INTRO.- ILL.- Some guy said: We work out too much. We waste time. A friend of mine runs marathons. He always talks about this "runner’s high." But he has to go 26 miles for it. That’s why I smoke and drink. I get the same feeling from a flight of stairs.
ILL.- Deciding to take up jogging, the man was astounded by the wide selection of jogging shoes available at the local sports shoe store. While trying on a basic pair of jogging shoes, he noticed a minor feature and asked the clerk: "What is this little pocket thing here on the side for?"
And the clerk: "Oh, that’s to carry spare change so you can call your wife to come pick you up when you’ve jogged too far." Did you ever go to far? Probably not.
Some jog and some walk, but most do it to hopefully either maintain their health or get healthier.
Physical exercise is good for anybody. No doubt about it. We’d all be healthier if we’d walk and do some strength exercises and especially, as we age. Physical exercise is good but there’s something better and it will last forever!
I Timothy 4:8 “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”
The fleshly body will some day fail no matter how healthy we are. Jack LaLanne is 96 years old and the man many have called “the godfather of fitness,” but some day, just like everybody else his flesh will fail and he will go into eternity. BUT WHERE WILL HE SPEND ETERNITY?
Since we’re entering a new year it seems only reasonable that we need to think about godliness and our walk with God, because this will benefit us the most in the coming year. Paying attention to God always pays!
Everyone lives or walks the road of life, but how do we walk? How do we live? And for whom?
Psalm 1:1-2 “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
There are two ways to walk in life: either with God or with the sinful of this world. Walking with God leads to life and blessing. Walking with the sinful (or in sin) leads to trouble, judgment, and condemnation.
ILL.- Bernie Madoff had plenty of this world’s riches because he “made off” with other people’s money, but look at where he is now: in prison for life. And consider where he may be some day in the future! (Matthew 16:26) We can choose to walk with God in this life or else we will walk with the world. It’s our choice. It’s one or the other.
BUT BLESSED IS THE MAN, whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
ILL.- George Muller once said: “The first three years after my conversion I neglected the Word of God. Since then, I have read the Bible through 100 times, and each time with increasing delight. When I begin it afresh, it always seems like a new book to me. I look upon it as a lost day when I have not had a good time over the Word of God.”
The person who walks with God also spends time in His Word.
PROP.- In this message, let’s think about three men who walked with God.
1- Enoch’s walk of evangelism
2- Noah’s walk of obedience
3- Abraham’s walk of faith
I. ENOCH’S WALK OF EVANGELISM
Genesis 5:21-24 21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
Enoch walked with God. How did he do that? What did He do in order to walk with God?
There is a good possibility that he literally walked with God. Anything is possible with God, you know! God could have come to him in a something of a human form, after all, Jesus came to earth in human form! He was God in the flesh!
Normally, we think that Enoch had such a close relationship to God (walk with God or fellowship with God) that he talked to him all the time. I would bet he did.
ILL.- Recently, I went to Seneca, MO, for a funeral. Truman Brady’s father, Kenneth, passed on Sunday, Dec. 12th, and his memorial service was on Wednesday morning at the Seneca Christian Church. Gerald “Griff” Griffin gave the eulogy and did an excellent job. He must have known Kob Brady fairly well to be able to do such a good job. After the funeral we walked outside to get in the car to go to the grave side service. As we were walking out Dorothy Griffin saw an old friend and his wife. It was his Reggie Thomas and his wife. Perhaps you recall that Reggie has for many years been the director of White Fields Overseas Evangelism, making trips to India, Africa and Haiti doing evangelistic work.
Dorothy introduced me to Reggie Thomas. I have known of Reggie for probably 40 years or more but he didn’t know me. He is an elder at the Villa Heights Christian Church where Truman Brady is now preaching. He said, “Are you the guy Truman calls every day? I’ve heard about you.”
Brothers and sisters, when you talk to someone a lot you get to know that person fairly well and I think I know Truman Brady fairly well. But I need to know God even better.
We do a lot of talking to people, but how much do we talk to God? In order to walk with God we must spend time with Him communicating and He is awfully good listener; far better than we are!
Where do I get the idea that Enoch walked with God in regard to evangelism? The word evangelism is not found in our text, but I do believe that Enoch walked with God and found joy in this walk. And because of this I think that he tried to get other people to walk with God AND THAT’S EVANGELISM!
Genesis 5:21-22 “When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters.”
Enoch was the father of Methuselah and what is he known for in the Bible? He was the oldest person in the Bible at 969 years. And get this: HE WAS ALSO THE GRANDFATHER OF NOAH! And Noah also walked with God (Gen. 6:9) And this made Enoch the great-grandfather of Noah.
Could it be that Enoch had influenced his whole family or at some of his family to walk with God? I think that’s highly possible. What we parents do affects our children for good or evil.
ILL.- I check out facebook just like some of you. I have noticed that Wendy Cunningham’s pictures of Barrett and Easton show them wearing camouflage clothing a lot. Why is that? One reason is because their daddy does. Like father, like son. And it wouldn’t surprise me if some day that both of those boys hunt deer like their daddy.
Could the same thing be true with a parent’s walk with God? YES, INDEED! Many of you are in the church today and walk with God because of your parents, and likewise, your children do the same. But I suspect that Enoch’s walk with God didn’t stop with his family. I would bet that he also tried to get the people around him, at work, friends and neighbors, to walk with God as well!
If your walk with God is what it ought to be you WILL influence your family and others for the Lord! Something good will rub off on them!
