Walking with God

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please go ahead and get that out and make your way over into the book of Genesis. I invite you to the first book of your Bible to Genesis chapter 5. Genesis chapter 5 is why I invite you this morning as you turn to Genesis 5 and get ready to study. Let me just say it’s so good to see you this morning. It is so wonderful to see God’s people here in this place. My name is Sean Jeffries. I’m thankful to be here with you. I currently work with the Monte Vista, the Monte Vista Church in Phoenix, Arizona. I actually live in Chandler, which is a suburb of Phoenix, but the church building itself is in the city. I’ve been there about six years, but I am not from Arizona.

Please don’t sound from Arizona. I’m from Texas. I’m a Texas boy. I grew up in East Texas and the oldest town in Texas, Naccadoches, Texas. And that should be familiar to you because Brother Harkwriter, as some of you know well, is also from Naccadoches, Texas. So that’s my old stomping ground as well. He’s my dear, dear friend, and we have that in common. I actually trained to preach in Beaumont, Texas, at the Dallin Road Congregation. Brother Max Dawson and David Banning are my mentors. And after I left there in 2008, I actually did local work here in Florida. I preached for five years in Leesburg, Florida. That’s where our son was born. And then I’ve also done local work in Middle Tennessee in Columbia, Tennessee. That is south of Nashville.

And then we’ve been in Phoenix for uh four or six years. I am sorry that my family could not come. My wife of 22 years is a school teacher. She could not get away. We also have a 15-year-old son. We’re in the teenage years. You know how that goes, you parents. And then we have an eight-year-old daughter who’s eight going on 28. And I’m sorry they could not make it. I really appreciate your shepherds, your elders for giving me this invitation. I am aware of your theme of transformation, being transformed spiritually, and so every lesson in some way is going to be connecting to that theme. And I’m going to do my best to do what the elders ask of me. Our first lesson is going to be coming from Genesis chapter 5.

I’ll be getting some participation from you at various points. I’ll try to be very strategic in that. But in Genesis chapter 5, I want to start reading with verse 18, because we’re going to be studying it about somebody in this Bible class hour that maybe we don’t talk about enough.

Then Jared lived 800 years after he became the father of Enoch, and he had other sons and daughters.

Enoch lived 65 years and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

How much do you know about Enoch? The Bible doesn’t tell us a whole lot about this man. He’s not one of the more Mount Rushmore characters of the Bible. He’s not somebody like Abraham, David, Moses, the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Peter. In fact, here you only have seven verses. There are only seven verses here dedicated to this man named Enoch, but I want to submit to you that these seven verses are powerful. They’re very powerful. They tell us a lot about Enoch. They tell us that this man Enoch, while he’s not somebody we talk a whole lot about, he is a man who walked with God. The scripture says this man walked with God. That is powerful language, and it’s found in two verses in this section.

It’s found in verse 22 and in verse number 24. And this is language that’s also used to describe someone else. If you look in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 9, in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 9, there’s another man that the scripture says walk with God. And who is that? That’s Noah. And we’re very familiar with Noah. So Noah walked with God. And Enoch walked with God. And so I want to start by getting some participation from you, okay? And for those of you in the back, if you make a comment, please speak kind of loud because sometimes my hearing kind of kind of fails me, especially in a big auditorium like this. But I do want to get your thoughts on the language. Walked with God.

Walk with God. Does anybody have any initial thoughts? Any initial ideas? And hopefully you receive a small little worksheet, one of these worksheets right here, just to kind of help you as we go along in our class. And this is really the first question, the first bullet point. What does it mean to walk with God? I just want to hear some thoughts from you. Does anybody, and we’ll kind of shoot these out really quickly here. Does anybody have any initial thoughts of what you think? What do you think it means to walk with God? Yes, sir. Relationship with God? Okay. So you think of relationship? Okay. Relationship. Good answer. Yes, sir.

So you think of obedience. He is the first person that walks with God to be that record of God. First person we have record of in Scripture to walk with God. And my brother also said he thinks of obeying God, obedience. So we have relationship, we have obedience. Anyone else got any good thoughts? Yes, ma’am. I think of just daily living. What is, you know, you wake up and you you walk your life, but what path are you on? That’s the walk. And what uh what controls your decision making? And so um, you know, it’s day-to-day life, and who is at the center of your life? That’s your walk. I love that. So you think of the daily, my daily life, my daily decisions. Um, who am I going with, not just when I come to church or when it’s like Bible class?

