Faith, Foes and Family //DW// 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 such a honour to be

able to share with you today the Word.

Thank you to Pastor Terrance and Pastor Julia for the blessing

that it is to be able to speak the Word today.

And thank you for the honour, for sharing with me the honour

to to give the Word. Today we're going to continue

with the theme of family foe, oh, faith foes and family faith

foes and family alliteration. Always good.

You know, it's really important to know who you are.

There's a song that says who am I?

As we were saying that who am I that you keep me in your mind?

Well, I am the redeemed of the Lord.

I am me, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, so I'm

righteous. I'm kings and priests in the

Kingdom of God. I'm a royal priesthood, part of

a holy nation. Don't forget who you are.

Don't forget all that's been completed through Jesus.

Don't forget you are a child of the King of Kings and Lord of

Lords. Remember your position and

posture before Almighty God, because He has redeemed us, set

us free from the power of sin and death, brought us to His

glorious Son, brought us into the Kingdom of light, brought us

into His presence, brought us so we can come, as it says in

Hebrews 416, boldly before the throne of grace.

That's right, boldly. I said it because the Bible said

it. Boldly Say that with me.

Boldly, boldly, boldly. I think that's what we as the

bigger Church need. Again, boldly, a little bit more

boldly. A little bit more boldly in our

walk, A little bit more boldly in our talk, a little bit more

boldly in our prayer. A little bit more boldly in our

believing, a little bit more boldly, a bit more boldly.

Boldly in who we are, boldly in who's we are.

Bold Acts Chapter 4 after they've been challenged by the

Acts 4 · chapter mention

by the authorities, I pray Lord, give us boldness to speak the

word. There's boldness in your center.

There's boldness in you, Giselle, there's boldness, Noah.

There's boldness, Pastor Dylan, there's boldness, boldness,

bold. Strong.

Strong in prayer, strong in the way you speak, strong in the

conviction you have in Christ Jesus.

Amen. So faith foes and family.

Sorry, I'm having trouble here with my computer, so I will

boldly follow on with everybody else.

So we have 3 verses that are pivotal verses to the message we

have. So the first is from Genesis 315

and says and I will put enmity between you and the woman and

between your offspring and her offspring.

He will bruise and tread your head under foot and you will lie

in wait and bruise his heel. Now who says this?

God says it. God says God puts this in place.

This is the war. Next scripture is from Matthew

1036. And a man's foes will be they of

his own household. Jesus is speaking here and

saying even those of your own household will become ones who

will press you will will defy you.

The next scripture is Psalm 127 verse one.

Except the Lord builds the house.

They labour in vain who build it.

It's not the Christians building, it's not our efforts

building, not our personality building.

But the Lord is the one who must build the house.

The Lord builds the house. And so we see in these three

scriptures the war. Genesis 3 reveals the war,

Matthew 10 reveals the proximity of the war, and then Psalm 127

reveals the only way that the war is won.

So Pastor Terence positioned us with these three scriptures last

Wednesday, and I'm going to continue with a focus on the

Whisperer. Can you go to the next slide,

please? The enemy is always whispering.

Thank you. Perfect.

The enemy is always whispering. You see, this is how the enemy

gets in that ear. The whisper.

It's not the obvious, it's not the upfront.

It's the whisper. The enemy is always whispering,

just like he did to Eve in Genesis is the Whisperer.

And what does he whisper? He whispers lies.

He twists words in twisting words and feeding pride.

It's not that we don't have our pride, but he feeds it, adds

fuel to it, inspires doubt. That seems like it doesn't make

sense, but there's an inspiration in his doubt.

Did he say the questioning? Did Did he really say that?

Attempts the flesh, provokes jealousy, attacks identity.

The enemy is always looking for ways to undermine, create

uncertainty, insecurity. And as those things happen, now

we feed that. And now that affects our family,

how we interact, how we engage his whispering deception.

I like this one. I think the enemy loves this

one. Nitpick division.

I said nitpick because it's those little things, those

little, what is it? It's the smallest thing, the

little nitpick. And all of a sudden the nitpick

can become a division. And all of a sudden you'd be

wondering what happened 30 years ago that we don't meet with this

side of the family. And like, yeah, Cos, Cos nitpick

division, just as little things became a nitpick division of a

family. Affirming fears.

