Walking with God

Pastor Rod Thompson

Midland SDA Church

May 19, 2018

The title of our message today is “Walking with God.”  But I ask you, what does it mean to walk with God? 

A few months ago my wife, Sabrina and I went for a walk.  It was evening time, just before sunset and we were walking down the road by our house.  We were walking side by side, not really paying much attention to anything – just walking and talking when all of a sudden Sabrina stepped off the edge of the blacktop, rolled her ankle and before I even knew what happened she was lying on the ground reeling in pain.  It took a little while but we were eventually able to get her up and standing on one foot.  She tried walking but wasn’t able to put any pressure on it.    So we were no longer able to walk together. 

We were about a quarter mile from home.  And I thought about just leaving her there and running home and getting the car, but instead I picked her up on my back and carried her home.  Come to find out she actually broke the ankle, so as you can imagine, for the next 6 weeks we were not able to walk together.  But 2 weeks ago she got the cast off and we have been trying to go for short little walks together.  She can’t go that far yet and she is moving quite slow.  In fact, in our walk the other day, there were several times when I found myself getting ahead of her.

In this simple story we see some very simple truths about walking with someone.  First of all there is the physical aspect of walking. 

In Genesis 3:8 it says, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

In this verse where it says that God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day you get the sense that this may have been a regular routine where God walked with Adam and Eve in a very real, physical sense.  I imagine them walking and talking to God about their day.  I don’t know about you, but I long to be able to do that and look forward to the day when we can physically walk with Jesus just like Adam and Eve and the disciples did. 

When it comes to walking with someone there is also the idea that when you are walking together that you are not getting ahead or lagging behind.  So when you think about this idea of walking with God it also means that you are in step with one another.

But when we are talking about walking with God there is more to it than just the physical aspect.

Genesis 17:1      When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am almighty God; walk before me and be blameless

So what does it mean to walk with God? 

Abraham certainly wasn't sinless! I think we get this picture of "walking with God" as being "relating to him by faith". So also in:

Genesis 6: 9                 "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God."

Again, Noah is righteous and blameless - he lived by faith as he "walked with God"

Read Genesis 5:21-24

The Bible doesn’t have a lot to say about Enoch, there is this passage in Genesis 5 and then in

Hebrews 11:5     By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him,” for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

So to "walk with God" seems to indicate a life of faith... a life of relationship with God.

And apparently Enoch did it perfectly, he did it so well that God just took him so that he could be with Him all the time.  It should be obvious that Enoch walked so closely with God, walked in faith, pleasing God.  He was so pleasing to God that He took him to heaven.  Enoch is one of only two people recorded in the Bible who never tasted death.  The other was Elijah.

Read Genesis 5:22 again

The Adventist Home       P.161

After the birth of his first son, Enoch reached a higher experience; he was drawn into a closer relationship with God. He realized more fully his own obligations and responsibility as a son of God. And as he saw the child's love for its father, its simple trust in his protection; as he felt the deep, yearning tenderness of his own heart for that first-born son, he learned a precious lesson of the wonderful love of God to men in the gift of His Son, and the confidence which the children of God may repose in their heavenly Father.

Here we see what appears to be that born again experience that Jesus talked to Nicodemus about.  The birth of his son opened up Enoch’s eyes and he saw in God a precious Father and he began a deeper relationship with Him.  A deeper walk with Him.

Read Ephesians 2:10

Here we see that God has recreated us so that we should walk in good works.  That word walk has a metaphorical meaning “conduct of life.”  If you make a contrast between the unregenerate and the born again you see one who walks in trespasses and sins and the other walks in good works. 

In other words walking in good works should be a habitual practice, not as something to be demanded, but as a natural expression of the new life that has been created in the believer

SDA Bible commentary P 1008

If one is not walking in good works, it may reasonably be asked whether he has received grace

Why?  Because the architect of the universe is also the architect of the soul, working according to an eternal purpose. 

God has provided not only the opportunity for good works but also the means for their performance.

2 Timothy 2:21   Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter (dishonor) he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work. 

In other words if we walk in good works, ordained by God and for the glory of Jesus, then we are walking with God. 

Walking with god should also be a life of prayer!

The Adventist Home P213

Brethren, pray at home, in your family, night and morning; pray earnestly in your closet; and while engaged in your daily labor, lift up the soul to God in prayer. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. The silent, fervent prayer of the soul will rise like holy incense to the throne of grace and will be as acceptable to God as if offered in the sanctuary. To all who thus seek Him, Christ becomes a present help in time of need. They will be strong in the day of trial.

A Call to Stand Apart P. 55

In acquiring the wisdom of the Babylonians, Daniel and his companions were far more successful than their fellow students; but their learning did not come by chance. They obtained their knowledge by the faithful use of their powers, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They placed themselves in connection with the Source of all wisdom, making the knowledge of God the foundation of their education. In faith they prayed for wisdom, and they lived their prayers. They placed themselves where God could bless them.     (Continue next page)

They avoided that which would weaken their powers, and improved every opportunity to become intelligent in all lines of learning. They followed the rules of life that could not fail to give them strength of intellect. They sought to acquire knowledge for one purpose—that they might honor God. They realized that in order to stand as representatives of true religion amid the false religions of heathenism they must have clearness of intellect and must perfect a Christian character. And God Himself was their teacher. Constantly praying, conscientiously studying, keeping in touch with the Unseen, they walked with God as did Enoch

Read Romans 13:13

Brothers and Sisters, the Christian life is to be characterized by moral purity and transparency.  We are to put on the Lord, Jesus Christ, adopt His conduct and spirit

Christ Triumphant P. 43

And how did Enoch walk with God? He educated his mind and heart to ever feel that he was in the presence of God, and when in perplexity his prayers would ascend to God to keep him. He refused to take any course that would offend his God. He kept the Lord continually before him. He would pray, “Teach me Thy way, that I may not err. What is Thy pleasure concerning me? What shall I do to honor Thee, my God?”

