What's That Scent?

Title: "What's That Scent? | Pastor Joel Mason (Sunday Service)" URL: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddCfWV9I8lI" Transcript: "(00:01) Okay, I'm going to interrupt conversations. I'm glad you're here and I love hearing the conversations, but we're going to push further into God's word this morning. That's why we're here. So, I'm going to start with a question and we're going to see if we can maybe help answer it in the process of our time uh this morning. (00:26) And that question is uh actually probably end up asking several here, but start with this one. What are your expectations when you come to church? So, I mean, it's kind of like not just the why, but I'm hoping you're coming with some expectation. Now I asked that question because um there's been a number of studies done and uh if we look at the church and how the church functions there has been a real personal opinion right here real struggle for uh followers of Christ to really understand what the church is about because of the fact that we come with uh preconceived expectations. we (01:04) have what we desire to see to get out of church. And too often our expectation of the church is that it meet a particular need that we've identified in our lives. So I'm feeling anxious. I'm feeling stressed. I'm feeling depressed. I'm concerned about X, Y, or Z. I see this happening in our culture. (01:33) We we have our things that determine therefore what we think the church should do for us as we are involved in church. So maybe that's never been your way of thinking. Praise God. Good job. Now reality is I'm going to assume that most of us don't realize it, but we start to slide into that. And this is where I was going. The studies have shown that Christians tend to there's kind of an arc to uh the Christian faith and it's a it's an arc that concerns me greatly. (02:03) Um we should be those who hunger and thirst for righteousness pursuit of Jesus on a continuous basis. It is not something that should be peaked high when I first realized my need for a relationship with God. And then it's then we slowly and this is what happens. We transform it into I have a relationship with God now. (02:24) Um I kind of going to add what the church can give me to that. It doesn't work that way. It's never intended to work that way. And so I want to walk through maybe you're far from that. Listen as we go through this and consider what is church for you? What what are you why do you come to church? Why are you there? And I hope the first reason you're going to say is because I have a relationship with Jesus and I know that I need to be further uh connected and growing deeper in that relationship. Absolutely. That's where we want to go. I am concerned as your (02:58) pastor that often times we will slide into um meeting an obligation or trying to get something out of it. Did you know that most church growth that takes place takes place by transfer growth? So, and that concerns me. Now, right now, what's great going on, there is a uh if you whatever term you want to put on it, there is a resurgence to uh church attendance that's starting to take place. It's it's growing. We can see that happening. There are a number of factors that have led to that. (03:29) I am very excited about that. It's good for uh for our country to get to that point. Okay. But those of us who have had a relationship with Jesus for any length of time, I want us to break down what it is we're supposed to be um drawing from that relationship and how it's supposed to be transforming us. (03:51) I think Renee earlier mentioned that our our purpose statement as a church is people accepted, lives change, change lives engaged to impact their community. There is a process of growth that needs to continually be taking place and we never arrive. We're never fully there. We should never be satisfied. (04:11) There is always an area that I need to be growing in. There's always a way that I can be further engaged uh in God's use of my life to worship him. We have been going through in our our series here in life unlocked. Um right now the section that we in we looked at our foundational beliefs of the of Christianity. (04:29) Now we are looking really at what would be called um kind of basic uh disciplehip. the the uh points of growth that we need to focus on and how we can help ourselves grow. Hopefully that is making sense to you. We started with the concept that we need to be living a life of worship. (04:50) If we have come to a relationship with Jesus, then we need to be um fully expressing our lives in worship to God. And that's kind of the foundational element of a walk uh with God and a relationship with him is to give worship back to him. I was reading something this morning. It made me think along the lines of what we're going to talk about today. (05:10) Um that the one thing in the Bible that God never shares, you know what that is? It's his glory. He ex He didn't give that to anybody. And so he calls people to come in humility before him to worship him to give him recognition of his glory. It's not because God's conceited. It's because God is who he is. He's holy. (05:37) He's perfect. He is just and loving and merciful and gracious. We could go through all the aspects