"SINNERS ARE SNIFFERS"
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Intro
Intro
One day in our previous pastorate we were out canvassing our little town leaving literature about our church at every home with an an invitation to visit. I was alone as I approached a small, but very well kept older home whose front door was open. It was beautiful, warm fall day. As I placed the literature in the handle of the screen door, I smelled something that took me back nearly 20 years (at that time). The house smelled just like my grandparents farm house just outside of Mansfield MO where I had spent so many weekends as a little boy. By the time I was ten, both of my paternal grandparents had passed away & it wasn’t until that day that the memories of their home flooded back into my mind. Honestly, I just wanted to stay on the front porch of strangers & take in the aroma!
The sense of smell is closely linked with memory, probably more than any of our senses. Smells can quickly evoke memories, both good & bad.
In Paul’s 2nd letter to the church at Corinth he writes about the smell - the “AROMA”, the “FRAGRANCE” that comes from knowing God.
On this Backpack Project Sunday when many here today are volunteering, I want to challenge you with these words of Paul...
But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.
For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?
2 Corinthians 2:
Background
Background
Whenever the Romans won a major military victory they would celebrate with a spectacular parade.
The commanding general would lead the procession in a magnificent chariot, followed by soldiers, musicians and other officials.
The defeated enemies were led through the city in chains.
As a part of the celebration, they would burn fragrances, filling the entire city with a pleasant aroma.
The fragrance meant life & victory to the Romans who smelled it, but to the defeated foe, it meant defeat & death.
Paul takes this familiar scene in that day & applies it to followers of Jesus Christ...
If you ay to someone, “YOU SMELL!” - it will NOT be taken as a compliment.
But, spiritually speaking, we DO smell - there is spiritual SCENT to our lives - a “FRAGRANCE”, an “AROMA”!
It’s true in your life and mine - on the job - at school - with our family & friends.
And it’s true when we COME together...show COMPASSION together... SERVE together.
Many years ago, I was in a service with other Illinois pastors in which our district superintendent was speaking. The late Ernest Moen said something I have never forgotten & I’m using as the title of my message this morning - “SINNERS ARE SNIFFERS”!
Not everyone, but many who will be on our grounds today for the Backpack Project need Jesus!
More important than the school supplies & fun activities is the ARMOMA of our lives. Our prayer should be that we would give people a WHIFF of Jesus!
Remember, “SINNERS ARE SNIFFERS”, what they smelling from your life & mine? What fragrance will they pick up on today?
Our demenour
Our words
TS Look at what the Apostle Paul shares about this SMELL, this AROMA, this FRAGRANCE of Christ. First,
Our attitudes
SPREAD HIM EVERYWHERE
SPREAD HIM EVERYWHERE
V. 14b - “…spread the aroma of the knowledge of him EVERYWHERE”
The Bible uses other metaphors to describe a Christian’s impact on a lost world...
Jesus said His followers are the “LIGHT of the world” & the “SALT of the earth”.
Paul writes that we are “JARS of clay”...
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
Your PERSONAL witness & OUR witness to the world must NEVER be localized or limited - its must go everywhere!
In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus said...
While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable:
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up.
Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture.
Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants.
Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
Luke 8:4-
Like seed, the FRAGRANCE of Christ in our lives must be spread EVERYWHERE!
We have a great opportunity to do this today as hundreds of people come to us!
In Titus, Paul admonishes even slaves who have become Christians to be honest & upright & “…make the teaching about God our Savior attractive (2:10b).”
We have a great opportunity to do this today as hundreds of people come to us for the Backpack Project.
TS First, SPREAD HIM EVERYWHERE. Second...
SHARE HIM WITH EVERYONE
SHARE HIM WITH EVERYONE
Look again at v. 15...
For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
2 Corinthians 2:15
We don’t necessarily know who the Holy Spirit is drawing & convicting, so we must SHARE HIM WITH EVERYONE & leave the results in God’s hands.
Paul shared Christ everywhere He went - even when he was facing great trials & persecution. He writes more in 2 Corinthians about his sufferings than any place else.
declares, “For God so loved the WORLD...”
In the Great Commission Jesus commanded us to “make disciples of ALL NATIONS”.
The Apostle Peter writes that it’s not God’s will for “…anyone to perish, but EVERYONE to come to repentance ().”
It’s not our job to “size people up” & decide merely on external appearances if we should or should not share the good news of Jesus Christ with someone.
For some we the ARMOMA of our lives will be...
We don’t necessarily know who the Holy Spirit is drawing & convicting, so we must SHARE HIM WITH EVERYONE & leave the results in God’s hands.
GOOD NEWS - they are being drawn by the Holy Spirit - they are open - they recognize their need.
For others the FRAGRANCE of our lives will be BAD NEWS. They are on a pathway of destruction & at least for now, they are spiritually unresponsive.
There are some people I don’t even know who don’t like me. Why is that? They don’t like what I stand for or Who I stand for. The same may be true for you.
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
2 Timothy
TS Remember, SINNERS ARE SNIFFERS, so SPREAD HIM EVERYWHERE…SHARE HIM WITH EVERYONE . One final thought...
BE SPIRIT EMPOWERED
BE SPIRIT EMPOWERED
Paul asks a question in v. 16b - “Who is equal to such a task?” NAS - “Who is adequate for these things?”
The implied answer is that no on is competent for the task.
If you think you are up to it, you most definitely are not.
Do you feel inadequate? You are in good company!
It’s NOT you, it’s Him!
It’s the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through you.
God is NOT looking for PERFECT vessels, but WILLING vessels.
POWER can flow through your PERCEIVED weaknesses...
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.
Response
Response
I challenge YOU …US as a church...
SPREAD HIM EVERYWHERE
SHARE HIM WITH EVERYONE
& BE SPIRIT EMPOWERED
Prayer for Backpack Project