WALKING WITH GOD
Notes
Transcript
OPENER: WELCOME BACK AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! GLAD Y’ALL ARE BACK! IT’S BORING AROUND HERE WITHOUT YOU.
Q: ANYTHING EXCITING HAPPEN OVER THE BREAK? (2020 ending maybe)
2021 AND NEW GOALS:
Q: ARE YOU GLAD 2020 IS OVER? It is good to have a new starting point where you feel like you can begin again.
Q: DO YOU BELIEVE THIS YEAR IS GOING TO BE BETTER?
Q: WHAT’S REALLY GOING TO DETERMINE WHETHER THIS YEAR IS BETTER THAN LAST YEAR? If our attitude and faith and behavior and focus is different it can be better. It might be better in some ways when we are no longer having to wear masks and the pandemic is less of a problem. But how this year for you is largely dependent not on outside circumstances but on how you live.
Q: DID ANY OF YOU MAKE NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS? OR MAYBE A BETTER QUESTIONS IS WHAT GOALS DO YOU HAVE FOR THIS YEAR? (If nothing else, hopefully passing your classes is a goal.)
Q: HOW MANY OF YOU ARE STILL KEEPING YOUR N Y R? HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE ALREADY STOPPED OR TAKEN A BREAK?
Q: WHY DO YOU THINK NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS ALMOST ALWAYS FIZZLE OUT AFTER A FEW WEEKS OR MONTHS AT MOST? (Because we think about the goal, get hyped up and go full speed but when motivation changes or it gets more difficult that we expected the motivation to reach the goal goes away. The results do not happen as fast as we want or our expectations are not met.)
Draw illustration on the board: You are here mark, then dotted line, then the goal. The beginning is one place and the end is one but what is the largest part of this drawing? The middle, the dashes, the day to day. So...
Q: WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WILL TAKE TO REACH THOSE GOALS? Possible answers: motivation, commitment, making a firm decision, consistency!
Often we do not reach our goals because we think about the goal but do not focus enough on the process to get there, the day to day of how we can get from here to there.
(I promise this ties into our study and spiritual lives…)
(Trans: I am always reminded at this time of year that the most important goals or resolutions for change are the spiritual ones. That should be our focus first…)
For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
If we reach all of our other goals (or whatever we gain) and do not keep our commitments to Christ then we have not succeeded.
SPIRITUAL GOALS:
Q: WHAT SPIRITUAL GOALS OR EXPECTATIONS FOR GROWTH DO YOU HAVE FOR THIS YEAR? A: possibly better prayer life, read the Bible more, share faith more, be closer to God, etc…all the things God has called us to do.
Q: WHAT IS THE GOAL OF ALL THAT? PLEASING GOD AND ABIDING IN HIM!
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Q: WHY DO WE OFTEN (LIKE NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS) NOT MEET OUR SPIRITUAL GOALS?
Draw: Point (you are here) dashes, then goal at the end…) Now what is the largest and most important part of this…the daily actions, the steps, one by one that get you from here to there...
We should not think of spiritual growth and our relationship with God as a one time event some time back but as what is happening day to day.
Abiding in Christ, closeness to Christ, living by the Spirit is a daily, an every day thing that is motivated by love but helped by self control and discipline.
WALKING: IN SCRIPTURE THIS IS EXPRESSED IN ONE OF THE BEST WAY BY THE PARALLEL OR PICTURE OF WALKING. For example:
for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Q: HOW OFTEN DO YOU WALK? (daily) WHAT DOES WALKING CONSIST OF? (steps) So spiritually we can take every step of our lives toward the goals God has given us and with Him!
TRANS: I want to encourage you to have two overall goals for this year (that I want to talk about tonight), (which really are tied together: (1) Walk with God, (daily) and (2) Walk in step with His Spirit. (And one character: Enoch (not Austin) in the Old Testament to illustrate this.) LOOK AT GENESIS 5:
GENESIS 5
CONTEXT: When reading through the bible this is one of those chapters that you initially think about skipping over because it is just a lineage from Adam to Noah. It is obviously going from one major character to the next. There are some things that you can pick out of this chapter that are lessons that we can learn from. As we read through I just want to pick out a few phrases.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.
Just a recap of what was already said but to give a proper starting to the lineage, this is said. (Also not very PC, HA!)
Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
Adam lived to be 930 years Old. Can you imagine this? It is kind of funny to think about it. Eve could have said, “Adam you are not as young as you used to be, you’re not 250 anymore.” And Adam could reply “I’m still in my prime, I’m only 500.”
QUICK SIDE NOTE: Extra Long Life: It seem illogical and impossible that people lived to be this old. 100 is a rare age now. How was this possible? Well, we do not know the science behind it, but God has the power to make anything last as long as He wants. Adam’s body was created at first not to die. There were not all the genetic problems and diseases. (ill: The Galapagos Giant Turtle can live to be 400)
NOW HERE IS THE KEY VERSE: 24
Key verse: “God can say a whole lot with a whole little,” i.e. Jesus wept, pray without ceasing, REJOICE ALWAYS...
Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Vv. 22-24 Enoch “walked with God.” Enoch lived such a godly life that He was taken by God.
Q: WHY DID GOD TAKE HIM? (The implication is that it had to do with His walk, His relationship with God. As a parallel, in the end who will Christ take to be with Him forever?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Those who are alive will meet Christ in the air (1 THESS 4:17) AND THOSE who have died will be resurrected.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT WE COULD BE LIKE ENOCH, IF CHRIST RETURNS BEFORE WE DIE BUT OTHERWISE THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT HE DID NOT DIE.