of who God is. And there is a need for us within us to work give back to God the recognition of really truly who he is. I'm going to say a couple things here that maybe you can come and argue with me later if you want to. That's great. (06:00) Even as f those who come to a point where they submit their lives to following Jesus, I think oftentimes we're more spending more trying to make Jesus look like us than to transform our lives to look like Jesus. And I want you to think about that for a minute. I honestly see it. I can struggle with it in my own life. I want to be more comfortable enough. (06:25) So I try to take what uh the points of of what God says about himself and those that make me feel uncomfortable or draw out uh the uh weakness within me. I often will try to um reframe it, restate it so that it doesn't create a sense of angst within me. And so I'm in a more than a walk with Jesus that is surrendering more me more and more as God tells us in the book of Romans to look like Jesus. (06:51) That's his desire for us. We are spending our effort and time to make Jesus um something that I'm more comfortable with and hasn't fully transformed me where I'm okay with who I am and it won't I won't stand out too much. I I won't there won't be too much required of me. (07:17) I can kind of just go through life picking and choosing what God uh God's involvement in my life, what effect it will have on me. Now, maybe you're feeling I'm being too harsh. That and that's really being critical. I'm not trying to be negative at all this morning. I want to be honest. I want us to really evaluate our own selves. (07:34) So, when I ask you what are your, you know, what do you um your expectations when you come to church, too often our expectations are based on what we desire rather than what how God has revealed himself. And a follower of Jesus, and Jesus was real clear about this, we talked about it last week. He calls surrender. We talked about the week before that we are called to be single-minded in our pursuit of Christ. (07:58) So if we are single-minded and fully surrendered, it isn't my life. Like as it tells us in Romans 12 uh 1 and 2, we're we're living sacrifice. We give up our life because we really are dead without Christ. We are a dead sacrifice that comes alive in him to live according to what he desires so that he is glorified in everything that I do. (08:24) So as we talked about worship is in my life. We've got to be honest whether we are truly worshiping Jesus or we're simply naming him from time to time. Um I'll tell you a real simple way. I was thinking about this recently because of a couple of things that transpired at our house. We will pray before every meal. My guess is maybe your house is the same. I don't know. (08:50) And I was thinking about how um routine that becomes and how we mention surface things and it becomes just an expression of something that we do rather than a moment where we throughout our day coming back and God you've sustained me. You provide this life is yours. (09:16) You're giving me breath and a body that can process what I'm about to eat. I want to stop and just give you praise for a time. Let the food get cold. You see, we we are called to worship God. And that means that in everything that I do, there should be an attitude and an element of recognition and surrender to the sovereignty of God, the graciousness of God. (09:42) He should overwhelm us so that when I'm even praying for the food that hey I bought it, my wife cooked it. Well, maybe I cooked it once or twice. Um, you know, we go through the process of this, we become numb to the concept of truly worshiping God and then we take that mindset. The reason I go to that is oftentimes that's our perspective on church. (10:08) It's just the routine. You know, Jesus had a real struggle with that uh in his earthly ministry in that the religious leaders were those who were called to and given the responsibility to draw people to God in the nation of Israel. But what had they done? They had saw an opportunity to benefit themselves and they turned it into a process of keeping people from God in his name. (10:42) Seems a little odd, doesn't it? But man, there's money that can be made there. There's power that can be had. We can control these people. And then we can sell that control to the Romans. And the Romans are glad to allow us to make money off of that because we're keeping the people under control. In fact, we don't even have to know God. (11:04) We just talk about him and we put together a system that keeps people in line. See, I don't want our church to be that. I don't want to be a place where we're just giving you a routine. You're going to hear that's why we talk about the Bible's the foundation of everything that we do because we desire in every element of being a church to keep God at the center and to glorify him. (11:34) Let me do a little review with you that maybe we can develop this a little bit further. Back in the Garden of Eden, and I'm going to tell you things that I know you're familiar with, so we'll go through it fairly quickly. Garden of Eden, why did God create humanity? Because he wanted to have a relationship with them. He wanted a being that he created to know and be able to to interact with him and worship him, to have the blessing of his presence in their life. (12:06) And in that process, what did we do? We rebelled. We rejected God. We rejected the relationship. And as we've been talking, as we've gone through this series, we were born uh created in the image of God, but born into the image of Adam. And we carry sin with us. And so we that part an aspect of that sin is and by its very nature is a separation from God. there's no relationship. (12:30) But God made his promise clear back in the garden. I'm going to restore that relationship. I want to be at the heart of everything that you do. I want your life centered around me. I want you to know the joy, power, and and overwhelming nature of my existence in your life. And he kept promising it. He kept revealing it till he heard the cry of people that he had called Abraham out, right, to follow him. And out of Abraham came the nation of Israel. And the nation of Israel found themselves in captivity. And he (13:03) called them out. And he said to them, "I am going to be your God." Now remember, they had had a foundation and a history uh that came from Adam or Abraham's faith in God. Yet by the time they were captives in Isra or in Egypt, and by the time they came out, they didn't know God. And so they had to relearn what it was to have any form of relationship with the living true God. (13:33) They had been surrounded by all kinds of idols and false gods, but they needed to know what it was to have a relationship with the true living God. And so God began to talk to them about through Moses, began to lay out for them, this is how you're going to have a relationship with me. I am going to I God, the one who can uh destroy you by my very presence instead will allow my presence to be the source of your life. I'm going to set up and dwell right in your midst. (13:58) And he goes, "What I need you to do, and you're going to have to follow this to the to the exact letter. You're going to set up a tabernacle in the middle of the your people, and you're going to make it this way, and you're going to adorn it with this, and you I am going to bring my presence down to dwell in there, but there will be a curtain between me and the rest of that tent. (14:22) My presence will be there, and that's as close as you can get to me, but I will be in the center." And here's the other thing he told them. He didn't tell them to put the tabernacle which at the time when the people were wandering desert was a very large tent that got erected every time that they stopped. He told them that the tabernacle must dwell in the center of the people. (14:43) Why was God afraid he might get hurt? No. There was a reason for it. God wanted the people every day when they got up that in the center of the camp was either a cloud that represented his presence in the tent or at night a fire that was dwelling over it. They could see God in the center of their midst. They knew he was there. Why is that important? Well, go back and read your Old Testament because people aren't very smart and we descended from them. (15:09) So, you know, figure it out from there. But the reality is, we can know that God exists. We can know that God has said he sets up a tent and dwells in in our midst. But I'll guarantee you, if he was not very specific about how they needed to be remembering, constantly remembering his presence, they would have left God back when they when they left Egypt. (15:34) In fact, uh, let me ask you this. Didn't they want to leave God? Their whining was, "Why'd you bring us out here? We had everything we wanted back in Egypt. The reality is we abandon God at the drop of a hat. Nobody wears hats anymore. Drop of your phone. We we forget God and abandon God in a heartbeat. No matter how good he is to us. (16:00) Why does that happen? Because we don't see him fully for who he is and surrender to it. Those we have the picture in the Bible. Those that surrender to the character of God are those who know God. Those who give lip service to God never can understand why his power isn't seen in their lives. What was unique about David? Remember it tells us about David, King David in Israel. (16:32) He was a man after God's own heart. Why? What was different? I'm going to take you back. See if you know your history here. difference between David and Saul. Both of them, Saul was the first king. David was anointed to become the next king. Why was it that David was anointed? And why was the blessing of God removed from Saul and put on David? Because Saul sought glory for himself. (16:59) David, look at it. Look at his writings. Look at his life. Yeah, he screwed up several times. But he recognized and bowed again before the glory of God. He never tried to take from God what was only God's. And that's why God refers to him as one who has a heart after God. (17:23) Because he recognizes the difference between himself and the God who leads him as a shepherd. Even in the dark valleys, sets up table in front of his enemies. God walks with him. God walks with the humble. God walks with those who don't desire for themselves what belongs to him, but instead ask of him what he desires from them. You know, I sometimes think we can talk about this. We can know this. We'll say, "Yeah, okay. Okay, you're telling me I need to be humble. (17:59) Okay, I need to I need to just No, I'm I'm actually telling you, have you ever bowed before God and said, "Forgive me for my arrogance." Have you ever asked God to just simply uh allow you to know and to be satisfied that he is there? Oftentimes, I think many of us, especially in the way life goes today, will ask God for some form of peace. (18:26) Something's out of control. Something's beyond our grasp. Something is affecting me. And we will say, "God, please lift this from me. Take it away from me. God, remove this. I need a sense of your peace." Do you know how the Bible describes peace? It doesn't describe peace as the absence of chaos or your problems. (18:51) Peace is the presence of God in the pages of scripture. Do you see why this becomes so important? Absolute peace in life is the presence of God. Have you ever prayed in the midst of the overwhelming when anxiety is rising and you just don't think you can take anymore? God, I don't know where you're where I have missed your presence. (19:19) Forgive me, but let me know you are here. That's the prayer that defeats everything. If you want to learn how to pray, start with the presence of God. You will move mountains. Not just the pitily little problems that you face. And I say that respectfully because nothing compares to the presence of God. Darkness runs when God is present. (19:58) Evil cowers when God is present. The strong fall in fear before God. You see, God has to be at the center of our lives. And sometimes we need a reminder of how that works, don't we? Well, there's key number one of why the church is so important. It's not a place where you learn the rituals or you gain brownie points. (20:34) Hate to tell you this, there's no uh bonus points earned today for being here. We don't earn merit with God. Never have, never could, never will. We simply get the blessing of his presence when we submit to him. So we have the Israelites with the tabernacle in the center of their community. And we move now further down because that was part of God's promise. (21:07) He was going to restore his relationship with humanity. And Israel was going to serve as the example of what that was going to be. But Israel kept struggling with that, didn't they? Well, we get in down through history a little bit further and suddenly Jesus appears on the scene. And as we know, the word became flesh. And what did he do? He set up his tent among us. (21:28) And so in Jesus arrival in flesh, God, creator of all things, sustainer of all things, the one who has uh thought into existence the world he's stepping into now bears flesh. Why? Well, there's many several reasons, but one of them is and the critical one I want to look at today is the fact that he was making his presence central to our existence. (21:59) Real cool thing happened. Say this carefully. When Jesus hung on the cross in the temple, just like the tabernacle, there was a curtain that separated the presence of God from the rest of the court of the temple. (22:22) And as if you were familiar with the temple, there were layers of the courts of who could approach and and what and when and so forth. But within that temple, there was the uh holy of holies separated off by a curtain just like it was in the tabernacle before as God had commanded them. What happened when Jesus gave up his last breath? That curtain was torn top to bottom. You know, that caused fear. Historians tell us that there's several things very fascinating with that, but it caused fear because now what did that mean? That that uh the Holy of Holies had been uh there was no separation anymore. (23:04) Panic and scramble. Got to take care of it. But what was missed was that God was no longer in the building. He didn't need a building to contain his presence among people. What had he done differently? When Christ died, when our sins were forgiven, God was declaring he was taking up new residence. (23:33) And jump ahead here just a little bit and and um verse 27:E 50, Matthew 27, it says this, "And Jesus shouted again. He's hanging on the cross and he released his spirit. And at that moment, the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Now said he's taking up new residence. We jump into the book of Acts. (23:51) We've just done a study all the way through the book. This should sound familiar to you. In chapter 2, what do we read? When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. They, who was it? Followers of Jesus. The whole 120 of them gathered and they were obeying what Jesus had said. I need you to wait in Jerusalem till my comes upon you. (24:14) Suddenly, a sound like a blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed like tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them. (24:32) When we were in the book of Acts, we went more in depth than this, but I I will remind you of what we discussed. The imagery that it takes place there. First, there's a wind that rushes through that house, and then there was tongues of fire that came down and split and came over each person. (24:50) The significance of that for the for those who were sitting there in that room and for the readers of of the gospel or of Acts there that Luke writes for us is is extremely significant. It's it's a major event. I