Misguided Zeal Versus Godly Zeal

So I have a question for you. What is zeal? And what is the difference between misguided zeal and godly zeal? There's a prophecy about Jesus that's quoted when he cleaned out the temple from the money changers and the businessman. Let's take a look at that to start off our definition of zeal so we can launch into this topic.

Let's go to John 2. Very early in the book of John, John 2, verse 13. Now Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he founded the temple, those who sold oxen and sheep and doves and money changers doing business. And when he made a whip, of course, he drove them out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen and he poured out the changers' money and overturned their tables. And he said to those who sold doves, take these things away and do not make my father's house a house of merchandise.

And his disciples remembered that it was written. So they quote this prophecy, "'Zeal for your house has eaten me up.'" That's a quote from Psalm 69 and verse 9. So when you go back to the Old Testament and you read the original word from Hebrew, that word zeal means honor or zeal or jealousy. It means like the jealous disposition of a husband. And I forgot to look at proverb about that.

There's a proverb about that, where a jealous man will not be dissuaded. You will not talk him out of taking revenge because he has gone mad. That's how much zeal this word means. It's like the zeal of a jealous man. And that's how much zeal that Jesus Christ had when he was kicking out the money changers. You weren't going to talk him out of it. They were getting out of his father's house, period. It was him or them. There was no room for both. That's zeal. It's an intense kind of zeal. Great energy or enthusiasm in the pursuit of a cause or objective.

Well, that's the English definition. The Hebrew definition goes much farther. In fact, God wants you and I to be on fire for doing his way, preaching the gospel and loving one another. You'll notice in Matthew 22, verse 37, that's what Jesus said in different words, but this is what he meant. Matthew 22, verse 37, how much zeal are we supposed to have?

Verse 37 in Matthew 22, Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first great commandment, and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. These two commandments, on these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets. You know, we're supposed to throw ourselves into the love of God and our fellow man.

We're supposed to be on fire. But as human beings, we are often misguided in our zeal. And this creates all kinds of problems in the church. It creates problems between us. It creates problems in the greater church, too. This topic of zeal. We have enough, we don't have enough, we have the wrong kind. Human nature more often gets it wrong than gets it right. What's the difference between godly zeal and just regular old misguided human zeal? Many people have a misguided zeal. Remember, we talked about just a few weeks ago, ancient Israel had a zeal to go back to Egypt and when they were told that they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years, what did they say?

Well, we'll just take that mountain there and live on it. They were zealous, they were misguided, and they got obliterated. Or what about King Josiah? You know, King Josiah was a righteous king and he had great zeal. He became king when he was 8 years old. He started one of, or led one of the greatest revivals back to God in all of Judea's history.

He set up temple worship back in the temple of God once again so that there was no worship of Baal or the asterisk in Judea. He had zeal, but he was misguided. And the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh of Egypt, wanted to attack the king of Assyria, which was north of Judea, had nothing to do with Josiah.

And all he wanted to do, the Pharaoh wanted to pass through Judea with his army. Josiah said no, and with great zeal and against the advice of the prophets, Josiah, with all of his zeal, went out to fight Pharaoh. And he died! A young man, a young king, full of zeal, full of enthusiasm, full of energy for the cause. But he died. Human history is just replete with misguided zeal.

What about the Christian Crusades? The European Christian armies would go down to take the Holy Land. They fought against the Muslim hordes. It was misguided zeal. They did not set up the kingdom of God on this earth. Just a lot of people died on both sides. And what about the Muslims today? Well, they have great zeal! They're very, very zealous for their cause. But they're also very misguided. Their cause is misguided.

This is human nature. Notice that the Apostle Paul himself, one of our greatest teachers, had misguided zeal. And he actually, we're going to spend a lot of time with him today, taught us about misguided zeal. Let's go to Philippians chapter 3. Let's just read a few passages about Paul's personal misguided zeal. Let's think about ourselves as we're reading this. Apply this to you.

Not that you're going to go kill anybody. Just, hopefully, go apply this to you. Philippians 3 verse 3.