We can come up with our own fears, but man, the enemy loves

to just. Yeah, you're right.

Yeah, you should be worried about that.

Oh, yeah. Did you?

I think you're right. I think.

I think he did do that. Let me affirm you in your fear.

Let me affirm you in your uncertainty.

Let me affirm that little thing and and make it be.

Inspires doubt. He's a deceiver.

You see, deception doesn't have to be a lie.

It can be the absence of truth. A deceiver doesn't have to out

front lie to you, He just has to position the truth in such a way

that it's now taking you down a different track.

The Whisperer. In Proverbs 26 verse 22 it says

Proverbs 26:22

the words of a whisperer or slanderer are like dainty

morsels or words of sports to some but to others are like

deadly wounds and they go down into the innermost parts of the

body or the victims nature. The Whisperer is that thing that

sits in there and before long you don't even remember why.

Where did that come from? But it's got into the innermost

parts of you and almost become a part of your nature.

And you know what? There's sometimes there's things

in the family and it's like, well, I'm angry, but it's only

because you know, it's runs in the family.

Oh, that's becoming an accepted whisper has created a deep

identity. Oh, oh, that's that's just what

we do. Oh, I yeah, I get that from this

side of the family. Oh, we're all afraid of, of, of,

you know, whatever on this side of the family.

It's just just part of it's always become this attachment of

ownership, all because of a whisper.

It goes deep and it can create these divisions, these

separations, and before long you don't know who said what, but

you're sure this is what had happened because the Whisperer

has got deep in the innermost parts.

And we're here to expose the work of the enemy, bring

exposure, shine a light so we can walk in the victory that is

ours. And so we're exposing.

These are the things that the ways the enemy wants to dig in.

And it's interesting Jesus family wasn't immune to this.

We read in John Chapter 7 later, Jesus was going about his

John 7 · chapter mention

business in Galilee. He didn't want to travel in

Judea because the Jews were looking for a chance to kill

him. Makes sense, right?

Anybody. Yeah.

You agree? People trying to kill you.

I'll avoid that area. That's that's a good that's a

good decision. It was near the time of the

Feast of Tabernacles, A feast observed annually by the Jews.

His brothers Jesus brothers said, why don't you leave here

and go up to the feast so your disciples can get a good look at

the works you do. No one who intends to be

publicly known does everything behind the scenes.

If you're serious about what you were doing, come out in the open

and show the world. His brothers were pushing him

like this because they didn't believe in him.

Why the so his own brothers, his own brothers were like, alright,

show off, go on, show us what you can do.

That's the big party. Why don't you just go and and be

with all your followers down there division, division, even

the Son of God and his the the the brothers he had connection

with his his earthly brothers didn't believe in him.

You imagine that you're already dealing with the doubts.

You've already got a Judas in your 12.

You're already dealing with a whole bunch that have just left

you and in all of this now your own family are ridiculing you.

You see, the enemy was attempting to, even in his own

family, even in Jesus own family, create division and as

Pastor Terence said last Wednesday, familiarity.

A familiarity, a familiarity even with the one who is the son

of God. Familiarity to cause division.

A faith reorients the fight. And this is the shift of gears.

This is what we're pressing into today.

Faith reorients the fight to reorient is to to, it's like

when you're GPS and all of a sudden you go one way and it has

to reroute for you. It's reoriented.

It's it's made adjustments. It's now seeing it from a new

angle. So faith reorients the fight.

It actually gives the fight a different framework, a different

vision, a different viewpoint. Faith shifts the fight.

You see boxers who are have different strategies.

So some want to get in there and grapple and just punch.

Others want to dance around and wear out their, their their

opponents. And each one is reorienting the

fight to their advantage, right? So 1 is in there trying to keep

them in the corner so they can just give them some haymakers.

And the other one's dancing around trying to make the other

guy wear out because he's bigger than him and he'll wear out

faster than him. So whoever gets that strategy

gets to reorient the fight to their advantage, and faith does

that in our relationships. Faith reorients the fights.

If we misidentify the foe, we fracture the family.

You see, even in Jesus own family, they were looking at

Jesus going all right, man, whatever.

