How Can You Know That God Chose You?

John chapter 15, starting at verse 12.

John 15 · chapter mention

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing.

But I have called you friends.

For all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit,

and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

Whoever hates me hates my Father also.

If I had not done, I'm sorry, yeah, if I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.

But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.

But the word that is written in the law must be fulfilled.

They hated me without a cause.

But when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

And you also will bear witness about me because you have been with me from the beginning.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God indeed.

You may be seated.

Would you pray with me?

Father, I pray that your word will go forth with power.

That the word of Jesus Christ will be clear.

I pray, Lord, that you will open the eyes of our heart to behold Christ as he speaks to his disciples.

I pray that you will strip us of our good works.

Strip us of our false assurance.

I pray that you will drive us to depend on Christ, the true vine.

We pray, Lord, that for those who you call your friends, those for whom you died,

that you will give a true assurance, a deeper hope, a more pure joy.

That you'll do all of this for your glory, for our good, and for Christ's sake we ask.

Amen.

Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

How do you know that God chose you?

How do you know that God chose you?

A Victorian lady in London once asked Charles Spurgeon, the preacher there,

if it's possible to reconcile God's sovereignty with man's responsibility.

You've been in those debates.

God's sovereignty or man's responsibility.

Maybe you know the answer.

Spurgeon said, I wouldn't try.

Why not?

You don't reconcile friends.

The Bible in some places puts a lot of emphasis on your responsibility and mine.

Choose this day whom you will serve.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, said Joshua.

Jesus commanded, repent and believe.

There's a responsibility.

You must respond to the gospel when you hear it.

That's on you to respond.

In other words, when you don't respond with faith and repentance, believing in Christ,

you are standing in defiance of King Jesus.

You are rebelling against Him.

He says, obey my command.

Jesus says, bear fruit.

His commands are very clear.

But look at verse 16 that we just read.

Jesus says, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit that abides.

Look at what he says in verse 19.

You are not of the world.

Why?

Because I chose you out of this world.

The Bible teaches that you will only repent if you have been chosen out of this world.

Jesus says, you must be born again in order to believe.

Babies don't choose to be born.

That's something that the Spirit does.

And Jesus says in this same chapter, apart from me, you can bear no fruit.

The emphasis on these verses is on God's sovereignty.

So the big question for you and for me, how do I know?

How can I know that God chose me?

I believe in these passages here, this passage, these verses,

our Lord Jesus gives us five answers to that question and a caution.

So I'm going to try to bring to you five points of reflection.

You can know that God chose you.

Five points of reflection and also one caution.

Number one, you can know that God chose you if he causes you to love his friends.

You can know that God chose you, number one, if he causes you to love his friends.

Do you?

Do you?

Look at verse 12.

Jesus says, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

In verse 14, he says, you are my friends if you do what I command you to do.

Jesus is saying this,

My people, those who belong to me, that I say are my friends, they will obey me.

My people will do what Israel, national Israel, could never do.

That's why the New Testament calls Christians the true Israel.

And that is to show divine love to one another.

My people, Jesus says, will keep God's moral law.

They will respond in obedience to King Jesus.

So the big question is, who are his friends?

Who are those that Jesus laid down his life for?

He says, there's no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends.

We need to make sense of what Jesus preaches here with all of Scripture.

Is all of the world a friend of Christ?

The obvious answer is no.

But think about what this means.

In Psalm 2, the world, left on its own, hates God.

The world, left on its own, mocks King Jesus.

The world, on its own, is at enmity with God.

Ecclesiastes 9.3 says,

Your heart, O child of man, every single one,

is full of evil and madness.

So, who is it that's a friend of God?

If that's how the whole world is.

Well, Romans 5.10 answers that question.

While we, we all, were enemies with God,

He reconciled us by the death of His Son.

So, who are the true friends of God?

It's those who were reconciled to the Father by the death of the Son.

It's those for whom Christ died.

There is no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends.

You can know that God chose you.

If He causes you to have that love for His friends.

What kind of love?

Self-sacrificing love.

He laid down His life for His friends.

Do you love Christians?

Do you love those for whom Jesus Christ, the Son, shed His precious blood?

