If you could turn your Bibles with me, let me read again Matthew 22 starting from verse 37 down to 40 before we jump into the text again. Again, I'm going to be spending today and then one more week next week before we jump back into Hebrews chapter 7. And I want to make sure that we're on the same page as to what we are emphasizing and where we're headed in the church in 2020.

And so to know him and to make him known is our theme. So we spent last week talking about loving God and today is part two of that. And then next week we're going to be talking about making him known and what does that mean for our church. And so again, it's a semi-topical sermon that we'll be having until we jump back into Hebrews 7.

All right, so let me read from starting from verse 36. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." And this is the great and foremost commandment.

"The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. Let's pray. Father, you truly are worthy of all our worship, our attention, our finances, our whole life. Help us to deepen in our understanding of what it is that we profess.

That our life, our thoughts, our emotions may all be consistent with what we profess to believe. Help us to understand and apply this commandment to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Help us, Lord God, as a church collectively that our fellowship will be known as people who genuinely love you.

So we pray for your grace this morning. Let the word go forth, let it not return until it has accomplished its purpose. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, I'm going to be talking about Kobe and Shaq this morning. I promise today is the last day that I will talk about Kobe.

And they're going to have a memorial for him and his family and all the people who passed away on the 24th. But I thought it was appropriate, again, not to honor Kobe, okay? Just that clearly what happened has been on many people's mind for a while. But I wanted to kind of set things straight because there's been a lot of talk because, you know, I'm sure almost every other video that you've watched in the last two to three weeks or longer have been about tribute to Kobe, about stories about Kobe and all this stuff.

And one of the things that keeps circulating is about the rift between Kobe and Shaq. And clearly there's plenty of evidence, and those of you who are a little bit older, you remember the rift that they had and then, you know, Lakers chose to go with Kobe rather than Shaq.

But those of you who watched Lakers during that time know that it was more than just a personal rift between Shaq and Kobe. Prior to Shaq leaving the Lakers, they won three championships, 2000, 2001, 2003. So they had a three-peat. And so Shaq clearly was the most dominant player in all of the league.

And so Kobe was an up-and-coming star and Shaq was the one who was dominant. But after he won the third championship, starting from 2004, again, some of you guys may not remember this, those of you guys who are a little bit older may remember, it was so frustrating watching Shaq play.

Because he played like somebody who'd already achieved the peak. And he wasn't running down, and I remember watching him, again, and I wasn't a huge Lakers fan at that time because once Magic stopped playing, I just kind of lost interest. And Kobe was just too cocky. And Shaq came from another team, so it was hard for me to get attached.

But it was hard to watch Shaq because Shaq's such a big guy and the opposing team would run by him and use him as a pick. And then Shaq would not go out. So he actually became a liability on the team, so clearly Shaq was not playing like he was going to win a championship.

Shaq played like he won three championships, he had nothing more to prove. And then on the other side, Kobe, even though he won three championships, he was an up-and-coming star, they always said, well, Kobe won because he was on a great team. So Kobe wanted to prove that he was that guy.

He's the next Michael Jordan, or he's going to surpass Michael Jordan. But here's this superstar who's actually getting in the way, right? So some of you guys may remember, may not remember, that had a lot to do with the Rift because Kobe was frustrated that he was playing with such a dominant superstar who just didn't seem like he had anything to prove, where Kobe was just coming up.

And that's why when he won the championship later on, the two championships, a lot of that had to do with him proving himself, that it wasn't just Shaq, that he was a superstar independent of Shaq. Now why do I say all of this? This is how I'm going to link this to the sermon, okay?

Shaq got to the peak, or he thought he got to the peak, and he had nothing more to prove, so he was just enjoying himself. And Shaq was clearly the nicer guy. He was the one making everybody laugh, he was the one who was generous, and there's just stories about him buying people's cars and all this stuff.

And yet, when he came to basketball, it was just something that, kind of like, he's done everything he needed to do, and he's just going to ride this out. Now I say all of this because our Christian lives, oftentimes, look a lot more like Shaq. You know, we think of our justification.

Since our sins have been justified, from the moment we are justified until we are glorified, we just kind of ride out our sanctification. Because we're constantly reminded, we've arrived. He's already accomplished the work, and so we have nothing to prove, we can't earn our salvation, so we're just going to get on this boat and just ride this out.

