The Fragrance Of Grace

I really felt today that I wanted to, as I prayed this week, I really wanted to bring a message on the fragrance of grace. And there's a verse in the Bible, we're gonna look at it in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 14 through 16 when we get to it, but it says that we are the fragrance of Christ. So it doesn't necessarily say the fragrance of grace, but I look at it this way, it says in the book of John, it says in the word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And verse 16 says, of his fullness, we've all received in grace for grace.

And then verse 17, it says, the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And that Jesus is the personification of grace, and that everything about him oozes grace, his life, the way he interacts with people, everything he does. And really two aspects of grace that I wanna talk about with regarding fragrance today, we talk about grace, we talk about that it's obviously, it's the gift of undeserved favor. So there's aspect of being a gift, but it's also enabling power.

And so when we talk about fragrance today, I really wanna have two points today, it's that we, it's called victorious living and sacrificial giving. And those are the two things we wanna hone in on today, as we talk about the fragrance of grace. So when we think about fragrances, I was reminded as I went downstairs today, prior to somebody else must have went downstairs too, that there was a scent, not emanating from the kitchen, but emanating from one of the rooms to the left of the kitchen. And my wife came up and said, did you go downstairs?

And I said, I did. You see that tear in my eye, it's not the Holy Spirit, it's the scent. And she did what a lot of people do, she took some Lysol and tried to mask that smell. And said, well, we're gonna find, when you think about fragrances, not every fragrance that smells good to one person smells good to somebody else.

Amen. There's a candle scent, and I like certain candles, but there's a candle scent that I have some friends that they have in their home. I can't go in their house when that thing's burning. I can't stand it.

It just stinks to me, it gives me a headache. They love it. They even try to give us one one time, I'm like, nah, nah, nah, right in the trash, nah, nah. But there's certain smells that, they smell good to one person, they don't smell good to another.

If you have been to another country, not so much here, maybe here, but did you ever have a witch? Oh, a witch. Yeah, if you ever caught a witch, let me know. Did you ever catch a whiff of somebody's body scent?

Oh yeah. Especially you go into other countries, you know, they may not have access to deodorant, and then you smell these smells. Sister Pam knows very well what those smells like. And then you start to wonder, do I smell like that to them?

Because maybe they smell to me, but maybe I smell to them. You know, there's a thing that happens over time, you ever heard the term nose blind, that as you're exposed to a smell over time, the technical term is called olfactory fatigue. Just means your nose gets tired of smelling that smell, and it just quit smelling it. And sometimes you're like, man, can you not smell it?

I'm like, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. I think all of these things have spiritual significance. Well, we're testing out my old mic today, I'm praying that it works. So I just, you know, to be funny, but I just wanted to start thinking about fragrances.

You know the great thing about fragrance is this, your smell, when it comes to your senses, you know how five senses touch taste smelling, hearing, and I don't know what the other one is, but I'm missing one, touch, touch taste smell, sight, oh, sorry. But smell is the only one that goes directly to the memory part of your brain. It goes directly to the emotional part of your brain. The other four senses all pass through a thing called the thalmus, which is like the control center that sends it down to the super cortex.

So they pass through something else, but smell goes directly to that place where memories are stored. So you're ever walking a house and you smell roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, and it just takes you back to like, when you were, you know, your grandma or your mom, when she cooked this Sunday afternoon dinners, you know, that smells can take you back to a memory in an instant because it's a direct connection to that part of your brain. And so they really smell is probably the most potent of all your senses for that reason. But today we want to talk about what that fragrance of Christ smells like because it's not necessarily, I wouldn't say it's a physical pangible, although it could be, I guess, but it's not so much, it's more of a spiritual scent.

And we want to learn how do we discern that? How do we release that? So it says in Second Corinthians chapter two versus we're going to read just verses 14 through 16 today. It says, now, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place.

For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing to the one where the aroma of death leading to death and to the other the aroma of life leading to life and who is sufficient for these things. So as we were here this past Thursday, we were having worship before Pastor Seth thought on Thursday night and we're seeing that song that was, I pour my oil on you, if you remember if you're familiar with that song. And I just was really meditating on that. And it's found in Matthew, Mark, and also in John.

