Let's pray together. Blessed is a man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. He will be like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots to the stream. He will not fear when the heat comes because his leaves remain green and he will not be anxious in the year of drought because he does not cease to bear fruit.

So Lord, we relinquish all trust in ourselves and man

and we put our trust in you for these moments and we asked that we would

pulse with the sap of life from you and bear fruit.

I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

According to Jesus in Mark 1230.

The first of all the commandments is,

you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart

and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

Now what does that mean?

It cannot be reduced to physical acts of compliance with the law.

It cannot be reduced to acts of willpower against the desires of the heart.

And we know it can't because Jesus said in Matthew 158, this people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me in vain.

Do they worship me?

So the lips, muscles here, are singing,

they're singing hymns in worship songs.

These lips are preaching truth.

They're advocating for justice and for the poor and for the unborn.

And these acts of the body and the will in themselves are not love

for God. The are a moral zero in vain zero, not do they worship me.

Their heart is far from me.

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