Walking together with God is way more powerful than ‘Lone-Ranger’ individualism. Many Christians have been infected with the most virulent virus of modern American life: radical individualism. They concentrate on personal obedience to Christ as if all that matters is “Jesus and me,” but in doing so, miss the point. Christianity is not a solitary belief system. Any genuine resurgence of Christianity, as history demonstrates, depends on a reawakening and renewal of that which is the essence of the faith—the people of God, the new society, the body of Christ, which is made manifest in the world—the church. So, says Chuck Colson.¹

Another person said this about individualism, and I like this really well. He said, ‘Americans are so shaped and stamped by their legacy of individualism that the concepts of community virtue and moral obligation have been discredited in our popular culture, adulthood is too often defined as doing what you want to do, not what you are supposed to do. Making a baby is a sign of status while caring for one is not. Right and wrong are old-fashioned, politically incorrect concepts. And sin? Forget it. The problem doesn’t end with kids getting pregnant and going on welfare.

Half of all Americans who marry and have children eventually divorce. For many, marriage is more like a hobby than a commitment, a phase instead of a trust. We are becoming a country of deadbeat dads who don’t pay their bills and dead-tired moms who work two jobs to pick up the slack. Even many parents who pay for their children don’t pay attention to their children. In so doing, they miss out on some of life’s greatest joys: hearing a small giggle or holding a small hand. As Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders notes, it is easier for many children to find drugs “than it is for them to find hugs.”

The best thing that society can do for its toddlers is to make “parent” an honorable title again. No job is more important, yet no job is more often taken for granted. We teach work skills but not life skills, change a carburetor but not a diaper, and treat a customer but not a kid. Becoming a parent should be the result of love, not just sex, a sign of a lasting relationship, not just a passing infatuation, a source of pride, and not remorse. Only then will our children be safe.’²

That is well said, don’t you agree? Why Walking with God is Way More Powerful Than Individualism — that’s our focus on this week’s Light On Life.

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Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This weeks call is:

There is an aspect to ‘walking with God’ that involves solitary time — you know just you and Him. But after that, there comes opportunities for you and to meet together with other people who have their ‘walking with God’ solitary time. Be engaged in meeting together with other believers.

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome through it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Share one determined moment where you would not allow your faith to be denied. Share your experience of receiving healing in the comments section below.

Episode Resources

You can find more information on the subject of Walking with God and Individualism by clicking on the links below.

• #S8-005: The Power of We in A World of I [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com.

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Podcast Notes

Walking with God Versus Individualism

• Here is what I want you to see and know from today’s podcast.
• I am going to tell you that straight up in advance.
• There is an aspect to ‘walking with God’ that involves solitary time — you know just you and Him.
• But after that, there comes opportunities for you and to meet together with other people who have their ‘walking with God’ solitary time.
• So, let’s develop both of these concepts — that is, you walking with God alone, and then you come together with others who have been walking with God as you have.

Individualism Versus the Power of We

• In a previous podcast, we mentioned many verses in the Bible that individualistic-minded Jesus followers are misapplying.
• Well-meaning followers of Jesus are endeavoring to fulfill these verses with a Lone-Ranger approach.
• This ‘Lone-Ranger’ approach, we call individualism.
• That is, you are walking with God but not walking with a group who are walking with God.
• Now, we said, in this previous podcast, that those of us in the western-hemisphere have to be especially careful because the core of our culture is, in fact, just that, individualistic.
• Even though the Bible is an eastern book that is penned under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by eastern authors; God is not a God of the east.
• He is a God of the east and the west.
• When the Lord says, ‘We’ in the Bible, that’s not an eastern concept.
• ‘We’ is what He means.
• He means what He says, and He says what He means.
• And so, in 1 Corinthians 3:16, we have the following.

1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV) — 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

• By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, Paul states that the whole company of the Corinthians is a Temple of the Holy Ghost — that the Holy Spirit indwells not only the individual follower of Jesus, but He also indwells the group that individual believer belongs to.
• That’s one reason why it’s vital to come to together as a group.
• Because it’s only as a group that we are the Temple of the Lord.
• So, the concept of Temple is a group concept, not an individual concept — a group concept meaning individuals who are walking with God and doing that together.