Q: WHO WAS THE ONLY OTHER PERSON TO BE TAKEN UP?
But Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) was also taken up without dying. But every Christian should be one who “walks with God” or has a close relationship.
Even though Enoch did not die this is something that we should all want to be said of us when we are gone; that “we walked with God.”
These verses are a good start on a study on our relationship with God. It also raises some questions.
Q: What does it mean to walk with God? Walking is a common analogy in scripture. It typically refers to your life and what you do with it…
The analogy of walking is actually a huge theme in scripture. The idea of walking as a metaphor for how you live your live or your actions appears in 41 of the 66 books of the bible in both old and New Testaments. The ones we know so well are Romans 6:4, “walk in newness of life.” And “we walk by faith not by sight” 2 Cor. 5:7 And one of the greatest is Eph. 5:2 that says: “walk in love”…read.
Q: What does it mean to walk in love? It means that everything we do in life should be motivated by our love for God and for others. (I wonder how this would change our lives if we could put love into everything we do? I think it would change what we say and do in that it would motivate us to do some things we don’t and not do some things we do. Also in what we say and how we say it…
One of the first times you find the idea it came from God. In Gen. 17:1 God tells Abraham to “walk before me, and be blameless.” Two of the most common phrases that are used very frequently are God saying, “walk before me.” (I Sam. 2:30; 2 Chron. 6:14) and “walk in my ways.” (Duet. 10:12; Ps 119:3)
These statements bring up two very important truths about life. (1) We are always before God. He knows everything we do. (2) His ways are the best ways.
Jesus said in Jn 8:12 “whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light of life.”
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
SO IF WALKING WITH GOD DAILY IS OUR GOAL...
Q: WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO “WALK WITH GOD” DAILY?
Walking with God requires faith. Heb. 11:6 Faith is what causes us to seek God. Faith that He exists and rewards us who seek Him.
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.
Fake faith: doing things just in case God exists…i.e. going to worship occasionally and not being involved in sinful lifestyles…but not really seeking God or a relationship with Him.
Real faith: is seeking after God and finding a relationship with Him that results in desiring to please Him in everything we do.
Walking with God means Pleasing God; The Septuagint translates the “walked with God” (Gen 9:6) pleased God.
I John 1:5-7 describe how we cannot have fellowship w/ God unless we “practice the truth.”
Walking with God means spending time with God. (MORE THAN THAT, LIVING MOMENT-BY-MOMENT WITH GOD.) This is a part of seeking God. (Communication: pray and study, worship and service…)
BUT JESUS HAD SPECIFIC TIME HE WENT TO SPEND TIME WITH GOD ALONE. (DO YOU HAVE SPECIFIC TIMES DAILY THAT YOU SPEND WITH GOD ALONE?
(The relationship that Jesus demonstrated is a perfect example. He called God “Abba” or father. This relationship is close and intimate…)
Q: WHAT GETS IN THE WAY OF US WALKING WITH GOD DAILY? (Compartmentalizing our faith, distractions, not being intentional…)
WALKING WITH GOD TAKES BEING INTENTIONAL AND DISCIPLINED
APPl: Many days when we fail to grow in our relationship with God it is not that we do not have good intentions it is that we are not being intentional.
We have so many distractions and so much busyness that if we are not intentional and disciplined other things will cause us to run out of time.
Many of those things we do not even notice! What do you think distracts us most?
(Often it is the little things, here and there.) (And our smartphones…you probably heard of similar studies but the average number of times we touch our phones to do things whether quick or not is 2,617. Each of those small times adds up…its like the whole principle behind social media, just a quick scroll, one story, pic, meme at a time before long it has been 45 minutes...
Q: HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE A SET TIME EVERYDAY THAT YOU SPEND IN PRAYER OR GOD’S WORD? (As long as you do not treat it as a rote exercise and you really seek God’s presence it can bring you consistent spiritual growth.)
Challenge: I gonna challenge you to set a time every day for this semester to spend with God alone praying, listening and soaking up His word.
There can be value a consistency through spiritual disciplines. For example:
(Daniel was disciplined spiritually…He did not compromise his standards and he prayed 3 times a day…without exception)
This is important because our walk should be producing fruit or progress…
“Walking with God” implies increasing and bearing fruit.
so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Q: What fruit are you bearing? Increased knowledge? Increased works?
You are making a constant effort; do you have spiritual goals that you are striving for or spiritual discipline?
Gal. 6:9 “And let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap.” So many times we want to give up because there is not instant success. How long did it take Enoch…
“WALKING WITH GOD” TAKES WALKING IN AND KEEPING IN STEP WITH HIS SPIRIT!
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Q: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO “WALK BY THE SPIRIT” AND KEEP IN STEP WITH THE SPIRIT?
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
YOUR MIND IS ON THE THINGS OF SPIRIT (THINGS ABOVE)
YOU ARE AWARE OF AND LOOKING FOR THE LEADING
POSSIBLE ILL: TWO PEOPLE GETTING UP AND WALKING IN STEP WITH EACH OTHER. (now look up at the ceiling as you walk…) You cannot do it if you are not paying attention to and watching for the Holy Spirit.
SUBMIT TO THE SPIRIT’S LEADING EVEN IF IT IS HARD
Lessons from Enoch’s life:
Enoch was a preacher...Jude 1:14, 15 Enoch lived a faithful life in the midst of evil
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. 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.
