- Very thankful, but you know, while I was in Taiwan, obviously the coronavirus was just starting to take off, and that was like the news feed, you know, every single minute that was out there, until we got the news of Kobe Bryant. Then all of a sudden it went silent, and everything was about Kobe Bryant.

And I remember waking up early in the morning, looking at the news, and I was like, what, this gotta be a joke, right? How can Kobe Bryant be gone? I thought it was one of those, you know, these YouTube things that was going on. And then Zachary, my son, actually texted me, said, did you hear about this?

And that's when I started seeing that it was really blown up everywhere. And even to my own, you know, like as I was examining myself, I was so sad to hear this news. I mean, you know, I've lived long enough to live through many celebrities and athletes who've gone through tragic stuff and lost their lives, and you know, even personally, but I don't know this guy, you know?

He's just somebody that I watched for many years. And I was deeply saddened, and I was watching videos almost in tears. But I was even surprised, you know, I was even surprised, like why I was getting so emotional over the death of Kobe Bryant, you know? And then I just started really thinking, and then, you know, like, I've been watching this guy since he was 17 years old, coming into this league as a cocky young kid, and this is when Michael Jordan was, you know, like Michael Jordan was Michael Jordan, and he comes in and he's like challenging Michael Jordan.

This 17-year-old kid straight out of high school saying he's going to take Michael Jordan. It was so cocky, and at that time, everybody had that opinion of him. How can a 17-year-old punk kid come in here and challenge Michael Jordan? And that's why he didn't get a starting position.

Even though he came to Lakers, they didn't allow him to start because he was just too cocky, you know? He needed to humble himself. He needed to earn his position. But to our surprise, every year went by, he actually started to gain respect. He started to actually get that good.

And to see this young guy throughout the years just growing and actually challenging Michael Jordan, and then he got to a point where there was actually a debate, who's better? You know, if you grew up watching Michael Jordan, that was, I never thought that anybody would come along where anybody would be even compared to Michael Jordan.

But at the peak of Kobe Bryant's career, people were actually starting to say that. And to my surprise, it's like, "Whoa, there's some games. "He actually looks like he's right up there "with Michael Jordan." And I remember that game when he scored 81 points at Pastor Mark's birthday. Some of you guys were there, right?

We completely forgot why we were there. We were watching that game. In the middle of the birthday party, we started watching. And so a lot of the guys at the church, our church was small enough where all the guys were invited to his birthday party and we were celebrating, and we completely forgot, 'cause when he scored 81 points, oh my gosh, right?

And that's a memory that all the brothers here when the church was smaller that we remember. And then when he won the championship in 2010, okay, so don't worry, this sermon is not about Kobe Bryant. (audience laughing) Okay, this is just the introduction, okay? When he won the championship in 2010, after they lost a heartbreaking loss to the Celtics in 2008 and came back, won the year after that, and then they came back and played Boston, and they went all the way to the seventh game, and Kobe Bryant was at the middle of this.

And I remember watching this at home by myself with my kids when they were a bit younger. And I was just so excited when Lakers won, and I was literally high-fiving myself. I was banging the wall, 'cause I had nobody to celebrate with. (audience laughing) This guy was at the center of so much joy in my life because Lakers was my team, and he was the superstar on that team for so long.

And so it was weird when he blew his Achilles, and seeing that interview, I just completely defeated. A guy who was so cocky for so long, and then sitting there realizing that maybe this is the end, and it was, again, a part of Kobe that I've never seen. It was like, wow, this is really coming to an end.

And then at his retirement, the last game, he scored 60 points. You guys remember that, too, right? And it was just, the way that he just went out, it was like, wow, that guy, he scored 60 points, and then he went out in glory. But then that's not where he ended.

He came, and obviously, he lives in Newport, so a lot of our people run into him here and run into him there throughout his journey through his basketball career. And then seeing him really mature as a man, and he was not a perfect man. Obviously, we know all of that, if we know all of his history.

And yet, afterwards, you could see him maturing as a father, as a husband, and he was dedicated. When they would ask him, don't you miss basketball? And to be honest, I was curious what kind of person he was going to be after he retired. Is he going to be like Jordan?

Is he going to be like other superstars? He's kind of hanging around the NBA 'cause they want to relive their glory. But it just seems like he's actually moving on, and he's doing greater things, and really committed to his girls. And then, right in the middle of that, when it seemed like he was just beginning to mature, for him to just tragically die like that in a helicopter, and it was really heart-wrenching for a while.

Even now, it's hard to watch the video of his life without getting emotional. And I started thinking to myself, and I think anybody who's a Lakers fan, especially if you're a little bit older, and you've seen the whole gamut, some of you guys who are in your late 30s, early 40s, you actually lived it with him 'cause you were that age, you grew up.

Why is it so emotional? I can tell who are Lakers fans when we bring up the name Kobe. I can already see it now, right? The Golden State Warrior fans, you have no idea what I'm talking about. (audience laughing) You say, what is he talking about? I don't get it.

The Lakers fans, you know exactly what I'm talking about. We talk about Kobe, and there's almost teary-eyed, you know, like man tears, right? Why is there such affection for him? What did he do for us? Did he ever show up at your door on your birthday with a gift, did he ever buy you, did he ever mention your name?

He doesn't even know who we are. Why is there this affection for him? Because for so many years, we've seen his glory, what he was good at for so long. See, the reason why there's such an attachment to somebody like that, even from a distance, is because you and I have been created for the purpose of worship.

We feel the most alive when we are in the presence of something beyond us, and we begin to worship it. See, Kobe was, in a good way, in a bad way, an idol for many of us, somebody that was beyond. You know, how many of us sitting in traffic fantasize about owning a helicopter and just hovering over the traffic and get to work in 15 minutes?

You know, we fantasize about Kobe, like his life, what he's able to do. To have that stripped away so suddenly, I mean, it's understandable that we have these emotions, because at the core of who we are, that's how God created us. He created us to be worshipers, rather than the objects of worship.

See, when Adam and Eve challenged God's glory, instead of worshiping God, they said, "Well, maybe I can have this wisdom. "Maybe I can touch this glory." And in their pursuit of their own glory, the fall of mankind happened. And at the core of human rebellion, it is our desire to be recognized, rather than to recognize the one who is deserving of this glory.

That's why the Bible describes the fall of mankind as what, falling short of his glory. And that's why when Jesus was going to the cross, what did he say? It is time to glorify the Son, as the Son glorifies the Father. He describes the act of redemption of mankind as glorifying the Father, glorifying the Son.

Because that was what was tainted, that was what was lost at the fall. The problem of mankind is we worship idols, and we worship ourselves, and we put ourselves where God ought to be, and all through life, we struggle, because that's not the way God intended. What we do with, whether it is Kobe, or whether it's basketball, or some superstar, or whatever else that takes the place where God and God alone ought to be, will eventually end in some sort of heartache.

Because it was never meant to be that way. Whether we are at the center, or someone else is sitting in that seat, eventually we will begin to see when the Bible says that sin reigns. See, it is this that God has been trying to restore to mankind. That's the reason why you and I are here, first and foremost.

Not to be better people. Of course, we all want to be better people. Not to simply be more moral. Not to be better churchgoers. But in the end, to restore that glory that was lost at the fall. And that's why when this question is asked of Jesus, teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the law?

And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. He says this because this is what went wrong with mankind. That affection that we felt, that sorrow that we felt, over somebody that we didn't even know, simply because he was displaying his gifts.

And we were wowed, and we experienced so much life and joy because of what he was able to do. God restores that, and he displays his glory in the cross, and he tells us to come to him because true life is found in Christ, in Christ alone. If we find such life in watching a trivial basketball player live out his life, how much more will life be restored when we are restored in seeing his glory?

That's why the Bible describes us as people who have opened our eyes to see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. That's why Jonathan Edwards describes a Christian who has affection for Christ. How do you know if you're a Christian or not?

He said the number one quality of a Christian is he opened his eyes to see the glory that he was not able to see when he was in his sin. So when Christ came and cleansed us from our sins, our eyes became open, and we saw the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that's when we find new life.

