Recognizing Jesus as Divine Priest

Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

This is our series, The One and Only, where we're taking a look

at Jesus himself, the only one who was worthy.

And I want you to be able to answer this question by the end

of this series. It's a challenging question, but

I want you to see it more as invitation.

You may say this. I know him as Savior, the one

who has set me free from sin and death, The one who has set me,

sealed me for eternity with God. I know him as Savior.

I know him as baby Jesus because he celebrate Christmas.

But do I know him as King? That's the question.

Do I serve him, Revere him, worship him as king, as the

reigning ruler of my life? As I said last week, whoever or

whatever is your king is what will order your life.

So it's imperative as wise people and wonderful people that

you are to make sure that you have the right king because that

king is going to order your life.

If your king is ice cream, you will order your life to get the

ice cream. You'll save your money.

You'll mark it on the calendar. You're driving by twisty tree

like I'm turning in. I didn't mean to turn in, but

there it is. I'm turning in.

And then you have an encounter with ice cream and the ice cream

changes you, it delights you and it D skinnies you all at the

same time, right? It's amazing.

But this is what I mean. Whatever is your king will order

your life and then it will impact your life.

You have a sports team as your king.

You will know this if you rise and fall with the wins and

losses of your team. And it's OK like after the game,

Like man, that stinks. But if on Wednesday your team

lost on Sunday and you're still kicking your cat number one, I

would say why do you have a cat? It's the only creature that God

did not create. Sweater got hot all the sudden.

But if your sports team is your king, you will order your life

around that team. And then when you interact with

that team, it will impact the way that you live.

So if we make God who is the King of the universe, the God of

order, not of chaos, our God, then he will bring order to our

lives if he is king. So how do we do that?

That's what this series is about.

Let me ask you again. You know him as Savior, you know

his baby Jesus. But do you know him as King?

The way you can answer this question is by doing what those

who honored him as king did and understanding why they honored

him as king matters as much as what they did.

We're looking at the magi in Matthew chapter 2.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

Open. Your Bibles are the first book

of the New Testament. If you need a Bible, raise it

up. And Rich, who told me I have an

ugly sweater today. True story, Rich, I just called

you out in front of everybody. He's a good friend.

He's a dear friend. I love you, Rich.

Now this is awkward. Everyone clap for Rich.

If you need a Bible, raise your hand.

That's what we're really doing here.

We're coming to you with Bibles right up here right there.

Perfect. Anyone else need one?

Matthew chapter 2 Last week I read the entire chapter almost

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

this. I'm just going to read some

snippets so that we can get in the story together.

Matthew chapter 2 verse one. Ready to say yes.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the

time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and

asked where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?

Quite a declaration. We saw his star when it rose and

have come to worship him. Now skip down to verse 9.

After they had heard the king, they went on their way and the

star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it

stopped over the place where the child was.

When they saw the star they were overjoyed.

On coming to the house they saw the child.

Not a baby anymore. He's grown up a little bit.

Wasn't the night he was born? This is a little bit later on

with his mother Mary. And they bowed down and

worshipped him. These non Israelites God has

shown them in the stars. They come, they bring him gifts,

and they bow down to worship. And then they open their

treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and

myrrh. Everyone say gold, everyone say

frankincense and myrrh. Yes, we are not going to do what

most people did when Jesus arrived.

What did most people do when Jesus arrived?

Nothing. They completely missed it.

This is what we talked about last week.

No one was at his birth except for a ragtag group of shepherds.

And then later on these magis show up and of course, Joseph

and Mary were there. Everyone else whiffed.

We as Illuminate Church and I pray the rest of the Capital C

Church across the world, we're not going to do that.

Instead, we're going to embrace Jesus even as the Christ child,

as king. We're taking a look at these

gifts in order to understand why the Magi brought them to Jesus

and why they declared that He is King.

More than symbols are these gifts.

They're indicators of who this baby is and how we should

respond to and live in light of the Christ child in our hearts.

