I'm The Worst Sinner of Them All

Today's message is inspired by my pastor's recent sermon. He said, "We're not very good at being good because we cannot achieve salvation through moralistic, therapeutic deism." And that's what I've always tried to do. When you are in a culture of rigid rules, constant judgement, and fear of hell fire and damnation, you have two choices: total submission or total rebellion. I think it's clear which way I went :) But as my pastor said, total submission will not gain you salvation. To say that you can obey (and work) your way into heaven is to dismiss the sacrifice of Jesus' crucifixion.  

Here are some of the things Paul said about his lack:

For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

1 Corinthians 15:9

Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

Ephesians 3:8

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

1 Timothy 1:15

I, Suzi Shumaker, am the worst of all the sinners. I am unworthy of salvation. I tell you this freely because, in the following weeks, I plan to write about my life since leaving the FOC and I know that there will be legalists from that group who will jump at the chance to point out how unworthy I am to present the gospel message. And when they do so, I will remind them that the great Apostle Paul, also claimed to be unworthy and the chief sinner.