When Pastor asked me to share a message with you today, a specific verse immediately came to my mind: Amos 3:3. Let us look at this on the screen. One version of the text states, "Do two men walk together unless they have made an appointment?" Another familiar translation asks, "Can two walk together unless they are agreed?"
Think about our natural human tendencies when we go for a walk with someone. We usually fall into talking about the things we have in common. For instance, those of us who are from Kerala or Tamil Nadu might naturally find ourselves talking about politics. We might say, "Oh, who will be our next chief minister?" since both states have recently gone through the state elections, and we want to discuss the outcomes.
Other people might prefer talking about sports, like the NBA playoffs. Right now it is playoff time, and people want to debate who will be the champions this year. I watched a little bit of the playoffs myself this week because I enjoy basketball, even though it can sometimes get confusing. Then you have people who love to talk about finance and the stock market. They might note, "Oh, you know, on Friday the Dow Jones went above 50,000!"—which is amazing because that has already happened two times this year.
Finally, you have people who like spiritual conversations. They might say, "Oh, do you know Jesus is coming soon? Look at all these things happening in the world; everything is pointing towards that". Honestly, I wish we all talked about that more, but as human beings, it is often the thing we talk about the least.
But my central message today moves past how we interact as human beings on a walk. My question for you is this: Can we walk with God? Are we in agreement with God so that we can walk together in this life and in this world? Are we truly aligned and agreed with Him? I want us to deeply reflect on ourselves today regarding the key message God gave me. Ask yourself: Can I walk with God in all aspects of my life? Can I walk with Him when I am going to work, when I am at school, when I am dealing with my neighbor, or even when I am dealing with people who don't like me?
Amos 3:3 (NASB 1995)
"Can two walk together unless they have agreed?"
Alignment Through Surrender
God makes it incredibly clear to us that walking together requires agreement. This is not just a principle about our relationships with other human beings; it is first and foremost about our relationship with God. If our thoughts, our desires, and our directions are not fully aligned with God, we cannot truly walk with Him. In our human relationships, we might sometimes walk with people even when we don't agree with them on everything. But when it comes to God, if we want to walk with Him, we absolutely have to align ourselves with Him.
So, how can we examine our lives? We must ask ourselves: Are my decisions aligned with God's Word? We are uniquely privileged because God has given us a perfect measuring tool. We hold the very Word of God in our hands. Yet, there are still thousands of people in this world who do not have this privilege. That is why people like Shalu's dad are out there right now, still working hard on translating the Bible so that those who lack the Word of God can finally receive it. There are so many different missionary organizations where people are sacrificing their comfort, their time, and their resources to learn difficult languages and adapt to new ways of living. Think about the history of missions in India—think of William Carey and so many other saints who completely sacrificed their lives so that we could have the Scriptures. Because we have the Bible in our hands, we must constantly evaluate whether we are aligned with God so we can walk with Him every single day.
This daily walk is not a moody, inconsistent thing. In the world, you might hear people say about a coworker, "Oh, he's in a good mood today," or warn you, "No, no, no, don't go near him today, he's not in a good mood. Don't go to the supervisor's office right now, I think he's having a bad day". Our walk with God cannot look like that. We must have a "good mood" with God every single moment. We must be constantly aligned with Him because we have to walk with Him continuously.
To make this practical, remember this rule: Don't try to bring God into your plans, but bring your plans into God's will. Let me say that to you one more time so it sticks: Don't try to bring God into your plans. Bring your plans into God's way. Then, and only then, can we truly walk with God. Spiritual unity always begins with surrender, not with our personal preferences. We have to surrender to Him completely if we want to walk with Him, because true alignment comes only through surrender. Let us look at a supporting verse for this in Proverbs 3:5-6:
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NASB 1995)
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight."
When we trust in the Lord with all our heart and stop relying on our own understanding, He is the one who makes our paths straight and enables our walk.
Standing Firm Against Spiritual Drifting
We must remain vigilant because there are so many spiritual distractions that can happen in our Christian life. Let us look at Ephesians 4:14:
Ephesians 4:14 (NASB 1995)
"As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;"
There are so many different doctrines floating around today. Nowadays, we can hear an overwhelming amount of spiritual teaching on platforms like YouTube. I want to strongly advise you: don't trust YouTube for everything. Our ultimate, non-negotiable base must always be the written Word of God. Whenever you hear a message, do not just blindly accept it based on who said it on YouTube or how dynamic they appear on a stage. You must check to see if it is strictly aligned with the Word of God. If it aligns, that is our base; otherwise, we will find ourselves drifting away.
What exactly does drifting mean? Think about a boat sitting right by the shore. If that boat is not tied up securely to a post, the gentle waves will come and move it just a little bit at a time. It moves an inch, then a foot, and over the course of a night, nobody notices it moving—but by the next morning, that boat is half a mile away from the shore. This is exactly what can happen in our spiritual lives. Drifting from the Word of God happens quietly when we consume a lot of preaching on YouTube without checking it against right doctrine. We are hearing a lot of things out there today that are simply not aligned with the Bible.
