Summer affords us an opportunity to slow down a little and to reflect on our lives, our goals and dreams. The phrase describing the whole purpose of man is from a Catechism Class I took when I was a little boy. Thinking back on that occasion, I am fairly certain that I didn’t have a clue what it meant to KNOW God. How do you know a spirit?

How can you say you LOVE a Being so powerful that the universe holds together by the Word of His mouth? Someone once said that, "God created man in His image and likeness, then man returned the favor.

Finally, how do you serve God? Is it "servile," or to borrow another dated expression, "Servitude?" Whatever these things mean, I think it is fair to surmise that knowing God is related to loving God and loving God is necessarily tied to serving Him. How can we serve a powerful Being if we don’t know what He is like? How can we say we love Him, if we don’t know Him?

This morning I want to talk about what it means to "Love the Lord with all your heart." I feel qualified to speak to this issue because I know what it means to try and serve God without knowing Him. I can’t think of anything more frustrating and more depressing than that. My entire childhood was spent trying to be "good."

I can also happily report that I know now what it means to serve a loving gracious heavenly Father who knows my weaknesses, and yet still commits to forgive me, and accept me; to love me forever.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day couldn’t conceive of a God like that. To them and to all the people over which they exerted power, serving God had become a loveless, tedious and onerous duty. There remains for you and me something better than that. Let’s get into the Word and find a better way to serve.