http://www.churchatthemall.com/church-at-the-mall-blog/author/pastor-jay-dennis/

As you listen be sure to once again thank God for sending His Son to die the death we deserved.

I’m reminded of a story told of D.L. Moody:

Member of the community: I see one of your converts is off drinking and acting worldly.

Moody: Must be one of mine, because the Lord’s converts wouldn’t act that way.

Does the scripture give us any help in determining if someone has truly repented and turned to God for salvation?  I believe there are but let me just list 3 for our discussion:  Matthew 13:23; John 15:9-17; Acts 26:20.  Please note what you do not find in those verses is any mention of saying a prayer, walking an aisle, or signing a decision card (none of these thing is bad, but they are not signs of true conversion.

Matthew  13:23 brings out that truly converted person hears God’s word, understands it, and is fruitful.

John 15:9-17 Jesus says that a true disciple will love God enough to keep God’s Commands and will be fruitful.

Acts 26:20 Paul said after a person had repented and turned to God, they would “do works befitting repentance”.

Church leaders would do well to learn the habit of being fruit inspectors.  Most importantly for church leaders is to regularly inspect the fruit of those members under their care (as well as being introspective).  Just using our three passages above there are certainly some external signs of whether a person has truly been converted:

1. Are they showing signs of being spiritually fruitful?

2. Are they showing signs of loving God?

3. Are they showing signs of keeping the commands of God?

4. In general are they showing signs “befitting” genuine repentance?

Is this being judgmental? Certainly not, but I would suggest that a reason we don’t do more “fruit inspection” is not because we are assured of people’s salvation.  No we generally don’t do it because we don’t want people inspecting our fruit.  If only we would be more concerned with a person’s eternal destiny, rather than wanting to get through life “uninspected”.

Just think about it.

Three ways that Satan can snatch the seed from the believer:
1. The cares of this world cause us to forget the Word we have learned.
2. The pursuit of financial needs cause us to forget the Word we have learned
3. The adding of seed on top of seed causes us to be unfruitful.

First Satan uses the mundane daily task to snatch the Word that we learned on Sunday. Satan is good at using YOUR “day timer’ to snatch away the Word that was planted in your heart on Sunday or during your daily devotions. We can get so caught up in LIVING (hustlers and bustlers) that we forget that which we have learned.

Second Satan uses our pursuit of financial gain, whether to meet daily needs or other worthy pursuits to snatch the Word from our hearts. How quick we can be to forget the words of Christ in Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” That ‘s right Satan will actually get us to invert this…we set off to pursue food, clothing, and shelter forgetting that God first and foremost wants us to pursue Him. Thus the more we pursue Him, the more our necessities of life are met. But again Satan snatches that which we need to take by faith and replaces it with worry.

Thirdly Satan snatches away that which we have learned by getting us to be learners rather than appliers. Rather than applying what we learn on Sunday we become life long learners but not appliers. As one man put it “learning more theology is easier than applying what we already have learned”, “going to another Bible Study is easier than applying what we’ve already learned”, “getting caught up in good religious activity, gives Satan a door of opportunity to snatch away what we’ve already learned.” In other words throwing more seed on top of other seed causes seed NOT to be fruitful.

if you desire to be fruitful don’t allow Satan to be a seed snatcher.