WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.640 Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. 401K, 401B, 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:17.559 STRS, traditional IRA, Roth IRA, all these things 00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:22.399 bring to mind to those of us that know retirement, 00:00:22.660 --> 00:00:26.019 that we will need, there will be a time where 00:00:26.019 --> 00:00:29.199 we would stop working and we should have prepared. 00:00:29.949 --> 00:00:34.850 for that time to have some extra funds. You would 00:00:34.850 --> 00:00:39.590 go to a financial advisor to get advice. Well, 00:00:39.630 --> 00:00:44.909 this morning, we commemorate St. Gregory Palamas, 00:00:45.270 --> 00:00:50.189 and he is our spiritual advisor. Let us see what 00:00:50.189 --> 00:00:55.310 words he would give to us in investing in a 777K 00:00:55.310 --> 00:01:02.189 for our spiritual advisor. well -being. Given 00:01:02.189 --> 00:01:07.030 that we desire long life, should we not take 00:01:07.030 --> 00:01:12.069 eternal life into account? If we long for a kingdom 00:01:12.069 --> 00:01:16.189 which, however enduring, has an end, and glory 00:01:16.189 --> 00:01:20.049 and joy, which great as they are, will fade, 00:01:20.250 --> 00:01:23.969 and wealth that will perish with this present 00:01:23.969 --> 00:01:28.319 life, and we labor for the sake of such things, 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:33.900 ought we not to seek the kingdom, glory, joy, 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:39.019 and riches, which as well as being all -surpassing 00:01:39.019 --> 00:01:43.099 are unfolding and endless, and ought we not to 00:01:43.099 --> 00:01:46.959 endure a little constraint in order to inherit 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:53.560 it? In today's Gospel reading, We have our Lord 00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:56.799 Jesus Christ approached by a man who is there 00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:01.659 to test him. To test him because he is a lawyer 00:02:01.659 --> 00:02:06.840 and he knows the law, the law of Israel, and 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:12.620 how one is said to achieve reaching heaven. And 00:02:12.620 --> 00:02:17.680 so he comes and says, Teacher, what shall I do 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:23.030 to inherit eternal life? And Jesus, knowing his 00:02:23.030 --> 00:02:26.110 heart and his intention, says, What is written 00:02:26.110 --> 00:02:31.009 in the law? What is your reading of it? And the 00:02:31.009 --> 00:02:34.729 lawyer answered a good answer from the Torah, 00:02:34.889 --> 00:02:38.210 a good answer from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, 00:02:38.449 --> 00:02:43.229 saying, You shall love the Lord your God with 00:02:43.229 --> 00:02:47.289 all your heart, with all your soul, with all 00:02:47.289 --> 00:02:51.439 your strength, and with all your mind. And your 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:55.860 neighbor as yourself. And Jesus responded, you 00:02:55.860 --> 00:03:00.659 have answered rightly. Do this and you will live. 00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:05.699 And this is true for us as well. If it was true 00:03:05.699 --> 00:03:09.479 for that lawyer, it is true for us. Let us hear 00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:12.979 it again. You shall love the Lord your God with 00:03:12.979 --> 00:03:16.159 all your heart, with all your soul, with all 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:18.969 your strength. and with all your mind and your 00:03:18.969 --> 00:03:25.349 neighbor as yourself. We must love God, and it 00:03:25.349 --> 00:03:29.550 must be a total, complete love from heart, soul, 00:03:29.710 --> 00:03:34.310 strength, mind, without detailing this too much 00:03:34.310 --> 00:03:38.750 in depth. Let us say that we must love God with 00:03:38.750 --> 00:03:47.199 all that we are. And how do we do that? first 00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:51.460 in our lives. Faith in God and our relationship 00:03:51.460 --> 00:03:56.379 with him becomes primary, not secondary, not 00:03:56.379 --> 00:04:00.740 tertiary, not after what other people think, 00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:04.860 whoever they may be, but primary in our lives. 00:04:05.180 --> 00:04:10.120 One way to test if you are truly loving God in 00:04:10.120 --> 00:04:15.039 your life right now in this primary sense is 00:04:15.039 --> 00:04:18.060 to look at the decisions that you are making. 00:04:19.420 --> 00:04:23.079 Do you even consider if this would be something 00:04:23.079 --> 00:04:26.259 God would approve? Or think of the commandments 00:04:26.259 --> 00:04:30.519 of Christ in relation to your decisions. Is your 00:04:30.519 --> 00:04:34.120 decision made to please your own desires and 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:38.660 appetites? Or perhaps to please other people? 