One particular day, I had a paper due and it took me all night and probably half the next day finishing up this paper and I was almost done. And as I was leaving the room, I flipped the switch, turned the light off, and as I turned the light off, I realized the computer turned off.

And in a split second, I realized the computer was, you know, plugged into that one plug where it turns the light on and off and not realizing that. And again, you know, we're brand new to the computer world and so after it turned off, I was like, oh, shoot.

Does that mean that everything I did was turned off? Like, you know, it's not like computers today. It doesn't automatically save. So I went back on and I tried to retrieve everything that I did and obviously it was completely wiped out. It was gone. And I called whoever, you know, knew anything about computers and they said, no, if you didn't save it on the floppy disk, so some of you guys may remember the floppy disk, you know, if you didn't save it on that, you can't retrieve it.

And then I remember after that, I was so traumatized by this computer that I never used it again. And it wasn't until, I mean, maybe our third or fourth year in seminary that I started using the Mac, you know, because the school offered it and I started using that.

But ever since then, I have this fear that if I touch something wrong, I'm not really afraid of the hardware, I'm more afraid of the software, that I might go in somewhere and delete something and that's going to ruin the whole computer, you know, and everything that I've saved on there, I'll never be able to retrieve again.

I become a little bit better than that, but not a whole lot because I have fear of touching this machine, you know? And I'm not bad with, like, machinery, like, something I can touch with my bare hands, but when it comes to computer, for some reason I have this fear, so I just don't like touching it.

There's plenty of people who are good at it and I just let them handle it. Same thing happened with me with GPS. Years ago when GPS first came out, I was in Chicago and I had a rental car, and this must have been about 16, 17 years ago, and we were headed toward Urbana.

I think there's a few of you guys who were with us and they gave us a GPS to use and I remember that GPS took us to the wrong place and we were lost maybe about three or four hours and then I realized that GPS didn't work properly. It told us to go somewhere that we weren't supposed to go and I never touched GPS again for the next 10 years because, like, how do you trust this thing, right?

I don't know where I'm going. It might tell me to make a left turn or right turn. So I think every single one of us can relate to have poured your energy into something and at the end of the day found out that it was completely useless, whether it was a term paper or maybe you went north when you should have went south, you know, and then all of a sudden there's a sign saying, "Welcome to Big Bear," and realize that you're not in Orange County.

How you feel, that overwhelming feeling of you've wasted your time. Why did I do this? The gospel that Apostle Paul has been preaching probably struck the Jews, again, in a much exaggerated way, but in a similar way, at least emotionally, the way that I felt when I turned off that computer or maybe when you felt when you got lost for a long period of time and you didn't recognize it and realize you've been going the wrong direction.

Apostle Paul is trying to preach salvation by grace, justification by faith alone to a group of people who devoted their lives to obeying the law. So Paul's gospel wasn't simply saying, "Hey, what you were doing in the temple was wrong." He wasn't simply saying the sacrifice that you were giving wasn't sufficient.

You have to give this kind of sacrifice. The message that Paul was giving basically says that everything that you were thinking about your righteousness was completely wrong. That you've been going the wrong direction and you've been doing it fervently with all kinds of passion and you were wrong. So Paul has been preaching salvation by grace, justification by faith up to chapter 8 and we've been studying, again, jumping into chapter 9, and so they're trying to answer this question, how can this gospel that you're preaching be fair?

So the easy way to nullify the gospel is to nullify the messenger. So Paul has been arguing the fairness of the gospel, of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. And so chapter 9, if you remember, he begins by conveying, "It has nothing to do with my prejudice.

In fact, if it had any power, I wish that I could be a curse for my countrymen." And so he's been arguing in chapter 9 the fairness of the gospel, the sovereignty of God. Chapter 10 is part 2 of his argument and he begins in a similar manner, chapter 10, verse 1, he says, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved." Now these aren't just empty words.

Apostle Paul really loved his country. He loved his countrymen. Now, again, you and I live in a culture, in a part of the world where individualism is elevated much higher than nationalism. That's what we value. Americans are known for being individualistic. But if you grew up or if you know anything about other countries where nationalism takes center stage, above your family, above your personal freedom, again, if you understood that you would understand Apostle Paul's heart.

Nationalism for the nation of Israel was at the core of the nation. That's what they were taught from generation to generation. In fact, Paul is called specifically as an apostle to the Gentiles. But if you look at his ministry, every city that he goes into, where's the first place that he goes to preach the gospel?

Almost always the synagogue. The only reason why he doesn't go to a synagogue is because they don't have one. And the reason why he ends up preaching outside of the synagogue is because he gets persecuted and kicked out. And so as a result of that, he would go to the marketplace and begin to preach the gospel.

So you could see that Apostle Paul was not simply desiring and just praying and wishful thinking. He actually did his best to bring the gospel to the Jews. But as a result of his failure or their rejection, he would end up going preaching the gospel to the Gentile world.

Generally speaking, what God called Paul to do is absolutely impossible. Absolutely impossible. Can you imagine somebody coming up and saying, "You know, your hairstyle is wrong. The school that you went to, it's wrong. The job that you got, it's wrong." It goes further than that. "The husband, your wife, that you chose, it's wrong.

The money, the way you spend your money, it's wrong. What you think is right and wrong is wrong. Your hope, the way you're raising your children, it's wrong. Your speech pattern is wrong. Everything about you is wrong." That's exactly how the Jews probably heard it. He wasn't just talking about a certain aspect of their life.

He was saying that everything that they valued, all their energy that they poured into was absolutely wrong. Humanly speaking, the task that Paul has to preach the gospel was impossible. It wasn't just hard, it's impossible. So we can understand why they had such a hard time receiving, humanly speaking, why they had such a hard time receiving the message of Paul.

The text that we're going to be looking at today, I started this week thinking that I'm going to go through all four verses. By the time I got to Wednesday, I realized that I'm probably not going to do that. I'm going to stop at verse two. So I'm not going to milk it.

I really think that this is so important, especially for us, every single one of us, including myself. That because you and I live in a post-Christian culture where Christianity just kind of is secondhand, it's been handed to us, and all you have to do is not resist it. You don't have to pursue it, you don't have to chase it, you just have to not deny it.

Just get on the boat and just do what everybody else is doing. It's very casual, it's easy. As a result of that, we can completely miss the central message and central calling of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. So Paul says in verse two, and I'm going to go through this outline just in this verse, because I believe that what he has to say in this verse is not just important, it is absolutely crucial.

He says to the Jews, "Your zeal, I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." First thing I want to point out here is that Paul is not indicting their zeal. Paul says, "I actually testify. I can bear witness that you guys are passionate, that you're zealous." The problem with Israel was not lack of effort.

Typically, when something goes wrong, or something is not happening the way that we think it ought to happen, or it doesn't accomplish the desired goals that we have, our immediate reaction is, "What can we do differently?" Maybe we haven't prayed enough, maybe we haven't read enough, maybe we haven't been trained enough, maybe we haven't been organized enough.

Then all of these things are important things, but that's our natural instinct, because that's how we know how to solve problems. See, the nation of Israel, that was not the problem. It was clear that was not the problem, because their indictment was not that they were not zealous enough, that they didn't try hard enough.

Paul knows this better than anybody else. Galatians 1.14, it says, "And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers." Paul was not only one of them, he was a leader among them. In fact, in Philippians 3.5-6, Paul actually compares his zeal to their zeal.

And the reason why he's doing that is because these Judaizers were accusing him, "Maybe it's because you're not faithful to the law. Maybe you're not a good Jew. And that's why you're so easily abandoning this system and embracing this whole new way to get to God." So basically, Paul is saying, "I'm going to take you upon your challenge.

If you want to weigh the zeal for the law of God, and who's a good Jew, let's go at it." And he's going to sit down, "I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews, that's the law of Pharisees, to zeal, persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, I was absolutely blameless." And no one, no one can accuse him of being a bad Jew.

You remember, Apostle Paul was the one who was responsible for the martyr of Stephen. Now you have to understand, he might have been a hero in the nation of Israel, but that would have made him a criminal in the Roman government. That wasn't enough. He packed up his bags and gathered a bunch of soldiers and went up all the way to Damascus, willing to beat up, kill, imprison whoever stood in the way, because he was persecuting the Christians.

