Perfume Is Strongest When It Is Crushed

Sermon outline

Your identity in Christ is a fragrance God crafts uniquely for you, refined in the hidden place and released under pressure, so that like Esther and Daniel your life carries the aroma of Christ wherever you go.

1. The tabernacle incense: the aroma of consecration

   Have you ever walked into a room or a lift and caught a luxurious fragrance and thought, I want that? Scents carry meaning, stir emotions and shift atmospheres, and every child of God carries a spiritual aroma that people sense when you walk in, speak or serve. The holy incense was blended to an exact formula, crushed fine and reserved for God alone, and nobody was permitted to copy it. In the same way your identity in Christ cannot be duplicated; God does not take shortcuts with us and we are not substitutes. Our identity is not built on the labels of the world or on the label of the bottle we wear, but on the one ultimate label, Christ.

   Illustration: How a fine perfume is made: a concept from a master perfumer, rare ingredients such as rose, jasmine and sandalwood, macerated and crushed to extract the oils, filtered, tested and bottled. The cost reflects the rarity of the raw material, the time the craftsmanship takes and the artistry. A replica can never carry the real fragrance.

   “Your God-given identity has a fragrance that can never be duplicated.”

   • 2 Corinthians 2:14-16
   • Philippians 4:18
   • Psalm 141:2
   • Exodus 30:34-38

2. Esther's preparation: the aroma of transformation

   Esther spent six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics. Myrrh was a burial spice, the one Nicodemus brought for Jesus' body, and it speaks of dying to self and of cleansing from past wounds, regret, bitterness and trauma; it shifted Esther from an orphan girl to a daughter. Before stepping into destiny God often takes us through a myrrh season. The perfumes speak of resurrection and the Holy Spirit's anointing, clothing us with beauty instead of ashes and the oil of joy. Identity is formed in the hidden place before it appears in public.

   Illustration: Just as oil takes time to soak into the skin, the word and the presence of God must soak into us and abide before the aroma can be released.

   “Identity requires us to surrender. Myrrh seasons may seem like a loss at times, but it is refining you and defining you for his purpose and his glory.”

   • Esther 2:12
   • John 19:39
   • Isaiah 61:3

3. Releasing the aroma: identity is revealed under pressure

   Mordecai asked Esther who knows whether she had come to the kingdom for such a time as this, and she had to choose to hide her identity or reveal it. Perfume does not simply exist; it is macerated, crushed, pressed, blended and warmed before it releases anything, and incense needed fire. Pressure does not create your identity, it reveals it, and Esther's revealed identity saved a nation. Psalm 103 commands all that is within us to bless the Lord, so sickness, poverty, disease and anxiety must bless the Lord too, and the aroma of God must reach every crack of the heart to dispel the stench of sin.

   Illustration: If God put you through an X-ray in the middle of the trial, what would He see: insecurity, disease, debt? A tea bag has to sit in hot water before its true flavour comes out.

   “Pressure does not create your identity, it reveals it.”

   • Esther 4:14
   • Psalm 103:1-5

4. How to cultivate your God-given aroma

   First, understand that you already carry an aroma, either of Christ or of yourself: bitterness or grace, fear or faith. Submit to the crushing, and pray daily for God to remove every false label. Spend time in His presence, because fragrance is caught by proximity, as Moses' face shone after being with God. Apply the oil of the Spirit daily, because fresh oil stops your aroma going stale and flesh driven. Walk in love and holiness, choosing forgiveness over bitterness, purity over compromise and humility over pride. Guard the fragrance of your identity and do not let the world's labels, blends and mixtures, or offence and gossip, contaminate it.

   Illustration: Clothes carry the smell of where you have been, like sitting beside a fire. Your spirit carries the scent of His presence when you linger with Him.

   “Fresh oil prevents your aroma from ever becoming stale or flesh-driven.”

   • Isaiah 48:10
   • Exodus 34:29
   • Psalm 92:10
   • Ephesians 5:2
   • Romans 12:2

5. Daniel: the aroma of identity in Babylon

   Daniel was taken captive, renamed and placed in a foreign culture, yet he purposed in his heart not to defile himself and never lost his identity as a servant of Yahweh. His aroma was formed in private devotion, praying three times a day even when it could cost his life, like the incense burned morning and evening. His excellent spirit was noticed by kings and by his enemies, and his friends benefited from it. In the lions' den his trust was released more powerfully, and his deliverance made a pagan king acknowledge God. He lived through several empires and stayed constant.

   “Just as perfume is strongest when crushed or incense when burned, Daniel's identity became more and more fragrant in moments of testing.”

   • Daniel 1:8
   • Daniel 6:10
   • Daniel 6:3
   • Daniel 6:16-27

6. The aroma lessons from Daniel

   Identity must be purposed, so decide beforehand. Private devotion sustains public witness, and prayer fuels the aroma. Integrity is your fragrance. Pressure intensifies your aroma. Consistency leaves a legacy that outlasts the kingdoms and challenges you live through. She closes the teaching by declaring over the church what identity says: a new creation, chosen, royal, holy, redeemed, more than a conqueror and loved with an everlasting love.

   “Integrity is your fragrance. People may not agree with you, but they cannot deny it.”

   • 2 Corinthians 5:17
   • 1 Peter 2:9
   • Ephesians 2:10
   • Romans 8:37
   • 1 Corinthians 6:19
   • Romans 8:17
   • John 8:36
   • Matthew 5:13-14
   • Jeremiah 31:3
   • Romans 8:38-39
   • 1 John 4:4
   • Romans 5:17
   • Ephesians 6:14-17

In this message