Thank you. Isn't that good? When they were thinking about singing that song, I said the sound of it sounded familiar to me, and the lyrics sounded familiar, and Ellen told me it was sound doctrine. And again, I hadn't heard them in many years, but after I heard it, I thought, brother Paul knows their music well and a lot of their music if you listen to it it is very scriptural and when I when they sang that I want to be the son that he sees because you know he sees when he sees me he sees Christ and that should that should cause me to want to live for him listen You know, when you're truly born again, you're as saved as you're ever going to be saved. You're as righteous and as holy as Jesus Christ is. But because of that, I should want to live for Him. Not because of the expectation, but because of the great privilege I have. of being a child of God. I appreciate good singing. It's been a good day already. I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 11 this morning, verses 5 and 6. I want to say this, that I want to preach on Enoch today. And Enoch is probably one of my favorite characters in the Bible. I think that as you look at Enoch, there's a lot that I feel like relates to me and hopefully to you. There's not much said about Enoch in the Word of God. But what is said is important. What is said is very direct. And automatically when you look at Enoch, you look and think, well, he didn't do a whole lot. But when you see his testimony, when you see what the Word of God says about him, what God says about Enoch, it's pretty amazing. And so in Hebrews chapter 11, you know that Hebrews very well. You know that chapter 11, we call it the Hall of Fame of Faith. And in verse 5, the Bible said, by faith. Now again, we realize that without faith it is impossible to please God. So to start out this testimony in the Hall of Fame of Faith, With this, by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation, notice this, he had this testimony that he pleased God. Verse 6 says, 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. So notice in verse 5 the link there, by faith, right? And then at the end of that verse His testimony was that he pleased God. He didn't please God because he was a pastor of a big church or because he was a titan of industry. He didn't please God because he had all these accomplishments. As a matter of fact, compared to others in the Bible, Enoch didn't do that much. I mean, he's not Moses. He did not lead the children out of Egypt. He's not Abraham. We don't see anywhere where Enoch took his son up on Mount Moriah and lifted a knife to slay his son and had enough faith and go. We don't see that about him. We don't see where he's David. and he fought Goliath. We don't see where he's Solomon and was a man of great wisdom. We don't see where he was in the New Testament, John the Baptist, where he was the forerunner of Christ. We don't see him as Peter who preached Pentecost. He didn't write most of the New Testament like Paul. But here in these few verses in Hebrews chapter 11 and then going back to Genesis chapter 5, we have a pretty awesome testimony of a man. I want to give you this thought that I want to preach on. I can be an Enoch. See, I don't know that I'll ever be a Moses. I don't know that I'll ever lead a great congregation out of Egypt. I don't know that I'll ever be a David and stand up to a Goliath. I don't know that I'll be in Abraham and have that many generations of people, right? I don't know that there will ever be a time, Brother Jimmy, where I'll preach a great message on Pentecost or start a great revival like Jonah or have the faith of a Stephen, right? I don't know that that will ever be me. But I believe with the help of God I can be in Enoch. Matter of fact, in Genesis chapter 5 verse 21, the Bible said Enoch lived 65 years and begat Methuselah and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters and all the days of Enoch were 365 years and Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. That's pretty amazing isn't it? I mean it's one thing for us to desire God so much that we want to be with Him but it appears to me the Bible is saying that God wanted to be with Enoch so much He took him. And so Enoch is one of my favorite characters in the Bible and there's not a chapter written about him. There's not chapters written about him, right? He is a hero of the faith. He is mentioned here in Hebrews 11, which as we all know is the hall of fame of faith. And as we continue reading down in Genesis, we see that one of his descendants is Noah. We see his son is Methuselah. We see that one of his descendants is Noah, and we all know Noah and the flood, right? That he was a preacher of righteousness, that he was blameless in his day, right? Perfect in his day. They came from Enoch. And I believe if I'm right, I'm not just trying to think, right? I think Enoch came out of the lineage of Cain. So a lot of times we look, and I think I'm accurate there, Brother Jim, if I'm not, somebody tell me, I'm not trying to mislead you, but I think I'm right there. We see that it wasn't nature or nurture that caused Enoch to walk with God, it was his choice. Right? And so as we see here, that one phrase sums up Enoch's life, he walked with God. He walked with God. See, I don't know that I can do any of those other things. I don't know that I'll be a king. I know I won't be a king, right? But Danny, I don't know that I'll ever, 51 years old, I don't know that I'll ever have any great accomplishments with what this world would call it. But the one thing I can do, like Enoch, I can walk with God. That's it. God thought enough of Enoch to mention him in the book of Genesis but also all the way over to the New Testament in that great chapter. He mentioned him and he's forever in the Word of God as a man of faith. May not ever be a John the Baptist or Peter or Paul. But I believe I can walk with God. See men, ladies, young people, that's where we're at in life. We have got to determine to walk with God. I don't know if you realize it or not, I think you probably do, but I mentioned it the other night, I'm probably never going to see retirement, right? I don't know that there's going to be money in our retirement plan. It's not over. I don't know, Brother Danny, I just don't know what the days ahead hold. Now think maybe what God's doing with our country and maybe around the world is all these little idols we've set up to where we're saying, man, I'm going to depend on this and I've got to look forward to this and I'm going to keep working for this. Maybe what God's doing is starting to tear those things down and strip them away from us so that we have to turn back to God. Not political leaders. We've seen them fail. Not our 401Ks. Not this strong economy. I'm proud to be an American. And by the way, I still am glad to be an American. As long as America follows God. But I think a lot of times what we've done, we've set all these things up. And said, God, we don't need you. We'll take care of ourselves. And maybe God's pulling back some things to where we have to rely on God again. So in this day, may we as men and fathers follow Enoch's lead and just, listen, just walk with God. Listen, we're in a day where masculinity is being attacked. It's called toxic masculinity. We're in a day where this whole idea of men and women are being attacked. You just choose whatever you want to be. And if you don't know, who cares? We'll name something after you. We need some men that are going to stand up and walk with God. We need some men in our church that are going to stand up and walk with God. We need some men in families that are going to stand up and walk with God. Whether it's popular or not. Now I dare say that Enoch in the day he lived, since Noah was his descendant, as we know the days of Noah were pretty bad. I dare say Enoch was not in such a great place either. But he still walked with God. So I'll share this with you, that three things I see about Enoch is one, is his personal decision. Now I'm glad of being part, as these kids sang about our heritage, our goodly heritage, and growing up in church, and I think that is a benefit and a blessing. But friend, if you want to walk with God, you've got to make a personal decision to do it. See, this was Enoch. It didn't say Enoch's wife walked with God, and she may have. Right? She didn't get the credit for Enoch. Now she may have been the godliest wife ever but here God's just using Enoch and saying Enoch walked with God. It was his decision to have faith in Hebrews chapter 11. By faith was the first word of that verse. By faith. My friend, may I say, he was not relying on his father's faith, his grandfather's faith. He was relying on his faith. There has to be a time in your life, a personal time where you decide that you'll accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and that you want to walk with Him. See, he made a personal decision to have faith in God. Now again, understand how amazing this is, Brother Gary, because he's not looking back. We have the benefit of the completed Word of God. And we had the benefit of looking back 2,000 years and knowing that Calvary took place. Enoch didn't have that. He was looking ahead at the promise that God made that there would be a Redeemer, as we sang about, a Savior of the world. And Enoch decided to have enough faith in God, without the written word of God, that he would trust what God was going to do. See, we've got to do the same thing. I don't know what tomorrow holds. I don't know what America holds. But I've got to have enough faith in God, if I'm going to walk with Him, that it doesn't matter what the economy does. Does it matter what the politicians do? Does it matter if Roe versus Wade is overturned? What matters is, is my God big enough for me to follow like I have in times past? May I say He is? But it's going to take a personal faith. Young person, you're not going to go to heaven because your mom and daddy saved. You're not going to go to heaven because your grandpa was a preacher. May I say this? Moms and dads, you're not going to live for God because, well, I just brought up in the church. There's a lot of people sitting at home this morning laying a pool of vomit that grew up in church See, I'm saying it's got to be a personal decision that you make, and Enoch made that decision. He was looking toward the promise of the cross, and we look back on the reality of the cross. Not only to have faith, but he made a personal decision to follow God. Now, it is not nature or nurture. Now, I'm glad, again, I'm glad we had those kids up here. They did a great job singing, but just because they're in the children's ministry, just because they grow up in a Bible-believing church does not mean they're going to turn out. Does it? They have to choose. May I say this? You know what impresses me about Enoch? After Methuselah was born, the Bible said he walked with God. But Tim, I've seen a lot of folks, you know what, parents sitting in our church, sitting in others, they walked with God right up until their kids became teenagers. Then all of a sudden going to the beach every weekend and going on trips all the time and going to ball games and travel ball. Listen, hey man. Man, they had them in Christian school or homeschooled or whatever. Had them in the youth program but then all of a sudden they grew up and it was like well, now we don't want to push God on them. And the parents walk away. Not Enoch. But even after Methuselah probably was a teenager, he said, Daddy, I don't want to go to church today. I don't like the youth director. They got too many standards down there at the church house. Can't we just have fun like my friends do? Enoch said, I'm going to keep walking with God. See, I can't be a Moses, but I can be Enoch. See, let me help you with something, parents. It's real easy to talk about how you love God and how you'll never turn your back on him, etc., etc. When your babies are under the pew and vomiting on your coat. But when they get to be teenagers, when they get to be young adults, then we'll see if you got the stuff. You know what Enoch did? Walked with God. Not only he decided from the start, I'm sure, but every day when he got up, he said, today I'm going to walk with God. See, you can have all the right intentions the day you get saved, but the farther you get down the road, if you don't make that decision, that personal decision to follow God today, I'm going to follow Him today. You know what will happen? Wednesday night will roll around and say, I'm going to go to church tonight. Sunday night I remember that I'm probably going to miss church. Get up in the morning, well I don't feel like reading my Bible today. Time to pray, I just can't pray today. Oh, Missions Revival, I used to go to every one we had, but you know what, I can't go anymore, I'm too busy. My kids got stuff at Summertime Preacher. Hello, am I on? See, Enoch, even when his kids grew up, Enoch walked with God. Man, it's a blessing when I do a funeral and that old saint of God, when they're laying here, you don't really have to preach a funeral, you know why? Because they walked with God right up until they drew their last breath. Don't be a statistic, daddy. Mom, don't be a statistic. Young person, don't get in your 20s and be a statistic, well, grew up in church but now I'm out. Listen, you can blame nature, you can blame nurture, you can blame your parents. I'll tell you what, listen, I'll be the first to tell you, but Jimmy, I'm not a perfect father. I've made my share and probably your share of mistakes. But my children will have to give an account to God for the choices they make just like I will. Let me tell you something, young person. You can blame and say, I want to go out and live my life the way I want to. You can do that if you want to. But if you're saved like you say you are, when you stand before God, you'll give an account just like your mom and daddy and your grandma and grandpa. And parents, we don't grow out of it either. If you started out serving God, we need to be like Enoch and continue to serve God. And the only way to do it is daily decide I'm going to walk with God. Then also I see this. Enoch made a personal decision to leave his family. I mean, we all know Methuselah. We kid about it because he was 900 and something years old. Right? But then we see down the line, guess who shows up? Noah. Man, Noah was a man of God. The Bible said he was a preacher of righteousness. In the day with all the wickedness going on, you see the descendant of Enoch living for God. And I believe it's probably because maybe Noah had heard stories, had seen Papaw walking with God and dragging himself into the house of God when he didn't feel like it and praying when others weren't praying. Can I get some help this morning? I'm just saying. You got to make a decision to lead your family. Don't let your kids change your faith. Don't let anyone change your faith to follow God all the days of our life. It's too important. I can't be a John the Baptist, but I can be an Enoch. Number two, I see his path. Notice what the Bible said. Enoch walked with God. His path, he walked with God. I mean, it's pretty basic. What do you mean walk with God, preacher? What do you mean? Well, his life was dedicated to... Listen. We say it all the time. Say it all the time. Relationship. Right? Over rules. See, if all you got here today is a set of rules, your Christian rules, you don't have anything. Rules without relationship breeds rebellion. and you have no relationship, you don't have a walk with God. And by the way, if you don't have a walk with God, it will not sustain you when times get tough. It just doesn't. And then when, you know what, it won't sustain you when times are good either. Sometimes people start following God because things are bad. Most people don't get saved because things are great in their life. Most people come to God when things are bad. Agree? Sometimes what happens when things get good, we say, oh, well, I'm that way with the doctor. I went to the doctor this week for my annual checkup and so they do a couple things. They put you through there. They put you on them scales that lie. All of them lie. Right? She put them on and said, that's not right. She said, well, that's not right. Yours is broke. Right? Tap on you and beat on you and stick stuff in your ear and up your nose. I'm like, what are you doing sticking it in my nose? There's nothing wrong with my nose. Then they tell you all the stuff you should have done. Then the vampire comes in there and steals your blood from you. Right? After they've starved you to death. I had to go two times. One, my first appointment was at 1.30, Brother Johnny. I go in there. He said, now, have you fasted? I said, no, I ain't fasted. It's 1.30 in the afternoon. Every person who has any sense has eaten something by 1.30. Finally, some of you woke up. I knew I was talking to Baptists when we got to talking about eating something. Right? So I said, well, you'll just have to come later. and come get your blood work done." I said, okay, when's that? Well, what time do you want to come? I said, obviously early, right? I mean, if I was going to sleep as late as I could, jump up, run in there, suck it out. He said, well, the earliest we have is 8 o'clock. I said, take that, July 17th. So I got, there's a lot can happen between today and July 17th. Or we have one Thursday at 11 o'clock. I'll just give it to me. So when I got there, my stomach was eating my backbone. So they sucked the blood, then they send you an email. Show you little numbers. All of them look good. I thought, now how ridiculous is this? I know I'm fine. But they want to take this blood from me, which I like my blood. Right? And take my money and tell me I'm fine. I know what you're saying. My mother and my wife said the same thing. You need to go. Right? But sometimes that's how we treat God, isn't it? We go to the doctor when we feel bad. Then when he fixes us, we'll say, I don't ever need the doctor until I feel bad. I agree with that. But sometimes we treat God the same way. Things are bad, we're on our knees before God and guess what? He answers our prayer and says, whoo, I'll call you next time I need you. Now I don't know about you, if you're my friend and you treat me that way, when I see your number pop up on my phone, I'm thinking, well they won't today. If you send me a text or call every once in a while, say, listen preacher, I love you, just want to tell you I love you, praying for you. And you call, and I'm going, that's Brother Matt. I wonder if I could help him today. Whole different, isn't it? I wonder how many times God looks at us when we're praying, going, here we go again. Not God, thank you for being so good to me. Thank you for your blessings, but here's something else I need. Man, that ain't walking with God. A relationship is us walking with God. Daily decisions, our thoughts, our attitudes are tied to the Lord Jesus Christ, friend. And that was Enoch. So he walked with God. His witness was for God. As a matter of fact, in Hebrews, the Bible said his testimony was that he pleased God. Others saw that. What are they seeing in us? Miserable Christians. Miserable Christians. People saw his faith. His son was Methuselah. His offspring was Noah. People saw him walking with God. Can people say that about us? I'll hurry along. He was welcomed by God. I used this illustration before. Can you see Enoch one day? Say, Ms. Enoch, I'm going to head out to the field today. Got some stuff I need to take care of, got to go to town. I'll be home later. He's out there talking with God, Brother Brad. God, you sure have been good to me. Miss Enoch is the perfect wife that you gave to me. Old Methuselah, he's coming along real good. He loves you. God, I'm just so thankful for you. Look at this crop. Look at all that you've given me. I love you. I wonder what God would... I wonder what He'd do if we just once in a while instead of all the praying we just said, God, I just want to tell you I love you. I love you. Maybe God looked over and said, that's it. Get up here, ain't it? Translated, God took him out. Took him out of the world. He didn't die. God pulled him out. Maybe that evening Miss Enoch was fixing supper and said, Methuselah, you seen your dad? Yes, ma'am. Is he coming home? No, ma'am. What happened? Disappeared. What do you mean disappeared? Walking in the field today, gone. Miss Enoch probably said, I knew that was coming. There's no way a man like your daddy Enoch could walk with God and God not want to be with him. All I'm saying, folks, is this. God loved Enoch. Enoch loved God. Enoch walked with God. He had a witness. And one day God said, that's enough. I want you up here with me. You know what? That's the way the bride of Christ is going to be one day. But when we get there, are we going to have the testimony that Enoch had? dads, moms, young people, memaws, pepaws. I'm just saying, folks, I cannot be a Peter, I cannot be a Paul, I cannot be a David, I may not ever be a Jonah, but I can be an Enoch. I can walk with God. I can daily decide that God is what's most important to me, and I want my life to honor Him, and I want to please Him, and I can trust Him and have faith in Him, and just one day, one day, And finally you see his prize. The Bible said he was, because God, he said by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Was not found because God had translated him for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. You know what his prize was? He got to see God. See all these other guys, think about this, all these other guys, Abraham, Isaac, Noah, they were looking for the Messiah, right? He got to see Him. What are you saying preacher? I'm saying this thing of following the Lord is not a theoretical thing. It's not a historical belief. It is not an intellectual, I know that Jesus was born in a manger, lived, died, buried roses. It is a real thing and to Enoch it was real. Is it real to you? Without faith, it is impossible to please God. You can't please Him. I don't care how many times you come to church, how much you give to missions, how many tracks you hand out. None of that matters if you don't have faith. Well, how do I have faith? It's not... Can we be honest? We make things way more difficult than they have to be. Right? By faith, what did Enoch do? Walk with God. You can talk about your faith, but the proof of your faith is the walk. He walked with God every day. He didn't make a big deal about it. He just got up and walked with God. Brother Harley yesterday was like, hello, Lord. Where do you want me today? All right. Yes, sir, I slept well. Yeah, Methuselah's doing okay. Miss Enoch. That's where good gravy and biscuits this morning. See, we picture God as this spooky, mystical I'm not saying we ought to humanize Him to the place where He's not God But if some of y'all talk to me the way you talk to God Good morning thou, Pastor How art thou today? Blessed is thy name, Pastor I'm like, who are these people? I'm not telling you you've got to use your redneck slang, but is he real to you? Or is he just some being somewhere? Not with Enoch. To walk with someone you have to, they have to be real. But Johnny, I bet people looked at Enoch and thought, this dude is nuts. Because maybe when he walked down the street, he's like, yes, yes, Lord. Uh-huh. Right. He said, that's crazy. Maybe. Or maybe our walk with God just isn't as close as what Enoch's was. I said Wednesday night, We were preaching on the ideal church. And I said, you know, if we as God's people understood the gift of the local church that God gave us, we don't have to worry about people showing up on Sunday night, Wednesday night. If you appreciated the gift of the local church and you could be here, you'd say, right? And I think sometimes we miss that with our walk with God. It's like, well, I got other stuff to do. If you valued the walk with God like Enoch did, and I valued it like Enoch, what's going on? Do you think in Enoch's day, I mean, we had this perception, I think, sometimes, that when we look at Bible history, Everything was so good back then. I mean, everybody loved Jesus. And, you know, I mean, they just kind of hung out all day, watched some sheep, right? God was just pouring, throwing man at them, and he's like, all right, Lord, come on. You need to study your Bible more. Man, it was tough. It was tough to serve God. And Enoch did it. Noah did it. I mean, you know how ridiculous Noah looked building an ark? There's no water. It hadn't rained. It's going to rain. What do you mean rain? Water's going to come out of the sky. No, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. And you're building a boat? You're not on the ocean, man. God's going to send rain. Didn't do it the first year, second year, third year. How long did he build the boat? Noah didn't look foolish when the water started coming out of the sky, did he? They made fun of him, mocked him. I don't know about you, that don't sound like his easy time to serve God. But he did. He did. See, here's the issue. I'm done. When you get your eyes off of the Lord, you start seeing everything else going on. Right? When you walk with God, your eyes are on Him. Right? That's all I got. I can't see. I can see. Right now, I can see Danny's sleeping. No, I'm kidding. Right now, I can see that window. I can't see anybody else. If I do this, now I can see Danny's awake, right? So, if you keep your eyes single on him, you don't see all the stuff going on. We've got our eyes on everything else, and we're missing him. Enoch walked with God. I want to be in Enoch. I don't need chapters in the Bible written about me. I don't need press releases. We don't need that. John the Baptist said this. He's got to increase, I've got to decrease. I can be an Enoch. You can too. But you've got to make a personal decision to do it. Every day. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, there's step one, by faith. If you're a Christian, You know what you ought to do? Get on this altar, daddies, grandpas, moms, grandmas, young persons, say, from this day on, maybe I hadn't been walking with God like I should, but today I'm going to start. I'm going to get up tomorrow, I'm going to pray the same thing, God help me to walk with you today, and I'm just going to do what God today. One day, one day at a time. Right? Tomorrow I'm going to do the same thing. Tuesday I'm going to do the same thing. That's how you develop a relationship. You don't go into it with, From here on out, I'm going to follow God the rest of my life. You may think you will, but if you don't do it daily, you won't do it. Make that personal decision today. If you don't know Him as Savior, today you ought to come and say, Lord, I want to be saved. If you've accepted Him as your Savior, today ought to be the first day of your walk with God. You say, I've been walking with God. Would you like a closer walk with Him? Because the closer we get to heaven, the closer we ought to be getting to Him. Right? He made the personal choice, personal decision. Right? That's what you got to do today. That's what I got to do. Then the path I take, my personal decision, my personal choice, you know what it does? Determines my path. If I make bad choices, wrong path. If I make good choices, right path. My prize. I got to walk with God every day I get up and get to spend time with the Lord My testimony is going to be what it needs to be and one day I'm going to stand before him and he's going to say well done good and faithful servant I can't be a Peter probably not going to be a Paul but I can be an Enoch so can you let's stand together bow our heads and close our eyes no one's looking around let me ask you this question By an uplifted hand, would there be one to say, preacher, if I died today, I'm not 100% sure I'd go to heaven? I want you to pray for me. Is there one? Is there one? Amen. By our testimony, we're all here, we're all saved on our way to heaven. How's your walk? I don't know what your walk is it's not my business it's between you and God but wherever it is you say it's terrible start today and make it better if it's okay Won't you come and say, Lord, I want it to be better than it is now. You think it's great. There's always progress that we can make, isn't it? We can be Enoch. Walk with God. I want my kids to see me walk with God. I want my family. I want my neighbors. I want to walk with God. Listen, folks. That's where we are. We're almost at the end of this thing. The Lord's coming back. We don't want to be farther away from Him. We want to be closer to Him. I can be an Enoch. I have decided to follow Jesus. Me, personally. You, personally. That's how you got to do it. Thank you, Father, for the message. Thank you for your love, your long-suffering. Thank you for the examples you put in the Word of God for us, and I pray that each one of us would desire to be closer to you, to walk closer to you, and be more like Enoch and more like Jesus. I thank you for every decision that's been made here this morning. Get the glory out of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray.