The Lord Smelled The Pleasing Aroma audio video notes. It is amazing how giving Offering And Sacrifice with a grateful attitude touches the heart of the Lord God. It said the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart. To me, it is as if he smelled it with his heart, not with his nose. The Offering And Sacrifice went to the heart of God. When you give Offering And Sacrifice gratefully and cheerfully, it is a pleasing aroma to the Lord
Offering and Sacrifice
By Pastor Delbert Young
The Lord Smelled A Pleasing Aroma
Audio
.
Video
.
WATCH SERMON VIDEO
.
The Lord Smelled The Pleasing Aroma audio video notes
Scriptures: Genesis 8:18-20, Genesis 7:2-3, Genesis 8:21-22, 2 Corinthians 9:7-8, Genesis 9:1, Genesis 9:8, Genesis 9:12-16
Imagine you and your family being the only people remaining on the planet. The planet went through a horrific destruction annihilating every person and every creature on the planet except you, your family, a few animals, and some other creatures you protected. You are now on a remote mountain with little shelter, no conveniences, no grocery store, no pharmacy, and no nothing. You are experiencing the trauma of the experience. There is hopelessness, worry, and anxiety. The sky cleared. The water has receded. The disaster confined you for 370 days. What is the first thing you would do? Do you find shelter, food, find drinking water, bathe, etc.? What do you do? We find such an event in the Bible with Noah as the ark rested on Mount Ararat.
Genesis 8:18-20 So NOAH CAME OUT, TOGETHER WITH HIS SONS AND HIS WIFE AND HIS SONS’ WIVES. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds – everything that moves on the earth – came out of the ark, one kind after another. THEN NOAH BUILT AN ALTAR TO THE LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, HE SACRIFICED BURNT OFFERINGS ON IT.
The first thing Noah did was give OFFERING AND SACRIFICE. This would be strange if there were only two of each kind of animal. It would terminate some species. Contrary to what you were probably told, there was not only two of every kind of animal on the ark.
The Lord Smelled The Pleasing Aroma
Genesis 7:2-3 Take with you SEVEN OF EVERY KIND OF CLEAN ANIMAL, a male and its mate, and TWO of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also SEVEN of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.
Noah took the seventh clean animal and gave OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICE. The Lord will make certain even in your most desperate, traumatic, and hopeless times, you will have something to give as an OFFERING AND SACRIFICE. Here is why. It is in those times we really need the Lord’s help. It is not a time to stop giving OFFERING AND SACRIFICE. However, it is a time to find a way to connect with the Lord. DO YOU FIND A WAY TO GIVE, OR DO YOU STOP GIVING OFFERING AND SACRIFICE WHEN YOU GO THROUGH DESPERATE TIMES?
What was the first thing Noah did after being on the ark for about 370 days? He built an altar to the Lord and gave OFFERING AND SACRIFICE. The first thought Noah had, even before building his own house or finding food, was to build an altar to the Lord. Noah was saying he needed to connect with the Lord.
Attempt to imagine the traumatic experience those people went through. Every person died on the planet except Noah, his wife, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and their wives. Those eight alone avoided death. I do not know if you ever thought about it or not, but you and I are descendants of Noah. Had Noah and his family not made it through the flood, you nor I, nor our children would be here today. Noah and his entire family could have easily died, but God spared them. Have you ever experienced a traumatic time similar to what happened to Noah? Perhaps you were in a car crash that could have easily taken your life, but God spared you.
The Lord Smelled The Pleasing Aroma
Perhaps
Maybe there was an accident in which you could have died, but God spared you from death. Perhaps you were very sick and could have died, but God had mercy on you. Look further back. More than likely, your parents, at some point in time before you were born, experienced a situation where they could have died. Had it happened, you would not be here, your children, nor your grandchildren. Possibly your children or your grandchildren experienced a car crash, accident, or sickness possibly taking their lives, but God had mercy on them. The Lord God preserved your parents.
He preserved you, your children, and your future generations. This is God’s mercy, God’s mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations (Psa 100). As soon as NOAH CAME OUT, TOGETHER WITH HIS SONS AND HIS WIFE AND HIS SONS’ WIVES, he built an altar to the Lord. Noah was saying THANK YOU LORD GOD and he expressed his gratitude through OFFERING AND SACRIFICE.
It was around 50 years ago during the Christmas season.
I was about ten years old and at a house with my parents one night for a Christmas party. The adults were inside and we children were outside playing hide-n-seek. I was familiar with the home and yard, but unknown to me, this very day, the owner erected a barbed wire fence. I was running down an incline full speed, and I could not see the fence and I ran into three strands of barbed wire. My throat was at the perfect height of the top strand and it cut open my throat. I bounced off the fence like a rubber ball bouncing off a cement wall. I grabbed my throat. Immediately, there was the wet warmth of my own blood gushing fast into my hands. I squeezed my throat tightly, got to my feet, and staggered toward the house, collapsing before I got there.
The Lord Smelled The Pleasing Aroma
The other children saw me and ran for my parents. They grabbed towels, wrapped them around my throat, threw me into the car, and drove a hundred miles an hour to the hospital. I remember coming in and out of consciousness lying with my head in my mother’s lap in the back seat. When the doctors saw it, they immediately began working on me. Afterward, when I stabilized, they told my parents they did not know why I had not bled out and died. In addition, they did not understand why the cut had not sliced open and ruined my Larynx (voice box).
They said I was a very “lucky” boy.
As I look back at it now, luck had nothing to do with it. GOD HAD MERCY ON ME! As did Noah, I found grace in the eyes of the Lord (Gen 6:8). There was something for me to do and something for my children to do. I lived to marry and have children and grandchildren. I can think of times with my children such as car crashes, illness, etc., but GOD HAD MERCY ON THEM! We can all associate a little with how Noah felt as he walked off the ark that day with his wife, his children, and their spouses. Noah said, “I am building an altar!” CAN YOU REMEMBER A TIME IN YOUR LIFE, OR THE LIFE OF YOUR CHILDREN, WHERE THE LORD SHOWED YOU THIS TYPE OF MERCY? Were you just “lucky,” or did you find grace in the eyes of the Lord?
Noah needed the Lord God in his desperate situation. Noah was grateful for God’s mercy. The FIRST thing Noah did was give OFFERING AND SACRIFICE. The Lord so appreciated what Noah did he said the smell of Noah’s OFFERING AND SACRIFICE pleases me.
The Lord Smelled The Pleasing Aroma
Genesis 8:21-22 THE LORD SMELLED THE PLEASING AROMA AND SAID IN HIS HEART: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And NEVER AGAIN WILL I DESTROY ALL LIVING CREATURES, as I have done. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
(It’s not my subject, but notice the Lord said he would NEVER AGAIN DESTROY the earth. He is not trying to trick us and destroy the earth some other way than by a flood next time. He is not going to use atomic bombs, nuclear missiles, or stars falling from the sky, and he said NEVER AGAIN. I do not know about you, but this makes me happy. My children, grandchildren, and great, great-grandchildren can live, love, have children, and a great life too.)
It is amazing how giving OFFERING AND SACRIFICE in your need for God and with a grateful attitude touches the heart of the Lord God. It said the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, and it is as if he smelled it with his heart, not with his nose. The OFFERING AND SACRIFICE went to the heart of God. It’s an aroma to God’s heart. When you give OFFERING AND SACRIFICE gratefully and cheerfully, it is a pleasing aroma to the Lord and causes him to love you even more. Speaking of OFFERING AND SACRIFICE, the apostle Paul said…
2 Corinthians 9:7-8 You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give. Don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. FOR GOD LOVES THE PERSON WHO GIVES CHEERFULLY. And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.
I thought he already loved me. He does, but giving OFFERING AND SACRIFICE cheerfully makes him love you even more just like he loved Noah and is about to do something very special for Noah. QUESTION: HOW DO YOU BELIEVE YOU GIVE OFFERING AND SACRIFICE – RELUCTANTLY OR CHEERFULLY? Remember, when you give, it’s a pleasing aroma to God’s heart.
The Lord Smelled The Pleasing Aroma
It was a pleasing aroma. The King James’ Version says the LORD smelled a sweet savour and said in his heart. It is sweet to him. The aroma triggers God’s heart. It’s like honey to us. It’s not only sweet. It stimulates the senses. Honey smells sweet because of its aroma. It is pleasing to him. It makes him happy. I was thinking about this. Was the smell of burning flesh sweet and pleasing to the Lord? I wanted to set a big piece of meat on fire and let all of us have a smell but knew it would cause some breathing difficulties, so I changed my mind. It was not burning flesh pleasing the Lord. Never has been.
I could talk about burning the “flesh,” i.e. carnal natures on the altar (Rom 12:1; Gal 5:19-21), but I would rather stay on point. Noah was not doing this because of his carnal nature. He was giving OFFERING AND SACRIFICE because he needed the Lord and because he was grateful to the Lord. This is the smell reaching the Lord’s heart. Watch what the Lord does next.
Genesis 9:1 THEN God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
The blessing came because a man gave OFFERING AND SACRIFICE with a needy and grateful heart.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary says, “Note, God will graciously bless (that is, do well for) those who sincerely bless him. Those that are truly thankful for the mercies they have received take the readiest way to have them confirmed and continued to them.” What I want us to see is God responds to our OFFERING AND SACRIFICE with covenant and blessings to us and to our children for generations. The blessing was to NOAH AND HIS SONS. The Lord blessed them with the most comfortable life possible. The Lord did not only bless them so they would survive. If you read the passage, it was a blessing of abundance from land to sea. Anything they wanted, they could have. They had total dominion. Then Genesis 9:8 says…
Genesis 9:8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: I NOW ESTABLISH MY COVENANT WITH YOU AND WITH YOUR DESCENDANTS AFTER YOU
The Lord Smelled The Pleasing Aroma
Noah’s recognition of his need for the Lord in his life and Noah’s gratefulness for the Lord’s mercy expressed through OFFERING AND SACRIFICE brought a covenant to and for his sons and descendants. In fact, you and I continue today under the covenant made with Noah and his sons.
Genesis 9:12-16 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the EVERLASTING COVENANT BETWEEN GOD AND ALL LIVING CREATURES OF EVERY KIND ON THE EARTH.”
The beautiful rainbow covenant we enjoy regularly began with Noah’s building an altar, and giving OFFERING AND SACRIFICE. Noah’s OFFERING AND SACRIFICE reached the heart of God and from it God created something new and special we enjoy still – the rainbow. No other covenant has such a beautiful seal upon it. The rainbow is here to remind God and us of his faithfulness and covenant, but it also should remind us of Noah’s OFFERING AND SACRIFICE, which assured Noah’s future generations God will never destroy man, animals, or the planet. Noah is gone, but his rainbow is still here assuring us. WHAT ARE YOU ASSURING YOUR FUTURE GENERATIONS?
Have you ever thought about how every covenant with the Lord has been by OFFERING AND SACRIFICE? The covenant with Noah, the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with Israel, the covenant with David and Solomon were, and of course, the New Testament covenant we have today through Jesus Christ is. My point is if we want a personal covenant with the Lord God bringing blessings upon ourselves, our children, grandchildren, and generations to come, OFFERING AND SACRIFICE on our part must be involved somewhere. Of course, I am not talking about animals. Neither am I talking about offering only in a monetary sense. I am talking about offering ourselves to God (Rom 12:1). Your time, your talents, your money, your serving, your prayers, your ministering to people, your witnessing, etc. is a sweet savour and pleasing aroma to the Lord.
The Lord Smelled The Pleasing Aroma
Express your need to the Lord, especially in bleak times.
Be grateful to the Lord for his mercy. He has extended his mercy to you and your children. You are still here and it did not have to be this way. Build your altar first and give him OFFERING AND SACRIFICE with a cheerful and grateful heart. This is sweet to him and pleasing to him. If you will, he will set his rainbow in your heart. Every time he looks at you, it will remind him to find a new way to bless you, your children, and your generations for as long as there is seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night. It is a power of OFFERING AND SACRIFICE. Amen!
The Lord Smelled The Pleasing Aroma audio video notes
The Lord Smelled The Pleasing Aroma audio video notes
Other Related Sermons:
Offering and Sacrifice sermon series
Also see:
How long was Noah on the ark?
from Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.