Hebrews 11:5 - Walking the Talk with Pastor J

Walking the talk means living out what we say we believe.

Pastor J discusses the importance of faith in Christianity.

Hebrews 11:5 tells us that Enoch was translated to heaven because of his faith.

We need to have faith to please God and to experience blessings in our lives.

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Today I want to talk to you for just a few moments. I want to talk to you about walking the talk. Okay, I know that sounds weird. Walking the talk. But, you know, there's an old statement that used to be saying, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? And I'm talking about today, about walking the talk. Because we can talk a good game, but are we walking the same way that we talk? We talk about, oh, how blessed I am. We talk about how much I love God. We talk about all this type of stuff. But then, when we go outside the doors of the church, Does our walk kind of follow what we say inside the church? This is an interesting message. This is going to maybe hit a lot of people. It actually hit me a little bit because I sit and I say, Father, do I act one way in a church and act a different way when I'm outside? If I do, Father, I apologize. I want you to make me more like Him. I want you to make my actions, my walk, follow what I say when I'm in church. I don't want to be different. I don't want to be the same. Not just when I'm in church, but all the time. See, there was an interesting man that walked the walk. He walked the talk, if you will. And that was a man named Enoch. And this is what we're looking at today with Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 5. It says, by faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death, but was not found because God had translated him. Before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. And I love this. There's not a lot talked about Enoch. Enoch has not talked about basically this verse and one verse in Genesis. That's basically all we know about him. And they're very, very little. But, little is much when God is in it, right? And that's the point. With these little statements, we see a man that was so loved by God, and such an example of what a Christian should be, a follower of God should be, that he didn't have to see death. He just walked up into heaven with God one day. That is amazing to me. That a man would just be walking with God and walk up into heaven. My dad said that story one time. He said, Enoch and God walked together every single day and they would take daily walks. And one day, as Enoch was walking and it was getting closer to sunset, God looked at Enoch and he said, You know what, Enoch? You're a little closer to my home than you are to yours. Why don't you just come home with me today And I love that I love that It's so true It says by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death And that's the point That's the whole purpose By what? By faith Without faith What does the Bible say? It is impossible to please him We have to have faith If we're ever going to see A salvation of our soul. We have to have faith if we're ever going to see the blessing of healing in our life. We have to have faith if we're ever going to see any sort of blessing in our life. We have to have faith. The whole purpose of Christianity that we know of is all about faith. We've got to have faith that there is a God in heaven even though we can't see or touch His hands. And that's difficult. That is why our world is such a secular world. Why they're going so far away from God because they feel if I can't see, taste, touch, or smell it, it's not true. It's not real. And let's face it, we can't see God. We can't touch God. Now we can see the effects of God in people's life. We may be able to feel his touch in blessings and stuff, but to literally be able to say, I felt the touch of God, the literal touch of God, none of us have felt that. For someone to say, I have actually seen the face of God, well, we can't. Because the Bible says, no man can look on God and live. We're not going to be able to see God's face until we are translated like Enoch into heaven. Once we are translated into heaven, then we're going to get purified eyes. Hallelujah. We're going to have holy eyes and we'll be able to look upon God. No, we can't look on God now. We can't look on God now. By faith Enoch was translating that he should not see death I like it My dad wrote something I had to share this This is really cool My dad wrote this one time He said Enoch never prepared a sermon, never composed a song. He just walked. I love it. And that's true. It's not about having to do anything major. It's just about a walk. If our walk is an example of what a Christian is, then we've done a great thing. And that's the point. We've got to have that example that says, you know what, I walked with God. If anything that I want people to talk about me, I do a lot of things in my life. I've done a lot of things, you know, videos. I do all kinds of movies. I do all kinds of different things. I've done all kinds of stuff in my life. And those are nice, and I want people to remember them. But the most important thing is when the time comes that if perchance I die before anyone else, you know, I want people to say he walked with God. That's what I want. I mean, I want people to say he had an example for other people of what it is to live for God. Because that's what I want to be. I want to