Don’t Let The Funeral Fool You

1:01 I want to give you this in obedience to the Holy Spirit. One time in college, I was feeling like I wasn't worthy to worship the Lord, and we went in a meeting, and everybody was worshiping, and I felt just so dry inside. and the reason I felt dry is because of the things that I was dealing with and I'll just bring it down a little bit I want to tell them this uh I was dealing with some things that I thought made me unworthy to worship God so you know three or four songs had gone by and I I couldn't lift my hands they felt heavy and I couldn't open my mouth because I felt like a hypocrite you ever felt like that before just heavy with burdens or maybe the hypocrisy of things you struggle with, so you kind of hesitate because you're heavy. You hesitate because you feel like a hypocrite. Boy, the Lord gave me something in that moment that really changed my life. This has been over 25 years ago, but I still remember it. I was just trying to pray, and I was like, Lord, I don't feel worthy to worship. I don't feel like I deserve to worship.

1:59 It was as if the Holy Spirit whispered to me after I said, I don't deserve to worship. I don't deserve it. He said back, so what? I do. so that was a shift for me because it went from what i deserve to what he deserves and if you can just make that shift you know i know we're moving into that time of the year where everybody's preaching at you about an attitude of gratitude and how are you supposed to be grateful when you got to be with all those people just a few days from now and then see them again three weeks later at christmas you know all the tension and the stress that we don't mention. Okay, y'all are going to fake me out in church today like you're looking forward to seeing everybody. But even just the stress of the season, it can put you in a place of pressure. Maybe even the unfulfilled potential of the year where you feel like, man, I fell short of so many things. None of that changes what God is worthy of.

2:58 and so even if you don't feel grateful gratitude can be a focus before it's a feeling and that would just be so powerful for you to get 16 years old if you would get that at age 16 nothing you ever do changes how worthy god is so the heavier your hands feel lift them higher that's called a sacrifice of praise when you feel like you're a hypocrite reach out for him he's righteous, he's holy you've never needed him more than you need him in those moments you didn't even make it to church you're at home watching this lift your hands and scare your roommate and tell him God is worthy of my praise clap those same hands he's worthy of my praise just like you want to slap the devil clap those hands because he's still worthy of all my praise high five seven people say he's so worthy he deserves it And when you gave out all your high fives, clap your hands for Jesus one more time.

4:18 Come on for Jesus. I said clap for Jesus. I love my job, man. I get to encourage you and speak truth to you. And today we are going to encounter a very interesting story in scripture. Maybe one of the weirdest things Jesus ever did. And it comes toward the very end of his earthly ministry. Now, notice I said earthly ministry because he's still ministering. Jesus didn't stop healing when he went to heaven. Jesus didn't stop saving when he went to heaven. Jesus didn't stop delivering and breaking chains and making ways when he went to heaven. In fact, he said one time, if I leave, greater things will be possible because of the Holy Spirit, who I will send in my name.

5:16 but after jesus was resurrected from the dead on the day he got up from the grave he did something so strange and i want to share it with you today it's found in luke chapter 24 verse 13 through 35 we won't read all of that if you're doing the math we won't read all of that but i wanted to give you the homework as well because when the sermon is over then you can begin to live it out. Luke chapter 24, verse 13. And if you haven't found it by now, we're just going to do it on the screen. The Bible says, now that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. And as they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them. Tell your neighbor, you can't see him, but he's with me.

6:22 Come on, tell them again. Say, be nice to me. Jesus is with me today. He was with me in the car when I was cussing people out getting into the parking lot. He'll be with me when I leave. Just because you're not aware doesn't mean he's not there. Now remember that Thursday around the table. But Jesus slipped up beside them, and it says in verse 16, isn't it strange, but they were kept from recognizing him. Wow. You would think they would know who Jesus was at this point. He's a very important public figure. He's just been the central character of a targeted investigation which led to his execution in the most public space possible, in front of thousands, and they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, I love Jesus. What y'all talking about? Jesus said, Y'all. Jesus was very Southern in his Savior-ness. What are you discussing together as you walk along? They stood still, their faces downcast. Now we see how sad they really are about the fact that Jesus was crucified.

7:41 And so they stood still, their faces downcast, and one of them named Cleopas asked him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? What things? He asked. Jesus is just so cool. What things? They're talking about the things he just went through, and he's pretending like he doesn't know about it. What things? About Jesus of Nazareth. He is who they're talking about, and they don't know it. About Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. He's a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. What's more, it was the third day since this took place.

