Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.
We hope today's message is encouraging to you.
This is our series, The One and Only, where we're taking a look
at Jesus himself, the only one who was worthy.
And I want you to be able to answer this question by the end
of this series. It's a challenging question, but
I want you to see it more as invitation.
You may say this. I know him as Savior, the one
who has set me free from sin and death, The one who has set me,
sealed me for eternity with God. I know him as Savior.
I know him as baby Jesus because he celebrate Christmas.
But do I know him as King? That's the question.
Do I serve him, Revere him, worship him as king, as the
reigning ruler of my life? As I said last week, whoever or
whatever is your king is what will order your life.
So it's imperative as wise people and wonderful people that
you are to make sure that you have the right king because that
king is going to order your life.
If your king is ice cream, you will order your life to get the
ice cream. You'll save your money.
You'll mark it on the calendar. You're driving by twisty tree
like I'm turning in. I didn't mean to turn in, but
there it is. I'm turning in.
And then you have an encounter with ice cream and the ice cream
changes you, it delights you and it D skinnies you all at the
same time, right? It's amazing.
But this is what I mean. Whatever is your king will order
your life and then it will impact your life.
You have a sports team as your king.
You will know this if you rise and fall with the wins and
losses of your team. And it's OK like after the game,
Like man, that stinks. But if on Wednesday your team
lost on Sunday and you're still kicking your cat number one, I
would say why do you have a cat? It's the only creature that God
did not create. Sweater got hot all the sudden.
But if your sports team is your king, you will order your life
around that team. And then when you interact with
that team, it will impact the way that you live.
So if we make God who is the King of the universe, the God of
order, not of chaos, our God, then he will bring order to our
lives if he is king. So how do we do that?
That's what this series is about.
Let me ask you again. You know him as Savior, you know
his baby Jesus. But do you know him as King?
The way you can answer this question is by doing what those
who honored him as king did and understanding why they honored
him as king matters as much as what they did.
We're looking at the magi in Matthew chapter 2.
Open. Your Bibles are the first book
of the New Testament. If you need a Bible, raise it
up. And Rich, who told me I have an
ugly sweater today. True story, Rich, I just called
you out in front of everybody. He's a good friend.
He's a dear friend. I love you, Rich.
Now this is awkward. Everyone clap for Rich.
If you need a Bible, raise your hand.
That's what we're really doing here.
We're coming to you with Bibles right up here right there.
Perfect. Anyone else need one?
Matthew chapter 2 Last week I read the entire chapter almost
this. I'm just going to read some
snippets so that we can get in the story together.
Matthew chapter 2 verse one. Ready to say yes.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the
time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and
asked where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?
Quite a declaration. We saw his star when it rose and
have come to worship him. Now skip down to verse 9.
After they had heard the king, they went on their way and the
star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it
stopped over the place where the child was.
When they saw the star they were overjoyed.
On coming to the house they saw the child.
Not a baby anymore. He's grown up a little bit.
Wasn't the night he was born? This is a little bit later on
with his mother Mary. And they bowed down and
worshipped him. These non Israelites God has
shown them in the stars. They come, they bring him gifts,
and they bow down to worship. And then they open their
treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and
myrrh. Everyone say gold, everyone say
frankincense and myrrh. Yes, we are not going to do what
most people did when Jesus arrived.
What did most people do when Jesus arrived?
Nothing. They completely missed it.
This is what we talked about last week.
No one was at his birth except for a ragtag group of shepherds.
And then later on these magis show up and of course, Joseph
and Mary were there. Everyone else whiffed.
We as Illuminate Church and I pray the rest of the Capital C
Church across the world, we're not going to do that.
Instead, we're going to embrace Jesus even as the Christ child,
as king. We're taking a look at these
gifts in order to understand why the Magi brought them to Jesus
and why they declared that He is King.
More than symbols are these gifts.
They're indicators of who this baby is and how we should
respond to and live in light of the Christ child in our hearts.
Specifically, each of these gifts very, very, very
specifically teaches us how to respond to baby Jesus, not as a
baby, but as a king, the only one, the one and only king.
Last week we talked about gold and we asked this question, is
he your king? Your answer is in the way that
you live and the way that you give.
When we live according to his word, we give him glory.
We're we're we're signed signpost.
What's the word? I'm looking for billboards for
his glory. So if I'm obeying him and
following his ways, which bless me and bless my life, then I
will reflect that he is a good God.
When I follow his ways, I want to live for him and give him
glory that I also want to give to him and bring my treasure to
him. And when I do these two things,
live and give, the world will know that he's not just my get
out of hell free card, that he's actually the master that I
serve. And that's a distinction.
And I just want to testify and sing Hallelujah because last
week to this week, 18 new households decided to become
first time givers here at Illuminate Church.
And you may not think that's anything, but I'll tell you
this, I'm so excited for those 18 households because suddenly
you've gone from money being an idol to God being the one that
you worship. And I can't wait to see what
happens in your life as a result of transferring your allegiance
from money to the Lord. It's going to do miracles in
your life. My wife and I started tithing in
1999 and 20, almost 27 years later, we haven't stopped
because of what God does in our lives.
When we order our lives, You're the king, not this money, not
this treasure. And just want to celebrate that
that's happening for those eighteen families.
Praise God. That was gold.
Today we look at frankincense. What in the world is
frankincense and why did the magi bring this to Jesus?
I can show you what frankincense isn't.
No relationship with Frankenstein.
This is frankincense. Put the candle back.
Anyone? Yeah.
Young Frankenstein. Love the movie.
Strange movie. Yeah.
Frankincense. It comes from a tree called the
Boswellia tree, which is mostly found in like northern Africa
and southern Asia, the strip of land.
Here's a Boswellia tree. Isn't it beautiful?
The SAP of it is the frankincense.
When it hardens, they harvested. Here's the SAP.
You won't believe the color of it.
Isn't that something just glorious?
This is frankincense. This is what the Magi brought to
King Jesus. Why in the world would they do
this? It might be frankincense might
be the best named object item product on the earth.
The word frankincense comes from the old French frank incense.
However you say that, did I sound French?
I felt French. It literally means frankincense
means pure incense or pollutant free incense.
Have you ever want to tell somebody the truth just plainly
and bluntly? And you said to them, I'm going
to be frank with you. You're like, where did that come
from? You're Tim?
Not well. I want to be frank.
I'd rather be frank. I wish my parents named me
Frank. No Frank there.
When you're saying Frank means I'm going to give you the truth
without any mixture. It's going to be pure truth and
nothing but the truth. So I'm going to be frank with
you. It's the same thing that's
happening here in Frankincense. When the first shipments of
Frankincense arrived from The Crusaders up into Europe, or
from the traders from the Far East and bringing it into
Europe, they tasted it, they burnt it and smelled it and they
said this is the real thing, this is the Frank, this is the
pure, this is the noblest incense.
And since then, the frank incense, the name has stuck in
every ancient culture. The core idea was the same.
Frankincense is the purest, most sacred form of incense on the
planet. So it's so pure that it's
reserved for kings, temples, and gods.
They're the only ones considered worthy of burning frankincense
to this two word frankincense. Therefore, once again, let me
tell you one of the most accurate product names in
history. It literally means the real
incense and that's what people have been calling it for the
last 800 plus years in English Frankincense.
Aren't you glad you know all this now?
Don't you feel smarter? All right, let's pray, Father.
Thanks for today. Amen.
There's more. Why did they bring out of all
the objects and all the things that can be burnt as incense,
why is it frankincense that is brought to King Jesus by the
Magi? Frankincense, it turns out, is
the gift of for a God, for divinity.
As I've already been saying, in every temple from Egypt to
Babylon to Rome, and even in Jerusalem, only frankincense was
considered pure enough to burn as an offering to a deity.
