Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Paul Ratsara
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000484A
|
00:01 Do you know God as the God of your mother or father
00:03 or maybe the God of your grandparents? 00:05 Join us today on Issues and Answers so that you can learn 00:09 to know that God is a very present and personal God. 00:45 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn and welcome once again to 00:49 Issues and Answers. Today we are going to be continuing 00:53 with Dr. Paul Ratsara, who is not only a pastor, 00:58 but he is the president of the Seventh Africa India Division 01:01 of the Seventh-Day-Adventist Church, and it is amazing 01:06 the schedule that this dear man keeps, and he is a dear man 01:10 particular to me. He is my brother in Christ and 01:13 a personal friend. -Yes! - I am so glad that you are here 01:16 again Paul. -Very happy to be here Shelley. 01:19 - You know, last time we were here talking about Jacob 01:24 feeling alone and abandoned when he had to leave his home 01:28 because his brother Esau wanted to kill him. His father dies, 01:32 he has to leave his mother and he is out alone in the 01:38 wilderness, worn out, when God shows him this ladder 01:43 and angels descending and ascending on the ladder. -Yes 01:46 - Yes. -God standing at the top of the ladder. Uh Huh! 01:48 Now, we talked about a little of the business cards that you 01:53 mentioned about God...There is so many names for God 01:57 in the Bible and He comes sometimes and He would say 02:01 I am Yahweh Rapha, Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals you. 02:06 Or the next card might be I am Jehovah Jireh 02:10 the Lord who provides. - That's true. 02:12 He has all of these different names, but what you... 02:16 I would like for you to just summarize one more time for 02:20 us before we get into today's topic is that when He 02:24 said to Jacob, "I am the Lord", He was saying that it is the 02:33 name of God Yahweh, "I am that I am", the God of the present, 02:37 the past, and the future. 02:39 - That's true. When you study the life of Jacob, 02:45 it is just amazing, you understand more of the love 02:50 of God because this man experienced the love of God 02:54 and we can see the character of God through the life of Jacob 03:00 and you can learn a lot from the life of this man. 03:04 Yes, last week we talked about God introduced himself 03:10 and His introduction...This is I call this as a business card. 03:15 - Yes. -You know God has more than one business card 03:19 and God chooses according to the message that He wants to 03:25 convey. So here, God introduced Himself as "I am the Lord God 03:32 of Abraham, your Father and the God of Isaac". 03:36 Every time we read this, and we know this from Exodus 3:15, 03:44 that the meaning of this, that the meaning of this is that God 03:48 is the God of History. That means God is the God of 03:55 past, God of the present, and God of the future. 04:01 And we said then, that the message that Jacob really 04:08 needed then is that God needs to show him that God can handle 04:14 his past. 04:16 - Because Jacob was feeling forlorn, he felt separated 04:19 from his parents, but he also felt abandoned by God, 04:23 or that there was a barrier between him and God. -Yes. 04:26 And that's why the ladder was there to link, and the ladder 04:31 is there as a bridge, and the ladder is Jesus Christ 04:35 and the angels represent the family of God and God Himself. 04:40 God Himself now introduced Himself so God is the God 04:47 of the past and we need to ask for forgiveness and when God... 04:53 When you ask for forgiveness, we will be forgiven and our 04:58 present and our future as well should because God masters this. 05:04 So, but when we think of this, when we think of this, 05:10 have you noticed that God stopped right there with Isaac? 05:19 - Do you think it's because God was introducing Himself as 05:23 the God that Jacob knew? In other words, he knew he was... 05:28 God was the God of his grandfather Abraham, 05:32 the God of his father Isaac, but he wasn't really seeing Him 05:37 as his God. -Yes and actually we can see that in verse 21. 05:41 Verse 21, it said that "So that I come back to my father's house 05:46 in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. 05:50 Shall be...- We're on verse 21. - Shall be my God. 05:54 - Ok. -Verse 21. Ooh, I love that. -Yeah 05:57 "Shall be my God". So It is very possible that God 06:05 was just the God of Abraham and Isaac for Jacob. 06:12 God yet was not his personal God. 06:16 Just a God of his father and a God of his grandfather 06:20 he knew about God but maybe he did not know God personally. 06:26 You know what we always say, "God has no grandchildren, 06:30 He only has children". So it doesn't matter... 06:33 You know sometimes I will meet people who will say 06:35 I am a fourth generation Seventh-day Adventist Christian, 06:39 or they'll say Seventh-day Adventist, 06:42 and I will say, "but are you a Christian"? 06:43 - Yes. -It doesn't matter how many generations you go back, 06:46 is God your God? This is good! 06:48 - Yes, God is...