I’m excited about this new series, Hearts On Fire. But before we start talking about igniting a flame in our hearts can we just first talk about how difficult it is to start a literal fire?

I know some of you have mastered starting a fire. So you’re like, "Will, what are you talking about? It's easy! I don’t even need a lighter." (Calm down, bro.) How many of you have that kind of confidence?

You have to understand, the reason I find it challenging is because no one ever taught me. I grew up in the projects. I never had to learn how to start a fire. We never went camping – the woods are scary to us. To Puerto Ricans from the inner city, camping seemed like a terrible idea. (It kind of still does.)

But in the past couple of years, my amazing wife has given me several opportunities to learn this obsolete skill of starting a fire. Just two weeks ago, a neighbor offered us their little cabin in the mountains; which was great. But this thing has no central heating – you have to heat the place by building a fire in this cast iron stove thing. So we walk in (10 o’clock at night) and it’s 50 degrees INSIDE THE CABIN. (Already I’m thinking, this was a terrible idea.)

But I get to work. I pick out my logs. I set them up in a way that I think is going to give this fire the best chance of catching (I do the little teepee thing). I grab a starter stick or two – which helps the fire get going – I position them strategically. And then I light those babies.

But I’m not done, because this fire – if it even can be called that – is fragile. So over the course of the next hour to ninety minutes I’m watching this thing and working it. I’m throwing more starter sticks in – about eight. I’m adjusting the logs. I’m going from closing the door; to opening the door; to leaving it slightly open. All with the hopes of getting a blaze going that won’t go out easily. By the time I’m done, I’m exhausted – physically and emotionally.

But listen, IT WAS ALL WORTH IT. I got the cabin from 50 degrees to 68. And as a family we were able to sleep comfortably. But here’s the kicker, I had to do it all over again the next night!

Now, as we start talking about having our hearts set on fire for God, do you think it’s any less challenging than what I just described? Do we really believe that we can have a deep and meaningful relationship with God without the same level of focus, intentionality, and consistency that I just described with starting that fire? No; we can’t. I wish it were as easy as lighting a stove or switching on a thermostat. But if that’s what we expect, we are going to be sadly disappointed.

No relationships work that way. Couples get into trouble when they believe they no longer have to keep working at their relationship – when they no longer believe that they should be responsible for fanning the fire in their relationship. We all know this – or at least, we all should know this, relationships require work. But if you are willing to put in that work you are going to find that it is worth it – especially with God.

So over the next couple of weeks you are going to hear from us through this series about WHY it’s worth seeking the presence of God, and about HOW we can go about setting our hearts ablaze for Him. We want to simultaneously give you the vision of what we are after while showing you how we can get there.

For our main passage for today, we are going to look at a somewhat obscure biblical character whose life caught fire (in a good way). His name is Enoch. Let’s look at what happened to him and see what we can learn from him.

Genesis 5:21-24

21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. 24 Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

Quick disclaimer: At the beginning of creation people lived a long time. You have some people recorded as living upward of 900 years. Don’t let that throw you off. Some scholars take it literally, others symbolically. The point is, however you want to approach it, when humanity was created by God death was never the intention. Death came as a result of the fall. And then the human lifespan decreased to about a century as a result of sin as well.

So that’s the quick disclaimer on that. But here’s our main focus for today: I want us to focus on that little phrase used to describe Enoch’s relationship with God. In Enoch’s story we don’t have the imagery of fire; but that doesn’t make his story or example any less important. No, there’s another visual picture that is given and that is equivalent to having your heart set on fire for God. And it’s this: it says that “Enoch walked faithfully with God.”

What does it mean to ‘walk with God’ and what can Enoch teach us about walking faithfully with God? Well, first, what does it mean to walk with anyone? Amos 3:3 gives the answer in the form of a question: Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction? (Amos 3:3) To walk with someone is to be headed in the same direction – to the same destination. Now that’s literally. But the Bible takes it a step further. When “walking with someone” is mentioned in the Bible it often is pointing to this alignment of life with that person. In essence, when we walk with someone we are in lock-step with that person – our fate is tied to theirs. And that could be a good thing; or it can be a bad thing.

In San Francisco, we get this, because we are constantly looking around to see who is walking near us. When we are walking with someone we know, we feel safer – the likelihood of us arriving at our destination goes up. But if someone we don’t know is walking too close to us, we let it be known – to them and to others – that we have not agreed for them to walk so closely. We are not together.

In Psalm 1:1 we are warned (or encouraged) to NOT walk with a certain type of person. It says, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked…” (Psalm 1:1a). And Proverbs 13:20 shows us the positive and negative side of this idea. Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. (Proverbs 13:20)

Who you walk with is important. So let me ask, who are you walking with? The way the Bible presents it is that there’s really only two options: You can either walk with God and with those who are seeking to walk with Him, or not. Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that we can both walk with the world or with the wicked (or even alone on our own path) AND walk with God. It’s not possible – because the two options are headed in opposite directions. So again, who are you walking with?

Now, I’m not asking that question to bring guilt. No. If it’s not a definitive ‘yes’ that you are walking with God, that’s okay. Here’s why. Because there’s still hope. Enoch did not always walk with God. Remember, it says about him that When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. AFTER he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God… (Genesis 5:21-22a) Not before; but after…

Methuselah’s birth was a turning point for Enoch. And so this is the first thing that Enoch teaches us about walking with God: it starts with repentance. (Walking with God starts with repentance.) I know that repentance is not a popular word for most of us; but it’s such an important practice for us in our faith. Repentance simply means to change direction – to go from living for yourself to living for God and for others; it’s to go from being self-dependent to God-dependent.