Walking with God: The Source of Individualism

Genesis 3:1–7, 22 (ESV) — 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths… 22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”

Adam and Eve Made Individual Choices

• In this passage of scripture, we have the birth of individualism.
• We have a man; we have a woman, who decided as individuals to go their own way — to make individual choices apart from the group.
• Who was in the group? — Adam, Eve, and God.
• The Lord said, out of his own mouth, that it was not good for a man to be alone, to be by himself, a single individual.
• Now, you have heard people say, ‘I don’t need anybody; all I need is the Lord.’
• Now, that sounds good, but it’s not accurate.
• Because in the beginning, it was Adam and God, but the Lord said, ‘That’s not good.’
• So, Eve specifically decided to eat.
• She gave the fruit to Adam, and he ate.
• They did it both apart from the group.
• And with that thought, here’s the quote of the day.

The Quote of the Day

Man has stepped outside the state of dependence, he has refused obedience and willed to make himself independent. The guiding principle of his life is no longer obedience but his autonomous knowing and willing, and thus he has really ceased to understand himself as creature.³

• Now, this is a quote that caused me to wonder.

What Kind of Relationship Did Adam Have with God?

• It caused me to ask a question: what kind of relationship did Adam have with God in the Garden?
• Man has stepped outside the state of dependence; he has refused obedience and willed to make himself independent.
• Was a dependent relationship – dependent on God – what Adam had?
• The answer to that is yes and no.
• Yes — from the standpoint of creation – that God made man – that the Lord gave him the very breath of his life.
• And so, the man was and is continually dependent on God for their very existence — the very breath in their lungs.
• But, there is more to this relationship that we can see and that you and I can enjoy today than just having a sense of dependence.
• We can have a relationship based on dependence but also one based on friendship.
• The Most God, Creator of the ends of the earth, the Omnipotent, All-Seeing One, the Most Holy God who is great to be reverenced, can be to you not only a Father but also a Friend.
• Now, there is at least one word, one phrase, that epitomizes the relationship between God and man, the one that existed between God and Adam.
• That one word that one phrase, shows us the potential of what can be.

Walking with God Is Life

• That word is epitomized in the word ‘walk’ or the phrase ‘walking with God.’

Genesis 3:8 (ESV) — 8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

• And so, God was walking in the same Garden where He put man.
• They are occupying the same space.
• Adam walked with God.
• God walked with Adam.
• They walked together in the wind of God.
• That’s what the phrase, the ‘cool of the day’ means.
• Here’s another quote — it could easily be the quote of the day also.

The life God intended for humanity was one of ideal service in an ideal location (Gen 2:15). It was a life of knowing and walking with God. It was an everlasting Sabbath. This notion of life as a relationship with God carried over into the teaching of Jesus and into the Gospels.⁴

• I like that quote — life is a relationship with God.
• It’s a life of knowing and walking with God.
• That thought carried over into the teaching of Jesus.
• This is what He said about that.

John 17:3 (ESV) — 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Walking with God Is Spirituality

• Spirituality is growing in your relationship with God.
• It is knowing Him — it is walking with Him — that’s what real eternal life is.
• And, here is the blessed truth — you can experience this kind of walking in your everyday life.
• Now, with that thought, here’s the ‘Definition of the Day.’
• The Greek word ‘know’ — ‘this is eternal life, that they know you,’ here means to arrive at a knowledge of someone or something: it means to know, or know about, to make acquaintance.⁵
• Aren’t you excited about the idea of coming to know or arriving at a knowledge of God?
• Does it thrill you to make His acquaintance in a personal way?
• I mean, He is the Creator of the universe — He is the only wise God?
• Man, if you are not excited about the prospect of walking with God and knowing Him as a friend, I know I am.
• I want to know Him — I just don’t want to work for Him.
• I’ve been working for Him for years.
• Now that I’ve worked for Him, given my life for Him, moved my whole family across the country, gave up a career, left family behind because He asked me, now I move past just working for Him; I want to know Him more and more as my friend.
• I think about Him a lot.
• There’s enjoyment when I think of Him.
• The Lord said something to me recently.
• He said, ‘Many people, all they do, is throw words up at me.’
• We don’t walk with Him; we throw stuff at Him and ask Him to fix it.
• Now, listen to some more verses of scripture on the idea of walking with God.

Walking with God: Enoch Did

Genesis 5:22, 24 (ESV) — 22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters… 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

• Enoch did it — he walked with God — that’s what this verse of scripture states.
• One plus one makes a group, and so walking with someone means you have to be mindful of the person you are with.
• That is unless you are a rude person.
• Walking together means you cannot just do your own thing — you have to be involved with the other person’s thing.

