Life in the Wild - 8.4.2025 (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.

It's go time. Let's get into it.

I got expectations for this morning.

Now, you said it, but did you believe that?

All right, just checking. Just checking.

I want to make sure, you know, I asked you to say it.

I didn't want you to be lying. You know, we have an expectation

of what God has for us today. Yes.

Amen. Amen.

Well, I want to say thank you to Pastor Terence and Pastor Julia

for the blessing to be able to minister and and share the Word

with Love Quest Nation. Thank you so much Pastor

Terence, Pastor Julia for the vision, the leadership, and the

Spirit LED nature of who you are.

We appreciate you, we love you and thank you.

We're excited to hear what God has happening down in Tacoma.

Amen. For those who don't know,

there's a basketball tournament down in Tacoma and Love Quest

goes where God calls us to go. And they're headed down there to

be a witness and engage with people and also play some

basketball, which is fun. So they're down there this

weekend. And so we're looking forward to

hearing what God has done there. Now we've been doing a series

called In the Wild, Say in the Wild and we're learning that we

are called to be in the wild, not just to live our life, our

Christian life here within the four walls, but out there to

make it impact. And last word last week.

Do you remember what we talked about rests in the wild?

That's right, rest in the wild. And we talked from Isaiah 30

Isaiah 30:15

verse 15, and it says, thus said the Lord God the Holy One of

Israel, in returning to me and resting in me, you'll be saved

in quietness or undisturbedness and in trusting confidence shall

be your strength. And we learnt that when we are

at rest in Him, when we return to Him, when we allow ourselves

to be undisturbed but to trust in Him, that is the strongest

place to be. And then we ended with a verse

and we said the key is to know Him.

And the verse we finished with was Ephesians chapter 1 and

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

verse 16 to 17. And we actually prayed it.

I prayed it over you as we left yes, last Sunday.

And the scripture says, I have not stopped thanking God for

you. I pray for you constantly asking

God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you

spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your

knowledge of Him, to know him. And that's the beauty of that

song. Show me your face.

It's that engagement of heart. It says I want to know you and

it is in the knowing of God in in learning who he is and

learning to know him and to trust in him.

There's that intimacy, the intimacy of heart, the intimacy

of face to face to know him. Today I'm going to continue with

the in the wild, but the title is life for the wild.

Now I thought of saying life in the wild, but really the life

that we have in Christ is for the wild is for us to go out is

being sent is when we go outside of the this church building and

be the church out there. That's the life he has given us

life for the wildlife for us to go out life for us to be able to

share and show to the world to shine a light to be the light.

The life He has given us is to show, to shine out life for the

wild. In John chapter 1 and verse one

John 1 · chapter mention

to four, I read it to you in the beginning.

Before all time was the Word, and the Word was with God, and

the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with

God. All things were made and came

into existence through Him and without Him was not even one

thing made that is coming to be in Him was life and the life was

the light of men. Now here John is talking about

Jesus. Jesus is the Word.

Jesus is the word made flesh and it says about Jesus.

In him was life, in him was life, The very nature of who He

is, His life. He is life, and that life was

the light of men. His life was a shining light to

reveal the Father, His very life, the substance of who He

was. His life was to shine a light

and to be a light so that we would know who the Father was.

Here He is the Word made flesh. The very life of God came to be

present with us, God with us, The very life of God.

He is our life. His life is your light.

His life being is your light. The light to shine, the light to

live, the light to represent, the light to be able to show and

reveal who God is. There's a story in John chapter

John 4 · chapter mention

4. And Jesus was with his disciples

and they were going passing through an area called Samaria.

And the Jews didn't really talk to the people in Samaria and

they didn't really talk to the Jews.

There was this kind of this friction and faction between

them. And Jesus went and sat by well,

and his disciples went off. And it says here in John chapter

John 4:7

4 verse 7. Soon a Samaritan woman came to

draw water and Jesus said to her, please give me a drink.

He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the

village to buy some food. The woman was surprised, for

Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans.

She said to Jesus, You're a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.

Why are you asking me for a drink?

She's like, what's going on here?

Like why? Why are you even talking to me?

Why are we even having a conversation?

This is weird. Like what?

What's going on here? Why?

Why are you? Why are you even asking me for

something? Jesus replied.

If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you were

speaking to. He's like, man, if you knew the

gift God got for you that I have, that I can reveal to you

the gift, the incredible gift that God has.

If you only knew that and who I am.

