Family Devotional: Not By Agreement

Dear Mayflower family, This week the page grows out of "Not By Agreement," from Acts 15:36–41. The heart of it is this: God's work keeps going because of God's grace, not because the people doing it are strong or because they always agree. Two men who loved Jesus, Paul and Barnabas, could not agree about whether to take a young man named Mark with them, so they went two separate ways, and God did not lose one thing in it. The picture your table will be sitting with is the one from Sunday morning: two ships left Antioch, and one gospel was on both of them. Read together, talk together, pray together, sing together. Here is this week's page. Pastor Anton Not By Agreement Family Devotional · Acts 15:36–41 · September 27, 2026 This page works two ways: as one ten-minute sitting at the table, or as five short Monday-to-Friday steps from the same page. There is no wrong way. This week's Big Idea God's work keeps going because of God's grace, not because the people doing it are strong and not because they always agree. Memory verse "having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord." Acts 15:40 (ESV) 1. READ Read Acts 15:36–41 out loud. Stay on this one passage all week. Monday: verse 36. Paul says, let us go back and see how our friends are doing. Tuesday: verses 37–38. Two good men wanted two different things for one young man. Wednesday: verse 39. They could not agree, so they went two different ways. Thursday: verse 40. The church prayed and handed Paul over to the grace of the Lord. Friday: verse 41. Paul kept going, and the churches grew stronger. 2. THINK Paul and Barnabas both loved Jesus and both loved people, and they still could not agree about whether young Mark should come along, so they went two different ways. The Bible never tells us which man was right. It tells us that the church prayed and handed Paul over to the grace of the Lord Jesus, the same Jesus who was handed over on the cross for people who ran away from Him and who then came back and found them by name, and that grace kept the work going and made the churches stronger. 3. TALK You do not need to ask them all. For young children: Paul and Barnabas could not agree, and they went two different ways. Did God stop taking care of them? Who kept the good news going? For school-age children: The church did not try to fix the argument. They prayed and handed Paul over to the grace of the Lord. What is something you cannot fix that you could hand over to God this week? For teens: Much later, Paul writes to Timothy and asks for Mark by name, and calls him very useful (2 Timothy 4:11). The young man who quit became the one Paul wanted with him at the end. Is there someone you have quietly decided is not worth another try, or someone you are afraid has decided that about you? What changes if a person is held by God's grace and not by their own record or anyone's good opinion of them? For the whole table: Who is one person in our church or our family that we have not seen in a long time, and what is one thing we could do this week to go and see how they are? 4. DO Do this: Pick one person our family has not seen in a while and go see them this week. Take something small with you, a card the children made or a plate of cookies, and ask one question out loud: how are you? Then stay long enough to hear the whole answer. Another way to do this: Sit down together and call that person on speakerphone so everyone can say hello, or write four sentences on a card, have every person at the table sign it, and walk it to their door or their mailbox. 5. PRAY Father, thank You that Your Son was handed over for people who left Him, and that He came back and found them by name. Thank You that Your work keeps going on Your grace and not on how strong we are or how well we agree. Please save every person at this table who does not yet trust Jesus, and grow the ones who do. Make us a family that goes to people instead of keeping track of them from far away. In Jesus' name, Amen. One faith talk this week is a win.