Road Signs - Chris Simning

Good morning, good morning.

How are y'all?

Good to see you.

I'm always blessed whenever I come to the outside.

I always leave filled up.

You know why?

You're amazing people.

And the other reason why, every summer I'm with students all summer long.

I feel like when I come to a church study like this, it's adults.

It's grown-ups, even though there are some youth around, but it's a blessing to be here.

It's always a joy to come back to Rancho Cucumonga.

I like that song that we just say, what a God.

If he speaks just one word, I still have it all.

God is powerful, right?

And he works in our lives in ways that we don't think are possible.

Dust storms.

I live in Phoenix.

I call the land the base.

It's a Monday of last week.

And I'm about doing errands.

And I'm hungry.

I want some dinner.

So what do I do?

I go to eat an outburger.

And it'll be the drive-thru.

And every time you go to eat an outburger, the light is along.

And I don't care.

It's not good.

The AC is on.

It's hot outside.

The windows are rolled up.

I look out the window at the passenger side of my car and I see it.

You'd see the distance.

It's a little bit away.

I have time.

It's a dust storm.

And I know it's coming.

It will be here in a moment.

But I will stop talking about my food and get out before it arrives.

In Arizona, a dust storm is nothing to laugh at.

It's enormous.

It's basically a wall of dust.

This dust storm that I'm speaking of that happened last week was, I looked it up on Google.

It was 10 miles wide.

The wall of dust was a thousand, over a thousand feet high, and it lasted over the Phoenix Valley for about three hours.

You don't want to be in a dust storm.

It's scary.

I'm in the line.

And I want to get home before this alliance.

It ends up in the line and the drive through it out, brother.

The wind starts whipping.

That's the first sign.

And then it cools down by about 30 degrees.

It feels so good.

That's sign number two.

I get my food.

I'm five minutes away.

I get home.

I'm safe.

I go upstairs.

That's where my kitchen is.

Upstairs, so my house is upside down.

My room is downstairs.

My grassroom is downstairs.

My laundry room is downstairs.

My front door is downstairs.

Everything else is upstairs.

Living room, kitchen, and castroom, my office, and another bathroom.

And I like sitting upstairs.

I got my perch.

Because I face out the window.

And it's fun to watch a dust storm when you're not in it.

It's amazing.

And suddenly, as I look out the window, the window is no longer clear out there.

It's all dirty.

Because the death storm is going over me at that moment.

I can't see a thing.

It's just dirt at my window.

I'm thankful that we're closed.

When you're in the death storm in Arizona, you are taught this.

You always believe.

You actually turn off your vehicle and your foot goes off the brake.

Why?

Because if your foot is on the brake, you are giving the signal of red jail lights that are bright.

And if somebody is following you through a storm and they see red taillights, they think that that's the way to go.

And so they'll follow you when really you're birthed.

What happens is they ram into you and you have an accident.

When you pull off to the side of the road in a desktop, what happens?

You are disoriented.

Visibility is reduced to near zero.

And in that space, you feel alone because no one's around you except for those who might be in your vehicle.

It's just you for a moment, and you have to wait it out.

It's funny.

I want to talk about road signs.

Because they're prevalent in scripture.

A reference to a road sign would come from a book, Jeremiah, for instance.

In Jeremiah 31, it talks about how we need to set up guideposts, roadsides, take note of the highway that you're on.

And in that context from scripture in Jeremiah about the roadsides, it's talking about Jesus restoring Israel back to where it was before.

And more importantly, it speaks to us about us being restored because of what Jesus has done for us.

And I wonder if this morning, if some of you feel like your life is in a death storm.

And maybe you are pulled off on the side of your own road, your own journey, and you're disoriented.

You don't understand why your life is the way that it is.

You're confused.

You've gone through trials and brokenness and things of life and you don't understand why.

And it's disorienting you.

And in that disorientation, and you become lonely.

