7/29/07 – God Smells
Three Sweet Fragrances
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16
This is the last message in our series on the God Senses. One of the most profound of truths revealed to us through God’s word is that we are made in his image. To know something of God we need only to look at our selves. We learn about the world around us through the five senses, touch, hearing, taste, sight and smell. Today we look at the last sense – smell.
It seems a bit strange to think about the Almighty God sniffing the air for a whiff to catch a scent but this sense is actually one of the senses that are spoken of quite often in reference to God.
In the Old Testament incense was an important part of worship in the tabernacle built by Moses and later on in the temple built by Solomon. But this incense was not something that Moses and Solomon came up with without direction. God himself laid out the design and plan for his tabernacle and temple.
It was in the first room called the Holy Place that his plan called for an altar of incense to be placed directly against the back curtained wall that covered the entrance to the inner most room – the Holy of Holies. It was on this small altar that the Levitical Priests would burn sweet incense representing the prayers of the people to their God. The sweet smells would waft through the curtained walls and fill the place where the Shiknah glory of God dwelt. The smell represented man’s attempts to please their father God – and it was a sweet fragrance to Him.
We live in a different time and place. The Old Covenant has been replace by the New Covenant. The old sacrifices of bull, calves, and sheep have been replaced – once and for all – by one sacrifice of Jesus. The old temple is no more and in it’s place is a new temple not built with hands.
We are that temple and in that temple there are at least three new and distinct fragrances that bring great pleasure to our Father God.
The Sweet Incense of Offering
…I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.
Philippians 4:18
Do you remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts? Let me read you the story:
36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.
Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”
“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
9 Peter said to her, “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
Ananias and Sapphira imitate the gifts of Barnabas when they sold some land and gave a portion of the price – while wanting credit for giving it all. They were greedy and proud. The smell of these two was not sweet. Their essence was more like a couple of dead skunks.
In contrast to them are people like Barnabas and the church in Philippi. And the church in Philippi stands out as being quite different than the churches in Corinth, Ephesus, Antioch, and Jerusalem. They were outstanding in the liberality of their giving. The Philippians gave out of their abundance and out of their poverty.
They were absolutely committed to supporting the spread of the good news of Jesus. They were all about evangelism and outreach. They were all about telling everyone they could about how wonderful Jesus was and they gave liberally to Paul who was telling everyone they couldn’t reach themselves.
The return of the tenth part of your increase (this is a tithe) has one purpose. It is for you to experience the loving care that God has for you through trusting him with the first fruits of your labor. I really want to stress that you will never really know the full measure of God’s care for you until you learn to tithe your income. I can tell you. I can preach it. I can read the scriptures to you. I can ask others to tell their stories. You will never understand it until you do it. God’s blessings are never fully realized until you trust him with your tithes. I cannot say it more clearly than this.
It is when you go beyond the tenth part that you give an offering. It is these offerings that are fragrant to God and so much fun for you to give. I wish that each one of you would experience the incredible joy of giving an offering that transforms a person and helps them know the love of God for the first time in their life.
We are building our very first ministry center. The success of this effort requires our tithes and offerings. But understand this – the sweet smell of offering to God is not the money. It is the commitment we have to bragging to the world about the gift of his son. Our goal is not to build a building. I could care less about the bricks, mortar, steel, and tile.
I am so anxious to be able to have a place that we can praise God on Saturday evenings with a cup of coffee in one hand and a Bible in the other.
I am so hungry to begin volley ball league that meets on Fridays with ½ of the people from our church family and ½ from the community.
I am so thirsty to develop a ministry to children with Dave that is more than just Sunday mornings.
I am so desirous of being able to schedule discipleship classes for new Christians, organizing concerts for seekers, retreats for leaders, and lockins for youth.
You see this building is a tool for ministry and your tithes supporting our operating budget, the general fund and the building campaign are sweet incense to God.
This fall I will begin working with a dream team of MCC participants to build a long-range strategy of cross cultural evangelism. We have so many opportunities through people like Paul and Cathy Kissling at TCMI in Vienna to train local Christians to take the news of Jesus to their part of the world. I am anxious to see what we can do in the next five to ten years because we lay the groundwork today.
