How do you Smell?
Thesis: When you are around others what do you smell like? Do you give off the fragrance of life or the odor of death? Can people smell the fragrance of Jesus in your life or do they smell the vile odor of rotting flesh.
Intent of message is to encourage the graduates and the rest of the church to go out into the world and be a sweet smell where ever they are. They need to make impressions on others that they are a fragrant sweet perfume not the odor of a stinking dieing piece of flesh.
Texts:
2 Cor. 2:14-17 (NIV)
14But 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. 15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? 17Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.
2 Cor. 2:14-17 (Message)
In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.
This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No—but at least we don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can.
2Cor. 2:14-17 (NASB)
14But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every place. 15For we are a sweet savor of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; 16to the one a savor from death unto death; to the other a savor from life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? 17For we are not as the many, corrupting the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ.
Illustration:
Pass around the fresh cut Lilacs have them smell them.
Light some incense so they can smell it during the service.
Introduction:
The sense of smell is one of the powerful senses God has given us. A couple of days ago I was out on the corner of the church and out of the sewer came a vile odor of a dead animal. It turned my nose and my stomach because of its vile odor of decaying flesh. We have all smelled the stench of a skunk it is really implanted on our brains. Why? Because odors – smells are registered in our brains especially foul ones. The truth is smell will influence us in a given situation. For example if someone comes around you and they stink your perception is created. Stinky people usually don’t have many friends nor do people want to hang around them. Why? Smell makes a difference.
When I was in India smell was one scent that worked overtime. I still recall the different smells of India even now 6 months later. They are implanted in my brain. By the way the majority of the smells I remember are vile.
*The first smell of India was a vile smell that slapped in the nose when we walked outside the airport in Bombay. It smelled like nothing I had ever experienced. I not only smelled the pollution but I could taste it in my mouth.
*I recall the first young person who ran up to me and wanted to carry my bags he smelled like he had not taken a bath in years. He looked like it too. Only a young child but living on the streets of Bombay.
*I recall going into our first village getting out of the truck and smelling the stench of open sewage.
*I remember the dog that ran by with a large tumor on his back and the odor it gave off.
*I remember the different smells as I prayed for people at night after the crusades.
There is a motto in India wipe with the left eat and shake with the right. They do not have toilet paper and I recall at night the smells coming from the left hands of people I prayed for.
*I remember the smells of the people with leprosy- I prayed for several of them and the smell was rancid – rotting flesh and it made my stomach nauseated. I can still remember that smell vividly.
I read something this week that opened my eyes to the sense of smell that I will never forget. Listen to this, “Believe it or not, your sense of smell works because tiny bits of the thing you are smelling actually go up your nose! WHAT??!! Say it’s not so! But it’s true. When you smell something, the molecules from the thing you are smelling get sucked right up your nose.” I just made your day right!
Scientists tell us, “These smell molecules attach to tiny structures way up in your nose called smell receptors. The smell receptors are at the end of nerve cells. The smell molecules cause a nerve signal to travel from the receptor, along the nerve, to your brain. Your brain translates the nerve signal into a sense of smell!”
Of all our senses, smell is our most primal. Animals need the sense of smell to survive. Although a blind rat might survive, a rat without its sense of smell can’t mate or find food. For humans, the sense of smell communicates many of the pleasures in life--the aroma of a pot roast in the oven, fresh-cut hay, and a rose garden. Smells can also signal danger, fear, or dread.
I. The function of smell in our physical bodies.
a. Smell is a chemical sense like taste is.
i. Scientists tell us, “Smell is one of the chemical senses, the other being taste. They are so called because they sense chemicals, and smells are, of course, chemicals. With these senses we sample our environment for information. We are continuously testing the quality of the air we breathe (this will alert us to potential dangers, e.g. smoke) as well as using this sense to inform us of other relevant information, such as the presence of food or another individual.
1. Smell alerts us to danger.
2. Smell tells us with someone else is around.
a. In the war in Vietnam I had a friend of mine who said their where times he could smell the enemy before he ever saw them.