It was a widely known practice. It's just what people did.
If you wanted to worship your God, you burned incense.
And incense was burned, by the way, to create an atmosphere,
but it also looked like something going up to the Lord.
So it says prayer to whatever God or deity up and up to the
Lord. So and it also often created a
beautiful aroma in the room. It just everything combined was
like, this is for you, our God, whatever God they were
worshipping. Now in Jerusalem, the sacred
incense was burned twice daily in the golden altar in the holy
place, and the incense had to contain frankincense.
I'm going to show you some pictures so we have context of
what I'm talking about. This is just a model of
Solomon's Temple. If you go with us to Israel in
the next year and a half or so, you will be able to see this
very model on the ground there. So what I'm about to talk about
is inside the structure there, the tall structure in the end,
there's 2 chambers in there. One's called the Holy Place, and
then the other part is called the Holy of Holies.
Let's go inside. This is a terrible picture, but
I looked all over the Internet. Somebody needs to do a great
rendition of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.
This is what we get. But in the Holy Place, this
first chamber on the right, my right.
Oh, Oliver, right. If I stand this way is where the
priests would come in and operate.
You have the lampstand, which is the light of God on the far
right side. You have the showbread, which is
the provision of God. And then here he's standing
before the altar of incense and you can see the incense burning
up in front of the, the, the curtain.
There's a veil here. You can't see it because we're
at the side view, but there's a, there's a veil there between
where he's standing and then behind here, which is the Holy
of Holies, where the ark of the Lord, Raiders of the lost ark,
that ark sits. And God would come and sit here
in all of his glory and splendor to be present with God's people,
the Israelites. Are we all together?
Does everyone understand? Let me read the scripture where
we get the command to burn incense.
Exodus chapter 30 verse 7 says Aaron, who's a priest, must burn
fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the
lamps. He must burn incense again when
he lights the lamps at twilight. So incense will burn regularly
before the Lord for generations to come.
Do not offer on this altar any other incense or any burnt
offering or grain offering, and do not pour a drink offering on
it. This altar in the holy of
Holies, I'm sorry, in the holy place is strictly for the
burning of this incense. Now not only that, but burning
this incense outside of the temple was punishable by death.
That's how precious it was to the people.
It belonged exclusively to God and God only.
Exodus chapter 30 verse 34. Then the Lord said to Moses,
Take fragrant spices, gum, resin, uncha and galbanum.
However you say that, and pure frankincense, all in equal
amounts, and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a
perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and
sacred. Grind some of it to powder and
place it in front of the Ark of the Covenant Law in the 10th of
meeting where I will meet with you, it shall be most holy to
you. Do not make any incense with
this formula for yourselves. Consider it holy to the Lord.
Whoever makes incense like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut
off from their people. Wow, so special, so holy, so
sacred. This fragrant frankincense, this
incense burned only to the Lord. By giving frankincense to a
baby, the magi are declaring, proclaiming silently, they don't
have to speak. Everyone in the room would have
known. This child is divine.
This child is God. Can you imagine the affirmation
that Mary and Joseph felt when strangers showed up and they
offer them gold? They're like, whoa, but then
they open the next gift and it's frankincense.
And to them it would have been immediately known.
You only use this for a God. And here they are presenting it
to Jesus and Mary. I just imagine Mary, Joseph
looking at you like it's really real.
Like these guys, we never met him before.
They come from a Far East and they're bringing frankincense to
our Son who we've heard is the Son of God.
And now it's being affirmed over and over.
This child is divine. This child is God.
Secondly, frankincense is the gift for a high priest, is the
gift for a high priest. Once a year still to this day.
Those are the Jewish faith celebrate Yom Kippur.
It happens usually in September, October, depending on how the
Jewish calendar lands. Yom Kippur, Yom means day and
Kippur means covering. If you ever seen a Jewish person
wearing a small hat here we call a Yamaha, but it's also called a
kippah because it's a covering. You have to have a covering when
you go to the Western Wall and stand at the temple, you must
approach it with a kippah, a covering on your head.