But in the book of John chapter 12, there's a story about Mary who's the sister of Lazarus, also the sister of Martha, and they have a dinner for Jesus. You can find this in Matthew and Mark also. Some people don't say it's not the same story because some say that there was one says, they say it was two days before they passed over and John says six, I think it's probably the same story. But regardless, it says that she took a very costly bottle of spikener, a bottle of oil, and she comes in at this feast that says Martha serving, which is kind of what Martha always is known for.

It says Lazarus is sitting at the table, but Mary, she finds herself at the feet of Jesus, which is where she has been many times. And it says she breaks it, and she breaks it and she applies it to his feet. And if you go to the next slide, I think I have it up there, John chapter 12 verse three. This phrase just really stuck out to me this week.

It says, the fragrance of the oil filled the house. The fragrance of the oil filled the house. Or it says here the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. And as I thought about that, it goes on to, in the story it says that, you know, he's like, well, what a waste.

That this could have been sold for 300 denari, which would be about a year's worth of income. So this was no small gift. And John has a little commentary, he said he didn't say it because he cared about the poor. He said it because he was a thief.

And Jesus says, let her alone, because she has done this for my burial. And as I thought about it, a lot of times, we look at this passage in terms of worship and worshiping Jesus and it's all that. But just what spoke to me this week was the house was filled with the fragrance. And as Mary put that on Jesus to prepare him for burial, Paul says this, he says that, that we not only died with Christ, but we were buried with Christ.

We were made alive with Christ. We were raised with Christ. And we're now seated with Christ. And I just said a sense that prophetically, as she prepared him for burial, she prepared us for burial.

Because we're the body of Christ. And that we are now eternally filled with a fragrance of Christ by the agency of the Holy Spirit that's meant to be released into and permeate the atmosphere that we walk into. We've been filled with, we are the house of God. We're the church, we're the body of Christ.

We are the house. And through his Holy Spirit, we're filled with the fragrance of the oil. That word filled means to the full, to the overflow. Nothing lacking.

So that if you're saved today, and if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, I want you to know that you're filled with the fragrance. You're filled with the fragrance. You don't have to ask God to give you the fragrance. You have the fragrance.

But like a lot of times, until that bottle is broken, the fragrance isn't released. And so many of us as believers carry around a fragrance in a bottle spiritually inside of us that's never been broken and released. And as I really thought about this this week, I was reminded of the story of Jacob and Esau. If you remember when their father, Abraham Isaac and Jacob, and when Isaac is blessing, who he thinks is Esau, which is his oldest son.

Jacob's mother says, I don't want that kid to get the blessing, I want you to get the blessing. It's two different mothers. And so Esau was a hunter, if you remember the story. Jacob was not.

And so she said, go get your brothers clothes, put your brothers clothes on, go get me some animal skin. She puts animal skin on him to make him appear to be hairy. And Isaac at that point, his life was blind. And he comes and he makes his father a stew, and he brings it to his father, and the mom made it for him, and it tastes good.

And Isaac said, you know, you have the voice of Jacob, but the stew tastes like what he saw would make me come a little closer and he touches him and says, no, he feels like Esau, but it didn't sound like him. And then he says, come closer and kiss me. And Jacob, who's posing as Esau to inherit this blessing, comes to his dad, it says his dad kisses him. And Isaac says this, he says, the smell of the field is on my son.

And I feel like that's what a lot of believers do today, is they try to inherit a blessing by putting a fictitious scent on the outside. That we try to mask what we are without dealing with it. And for lack of a better word, we put a little ode to Jesus Christ on our outside. That when I walk up to you, I smell like Jesus, but I'm really not releasing the fragrance that's been filled in me.

And what God wants to do today, he wants to release that fragrance into the atmosphere. He wants everywhere that you go, every person you encounter, to encounter Jesus with this fragrance of grace. But we carry, it's costly, it's costly. He paid for it with his blood.

And so, you know, it's not a haphazard thing. Now I want you to know this, you're filled with it, but I want you to release it. I want people, when you're walking through town to have a discernible, they may not know what it is. They may not be able to put their finger on it.

I want to say, there's something there that's spiritually tangible, that awakens something in them. When Christ and I went to India this past January, you'll tell her that we had our senses heightened and that we smelled and tasted things we've never tasted before. And do you know until you smell something or taste something you've never tasted before, you have no appetite for it. But once you smell it, once you taste and see that the Lord He is good, there's an appetite that you've had your entire life that gets awakened.

