Thoughts

• The purpose of the church is to make disciples who lead people to Jesus, learn God’s word, love God’s people, and live for God’s glory. We glorify God by living for God, praising God, walking like Jesus, and bearing much fruit. Two verses that mean a lot to me are John 15:5 and John 15:8. John 15:8 gives us a mark of a disciple. “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” We will be genuine disciples when we bear much fruit, to the glory of the Father.”
• We will be living for God’s glory when we bear much fruit. But how do we bear much fruit? In John 15:5 Jesus gives us the answer. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” We will not bear much fruit or glorify God unless we are abiding in Christ. In fact we can do nothing without Him. Abiding in Christ involves spending much time with Him and depending on Him, which makes sense because without faith we cannot please God.
• So we need to make it a priority to abide in Christ so that we can bear much fruit so that we can glorify God. That is what discipleship is all about.