Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Paul Ratsara
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000485A
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00:01 Did you know that you could be a new creation in Christ Jesus?
00:05 The old will be gone and the new will arise 00:09 when you have a personal encounter with God. 00:12 Join us today on Issues and Answers and see how Jacob's 00:16 personal encounter changed him. 00:49 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn and once again we welcome you to 00:53 Issues and Answers and once again we are welcoming 00:57 the return of Paul Ratsara, Dr. Paul Ratsara who is 01:01 a pastor, he's also the president of 01:04 The Southern Africa Indian Ocean Division of the 01:08 Seventh-Day Adventist church but more than that 01:10 he is a child of God, who is a man of prayer and he practices 01:17 the presence of God daily, moment by moment. 01:20 Paul, thank you so much for returning 01:23 Very happy to be here. - Oh, I am so happy, 01:26 and you know I love you and I love your precious wife Joanne. 01:30 - Yes. -It is just a joy to have you here. 01:34 Well, we just have to dive into this because I am enjoying this 01:38 study so much. Today we're talking about 01:40 Jacob's encounter with God and how it changed him. 01:45 So we are in Genesis, chapter 28, if you would like to get 01:50 your Bible, you will find as I am finding that Paul is 01:54 leading us...sometimes my eyes will stray down a little bit 01:57 to the next scripture and I am seeing things that I really 02:01 hadn't seen before. 02:02 I am enjoy this so much. 02:04 Yeah, yes, you know the word of God is so amazing, 02:10 that is why it is the "Living Word of God" every time, 02:15 every time we read the Bible. 02:17 God just gives us insight so that we can continue to grow. 02:24 This is the "Living Word of God" and the chapter that we are 02:30 studying, Genesis chapter 28, is very much living. 02:34 And when you read the verses, we can see the 02:41 " Power of the Word of God". - Yes. And the power of God 02:45 to change lives. In Jacob for example, when we studied 02:49 in the past, that he was really in a very bad condition. 02:55 - Yeah, he was kind of a scoundrel wasn't he? 02:57 Yeah, he cheated his father, he cheated his brother, 03:04 and because of that, he was in a difficult situation, 03:08 he had to leave, he had to leave the home... 03:11 That is the only solution that the parents knew and 03:17 because of that he had to run away from his brother 03:23 and he felt that God was no longer with him. 03:28 He was kind of rejected by God, he has done something too bad. 03:33 But the good news is that there is no such thing as a situation 03:40 that God cannot reach. There is no thing that is too 03:45 bad, that God cannot mend. There is no one that is too 03:50 low that God cannot reach and you can see that here in the 03:55 life of Jacob. He felt alone and then God showed him 04:00 the ladder and the engines and himself and God renewed 04:06 His covenant and that was his personal encounter with God 04:11 and he met God personally. 04:16 In the past, God was just a God of Abraham and God of Isaac. 04:23 But now God is the God of Jacob as well. -Amen! 04:29 And we too, we must have God as our personal God. 04:35 In the presence of God...you know when God is our personal 04:39 God, that means He is present in our lives. We are aware of 04:44 His presence and that presence is key when it comes to our 04:49 journey, our spiritual journey. 04:51 Because that presence in an encouraging presence, 04:54 that presence is a sanctifying presence and that presence 04:58 removes fear in our heart and anxiety and that presence 05:05 the building presence, to build. 05:09 And I'm just impressed to say there are some who recognize 05:13 God's presence from weekend to weekend when they go to church, 05:16 but there are many people who think they leave God at church 05:21 and they leave either the Sabbath Day or perhaps 05:25 if the keep Sunday...It's like when they go to work 05:29 suddenly they compartmentalize their lives and God is 05:33 the weekends, but now they try to face the week without Him 05:38 and not recognizing He is with them all the time, just as 05:41 as Jacob...Yea, it is said here and actually the promise 05:47 given to Jacob and we can even read that, it is so encouraging 05:52 because here in verse 15: 05:55 "Behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go." 05:59 Wherever you go, not only during the weekend. 06:02 Wherever you go and I will bring you back to this land and 06:06 he said until you have done what I have spoken to you. 06:11 "I will be with you wherever you go." Wherever we go, 06:15 and whatever we do and wherever we are, God is there. 06:21 God is there and that is our personal God. He is there 06:25 as our Father, He's there as our King and He's there as our 06:30 Savior as well. So that was the experience of Jacob. 06:36 What was the impact of that? The impact of this encounter 06:42 with God. First of all, that changed the life of Jacob. 