Fresh Manna 2021

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Strong Tower Radio

Fresh Manna by Moise Ratsara

Moise Ratsara

Staying on the Wall

Fresh manna fell to the ground as a gift from God while the Israelites were in the wilderness.

It was fresh from the ovens of heaven, Baked by the master baker himself.

How the Israelites must have anticipated the taste and the smell of each morning's delivery.

Just like the Israelites, you too can now experience the taste and the smell of fresh manna.

Today, you'll be listening to Moise Red Serra, pastor of the Kalamazoo Filipino Company and Kalamazoo Seventh-Day Adventist Churches.

You know, it is a great joy to be in the house of the Lord.

It is a great joy to be gathered with people, brothers and sisters, who seek to listen to God.

Today we are continuing our series through how to not be deceived at the end of time.

Last Sabbath, we talked about end time thinking and we saw that end time thinking is being captivated by the Word of God.

Having our minds and thoughts stayed upon God and what He's doing in His Word, that is 1 of the surest way to be ready and to not be tricked when Jesus comes again, to not be deceived.

We also saw that the state of the last day church, which is found in Revelation 3, is called Laodicea.

It is a state of deep deception where they think they are rich and clothed and all those things, but they are naked, blind and poor.

And we saw that the only way for us to not be self-deceived again is to be captivated by the Word of God, to know the mind of God, what He thinks, what His feelings and thoughts are, so that we might not end up like the Jews who were deceived and who put Jesus on a cross.

Today I felt impressed to switch what we were going to talk about.

I was planning to talk about the issues of the great controversy, and we'll talk about that next Sabbath.

That will be more of what we call theological presentation, which is involved on the main issues such as the Sabbath, the law of God, the character of God, and all of those issues that we are going to face and we'll have to make a decision.

But today I want to talk about staying on the wall And I invite you to have a word of prayer with me Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the ability for us to gather here You know our heart, you know our desires, you know our hopes and fears and dreams But today father we ask that our mind will be captivated by the Word of God.

I remember in times past, I used to volunteer for a non-profit.

And this non-profit, some of you might know it, called GYC, it gathered about close to 5, 000 people on a given Sabbath once a year from all over the world.

It was a powerful movement and we were young people and we were very passionate about taking the gospel to the entire world.

I happened to serve as president at the time for a couple years, and as we were serving there, we had a very hard situation in 1 country.

The young people were doing whatever they could to share the Word of God, but some people in high places were not happy at the fact that they were doing evangelistic work.

They thought that they were not mature enough or could not handle the process of sharing the gospel.

They needed more years and they were discouraging them and spreading all sorts of lies against them.

They were saying that they were fanatics, that they were young, they were new converts, they did not know how to do all these things, They did not know how to do all these things.

They did not know how to organize themselves.

There are offshoots there, you know, all sorts of different things.

And the young people in this 1 area were becoming very discouraged.

There were doctors, some psychiatrists, other things, some plumbers, carpenters, but they were in a third world country and most of them did not have a lot of means.

And they were sacrificing all of their means in order to carry the work of the gospel.

But now there were charges pressed against them.

That they were doing a wrong work, that they were not ready for that work.

So I remember going, you know, to 1 of the brethrens in the higher ups flying all the way to Washington DC to meet with a person and to talk to them about this situation because it's very tragic especially with young people, they're little things or this was not a little thing, but certain things can really discourage them.

So I went over there and I met with this guy and he told me a parable that I'll never forget.

He said, Mo, you need to stay on the wall.

I said, okay, what do you mean by the wall?

He says, you need to stay on the wall, because if you come down from the wall and fight with the pigs, they're going to love it, and you're going to stink.

I looked at him, and he said the parable again.

He says, Mo, you need to stay on the wall because if you come down from the wall and fight with the pigs, they're going to love it and you're going to stink.

What he was saying is that the temptation was to go full blast and go against those people to consume our time fighting controversies.

But what he was saying was that don't worry about all those controversies.

Focus on being faithful and doing the work.

There's something my friends, nobody can debate success.

You can say whatever you want, but when a person is faithful, when a person is staying on the wall of faith, Whatever is going on around with the pigs, stay on the wall.

It was 1 that at the time I did not understand, but soon after understood because those people that were spreading false rumors and discouraging the young people, soon they were all replaced.

We did not get into controversies that were not useful.

And that was a lesson that today we want to talk about because you and I today are engaged in a very big warfare and there are many things that can consume our attention and many things that the devil is throwing at us some of them even look urgent.

But Jesus in his word as we're going to see today, he's saying to stay on the what my friends?

Let's go to Philippians chapter 2 and see what this is all about.

Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 to verse 8.

Thank you again Elder Joe for the reading.

And here Jesus, through the pen of Paul, writes something very important.

It says, Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affectionate and mercy, fulfill my joy by being what, my friends?

Having the same love, being of 1 accord of 1 mind.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in loneliness of mind.

Let us each esteem others better than himself.

Let us each look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of man.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." Jesus was so consumed by his mission that he stayed on the wall of faith even if it led him to a cross.

There's a battle going on right now for your attention, for your worship.

