Leon Fontaine - The Greatest Miracle
Jesus did a lot of miracles, a ton of miracles. He raised the dead. Would that be the greatest miracle? Well, that shocks a lot of people. There's not too many of those miracles happened today. Well, He walked on water. Now, we've never seen that miracle today. We hear some people talked about it. I mean, what was the greatest miracle that Jesus did? And you gotta examine all the physical miracles. But when you begin to look at the Bible as a whole, the greatest miracle that ever took place that Jesus did was the great exchanged. Where He became sin, so you could become righteous. Where He became poor, so you could be rich. Where He became exorsed from the presence of God, so you could be accepted in the presence of God. Where he lost his Sonship there. Well, put it this way. He became a Son of Man, so you could become a son of God.
This exchanged that took place so few Christians walked a lot of it out and so they don't see a regular passion and excitement and a growth. They don't understand the nine strengths that Holy Spirit brings into your life. So that literally, you can just rely upon these nine strengths and they come to you like a fruit growing in your life. So many believers don't move on and understand all the nine gifts of the Spirit that bring this powerful flow that they don't move on into these things. Christians so often want to be spoon-fed and they don't wanna dig deep. I have actually had people tell me a lot of times and they'll say to you, "Pastor, you know, could you tell me a little bit about this". And I'll say, "Yes! Here's a couple of things but let me tell you, a couple of really great authors is this person and this person change your life".
Ah, yeah. Ah, you know, I'd rather you read it and just teach on it. And it kind of shocks me because nobody is born with a skill. They developed the skill. Reading is a skill. Learning is a skill. Focusing and getting the Word on the inside of you, is a skill. And God's Word is so gorgeous, so beautiful. It changes everything in your life. The greatest miracle that ever took place was this great exchanged. When you look at the life of Jesus, I laughed when I hear people on TV debating the Bible because they don't know it from a hole in the ground. The know the historical Jesus. They'll tell you where He lived. They can even bring it down to when Christmas is, a close to where He was probably born, the very year that He came on the scene. We have other documents that the Romans wrote about Jesus. It's impossible to deny Jesus. The greatest lawyers have picked up, did He resurrect from the dead? And with all the laws of evidence that are used in our court systems today, it is impossible to say He didn't when you have hundreds of people that watched Him and handled Him after His death. I mean, the list goes on.
The historical Jesus is pretty amazing. But the greatest miracle takes place from the incident of the cross where He died to the throne that He ascended to. Herein lies the revelation. You know, the Bible even teaches us that to be saved you need to look in Romans chapter 10 where it talks about you must believe in your heart that Jesus rose from the dead. So many people they just look at the cross and they go, "Well, I'm forgiven. He died for my sins. I'm making heaven". Okay, that's cool. And so many Christians stop there. You know, and as I teach in different denominations. You know, I had the honor the other day of speaking for The Church of God. And every two years they bring the pastors from all over the world in all the countries. The message of Jesus to come in and teach us. We want you and the general supers intended of the whole movement. I want you to teach us Spirit Contemporary.
And so I begin to unpack all these pastors and so many of them are doctorates and this and what a joy to just take God's Word and begin to unpack it where they know the Word so good, you don't have to keep clarify things. You know what I mean? You could just say it and go bam, bam, bam, bam, and begin to just teach. And the very thing I went for was what Holy Spirit does in our lives today. That we just tend to think, "Well, you know, LAF, you know, God accepts whosoever". And it's a beautiful thing. But if you don't begin to learn that the revelation that Paul got speaking to Jesus himself. Peter goes, "It is go great. It's hard to understand". And when you study the epistles and how God taught Paul all from the Old Testament verses. And what He taught him was that Jesus the Son of God, the Messiah was gonna come. And when He came, everything would change.
