11 verses 1 to 6. Hebrews chapter 11 verses 1 through to 6. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. And by it, he been dead, yet speaking. By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. These are the words of the Lord. I'll ask the guys to come. It's good to be with you this morning. And how good is it to end the year in the house of God? That is an opportunity and a privilege that we have. But how much better when we take advantage of that opportunity and be here? And so I'm glad you're here this morning. I'd like to pray first, and then we'll get into the message today about finishing well. Lord, I'm so grateful that you give us this privilege. to be called your children because of what Jesus Christ did for us. Father, you sent your son into the world to be the savior of the world. And as we've just remembered this Christmas season, again, how you became man and dwelt among us. God, we are so grateful that we have a God who's not a God of wood or stone. He's not an idol or a picture on a wall. But he is truly living, breathing, the son of God and son of man, fully God and fully man. understanding completely the feelings of our infirmities, our sufferings, our trials, knowing firsthand those experiences in God, yet without sin. He never had sinned, and Lord, I'm thankful for that. Lord, now as we look at this passage of scripture today about Enoch, Lord, help us to examine ourselves about finishing well for the year and in our lives. Lord, I pray that you would meet with us today. We look forward to what you do in our midst. In Jesus' name, amen. This morning, I want to focus on the man that's in verse 5, and his name is Enoch. Enoch is one of two people in the whole Bible from cover to cover who never dies. Can you imagine that? There's only two people out of the billions that are represented in Scripture that never die. One of them is Elijah. Everybody knows the story of Elijah. He's the great prophet calls fire down from heaven kills the prophets of Baal Defeats Ahab's people. He's the one that stops Israel from having rain for three and a half years Old Testament devotes chapters and chapters to the life of Elijah and then at the end of his ministry he comes to the river Jordan and takes his cloak off, smacks the river, and the river stops and opens a gap like this right here, and he and the prophet Elisha walk across dry ground. It dries up immediately. It's like Porebata Dry 1-2. Wait, we're not Porebata Dry anymore this morning, are we? Boom, right across, there they go. And they get across the river and what comes out of the sky but horses and a chariot and they describe them as a chariot of fire. Now I don't know, if somebody pulled up in a bus to pick you up this morning and it was on fire. I think you would have said, next bus, please. Right? We don't jump in burning buses. But a chariot of fire picked up Elijah, and off he went. He did not die. That's how he went to heaven. Well, Enoch gets verses, just a couple of verses here and there in scripture. And we don't know that much about Enoch. But what we do know is that Enoch also, the same thing. The writer of Hebrews uses a word, and he uses it three times, and he uses the word translated. Now, we live in a culture where everybody does translation. Now, I know that I do Bible translation, but we all translate. I don't think there's anybody in here that speaks one language. Everybody speaks two, three, five, 19 languages. You know what it is to think one thing in one language, but oh, this guy doesn't understand that, so let me talk to him, I'm gonna talk to him. and we we translate but what does he mean when in verse five when it says enoch was translated that he should not see death and he was not found because god translated him and before his translation he had this testimony he pleased god well to translate in words is to take an idea or a concept spoken one way or understood one way in this language, but get that same idea and concept over here, but it's a different thing. Can I postulate just simply this? Enoch was flesh and bone, and he was here, and Enoch was just like you and I, But what was the translation? God changed him. He made the same man become something totally different, gave him a body that would not die, gave him eternal life in an instant, and transformed him from darkness to light, from death unto life. And he pleased God, and this is why God translated him, changed him. Can I say this? If you're a believer today, your translation is coming. Your translation is coming. The suffering and pain of this life is not forever. It will end. That being a fact that you can hold on to and you can enjoy. As my pastor used to love, he used to have every verse in the Bible that said, this too shall pass, or it came to pass. Everything you're going through, it will end. And one day, you, believer, will be translated. And it'll be you, but the new you is gonna be so much better than the old you. That's what God's gonna do. That's what we're looking forward to. But what do we do here in the meantime? I was thinking about this as the last Sunday of our year, but we always at the end, at least when we're younger, we look like, oh, Wednesday, new year. There's a new year. And you know what? I'm going to start by doing this, doing this. I'm going to look after my weight. I'm going to exercise. I'm going to read books. I'm going to read my Bible. I'm going to pray. I want to see it. Raise your hand if you're lightweight. Go ahead. New Year. Anybody? Raise your hand. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody. Why? It's a chance. It's a kickstart. You restart. You're like, you're going to do that. But this morning, can I challenge us to do one thing? Don't look at the New Year. Why not today? Why not today? Why not do today what you want to start on Wednesday and get a head start? You're like, well, it'll be more important. It'll be more. Why? Is January 1st a sacred day? When I first moved here, I didn't realize how many people were born on January 1st. It seemed like most of the village was born on January 1st because they don't remember what day they were born, the older people, and so the government assigned them, you were born January 1st. So January 1st, big day because it's everybody's birthday. I mean, this Wednesday is no different than Tuesday, and Tuesday is no different than Monday, and Monday is no different than today. And that's what I want to talk about, finishing well, both the year and your life. In the passage here in verses four and five, we have a contrast between Abel and Enoch. Now for those of you that don't know the story of Abel, in brief it's this, Adam and Eve were created perfect. They sinned, God cast them out of the garden. They had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain offered a sacrifice that God did not accept. It wasn't what he wanted. Abel did offer the right one, but God personally spoke to Cain and said, you need to offer a lamb like your brother. And Cain doesn't. Cain's like, no, I will offer what I want to offer. I will worship you the way I want to worship you. And when God doesn't accept his offering, And he accepts his brother's offering. I mean, I don't know that they're necessarily the only two people on the planet. Maybe Adam and Eve had more children at that time. But there's two people, and this one kills this one. Cain kills Abel. And the contrast between four and five is this. Abel was killed because he did right. He believed God and it cost him his life. And it says, he being dead yet speaketh. But the very next verse is Enoch. Enoch is famous because he didn't die. And there's only two people in the whole Bible that don't die. And you get this contrast between one guy's testimony is he died in faith. The other man's testimony was he lived in faith. What can be said for us? What can be said for us if we stop the clock right now? And I dare say after what we look at in the text this morning, what could be said if we stop the clock a day from now about you and I? I want you to do this. Put a marker there. We'll come back to Hebrews 11, but I want to take you all the way to the beginning of the Bible, and this is where I'm going to grab my text from, is in Genesis chapter 5. We're just going to look at a couple of verses, three points. It'll take me an hour and a half. I hope it won't take me an hour and a half. But we want to look at what the text says and see what we can learn and how we can apply it to our lives. Genesis chapter 5 is the list of the Tombud history of Adam, And I want to pick up in verse 21 to 24 where it gives a lot of verses about Enoch, verse 21, Genesis 5, 21. And Enoch, Enoch lived 65 years and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters. So he has a lot of children. And he walks with God 300 years after Methuselah is born, verse 23. And all the days of Enoch were 300, 60, and 5 years, verse 24. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. The writer of Hebrew says translated him, took him to be with him. The first thing I want to point out this morning is as we compare some things here, Enoch didn't just live. He walked with God. This is what God says. Look back in that same chapter. I want to just skim through. Look at verse four and five. I'll just read those. The days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were 800 years. He begat sons and daughters. All the days that Adam lived were 930 years. Look down in verse seven. Seth lived after he begat Enos 807 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Seth were 912. Verse 10 and 11. Enos lived after he begat Canaan 815 years and begat sons and daughters and all the days of Enos were 905 years. Notice in every one of those it's saying the same thing. Just skip and come back down to Enoch's. his tombstone. It says Enoch lived 60 and five years, that's what the other guy said, and begat Methuselah. But then it says something different. It doesn't just say that he lived and all his days were, it says, verse 22, and Enoch what? Walked with God. Now I don't say that the other men before him did not, but there was something particular that Enoch walked with God. He walked with God. In the tiny book of Jude, that's a one-chapter book before the book of Revelation, is the only other place in the Bible besides Hebrews and this passage that tells us about Enoch. And in that little passage, in that little book, we find out a couple of things about Enoch besides the fact that he pleased God and that God took him. Enoch was a prophetic preacher. Now, some preachers are not prophetic. Some preachers are just pastoral and they teach people how to live and how to love God. What we know about the preaching of Enoch from the book of Jude is that he was prophetic. We know he was waiting for the Lord to come. We know that he preached that there was judgment coming and spoke out against Sin and in the book of Jude in verse in the early part The the topic of the book is that there are ungodly people who live among us who do not love Jesus They do not love God. They take the grace of God and they turn it into sin That that happens that's happened all through history. It's happening today and But here's what Enoch said about these guys thousands of years ago. Enoch says this in verse 24 of the book of, sorry, verse 14 and 15 of the book of Jude. Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these people today, saying, behold, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints. Wow, Enoch says that. We don't have time right now, but I could take you to passages in the New Testament that tell us about that same thing. Enoch said ten thousands of his saints will come with the Lord to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him you don't find the word ungodly repeated so many times any place in the Bible and I imagine that this preacher thundered when he spoke. Now, he predates Noah, he predates Abraham. We don't know much about the world of Enoch, but we do know this, he pleased God, and why? Because he hated sin, he looked for the appearing of the Lord, and his preaching was hard against sin. We should think about sin the way God thinks about it. But God doesn't call all of us to be the preachers who pound it hard. When you look at the ministry of Jesus, he would preach hard against sin, and yet he was called the friend of what? Sinners. Sinners were not afraid to come to him why because though he preached hard against it He was getting people's attention when he got them one-on-one. He spoke directly. He spoke directly and people Don't always like it when you speak directly, but they always appreciate it because you're not beating around it in our class at Baptist Bible Institute of Port Moresby we were talking on the topic of how do you have hard conversations. And one of the illustrations in Lori Rehlefeld's book was she was a family counselor for the government. She worked for the government as a family counselor, and there was this woman who had had her two children taken away from her. And so Lori went to interview her, and Lori said, I was young, and I was trying to understand. And the lady said, I just don't think I'm such a bad mother. I just, I don't know. They say I'm a horrible mother. And Lori said, as a mother to a mother, I felt, you know, I need to sympathize. And so she said something like, she goes, well, you're not a bad mother. You're really not a bad mother. And the next words out of the lady's mouth were, That's good, because I don't think so, because I only tied the boys up to the bed and left them for two hours so I could go out with my boyfriend. Lori was like, you are the definition of a bad mother. But you see, when we know something is sin, we have to find ways to address it. And the opportunities that we have, in Enoch's case, he's preaching against it, but I wonder what he was like one-to-one, talking to people, telling them, you need to get your heart right with God. And he was the example of how to do it. Enoch didn't just live, he walked with God. Come back to Hebrews chapter 11. Come back to Hebrews 11. We know that Enoch lived by faith. If you find Hebrews 11, if you go back just two verses in chapter 10, the scripture says, now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul, God speaking, shall have no pleasure in him, but we are not of them that draw back under perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Enoch lived by faith, and his faith was evidenced in how he lived. His testimony was there. Don't hear me say this backwards. How you live does not produce your faith. Your faith produces how you live. If I straighten up my life, God will be happy. Don't hear that. If I put my faith in God, God will be pleased and God will help me to straighten my life. I need my relationship with God to be right first. I need to learn how to walk with God first. Enoch lived by faith chapter 11 verse 1 of Hebrews now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of of things unseen evidence of unseen things We think what does that mean can I just give you a very simple illustration when a big wind comes and starts ripping a roofing iron off, and breaking bananas, and tree branches are coming. Do you see the wind? You've never seen it. None of us has ever seen the wind, but we have seen the effects of the wind. Do we therefore say, well, it can't be the wind? It can't be something? I don't know. Another thing, and kids don't try this, but if we were to grab two small pieces of metal and go stick them in one of the PowerPoints and flip the switch on, can you see the electricity? No, but can you see me dance while I'm ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba? There are many things in the physical world you don't see, and yet you believe in them. How is it that we cannot believe in God? Because we do see evidence, and we see His evidence in creation. We see His evidence in transformed lives. We see God doing things, and then sometimes people are like, well, you know, you can't see God, and He's the invisible man and all that. Don't listen to that. We believe in a lot of things that we don't see Let us believe God let us believe in God because the faith that that is seen Outwardly is what is the demonstration of what's going on inside the Apostle Paul wrote this in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 He said for which cause we faint not though our outward man perish yet. The inward man is renewed day by day He said while we look not this is 2nd Corinthians 418 while we look not at the things which are seen But the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen, this pulpit, this platform, the shoes on your feet, the clothes on your back, the rain outside, the things which are seen are temporal. That means they're of time, and one day they'll be gone. But the things which are not seen, Paul said, are what? Eternal. The things which are not seen are eternal. We have to think eternity-minded to be able to live by faith. I struggle with getting my focus beyond today. I always, my wife knows it, there's a list on my desk, this