For we are the circumcision. He's an Israelite, Paul was, who worshiped God in spirit, rejoiced in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I also have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he has confidence in the flesh, I more so. I should have more confidence in the flesh than you, Paul says. And he backs it up. Listen to his qualifications. Circumcised on the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning the law of Pharisee. I mean, this guy essentially had what we would call a PhD in theology, from the finest theological school on the planet. The Apostle Paul was like the prized student of Gamaliya. Right? If anybody could glory in the flesh, it was Paul. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Oh, he was zealous, all right, killing the true Christians, who didn't have a PhD in theology. Right? But Paul was on fire for the Word of God. Or was he on fire for something else, as we'll see in a minute? Concerning righteousness, which is the law blameless. He kept the law of God. He kept the law of God. And yet, his zeal was misguided. He was on the wrong track, even though he was following God. Wow.

Verse 7, But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. That word, zeal, in the Greek, is not really that much different than the word zeal from the old Hebrew. It means zeal, ardor, and embracing, pursuing, defending anything. Let's continue with Paul's example of zeal. He talks about it a lot. Let's go to Acts 22, verse 3. Acts 22, verse 3, says, I am indeed a Jew, born of Tarsus of Cecelia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamelia, taught according to the strictness of our fathers. And that's the clue. That's the clue right there of why Paul was misguided. Oh, but he had a great education, and he was zealous for God, for our Father's law, and was zealous towards God, as you all are today. He had zeal for God. The Crusaders had zeal for God. Muslims have zeal for God. Verse 4, I persecuted this way. He had a zeal for God, but he persecuted God's way. He was on fire for God, so he fought, but he fought against God at the same time. How deceitful is the human heart, and we trick ourselves the most.

Persecuted this way to death, binding and delivering into prison both men and women, as also high priests bears witness, and all the council of elders, from whom I received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring chains even to those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished. He even went out to other cities trying to find people of the way, like you and I, to kill them, because he had zeal. So why was Paul's zeal so misguided? Well, he says why in the book of Galatians. Let's spend a little bit of time in Galatians. Then I want to talk about what godly zeal really is. And we need to have it. You know, it's wintertime, and it's gloomy. It's a good time to talk about zeal, because a lot of times we get kind of bummed out, a little depressed in the winter, you know? It's kind of the ho-hum doldrums. We need to remember, we weren't called to sit on our rear ends and feel sorry for ourselves. We were called for a very different reason. We need to have zeal. But we need to be careful not to follow people with misguided zeal, which comes at us all the time. They seem so convincing. They're so on fire for the Word of God. And yet they're so wrong.

Why was Paul wrong? Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1 will start in verse 13. For you have heard my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure. I mean, he really put people to death. He was at Stephen's execution, the deacon, and tried to destroy it. He tried to destroy the true way of God, being on fire for God. That is not uncommon for human nature. To be in the opposite direction of God and to be on fire and think we're righteous. Right? Our spiritual gifts, God's just pumping me with His Spirit, man. And we're actually fighting God. We're not being filled with His Spirit at all. Verse 14, and I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for what? For the traditions of my fathers. Not zealous for the Word of God that he learned, but zealous for human thought. Human opinion guided Paul's zeal. And that's what led him off. It was human opinion that guided the zeal. And that's exactly what turned Paul the opposite direction of God. Even though he was a student of God, even though he was zealous for God, he allowed human opinion, either his own or even the traditions of the great men who taught him. Make a note of that passage. It's not your teachers who you follow. It is God and God alone who you pray to, who saves us, who you follow. So what are leaders for? To point you to God. But if they give you traditions, you are responsible to check those against the Bible.

You are responsible for that. The Apostle Paul was one of the most highly educated men in the Bible. And he was, by his own admission, going the wrong direction because he leaned on traditions of men and not the Word of God. Oh, it goes deeper than this, though. Stay tuned. Later in that same letter, Paul explains the difference. Zeal by itself does not mean that somebody has sound doctrine.

They can be a great speaker. Fantastic. So convincing. Have you ever watched infomercials? Have you ever been... usually we see an infomercial, those 30-minute sales programs, right? They're selling some product the entire 30 minutes. Some zealous guy is out there just selling his head off. And we usually just click right through. But every once in a while, we get sucked into one. How many of you have ever gotten stoned admitted? I have. I've watched them. Why were they on fire? This product will make your detergent so clean... or make your clothes so clean. You put it in the water and magic happens. Well, I've got to buy that product.