06:49 That changed the life of Jacob. When you read the remaining 06:54 chapters after this, this was the turning point in the life 06:59 of Jacob. God just changed him, even his name 07:04 was changed to Israel. 07:06 You remember the experience he had that later on you see... 07:11 even before that when you reached the destination and 07:18 he worked with Laban and he was cheated there, 07:22 but God protected him, God blessed him. 07:25 - Yes. So God was truthful to what He said. 07:30 When God said I'll be with you always, 07:32 and when God says something, you better believe it 07:36 because God, God is faithful. 07:40 And He said here, He promises, He said: "I will not leave you 07:46 until I have done what I have spoken to you." 07:51 You see, we have so many promises in the Bible. 07:53 We need to personalize those promises. 07:57 The voice of God spoken to us in the Bible...We need to... 08:03 In fact, I would like to challenge all of us just to 08:07 try to find the promises in the Bible and try to count 08:12 them. How many promises do you have? -Thousands. 08:16 A lot and half this experience.. when you read the promise, 08:22 let's internalize that and let's believe that God, God says it. 08:30 It is not just written, because the Bible is the spoken word 08:36 of God to us. -Yes. - So when you read the Bible, 08:39 we need to read it in such a way as God Himself 08:45 is speaking. He is present and He speaks, and He talks. 08:49 - Yes, and He says My work does not return to me void 08:53 but it will accomplish every- thing for which I sent it. 08:57 God watches over His Word to perform it so every one of these 09:00 promises...You know, I believe very strongly in praying them 09:04 back to God and thanking God for this promise 09:07 and making it personal using first pronoun... 09:10 you know. Thank you Lord that this is what you are going to do 09:12 in my life. And he then...when we have the faith to accept it, 09:17 He's watching over His word to perform it. 09:20 So, He is a God of His word. 09:23 Yeah, we don't lack promises, there are many promises. 09:27 Even His, even His Command- ments... Yes! Are promises of 09:32 what He will do in our life. Definitely, definitely. 09:34 So we don't just have to look at it and say it has to be 09:37 something that just jumps off... Any time He tells us we need to 09:41 do something, if He's telling us not to lie, 09:43 He is going to give you the power not to lie when you are 09:46 in covenant relationship with Him. 09:49 Definitely, that is true. 09:51 So Jacob, through this encounter, personal encounter with God, 09:57 God became his personal God. That changed his life forever. 10:03 He became so mature and he found time to entertain this 10:14 relationship with God. You can see that through the 10:16 Book of Genesis... the change of name, which is very important. 10:23 But God Himself give him the name. 10:25 - Spiritual name, Israel. -Yes, spiritual name, yes you... 10:29 I will call you Israel. And you see throughout the Bible, 10:34 the nation that God, God has called is named after Him. 10:42 He said Israel, and even now we can still have Israel. 10:47 So Jacob, for him, it was finished that night 10:52 or the day before that night and that night for him it was over. 10:56 But God said "NO", it's not over, this is just the beginning 11:01 it's a new beginning for you if you want. 11:03 So for us, God is willing to have always a new beginning 11:08 - Yes. -There's no final thing in God with us. 11:13 He said it's final as long as we accept to be molded by God, 11:19 to be changed by God as our potter, we are the clay. 11:24 - In Lamentations chapter 3, He says His mercies are new 11:28 every morning. -Yes. - So even if we fall flat on our 11:33 face today, as did Jacob, we don't have to run from God, 11:39 all we have to do is to come back to Him and say Lord 11:42 forgive me, and I thank you that your mercies are new 11:45 every morning and empower me today, fill me afresh with your 11:49 Holy Spirit. 11:51 - When you think of that love, God is really a God of love. 11:57 Many times we don't have time to think of this. 12:04 We need to be intentional in thanking God, 12:10 and think of His love. We need to have every day 12:15 a dose of love. You know, it's like a...like food. 12:21 We need not to be starved of love because we have enough 12:26 supply of the God of love. We need to have that love. 12:30 and we need to meditate on the goodness of God, 12:35 the blessing of God. Take time, take time to reflect 12:39 upon what He has done in the past. 12:41 Let's count the blessings of the Lord, 12:43 many times we tend to count all our trials, 12:48 we need not to count all of these trials, 12:51 we need rather to count our blessings. 12:54 - Yes. -Your trials, yes, that the trials I call to prayer 12:59 so that the trials will be changed into testimonies, 13:03 but we need to learn how to praise God. 13:07 But we don't praise God enough. We praise many things, 13:11 praise human beings, but it appears that we are so rare, 13:17 so scarce in praising God. We need to train ourselves, 13:23 we need to ask God, let me... God count the blessings that 13:26 you have done. 13:28 So Jacob, Jacob was blessed by God and he as you know 13:34 he went to Egypt and joined his son Joseph 13:41 with the brothers, and this simple man like Jacob... 