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What’s the purpose of life? Some common answers: Being successful. Enjoying life. Raising a family. Continuing the species. Doing meaningful work. Having meaningful connections with others. Helping save the planet.

When He was asked, “what is the most important commandment”? – what’s the most important thing that needs to be done to achieve the purpose of life? – the Son of God, who is always right, and never wrong, gave a very different kind of answer.

He replied: “The most important commandment is this: ‘Hear O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’”

Since this is the most important thing we need to do to achieve the purpose of life, I want to take a very careful look at what the Son of God said:

You must love the Lord your God. What does it mean to have the Lord as “your God”?

When the Lord is your God, it means you know He’s your God. You know He is greater than you.

You know He can help you or harm you, bless you or curse, reward you or punish you, give you life or take your life from you, save you or damn you.

And because He is greater than you, and can help you or harm you, bless you or curse, reward you or punish you, give you life or take your life from you, save you or damn you – you learn what pleases Him – and you are careful to do the things that please Him.

You learn what displeases Him – and you are careful not to do the things that displease Him.

When the Lord is your God, you sacrifice to Him. When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Abraham knew that the Lord his God came before all others, even his special son Isaac. When the Lord asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac.

Yeshua demanded we do the same: The one who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and the one who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And the one who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. The one who has found his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life on My account will find it.

When the Lord is your God, He comes before your family.

He comes before your desires to live life the way you want to.

When the Lord is your God, you sacrifice yourself to Him. You give your body to Him as a living and holy sacrifice. That’s the kind of sacrifice He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.

When the Lord is your God, you give your best to Him, the firstfruits of your time, talents and treasures – not your leftovers.

You must love the Lord your God. What does it mean, to love the Lord your God? It means you have affection for Him. You care for Him and the things that concern Him. You want to be close to Him, attached to Him, loyal to Him, faithful to Him.

How do we love the Lord our God?

The Son of God told us how: With all our heart: not in a shallow, superficial way, using words but little action, but love Him with all our heart. From the center of our being, from the core of who we are, we are devoted to Him.

How do we love the Lord our God? With all our soul: not with a little of our life, but with all of our life. Our entire life is committed to God.

How do we love the Lord our God? With all our strength: not with a little of our strength, but with all our power, all our energy.

How do we love the Lord our God? With all our mind: Not with a little of our mind, but with all our mind. Our mind is focused on Him. We think about Him every day, all the time. We are mentally engaged with Him.

What does a life that loves the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength look like?

That life looks like Yeshua.

Yeshua loved God perfectly.

He was completely devoted to God.

He gave His life to serve God, not Himself. He was more concerned about doing God’s will, doing what God wanted Him to do, than doing His own will, doing what He wanted to do.

Let’s love God the way Yeshua did.

Let’s be filled with His Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is the key to all else.

Let’s love the Lord our God before all else.

Serve Him with the entirety of our lives.

Be holy. Be righteous.

Proclaim His message of salvation day after day, to everyone we can.

Give our time and energy to build Messiah’s Community.

The Ten Days from Rosh HaShana to Yom Kippur are designed to help us get right with the Lord our God, renew our relationship with Him so we are loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

For the next ten days, let’s be thinking about that, praying for that.

May the Lord our God grace us to help each one us do just that. Amen?