What Do You Smell Like 10/27/02
2 Corinthians 2:14-17
There are good smells like fresh bread out of the oven or the smell of a little baby or a new car. Those are good smells. Then you have bad smells like sulfur or spoiled milk or other things that I’m not privileged to speak about. Walk in our nursery sometimes and you will know what I mean.
Here in our text it talks about fragrance. It speaks of good fragrance and bad fragrance. We are crated in Gods own image and God has a nose.
Genesis 8:20, “Then Noah built an altar unto the LORD; and took of every
clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma; Then the LORD said in His heart, I will never again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done”.
He liked what he smelled from the burnt offerings from Noah.
So today we are going to talk about the things that God would say smells good and the things that God would say smells bad. And then I want you to ask yourself, “What do you smell like?”
Sometimes I think that God looks at the church and says that stinks.
Revelation 3:15-16, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I could wish you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
Have you ever gone to get a drink of water only to have it to be warm? What is the response? You spit it out? That is what the Bible is talking about. Jesus has no use for a lukewarm church. A lukewarm church does feel it has the need for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The lukewarm church is not really doing anything that wrong, it’s what they’re not doing. It’s their lack of commitment to our Lord and Savior that is the problem.
There was a time that my son Seth was taking a shower. Hope told him to be sure to wash his hair. Well Seth didn’t, so he douses his self with Hopes cologne, Eternity at $ 50 a bottle, to cover his lack of obedience. Hope didn’t think she was ever going to get the smell off of him. That is what a lot of Christians do. They stink of disobedience and they try to cover that smell with scent of good works to cover their stench. It didn’t work for Seth and it won’t work for you either.
One of the things that smells bad to God is lack of commitment. Lack of commitment stinks.
Ask yourself, do you see lack of commitment in this church. Do you see lukewarm Christians? Are you one of them? If so, then you need to do as it says in Revelation 3:19, be zealous and repent. Get off your can and get on fire for God.
When you make a commitment to God and you don’t fulfill that commitment to the very best of your ability then that stinks. If you commit to work, doing some duty in the church then you need to do it the best of your ability. Consider it as if you were performing your duties at your work or home. You need to show up on time, show up prepared, and be committed to the job God has given you to do. How many of us would still have our jobs if we preformed them the way we perform our Spiritual jobs?
When you don’t do your job properly it causes others to pick up the slack, causing them not to do their jobs properly.
People always assume that if they are slack or get burnt out that they can neglect their duties and someone else will pick up the slack.
Have you heard about the church that needed someone to do something? Everyone thought that someone would do it, someone thought every body else would do it, but in the end it was nobody that ended up doing it. That stinks!
Lack of commitment in your prayer life and your Bible reading stinks. Compare it to the relationship in a good marriage. How would your marriage be if you only spent a few minutes a week, communicating with your spouse? We need to daily seek His face.
James 4:8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you”.
Jesus longs for a relationship with you, but in order to do that you have to commit to picking up the cross daily.
Lack of commitment in your church attendance stinks.
Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the
manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.
People can run all over the place and sit on those hard metal or wood bleachers for hours, to watch some sporting event, but give them a comfortable padded pew and if the service goes over their comfort level, then Heaven forbid.
Why wouldn’t someone who says they love the Lord, not want to spent time in His house? If you can remember when you was dating that someone special, you would take advantage of every opportunity to spend time with them. If you love Him then you want to stir up those good works His word was talking about.
When we had our Revival last week, we had a wonderful time. It is hard for me and others to understand, the lack of attendance. Why wouldn’t everyone want to be here and be a part of it? Could it be lack of commitment?
Have you met your quota of your one service that week?
If so then that stinks!
The worst lack of commitment I can think of is the lack of commitment for reaching the lost. People, friends, relatives are dying everyday without accepting Christ and spending an eternity in Hell because of our lack of commitment to reach them.
If you came upon a bridge that had went out, what would you do? Would you sit in your car and give a friendly wave as others would drive off to their doom. No you would jump up and down waving your arms, warning of the danger ahead. So why do you set around and allow others to die and spend an eternity in Hell?
We need to commit our money, or His money I should say, to reach the lost. We need to commit our time to reach the lost. We need to commit our talents to reach the lost. You know where I don’t see that out of our church. We have fundraisers and work parties for the gym and just a few show up. The building can be a tool to draw the lost to come to this church and hear the gospel, but we all need to have the commitment to see it completed.
We need to be committed to Jesus. It’s all about Him!
So now that I’ve told you what smells bad, let’s talk about what smells good to God.
We could spend the rest of the day talking about that, but let’s start out with the most important. One of the scribes asked Jesus the most important commandment. His reply can be found in Mark 12:30-31.
“And you shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Let’s talk about the first one, Love the Lord with all you heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. Sounds like total commitment to me. I surrender all, as the song says. You put Him where He needs to be, first in your life. No other priorities. Him first. No, I will later, no mater the cost, no mater what it takes, I will serve the Lord.
Now the second, Love your neighbor as yourself. Putting others before yourself. Forgiving those who don’t deserve it. Holding your tongue when someone deserves the lashing.
Actually Jesus in these verses summed up the Ten Commandments. The first commandment summarizes the first four concerning your relationship with God. The second is the essence of commandments five through ten, which relates to the treatment of others.
A good smell is like a good cooked meal from kitchen. Have you ever been somewhere and you weren’t really hungry, but then you walked by some place where they have some tempting food grabbed you and all the sudden you were starving? We need to have that same drawing smell to draw others to Christ,
When you smell something do you look at others when you should smell under your own armpits? Don’t blame your stench on someone else.
What do you smell like?
