Pastor Wole Daniels
Date: Sunday, 13th January 2019.
Venue: MFM HQ Youth Church
Text: Gen. 5:21-23, Rom. 12:1, Matt. 13:18-23, Phil. 2:6-9
I would advise that anyone who desires to walk with God should consider the man Enoch as a case study. Scripture reveals to us in Gen. 5:21-23:
21And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah,
22And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters,
23And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years.
Defining what it means to walk with God
To have a proper understanding of what it means to walk with God, we’d have a digest of Gen. 5:21-23 from various Biblical versions. In lieu of this, walking with God means:
- Fellowshipping with God (Today’s English Translation);
- Having a close fellowship with God (New Living Translation);
- Walking in God’s way (The Bible in Basic English);
- Habitual fellowship (Amplified Versions);
- Truly loving God. (Contemporary English Version).
Anyone who truly loves God, is someone who enjoys a habitual fellowship with His maker. He steers clear of deeds that would pollute his communion with the Almighty.
In essence, to walk with God is for the self in you to disappear. For self to disappear, you might have to do away with certain convenient things that are either not in agreement with God’s plan for your life or things that were originally not in your life’s blueprint or things that according to God’s judgment have outlived their existence in your life’s design.
What is a Sacrifice?
The Bible in Rom. 12:1 admonishes us to live sacrificially. What then, is the meaning of a sacrifice?
To explain this, I’d cite a story. Long ago, my friend ran into a prophet who had a habit of “milking him”. One of those days, he arrived at my friend’s residence with a warning of an imminent ominous occurrence. Long story short, he requested my friend release one of his white lace clothes as a sacrifice to prevent this from happening. Not too long afterwards, my friend saw the prophet wearing the cloth and since he had given it out as a sacrifice, he knew best that whatever the prophet chooses to do with it is no longer any of his business.
As my friend rightly concluded, a sacrifice is something one no longer has power over. A Christian who presents himself as a living sacrifice understands like Jesus in Matt. 26:42, that they have to do God’s will in and out of convenience. Sacrificial living usually means denying oneself (Mark 8:34).
As far as heaven is concerned, willingness in obedience is what makes one righteous (Rom. 4:9). As such, blessings that you receive as a result of your willing obedience, are the only truly beneficial blessings. Friends, I urge you not to erroneously consider a return of positive outcomes in your dealings as a sign of God’s blessings. I advise you to put things in perspective as life has taught us that some people possess a dexterity to egregiously manipulate things in favor of a positive outcome. Godliness is not the same as gain.
In Num. 20, the Bible exposes to us the acts of disobedience that initiated the beginning of Moses’ end. In essence, performing signs and wonders and working miracles do not authenticate that you are right. It is a disservice to your destiny to please men rather than God.
One of the benefits of walking with God is that He gives you an ease of passage. He, in a sense blesses you with a Midas touch.
A panoramic consideration of the parable of the sower (Matt. 13:18-23), exposes to us that the condition of the heart determines the degree of success a man records in his walk with God.
For a man to walk diligently with God, he must possess the right heart.
This takes us into studying the kind of hearts there are:
- The Wayside Heart: People in this category are not moved even by the most persuasive of sermons. They are not shaken by spirit-filled sermons. They are in a sense reprobate.
- The Stony Heart: Like seed in a rocky soil, a man with a stony heart records rapid initial success but eventually, this fizzles out because of frustrations.
- The Thorny Heart: A Christian in this category easily backslides because of the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches.
- The Good Heart: This is the kind of heart that yields fruits according to the measure of grace heaven gives.
In conclusion, in order to walk diligently with God, you have to live sacrificially.