These are the words from the Lord this morning. "That your fruit may remain" John 15:16. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
In reading the entire 15th chapter, we hear the LORD explaining how we must dwell in Him, be connected to the life He holds, to be able to bear fruit. Plants must go through the process of growth, from seed, to full grown plant, to being harvested. This is an analogy in nature, which applies to the children of God.
God speaks of harvest from Genesis to Revelation. As we see in Genesis 8:22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Joel 3:13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, get down and tread the grapes, for the winepress is full; the vats overflow, for the wickedness of the peoples is great.
Matthew 13:39 And the enemy who sowed it is the devil. The harvest is the close and consummation of the age, and the reapers are angels.
Revelation 1:15 And another angel came out of the temple sanctuary, calling with a mighty voice to Him Who was sitting upon the cloud. Put in your scythe and reap, for the hour has arrived to gather the harvest, for the earth's crop is fully ripened.
We must consider what makes fruit last. What keeps fruit, is it's being processed. Grapes must be connected to the vine to mature. But the time comes when they must be harvested, or they will spoil. They are harvested, and put through the winepress, made into wine and bottled. After being processed, the wine will keep for years.
We must be processed. We must go through the winepress, that we may remain. In the same way, our fruit must be processed also, that it may remain. We must ever be pressing in to know God. To learn of Him and His ways, to become one with Him, and be able to show others how to know the Lord intimately.
