked. He would work a miracle with
the little kid's lunch. In their math, kids didn't count,
But in Jesus' math, that's where the multiplication was in
(13:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
You might think you can only go.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
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
(13:41):
do we know that the name of the man was
Cleopus Jesus Christ and Cleo that's what his friend's call him.
And since we're going on this walk with him, we
should call him by his nickname Cleo. And they're walking
(14:02):
to a village called a Maaeas, a village that nobody
even knows where it really is today. I mean, they
can guess, but they don't. They're going toward a Maas.
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 that no one
(14:24):
would even remember. Could it be possible that we look
for God in the destination? But he is the God
of the detour. Can I preach on this for about
fifteen or thirty minutes? He is the God of the detour.
(14:45):
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 to people we've
never met before. Because he is not the God of
a rival. He is the God of the first step
and the second step and every step. He's with me
(15:08):
when I'm right, he's with me when I'm wrong. He's
with me when I'm going forward.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
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. And they're
walking the wrong way.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
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.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
But they didn't, and God followed them to the wrong place.
Because grace will chase you down.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Some special is going to happen in this church today,
something special, something significant.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
But it might start real small.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
See, we look for God in the dramatic, but he
hides in the details.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Sit down, let's go for a walk. This is just
a setup week. Man, it's gonna be amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
It's gonna be seven last sayings of Jesus Christ before
he died last worse. We're gonna study them, apply them
to your life.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
This is gonna be amazing, It really is.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
We're gonna do a devotional on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Facebook.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Did they tell you Instagram, everything, my Space.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
I'll send a pigeon to your house with the devotion.
You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
We'll do whatever we have to do is digital discipleship,
so we can see Jesus in three D and the
first d is not destination, it's detour, because God will
meet you on the detour the parts of your journey.
You didn't ask for a plan for or pack for
(16:58):
feed these people. We didn't bring lunch. You didn't tell
us to. Jesus said one time, I need to go
through Samaria, and they were like, that's not the most
direct route.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
See Jesus is or I don't mean this in an
insulting way, but I think you'll.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Agree he's inefficient by human standards. It says in Proverbs
three five and six 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
(17:38):
earth of the Chaldeans Abraham, because it grows as you go,
with every step you see. And 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
(18:02):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
What if God's not done with you?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
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 helm,
they didn't pray a prayer, they didn't memorize a verse.
They didn't even join any group. But you should, but
(18:42):
they didn't. All they did was walk. And as they're
walking along the road to a village called to Maaeus,
as I'm.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Walking through my life.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
As I'm raising my kids, as I'm dropping them off,
as I'm smacking them as we go, tour to me
is a seven mile journey. I'm glad to put that
detail because that lets me know that He began a
good work in me, will be faithful to complete. Seven
(19:13):
in the Bible is a 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.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
He was done. You like that.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I love y'all so much. I love y'all so much.
I love sharing the word of God with you. 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 sin, it'll thank you holler. You just
(19:51):
jump up. And they're they're going along the road. Touch
somebody say, I'm going somewhere. I'm going somewhere, and I
don't have to know the destination, because every detour he
will direct my past. That's what Proverbs three five and sixcess.
He will direct my paths. That means the straight ones
(20:11):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Did you go to Bible school, you remember this? Seven miles,
seven miles.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
They're walking Cleo and missus Cleo. They're talking with each
other about everything that had happened. How they hung the
one that they had hoped to be the redeemer on
a tree, and how the Romans had crucified the one
(20:50):
that was supposed to deliver them from their oppression, and
as they look at verse fifteen with me, as they
talked and discussed these things, these events, the divorce, the
(21:12):
job loss, the struggle, the wasted relationship that you.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Didn't know how to handle.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
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.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Have you ever felt like God wouldn't leave you alone.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Even if you wanted him to, Like you tried to
disable your conscience and you still felt bad smoking it.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Come on, talk to me. Don't look at me like
you came in church riding in on a chariot, polish
a halo, I come at you, walk right up to you.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
That's what he did. He walked up right up to him.
But they were kept from recognizing them. Have you been
kept from recognizing resurrection right in front of you because
we looked for God in the dramatic, but he shows
up in the details. He takes a walk. Jesuys, you
(22:27):
do not have time for this. Let me be his
press agent for a little while. Okay, we got forty days.
We got to meet with people, make things happen. We
gotta get this show on the road. He says, Yeah,
on the road with Cleo. I gotta meet with Clear,
I gotta I gotta show myself to Cleo.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
But he was kept from recognizing.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
It. Didn't say that he didn't recognize him. Something kept
him from recognizing. And 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.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Beside me, but within me. Can I teach you about
this a little bit, just a little bit.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
This is an opening week and it'll get better as
it goes, But you got to start somewhere. The journey
has to start somewhere, and every journey that is successful begins.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
With the end in mind.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
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.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
On the road.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
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.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Reveal his glory.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
I am convinced that the sufferings of this present time
are not even worthy to be compared with the glory that.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Will be revealed in me. Stay on the road.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
See I don't understand all the reasons, but I'm.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
On the road.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
And 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
(24:29):
the mess? How many times have I missed the opportunity
to give something because.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I was so centered on myself? How I feel, what
I need? What I didn't get?