Because you feel maybe you're all by yourself.

It's Mary, I want to camp on a section of scripture in the book of Luke.

And it's the last chapter of Luke.

I want to talk about the road to Emmaus.

Because in this message of Scripture, there are plenty of roadsides given to the people involved in this scene.

And Luke, the gospel writer, is the only one that writes about the road to Emmaus.

Matthew, Mark, and John are three other gospel writers, and they don't mention it.

The last chapter of Luke does.

And he comes right after Jesus rose from the dead.

So he's crucified on the cross for our sin.

He gets buried, and three days later he rises again.

So it says in Luke 24, verse 13.

Luke 24:13

Now that same day, two of them, disciples, 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, but they were kept from recognizing him.

And he posed the question, What are you discussing together as you walk along?

And they stood still.

Their faces downcast.

And one of them, the pleas, asked them, Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?

Are you the only one here that lives under a rock?

And they're talking to Jesus, by the way.

But they were kept from recognizing him.

It's a coincidence that it has this money to all of us.

Is something blinding you from God working in your life?

This morning.

Because look at this verse in Luke 24.

As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing him.

That's intriguing to me.

The word recognize in this passage is important.

We need to pay attention to it because it matures along the way as we keep going.

But now they're kept from recognizing who this man is.

They don't know it's Jesus.

I like Jesus.

Jesus cracks me up.

He knows how to deal with people.

He messes with them.

And what does he do?

He draws near.

It's right there.

He's ever so close, but they don't recognize it as Jesus.

And they're walking along, do do do do do do do.

And Jesus, while he was living on earth, what he does, he warned these people of these very things.

And now they're in those moments.

And how often we forget.

And they're walking along down this road towards a destination.

And in your life, you are walking down a road towards a destination.

And maybe there's things in your life today where you reach out for recognizing who Jesus is because he's working in your life, but maybe you don't see it.

The Holy Spirit's taking over.

He's doing something in you.

I know I tell my story whenever you come to the outside.

And I know some of you have heard it, but I also know that others of you have no clue who I am.

Hello.

So let me give you a story.

My story.

My road.

My amaz.

Because like these two disciples, I was what's sad.

I was what's depressed.

I was felt abandoned.

I felt disoriented.

My possibility was reduced to near zero.

I lived in a little death storm of my soul, of my existence, because of my journey.

When I was young, I was a whippersnapper.

I was a class clown.

I was energetic.

I was an extrovert.

I was a grade student.

I was born with five-meter stompals.

Let me explain.

It's mild.

What you see right now is not the CP.

I'll get to that later.

I was born with five-meter stompulsy.

The only thing that affected about me was this.

I tremor.

I still trim to this day.

And because I trim her, I can't write with a bit or pencil.

So here's a here are a couple pictures that show you way back when.

I had to sit next to an outlet where my desk was to plug in my typewriter.

So as you were writing, you would have to get used to the clicking of keys on the electric typewriter.

You would write out your work, I would write out my work.

And every year my teacher would say I had the best pinmanship in the whole school.

And you know what?

I didn't mind it.

I actually prided myself on it.

Ha ha ha, you have to scramble, I get the time.

I can care less.

It didn't affect me what I thought was actually kind of fun.

The next picture we're showing is this.

It's a yearbook photo of me in the sixth grade.

I look just like my dad in that photo.

And then a more recent picture is a picture of me in a boat on the Sea of Galilee.

Have you ever been to Israel?

It's amazing.

When you walk the land of Israel, when you read the Bible, you know, I see it.

Because I've been there.

I've been to those places.

The Bible keeps alive for me because I see these places.

I haven't been on the road to Emmaus, but it's there.

I haven't been on your word that you're going down right now, but it's there.

It's real.

You know why?

Because you're on it.

And you're you've experienced whatever that road is.

A road of brokenness, a road of sadness, a road of grief, maybe a road of joy, a road of blessings.

