In John 15:8 the Lord said, “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples” (NKJV). We begin to bear fruit as disciples, but when we go to the next level of relationship with the Lord—being His bondservant—bearing fruit by doing His work becomes our primary focus. Discipleship is mostly about us, us learning, and us growing. But becoming a bondservant requires us to apply all we have learned for His purposes, not our benefit.

And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep (see Genesis 1:2).

The Great Commission was to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,” not just individuals, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you...” (Matthew 28:18-19).

Our verse for this week is Ephesians 5:31:

 If we are going to have a message that is relevant to our times, we must understand the times. For this reason we need to evaluate the significant events of our times, such as the recent elections from a spiritual perspective. They were, in many ways, a barometer of the spiritual condition of the nation at this time, as well as a precursor of the direction in which we are headed.

Our text for this week is Ephesians 5:10:

This simple statement encompasses the highest and most noble purpose of man. There is nothing we can ever do that is more important, more powerful, more fruitful, and have a longer lasting impact on the world, than living our life so we please the Lord.

A few years ago a major study revealed that the ultimate question that people have is this: What is my purpose? This was the main question regardless of race, religion, or lack of religion. This could only be the result of there being an inherent destiny that is created in the heart of every human being. Interestingly, even those who do not believe in God believed that they are here for a purpose. The Scriptures confirm what all of our hearts tell us—we all have a destiny, a purpose. Seeking our destiny is a quest that adds richness, depth, and fulfillment in experiencing life.

We can and will spend eternity getting to know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and I don't think we will ever exhaust what can be learned. For all of the increase of knowledge that we have experienced on earth in the last century, one doctor told me that the most we know about the human body is maybe as much as 30 percent. When I asked him how much he thought psychiatrists knew about the mind, he estimated 5 percent. I think we know even less about the spirit of man.