You Smell Like Where You’ve Been

Father, God, we are so grateful for today. We thank you for your son, Jesus. We thank you for what he's done on the cross, what he validated by the resurrection from the grave. We thank you for the spirit he's placed in us.

We thank you for the life that he leads us on. And, God, while we don't always feel it, we've chosen it. God, we've chosen it. And so right now, Lord, in Jesus' name, I pray that you would speak directly to us and further shape us and align us to your will rather than our own.

And, God, as we look upon you, I pray that we would look upon you properly, Not like the people in Jerusalem did when he strolled in on a colt, thinking he was going to conquer worldly things like Rome or-, - the religious system.

No, God, I pray that we would see you properly, We would see you on your cross, We would see you seated at the right hand of the Father, That we would see you in your humility. And, God, I just pray right now that every person in this room would open their hearts to you. Today, We pray these things in Jesus' name And God's people said: Amen, You may be seated. Say hey to your neighbor on your way to your seat.

It's good culture.

It is close Air freshener. So then, what is this? I did some research. I realized that, if you really want to clean your house, you have got to get an oxidizer, Otherwise it's highly ineffective at clinging to the molecules that produce the odor in your home.

I didn't know that.

I've been too busy thinking this is going to do the trick. Anyone have that Revelation before about air freshener and an actual cleaner? No, Nobody. Nobody in this place Clean your houses.

Then You know- I've learned that- that there are really two ways you can freshen up your house, And the way that I thought you needed to do it for years was with a, a blade plug-in, or- and it's got to be the right one too.

I- I did cinnamon for a while. Anyone do the cinnamon? Got some excited cinnamon people in the place, But then I learned about Hawaiian Breeze- Just statistically, the best smelling. I said statistically.

It's not my preference, It's just facts.

Speaking of facts, that is our next sermon series, starting a week after Easter. It's called facts. Not trying to be relevant, I just want to state some facts about the Scripture and about how we should live our life. It's going to be super fun.

Can't wait for it.

If you're going to do other things in April, get a life and come hang out with us. Facts: Getting you started in facts: , A lot of people are too busy to do the. This is not called disinfectant. It says it disinfects.

This is actually called, it's called odor eliminator.

Proud of myself, So much research I've done and now I have this bottle. And I didn't buy it with church money for the illustration, I bought it with my personal money, because when I learned that I said I'm going to buy it for myself. I'm going to go use some oxy action before my small group tonight, Cuz, historically I've been using air freshener for my small group, Cuz I don't know about how your Sunday goes- Most of you know how mine goes- And, after Sunday there's tear down and then I have a group that starts at 5:00. So I get a limited amount of time And depending on how my kids were the day before and the morning of it determines how much I got to clean, And so I am so used to painting up the turd that is my house with Hawaiian Breeze air freshener.

But when I get time I'll do more than Lysol, I actually go rinse some stuff and I'll get on my knees and I'll scrub the grout to my house with water vapor Steam.

It's what works. Apparently Did a really good job. The reason I don't use Lysol with oxy action on the regular is because it doesn't make my house smell better, It makes my house actually cleaner. The way Lysol works is it, the molecules within the Lysol, this specific Lysol, not every Lysol.

This specific Lysol- I'm not trying to just sell you a bad bill of goods here- This specific one, This is the best one you can get at Walmart, and if you work for Febreze, I apologize It- Whatever Lysol today.

The molecules within the Lysol. They cling to the molecules that produce the odor in your house, be it dog pee, dog poop- I had to start. There Could just be dirt, Could be something else. It clings to it And rather than like baking soda, which traps it and then you throw the baking soda in the trash, this clings to it and resolves the issue.

It, it actually cleans.

And what I've learned in my spiritual walk is that I'm really tempted. What I'll do is I'll, I'll learn how to do church, And so I'll go do it, And I added the habit of the activity, but my spirit hasn't actually reacted to the person and work of Jesus. I'll open the Bible, cuz someone said I was supposed to, And I'll even schedule the reading plan every single day. These are good things.