We have to measure everything we hear. Even the Apostle Paul boasted about a specific group of people—the Bereans—because they didn't just listen to his preaching; they were constantly checking the scriptures to verify if what he said was true. A sermon or a piece of preaching might sound very good, it might be cool to listen to, and it might make you feel comfortable. But we must stop and think: Is that the basic doctrine that we read in the Word of God? We must not drift away from sound doctrine. Drifting will inevitably happen to us if we fail to constantly align and surrender ourselves to the Word.
Therefore, stop relying only on human logic. Invite God into every single decision you make. Build a daily, disciplined habit of prayer and meditating on the Word to stay spiritually alive and aligned. When you actively meditate on the Word every day, you can immediately recognize error and say, "Oh, that is not true. That is not what the Word of God says; that is just that person's human interpretation". We know people can interpret things in a lot of wild ways, but we have to be exceptionally careful with the Word of God.
Furthermore, when something feels off spiritually, we need to call a timeout and pause. Don't look around to blame other people. Drifting can happen silently right inside our own patterns of thinking. If you catch your mind wandering into unbiblical spaces, you must tell yourself, "No, I cannot think that way. I need to pause, pause, pause, and come back. If I continue thinking like this, I am drifting further and further away from the Word of God". We must intentionally bring our thoughts back to the truth of Scripture.
Walking and Being Led by the Spirit
Let us turn our Bibles to Romans 8:12-14 to look at how we are commanded to live our lives:
Romans 8:12-14 (NASB 1995)
"So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God."
As believers, we are under a strict obligation not to live according to the flesh. We have to obey the Holy Spirit and we have to obey the Word of God. In direct connection with this truth, let us look at Galatians 5:16: Galatians 5:16 (NASB 1995)
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh."
We must seriously reflect on this internal battle. Our flesh generates so many corrupt desires, and these carnal desires are in a continuous, violent fight against the desires of the Spirit. Which one is going to win in your life? The only way the Spirit wins is if we actively suppress and put to death the desires of our flesh.
We must realize that even though we have accepted the Lord and are saved, our physical bodies will only be fully redeemed when we finally get into heaven. Until that day, as long as we are in this body, the desires of the flesh will keep coming back, and the danger of drifting remains a daily reality. This is why we have to pray constantly, why we have to read our Bibles diligently, and why we have to live with extreme care. We must examine ourselves daily and say, "Lord, help me suppress the desires of my flesh because they are actively fighting against Your Holy Spirit". When you purposefully walk by the Spirit, you receive the power to suppress the fleshly desires that pop up in your daily life.
Walking in true unity with God means being actively led by His Spirit, never by our volatile human emotions or our fleshly cravings. The Holy Spirit never leads God's children into confusion, disorder, or interpersonal conflict. Rather, the Spirit always leads us into deep peace, systematic obedience, and perfect alignment with God. We must listen carefully to discern His voice through the reading of Scripture and through holy conviction. Choose obedience even when it feels incredibly uncomfortable or costly in your life. Making that purposeful choice to walk by the Spirit and the Word is absolutely vital.
The Example of Enoch and the Reality of Eternity
When we talk about walking by the Spirit and walking with God, there is one person in the Bible who should immediately stand out to all of us. There is no prize for guessing his name, but it is Enoch. Let let us look at what Genesis 5:24 says: "Enoch walked with God."
Think about that for a moment. What if the Holy Spirit looked down at this congregation and spoke about us the same way? What if He looked at me and said, "Sam walked with God"? What if He looked at Abraham, or looked at Pastor Manoj and said, "Pastor Manoj walked with God"? What if He looked at David, or looked at you, Robin, and testified, "They walked with God"? The Holy Spirit made a point to record this about Enoch because the vast majority of people in that wicked generation completely refused to walk with God.
As human beings, we are naturally very weak, and the desires of our flesh are always working against us. Therefore, we need to pray. Every single morning when we wake up, let us make this our first prayer: "Lord, help me to walk with You today just like Enoch did. Lord, help me to walk by Your Holy Spirit. Lord, help me to walk straight according to Your Word." Remember our key verse: to walk together, two people have to agree. Let us intentionally agree with God and walk with Him.
The Bible tells us that Enoch walked with God, "and he was not, for God took him." Now, that unique experience of being physically taken up without dying might not happen to all of us unless Jesus comes back right now, in which case we will bypass the normal human death process. But otherwise, physical death is the normal, appointed process for mankind. And the reality is, none of us knows when it is going to happen to us.
Even if you don't possess the spiritual gift of prophecy, you can confidently prophesy two absolute certainties to any person you meet. You can look at anyone and accurately say: "You will die, or Jesus is coming back." One of those two things will happen. We will all face death one day if Christ tarries.
This reality hit incredibly close to home for me last week through an email at HP, where I work. I know one of the managers there very well, a man named Chris Camel. His wife, Polly, actually worked directly with me on a project in the past. Chris left HP about seven years ago. Last week, I suddenly read an email notification announcing that Polly had passed away, and her memorial service is coming up on June 6th. Now, HP is a massive campus with ten different buildings, and I didn't even know which building Chris was working in nowadays. But during one of my normal walks inside the HP buildings, I happened to look up, and there was Chris walking right across from me.