13:47 Jacob...Joseph said to his father when they reached Egypt, 13:53 father, let's go and visit Pharaoh, so they went 13:58 and Pharaoh was the most powerful man on earth then 14:03 and look what has happened. 14:06 When you read the Bible, Jacob was not intimidated 14:10 by the presence of this powerful king because he knows personally 14:17 the King of the universe and once he reached that place 14:24 Jacob blessed Pharaoh, he blessed Pharaoh. 14:29 A simple man, a very ordinary man now became an extraordinary 14:36 even blessed the most powerful king on earth during that time. 14:41 When we give our lives to God, even though we are so common, 14:48 even though we are so ordinary, we are ordinary people 14:54 but because of our God, we cease to be ordinary, 15:01 we become extra ordinary because of God. 15:05 So Jacob, he was just an ordinary young man 15:08 but God transformed him into an extra ordinary man. 15:15 If we hand over our lives to God, God will transform us. 15:24 That does not mean that we will not have challenges and 15:27 problems, but we will overcome them and we will navigate them 15:32 because God is with us. 15:34 Yes, Jesus Christ said in this life you will find trouble 15:37 and tribulations but I am with you, 15:39 and that was the experience of Jacob because he had some 15:44 challenges in his life through- out, but all along God just 15:50 helped him to go through this. 15:52 Each one of his trials, each one of his challenges, 15:55 each one of his tribulations actually became his testimony 16:00 later, just as it did with this rock that was the pillow 16:05 for his head, this rock that became an altar. 16:09 Let's go to that now. -Ok. Now, so first of all 16:13 when we encounter God personally God changes us. 16:19 - Yes. -And that is so clear, and the promise of God 16:23 is that we become new creature, - Halleluiah! -we become new. 16:28 The Bible talks about being born again, born again, 16:35 that means we start afresh. You start afresh, 16:38 you press this start button on the computer, ok, let's start. 16:43 Yes, let's start again. So, um, this is like a new start 16:48 for Jacob indeed. So God wants to start all over 16:53 again with us every morning. I like that Shelley, 16:56 every morning God is renewing His covenant with us. 17:02 Now, when we are with God, even the things we do 17:09 cease to be ordinary. Ordinary things can be changed 17:16 into extra ordinary. 17:18 Let's talk about the stone now. - Sure. This stone, you see 17:22 chapter 28, Genesis Chapter 28:11 17:28 said "and He took one of the stones, one of the stones. 17:34 That means it was just an ordinary stone 17:38 in the middle of an hour there before Jacob touched the stone, 17:45 it was just ordinary, there was no meaning. 17:48 Of course it was used by him to be a pillow, that's all 17:53 but could have been another stone because it was just one 17:56 of the stones of that place and put it at his head 18:01 and he laid down in that place to sleep. So ordinary stone. 18:07 Now, before Jacob met God, that stone was just one of the 18:16 stones. But after his encounter with God, let's see 18:22 the result of that. 18:24 Verse 18. Then Jacob rose early in the morning and took 18:31 the stone that he had put at his head. That simple stone... 18:38 one of the stones in the desert and set it up as a pillar 18:42 so, that simple stone in the hands of a child of God 18:49 becomes a pillar, becomes a pillar and poured oil 18:55 on top of it. And then in verse 19, and he called the name 19:01 of that place, "Better", but the name of that 19:04 city had been losed producly. 19:07 Then in verse 22, the same stone, and this stone 19:13 which have said as a pillar, that is a... pillar 19:18 is already good enough. 19:19 Shall be God's house. God's house, simple pillar, 19:27 simple stone became a pillar and became a house of God, 19:35 God's house. What is a lesson that we can draw from this? 19:40 You see, the very moment you are with God, you are a child 19:47 of God. You cease to be ordinary because you are special... 19:53 In Peter it is said that you are special people, 19:59 special, we are special. Yes, we can even read that, 20:04 we can read, it is so beautiful because that really 20:11 reflects what God plans to do for us, 20:18 and that is 1 Peter 2:9, verse 9 and 10 said 1 Peter 2:9, 20:31 and you can read also verse 10. 20:34 "But you are a chosen generation." 20:38 Chosen, it is good to be chosen, chosen generation. 20:42 A royal priest who is chosen and royal. 20:47 That is special, and not only that, a holy nation that is 20:52 separate, separate, set apart. 