September 11, 2025 • 15 mins
Jesus reveals the ultimate spiritual cheat code in Mark 12: love God completely and love others as yourself. This profound teaching cuts through religious complexity to expose the heart of faith as relationship, not rule-following.
• Jesus tells the Parable of the Wicked Farmers, exposing religious leaders' rejection of God's messengers
• When asked about taxes, Jesus brilliantly answers "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's"
• Jesus refutes the Sadducees' argument against resurrection by exposing their ignorance of scripture
• The greatest commandment is revealed: love God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself
• Jesus contrasts religious leaders' showy spirituality with a poor widow who gives everything she has
• The master cheat code for life: before doing anything important, ask how it helps you love God and others
Try approaching every important decision by asking how it helps you love God and others better. This won't give you the final answer every time, but it will get you much closer to living a life that honors God.
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 0 (00:00):
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon.
Today, mark chapter 12, andtoday's title is the Master
Cheat Code.
The Master Cheat Code.
I don't know what generationyou grew up in, whether you were
like me with the Atari and theoriginal Nintendo or later, but
(00:21):
it always seems like the gamemakers.
They go in and they createdifferent codes, different
secret places so you can reallyget ahead.
You know, in all of thisthere's different things now,
but back in the day there usedto be this game called Mike
Tyson's Punch-Out and somehow weare going to connect Mike
Tyson's Punch-Out to thegreatest commandment in the
(00:42):
entire Bible.
We'll see if we can do that.
So, if you have your Bibles,open up with me to Mark chapter
12, get your popcorn out, getyour notes out, all the
different things.
We're going to have some funtoday.
But while you're also doingthat, make sure, if you're new
here, take just a moment to like, share and subscribe to the
YouTube channel and the podcast.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast.
Whatever app you are using, itreally does help us in the
(01:04):
search engines.
And make sure you're going tothe Bible Breakdown discussion
on Facebook.
You can get all the links toall of that at
thebiblebreakdowncom.
That is really the hub for allthings Bible Breakdown.
Okay, all right.
Well, what I was saying to youis remember the overall goal of
the Gospel of Mark is the gospelin motion, like he just starts
(01:26):
out of the gate and just moveson and with that then you would
imagine, as he is moving onthrough this, every single story
that Peter tells.
You know, in spite of the HolySpirit, of course, all of it has
a very specific point.
There's a lot of things that hedidn't include that obviously
Peter was there for, as Mark iswriting it down, these are the
(01:48):
things that the Holy Spiritinspired him to write.
And so there's all these thatcould and were not.
And in today's text, once again, as always, we're going to
cover all kinds of stuff.
We're going to talk about theresurrection and we're going to
talk about a parable, about anevil farmer, but in here there's
going to be this idea wherethey are going to stop and talk
(02:09):
about something that really, Ithink a lot of us deal with.
So we're going to read throughit and on the back end we're
going to talk about Mike Tysonand a cheat code.
Okay, you ready, here we go.
Mark, chapter 12, verse 1, saysthis Then Jesus began teaching
them with stories.
A man planted a vineyard, hebuilt a wall around it, dug a
(02:30):
pit for pressing out the grapejuice and he built a lookout
tower.
Then he leased the vineyard totenant farmers who moved to
another country At the time ofthe grape harvest.
He sent one of his servants tocollect his share of the crop,
but the farmers grabbed theservant, beat him up and sent
him back empty-handed.
The owner sent another servant,but they insulted him and beat
(02:55):
him over the head.
The next servant they sent, hekilled, or they killed.
Others they sent were eitherbeaten or killed until there was
only one left, his son, whom hedearly loved.
The owner finally sent him,thinking surely they will
respect my son.
But the tenant farmer said toone another here comes the heir
to this estate.
Let's kill him and get theestate for ourselves.
(03:17):
So they grabbed him, murderedhim and threw his body out of
the vineyard.
What do you suppose the ownerof the vineyard will do, jesus
asked.