Our offerings are sweet incense to God.
The Sweet Incense of Love
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Eph 5:1-2
My mom wanted to call me Ricky. That must have been a popular name back then because I was born about 2 years before the “I Love Lucy” TV show in which little Ricky Ricardo was born. My dad insisted that my name be Richard – just in case I would become a preacher like him some day.
So the expectations were set early and to be honest while I was growing up I wanted nothing to do with the idea. My goal was to do anything but be a preacher.
My elementary years were spent trying to prove that I wasn’t a wus just because my dad was a minister. I was never ashamed of my dad and going to church didn’t bother me – I just didn’t like being called a sissy, goody-two-shoes, and four-eyes. I got my first glasses in the sixth grade and on the first day they got broke in a fight requiring a new lens at the astronomical price of $6.00 and a trip to Traverse City.
All through my grade school years I would get into school yard fights with the other boys. Someone would call me a name or give me a push and before you could drop your books on the ground someone would swing a fist and the fight was on. Within a couple of minutes it would be over. The yelling kids would scatter along with the winner and I would be left bawling and bleeding while the principal came out of the building and took me to her office for a cool wash cloth, a lecture about not fighting and a phone call to my parents.
I did not want to be a preacher – until one summer day at a week of High School camp at Rock Lake Christian Assembly. I don’t remember who was speaking. I don’t remember the message. I just remember that afterwards in a very quiet and private moment with no one around I decided that I wanted to be just like my dad.
The very next Sunday, back at the Kalkaska church where my dad was the minister, at the close of the service I came forward at the end of message and made a public commitment to enter into full-time Christian Ministry in imitation of both my earthly father and my Heavenly Father.
I have not always done all that well – there have been a host of foolish errors. Some of them are so raw and painful that I will never tell you what they are! Unfortunately, the rest are well known.
Still, I can attest to a simple fact – the imitation of your father is pleasing to him.
The idea of being a follower of Jesus is very simple. When you follow a person you imitate them and as imitators or mimics we need – each of us to act like our Father God.
What does it mean to imitate Jesus?
This too is quite simple, we should walk in love. The example of Christ’s love should inspire us. The Jesus love we need to follow is quite simply a sacrificial love. Jesus gave himself up for us.
Our sweet smelling imitation of Jesus is the sacrificial love we express to all of the people in our families and our communities.
I was listening to an interview on the radio a couple of weeks ago in which the Columnist, Amy Dickenson (She writes the “Ask Amy” column in Washington Post) made an observation about long marriages. She defined long marriages as those who lasted 40-50 years. Amy said that in every case the key to these long marriages was that both partners were focused on the well being of the other person. It did not matter what their individual rights were or what they themselves deserved – it was all about their mate. This is love. So many people go into marriage wanting to get something. To make a marriage work it is about giving everything – not getting something.
Lance Armstrong won an unprecedented seven consecutive Tour de Frances. During his fifth consecutive victory in the 2003 Tour de France, in the fifteenth stage of the competition, he took a severe tumble off his bike.
It occurred when a race fan was leaning over the course barrier to get a better view, and a plastic bag in that person’s hand snagged Armstrong’s handlebars. He went sprawling onto the street.
His closest competitor at the time was Jan Ullrich – only 15 seconds behind. This was Ullrich’s perfect chance to take the lead. But Ullrich did something non-cyclists would have trouble understanding. He stopped and halted the competition while Armstrong got to his feet, checked his bike, and began peddling. At the end of that stage, Armstrong had extended his lead to 67 seconds.
What you need to know is that waiting for a fallen competitor is not a rule in bicycle racing. It is, however, part of an unwritten code of etiquette that cyclists observe.
Perhaps one thing that caused Ullrich to honor that code is the fact that two years earlier in the 2001 Tour de France, it was he who had suffered a bad crash on the thirteenth stage of the race. At that time, it was Lance Armstrong who stopped the race, and waited while Ullrich recovered and remounted his bike.
We should extend sacrificial love to others, because Jesus has already extended it to us.