Think about all that is said in that phrase that Jesus,

the God-man, the second person of the Trinity,

He laid it all down.

What all did Christ lay down for you who He calls His friends?

John Gill helped me see this.

Christ came down from heaven.

He laid aside His glory and royal majesty.

He laid down His life.

Not only His gold and silver and the riches of heaven,

not only did He forsake all the riches that He could claim on the world He created,

they were all His already.

But He laid all of that down.

And what's more, He laid down His very life.

There is nothing dearer to a man than Himself.

His all.

And that's what Christ laid down for His friends.

How do you know if you are Christ's friends?

How do you know if Christ laid down His life for you?

He says,

those that I purchase with my blood,

they will have my love one for another.

It's a promise.

You don't earn Christ's love by your obedience.

It's the opposite.

It's Christ's obedience to His Father

that earns a love that you're incapable of generating.

He earned this love for you

and puts it inside of you and inside of me.

King Jesus calls you to love His bride,

His church,

the family of God.

King Jesus calls you to have that kind of self-sacrificing love

for the family in the row next to you,

in front or behind you.

that you would lay down your life one for another.

God did not choose you because you were fruitful.

God makes you fruitful

because He chose you.

You can know that God chose you

if He causes you

more and more and more and more

to love His friends.

You can also know that God chose you,

number two,

if He bears fruit in your life.

You can know that God did in fact choose you

if He bears His fruit in your life.

Does He?

Look at verse 15.

No longer do I call you servants,

for the servant does not know

what his master is doing.

But I have called you friends,

for all that I have heard from my Father

I have made known to you.

You did not choose me,

but I chose you

and appointed you

that you should go

and bear fruit

and that your fruit should abide

so that whatever you ask the Father

in my name,

He may give it to you.

These things I command you

so that you will love one another.

The ironic thing is that

Jesus is promising something to the disciples

that they don't have yet.

He says,

you're my friends because you have it all.

I've revealed the gospel to you,

the plan of the Father.

You have it all.

And they're sitting there

not understanding this great teaching.

But remember,

He has told them

that the Spirit will come back

and He'll remind you of these things.

Can you just picture the joy

and the humility of old man John,

the old apostle now,

looking back and the Spirit reminding him

word for word

what Christ promised.

He's saying,

I did not understand this.

Yet He's saying,

I'm His friend.

But a servant is the one

who doesn't understand.

I was a servant,

but He's calling me a friend.

The glorious truth here is this.

The best morality in the world

will not prove a man to be a Christian.

In the words of Charles Spurgeon,

but if a man has no Christian love,

it proves that he is not a child of God.

See, no amount of good works

can prove to yourself

you're a Christian

or save you that way.

However, the caution is there.

If there is no love

that God has to put in your heart,

we do have proof.

You are not engrafted into the true vine.

But think about the encouragement.

He's speaking as immediate audiences

from the Lord Jesus Christ

to the 12 disciples

or the 11 that remain

and He'll pull Paul into this.

And to the disciples,

He's giving these promises.

And through the disciples to the church

and through the church

over the centuries to us.

And that's why the disciples

are an encouragement to us

because the disciples

did not bear fruit

of selfless love

toward one another.

Remember,

who was it that washed their feet?

They couldn't even wash each other's feet

just a few hours prior.

Jesus Christ Himself

had to show that basic love

toward them.

The disciples did not know

what their Master was doing.

They were servants.

But by grace,

Jesus says,

you are my friends

and you've been appointed

to bear good fruit.

It would happen eventually

even if it wasn't evident yet.

But that's who they already are.

He declared it of them.

The disciples did not choose

to follow Jesus Christ.

But He says,

by grace,

I'm the one who called you.

I'm the one who chose you.

And I am the one

who am revealing to you

all that the Father

has shown to me.

and that the Spirit will remind

and inspire in the New Testament.

The disciples did not obey Christ

even to pray with Him.

Later that night,

they all fell asleep.

Do you remember that?

They did not abide in Him.

The disciples,

they forsook Christ.

They ran away from Him.

They abandoned Jesus

to save their own lives.

So they thought.

God did not choose the disciples

because they were fruitful.

But because He chose them,

look how fruitful He made

His true disciples

by the power of the Spirit.

