Latest / Karl and Crew / Trusting God Beyond Your Senses with Dr. Jim Coakley & Discovering God Through the Arts with Terry Glaspey

Transcript

Trusting God Beyond Your Senses with Dr. Jim Coakley & Discovering God Through the Arts with Terry Glaspey · Karl and Crew

0:00
S1: Broadcasting from Chicago, across North America and beyond. It's Carl
0:06
S1: and crew.
0:06
S2: Come as you are an experienced guide, overcome what seems
0:11
S2: impossible and live as you never imagined.
0:15
S1: Delivering the truth daily.
0:17
S3: If it were possible to have every worldly gain available.
0:21
S3: And you're forfeiting your soul. There's no amount of gain
0:25
S3: that would make it worth it.
0:26
S4: Our own way never ever works. Because it's apart from
0:29
S4: the life source, which is God.
0:32
S5: For me, growing up, love was always conditional and can
0:36
S5: be taken from you. Christ's love can't. And he went
0:39
S5: to the cross with my mind and my heart that night.
0:44
S1: Now from the call of Hope Studios, this is Carl
0:48
S1: and crew.
0:49
S3: How well or how much do you trust what you
0:53
S3: can see?
0:54
S5: Ooh, that's a good question. I think it depends on
0:56
S5: what I'm looking at.
0:58
S3: You hear people say, well.
0:59
S5: Yeah.
1:00
S3: If I see it, I'll believe it. I'll believe it
1:02
S3: when I see it. True. Some people have a really
1:06
S3: refined palate, so they can tell if food is of
1:10
S3: good quality or not. Right.
1:12
S5: See, my mind went to social media right away to
1:14
S5: it's like, oh, can you tell what you're looking at?
1:16
S5: And with the growth of AI, I don't.
1:19
S3: Yeah, it's a good point. AI has made it much
1:21
S3: harder to.
1:22
S5: Much, much.
1:22
S3: Harder to see, particularly online. Yes. You know, it's interesting.
1:26
S3: We have these five senses and we've been talking about
1:28
S3: that already a little bit this morning. And we're going
1:31
S3: to have a great, great guest later on this hour.
1:34
S3: But I think there's a temptation to, for the most part,
1:37
S3: trust our senses, that our sight, if we can see it,
1:41
S3: if we can touch it, if we can taste it,
1:42
S3: if we can feel it, that there's this trust your gut,
1:45
S3: trust your experience kind of approach to going through life.
1:48
S3: And many people that their worldview is essentially based on that. Right.
1:53
S3: Kind of groping their way through the world, making sense
1:57
S3: of it as they can perceive it.
1:59
S5: Those senses are their checklist.
2:01
S3: Exactly. Coming up this hour, though, I think you're going
2:04
S3: to love this conversation. We've got a special guest who's
2:06
S3: going to be coming. Coming up. And he's going to
2:08
S3: talk about a passage of scripture that is really one
2:13
S3: of the most sensory rich in all of the Bible.
2:16
S3: And this was he introduced this to me. So I'm
2:19
S3: paraphrasing already some of what I know he's going to share,
2:22
S3: but it's where you see the senses all vividly on display,
2:27
S3: but for the most part, deceptively wrong.
2:31
S5: What I saw his notes a little bit like it
2:34
S5: was like, wow, I never stopped to think about it
2:36
S5: that way.
2:37
S3: And, you know, it's interesting because I there's a museum
2:39
S3: in Chicago called the Museum of Illusions. And I know
2:43
S3: and maybe there are other cities as well, but I
2:46
S3: took my kids there one time and it's, it's like
2:48
S3: being in a, like the Twilight Zone or something because.
2:52
S5: Alice in Wonderland sort of thing. It's upside down and sideways, and.
2:56
S3: Through the use of mirrors and angles, the. The size
3:01
S3: of things is distorted.
3:02
S5: Very much so. The flooring and everything else, how they
3:05
S5: work it and do it in the furniture. Absolutely.
3:07
S3: Yeah. The one room that's pretty popular is the kind
3:10
S3: of the upside down room. Yes. Which for pictures is
3:14
S3: a pretty cool looking thing because all of the things
3:17
S3: that should be on the floor or on the ceiling. Correct.
3:20
S3: And so what you can do is you can kind
3:23
S3: of position yourself to where, when you take the picture,
3:26
S3: you can spin it around and you can make it
3:29
S3: look like you're kind of like hanging from the ceiling,
3:31
S3: doing handstands, hanging off of the wall at odd angles,
3:36
S3: because the placement of everything is deceptive to the eye,
3:40
S3: and it makes for cool pictures.
3:42
S5: A lot of fun. Yeah, admittedly.
3:43
S3: We have one where I'm kind of hanging off of
3:45
S3: a bus stop and holding on to the side of
3:49
S3: a pole, and my daughter is kind of doing a hand.
3:50
S3: It just looks it looks crazy. And you go, what
3:52
S3: is going on in this picture? Or another one where
3:55
S3: the way the there's position, you can stand in two
3:59
S3: different places to where it looks like two people who
4:01
S3: are about the same size. One of them looks like
4:04
S3: a giant.
4:05
S5: And other tiny tiny.
4:06
S3: The other person looks like miniature. And it's all it's
4:11
S3: all crafted illusion. Trick your eye a little bit. I'll
4:15
S3: be honest, after about 20 minutes, I was like, I
4:17
S3: have to get out of here because it was so
4:19
S3: messing with my senses. I was feeling a little dizzy.
4:23
S5: I have heard people have done that or came out,
4:25
S5: came out rather with a little a little bit of
4:26
S5: a headache. It was fun, but.
4:27
S3: A little dizzy.
4:28
S5: Too much.
4:29
S3: A little nauseating. And I was like, guys, I'm sorry,
4:32
S3: I think I think I got a I gotta bail
4:34
S3: on this.
4:34
S5: I'm tapping out here.
4:36
S3: Messing with your senses kind of messes. With everything coming up, though,
4:40
S3: we're going to welcome Doctor Jim Coakley. When can you
4:44
S3: trust your senses and when should you not? We'll talk
4:47
S3: about it.
4:48
S1: He was running from God, but God's love brought him home.
4:52
S1: Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on
4:56
S1: Moody Radio.
4:58
S3: Well, as promised, we're going to take you to one
5:00
S3: of the most sensory rich chapters, really, in all of Scripture.
5:04
S3: Doctor Jim Coakley is joining us to help break this down.
5:08
S3: We see an aging Isaac whose eyes were dim so
5:13
S3: he could not see, which is Genesis 271. Tell us
5:17
S3: a little bit first about what is happening in this passage.
5:20
S3: Where do we land in the narrative here?
5:22
S6: Yeah. So we're of course, Isaac feels that he is
5:25
S6: actually near the end of his life because he wants
5:27
S6: to confer the blessing on Esau. And again, that's going
5:31
S6: to be the tension in the story. But he lives
5:34
S6: for another 43 years, according to our calculations. So he's
5:37
S6: already already sensing that he's not getting all the right signals. Correct.
5:42
S6: But he's now going to be passing on the blessing
5:46
S6: to he thinks is going to be Esau. And that's
5:48
S6: the whole deception story. Rebecca, uh, Jacob's mom gets in
5:53
S6: on the action. Here's the plan. Uh, hatches this thing
5:56
S6: to make Jacob look and hear and feel like, uh,
6:00
S6: like his brother. And of course, that the ruse works. Uh.
6:04
S6: And so then Esau comes back at the end and
6:07
S6: figures out he's been conned again by his brother, and
6:10
S6: he's really mad. So that's kind of the backdrop behind
6:13
S6: what's going on here in Genesis 27.
6:15
S3: And of course, we have the patriarchs of the faith, Abraham, Isaac,
6:19
S3: and Jacob. But Esau was the first born. Therefore should,
6:23
S3: in terms of the cultural norms, should have been the
6:26
S3: one to receive the blessing.
