CLC - The Greatest Testimony of All - Eli Lopez - April 22, 2020

hello everyone hope you're doing well today I want to talk about the greatest testimony of all the greatest testimony of all in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 that's often referred to as the Hall of faith you have all these incredible men and women who did great things for God and each individuals introduced with this statement by faith by faith we'll right at the beginning of the list we're introduced to a gentleman by the name of Enoch and it says by faith Enoch was translated this is verse 5 of Hebrews 11 by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him the thought behind the word translated is he was caught up he was basically raptured taken up directly to heaven and he didn't die he didn't go through the door of death that every human being walks through in the course of living life we all come to that place right not Enoch he was translated that he should not see death and was not found why because God had translated him and then the second part of the verse says something incredible for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God so again I want to talk to you today here we are right near the end of the semester just just a few short weeks to go and I know you've got a lot of school work there's a lot of your major papers and projects that are due at this time the semester and I do hope and pray that you're keeping up with all of that but as we come to the conclusion of another school year as we are wrapping up about 9 months of instruction of teaching of spiritual formation of growing in God I want to challenge you to do everything you can to make sure that you earn the greatest testimony that you could earn for your life the Bible says before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God of all the things that you could say about me all the things that could be said about you all the the positive descriptions that could be applied to our lives there is nothing greater then it being said of you and being said of me that our lives please God that we please God well who is that this Enoch well we're gonna go back to the book of Genesis and in Genesis chapter 5 you've got the lineage of the the family of Adam right and it just goes through Adam begot so and so and so on so begot so it's a lineage list and there in the Bible in several different places but then you get down to verse 21 and on the lineage list were introduced to Enoch and instead of just saying so-and-so begot so and so begat so and so it kind of pauses and it's gonna talk about Enoch very very briefly and this is what it says in Genesis 5:21 Henoch lives 65 years okay and begot Methuselah so he had a boy he lived 65 years and he had a son after he begat Methuselah Enoch walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughter so he had his first son then he had more sons but more sons and daughters excuse me but but in in the description of his life it says he walked with God 300 years and it goes on verse 23 so all the days of Enoch were 365 years and in its walks with God there it is again and he was not that that's the translation that we read about in Hebrews and was not for God took him there's a couple things in in that short little passage that describes the life of Enoch we see the lengths of years of his life 365 years okay that's that's a pretty long life as far as I'm concerned but when you compare it to others in the passage not quite so much there's others that lived extremely long lives over 900 years in some cases so his life didn't match up to that so what what makes him different well he lived a long life okay but so did others he had he had kids well the whole list is about having children it's about the lineage of Adam so it's not just that that he had kids because the world over people have children so those two things are not what separate Enoch from everybody else lived a long life had children but what separates Enoch from everybody else and it says it twice in Genesis is that he walked with God he walked with God in fact one rendering says it this way he walked about with God in other words everywhere he went he made sure that he took God with him everywhere he went he made sure that the presence of God was there somehow some way so let's talk about how do we do that because that is what Enoch did to earn the testimony of pleasing God he walked with God there are two things right there are two things that you and I need to be aware of that if we're going to walk with God if we're gonna please God number one you need to be aware I need to be aware that our lifestyle matters it matters how you live and let me explain okay if you read the book of Jude in the book of Jude you see that Enoch is a prophet who stands against ungodliness he stands against unrighteousness go ahead and read the book of Jude and you'll see how Enoch was stood stood up and opposed unrighteous actions and ungodly behavior why because to walk with God your lifestyle must align with the character and the nature of God God is not gonna walk with someone God's not gonna draw close to someone whose lifestyle whose character whose behavior is completely different from his nature that's why this book is so critical to our lifestyle to our conduct to our our belief system because this book reveals the character and the nature of God if I want to know more about God I open up the pages of this Bible and I will discover God I'll discover who God is what God is and how God is and so if I'm going to please God if I'm gonna earn that testimony my lifestyle matters I must live a life that aligns with the character and the nature of God how do I do that I align my life with the words of this book hey I know it's 2020 and I know that that the morality of society has shifted but you know what hasn't changed this word is forever settled in heaven this has not changed this defines