8:35 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning, but they didn't find his body. Can you hear just a hint of irony in this narrative? They didn't find his body. I wonder what that means. They came and told us they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Now, then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus. Wait, who didn't see Jesus? Them or you? Because he's right here with you, but you don't see him for who he is. This next verse might sound harsh, but it came from Jesus, so take it up with him. This is my central two-verse scripture for today. He said to them, How foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?

9:39 How foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. How foolish you are and slow to believe all the prophets have spoken. did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? I want to give you a word today. Turn to your neighbor and say, I know you've lost some things. I know it looks like it's over. Now here's the word. Tell them, don't let the funeral fool you. Come on, wake up and tell them again. Say, don't let the funeral fool you.

10:24 This is the word of the Lord. Don't let the funeral fool you. I don't know who this is for, but don't let the funeral fool you. No matter how much you've cried, Christ is alive. What a message for Christmas season. Emmanuel is still with us. Don't let the funeral fool you. Well, I've already preached, but sit down and let's talk about it. We've all had experiences, literally if not metaphorically, of funerals that were disingenuous with good intentions. When I say disingenuous with good intentions, I'm simply saying that what they say about the person after they're dead really has very little resemblance to how they felt about them when they were alive. You know that's true. We've all been to that funeral where we wanted to check in the casket and wonder, is this the same person that you hated so much that you just spoke so eloquently about?

11:40 I understand that in a season that brings up memories of those we love and have lost, even using the word funeral might locate you in a dark place, but I don't mean for it to. because the truth of the matter is that everybody in here is going through a funeral of some kind. We are not just saying goodbye to people in our lives, but sometimes we're saying goodbye to seasons that we love. I try to be attentive to the season that I'm preaching in, and I think that the leaves that were falling from all of the trees this week just reminded me that the branches will soon be bare but not forever, it reminded me of the cyclical nature of the things we come to depend on in our lives, and that those trees that are naked now will come to be covered again. Just take this in for a moment. I want to start slow, because I want to get you to understand that Sometimes you rush right past the revelation that God wants to give you because you only recognize what is being taken away.

12:50 So, in the spirit of full disclosure, when my dad went to be with the Lord about 10 years ago, it was at the end of a very difficult season of us relating to one another. But my mom stepped in and did the right thing and took care of him until he died. And he was suffering from ALS, and it was a very brutal death. Now, I would love to tell you that I was an amazing son through all of this, and I was the best son I could have been then, but I've grown now. Looking back on the path that our relationship traveled, I'm pretty sure there are many things I could have done better, and yet I refuse to stay imprisoned in the regret of what I could have done differently. I would rather move forward with the lessons I learned for the rest of my life.

13:45 One of the things my dad kept saying over and over again when we were fighting and we couldn't get along, he kept saying, it can't end like this, and I felt him on that. It can't end like this. It can't end with us estranged, and it didn't. I often tell the story about the craziest thing that ever happened to me. I was preaching the 9.30 service, and I used to preach three times on the weekend, Saturday night, 9.30, 11.30. After I finished the 9.30, something told me to go see my dad. Now, this was so out of the ordinary for me. Josh can tell you when I told him I'm leaving now, he said, you're leaving? It's only 9.30. You've still got the 11.30. I said, run back to 9.30 at the 11.30. I'm supposed to go see my dad. He said, okay. When we went to my dad's house, It was as if God had perfectly timed it, because he was laying in the bed. Now, he could still speak at this point. He hadn't lost his ability to think or speak, and he could still say a lot of stuff, good stuff and bad stuff. When I walked in, he was watching me step up to the stage to preach, and he was so confused by that, because he said, wait, how are you here and there?

15:02 I said, the internet, Dad. It's called the internet. It's the one I preached before. He said, but you're there and you're here. I said, I know it's confusing. I decided to leave early to come watch the sermon with you. I couldn't have known, no way I could have known, that when I left him that day, after watching myself preach with him while I was supposed to be preaching somewhere else. I would get a call at midnight from my mom saying, you need to come if you're coming. Hospice said he only has a few more hours. He hung on for days after that. I'm telling you this story, and I don't really want to tell it to you, but I feel like it might help somebody. I think about how it could have ended had my mom not forgiven him. I think about how it could have ended had we not dropped our pride and come together for a purpose. I think about what the last conversation with him could have been, because I had no idea it was the last one.

