Text: 2 Corinthians 2:14-16

 14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.   15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:  16 To the one we are the savour of death unto death;  and to the other the savour of life unto life.   And who is sufficient for these things?    

Sunday, 29^th September 2024

SERPENTS ARE CHASED AWAY WITH SWEET PERFUMES

Text: 2 Corinthians 2:14-16

Memory verse: Romans 8: 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

The sweet odour of a storax tree drives the serpent away. Do not be like the serpent that is driven away by the sweet perfumes of holiness and spirituality. Carnal hearts are only for things that delight the senses. They will talk about news or money, rather go with the sweet perfume of spiritual discussions, talk about Christ, living by faith, and this spiritual perfume will drive them away. How do you think of living with the saints in heaven, if you cannot endure their company here? You hate the sweet savour of their ointments, the fragrant perfume of their graces, spirituality and anointing that comes with it. Spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are like a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume.  

Waiting in the Lounge at the Abuja Airport domestic terminal, I was sitting very close to a Vice Counsellor in one of the universities at the South South Region of Nigeria. We were waiting for different flights to different destinations. We exchanged pleasantries and soon he asked me what I do. I told him I am an Apostle and writes Devotionals. I immediately introduced him to the Covenant Gate Devotional App on his phone. From that moment on our conversation took a different bearing. He was so happy and open and began to ask all kinds of questions. I was the fragrance of life to him. He was brought up a Catholic and was like God turned the switch for him and gave him the opportunity to return to faith. The Kiss of Life.

On another occasion and, I was seated next to a woman on my own flight to Lagos. We started talking and the same question came up. What do you do for a job? I told her the same thing. Her reaction was abrupt and final. She simply turned her back to me and looked out through the window, and it was a fifty-minute trip and we have not started taxing to the runway. At one point I looked at her and thought she was asleep, but then noticed she was not asleep; she was pretending to be asleep.  How sad. Something may have happened in that woman’s life to make her react that way. To her I was the disgusting odour of death. She had reacted to the things of God and Christ, the remedy for her sins, in such a way that cut her off from the very help she needed. There was the smell of spiritual death all over her. In those situations, you cannot do anything about it. You cannot put on a deodorant to make you the fragrance of life. You cannot wash off the smell of death. In Christ there is death and there is life and it’s on you as His ambassador, there is death and there is life; Life to some and death to others. The decision is not ours; it is theirs.

CGDS HYMN 54: SS&S 582: 

MORE HOLINESS GIVE ME, MORE STRIVINGS WITHIN

1. More holiness give me, more strivings within ;

More patience in suffering, more sorrow for sin ;

More faith in my Saviour, more

sense of His care ;  

More joy in His service, more purpose in prayer.

2. More gratitude give me, more trust in the Lord ;

More zeal for His glory, more hope in His Word ;

More tears for His sorrows, more

pain at His grief;

More meekness in trial, more praise for relief.

3. More purity give me, more strength

to o'ercome ;

More freedom from earth-stains,

more longings for home ;

More fit for the kingdom, more used

would I be;  

More blessed and holy, more, Saviour, like Thee.

 Prayers 

1.  Lord Jesus, help me to tend towards holiness and righteousness always.

2.  LORD God Almighty, help me to grow and to be spiritual and not carnal in Jesus’ name. Amen.    

3.  Pray for others in this regard.