And new life isn't just not dying and not going to hell. New life is new today. What makes me happy, what brings joy, what causes me to feel alive has changed. Because now we see that my greatest joy is found in the glory of Christ Jesus. That's the distinguishing mark between a Christian and a non-Christian.

A non-Christian can pretend. He can go through the motion. He can go to church. He can give. He can even evangelize. But a distinguishing mark between somebody who saw the glory and who didn't see the glory is the affection that is created when we see that. That's what he means when he says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Because that's why he died. That's why he was resurrected. And that's what he desires. You know, this passage alone, stands alone. I don't need to even talk about the context 'cause we know this passage so well. But understanding the context will bring even more light to why and what he is saying in this text.

This is not actually the first question. The question that this scribe asked Jesus, it was actually third of three questions that was asked. The first question is asked by the Pharisees and the Herodians in chapter 22, 15 to 22. So before I even get to that, we have to understand that these questions are coming during Jesus' last week in his life.

And so he turns over the tables, he cleanses the temple, and he knows that he's headed toward the cross and is in this context that the Pharisees and the Herodians want to trap him, want to get him to say something so that they can take him to court and say, he is blaspheming or he is inciting insurrection against the Roman government so that they would have a reason to crucify him.

It is in that context where it says in verse 15, the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap him in what he said. Now remember that. This was not an innocent question, that they just wanted to know the answer. They were putting him in a trap. And he says, verse 16, they sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.

Now you have to understand, the Pharisees and the Herodians were mortal enemies. Herodians were the ones who sided with the Roman government. They were the ones who went around collecting taxes and they handed it over to the Roman government. The Pharisees resented that because if we pay these taxes, they're going to use that to suppress us with their paganism.

And so Rome actually set up a statue of Caesar. Every time they went to the temple, they had to bow and acknowledge that Caesar is greater than any God that you worship. And the Herodians were the agents who were carrying this out. So the fact that the Pharisees and the Herodians together went to Jesus, you could see the hatred behind what they were saying.

Because if he answers this question, verse 16, we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in truth and defer to no one for you are not partial to any. Think about the sarcasm behind that. Already knowing what their intent is. Tell us then, what do you think?

Is it lawful to give poll tax to Caesar or not? But Jesus perceived their malice and said, why are you testing me, you hypocrites? See, if Jesus answers this wrong and he says, you know what, just pay the taxes, then the Pharisees would incite their disciples against. See, he's blaspheming.

This money is going to go to force us to worship other gods. See, how could he be your Messiah? Or if he said, don't pay the taxes, the Herodians would report that to the Romans and say, you see, he's telling people to disrespect the Romans. And he's rejecting your authority.

He's going to incite a rebellion against the Roman government. And no matter how he answered it, one side would have reason to crucify him. And that was a trap that they were setting to Jesus. But they didn't expect his answer. Verse 19, show me the coin used for the poll tax.

And they brought him a denarius and he said to them, whose likeness and inscription is this? They said to him, Caesar's. Then he said to them, and render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and render to God the things that are God's. If he had a mic, that's when he would drop it, right there.

Boom, right? They thought they had the perfect trap. How's he going to get out of this one? Render to Caesar's. What is Caesar's? Render to God what is God's, right? They're amazed, even verse 22, in hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving him, they went away. It didn't work.

The trap didn't work. You know, before we are too easily, you jump to the conclusion, is that today when we say Pharisee, we equate the word Pharisee to what? Hypocrite, right? If you're even a little bit theologically astute, instead of saying hypocrite, say, ah, he's a Pharisee. It's all that we know, we hear, we've studied about the Pharisees in the New Testament, like that's what we mean.

You are superficial, you're religious, but you're not real, right? You're whitewashed too, that's what we mean. But before we condemn them too quickly, if we understand where the Pharisees came from, their intent, when they started, was a concern because the Jewish people were starting to get Hellenized, and the Greek culture was starting to penetrate, and they started to even speak their language, and they were concerned that the pagans were going to infiltrate into the country, so the Pharisees decided to start a movement of holiness, and that's what Pharisee literally means, to be set apart.

And that's why they paid so much detailed attention to the law, because they wanted to be holy to the extent that if they kept the law perfectly, like that would bring revival, that God would bless them, and that was at the core intention of the Pharisees. But as time went by, their righteousness became nothing more than right and wrong.