6:28
S6: And this is what's a little strange about this passage,
6:31
S6: because Rebecca received an oracle directly from God when she
6:34
S6: got pregnant. Uh, the Lord directly came to her and said,
6:37
S6: there's two nations in your womb. And it says, the
6:40
S6: younger you know, the elder shall serve the younger. Now,
6:43
S6: what we don't know is, did she keep that to
6:45
S6: herself or did she share that with with her. With
6:48
S6: her husband Isaac. Because if Isaac is wanting to bless Esau,
6:53
S6: knowing about that oracle, then his. He's really messed up.
6:57
S6: I mean, this is a dysfunctional family. There's favoritism going on.
7:01
S6: One parent likes one son, one son, and the other
7:03
S6: likes the other. So this is a dysfunctional family, but
7:07
S6: it's really hard to sort out all the messiness that's
7:09
S6: going on here. But this is, at the end of
7:11
S6: the day, God superintends it to accomplish what he wants.
7:15
S6: But in the in the thick of things, things are really,
7:17
S6: really dysfunctional here.
7:19
S3: So what do we know to be true about Isaac?
7:22
S3: I mean, we see that he's aging and that his
7:24
S3: sight is dimming. His intentions here are to bless Esau
7:29
S3: good intentions, or is it hard for us to say, well.
7:32
S7: It's hard for us to say, because already we.
7:34
S6: Sense in the text that Isaac, as he's aging. And again,
7:37
S6: I'm getting up there in years. Uh, and, you know,
7:42
S6: the idea is, is that we already see the seeds
7:45
S6: of where Isaac is going as he's aging? Because earlier
7:49
S6: in chapter 25, it says, oh, he loves Tasty game. Uh,
7:54
S6: so already we have, you know, he's got a hankering
7:56
S6: for whatever, uh, prey Esau is able to bring back
8:00
S6: and cook up, uh, you know, and eat. And so
8:03
S6: he's already got that taste sensory thing, really primary. We
8:08
S6: don't really hear about his spiritual vitality. Uh, it's really
8:12
S6: more this five senses that are really, really heightened in
8:16
S6: this passage. And that's what really makes this a very
8:18
S6: unique text in the Bible.
8:20
S3: Okay, so let's start to talk about where we see
8:23
S3: the senses pop up here. And they all five senses
8:26
S3: make a pretty prominent appearance. So we already know that
8:29
S3: his sight is dimming. So he knows that he can't
8:31
S3: trust his sight.
8:33
S6: Right? And that really sets up everything else. Because if
8:36
S6: he's not blind, I don't think the deception, of course,
8:38
S6: can't work at all. So with that spiritual, I think
8:41
S6: this is again, kind of that physical sight is diminished.
8:46
S6: But I think it's also letting us know that his
8:49
S6: spiritual senses are also diminishing. So it starts with his
8:53
S6: blindness that his eyes are dim. But what's interesting, of course,
8:56
S6: Moses at the end of Deuteronomy says his eyes were
8:58
S6: not dim. And so we know there's a contrast between Moses,
9:02
S6: whose eyes were not dim when he died and Isaac here.
9:06
S6: And so that's it. And then taste. We already talked
9:09
S6: about that. It says that, oh, man, go out and
9:11
S6: get some tasty game. I want to taste that in
9:14
S6: my mouth. It's really kind of a weird expression in
9:16
S6: the Hebrew game in my mouth. So he just lives
9:19
S6: for those kind of senses. And then, of course, when
9:22
S6: the ruse is being played out, he says, well, can
9:25
S6: I come near and let me touch you so that
9:28
S6: the touching is happening? And of course, they really put
9:31
S6: animal skins. And again, you have to wonder how hairy
9:34
S6: was Esau for goat skins to be the the thing.
9:38
S6: Oh yeah, that's my son Esau. It's like, oh no,
9:41
S6: there's people. I mean, my father in law is now
9:43
S6: with the Lord, but he had a hairy back whenever
9:46
S6: I saw it. But this that would not at all
9:48
S6: cover what I think. Esau, he had a full, full fur. Yeah. Basically,
9:54
S6: I think he had.
9:55
S3: Yes. If the animal skin felt like him, if that
9:59
S3: was what was used as part of the deception.
10:01
S6: And I think that's why he was effective Hunter because
10:04
S6: he was red and hairy and he could go out.
10:05
S6: He looked just like the animals he was hunting. But
10:07
S6: that's a whole nother discussion. Uh, but then what's interesting
10:12
S6: is the one sense that normally goes first as we age.
10:16
S6: I just got hearing aids this summer, but hearing is
10:18
S6: the one sense that Isaac seems to have still going good. Uh,
10:22
S6: because he says, hey, it's the voice of Jacob. But
10:27
S6: you're saying that it's Esau. And so it's weird that
10:30
S6: his hearing is the one that seems to be the
10:33
S6: one that is still functioning quite well, but that's the
10:36
S6: one he gets, gives him the best data, but he
10:39
S6: still blows past it with all the other four senses.
10:42
S6: And then, of course, the smell. He says, come near. Oh,
10:45
S6: and he sniffs. Uh, Jacob, of course, who's pretending to
10:48
S6: be his brother Esau. And he says, oh, the smell
10:50
S6: of the field. I said, oh my goodness, that's not
10:53
S6: a Cologne. I think I would want to to mark it.
10:55
S6: But Isaac seemed to love that. And so but all
10:59
S6: of these five senses are mentioned here. But it all starts,
11:03
S6: I think the kind of downward spiral really starts because
11:06
S6: his his physical sight is again signaling that his his
11:10
S6: spiritual senses are diminished as well.
11:12
S3: Coming up, we're going to have more with Doctor Jim
11:14
S3: Coakley as we break down this passage and the takeaways
11:17
S3: for us. What does this mean? Should you not trust
11:19
S3: what you see? I mean, we're tempted to see and
11:22
S3: taste and touch and smell. And that's kind of primarily
11:25
S3: what drives us through our life, through our decisions. What
11:29
S3: should we trust instead? Coming up.
11:33
S1: Take your next step with Jesus today. You're listening to
11:37
S1: cast and crew.
11:39
S3: How easy is it to be deceived by your senses?
11:43
S3: You think you can trust what you see or what
11:45
S3: you touch or what you taste? We see in Genesis
11:48
S3: 27 that Isaac, his intention was to bless his son Esau.
11:54
S3: He says, May I may bless you before I die. Well,
11:58
S3: then there's this great deception where instead of blessing Esau,
12:03
S3: Jacob kind of sneaks in with the assist by his mother, Rebecca,
12:08
S3: who is the one kind of who facilitates all of this.
12:11
S3: And because he can deceive his father, the taste, the touch,
12:16
S3: the smell, all of it sounds like or seems to
12:20
S3: be Esau, but it's Jacob. And so Isaac is deceived
12:24
S3: by his senses. Yes. Talk about some of the takeaways here.
12:27
S3: What should we see in this passage that we can apply?
12:30
S6: I mean, we kind of operate in the physical world.
12:34
S6: And so we do operate by our senses, and God
12:36
S6: gave them our senses. And so they're all good. But
12:40
S6: we can put too much weight on individual senses and
12:43
S6: not on really the idea that we need to be
12:46
S6: walking by faith, not by sight. And so that notion is,
12:50
S6: is that even though we have these God given, you know, senses, uh,
12:55
S6: and we can utilize them, but we are not to
12:57
S6: supplant God's word with them. I mean, I love Romans
13:00
S6: chapter ten. It says, faith comes by hearing and hearing
13:04
S6: by the word of God. And so here we know
13:07
S6: one of the senses hearing. Uh, and so as we
13:09
S6: hear the Word of God, and of course, that carries
13:12
S6: the notion of obedience as well. It's not just listening
13:14
S6: to it, but it's listening and responding to it appropriately.
13:18
S6: And so, you know, we are to listen to the
13:21
S6: Word of God, and that's walk by faith, not by sight.
13:25
S6: So all these things are there. And so we have
13:28
S6: to be careful because sometimes the senses give us data
13:32
S6: that we can misinterpret. And I think this is where
13:35
S6: this passage is full of so many blown signals. I mean,
13:39
S6: the hearing should have alerted, you know, Isaac, that something
13:43
S6: was going on here. And we get a sense that
13:46
S6: he knows that, but he blows past that. And that's
13:49
S6: the thing is we have to be aware, and we
13:51
S6: have to be kind of humble to realize that our
13:55
S6: senses can deceive us.
13:57
S3: Which sense do you think we're most likely to be
13:59
S3: deceived by?
14:00
S6: Oh, boy. That's hard. I mean, we wouldn't normally think of, like, smell, uh,
14:06
S6: or something else. I mean, certainly, I think the visualization
14:10
S6: today we think about AI generated kind of things and
14:15
S6: it's like, man, you can hardly tell the fake from
14:17
S6: the real. It's getting very, very blurred between that reality.
14:21
S6: So I think in our day, especially sight, I think
14:24
S6: is probably one that's easily that's easily deceived because of
14:28
S6: especially in our day.
14:29
S3: And you think even like when you. The circumstances. Sometimes you. Some.
14:34
S3: Some situation can seem so appealing. It looks like a
14:38
S3: great option. Let's say you're presented with a job opportunity
14:41
S3: and boy, this looks really good to my eyes.
14:45
S6: Or we judge, you know, we can't judge a book
14:47
S6: by its cover. And so we make assumptions about people
14:50
S6: that we meet that may not be appropriate. I mean,
14:53
S6: we have that plenty. What's interesting, too, is that a
14:55
S6: lot of these senses are also at the beginning of
14:57
S6: the book of Samuel. Uh, you know, when again Eli again,
15:02
S6: he's he's got, uh, problems as he's aging with his senses.
15:06
S6: And again Samuel hears the voice of God. And so again, these,
15:10
S6: these texts are very, very important to kind of rein
15:13
S6: in our senses so that we understand that. No, it's
15:16
S6: it's by the word of God was rare in Samuel's day.
15:18
S6: So we need the Word of God. That's going to
15:20
S6: be the helpful guide that's going to help us to
15:23
S6: make sure that we don't use our senses to override
15:26
S6: our faith.
15:26
S3: Yeah. And then to taste like the appetites, as you mentioned,
15:30
S3: how Isaac. They meant it's recorded of how he loved
15:33
S3: Tasty Game. And so he wants his son to go
15:36
S3: prepare something that's going to taste good to his palate.
15:38
S3: So he was a man driven by appetites.
15:41
S6: Yes. And this is what is concerning to me as
15:43
S6: I'm getting into that senior status kind of level of life.
15:47
S6: I've seen so many people around me where they just
15:50
S6: focus on the senses. They want comfort, they want air conditioned,
15:53
S6: this and that, or they want better food. I was
15:56
S6: just commenting about yesterday. We had a faculty institute and
16:00
S6: we had Lou Malnati's Pizza for one, a celebration for
16:03
S6: George Mosher, our registrar here. And my wife was at
16:06
S6: home and she said, oh, I'm looking forward to having,
16:08
S6: you know, generic brand pizza from Jewel. And I was.
16:11
S3: Like.
16:12
S6: Oh man, it's like I'm eating one of the best
16:15
S6: Chicago pizza pies. And she's happy with generic pizza. Yeah.
16:21
S6: And it's like, I can see I just came back
16:23
S6: from Maine. I mean, I can taste the seafood still
16:27
S6: in my mouth from all of that because I can't
16:29
S6: afford it when it's when I'm here. But there, you
16:31
S6: can get it cheap and you can enjoy it. But
16:33
S6: I'm thinking, okay, is that what I want to live for?
16:36
S6: Do I want to live for my senses, my taste,
16:39
S6: my touch? I want to have the best, you know, AirPods.
16:42
S6: I want to have the best game or food on
16:45
S6: my table. I want to have the best, uh, you know,
16:48
S6: air conditioning level in my home. AM I all about
16:51
S6: patting my body or my really living by faith? And
16:55
S6: this is an application for my heart, certainly.
16:58
S3: No, I mean, it really is because the weekend, the
17:00
S3: thing we trust is the word of God. Yes. Right.
17:03
S3: Even when it feels like it contradicts what we can
17:06
S3: see primarily.
17:07
S6: Or we think we've done it all and we can coast, uh,
17:12
S6: and we can just kind of mail it in, so
17:13
S6: to speak, spiritually. No, you got to run towards the
17:16
S6: finish line.
17:17
S3: You'll find this story in Genesis 27. Look for the
17:21
S3: five senses as you read. Great opportunity for you to
17:24
S3: do a devotional today. Thank you to Doctor Jim Coakley,
17:27
S3: our special guest this morning for coming up here on
17:29
S3: Carl and Crew.
17:30
S1: You're listening to Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
17:33
S8: Do you like the smell of gasoline? No. Some people
17:37
S8: like it.
17:38
S5: They do.
17:39
S3: Some people really enjoy the smell of gasoline. I don't.
17:43
S3: I find it to be kind of sickening.
17:46
S5: Some enjoy, you know, freshly mowed grass.
17:48
S3: Yeah, that's another.
17:49
S5: One right into my sinuses. And I'm like, I can't
17:51
S5: do that.
17:52
S3: See, I kind of like the smell of freshly cut grass.
17:55
S3: That one's that's kind of nostalgic for me.
17:58
S5: See, now for me, it's chlorine. Chlorine. I love the
18:01
S5: smell of chlorine.
18:02
S8: Really?
18:03
S5: Yeah.
18:04
S3: Because it takes you back to your pool days.
18:06
S5: It can. Or just. I'm trying. I smell a pool. Move.
18:09
S5: Get out of my way! I smell a pool. Yeah.
18:11
S5: The chlorine. Yeah, that's one of mine. I do like that.
18:14
S3: There are certain smells that are universally, I think, appreciated.
18:18
S3: So the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking.
18:21
S5: Oh, come on now.
18:23
S3: I mean, even if you don't like to eat chocolate
18:26
S3: chip cookies, you walk into a home and there's anything baking,
18:29
S3: any sweet baking, and it's, it fills the home and
18:32
S3: it smells really good. I think most people like the
18:35
S3: smell of fresh flowers. Like if you were to go
18:38
S3: and take a sniff of a lilac.
18:41
S5: Yes, yes.
18:42
S3: It gives off very pleasing aroma to most people. But
18:46
S3: then when you talk about things like gasoline or grass
18:50
S3: or some people like the smell of like barn horse
18:54
S3: smell like, okay, people who work.
18:58
S5: Enjoy the country. Yeah, yeah, that country.
19:00
S3: Smell is maybe nostalgic to you, whereas others find it
19:03
S3: manure like. Sure. What else? Mothballs.
19:07
S5: Mothballs. That's a different one. Absolutely. Pine. Things like that
19:11
S5: of the forest. People enjoy that sort of smell. Um,
19:15
S5: I like the smell of, like, backstage, like an old
19:17
S5: stage because you've got the wooden floors and all that
19:20
S5: that's going on. I mean, granted, there's a lot of
19:21
S5: dust in backstage, but that kind of archaic vintage smell
19:25
S5: is kind of cool.
19:26
S3: Old. The old smell?
19:27
S5: Yeah, absolutely.
19:28
S3: What about what about smelling like. Like when you smell
19:32
S3: like dogs? Like there's a dog here. Does that smell
19:35
S3: off putting to you or does that?
19:36
S5: No, because I love pets. So I mean, unless the
19:39
S5: dog really found, you know, something to roll in. I
19:43
S5: use quotation marks like Carl says, the quotation marks rolling. Um,
19:46
S5: but other than that, no, it's like, give me a
19:48
S5: pet for sure. For sure.
19:49
S3: So we tend to be divided about certain smells and
19:53
S3: while and certain other smells unite us. You may see
19:57
S3: where I'm going with this. Coming up. We're going to
19:59
S3: talk about fragrance and aroma and where we see smell
20:04
S3: used in Scripture. When you start looking for all of these,
20:07
S3: as we march through this week all over the Word
20:11
S3: of God, but today, smell. What is the best smell
20:15
S3: that you can think of? I want you to text
20:17
S3: me on this. What is the thing that smells great
20:19
S3: to you universally. Maybe it's something that everyone appreciates. Maybe
20:23
S3: it's a certain Cologne or perfume. Maybe it's the smell
20:27
S3: of laundry. That's one of my favorites.