They're all roadsides along your way.

Because God is working in each of our lives in an individual way, and he's taking you to a destination where he wants you to discover him more and more.

What a God.

And he loves his disciples so much that he draws near to them, even though they are downcast and confused.

And he goes on to say this in verse 18.

What things went on?

Jesus asked.

About Jesus and Nazareth, they replied, He was a prophet.

He was powerful word and deed before God and all the people.

The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to me since the death that they crucified him.

But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

And what it's more, it is a third day since all this took place.

And in addition, by the way, some of our women amazed us.

They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body.

They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.

Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.

And his response is amazing.

He said, In the mouthful as you are, and now slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.

Can you imagine that conversation?

That would take hours upon hours upon hours.

Here's another question.

How can you be fully alive in your brokenness?

If you're walking along the road, there is movement.

But sometimes that movement means that you're still stuck in the past.

This is the present.

This is new scenery, but they don't recognize it yet.

The man walking beside them is Jesus who just rose.

He's giving them new scenery, new things to look at, new things to discover.

Why?

Because these people are free, and their freedom is standing right next to them, but they don't recognize them.

This last week I was speaking at a high school conference in Iowa.

I left after the death storm on Monday and flew out Tuesday and came out Wednesday evening.

It was a fast trip.

Never been to Iowa.

It's beautiful.

It's corn fields, as far as the eyes can see.

I went from the land of Beijing of Arizona to Green Ray.

It was new scenery.

And these fields were immaculate.

And the corn stocks were high and towering above you, rolling heels.

It was outstanding.

And I got the sunrise on my way back to the airport on Wednesday morning early.

I just spoke once at this conference.

And there was low-hanging fog hovering over the stocks of porn.

It was spectacular.

It was new scenery.

These two disciples on the road to Emmaus need new scenery.

Why?

Because they're downcast.

They feel like the one that they had put their rope in is gone.

They don't believe what the woman witnessed might have been alive.

Jesus goes straight back to the scriptures, and that's where he explains everything to them.

I know where you are alive right now.

I don't know your storm.

Just continue with my storm.

Here's a couple pictures of me.

I go to bed one day in the eighth grade.

Too dry.

I have a water bed.

The best bed I've ever had in my existence.

It was awesome.

It's Easter morning.

It's my mom's birthday.

My stepfather's birthday.

They had the same anniversary too.

And my mom's identical twin sister's birthday.

It's a big day.

I'm sloshing around in my waterbed.

I'm starting to wake up.

It's Easter.

It's birthdays.

My Easter basket's on my desk.

But I don't want to get up.

I just want to stay in bed.

My mama walks down the hallway.

I can hear her footsteps.

She opens the door.

Happy Easter, Chris.

Oh, thanks, Mama.

Happy birthday.

Oh, thanks.

Hey, we have to get a move on.

We have to get ready for church.

All right.

Your Easter basket's right there.

All right, Mom.

I'll be down there.

I'll be down for breakfast in a moment.

She closes the door.

Apple's right down the hallway.

I don't know why.

But I still see this scene in my mind whenever I tell the story.

It's as if it happened yesterday.

As if it was a movie.

Let me describe it.

I'm so surrounded by waterman.

The birds are perched on the windowsill outside my bedroom window, jerping up a storm.

The springular system is watering the back lawn.

The water is gushing through the pipes.

I can hear it.

The sunlight's coming through the buys, the little openings in the buys.

That are covering my window, and what happens is there's a spotlight of sun rays over my bedspread, and particles of dust are simmering in the air.

And I thought, what a glorious day will this be?

It's a big one.

Easter birthday is fun.

Candy.

Easter egg hunts.

I get up from bed, and the moment I get up from bed, my hand falls forward.

So far forward that my chin is touching my chest, and I can't lift it back up.

And I thought for a moment I said something wrong.

It would go away.

But later I realized that it didn't go away.