This is your day and you don't even know it.

This is going to be a day that changes the rest of your life

and you have no idea. We're about to change the course

of history today. Today your life is about to

shift in such a radical way. He's saying because I'm here,

because Jesus is here, because Jesus is here and he's saying

the gift I have for you, you've got to understand this gift is

powerful. This gift is special.

And so if you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are

speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living

water. Living water.

Interesting phrase. We'll get back to that.

We'll come back to that point in just a minute.

And the lady says to him, but Sir, you don't have a rope or a

bucket. See.

She was still thinking in physical terms because living

water could also be defined as as flowing water.

It's just like, what do you, what do you mean?

There's a gift and you're the one who's going to give it to

me. Like, if I knew who I was

speaking to, that would make a difference because you'd give me

living water. I mean, you haven't got a

bucket. You haven't got a rope.

How are you going to make this thing work?

All the water's down the bottom unless you're scooting down

there. I don't know how it's going to

happen. She's thinking in practical

terms, practicality. And this well is very deep.

Where would you get this living water?

And besides, do you think you're greater than our ancestor Jacob?

Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are that

you're greater than the guy who dug this long ago?

And it's been a source of life for our entire area.

And we come here, it gives us water.

Who do you think you are? What makes you so special?

So not only was it like you haven't got the practical

things, I don't even know who you are.

And do you really think you're better than Jacob?

What's going on? Who gave us this?

Well, how can you offer better water than he and his sons and

his animals drink? Jesus replied.

Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again.

We know that you drink and then wait a while.

You got to drink again because you get thirsty.

But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty

again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling

spring within them, giving them eternal life.

So he's clearly still not talking about regular water.

Because I haven't got this spring that I tap into to get my

drink every day, right? It's different.

It's the living water. There's a life in him.

Remember we started with the first.

He is life, and his life was light to men.

His life, his very substance is life.

His very nature is life. He is the one who brings life.

And here he was in this city in Samaria talking to somebody who

needed this life. The rest of the story goes on.

He he tell says nails down that, you know, she's had a few

husbands and the one you're with isn't your husband.

And but I am the one who came to bring you life and to bring life

into this world. And it changes the city.

See, he came to bring a revelation of himself that would

change the city. And when we get a revelation of

who Jesus is, it changes us. And the beauty of God is that we

have an ever increasing revelation because there's no

end to what we can learn about who He is, the life of who He

is, the greatness of who He is. You see, His very name reflects

living water in Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 13, it says, for my

Jeremiah 2:13

people have committed 2 evils. They have forsaken me, the

fountain of living waters, and they have hewn for themselves

systems, broken systems which cannot hold water.

Now Jeremiah is the only place where God calls himself the

fountain of living waters. Interesting.

Twice here in Jeremiah 213 and then again in Jeremiah 17, verse

Jeremiah 17:13

13, he calls himself the fountain of living waters.

So what's a fountain? What, what, what's what's the

nature of a fountain or a spring?

It's a flow, absolutely keeps going.

It's fresh, yes, fresh living water.

It's also the source. So it's the bubbling up the, the

beginning point, the bubbling flow.

See here's the source of living water.

Here's the the nature of living water.

And God is saying to Israel, you've committed 2 evils.

The first one is you've forsaken me.

I'm the fountain of living water.

I'm the source, I'm the one who give you continual flow of life.

You've forsaken that. The second evil is you attempted

to replace me by making it says having hewn for themselves,

systems sinks to try and create water.

And he said even those are cracked, they're broken.

They can't even hold water. And the water that have is, is

not the water you need. They had forgotten that he was

the source of their life. He was the living water, that

God had called them out of Egypt and called them to be a chosen

people. But they'd forsaken him.

They'd forgotten him and instead they'd replaced God's place

within their life with their own main man.

Man made idea of God, their idea of what a deity might look like.

You look at the history of Israel.

They just come out of Egypt and they make a golden calf that's a

smack that down and then they come into to the promised land

and they start to take the gods of here and here and here and

the Lord's like, but I called you.

Why are you trying to make something?

Why are you trying to formulate an idea of who I am?

Why don't you come to me? Is he's the fountain of living

water. He's the source of the life.

His very name is the source of living water.

And so quickly we can get caught up with our idea of what it

could look like instead of what he has called us to be.

But he is that life. He is that foundation.

He is living water. John 7 verse 37 to 39 in the

John 7:37–39

Amplified Classic. Going to read it from here.