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:45.649 When we make life decisions, ought to be primary 00:04:45.649 --> 00:04:49.850 and we should think of it first and not after 00:04:49.850 --> 00:04:54.230 the fact when we come to confession and say I 00:04:54.230 --> 00:04:59.430 made the wrong decision if we could somehow well 00:04:59.430 --> 00:05:01.850 it is good to go to confession it is good to 00:05:01.850 --> 00:05:03.990 confess all those things and to admit that we 00:05:03.990 --> 00:05:06.329 made a mistake and to have a repentant heart 00:05:06.329 --> 00:05:10.569 but how much better would it be if we had somehow 00:05:10.569 --> 00:05:16.300 looked to the Lord first and not fallen. We must 00:05:16.300 --> 00:05:21.920 make God and God's will primary. And to do this, 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:25.600 we must have what is called the fear of God. 00:05:26.860 --> 00:05:31.519 The fear of God, not being frightened or scared 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:36.139 in that sense at all, but filled with awe of 00:05:36.139 --> 00:05:41.079 God, knowing how wonderful God is in his love 00:05:41.079 --> 00:05:43.819 and his grace and his mercy, how he created all 00:05:43.819 --> 00:05:47.139 things, that our very life and being comes from 00:05:47.139 --> 00:05:52.100 God and esteeming God with honor and praise and 00:05:52.100 --> 00:05:56.620 from our heart knowing that God is our creator 00:05:56.620 --> 00:06:00.579 and our redeemer and that one day we will stand 00:06:00.579 --> 00:06:05.680 before his judgment seat. Proverbs 19 .23 says 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:12.300 this, The fear of the Lord leads to life, and 00:06:12.300 --> 00:06:17.199 he who has it rests satisfied. He will not be 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:21.639 visited by harm. And St. Tikhon of Zadonsk says 00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:26.420 this, The fear of God is like a faithful guard 00:06:26.420 --> 00:06:29.899 which is vigilant, guarding our spiritual house 00:06:29.899 --> 00:06:34.019 from every evil. or rather it is like a strong 00:06:34.019 --> 00:06:38.199 and high wall which obstructs the arrows shot 00:06:38.199 --> 00:06:42.120 by the enemy and renders them ineffective. The 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:46.259 fear of God teaches the man to examine his own 00:06:46.259 --> 00:06:50.500 conscience and to cleanse it by fervent repentance. 00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:55.180 The fear of God is the true school of humility 00:06:55.180 --> 00:07:01.569 which attracts God's grace. So how do we love 00:07:01.569 --> 00:07:07.569 God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. 00:07:08.370 --> 00:07:13.529 Not by being people pleasers, not by saying or 00:07:13.529 --> 00:07:16.069 doing things that people in the world would want. 00:07:16.629 --> 00:07:21.790 St. Gregory Palamas says this, the passion for 00:07:21.790 --> 00:07:27.509 popularity brings such injury upon those it masters 00:07:27.509 --> 00:07:36.290 that it shipwrecks faith itself. How do we truly 00:07:36.290 --> 00:07:44.850 love God? We pray. We make decisions where the 00:07:44.850 --> 00:07:48.089 central part of our decision -making is what 00:07:48.089 --> 00:07:52.029 God would want. Seek ye first the kingdom of 00:07:52.029 --> 00:07:55.250 God and his righteousness, and all these things 00:07:55.250 --> 00:08:00.269 shall be added unto you. And once we love God, 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:04.199 Then we will be able to do as the Good Samaritan 00:08:04.199 --> 00:08:08.220 did today in the parable that was read, and love 00:08:08.220 --> 00:08:13.959 our neighbor. And who is our neighbor? Anyone 00:08:13.959 --> 00:08:19.379 in immediate need, even a supposed enemy. And 00:08:19.379 --> 00:08:23.980 there is even more to this parable. The Orthodox 00:08:23.980 --> 00:08:27.259 Study Bible tells us, symbolically, the Good 00:08:27.259 --> 00:08:31.949 Samaritan is Christ himself. The wounded man 00:08:31.949 --> 00:08:37.909 is humanity set upon by demons. And the inn is 00:08:37.909 --> 00:08:42.929 the church. Love for neighbor proves our love 00:08:42.929 --> 00:08:47.710 for God. But we cannot love our neighbor unless 00:08:47.710 --> 00:08:52.210 first we love God and we live with fear of the 00:08:52.210 --> 00:08:56.370 Lord, of that respect and awe and making God 00:08:56.370 --> 00:09:01.470 primary. Someday each one of us will reach the 00:09:01.470 --> 00:09:07.769 time of our repose. Will we have invested like 00:09:07.769 --> 00:09:12.990 the IRA, the Roth IRA, the STRS system? Will 00:09:12.990 --> 00:09:16.950 we have done something in our lives to have invested? 00:09:17.789 --> 00:09:23.850 And I would recommend heavy investing. That not 00:09:23.850 --> 00:09:28.299 just 10%, perhaps we could give even more. And 00:09:28.299 --> 00:09:32.159 how do we give that? From the time that we have 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:36.019 in our life, we need to be here in church together 00:09:36.019 --> 00:09:40.000 as we are, worshiping and taking holy communion. 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:44.100 We need to have that time at home in front of 00:09:44.100 --> 00:09:48.200 the prayer corner where we spend time with the 00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:52.480 Lord and we let God minister to each one of us 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:56.919 and sanctify us. Let us choose. to do that as 00:09:56.919 --> 00:10:00.460 we make decisions in our daily lives. Glory to 00:10:00.460 --> 00:10:01.139 Jesus Christ.