take you back to the tabernacle. What happened when God descended on the tabernacle after the people had done what he had said? The last thing he said to them was set up the curtain that will separate my presence from every everyone else. (25:17) That was the last thing that happened in the tabernacle. Then God descended. A great wind blew and a cloud descended and it filled the presence of that tabernacle. And fire was seen then by night and God's presence was known to be there. What happened when Solomon dedicated the temple again? They were worshiping God in before the completed temple and suddenly a great wind blew and fire descended upon the temple and God's presence now filled that place. (25:53) What happened when these believers, the followers of Jesus, a great wind blew through the wind, a wind blew through the house. The presence of God was there and then the fire was seen. They could see his presence over them and he was declaring I now dwell in those who follow my son. This was the formation of the church. Sometimes I think we take church to be about where we come to on Sunday in a building. (26:29) Now God, hear me carefully. God didn't descend upon this building in a cloud and a great wind and fire. Even when we prayed be and dedicated this building to him when we were blessed with it, never saw fire here. But I know where God has descended. He's descended into each life of every person. (26:52) He dwells in them if they've committed their life to Christ. How valuable is the church? I think if I look at it from the perspective of what we've talked about to this point, I don't think we can put a value measure on it, can we? It's the dwelling place of God. It's where he exists and chooses to dwell. But again, not in a building. (27:20) The church became what what we read there in Acts. It's an eklesia. It is a word that literally means a gathering. God is in the gathering and in the individuals that make up that gathering. Sometimes I believe that we well maybe I I question do I believe I'm going to experience the presence of God when I gather with other believers and the answer I can give it to you is this the answer would be no if I don't believe that God resides in my own life so if I'm hoping to meet it when I come with other Christians then I got to start with me do I believe that God (28:03) resides in my life. Is he the source of my existence? Is he the one who gives presence in my life to overcome anything and everything and have a purpose purpose in the midst of it? When life is extremely difficult and disappointing, will the presence of God overcome? When you've had the greatest greatest victory and the and greatest accomplishment and you're feeling really good about yourself, is it the presence of God that will lead you to worship? You see, I there's several thoughts that come into my mind as we're talking about this (28:44) morning, but I go to the book of James in my mind and I think about the fact that James was the one that said, you know, count it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you are encounting encountering difficulty, you see the only reason there's joy in the difficulty is because the the presence of God is there, Right? I hope you know that that doesn't James not saying go out and see how miserable you can make your life and then figure out a way to rejoice in it. (29:16) It's not the misery that gives joy. It's the God who's in there when the misery comes. And it it's like you're walking in the presence of God. Things can be very very difficult. And he was writing he James was writing to people that actually understood suffering. Can you imagine being a follower of Jesus and you have a home in Rome and one day the emperor just says, "Go. Get out of here. Either go or die. (29:41) It's your choice. We're going to give you a day to figure out what you're going to do." Okay, that was life for them. We looked at that when we were in the book of Acts. We we our discomfort comes when I have to go get a new phone because my phone's just not acting right. Oh, hate that thing. We have got to be so focused on the absolute amazing truth of the presence of God that no matter how good or how difficult life becomes, I'm finding joy in the presence of God. (30:24) Why is that? Not that we have a polyiana attitude. It's so that we truly begin to live. Life is in the presence of the lifegiver. And he wants us to understand sometimes the best of life can be found when things are hardest. If I'm walking with God, I don't wish that on myself or on you. However, I do wish the presence of God on you. So that each of our lives is significantly impacted by the reality that God has taken up residence in our in the midst of our lives. (31:02) Now here's my question in your life. Be honest with yourself. God from the beginning has said that he wants to be at the center of our existence. Talked about he put the tabernacle in the middle. The temple was built at the highest point so it was seen seen from miles. Did you know that you would approach Jerusalem in those days and the and the uh the bronze doors of the temple would reflect the light as it hit on angles and it would radiate out into the city and it would be seen any road coming in to Jerusalem. Why? Because God dwells with his people. (31:43) Does God's light radiate off of you? It should radiate off of me. His presence should be known. Jesus said, "We're a light on or sitting on a hill, right? We're supposed to be those who reflect his glory out into the presence of the world. (32:10) " Now, I've been talking more of kind of like the individual element of church, but let's turn it to the to the uh mindset of the church itself. And we go further into Acts 2, and I know you're probably very familiar with this, but it says in verse 42 to 47, all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and the sharing of meals, including the Lord's supper, and to prayer. (32:33) A deep sense of awe came over them all. And the apostles performed many miracle miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. (32:53) They worshiped together in the temple each day, met in homes uh for the Lord's supper and shared their meals with great joy and generosity. All the while praising God, enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. I have a question. (33:10) Do you think if you and I were able to go back in time and find ourselves seated in the midst of this uh new entity we now call the church and we're watching what they are doing and we're experiencing life with them. Do you think we would uh find that God's presence was with them? I absolutely know we would. And so I look at that and it starts with an individual recognizing their need for Christ and surrendering to him. (33:40) But in that we also recognize we need the body of Christ to help us stay in the presence of God and to grow in the presence of God and to worship God more clearly in the presence of other believers. What were they committed to? They were committed to prayer, to God's word. They were single-minded in their approach. They were fully devoted. (34:05) In fact, what I'm wanting you to see here is everything that we have talked about to this point in this series is demonstrated in these verses is that they were fully committed to expressing and experiencing the presence of God. Yeah, but that was then. This is now. I would challenge you with this. The only difference between the first century church and the 21st century church and I'm that's us too is that we've forgotten about the presence of God. We know about Jesus. (34:38) We know talk about Jesus. We we will pray but we only our prayers are not is the purpose of glorifying God. Our prayers are not really for anything but relief and we are timid when we pray and we kind of just hope that something will happen. If your prayers are not powerful then you do not understand the presence of God. I'll put it that way. (35:05) And we as a church doesn't matter the size of the church never has. In fact, did you know um I was doing a little research on this uh this last week think there's several things that were really cool that happened with the church if and we went through the book of Acts on this when uh we read there Acts 2 day of Pentecost 3,000 people suddenly uh committed their lives to Christ. The church went from 120 to 3,120 in in a couple of hours. (35:30) It happened that way several times, right? Within a fairly short period of time. This had to be really upsetting the religious leaders for one main reason. Did you notice that we read there that they were meeting in the temples day temple courts daily is because they were taking over Jerusalem. They were taking they being followers of Jesus, they were taking over the temple. (35:54) We know this in our study in the book of Acts when uh Peter and John are are going into the um into the temple and they heal the man who had been lame uh and sat outside there for years outside the temple. And there was some direct analogy being presented. This was the temple where God's supposed to dwell, but God wasn't in there. (36:12) These guys were walking in and they had the presence of God and they healed that man. You see, it's easy over time to take for granted what God has done, who he is, and who we are in relationship to him. We as the 21st century church need to return to a place where we want to glorify God and God alone. (36:35) Where we want to experience the presence of God and we will do whatever it requires me to give up to experience that presence. And then we will understand the very power of God in our midst. I want us as a church to experience that. I really do. In in uh the book of James, well actually Romans, I want to I want to go to Romans because we were there last couple of weeks and I want to continue in our look at Romans. Romans chapter 12. (37:06) We looked at the first two verses where that we need to present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable act of worship. And then we will what will happen? We will know God's good, perfect, and pleasing will. (37:25) So by surrendering ourselves fully to God, we will know what God desires to do in and through us. But Paul doesn't stop there. Then he goes, just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body and we are uh belong and we belong to each other. Paul goes on to demonstrate exactly what Christ was calling his church to be a place where they we are fully committed to him and that that's our love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and we are fully committed to our brothers and sisters in Christ. In fact, he uses the body analogy here and in in the book (37:58) of first Corinthians and we see this come up a number of times. He takes it from I fully surrender to God. But in that surrender, you are fully committed to your fellow believers and you value them for the uniqueness of what God is doing in and through them. And because of that, the power of God's presence is expressed in amazing ways. (38:20) So we take the value of the church not from what it can give to me but what God is doing there why he is uh how he is at work in my own life and how he is at work in others lives so that when we come together there's an exponential expression of the power and presence of God. (38:45) So I long to be with other believers because I am having reinforced in my mind, heart and soul the very power and presence of God that's exists and has been present in my own life. I need you to help reinsure and keep at the center of my life the existence and presence of God. You need me to do the same thing. And together we will be able to give glory back to God for his very power and expression within our midst. (39:13) Jesus called for us as his followers to gather together. We are told that many times over. I'm debating if I say the next thing I want to say. Even here at our church, I have concerns and have for a while because I watch what happens on a given Sunday. And I and I love conversations that take place. I love each one of you. (39:45) I value each one of you because of who you are before God. And I desire for his presence to be known in your life. But often on Sundays, I don't feel a sense of anticipation or excitement to meet God here. And it breaks my heart. I'm not talking numbers. Numbers don't matter. I'm talking the anticipation of why you're here, why I'm here. (40:17) I believe God's in your life. I believe God wants to show me something in you. And I I don't understand how it is that we'll take light the gathering together in the name of Jesus. Well, we'll give priority to other things. So, we're here sometimes, not others. Tell Jesus that. I I honestly believe God's done so many amazing things through this church, but I deeply deeply concerned that right now we are distracted that there are things that we will put higher priority on than the presence of God. Yet, we long for his deliverance. We (41:10) long for for him to give us good things, but we won't even give him the time of day. It's got to stop. We've got to come with such an anticipation because we have been with God all week and we want to express that with others and we want to hear it back. We want to be flooded with the joy of knowing what God has done. (41:36) That we long to be here. We shouldn't be a church that arrives 10, 15 minutes late. We should be a church that arrives an hour early and longs to pray together and rejoice together. Don't let this world steal things from you. Don't let them steal the presence of God. Don't let them steal the joy that comes from his his work in your life. Don't let them blind you to the power of God. (42:04) If I could walk you back through the history of this church, we've seen people healed. I mean, outright healed. We've seen prayers move mountains. We've been given when we didn't deserve. We've experienced the mercy and grace of God. And I feel like the Israelites were looking for another God to worship. It's got to stop. (42:37) There's got to be a longing in our hearts. I can't give it to you. Do you have to go and talk to God about it? But we have to return to not only a single-mindedness, but a full surrender. But in that, not an obligation or I'm meeting the expectations, but a loving surrender to God. Lord, forgive me. I want to see you. (43:11) I want to know you. Where we long each morning to be in his word, where we can't stop communicating with him, when we talk to others, it just naturally comes out. But we become shy to mention Jesus. We haven't really looked at his word for oh, I don't know, month, month and a half. And that was just cuz I happened to stumble across a verse online. (43:42) I know maybe you didn't come to hear this this morning, but as pastor, I have responsibilities. We need to return to Christ. Paul in 2 Corinthians, I want to I want to end with this verse. Second Corinthians chapter 2, I love what what he says here and I love the way that expressed if you'll allow me in the message translation. (44:11) He says this, in the Messiah in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one uh perpetual victory parade. and stop there for a minute. It's a beautiful picture. You and I are the victory parade of God. What he has accomplished in our lives, God bring it brings joy to him. Now Paul continues on through us. He brings knowledge of Christ. (44:44) Everywhere we go, people breathe in uh the inquenchable fragrance because of Christ. We give off a sweet scent rising to God which is recognized by those on the way to of salvation an aroma reolent with life. What's the fragrance of your life? That's what God really is asking of us today. He wants to pray. This is my daughter. I brought redemption to her. (45:25) She worships me. She brings glory to me. And he parades us before others that they can see what God is like. That's