Let Them Walk

Scripture:

Acts 13:13

Acts 15:36-41

2nd Timothy 4:11-17

 

 

Introduction:

 

I want to continue the series “Overcoming Church Hurt”. However, what I am preaching today is not limited just to Church Hurt. 

 

Some of us in the room today know what it feels like to be deserted unexpectedly. We know what it feels like to need someone and them turn their backs and walk away leaving our minds captivated and fixated on what we could have possibly done wrong to cause them to make the decision to walk away from us. 

 

Paul is traveling with Barnabas and John Mark, the same Mark who wrote the gospel of Mark. The one who has an eye account of Jesus and wrote down the miracles that he witnessed him perform is now traveling with a man who in one season of his life was persecuting the church and now he is planting churches and teaching people about the same Jesus that Mark found himself writing about. 

 

You would think this was right up Marks alley. Yet there came a day when Mark decided to return home and leave the ministry. He decided to leave Paul and Barnabas behind and go his separate ways leaving them to do ministry together until Barnabas and Paul got into a heated argument and he followed suit. 

 

Leaving Paul and joining with Mark to do ministry. Both departures planted a seed of bitterness in Pauls life and we see this when he writing Timothy in 2nd Timothy chapter 4. 

 

People are going to enter into your life but likewise people are also going to leave your life. 

 

I feel like helping someone find freedom this morning…

 

Their exit was your entrance into a greater dimension. 

 

What they thought would stifle your growth, only propelled you further because the calling on your life is not dependent upon others and their choice to stay or leave. The fact of the matter is you were called before they came into your life and you will still be called long after they walk out of it. 

 

When they choose to walk out, don’t let their decision to leave imprison you mentally and spiritually. 

 

Their ability didn’t get you where you are. Their talent didn’t set you up. God put you where you are and he set you up for your current assignment and when they walk away, he will still be setting you up and getting you where he desires you to be. 

 

Deuteronomy 28:6 says:

“Blessed will you be when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.”

 

If they want to walk, let them. But don’t get bitter, get better. 

 

• John Mark’s Departure

 

Acts 13:13 is something that we often overlook. Paul is traveling with people whom he considered to be colleagues and ministry partners. They have ate together, prayed together, and even cried together. They planted churches together and preached the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and saw many come to salvation but all of the sudden, without reason, Mark decides to leave. 

 

Was the ministry too much for him? Did he not enjoy traveling with Paul and Barnabas? Did someone make him mad to the point that he wanted to leave? 

 

No one knows because the Bible does not emphasize the reason that Mark left. It does not spend a lot of time giving us the back story but in the very next verse this is what it says regarding Paul’s future in ministry. 

 

But going on…

 

Just because they walked out does not mean you should give up. You didn’t come this far in your journey with Jesus just to give up when other people cashed out on the vision. 

 

Even when they walk out, HE should be your reason to go on

 

If they want to walk out, buy them some shoes and tell them to start stepping but don’t give up on the vision just because they did. It may look differently than it has ever looked before. It may take you some time to adjust to their absence. 

 

Your purpose is not determined by their presence. 

 

The Bible does not say why mark went back home to Jerusalem, it just says that he left. 

 

You aren’t always going to be given a letter of resignation with a clear explanation.

 

But Gods dismissal s greater than they can explain. They didn’t leave by choice, God dismissed them and delivered you in the process. 

 

If God removes them from your life it’s because they weren’t beneficial for this season of your life. 

 

Many would have begged and pleaded with mark to stay. The reason that some of you are going through what you are going through is because you can’t stand to see them walk away. 

 

Paul didn’t beg Mark to stay, because he understood what we need to learn…

 

Don’t chase who God removed! 

 

LET THEM WALK! 

 

• Barnabas Departure

 

Paul didn’t chase after Mark, but he continued in his calling. He continued to plant churches and establish believers.

 

But Paul got this idea to revisit all of the churches they had planted and Barnabas recommended bringing Mark back on. Paul had reservations because of the way that Mark just up and left them when they really needed him. Barnabas was close to Mark so he felt that they should bring him back. 

 

This led to a sharp disagreement and Barnabas and Paul parted ways. Paul continued on and later was introduced to Silas and Timothy. Barnabas traveled with Mark and continued ministry with him. 

