Leon Fontaine - Prison Break
So many people have been taught principles. And a principle is beautiful, dynamic, it's so important. But one of the things that will absolutely change your life, is when you take a principle, and then you dive into the mechanics of that principle. The steps, the systems, the why's, the how's of that principle. Another words, that is where you discover. Let's say that you have a successful business and your kids enjoy it. They love the beautiful house, the cabin at the beach. You know, the extra car they get to drive, and you know, the lounges they get to sit in, and the rumpus room and the family room. And they don't get it, because you built it from scratch. You've gutted it out, side by side, husband and wife. When you worked all day, all night.
The things you did to get the family to where it was, and the principle of being blessed, parents usually don't like how the kids embrace the principle. They want them to have the work ethic. They want them to be thankful. They want them to understand the price that's been paid, the blood that's been spilled, et cetera. And I feel the same way about the Bible. If you've been here for any length of time, I love teaching the Bible. But I love doing it in a way that deals with the practicality of life, not a bunch of doctrine that's useless. And if you've been around, you know, I hate religion. Religion is a bunch of man-made rules that govern so many churches, where we're going to judge you and determine whether or not you're good enough. Church is a place where we accept each other because you can't change anybody including your spouse, and it will take you a while to figure that out.
And so you love people the way they are. You accept them the way they are. And then, when they fall in love with the Word of God, say well I would never fall in love with the Bible, it's got so many rules I'd have to obey all these rules. Yeah, that's what religion has taught you. So I want to share some stuff that if you'll listen, and maybe listen to this a few times. I'm going to go through eight points. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, all the way through. But I'm hoping I can open up your eyes to something about how special you are. How incredible you are. The Bible uses this term, the hidden man. Then it talks about the old man. I called my dad the old man once. It was a cool thing to do when I was a teenager and said how's my old man today? My dad was never an emotional, angry man. He just stopped. Turned around and he walked over to me, looked up at me because he was a short guy. And he said son, never call me again the old man.
I'd never seen him like this. I went, deal. Absolutely. But, the Bible has a term, and it's got to do with you, the old man. Then it talks about the new man. And, so you have a hidden man. Now for the teenagers that are here, and a lot of us men, if you like Marvel comics, it kind of reminds me of Spiderman. Peter Parker is the average teenager going to high school. You wouldn't know a thing until there's an emergency and then all of a sudden he literally is ten times stronger than any other teenager. He can stick to walls, throw webs, there's a combination of stuff he developed and his incredible strength and his spidey-sense, that goes off and can hear a cry for help from blocks away.
And people are fascinated with Marvel comics. They've made billions of dollars because inside of every one of us is this innate sense. That I'm more than my body. I'm more than my mind. I am more than my emotions. I'm more than my physical skills, and I'm more than my mental skills. Some of you have incredible muscle memory, and in sports you're amazing. Some of you have fast-twitch muscles, some of you have slow-twitch muscles. We know this. We could look at all the giftedness that goes in physical, and in the mind. Some of you, some people that work for us, I mean everyone that works for me is smarter than me. But to sit down, look at the people who know numbers, you kind of go. You just figured that out in one conversation? Like, they actually read accounting books, like go figure. They read computer books. I mean, stuff like that. That, it, and so we all have skills and abilities, but I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about the hidden man, and the hidden woman deep inside of you. The Bible refers to it often. And that hidden man is influencing your life in horrible ways, or in wonderful ways.
Now, this hidden man is your spirit. And, it's the real you. Now, when you look at the Bible, let's talk about Adam in the garden. Adam and Eve, the story shares about how, you know, beginning of time, that area. That they disobeyed God. And something unique, when you read the story, takes place. Adam, who was confident, a leader, walking around animals, naming them, giving them names as God had asked him to. All of a sudden, after a disobedient incident, he's hiding and running from God. Because Adam became born again. Adam and Eve became born again in reverse. Their spirit was full of the spirit of God. Their spirit was full of the presence of God. Radiating confidence and joy. Radiating power to have dominion over the planet, over animals, whatever's in the water, the air, man had dominion. He could dive in the ocean and swim with great whites, they would obey him. Okay?