what he wanted from Israel long ago. And they abandon him. Christ died on the cross and he says, "Now I want it of each person. They can come to me personally." And we who say we've come to him, we do it in the 21st century way. (45:56) Does it fit my calendar, my my my, you know, I'll I'll line him up with the rest of the people of that I listen to, the influencers in my life. And Jesus, you got to sit back for a minute. This person sounds better. We got to give our lives to Christ fully so that he can parade us around. (46:15) And so his fragrance, the fragrance of being like with Jesus, we can be those who smell like Jesus. And that's what the world needs. Too often, I think we're giving off a body odor that has nothing to do with Jesus. It just reflects what we want, when we want it, how we want it. And God can't use that for his glory. And he can't use us as a fragrance to a world that knows nothing but the stink of death. You see, that's the contrast Paul's making for us. The world is dying. (46:57) There's decomposition taking place everywhere and it stinks. But there is life in Jesus. And the world needs to smell when I come into the room. What is that? What is that? That's the smell of life. That's the smell of Jesus. And that's the transformation and power of his presence in me. So, I'll gently just say this. (47:30) I could give you a list of here, go do this step, that step. We need to do this. No, it's not up to me. It's simply one thing. You need to talk to God. I need to talk to God. Are we a fragrance to the world? You see, when we come in here, we should so be refreshed by the fragrance of Jesus on each other's lives, that it empowers us for the week, that we long to be back together as soon as possible. I want to be in my life group. I want to be with other believers. I want to do this because I love the scent of life. (48:05) I don't want to be around death anymore. I I just want to breathe in life. And if I'm around death, I want to make sure that they know that there's one that will give them life. One last personal note. Many of you know that I and I talk about going to the gym. And I love going to the gym because the people that I spend time with there, none of them are followers of Christ. (48:36) And that's that's invigorating for me. Not because uh they're non-Christians in the sense that that I like that life, but because non-Christians have a tendency to be very honest where Christians have a tendency to cover things up. And with that being said, what I love about it is and what God has been convicting me on is to make sure that there is clarity in my life so there are no inconsistencies when I talk to them about Jesus. That's where he's been convicting me. And I've been praying about that is (49:11) making sure that when somebody is talking to me about something they're going through, I don't talk about it as how what I think about it that I am consistent in bringing them to Jesus. You know what? God says something about that. Here's what I've experienced in my relationship with Jesus when it comes to that. (49:29) And you know what I found? They want to listen. Not because of me. People want to know that there's life available. They like that fragrance. I talked to one of the guys at the gym this week and he was going through some very he's going through some tough stuff and just because of his work and the line of work that he does, he sees it all the time. Okay, I I'll say this. (50:01) He's a police officer and he he's dealing with um as you can imagine the the bottom. He just said, you know, he's always coming to me. People are, he goes, they do the dumbest things. He goes, you know, and he's he's talking to me about stuff. But I was so blessed with the challenge of talking with him about some things that he was seeing and experiencing and having the chance. (50:20) God was reminding me, tell him about Jesus and the difference that he makes. He doesn't need to hear anything else. He doesn't need any of your thoughts. He needs to hear about Jesus. You know what? He didn't get mad and walk away. He didn't try to say that, "Oh, leave that somewhere else. (50:46) " In fact, I found it very interesting as he just went quiet and was looking at me and listening to every word I was saying. See, the world needs to know there's hope. The world needs to know that it's not all death. Now, he didn't become a follower of Jesus in that moment, and that was not my intent. That's the Holy Spirit's work, not mine. But I have to make sure I live with consistency. (51:12) There has to be a consistency that my life will bring glory to God. And the only way there will be consistency is if I work on the little things. spending time in God's word, praying, spending time in the body of Christ so that I am enriched by the presence of God, that I am empowered, that I know I don't stand alone, that I'm reminded that Christ is right in the center of my life. (51:41) I need you every week when I meet with my friends who are not Christians because you are the encouragement and I see in you the presence of God. We need to do that together. The church is the most precious gift that Christ gave us outside of our salvation and it only exists because of our salvation. We need to value the church above all else.