20:28
S5: Oh, that is.
20:29
S3: I love I really like when I'm taking a walk
20:32
S3: and I can I can smell like the laundry vent.
20:35
S3: Someone's just put in a load of laundry and they've
20:38
S3: used the dryer sheets.
20:39
S5: Got it.
20:40
S3: That is a really good smell to me. What do
20:42
S3: you say? What is your favorite smell? I know, kind
20:44
S3: of a strange question, but I promise I'm going somewhere.
20:47
S3: Text us (800) 555-7898. Best smell, hands down. Tell us what
20:53
S3: you think it is. (800) 555-7898, send us a text.
20:59
S1: He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you
21:02
S1: can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's
21:06
S1: curl and crew on Moody radio.
21:09
S3: We're talking about the five senses this week. And today
21:11
S3: I want to talk about fragrances. About scents. What are
21:15
S3: those scents? Those smells that you feel really positively. Maybe
21:20
S3: it's chocolate baked, fresh baked cookies or. I love the
21:24
S3: new baby smell.
21:26
S5: Oh, come on now. I mean.
21:28
S8: Oh my.
21:29
S3: Goodness.
21:29
S5: That's not a.
21:30
S3: New baby smell. Let me go through some of what
21:32
S3: you texted. 2276 A newborn baby. Absolutely. 8546 bread baking
21:39
S3: in the oven.
21:40
S5: Yes.
21:41
S3: How about the salty air? Right when you get to
21:43
S3: the shore? Oh, yes. Yeah. That is a great, great smell.
21:47
S5: Very good.
21:47
S3: One. The smell of freshly turned dirt by the farmers
21:51
S3: in the spring. It reminds me that God is starting
21:54
S3: a new life. Growing. Oh, okay.
21:56
S5: Okay. Yeah. And gardeners. I could see that for sure.
21:59
S3: Lake water. The smell of fresh cherry pie.
22:03
S5: Oh, there we go.
22:05
S3: This person, 72, 94, loves the smell of new carpet. 7715.
22:11
S3: Another vote for the salty air of the ocean. 8360.
22:15
S3: Fresh Brewed coffee. 0041. Chocolate or lilacs. The smell of
22:20
S3: fresh cut grass. 1734 A charred hot dog is a
22:26
S3: really good smell. 5920 garlic, onions and peppers. You know, I,
22:31
S3: I have a Haitian mother in law, and everything she
22:34
S3: cooks starts with a blend of garlic, pepper and onion. So,
22:38
S3: so good. It does, because I know something good is.
22:40
S8: Coming, right?
22:42
S3: Homegrown roses. Let's see another vote for freshly baked bread
22:47
S3: cleaning supplies 0661. Then. I know the bathroom is clean.
22:53
S3: Newborn baby crisp autumn morning.
22:56
S5: Oh, thumbs up for sure. Yes.
22:59
S3: How about. Yeah, that smell after rain? Yes, that's a
23:03
S3: good smell.
23:03
S5: Another good one.
23:04
S3: Coffee or bacon? Fresh mowed alfalfa field. I don't think
23:09
S3: I know.
23:10
S5: I don't know what that.
23:10
S3: Smells like. A new box of crayons.
23:14
S5: Oh, like school to like, you know, new book.
23:17
S3: There is a smell in the classroom when all the
23:20
S3: supplies are still fresh. Just broken out. Baby power powder,
23:26
S3: fresh asphalt, permanent marker highlighter. I think we're getting to
23:31
S3: some of those that might divide campfire.
23:34
S5: That's another one. Yeah.
23:35
S3: That's true. Cinnamon. When we think of all these different smells,
23:38
S3: do you know that as Christ followers we have a
23:41
S3: certain aroma, certain fragrance? Here is the hard part though.
23:48
S3: It is going to be a dividing fragrance. It's going
23:51
S3: to be a lot more like gasoline or barn smell
23:56
S3: to some people than chocolate chip cookies or baby powder.
24:01
S3: I'll explain. Coming up.
24:03
S1: He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then
24:06
S1: he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Colin
24:10
S1: Crew on Moody Radio.
24:12
S3: I'm gonna take you to a passage of scripture that
24:15
S3: I had to wrestle with a little bit, because even
24:19
S3: though I've heard it read it many times, I don't
24:22
S3: think I had grasped fully what it meant when I
24:26
S3: started to see it. I wasn't sure how I felt
24:30
S3: about it. Let me read you the passage of Scripture.
24:33
S3: This is Second Corinthians 214 through 17. I'm going to
24:37
S3: first read it in the ESV or the English Standard Version.
24:40
S3: That's primarily what I read for my own personal study,
24:43
S3: but then I'm going to read it to you in
24:45
S3: the New Living Translation, because I think it makes it
24:47
S3: a little bit clearer. First up, ESV. But thanks be
24:50
S3: to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession,
24:54
S3: and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of
24:57
S3: him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to
25:01
S3: God among those who are being saved and among those
25:04
S3: who are perishing. That second Corinthians 214 and 15. Then
25:08
S3: you got to go on to verse 16 to 1,
25:10
S3: a fragrance from death to to death to the other,
25:13
S3: a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for
25:17
S3: such things? For we are not like so many peddlers
25:20
S3: of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned
25:23
S3: by God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. Okay,
25:26
S3: that's a lot. I want to focus on this one verse.
25:29
S3: I'm sure you've heard that it's said that we are
25:32
S3: the aroma of Christ. Have you heard that before?
25:35
S5: Yeah, absolutely.
25:36
S3: And so as soon as I thought about the five
25:38
S3: senses this week, this is where my mind went for
25:40
S3: smell for sure. And so I think what I had
25:43
S3: missed in this passage, the aroma of Christ, the fragrance
25:48
S3: we are supposed to be, the fragrance of Christ to
25:51
S3: the world. I had a kind of sanitized view of that,
25:54
S3: of what that really meant though. So I didn't realize
26:00
S3: that the fragrance of Christ is, to many people, the
26:04
S3: smell of death.
26:05
S5: Are all right.
26:07
S3: And that was a tough one. So the word aroma
26:11
S3: here is the same word used in Greek Old Testament
26:14
S3: to describe the scent of a sacrifice pleasing to God.
26:17
S3: I'll take you to Genesis eight. Describes Noah building an altar.
26:21
S3: Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some
26:23
S3: of every clean animal and some of every clean bird,
26:26
S3: and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the
26:30
S3: Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart,
26:33
S3: I will never again curse the ground because of man.
26:35
S3: And then it goes on. But I'll stop there. So
26:38
S3: this aroma, us being the fragrance of the knowledge of him,
26:42
S3: he uses us to spread the fragrance of him. The
26:45
S3: aroma of Christ for many people is the smell of death.
26:49
S3: You cannot separate the aroma of Christ from the cross
26:52
S3: of Christ.
26:54
S5: And how many of us want to be chocolate chip cookies? Yes,
26:59
S5: and conform to the chocolate chip cookies instead of going,
27:02
S5: you know what? Maybe to you I might be a
27:04
S5: little rank, but to me it's the sweet smell of
27:08
S5: Christ within me.
27:09
S3: Exactly. You nailed it. I think we want to smell
27:12
S3: like chocolate chip cookies. We want an aroma that will
27:15
S3: be pleasing to everyone. I'm going to read this passage
27:18
S3: to you again in the New Living Translation. Um, just
27:21
S3: the first couple verses. But thank God he has made
27:24
S3: us his captives and continues to lead us along in
27:27
S3: Christ's triumphal procession. Procession. Rather. Now he uses us to
27:31
S3: spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere like a sweet perfume.
27:36
S3: Keep going. Though our lives are a Christ like fragrance
27:39
S3: rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently
27:43
S3: by those who are being saved and by those who
27:45
S3: are perishing. To those who are perishing. We are a
27:48
S3: dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who
27:51
S3: are being saved, we are a life giving perfume. And
27:54
S3: who is adequate for such a task as this? So
27:58
S3: to some, the fragrance of Christ, the cross of Christ,
28:03
S3: the death, the sacrifice that was offered once for all.
28:08
S3: Some people can't get past the smell of death.
28:11
S5: They can't know.
28:13
S3: Smelling a burnt sacrifice. Why was a burnt sacrifice a
28:17
S3: pleasing aroma to God? Why did the smell of the
28:20
S3: burning flesh of animals? Why was that pleasing to God?
28:24
S3: Because it represents life, right? It represents his ability to
28:28
S3: to be near to his people, for them to draw
28:31
S3: near to him. I was reading an article about this
28:35
S3: passage of Scripture, and I want to read you a
28:37
S3: quote from John Piper who is desiring God. Great, great resource.
28:42
S3: He says, some people smell the sacrificial love of Christ
28:45
S3: in the life of a missionary, and it only smells
28:48
S3: like death. They hear the gospel and all they hear
28:51
S3: is death. They look at the cross. All they see
28:54
S3: is death. They see no life, no hope, no future,
28:57
S3: no joy. And so they turn away. And if they
29:00
S3: turn away forever, they die. They are perishing. The smell
29:04
S3: of death leads to death. Now for the Christ follower,
29:08
S3: the smell of death leads to life, right? We understand that.
29:13
S3: But for the cross of Christ, there is no life. No.
29:17
S5: It can't be.
29:18
S3: And so Paul, in writing this letter to the Corinthians,
29:21
S3: he talks a lot about the kind of the anguish
29:24
S3: that he had gone through. He had great concern over
29:27
S3: issues that were going on in the church. He mentions
29:29
S3: his concern for Titus. He's dealing with a lot of anxiety.
29:33
S3: He also we know if we read other parts of
29:35
S3: Scripture that he has suffered much. He's gone through shipwreck
29:40
S3: and he's been stoned. He's faced danger on all sides.
29:44
S3: He's seen many a sleepless nights. He's gone without food.
29:48
S3: He's been subject to cold and to exposure to the
29:51
S3: elements and then the daily pressure, he says on me
29:54
S3: of my anxiety for all the churches to look at
29:58
S3: the life of Paul, not everybody would say that's a
30:01
S3: victorious chocolate chip, cookie smelling life. Many people would look
30:07
S3: at that and they see the smell of suffering and death,
30:10
S3: and they're turned off by it.
30:12
S5: Very much so. And smell, too. Like it opens up
30:17
S5: the door of understanding what what the reality of something is.
30:20
S5: It's like you smell it even before you maybe even
30:23
S5: come into a room. So it's the same with us.
30:26
S5: If we are really smelling like Christ, if Christ is
30:29
S5: within us, that smell permeates how we love each other,
30:33
S5: how we respect each other, how we talk to each other.
30:36
S5: But again, even before even words come out, it's our
30:38
S5: actions and everything. That smell is already showing through it.
30:42
S5: And the glorious part, some of that is for some, yes,
30:46
S5: it is that smell of death, but for some others
30:50
S5: it does become a smell that's. I'm intrigued. I want
30:53
S5: to know more about that smell.
30:55
S3: And so the thing that I had to wrestle with,
30:57
S3: and I hope that this comes across in the way
30:59
S3: that I'm intending. I pray that it does. Is that
31:02
S3: are we willing to really be the aroma of Christ? Yeah.
31:07
S3: Because it's tempting to want to make it more palatable,
31:11
S3: make the gospel a little bit more palatable, to emphasize
31:15
S3: parts and not the other to kind of shrink back
31:17
S3: from truth. Because if we're going to be the aroma
31:21
S3: of Christ, it's a smell that divides the world. That's
31:24
S3: what John Piper said. I'm quoting him directly. It divides
31:27
S3: the world. So if we try to have an aroma
31:30
S3: that's pleasing to everyone, then we are not truly representing Christ.
31:34
S5: No, we are not.
31:34
S3: We're not the aroma of Christ when we are pleasing
31:37
S3: to everybody, the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere,
31:41
S3: the aroma of Christ to God among those who are
31:43
S3: being saved and among those who are perishing. We have
31:46
S3: to remember that to some people it's going to be
31:48
S3: the fragrance of death. We don't have to try to
31:51
S3: mask it, dress it up. We live boldly for Christ
31:54
S3: and trust that there are people who will see and
31:57
S3: smell life.
31:59
S1: He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then
32:02
S1: he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carl
32:06
S1: and crew on Moody Radio.
32:09
S3: Well, if you have a teenager, you know teenagers are.
32:14
S3: Teenage boys can have a lot of quirks. One of
32:18
S3: them is, you know, saying, do I really need to
32:20
S3: shower again? Or I can totally wear this shirt again. See, mom,
32:25
S3: it smells just fine. Yeah, smell it.
32:27
S5: Here. Smell this smell. Where do you.
32:29
S3: Like? If you have to do a smell check on
32:31
S3: your shirt.
32:33
S5: Thank you honey.
32:34
S3: But as we talk about being the aroma of Christ.
32:37
S3: Maybe this sounds kind of crazy and gross, but I
32:39
S3: think it's okay to do a little bit of a
32:40
S3: smell check on our on our own lives and go,
32:44
S3: am I, am I the aroma of Christ in the
32:46
S3: way that I am? By God's grace, he can help
32:48
S3: me to be bold enough to where I don't shrink back.
32:51
S3: And I don't try to make myself pleasing to everyone
32:54
S3: because that's a tough thing if you have people pleasing tendencies,
32:58
S3: and if you don't really want to rock the boat,
33:00
S3: then it's going to be hard for people who are
33:02
S3: wired like me, I get it, I'm right there with you,
33:05
S3: but let's do a smell check today. Let's ask the
33:07
S3: Lord to help us. We if we want to be
33:09
S3: the aroma of Christ. Why? Because that spreads the fragrance
33:13
S3: of the knowledge of him everywhere, right? That's it. That's
33:16
S3: how more people come to know him because that aroma
33:20
S3: is pleasing.
33:21
S1: Want to hear that again? Just download the Curl and
33:24
S1: Crew podcast wherever you like to stream.
33:27
S3: Well, coming up, whether it's a beautiful painting or a
33:31
S3: music that captures your heart, literature, arts, the arts have
33:36
S3: the power to do something really special. Coming up, we've
33:39
S3: got an author. He is a creative. He's the first
33:42
S3: one to admit it. He says, you can discover God
33:45
S3: through the arts. He's written a book about it. How
33:47
S3: we can grow Closer to God by appreciating beauty and creativity.
33:51
S3: That's coming up.
33:52
S1: Walking closer to Jesus every day. You're listening to Carl
33:56
S1: and crew.
33:57
S3: Well, if you were to look into my home right now,
34:01
S3: there is a spot on the wall right as you
34:04
S3: walk in that is begging for a piece of art.
34:07
S3: I have taped off the dimensions of what I want.
34:11
S3: It's a big, big point of emphasis on the wall.
34:15
S3: But it's now been five years and I have not
34:19
S3: found the perfect piece of art. Why? Because I don't
34:22
S3: want to just put anything up there. I don't want
34:24
S3: to put up a piece of art that doesn't have
34:26
S3: a story. I don't want to just put color on
34:29
S3: a canvas to make the decor look better. I've been
34:32
S3: looking for something that to me, captures the beauty that
34:36
S3: God's created or speaks to me in some way. We
34:39
S3: can discover God through the arts. Our guest this morning,
34:42
S3: author Terry Glaspy. I'm excited about this conversation. Maybe it
34:46
S3: will help me fill that blank space on my wall.
34:48
S3: He's written this book, Discovering God Through the Arts. Are
34:52
S3: you an art lover or a creative yourself, Terry? Give
34:55
S3: me a little bit of your own story.
34:56
S9: Yeah, well, I'm very much an art lover. The arts
35:01
S9: in general, whether it be painting or music or literature
35:05
S9: or film or whatever. They've created some of my most
35:09
S9: intimate moments with God. Some of those have occurred viewing
35:13
S9: a painting or watching a movie or reading a book.
35:17
S9: I think it's one way that God really connects with us.
35:20
S9: I love it. It touches my soul. The best of
35:24
S9: it also, I think, helps me on my pathway to
35:27
S9: becoming a better human being, the kind God wants me
35:30
S9: to be. I dabble a little bit in painting. I
35:33
S9: wouldn't say I'm very good at it. Writing is probably
35:37
S9: my primary creative outlet, but I think we're all creative.
35:42
S3: I love that, and I love that you gave us
35:44
S3: a broader picture of the arts, because certainly we've all
35:47
S3: experienced the wonder of music and the beauty of great literature.
35:53
S3: You read. Sometimes you read words on a page, and
35:56
S3: the beauty of a well crafted sentence. As a former journalist,
35:59
S3: this this one I feel for sure. It paints a picture.
36:02
S3: It tells a story in such a way that you
36:05
S3: are moved. So tell me a little bit more about
36:07
S3: how you've seen the arts assist in your own prayer life,
36:11
S3: in your own devotional life, and connecting with God?
36:14
S9: Yeah, well, I think that I mean, there's so many
36:17
S9: ways things I could take on this because it's something
36:20
S9: I've thought a lot about and written about. But, you know,
36:23
S9: one is that the arts can really help the Bible
36:26
S9: come alive for us. You know, we read the words
36:29
S9: on the page and we're moved by them, but sometimes
36:35
S9: seeing them or hearing them through the eyes of a
36:38
S9: painter or a musician or a filmmaker adds a adds
36:44
S9: another perspective, another window into how God has worked in
36:49
S9: the past and how he can work in our lives today.
36:52
S9: And I think that my prayer life has also been enriched. Um,
36:57
S9: oftentimes through, uh, really good poetry. I love the poet T.S.
37:02
S9: Eliot and his very deeply faith centered poem talks of
37:07
S9: poems called the Four Quartets. Sometimes I will grab my
37:11
S9: little book of the Four Quartets and go somewhere and
37:15
S9: sit under a tree in the shade and just read
37:19
S9: it slowly, and then kind of pray it back what
37:22
S9: I'm feeling and experiencing. So, and there's just so many
37:27
S9: examples I could give of ways in which God has
37:30
S9: really enriched my life through the work of artists.
37:34
S3: We've got Terry Glaspie with us this morning. He's written
37:36
S3: over a dozen books, including Discovering God Through the Arts.
37:39
S3: One of the things you tackle in this book is
37:42
S3: how arts help us build empathy and to deal with emotion.
37:47
S3: Speak to that a little bit.
37:48
S9: I think one of the most powerful things that the
37:51
S9: arts can do is to help us build empathy. I mean,
37:54
S9: we we live so easily just in the own little
37:58
S9: shell of our own life and our connections with people
38:02
S9: around us and what's familiar to us. And we can
38:06
S9: get overly comfortable there and we can lose sight of
38:10
S9: what it means when Jesus said, we need to love God,
38:13
S9: and then we need to love our neighbor. Well, reading
38:16
S9: especially and films probably would be my second one in
38:20
S9: which I'd say this although all art forms can do this,
38:24
S9: take me deeply into other people's lives and help me
38:29
S9: to see what life feels like and looks like from
38:33
S9: their perspective, which hopefully will make me somewhat wiser, but
38:38
S9: even more so will make me more compassionate because I'll
38:42
S9: feel what it. What it's like to walk in their
38:44
S9: shoes for a for a short period of time and
38:46
S9: to experience life the way they are living it. And I,
38:50
S9: I really think that empathy in particular, is one of
38:54
S9: the most powerful tools for just growing into being the
38:58
S9: kind of person that God wants, wants me to be.
39:01
S9: I'm a big, big believer in that, the idea of
39:04
S9: vicarious experience. And then there's also the fact that sometimes
39:09
S9: the arts can challenge us. I think about the story
39:12
S9: of the prophet Nathan coming to David, telling him a
39:16
S9: story about a man who had a very rich man
39:19
S9: who had stolen the sheep of a poor man. And
39:22
S9: and David becomes incensed by this story, and he says,
39:28
S9: we need to do something about this. Who is this person?
39:31
S9: And David turns to him and says, you are the man.
39:34
S10: Yeah.
39:35
S9: And I think there's something about the arts that can
39:38
S9: also challenge us that it can be a window in
39:42
S9: helping us see our own faults, our own weaknesses, the
39:46
S9: places where we struggle. And they remind us that we're
39:50
S9: not alone in those struggles, which we can sometimes begin
39:53
S9: to feel. And that's one thing I love about reading
39:56
S9: a really good novel, is it'll take me inside the
39:59
S9: life of a character who I recognize myself, elements of
40:05
S9: myself in that character, and it challenges me to want
40:08
S9: to grow and become a better person.
40:12
S3: Terry Glaspy with us. One of the other books that
40:14
S3: you've written that the title is intriguing to me. 75
40:17
S3: Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know. Can you identify one? Maybe
40:22
S3: one of your favorites, a masterpiece, a work of art,
40:25
S3: or an artist who has a story that points to
40:29
S3: the gospel or displays the gospel in some way? Which
40:33
S3: one stands out to you?
40:34
S9: Well, that's a little bit like asking somebody which of
40:37
S9: their children is their favorite.
40:39
S10: Okay, fair.
40:41
S9: But actually there are several, um, that are particularly moving
40:45
S9: for me. And one I was thinking about recently is
40:49
S9: the painting by the painter Caravaggio called The Incredulity of
40:55
S9: Saint Thomas. This is a Bible centered painting that tells
41:00
S9: the story of when Jesus appears to the disciples in
41:03
S9: the upper room. And Thomas had missed him the first time,
41:08
S9: and the others had said, Jesus is risen. And he said, I.
41:11
S9: I won't believe that unless I can put my hand
41:15
S9: into his wound. And that is exactly what we see
41:19
S9: in this powerful, powerful painting that Jesus has taken the
41:24
S9: hand of Thomas and has gently guided it. He's kind
41:29
S9: of pulled his robe aside and gently guided his fingers
41:32
S9: into the wound. And there's something about that that I
41:37
S9: find really powerful in that it it speaks of the
41:42
S9: reality of the resurrection. This was not just a ghostly
41:46
S9: apparition of Jesus. This was the Jesus who is resurrected.
41:51
S9: And that's the promise for us today that we to
41:56
S9: death will not be the last word for us. And
41:59
S9: you know, it's interesting that Caravaggio himself was a man
42:04
S9: who struggled with sin and temptation all of his life.
42:08
S9: He was kind of hot tempered. And he would get
42:11
S9: into he got into a sword fight that got him
42:13
S9: into trouble and he had to flee Rome. He was
42:18
S9: totally human. And yet God was able to use the
42:23
S9: giftings that God had given him to paint one miraculous
42:28
S9: painting after another. And so many of his paintings are
42:31
S9: about biblical moments.
42:34
S3: I love it. Terry Glaspy it's been a joy this morning.
42:37
S3: I want you to text the word art if you
42:39
S3: want more on some of the resources we discussed, just
42:42
S3: text art to 805 557898, text art to 805 557898.
42:51
S1: Celebrating the Unstoppable gospel.
42:54
S4: It's not that I've got to fill in these check boxes,
42:56
S4: so he's okay with me, but it's that I get
42:58
S4: to stand close to him so that I can experience
43:01
S4: the life that he has for me.
43:03
S1: You're listening to Cast and Crew.
43:05
S3: Well, I put out this question. We have actually a
43:08
S3: member of our Moody radio team who's in studio with
43:11
S3: us this morning. And he said, I got I actually
43:13
S3: have an answer to this one. So Merle, who is
43:15
S3: joining us this morning. So how does this question hit you?
43:19
S3: How how have the arts helped you to connect with God?
43:22
S11: Well, it's affected me in a huge way, in two ways.
43:26
S11: I'm an art institute student, and that's where I met
43:30
S11: my wife.
