Leon Fontaine - Kingdom Culture
Culture really is an outward expression of the beliefs of your heart. Whatever you truly believe will become the culture of your family. If you can a business, then the culture of that business comes from the beliefs first, then of course the practice. But out of beliefs come practices, systems, and structures. What do you believe? And so today, let's take a look at the fact. We're gonna go into God's Word, I'm gonna show that there is a kingdom culture and this kingdom is a kingdom of God. It's not just in heaven. It is even down here.
The Bible teaches us to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth. How? As it is in heaven. You're not gonna get what's in heaven in your world unless the culture of heaven is the culture that you establish in your family. So remember, the beliefs of the heart is where you establish the culture. To you singles that are here. You will marry somebody one day and all of what they believed and all of what you believed are gonna come together and it's amazing how, if you do on purpose as a couple talk about what you believed. A lot of people don't know what they believe because the culture of their family, the beliefs of their hearts, they don't even know.
The Bible says that God's Word can change the culture of our heart. The beliefs of our hearts in Hebrews 4:12. But let's jump in to Matthew 6:33 says, but I'm reading from the Amplified, "But seek, aim for, strive first for His kingdom and His righteousness His way of doing and being right, and then all these things taken together will be added to you". When you establish the kingdom culture in your home, there is such a prosperity, a peace, a joy. There is such a phenomenal momentum that begins in your life. The Bible says that there's nothing that can be withheld from you. But if you don't establish kingdom culture which starts at kingdom beliefs, then you're gonna leave out your parent's culture which might have been fairly good but none of us are perfect.
I'm so glad that I introduced my five kids to Jesus, so that the areas as a dad I didn't know to cover because there are no perfect dads or moms. And so the Bible says God is the God to the fatherless. And so if you've never had a dad or a great dad or maybe you had a bad dad. God will be the God. He'll make up the difference for you. But even in dads who've tried to be good at what we do. There's areas I don't know anything about, I'm not perfect. So God is also the God to the fatherless areas of your life, so that you can sense and know love, peace, etcetera. So it says seek first the kingdom of God.
So we wanna seek Jesus as our Saviour and Lord first and then we wanna make sure that what He teaches, what the truths of God's Word become establish in our heart, not our head. That head is the start, but they need to become the deepest beliefs at the core of your being. Someone's gotta do the work. God's Word is so powerful that it can change anything, but most people won't spend any time in God's Word. You can't take a cucumber and get it pickled by dipping it in pickle juice. You don't go to the store and go, "Oh, here's a bunch of pickles over there. They were dipped in pickle juice". Now, they've spent months in pickle juice. But you, you need to be marinated in God's Word because you've been marinated in your parent's belief from their grandparents and from their grandparents and from your teachers, your coach, the television, the things that have happened to you. What you were taught about business. What you were taught about all these areas has become your own belief systems. I call it your BS and until you deal with that and allow God's Word to get in there. You will walk out what someone else put in you.
Now, here it says in Mark 4, "Jesus said, 'The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground. And then he continues sleeping and rising night and day while the seed sprouts, grows, increases. He doesn't even know how". He doesn't even know how. But then it says, "The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe and permits, immediately he sends forth the reapers. He puts in the sickle, because the harvest stands ready". All right. He says here the kingdom is like. So it's got to do with the agricultural system of planting a seed and when the soil keeps that seed there, it begins to develop and grow it. You know, if you went out and bought a little plant, stuck it in some soil. And then today you came by and pulled it out and throw it over there. And then you came back, and plant stuck it back in the soil. And then tomorrow you forgot to add another soil. I think it's gonna die.
The key is keeping the seed or keeping the plant in the soil. And the Bible teaches us in Mark 4, the soil is your heart, your heart. What's unique about everybody here, is that nobody ultimately has the ability to stop you from achieving anything in life. Because the Bible teaches us that it's the heart, this deeper level of thinking, the center of your being. That when beliefs and words hit that, whatever you agree with and accept. If someone looked at you at a vulnerable time and told you, you were stupid, you're a fool, you'll never amount to anything. If you weren't able with your age or just your frame of mind to reject those words, those words will come in and they will form your identity. That's why Jesus teaches us guard your heart with all diligence, out of it grows the forces of your life, a force of fear or a force of faith, a force of peace or a force of fear. Whatever, it comes out of the heart.
And so the heart must be changed but it can't be changed by just little things. It's gotta be changed by literally a marinating in God's Word. Who tells the truth in today's world? Well, follow American politics and you don't even know whether to believe Fox or CNN. They had two completely different beliefs about the same thing going on. We live in a world where everything is spun, everything is a lie. Well, how do you see it? There is no truth, or what's my truth? The truth is Jesus. The truth is God's Word. And once you believe that, you can begin to establish. You can begin to get out to church like this. Listen to teachings, read the Word of God, value the Word of God as God's uncompromising Word. And when you do, you can count on it. But you need to get God's Word planted. Not flowing through your brain, planted in your heart. The kingdom of God has a culture, a culture of joy, a culture of laughter, a culture of the miraculous, a culture of valuing you, a culture of valuing women, valuing children, valuing the marginalized.
I talked to a precious young lady after the first service. She, I think it was her first time in our church. She's just not sure she's even a Christian or what she believes. She goes, "I just love what you had to say. But how come that, you know, that in the Old Testament things are so rough"? And I said, "Because Jesus is the one that values women, values children. He's the one that teaches us that there's no difference between man or woman. Now, we know there is but He means as far as value, as far as leadership, as far as who they are". Now some Christians, they use the submit verse and try to make someone submit. But no one should dominate another person ever. And the Word doesn't even teach that, but religion has taught that. And so when, whatever you believe is creating the culture of your home right now. Now, if you actually don't do what you believe.
One guy says, "I don't tell my kids anything about God. They can find out for themselves". I say, "Oh, interesting. Do you do that about money, school"? Well, no. I said, "Well, parents need to establish and discover truth". Wherever you don't have truth, they're gonna be floundering, wondering what is truth? Wherever you have a belief that hurts your spouse, hurts the family. That belief even if they hate it, will dominate their lives. We know through stats and I'll just pick on one of a hundred. For example, if one parent struggles with an addiction. Alcohol, pick on alcohol. That those kids can hate it because of what it does to their dad or their mom or to them and vow to never touch it. Yet the percentages of the kids that repeat it are so high. It blows psychologist minds. Because the culture of that home shows a going to a substance to find relief or find pleasure or deal with your pain and they will do the same. We want the culture of this home to change.
So wherever you are and none of us are perfect. What's powerful about God's Word, as you begin, you just listen like you're doing right now. As you begin to study during the week for yourself, whether you use CD's, audio or whether you read, visual, do both. You begin to establish what is truth and when you know the truth, the truth will set you free in a way that brings about every area of blessing in your life. This kingdom of God is like, He's showing us that the kingdom of God is so easy and so powerful. That this man cast seed in the ground, then he goes to bed. When you go plant your garden, if you're a gardener. You don't go out there and you just nurtured that little thing, "Come on now. Pulled a little. Come on now". No. You just plant it. You go to bed. You wake up the next day. You don't see anything. You don't say, "Ah, it's not working". You'll wait a week or two. And down below the soil the roots are going out. That little seed coming up to the surface and soon it will burst right through as things begin to grow.
That's the way God's Word works on you. It's like dipping cucumber don't make them dill pickles. Okay? You hearing truth doesn't change you. What does? The planting of that truth. The continual meditation. The confession. The marinating of hearing that truth. That's why coming to church every week is so powerful. You get into an atmosphere where people who aren't perfect are accepted. Where God loves you, cares for you, calls you special. It doesn't matter if you're the last person picked on every sports team. You were judged and marked as the dumbest person in your class. You graduated at 29%. None of those things have anything to do with God's acceptance and love of you. And as you begin to hear that as steady diet something changes in you as to how you look at yourself. And then you begin to value yourself. You begin to recognize truth about God. That God will never hurt you.
The devil loves to hurt you but, he's just a fallen angel. He's not powerful. But he'll use your power against you by your belief systems. And so the establishment of truth that begins to be planted in your heart, develops a powerful culture that your children pull from, your grandchildren pull from. And the Bible teaches us that you can be blessed to the thousandth generation. Why? By establishing of correct culture, correct beliefs. I call this "kingdom culture". Now, the Bible says as well in Mark chapter 4, listen to this, it says, "And Jesus said, 'What can we compare the kingdom of God to, or what parable shall we use to illustrate and explain it?' So the kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when is planted on the ground is the smallest of all seeds. Yet when it is grown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all garden herbs and it puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air are able to make their nests and dwell in its shade. With many such parables Jesus spoke the Word to them, as they were able to hear and to comprehend and to understand. He did not tell them anything without a parable, but privately to His disciples those who were peculiarly His own. He explained everything fully".
The Bible is written in a spiritual code. People say, "Leon, I just don't understand the Bible". I understand. The Bible will present historical fact and it will present truths. But then it will bring spiritual truths and it will have them in a code where Holy Spirit is to teach them to you. When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit's job is as you read just ask Him, "Holy Spirit, please teach me". As you read, and you grow, you will learn truths from God's Word. And again, don't just dip yourself in it go, "I know that". I don't care if you know it. Are you pickled in it? Are you marinated in it? Has it dropped from your head down into your heart? And now, literally harvest of peace. One of the things that I had to learn to do years ago was to find peace, because I'm a dad with five kids in a fast-growing church. And then it went to multi-site churches and in those churches, are people with real problems. Deaths, dying, abuses, divorces, crimes, sick things, all kinds of things go on in a church.
So you got all these things to deal with and you got your own home to grow. I had to grow as a husband, as a dad. I was far from perfect. So I'm dealing with my stuff, my marriage, my kids. Then we got a private school and then this thing it begin to grow. And so you're never without a problem. People don't call me to go, "Hey, everything's wonderful. I just wanted to tell you that". That's like phoning your dentist just as long as your teeth are good. No one does that. No one phones your doctor, "I want to tell you I'm healthy. I feel good". No, if you've got a phone call, it's always a problem. So you live in people's problems. Then you've got your own problems. And then you've got the enemy trying to shut things down as churches grow. And I had to learn there'll never be a time in my world that a problem is not in my life. Oh, God, no. But if you think you're never gonna have a problem, you're mistaken, too. There's always gonna be something coming at you.
