Kelly Kinder: Good morning, church.
Kelly Kinder: How are you this morning?
Kelly Kinder: Hope to uh bring God's word to you in uh in a clear way today, and we're gonna continue on in our series, uh, Faith, Hope, and Love.
Kelly Kinder: And it's a great series.
Kelly Kinder: It's really, if you think about it, it's foundational.
Kelly Kinder: Paul said uh these three remain uh faith, hope, and love.
Kelly Kinder: And and uh really they remain, and what happens is when they remain, all the things that go on outside that are crazy and it's disrupting of your life, it's a provide a solid foundation for your life.
Kelly Kinder: And so today we're gonna talk about faith as we begin a couple of weeks ago.
Kelly Kinder: And uh, to do that, let's gonna take off from uh Hebrews chapter 11.
Kelly Kinder: So if you have your Bibles, or you can look at it on the screen.
Kelly Kinder: And uh just sort of to keep this in context, uh, we should know that the writer of Hebrews, what he's doing here, he's trying to make one thing crystal clear.
Kelly Kinder: That is that you cannot do enough to make your way and earn your way to heaven.
Kelly Kinder: And uh to be in God's good graces.
Kelly Kinder: Uh you can uh you can try to be a moral person, you can try to go through uh routines and rituals and things like that, but it's it's faith that gets us to where we need to be.
Kelly Kinder: Faith from first to last, always and only faith.
Kelly Kinder: And uh I think we can all, you know, remember he's talking to the Hebrews.
Kelly Kinder: Hebrews were Christians, and so we can fall into this same kind of thinking that we've got to earn our way sometimes.
Kelly Kinder: And what what what I'm talking about is that sometimes we fall into sin and then we feel like we have to do something to make up for it because we feel bad about it, and so we have to kind of help God out, and it's sort of like a self-rescue.
Kelly Kinder: We've got to self-rescue ourselves.
Kelly Kinder: Well, that's not the gospel of grace, and so we need to remember that.
Kelly Kinder: Hebrews 10 38 says it like this but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
Kelly Kinder: And so this is kind of in the mind of the writer as we're reading through this today.
Kelly Kinder: And if you recall a couple weeks ago, Neil brought us the first message in verses 1 through 3, and how faith is defined, how faith is defined.
Kelly Kinder: Let me just kind of refresh your memory with a verse there, and it's just really about its faith's essential character.
Kelly Kinder: And uh the word there says, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Kelly Kinder: Now, I know there's a story about this three-year-year-old little boy who went to the grocery store with his mother, and uh before they they got to the parking lot and pulled in, and and before they went in, the mom said, Now, don't ask for any chocolate chip cookies, you're not gonna get any.
Kelly Kinder: And so she found a cart and she picked the little boy up and set him down in the kids' seat, one of those kids' seat carts.
Kelly Kinder: And uh they were doing going through the aisles, they were kind of going through, and they got to the to the cookie aisle.
Kelly Kinder: And he said, Um, Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?
Kelly Kinder: As you would imagine.
Kelly Kinder: He sees the chip cookies and he says, Can I have chocolate chip cookies?
Kelly Kinder: He said, I told you not to ask.
Kelly Kinder: Sit back down, don't ask again.
Kelly Kinder: And so they continue on out through the aisles, this and that, up and down the various aisles, and she couldn't find what she needed, and she ended up back on the cookie aisle.
Kelly Kinder: And uh so again, as you can imagine, Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?
Kelly Kinder: I told you, don't ask.
Kelly Kinder: Please ask, please stop asking me to sit back down.
Kelly Kinder: You're not going to get any.
Kelly Kinder: And they uh they finally wound up back at the checkout lane, and uh, right before they got up to the line, the little boy stands up in his seat.
Kelly Kinder: He's thinking this is his last chance, I guess.
Kelly Kinder: And he at the top of his lungs, he souts as he stands up, in the name of Jesus, can I have some chocolate chip cookies, please?
Kelly Kinder: And everybody thought it was pretty funny, and and uh some people even even uh laughed and applauded.
Kelly Kinder: And you know, and in that day, that very day, the little boy and his mom came home with 23 boxes of chocolate chip cookies.
Kelly Kinder: Yeah.
Kelly Kinder: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Kelly Kinder: That's faith defined.
Kelly Kinder: Uh, but we've been looking beyond that.
Kelly Kinder: Last week, Scott brought us the idea of uh of what we're gonna look at next, and that's the faith is described, chapter four, or verse four, through the rest of chapter 11, faith described.
Kelly Kinder: And the writer of Hebrews has given us really just this example after example after example of what faith looks like so that we can adopt that kind of faith as well.
Kelly Kinder: These are the heroes of the faith.
Kelly Kinder: And last week we looked at the faith of Abel.
Kelly Kinder: Abel is given here as the example of what we might call the worship of faith.
Kelly Kinder: And if you remember, faith was expressed by Abel in his offering to God, what he gave to God.
Kelly Kinder: He's an illustration of that.
Kelly Kinder: And today we'll be looking at the man named Enoch, the second example.
Kelly Kinder: His is the uh, if Abel is the worship of faith, Enoch is about the walk of faith.
Kelly Kinder: And that's what we're going to talk about today.
Kelly Kinder: And by the way, these men follow sort of one after each other, sort of as a progression.
Kelly Kinder: And I think it's intended by the writer.
Kelly Kinder: He's doing this, so uh Abel is basically telling us how do we enter this life of faith?
Kelly Kinder: How do we get there?
Kelly Kinder: Recognizing that all of us are sinners, all of us are in need of grace, and this is the way we enter the Christian life.
Kelly Kinder: And then Enoch shows us how we can walk by faith, and that's what we're going to talk about today.
Kelly Kinder: You know, there's not a lot of uh of information about Enoch, um, but there's really a few things.
Kelly Kinder: I think we can say that one thing is true.
Kelly Kinder: We can learn some things about the life of faith through looking at his example.