- You can see it right here. 06:50 Yes, right here. But before we will go back to that... 06:55 But let's continue with the dream, with the dream... 07:01 Go back to that when we deal with the following verses. 07:07 - And we're in Genesis 28. - Yes, Genesis chapter 28. 07:12 We have read verse 13 before um, maybe it's good to read that 07:19 now, "And behold, the Lord stood above the ladder 07:23 and said", "I am the Lord God of Abraham", your Father 07:29 and the God of Isaac". 07:31 The land on which you lie, I will give to you 07:35 and your descendants, and then verse 14: 07:39 "Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth. 07:45 You shall spread up road to the west and to the east, 07:49 to the north and to the south and in you and in your seed 07:55 all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 08:00 But God is essentially renewing the covenant they gave 08:04 to Abraham. -Exactly, exactly. Actually even further than that 08:10 in Eden, when you talk about the seed, the seed here 08:15 reminds us of Genesis 3:15 when God promised the Messiah, 08:22 the Savior. So, when Jacob thought that everything was 08:28 lost and God surprised him through this, that look Jacob, 08:34 you are the Jacob of the Covenant. 08:39 I am renewing my Covenant, this is actually the Covenant. 08:46 We show this in Genesis 12 when God called Abraham, 08:53 you can see that he said and in your seed all the families 08:58 of the earth shall be blessed. So, God revealed the future 09:05 to Jacob and God made the plan with you Jacob. 09:10 I will have a nation, I will have Israel and will come back 09:16 to that later on. 09:17 But out of this discouraging outlook, discouraging situation 09:24 God made it so beautifully and as we said already, 09:29 we said God is thriving in mending broken things. 09:34 - Absolutely! -And because He is God, He is the creator God, 09:39 not only created the universe but He can re-create us. 09:45 - Amen! -And He can re-create us, He is our creator as well 09:50 and you could see here. Out of this man, this young man 09:55 who was in trouble. God is saying look, 09:59 if you come back to me, if you just give your life to me... 10:05 - I know the plans I have for you... 10:09 - Yes, I have a great future for you. 10:14 I have this great plan for you, with you we are going to form 10:19 a nation and that was the dream. Also in verse 14, 10:28 and also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth 10:36 you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east 10:39 and the north and the south and you and them shall be blessed. 10:44 Verse 15 is so good. Verse 15 is actually the summary 10:51 of what God had in mind. "Behold, I am with you 10:58 and will keep you wherever you go." "That is the future 11:02 now, and I will bring you back to this land for I will not 11:07 leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." 11:12 So that is the promise, that is the future. I will never 11:17 leave you, I will be with you. This is what we need. 11:22 - Amen! -What we need is the presence of God. 11:26 You see, this life is very uncertain indeed. 11:34 We don't even know the future, but we don't need to know 11:38 all the details of the future. What we need to know... 11:43 Who we need to know is God Himself. -Yes! Amen! 11:47 God who is the Master of the future and He said that He 11:51 will never leave you and then in verse 16: 11:56 "Then Jacob, I awoke from a sleep and said surely 12:03 the Lord is in this place and I did not know it." 12:08 So here he was feeling alone and abandoned and he had angels, 12:13 a company of angels with the Lord's presence was with him 12:18 and he was not forsaken by God. 12:21 - Yes and many times Shelley... this is the problem, 12:25 we think that we are alone and we are tempted many times 12:30 to carry our burdens alone. - Hmmm! Amen! 12:34 And we think that we can do it ourselves and we forget 12:42 that God is there. 12:44 Many of our problems are caused by the fact that we 12:48 are not aware of the presence of God. -That's good. 12:52 The discouragement can be caused by the fact that we are 12:56 not aware that God is there. Can you imagine being aware 13:01 that God is there? 13:03 The moment that you are discouraged and you know 13:06 for sure that God is present... In the presence of God 13:11 we can not be discouraged if we are aware of that presence 13:15 because we see Him as this great God, as this loving God. 13:21 He's just like a Father, He is our Father. 13:24 You see, you remember when you were small and kind of 13:30 frustrated and then the father comes and all of a sudden 13:35 maybe you are afraid and then the father comes and that fear 13:41 vanishes, and that is the presence of God. 13:45 We need to practice the presence of God in our lives and 13:50 even in temptation. In temptation many times 13:54 we fall into temptation. We, because we are not aware 14:02 that God is there. Can you imagine that our Father 14:06 is there? We love Him, we don't want to disappoint Him. 14:09 That presence is also sanctifying presence. 