Amos 3:3 (ESV) — 3 “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?

• If you walk together, you have agreed to meet together, you’ve chatted, you’ve conversed, and then you have decided to continue in your relationship.
• Normally this kind of interaction involves two people having something in common at some level.
• So what do you have in common with God?

Walking with God: What Do You Have in Common?

• What is it about the meeting that you had with Him when you agreed to meet together? — that based on that encounter, you decided to continue together?
• For every person, this encounter, this meeting you agreed to have, took place after you heard the gospel.
• You heard that God the Father forgave you of your sins in the person of Jesus.
• Understanding that there was no longer any wall of separation between you and God because Jesus took your sins and nailed them to the cross and when the blood Jesus shed at Calvary ran over documented sins erasing them — when you understood that this was available to you — you decided to meet with Him.
• This meeting, where you visited with Him, took place at the altar of a church maybe.
• It may have taken place, in your bedroom, in your living room, at a friend’s house — in any varied number of places.
• But, you met, and based on that meeting, you decided to walk together — to continue to develop that relationship.
• That’s walking with God.
• Now, you went away from that initial meeting with a whole lot more than you bargained for.
• In fact, you didn’t even realize what happened to you.
• The Bible describes it as the ‘new birth.’
• It took you a while to figure just what happened to you.
• But, what people have inadvertently have done is they have split off from that meeting and never went back to the idea of continuing to walk with Him.

The Context of Scripture Surrounding Enoch: Lived, Fathered, and Died

• Let’s take a look for a moment at Enoch’s walking with God.
• There is something very notable about how we are presented with this piece of information.
• What’s important is where this is placed in the flow of Genesis five.
• Listen to the context of this chapter.

Genesis 5:3–13 (ESV) — 3 When Adam had LIVED 130 years, HE FATHERED a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after HE FATHERED Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam LIVED were 930 years, and HE DIED.

6 When Seth had LIVED 105 years, HE FATHERED Enosh. 7 Seth LIVED after HE FATHERED Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and HE DIED. 9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, HE FATHERED Kenan. 10 Enosh LIVED after HE FATHERED Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and HE DIED.

12 When Kenan had LIVED 70 years, HE FATHERED Mahalalel. 13 Kenan LIVED after HE FATHERED Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and HE DIED.

Enoch: Lived, Fathered and Didn’t Die

• So, did you hear it?
• These men, who are listed in this first recorded Bible genealogical record, — what did they do?
• They lived — they fathered — that is, they had children — and they died.
• It’s repeated over and over again in chapter five, just the name of the descendant changed.
• They lived — they fathered — and they died. (repeat 3x)
• Generation after generation, they lived, they fathered, they died, over and over again.
• All of this continues until you get to Enoch.

The Enoch Difference

Genesis 5:18–24 (ESV) — 18 When Jared had LIVED 162 years, HE FATHERED Enoch. 19 Jared LIVED after HE FATHERED Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he DIED. 21 When Enoch had LIVED 65 years, HE FATHERED Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God after HE FATHERED Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch WALKED WITH GOD, and he was not, for God took him.

• Enoch lives – Enoch fathered — but Enoch did not die.
• Why?
• Because Enoch did something else, no one had done before, HE WALKED WITH GOD.
• Enoch walking with God is placed right in the middle of death — right in the middle of they lived — they fathered — and they died.
• Enoch didn’t just live.
• He didn’t just father children.
• He walked with God, and Jesus told us that is eternal life.
• The Lord Most High put an exclamation mark on ‘walking with God’ by taking Enoch out of here.
• Walking with God is the answer to death.
• Having a relationship with Him is real life.

Walking with God: Noah Did

Genesis 6:9–10 (ESV) — 9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

• It almost sounds the same as Enoch, doesn’t it?
• Noah lived – he fathered three sons.
• He also walked with God.
• What did that walking with God consist of?
• Well, one thing it consisted of is work.
• The Lord told him to build a boat, a rather large boat.
• Now, I don’t believe that the Lord told Noah to build this great vessel of a ship and then turned around and walked off from him and left to do it all by himself.
• No, I believed the Lord helped him to do it.
• Now, couldn’t the Lord have just ‘poof’ made a boat and saved Noah all the hassle?
• Absolutely yes, but that’s two people meeting together and deciding to go along together.
• God wants to do the thing that He wants to do on the earth with you.

God and Man: The Kingdom Plan

• Watch this in Genesis two — it’s just as plain as the nose on your face.