It's good to go to church, It's good to read your Bible, But I just keep reading it, get nothing out of it, Spray [clears throat] it.

On there I'll talk the Christian talk. So where do you believe you're going to go when you die? I believe the Lord Jesus is going to take me home one day. You even do it in serious situations.

Someone passes and you give them a sweet nothings to make them feel better.

They're in a better place. You don't believe it, but they're in a better place. It's what you tell them. You spray air freshener on a corpse, Like: even after I've trusted in Jesus, I care more about what you think than what he thinks, And so when I'm trying to get better, what do I do?

I go to you.

Did you like it? Did that hit you the right way? That wasn't too rude, was it? I'm just talking about me as a preacher here.

It's like I wonder if they liked what we posted.

I wonder if the other preachers in the area who are doing really, really well, like what I'm doing over here, Or why are they doing so well? I'm going to learn from them and I'm going to go be a church plant planting Hindu and assimilate just everything that seems to be working for somebody else, Just trying to grab external and bring it internal. But it doesn't work that way. What God has to do is change the internal so that it goes external.

And the Bible says in John, First John, rather, it says that if we can confess our sins, he is faithful and just to cleanse us of our sins.

Well, sorry, forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And so what happens is many of you- I hope so- have gone from. Yeah, I show up, Don't care about Jesus, Don't revolve every aspect of my life around him. He's not clung to the molecules of sin in my life and removed them.

He's not done jack squat in my life.

But Jesus is cool. We move from that And then we trust in Jesus and it's awesome. And what he does is he takes, I mean, molecule to molecule, he oxy, cleans us with his blood- Not trying to be too clever here- And what he does is he cleanses us. And then here's a something that I've noticed is I've seen a lot of people be cleansed by Jesus but for some reason, when they go out into the world they don't smell like, look like, act like.

You don't experience Jesus.

When they run into you- And I don't look at people and say they're not a believer- I can just tell: I don't do that. That's between you and God. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God who works in you to will and accomplish what he wants to do in you. He's the one who leads you into the paths of righteousness.

That's what he does, And I can maybe help you identify some of these things, but I cannot talk to God for you.

So when I look at people, I get confused. I don't know whether you're painting up a turd or a corpse. I don't know which one you like better, Or if you've been cleansed, but you just haven't figured out how to emit the fragrance of Christ Jesus. I don't know which one it is.

But here's what our series has been about.

Our series has not really been about AI. AI was just my personal preference to discuss, because I wanted to learn more about AI and I had a lot of people scared of it or concerned with it or thinking that it's going to steal creativity. I'm here to tell you that AI has only enhanced my creativity in connection with God over this past month. I've listened to more Scripture over the last month than probably the last year.

And it's not saying I haven't read Scripture.

I've read plenty of Scripture. But when you hear it all the time, like when Koresh comes over to the office at my house and he's working, he can't help but hear it either, because I've got AI Scripture playing in the background. It could be Tool, Perfect Circle, like RMD, hard rock, punk rock, Could be any of them. All just playing and it seeps in here.

So AI hasn't been the main issue with the series.

The main issue of the series has been that God created us to have rule and authority over all creation. In fact, I, I briefly summarize the last couple of weeks using a couple different phrases. The first week was on that He created us to rule and have authority over creation. The second week, we were called to fear God, not to fear creation, And so when you're scared of anybody or anything, it's time for you to reorder that fear and submit it all to God first.

If I'm going to fear anything in the universe, it is going to be my creator.

It's ultimately about getting things in proper order, because if I'm going to rule and have authority over creation and do what God called me to do, I need to submit to him. But how do you submit to him? This is week three. Week three was head, heart, hands, with all of your intellect, your mind with all of your emotions, your soul with all of your movements, your strength.

Give glory and honor to God with every aspect of your being.

I think I told you to go all in, And last week one of the things that prevents us from going all in isn't the desire, it is the sin that so easily untangles us, and I brought you back to Joshua, chapter 7 and 8, the sin of Achan, the loss to Ai, which is a city in the ancient world. If you weren't here last week, I don't want you to think I'm just corny. I'm actually clever. If you didn't realize that, Please Got to laugh at something today.