That same principle is true

for you and me.

What an encouragement.

God did not choose you

because you were fruitful.

He chose you because

He will make you fruitful.

Your obedience does not make you

friends with Christ,

but obedience does characterize

all of Christ's true friends.

Jesus says,

I choose you.

You are my friend.

Augustine, profound insight.

What is a friend?

A single soul dwelling in two bodies.

Isn't that a beautiful way

to describe our union to Christ?

A single soul.

You are united spiritually with Christ.

You're in this body on earth,

but your soul is united to Him.

You are friends with God

through Jesus Christ.

You can know that God chose you

if He bears fruit

in your life.

You can also know that God chose you,

number three,

if you are not of this world.

You can know that God chose you

if you don't belong to this world.

Do you?

Are you of this world still?

Look at what He says in verse 18.

If the world hates you,

know that it has hated me

before it hated you.

If you were of the world,

the world would love you as its own.

But because you are not of the world,

but I chose you out of the world,

therefore,

the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you,

a servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me,

they will also persecute you.

If they kept my word,

they will also keep yours.

When the Lord Jesus would minister

in a town or village,

there were many who would come and listen,

but we're also told that many turned their backs

and walked away,

didn't believe,

but some believed.

Even after He rose from the dead,

we're told that same thing.

Many came and they bore witness

that Christ is alive.

Over 500 witnesses.

But yet many still did not believe.

They abandoned Him.

Jesus says,

Disciples,

you abandon me,

you will abandon me

in the hours to come.

But when my spirit is on you,

I'm going to inspire the word of God,

the New Testament.

And the church for thousands of years

will hold on to these words.

And I will make them hear my word

through what simple fishermen like you

are going to put down in writing.

I will breathe out the rest of God's revelation

through men like you.

What a glorious promise.

Jesus says,

This is true for you, disciples,

because you are my servants.

He's making an argument

from the greater to the lesser.

Christ is greater.

The disciples and you and I,

we are lesser.

Whatever is true of the one who is greater,

by consequence,

becomes true of us.

He is the master.

We are the servants.

And He says,

If they persecute the master,

what would you expect as the servants?

Of course they're going to come after you.

And this came true,

we read in Acts 1-3.

Jesus presented Himself alive to them

after His suffering

by many proofs.

And He appeared to them for 40 days

speaking to them about the kingdom of God.

And then these disciples,

including Paul,

all of the apostles,

went forth with this glorious revelation

and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And what did they do?

In Acts 14,

they heralded boldly

for Jesus Christ.

And they bore witness

of the word of His grace.

All that Christ was promising them now,

it comes out to play

in the history of the church

in the book of Acts.

They would die as martyrs,

but they knew

the world hates them

and hates the message of Christ

because it first hated God Himself.

Well, how is this true for you and me?

You are not of this world,

according to verse 18,

if you are hated

by the world for Christ's sake

because He chose you

out of the world.

We experience the hatred of the world

in mild ways.

We need to be bracing ourselves

and training ourselves

and being disciplined

to be hated even more.

You are not of this world,

according to verse 19,

if you hear the voice of Christ,

your Good Shepherd,

calling you.

Do you hear Him?

Or do you hear the clamor

and the loud voices of the world

over the voice of your Good Shepherd?

You are not of the world,

according to verse 19,

if you are freed

from the ruler of this world.

And Christ is truly your master now.

Satan can no longer claim

any dominion over you.

You are set free

and you belong to Christ.

You have a good master.

You are not of this world,

according to verse 20,

if you keep the words of Christ

and His word given to you

by the apostles.

You keep the word of God.

You read the New Testament

and His Spirit presses it to you

as truth

and He feeds your soul.

We have a danger.

Though we belong to Christ,

our bodies are battling against sin.

Thomas Watson said,

all the danger

is when the world

finds some way

into your heart.

He gives this awesome metaphor.

He says,

the water

is useful for sailing

the ship.

So the water would be like

the world

and the ship is your life.

All the danger is

when the water

gets into the ship.

And so the fear

is when the world

gets into the heart.

Don't shipwreck your faith.

Don't be entangled

in this world.

You do not belong

to this world.

Christ chose you

out of the world.

