A scribe put Jesus on the spot by asking for the singular greatest commandment, but Jesus corrects the question by highlighting two commandments (love for God and love for neighbor). In so doing, Jesus is saying that these two commandments are distinguishable, yet inseparable. Therefore, we will be challenged in both directions this Sunday. We cannot say we love God and yet hate our brother. We also cannot so focus on loving others that we make them an idol and forget the supreme importance of loving God with everything we have.

In the 2010 remake of the movie Karate Kid, Mr. Han (Played by none other than one of my favorite actors of all time: Jackie Chan) responds to Dre Parker’s claim of being focused, by telling him, “your focus needs more focus”. Join us this week, as we look at Jesus’s response to the Sadducees in Mark 12:18-27. In this passage, we will see what it looks like to set our focus on Jesus in this coming year, and how easily we can begin to focus on all the “wrong” things if we aren’t careful.

The religious leaders have challenged Jesus to a battle of wits. They think they have him trapped in a verbal checkmate. But challenging the all-knowing God to a battle of wits will never end well. Along the way, we discover one of the main ways to discern the difference between Jesus and Religion.

This week we continue our Advent series on Jesus vs. Religion. We will see a conversation that will expose the religious gamesmanship of the religious authorities. Jesus' words will also graciously challenge our tendency to turn religion into a game as well.

We have come now to the third section of Mark's Gospel (11:1–15:9) in which we walk through the last week of Jesus’ earthly life. Chapters 14-15 will focus squarely on Jesus’ suffering and death, but first Mark tells us about three trips to the temple (11:1–13:37). The theme throughout this section is Jesus vs. Religion as Jesus confronts the Jewish religious system. There is so much in this passage that speaks to us today. Come join us as Jesus has a word for all of us!

The Church speaks a lot about the need for servanthood, but we also assume a lot about servanthood. This week we have an amazing opportunity to do a deep dive into this topic and hear not just the teaching of Jesus, but see the heart of Jesus on servanthood.

Last week, we saw the rich young ruler walk away from Jesus after hearing what he lacked, and what it would cost him to inherit eternal life. This week, we will look at Mark 10:28-31 and see the disciple's response to Jesus's words in verse 23-27. A response that points to two pitfalls we as Christians can get caught in today, that stop us from seeing and walking in the fullness of the beautiful call to "Follow Me".

Many times we talk about money and the dominant image we use is what a blessing money can be. This week we will see the way that Jesus approaches money. Here is a hint: he talks about it as if we should handle it with a hazmat suit. Join us as we seek God's mind about money.

Two weeks ago, we looked at the message of Jesus from Mark about marriage and why the church should seek to preserve marriage at great cost. In part two, we now see why the message of the church is to preserve marriage at great cost, but not at any cost.