How Do You Smell Today? Series

Some days I wonder why God decided to give human beings noses.

I think that and then I have to put on a pair of glasses and I know at least one reason.

There are other times I am glad I have a nose: as a child my favorite intersection in Tulsa Oklahoma was 21st and Sheridan. It was the corner where the WONDER BREAD factory was located. It seemed they were always baking their bread.

A cooking steak or a new car interior. Our noses can enjoy a lot of things in this world.

If you ask someone what their favorite fragrance is you will probably get different responses depending on whether they are men or women.

Women will probably talk about the smell of a certain flower while men will describe some item of food.

But there are some things in this life that are just not worth smelling: dairy near our house, skunk recently deceased or had recently released, exhaust from the car you are stuck behind going 10 miles under the speed limit in a no passing zone.

But if there are so many things offensive to our noses just imagine how God must react to the putrid stench of sin or some of the smelly things even believers do.

Why do we call the place church members sit as being in our OWN PEW?

How big a stink can we sometimes raise and maybe not even know it

Some children decided to play a trick on Grandpa one day. When he was taking a nap, they sprayed his mustache with bug spray. When he woke up, he sniffed the air and said, "Something in this house stinks."

He went into the kitchen and said, "This kitchen stinks!" He went outside and said, "THE WHOLE WORLD STINKS!" It wasn’t the world that stunk, it was Grandpa!

If you were a flower in God’s garden what would you smell like?

14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

15 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; 16 to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life.

And who is adequate for these things? 17 For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

In these verses Paul gives us an idea of what is pleasing to God. The kind of things He is looking for in our lives. Do you want your life to be the kind of life that smells to God like that WONDERBREAD factory did to me?

1. GOD IS PLEASED WITH A LIFE OF TRIUMPH:

• Triumphant living in Christ

14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ,

One of the pictures this type of language would paint in the world that Paul was writing to was the idea of a parade which was common when a victorious general came home from battle with his troops.

At least 5000 of the enemy must have fallen in one single engagement.

The general must have gained positive territory, not merely defended territory already controlled by Rome. The parade started with public officials followed by trumpeters followed by spoils taken from the conquered land followed by a white bull for sacrifice followed by wretched captives in chains.

Then came the musicians. At length the conquering general appeared in a chariot pulled by white horses. Then came his family followed by the victorious soldiers.

As they moved through the streets, the people shouted “Triumph!” “Triumph!” “Triumph!”

The Christian life is meant to be a victory parade. All different types are a part of this parade but we all make our way through the streets together.

One of the keys is to be the ones in the street walking and not the ones on the sidelines recognizing the exploits of others.

Hebrews 12 says that we should all be in the parade while those who have gone before us are our witnesses to our race which is run as we are looking unto Jesus.

God, who always leads us in triumph: God doesn’t have a plan of defeat for your life.

If you are walking that way then somehow you have gotten off of God’s path for you.

triumph in Christ: our victories are not ‘for’ Christ but ‘in Christ’. Apart from Christ working thru our lives we cannot win the victories He is wanting us to win in life.

“We are more than Conquerors through Him who loves us.” Romans 8:37