Belleza en vez de cenizas — A fuego lento — DawnCheré Wilkerson

I love you. Well, good morning, everyone. How are you doing? Are we good? I'm so happy to be here in South Miami. And I just want to welcome you all over. I'm so grateful for Gardens of the Deep, I'm grateful for Citi, I'm grateful for ECI, HCI, and our online family. And I just want to put everything together for this family that we are. I have expectations for what God is going to do in our lives when we see His Word. Clap your hands and say, it's nice to see you when you take a seat, wherever you are. You can grab your Bible, your journal. We are going to open the Word in Romans 12, verse 1. Romans 12, verse 1. And it says, Therefore, brethren, taking into account the mercy of God, I ask that each of you, in spiritual adoration, offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. As I start this collection on the fire, I just want to say that what I'm sharing is something that I've carried for a while in my heart and it's still this beautiful thing about the Scriptures

is that as you continue to resonate with the Word of God, it just shows you more and more of His grace and His fidelity, moment after moment, day after day. And I think today, that God wants to do a deep thing in all of our hearts. And the topic of my conversation today that we're going to have today is titled, Beauty Instead of Ashes. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for everyone who hears my voice. Lord, I pray that you reveal yourself. If someone is listening in the car or in any of the locations here in Miami or in the other part of the world, we know that your presence is with us. We know that you are faithful and we love you, Lord. Thank you. In the name of Jesus, we pray. And everyone says, and everyone says, Oh, come on, everybody says, Amen. Well, the Godly Biblical Thanksgiving this year has been certainly incredible. Yes, it has. Let's give one more round of applause to the Lord for what He did. Last month, it was my husband's 41st birthday. And Rick's turning 41.

You guys are very kind. Thank you for shouting, yes. But the thing about 41 is, Rick said, I don't know. I don't want a party. But you know what? We have to celebrate because God has given us another year. There's power in what we celebrate. So we had a family dinner. His parents were there. Our children were at the table. And after dinner, we went back to the house and sat on the deck in the patio talking about what God had done over the last few years, over the last few decades. And as we sat on that porch, something occurred to me. I was like, Rick, I think that we were together 20 years ago on your birthday. We were in Cambridge. We were studying for a semester together in England. And I said, you know what? I think I have the journal to prove it. And I ran back in the house and I came right back out with this.

And I opened it up and sure enough, I had a journal entry 20 years ago on Rick's 21st birthday. And after I read it, I started to go through the book and I went to the very last page of the journal and after the semester ended and our studies and our tests and our papers were all done, I was going back to Shreveport, Louisiana and somehow I decided that I, in the journal, would finish my goals for the summer. Do you want to hear them? Do you want to hear what's burning in the heart of a 20-year-old Louisiana girl? This is it. I don't think you're ready. Things I want to do this summer. Number one, read the entire Bible. Number two, learn Spanish. God is trying to prepare me. Number three, go to all of my brother's games. He made a lot of games, y'all. Number four, very important, be a domestic diva. Number five, read an etiquette book. Number six, have a good job. Number seven, visit my best friend in college.

Number eight, exercise. Number nine, sing in the choir. Number 10, involve in the Ministry of Youth. Number 11, record a worship album. Number 12, surprise mom and dad on their 25th anniversary with a love song and concert with my brothers. Number 14, interview my grandmothers and grandmothers about their life story. Number 15, hang out with my great-great-grandfathers Number 16, go to the hospitals to talk to the people. Number 17, make an album of this entire year. Number 18, visit the orthodontist to straighten my teeth without braiding my armpits. I don't know about you, but when I read this 20 years ago, I said, girl, that is not a list to complete in a summer. That is a list to complete in a decade. And here I am, 20 years later, and still some of the things in that list I have not completed yet. Somebody say yet. Any of the things I wrote in this list, I'm just starting to accomplish them. It might be a couple of years before I become a domestic goddess. I'm 40 years old, and you should know that I have the title for this book, Slow Burn, over a decade ago. It's been a decade of trusting God in the wait, and why would God ever allow me to write a book