Does that person's zeal make that product worth anything? No. He's just selling something. Okay?

Zeal by itself does not mean, especially when it comes to the Spirit of God and the way of God, and the spiritual gifts that God gives... Zeal alone does not equal sound doctrine. Galatians 4. Just turn the page a little bit. Let's read in verse 17.

Galatians 4.17.

They... Who's they? Those people are trying to persuade the Galatians that Christians should be circumcised. That's the they here. They zealously court you. Oh, they want to sell you that you need to be circumcised. It's in the Bible. It's the way of God. And you Gentiles need to do it. Oh, yes, there's faith and baptism and receiving the Spirit, and that's all well and good. If you're not circumcised, you're not of God. That's what they were telling people in the city of Galatia.

And they were zealous! They were on fire! It doesn't make them right.

That doesn't make them right. Go back to the original law of Moses concerning circumcision. And right there, Moses says, and this is just a symbol that is supposed to be of your heart. In the original order for ancient Israel to circumcise on the eighth day, it was waved like a big red flag that it was just a symbol for something greater. And yet, here we are hundreds, thousands of years later, and Israelite church members are trying to convince Gentile church members that they aren't as good a Christian as the Israelite church members because they aren't circumcised. And you see, it's right here in the law of Moses. So Paul answers that, and they were courting them zealously. You can do this. Come on! All you've got to do is, you know, cut a little flesh in a very sensitive spot. You probably miss work for a week and a half. You'll be a little short on cash this month, but you will be a better Christian. So he says, they zealously court you, but not for good. Why not? Yes, they want to exclude you that you may be zealous for them.

There's a self-motivation in certain religious teachings. When people try to get you to do certain things that are not what God teaches the Christian to do, look for the self-motivation. The, hey, everybody, look at me! Follow me! My name is Joe Leader. I am now your leader, and you will now follow me. And I will interpret everything for you that you need to know about God. They wanted to be followed. There was a selfish motive in their zeal. Oh, they were zealous. Oh, they were convincing. But there was a self-motive, and people get trapped in that. They get trapped by the zeal. God wants us to have zeal, but that zeal has to come from the right motivation. There is a counterfeit zeal. Satan counterfeits just about everything, doesn't he? And he puts a lot of glitter and catchy little songs. You walk into the mall this time of year, you can't get those songs out of your head. I open my car after I've gone into a store, and I'm just jing-jing-jiggling all the way home.

And I think, what am I doing? Oh, there's zealous.

Reading on. That you may be zealous for them. Verse 18. But it is good to be zealous in a good thing. So Paul draws a line. He says, you need zeal. Just make sure your zeal is in the right place. In a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. You know, zeal is not the problem. God wants us to be zealous for Him. We read that with all your heart.

Watch out for people who are zealous for you to follow them.

You know, all kinds of things hit us constantly. And we've talked about these many times. We even had a seminar in the summertime. Mr. Gary Smith came over from Houston. We talked about rituals and traditions. And what's the difference and why are there some things in the Law and the Prophets, what we call today the Old Testament Scriptures, that we don't do anymore. And yet people come in and say, we need to do them. We need to do them. And they replace, excuse me, the reality that those things symbolize, which was Jesus Christ's sacrifice, with the symbol. That you need to go back and keep the old symbol as opposed to keeping the reality and moving forward. And what that does is it stops us in something very important, which we're going to get into in just a minute. And that is moving forward in something very specific. Those things symbolize, but you have the reality of, and that you and I are responsible for. We are responsible for something critical. And if we're not doing this certain thing, if we don't have this certain motivation, we're really going to miss out. Our zeal is to be towards doing good, not according to our own desires. Let's go to Titus 2 and pick it up in verse 11. Titus 2, verse 11. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live... And notice how he says we should live. Not according to our lust, but like this. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. Looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Look at his zeal, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works, zealous to do something good with your life. Not ho-hum and in the doldrums. Not looking out, going, man, I wish the sun would come out, but looking out and going, I am so thankful we're getting so much rain this year. And that's hard to do after, like, the fifth day. You could really use some sunshine.

