A Call to Fruitfulness

Theme: Jesus chose us to bear fruit that will last. 

Text:  John 15:15-16

We are privileged to have a message from our friend Bernard Sakala in Zambia.

Thank you so much to begin with, like to appreciate so much Alan and Brenda, for the opportunity to be able to share the Word of God with us. It is the word of God for you. And for me as well. What I'd like to share with us this this evening is Zambia, I think more than Canada is the word that I've been titled, a call to fruit if a call to fruit eveness. For some weeks now, I have been ministering I think in about three churches within his within Lusaka and so on, into the what the Lord has laid upon my heart is in the form of the question. The question that I have is, how fruitful? Are we, as a church, the entire body of Christ? How are we living by what God is expecting us to leave. And I felt that God was saying, we should be able to remind each other and perhaps help each other, to realize that actually, we are caught. Of course, in the body of Christ, there's so many good things that are happening, and then our sins are forgiven. And some of us, you know, are delivered from different things. And the Lord has blessed us. And when we meet, we see the goodness, the law of God, we see what God has done in our lives at the end of the day, and so on. The question that we have is, it is easy for us to celebrate all the goodness of the Lord. But perhaps forget that we have been called specifically for certain things that we're supposed to carry out on our daily lives. And the key scripture that I'd like to reach this, this time, is John 15. John 15, is saying by this, by this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. And so prove you are my disciples. By this, My Father is glorified, that you bear fruits, or that you bear magic fruits, and the soul, prove you are my disciples. And if you read in John chapter 15, this shift this 15 to 16, Jesus addresses his disciples, he says, I no longer I call you servants, for the servant does not know what is masters, business is, but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my father, I have made it known to you, you did not choose me. This is something that strikes because the fact that I'm part of what is happening in the body of Christ, the fact that I know that God has called me to, to be part of what's happening in the life, in the kingdom and the life of the church and so on. It strikes me that God said, Jesus saying, You did not choose me, I chose you. Now, the choosing is done. Among many other things, if there is one thing you cannot choose, but you choose, because there are so many things, then out of many things, you choose certain things that you want to use that particular time. And I sense that God is saying that to be who are in the body of Christ today, we have been chosen. And if God has it in his mind to choose us and call us to himself, really, he had the reason why he chose you and me. So he says you did not choose me. I chose you And the reason why I chose you and appointed you, so that you should go under bear fruits, and that's the fruit should abide or remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, she may give it to you. I chose you, and the reason why I chose you, I chose you and appointed you. Now, the word appointed is as good as a day. Now, ordination means an empowerment or establishment for us to carry a certain activity, or certain responsibility. So, God is saying Jesus is saying, I chose you, and I did not just choose you, I appointed you, which means I ordained you. So, I will then do so you go. When you go, you don't just go walk around, but you go, you bear fruits, and the fruits that are going to remain. In this case, he was talking bedding of fruits, we know that, if you will read the Galatians chapter five, he tells us about the fruits of the Holy Spirit. And that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about us being at people that have gone in obedience with a command to go and make disciples, and our fruits in this case is the disciples that are going to remain. And then he goes on, he says, there after you, you bear the fruits, you can ask you the father, in My name, He may give you anything. So this brings me at a point where I begin to ask myself questions. And one of the questions I asked myself is what is the mandate of the church? We have been called to by Jesus, the mandate of the church, in this case, the Bible says that is to go is to go. We read to John chapter 20, verse 21, he says, Jesus said to them, again, Peace be with you, as the Father has saved me, even so I am sending you and when, when he had to say biggest breath on them, and he said, Receive the Holy Spirit. Then he goes on, he says, If you forgive the sins of Amen, they will be forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness from me, it will, it will be withheld. As the Father sent me, I am sending you that's Jesus Christ. So as a church, we have been recorded to carry the mandate, that the gospel that we receive the and all that comes with the gospel, we cannot just to keep you them. We are to be a people that are going so the Church of Jesus Christ is a going church is a church that is going why because the mandate of the church is for us to go. Mark 16, verses 15 to 16. And he said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole nation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned, go to the whole creation. That's the mandate of the church. And my heart is not addressed. I mean, we have been involved in the nation. We preach the Word of God in different villages, different towns, and so on. But I feel