Leon Fontaine - What to Do When the Storm Hits
When you study the New Testament, every miracle you will ever need in your life has already been given to you. It's in Holy Spirit, the presence of God, who is in your spirit. There will never be a time where there's no power. There will never be a time where God isn't enough. There will never be a time where you have to earn the miracle Christ on the cross earned it. And it says all things that pertain to your life and godliness have been given to you. So if God's inside of you, then everything you will ever need from the healing of a broken bone to AIDS to cancer too miraculous financial needs to protection on a jumbo jet. I don't care what it is in your life, whatever you will need Jesus died for and gave it to you.
Okay, if you ever study singing, chanting, battle songs, you will know. Go to the great fighting tribes of Africa. You study how they went into battle it was an awe-inspiring thing to hear the sound for literally miles of the chance of them coming and you knew they were coming. Take a look at the Vikings. Take a look at the way they fought and the way they would chant. Take a look even at modern day armies and the songs that they would sing, the chance that they would make even. If it was a I don't know who you've been told. Navy seals are on whatever it was I can't even do it but if you go and look at the battle songs that armies and people went to the battle with.
There was the Romans you know when they went into battle they had a special thing where they'd start to take their sword and they'd hit their shield. The noise was deafening and you knew they were coming for you. It was oh and it was the way you would get the young soldiers, the old soldiers who were worried who was going to be killed? Who's gonna get hacked up? Your brain goes in every direction. It would just center on this fighting urge. In fact one of the, I forget who it was but the term berserk you know going berserk actually comes because there was one nation that they had a certain kind of fighter that I don't they gave them drugs or what they would go, they were berserkers, they were called and they would go into battle. You were in trouble duty was just like. Crazy. You can cut him up again they're expected. They're just coming at you and then we get Christians. God bless you. Don't hit me. Don't hit me. Bless you and you go what man wants to serve that and we've feminized the Gospel to such a degree.
Now I don't want the crazy stuff I see out there. Some of the conferences I go to that I have to literally walk out I'm going that ain't my Jesus so your flippin' freaking out isn't helping anybody but at the same time there is this passion, this warrior's heart, this fighting the good fight of faith that rises up in us, and if you don't learn that when you don't see results when things aren't happening the way you want them to happen what you gonna do? Curl into a ball? Suck your thumb? There has to be this sense of battle and we're not doing battle with the devil. He's been defeated. We're not doing battle with God. He's already given it to us. This battle is a fight to stay in faith. This battle is a fight for your mind, it's a fight for your attitude, it's a fight for that warrior spirit that rises up that protects on one hand whilst picking up a child with the other this this passion, this ability to sing, this ability to to speak praise and to give Him thanks is something that's missing and but to the church today or it goes too far.
You know for every mile of road there's 2 miles of ditch right? But somewhere in the middle is men and women, brilliant who know their God whose minds are switched on, whose spirits are switched on that when something begins to rise up and the storm comes into your life that you know what to do. In Acts 16 is an incredible story. It's a story about Paul and Silas and God directing them to a city. Said don't go here, go here. They went to the city. Long story short there was a demon possessed woman who would tell people's fortunes. And if you study demonology according to the Bible, you'll have the most. It's probably the, it is the only accurate book you'll ever understand the spirit world.
Things like can you tell fortunes? Can you talk to the dead? Can you read through the stars? All of this stuff is all explained how it works and why were forbidden in the Bible, what a familiar spirit is? Why can some demon possessed people who are mediums actually tell you things from your past? They can never tell you your future. They'll attempt it but they'll know your uncle Ben spoke to you under a tree and sat, and you how do they know that? It's just called familiar spirits, no biggie. This woman was demon possessed and she was telling people their fortunes. Two men owner like a slave and they're making money off of her. One day Paul had enough because she would follow him in the streets and go listen to these men. They are men of God. I was gonna say something but I better not, might get in trouble. No, I'm gonna say it. I got an edge today, is that okay? You'll just have to forgive me in advance. There are people who speak for God who were demon possessed just so you know. Just a thought.
All right, now Paul turned and just, get out in Jesus' name. Bam, just totally sets her free and she couldn't anymore express this demonic voice or this these demonic thoughts that she would know things. It was just gone. They were so upset they had him locked up so Acts 16. This is a story we break in and it says and when her master saw that the hope of their gains were gone, they caught Paul and Silas, drew them into the market place and to the rulers drop them to the magistrate saying these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city and they teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive. Neither to observe being Romans and the multitude rose up together against Paul and Silas and the magistrates pulled off Paul and Silas' clothes and commanded them to be beat.
Now when you get a beating in those days, that's not like getting a beating today. If you're in a bar you let the guy off and he gives you a beating it means you got 2 black eyes and a missing tooth. Whoopy. You got beat in these days, they would tie your hands around a post and stretch your back up over stump and they'd whip you so thoroughly that they knew they would never go past 39 because 40 lashes almost always meant you would die. You'd die from infection. You die from blood loss because these whips had little pieces of metal and stone in them and when they when they would whip you they would drag it across her back and so you're back would be just flayed and the infections that would often come in would destroy them, they took them and it says they laid stripes on them and it says many stripes upon them.
They cast them into prison, charging the jailer keep them safely who having received such a charge because if you ever lost a prisoner, they killed you. He thrust these 2 into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. I got a thought for you that's not in the area my message but it's gonna help somebody. When you are in the middle of God's will, it does not mean that everything's going to be rosy. Just because something messes with you, when a giant rises up and screams at you, when something in your world seems to get locked up and you can't break free and you go, I thought it was in God's will? I thought it was God doing things? What is going on? It does not mean that in the middle of God's will means there's no trouble. You can't find it anywhere in the Bible.
David was in the middle of God's will and Goliath was screaming at him. Here, there in the middle of God's will, there in the city God told them to and Paul was moved by the spirit to heal that poor lady so tormented by evil spirits and for doing so he's beaten. He's thrown into jail. Now if I was Silas okay and Paul was in charge of Paul was the leader. I'd be there sitting in stocks looking at Paul going, oh, you heard from God, did you? That would that would probably have been me. It would have been, you big man of God, you. You just had to do it didn't you? Or something, there would have been some way when people are in pain, when people are in trouble real champions, they just stand strong and then there's others. They're just like chihuahuas, you know. They just gotta be chipping at somebody.
When things are getting tough don't for a moment think that you're not in God's will or that God's not gonna see you through or the what's ahead is one of the greatest miracles you've ever seen because it says the they both dealt with this and it says at midnight Paul and Silas prayed. Okay, so here we are at midnight. I don't know what happened from then till midnight then they sang praises to God so loud the prisoners heard them. They're in the inner cell. They're in like the dungeon of dungeons. They're in like the hole if you're going to go to look at our penitentiaries today and it says and the prisoners heard them and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.
Now, you could always talk away miracles if you really, really, really, really want to. So someone would go yeah but you know it just lucky an earthquake hit the day they're in prison, the night they were singing, an earthquake hit like big deal. Doesn't mean it's a miracle while let's read on. The foundation was shaken, immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed. The word bands means the stocks, these metal rings they would put around and screw into their legs, around their legs and hands like, if it's gonna be an earthquake, it's not going to go to every individual cell and take off your handcuffs.
Hello. An incredible miracle took place when two men rather than sitting there with their stocks, their feet in the stocks blood running down their back, in so much pain. In so much pain but I believe the Jesus heals and I believe that he gives them power to handle whatever you, whatever goes on in your life because of your stand for Christ. God will never leave you. He'll heal you, see you through, help you with all of that, not because a lot of stuff you go through because of you.
I remember working with a Christian guy one time when we were both paramedics and I remember him sharing at our church when we're both Christian, sharing how that he gets so persecuted at work. Well I knew he got persecuted a work because he was always late. He left early. He never did his share of the poll. He was always you know doing things to, he was just a lazy butt. So him suffering for Jesus was all in his head. So don't take the easy path thinking that with God's will would be no trouble. Really? God's will would mean that there's no sweat, tiptoe through the tulips with a latte in one hand and a great chocolate bar in the other.