called Slow Burn unless I could learn the work and the wonder of the wait. I've had 40 decades of getting to know more and more the Father's heart and living out His story for me. And like everyone in this room, everyone at every location watching online, I have experienced what it means to be on the Lord. I'm sure that you have your own list too. And I begin to think about how God uses long stretches, not just single moments, but solitary moments, to bring His will about here on the earth. And now the number 40, which is the number that I completed this year, plays such a significant role all throughout the Bible. The Israelites wandered 40 years in the desert before they walked into the Promised Land. Noah and his family endured 40 days and nights surrounded by an ocean of water wondering if it would ever recede. Did you know that Goliath taunted the Israelites for 40 days before David showed up, ready to confront David? Did you know that to confront Him, Jesus walked through the desert praying and fasting 40 days and 40 nights before He was tested by the enemy and then was executed and propelled into His calling and His ministry? We read that the disciples shifted

from soul-crushing grief to arms higher joy as they walked with Jesus 40 days from the time of His resurrection to the day of His ascension. And while the period of 40 days or 40 years can have a literal meaning, it also has significance because it can stand for results. It can stand for the trials in our lives. Think about Moses. Moses spent 40 years in Egypt only to then spend 40 years in the wilderness. Then he came down with a burning bush and he spent 40 years leading the Israelites. You know, he's not fully... Well, I'm at the end of my life, God. The best days of my life are behind, but he didn't know that there was just a whole nother 40 years left that God was just starting writing the destiny of His life. And I think we're like Moses. We think God, the best years of my life are behind us. God has done so many good things, but Lord, I think the best is already in the rearview mirror. But we don't know that we're actually not at the end, but right in the middle. Let's give a round of applause to Jesus if you believe it. Other times we know we're in a waiting place and it seems like it's stretching out and we don't yet find finish line.

And so we think, I just want to get forward in the wait. I just want to survive the wait. I just got to grit my teeth and get through this to the other side. And friends, I know that perspective because I operated with this perspective through eight years of infertility. And throughout other waiting seasons that I've been in in my life until God got a hold of my heart with the game changer. That waiting is not a season. Waiting is life. The question for us today is, will we live in the wait? Will we live in the wait? Maybe today you're in the middle. You're in between the major moments of your life. What are you waiting for today? And do you question if maybe it's too late for God to do what you're waiting for Him to do? I think all of us have been in that place. And I think the thing we ask while we're waiting is, what can I find that's worthwhile while I wait? It's hard to wait well. And over the next few weeks, I want to take the time this week for every man and every woman to see how Scripture shows us to wait well. Not just in one season, but for every season of our lives. Because life's about waiting. As soon as you meet that line, as soon as you cross the great brief line of life, you're going to realize that what you've been waiting on is worth it. Because we have all eternity ahead of us. But as soon as you finish waiting on one thing, it changes to another thing that you're waiting on. So how do we wait well? Well, I can tell you that walking through eight years of infertility, I learned over eight years in the patience of being God how to wait well. It wasn't easy trusting God when we faced disappointment after disappointment. But I can testify today of a faithful God who patiently counseled me in the middle of the night. Who patiently showed up in moments when I needed him the most. Who brought comfort. Who brought joy. And he'll do the same for you today.

Consider the wisdom that we can learn from the ancient practice of burning incense. When you think waiting, I want you to think of the slow burn of incense. Because waiting is not a curse. Waiting is an invitation. And when I think of incense, I think of my husband, Rich. Because I didn't meet him 20 years ago. I met you like 24 years ago. And when I met Rich, he was this spiky blond hair. I mean, he's still in his blond hair right now. 17 years old. From the day I met him, Rich has loved burning incense. And maybe you're not familiar with burning incense, but basically you take these hot coals and you light them up and you can place incense on top of them like this. And basically, from the day I met Rich, I was unfamiliar with this practice, but he's burning incense. And to the day people come over to our home, the first thing they say is, what's that smell? Because for 24 years, Rich is burning incense. I've got ashes all over the place in my house. Like, babe, I will get you a proper bowl. I will get you a proper plate to burn incense on. But we're always burning incense. And the interesting thing is that before people even notice what my house looks like, they sense a scent. And when you look at the story of Moses, who went through three different 40-year periods of waiting,