that there is more to it. Because the church, according to God's pattern is designed not to be a group of settlers. The Church must be a going church. It has to be a church that carries the mandate that we have been given by the Lord Jesus Christ. Alongside with the mandate, we discover that archery the church has been a given what we call the mission of the church. And the mission of the church in this case is making disciples making the disciples, Matthew chapter 2018. He says that Jesus came to say to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the earth. When we go, we have a mission at the heart. And the mission at heart is that we must make disciples. And for us here is done via this comes as a challenge. Why it comes as a challenge is because some churches are going to be smaller, some churches are going to be big. Some churches are going to have resources and churches who have no resources and so on. But whatever situation that we are in, that doesn't subtract us from carrying the mandate, and the mission that Jesus has given. We I have encouraged church leaders that we have to be intentional in what we are doing. We can be a going church, even through our prayers, like we've heard intercessors we are in Canada, but we're praying for people in Zambia pray for people all over the world. That's an attitude of going. And I believe that God has been diligent in that sphere. So we become more effective in what God has called. But the Church of Jesus Christ is not only given the mandate and the nation, it is also given what we call the mission, the motive of the church, the motive of the church, Matthew chapter 22, that he fought to 40 It says, But when the Pharisees heard that he had the silenced, the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them in lawyer asked him a question to test him teacher, which is the great commandment in the law. And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and the first commandment. And the second is lucky, you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depends on the law, and prophets. So, alongside the mandate and the mission that God has given us, the third thing that needs to be reminded to us all as a church is the motive of the church. In other words, we ask ourselves a question, why don't we do what we're doing? For us, as a church, as you heard, we're involved in the community work, and this has been happening from 1999. To this very day. And each day, we must ask ourselves, why are we doing what we are doing? Why are we doing what we're doing? If it is not because of love? Maybe we need to question ourselves on the ticket lifts. Maybe we should stop what we're doing. Because the motive of the church, the motive of why we do what we're doing, is because we love God, and we love this church. And because we love this church, we can go extra miles we can do all we can because we realize we are not off point. We are actually with what God has given us. So the motive of the church is love. What the church is love. The gospel of Jesus Christ has done a mercy of things in the world. Wherever it is preached, it does not address only spiritual needs of the people, but also addresses the total man. And this is why dinner tonight with the Lord just started to you know, showing us the need to get involved in what's happening in our community. The only thing we could do is here we are Lord us us. Why? We discovered that the gospel that we preach is not just designed to respond to physical or spiritual things, or spiritual needs of the people by the gospel has got power to bring about hope even in a physical situation. shares that people have. And this takes people who are open minded and open hearts to allow God to use them. Not only in healing not only, not only even touching physical things, just like Jesus used to do, he provided even physical needs for them. And I think that Jesus is still doing that today, through his church. Therefore, it is safe to say, the church is the only hope for the done well today. If the gospel has power to addresses physical and spiritual needs of human beings, then we can say the church is the hope for the diagnosis. Therefore, I'd love to encourage the church at large perhaps hears Zambia in Canada, that as the Church of Jesus Christ, as the Church of Jesus Christ, we need to understand we've been called to bear fruits. And as we pray, perhaps we can say, Lord, not only good preaching, but preaching that parrot. Lord, not only good teaching, but teaching that bear fruits, Lord not only remissions because it's possible to be involved on a mission. You, you're missing it. It's possible, very much possible. My Cry and my prayer and the conviction in my heart, which I'm sharing with us this evening, or this morning, to us to those of you to Canada, is that is we preach the gospel, Lord, let there be fruitfulness is we invite people in our home spouse to spend time, maybe around the coffee maybe around key, let it rattle, invite that perhaps we spend with people out of it there before. Let people catch the heart of Jesus. And not only catching the heart of Jesus for the sake of their problems to be addressed, but catching the heart of Jesus, because at the end of the day, they will be able to testify that that day, something happened and I became a disciple of Jesus Christ. So it's more than what we say. It's more than what we teach is something that connects the heart of the human being, and bring some transformation. And that's my prayer for us that God will help us and God will help us in Zambia to be a people that don't just say things but out of what we say because that's the prayer that I have this evening.