Yes, serving God's amazing and wonderful and beautiful but if you want to do something great for God, it's like everybody else on the planet. Get up and go do something and recognize that we have an enemy. He's going to try to stop you he's going to try to hurt you. He's gonna try to make you quit, make you give up and what's interesting to me was what they did. Grown men singing. When we think about singing. Well some guys can, I don't know if I can sing, what would they sing. They croon a tune in the month of June under the moon. No, I believe that often when they sang, they would sing scriptures. They would sing the promises of God. You would find there's actually a whole Psalms, read them. They would sing them. They would get together before they would walk into a city to evangelize that city and they would pray and they would worship God and I want you to know that if there's one thing you can't ever stop doing it's being thankful and praising God with your life in the middle of your storm, in the middle of not getting results, in the middle of believing God to move on, to go places with your life, that God's going to take you, that you know this is my career.
I'm believing God to break through that financial barrier. I'm believing God for the promotion that's ahead of me. I'm believing God for the salvation of my friends, my family, but they're all mad at me right now. Listen, let God guide you with wisdom but at the same time there's gotta be a trust and when there is a trust, there needs to be a worshipping and a singing that takes place. Now there are many times. I'll give you a quick version. The Amplified Bible teaches us that the fervent prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available then it says dynamic in its working. If I was to grab a big 5 gallon can of gas and just soak the carpet in it up here. Nothing's happened yet. But there's a whole lot of power available up here, okay and that stuff begins atomized into the air until you've got a mist of gasoline filling up the whole place.
If one person strikes a match all of sudden all that latent power, that potential power that's sitting there just goes and that's like prayer and believing God and praising God. I believe there are times that what brought this miracle about was this singing, this praising God at midnight, just declaring that my God, He moves a mountain and I believe He'll do it again like we just sang. They were singing things, overcoming victory songs. What do you do when you're going through stuff? Well, the Bible's hard to understand. You know stop saying I don't understand. First of all, it's like you're cursing yourself. I just don't understand.
Quit. Okay you don't, no one has to understand anything about your life. Just get up and praise God. Believe He's gonna see you through. Believe that there is going to be an end. Believe that He's gonna guide you and lead you and you know what, when you can't get your emotions under control and you can get your depression up and you can't get you know what's going on in your life and you're going oh my god then start to sing and it's in the singing and it's in the worshipping God. When we come here on Sunday mornings, I am believing for the day that the band gets on stage and you hear that first little intro and all of a sudden the congregation just starts to sing and I mean the volume in the air puts their hair blowing back on stage and they're kind of going like this because they're no longer like the ones worshipping. They're leading the church in worship. We don't just sing along. We don't put the words on the screen so you can sing along like no.
This is men and women who've got a whole week of life ahead that we're gonna walk and we're going to go and this is a fight to stand in faith to, believe in God and there's stuff going to push against your marriage, gonna push against your health, it's going to push against your finance, gonna push against every area of your life and what are you gonna do you? You're gonna get up and you're gonna declare God. Sundays is the starter. It's this precursor. It says I'm gonna worship with God's people. I'm gonna hear the Word of God preached and then the rest of the week I'm gonna be in their declaring my God moves mountains and my career's moving on and the presence of God's protecting my children at school and no weapon formed against them is going to prosper and the Word of God begins to come out of you.
I don't know anything else to do when I've done what I know to do than to begin to sing and to worship and to trust Him. In Psalms 100 it says make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands, serve the Lord with gladness. It doesn't say when you feel like it. People think because I'm happy most of the time. That I must have a really easy life. People have been told that well you probably won't understand, pastor. You're just a pastor but you know, going, oh really? What problem is it you have the rest of us don't have? One of the greatest works of the devil is make you think you got problems like no one else.
