SACRED STORIES

“Enoch”
Pastor Wayde Goodall – July 30, 2023

Hebrews 6:11-12 — Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance for example, there was God’s promise to Abraham.

Genesis 5:24 — “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”

Jude 1:14-21 — Enoch, who lived in the seventh generation after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said, “Listen! The Lord is coming with countless thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on the people of the world. He will convict every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

The culture of his day:

1. Socially, it was an age of PERMISSIVENESS.
   
   A corrupt and immoral society…wickedness was everywhere.
   
   Genesis 6:5-6 (The Message) — God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night. God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart.
   

2. Scientifically, it was an age of PROGRESSIVENESS — great increase in science and technology.
   

3. Spiritually, it was an age of PRESUMPTUOUSNESS. The occult, satanism, wickedness, defining truth around their immoral practices.
   
   Genesis 6:11-13 — The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness. When God saw how corrupt the earth was, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on earth, God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness because of them; I am going to destroy them with the earth.”
   

4. Saving TRANSFORMATION — at about 65 yrs. old, he had an encounter with God. He radically changed.
   
   Genesis 5 — When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah. After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch lived in close fellowship with God for another 300 years, and he had other sons and daughters. Enoch lived 365 years, walking in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared, because God took him.
   

5. Simple life — He walked WITH GOD.
   

6. Sudden RAPTURE experience.
   
   Genesis 5:24 — “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”
   
   1 Corinthians 15:52-53 — Listen, and I will tell you a secret. We shall not all die, but suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, every one of us will be changed as the trumpet sounds! The trumpet will sound, and the dead shall be raised beyond the reach of corruption, and we who are still alive shall suddenly be utterly changed. For this perishable nature of ours must be wrapped in imperishability, these bodies which are mortal must be wrapped in immortality.