The world in Enoch’s time was no more favorable to a growth in grace and holiness than it is now, but Enoch devoted time to prayer and communion with God, and this enabled him to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. It was his devotion to God that fitted him for translation.

We are living amid the perils of the last days, and we must receive our strength from the same source as did Enoch. We must walk with God. A separation from the world is required of us. We cannot remain free from this pollution unless we follow the example of faithful Enoch and walk with God.

Read John 3:19-20

Christ Triumphant P42

The softening, subduing influence of the Spirit of God upon human hearts and minds will make the true children of God sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. . . . There will be a soft, subdued spirit in all those who are looking unto Jesus. The love of Jesus always leads to Christian courtesy, refinement of language, and purity of expression that testify to the company we are with—that like Enoch we are walking with God. There is no storming, no harshness, but a sweet fragrance in speech and in spirit.

Christ Triumphant P42

What a blessed thing it is that we have an Enoch! . . . Notwithstanding the corruption that was so great around him, yet he walked with God, and his light shone out to that degenerate age. And if Enoch walked with God amid corruption then, why cannot men and women walk with God today, in this age of the world?   Many of us know something of this experience. We know that in sadness and grief we feel very frail, but we know that Jesus is right by our side to sympathize with us, and He will help us. We can commune with our best Friend; He is right by our side. We need not go into the heavens to bring Him down, for He is right by us to help us. As we walk in the streets with those who care not for God or heaven or heavenly things, we can talk to them of Jesus. We have something more precious than they to look upon—it is Jesus. He is with us in the moral darkness of this age. We can tell Him of the afflictions of our soul and the wickedness in the world, and none of these things need hinder us. We can talk with Jesus. We can talk with Jesus as Enoch talked with God; he could tell his Lord all about his trials. . . . Enoch formed a righteous character, and the result was that he was translated to heaven without seeing death. When the Lord shall come the second time, there will be some who will be translated without seeing death, and we want to know if we will be among that number. We want to know if we are wholly on the Lord’s side—partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust—not by trying to make a clear path for our feet where we shall have no trials or difficulties to meet, but by placing ourselves in right relation to God and letting Him take care of the consequences.

Enoch was holy because he walked with God in God’s way. In him the world had an example of what those will be who, when Christ comes, are caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the air. As Enoch was, so are we to be.

Christ Triumphant  P48

Enoch was an active worker for God. He did not seek ease and comfort. Nor did he spend his time in idle meditation or in striving to gain happiness for himself. He did not participate in the festivities and amusements constantly engaging the attention of the pleasure lovers of the antediluvian world. In his day the minds of many were absorbed in worldly pleasures—pleasures that tempted them to go astray. But Enoch was terribly in earnest. He did not idly saunter along the streets or linger near places of amusement as if he were an indifferent worldling. He never engaged in common conversation with those who were corrupt, as if he were one of them. With the sinful and with the workers of iniquity he mingled only as God’s messenger, to warn them to turn with abhorrence from their evil ways and to repent and seek God. Enoch lived an active, zealous life of self-denial. He walked with God in a world so corrupt that the Lord afterward destroyed it by the Flood. And he walked with the ungodly as one among them, not as one of them, but as one whose purposes and works and hopes were based not only on time, but on eternity. He did not give the worldly-wise any reason to question his profession and his faith. By earnest words and decided actions he showed that he was separate from the world. After periods of retirement he would mingle with the ungodly to exhort them to abhor the evil and to choose the good. As a faithful worker for God he sought to save them. He warned the world. He preached faith in Christ, the Saviour of sinners, the sinner’s only hope. Enoch was an Adventist. He carried the minds of people forward to the great day of God, when Christ will come the second time, to judge everyone’s work. . . . Like Enoch, we must walk with God, bringing the will into submission to His will. We must be willing to go where Jesus leads, willing to suffer for His dear sake. In seeking to save the souls for whom Christ has died, in conquering difficulties, and in keeping ourselves unspotted from the world, we reveal the genuineness of our religion. Faithful Christians do not seek the easiest place, the lightest burdens. They are found where the work is hardest, where their help is most needed.

Read Amos 3:3

I believe that when we walk with God, we are not walking ahead of God, meaning walking ahead of His revealed will and where He desires we should go. Walking with God also means that we are not walking behind God or lagging behind God’s revealed will for us. When we walk with God, it means we are in step with Him, we are going to make the right turns, head in the right direction, and since we are walking with God, it is easier to fellowship with Him. This makes Amos 3:3 make more sense since it says “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

To agree literally means, “have an appointment.”  Just as two people do not walk together unless they have a common purpose in view, so the Lord indicates the special relationship he wants to hold with you.  The LXX (Greek translation of the Old Testament – Septuagint) expressly renders this verse , “Shall two walk together at all, if they do not know one another?”  

Therefore to “walk with God” means, not an occasional act, but a continual habit that issues from an established relationship.  It means a companionship based on mutual harmony of mind and spirit.  Two people must o in the same direction af they are to “walk together.” 

I ask you brothers and sisters are you “walking with God?”   Is that the desire of your heart?