Speaker 1 0:00

Well, it's good to be here. Thank you. Do we have any ACE fans? Let me just see across the room. Let's just close them . Thank you God. For today. No , that's awesome. I'm thrilled to be, I'm actually an A's and Raiders fan. If there's any Raider folks here, I talked to a guy in the lobby. I can't remember his name. I'm sorry, sir. But we talked , we had this bonding moment because he was telling me about being an ACE fan. And I said, you know, truth be told I'm a Raiders fan too. And we were like, we were like instant brothers, right? Instant brotherhood. And what I realized around the bay, you know, you get this love, hate thing with the Raiders. And I realized for me loving the fact that I'm in the east bay a little bit east dish bay y'all are Raider folks. A lot of you , um , that if Jesus were walking on the earth today, he'd be a Raider fan. And the Bible teaches us that it does because the Bible talks about Jesus coming to seek and save those who were lost. And if you've been to Raider nation, you know exactly what I'm talking about, centers, demon, possessed, tax collectors, they're all on the black hole, right? Like , like even if you're not ready for it . Okay . Now that makes total sense right there. That just really he's he's spot on this guy. So anyway, yes, I work with A's in there and first place, it's super fun to watch. And thank you for having me . I wasn't sure I was going to be here this morning. Uh , not because , uh, you know, Larry invite me and we didn't this, you know, confirmed on my calendar, but I got an email and I'll show it to you in just a second. But I got an email and uh , so on my property, I live out in Soquel Capitola area, near Santa Cruz, and I've got a 14 acre property and my family all lives there. My parents, my kids and my grandkids. I have six grandkids, one on the way and all live together, kind of in this property thing. And I've got so much space created a couple of air beeps . I've got three Airbnbs go in there. And uh, so we get the air. Does anybody have an Airbnb? Does anybody use Airbnb? So for us that host , we get these , we get, you'll get an email of somebody coming and going. And you know , people, you know , uh , the interaction you have with individuals that are coming to your property, to the Airbnb. And so I get an email just this last week and it looks like this . It says, Jesus arrives Friday, May 14th. And, and I'm like, and actually the top of it's cut off. But it's just the top of the email. The subject line was Jesus is coming soon. And I'm like, whoa, I probably ought to read this. And then I saw that he's coming on May 14th. I'm like, shoot. Cause I'm speaking like that weekend, like, that'll be problematic if I'm not there. Or if I am there, then it's really problematic. But you just, and I'm like, oh, I'm still here. I hope he's going in alphabetical order as he takes us into heaven because my last name starts with a T, but I love [inaudible] . I love this line right here. If you haven't already reach out to Jesus, send him directions and coordinate a check-in time.

Speaker 2 2:59

How often do you get an email like that?

Speaker 1 3:01

That was pretty fun. Anyway, I'm glad to be here. And that's not why we're here, but it was a fun little thing. So the theme of this series embracing the newest pastor, Larry was sharing . It's a series around that. Really the science of semiotics, which is the study of signs and symbols and their meaning, what you experienced in this world, how you, and what they mean. So coming out of COVID , the church needs to see and embrace the new you do. You know how good it feels for somebody who has watched church online for so many times to come up here to a church service like this, it was worth the hour and a half drive just that alone to worship together and worship with a band. That just sounds like Coldplay. I mean, it was just awesome, right? You guys, you guys put fog machines on and it smells like popcorn and you're like, this is great. But there's something about that. When you come out of that, coming out of COVID church needs to embrace the new and to see the signs and symbolic things that have new meaning for us. Ironically, some of the new is actually been here all along, but we just need to in a new way and take it in through our census. Let me give you an example of embracing the new through our census. So my family, I have a family or a family of six. I got four kids. And when my kids were little, we'd go to the mall. And one of the things I went there, one time to a store called the sweet factory. Have you ever been to the sweet factory? And I'm talking about, they give you these bags and then you go in and you shovel in what you want and then they weigh it out. And then you realize, whoa, I put way too much candy in this bag. Super expensive. So I did it one time with my kids. They all got their own bag. Two things happen , one, it was too too expensive. The second thing that happened was they just sat in a corner and just this and just ate this candy. And I'm like, like a good parent would say, did you even taste it? And they're just shoveling it in their mouth and like hovering over like this. And so I thought the next time I go to the sweet factory, I'm going to change things up a little bit. So pictures of the sweet factory here, I'm going to change things up just a little bit for you to see for my kids to experience. And when I got to call it experiencing candy. So I said, you get one piece that you get to choose that's for you, one piece, and then you get to pick one other candy you've never had before. And you put six, those in your bag that you're going to share with the rest of the family. And so each of them were going to do that or is a family of six, or they're going to get six pieces of candy. Plus there are pieces that they chose. So they have seven pieces of candy that seems reasonable. And so we got, they got their candy. And then I said, okay, each person got to take out that one piece of candy and give it to each we're the family. And then we held the candy up. We smelled it,

Speaker 3 5:45

Put it in her mouth.

Speaker 1 5:46

And I said, then you close your eyes and tell me what you're experiencing. Now at first they were like, dad, this is weird. But then after a while , all of a sudden candy begins to trigger a memory. It reminds you of something. And one of my kids says, I remember last summer when we were, because he had some sort of lemon drop and we had the limit . But when we made all that lemonade and it was so fun to be together and I'm like, okay, here we go. And then the next kid did something. And the next kids did something that every time we went to the mall, my kids kept saying, can we go experience candy? Now I know realize they want candy, but we played that game and my kids are in their thirties now. And they talked about it. I told them I was doing this message. They said, are you going to tell them about experiencing candy? Cause they still do it because it changed the trajectory. It actually took us to this place where I'm experiencing some dang and it takes me somewhere. I took a bunch of college kids on a missions trip and we were going to Haiti. So we'd go across the country. And as we were flying, my wife had packed some candy. And so I was telling the students about this in our little portion of the plane, we had about 11 people with us. And so I'm passing out candies. I said, this is what we do. And so I had different candies and we're trying to different people on the plane. Weren't even part of our group. They're like, they're like, can we try this too? I had people on the plane crying. This reminds me of my mother who passed away last year. She's experiencing something completely different than just having a piece of candy. And it's interesting within the semiotics of things, you can find an embrace, something completely new. That's the irony of this whole piece to experience something with your senses. That's been there all along, but you experiencing it in a new way and you're embracing the new and the senses, sight taste, touch, sound smell are our God. Given research enters to experience all things and discern new things. God gave us these receptors. Ironically, the receptor that's been covered every year has been our nose. I mean our mouth too , but your nose has been covered for a year. When you think about and think about what we have disconnected from, but in the Bible, there's a story. The story of Isaac, when Isaac is blessing Jacob, rather than Esau and nothing else illustrates the culmination of all the senses at play and how the senses of smell is used in such a powerful way to change the trajectory of people's life . Then this story here, you know, story, right? This is when Isaac and Rebecca, they have twin sons Esau first, then Jacob, Jacob steals his brother's birthright. And then he and his mother deceive Isaac

Speaker 3 8:31

To steal

Speaker 1 8:32

Blind Isaac to steal the blessing that would normally go to the first born by putting on this charade and misleading the father. When you read the story, it's a perfect storm of all the five senses that come into play in the deception piece. I love this picture right here. It's a beautiful picture from an eight 17th century Italian artist named Joe Aquino also . And he was a Baroque style painter. And while that doesn't necessarily depict ancient near Eastern culture, I love how this picture plays itself out because you watch how all the five senses come into the storyline first. And it's in Genesis chapter 27 in verse one, it says for sight, sight is taken out. It's taken out of play. It says his eyes were so weak that he could no longer. See. I love the picture here where it shows. If you look, if you zoom in on the picture, his eyes are closed as if I can't see, I can't see what's going on here. So, so sight is taken out of play. Second is taste. So Esau was a hunter as a hunter who probably prepares some tasty feast for his father that he would love. And of course on this occasion would warrant a great meal. And so instead, Rebecca Isaac's wife, it says in verse 14, it says prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it. So the food right there prepared and ready to roll, but there's a catch there's this catch in the whole, the whole plot that deceived AISES Isaac is related to touch as well. And so you see the touch when it moves into this part, it says, my brother Esau is a hairy man. This is Isaac speaking. Armena Jacob speaking. And I have smooth skin. So in verse 16, she covers his hands with the smooth and the smooth part of his neck with goat skins . You see this in his hands,

Speaker 3 10:23

Sight

Speaker 1 10:24

Taste touch, but how will they fool them with the sound of Isaac's voice? It's almost like they say, this is a great meal. And he says, thank you . Thank you. Thank you. You've got to change his voice a little bit. And I love this picture of the mom , shushing him. It says this, Jacob went close to his father who touched him. And he says, the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau. As you see the mom going, don't say too much, still not convinced in the story. Verse 24, he asked the question, are you really my son Esau? And then he gets to smell and smell becomes this confirming piece . When Isaac caught the smell of the clothes, you look at this picture here. He blessed him, see the clothes . You can't see where it below , but his clothes wear the clothes of a warrior clothes of a hunter. And he's right under his father's nose. And he can smell it. He says Rebecca, because it said earlier, Rebecca took the best clothes of Esau, her older son, which she had in the house. And she put them on her younger son, Jacob. And even in his blessing, the confirmation, the smell is in the blessing where he says, Aw , the smell of my son is like the smell of the field that the Lord has blessed out of the five senses. The one that pushes them over the top, it's smell, smell more than any other of the senses is a powerful, confirming, clarifying emotion. Evoking. It's a memory jarring sense that God has given to us to connect us to the divine, to fully enjoy his creation and to remind us of his goodness. And have you ever played that hypothetical game? Like if I had to get rid of one of my , if I had to surrender one of my senses, which one would it be? And the first one that the one that never goes is our sight , but then you start to play out the other ones like losing sound. Yeah, that would be a bummer because it was great music out there or touch or taste that has high values. But smell is often the underrated sense that I think is one of the most powerful and overlooked things that we have to experience God, even at Jesus's birth, the three Wiseman what'd they give gold frankincense and myrrh. Two of the three are aromatic gifts. Like when you think about it, think about it this for a second. For the Wiseman , they were saved a lot of time traveling from the far east, if they had just given Jesus a monthly subscription to essential oils. So Joseph and Mary

Speaker 2 12:55

DoTERRA, this , I know what you ladies do. So when it comes to smell, think about it this way,

Speaker 1 13:07

Smell triggers, memory, smell, triggers, memory. You guys have a Costco here, right? Costco in this area, you know , Costco , like it's the only place where you can get 12 gallons of milk and a kayak, you know, Costco, right? If I blindfolded you and took you to a Costco or an In-N-Out burger or a Starbucks, anywhere in the country, you'd be able to guess exactly where you are. And for , for, for women, I would include TJ Maxx, target and trader Joe's. In fact, I can, I can blind from my wife and take her TJ max , and she'll know the difference between a TJ max and a TJ, max homeschool , home goods. You know what I mean? She'd be like, oh no, this is a home goods right here. That'd be like, take this . I got a shop a little bit. You know , I see what they got, but it triggers something that triggers a memory. You remember? Oh, I was here before smell triggers. Emotion smells can make you happy, like smelling a flower or going outside right after a rain. And you're like this. It's not just how it smells. It's how it makes you feel. Right. It can make it a smell can make you happy. Smell can make you angry, ever walk by a Yankee candle store. And you're like, whoa, I am angry. You've just assaulted. My senses. Smell is always on. It's always on you. Don't shut it off. As of the things where you can close your eyes or just smell is always on. Have you ever woken up to the smell of bacon? You didn't taste it. You didn't see it. You didn't hear it. You didn't feel it. But all of a sudden you're like, whoa, it's always on. I read this study and the power of smell in a discovery journal where it said this in 2014 study showed that we can distinguish at least 1 trillion different odors from the previous estimates of a mere 10,000. And it says awareness of our innate smelling abilities. However, it's complicated because the human language doesn't have words for a trillion smells. And much of the smelling happens under the radar of our consciousness. Unlike our other senses, the olfactory nerves do not proceed directly to the brain's thalamus, the gateway to consciousness. Instead information feeds from the nose to the cortical areas to arouse emotion and memories without our awareness. And when it comes to smells, people can be influenced and not even realize it. Thus, you coming in and wondering why is my stomach growling? And people use it all the time. That's why there's phrases and idioms related to the power of smell that triggers other intuitions. Like something smells fishy or I smell trouble, or it comes up smelling like a rose or the sweet smell of victory. Why is smell associated with these other things that are intuitive to where I'm listening and thinking, why am I, why do I feel this? Because it's going through an , a sense that you have that is far more powerful than just that smells good. It doesn't smash. Doesn't pass the smell test, or it smells like a rat stinks to high heaven. And my personal favorite smells like somebody died in here. Smell is this incredibly, this is key now incredibly powerful sense that God gives us to connect to the divine, to fully enjoy his creation and to remind us of his goodness. Don't miss that because it's been covered for a year and all of a sudden, how do I begin to experience God in his goodness in my life? How do I connect to the divine? How do I see and embrace something new based on this sense that God has given me, don't ever underestimate the smell of the aroma. In fact, smell is used throughout the whole Bible. I'll point out just five that stood out to me as I was preparing. This message smell is used as first, a reminder of redemption throughout the whole Bible. It's a reminder of redemption. It says this and Ephesians chapter five, it says, walk in love as Christ loved us. And he gave himself for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God references the old Testament sacrifice throughout the whole old Testament there references again and again about the substitutionary sacrifice being offered up on the altar as an aroma that would please God, throughout the whole Testament that happens. And then we get to the new Testament, Jesus on the cross serves as that ultimate sacrifice of the sins of the world for our sins and referenced at that same fragrant offering to God on our behalf. And so when you read that about that, that's this active, this is, this is an aroma that is pleasing to God. Reference a of redemption smell also is used as a reflection of character in the Bible. I love this in the book of song of song of Solomon. It says this the first three verses that him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for your love is better than wine because the fragrance of your good ointments, your name is like ointment poured forth. When they referenced name, they're talking about character and your character is something like, as they go through all this love language throughout all of song of Solomon, the first thing they talk about that attracts them to one another. Isn't how they look. Isn't about the sensuality. Isn't about eldest of the things. It's about the character that draws me to you. Your character and character is something, you know, when you work with somebody like that, guy has a good reputation. He's not even there. And his character has proceeded him. It's like a fragrance. Like when you , you smell somebody before they even get there. And after they leave, the fragrance is still there. That's good and bad character you ever get in an elevator when somebody like [inaudible] , There's some bad character in here. I'll wait for the next one. You know what I'm talking about, right? And character reflects that aroma of your character, reference of character, reflection of character smells also in the use is in the Bible as a representation of generosity, a representation of generosity. He says this in Philippians chapter four, it says I have received full payment. Is Paul. Now speaking, I received full payment and more. And I have well supplied having received from [inaudible] the gifts you sent and what does he say? A fragrant offering a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God, our generosity, our hospitality, our ability to give of ourselves is in a Roma. You know, when you meet somebody that's super generous and not like, or , or, you know, somebody that's super generous and you like generosity exudes him like an aroma does generosity. Another way it's represented smell is used as a reference to worship as a reference to worship. It says in Romans chapter 12, verse one, this is that famous passage. Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies going back to that sacrificial sacrificial idea to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, not a dead sacrifice, not an animal sacrifice, but crawling up on that alter to say, in my living in Christ, I am offering myself to you as a living sacrifice. And he says this holy and pleasing to God, that's your true and proper worship that our worship is a reference reference through a Roma, ironically worship. Isn't just sounding , oftentimes people think worship is what I do on Sunday morning with the bands up here. It's not just the sound. It's the smell. Singing is one of the many expressions of worship that collectively reflects the heart, which becomes this aroma that is offered up to God. Because if worship, if, if , if, if, if the aroma of worship like the music and how good it is is the only thing is susceptible. Then really the only people that are acceptable to God are these ones. These guys that played this morning, cause I'm not that good of a singer. So it can't be that it has to be the collective. The other thing smell is also used as a revelation of the gospel. That's a revelation of the gospel. It says this in second Corinthians, but thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal profession. Through us, through us. People here spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere that closely tied to redemption, but the gospel as it's present, presented to the world in the community, and those around us becomes this fragrant expression. The fragrance of the knowledge of him that would spread everywhere. Those are just five that just stood out to me that I wanted to share with you. So aroma aroma, being this powerful in our human state and such valuable sense that God uses to connect and bless mankind throughout history. My question in the process of putting this together and listening to the sermons before and thinking, how can I challenge you? Is w how can we leverage the power of scent and the gift of aroma, the dynamic of our ability to smell and the power that it possesses to live more like Jesus, and experience the divine. How do we do that? So I have five. Thanks . So if you got some paper or I want you to write these things down, because these are my action items, where are you

Speaker 3 22:48

Today? I call it the spiritual aroma therapy. First is this

Speaker 1 22:58

Write down correlations to the divine correlations, to the divine. And what I'm saying there is to make a random connection to the divine, through a scent, take something that is ritually mundane in your life that has a scent and connect it to something transformative. So let me, let me just make it super simple. How many in the room had coffee this morning? Just raise your hand. Let's see all the addicts here. Okay. I have three cups. So I'm thinking what if we, if we were to take coffee and connect that and that scent , you know, when you walk in and you just like a fresh ground and you grind it and you smell it like that, and it smells , oh my gosh, this smells so good. Or take something like that, but take that and connect it to the holiness of God. And you do it again for a week. And again, next you get a next day. And the next day, and every time you have coffee, you discipline yourself to connect it to something that is transformative. A mundane smell that rather than just being, I love the smell of coffee. I love the smell of coffee, because it reminds me of the holiness of God, whatever you want to make it out to be. But the holiness of God, that seems like a good one or whatever it is. The other one, freshly toasted bread. You know what ? Somebody toast bread, especially if it's sourdough, holy smokes. How awesome is that? That smell just goes in the house. It's just like, oh my gosh. It's like, you're baking bread again. What if freshly toasted bread was connected to the power of the resurrection know , toast pops up resurrected? You know what I mean? Like something like just make the connection. I don't care, but don't worry about that. I just thought of that. My trigger of first thought wrong. Wasn't working. So usually I don't say that anyway. I don't want to downplay the resurrection. I'm just saying, take a mundane scent that you have on occasion and connect it to something transformative F and use that sent to remind us of the work of God in our lives. That's the first thing correlations to the divine. Second is this reminders, write this down. Reminders of blessing, reminders of blessing. So like the smells in the morning, like , so I live out in the country like in the forest area, overlooking the ocean. And when I come out, it's either a fog layer or, you know , the sunshine or whatever else. And we have just different scents and smells that are going on. And so in the morning, I'll walk out and you know, when you walk out, I'm reminded, I'll walk out on my balcony and I'm reminded, and I'll say this, and I'll just put my hands out. His mercies are new every morning. Great. Is that I less reminders of the blessing. You know what that is? It's like, whatever was going on today , ain't happening today? Cause he , his mercies are new. He's the one that matters. Let's take that in, in the morning, reminders of his blessing. So correlations to the divine reminders of blessing. The next one, I call it prompts for soul care prompts for SoCo soul care, make sensory association to spiritual practice. Now this is different than correlation to the vine. That's just like take a mundane thing and connect it. This one is doing something that is an ongoing thing. It can be a candle during dinner and you light it for a reason. And you say, we like this candle because of it doesn't have to be advantaged . Didn't have to be anything else. It can be just own personal act of soul care that says, this is what this is. And this is why it could take you smell. Like for me, one of the things I do, I started doing, I have I'll have a meal. My wife's a phenomenal cook and I have a meal. And when we're praying, I bow my head, not out of reverence. I bow my head to get the nose closer to the food. Just being very honest. I have a hard time closing my eyes and I'm like, and I'm just, and I just pause for a moment because my wife has taken something and co-created with the divine, something that is unbelievable. And I just take that in. And that becomes this soul care. That reminds me, it's something about eating and caring for your soul really well together. The sensory association to a spiritual practice, the next one, connections with creation, very similar to reminders of blessing. But the Reiner's a blessing is that, oh yeah, this reminds me of how God is good to me. But the connections with creation, the smells of nature that connect you to beauty, don't hesitate to stop and smell something. When you think about how God designed things like a pine tree, you think he just designed the pine tree. There's a smell that's associated with the pine tree. He did that purposely and who are we to miss it? So when you stop and smell something, it was designed for the beauty as a reflection of what God's doing for you to enjoy and to give glory to God and the smell and the fragrance that comes from it is part of the beauty. So connections with the gotcha . We did it with a distinct scent. Why for us to experience and enjoy, and don't miss it. That phrase stop and smell the roses, make that a spiritual practice. And the last one is triggers to action triggers to action. And it's this making this make a sensory association that triggers you to do something, a sensory association that triggers you to go, I smell this. I need to go do this. I need to think this. I need to pray this in my home. We have star Jasmine right outside of our door. And the set when you walk in, it reminds me of when I walk in, I'm like, oh man, this scent is so beautiful. God bless . Thank you. Thank you for my house. Bless my house. And bless my family in my house. It's a triggered to an action. I mentioned , I mentioned Costco before. When , when we first moved here, Costco does have, right . Costco has a distinct scent, right? You can totally smell it. Like when you go in there, it smells a certain way. I go to Costco. We love, I love going to Costco all the time. Now I'll tell you the story about trigger to action. So I go to Costco with my family. When I moved here from Southern California in 1996 and we find our Costco and we'd go there and whatever else. And we're a family of six. So when we started, we had a cart, we moved to a flat. Then we were cart and flat. And when you go and you're shopping, you realize I got to navigate. You know , when you're checking out, I got to navigate a cart and flat. And so I get in a line and we're , we're all ready to go. And I noticed the other lines of moving and my line, isn't moving and I'm getting super annoyed. Cause I got things to do. I got places to go and get people to seat . And I look up above and I'm like, what the heck? And I'm , and I can't navigate my cart in a flat to another thing. So I'm just like just annoyed. We finally get to the front of the line and it's this girl, her name is Natalie. It's her first day as the checker and she's super slow and she knows she's slow. And she says to me, she looks at us and I could tell she feels embarrassed about it. And she goes, it's my first day. And I'm like, we now [inaudible] . And then something happens and something triggers inside of me that I'm like, it's , it's her first day. Let's let's bless her. Let's encourage her. And I , and I looked at my wife and I thought, you know, why am I giving this girl? Why am I giving her this annoyance? This vibe. She feels from me. Let's bless her, listen, courage her. So I said to my wife, I said, you know what? Listen, at first I said to Natalie, I said, you're doing a great job. Keep it up. And she goes, really? And my wife goes really, you know , like that. I said, yeah. And I looked at my wife and said, listen, every time we come to Costco, we're going to get in Natalie's line. And my wife goes, you realize she's slow. I said, it's perfect. It'll give us a chance to get to know her. And so every time we come to Costco, we get in Natalie's line. It's really easy to identify. It's a long one. So I figured when I get to the front of the line, it's my turn now. So I'm gonna take my time because I've been waiting for all these people in front of me. And so I get up there and I asked her a question, how's it gone . Remember us and would talk and hug high five, whatever else. And for the next, however many years, she still works there. We always get in Natalie's line. One time we get aligned to pick up a story where we left off and go back in a couple of weeks or wherever we're at . Our rhythm of Costco is, and we see Natalie, we talked to her, hi, how's it going? She finds out. She knows I'm a pastor. And we talk about different things. One time we got in line and I see her we're in the back we're wave. And she goes like this, she got engaged. She's super excited to tell me I got engaged . I'm like, oh my gosh. And then she says, we want you to do our wedding. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'd be honored to do that. And it was, it was coming down. It was like, you know, eight months or nine months later. So it wasn't anything. We had to do counseling right there in line, you know? So we're just talking about stuff. And then another time we go and we get in line, I see her. And I could tell she's just super bummed. By the time I get up there, I said, are you okay? What's going on? She says, my mother-in-law to be , doesn't want you to do the wedding. So why, what happened? She said, well, she doesn't want a pastor from Costco to do the [inaudible] .

Speaker 3 32:54

I might, I don't work here. Like,

Speaker 1 32:58

Like Kirkland , seminary. Like I went to real seminary, right? Like I'm a real person. Look me up online. I'm a re I'm the real deal. Right. It turns out we were able to do the wedding and stuff like that. And it was super fun. My wife and I were able to meet with them, do counseling and hang out. And then it was shortly after that, it was after they were married. They said, Hey, we would like to come. I'm at a church. I was at a church at that time called west gate , which is down in the south bay a lot like this really cool church. And she said, we would like to come to your parish. I love that parish for Christmas Eve services. Now our Christmas Eve service, probably a lot like yours. It's like a Coldplay concert. She brought 11 people. They sat in the front row and she's like, that was the most interesting Christmas Eve service at the parish I've ever been to. She has an accepted Christ, but the stories being told and the interaction in her life is happening. Because all of a sudden you take a moment and pause and you realize from that passage, we are Christ's ambassadors. If, is , if God were pleading his case through us to be reconciled with him, that the next person I meet, oftentimes when I'm super annoyed, when God's going to shake things up and say, I've got something for you right here. So now every time I go into Costco and I smell the smell of Costco, I am reminded I am Christ ambassador. It is a trigger to action to pray, to be mindful and keenly aware that this person here doesn't know Jesus. And what can I do? Introduce have a conversation, be friendly, take my mask off and show him . I'm smiling triggers to action. These things here, correlations to the divine reminders of the blessing, prompts to soul care, connections with creation. And God's created order for your purposes to enjoy and trigger to action, to let your scent be something that allows us to live and to love like Jesus, to respond like him and to love God and to use our census for him. You guys joined me in prayers . We commit our , this next portion is you father. Thank you for the opportunity to be with my brothers and sisters here at north gate and the work that you're doing in the area of Benicia. I pray a blessing over them and thank you for the opportunity to be here at this church and to share. I pray as we look forward to coming out of this crazy season, that you'll use this time for us to slow down and leverage the census that you've given us to experience you and to serve you in all things. I pray a blessing over our time. Thank you for this day in Christ's name. Amen.