For Others at Work

Let’s open our bibles together to 2nd Corinthians, and find with me chapter 2 and verse 14. 14 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. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 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? 17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God. Last week week we began the ending of our 10 week series together, with the emphasis on “for others" in our Neighborhood. We examined in Marks gospel how Jesus sent out the disciples ,two by two to proclaim the gospel, and call people to repent.

One truth we explored last week was this, If your walk with Jesus is always about your comfort, you’ll never call yourself out of your own comfort zone to seek the lost. This morning, I want to look this theme, For others in our workplaces. When it comes to sharing the gospel, Every single person, believes and shares a gospel. IN our Scripture this is the aroma that Paul is speaking of.

What aroma are you giving off. The question is it the true gospel that we find in God’s word? Everybody knows something has gone terribly wrong, both in our soul, but also in our society. If you don’t believe me, just turn on the news. There’s fighting & wars, Famines, droughts, and don’t get me started on the whole political scene and how messed up that is. And so, we know there’s something deeply wrong with this world and so all of us, because we know something terrible has happened, we’re trying to put our hope into something or someone as the solution.

Pastor Tim Keller who just passed away this year, he mentioned that as long as you have breathe in your lungs, shows that you have hope and faith in something. And what we realize is that if that hope is on anything else other than God, eventually that hope will let you down. One reason, if you want to write this down or put it in your memory bank… one reason why we share the good news is because we have a hope that will never let us down.

We share the good news because Jesus is our hope. And so, we share the gospel of Jesus with others, when we share Jesus we share unshakable hope. But here’s the thing about the gospel. What gospel are you preaching and believing yourself? What would you say if I told you that today you preach some sort of gospel with your life? I learned this from a pastor named, Caleb Martinez who shared this information.

He teaches that there are three gospels we put our hope in and share with others. First, we spoke a little last week over it.. 55% in our community do not believe. They don’t believe in a religion at all but yet there is a gospel that they believe and we would call this, the secular gospel. This gospel is still a gospel but it’s not one that points others to the creator of all things.

It’s very human. It seeks to put human satisfaction and happiness first. It’s a gospel that says, I am the center of the universe. When we live for a secular gospel we tend to reject sin, and say things like. I’m not so bad. We exchange preachers for therapist. Now, I not saying therapist are bad, I seek mental help from therapy from time to time. What I’m saying is that secular gospel would not preach the message of turning from sin.

Instead, the secular gospel would preach, don’t worry about turning from sin, just turn within. Follow your truth. Follow what you believe. Be you. Be an individual. And although it seems to be harmless, or even helpful but actually it’s very hollow inside. It’s hollow because we exchanged holiness for happiness. Now, I need to make a disclaimer here. I am not saying that you’ll not find joy in your life.

What I am saying is this, to be happy, in a god given way is to become holy, but you can’t experience joy without holiness. Because happiness is found in my circumstances, while in holiness we find our joy in Jesus. Far too often we find ourselves stressed because we’re pursing some sort of happiness in life. And we learn that in this secular gospel, that my happiness is me chasing everything else but God.

Prayer is moved aside for more sleep. Bible reading is moved aside for more time scrolling our phones. We fill our lives with so many commitments that we don’t realize that our commitments are the cause of our stress. So when it comes to coming to church on a Sunday or being together in mid week, we replace being together with every other life pursuits. Our happiness is finding contemned through business, but what we do not realize is that it causes us to have a never ending cycle of anxiety.

The second gospel is one all of us may have been a part of, it’s called the American gospel. Now, before you grab your pitchforks I need to explain why many people within the church are actually believing in this false gospel. One component of the American gospel is that you need to be saved from hell. Now, that’s true. This gospel, you can find it in the scriptures but I believe it is incomplete because it does not make any emphasis on Jesus living in your life, and transforming your life.