Specifically, each of these gifts very, very, very

specifically teaches us how to respond to baby Jesus, not as a

baby, but as a king, the only one, the one and only king.

Last week we talked about gold and we asked this question, is

he your king? Your answer is in the way that

you live and the way that you give.

When we live according to his word, we give him glory.

We're we're we're signed signpost.

What's the word? I'm looking for billboards for

his glory. So if I'm obeying him and

following his ways, which bless me and bless my life, then I

will reflect that he is a good God.

When I follow his ways, I want to live for him and give him

glory that I also want to give to him and bring my treasure to

him. And when I do these two things,

live and give, the world will know that he's not just my get

out of hell free card, that he's actually the master that I

serve. And that's a distinction.

And I just want to testify and sing Hallelujah because last

week to this week, 18 new households decided to become

first time givers here at Illuminate Church.

And you may not think that's anything, but I'll tell you

this, I'm so excited for those 18 households because suddenly

you've gone from money being an idol to God being the one that

you worship. And I can't wait to see what

happens in your life as a result of transferring your allegiance

from money to the Lord. It's going to do miracles in

your life. My wife and I started tithing in

1999 and 20, almost 27 years later, we haven't stopped

because of what God does in our lives.

When we order our lives, You're the king, not this money, not

this treasure. And just want to celebrate that

that's happening for those eighteen families.

Praise God. That was gold.

Today we look at frankincense. What in the world is

frankincense and why did the magi bring this to Jesus?

I can show you what frankincense isn't.

No relationship with Frankenstein.

This is frankincense. Put the candle back.

Anyone? Yeah.

Young Frankenstein. Love the movie.

Strange movie. Yeah.

Frankincense. It comes from a tree called the

Boswellia tree, which is mostly found in like northern Africa

and southern Asia, the strip of land.

Here's a Boswellia tree. Isn't it beautiful?

The SAP of it is the frankincense.

When it hardens, they harvested. Here's the SAP.

You won't believe the color of it.

Isn't that something just glorious?

This is frankincense. This is what the Magi brought to

King Jesus. Why in the world would they do

this? It might be frankincense might

be the best named object item product on the earth.

The word frankincense comes from the old French frank incense.

However you say that, did I sound French?

I felt French. It literally means frankincense

means pure incense or pollutant free incense.

Have you ever want to tell somebody the truth just plainly

and bluntly? And you said to them, I'm going

to be frank with you. You're like, where did that come

from? You're Tim?

Not well. I want to be frank.

I'd rather be frank. I wish my parents named me

Frank. No Frank there.

When you're saying Frank means I'm going to give you the truth

without any mixture. It's going to be pure truth and

nothing but the truth. So I'm going to be frank with

you. It's the same thing that's

happening here in Frankincense. When the first shipments of

Frankincense arrived from The Crusaders up into Europe, or

from the traders from the Far East and bringing it into

Europe, they tasted it, they burnt it and smelled it and they

said this is the real thing, this is the Frank, this is the

pure, this is the noblest incense.

And since then, the frank incense, the name has stuck in

every ancient culture. The core idea was the same.

Frankincense is the purest, most sacred form of incense on the

planet. So it's so pure that it's

reserved for kings, temples, and gods.

They're the only ones considered worthy of burning frankincense

to this two word frankincense. Therefore, once again, let me

tell you one of the most accurate product names in

history. It literally means the real

incense and that's what people have been calling it for the

last 800 plus years in English Frankincense.

Aren't you glad you know all this now?

Don't you feel smarter? All right, let's pray, Father.

Thanks for today. Amen.

There's more. Why did they bring out of all

the objects and all the things that can be burnt as incense,

why is it frankincense that is brought to King Jesus by the

Magi? Frankincense, it turns out, is

the gift of for a God, for divinity.

As I've already been saying, in every temple from Egypt to

Babylon to Rome, and even in Jerusalem, only frankincense was

considered pure enough to burn as an offering to a deity.

It was a widely known practice. It's just what people did.

If you wanted to worship your God, you burned incense.

And incense was burned, by the way, to create an atmosphere,

but it also looked like something going up to the Lord.

So it says prayer to whatever God or deity up and up to the

Lord. So and it also often created a

beautiful aroma in the room. It just everything combined was

like, this is for you, our God, whatever God they were

worshipping. Now in Jerusalem, the sacred

incense was burned twice daily in the golden altar in the holy

place, and the incense had to contain frankincense.

I'm going to show you some pictures so we have context of

what I'm talking about. This is just a model of

Solomon's Temple. If you go with us to Israel in

the next year and a half or so, you will be able to see this

very model on the ground there. So what I'm about to talk about

is inside the structure there, the tall structure in the end,

there's 2 chambers in there. One's called the Holy Place, and

then the other part is called the Holy of Holies.

Let's go inside. This is a terrible picture, but

I looked all over the Internet. Somebody needs to do a great

rendition of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.

This is what we get. But in the Holy Place, this

first chamber on the right, my right.

Oh, Oliver, right. If I stand this way is where the

priests would come in and operate.

You have the lampstand, which is the light of God on the far

right side. You have the showbread, which is

the provision of God. And then here he's standing

before the altar of incense and you can see the incense burning

up in front of the, the, the curtain.

There's a veil here. You can't see it because we're

at the side view, but there's a, there's a veil there between

where he's standing and then behind here, which is the Holy

of Holies, where the ark of the Lord, Raiders of the lost ark,

that ark sits. And God would come and sit here

in all of his glory and splendor to be present with God's people,

the Israelites. Are we all together?

Does everyone understand? Let me read the scripture where

we get the command to burn incense.

Exodus chapter 30 verse 7 says Aaron, who's a priest, must burn

Exodus 30:7

fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the

lamps. He must burn incense again when

he lights the lamps at twilight. So incense will burn regularly

before the Lord for generations to come.

Do not offer on this altar any other incense or any burnt

offering or grain offering, and do not pour a drink offering on

it. This altar in the holy of

Holies, I'm sorry, in the holy place is strictly for the

burning of this incense. Now not only that, but burning

this incense outside of the temple was punishable by death.

That's how precious it was to the people.

It belonged exclusively to God and God only.

Exodus chapter 30 verse 34. Then the Lord said to Moses,

Exodus 30:34

Take fragrant spices, gum, resin, uncha and galbanum.

However you say that, and pure frankincense, all in equal

amounts, and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a

perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and

sacred. Grind some of it to powder and

place it in front of the Ark of the Covenant Law in the 10th of

meeting where I will meet with you, it shall be most holy to

you. Do not make any incense with

this formula for yourselves. Consider it holy to the Lord.

Whoever makes incense like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut

off from their people. Wow, so special, so holy, so

sacred. This fragrant frankincense, this

incense burned only to the Lord. By giving frankincense to a

baby, the magi are declaring, proclaiming silently, they don't

have to speak. Everyone in the room would have

known. This child is divine.

This child is God. Can you imagine the affirmation

that Mary and Joseph felt when strangers showed up and they

offer them gold? They're like, whoa, but then

they open the next gift and it's frankincense.

And to them it would have been immediately known.

You only use this for a God. And here they are presenting it

to Jesus and Mary. I just imagine Mary, Joseph

looking at you like it's really real.

Like these guys, we never met him before.

They come from a Far East and they're bringing frankincense to

our Son who we've heard is the Son of God.

And now it's being affirmed over and over.

This child is divine. This child is God.

Secondly, frankincense is the gift for a high priest, is the

gift for a high priest. Once a year still to this day.

Those are the Jewish faith celebrate Yom Kippur.

It happens usually in September, October, depending on how the

Jewish calendar lands. Yom Kippur, Yom means day and

Kippur means covering. If you ever seen a Jewish person

wearing a small hat here we call a Yamaha, but it's also called a

kippah because it's a covering. You have to have a covering when

you go to the Western Wall and stand at the temple, you must

approach it with a kippah, a covering on your head.

