Operation 15:16 - 31 August 2025

Did anybody hear a really good original moment?

They're all good, right? They're your moment where you

experienced God who had trouble remembering the past week.

Yeah, that happens. You know, sometimes it's like if

we don't actually take stock on it and and write it down at the

end of the day. If in fact, you could make this

your plan at the end of every day that you're going to write

down, hey, when did I love God, love people or delight in the

gospel today? Those could be like three wins

at the end of every day. And then you could forecast the

next day, hey, tomorrow I think God, let's look at tomorrow.

When can I, when can this happen?

You know, you don't know till the end of the next day where

you review it. When did I love God, love

people, share the gospel, or delight in the word of God or

even experience any of those things?

So you can do that. You all like a schedule.

You signed up for school, so you like a schedule, which is a good

thing. We're into a new adventure this

year. We're calling it Operation

15/16. Now.

It's been mentioned we rolled it out in July, but we wanted to

explore it here as we just wrapped up a series in the book

of Acts and we're bridging over into this next part of the year

and getting ready to welcome new and returning students and new

and returning faculty. It makes UBC really fun.

I mean, I loved being on campus this week because the vibe was

back, you know, you were here and it was so nice to actually

see so many people running around with jump start and

orientation, getting connected here on campus.

One of my prayers, and maybe you'll write your own prayer on

the creative prayer board, is that this year every person at

UBC would know. They know a friend of Jesus.

Now, I would love to also pray. I hope that every person at UBC

becomes a friend of Jesus. But I think part of the first

step of that is actually getting to know that they know a friend

of Jesus. That's the piece.

You know, sometimes I walk around and I see someone wearing

a cross and the first thing that flutters in my stomach like,

like butterflies is I wonder if they're a friend of Jesus

because they're wearing a cross. Or, you know, some guy who's got

muscles in his arm as big as my thighs and he's got a cross

tattoo on it. I'm thinking, I wonder if he's a

friend of Jesus. Don't you wonder that too, when

you see someone wearing a cross, sporting a cross, but also those

who don't? Do you wonder about those who

don't? I wonder if you're a friend of

Jesus? That becomes our impossible

possible mission, to see the friends of Jesus here at UBC and

get to know them, but also to make ourselves known.

And we're calling on you to bear fruit that will last.

Do you know when I was with my mom this past month, helping

take care of her? She's 85, fighting cancer and

some dementia. So she needs some scaffolding, a

little bit of care. We would buy bananas when we

went to Ingalls, to the grocery store, and she would say, we

need to buy a big bunch of bananas.

And I'm like, I can't eat that many bananas.

And she would just laugh. She'd just laugh and then we'd

get home and there on the counter would be bananas.

And whenever they got freckles, my mom said we should throw them

out. I'm like, man, we're throwing

away a lot of bananas. She's like, they don't taste

good anymore. You know, that banana on the

counter is not going to last forever.

And likewise, in our own lives, there's all kinds of fruit that

we produce like that, that we want to produce fruit in our

life. We want to get the grades, we

want to get the salary, we want to get the cars, we want to get

the house. I met someone this week who I

asked, well, what is your sense of purpose in life?

And she said, I'm not that deep. I was like, wow, at least you

are honest. I said, So what do you want in

life? She says, I want to graduate.

I want to get a really good job. I said, what's a good job?

Big money. I want to get a house, I want to

get a car, and I want to have comfort, he says.

So don't ask me your deep questions.

I was like, that's honest, right?

But that's fruit that will not last.

And Jesus actually invites us into a life in which fruit will

last. But we can't do it.

We can't do it on our own. There's actually some conditions

that Jesus gives us for fruit that will last, and part of it

is tapping into the greatest love there ever is.

Let's read his words in John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

These are words given to disciples when they're nervous,

they're anxious, they're facing some sense of foreboding trauma

on the horizon. This is the night before Jesus

is crucified. This is just hours before he is

arrested. And Jesus is being very tender

with his disciples. If you read John 13 through 17,

you'll see that Jesus calls them, Oh, my, my children, my

child, that that he's using words that are couched in

tenderness, that he knows the impending violence, but he

avoids using the worst of terms of it.

And in the middle of that address, Jesus gives some

incredible promises to his disciples, and he paints an

incredible picture of life in the communion of God.

And he says this, I am the true vine, and my father is the

gardener. He cuts off every branch in me

that bears no fruit, while every branch that bears fruit he

prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Remain in me as I also remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the

vine. Neither can you bear fruit

unless you remain in Me. I am the vine, you are the

branches. If you remain in me and I and

you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from Me, you can do

nothing. If you do not remain in me.

You are like a branch that is thrown away in Withers.

Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

If you remain in me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you

wish and it will be done for you.

This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit,

showing yourself to be my disciple.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you

will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands

and remain in His love. I have told you this so that

your joy, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be

complete. My command is this love each

other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than

this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command.

I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know

his master's business. Instead, I have called you

friends. For everything that I learned

from my father, I have made known to you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so

that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, and

so that you, so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father

will give you. This is my command.

Love each other. If the world hates you, keep in

mind that it hated me first. If you belong to the world, it

would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to

the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you.

A servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also.

If they obeyed My teaching, they will obey yours also.

They will treat you this way because of My name, for they do

not know the one who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to

them, they would not be guilty of sin.

But now they have no excuse for their sin.

Whoever hates me hates My Father as well.

If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they

would not be guilty of sin as it is they have seen.

And yet they have both hated me and my Father.

But this is to fulfill what is written in their law.

They hated me without reason. When the advocate comes, whom I

will send from the Father to you from the Father, the spirit of

truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about

me. And you also must testify, for

you have been with me from the beginning.

When we talk about Operation 1516, the 1516 comes from this

verse. Have you memorized it yet?

Let's read it. You did not choose me, but I

chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear

fruit, fruit that will last, so that whatever you ask in my

name, the Father will give you. Earlier we read another one of

the commissions, We call it the Great Commission.

Go and make disciples of all nations.

But Jesus had a bunch of commissions.

It's almost as if he knew he needed to say the mission a

bunch of different ways. But every Commission, and this

is one of them. You did not choose me, but I

chose you and appointed you. I commissioned you to go and

bear fruit, Fruit that will last.

Every Commission of Jesus also is sandwiched with relationship.

And so though we may speak of a great impossible goal of how

could we touch 10,000 people on campus this year?

How could we pray and engage in prayer?

10,000 people this year? We know we're not actually

driven by the numbers. That's the scary part of setting

goals sometimes as a church. Oh, you're attaching a spiritual

act to a a number to a goal. Yes, we are.

There's a whole book in the Bible called Numbers.

I guess we're in good company. God must know something, but we

miss if we don't also recognize that all of the commissions come

with a relational well, a relational ground, a relational

air that we're meant to breathe and take nutrients from and rest

upon. And they also come with amazing

promises. In fact, Jesus told his

disciples here, you will bear fruit, your lives will be

fruitful, There's going to be something good produced by your

lives. This was important for the

disciples to know because they were on the cusp of what it

might, could have been the worst day of their lives.

But Jesus is telling them there's greater things ahead,

There's great days ahead, and you will bear fruit twice.

He says it, that there's going to be fruitfulness in their

lives in the picture of the vine.

How many of you have had grape juice before?

Yeah, we serve it for the Lord's Supper every week.

Grape juice, the fruit of the vine.

Some of you have had wine, fruit of the vine.

There's the anticipation that where there are grape vines,

there will be fruit. In my backyard, I'm having to

get rid of my grape vines because I'm having lots of urban

wildlife come to visit. Rats, raccoons, they come and

they like my grapes too, and it's become unbearable for me.

My grape vines make too much fruit.

It's incredible. I cut a branch that wasn't

producing fruit and before you know it there's a new branch

poking out and the next year there's fruit on it.

There's fruit every year, everywhere.

I had to wait on it, though. When those vines were planted,

there was no fruit for three years.

Three years? Well, what was happening in

those three years? That Grapevine that had been

planted there was running its roots deep into the ground and

maturing. One of the practices of

veniculture is sometimes to graft into the vine new

branches. They're not going to produce

fruit just hanging out in the yard.

They have to be connected. Jesus is telling the most

obvious thing here. Remain in me, abide in me, stay

connected to me, and you are going to bear so much fruit,

fruit that will last. Do you know why I cut back one

of the vines and it is like a well, Even in the driest days in

the past month, that vine was surrounded by water because it

was pulling up water and it was dripping out of the place where

I cut it back. And Jesus says I'm the true vine

and if you stay connected to me, there is going to be great

nutrition for your soul, drawn up for you, and it comes by word

and spirit. Here Jesus says, remain in me,

remain in my word, and you will bear much fruit.

Some of you are starving yourselves.

You're fasting from the Word of God.

You're not spending time in the Scripture.

I really appreciate Frank Lobach.

Did anybody hear, know Frank Lobach?

In literacy circles, he's known for the Lobach method or Laubach

or my literacy people telling me, do you know the United

States created a stamp to honor him because millions of people

are said to be literate and read because of this man who was a

missionary and a friend of Jesus.