Yom Kippur, the day of covering, also known as the Day of
Atonement, the day where the people sins get covered over how
well the Day of Atonement was the one day a year that the high
priest and the high priest only could enter into the holy
holies. Jeff, will you throw that
picture back up there of the, the, the the temple one day a
year and one day only the high priest who's like the Pope, the
president, he's the head of all theological and cultural Jewish
culture. And that day he himself would go
behind the curtain into the presence of God to offer prayers
and sacrifices for God's people. Everyone put on your big
thinking caps. You got to do some thinking and
understanding here. All right, what is going on?
Well, in the very beginning, God makes a covenant with a man
named Abraham. Father Abraham had many sons.
His grandson is Jacob. Jacob gets his name changed to
Israel. So we're talking about the
lineage of Israel starts with Abraham.
Everyone following me so far, that's a lot of thinking, but
put your it's important to know this and the covenant was
Abraham. I'm going to bless you and make
you a huge nation that will bless all other nations.
The whole world's going to know about me because I'm going to
bless you and your family, right?
The only thing you have to do is obey me and follow me.
So let's make a covenant together.
And it's not just a handshake or a wink wink.
It's not even a signed document. We're going to make the most
purest form of covenant. And he tells Abraham this is all
in the book of Genesis. You can go read it.
Get some animals, cut them in two, put them on two sides and
make a pathway down the middle. This is how people make
covenants in those days. And he says, you and I are going
to pass between the parts of the animal.
And here's what it meant. Like if I don't keep up my end
of the bargain, then may it be to me as it is to these animals.
If I don't keep up my part, then blood must be spilled.
Somebody must die. Well, you may know the story,
but God's people did not keep their side of the covenant.
They continually offended, broke the law of the Lord over and
over. And God was merciful.
And he said instead of you sacrificing yourself or your
children like other gods require, Baal, they used to
throw their children in the fire as sacrifices to Baal.
Don't do that, he said. Instead of you sacrificing
yourselves, I'll allow you to sacrifice a perfect spotted,
spotless lamb in your place. And the people would do this.
They would bring their offerings, and if they couldn't
afford a land, they would buy a dove or a bird, and they would
sacrifice that there at the temple.
But once a year the high priest would take the most perfect
spotless lamb and sacrifice it and bring the blood of it into
the Holy of Holies and spread it around, praying.
Lord, may this blood cover us and cover our sin, because we
still need a covering between US and you.
Exodus chapter 33 actually tells us that no man or woman can
stand in front of God and live. Too much glory, too much power,
too much brilliant light. No one can do it.
So there always needs to be a covering between US and God.
At some points it's the veil. And then when the priest would
go into the holy holies, well, how is he covered?
Look with me at Leviticus chapter 16.
He, the priest, is to take a sensor full of burning coals
from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely
ground fragrant incense, frankincense, and take them
behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on the
fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will
conceal the atonement cover above the tablets of the
covenant law so that he will not die.
The veil separates us from the presence of God so that we won't
die. And then when the High priest
goes in to the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood of the Lamb,
he is covered by the cloud of incense.
Are you following me? Are you following me back there?
Yes, he is, at least now listen closely, just as it was for the
High priest. I want you to know it's still
impossible for any human being and stand in front of a holy God
uncovered. Too much glory, too much
holiness, too much purity, too much power, too much light.
It's impossible. That has not changed.
What has changed is the covering.
It was the veil that went away. And for the high priest, it was
the frankincense. And now today, because of the
death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our covering is
the blood of Jesus applied to us by faith.
You're not smeared with actual blood of Jesus, but by faith
there is this covering and now we can approach God.
This is why John the Baptist, when he's announcing Jesus's
arrival, he even says, hey, there's Jesus, everybody, the
Savior. He says look, his first words
about Jesus. It's the Lamb of God come to
take away the sins of the world. The perfect, spotless, once and
for all sacrifice is here amongst us and it's him.