God command Moses to have burning, burnt incense in the tabernacle. And don't worry, what do you mean? God created a beautiful picture of the presence of God in the tabernacle and in the temple. And in the tabernacle, there was a place called the Holy Place. And then inside of the Holy Place, there was the Holy Place. But right outside of the Holy Place was what was known as the Incense Altar. It was an altar of incense and every morning and every night, someone would say every morning and every night, God commanded Aaron to offer incense to the Lord. And as the incense burned, it signified the prayers and the worship of the people. The fire was always burning. The fire was always on, but every morning he would come and he would place incense on the altar, and it would burn, and it represented the prayer and the worship of the people of God. And you know that according to Jewish tradition, he would come down from the temple, fill the courtyard, and travel up to a quarter of a mile in the vicinity of the temple. It was meant to stay, it was meant to be a fragrance that everyone could smell, that it would remind them that their prayers were heard by God as he brought their requests. Every human life is like a vapor. As you look at a smell, you think about your own life. It's here today, and it is gone tomorrow. And God's life is to make our very life an act of worship. And to really know that God is our source, because we're not the fire, he is. To take the fire, and to place it on the altar, and to give God his most. Worship of the world around us can't help but take notice of this fragrance that they

cannot deny. Romans 12.1 says, therefore, brothers, taking into account the mercy of God, I pray that each one of you, in the adoration of your body, offer your body as your true and proper sacrifice to God. You know it's funny because when I met Rich, I was really into bonfires. I'm a Louisiana girl, and bonfires marked me for my goals and my place in life. I found a love letter journal to bonfires. I was laughing so hard when I was going through my journals. I had written three pages on how I love to just sit and stare at the flames. When I was at a friend's house, or at a home fire, or whether it was in my backyard, that bonfires marked so much. I even write photos. What do you do to bonfires when you're not familiar? I mean, in Miami, people don't know how we do bonfires in Louisiana. We create a big bonfire. You all gather together, and you laugh, and you talk, and you sing. It's just staring at the center where the fire is burning. I think a lot of times, we think that our life is supposed to end in this mighty bonfire moment, where everything we're waiting on comes true. When suddenly, the sparks we've been breathing on, trying to fan the flames, suddenly culminate in a mighty bonfire that everyone can't help but witness. But can I ask you, what if God orchestrated your life so that it would look like smoke instead of a flame? What if His plan was never for our lives to be a great bonfire, the center of attention, but to be an invisible fragrance that brings people closer, to lift their eyes to the fire of God and to an eternity that awaits us? And maybe it's not what we see in this life. Maybe it's not what we get. So we live for those moments of the bonfire, and we mark our lives for the wins, and we mark our lives for the things that people can see.

God is saying no. Day and night, present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, like a slow burn. Let it not be a great moment, and then it extinguishes. Let it be the constancy, the offering of prayers, of worship that reaches my heart, that reaches me. You don't have to be the center of attention to change the atmosphere. You don't even have to be seen to be felt. We want the fire, but God gives us the fragrance. We want the center of attention, but God asks us for the sacrifice. We want to be raised up, but God says, will you lay it all down? We want to receive, but God says, no, it's more blessed to give. We want to see an immediate payoff of our surrender, but God says, I want to bring you a continual, steady transformation from the inside out, as you, morning and night, bring me the best of your heart. Every morning and every night, you bring me the best of your heart, our lives are constant, steady, slow burning, in the wait, I bring you God my best in the morning, I bring you God my best in the night, it's interesting because Aaron lit the incense, while he brought the incense, he also lit the lamps, isn't that cool? Every morning, he lit the lamps, and then he put the incense on the fire, and I think about, and every morning, he brought the incense, he lit the lamps at night, he brought the incense, he lit the lamps, I think about the original first command in Genesis, when the first thing God says is, let there be light, when I think about giving God my best, I think about the morning, when I wake up, I turn on the lights, or I let the light of the sun in, how many times do we remain in the darkness of our spirit, because we don't go to the word, first of all, he says, the word is, your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path, we have to wake up, open the windows, but we have to walk in our lives, in the darkness, because we did not turn on the light of the word of God, we also have to bring our worship, day and night, night and day, let the incense rise, as the song says, day and night, night and day, let the incense rise, you are worthy of everything Lord, you can't go halfway,