So in other words, when he says, "as to zeal, persecutor of Christians," he was saying, "I was willing to die, go to prison." That's how passionate I was for the nation of Israel, for the law. Paul knew better than anybody else, and he says, "I understand your zeal. I bear witness that you had zeal." But Jesus never condemned the Pharisees for not having enough effort.

He didn't condemn them for not praying enough. That was not their problem. He condemned them for why they prayed and how they prayed. But it wasn't an amount of prayer that he condemned them for. He didn't condemn the Pharisees for keeping the law. He never condemned them for that, but he condemned them for keeping the law selectively.

Some of the things that they made weighty, some of the things that they didn't make weighty. He didn't condemn them for not keeping the Sabbath. They kept the Sabbath like a person who had OCD. Every single little thing, they were in fear that they were going to somehow break the Sabbath, even in a slight way.

They added more and more laws to make sure that they kept it holy. Jesus never condemned them for not keeping the Sabbath. He indicted them for not understanding what the Sabbath was for in the first place. So their indictment was never about their zeal. It was never about their effort.

In fact, we go even further. In Matthew 23, verse 15, Jesus says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte. And when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourself." Can you believe that?

These Pharisees were actually doing mission work. They might have been doing short term, maybe long term. And he says, "You travel across sea and land." This was not a short term trip where they went and came back. These guys, a lot of these guys packed their bags and went into foreign countries, risked their lives crossing the sea to spread what their understanding of righteousness was.

So you're talking about a group of people who were committed to this cause. It wasn't a lack of discipline. It wasn't a lack of prayer. It wasn't a lack of trying to keep the law. In fact, Josephus, the early first century Jewish historian, he actually writes about their zeal for proselytizing.

Part of the reason why they were so zealous is because they believed, according to their tradition, not according to the Old Testament teaching, to their tradition, that when they converted somebody to Judaism, they believed that they were creating a whole new soul. So in some sense, they were playing God by converting people.

And obviously, if you're talking about merit, there's no greater merit than to create another soul that they're responsible for. So you can understand the zeal that they had. So their problem was not effort. Their problem was not discipline. Their problem was not sacrifice. It's that they had zeal, but it wasn't according to knowledge.

That's the second thing I want to talk about in this text. Their zeal was motivated, was not motivated by true knowledge. Now again, in some circles, and I don't think it's in every circle, but in some circles, and I'm pretty sure you have some friends who think that way too, the moment the term theology is thrown, it's like, "Oh, you're legalist.

You're one of those people. You're a Bible thumper." So the idea of emphasizing too much theology somehow automatically makes you a legalist. In fact, I don't know about you, but I've been in so many conversations trying to talk to somebody about right theology and the right gospel, and the way that they would excuse this is, "Well, but look how passionate they are.

Look at how many people come to their services. Look at so many fruits. Look at all these things that are happening." So even though they're not preaching the right gospel, they're a good people. In fact, some of these people are much better than these people who are Calvinists or these supposed theologians.

And so if they're passionate, if they're giving a lot of effort, somehow that excuses that. Well, Apostle Paul says it clear to the nation of Israel. He said, "It wasn't lack of passion. It was passion, but wasn't based upon true knowledge." You know, I read an article this week about Brad Pitt.

Yeah, you're probably thinking, "Why is he reading about Brad Pitt?" I read this article about Brad Pitt because the title of the article says, "Why Brad Pitt, who grew up in a Christian home, became an atheist." And so I was reading that and it said he grew up in a very staunch, committed Christian home, a Baptist home.

And he says when he was younger, he would go to these retreats or he would go to these revivals and he would come back filled with the Holy Spirit. And he said he was on fire for God. He's experienced all these things, so he knows all the lingo. He's been to retreats.

He's been to Mexico and doing all... Because he's a church kid. He grew up in a church. But he said, and he doesn't pinpoint one thing, but one of the things that he said on that article that was surprising, and this is what he says. He said, "I'd go to a Christian revival and be moved by the Holy Spirit, and then I'd go to a rock concert and feel the same fervor." And he interpreted that as, well, that same kind of hype and that emotion, that passion that I thought was the Holy Spirit.