Yom Kippur, the day of covering, also known as the Day of

Atonement, the day where the people sins get covered over how

well the Day of Atonement was the one day a year that the high

priest and the high priest only could enter into the holy

holies. Jeff, will you throw that

picture back up there of the, the, the the temple one day a

year and one day only the high priest who's like the Pope, the

president, he's the head of all theological and cultural Jewish

culture. And that day he himself would go

behind the curtain into the presence of God to offer prayers

and sacrifices for God's people. Everyone put on your big

thinking caps. You got to do some thinking and

understanding here. All right, what is going on?

Well, in the very beginning, God makes a covenant with a man

named Abraham. Father Abraham had many sons.

His grandson is Jacob. Jacob gets his name changed to

Israel. So we're talking about the

lineage of Israel starts with Abraham.

Everyone following me so far, that's a lot of thinking, but

put your it's important to know this and the covenant was

Abraham. I'm going to bless you and make

you a huge nation that will bless all other nations.

The whole world's going to know about me because I'm going to

bless you and your family, right?

The only thing you have to do is obey me and follow me.

So let's make a covenant together.

And it's not just a handshake or a wink wink.

It's not even a signed document. We're going to make the most

purest form of covenant. And he tells Abraham this is all

in the book of Genesis. You can go read it.

Get some animals, cut them in two, put them on two sides and

make a pathway down the middle. This is how people make

covenants in those days. And he says, you and I are going

to pass between the parts of the animal.

And here's what it meant. Like if I don't keep up my end

of the bargain, then may it be to me as it is to these animals.

If I don't keep up my part, then blood must be spilled.

Somebody must die. Well, you may know the story,

but God's people did not keep their side of the covenant.

They continually offended, broke the law of the Lord over and

over. And God was merciful.

And he said instead of you sacrificing yourself or your

children like other gods require, Baal, they used to

throw their children in the fire as sacrifices to Baal.

Don't do that, he said. Instead of you sacrificing

yourselves, I'll allow you to sacrifice a perfect spotted,

spotless lamb in your place. And the people would do this.

They would bring their offerings, and if they couldn't

afford a land, they would buy a dove or a bird, and they would

sacrifice that there at the temple.

But once a year the high priest would take the most perfect

spotless lamb and sacrifice it and bring the blood of it into

the Holy of Holies and spread it around, praying.

Lord, may this blood cover us and cover our sin, because we

still need a covering between US and you.

Exodus chapter 33 actually tells us that no man or woman can

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

stand in front of God and live. Too much glory, too much power,

too much brilliant light. No one can do it.

So there always needs to be a covering between US and God.

At some points it's the veil. And then when the priest would

go into the holy holies, well, how is he covered?

Look with me at Leviticus chapter 16.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

He, the priest, is to take a sensor full of burning coals

from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely

ground fragrant incense, frankincense, and take them

behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on the

fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will

conceal the atonement cover above the tablets of the

covenant law so that he will not die.

The veil separates us from the presence of God so that we won't

die. And then when the High priest

goes in to the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood of the Lamb,

he is covered by the cloud of incense.

Are you following me? Are you following me back there?

Yes, he is, at least now listen closely, just as it was for the

High priest. I want you to know it's still

impossible for any human being and stand in front of a holy God

uncovered. Too much glory, too much

holiness, too much purity, too much power, too much light.

It's impossible. That has not changed.

What has changed is the covering.

It was the veil that went away. And for the high priest, it was

the frankincense. And now today, because of the

death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our covering is

the blood of Jesus applied to us by faith.

You're not smeared with actual blood of Jesus, but by faith

there is this covering and now we can approach God.

This is why John the Baptist, when he's announcing Jesus's

arrival, he even says, hey, there's Jesus, everybody, the

Savior. He says look, his first words

about Jesus. It's the Lamb of God come to

take away the sins of the world. The perfect, spotless, once and

for all sacrifice is here amongst us and it's him.

