Family Matters//9AM// Elder Brett Rodway

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Love Quest International

Church podcast, where we seek to love all nations, equip the

church, mobilize the equipped, and serve all.

We're super glad you're joining us from whenever and wherever

you're at in the world. Welcome to the family to get

your Bibles ready, get some water, get some coffee, maybe

some tea, and get ready to receive.

Let's get into it. Well, it's so great to see you

here today. It's going to be a good day.

We're going to continue along the message that we started just

a couple of weeks ago on family matters.

So we started with the family that God intended in the first

week. And then last week, Elder John

spoke about family forgiveness as a powerful statement,

forgiveness, the forgiveness that we have.

And now we're going to continue with family matters on the

subject of it runs in the family, it runs in the family.

You know, there's certain things that run in the family.

All right, and, and sometimes those things are genetic, right?

There's certain certain hairlines that run in the

family, right? Certain heights that run in the

family. There's certain sometimes people

have these tweaky little thumbs that they can bend and and have

double jointed, right? You've seen that there's things

that run in the family, and then there's sometimes the things

that run in the family that, you know, we can just catch these

habits. You know, there's certain areas

of activities that we run in the family.

Sometimes what runs in the family begins because somebody

in the family wants to learn a new skill.

So now music runs in the family. Yeah, they may have been

musically inclined, but now because this person started

piano or this person started in singing and now that runs in the

family. Because in the family they heard

singing, they heard all these things.

And that became part of what the family is, you know, at

Christmas time, or they gathered together around a piano because

that's just something they do. Is it runs in the family.

My, my ma, my grandma on my mum's side started doing

elocution and diction and public speaking as a way of winning

money because at that time they'd have these little

contests in Australia for that. And so she made money from

getting a poem and, and reading it with articulation and, and,

and very good diction. And so therefore that starts to

run in the family, except for the first few weeks I was here

in Canada, I remember I'd met this incredible lady from Canada

and just beautiful. And yeah, it's amazing.

And anyway, we'd met in Australia.

Then six months later I came to visit in Canada.

And I had not been to Canada before and I didn't realise I

had an accent. You ever have that not realising

you have an accent? And I had gone into Walmart to

get some lights, but back then I didn't say it that clearly or

without much diction. And so I had gone in.

I was a where? Where are the lights?

This poor lady looks at me. I said the lights.

Where are the lights? She's like locks, the locks, the

locks are down here. No lights, lights.

And I point up lights. Oh, lights.

Oh, anyway, I don't know how I got into that story.

Bless the Lord, OK, But it runs in the family.

It runs in the family. Now, my children are Canadians,

so they can be understood in Canada, which is fantastic.

Fantastic. So today we're going to address

what it means to have areas in your family line that can be

negative, that need to be broken.

And you might be asked to the question, why am I repeating

negative family habits? What it like sometimes you like?

How did I end up sounding like my dad?

How did I end up sounding like my mum?

How did I end up catching that habit, that thing that I didn't

like then or or it wasn't something I thought was part of

who I was, but I've had this habit or this negative aspect

and how do I hit reset on family hurt?

How do I hit reset? In Exodus 34, verse six and

seven, it says, and the Lord passed by before him.

Now what's happening here is Moses is at the top of Mount

Sinai and he asked to see the Lord.

And so it says. And the Lord passed by before

him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and

gracious, say, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and

abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping mercy and loving

kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and

transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the

guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children

and the children's children to the third and 4th generation.

So here we have this fascinating verse where he talks about his

kindness. He talks about his mercy, he

talks about His grace, talks about the way he sheds his, his

loving kindness for thousands. And yet it would seem that He

might be visiting the sins of the fathers on the children.

But this term visiting actually means to observe, to see the

impact of sin for generations, to observe the generational

impact of sin. You see, He is merciful and

gracious, He is forgiving, and He is abundant in loving

kindness, but He notices the impact of sin.

The impact of sin in a generation goes down the line

until it is interrupted. You've probably heard this term

many times here at Lovequest. You can be the interruption in

your bloodline. Interrupt the bloodline,

interrupt that pattern, that negative pattern.