That’s why you have people who knock on your door and say, Hi, how are you. What’s your name. I am so and so, let me ask you a question. If you were to die tonight, where would you go? Heaven or hell? I cringe when I would hear people say this… and honestly, this is what turned me off from continuing with the farmers association at the fair. They would sit in the tent, and yell at people as they walked by, “If you were to die today would you go to heaven or hell?" Let me just say…

that is not a good conversation starter. That is a poor way to evangelize to people in todays culture. It’s not a good way to get invited into someones house, or a good way to get people invited into the tent to hear the gospel. Because in my experience when I was preaching at the farmers association tent, once a person was led to Christ, they put their name on a pice of paper, and then sent them off with a walking stick to fend for themselves.

And so, here’s one of the issues with this kind of evangelism… it gives off the impression that it has everything to do with eternity, or your last day on earth, and not so much as becoming holy right now, and in this life, on this side of heaven. It’s about quantity more than seeing a life change in a person. So the question, what is salvation when it comes to the American gospel is this, “Salvation is living in heaven forever when we die.” “We’re not perfect.

We’re never gonna really transform on this side of heaven.”But when we die, we’ll be glorified. Everything will be better. No more tears, no more crying. And what a great gospel to believe in. Because, look we have a lot of conversions. We have a lot of people coming to Christ but that’s the whole point, and usually the only point. There’s usually only Conversions over discipleship. When I was helping the farmers association, that was my greatest issue with that they were doing.

There was no, let’s direct them to a church, or let’s get their information for a follow up, or to even lead them to baptism. Their idea of this American gospel they preached was to lead as many eternity without there being a need for Jesus outside of salvation. And so the American gospel doesn’t promote, in my opinion, a holiness that is possible on this side of heaven. It’s a tremendous strategy for making converts, but it’s terrible at making disciples.

I hope you see what I am saying, that although the American gospel preaches eternity, it has no real plan for longevity of seeing the person grow as a disciple in the present. The American gospel does not seek to see lives transformed. It becomes about sin management. It’s very individualistic. You just worry, am I gonna go to heaven? It’s just me and Jesus and there is no desire ot be with the body of Christ.

As long as I’m saved once, I am saved forever. This gospel can be found in the Scriptures with some elements of truth, But the emphasis on the American gospel is this, There’s eternity but no internal change or discipleship needed. It’s the once saved always saved mentality. And that is not the gospel we believe in. The third gospel that we live out in our lives is this, the biblical gospel.

The secular gospel rejects eternity and says that the end of life is for the happiness of man. As long as I get to the end of my human life, and I am happy, I have achieved and lived a good life. The American gospel focuses on eternity with Christ, but rejects the growth of the disciple. The biblical gospel is what we find in the Bible that combines salvation, with internal change, and eternity with Jesus.

It’s lived out in everyday life, and with an everyday sanctification looking froward to Christ as our perfecter of faith, and our anchor of hope. What do I mean by sanctification? Sanctification is this process of us growing and changing on this side of heaven to become more like Jesus, and the outcome is becoming holy people. The Biblical gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe, but only everlasting joy.

But the gospel doesn’t stop there… the gospel is also the belief that those who have put there faith in Jesus now have His Spirit residing within them. And the Spirit as we have learned is forming us into His likeness. So the reality is, we never outgrow our need of the gospel. This isn’t like the American gospel where you put your faith in Jesus and now wait for death to be with Jesus..

no the biblical gospel is our everyday aroma from being with Jesus because Jesus is and has become our everyday life. John Piper writes, You never, never, never outgrow your need for this gospel. You don’t begin the Christian life with this and then leave it behind and get stronger with something else. God strengthens us with the gospel to the day we die.” What we learn is that in everyday life, this gospel we believe always produces a new direction in this age, and it always produces a newer person, everyday, if you remember in 2nd corinthians, we are changing, every day, from one glory to another.

So the biblical gospels is this emphasis on daily change into the likeness of Jesus. I want to encourage us this morning to ponder this question… what is the gospel aroma are we giving to others? Here’s where I want to go back into our Scripture. Look with me back in verse 14. Paul write, 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.

A life in Christ spreads the aroma of Him everywhere. Can you imagine trying to spread the aroma of Christ if we lived a secular gospel? Where you can read of Jesus, and know about Jesus and even know about eternal life, but still reject him as Lord over your life. Because I believe there are many who believe they are Christians and live that life. That would mean we’re trying to spread this aroma from within ourselves.