When this question came up to Jesus, you know, like, should we offer these coins to Caesar? You know, obviously we talked about that last week, that was a source of contention. If we offer it up to Rome, they're going to use it for pagan purposes. So Jesus, in his genius, between these two rivals, between the Pharisees and the Herodians, he says, "Well, render to Caesar what is Caesar's, render to God what is God's." So we know what it means to render to Caesar's because Caesar's face was on the coin.

But what is he talking about to render to God, then? See, what he says there is connected to the passage that we just read in Matthew 22, 37. Because there was a tendency among the Pharisees to get caught up in, "Is it okay to pay taxes? Can we travel this far on the Sabbath?

Are we allowed to do this or to do that? Can we eat this? Can we go into Samaria and not be defiled?" And they were so concerned about keeping the law, thinking that somehow that that was going to make them righteous and get them closer to God. But what Jesus was saying to the Pharisees and the Herodians, "Your focus is on the wrong thing.

That belongs to Caesar, so give it to him. But what God desires from you is much more than those coins." You see, you have to read this text all together, and not just read the text that we just read this morning. The two other questions that he answers sets up for this.

Where he says, "What God really desires from us is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind." It wasn't just simply the coins, paying the taxes, coming to church. You and I know you can come to church all your life because out of habit, out of superstition, because this is your social center, because of football, so football season, the softball season's coming, the basketball season's coming.

So we can come to church for all kinds of reasons, and we can feel confident that we've just decided to get on the right boat, and we're just coasting along. But what Jesus is trying to indict the nation of Israel is that you think that if you just check off these boxes that somehow that you're going to be safe.

He said, "No, what God is looking for are people who will worship him in spirit and in truth, true worshipers." Not people who are just checking off the boxes. That's why Ephesians chapter five, that's a passage that you hear a lot at weddings, between a husband and wife, and how husband ought to love his wife like Christ loved the church sacrificially, and how the wife is a submit to the husband as the church does to Christ.

He gave a beautiful sermon about that beautiful passage, but he concludes that passage saying, "But I'm not really talking about marriage." He concludes that passage, "I'm telling you this because I'm trying to show you the relationship that Christ has with his church." And it is deliberate that God chooses the most intimate human relationship to describe his relationship with the church.

That he didn't just purchase the church and said, "You know what? You're free. Go to hell. I'll see you in heaven." That's not how he describes our relationship. He describes our relationship between a husband and wife. A love, intimate relationship, a covenant relationship. And that's what he is talking about.

He says, "This is what God is looking for." Think about it. What reward does God have for our salvation? What does he get out of this? Some people say, "Oh, he was lonely." God was lonely. He wasn't lonely. He's part of the trinity. There's perfect union between the Godhead.

We didn't somehow fulfill a need of his that he didn't have within himself. That would be blasphemy. What does he get from our salvation? I mean, he needed us to spread the gospel? I think God would do a much better job if he just opened the heavens and just talked himself.

If he just said, "I'm real." That's it. We get in the way. It's mind boggling why he even engages us. What does he get from our salvation? The only thing that I can think of and the only thing that the Bible, to me, reveals is worship. That's unique to me and unique to you.

It's unique to each church. When the Bible says that God desires from us before evangelization of the world, before practice of this and establishment of the church, what he desires more than anything else is love. Again, it's another way of saying worship, true worship in spirit and in truth.

Now what does this have to do with our theme for this year? The theme for this year is to know him and to make him known. One of the questions I asked on Facebook is what is the correlation between loving him and knowing him? Well, in John chapter 17, three to six, Jesus' high priestly prayer, he says, "This is eternal life.

This is eternal life, that they may know you." Eternal life, he doesn't say this is eternal life that you save them from punishment, which is also true. He said, "This is eternal life that they are not condemned and not go to hell," which is also true, "but in his priestly prayer, which he deliberately prayed so that others may hear and so that he may be recorded in eternity to make it absolutely crystal clear.

This is eternal life that they may know you to have this covenant relationship with you and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth." Let me stop right there. What was the purpose of glorifying Jesus? Because without knowing him, without seeing him, how can you worship him?

How can you love him? How can you follow him? The whole purpose of Jesus' incarnation, he says, was to glorify him so that when we see Christ, what do we see? We see God himself. Remember the disciples as they were going to Jerusalem, he said, "Let me just see God.