Well, when I went to the rock concert, I realized that they were experiencing the same thing, but it was just rock music. So it was just hype. And that's what he saw. He felt empty. It wasn't real. It was just hype. It was just emotion. See, Apostle Paul says of the nation of Israel that there's zeal, there's passion, there's commitment, there's sacrifice, but it wasn't in accordance with knowledge.

Before we get carried away and think, "Well, good thing we're not charismatic, that we don't believe in emotions here, so we're safe," before we start to think, "Well, I have enough theology, and I've read enough books, and I know right and wrong. I've been hearing good preaching. I've been studying the Word of God.

I've been reading the right books." Just because we have all of these things, that's not what Paul is saying. In fact, the word that he uses for knowledge here is epigenosko. And I'm just going to read directly what it says in the Word Study of the New Testament. This is what it says.

This word that we have for knowledge here is, "It is more intense than gnosis," the word knowledge, "because it expresses a more thorough participation in the acquiring of knowledge on the part of the learner. In the New Testament, it often refers to knowledge which very powerfully influences the form of religious life, a knowledge-laying claim to personal involvement." He's not simply talking about assenting to saying the right things.

"Oh, I believe that, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that I know what verse to go to, and I know how to answer. I know all the right theology because I've been taught properly." He's not simply talking about that. That's part of it. It may be the beginning of it, but again, this word epigenosis is used in Matthew 22:29, where Jesus indicts, again, the Pharisees.

He says to them, "You are wrong because you neither know the Scriptures or the power of God." Now, any Jew would listen to that and say, "What do you mean we don't know the Scriptures? I mean, we've been reading and studying the Bible. We have this thing memorized. What do you mean we don't know?

What do you mean we don't know the power of God? We were eyewitnesses of His power. If you asked Him, "Do you believe God is powerful?" "Absolutely! Our God is almighty! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. That's us! We confess that. We believe that." So why does Jesus say, "You don't know the Scriptures, and you don't know the power of God." You know it mentally.

You know it theologically. But you are not convicted. You don't really know Him. 2 Timothy 3.7, He says, "In the last days, there are going to be people who are always learning but never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth." Always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.

Now, if what He's saying about knowledge, "Oh, it has to be based on at least correct theology," then we're always learning. But obviously, that's not what He's referring to. He's not simply talking about having right theology and saying the right things. As important as that is, the epi in front of the gnoscle basically takes us further than that.

It is an intense form of knowledge. It is a kind of encounter that you have with God that absolutely changes you. The Christ of the cross that you encounter changes your perspective. The reason why we worship, the reason why we evangelize, the reason why we serve is not simply because we have the right theology and we have the right doing and that's what makes us kosher.

He says, "No." What He's saying is, "You don't know God. You know His Word. You can attest to His power, but you don't know Him. All the efforts that you're giving, it's your effort, it's your ability, but you have no faith." Their problem was not that they didn't give enough effort.

Their problem is not that they didn't pray enough, they didn't give enough, or they didn't read enough. They didn't know Christ. You see why this is so dangerous in our culture? You and I live in a culture where we have more access to the Bible, more preaching, more theology, more fellowship, more opportunities to do work than any other generation, any other Christian has ever had access to, ever.

And yet we are in the greatest danger of this exact same thing. Because we're busy. We're busy doing God's work. We're busy feeding the poor. We're busy doing Bible study. We're busy having fellowship. And he says, "Well, the Jews were just as busy, maybe even busier, but they completely missed Christ." You see why this is so, so important?

Third and final part that I want to take a few minutes to talk about is the characteristics of zeal without knowledge. Now I would like to take credit for this, but this is actually from Martin Lloyd-Jones. His was actually a list of ten things. I condensed it to four, okay?

And I think because there's a lot of overlapping. I think these four things does a good summary of things that we need to watch for. First of all, he said, "False zeal is motivated by fear of man rather than fear of God." False zeal is motivated by the fear of man rather than fear of God.

In Matthew 23, 5-8, Jesus indicts the Pharisees that they do all their deeds to be seen by others for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the places of honor at feasts and at the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

Their whole motivation was fear of man. If I do this, what would they think? So their whole effort is fixated on how people respond. So if people, if they get honor for the activity that they're doing, then they give a lot of time to do that. In fact, even their whole prayer life in Matthew 6, 5, it says, "When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.