Spiritually, we get in the doldrums too, brethren, just like we do when the weather is gray for many, many days in a row. You know, in the wintertime especially, in that long period in between holidays, we kind of lose our zeal. We can, anyway. But we are to be a special people, zealous to do something good. What? Well, it's not complicated, and you've heard it before, but you need to be reminded of it. And so do I. We can expect to do good things and be very enthusiastic, but in reality, we're doing no good at all. We can really spin our wheels. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 12.

Paul here is summing up what he talked about in chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians, with spiritual gifts, people speaking in tongues and healing and all the gifts that people have. And then in chapter 13, love. And here he's wrapping... he's summarizing. He's wrapping it up. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 12. Even so, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for edification. Now, we don't use those words anymore. Even though this is New King James, those are actually old, outdated words. Let's go to the New Living Translation. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 12. We're talking about zeal here, but reading it in a different translation. New Living Translation. And the same is true for you, verse 12. Since you are so eager to have special abilities the Spirit gives, seek those that will strengthen the whole church. Take your spiritual gifts and use them to help other people. Get your mind off yourself, Paul tells the Corinthians. Your gifts are not for you. Your gifts are for other people. And Paul starts to shed light on what our zeal is supposed to be for.

Verse 13. Let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. In other words, don't just know another language. Know what you're talking about. That's the important thing. Great. You can translate a sermon into Arabic. But if you don't understand the meaning of the sermon, it's useless to you. And to the people that might ask you a question about it. That's Paul's point here. Your gifts are not for you. Your gifts are supposed to be for other people. And if you're only developing them to show off to other people what you know, you're not doing anything. You're just producing fruit for nothing.

It'll drop on the ground and rot. Looking for the blessed hope. Wrong scripture, sorry. So anyone who speaks in tongues, verse 13, should pray also, have the ability to interpret what he has said. For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don't understand what I'm saying.

If I don't understand what I'm saying, it's useless. The motive behind our zeal or our enthusiasm or eagerness, in other words, makes all the difference. Even if we're seeking spiritual gifts, godly gifts, if we're doing it for a selfish motive, it's a waste of time. That's what Paul's point is. If the gifts are not understood, if the gifts aren't used to help other people, what good are they?

If you don't build up other people, you're actually wasting your time. Let's go to Romans 10. Romans 10 and verse 1. Brethren, Paul says, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

Paul wanted them to be saved. In Romans, there's a big conflict between Jew and Gentile. Paul is mediating between the two in this letter. He says in verse 2, He's using that word, but they didn't understand why they were doing what they were doing. They just understood what they were doing. But they didn't get the why behind it. Which is a lot of reasons why people bring all kinds of... I don't want to pick on people over and over, but that calendar issue comes up over and over and over again. There are several different calendars, actually, that say, well, we're keeping the Holy Days on the wrong day.

Well, okay. It's not likely. It's not like we haven't studied it for decades and decades, and so have the Jews, and we are actually in agreement with them. But even if we are, brethren, there is such a bigger picture that some people get. And what Paul is saying here about his own nation, his own people, is they had a zeal for God, but they didn't understand why they were doing what they were doing, which makes all the difference. The motivation, the reason why you're doing it, makes all the difference.

Whether or not it counts to God, or God counts it as useless, it's got to do something very specific in us. And if it doesn't do that specific thing, then it's a waste of time. Zeal is to lead us to become more like Jesus Christ. What did he do? He died for us, didn't he? He laid down his life for others. Why do we need zeal, or enthusiasm, or excitement to live God's way?

You know why? You know why it's so important? Without zeal, we don't change and grow. We're comfortable right where we are. We wake up in the morning, we do our routine. We come home at night, we do our routine. We go to bed, we wake up the next day. On and on and on we go. We don't change.

And zeal, or enthusiasm, helps us to change. And if we have the right motivation, it helps us to change in one area specifically. But without it, we stagnate. We stop growing. We stay comfortable where we are. That's a very dangerous place to be. And that is actually the prophesied state of many Christians at the end time. We've gone here many times before, but let's go back in relationship to zeal and look at Revelation 3. Revelation 3, the end-time Laodicean church, verse 14. Revelation 3, 14. And the angel of the church of Laodicea writes, These things say the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, the beginning of creation of God.