I tell you he will come andkill those farmers and lease the
vineyard to others.
Didn't you ever hear or readthis in the scripture the stone
that the builders rejected hasnow become the cornerstone.
(03:39):
This is the Lord's doing, andit is wonderful to see.
The religious leaders wanted toarrest Jesus because they
realized he was telling thestory against them.
They were the wicked farmers,but they were afraid of the
crowd so they left him and wentaway.
Now pause Now.
What is amazing if you look atthis story is what Jesus is
(03:59):
saying is that God created thisworld, he put the people in it
and he set up this plan ofredemption, and then he sent the
Jewish nation to, because theBible says that God told Abraham
through your descendants, I'mgoing to bless the whole world.
And so they were sent to thenguide the people, grow and
flourish, but they didn't do it.
(04:20):
And so then the different onesthat they sent Jesus would be
talking about the prophets, whowould say, hey, come on, we
gotta get back, we gotta getback.
And then, once again, whathappened to the prophets?
Over and over again, beaten,killed, all of this, until
finally Jesus says the son came,and he's like me, you know.
And then he's alreadyprophesying about what they're
(04:40):
going to do.
And so he is telling them thiswhole thing, and they're already
realizing that he's talkingabout himself.
There's something more to him,and so you can tell that they
really do have a good idea aboutwho Jesus is.
They just don't want to admitit.
All right, here we go, verse 13.
Later, the leader sent somePharisees and supporters of
(05:00):
Herod to trap Jesus into sayingsomething for which he could be
arrested.
Teacher, they said, we know howhonest you are.
You are impartial and don'tplay favorites.
You teach the way of Godtruthfully.
Now tell us, is it right to paytaxes to Caesar or not?
Should we pay them or shouldn'twe Now pause?
This was a major debate going onat the time, because the Romans
(05:21):
had come and subjugated theJewish people, and there were a
lot of people in the Jewishcommunity that was saying we
don't owe anything to Rome, letthem come take it.
And other people were sayingnow, wait a minute, we are not
free.
They are letting us have alittle bit of freedom, but we
are not free, and it is not asin to work with them.
I mean, there's just all ofthis going back and forth, and
so they were really talkingabout the sovereignty of the
(05:43):
Jewish nation, and Jesus isclaiming to be some kind of king
, and a king should pay tributeto no one, right?
So they're doing.
It's really a smart questionbecause they're kind of trapping
him in some way or another.
But watch how brilliant theking is, and of course he's
cheating because he's God.
Jesus saw through theirhypocrisy and said why are you
(06:05):
trying to trap me?
He sees it.
He sees all these little anglesgoing on.
Show me a Roman coin and I'lltell you.
When they handed it to him, hesaid whose picture and title are
stamped on it Caesar's.
They replied Well then, give toCaesar what belongs to Caesar
and give to God what belongs toGod.
And his reply completely amazedthem.
(06:25):
In other words, he weavedthrough all of their traps and
just told the truth.
I love it.
Here we go, verse 18.
Then Jesus was approached bysome Sadducees.
These are religious leaders whosay there is no resurrection
from the dead.
They pose this question.
Teacher Moses gave us the lawthat if a man dies leaving a
wife without children, hisbrother should marry the widow
(06:47):
and have a child who would carryon the brother's name.
Well, suppose there were sevenbrothers.
The oldest one married and thendied without children.
So the second brother marriedthe widow, but he also died
without children.
Then the third brother marriedher, and this continued with all
seven of them, and still therewere no children.
Last of all, the woman alsodied, which of course she did
(07:08):
because she'd been married seventimes.
So tell us, whose wife will shebe in the resurrection?
For all seven were married toher.
And look, this is like thebiggest diss Jesus could give
you.
Here it goes, verse 24.
Jesus replied your mistake isthat you do not know the
scriptures and you do not knowthe power of God.
So these religious leaders, andhe's saying, you don't know
(07:30):
your Bible.
That's why you don't know thisVerse 25, for when the dead rise
, they will neither marry nor begiven in marriage.