Kelly Kinder: And there are three references that I found that are in the scriptures, three references about Enoch, and we just kind of want to look through these briefly.
Kelly Kinder: The first one is in Hebrews, which we just are looking at today.
Kelly Kinder: And uh, then we're in also in Genesis and one in the little book of Jude, that little book tucked in right before uh Revelation.
Kelly Kinder: So each of these bring us some insight concerning the life of faith.
Kelly Kinder: So let's begin this morning with the first of these, Hebrews, Hebrews 11, and then we're looking at verses 5 and 6.
Kelly Kinder: If you'll read along with me, it uh is found those in those verses, Hebrews 11, 5, and 6.
Kelly Kinder: It says, By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him.
Kelly Kinder: Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God, and without faith it is impossible to please him.
Kelly Kinder: For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Kelly Kinder: Now let's pray.
Kelly Kinder: Uh Father, we're so grateful for your word today.
Kelly Kinder: And as we look at this uh this man's example, this man named Enoch, we just asking you, asking you, Holy Spirit, that you would reveal to us the truths you want us to know, that we would live a life that's pleasing to you.
Kelly Kinder: And uh, Lord, we just pray by your spirit you'd show us what that means.
Kelly Kinder: In Jesus' name.
Kelly Kinder: Amen.
Kelly Kinder: So, why is Enoch's example of faith so significant in the biblical record?
Kelly Kinder: I want to talk about that just a minute.
Kelly Kinder: And and basically his example consists of three things we're gonna go through through this morning.
Kelly Kinder: The first of these is Enoch's uh his extraordinary privilege.
Kelly Kinder: His extraordinary privilege.
Kelly Kinder: Now we'll look at this in verse 5.
Kelly Kinder: It says, By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death.
Kelly Kinder: Focus on those he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him.
Kelly Kinder: You can think about this.
Kelly Kinder: This, you know, this is a remarkable privilege to not see death.
Kelly Kinder: He didn't have a funeral.
Kelly Kinder: How many people you know that never have a funeral?
Kelly Kinder: There's only one other person in the Bible that actually act actually got to experience the same thing, and his name was Elijah.
Kelly Kinder: Elijah was taken up, if you remember, in the whirlwind.
Kelly Kinder: Well, here's the man, Enoch, the first one, who didn't see death.
Kelly Kinder: And uh, to get the real context, though, I think, of this story, I think we need to look at the second thing, which is in Genesis chapter 5.
Kelly Kinder: So if you want to look there, we're gonna go through a couple of verses here.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch chapter 5, I mean uh Genesis chapter 5, and and what you find in this Genesis 5 story is just really fascinating.
Kelly Kinder: I mean, it's really fascinating.
Kelly Kinder: And I've I just learned a whole lot as I went through this.
Kelly Kinder: And but right at the beginning of chapter 5, it has the verse in verse 1, we're told really what the chapter, the whole chapter is about.
Kelly Kinder: Uh this is the document, chapter 5, verse 1.
Kelly Kinder: This is the document containing the family records of Adam.
Kelly Kinder: The document containing the family records of Adam.
Kelly Kinder: This is this is Adam's family tree.
Kelly Kinder: And so what's listed here is after Adam, there's nine men who are called the patriarchs that are listed right along here, surveying really 1,500 years of biblical history, and it's all compressed into a very brief set of passages, of verses.
Kelly Kinder: So, in the way it's laid out, let me just kind of give this kind of way for each generation how this is laid out.
Kelly Kinder: First, the age of the individual patriarch when he fathers his firstborn son, then the remaining years of his life, that they had other sons and daughters, the total years of their life, and finally the notice of their death.
Kelly Kinder: And what's extraordinary about these men is that they had extremely long lives.
Kelly Kinder: Uh we'll find out one had a really, really long life, and you know probably who that is.
Kelly Kinder: Someone has called this God's obituary column.
Kelly Kinder: God's obituary column.
Kelly Kinder: Because over and over again, what you find at the end of every one of these records of these men is this hammering refrain.
Kelly Kinder: And he died.
Kelly Kinder: All the way through the end, except there's one interruption in verse 21.
Kelly Kinder: All of a sudden we have something different.
Kelly Kinder: Verse 21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, his father Methuselah, had fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
Kelly Kinder: Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him.
Kelly Kinder: The same record we have in Hebrews.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch was really, if you count those generations, Enoch was the seventh from Adam.
Kelly Kinder: That's what Jude actually says, that exact phrase, seventh from Adam.
Kelly Kinder: And uh, you know, if you know anything about biblical numerology, numbers in the Bible sometimes are really important.
Kelly Kinder: And seven is one of those.
Kelly Kinder: And it references metaphorically something about completeness or fullness.
Kelly Kinder: And so here we have this man's name.
Kelly Kinder: He is the seventh from Adam, and I don't think it's an accident that he's there in that place.
Kelly Kinder: And what's subtly being communicated is Enoch was living a significantly, notably righteous life.
Kelly Kinder: Out of all these others, he's the only one who it's said of said of that he walked with God.
Kelly Kinder: And that's significant.
Kelly Kinder: When you have something like that, you need to pay attention to what's going on.
Kelly Kinder: TJ Cole writes this.
Kelly Kinder: He said, the finality of death caused by sin, and so powerfully demonstrated in the genealogy of Genesis, is thus not so final.
Kelly Kinder: He's talking about Enoch.
Kelly Kinder: Man was not born to die, he was born to live, and that life comes by walking with God.
Kelly Kinder: Walking with God is the key to the chains of the curse.
Kelly Kinder: I love that quote, and it's so true.
Kelly Kinder: So Enoch shows us extraordinary privilege that he didn't die.
Kelly Kinder: And because, for that reason, it's because of the second thing, which is Enoch's singular focus.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch's singular focus.
Kelly Kinder: It says in Hebrews 11, verse 6, back there again, now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God.
Kelly Kinder: I looked up that little word commended, and it has this idea of uh of staying under something and being and having a story.