Yeah, I know you're the big guy. You get all the people coming

out. I know you go on the mountain.

There's thousands out there. I see it.

Good for you. We're just trying to do stuff

here back home, you know, and misidentified the enemy,

misidentified the foe. As a result, there was fractures

in the family. Let's see the strategies of the

enemy. Luke chapter 4, verse 3.

Luke 4:3

This is at the time after Jesus had been fasting for 40 days.

We do fasts here and they're powerful.

This fast was like a nut. Nothing for 40 days fast that's

wearing right. That's a different kind of fast.

And the devil taking opportunity says, said to him, if you are

the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.

But Jesus answered him, saying, it is written, man shall not

live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

So here he takes advantage and says, I'm sure you're hungry.

I know you can do this. I know you can turn this stone

into bread. Jesus didn't argue about his

capacity to do that. It wasn't.

That's nonsense. I can't make the stone into

bread. He's like, yeah, OK, but that

wasn't the point. The point was it is written.

Men shall not live by bread alone, by by every word of God.

As in I'm not going to be tempted into taking bread at

this moment to fulfil your temptation.

The capacity wasn't the issue. It was a decision to go with

what the word says because it is written.

It's Him coming back with word, Him coming back with strong word

that identified what the enemy was trying to do.

Verses 6 says, and the devil said to him, All this authority

I will give you and their glory. He'd taken them up to a high

place to see over all the kingdoms.

All this authority I will give you, and their glory.

For this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I

wish. Therefore, if you will worship

before me, all will be yours. Now Jesus doesn't argue that

fact. There's no argument from Jesus

about that statement. The statement of the devil

saying I have been given all this authority.

There's no argument over that. But in verse 8 he says, and

Jesus answered and said to him, get behind me Satan, for it is

written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only you

shall serve. You see, the enemy was trying to

feed him pride. Hey, you can have all of this.

Let me feed you some pride. You can have all of this.

And he says, no. It is written, you shall worship

the Lord your God and him only you shall serve.

He came back to the Word for his perspective.

He came back to the Word of God for the way he would see the

situation. He came back to the Word of God

to deal with the strategies of the enemy.

And then in verse 9 it says, then he brought him to

Jerusalem, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said

to him, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from

here. For it is written, he shall give

his angels charge over you to keep you, and in their hands

they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

So now the devil's coming, saying, hey, like you said, it

is written here, it's written here.

See this, it's written here. I'm giving you the word that you

just gave me for the last two times.

I'm going to use that same word now and say, but hey, if you

throw yourself off, you're actually covering the word by by

fulfilling it. And in fact, you could prove

you're the Son of God by doing it right in front of all these

people right now. The enemy was twisting words.

The enemy twists words. He was twisting words to try and

bring Jesus into a position where he would take it into his

own hands rather than fulfilling the will of the Father.

But Jesus said, and Jesus answered and said to him, it has

been said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.

See, Jesus knew the intent of the Word.

He couldn't be distracted because he knew the intent of

the word. It wasn't to fulfil him being

glorified by his actions, but rather that he would fulfil the

will of the Father. So even the twisting of the word

couldn't draw him into a temptation because he knew the

intent. And then it continues.

Now, when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed

from him until an opportune time.

Now this gives you a very interesting characteristic of

the enemy. He's waiting for the opportune

time. When I'm tired and Elder

Stacey's tired, that's an opportune time.

We have come to realise that is not the time.

We have discussions. That is not the time we're going

to get into anything that might be contentious because my

tiredness not good with her tiredness also not good becomes

an opportune time for division, right?

You see, that's the practical aspect of it.

We think it's going to be this huge thing, but sometimes it's

the feeding of the pride at the opportune time.

Sometimes it's the twisting of the words at an opportune time.

Sometimes it's the nitpick. Division at an opportune time.

Are we aware of the strategies of the enemy?

So we want to equipped you. God the word.

Guard the word. Guard the word of God in your

family. Guard the word of God that's

been given through this house. Guard the word.

Let the word become the driver of your your your actions.

Let the word be the the the foundation and guardrails in how

we live our lives. Guard the word.

Earlier I read Proverbs 2622, we talked about how the whisperer

becomes something that goes deep inside of you, right?

