Being the aroma of Christ
22nd January 2006
Pete Elwin
God's glory is right inside us and has been since we accepted Christ into our lives. We find it difficult to see, but we need to get hold of the idea that God is in us with all his power and his glory.
Rom 8 v 16: The Holy Spirit testifies that we are God's children. But why are we here, what is our purpose, who are we really?
It's not about what we do.
There's no point striving to please God, we can't do it. It's not what we do, it's relationship. God wants our attention, not our activity.
Rom 3 v 22-24
Our purpose is to be intimate with God, that intimacy is given to us, we don't have to earn it.
John 14 v 16-17, 20, 23: The spirit is in us, Jesus is inside us, they both make their home in us. God is not at a distance, on a cloud up there, he is with us.
John 7 v 38: Streams of living water flow from within. Believing is all that is necessary, belief the size of a mustard seed. We don't have to strive to be Christ-like, we just have to let him shine.
Heb 1 v 3: Jesus is the radiance of God's glory, and Jesus is in us,
2 Cor 2 v 14-15: We are to God the aroma of Christ amongst the lost. He likes the way we smell, we please him. We are ALWAYS part of God's victory procession, he is so pleased with us that he parades with us. Doesn't matter if we've been a good Christian that week, it's always.
Our calling is to spread the aroma of Christ throughout the world. Just let him out. The aroma drifts where it will, and some will react to the aroma and some won't.
Rom 8 v 9: Controlled by the spirit not by our sinful nature. God is in us, we are free from sin. Sometimes we feel that this is not true, but that's not what the Bible says. We need to believe that we are not slaves to sin, but we are signed up by God.
2 Cor 5 v 17: New creation in Christ. The old has gone, the new has come. Gone - not hidden or blocked or plastered over. Gone.
Our experience is that the old is alive and kicking in our everyday lives. God's word tells us something else. This is all part of working out our identity in Christ. We are not Christ-like. Christ is in us.
2 Cor 3 v 17: Where God is, there is freedom.
Believing = be living!
John 10 v 10: Life to the full
John 7 v 38: Streams of living water
Why is it that we don't feel these verses are true for our lives? We don't feel that our friends are washed over by living water flowing from God in us.
This is due to a mental problem. We interact with the world through our senses, our experience. We focus on what we remember, what our unconscious tells us and takes on board. Our brains get programmed during our lives, we get filters. Each person sees the world differently.
God has no filters, he sees things as they really are. Who do we trust, our filtered brains or God who sees things as they really are.
2 Cor 5 v 7: Live by faith not by sight. That's not the way we mostly live. Our brains hold us captive by keeping our focus on the here and now rather than the eternal.
Illustration of us living in a box. It seems fine until God opens a hole in the box and we see the world outside and we realise we're just in a box. We can step out into the real world.
Illustration from the film 'The Matrix' in which the people think they're in the real world but it's all just a computer-induced mass dream.
How do we define 'real'? If it's about what we can see and touch, 'real' is just electrical signals interpreted by our brain. Like in the film.
We are spiritual beings, in God's reality. We don't naturally reside here on Earth, so we wear an 'Earth suit' while we're here, and we leave it behind when we leave. Our brain is part of the suit. As we grow and take on experiences our suit gets damaged and filters get in. We trust what our Earth suit tells us rather than God. Optical illusions show how our Earth suit deceives us.
God is so real in the real reality that Jesus could walk into locked rooms in our world. He is so real that he can enter our dreams. The spiritual is more real than what we see and touch.
We are called to not conform to the world. But we grow up coping with the world in our own strength. We make it our reality.
Rom 12 v 2: Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We have to learn what is real and what is not.
Gal 2 v 20: Crucified with Christ, Christ lives in me. This is the reality. We need to learn to live in the reality not the experience. We have to inhabit an Earth suit but we can live in it differently!
We are immensely valuable to God. That's his reality.
Mark 12 v 30: Love the Lord your God will all your heart, soul, mind & strength. This is how he loves us! This is his reality.
Gal 2 v 20: The life I live in the body I live by faith. This isn't just about giving up a salary, there's much more to it than that. Living by faith is believing that the world we live in is less real than the one we're headed for.
Col 3 v 2-3: Set your mind above Earthly things. Take every though captive.
What's your ongoing story with God? How are you going to start seeing reality differently? Remember the word to this church about operating in our weaknesses not our strengths. | 