3. Smell tells us what food is good to eat and what food is not good to eat.
a. Actually taste is 75% smell.
ii. Scientists also tell us, “The chemicals detected by our sensory systems need to have certain properties. For instance, odor molecules must be small enough to be volatile (greater than 300-400 relative molecular mass) so that they can vaporize, reach the nose and then dissolve in the mucus. This tells us that smell, unlike taste, can signal over long distances (an early warning device). We appear to have an innate ability to detect bad, aversive smells.”
1. One study showed, “One-day old babies give facial expressions that indicate rejection when given fish or rotten egg odor.”
iii. But, is our olfactory system doing more than just giving us warnings? Yes, of course. Amongst other possibilities, it serves a recognition function. We all have our own unique smell (some more pleasant than others! - but that’s another story, see "mate choice" below) and can recognize and be recognized by our smell.
1. Scientist tells us that smell also helps us recognize one another. The truth is we all smell a certain way and others do take notice and our smell helps us to be recognized.
2. We are recognized by how we smell! Catch that!
a. First impressions are often lasting ones. Indeed, if you play your cards right, you can enjoy the benefits of what sociologists call the "halo effect." This means that if you’re viewed positively within the critical first four minutes, the person you’ve met will likely assume everything you do is positive. Four minutes! Studies tell us that are the crucial period in which impressions are formed by someone we’ve just met. Within a mere ten seconds, that person will begin to make judgments about our professionalism, social class, morals and intelligence. People tend to focus on what they see (dress, eye contact, movement), on what they hear (how fast or slowly we talk, our voice tone and volume)… and I add How we smell.--from "More Power to You!" Connie Brown Glasser and Barbara Steinberg Smalley
b. Now the big question “So how do you smell?”
i. Check your Body odor- Do you smell good? Rancid?
ii. Now the reality check to see if your perceptive nose is right or not ask your neighbor to take a whiff!
1. Do you stink?
2. Do you smell like springtime?
3. Do you smell like Dial soap?
a. My grandmother’s house always smelled like Dial!
4. Do you smell like perfume?
5. Do you smell like dead fish?
6. Do you smell like rotting flesh?
7. Do you smell like a fragrant flower from Heaven?
T.S. - We have discovered that physical smell makes a difference in how others perceive us and even how they will relate to us. But now let’s observe that smell makes a difference to God and to those we come in contact with in the spiritual dimension.
II. How do you smell spiritually?
a. Let’s read our text today and discover that smell also makes a difference to God and to others in our life.
i. 2 Cor. 2:14-17 (NIV) 14But 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. 15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? 17Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.
1. Out text draws our attention to what type of fragrance we radiate in our travels throughout our life.
2. Our text informs us that God uses us if we are in right relationship with him to cast a fragrance about Him to those we come in contact with in life.
a. For you graduates you are off to new places and new adventures and the way you live your life will determine your fragrance to God.
b. “For we are to God the aroma of Christ”
c. I want to add here if we act like Christ and remember his sacrifice everyday God will look at us and take in a deep breath to smell the fragrance of Jesus coming from our lives.
d. Or He could take a whiff of us and then away because the odor is so vile! It’s all about our spiritual smell!
b. Lets come back to my question again,” How Do you smell?”
i. It makes a difference to God how you smell and it will also make a difference to those around you.
ii. People often will meet you and take a breath of your character and determine by your smell whether you are dead and stinking up the place or a person full of fresh new life.
1. The Bible tells us that the Pharisees stunk the place up don’t stink like them.
2. Full of legalism and judgment- no love no mercy no grace.
T.S. – We have to answer the question truthfully about our spiritual smell do we smell like death or life?
III. Do you smell like death – like rotting flesh or fragrant life a lilac full of fresh springtime life?
a. This odor was described many times in Scripture. It’s not a pleasant smell and when you get a whiff of it your never forget it.
i. Let’s recall the remarks about this smell to Jesus prior to him resurrecting Lazarus.
1. Everyone was concerned about Jesus opening the tomb of Lazarus because of the odor of death.
2. John 11:38-40: 38Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39“Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” 40Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
a. Death has a distinct odor
b. Let me rephrase my question to you today –“Are you walking around the church stinking the place up?”
c. Quit stinking – when you stink you are dieing start living and you will smell better.
b. Do smell like your full of life?
i. Are you a sweet fragrance to others and smell like these Lilacs?
ii. Jesus was anointed by Mary with perfume signaling how he would smell at death. He would not smell like rotten flesh because he was full of life.