16:06 But I'm thankful that the last time we talked, it was me obeying God to come and preach the best sermon I ever preached that nobody heard, which was a message of reconciliation that happened after a time of great strain. I never got to speak to him again. I got to be by his side when he died several days later because he completely faked us out and acted like he had a few hours, and he stayed around a few days. I sang so many hymns to him. I ran out of songs about God, and I had to start singing Tom Petty and Hootie and the Blowfish and everything I knew on the guitar. but it took me back, and I want to get to this passage in just a moment, but I felt compelled to frame it, first of all, from a relational frame, because at the beginning of all of my difficulties with my dad… How many of you raise a pinky at me if this is you have a relational tension in your life right now that will surface around this time of year? Just your pinky.

17:08 Okay, wiggle your toes. I know you're sitting next to him. You can't do the pinky thing. Wink at me. Scratch your right ear. Pull on the left low. When it all began with my dad, I spoke with a very wise friend, and I was afraid of how it would end. And we're going to talk about that, how it will end. I was so afraid of how it would end in that moment. I didn't know if my dad would kill himself. He had threatened that. I didn't know if he wouldn't speak to us. That was certainly a possibility. My wise friend said something to me that I've lived by ever since. He said, Stephen, you can't control the outcome of his decisions, but you can adjust your expectations in this situation.

18:05 He said, I know your dad is still living, but you need to have a funeral for your expectations. Because you keep expecting him to act a certain way, and every time he doesn't act that way, you lose your faith. You keep expecting him to act a certain way, and every time you put your picture of how he is supposed to be and how this is supposed to be on a pedestal, Every time you elevate that, you set yourself up to be let down, and you are let down over and over and over again because of your expectations of the relationship. So he said, have a funeral for your expectations. Then when I had a physical funeral for my dad years later, there had already been a funeral before the funeral for the expectation of what I thought he should do. But I found out when you have a funeral for your expectations, God replaces them with grace. When you have a funeral for your expectations of how your kids need to turn out, God will give you grace to raise them and stop comparing to others. When you have a funeral for your expectations of where you're supposed to be at this point in your life, God will give you grace to accept where you are on the way to where you're going. Every 34-year-old in this room is not created equal. Some of you will bloom late, and your branches will reach wide. But it is having a funeral for the expectation of when the bloom needs to occur that allows the roots to grow down deep enough to sustain the structure that will accommodate the fruit. I'm trying to say that God is not through with you yet.

20:02 God is not through with you yet. God is not through pruning your branches yet, but every pruning process in the hands of the master gardener that we call God is designed to produce fruit in the future that your eyes have not seen and your ears have not heard and it has not entered into your heart. So why would you preach about a funeral? on Thanksgiving. Why, Pastor Stephen, would you preach an Easter sermon a few weeks before Christmas? Because the Lord told me to. He told me that a lot of us in this room are like these two men in this passage, Cleopas and his buddy, who are leaving Jerusalem after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, headed back home to a place called Emmaus. Emmaus is not a famous place. Emmaus is not even technically known by archaeologists today as to its exact location.

21:04 But the thing about Emmaus that I do understand for these two men is it's the only place they know to go. It's the only place they know to go. It's home for them. They're walking there, and they're talking as they walk about their deep disappointment in what didn't happen, in what didn't happen, their deep disappointment in what Jesus didn't do. There are a few honest people in this church who are not so concerned with showing you their halo that they will wave at me right now and say, there are some things in my life that I am disappointed that haven't happened yet, that were supposed to happen by now. This is the situation in Luke 24. When all of a sudden a stranger begins to walk beside them, you say, he wasn't a stranger. He was the Savior. Not as far as they knew. Not as far as they understood.

22:11 You know how you think when God shows up in a situation it's going to be immediately obvious that it's him? You already have an idea of what he's going to do when he shows up. When God shows up, when God turns this around, I am going to know it, because I have a list of what he's supposed to do. When God does what he's supposed to do, I'll know it's him. But suppose God knows what he is supposed to do better than you know what he's supposed to do. For everybody who struggles with jealousy, suppose that God knows what you're supposed to have more than you know what you're supposed to have. For everybody who struggles with insecurity, suppose that God knows what you're supposed to be good at more than you know what you're supposed to be good at. Suppose God knows what you don't need that you keep trying to create and fake like you have. Suppose God knows what schedule is supposed to be happening, even as you stress over how far behind you feel. Suppose God brought you here today to have a funeral for the way you thought it was supposed to go.

