John 15:16 "You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.” Today's episode is special because we have a guest who is helping to explain about what it truly means to be chosen and to bear lasting fruit. Louise is one of the praise leaders at the Thursday prayer group that I am always talking about. Louise gave an excellent teaching on this verse yesterday and so I would like to share that with you today. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You Are Chosen!
John 15:16 "You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.”
This was the verse that the praise leader talked about at the prayer group yesterday. Her talk lined up so much with yesterday’s episode of the podcast. Then we had a bookmark yesterday at a prayer group, and her talk and my episode both lined up perfectly with the bookmark. Our bookmarks are a compilation of the Lord’s Word for the month. The month we happened to be going over was October 2023. I love how God does that. He takes His word that we have discerned from a year ago, and he fits it right in with what we are talking about today. God is so good. I guess that is a good reminder that God’s word is timeless. It is always relevant, no matter when He gives it to us.
What I love about this verse is that it reminds us that we are chosen. We didn’t choose God; He chose us. We are the chosen ones. How great is that? Even if you feel rejected by everyone else in your family or all those who surround you, you can rest assured that you are chosen by God. You are chosen by the one true King. You are chosen by the creator of the universe. God could have chosen anyone, and He chose you. That is something to hold onto. That is something to remind yourself of when you are struggling. God chose you!
The praise leader did an excellent job of explaining what it means to be chosen and what it means to bear lasting fruit. I would like to share this with you today. The audio quality is not great because I recorded it on my phone in a room full of people. However, it is too good of a teaching not to share just because of the audio quality. Here is Louise giving her teaching on the verse above.
Do we really know what it means to be chosen? I did a little bit of background reading in my commentaries, and a particular person that I read mentioned a few things about being chosen, and one of the things that he mentioned was that when Jesus chose us, He chose us for joy, and joy we find in doing the right thing, and joy we find and exhibit when we recognize that yeah, we're sinners, we make mistakes, we do things wrong, but we are redeemed sinners, and that brings joy, that allows us to be joyful in the midst of us making a mess. We are chosen for love.
Jesus wants us to live in such a way that we show love to our fellow men and women, and that's not an easy task, but what we can remember is if we look at Jesus, His whole life, He lived that. He always was showing love to men and women, always. They came first.
He focused on them. He met their needs, whether they needed healing, whether they needed forgiveness, whether they needed a word of encouragement, He met their needs, and that's the kind of life He wants us to live. He's also called us to be His friends, and one of the things this commentary shared, which I've never thought about is, you know, when back in the Old Testament, when He said this to His disciples, this would have really struck home with them, because the Old Testament way of thinking was that to be a slave of God, to be a real servant of God, that was one of the highest honors you could have.
That was one of the highest honors you could have. You know, people strung for it. The prophets, they were called, you know, servants of God, slaves of God.
Well, Jesus then takes it a step further and says, I no longer call you slaves, I call you friends. And being friends and not being a slave means that you know what the Master is about. A slave doesn't. A slave just does what he's told. He doesn't know the intimacy of a relationship with his Master. He doesn't know his Master's thinking. He doesn't know why his Master wants to do something. He doesn't understand. He just does what he's told.
Well, Jesus wants us to be friends. He wants that intimacy with us. And one of the things, too, that I read was Abraham was called a friend of God. He wasn't just called a servant of God. Abraham was a friend of God. And why was Abraham a friend of God? Because he intimately talked with God and listened to God and followed God even when he didn't understand what God meant and how things could happen.
So one of the things we need to remember is that you know what? Jesus didn't choose us for a series of tremendous privileges. Although he does give us those. Joy and peace and you know, they're all ours. He gives them to us. But that isn't the main reason he chooses us. He chooses us to be partners with him. That, when you think about it, is phenomenal. I know I'm not what I consider a good partner with Jesus. But I believe that God looks at each one of us and says, you are a great partner. And you're a great partner because you have an intimate relationship with me. And you try to listen to me. And you praise me when you can. And you try to do what I'm telling you. And yeah, okay, you mess it up. But you're still a great partner. And that's what he wants from us.
He also calls us to be ambassadors. When you think about an ambassador's job in the government, they're there to represent the country that they come from. And to keep things peaceful and to keep things flowing. And that's what Jesus wants for us. We’re ambassadors of him, of his way, of the gospel. And to try to keep things peaceful and keep things flowing and help people when they need the help. Whatever it is, a word, a prayer, whatever.
