poured out like wine, web - Maryville Vineyard Church

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POURED OUT LIKE WINE
3/4 of the books of the NT were written by a guy named Paul. And Paul had
all sorts of word pictures that he used over and over again to help his
audience understand things. And one of the things he said that sounds really
strange to our ears is, “I am being poured out like a drink offering.”
• Phil 2:17, Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the
sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.
The Bible is a very old book, written to people who lived very different lives
than we do, and we’re used to reading it, and seeing things that don’t exactly
make a ton of sense to us, and just skimming over those parts. But let’s not do
that here. Let’s do some of the nerdy stuff, and get the background and then
we’ll talk about what this means for us.
In the Old Testament, sacrifices were made to God to atone for, or pay for,
people’s sin - which was, intentionally, a deeply broken and flawed system.
One of the major themes of Hebrews, the book we’ve been studying, is that
the sacrificial system in the OT was designed to be broken, b/c it was just
pointing to Jesus who was the ultimate and final sacrifice, that really could pay
for sins, and really could offer forgiveness.
But, as weird as it sounds to us, burning sacrifices to the Lord, was a common
idea to everybody in that culture...
• and after those sacrifices were made, under certain circumstances, while
the ashes were still smoldering, a drink offering would be made...
• and that drink offering, plain and simple, was just a bunch of wine being
poured out onto the alter, and onto those smoldering ashes...
and you can imagine what happened next, right?
• billows of smoke
• and a really strong, and great smell...
• and that was the idea, when the drink offering is explained in the OT, the
goal is to create a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
So, there are a couple of things about this that are really important for us to
understand.
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1. The law required about the equivalent of two full bottles of wine, and it says
it had to be strong wine.
• not asking for hard liquor! the idea was to create a smell, not an explosion.
• wine was hard to come by, and it was very expensive... and so most people
would water it down, ALOT, to try to make it last longer.
• and so when it says strong wine, it means, “don’t water it down... don’t go
cheap...I want the real deal.”
• The drink offering required a lot of expensive wine - this was not a cheap
offering to make. So, no yellow-tail! ....nothing that’s sold in a box... this is
an expensive gift!
2. The drink offering was applied after the sacrifice for sin had already been
made... it was NOT intended to pay for, or in any way atone for sin. A
sacrifice for sin had already been given, an animal had given it’s life to pay
for the sins of someone else... that part was done. The drink offering was
given after that...and it was a gift to God to say thank you for forgiving
their sin.
The Apostle Paul says to a bunch of people who already understood all of that
stuff: “I’m like a drink offering. My life, is a drink offering. And all of this stuff
that I do:”
• traveling all over the world, risking my life,
• being beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked...
• sharing about Jesus to everyone I can convince to listen,
• serving the church, and the city, in every way I can think of...
...all of that: that’s my drink offering.”
So, #1, yeah... it’s costly... it’s not a watered down, halfway thing... I’m being
poured out, in full, so that my life, the whole thing, my everything, would smell
nice to God.
And, #2, I don’t do that because I want God to accept me... I do it because I’m
grateful that he already has! there’s nothing atoning about it. When Jesus died
on the cross, he was offering one final sacrifice to cover all sins, he was the
one sacrifice that could REALLY pay for sin.
• most people live their lives hoping they can somehow be good
enough, that God will accept them.
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• Jesus on the cross, was the atonement, that’s how your sins were paid
for... and it was paid in full, and there’s nothing you can do to add to what
Jesus did for you.
Paul spent his entire life trying to get people to understand that...
• stop trying to make sacrifices to God, stop trying earn God’s favor, all that
does is devalue what Jesus already did.
• Don’t try to be the offering that pays for sin, that’s been made... instead,
Paul says, “be like me, be a drink offering. Be the offering that’s given
after the sacrifice is made,”
It’s not given to God because we’re hoping he’ll accept us... it’s an offering that
we give to God because we’re thankful that he already has accepted us.
• and that’s not nuance, and that’s not semantics, that’s THE
DIFFERENCE, between people who are free and joyful... and those who
are bitter, and frustrated.
Paul realized that he was a drink offering...
• and that he could pour himself out completely and really please the Lord,
by just being thankful, and living accordingly.
• And, to the Lord, that would smell really nice.
On the other hand... if we try to be good, so that Jesus will accept us... then all
we have to offer God is our own righteousness, and the Bible says that our
righteousness is like filthy rags... they reek. And there are few things more
offensive that introducing an unwanted smell... right?
Scent is powerful, isn’t it!?
I read a story this week about a guy who is suing his Romanian Orthodox
church because the priests had failed to exorcise the demons that he says
keep farting in his apartment.
• I think that guy’s probably just crazy... but, if that were real... imagine how
frustrating that would be!
Now, the reason I’m talking about this is because I want to talk about the
power of smell... and how when we pour our lives out as an offering of
thankfulness to God... it’s not just a great offering to God, it’s also a powerful
message to everyone around us.
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Smell is intrusive, isn’t it?... when you bring one into a room, everyone
gets it, whether they want it or not.
If you put something ugly into a room, people can just not look at it... but if you
bring something that smells (good or bad), there’s no avoiding it...
• I used to tell my mom... when you put potpourri on the stove, that’s a
choice you’re making for all of us...
• smells get around, that’s what I’m saying...
And people who are grateful... they not only smell great to the Lord, they
change every room they enter... when you become a drink offering, when your
life is about gratitude, everyone notices, whether they want to or not... because
it’s this great smell that just follows you around.
This week I talked with a member of our church, I was doing a hospital visit...
and she was so amazing, because she was incredibly thankful, and it was just
an overflow of her heart! And it wasn’t because her circumstances were all
perfect, let me remind you: it was a hospital visit... it’s just who she is.
• Someone in our small group this week said they have a hard time with
hospitals because they smell funny... and that’s true, I get that... but that
day, that hospital just smelled like gratitude! Like a drink offering.
And it changed my whole day.
That’s the other thing about smells, they not only impact the people around
them, smells also get on you. Whether you like it or not, you get around certain
smells, and they latch onto you, & they’re your smell now... at least for
awhile...
Like, if you walk into a subway... any subway, because this is true for both the
mass transit system, and the sandwich restaurants... if you walk into a subway,
you are going to smell like a subway for quite some time.
it transfers... and it’s a unique sense in that regard - because you won’t look
like a subway when you leave, or sound like one, or taste like one, or feel like
one, but you will smell like one. It transfers!
• drink offerings bring this great smell to the Lord... and it also spreads to all
of the other people around... and it settles on them.
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Every person in this room has experienced that. You get around people who
are grateful and it changes you-it just gets on you!
• and when you hang out with people who have this sort of rancid,
ungrateful reek about them... it gets on you, doesn’t it... and it’s hard to get
it off...isn’t it?
And when I spoke to this really grateful woman this week... it just got on me,
and followed me around all day.
And I’ll tell you one more thing: she said something to me, and it was so
simple, and so brilliant... and it was the key to becoming one of those grateful
people:
She said, “Aaron, sometimes I catch just a tiny glimpse of my own depravity,
and I see how bad I really am, and how bad I could be... and then I realize that
God, knowing all of that, died for me!” She looked me right in the eye, and
said: “I’m a mess, and he knew it, and he chose me anyway!”
And that’s the secret: recognizing where you’ve come from, and where God’s
taken you... that’s the key! We need context to have gratitude.
For example: If you happen to own one of the old abandoned gas stations in
town, that’s great, but can you please take down gas prices that are posted
from, 2004...
Two reasons:
1. I nearly wreck my truck every time I drive by... $1.78, are you kidding me!
2. and then there’s the waves of disappointment when I see the kudzu
halfway up the sign and I realize that a.) I’m not getting any cheap gas
today, and b.) we’re definitely headed in the wrong direction when it
comes to gas prices.
In fact, maybe you could just replace the first #, make it say $5.78, and we
could read it and, just for a second, feel like we’re in a better place than we
used to be. And that would work... because gratitude needs context...
think about it:
There was a time that you would have been furious if you had to pay $1.78 for
a gallon of gas! But now, now that you’ve paid a lot more than that... you’d be
really grateful to pay that, wouldn’t you?
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• You have to see, honestly where you used to be, and where you are now...
and that’s the context that gratitude needs...
• and when we look at the work that Jesus did on the cross... we realize that
we were lost and dead in our sins... and that now, because of his mercy
and only because of his mercy, we have life.
That’s context. That’s perspective that trumps circumstances, and makes
you a drink offering no matter what you’re facing... you see what Jesus did for
you, and you realize: “I can’t add to that, but I can live in response to it. I can
be poured out before the Lord, and live a life of gratitude.”
And that...
1. pleases the Lord
2. it changes you
3. and it changes everyone around you

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