43:30
S3: An art institute student.
43:32
S11: Or a former student. Sorry. Alumni from the Art Institute.
43:35
S11: So that's where I met my wife. So that's on
43:38
S11: one level that God in the arts brought me to
43:41
S11: my wife. And then just God being the ultimate creator,
43:46
S11: that's just us being like him. Yeah. And so that's
43:49
S11: how I connect with God through art and, and we're
43:55
S11: being like our father in heaven. We're just creating on
43:58
S11: a much smaller level with music, writing, painting, drawing. I
44:03
S11: love what you do here, speaking just everything. So as
44:08
S11: he is in everything, we represent that as well in
44:13
S11: what we do and create.
44:15
S3: Now, what kind of art do you do?
44:17
S11: Primarily painting and drawing. So oil painting I'm. I lean
44:23
S11: more towards being an impressionist. The. What was mentioned earlier. Caravaggio. Oh, okay. Yeah.
44:31
S3: The painting?
44:32
S11: Yeah. The artist. I'm a big fan. So some of
44:36
S11: my style of painting goes that direction and Monet ish.
44:40
S11: So really a painter and draw some film and video.
44:47
S11: So at the Art Institute, I was doing everything. I
44:49
S11: was video, film, photography, painting, drawing.
44:54
S3: I didn't know this about you.
44:56
S11: Yeah, this is really cool.
44:58
S3: And then music too. So as you're creating something, how,
45:02
S3: how would you describe like the feeling of the connection
45:05
S3: with God even as part of the creative process? What
45:08
S3: does that feel like for you?
45:10
S11: Most times for me, I don't believe it's me. I
45:14
S11: believe it's something that we all can tap into. That's, uh,
45:21
S11: God sent. So I think there's some things that aren't
45:25
S11: and we can clearly see that. But what's interesting to
45:28
S11: me is we're someone who is not even a believer,
45:32
S11: is still doing something that God does, and they don't
45:36
S11: even realize it. And that's creating that's a God thing
45:40
S11: whether you believe or not. So that's one way we
45:44
S11: can even get closer to him to really understand how
45:47
S11: he thinks. Because how we think in creating is this
45:51
S11: same way that he created us.
45:53
S3: As image bearers. Yeah.
45:54
S11: Yeah.
45:55
S3: Oh that's awesome. That's Merle, who's a part of the
45:57
S3: Moody radio team here who's in studio. Heard the question
46:00
S3: and awesome. I'm glad we brought you on, Mike.
46:04
S1: Tune in whenever you like. Check out the Carl and
46:07
S1: Crew podcast wherever you like to stream.
46:10
S3: Well, you are officially introducing me to sense that either
46:14
S3: I didn't know even existed or hadn't even ever considered.
46:19
S3: But how about this one? Someone texted the smell of
46:22
S3: the water when you first turn on a garden hose. 100%
46:27
S3: took me there. There was a memory blast when you
46:31
S3: turn on the hose, and I don't even know how
46:33
S3: to describe what the smell is.
46:35
S5: You can't know.
46:36
S3: But a hot summer day, that hose comes on. There
46:39
S3: is a smell when that water first comes out. What
46:41
S3: about grilled liver and onions? Someone said that reminds them
46:46
S3: of their dad. The smell of bacon. Yeah. I'm with
46:49
S3: you on that. The pages of a new book? Yes.
46:53
S3: Or how about the pages of an older book? There's
46:56
S3: some nostalgia there, too.
46:57
S5: There is a lot of.
46:58
S3: Smell of the woods. Smell of shampoo.
47:00
S5: Oh, yes.
47:01
S3: Yeah, some shampoos really smell great. And freshly washed hair.
47:05
S5: Oh, definitely. Definitely. And there's woods. I love that one.
47:09
S5: Now bleach. That's different.
47:10
S3: That's kind of in the chlorine.
47:12
S5: Chlorine. Yes. Oh see they did include chlorine.
47:15
S3: There you.
47:15
S5: Go. Thank you.
47:16
S3: The thing about smells is it does tend to be
47:19
S3: pretty personal. Right. That you can have a Cologne or
47:24
S3: a perfume that you absolutely love and somebody else hates it, right?
47:30
S5: Yeah.
47:30
S3: I mean, oh, and vice versa. You can hate a
47:33
S3: smell of something that to somebody else is, is just
47:36
S3: so pleasant. I want to take you to second Corinthians
47:39
S3: 214 through 17 and talk about what it is to
47:45
S3: be the aroma of Christ, to be the fragrance of
47:49
S3: him to the world. Let's start with verse 14. It says,
47:52
S3: but thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads
47:55
S3: us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance
47:59
S3: of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the
48:02
S3: aroma of Christ to God among those who are being
48:05
S3: saved and among those who are perishing. Verse 16, though,
48:10
S3: is where this starts to turn to one a fragrance
48:14
S3: from death to death to the other, a fragrance from
48:18
S3: life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For
48:22
S3: we are not like so many peddlers of God's word,
48:24
S3: but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God in
48:28
S3: the sight of God. We speak in Christ. Want to
48:30
S3: go back to verse 15, for we are the aroma
48:34
S3: of Christ to God. I had heard this read this many,
48:38
S3: many times, but I think for some reason I missed
48:41
S3: the back half of this. The aroma of Christ. I
48:44
S3: think we want it to be chocolate chip cookies.
48:48
S5: Oh. Hands down. Exactly. That's what we want to be.
48:50
S5: Baked bread people pleasers. We want to be chocolate chip cookies.
48:53
S3: We want to smell really good. Oh, here's the thing
48:56
S3: about being the aroma of Christ, though, that you cannot
48:58
S3: miss when you look at this passage is verse 16
49:01
S3: to 1, a fragrance from death to death to the other,
49:05
S3: a fragrance from life to life, the aroma of Christ,
49:09
S3: the scent of a Christian, is going to divide. It
49:13
S3: is not going to be a pleasing smell to everyone.
49:16
S3: And I did some digging on this because honestly, I
49:19
S3: wrestled a little bit. Like I always thought of this
49:23
S3: as more like the chocolate chip cookies like, and there's
49:27
S3: an aspect of that, that our good works are the
49:31
S3: things that we do to point people to Christ.
49:33
S5: And why wouldn't everybody love.
49:34
S3: It is very there's a winsome aspect to it, but
49:38
S3: the aroma of Christ. You cannot separate from the cross,
49:41
S3: the death of Christ. This word aroma is the same
49:44
S3: word that's used in the Greek in the Old Testament
49:47
S3: to describe the scent of a sacrifice that's pleasing to God.
49:51
S3: You go to Genesis eight. I'll just read a couple
49:53
S3: verses that Noah built an altar to the Lord and
49:57
S3: took some of every clean animal and some of every
50:00
S3: clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And
50:03
S3: when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said
50:07
S3: in his heart, I will never again curse the ground
50:09
S3: because of man, the pleasing aroma of the burning flesh
50:14
S3: of an animal. Huh? Right.
50:18
S5: I know, it makes you scratch your head a little bit.
50:19
S5: I know.
50:20
S3: But that was a pleasing aroma. Why? Because of what
50:24
S3: it represented. Because that sacrifice of an animal that burnt
50:30
S3: offering unto the Lord was a form of worship. Was
50:34
S3: a was it a form of getting closer to God?
50:38
S3: And that was pleasing to him. Let me read to
50:41
S3: you this same passage, the second Corinthians passage in the
50:44
S3: New Living Translation, because I think it helps explain it
50:48
S3: just a little bit more clearly. Says, but thank God,
50:50
S3: he has made us his captives and continues to lead
50:53
S3: us along in Christ's triumphal procession. Now he uses us
50:57
S3: to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere like a sweet perfume.
51:02
S3: Our lives are a Christ like fragrance rising up to God.
51:05
S3: But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are
51:08
S3: being saved and by those who are perishing. To those
51:11
S3: who are perishing. We are a dreadful smell of death
51:14
S3: and doom. But to those who are being saved, we
51:17
S3: are a life giving perfume. What do you.
