Dharius Daniels - I Smell Smoke

On my heart is this series that I want to spend a few weeks discussing with you, and it’s called «House Fire.» I believe God wants to do something significant; He wants to set your house on fire. There’s a scripture I want to use to jump into our lesson today: Matthew chapter 3, verse 11. I want you to hear the words of Matthew as he records what a gentleman named John the Baptist says. In verse 11 of chapter 3 of the book of Matthew, it states, «I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.»

So, I want to talk from this subject during our time together. The subject is simple: I smell smoke! Somebody put that in the chat really quick—say, «I smell smoke!»

Family, several years ago, I started experiencing tension and pain in my lower back. As part of a comprehensive physical examination I was undergoing that year, I saw an exercise physiologist. I shared with her some of the discomfort and inconvenience I was facing. They took some necessary steps at the center I was visiting to ensure that there was no real damage—no damage to the spine, no issues with discs or anything of that nature. After their assessment, they called me back in to inform me of what they had observed and the conclusions they reached.

The physiologist shared with me a booklet filled with therapeutic exercises that I was to do on my own. As I observed and read what she presented, I noticed that a lot of the exercises were core exercises targeting the abdominal area. Now, I’m very analytical and inquisitive, sometimes to a fault, so I asked her a question. I said, «Excuse me, I’m looking at these exercises, and it seems all of them are targeting my abs. My abs aren’t hurting; my back is hurting. Why are you giving me exercises for my abs when my problem is my back?»

She replied, «Mr. Daniels, the reason I’ve given you exercises for your core, not just your abs, is because your back is hurting due to a weak core.» I’ll say that one more time: «Your back is hurting because your core is weak. So if you want to eliminate or alleviate the pain in your back, you must be willing to go through the process of strengthening your core.»

Here’s the lesson, family, that we can all learn from my experience: sometimes, things hurt in one area because we are weak in another. The area that hurts is not always the area that is broken. Sometimes, the hurting area is merely a symptomatic expression of something else that’s broken elsewhere. In other words, it’s possible to be hurting emotionally while the issue is not our emotions; we might be hurting relationally without our relationships truly being the problem, or we could be hurting professionally with our profession not necessarily being the issue.

Why? Because some things can hurt in one area because we are weak in another. Therefore, if we can strengthen what’s been weakened, we can fix what’s been broken. This is the lesson I’ve learned, family: what your core is to your body, your spirituality is to your life. In some areas, we are hurting relationally, emotionally, or professionally not because those areas are broken but because our core is weak.

The enemy—the adversary, the evil one—is after your core. You may think he’s after your money, but he’s after your core. You may think he’s just after your relationships, but he’s after your core. You might believe he’s targeting your profession, but ultimately, he’s after your call. Even when he deals with external issues, he utilizes them as entry points to get to internal problems.

That’s what we see with Job. He messed with Job’s resources, but he didn’t want that; he messed with Job’s relationships, but he wasn’t really after those. He targeted Job’s assets, but again, he didn’t want that. What did he want? He wanted Job’s core because he and God had a discussion about Job. Satan told God, «If you let me mess with these external things, what will happen is he will curse you to your face.» The enemy knows that resources can weaken the core, relationships can weaken the core, and a profession can’t strengthen the core—but if your core is strong, does that make sense?

The enemy wants us to live our lives chasing the pain in our back instead of addressing the weakness of our core. And we need to be honest—this is not a judgment, just an observation: Christianity in America has a core problem—weak, weak, weak faith. Defecting from the faith whenever there are hints of adversity, weak, weak core. Turning away from God’s way because God’s way doesn’t seem to be going my way—that’s a weak core. The inability to endure the inconveniences that accompany being a follower of Jesus is indicative of a weak core. The enemy knows the power of this and consequently attempts to…