Poured Out

Intro

Our sense of smell is a power tool isn’t it? We perceive so much of our world through our nose.

Our sense of smell has the power to detect danger. Perhaps you smell smoke when you shouldn’t smell smoke.

Our sense of smell can warn us to stay away from an area where there are noxious fumes.

Our sense of smell can put us in a good mood. There are few things that smell better than my smoker when I am doing a brisket, a few racks of ribs, or pulled pork.

Anyone who is outside anywhere near my house when I am doing so knows, and probably gets a little jealous.

Other time our sense of smell can cause panic like when you are driving down the road with a little one in the back seat and you hear a certain sound and you aren’t quite sure what it was but then the smell hits you and you realize that your baby just destroyed their outfit.

And the realization sets in that when you get home you might need to get out a pressure washer to clean things up all while gagging the whole way home with you head halfway out the window.

I promise, I will bring this back around.

But my point is that a fragrance has the ability to permeate everything around it.

So it makes sense then when we read the Bible and we look at the idea of sacrifice, that often times the sacrifices that God desired were ones that had what the Bible calls a pleasing aroma or fragrant offering.

And if you have been following along you know that we are in the middle of a series right now called The Altered Life.

The idea behind this series is that as Christians, just like in the Old Testement, we are called to make sacrifices to God.

The difference is that our sacrifices aren’t made in the form of animal sacrifices, but in the form of a living sacrifice, or a life offered in service to God.

Romans 12:1 NLT And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

So far we have talked a lot about what it means to be an acceptable or holy sacrifice. That sin must be dealt with.

If it isn’t dealt with then it will prevent us from being the living sacrifice that God desires.

But it isn’t just sin that has to be dealt with. There is also the question of the sacrifice itself.

What does it mean to sacrifice? As a living sacrifice, what do I have to be willing to give up or give into in order to truly worship God?

Power in the Text

Philippians 2:12-17 NLT 12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. 16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.

17 But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy.

Here Paul is talking about his life and our service and comparing them to a liquid offering. What does he mean by that?

In the Old Testement we see the priests making drink offerings, also known as libations.

Essentially an expensive drink or at times a perfume would be poured out on the alters as an offering.

It wasn’t so much about what was being poured out. Of course if it was of great value it would be a sacrifice to use it in this way. But really it was about the act of pouring that mattered.

And it is because the giver can no longer benefit from the liquid once it is poured out because it can no longer be picked up, cleaned, gathered, or repurposed.

We see this in the New Testement when Mary the sister of Martha took a bottle of perfume that was worth an entire year’s wages and poured it out on Jesus’ feet.

In fact some were upset that she wasted it in their estimation. But it was in a lot of ways a reflection of the liquid offerings made in the OT.

When speaking of the financial offerings made by the Church in Philippi to help support Paul’s missionary work he says this.

Philippians 4:18 NLT 18 At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God.

We see here this connection between what they did with something that smells pleasing.

Big Idea/Why it Matters

The altered life is one in which we consider ourselves a fragrant liquid offering for God by pouring ourselves out for his kingdom and righteousness.

And the scent of this fragrant offering that is our lives will permeate everything around it.

The idea that our lives are to be poured out as an offering carries with it the idea that what is being poured out can’t be used for anything else or be put back in its container.

That by being a living sacrifice we are saying that everything about us, every part of our lives is being offered up to be used by God. That we can’t hold anything back from him.

Our marriages, children, careers, talents, resources, all of it is being poured out at his feet to used by him.

What does that mean? It means that it might cost you. In the process of being poured out you might have to give some thing up. You might have to take some things on.

Your life may not look like it does right now. In fact, it should look very different from your life prior to following Jesus.

There may be things you see your friends and family doing and places you see them going and experiences you hear them having that you have to give up in order to be poured out.

When a liquid offering is poured out, the entire container is broken or emptied. You can’t leave a little behind.

You and I can’t say...

God, here I am. Use me however you wish, accept don’t ask me to take money from my vacation fund to support a missionary.

God, here I am. Use me however you wish, accept don’t ask me to quit partying and getting drunk on the weekends with my friends in order to be sober-minded, develop self-control and live a more righteous life.

God here I am. Use me however you wish, accept don’t ask me to marry my live in girlfriend or boyfriend in order to honor my body and their’s as temples of the Holy Spirit and keep the marriage bed pure.

God here I am. Use me however you wish, accept don’t ask for that. Anything but that. Anywhere but there. Anyone but them.

Let me just hold onto his one thing.

No. If we are going to be living sacrifices and pour ourselves out for God then we have to be willing to pour all of ourselves out.

Application/Closing

I want you to think about how ancient perfumes were made this morning.

Typically they were made from plants, fruits, woods, and even animal secretions.

The process for extracting them began with boiling, pressing, crushing or macerating.

In order to extract enough fragrance strong enough to fill a room, hard processes had to occur.

If we are to be fragrant offerings to God, we will likely need refining in order to extract the best from us.

Sometimes we look at the things we go through as if they are a punishment or as if God isn’t listening because we have this idea that if we follow Jesus, then everything should just work out and life should be easy.

But the truth is, how can we call ourselves followers of Jesus and not be willing to follow him in suffering.

If Jesus was willing to pour himself out on the cross for our salvation, redemption, and freedom from sin, then how can we not expect to have to pour ourselves out for him?

It is in the hard process that the best things are produced.

And here is the thing about a fragrant offering. It permeates everything around it. When something smells good, everything around it is effected by it.

Every part of our lives and the lives of those around us are effected by it.

If your life is a fragrant offering to God, everyone around you will know it, why? Because it smells different than what they are used to.

Its noticeable because nothing else in their life smells quite like it. The altered life is one that others look at and say I want what they have.

I want that kind of peace, joy, and hope.

I want a marriage that looks like that.

I want a family that loves like that.

I want the confidence and assurance that comes with knowing who I am and who’s I am.

The altered life is one that gives up one’s right to self. It is one that says I used to serve myself, but now I choose a new master.

Romans 6:16-19 NLT 16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

The concept of slavery was one that the early Church understood. Slavery was an accepted practice where in a person would oftentimes choose to enter into in order to pay off a debt.

Here Paul is using this illustration to prove the point that whoever and whatever you choose to pour yourself out to becomes your master.

He is saying that at one time we all used to pour ourselves out to sin, serving its cravings and desires, oftentimes unaware of its danger.

But now, as followers of Jesus, we can live the altered life wherein we pour ourselves out to another.

Rather than our sin, we offer our lives to God as a permeating, fragrant offering as we pour ourselves out to him.

As we make ourselves slaves to his righteousness and learn to live holy, set apart lives.

Can you say this morning with confidence what or who you are pouring yourself out to? Is it to the one who poured himself out for you?

The altered life is a blessed life, but it also comes with a cost. Is it a cost you are willing to pay?

And that my friends is a question that only you can answer.