How Do You Smell? Series

Key: Imitation is Everything

Pastor Ryan Akers

Part 2- How Do You Smell?

Me- Always the friend never the boyfriend- someone told me to get some colgne that would make me smell nice and girls would be attracted to that. Wore too much and sister asked what that smell was.

You- We try to do a lot of things to make ourselves look and smell good to other people.

Cologne and perfume companies love to sign celebrities because they know that people will buy that fragrance just because they think that celebrity is wearing it. Like Michael Jordan Cologne or Curious by Brittany Spears. Derek Jeter, Hillary Duff, Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton, Naomi Campbell are just a few of the celebrities that have put out a product that will help you smell better. We buy into it because we so desperately want to be popular or want to be like someone else that we buy it. We think if we smell like them people will like us more.

Last year alone celebrity scents brought in 2.9 billion dollars. Why are we so caught up in trying to imitate?

Axe Body Spray Experiment- 1 guy- spray him and duck. Advertising says spray this and the girls come running but we know that’s not true.

We spend so much time and money worrying about how we smell to the world that we put off worrying about how we smell to God.

God- Imitation is everything. God not only wants you to learn to look like him. He wants you to have a fragrance that is spiritually pleasing.

Ephesians 5:2-6

God calls Christ death a fragrant offering. I know this sounds weird but you will smell good to God when you are putting on His scent. A person with God’s scent is someone who is not putting on the things of this world. You aren’t focused on smelling like Derek Jeter or J Lo you are focused on taking on the scent of Christ. He was pure. He was without sin. He was perfect in every way. We cannot allow ourselves to even have a hint of the world. Remembers Romans says, “Do not conform to be like the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Once you become a child of God you are no longer to imitate the world because the world looks bad and it stinks.

Oh you can do things to dress it up and make it smell good for a short time but after a while those clothes wear out and the cologne wears off and you are left with the truth. But when you look and smell like the Character of Christ that is a fragrance that is not only pleasing to our Creator but will be contagious to the people around you.

God says there should not be one hint of these on us.

These sins are the most common sins that we see today. They all have to do with immorality. You cannot be a child of God if you are constantly practicing these sins. Even just a little taste is enough to make you stink to God. He requires us to be pure from all these. When you become a child of God then you no longer should desire to be like the world.

Sexual Immorality/Impurity- pre-marital sex, pornography, lust

Greed- not just money and things, don’t have a greedy desire to be smarter than someone else, or a better athlete or be the most popular person. God says when you are focused on looking right and dressing right and working hard only because you want to be better than everyone else or more popular than everyone else that is sin.

Obscenity- to use words that tear down and not build up, to use vulgar language is sinful to God. If you can only think of a cuss word to fill in there then you need to read a book and learn to grow your vocabulary. You only look silly and foolish to the world.

Foolish talk- means to brag. Have you heard people brag about how much they drank at a party or how they had sex with this person? Foolish talk is those that brag about their sins. We are not to get caught up in that unless we want to stink like the world.

Coarse Joking- Stay away from telling dirty jokes, that is allowing us to take on things of the world that only cause us to stink. No amount of celebrity scent will make it better it only covers it for a short time.

The only scent that last for eternity is God’s.

You- So how do you look? Are you putting on the things of the world or are you putting on the character of Christ? How do you smell? Are you putting on the fragrance of God that is pure, without sin or are you still smelling like the world.