The document is a message from the coordinator of the 2016 Uyo Diocesan Youth Camp. It begins by welcoming the Archbishop and thanking various church leaders for their support. It then introduces the camp theme of "Chosen to Bear Fruit" from John 15:16. The message defines fruit, provides background on the biblical text, and outlines topics for discussion including what fruit is, how to bear fruit by abiding in Christ, and that fruit should remain. It emphasizes that God chooses believers and calls them to bear the fruits of righteousness, the Holy Spirit, praise, and more for His glory. The conclusion is that Christ wants fruit, not just works, as a freewill offering of love.

1. - 1 -
COORDINATOR’S MESSAGE TO THE 2016 UYO DIOCESAN YOUTH
CAMP
INTRODUCTION
To God the Father be all the Glory and Honour in Jesus’ Name – Amen!
I thank God for the miracles taking place among the Youth, in the area of Marriage, Education and many others. At
this juncture, let me formally welcome our Archbishop–Most Rev. Chimezuo O. N. Nwankpa, the wife and his dear
family on behalf of the Youth to the Diocese of Uyo. Let me also thank the Lay President, Archdiocesan Lay
President, Ministers, Stewards, our Knight Leaders of our Church, Women’s Fellowship, Men’s Fellowship and other
Fellowships for always standing by us morally, spiritually and fin ancially in ensuring that this Fellowship is waxing
stronger day by day. May God Almighty reward you all in Jesus’ Name – Amen!
Let me equally thank the Diocesan Youth Officers, Circuit and Local Church Officers, Planning Committee , Mfon-
Abasi Circuit (our host) and indeed all the Youth for your unreserved hard work, sincerity and faithfulness to God
and our dear Church. Let me at this time reawakening the Youth to the responsibility of praying for the Leaders of
our Church especially the Prelate for total healing. We hope that God will heal and sustain him. At this point, let me
address you thoroughly through 2016 Conference theme: “Chosen to Bear Fruit” (John 15:16).
DEFINITION:
Fruit is the spontaneous natural manifestation of the life within. It is the free, unrestrained outpouring of a heart at
peace with God, filled with love of Christ, and stimulated by the presence, and power of the Holy Spirit. (T he Bible
Illustrator – N.T )
BACKGROUND OF THE TEXT
On the day after the night in which Jesus spoke these words to the eleven and to us, He laid Himself down on the
cross and bought us with his blood. We are now His fruit and His fruit-bearer. The only fruit that will ever endure to
external life is fruit which grows out of the cross. T he gospel of John is packed with important texts that are
essential to a right understanding of the doctrines of divine election and the sovereignty of God in salvation. John
15 is part of a long discourse that Jesus gave to comfort His disciples in the upper room on the night He was
betrayed. John 15 may be broken down roughly like verse 1-8: unfolding the familiar imagery of the vine and the
branches, and Christ talks about the importance of fruit bearing. Verse 9 – 17: talk about the most enduring fruit of
all i.e. “love”. And in this section, Christ reassures the disciples of His love for them. He calls them His friends, and
He urges them to love one another. The verse will be looking at today is verse 16 and it comes in this section that
deals with Christ’s love for His disciples. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you
should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My Name He
may give you”. (John 15:16). Apostle John reiterates this very same idea in 1John 4:19 “We love Him because
He first loved us”.
OUTLINES FOR DISCUSSION
Our outlines as drawn from the text for discussion are:
i. What is fruit bearing?
ii. What is the fruit you are called to bear?
iii. T he way you bear fruit
iv. Why we should bear fruit?
v. How your fruit can abide in Christ
vi. T hat your fruit should remain
vii. You did not chose Me
viii. I chose you
ix. What is the real significance of fruit?
Other biblical references shall include:
Matthew 3:10; 7:17; 12:33; 13:23; Mark 4:20; Luke 3:9; 6:43 -44; 8:15; 13:7-9; John 15:2, 4, 8; Romans 6:22; 7:4-5;
Galatians 5:22; James 3:18; Hebrews 13:15.
a. WHAT IS FRUIT BEARING?
Fruitfulness is the great end of God’s ordinances in the vegetable Kingdom. It is the focus into which all
secondary purposes are concentrated. Fruit is not so important to the vine itself as it is to man.