In this respect, they will belike the angels in heaven.
But now as to whether the deadwill be raised, haven't you ever
read about these writings inthe writings of Moses and the
story of the burning bush?
(07:50):
How, long after Abraham, isaacand Jacob had died, god said to
Moses I am the God of Abraham,the God of Isaac and the God of
Jacob.
He is the God of the living,not the dead.
You have made a serious error.
Now, what's also amazing aboutthis is, the Sadducees only
accepted the five books of Mosesmajority as the only
(08:14):
authoritative books, and so hegoes straight to the books that
they would recognize and say inthis you can see that there is a
resurrection, verse 28.
Here's the one I wanted to drawattention to.
One of the teachers of religiouslaw was standing there
listening to the debate.
When he realized that Jesus hadanswered well, he asked Of all
the commandments, which is themost important?
(08:36):
Jesus replied the mostimportant commandment is this
Listen, O Israel, the Lord, ourGod, is the one and only Lord.
You must love the Lord, yourGod, with all your heart, with
all your soul, with all yourmind and with all your strength.
The second is equally importantLove your neighbor as yourself.
No other command is greaterthan these.
(08:57):
Then the teacher of religiouslaw replied Well said, teacher,
you have spoken the truth bysaying there is only one God and
no other.
I know it is important to lovehim with all my heart, with all
my understanding, with all mystrength, and to love him as my
neighbor.
These are more important thanto offer him all the burnt
offerings and sacrificesrequired in the law.
(09:18):
Realizing how much the manunderstood, jesus said to him.
After that no one dared ask himany more questions.
But now Jesus goes on theoffense in verse 35.
Later, as Jesus was teaching inthe temple, he asked goes on the
offense in verse 35.
Later, as Jesus was teaching inthe temple, he asked why do the
teachers of religious law claimthat the Messiah is the son of
(09:39):
David?
For David himself, speakingunder the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, said the Lord saidto my Lord, sit in the place of
honor at my right hand until Ihumble your enemies beneath your
feet.
Since David himself called theMessiah my Lord, how can the
Messiah be his son?
And the large crowd listened tohim with delight.
(10:00):
So Jesus taught beware theseteachers of religious law, for
they like to parade around inflowing robes and receive
respectful greetings as theywalk in the marketplaces, and
how they love the seats of honorin the synagogues and the head
table at the banquets.
Yet they shamelessly cheatwidows out of their property and
(10:20):
then pretend to be pious bymaking long prayers in public.
Because of this they will bemore severely punished.
Jesus sat down at the collectionbox in the temple and watched
as the crowds dropped in theirmoney.
Many rich people put in largeamounts.
Then a poor widow came anddropped in two small coins.
Jesus called his disciples tohim and said I tell you the
(10:42):
truth, this poor widow has giveneven more than all the others
who are making contributions,for they gave a tiny of their
surplus, a tiny portion of theirsurplus, but she, poor as she
is, has given everything she hadto live on.
Wow, there's so many thingsthere that we could talk about
and go through, especially thereat the ending, when Jesus is
(11:04):
telling us it's not about howmuch you give, it's about the
heart in which you give, andthat's powerful.
But the one I want to talk aboutis where they asked Jesus
what's the cheat code?
Because you got to think, inthe Old Testament there were 613
laws, both positive andnegative, that the people of
Israel were supposed to keep.
Now, some of these were, youknow, very, very common sense
(11:28):
and some of them, excuse me,were a stretch they had to do
and so people were coming alongand it was a constant debate,
constantly a debate.
And, as a matter of fact, onerabbi, not too long after Jesus,
you know he was pretty famousguy and he said that you should
love your neighbor as yourself.
So Jesus is agreeing with that.
But he's saying there's onethat's even more important,
(11:48):
because the idea is is would onecheat code I can say it like
that would it lead to opening upthe rest?
It kind of reminds me of theMike Tyson's punch out, that
when you first began you couldhit start and start with Glass
Joe and go through all those, oryou had these codes and if you
knew the code you could get toall these other ones and you
(12:11):
could kind of bypass all of thatand you would get credit for it
.
You know what I mean, as thoughyou'd already passed.
Is there something I can do,something I can live by, that
will automatically take care ofthe rest?
And Jesus says absolutely thereis something you can do that
will automatically take care ofso many of these things.
(12:31):
And he said this love God witheverything you have and then
love his people as much as youcan.
Now what they knew is is thatwas the summation of the Ten
Commandments.
Now, what they knew is that wasthe summation of the Ten
Commandments.
A long, long time ago werealized that the Ten
Commandments is really the rulesof relationship, and that is
that the first four is how tolove God properly.
(12:53):
And the last six is how to lovepeople.
And we all know why becauseit's harder to love people than
it is to love God.
And we get an amen somewhereright, but it's true.
And we get an amen somewhereright, but it's true.
And Jesus is saying if you willfocus on loving me with all that
you are all of Christ in all oflife, and then you will take
that love you have for me and,based on how much you love me,
(13:15):
now go and see people, go andlove people the best you can,
you're going to automaticallytake care of so many of these
other things.
You can see that cascading outthroughout the rest of the New
Testament where Jesus saidpeople will know you by how you
love one another.
Love covers a multitude of sin.
It's just over and over andover again.
So here's the takeaway todaywhat would it look like in your
(13:37):
life if, before you did anythingimportant, you said how through
this can I love God and howthrough this can I love others?
Now I'm gonna tell you that'snot going to give you you know,
the final answer all the time,but it will definitely get you a
whole lot closer in the end tolive a life to say through this,
how can I love God and how canI love others?
(14:00):
Give it a try and watch whathappens.
Let's pray together.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you that your word islife.
In your word we find theprinciples that you've given us
to live by, because you want usto have a hope and a future.
I pray that, as we focus ourlife on loving you and loving
one another, that you'llcontinue to open the right doors
, close the wrong doors andalways see that we live to be an
(14:23):
example of what it is to beloved by you.
Thank you for that.
Today, in Jesus' name, we prayAmen, amen.
What God's word says in Mark,chapter 8, verse 34,.
It says if anyone would comeafter me, let him deny himself,
take up his cross and follow me.
I hope, as we are readingthrough this, you are seeing
that we serve a God worthfollowing.
I love you.
(14:44):
I'll see you tomorrow for Mark,chapter 13.
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon.
Today, mark chapter 12, andtoday's title is the Master
Cheat Code.
The Master Cheat Code.
I don't know what generationyou grew up in, whether you were
like me with the Atari and theoriginal Nintendo or later, but
(00:21):
it always seems like the gamemakers.
They go in and they createdifferent codes, different
secret places so you can reallyget ahead.
You know, in all of thisthere's different things now,
but back in the day there usedto be this game called Mike
Tyson's Punch-Out and somehow weare going to connect Mike
Tyson's Punch-Out to thegreatest commandment in the
(00:42):
entire Bible.
We'll see if we can do that.
So, if you have your Bibles,open up with me to Mark chapter
12, get your popcorn out, getyour notes out, all the
different things.
We're going to have some funtoday.
But while you're also doingthat, make sure, if you're new
here, take just a moment to like, share and subscribe to the
YouTube channel and the podcast.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast.
Whatever app you are using, itreally does help us in the
(01:04):
search engines.
And make sure you're going tothe Bible Breakdown discussion
on Facebook.
You can get all the links toall of that at
thebiblebreakdowncom.
That is really the hub for allthings Bible Breakdown.
Okay, all right.
Well, what I was saying to youis remember the overall goal of
the Gospel of Mark is the gospelin motion, like he just starts
(01:26):
out of the gate and just moveson and with that then you would
imagine, as he is moving onthrough this, every single story
that Peter tells.
You know, in spite of the HolySpirit, of course, all of it has
a very specific point.
There's a lot of things that hedidn't include that obviously
Peter was there for, as Mark iswriting it down, these are the
(01:48):
things that the Holy Spiritinspired him to write.
And so there's all these thatcould and were not.
And in today's text, once again, as always, we're going to
cover all kinds of stuff.
We're going to talk about theresurrection and we're going to
talk about a parable, about anevil farmer, but in here there's
going to be this idea wherethey are going to stop and talk
(02:09):
about something that really, Ithink a lot of us deal with.
So we're going to read throughit and on the back end we're
going to talk about Mike Tysonand a cheat code.
Okay, you ready, here we go.
Mark, chapter 12, verse 1, saysthis Then Jesus began teaching
them with stories.
A man planted a vineyard, hebuilt a wall around it, dug a
(02:30):
pit for pressing out the grapejuice and he built a lookout
tower.
Then he leased the vineyard totenant farmers who moved to
another country At the time ofthe grape harvest.
He sent one of his servants tocollect his share of the crop,
but the farmers grabbed theservant, beat him up and sent
him back empty-handed.
The owner sent another servant,but they insulted him and beat
(02:55):
him over the head.
The next servant they sent, hekilled, or they killed.
Others they sent were eitherbeaten or killed until there was
only one left, his son, whom hedearly loved.
The owner finally sent him,thinking surely they will
respect my son.
But the tenant farmer said toone another here comes the heir
to this estate.
Let's kill him and get theestate for ourselves.
(03:17):
So they grabbed him, murderedhim and threw his body out of
the vineyard.
What do you suppose the ownerof the vineyard will do, jesus
asked.
I tell you he will come andkill those farmers and lease the
vineyard to others.
Didn't you ever hear or readthis in the scripture the stone
that the builders rejected hasnow become the cornerstone.
(03:39):
This is the Lord's doing, andit is wonderful to see.
The religious leaders wanted toarrest Jesus because they
realized he was telling thestory against them.
They were the wicked farmers,but they were afraid of the
crowd so they left him and wentaway.
Now pause Now.
What is amazing if you look atthis story is what Jesus is
(03:59):
saying is that God created thisworld, he put the people in it
and he set up this plan ofredemption, and then he sent the
Jewish nation to, because theBible says that God told Abraham
through your descendants, I'mgoing to bless the whole world.
And so they were sent to thenguide the people, grow and
flourish, but they didn't do it.
(04:20):
And so then the different onesthat they sent Jesus would be
talking about the prophets, whowould say, hey, come on, we
gotta get back, we gotta getback.
And then, once again, whathappened to the prophets?
Over and over again, beaten,killed, all of this, until
finally Jesus says the son came,and he's like me, you know.
And then he's alreadyprophesying about what they're
(04:40):
going to do.
And so he is telling them thiswhole thing, and they're already
realizing that he's talkingabout himself.
There's something more to him,and so you can tell that they
really do have a good idea aboutwho Jesus is.
They just don't want to admitit.
All right, here we go, verse 13.
Later, the leader sent somePharisees and supporters of
(05:00):
Herod to trap Jesus into sayingsomething for which he could be
arrested.
Teacher, they said, we know howhonest you are.
You are impartial and don'tplay favorites.
You teach the way of Godtruthfully.
Now tell us, is it right to paytaxes to Caesar or not?
Should we pay them or shouldn'twe Now pause?
This was a major debate going onat the time, because the Romans
(05:21):
had come and subjugated theJewish people, and there were a
lot of people in the Jewishcommunity that was saying we
don't owe anything to Rome, letthem come take it.
And other people were sayingnow, wait a minute, we are not
free.
They are letting us have alittle bit of freedom, but we
are not free, and it is not asin to work with them.
I mean, there's just all ofthis going back and forth, and
so they were really talkingabout the sovereignty of the
(05:43):
Jewish nation, and Jesus isclaiming to be some kind of king
, and a king should pay tributeto no one, right?
So they're doing.
It's really a smart questionbecause they're kind of trapping
him in some way or another.
But watch how brilliant theking is, and of course he's
cheating because he's God.
Jesus saw through theirhypocrisy and said why are you
(06:05):
trying to trap me?
He sees it.
He sees all these little anglesgoing on.
Show me a Roman coin and I'lltell you.
When they handed it to him, hesaid whose picture and title are
stamped on it Caesar's.
They replied Well then, give toCaesar what belongs to Caesar
and give to God what belongs toGod.
And his reply completely amazedthem.
(06:25):
In other words, he weavedthrough all of their traps and
just told the truth.
I love it.
Here we go, verse 18.
Then Jesus was approached bysome Sadducees.
These are religious leaders whosay there is no resurrection
from the dead.
They pose this question.
Teacher Moses gave us the lawthat if a man dies leaving a
wife without children, hisbrother should marry the widow
(06:47):
and have a child who would carryon the brother's name.
Well, suppose there were sevenbrothers.
The oldest one married and thendied without children.
So the second brother marriedthe widow, but he also died
without children.
Then the third brother marriedher, and this continued with all
seven of them, and still therewere no children.
Last of all, the woman alsodied, which of course she did
(07:08):
because she'd been married seventimes.
So tell us, whose wife will shebe in the resurrection?
For all seven were married toher.
And look, this is like thebiggest diss Jesus could give
you.
Here it goes, verse 24.
Jesus replied your mistake isthat you do not know the
scriptures and you do not knowthe power of God.
So these religious leaders, andhe's saying, you don't know
(07:30):
your Bible.
That's why you don't know thisVerse 25, for when the dead rise
, they will neither marry nor begiven in marriage.
In this respect, they will belike the angels in heaven.
But now as to whether the deadwill be raised, haven't you ever
read about these writings inthe writings of Moses and the
story of the burning bush?
(07:50):
How, long after Abraham, isaacand Jacob had died, god said to
Moses I am the God of Abraham,the God of Isaac and the God of
Jacob.
He is the God of the living,not the dead.
You have made a serious error.
Now, what's also amazing aboutthis is, the Sadducees only
accepted the five books of Mosesmajority as the only
(08:14):
authoritative books, and so hegoes straight to the books that
they would recognize and say inthis you can see that there is a
resurrection, verse 28.
Here's the one I wanted to drawattention to.
One of the teachers of religiouslaw was standing there
listening to the debate.
When he realized that Jesus hadanswered well, he asked Of all
the commandments, which is themost important?
(08:36):
Jesus replied the mostimportant commandment is this
Listen, O Israel, the Lord, ourGod, is the one and only Lord.
You must love the Lord, yourGod, with all your heart, with
all your soul, with all yourmind and with all your strength.
The second is equally importantLove your neighbor as yourself.
No other command is greaterthan these.
(08:57):
Then the teacher of religiouslaw replied Well said, teacher,
you have spoken the truth bysaying there is only one God and
no other.
I know it is important to lovehim with all my heart, with all
my understanding, with all mystrength, and to love him as my
neighbor.
These are more important thanto offer him all the burnt
offerings and sacrificesrequired in the law.
(09:18):
Realizing how much the manunderstood, jesus said to him.
After that no one dared ask himany more questions.
But now Jesus goes on theoffense in verse 35.
Later, as Jesus was teaching inthe temple, he asked goes on the
offense in verse 35.
Later, as Jesus was teaching inthe temple, he asked why do the
teachers of religious law claimthat the Messiah is the son of
(09:39):
David?
For David himself, speakingunder the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, said the Lord saidto my Lord, sit in the place of
honor at my right hand until Ihumble your enemies beneath your
feet.
Since David himself called theMessiah my Lord, how can the
Messiah be his son?
And the large crowd listened tohim with delight.
(10:00):
So Jesus taught beware theseteachers of religious law, for
they like to parade around inflowing robes and receive
respectful greetings as theywalk in the marketplaces, and
how they love the seats of honorin the synagogues and the head
table at the banquets.
Yet they shamelessly cheatwidows out of their property and
(10:20):
then pretend to be pious bymaking long prayers in public.