Today, if you do not read the Bible with Jesus in mind, you will not understand the Bible. If you do not study the Bible, understanding from the cross to the throne, that Jesus died for you. He was buried for you. That He rose again for you. That He seated at the righthand of the Father for you. He's literally our representative but then at the same time He exchanged all these things where you died with Him. Where you were buried with Him. Where you rose again with Him. And you're seated at the righthand of the Father with Him. People stopped at the cross. In fact, and it talks about the message of the cross is where the power of God is for Christians. But when it says that, it's talking about this entire revelation of from the cross to the throne. When you do not understand the resurrection, you're forgiven but you're still stuck in your old nature. That's how you believed. But when you understand the resurrection, and you begin to recognize that the cross is beautiful but don't stop there, move on and recognize the old nature that you had was buried forever and that you rose again triumphant. You rose again with the presence of God on the inside of your spirit and it's sealed in your spirit.
And as you begin to study the Word, you're gonna discover that even when you make mistakes and you sin, and the word sin with most uses hamartia in the Bible. And it means missing the mark for the price of God's best in your life. Don't stop here where you are, for those who have learned and grown in the Word to a certain degree, let me just say, the miraculous that impacts your life, you, your marriage, your relationships, generations, so that goes from your kids to your grandkids. This miracle working power will not begin to manifest itself in your life until you grow in faith. But faith according to Romans 10:17, faith cometh by hearing and understanding the Word. So we just stay. We gotta go deeper. So I got all these friends. We're getting all these degrees and doctorates and Hebrew and Greek. And I say, "Well, good for you". But why would you spend years when you can just, and I don't know some of here, too.
I mean, there's some great people there. But when it comes to pastors they can learn all this stuff and I'll still sit down with people and say, "Do you understand the cross to the throne"? Well, you know, not really. It's kind of nebulous. It is, and it isn't. As you begin to get into God's Word. And it begins to show you that the greatest exchange that ever took place was between Jesus and you and I. Salvation is about an exchange. In John 10 it tells us that He came that we might have life and have it abundantly. Are you having abundant life in every area of your life? When I bring this up people will tell me, "You know, you can't have your cake and eat it, too. I told you". When you believe that, you allow the enemy to come in through your beliefs. And so many of you will go, "Well, it's okay over here. I guess it's not quite where I wanted it. I need to learn to be content". The Bible is saying, "Fight"! Not devils, not God. To stay in faith, to grow in faith. Timothy brings that out. Fight the good fight of faith. Grow. Get your mind in God's Word.
The Word of God has this incredible ability. You know, you say, "What's the truth of that elephant? One guy is at the front, one guy is at the back". You know, what is that elephant? Well, that's just an appearance. One guy says, "This is my truth". The other guy says, "Oh, this is my truth". And that's where people are going because the feel like, you know, we both sat through that storm. What's your truth? Well, my truth was the lightning flashing. The other guy says, "Man, when it starts to rain, I love sitting in the gazebo with the screen on there because I love the sound of rain. I love the lightning. I could just sit there and read the book for hours". So, well, that's your truth and this is your truth. I understand where you're coming from when you give a perception. But listen to me, there is a truth. God's truth. This truth is the principles that run the physical realm. The principles that run the mental realm. The principles that run the spirit realm. And if you don't learn these principles and you don't learn the truth, it's the truth that will set you free and you will know the truth.
In John 8:32, and the truth will set you free. There are people in this room right now and by just stuff that we've taken over the years of polling, we know the majority feel stuck and you're looking for some new teaching. Some kind of new thing that's gonna break you through. You know, of all the places I've gone I have not experienced too many breakthroughs where all of a sudden, things happened. I've just done incremental growth. I just keep growing me, growing my team, growing the church. And then we move the thing out and start going to other language, going to television. We're broadening the baseline always reaching out. And this thing about breakthrough. And so you gotta be careful sitting around waiting for your ship to come in, whatever is that next level. You'll be old and gray, and you'll still be at the wrong dock because it's not just the ship coming to you. It's you going into God's Word and seeing clearer who you are. You don't have to work. It's not works, as in I have to earn it. But faith is an awareness.