And if the world hates you,

take that as an encouragement

that God chose you

out of this world.

God did not choose you

because you were fruitful.

God makes you fruitful

because He chose you.

You can know

that God chose you

if you are not

of this world.

Here comes the caution.

If you don't believe

in Jesus Christ,

then you are perishing

with this world.

If you don't believe

in Jesus Christ

as your personal

Lord and Savior,

you remain in your sin.

You remain under

the wrath of God.

You remain in bondage

to this world

that is perishing.

Do you believe?

Do you truly believe?

Look at what Jesus says

starting in verse 21.

All these things they do,

to you,

on account of my name

because they do not know

Him who sent me.

If I had not come

and spoken to them,

they would not have been

guilty of sin.

But now they have no excuse

for their sin.

Whoever hates me

hates my Father also.

If I had not done

among them

the works that

no one else did,

they would not be guilty

of sin.

But now they have seen

and hated

both me and my Father.

The word that is written

in their law

must be fulfilled.

They hated me

without a cause.

If you mock

those Christ

calls His friends,

He says,

you persecute Christ Himself

in verse 21.

And this reveals

in your heart

you hate God.

If you make excuses

to deny His word,

to protect

your precious sin,

then you don't know God.

That's what He says

in verse 22.

If you will dismiss

all of Christ's works

that He revealed

in Scripture,

and you'll say

it's made up,

it's just something

the men wrote down.

In verse 24,

He says,

you don't know

the true salvation

that all of those signs

are pointing to.

If you deny Christ,

then you hate Him.

you rebel

against King Jesus,

although He has done

nothing

to deserve that.

Tell me,

are not many of you

despairing

at what has been said?

That's what

George Whitefield

asked

a group

after preaching

the gospel.

That despair,

that caution,

that's a blessing

if it drives you

to Christ.

He said,

oh,

that the world

was filled

with this despair.

Jesus came down

to save us,

not only from

the guilt of sin,

but also

from the power

of sin.

You do not belong

to the world.

If you are

caught up

in the pattern

of this world,

and you are

secretly loving sin

more than you

love your Savior,

you need to

be warned.

This world

is perishing.

Do you belong

to this perishing

world,

or do you belong

to Christ?

If you belong

to Christ,

He chose you

out of this world.

So the big question

today is this,

how do you know

that God chose you

out of the world?

Do you want to know

that?

Do you want to know

that God has chosen

me?

Then there's one thing

He calls you to do.

Repent.

Every person

who believes

and repents

is chosen by God.

That means the Holy

Spirit is causing you

to give up your pride,

to turn to Him,

to humble yourself,

to receive His

free salvation.

As we walk

through His

Scripture,

as we read

these words,

we're hearing

the words of

Jesus Christ Himself.

Do you see Him?

If you're opening

your eyes,

it's the Spirit

causing you

to behold Jesus.

You see God

when you see Jesus.

He lives for you

off of the pages

of the Bible,

before your eyes.

So to walk

away from Him,

to reject Him,

is to hate Him,

is to despise Him.

And it makes us

no better than those

who would put Him

on a cross

in a few hours.

Now the comfort

is many of us

have heard the Gospel

and the Spirit

has shown us the Lord,

but we're still

tangled up

with the world.

And the church

was born out of those

who cried,

crucify Him.

And the disciples

who fled Him

to spare their life,

He said,

I laid down

my life for you

and I call you friends

when you abandoned me.

So every time

we have forsaken Christ,

it drives us back

just like the disciples

to rely on Him,

not ourselves.

And to receive

His free salvation,

to rest in Him,

to abide in Him,

to truly see Him,

our Good Shepherd,

and to follow Him

more and more each day.

Be comforted

by this promise.

You did not

choose God.

God has chosen you.

While you're running away,

He calls to you,

come to me.

Come to me

and find rest

for your soul.

You're not going to find it

anywhere else.

And God did not choose you

because you were

being fruitful already,

but because He has chosen you,

He promises

He will bear His fruit

in your life

so that He gets

all the glory.

But if you don't believe

in Jesus Christ,

then you are perishing

with this world.

There is a world

that is yet to come.

Two more points of reflection.

You can know

that God chose you

if His Spirit

strengthens your faith

in Christ.