He went to the Philippines and he worked with a a Muslim people

group remote area. And there he began to share the

gospel. But he became deeply burdened

for their lives because literacy was so low.

And he developed a little program called Each One Teach

One, Each One Teach One that every person who reads should

teach someone else how to read. And, you know, he's now credited

with teaching 60 million people how to read in their language.

But he would say that was only the beginning of the fruit that

will last. That's only the beginning.

He wrote a whole book on prayer. It's such a great, great title.

Prayer. The mightiest force in the

world. Yeah.

Do you believe that? Or are you like the squirrels

that run across the power line in the back of my house?

They run across that line and I watch them go and they go

across. And I think you have no idea of

all the power underneath your feet.

The rats do it too. You choose squirrel, a rat.

But are we walking around unaware that we have at our

hands, at our access, at the call of our mouth, the greatest

power in the world? In fact, the subtitle of his

little book on prayer is Thoughts for an Atomic Age.

In his little book on prayer, which is fantastic, if you can

ever get a copy of it, go for it.

I like old books. He says this about us and

prayer. We must have a mind that's

saturated with Christ. There's only one way to get a

true picture of Him, and that is to read his life in the four

Gospels so often that we know it by heart.

We who wish to be Christ like ought to never allow a day to

pass without reading a chapter, at least a chapter of the

Gospels. We get the best results if we

will take an hour, a fresh hour every day.

The last hour before going to bed is poor, especially after a

hard day's work, for we are likely to fall asleep halfway

through the chapter, right? He's very realistic about us.

Many of the spiritual giants read their Bibles at four or

five in the morning before others can disturb them.

Anyone signing up? We need to determine wills.

We need determined wills to protect this hour with Christ

from competing interests. Busy people.

Anybody busy? Raise your hand if you're going

to be busy in a week. Busy people are under constant

temptation to allow Bible reading to be crowded out every

other day until omission becomes a habit.

This is his book on prayer and he's saying if you want to

sustain prayer, you must have both the Word and the Spirit.

Jesus frames this passage with an image of you staying remained

and abiding in Him and that your his word is being drawn up into

your life. He ends this chapter with

Speaking of the Holy Spirit who comes to lead you and remind you

of all truth so that you can testify.

Testifying to Jesus requires both word and Spirit.

So go and bear fruit. Do you know I love this word

bear, bear fruit Not because it's like fruit, because it's

just produced. We bear it.

It's a passive word. He didn't say you're going to

produce fruit. He actually used a passive word

here to say fruit will be produced in your life.

And that's good news because if I'm thinking if I need to do

anything that's going to last for eternity, Jesus, you picked

the wrong person for it. But Jesus picked you to do

something that would last for eternity and have eternal

impact. And so he's going to make it

happen. He makes it happen and you bear

it. Wouldn't it be ridiculous if I

looked at my grapevines in the yard and said bear fruit, Bear

fruit. You're like Greg.

That's not how it happens. If anything, talk nicely to the

grapevines. They do it because they have the

power within them to reorganize reality and to bear that fruit.

Do you know that everyone of Jesus promises here in this

passage about bearing fruit are also accompanied by the promise

of prayer? He says you will bear fruit, so

I ask what you will. In John 1516 he says I've chosen

you and appointed you to go and bear fruit.

So ask what you will. It seems like the bearing of

fruit is being associated with asking is being associated with

telling. While it seems ridiculous that I

would tell the Grapevine produce fruit, Jesus gives us permission

to do a ridiculous thing, to go about our lives in relationship

to each other, to meet people who have never had anyone pray

in the name of Jesus for them, and to do that.

And he's promising I'm going to do something.

And this is the foundation of this ramped up prayer walking in

our lives that we're going to go and walk and pray.

And we're going to do the ridiculous thing of asking those

who we meet, what do you wish and hope that God would do for

you? And we're going to wrap it up a

bar and we're going to ask them, we're going to ask God to do

something in their lives. A few years ago, my wife Ellen

was invited to go to Tupper High School and she was invited to

come and speak in a social, political, religion class of

some sort. I have no idea what it is today.

I'm not sure if they even allow it today, but she was brought in

as the one who was going to talk about Christianity.

So she did. She gave a historical overview

and she said, but every faith is also personal.

And one of the personal moves of Christianity is that we pray for

others believing that God hears. I'm curious, she says.

How many of you in this classroom know that someone

prays for you? One hand went up in that

classroom that day. One hand.