23:23 I know we're supposed to be thankful in this season, and I know we're supposed to be grateful, and I know we're supposed to eat macaroni, but what if before the macaroni… I'm going to eat macaroni. I only eat macaroni twice a year. I'm going to start the day with Bojangles and Chick-fil-A biscuits. I'm going to have sweet. I'm going to have savory. I'm going to find a sour biscuit too. I'm going to eat every biscuit God ever made. Watch me work this thing. I'm going to have an 8,000-calorie day on Thursday, and I'm going to feel no shame about it. Y'all pray for me about 3 a.m. Friday morning, because you'll know I'm suffering the effects of all of my premeditated bad decisions, and I don't feel bad about it. Nudge your neighbor and say, I don't feel bad about it. That had nothing to do with anything except suppose God knows before the situation happens the ends to which he intends to use it.

24:32 I feel so anointed to tell somebody today, you don't know how it's supposed to go. You don't, and you don't even know when it's over. Okay, so the band helped me, and they didn't even realize it today. We were singing a song that says, That's why I owe you praise. Y'all love that song? Chandler, they don't love it too much. Give you another chance so we don't feel bad. Do y'all love that song that me and Chandler and Chris and Josh wrote?

25:12 Now, listen. I wrote the song with them, but I was confused about when the song was over. As a matter of fact, there are so many different parts to that song that I kept thinking it was time for me to preach because of the last song before the sermon. I kept getting ready to come out on the stage to preach. I was preparing what I was going to say. Give him praise! Whatever I was going to say. I'm getting it ready. But every time I went to come out, they did another part.

25:38 So I was like, all right, I'll wait 30 seconds. I'm fired up to get out here. I'm ready to get going. I've been studying all week. I want to preach right now. I get ready to come around the corner, and they start another part, and another part, and another part. They just kept on praising, and I just kept on waiting. and even though I wrote it, I didn't know when it was going to be over.

26:03 I mean, technically, that's my song, but even in my own song, there was more to come that I did not know about while I was waiting backstage. I know it's your life, And I know it's your marriage, and I know it's your business, but you don't get to say when it's over. You don't. You don't get to say when you're done giving. There was one man in Scripture who had so much stuff, he decided to build bigger barns to accommodate all of his extra grain. But the Lord said, you fool, this life that you claim for your own will be demanded from you this very night. then who will get what you have prepared? Because when you stop giving, you stop living.

26:53 You don't get to tell God when you're done giving him your life. You don't get to tell God when you're done being generous. You don't get to tell God when you're done trusting people. You don't get to tell God when your heart is so broken you can't go on, because these two men in the Scripture are leaving Jerusalem,

27:21 leaving the place of Jesus' funeral, which is also the place of his resurrection, but they don't know that yet. It's the place of his death, but it's also the place of his greatest demonstration. But they don't know that yet. I wonder what you don't know yet. I wonder what Jesus has already done that you don't even know yet. I wonder who he's already spoken to on your behalf that you don't know yet. I wonder who's moving to Charlotte right now to be your wife that you don't know about yet. I wonder about who he's moving out of their position in the job so you can have the job you've been praying for that you don't even know yet. I wonder who's moving out of that house so you can move in that you don't even know about yet.

28:13 I wonder what he's preparing you to share at AA that somebody else needs to be set free that you don't even know about yet. I wonder what kids you're going to have on your knees one day that you don't even know about yet. I wonder what praise you're going to be giving him next November that you don't even know about yet. I just started something, y'all. Let's give this November a name. You ready? Let's call it… How can we call it? We got no shave November. What else they got? How about don't know November? I like it. It's got a good ring to it. Don't know November, because they're telling you you're supposed to be thankful. But how can I be thankful when I don't know how it's going to turn out?

29:11 Well, this is don't know November. How am I supposed to praise him in advance for a way that I don't know how he's going to make? It's don't know November. How are you supposed to praise him when you don't even know where the supply is going to come from. See, back in September, I didn't praise him, but I'm in a different season now. This is don't know November. This is don't know, but he's still worthy. He's working on it right now, November. I don't know. Tell your neighbor, I don't know.

