Walking With God
Notes
Transcript
21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.
22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years.
24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
To me, this last verse “Enoch walked with God” brought up an interesting thought. What does it mean to “walk with God”. Well, when we think of walking WITH someone, it usually means we are following their lead. Wherever they go, we follow. I can remember our trip to New York City. We didn’t really know where we were going so we consulted the maps on our phones and plotted our route. When we are following a known route, the chances of getting lost are reduced to a minimum.
But, have you ever had a place you were trying to go and someone tries to change your route? It usually starts with “I know a shortcut” or “I can get us there quicker”. Usually, we wind up late, frustrated, and lost. Now, think of our daily walk with God. We have a road map for life, and when we consult it we can plot our route. As we follow the road map for life, we have a clear picture of our destination and the chances of getting lost are avoided. But when we take our eyes off the map, when we try to forge our own path, blaze our own trail, that we run the risk of becoming lost and wandering further away from our intended destination. If we never follow God, then we are assured we will get lost. When we look at Chapter 5, we see a list of names starting with Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, and Jared. Normal names of normal people. Other than in the lineage listed, we do not see anything “grand” out of their lives. But we get to see a clearer picture of Enoch’s life.
Genesis 5:22 (ESV)
22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years ...
When Enoch became a father at the age of 65, it said it was at THAT point in his life that he walked with God. He started His journey, with God in the lead. It doesn’t mean Enoch was not a believer before then, it does not mean Enoch did not believe in God, but in my mind it means Enoch may have not been fully focused or committed to God UNTIL something changed him. Now this was not an easy time in the world to be faithful. We are looking at Noah’s great-grandfather, living during a time of great wickedness on earth prior to the flood. Something was a “turning-point” in his life that caused him to begin walking with the Lord. But to fully commit, to “walk with” someone it means they have to agree on where they will meet and where they’re going.
3 “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?
Today, many of us choose to take an easier route. We use our maps app on our phone. How many of us have heard the voice say “rerouting”. That’s a polite way to say you missed your turn. You didn’t follow directions. You’re not on the right route. Then, we have a decision to make. We can listen to the voice, turn around, and get back on the right track. We may get off track slightly and go up a few blocks to make a safe turn and circle around until we find the right route. OR We can feel as though we know enough about where we are going that we can ignore that voice and follow our own route. The trouble with following our own route is, many times we get lost. When we get lost, nothing looks familiar around us, and we might not even know which way we need to turn to get back. Biblically speaking, when we are not walking with God, when we think we know a better route, in reality we are lost. So what does it truly mean to walk with God?
Meaning of Walking with God
Meaning of Walking with God
We must make a decision on how we walk, with whom we walk, and our choices determine who we serve. In other words, to Walk with God means we must be willing to follow Him! You see, God has invited us to go on a journey with Him but WE must be willing to go where He wants to go.
Too often, we want to go where we want to go, do what we want to do, and then try to drag God along with us INSTEAD of faithfully and obediently follow God.
We are told in scripture the route has already been chosen. But the problem is, life is like a six-lane interstate highway with every vehicle going 70 miles per hour. We are told that the route that a Christian is on is not an interstate highway, but instead it is a narrow path, one that is not an easy trek. The gate is narrow, not easily seen or entered, and only a few find the right exit leading to heaven.
14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Walking with God can really be translated into living a lifestyle devoted to following God. It’s no different than what the original relationship was intended to be:
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
From the beginning of time, God led man, took him, placed him, gave him direction of what he could and could not do. God only wants us to follow Him, but He wants to guide us through this life. But like Adam and Eve, we have a choice to make - to follow Christ or not.
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
God simply asks us to be obedient in following Him. As young children, we see them following in the footsteps of their fathers. No matter where they go, their children are right behind them, following them, looking up to him, wanting to be just like him. Why? Because he is their idol, their mentor, their daddy. It doesn’t change with God, as our heavenly Father, he wants us to be just like these little children and obediently follow Him, look up to Him, and be just like Him. The only way we can do that, though, is to walk by faith
Walk by Faith
Walk by Faith
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Have you ever heard the term “blindly following”? What does that mean? Well, to us it may mean to follow without fully understanding or comprehending the subject. This can come from not being able to wrap our minds around the subject, or it can also come from not putting in the work (study) to learn. As believers, we tend to blindly place our reliance upon and trust in God, never truly studying His Word.