ILL.- My friend, Truman Brady, has a cousin in Seneca, MO, who is a barber and also a Christian. In fact, he attends church where Truman preaches. And when I met him at the funeral for Truman’s father, he said, “I’ve heard all about you. Let me tell that I’ve watched Truman fall in love with Jesus more and more over the last few years.”
That’s what a walk with God will do and IT WILL AFFECT OTHERS!
II. NOAH’S WALK OF OBEDIENCE
Genesis 6:5-9 5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 9 This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” Ah ha, he walked with God.
Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
In holy fear Noah built an ark. God told Noah He was going to send a flood and he’d better prepare for it. IN HOLY FEAR HE DID PREPARE BY BUILDING AN ARK. He obeyed God!
If you thought your world was going to be destroyed in your lifetime, how would you feel? Or if you were thought you were going to die in the immediate future, how would you feel and respond? I would think that in holy fear you would do some things differently!
ILL.- Neil Simon, who wrote The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park, was asked on the Dick Cavett Show whether making a lot of money concerned him. The studio went dead silent when Simon answered, "No...what does concern me is the fear of dying."
With the thought of death looming near, it seems to me that many people would be willing to take stock of their lives and obey God. In holy fear they would want to do anything God told them to do. BUT WHY DO WE WAIT? Why do we wait as if we had all the time in the world? Every day people leave this world without much notice. Many old and also, many young people.
ILL.- When I was a student at Ozark Bible College we preacher boys were told “to preach as a dying man to dying men and women.”
ILL.- Ken Siemens is a preacher friend who went to be with the Lord last summer. Ken Siemens preached in Brooklyn, IA, many years ago. Ken told me that one Sunday morning one of his elders prayed at the Lord’s table and then dropped dead.
Who is to say that something like this couldn’t happen to others? Or that I could preach my sermon and then drop dead of a heart attack? Or that I might not even preach my sermon and drop dead?
In holy fear we all need to be doing some things differently! In holy fear we need to obey God.
In holy fear Noah built an ark in order to save his family. What do you need to do in holy fear to save yourself and your family? In holy fear we all need to walk with God. We need to do whatever it takes to walk with God.
In holy fear we all need to be faithful in our worship of the Lord! An hour or two on Sunday is not a great sacrifice of time to give to God, but still, it’s something we all should do!
In holy fear we all need to spend time in prayer! In holy fear we need to listen to God as Noah listened to God and the only way I know to do that is to read His Word more! In holy fear we need to set aside some time every day to read God’s Word! In holy fear we need to obey God like Noah obeyed God!
III. ABRAHAM’S WALK OF FAITH
Genesis 17:1 “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.”
God said to Abraham, “Walk before me and be blameless.”
What did God mean by those words? God may have been saying, “In your walk in this life, walk with me and you will be blameless.” That could well be meaning. And no one can live a blameless life without a relationship with God. We get our goodness and/or our holiness from him.
ILL.- I recently heard an interview on the internet which was first on TV. It was the most recent interview of Billy Graham with Fox’s Greta Van Susteren. It took place on Monday, December 20, 2010. Graham said, “I have a tremendous amount of hope because I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead. I believe he is alive right now. My wife is already in heaven. I look forward to seeing her definitely in the near future because I’m 92 now and I know that my time is limited on this earth. But I have tremendous hope in the fact I’ll be in the future life. And I’ll be there because of what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross and by the resurrection. And this gives me a great deal of hope.”
VAN SUSTEREN: If you were to do things over again, would you do it differently?
GRAHAM: Yes. I would study more. I would pray more, travel less, take less speaking engagements. I took too many of them in too many places around the world. If I had it to do over again, I’d spend more time in meditation and prayer and just telling the Lord how much I love him and adore him and looking forward the time we’re going to spend together for eternity.
To the best of my knowledge, Billy Graham has always walked with God in a blameless manner. I’ve never heard of any accusation against him. How could he live such a blameless life?
He would be the first to say that it can only happen when you walk with God in faith. He would not say, “Well, folks, I did it my way.” No, he would say, “God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” (I Peter 5:5-6)
Graham’s blameless life came from his walk with God. No man, no human being can be his very best without God’s grace and blessing on his life.
Billy Graham is something of an Abraham when it comes to living by faith. Although I believe that Billy Graham would be humble enough to say that his faith doesn’t even come close to that of Abraham. Billy Graham has preached Christ to live audiences of nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories through various meetings.
In Abraham’s walk with God he exercised great faith. Abraham’s faith was evident when God called him to leave his home country and go to a foreign land.
Genesis 12:1 “The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” V. 4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
It took a lot of faith on Abraham’s part to leave his home country for a place he’d never seen. But he trusted God. He walked by faith. When Billy Graham traveled to those 185 different countries he knew where he was going and his traveling method was quite different from Abraham’s means of traveling. But there was more to come that would test Abraham’s walk of faith. The greatest test of all was yet to come!
Genesis 22:2 “Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Wow! Amazing! But Abraham also had amazing faith in God.
Hebrews 11:17-19 17By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
Abraham’s faith was so strong that he believed that God could or would raise his son Isaac from the dead! HOW’S THAT FOR FAITH?! DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?
At the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said these words to Martha in John 11:24-25:
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
AND DO YOU BELIEVE THIS? That’s the faith that Abraham had and we should have!
CONCLUSION----------------------
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, sang the little boy.
Christmas is over and whether you got you wanted or not, what we all need more than anything is to walk with God more/better in this new year. Walking with God will bring countless blessings that we never thought possible.
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
This is the walk we need that will bless our lives. We must walk in faith, trust, obedience, etc. Then our paths will be blessed with good.