It is when we imitate Jesus through this kind of sacrificial love that the essence of love wafts through the halls of heaven.
The Sweet Incense of Salvation
14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.
2 Corinthians 2:14-16
The Sweet Incense of Salvation
15 For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?
2 Corinthians 2:14-16
The greatest gift is not our offering nor is it even our love.
The greatest gift we can give is the gift of God’s love. We carry in us this gift – it is the gift of salvation.
We are the sweet incense of salvation. You and I are what God is most proud of for in us God smells the aroma of his son. The more we follow Jesus the more like him we are. But this is a two sided coin. To some we are the smell of death. To others we are the fragrance of life.
On April 28, 1999, just eight days after the Columbine shooting, shock rock singer Marilyn Manson was scheduled to perform a concert in Iowa City, Iowa.
And since Manson’s music was prominent in the lives of Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, there was a lot of emotion surrounding his concert. Mark Forstrom, a local Youth Minister in the area wrote about what happened. He wrote, "The police, the media, and the community began to prepare for angry protests and ugly brawling between Christians and Marilyn Manson supporters."
Suddenly, something totally unexpected happened. Emerging thru the vehicle of e-mail, another local movement suddenly sprang to life— that the only way to truly change our moral climate is to soften hard hearts. (The hearts of Manson fans have been hardened by their perception that Christians are mean-spirited, hateful, and judgmental.) Thus, the idea was birthed to unravel that stereotype by encouraging Christians to show the pure LOVE of Christ to these fans in tangible ways.
Concert day finally arrived, and tension filled the community. The media geared up for an ugly battle between Manson fans and the Christian opposition. Instead, what they observed here was an amazing testament to the power of and love of Christ! Scores of Christians from churches all over Linn County and as far away as Des Moines (2 hours away) converged on the sidewalks outside the Five Seasons Center, to do two POSITIVE things: pray, and to show unmistakable love. It was a sight to behold.
~ Groups conducted "prayer walks" around the arena.
~ People prayed in huddles on the sidewalk.
~ Churches around the city held special prayer meetings.
As for showing LOVE to the fans,
~ One church purchased 100 pizzas, which were freely given away to the fans in line and bystanders.
~ Cookies and over 1,200 cans of soda were purchased or donated and distributed.
~ Someone made turkey & cheese sandwiches and gave them away.
~ One pastor asked Manson fans who passed by how he could pray for them--about 20 shared specific things & were prayed for on the spot.
~ After the concert, about $200 in cash (collected mostly by a local youth group) was given out to pay for parking in the parking ramp.
The Christians involved said, "We’re Christians and we’d like to show you God’s love by paying for your parking tonight." The immediate results of this love in action were phenomenal:
~ People continually asked, "Why are you doing this?" and then listened to the answer.
~ Two "live" radio reporters (one inside the stadium and one outside) discussed--on the air--how preferable it was to be outside with the generous Christians.
~ At least 3 people gave their lives to Christ through the loving care of the Christians.
~ At least one other fan that we know of chose not to go to the concert, ending up in church the following Sunday.
~ After getting the pizza, one kid commented, "Wow, Marilyn Manson never gave me anything!"
~ A Marilyn Manson web-site, reporting on our Christian response admitted, "so maybe those Christians aren’t half bad!"
As for the concert itself, we saw God work a miracle there as well. After only an hour, Manson abruptly ended the concert early. He suddenly flew into a rage: he threw his microphone to the ground, and stormed off the stage, never to return!
So to summarize the totality of Marilyn Manson’s visit to Cedar Rapids, we might say this: many fans came to the concert convinced that Christians were irritating and that Marilyn Manson was impressive and many left the concert feeling that Marilyn Manson was irritating and that Christians were impressive!
Folks, this much I know. Following Jesus is not for the weak or easily intimidated. There have always been persecutions and there will be likely more in the future when we stand up for God.
There will always be those who seek to diminish and even destroy what we do in this community but this much is always true – we are sweet smell of salvation to some and the disturbing smell of death to others.
Who is equal to such a task?
We must be – with God’s help we will be.
We are called to live a life of praise, purpose, and power.