He's pointing to Jesus. What's happening in this moment

should still take our breaths away.

Look at what Jesus. What happens with Jesus?

Matthew chapter 27. He's on the cross.

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

He's about to breathe his glass. And when Jesus had cried out

again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

At that moment, the curtain, the temporary covering, is torn in

two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks

split. What was accessible only once a

year under the cover of a cloud of incense is now approachable

for anyone who put their trust in God.

The presence of God Jesus has become our covering and This is

why the Magi bring the Frankincense.

Frankincense was the Magi's way of saying, without saying a

word, we recognize this child as God in human flesh, the ultimate

priest king who will offer himself as the sacrifice for the

sins of the world. It's why out of the thousands of

things that they could have brought, costly things,

incredible things, they bought frankincense because it is the

most theologically loaded item on the earth imaginable in that

culture. Frankincense.

And you may be saying like, great, that's nice to know.

Thanks for sharing all that. I'm not sure what to do with all

that. What do I do?

Remember, the point of understanding the gifts is to

understand that they brought them to signify that He's king.

So our job, our response as a church in this Christmas season,

really every day of your life, is to continually bring these

gifts before the Lord so that you and I together do the same

thing. I want to declare with my life

to the Lord, to myself, and to all the rest of the world, that

He's my king. So if they brought frankincense,

I'm going to bring frankincense. If that's what they did, then

that's what I'm going to do. We need to bring our

frankincense to the Lord. And I put it in a question.

Is he your king? Bring him your frankincense.

So everyone, on the count of three, I want you to dig in your

pockets. Bring your frankincense down to

the altar. Ready 123.

Anyone got some frankincense? I know there's a lady at the

backstage. Like I can say frankincense oil.

Like don't mix that with Anchenka and goblin because you

have to be separated from your people.

Everyone in this room has frankincense and you may not

know it. You have it right here, right

now, and you could bring it to the Lord right here and right

now if only you knew that you had it.

Psalm chapter 141 says, I call to you, Lord, come quickly to

Psalms 141 · chapter mention

me. Hear me when I call to you.

May my prayer be set before you, like say the word incense.

May the lifting of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

This is the Old Testament. And when something's in the Old

Testament, in the New Testament, it's really affirming to us as

believers. It says, wow, this is a story

that has stretched the entire thread of the Gospels all the

way through the entire biblical narrative.

Revelation chapter 5, We're in the throne room of God.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

John is being given a vision from the Lord of what the future

will be like. We're in the throne room of God.

God is sitting there. He has a scroll in his hand that

explains with the final judgments that will be poured

out on the earth and how things will end.

And here in verse 8, it says that Jesus takes it.

And when he, Jesus, had taken it, the four living creatures

which only exist in heaven and the 24 elders fell down before

the Lamb. Each one of these elders had a

harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense.

What's the incense? The instance are the prayers of

God's people. Frankincense in these golden

bowls, in the prayers of the Saints, lifted up before the

Lord. In other words, this is easy.

You can put this together for yourself, but to offer the gift

of frankincense is to pray unto the Lord of Lords.

You have frankincense, it's in your heart, it's in your mind,

it's in your soul, it's in your spirit.

It's these prayers that we want to offer before the Lord, but we

have these mixed up feelings about prayer.

Some of us think that it's just a chance to sit down with God

and make requests like Santa, I want this and that and that.

And then you send it up and you say, I hope I've been good

enough that he responds, right. Maybe if I did things right and

went to church religiously and put my money in the box

religiously, I'm going to get for him my list.

We think of it as a list of asks unto the Lord.

Or we think it was like the boring chanting of monks.

And I would dare say that most people in this room, much less

people outside of this room, barely pray at all.

Maybe you pray before Emil or a big moment, right?

Oh God, I need help right. He's like you're last minute

rescue. I get it, totally normal human

is just what we do. But what would it look like as a

church if we were like happened in the temple regularly and

constantly sending our fragrance, our incense burning

up to the Lord? Maybe you need to rethink and be

invited into what prayer really is.