Kelly Kinder: A testimony.
Kelly Kinder: So all these guys had testimonies.
Kelly Kinder: And you have a testimony when you walk by faith, too.
Kelly Kinder: You just may not realize it until maybe a little later.
Kelly Kinder: But Enoch lived for one reason, and that was to please God, and that's why he was taken.
Kelly Kinder: And the expression of faith proved it.
Kelly Kinder: And I want us to see this.
Kelly Kinder: His desire to please God showed up in several ways.
Kelly Kinder: And this is just kind of like the the the um the proof that he did have faith.
Kelly Kinder: These are the outward expressions of it.
Kelly Kinder: You know, we're all supposed to show our faith, and Enoch certainly did that.
Kelly Kinder: Let me show you these five things.
Kelly Kinder: Number one, Enoch held an unbelief, an unwavering belief in the goodness of God.
Kelly Kinder: So, how do you know that?
Kelly Kinder: Well, we go back to Hebrews 11 and read this again.
Kelly Kinder: And without faith, it is impossible to please him.
Kelly Kinder: There's that word, please.
Kelly Kinder: For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Kelly Kinder: Let's reflect on that just a minute.
Kelly Kinder: See, over time, what happened to Enoch?
Kelly Kinder: Enoch just got closer and closer and closer and closer to God until he disappeared.
Kelly Kinder: So that doesn't mean when we're talking about you, we think about these things, there's really two beliefs that are expressed in these verses.
Kelly Kinder: Two beliefs that are essential for us as well.
Kelly Kinder: And I think they apply to Enoch.
Kelly Kinder: First, you have to believe that God exists.
Kelly Kinder: You say, Well, I believe that God exists.
Kelly Kinder: I don't think this is just means that we're sort of aware that he's out there somewhere and he's he's a reality.
Kelly Kinder: What this I think is saying is that we don't just give some kind of mental assent to the existence of God.
Kelly Kinder: Rather, it means that that you know we do think he's gonna do something.
Kelly Kinder: Otherwise, we're just practical atheists.
Kelly Kinder: He's out there somewhere, but we don't we don't really act on it.
Kelly Kinder: It means he is a blue God who we believe is really there and he's gonna do something in our lives.
Kelly Kinder: We believe he's willing and ready to reveal his great love to us.
Kelly Kinder: And for our part, we just respond to that invitation to him based on this, not his imagined, but his real character.
Kelly Kinder: See, some of some of us have an uh the idea, an idea of God that's not accurate.
Kelly Kinder: But if we know God and who he is, we can count on the God who's always faithful.
Kelly Kinder: That's so important.
Kelly Kinder: I mean, that's really everything that you know what God is like.
Kelly Kinder: And so, some people, you know, you some people because they don't know who God is, they live under this dark cloud, thinking God, God, he's always disappointed in me.
Kelly Kinder: He doesn't really like me all that much.
Kelly Kinder: And you know what I think?
Kelly Kinder: He's ready to whack-a-mole me every time he gets a chance when I get out of line.
Kelly Kinder: You ever think that sometimes?
Kelly Kinder: Well, that could just do in our faith.
Kelly Kinder: But I think, I think Enoch learned over time that God is good all the time.
Kelly Kinder: He's good all the time.
Kelly Kinder: Because every time that Enoch needed him, I think God was there.
Kelly Kinder: God just showed up and he proved himself to Enoch over many years, many, many years.
Kelly Kinder: So he held this unwavering belief in the goodness of God.
Kelly Kinder: Second thing we must believe to get closer to God is that God rewards our seeking him.
Kelly Kinder: That's a second thing he says.
Kelly Kinder: You know, the Bible says in James 4, verse 8, that God rewards those.
Kelly Kinder: If we draw near to him, he draws near to us.
Kelly Kinder: He rewards us with that promise.
Kelly Kinder: When we draw near to God, he will draw near to us.
Kelly Kinder: Think about that.
Kelly Kinder: Take a step toward God, and God will take a step toward you.
Kelly Kinder: And the reward is is what?
Kelly Kinder: It's a deeper intimacy and fellowship with God, maybe than we've ever known, simply by moving closer.
Kelly Kinder: And I was thinking about this, it just like there's a there's a light switch in our hallway that uh, you know, when all the kids were there, it uh if you flip the light switch, the inner the internet would go off.
Kelly Kinder: You know, and it's right by beside the other light switch.
Kelly Kinder: And uh, you know, I'd find out the internet would, I'd be working at the computer and the and the thing would go down.
Kelly Kinder: I was like, who turned that off?
Kelly Kinder: You turned off the wrong light.
Kelly Kinder: It's the internet that's that's off, not the light.
Kelly Kinder: Anyway, it's like that's how can how we can really think of uh it's like a light, so we can either turn that pursuit of a God and that belief of God on and off and make that connection with God, and everything will change.
Kelly Kinder: It's our choice.
Kelly Kinder: You see that?
Kelly Kinder: So seeking him is an expression of faith, and it's pleasing to God.
Kelly Kinder: I think God, I think it just warms the heart of God when our goal is to seek him and to please him in everything.
Kelly Kinder: So believe in him, seeking him.
Kelly Kinder: And not only did Enoch hold this unwavering belief in the goodness of God, second thing, God had a heart.
Kelly Kinder: I mean, Enoch had a heart for the next generation.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch had a heart for the next generation.
Kelly Kinder: You say, how do you know that?
Kelly Kinder: Well, let's go back to Genesis 5, verses 21 and 22.
Kelly Kinder: It says, When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
Kelly Kinder: Notice Enoch didn't start his journey with God until when?
Kelly Kinder: After he became a dad.
Kelly Kinder: After he became a father.
Kelly Kinder: Sixty-five years, and then he started walking with God.
Kelly Kinder: And at that point, he must have realized like all dads do typically is I need to make some changes here.
Kelly Kinder: Because I can't pass on me to this next generation as I am.