Think of a blind person, someone not able to see even the slightest lights and darks. What kind of faith do they have to place into their cane, their service dog, or the person in whom they follow? They have to put FULL faith into the device, thing, or person to deliver them to their destination safely. There is a commitment to each other. It takes time and repeated success for this type of commitment and faith to develop.
Our relationship with God comes in the same manner. We have to build our faith in Him, and we will find time and time again that God will not fail us, will not leave us, and will not let us down. He is totally commited to His creation, but we must be totally commited to Him. Enoch, we find, was a man who totally surrendered his life to God, living a life respected by God. His relationship with God was special enough that God even “took him”. Enoch did not have to experience death as God literally transitioned him from earth to heaven.
5 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.
Enoch, when he chose to follow God consistently walked with God, growing more and more in his understanding of God, was saved through faith. Too often, we want to be like a little child, walking a little while, then looking around, wandering, chasing the grasshoppers of life, hiding behind trees, throwing rocks, doing everything except what God has called us to do. It is up to us, when confronted with following our own road or following God’s path, to make the correct decision of which we follow. Our decision can either grow us closer to God and convince us of the relationship we have with Him, or our desire to follow our own paths can condemn us for eternity.
Condemned or Convinced?
Condemned or Convinced?
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
To have faith and to desire walking with God, we must first be saved. For God to say Enoch walked with Him, there had to be a conversion experience. Enoch was no different than us. Born of sinful parents and living in a sinful world. He lived a sinful life, but something changed. Something convicted him of his sins and he had a decision to make. Something cause him to confess his sins and repent.
Each and every one of us will be confronted with a similar situation. It may be the birth of a child, like Enoch. It could be the loss of a loved one. It may be hearing the gospel and understanding it for the first time. Whatever our circumstance may be, we can be like Enoch. Enoch repented, changed his life, and turned back to God. He made the CHOICE to follow God.
Luke 13:3 (ESV)
3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
It wasn’t only just making the decision to follow God, but Enoch sought after God.
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.
We must choose to draw near to God also. By doing so, we believe that God is the one and only living and true God. We must walk with God, by faith, by following, worshipping, fellowshipping, and serving Him with all our hearts. We must believe in the same promises of God that Enoch believed, that God loved us enough that He would send the Savior to the world. In other words, we should desire the same things Enoch did, he sought to keep his mind upon God, he sought to keep in a state of prayer, walking in a spirit of prayer daily,
16 Rejoice always,
17 pray without ceasing,
18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
he commited himself to live a holy and Godly life, a life completely different than the sinful life he once lived,
Enoch walked with God. He walked like God, and lived like God. He lived a holy and Godly life. Remember, this was during a time of extreme sinfulness, a time where it was hard to live a Godly life. A time where he had to make a choice that may separate him and his family from all others around him.
Why did he chose to live a Godly life? He knew the condemnation - the judgment - that would come if he rejected God.
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Was Enoch’s day more ungodly than our day? The thinking and honest person has to confess that it was not much more, if any more, ungodly.a
Notice what Scripture has to say about the believer’s walk.
Noah walked with God.
9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
Abraham was required to walk before God.
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,
We are all required to walk with God.
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
We are to walk before God.
9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
We are to walk after God.
4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.
We are to follow God and walk in love.
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
We are to walk in Christ.
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
We are to walk by faith, not by sight.
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
We are to walk in light.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
We are to walk in truth.
3 For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.
11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
We are to walk in newness of life.
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
We are to walk in the Spirit.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
We are to walk worthy of our calling and vocation.
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
We are to walk carefully.
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,
We are to pray for God to keep us from stumbling and falling that we may walk before Him.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.
We are to walk as Christ walked.
6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.