living for today with an eye for tomorrow this is the voice of vision broadcast Now, here's our teacher, Pastor J.D. Hatfield. Well, hello there, friends. Once again, this is Pastor J.D. Hatfield of the Riverside Christian Fellowship in Hernando, Florida. As always, you can find us on the web at voiceofvision.org. And if you hear a creaking chair there, I've got a creaking chair. So forgive me for that. I'm moving around, looking at my Bible. Looking at our transcript here, and today's message is, they mean something. So those noises mean that I got a squeaky chair. But if you hear the pages turning, that's the Bible. And you can find the text that I'm talking about right there on the front page of voiceofvision.org the day that you hear this. If it's a rebroadcast, you can go into the where it says Vision Radio across the top at the home page there. Click on that and you'll find the archives there. Click on those and you'll see the teachings titled right there and you can listen to them again. If you'd like to see the text from those, go back to the home page and press on where it says Daily Blog and there you can find the text and the audio right there at Voice Vision Auto-RG again hit daily blog also you can find sermons a lot of these teachings will be sermons broken up into sermon points like if we had three points we'll break them up into three posts that type of thing and you'll hear them on the radio in three different days but A lot of times this is brand new teaching or things that aren't included in our sermons and so you can get some little extra there and I try to be practical and kind of just talk to you here on this broadcast. If you want to email me with some suggestions or prayer requests, make sure that you leave your own email address within the post itself and that's pastorjd at voiceofvision.org. If you'd like to support this ministry with prayer or financial support or If you have any ideas or anything like that, we'd be glad to hear you. And if you'd like to come by Riverside sometime, you can go right there on the front page and there's a button there that says Riverside Christian Fellowship. Click on that and you can find our directions. There's a Google map there and service times and there's some videos, all kinds of things to do right there at voiceofvision.org. teaching today was calling it, they mean something. Now what am I talking about? Well, I'm talking about one of the most difficult things in the Bible that you might not think is one of the most difficult things until I mention it, and then you will definitely. There won't be a person listening to me today or hearing me recorded some other time that wouldn't agree with me. One of the most difficult things in the Bible is having to go through the lists of names without speeding through them or not paying attention or just doing them as your duty or thinking, why are these things in there? eventually as we mature in Christ and or we know our Bibles better, which should be the same pace in a sense, but a lot of times it isn't, but we see these lists and we find some people we see in other places in the Bible or we put things together or someone brings a good teaching that brings it all home for us. But many times we just look at that and go, oh boy, man, why is this in here? Well, friends, the main point I wanna get across to you today is that they do mean something, and I'm gonna lead into something at the end here, which I'll save for you. But at 1 Chronicles 1.18, we see Arphaxad begot Shelah, and Shelah begot Eber, and on and on and on it goes. And you find that in many places in the Old Testament, or the Book of Numbers. You know why they call it the Book of Numbers, friends? Because it's about numbers. Because it was about a census and numbering the people. You see in Chronicles too, you see these endless genealogies as they are. You know, it can be tough sometimes, especially when we're trying to be honest with ourselves and we're committing at the beginning of our year or whenever we are, it usually hits at the beginning of the year, we're gonna read our Bibles through, you know, all the way through, not skipping a word and we're tempted to wonder why God saw fit to include some things like these genealogies or the details of travels. Why are these in the Bible at all? Well, before we can answer all that, and we're not really going to answer all that today in a 15-minute broadcast, but we can be sure of one thing. What's that? We can be sure they're there for a reason. All scripture is God-breathed and is profitable. But the truth is that not all of it is equally valid for equal, you know, in certain things, but they are there for a reason. Perhaps we won't know all the richness of why in this life, but I wanna give you some things to think about today. When we study to find out certain things, they have their rightful place in being included. We begin to understand that to see the overall big picture, some of these things that didn't need to be paid attention to, we thought, were really actually very important. I like to think of the lug nuts on a car. You think lug nuts on a car? Yeah, I like to think of the lug nuts on a car because when your car runs out of oil or is low on oil, you'll have an oil light. When your engine is having some kind of trouble, you'll have the engine light pop up. and the lug nuts are coming loose you don't know you know you gotta make sure there's no give room with the lug nuts there's no light that tells you lug nuts are loose but let me tell you friend those lug nuts get loose that tire falls off you reckon you could die at least with the oil light you have a chance to pull over with the check engine light you can bring it in But some things are very important even though they don't seem like it. Just like it tells us in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 and 14 that all the parts of the body of Christ are important. Romans 12 tells us the same thing and of course Ephesians 4. There's lots of gifts in the body of Christ and these things are important even though they seem like it says in 1 Corinthians 14 like the less necessary parts. Sometimes those less necessary things are more important. Like we see Ruth and Boaz and we see that that's the line of David. and David, you know, being, you know, the line of Jesus. And the thing is, there's a lot of things that we don't understand, but they're in there for a reason. For instance, notice that the two different genealogies in Matthew and Luke point to two different lines of Jesus through Mary and Joseph, but both of them have their roots in David. One is to see the