us and defines how we live this gives us our identity in him so your lifestyle it absolutely matters number two there must be an intentional expression of desire James 4:8 says this draw near to God and He will draw near to you it's it's it's unequivocal if you make the attempt to draw close to God God cannot ignore that God will not ignore that he will respond and He will draw near to you it's it's a promise and so often in in the classes that I teach and some of you been in my spiritual formation or my theology of prayer classes and you've heard me ask this question how many know that God is always with you and the hands go up across the room yeah I know God is always with me then I asked the follow-up question but how many of you are always with God all of a sudden the hands aren't shooting up as fast why because it sounds the same but you realize it's a completely different question yeah God's always with me his word says that he would be with me always and and and we we rest in that and we trust in that I know God's always with me but how many of you are always with God you see for me to be with God that means I have to give him my focus my attention I have to channel my desire towards him and here's the problem the majority of life we go through life and we live and our attention is on everything except God we're thinking about everything else and everyone else and our and our thoughts are consumed with all the circumstances around us and yeah God's with us but we're not with him we have filled our lives with images filled our lives with words filled our lives with thoughts and concepts not from here but what we've got on the internet what we got from people what we've got from social media and we filled our time and our attention with things that that cause that focus to be not on him but on everything down here and if you want to walk with God you're gonna have to make the intentional decision to say God I'm gonna give you my focus I'm gonna give you my attention remember what we said earlier Enoch walked about with God he walked around with God everywhere he went he took God with him and this is what I know about Jesus he will go where he's invited but where he's not invited he will stand and he will watch and he will wait for the invitation because he's a gentleman and if you want him to be a part of your life all you have to do is invite him God be with me today God as I go to work go with me as I Drive in my car drive with me as I live my life as I as I do whatever I'm gonna do today just just be right here with me I want to walk with you I want to walk around with you I want to walk about with you but if you never express that desire God as a gentleman will just stand there on the sidelines of your life watching you live your life and he'll be ready to answer when you call him but how much better if he's there right with you all the time because your focus your attention your desire is in that continual phase of yearning for him so the two things you need to please God the two things you need to walk with God is you have to have a lifestyle that aligns with this character in the lines with his nature God is holy and the challenge to you and I is is be holy for I am holy that's what he challenged us with so I've got to make sure my life lines up and pleases him number two though I've got to make sure there's an overwhelming desire and yearning for God I go back to the words of David in Psalm 27 I often pray these words in prayer one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after David wasn't saying there's only one thing I want in life I don't care about anything else no he's saying there's one thing I want more than anything else yes I want victory on the battlefield yes I want my family to be blessed yes I want God to use me and anoint me yes and and you can list all the things that David wanted to do and David wanted from God but there was one desire above all other desires and so when he looked at that one desire he said there's one thing I desire from the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple he's saying I want to be where God's presence is I want to be in the presence of my God always and I want to have a relationship with him I want to speak to God and I want God to speak to me I want to enquire and I want to partake of the beauty the majesty the greatness of my god what what is that it's it's its desire its hunger for God so I'm challenging all of us I'm challenging myself I'm challenging every staff member every faculty member I am challenging every student in this college as we close this year out we've got to come back to walking with God this is the greatest testimony you you could preach on the biggest platforms you could sing and be a part of the biggest choirs and biggest ministries and part of the biggest conferences and biggest events and and and you could have your name attached to all of these wonderful things but that's not the greatest testimony that you will earn for your life the greatest testimony that you and I ever earn is that our lives please God how are our lives going to please God if we walk with God if we look at the example of Enoch we align our lives with his nature with his character and we expressed that this hunger this desire this drive god I want you I want more of you I'm thirsty for you I'm hungry for you I desire you so as we wrap up this school year I want to do more than encourage I want to challenge you I want to challenge you to to come back to a focus on God don't let the headlines don't let this world dominate your thoughts but come back and say god I'm gonna passionately pursue you I'm gonna do everything I can to walk with you this is going to be my testimony I'm gonna please you thank you god bless you in Jesus name

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Length: 14min 25sec (865 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 22 2020