29:48 I love how Jesus… Watch this. Y'all say, let me teach you. Jesus walks up and walks with them, even though they are headed in the wrong direction. They are leaving Jerusalem at the very moment that the resurrection is validated. I mean, this is the moment when they should be celebrating and they're sad because they don't believe. Jesus said that. I didn't. He said, How foolish you are and slow to believe all that was spoken about the Messiah, that he had to suffer first and then enter into his glory. So I remember when I first heard the sermon that I need to follow Jesus. I don't remember hearing the sermon where Jesus followed me.

30:46 This is that sermon. This is that moment in your life when you couldn't follow him any farther forward, when you couldn't hear his voice clearly, and he followed you away from Jerusalem. Remember, he would tell the disciples to stay in Jerusalem, but when they strayed from where they were supposed to be staying in, he went with them. This is a different perspective on praise, because now I'm not praising God for all the times that I followed him when I did what I was supposed to do, when I thought what I was supposed to think. I'm praising God for all the times that I went away and he followed me. Now, they're going to clip this on the internet. Somebody's going to say, this is heresy. To say that Jesus follows us, we don't have a God who follows us. We follow him, and I understand that. I understand that he's God and we're not. I understand that it's his ways, not my ways. I understand all of that. I also understand that I am not always fully capable of doing it right. I need a Jesus who, when I don't follow him, he says, fine, fool. I'll follow you, and I'll follow you.

32:15 and I'll talk with you, and I'll walk with you, and Jesus says, I'll even ask you questions that I already know the answer to. What things? Somebody say, what things? That's what Jesus said. He said, you're talking about the things that have happened? What things? Fill me in. Now we have a Savior who's worthy to be followed, a Savior who never needs to be filled in, following people who he's asking to fill him in. What is happening in this text? This is a complete reversal from the way we expect God to operate in our lives, and yet all of the honest ones in this room will know that the praise that hits the deepest is from the realization of all of the times when you were three miles away from Jerusalem, four miles away from Jerusalem, five miles away from Jerusalem. Some of you won't admit it, but you are just one more fight away from drinking again. Some of you won't admit it, but you are just one more fight away from leaving altogether. Some of you won't admit it, but you have been so close to going off the deep end. Oh, it would surprise everybody sitting around you if they knew, but it does not surprise the Savior because he saw you walking away, way, and he made a way for him to be with you as you walked away.

33:39 So I'm trying to say you're not too far gone. In fact, you're only one thought away from a praise. You're only one thought away from a breakthrough. You're only one thought away from joy. One thought away from a new beginning. Feel the Holy Spirit, Mike. I feel God setting somebody free from this funeral you've been having in your mind, because you've been putting to death your expectation of grace because of your own mistakes. But I found out about a Savior that no matter which direction I'm headed in, if I'm following him, that's great, but if he has to follow me, he'll do that too. There will never be a day. There will never be a moment. There will never be a decision. There will never be a distinction.

34:32 There will never be a dysfunction. There will never be a thing that you will do. What things? There will never be an event that can separate you from the love of a Savior who will follow you when you can't follow him. If I had my preference, I would follow him always. I would follow him always, but sometimes I'm a fool.

35:01 Sometimes I'm too foolish to follow. What do you do when you've been too foolish to follow? What do you do when you know that at least 51% of your kids' behavior is because of stuff they saw you do? Maybe I'll just go start my Thanksgiving early. I felt kind of cold when I said that. Notice the same Jesus that followed them confronted them. Where are you going? Hey, hey, where are you going? What you talking about? What things? What things are you talking about? Why are you talking about Jesus when you could talk to him?

35:46 I think it's really important who you talk to when you are going through certain things. How many of you can testify either by positive or negative experience in your life Who you talk to when you're going through things depends on what you have left when you get done. I'm going to say that again. That was too good, and Holly didn't write it down. Who you talk to when you go through things determines what you have left when you get done. I thought the fact that at least they had each other was comforting to me. To talk to about their disappointment, to talk to about what was supposed to happen versus what actually did, to talk to… Who do you talk to when you're disappointed? I hope it's somebody besides yourself. You cannot keep your own counsel in seasons of chaos.