Truly I say to you, they have received their reward." See, they're not being reviewed for not praying. But it was why they were praying, who they were praying for, what they were praying for. They didn't lack zeal. They didn't lack effort. But they didn't know Christ. Their motivation was by fear of man.

In contrast, true zeal, we see in Apostle Paul. I mean, I've said this so many times. Every time I read the Corinthians, there's a side of me that's always like, "Why does he care?" I know why he cares, but there's a side of me, my flesh comes out like, "Drop these suckers!" You risk your life to bring the gospel.

You planted this church and you sacrificed all of this, and now they're questioning your apostleship. Now he's writing a letter, they didn't like the first letter, and then now he said, "Maybe he's not an apostle. Maybe I follow these other guys." And he's writing this gut-wrenching letter to this church that he so loved.

Like, why? If he just moved on, think about it. Apostle Paul had enough on his plate to worry about this group. Just move on. Paul doesn't do that. He writes this gut-wrenching letter to this church pleading with them. But here's the heart of why. He says 2 Corinthians 5, 17, "For the love of Christ controls us." If he was a man who was motivated by the fear of man, as soon as he's not honored, as soon as he's not accepted, shake off your dust, just move on.

The reason why he endures is because the love of Christ in the NIV says compels him. He's a man who encountered this Christ. Despite all of his sins, despite all of his failures, despite all he was going to do, Christ sacrificed his life for his. He was chained forever.

His life was worth nothing. In fact, if it was up to him, he said, "I'd rather be with him." He says, "The love of Christ compels me. The only reason why I want to be here, why I'm here, is because it means fruitful labor for me in you." Again in Acts chapter 4, 18-21, the early apostles, Peter and John, said, "After being whipped and beaten, they called them and charged them, the leaders of Israel, not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John answered them, 'Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.'" I mean, these are the same people who crucified Jesus. Peter, just a few days ago, was denying Jesus to his faith because he was afraid that he was going to get crucified.

If he was motivated by the fear of man, this makes absolutely no sense. He says, "Hey, don't do this. You're going to die." I mean, they meant it. They actually carried it out. What gave them this courage to say, "Is it right for me to listen to you rather than to God?" and kept on preaching?

He encountered the resurrected Christ. He encountered the resurrected Christ and his whole paradigm of life, of good, of success and honor completely got changed. His world got flipped upside down. His value system completely changed. So that's why they were able to risk their lives because they were not motivated by fear of man.

It was the fear of God. Secondly, he says, false zeal is focused on the external rather than the internal. These are obviously all interconnected. If you're motivated by the fear of man, you can only be judged by the things that they can see. So obviously, everything is focused on external.

How do we change what's happening externally? The Pharisees were constantly concerned about how people honored them. In fact, one of the very reasons why they turned against Jesus was because Jesus was calling them out. I mean, that's embarrassing. Initially they were coming out, "If this man is really a prophet of God, we better be the first in line." But when they would get in line, what would John the Baptist and Jesus do?

They'd whitewash tombs. You guys spend all your time cleaning up the outside, but inside it's filled with dead men's bones. It's just a whitewashed tomb. And he embarrasses them. I mean, if their whole goal was to be honored by people, Jesus made it very difficult for them. So as a result of that, he said, "We need to get rid of this guy." Their whole focus was external.

In fact, in 1 Timothy 3, 2-3, we have the qualification of an elder. You know, we may read that and say, "Well, I'm not an elder. I don't have any aspiration to be an elder, so therefore these things don't apply to me." Absolutely not. These qualifications are for men who are to set an example to the rest of the church to follow.

These are examples, characteristics that every man and woman ought to follow. And in the qualification of an elder, he said, "An overseer must be above reproach, husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not to be drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not lover of money," and on and on and on.

And if you look at that, the majority of what he says is about character. It's about character. He doesn't talk about, "We need overseers who are good managers of money." I mean, that definitely helps. Organizers, definitely helps. Talented, gifted, hard workers. All of these things are good qualities to have.

But those are not the qualities listed. The qualities that are listed of an exemplary man for the rest of the church are all characters. Transformation that is taking place internally. So that whether we do, again, according to the eyes of the world, a good job or a bad job, that he calls men who are being transformed internally.