I know your works. You are neither hot, neither cold nor hot. You're not zealous. You're just somewhere in the middle, kind of comfortable. I could wish that you were cold or hot. I like a cold drink. I like a hot drink. Right? I don't like a drink that makes me want to throw up. That's what he's saying here, literally. I know your works are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold or hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

Because you say, and here's why, I know we just covered this, I am rich and become wealthy and have need of nothing. I have no need to change. Zeal leads to change. You need zeal, enthusiasm, for change. But human zeal is so often misguided. But we still need it. We just need to have the right motivation. Skipping down, let's see.

Because, Sam Reeder, I am rich and wealthy and become wealthy in need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. You know, when you get comfortable where you are, you don't really see what state your life is in until you do like what Mr. Piper talked about in the sermonette. You look back over your life and you go, wow! What a bunch of regrets I have! But you don't have to do that. He says, anoint—well, I'm not there yet. I counsel you, verse 18, to buy from me gold refined in the fire.

He's talking about godly character, and there's something specific that he's looking for in us. And you know what it is. And I'm going to remind you that you may be rich in white garments, and you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness, or in other words, your bad moral character. Just like if you accidentally lost your clothes and you would go running through the crowd, absolutely embarrassed. That's what your moral state is like, according to the end time, you know, this prophecy of this end time church.

I don't mean you specifically. Hopefully not you. But if this applies, do something about it. Just like you would be embarrassed to run through a crowd naked, you ought to be embarrassed to have a ho-hum attitude like you don't need to change anything.

That you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with salve that you might see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Zeal leads to repentance, which is change. That's why we need zeal. That's why we need it. Behold, I stand at the door knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me.

To he who overcomes. There it is again. We've got to change. In order to change, we need zeal. So let's put it together. All that we've just read, and let's put it together with this very next passage. Because this actually ties it together. 1 Corinthians 13. This is what God wants us to build specifically. 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 13. I'm going to read this from the New Living Translation. 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 13. Three things will last forever. Three things will last forever. Not everything's going to last forever. A lot of things, like we heard about in the sermonette today, a lot of priorities, the gravel and the sand, the little things that don't matter that much, won't last forever.

What are the big rocks that we're supposed to put in that jar first? Well, here they are. Faith, hope, and love. Faith and absolute trust in God will always last forever. Hope, a positive outlook on life, a positive outlook on the future, no matter how bleak the past. And love, the outgoing concern for other people. What are the big rocks that go in that jar? Faith, hope, and love. But he says the greatest of these, the biggest one of those rocks that goes in that jar first that you are supposed to develop is love.

Outgoing concern for other people. And when you and I get in the doldrums, do you know what we're not doing? Thinking about other people. You know why? Because we're thinking about ourself. Ho, hum. Woe is who? Me. Me. Me, myself, and I. My three favorite people. Ho, hum. The greatest thing that will last forever is love. Outgoing concern. Our ability to...you know, zeal is a product of love. If we have the right motivation, if we're building love, we actually will have zeal. Love produces zeal. When we lack zeal, therefore, we lack love.

You know, life kicks us in the gut sometimes really, really hard. And it's not wrong to say, ouch, and sit down and recuperate from the pain. But then human nature says, don't get back up. Don't get back up. You're comfortable right here where you are. I don't want to do anything. I don't want to accomplish anything. Ho, hum. Woe is me. And what we're missing is love. Oh, but I need to do this for that person. I need to pray for that person. And I'm here licking my wounds from my...you name it. And that person over there is hurting too. And I'm there, brother slash sister, whoever you are. And I need to take care of them. And I'm a child of God. I'm supposed to be the light of the world. And yet I'm putting a basket over my lamp. Woe is me. What do we lack when we're in the dul drums? Love. Zeal is a product of love. Loving God and loving others must be our primary motivation. Otherwise, zeal is misguided. And do you know that zeal leads to our ability and is directly related to preaching the gospel? Because preaching the gospel is giving to other people.

When a lot of people say we shouldn't preach the gospel anymore, to me, I hear we shouldn't love anymore. There is no more love left for people. All the love that was going to be spread around is spread around the gospel of the kingdom of God no longer need be preached. We need to be praying for the preaching of the gospel. Praying that the love of God and His way of love be shared to all the starving people out there. You remember? It's one of my favorite sayings from Mr. Petty. He would say, The gospel is one starving man telling another starving man where to find food.