But here's the answer to that is actually found in verse 20.

For lack of wood, the fire goes out, and where there is no

whisperer, contention ceases. Let's not give the enemy extra

fuel for the fire. Let's not give him additional

fuel to create contention and division.

We do that by checking aha. We do that by getting the word

in US, but more importantly, the word out of us.

What I mean by that, we get the word in us, but I know a lot of

people know the word, but they don't know how to show the word.

But we're about showing that word in our way we live.

It's receiving the Word and then activating the Word, bringing

the word in and then living it out in the way we live, in the

way we talk, in the way we engage with people, regard the

Word, and in doing so we actually create a space where

the whisperer cannot have an influence, Ephesians 612 says,

For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, contending only

with physical opponents, but against the despotisms, against

the powers, against the master spirits who are the world rulers

of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of

wickedness in the heavenly sphere.

Know the enemy. We do not wrestle against flesh

and blood. Even the flesh and blood that

you don't like. It's not them, even the flesh

and blood that has contentious arguments with us that we'd

rather not get into. It's still not the one we're

dealing with. We're actually dealing with the

spirit behind it. So we have to discern the real

enemy. But you know what's exciting?

You know what's really exciting? You're ready, You're ready.

You see, you're equipped with the Spirit of God and the Word

of God. You're ready Now, it doesn't

mean we don't have our moments and we're still growing,

absolutely, but you are ready. You are actually equipped for

the battle. You are equipped to be able to

succeed in the battle. You are ready if we go back.

So I just read Ephesians 612, but let's go back to verse 10

and it says, in conclusion, be strong in the Lord, Be empowered

through your union with Him. Draw your strength from Him,

that strength, strength which His boundless might provides.

You know what? If it says it in the Bible, it's

true. So you can be strong in the

Lord, you can be strong in His minds, you can be strong in Him,

because the word says it. We get to be strong in the Lord,

We get our strength from the Lord.

That's something worth being excited about.

Strong in the Lord, it says, draw your strength from Him.

That strength which his boundless, boundless, boundless

means no boundaries without boundary, no boundary, no, no

boundary that surrounds that his boundless might provides.

You see, sometimes we wonder where we're going to get the

strength from. Stop, come to the Lord, come to

the Lord. Verse 11 Put on God's whole

armour, the armour of a heavy armed soldier which God

supplies. Who supplies thank you that you

may be able successfully to stand up against all the

strategies and the deceits of the devil.

You are well equipped, you are well able, You are strong in the

Lord. We are strong.

And then faith reorients the fight to see renewed.

I'm really excited about this one.

I'm really excited about this one because there's something

about seeing from a new angle. I was last year, I was praying

at home and Lord said stand in the corner and I stood in the

corner. I felt it stand in the corner.

So I'm standing in the corner. I'm thinking, this is weird.

Yeah, I'll go back in the corner.

Like right back here. Here we go.

So I'm here, I'm standing in the corner and OK, what do you see?

Oh, well, I can see behind the sofa.

That's where the dog's ball went.

OK, alright. I can see behind the sofa, I can

see that part of the kitchen and I can see behind the TV here.

OK, now go to the other corner. So for this corner now, well, I

can't see behind the sofa. I can see the front of the sofa,

but I can see down the hallway and I can see that part of the

kitchen that I couldn't see before.

My perspective changed. I shifted my my perspective at a

different angle. I could see differently and part

of seeing differently was making a certain movement.

There's a shift, there's a change, there's a change

position. I can see something different.

And then I can see differently this way.

And my perspective each time is changing and, and, and maybe I

see something. You ever see the golfers and

you're like, what are you doing kneeling down there?

But they're looking, they've got a different angle.

They're like, yeah, I can kind of see the slope, right.

So I could if I hit there and I come around and and I try to do

that, it never worked. But but they do it because they

get a different angle, a different perspective, a

different view. You see, faith is reorient,

reorients the fight. It gives us a different view, a

different angle, a different way of seeing things.

Romans 12/2 Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the

culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy

Spirit through a total reformation of how you think.

This will empower you to discern God's will as you live a

beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.

You see, part of the change in the shift is to have our minds

renewed, totally transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So we see different. You see, sometimes that argument

you're having seems so important until you get a new view by the

Holy Spirit, a new way of seeing what's going on.

Sometimes that division, even as hard as it may have been to go

through, when you see now who's behind it, what the strategy of

the enemy is to bring division or destruction, I can see it

differently now. Faith is the renewed mind.

Faith is believing God is more than able.

Faith is actually allowing us to see through the lens of Christ.

You know, I didn't know love until I realise how much God

loved me. And even now I'm just scratching

the surface. But when I realise how much I'm

forgiven, how much I'm loved, how much he's completed, we're

being called higher. We, we are, we are the ones who

are called to a higher perspective, to love the

unlovable. I mean, I mean, Jesus said love

your enemies, do good to those who hurt you.

That's bring back the Romans 12 too.

That's not an opinion of the culture around you.

That's a different way. That's a new way of living.

The new way of living sees different.

Love your enemy, do good to those who hate you.

Luke 6 he talks about lend to the person who hates you and

don't expect the money back. I struggle enough giving it to

people who I like but our Kingdom call is to see

differently. If I look at my wife and I see a

daughter of the king. That's seeing differently,

expecting differently. I see my children, and if I see

them as the children of God, if I see them as the children of

God and not just my daughter and my son, then how will I raise

them differently? There's something about our

seeing that helps us reorient, see faith reorients the fight.

It gives us a new eyes to see, new way to see.

You see, Jesus, when he was being tempted, he not only heard

what the devil said, but he knew what he was trying to get at.

When he used Scripture and tried to twist the Scripture, he knew

what he was really trying to do is deceive him into an act that

would not be fulfilling the will of the Father.

He could see differently. We are ready.

We're ready as we listen. We're ready as we yield.

We're ready as we come into the place of obedience.

We're ready as we surrender. We're ready as we see.

We ask God for new perspectives. The Spirit of God is the spirit

of wisdom and revelation. There's revelation that the

Spirit of God wants to give you. There are circumstances in your

family, situations where God is giving you new perspectives, new

ways of seeing a new heart of love because faith reorients the

fight. I want to encourage you today.

There is a new way for you to see.

Some people have come from broken homes.

There's a new way for you to see love even in that situation.

Some have come from blended families where they're not sure

how everybody fits and everybody reacts, but there's a love from

God for you so you can see different.

There's a heart of love. There's a heart that sees

differently and it's available there.

There are family divisions that maybe have taken impacts over

decades. The Lord is a Lord of with the

Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.

There's a revelation for how you can deal with that division.

There's a love poured out by God that will transform the way you

see things. It's our application in these

close quarter relationships that show people that the God I serve

really is real. Some people are watching you

just to see if you're authentic. Some people are waiting to see

if what you believe is actually real.

Some people are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what

does this Christianity mean in your life.

Some people are waiting to see what does that mean in the way

you deal with them. Some people are waiting to see

if you've got the endurance. Some people are waiting to see

if you do it more than just a Sunday.

The strength of the Lord, the power of the Spirit is available

to you in this work. Father, I pray, I thank you,

Lord. Lord, your word is truth, your

word is true. A Lord we we take the word

you've given us tonight and we're not going to let it just

sit in the memory bank or just be in us, but rather to activate

through US. Lord.

A thank you. Your word declares that we have

strength for the fight. Lord, your word declares that we

have the armour for the fight. And Lord, your word declares

that we can know the strategies and deceit of the enemy in the

fight. We are equipped for the fight.

Lord, I praise you today that there's a new sight in our eyes.

We see differently. We see with a renewed love.

We see with renewed understanding.

We see with a renewed expectation.

We see with new eyes, Lord. We see our relationships in new

eyes. We see our spouses with new

eyes, Lord. We see our children with new

eyes, Lord. We see our brothers and sisters

with new eyes, our uncles and aunties with new eyes, Lord, our

our families with new eyes, Lord, that that they are ones

we're winning. We're so winning them.

We're so winning every day that you may be glorified, that you

may be honoured, and we lift up your name today.

Father God, I praise you for new eyes.

I praise you, Lord, for your word, and I praise you, Lord,

that we are ready. Hallelujah in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Let's give it up for Elder Brett for an incredible word this

evening. 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

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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.