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Holy Spirit | Part 5 · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Pat McCalla · Aug 30, 2020 · 71 min watch · 3 min read

Holy Spirit | Part 5

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In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Mark 10
Romans 8:9
Mark 10:46
Mark 10:47
Mark 10:48
Mark 10:49

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Eventually, you pray how you live and live how you pray, end quote. — so pursue Jesus with reckless abandon and audacious faith.

Drawing from the story of blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10, this sermon argues that prayer and life are inseparable: how you truly believe about God will shape both how you pray and how you live. When followers of Jesus understand who God actually is — the creator of the universe, abounding in agape love, mercy, and grace — they will stop playing it safe and start praying with chutzpah: bold, audacious requests and a relentless, reckless pursuit of Jesus that makes no sense unless God is real and able to come through.

Key points

1
1You eventually pray how you live and live how you pray — your view of God shapes everything.
2
2Bartimaeus modeled reckless abandon by crying out to Jesus despite being told to be quiet, because he recognized Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah.
3
3Blind faith in the God of the universe is the wisest thing you can do — unlike blind faith in the wrong person or thing.
4
4Bartimaeus made an audacious request — 'I want to see' — because he knew only Jesus could grant it; we should bring equally audacious prayers to God.
5
5A 'practical atheist' claims to believe in God but lives and prays as if He doesn't exist; we are called instead to pray and live in a way that makes no sense unless God exists.
6
6Jesus taught His followers to pray with chutzpah — bold, persistent courage — illustrated by the stories of the persistent neighbor and the persistent widow before an unjust judge.
7
7The Holy Spirit intercedes for us, taking our groans in deepest grief and interpreting them before the Father.

Application

The sermon calls every believer to examine the gap — or the alignment — between how they pray and how they live. Like Bartimaeus, we are invited to stop playing it safe and start pursuing Jesus with reckless abandon: shouting louder when others say be quiet, throwing aside whatever holds us back, and making requests so audacious that only God could answer them. Practically, this means bringing our deepest needs and boldest hopes directly to God in prayer — not as a technique, but as an honest, ongoing conversation with a Father who is vast enough to have spoken the universe into being, loving enough to have sent His Son to the cross for us, and good enough to be trusted with everything we cannot see or control. The invitation is simply to follow Jesus — relentlessly, imperfectly, and with chutzpah.

Take it into your week

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“If you have your Bibles, I want you to open to Mark chapter 10. We're gonna look at an unlikely story, And I say it's an unlikely story because when we when we first start going through it”
From the transcript
“if you remember in this series, the very first week, Bill, Romans eight, nine, talked about the fact that if you've put your faith and trust in Jesus, you have the spirit of God”
From the transcript
“We're gonna start this story, verse 46. It's a great story. You're gonna love this. K? Here we go. Then they reached Jericho, and Jesus and his disciples left town”
From the transcript
“he says next. Look at this. Keep reading. Verse 47. When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to what does it say? Shout”
From the transcript
“Watch what happens next. Keep reading. Look at this. Verse 48. Be quiet, many of the people yelled at him. They're saying, shut up. Jesus doesn't have time for you”
From the transcript
“Keep reading the story, look at this story, it's amazing story, keep reading it. Verse 49, When Jesus heard him, how could you not hear him right? When Jesus heard him, he stopped”
From the transcript
“keep reading verse 51. My rabbi, the blind man said, I want to see. I wanna see. What an audacious request”
From the transcript
“Watch how the story ends, keep reading, okay? Look at how the story ends, verse 52. And Jesus said to him, 'Go, for your faith has healed you.' Instantly the man could see, and he Followed”
From the transcript
“Romans chapter eight actually tells us that when you oh, this is so good, don't miss this. That when you and I pray sometimes and we're in the depths of despair”
From the transcript
“Psalm 33 verse six says, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made their starry host by the breath of his mouth”
From the transcript
“And so in Romans five:eight, in Romans five:eight it says, But God demonstrated his agape to us. While we were sinners, Christ died for us”
From the transcript
“In Psalm 34 verse eight, he says, taste and see that the Lord is good. You know when you eat something really, really good, like a good piece of chocolate”
From the transcript
“Psalm one nineteen verse 68, the psalmist says to God, you are good and what you do is good”
From the transcript
“Psalm thirty one nineteen, how great is thy goodness. Do you realize that you and I are gonna live for an eternity if you put your faith and trust in Jesus”

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

Bartimaeus didn't have much going for him in that moment — sitting by the roadside, marginalized, dependent on the charity of passersby. But when he heard Jesus was near, something shifted. He didn't wait for a better opportunity or a quieter crowd. He cried out, and when people around him told him to be quiet, he cried out louder. What's striking isn't just his persistence — it's his recognition. He called Jesus 'Son of David,' a title loaded with messianic weight. He wasn't just hailing a traveling teacher or a folk healer. He was naming Jesus as the One Israel had been waiting for. That kind of recognition changes everything about how you ask. You don't whisper requests to the Creator of the universe. You don't hedge your hopes when the Messiah is passing by. The people shushing Bartimaeus weren't cruel — they probably thought they were being reasonable. But their reasonableness would have cost him everything. The sermon's invitation here is worth sitting with: Where in your life have you gone quiet when you should have been crying out? Not because being quiet is wrong, but because sometimes 'reasonable' is just another word for playing it safe with a God who is anything but small.

