Leon Fontaine - The Bread of Life
As a young man in my teens, I began to notice living and growing up in a Christian home with amazing parents that all of those people who call themselves born again. They weren't alike. In fact, I began to divide in my own teen mind people into two groups. And it was interesting and I think it was a smart thing. I think God began to speak to me and prepare me. I noticed one group of people and very broad group that had given their lives to Christ. But they treated the Bible like a rule book, a management book, and a principle book which it is. And so they would time manage their life. They had all their guidelines in place. They believed in God and their life was mapped out before them. But I noticed they were boring and bored.
And then I noticed a smaller group of people like my parents. They could be pastors, leaders in business, education. But I noticed another group of people that my parents would often hang out with and they would get together. And these people not only knew the Word and they managed their life with the principles of God's Word. And they would prepare and plan like the others but they lived differently. There seemed to be a sense of adventure upon them. They would be risk takers, not gamblers, risk. They would look at things, pray about things, and they would venture out into stuff. That they always had stories of what God was doing in their life, of what God was doing in their business, their family. And when they talked about it, it was interesting how many miracles that were in their life.
There was this group that had a miracle working God. And they were passionate, excited. You'd go for coffee with them or you had them over at the house. And they'd talking and excited and sharing stories of God's goodness. And the other group, they, they, they're going to go to heaven when they die, I'm pretty sure. But there was just something missing. And I knew as a teen, that I wanted to be in that group of people who lived with passion, excitement, risk takers, who got up and really lived. And I began to look for what the difference was. Now, I can't judge each individual person but for my life I brought it down to two things. These two things I have practiced now. I'm not perfect at them. But I've practiced them for more than 40 years and it has meant the world to me. And I want to talk to you about them.
I was watching a television show about these wonderful people who rescue animals. And they would often rescue dogs whose owners had died and no one knew it or they had owners that were awful, horrible people who would leave these poor animals caged or in the yard. And in this television show, they would show this, this poor dog walking. And it would be so skinny the ribs would be sticking through and its hips, you could just see the hip bones coming out when it walked. It couldn't even walk straight. It was so weak. And then you'd see a normal animal of the same dog breed. Its coat so shiny, its eyes alive, its ears just perked ready to play. I mean, it was filled with life and passion and excitement the way a dog should be.
So I'm watching the show and I sensed the spirit deep inside of me say, "That poor dog, that's like many Christians today". And I kind of just stopped and thought about it. And I thought the only difference between that poor skinny animal with no energy, no life, its head hanging down, no passion. I mean, is and the other one so filled with passion in life. The only difference was diet. It was eating, or not eating. And as I began to dive into God's Word, I began to find some really potent scriptures that I didn't see a lot of people sticking to. The first one I'm going to talk about is the bread of life.
Jesus in John 6:32 goes on a discussion using Old Testament type and New Testament, and He makes this comment that He was the bread of life. He, and why would He use the word bread? And I began to recognize that the people that I really respected, if I could get close to them and I noticed it in my parents. That my dad would continually find these moments to get alone with God's Word. He do it late at night, early in the morning. I'd come home from school and find my mom curled up on the couch, her Bible open on her lap and a notepad and she'd be taking notes. And you often, I often wonder like, I already know what the Bible says, good Lord. I'm 13 and I already know what the Bible says. I got it figured out. Why are they still studying it? Then I noticed the difference over the years, that a lot of people were like me. Once you figure out Old Testament, New Testament, God sent Jesus. Jesus's died.
If you accept Jesus, you go to heaven. He'll heal you. I got it all figured out. But that's not what people who lived with incredible passion, who lived with miracles happening, who lived with their relationships that were rich and rewarding and laughter and vision. And those people, they fed on the Word of God. If I was to invite you over for a turkey dinner. I said, "Hey, we're having a turkey dinner, and we love to have you come on over". And you said, "Oh, no, thanks. I'm good. I know what turkey taste like. I know what stuffing taste like. I know what cranberry sauce taste like. I know what mashed potatoes and gravy tastes like. Been there. Done that. I got the T-shirt. I'm good". You kind of go, "That's a dumb thing to say, because it's not eating one turkey meal that changes your life. It's getting them all the time".
And so many Christians, they treat God's Word like, "I know it. Why spend time in it"? But the Word of God is food. It is the bread of life. To not eat the bread of life means you have no nourishment for this new kind of life that follows from your heart, out of your spirit that gives you the life of God. Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life more abundantly, innumerable in quantity". I mean, unexplainable in quality. And this applies to your health, your mind, your emotions. His peace, His joy, as you feed on the Word of God. Nourish, meditate, think about it, enjoy the Word. And Jesus is the Word. John 1:1, says, it's such a mystery that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus is the Word. The Word of God, the Bible is Jesus.
When you feed on the Word, you're with, you're meditating a relationship with Jesus. But people don't see it that way. And so if it's just a book of management, principles, rules, guidelines, and it's that. But that's all it is. You have missed the most beautiful amazing part of Christianity. And that is the Word of God can be fed on. And as you enjoy the Word, this bread of life begins to change you. If you look at this new year and go, "What's it going to be like? What will it be like"? That's the way the kind of the weak group of Christians I noticed. They always were wondering, "Was God going to give me a word? What's God going to do? What's the world going to be like? What's going to happen in government? What's going to happen this year in 2022"? That there was always a bit of an anxiety.
Now, if you confronted them on it, they were offended. No, I'm a man of faith. I'm believing God. But their conversation never reflected a sense of courage. Never reflected a sense, "It's going to be amazing because God and I, we're a majority and we're going to get up and win. We're going to build our lives on the rock. Storms could come and go. It's not going to touch me". That wasn't in their vocabulary. And so, you know, they wouldn't consider themselves fearful people. But there was a trepidation in them about the future. There was kind of a concern that was, they didn't realize had its roots in fear. That there was this irritable this about things not working out. And they didn't realize that irritableness is anger. And anger has its roots in fear. And so these Christians would be irritable, easily upset, always a little bit worried, always needing a Word from God from somebody else to give it to them.
And then I'd met this other group. This other group, they just seemed to be filled with a passion, filled with a strength, filled with something. And I began to recognize the nourishment of God's Word. Just like when you eat healthy, and you eat protein, and you begin to eat your carbs and your vegetables and the vitamins and the, and the different kinds of minerals. And as you eat a proper diet, man, your body can do well. Your nails, your skin, your eyes, your hair, your muscles, your organs, everything. There's an energy, a level in you the just rises up. And so it is for those who feed on the bread of life. In fact, the church of Jesus Christ is salt. We are light. We are the leaders this world needs. They can find all the talented leaders they want in every area. But without the bread of life, the Word of God that brings this peace of this life.
You get, you get born again through the Word. And then you begin to rise up and it affects everything. Those are the kinds of cities, countries, companies. Those are the kinds of people that will rise up and I noticed that. And today I want to tell you. That you got to recognize, that if you are not a self-feeding Christian, that you're like that poor dog I watched on TV. That owner unable, or you know, didn't feed it. When they finally rescued it, that animal shelter, to watch it walk out from behind that house, out towards the van as they were leading this poor dog. And it was skinny, emaciated. It was just no energy, no drive. And I recognize that's us, if we do not feed the spirit man. If we do not feed on God's Word, establish our hearts. There is an energy that comes from the Word of God. The Bible says, Jesus said, "The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life".
You need life rising up in you. There's a difference when you meet somebody and, "Hey, how's it going"? Well, I mean, hey. Yeah, it's going to be a, it's going to be a good year. I mean, we're looking forward to it. You can see they know the right words to say. It's not enough to know the right words to say. Are you filled with a passion? A life, that Zoe life of God that makes you rise up at your relationships, your finances, your career, your church, your friends, your purpose in life. It's just lit up. And there's an attractiveness to you that people want to get around you. Why? Because they sense an overcoming strength. The Bible calls you an overcomer. What is an overcomer? It means it doesn't matter what comes at you. You get over it. You ever watch an eagle?
I was out fishing and I know that's, I used to always say fishing is not for me but got, I enjoyed it. I was out fishing up north. I happened to look at in a really windy day and I saw this eagle just way up in the sky. And he had his wings out and he was just sitting there in one spot. And there's two of them. And as the wind was coming, they didn't do anything. They go like this. Now down below the tops of the trees are whipping back and forth and the waves are so high that we're going back to shore. And here these two eagles are way up there. I could just, and I just had them stopped the boat and I just wanted to sit there and looked at them for a while. And it was an effortless. They just kept their wings out in that position. And that's it. And the wind hit those wings. It gave them left and it just sat there in one, effortlessly.
I want to encourage you. That you are called to live over, to be overcomers. And if you do not feed yourself on the bread of life. If you do not feed yourself on God's Word and get to know Jesus through His Word because He, man, I just, I feel sorry for you. And then you're going, "Well, you know, I've been praying for miracles". I discovered that when I got out of the Word, miracles didn't happen. I discover when I got out of the Word, that I couldn't keep the joy. I couldn't keep peace. I couldn't keep on overcoming. I couldn't see the miracles and the gifts of the Spirit because I wasn't feeding myself. Oh, I could blame my church, my pastor. I could blame other things and God. I could blame God. God, do something. And God is saying, "I've already done it for you. Feed on my Word and it flows out of your life naturally". Stop feeding on the Word of God and you are going to suffer. And there's no one to blame. So let's feed on the Word of God. Let's get God's Word on the inside of us.
The second thing that I noticed that really changed the lives of people was Holy Spirit. Now people talk about God. But they've forgotten that God is three in one. The Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. And you know what's exciting about Holy Spirit? Is that He is a person. He has a personality. And that this personality, He is absolutely in love with you. He yearns to get involved with you. Jesus called Him the helper, the comforter. And that as Jesus was going to leave, He said, "I'm going to send Holy Spirit to you and He is going to help you and show you and coach you and be there for you". And the Bible say, that has a verse that says this Holy Spirit, He literally, it says the lust after you. You're going to go, "What"? That word is used so many times negatively. But it means He is so in love with you. He wants so badly to be involved in your life. And then it says, "And He's envious". He doesn't want anything else. He's jealous after you. He does not want you, you know, getting world.
In other words golf becomes more important than the Word and getting to know Holy Spirit. Golfing is fun. But it shouldn't take over your life. It shouldn't be money, or there so many little things that can take over our lives. And I began to recognize that when I met these people, you know, that would hang around the church and leaders that were just alive. That they enjoyed and loved the Word of God. And there was great big Mickey Mouse ears. They'd always be sensitive of the things of the spirit. They wouldn't say it. Religion's like, somebody will go, "What the Lord told me. The Lord told me no". But in conversation with friends they would say, "You know, I sensed God guide me over here. I sensed Him lead me over there".
And I would hear story after story from them as to situations that they would go into where the Spirit of God had guided them and led them. And I recognize, the Bible has a verse where Jesus says that you don't know where the wind comes from, and you don't know where the wind is going, so are those who have the Spirit of God. Another words, you don't know always what God is up to. You don't know all the things that are interconnected to everything that you do. And so you've got to trust Holy Spirit. And each day when you get up, you've got to be led by the Spirit of God. You got to get up in the morning going, "Holy Spirit guide me today". He'll guide you on how to look after your marriage, how to raise your kids. He'll guide you to someone who's about to take their own life. He'll guide you to situations where you begin to live this adventure of seeing the presence of God flow through you and undertake in situations and touch people's lives.
I remember one time driving into the house, and Sally had told me supper was on. The kids were there. As I drove into the property, I just sensed deep inside me, quickly, a sense of urgency. Turn around. Go back to work. Turn around go back to work. And I just sensed it in there. And so I knew, oh, this is not cool. But I quickly turned the vehicle around and began to back, go back on my tracks down the same road back to work. I stopped at a red light, and I looked, and I saw this hubcap still kind of going in a bit of a circle. You know, when hubcap comes off a car, it rolls and it kind of go around, around, around, around. And I looked to my left and there was an accident there. And so I quickly pulled my car over there, and I checked one of the cars was a young lady. She was totally fine. Then I ran over to the other car, and here's a man, his head is back like this and he's dead. I checked his carotid pulse. There's no pulse. He is already bluish.
And I went, "Oh, no". And so I quickly grabbed his jaw and I gave him one breath. I went, straight into his mouth and I just said, "Live, in the name of Jesus". As I did that, someone tapped me on the shoulder. And I turned around and an ambulance had been driving by. So I backed out of the way, got my car out of there because the accident scenes become very complicated. And then I went to the hospital that they were taking him to. I remember speaking afterwards with the ambulance crew, the paramedics. And I said, "So, you know, how did the guy do? I didn't see you doing CPR". So I thought, "Did they declare him dead? What happened"? And they said, "No, he was. What do mean do CPR"? I said, "Well, when I found him, he was gone. I had no carotid pulse. He was already blue. He was, you know, he was unconscious. He's out. He's gone. He's dead". They say, "Oh, no. We got him with a viable pulse and fine. We took him in. He hasn't regained consciousness yet".
And I found out just that that same day that they had moved him from the resuscitation room that they took him to, up to the, to the surgical ward, to a medical ward. So I got into visit him, got into the room and this man was laying in the bed, his eyes were opened but he couldn't talk. I didn't know what was going on. And so I just shared who I was, that I had found him at this accident scene, and I just began to share Jesus with him and he wouldn't respond to me. And I said, "If you understand me, blink twice". And he blinked twice. So I know, oh. So I'm not sure what's wrong but I can communicate with him. For the next few days, I would drop by his room and I would tell him about Jesus. At one point I said, "You know, you can receive this Jesus Christ as your Saviour". I said, "You can't speak. You can't communicate. But right now just say, Jesus, I give You my life, come into my heart. I receive You as my Lord and Saviour".
So I led him in that prayer. He couldn't say anything, couldn't move. And I said, "If you did that, blink twice". And he blinked twice in a row bam, bam. And so I came back the next day, walked into his room, and the bed was up high, all the linen was gone. Which meant that the person was gone. And so I asked the nurse, "Where's the gentleman from this room"? He said, "He passed away during the night". I want you to understand something. That man would have missed heaven. He would have missed heaven. If I wouldn't have gotten up each morning and said, "God, what do You want me to do today? Holy Spirit, I'm open to your instructions. I want to do what You want me to do. I want to have my ears always on. I want to have this great big sensitivity of Holy Spirit what", and so as I'm pulling into my house, I sensed this deep inside, "Go back, go back". And because of that, in the next few days I was able.
So I don't know till I get to heaven. Who was related to that man? Who was praying for that man? Whose prayers for him got it to the point where Holy Spirit guided me to be there, to get him from death back to life. And then to be able to share Christ with him before he went into eternity. That's the kind of life you can have when you feed on the Word of God and you listen to Holy Spirit. Now what good would it be to listen to Holy Spirit if you haven't been feeding on God's Word and filled with life. Now He can lead you to a situation but you've got nothing to give. And what good is it to be filled with the Word of God and the power and the presence of God and not know where to go with it. The Word and the Spirit are designed to work together.
I want to talk to you about you and your personal relationship with God. You see, Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship with Him. And when people begin to get religious, which is manmade rules to please God or please the people around you, the church people around you. Life becomes awful. I hate religion from that perspective. But I love Jesus and I love His Word. And I love what He has planned and I love His church. And by that I mean, the real church, because all religion is not His church. Every place that calls itself a church. You know, I don't think Jesus is even alive and well in there.
And so I'm not talking about religion. But you need a relationship with God. And the way to get that is through His son Jesus who paid and qualified you to have access to being in God's family. He died on the cross. He took your sin, my sin. And then He went to hell in our place. He took all punishment. If you feel like, "Oh, I need people to know I'm not worthy of it because you don't know what I've done". Well, I don't need to know. But Jesus took that sin and the punishment that should have gone with that because it was an awful thing you did. He went to hell in your place. And you are a brand new creation. When you accept Jesus, you become born again. And how do you do that? You just choose Him. And right now I want to encourage you. Just say:
Jesus come into my heart, out loud. Jesus come into my life. I give You my life. And I'm going to follow You. Guide me, so I get to know You better and I get to know Your Word better. In Jesus' name, You are my Lord and Saviour, amen.
That simple prayer has just made a, given Him permission to come into your life. And from now and on, when you pray or cry out to Him, or get into the Word, His spirit is helping you and guiding you and leading you. You are in the family of God. Keep watching the show. Get to a great powerful local church and enjoy Jesus.