 

This tells me that ministry was not the issue with Mark but rather a disliking of Paul and the decisions he was making as an Apostle. Barnabas didn’t like his decision making either so he left as well. 

 

If they leave you based on a decision you made for your spiritual  life, they weren’t with you for your betterment but rather for your deterioration. 

 

some people are only with you as long as there is something to benefit from you, but I came to tell you, where God is taking you; not everyone can go with you. But you have a vision and direction from God and if they aren’t pushing you to it, then you don’t need them around to keep you from it. 

 

You better be careful who you allow to walk with you. 

 

Proverbs 27:17 says:

“Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

 

You are only as sharp as the person you are walking with. 

 

You will never be sharp while in the company of butter knife individuals. 

 

Barnabas left Paul after a sharp disagreement over something so small. Some people will spend years in your life while looking for the first exit sign they can find. But it was a blessing that Barnabas left when he did. Imagine the damage he could have caused had he stayed with Paul while secretly disliking him. 

 

Paul didn’t argue with him when he left. He didn’t drop to his knees and beg him to stay. He just responded the same way that he did to Mark…If you want to leave, then hit the trail and start walking!

 

If they can walk away from you in a season when you need them the most…let them walk! If you have to walk alone on a prayer and a promise…then walk alone and trust God!

 

Can we just pull some 90s Diamond Rio out…You start walking your way and I’ll start walking mine..

 

But whatever you do, Let them walk!

 

When someone walks out  it leaves room for someone new to walk in.

 

When Barnabas and Mark walked out, Silas and Timothy walked in. 

 

Mark and Barnabas were not committed but Silas and Timothy were. 

May whomever you need for the season you are in enter when everyone else walks out. 

 

Sometimes God will move those who are not committed to bring in someone who will go the distance with you, but unless you are willing to say goodbye, you’ll never meet those people who are beneficial for your current season. 

 

God will place people in your life who desires to pour into you. 

 

This is why your circle is important. Because everyone is pouring something into your life. 

 

What people pour into you will eventually overflow out of you and some of y’all are bitter because God is ending relationships and severing friendships but he heard conversations you didn’t. He saw text messages you didn’t see and he didn’t want their Jealousy and Bitterness filling your life because that is not what he desires to come out of you. 

 

Some people will work harder trying to keep you from purpose rather than helping you find it because we have developed a generation of participation award winners who cant stand someone else to excel in something more than they did. 

 

LET. THEM. WALK!

 

• The Ministry of Reconciliation 

 

If you are gonna let them walk you need to learn this….

 

Get better, not bitter. 

 

Paul, the one who wrote 2/3 of the New Testament, got bitter. In the way he viewed mark and in the way he viewed Barnabas…he got bitter. 

 

Because they left when he needed them the most, he cut them off.

 

When you let people walk its not so you can cut them off and write them out of your life, but that God can do an individual work in you and the other person so that you are more effective when you come together corporately. 

 

Y’all thought I was giving you some ground to be done with some people when in reality I am telling you that through Christ we have the ministry of reconciliation. 

 

Paul allowed Mark to walk without chasing him and got bitter because of his departure but when he was fixing to die, Mark was the one Paul asked for. 

 

Why?

 

He told Timothy to bring mark because he was useful to Paul for service. 

 

Be careful who you cut off in one season because when they grow, they may be useful to you in another season. 

 

Paul tells us in 2nd Timothy 4:16 why he got bitter. Because ALL had deserted him. 

 

But here is the cure for his bitterness….

 

He said “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. 

 

Though everyone else may walk away, he will stand with you and strengthen you. 

 

• Conclusion:

 

I find it ironic that Paul is writing Timothy on his own death bed and he is telling him to preach the word, but the last request that Paul had was to see the one he last saw when he was walking in the opposite direction down the trail that led back to Jerusalem. 

 

Some of us need to say goodbye to some people. 

 

Some of us on the other hand need to reconcile and let go of what happened that caused our hurt. 

 

Freedom is not only found when they leave but when we are healed from the damage they caused before they left. The things they said or the actions they did leaves things embedded in the your mind. But until you let that go, you’ll never be ready for what God has in store next. 

 

Their exit was your entrance to something greater. 

 

Get better, not bitter.