And I was diagnosed with a rare muscle nerve disease a few months later.

Overnight, my life has changed forever.

My diagnosis was I have a condition called dorsal dystonia.

It's basically the twisting of your torso.

It's why I speak the way that I speak.

But from eighth grade on to now, my life has been a dust storm.

There are days that have been very murky and cloudy with dirt and dust over my being.

Because I feel disoriented some days with this disease.

I feel abandoned some days with this disease.

I wish I could be like everybody else with this disease.

That's what you see right now.

You don't see myself palsy because it's mild.

What you see right now is one is called torso dystonia.

So I have two disabilities.

I was asked to go to the problem by that beautiful girl right there.

I didn't think anybody would want to take me to the problem.

Not a wheelchair.

Auntie did.

She was one of my pushers.

I know that sounds like a drug deal, but it's not.

She would push me, my senior year of high school from fifth period to sixth period.

Every day.

She would get out of her class early and come over to my class, get my wheelchair, and push me every day, that whole senior year, from fifth period to sixth period.

And we got a friendship going between us.

And one day on the way to sixth periods, he said, Would you go to the barb with me?

And I said, No.

He said, Why would you say that?

Because you're too beautiful to go with somebody like me.

Oh, come on, Chris.

That's not right.

Go with me.

I guarantee you we'll have a great time.

I don't want to go with anybody else.

I want to go with you.

And we got a double date.

And that's what we did.

And it was amazing.

When we got to the dance portion of the room, she didn't want me to sit there.

She's like, we're gonna dance.

Yeah, how?

I'm in a wheelchair.

And she pushed me out to the dance floor and we boogie.

We did, she did wheelies, we did 360s, it was awesome.

I felt loved.

A road sign.

At that moment, I didn't see God.

I didn't recognize him.

Because my life was depressing.

My life was hopeless.

And he was a road sign.

You shall be Jesus through our actions when I can see Jesus myself.

I was loved.

Next picture is this.

I'm teaching on a rainy day in Israel to a group of people, friends that we went on this trip together, and what I'm teaching is the next picture.

It's a picture that is by what is known as the Pool Mathesta.

And it's a miracle that the gospel writer John writes about in John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

And it's that miracle that literally changed my life and my attitude.

And my life for Jesus got real.

Because that miracle is about a divine appointment with an inflammator sitting by the pool, but that's the waiting to be healed.

And Jesus approaches them and asks the obvious question Do you want to get well?

Of course he does.

Hello, don't you see his need?

And Jesus tells him to get him off the mat that he's lying on and walk, and he does, and he's no longer an invalid.

I feel my life is the same way.

It's not meant to wane.

Jesus goes back to the scriptures in this moment.

And he's talking to these two people about things.

How can you be fully alive in your brokenness?

It's amazing what Jesus does.

And the last question this morning is this.

What truth do you need to acknowledge?

In 1 28, it says this, as they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he was going further.

But they heard some trouble and stay with us for it's nearly evening, and the day is almost over.

So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave takes broken, and began to give it to them.

Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he disappeared from their sight.

They asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us when he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us.

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem.

There they found the eleven and those with them assembled together and saying, It is true, the Lord has risen and he has appeared to Simon.

Then the two um the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

That's intriguing to me.

We come back to the word recognize in this moment.

Remember at first when they're walking down the road, they don't recognize Jesus.

But now they do.

Why?

Because Jesus participates in something that they're familiar with.

The breaking of bread.

And he gives it to them, and that's when their eyes are open, and that's when they recognize that they're with their Lord.

That's what I like about life.

Jesus never gives up on us.

The Lord our God never gives up on us.

Why?

Because he's retorned back to how we were before.

In Genesis 2, 7, when God created man and said he breathed life into the man's nostrils and he became a living being.

If there was no sin ever, if we never sinned, we wouldn't have the need for scripture.

Because God breathed all that into our lives.