Kelly Kinder: He he had this uh this sense, and every dad I think has this.
Kelly Kinder: He had a responsibility now that he didn't have before.
Kelly Kinder: I remember when we had kids, I thought things are gonna change.
Kelly Kinder: And I knew it.
Kelly Kinder: And it's sobering.
Kelly Kinder: And I think this is what Enoch experienced.
Kelly Kinder: You know, I just say a word to dads and granddads here, and even for those who are moms that don't have dads in the home, uh, there's no greater task for you than to to teach and train your kids in the things of God, like your kids and your grandkids.
Kelly Kinder: What a privilege that is.
Kelly Kinder: And I I I just wish I had seen that sooner than I did.
Kelly Kinder: You know, and maybe maybe Enoch did too.
Kelly Kinder: 65 years is a long time before you start walking with him.
Kelly Kinder: And whether you're you realize it or not, you are the prophet, priest, and king in your own home for the good purpose of God.
Kelly Kinder: Don't leave that job up to anyone else.
Kelly Kinder: Just exhort you.
Kelly Kinder: Don't leave it to anyone else.
Kelly Kinder: Be the man, be the spiritual leader in your home while there's time, because time goes by so fast.
Kelly Kinder: And and for your older dads, don't don't retire at 65.
Kelly Kinder: You know, that's when that's when Enoch started, right?
Kelly Kinder: And for the next 300 years, he influenced his family.
Kelly Kinder: 300 years.
Kelly Kinder: And uh Enoch didn't always walk with God, did he?
Kelly Kinder: But he he changed.
Kelly Kinder: This changed.
Kelly Kinder: And I don't think we we often consider the importance of our own spiritual say influence.
Kelly Kinder: We think we don't matter that much.
Kelly Kinder: We don't see maybe until it's too late, we be we need to change.
Kelly Kinder: We're not just helping them change, we're we're needing to change as well.
Kelly Kinder: And you think of this, Enoch had a lot shorter time to do that than any of these other patriarchs because uh really the average lifespan of these patriarchs is 912 years.
Kelly Kinder: And uh Enoch's influence amounted to less than half of that, but yet he made the greatest impact because he was walking with God.
Kelly Kinder: You see how that that works?
Kelly Kinder: We can we can we can kind of catch up if we pursue God like that.
Kelly Kinder: Interesting note about Enoch, his son Methuselah.
Kelly Kinder: Does anybody have any anyone that's named their kids Methuselah?
Kelly Kinder: That would probably not be good.
Kelly Kinder: What do we know him for?
Kelly Kinder: The the oldest man who ever lived, what how old did he live?
unknown: 969.
Kelly Kinder: 969 years.
Kelly Kinder: So here's the thing.
Kelly Kinder: When you look at the meaning of Methuselah's name, it's kind of like a combo name.
Kelly Kinder: There's a first half and the second half of it.
Kelly Kinder: Uh but it's prophetic.
Kelly Kinder: It's prophetic, not pathetic, prophetic.
Kelly Kinder: Prophetic if you pathetic if you name your kid that, but it's it's a it's a combo name.
Kelly Kinder: The first part of his name, it means when he is dead, it will come.
Kelly Kinder: Or it will be sent.
Kelly Kinder: What will be sent?
Kelly Kinder: The flood.
Kelly Kinder: A lot of commentators think it was during that time when.
Kelly Kinder: When uh Methuselah's birth was happening, going on God revealed to Enoch that uh that was the reality of a coming flood.
Kelly Kinder: And then the second half of his name means man of a javelin and refers to some kind of weapon and a dart or a javelin, sort of like a missile.
Kelly Kinder: And uh so taken together these two components of his name, maybe something like parting gift.
Kelly Kinder: This is a parting gift.
Kelly Kinder: So let's let's do a little math here, and we'll get a little closer to this.
Kelly Kinder: If you add up the length of uh time between Methuselah's birth and Noah entering the ark, it is 969 years.
Kelly Kinder: So, what does it tell you?
Kelly Kinder: Enoch, I mean the Methuselah died in the year of the flood.
Kelly Kinder: And so, in some senses, the flood was sent like a javelin to the earth.
Kelly Kinder: And Enoch was Methuselah was a sign for that, the prophetic sign for that.
Kelly Kinder: You know, it's amazing to think about what we uh think about when considering the long lifespans, as I say, of these patriarchs.
Kelly Kinder: And I think, you know, if you think of how these years overlapped, I did this this past week, and I was kind of like, wow, I'd never thought about that before.
Kelly Kinder: But Methuselah was probably able to talk to his grandson Noah.
Kelly Kinder: So they discussed these things.
Kelly Kinder: Noah and his family, even, his great-grandkids.
Kelly Kinder: So by faith, Enoch is passing his faith on to the next generation.
Kelly Kinder: That's what I'm getting at.
Kelly Kinder: So we see that thing as an outcome of his faith.
Kelly Kinder: The third way we see Enoch playing out his faith, living out his faith, and pleasing God was that Enoch made a defining choice to live above his dark culture.
Kelly Kinder: And it was a dark culture.
Kelly Kinder: We think our culture was dark.
Kelly Kinder: It was dark enough for God to destroy the earth over it.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch lived about 400 years before Noah, and uh his great-grandson was Noah.
Kelly Kinder: And the Bible describes it like this it describes the the world as being exceptionally violent and wicked, time when no one, virtually no one, paid any attention to God.
Kelly Kinder: And uh that was probably the same in the days of Enoch, too.
Kelly Kinder: I mean, it was getting to be a dark, dark world.
Kelly Kinder: And the reason Enoch is singled out here is simply one reason.
Kelly Kinder: His godly example, it stood out like a striking contrast in a dark world, kind of light in a in a dark place.
Kelly Kinder: And so he didn't, what I want you to see is he didn't succumb to the darkness, which is really amazing.
Kelly Kinder: So, so we often we get discouraged, we get just just like what does it matter?