What am I doing every day? My daily decisions. I really think that’s a good thought there. Anyone else? Yes, sir.

Say it again, sir. I’m sorry. What’s like?

Doing what’s right regardless of what you go through in life. And that can be tough. Because it can be easy to serve God in a setting like we’re in now where we’re around people who believe like us, and you know, we all are here to worship God, study from his word. But what am I going to do when things get tough? And what am I going to do when I’m getting persecuted? I’m going through some health problems or some financial problems. Will I still serve God? I think that’s a great answer. I think that’s included as well with this. Maybe a couple other thoughts. Yes, sir. In uh 2 Corinthians 13, 14, Paul is starting to wrap up his uh letter to those in Corinth. He says, May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

And to me, the fellowship with God is the walk with God. I love it. In fact, I’m gonna say even more about that. That word fellowship is key. I think fellowship, and that’s one of those religious words or biblical words that the religious world really abuses. But I think that’s exactly you cannot think of walking with God without thinking of fellowship. That is a key aspect of this. Maybe one more answer here. Yes, ma’am.

For me, walking it is storming his back. And uh guiding you to his uh for the other salvation to his glory. So you’re thinking of just guiding you to salvation for his glory. Absolutely. People who walk with God clearly are right with God. They gained the gift of salvation. They’re right with God. I think all of these answers, these are fantastic answers. I love them. And I think it really gets us going where we need to go here. So there are a couple of things I want us to think about when it comes to walking with God. And here’s some things I wrote down here, and many of them go right with what y’all were saying. So some things you might want to just jot in your notes in addition to the wonderful answers you’ve heard already.

Fellowship. That was the first one I put down. Fellowship with God. Being close to God. You walk with somebody you’re close with. Being connected. I’m connected to God. I know God. You see, a lot of people say they know God. But the person who walks with God, that’s that transformed person. They know God. They’re in a relationship with him. Here’s another word. They’re in agreement with him. Remember what Amos tells us in the book of Amos? How can two walk together unless they what? Agree. So I’m close to God. I’m connected to God. I’m in fellowship. I know him. I’m in agreement with him. That’s what that language is so much with that language there. So much to think about. And the question is, and this again is a question for you to think to yourself is do you want that?

1. Walking the Path of Obedience

Do you want to walk with God? For me, I want that. I want to walk with God. I want to have exactly what Enoch had. I want to do what Enoch did. And so all I want to do for the remainder of our time is give you three things that I believe the Bible is very clear on when it comes to how we can be like Enoch. Because Enich lived a long time ago. Maybe you read this and go, man, that’s just so long ago. I don’t think I can do that. No, you can do that. You can do that. You can be just like Enoch. I can be like Enoch. We can walk with God. And the first thing involved in that, and somebody already said it and gave a great answer, is the idea of obedience.

Obedience. You cannot walk with God without obeying God. This is a big part of it. So let me just throw this out. I’m only going to get a couple of answers on this one. Why is that so important? Because it’s easy for us to say obedience, okay? But why do you think obedience is so important? It is so important when it comes to a spiritual wall. Anyone got any thoughts on that? Yes, sir. Jesus sums it up when he says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. So if we want to have a relationship with God, if we want to show him love, we’re going to do his will. Absolutely. And that and that verse, and I have that, I’m going to say actually more about that.

That’s an excellent observation. John 14, 15. John 14, 15. Jesus said, if you love me, you’ll keep my commandments. That’s pretty simple. You don’t need a commentary to figure that out. It’s pretty easy to understand. If you love God, you’re going to do what God says. Anyone else have any other ideas with that? Yes, sir.

You want to do plan and we do whatever you demand. What was that first part you said?

Yes. If we do what he commanded. Friendship. You’re truly his friend if you do what God commands. Absolutely. I want to show you several verses where you find this language in Scripture. And just jot these things down. I’m going to read them for you, okay? And we’ll go through them pretty quickly. But this language, walking with God, we’re focusing on it, but it’s found throughout the scriptures. So let me just give you a sample. Just a little sample here. And these may be verses you’re already familiar with, but in Exodus, and I’m going to go through these pretty fast here, but in Exodus chapter 16 and verse number 4. In Exodus chapter 16 and verse number 4, this is talking about when God is going to bless Israel with manna from heaven.

