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
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
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
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.
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
platforms. That's Lovequest Intl church.
We out here for real. We're really doing it.
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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.