Preaching the gospel is love. When we lose our zeal, when we get ho-hum, we stop loving. When we stop loving, we stop preaching the gospel. A good indication that we're not growing and we're not zealous is we personally, individually, stop preaching or praying for the preaching of the gospel. We stop caring about it.

Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 14, the very next verse. 13, 13 was where we stopped. Let's go to 14, 1. Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts. Why? But especially that you may prophesy. So you can give it to others.

That's the conclusion that Paul draws from the spiritual gifts chapter, verse 12, and the love chapter, chapter 13. So what do you do with it? Give it to others.

Our zeal is to lead us to grow, causes to repent and change. Our growth will lead us to give the message of hope to others. The motivation of zeal should be love. And love leads us to preach the gospel, to give God's way to other people. So do you pray for the effectiveness of the preaching of the gospel? Or do you just not care?

It's a symptom. We all get it. We all have it. And what I'm asking of you, my brethren, is to look at yourself. Could you care less about the preaching of the gospel? I ask you to look at it from this point of view. Do you care about other people? Or are you so sick of people?

Is your favorite meme on Facebook, people stink?

Because we can get into that mood, can't we? And then we lose enthusiasm for just about everything. How can you get out of that? Well, just fire yourself up with zeal. No. Hit the brakes. That's not how you do it. Because human zeal is most often misguided and leads us down a really bad path. How do you fire yourself up? Love. Outgoing concern for God. Outgoing concern for other people. That motivates you. That fires you up. That makes the sun come out spiritually.

Pray for the effectiveness of the gospel. It's sort of a way to take your spiritual pulse. If you're into it, and you can be into it without love.

But if you're in the doldrums and you just really couldn't care less about the preaching of the gospel, you should be taking your pulse. And that's what I'm asking you to do. Colossians 4 and 3.

Read this from the NIV. Colossians 4 and 3.

I pray for us too that God may open the door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery that word mystery means revealed knowledge. It doesn't mean a puzzle like it does in English. The Greek word means something that has been revealed.

So we have some great news that's been revealed. Jesus Christ. He is what the Old Testament Scriptures were all about.

He is the law of God fulfilled in one man. Never broke the law. Showed us exactly how to keep the law. Showed us exactly why we keep it. It's for love. That's the mystery revealed. That we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should. Even under house arrest in Rome, Paul was concerned that the brethren pray for him to effectively preach the gospel. Talk about an excuse to be ho-hum, to be in the doldrums, to be woe is me, to be under house arrest with guards all around. Instead, Paul was convincing the guards of the way of God. He was writing letters and preaching the gospel. And we still have some of those letters today, like the book of Colossians.

Do we have enthusiasm for living God's way? Do we love God with all our heart? Do we love our neighbor as ourselves? Does that enthusiasm lead us to build up the church, or do we find ourselves embroiled in personal conflict all the time? Are we in the doldrums constantly?

Do we love others so much that we're careful what we say? Or do we pray that God will help us speak to others in the church and outside the church? Are we thinking outside of ourselves? You want to get out of winter doldrums? That's what you need to do.

Let's read verse 5 in Colossians 4. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. Have some skill in the way you treat other people. When you're at the checkout counter, and that cheerful little checkout lady says, Oh, Merry Christmas! And you don't keep Christmas. And you come off like the grumpy old troll.

No. Have some skill when dealing with outsiders.

Are you ready for Christmas yet? Ready or not, here it comes.

Have some skill.

Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation always be full of grace, which is giving to other people. It's not grace to you. It's you giving to other people with your words.

Seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. That will really help you. You start being concerned how you treat other people. I remember one time in college. I think it was my junior year. I was just having a dull time. I was just getting bored. Class and work and homework and sleep. Not enough sleep. Class and homework and sleep. Somebody throwing a spitball at me when I'm trying to study. And class and homework and sleep.