Thank you, Laura.

I appreciate you. I don't need you to laugh at me, but when I make a joke it's helpful for the room to, cuz most of them aren't smart enough to get the jokes, so I'm just kidding, I'm just Clap at that. Be clapping later then. But sin derails our walk with God.

Sin prevented us from knowing God in the first place, And Jesus came to cleanse us of that sin.

And so the second group of people. They're cleansed, but there's another layer. There's a calling, There's a mission, There's a witness that you were called to in your life, Because you're not just called to be cleansed for your own sake, for your eternity and for your abundance. In the present life You are cleansed so that Everybody say: so that I don't ever want you to forget, because the reason that Jesus died on the cross for you is so that you and everyone that you now encounter could have the potential of faith and walking with God.

This is a communal thing.

It's not a I can worship God at my house by myself thing. I'm tired of hearing that That is the. I've been cleansed, but I don't care about the fragrance thing. I'm tired of the church caring more about whether they went deep with a little bit more incremental growth in terms of their information and knowledge about God.

I would rather you be completely transformed in your relationship with Jesus such that when you walk around people smell Jesus.

It's both, Because they may smell a Jesus-scented person, but unless you're Christ-centered there's no cleansing. And if there's no cleansing you're just confusing. And you know that smell when you've been spraying air freshener to cover up the dog smell, I got two dogs. I'm talking about me, not you unless it's you, but I'm talking about me.

And then it's just sweet and gross, but a corpse on the inside.

What does Jesus say to the people who had all the air freshener? White washed tombs. But just cuz you've been cleansed doesn't mean you emit the way that Jesus wants you to. So we're going to be in 2 Corinthians, chapter 2, today.

Anyone who knows what's special about today specifically gets points, Not money points.

What's special about today? What day is it? It's Palm Sunday- When Jesus entered into Jerusalem on a colt or a donkey. Donkey feels a little less spiritual, so I say colt, It's quicker, less syllables.

But he goes in on a colt and they lay down their palm branches and their clothing.

The disciples follow him excitedly. What do, what do? What else do we call Palm Sunday The tri-, tri- triumphal entry. Sorry You, just That's.

That's what's.

What's also what we call it The triumphal entry. But I'm going to be in 2 Corinthians today because I think Paul has a play on this triumphal entry that actually reverses something that I think needs reversal, because we all celebrate the triumphal entry. And guess who else celebrated the triumphal entry? It was just a bunch of air freshener, nice kind words to Jesus, a bunch of laying down clothing, but it meant nothing, because they stole his clothing at the end of the week when he was crucified.

But Paul has something interesting to say about it.

Also, we preach this every year. So I want to preach out of Paul today, just to do something different. Why? Cuz I can, and we got a lot of years, hopefully, ahead of us.

So I'll get back to that one eventually.

2 Corinthians, chapter 2. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 2, this is Paul's fourth letter to the Corinthian church. You might be thinking "What". He said second, Well, it's cuz we have two.

We have the first one and we have the fourth one.

There were two in between. We don't know exactly what he said. I did hear, based on what he says in 2 Corinthians, that his second letter was actually more harsh than the first one. So picture that one.

And then the third letter was kind of a light apology, but this one is him reframing how Paul views himself.

And you don't read first 2 Corinthians correctly if you view it as just two you. This is Paul explaining what it looks like to follow Jesus properly. Why does Paul do what he does? The Corinthians think he's just trying to Lord over them and have authority.

A lot of people be saying online about church And it don't bug me anymore.

It used to bug me. I don't care what they think anymore, but it's always funny to see: "Man look at these pastors manipulating people with their fairy tale, God and all this other stuff". They think I'm a manipulator. Paul says he's a persuader.

It's a fine line sometimes, but here's what Paul's trying to say.