1. Matthew 26:6-13
a. Reference to Simon the Lepers house.
b. What do lepers smell like- it will turn your stomach the smell – it is the smell of rotting flesh that is dieing right on their bodies.
iii. His body would be raised in its sinless state in its beautiful form to God – it would never smell dead because death could not have it. It was sinless – it never experienced decay.
iv. Be the aroma for God that reflects the smell of Jesus Christ. What did Jesus smell like- Not dead decaying flesh but a sweet fragrance of life. Think for a moment back when Jesus was born of the two gifts presented to him by the wise men.
1. FRANKINCENSE An ingredient used in making the perfume for the most holy place in the tabernacle (Ex. 30:34). It is a resinous substance derived from certain trees in the balsam family. Frankincense was one of the gifts presented to the child Jesus by the Magi (Matt. 2:11).
2. MYRRH An aromatic resin having many uses in the Ancient Near East. It was traded along with spices (Gen. 37:25), used as an ingredient in anointing oil (Ex. 30:23), applied as perfume (Esth. 2:12), placed in clothes to deodorize them (Ps. 45:8), given as a gift (Matt. 2:11), and used to embalm bodies (John 19:39).
v. The key is that you smell sweet like Jesus who is called the Lily of the valley the rose of Sharon. He gives off a pleasing odor to those who have placed their life in His hands.
vi. When I became born again I was given a Heavenly bath and the soap of Heaven washed me clean at that point in my life I no longer smelled like decayed flesh but I smelled like a beautiful flower in the presence of the Lord God almighty.
1. ALL Because of JESUS!
2. When I accepted Jesus I lost my vile odor and became a sweet fragrance to God Almighty.
3. I became a pleasing odor to God
a. ODOR Scent of fragrance, usually in the phrase “pleasing odor” (KJV, “sweet savor”). A synonym for a burnt offering (Num. 28:1-2). See Sacrifice and Offerings.
4. How because I offered my life to Jesus and he changed my smell. I came to the point in my life when I no longer wanted to continue to stink like rotting flesh.
T.S. - So you’re thinking “How can I get rid of this vile odor I carry around with me?” Glad you asked here’s how!
Application Point: Here are some steps you can take so you quit stinking up the place you’re in!
A. Let the Lord give you a bath.
1. The Bible tells us that when we give our life to Christ and repent of our sins and surrender to Jesus “He washes us and we become white as snow.” Clean no stink – no stench of death.”
a. Psalm 51:7 says, “Wash me, and I will be whiter…”
b. John 13:5 “and He began to wash his disciples feet,”
B. Once you have been cleaned up by the Lord then take regular baths through the Word of God.
1. Everyone here knows the importance of bathing regularly. This act of discipline helps us not to stink.
a. Use soap and water
2. The process of renewing the mind through the Bible’s teaching keeps us clean.
a. Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”
3. Praying everyday helps you to smell better like bathing everyday.
a. Prayer gives off a sweet smell to the Lord according to Ps. 141:2
C. Stay out of the garbage dumps of the world this helps you not to stink again.
1. If you take a bath and climb back into the garbage can guess what you will start stinking again.
2. Don’t roll around in the filth of the world
D. Don’t play with dead things because if you do you will start to smell like them.
E. Keep your clothes clean by washing with them through Jesus.
1. Revelation 7:14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes…”
2. Don’t wear dirty clothes wash them weekly?
F. Keep your house clean.
1. Clean your houses weekly don’t allow the filth of the world to invade it.
G. Put on the fragrance of Jesus! We do this by partaking of communion as we do and we remember the sacrifice of Jesus and let it affect us we then leave off the aroma of a sweet fragrance to God.
COMMUNION- Read 1 Cor. 11:23-33
Play song Remember me!
Partake of communion after watching video presentation.
* Have the elements passed out during video!
Do it corporately!
The charge to the graduates and to New Life People!
Go to the world and bring a fragrance of life to your assigned place in life. Go out of Amery and make the place you are called too a place were you will bring the fragrance of life to your new place-smell beautifully.
