Has there been a moment when you've taken Jesus' hand and made the commitment to live for him? Many church people have discovered Jesus, and they have increasingly grown to appreciate Him and even love Him.
They have learned about Jesus. They have done things for Him. They think based on all of that they must have a saving relationship with Christ.
Sometimes you can't tell the difference between the real Christians and the ones who look like them. Literally, you can have sitting in church next to each other one person who knows Christ and is going to heaven, and another who doesn't and is headed for an eternity without Christ. They sing the same songs, know the same words, do all the same things. The difference is a life-changing moment.
The Word of God in Matthew 13:37-41 is a perfect passage about this life-changing decision. It is from a disturbing parable that Jesus told, but it has life-saving truth. He told about a man with a wheat field. A competitor came in and sowed weeds in the middle of the wheat so you couldn't tell them apart. The servants wanted to go out and try to pull up the weeds, and the Master said you won't be able to tell the difference. A little later, he began to explain to the disciples what this meant.
Jesus said, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man, the field was the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the Kingdom, the people that belong to him. The weeds are the sons of the evil one; the ones who don't belong to Jesus. The enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up at the harvest, and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out His angels. They will weed out His Kingdom, everything that causes sin and all who do evil." This means that all those who are not forgiven do not belong to Jesus Christ.
There's a moment when you consciously choose Jesus Christ to be your Savior. You pin all your hopes on Him to give you a relationship with God. That is when you cross from death to life. There is a specific moment this happens.
Jesus described this important moment in John 5:24. He said, "Whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life."
Has there been a time when you did that? If you say "I'm not sure," then you probably haven't. Though you might look like, act like, and behave like a Christian, there has never been the time of giving you to Jesus. You can know the day you become Jesus Christ's - your life-changing moment.