Eastsiders and God Part 1:
Top Questions Eastsiders Have About God.
Part 1
Pastor
We studied an area that includes 319,556 people. It extends into Seattle but is mostly north of 520. It extends to the north as far as Highway 2. Here is a brief summary of some of the important things we found.
92.1% White
4.8% Asian
2.2% Hispanic
Just 55% of
Hispanics are from
1.0% African-American
37.3% Believe America must open its doors to all people groups
35.1% believe the changing
racial/ethnic face of America is a threat to our national hertiage
Biggest group between 42-59
Average age 32.1
38.5% earn more than $100,000
20.0 earn between $75-100,000
30% earn between $35 and $75,000
7 % earn less than $25,000
55.4% of families have two workers
13.8% have three workers
24.8% have one worker
Welfare related issues
44.7% believe that Government should be the primary provider of human welfare services
59.5% believe Churches should provide more human services
23.1% have never been married
14.5% are divorced or widowed
62.4% are married
63.2% are a married couple
36.8% are something else
90.2% believe it is important to preserve the traditional American family Structure
82.6% are married couples families
12.6% are single mothers
3.7% are single dads
53.7% are involved in their faith
46.8% are not involved.
80.6% believe there is a God
55% agree that “God is actively involved in the world including nations and their governments.”
25% believe there is a God but he is not active in the world
This is the problem of empty faith. They believe in God but he is not active.
This last area, religion, is where I would like to begin in this series of messages. It seems that there is a basic religion in this community that is pretty widespread. That is, most of us believe there is a God. We should note that we are not quite as high as the rest of the country, but it is still fairly high.
It strikes me, however, that there is a problem even with that number. 55% agree that “God is actively involved in the world including nations and their governments.” That means that 25% of those who believe in God do not believe that he is active in the world. That seems to me to be a largely empty faith. He is there but he never shows up.
I don’t know why 45% of the public doesn’t believe much in an active God. There does seem to be a relationship between how active one is with her faith and the degree to which we believe God is active in the world. 55% believe God is active and 53.7% are active in their faith. Statistically, that is the same number. Maybe there is a relationship between our activity and God’s.
Do you remember the words to a song, “looking for love in all the wrong places?” (I hope there is nothing wrong with the rest of the song, because that is all of it I can remember at the moment) Maybe that is why 45% of the people here don’t see God as active. Could it be that God is active, but they are looking in the wrong places?
Where to Look to See if God
is Active in the World Today!
1. God
usually does his work through people.
You can see God through human beings. God’s idea is that we will be his hands. He will work, but it will be through us.
When we help someone on this earth, we are helping God. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”[1] In the same way, when we receive help from someone it is the same as receiving it from the Lord. This is the Biblical teaching.
Someone might object that the
helping and loving that is extended to people is not unique to Christian people
therefore it cannot be a way to see God.
They could point to our research to show that even though we are
somewhat less religious than the rest of
I believe even secular charitable giving on the Eastside has, as its base motivation, the understanding that God requires us to bless those less fortunate than ourselves. This idea comes from God. You see it most pronounced in the religions that have the Bible at their base. By that I mean Judaism first of all, then Christianity, then Islam which is built on Judaism and Christianity’s key ideas.
You do not see this level of
charitable giving in
2. We
see the love of God in the love between a husband and wife.
The Bible says, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery-- but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”[2] A whole book of the Bible, The Song of Songs, is an illustration of this point.
A lot of Eastsiders, 28.5%, identify achieving a fulfilling marriage, as a primary concern. Less than half as many as want to achieve financial security, but still a sizeable number. A whopping 90.2 hold as a key value in their lives the preservation of the traditional American family structure. That is, a husband and wife relationship. That urge to have a good marriage, and to preserve the husband/wife relationship, is an evidence of God. That is the business God is in. That is something that is very important to God. That is also why God hates divorce. It messes up the picture. We can’t see God as clearly if we don’t have a good marriage relationship.
3. God
acts sovereignly in human affairs as well.
When I say that God acts sovereignly, I mean that he does things that don’t require
anybody’s help. He just does some
things. Tonight, when I preach on the 10
most important scriptures to understand the
Someone has counted over 300 things that God said he would do, or that would happen, surrounding the birth of Christ. Those things came true because God sovereignly said he was going to do it and then he did it.
If you are not bothering to read
what God said he would do, then you won’t have any basis to see that God is
indeed active in the world. About 55% of
the people are active in their faith, and about 55% of the people believe that
God is active in the world. Many
Americans have no clue as to what God said about the
Before any Eastsider can become a Christian there are at least two preliminary questions that he or she must ask even before we even come to the matter of accepting Jesus.
First, am I willing to live my life for a world I cannot yet see? Judging by the 45% we don’t see God as being active, it is apparent that God is easy to ignore. We can ignore him because he gives rain to the just and the unjust. That is, he doesn’t deal with us in this life according to the choices we make. You can ignore God without a lot of bad things happening to you in this life. But just because you don’t always see God doesn’t mean he isn’t there.
For the person who does not know Jesus Christ as their Savior….
…….their worst day on earth is better than their best day in eternity.
For the person who knows Jesus Christ…
……..their best day on earth is worse than their worst day in heaven.
Today I am inviting you to go against the stream and live your life for a world you cannot see. I am inviting you to receive the eternal Spirit of God within you and to begin to live with God in mind. More is going to be required of you than you could possibly imagine. It will take everything you have, without reservations. What you get in return is eternal life.