be like Enoch. I want that when people talk about me, just like they talked about Enoch, I want people to talk and say, he walked with God. He was an example. See, Enoch didn't prepare sermons. He didn't sing songs. He didn't do any of this. He just walked. He just walked. I love this. And he was not found. interesting because so many people are searching and people were searching for Enoch see Enoch was known for walking just having conversations with God and just walking and he would probably walk for hours upon hours every day just walking and ministering and just having that kind of a ministry of just walking and walking with God but Enoch when the time came that Enoch should have been home Enoch went home and that seemed a little strange to family members to friends and more than likely began the noise all around the community and all around the area saying you know what Enoch's gone where's Enoch we haven't seen Enoch I don't know if they had the posters you know, maybe they put the posters up. If you've seen this man, you know, I doubt that. But I'm just saying, you know, put up the posters. If you've seen Enoch, let us know, you know. But nobody saw Enoch. He was not found because God had translated him. I like the word translated. Translated means to be transposed. For a musician, we know what transpose means. Musicians know that. Maybe if you're not a musician, you don't know that. But transposing means to change keys. You go, okay, I don't like it in a G, I want to put it to an A flat. That's transposing. That's changing the pitch, changing the key. for Enoch he had to change to what? enter heaven you can't enter heaven in this old body this old body is filled with pain and torment and strife and all the wickedness of this world it just is we're not perfect we're just in a physical body trying to be Christ like But for us to enter heaven, we cannot enter heaven this way. We've got to be transposed, changed in the twinkling of an eye. As the Bible says. There's coming a day when we will all be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Enoch could not go to heaven unless he was changed. And that's what this is. Because God has translated him. He changed the key, if you will. He changed him. He made him ready to enter heaven. But I love this. It says, but before his translation, he had his testimony. And what a testimony it is. Enoch's testimony that everybody could tell about was this. He pleased God. And wow, what a testimony to have. That you pleased God. Now, we can please our spouse, we can please our family, we can please our friends, we can please our bosses, we can do all this type of stuff, and that's fine. And we want to do that, but God is the most important one that we want to please. We want to make sure that He is pleased with us. Because if He's not pleased with us, then we're in trouble. We're in trouble. God's not pleased, we're in trouble. That's why we've got to be sure to please God. I love this. I want to share three things with you and that is this Number one before his translation it was said that he pleased God That the first thing for Enoch The second thing is no last changes were necessary So he pleased God, number one, and number two, there was no last-minute changes that he needed to make. Let me just throw this out here today. And this is just something for you to think about. And this is for everybody. Because this could be any one of us. And it has nothing to do with any. I mean, this is just any of us. If God was to call us home today. If God was to say it is time for you to enter life. Or if the trumpet was to sound. Would we have to make any last minute changes? Would there be something that we would have to say. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Before I. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let me just ask for forgiveness. Let me do this. Let me tell you, if we have to think about that, we have to say, well, I may have to change this before I go. You know what's going to happen? You ain't going to go. That's what comes down to. You're not going to go. If we have to try to change something before we go, we better change now. We better fix it now because we are none of us guaranteed today, tomorrow. we're not even guaranteed this next second. Sadly, it's horrible to even talk this way, but it's true. Any one of us could just wink out just like that. I could just stand up here and just have a brain aneurysm. Gone. Just that fast. It can happen. None of us are guaranteed tomorrow. None of us are guaranteed the next second. So if we have to make some last minute changes, we better make them now. Enoch didn't have to make any last minute changes. And then the third thing about Enoch was this. And this is so old, maybe instead of all of us. If he kept pleasing God, he'd keep getting blessings. If you keep pleasing God, he'll keep receiving. Keep pleasing, keep receiving. That's what it comes down to. There you go. I'll take that one moment with you. Keep pleasing, keep receiving. Okay? That was the point. Genesis 5, 24 tells us again about Enoch when it says this. And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. He was not, meaning that his life would no longer exist. He would be translated. He would be changed. in a twinkling of an eye. We're all going to see the transformation one of these days. One of these days, every single man, woman, boy, and girl will be changed. It's just, what is your transformation