You're an interruption, your interruption to this line of of

chaos or perhaps hurt. Perhaps there are areas in the

family that of anger and you're like, I never thought I'd be

like that. And yet it's come through the

line. You are the interruption.

Genesis 12 we start to see a pattern of negative impact even

here in Abraham. Now Abraham is known as a man of

faith and obedience. He is known to be a one who was

faithful to the Lord. And yet in this one area there

was a pattern. Genesis 12 verse 10 it says then

Genesis 12:10

a famine came to the land. Abram went down to Egypt to

live. It was a hard famine.

As he drew near to Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarah, look,

we both know that you're a beautiful woman.

Gentlemen, that is a good idea to say that to your wife.

OK. All right?

Just take that note. That's a positive you can take

out of this message. All right, look, we both know

you're a beautiful woman. When the Egyptians see you,

they're going to say, aha, that's his wife, and kill me,

but they'll let you live. Do me a favour, tell them you're

my sister. Because of you, they'll welcome

me and let me live. When Abraham arrived in Egypt,

the Egyptians took one look and saw that his wife was stunningly

beautiful. Pharaoh's Princess raved over

her to Pharaoh, and she was taken to live with Pharaoh

because to live with Pharaoh because of her.

Abram got along very well. He accumulated sheep and cattle,

male and female donkeys, men and women servants and camels.

But God hit Pharaoh hard because of Abraham's wife, Sarai, and

everybody in the palace got seriously sick, and Pharaoh

called for Abraham. What's this that you've done to

me? Why didn't you tell me that

she's your wife? Why did you say she's my sister?

So that I'd act. I'd take her as my wife.

Here's your wife back. Take her and get out.

Abraham set the standard of lying and deceit.

He had made an acceptable, what he believed an acceptable

position. But it was a position of lying

and deceit. Now in Genesis 12, it's actually

at the beginning of his journey with the Lord.

But we actually see this story repeated in Genesis 20 when he

goes to garage and does the same thing with Abimelech.

And that is after he didn't counted God, after he'd had the

change of name from Abraham to Abraham, after he had

encountered the presence of the Lord.

And yet he still fell into this position of lying in deceit.

Lying in deceit was the symptom of the root.

The root was the fear of man. See, sometimes that thing that

you're dealing with is a symptom and your root is found actually

in fear. The root is found in

insecurities. The root is found in a, a, a

trauma, but not knowing how to deal with it, it's a symptom and

we have to get to the root. There are situations where

people have had have fear in their life and that fear was

rooted in an insecurity that grip them.

And we get to the root of it through Christ.

We get the root of it through the work of the Holy Spirit.

We get to the root because God's not interested in just trimming

the top and and taking away the view of what it might have been.

He wants to get to the root because he wants you whole.

He wants to get to the root because his plan for you is

wholeness. His purpose for you and for your

family is wholeness. Wholeness in every part.

So we see in Genesis 26, Isaac, Isaac is Abraham's son.

So Isaac stayed in garage. When the men who lived there

asked Isaac about his wife Rebecca, he said, she's my

sister. Hang on.

This happened before, right? Right.

He was afraid to say she is my wife.

He was afraid. Afraid.

It's the same root. The fear of man.

It was the same root with the same fruit.

But we deal with the root. We deal with the fruit.

So Isaac said Indira Yep and said she is my sister.

He was afraid to say she is my wife.

He thought they will kill me to get her because she is so

beautiful. But sometime later, Abimelech,

king of the Philistines, looked out his window and saw Isaac

caressing Rebecca. Immediately Abimelech called for

Isaac and exclaimed, She's obviously your wife.

Why did you say she is my sister?

Route? Because I was afraid someone

would kill me to get her from me.

Afraid, Isaac replied. How could you do this to us?

Abimelech exclaimed. One of my people might easily

have taken your wife and slept with her, and you would have

made us guilty of great sin. Then Abimelech issued a public

proclamation. Anyone who touches this man or

his wife will be put to death. So Isaac had continued the

family family line activity of lying in deceit.

And then Isaac reaped the sowing of lying in deceit.

When Isaac had two children, Esau and Jacob.

