Called, Appointed, Anointed and Chosen - Part 2

Called, Appointed, Anointed and Chosen – Part 2

Good Morning, and praise the Lord.  Here is part two of the message from yesterday.  For those of you who missed it, we talked about being called, appointed, anointed and chosen by God.  Please turn with me to the book of John, chapter 15.

John 15

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto 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. These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

I want to clarify something here, because we have been taught and conditioned to believe that when we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we are making a decision.  While that is true, please don’t get it twisted.  God chose us, we didn’t choose Him, per se.  You see, He saw something special in us before the foundations of the world, and has an assignment uniquely crafted for us.

We may not understand why things are happening in our lives that make no sense.  Why is the enemy chasing after us so hard, when it seems like we haven’t done anything wrong?  It’s because the Lord chose us.  We might want to check our friends list and see if they need to be in this season of our lives.

Satan wants to kill us before we can realize the plan and purpose of God for our lives.  He chose us because we were overlooked by the world.  The Lord will allow people to shut us off, so that we can be alone to go through the sanctification process for the next level.  Why do we struggle?  It’s because we need to bear fruit.

The word of God tells us that every branch in Him that doesn’t bear fruit is taken away, and the ones that do, He purges in order for it to bear more fruit.  When we got saved, there was a process of being washed through the gospel.  This wasn’t something that was immediate, not for some of us.  He made us clean from the inside out.  There is a radiation of the Holy Spirit that shines when we submit to the will of the Lord.

Saints, as long as we abide in the vine, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, we will continue to bear fruit.  As soon as we realize that apart from Him, we can’t do anything, and then we will allow anything that isn’t like God to be stripped away, one layer at a time.  Most of it is done through prayer, but some through fasting and prayer.

The Lord wants to get the glory out of our lives through the fruit that we bear.  Do you know what the fruit is?  Let me see if any of these things sound familiar.  Love, joy, peace, patience (the Old Testament says longsuffering), gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and temperance.  We are called to be fruit inspectors, not so much for others, but for ourselves.

Don’t you know that the fruit that is sour in our lives is what we will be tested on, so that we can grow the correct one?  Let’s talk about each one, shall we?

Love – Many a songwriter has talked about love.  The Beatles said that all you need is love.  Deniece Williams said that she had love on her mind.  Let me take you to church.  Even the Winans sung about everlasting love.  All of them were right, but in different contexts.  You see, God is love.  He established it before the foundations of the world.  Without His love, we can’t possibly know or understand the other facets of the word.

My favorite female gospel group, Witness, wrote a song called Love Is an Action Word.  Truer words have never been spoken.  No matter what type of love you’re referring to, it requires action.  You can say I love you all day long, but show me what you’re talking about.

God demonstrated His love in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  He did this of His own free will and volition, and get this; we most certainly didn’t deserve it.  When a man and woman date, if he really loves her, he will treat her honorably and at the right time, ask her to spend the rest of her life with him in a marriage covenant.

That same man and woman after the wedding will consummate their union, and out of that love, a child is born.  From conception, they are shown love from both parents, and once they enter the world, it continues throughout their lifetime.  We meet people from time to time, male and female, and become acquaintances.  What elevates those individuals to a loving friendship is how the relationship is built.  Know that a true friend is not a yes person, but they will tell you the truth in love.  The bible says that a friend loves at all times, through the good and the bad.

Joy – Not much to say about it, except that it is an eternal feeling, unlike happiness, which is fleeting and doesn’t last long.  The joy of the Lord is our strength, especially when the trials are beating us up.  When all around you is dark, and you don’t see your way clear, it’s the joy in the midst of the sorrow that gets you through.

Peace – When you have joy, peace always follows.  We can have turmoil, but when we go through, we have peace in the midst of the storm.  That is the reassurance that our God is there at the beginning, middle and ending.

Patience (Longsuffering) – The people, places and things that work our last nerve is the test for our patience.  This is the information technology and social media era of our lives.  We want it all, and we want it now, but that may not be God’s best and highest for our lives.  Can we wait on the Lord and be of good courage, or are we whining and crying through the battle?

Gentleness – Do we speak to people with gentleness, or are we rough with them?  The word of God tells us that we should let our words be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so we know how to answer everyone.

Goodness – There are people who exhibit what’s called the Golden Rule, found in Matthew.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  They have it in their hearts to be a blessing to others, even if it isn’t reciprocated, and are honored by the Lord.

Faithfulness – Can you be counted on to do the right thing when the time comes?  If you display this fruit of the Spirit, know that God will bless you, because He can trust you with little and more is coming.

Meekness – Sometimes this is confused with humility.  Meekness is when you know who you are, and you want to serve the Lord, without any pretenses, asking for stuff, and not really caring if you’re ever recognized by the general public.  God sees all and knows all and your labor is not in vain.

Temperance – This means having control of your temperament.  If you have a short fuse, you will get a lot of tests for lack of this fruit until you get it right.

So I want to leave you with some tools that I got from my pastor on a similar subject, and I thought that it would help us:

1. Assurance During the Struggle – God finished the work in you before it started. Our problem is that we start things, then want to quit in the middle because we don’t understand the process we must go through so that we can impact the world.  We have been chosen by the Lord so we can have fruit that will remain.  No one can take you away from Him.  He chose you to be exactly where you are;
2. Strength After Failure – Many are called, but few are chosen. God chose us because we’re not perfect, and make mistakes.  We walk away because we fail, but that’s when we learn the lesson.  Stay in the race and don’t give up.  It’s all part of the process, and He already knew when you would mess up.  We will get our strength back.  Remember that there is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus.  The Lord already moved on, but we’re still crying about it.  He corrects us, even though we keep running the failures through our minds over and over again.  He will still use us in spite of ourselves, can I get a witness?  How many know that God never makes mistakes?  We’re still trying to find out the why.  He chose us among the rest because we were rejected.
3. Hope In Trials – You can’t use hope when you don’t know you’re chosen. Even when you lose stuff in the midst of your trial, you still have hope.  God is pruning you and cutting away the things and people that are bringing you down and slowing you down from your purpose and destiny.  He wants you to depend on Him, and Him alone.  I know that it hurts, but it’s because God selected you to come out from among them.
4. Confidence – When you know that the Lord chose you, there comes a time when you will act like it. Your swag becomes noticeable, not because you’re great, but because of who He is and how He will use you to touch others lives.

Trust in the Lord, and don’t lean to your own understanding of things.  Listen to the still small voice, which is the Holy Spirit inside of you, for direction.  Know that God loves you, and stand on that fact.  May the Lord bless you.