Walking with God
Obedience • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Good morning everyone, I trust you have had a good week, that you have enjoyed many wonderful things, events that God has blessed you with...
I want to take a moment to congratulate the Union Bears basketball team on a great season, they played hard and well. And at times good things come to and end. We applaud you and your efforts this season.
Consider with me the book of Genesis.
Wednesday night I began looking at the creation account of this world and man.
The creation account that we find Genesis chapter 1 is the most marvelous pictures of our God and the care, skill and power he exhibited as he called this world into place.
I cannot imagine the scene as God looked about this area that was void, lifeless and dark… and He spoke and things came into being..
How wonderful my friends...
This morning I want us to move a little past the creation event of this world and consider Genesis chapter 5 and the story of Enoch.
And with the story is this thought… We must walk with God.
So lets turn to Genesis 5:21-24
When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Enoch is a special character in the Scriptures, namely for two reasons.
Enoch walked with God
Enoch never saw death, God moved him home without him seeing the stage of life we call death.
When I think of the life Enoch had I believe he was not here just to be an inhabitant of this earth, he was here for God’s purposes and in the scope of that purpose.... he teaches us that we must walk with God.
So lets begin today....
Enoch Was a Man of Faith...
Enoch Was a Man of Faith...
I believe this as a true statement, Enoch was a man of faith and His faith and his belief in God taught him what it meant to walk with and for God.
Now it is not just my belief or theory that Enoch was a man of faith, no the Bible tell us he was...
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
Faith is the word, that is important here today, hang on to it...
It is a life that is lived by faith in the eternal God that empowers that person to walk correctly before God and man.
Enoch had faith.... why? Well when we survey the Biblical record we know that Adam was alive and walking with God during the days of Enoch. Enoch knew the stories of God, the first hand witness of Adam
But best of all the Bible tells us that Enoch walked with God.... by faith.
Faith is a curious word that we have to pay attention too...
Without faith we are without hope… ; listen If there is one truth we can hold on to this morning, it is with ..without faith it is impossible to please God.
Listen to this verse Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
So by Faith Enoch sought the eternal God of the universe and lived for Him.
And then the next question is this....
Do you have faith?
Faith is the belief that God is real, that Jesus died for you, and the Holy Spirit has come into the world to walk alongside of the believer and help them.
Faith is knowing, while you have never seen yet you know, believing and trusting in the same one that Enoch walked with.
Do you have faith?
And then secondly today...
Enoch Lived His Life to Please God...
Enoch Lived His Life to Please God...
When you look at what was happening in the world and time that Enoch lived: I can say this with confidence, Enoch lived his life in a way that pleased God.
How can I back that up...
We know that by Genesis chapter 6 the world is fallen, sin has entered the world through the life of Adam and Eve and their disobedience before God.
Listen to Genesis 6:5
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Yet in the middle of a world of wickedness, in the middle of a world that had fallen away … Enoch was resolved to live for God.
And he did....
The Bible tells us that for over 300 years he walked with God every day. Genesis 5:22.
This truth reminds us that we can walk with God, and pleased Him.
Now here is what I believe.....
We can walk with God and please Him.
So how do we do please God with our walk?
We honor God with with words. Words have the power to build up and to tear down.... words can stab and cut to a persons heart… injuring a person for a life time.
So what can we do..... We can ask the Lord to guard our mouth so we can be always pleasing in his sight…never hurting a person with our worlds.
Listen to David.....
Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;
keep watch over the door of my lips!
David knew that our words contain life and death...
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
We live in a day my friends when our words have no grace, no preserving influence or help in our life.
So we can make a commitment to the Lord, saying Lord with your help I promise I will not gossip, it will not be critical, I will not be a person to promote discord.
Honor God with your words...
2. We Can Honor God with Our Actions...
Our actions..... think about what we do through the course of a day or week.
We hang our with our friends, sitting around a table and perhaps the conversation grows into course talk, instead of leaving or rebuking that talk you just sit there and by doing nothing you give your approval.
Maybe we notice a person telling a story about another person, and we don’t know for certain if it is true or not, and what do we do? We listen and reply, giving our approval but not stopping and refusing to listen to what is being said...
And our course, our actions speak to what we do or do not do in the course of a week. Do we show love or hate, do we offer a helping hand and show love or do we stray away from those in need.... those who do not know what love is...
listen to this verse....
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
I believe for 300 years Enoch honored God in every way possible. It was not with empty lips it my friends was in the integrity of his heart...
You can please God.....
Now one last thought.....
Follow Enoch’s Example
Follow Enoch’s Example
Follow His example
Now you might say.... wow preacher we have just a few verses devoted to Enoch, what, if anything else can we learn??
First off… Enoch walked with God every day… we can walk with God every day, every day implies consistency...
Day in and day out, good or bad times, we can abide with Christ
John 15:5 like I shared last week in my message… if we remain in Him and He in us we will bear much fruit....
Second..., Enoch walking with God implies that He was in step with God.
Now you might say what does that mean.... it means you are keeping pace with God. You are living and praying and following in such a way that you are walking and and able to follow where the Lord is leading.
Third…, Enoch chose God over the world...
By choosing to walk with God, he gave God the seat of priority in His life.
let me share the prophet Amos with you.
“Do two walk together,
unless they have agreed to meet?
The world might have been going to hell in a hand basket, but Enoch would have no part of it.
The world around us might be awful, but we do not have to join in..
The world might be unkind, but that is not the reason to stop loving the world the way Jesus did...
and by choosing God, Enoch led by example....
So what about us....
We can be people of faith, we can live by faith and not by sight..
We can be people who strive to please God
We can follow the example of Enoch and other biblical witnesses...