14:14 - Yes it is. That presence is an encouraging, assuring 14:20 presence. - And let me explain what you were saying 14:23 when it's a sanctifying presence, 14:25 to be sanctified is just to be separated from sin 14:29 and when we recognize that God is in our midst 14:32 we practice His presence, then we understand we don't want to 14:38 do this and hurt our Father. We can overcome the temptation, 14:42 we know that He will give us the way out. 14:44 I do also want to comment... you know you were saying 14:48 that He's the perfect Father and how for many people 14:53 when they were small you were frightened, you were discouraged 14:57 and the father was there. Not for all of us, 15:00 there's, of course my father died when I was a small child 15:03 and there are some people who have had fathers who 15:07 um, unfortunately did not follow the model that God gave them 15:13 in the instructions. But the thing that we want to point out 15:17 is that God is the perfect Father. -He is! -You don't 15:22 need to look at what your earthly father...if you suffered 15:28 abuse or neglect by your earthly father, don't try to paint your 15:34 picture of God by your earthly father because the best 15:38 of earthly fathers make mistakes but God doesn't make mistakes. 15:42 - God doesn't make mistakes, He's our perfect Father. 15:46 He's a loving Father and He is encouraging us and the 15:51 mere fact that we see that He is there, 15:55 that alone will help us just to not disappoint Him 16:00 because He loves us so much and we want to honor Him 16:05 and not only we do this because He is present but the good news 16:12 is that He gives us the power, the power to obey Him. 16:18 - Through the power of the Holy Spirit. 16:20 - If we decide just to put our lives in His hands, 16:24 then all His biddings are enabling. 16:27 When He asks us to obey Him, even gives us the power to obey. 16:34 That is amazing, not only said to this but He gives also 16:39 the power, the strength to do it. 16:42 Paul, I actually, what I teach when I'm teaching on Grace 16:46 is that even obedience is by Grace it is only as God gives us 16:51 the power. He gave us the gift of the Son, 16:54 He gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of 16:56 the word. He's the one that works in us to change our will 17:01 to line our will up with His. He's the one that works 17:04 in us to do His good pleasure the Bible says, so we can't even 17:08 obey Him in our own strength, it is only by grace as He gives 17:14 us that power. -What we need to do is respond to His love. 17:19 - Yes! -To respond to His love and to open our hearts 17:23 said God, you love me so much here I am and then God 17:29 can give us the strength through the work of the Holy Spirit 17:33 to obey Him through His presence. 17:36 So the presence of God is the key and that was a problem 17:41 of Jacob here himself, he admitted, it said in verse 16, 17:47 "Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it." 17:54 I did not know it. So all the troubles, maybe not only here 17:59 but even before when he was doing what he did 18:04 cheating the father, cheating the brother. 18:08 He forgot that God was there and here he had this 18:14 encounter with God, a personal encounter with God. 18:19 God became his personal God through this experience, 18:26 this is the turning point in his life, he had to pass through 18:31 this crisis for him to hear the voice of God, 18:36 for him to have that genuine experience with God. 18:39 And you know, I'm looking at verse 16 that, or excuse me, 18:43 verse 19, where is it? I lost it. 18:47 Where he says that he took the.. Oh, here it is, verse 18. 18:51 Then Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone 18:54 that he had put at his head, this hard place, 18:58 it represented the trial, his mind could have no rest, 19:01 it was uncomfortable, "and he set it up as a pillar 19:05 and poured oil on top of it." So the very experience 19:11 that he went through, the pain he went through became 19:15 his testimony, his memorial to God. 19:18 How often Paul, I know you've seen it so often, 19:22 I see it in my life and in others that when we are 19:25 walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death 19:28 as it were, it's the darkest of dark times 19:30 but when we recognize that God is there with us 19:36 and He turns this around and He sets our feet on a different 19:39 path, that very thing that we disdained going through, 19:44 that experience becomes our joy, it becomes our testimony, 19:48 it becomes our praise. 19:50 Definitely. I call this from T to T, from trial to testimony, 19:56 So here, this is the trial and when God is present 20:04 all our trials will turn into testimonies. 20:08 - Amen! -And all of our trials they are called to prayer. 20:12 So when you pass through difficult times, 20:16 that is not the time to give up, 20:17 that is not the time to look down, 20:22 that is the time to look up. 20:24 That is the time to ask God to intervene in a mighty way 20:30 and through the experience of Jacob, we can see that God is 20:36 more than willing to do that. - Amen! -And it's true, 20:40 we are His children, we are His children, 20:43 He want to bless us, He wants to do these mighty things. 20:47 So and in verse 17 He said, "And he was afraid and said 20:53 how awesome is this place? 20:56 This is none other than the house of God. 21:00 We will elaborate more on the change that took place, 21:06 took place after the encounter with God. 21:10 But I want just to go back into this personal God. 21:17 You see for Jacob, he only knew of God, 21:27 - He knew about God. - About God. 21:29 But, it's very possible that his knowledge of God was 21:37 like the head knowledge. -Yes! - Kind of theoretical, 21:41 intellectual knowledge, and many times that is the problem. 21:46 We know a lot about God, we know the Bible, 21:51 we know verses, we know many things about God 21:54 but the question is, do we know God personally? 21:57 You see, we have plants and flowers, I like flowers, 22:03 but I have observed that there are two kinds of flowers 22:08 when it comes to decoration, the plastic ones 22:12 and the natural one. 22:14 You know when you look from afar, you don't really know 22:18 the difference, they look alike, of course the bees 22:23 cannot be deceived. Bees know exactly which on is plastic 22:29 and which one is the genuine one or the natural one. 22:33 And it is possible that there are also two categories of 22:38 Christians, the plastic Christian, 22:40 and the natural or the genuine Christian. 22:43 When they are seen from afar, they look alike 22:48 but when it comes to real life, then we see the difference 22:56 between the plastic and the natural one. 23:01 In the real world we cannot change, we cannot change 23:07 from plastic flowers to a genuine one, or natural ones, 23:12 but I have good news for us, in spiritual life conversion, 23:18 change can take place. The plastic Christian can 23:22 become a genuine one and you can have that instantly. 23:28 The very moment you said I surrender my life unto God, 23:32 here I am, make me a genuine Christian. 23:36 - And it's all about making God a personal God. 23:40 Jesus said in John 17:3, "This is eternal life 23:45 that you would know God the Father and the one 23:49 whom He sent." But the word know there is in an intimate 23:53 way, a personal way, like a husband knows a wife, 23:58 so this is where the change began for Jacob and for 24:03 any of us going from just maybe a plastic Christian, 24:07 or even a non-Christian to becoming a true Christian 24:10 is when we understand God wants to be a personal... 24:13 - That is the key, that is the key and it is said 24:15 in our text here, "And God then the Lord shall be my God" 24:22 in verse 21. My God. Yes He's the God of the universe, 24:28 He's the God of my father, He's the God of my grandfather, 24:31 He's the God of the church, but He should be my personal God, 24:37 that personal experience with God. 24:40 Someone said I know God exists, I talked to Him this morning. 24:46 So we need to have this personal God, and the question is, 24:52 how do we do this? 24:54 Um, you know a relationship with God, it takes time. 25:01 Any relationship that can grow, it takes time 25:05 and -Communication. communication and time 25:07 and the devil knows this and that's why he's doing everything 25:14 for us not to have time or not to communicate with God 25:18 because if he can just make us too busy, to be too busy 25:25 to talk to God or to spend time with God, 25:28 then he will win because we will not have this connection 25:33 with God. So, quickly, first, we need to look 25:41 how is our prayer life? Are we reading the Bible 25:48 on a regular basis? 25:49 Are we sharing our faith? How is our faith? 25:55 We need to go back to that, to the basic, 25:59 we need to spend time with God. 26:02 Don't ever be too busy to pray, 26:06 don't ever be too busy to read the Bible 26:09 because that is our lifeline. 26:12 We cannot have a strong relationship with God, 26:16 we cannot have God as our personal God if we don't have 26:21 time to pray. Um, and here, later on when Moses was 26:31 called by God to deliver the children of Israel 26:36 and then when Moses said, when they asked me 26:40 about the God who is sending me, what shall I tell them? 26:47 Then God said in Exodus chapter 3, verse 15, 26:57 and He said here moreover God said to Moses 27:02 Exodus 3:15: 27:19 - Um hum! So God put Jacob in His business card. 27:26 He said before when He introduced Himself 27:30 Jacob was not there, but now God said, 27:34 "I am the God of Jacob also." 27:36 So God would like to be very proud to introduce Himself 27:40 to our neighbors, to say I am the God of Shelley, 27:43 I am the God of Paul and that is our personal God. 27:46 So, we need, we need to know God. 27:49 Oh, thank you so much for sharing this Paul and 27:52 we are inviting you back to be with us again next week. 27:56 I just believe that you, God is using you to touch some people 28:01 at home right now. I don't care what your name is, 28:04 God wants to put your name on His business card, 28:07 He wants to be your "Personal God", 28:10 He wants you to know that He will never leave you 28:14 or forsake you and that He is with you always. 28:17 Our prayer is that you respond to God's call. 28:21 Thanks' for joining us. |
Revised 2017-01-16