GENESIS 5:21-24 | WALK WITH GOD

Text: Genesis 5:21-24 | WALK WITH GOD

ILLUSTRATION: On this Father’s Day I am grateful for the dads in my life.

I’m thankful for Joe Gnerer, who has become a second dad to me.

Joe has taught me to hunt in Montana Joe has taught me to work cows

Joe has taught me how to budget money

Joe has taught me what it looks like to be a servant and to love people.

I’m thankful for what my dad, Troy Gilstrap, has taught me.

He taught me as a young man, It’s good to talk less, and listen more.

“God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason.”

Dad taught me how to fish.

Dad taught me how to change oil.

Dad taught me how to play sports.

Dad taught me to drive.

Dad taught me how to treat my wife someday.

Dad taught me how to work hard.

Dad taught me to put God first in everything I do.

I could go on and on with what my dad and Joe have taught me.

I’m grateful for them this father’s day!

EXPLANATION: Very little is said about Enoch in the Bible.

From Hebrews 11 we learn that Enoch was a man of faith and that he pleased God.

Hebrews 11:5 KJV 1900

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Jude 14–15 KJV 1900

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

“He walked with God”

ILLUSTRATION: Lot’s of things are written on gravestones.

“I told you I was sick”

“I made some good deals and I made some bad ones. I really went in the hole with this one.”

“I was hoping for a pyramid”

“One way do not enter”

“Stinks to be me”

“I knew this would happen”

EXPLANATION: If there had been a headstone for old Enoch, it simply would have said, “He walked with God.”

Now that headstone was never made because God’s Word says he was translated so that he would not see death.

But what a testimony of his life… He walked with God.

APPLICATION: Dad what is your testimony?

What would be written on your gravestone?

For each of us this morning, can it be said of you, that you walk with God?

For a few moments, just like my dad and Joe taught me many things, let’s let Enoch teach us…

Let’s Let Enoch Teach Us What It Looks Like to Walk with God

I. A Father’s Walk with God

Genesis 5:22 KJV 1900

And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

EXPLANATION: The Lord points to something important for us.

Now I don’t know if Enoch walked with God before the birth of his son, maybe he did.

But God draws attention to the fact the “Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah.”

If God is drawing attention to something, I want to draw attention to it too!

At the birth of his son Methuselah, something happened to Enoch that caused him to faithfully walk with God for 300 years!

I kinda think that when Mrs. Enoch had that little baby and they gave that baby that funny name: Methuselah, that something just pricked in the heart of that daddy.

He realized, “this is my boy… he’s going to follow me… he’s going to walk my path…”

He could have led him down the path to be a mechanic on the old chariots, and that would have been honorable.

He could have led him down the path to be a lawyer, and that may have paid a lot of money.

He could have led him down the path to be a preacher, after all, that was what Enoch did, he preached.

But Enoch knew, more important than teaching his boy to change the chariot tires, and more important than being able to make a good case and prove your point, and make a lot of money, more important than even being a preacher…

Enoch knew that baby Methuselah needed a daddy that walked with God!

APPLICATION: I firmly believe that in large part the reason our nation is in the position it is in, is because we have a lot of daddy’s that haven’t taught their children to walk with God!

ILLUSTRATION: If a child is the first to accept Christ as Savior, the rest of the family with do the same 3.5% of the time

If mom is the first the percentage jumps to 17% the rest of the family will.

But if dad is the first to accept Christ, there is a 93% chance the rest of the family will get saved as well!

APPLICATION: Dad’s you provide for your family financially.

You provide emotional stability in your family.

But are you providing the example of what it means to “walk with God!”

ILLUSTRATION: In Acts 16 Paul and Silas are locked away in prison singing praises at midnight, when the earthquake happens and they gates all open.

The keeper is getting ready to take his own life, when Paul calls out to him to stop him and informs him, “We’re all still here”

Acts 16:29–34 KJV 1900

Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

When that jailor got saved, he had the Gospel preached to the rest of his house, and they all got saved too!

APPLICATION: Men, Fathers, its time to rise up and lead your family to walk with God!

1 Corinthians 16:13 KJV 1900

Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

It’s time to start talking about spiritual things with your family

It’s time to start reading the Bible with your family

It’s time to start praying with your family

It’s time to make it clear that the most important thing in your life is your walk with God!

You have a responsibility as a Father, to lead your family to walk with God!

Grandpa, the grandkids are watching you too!

Give them an example, and show them what it means to walk with God!

May we say like Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1 We see a Father’s Walk With God. II. A Faithful Walk with God

1 Corinthians 11:1 KJV 1900

Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

WE SEE A FATHER’S WALK WITH GOD

II. A FAITHFUL WALK WITH GOD

Genesis 5:22 KJV 1900

And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

EXPLANATION: For 300 years after he had Methuselah, Enoch walked with God!

It doesn’t say that “God walked with Enoch.”

God wasn’t interested in walking the path Enoch wanted, no Enoch stayed faithful to the path God had!

And he stayed faithful for 300 years after the birth of Methuselah!

APPLICATION: Praise God for those that have stayed faithful to God and His Word for decades!

In my short life I have watched many who once faithful stood for God, many who even faithfully taught and preached His Word, walk away from the Faith they once held to.

It breaks this young preacher’s heart to think of people that I once went to for counsel, people that I knelt beside and prayed with, that are no longer faithful to God!

To think of some father’s of friends I grew up with, who left their wives and their kids and grandkids, because they decided they wanted a different path!