I know, Corinth, you've seen me. You think I'm a manipulator, but remember who I really am and let me frame up in 2 Corinthians here what I actually think when I walk from village to village. So really helpful passage for you as well, Because what he articulates in this passage we're about to read is literally the pathway for you to ultimately become the witness, the one who testifies to the things of God, the one who actually embraces and lives in the calling that God actually has for them. And so I'm going to dive right in.

I think it'll be really helpful, Starting in verse 14.

He says: "But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ's and 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". I love it. I like that illustration, because what you carry shows where you've been, And so I'm going to give you my sermon title, or the big idea.

Simple, You smell like where you've been, Cuz you can smell it, You can tell.

You can tell if, if you're at my house, that I got dogs. I try to, I try to clean that stuff up, I try to fragrance and paint that stuff up. I'll spray anything I can, And my wife told me that I've gotten an anointed sense of smell that smells stinky things before anyone else smells them. Praise God, amen.

All right, it's good, But I'll walk around my house and I'll a dog's been here.

Anyone who's been in my house has seen it. Cuz as soon as they come in, I'm automatically insecure at a different level about these dogs. [snorts]. Cuz, cuz.

I'm scared that I smell like, like where I live and the dog you.

You came in today maybe for the first time in a while. I don't even know what you were doing last night. I've been in church long enough. I've been in pastoral ministry almost as long.

I've been in pastoral ministry long enough to where people like to have close-up conversations with me.

I can tell if you've been to Starbucks. I can tell if you've been to the bar. I can tell if you've been smoking. I can tell by what comes out your mouth and how it feels who you've been hanging around.

I can tell where you live.

I'm not saying I'm this weird supernatural, anointed. You can do the same thing- Because you smell like where you've been. And the, the, the, the biggest frustration that people have with the church, the biggest frustration I have with the church, the biggest frustration I have with with anyone who claims spirituality- you guys would say hypocrisy. I would say, when I'm around certain people who claim Christ and maybe they've been cleansed but they're not emitting the fragrance properly because there's some sort of barrier in their heart.

I'm like, oh gosh, I feel a way, And you may not be able to identify it, but you can sense it Because you can smell where people have been.

I'm not trying to make you feel insecure. I told someone this morning- cuz I know this is a reality. I said: "I'm so sorry I didn't brush my teeth this morning", Cuz I was up close and I was talking and I, I, I feel it in my mouth that that my breath stinks. You know, After you drink a little bit of coffee you can just feel it.

And here's what Paul says, Like he's identifying this very thing, but there's a context to it that's really helpful.

And I'll walk you through this passage again, Because I think if you can get this, you're going to understand Palm Sunday better and you're going to be ready for next weekend more effectively. So Paul says he says: "But thanks be to God who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession". Now, my wife and I were chatting about this in between services, because she reads a different translation than I preach up here. And if you have a different translation, that's totally fine.

Most of the translations you're going to grab are amazing translations.

These different translations are literally different English translations of the Greek or the Hebrew. So they're great translations, but for me I had a different translation. She comes up, she says: "Mine doesn't say captive". I said: "I know, because it's a cultural thing".

And what happens here is the word that they're using for captive in Christ's triumphal procession actually harkens back to a very common cultural thing.

That would happen in ancient Rome. So here's what would happen. I don't know if you've heard of ancient Rome. This is pretty long-lasting empire.

Rome conquered the majority of the known world at the time, all around the Mediterranean, And so Rome was known for their ability to conquer and enslave groups of people.

They would go to towns, villages, like states, nations, people, groups, And if they wanted to, bad enough, they would conquer those people. And when they would conquer them, what they would do is they would brag about it Cuz they won, You win, you get to brag, I guess. And so they would conquer people. This actually happens.

You see it in Josephus's writings about when Judea, or the, the Jews, were conquered in AD 70.

Temple was destroyed. You see this when Julius Caesar was going on his campaigns. You see this all throughout the primary sources of the ancient world that when Rome would win, they would brag. And here's how they would brag: They would enslave a portion of the people, leave a portion of the people and they, as if it was a parade, would go on chariots dragging the enslaved people behind them, all the while burning incense and offering up sacrifices to their gods.