I stopped him and said, "Chris, I am so incredibly sorry, I just read the email about Polly". He stopped and explained to me what happened. He told me that she had been battling cancer, but she didn't actually die from the cancer. He said, "One morning, I just walked into the kitchen, and she was laying right there on the floor. She had a massive, sudden heart attack." Polly was only sixty years old, and Chris is only fifty-seven. Honestly, when I looked at Chris, the heavy grief made him look like he was 70 years old to me. I had even asked him, "Are you taking your retirement soon?" because I thought he was much older. But he told me, "No, I am only 57." He said they never expected this at all because, despite the cancer, she was going through all her treatments and was actually doing very well. But one ordinary morning, he walked into the kitchen and found her laying on the floor. He called 9-1-1, the paramedics came and did everything they possibly could, but she just didn't survive.
My dear brothers and sisters, that is why I tell you that one day, every single one of us will die. It can happen completely out of nowhere, or Jesus will return. Therefore, we have to be fully prepared. If we choose to walk with God just like Enoch did, we will obtain the wonderful witness described in Hebrews 11:5: Hebrews 11:5 (NASB 1995)
"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God."
Standing Strong in a Contrary Culture
Let us all strive with our whole hearts to get that exact same witness from the Holy Spirit and from God: that our lives pleased Him. But you must understand a hard truth: when you choose to live a life that pleases God, it will often not be pleasing to this world. We cannot compromise the truth of God to fit in. We cannot please everyone if our primary goal is to please God, to honor His Word, and to walk strictly by biblical standards.
If you live this way, you will not be popular in this world. People may look down on us or outright dislike us because of our Christian lifestyle or because we refuse to agree with the culture. And you know what? That is completely okay. But even when people reject us or refuse to love us because of our convictions, we are still commanded to love them. We must love them regardless.
Just yesterday, I was talking to a local realtor, and he was sharing a deeply concerning story about his six-year-old child. Think about that age—only six years old! The child came home from school and told the parents, "My friend at school told me, 'I am a boy and a girl at the same time.'" The realtor looked at me and said, "I am honestly terrified of how I can successfully raise my kids in this country." He mentioned another incident where his other daughter came home and said, "My classmate told me, 'I have two mothers, and they are both my parents.'"
This is the exact cultural landscape we are living in right now. This is the explicit reality around us, especially living here in Oregon. Our biblical values will make us highly unpopular. But our mandate does not change: we must still love them. We must love them fiercely. That is the exact spiritual challenge we face today: learning how to walk closely with God while navigating a wicked and broken world.
Conclusion: The Necessity of Fellowship
Enoch stands as a powerful, timeless example of continuous unity and intentional alignment. He didn’t just visit God occasionally when he felt like it; he walked with Him as a continuous lifestyle. His everyday life was so aligned that it brought pleasure to God. We must realize that walking with God is a daily lifestyle, not an isolated emotional moment. In this Christian walk, consistency matters far more than intense, short-lived bursts of emotion. Make it your absolute aim to live a life that pleases God, not people.
When you are out in the world and people are shouting all these weird, unbiblical opinions, it can be hard to know how to respond. Sometimes, we simply have to keep silent. Don't argue, but instead, take that moment to pray for them silently, asking, "Lord, please give this person an injection of truth and insight into Your word."
Unity with God never happens by accident; it is an intentional, deliberate lifestyle choice. When we choose to agree with Him, surrender our wills to Him, follow His Holy Spirit, and walk daily with Him, we step into a lifestyle that reflects heaven right here on earth.
So, I am concluding this message today by bringing us right back to our key verse from Amos 3:3: Can two walk together unless they are agreed? Let us fully agree with God. Let us agree completely with the Word of God, and let us agree with the Holy Spirit. The main thing we need to do today is to surrender our worship, surrender our agendas, and surrender our entire lives to God and the leading of His Spirit.
Finally, hear me on this: we cannot successfully walk this path out of our own human strength. We cannot do it alone. We are human beings, and we are weak. That is precisely why God established this church fellowship—it is designed to help us walk with God every single day. We are humans, and when one person grows spiritually weak, the others must step in, carry him, and support him. If we didn't need that support, there would be absolutely no reason for the church to exist.
Think about it—you can easily go on YouTube right now and find a far better, more eloquent sermon than the one I am giving you today. We even have advanced tools like ChatGPT available now where you can look up all the theological preaching you could ever want. But you cannot spiritually survive on technology or isolated media consumption alone. We fundamentally need fellowship.
We need each other. We deeply need each other. Don't let spiritual pride creep in and cause you to say, "Oh, I'm fine, I don't need any help." Never say that. We all desperately need help, and we are all called to be a help to others. Let us commit today to surrendering our lives, clinging tightly to one another in true fellowship, and walking faithfully with our God every single day. Amen.