He Knows My Name

Genesis 5:1-32 NKJV  This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.  (2)  He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.  (3)  And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.  (4)  After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters.  (5)  So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.  (6)  Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begot Enosh.  (7)  After he begot Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters.  (8)  So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.  (9)  Enosh lived ninety years, and begot Cainan.  (10)  After he begot Cainan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters.  (11)  So all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died.  (12)  Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalalel.  (13)  After he begot Mahalalel, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty years, and had sons and daughters.  (14)  So all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.  (15)  Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared.  (16)  After he begot Jared, Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters.  (17)  So all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years; and he died.  (18)  Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch.  (19)  After he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters.  (20)  So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.  (21)  Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah.  (22)  After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.  (23)  So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.  (24)  And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.  (25)  Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech.  (26)  After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters.  (27)  So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.  (28)  Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son.  (29)  And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed.”  (30)  After he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters.  (31)  So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years; and he died.  (32)  And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 

• Can we read one more verse before we are seated? Let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 8 and 3. 

1 Corinthians 8:3 NKJV  But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him. 

• My message to you church this morning, and I believe the Holy Spirit has inspired it is simply this: 

• God knows Your Name. He knows you. He cares about you. He loves you. He calls you friend. 

• This morning I don’t have any rebuke for you. 
• Nothing for you to change, nothing for you to repent from… we have had plenty of that through the past 4 chapters… today is something different. 

• God knows your name, and that is such a wonderful fact indeed. 

• He knows my name… the Lord of all creation, who spoke the universe into existence, who breathed life into humanity, who crushed the serpent’s head and promises an eternity in perfection. 

• HE KNOWS MY NAME. ME! Christian Louis Shields… YHWH KNOWS MY NAME! 

• And He knows your name… He knows you and He cares… 

• For the past few years I have been chewing on a revelation… I am not that important. 

• And I will never be that important. 
• Even if our church was a thousand people, I would not be important enough to have my own Wikipedia page. 
• I won’t make much of an impact on the faith of most Cedar Rapidians. 
• Should Christ tarry, no one will remember me in a hundred years, except maybe as a foot note for this generational church in Cedar Rapids. 

• I am just not that important in the grand scheme of things… with the billions of people who have and will walk this earth. 

• The trillions of times the Gospel will be shared, people will be prayed over, miracles will happen, salvations and discipleship will take place, my life’s work will only account for, if I am generous, two-tenth millionth of a percent! 
• I am statistically irrelevant. 
• Our church is statistically irrelevant. 
• My influence on the global gospel is so close to zero it is almost not even worth mentioning. 

• And that is ok. This revelation was not a curse to me, it was a blessing. 

• Because I know that I am important here, behind this pulpit. 
• I am a important to my family and to my church. 
• You are important here, in this church… serving and ministering. 

• You are important to your family and your church and your job. 
• But in the grand scheme of things we are not important, and that is so freeing to think about, because knowing this means I am free to ignore my own fame and focus on God’s fame. 

• To make my only care that God’s name be remembered in Cedar Rapids, not my own. 
• To focus on His glory, His family, His works, His will. 

• Father Your will be done, Your kingdom come, I don’t need to worry about my will and my kingdom because they are statistically meaningless. 

• And when I first got this revelation it was so freeing, so peaceable, so wonderful. 

• All I care about is God’s name and that is all I need to care about… 

• But here is a new revelation for you this morning. 

• While all you need to care about is God’s name… God cares about YOUR NAME. 

• HE KNOWS YOUR NAME. HE CARES ABOUT YOU, AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 

• Not because of your contribution to the spreading of the Gospel, that is statistically irrelevant. 
• He knows your name because He cares about you, and He loves you, and You are His. 

• If you are born again, you are a part of His family and He knows your name. 

• That brings me to my first point, God Cares About His Family. 

Point One – God Cares About His Family 

• Instead of reading Genesis chapter 5 again, let’s skip forward to the Gospel of Luke. 

