Mark 4:20
The measure of success the sower uses is whether the seed bears fruit. Other seed proves to be useless, but only the good seed grows deep roots, is not easily plucked away by the cares of the world, and then bears fruit.
I read some figures yesterday concerning the county in which we live. There are about 39,000 people in Sequoyah County. Our state convention tells me that only 8.1% of our county's population attend church on any given Sunday--about 3200--leaving 35,800 unchurched. Talk about a mission field!
One of our men took me out over the afternoon and we spoke about this. He said, "Pastor, you know what they say; can it really be that there are only about 1000 true believers in our county?" Wow. Who knows? None of us have the responsibility to take that to task in the personal lives of those claiming Christ in our county, but we do have a responsibility with ourselves. And Jesus said only that seed which bears fruit is acceptable.
So help me out on this one; take a second and respond. What constitutes fruitfulness? What things would you say give evidence of true salvation? Would you count yourself in the fruitful category? Are we consumed with the wrong things in the church, counting dress, SS attendance, and giving records, etc., as the test of commitment? What say you?
