Leon Fontaine - Understanding Your Inner Man
I want to talk to you today about something that is so crucial that you get. If you do not get this message today. You will live your life and never do the great things God has called you to. You will live your life in an average Walter Mitty way, rather than living and doing the incredible things that have been planned for you. I did a study a number of years ago on the training that Jesus gave His disciples. Twelve men history tell us between the ages of 15 and 26. Not interesting, between the ages of 15 for all of you teenagers that are listening to me. Those of you who are twenty-somes.
You need to understand. We keep thinking that disciples around Jesus were all 40 to 60-year old men with grey in their beards. No, no, no. Oh, no, no, no. Between 15 and 26 is what history tells us. Three years of stunning training. He mentored them. He showed them. He talked to them in private. He did miracles in front of them and then showed them how. He laid hands on them and sent them forth with the anointing that was on Him on them, and they went forth excited because demons listen to them. The sick were healed. Thousands followed Jesus and they were taught amazingly. The 500 that we hear about that were around Him, working and supporting Him. The 70 healing evangelist that were trained in that outer circle that went out and did things. Yet when He went to the cross, nobody stuck to Jesus. Abandoned Him, denied Him, walked away from Him, until He literally turns to the twelve.
After everybody left Him and He said, "You're going to leave me, too"? You are on this planet for a very important purpose. In Ephesians 2:10, it says, "You are God's workmanship". All right. Let's just stop right there. For many of you who feel like you have no talents, no gifts, no abilities. You feel like a loser. You feel like you've got a big L tattooed over your forehead. Not everywhere you go, you're the bottom. You're the snake's belly. You're like Gideon. My family, he says, the lowest in my community and I'm the lowest in my family. And God is looking at him and saying, "You are a mighty man of valor and you're going to go do incredible things. What are you looking at within yourself? Because you were created", Ephesians 2:10, says "to do good works which God has before ordained that you should walk in them".
Jesus was dealing with a group of people who were not reborn. Jesus was dealing with five hundred who weren't born again. He was dealing with the seventy evangelist that He sent forth, but they weren't reborn in their spirit. His twelve disciples that He trained and equipped and renewed their mind and mentored and showed in how He dealt with things and left Him in fear. They weren't reborn people. And that's what finally as pastor when I began to study the training techniques of Jesus. The mentoring of Jesus, what Jesus did with them, told them.
I was so discouraged about how am I as a pastor going to help the business leaders, the dads, the moms, the grandpas. Oh, I just like, "Oh, my". But then here's what I, what really encouraged me, was in John 16:12-15. Jesus says this, "He still, I have many more things to say to you, but they are too much for you. You cannot bear them". What? Was He talking about bad news? You know, none of us like anytime you've, think about when you got the worse news given to you. You lost somebody you love. You lost a job, a spouse left you. Something happened and you've got this news. And you know, if someone's bringing you the news, they want you to sit down. Just sit down for a minute. I've got some news, or they want to figure out a way to break it to you because when you get bad news, your stomach goes into a knot.
Some people throw up. Some people will literally faint, have a heart attack because of the incredibly bad news. But when Jesus says here that I got things I want to teach you, but you can't bear it yet. He wasn't saying it's going to be bad news because He goes on say, "But when the Spirit of truth, the Helper comes, He will lead guide you into the truth. He's not going to speak His own stuff, His own authority but what the Father says. He's going to declare it to you. The Spirit of truth will bring glory to me because he will take what I have to say to you, what's mine and declare it to you". He's literally saying here that there is information that is hidden. There is things that no one will get until they're born again.
I laugh when I see debates between an unbeliever and a believer because those debates take place within the sense realm. And I love all the great apologist, but I've got news for you. There is the hidden man of the heart. You have an inner man, an inner person, and that inner person comes alive when you are born again. There is no way to explain it to someone who doesn't know. There is no way to help them understand this whole new set of perceptive tools that become, it's yours. This ability whether you kids want to call it a spidey sense. Whether you business guys want to call it a gut feeling. Whether you moms who praying for your kids want to say, "I just perceived. I just sensed. I knew and I had to call them and help them". But there is the inner man, the hidden man of the heart, without that being born again. You cannot handle. You cannot bear. You cannot understand. You cannot get to work. The things that God has prepared for you.
In John 14:12-14, Jesus is speaking again. Here He says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do will he do also, and greater works than these he, you will do, because I go to My Father. Whatever you ask in My name, I'm going to do, that the Father be glorified. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it". Jesus is talking here about you being born again. He didn't get you born again to play church. The church of Jesus Christ is people, and people who can do great works. People who wherever they go can minister to people and see miracles. You need to understand that Jesus is saying to you. You were born again to do the things that I do.