2. - 2 -
Apart from its fruit, the vine is, indeed, a beautiful plant; but this is su bordinate to the one great purpose of
producing grapes, and did it cease to produce fruit it would be condemned as a failure. “Now in the
morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it
and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “let no fruit grow on you ever again”. Immediately,
the fig tree withered away” (Matthew 21:18-19-NKJV). God’s glory is the chief end of man; “But herein
is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit”. Bearing fruit means loving other people. It means letting
the love which we constantly receive from Christ as we abide in Him flow through us and out to others for
their benefit. It means fruitfulness of winning others to Christ, who are then guarded by God’s Power fo r
salvation.
b. WHAT IS THE FRUIT YOU ARE CALLED TO BEAR?
Many sincere Christians think bearing fruit means simply to bring souls to Christ. But to bear fruit means
something much larger even than soul-winning.
 Is the fruit of righteousness: James 3:18 “Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by
those who make peace”. (NKJV).
 Fruit of the Holy Spirit: Gal. 5:22 “But the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”. (NKJV).
 Fruit of Lips: Hebrews 13:15 “therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to
God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His Name”. (NKJV)
 Fruit of the Spirit: Ephesians 5:9 “for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and
truth”. (NKJV).
At this point, let us examine ourselves. Is there any of these fruits the scriptures want us to bear lacking in us? If
no! Congratulations: if yes! Go back to where you are falling. Christ still expect s us to bear these fruits.
c. THE WAY YOU BEAR FRUIT:
T he way, in which you bear fruit, the answer Jesus gives and the word repeated ten times is: abide in Me
and I in you. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing. One may ask; how can I abide in Christ? It means
letting His words abide in us, live in us, work in us, lead us, guide and guard our thought, path, behaviour,
attitude, character and reasoning, etc. Another is to practice His love. The love that worth dying for, that is
sacrificial love.
d. WHY WE SHOULD BEAR FRUIT
Bear fruit for the glory of God. T he end for which you seek to bear fruit is not just you r own joy or the
benefit of your people, it is that God the Father might be glorified, as it is in verse 8 of John 15. In this my
Father glorified: that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. T he chief end of man and the
chief end of ministry is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
e. HOW YOUR FRUIT CAN ABIDE IN CHRIST
If you are a professional in any field of life, for you to maintain your skills and discover new knowledge it
demands regular training, practice or research as the case maybe. For our fruits e.g. righteousness,
holiness, peace-making, love, joy, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, praise,
thanksgiving and truth to abide in Christ, it requires:
i. regular studying of the word of God. If I may ask:
 How often do you read the Holy Bible?
 When last do you attend Bible Study?
 How often do you attend Sunday school?
ii. Prayers and Fasting
iii. Praise and Worship
iv. T hanksgiving.
It obvious some Christians lack true knowledge of how to abide in Christ hence such statement as: I do not have a
gift of praying or fasting, a gift of praise and worships nor that of thanksgiving thereby fading of the grace and glory
of God. T hese attributes are free gift or inbuilt or inherent grace which every child of God is posses and he is
expected to demonstrate it to remain or abide in Christ, falling to make use of it is not an excuse for you not to abide
in Christ.
f. THAT YOUR FRUIT SHOULD REMAIN

3. - 3 -
Ponder on these questions:
 Of what value are the “fruits of the Spirit unless permanent?”
 Of what value is faith if tomorrow we are unbelieving?
 Of what value is love if it alternates with hatred?
 Of what value is joy if it drowned in despondency?
 Of what value to a church are converts unless they “remain?”
Unless our works in the body of Christ remain, then it has no value. If you let your right hand know of what good
deed done to the left, then the good work as no value, therefore whatever good fruit we bear shall remain in Christ
less it has no value.
g. YOU DID NOT CHOOSE ME
Here, Christ was making a point about the nature of His love for the disciples. Having told them to love one
another just as He had loved them, He proceeded to expound on the nature of His love for them. He love
them with a sacrificial love as found in John 15:13. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down
one’s life for his friends”, and He expected then to do the same for one another. He loved them the way
we love our friends, not the way a slave-owner loves His slaves. Now think about this phrase: “you did not
choose Me, but I choose you”. It might sounds somehow to the disciples if we can connect Peter’s words
in Mark 10:28. But the point Christ was making was that He chose them first. His choice was the decisive
one. T hey would never have chosen him at all if He had not first chosen them.
h. I CHOSE YOU
Why God chooses any of us at all is a great mystery. Why did Jesus say: you did not choose Me but I chose
You? T he meaning probably is “your presence here is my doing and so I take full responsibility, and also to
encourage us that he would help us. Christ chose for His work Peter and Paul, rather than Caiaphas or
Gamaliel. His choice for Abraham, Jacob for Esau, or why He proffered David to his brothers, or Saul in the
midst of his brethren remain mystery. But then, appearances an d circumstances go for nothing, as is seen
in God’s choice of David. There were more brilliant men at oxford but when God wanted a man for Africa,
He went to a factory and chose Livingstone.
i. WHAT IS THE REAL SIGNIFICANCE OF FRUIT?
In producing blossom and fruit, therefore, a branch sacrifices itself, yields up its own individual vegetable life
for the sake of another life that is to spring from it, and to perpetuate the species. Every blossom is a
passion flower. The great scriptural principle which every blossom shadows forth is self – sacrifice. And it
is in this self – sacrifice of the plant that all its beauty comes out and culminated. Christian fruit is an
arrestment and transformation of the branch in the vine. Instead of growing for its own ends, it produces the
blossoms of holiness for the glory of God and the good of men.
T he Christian life begins in self-sacrifice. We can bring forth no fruit that is pleasing to God until, besought by His
mercies; we yield ourselves a living sacrifice to Him. And this self – sacrifice all the beauty of the Christians’ life
comes out and culminated. T he life that lives for another, in so doing burst into flower and s hows its brightest lives
and yields its sweetest fragrance.
CONCLUSION
It is fruit that Christ wants, not just works; because it is the freewill offering of heart of love, not the constrained
service of fear or of law. Our Lord in a brief digression has justified a portion of the great commandment of mutual
love. T hat love is to correspond with His love to the disciples and to explain his self-sacrifice to them; He proves to
them that they are His “friends” and therefore the objects of His dying love. T he fruit of the Christian life is
permanent.
REFERENCES
 Holy Bible
 IVP Bible Background Commentary
 Bible Knowledge Commentary
 T he Bible Exposition Commentary
 T he Bible Illustrator
 T he Pulpit Commentary
 Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines

4. - 4 -
Rev. Michael E. Eyo
Diocesan Youth Work Coordinator