Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Walk of Faith (Lesson 3)*

*(Enoch) Hebrews 11:5-6*

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*Introduction: *During this time of the year many people make commitments.

After hearing a message about what did you give to Jesus for Christmas, our family decided to make a commitment for the New Year.

It is found in 1 Thess.

5:16-18.

Rejoice evermore-constant joy.

Pray without ceasing-constant prayer.

Our family is praying for God to give us 10 churches in the beginning of this New Year.

He has been giving us one here and one there.

What seems impossible to the human eye is not possible with God.

In everything give thanks-constant thanksgiving.

Some preachers believe that Christians need to be committed more.

*/The problem is not commitment.

/* The main problem with believers today is not the lack of commitment.

Rather, the problem lies in what they are committed to.

People are very committed.

The problem is what they are committed to.

There are people that are committed to their families.

We know of a family that misses church just so they can spend time together.

We know of people that are committed to their jobs.

There are people who miss church just so they could work.

Enoch was a man of commitment.

Tucked in a genealogy in chapter 5 of Genesis, two times we are told that Enoch walked with God. 

 

*Genesis 5:21-24 * 21 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:  22 And Enoch *walked with God* after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:  23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:  24 And Enoch *walked with God*: and he /was /not; for God took him.

The word “walk” carries the idea of commitment of life and purpose.

Enoch’s commitment and purpose was God.

In the Greek translation of the Old Testament the word walk is substituted with the word please.

In other words, to walk with God and to please God means the same thing.

What does it take to have a walk with God? 

 

*In order for us to be committed to God properly we need to believe in the:*

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*I.                   **Reality** of God*

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The first step of faith is simply to *believe that He is*.

This Enoch did.

God is pleased with those who believe in Him, even with the first step of believing that He exists.

This belief alone is certainly not enough to save a person, but if it is a sincere conviction and is followed up, it will lead to full faith.

In his book, /Your God is Too Small/, J. B. Phillips describes some of the common gods that people manufacture.

One is the grand old man god, the grandfatherly, white-haired, indulgent god who smiles down on men and winks at their adultery, stealing, cheating, and lying.

Then there are the resident policeman god, whose primary job is to make life difficult and unenjoyable, and the god in a box, the private and exclusive sectarian god.

The managing director god is the god of the deists, the god who designed and created the universe, started it spinning, and now stands by far away watching it run down.

God is not pleased with belief in any of these idolatrous substitutes.

Believing that the true God exists is what is pleasing to Him.

Mere recognition of a deity of some sort—the “ground of being,” the “man upstairs,” or any of the man-made gods just mentioned—is not the object of belief in mind here.

Only belief in the existence of the true God, the God of Scripture, counts.

Illustration:  When I was struggling over the death of my father we were going through the attributes of God in Seminary.

We were learning how God is always right, He never makes mistakes.

As these truths poured out of my professor, they poured into my life.

We must believe that God is!

These false religions such as Mormonism and Jehovah Witnesses believe in a false Jesus.

The Jesus of the Scriptures is not the half brother of Satan.

He is the eternal Son of God and the only one who saves.

*/The key word is faith!

We must believe that God is./*

In seminary we learn about the proofs of God.

The Bible never argues the existence of God.

In the beginning, God!

How do we know that God is still in control when 150,000 people die from a Tsunami?

How do we know that God is a God of love?

When our feelings and circumstances say the opposite, we believe in the reality of God by faith.

Here is where it gets hard my friends.

When everything around us tells us that God is not who He is, we still must believe that He is who He is.

Illustration:  William Carey.

No matter what happens, God’s cause will triumph.

He lost one of his children.

His wife went crazy.

He didn’t even see a convert for 7 years.

*II.

**Responsiveness** of God*

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6But without faith /it is/ impossible to please /him/: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and /that/ he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

It is not enough simply to believe that God exists.

In order to please Him it is also necessary to believe that He is moral and just, that He will reward faith in Him.

*/We must recognize God as a personal, loving, gracious God to those who seek Him.

/*

 

You know what, we don’t realize what we miss when live by sight.

Faith has its rewards.

For some of the saints, they died without receiving the promises, however for others they received precious rewards.

How about having a child at the age of 90?  Wow!

Could you imagine how it must have been for Sarah to give birth at that age?

To see the child and say, hey it does pay to have faith.

God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

We were having our devotions through the book of Matthew.

Jesus on the sermon on the mount speaks of how our heavenly Father rewards us.

There are different rewards in the Bible.

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He rewards us when we are persecuted.

*Matthew 5:11-12 * 1 Blessed are ye, when /men /shall revile you, and persecute /you/, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great /is /your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

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He rewards us when we love our enemies.

*Matthew 5:46 *  46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?

do not even the publicans the same?

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He rewards us when we give to others.

*Matthew 6:1 *Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

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He rewards us when we pray to Him.

 

*Matthew 6:6 * But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

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He rewards us when we fast.

*Matthew 6:18 *  18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly

 

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He rewards us when we serve.

*Matthew 10:41-42 * 41 He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.

42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold /water /only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

*1 Corinthians 3:8 *  8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

*/The reward that God gives for faith is salvation./*

“Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt.