Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast.
We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you,
builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.
Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible
and learn how you can apply it straight to your life.
So welcome and enjoy the message.
If you're ready to have fun, open your Bible to Genesis chapter 5.
We're going to be covering 1,700 years in one sermon, and so get ready to go.
Now we've been in a series of messages through the first 11 chapters of Genesis.
And the book of Genesis is the book of beginnings.
Now Pastor Phil, or I'm sorry, Pastor Brian on Wednesday nights is preaching through the book of Revelation,
which is the book of conclusions.
But on Sunday morning we're looking at the book of beginnings.
And what we see is that every major theme, every major problem, and every major promise
is present in seed form.
And so if you want to understand your Bible, it's important for you to understand the first
eleven chapters of Genesis.
Not only that, but if you want to understand reality as it truly is, then it's important
that you understand what God reveals about Himself and His nature and us and reality
in the book of Genesis.
And so Genesis helps us to understand life in a way that makes sense.
And so today we're going to be in Genesis chapter 5, and since we have 1,700 years to
cover, we're just going to jump right in.
Verse number 1.
This is the book of the genealogy of Adam.
In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
He created them male and female and blessed them and called them mankind in the day they
were created.
And Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after his image and named
him Seth.
Now, Moses gives us the highlights of what he has already told us in the first few chapters
of Genesis. And what we see is that Genesis answers the most fundamental questions of life.
The first question that it answers is, where did everything come from?
One of the most fundamental questions of life is why is there something rather than nothing?
And so everything didn't come from nowhere and nothing.
Everything came from someone.
God is the creator who created the creation.
He's the one who made everything, and he made us.
The second question that we see here is that God answers the question,
who am I, or who is man, or who are we?
Now, the three most significant things about us are,
first, we are made in the image of God.
That means that you have been given dignity and dominion.
And so every single human bears God's image
because God has given each one of us
dignity, value, and worth.
You have value not because you're rich,
not because you're smart, not because you're successful,
but because you have been made by God
and you have been created in his image.
And so that applies to everyone.
It applies to the born and the unborn, the healthy and the sick, the rich and the poor,
the young and the old, the brilliant and the simple.
We all bear God's image.
Now Genesis and Jesus both teach that human life belongs to God.
And so we are never to take human life.
Now notice in Genesis, God gives us dominion
over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air
and the beast of the field.
He gives us dominion over the earth and the plants
that grow upon it, but he never gives us dominion
over human life because human life belongs
to the dominion of God.
And so we are not to take human life because it's sacred.
From the unborn baby to the aged elder, every human life is sacred and should be protected
and is to be treated with respect.
We see that we are made in God's image.
It also says that we are made male and female.
And third, we are told that we are made both body and soul.
Now, all three of those truths about us are highly attacked within our culture, but they
are all three clearly taught in Scripture.
They are all in a sense, and in some ways, common sense.
But have you ever noticed that sometime common sense isn't so common?
These are very simple truths that we are made in God's image, that we are male and female,
that we are both body and soul.
They are very simple truths, but simplicity becomes profundity in the midst of moral confusion
and chaos.
And because we live in a culture that has rebelled against God, that has rejected His truth,
we have rejected who we were made to be.
The third question that Genesis answers is, what is wrong?
We see in Genesis that Satan, temptation, and sin come into God's perfect creation and corrupt it,
and they lead us to be separated from God, from self, and from one another.
We can see within our own life that something is not right.
that we were meant to be more than what we are,
that something is wrong not only within us,
but something is wrong in the world around us.
And because of that, we look for a solution.
Now, how you answer the question of what is wrong is important
because it determines how you determine what is the solution.
And so the answer to what is wrong is sin, and the solution is God's grace and forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in verse number 3, we see that we inherit a sin nature from Adam.
that Adam has a son by the name of Seth.
We've already seen that Cain had a sin nature
that was passed down to him,
but now we see all of Adam's descendants have a sin nature,
and they are born in the likeness of Adam.
And so in chapter 5, we see sin spreading
in such a way that it infects and affects
every person who is a descendant of Adam.
And one of the things that we understand from the Bible is that not only these people here in chapter 5 are descendants of Adam, but you and I are descendants of Adam as well.
And so let's continue the story in verse number 4.
And after Adam, or he, begot Seth, the days of Adam were 800 years, and he had sons and daughters.
So all the days of Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
Seth lived 105 years and begot Enosh.
After he begot Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had sons and daughters.
So all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.
Enosh lived 90 years and begot Canaan.
After he begot Canaan, Enosh lived 815 years and had sons and daughters.
So all the days of Enosh were 905 years and he died.
Now one of the questions that we have of this passage is why such long lifespans?
Now there have been different explanations that people have given.
One is that people have said it was due to environmental factors,
that the soil was better and different in those days,
that the atmosphere was different, that the environment was different,
which led to longer lifespans of humankind.
Another explanation is that it's due to genetic deterioration over time.
That because of the effects of sin that our DNA has deteriorated.
That our biology and our code has deteriorated and led to shorter lifespans.
Another explanation that people have given is that...
God has chosen to limit human lifespans in order to limit human evil.
Now, the truth is we don't know which one of those explanations is right
or if maybe there's another explanation that we don't know.
But what we do know is that mankind is not getting better and better.
What we see is that mankind is getting worse.
Now, that's the opposite of what evolution teaches.
Evolution teaches that mankind is getting better and better,
that we're just going to usher in utopia,
and we're moving more and more towards perfection.
But the Bible teaches the opposite,
that we were created by God perfect, morally right.
But because of sin we have fallen, and sin has spread from Adam to all who are descendants of Adam."
Now there are two lineages that are being traced in Genesis chapter 4 and Genesis chapter 5.
The first lineage is the line of Cain, which we saw last week.
And the line of Cain is an example of what it looks like when we embrace sin.
We see culture, and we see art, and we see agriculture, and we see industry and commerce,
and we see civilization, but it's a civilization without God.
And it leads to incredible pride and violence and division and all kinds of problems.
But then we see that Adam and Eve had another son by the name of Seth.
And Genesis 5 follows the line of Seth all the way up until the time of the great flood.
Now, I know when you were coming to church this morning, you were talking to your husband and wife and saying,
boy, I hope we're going to talk about a genealogy this morning.
Boy, I haven't heard a good genealogy sermon in quite some time.
I'm ready to go.
Well, today is your day.
You've been waiting for a long time, and brothers and sisters, get ready.
That's what we're going to do.
Genealogies and lineages are a big deal within the Bible.
In fact, we see them over and over again.
Now you might think, well, why do we have that?
Well, I have found a good student of the Bible
is a confused student of the Bible.
you start asking questions, right?
Why is that there?
And I love to talk about obscure passages
where it's hard to understand what's going on there
because when you really start to understand those passages
that you don't understand,
it unlocks and opens up the meaning of the Bible
in ways that you didn't know before.
And so it's very important
that we understand that genealogies and lineages are a big deal in the Bible.
In fact, you have to understand genealogies in order to understand the Bible and how God thinks.
And one of the first reasons that they are so important is that the Christian faith is based on history.
History.
Everything that we believe happened in a particular time
and a particular place to particular people.
In fact, if you look all the way forward in Luke 3,
we find the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
and it shows us that Jesus was a man
who is biologically and historically connected
to all of these people in Genesis chapter 5.
God is showing us that he had a plan.
Not only that, but the life and death and resurrection of Jesus
are historical events,
that God the Creator entered into his own creation
He entered into a particular time and a particular place
and a particular people in order to provide salvation
and restore creation back into a relationship with God.
And so Genesis chapter five is showing us a theology
of the seed that we saw in Genesis 3.15.
That the seed of woman is coming.
who will crush the head of Satan, who is our adversary,
who will defeat sin and death,
and will restore us back to relationship with God.
You see, the Bible is not just a bunch of stories.
It is one story of God's incredible and amazing grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
See, God has always had a plan to save us from our sin.
In Genesis chapter 5, God is showing us that there is going to come a seed
who will save us and restore us back to the rule and the reign of God.
Look what he says in verse number 12.
It says,
And after he begot Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had sons and daughters.
So all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died.
Now try saying that 10 times real fast.
Mahalalel.
I'm not even used to saying that.
But by the third service, I think I've got it down.
All right?
Now there's another reason that genealogies are so important in the Bible,
and that is that God thinks generationally.
And because the Bible is God's word, the Bible thinks generationally as well.
And so I want to encourage us to stop thinking instantaneously and to start thinking generationally
in the way that God thinks.
Stop thinking just about yourself and start thinking about the next generation and the
ones that will come after that.
Let me ask you, will people with your last name love God a long time from now?
Brothers and sisters, that's the framework of the Bible.
That's the heart of God.
And that should be our heart as well.
We should think generationally.
We shouldn't just think about ourselves.
We should think about those who are not yet here, who have not yet come to Christ but need Jesus.
That's the way we need to think.
Jonathan Edwards, one of the great pastors of early American history,
it's said that every day he would pray for the fifth generation.
He would pray not just for his kids, not just for his grandkids,
but all the way to the fifth generation.
And you can follow that line and see that God did amazing things
in the generations that followed.
And so start asking yourself,
what do I want to be true of my great-grandchildren?
Do I want them to know Jesus?
Do I want them to love God?
What do I want them to be?
What do I want them to know?
What do I want them to do?
And then start framing your life and your family around those things.
Start framing your life and your family around the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Now, the Bible teaches that every person inherits a spiritual lineage and passes on a spiritual lineage.
Now you may say this morning,
well I don't have a spiritual lineage.
Well here's the good news.
You can change your lineage.
You see, all of us are affected by what has come before us,
but all of us are also connected to what will come after us.
And when we meet Jesus, he changes our lineage.
He can make you the first link
in a chain of people who walk with God.
Jesus can change your life and he can use you to change your family's desires
and your family's destinies if you'll surrender yourself to him.
Now, as we look at the New Testament, what we see is that Jesus was more
interested in succession than he was success.
And what I mean by that is that without succession, success doesn't last very long.
And so I want to encourage you to stop thinking about the instant
and to start thinking about the future.
Stop thinking about today or this week or even this year
and to start investing your life in the lives of others
and those who are to come.
Now thinking generationally is not just for married people, it's for all of us.
We need to be a church that thinks generationally.
We need to be a church that thinks about what we're going to leave behind and what Bakersfield
is going to look like 40 years from now.
What Kern County is going to look like 80 years from now.
We need to be a church.
that is thinking about what God is doing
in this time in history
and what he wants to do in the lives of others.
We need to be a church that makes disciples of Jesus Christ
who make disciples of Jesus Christ
who make disciples of Jesus Christ.
That is God's purpose.
That is God's plan.
God is looking not just in the instant,
He is thinking about the generations to come, and we need to join Him and have a bigger
perspective of God's plan and purpose for our life.
Notice what it says in verse number 21.
It said, Enoch lived 65 years and begot Methuselah.
And after he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters.
So all the days of Enoch were 365 years,
and Enoch walked with God,
and he was not, for God took him.
I love that phrase, that Enoch walked with God.
This is the first time that that phrase
is used in the Bible, but it will be used
many more times as we go forward.
Now, walking with God is a metaphor
to describe our intimacy and our communion with God.
God wants to have a personal relationship with you.
And so Christianity is not just a religion that is external.
It is a relationship with God that is internal.
Our greatest purpose and our greatest blessing
is to walk with God, to know God and enjoy Him.
You know, one of the desires of my heart,
And one of my prayers for you and for our church is that we would walk with God,
that we would love God, that we would trust God, that we would follow God,
that our lives would be fully surrendered to him,
and that we would commune with him along life's path.
Now we live in a culture where everybody wants to be unique,
but have you ever noticed everyone's doing the same thing?
They're rebelling against God.
If you want to be unique, let me tell you how.
Walk with God.
Enoch walked with God, and God used him greatly within our life.
You know, we had cultural Christianity for so long,
and whether people actually walked with God or not,
they talked about it, and they acted like that was the thing.
But now we live in a time, if you want to be a rebel,
I can tell you how to do it.
Walk with God.
Serve the Lord.
Live for the Lord.
Be a beacon of light.
and a person of salt within a dark and sinful world.
Now, walking with God is not easy, but it is simple in many ways.
When you walk with something, what do you do?
Here's what you do.
You head in the same direction as you talk.
You see, walking with God involves three things.
The first thing it involves is going in the same direction as God.
And so you say, I want to have the same desires, the same vision, and the same goals for my life as God has for my life.
Whatever God is doing, I want to join him.
Whatever God wants to do in my life and through my life, I want to be a part of what God wants to do.
And so walking with God is not my will be done.
It is God, may your will be done.
It's not getting God to join you and the direction you want to go.
Like, God loves me and I have a wonderful plan for him to sign off on, you know.
That's kind of the mentality.
That's not what it's talking about when it says to walk with God.
To walk with God is us joining God and going in the same direction as him.
And so walking with God is aligning our heart with the great heart of God.
aligning how we think with how God thinks,
aligning the decisions and the priorities and the values of our life
to be in a line with God's will and God's nature.
The second thing is that walking with God involves spending time with God.
You know, if you want an intimate relationship with anybody,
you've got to spend time with them.
And so you've got to spend time listening to God speak to you through his word and by his spirit.
You've got to spend time speaking to God through prayer.
Now, so often as we're walking along life's journey, there can be times where a heart begins to drift.
You remember the song that we sing, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.
And sometimes we don't mean to drift away from God,
but life circumstances and the cares of this world come along
and our heart just slowly drifts from the Lord.
We spend time away from Him.
Our hearts go cold and even at times silent,
and we stop prioritizing time with the Lord.
But when we spend time with God, He brings our heart back to beat with His heart.
He brings our thinking back in alignment with His thinking and His Word.
He brings the decisions of our life back into alignment with His will.
Now, New Testament word that describes this is the word abide.
Jesus says, you are to abide in me and I in you, and my word is to abide in you as well.
Another way that the Bible describes this is walking in the Spirit.
where you are walking under the influence, the leadership, and the direction and the power of the Holy Spirit.
There are different metaphors that the Bible uses with different nuances of meaning,
but all of them point to a personal and intimate relationship with God,
where you love God, where you trust God, and where you're surrendered to follow God,
and you want to be close to Him.
Now the key to overcoming the attacks of the enemy
is to spend time with God.
I don't know about you, but when I'm not abiding,
when I'm not spending time with the Lord,
then the attacks of the enemy are like fiery arrows
that lead me to sin and leave me wounded and hurting.
But when I am abiding,
When I am surrendered to the Lord, when I'm going in the same direction,
when I am spending time with the Lord,
the attacks of the enemy are like harmless ping pong balls
that just bounce right off of me, you know.
And you become impervious to the attacks of the enemy.
Why? Because he who is in you is stronger than he who is in the world.
Brothers and sisters, we're at war.
And the enemy is strong.
He's smarter than us.
He's stronger than us.
And he's been doing this a lot longer than us.
He is good at what he does.
And the defense that we have against him is to walk with God,
to spend time with him in his word and in prayer
and allow the Holy Spirit to empower us.
The key to overcoming discouragement is to walk with God.
When you begin to spend time with God, then suddenly your faith is strengthened,
your love is deepened, and your walk with God becomes stronger and sweeter, and
suddenly the problems of this life don't look so big in the light of the eternity
of God's grace and mercy.
The key to overcoming complacency and indifference is to walk with God
because he gives us his heart and the fruit of the Spirit.
The key to overcoming sin is to walk with God.
The key to spiritual growth is to walk in the Spirit
and to allow the Holy Spirit of God to produce the holiness of God within us.
You see, when you spend time with God,
you cannot help but be changed by the glory of God.
I'm reminded of the disciples.
After the resurrection of Jesus, they're a fiery witness for Christ,
and they're looking at these guys and they say,
well, they're untrained and uneducated men,
but they noted that they had been with Jesus.
See, I believe that the key to changing the world is to be with Jesus.
Because when you spend time with Jesus, when you really get to know Jesus, you will change the world.
You cannot help but be impacted and transformed by his love, by his goodness, by his glory, by his humility, by the glory and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so the key to spiritual growth is to spend time with God.
So brothers and sisters, let's have open Bibles and let's have open hearts to let God have his way with us.
Let's have an open life and open prayers and let God have his perfect work in us.
The third thing that walking with God involves is saying no.
You know, one of the most important words that you'll learn in life is the word no.
We grow often with our no.
It's important.
If we're going to follow God, we have to create margin in our life.
We have to prioritize spending time with God.
You say, well, you know, I'm just too busy
to spend time with God.
I'm too busy to follow God.
I've got too many things going on.
Well, guess what?
You're too busy.
Stop it.
Repent.
Ask God to give you a new heart and new priorities.
And you know, when God set aside the Sabbath,
he sanctified time, meaning that time belongs to him.
And God wants us to set aside time to spend with him.
And so you've got to learn to say no to a lot of good things in order to grow in your relationship with the Lord.
You've got to learn to say no to sin and distractions to follow the Lord.
You grow with your no.
My dad used to say that the good is the enemy of the best.
And often we fill our life with so many good things.
and we miss out on the best thing,
which is spending time with God.
The most important time of your day
is the time that you spend with the Lord.
And so you've got to learn to say no
to a lot of good things so that you can say yes
to going in the same direction as God
while you're communing with him.
Now I want you to notice that Enoch
lived shorter than anyone else.
but he made the biggest difference because he walked with God.
It's not the length of your life
but the quality of your walk with God
that really matters.
So brothers and sisters let's pursue the Lord.
Let's spend time with Him.
Let's walk with Him.
And let's
let Him do what He wants to do.
Notice
what it says in verse number twenty-five.
It says, "'Methuselah lived 187 years and begot Lamech.
After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had sons and daughters.
So all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.
Lamech lived 182 years and had a son.
And he called his name Noah, saying,
"'This one will comfort us concerning the work and the toil of our hands
because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.'"
After he begot Noah, Lamech lived 595 years and had sons and daughters.
So all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died.
And Noah was 500 years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Now Genesis chapter 5 has been called the death chapter of the Bible
because over and over again, notice it says,
this guy was born, he lived, he had a son, he had more kids,
and then he died, and then he died, and then he died.
Now that's unique.
Because most genealogies don't say, and then he died.
It's just kind of assumed.
Because they're following the lineage of the sons
and the fathers and so forth.
And so what God is pointing out is that since sin came,
death has reigned over humanity.
Did you know that God did not create us to die?
God created us to live.
Life comes from the living God, but death has come from sin.
The Bible says that we are all sinners by nature and by choice.
We have inherited sin nature by Adam, but we also have freely chosen to sin.
And so the Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
and that the wages of sin is death.
But there's good news, and that is that the gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Listen to what it says in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 22.
It says,
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
In the Bible, you have two families.
You have the family of Adam,
and then you have the family of Christ, who is the second Adam.
In Adam's family, all die.
In Christ's family, all will be made alive.
In Adam's family, death reigns.
In Jesus's family, life reigns.
And the Bible says when we come to Christ
as our Lord and Savior, that we are born again,
that we are made alive in him,
and God gives us eternal life.
I think one of the points that we see in this passage
is that it's never too late in life to get saved.
Did you notice that Enoch began to walk with God when he was 65 years old?
He was the first to overcome death because Hebrews tells us that by faith he walked with God.
The only way to overcome sin and to overcome death is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to walk with God.
In fact, the New Testament tells us that Enoch was a prophet and he prophesied about the second coming of Christ,
that he would come with thousands of his saints.
Now Satan comes along and he says, you know, you can give your life to Christ, but do it later.
Now is not the time.
You need to sow your wild oats, and you need to do what you want,
and you need to be in control of your life, and you need to be Lord for a while,
and you can always give your life to Christ later.
But the reality is we're never guaranteed later, are we?
Because at some point, you and I are going to be added to this genealogy.
And it's going to be said of us, and he died or she died.
Because the Bible says we all die.
And so there's a sense of urgency.
Life is short and it's fleeting.
Tomorrow is not guaranteed.
The Bible says today is the day of salvation.
But here's the good news.
God is patient and he is gracious toward us.
Now the name Methuselah means when he is dead, it will come.
And so Enoch in naming his son is prophesying about the flood that is to come.
Now Enoch lived 969 years, longer than anyone else.
That's not a coincidence.
And when he added up, he died in the year that the great flood began.
And so what we see is that God is patiently and graciously waiting
to give people the opportunity to repent and to be saved.
Now Lamech names his son Noah.
And the name Noah means rest or relief.
And Lamech says that Noah is going to bring us comfort concerning the curse.
Now the comfort that Noah will bring is that through him will come the promised Messiah
who will save humanity from this mess that we find ourselves in.
And so in the midst of all this horrible sin, in the midst of all this death,
there is still hope that a Savior will come and will bring salvation and restore us back to God.
Now in the book of Revelation, there's another book of names called the Lamb's Book of Life.
The Bible says everyone who puts their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,
their name is going to be written in that book.
Did you know that God knows your name?
God knows everything about you, but he wants you to know him.
God cares about you and God loves you.
And if you are not saved, he is waiting for you, graciously waiting for you to repent and believe and be saved.
The Bible says that the reason that Jesus has not come yet is he is not desiring that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance.
God's desire is that you would be saved.
And aren't you glad that Jesus waited long enough for you to be saved?
I know I am.
And Jesus is waiting for others to be saved.
And maybe that's you this morning.
He is waiting to come, but there's gonna come a day
when the trumpet will sound and the clouds will part
and Jesus will return.
And then it's gonna be too late.
The Bible says that Jesus died on the cross
to pay the penalty for our sin.
Jesus took our sin and he died in our place.
And every person must repent of their sin and trust in Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.
God doesn't have any grandchildren, only children.
You must make the choice to put your faith and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then and only then, by God's grace, can you walk with God and, like Enoch, overcome death.
Let's bow together for a word of prayer as we prepare to pray.
Here in a moment, we're going to have a time of invitation, a time of worship,
and I want to invite you to come and to give your life to Christ.
There will be counselors and others here at the front.
You can come forward and say, I want to give my life to Christ.
I want to, by faith, walk with God.
I want to know God and enjoy God, and I want eternal life.
We invite you to come and to begin to walk with God
by faith in Jesus Christ.
Maybe this morning you've given your life to Christ,
but you've never followed him in believers baptism,
and you would like to come
like many have today, and say, I am not ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for me. He rose
again. And because of that, I'm going to be saved. And someday I'm going to rise from the dead as
well. Maybe this morning you'd like to come and say, I put my faith in Christ, but I need to be
baptized to publicly identify and profess my faith in Christ.
Maybe this morning, God's leading you to join this church,
to say, I wanna be a part of a spiritual family
of people who love Jesus and love me,
people who are thinking generationally,
people who wanna invest
in the next generation, in the generation after that,
to be a part of God's plan and purpose here in Bakersfield and around the world.
You come, and we'd love to talk to you about that,
and we'd love for you to be a part of this spiritual family
and help you get connected,
help you find a place to serve and a place to belong,
a place to live out God's purpose for your life.
Well, maybe this morning you would say, you know, I have drifted in my walk with the Lord.
My prayers have grown cold.
Maybe they've even grown silent.
You haven't prioritized time with the Lord like you used to.
That communion and that joy with God has dissipated.
You don't come to God's word every morning and pray, Holy Spirit, show me who you are.
and what you want from me,
so that I can walk with you,
and live for you,
and commune with you.
I want to invite you right now
to come to the Lord in prayer,
and just rededicate yourself to walking with God.
Say, God, I'm going to prioritize time with you every day.
I'm going to spend time with you in your word and in prayer.
I want to abide in you.
I want to walk in the spirit.
I want to go in the same direction as you.
I want to put my yes on the table.
I want to grow with my no.
I want to, whatever it is you want, God, that's what I want.
Because I want to go walking in the same direction as I commune with you.
This is a time for us to rededicate ourselves to walking with God.
So whatever it is that God is impressing on your heart,
Here in just a moment as we worship and as we sing,
you come and make whatever decision the Lord is leading you to make.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time where we can worship you.
God, we thank you that you have been working in every age and every time
and in all of our lives to accomplish your plan and purpose.
I thank you, God, that you are the God who speaks.
You are the God who is there.
You are the God who loves.
You are the God who forgives.
You are the God who extends your mercy and grace
for all generations.
Lord, I pray that you would help us to walk with you.
Oh God, you are the living God.
I pray that you would give us the grace and the strength
to know you and to love you.
Lord, I pray that we would rekindle that fire in our hearts.
The fire of the Holy Spirit would be ignited this morning, Lord,
and we would begin to walk with you.
I pray if there's anyone here today, Father,
that doesn't know Jesus as their Lord and Savior,
that today would be the day of salvation for them
and the day when they begin to walk with you.
And someday, like Enoch,
They would go home to be with you.
So Lord, we thank you for your grace.
We look to your glory.
We pray that you would do a great and mighty work in us today
as we surrender to you.
In Christ's name we pray.
Thanks for listening today.
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If you feel the Lord calling you to take the next step in faith
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reach out to us by texting podcast to 88988.
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to find even more great resources.
No matter where you are in your journey,
know that we love you.
We're praying for you
and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.