What did Jesus do? He brought comfort to a widow who had lost her son. Then He raised him from the dead. He reached out to a blind man, living in a dark world at the time when it meant he was poor, and poverty stricken, and begging for food. And he started to scream, "Jesus! Son of David have mercy on me". The crowd told him to hush. It is amazing to me when you're believing for a miracle. How many people will tell you be realistic. Oh, I know someone who tried. Done that phase stuff doesn't work. And all the Job's comforters that you need to get away from. They told blind Bartimaeus, "Hush! Be quiet"! He went louder, "Jesus"!
I've got news for you. You can do greater works. Jesus touched those eyes and healed them. What's facing you? Is it a body that needs healing? A business that needs resurrection or maybe God's got something new. Is it relationship you can't get to work? A generation that you lost in your family tree. I don't know. But I want you to know that you've got greater things in you. You've got a hidden man of the heart. That within you resides the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And He's not there for you just to keep learning your whole life. I'm not teaching the Word of God. You can put me in a building and teach. You can put me in a parking lot and teach. You can put me in a forty below snowbank and teach. And I'll keep teaching and I keep telling people that Jesus is on the inside of you.
Listen to me. You, you are the devil's worse nightmare. Every demon from hell knows that they submit to you as a born again believer. That you are the body of Christ. That you have authority over them. But what they're hoping for is you don't get it. Even if we can't do the programs. We can't meet in our buildings. If, that you know what, that every one of you individually touches your neighbor, phones a friend, zooms with a family member, reaches out to someone to the best of your ability to help them out because and the church can't function as a corporation like it used to, can't function like it used to inside a building. It does not matter.
Churches meet on mountains. Churches meet in homes. Church can meet under a palm tree. Church can meet inside of a cave. Church can meet hiding out from a government that tries to kill them. The church cannot be stopped. You are the church. And the greater works don't take place from a platform. God did not say, "Let all the preachers go heal people. Let all the preachers get everybody saved". In fact, that's not even my job. My, although I love getting people saved. I love having miracle services. I love praying for people wherever I go in hospitals. I am to equip you to do the work of the ministry. And until, if we still, if we all start settling on our blessed assurance and just sit there and wait for Jesus to come or just help me have my life, my health, my prosperity, my home. You know, hello. Praise the Lord! Glory to God. Hallelujah!
While the world around us knows nothing about the real Jesus. The real gospel. They hate religion as I do, and they want nothing to do with it. But you and I, we are the children of God. In 2 Corinthians 4:16, it says, "For which cause we faint not, but though our outer man perish". All right, here's the part that bugs me. I know that our youth is renewed like the eagles. I know that we can go to our death at a hundred and twenty full of vim and vigor. Yet it says that everyone of us is going to die on this planet. So the outer man, the outer man is decaying, okay? But the inner man is renewed day by day. It is talking here to you and I, that you have an inner man.
This inner man is the place where you were born again. We call it your heart. It's the central area. You are not just what you think. You're not just your emotions. You're not just your physical body. Although all of us equate who we are to our looks and our personality. That the whole world does that. When someone says, "Hey, do you know the old John boy"? They all go, "Yeah. He's the six foot two guy with a bit of a pot belly, and he's got red hair, and he's a really happy nice guy". You describe people with their personality and their looks. God doesn't. God looks at the heart. And then in the New Testament, it teaches that you have an inner man.
When you go on in Peter, to 1 Peter chapter 3, Peter says, "Let it be the hidden person of the heart. This incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God". People have taken this, and they've said to all of us people who want to live with passion. We want to shout and laugh and dance and sing. Oh, but you should be a quiet, gentle person. We all walk with this fake humility with a little smile. We read our Bible. That's what we do for excitement. We sit at home and wait for church. That's not what it's saying. It's talking about a gentle and quiet spirit.
There's always a peace in your hidden man. There's always a quietness that nothing can disturb. A peace that passes understanding. That's what on the inside of you and I. But on the outside, I can run through a troop and leap over a wall, King David said. Hey, he's my sword and my shield. He gives power to all. He's my strength and my life. That's who what we've got and what we can do. But whenever we calm down. See, most people don't like quiet. You know why? Because their spirits' not quiet. They don't like being alone with all the music off and all their toys turned off just in the quiet. You know why? Because they don't have this gentleness, this quiet. This gentle, you know, when we say gentle.
I love horses. And, you know, when you hang around a horse, that's why they have Equine therapy for people who emotionally are struggling or even those who are born with something that they need help with emotionally or in their brain and emotions. You get them around a horse. There's a quietness. Just a gentleness that just kind of exudes. In fact, when you ride a horse, you have to have that same spirit. It will just transfer. Your nervousness transfers to them. You know, your anger transfers to them. And so this quietness, this peace is to be on your inside. And it doesn't stop a professional football player who's got that to get up and go with the body that just taken out every tackle and then blasting through people, doesn't stop a man from getting up and being just this exciting, passionate, filled with zeal for his company and his country and whatever he's doing or a woman, a mom, a dad. It's not saying we all walk around like a bunch of clones. No, but this gentle, quiet inner man is a rock.