He's pointing to Jesus. What's happening in this moment
should still take our breaths away.
Look at what Jesus. What happens with Jesus?
Matthew chapter 27. He's on the cross.
He's about to breathe his glass. And when Jesus had cried out
again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
At that moment, the curtain, the temporary covering, is torn in
two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks
split. What was accessible only once a
year under the cover of a cloud of incense is now approachable
for anyone who put their trust in God.
The presence of God Jesus has become our covering and This is
why the Magi bring the Frankincense.
Frankincense was the Magi's way of saying, without saying a
word, we recognize this child as God in human flesh, the ultimate
priest king who will offer himself as the sacrifice for the
sins of the world. It's why out of the thousands of
things that they could have brought, costly things,
incredible things, they bought frankincense because it is the
most theologically loaded item on the earth imaginable in that
culture. Frankincense.
And you may be saying like, great, that's nice to know.
Thanks for sharing all that. I'm not sure what to do with all
that. What do I do?
Remember, the point of understanding the gifts is to
understand that they brought them to signify that He's king.
So our job, our response as a church in this Christmas season,
really every day of your life, is to continually bring these
gifts before the Lord so that you and I together do the same
thing. I want to declare with my life
to the Lord, to myself, and to all the rest of the world, that
He's my king. So if they brought frankincense,
I'm going to bring frankincense. If that's what they did, then
that's what I'm going to do. We need to bring our
frankincense to the Lord. And I put it in a question.
Is he your king? Bring him your frankincense.
So everyone, on the count of three, I want you to dig in your
pockets. Bring your frankincense down to
the altar. Ready 123.
Anyone got some frankincense? I know there's a lady at the
backstage. Like I can say frankincense oil.
Like don't mix that with Anchenka and goblin because you
have to be separated from your people.
Everyone in this room has frankincense and you may not
know it. You have it right here, right
now, and you could bring it to the Lord right here and right
now if only you knew that you had it.
Psalm chapter 141 says, I call to you, Lord, come quickly to
me. Hear me when I call to you.
May my prayer be set before you, like say the word incense.
May the lifting of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.
This is the Old Testament. And when something's in the Old
Testament, in the New Testament, it's really affirming to us as
believers. It says, wow, this is a story
that has stretched the entire thread of the Gospels all the
way through the entire biblical narrative.
Revelation chapter 5, We're in the throne room of God.
John is being given a vision from the Lord of what the future
will be like. We're in the throne room of God.
God is sitting there. He has a scroll in his hand that
explains with the final judgments that will be poured
out on the earth and how things will end.
And here in verse 8, it says that Jesus takes it.
And when he, Jesus, had taken it, the four living creatures
which only exist in heaven and the 24 elders fell down before
the Lamb. Each one of these elders had a
harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense.
What's the incense? The instance are the prayers of
God's people. Frankincense in these golden
bowls, in the prayers of the Saints, lifted up before the
Lord. In other words, this is easy.
You can put this together for yourself, but to offer the gift
of frankincense is to pray unto the Lord of Lords.
You have frankincense, it's in your heart, it's in your mind,
it's in your soul, it's in your spirit.
It's these prayers that we want to offer before the Lord, but we
have these mixed up feelings about prayer.
Some of us think that it's just a chance to sit down with God
and make requests like Santa, I want this and that and that.
And then you send it up and you say, I hope I've been good
enough that he responds, right. Maybe if I did things right and
went to church religiously and put my money in the box
religiously, I'm going to get for him my list.
We think of it as a list of asks unto the Lord.
Or we think it was like the boring chanting of monks.
And I would dare say that most people in this room, much less
people outside of this room, barely pray at all.
Maybe you pray before Emil or a big moment, right?
Oh God, I need help right. He's like you're last minute
rescue. I get it, totally normal human
is just what we do. But what would it look like as a
church if we were like happened in the temple regularly and
constantly sending our fragrance, our incense burning
up to the Lord? Maybe you need to rethink and be
invited into what prayer really is.