Genesis 2:4–6 (ESV) — 4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—

• There it is.
• Couldn’t God have, ‘poof,’ made all the vegetation, made the trees, the breeze, and the broccoli by His great power and stretched out arm?
• A thousand times, yes — but that’s not what He did.
• He held back the rain to water the ground until there was a man to work the ground.
• So, work is part of relationship, but it’s a ‘working together with’ because we are ‘agreeing together’ because we are ‘walking together.’
• Walking with God is more powerful than going it alone.
• How about this verse in Malachi to add some flavor to what it means to walk with God?

Walking with God: Peace and Uprightness

Malachi 2:6 (ESV) — 6 True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.

• Walking with God means walking in peace.
• It means walking in uprightness.
• Walking with God means walking in agreement.
• Adam was able to walk with God to the extent that he agreed with God.
• When he disagreed, he was driven from His Presence, and the relationship changed.
• Now you can’t just stop there.
• There is power in the group, a group of folk who are walking with God coming together to walk with God.

The Elijah Mentality

• Walking with God as a group — that is not having an Elijah mentality.
• You know what the Elijah mentality is, don’t you?

1 Kings 19:9–10, 18 (ESV) — 9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away”… 18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

• Elijah was disconnected from the group — he didn’t even know they were there – he didn’t even know there was a group.
• Let’s look at another example of taking a verse that you may have heard and misapplying via an individualistic mindset.

Walking With God: The Light of the World

Matthew 5:14 (ESV) — 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

• Does the word ‘You’ in ‘You are the light of the world’ mean you personally?
• That is, can you put your name into this verse and say, ‘Emery is the light of the world?’
• With that question, here is the illustration of the day.

The Illustration of the Day

A little boy forgot his lines in a Sunday school presentation. His mother was in the front row to prompt him. She gestured and formed the words silently with her lips, but it did not help. Her son’s memory was blank. Finally, she leaned forward and whispered the cue, “I am the light of the world.” The child beamed and with great feeling and a loud clear voice said, “My mother is the light of the world.”⁶

The Group Is the Light of the World

• No, you can’t — why? Because, for one, the word ‘you’ is once again plural in the Greek language.
• You cannot really translate this and apply it like I am the Light of the world.
• No, the group is the light of the world.
• The group that the Spirit indwells is the Light of the world.
• Look at the rest of the sentence, and you will see it.
• Do you see the word ‘city?’
• You are the light of the world, ‘a city’ set on a hill cannot be hidden.
• In the word ‘city,’ you have a clue.
• A city is a place where a lot of people, where a lot of families dwell.
• The word ‘YOU’ here is plural, and that matches and agrees in number with the concept of city.
• It is as we function together as a group that we are the Light of the world.
• Now, there is an individual responsibility for the ‘people of the city.’
• Families are made up of individuals.
• Churches are made of individuals.
• The ‘we’ is made of a bunch of ‘I’s. But, it’s I’s that are flowing together — that are moving together and blending so well that you no longer see I — you see we.
• How is the body of Christ the ‘light of the world?’
• Isn’t it by each member having the light of God in them and then coming together as a group?

You Are Not a Lone-Ranger Light

• No one becomes the ‘light of the world’ by themselves.
• You don’t have enough ‘light’ by yourself.
• Think about this now, if you could do it all by yourself, wouldn’t you have done it already?
• If you could bring Jesus back and fix the mess that this world is in, wouldn’t you or someone have done it already?
• If you could get everybody saved, wouldn’t you have pulled that switch and gotten the job done?
• What about the Millennial Reign of Jesus — if you could set-up the thousand-year reign of the Lord, wouldn’t you have done it?
• What about sickness and disease?
• If you could have the greatest healing ministry of all time, would you be able to get rid of all sickness and disease? — just burn it right off the planet?
• The group multiplies the effectiveness.
• Let’s repeat this: you don’t become the ‘light of the world’ by yourself.
• Think about a flashlight.
• Take your powerful flashlight to a big city like New York City, or Los Angeles, or Chicago — I mean, take your pick.
• How will your flashlight fare in a huge city?
• Will you even be noticed?
• Will your light reach from Manhattan to the Bronx?
• No, but put every ones light together and what is the impacted of multiplied flashlights.
• Multiple lights bound together cannot be hidden from view.
• The power is in walking with God and doing it together.
• You guys have a great God week, and we will see you next time for another edition of Light On Life.

#S4-025: Secrets to Hearing God: Are You Waiting? [Encore Podcast]

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