But zeal without knowledge, without encountering Christ, is always focused on the external. Because we're driven by fear of men. Thirdly, he says false zeal usually lacks balance. Again, this is, and I thought this was very insightful because it makes total sense. If an individual is highlighting what he's good at for the purpose of honor, to get attention from other people, or maybe fear of what other people will say if I don't do this, there's a tendency to be lopsided in their emphasis.

So if you happen to be good in missions, then you kind of elevate, yeah, we need to do missions. We have to do missions. How come nobody else is doing missions? And we usually elevate missions and we judge everybody according to that one particular thing. If you happen to be about social justice, that's the hobby horse that you end up riding.

It's all about social justice, helping the poor, and we elevate that. And then we judge everybody based upon whether you're doing that or not. But usually completely lopsided. That could be discipleship. That could be theology. That could be prayer. Whatever it is that that person is good at ends up being elevated, and then everybody else is judged according to that one thing.

And then all the other things that you're not good at, you just kind of sweep under the rug because the goal of it is not to necessarily meet Christ and glorify Christ and become like him. It is to elevate himself, to honor. So there's a tendency to lack balance.

And fourth and finally, falseo elevates themselves rather than God. If your whole motivation is fear of man and not fear of God, then everything that you do, even if you have the name Christ in it, the ultimate goal is to elevate yourself. You know, we talk about, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." But the way that that is read by this individual, a zeal without knowledge, is, "I can do all things through who gives me strength." This is I.

I give glory to God. So that we talk about God, we talk about strength, but it's I. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. I give glory to God. It's about I. It's about self-exaltation. It's about what he's able to do, what he cannot, what he's able to do.

Because it's all motivated by self-interest, by human fear. But Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, 10, it says, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." Apostle Paul was a man who was humbled by the grace of God.

He worked harder than anybody else, but he knew full well that that wasn't him. It was because he was affected by the cross. He saw the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he was never the same. So all that he was doing, he said, "If you're asking me who I am, I am the worst of sinners, but it's only by the grace of God that I am who I am." Again in Colossians 1, 28, 29, "In him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ, for this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." So you had a man and a woman who has encountered Christ, the Christ of the cross.

First thing that happens when you're in the presence of something bigger than you, first thing that happens is you forget about yourself. You forget about yourself. Isn't that the first thing that happens? If something wows you, maybe you're going through Facebook and some video, something catches your attention, you might have been hungry, but for that moment you forget.

You have to go to the bathroom, but for that moment you forget. You go watch a baseball game or a football game or a basketball game and something spectacular happens, whatever it is that you were concerned about. You might have had a migraine. For that split second in the presence of something magnificent, you forget about yourself.

See, that's the quality that we see in Apostle Paul. He's a man who was so enamored by Christ and what he has done, the first thing that happens is like, "I'm doing all of this stuff, but it is not me. It's him." Imagine the ridiculousness of the proposition that Christ has called us to change ourselves.

And then not only to change ourselves, and then to go and change other people. I don't know how many of you have ever done any kind of sales. Some of you guys may have that kind of personality and maybe you're good at sales. I don't care how good you are at sales.

Maybe you're the type of person that can sell used vacuum cleaners. But it's difficult. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to sell a product that you know down the street is selling for half the price and is newer than yours? But you've been given the task to go sell so many of these.

I mean, as difficult as that may be, can you imagine the task to go convert people? You know, to convert people to Jesus Christ means that everything that they've been working up to that point, you're asking them to surrender that. Make Christ your Lord. The reason why Jesus Christ had to die was because everything you did up to that point was absolutely wrong.

Your speech was wrong. Your thoughts were wrong. Where you were going was wrong. Why you chose certain jobs were wrong. The things that you were attracted to was wrong. What you're hoping for was wrong. The money you put into the bank, what you're planning to do with that was wrong.

Everything that you were doing up to that point was wrong. Now you surrender all of that, give it to Christ, and pick up your cross and follow Him. Can you imagine if that's what Christ called us to do? I mean, if you can do that by your own strength, by your own might, I mean, I want to put some stock in you.

Because you're going to be a billionaire. Because you're going to be able to sell socks that was used. You're going to be able to sell ice to Eskimos, right? If you can somehow, by your effort, convince somebody to turn their life, give up everything and follow Christ. And then by your own effort, become a different person.

You were an extrovert. God calls you to be an introvert. Now you have to live like an introvert. That would be easier. To do this and will yourself to change and then will others to change. You would be the best motivational speaker, best apologist, best salesperson that this world has ever seen.

If that's what He called us to do. See, that's what He was indicting the nation of Israel. You are working hard. You're giving yourself to godliness and prayer and even proselytizing. But by your own might, it is absolutely useless. It is without knowledge. But that's not what He called us to do.

Even proselytizing, He didn't say, "Go and make disciples. Find the best strategy. Focus on the right people. Give them the right tools. If you go and train them and give them the right knowledge, they'll be able to go and convert people. They'll be able to make disciples." I mean, think about the task of that, humanly speaking.

He didn't say that, did He? He said, "You will be my witnesses. You will receive power, not because of your effort, not because of your education, not because of your many years of experience, not because of your education, not because of your talent or because you're articulate. You will receive power when?

When the Holy Spirit comes out inside of you. Something completely foreign that you know nothing about because of what Christ has done on the cross. That He took an empty vessel and made it a new wineskin that the Holy Spirit, something completely foreign that you had nothing to do about, when that comes upon you, you will receive power and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the remotest part of the world." That was the only way that the gospel was going to spread.

That was the only way that you and I could ever change. That's why zeal without knowledge is absolutely frustrating. What we lack today isn't strategy, it isn't better funding, it isn't better organization or better education or better training. All of these things have its place, but that is not what we lack.

Second Peter 1.3, it says, "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence." At the core of our salvation is encountering Christ. That's when justification happens. And that's how sanctification happens.

That's how ultimately glorification will happen. When we encounter this Christ of the Bible at Paganosco, and He changes us. So our goal in our worship isn't simply to know what the Bible says, it's to encounter this Christ of the Bible. Our goal in the book of Revelation is not to simply know how the end time is going to roll out.

It is a revelation of what? Jesus Christ. We learned this this Wednesday. The goal of prayer meeting is not to get it done. It is to encounter this Christ of the Bible. So all that we are doing, all that we are singing, all the fellowship that we have, really, is to bring and gather people to encounter Christ.

We can be the best theologian, we can be the best organized, we can have the best funding with the nicest people, and we can become the biggest church and be absolutely empty and hollow if it is zeal without knowledge. I pray with all my heart, and again, I told you in the beginning why this is so crucial.

I mean, just speak from my heart. I don't know, on the day of judgment, how many people in Orange County are really going to be saved, according to what I see in Scripture. I know there are a lot of people who haven't heard the gospel. There are people in India, there are people in China, there are people all over the place who have never heard the gospel.

But my concern, at least as of now, is that I don't know how many people who are in the churches who really know Christ, who really encountered Christ. I am not talking about people who are attending church regularly, people who go to Bible study, attend prayer meetings. I am talking about people who have zeal because they met Christ, the Christ of the Scripture, and it changed them.

And that is why they are coming to worship God. That is why they are giving. That is why they are sacrificing. The whole nation of Israel completely missed Him. They are busy sacrificing, proselytizing, making disciples, giving, organizing, and yet when the author of life was standing right before them, they did not recognize Him.

Let's take the Word of God and take heed. Come before the Lord. Search me and know me, see if there are any hurtful ways in me. Don't just, "Oh, that's not about me." See if there is any hurtful way in me. Do I have real faith? Do I know this Christ?

Can I say, "I love you, Jesus," and mean it from the bottom of my heart? Where are you? This passage is not just for Israel. It's for every single person who has devoted themselves to religious life superficially, who are frustrated, and they feel like they are going in circles.

Let's fix our eyes upon Jesus, the only one who is the author and the perfecter of our faith. Let's take some time to pray as our worship team comes up. And I know that some of you may think this is a broken record, and I know because I hear it, but I'm also very aware that superficial worship does absolutely nothing other than make us more deceived.

Let's take some time to come before the Lord and honestly pray that whether we are many or a few, whether we're by ourselves or whether we're in groups, that what we pursue, what we give, and the worship that we give is sincere in spirit and in truth. Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.