Esau was a a hunter. He he loved going out in the

field and he's a hairy man and rugged.

It it says a hairy man in the Bible says a hairy man.

I'll tell you how hairy he was. Yeah, that's not not that way,

But yes. And and Jacob wanted the

blessing. But Jacob was the youngest son

and I was to go to Esau. So Isaac had told he sort of go

out and and get some game. He was old at the time, blind,

and he said his time to die was soon.

So he told his eldest son to go out and get some game, make some

food. And then I'll give you a

blessing because he loved the the food that that Esau would

would get when he went out hunting.

And then Rachel, Rachel, Isaac's wife, actually says to Jacob,

quick, you can get the blessing. We just got to do this.

Just follow exactly what I said. They get a goat, they kill it,

they make the food and then they take some of the goat hair.

Yes, he was that hairy. And they put that on the back of

of Jacob's neck and on his arms, so that if if Isaac was to touch

him, he would think it was Esau. And so we see he comes in, he

deceives his father, and he receives the blessing and the

lying in the seat that had happened through Isaac came back

to him through his son, and he reaped that.

Genesis 26 tells the story in verse 36.

It says Esau exclaimed. No wonder his name is Jacob, for

now he has cheated me twice. First he took my rights as the

first born, and now he has stolen my blessing.

Oh, haven't you saved even one blessing for me?

He said to Isaac. And then from verse 41, from

that time on Esau hated Jacob because their father had given

Jacob the blessing. And Esau began to scheme.

I will soon be mourning my father's death.

Death. Then I will kill my brother

Jacob. So now the lying and the deceit

that had begun in Abraham, continued in Isaac, had now

reaped and sown deceit back to them, but also division and also

a murderous heart. It was running in the family and

it had to break. It was a pattern of deceit that

left a trail of scars. And yet many great things happen

through this line. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

This is what I love about the Bible.

The Bible doesn't just give you the rosy picture.

The Bible tells you the stuff that they should never have

done. It's not putting this image out

there that everything was easy. It says, yeah, this, this

actually happened. And these led to a pattern of

deceit that left scars in their life, separation and family.

And it wasn't until later in his life that Jacob had himself been

deceived by his father-in-law. Again.

It just keeps going in circles, right?

And then he had an encounter with the Lord where he wrestled

the Lord and asked for his blessing.

And after that time he went and he actually met Esau, his

brother. And in that moment there was

restoration. In that moment, what had become

division, what had become hurt and pain had begun to heal.

Now I want to give you an example of a positive line.

Funny enough, same line. It's actually one of one of the

descendants of Levi, who is one of the sons of Jacob.

In First Chronicles 16, we hear about Asaph.

Who's heard of Asaph before? Good amount of you.

OK, good. King David appointed Levites to

minister before the Ark of the Lord and to celebrate by calling

to mind and thanking and praising the Lord, the God of

Israel. Asaph was the chief next to him.

Zechariah Jazeel, Jay-Z. That'll do.

Shimmy, Ramoth, Jaheel, Matataya, Ilya, Banaya, Edom and

JL who were to play harps and liars.

Asaph was to sound the symbols. And then on the day David's

first entrusted, then on that day, David's first entrusted to

Asaph and his brethren the singing of thanks to the Lord as

their chief task. So here's Asaph.

Asaph is of the line of the Kohathites.

One of the sons of Levi was Kohath, and that group of people

were responsible when responsible for the sacred

things in the Tabernacle during the time of Moses and the sacred

things when it became the temple.

And here he was appointed now by David and his job, his primary

role is to be in the House of God and to thank God, praise

God. That was his primary role.

And now we see here in Two Chronicles 5.

So that was under King David, now under King Solomon at the

time of the temple dedication, it reads in verse 12.

And all the Levites who were singers, all of those of Asaph,

Heman and Jedathan, with their sons and their kinsmen arrayed

in fine linen, having symbols, harps and liars, stood at the

East End of the altar, and with them 120 priests blowing

trumpets. So this is at Solomon's

dedication. So we see, here's Asaph now with

his sons doing the same thing, praising God, leading people in

the praise of God who runs in the family.