• At the end of Chapter three there is this section called the Genealogy of Jesus Christ. It lists all of Jesus direct family tree, it starts like this:  

Luke 3:23 NKJV  Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, 

• Now a bunch of names are listed here, and I am going to skip some of those, so let’s go down to verse 36, 37 and 38… 

Luke 3:36-38 NKJV  the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,  (37)  the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan,  (38)  the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. 

• Lamech, Methuselah, Enoch, Jared, Mahalalel, Cainan, Enosh, Seth, and Adam… 

• Do those names sound familiar? THEY SHOULD IF YOU WERE PAYING ATTENTION! 

• Those are all the names from Genesis chapter 5! 

• Remember, God declares the end from the beginning. 

• God wasn’t wasting ink when He wrote Genesis 5, God was writing about HIS family tree, the people would lead to the Birth of His Son who would crush Satan’s head and set mankind free. 

• This is HIS family that God is writing about, and God cares about His family! 

• Nine names of Incredible importance to God, the begging of God’s family. 
• You know I remember going to visit my Great Grandma Vanita when she was slowly dying in the nursing home, she was in her late nineties and had become a bit senile. 

• When I saw her she did no remember my face, she did not recognize my family. And that is to be expected, she lives in Oklahoma, I rarely would ever see her, maybe once every five years… 
• I am not sure she ever meet my kids or my wife. 

• Not to mention her memory was completely shot at this point in her old age. 

• But I told her “I am Christian” and she lights up and goes “Wonderful! And this must be Amanda, and little Ezra and Hannah”. 

• I said “That is amazing, how did you remember that” 
• And she said “let me show you” and she pulled out her Bible, the one I have displayed in my church office, and stuck in the psalms was a few sheets of paper. 

• And on those sheets of paper was ever single one of her children’s names, her grandchildren’s name, her great-grandchildren’s name, and her great-great-grandchildren’s name plus all of the spouses! 

• She told me “I pray for all of you by name every day, how could I forget you?” 

• Do you know how powerful it was, in that moment, to see my name, and Amanda’s name, and Ezra and Hannah’s name handwritten on that page in my great grandmother’s Bible. 

• I KNEW my great grandmother loved me, not because she recognized me in her old age, which she didn’t, but because SHE KNEW MY NAME. 
• How much more, church, how much more does God love you?! Who knows not just your name but your innermost being. 

• How much more does God love you?! If you are born again, you are a part of His family. 

• You are an adopted son or daughter of God! A brother or sister of Christ. 
• Hebrews 2:11 says that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers! 
• And Jesus says it Himself in Mark 3… 

Mark 3:33-35 ESV  And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”  (34)  And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  (35)  For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” 

• I don’t know how to make it more clear than what Jesus just did! We are His family, His direct family! 

• AND HE CARES ABOUT HIS FAMILY! 

• Christ knows your name because you are His brother or His sister. 
• What kind of brother doesn’t know His siblings name? 

• God knows your name and He cares about you because you are His family! 

• Now this brings me to point two this morning… 

Point Two – You Are Important to God 

Genesis 5:1-4 NKJV  This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.  (2)  He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created.  (3)  And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.  (4)  After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. 

• Can I suggest something crazy to you? 

• Genesis five starts of the genealogy of Christ, through Adam. 
• It is the beginning of Jesus’ earthly family tree. 
• And it is the beginning of YOUR family tree as well. 

• For two reasons, one, because all human life came through Adam and Eve, and two because you are brothers and sisters of Christ, therefore His genealogy is your genealogy! 

• This means you could take your name, and put it here in Luke Chapter three, and in Genesis five and say “Those are MY grandparents… those are my relatives! I am a part of this family! 

• And if you think “Pastor, that’s heresy! That’s eisegesis! You can’t just put your name in God’s book!” 

• Well let me remind you that God already has put my name in His book, and your name too! 

Revelation 3:5 NKJV  He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. 

• Christ knows your name, you are important to HIM! You are loved by HIM! 
• YOU ARE SO IMPORTANT TO GOD THAT HE WROTE YOUR NAME IN HIS BOOK! 