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And God said, if you'll change the question and reverse
the search, maybe it's not about what is happening to you.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Maybe it's what I want to do through you. They
hung him hot. He didn't dump down. He had something
to do.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
They didn't recognize 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
(25:20):
it became an insurmountable resentment.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I didn't recognize.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Of my life.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
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
(25:50):
to the destinations that you hate.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
You know, you hate where you are, but you don't
know how you got there.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And they were kept from recognizing him. And he was
right there with him, like that dude who prayed God
would save him. And the helicopter came and he didn't
take the helicopter. You know this story, boat came, he
wouldn't get in the boat. He drowned and he died
and he said, God, ask you to save me. And
God said that helicopter was me, that boat was me.
(26:24):
That rejection was me. Yeah, even that pain, I let
it happen because I wanted to produce a.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Power in your life. And the only way I could get.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
It through and open your eyes. And 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 him Cleo and Missus Cleo, and he asks him
a question. Just sit right down beside him in church,
(26:59):
walk up on the road, and I love Jesus.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
This is comical to me.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
If you think the Bible is boring, I want to
challenge the fact that maybe it's you.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
That is boring. And you huh.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Huh, because watch this, This is some funny stuff. The
author of life, who knows all things, who lays bare
the intents of every heart, who created Cleo and Missus
Cleo before the foundations of the earth for an express purpose,
by whom and through whom and for whom all things
are created. That's Jesus, the Word made flesh full of
grace and truth.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Walks up to Cleo and says, what y'all talking about?
Like he doesn't know? And they stood still, their faces down.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Everything in this textings backwards to me, y'all, he's going
Tortimaeus 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. But Cleo
(28:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Of a sudden they stopped walking.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
My Bible says they stood still, their faces downcast, and
they stop, and apparently Jesus stops with them, and they're sad,
and apparently he enters into their sadness, and they start
explaining to the one who created life how life was
(28:39):
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 I'm gonna
(29:00):
show you how God is not scared to walk right up.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
In the details of your situation.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
A bird falls out 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 heart break,
your question. 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, as the one
that is closed up through pride. But if you open yourself,
(29:29):
even with your face down cast, And Cleo said, hey, man,
are you this is Ironica. 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
(29:51):
one visiting Jerusalem? Remember he made it. Reading the God
of the world like a guest is so funny to me.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
How we get it twisted, How we get it out
of order?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
We start 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. Cleo launches out on this long excuse me.
Clopus launches out on this long, long speech, telling Jesus
(30:31):
what happened to Jesus?
Speaker 1 (30:35):
You find me. God has a sense of humor because
he lets him talk.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Cleopus gives him is 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. What that happened was
Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet, powerful in word, indeed
(31:05):
before God and all the people. They are standing before
the Great I Am, and they start with he was,
and there he is, and they're stuck in he was?
Are you missing what is? Because you're stuck in what was?
(31:30):
We hoped he was the one, but it took a
turn for the worst. The chief priests and our rulers
handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they
crucified him. Jesus is nodding Verse twenty one, tell me
all about it. But we had hope, And had I
been Jesus, I'd have stopped you right there, cause hope
that is seen is not hope at all, And if
(31:54):
you had hoped and don't hope anymore, what you had
was in.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Real hope, because real hopes can hold on. And on Friday,
I had hoped, I had hoped.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
To be over by now. I had hoped the medicine
would fix it. I had hoped they'd say yes. I
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
(32:35):
experience has left him downcast. We had hoped that he
was the one. I thought i'd be further along by now.
Thought i'd be married by twenty six. I thought I
(32:56):
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 me. I
had hoped he was going to heal me. Could it
(33:17):
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, and from
their standpoint, the story was over. Since I'm your tour
(33:41):
guide on the seven mile journey, let me give you
A professional travel tip, don't judge the journey before it's over.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
I don't know who that was even for.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Don't judge the journey of seven miles when you had
any haven't been too yet. See what the end will be,
See what the end will be. If you trust his promise,
you have to trust the path. And it might be winding,
and it might lead to a cross, and it might
(34:17):
not feel good, and it might be confusing.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
But he is the god of the detour.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
And it might not be spectacular, and he might not
prove himself to you with signs that you can see
or sense or feel. And it might not be a
goosebump 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,
(34:44):
he's walking with him. 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.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
And it's right there. He's right there. He is here now,
he is, he was, he is to come, and he's
with you in this moment. I hope he was the one.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
And what is more, Cleo says, to make matters worse,
look at twenty one.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
It's the third day. It's funny, Yellow know that's funny.
