This is a tremendous opportunity to, to really have an
opportunity to reach every corner of a country.
And it's just not some, it's not an opportunity that you get very
often. And so we're thankful for the
opportunity and we're trying to make the most out of it.
Of course, one of the things that I'd like you to consider as
well, we in about 3 months probably are going to, are going
to hit the ground running with remodeling some of these
buildings down there where the, the goal is right now because of
the, the, I don't know what you call it, but the, the, the good
deal, I guess I'll say that we get on the hotel that we stay
at. You can stay there for about
$150.00 a night by the time taxes and everything else are
done. So you stay there for a week,
you're at over $1000. And then you have to pay for
food, you got to play pay for your plane ticket.
If you're taking a couple people, it just adds up even
more. And the goal is to try to make
make it as cheap as possible for people to, I mean, obviously
we're not going to have our own plane or anything like that, so
we can't fly people down. But you get there, we want to
make it as cheap for you to stay there as possible so that more
groups have the opportunity to come, more people can come when
a group comes and obviously just just continually reach out from
there. And so the goal is to try to
remodel a lot of the buildings that are already existing and
make it possible for groups to stay in those buildings.
They, they look like hotel rooms really.
There's three buildings that have 6 units each and then one
building that has three units that are set up like apartment
style. And so just just really good
layout, really, really nice the way that everything is set up.
But in order to save as much money as possible in that
remodeling process, we're going to, we're trying to get groups
to go down there, you know, spend 456 days just doing some
of that remodeling. And we'd like to take a group
down there. I know we got a lot of people in
our church that are handy enough that can do it.
And of course you'd have to, you'd have to pay to get
yourself down there and probably for food while you're there.
But we'll stay there for free. One of the buildings is livable
and we'll stay in there while we're working on remodeling the
other ones. And then the building that's
livable now will remodel last. And, you know, just turn it into
a nice place for people to stay as cheaply as possible.
So think about it. But probably first couple weeks
of January is when we're going to try to head down there and
start doing some of that work. We're going to try as much as
possible to send materials and things down ahead of time.
It will save us a lot of money and a lot of time once we get
down there as well. And just just a lot of work that
needs to be done to get it up and running.
But I think it's going to be a tremendous, tremendous missions
opportunity once it is. So be thinking about it, be
praying about it. And if I can give you any kind
of encouragement, January is a great time of year to go to
Belize. It's cold here and that's that's
really their best season. It's not rainy, it's not hot and
humid. It's literally 82° every day and
76° every night maybe give or take a degree here or there.
So, and you can't ask for a better time to go than that.
And so we'll, we'll plan to take a group, hopefully we'll have
some other groups, other churches that may be able to
send people at the same time. We can knock a bunch of it out
at the same time or, you know, if we may miss him and, and
they'll, you know, just kind of do the work themselves.
But we certainly wanted to try to do our part in helping with
that. So if you're handy and you or
you can carry things, then you can come down there and be a
part of it. So be thinking about that and
praying about it and looking forward to what the Lord has for
us. All that to say that two weeks
ago we started in Colossians chapter 4 with these lists of
men that Paul gives us as an example.
And we mentioned, in fact, let's just, let's just take a step
back and read verse #7 of Colossians chapter 4.
All my state shall Titicus declare unto you, who is a
beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in
the Lord, whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that
he might know your estate and comfort your hearts.
And we said about him that he was the faithful man.
Of course, I think we could say that about everyone of these men
that's mentioned. Even Paul mentions that about
most of these men as well. But he's a faithful minister,
Paul says about Tichikas, and he's A and, and a fellow servant
in the Lord. Verse #9 With Onessimus, a
faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you, they shall
make known unto you all things which are done here.
And we said about Anessa Onessimus that he was the
fugitive man. Paul sent him back with Tichikas
and and and others to go to the church there at Colossae and
carry this letter. But Onessimus was also carrying
his own letter back to his master that he had deserted.
And thankfully Philemon was a Christian.
And obviously things worked out, and they were able to work
things out amongst themselves. But Onessmus, we said, was the
fugitive man in verse #10 Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner
saluteth you. And Marcus, sister son to
Barnabas, touching whom you received commandments, if he
come unto you, receive him. But Aristarchus, there we said
about the fearless man, my fellow prisoner saluteth you.
He was a man that obviously was in prison with Paul.
Some think that he would have had to surrender himself in
order to be in the prison with Paul to be able to, to comfort
him and to to encourage him. And he was willing to do that.
And that's why we said about him that he was the fearless man.
And then we come to Marcus, sister's son, to Barnabas,
touching whom you received commandments.
If you come unto you receive him.
That's the next man that we're going to talk about.
And the next one is verse #11 and Jesus, which is called
justice, who are of the circumcision.
These only are my fellow workers under the Kingdom of God, which
have been a comfort unto me. Now there's more men that are
mentioned here, and I want to mention them briefly as we get
started. Epaphras, who is one of you, a
servant of Christ, saluteth you always laboring fervently for
you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in
all the will of God. For I bear him record that he
hath a great deal for you. And them that are in Laodicea
and them in Hierapolis. Obviously a glowing
recommendation of Epaphras and a man who is definitely a man of
example. And the only reason I'm not
covering Epaphras here is because we've already talked
about Epaphras when we covered a couple of the other books,
Philippians being one of them. And Epaphras was a, was a man of
great example and a man of great testimony and a man of great
faith and faithfulness. And Paul always has some great
words to say about Epaphras. Of course.
Then he continues on in verse #14 Luke, the beloved physician.
And Demas greets you. Now obviously we know a little
bit about Luke because he wrote the entire book of Luke.
Dimas we know a little about a little bit about as well, but
usually not for a good thing. Paul had to say, Dimas hath
forsaken me, having loved this present world.
Now Dimas was an example, but it wasn't a very good one.
And the sad thing is that Dimas actually seems to be a man who
was probably a pretty good example.
At some point, he said, hey, Dimas is here, and he's greeting
you as well. I don't think he would have said
that about Dimas if Dimas had already left and forsaken them
for following after the world. So I think Dimas at one point
was a good example, and maybe he became a good example again
later on. Obviously, we see some
redemption throughout Paul's life with some of the people
that he worked with who abandoned him.
And we're going to talk about one of those tonight.
But Dimas forsook him. And it wasn't just because he
was scared. It wasn't because it was too
hard. It's because he loved the world.
Demoth hath forsaken me, the Bible says, having loved this
present world. And then he continues on in
verse #15 salute the brethren which are in Laodicea and
Nymphis, and the church which is in his house, which again we
have some, some glowing words of about him as well.
When this epistle is read among you, 'cause it calls that it be
read also in the Church of the Laodiceans, and that you
likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea.
So we don't know much about Nymphis.
That's one of the reasons why I don't have, I can't, can't spend
a lot of time talking about him. Really all we know about him is
that he had the church there in his house and he was a faithful
man as well. And obviously they, they, they
needed those places that they could meet.
And as as people got saved and, and churches were being started,
very, very necessary that that Nymphis and others did things
like that. We also see another word of
reprimand that Paul gives to Archipus in verse #17 say to
Archipus, take heed to the ministry which thou has received
in the Lord, that thou fulfill it.
I don't know where he stood, and we don't really know anything
else about Archipeus other than what we see here, at least to my
knowledge. But he says, take heed to the
ministry which thou has received and make sure you do the
ministry. I don't know where he stood.
I think he was probably a good example.
But the fact that Paul had to reprimand him and say, hey, you
need to get back to doing what you should be doing.
You need to get back to the ministry.
You need to get back to fulfilling what God gave you to
do means that he that he was probably moving away from those
things. And I hope and and you know,
hope and, and assume that that he did get back to doing the
things that he was supposed to be doing.
But then Paul concludes by saying the salutation by the
hand of me. Paul, remember my bonds.
Grace be with you. Amen.
Lots of people that he mentioned here, but two of them that we
want to focus on tonight, and one of them goes back to verse
#10 Marcus, sister, son to Barnabas, touching whom he
received commandments. If he come unto you, receive
him, Marcus. Let's look at some background
about him. Turn over to Acts chapter 12, if
you will. We looked at Titicus the
faithful man, Onessimus the fugitive man, Aristarchus the
fearless man. What I want you to think about
when you think about Marcus, is the forgiven man.
There's a little confusion maybe to his name.
His Hebrew name was John. His Roman name was Mark or
Marcus. And so we see him in the Bible
as John, Mark. And John.
Mark was was greatly favored in his youth.
We know that his mother was a Christian.
We read in Acts chapter 12 and verse #12 that the Saints met
for prayer in her home. Verse #12 when he had considered
the thing, he came to the House of Mary, the mother of John,
whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together
praying. They must have had constant
contact with many of of God's servants.
You picture that prayer meeting wherever it happened to be.
Many times it seemed like it was in their house, but but John,
Mark and his mother were probably there.
Now, Peter was certainly one who is there often, in fact, that
the servant girl was the one who recognized Peter's voice at the
gate. And this is a story that you'll
recognize, but this happens here in Acts chapter 12 and verse #13
And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to
Harkin named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice,
she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in and told
how Peter stood before the gate. To give you a little context and
remind you what's happening here, Peter had been put in
prison and all of these people gathered together to pray.
And one of the things that we skip over often is that it was
in John Mark's mother's house. John Mark was there and it was
obvious that Peter was there often because she recognized him
just by his voice. Rhoda did.
But they were they were gathered together to pray for Peter, that
he would be released from prison.
And Peter is released from prison and he shows up at the
door of the house. And she's so excited that she
runs in to tell everybody without even letting Peter in
the door. And then we find in verse #15
And they said unto her, Thou art mad.
But she constantly affirmed that it was Even so.
Then said they, it's his Angel. But Peter continued knocking.
And when they had opened the door and saw him, they were
astonished. I think it's really interesting
that they're praying, and they're praying in faith that
God would deliver Peter. And Peter shows up at the door
and they tell her she's crazy. Peter's not at the door.
We're praying for him right now to be delivered from prison.
I mean, yeah. How often we pray the same way,
right? We know that God can do it, but
we just don't think that he's going to.
And then when he answers, we don't even believe that he
actually answered the prayer because there's no way that
God's going to answer that for us.
He does that for other people, but he doesn't do it for me,
right? We get that way often.
And there and, and and finally, you know, Peter keeps knocking
and she keeps saying it's Peter. He's at the gate.
And they said it's not really Peter.
It's, it's Peter's Angel. I mean, they just couldn't
believe that the very thing that they were praying for would
actually be an answer to prayer. But they finally did and they
opened the door and they realized that it was Peter.
And of course, the Bible says they were astonished.
And later on, even Paul attended the prayer meetings there in the
House of John Mark. And, and of course, it was not
his house. It was his mother's house.
But John Mark obviously then was brought up in a godly home.
In fact, turn over to first Peter, chapter 5.
There's a lot of things that actually took place in the home
of John. Mark Barnabas, the Bible tells
us, was John Mark's uncle. But Peter was very possibly the
one who led him to Christ. First Peter, chapter 5 and verse
#13. First Peter, chapter 5 and verse
#13 The church that is at Babylon elected together with
you, saluteth you. And so doth Marcus my son.
Now, this was not his physical son, but you see, Paul calls
Timothy his son in the faith. Marcus is Peter's son in the
faith. Very possibly Peter was the one
who led John Mark to Christ. And it was evidently a measure
of affluence in the home that John Mark grew up in.
The Bible tells us that many were gathered together in their
house. It had to be a house that was
big enough to hold a lot of people there, a house that was
big enough to have a gate that was separated from the house
that this little servant girl ran out and answered the gate
and heard Peters voice and they didn't hear it on the inside.
So more than likely a pretty large house where the servants
were kept. Guests were entertained there.
And you know, it's not, it's not always a blessing to be born for
kids to be born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but it's
not always a curse either. Depends on what you do with it.
And Mark, John, Mark grew up in a house that was probably pretty
affluent and I afforded him some opportunities and he took
advantage of those opportunities.
And we'll talk about that a little bit more in just a little
bit. But Mark had John, Mark had some
pretty consecrated relatives as well.
And we already commented on his mother.
We know that he had Barnabas for an uncle.
And, and really it can be a blessing to have relatives that
are serving God. You just never know the kind of
impact that you can have on those, especially the young
people, but you never know the impact that you can have on on
on your relatives as far as it relates to living for the Lord,
especially when it comes to your own children.
The impact that you can have on your children, the impact that
you can have on your nieces and nephews, the impact that you can
have on, on, on your grandkids, the impact that you can have on,
on so many other people when you just live for the Lord.
And I and I can't help but think that Barnabas and, and John
Mark's mother and, and so many others that that were probably
part of that same family that were not even mentioned that
live for the Lord and had an impact on John Mark.
And, and, and 1, you know, caused him to want to go into
the ministry. But we have a pretty good
suggestion from what we read in first Peter chapter 5 and verse
13 that John Mark was probably saved at a pretty young age, was
converted to the truth through Peter's ministry.
It's possible that it was even at that very prayer meeting that
we read about in Acts chapter 12.
He's not mentioned there, but he was young and it was in it was
in his mother's house. There's no reason to think that
John Mark would not have been there and, and, and, and would
not have seen the miracle of Peter's release from prison by
the Angel. But how great to come to Christ
at a young age and how, how great to see your children saved
at a young age before the, the ravages of the world and the
flesh and the devil have had an opportunity just come in and,
and destroy their lives and, and allow them to go through the
things that the devil wants to do to them before they get back
to living for the Lord. Many, many kids that, that get
saved at a young age have so many more advantages and so many
more opportunities to live for the Lord than somebody who saved
at 30-40, fifty years old. And you know, I used to, I was
saved at a young age myself and I used to, here are the
testimonies of some of these, you know, maybe you've heard of
unshackled and some of the testimonies that come out of the
Pacific Garden mission and, and evangelists that, that traveled
and, and gave a testimony of a life that was just destroyed by
the world and destroyed by the devil.
And God saved them out of all of those things.
And what a tremendous testimony that is.
And I used to think, why couldn't I have a testimony like
that? I was saved young.
I didn't, I never drank in my life.
I've never smoked in my life. I've never, I've never done
drugs. I've never done a lot of the
things that the people in the world do.
I've never, I've never, never even really been given the
opportunity. And by the time I had the
opportunity, I didn't want to do it.
But I used to think, boy, if I only had a testimony that was so
exciting as, as some of these other people that have a
testimony. And, and somewhere along the
line, God really started impressing my heart about that.
And I said, you know what? I didn't have to be saved out of
those things. God saved me from those things.
And that's a tremendous testimony in itself.
And I'm thankful that God saved me out of those things.
And you ought to be thankful that your kids are growing up in
a place and in homes where they're being saved out of those
things as well. But that's, that's what happened
with John Mark. And here's this young man who
was able to take his entire life and lay it at the feet of Jesus.
And God used that. And it was this same John Mark
who wrote the book of Mark. And this is obviously a little
later on, but it was his close association with Peter that lent
the Apostolic authority to to Mark's gospel.
Since Peter was evidently Mark's primary source of information.
I believe that that John Mark was probably pretty young during
the time of that Christ was here on the earth.
Obviously Peter was one of his disciples and went on to do
great things for the Lord after that.
But turn over to Mark chapter 14.
It's been suggested, and I think that's a good suggestion, that
Mark was referring to himself in the account there in Mark
chapter 14 about a certain young man in Gethsemane.
It seems that he had a pretty first hand account.
Somebody would have had to have been there to see what happened.
And so Mark chapter 14 and verse 50 says, and they all forsook
him and fled. Of course, that was when the the
soldiers showed up with Judas. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss
and they they took him in. The Bible says they all forsook
him and fled, and there followed him, a certain young man having
a linen cloth cast about his naked body.
And the young men laid hold on him, and he left the linen cloth
and fled from them naked. Now, since all the other
disciples had fled and abandoned Jesus, I think there's not
really much else that we can conclude then that he was this
certain young man that was there that saw everything happen.
How else would he have known about this story?
Who was that certain young man? I suppose it's possible that he
heard about it from somebody and he talked to this young man.
But very likely John Mark was a young man and he was that young
man that saw everything happened that day in the Garden of
Gethsemane back in Acts chapter 12.
If you'll turn over there, I want you to see this.
John, Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas when they turned to
Jerusalem from sorry, returned from Jerusalem to Antioch.
The Bible says in Acts chapter 12 and verse #25 in Barnabas and
Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their
ministry and took with them John, whose surname was Mark.
Acts chapter 13. He then accompanies them on
their first mission to the Gentiles, verse 5.
And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in
the synagogues of the Jews, and they had also John to their
minister. Now when we think of of his
background, his home, his the the influence of his mother, the
influence of Peter and the other Saints, the influence of his
uncle Barnabas, and so many other influences, it's no wonder
that John Mark had a burning desire inside of him to serve
the Lord. As we call in full time service.
Now we all should be full time Christians, but there are some
obviously who are able to give and and and surrender their life
to give to full time Christian service where that is their
life. And when the opportunity came
for him to join Paul and Barnabas, he jumped at that
chance. But sadly we read this just a
few verses later in verse #13 of Acts chapter 13.
Now when Paul and his company loose from Paphos, they came to
Purga in Pamphylia, and John, departing from them, returned to
Jerusalem. Now it seems that John Mark
suffered a spiritual lapse. I don't know if this is the case
exactly, but turn over to Luke chapter 14.
It almost seems like John Mark jumped the gun a little bit.
Maybe it wasn't the time that he should have gone.
Maybe he needed more preparation.
Maybe he needed more training. I want to talk to our young
people for just a few minutes and I'd like you to write these
things down. I know most of you are taking
notes anyway, but I want to point these things out to you
and have you write these things down specifically, especially if
you're a young person who is considering full time service.
And I hope all of you are considering it.
I know there are things that you might like to do things that you
might think you want to do, but I hope you are considering full
time service and, and until God makes it very clear that He does
not want you to do that hope that's the the burning desire of
your heart. But I want to say a couple
things. And the first one is this count
the cost. Count the cost.
I think that may be where where John Mark failed here.
Perhaps he felt the the thrill of being a missionary and he
knew of the apostle Paul and he knew the high standing of of
Barnabas, who was his uncle. But I think he just didn't
sufficiently face up to the hardships and the problems of
the of the testing that comes to a missionary's life.
And the Bible says in Luke chapter 14 and verse 28, for
which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down 1st and
counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it.
It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a cost involved with being
with being in the ministry. You're going to give up some
things. And I think many times you, you,
you see the evangelist that comes through and you see the
pastor and you see the excitement part of the ministry
and, and, and maybe you miss out on some of the, the discouraging
sides of the ministry. And you want to do this and
you're gung ho all about it. And look at the excitement and
look at how many people are, are so happy to hear you come in and
preach and listen to how many people you know, lift up the
pastor and lift up the evangelist and lift up the
missionary. And I want to do that.
I want to be that person. Imagine being able to get up in
front of everybody and talk every Sunday, and it may seem
glamorous to you. It didn't to me that you
couldn't have paid me to get up and preach in front of people
when I was in high school especially.
But you know, God called me to do this.
And I know that God called me to do this, but there's a cost
involved in it, and you need to count the cost.
Who who doesn't do that, that Jesus asked.
So that's what I'd say first. But #2 I want to say this.
Go go back to Deuteronomy chapter 8.
Deuteronomy Chapter 8 #2 I want you to understand this.
Don't be in too much of a hurry. Don't be in too much of a hurry.
I think this is good for parents too.
Your kids are only kids once and they need to have a childhood.
Let them be kids as long as they can be kids now.
They don't need to be childish for as long as they can be
childish, but they need to be kids as long as their kids.
Let them have that childhood. Don't be in such a hurry to push
them out the door to go accomplish something with their
lives. Let them be kids with the
opportunity they have to be kids and kids.
Don't be in such a hurry to get out and get on with your life
that you get ahead of God's timing.
Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse #2 This is God talking to Moses.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God LED
thee these 40 years in the wilderness to humble thee, and
to prove thee to know what was in thine heart, whether thou
would just keep His commandments or no.
See, God never hurries when He is making and preparing His
workmen. And discipline is one of the
things that's necessary for that.
And lessons of humility and obedience and lessons in trust,
all of those lessons have to be learned.
And if you allow God to take the time to teach you those lessons
instead of trying to get out in front of God, instead of trying
to get out in front of, you know, all the things that you
want to do and, and, and, and accomplish all of these things
with your life. Sometimes we get ahead of God.
And I believe that may be what happened with John Mark.
John Mark might have gotten ahead of God's timing a little
bit. He needed more testing.
He didn't more proving he needed more opportunities to, to, to do
exactly what God said here to humble, to prove, to, to know
what is in thine heart. Look what God did with Moses.
Moses spent 40 years in education learning how to be a
somebody, and then he spent another 40 years in education
learning how to be a nobody. He was 80 years old by the time
he finally went into quote UN quote, ministry in God's
service. And then God gave him the last
40 years of his life, which is just one third of his life, to
show him how you can take a somebody who thinks he's a
nobody and do something with him.
And that's exactly what God did with Moses.
But you think about that, if you, if you're going to live to
be 90 years old, which I know that's long, but 90 years old
and you're going to see what you can do in God's service.
It'd be like 30 years in education, 30 years learning how
to be humble, 30 years learning how to be a servant, 30 years
just doing things that you think are insignificant.
And then when you're 60 and you get into the ministry that God
actually has for you with the rest of your life, and I get it,
Moses lived to be 120. It's a little bit different than
it than it is now, but you, it's still 1/3 of his life, right?
Even if you live to be 80, that's still 55 by the time you
get into the ministry where God is truly, really going to use
you, right? That's the way God prepared
Moses. I know that God doesn't prepare
everyone that way, but I but my point is this.
Don't be in a hurry to get in front of God.
Many times when we're in a hurry, that's exactly what
happens #3 turn over to Psalm one 39139 #3 is this.
Be absolutely sure that your motives are pure.
Why do you want to be a preacher?
Why do you want to be an evangelist?
Why do you want to be a missionary?
Why do you want to be a Christian School teacher?
I know everybody would say it's the same thing that all the
police officers say, you know, all the firefighters say I want
to make a difference. I want to make a difference in
the world. And I, and I'm not discounting
that. I think that's why everybody
would say that. But again, sometimes we see the,
the preachers with a, a church that has 3 or 4 or 500 people
and you, you see the recognition that they have and you see that,
that everybody, you know, just gushes all over them when they
come in. And, and that's the glamour of
the mission field and the glamour of, of pastoring, the
glamour of doing this full time work.
And sometimes we're not looking for God's blessing.
We're not looking for how God can use this.
We're looking for. I want to have that same type of
ministry. I want to be lifted up in the
same way. I want people to recognize my
name as a great preacher or a great pastor or a great
missionary. I want people to write books
about me, alright? Sometimes that's what the motive
is, and that's the wrong motivation.
So all I'm saying is be careful about that.
Be absolutely sure what your motives are and make sure that
those motives are pure. Oswald Chambers said it this
way. It may be harder to face God
with your motive than to face congregations with your message.
It may be harder to face God with your motive than to face
congregations with your message. The psalmist said it like this
in Psalm 139 and verse 23. Search me, O God, and know my
heart. Try me and know my thoughts.
Can you pray that to God? Or do you know what's in your
heart? Do you know what your motives
already are? And you know what God would say
without even having to pray those things?
That's a hard prayer to pray, by the way.
You can only say that you can only pray that prayer to God if
you believe that your heart is right with Him.
Because why would you ask God to search your heart?
Why would you ask Him to to try you and to know your thoughts if
you already know they're not in line with what He wants?
That's a tough prayer to pray, but we all should be in that
position where we can actually pray that and ask God to search
me and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if
there'd be any wicked way in me. That's a tough prayer to pray
because the only reason you'd ask that is so God will point
something out to you. And if you're praying it with
the intention of God pointing something out, then you've got
to do something about it. But I think it's a great prayer
to pray when it comes to this. What are your motives?
Why do you want to go into that full time service?
Here's what I'd say for #4 turn over to Mark chapter 5.
Remember that you have no greater success on the field
then you're having here and now. I think a lot of people make the
mistake, people, young people especially, but even even older
people, adults, maybe even somebody who's spent some time
as an assistant pastor or spent some time working in ministries
already and feel like God's calling you into something
different, some kind of full time ministry.
I think a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that even
though I'm not doing anything for God right now, all the
sudden when I get into that ministry, I'm going to be really
doing something for God. I think it works that way in the
ministries of the church too, right?
I want to lead that ministry because I really think that I
can do something for God. What are you doing for God now?
Because if you're not doing something for God now, don't
expect that when you get into that ministry as the head of
that ministry that you're going to all the sudden change and now
you're going to be doing all of these great things for the Lord.
You might be leading a ministry, but if you're not bold enough to
go share the gospel, you're not going to get bold enough to
share the gospel because you're leading a ministry.
If you're not doing anything for God now, it's not like it's
going to change overnight and all of a sudden you're going to
be some great soul and not God can get a hold of your heart and
you can be a great soul wondering give you that boldness
and He can give you that confidence to go on and live for
Him. But don't expect that if you're
not doing anything for God now that all the sudden when you
turn 18 or you turn 22 that you're going to be some great
evangelist and some great preacher and some great soul in
there for the Lord. Get busy doing those things now.
Mark chapter 5 and verse #19 How be it Jesus suffered him not,
but saith on him, Go home to thy friends and tell them how great
things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on
thee. This man, he was saved and and
clothed in his right mind. And he said, Let me come with
you, let me, let me go with you and do your ministry with you.
And Jesus said, no, go home and tell your friends, go home and
do the little ministry. And it wasn't, it wasn't
discounting the fact that this man wanted to follow him and be
with him. But he said, I've got a, I've
got a great ministry for you already.
Go home and tell your friends. Go be an influence on them.
See how you see how you impact the, the little things that I've
given you to impact. So my question is, have you
begun at home doing the work of the Lord?
If you want to go into full time service, what are you doing for
the Lord right now? That's the important question #5
I want to say this. If you become a preacher or a
missionary, you should begin by being an assistant.
I've heard many, many stories of young people who get straight
out of college and go straight to the mission field.
And they're back in two or three or four years, everything fell
apart. Or they went and took a church
because they, you know, they were gung ho about it.
And two or three or four years later, after the entire church
is split and many lives were destroyed because they had no
idea what they were doing, they come limping back to the place
they came from where they end up moving to another church.
And you know, in many cases doing the same thing because
they don't learn, right? It's Acts chapter 13.
And verse 5 tells us that that Paul and Barnabas had Mark as
their minister didn't mean that he was their pastor.
It meant that he was their assistant.
That's the word there that's used.
And that was the best thing for me as as I was an assistant
pastor for 10 years before I became the pastor of this
church. And I felt like that was a long
time. But I look back and I say
probably could have been a little bit longer, wouldn't have
hurt me to be there a little bit longer.
It was good for me. I was able to make some mistakes
and I made mistakes without ruining a ministry, without
ruining people's lives because I was under a pastor for that
time. Are you willing for that?
Just just do what you're told and allow God to prepare you for
the ministry that He has for you.
Turn back, if you will, to Acts chapter 13.
I want to say this, lastly, as it relates to this, be
absolutely sure of your call. Be absolutely sure of your call.
And Acts, chapter 13, verse #2 We read that the Holy Ghost
called two men, but three went as they ministered to the Lord
and fasted the Holy Ghost said, Separate me, Barnabas, and Saul
for the word, where until I have called them.
Verse #4 So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost,
departed unto the Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to
Cyprus. But John Mark was the third one
that went along with them. I wonder, I wonder if this was a
man's appointing and not God's. Now I don't know.
I'm not saying that this is exactly what happened, but it
wasn't all that long later when John Mark abandoned them and
went back. And it might have been that John
Mark's mother called him, or Barnabas called him, or John
Mark called himself to go out and do this ministry.
Those, you know, the desire, the opportunity, the need, the
ability of the invitation. Those are not necessarily God's
call. There are some people who have
the ability to speak, so they think, well, naturally I've got
to be a preacher because I can speak in front of people or, you
know, I have this ability to do that, or I have the, you know,
the talents to do this thing or that thing.
And they just automatically assume that it's God's call in
their life. And it very well may be, but it
also may not be. And, you know, I think there's
many, many people who have missed God's call in their life
who should have been pastors or who should have been
missionaries or who should have, you know, married a pastor or a
missionary or been a Christian School teacher or something like
that. I think there's a lot of people
who God was calling who did not answer that call.
But I also think there's people who answered that call that God
never called them. And those are the ones that,
that, that, that I think sometimes go into these churches
and ruin the church. And they come in and they, they
have a good heart and they have the right intention, but they're
not following God's will for their lives.
You know, God, God does not call everybody to preach.
God doesn't call everybody to be a missionary.
I think there's a lot of people that he is calling that are not
answering that call. But you better make very sure
that it's God that's calling you.
And I know, especially in a church like ours, our young
people have some of that pressure to go into the
ministry. I don't want to be the one that
calls somebody into the ministry.
I don't want to call my kids into the ministry.
Certainly if God wants him to do that, I'm going to encourage him
to do it. I don't want them to go into the
ministry because they think that that's what I want them to do.
I want them to know that it's God that's calling them to do
that. And I believe in a church like
this where where we do take a stand for the things of the word
of God. I think, I think the chances
that God is calling our young people are higher than they
would be in some other places. And I believe that God is going
to call some of our young people into the ministry full time.
But at the same time, you better make sure that it's God calling
you and not somebody else. It's God calling you and not
just your desire to do that. I, I kind of fell into that same
pattern a little bit when it came to missions.
I felt for years like God was calling me to the mission field.
I graduated from college with my degree in missions.
I told my father-in-law when I went to work as an assistant
pastor. I don't know how long I'm going
to be here, but at some point we're leaving and going to the
mission field. And God had changed my heart.
I had to make sure that it was God's call because God started
putting it on my heart that he wanted, wanted me to start a
church. And I said, hang on, I've told
people for a lot of years that I'm going to be a missionary.
I better make sure if this is God or if this is just me, what
is it? And I had to get a hold of God
and, and he had to make it very clear to me that it was his will
not for me to be a missionary, but for me to start a church
right here in the States, right here in this area.
You better make sure that it's God calling you and not you
calling you or your Mama calling you or somebody else.
What is the call of God in your life?
And so somebody said, if you can do anything else full time, do
it. If you can do anything but full
time ministry, do it. And what they meant by that was
this. When God calls you to the
ministry, you might have a desire to do other things and
you might have an ability to do other things, but you can't do
those things because the ministry is just burning in your
heart And the desire that God's given you and the call that
God's given to you. Well, God will make it clear to
you if that's what he's called you to do.
And there's, you know, for me, there was many other things that
I would have liked to like to have done, but nothing else that
I could do because I know this is exactly what God's called me
to do. And when you like the Bible
says, delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee
the desires of thine heart. There's a lot of other things
that I that I had an interest in.
I always wanted to be a a pilot F sixteens and fly The Jets and
all of those things. I had an interest in that from
the time I was just a little kid.
Loved the Marines because I like their uniforms better than
everybody else's. I always wanted to go to the
Marines and fly and I had that desire for a long time.
And then God called me and I surrendered to preach and I
still wanted to go to the military, but I knew this is
what God wanted me to do. And in a lot of ways, God's
allowed me to do the things that I've always wanted.
And obviously I never went to the military, but I'm working
with the Police Department and it's close to that.
There's a lot of those kind of things that overlap.
You know, there's, there's a lot of other things that I thought
would always be interesting to do.
And you know, even even the desire, I believe, you know, my
desire for the mission field was a burden for the mission field,
not a call to it. But but now God's allowing me to
even have an influence in some of these mission fields that
I've, that I've been able to go to and see some of these mission
fields and work with some of these missionaries.
And you know, I don't preach around the country very much,
but I preach around the world a lot, it seems like.
And God's given me that I believe because of my desire is
there and not God gives you the desires of your heart.
He fulfills your desires, but he changes your desires and he
tells you what he wants you to do.
And if you're, if you're interested only in doing what
God wants you to do, he'll make that very, very clear.
The surrender is the is the aspect that he's looking for
from us. But I say that to make sure that
that to be absolutely sure of your call.
And I'm not so sure that John Mark was very sure of that call.
Maybe he was, maybe he was and he just backed out of it.
But I think there's some things that we need to be cautious
about. Turn, turn back over to Acts
chapter 15 because one of the lessons that we learned from
John Mark really is how sad it is to get out of the will of
God, brings trouble to us, brings trouble to others, and it
lets the Lord down. And we find this in Acts chapter
15 and verse #36 some days after Paul said into Barnabas, let us
go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have
preached the word of the Lord and see how they do.
And Barnabas determined to take with him John, whose surname was
Mark. But Paul thought not good to
take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia and
went not with them to the work. This is where you kind of get
the idea that it wasn't a very good split.
It's not like John Mark was just going to go with them for a
month or two and then come back. And he was just going to try to
get a little taste of the ministry he was supposed to be
with him. And he abandoned that, that
mission. And that's why Paul said, I
don't want him. He left us.
We tried that once and it didn't work out so well.
Verse 39. And the contention was so sharp
between them that they departed asunder one from the other.
And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed into Cyprus and Paul
chose Silas and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto
the grace of God. And I don't know if this is any
indication or not, but what we find in the rest of the Bible is
that it follows Paul's story. And that's really the last you
hear of Barnabas. I don't know if that took
Barnabas out of God's will. I don't know that.
I mean, obviously Barnabas did some good work with John Mark
because we see that this story has a pretty good ending.
But the, the story is, you know, the John Mark story is, is, is
evidently well known and the stigma had become attached to
John Mark. Paul said, I don't want him.
He quit. He left us.
He had the opportunity to be there and, and, and he quit.
I don't want him back. Fast forward about 12 years.
It's at least possible by this time that Mark's Gospel was
already in circulation, that Paul read it and that he gave
his absolute recommendation of it.
And and his his view of John Mark and his usefulness to the
ministry changed a little bit by by reading that book.
But that may be why Paul's concern was to clear John Mark's
name, because it seems sure like Paul did that.
But be that as it may, John Mark was with Paul at Rome, and
that's what we find there back in Colossians Chapter 4.
And Marcus, sister, son to Barnabas, touching whom he
received commandments. If he come unto you, receive
him. We're not told how or why or
when John Mark actually joined Paul at Rome, but some people
have speculated that because his uncle Barnabas might have died,
and that John Mark felt the tug back toward Paul.
Either way, they made things right between them, whatever
that needed to be. John Mark, if you go back and
read about him as well, was a converted Jew.
So the one of the few Hebrew Christians that was willing to
be by Paul's side during that time when he was in prison
probably meant a whole lot to the apostle Paul as he sat
there. But now Paul trusts John Mark
enough to suggest that he go to Colossi on his behalf.
That's the story of redemption. That's a story of forgiveness.
That's exactly what you hope to see happening.
But you know, maybe the Colossians would have given him
the cold shoulder because they knew about this.
They knew that he had quit. So Paul asked them, accept them
touching whom you received commandments.
If he come unto you, receive him.
Mark. He was Jewish by birth, but he
no longer held that Judaistic belief.
So he would have been a tremendous help in countering
the Judaism that was that was creeping into a lot of these
churches. Turn back over to Second
Timothy, chapter 4 to finish out Mark's story.
He was later with Peter at Babylon, and that's not a church
that you hear of very often, but there was a church there at
Babylon and at the time of his second imprisonment, which he
never escaped from, Paul had such a high estimate and such a
high recommendation for John Mark that he urged Timothy to
bring him to Rome because he was profitable to the ministry.
He said that in Second Timothy chapter 4 and verse #11 only
Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with
thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
The last thing that we read about him, the last thing that
we're told about John Mark, gives us an indication of just
complete restoration, complete reinstatement, and a full
dedication to the Lord's service.
Maybe he was too young, maybe he hadn't made sure of his calling,
maybe he had made some mistakes early on, but whatever it was,
he turned his life around and God was able to use him.
And not only that, but he made things right with Paul.
Paul made things right with John Mark, and Paul got to the point
where he could give that strong recommendation of him.
So Mark is the forgiven man. We can always make amends if
we're willing to do it. I think if you've gotten away
from the Lord, or maybe if there's been an, there's been a
time when you serve the Lord more in the past than you are
now. The Bible says in first John
chapter 1 and verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. He's always willing.
He's always able to put things back together, all the pieces,
and then use your life. And that's exactly what he did
with John Mark. Very quickly back in Colossians
chapter 4, We don't have a lot about this man named Justice,
but we do have a little bit. And I want to share that with
you this evening. We just talked about John Mark,
the forgiven man. But I want you to see this about
Justice. He was the friendly man.
And it's kind of startling to come across the name like Jesus,
which is called Justice. Jesus for us is a very sacred
name, but it was actually a pretty common name back in that
time. And I think it helps us to
remember that it was, it was common in among the Jews in that
day. And so Jesus was not anything
spectacular as it came in that way.
He was just an ordinary everyday name.
The Bible tells us in Isaiah that there was no form nor
comeliness about him. He was, he was not a handsome,
strong looking man. There was no, there was no
beauty in him. The Bible says that men should
desire him. I think Jesus was just a common,
common looking man with a common name.
He came and that's one of the things that's so significant
about the fact that this was not just a common man with a common
name. This was God in the flesh, but
Jesus, whose surname is Justice, which is called Justice, who are
of the circumcision. That means they were Jews.
And that surname justice really marks this man perhaps maybe as
belonging to a rigorous form of Judaism before his conversion.
But the fact that Paul says he was of the circumcision means
that he was a Jew. That was one of the rights that
made them a Jew. Paul suffered much from what he
calls the circumcision, the Judaistic, Legalistic mindset of
all of these people. And they're members of the
Jerusalem church. They had a lot of that.
James dealt with a lot of that in the, in the church at
Jerusalem. They were, they were Christians.
They believed in Christ, but they still had a lot of that
legalism and a lot of that stick to the law and, and, and follow
these things in, in that way. But these extreme Judaism
Judaizers, if you will, the, those who are of the
circumcision fought against Paul.
They were his enemies. And, and, and you know, they
dogged his footsteps. They, they subverted the
converts of the apostle Paul. They spread legalism and they
did their best at every turn to undermine Paul's message, to
undermine what he was trying to accomplish.
And I think had it not been for the circumcision, very likely
Paul would not have even been in prison, let alone killed,
because of these serious charges that they brought against him.
But here were Mark and Justice standing shoulder to shoulder
with Paul as some of his firmest friends, when Paul is in prison
and facing a death sentence. But Paul says that these men had
been a comfort to him. These only are my fellow workers
under the Kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.
That Greek word is used only here in the New Testament, but
it was a kind of a common medical term.
That word comfort. It's paregoric is the word that
the is where we get that English word from.
But it's it's a pair. That word paregoric means like
a, a soothing drug. It was a medical term.
And so when Paul calls them a comfort unto him, it's they're a
soothing drug to me. They're they're medicine to me.
They're such a help and and I'm so glad that they're here.
But justice had been a, a Good Samaritan to Paul, if you will.
He poured that soothing balm into the soul of the Apostle
Paul and they ministered to his physical needs as well as to
his, his spiritual and, and I dare say even his mental needs
as well. And we can do the same thing for
those who are of the household of faith who are struggling.
You know, there's a lot of people that get into that the
into that situation where they might be dealing with some form
of depression. You know, I said that Charles
Spurgeon spent a lot of his life and depression.
I've never been through it. I can't say that I know what it
feels like. And I think it's, you know, many
times it's our minds that are just not strong enough to handle
those things. But there are people who go
through it and there are people who who just seem like things
pile up one on top of the other and it just like they can't
catch a break. And as soon as they start
looking up and start seeing some things that are, you know, that
might look like they're good for them, something else comes out
of the out of left field and just knocks them down again.
And those are the those are the people that we can help.
Those are the people that we can be a comfort to our our comfort
can be like medicine to them. That's what justice did for the
apostle Paul. His comfort was like a soothing
medicine just just to be a friend to somebody may be all
that they need. I mentioned that we had a lady
that that came in this this evening before prayer meeting.
Brother George and I were here discussing some of the things
for the parade that's coming up. And she came and knocked on the
door and just tears streaming down her eyes.
She said, I don't need anything from you.
I just need somebody to pray for me.
I've had this happen and this happened and this happened and
this happened and I just, I, I drove by the church and I've
driven by the church many times and I saw that there was some
cars in the parking lot. I just need somebody to pray for
me. And we did that.
There's people out there who are struggling who just need
somebody to be an encouragement to them, who just need somebody
to pray for them, you know, And I think we get, we get
disillusioned sometimes because we think everybody wants
something, right? The only reason they're coming
is because they want money or the only reason they're coming
to me is because they think I can do something for them.
But sometimes all they need is just somebody to be a friend.
And I told her that I said, you come back.
She was actually, I mentioned that we were having a service
tonight. And she said, I can't come
tonight because I'm actually going home to take my mom to the
hospital. I think she's got something
wrong with her and she needs to go to the emergency room.
But I encourage, I said, come on Sunday.
We have a lot of ladies in our church who would like to be a
friend to you. Sometimes that's all people
need. That's what justice was for the
Apostle Paul. Just just somebody who was a
friend, gave him comfort, gave him that, that that soothing
balm that he needed to have just to be there when they need
somebody to lean on like John Mark, and like justice was for
the Apostle Paul. So there's other men that are
mentioned here as we already talked about, but what about
Mark the forgiving man? Are you willing to forgive
others? Are you willing to forgive
yourself for the things that maybe you've done in your life
and just go on and live for the Lord?
There's a lot of times when people say, I just, I've lived
such a horrible life. I can't believe I've done that.
There's no way that God ever could use me.
And that's just not true. Listen, if God forgave you and
the sin is against him, don't you think he wants us to forgive
ourselves, put it under the blood of Christ and just go on
and live for him? That's what he wants for us.
John Mark was a forgiving man and he didn't, he didn't, he
didn't grovel under the weight of abandoning the apostle Paul.
He got that forgiveness and he just went on and did something
for the Lord and it became profitable to the ministry,
justice, friendly man, somebody who was just willing to be there
and be a comfort to somebody that needed it.
How do you line up men of example?
We talked about five of them. A lot of things that we can do
to be a help to others. A lot of things that we can do
to be useful in God's service. Paul gives us as we close out
this book of Colossians 5, maybe more men who are actually a
great example to us. How do you stack up when it
comes to them? Where do you line up?
What do you need to change to help you become like these?
That obviously God chose to put in the word of God to be an
example for us. Great help, great help that they
are. Let's pray.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us and
thank you for the men whose lives you chose to single out.
And I'm sure there was many, many people around the Apostle
Paul and in the churches that the Apostle Paul visited and
wrote to that were examples. But you chose these few men in
particular to be an example to us, and we follow their example
because it's obvious that they followed you and God.
May you help us where we fall short.
Thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.