Now on the final and most important day of the feast, this

is the Feast of Tabernacles, the last day of the Feast of

Tabernacles. Tabernacles is called Hashanah

Raba and it's the day where they actually have the final

execution of what water they'll have for harvest.

Jesus is so cool. On the final and most important

day of the feast, Jesus stood and he cried in a loud voice.

If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

It is He who believes in me, He who clears to and trusts in and

relies on me, as the Scriptures has said, From His innermost

being shall flow continuously springs and rivers of living

water. But He was speaking here of the

Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were afterward to

receive. For the Holy Spirit had not yet

been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

So here we get a reiteration of what he said to the lady in

Sumeria. He said rivers of living water

will bubble up and those who believe here again he says it,

rivers of living water. And then we go and we connect

that to Jeremiah and we go, well, who's the fountain of

living water? Do you remember that's not a

trick question Is God. God is the fountain of living

water, right? He named himself, I am the

fountain of living water. He said I am the fountain of

living water. And now Jesus is saying to those

who believe rivers of living water will bubble up from the

innermost being, what does that mean?

God himself, for those who believe, will live in you, make

his dwelling place with you, and out of your innermost being will

bubble up rivers of living water that are sourced in Him.

Because we rest in Him, we're found in Him, we're undisturbed

in Him. We are trusting in Him.

You see, when we rest in Him, His life flows out of us.

When we rest and rely upon Him, His very nature is at work in US

and through us to reach the World to be the light.

His nature is at work by His Holy Spirit through us to touch

a world that is in desperate need of the life that we have.

His life, and we said in John 1, he is life, He is the nature of

life. His life now bubbles up on the

inside of us to who? Those who come to him and

believe, who come to him and believe in all he is because he

cried a loud voice. If any man is thirsty, let him

come to me and believe in Me. He comes and we believe.

We go into His presence and we believe.

John 6 verse 28 to 29 says they replied we want to perform God's

John 6:28–29

works too. What should we do?

Jesus told them this is the only work God wants from you.

Believe in the one he has sent. So hang on.

I thought I had to do this and this and this and this.

I have a Doo Doo Doo to show how good I am.

I sat up straight in grade three.

You know you're the sitting up straight where you're like this

and then you're like, you're not this way.

You're like this, right? You're leaning right back to

make sure they know you're sitting up still right?

Anybody else or is that just me? I don't know, but that's but

we're not called into the do. We're called into the being of

being sons and daughters of the risen Savior.

Now do we do? Yeah.

But we operate in our activity out of first being the sons and

the daughters of God because out of that nature.

We're doing it because the life of God is flowing through us.

We're doing it because we're the love of God has been poured out

in our hearts. We're doing that because we have

received the love of God. We've received who he is.

We know the hope we have. And now we're operating our

lives out of that. We're operating in our lives

because we are loved. We're operating out of our lives

because we have the life of God within us.

We're engaging in life because we know whose we are and

therefore we know who we are. Who we are is connected.

Once we find out and get a revelation of whose we are, you

see, I can rest because I know who I belong to.

I can hope because I know who my Father is.

I can love because I have received so much love.

I can forgive because I have been forgiven.

Perhaps today you've struggled with forgiveness.

Let me tell you. Get a revelation of how much

He's forgiven you and now you'll be able to share that

forgiveness to another because you recognize he has forgiven

all for me. His life flowing through US

enables us, equips us, prepares us to walk a life worthy of him.

John chapter 6 verse 32 says I tell you the truth, Moses didn't

John 6:32

give you bread from heaven, My Father did.

They were arguing about Jesus giving them a sign just like

Moses did with manna coming from heaven, because they were still

thinking about material supply. Chapter 6, fascinating chapter,

but they're thinking about material supply and Jesus says,

I tell you the truth, Moses didn't give you bread from

heaven, My Father did. And now he offers you the true

bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one

who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Sir, they said, give us that bread every day.

And Jesus replied, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again.

Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty again.

See, here's life, here's life, here's our hope, here's the

fullness, and here's the one in whom we can rest.

Our rest is found in our surrender.

Mark 834 And Jesus called to him the throng with his disciples

and said to them, if anyone intends to come after me, let

him deny himself, forget, ignore disown and lose sight of himself

and his own interests and take up his cross and joining me as a

disciple and siding with my party, follow with me

continually, cleaving steadfastly to me.

Can you go back to the other slide?