At the end of time, the battle that is going to keep us the most busy is the battle of the great controversy, the battle over worship.

Who has the best of your emotions who are you working for are you spending the rest of your time fighting with the pigs or are you spending your time being faithful a watchman on the wall Today we're going to focus on a more specific verse and we're going to tie in with Philippians 2 but that will be later.

I'm just asking you for now to just remember this verse.

In there it is 1 of Paul's last messages to 1 church that was experiencing a lot of tribulations.

And he wanted to warn them about something.

In there, he wants to warn them to stay on the wall of faith.

In verse 1 he says, But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.

For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord succumbs as a thief in the night.

For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them.

As labor pains upon a pregnant woman, they shall not what my friends, they shall not escape.

But you brethren are not in darkness, so that this day should not overtake you as a thief.

You're all sons of the light and sons of the day.

We are not sons of the night nor of darkness.

Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

For those who sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night.

But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as the helmet of hope of salvation.

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we shall live together with him.

Therefore comfort each other and edify 1 another, just as you also are doing." In this verse here, Paul is talking about the day of the Lord.

Seeking the Lost

Today, you'll be listening to Moise Retz-Zara, pastor of the Kalamazoo Filipino Company and Kalamazoo Seventh-Day Adventist Churches.

Let's have a word of prayer as we talk today about seeking the lost.

Please be with us as we talk and as we seek your word in Jesus name, amen.

Thank you Elder Bob for reading the story.

Let's go to Luke chapter 15, verse 1 to verse 7.

In this parable, Jesus is looking, and by the way, I've been praying, I said, Lord, what can I share today to Agnes and to those who are wanting to commit their lives to Jesus?

I've been praying about that because I say, Lord, I don't want to just stand up there and talk about something.

I want to talk about what is important to you.

So the Lord, through providence, guided me to this text.

As a matter of fact, when you're in Luke chapter 15, if you go 2 verses before then, Jesus was giving an analogy of salt.

In there in Luke chapter 14 verse 34, he says, Salt is good, but if salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but man throw it out.

He who has an ear to hear, let him hear." As Jesus gives the analogy of salt, he's gonna go and explain to them a parable.

But the parable that he's going to explain to them is in the midst of a big argument.

And as a matter of fact, Jesus is being accused with 1 of the favorite attacks that the Pharisees and the religious leaders liked to accuse Jesus of.

Now we go to our scripture in Luke chapter 15 verse 1 reading to verse 7.

It says that all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him to hear him and the Pharisees and the scribes did what my friends?

They complained, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.

So he spoke this parable to them, saying, What men of you having a hundred sheep?

If he loses 1 of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the 1 who is lost until he finds it?

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost.

I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over 1 sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance." Jesus here is being accused and they are complaining, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes.

They're complaining because they say the problem with Jesus is not that he's a good man.

The problem with Jesus, going back to verse 2, is what, my friends?

The context of this passage, as you saw, is Jesus talking about salt, and in here, He has found the Pharisees and the scribes are an example of that salt that has lost its flavor.

They have lost their flavor because they cannot see God at work.

As a matter of fact, they are very disgusted by the fact that Jesus would eat with sinners and tax collectors.

Jesus, to reply to them, gives a series of 3 parables.

For the sake of time, we can't go over each 1 of them, but we're going to focus on this 1 of the lost sheep.

The first parable that he gives is the 1 of the lost sheep.

Then he gives the parable of the woman that has lost her coin.

And then 1 that we are very acquainted with is the parable of the prodigal son.

All those 3 parables are in answer to that accusation that they laid on Christ that this man received sinners.

But it's also important to remember that when Jesus gives this parable, he's appealing to the Pharisees and to the scribes.

Jesus is not giving this parable to justify his actions necessarily, but he's saying what he's doing so that he can reach the hearts of these Pharisees and these scribes.

And he gives them 4 principles in our first parable.

He begins by appealing to them by using the first parable and the first principle and it's found in verse 4.

Today we're going to answer the question what does it mean to seek the lost?

In verse 4 he says, what men of you having a hundred sheep, if he loses 1 of them, does not leave the what my friends, the 99 in the wilderness and go after the 1 who is lost until he finds it.

What is the function of this man, what does he do for a living in this parable?

Now, you and I today might not understand fully all of the what it entails to be a shepherd, but in those days being a shepherd was 1 of the most humblest work you could ever do.

There were several reasons why being a shepherd was seen as very humble work.

Number 1, you had to work for very long hours in isolation.

You would have to go for months on end in the wilderness and there you were surrounded and I don't know how many of you would like to listen to sheep all day long.

If you want to better your patience, go listen to sheep for 2 hours.

But the shepherd will have to do that for months on end, and he would have to wander, and at times in the night he would have to sleep in the cave with the sheep.

Not only was it hard work that required lots of hours in isolation.

But 1 of the main things that the shepherd did was that he would have to protect the sheep.

Oftentimes in those areas they were bears and also they were lions.

And the lions that they had in the Palestinian regions were called Barbary lions.

Have any of you guessed what a Barbary lion is?

But they were much larger than normal lions, and their maim ran all the way to their back legs.

