WALKING WITH GOD IN MONTANA

We take a small detour from our series Sing a New Song with the sermon Walking with God in Montana. One of the enduring themes in the Biblical text and in our lives is walking with God. It seems like such a simple theme and it begins at the earliest point of human existence. God “walked with Adam” in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8). Although it seems simple, it has a profound impact on our lives and it is a witness to a powerful relationship with the living God! Whenever we decide to walk with God, God responds by walking with us! This builds relationship, friendship, and deepens our sense that we are precious to God. This sounds wonderful and exciting, so why is it so difficult? Because we struggle with the strength of our sinful nature. We want to go our own path rather than the path that leads us to walk with God. We are blind and we cannot see the beauty of God’s presence, only of our own desires. We are confused by all the noise of our brokenness and we only faintly hear God’s voice calling, “Where are you?” The good news is God is so faithful and loving he refuses to let us walk alone. God is looking for every opportunity to direct us to the right path; to show us the spectacular beauty of his presence that we see imprinted in the beauty that is all around us; to overcome the noise of this world with a still small voice that says, “I love you and I will never let you go!” Our most ardent prayer is that you will sense our Savior, Jesus Christ, walking close to you and you will renew your desire to keep in step with him as you read Genesis 5:22-24 and Galatians 5:16-23.

Genesis 5:22-24: After Methuselah was born, Enoch walked with God 300 years more and had other sons and daughters. 23 So Enoch lived a total of 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God; one day Enoch could not be found, because God took him. (NCV)

Galatians 5:16-23: So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! NLT