At its root, prayer is communion.
Prayer is simply you spending time with the one that you love
and you allowing the one that you love to spend time with you.
Have you ever said a prayer like this, like, Hey God, how are
you? And then stop and listen.
You ever tried that? Hey, God, what's on your heart?
What's on your mind? What is your request of me?
Have you ever, I mean, if you have a relationship with
somebody, spending time, especially somebody you love
dearly, somebody who's rescued and saved your life, you spend
time with them. You know, just talk the whole
time and make requests like, hey, I know that you've done a
lot for me already. But here's 17 more things I want
you to do. And you better do them in this
order. And you can do anything you
want, but choose from one of these five options.
Want to do right? If you have a real relationship
with somebody, you sit and you listen and you just hang.
Sometimes when you have a really great relationship with
somebody, you can sit with each other and not say anything at
all. It's like, hey, good to see you.
You too, let's just hang. I'm glad to be with you.
The discipline of prayer becomes the joy of prayer because you
recognize I'm just coming to hang out and have communion with
you. Her also does what frankincense
does. It means that we say with our
life, this isn't just a myth or a legend, this Jesus thing.
He's not a wood carved idol. He is the able 1.
He is God in the flesh. He is deity.
And I pray not to a vapor, but I pray to the real one who is
able. And when I pray, I declare it
with my life to myself, to him, and to everyone else in my life.
When I pray, I also reaffirm that he is the one who is my
covering. That's why we pray, Father, in
Jesus name, I come to the covering of the one who gave his
life for me. I'm entering into the Holy of
Holies, into the presence of God through the covering of Jesus.
And that's why we say at the end, in Jesus name, Amen.
And not only that, but most crucially, prayer is the
exchange of wills. Prayer is where you say God,
I've got some ideas and I've got some wants and I got some things
that I really need to happen in my life.
But I'm going to take all of that and submit it way under
your will from my life. May your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. By the way, we were made from
the earth. We were made from dirt.
So when you pray, Lord, will your will be done on earth in
this earth, in me, as it is in heaven.
Paul, the apostle who writes a lot of the New Testament, he
says pray without ceasing. Like, how can I do that?
Like sometimes I've got to work and I can't be like, hi, here's
your Big Mac. Like, how do you pray without
ceasing? Well, you can constantly
exchange your will without saying anything in every moment,
in every situation. Driving on I-4, waiting in line
for Space Mountain, whatever you're doing, that takes a lot
of patience. Raising children, driving to
your in laws for Christmas, whatever.
I love my in laws, by the way, At every moment you can exchange
your will. And when you exchange your will
for God's will, that is prayer. And you are offering your
incense to the Lord, going up to him regularly all the time.
I'm inviting the church this Christmas to be a Church of
prayer. Maybe it's something new that
you and your spouse, you and your neighbor, you and your
friend, you and somebody else, you and the Lord start a new
tradition every night and every morning.
Remember how Aaron would like the incense in the morning, at
night? I'm going to pray and I'm not
just going to give Idlib service.
I'm actually going to do it. I'm going to set a reminder on
my phone and every time I'm in the morning, every time I'm
going to gather my children, I'm going to gather some Co workers.
Hey, we're going to be people of prayer.
We're going to let our incense go up to the Lord.
I love the scripture in Hebrews. It kind of puts all of this
together. Hebrews chapter 10.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to
enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, you understand
that now, right? I have confidence to go into
where the Lord is because of the blood of Jesus by a new and
living way opened for us through the curtain that is his body.
He's become the curtain, our covering.
And since we have a great priest over the House of God, that is
Jesus, let us draw near to God. This is prayer, drawing near to
God with a sincere heart and with full assurance that faith
brings. Having our hearts sprinkled to
cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies
washed with pure water. Let us hold unswerved to the
hope we profess for he who promised is faithful.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love
and good deeds. This is what I'm trying to do
today. I'm spurring you on to these
good deeds. Verse 25 not giving up meeting
together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging
one another on all the more as you see the capital D-Day
approaching, the day of the Lord, a day of His return.
