Main Idea

You can multiply out of exhaustion for a long time and nobody will know. But we reproduce what we are. So before this series ends, the question isn’t will you go. It’s what are you going out of.

Scripture

John 15: 1-17

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

Discussion Questions

Read John 15:1-11 out loud twice, different reader the second time. Retell it in your own words before anyone discusses it.

1. What does this passage show us about God? (Look at what the Father does in verse 2 and what Jesus says he did himself in verse 10.)
2. What does it show us about people? Jesus says apart from him we can do “nothing,” and he says it to the eleven men who would go on to be the most fruitful people in history. Why is that word so hard to accept?
3. Verse 8 says the fruit is for the Father’s glory, and verse 11 lands on joy, not results. Where have you been measuring your walk with God by output instead?
4. What will you obey this week? Name one specific way you’ll stay attached. The day and the time, not just the intention.
5. Who will you tell? Who are you going back for, and when?