The gospel is dependent upon our happiness, and when I am unhappy, I lose all joy and mostly I lose all hope as well. What about the American gospel? Where the gospel is Repent and believe and have eternal life secured but it allows for your life to live in sin. Your just living for eternity to happen one day, but there is not emphasis on relationship or discipleship. And again, I believe this comes with comfort.

It’s easier to accept an eternity than it the fact that Christ calls us to be changed in the present. Then there is the biblical gospel. Where holiness and sanctification is our goal. Where eternity’s not our reward, but Christ Jesus himself is our reward. You see, “Jesus’s gospel is proven to produce disciples.” Not just followers, but disciples. As and disciples we are called to be the fragrance of Christ wherever we go.

That’s verse 15, look with me in verse 15. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. In a very real sense, believers make Christ present on earth, as He is in them. Everywhere they travel, they symbolically "give off the smell" of the Savior to fellow Christians and unbelievers alike.

It's an aroma that is received differently depending on one's eternal status. It’s living out this life of faith to everyone. And let me just say, if you remember last week, people can and will reject the gospel. I want to finish our message today with some practical truths. There are four aroma’s that God loves most. First, it’s the aroma of prayer. Just as the beginning of discplsipleshi is proximity, its the same with prayer.

I think of Psalm 27:4, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” I also thin of Psalm 77:13 the in the passion transition, It's here in your presence, in your sanctuary, where I learn more of your ways, for holiness is revealed in everything you do.

Lord, you're the one and only, the great and glorious God! Prayer is seeking to be in His presence. I want to dwell in HIs house. This is the foundation of of prayer.. to be in his presence, in his throne room, in the sanctuary of God. I want to gaze upon him. I sat in my room the other day, seeking, and pleading, and asking questions. I want to inquire of him for this decision and that decision.

I want to bask in his presence. Prayer is the foundation of presence. Prayer is the breath of a Christian. TO ask a Christina to stop praying is asking a christians to die. The second aroma is this, Repentance. Listen. This is very important. You can’t just confess your sins. That does nothing. Confession does nothing if there is no repentance. Because confession without repentance is nothing but bragging about your sin.

David cries out, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. IN David’s life, and in his confession was the reality that his Spirit was broken over his sin. There must be a sorrow over your sin. But here’s the danger, sorrow over sin must lead us to Christ who died for our sin. If we allow sorrow to settle in and then believe that there is no hope for us, we allow the enemy to trick us into believing that Christ, upon the cross of calvary, and his resurrection was not enough to defeat our sin.

And if the is true, then every person who has confessed in Christ is enterally lost. That’s a lie.That’s a lie.That’s a lie. Sorrow must lead the heart of the persons to confession. Confession should not look to mitigate, to lesson, or excuse, or rationalize or blame. Genuine confession takes ownership of the pain that our sin has caused and it thrusts it upon the only person who can save us from it…

and that is Jesus Christ. Scripture tells us that we must not only repent but that we must also actively turn from the sins we commit. And here’s the key, repentance never feels good. and if it does, you’re doing it wrong. Our need for repentance is what reminds us of our need for grace while displaying our growth in grace to the world around us. That’s an aroma that is pleasing to God and will be pleasing to others.

The third aroma is of your witness. In our Scripture Paul charges Christians to spread “the fragrance of the knowledge of everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” This knowledge that Paul speaks of, that we proclaim ,is that Jesus Christ was crucified for the sins of mankind, and all who repent and appropriate his sacrificial death on the cross through faith will be saved by God’s grace.

Paul write to the Ephesians, 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. And unforntualy, not everyone likes this scent of truth even when it’s spoken “with gentleness and respect,” as it always ought to be. ‘ Understand this, nothing is more pleasant to the Father than to see his Son glorified in the courageous testimonies of those he came to save.

And if the Lord is pleased with us, “what can man do?” And finally, the aroma of our love. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” As Christ-followers, we are called to give no less (Ephesians 5:2) — not that we are called to die for others’ sins. But we are called to demonstrate Christ’s suffering and sacrifice through our own emotional, spiritual, and even physical sufferings on behalf of others, however that may look in our daily lives (Colossians 1:24).

What aroma are you giving off to others? *