Looking at your dorm mate, would you not study in your underwear? Really? And every day, on and on and on, I was just getting bored. I said, guys, and they were bored too. It was just dull. We were just in the doldrums. What do most college people do? College kids, when they're in the doldrums? Let's go get some whiskey, some rum, whatever, have a party. And that just makes it worse. You know what we did? We went across to a grocery store. We bought a bunch of candy. Yep. We went and flirted with all the girls. And we gave them candy. And we didn't ask them out on a date or anything. That wasn't the point. The point was, we were in the doldrums. We figured everybody else was probably in the doldrums too. We started to give. We just gave. Hey, how you doing? How's it going? Want some candy? Ooh, chocolate! Conversation started. A good time happened. We were no longer in the doldrums. Snapped right out of it. How? But giving.

Love is the motivation for zeal. Ask yourself, what motivates you for being in the Church of God? Why are you here? It's a good time of year to ask that, isn't it? It's raining, wet, damp. The grass is kind of drying. And it gets wet, and it sticks to your shoes, and then you drag it in the house. And you've got to clean all that dead grass out of the carpet and off the floors. And that's not even the half of it. Woe is me. What is your motivation for being in the Church? Is it a selfish one? Are you here to save your life? You know, it's good. I hope you save your life. I hope you're in the Kingdom of God. That's a good thing. But if that's all you have in it, you need to take an honest look at yourself. How do you feel towards others is the question you need to ask.

What you do and say to others gives you an indication of whether or not your motives are in the right place. And if they're in the wrong place, get them back to the right place. It's not enough to worship God with all your heart and your soul and your strength. That's not what it says, is it? Notice John 3, verse 16. John 3, 16. Sounds familiar. Anybody watched a football game? John 3, verse 16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world. Are you condemning the world right now? Are you in such a bad mood that other people just don't matter? If you are, you're not aligned with God. Why are you in the church? For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world. But that the world through Him might be saved. That's God's outlook, and if that's your outlook, you won't be in the doldrums for very much longer.

It's not enough to worship God with all your zeal, your enthusiasm, your excitement.

When you have God's zeal, you have to love God.

And love your neighbor. Your concern or your focus becomes outward towards the benefit of God. You start praying, May my life glorify your name, God. May my life glorify and reflect the love that Jesus Christ had when He was on this earth. Help me to help you. Start having that outlook on life. Doldrums burn off like the sun burning through a fog.

What is Godly zeal? John talks about that, but let's go to 1 John now. We're in the Gospel of John. Let's move over to 1 John 4, starting in verse 7. 1 John 4 and verse 7.

I'm going to read this from the New Century version. I don't usually read from New Century, but every once in a while, they say it better than anybody else does. Dear friends, we should love each other because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God's child and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.

If your favorite meme is, people stink. You might have the wrong motivation, I'm just saying.

This is how God showed His love to us. He sent His only Son into the world so that we could have life through Him. That's what real love is. It is not our love for God. It is God's love for us in sending His Son to be the way to take away our sins. Verse 11, dear friends, if God loved us that much, we also should love each other. And in return, we should love each other. No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us. And His love is made perfect in us. We know that we live in God and He lives in us because He gave us His Spirit. We have seen and can testify that the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world, not to condemn the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God has God living inside, and that person lives in God. And so we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love. God is love. And those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

Why do we come to church? It's an odd question for a pastor to ask, isn't it? To challenge you on why you come here every day. You would think that a pastor would just be happy that the seats are full.

But I'm your brother, and I'm walking this life right along with you, and I care that you and I, both, all of us, make it into the Kingdom of God. So I challenge us. I don't want us to waste our time. I want us to become a member of the family of God. My hope is that we'll all grow up into the stature and the fullness of Christ. So why do you come to church? Do you have zeal for God? Do you have zeal for spiritual gifts? Do you have zeal to grow? Many people in the world have zeal for God, spiritual gifts and growth. That is not enough. Our motivation, if it is only selfish, is pointless. Zeal without love is pointless. There is only one true motivation for zeal, and that is love. Love God and love your fellow man. So if winter weather makes you feel kind of blue, kind of having a bummer day, one after the next, after the next, start praying for the preaching of the Gospel. Start doing things for other people. Ask God to remind you that you need to learn to love Him and to love other people. When love is the motivation for zeal, then our zeal will lead us to change, to grow up, to become like Jesus Christ, and to be in the Kingdom of God.