This is the Biblical picture of man's dominion over the planet. But when Adam changed and disobeyed God, then he had spiritual death. And because of the dark kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, his spirit man emptied itself of the presence of God, which is filled with, with joy and peace and a confidence and a connection to God so incredible that deep inside it goes, hey dad. Whereas now they have no ability to enter and to meet with God, or to enter the presence of God. Adam, became born again. The light of the presence of God went out. And to make matters worse, his spirit now connected to the kingdom of darkness. Your spirit is, connects to spiritual things. Your body connects to physical things, and your mind connects to mental things, emotional things. The voice is the voice of reasoning.
Now, when you follow Adam, the world became brutally awful. I mean, incredibly bad. When you watch movies, they'll make it look as if hundreds of years ago, that you know we had teepees or igloos or dugouts, or you know huts and kids played in the long grass and we shot the antelope and the buffalo. And you know in Africa we killed this. And it was just love was so, I mean, life was so pastoral and peaceful. That is such a lie. When you study the Bible and actual recorded history, it was so brutal that men had the right in almost all societies to kill women or kids. They reigned, there was evil, they worshipped idols that caused, called for child sacrifices. I mean, you go and actually look at history, it is so sick.
As man's spirit connected to the darkness. There's two kingdoms in the spirit world. The kingdom of life, the kingdom of darkness. And man had no ability to connect to the kingdom of life and to God. But because his spirit was still there, it connected to another spirit realm, the kingdom of darkness. And so, man could now manifest such doubt, such anger, such fear. Selfishness. Self-centeredness is the very root of witchcraft. The Bible says very clearly that stubbornness is as the sin of witchcraft. There's so much in the Bible that is so brilliant, that I'm fascinated. I've been studying it now for 45 years, preaching for 40, and I just can't get enough of it. I just love to get, and just share. Look what I'm seeing here now.
So, the old self was born to spiritual death, and that is where doubt, fear, you feel empty, discouraged, unloved, lost. That orphan's heart, that every human being has. Study all the great men and women of past, from centuries ago, who could invent thing. And you could find although they seem to have an ability to, to be incredible thinkers, they're so messed up inside they've got to find whatever pleasures they can to give them a break. Because they're so empty, they feel like orphans, they feel, and all of us feel like that. This is the condition of the old self, your spirit without Christ.
Now, when the cross came about and Jesus died for you and I, it made it possible for us to be forgiven, for our penalty to be removed, and not just forgiven but a new life to now come inside the hidden man. And the hidden man which was the old self, you now become a new self. And the presence of God, the nature of God, enters your spirit. And now, within your spirit is a state of joy. A state of peace that never goes away. There's a state of love, a state of such confidence. But the problem is your mind and your body have been trained under the kingdom of darkness. And so, you need to understand now that this born again, the Bible calls it, nature, change in the hidden man, has to come alive on the rest of you. This sense of belonging and peace and, and your powerfully energized. This development of the new creation is the nature of the Father taking over the rest of your life, which is up to you. Get into God's Word.
Learn who you are. Begin to sense deep inside, you don't have to look somewhere for, I need some peace, peace, peace. I just need to feel confident, dent, dent, dent. As though you're looking for it somewhere. God always deals with the hidden man. He doesn't talk to your head. If you sense and feel God up here it's coming from deep within you. He doesn't talk to your emotions, He talks to your spirit. And so therefore, as you begin to get into God's Word, it's amazing how you begin to sense and to know what He wants and what is right. And as you begin to use God's Word and obey God's Word, your spirit man begins to get back in control of your senses. Your five senses dominate your life. But you know when Adam and Eve were in the garden, Adam had a spirit that was alive with the presence of God. He could, you know, and so, this is what gave him such dominion and confidence, and protection and power.
I mean, lions have claws, we have blunt nails. I mean, rhinos hide is so thick you can hardly get a knife through it, look at our skin. You don't have any teeth to bite anything. Are we strong? The elephant's stronger. Almost every animal is stronger than us. A 40-pound baboon has three times the strength of a man. I mean, what was it that gave Adam any kind of leadership and power? It was because of the spirit man that was alive with the very presence of God. And so you are in the God-class. I'm not saying that we are equal to God. I'm saying we are in the God-class. Now the world wants to say we're another animal walking the planet. Every animal was made for man. The planet was made for man. We are the children of God. We are made in the likeness and the image of God.
