The Challenge God Has Given Us— Leave Lasting Fruit

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last (John 15:16 NIV).

How do we leave fruit—fruit that will last for eternity?

Jesus summed up how to leave lasting fruit when He said, “Go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19 NIV). Making disciples involves going, evangelizing, baptizing, training, and then sending the new disciples out to multiply (make disciples).

Discipleship is how you multiply the ministry God has given you.

If we had died thirty-two years ago, there would have been only a few people in heaven as a result of our ministry because although we were witnessing and sharing Christ with others, we were not discipling. We would have left very little lasting fruit. For the last thirty-two years we have invested our lives not only in sharing Christ with the lost but in making disciples and producing disciple-makers. Now those we have discipled are scattered around the world, making disciples and leaving lasting fruit. When we die, the ministry God has given us will multiply year after year as those who have been discipled continue to disciple others. We simply saw what Jesus did when He was on earth and decided to invest our lives in the same thing: giving priority to making disciples.

A few years ago a medical doctor called me. He and his wife had been members of our church while he was in medical school about sixteen years earlier, and they had been discipled through One on One with God during that time. When they left our church and moved to another city to set up his practice, they began making disciples. After a short time they began to think that they might have a greater impact if they set aside making disciples and concentrated on being involved in large events that might attract more people. He told me that for the past sixteen years they had touched the lives of over four hundred international students who were now back in their home countries. Then he told me that for the past year God had been convicting him almost daily with this verse: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last”... (John 15:16 NIV). He said, “God has been asking me, ‘Where is the lasting fruit in your life?’” Then he said, “We don’t have any lasting fruit from the last sixteen years. I don’t mean that we haven't had a ministry, because we have. But there is no “fruit that will last” because we did not teach any of the four hundred international students to whom we ministered how they could spiritually reproduce themselves. Then he said, “Send us some One on One with God notebooks because we’re getting back to making disciples. We’re getting back to what helped us.”

Here is a plan that will make you effective in leaving lasting fruit, but you must be willing to work the plan.

Disciple at least one group per year—Each year take a group of two to six people through One on One with God. Meet once a week for fifteen weeks, and allow two hours for each session.

Continue meeting once a month for seven more months—After you have completed One on One with your group, meet once a month for seven months to encourage each other and to hold each other accountable for continuing to practice the disciplines you learned in One on One.

Multiply—Encourage and send out your disciples to leave lasting fruit by obeying the command to “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19).