One of the things I always do when I'm going through problems is I always look for a moment and realize there's a guy that became a quadriplegic today in an accident. Leon stop your whining. There's a man that lost his son just cross the road today. Leon shut up and suck it up. Works for me but not telling you I'm just, this is what I say to myself at times. I'm just going, come on Leon because your mind has this tendency of woe is me. I'm not knocking anybody's pain here at all. I'm just telling you how I'll often deal with the stuff I'm walking through and then I love to sing. I'll sing songs. I'll make up songs, I mean I got my grand kids singing songs whenever we want to get joy.
I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart then and then Sloan and I always go where? Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart to stay. And then we all day, this is Alice's favorite part, and I'm so happy, so very happy I have the love of Jesus in my heart. What am I doing? Leon, you look a little funny and it helps me laugh. Better than sucking on lemons all day and looking like a, you know, a donkey in a tin barn praying at midnight, who cares anymore like the world is so full of problems, they're not gonna listen to yours. Hello.
I don't mean to minimize anybody's pain. As a pastor, I've pretty much seen it all whether a paramedic or a pastor for the last 30 years and I love and I weep and I cry with people but then I want to help them. I wanna help them say come on. Get back up with me, take my hand, let's stand up. You went bankrupt. doesn't mean you're a loser. Means you've learned one way to don't do this again, let's get up and do it better. Yeah you had a loss, hurts. Hurts like you've been gutted. But let's get up. Let's go do something great for God. Psalms 100 and all through the Bible, the disciples were trained from the Old Testament, did you know that? They didn't have the New Testament.
They were trained by the Old and so everything they taught, you will find doctrinally in the Old Testament in pieces, you'll find it in, sort of lost it but you'll find in little hidden phrases that are all prophetic of Jesus in the future and as Jesus begin to teach in the Word if you go to the book of Matthew and you use a Bible like the expanded Bible, every time Jesus would teach something or the apostles, they'll show you where it is in the Old Testament and some of the most fascinating reading as you find this beautiful doctrine and so they knew. Paul and Silas knew. We enter His gates with thanksgiving. We enter His courts with praise. We'd be thankful under Him and praise His name. They were taught that. It isn't just, oh, I just discovered a new way to get power. They were trained and taught worship God.
When you go into the Word of God, there's a story, you can write this down to read it on your own and it's in Chronicles/ 2 Chronicles 20 where the battle is 3 countries coming to take on God's people. And they had a problem with one country, they weren't big enough to take on 3 separate countries attacking them and it wasn't just a warning, they were all here, they're all outside the city, the country gates. They're going what are we gonna do? All of a sudden, the presence of God came on a young man and he began to speak and he began to say the Lord says put the worshippers in the front. You got to understand warfare. You know warfare gets more brutal but when it comes to a bullet I mean, it's just kinda like. You're standing there half a mile from each other and you get a bullet wound.
In those days you had to come up to them face to face and hack limbs off. You got sections of swords and arrows and spears and chariots with swords in the spokes and every known way to mane you so they go tambourine players to the left. We'll have the trumpet players in the center. All those who play the loot and the leer, would you please be on the left over here? You're going into the battle in front of the warriors. What? I can see the musicians' wives. What are you doing with my husband? Well we're putting him in the front. And the Bible says they went, they marched into battle like that and they were told to sing and to praise God. And they did and begin to walk out into battle and it must have freaked them out.
See the disciples knew this story. They knew Psalms 100. They knew Psalms 146.147.148, 149. Completely talking about praise him. Jesus said to the disciples one time because they put on a coat and they were riding him to Jerusalem. They're throwing their coats on the road and they were all singing Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest, the king. And the disciples were telling, should we tell them to be quiet? Jesus said if they don't cry out, the stones will cry out.
Many soldiers whether they're in the bars after their battle or they're sitting around after, they'll start to sing certain songs or chant certain things and it just brings us a spree to core and I'm just challenging you today. If you're just kind of a fair weather Christian. I'm a Christian. Are you one that knows that you're rooted and grounded in the Word of God, the uncompromised, undeniable. There's going to come a time on our planet where every one of the sciences and every one of the world's experts are gonna bow their knee to the all man but all God, Jesus Christ, the King of kings.