When You're Afraid to Try Again | Surviving the Springtime Season | SEASONS

Failure has a way of convincing us that we’re done. I mean you try and you’re not successful and some of us try and try and try again, and still we don’t get through. We by then believe that if the door closed once, twice, three times, it will always stay closed. Today we're looking at a man who was told he wasn't fit for the work, and what God did with him afterward.

The Springtime Season. When you're afraid to try again.

Lord, You are the God who restores what the locust has eaten, and we bless Your name for that this morning. We right here are living proof that You are the Redeemer, a forgiving God, The One who gives new life. With gratitude, we come before You thanking You for this day and for every fresh start You are still writing into our lives. Father, some of us are carrying the sting of a door that shut, a leader who counted us out, or a failure we haven't fully recovered from, and it has made us afraid to try again. Today, we need to hear a Word from You, a reminder to set us on our way rejoicing. Give us the patience to grow through this springtime, even quietly, until the fruit is undeniable. Remind us that the same hand that removed us from one assignment can still call us back to another. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Most of us have been disqualified by somebody at some point — a boss, a pastor, a parent, a friend — somebody who looked at our failure and decided that was the final word on who we are. If you were with us for the Division season, you already met the first half of this story. Remember Paul and Barnabas? Today we take this further.

Read Acts 15

Acts 15:37-38 (KJV): "And Barnabas determined to take with them 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."

Paul's judgment wasn't cruel necessarily. Mark had left them mid-journey before, so Paul was perhaps being cautious. But anyhow you look at it, this was still a rejection, spoken plainly, in front of the whole ministry team.

Acts 15:39 (KJV): "And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus."

So we are looking at a different angle to that which we discussed last week. Here, we note that Barnabas didn't abandon Mark after the failure. He took him anyway, and gave him a second assignment while Paul was still convinced he wasn't ready.

So notice that what happens next isn't recorded loudly. There's no dramatic comeback scene in Scripture. Mark simply goes to work, season after season, mostly unseen, until the fruit of it couldn’t be denied anymore.

Years later, Paul himself is telling other churches to receive Mark. Something changed — not in the story, but in Mark's consistency. Here’s what it says in this verse:

Colossians 4:10 (KJV): "Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;)"

We already know how this part ends, because we sat with it in the Division season: near the end of his life, Paul asks for Mark by name and calls him profitable for the ministry — the same word once used to reject him now used to describe his value. 

What we didn't sit with yet is what those quiet, unseen years actually cost Mark, and what God does with a cost like that.

Joel 2:25 (KJV): "And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you."

See, God didn’t just give Mark a new season. He redeemed what seemed lost and wasted in the old one and made it useful again. So that nothing about those years away was wasted; they were part of how Mark became profitable.

Isaiah 61:7 (KJV): "For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them."

I am so glad, and I think you can say the same, that God's restoration doesn't just set the account back to zero. Whatever a season cost Mark in standing or reputation, the promise here is double — not just recovery, but increase on top of it.

I don’t live in a region that experiences the seasons of weather like most of you do, but I believe it is correct to say that springtime doesn't look like much while it's happening. There's no harvest yet, just quiet growth that nobody really sees and so nobody’s applauding. 

But the beautiful thing about it, is that growth is still happening and growth in secret is still growth. Hallelujah.

Family, maybe you've been counted out by someone whose opinion mattered to you — a leader, a mentor, someone whose 'no' felt final. 

Remember this Bible story today: Mark heard that 'no' as well. But he didn't argue his way back in; he simply kept showing up faithfully until his life made the case for him. 

If you're afraid to try again after a failure or a rejection, let Mark's story tell you: the door that closed on one assignment is not the same door God plans to use next. Glory to God.

It was all about the Springtime Season today — what it means to be afraid to try again after failure or rejection. John Mark was the same man Paul once called unfit for the work and, years later, specifically requested by name, calling him profitable for the ministry. 

If you've been counted out by someone, understand this: their assessment of you at your worst season is not the final word on your life. 

2 Timothy 4:11 shows the same man restored, and Joel 2:25 promises God restores the very years that looked wasted. Hallelujah, Amen!

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