And that's what Jesus wants to do through you as you go through Cumberland, as you go to your jobs, as you interact with your family members, that you're releasing this fragrance of grace. So let's go back to our text, 2 Corinthians chapter two. And we'll just start here and make a few points. Let's go on to the next slide beyond that.

And verse 14, it says, Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. Remember earlier I said, thanksgiving is the voice of victory. Do you notice here it doesn't say that thanks be to God who led us into victory, who leads us into victory, who leads us into triumph, that I can actually be thankful now for a victory that I haven't even participated in yet. I can go ahead and thank God today, even for the situation I haven't encountered, even for the one that I haven't completely seen come to fruition yet, because He always, always, always leads us in triumph in Christ.

So what happens, like, well, I'm not experiencing victory, I'm not experiencing triumph in my life. If He always leads us into triumph, then I gotta ask are you submitting to and following the lead of the Holy Spirit? Because if He leads us there, and you're not experiencing that, you're either not in Christ, which means you're not saved, or it means you're not following the lead of the Holy Spirit. See, Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, never leads us somewhere to fail.

When Jesus was resurrected, and it says, I'm sorry, when He was baptized and said, the Holy Spirit descended him like a dove, and said that He was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. And it says that the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted to the devil, not to fail, but to succeed. And it says at the end of that passage, He came in out of the wilderness in the power of the Holy Spirit, so that God never leads us anywhere for the purpose to fail, He leads us everywhere to have success, to triumph, to win. And so if I'm not winning, I need to look in the mirror.

I need to have a heart to heart with myself and be able to look in the mirror and say, all right, am I following the lead? Because if He always leads me there, and I'm not there, I don't think He messed up. I might need to backtrack, I might need to make a correction, I might need to repent and get back on track and following His lead. The word leads us into triumph is really only one word in the Greek.

Let's look at it, it means this. It means to celebrate, not just to win, but to celebrate. I've seen people celebrate for football. In a million years from now, no one's gonna remember that.

But there's a victory that was won 2000 years ago that we're still unfolding and unraveling today that we not only win, but we get to celebrate it. It says to make an acclamatory procession to conquer, to give victory to cause one to try a metaphorically to grant one, look at this, complete success. See, God just doesn't want you to win here and there. He doesn't just want you to be healed of this, but not of this.

He doesn't want you to just have a little deliverance. He wants you to live in complete deliverance. He wants you to live in complete healing. He wants you to live in complete freedom.

Cause that's what He's provided. Anything less, and you're not tapping into all that He has for you. See, when this talks about this fragrance, what you have to know about Roman culture is this, when Romans would win a victory, they were great warriors, right? So think of, if you're watching maybe like 300, like I always think they probably didn't look as ripped as those guys, but they were good warriors.

Or maybe think of like the gladiator, the gladiator. The Romans were, they were great warriors. And when they would win, they not only won, but they rubbed your nose in it. Like they won, like I like to win.

Like we talked before about that it says in Romans 837, it says in all these things, we are more than conquerors. It's Hooper, Nikayo, it means the Greek word to win, but to win in a decisive victory that we're more than conquerors because he won and then he gives us the victory. That we actually, I think a few months ago, I said that we actually, it's like we're the second string. They already called the game because it's such a big, big lead and we just go in and run the score up.

Like we make it, we get to run the score up on a game that's already over. And so that when these Romans would win, they just didn't win, they would rub it in the nose of the people that got defeated. The general that led the army would come in and his chariot and his horse and behind him would be his officials and then his soldiers and then behind the soldiers would be those that got defeated. And they would march them through the streets and just like, I don't know if they threw rotten tomatoes, but they humiliated them.

And when they would be having this processional, the people in Rome would put a fragrant incense on the altars so that all through the city, you would smell this fragrant incense. And every time you maybe didn't even know there was a battle being fought, you maybe didn't know there was one that had won, you didn't know that the parade was starting, but when that sent hit your nose, it sparked something in your memory that said, that's the smell of victory. That's the smell of victory. I may not know about it, I may not have heard about it, I may not be there, but as it's released, I begin to remember what that smell is.

See, our lives are meant to release this fragrance that brings back the memory of the decisive victory that Jesus won on the cross. That every time we release the fragrance of grace, people may not know it yet, but people that do know it are like, I recognize that smell. It's the smell of victory. It's the smell that Jesus, when he won that victory, Jesus did the same thing.