It was Christy, whom Ellen had been spending time with and

discipling, and she was the only person in the classroom who knew

that someone prayed for them. You are going to be surrounded

by people who have never had anyone pray for them in the name

of Jesus. We're going to go looking for

them. The greatest privilege you and I

have at times is to be an agent of Jesus, ready to pray, ready

to ask and do the ridiculous thing.

So many times I've been out and I've met someone on campus and

they've described the situation in their life and I said, could

I pray with you about that? And they're like, every once in

a while someone says no, but most of the time they're like,

yeah. And then they're shocked when I

just start praying. I'm like, OK, God, I thank you

so much for my friend that I've just met.

And I pray that you would do something incredible in their

lives. You see, Jesus has invited us

into that. He says you are a friend of

Jesus, you are a friend of God. And he goes on to say I, I don't

call you slaves and servants. If you're living a slavish

relationship with God, you are missing out.

If all of your life in relation to God is about just doing the

right thing and doing your duty, you are missing out on the

greatest of adventures. Because he says, look, I'm going

to reveal to you my business. I'm not holding it back.

I'll reveal it to you. I will reveal this business to

you. And his business is about

answering the prayers of his people.

Now we can deal. We can even take a class on

unanswered prayer. I have a lot of unanswered,

unanswered prayers, it seems at the moment because I do a lot of

praying. I'm like, Lord, not yet, huh?

Or maybe something different and I trust you.

But prayer is a conversation that's ongoing with God and He's

inviting you as a friend of Jesus to go and to do this very

thing. He wants to make his business

known to you. Sometimes his business is just

revealed to you in the next step, that as you step forward,

you're drawn to a person in that first day of class.

And Jesus says, would you go sit beside them?

I know you've got your circle of comfort over here, but will you

go over there, get to know them, and maybe you ask them, hey,

what are you thankful for today? I'm so glad I'm at UBC.

Well, what's concerning you? You know, I'm really worried

about this class. I'm afraid I'm going to fail it.

There's a long list of people who failed this biochem class.

Well, I don't think I'm going to pass Gateman's exams.

There's a long list of people who didn't, and I'm afraid.

And so then you say, what can I pray with you about that prayer

and an economics class? Sure.

You just pray for them. Don't wait.

Just pray for them. Make it natural to talk to God.

Do you know the basis for this? It's really love.

It's really love. Jesus says my command is this,

that you love one another. This is what he wants, but it's

really rooted in this relationship of prayer.

So I'm, I'm wondering, Are you ready to go on a prayer

adventure this year? Are you ready to go on an

adventure with Jesus? He says, you're my friends.

I'm telling you everything. I'm inviting you in it.

Let's sign up in our hearts for Operation 1516 just as an excuse

to get to know Jesus better, just to trust Jesus a little bit

more. Just to say, oh, I want to draw

from the rich well of His word and I want to draw from the

power of His Spirit and let it meet in me and ignite me for a

life that's so different. This year.

I know you've all got work to do.

You've got things to learn. You're going to have to buy

groceries. Some of you, I know you're right

out in the dorm anymore. It's hard.

You're going to have to cook, but maybe you could cook with

each other because you love one another.

You're like, oh, I know this is a hard week.

I cooked a humongous pot of spaghetti and so let's let's eat

it for the next 5 days. And then you invite someone else

to come in and they share that life together and you pray at

the table and then you pray for them after and you involve them

in your relationship with God. You make it normal that what is

private is actually public. You must testify.

Jesus said let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we don't know what

this is all going to look like this year, but we're asking you

for great things. And you said there is no greater

love than this than to lay down your lives for your friends.

And Lord, our fear of people feels like we're laying down our

life. Sometimes it feels like a kind

of death when we face the fear of people because we've made

this commitment and then it requires courage and sometimes

it just becomes normal and then we face a day where it didn't

feel normal again. It felt like the the cost was

high until we look to you, Lord Jesus, who says I have called

you friends and greater love has no one than this.

Then they they lay down their life for their friends.

Jesus, you've made us friends by laying down your life.

And so we come today to celebrate you, to honor you, and

to remember you as the greatest friend of heaven and earth.

We have a whole campus who's desperate for friends, and we

are too. And you are the one who says

there's no greater friend. I'll show you.

So we remember with this bread today, your body broken for us,

given for us, and we remember today your blood poured out for

us, for the forgiveness of sin, for the promise of life with you

forever. And so we pray, Lord, as your

followers as we come to this table today, that you would be

honored and that you would give us some kind of extra grace in

this moment. You chose us to be friends with

you and we say thank you. Lord Jesus, thank you, thank

you, thank you.