If anyone intends to come after me, let him deny himself.

I like the amplifier because they'll give you the additional

words that give you clarity around it.

So it's deny himself, forget, ignore, disown, lose sight of

himself and his own interests and take up his cross and follow

me. You might look at that and say,

but that's not fair. I don't want to lose who I am.

That's not fair. You know, I like the things I've

got. I like the things that that

define me. I like the things that I've

built up. God doesn't call you to deny

yourself to lose you. He calls you to deny yourself

because in Him you get the fool, you see, because we when we are

found in Him who he made us to be, can become a reality.

It's when we fight Him about our where he wants us to be.

Later on we start saying, well, that kind of didn't work out or

that wasn't quite the right way. But in denying ourselves and

surrendering who we are, we we come into that place of his

presence. We come into that place of his

fullness. We come to that place where He

can operate in US and through us to touch the world.

I had this thought drop in my head and it is.

It's not behaviour modification, it's surrender and it is a

conflict to those times where we're so much we're trying to

get this right. That doesn't mean we can't have

behaviour modification, but the surrender comes first.

But it's in our surrender we find the fullness of what God

has for us and the fullness of life.

The end of John chapter 6, verse 68, Jesus talked about bread of

John 6:68

being the bread of life. And then he talks about if you

want, pardon me, you're going to have to eat my body and drink my

blood. Well, a lot of them left.

I was a bit too far from many of them.

And he actually goes to the 12, the remaining disciples and he

says, are you guys going to leave too?

And here's Peter, Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom should

we go? You have the words of eternal

life. Where else could we go?

What else could we do? You're the source of eternal

life. He had a revelation that in

Jesus was life in resting in him, pressing into him that

life, abundant life, hopeful life, transformational life,

redeeming life. It's found in him.

I said, where else are we going to go?

What else could we do? There's nothing else like this

we're in. Didn't He didn't say.

I understood what you meant, right?

He didn't say, yeah, I understand that.

I understand your analogy that your body is the the bread and

your your blood is the cup. And and in that we're going to

end up having communion. And this is actually symbolic.

He didn't say that. He said, yeah, I didn't even

think he got it. I let's pretend he didn't get

it. He I didn't get it.

I didn't get everything you said, but you've got life and I

need that. You're the source of life.

I need that. I need the life that you have.

John 11/20/26 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she

went to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house and Martha

said to Jesus, Lord if only you had been here, my brother would

not have died. That was Lazarus.

But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.

Jesus told her, your brother will rise again.

Yes, Martha said, he will rise when everyone else rises.

At the last day, she understood that there's a resurrection at

the end of time. And Jesus told her, I am the

resurrection and the life anyone who believes in me will live

even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and

believes in me will never, ever die.

Do you believe this, Martha? See what a radical statement, he

said. I am the resurrection and the

life. Now you might look at that and

say, but how do we never die? People die who would believe in

Jesus? People.

Yeah, my grandma loved the Lord, died at 94.

She didn't live, but she did because he who believes in Him

has eternal life. And in fact, when we believe in

him and rest in Him, we die to our old ways and we walk into

the new life of Christ Jesus. So our hope is now found in him.

A lot of believers will say they transitioned.

They just they just stepped through the vow into the glory

of God's presence because they walk in his presence here.

That's knowing the life of God. Why is his life?

Why is he the the talk about his life so important?

Why was the fact that he being life came as it said in John

chapter one? Well, Leviticus 17 verse 11

Leviticus 17:11

explains it for us for the life of the body is in its blood.

I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making

you right with the Lord. Now here it's talking about the

Old Testament sacrifice where they would sacrifice a lamb, the

bull, the heifer, and the sacrifice of the animal.

The blood of the animal was actually a cover because of the

life of the animal took dealt with the sin situation or

covered it. It is the blood given in

exchange for a life that makes purification possible or

atonement possible. But here we have Jesus who is

life, Jesus who is complete life and he sacrifices his life.

He sheds his blood once and for all time.

The one who is a resurrection and the life exchanged his

blood, his life for our life. The one who is the absolute

answer gave his life in exchange for our life.

So when we believe in Him, we now step in to a covenant that

is sealed not with the blood of bulls and goats and sheep, but

by the precious blood of Jesus. First Peter chapter 1, Peter's

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

talking about it and he says, where are we?

For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the

empty life you inherited from your ancestors, and it was not

paid with gold or silver, which lose their value.