I'm sorry. I'm just a nerdy little pastor. I get
kicks out of weird stuff. It's the third day. The
whole time he was on the.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Earth, he said, this is gonna.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Go bad on Friday, but come Sunday. Don't look for
me in the tomb. They buried me, and I did
not out here.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
And what they thought was the dead end was really
just the beginning. You want to see him in three D.
Look for him in the detours.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
You want to see him in three D.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Not this flat little coloring book Jesus with the lamb
on his lap.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
But the living, risen Son of.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
God under who's off feet things, still sit and standing 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
little thing that God has been doing in your life.
(36:48):
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.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
He can be found at the dead.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Ends when you used to hope and now it's hard
to hope. That's where he meets you on your Amais road.
I'm glad they can't find a Mais. I'm glad they
can't because that means we each get to have our own.
(37:27):
That means I get to have my own Amais.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
You know, I'm on my own journey.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
I'm on my own path and I'm not alone.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
I don't even like walking very much. I don't have
a fitbit.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Everything about this seems backwards, doesn't it. He spent his
whole life telling people follow me, and now he's following them.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
He's come down out of heaven.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Instead of people making their way to God, now God
has come to us.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
He has reversed the search.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
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. And Cleopas said, we had
hoped he was the one. And in addition, he said,
some of our women amazed us. They went to the
(38:30):
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.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Please help me prist us.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
I need to know you're receiving it, because God told.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Me that some of you are going to come out
of tombs, tombs of tradition and.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Really experience the presence of God. How many want to
experience his presses?
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Find it on the road.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
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
(39:36):
what's right beside him. Some of our companions went to
the tomb and found it, just as the women had said.
But this most ironic verse in all the scripture. They
did not see Jesus. He is telling Jesus about other
people who didn't.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
See Jesus, and he doesn't know it's Jesus. Have you
ever realized how.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Easy it is to judge somebody.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Else's journey and not.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Even recognize what God is doing in your own.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Go better, stand up so I can close this message.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Jesus said to them, how foolish you are and slow
to believe.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
That's the problem.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Look at me every location, watching on television, watching online.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
I want you to.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
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.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
In your life with your head.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
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.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
But if you would verse the search and believe in
your heart what you have not yet seen.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
With your eyes, and believe the goodness of God, who
am I preaching to in the top level of Valentine, if.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
You would get it.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
In here, this journey doesn't start with making sense. This
journey starts with faith.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Have faith in God. He's with me on this road.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
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.
(42:00):
I am preaching out of my mind for somebody who
has been on the road watched 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 that the prophets had looked forward to was standing
(42:22):
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, is on the journeys,
(42:45):
where you don't wait till you understand to get started.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
You grow as you go. You know as your goal.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Keep walking, keep walking, keep walking, deep walking, keep walking.
You all your stand you didn't better buy and five.
Give it a chance, man, give it a chance to do.
Give him a chance to show.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
You who he is. Hold on to his unchanging hand,
trust his.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Heart, even if you can't trace his hand. God, I
don't get this well, I'm going forward. It's a decision.
It's a decision.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Can I give you.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
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?
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Over two, over.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Three, over four hours, over five, six, seven hour, miracle,
six hour energy whatever?
Speaker 1 (43:54):
Touch Seven people said, 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 save us
to leave us like you found us.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
God didn't create me to stay suck in one place,
one frame of mind, one way of looking at things.
And every step Eugene Peterson said, every step is in arrival.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
You got that every step.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
So by the time they arrived, they had already arrived,
and 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. And the same
one who got up from the grave, watch what he
does next. They approached the village to which they were going,
(44:39):
they got a lot more than they bargained for along
the way.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
They didn't plan for this.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
They didn't wake up on that morning expecting a miracle,
they were mourning the loss of what they had thought
was the answer, and the answer walked up to them
and asked them a brand new question.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
I love it. I'm excited about this series. This is
the beginning. This just the beginning. We we we we we,
We got a lot of ground to cover. I want
you online every day at seven am.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
On in the car, treadmill, whatever, under the covers, eye boogers, whatever.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Yeah, join the journey. Join the journey.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
You see, he's there all along in the little things,
just the little little things. And and and they got there,
to the to the place. Look at twenty eight again,
twenty eight, twenty eight, twenty and they.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Approached the village, and Jesus continued on as if he
were going farther.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
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.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
See you.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Cleo, Yo, Cleo, I gotta go. Cleo got Peter to
see things to do.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Cleo said, hold on, hold on, hold, hold on. Look
at verse twenty nine. They urged him strongly.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Cleo said, although we've come to the end of the
amaeas road. Still, I can't let go. It's unnatural. You
can't leave me now. You can't leave me. Now you
(46:42):
started something, God, You've started something.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
In my life. Stay with me till it's sober.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Stay with me, hold my head, walk with me, talk
with me.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
I mean you, every hour, stay with me.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
So he went in to stay with them, and they
sat down. Remember he's 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.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
He's always taken over.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
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.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
You don't have to do it alone anymore. They invite
him in.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
He takes over, takes the bread, breaks the bread like
he was broken.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
Blesses it.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
Thank you Lord, he says, grace, and he breaks the bread.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
He gave him the bread that he had just finished breaking.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
And 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 thirty one.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Then their eyes were open.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
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 stars, They
(48:48):
saw it in what he suffered.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Do you see it? Do you see it?