It says in Colossians 2 verse 15, it says, it says that he disarmed, it's me, it's me, he disarmed principalities and powers, having made a public spectacle of them. He actually paraded those demonic forces through the proverbial streets and humiliated them. Triumphing over them in it. It refers to the few verses back, which is the cross.

Triumphing over them in his work at the cross. That's the victory that we also tap into and participate in today. His victory is our victory. His triumph is our triumph.

He never lost, he's got a perfect record, and because he has a perfect record, that's why he can always, always lead us into triumph. The second half of this verse says this, it says, thanks be to God, who always leads us into triumph in Christ. And look at this, through us, through us. Like he doesn't need us to defuse this.

He could do it on his own, but he chooses to release this through us, through us, he defuses. In other words, not, I don't really like this translation. I do, we do think of diffusers, right? Maybe I have a plug in.

You put a plug in in a wall, and over time, like as the electricity gets in there, as the heat comes, see what he does, he actually speeds up the way the molecules break up and go into the air. But you put that plug in, it diffuses the smell. Those smells all end after a time. His smell, his fragrance is eternal.

It's an everlasting fragrance that's diffused. The word diffused is actually the word manifest or revealed. It means to disclose or make something visible that's not currently known. That you have this fragrance in you that other people may not know about.

But because he chooses to release it through you, it actually awakens something in them that draws them to the victory that he declared 2,000 years ago. It says that he diffuses through us the fragrance of Christ or fragrance of his knowledge. Look at this, in every place. The word place can mean two things.

It can mean location, but it also means the word opportunity. That everywhere we go, every opportunity we're presented with, my life should be releasing the fragrance that points to the victory that Jesus won 2,000 years ago. See, first and foremost, I believe your life should be a life of victory over sin and the power of sin in your life. Paul says that sin no longer has dominion over you.

That you should be living in complete and utter freedom from the power that sin used to have, that you should be living a free life. I believe there's other ramifications of that too. I believe that we should be living in victory as it pertains to our soul. That I'm actually living a victorious like because I'm thinking from the direction of heaven.

That the things I encounter on earth seem minuscule because of the perspective that I take from heaven. I should be living in victory when it comes to my body. I should be taking care of it. I should be living in not just being healed, but living in divine health, because that's part of all the victory.

My marriage should represent the victory that Jesus won. Everything I do should be releasing this fragrance, my marriage, the way I do my job, the way I work with integrity, my speech, my actions, my interactions with people, releasing, releasing, releasing the fragrance of grace. He diffuses it through us. The next verse says this, it says, for we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the one we are the fragrance of death, leading to death, and to the other the fragrance of life, leading to life.

It's been interesting that even spiritually, the same fragrance doesn't appeal to people the same way. We're releasing the fragrance of Christ, to those who are being saved and to those who are perishing, to the one, the fragrance, the aroma of death, leading to death, and to the other, the aroma of life, leading to life. I think it's interesting. It says, we're the fragrance of Christ to those who are being saved.

And I've taught on this before, but just for a refresher, salvation, we were saved. Romans 2, 8, that says, for by grace you were saved. 1 Corinthians 1, 18 says this, it says, the preaching, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And then just a couple chapters later in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul says that your works will be tried by fire.

And if they burn up, nonetheless, yet you will be saved. So this thing about being saved that you're born again, but then after you're born again, you've been regenerated, you've been made new. The rest of your life is this process of being saved, that there's healing that needs to take place, there's deliverance that needs to take place, that we're in this process of being saved. And so I think this aspect here is, as we're releasing this fragrance of Christ, it appeals to some people, but it doesn't appeal to others.

Sometimes we think of just in terms of saved and unsaved, right? But I want to submit to you this, that I believe that there are some people who are saved that are still perishing, not eternally, but the word perishing is the same word that Jesus says when he says the thief does not come except for to steal, kill, and destroy. That's the identical same word. That you can be saved, you were saved by grace, but now you're allowing the enemy to steal, kill, and destroy because you've opened a door to him up somewhere in your life.

And sometimes people who are saved will smell the fragrance of grace in your life, and even though it should be a pleasant aroma, because they decide that they don't want to change, it smells like death to them. I encourage you, don't be like that. Grace should smell good. You should want to breathe it in, and you should want to allow the Holy Spirit to do the internal work in you that still needs to be done, to conform you to the image of Jesus, to make you more like him today than yesterday.