And I found myself wondering: why did Paul use that imagery to a group of people in Corinth?

And he says he's one of the slaves in relation to God. That is not an attractive image. I'm just going to be honest with you. If you want to get me into your club, don't tell me: "Well, you have to wear handcuffs and you got to be dragged around behind a chariot".

It's not the way to get me into your clique.

But Paul, when he's articulating to the Corinthian church, who is living life with a bunch of air freshener rather than be being truly cleaned, what Paul's trying to tell them is: here's how this works. It is just like this thing that you're familiar with: Jesus has come, He died on the cross, He rose from the grave, He conquered sin and death, And now he's bragging about it. And what he's done is he's conscripted a group of people called Christians- Conscripted is a nice term- He's enslaved a group of people, Christians, Those who have offered themselves to God, And he chains us to his will. And then we walk behind him throughout the world as he celebrates what he did on the cross and in the resurrection from the grave.

This is what Paul's saying, As I say it out loud to you.

I'm thinking about the person in the room who came here and hadn't been to church ever or in a long time, And they're like: "This is the kind of stuff I was talking about. I already knew they were lightly cannibalistic with the Lord's Supper, and now he's talking about chains and being a slave and being dragged behind a chariot Like this is not what I was getting into". I know, I feel you. It does not sound attractive to me And we have gotten so excited about this idea of following Jesus.

And we celebrate Palm Sunday with Jesus's triumphal entry, where a bunch of people who stole his clothing at the end of the week were shouting: "Crucify him".

At the end of the week, we're laying down their clothing, the superficial item and these palm branches. They were pumped when they thought he was going to come as a savior of a, a physical Messiah who would deliver them from Rome or anyone else who would conquer them. They were pumped about it, And a lot of people in the church. They're pumped about the idea of having an incrementally better life- Eternity.

Let's go, I'm down with it.

Abundance. Right now He's going to answer my prayers- So cool. I am down with that triumphant type of God. But what Paul says is: God is triumphant through Christ in a different way than our natural inclinations.

Take us, If you want to follow Jesus, like Paul talks about here, Conquered.

I don't even think I need to remind you what conquering looks like physically: Everything in your life destroyed, You personally, separated from everything you formerly knew, Now walled up on your path, Chained behind the one you follow. I'm trying to say it in an attractive way, but it is not. It's not attractive. Why?

Because what cleans you does something radically different than what sounds good, smells good, looks good, seems good.

And I'm trying to move you from this to this. Come on, Need some oxy, action in your life. Spiritually, That's. Oxygen is a.

It's a joke.

You get real life and whatever. Even my wife's not laughing. And- and it says this in the second part of verse 14, : "And he uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere". And so, when they would go through on their little parade, they would walk from town to town to town, And they would be dragging back behind them these slaves.

They would be celebrating- Maybe they're playing music, shouting really loud: "Look, how cool we are, We won the victory".

This is Romans. And there would be sacrifices offered to their pagan gods, And when a sacrifice is offered, there's a smell, Like a, a distinct smell, Because, along with the offerings, they would offer incense most of the time. And so not only are you smelling burning, but you're smelling something that is attractive, Because those were blended together intentionally so that, when the procession is occurring, people who are excited about the victory would come near, People who are capable of celebrating the victory would come near. So they're walking through and there is a fragrant aroma.

Now here's the thing: To some smells great: The free cities, the cities who are down with Rome, conquering the barbarian horde.

For a second there, And if you're at the edge of the Roman Empire and they were attacking you, you were pumped about the idea of Caesar coming in and conquering this group of people. Now you're safe, Now you're saved from the people who were going to attack you. Now you're saved from the thing that was preventing you from living life the way you wanted to. It is amazing to those who are capable of receiving it.

It is a an amazing sense, a smell, an aroma that is attractive, But to those who are perishing What Paul is saying?