you are worthy of everything, the first thing I do in the morning is to give you the worship that you deserve, the last thing I do at night, and all day long, that it is not just an hour of a bonfire, but Lord, that it be the slow fire of a heart fully surrendered to you, that it be the slow fire of my life interceding before you and talking to you throughout the day, it is interesting because Exodus 30, 35 tells us what the ingredients of the incense were, and it gives a clear picture of the ingredients, it says, it had to be with pure and sacred salt, how many of you know what the ingredient of our life is? The ingredient that God told him to bring to the tabernacle, he says, add salt to the mixture so that it is a pure and sacred incense, we are the salt of the earth, we are the ones who preserve, do you know when the salt is overcome? You can google it, never, never, so you think that you're going to have a bonfire moment and spend the rest of your life looking back on your shit, as you age, you're going to age looking back, no, your faith is never going to get old, your faith is never going to get old, at 20 you're going to be fresh, at 40 you're going to be fresh, as a grandfather and a great-grandmother, you're still going to be fresh, bring it to the altar, but not only that, we have salt, but we are also pure, purity comes through fire, if something is pure, it is only that, do not add anything to it, Rich and I were on a date two weeks ago, we went to this restaurant because we had two of the guys, I think it was still a date, we sat down at the restaurant, it is known because they only make one dish, and the chef came out, we started talking to him because the food was incredible, everybody comes just for this one dish, it's the only thing they do, and we started talking to the owner, and he explained to us, you know that this is the recipe of his father, of his grandfather, and Rich asked a very important question, he said, how do you get the chef to not get sick of doing the same thing every day, and not start a new recipe, and he said, oh, the recipe, The recipe is what makes it work. If someone tried to change it, people wouldn't enjoy it as much. It's simple, but it seems that many times in our lives we think we have to put Jesus plus something else. You think, oh yeah, Jesus is great, but you've made him a component of your life instead of the Savior of your life.

You always wanted him to be only Jesus. That your devotion should be only to Jesus, that your focus and the longing of your heart should be only to Jesus. How often do we try to change the recipe because we get bored. Oh, I've been doing this for 10 years, serving God, I'm going to find something else. But God didn't say, look for something else. He said that the transformation happens every morning, every night, as you return to the source, to the fire, to the flame of his fidelity, and you put what little you have, you don't need anything new, you need the Old Man of Days to transform your day, as you surrender what you hold. But it's not only pure, it's also sacred. This incense was reserved only for the altar. We no longer use the word sacred in our culture. The word of God is very clear that no one was allowed to burn this incense recipe in their homes and in any other place, only in the holy place. And if anyone were to take this mixture and burn it in their home, they would be excommunicated from the city. That's how important it was to God that he did this specific offering from his people and that no one else would receive what he left off. We know that shortly after he gives the instructions about this, we see Aaron's sons take the offering of the incense in their own hands, they take their censers of fire, they take their incense. And the Bible says they offered strange fire, we know that they were outside of the bounds of what God had commanded us to give. They lost their lives because they took away what was God's. It's very important for us to understand this. Yes, I'm a friend of God, but he is God, and he deserves the best of me. And in the slow burning, there are things that are beautiful and sacred that only belong to him. We are so obsessed with publishing thoughts as soon as they cross our minds.

We are so obsessed with taking seeds instead of planting them, we eat them, and then we realize we don't have a harvest. There are seasons that are sacred, that are only for you and only for God. He doesn't want a false fire, he doesn't want a bonfire like Aaron's sons did. He wants our slow burn, he wants our daily surrender. Maybe you're not used to this smell that you're smelling right now. It's frankincense burn, but a lot of churches today actually do burn incense, and that reminds me of the bells and the smoke. When you walk out of the church, you smell like where you were. Did you notice that our nose is incredible? God has given us a very precise sense of smell, and discern over a trillion different smells. That's crazy. When you don't smell, your fragrance that you smell is always connected to the memories. How the eyes are connected. That's the way God created our brain on Tuesday, I went to Nashville, and I was with my son Wild Wolf. No, not Wild Wolf. Very confusing. That's my story. Very confusing. They told me themselves. Wild said, Mom, why did you name all of our names the same? I said, well, Wild, what's your name? What's your name? I like the double B. It seemed simple to me. I wanted a different name. What name do you want? Eagle. Eagle.

That's good. And now I want to be Football. We'll call you Wild again. I had Wolfgang. We got in the rental car. It was a nice car, but friends, the front roof was horrible. I hadn't even sat in the car, and when I opened the door, I could smell it coming out. And it was smoke. It was a different kind of smoke. How am I going to drive that kid around with this smell? And not only that, I'm going in for interviews for my book. I'm going to walk in and have this interview and have this essence of smoke, this fragrance of smoke, the smell of smoke. So we rolled down the windows and we were trying to air it out. And this guy or this girl or whoever was smoking this car before me, they're not even in the car, but I am. And I'm dealing

with the fragrance that they left. The body is not there, but the fragrance of their decisions marked my space. And many of us are dealing with generational trauma of the fragrance that has been left. We're dealing with broken hearts, with wounds, with disappointment, with cynicism, with bitterness. And the person is not even here anymore. But all of our lives take care of a fragrance. All of our lives leave a legacy and friends. It's not the bonfire that leaves the mark. It's not the trophy on the wall. It's not the goals of the five-year plan. It's not the amount of money in the bank account. That never leaves an eternal fragrance.

What leaves a fragrance is what God received every morning. What woke you up in the night with hope and peace and purpose. That's what creates the fragrance of your life. Make up the fragrance of your life. But what's the fragrance of your spirit? Because the fragrance of your life will last far longer than your own life. I want to tell you today, you can go to Calcutta, India, and you can go to the mission of Mercy Hospital, where Rich's great-uncle, Mark Bontein, served and gave away his entire life. His bones are buried there in Calcutta, and you can walk through

that hospital and feel the fragrance of that man who gave his life for the gospel. You can go to Shreveport, Louisiana, enter Shreveport Community Church, where my grandfather, who is in heaven today, gave his life for the gospel so that four generations could follow him in preaching the good news. You will sense the grace and the mercy of God upon walking through those doors because the fragrance of his faithfulness remains. And may it be so that every person who comes through SOMI, who comes through the doors of City, of Design District, of Gardens, of HCI, may every person notice not only the building, but may they feel the fragrance of hundreds of faithful men and women who set a table

every single week so that others could find the hope that they had found. And it's beautiful. And the aroma is irresistible. And I ask you today, what fragrance do you feel? Because when we give you all that we have, there is something supernatural that happens. The heat transforms the little and expands our reach farther than our arms can reach, farther than our legs can ever reach. The heat and the fire of Almighty God transform us from the inside out and take the most everyday moments and make them miraculous. Don't get it twisted because it's not a story of our own strength. It's not a story of our own perseverance or our ability to transform ourselves. This is a story that has always been pointing to something greater, to something so much greater than what we can accomplish on our own. You see the temple, the altar, the incense, it was literally just a parable of the reality of heaven. The temple was created to give us an image, a framework of the greatest sacrifice that was going to come because Jesus Christ himself gave his life for us. And when Aaron was making sacrifices every morning, every night, and we as priests after that, we know that they were just a shadow and that Jesus was the substance.