At its root, prayer is communion.

Prayer is simply you spending time with the one that you love

and you allowing the one that you love to spend time with you.

Have you ever said a prayer like this, like, Hey God, how are

you? And then stop and listen.

You ever tried that? Hey, God, what's on your heart?

What's on your mind? What is your request of me?

Have you ever, I mean, if you have a relationship with

somebody, spending time, especially somebody you love

dearly, somebody who's rescued and saved your life, you spend

time with them. You know, just talk the whole

time and make requests like, hey, I know that you've done a

lot for me already. But here's 17 more things I want

you to do. And you better do them in this

order. And you can do anything you

want, but choose from one of these five options.

Want to do right? If you have a real relationship

with somebody, you sit and you listen and you just hang.

Sometimes when you have a really great relationship with

somebody, you can sit with each other and not say anything at

all. It's like, hey, good to see you.

You too, let's just hang. I'm glad to be with you.

The discipline of prayer becomes the joy of prayer because you

recognize I'm just coming to hang out and have communion with

you. Her also does what frankincense

does. It means that we say with our

life, this isn't just a myth or a legend, this Jesus thing.

He's not a wood carved idol. He is the able 1.

He is God in the flesh. He is deity.

And I pray not to a vapor, but I pray to the real one who is

able. And when I pray, I declare it

with my life to myself, to him, and to everyone else in my life.

When I pray, I also reaffirm that he is the one who is my

covering. That's why we pray, Father, in

Jesus name, I come to the covering of the one who gave his

life for me. I'm entering into the Holy of

Holies, into the presence of God through the covering of Jesus.

And that's why we say at the end, in Jesus name, Amen.

And not only that, but most crucially, prayer is the

exchange of wills. Prayer is where you say God,

I've got some ideas and I've got some wants and I got some things

that I really need to happen in my life.

But I'm going to take all of that and submit it way under

your will from my life. May your will be done on earth

as it is in heaven. By the way, we were made from

the earth. We were made from dirt.

So when you pray, Lord, will your will be done on earth in

this earth, in me, as it is in heaven.

Paul, the apostle who writes a lot of the New Testament, he

says pray without ceasing. Like, how can I do that?

Like sometimes I've got to work and I can't be like, hi, here's

your Big Mac. Like, how do you pray without

ceasing? Well, you can constantly

exchange your will without saying anything in every moment,

in every situation. Driving on I-4, waiting in line

for Space Mountain, whatever you're doing, that takes a lot

of patience. Raising children, driving to

your in laws for Christmas, whatever.

I love my in laws, by the way, At every moment you can exchange

your will. And when you exchange your will

for God's will, that is prayer. And you are offering your

incense to the Lord, going up to him regularly all the time.

I'm inviting the church this Christmas to be a Church of

prayer. Maybe it's something new that

you and your spouse, you and your neighbor, you and your

friend, you and somebody else, you and the Lord start a new

tradition every night and every morning.

Remember how Aaron would like the incense in the morning, at

night? I'm going to pray and I'm not

just going to give Idlib service.

I'm actually going to do it. I'm going to set a reminder on

my phone and every time I'm in the morning, every time I'm

going to gather my children, I'm going to gather some Co workers.

Hey, we're going to be people of prayer.

We're going to let our incense go up to the Lord.

I love the scripture in Hebrews. It kind of puts all of this

together. Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to

enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, you understand

that now, right? I have confidence to go into

where the Lord is because of the blood of Jesus by a new and

living way opened for us through the curtain that is his body.

He's become the curtain, our covering.

And since we have a great priest over the House of God, that is

Jesus, let us draw near to God. This is prayer, drawing near to

God with a sincere heart and with full assurance that faith

brings. Having our hearts sprinkled to

cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies

washed with pure water. Let us hold unswerved to the

hope we profess for he who promised is faithful.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love

and good deeds. This is what I'm trying to do

today. I'm spurring you on to these

good deeds. Verse 25 not giving up meeting

together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging

one another on all the more as you see the capital D-Day

approaching, the day of the Lord, a day of His return.

