Witness Pt. 29

Amen.

The Lord is holy.

David says in Psalm 145 and verse number 3 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

And it's been good for my soul today to be reminded of the greatness of our God.

For those of you that are visiting with us today and may not know me, my name is Jesse.

I am blessed to be the lead pastor here.

And again, on behalf of our entire church family and our entire staff, welcome.

Thank you for joining us for worship this morning.

One of my duties as the lead pastor here is to preach, and that's what we're going to do now.

And so take your Bible, if you would, please, and turn to the book of Acts, chapter number 15.

Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

We will begin reading in verse number 36.

Acts chapter 15 and verse number 36.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

And this is a painful passage of scripture that is about a very difficult breakup.

Most of us know what it's like to have somebody break up with us just by looking around.

I'm going to guess that some of you know what it's like to be doctor.

To be rejected.

To have the love of your life, or maybe just the love of the moment, look at you and say, I just really need to see other people.

It's not you.

It's me.

Which of course means it's really is you.

And when that happens, when we go through that, it's hard.

It's embarrassing.

It's disappointing.

It's painful.

It's ugly.

And yet, as we live and as we get some years under us, often we are able to look back and realize that what hurt us in the moment was actually exactly what needed to happen.

In other words, he or she dumps you, and then 15 years later you're looking on Facebook one day and you see their profile picture.

And you say, Thank God.

Because he was so gracious.

It does happen.

Breakups happen, relationships end, not only romantic relationships, but friendships end.

Friends go separate ways.

Best of friends go separate ways.

Christian friends go separate ways.

And we see that happening here in Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

And it reminds me of the story of a very infamous breakup of two Christian friends named George and John.

George and John were college buddies, went to school together, and during their time in college, God did a really profound supernatural work in both of their lives.

They both became heavily involved in Bible studies, both became committed to prayer, both started to grow in their personal walk with the Lord.

Both started to lead other people and share the gospel and experience this concern about the spiritual relationships with other people in their circle.

Eventually, both men become very well known and we would say very successful preachers.

George, especially, was known as one of the greatest preachers of his time.

He was able to go and preach and literally draw tens of thousands of people to hear him preach.

Stadium-sized crowd came to hear George preach.

John himself was also known as a great preacher, drawing massive crowds, but John was also a very gifted administrator.

He was a very good organizer.

And he was able, more than George was, able to shepherd movements and to put people together and to get them rolling as they walked with the Lord.

But over time, they had a very deep, very personal disagreement.

Because George became a Calvinist.

Now you may know what that means, you may not know what that means, and that's not necessarily important for today's sermon.

Suffice to say that George came to believe very strongly in the doctrine of predestination that God actually picked, if not who would go to hell, definitely who would go to heaven.

His buddy John, though, looked at that and said, that's unthinkable.

He believed that God so cared about the free will of human beings that people could freely choose to believe in Jesus.

And even after they had chosen Jesus, if they wanted out, then they could just walk away and lose their salvation.

Both men had Bible verses, they thought, to prove that they were right.

Both men were passionate about what they believed, and their friendship started to fracture.

And as both men became more and more influential, parties started to form.

George had a team, and John had a team.

And while George and John could more or less get along in public, even if they were faking it, their followers couldn't.

And they started to write articles denouncing John and denouncing George.

Saying things like, if you believe that doctrine, whichever side, if you believe that, then you've believed a false gospel.

They used words like monstrous.

They used words like blasphemous.

And these two men that had been such great friends went their separate ways.

That's exactly what happens here in Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

And some of you know what that's like, don't you?

Some of you know what it's like, whether it's doctrinal issues or a church budget battle, a disagreement about a ministry or just some conflict.

You know what it's like, perhaps, to come into church this morning and to look around and to know that one of your dear brothers, a dear friend, a dear sister used to sit in a pew around you, and now they're worshiping in a different church, serving in a different place.

You know what it's like to lose a relationship, to be hurt by church conflict and by disagreement.

You know what it's like to have those scars, and you know what it's like to have those scabs.

That's present here in Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

But I think this passage that shows us a very difficult breakup between the best of friends shows us that in the moment, while that may be very, very hard, over time God is working and God is redeeming our relationships for his glory.

So let's read this and then we'll get there as we go.

Acts 15, verse number 36.

The Bible says, then after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they were doing.

Now Barnabas was determined, take note of that, was determined to take with them John called Mark.

But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.

Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another.

And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus.

But Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God.

And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord abideth forever.

In Acts chapter number 15, we are reading about a church in conflict.

And they are not arguing about something as petty as the color of the upholstery on the pews.

But this church is engaged in heated conflict about the very nature of the gospel itself, trying to answer the question, how does Jesus save?

You can see it in the very first verse of Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

That there are Gentile believers that have trusted in Jesus that are now hearing from Jewish teachers saying, it's great that you've trusted in Jesus.

We are so proud of you and so happy for you.

But to really be a Christian like we are, you need to first become a Jew before you can really be a Christian.

In other words, before you can really know Jesus, here's a handful of things that you have to do.

And this leads to an incredible disagreement and division within the church, so that by the time you get to verse number seven, the church meets together in Jerusalem, apostles and pastors, and they come together to settle and determine what God has said about this issue.

And what they say is vital today.

They say that we can only be saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

We are not forgiven by our works, we are not forgiven by our religious effort, we are only forgiven as we trust in Jesus, his death, burial, and resurrection.

Two of the people that are engaged in combat, Paul and Barnabas, these men are as it were fighting together, standing firm, back to back, ready to engage all comers.

These are men that have traveled together.

These are men that have prayed together.

These are men, I'm sure, that have laughed together.

These are men that have suffered together.

These are men, if you read the beginning of Acts 13, these are men that were sent together as a team on the very first Christian missionary journey.

But now, Paul and Barnabas are no longer together.

And for these Gentile Christians that have been brought to faith by Paul and Barnabas, that are used to Paul and Barnabas being there back to back and side by side, now all of a sudden they might have Paul and some other guy.

Or Barnabas and some other dude.

And they're gonna have questions.

It could potentially be unsettling to their faith.

It's like Paul McCartney and Wings.

Like Band on the Run is a decent enough song, but where's John?

Where's George?

Where's Ringo?

We want the Beatles.

We don't want Paul McCartney and Wings.

We don't want the Lucille Ball show.

We want Lucy and Ricky.

We don't want to hear Andy Griffith's stand-up comedy.

We want Andy and Barney.

But now this power couple has gone their separate ways.

People are left in turmoil and they have natural questions.

Well, what happened?

What went wrong?

What do we do now?

And I want us to look at this story of this breakup between Paul and Barnabas.

And I want to ask and try to answer the questions that those Christians would have had.

Because in the same way that conflict would have unsettled those congregations, conflict unsettles us as believers.

Conflict unsettles our congregations.

And if we ask the right questions, I think we can land on some solid answers that help us have a healthy, redemptive perspective.

What about these breakups that are so hard?

The first question I want to ask is what in the world happened?

What in the world happened?

I mean, this is Paul and Barnabas.

If I'm gonna be totally honest with you, as much as I appreciate everything Dr.

Horton said about how great I am, I don't get along with everybody.

Some of y'all don't either.

But this ain't Pastor Jesse in Acts 15.

This is Paul and Barnabas.

How in the world could these two guys have such a sharp disagreement that they can't get along?

What happened?

Well, verse number 36 says that it all starts with Paul coming to his buddy Barnabas, saying, Hey, let's go back and visit our brothers and sisters in the churches that we had planted.

These are the churches that they had planted in their first missionary journey.

We want to go back and visit.

We want to check on them, make sure they're still walking with the Lord.

Do you agree that that is a good and a godly desire?

It's a good thing that they want to do.

The word visit, in fact, comes from the very same Greek word that we would get our English word bishop from that has to do with the pastoral work of oversight, the pastoral work of ministry.

They have a pastoral concern for churches.

We want to go see how they're doing.

That's a good thing, right?

This is something Paul and Barnabas should want to do.

Do you agree with that?

It's great that they have this common goal.

It's great that they have this common objective.

What the disagreement is going to be about is how do they reach the common goal?

How do they reach the objective?

And they have a difference of opinion about how they get from where they are to where they both know they want to be.

And I want to just stop here for a moment and pause and tell you that in the middle of conflict between Christians, often it's very, very difficult for us to see the very important, very critical, very large things that we have in common.

Paul and Barnabas had a lot in common.

My buddies George and John, they had a lot in common.

Both of them wanted to see people born again.

Both of them wanted to see people walking in faith.

They both wanted to have healthy churches.

They have a lot in common.

But sometimes when we disagree with one another, we only see the differences, right?

And we don't see the very, very large things that we have in common.

For instance, there are some of you here today, perhaps, that because of what Scripture says about letting our light shine in darkness, because you live in this community, because you see spiritual needs every day throughout your normal rhythms, you believe that our church should do more locally to share the gospel.

You believe that we should be working harder to combat homelessness or working to raise up foster families.

You should, you believe that we should be more focused in our prisons.

You believe those things matter.

Guess what?

I agree.

The Bible would agree.

There are also others here that think, well, yes, we should probably do more than we are doing right here in our own zip code, but there are churches here, there are Christians here, and there are places in the world where there aren't churches.

There are places in the world where they don't have a Bible that they can read.

And our first responsibility should be to go there to reach the nations.

I believe the Bible tells us to go to the nations.

But sometimes, when you have those same shared convictions of reaching people with the gospel, just because you have a little bit different focus, just because you have a little bit different passion and maybe different gifts and see different needs, it's easy to forget what we have in common with other people, isn't it?

It's easy to forget that while I have different interpretations and opinions about maybe hard topics that are secondary or third-level issues, it's hard for me to remember sometimes that people who disagree with me still believe the Bible.

But I want to encourage you to remember and recognize today that as the people of God, we hold many, many important things in common, even when we do not see eye to eye.

Now, I just want to say to you today, if you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, or you're maybe a little bit worried about Baptists, and you think, you know, it's all just a cult and they're just trying to brainwash people and produce a bunch of clones.

I want to tell you this today.

If that's the way you feel, you don't know anything about Baptists.

There are more opinions in Mud Creek Baptist Church about how the offering envelope should look than there are people in this church this morning.

We do not agree.

We are not striving to be clones or to be uniform.

We are not trying to be mass-produced widgets stamped out of a mold on an assembly line.

We are individuals with different gifts and passions and insights and missions, yes.

But when those things become larger than the core beliefs and convictions that we hold, that's when we start to have problems.

And so, Mud Creek, I want to tell you this: that anytime I've ever been in a divided church, anytime I've ever seen conflict, it happens because something that is not as important as Jesus becomes more important than Jesus.

Ephesians chapter 4 tells us that we should all walk worthy of the calling that God has given us with lowliness, gentleness, longsuffering, and I love the way the Apostle Paul words this: bearing with one another.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Sometimes you gotta bear with people, bearing one another in love, endeavoring, working hard to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

Why?

Because there is one body, there is one spirit, there is one hope, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.

Those verses remind me, and I need this reminder, that I'm not going to agree with every believer about everything all the time.

But if that person is truly a believer, truly a brother or sister in the Lord, then guess what?

I have the same God they have.

I believe the same Bible that they believe, I have the same Savior that they are trusting in, I have the same Holy Spirit living inside of me.

I belong to the same body of Christ that they belong to, and I have the same hope of heaven that they have.

And so if you're here this morning with some kind of disagreement, some kind of conflict with another believer, make sure that in your heart you recognize that the things that bring you together are always bigger than the things that may bring you apart.

So, what went wrong?

Well, they started off right, but something goes wrong.

So here's my second question.

My second question is who's right?

Honestly, this is what I really care about.

I I tend to see things in black and white.

Christians, we tend to look at issues in terms of sin and righteousness and good and evil.

You got two sides, somebody's got to be right, right?

Somebody's got to be wrong, right?

Who's right?

That's what I want to know.

Whose side am I supposed to be on?

We want to know that in conflict, right?

You've been in church conflict, or you weren't necessarily involved in the conflict, but somebody wanted to draft you in to be their ally.

Who's right?

Who's wrong?

Whose side am I on?

Well, what's the problem?

The Bible says in verse number 37 that Barnabas was determined to take with them on their trip to check on the churches.

John called Mark, brother with two first names, John Mark.

And John Mark will be the person at the center of the controversy.

So who is John Mark?

What do we know about him?

Well, we first read about John Mark a couple chapters earlier in Acts, in Acts chapter number 12, and verse number 12, and this is the scene, if you recall, from a few weeks ago, where Peter has been imprisoned, he's facing execution.

The church meets to pray, and God answers and rescues Peter, but the church meets to pray at the house of a lady by the name of Mary, whose son was John Mark.

John Mark.

So he's the son of a Christian woman, we believe a Christian himself, a young man who is seeing some of these incredible miracles for himself.

Well, it just so happens that Paul and Barnabas would have been in Jerusalem, visiting from Antioch at around the same time.

Somehow they get to know John Mark, and Acts 12, 25 says that they bring John Mark with them from Jerusalem back to Antioch.

Acts chapter 13, when God calls Paul and Barnabas on that first mission trip, the Bible says, in verse number 4 of Acts 13, that they also had John as their assistant.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Now, I don't know what John Mark's role as Paul and Barnabas' assistant on this mission trip was.

Maybe he's holding the plane tickets and maybe he's pulling the suitcases in the airport for them.

I don't know.

But he's with them on this first mission trip until things get difficult.

And in Acts chapter number 13, after there's some spiritual warfare, the Bible says that John Mark leaves.

John Mark leaves.

They leave Paphos, Pergapamphilia, and John leaves.

So John goes with them on the first mission trip, and then John goes back home.

Now we don't know why John Mark left.

Maybe he missed his mama's cooking.

Maybe he was homesick.

Maybe after seeing the hardships, is my theory, the suffering that Paul and Barnabas were going through, he said, you know, this ain't for me.

This is not all glamorous.

This is not all easy.

This is tough.

And I don't want to be caught up in all of this.

And so I'm gonna bounce, guys.

It's up to you.

So Barnabas says, Paul, let's give him another chance.

I imagine it like this.

They get together, maybe, at El Paso after church on Wednesday night, because you know they went to church on Wednesday nights, right?

Because they love Jesus.

And so they go to church on Wednesday night.

And they go to El Paso after church, and Barnabas's like, Man, I've been I've been thinking about this trip, Paul.

And I think it would be great for John Mark.

Man, I see some growth in him.

I think it would be great for us to give him another chance.

And Paul says, Look, he ain't ready.

I just I'm not not comfortable going with him.

Can't do it.

And it ends.

A few weeks later, Barnabas comes back to Paul.

Paul, I've got our passports.

I've ordered the tickets.

I made sure John Mark has his passport ready to go.

He's got it fixed up.

And I went ahead and ordered him a ticket.

Paul says, Brother, I told you.

If he's going, I'm not going.

I don't feel comfortable going on a trip with John Mark.

You know what he did last time?

And he might leave us again when we need him most.

I don't trust him.

I can't work with him.

Barnabas lets it ride.

A few weeks later, he comes back to Paul and he says, Man, I just got off the phone with John Mark.

He's so excited to go with us.

He's going to be waiting on us.

He's going to get his Uber, meet us at the airport, and he's fired up and ready to go.

And Paul says, Barnabas, I told you I don't want him.

I can't trust him.

I'm not going to use him.

And I will not go until the Bible says that the division and the disagreement become so sharp that they actually do go their separate ways.

Now, here's what I know about some of you.

Some of you are Barnabas people.

You were always looking to give somebody a second chance.

You believe strongly that nobody is beyond the grace of God.

You can look back over your life and you can know that people have believed in you, people have included you, people have helped you, and you want to extend that same grace to other people.

Because after all, God has given all of us a second chance and more, right?

There's nobody beyond redemption.

We never know what kind of story God is writing in somebody's life, and we know that Christian love compels us to include people.

Man John Mark seems to be the kind of guy that needs help, and Barnabas seems so right to give it to him.

Some of us are Paul people, aren't we?

I'm a Paul guy.

Don't have much use for quitter.

I still feel bad that I quit smoking 20 years ago.

I think less of myself because it makes me a quitter.

I don't like quitters.

Didn't the Lord Jesus say that if we put our hand to the plow and look back, we're not fit for the kingdom of heaven?

Doesn't the Bible expect us to be dedicated?

Doesn't the Bible expect us to put everything on the table and say, Jesus, it's all yours, I will go wherever you send me?

Paul had done that.

Barnabas had done it.

Paul has a good case, doesn't he?

Barnabas has a good case.

So who's right?

Who's right?

One school of thought says that Paul's right just because he's Paul's.

But the scriptures don't say that, do they?

I don't think Paul's right just because Paul's Paul.

And guess what?

For what it's worth, in times of disagreement, I don't think you're right just because you're you either.

Who's right?

I want to know who's right and who's wrong.

I don't know.

I don't know that either one of them's right.

I don't know that either one of them's wrong.

They're just different.

But I do think it's helpful in that the Bible never assigns sin and the Bible never assigns fault.

Because what we often do in times of disagreement in church life or with other believers, we are very, very quick to assign sin when there's just disagreement.

Brothers and sisters, the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 that love thinks no evil.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

It does not assume the worst.

But love hopes all things.

Love believes all things.

It does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

And what Paul is writing in there in 1 Corinthians 13 is that a Chris is that as a Christian, when I disagree with you, I should not be saying, well, clearly, they're wrong because they don't know God.

And if they do know him, they don't love him near as much as I do.

They don't know what I know, they haven't seen what I've seen, they haven't arrived at my level.

The Bible would tell us not to look for sin where none cannot clearly be seen.

That Christian maturity recognizes people are different.

And that just because somebody is different doesn't mean they are wrong and that I'm right.

But it's easy to do that, isn't it?

It's easy to say, well, you know, I've stuck it out at our church when things weren't necessarily going that great, but somebody left.

If they loved Jesus as much as I did, they would have stayed the way I did.

Or you leave a difficult church in a difficult situation because in good conscience you can't stay under that leadership anymore.

And then you say, Well, if those other people love God and love truth the way I do, then surely they would have left like I did.

Perhaps we're just different and God has different plans for us.

And we shouldn't assign sin where none is readily present.

But at the same time, we shouldn't assign sin to ourselves either.

The Bible never says that Barnabas is wrong or that Paul is wrong or that Barnabas is right or that Paul is right.

And I think that's instructive because sometimes when there is disagreement between Christians, there's a certain personality type that we, because we believe we are sinners, we're always looking for our sin, right?

And we we just eat ourselves alive, thinking, well, I should have said something different, I should have done something different.

Maybe there's just disagreement.

Maybe you really didn't speak out of turn, maybe you really weren't wrong, maybe you really didn't have pride, maybe you were just different, and that's okay.

But can I show you something very interesting about this story that's not in this passage of Scripture, but is in the Bible?

It's in Colossians chapter 4, verse number 10, the Apostle Paul at the end of Colossians is giving some greetings to some fellow Christians, and he says, Aristarchus, who's in prison with him, he greets you with Mark?

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

The what of Barnabas?

The cousin of Barnabas.

So now what do you know about Barnabas and John Mark?

They're family.

Now do you understand why Barnabas is so adamant that John Mark gets a second chance?

Often, friends, even in the lives of believers, blood really is thicker than water.

And people do have a tendency very often to side with family, even if they know that family may be wrong.

But it does prove, I think, that many times when Christians disagree, the issue they're disagreeing about is not really the issue.

And as believers, we have the responsibility to figure out what the actual issue is in order to go forward in unity.

So, what happened?

Who's right?

My third question.

What now?

Christians are going to be asking that.

Well, Barnabas in here, Paul in here?

Now what do we do?

What do we do, man?

The leadership structure's changed.

This is kind of a seismic type event that is going to reshape the geography of the church, potentially for generations.

Now what do we do?

I think there are a couple of lessons that are important to see what Paul and Barnabas do after this.

Notice, verse number 39, the contention becomes so sharp that they parted from one another.

And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren, the grace of God, he went through Syria and Celestia, strengthening the churches.

There are a couple of faults here.

Number one is that even though there's been disagreement, neither one of them quits.

You see that?

But they continue following Jesus, they continue doing the work that they had set out to do, they continued to give themselves to the ministry that God had given to them.

Now I want to say to you this morning, from my heart, that we talk so much in our world, or at least they do on Instagram, about church hurt.

And I do not want to discredit that.

Believe me, I have the scars and the prescription medication to prove I know about church hurt.

I know that Christians will hurt you.

I know that leaders will fail you.

I know that they will disappoint you, and people that should be showing Jesus to you will treat you like the devil.

I know all about that.

But I also know that sometimes we talk about church hurt, and really what happened was somebody was a teenager and they tried to take some pot with them to youth camp, and somebody said, You can't do that, and they get their feelings hurt.

All right?

Sometimes we are looking for excuses.

Hear me.

We're looking for excuses to empower our own disobedience.

And if we can blame Christians who maybe were not everything they should have been, we will blame them to empower our own disobedience.

And I just bring this up today because some of you, like Paul and Barnabas, have gone through a conflict, maybe even here at Mud Creek, or maybe a conflict somewhere else that has brought you to Mud Creek.

And you are not committed the way you used to be, you are not involved the way that you ought to be, you are not faithfully serving because you've let somebody else's disappointment or hurt, maybe even sin against you, keep you from being faithful.

So I'll say it to you this way.

I don't know how else to say this.

If in your walk with Jesus, if he's hurt you, if Jesus has hurt you, if Jesus has deceived you, if Jesus has lied to you, if Jesus has abused you, quit.

Quit.

But if he hasn't, if he has loved you, if he has been faithful, if he has continually poured out his grace on you, even when you didn't deserve it, then you have no right to quit regardless of what people bearing the name of Jesus have done to you.

So they do not quit.

Secondly, notice this.

They go in different directions.

Contention is so sharp, man, they just can't get along.

Barnabas and John Mark, they go back to Cyprus to continue work there.

Paul takes with him a man by the name of Silas, who becomes important in the next chapter.

He goes through Syria and Cilicia.

So do you see what happens?

There's a conflict, believers can't get along, but then God takes that and sends the gospel in two different directions.

And in sending it two different directions, God includes John Mark, the way Barnabas wanted, and he allows Silas to step into a new leadership role.

Do you see how God takes something very, very ugly?

And in his hands that are both sovereign and scarred with the hurts of other people, God is able to bring something beautiful out of a very ugly breakup.

Now, I want to encourage you right now, with this principle, that God is able to turn ugly things into beautiful things.

Because most of us have seen church conflict up close.

We've been in it.

We haven't always acted the way we should have acted in it.

We've been disappointed by other people who didn't act how they should have acted.

We've seen it and done it all, haven't we?

And it's ugly and it hurts and it's painful.

But is God able to take ugly things and make them beautiful?

You better believe today that my only hope of heaven is that God is able to take ugly things and make them beautiful.

That he is able to take pain and turn it into something miraculous.

That he is able to take sin and he is able to declare righteous, that he is able to take death and give life, that God is able to take disappointment and he's able to produce something that only he can produce.

And I want you to know that today because some of you this morning need to come and lay the hurt and the pain of the past down at Jesus' feet and say, Lord, it's ugly and it hurts, and I cannot sort through all of it.

But Lord, I do believe that you can make it into something beautiful.

Use it for the sake of the gospel in some way.

Use it to prove that you redeem.

Use it to prove that you renew.

Use it to prove that you save.

God can do that.

God can do that in ways that I can't predict He's able to do that.

But I would also finish by saying this to you today.

And then I want to come back to George and John.

That this is not the end of the story for Barnabas and John Mark.

John Mark was a quitter.

He was.

He was a quitter.

Paul, just temperament personality, even if it's spiritual inside, Paul says, I don't want to work with a quitter.

I don't want to work with a quitter.

But at the end of his life, in the very last chapter of the very last letter that he wrote, the Apostle Paul in prison writes this in 2 Timothy chapter 4, saying to Timothy, Be diligent to come to me quickly.

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Timothy's a son of the faith.

I need you right now.

And I'm alone.

Why?

Because Demons has forsaken me.

He loves this present world.

There's a sermon in that.

And has departed for Thessaloniki.

Cretans has left me for Galatia.

Titus for Domatia.

Only Luke, the author of Acts, is with me.

Timothy, get Mark.

Get Mark.

And bring him with you.

For he, the quitter, is useful to me for the ministry.

I don't have all the details between what occurred from Acts 15 to 2 Timothy 4.

I don't know what all happened in John Mark's life.

I don't know everything that happened in Paul's heart.

But I do know that God restored a broken relationship.

I do know that God gave John Mark a second chance.

And I do know that in your Bible right now, the second gospel, Matthew and Mark, was written by this man who quit on Paul.

It was written by a man that Paul did not believe in.

It was written on a man that Paul did not want to give a second chance.

And so I want to say to you today, first, if you're that quitter and if you've been that quitter, God is not done with you yet.

As long as you have breath in your body and are willing to say, Lord, I don't want to quit.

God is able to take you and use you in ways you cannot imagine.

Second, I want to say if you have that broken relationship like Paul and Barnabas and Barnabas and John Mart, you do not know what God may do.

And you need to be humble, you need to be loving, and you need to be gracious because you never know how the story might end.

John and George had a very, very public falling out.

If it would have happened today, they would have been posting on Facebook about one another, tweeting on ex YouTube blogs about how the other person wasn't even a Christian, wasn't a real ministry leader, can't be trusted, he's dangerous.

Back and forth, back and forth this went for years until one day one of George's venomous followers hated John, saw his preaching as dangerous and disruptive, shallow and weak.

He came to George and he said, Mr.

Whitfield, that's George's last name.

Mr.

Whitfield, we'll never see Mr.

Wesley.

That was John's last name.

We'll never see Mr.

Wesley in heaven, will we?

Two friends, public controversy, disagreement, disunity, division.

Mr.

Whitfield, we'll never see Mr.

Wesley in heaven, will we?

To which George Whitfield responded by saying, No, we won't.

Because when we get to heaven, people like Mr.

Wesley will be so close to the throne of Jesus that people like us will never see them.

Then of all things, when George Whitfield died in 1770, who do you think he would ask to preach his funeral?

His old friend John Wesley.

In October in London in 1770, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, preached, eulogizing his dear friend, George Whitfield.

And you can go read that funeral sermon.

It's a masterful triumph of a message.

And in that sermon, he commends him for his faithfulness.

He lauds him for his commitment to the Lord, his passion.

But he ends the sermon with a plea for people to love one another better.

I've got the words, they may be on the screen, I'm not sure, but I've got the words from that sermon.

There we go.

He ends with this prayer to the Lord at the funeral sermon.

Oh, that thou wouldest cause the mantle of thy prophet, George Whitfield, his friend, whom thou hast taken up now to fall upon us that remain.

And he quotes from the book of 1 Kings, where is the Lord God of Elijah?

Let his spirit rest upon thee, thy servants.

Show that thou art the God that answers by fire.

This is a very particular 18th-century way of preaching.

Let the fire of thy love fall on every heart.

And because we love thee, let us love one another with a love stronger than death.

Song of Solomon 8.

Take away from us all anger and wrath and bitterness, all clamor and evil speaking.

Let thy spirit so rest upon us that from this hour we may be, Ephesians 4.32, kind to each other.

Tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us.

So the question is: for all the Paul's and Barnabas's and John Marks and John Wesley's and George Whitfields that are here today, if you had the opportunity to preach that funeral sermon for that person that dumped you, what would you say?

If you had the last word in the public debate, what would you say?

If they're dead and gone in silence by the grave and you are able to stand before everybody that knew them and say, here's where it really was, what would you say?

I don't think you'd do any better than Ephesians 4.

As we prepare for invitation, this is where I'll leave you.

You do no better than be kind one to another.

Tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.