Genesis 5:21

Enoch lived sixty-five years and he begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years and he had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:21–24) > > By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:5–6) > > Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." (Jude 14–15)

Enoch was known for one thing—he walked with God—and his life shows us the closer walk God desires for each of us.

Bridging Advent and a New Year

Today I want to bridge the gap between our Advent series—the love, peace, joy, and hope we have at the birth of Christ—and the series we begin next week. Here at Cross Connection Church we are all about living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ. As I considered what to teach this morning, I felt we should be drawing nearer to God and developing a closer walk with Him going into 2026.

So I want us to study the story of Enoch, the seventh from Adam. We have only three texts about him in all of Scripture, yet that's incredible: this man was known almost solely for the fact that he walked with God. That was his testimony, his legacy—he walked with God and he pleased God. He walked so closely with God that the text essentially tells us he stumbled right into heaven. He didn't die. He is one of only two men in Scripture who did not taste death. Both of them walked incredibly close to God, so much so that God simply took them. I want that kind of walk with God. Don't you?

A Relationship God Has Always Desired

This is as fascinating as the story of creation. God blessed these early patriarchs with incredibly long life, most living between 800 and 900 years. The text identifies Enoch as the seventh from Adam, which matters because it distinguishes him from another Enoch in the line of Cain.

Remember that Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel. Cain did not please the Lord with his offering, while Abel was pleasing—not so much because of the content of his sacrifice as because of the faith and heart behind it. From there we have a split: the unrighteous line of Cain, drifting farther and farther from God, and after Cain kills Abel, the righteous line of Seth, who followed God.

What's remarkable is that Enoch's life overlapped with Adam's for 308 years. Don't you think he heard about what it was like to walk with God in the garden before sin entered the world, and about the consequences of that sin? In the beginning, before sin entered, God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. He desired a real relationship with His creation, made in His own image. To walk with someone implies relationship—you match their pace, you stay with them, you talk and get to know them. God walked with Adam and Eve for companionship and friendship, not as a formal religious act. What broke that was sin.

Enoch Recovered What Adam Lost

Enoch, descended from the very man who broke that perfect relationship, learned to walk with God and recovered something Adam lost—what it's like for us to walk with God after the fall. He walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters. That's three or four lifetimes for us. If it's hard for us to walk with God for 60, 70, 80 years, Enoch has something to teach us.

God showed His incredible love by sending His own Son, Jesus, whose birth we just celebrated. God sent His only Son into this world to be one of us—to understand us, to share our feelings, body, troubles, and fears. Jesus was fully man, our great High Priest who can sympathize with us in our weakness. That's the relationship God wants with us.

Ultimately, the relationship you have with God depends largely on you, because He has already sent Jesus and done His part. James 4:8 says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." It's a reciprocal relationship. No matter where you've been, in sin or out of it, when you draw near to Him, He draws near to you.

Without Faith It Is Impossible

Nowhere in Scripture does it say Enoch had great faith except in Hebrews 11. We know he had great faith because he pleased God, and it is impossible to please God without faith. So point one is this: without faith, it is impossible to walk with God or to please Him. There is no other way to walk with God except by faith.

To this very day Enoch is best known for pleasing God. Church, how many of you would like that to be your legacy—that when you're gone, you'll be remembered as one who pleased God? It only comes by faith.

What is faith? Hebrews 11:1 says faith is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." I'm not talking about a faith absent of reason or logic, a blind faith—that leads to destruction. I'm talking about a faith that is logical and well reasoned out. As it's been said, faith is not an intellectual leap into the dark, but a step into the light based on evidence. When you consider the historical reliability of the New Testament and the manuscript evidence, we can develop a robust faith grounded in the reality of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection.

The good news is that Enoch did not please God by his sacrifices, service, good deeds, or talent. He pleased God by his faith. Scripture says with even the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains. You can have faith like Enoch and a life that pleases God.