For reflection

Where have you been quietly enduring something you could actually be bringing boldly to Jesus?

Pray

Pray for the courage to cry out honestly to Jesus today, whatever that looks like for you.

Two small verses, easy to skip over — but they carry something worth pausing on. Jesus stops. In the middle of a crowd, on His way to Jerusalem, knowing what awaits Him there, He stops for one man shouting from the roadside. And then the crowd's tone changes instantly: 'Cheer up. On your feet. He's calling you.' The same voices that told Bartimaeus to be quiet are now telling him to get up. That's what Jesus' attention does — it changes the atmosphere around a person. But notice what Bartimaeus does next. He throws aside his cloak. For a blind beggar in that world, that cloak was likely one of his only possessions — perhaps used to collect coins, perhaps his only warmth at night. He threw it aside anyway. He didn't stop to fold it neatly or ask someone to hold it. He was done with what he needed to survive in his old life the moment Jesus called. This is a picture of what the sermon called reckless abandon — not recklessness for its own sake, but the kind of wholehearted response that happens when you actually believe the One calling you is worth everything you're leaving behind. What are you still holding onto that might be slowing your movement toward Jesus?

For reflection

Is there something — a habit, a comfort, a backup plan — that you're clutching tightly instead of running toward Jesus with open hands?

Pray

Pray for the willingness to let go of whatever you're gripping that keeps you from running freely toward Jesus.

Jesus asks Bartimaeus a question He already knows the answer to: 'What do you want Me to do for you?' It's not a test of worthiness. It's an invitation to be specific, honest, and audacious. And Bartimaeus doesn't dress it up. 'I want to see.' No qualifiers, no apologies, no 'if it's Your will, maybe, possibly.' Just a direct, impossible request laid at the feet of the One who could actually answer it. The sermon points out that this is the model for how we are invited to pray — not with timid half-requests that leave us room to say we weren't really asking, but with the kind of bold clarity that makes no sense unless you genuinely believe God is both willing and able. Jesus responds to that kind of faith. He tells Bartimaeus, 'Your faith has healed you.' And immediately — not eventually, not partially — Bartimaeus receives his sight and follows Jesus down the road. That last detail matters. Sight restored, he followed. The boldness of the ask and the direction of the life afterward belong together. Audacious prayer and a life pointed toward Jesus are two sides of the same coin. This week, consider what the most honest, most specific, most impossible-without-God request of your heart actually is.

For reflection

If Jesus asked you right now, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' — what would you actually say?

Pray

Pray that specific, honest request today — the one you've been softening or holding back.

The sermon grounded its call to bold prayer in something foundational: the kind of God you're praying to. It's worth stopping here and letting that sink in. 'The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born.' The God to whom you bring your fears, your impossible situations, and your deepest needs is the same God who called the entire cosmos into existence with words. He didn't labor over it. He spoke. This isn't just a statement about creation — it's a statement about the nature of the One who knows your name and invites your prayers. The sermon made the point that blind faith in the right person is the wisest thing you can do. Here is the case for that. When you understand that the God you're trusting is this vast, this powerful, and — as we'll see in coming days — this loving, the whole calculus of prayer changes. Timid, half-hearted praying often isn't humility. It's a failure of imagination about who God actually is. You are not bothering a distant deity with small concerns. You are speaking to the One for whom creating light from nothing was just a starting point. Bring what you have. He is more than enough.

For reflection

How does your actual picture of God — not the one you'd say out loud, but the one that shows up in how you pray — compare to the God described in this verse?

Pray

Pray for a fresh, expanded vision of who God is — bigger than your current circumstances and fears.

If Psalm 33 shows us the power of God, Romans 5:8 shows us His heart. 'But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.' The sermon drew a direct line between this truth and the courage to pray boldly. You can't fully trust someone whose intentions toward you are unclear. But the cross settles the question of God's intentions. He didn't wait for us to get our lives together. He didn't send Jesus once we'd demonstrated we were worth the investment. He moved toward us at our worst, at our most broken, before we had anything to offer. That is the God you are talking to when you pray. Not a judge waiting to find you insufficient, not a distant authority who grants requests based on your spiritual performance, but a Father who has already given the most costly gift imaginable simply because He loves you. The sermon named this as agape — not a feeling, but a committed, covenant love that acts regardless of the response. When that becomes more than a doctrine and starts to feel true to you, bold prayer becomes less about your confidence in yourself and more about your confidence in Him. The audacity isn't arrogance. It's trust.

For reflection

How would your prayers change if you were fully convinced that God's heart toward you looks like Romans 5:8 — not just intellectually, but in the moment you're struggling?

Pray

Pray for a deeper, felt sense of God's love for you — not just the fact of it, but the reality of it in your daily experience.

The sermon touched on Romans 8 while making the point that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us — taking even our wordless groans and bringing them before the Father. Romans 8:9 adds another layer to that: if you belong to Christ, the Spirit of God actually lives in you. This is not a minor theological footnote. It means you are never praying alone, never reaching upward into empty space hoping to make contact. The same Spirit who hovered over the waters at creation, the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, is present with you and within you when you pray. The sermon described a 'practical atheist' as someone who claims to believe in God but prays and lives as though He doesn't exist — as though the outcome depends entirely on their own effort, wisdom, and endurance. The antidote isn't trying harder to believe. It's returning, again and again, to what is actually true: you are not alone, you are not unseen, and the Spirit is already at work in the prayers you don't even know how to form yet. That's a foundation for the kind of relentless, chutzpah-filled pursuit the sermon called us to — not self-generated boldness, but Spirit-fueled confidence.

For reflection

In which area of your life are you most tempted to act like a 'practical atheist' — handling things as if God weren't present or involved?

Pray

Pray for an awareness of the Holy Spirit's presence with you today, especially in the moments that feel most uncertain or beyond your control.

Coming back to the whole story now, you can see it as a complete picture of what the sermon called chutzpah. Bartimaeus heard Jesus was near and cried out. He was told to be quiet and cried out louder. He was called and threw aside the one thing he had. He stood before Jesus with a specific, audacious request and received everything he'd asked for — and then followed Jesus down the road. The sermon's thesis holds the whole week together: how you truly believe about God shapes both how you pray and how you live. Bartimaeus prayed the way he did because of what he believed about Jesus. And after he received his sight, his life pointed in one direction. The invitation of this devotional — and of the sermon itself — isn't a prayer technique or a self-improvement plan. It's simply to follow Jesus with the same reckless, imperfect, wholehearted abandon that Bartimaeus modeled on that roadside. To stop playing it safe. To bring your real needs and your boldest hopes to a God who is vast enough to have spoken the stars into being, loving enough to have died for you while you were still far off, and good enough to be trusted with everything you cannot see or control. You don't have to have it all together to start. Bartimaeus didn't. Just cry out and keep going.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, what one thing do you want to carry forward — about who God is, how you pray, or how you live?

Pray

Pray for the courage to follow Jesus relentlessly this week — bringing your whole self, your real needs, and your boldest hopes to the Father who already knows your name.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message spent time with a blind beggar named Bartimaeus — and the surprising way his desperate, audacious cry to Jesus holds a mirror up to how all of us pray and live.

Discussion questions

1
In Mark 10:46-48, Bartimaeus keeps shouting for Jesus even after the crowd tells him to be quiet. What do you think it was about his understanding of who Jesus is that made him push through that pressure instead of backing down?
2
The message introduced the idea of a 'practical atheist' — someone who believes in God in theory but prays and lives as if He isn't really there. What's the difference, in everyday life, between that posture and one shaped by genuine trust in God?
3
When Jesus asks Bartimaeus in Mark 10:51, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' — and Bartimaeus answers with complete directness, 'I want to see' — what does that exchange reveal about the kind of conversation Jesus is inviting us into?
4
The message pointed to Romans 8 and the image of the Holy Spirit interceding for us — taking even our wordless groans before the Father. How does that picture of God's involvement in our prayers shape the way we might think about bringing our hardest, most tangled situations to Him?
5
The sermon described chutzpah — bold, persistent, audacious prayer — as something Jesus Himself taught and modeled through stories of a persistent neighbor and a persistent widow. What do you think gets in the way of that kind of prayer for most people?
6
Bartimaeus threw aside his cloak and ran to Jesus the moment he was called — holding nothing back. As a group, how might that image of reckless abandon shape the way we pursue Jesus together, not just in prayer but in how we live day to day?

Pray together

Boldness to bring our truest, biggest needs before a Father who is vast enough to have spoken the universe into being and loving enough to have sent His Son for us

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Holy Spirit

Week 5 · 5 messages

Where these passages are preached

Mark 10 Romans 8 Psalm 33 Romans 5

Explore related topics

Belief and Action Bold Prayer Persistence in Prayer Reckless Faith The Holy Spirit's Intercession

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