20:55 His own special people, four words just to describe us, 21:00 you see here, it said you chosen, royal, holy, and special 21:08 people that you may proclaim the presence of Him 21:13 who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 21:18 - And this goes back to what you were saying earlier, 21:21 that we don't praise enough. God has taught me... 21:23 You know when you look at thee order of worship in the 21:27 sanctuary...Enter His gates with Thanksgiving, 21:30 and into His courts with Praise. So as I am praying, 21:33 I always begin with thanksgiving and praise and the interesting 21:38 thing is sometimes I may start to pray and I may be down in the 21:42 mouth, I may be feeling poor pitiful me, 21:45 but when I start with thanksgiving and praise, 21:48 it takes my eyes off my problem onto the Lord and His power 21:53 and everything He has done in my life, and suddenly 21:56 I'm coming to Him. It increases my faith and here's what 22:00 He says. We are all of these things that we may proclaim 22:03 the praises of Him who called us out of darkness. -Yes! 22:06 So when we meet God, when God is our personal God, 22:11 then we are special, we are special because, because of God 22:17 not because of us, but because of God and that means 22:21 we need to live accordingly. 22:25 Whatever we do, it should be for the Glory of God. 22:31 - Yes. -And ah, even the car we drive. It might be... 22:35 It is actually an ordinary car, the same cars as other people 22:40 drive, but because it belongs to us, it belongs to God as well, 22:45 especially it belongs to God and it is special. 22:49 Our spouses must be special, our children must be special, 22:55 they, they...we need to treat them as special because of this 23:02 relationship with God. So our job for example, 23:05 we may have a job, the same job description as maybe our workmate 23:11 but because that job is done by us, by someone chosen by 23:17 God is special, that job is no longer ordinary, 23:20 it becomes an extra ordinary job, we have then 23:25 an extra ordinary life. 23:28 Let me compute with a story if I may, just to illustrate this, 23:36 as a response to this. 23:39 Come with me to France, it happen in France 23:44 and it happened in a classroom with children age thirteen, 23:52 fourteen. There was a boy there who was special, 23:57 so special that the teacher, a lady, was so surprised by 24:04 his behavior. So one day she said to this particular boy, 24:12 she said listen, after class I really would like to talk 24:16 to you because I have something of a question that 24:21 I want to ask, so please stay behind. 24:24 He said yes ma'am. So after class the boy stayed behind 24:32 and sat next to facing the teacher and the teacher said 24:39 you know, I have been a teacher for many years, 24:41 I have a lot of experience, but I have never seen 24:47 a boy like you. You are special. 24:53 You are not ordinary at all. You see, I have never had the 24:58 problem with you, you behave so well that I cannot even 25:02 believe it, you do your homework's, you are doing 25:06 on time, your lessons you know. What is this? 25:11 Can you tell me, what is behind of all of this? 25:15 The boy looked at the teacher. You know madam, as you can see, 25:22 I am not from this country, I'm an immigrant. 25:27 Let me tell you more madam. You see, I come from one of the 25:34 eastern European countries and my father was the king 25:40 but when the Communistic Regime came, they fought us 25:46 they conquered us, my father did everything, 25:51 but one day he called us, my mother and my siblings, 25:56 he said listen, I can see that we are going to lose this war, 26:01 it's just a matter of time, because they are stronger 26:07 than us. So I have a plan, you must run away, 26:14 mother and the siblings. I will stay here 26:18 and continue the fight but you must run away. 26:22 We realize that that was the only solution, it was hard 26:28 madam, but we know our father, he is a wise man, 26:32 he loves us so much and we accept it. 26:37 So he said, I made all the plan then now go, 26:41 but when I went madam, just a few steps, he called me back. 26:46 He said son, come here, and he looked at me and he held my 26:50 shoulder and he said look son, remember wherever you are 26:56 you are not common, you are a royal. -Amen! 27:00 You are a royal, that why madam, I behave like this. 27:06 I am royal, I am royal, I am not common, I cannot behave 27:12 like them. I am different, I am special and that is the 27:17 lesson. When we are with God, when God is in our heart, 27:23 when we met God personally, we are no longer common, 27:28 not because of us but because of God and we need to honor 27:32 God in whatever we do. We need to act accordingly 27:37 and God will give us the strength. 27:40 Thank you so much Paul, once again we've just enjoyed this 27:44 study and we are going to get you to come back at least 27:48 one more time because we are still not through, 27:49 but thank you for the time and what you have shared today. 27:53 For those of you at home, it doesn't matter what you have 27:57 done in the past. If you ever think you are too bad for God, 28:01 all you have to do is read the story of Manasseh, 28:04 Manasseh was such a horrible sinner and yet God 28:09 brought him back and restored the kingdom to him. 28:12 God wants to be your personal God, He wants you to recognize 28:18 His presence in your life day by day and He wants 28:22 personal encounter with you. |
Revised 2016-12-22