270 ~ REKINDLED ~ FRAGRANT FAITH ~ PART 3

We welcome you to the VI Zion Sermon Podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess

our promise. We start a new sermon series

called Rekindled where we look closer at our own lives and ask

the Holy Spirit to revive and restore things that have gone

dormant in the dry seasons of our souls.

We pray that this series will help you dive deeper into

yourself and see where you need more of God.

A very warm welcome to our online service.

I am bringing the word today. It's Part 2 of what we looked at

last week. Last week we looked at a fertile

faith. We compared our lives to a

garden, just like King Solomon does in the Book of Songs of

Solomon. And we saw how the soil is is

responsible for the growth of a plant.

And we likened our soil to faith.

And the question we left you with was, is your soil fertile

or barren? Is your faith fertile?

Can supernatural things grow in your faith?

That was what we left you with. This week.

We're going to be looking at fragrant faith.

It's almost a part to it's a continuation of what we looked

at last week. If you're a millennial like me,

back in the 90s, there was this ad which used to come on TV

where this little boy used to be blindfolded or I think adults

were covering his eyes and he had to guess who it was.

And there was this one woman who covered his eyes.

And this little child in the advertisement would sniff and he

would say, oh, Auntie Sema or something to that effect.

Basically, because of her body odor, he was able to detect who

was actually behind him. And the the the ad would end

with her feeling really bad and then using that particular

deodorant. Jokes apart, the truth is that

even as believers in Jesus, we are known by the fragrance we

emit. I'm not talking about our body

odour or bad breath. I'm talking about the actual

spiritual odour that emanates of us that people catch a whiff of

in our everyday life. And I believe God is calling us

into a place of living with a fragrant faith, of faith that

attracts people to Jesus, that points people to Jesus.

I believe that before we even get into the fragrant part, you

know, the aroma that we bring, there are two things that

actually cause us to be a stench to God.

God forbid that we are a bad smell that he detests.

And there are only two things that the Bible mentions.

The first thing is our foolishness.

Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse one says dead flies make the

Ecclesiastes 10 · chapter mention

perfumer's ointment give off a stench.

So a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

A little folly, a little foolishness outweighs any amount

of wisdom and honor we have accumulated.

And that is something that gives off a stench.

It says the second thing that the Bible very clearly talks

about giving off a stench is our sins, our sinfulness.

Proverbs 13 verse 5 says the righteous hate what is false,

Proverbs 13:5

but the wicked make themselves a stench and bring shame on

themselves. Isaiah 65 verses 2 to 5 says All

Isaiah 65:2–5

day long I open my arms to a rebellious people, but they

follow their own evil parts and their own crooked schemes.

All day long they insult me to my face by worshipping idols in

their sacred gardens. They burn incense on Pagan

altars. At night they go out among the

graves worshipping the dead. They eat the flesh of pigs and

make stools with other forbidden fools.

Yet they say to each other, don't come too close or you will

define me. I am holier than you.

These people are a stench in my nostrils, an acrid smell that

never goes away. I pray that you and I would

never be a stench in the nostrils of God.

You know, sometimes when we read this we think, is God that

sensory? I believe he is.

When we look at the book of Genesis and the story of Noah,

after Noah comes out of the ark, it says he takes some of these

animals that were allowed to be used for the sacrifice and he

offers a burnt offering. And it said God smelt the

sacrifice of Noah and he was pleased with it, and therefore

he made this covenant which says never again will I destroy the

earth. The stench of our sins, the

stench of our foolishness distance us from God.

It also harms people. But I believe today God is

calling us to look again at Songs of Solomon to understand

the depth of where this fragrance of our faith comes

from. So I'm looking at Songs of

Solomon chapter 4 verses 12 to 16.

And then I'm going to be reading chapter 5 verse one.

It says a garden locked. Is my sister my bride a spring

locked, a fountain sealed. Your shoots are an orchard of

pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard, nard

and saffron, calamus and cinnamon with all trees of

frankincense, myrrh and aloes with all choice spices.

A garden found in a well of living water and flowing streams

from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind, and come OS

wind, blow upon my garden. Let its spices flow.

Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its choice as

fruits. I came to my garden, my sister,

my bride. I gathered my myrrh with my

spice. I ate my honeycomb with my

honey. I drank my wine with my milk.

What is King Solomon writing about?

He is talking about the the bride being likened to a garden.

And this garden is not ordinary. It's a fruit orchard.

It's also called spice trees. It's also got all these herbs

that could have medicinal purposes and other things.

So it's, it's a varied, a multi purpose garden, right?

It's beautiful. And what happens is the the

bride is actually inviting the the Spirit of God, who is

likened to a wind to come in there and ruffle things about so

that the spices, the smell of the spices, the smell of the

perfumes rise up and the beloved man, the beloved bridegroom can

smell it. We all know that the imagery is

very similar to Christ and his church.

Christ the bridegroom, we the church, the bride.

And I believe God is now today reminding us that the the

fruits. Of this, of the garden of our

life. The spices and the perfumes that

we, we carry in our lives are only emitted with the help of

the Holy Spirit coming in, having freedom to move around so

that, like it says, let its spices flow, right?

So this week when we look at fragrant faith, you may ask me,

why do I need a fragrant faith? Is it important?

Why can't my faith just be mine? It can be like the seed inside

my heart. I believe in Jesus.

I believe that he died and rose from the grave.

I believe that I have eternal life with him.

The Holy Spirit is with me. I believe all of this.

Why does it matter that I need? Why does it matter for me to

have fragrant faith? I believe there are three

reasons that we actually derive from this passage.

If you notice, there were three kinds of trees.

And I believe the first reason you and I need a fragrant faith

is that like incense, it'll bring delight to the Lord.

Many times we look at our journey of faith with Jesus and

you know, we, we have been taught and it's been ingrained

in us to do things for God to to, you know, bless the world.

But I think primarily we need to come to this place of going to

God and saying, Lord, am I bringing delight to you?

I know you love me. I know you already rejoice over

me, but God is my presence in your presence.

Bringing delight to you is the fact that I.

Turn to you above everything else.

Does that delight you? I want to read from Exodus

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

chapter 30 verses 7:00 to 9:00 to give you a background on the

incense. Every morning when Aaron

maintains the lamps, he must burn fragrant incense on the

altar, and each evening when he lights the lamps, he must again

burn incense in the Lord's presence.

This must be done from generation to generation.

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

offerings, grain offerings, or liquid offerings.

Now here's the thing, the rule that was given to the Levitical

praise by Moses from God was that they had to burn incense

twice a day, morning and night. And the thing about incenses, if

you ever lit incense sticks, we used to light incense sticks

outside in our garden because we had so many mosquitoes which

would eventually make it say it's way inside.

So we used to get these small little incense blocks and just

light it up so that it keeps the place insect free and the thing.

About it, when you light it, the smoke is so dense that it gets

on your clothes, it gets on your skin, you smell of incense.

The smoky smell stays on you, right?

And this is the thing about incense, the the incense leaves

you marked. When you have been in the

presence of incense, you are left changed.

And in the New Testament, what does incense actually mean?

Revelation chapter 5, verse 8 says.

Revelation 5:8

And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24

elders fell down before the lamp.

Each one had a harp, and they were holding golden balls full

of incense, which are the prayers of God's people.

Your prayer life will mark you like incense marked the priests.

If you find yourself more often than not in the presence of God,

praying, interceding, crying out to Him, when you leave the holy

place, when you leave the place where you have met with Him and

you go back to your regular work, people will smell it on

you. It will be a fragrance because

of the fact that you have come from the presence of God.

Many times we go into spaces, prayer less, leaving us

powerless. In turn.

We enter spaces, We speak out of our own knowledge.

We speak out of our own experience, without having the

wisdom of God, because we came there into that meeting, into

that encounter without prayer. But God is saying that like

incense, our prayers delight him.

It brings delight to him. He loves hearing his children

pray. He loves meeting.

Us when we pray. I think in today's day and age,

we have made it even more simple already.

The Christian faith has got it's, it's so easy for us, but

we have even further dumbed it down by saying, oh, you know, on

the go, just pray on the go. Do this, turn your worries into

prayers. But there is still a requirement

from us to turn to God and pray consistently.

Is it part of your life? Is it part it is?

Is it ingrained in you to sit in the presence of God and have a

dialogue with God? Not that I said dialogue.

It isn't a monologue. This is a relationship.

Many times it will require that you sit in his presence, You

speak to him, unload on him, absolutely, but wait to receive

from him, because that is what marks you.

That is what sets you apart. I was reading of the story of a

young girl called Marianne Adlard.

I don't know if you've heard of her.

A mighty woman of God because of one simple reason.

She was a young woman who was crippled, who was bedridden.

She lived in London. And her desire, she had heard,

and this is in the late 1800s, she had heard about this

evangelist called DL Moody. And she had believed that, you

know what? If DL Moody comes to my town, to

my church, a revival could break out.

Our church needs it. Our city needs it.

I'm going to pray. So Mary and Adler went on to

pray for weeks and months on end just because of the reports she

was hearing from America. Fast forward a couple of months

later, DL Moody actually is on his way to Ireland from America

for a sabbatical. He was exhausted.

He needed a break so he was travelling to Ireland.

He was stopping over in London when a local church pastor

reached out to him and said would you come and do a morning

and evening service for us? Would you lead us?

So although DL Moody was in the midst of a sabbatical, he

decided to honour him and said sure, I'll come.

So he went there in the morning. Morning service, he said there

were 100 people or so there, but the word didn't fall on

receiving years. Nobody was interested.

The crowd looked bored and DL Moody left that morning meeting

very discouraged. He said, God, what's going on?

No one received what I preached. There was no receptive heart in

the room. Do I really need to go back in

the evening? But he thought, you know what,

I've given my word to the pastor, let me go again he went

in the evening and this time something had shifted.

The entire congregation answered the altar call to receive Jesus

in. He couldn't believe it.

So what he did was he made all of them sit down and he preached

the gospel again to them and, and emphasized on repentance and

confession of sin and turning to God and living a changed life.

And again, when he gave the altar call, even more people

stood up. He couldn't believe it.

He made them sit down. He said, you know what, if

you're serious about following Jesus, I want you to come to

another room where me and the pastor will pray for you.

And so he finished the meeting, wrap it up, goes to the other

room. The other room is packed out

with all the people who had decided to make a commitment to

Jesus. Moody couldn't believe it.

He finished that meeting, went on to his break in Ireland, But

that moment never left him that evening, what happened never

left him. So he decided to investigate and

he dug around and he told God, Lord, I want to find out because

I believe someone was praying for me that day.

And turns out Marianne Adlord was the girl who had been

praying consistently for DL Moody to come into her town to

touch the, the land there, to speak to the people there.

And God had answered her prayer. When he heard about it, that

this young girl who was a cripple living in, in Hospice

had been praying for him, he was amazed because it didn't require

a whole prayer convention to get things moving.

One person, one person's prayer, a young girl, no kind of huge

pedigree in, in theology or any of that.

She just believed if I pray, I believe something will happen.

Our prayers mark us. They delight the Lord.

God loves it when we pray for these larger than life things.

Too many of us are restricting ourselves, just praying for our

health, our wealth, our strength.

But God is saying, will you ask me for big things because I'm a

big God? Ask me for the nations.

Ask me. Ask me for more than what you

think is possible. Pray those dangerous prayers

which says, Lord, your will be done, not mine.

Let your Kingdom come on earth. He's calling us that we would

pray and our prayer would be like incense.

You know, every prayer you pray is like incense.

Even those prayers where you pray for yourself are very

important. A prayerless life is a powerless

life. It's a life that is devoid of

enjoying this relationship with a God who is longing for his

people, longing for communion with his people.

So I would urge you, if even if you're thinking I'm just one

person, my prayers, what is it going to do?

I really believe that after you've heard this story that you

will be moved to pray. Pray for the big things, pray

for our country, pray for the injustices, pray for things,

because this moves the heart of God.

It moves his heart that someone would cry out for the least of

these. So that's the first thing, like

incense, A fragrant faith delights God.

The second thing is, like perfume, fragrant faith draws

others to Christ. There's this beautiful story in

the New Testament of this woman. In all probabilities she's Mary

of Bethany, the the sister of Martha and Lazarus who did this.

Beautiful thing for Jesus just before the Passover.

We're going to read it together. John chapter 12 verses one to

John 12 · chapter mention

three. Six days before the Passover,

Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had

raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus

honor. Martha served while Lazarus was

among those reclining at the table with him.

Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard and expensive perfume.

She poured it on Jesus's feet and wiped his feet with her

hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the

perfume. So this week I did this thing

where I actually picked up a bottle of Nard, you know, and I

found it on Amazon. I don't know how authentic the

flavour is, but there is something about this oil that is

so fragrant that even just opening it in a corner of a room

fills the whole house. That's the beauty of this.

It smells amazing, it's beautiful, but the thing about

it is it's a very expensive perfume and there were a bunch

of naysayers in that room. 1 was Judith who was helping himself

regularly from the Money Box, it says, and he actually said, why

did she waste this? This could have been used.

The money could have been used to feed the poor.

And Jesus then continues in Matthew, Jesus continues and

says Matthew 26 verses 12 to 13 says when she poured this

Matthew 26:12–13

perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.

So it was a very prophetic act. What Mary did, Mary of Bethany

did, was she poured it on his feet.

She wiped his hair, his feet with her hair.

Right. But you have to see this one

line from John which says the house was filled with the

fragrance of the perfume. Like I said, this beautiful

perfume, you just open it in one corner of the room, the whole

room begins to smell of it. And that's the beautiful thing

about a life of fragrant faith. It's like perfume.

It fills the room you're in. You could be the most

insignificant person in a room, but when you believe in Jesus,

when you live in a way that honours and pleases Him, your

fragrance will spread in rooms. But interestingly, it doesn't

stop in a room. When you look back at Matthew

Matthew 26:13

chapter 26, verse 13, it says, truly, I tell you, wherever this

gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done

will also be told in memory of her.

So not just did it remain in that room, the fragrance he's

predicting Jesus is prophesying that in the future, every time

the gospel is shared, this story of Mary will be shared.

And isn't it true? We talk about spikenard, we talk

about the alabaster job being broken.

We talk about extravagant worship.

She's the prototype. She's the OG worshipper.

She gave such an expensive gift for his feet to anoint him and

prepare him for what Rd. he was going to walk towards and I'm

wondering. Whether we live in such a way

that our faith fills the rooms we are in and whether that those

rooms will eventually emit those smells into the watching world.

It's so important to understand that our lives, the presence of

our faith or the absence of it can be either so fragrant that

it draws others to Jesus or it can be such a stench that it

pushes people away from God. How are you and I living?

How are you and I living? I was reading the story of this

believer in Jesus. His name is Sean Shipler, and he

was on a work trip. He was in one part of the US.

He was in a work trip and he was in a hotel and as he was going

to wrap up his trip and. Head.

Home, he saw those small bits of soap that I leftover after you

use it at a hotel, you know, the small bits of soap that I left

around and the and the, you know, shampoos and things.

And he looked at it and thought, I wonder what happens to these

bits of soap? Like, do they just get wasted?

Do they get thrown in a dump? What happens with it?

So that question moved him to start to research, and

eventually he started a nonprofit called Clean the

World. And what they do is basically

collect these kind of sanitary objects like soaps and it and

shampoos and, you know, lotions and other things.

They bring it, they sterilize them, they clean them up and

then repackage them and send them to third world nations

where people who have had no access to any kind of hygiene

products, any kind of soap or things that could actually

prevent preventable diseases now have access to them.

Africa and India and Southeast Asia and so many places are

recipient of this incredible non profit organization.

It started in a room in America where he decided what actually

happens to this. He asked the question.

He decided to become the answer. And that aroma reaches the ends

of the ends of the world. What are you and I doing with

what God has given us? Is our faith in Him so tangible

that it fills the rooms we walk into so important to think that?

We sometimes just are so caught up in holding ourselves together

that we forget this faith is to draw others to Jesus.

I can't be selfish about my faith in Jesus.

I cannot be selfish about what He has done for me.

It's time I get loud about it. So when you meet.

Someone tell them what? Jesus did for you the third

thing. The third thing, first thing was

that like incense, it delights the Lord.

Second thing was like perfume, it draws people to Jesus.

The third thing is it will distinguish you from others by

your fruit in that's you know, the the garden that Songs of

Solomon describes. There are a lot of fruit trees,

pomegranate and apples and all of that.

The fruit of our lives speak for us.

You can talk up a big game. You can.

You can say all these high sounding phrases.

You could have these little sayings that you come up with.

You could have Bible verses that you quote by wrote.

You could pray the most theologically sound prayers.

But if the fruit that you bear in your life is non existent or

bad fruit, that will speak way louder than any prayer you pray

or any theological discourse you give.

And it's so important to understand that a good tree

bears good fruit, a bad tree bears bad fruit.

Jesus talks about this in Matthew Chapter 7 verses 17 to

Matthew 7:17–20

20. He says likewise, every good

tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear

good fruit. Every tree that does not bear

good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Is it possible for those of us who are followers of Jesus to

have accepted him by salvation to begin to bear bad fruit?

Absolutely. If our roots are in the wrong

things, if our dependency is not on Christ alone, if I have

decided to move where the wind goes, to be pliant with culture,

my fruit will show it. It's very simple.

John 15 verse 8 says when you produce much fruit, you are my

John 15:8

true disciples. This brings great glory to my

Father. The fruit you bear brings glory

to God. What?

Are some of the fruits that a Christian ought to bear OK, a

few things. We know the fruit of the Spirit,

Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

In the book of Ephesians, Ephesians 5/8 to 11, it talks

about another kind of fruits, the fruit of light.

It talks about the fruitless deeds of darkness, but it talks

about being children of the light.

And this is what it says. For you were once darkness, but

now you are light in the Lord, live as children of light.

For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness,

righteousness, and truth. And find out what pleases the

Lord have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but

rather expose them. It's so interesting.

It says the fruit of the light consists of goodness,

righteousness, and truth. And so it's important to

understand that our fruit will distinguish us.

How you wait in traffic, whether you're patient or impatient and

railing at everyone around you distinguishes you.

How you cope with that difficult Co worker, it distinguishes you.

Whether you respond to gossip by gossiping and slandering, or

whether you quieten down and move away, distinguishes you.

Every little thing we do and say will either separate us from the

crowd or put a smack dab in the middle, and a fruit will either

make us stand out or make us fit in.

And God is calling us to be people who are bearing good

fruit, fruit that others will enjoy and long to be around.

And eventually that fragrance, like perfume, will draw them to

Jesus. These are so interconnected.

These three things that I'm talking about, the incense, the

perfume, the fruit are so interconnected because when

people taste of our fruit, they begin to come closer.

They start to smell the fragrance of Jesus.

They, they're drawn to Jesus. And then when we begin to invite

them into our prayer lives, when we begin to pray for them and

things start to happen, it's like sweet incense that's going

up. It's delighting God.

God moves and it's this beautiful cyclical thing which

is constantly happening in our lives.

Hopefully, and I believe that God is calling us today to make

this commitment between him and me, between him and you to be

the aroma of Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 14

2 Corinthians 2:14–16

to 16 it says but thank God. He has made us His captives and

continues to lead us along in Christ's triumphal procession.

Now He uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere

like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ like

fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived

differently by those who are being saved and by those who are

perishing. To those who are perishing we

are a dreadful smell of death and doom, but to those who are

being saved we are a life giving perfume.

And who is adequate for such a task as this?

I want us to look at this one portion first.

It says, thank God He has made us his captives.

My question is, there has to be a condition for this fragrance

to be emitted from us, correct? There are two conditions to

which your faith becomes fragrant.

And before we get in, I want to ask you if you're ready for

these conditions because it is based on whether you accept this

condition or not that you either are a fragrance or you're a

stench. The first thing is condition 1

is in order for you to be the aroma of Christ, you have to be

captive to Him first. We preach up so much about the

freedom we have in Christ that we sometimes forget we are now

captives of Christ, meaning we're committed, holy, devoted

all in to Jesus. It's not by shackles, it's by

love that we are bound to Him. And it's a beautiful kind of

binding which happens. The problem is most of us have a

divided loyalty to Jesus. It's like Jesus plus things.

Jesus plus those networks, those connections, those friendships,

those relationships. Jesus plus that substance.

Jesus plus entertainment. But God is calling me to this

place of saying. If I if you are to emit this

beautiful aroma that draws people to me and to eternal

life, then you need to first of all be captive.

To me, this is a hard message to preach, and I'm sure it's a hard

message to receive because we have been taught in the times we

live in that inclusivity is everything, Anything goes.

We have created words and jargons like social drinking.

Drinking is drinking. Whether you do it socially or

not is drinking. And the Bible is very clear

about consuming alcohol. It says it leads to debauchery.

Read the book of Ephesians. We are giving.

Ourselves allowances diminishing our sin and saying that you know

what I love Jesus, I, I, you know, I'm all in and all of

this. But there is this conditional

attachment in our life, something that has been attached

wherein we are not captives of Jesus.

We are captives to the things of the world.

We are mistaken. God is calling us back into a

love, a binding relationship of love with Him.

When this, when you look at the imagery, it's basically like in

those, if you watch the movie Gladiator, you know how the

gladiators are paraded in this procession for the people to see

them behind their captors. But here Jesus is the one who's

leading us. He's going ahead of us and it's

a victorious procession because he won over sin and death.

And here we are walking behind him as devoted disciples,

followers of Jesus. We are all in.

Till the death. We till death, we are following

Him. We have not turned our back.

We keep going where he leads us. But the point is that many of us

are captive to other things, and therefore this loyalty is so

conditional. It feels unreal.

Sometimes it feels like, you know what?

You're so caught between these two spaces when you look at the

priesthood, right? When we looked at all that was

happening in the wilderness, the priesthood were being set apart.

And it was very clear they were completely consecrated for God.

In fact, they had a tablet here that says holy to God.

It basically meant they were set apart.

They were all in for God for his service.

And I wonder whether you and I are completely captive to Jesus

or is it Jesus plus an addiction?

You just cannot do without that vape.

You just cannot do with that one glass of wine or alcohol just to

get you through that hard conversation.

You're not able to get past, get into a night's sleep without

watching that one pornographic video.

You can't get through a day without that one act which

you're ashamed of, which you keep relegated to a private part

of your life. Maybe it's Jesus plus

entertainment. You know, we're a generation

that needs entertainment. We need to be entertained all

the time. You look at little kids when

they're being fed their lunches, they need a tablet in front of

them and we are no different. Let's not judge those little

kids. We are no different.

When we watch TV. We we are doing multiple things,

but we want to be entertained from every sensory direction.

And sometimes we look at Jesus letter and say, well he's not so

entertaining. I need Jesus plus there's a

constant entertainment. I need the the jarring of my

phone, I need Netflix, I need Amazon Prime.

I need all of it plus Jesus. I'm not, I'm not a captive

audience to the audience of one I'm I'm captive to so many other

things. Maybe it's Jesus plus a

significant other, that one relationship, that toxic

dependency, because certain relationships can hold us

captive. They can hold us completely

committed to them that there's little or no energy left.

Or pursuing a relationship with Jesus.

Maybe it's Jesus plus things. We live in a time when

everything is just a click away. Zepto swiggy blanket.

I need it. I don't need it, I can still get

it to me. Accumulation of things we are

becoming borders on another level.

And maybe we're so captive to consumption that we're just

unable to pour out anymore. I would ask that you would

relook at the deepest parts of yourself.

Examine Where is my captivity? Am IA captive to Jesus?

Am I bound by love for Him? Or am I captive to the things of

the world? That's the first.

Condition. The second condition we're going

to look at Exodus chapter 30, verses 22 to 38, it's talking

Exodus 30:22–38

about the anointing oil. Then the Lord said to Moses,

take the following fine spices, 500 shekels of liquid mule, half

as much, that is 250 shekels of fragrance, cinnamon, and then

calamus cassia, all according to the sanctuary.

Shekel and a hen of olive oil. Make these into a sacred

anointing oil of fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer.

It will be a sacred anointing oil.

Then use it to anoint the tent of Meeting, the Ark of the

Covenant, the table, its articles, the lampstand and its

accessories, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt

offering, its utensils, and the basin with its stand.

You shall consecrate them so they will be most holy, and

whatever touches them will be holy.

Anoint Aaron and his sons, consecrate them so they may

serve me as priests say to the Israelites.

This is to be my sacred anointing oil for the

generations to come. Do not pour it on anyone else's

body, and do not make any other oil using the same formula.

It is sacred, and you are to consider it's sacred whoever

makes perfume like it and puts it on anyone.

Other than a priest must be cut off from their people.

This anointing oil like what I just showed you of this gnard.

This anointing oil was made of more and cinnamon and calamus

and cassia mixed with a bit of olive oil.

It sounds like they were probably just fried together and

mixed with olive oil. No, it was.

It was made by a huge process of pressing and crushing.

Spices were crushed. They were pressed down.

All the juices from within them had to be withdrawn.

And that happened because of crushing.

And I wonder if the second condition, if the first

condition was not hard to stomach, the second one will be

harder because the second condition for having a fragrant

faith is a willingness to be crushed.

The first one is willingness to be captive to Jesus.

The second one is a willingness to be crushed.

Every single spice tree that was in the, the, you know, the songs

of Solomon garden, every one of them are used in different

things in in earlier, the earlier book of Exodus, we see

that all of them are used to create, you know, anointing,

oil, perfuming, all of that. All of them are produced by

crushing. You don't get the best aromas by

just leaving them be. They have to be crushed.

They have to be rolled on. Leaves, roots, bark, all kinds

of things are crushed to get that beautiful flavour out.

Why is our life any different? Our life isn't any different.

It is through the crushing that the Holy Spirit brings about

this beautiful fragrance. A fragrance that draws people to

Jesus. It may not draw people to you,

and that's OK, but it will draw people to Jesus.

It could be that you've experienced already a crushing

in your marriage. It could be a crushing in your

parenting, in your children. It could be a crushing on you in

your health, in your work life. Wherever the crushing happened,

if you notice, there'll be an aroma.

Had you allowed the Holy Spirit to work in that situation, there

would be an aroma that emanates from that.

And this is the interesting thing about the fragrance.

The fragrance of faith will set you apart, consecrate you will

literally kind of bring you outside of the, the madding

crowd, right? The priest in the, in the

Levitical order basically would be completely dressed in his

priestly garb. And the beautiful thing was

Bezalil had created this beautiful outfit for Aaron and

his sons. But when Moses anointed them, he

didn't look at, you know, oh gosh, the, the white tunic's

going to get spoiled and it's going to, you know, all the

beautiful intricate stitching is going to get soaked in oil.

None of that. He took the anointing oil,

poured it on Aaron and his sons. He poured it on Aaron the high

priest, and it dripped off his head.

It came onto his tunic and rolled down him so.

Every time Aaron and his sons were serving, they would smell

of this beautiful anointing oil. And even when they removed their

clothes, got into regular clothes and went back to their

tents, they would still carry the aroma because it had flown

down from their heads onto their beards and everything else.

So they would carry the aroma on them.

And these men also stood before these altars that alter the most

holy of holies, and he they would offer incense, so they

would carry the smoky smell on their hair, on their bodies, and

on the edge of their. Robes where these tassels with.

Pomegranates, you know. Pomegranates are symbolic of the

fruitfulness of our lives, and I can't help but think that we are

no different. The new priesthood according to

Peter and one Peter, he talks about you are a chosen

priesthood, a royal generation of people chosen by God to show

others the marvellous deeds that God has done and taking you from

the Kingdom of darkness and putting you in the Kingdom of

light. And it's beautiful because we

are no different. The anointing that has come out

out of the Holy Spirit's work on us is precious.

It has come through crushing and it will set you apart.

The the perfume of God is on you.

The the aroma of your prayers reaching heaven and God

answering it will be on you and that will speak to others.

It will show them just how much delight your God finds in you.

And it's beautiful because your fruitfulness will speak many

times for you. You don't have to speak about

your worth in a room. Your fruit will speak for you.

But the thing about this is you have to understand there's a

second part of that passage which says to those who are

perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom.