So you have to decide in the midst of stuff, in the midst of growing, in the midst of family, kids, finances, health, grandparents. Everybody dies off eventually that you love, that's older than you at least. You can't be protected from death. You can't be protected from this stuff. You gotta walk this stuff through. This peace, I found out that I could have it and own it and it could be mine. You can talk to my kids, my wife, talk to all my staff, and every organization. They probably haven't seen a time where I've been stressed. I've learned to walk in peace. Now, is that because I'm stronger than up? No, not at all. I learned a valuable thing, that if I go to the promises of God and I stay in promises of peace. I'm always scattering those in the soil of my heart. Because Jesus teaches in Mark 4, the soil is your heart. The seed is God's Word. So I just don't wait until all, and so hell breaks loose and I'm on my last nerve in my marriage, in my kids, in my church, in the school. God, I need help. I knew that if a farmer wants to eat, he never misses a planting season.
And so each day I'm planting Gods' Word. Each day if you follow me around there'll be five minutes to a couple of hours depending upon my day where I'll just speak God's Word, meditate in God's Word, feed myself other people's teaching or even listen to my own message when I'm desperate. I mean, and just read God's Word, read great books and I'm feeding myself because when you plant the Word in your heart, it will grow, and you won't even know how. And eventually in my life there came a peace that even stepping into a middle of huge issues, huge problems. Okay, sit down, let's talk. And I found out that if I wanted prosperity in my life, that I first had to stay in scriptures and spend time to believe that God will prosper me, the enemy can't stop it, the world system can't stop it, an economy change can't stop it. And in the last 30 years of pastoring I've been through them all and we continue to grow. We continue to increase when lots around us is failing and going bankrupt. And I can't give myself credit because the only way I was able to do that was to get a hold of God's Word in the area of His faithfulness in prosperity. His faithfulness to me and to Sally and to our church, and to the television and the schools and all things that we're doing, just trust. And the only way that you can stay there is to feed the Words.
So I would just read it. I confess it. I get a hold of great teaching books on it. And there's always something coming in, so that the internal world, my soil the plants are growing. I don't, if you don't spend enough time in God's Word, your heart is shallow and the seed dies. If you don't spend any time in God's Word, it's like the soil is hard packed and the birds of the air, Mark 4 says, just eat the seed when you, or the Bible says in Mark 4 that when you plant the seed in some ground thorn and thistles choke it out. And the thorn and thistles are the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches. In other words, you are off focus. You are more concerned about your money, your reputation, you being happy. You're not seeking first the kingdom and that chokes out God's Word.
So my encouragement to you today, spend time in the Word. Because when you do, eventually what you are feeding yourself is being planted in your heart and peace will rise up. You know, even when it comes to joy most people are happy when there's happenings in their life. "So anything happening this week"? No, nothing. "Oh". But joy doesn't come from happenings. When nothing is happening that is good, I can still live in joy. How do you do that? You take the scriptures. You plant them in your heart. The Bible says they are living. They are alive. They're like seeds. They grow inside of you. You know, thousands of years ago, they buried a Pharaoh. And most Pharaohs they'll put a lot of stuff in their tombs. One of the things they would put will be seeds for them to plant in the afterlife. They dug up a Pharaoh that had been dead for thousands of years. I'm thinking four, five, six. And they found seeds that they had planted. No, they didn't plant. They were just seeds. And they planted those seeds thousands of years later in the soil and began to grow.
A form, I think it was wheat or corn that had been around in generations for thousands of years, centuries. And you say, "How could that things stay alive for thousands of years"? That's something modern science can't figure out. They know how seeds work and how they don't work. They know how to splice them and change them. They do all sorts of stuff. But they don't know how that thing holds life. That thousands of years later you drop it in the soil. Put some nutrients and water on it and you can grow it. That's like God's Word. Anything you want change in the culture of your family, your business, you. It comes very easily. But you still have to do the easy things. Like, really, how hard is a garden? Think about it. Once the soil is prepared, you drop the seed in it. You don't have to make it to grow. The soil grows the seed on its own. So your heart grows the forces that you need to have the culture that you need in your home, your marriage. Most marriages after so many years become just a futile grass but trying to maintain rather than a deepening friendship and a continual romance. Why? Because we must keep the Word of God.
The Bible teaches us that you can always be satisfied with the wife of your youth or the husband of your youth. But that's when you take God's Word and you keep it in your heart. You can just grow in this love. You can be like a 110 years old and look at her and just go, "Baby, I love you". You might need two canes, but you'll still chase her around the house. Because this love from God isn't like the world's love. So we need to understand God's Word is powerful. We need to understand that if you want to change the culture of your -, If you want to develop the culture of laughter even in the storms and joy. If you want a culture of peace when things aren't going well. If you want a culture of love and the value, when you don't feel like valuing anything. When all of these truths only come through God and His way.