is the things to do today, this week, this month, this year, and that thing is just, it's over there like an angry little dog. It's like, feed me, feed me. The things that I want to get done, they wind up sliding down the list because there's something more urgent there. But I find that I get locked in and I don't begin to think of eternal things. How do those things on that list for today and this week and for this month and this year, how do those things affect eternity? Because that might help me to reprioritize what I'm doing. Am I only thinking of the moment? Am I only thinking of what I'm going to get out of this? Am I only thinking of how it's going to affect my life right now? Or am I thinking, how does this affect eternity? What I do is what I'm doing, a testimony to my family of the transformation in my heart. I say that we would keep our hearts from sin if we would think, how would it be if Jesus was standing beside me while I do this, while I think this, while I act this way? If we just thought Jesus is right here, or if we thought all of my family that knows I'm a believer is right here in the room with me while I think this, do this, say this, how would that affect how you do? Why? Because if you start looking at the unseen things, you don't see Jesus when you're thinking about sin. You don't see your family when you're thinking about sin. Maybe if you'd look at the unseen things, What is it going to do to them? How is it going to impact them in the long run? How's it going to impact my children? How's it going to impact my grandchildren? Those are unseen things. Those are eternal things. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Evidence must be evaluated. Follow me on that. Evidence must be evaluated. If you take something to the police and they actually do their job and follow through on that, they look at the evidence and they've got to evaluate the evidence. Is it true evidence? Is it substantial? Is there enough evidence here to create a court case on this? You evaluate evidence. Can I say this? Is there enough evidence of your faith that the people around you, the people closest to you know that you're a believer in Jesus Christ? There must be an evaluation of the evidence. It doesn't mean that you're subject to what other people think about you, but it does let you know. Do you look like a Christian to the people that are around you? Because if you're not, maybe you're not walking by faith. Maybe you're not walking with God. Faith is not just about how well you start. Oh, I made a profession of faith last year, two years ago, I got baptized. Faith is not just about how well you start, it is more about how well you finish. Faith is not about how well you start. It's about how well you finish. Enoch's faith in God made him a finisher. It made him a finisher. Before I go any further, I would ask for you to raise your hand, but I think, I hope everybody's hand would go up. Have you ever failed in your walk with God? Have you ever fallen in your walk with God? We would all say, yes, I have. I love what the Lord says, and he just uses it as an illustration. The just man falleth seven times and he gets up again. It said, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. He delighteth in his way. If he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. The Lord is always picking me up. And I'm so thankful for that. He is always picking me up. He doesn't want me to stay down. Paul, in his ministry, had many men, and probably much younger than he, who ministered with him. But two of them really stood out to me as I thought about this today. Two young fellows, ministry partners. One was a fellow laborer who became a forsaker and one was a runaway who became a reward to Paul. The story is found, he mentions him in that book of Philemon. Paul gives a list in Philemon, he said, there's a salutation comes to you guys from Epaphras, my fellow prisoner, and Marcus, Mark, and Aristarchus, and Demas, and Lucas. Now, three of those guys are repeated in Paul's last letter, Demas, Luke, and Mark. But when Paul writes it to Philemon at the Church of Colossae, he says, Demas is my fellow laborer. He's my fellow laborer. He is a workman. But when Paul gets to his last letter in 2 Timothy chapter 4, it starts with this in verse 10, Demas has forsaken me. Now when he wrote to Fleeman, he wrote that letter. I don't know what the distance of time it is, two years, five years. Demas is on fire. When you ask Paul, I'm gonna go preach in a conference, and I'll tell you who's gonna be there. Timothy's gonna be there, Barnabas is gonna be there, Silas is gonna be there, and Demas is gonna be there. Those are the headline preachers. People wanna come, and they're like, oh, I love to hear Brother Demas preach. That man, that man can do it. This was the guy, Demas. Paul is mentioning him. Of all the people, he's talking about how good he is. But when he gets to the last letter he writes, he said, Timothy, I need you to know this. Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. You know, I don't know how Demas finished his life. I have no idea. I don't know if he straightened his life after Paul died, because Paul writes 2 Timothy, and as far as we know, Paul's dead within a few months. I have no idea what Demas did after that. But I do know this, the Bible leaves us at that point. He forsook me. The opposite guy is this guy John Mark. In Acts 13, he's Barnabas's nephew. Barnabas and Paul are gonna go on the very first missionary outreach, and Barnabas says, can I take my nephew? And Paul's like, yeah, he's a good young man, bring him. And I think he's like one of our young guys. And so they go with John Mark, and they head, and they first go to where Barnabas is from, Cyprus, everything seems to go fine. They leave there, and they sail to a place called Perga, and when they're there, it says John Mark departed from them and went back. And that's all we know. It's just one of those, I wonder why he turned around and went home. Two chapters later in chapter 15, Paul and Barnabas are getting ready to head back out on another missionary journey. And Paul said, let's go and we'll visit the churches we started the first time, but we'll go out and start some new ones. And Barnabas said, that is a great idea. Let me call John Mark and tell him to pack his bags and get ready. And Paul said, no. And Barnabas said, why? And he goes, he quit on us before. See Acts 13 didn't say he quit, it just said he left. But in Acts 15, you find out that Paul said, no, he quit. I'm not taking him with me. And Acts 15 says the dissension between them was so sharp that those two close brothers split. That's how strong Paul felt about the failure of John Mark. And Barnabas wants to give him another chance. And that's a story for another day of how that went. But here's what happens to Paul later. 2 Timothy 4.10, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, departed to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. At the end where Demas washes out, goes back to the world, Paul said, Tim, when you come, please bring John Mark. He has become such a blessing to me. He has changed so much. He has been such a helper. I'm about to die. I have to see him before I die. Hey, it's a short list of people Paul wants to see. He picks the guy who failed when he was younger. Brothers, when we fall, you are not utterly cast down. The Lord upholds you with his hand. Get it right. Don't wait for the new year. Don't wait for a Sunday. Make things right with God immediately. Turn your heart back to home. God is waiting for you. Get it right. Let the Lord do the restorative work in your heart. Why? Because you want to walk with God. It's more important how you finish than how you start. The next thing I want to talk about is Enoch didn't just walk with God. He walked with God, the Bible says, 300 years. Now, I'm old, but I'm not 300 years old. Can you see a 100 year old man walking with God a 150 year old a 250 a 300 year old he's 365 when God takes him home still loving Jesus When mom and I were young, the boys were young, we used to go to special meetings in the U.S. and just building would be packed. People from all over the U.S. come to the meetings. But one of the things that entertained the boys the most was the old men. And I mean the really old men. They were too old to preach anymore. But they would all sit on the front row. Sometimes they'd fall asleep because they were old. But these guys had loved Jesus and served Jesus for a long time. And all they wanted to do was see those old men put that old hand up in the air and say, hey. And when you told him, you said, son, now you see an old man, a frail old man, that man has seen thousands and thousands of people come to Jesus. That man's walked with God for 70 years. You see a frail old man, you see him fall asleep in the service, no excuse for you, you don't go to sleep. But when you hear that man say amen, there's been times that he said amen and hundreds of people had said amen with him. You see, I want to be among those that can be counted, that we made it, that we went to the end, that we walked with God, and if it's 300 years or it's 30 days, I walked with God. Faith is measured by faithfulness, and our faithfulness is only possible because of God's great faithfulness to us. See, this faithfulness is not dependent on me. If it was, it would be down, Down, down, down, up, down. It would be conditioned on how I feel that day how my heart is turning that day But you know what if my faith is conditioned on his faithfulness my faithfulness gets stronger because he's the one being faithful Let me just give you some things that some preachers say in the Bible about it Peter said that commit your your keep the keeping of your souls unto God To him as a faithful creator. He is a faithful creator. You know what? That means he created you and he knows your limits and He didn't make us all the same. He didn't give us all the same spiritual gifts. He didn't put us all in the same spiritual place. He has a purpose for you. What he gives you he is a faithful creator and when you feel like Lord, I don't know if I can walk this way He goes I chose you for this. I chose you. I did this commit yourself to him. That's what Peter would say He is a faithful creator Paul would say he is faithful in all of our temptation first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13 a great memory verse for all of us There is no temptation taking you but such as is common to man. Hmm But God is faithful And he will not suffer or allow you to be attempted above that you are able but will with the temptation Also make a way to escape that you may be able to what? Bear it not get away from it When you bear a burden you carry it Don't read that verse to say oh god. I I I can't get through this. Oh, I can't do this This is too much. God said I know it is ask me to help. I And he comes along and he carries it. How many of us, men, you've been with your son or young little boys, and they're like, I want to carry it, I want to carry it. And you've got this 20 kilo bag. You say, OK, son, you ready? You ready? And the little boy, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you put it, and you look at him, and he, ooh, and make a little sound, and you hold it. You say, no, you got it, son, you got it. You're carrying 18 kilos. He's carrying two kilos. But he's like, look at me. Can I tell you, God's walking along behind you, and you're like, me mania, me mania. No, you're not. God is. You can't even breathe without him making you breathe. Your heart doesn't beat except that he says it will work. God is all of that, and we have to commit to him that he is faithful in all of our temptation, and he's faithful to keep us. The apostle John tells us that he is faithful as a father to forgive us, and he is justified in forgiving us because of the offering of Jesus. How could God forgive you of your sins if you just said, I'm sorry? Because Jesus paid for it. He died in your place. His blood was shed to pay for your sin. That's how you easily can go, oh God, I really, I am sorry I did that. That was wrong. And he's like, I am faithful and just to forgive us your sins. John says in 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, not to a priest, not to a pastor, to him, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And here's the best part. He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. It's gone It's gone. It might still be stuck in your mind. The devil still has it in his little book He likes to read to you, but God's like the song says what sins are you talking about? I? Don't remember them anymore He's a faithful Savior and a faithful keeper There's a song we sing and it comes from the Prophet Jeremiah chapter Jeremiah wrote a book that has his name, and attached to it is a five-chapter book called The Lamentations of Jeremiah. It is a very heartbreaking book to read because he's describing poetically and realistically the destruction of Jerusalem. The destruction of Jerusalem isn't just bombs coming in. It's physical soldiers coming in killing raping murdering Killing babies all this he's Jeremiah's writing about this. His heart is broken dead center in the book He says this in Jeremiah in Lamentations 3 23 it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. I I mean, the destruction is everywhere, and that's all Jeremiah's talking about, and he just stops, like he's got this one little space that's not destroyed, and he said, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. That's not sung on Christmas morning when you're ready in the kaikai, the family's all there, everybody's telling stories, everybody's happy, and we talk about how faithful God is. Yes, you praise God for his faithfulness. The Jeremiah is talking about how great God's faithfulness is when there is nothing but the most unbelievable destruction happening right there. He's sitting there, he's watching it. His heart is broken, the whole book is about his heart cry. And then he goes, and yet God, you are so faithful. You want to walk with God, realize you can walk with God if you realize that he is faithful. He is faithful. Could we walk with God? Could we do that? I'm encouraged by Hebrews 12, always encouraged by Hebrews 12, one and two, where he says, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, And let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Hey, listen, you got three more days of this year, and then you've got 365 days of 2025. Be patient. Do not sprint yourself to the first. And then when you hit the first day, don't sprint yourself to the end. Run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. How do you do this? How do we do it? We do it in Christ. We do keeping our eyes on Christ. Do not keep your eye on me or Pastor Eric or Pastor Matt. We do our best to be examples, but when we fail, you cannot blame your failures on us. You keep your eye on Jesus, he never fails. He is faithful. You keep your eyes that way. Can I encourage you to do this? Walk in the light and not in darkness. 1 John, 1 John 1, verse 7, he said, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood of his son Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. Walk in the light. When the guys attacked our property a few weeks ago, they did not do it at bellow. They didn't say, you know what, it's high noon, I think this is a great time, let's just march in there. They did it when? At night. The thief breaks through and steals usually at night. When we sin, we don't broadcast it, we hide it. Some of the sins we do are in the darkness of our heart and nobody knows what we're thinking about. Can I encourage you you want to walk with Christ this year? Keep it out in the open Keep your life out in the open walk in the light Let your life be a light and the only way you can do that is to keep your eyes focused on Jesus Lord help me as I finish 2024 help me to keep my eyes on you and not to try to hide not to try to go into the room of darkness in my heart and whether that's pornography or anger or bitterness or or hatred or whatever whatever that get that thing out in the light before God you and God confess it to God and say I want to walk in the light if you walk in the light and not in darkness you'll find you walk with God why because if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship that's walking with God walk in the spirit Walk in the Spirit. Some people make that so mystical. The Facebook preachers and the YouTube preachers make it. It's not mystical, brothers and sisters. It's the same practical thing. Listen to what Paul said. walk in the spirit, not in the flesh. Galatians 5, 16 and 17, this I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust or the desires of your flesh, of your body. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit. This body wants to do things that are wrong. Some of the things this body wants to do are right, but some of them are wrong, very wrong. And the flesh is like, I'm gonna do that. And if you and I will allow the Holy Spirit to minister in our spirit, then we can have victory. The spirit is against the flesh. They are contrary one to the other so that you cannot do the things that your body wants to do. Now, does that mean we have no fun? Pastor Matt, when he was young, he was a pastor. I'm actually gonna be with him next year. And the boys all called him Pastor No Fun. that he would come and he would say, don't go to the amusement park, don't go to the beach, don't go to, and they were like, man, this guy is no fun at all, pastor no fun. God is not in heaven going, do not have fun. Put him dry face, pull him noose, now stop. That is not, that is not the Christian life. But the things that are sinful, put those away. The things that are not a testimony for Christ, put them away. Can I just take a moment? Have you ever seen somebody's, the back of their shirt on fire? You say, what do you mean? Well, mind you, I'm pulling smoke to the village. Now, mind you, I'm looking, pastor come, preacher come, and put them all the same. Now, you look at me, man, smoke come all the same. You know what I would do? I'd say, brother, shirt blew fire, oh. He's like, huh? I said, me look at me, I smoke come on top of my head blew. And he's like, oh, oh, this. I said, why do you hide it? Well, me shame to put it in front of you. I said, just be ashamed to put it in front of God. Don't be ashamed to put it in front of me. Same thing, guys in the village, kagaboway. Pastor comes, here I come. Morning, guys. I always like the, hm? See the smiles? You know the smiles that you get when you're in the village and everybody wants to jump in the picture, but you see all these people like this? If you think it's a bad testimony, don't do it. Don't hide it. If you think it's good and okay to do, do it. It's just let God guide your conscience in this. God, what should I do? My testimony should be placed clear in front of people. The things that I say, if I say bad words, there was an old man in our church, he got saved, and man, he just struggled with his mouth. And it was once he went to do something, he hit his hand, and he said a curse word. And he said, he said, sorry, preacher, he said, pardon my French. And I said, Bob, that wasn't French, that was English. He was like, I'm sorry. Brothers and sisters, listen. Glorify God with your body and your spirit. Tupelo one time. Walk in the Spirit. Romans 8. I'm gonna turn there. You can turn there if you want. By the way, if you guys wanna read a great chapter to help you this year, especially if you're a new convert, you're like, what chapter? I say Romans 8. And don't worry about what you can't understand. Enjoy what you can and read it all the way to the end because at the end, there's people shouting and praising God. Paul says this in Romans 8 verse 1 there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh But after the spirit walk in this in the spirit verse 5 He said they that are after the flesh they that do the things that the body wants to do that are wrong They that after the flesh mind the things of the flesh. That's what they do and but they that are after the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit." So you get a choice. Do I want to do those things that I'm ashamed to do in front of Pastor Matt, and therefore we should be ashamed to do in front of God, or do I want to do the things that make God happy? They that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded or to be minded after the things of the body is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. You got nothing to hide. Verse seven, because the carnal mind, the mind that is constantly thinking about worldly things, is enmity against God. It's like God's enemy. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot, if you're looking at it, here's the words, please God. Cannot please God. Do you remember what Enoch's testimony was? Before his translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. You see, if we are going to walk like Enoch walked, how did Enoch please God? He did not. Follow the lusts of the flesh. He said, I just have to put those things away. And I want to walk with Jesus. Again, it's not no fun. It is a whole different way of life. It's glorifying God with your body. It's being that person that other people, we want to be with this person. I want to be with him. I want to be with her. When I'm with them, they help me. They encourage me. Walk in the spirit, walking by faith and not by sight. Can I give you a couple of verses on that? How do we do this? How do we just say I want to do this? Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord. Every time you see the word trust in the Bible, you can substitute it with believe. Because when I believe in Jesus, I trust Jesus. And if I trust him, everything's going to him. So Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not to your own carnal flesh understanding, but in all your ways, everything you do, acknowledge him. Put him first. Lord, what should I do here? How should I respond here? In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he will what? direct your paths. He will. Psalm 37, very similar. Trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land and verily, truly, you'll be fed. I'll take care of you. Delight thyself, delight yourself in the Lord. Make him your delight. And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Those verses in Psalm 37 say, trust in the Lord, do good, delight in the Lord, commit your way to the Lord. Again, trust in the Lord and then rest in the Lord. Lord, I'm gonna do this. I don't know what it's gonna look like for my family. There are times you'll make difficult decisions that your family might not understand because they're not believers or they're not walking in the spirit. But can I say, looking back over my shoulder at many, many years of making decisions, good ones and bad ones, every one we made for good, God honored it, and God blessed it. And the blessing was not the finances, the blessing was seeing people come to Jesus Christ. People who said, that's wrong, what you're doing, you're gonna make your children hate God, you're gonna make them hate going to church, was just the opposite. Put Christ first. Walk with God. And I finish with this. Enoch in Genesis 5 didn't just walk with God 300 years, he walked with God to the end. To the end. I won't turn back there, but in Genesis 5, where we read all those things about they did this, they did this, but only Enoch said he walked with God. Every one of those verses, which is verse 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 20, ends with three words, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. And you should be seeing the same thing in verse 24, but it doesn't. Enoch doesn't die. Faith is not about how you start. It's about how well you finish. Enoch finished well. Are you prepared to finish this year well? See, if you wait until Wednesday to get going, what if Jesus comes tonight? And you're like, you know, Lord, I'm so glad you're here. And he's like, why were you not growing in your faith. You know, Lord, January 1st was coming and you surprised me, you came early. He lives in a place without time. Faithfulness to God is, you know what, imagine this, and God would never do this, but imagine if God said, you know what, I slipped up, I'm being faithful to all you people today. You know what, Wednesday is the 1st of January, I'll pick up on Wednesday and be faithful to you Wednesday. We'll be house cries and hospital visits and I mean we'll be just dropping like flies if God took his faithfulness like we take ours but if Christ has transformed you then let Christ's transformation in your heart come out and pour it out in faithfulness and be like this example that Enoch is to us and walk with God and listen brother sister if you're walking with God well to keep walking and But if you've stumbled or you've let something slide and you know, I need to be doing that I need to be Thinking this way pick it up today. Don't wait until Wednesday. Don't don't keep looking for a reset day Now is the accepted time if you've never put your faith in Jesus. Don't wait till some special thing When the Spirit is speaking to your heart and said, you need to put your faith in Jesus Christ, trust Jesus, he will save you, you do it. Because you only got so long to walk with God. Jesus, in John 11, says we walk with God until the end of this life. He said, I'm the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. If someone's a believer in Christ, they've walked it, they finish. I'm not looking forward to dying, but I am looking forward to the day I can go, I'm at the end. I can take off the thing and say, thank you, Lord. Your faithfulness kept me until the end. I didn't fail you. You see, I'm not at the end yet. I figure I got 20 plus years to go. I am not looking at the end. And I, Lord, but I don't want to fail now. You've kept me all these years. I don't want to fail you now. So the end of this life is it. But you know what? Coming back to Enoch. Enoch preached about the return of the Lord. Paul talked about it two places explicitly. Jesus talked about it a lot. But I'll give you this verse and finish with this. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul said this. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, we'll not all die, but we shall all be changed. Believer, it's coming. I hope it's coming. I hope it's, I'm not waiting for it in 2025. I want it in 2024. We shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye like like light shines off somebody's eye At the last trump the trumpet shall sound the dead shall be raised incorruptible And some people are going to be alive and that might be us and we shall be changed and he's here And that verse will make people think you are a crazy person when you say you really believe it, but guess what? I really believe it. I don't need to explain it away. I don't have to be disappointed that it hasn't happened in the 50 years of my Christian life before today, but you know what I can say? It might be today. And I just wanna be able to walk with God until the trumpet sounds or until you guys cry at my funeral. Do you wanna walk with God? Don't wait for Wednesday. Walk with him now. Let's pray and we'll be dismissed. Father, we are grateful that your mercies fail not and that they are new every morning. How many times there has been sin in my life? It was unconfessed and I was not even willing to turn back to you and yet you were merciful to me. And God, when my right mind returned, God, you were there. You were faithful and just to forgive that sin. But God, please don't let us hold any truth in unrighteousness. Don't let us hold any false feeling of new days. God, let us and our hearts turn to thee this morning. And say, Lord, I want to walk with you. I want to walk with you like Enoch. I want to be faithful to you, because you are ever faithful to me. And Lord, if there's someone here today who has never put their faith in Jesus Christ, they have never trusted him, Lord, I pray today, you're working in their heart right now, that they would want you more than anything else. Father, would you please do that work in their heart? Encourage your people. Make us a blessing to others this week. And we thank you again for the privilege to worship together this morning. In Jesus name, amen.