Speaker 2 (48:56):
Sometimes you see him in the broken places more than
when you see him in the blessed places. Sometimes you
have to see it in the scarf and the hands
that had helped them all along revealed to them.
Speaker 3 (49:14):
When they saw his scars, then their eyes were opened
and they recognized him. Open our eyes, Lord, open our eyes,
open our eyes.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Close your eyes. Quit focusing on what you got to
do next. Close your eyes. Ask him.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
Open my eyes, Lord, out loud, Open my eyes, Lord.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
Ask him what the disciples asked him say, Stay with me,
tell them come on in going on a journey.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
Yeah, And he's with you in this journey.
Speaker 4 (49:57):
Every mile, every detour, every detail, every dead end, every scar,
every struggle, He's with you.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope
it gives your 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.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
How it applies to our lives.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Taking some things that 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. And it
is a journey. And sometimes on the journey you become
so familiar with things that you don't notice them.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
They can just be right there.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I grew up thirty miles from Charleston, South Carolina, and
I love going to Charleston with Holly when we want
to get away for a weekend. Typically we will sneak
away to Charleston. And 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
(01:05):
and some shopping, maybe some carbohydrates too. But we go
to Charleston a little bit, and it's only three and
a half hours from Charlotte. And she asked me one time,
the first time we went, She said, what was it
like growing up so close to such a historic and
beautiful place? I said, never thought about it when I
(01:28):
was a kid. It wasn't a thing. Just you know,
it was Charleston. We never really made it past North Charleston.
That's where the mall was. And I never really even
made it downtown, the place that I pay now to
go and spend the night, I.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Never even drove to.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
It was almost too close to notice until I got
away from it. And 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 a burger restaurant,
burger joint, as the young people say, and that what
(02:08):
the young people call it, a burger joint over at
the five and dime. And I'm gonna get to my
scripture in a minute. Man, it's Luke twenty four or
thirteen through thirty five. 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 got to do, because
we're going on a journey. Tell the person next to
(02:28):
you we're going somewhere. We're going somewhere. So 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 come over. You're
looking at me funny. And 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
(02:51):
send the clips of your Facebook preaching to each other,
my friends in California. I said, cool, that's great, you know,
and all of that. And she brought her fries and
came back another time and she said, they just told
me in the back that your church is here in Charlotte.
(03:11):
I said, well, yeah, it's two miles from here at
this restaurant where I preach from. We have churches in
other places, not just in Charlotte, but it's based in Charlotte.
Like two like we could probably throw a French fry
at it and hit it. And and she said, I
didn't even know it now she's two miles from the church.
(03:33):
You don't need to invite people more, is what I'm saying.
You are not doing your job. It's what that said
to me. But what it really reminded me because I
told her, you know, you can get it on Facebook
and there's little cliffs, but if you really want to
see what makes that special, you gotta get in the
parking lot, see the people there, get a hog from
(03:54):
a greeterer. Have you got kids, You need to drop
your kids off at eat kids and watch how we
teach him. I mean, you really need to get around
the people. This is your lucky day because you're gonna
be my special guest. And 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,
(04:17):
I went to hand on my phone. He said, Daddy
wants said on your wrist. I said, on my wrist?
What's on my wrist? And he was talking about my scar.
I've had this scar since I was four. This scar
is my mom tells me from a childhood incident. She says,
I was playing with a dog bowl, and it was
(04:39):
made of glass. I dropped the dog bowl. The dog
bowl cut my wrist. She said she thought I was
gonna die.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
I don't remember any of this. It's not traumatic for me.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
But I've always had this little Harry Potter thing right
there on my wrists and.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Elijah noticed it. That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
These are the first hands that held his ungrateful butt
and wiped his ungrateful.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
And he never even noticed.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
I mean, how many times have I changed his diaper
with these hands? Probably not many, single digit probably.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
But my point is it can be.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So close and remain unnoticed, so imminent and invisible to us.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
But that doesn't mean it's not there.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Let's go on the road. Seven miles. Let's go. Are
you ready?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I probably shouldn't have worn my white sneakers today.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
They're gonna get dirty.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Because we're going on this Amaeis Road loop. Jesus only
has forty 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.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Eye when that stone rolled away, and.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Now all of Hell is trembling because the temple they
thought they had destroyed has rebuilt himself, just.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Like he said he would. He is resten, he is resin.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And the women went to the tomb, and it's Sunday morning,
and 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
(06:57):
presence and the power of God, the resurrection power of God,
the redemptive power of God, the restoration power of God,
the redeeming.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Power of God.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Because we're searching in the wrong places. They were 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,
(07:33):
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 say, reverse the search?
