Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is useful to me in the ministry.Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee; for he is useful to me for ministering.
3 sermons cite this verse
… By the way, Paul ultimately reconciled with John Mark because he wrote in 2 Timothy 4.11 to Timothy Get Mark here and bring him with you because he's helpful to me and my ministry. So in a way, we could go back to this story and say Paul was right in what he said. He was saying to John Mark, look, young man, you need to be responsible. You need to keep your commitments. And when you say you're gonna do something, you need to do it so you can't come on the missionary journey with us this time. But then later, through the actions of John Mark, no doubt Paul said, you know, I like that kid. Send him over to me. He's been helpful to me. So we can learn from our mistakes. Paul did not hold a grudge. Neither should we. In the book of Genesis we have Abraham and Lot. They had a conflict. Abraham was Lot's uncle. One day Abraham said to Lot, look nephew, it's always drama with you, okay? …
… He's not up to the task. But we see in 2 Timothy 4.11, which is probably the last letter that Paul writes, he says this, bring Mark because he is useful to me for ministry. Paul practices what he preaches. 2 Timothy 4.11, the fact that Mark's name is listed in this letter, prove that what this entire book about is doable. So don't you walk out of here and say, oh man, that's just for the Bible, that's just for Christians, that's just for religious people. No, Paul lived it. It's possible, you can do it. Forgiveness is a hard road. Let's not pretend that it's not. It's a hard road. It is a hard journey. But the biblical fact is that it's a journey you and I must walk. We must walk it. Even though it's difficult, even though it's painful, there is no biblical excuse to withhold forgiveness from those who've wronged you. Is reconciliation always possible? No. Sometimes it's not. Is forgiveness required? Yes. Even if you are never able to tell the person that you forgive them, even if you are never able to be in a room with them because they are unsafe, you need to move towards forgiving them. …
… So be diligent to come to me quickly, for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica, Cretans for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. And skip down to verse 16. At my first defense, no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. See, all these people are bailing on Paul. Everybody's forsaking him. They are ashamed of Paul because they're ashamed of the gospel that he preached, and they're fearful of their lives. Paul was arrested. If Paul was arrested, then maybe we're next, that's when you need friends. That's when you need friends showing up, not just once, but again and again and again. In Proverbs 20, verse six, it says, most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man? you always get somebody, well, you know, I've done this, I've done that, brag about themselves, but who can find a faithful man? Paul found one. His name was Onesiphorus. Because faithfulness is not doing the right thing once, it's doing the right thing over and over and over again. …