Now we know the story of Israel is broken one and they end up

going into Babylon into exile. Then when they're returning from

exile, there's a group of them will come back and say we've got

to rebuild the temple because it had been destroyed.

And we read here in Ezra chapter 3 after they had built the

Ezra 3 · chapter mention

foundation of the temple. This is almost 450 years plus

later. And when the builders laid the

foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their

vestments with trumpets, and the Levites, sons of who Asaph with

their symbols to praise the Lord after the order of David, king

of Israel. So now you've got hundreds of

years of faithfulness because I ran in the family, he ran in the

family, Praise ran in the family, thanking God ran in the

family. And that position of

faithfulness was still there, still there, come on, still

remain, still persistent, still as energetic, still as the

heartfelt. Some 12 generations later, the

faithfulness of God, a pattern of faithfulness, left a trail of

praise. You see, there's a breakthrough,

and when the breakthrough happens, transformation is

available for the whole family, for the whole family.

Let's turn now to acts. We're talking in the New

Testament. Paul had been imprisoned in the

city of Philippi, and they've been imprisoned for no wrong of

their own. But they had caused some trouble

because they were telling people about Jesus, and they were at

the midnight hour, they were locked in their chains in the

deep part of this cave in their prison.

And what were they doing? Complaining, right?

Complaining, saying, oh, my goodness, why there's so many

rats? Is that right?

No, no, no, no. Thank you.

Thank you, Pastor Dylan, for remembering the story.

I appreciate that. No, they were praising God.

They were praising God. And then verse 26, suddenly

there was a massive earthquake and the prison was shaken to its

foundations. All the doors immediately flew

open and the chains of every prisoner fell off.

The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open.

He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to

kill himself. But Paul shouted to him, Stop,

don't kill yourself, we are all here.

Then he brought them out. And our sirs, what must I do to

be saved? They replied, Believe in the

Lord Jesus and you will be saved along with everyone in your

household. Verse 34, it says the jailer

brought them into his house, set a meal before them, and he and

his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in

God. You see, this is the promise.

Yeah, there's challenges, yes, there there's difficulties.

Yes. Sometimes you might be the one

who needs to be the light in your household, but there's a

transformation available for your whole household.

Cornelius was the same in Acts chapter 10, where the whole

Acts 10 · chapter mention

household was filled with the Spirit and baptized a whole

household. God's in the transformation

business, and here the jailer had a new generational norm of

faith and wholeness that runs in the family, a whole new norm, a

whole new way of living, a whole new expectation of faith and

wholeness. In two Timothy chapter 1 and

verse 5, Paul's writing to Timothy and he says, I remember

your genuine faith for you share the faith that first filled your

grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.

And I know that same faith continues strong in you.

It starts somewhere it can start with you.

It starts somewhere it can start with you.

It starts somewhere. It can start with you.

It starts somewhere it can start with you.

The breakthrough. The freedom.

Freedom from anger, freedom from divorce, freedom from addiction.

It starts with you, my Gran. On my so I talked about Ma.

Now I got Gran. We had Gran, we had ma.

It was simple that way. Anyway, Gran was my dad's mom

and when this was in the 19 mid 1940s, my dad was about 3, my

uncle would have been about 5. And her husband left her,

divorced her, went with a another woman and at the time

she was being pressured by her family.

She had two young sons, no great means to be able to take care of

them. And they said, put your kids in

adoption, put them in care. You can't do that.

You can't. You can't take care of them.

You're not going to be able to do it.

And she said, no, I trust God, it's better that they be with

me. She interrupted rejection.

She interrupted the possibility of harm of I wasn't wanted that

she was a woman of faith in in the introduction to one of my

dad's books, he tells a story about how 1 winter they'd run

out of wood and they had no money, but he didn't know that

he was about 5 or 6 years of age.

And so they grant said, look, we're going to go and get some

wood. That's called a declaration of

faith when you don't have the money for the wood, as you say,

OK, we're going to go and get the wood and they need to get

there by a certain time because to get the wood for the delivery

for that night. But the last delivery that came

out of, of, of firewood and they started walking, no finance.

They started walking, nothing seemed clearly available.

They just started walking, walking through the park.