Believe That He Is, and That He Rewards

You cannot walk with someone whose existence you don't even acknowledge. Hebrews 11:6 says you must believe that He is—not a mere intellectual agreement that God exists somewhere, but a personal conviction that Yahweh, the God of Enoch, the Creator of all things, is real, present, and active in your life. Enoch believed God was real and worth pursuing even when the entire culture around him was headed straight for destruction. His times were so wicked that, just a few generations later, God sent a flood because no one was found righteous except Noah—Enoch's great-grandchild. Remember that: your walk with God will have lasting impact.

You must also believe that He is "a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." Many people chase a feeling—the spiritual high of a summer camp or a retreat—but feelings can lie. Like the disciples after Jesus fed the 5,000, who then faced a terrifying storm on the lake, we can't live from one high to another. God walks with you through the valleys too. Are you diligently seeking God this morning? From wherever you are, you can.

This isn't a prosperity gospel that God will give you everything you want. It's a relational promise: God rewards the pursuit of Him with more of Himself. As you pursue Him, you become more like Jesus. Christian literally means "little Christ," a follower of Jesus, an imperfect mirror image of Him. Enoch's reward was not wealth, ease, or comfort—it was intimacy with God. And he got so close that the text reads as though he was just walking along, then "he was not, for God took him." He stumbled right into heaven. When you have close communion with God in this life, it's a very short step to communion with Him for eternity.

Don't Treat God Like a Spare Tire

Enoch regarded God as a living friend. Because of Jesus, God calls us friends—no longer merely servants, but adopted sons and daughters with an inheritance we didn't earn.

When we desire intimacy with God, we often realize we've traded that relationship and treat God like a spare tire—something we know is there but never check, running to it only in emergencies. For the younger generation, it's like running to God the way you run for a phone charger when your battery hits 5%. Or like Wi-Fi—we only notice Him when the connection drops. Or like a group chat we've muted: we're technically still in the conversation, getting the notifications, but not engaged. Then we wonder why our walk with God feels distant, prayer feels awkward, and we can't hear His voice—because we ignored Him until we needed Him.

There's a song by Josiah Queen called "Dusty Bibles." The first line says, "We got dust on our Bibles, brand new iPhones, no wonder why we feel this way." That describes our generation. We desire closeness with God but distract ourselves with everything else. No wonder we feel the way we do. Enoch walked with God every day for 300 years—actively engaged, in conversation, every single day.

A Daily, Continual Walk

That brings us to point two: walking with God is a daily, faith-filled relationship that pleases Him. Enoch didn't stop, didn't take a break, didn't say he'd walk on his own next year. He walked faithfully and continually for 300 years. The long haul matters more than the spiritual highs. He didn't wait for perfect circumstances or until he got his act together; he just started walking with God by faith.

It's about relationship, not religion. As much as showing up to church and reading your Bible are good, the question is: Do you know God? Does He know you? Charles Spurgeon noted the gentle, consistent, perpetual progress of the believer's heart nearer to God, saying it's such a small step from close communion with God on earth to perfect communion with God in heaven. Those who walk with God here will walk with Him in eternity. We are eternal beings—our deep desire to live forever exists because we will live forever. The closer you walk with God today, the more it's a taste of heaven.

Enoch's Start Date

Did you know Enoch's walk with God had a beginning? He wasn't born walking with God. The Bible tells us it started when he was 65 and had his first son, Methuselah. After that he walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. At 65, most of these patriarchs hadn't even begun having children, because their lives stretched 800 or 900 years—Methuselah lived 969.

What changed at 65? This is a hunch, not Scripture, but I think it had something to do with Methuselah's birth. When you hold a newborn—this helpless miracle that just breathed its first breath—you start to question life, to realize your own mortality, to see that life has a beginning and an end. Perhaps the responsibility of being a new father awakened Enoch's need for God. God loves to use the circumstances of our lives to draw us to Himself. When you raise children, you suddenly realize you need answers, a worldview, hope to pass on—and that draws you to God. Maybe something has been drawing you to God; maybe that's why you're here today.