going to be? Is your transformation going to be a holy transformation that means you get to gain heaven? Or is it going to be an evil type of translation that means you are separated from God. We're all going to be changed in the twinkling of an eye. We're all going to be changed as we stand before God and give an account. We're all going to be changed. The translation of Enoch was a blessing for Enoch. But even more so, it is an example for all of us of how we need to live if we want to see the blessing of God. We need to have the type of thing that says, I'm going to please God and I'm going to receive blessing. Not that we do that for the blessing. It's just a benefit of pleasing God. Receiving that blessing. Being prepared to receive the blessing. I say this today. Are you prepared to receive the blessing? if God was to look at you today and He was to have a conversation with you would He say you please me on your daily walk? We all need to have that kind of blessing. We need to have that kind of thing. We need to be prepared for that blessing. I want to please God and when I please God, He'll bless me. The windows of heaven are open. The blessings are falling today. They can, but it's up to us to please God to receive that blessing. It's interesting because there was a town that was going through a drought, a very bad drought, and it threatened crops of this small town and it was going to cripple the little town. On one hot and dry Sunday morning, the village pastor told the congregation simply this. He said, there isn't anything that will save us except prayer. He said, today I want you to go home and I want you to pray all week long for the blessing of rain. And then next Sunday, get ready to thank God for sending the rain. Well next Sunday came and no rain had happened They all gathered together And the pastor stood before them and he said, we can't worship today. You don't believe. Well, the people said, but pastor, we do. We do believe. We do believe. We do believe. And he said, do you? Where's your end, brothers? Where's your umbrella? See, we've got to be prepared for the blessing. We have to have that faith. That's the kind of faith that Enoch had. If he was going to pray for rain, he'd get an umbrella out. And that's what we need to have. We need to have that kind of faith that says, God, when I pray, I'm just waiting on you now. I'm waiting on you. I know you're going to do it. I'm just waiting on my blessing. I'm just waiting on my blessing. I want to have that testimony that I please God. I think you do too. And if we can live like Enoch, we will be blessed people. Not just walking the walk, but walking the talk. Making sure our words line up with our actions. It's the best thing we can do. Let's bow our heads before the Lord for a moment. And as we bow our heads before God, and as we just focus on Him for a moment, I'm not going to ask you to come up front, I'm not going to ask you to do anything like that, but maybe there's someone that would be honest to God today, and we're just saying, You know, Lord, sometimes I talk a good game, but I don't know if my actions line up. and I want my actions to line up with what you want me to have. I want my actions to line up with what I say when I'm in church. I want my actions to line up with what I profess to be. I don't want to just talk a good game. I want to live the game. I want to walk the talk. Is there someone that will be honest to God? This is not saying that you're not a Christian, that you don't love God. It is saying, I want to be more like Enoch. I want to be more like God. Is there someone that would be honest to God today and say, Lord, I need you to help me? Hand go up. Hands going up. Hands going up. Oh, everybody in the house. Hallelujah. That's awesome. That's awesome. Got my hand up too. Because I want to live more like Jesus. I want to live more like Enoch. So that when the time comes, that I'm ready to go when the time comes. I don't have to change anything Father God you saw the hands of your people Growing up today saying Lord I want to live more like you I want to be more like you I want to be so In love with you Father That I don't have to change anything I just got to keep walking That my walk Will line up with what I speak With what my talk is Father God I pray for your people today May we be that example Father I thank you for that today I pray for that blessing for your people today and now Father God I want to thank you for everyone that came out today I pray Father God that you will be with those that are sick and couldn't come today I pray for those that are fearful of coronavirus Father God I pray that you will be with them and help them to eliminate the fear of that out of their lives and Father God I pray for an end to coronavirus very very soon so that we can gather together in as a whole and be able to be in your house as a family whole again. Father God, for all that you are, for all that you do, I just want to thank you today. And as we dismiss, Father God, I ask that you will not dismiss us, but Father God, that you will go with us. You'll keep us safe and then you'll bring us back safe into your house, that we might be able to worship you once again. Father, for all that you are, for all that you do, we give you praise and honor and glory. for it's truly in Jesus name we beg these blessings today and we say a hearty amen and amen Amen. Thank you.

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