Job 28:1-30:31, 2 Corinthians 2:12-17, Psalms 42:1-11, Proverbs 22:7
Today is the 28th day of August. I am Brian. It is a pleasure and a joy to be here with you as we reach the middle of the week of the last week of the month and, yeah, just a couple days from the family reunion. So, exciting time around here. It’s exciting to be here with you today as we take the next step forward in the Scriptures. And that will lead us back out into the book of Job in the Old Testament and back into Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth that we call second Corinthians. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Job 28 through 30 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians today he says something kinda interesting, unique actually. He says, “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.” “The aroma of the knowledge of Him” is fascinating. So, like, think…think of a couple months from now, at least those of you in the United States, think of, you know, late November and Thanksgiving time and autumn and think of the aroma of that season, right? You can put your finger on it right away. Its…its Thanksgiving dinner. Its…its all those candles that have that very very specific autumn kind of smell. The leaves begin to fall. It gets wetter and you smell people burning the leaves at night. There’s an aroma, right? Ans as soon as that holiday ends, then the aroma changes, right, to like peppermint and fur…like Christmas tree smells, right, because there’s an aroma around that season. In fact, I mean, we don’t always pay attention to what it is that we’re smelling but when we walk into a room, even if it doesn’t register with us consciously, if that room smells fragrant then we’ll respond to it because the aroma changes the atmosphere. And Paul says that God uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Him everywhere. So, what do you smell like? It’s an odd question, but what do your words smell like? And I’m not like thinking they smell like minty breath or bad breath. I mean, are your words bringing the aroma of Christ and changing the atmosphere? Or like, what about the choices that you make, like the actions that you’re gonna do today, the things that you’re gonna do, are they changing the atmosphere with the aroma of Christ? Right? Because we can walk into a room and not register… we can just register, “oh that smells good. Oh…” it might take a while, “Oh that’s cookies. Are you baking cookies? I’d like”, you know, “I’d like a cookie.” It’s not always immediately noticeable but the longer that you linger the more that you become aware. That’s what an aroma does, and God is using us to produce the aroma of Christ in the world. So, is that what’s going on around you or are you repellent? Like, literally do you suck the air out of the room and replace it with an atmosphere that people want to get away from. Because if God can use us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Christ, well then we can certainly in our own strength to do just the opposite. And this will all happen by the way that we choose to live our lives today - in our thoughts and in our words and in our deeds. And it’s easy enough to say, “well it’s hard to…it’s hard to know the impact that you’re having” but not if you’re paying attention. Have you ever been like stressed out and, you know, anxiety is just kinda churning in your belly and you’re not really sure exactly how to make a rational decision and things are not going well but you get around somebody who’s calm and they begin to talk you through it and they begin to peel back the layers with you and you’re not alone in this and…and they stay calm and the change the atmosphere and you leave there…maybe everything…maybe nothing has changed at all except for you experienced the aroma of Christ and you responded to it.
If we’ll Just listen to what the sons of Kora had to say today in the Psalms, we’ll know…we’ll know the posture that we need to have to change the atmosphere wherever we go. The Psalm says, “as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” If that’s our hearts posture, then we will definitely be bringing the aroma of Christ and the awareness of the knowledge of God into all situatio,ns.
Prayer:
And, so, Holy Spirit, we invite You into that. It’s kind of a new category. We don’t necessarily think of the way that we’re changing the atmosphere. It’s just not put in terms that we would normally think of. Yet here it is in the Bible. And, so, this gives us a great opportunity to think about it in those terms, that when we walk into a room, we’re carrying something with us and it’s either going to be compelling or repelling. May it be the aroma of Christ. Holy Spirit, come and help us understand that we carry within us that kind of power to, change the atmosphere of a room, of a situation, anything that You might send us into. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.