Kelly Kinder: We get uh apathetic, um, cynical about the things that are going on around us.
Kelly Kinder: That wasn't Enoch.
Kelly Kinder: His faith kept him living a holy life.
Kelly Kinder: We can say it like that, he lived a holy life, and everybody saw it.
Kelly Kinder: Well, what a testimony to live a holy life in a dark world, to live a holy life in your workplace, to live a holy life in your in your family or in in relationships you have.
Kelly Kinder: Well, it makes an impact.
Kelly Kinder: You know, some of the most impactful examples are people who live by faith in dark places.
Kelly Kinder: And maybe, maybe this morning you're you're someone who's walking through one of those, or maybe you're you're helping someone walk through a dark place.
Kelly Kinder: Maybe it's a it's a physical problem or a financial issue.
Kelly Kinder: We live and we go through difficult things, dark places.
Kelly Kinder: But Enoch reminds us is that God will be with you through it.
Kelly Kinder: And number four, what do we see?
Kelly Kinder: Enoch displayed an extraordinary boldness to speak truth in a godless age.
Kelly Kinder: And although he lived in this corrupt pre-flood world, he didn't, what did he not do?
Kelly Kinder: He didn't remain silent.
Kelly Kinder: He instead he prophesied.
Kelly Kinder: And uh in fact, he became a preacher of righteousness in this dark age.
Kelly Kinder: And that in fact, that prophecy is given to us in the book called Jude.
Kelly Kinder: Jude's recording his prophecy in Jude 1, 14, and 15.
Kelly Kinder: Let me just read it.
Kelly Kinder: It says it was about these, he's talking about these, these, these uh in in Jude's circumstance, it was false teachers who were bringing untruth into the church.
Kelly Kinder: But it was about these, it says, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way.
Kelly Kinder: You hear that?
Kelly Kinder: Ungodly, ungodly, ungodly.
Kelly Kinder: And all of them, the harsh things that the ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
Kelly Kinder: You know, uh, Jude probably would not have been invited to any kind of uh church to preach, because he's telling them the truth.
Kelly Kinder: There's judgment coming.
Kelly Kinder: Not only for Enoch's day, it was the flood, but Jude is talking about the coming of Christ.
Kelly Kinder: Yes, judgment day.
Kelly Kinder: So it's not only a message for them, it's a message for us.
Kelly Kinder: It was a far-reaching prophecy that even speaks today.
Kelly Kinder: I want to say a brief word about this book of Enoch.
Kelly Kinder: I don't want to spend too much time on it because it's really, but it's it's a popular thing.
Kelly Kinder: There's even a movie, I think, called The Book of Enoch.
Kelly Kinder: It's actually not just one book, it's several books that are compiled together, and uh they're, as I say, pretty popular right now.
Kelly Kinder: And it and it was the case in the early church.
Kelly Kinder: Um, some things in it are true, as what we read in Jude.
Kelly Kinder: His prophecy is true, and some things are pretty questionable.
Kelly Kinder: And uh, you know, I just think it's okay to read it, uh, but it's not scripture.
Kelly Kinder: Don't put it on a par of the scriptures.
Kelly Kinder: In fact, even the uh the early Jewish saints, nor the the early church, thought it was scripture, but they read it.
Kelly Kinder: And um you say, well, Jude quotes from it, doesn't he?
Kelly Kinder: He quotes from it in the book of Enoch.
Kelly Kinder: That it's in the scriptures, and that doesn't mean it's scripture.
Kelly Kinder: He uses it really as an example to illustrate that the God's judgment is gonna come on and fall on the ungodly, these ungodly teachers he's talking about.
Kelly Kinder: So it's almost like we would take and read a book or watch a movie and use that thing in the book as an example for trying to prove our point.
Kelly Kinder: You see?
Kelly Kinder: So, anyway, just that's enough about the book of Enoch, but I wanted to mention that.
Kelly Kinder: Number five, let's look at this.
Kelly Kinder: Watch the outcome of Enoch's faith.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch focused his whole life simply on pleasing God, simply on pleasing God.
Kelly Kinder: Twice we see that in Genesis 5.24, it says, Enoch walk with God.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch walk with God.
Kelly Kinder: And that's there because um, you know, he wants us to see that this is what Enoch's life was like.
Kelly Kinder: You know, the the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, it changes the way that Genesis writes it.
Kelly Kinder: It says there in Genesis, Enoch walk with God, but they translate it in the Septuagint as Enoch pleased God.
Kelly Kinder: So what does that say?
Kelly Kinder: It says, walking with God, what does it mean?
Kelly Kinder: It's a metaphor for pleasing God.
Kelly Kinder: That's that's kind of the idea.
Kelly Kinder: Walking is a metaphor for a lifestyle that pleases God.
Kelly Kinder: And so that's what we're talking about.
Kelly Kinder: And it's repeated there, as I say, twice.
Kelly Kinder: Here's the thing Enoch had a really simple faith.
Kelly Kinder: I just think he had a simple faith.
Kelly Kinder: If if all you focuses on, or focuses on is that I get up every day and here's my agenda.
Kelly Kinder: Please God.
Kelly Kinder: In fact, you know, if you think about it, you you get the the impression Enoch's pleasing God was his one item on the the to-do list.
Kelly Kinder: I mean, if if if pleasing God was the thing of the day, everything else on his to-do list was about how to please God.
Kelly Kinder: What if we live like that?
Kelly Kinder: Transform our lives.
Kelly Kinder: Everything focused on that goal.
Kelly Kinder: Did you know that this was Jesus' primary motivation?
Kelly Kinder: In John 8, 29, he declared, The one who sent me is with me, he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.
Kelly Kinder: Under the principle that God pleasing him is the greatest and the single most important thing we could do in life.
Kelly Kinder: So Paul exhorts us to that in 2 Corinthians 5.
Kelly Kinder: He says, make it your aim to please him, whether at home in the body or away from him.
Kelly Kinder: In other words, regardless of the conditions, make it your goal to please God.
Kelly Kinder: So now we've seen Enoch's extraordinary privilege.
Kelly Kinder: He doesn't die.
Kelly Kinder: He's taken before he dies by God.
Kelly Kinder: We've seen Enoch's singular focus.
Kelly Kinder: He lived to please God above everything else.
Kelly Kinder: We see that how it's played out because of his faith.
Kelly Kinder: Now, what does all this mean to us?
Kelly Kinder: How can we exercise our faith and walk with God like Enoch did in a dark place?
Kelly Kinder: And to answer that, let's look at the third thing Enoch's consistent walk.
Kelly Kinder: And I think there's just four principles I want to give you that are uh that we can adopt from Enoch's life.
Kelly Kinder: And they're true always.
Kelly Kinder: These are just consistent, they're basic, but they're true all the time.
Kelly Kinder: Number one is that Enoch acted on his beliefs.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch acted on his beliefs.
Kelly Kinder: It says, and without faith, it is impossible to please him.
Kelly Kinder: You can't please him unless you act in faith.
Kelly Kinder: Faith, really, the essence of faith is this acting on your beliefs for something you can't see.
Kelly Kinder: Something out there that you can't see, you still act on it.
Kelly Kinder: Sometimes we don't see it and we don't do anything because we don't see anything.
Kelly Kinder: That's not what faith is.
Kelly Kinder: Faith is God-given vision.
Kelly Kinder: Somebody said, I think you said in our media one time, Mark, vision that God puts in your heart that you act on by faith.
Kelly Kinder: So think about that.
Kelly Kinder: Enough Enoch walked with God acting consistently on his beliefs for three centuries.
Kelly Kinder: That's amazing.
Kelly Kinder: Most of us can't even do that for 30 days.
Kelly Kinder: I can't do that for 30 days.
Kelly Kinder: But faith is not faith.
Kelly Kinder: It's all if it's all up here.
Kelly Kinder: That's what I'm saying.
Kelly Kinder: Sometimes we give mental assent to agreement with beliefs that we say, we hold, we profess, but you just can't sit there.
Kelly Kinder: Else it's not faith.
Kelly Kinder: Yeah, it has to be acted on for for it to work for you.
Kelly Kinder: There's a story of a man who needed to cut some firewood, and uh he didn't have any tools, and so he went over to his neighbor and he said, Can I borrow your chainsaw?
Kelly Kinder: He said, I don't have a chainsaw, but I've got an axe.
Kelly Kinder: And so, well, he said, I'll take that.
Kelly Kinder: He said, I've got to cut some firewood.
Kelly Kinder: And so the man went off to cut the firewood.
Kelly Kinder: And uh pretty soon his neighbor he decided, well, I'm gonna go check on and see how he's doing.
Kelly Kinder: He's going out to the woods, I'll go out and see how he's doing.
Kelly Kinder: He finds the man, he's sitting there leaning up against a tree.
Kelly Kinder: And uh he said, What are you doing down there?
Kelly Kinder: He's not the guy had not taken a single swing at the tree with his axe.
Kelly Kinder: What are you doing down there?
Kelly Kinder: He said, I'm just waiting to start sweat.
Kelly Kinder: Start waiting to start sweating, is what he said.
Kelly Kinder: And sometimes that's the way we can be.
Kelly Kinder: We think we have to have something happen, but nothing happens until we act.
Kelly Kinder: Right?
Kelly Kinder: James reminds us of this faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Kelly Kinder: But someone, he says in his argument, will say, You have faith and I have works.
Kelly Kinder: Show me your faith apart from your works, James says, and I will show you my faith by my works.
Kelly Kinder: So it's a two-sided coin here.
Kelly Kinder: You can't have one without the other.
Kelly Kinder: Belief and action.
Kelly Kinder: First principle in walking with God, then is take action on what you say you believe.
Kelly Kinder: Second principle, when we can use and adopt from Enoch's life, is this Enoch was in agreement with God.
Kelly Kinder: He was in agreement with God.
Kelly Kinder: To walk with God, we have to be in agreement with God.
Kelly Kinder: Would you would you agree?
Kelly Kinder: So here's what Amos 3 says.
Kelly Kinder: He says, Do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet?
Kelly Kinder: Can two walk together unless they have agreed to meet?
Kelly Kinder: And it's really just a rhetorical question that illustrates that agreement is prerequisite for shared fellowship.
Kelly Kinder: You can't walk together when you're at odds with God.
Kelly Kinder: Because what happens?
Kelly Kinder: You're moving in opposite directions.
Kelly Kinder: We're talking about moving in the same direction God is moving in.
Kelly Kinder: Sometimes it's just so subtle we don't get it.
Kelly Kinder: And God sort of has to, are you home?
Kelly Kinder: I need to talk to you.
Kelly Kinder: That's what you know.
Kelly Kinder: We can't walk together in fellowship when we cling to sin.
Kelly Kinder: That's an idea.
Kelly Kinder: And some of us hold on to sins that we think, ah, no big deal.
Kelly Kinder: It's just a small thing.
Kelly Kinder: When our natures and our wills are fundamentally opposed to his.
Kelly Kinder: It changes everything.
Kelly Kinder: And you know, sometimes we live with this attitude, I know like we know everything.
Kelly Kinder: Or no one can tell us anything.
Kelly Kinder: We operate like, well, we're we're always right, and no one can confuse us with the facts.
Kelly Kinder: Um we have stubborn hearts.
Kelly Kinder: God needs to change our hearts.
Kelly Kinder: And you know what that's called in the Bible?
Kelly Kinder: Unbelief.
Kelly Kinder: Just the opposite of faith.
Kelly Kinder: But here's the positive: God is willing to meet with us.
Kelly Kinder: What does it say?
Kelly Kinder: How can they walk together unless they have agreed to meet?
Kelly Kinder: He wants to sit down with us and work through these inconsistencies in our walk with him.