So when Adam walking the garden, God was showing him, teaching him to be like Him, act like Him, act like his Father God. When he was, when he had to be removed from the garden because the tree of life was there, he no longer had this power source called the presence of God. In fact, now he's connected to the dark kingdom, where that fallen angel had, you know, his hate, his anger, his loneliness, his fear, and that is what gripped Adam's spirit. Now, think this thing through with me because as I began to think this thing through, it was stunning. Now, his five senses had to come to life. Because, the world's a dangerous place. Animals can kill you. People will kill you. You can get hurt. And so, his five senses begin to dominate.
You know, he had to see clearly or he could lose his life. He had to hear and listen to things very keenly or, or an animal could take advantage of him. He had to taste things to see if it was good to eat. He had to touch things to see if it was sharp or, or hot or cold. He had to smell something so that he'd know what's upwind, is it a raging fire, is it something going on that I need to be aware. The five senses, begin to control his life. And this fearful life, these five senses which only feed the mind. Okay? They became in control. So, but the problem was now that Adam, who had five senses being developed, his spirit man was imprisoned. Because it couldn't do anything, and if it was connected, it was just deep inside, it's just doubt and fear that's rising out of him. It's an awful existence. And so, it's like he was imprisoned.
In fact, it says that in Psalms 142:7. It says here, bring my soul, my spirit, out of the prison. People have a sense when they don't have a born-again experience, and a renewal of their mind, there's this sense that there's more. There's just something I'm missing. As a seven-year paramedic, years ago, and as a pastor. I've been to so many suicides. Been able to talk people out of it in some cases. But, these people don't want a life. They don't even want to exist anymore. And they could tell you of their problems, like someone betrayed me, or I lost the person I loved, et cetera, and the heartache is, is brutal and it's off the charts. But there's something even greater than that. At their core, there's such a hopelessness. Such an emptiness. And it literally just feeds depression and unhappiness. Because it comes out of the spirit man that is not born again.
And so when Jesus died on the cross and He went to hell in your place and He took your sin and He took your punishment, and He rose again which is the most important covenant. This is the covenant we work with today. It's just not being taught to people. And, so I want you to understand that this cry from the human spirit for liberty. This cry for freedom has been through the ages and the thousands of years as mankind wants this freedom. In John 8:36 says, if the Son will make you free, you shall be free indeed. Like, this should be power. John 8:32. You, know the truth. It's going to set you free. Know what truth? The truth of the hidden man. And the truth of what Jesus did for him. When you understand this, something rises up in you. And you know. And I think that when we understand the born-again experience, that when you give your life to Jesus Christ, and He comes in, and He makes you brand new. Literally the old you is gone.
There's a freedom that comes to your spirit that is stunning. And, you and I need to understand that this freedom now needs to come into a mind that has been trained under the old self. And when you do that, you begin to sense this artisan well of joy and peace that begins to flow out of you greater and greater, as the presence of God begins to wash your mind with the water of the Word, Ephesians says. And it gives you the most amazing ability to control your body in any desire that you've got. But if you believe that your body's desires are more powerful than your spirit power, then Jesus said according to your faith, so be it done unto you. If you believe that you are your emotions, if you believe.
Now I'm not putting aside emotions, I love emotions. And emotions are powerful. But when you begin to realize that your emotions aren't you. Your emotions come from your focus, and how you interpret an event. Once you understand that, you begin to set yourself free. It's amazing how, that we think our emotions are right. But when you understand the hidden man of the heart. That the presence of God enters that, and that you need, that emotions are beautiful but God created emotions to all be positive. The emotions to be peace. The Bible says the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but, righteousness. This incredible being right with God, this sense of clean and accepted and daddy. Peace and joy. And it doesn't go oh yeah, and I forgot to tell you, hate, anger, bitterness, murder, and a few other poor things you're going to have to deal with, poor sucker. No. In the new you, that's not there. But the old you is trained that way, so you could become a born-again believer, give your life to Christ, and if you never renew your mind to the new you.