Not sure how God's going to provide, not sure how what that

conversation is like. Not sure how to have that

conversation with the person who's providing the word.

Can you just give me the word? As they're walking, the wind

blew up and there was something that hit Gran's leg.

And so she bent down and picked it up.

It was a £10 note, exactly what she needed.

And so she went the rest of the way rejoicing.

You see, the right decision is not always the easiest decision,

but it can be a decision that breaks or keeps you from having

something into your bloodline. And what happened was now it was

a bloodline of faith that believed God.

There were stories of faith where God had provided.

She raised two men who both went through university, both got

degrees, one became an architect, one got a degree in

economics and then gave that up 10 years later to join the

ministry full time. She held on to Isaiah 54 verse

Isaiah 54:5

5. God is my husband.

God is my husband. He will care for me.

He will keep me. He will hold me.

Now she wasn't perfect, but you know what she was?

She was someone who believed God, believed God was able,

believed God could. And the way she spoke about her

husband was never negative. And so now my dad is 55 years

married to my mum. But it was a decision.

And today you have an opportunity to make a decision.

If there's areas in your life you're like, no, there's I need

breakthrough in this. There's areas in your life where

you can see negative repercussions coming through the

family. Your decision is faith.

Your decision is believe God. Your decision is to say yes

today. Today I make a stand.

Today I make a stand that I am not going to fall into those

same traps, those same traps. There's wholeness for me.

There's wholeness in my life. There's wholeness for the way I

live. You can be the lowest in your

family. Begin your generational change.

Hallelujah. Apostle Terence spoke a couple 2

Sundays ago when he began the message and he talked about

God's plan. God's plan is covenant centered

that your family would be covenant centered.

You have a family that is covenant centered to Corinthians

3. Verse 6 says He has enabled us

to be ministers of His new covenant.

This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit.

The old written covenant ends in death, but under the new

covenant, the Spirit gives life, life.

That's what we're walking in. That's what we have access to,

the life of Christ, the life of the resurrected Jesus life.

The beginning of breaking out of the the family habits you're

trying to break is to step into the covenant of life that you

have in Jesus, to lay a hold of the promises of God.

Lay a hold of that which God has given you that life in Christ

Jesus to step into the promises of God.

You know, perhaps you're had a family history where there's

difficulty in, in, in mental illness or, or, or difficulty

in, in confusion or what's the promises of God?

Two Timothy 17 says God's not giving you a spirit of fear, but

of power and of love and of a sound mind.

So a clear mind is part of the covenant for you and you can lay

a hold of that today. God's plan for your family is

covenant centred. God's plan is identity aware.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ Jesus, he is a new

creation. All things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new.

When you receive Jesus, when you stepped into the covenant with

Jesus, when you said Jesus, I believe in you, I'll trust in

you. You can be Lord of everything in

my life. Now you have a new identity, a

new way of living, a new way of seeing, a new way of

understanding. That identity is found in

Christ. Old things have passed away.

Behold, all things are new. The old way is gone, the new way

has come. A way of life, hope, faith,

belief, peace, self-control. The life of Christ, the life of

the Spirit in you. This is the identity we now have

in Jesus Christ. This is the identity, the

identity that is ours because of what Jesus completed in his

death and resurrection. This is the life we have.

God's plan is spirit LED. But I say walk and live

habitually in the Holy Spirit, responsive to and controlled and

guided by the Spirit. Then you will certainly not

gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh.

God's plan is your family's spirit LED walking by the

Spirit. Do you know how to deal with

some of those challenges and those fractures, those hurts and

those pains? Be led by the Spirit of God.

Listen to the Spirit of God. Live a life where the fruit of

the Spirit is at work. Have a life LED where we walk by

the Spirit. God's plan for you and for your

family is that you are Spirit LED and God's plan is

generationally aligned, generationally aligned to

Timothy 15. I'll repeat that scripture.

I remember your genuine faith for you.

Share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and

your mother Eunice and I know that same faith, same faith,

same faith, same faith. That same faith continues strong

in you. The same faith continues strong.

The faith. Same faith, same faith.

Perhaps today you've wondered how can I see my family come

back? How can I see breakthrough?