They’re going to get bread from heaven every day, except the Sabbath day, obviously, to survive in the wilderness. God’s going to provide for them. And God says why he gives them the instructions he gives them as far as collecting the bread goes. And in Exodus 16, in Exodus 16 in verse number 4, it says, And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people should go out and gather a day’s portion every day. That I may test them. That I may test their obedience, whether or not they will walk in my instruction. You see how walking is tied to obedience there. Here’s another scripture here. Let’s go now to the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse number 33.

And Deuteronomy chapter 5 and in verse number 33. Moses here says to the people of Israel, you shall walk. There’s that language. And all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, that you may prolong your days in the land in which you possess. Again, walk is tied to obedience. Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible. A chapter that is exclusively devoted to exalting and praising the word of God. Psalm 119 and verse 1 says, How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Again, walk is tied to obedience. And then the Apostle Paul, you want some New Testament passages. Here’s some New Testament passages.

Romans chapter 6 and verse 4. He talks about what happens after we are immersed in Christ, after we baptize for the remission of our sins. In Romans 6 and verse 4, therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk. See, we’ve been raised from the waters of baptism to walk a new life, a transformed life, newness of life. Ephesians chapter 4 now. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 1. Paul’s favorite metaphor to talk about being in a relationship with God, living a Christian life, is walk. He uses it over and over again. And in Ephesians 4 and verse 1, it says, Therefore I, the prison of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we’ve been called.

In verse 17, so this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind. And then one more, Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 9. In Colossians chapter 1 and verse 9, Paul says, for this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so you can walk. See, Bible study has a purpose. Yes, we get the information. We get the information, we learn the scriptures, but it’s not enough just to know the information. God wants us to know and apply, to walk in it, so that you will walk in the manner word of the Lord to please him.

That’s what it’s about. In all respects, not in some respects, in all respects, and your marriage and how you raise your kids and how you work on your job and how you deal with your fellow man. In all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing and the knowledge of God. Throughout the Bible, that’s just a sample. You probably can think of 20 other scriptures. But this is just a sample that shows us the connection between obedience and walking. They’re closely connected. And there’s a couple of reasons why. First, when I obey God, that means I trust God. People who obey God trust God. I may not always agree with what I find in the Bible. I may always agree with what God is telling me to do, but because he’s the creator and I’m the creation, because he knows everything because he loves me, because he can see into the future.

I’m going to trust what he says is the right way to go. It’s the right way to live my life. People who obey God, they trust him. They trust that his way is what’s best, not my way. And, as we’ll say correctly, if I obey God, that means I really love him. There are people all across this country, all across the globe, saying, I love God. I love Jesus. Really? Anyone can say that. The true test is will I obey the Lord? Will I do what he says? Jesus said in John 14 and verse 15 that those who really love God are those who obey God. And so that’s the first thing we need to consider here when it comes to Enoch. Enoch was a man who clearly, based on what we find in the scriptures, he was a man who obeyed God.

We don’t know a whole lot about this man. But we know he was a man who did what God told him to do. He worshiped the way God told him to worship. He thought the way God told him to think. He treated people the way God told him to treat people. He lived his life in accordance to God’s will. There’s not a lot we know about him, but we know that. And that’s something very important. Obedience. Closely connected to the wall. You want to walk with God? Just do what he says. Study that Bible, learn that Bible, do that Bible. That’s one of the keys there. Any thoughts on that before we move on to the next point here? Yes, sir. Go right ahead, sir. Obedience is the key to our salvation.

Absolutely. Obedience is the key to our salvation. That’s absolutely right. And that doesn’t mean, and I’m glad you brought that up because that doesn’t mean we’re still not saved by God’s grace. Well, we’re saved by grace. There’s no doubt about that. But just because we obey God doesn’t mean we are earning our salvation. It means we’re accepting his grace on his terms. That’s what we’re doing. So that’s a great point. Yes, ma’am. Is anything that I say about the obedience is where the sin is involved. And of course, God hates sin. So therefore we walked that obey. Absolutely. God hates sin. We want to obey. We want to love the things that God loves. And that’s what obedience helps us do. Absolutely. Yes, sir. Then I’m going to move on here.

Maybe we don’t take it forgotten.