People often ask me, you know, there's times that, well, we're on the same boat. Your days can be crazy filled with problems, solving issues. My outer man at times is tired. But all of us have an outer man that is perishing. But you have an inner man. You have a hidden man, a hidden person ladies. And this hidden person of the heart generates power, generates peace, generates this quietness that nobody can touch. It generates a zeal that Jesus had. A power to heal. A presence of God to lead countries, companies, churches, families. You need to know. You were created to do good works. You were created to get up and when all the craziness of this world and the fearmongers and the chicken littles. The sky is falling that tries to disturb that hidden person of the heart that is quiet and peaceful, and nothing can disturb it. That's what gives you that anchor.
I want you to know today. You, if you've given your life to Christ, you have a hidden man of the heart. You have an inner man and inward Jesus is. There is a peace, a gentle, quietness that just feeds you and nourishes your organs, your body, your emotions, your mind that others can't touch. Listen to me. Your spouse can't touch it. Wake up! Stop blaming your husband. Stop blaming your wife. Stop blaming if you were, how you were raised. This hidden man of the heart. This inner person that you truly are when he becomes born again. The spirit of God is poured in and sealed there, and this is a quiet of peace that is yours.
And I want to challenge you today, because you have that, you must share this Jesus everywhere you go. One of the hardest things that you can do, is try to wake up a religious group of people to get up out of your comfort zone, step out of the boat, and start walking on water. And it comes to your business, reaching out to people, sharing Jesus, being a witness. We're not here to exist till Jesus comes back. We're here to help Him reach the lost sheep. We're here to reach out and bring joy and the good news of Christ to those that are around us. If you're not going to do that, if you're not going to witness and share and bring Jesus to this world and do good works and pray for the miraculous and touch your neighborhood and reach your town, reach your city. If it's not about that, then you bring no eternal a value. You're not doing anything that's going to change eternity.
Did you know that your life is a vapor. This 70 to a 120 short years you have is but a spit in the wind to the billions of years we're going to spend with God. So get ready your bucket list, enjoy life, but recognize we must reach out to beautiful people who've only seen religion and we need to bring then to Jesus that we know. I have an assignment for you. This next week before this week is at. I want you to find one person to just encourage. Don't preach at them. They've been preached at. Just encourage them. Listen to their story. Help them with their driveway. Bring them over a pie. Just get into their world. Listen to them. God gave you two ears and one mouth. And then encourage them, love on them. And as the door opens up to share, just share the peace that you have.
Let them see Jesus before you try to tell them Jesus. Let's make sure that where we go, you have a mission. You must bring good works. It doesn't mean to do some simple little task that you can do without Jesus. It means that you bring this beautiful Jesus to this dying world that is around you. And you don't rely on your head. You rely on the hidden man of the heart and you will discover that as you begin to talk to someone and they become open through your kindness, through what you're doing. That you begin to talk and share and answer questions and laugh and get to know them. And when it's done, you kind of go, "Wow! I was good. I mean, it just flowed out of me. I mean, I had answers. I mean, I said things. I was amazing". Yeah, you opened your mouth and God filled it. When you begin to be a witness.
When you begin to reach out to the people that are around you. You know, when you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, most people don't understand this, but of the thousands of miracles that Jesus did. The four books tell us about approximately 14 or 15 of the one on one that Jesus did. And although we have some of the sermons that Jesus preached, most of it is filled up with how He ministered to one person. One person. One, not two. One, not four. One. Yes, I know He taught to thousands. He ministered to one. And He gave us an example to be like Him. Go minister to one. Stop thinking you need a pulpit. Stop thinking you need a microphone. Stop thinking, "Well, I'll spend all these years maybe I can become a pastor".
We got enough problems in the pastorate. Listen. We need you to minister to one. Just bring hope. You weren't designed to sit on a couch or to sit in a pew or just to sing a few choruses or hear a sermon. You were designed to do things, to reach out, and touch our community and here is where we're going to see God do great things.
Father, I pray in Jesus name. That you would challenge everyone of us to not become just complacent, to not just get into our routine of looking after ourselves but to reach out. And Father to see a world and to be fall in love with them like You do. Father, I pray.
And for those who are watching right now, if you do not know this Jesus as your personal Saviour. I'm going to lead you in this powerful prayer. You see, as you've been listening to me, the words that I'm speaking from God's Word. They cause faith to rise up on the inside of you. And you begin to hope, and you begin to look at this and go, "I think I need that". You do. That's God at work on the inside of you. Receive Him. Just say this right now. Just say:
Jesus, come into my heart, come into my life. I'm following You for the rest of my days. As my Lord and Saviour, I accept You. Thank You, and teach me all I need to know about this new life. In Jesus' name, amen.