But that takes a continual inhaling. He says to some, we're the fragrance of death, leading to death, to some life leading to life. See, see what we want to release is the life of Jesus. Since sometimes they take heat, but sometimes you know if you want to get a smell out of a flower, what do you have to do?

You may have to crush it a little bit. See, Paul says this, he says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, St. Corinthians chapter four, he says we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. See that we have something so special in us, but that that thing is so great, the power of God, the grace of God, the fragrance of Christ that is in us, but it's in this body that's decaying.

But that's a good thing. It's a good thing because he says we're hard pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always bearing about in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus can also be manifest in our body. See, it's a good thing when you encounter tribulation and trials and those things of life because if everything was just peaches and cream, you probably would never release the fragrance of Christ. It's situations, it's people, it's circumstances that maybe originate because of your bad decisions, they may be an attack of the enemy, sometimes it's just our in stupidity, whatever it is, but God turns it around and has designed us in such a way that even those blows that we take release, the fragrance of Christ.

Paul says in Romans eight, he says this, he says, the sufferings of this world are nothing in comparison to the glory that will be revealed in us. The glory that will be revealed in us, it says, all of creation is in anticipation and waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. See, there'll be a time when obviously everyone who saved will be raptured, you'll either be raised, the dead and Christ will rise first, so we'll be raptured in there and it'll be obvious. And I believe that's part of what that verse is talking about, but I believe there's also this aspect that creation itself is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God that they're waiting for the release now to see what God's put in you.

Everywhere we go, every opportunity we're presented with, we are to be releasing the fragrance of Christ's victory and demonstrating it to others that he was forever and is forever victorious. It should all point to him, it should all point to him. There's one more thing which is covered quickly. I've talked about, I want to talk to you today about victorious living, but I want to just touch on sacrificial giving.

And when I think of sacrifice, what God spoke to me was this this week, there's no scent without sacrifice, that there has to be a breaking, there has to be a crushing, there's gotta be a sacrifice in order for the scent to be released. And I think when it comes to sacrifice, the two biggest things in our lives are our self and our stuff. It's really the two things that he calls us to sacrifice us, our will, our bodies, and also what we have. It says in this, in Ephesians 4, I'm gonna back up a few verses, I wanna get to verse five, chapter five verse two, but it says, no, let's start there at four through one.

It says, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Be kind, one to another, tenderhearted. That means compassionate. Be kind, one to another, compassionate, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God and Christ forgave you.

Pastor Seth talked about forgiveness as pastor's tonight. You know, there was a, you know, the example is this, is that the way we forgive people is the way that Christ forgave us. But he forgave us eternally, he forgave us completely. He forgave us before we ever even sinned.

I know that's a tall order, but the forgiveness that we're to give others should be mirroring the forgiveness that God forgave us with. Had nothing to do with what I did, it was all what he did. And he actually pre-forgave me, if that's even a word. And the reason I put this with verse one in chapter five is it says, therefore be imitators of God as dear children.

Remember we just said that the manifestation, the creation's waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God? If you are a son or if you are a daughter of God, then his DNA is in you. The capacity to do what the word commands is in you. But he's given you the ability to do this.

And he says, I want you to imitate me. I want you to mimic me. I want you to do things just the way I did them. And then in verse two, he says this, he says, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and has given himself as two things.

An offering and as a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. All of those offerings in the Old Testament when you read about them, that they said that they were an aroma that was pleasing to God. They had to be repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated for 1500 years until Jesus came and made one sacrifice. For all time, that's still, I believe, is still pleasing to the Father today.

The aroma never goes away, it doesn't dissipate. See, it's said that we're to love others the way Christ loved us who gave us as an offering. So two things here, offering is this. Offering is actually the bringing of it.

Sacrifice is really the thing that was brought. And so he is the sacrifice, but he's also the bringing of the sacrifice. And he gave it as a gift. I didn't say he put it out there for you to earn.

He said he gave it. He loved us, and because he loved us, he gives this. When you think about forgiveness, what's in the middle of the word forgiveness? Give.

Too often we try to do for sale-ness. That we try to, OK, you do this, and I'll forgive you. That's solid. That's what the Old Testament did.

It was you do this, and you'll be blessed. You don't do this, and you'll be cursed. Well, you do this, and I'll forgive you. That's not the forgiveness.