Don’t take it for that. We won’t take forget God’s grace, you say. Absolutely. And that’s one of the things our religious world really struggles with. They think grace and obedience are in conflict with each other. They are not. They’re not in conflict with each other. They go, they fit together like a hand in a glove. Okay? Grace is the idea of God is saving us, and we don’t deserve what God has to offer. We don’t deserve it. Noah didn’t deserve to be saved from that flood. But he still had to build that ark, didn’t he? We still had to accept God’s grace on his terms. That’s all it means. And so, good thoughts here. The thing I just wanted to see is obedience. And never must we ever think, and I know you don’t think this, but we must never think just because we obey God meaning that means that we got a right to walk around with our chest, you know, puffed up and say, oh God, you owe me a spot in heaven because I’m obeying you.

2. Walking the Path of the Sethites

No, sir, no man. No, sir, no man. We obey God because we love him, because we trust him, and because we want to accept his grace on his terms. So that’s the first thing his walked involved. Let me give you a second thing. A second thing Enos walked involved so he could walk with God is it involved him walking the path of the Sethites. Now that language may throw you off there. Sethite, what in the world is that? A Sethite. Well, to get that, we got to go back to Genesis again. And we’ve got to think about the overall context of what’s going on in Genesis. So we go back to Genesis chapter 4, and one of the things you’ll learn about Sean Jeffries is I am not a big fan of chapter breaks.

Never have been. Probably never will be. You know that chapter breaks are put in by men, they’re not put in by God, they’re not inspired. And the reason why I’m not a big fan of them is because so often we miss the context with a chapter break. And I think it’s what happens here. So we need to consider the whole context of what’s being said about Enoch and his walk. So in Genesis chapter 4 and verse number 25, it says this Adam, that’s the first man created by God, had relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth. Seth. For she said, God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him. Verse 26. So Seth to Seth to him also a son was born.

And he called his name Enosh. And that’s not Enoch, it’s a different guy, Enosh. Then, here’s the key part. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord. This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and he blessed them and named them man in the day when they were created. Well, Adam lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. Then the days of Adam, after he became the father of Seth, 800 years and other sons, and he had other sons and daughters. So I read those verses because they’re critical to the context of what’s going on here.

What is being what’s being said about Enoch. Notice these verses are critical because they talk about a family. Those verses talk about a family. They talk about Adam’s family. They talk about the descendants of two sons of Adam. Cain and Seth. Cain, who murdered his brother Abel, his descendants were wicked. They were wicked men. They did not worship God properly. They had evil thoughts. They were very unrighteous. But Seth’s descendants were different. Seth’s descendants, according to verse 26, were men who called on the name of the Lord. They served God. They worship the Lord. They prayed. They had pure thoughts. They were very different than the descendants of Cain. And so what you have here are two righteous men, or two different men of Adam, different sons of Adam who are being talked about.

And one has a wicked lineage, one has a righteous lineage. In fact, when it comes to Seth’s descendants, there are going to be two very righteous men who come from his lineage. Enoch and Noah. Enoch and Noah. And all of this is designed to get us to the flood and show us how the world got so wicked in the days of Noah. But Enoch and Noah are said to walk with God. And they came from Seth. And so the question to think about is this which spiritual lineage are you part of? As you examine your own life, your own spirituality. Which spiritual lineage are you coming from right now? Are you part of Cain’s lineage? Or are you part of Seth’s? Now you know the vast majority of people in the world right now.

Whose lineage are they following after? They’re following after Cain’s. Most of the world is wicked, right? They have wicked thoughts. They don’t care about marriage. They’ve all the adultery, fornication, drunkenness, pornography, gambling, hatred, prejudice. That’s how the world thinks. That’s how the people of Cain’s lineage thought. That’s how they live their lives. But the Sethites are different. The Sethites are different. Now we know how the world was in Noah’s day, right? How was the world in Noah’s day? How does the Bible describe the world in Noah’s day?

Every man’s thought was only what? Evil continually. He was so bad in Noah’s day that God hit the reset button. He wiped out the world with a global flood. The question is, what about Enoch’s day? Was it like Noah’s? I submit that it likely was, and here’s why. When you do the math on this, and please don’t ask me to do math right now. This is something I did ahead of time. It seems like Enoch only lived a few days, decades prior to Noah. Maybe about 60 years. So that means it’s very likely that the world wasn’t too too much too different in Enoch’s day than it was Noah’s. It’s very wicked. And yet, what did Enoch do? He continued to walk with God. He lived for the Lord.