I want to be so simple with this. What Paul is saying is, if you're attracted to the clout, the idea of success, the idea of a life that you get to do whatever you want to do and never submit to anyone, even the Lord, If that's the life you're attracted to, and you can't, when you hear the message of the Gospel, be attracted to the idea of being offering your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, as a reasonable act of worship, Poured out as a drink offering Like. If you're not attracted to that, I'm not saying there's no hope. I'm saying what Paul says is: to one, it's attractive, it smells decent, it's a fragrant aroma.

To the other, it's the stench of death.

Right For the other group of people, maybe the conquered people, Maybe the people walking behind the chariot who didn't willingly go forward with them, Maybe the people who have just been constantly annoyed with the Romans just conquering stuff. They're everywhere. I'm thinking about the people on Facebook who are like, man, there's churches everywhere. Yeah, it's like.

Yeah, it doesn't sound very attractive to you.

I'm talking about the people who, when we're just trying to be nice to people who are going to have a great Easter egg drop, or like, how dare you guys do something for somebody else at the cost of the church? How dare you? I'm not just trying to defend it. What I'm saying is it's attractive to me.

Why?

Because I serve a God who robed himself in flesh and dwelled among men. He's willing to do crazy stuff for me. I'm willing to do crazy stuff for other people, But it's not attractive to everybody, Cuz they won't talk about feeding the poor when they don't do it themselves. It sounds good.

It's a bunch of lips, lip service, air freshener, But I can smell it.

No cleansing. And before you think I'm standing up here just trying to manipulate the room because I've got the stage. Don't hear me saying that. I was the same way, Talking mess about people who had experienced something from God that I hadn't yet experienced myself.

I was young- Eighth grade- but when I went there I was like these weird Christians, so stupid in their fairy tale.

God, Literally. I'll never forget. I was in Seattle And these guys raise their hands in worship. I'm like one person's on their knees.

I'm like the heck.

What is this? This is people bowing down before the Lord offering their body as a living sacrifice and saying, whether it's raising my hands, getting on my knees in prayer, whether I don't care what other people think, becoming undignified, doing whatever he calls me to do, That is attractive to them. And at the time it was a stench. But then God beat down the sin in my heart and now it has become something that is a fragrant aroma, Like my emotions, my bones, like they, they, they shift.

My molecules change at the sound of this passage because I'm like: oh, praise God that, that, that I am chained to his will, Praise God that he is walking through and celebrating this victory, and all I have to do is be near him long enough to emanate the same fragrance.

Praise God that I don't have to do it myself, because I stunk at it And so do you. But there's a solution. The solution isn't to say, all right, force yourself to be attracted to it. Just come on, keep, keep spraying the word on, keep doing this, keep showing up at your, keep doing this, keep doing this, keep doing this until it sticks.

No, The solution is to choose to offer yourself to the Lord And when you choose to offer yourself to him- not try to just, you know, see if it works out- by showing up, No- you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you hang out with him.

And when you start spending time with him, your attractions to the world begin to fade and your attraction to Christ begin to like sensory overload on occasion. I. It's tough to explain because it's a supernatural piece. It's hard to explain because, because I'm not like, I'm not a doctor-, .

You know I can't diagnose the exact aspect of my life and what's happening, But what I can tell you is this: I can tell you that when you spend time with Jesus, he cleanses you, And I can also tell you, when you spend time with Jesus, his scent emanates from you.

In the book of Acts, what happens is Jesus is ascended to the Father, And it's funny because after the triumphal entry in Jerusalem, the disciples were amped about Jesus coming into Jerusalem. They were following him. Same imagery that Paul uses: They were following him But they rejected him, . Later that week, They denied him, They fled, They scattered.

But then the Lord brings them back and in Acts, chapter one, chapter one, when Jesus ascends, he leaves them And he says: go be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.

And so they do. And then in Acts, chapter four, they're standing before a group of people called the Sanhedrin. I can promise you it smelled good in there: Bunch of air fresheners, with all the Pharisees, Stench of death, But they've been painting it up. And they're standing before the Pharisees after healing a guy.

And they, they speak so eloquently that they look at them and they're like: how do you guys from Galilee talk like this?

I believe I have the verse Acts, chapter four. Maybe There we go, Verse 13. It says: when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note. They took note that these men had been with Jesus.

