Leon Fontaine - Beautiful Grace
We live in a world that is struggling with not belonging anywhere. This feeling of isolation, a feeling of disconnection. So there's a lot of research going on right now about this, because many people struggling with mood disorder, many people with depression, and even many other mental illnesses. And there's lot of reasons for it, so this is not a message about how to. It's just saying that in all of these people's lives almost without exception they have this horrible of I do not belong. I'm lonely. I'm disconnected. They'll stare at their entire family at a family get together and feel like, "I don't belong". They live in a wonderful place filled with happy great people and they'll feel disconnected. People leave marriages. They leave churches. They leave their families, their friendships. Or they never developed them because they've always felt like, "I don't belong". And then preachers always add to that by using messages out of context like, "We're strangers in another land. We're foreigners just passing through. Heaven is our home".
Now, that's an Old Testament teaching. And when you study this out, it's not true. And we'll get to that. But when they look at loneliness researches. We're doing a series on this. I'm gonna spend a little bit of introduction for each of these messages. They know that it shortens your lifespan. Now, the test that are being done or the studies that these universities are doing they're saying that, when you look at a human being's lifespan, pollution can compromise your lifespan 5%, obesity about 20%, excessive drinking 30%, loneliness 45%. One of the stats I'm aware of is that usually women outlived men between 7 to 10 years longer, if they're the same age. And people often wonder why, and they got lots of different ideas.
You know, in 35 years of pastoring and counseling with families and couples and doing marriages and funerals for a couple of decades, three decades now. I tell you what I think. I believed that men are lousy for example, at building relationships, friendships, opening up, and talking and having a circle that gets bigger. So, they're lonelier often and they'll tell me that. And many of them die when they're older just alone. And they're telling us that this loneliness, this feeling of disconnectedness. This feeling of I don't belong there is shortens our lifespan horribly.
So today, I wanna talk about that, because the enemy of our soul is the biggest mind game player on the planet. And he knows how to take this and to isolate you and to make you feel isolated and to bring people across your path that might say things or do things so that you feel like everyone's like this. In fact, I did this series on our church and everybody that I talked to was stunned by the fact. They thought they were the only one. Well, the only one gets you a life-giving church just make you feel like you're disconnected. Greatest mistake that people make as well is, they're always believing their thinking. That's crazy. You can't believe your thinking. If you believe your thinking, you're gonna think everything in your head is true.
And I'd say 80% of the stuff minimum, that goes to your head is not true. It's you processing, thinking and it always seems to go negative until you go to the process of renewing your mind, establishing your heart, fellowshipping with Holy Spirit, staying filled with the Spirit. These things are paramount. They're so important. And so today, I wanna dive down a little deeper. We've talked so far, just gonna skim along the surface outlining this huge problem, that is there even for born again spirit-filled believers.
Now, when you give your life to Jesus Christ, you are a three-part being. You have a body. This is your earth suit. This is my earth suit. And I have a mind, a will, emotions are all in my head. We call that the soul. Then you are a spirit, deep inside of you there's an inner man that is the real you. When Jesus comes into your life, forgives you, and you become born again. His presence completely changes your nature. Completely changes you from a nature of fear and sin to a nature of joy, faith, love. And that's deep in your spirit and Holy Spirit is sealed in there, meaning, the Bible says that He's sealed inside of us. That you, you can't get rid of Him. You know, you can't make a mistake tomorrow and, He's gone. So, then we need to renew our mind so we're not living in our old way of thinking.
So today, I wanna talk about God's grace and then how to live by faith. There's a version in the Bible that says for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. Okay, stop right there. We gotta talk about this. When you give your life to Jesus Christ, you are born again. You are born of God. That means that His presence, Holy Spirit is deep in your spirit. And you have access to Him in there. He's no longer up there where you're begging and bugging and pleading. God, help me. No, He's inside of you. In Romans 8 teaches that He flows out of your innermost being. And so whatever is born of God. If you are born again, there is not a thing on this planet that can overcome you.
You know, one of the things in my ministry that has happened quite often, is people who are really demonically oppressed or even possessed. That see weird things that are controlled by stuff. They'll come for help. And they often wonder, you know, if I have the power to help them because they're so in awe of the devil's power. They've seen what he does. They've seen little signs and wonders from the enemy that makes them think he's all powerful or they've talked to Christians who don't know how do it. No, there is nothing on this planet, no demonic power, no force of sickness, no force of anything that can overcome a believer. Because it says for whatever is born of God, overcomes poverty, sickness, depression, unhappiness.
And you, I need to know this. This verse goes on to explain what overcomes the world. And this is the victory. If you wanna walk in victory in every area of your life. This is it. This is what overcomes the world, our faith. Now, someone says right away, "Okay, I've heard that before. I just don't have enough". Now, it's not saying how much faith. Faith is about what you believe in. You know, I believe there's been a mistake made in much of the teaching on faith to the world. I'm glad for the resurgence of the teaching on faith. But it tends to look at how much you've got. So when people are believing God for a miracle in their home, their marriage. You know, the peace of God in their own life, dealing with depression, sickness. They tend to think, "Oh, it's not happening so I don't have enough faith". And then they look at trying to get more, trying to get more, trying to get more or God's withholding it, etcetera.
But you have to understand something. Everyone's been given the measure of faith. So it's not about having more. It's what you believe. Often, I would meet with people, when they finally open up and talk about their situation. They would always share with me that, you know, I know that God is a good God. That God is -, And then they'd always have this but. "But, you know". And they'd tell me that maybe they had an abortion. Or that, you know, they had maybe committed adultery on their spouse and the spouse never heard about it. They hid that. No one knows what I did in my last life. And one person told me how they pretty sure they killed a person. And they run from the scene with their vehicle and never did go back. And then, and just story after story. So in other words, they have this misbelief that there's something in their life that disqualifies them from this miracle.
So when you're believing God, for your life to be fuller for peace, for joy, for healing, for freedom, for God to bless you and for you to rise up filled with joy, of peace, and success. What stops it is often a misbelief. It is something that the enemy has shoot into your head that you believed. Now, this verse goes on and it actually talks about this. It says, "Who is he who overcomes the world"? So who are the people that do this? "But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God". It doesn't say who overcomes the world? Those whose lives are perfect. No, it doesn't say that. Those who worked everything out, every mess they've ever had. No, it doesn't say that. It says the overcomers believe on Jesus.
Now, right there a lot of people have a disconnect. Well, what does that mean to believe on Jesus? Okay, I don't know if I believe that Jesus is a Son of God. I struggled with that. Was it a virgin birth? Did He arise again? Did He come out of the grave? Like all these things I don't know. History just says we can prove He walked the planet. But all the other historical Jesus has been proven. Okay? There's so many records besides the Bible. That this Jesus Christ was alive at that time frame. Others wrote about Him. Even Roman leaders wrote about Him. So we know that Jesus walked the planet. The issue is, was He the Son of God? Did He really die and rise again? Did He really take the sins of world? Did He really go into heaven? All of these things are the things people struggled with.
So this is where you must look into the Bible and you must study Jesus. One person talked to me one time. You know, I really wanna be free from my addiction and so I just been studying every scripture I can on faith. And I said, "That's good". Others, "I'm believing God for healing, so I've been studying every promise in the Bible that teaches healing". And I said, "Good". Others will tell me, "I've been believing for my marriage to be restored. So I'm going through everywhere in the Word that gives advice on marriage and promises on marriage". And every time I heard that I said, "Good". However, there's something that most Christians miss. And it's covered in Romans 5:1-5, and it talks about how faith triumphs in the troubled times of our lives. And it says here, "Therefore, having been justified by faith," The word justified is very similar to the word righteous. Justified means just as if I'd never sin. Just as if I'd never sin. Justified. And righteousness, I like little plays on words to help people remember them. Righteousness means in right standing with God. Righteous in God. Righteousness.
So it says you've been justified by faith. You were justified by what you believed. And then it says, "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into healing. No. Into prosperity. No. Into deliverance. No. What does faith do? It gives us access to grace. There's a missing link for many faith believers. Many people who are believing God for miracles of situations to go away in their life. And it's important to know the promises. It's important to understand. But this is very much so focusing on, if you wanna walk in victory, study Jesus, believe Jesus. Well, what is that mean? It's what He did. It's what Jesus has done. Jesus went on the cross. He died for you and I. He was buried. He rose again. He ascended into heaven. We call that from the cross to the throne.
This spiritual period of time or it was a period of time but the things that happened there are not written in one story. They're found buried in a beautiful code all through the Old Testament. These are the scriptures of Paul and Peter referred to. And they began to quote all these verses that were hidden in the old. The Bible says it was so magnificent that if Satan would have understood this he'd have never touched or crucify Jesus. This was the biggest mistake he ever made because Jesus died for you and I. As you begin to study, really study what the cross is. Why He died in our place? How He exchanged His life for our life? He took our mess, our sin, our fear, our guilt. We took His peace. It says here we have peace with God, not because we deserve peace but through our Lord Jesus Christ. It says we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Now, anytime. Anytime that you need to see the glory of God or let's put it this way, because everyone argues about the word glory mean. We got so many crazy definitions of God's glory. Now, God's glory is His results, His presence, flowing in our lives. And so when God flows through us, when a man and a woman is walking in their gifting, you can see God's glory. Because it's not them, it's His presence, His results, His power flowing through you and I, so we have access by faith into this grace. And I wanna camp on this for the remainder of this message, because I've heard so many times, literally weekly, I'll hear someone that hasn't seen victory in their life. And they'll look at me with tears in their eyes. I've got faith. I believed. You know, or they've lost a loved one or a friend of theirs died believing God for a miracle. They also said things like, "I know they had faith. You can't, nobody can tell me they didn't have faith".
Well, I totally agree with you. Of course, they had faith. Every believer has the exact same amount. They got the same measure. But what you do with your faith is important. The Bible says that what we need to do with our faith is access grace. And then we stand in this grace. We rejoice in the glory of God. And then it goes on to say, "Not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance character, character hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us". Here's a story that will help you. When I was a young man, my dad taught me in grade school I should never fight. "Leon, we don't fight. We love God. We love people. We don't fight with people". And he forbade me to fight.
Now, the town that we grew up in Weldon, Saskatchewan, Canada. I went to school there. And because, for some reason because my dad was a pastor, I was persecuted. And I had an acute sense of not belonging and being rejected because of it. I would be teased about being a pastor's son, and a Christian. They would, right on Grade-Four and on I have memories of this. And so finally one day, I was getting beat up so much by even the little kids at school because they knew they can actually punch me in the face and I would never touch them. They knew they could tackle me on the ground, hit me with stuff, throw rocks at me and I would just duck my head and try to escape, because I was forbidden to fight back. And I remember one day my Mama telling, she's a tough little French, tell my dad, "You have to teach him to fight or I'll pay for lessons for himself to defend himself".
So my dad took me aside and began to teach me. He was kind of, he was a really good boxer. He had trophies for boxing when he was a young man, and he taught me how to use my fist. Then from there, I went and joined at that time there was karate and there was also a lot of Savate or French foot fighting. We put the gloves on your feet as I would spar all the time with the young guys in their early teens, and I learned to fight. Now, then whenever I would go to school my dad said to me, "Leon, you're allowed to protect yourself and you're allowed to protect others. But if I ever hear that you are bullying people with these things, you're gonna get a spanking. You're gonna get whip when you get home".
And so I never did. But an interesting thing happened. Before I would go to school with this fear and this trepidation in my heart. And as soon as school was done, I would bolt for the door knowing the bullies would be at the edge of the playground watching for someone to pick on and often me and so I would always run. So I was always living in fear. I fear about recess time. And at recess time there's times I'd be punched out. There's times they would, I remembered being tied to a tree by these bullies and everyone left no one could find me. And finally, someone found me and help me. How was that in grade school? I was just a preteen. So, but once I knew how to handle myself and I became good at it. Few people, my age or even bigger couldn't touch me because of the skills that I had developed in defends and in using my fist, my feet, you know, throws and flips and all these things.
Now, whenever I saw trouble, they didn't even bother me. And people think that God gives you tribulation to teach you. No, tribulation doesn't teach you. The Bible teaches you. Holy Spirit teaches you. But it says tribulation produces perseverance. I remember the first fight I got into, after I was told I could defend myself. And this young guy who would always pick on me. We called him Trooper. It's a nickname, came over there, and he was just about put a wail on me. He draws back to punch me, and he's so used to me just giving in and taking it. And I remember hitting him so hard, knocked him flat on his back and he's lying there with the shock look on his face. Because all of a sudden, this trouble, this tribulation, this situation, I persevered through it and it made me even more calm I can handle myself. The next time there was bullies on me, ho, did I give them a licking. And they were just stunned.
And then time and time again as I went through junior high school, high school. Whenever a situation arose, it never ever made me fear. I begin to conquer the fear of being bullied. And so, because I had skills. And here it says that we need to understand this. We have access by faith into God's grace. And so now, we glory in tribulations. When problems arise, what? You know you're going through. You know you're never get taken again. You know you're not gonna be destroyed. You're not gonna be made sick. You're not going to be made poor. But that, this grace, this and grace is God's favor. His power, His ability, and it comes to you unearned. All you have to do to have God's ability in your life is believe it.
So this goes on to say, "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us". We're gonna go on and we're gonna teach more on this. So make sure you tune in right away to this. Because if you, when you give your life to Jesus Christ, you have to believe that He died for you, and that He took your sins. You don't understand at all, but then you have received Jesus. You begin to believe on Him. You don't know what to believe when it comes to everything. Someone says, "I don't know if I believe on Him". I understand what you mean by that. People think believing is you either have it or you don't have it. You have to choose what you put your trust in.
And if you choose to put your trust into Jesus. You've tried other things. You say, "I choose Jesus". That beginning of believing on Him changes something in your life. And as you begin to study the cross and what He did for you. And you realize that the life you can live is not live by your perfectness. It's not live because you're living so good but it's a gift. Grace is God's unearned favor and you've gotta believed that. We're gonna unpack this some more. But I want you to look into this yourself. Read Romans chapter 5, the whole chapter, and just read it over and over before we talk about this again. And you're gonna find out that what you need to believe is in Jesus and what He did on the cross, what He did from the cross to the throne. And as you believe on this more and more you will walk in such victory, such miracles.
You know, you're not gonna be afraid of tribulations. Sickness pushes at you. You just gonna laugh. Financial problems, people push at you and you're not even bothered because you know. And the more problems come your way, the more you win them. The more confident you can become in God's grace in your life. And the more you begin to trust Him and believe that there's nothing that's gonna stop me from victory, because grace is God's favor, His ability in my life. All of His promises now I qualify for them. I simply believe in that Jesus qualify me for everything in the Word. Well, we just scratch the surface on this. I pray it will change your focus. To you mature Christians who are struggling with the situation. Get your faith right, begin to access grace with your faith, instead of trying to always access the miracle itself. God bless you. We'll see you same time tomorrow.