Because of this they will bemore severely punished.
Jesus sat down at the collectionbox in the temple and watched
as the crowds dropped in theirmoney.
Many rich people put in largeamounts.
Then a poor widow came anddropped in two small coins.
Jesus called his disciples tohim and said I tell you the
(10:42):
truth, this poor widow has giveneven more than all the others
who are making contributions,for they gave a tiny of their
surplus, a tiny portion of theirsurplus, but she, poor as she
is, has given everything she hadto live on.
Wow, there's so many thingsthere that we could talk about
and go through, especially thereat the ending, when Jesus is
(11:04):
telling us it's not about howmuch you give, it's about the
heart in which you give, andthat's powerful.
But the one I want to talk aboutis where they asked Jesus
what's the cheat code?
Because you got to think, inthe Old Testament there were 613
laws, both positive andnegative, that the people of
Israel were supposed to keep.
Now, some of these were, youknow, very, very common sense
(11:28):
and some of them, excuse me,were a stretch they had to do
and so people were coming alongand it was a constant debate,
constantly a debate.
And, as a matter of fact, onerabbi, not too long after Jesus,
you know he was pretty famousguy and he said that you should
love your neighbor as yourself.
So Jesus is agreeing with that.
But he's saying there's onethat's even more important,
(11:48):
because the idea is is would onecheat code I can say it like
that would it lead to opening upthe rest?
It kind of reminds me of theMike Tyson's punch out, that
when you first began you couldhit start and start with Glass
Joe and go through all those, oryou had these codes and if you
knew the code you could get toall these other ones and you
(12:11):
could kind of bypass all of thatand you would get credit for it
.
You know what I mean, as thoughyou'd already passed.
Is there something I can do,something I can live by, that
will automatically take care ofthe rest?
And Jesus says absolutely thereis something you can do that
will automatically take care ofso many of these things.
(12:31):
And he said this love God witheverything you have and then
love his people as much as youcan.
Now what they knew is is thatwas the summation of the Ten
Commandments.
Now, what they knew is that wasthe summation of the Ten
Commandments.
A long, long time ago werealized that the Ten
Commandments is really the rulesof relationship, and that is
that the first four is how tolove God properly.
(12:53):
And the last six is how to lovepeople.
And we all know why becauseit's harder to love people than
it is to love God.
And we get an amen somewhereright, but it's true.
And we get an amen somewhereright, but it's true.
And Jesus is saying if you willfocus on loving me with all that
you are all of Christ in all oflife, and then you will take
that love you have for me and,based on how much you love me,
(13:15):
now go and see people, go andlove people the best you can,
you're going to automaticallytake care of so many of these
other things.
You can see that cascading outthroughout the rest of the New
Testament where Jesus saidpeople will know you by how you
love one another.
Love covers a multitude of sin.
It's just over and over andover again.
So here's the takeaway todaywhat would it look like in your
(13:37):
life if, before you did anythingimportant, you said how through
this can I love God and howthrough this can I love others?
Now I'm gonna tell you that'snot going to give you you know,
the final answer all the time,but it will definitely get you a
whole lot closer in the end tolive a life to say through this,
how can I love God and how canI love others?
(14:00):
Give it a try and watch whathappens.
Let's pray together.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you that your word islife.
In your word we find theprinciples that you've given us
to live by, because you want usto have a hope and a future.
I pray that, as we focus ourlife on loving you and loving
one another, that you'llcontinue to open the right doors
, close the wrong doors andalways see that we live to be an
(14:23):
example of what it is to beloved by you.
Thank you for that.
Today, in Jesus' name, we prayAmen, amen.
What God's word says in Mark,chapter 8, verse 34,.
It says if anyone would comeafter me, let him deny himself,
take up his cross and follow me.
I hope, as we are readingthrough this, you are seeing
that we serve a God worthfollowing.
I love you.
(14:44):
I'll see you tomorrow for Mark,chapter 13.
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