Even though his world, like Noah’s, was very wicked. He didn’t compromise. He didn’t live like the world. He didn’t think like the world. He was a righteous man who was distinct. And that’s how God calls us to lead. Let me give you an example. In Philippians chapter 2. In Philippians chapter 2, and in verse number 14. In Philippians 2 and verse 14, the apostle Paul says this. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless, an innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world. Part of being a Christian, part of being a transformed person means, and we’ll talk about this a lot this week, is we’re going to be different.

We’re not going to be like the world. The world’s going down one path. We go down a different path. The world thinks one way, we think another way.

We see sin in the way God sees it. So that’s really what’s going on here. Enoch was a Sethite. He was part of a generation, a lineage of people who were righteous. And we have to make the choice as to which spiritual lineage are we going to be part of? Because every one of us is either following after the Canaanites or we’re following after the Sethites. That’s a choice we have to make. Whose path are we taking? The path of the righteous or the path of the wicked. Everybody in the world right now is either following after Cain or Seth. That’s the bottom line, whether they know it or not. And so that’s something important. I want you to see there. Anybody have any thoughts on that?

Because I just thought that was very interesting to see the overall context of what Moses is trying to show us there as to where Enoch is coming from in his life. Yes, sir. Do you have a comment? Yes, sir.

God we saw Ephesians 5. Socrates the world being what that’s what he had was not like the world.

Yes. And they say focused on God. Absolutely. He wasn’t like the world. People of the world need peace on destruction.

I think I have so many friends. They talk about negative thoughts. I tell them, I don’t need the negative. You know, I told them I can flip the light. I can’t be like that. So you don’t want to be around negative people. That’s the world is negative. Yeah, that’s that’s really true. And that’s one of the reasons why I don’t watch the news very much. Because negativity. World is very different than the people of God. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s the way God uh God designed this thing to be. We are different, we stand out. Yes, sir. You know, I think about the role that God plays Christ. He plays the role of king and the high priest. Yes. So I kind of like my relationship being more of a disciple.

Yes. I like that. In fact, for me personally, I like the term, I use the term disciple more than Christian. Don’t get me wrong, is Christian a biblical term? Absolutely. It’s found three times in the New Testament. You know how often disciples use the New Testament? It is over and over and over again. And maybe we don’t use disciple as much because disciple challenged you. Disciple means you got to do something. You gotta go to work. You gotta learn. You gotta be like Jesus. That’s what disciple does. And that’s what we’re supposed to be. Disciples are different. Disciples are like Jesus. Absolutely. Any other thoughts here before we move on? Any other thoughts? Want to say something about our kids too. You know, we try to raise our kids to serve God.

But one of the ways in which we help them walk in the path of the Sethites is help them develop their own faith. I have two children. Well, my son is a Christian. But one of the things I’ve stressed to him is I don’t want him to have my faith. Or his mama’s faith. Or the elders’ faith. He needs to have his own faith. His own faith in Jesus. His own faith in the gospel. Because that’s the only way that sticks, right? We’re losing so many of our young people. And we need them to be strong for the Lord, and that happens when they get their own faith. Because there comes a time when we can’t force them to go to church. Right now, my children can come to church because I make them.

3. Walking the Path of Life

I make them come. My son’s gonna be in college in about three years. I won’t be there to make it. He’s gonna have to make that decision himself. So we’ve got to help our kids get their own faith. And that’s how they walk, walk with the Lord. So those are good thoughts right there. Good thoughts, everybody. Let’s now get to this last one real quick. Last one. What was involved in Enoch’s walk? Well, here’s another thing very quickly. He walked the path of obedience. He walked the path of the Sethites, righteous people, but also it involved walking the path of life. And I’m taking you now to the New Testament. We’ve been in Genesis, but I want to go to the New Testament. Okay? And I want to go to Hebrews chapter 11.

You’re familiar with Hebrews 11, right? Hebrews 11 is that chapter about what? Faith. Faith. Chapter about faith. Now, I have never been a fan of calling Hebrews 11 the Hall of Faith. Not saying it’s a sin if you do, but I’ve never been a fan of that. Because you’ve heard it called that before, right? I’m not a fan of that because I’m a sports guy. Big time sports guy. And I’ve been to Hall of Fame before. You ever been to a Hall of Fame, a sports hall of fame? So I’ve been to the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. And I’ve been to the NBA Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. And when I walk into a sports hall of fame, I don’t walk in there and think to myself, woo-hoo, I could, man, I can be in here one day.