• And not only does He know you name, just like my Great Gandma Vanita, He is praying for you, even right now as I preach, Christ is praying for you, if you are born again into His family. 

Romans 8:34 ESV  Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 

• LISTEN! You are so important to God that He is PRAYING for you! 

• God the Son is praying to God the Father on your behalf! 

• Christ is literally sitting at the right hand of the Father praying for you and for me and praying for every other born again believer serving Him. He is there, in heaven, right now, praying for us! 
• I love the rest of this verse, because it shows just how much God cares… what Christ is praying for… how He is interceding for us. 

Romans 8:34-35 ESV  Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  (35)  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 

• When we have tribulation, Christ is there praying for us, that our tribulation would not overtake us. 

• When we are distressed, Christ is interceding for our peace. 
• When we are persecuted, Christ is praying for our strength and steadfastness. 
• When we are hungry, Christ prays that we would receive our daily bread. 
• When we are naked, Christ prays that we would be clothed like the lilies in the field. 
• When we are in danger, Christ prays for our protection. 
• When the sword is formed against us, Christ prays that it would not prosper. 

• And I have it on good authority that when Christ prays, things happen. 

• The prayer of a righteous man avaliath much! Who is more righteous than Christ, and your name is on His prayer list. 

• Whatever you are going through, never fall into the trap of thinking that God does not care. 

• I may be an insignifigant speak in Cedar Rapids… but I am so significant to God that He put MY name in His book. 

• Who is Lamech, or Methuselah, or Enoch, or Jared, or Mahalalel, or Cainan, or Enosh? 

• Who were these guys, why are they important enough to be in the Bible? 

• I don’t know… I mean Enoch was so righteous that he was raptured, that is a big deal… but the other guys? 

• Jared?! What kind of name is Jared?! Why is he important? 

• Cainan? Who names their kid Cainin?  

• People named Enosh and people named Deacon Kevin… that’s who names their kids Cainin! 
• And both Cainin’s names are written in the God’s book! 

• Mahalalel? The only thing I know about Mahalalel is that his name is fun to say. 

• But Mahalalel was so important to God that He put Mahalalel’s name in His book. 

• And it should go without saying, but God feels the same way about you. 

• So please church, never fall into the trap of think that God does not care about you. 

• God knows everything about you, He knows knows ever detail, ever hair on your head, every cell in your body. 

• And God cares. 
• He cares about your health, about your finances, about your family, about your job, about your hobbies, about your victories, and about your failures. 

• GOD CARES. 
• What you do well God encourages and blesses. 
• What you do poorly God corrects and disciplines. 
• What the world does to you, God intercedes. 
• What the enemy does to you, God rebukes. 

• If you are on God’s side, then I have good news for you, if you are on God’s side, then God is on your side! 
• And you can’t lose with God on your side. 

• So be encouraged this morning church, rebuke the lies of the enemy, tell darkness to flee, tell depression you are not going to believe his lies, because you are loved, you are cherished, you are important, and you are KNOWN by God. 

John 10:27-28 NKJV  My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  (28)  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 

Conclusion 

• Now in a moment Pastor Amanda is going to lead a special song and we are going to do some ministry, but before that I must suggest that there is a possibility that this sermon was not for you. 

• There is a possibility that God does not know you. 

• He knows OF you for sure. 
• But does He know you as a friend? 
• Does He know you as a Father knows His child? 
• Does He know you as a Shepherd knows His sheep? 

• If you are not born again, if you are not saved, if you are not redeemed… then the Bible makes it clear that God does not know you, and your name is not in His book… but it can be… 

• Jesus made a way for you to be adopted into the family of God… 

• Read Psalm 139 and start to minister as Amanda plays. 

Psalms 139:1-14 NKJV  For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. O LORD, You have searched me and known me.  (2)  You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.  (3)  You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.  (4)  For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.  (5)  You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.  (6)  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.  (7)  Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?  (8)  If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.  (9)  If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,  (10)  Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.  (11)  If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me;  (12)  Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.  (13)  For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.  (14)  I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.