You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will remain—so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
6 sermons cite this verse
… chapter 15 verse 16 he says you didn't choose me I chose you I appointed you you should go and bear fruit and the fruit should remain that whatever you ask the father in my name he may give you look at verse 7 says if you abide in me and my words abide in you you ask whatever you desire and it will be done for you do you see the next verse by this my father is glorified what is this what's the fruit? it's not hard to take the subject of fruitfulness of a believer's life and say the fruit is the character. And I am all behind that saying amen. But the context for this, and it's repeated throughout Scripture, the context is answers to prayer bring him glory. They are for him to be glorified. they're for him to be glorified and when we stop and say well if he wants to be glorified through his answers why doesn't he answer more of my prayers That's assuming the lack is on his end of the equation. …
… love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I have called you my friends. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and to bear fruit, to bear fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I'm giving you these commands so that you may love one another. this was such a simple command such a simple mission but it's so difficult to live out and yet Jesus desperately wants us to live and to love others the same way that he loves us first to maintain friendships like this Jesus commands us to do this and yet we struggle to do it You know, sometimes I think, wouldn't our life of faith be so much easier if it was just like individual? Like if I could just focus all of my time individually, all of my effort individually on connecting and growing closer with God. …
… I'm preaching on John 15 today John 15 16 says you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Are y'all with me so far? The scripture teaches us very clearly in John 15, 16, you didn't choose Jesus, he chose you. Go ahead, look at your neighbor and say, he chose you. Look on the other side, say, he chose you. So my message today is God chose, appointed, and answers you. That's my message. God chose, appointed, and answers you. All of that right here in this one verse. This one verse from John 15 has embedded in it so much truth that we need to hear and understand and know. And that's what I want to spend some time talking about today. I want to talk about this. Jesus is responding to a question that Judas asked him. …
… I've 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. Okay. I love this passage. I love it more than I've ever loved it. Just the words that he uses. It feels nothing like do and don't. It's like the natural response. That's why he says, if you love me, you'll obey what I command. So it's just like when I think about if my daughters are taken away, my natural response is to go after them. Why? Because there's love there. And that's what Jesus is saying is our obedience should be like this natural response to his love. He's like, I'm not calling you slaves. I'm calling you friends. But this first phrase when he says, abide in me, remain in me. You know that word abide means to live. And this morning I thought, gosh, what does this mean like abide in you? …
… he takes the initiative in the relationship. Look, if you will, in this 16th verse. He takes the initiative. He says, you didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, that your fruit would remain so that whatever you ask of my Father in my name, he'll give it to you. Now, what is he saying? Simply this. He's saying, we didn't choose to become his friends. He chose to become our friend. He didn't see anything in us that was worthy, really, of becoming our friend. It wasn't the result of our works. It wasn't the result of good attributes and characteristics in us. He, because of his unconditional love for us, decided he wanted to be our friend. He wanted to be able to enable us to fulfill his purpose and his plan for our life. And so he chose to become our friend. So when you look at this passage and you ask yourself the question, who took the initiative is very evident. …
… IT FIRST, BECAUSE YOU'VE GOT TO WAIT UNTIL THE FRUIT COMES OUT. HE MAY BE A GOOD-LOOKING TREE. BUT JESUS SAID IN JOHN 15 VERSE 16, YOU'VE NOT CHOSEN ME, BUT I'VE CHOSEN YOU AND ORDAINED YOU THAT THAT YOU SHOULD GO AND BRING FORTH FRUIT AND THAT YOUR FRUIT SHOULD REMAIN. what's the mark of a man of God THERE'LL BE PLENTY OF PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO KNOW JESUS BECAUSE OF HIM. THEY'LL BE LOVING JESUS. THERE WILL BE FRUIT, AND THAT FRUIT WILL REMAIN. FIRST, SECOND PETER, CHAPTER 1, VERSE 8, OUR LORD SAYS THAT WE SHOULD NOT BE UNFRUITFUL. GALATIANS, CHAPTER 5, VERSE 22, BUT THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE, JOY, PEACE, LONGSUFFERING, GENTLENESS, GOODNESS, FAITH. That's the fruit of the Spirit. I can't produce that fruit and you can't produce that fruit. If we'll abide in Him, we'll bear that fruit. It's the fruit of the Spirit. It's not your fruit. It's not mine. You see, how, how can you know them? Well, there's the fleece they wear, but there's the fruit they bear. …