How can I reset? The answer to is today.

And the answer is through Christ, Through Jesus.

Today you might be the Timothy where someone went before you a

couple of generations ago and LED the way.

Maybe you're Eunice and and your parents helped establish

something that was new and transformational in Faith in

Hope. Or maybe you're Lois and you're

making a decision that your family will not go that same

direction. It ends with me.

It ends with me today. It ends with me.

I will not be the one who continues down the path that is

broken. I will not continue down a path

where I'm separated. I'm not going to continue the

path separated from Jesus. Today's the day.

And perhaps like Elder John spoke about last week.

The first step is forgiving those in your family because

many of them did the best they knew how.

And it starts with forgiveness, and then it continues in

covenant, allowing the Lord and His promises to be who I am,

allowing His identity, how He sees me to be my identity, that

I'm no longer held by these traumas, these pains, these

hurts. I'm no longer held by

addictions. I'm no longer held by these

memories, but I'm transformed by the power of God.

The power of God is here. The Spirit of the living God is

at work here right now. The Spirit of God is able to

search the deep heart parts of our hearts.

Scripture says the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit that

divides between soul and spirit, bone and marrow, that is the

finer parts of life. The Holy Spirit is at work in

the deepest parts, not to condemn but to bring wholeness,

not to separate but to bring completion in your relationship

with Him. So today, if there's something

where the Lord is working on you, he's bringing something

that needs to come to an end. He's bringing up something to

remind you that it's time for that to finish.

It's time for that door to close.

It's time to interrupt the bloodline.

Today, call on Him. Today's the day.

Today is the day of your salvation.

Today is the day of your deliverance.

Today is the day of freedom. Today is freedom day.

The power of God is available right now.

Today is decision day. Decision day.

I will live my life in faith, believing God.

I will walk out my life in the identity he won for me.

Not that I received from family, not that I received from

history, not that I received from any other part, but only

Jesus. Today is the day, today is the

day. Lord.

Thank you Lord, search my heart. Search our hearts, Lord.

Lord, we want to hear you. We want to walk in your

fullness, your wholeness, your completeness, to walk in the

identity that you've called us to.

Father God, I thank you today touch hearts in this place.

Thank you Lord. Today people will make a

decision that they are going to walk out the calling, the

fullness, and they'll believe you.

Today they're severing ties that have held them back.

Today they're severing the ties. They're severing off those

habits, those those thought patterns, Lord, they're severing

ties with them to walk in the completeness of Jesus today with

severing ties. Thank you, Lord.

You're the God who is more than able, Lord, You're the God of

freedom. You're the God who brings brings

wholeness. You're the God who delivers.

You're the God who sets free. Today is the day.

I thank you, Lord. Today we're not waiting any

longer today we're not holding back today.

You're at work today. Thank you, Lord.

Today it's broken off. Those things have held us back.

They're broken in today. Lord, thank you, Holy Spirit of

God, moving hearts. Lord, make revelation.

Lord, bring us a understanding. Shine a light.

The people will come into the understanding of the issue and

then coming to the fullness of Christ as their solution.

I thank you Lord, for today. Lord, we praise you that you're

at work. We praise you that you're at

work. Lord, thank you, Lord.

What runs in the family now is faith.

What runs in the family is belief in God.

What runs in the family is my identity in Jesus.

What runs in my family is hope in Christ.

What runs in the family is a family dedicated to praising

God. What runs in the family is a

family that shouts the goodness of God.

What runs in the family is the rejoicing in the goodness of

God. What runs in the family is the

hope of Christ. What runs in the family, it runs

in the family. It runs in the family, it runs

in the family Lord, it runs in the family.

Thank you Lord God, for the power of God to walk by the

Spirit and walk in your light. We thank you today in Jesus

name, Amen. Thank you so much for tuning

into this week's sermon. We pray you were challenged,

equipped and encouraged. Make sure to follow us on all

platforms. That's love quest Intl church.

We out here for real. We're really doing it.

That's Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

You can find us anywhere you need to find us.

But until next time, you know the drill.

You know the motto, get your love fixed man and we'll see

y'all real soon.