If you don't dive into the Word, and learn these things, you'll never exercise this stunning ability. That you have in you. You, are the hidden man. And you've hardly touched what you can do. And God's Word and the Holy Spirit, will get a hold of you, and show you how to walk in such joy, that the blues won't touch you. Well I've got hormones. We've all got hormones. And you know that the presence of God in your spirit according to the book of Romans 8, that it touches every cell in your body, and it gives it God's life. And it touches your mind, your emotions. This issue of the hidden man, is so profound. That the teaching of the Bible is all about you discovering who you really are. Not religion. Not here's the ten things you can't do when you come to our church, and if you do them you're going to hell you dirty rotten sinner. Like, that's been religion. And, we know that we should change. Your wife wants you to change. Your kids want you to change. Your husband wants you to change. We'd kind of like it too if you'd change. And everybody's hoping I'll change in some areas.
So change is good, don't get me wrong. But when you get the cart before the horse, and you attack people in where they are before showing them who they are, you destroy them. And so religion has destroyed people. Just destroyed them. You should be doing this, you should be doing that. You're going okay woah, woah, woah. Before you do that, let's tell them who they are. They're a child of the king, of God. He's in love with you. You're so valuable to Him that He believes in you. And when you start with identity and how much He loves you, and then you say, you're so gifted. Like I had one coach. In football, he just screamed at me. Fontaine! I can still hear his voice. Just echo across, Fontaine! And anything I did wrong, and he knew what he was doing. I didn't like him though, but I had another coach that would say. You are gifted. Because you're gifted, I'm going to work you harder. You okay with that, Leon?
I loved that man. Loved that man. God is saying to you, you're gifted. You're made in His likeness and image. The hidden man that you haven't discovered yet, will rise up on the inside of you and help you to govern everything from your habits to your gifts to your emotions, to your mind. You're going to be renewed. I'm going to raise you up to do things you never dreamed possible. There's, and the careers and the things, the parenting and the generations of your family name.
I just want to challenge you today. Covered a lot of stuff just quickly. There's a hidden man as to who you really are. Let's stop looking at the things you don't like. The Bible says in Ezekiel 11, that I will give them one heart. It's prophesy about the future, when Jesus would die on the cross. And he's saying here that people who give their lives to Christ, have a love for each other. John goes on to teach prolifically, that it's this love that separates us from the world. You can join a gang, Hells Angels, Mom's Soccer Club, you can join you know whatever you want, and it's nice to have camaraderie, but the church is supposed to have such love an acceptance for each other, that when one person falls, we reach down and pick them up, brush them off and say been there done that, come on buddy I'll help you out. You don't, we don't just go. Dummy. And shoot our wounded.
The church has been designed as a place, God's house, of such love and value for each other. Not perfection. Not perfection. And so I want to encourage you church is valuable. Keep coming, bring people out. Make sure that you understand that everything within you from God is free. The work is just in the growing up. Just in the maturing. It's not hard, it's just do a little work. And your life's going to change in a profound way.
Father, thank You. I pray that the things that we just touched on today would just bring hope to that person that's been struggling. That person that maybe has been told their whole life that they're worthless. Or never been told that they're special. For that one that's struggling with an addiction, whatever's going on. I pray that hope would come today. And Father, I ask they'll never forget the principles that Your spirit has brought into their heart today.
With every head bowed for just a moment. As you're listening to me talk about who you are and et cetera. God's presence has been calling you to follow Him. He'll never force you to be His son, to accept Jesus as your Saviour, to become born again. But, He wants you to. And in the next 30 seconds, I'm going to lead everybody in a powerful prayer, of just saying okay God, I accept. And allow Him to come in and turn the lights on in your spirit. That forgiveness is profound, the change is amazing. He's so in love with you. For those who are watching right now, wherever you are, just pray along with me as I lead you in this prayer, and just mean it. Make this choice. Just say:
Dear God, I give you my life. Forgive me. For everything I've done wrong. All of it. And Jesus, come into my spirit. From today and on, I want to get to know You, and Your Word. In Jesus' name, amen.