But because of sin, now we have scripture.

It says all scriptures, what God breathed.

And what is it useful for?

Teaching, rebuking, encouraging.

Man, what God breathed into existence.

And when he fell because of sin, now scriptures, God breathed into existence.

Why?

Because Jesus came to rescue us.

That's why he rose from the dead.

And you're on a road to a man, so to speak, in your own personal life.

And maybe you feel hopeless, maybe you feel saddened, maybe you're going through things that you just don't understand.

Why?

And Jesus is ever so near.

He's using your circumstances for a purpose.

What do you think you need to notice today?

It says in Luke 24, verse 31, then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he disappeared from their sight.

Luke 24:31

That is hilarious.

He's walking along with them.

They realize what's going on, they recognize him, but see a minute! And he's gone.

Because they have everything they need.

Jesus is all they need.

Now go live it.

Maybe Jesus wants you to recognize him today in a new and different way.

Maybe he's working in your life in a way that you don't understand.

The last couple pictures I'm gonna show you today is this.

One is me wearing a hat.

I'm at the wheelchair Olympics.

I went from a bush wheelchair to a mudrise one.

By the way, if you ever get an opportunity to ride a mudrise wheelchair, do it.

They're quite fun.

The next picture is this.

It's a picture of me at a swim beach.

The ribbons won you.

What says I got first place?

I got dead last.

I got involved in water therapy.

I wanted to be with other people with disabilities.

I didn't think water therapy would do anything.

But it did something amazing.

I wasn't expecting it.

In that water therapy, I started to swim again like a kid when I was younger.

And I started to walk in the water, not out of the water like Peter, but in the water.

And after about two and a half years, I get out of the wheelchair.

And I haven't been in a wheelchair since.

What?

I'm healed.

Healed?

Are you healed?

Look at you.

You know what I tell them?

How are you healed?

Look at you.

Because we all have circumstances that we deal with.

God is good.

And he places on a journey called a road with several different road signs.

A picture of a place where some people think Jesus was buried, that tomb right there.

There's another place in Jerusalem where they think it happened.

They're not sure.

And the last picture is on that door, that tomb I just showed you as a sign.

He's not here, for he is risen.

I love that their hearts were burning when Jesus was with them and opened the scriptures to them.

Maybe your hearts are burning.

And you know Jesus is working, but you just don't see it.

Like in Deathstorm, your visibility is reduced to deer zero.

Maybe you've alone.

Maybe you pull out to the side of the road and you wait for that to all pass by.

And you're in the midst of it.

But we have hope.

God loves us.

And because he loves us, we have been redeemed.

And we close with this verse as a prayer in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 16.

Ephesians 3:16

It says, I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being.

I love that.

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you be rooted and established in love.

May have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp and just how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.

I picture that dust storm.

Ten miles wide, thousands of feet high.

And you know this love that's messages on.

That you may be filled to the measure for the fullness of God.

That's amazing.

He loves you.

He's avoiding you.

He's ever so near.

And he's not true, but what he's doing in your mess.

Amen.

God thank you.

Thank you for loving us.

You speak a word.

God, it transforms.

You gave your life.

And it redeems.

Can you bring life into our existence, but we just sin instead?

We feel like now the scripture that we hold in our hands today is God breathe.

Because you're bringing us back.

You haven't given up on us.

You see the dust storms of our existence, and you're ever so near.

That's how wide and how deep in our eyes the love of Christ.

Thank you for giving the life for me.

And dying for me, and rising from the dead and for me, so that I can live life.

God, thank you for all that you do for all of us.

Recognize this week for all of us in here.

And Lord, this week that word be dispermate in our minds and our hearts.

And be a testimony to your glory that we recognize what you're doing.

We may not understand it.

Thank you for your truth that we get to acknowledge.

Thank you for giving us life fully in the midst of our brokenness.

Thank you for being our God.

In your name I praise.

Amen.