36:47 I know you went to Duke. Don't care. This is don't know November and don't care Christmas. Don't care where you went to school. It doesn't say that the men weren't educated. It says that they were disappointed. And Jesus, being in very nature God, who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself a servant, made himself a servant, comes up alongside them and begins to speak with them. He says, you're being foolish because you thought the funeral was the end.

37:32 Bring me my computer screen, y'all. I told them I might need the screen for this message. I said, if the people look really engaged, I'm going to bring out the screen. So, boys, bring out the screen. Yeah, it's one of those days. Now, everybody clap your hands as they come because it's awkward while we wait. I want to show you a word from the Lord that came to me, and I'm not preaching this text in order to give you all of the details of it. I actually preached seven weeks on this one story seven years ago, and that is all online for free. You can go watch all of the ways that I took every single word of this text and tried to bring all of the meaning out of it that I could, But today, just as a backdrop, I want to tell you, don't let the funeral fool you.

38:29 Don't let this season of your life, this season of the relationship, this season of your struggle with the thing inside of yourself become a stop sign that causes you to quit growing and coming toward God. If we were to make this on the screen, and I was to tell you don't let the funeral fool you, first thing I want to show you in the Scripture what happened after Jesus followed these boys, because this is the best part, all the way down here, where he said, what things? They said about Jesus of Nazareth. Then this part I love. When he said, how foolish you are. Then he said, you're slow to believe. Then he said, did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?

39:38 Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. So Jesus told them about Jesus. Forget what you heard. Forget what you thought. Forget the fact that you were taught that God will only be with you if you're following him faithfully. Forget what you heard. Forget what you thought. Forget what you told yourself at the funeral. Forget the story that you have been telling yourself, because when Jesus died, it was a part of the story. Now, let me break this down real good. Things happen in our lives that become a part of our story, and we can't change those.

40:29 So you step outside of your integrity, and now you realize, this changed my story forever. Jesus didn't step outside of his integrity. The people who killed him did. He did it. But now even their sin became a part of the story. Now, it was the part of the story that was the most redemptive, but it was the hardest to recognize as redemptive. So, the part of the gospel story where our sin was being paid for was the part of the story that discouraged these men and made them want to walk away. In other words, the moment that Jesus was dying, he was doing the most. When he was teaching, that was good. When he was healing, that was good. When he was opening blind eyes, that was good. When he was raising Lazarus, that was good. But when he was dying, it wasn't just a good thing. It was the thing. That was the thing he came to do. While he was doing the thing he came to do, they were interpreting the thing that would bring them redemption as being the thing that made it all worthless. When you are hurting, your interpretations become distorted. When you are hurting, your interpretations cannot be trusted. When you are hurting, you will see the best thing as the worst thing. When you are hurting, you will be attracted to unhealthy people who will enable you rather than healthy friends who can help heal you. When you are hurting, you will run to things that will numb you rather than running to things that can set you free. When you are hurting, your interpretation of events cannot be trusted, and that's when we need Jesus.

42:16 I need Jesus to walk with me. I need Jesus to wake up with me. I need Jesus to lay down beside me when I lay down and I'm tossing and turning about the storms that I'm facing. I need Jesus to help me know which door is him, because every open door is not God. I need Jesus to let me know which calls to pick up. I need Jesus to let me know which texts to send. I'm trying to say that I need him every hour. Let me tell you a story before I break this all the way down into Scripture. Am I breaking this down good? Oh, man, it's good to me. so grandma didn't ask permission so i asked for future forgiveness for telling this story he was fussing at us the other day because we were leaving and we had just left for tour but we needed to leave and get a few days away after tour to recover and graham said something very funny and he's 17 years old now but he said i still need parents you would think he would be happy we were going out of town but he is such a good kid there's nothing that he wanted to do that he couldn't do when we were there, and he wanted parents. Holly said, you have parents. We flew you out for four days of tour, and you had all your friends over this weekend, and we were here the whole time. We were just leaving for three days.

43:37 He said, well, I don't need you on the weekend. What a phrase! What a confession! I don't need you on the weekend. I just need you when I want you. I just need you when it's convenient. I'm not saying he's a bad kid. He's a great kid. But what if that's our attitude toward God? What if we need him for all of it? What if we need him for every single bit of it? What if he wants to be in all of it? What if God is waiting for you to pray his presence into your panic attack? What if he wants to be in that with you too? What if he will follow you down an Emmaus road going the wrong way? When you say, I'm spiraling out of control here, God, I'm spiraling out of control again, and I'm tempted to sabotage because I'm spiraling.