But to those who are being saved, we are a life giving

perfume. And who is adequate for such a

task as this? It's so interesting.

It says over there to those who are perishing.

To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death

and doom. I want to ask you for all the

people pleasers like me who are watching this, how ready are you

to be a stench to people because you're choosing to be a

fragrance unto God? Or are you so desperate to fit

in that no longer do you have a discernible flavour about you

when you live to please God? It's possible that you're not

everyone's flavour. Not everyone likes you not.

And you might think they just don't like my face.

Well, maybe it's because you carry Jesus.

Maybe it's because of the way you live your life.

Maybe because of the things you say no to that you're a stench

to some. Maybe it's because you had

chosen to live in a certain way that honours God but doesn't

really bless people. It doesn't really help people

because you're no longer part of the crowd.

You could become a stench. I'm not talking about you being

a stench because of your foolishness or your injustice.

No, I'm talking about you being a stench to people because when

you are found in Christ, like those priests, you are

different. You are consecrated.

You live differently. My question to you as we end is,

do people smell devotion to Jesus on you?

Do they smell your surrender to the living God?

Or do you smell like everyone else in the crowd because of

culture, because of the trending things?

Are you just so desperate to fit in that you don't smell of

anything different? My question to you is, do you

reek of compromise and foolishness?

Do you stink of unconfessing? Do you have the odor of hidden

vices? Maybe it's time that you allow

the Holy Spirit to come into the garden of your life and to start

to do His work so that the stench leaves and the aroma

starts to waft up. Can we just pray?

Even as we pray together, I want you to look closer at yourself

that you would say, God, I'm ready to be crushed.

By you. I'm ready to be captive to you

alone. Some of you have been going

through situations in your life which you've been attributing to

just bad luck. You've been saying, well, it's

just not a good timing. But maybe, just maybe, it's an

unwillingness to be wholly captive to Jesus.

Maybe you've just been captive to so many things that God is

getting your attention right, and He desires that you would

come to Him, that you would turn to Him.

You know, when we bring our prayer before Him like incense,

it's showing Him that I'm completely dependent on Him.

I don't have a Plan B. And it delights Him.

And so, Father, I just pray for those of us here who are

longing. For a touch from you who are

longing to emit a fragrant faith.

A faith that is so fragrant that it delights you when you.

Smell it of us. We pray, O God, that our prayers

will reach you now. We pray that every barrier to

our prayers will break. I pray that Lord, people will

begin to confess and repent of sins so that barriers are

lifted, blocks are removed, and that, Lord, every prayer will be

heard. Father, I pray right now for

those who are longing to draw others to Christ.

I pray, O Father, that you would make their lives like a sweet

perfume, that Lord, like Mary, they will take those small steps

to just bring your aroma into rooms.

And I believe, oh God, that you will breathe a flesh upon it,

taking the aroma to the rest of the world.

Father, I pray for those who have been struggling in the area

of bearing fruit. I pray today they would stop

striving and they would make room for the Holy Spirit to

bring about the fruit in their lives.

We pray, O Lord, that You would address areas of their life that

need a dressing. I pray you would make them

receptive, open their eyes, open their ears, open their hearts.

God, I pray for areas in which we have compromised, in which we

have chosen to live like the world, where we have refused to

be captive to You, Father, we pray that you would draw us back

gently in love. We are open, O God, to You,

crushing the parts of our life that bring the greatest

fragrance to You. We're open to you using us as

you see fit. Phyllis.

Phyllis, I pray for those who are struggling with hidden sins,

who are struggling with guilt and shame.

Father, I pray they will lay it down at the altar today and

that, Lord, they will receive a fresh spirit.

They will receive a fresh heart. Stony hearts will be replaced by

fleshy hearts which can actually receive from their maker.

We pray that Lord, when they walk into rooms, people will

know they are different. Give them the courage to say no

to the things that you desire them to say no to.

Help them to say yes to you again and again.

In Jesus name I pray, Amen. Amen.

God bless you. I pray that you have the most

fragrant faith that many are drawn to Jesus through.

You, God bless you. Thanks for listening to this

message. We hope you were blessed to hear

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