He is alive and he is real, And the presence
of God is not meant to be an ad on
in or accessory.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
But the operating.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
System of the life of anyone who will choose to
believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that
Jesus Us as Lord and God has.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Raised him from the dead. And he's risen from the.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Dead, and he's gotta go, get the message out, get
on the road, because he's only got forty 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.
And he's got to go, and he's got to show
the world that he's living, so they'll so they'll believe
the proof of the power of his resurrection.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And so he's got to go. What should he do first?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
If he wants to reveal himself to the world and
let him know that the proof is that he is
the son of God in the fact that death.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Could not hold him in, the brave could not keep him.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
And the tomb was borrowed because it wasn't needed for
very long. Where does he go? What does he do?
Perhaps we should perhaps we should host a resurrection reenactment event.
Maybe he can get Barclays, Maybe he can call Jay,
maybe he can maybe he can do it in a
cultural center. Maybe he ought to call Zuck. Maybe you
ought to put this on social Maybe he ought to.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Get it out.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Maybe he can go viral, maybe ought to make a Mean,
what does Jesus do on the day he defeats death?
You might be surprised, because what he does next is
take a walk.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Come on, let's walk.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
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.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
What's that.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Jesus, on the day of his resurrection, with only forty
days to spare, to tell the world that he is
God and convinced 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 watch this just like you and
(09:51):
me walking along, and they were headed toward a village
called Amaeis.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I've been there. Years ago.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
We did an Easter presentation for our church by the
name seven Mile Miracle, and we decided to 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.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
How many of you are fine just.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
To watch it on National Geographic and you don't need
all that, And you're like, well, thank.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
You for your honesty.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
But if you go, they'll tell you when you get there,
they'll say, hey, this is a Maus. And then if
you have a really honest guide, they'll say, I mean,
it's maybe a Mais. We don't know exactly where a
Maais was because it was such an insignificant place in
its day that there is no archaeological evidence that this
(10:43):
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,
(11:04):
we think that Jesus needs a shout out from Kim
or Kanye. We act like Jesus needs an oscar for
best resurrection. But instead he goes on this dirty road,
this a little road, real tiny road.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
The one that they say he might have walked. I
walked in.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
And he meets up with two people. And it's not
Zuck and it's not Trump. Now watch, they're walking toward
to Mais. Jesus died in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the place
where the Passover feast had just been celebrated. Jerusalem was
(11:49):
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.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
What kind of God is this?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Who would speak to you in a crowd of thousands
and would bring you to this place at this moment?
And 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. It once,
the eternal Word of God, who was in the beginning
(12:25):
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 need will bow and tonge confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father, and
God has exalted Jesus to the highest place, given them
the name that is above every name, that's happening, and
these two unnamed people most scholars say probably a husband
(12:49):
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 life is, the
people who were overlooked. He would work a miracle with
the little kid's lunch. In their math, kids didn't count,
But in Jesus' math, that's where the multiplication was in
(13:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
You might think you can only go.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
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
(13:41):
do we know that the name of the man was
Cleopus Jesus Christ and Cleo that's what his friend's call him.
And since we're going on this walk with him, we
should call him by his nickname Cleo. And they're walking
(14:02):
to a village called a Maaeas, a village that nobody
even knows where it really is today. I mean, they
can guess, but they don't. They're going toward a Maas.
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 that no one
(14:24):
would even remember. Could it be possible that we look
for God in the destination? But he is the God
of the detour. Can I preach on this for about
fifteen or thirty minutes? He is the God of the detour.
(14:45):
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 to people we've
never met before. Because he is not the God of
a rival. He is the God of the first step
and the second step and every step. He's with me
(15:08):
when I'm right, he's with me when I'm wrong. He's
with me when I'm going forward.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
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. And they're
walking the wrong way.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
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.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
But they didn't, and God followed them to the wrong place.
Because grace will chase you down.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Some special is going to happen in this church today,
something special, something significant.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
But it might start real small.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
See, we look for God in the dramatic, but he
hides in the details.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Sit down, let's go for a walk. This is just
a setup week. Man, it's gonna be amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
It's gonna be seven last sayings of Jesus Christ before
he died last worse. We're gonna study them, apply them
to your life.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
This is gonna be amazing, It really is.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
We're gonna do a devotional on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Facebook.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Did they tell you Instagram, everything, my Space.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
I'll send a pigeon to your house with the devotion.