The Hebrew tells us that the high priest had to offer sacrifices day after day. But one came who offered the final sacrifice of once and for all. He didn't bring incense from the perfumer, he brought his own blood. He didn't enter into a temple made of wood by men. He entered into the throne of heaven itself. He didn't offer fire from wood and gold. He offered the fire from his perfect, pure, holy light. Yes, he was salted. Jesus was pure. Jesus was sacred. He gave everything he had for you and for me. So I want to tell you something. When you feel like your strength is going to expire, don't rely on your own strength to persevere, but rely on the power of Jesus. Yesterday, today, and forever. When you make a mistake, if you feel overwhelmed by your sin, your shame and guilt, don't try to purify yourself. But bring every mistake, every piece of the broken heart, and let the perfection of God heal you from the inside out. I can see Jesus, after he paid the price, he walks into the throne of heaven and he sprinkles his own blood. Think about that for a minute. That's a move, that's immortal combat. That's something nobody else can do. He sprinkles his own blood as a sacrifice for you and me. So we don't have to earn it. So we don't have to achieve it, but we can receive it. We bring the little that we are, and we're transformed by the sacrifice of Jesus. In eight years of waiting, I came to so many moments where I came to the limit. Doctor's appointments, negative tests, years of watching people around me have children

while I was waiting for God. But God brought me to a place of transformation, far before I had the baby in my arms. When I realized that the true treasure in my life wasn't going to be a bonfire of getting what I wanted. Yes, my babies are precious, but I can tell you, God healed my heart before I had the baby in my arms. God let me know that even though I didn't see this promise from this side of eternity, that I was going to wake up every day with something to bring to the body of the almighty God, that it had a purpose, that it had a destiny, that it had joy in the midnight hour, that it had a treasure, because every day he was going to meet me in the fullness of his grace. 2 Corinthians 2 says, But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us to triumphs, and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of his knowledge. For we are the aroma of Christ among those who are saved and among those who are perished. The incense, we see it at the beginning of the Word of God. Jesus making the offering of the incense, waiting for us in Heaven. There is something of the aroma, of the fragrance of our faith, of our prayers. It is not only for our lives, it is an eternal story. Don't worry, I am at the limit. My hope has become pain. I am mourning that I have never received what I was waiting for. I have a broken heart. I have waited so long that if God worked now it would not make sense. You do not understand the pain that I carry in the middle of my wait. When the priest burned the incense, after they were burned, do you know what was left? Ashes. And ashes in the Bible, they represent mourning, they represent grief, they represent repentance. They put ashes on their heads. When they were mourning, they sat on the ashes.

After the aroma had risen, there was only a pile of ashes left. And maybe you see your life that way. I have given the best of me and I only have ashes left. Broken ashes, ashes of prayers that you are waiting for. Ashes of seasons that were not fulfilled as you wanted. I came to remind you that God does not waste the ashes. Because Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah was going to give beauty instead of ashes. So when we give our lives, we give them. Day and night a beautiful transformation occurs. What we think is dead is only the beginning. Because He takes our ashes and gives us a new life. When you give your life as a living sacrifice, yes, you die on the altar. But to die in Christ is to truly live. Do you think that the ash is the end? But I came to tell you today that the ash means that you are just beginning. Let Him touch you today. Let Him comfort you today. Let Him whisper His promises to you now. Let everything that doesn't matter burn inside. When we allow our pride to burn, our plans to burn, and we come to God with our wholehearted spirit, He can transform what we think is nothing but ashes into a beautiful and miraculous story of His grace. Today in this room, in every location, I want you to have an intimate moment with God. And you say, Don Cheri, I look at my life and it looks like a pile of ashes. The remains of the dreams that have not come true. The remains of the relationship that fell apart. The remains of a plan that is so broken that I can't even recognize it any longer. All I have to give to God is these ashes.

God is waiting to give you a beautiful exchange. He wants to take your ashes and give you something beautiful. He wants to let you know that you are not in the end. You are in the middle. There is life, and life in abundance, before we begin eternity, before we face it face to face. You are a living sacrifice. Yes, you are a sacrifice, but you are a living sacrifice when you place your life in the fire of His Spirit. If that's you, and you say, God, I'm exhausted. I want to make that exchange. I want the Holy Spirit to refresh me. I want you to raise your hand. Nobody looks around. I want you to raise your hand. Glory to God. In every location, you raise your hand. I want to make that exchange of beauty for ashes.