They paid more attention to what was going on outside than what was going on inside, and that's why Jesus rebukes them. In Matthew 15, seven through nine, you hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching and doctrines the precepts of men.

You see, they started out with good intentions, and then they eventually got sidetracked. Instead of really worshiping God, their righteousness was a source of honor, and they thought that if we obeyed the law better than the next guy, that we're going to have higher status before God. And you know why studying the Pharisees is so important, is because everybody who's been a Christian for more than a year or two or three years, this is at the core of our struggle.

This is at the core of our struggle, because the glory and the power is at the cross. But we can easily become men and women who, because we've been Christians longer, because we're a little bit older, because we study the Bible more, because we're a little bit more gifted, because we give more, because we have certain positions in the church, because I went to seminary, because I'm a deacon, I'm an elder, I'm a pastor, because I preach and I bear fruit, we can be easily deceived to think that the work makes me better and more righteous.

No one is more susceptible to that than the leadership. I am at the center of all of that. I can easily deceive myself to think that I am righteous because I am doing righteous things. I can easily think that I am the closest to God because I see fruit.

And I know, better than anybody else, that I could pretend. And if I can pretend, I know you can pretend. It says in Matthew 23, 25, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, "because you travel around on sea and land "to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, "you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourself." You know, why would they be so interested in spreading, spreading Phariseeism?

I mean, if they were just hypocrites and concerned about external things, I mean, they devoted themselves to evangelize and tell other people about it. See, you can easily give yourself to evangelism and world missions, even martyrdom, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, without loving Christ. And this is why this is so, so dangerous, because this deception is powerful.

And the Bible warns us that at the end, there's going to be many people who says to me, "Lord, Lord," and you say, "But your heart was far from me." "Didn't we cast out demons? "Didn't we heal the sick? "Didn't we do this? "Didn't we do that?" And you said, "None of that had anything to do with me." If we're not careful, the longer that we have been Christians and the more active we are in the church, we can easily deceive ourselves.

And that's, you know, I feel compassion when I see the Pharisees, because it started out well. It started out well, and just like, just like the core of every human being, they started using the law to gain glory for themselves. That's why in Luke chapter 11, 30 through 40, it said, "But the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees, clean the outside of the cup "and the platter, but inside of you, "you are full of robbery and wickedness." You know, our theme this year is to know him and to make him known, right?

And I'm very thankful that we have people who are committed, who are teaching, and who are setting opportunities, and I hope that our church would take advantage of that, and that we would become better witnesses. But I also know the danger of evangelism when you are not right with God, when it isn't an overflow of worship that leads you to evangelism.

I've had so many Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons coming to my door, and I would have discussions with them, and I could tell that they're not really that interested to engage, because they came to do their duty. They didn't come to argue, they didn't come to discuss, they're not really that interested in winning me over.

They knocked on the door and they're having a conversation because that's part of their duty that they have to do to earn their righteousness. So you could tell, like, and they, you could tell they want to go, but I don't let them go. 'Cause I, you know, I open the door 'cause I want to have a discussion with you, I want to turn the pages and I want to have discussion.

How do you interpret this passage? Where did you get this? And as soon as there's some conflict, you could tell they're one foot headed the other direction. So they're not there to try to win me over, they're doing that because that's what they're supposed to do. That's what good Jehovah Witnesses do.

If we're not careful, evangelism can feel that way. Just like if you went to a sales rally and they gave you a script, say this and read this, and then you take that script and then you take it to somebody, and then you're teaching them about something that you yourselves would, haven't bought.

You're not really that crazy about this product, right? I mean, evangelism was meant to be when we see the glory of Christ to go tell other people. That's why we are witnesses. We don't just regurgitate information, right? It's a set of facts that we have to transfer to other people.

So until we are affected, we are in danger of Pharisees if we're not careful. So yes, we want to move forward, we want to be evangelistic, but we need to know him first. That what we do has to come as an overflow of that. The second, the Sadducees, right?

I'm just going to summarize what they say for the sake of time. Understand who the Sadducees are. The Sadducees were the leaders of Israel, Pharisees were the religious leaders. The Sadducees are the one who sat in the Sanhedrin, the senators, kind of like our senators today, right? You know, at least up to now, even if you were a non-Christian, even if you lived like a Buddhist all your life, if you want to be elected in the United States, you have to say you're a Christian, right?

If you know anything about politics, that's a given. Because 70, 80% of Americans identify with Christianity. Now, obviously, that's not true form of Christianity, but at least superficially. So you have to identify with the majority. So it's given. If you want to run in the United States, whether you're Republican or Democrat, Independent, you have to have some sort of connection to the superficial Christianity.

So a lot of the senators, presidents, they came out, I remember as a young Christian, as soon as they said they were Christians, oh, he's a Christian, that guy's a Christian, that guy's a Christian. And as the years went by, I realized, that guy can't be a Christian, that guy can't be a Christian, right?

And I realized that they're doing that because they need to get elected. Well, the Sadducees were like that. They had a loose connection to the Jewish faith, but they didn't believe anything supernatural. In fact, they only read the first five books of the Old Testament. Anything supernatural, they completely rejected.

But you know what's interesting about the Sadducees? Sadducees came from the priestly order in Israel. Okay, let that sink in, okay? These were the people who actually didn't even believe in miracles. They rejected the Bible, right? And when they're asking Jesus, like the law says, right? You believe in the law, the law says that if brother dies, that the next of kin has to come and get married, and his brother has to marry, and they did the seven times, and when they go to heaven, whose wife is she?

And it's a very sarcastic question because they don't believe this. They're basically trying to get Jesus to be stumped. Oh, I don't have an answer for that. And Jesus said, you know nothing about the scripture. Right, when he says you're mistaken, the word means to be deceived or to be seduced.

And to think that the people who completely rejected everything about God were the former leaders of Israel. So most of the people who sat in Sanhedrin, they were Sadducees. All the priests that took care of the temple, majority of them were Sadducees. The high priest at that time, Ananias, was a Sadducee.

And there's a reason why the Pharisees rose up, because the leaders of Israel completely rejected God. And so the Pharisees were trying to bring revival from just the people, and they went astray. See, they were Jews by heritage and not by faith. Do we have those kind of people in the church?

Of course. Our churches are filled with people who grew up as Christians without true faith. And they come to church out of superstition. Kind of like if you go to Taiwan, they burn incense because they need to get the blessing from the ancestors. And if you ask them, do you really believe that?

A lot of them will say, I don't really believe it, but it's more superstition. It's more cultural. Many Christians come to church for the same reasons. They don't really believe. They don't really believe enough to give all that we have and follow Jesus Christ. But there's benefit of being in the church.

Just in case God is real, at least I have a free ticket to heaven. And it's nothing more than that. And that's why you can come to church and hear sermons and be challenging and open up the scripture, but it has absolutely no effect. There's no application. There's no ever application because it's not real.

You're learning how to put a furniture together that you didn't buy. So it's just information and eventually it gets boring. So at the center of church life isn't the word. It isn't communion. It isn't fellowship. It isn't evangelism. It's just friendship. See, those are the Sadducees. They were trying to use their influence to advance Israel.

You know, the most dangerous people in the church are the people who love the church without loving Christ. 'Cause their perspective is completely skewed. What's important to them? What bothers them? What they pour their energy into? It's completely skewed. 'Cause there is no love for Christ. See, those were the Sadducees.

Jesus shuts them down and after he shuts them down, finally the scribes come. They were members of the Pharisees, but the scribes were the religious, among the religious, they were the scholars. These were the PhDs. These were the guys who actually counted numbers. You know, now, because of Bible program, if you wanted to find out how many times the word fish is used in the New Testament, you just probably fish, parameter, New Testament, 600 times and it'll come out and oh, how did you get that?

You just punched some buttons. But before the computer programs, they had strong numbers and concordances and somebody actually sat there, page one, and they counted, they counted. So I remember early on when I was giving sermons and every once in a while, I would come across information and said the word agape is used 6075 times in this context.

And I was like, oh my God, somebody actually counted this. They sat there, went through page to page and they counted. It's like agape, agape, agape, 653, 657. And they wrote that down. Then the next word, daw. How many word daw is in the New Testament, right? Well, these scribes were these counters.

They were the experts of the law where they sat there and they scrutinized every single word, every single law, and they counted out of all the laws, 613 laws, and they were constantly debating out of the 613, we can't keep all these perfectly, so which are the weightier and which are the lighter ones?

In other words, what are some that we need to pay attention to? What are some that it doesn't really matter? And it is in that context where Jesus says nothing that God says is going to pass away. There is no such thing as non-weighty word. And it is in answer to that question where Jesus says to them, if you want to know what is the weightiest, what's the most, what is at the core of what God is looking for, is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

The reason why I'm focusing on this this morning is because our church is growing. And there's a lot of great things happening in the church. I'm very thankful. Possibly, who knows, that we would do more work out in Taiwan, the work in India is thriving, and the pastors are spreading the gospel in remote parts.

And there's a lot of great things that are encouraging in the church. You see, but the Jews were not secular. The Pharisees prayed more than anybody else. They gave more than anybody else. They proselytized more than anybody else. They fasted more than anybody else. And yet, it was the Pharisees who opposed the ministry of Jesus more than anybody else.

They've been telling their disciples that the Messiah's going to come and deliver them, but when Messiah finally came, they had no idea who he was. Not only did they not receive him as the Messiah, they are the ones who are at the core of wanting to crucify him. The danger that you and I are in, where we are at, because we are surrounded by religiousness.

If you grew up in a Christian home, especially if you grew up in a good Christian home, there is a tendency for us to think that somehow through osmosis, you are strong because you saw strong Christians. There is a temptation because if you are in a church where the Bible is being taught, that there is a deception to think that the word of God is getting in you.

If you're around people who pray a lot, that somehow you feel like there's a lot of prayer. If you're around a lot of people who do evangelism, that you feel like there's more evangelism going on. And we don't carefully examine our hearts if we're not careful. See, this, what Jesus is saying was an indictment against Israel.

Not against not keeping the Sabbath, not against not giving enough, or there wasn't enough sacrifices at the temple, but they missed the whole point of their salvation. It's because they fell from the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what he was trying to restore. It wasn't, our salvation is not about not going to hell.

Everybody lives forever. The difference is where you're going to spend that eternity. It's not eternal life where you're going to be. It's the life that was lost because we were pursuing our own glory. That's what Jesus meant when he says, if you seek your own life, you will die.

Because that's not where life is. So if you miss what he is saying here, you missed the whole point of Christianity. This is not simply a part or important part of Christianity. This is Christianity. To love Christ. You know, you know how different it is when you do something you love versus doing something that you have to do.

The difference between the two is worship and non-worship. That's the difference. A worship that God accepts and a worship that God rejects is what is happening with us internally. To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He says in Romans 13, six, that all of the law is fulfilled in this commandment, to love.

We can obey God without loving God, but you can't love God without obeying God. We can go and do all these righteous things without loving God. We can sacrifice great things without loving God. We can evangelize, make disciples without loving God. But it is the love of God that leads us to obedience.

That's why in Revelations chapter two, four to five, is a sobering reminder to a good church. To a good church, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first or else I am coming to you, I will remove your lampstand and out of its place unless you repent.

The lampstand that he's talking about is the church itself. In other words, you can have all this external things and write preaching and write work and doing all this stuff, but he says, but if love is not, the primary thing that God is looking for is true worship and true love, he said if that's not there, he said your church becomes useless.

He doesn't say your church becomes tainted. He doesn't say you're going to get a B instead of an A. He says it's completely useless. And like I said, the person who is in the greatest danger of that is myself because I'm at the center of that because I'm the one trying to remind you.

I'm the one teaching the Bible. I'm the one directing and leading our congregation. And I can easily deceive myself to think God is blessing me, God is blessing the church. We have to make sure that we establish what he is looking for, not what we want in the church.

The fruit of the spirit, all of it is love. 1 Corinthians 16, 20, "If anyone does not love Christ, "let him be accursed." Maranatha. Paul says, "Why does he persevere in ministry? "For the love of Christ controls us." Now, let me wrap up the sermon because we may look at this and say, okay, I need to love Christ more.

If that's at the core, I need to love Christ more. How do you do that? And people will say, in order to answer that question, well, then obey God. And we've already established you can obey God without loving God. So what does it mean then? Turn off the lights, get all emotional, play emotional music, just play the A minor chord.

The minor chords tend to be a little bit more emotional than the sharps. If you know anything about music, dim the lights. I can't cry when the lights are on. Dim the lights. What does it mean to love God? It's like, okay, just cry. Just cry. If I cry and if I get emotional, does that mean that we love Christ?

I mean, I'm being silly, but you know what I mean by that. That's not what Jesus means. He's not simply saying, if you show greater emotions, maybe you're just an emotional person. I know some people who celebrate like this. (clapping) I don't get it, but to them, that's exuberance.

So I can't measure people like emotions because everybody expresses themselves a little bit differently. But that's not what he means. And this is part one. And this really is to introduce us to what I want to speak about next week. The Bible does not distinguish between knowing him and loving him, which is the theme of our coming year.

The Bible does not distinguish between knowing him and loving him. The reason why we fall short of loving him is because we are superficial in knowing him. We've accepted the gospel so superficially. God loves you, has a wonderful plan. I'll take it. Anybody wants to have salvation, raise your hand, come down, and say, "Oh yeah, I want it." Play some emotional music.

Your friends went down, we went down, or you went to college, and everybody's taking their faith seriously. "Oh, I should too." And then you became a Christian, but you never really thought deeply, "Why does he send his son?" Like, why? Why would he do that? Why did he have to die?

Why couldn't he just snap his finger and say, "You're forgiven." What was the death and the resurrection about? What was his ascension? When he said he was going to come, like, what is heaven going to look like? I mean, we've just kind of stopped at, "God loves you, and he died for you, "and he loves you, "and you're going to have eternal life." And we've stopped at, "Yes, that's great.

"Keep loving me." And we don't realize how much we don't know until you talk to a non-Christian, and they begin to challenge your faith. Like, what does that mean? Like, why did you? Why would he die on the cross? Like, what does that mean? Then it's in the context of evangelism, we realize, like, "Man, I don't know the gospel." Our love for Christ is defective because we stopped pursuing him at some point in our walk with God.

You know, that's what happens a lot in marriage, too, and that's why you have marriage problems, because you kind of get married, we're in a covenant relationship, and you just expect it to coast, right? And then when it doesn't coast and drift toward a stronger relationship, you start to go, "Okay, we gotta do something." And then now you start working toward it, right?

It's no different in our walk with God. We become a Christian, and then because we're in a covenant relationship, one saved, always saved, and we hang our hats on these cliches, and when we don't drift toward God, we think something went wrong. When was the last time you actually pursued Christ, longing to know him?

Like, really longing, if he's our life, shouldn't that be our primary pursuit? We know more about Kobe's shoe size, where he lives, what kind of car he drives, what kind of helicopter he has, right? His daughters, their names, the number that they wore on their jersey, where he was headed, where he was coming from, who his closest friends were.

You know, when did he start losing his hair? Like, I mean, we know all kinds of information about Kobe. Why? Because we idolized him from a distance. Because there was an affection for him, we want to know everything about him. When was the last time we pursued Christ that way?

The person that we confess died for my sins. He didn't just display his glory and then disappeared. His glory was him dying for us. His glory was taking our sins upon himself and absorbed it upon himself and resurrected and gave up everything for us. That was his glory. Those are the songs that we sing.

These are the passages that we memorize. When was the last time you pursued this God? That you wanted to know him better? You wanted to be near this God? You wanted to have a communion with this God? You just wanted to sit by him and just be near somebody who loves you so much?

As we head to the new year, I pray that we will be known not simply for a church that's growing, not simply for teaching, not simply for evangelism, but first and foremost, as he says, that we be a church that loves Christ with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And let evangelism flow from that. Let fellowship flow from that. Let generosity and mission flow from that. So again, all of this is an introduction for really for next week. What does that mean then? How do we love Christ? So we'll talk about that next week.