You see some of the statues of them in Babylon.

You know, When you go, for example, to the London Museum, you see this big lion, and when you notice his mane goes all the way back to his legs, that is a Barbary lion.

The other type of predator that also shepherd will have to be very careful to face, that were very cunning and dangerous were snakes.

Well, in the north you probably say insects or squirrels, critters.

I love critters but there's 1 critter that I do not like and I cannot stand.

Now I don't want to offend anybody because I know I have some relatives that adore their pet snake.

But I got to tell you When you see a snake in action, it is not a pretty sight.

And snakes were known to crawl around and try to snatch little sheep.

As a matter of fact, in Northern Africa, you have what they call a rock python.

He's almost longer than an anaconda in some cases, but the anaconda is still the longest 1.

But a rock python is 1 of the largest pythons you can have.

The shepherd was in charge of watching over his sheep.

And this was very hard work because you would have to put your body in danger to protect your sheep.

Power in the Blood

Today, you'll be listening to Moise Retzera, pastor of the Kalamazoo Filipino Company and Kalamazoo Seventh-Day Adventist Churches.

So today's sermon is We're starting a series called The Encounters of Christ.

The Encounters of Christ in the book of John.

John is very fascinating because John, the way how he talks about Jesus, he doesn't say what Jesus believes or what Jesus says.

He talks about Jesus through his encounters with regular people like you and I.

Today, we're going to look at 2 encounters of 2 very different people.

1 man who has tremendous power and another woman who lives a life of utter shame.

But these 2 people are more common than we think and in these 2 people you and I can be found.

Because if they have something in common then we all are part of this story.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you today with the assurance that you're here with us.

For where 2 or 3 are gathered, gathered in your name, there you will be also.

So Lord Jesus, as we have gathered here and online around the world, We ask that we will listen to your still small voice, and that we will not harden our hearts, but do what you say.

Go with me to the book of John, John chapter 4.

This is a four-part series through the encounter of Jesus Christ in the book of John.

I got to just tell you this, my friend, I'm so happy to see all of you.

What a tremendous blessing it is from yours truly here.

In John chapter 4, and I'm gonna give you some time to turn to your Bibles, to John chapter 4.

In John chapter 4, there is an encounter there that's going to change the entire course of how the disciples are going to perceive Jesus and how the Jews are going to perceive Jesus.

And there in John chapter 4, Jesus meets a woman, a Samaritan woman, in the afternoon, in the hottest day, in the hottest time during the day.

He meets this woman and there is nothing about this woman that would cause Jesus to meet her.

As a matter of fact, she's a Samaritan, and you know Samaritans were people when the Babylonians and the Assyrians went to conquer Jerusalem.

And those Jews that they left behind started to mingle with the other locals that were living in that area.

And they started to intermarry with those locals.

Those locals, however, were practicing pagan religions and they intermingled their Jewish heritage and traditions with the pagan rituals of these locals that were living around the area.

They intermarried and intermarried also their religion and as a result their Religious faith became a hybrid of paganism and God worship.

For you can never mix the religion of Christ with the religion of the world.

So this is what the Samaritans did and this was their religion.

They were an outcast in the eyes of a Jew because they were religiously impure.

More than that, this was a woman with a mired sexual past.

She was not an exemplary model of what a woman should be in that society.

She had a very bad past and we know that she was a community reject because she goes to get water in the afternoon.

When most of the ladies would go in the morning, because in the morning the water was the freshest.

It was nice and cool in the afternoon it was starting to get hot and this woman lived a life of shame.

It will not be the type of woman you will have to 1 in your chat group or on your messages when you're talking together at work with your co-workers, this is the woman that was soon as they come to the lunchroom everybody says, oh well I guess it's time to get out.

What is even more radical is that Jesus wants to speak to this woman.

The story begins between this encounter of this outsider with Jesus himself.

In verse 7 it says, A woman of Samaria came to draw water.

For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

Then the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you being a Jew ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.' Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who is it is who is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.

Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank it himself, as well as his son and his livestock?" Jesus answered and said to her, "'Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.

But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal, everlasting life." The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." And Jesus takes this whole conversation to another level.

In verse 16, he says to her, Jesus said to her, Go and call your husband and come here.

At first, when you're looking at this encounter, it's very interesting.

First, Jesus starts to talk about, I can give you this water, this everlasting water.

She says, oh, that is Great, because I do not want to come back here in the afternoon and draw water again.

Is Jesus trying to add more shame into her life by having to make her confess that the man that she's living with is not really her husband?

I want to tell you my friends that this question that Jesus is asking her is the question that will reveal with surgical precision the true condition of her heart.

Series

Fresh Manna by Moise Ratsara

Staying on the Wall

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

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Keys of Revelation

15. The Return of the King

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How YOU Can Bring Closure for Jesus

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Back to the Mission

The Battle Cry of the Remnant

1h 1m

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History and Heroes - Those That Stand: Part 3

1h 6m

Filled by God's Spirit

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50m

God’s Prophetic Movement, Message, and Mission and Their Attempted Neutralization by the Devil

1h 11m

Sound Doctrine