No, I know exactly why I’m not in there. There’s a reason why we are not in the NFL Hall of Fame, and Joe Montana is. And Peyton Manny is. Or Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan. You don’t walk into a sports hall of fame thinking to yourself, man, I can be in here. Woo! Man, just give me a few more years. You don’t feel that way when you walk in a sports hall of fame. But that’s exactly how you’re supposed to feel when you read Hebrews 11. When you read Hebrews 11, you’re not supposed to look at that and go, whoo, I can’t be like these people. These are super, super disciples, superhero people. No. When you read Hebrews 11, the point of that chapter is to let us know we can’t be like those people.

We can be Abraham. We can be Moses. We can be Rahab. Those are just regular people like us. Who lived a long time ago, but they had faith in God, and by faith they please God. That’s all that is. It’s supposed to inspire us to walk the life of faith. So it’s not a hall of faith. What it is is a chapter designed to inspire us to be like these people. These are not super Christians or superheroes. And Enoch is mentioned in here. In Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 5, look at what it says. Hebrews 11 and verse 5. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death. And he was not found because God took him up, for he obtained the witness that before he’s being taken up, he was pleasing to God.

Three times. Three times in this one verse, you find the same language. Taken up. Do you see it? It’s there three times. By faith, Enoch was taken up. He was not found because God took him. He obtained the witness before his being taken up. My goodness, Holy Spirit, I think we get the point. He’s saying the same thing three times. Why? Why? The same thing. Well, let’s go back to Genesis again, and maybe this can help us. In Genesis chapter 5. In Genesis chapter 5. Beginning in verse 5. And I’m going to read a lot of scriptures here. And I want to see if you can see what the Holy Spirit is saying to us here. In Genesis 5 and verse 5, it says, So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died.

Verse 8. So all the days of Seth were 912 years and he died. Verse 11. So all the days of Enosh were 905 years and he died. Verse 14. So all the days of Canaan were 910 years and he died. Verse 17, so all the days of Maheliel were 895 years, and he died. Verse number 20. So all the days of Jered were 962 years, and he died. Verse 23. So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. What’s the Holy Spirit trying to show us there? You got people living a long time in the Bible in these times, in biblical times here. I mean, they’re living 700 years. 800 years. Some cases 900 years.

But what happened to every single one of them? They all died. They’re not walking around the earth right now. There’s only one man who didn’t die. Who was that? The man who walked with God. The man who walked with God. That’s the only man who didn’t die. And you know what that’s showing us? That is showing us that walking with God is the path to life. You want to live forever? Walk with God. Eneen walk with God. He didn’t die. God took him. He didn’t see death like the other people in Genesis. And isn’t that why Jesus came? Jesus came so that we won’t die. Not die physically. We’re going to die physically, right? Hebrews 9 27 says that. It’s appointed for men to die once.

And then comes the judgment. We’re all going to experience physical death. But Jesus came so that we won’t die in our sins. That’s why he came. And let’s look at some scriptures here. Let’s look at some scriptures here to make the point. In John chapter 11. In John chapter 11. Jesus, before he raises Lazarus from the dead. In John chapter 11. And in verse 25, Jesus is going to talk to Martha, a sister of Lazarus. And in John chapter 11 and verse 24. Let’s start with verse 24. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day. So Martha believed in the resurrection. A resurrection was going to take place. And in verse 25, Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will live, even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? So notice how here Jesus makes it very clear that he came so that we can live. So that we can live forever. So that our souls can be with God in heaven. That’s what life is. Life is being with God. Life is being in relationship with God, in fellowship with God. And here’s the great thing. We don’t have to wait until we die to experience this. Or even the day of resurrection. We are supposed to have spiritual life now. That’s what the transformed life is all about. We have been changed. We have been conformed to the image of Jesus so that we can live now.

Every Christian in this room should be spiritually alive right now. Because we’re walking with God. Because we know God. Let me give you one more verse and I’ll get your thoughts on this. Because maybe you have some other thoughts you want to say about this. In Romans chapter 6. In Romans chapter 6, and I really would like to hear from maybe someone who hasn’t said anything today. Maybe you’ve just been taking all this in, and now you’re ready to say something about this. I would like to hear it. Because in Romans 6 and verse 23, the Apostle Paul says this. For the wages of sin is death. Now, when Paul talks about death there, he’s not talking about physical death because even innocent, precious babies die.