51:22
S5: Say? Very much so, because we have to be careful
51:24
S5: with our perfume. What is our aroma? Is it bitterness?
51:28
S5: Is it anger? Is it unforgiveness? You know, what is
51:31
S5: the aroma that we're giving? Or is it love? Is
51:34
S5: it mercy? Is it grace to others? You know, as
51:37
S5: we're being this, this aroma of Christ through it. And
51:41
S5: very important to this is when we're being that sweet
51:44
S5: aroma of Christ doesn't mean we're being perfection, but we're
51:49
S5: allowing Christ to work through us.
51:51
S3: Absolutely. And, you know, John Piper has. I want to
51:55
S3: read a quote to you from an article that I
51:57
S3: read that helped kind of break this down. He says
51:59
S3: some people smell the sacrificial, sacrificial love of Christ in
52:02
S3: the life of a missionary, and it only smells like death.
52:06
S3: They hear the gospel and all they hear is death.
52:08
S3: They look at the cross and all they see is death.
52:11
S3: They see no life, no hope, no future, no joy.
52:13
S3: And so they turn away. And if they turn away forever,
52:16
S3: they die. They are the perishing. The smell of death
52:19
S3: leads to death. I that sounds really heavy and I, I,
52:23
S3: I get that, but that is the context of this passage.
52:27
S3: Paul has suffered so greatly. He's suffered. He's been shipwrecked,
52:32
S3: he's been beaten, he's been stoned, he's suffered. He's suffered
52:36
S3: imprisonment for the sake of the gospel. He's been subject
52:40
S3: to the cold, to the exposure to the hunger. And
52:44
S3: then he says, the daily pressure of the anxiety he
52:48
S3: carries for all the churches. So you could easily look
52:51
S3: at his life, was the aroma of his life pleasing
52:55
S3: to everyone? Did everyone look at that kind of a life,
52:58
S3: that kind of a sacrifice and say, that's what I want?
53:02
S3: They couldn't see past the death. And so that's the
53:07
S3: context here. And so when we think about wanting to
53:10
S3: be this, that he spreads the fragrance of the knowledge
53:13
S3: of him everywhere. That we are the aroma of Christ.
53:17
S3: We have to be okay and make peace with the
53:19
S3: fact that just like gasoline and fresh cut grass and
53:25
S3: the smell of a barn, it divides. And we have
53:30
S3: to make peace with that and not try to mask
53:33
S3: it as something else. Have you ever walked into a
53:34
S3: room that somebody tried to mask one odor with another?
53:39
S5: Please don't.
53:40
S3: I know, right?
53:41
S5: And but, and Jesus didn't mask his odor. And you
53:44
S5: got to think. You think people are rejecting your aroma.
53:48
S5: Don't you think? I mean, read the Bible. They rejected
53:51
S5: Christ's even. And he was Christ. He was Jesus Christ,
53:56
S5: and they still rejected his aroma.
53:58
S3: And the beauty of it is how it's described as
54:01
S3: a fragrance, as a sweet perfume. It's because for those
54:06
S3: who are being saved by this cross, this message that's
54:09
S3: so offensive to many. There's nothing sweeter. There's nothing sweeter
54:15
S3: than the aroma of knowing that he went to the
54:20
S3: cross and took death in your place. That's a really,
54:24
S3: really sweet smell, right? There's no salvation without it.
54:29
S1: This is Carl and Crew on Moody Radio.
54:33
S3: You know, we've been talking about the aroma, having a
54:36
S3: Christ like fragrance. And the cool thing about the gospel
54:39
S3: of Jesus Christ is once by the power of the
54:42
S3: Holy Spirit, you're able to see it. It means something
54:46
S3: so different that you don't just see the death. We
54:51
S3: are doing people a disservice when we share the gospel
54:54
S3: and only talk about the death of Christ, because it's
54:57
S3: the resurrection that sets the faith in Jesus Christ apart
55:02
S3: from any other world religion. It it all centers on
55:05
S3: the resurrection. And so I want to give you an
55:06
S3: opportunity this morning. Maybe you're listening. And this is all
55:10
S3: sounding kind of confusing. I'm talking about aroma and fragrance
55:14
S3: and death and like, what in the world?
55:16
S5: Candles and chlorine.
55:18
S3: And here's the here's the real. Though without the shedding
55:21
S3: of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin. And what you
55:24
S3: need to know, and I'll try to make this as
55:26
S3: simple as I possibly can, is that you've heard about
55:29
S3: across and you've heard about Jesus. Jesus went to the
55:33
S3: cross because there had to be a price paid for sin.
55:38
S3: So in doing so, he took the hole, the sin
55:41
S3: of the whole world once for all. There was no
55:45
S3: other way. So the only way for you to live
55:48
S3: a life that's at peace with God, where, yes, you
55:52
S3: spend eternity with him, which is huge. But you don't
55:55
S3: have to wait till eternity to start to reap the
55:59
S3: benefits of having an inheritance in Christ. It's new life
56:03
S3: right now. It's forgiveness of sins. It's the ability to walk,
56:08
S3: knowing that your life is not your own. The ability
56:11
S3: to know that there's a purpose that you were created
56:13
S3: for and to start to discover what that is. And
56:16
S3: so I want to appeal to you today, and maybe
56:18
S3: it's just one person listening. If you have not given
56:21
S3: your life to Jesus, which means that you accept what's
56:25
S3: true about you, that you're a sinner in need of
56:28
S3: a Savior, and you believe what's true about him, that
56:31
S3: he is who he says he is, that he did
56:32
S3: what he said he did, and it was for you.
56:35
S3: There was no other way. I want to invite you.
56:37
S3: There's no magic set of words. There's no special patent
56:40
S3: prayer that says, now you're a follower of Jesus, but
56:44
S3: it's a posture of the heart, a laying down of
56:47
S3: who you are and a surrender to him. And so
56:51
S3: if that's you, just have an honest moment with God
56:54
S3: where you do a couple things. You acknowledge I'm a sinner.
56:57
S3: I need a savior. I know it's not a higher power.
57:01
S3: It's you, Jesus. It's you. It's always been you. And
57:04
S3: so today and from this day forward, I follow you
57:09
S3: have that honest conversation with God. And I trust that
57:12
S3: by the power of the Holy Spirit, as you draw
57:15
S3: near to him, he draws near to you and you
57:18
S3: can experience new life right now in a moment. As
57:23
S3: you surrender your life, your heart, your will to him.
57:26
S3: And I just want to pray for you, Lord. For
57:28
S3: the person who's listening right now, God, who maybe it's
57:31
S3: things are starting to click. They've heard about you. Maybe
57:34
S3: they've gone to church. Maybe they've grown up in a
57:37
S3: Christian home. But Lord, in this moment, they're far from you.
57:40
S3: And today, God, they're saying no more. It's not my will,
57:45
S3: but it's your will. God, I pray that you would
57:47
S3: fill them with fresh joy, that you would give them
57:50
S3: a fresh assurance that, Lord, as they. The cry of
57:53
S3: their heart is to surrender and to follow you, Lord,
57:55
S3: that you would give them the sweet assurance that now
57:58
S3: they belong to you, Lord, that their future, they eternal,
58:02
S3: their eternal. Future is secure, and they can walk in
58:05
S3: new life and new joy in a spirit of repentance,
58:08
S3: turning from old ways to follow you, God. Lord, help them.
58:14
S3: Bless them. God. Surround them with people who are going
58:17
S3: to strengthen them. Lord. Thank you for this incredible miracle
58:23
S3: that's happening even right now. We're grateful for it. In
58:26
S3: Jesus name. Amen.
58:28
S5: Amen.
58:29
S3: If that's you, today is the first day of the
58:32
S3: rest of your life. The best days to come hard. Absolutely.
58:36
S3: Because there is a spiritual war. But man, you are
58:39
S3: armored up. You are walking with Christ. Now you're on
58:43
S3: the winning team. Just text new to 805 557898. We
58:48
S3: just want to follow up with you quickly, give you
58:50
S3: some follow up materials, just text new and e w
58:54
S3: to 805 557898 new 805 557898.