Let us be prepared. Drawing near to him in faith,
covered in the blood of Jesus, praying unto Him, offering our
fragrance to Him. Paul says in Second Corinthians
that we are fragrance, A fragrant aroma pleasing to the
Lord. I just want to leave you today
with this thought, and it's going to be a little strange,
but this is what the Lord gave me.
When you wake up, you stink. You just got your body smell and
most people, not every people do something about that.
We have this thing called deodorant.
It's taking away the odor, deodoring you.
We have this stuff called Cologne Edu Toilette.
I don't even know what that means of the toilet.
Doesn't make any sense to me. If you're French, you could
probably explain it to me, but I don't want to know the truth
because I'd rather stay ignorant.
Perfume And then we go out into the world and if we put on the
perfume and the deodorant, the people around us like smells
nice. I I grabbed Ronnie, we would
give a hug and I got in his neck and I, well, that sounds weird.
I just was hugging him and my nose happened to be near his
neck. I'm like, man, you smell good.
He put on some stink. Think you know, you know where
I'm going with this. I wonder what we smell like to
the Lord. And trust me, however you smell
to the Lord is how you're going to smell to others when you pray
in the morning. It's like putting on the Cologne
of heaven, the perfume of the Lord God Almighty, the fragrance
going up to him and going out to others.
I'm wondering this morning, how do you smell?
We do breath checks. You know what I'm talking about?
Anyone, anyone. We do, we kind of do this
sometimes. You ever done those checks?
Anyone you ever picked up your shoe?
Like, oh, like, why do we do that?
When we do it, we, we need to check the smell of our spirit
and see if it smells like the fragrance of heaven or the stink
of the world. Because the world going to get
on you. It smells its odors.
And you can leave that there or you can pray and be doused in
the incense of the Kingdom of God.
This is our frankincense. How do you spell?
Last question, are you covered? Believers in Christ Jesus are
covered by the blood of Jesus. He is the final sacrifice that
upholds the covenant that God made with Abraham in the very
beginning. And when you believe on Jesus,
yes, you are set free from your sin, from the penalty of sin.
Very clear, which is death, spiritual death, but what's
greater is your set towards set free towards a life with God
that begins the moment you believe, begins the moment you
take on the blood of Jesus covered by him.
Now able to approach the throne of God with confidence and there
hang out with him, draw a life from him, make requests from him
and also listen to his request from us.
This happens when we're covered by the blood.
The Bible says that if you believe in your heart and
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be
saved. You will be covered in the blood
of Jesus. If you've never done that, then
look at me closely. The reason God brought you here
today is because He wants to cover you in His love, Cover you
in the blood of Jesus so that you and He can have fellowship
together, perfect communion without the penalty or the power
of sin in your life because of His goodness and His love for
you. So if you've never done that,
today is your day. We're going to pray and give you
an opportunity right now to do that.
Would you bow your heads, close your eyes?
Father, thank you for the gift of Jesus.
Thank you that the curtain is torn, that the veil has been
lifted, that we can enter in to your holy presence because of
the blood of the Lamb. We rejoice in our salvation.
We rejoice in this covering, Thank God.
We recognize that there may be some here today who have yet to
make that step, and you've brought them here today to do
that. So Lord, till the soil, make
ready the hearts of those who are to believe by your goodness
and mercy. Whole church, would you pray out
loud as we do every Sunday saying Father in the name of
Jesus? I recognize that I am a Sinner
who is uncovered and I need a Savior who will cover me.
So I confess and I believe that Jesus is my Savior, that his
blood covers over my sin and gives me access to the Father.
Come and live your life through me, Jesus.
Thanks for joining us today. We hope God is speaking to your
heart through this message. If you'd like to connect with
us, you can text connect to 407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate
dot church. Have a great week.