And I just wanna challenge you today. That you need to understand what took place. If there's some place you need to study as mature believers. If there's some place that you need to study as young believers. It's what took place from the cross to the throne. When He died on the cross, where did He go for three days? Where was He for three days? Oh, this is a huge argument. Did He become sin? There's a whole group of people, scholars who go, "Don't you ever say the Son of God could become sin". I didn't. The Bible says He became sin. Then He said, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me"? And if He took the sin of the world and He became sin. What happened for those three days? I mean, you start talking about how He suffered in our place. He went to Hell in our place. He arose again and talks of Him going to heaven and purifying the instrument of worship in heaven. Like when you begin to unpack this, it's this incredible teaching that most backed away from and they'd like to just stay at LAF. God loves me. God accepts me. God forgives me. He loves me the way I am and all my messes. He accepts me the way I am with all my messes.
But you know what, I get tired of not changing and growing. Kids are so lit up. When you see a six-year-old and a seven-year-old. Yeeha! I'm awake now. And their learning nonstop. What's that mean pops? And how come this? And what's that? And why did this? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Nonstop all you new parents and grand. It's why, why, why, and their little mind is just hungry. And as long as they're learning, there's this passion and there's this excitement. And then, we get to be older and none of us wants to show our ignorance so we smile and nod. Good one. Yeah, so good. Yeah. And then we've left behind the fact that it will take God forever just to show you His incredible brilliance and all that could happen in your life. You know, in 1 John 4:17, it says, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we might have boldness in the day of judgment because as He is, Jesus, so are we in this world".
When you think of LAF and you stay there, you don't realize the very sin that's destroying your life that Jesus and His church just love you and accept you for, okay? That very sin is destroying you. And so why don't you move from just being accepted and loved the way you are, to now understanding the power of the gospel for you. That you can beat any temptation with the Spirit of Christ on the inside of you. That you can develop and walk in such power. That you can change other people's lives. Did you know, the destiny that God has for you will never be fulfilled if you just focused on your own flesh reasoning and mind. The incredible things that are ahead of you were designed by God as you work with Holy Spirit. You and Holy Spirit can do incredible things. But you'll have to learn to rely upon Him. You'll have to learn to get into His Word, Jesus. The whole message is Jesus.
You know, as I study some of the great men of old. I consider my dad one of them. I had the joy of being raised by a guy, a pastor, who my entire life and until I came here to be the senior pastor. He was the only pastor, him and mom, that I had. And to watch this relationship, he didn't just know a bunch of principles. He had a relationship with Jesus. And now, I watch all these young pastors around the world rising up as leaders. That, you know, we get to a conference and they wanna know, "How do you do this? How do you do that? What's your simulation process? What was your system structure? How did you raise the money"? They wanna know all these things. And so in the Q&A, I sit and answer questions and then I'll say, "You're all asking the wrong questions. I have found multiple ways to assimilate people and others are doing it better than me. I have found multiple ways to put in structures and systems and others do it better than me. I have found multiple ways to raise finances and go do what God has called you to do and they would do it better than me".
Like systems and structures are important to learn from a managerial perspective. But it is up in this level of knowing Jesus. And He said, "My sheep they know the structures and the system to get the job done". He said, "My sheep they know my voice and they follow me. And another voice they do not follow". And I think this is at the core. If you're gonna have a relationship with Jesus, then this relationship continues to grow. It's not about who knows the most structures, who knows the most systems. What I try to help people is to understand that I'm not the most brilliant at systems and structures. I'm not the most brilliant at teaching in this. I'm not the wise in this. But I know somebody who is and this relationship with Him, it gives me my self-worth. It's where I draw my joy from. This relationship is my purpose, my meaning. It's the patience. It's the strength, the law. It's this relationship with Jesus, getting to know Him. The apostle Paul, I mean, because of the revelation and the books that Jesus wanted him to write, he had an understanding and talking with Jesus. But at the end of His life he still went, "Oh, that I could know Him". It's in knowing Him. It's a relationship. It's not just systems and structures.
