6-21-09 What’s The Big Stink?

Big Idea: Sin Stinks; it stinks to high heaven; it stinks all the way to God’s house. God hates the stink of sin; he is repulsed by it; he would do anything to get rid of it, including die. Why does Sin stink so much to God? It’s because people, you and I, are hurt by sin. Everything we do or that has been done to us that is outside of God’s will is sin. Sin means that it’s not good for us; we weren’t created for it; that it hurts and goes against who God created us to be. God hates sin. You and I should hate it too, because, “Sin stinks”.

 

If you’ve not taken a bath or a shower in the past week, will you please raise your . . .a no . . . no, let’s not do it that way. On second thought, let’s do it this way instead. For all those who have taken a bath or a shower in the past week, will you please raise your hand. Are you sure?

 

Why do you do that? Why do you take a shower or a bath so often? (To get clean!) Isn’t that overrated? What’s so good about being clean? Let’s go at it from another angle. What so bad about being dirty? (Smell!) Yeah, when you stink, does that have any effects on other people? (Yeah, they don’t like being around you). When you or I stink, because we are not clean, people don’t want to be around us

 

About a year ago, my cousin let their dog out in the morning to do his business, and then, as he was heading out the door to work, he let the dog back in. But there was a problem. He didn’t notice that the dog had a particular smell as he went by him into the house. It seems that the dog had had a fight with a skunk that morning . . . and lost. A little while later, his wife was rudely awaken by a strong, pungent smell. She quickly identified the source of the smell, and stampeded the dog out the back door. And then. . . she called her husband!

 

As it turns out, the smell permeated everything . . . in their house. Their clothes, their furniture – everything. They had to move out of the house for a while, until some professionals came in and cleaned everything.

 

We’re a few weeks away from our baptism service out at the lake. On that day, we pack up everything here and we head out to Gravel Lake and a lot of us get really wet – people get baptized, we have a feast, we have fun – the whole day’s a great big party!

 

Why a celebration? It’s all about dirty people getting clean. Now, as soon as I say that, I’m betting that nobody here really wants to admit that they’re dirty. Being dirty has a lot of negative social stigma associated with it. None of us want to be labeled as dirty or smelly – that’s one of the reasons why we take a bath – isn’t it?

 

The kind of dirty and smelly that we’re talking about is sin. Sin is such a pesky word; we don’t use it anymore. Sin makes me think of God and judgment and I might feel a bit uncomfortable if I dwell on it long enough, so I don’t . . . usually. But today I’m going to.

 

 Let’s define Stinking Sin

 

Stinking Sin is a willful or deliberate violation of a divine law. Now, why is sin and God’s divine law so important?

 

Let me give you another illustration. How many of you know that pregnant women often times have a very keen sense of smell. There ability to smell when they are pregnant sometimes intensifies greatly. One year, my wife and I went camping at Fisherman Island State Park when she was pregnant. We got a great campsite. We got everything unpacked. We were kicking back – great R & R going on, and then, the dead alewives hit shore.

 

I could smell them, and though it wasn’t a pleasant smell, it wasn’t a game breaker for me, but for my pregnant wife, Shannon, it was bad! The smell was repulsive to her. It made her gag. Numerous times she thought she was going to throw up. Finally, she said, I’m sorry honey, but we have to go. I can’t stay here. So, we packed it all in and came home early.

 

The Creator of this universe is a holy God. The word holy means to be set apart. God is set apart from sin. God is repulsed by sin, much the same as my pregnant wife was repulsed by the smell of those dead alewives. Much like my cousins were repulsed by the skunk smell in their house. Much the same as we are repulsed when people don’t take a bath.

 

What do we do when we are repulsed by something that smells bad? (We separate ourselves from it or move away from it).

 

My wife said, we have to go and we did. My cousins moved into a hotel until the skunk smell left their house. We distance ourselves from people who has B.O. – don’t we? Why do we do this? It’s because it’s repulsive.

 

In a similar way, God is repulsed by our sin. God is Holy and Good God and anything that is other than good is repulsive to God. Evil stinks and he distances himself from it, like a pregnant woman distances herself from the smell of dead fish. Sin stinks to God.

 

We were created for a relationship with God. We were created to be close to God, but our sin – our stink – repulses God and the relationship is broken. Our relationship with God becomes distant! Sin is like strong B.O. to God. It repulses him.

 

Now, that’s bad, but there’s more. Sin is not good. Sin goes against how we were created. So, when I sin, I hurt you, and when you sin, you hurt me and when that happens, we move away from one another; we distance ourselves relationally. Our relationship becomes damaged, maybe broken. Sin pushes us away physically – we don’t see each other as much; emotionally – we don’t share our thoughts and feelings as freely with one another as we once did; and spiritually – we are no longer unified – there is less love, joy, and peace being shared among us. It’s as thought one or both of us has B.O. and we are repulsed by it and we distance ourselves from one another.

 

Sin is a willful or deliberate violation of God’s divine law. The divine law is how God created the world to work. When we look at the creation story in Genesis 1, we see that God is geeked about the world he is creating. He steps back from his latest work and he says, “It’s good”. He finishes something else, and he says, “It’s good”. He just keeps saying, “It’s good”. Until he’s finished creating and he steps back and he says, “It’s Very Good”. When God got done creating, he had heaven on earth and it was very good.

 

God’s law or the divine law is what keeps everything Good. It’s what keeps up there down here. God gave us freedom to choose good or evil – to align ourselves with God and his will and his goodness or to choose another way – our own way, to be selfish. But when we go our own way – when we do our own thing – when we choose not to follow God’s Good way, we enter into sin.

 

We enter into evil. We enter into things that destroys our relationship with God and each other. That’s why our mission is to love God with all that we are and to love those around us as much as we love ourselves, because that’s God’s divine law – that’s what brings things back toward where they are supposed to be. We’re called to fight for love and to fight against sin.

 

Let me explain this thought a bit more. I was created to be a person of love. I was created to be a blessing wherever I go. I was created in the image of God and I was created to represent him and be like him in everything that I do. We are created to represent God in the same way that we hope our children will represent us and make us proud.

 

Like every law that we have here on earth, there are consequences, if you break them. The consequences of sin are broken relationships. The consequences of sin are broken relationships between God and us as humans – between you and me and between me and my children, and between me and my spouse, and between me and my parents. And God hates that!!!! He despises that!!! God thinks that stinks!!!! He’s repulsed by that, and by us when we refuse to be repulsed by it too!

 

Here’s the problem with sin. We get accustomed to the hurt, the pain, the emptiness, the loneliness, and the addictions and we get used to the smell of them. We say to ourselves, this isn’t so bad.

 

As an electrician I worked in many places that were great, but I also worked in some places that you couldn’t pay me enough to go back. One of those was a sewage treatment plant. Can you guess what a sewage treatment plant does? Yeah, they treat sewage – #1 and #2, feces and urine. That job really stunk! To make matters worse, in the main processing area, which was indoors, the exhaust fan quit working. That’s why I was there. When I first walked into this room I gagged.  Now I want you to know, I grew up on a farm, and smells that are repulsive to most people don’t bother me much, but this – this was bad!!! So, it’s my job, and I had to do it, because there were other guys that it was there job to be in there and it was bad for them as well, so I went to work.

 

Something very interesting happened. After a while I stopped gagging, and after a bit longer, I didn’t even notice the smell. It was really weird, but I got used to that horrible stench. I got used to the stench until I went back out to our service van for a part or a tool and I started breathing and smelling good clean air again, but then when I went back in, I’d start gagging again. But after a while of being in the stench, I would get used to the stench again and it wouldn’t bother me.

 

The problem with sin is that we get accustomed to the hurt, the pain, the emptiness, the loneliness, and the addictions and we get used to the smell of them. We say to ourselves, this isn’t so bad.

 

We get used to the smell and stench of our own sin, because we’ve been in it so long, but God never does. God is repulsed by my sin, even thought I don’t smell it. People with B.O. must have a problem with their sense of smell, because they don’t seem to smell themselves, but everybody else can.

 

I ran early one morning a about a month ago, before the kids had gone to school, and I really pushed myself hard. I sweated a lot. After I had cooled down a bit. I went back inside our house, were the kids were getting ready to head for the bus stop. I tried to hug them like I normally do, but they moved away and said, “You stink”. I quickly responded, “No I don’t” and both of them responded at the same time, “Yes you do!!!”

 

There’s an old saying that says, “A skunk doesn’t smell his own scent.” As sinners, imperfect people, we get used to our stench, but God never does.” Sin is repulsive to God just as my B.O. was repulsive to my girls.

 

Why, because we were not created for that. God created us for love, for goodness, and for blessing. God created us for love, and joy, and peace. God created us for heaven on earth. And anything less than that stinks in God’s nostrils and he distances himself from us.

 

God hates sin and he was willing to do anything in order to get rid of the stench, like my cousins were willing to do anything in order to get rid of the skunk smell in their house. God is willing to do anything so that our relationship with him and one another can be reconciled.

 

Jesus came down to model for us what it looked like to have a sinless life and to teach us what sin was and who we were called to be, and then he showed the ultimate act of love. Jesus was willing to do anything in order to take away our sin, take away our stink away. Jesus was willing to do anything in order to restore our relationship with him and to restore our relationships with one another. Jesus was willing to do anything, including die on a cross so that we could be reconciled to God and to one another.

 

After Paul’s encounter with Jesus along the road – the one that led to his conversion, Ananias came to him and said along the road, this is what he said to Paul.

 

Acts 22:14-16 (NIV)
The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

Baptism is a public ceremony where we acknowledge that we are sinners – people who are not perfect – people who stink, and the dunking under the water is a symbol of our acknowledgement of God’s grace, forgiveness and cleansing through the sacrifice of love offered on the cross by Jesus.

 
Here’s what Jude says about sin and faithlessness.

Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin, because sin itself stinks to high heaven. Jude 1:22-23 (MSG)

Your sin and mine stinks all the way to God’s house. So when a person has B.O. what should they do? They should take a bath right? That’s what I did after my girls told me that I stunk. I went straight up and took a shower. That was easy enough!

What should a person do if they are spiritually dirty, if they have not perfectly lived according to the divine law and God’s goodness?

 

Sin stinks and it keep us from having a relationship with God, so the question becomes, how do I get clean from sin.

 

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, and just before he returned to heaven, he said these words to his followers. He said,
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)

Baptism is a physical symbol that represents a washing of our soul. In baptism, we associate with Christ’s death on the cross. As we go under the water, it represents a grave. It is though we have been buried alive – 6’ under. There is no air. If we stay under the water for very long we would die. When you are submerged under the water, you are identifying and accepting that Jesus died on the cross to remove the stench of your sins.

When you are raised back up out of the water, you are identifying and accepting Christ’s resurrection as victory over sin and specifically your sin. Jesus Christ is the only one who can wash away the stink of our sin. In baptism we receive the free washing that he gives us, so that we can move towards a new relationship with God and each other.

The water is symbolism that through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, you are forgiven of your sins and therefore you have no more stink before God. You have been washed clean and his relationship with you will begin.

The call of the church is to go and make disciples – followers of Jesus, and we are called to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach each new follower to obey everything that Jesus commanded.

What are we supposed to teach people? We are called to teach “God’s divine law”, so that we can go and sin no more, so that we can not stink ourselves up with wrongful ways that separate us from God and each other.

Who wants to stink? Who’s a sinner? Whose got stinking sin? Who wants to be baptized? Get dunked, get clean; it’s God’s way!

 

 

Life Link:

 

What’s the worst small that you can remember? What was your reaction to it?

 

Review the message. Does anyone remember what was the message about?

 

The Question: Was there anything in Adam’s message that struck you, that you disagreed with or that you didn’t understand?

 

• Why are bad smells so offensive? Have you ever thought about our sin being offensive to God like your worst smell is offensive to you? What are your thoughts in regard to this?

 

• Why is sin so offensive to God? (Goes against God’s divine (Good) law and corrupts the goodness that God created us for)?

 

• When people smell, we distance ourselves from them. How is sin like a person with B.O? Why does sin make us distant from God and each other?

 

• What does baptism have to do with smell, sin, and relationship? Leader: you may want to focus on baptism questions more than this one if your group needs to discuss baptism more than sin?

 

• How does baptism affect our relationships with God and each other?