Can you just see as God?" And Jesus says, "How long have I been with you? I've been telling you, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father." His whole purpose of going to the cross was to glorify the Father and the Father to glorify the Son. Having accomplished the work which you have given me to do, now, Father, glorify me together with yourself and with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours and you gave them to me and they have kept your word. So the whole purpose of Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection is described in these few verses. For the purpose of opening your eyes to see God.

And by seeing God, that those who believe may have this covenant relationship with him. So how is this connected to our theme? You cannot love a God that you do not know. You cannot love a God that you do not know. So this morning, I want to give four biblical principles of what the Bible teaches us about knowing God and how this ultimately relates to loving God.

So number one, knowing God is the central pursuit of every Christian. When he says, "This is eternal life that they may know you," it is not simply in the past tense. You don't get married to somebody and then have a ceremony and then you go your own way. The whole purpose of why you have the ceremony when you get married is so that you can live together.

Nobody has a ceremony and then finds two apartments or two houses and live separately. Why would you have a ceremony? The whole purpose of justification is to continue to unite us to Christ. So when he says that they may know you, he's not talking about so that they may have an encounter with you and then just enjoy themselves.

Christian is to know him, is to be married with him, that we become his bride and him our groom. So our primary pursuit of every Christian is to pursue God, pursue Christ. But the problem with us, and part of the reason why there's so much superficial love for Christ is because the pursuit oftentimes stops early.

When you first become a Christian, it's always encouraging when you're around brand new Christians because they have some of the best questions. Do I have to dress up? I've had people come up to the front because we ran out of room in second service and ask me, "Is it okay if I sit here?" Nobody who's been a Christian for a while would ever ask that question.

But a brand new Christian is so eager to do it right. Can I come to this? Can I do this? Of course, we're trying so hard to get them to come. And they're asking permission if they can come. But at some point in our walk with God, we become a shack.

You're not defending anymore. You're getting in the way. The opposing team is using you as a pick. Let me give you a simple illustration. We know how often we get scam emails, often from some foreign country, Nigeria or somewhere. And they'll give you this long story saying they're the son of some king or some prince and he has to take some money out because the government is corrupt.

And he has a million dollars that he needs to send over. And if you would just deposit $3,000 to make all the transactions and pay the fees, I will transfer it over and I'll give you a portion of that. How many of you have ever fallen for that? If you have, you're probably not going to admit it.

All of us, we know enough when we read that thing, it's like, "This is too good to be true." So if it's too good to be true, what do you normally do? You ignore it. Or what if it is true? What if? I mean, it sounds too good to be true, but what if it is true?

But that's a lot of money that you have to deposit. I don't want to get scammed. So what do you do? You do your research. You ask your friends. You copy that email. You send it to other people. Have you gotten this email? And make sure that it clears, that it seems like it's legit.

Let me give you another illustration. A couple years ago, when we came into this building, we got contacted from this air conditioning company and they said that they have this program where they will replace all of our old air conditioning and they would add to our new air conditioning and it would save us, basically cut our electric bill by two-thirds.

So we're paying like $3,000 a month for electric bill and stuff and it's going to save us $2,000 a month and all of that was for free. And it wasn't going to cost us anything. And they said all these air conditionings, we know how much it costs for us to put these in and we didn't replace the old ones on the other side, but to do that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So we waited and they said, well, it's going to cost, the actual cost of it with the labor would have been about $230,000 and we asked them, what do we have to pay? And they said zero. Well, that sounds like a Nigerian email. And so we initially were like, no way.

No way. So we ignored it. Got another email. Hey, did you guys get this? And then we got another mail and then they came and they said, hey, can we make an appointment? And so we started getting curious because they were relentless. We got some email, they came, we talked to them and even after we talked to them, they gave these fancy brochures and left it at the table.

We researched it, looked into it. We pass it on to our elders so that they could look into it. And then we sat on it because we couldn't believe it. Why would they just do this for free? So we sat on that for almost a year with them pursuing us.

Hey, this is real. You can have this for free. We have other churches in the neighborhood that they've done it. So we called them. Hey, is this legit? We had Elder Joe call Southern California Edison. Hey, we got this from this company. Is this legit? And so slowly we started realizing, hey, these guys are scared.

They did a really good job. Because they got somebody at Southern California Edison picking up the phone for them. And so reluctantly and carefully, we decided to open the door and allow them to come and then we'll do incrementally. We'll give them a little bit of money to see what they do.

And hold on, they were here up on the roof taking things down. And even then we're coming in and I would ask Pastor Mark, are they up there? He said, yes. Oh. Did they give you a bill? He's like, no. So we just walked out and I'm doing my study.

It's like, this makes no sense. Why would they do this for free? So they finished the whole thing. $200,000 worth of work. All brand new air conditioners on that side. And there was maybe two or three that wasn't covered so we ended up paying maybe about $20,000 for the ones.

We asked them, while you're up there, can you just change this too? But basically we had over $200,000 of air conditioning work done for free. And just like they said, our electric bill dropped by more than half. And even now I'm thinking, after a whole year, are we going to get a bill at some point?

Because it's too good to be true. But it was actually true. So they somehow had convinced the Southern California Edison and the California, they're very careful about saving the planet and all this stuff. So they somehow convinced California to flip the bill for churches like ours so that they can reduce the electricity even if they had to pay $200,000 out of their pocket.

This was something going on with California. And even now, somebody just gave us $200,000. You know what I mean? Now I say all of this. Let me tell you something even more hard to believe. John 3.16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son." That should have stopped us right there already.

One God, God, God of the universe, who wiped out the whole world because he was angry because over the sins, that God, he didn't just pay attention, he didn't just call our name, he gave his only, only begotten son. I mean, are you serious? I have a hard time believing the $200,000 air conditioning on our roof.

God gave his only begotten son? How do I meet this God? How do I know this God? Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. So the only cost for me to meet this God and to be saved from eternal damnation is just to say that I believe.

Come on. Come on. That's not where it stops. Romans 5, "But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." We weren't neutral. We weren't good people. We were blaspheming his name when he did this. Come on. You got a phone call from Michael Jordan or Shaq or the president and he's like, "You wouldn't believe it.

Why would he call me? What does he have to gain from calling me?" This is God of the universe who gave his only begotten son while you and I were blaspheming his name. We heard this message and so many of us said, "Okay. I believe." If you actually believe that, just come down the aisle.

So, "Okay." We come down. Then we did some prayers and we went back. "No more damnation." Ephesians 4 and 5, 1, 4, and 5, "In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the kind intentions of his will." Not only did he save us while we were blaspheming, he didn't just prevent us from going to hell.

He lifted us up so that we can call him Abba Father. We're adopted children. We're co-heirs with Christ. And you believe this? You've accepted this? You get a mail from Nigeria and you just take it to the trash can because it's too good to be true. And yet, in Christianity, we hear this fullest message of the cross and we gave it no other thought other than, "Okay.

I'll take it." And it's the superficial, shallow way that we receive this gospel that is reflected in the way that we live. If we ever have given a minute's thought to what we sing and what we profess, it is beyond belief what it is that we sing. You see, the Bible calls the gospel the mystery of Christ.

It's a mystery. And you know, there's all kinds of mysteries, right? You lose your key. It's a mystery. I forgot where I put it. You go to watch a movie, it's a mystery. You're entertained. But the mystery of the cross is the mystery above all mysteries because it is a puzzle that we have accepted but it's hard to comprehend.

We believe it. He made it as plain as he could possibly make it. And yet, the more we study it, the more we look at it, the more perplexing it is. Why would he do this? So the whole Bible is a revelation of this mystery. We ask this arrogant question, why would he condemn the world if he is so loving?

It is such a foolish question. Why wouldn't he? If a robber came into your house and you picked up a gun and shot him and he died, the legal system will say you are justified. People will think you're foolish. He came in with a gun trying to murder your family and you sat there and you did nothing while you had everything in your power to stop it and you did not do it.

They'll say you're foolish. They're not going to say, "Why weren't you gracious and let him rob you?" Why wouldn't he crush a world that is in rebellion against him? Why wouldn't he crush people who are blaspheming his name, dragging his name through the mud? So that's a completely arrogant question of human beings who have an inflated view of themselves because they don't know this God.

The whole purpose of the Bible is to reveal that mystery. And when that mystery is revealed for us to continue to know him, who is this God that he would do this? Why would he do this? In what manner did he do this? How did he do this? What does he get from this?

Where do we go because of this? What does it mean for me to call him Abba Father? What does it mean for me to say I'm co-heirs with Christ? What does it mean to have fellowship with him? What does it mean to love him? So the revelation of all of scripture is to give us a glimpse of this mystery and cause us to come to him.

In Colossians 2.2 it says that their hearts may be encouraged having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding resulting in the true knowledge of God's mystery. True knowledge of God's mystery, that is Christ himself. Christ is a glimpse of a revelation of that mystery.

The more you dig, the more mystery that you understand, the more you realize how far we are. We have become so easily satisfied with our justification. How many of us are still pursuing Christ? It is our superficial acceptance of this knowledge of the cross that results in a superficial worship of this God.

First Peter 1.10-12 it says as to this salvation the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries. Did you hear that? When the coming Christ was revealed to the Old Testament prophets, when they heard it, they said they made careful inquiries.

In other words, they were digging. Who is this that's going to come to take away the sins of the world? What is he going to do? What does this atonement mean? So they, even as they were prophesying, even as they were speaking on God's behalf, they themselves were attracted to this mystery, asking questions, seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the suffering of Christ and the glories to follow.

Can you imagine that? The prophets were prophesying that Christ, you know what Christ means, Messiah, the King, the Savior. And they were prophesying that this King, immediately when you think of King, you think of throne, you think of power, you think of sovereignty, and yet the prophets were prophesying that they were going to suffer.

What is that? Why would the King suffer? That's why the prophets were seeking carefully, who is this? What is he doing? And it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you. In these things which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

It wasn't just the prophets. Even the angels, when they were delivering this message, as they were delivering this, what is this? Why would the God of the universe who created me, who created you, send as the only begotten Son to deliver us, blaspheming his name, so that we can become co-heirs with Christ, calling him Abba Father?

What is this? And yet, the way the gospel is preached, the way it is received, the way it is practiced, all points to maybe that we never really believed. Or we had such shallow understanding of it. We were just satisfied that we got on the boat and that was it.

Never really asking. Why would he do this? See, again in Philippians 3, 7 through 11, I'm not going to read the whole passage, but Paul describes all that he had gained as a Jew, as a Pharisee, possibly a member of the Sanhedrin, the Senate. He said, "Whatever things were gained to me," and Paul had a lot to gain.

He was a wealthy man with a Roman citizenship. He was a direct disciple of the top scholar of that time, Gamaliel, a Pharisee among Pharisees. There's a reason why when they killed Stephen, they took all their cloaks and put it on Paul's feet because Paul was a man of authority.

By doing that, Paul was taking responsibility. So Paul was a man who had much authority already. "Everything that was counted to me as lost for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." See, the only reason why anybody would pick up their cross, as Jesus said, is because we want to follow Christ.

What is it about Christ that we would be willing to pick up our cross? Who is he? What is he? If we are not in love with Christ, if we are not attracted to the mystery of Christ, the cross is just a torture, a place of humiliation. That's all it is.

But when Christ is the reason why we pick up our cross, the cross is an avenue of salvation. Cross is the door that we take to know this Savior. That's why Paul says, "In view of all of this, all of this, knowing Christ is the reason why he does what he does." Ephesians 4, 11-13, "And he gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the service, to building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." Whole purpose of church is not to meet your felt needs.

Let me make that clear. The whole purpose of the church is not to make lonely people find community. The whole purpose of the church is not to gather together to make the political scenery right, to feed the poor people, to release people who are captive. All of these things are good things that Christians should be engaged in, but the primary purpose of our gathering is to proclaim Christ, that you and I may know him, that we may be filled with Christ, not to just taste Christ, not to be near Christ, not to simply be affiliated with Christ, but to have a deep covenant love relationship with Christ.

Because when we are in love with Christ, we will obey Christ, and his law is not burdensome. When we are in love with Christ, we tend to talk about things that we love. If you love Boba, Boba comes out of your mouth. If you watch the movie and you loved watching that movie, it doesn't matter if you're an extrovert or an introvert.

Nobody watches a movie that they really, really like, then comes home and your wife says, "How was the movie?" He's like, "I don't want to talk about it." You end up talking about it. You end up talking about it, you end up sharing it with other people, you put it on your post, you put it on your Instagram, you take pictures and you send it to people because you've experienced something that brought great joy to you.

Evangelism happens when people fall in love with Christ. Worship happens, not because we set the right mood or because we had the best worship leader or because there was the greatest preparation or we chose the best songs and all of these things are helpful, there's nothing wrong with any of these things, but worship happens because it's already in you.

You can sing the most simplest of songs and you can encounter Christ because Christ is in that song. See, that's what it means to have the fullness of Christ. Let me see if I can get through this sermon today. I think I will. That was the longest part of the sermon, so this is the second one, which is all related.

Knowing God is the primary, is first before serving God. John 5, 39-42, Jesus said, "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about me. You are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men, but I know you that you do not have the love of God in yourselves." Why?

It's not because they didn't study the scriptures. They studied the scriptures to think that if they followed what it says that they're going to have eternal life. He says, "No. The primary purpose of the scriptures is to bring you to me." That's what he was saying. All of it was about me.

Before we look at scripture to find out what we ought to do, he said, "The primary purpose of scripture is to reveal him." He says, "If you miss him, all the other stuff that you do is for nothing because there's no life in that." He didn't say, "Come to the scriptures." A lot of times what happens is we study the Bible like we're doing homework.

We do homework. If you're an A student, you're good at homework. You do it and you memorize scripture and you do all of these things and you're good at it, but your affection for Christ never grows because you missed the whole point of the Bible study. The whole point of the Bible study is our pursuit of this mystery.

The whole point of Ephesians. Why there's three chapters of the gospel revealed in detail. You know, I can say all of that in the New Testament, but Ephesians in particular, especially the first three chapters, you can literally give a sermon on every single verse of that book because it is so rich.

Predestination, election, regeneration, adoption, atonement. It's so rich. But all of it is not simply so we can say, "Oh, now I got the gospel down." The whole purpose of it is so that we may come to a fuller understanding of who he is. The purpose of the study of the Bible is really for the purpose of pursuing Christ.

This mystery that was revealed that caused us to know, want to know more. Like, why? Why would he do this? How did he do this? Years ago, when I had to get a side job to make ends meet, I used to work as an ESL teacher. They assigned me, because I was Korean and my Korean was good enough, they assigned me for Lamarda School District, assigned me to a bunch of old Korean ladies.

The young ones there were in their early 70s. The older ones were in their mid 80s. The reason why they were there, part of it was because they were trying to kill time. They weren't really that interested in learning English. They tried. I literally had one lesson for five years because the next class started, they forgot everything, so I start over.

But some of them started really hard because they're trying to get their citizenship. After the class was over, I would always have a citizenship class. I remember this one particular lady who failed the citizenship test about three times. She was so distraught, but she was so determined. She's 85 years old, and I would say, "Good morning, students.

Today is August 2nd, the Tuesday of 1995," or something like that. They would repeat after me. This lady just couldn't even remember that. We say it every single morning. She's 85 years old. She was determined to pass this test, so I worked with her. In my mind, I'm thinking, "She's not going to pass this test," but you know what I mean?

Just to keep her busy. I would ask back and forth these questions, which she already did three times. I would ask her questions like, "Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?" It's a hard question, but she's been studying this for 10 years. I said, "Thomas Jefferson. Who wrote the Star Spangled Banner?

Francis Scott Keat. What are the three branches of the government?" She would answer these questions that some of you guys probably don't know. You would fail the citizenship test. This 85-year-old lady was doing this, and finally the day came, and then she was answering these questions. To my surprise, she got it.

But what was interesting is if I asked in any other way, if I changed one word in the way that I asked her, she wouldn't understand. Instead of saying, "Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?" If I said, "The Declaration of Independence, who wrote it?" She'd look a blank stare, like, "What did you just say?" I didn't expect her to pass.

She went, took the test. Sure enough, she came back. I could tell by the smile on her face that morning that she was elated. She finally passed, and she packed all of these Korean food for me, because she was so happy that she passed. We had this huge celebration in the class.

She passed, she passed. It took her 10 years, but she passed, and she was so thankful. In the middle of the class, we were just thanking her, and you did a great job, and all the younger ladies were patting her, and it's like, "Grandma, you did such a great job." Then I asked her, "Who wrote ...?" Just for fun.

Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? She's like, "Huh?" Who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner? "What is he saying?" She couldn't understand a single question that I gave her, because once she passed the test, she lost it. Now I don't think most Christians are that bad, but there's a huge difference between somebody who's pursuing Christ through his word, versus somebody who's doing homework.

You know how that feels. Many of you experienced cramming for tests, and maybe you got an A, but literally a week later you don't remember a thing you studied. The Word of God, knowing God, first and foremost, the Word of God is about knowing him before serving him. That was the difference between Mary and Martha.

Martha's there just working, "What do I do? I got to do this. I got to serve God." Martha's just sitting there, just like, "I want to hear from you." That's why we always say when young guys want to go into ministry, a typical thing that we will hear is they want to teach, which is great, but in order to be a great teacher, you have to be a great student.

There isn't hungering and thirsting for Christ. You can't be a teacher of Christ. Third, knowing God is ultimately the fuel for sanctification, and we go faster here. Second period, one, two, three. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power is granted to us, everything pertaining to life of Godliness through the true knowledge of him, who called us by his own glory and excellence.

The Bible says that everything that you and I need for Godliness is found where? In the new technique? In some seminar, some conference, seminary, some church that kind of figured out a new way to reach the new generation? What does it say? Everything that you and I need to know for the life of Godliness is where?

Through the knowledge of his son. Think about when you first became a Christian and when you were the most excited about your faith. It might have been when you first got saved, it might have been some other point in your life. You could be in love with Christ almost anywhere because he was overflowing in you.

When my heart is right, I can hear a sermon from a 15-year-old just talking about how much they love Jesus and I would be filled because my heart is fertile. I don't need a thunderstorm. I just need to hear Christ. But when your heart is not fertile, you can hear John Piper, John MacArthur, Jonathan Edwards.

You can hear the best sermons that the top theologians, the top pastors, top conference speakers and if they're not on their A game, you get very little out of it. That is not about their sermon, it's our hearts that become hearted. So he said everything that we need is found in Christ.

Knowing him, having an intimate relationship with him, loving him, solves so many problems in the church. Social conflict, small group, lack of communication, differences of opinion, shortcomings of others, people from different backgrounds, racial reconciliation, so many problems are easily fixed when the church is filled with people who are in love with Christ.

What is lacking is not technique or organization, it is lacking the fuel that causes us to be united. It's the fuel that causes us to love one another and to forgive and to be gracious, which is Christ. And it's always Christ. Let me conclude finally with this. Knowing God is what ultimately leads to loving God.

Knowing God is what ultimately leads to loving God. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, "For the love of Christ controls us or compels us. Having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died and he died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf." See, loving Christ, you can't love Christ from a distance.

It's because a lot of times it's because we've accepted this tremendous message of the cross and all we did was, "Okay, anybody want a free gift of salvation? The God of the universe died for you on the cross so that you don't go to hell? And anybody believe that?

Anybody want that? Oh yeah, me. Why wouldn't I? Even if I don't believe it, just in case." And Christ means nothing more than fire insurance to a lot of people in the church. And that's why all the other parts of scripture where we are told to love our enemies, to share the gospel, to pick up the cross, to sacrifice, to put his kingdom first, all of these other things have become a burden because all Christ was to so many in the church was fire insurance and that's all they want of him.

But those of us who have tasted the goodness of God, when our eyes became open to the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a hunger was ignited in us that can never be satisfied other than Christ himself. Maybe some of us have forgotten that. Maybe some of us have learned to be religious and come to church and do our homework.

Maybe some of us have become really good at doing our homework. But you don't know what it means to love Christ. As a Christian, there's nothing more important than to obey what Christ says. To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And as an overflow of that, we will talk about what we talk about tomorrow.

Just to give you a preview. Not tomorrow, next week. If you jump straight to love others as yourself without knowing, practicing, and having and confessing the first part, loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Without that, there's nothing more miserable in life than to love sinners as yourself.

Those of you who are young and inexperienced, say, "Man, this guy's really cynical." Those of you who lived a little know exactly what I'm talking about. There's nothing harder to do than to surround yourself with sinners and to sacrifice for them. We'll talk about that next week. But as I conclude today, I know we're all busy.

Some of you guys are parents with small children in the home. For you, a vacation is just not being around kids for a short period of time. You're exhausted, you're tired. Some of you guys are just trying to make ends meet. Some of you guys are trying to get a job and you don't know about your future.

There's a lot of things. Some of you guys have faced tragic things in life and you're in the middle of dealing with all of that. And I do not mean to be flippant, but I am absolutely convinced that no matter where you are in your life, the answer is always Christ.

There is no life outside of Christ. And I really hope that you would let this digest when Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Him." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray for myself, I pray for our church.

Lord, in the midst of the spiritual battle that we are in, help us, Lord God, not to be stagnant. Help us not to simply coast along and drift, but teach us what it means to be anchored in Christ, that we may know Him, that we may pursue Him, that we may study Him, that we may love Him.

We pray, Father God, that Your Holy Spirit would continue to convict and guide us, protect us from temptation, deliver us from evil. Give us to say our daily bread, that the Father's name will be hallowed, that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen. Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.