They die. And they committed no sin. Paul here is talking about spiritual death. When we sin, we die spiritually. We earn the penalty of death, spiritual death. For the wages of sin is death, but we were talking about grace earlier, right? Here it is. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That’s why Jesus came. So that we can have eternal spiritual life. And so that’s really the main thing I want you to see here, and I would like to get your thoughts on this. Is one of the things the Bible is showing us about Enoch is because he walked with God because he obeyed God, because he was a righteous man, because he lived a distinct life that was pleasing to God.

He didn’t die. He didn’t die. And when we walk with God, we won’t die. We will live. We will live spiritually. And my dear friends, that’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re here. You know, we are here because we’re here to worship a God who has given us life. That’s what life should be all about. Is every day I want to please the one that gave me life. And I want to keep that life. I want to keep that spiritual life. You know, so many Christians give it up. You ever met Christians that they gave up the spiritual life they had in Jesus? That’s called leaving the Lord. They leave the Lord. I’ve seen that so much since preaching the gospel, especially. Over the last 20 years, people who leave the Lord is a devastating thing.

And there are many people, there are many reasons why people might give up life. Some people will leave the Lord because I want to go back to the world.

Other people leave the Lord because they say people in the church are mean. Hypocrites in the church. So I don’t want to be part of this because there are people who are mean and rude in the church. They treat me bad, so I’m going to leave Jesus. What did Jesus do to you? Yeah, they’re hypocrites in the church. They’ve always been hypocrites in the church. An Israel. Hypocrites in the church. You never take it out on Jesus. There’s no legitimate reason to leave Jesus. Because when you leave Him, you give up life. You give up spiritual life. So anybody have any thoughts about this before we wrap this up? Brother Walcott, go ahead, sir. As you made the second point. The choice of being like the Canaanites or the Sabbath.

It doesn’t stop when you want to become Christian life.

That’s a great point. So, Brother Walkart talks about we choosing the path of the Canaanites or the Sethites. It does not stop after initial conversion or initial transformation. It’s a daily decision. And that kind of connects what we were just saying, how you can give up life. This all connects together. I have to walk every day to keep that life, to stay on the path of the righteous. Absolutely. Yes, sir. You mentioned earlier about us making the choice that we have to be transformed. And then building us. It’s easy to conform to the world. It’s harder to be transformed. What it comes down to is we have to decide what am I going to do? Am I going to work?

And then you also mentioned the thing we need to look at in making that decision, though, is the end result. One is a path of destruction, one is a path of salvation. Yes. And so we talked about keeping our eye on the prize. Again, it’s it’s easy to be conformed. It’s harder to be transformed and live for God day in and day out. It is hard. Absolutely. It is hard. But again, we need to look at what are we really doing, and what is this really about? What is the end result? That’s such a great point. The idea of transformation, not being easy. And God never promised us it was going to be easy. It is difficult. Growth is hard. Being more like Jesus every day.

That’s hard. It’s not easy because Jesus is perfect. And we’re supposed to be like Jesus. We can’t ever be perfect, obviously, but that needs to be the goal. And that takes effort, hard work, diligence, every single day. But the thing that can help us with that, as you said, is staying focused on what’s ahead. Staying focused on the goal, staying focused on the fact that we have life now, but we’re looking for that ultimate life to come in heaven. That’s a fantastic point. Yes, sir. And then I get you next. Go right ahead, sir. Okay, okay. I think a good passage for this would be Psalms 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor says deceived to offers.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in the law Amen today and not. Yes. That was another verse we could have put on there. That’s Psalm 1 is a good one. That’s another passion about walking with the Lord, at least to blessing, spiritual blessing. Last comment here, sir. Go right ahead.

And all of us to be able to do that. We have to have that wisdom that he wants us to have and the knowledge of what sin would do to us. Because he told Job in Job 28, 28. He said unto man, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding. That’s a great place to end talking about wisdom. You know, the Bible tells us in James chapter 1, you pray for wisdom, what’s going to happen. If you ask God for wisdom, what is he gonna do? He’s gonna give it to you lavishly. There are not a lot of things in the Bible you can pray for and God promises to give it to you. I can pray and ask God, give me a corvette.

Conclusion

I would like to get that, but God ain’t promised me that in the Bible. But the Bible does say if I ask for wisdom, guess what’s gonna happen? God will give it to me in abundance. And there’s so many different paths to get that. The main one is his word. So I hope this lesson will help us walk with God. Y’all had great comments. I love you. You’re godly people. Let this lesson inspire us to keep walking with the Lord so we can get that ultimate prize. Thank you so much. God bless you.