When you spend time with Jesus, he does something to the fabric of your being.

He clings to every molecule of sin, of shame, of guilt, of difficulty, of inadequacy, of insecurity. He clings to every bit of that which has been producing an odor, a stench, that is not attractive and that does not get you where you want to be. He clings to it and he cleanses it, And when you spend enough time with him and then you go out and you interact with people, you won't even realize the difference you are to the people you used to hang around. It says they took note Because they're going to look at you and they're going to say this dude was dumb.

I remember this guy.

We all have our Nazareth moment. I remember going back to a group of people. My brother and I were twins. We used to argue all the time.

I remember I broke my hand on the back of his head one time We were in high school- Can't arrest me for that- And then I went to the church and they're like they were judging me.

I didn't understand it. I was one of those dudes where it was attracted to fight. You know what I'm saying? It's not attractive, That's immature.

I didn't realize that.

I didn't know Jesus well enough to know it, But my brother and I used to fight. My mom and I used to fight Like I, I, I used to just be of the flesh. And then, six years later, I go back and I'm hanging out with some of these people- They knew Jesus before me- and I'm hanging out with them over dinner, . And just in five minutes of a conversation, one dude looks at me and he's like you're different, It was because I spent time, with Jesus.

It wasn't cuz I was special In my own power.

I, I, I, I sprayed it on, . But in his power, he transforms me from the inside out And you can have that too. The only requirement is that you submit to a triumphal procession that does not look the way that you thought it would look. It looks like a cross, And it looks like of sharing what God has done in your life.

And you may be thinking: well, I don't.

I love Jesus, I want it for myself, but I don't want to share it. How can you not? If you've been around him, How can you not ooze that stuff out and naturally encounter conversations? How can you not?

This is this is what what baffles me, and I am not that spiritual guys When I'm around like super good pastors, I feel like I'm still in the flesh, I'm trying to grow, But.

But how can you not ooze out the fragrance of his love, his kindness, his grace, his forgiveness, his, his obedience? How can you not look at him as your model and just follow every aspect of that for the rest of your life? How can you think this, which is, Yeah, I want to tell them about Jesus, but they're my, They're my relative, and I'm scared about what'll happen if, if I say it the wrong way- Permanently separated from their creator, and all they had to happen was you honor 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, reconcile the world to God, be his ambassador before your family member. Some of you're like: "Ah, it'll mess up the group.

They think a certain way".

Well, either choose a different group or go there and preach the Gospel and see what happens, Because when you live in this, it oozes out of you, but when you live in the other stuff, it also oozes Spores, pus, and it's gross, It's not fragrant, It leads to death. So for anyone in the room, I got to close this out, this entire series. Anyone in the room who wants to genuinely follow Jesus, you've got to meet him, You've got to let him deal with you And you got to spend enough time with him to where it becomes a natural byproduct that people around you not only notice that you're different, but they become different when you're around, Cuz that's what Jesus did for you And that's what he calls us to do for others. And for some of you, you're thinking this isn't relevant to me because I don't know Jesus.

That's totally relevant, Cuz the fact that you're even here today could mean that you're trying to add air freshener to the concoction, but it won't help you get life eternal.

And if that's you, what you need is true cleansing, and it comes with the forgiveness of sins, And that starts with a confession. . So if everybody would bow their heads, close their eyes, I'm going to pray over you, Father. God, be with everyone in this room, Help them draw near to you.

And as they draw near to you, I'm trusting, .

Seeing it with my life, I'm trusting you'll do what you do. The big problem isn't that we didn't understand you when we were near. The problem is that we were never near you, so we don't understand. And so, God, I pray we would draw near to you.

God, we know you're present, We know you're accessible, And so, God, if the people in this room confess before you that they're willing to submit, that they're willing to be led captive, city to city, friend group to friend group, family member to family member, emitting the fragrant aroma of Christ Jesus, God, I pray that you would transform them right now, Cling to every molecule of their being and radically shift their perspective and their posture.

God be with them right now, in the