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Back to Sermons Index Back to Home Page 1st October 2006 AM and PMCALLED TO GROW, CHOSEN TO GO Pastor Colin MeadowsBible Readings: Genesis 12:1-5, Matthew 28:16-20, Mark 3:13-15, John 15:5,16 · Called to be fruitful followers! We have been learning through ‘Growthworks’ about bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The fruit on a tree is the sweet part! When you go to a vine, you don’t eat the leaves or the branches. Rather you look for the sweet and refreshing grapes. So too should it be in our lives. There should be a sweetness about our lives, which refreshes others who come in contact with us. Remember, you look at leaves and branches but you eat fruit. Let our lives have a sweet attractiveness to them! We will only bear fruit however as we submit our lives daily to Jesus and remain in his presence. Let us thus be followers of Christ who are constantly growing and bearing fruit: John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Yes, keep growing spiritually! We do not however just grow spiritually as an end in itself. There is a reason why God has called us to grow. We grow in Him so that we can be used by Him to go out to a needy world. · Chosen to go! We grow so that we can go! God called us and now he chooses us to go. At no point have we taken the initiative! God wishes to work in us so that He can then move us out to touch others. John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” We grow so that we can produce another type of fruit, to go to a needy world. We see this continually throughout the Bible. Let us look firstly to the life of Abram. · Case Study 1 - Abram Abram, brought up as a sun worshipper in Ur of the Chaldeans, was called by the LORD, the God of the covenant, the God of relationship. He was firstly called to be with God. Then God chose him to go and be a blessing to others. Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Abram and his family were to be God’s instrument of blessing to a needy world. They were to bear fruit and draw others into a love relationship with God. What was the defining characteristic in Abram’s life, that which marked his walk with God? Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” He is remembered throughout the Bible as a man who was faithful, a man who knew he could not live in his own strength, independent of God. Let us live likewise, called by God to grow, chosen by God to go, all in the power of God’s Holy Spirit. · Case Study 2 – The Disciples of Jesus We see the same process of calling and sending in the case of Jesus’ disciples. He called those he wanted to himself and appointed them to go. Mark 3:13-15 “Jesus …called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve – designating them apostles- that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach…” The same story is here… called by Jesus to be with him to grow in relationship and then to be sent out, to go to a needy world. They spent time with Jesus in order to go out and bear fruit. Matt 28:19-20a “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” As they went Jesus reminded them of his presence in their lives. Math 28:20b “And surely I am with you always, to the end of the world.” We too need to remember at all times that we cannot grow and go without the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. · Continue in a dependant relationship Throughout the John 15 passage the key word ‘remain’ or ‘abide’ is used nine times. It could also be translated as ‘to continue in, to rest completely in’. We will not be able to produce fruit in our lives nor go out in Christ’s name apart from being in a vital dependant relationship with Christ. Called to grow, chosen to go, dependent on the indwelling presence of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives.
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