Survey says

I was watching a rerun of Family Feud and a rather interesting question came up for them to find the top 5 answers to: “Where are you most likely to find a sinner?”

First I found that refreshingly daring that they would even bring the topic up. Secondly I knew I was going to be amused and informed by the answers because the top five give us a pretty good cross section of where the culture is at.

The #1 answer was in a bar. So the fact that the majority of people think that, is, de facto, an indication that you are a sinner if you go to a bar. Interesting. Not sure I agree with it 100% either. I presume the fact that casino was another top answer would hold true for them as well.

Two other answers amused me as they revealed some other things to think about. The # 3 answer was church. Now did they mean that we are all sinners and need to be in church or did they mean that all who are in church are hypocrites and are really sinners like the rest of the world out side the church?

Not too surprisingly “hell” came in fourth as a place to find sinners. I thought, “Well good! The vast majority of people still will admit there is a hell, at least on a survey!”

But a reality that perhaps the world doesn’t fully understand is that there was another answer that would have been 100% accurate but never made it to the top 5. It may not be the #1 answer but it is undeniably true: heaven. Heaven is populated with nothing but sinners when it comes to surveying its human inhabitants. The difference is the sinners in heaven made a decision to trust Jesus for their salvation rather than their own deeds. They realized that no one can earn their way into heaven.

Ephesians 2

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.