You can know

that God chose you

if His Holy Spirit

is strengthening

your faith in Him.

Look at verse 26.

Jesus says,

when the Helper comes,

see, you need the Helper.

You need the God Himself,

the Holy Spirit,

to apply all of this

to make it so

in your life.

When the Helper comes,

whom I will send to you

from My Father,

the Spirit of truth

who proceeds

from the Father,

He will bear witness

about Me.

So if you do believe,

if you have

the gift of faith

from God,

it's because the Spirit

is bearing witness

to you.

It is God,

the Holy Spirit,

bearing witness,

causing you

to believe

by faith.

So He says,

when the Helper comes,

beginning of verse 26,

He will bear witness

about Me.

End of verse 26.

And what He says

in the middle

gives us a wonderful

doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

He says two things

about this sending

or proceeding

of the Spirit.

First He says,

the Spirit whom

I will send.

Do you see that

in verse 26?

The Spirit whom

I will send,

the Spirit of truth,

who proceeds

from the Father.

So,

a couple of points

that we need to

pay attention

and hold on to here.

The Holy Spirit,

Jesus Christ Himself

is revealing,

the Holy Spirit

proceeds

in the active,

continuous tense.

This is a doctrine

called eternal generation

or eternal procession.

Like,

the Holy Spirit

is always proceeding

from God the Father.

The Holy Spirit

did not come into being

or was not a created being.

The Holy Spirit

has eternally

been proceeding

in the present tense

continuously

from the Father.

But yet,

there's a special

pouring out

of the Spirit

that was reserved

for the fullness of time

when the Son

would accomplish His work.

And then,

He,

as He ascends,

He says,

it's good for you.

It's good for you

that I go

because then I will send

the Spirit

to apply it,

who?

To my friends.

My friends will get

the helper,

the same helper

that I got.

The Holy Spirit

will bear witness

to the friends of Christ,

to the truth

that Jesus Christ

is not a seed

of Adam's

cursed line,

but Jesus Christ

was born

to be the promised

seed of woman.

In Luke 1,

Luke 1:35

verse 35,

we're told that

it was the power

of the Most High

that overshadowed Mary.

Remember,

the helper,

that word is

paraclete,

advocate,

witness,

comforter.

And a paraclete

is one who knew

the character

of the person

that they're bearing

witness about.

The Holy Spirit

knew Jesus

from the very beginning.

The moment

of conception,

and before that

an eternity past

as being the one God.

The Holy Spirit

bears witness

to the truth

of who Jesus is.

The Holy Spirit

also bore witness

to the truth

that Jesus

withstood

every temptation

and He remained

sinless.

He showed

the perfect love

of heaven

on earth

on behalf

of fallen mankind.

We're told

in Luke 4,

11,

it was the Holy Spirit

that drove Jesus

into the wilderness

to be tempted.

It was the Holy Spirit

that brought Jesus back

and by the power

of the Holy Spirit,

Jesus Christ

ministered.

The Holy Spirit

bears witness

to the truth

that Jesus

fulfilled the mission

that the Father

gave Him

to accomplish.

We read this

in Luke 4,

18.

Jesus said,

The Spirit

of the Lord

is upon me.

He has anointed me

to proclaim

good news

to the poor.

He has sent me

to proclaim

liberty to the captives

and recovery of sight

to the blind,

to set at liberty

those who are oppressed.

So when Jesus refers

to the Holy Spirit

as the helper,

He knows the help

of the Holy Spirit

so intimately.

This is the Spirit

that helped Jesus Christ Himself

that He is giving

as a gift

to His friends.

That same Holy Spirit

is your helper.

A Puritan named

Jeremy Taylor

said,

It is impossible

for a soul

to despair

who remembers

that your helper

is the omnipotent God.

You can know

that God chose you

if His Spirit

is strengthening

your faith

in Christ.

God did not choose you

because you were fruitful,

but God chose you

and put His Spirit

in you

to bear

the fruit of Christ.

in your life

to help you

walk and follow Him.

Finally,

you can know

that God chose you

if you bear witness

of who Christ is

to you.

You can know

that God chose you

if you are one

who bears witness

of who Christ is

to you.

Do you?

Do you bear witness

of Christ?

Jesus promises

that His friends

will do this.

In verse 27,

You also will bear witness

because you have been

with me

from the beginning.

The disciples

would receive

the anointing

of the Holy Spirit

and they would go out

into the whole world

declaring the gospel,

the good news

that God

came to save sinners

like me

and like you.

And it's every true believer

following Christ

that has the delight,

the joy of bearing witness

to their Savior,

the one that you know.

He is the one

I heard His voice

and He calls to you too.

Isn't this amazing?

God did not need

to use disciples.

He does not need

to use people

like you and me

in this mission

to save sinners.

His Holy Spirit

is the powerful

working agent.

But yet He says,

you will bear witness.

That's one of the purposes

for which I have chosen you.

I am including you

in this mission.

Why?

Because you're my friends.

And because it gives

the Lord Jesus

great joy

and all of heaven

celebrates

when the Spirit

applies the gospel

and brings another son

or daughter

into the kingdom.

He wants His joy

to be your own.

He includes us

in His mission

to share His joy

with us.

Charles Spurgeon said,

to be a soul winner

is the happiest thing

in the world.

Every time God brings

a soul

to believe in Christ,

He brings a part

of heaven

to earth.

Do you know the joy

of being a witness

to Jesus Christ?

We're told that

God rejoices

when He opens

the eyes of the blind

to see Him.

In Luke 10, 21,

we're told Jesus Christ

rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.

He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit

filling Him.

And He says,

I thank You, Father.

There it is.

Father, Holy Spirit, Son,

the triune God

rejoicing together.

And what is He so pleased

and joyful about?

I praise You, Father,

that You have revealed

to these little children

the gospel.

For such was Your gracious will.

It's been said that friendship

cuts your sorrows in half

and it doubles your joys.

Jesus says,

You are my friends.

Your sorrows you bring to me.

I bear your sorrows with you.

My joy I give to you.

My joy is doubled

by your friendship.

God lacks nothing,

but He doubles.

He doubles it in us.

He expounds and magnifies

His joyful character

by involving us

in His mission.

If that saying is true

of people,

how much more is it true

of our Lord Jesus?

Jesus Christ

doesn't cut your sorrows in half.

He says,

Give me all of your sorrows.

He bears all of our sorrows

on our behalf.

And we're told that

in Jesus Christ

is fullness of joy.

not just a double joy

from a human friendship.

It's fullness of joy

in Christ alone.

You can know that God chose you

if you bear witness

of who Jesus Christ is to you.

You get to share in His joy

of seeing His name go forth.

The hymn gets it so right.

It says,

Jesus,

what a friend for sinners.

Jesus,

lover of my soul.

Friends may fail me,

foes assail me.

He, my Savior,

makes me whole.

Hallelujah,

what a Savior.

Hallelujah,

what a friend.

Saving,

helping,

keeping,

loving.

He is with me

to the end.

Beloved congregation

of our Lord Jesus Christ,

you can know

more assurance.

You can know

more of this love.

You can have

more of this divine joy.

The reason is

because you did not

choose God.

Jesus says,

I chose you.

What comfort we have

in this.

God did not choose you

because you were faithful

or fruitful.

but because

he has put

this gift of faith

and opened your eyes,

he promises

he will

make you

fruitful

so that he gets

all of the glory

in your life

and in mine.

Let's pray

from 2 Corinthians 5.17.

Therefore,

if anyone is

in Christ,

he is a new creation.

The old has

passed away.

Behold,

the new

has come.

Father,

we confess

we are united

to you

only because

of Jesus Christ.

It's a mystery

to us.

We're like

these little children

that you've revealed

yourself to us.

There's no other

explanation

except that this

is your good

pleasure.

You have chosen us.

You have called us

your friends.

We praise you,

God the Son,

that you are

the true vine.

We praise you

that we've experienced,

we've tasted

new life

in you.

We ask,

Father,

that you will make

your love

real in our lives.

Make your love

our own.

Help us to see this.

We want to see this

peaceful fruit

of righteousness.

because we are

engrafted into Christ.

Please teach us

what it means

to abide

in our Savior

and rest in Him

as our friend.

We pray this

for your glory

and for Christ's sake.

Amen.