You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
We'll do whatever we have to do is digital discipleship,
so we can see Jesus in three D and the
first d is not destination, it's detour, because God will
meet you on the detour the parts of your journey.
You didn't ask for a plan for or pack for
(16:58):
feed these people. We didn't bring lunch. You didn't tell
us to. Jesus said one time, I need to go
through Samaria, and they were like, that's not the most
direct route.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
See Jesus is or I don't mean this in an
insulting way, but I think you'll.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Agree he's inefficient by human standards. It says in Proverbs
three five and six 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
(17:38):
earth of the Chaldeans Abraham, because it grows as you go,
with every step you see. And 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
(18:02):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
What if God's not done with you?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
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 helm,
they didn't pray a prayer, they didn't memorize a verse.
They didn't even join any group. But you should, but
(18:42):
they didn't. All they did was walk. And as they're
walking along the road to a village called to Maaeus,
as I'm.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Walking through my life.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
As I'm raising my kids, as I'm dropping them off,
as I'm smacking them as we go, tour to me
is a seven mile journey. I'm glad to put that
detail because that lets me know that He began a
good work in me, will be faithful to complete. Seven
(19:13):
in the Bible is a 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.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
He was done. You like that.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I love y'all so much. I love y'all so much.
I love sharing the word of God with you. 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 sin, it'll thank you holler. You just
(19:51):
jump up. And they're they're going along the road. Touch
somebody say, I'm going somewhere. I'm going somewhere, and I
don't have to know the destination, because every detour he
will direct my past. That's what Proverbs three five and sixcess.
He will direct my paths. That means the straight ones
(20:11):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Did you go to Bible school, you remember this? Seven miles,
seven miles.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
They're walking Cleo and missus Cleo. They're talking with each
other about everything that had happened. How they hung the
one that they had hoped to be the redeemer on
a tree, and how the Romans had crucified the one
(20:50):
that was supposed to deliver them from their oppression, and
as they look at verse fifteen with me, as they
talked and discussed these things, these events, the divorce, the
(21:12):
job loss, the struggle, the wasted relationship that you.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Didn't know how to handle.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
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.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Have you ever felt like God wouldn't leave you alone.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Even if you wanted him to, Like you tried to
disable your conscience and you still felt bad smoking it.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Come on, talk to me. Don't look at me like
you came in church riding in on a chariot, polish
a halo, I come at you, walk right up to you.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
That's what he did. He walked up right up to him.
But they were kept from recognizing them. Have you been
kept from recognizing resurrection right in front of you because
we looked for God in the dramatic, but he shows
up in the details. He takes a walk. Jesuys, you
(22:27):
do not have time for this. Let me be his
press agent for a little while. Okay, we got forty days.
We got to meet with people, make things happen. We
gotta get this show on the road. He says, Yeah,
on the road with Cleo. I gotta meet with Clear,
I gotta I gotta show myself to Cleo.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
But he was kept from recognizing.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
It. Didn't say that he didn't recognize him. Something kept
him from recognizing. And 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.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Beside me, but within me. Can I teach you about
this a little bit, just a little bit.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
This is an opening week and it'll get better as
it goes, But you got to start somewhere. The journey
has to start somewhere, and every journey that is successful begins.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
With the end in mind.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
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.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
On the road.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
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.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Reveal his glory.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
I am convinced that the sufferings of this present time
are not even worthy to be compared with the glory that.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Will be revealed in me. Stay on the road.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
See I don't understand all the reasons, but I'm.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
On the road.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
And 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
(24:29):
the mess? How many times have I missed the opportunity
to give something because.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I was so centered on myself? How I feel, what
I need? What I didn't get?
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And God said, if you'll change the question and reverse
the search, maybe it's not about what is happening to you.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Maybe it's what I want to do through you. They
hung him hot. He didn't dump down. He had something
to do.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
They didn't recognize 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
(25:20):
it became an insurmountable resentment.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I didn't recognize.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Of my life.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
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
(25:50):
to the destinations that you hate.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
You know, you hate where you are, but you don't
know how you got there.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
And they were kept from recognizing him. And he was
right there with him, like that dude who prayed God
would save him. And the helicopter came and he didn't
take the helicopter. You know this story, boat came, he
wouldn't get in the boat. He drowned and he died
and he said, God, ask you to save me. And
God said that helicopter was me, that boat was me.
