John chapter 15, starting at verse 12.
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?
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?
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,
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.