Consider this: Enoch means dedicated or consecrated to God, and he lived up to his name. He named his son Methuselah, which means "when he dies, it shall come." The day Methuselah died—969 years after his birth—was the day the flood came. His long life was a testimony to God's patience and judgment, a call to repentance. Enoch was a prophet who called people to turn back to the living God because judgment was coming. Second Peter 3:9 says God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Methuselah's record-long life demonstrates God delaying judgment as long as possible. Why hasn't God come back yet? Because there are still souls to be saved—He loves you so much He's giving you more time.

Family Is Not an Obstacle

What's stopping you from walking with God as Enoch did? Husbands, life gets busy and hectic—noise at work, noise at home, no quiet day or night with kids. You might think the only way to walk with God is to escape to the desert or the mountains. But that's chasing a mountaintop experience; God wants to walk with you through everything. Wives, you might think you'd walk with God better if you'd stayed single, or if your husband weren't grumpy, or if your children's needs weren't endless. Those are honest objections, but God wants to walk with you through the chaos, not just when times are good or when you're alone.

Remember, Enoch was a husband and father (Genesis 5:22). He fathered sons and daughters for 300 years and still walked so closely with God that he walked right into heaven. He wasn't a monk or a hermit; he had a wife, children, and family responsibilities. Your family is not an obstacle to walking with God—it's often the very thing God uses to drive you to dependence on Him. The sleepless nights with infants, the teenagers who want deep conversations after midnight, the financial pressures—none of it disqualifies you. It's the terrain God wants to walk through with you.

A Generational Impact

That brings us to point three: your walk with God will have a generational impact on your family, friends, and community. Enoch's legacy—that he pleased God and walked with God—had lasting effect. God saved mankind through his descendant Noah, who learned from his great-grandfather what it was like to walk with God.

Enoch carried leadership responsibilities as a patriarch, taught the way of God, spoke unpopular prophetic truth about coming judgment, faced cultural opposition in a pre-flood wicked world, and dealt with daily pressures—and still he walked with God. So the question isn't whether you have time to walk with God; it's whether you'll make it a priority. This year proved life is full of unexpected turns. Who will guide you through the new year?

The Great Spotter

As I close, an illustration. Back in 2012 or '13, my dad and I towed my Jeep out to Moab, Utah—a 13-hour drive. I'd built that Jeep, the first car I owned after turning 18, for crawling over rocks on the trails. Looking at the photos, you might wonder what crazy kid would do that; I was only 20, so my brain wasn't fully developed. But I never would have done any of those trails without a good spotter.

When you're in the driver's seat, you can only see one tire and a bit over the hood. Everything else is a mystery. You have to trust the spotter outside your circumstance to direct your tires so you don't roll over. Sometimes you feel like you're about to flip, but you listen—turn driver, turn passenger—and he keeps you from destruction. Jesus is our great Spotter. We need someone outside our circumstance, someone omniscient, to guide us through life's obstacles so we don't roll over, crash, and burn. There's no way to get to heaven except through Him.

You can trust Him through death in the family, health crises, financial pressures, relationship failures, loss, and grief. Many guides will tell you to cover your feelings with drugs, drinking, sex, or whatever—and it's empty and void—until you turn to the one true God who can satisfy your needs because He loved you and sent His Son. Who will be your great Guide?

The Lord Is My Shepherd

Jesus is not only our great Guide but our great Shepherd. He knows the trail you're on; He's walked it, He sees what we can't, He has our best interests at heart, and He will never abandon us. That's what Enoch discovered in walking with God.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23)

Closing Prayer

Thank You, Lord, for being our great Guide and our great Shepherd. Thank You for walking with us through the ups and downs of life, the joys and the sadnesses this year. Lord, may we trust You and Your ways, and may Your guidance lead us all the way to heaven as we follow You faithfully. Father, would You bless us this morning as we worship You, our great Guide, in Jesus' name, amen.