1 Sermon Illustrations on The Power of the Holy Spirit

To just come right out and ask somebody what they think you smell like might be offensive to them (or to you-if they give you a candid answer). But most people care deeply about what others think of their particular odor. Americans spend zillions of dollars every year on perfumes (Obsession-$50 for 4 ounces) and cologne (quality gentlemen's foo-foo sells for about $10 an ounce, too). But those products just fix you from the neck up. Deodorants, special soaps, body splashes and powders, breath mints and mouthwashes are also big ticket items for the socially conscious. If you need a good excuse to buy products that make you smell pleasant, here it is. Now there is a new branch of scientific research called "odor engineering." So far the researchers have tried odor engineering only in the work place. According to the publication Communication Briefings, one Japanese firm reports that air scented with lavender cut keypunching errors by 21 percent. Jasmine-scented air dropped errors by 33 percent and lemon in the air was even better-this cut errors by 54 percent. They determined that lavender reduces stress, jasmine relaxes and lemon stimulates. Odors do make a difference. This gives new significance to a Scripture that has always intrigued me. "For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life" (2 Corinthians 2:15-16). The odor engineers have not done any research as to what happens to people (or a community) when a true believer comes around and gives everybody a whiff of Christ. But Paul says this odor does make a difference. The believer, with the knowledge and life of Christ, emits (in a figurative way) the very smell of Christ's sweet sacrifice (note Ephesians 5:2). We cannot buy it in a bottle. It does not ooze out of our pores. It comes out in our attitudes, actions and words. That sweet smell affects everybody around us. So it might not be a bad idea to ask yourself, "What do I really smell like?" If you know Christ your life smells good. And you will naturally make a difference in all those around you. Who Changed Tom Brown? The book Tom Brown's School Days contains a story about a boy who had the courage to stand up to ridicule. Tom Brown was a student at Rugby Boys School when a new boy enrolled. On his first night in a room with 12 beds and 11 other boys, he knelt to say his evening prayers. Tom turned his head just in time to see a heavy slipper flying through the air toward the head of the new boy. When the lights went out a little later, Tom Brown thought of his mother, and the prayers she had taught him to say, which he had never done since he came to Rugby. He decided that the next time he went to bed, he, too, would say his prayers. The next night, the other boys in the room, ready to laugh and scoff at the newcomer who said his prayers, were amazed to see Tom Brown, whom they all respected and feared, kneel down at the side of his bed and pray. That boy's courageous prayer, in spite of the ridicule, won him the respect of all his companions. He later became one of the most distinguished men of the Church of England. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6). The Real Proof of God Keith Robinson, in The Encourager, writes: "When God wanted to authenticate Himself to the ancient world, He called His nation Israel as witness. 'You are my witnesses,'He said, testimony that 'I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the Lord' (Isaiah 48:10). The people of God served as the undeniable proof of God. "God's people still offer the most basic and best proof of God. A changed life is still the best testimony of God's power. Divine love reflected in a Christian heart which accepts, forgives and loves the unlovable is still the best witness of the nature of God. Hope that will not die is still the best proof of eternal life. Faith which cannot be shaken even in the face of death is still the best demonstration of the immutability of God's promises. "We who have been granted the imponderable privilege of partaking in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), are the witnesses, the demonstration, the proof of the divine presence in the world. Books and lessons and sermons and reason may have their place, but the real test is in the lives of God's chosen people. If that proof is not clear and constant, everything else is just hearsay." Which Am I? A strong horseshoe magnet may be held over an old rust-eaten, shapeless nail without meeting any response. A bright, ringing nail will leap to the magnet, attract another, and through it draw yet another, until several are attracted. That is how Christians are. A really genuine, active, shining Christian has a tremendous attraction to Christ, is magnetized by His love and purity, attracted by His power. And through that Christian, Christ can draw others to Him to share the same power and attraction. But a rusty, unpolished, corroded Christian, cranky, defiled and selfish, has very little attraction, and through him the power of Christ to win the world cannot flow. God has enough power to wipe out every vice and every evil doctrine in this world, but first of all, there must be conductors. And rusty, untaught, unprepared, and unpracticed church members neither draw others near to God nor are drawn near themselves. Our religion must be intensive before it can be extensive.