(26:24):
That rejection was me. Yeah, even that pain, I let
it happen because I wanted to produce a.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Power in your life. And the only way I could get.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
It through and open your eyes. And 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 him Cleo and Missus Cleo, and he asks him
a question. Just sit right down beside him in church,
(26:59):
walk up on the road, and I love Jesus.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
This is comical to me.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
If you think the Bible is boring, I want to
challenge the fact that maybe it's you.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
That is boring. And you huh.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Huh, because watch this, This is some funny stuff. The
author of life, who knows all things, who lays bare
the intents of every heart, who created Cleo and Missus
Cleo before the foundations of the earth for an express purpose,
by whom and through whom and for whom all things
are created. That's Jesus, the Word made flesh full of
grace and truth.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Walks up to Cleo and says, what y'all talking about?
Like he doesn't know? And they stood still, their faces down.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Everything in this textings backwards to me, y'all, he's going
Tortimaeus 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. But Cleo
(28:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Of a sudden they stopped walking.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
My Bible says they stood still, their faces downcast, and
they stop, and apparently Jesus stops with them, and they're sad,
and apparently he enters into their sadness, and they start
explaining to the one who created life how life was
(28:39):
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 I'm gonna
(29:00):
show you how God is not scared to walk right up.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
In the details of your situation.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
A bird falls out 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 heart break,
your question. 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, as the one
that is closed up through pride. But if you open yourself,
(29:29):
even with your face down cast, And Cleo said, hey, man,
are you this is Ironica. 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
(29:51):
one visiting Jerusalem? Remember he made it. Reading the God
of the world like a guest is so funny to me.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
How we get it twisted, How we get it out
of order?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
We start 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. Cleo launches out on this long excuse me.
Clopus launches out on this long, long speech, telling Jesus
(30:31):
what happened to Jesus?
Speaker 1 (30:35):
You find me. God has a sense of humor because
he lets him talk.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Cleopus gives him is 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. What that happened was
Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet, powerful in word, indeed
(31:05):
before God and all the people. They are standing before
the Great I Am, and they start with he was,
and there he is, and they're stuck in he was?
Are you missing what is? Because you're stuck in what was?
(31:30):
We hoped he was the one, but it took a
turn for the worst. The chief priests and our rulers
handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they
crucified him. Jesus is nodding Verse twenty one, tell me
all about it. But we had hope, And had I
been Jesus, I'd have stopped you right there, cause hope
that is seen is not hope at all, And if
(31:54):
you had hoped and don't hope anymore, what you had
was in.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Real hope, because real hopes can hold on. And on Friday,
I had hoped, I had hoped.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
To be over by now. I had hoped the medicine
would fix it. I had hoped they'd say yes. I
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
(32:35):
experience has left him downcast. We had hoped that he
was the one. I thought i'd be further along by now.
Thought i'd be married by twenty six. I thought I
(32:56):
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 me. I
had hoped he was going to heal me. Could it
(33:17):
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, and from
their standpoint, the story was over. Since I'm your tour
(33:41):
guide on the seven mile journey, let me give you
A professional travel tip, don't judge the journey before it's over.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
I don't know who that was even for.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Don't judge the journey of seven miles when you had
any haven't been too yet. See what the end will be,
See what the end will be. If you trust his promise,
you have to trust the path. And it might be winding,
and it might lead to a cross, and it might
(34:17):
not feel good, and it might be confusing.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
But he is the god of the detour.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
And it might not be spectacular, and he might not
prove himself to you with signs that you can see
or sense or feel. And it might not be a
goosebump 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,
(34:44):
he's walking with him. 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.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
And it's right there. He's right there. He is here now,
he is, he was, he is to come, and he's
with you in this moment. I hope he was the one.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
And what is more, Cleo says, to make matters worse,
look at twenty one.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
It's the third day. It's funny, Yellow know that's funny.
I'm sorry. I'm just a nerdy little pastor. I get
kicks out of weird stuff. It's the third day. The
whole time he was on the.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Earth, he said, this is gonna.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Go bad on Friday, but come Sunday. Don't look for
me in the tomb. They buried me, and I did
not out here.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
And what they thought was the dead end was really
just the beginning. You want to see him in three D.
Look for him in the detours.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
You want to see him in three D.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Not this flat little coloring book Jesus with the lamb
on his lap.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
But the living, risen Son of.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
God under who's off feet things, still sit and standing 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
little thing that God has been doing in your life.
(36:48):
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.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
He can be found at the dead.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Ends when you used to hope and now it's hard
to hope. That's where he meets you on your Amais road.
I'm glad they can't find a Mais. I'm glad they
can't because that means we each get to have our own.
(37:27):
That means I get to have my own Amais.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
You know, I'm on my own journey.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
I'm on my own path and I'm not alone.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
I don't even like walking very much. I don't have
a fitbit.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
Everything about this seems backwards, doesn't it. He spent his
whole life telling people follow me, and now he's following them.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
He's come down out of heaven.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Instead of people making their way to God, now God
has come to us.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
He has reversed the search.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
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. And Cleopas said, we had
hoped he was the one. And in addition, he said,
some of our women amazed us. They went to the
(38:30):
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.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Please help me prist us.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
I need to know you're receiving it, because God told.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Me that some of you are going to come out
of tombs, tombs of tradition and.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Really experience the presence of God. How many want to
experience his presses?