44:45 And what if Jesus is just waiting to be more than your weekday Savior? more than just the one you need when things go wrong. The Bible says that he began to expound everything that was in the Scriptures concerning himself. That would be an amazing sermon, and it would take two or three hours to walk these seven miles because it said it was a seven-mile road. Over the course of two or three hours, this man gives a whole series where he tells them who he is, and they still don't get it. That's the irony of the text. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. Keyword, well, two words, as if. You say, why would Jesus continue on as if he were going farther? Because sometimes God delights to be invited?

45:48 to be invited. You say, well, isn't he present everywhere? Yeah, but he permeates you when you ask him to. He's present, but he permeates when you give permission.

46:10 Because watch this. This is more than just hospitality, y'all. He acted like he was going farther. He was like, well, good chat. Hope you learned something. still don't know it's Jesus. How do they not know it's Jesus? They're still at the funeral. He's supposed to be in the ground. They don't believe the angel. They don't believe the report. They don't believe the women. They don't believe what they heard, and they can't even believe what they're seeing. They don't recognize him, but they urged him strongly, stay with us, for it is nearly evening. The day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them. And my favorite thing about the text is not even that he followed them going the wrong way down the road. My favorite thing about the text is not even that he gave them an amazing summary, an entire semester's worth of education in how he was the rock in the wilderness and how he was the rod of Aaron and how he fulfilled everything that Moses spoke of and how he was the cloud by day and the fire by night. Not only do I love the fact that he talked to them along the way, I love verse 30 and 31, because once he got inside the house with them, the Bible says when he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks. He took a Bojangles biscuit, gave thanks, and he broke it

47:47 and began to give it to them. Everybody shout this word, then. Then and only then. You mean they heard a master's level class from the master and they still didn't get it? No. Then and only then. After the bread had been broken, then their eyes were opened. I'll say it again in case there's been a breaking in your life lately. After the bread had been broken, then their eyes had been opened, but not before the bread had been broken, not when he spoke it, when he broke it. Something about the breaking of the bread helped them to see who he really was, because now they realized he wasn't just killed on the cross. He gave his life on the cross. He wasn't just hung there by humans. He was sent there by God.

48:53 He wasn't just dying physically. He was paying the price spiritually, and it was only after the breaking that the revelation came. There are some revelations that only come after the breaking. They don't come before. They only come after. They don't come before you go through. They only come after. But for everybody who has been broken lately, I have good news. After the breaking comes an opening. May your eyes be opened. May your ears be opened. May your road be opened. May your Red Sea part. Say it out loud. This is not the end. Give God praise for it. This is not the end. For a moment, it looked like it was over, but this is… Maybe I should write it on the board, y'all. It seems like you need some extra help. This is not the end. Say it to your neighbor.

50:07 This is not the end. Tell him you can do better than him anyway. This is not the end. Tell him you were bigger than that place anyway. This is not the end. It wasn't ready for you anyway. This is not the end. You couldn't handle it back then, but this is not the end. Now put my scripture back on the screen, and I'm going to bring this thing full circle today for somebody who has been standing at a funeral and weeping over a loss and weeping over a regret and weeping over a mistake and punishing yourself over a mistake and saying that this is the end and thinking that this is the end, and the enemy has been telling you that this is the end, and you will never recover from this, and nobody will ever love you after this, and there is no way back from this, and you cannot climb out of this, and you cannot recover from this, and there is no redemption in this, and there is no light coming, and there is no help coming for everybody who the enemy has been telling you it's the end.

51:22 give me verse 31, please. Then, then the Lord spoke to me and said, this is not me. Thank you. That's this. There's going to be a then. There's going to be a then. There's going to be a then. You hear me today? I can't put my faith on this word for you. I can preach it, but it's going to take your faith. Because there's going to be a then. Then their eyes were open. There's going to be a then. There's going to be a then.

52:15 laid down in grief then got up with the keys there's gonna be a there there's gonna be a there when God gets finished with this it won't be a funeral it will be a celebration day yeah Shout now like it's already there You get to make the decision now what's on the other side of them. They left me, then I went into isolation and died alone.