What happened?

They stopped walking with God, and tried to get God to walk with them.

They took God off of His throne and brought Him to their level and fashioned what they thought God should be.

They traded in walking with God for the glitz and glamour of the world.

They traded in walking with God, for the click of a mouse on a computer screen.

They traded in walking with God, for drinking beer with their buddies at the bar.

They traded in walking with God, for the promise that the grass would be greener on the other side.

They traded in walking with God… and you can mark it down, they came out or will come out empty handed!

EXPLANATION: Take it from the man, from a father that faithfully walked with God for 300 years in the midst of a faithless and perverse world… He would say, “Friend it was worth it!”

Enoch wasn’t perfect, and there is no doubt Enoch lost his temper with Methuselah.

There’s no doubt Enoch followed Mrs. Enoch out of the tent asking “What did I do?”

Enoch even failed God at times…

But Enoch also knew how to admit when he was wrong.

Enoch knew how to humble himself as a father and say “I’m sorry son.”

Enoch knew how to “dwell with his wife according to knowledge.”

Learning her and submitting himself to her as Ephesians 5:21 tells us to do.

Enoch knew how to come to God, and ask for forgiveness, and make things right.

Enoch faithfully walked with God.

APPLICATION: Father’s, Husbands, in the midst of a faithless and perverse world, will you decide that you will walk faithfully with God.

Psalm 1:1–6 KJV 1900

Blessed is the man That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor standeth in the way of sinners, Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; And in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, That bringeth forth his fruit in his season; His leaf also shall not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: But are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Psalm 37:23 KJV 1900

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: And he delighteth in his way.

For as long as He gives you on this earth, through whatever may come, will you walk faithfully with Him!

A Father’s Walk with God, A Faithful Walk with God

III. A FUTURE THAT WALKS WITH GOD

EXPLANATION: At this time, people lived extraordinarily long lives.

We don’t know exactly why, but they did!

You are never going to believe this…

In Genesis 5 God gives us the descendants of Adam.

Adam lived to be 930 years old before he died.

Did you know, Enoch would have been born when Adam was only 522 years old?

In fact, Enoch was translated at 365 years old, which was 43 years before Adam died!

But listen, Enoch had a son named Methuselah, what a funny name.

But names in the Bible had a meaning.

Methuselah’s name meant “his death shall bring judgment” or we might say, “when he dies judgment is coming.”

What a name!

Methuselah had a son named Lamech, and Lamech had a son, who you might have heard of… His name was Noah.

It was Noah who God came to at 500 years old and told him to build the ark because God was wiping the earth clean.

Here’s where it gets real interesting, the year that Methuselah died, was the year God sent the flood, about 1,556 years after creation.

But Noah knew, God wouldn’t bring judgment as long as Methuselah was still around.

Because God promised after his death, judgment would come.

Who was the oldest man to live in the Bible… Methuselah… 969 Years old!

Methuselah was a picture of God’s mercy and His grace.

EXPLANATION: I told you there were two people in the Bible that God’s Word says, they “walked with God”

The first was old Enoch, He walked with God.

The other is mentioned in Genesis 6:8-9

Genesis 6:8–9 KJV 1900

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

The only other person who the Bible says “walked with God” was Noah.

Who just “happened” to be the great grandson of Enoch.

“What a coincidence!”

No… it was no coincidence.

God wants you and I to understand dad… Your decisions today will impact generations to come like you can’t even begin to comprehend.

Noah never met his great grandpa Enoch… but you can mark it down he knew one thing about great grandpa Enoch… He walked with God!

Yes Enoch had a Future family that Walked with God!

3 John 4 KJV 1900

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

CONCLUSION

APPLICATION: Dad, will you choose today to walk with God?

To lead your family to walk with God?

To show them how to have a relationship with God?

To show them that there is nothing that should take the place of time with the Lord?

To teach them how to take a stand in the midst of a wicked world!

EXPLANATION: We know why God decided to destroy the earth with the flood in Noah’s day.

The Bible tells us, over in Genesis 6:5-6

Genesis 6:5–6 KJV 1900

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

God was grieved over the wickedness of man!

But have you ever realized why Noah built the ark?

I mean yes, God told him to, but did you know there was a motivation that kept him going for 120?

Over in Hebrews 11:7

Hebrews 11:7 KJV 1900

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

For 120 years in a wicked world.

With the constant bombardment of criticism

With multitudes that undoubtedly questioned his faith in God.

In a world that would have stood against him with every nail he drove into the wood.

Noah stayed faithful in building that ark for 120 years… Because he wanted to save his house!

He did it to save his family!

And I’m sure on that day when the rain began to fall and the door of that ark was closed by God, Noah was thankful that he chose to walk with God, just like his Grandpa Enoch did!

APPLICATION: Dad, in a world that is going against the things of God at every turn, you MUST choose to walk with God if your family is going to have any hope!

Be willing to face the criticism and the opposition!

Your family is worth it, dad!

Choose today to walk with God!

How about you mom?

You can’t comprehend the impact you are having on your children!

Will you show them what a mom that walks with God looks like?

How about you teenager?

Your passion for God and a walk with Him can impact your family and friends in ways you can’t understand!

How about you Christian?

Will you decide today that you will choose each and every day to walk with God?

To pick up this Bible and spend some time with your Father?

What a shame it would be on this father’s day, not to spend time with our Heavenly Father.

Will you decide, like Enoch, to walk with God! It’s so simple… but the impacts are eternal!