Let us be prepared. Drawing near to him in faith,

covered in the blood of Jesus, praying unto Him, offering our

fragrance to Him. Paul says in Second Corinthians

that we are fragrance, A fragrant aroma pleasing to the

Lord. I just want to leave you today

with this thought, and it's going to be a little strange,

but this is what the Lord gave me.

When you wake up, you stink. You just got your body smell and

most people, not every people do something about that.

We have this thing called deodorant.

It's taking away the odor, deodoring you.

We have this stuff called Cologne Edu Toilette.

I don't even know what that means of the toilet.

Doesn't make any sense to me. If you're French, you could

probably explain it to me, but I don't want to know the truth

because I'd rather stay ignorant.

Perfume And then we go out into the world and if we put on the

perfume and the deodorant, the people around us like smells

nice. I I grabbed Ronnie, we would

give a hug and I got in his neck and I, well, that sounds weird.

I just was hugging him and my nose happened to be near his

neck. I'm like, man, you smell good.

He put on some stink. Think you know, you know where

I'm going with this. I wonder what we smell like to

the Lord. And trust me, however you smell

to the Lord is how you're going to smell to others when you pray

in the morning. It's like putting on the Cologne

of heaven, the perfume of the Lord God Almighty, the fragrance

going up to him and going out to others.

I'm wondering this morning, how do you smell?

We do breath checks. You know what I'm talking about?

Anyone, anyone. We do, we kind of do this

sometimes. You ever done those checks?

Anyone you ever picked up your shoe?

Like, oh, like, why do we do that?

When we do it, we, we need to check the smell of our spirit

and see if it smells like the fragrance of heaven or the stink

of the world. Because the world going to get

on you. It smells its odors.

And you can leave that there or you can pray and be doused in

the incense of the Kingdom of God.

This is our frankincense. How do you spell?

Last question, are you covered? Believers in Christ Jesus are

covered by the blood of Jesus. He is the final sacrifice that

upholds the covenant that God made with Abraham in the very

beginning. And when you believe on Jesus,

yes, you are set free from your sin, from the penalty of sin.

Very clear, which is death, spiritual death, but what's

greater is your set towards set free towards a life with God

that begins the moment you believe, begins the moment you

take on the blood of Jesus covered by him.

Now able to approach the throne of God with confidence and there

hang out with him, draw a life from him, make requests from him

and also listen to his request from us.

This happens when we're covered by the blood.

The Bible says that if you believe in your heart and

confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be

saved. You will be covered in the blood

of Jesus. If you've never done that, then

look at me closely. The reason God brought you here

today is because He wants to cover you in His love, Cover you

in the blood of Jesus so that you and He can have fellowship

together, perfect communion without the penalty or the power

of sin in your life because of His goodness and His love for

you. So if you've never done that,

today is your day. We're going to pray and give you

an opportunity right now to do that.

Would you bow your heads, close your eyes?

Father, thank you for the gift of Jesus.

Thank you that the curtain is torn, that the veil has been

lifted, that we can enter in to your holy presence because of

the blood of the Lamb. We rejoice in our salvation.

We rejoice in this covering, Thank God.

We recognize that there may be some here today who have yet to

make that step, and you've brought them here today to do

that. So Lord, till the soil, make

ready the hearts of those who are to believe by your goodness

and mercy. Whole church, would you pray out

loud as we do every Sunday saying Father in the name of

Jesus? I recognize that I am a Sinner

who is uncovered and I need a Savior who will cover me.

So I confess and I believe that Jesus is my Savior, that his

blood covers over my sin and gives me access to the Father.

Come and live your life through me, Jesus.

Thanks for joining us today. We hope God is speaking to your

heart through this message. If you'd like to connect with

us, you can text connect to 407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate

dot church. Have a great week.