53:11 Or they left me. Then I went to work on what was inside of me that made me feel like I wasn't a person without them. Then… It got so bad we could barely speak, but then I slapped them and cussed them out and spit in their face. Or then I decided I would try to find a way in that didn't involve my ego, which was too big to fit through the door. You can't die in this because there will be a then. I don't even know if you remember, but you gave me this sermon. Holly was talking to me the other day, and I was telling her something, such a sad story,

54:13 like Cleopas and his companion about the sad things that had happened, and they were real. Y'all, we must say they were disappointed and devastated because of real-life events. It wasn't that that didn't happen. It was just that the then was in progress. Then their eyes were opened when he broke the bread.

54:38 Only what is broken can be really blessed. so after the breaking expect a revelation after i got done telling holly my story she said yeah but then because i was going through a part of our history where somebody had really hurt us i mean really hurt us she said yeah but then and she told me the thing that happened after they hurt us that wouldn't have happened if they didn't. Just when she reminded me of that, she said, but then it gave me faith for my future.

55:21 I realized that just like farmers plant seeds and don't cry about losing them… There are certain things in your life and in my life that are waiting for the appropriate time to come forth. Don't let the funeral fool you. You keep saying, this is it. This is the end. It's not the end. It's just pre-then. Maybe you'll be talking to somebody and you'll say, I was about ready to give up, but then… I think the real skill of living, Austin, is to be able to trust God enough that you leave the then with him. Maybe what was most significant about the bread was not just the fact that he broke it, but whose hands it was in.

56:25 Jesus was supposed to be the guest. What is he doing serving the bread? It is the moment you let him take over that you see who he really is. so i thought with everyone standing across every location this is one of the most anointed moments that i've preached all year i don't know if you can feel it or not you don't have to feel it even if all you feel is grief don't let the funeral fool you there will be a then there will be a then and you get to make a decision about this then when you are relaying this story in the future? Do you want to tell about the time you were walking away from God down in a road called Emmaus, seven miles, and you kept going, and you stayed home because you were disappointed? Or do you want to talk about how the bread was broken and then your eyes were opened? Watch verse 32. I have to give you this. It says, They recognized him in the breaking of the bread, and they asked each other, Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us, and they got up at once and returned to Jerusalem where they were supposed to be all along. I believe God's calling some of you back to where you belong today, back to the kind of person you really are, back to the kind of hope you really possess, back to the role that you occupy so brilliantly with integrity when your faith is engaged.

57:58 They went back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven and those with them assembled together. Ain't it crazy how God already had the party getting started while they were still in the funeral? Don't let the funeral fool you. You might miss the party. There was a prayer meeting happening in Jerusalem. Verse 34 says, they said, It's true. The Lord has risen and appeared to Simon. Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. Then, then, this is your then, baby. This is your then. You will even be grateful for the breaking if you put it in his hands.

58:50 So I want to pray for you because I started this sermon saying we have to have a funeral for our expectations, our funeral for the way we thought things would turn out, our funeral for the way we thought people should appreciate us, our funeral for our path we thought we would be on at this point in our life. But don't have the funeral and bury your faith. Have the funeral for your expectations and watch God resurrect your faith. And so I'm trading, you see it? I am trading my expectation of others for faith in God to let me know there is a then and it's in his hands. Put your hands just like this, like you're receiving something from somebody you trust, and just tell the Lord, it's in your hands.

59:48 Put that in the comments. Say it out loud if you're in the room. It's in your hands. That is what is significant about the breaking bread in Luke 24. That is what's significant about your future. That is what is significant about this moment. it's in his hands and so now father i place these people that i've preached this message to into your hands the one who was handed over for death but rose again in life in your hands are the keys of death hell in the grave god today whatever it is that we need to let go of in order to go forward we do that now and we might have to do it a hundred times again today but that's all right, because we have learned the difference between the end and a next step waiting to happen. So we stand before you today, empty hands, full hearts. I want to thank you for the person that you met today on the road away from you. I want to thank you for the person today who was running full speed from your love, but you tracked them down. I want to thank you today for the person whose eyes were opened to see your presence in their life. Oh, that's how God is working. Oh, that's how God is moving. Oh, that's how it's coming to pass. Oh, this is where God wanted me to be. Oh, this is what God is wanting me to learn. I thank you for this, and I thank you for then.

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