Imagine you are invited to interview for the Vice President of Operations position at a major company. You have worked so hard to move up in your company, and now you think your time has come! When you arrive for the interview, you are handed a broom and a garbage can and asked to clean the main lobby of the building for the day. How would you respond? What would you be thinking? Two men in Mark 10 had very different ideas about position and status. In this week's Explore the Bible Study: Jesus Serves, our view of position, power, and success is turned upside down.

Have you heard about the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska? It was a bridge that was never completed because of cost. It goes nowhere! There are people today who are building spiritual bridges to nowhere. They continually seek to access God through choices of their own or vain philosophies or religions that claim that theirs is the bridge they should take. Sadly, when they begin to cross, they discover the bridge leads to nowhere. This week's Explore The Bible Study: Jesus Saves, explores a bridge that was completed and leads to somewhere!

The bridge Jesus built was not a bridge to nowhere; neither was it a bridge to just anywhere.

• The bridge Jesus built was a bridge to somewhere, a specific destination, and was built with one specific purpose. 
• Jesus was the ONLY One who could build that bridge, and it is the ONLY bridge that gives us access to a relationship with God and the promise of eternal life with Him.
• Jesus stated very clearly, “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you know Me, you will also know My Father.” (John 14:6-7 CSB)

"I do believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24, CSB). Have you ever approached Jesus with this same struggle? We all struggle with doubt, yet we can overcome doubt when we place our faith in Jesus and His work. We must first have a relationship with Jesus. That is our first step of faith. But, life continually tosses situations in our path that challenge our faith and can cause us to doubt that the One who saved us can actually work in any given situation. This is the focus I will take this week when guiding the Explore The Bible Study: Jesus Commands.

Mark 9:14-27 gives us a glimpse into the heart of a father who is struggling with doubt. His struggle with doubt is magnified by the doubts of the disciples, the crowd, and the scribes who are described in this passage.

As you guide your group, prayerfully consider all the issues that they are facing. You will have a great opportunity to discuss challenges people are facing and to what extent they are trusting in Jesus to help them with those challenges.

This is not the last time someone would struggle with doubt. Even though the disciples observed Jesus' power to cast out demons, heal the sick, forgive sins, and perform other miracles, they would still be plagued with doubt as Jesus neared the cross.

We, too, struggle with situational doubt. We may have confidence in our salvation, and we may have observed Jesus working in the past, yet when life throws us a curve ball we often slip into doubt. We must continually combat that doubt by coming before Christ in prayer, seeking the support of other believers, and holding on to our hope in Jesus as this man did.
When we approach Jesus as this father did, Jesus will respond!

POWERFUL VIDEO OPTION
Consider using this powerful video as a part of your closing, or send it out in advance to your group, challenging them to consider how Jesus can help them overcome doubt in whatever situation they are facing. Encourage them to attend the group session to learn more.

Are you still amazed at how Jesus does “everything well”? Do you truly believe this? If you do, it will be reflected in how you bring others to Him and in how you overcome barriers in order to bring others to Him so they can be transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the focus of this week's Explore The Bible Study: Jesus Includes.

In Mark 7:24-37, Jesus included in His ministry a person who was an outsider because of a handicap. We can do that. He expressed compassion to someone beyond the barriers of gender and ethnicity. We can do that too.

The downloadable teaching ideas will help you guide your group to consider the following:

• Barriers to overcome in order to share and show the love of Jesus to others.
• Actions they need to take in order to overcome those barriers.
• How the group can help each other overcome those barriers.

A new resource I just discovered from BibleHub 
Bible Mapper: Check out how you can create a map for a specific passage. The map below can be used during your session as you describe the regions in which Jesus traveled as described in this week's passage. Here is the link to the map that I designed using Bible Mapper: https://bibleatlas.org/biblemapper/mark/7.htm