4 weeks through Mark 10 encouraging students to actively pursue Jesus. Anything worth having is worth pursuing. Most of us know that implicitly, and we live that out in lots of different areas of our lives. For some reason, though, when it comes to our relationship with Jesus, many of us take the easy route--the path of least resistance. Over the course of this series, we're going to explore the story of blind Bartimaeus in the hopes that his persistent pursuit of healing from Jesus will encourage us to be persistent in our pursuit of the same.

Video Messages Included

Week 1 (Mark 10:46-47 NLT)

Intro: Despite the fact that rising through adversity seems almost intuitive when it comes to many things we do in life, a lot of us take the path of least resistance when it comes to our relationship with Jesus.

Truth: As a blind beggar, Bartimaeus was pretty familiar with adversity. And even when He tried to initiate an encounter with Jesus, he found adversity blocking the path. Bartimaeus was passionate, though. And that passion seemed to stem in part from the fact that he had a personalized view of Jesus (the Christ) and an accurate view of himself (a sinner in need of mercy).

The Point: You can’t pursue until you know your who.

Week 2 (Mark 10:47-48 NLT)

Intro: Since being shut down hurts whenever we try to talk about aspects of ourselves that aren’t central to our identity, it makes perfect sense that we take the path of least resistance when it comes to sharing aspects of ourselves that are central to our identity—like our faith in Jesus.

Truth: But when Bartimaeus found himself locked in on Jesus, and the negative voices tried to shut him down, he didn’t let those negative voices keep him from pursuing Jesus. He had hope.

The Point: Let the voice of hope be the loudest in the room.

Week 3 (Mark 10:49-50 NLT)

Intro: For some of us, we’re wired to rise up through the adversity of failure pretty easily as long as we don’t have a part to own in the failure, but the path of least resistance is a lot more tempting when it’s all our fault.

Truth: As a blind man, Bartimaeus would have stumbled and possibly even fallen on his way to Jesus, but he continued pursuing despite the adversity. We fall too when we’re pursuing Jesus. But the gospel helps us rise up from those moral failures because Jesus conquered sin when He rose from the grave.

The Point: Because Jesus is risen, you can rise when you fall.

Week 4 (Mark 10:51-52 NLT)

Intro: We don’t always know why we do the things we do. We just go with the flow because we don’t know what we want. And that can really mess us up in the long run—especially when it comes to following Jesus.

Truth: But Bartimaeus knew exactly what he wanted. Bartimaeus wanted to be healed, and ultimately it was that focused desire that fueled his passionate pursuit of Jesus.

The Point: Knowing what you want Him to do will help you pursue.