Now, don't get me wrong. I love the kind, if you wanna call it the business side, the managerial side. Because I recognize that if, you know, if you can get a 500 hundred people out to your church, you can get another 500 as long as you look after the babies, park the cars, finance the buildings, management and all that is a crucial part of everything that we do. But it's not the start. It's this relationship with Jesus. And as you begin to study Jesus, you understand the great exchange. That Jesus got our sins, we got His righteousness. That Jesus got our sin nature, we got His divine nature. That Jesus received our name Son of Man, so that we could use the name Jesus as an attorney because we're children of God. Jesus gets our sickness and disease and we get His health and life. Jesus gets our poverty, we get His prosperity. You know, that Jesus got the curse of the law, we get the blessings of Abraham. That Jesus was forsaken as a Son, we become sons.
When you begin to see what Jesus has done, He experienced rejection from Father's presence, so we can have fellowship with God's presence. This thing about Jesus, knowing Him, and then loving God's Word. I just wanna challenge you to please my time is up but don't stop where you are. Don't stop where you are. You've plateaued. You're working what you know. But get to know Jesus. Once you begin to look at from the cross -, You know, years ago when I study the cross to the throne and I began to go through the Old Testament and the New Testament, of the epistles, and the minor prophets and realized what Jesus did for me. All of a sudden, I started falling in love with Him. I would watch my dad and he would, "Don't you just love Jesus"? And I go, "I guess. What is that mean? Is it a tingle in the back of your neck? Is it a kind of -, what do you mean"? Because he had this love for Jesus that was just, it was just captivating. And I had a love for the Word, but I was all into systems and structures and gifts and all the things that I can do and leadership and management which is a part of what God's called me to do.
But none of us are gifted at building a relationship. There we each must learn for our self. Okay? My marriage, my family, my kids. Everyone thinks that the gift that God place within me to lead His churches, a television station. That the giftedness that He gave me and the skills that we've done that I could use it on my family. Are you kidding me? When I go home, Sally doesn't bow at the waist and say, "The most honorable bishop has entered the house". My kids don't just kiss the ring and go, "Yes, father dearest most anointed man of God. We will obey you". There is none of that, okay. My home is a real place where we had to build relationship in our marriage. We built relationship with each of our kids, each of our sons-in-law, daughter-in-law because it's the relationship that makes everything work well. The rest you can figure out. If you love someone and you work with someone, you can design systems and you can put in structures and principles and all that but it's the relationship. Where's your relationship with Jesus?
And I wanna challenge you. If you've gotten too works focus. If today you say, "Well, what do I need to do Leon to get to that next level"? Maybe it's not what you need to do as much as pursued Jesus and have that friendship. And then as you do that, you'll find that like John 8:32 says, and you will know the truth, and the truth will bring freedom from wherever you're stuck. If your marriage is stuck. If your relationship with God is stuck. If you're not stuck in business, you're stuck -, You just don't sense that the things God called you to are manifesting in your life. You feel stuck. It's the truth that sets you free. The truth of Jesus that sets you free. I'm gonna dive into this more on the second and third services. Just begin to unpack and go to the verses that show this is what He did here. And so by the end of today, I just encourage you to get a hold of the rest of this, because as you begin to look to Jesus as the author and the finisher of your faith.
Many of you are believing God for things and you started a journey of miracles. Maybe it's your marriage. Maybe it's a healing. Maybe it's finances. But He's the author and the finisher. You know, there's so many people who are unfinished. Many of them are the leaders in the Old Testament and in the New, never finished their job. Joshua who was supposed to go in the promised land. Moses didn't finish his job and he died outside of the promised land. Then along comes Joshua and he's supposed to take the children of Israel into the promised land. And here they are supposed to take mountain after mountain. And just study the Bible, he didn't finish his job.
As you go into many of the leaders in the Old Testament, you know, like Saul. He was an amazing anointed man. He didn't finish his job, lost it. And then, as you go to David. And you just see, we have Jesus inside of us His presence, His Spirit. You don't have to plateau. You don't have to get stuck somewhere because it's not up to you. It's Jesus. He qualifies you. This great exchange, His presence, His power, His love, His Sonship, His access to the throne of God. All of these beautiful things and there's tons more that I could list were all provided for you and qualified for you by Jesus.