So what sparked that change of direction in Enoch’s life? Well, we really don’t know. Maybe it was the sleepless nights. Enoch walked with God because he didn’t want to be home – Methuselah cried too much. (Anyone who's had a baby knows what I’m talking about.)

In all seriousness, some scholars believe that Enoch received a prophetic word (at about the time that Methuselah was born) of a coming judgment. These scholars believe that Methuselah’s name means “when he dies, judgment” or “when he is dead, it shall be sent”. And what’s interesting about that is that Methuselah dies at about the time of the flood (Noah’s Ark) – maybe even because of the flood; which was an act of judgment against humanity and its sin.

And listen, all of that is fascinating (I almost got caught up in a rabbit trail with that in studying for this message). But more important than the details as to why Enoch started walking with God (like whether it was a prophetic judgment or something else), I think what’s more important than those details are two things: the compassionate invitation from God hidden in those details, and Enoch's response to that invitation.

Enoch did not freak out when Methuselah was born and he learned that judgment was coming. No. It was a wake up call that he was getting life wrong – that he was on the wrong path. I don’t want you to think that God uses scare tactics as a way of getting us to walk with him. No. Paul says in Romans 2:4(b): …God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance. Not his harshness or threats.

And so whenever God tells us something like, "Things are not going to end well for us if we keep heading in the same direction", away from him, that’s not him being mean – that’s just him stating the facts and inviting us to turn and find life in him. More than anything, I believe that God wants us to see that he has made us for more. He has made us to be in relationship with him – to walk with him.

And church, it doesn’t matter whatever path that we might find ourselves on today, however far we might feel from God, the moment that we decide to turn and walk with him, he’s right there waiting for us – ready to receive and welcome us.

For Enoch, that happened when Methuselah was born. What if this is your Methuselah moment? For most of us who are following after Jesus, we had a very clear moment where God grabbed our attention and invited us into a life with him. And we said “Yes!” And it has changed everything. For those of you who haven’t had that yet, what if this is that moment for you? What if this is your year? My hope is that in a couple of years, or a decade from now, you can look back and say that 2025 was the year that things changed for me. Why? Not by accident. But because it was the moment that you decided to seek and walk faithfully with your God.

It starts with a turn – with a change in direction and with a change in the company that you keep. That leads us to the second thing that Enoch teaches us about walking faithfully with God: It starts with repentance; but it progresses with seeking Him (Walking with God progresses as we seek Him).

Have you ever been ghosted by someone? It’s not a good feeling. You think you have something good going with someone, but then you don’t hear from them anymore.

I wonder how often God feels ghosted by us. We come to him when we are in need – there’s a connection there – but then we fall off the face of the earth.

But again, the best relationships don’t work that way. In the best relationships there is a daily check-in – a daily walk with that person, if you will.

Hebrews 11, which is considered the Hall of Faith, says this about Enoch: By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:5-6)

God enjoyed Enoch’s presence so much that he just took him to be with him before he died. God is like, Why wait?! Come on! It says about Enoch that he pleased God. It’s okay to be jealous and to have that longing to please God. And the author of Hebrews says that we can – if we have faith. And this is what faith in action looks like in this scenario: earnestly seeking him because you know that he exists and that he is good.

Your seeking must be earnest. But how do we do that? How do we earnestly seek God? Three things I’ll quickly mention:

1. Read and meditate on God’s Word daily. – Psalm 1:2 says that …[blessed is the one] whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. (Psalm 1:2) When you love someone and you want to align your life with them you cherish what they say. You seek out their counsel. And we have that available with God through the Bible.

2. Pray – Spend time in conversation with God. You can do this verbally or you can journal your prayers. One of the things that I’m doing in this season is that I’m spending about 20 minutes reading the Bible (using the Bible in a Year with Nicky & Pippa Gumbel). Then I do the SOAP exercise. I pick a Scripture that jumps out at me; I make Observations about the passage; I Apply it to my life; and then I write out a Prayer based on that scripture and my observations and applications.  

3. Walk with others – As I mentioned at the start, "Walk with the wise and become wise…" (Proverbs 13:20a). Walk with those who are walking with God and the likelihood that you will start and stay walking with God goes up. We were never meant to live this life alone. We are meant to encourage each other along on this journey of walking with God. In two weeks, Groups sign-ups will begin. Be sure to be an active participant in a group this spring – for your sake and the sake of others.

There’s a passage of Scripture that brings together these three things, and even some of the other things, that we have been talking about. After Jesus died on the cross, he appeared a few times to his followers. He specifically appeared to two (they were not alone) while they were walking on the road to Emmaus. He didn’t reveal his identity right away. But later on, after he left them, it hit them that it was Jesus. They said this to each other at that moment: They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)

This is the recipe. If we want our hearts to be on fire for God we have to walk and talk with him (which is prayer), we have to let him open the Scriptures to us by reading our Bible, and we do it with others.

This is the opportunity that is before us. Some of you are heading in a direction that will not end well. But today can be the day that you change direction – that you repent – and start walking with God. Will you do it? It won’t be easy; but it’s worth it.