Jeff Pollard shares in this video that when he was younger, he walked the aisle and was baptized. He thought he was saved. Years later, he realized that he never truly knew God. He came to understand himself as a sinner as he read the Scripture for the first time in his life. People can be involved in biblical, religious activity but never be actually converted. There is a difference in feeling bad or guilty for sin and understanding that you are a sinner and need Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

The Lord Jesus Christ said, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Let me illustrate this from my own life. When I was In the fifth grade, my mom asked me if I wanted to join her church. Some of my friends were members of the church, so I said yes. I walked the aisle.

The pastor took me later into his office. He sat down. He gave me a basic rundown of the Romans road. He said to me, you know, you don't want to go to hell. And of course, in the fifth grade, I didn't want to go to hell.

And so I said, yeah, sure, I'll believe in Jesus. Now, what followed from this was I was baptized. And then I joined the youth choir and began to sing in the choir. People began to say, oh, you have a wonderful voice. I went straight out of the youth choir into playing rock and roll and playing in nightclubs.

And all of this time, I was quite convinced that I was a Christian, because I'd done the things that were explained to me about how to become a Christian in making a decision for Christ. Now, how then did I end up in over a decade of rock and roll music? It's because I didn't know God. I had done a standard machine-like formula in which you get so-called converts. And you can have real experiences.

There were times when I would go to meetings and I'd feel good. There were times when I would feel bad, times I would feel guilty, times I would feel forgiven. But I didn't know God. There was no hunger for the Word of God. I prayed when I got in trouble, but the idea of really knowing and walking with Christ was an unknown to me.

And all of my friends professed to be Christians, and we were all the same. And most of the adults that we knew were the same. Our church, in other words, was, while it was filled with sincere and very fine people at certain levels, was primarily made up of unconverted people. They didn't know God. When in His mercy the Lord opened my heart, when I was 30, my eyes indeed were open.

It wasn't overnight, it wasn't instantaneous, but he gave me a clear sense of my sin. I came to understand myself as a sinner. As I read the Scriptures for the first time in my life, the Scriptures spoke to me. And when I read in Scripture who God was, when I began to realize that He truly was God, He ruled, I didn't, He was sovereign over all things, all of a sudden I realized I don't know this God, but I want to. I want to know Him, I want to walk with Him.

And it wasn't long after that that my heart was drawn out in genuine worship. I didn't have to read a book about worship. I needed to know God, know him through his word, and know him through the power of the Spirit. So this is part of what I'm talking about. People can become involved in religious activity, and it may be biblical, religious activity, but they don't know God.

They've never been converted. The power of the Spirit has never shown them their sinfulness. They've never been brought to a genuine sense of repentance. They've never changed their minds ultimately about their sins, or they've felt bad about them. There's a huge difference between feeling guilty about your sins and understanding that God should put you in hell because of them.

And when you realize your absolute need for a Savior, you will cry out to Christ. When you really believe on Christ, you can worship. You go from understanding your lostness, the immensity of God's grace, and you praise Him and you adore Him and you worship Him and serve Him.