Kelly Kinder: And as Isaiah says, He invites us, God does, come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.
Kelly Kinder: Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Kelly Kinder: Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
Kelly Kinder: Since it's a divine invitation to resolve our differences.
Kelly Kinder: So there's no controversy between us and God.
Kelly Kinder: That we're we're we're in agreement with Him.
Kelly Kinder: You know what the key is to that?
Kelly Kinder: Humility.
Kelly Kinder: Being willing to listen to what God says, and the result is, as he says, he will wash you clean.
Kelly Kinder: What a precious, precious word that is.
Kelly Kinder: Whiter than snow.
Kelly Kinder: Act on your beliefs, be in agreement with God.
Kelly Kinder: And then there's the third principle to walk with God, and we see that in number three is that Enoch aligned his life.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch aligned his life with God's purposes.
Kelly Kinder: And you think about this.
Kelly Kinder: At 65 years old, Enoch decided to make a change.
Kelly Kinder: That's big.
Kelly Kinder: And his change, his decision made, it changed his spiritual trajectory for the rest of his life.
Kelly Kinder: What we saw, we saw in his in his story, we saw what prompted that was his having children.
Kelly Kinder: But really, this was about Enoch personally.
Kelly Kinder: More personal than that.
Kelly Kinder: I believe that Enoch, as God revealed to him that there was a coming judgment coming upon the world, it literally put the fear of God in Enoch.
Kelly Kinder: He said, Well, that's not good.
Kelly Kinder: Yes, it is.
Kelly Kinder: We need that now, maybe more than we've ever seen in our life.
Kelly Kinder: The Bible says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
Kelly Kinder: So I just said, God, bring it.
Kelly Kinder: I wanted to put the fear of God in me.
Kelly Kinder: That helps us, that helps us walk with God and be in agreement with God.
Kelly Kinder: And I think what it did, it just put Enoch on a new path.
Kelly Kinder: Because he thought, oh no.
Kelly Kinder: I see what's coming.
Kelly Kinder: I've got to align my life with what's most important to God instead of what's been important to me.
Kelly Kinder: So we can live independently of God instead of dependent on God.
Kelly Kinder: And I think that was the switch.
Kelly Kinder: Everything being dependent on God.
Kelly Kinder: He was desperately dependent.
Kelly Kinder: And I think he just simply wanted to be on the same path that God was on.
Kelly Kinder: So God put him on this new path.
Kelly Kinder: And so he began to align his life with what was important to God.
Kelly Kinder: And we see this exhortation to us in both the Old and New Testaments.
Kelly Kinder: This in uh Isaiah 48.
Kelly Kinder: This is what the Lord says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Kelly Kinder: I am the Lord your God who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.
Kelly Kinder: That's a different path.
Kelly Kinder: That's being on the path with God.
Kelly Kinder: And God will show us if we pursue him.
Kelly Kinder: Or in the New Testament, you have this chapter 5 in Ephesians.
Kelly Kinder: We went through the study of the book of Ephesians.
Kelly Kinder: But chapter 5 is like a roadmap to walking with God.
Kelly Kinder: And we don't really have time to go through all of it, but I want to give you a couple things about aligning our life to His.
Kelly Kinder: The first one is in Ephesians 5, 8 through 10.
Kelly Kinder: It says, At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Kelly Kinder: Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.
Kelly Kinder: And get this phrase, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
Kelly Kinder: Try to discern.
Kelly Kinder: That word discern means to test something and prove it until you can approve it.
Kelly Kinder: See, all the time we don't know exactly whether this is pleasing to God or not.
Kelly Kinder: So we have to test it.
Kelly Kinder: And guess what?
Kelly Kinder: The Holy Spirit will let you know.
Kelly Kinder: If you're listening, He will convict you to make an adjustment.
Kelly Kinder: Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
Kelly Kinder: There's that idea of pleasing God.
Kelly Kinder: And then the verse 15 in chapter 5 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.
Kelly Kinder: Boy, are they.
Kelly Kinder: And this was written back in the first century.
Kelly Kinder: Therefore, do not be foolish.
Kelly Kinder: And then Soline, understand what the will of the Lord is.
Kelly Kinder: You can be in his permissive or his perfect will.
Kelly Kinder: I think there's a difference there.
Kelly Kinder: We can get right in the center of God's will, and it really pleases God.
Kelly Kinder: And then lastly, we see this fourth principle for walking with God, and that is Enoch kept in step with God.
Kelly Kinder: He kept in step with God.
Kelly Kinder: We get that from Galatians 5.25.
Kelly Kinder: And uh for us as New Testament believers, it says, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Kelly Kinder: And so how do you do that?
Kelly Kinder: Well, by paying attention to the Word, being in your Bible daily.
Kelly Kinder: It means praying and consulting Him, listening to Him, and not just talking to Him all the time in your prayer life, just listening.
Kelly Kinder: It means being in community with one another.
Kelly Kinder: This is so important.
Kelly Kinder: We think it's not important to uh to be here, but we give something to each other.
Kelly Kinder: We give each other the things that uh that are helpful to one another by being together.
Kelly Kinder: You see, here's the thing I know the Spirit of God is always on the move.
Kelly Kinder: He's moving, He's going places.
Kelly Kinder: And if you want to please God, you have to learn to move when He moves.
Kelly Kinder: You ever seen this?
Kelly Kinder: Uh you ever watched the video?
Kelly Kinder: I saw videos of seeing them before, maybe you have two, where you have this uh group of soldiers and they're walking, they're marching, and you see this one little fella, he's trying, he's having trouble, and he gets out of step.
Kelly Kinder: And it's noticeable.
Kelly Kinder: And so we have to pay attention, be careful how you live.
Kelly Kinder: So when you think about a walk, what a walk is, think about this.
Kelly Kinder: It's just it's just a series of steps.
Kelly Kinder: Just a series of steps, and you have to take them one at a time.
Kelly Kinder: You can't take one today and then one six months from now and then one six months after that.
Kelly Kinder: That's not a walk, it's a step.
Kelly Kinder: You know, when our kids were little, um I remember when they were about a year old, we were so excited.
Kelly Kinder: Parents do this.
Kelly Kinder: I remember this.
Kelly Kinder: And uh it's like, you know, somebody landing on the moon or something.
Kelly Kinder: But it's like, oh, they stood up, they stood up, they're standing.
Kelly Kinder: Did you see that?
Kelly Kinder: They're standing.
Kelly Kinder: And they sit back down.
Kelly Kinder: And then a few weeks later, maybe a few months later, they, oh, he stood up, he's he took his step.
Kelly Kinder: Look, did you see it?
Kelly Kinder: We can't even hardly talk.
Kelly Kinder: He's took his taking his first step, and he plops down again.
Kelly Kinder: That's not a walk.
Kelly Kinder: But one day, that little kid, and it's the most thrilling thing for us as parents, they walk, they put one step in front of another, and they walk to the other side of the room.
Kelly Kinder: Yay! And everybody's like thrilled, and Jimmy's like, okay, if you've not had that experience, you're like, well, big deal.
Kelly Kinder: He walked across the room, but it's a big deal for parents, yeah.
Kelly Kinder: Um A walk is a series of steps one after another.
Kelly Kinder: That's all.
Kelly Kinder: And a walk is a series of steps we take one day after another as we walk with God, too.
Kelly Kinder: We have to keep taking the steps until we make it to the other side.
Kelly Kinder: And these are these are the unchanging principles of the walk of faith.
Kelly Kinder: Consistently, number one, acting on your beliefs, agreeing with God about your sin, aligning your life with his plan and purposes, and keeping in step with the Spirit.
Kelly Kinder: Those are unchanging.
Kelly Kinder: I love the story about this little girl who came home from kids' church and uh she says, Mommy, Mommy, I have to tell you the story about Enoch.
Kelly Kinder: And she said, This little girl, she said, Enoch used to take these really long walks with God.
Kelly Kinder: And one day he walked so far, God said, It's too far for you to go back.
Kelly Kinder: Why don't you just come on home with me?
Kelly Kinder: Yeah.
Kelly Kinder: What a picture of us and our walk with God.
Kelly Kinder: So we see here is Enoch's example of a faith that pleases God.
Kelly Kinder: And we could say a life of intimate fellowship with God results in divine approval.
Kelly Kinder: A life of intimate fellowship with God results in divine approval.
Kelly Kinder: So what was the outcome then of Enoch's faith?
Kelly Kinder: Well, we know he was taken up.
Kelly Kinder: Taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him.
Kelly Kinder: And I can just imagine maybe when dinner time came that day, and and they sit down and they say, Where is Enoch?
Kelly Kinder: I don't know, I hadn't seen him.
Kelly Kinder: Well, go look for him.
Kelly Kinder: They go look for him and they can't find him.
Kelly Kinder: They do a his fa family and then his friends start looking.
Kelly Kinder: Where's Enoch?
Kelly Kinder: We can't find he's missing, he's gone missing.
Kelly Kinder: And somebody says, Oh.
Kelly Kinder: And they hold up his cloak and his staff.
Kelly Kinder: He said, This is all we got.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch just left this earth.
Kelly Kinder: Some people say that Enoch did die because it says in Hebrews it is appointed once for a man to die, and then the judgment.
Kelly Kinder: But the scripture right here says he did not die.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch just missed his appointment with death.
Kelly Kinder: He ever missed an appointment?
Kelly Kinder: It's like we didn't, he didn't show up.
Kelly Kinder: Yeah, he went somewhere else.
Kelly Kinder: He went somewhere else.
Kelly Kinder: Ray Seban asked this.
Kelly Kinder: He says, Why was this man taken without seeing death?
Kelly Kinder: Of all the long line of humanity, why is he the great exception?
Kelly Kinder: Genesis says, Enoch walked with God.
Kelly Kinder: Is this a promise that if we walk with God, we shall never die?
Kelly Kinder: And he says, yes, in a sense it is.
Kelly Kinder: And I would agree with him.
Kelly Kinder: Enoch is a model for us as the promise of the promise of heaven.
Kelly Kinder: And see, the ultimate outcome of your faith and my faith is simply this is that we place our faith in Jesus Christ, and by doing so, we will be taken out of death.
Kelly Kinder: Not physical, but spiritual death.
Kelly Kinder: And Jesus talks about Himself.
Kelly Kinder: He said in Matthew 24, 41, like this: two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken, and one will be left.
Kelly Kinder: The one that knows the Lord will be taken, the one who doesn't will be left.
Kelly Kinder: And then Jesus Himself, he said, I am the resurrection and the life.
Kelly Kinder: Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
Kelly Kinder: And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
Kelly Kinder: Do you believe this?
Kelly Kinder: And so one day Christ will come for all of us, and those who trust him will be with him forever.
Kelly Kinder: In the moment, in a twinkling of an eye, 1 Corinthians says, We'll hear the voice of the Lord and the trump of God, and you know what?
Kelly Kinder: There will be millions of enich.
Kelly Kinder: And they'll disappear from the face of the earth.
Kelly Kinder: And then the judgment will come.
Kelly Kinder: My question is, will you be ready when he does?
Kelly Kinder: Are you living a life today that pleases God?
Kelly Kinder: Are you?
Kelly Kinder: Am I?
Kelly Kinder: There's only one way, and that's that's to place your faith in the person of Jesus Christ.
Kelly Kinder: Let's pray.
Kelly Kinder: Father, we're thankful today for your servant Enoch and the lesson he teaches us about pleasing you.
Kelly Kinder: That we want to be all in, that we surrender our life to you and everything so that we can walk with you.
Kelly Kinder: Lord, help us to do that in the days ahead.
Kelly Kinder: In Jesus' name.
Kelly Kinder: Amen.