This one I like too. He said, he calls us to be advertisements. And sometimes I'm not the best advertisement of the gospel. And I have to admit that. You know, there's lots of times we lose our cool. We get impatient. We don't do the loving thing. We don't think of others first. We're caught up in our own. I do it more sometimes in the way I drive, because I have to get somewhere, and you're in my way. It’s like, you know, you're not going fast enough. Or you're going too fast, and so I'm criticizing you. It doesn't matter. But I'm not always the best advertisement.
But he calls us to be an advertisement. And advertisements are to attract. They're there to attract you to a product, to something, to whatever, to a cause. And Jesus wants us to advertise Him and His love. And so we do the best we can. And as ambassadors and as advertisements, He wants us to bear fruit. And this I was struck with. I appointed you to go and bear fruit. Fruit that will last. When He appoints us to do something, He gives us the anointing to do it also. And He wants us to bear fruit.
So if we keep our intimacy and our relationship with Him, we're going to bear fruit. And He's promised that that fruit will last. That really struck me when I read this this time. It was like, oh, He didn't just say, okay, for today, you're going to bear fruit, and that's it. It's, you know, this fruit, you're going to bear fruit, but it will last. And it will last because it is the fruit of His Spirit of work in us. You know? So that whatever we ask of the Father in His name, the Father will give us. And it just reminds us that there's a prayer of faith. We have to believe that the Father will give us what we ask. Because we're asking in the name of His Son, Jesus. We ask in the name of Christ. And we ask never selfishly.
That's one of the things we can get caught up in. You know, when He tells us that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He'll give you, it doesn't mean God's going to answer every prayer. Especially sometimes, when we ask for things that we believe are what we need or what someone else needs, this would be the best way for the church to do it, so anoint these people, God. And Jesus says, we need to pray; thy will be done. And then the biggest thing is to accept the answer God gives us.
That sometimes is the hardest thing for all of us. But these are all parts of being chosen. And I felt like the Lord gave me this because we're going to honor our brothers and sisters who've gone on before us. They were also chosen. And now they're at home and at rest and at peace in Jesus. They bore fruit that lasted.Touched their families. Touched their communities. Touched our hearts. God is asking us to do the same, but He's also giving us the grace to do it. He will make us holy. We don't have to make ourselves holy. He will make us holy. And that holiness is the fruit that will last. That people will see. That people will be attracted to. So we'll be those ambassadors. We'll be those advertisements. We will be the partners Jesus wants.
Wasn’t that an amazing teaching! Didn’t it go so well with yesterday’s episode where I invited you to be the face of Jesus to all those you meet? God is so good in how He aligns everything. I just want to share the bookmark with you from yesterday too as it went perfectly with both yesterday’s episode and this teaching and yet God gave us these words a whole year ago. The Word’s from the Lord for the bookmark in October 2023 that we read at yesterday’s meeting are, “When you are ruffled, when you are anxious, call on my peace. Don’t let it stay dormant. It is not a feeling; it’s an inner peace that only I can give. It comes only from the heart, not the mind. I am the song within you and gently my message must go out to the world. Let it be a melody that touches each heart that you meet. I am the song, the joy and the hope. I am the entire well- being of your soul. I am with you until the end of time and my peace will be ever with you. A peace so deep within your being; that it will affect everything you do and transform those around you. See with my eyes the world around you. I have placed in all of my creation a mark that is truly connected to me. In some, it’s like a dying ember. I need you with the gift of the spirit, to breathe on that ember so it will become a flame.
These words remind us of our call to go out and touch the hearts of all those we meet. Just as the verse today and yesterday are calling us to do.
Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those listening. I pray you put on our hearts how we can be the face of Christ to all those we meet. I pay you show each one of us at least one way we can love someone better today. I pray you show us how we can partner with Christ to bring the message of your love to all those we meet. I pray you show us how to light the ember in other’s hearts so that it will become a flame. I pray all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in May 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My children, I have given you everything. I have given you my father. I've given you my death and resurrection and my teachings. I've given you my spirit. I've given you my mother. I've given you the communion of saints. I've given you my church. I have given you everything. You have everything. Will you give me your everything?”