father's line, even though Joseph was not the natural father, but it places him in David, and so does the line of Mary places in David. So those seem a necessity in a sense, right? Now, again, what about those genealogies in the Old Testament book? You say, pastor, they just, you know, I don't get it. Well, when we see those endless names, think about the fact that God cared enough to put them there. Then think about this. When you're nothing but a name to everyone else, you're still important to God. Important enough to be included even if no one else thinks you're worth the time. When you see where the Bible talks about the travels of the old timers and said they pitched a tent here or there and then here or there again and so on, think about the fact that when no one else cares where you are, God knows exactly where you are. And he does care every step of the way. God is interested in individuals. Looking at Romans 16 here, I just wanna read just a little bit of this. We have some time, and in chapter 16, verse one, it talks about Phoebe. Then in verse three, it says, greet Prisca and Aquila. And then it says, greet the church in their house, greet my beloved Epaetus, greet Mary, greet Andronicus, and Junia, verses 7, I'm looking at there. And just going on there, it says greet Ampelitus, greet Urbanus, my beloved Stachys, greet Apelles, Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my kinsmen Herodian. Greet those, Lord, who belong to the family of Narcissus. Greet those workers in the Lord, Trifinian, Trifosa. Greet the beloved Peirces. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. I mean, think about that. If Paul said that, I mean, just a little teeny thing there. It just catches my eye even now. Greet Rufus, chosen of the Lord, because I'm recording this for the day after Mother's Day, and it says, also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. Greet Asyncretus, Phlegon, Hermes, Petrobus, Hermas, and the brothers who were with him. Greet Philogus, Julian, Nerys, and his sister Olympus. Think about all these people when they saw that, that Paul named so many of them by name. Think if you were one of those. Wow, look, I'm in the Bible, right? Greet one another with a holy kiss. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, so does Lucius and Jason. Suspitor, I, Tertius, wrote this letter. See all these things here. When we see the personal greetings of Paul to all these certain individuals, think about the fact that although we don't have much information, more than their name, they were obviously important to Paul. Look at what it says again about Rufus' mother. She was like a mother to me. You see, you need to show respect and concern. I'm speaking to pastors now as well as people that are trying to witness and just in your family, they mean something. Just that little acknowledgement that they matter is a big blessing. I think that's something the Bible's teaching us right here. They matter. Think about all these people when they saw this letter to the book of Rome. They knew who Paul was. And now it's scripture. Think about that. I'd like to meet some of those people out there. I did a sermon not too long ago called God's Toothpick and it says, Shamgar defeated 600 Philistines with an ox goad. And we think, you know, okay, he was a judge of Israel, but man, that's not much to go on. And there's a lot more there than we think, but the truth is that it mattered. I'd like to meet Shamgar someday. There's a lot of Shamgars out there. There's a lot of Rufus and his mother out there, people that don't seem to be very significant. They don't have the big television ministry. They don't have the big ministry in the church. They're not, they're just the old lady in the back of the pew, but they matter. I think of the ladies that were my mother's friends that kind of prayed me back into the kingdom of God after those years that I had went astray. Think about all those people that might have been praying for the prodigal son to come home and come to his senses. They're not even listed in the Bible, but they mean something. They mean something. Again, we might not have a lot more information than the names here, but they were important to Paul. They were important to God. They got their names in the Bible. Don't you wish that that were you, right? I mean, besides the book of life, that's where I want my name. The Bible is the one book I'd want to get a recommendation in, right? It's better and more prestigious than any who's who's list you'll ever get on the earth. When someone takes an interest in you and your details, whether they know it or not, they're acting like Jesus. He has your hairs numbered, even if you're bald. He counted each one as it fell off your head. Now you need to use that head. You need to realize that those words in the Bible don't just skip over them. They mean something. You may not care, but God does. I may not ever know what all those names mean, but I know this, God wanted them included. And you know what, friends? God wants you included. He wants you to be put in a book where maybe a whole lot of people don't know who you are, but God knows who you are. And he wants to place your name in the book of life, the book of life. You may not matter a whole lot in this life to a whole lot of people, but if you're in the book of life, you mean something to God. You mean that you were redeemed and let the redeemed of the Lord say so. God wanted these names included. and he wants you included. So be glad that God wants your name included when no one else even seems to think that you're worth the time. I think about God and his character and the more I think about the names that are in here and the things that seem so insignificant, I know that that means when I seem insignificant to other people, when I feel insignificant to myself, because of Jesus Christ and because he's invested himself in me, I matter to God. And friends, That means something to me. I really want you to think about that. You need to ponder that. And when your children say, this doesn't seem to matter, this doesn't seem to matter. When people, all they want to talk about is turkey and brass tacks. You know what I mean? The bottom line. You've got to get there somehow. So all the details, they mean something. Marfexad, we got Shelah. Shelah, we got Eber. And all the chronicles there, they mean something. Paul, naming these names means something. And you mean something to God. That means something to me. Well, we'll talk to you next time. This is Pastor J.D. Hatfield. God bless you. Oh yes, I'm glad to know my life is here with Jesus.