 and do not be confirmed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God and also if you are able to go to Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 8 for my thoughts are not your thoughts nor my ways your ways nor your ways my ways says the Lord for as heavens are higher than the earth and my thoughts than your thoughts somebody say praise the Lord I just repeat this prayer out loud after me say Lord Jesus open my heart to your word Lord Jesus open my heart to your spirit Lord Jesus open my heart to your faith amen amen amen I want to speak to you today on a topic that really stood out to me when few weeks ago I was reading the Bible I read the Bible chronologically and I'm stuck with Saul King Saul that's why I've been speaking about Saul for a while poor Saul and I'm done with Saul Saul died yesterday my Bible reading plan and so I'm done with Saul and I'm happy to move on to somebody better named David and stuff my problem is that I don't read the Bible along I read a little bit and I read with a lot of commentary so I can get more stuff out of it and as I get things out of it they really bless me and encourage me and sometimes it makes it into the sermon and stuff and so and when you have a story that drags and you're taking a very little moment times to read it it really gets a long time you start dreaming Saul talking Saul contemplating Saul revelation Saul everything Saul my soul is done with but today I want to attach one issue from King Saul's life we know that King Saul was the first King of Israel from the tribe of Benjamin and he came and he because of his disobedience to God he actually opened his life to the demonic influence and I mentioned few weeks ago when our pastor was in here on Sunday is that you don't have to practice a cult to invite demonic you just have to remove the light from your life and the demonic is attracted by that he King Saul had a son named Jonathan and Jonathan was a young man who was in heart after God Jonathan loved God Jonathan had faith in God and Jonathan also loved David and though his father did not endorse David and he hated David with every fiber of his being and tried to spear him to death and kill him and do so many other things Jonathan though being close to his father physically yet spiritually he was a lot closer to David than to his father in actuality he went as far as to make a contract with David and took his clothes and gave to David and those are the clothes David chose for took for himself remember when Saul gave his clothes to David what did David said no when Jonathan gave his clothes to David David says yes because Saul was already rejected but Jonathan was the next king and Jonathan gave everything away to David says listen I'm not gonna be the king you're gonna be the king and here's the proof Jonathan makes a deal with David and he says please bless my future generations when you become a king and don't wipe out my inheritance and David the name of the Lord and that becomes the reality it's interesting that Jonathan is in the family where there is curse yet spiritually he is connected to another man named David though physically he is connected to a father named Saul I want to talk to the today about breaking away from family curse breaking away from family curse breaking away from family curse family every person here has a family word family is the same word but to every person has a different definition for some people family is a place of peace free food love acceptance joy harmony marriage all the good words all the nine fruit of the spirit it's in the family for some people family is another word for terrorism another word for 9-11 family is war it's when there is no guns but their knives forks and plates and broken windows and broken doors for some people word family means betrayal for others means rape for some it even means really really horrible things for some family is nothing because there was no family and so I understand when I say word family your definition of family is not the same as my definition of family I understand the word family for me and for you might be different even though it's the same thing but you must understand family is what God created as the foundation of a society God did not make a government a foundation of society God made a family foundation of society in the beginning God made men and the woman he made a family he did not create a Congress he did not create a politics he did not create a nation he created a family and so this is the foundation of a society a foundation of church and foundation of your life and my life no wonder this is going to be the thing that the enemy will target the most and this will be the unit in your life that will affect you the most called your family and as Christians we must understand that our eyes must be open to the spiritual world and there are people who love their family but it doesn't make your family blessed because you love them there are people who hate their family but it doesn't make your family cursed because you don't like them the Bible says that a family can be cursed and a family can be blessed each family that we grow from or we grow into can either be blessed or the family can be cursed and we as Christians must understand that it's not my feelings toward the family that determine whether they are blessed it's the fruit in the family that qualify whether my family is under the blessing of God or my family lives under say plainly curse and that definition is not found by what the preacher says what you think that definition is found in Deuteronomy chapter 28 when you go through that chapter and you see God says if you obey me didn't it in if you disobey me didn't it in you measure your family you measure your life and you begin to see wow my family is not blessed now whether a family is blessed or not it's still our family whether our family is a war zone or it's a paradise it's still our family whether the father is not home or he is home it's still your family and so we're not in any way encouraging equipping you with stones and accusations to come and put a label on your father's door our family is cursed and you are responsible for it that is not the message we're not trying to start a riot we are trying to understand as young people the earlier the better we love our family we'll do anything for our family blood is thicker than water but we are spiritual people and we must understand a family can be blessed and the family can be cursed you may love them and it still could be cursed and you may hate them and actually they could be blessed as Christians how do we my message has two main points two main I guess things I want to get across tonight in this few minutes one is I wanted to encourage people who have come out from families that are war zone and the second is I wanted to warn people who have grown up in the family where everything is beautiful if you are like Jonathan in the family where there's a war zone full of disobedience to God God has a message for you you need to find David and while physically you are in your family spiritually you must be connected somewhere else but maybe your family is wonderful maybe like my family I came from a very wonderful family I carry a warning to myself and God's word has a warning to me because I know people who come out from families where things are broken and shattered and they're making good life today because they broke up from that being connected to something else that also serves as a warning to me and everybody else who came from a family where everything is going really well you too can break off from the family blessing if somebody can break away from the curses of sickness poverty and failure and just premature death from that if they could break away from that somebody can also break away from the good the harmony a stable marriage prosperity health I mean people with good thinking people who are educated people who are making contribution to their community and people who are serving Christ you can also break away from that and that is a warning to us few thoughts that I have to share with you one is a hate does not remove the curse a hate reinforces the curse when you grow up in something that you don't like and I remember meeting a lot of people and you have done that too when people come from families where things are really bad mom or dad brothers or sisters really really don't like you and you just you just feel alone you just feel abandoned people call you once a month only and they send you you know two dollars or three or fifty dollars a month to support you but they don't want to know you they don't want to see you and the foster you know step dad step mom you know I never knew that vocabulary because you know always seen my mom and my dad together and I seen them always together you know I've never seen my mom do anything to my dad even though she tried probably but not in front of us and my dad just humble and just loving and caring and submissive to his wife like the Bible says is that what the Bible says maybe that's why I have a wonderful family and stuff but I've never seen any step dad step mom everything was you know to us that was normal and the worst day in our lives as kids was when we would do something stupid and my dad or mom would tell us to go look for a belt that's as hard as a bad as it got until you know we started to get reach out to people and you start meeting people who who literally never met their dad never met their mom and sometimes asking them about their family you see rage and hate and this is what usually they do not everybody I will do whatever it takes not to do the same thing to my kids I will do whatever it takes to prove that I'm worthy I know they don't want me they never wanted but I will do whatever it takes I will finish school I will do this I will do this and I I've talked to people one after another who think hate breaks the curse and in a few years literally you watch their lives and you see they got pregnant out of wedlock you see the boyfriend left in a second and the third and the fifth and you're like you remembering the talks you were on the road to change your destiny except the path you took was called hate and that path does not break hers you can distance yourself from the family and actually immigrate to another continent change your name and like Michael Jackson change the color of your skin you can completely say you know what I don't know you and block all of their numbers on your phone and block them on Facebook but something happens you cannot break the curse by getting away from the family and you cannot break the curse by hating what you did not like in them anytime you hate you don't break you reinforce the curse on your life like the cur like they say about unforgiveness that unforgiveness you know sometimes we feel like unforgiveness helps another person to feel better worse about themselves but in reality and forgiveness only backfires on us that's exactly what happens with hate if a parent was an alcoholic hating them for it will open the way for a spirit of alcoholism to move and dominate in your life the same thing that you hate within your parents you will be tempted to reinforce down the road in your life you need to find a way to break the curse and hating it is not going to break it it's not going to work you can't change your life by hating your family it's easy to love your family when they are good it's easy to love your family when they are wonderful but it's a lot more difficult when they are not acting like a family when stranger on the street acts better than your family when you walk in and two adults and they acting like kids and sometimes you want to put them together give them toys and you're like come on it really is this simple you forgive you forgive move on people and you're coming in and you want to come in as a consular and you know you go to school and now you feel like you're educated and you can teach them how to run their life and you get in between and things get chaotic more and you're you upset you're mad the next thing you want to do is you're developing a hatred at resentment and that is an open door for whatever demon that's tormenting their life to open and come into yours and rack your life so the first principle we learn and breaking a family curse it's not true hate it will be difficult to protect your heart from it but remember hate is demonic invitation to draw you into the same curse that he drew your family into don't hate him it's somebody say man the second thing we must understand is we don't choose our parents but they don't choose our teachers you don't choose your parents but your parents don't choose your friends Jonathan did not choose Saul but Saul could not choose who Jonathan is going to love you don't choose your family but your family does not choose your teachers you choose your teachers growing up as a child you must understand your family is a classroom when you were sitting in your family whether you paid attention or not but some cuts subconsciously everything that was taught and everything that was shown was imprinted in the back of your mind it's already there even now and then when we grow up something begins to happen we have an option to switch the classroom and to switch the teachers if we were taught to live poor to live addicted to live sick eat bad eating habits coming to church only when you have a problem and if it's a football game basketball game or family picnic then we don't go to church because church is a spare tire it's not a tire you use or ride on it's just something extra if you live like that you live like that too it's in your mind and until you grow up and you choose yourself different teachers and a different classroom you cannot be changed for example we have a roommate who moved into my house three weeks ago we hang out we talk he phoned his dad last week and his dad started to correct him on English he's a son you're speaking bad English he says no I don't he says you do he says you keep repeating these bad not bad words but bad English and he says that's what happened to you you hang out with the pastor now I don't speak bad English they just don't understand my English who said my English is bad it's everybody's English is good English right but it dawned on me how a man can hang out around you I'm not teaching him English I don't know much English as much as he does but because he hears me speak the same way and he's American like real American because I'm American too but I'm like half American he's American and he starts to speak bad English by being around me this is actually he's not the first one I remember Brittany and Bryson sharing when they came home and they started to speak bad English and they're like what do they teach you in the church I was like the Bible never says we have to teach people English okay the Bible says we have to teach people Jesus that's what we do whichever language works for you that's what we do with but the point is this whether you realize it or not you're being influenced if somebody can live with me for three weeks and learn bad English knowing the good English can you imagine what would happen if you live in an environment for 20 years don't tell me it's not a classroom in subconscious you have a new mind that's built by your family now you didn't choose that and therefore you may feel betrayed you may be angry at God why did he allow that to happen remember your past cannot be changed because in many shapes and forms it was defined by your family your future can be changed because it's chosen by who you are going to choose as your teacher and which environment you are going to choose as your classroom you didn't choose your family but your family does not choose your teacher you can choose today a new teacher a new classroom and your future can be changed how can Jonathan be with his father in the court physically but in his heart he already has someone else he calls a king a rustic boy named David and why is Jonathan's son Mephibosheth spends his days in the king's court while Saul's children either one is bearing the other one is hanged all of these bad things happen to Saul's family and Jonathan here enjoys it why because while physically he was with his family but when he grew his heart already shifted to another classroom to another teacher and his destiny was changed you cannot change your past you cannot spend another day asking God and blaming God why did he allow you to be born in the family you were born you must understand when you come of age you must shift classrooms and change teachers and therefore you will rewrite your own history for the glory of God can somebody say amen third point is you can be physically in line for a blessing but mentally positioned for a curse we mentioned right now that you can be physically in line for a curse but mentally you position yourself for a blessing but the other side is also true you can be physically in line for a blessing but mentally be somewhere else I'm always fascinated by the story of Judas who was standing in line with twelve other men to be the world changer physically a place everybody dreams off physically to be in the to it's beyond wildest dreams to be chosen by Jesus that's not fair yet mentally Judas immigrated to another teacher physically he is with Jesus even eating the last supper dipping and eating every single thing but mentally Judas is somewhere else and guess where the Judah end up not where he was physically but where he was mentally why did disciples change the world and Judas died as a betrayer why not because physically he was with Jesus and see today do not be discouraged you may be physically in the family where things are breaking apart the question is where are you mentally the question is where are you who is your new teacher on the side the question is who is your classroom on the side that you are learning from that is what you're going to rewrite your future and everybody's gonna look at Judas and say I we thought you were with us oh no Judas he was not with us because physically he was here and mentally he was there it's interesting that the Bible says that when Judas in the John chapter 13 was sitting right with the disciples and he's physically in line for a blessing and the Bible says and Satan put in Judas heart a thought to betray Jesus Satan came and started to play with his mind put thoughts into his head to betray Jesus to steal to do all of these things and what happened is though physically he was here but mentally Judas didn't think like Jesus didn't see things like Jesus his mind drifted drifted and Satan took it and Judas kept saying to myself it's okay I am here physically and that's how many people think when they come to church that you know what my family serves Christ they're doing well I'm gonna do even better but Satan is not getting you out physically he sometimes will put a line and a hook in your mind and draw your mind your thinking to differ from your position that you are in physically and he begins to build him thoughts thought after thought thought after thought and the Bible says after a while when the thoughts were so incubated that on the most sacred moment in a Christian history the moment we call last supper became a moment where Judas became possessed a demon entered into Judas the Bible says Satan entered inside and Judas went and did the unthinkable betrayed the Lord and committed suicide men cannot do the under on power men cannot commit suicide like that and men cannot betray someone like that under on power they had to be influenced from another realm from a demonic but how was Judas influenced Judas was next in the blessing but his mind was open Martin Luther said I cannot stop the birds from flying over my head but I can stop them from making a nest on the top of my head this is what happened to Judas Satan brought one branch called a thought put it right here he brought a second one he put it right here he brought a third one he put it right here and next thing you know Judas developed a nest inside of his head no wonder Satan came because he already had a home the home was a mindset was built from the thoughts the enemy kept sending and sending and sending and those thoughts created a place for the enemy to be coming into like he came and Judas life was destroyed the scripture we read in Isaiah 55 verse 8 it says God says my thoughts are not like your thoughts and then God says my ways are not like your ways isn't that interesting God says because I think this I do this you think this and you do that the way we think affects the way we feel the way we feel affects the decisions we make and the way with decisions we make will affect our habits and our habits will affect our destiny everything is about thinking you can grow up we can grow up in poverty if you start listening and you start hearing teaching on how to manage money if you start hearing teaching on how wealthy people think your thinking is going to shift you will look at things different you will feel different and next thing that happens you will do different you will be different and you will leave another legacy I've read a book called rich that poor that which is a very interesting fascination of of an story that a man shares Robert Kiyosaki of how he had a physical dad who was a professor in school and he had a dad who was not his dad it was his friend's dad who was a businessman and he describes in that book a very interesting concept of how both dads were thinking he says one dad was thinking you know you have to do this to make money and the dad across the street was thinking you have to do this to make money and he says I lived with one dad and I realized this is how I'm gonna end up he says while I still loved and respected my dad I went go ahead with my brains and immigrated across the street to my other dad who wasn't even my dad and today he's a multi-millionaire for one simple reason he had two dads one dad he didn't choose the other dad he chose that's why he calls the book rich dad poor dad and when he was even dying his poor dad means his natural dad was kept saying this is the way to do it this is the way to do it and he looked at him he says dad I love you you are awesome but across the street dad things different and he says I choose to live like that he rewrote his destiny and his life completely based on the fact he couldn't change his family he could only change his teacher when he changed his teacher he changed his destiny and his other dad taught him to think different he says the dad across the street did not give him money even though he had many he could have easily given him millions he says the best thing he gave me is he challenged my thinking he cut his head open if I could speak figuratively and he let me inside of this brain how he looks at things how when he looks at $50,000 what he does with them how he when he looks at deal what he does with how he thinks completely he says I don't realize what's inside of the head of my dad across the street what's inside of the dead across the hall is completely different he says I borrowed the mind from the other dad and I started to do what the other dad did and today he became not like his physical father but he became like a father who was not his father this exactly applies to your life to my life and to our church in general why do we go to Africa for that reason we have a wonderful denomination we belong to a wonderful group of people with the oversight of wonderful bishops that we love we have wonderful friends we have wonderful things we are beautiful wonderful church we have our own building why do we go there because there are people who think different live different talk different and we want to be able to be in a classroom of one of the greatest men of God in our generation my friend you cannot go across the street to another dad without eventually beginning to think beginning to feel and beginning to do and habitually do and then be a part of that which somebody else has we cannot change our family we cannot change our past but we can change our teachers and when we change our mentors when we change our classrooms something happens we change our destiny in closing rehab is a prostitute but that's not what makes her dangerous what makes her really bad is the fact she is a gentile woman she is next in line to be slaughtered with thousands of cannonites and don't get me wrong these people killed people to worship God these people drink human blood these people sacrificed babies and burned them over fire to please a deity these people were nuts they were idol worshiper from the deep and inside of them and that's who she was her family was that she didn't choose to be born in Jericho it wasn't her fault but something happened to rehab she realized this is where the line is going and mentally she went somewhere else somehow she started to follow Israel news on Twitter I'm not sure whether it was a CNN news that she kept switching how did she know no emails no Twitter no Facebook no Instagram pictures of Red Sea splitting how did Rahab knew what God did in Egypt mentally she went to a different classroom everybody in Jericho said we're gonna kill him these people are nuts and and Rahab when cuckoo in her thinking and Rahab always heard that information and she says oh that's great why wonder the wonderful God wow great God and she keeps thinking thinking these thoughts and these thoughts and something happens she gravitates in her mind to such a degree where God leads her to an encounter with actually himself and he lets her be rescued from the curse of the family because though physically she was there mentally she already went somewhere else and today Rahab is known to be well she's in Matthew chapter 1 when we read about Jesus well she becomes a great great great mother of David she becomes a royalty today she marries a boy's her life is completely changed and we only remember her past but do you know why her future is changed she could have blamed herself and God why was I born a person in Jericho she says I did not choose that but I can choose who I listen today and when you changed when you change your classroom when you change your teacher you also change your future and your destiny amen doesn't matter where you grew up what matters today is who you're gonna listen to what matters today what is on your phone what matters today what is on your bookshelf what matters today is who is discipling and who is mentoring you if somebody is discipling and mentoring you your life can be changed if nobody's discipling you and nobody's mentoring you and the only thing you listening to is to Beyonce and Eminem and they are your mentors oh my goodness I pray that you will not end up like Judas if these are the only mentors that you God is the stuff that every other word is F and other stuff F bombs that explode if these are the only mentors is soap operas that's your mentors and that's your classroom you know what I'm not sure your family is worse as some of us we go and we complain we say when my family was so bad but then you look at the environment you choose you're not better and your future is not gonna be blamed on your family your future is gonna be blamed and the teachers you chose and the classroom you created in your own living room in your own TV and you will not be able to blame it you will not be able to point your big finger at God and say God why did you gave me that kind of family God says I did but when you were 16 you heard a message and you had the opportunity to take a remote control and switch things you had the opportunity to put the to put the earphones into your head you had the opportunity to put the tape into your car did you know that an average person drives the car back and forth to work a year equivalent to 300 hours a year if you do that for two years you're gonna pass a year of college just by being in your car you spend actually less time in church than you spend in the car every single day what would happen if you make to your classroom what would happen if every opportunity you get you may say you did not grow up being fortunate and these things find yourself teachers who are different and put them let them wash your brains let them cleanse your thinking so you will think different then you will feel different you will do different and then your habits develop and your destiny is altered and your future generations will benefit from that amen it I've been challenged every single day by different by my parents by books that I read by tapes that I listen to podcasts that I listen to what they do is they shape my thinking they mess with my mind and when my mind is changed God says my thoughts are not your thoughts my ways are not your ways what God is saying I think different and because I think different I do different he says you guys think the way you think that's why you do the way you do let's mentally immigrate from a family maybe that's under a curse but let's mentally never immigrate from a family that's under a blessing let's remain there mentally and let's trust the Lord to do the impossible in our lives in Jesus name amen I want us to bow our heads and close our eyes just for a moment I want to give the opportunity if anybody is here who needs to give their lives to Jesus Christ to do that right here right now tonight it is our goal to see people saved every single week and it is our goal to see people saved every single service it is our prayer and we aim ourselves at ministries that see those things happen and we strive to invite our friends and family members we strive to do that so we can see people saved if you are here in this room tonight and you have never made Jesus the Lord of your life and you have not given your life to Jesus Christ today is your day today is your opportunity to do that and I will give you just few more seconds to have you respond if you want to do they say you know what I want to give my life to Jesus Christ I want to surrender