That's not the love and the grace of Jesus. The love and the grace of Jesus was he humbled himself, was made in the likeness of men, was obedient to the death of the cross, forgave us for all sin, for all time, before we were even born. But for some reason, we want to hold on to unforgiveness toward people and direct disobedience to what God's word says. I would submit to you, if you're doing that, you're releasing a fragrance that's not grace.

You're releasing a fragrance that's probably originated down in the basement this morning. It doesn't smell good. It's not attracting people. Remember, it's not about making yourself look good and smell good.

It's about making Jesus famous. See, if I really, truly cared about promoting the victory that Jesus won for me, if I really cared about loving people the way Jesus loved them, then I would humble myself. And I would forgive that person so that in so doing, I could release the grace that they need. Earlier in chapter four, it says, let no communication proceed out of your mouth, except that which is good and edifying to the person that hears it.

And the next verse says, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you're sealed in the day redemption. The Holy Spirit is actually grieved by words that aren't filled with grace, because he's the Spirit of grace. It says the word of love the same way that Jesus loved us. And that when we, if his love offering was an aroma pleasing to the Father, guess what ours is?

It's an aroma that pleases the Father. It's an aroma that he says, I can just, like I feel like I can see him in heaven. This isn't doctrine, but it's just how I see it. There's Seth, my son, Stephanie, my daughter, Tara, my daughter, and he recognizes the scent of his nature.

He is love, and what emanates from us should be that love and that sacrificial grace that love demands. Let's go to the next slide. Sometimes we read passages and we're like, well, I know this, it's the love chapter, but I invite you today, I wanna read this from the NET, but I just want you to hear it, because just like we can become nose blind to scents, I believe we can become nose blind to scripture. And we become so familiar with it that we no longer allow it to impact us and do the work that it can and should do.

So I ask you to think of it like you've never heard this before, and it says love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious, love does not brag, love is not puffed up, love is not rude, love is not self-serving, love is not easily angered or resentful, love is not glad about injustice, love rejoices in the truth, love bears all things, love believes all things, love hopes all things, love endures all things, love never ends. Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself as an offering and a sacrifice that was a sweet smelling aroma to the Father. That's what we can release over Cumberland. We literally can release the grace of Jesus over the city.

It's not an impossible thought. It's very possible because he told us to do it. Says in Romans chapter 12, he says, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, they what, living sacrifice. Remember I said Jesus was the offering which is the bringing of it and the sacrifice.

What you presenting your body is the bringing of it. Father I'm willing for you to do whatever you want to do with this body. I bring myself, my will, my desires as a living sacrifice. See, you're alive because the zoe life of God is in you.

And when I present my body as a living sacrifice, the zoe life of God can be released from you. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, your reasonable act of worship, some translations say, but it's acceptable. That's what that word sweet smelling is, that word fragrance sweet smelling means it, an offering that smells good to God. It's acceptable, it's pleasing.

Paul says this to the Philippian church. You know the Philippians lived in abject poverty. Abject poverty, but Paul says you're the only church that participated with me in giving and receiving when I first started in the ministry. That they gave to him out of, not abundance, but out of poverty.

And eventually he goes on to say, my God will supply all your needs. I know we quote that a lot, but the promise is tied to really sacrificial giving. But he says this, he says, I've received the things that were sent from you through a paphroditeus. That there were things that they had, that they probably needed more than Paul did.

And yet they wanted to pour into the gospel and partner with him in such a way that they sacrificed what they had. So that they could release an offering into him that Paul says also was a sweet smelling aroma to the Father. Well pleasing to God. See the two things I said, I think we really wanna hold onto ourselves.

I don't wanna say yes. Crystal you said yes. That's a sweet smelling aroma to your Father. Smells that.

If you're given sacrificially, it's the aroma of grace. God's not just a giver, God's a generous giver. Generous. The woman that put two mites in, she gave all she had.

It's a sweet smelling aroma. See when people see you doing things like that, not that you're doing it for show, but when somebody sees you doing something and they know like, I know they don't have that, but I see what they're doing with what they have. And that represents the Father. And he's calling us today, those two things, that we live this victorious life and that we live a sacrificial life.

And I don't think they're two mutually exclusive things. I think that they're intertwined in that as I live a life of sacrifice, I am turning living this life a victory. And then I'm releasing the fragrance that he's filled me with. There's no scent without sacrifice.

Let's pray.