It's just not mere gold, not not things that rust to fall away,

not things like silver. Those those things will go away.

They didn't have the long term value.

They'd have eternal value. No, no, it was your ransom was

paid by the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless

Lamb. And God chose him as your ransom

long before the world began. But now in these last days, he

has been revealed for your sake. And through Jesus Christ you

have come to trust in God, and you have placed your faith and

hoping God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave

him great glory. You see, we are the

beneficiaries of the life of Jesus poured out that we might

step into that covenant and now be in complete relationship with

Father God. Hebrews 722 says Jesus is a

guarantee of a better covenant. He's the one who's established

the new covenant in His blood. When we have communion, we are,

we are remembering this new covenant, His body broken, that

we may be whole, His blood poured, not spilled by action,

but poured out as a sacrifice. That we may have life in him

dealing with our sin, dealing with what separates us from God.

We step in by believing in Him. What do we read over and over

again? Come to me and believe in me.

Come to me, Believe who I am, believe what I've done, and you

get to walk into the covenant. We get to step in through the

blood of Jesus. You know, whenever we take

communion, we're remembering this amazing covenant, the life

of God in exchange for your life, a life that will not fade,

for a life that will eventually pass away, the eternal life He

gives. We step into the covenant of the

promise when we believe, and this is life for the wild.

It's not just life for these four walls.

This is life to live in the wildlife, to live when we're

engaging with others and showing the love of Jesus with life that

we can be able to present as a light to them, as a hope for

them, as a strength for us as we live out this walk, as a life

for the way we live our lives, as strength for it.

The Lord God Almighty made away. The Lord God Almighty made away.

It's not A to do list. It's Jesus.

It's not self help. It's Jesus.

It's not a rule book. It's Jesus.

It's not a religion. It's Jesus, it's not my

strength. It's Jesus, it's not a

tradition, it's Jesus. Please stand up with me.

I thank you, Father God, for your goodness.

Lord, we thank you today for your promises are true.

Lord, you are life. You are the life of our lives.

You're the one who brings life in US and through us to touch a

world that needs you. Your life is your life at work

within us. To show forgiveness, to show

love, to show your patience, to show your kindness, to show your

goodness, to live a life of self-control.

Live a life to glorify you. You are the source of our life.

You are the fountain of living water.

Lord, we thank you. We thank you for your mighty

presence. We thank you Lord, for your

empowering spirit and power to live and power to to give,

empowered to walk out what you've called us to your life,

your life at work. Father, we praise you and we

thank you. Today we take a step into what

you've called us to. We take a step into the life you

have for us. We praise you this day in Jesus

name, Amen. Hey man, just take a seat for a

minute. So just a couple of quick

announcements for you for this week.

We have, for those who haven't done our foundations,

foundations is get to know you and you get to know us

opportunity. And so our foundations level 1

is a Zoom call. It's this Tuesday, it's the

first Tuesday of the month and this Tuesday at 7:00 PM.

So if you've been attending and you'd like to know a little bit

more about the church and getting involved, this is just

a, a quick call, usually about 40 to 45 minutes.

And it's gives you an idea of, of who we are and get you

started on that journey. Then.

Yes. If you have more, more more

information, please see our homecoming table, which is just

around the corner here. Dynasty Wednesday is coming up

here at 6:30. Who was here last Wednesday?

Yeah. For Elder John.

Now, I want to encourage you. If you didn't have an

opportunity to be here, no problem.

Get on and and watch that one from last Wednesday.

I really encourage you to do that.

He was speaking about evangelism and discipleship and it is

absolutely worth your time to listen to that message.

So this was from last Wednesday. I want to encourage you to do

that and come along this Wednesday at 6:30 PM.

We always have a great time on Wednesdays and then immersed

nights are coming back to the Hub on August the 24th.

That's going to be a fantastic time.

So put that in your diary. For those who don't know, the

Hub is a location we have in Vancouver.

For those who are situated out there, we have meetings and we

have our prayer time there on the 3rd and 4th Sunday, Saturday

morning at 9:00 AM as well. So be a part of that.

So praise the Lord God's good, Amen.

We, we have a lot to be thankful for.

The one who is the fountain of living water dwells in you and

me. Wow, so exciting, so exciting.

So this week we're going to live it out and walk it out and

believe it out and engage in what God has for us.

Amen. Well, we may be out of time.

We're never out of the life of God.

So until next time, get your love fixed man.

Thank you so much for tuning in to 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.