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Find it on the road.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
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
(39:36):
what's right beside him. Some of our companions went to
the tomb and found it, just as the women had said.
But this most ironic verse in all the scripture. They
did not see Jesus. He is telling Jesus about other
people who didn't.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
See Jesus, and he doesn't know it's Jesus. Have you
ever realized how.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Easy it is to judge somebody.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Else's journey and not.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Even recognize what God is doing in your own.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
Go better, stand up so I can close this message.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
Jesus said to them, how foolish you are and slow
to believe.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
That's the problem.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Look at me every location, watching on television, watching online.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
I want you to.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
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.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
In your life with your head.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
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.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
But if you would verse the search and believe in
your heart what you have not yet seen.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
With your eyes, and believe the goodness of God, who
am I preaching to in the top level of Valentine, if.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
You would get it.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
In here, this journey doesn't start with making sense. This
journey starts with faith.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Have faith in God. He's with me on this road.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
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.
(42:00):
I am preaching out of my mind for somebody who
has been on the road watched 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 that the prophets had looked forward to was standing
(42:22):
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, is on the journeys,
(42:45):
where you don't wait till you understand to get started.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
You grow as you go. You know as your goal.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
Keep walking, keep walking, keep walking, deep walking, keep walking.
You all your stand you didn't better buy and five.
Give it a chance, man, give it a chance to do.
Give him a chance to show.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
You who he is. Hold on to his unchanging hand,
trust his.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Heart, even if you can't trace his hand. God, I
don't get this well, I'm going forward. It's a decision.
It's a decision.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Can I give you.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
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?
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Over two, over.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Three, over four hours, over five, six, seven hour, miracle,
six hour energy whatever?
Speaker 1 (43:54):
Touch Seven people said, 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 save us
to leave us like you found us.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
God didn't create me to stay suck in one place,
one frame of mind, one way of looking at things.
And every step Eugene Peterson said, every step is in arrival.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
You got that every step.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
So by the time they arrived, they had already arrived,
and 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. And the same
one who got up from the grave, watch what he
does next. They approached the village to which they were going,
(44:39):
they got a lot more than they bargained for along
the way.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
They didn't plan for this.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
They didn't wake up on that morning expecting a miracle,
they were mourning the loss of what they had thought
was the answer, and the answer walked up to them
and asked them a brand new question.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
I love it. I'm excited about this series. This is
the beginning. This just the beginning. We we we we we,
We got a lot of ground to cover. I want
you online every day at seven am.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
On in the car, treadmill, whatever, under the covers, eye boogers, whatever.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Yeah, join the journey. Join the journey.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
You see, he's there all along in the little things,
just the little little things. And and and they got there,
to the to the place. Look at twenty eight again,
twenty eight, twenty eight, twenty and they.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Approached the village, and Jesus continued on as if he
were going farther.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
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.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
See you.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Cleo, Yo, Cleo, I gotta go. Cleo got Peter to
see things to do.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Cleo said, hold on, hold on, hold, hold on. Look
at verse twenty nine. They urged him strongly.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Cleo said, although we've come to the end of the
amaeas road. Still, I can't let go. It's unnatural. You
can't leave me now. You can't leave me. Now you
(46:42):
started something, God, You've started something.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
In my life. Stay with me till it's sober.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Stay with me, hold my head, walk with me, talk
with me.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
I mean you, every hour, stay with me.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
So he went in to stay with them, and they
sat down. Remember he's 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.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
He's always taken over.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
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.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
You don't have to do it alone anymore. They invite
him in.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
He takes over, takes the bread, breaks the bread like
he was broken.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
Blesses it.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
Thank you Lord, he says, grace, and he breaks the bread.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
He gave him the bread that he had just finished breaking.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
And 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 thirty one.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Then their eyes were open.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
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 stars, They
(48:48):
saw it in what he suffered.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Do you see it? Do you see it?
Speaker 2 (48:56):
Sometimes you see him in the broken places more than
when you see him in the blessed places. Sometimes you
have to see it in the scarf and the hands
that had helped them all along revealed to them.
Speaker 3 (49:14):
When they saw his scars, then their eyes were opened
and they recognized him. Open our eyes, Lord, open our eyes,
open our eyes.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Close your eyes. Quit focusing on what you got to
do next. Close your eyes. Ask him.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
Open my eyes, Lord, out loud, Open my eyes, Lord.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
Ask him what the disciples asked him say, Stay with me,
tell them come on in going on a journey.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
Yeah, And he's with you in this journey.
Speaker 4 (49:57):
Every mile, every detour, every detail, every dead end, every scar,
every struggle, He's with you.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give
now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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