The Burden of Youthful Sins. Brendan Mc Crossan

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2 The Burden of Youthful Sins Brendan Mc Crossan

3 The burden of childhood sins Psalm-25-7-remember not the sins of my youth, and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good oh Lord. Many, many people carry around with them the burden of childhood sins and they suffer in secrete for many years long into their adult life, and they are tormented with the thoughts of what they have done, and to who they done them to. Psalm for the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. The first thing we have to understand is God is love, and in his love there is mercy and forgiveness even for the most horrendous vilest sin we as human beings could ever commit. The psalm writer was asking God to forgive his youthful sins, therefore they must have been a burden to him; he must have carried them around with him like a great weight on his shoulders for years. As a youth he probably did not give much thought to God or to God s ways, he probably didn t understand the great mercy and love that God has for us his children until he got older and had an experience with God; after his probable experience with God he understood more of the nature of God and the mercy and forgiveness of God. Forgiveness is the nature of God, mercy for the sinner is the nature of God, compassion for those who sinned and done terrible things in moments of weakness is the nature of God; therefore now as an adult he comes to God seeking forgiveness for his youthful sins, knowing the mercy and love of God now personally. He wanted to be rid of that terrible burden of guilt that he carried around with him for all his youthful years and right into his adult years. According to your love remember me, he asks of the lord. He knows the mercy and love of God now, so he is saying to God, according to your love, remember me, not according to my guilt remember me, but by your great and tremendous love remember me, remember me in mercy he is saying, not according to the weight of my youthful sins, and according to your judgment. Maybe you have carried guilt around with you for years, guilt from sins you committed as a young man or woman. Maybe you are now a fully fledged Christian knowing the love and mercy that God has for you, but still there is a dark recess in your heart preventing you from achieving happiness and peace of mind. Maybe you have asked God for forgiveness of those sins but the effect didn t go away, the effect of guilt. Then my friend you just didn t forgive yourself. God never withholds forgiveness from those who sincerely ask him, but we have the power to hold guilt in our heart and mind. And this is a terrible burden to us; it crushes us, robbing our joy, stealing from us happiness. Remember the words of Jesus; the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And the thief is stealing and robbing and killing any real peace of mind and heart we have in us. He was the one in the first place that caused us to commit those youthful sins and now he accuses us of offending God by our sins. If it wasn t so serious it would be almost laughable, the person who urged you to sin is now tormenting you with feelings of guilt for doing what he urged you to do in the first place. Jesus died on the cross on Calvary for your youthful sins and every other sin you would and will commit, he died once for those sins, and all those sins were forgiven by Jesus on that cross. He knew you would sin, from before time Jesus knew everything about you; long ago even before he made the world God chose you, he decided them to make you holy in his eyes, without a single fault or failing; Ephesians God knew you would sin your youthful sins and he knew who with you would sin that sin with, he knew every detail of those sins before you even committed them, he knew you from before

4 he made the world, realise that, from before he even made the world, millions of years ago, as he brooded over the chaotic mass, he was giving thought to you, and he made two paths for you, one was his perfect will and the other was his permissive will, the will that allows you to sin and do wrong, it s called free will. He knew every temptation that you would experience and knew how you would fare, he knew when you would refuse and he knew when you would fall. And you were not the only one who committed those youthful sins; scripture says; all have sinned, everyone has done wrong. Romans-3-23-yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God s glorious ideal. Yes says scripture; all that means everyone in this world, past, present and future. Millions have committed those exact same sins you committed and you thought that you were the only one, and were a disgusting person. The person who has committed youthful sins thinks they were the only ones who sinned like that, and they keep those sins secrete from everyone, except they can t keep them secrete from themselves or Satan, the one who urged you to sin, and the person whom you sinned against, and of course God from whom nothing is hidden. So at least four know of your youthful sins that have remained secrete from your youthful years. Thankfully we have a merciful forgiving God who knows everything about you, and knows that your sins were just the same as millions of others around the world, Satan uses these sins with everyone not just you, you just think it was only terrible bad you. Did you know that there are only the same sins committed since the fall of Adam and Eve, yours wasn t the newest sin to arrive on the planet, Satan uses sin and uses it many ways, he puts different slants on them but really they are the same sins just dressed up differently, but the same sin nevertheless, there was nothing new in the sin, sin is sin and no matter what it is dressed up like it is still the same sin. Satan tries to get you to believe it is different from any sin committed in the world so far, and you have found a new way to sin against God and someone else. Rubbish, sin is still the same sin. We see guilt as a terrible thing, as a burden weighing us down, and it does weigh us down, if we do not understand its purpose. Guilt is supposed to make us remorseful for the wrong things we have done that offend God, guilt is supposed to make us repent; instead we get bogged down with feelings of guilt, the feeling that we have done unforgivable wrongs, and that no one is as terrible as us. Guilt is there to remind us we done wrong, it is not supposed to condemn us or make us fall into despair, its purpose is to draw us closer to God; for without guilt we would do whatever we liked even murder or other heinous crimes. Guilt is not something to fear instead it is something to embrace; to acknowledge before God and yourself that you have sinned and offended God and whomever you sinned with or against. The Psalmist in Psalm-33-3-said Psalm-32-3 when I kept silence before I confessed my sin, my bones wasted away through my groaning all the day long. For day and night your hand of displeasure was heavy upon me I acknowledged my sin to you, and my iniquity I did not hide, I said, I will confess my transgressions to the lord, {continually unfolding the past until all is told.} then you instantly forgave me the guilt and iniquity of all my sin. {Amplified Bible} Keeping silent does not get rid of guilt, it is only when it is shared and confessed does it go forever. Psalm now I say, each believer should confess his sins to God when he is aware of them, while there is time to be forgiven, judgment will not touch him if he does.

5 Again I remind you, guilt is not there to crucify you, it is there to remind you that you done wrong and try and hide that sin from God who sees everything, and nothing can be hidden from God he sees every single act of mankind, good or bad. Peace of mind and heart The biggest killer of peace of mind is guilt, sins we tried to keep hidden from others, and even denying them to ourselves, but guilt won t allow us to forget, it nags and nags away at us for years and years, until it is eventually confessed to God. And sometimes needs to be shared with other Christian believers who have enough past sin in their own lives not to judge or condemn you! James admit your faults to one another, and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Sexual sins are the main youthful sin, sin with your-self by masturbation, and sins with others, and sometimes sins with our own brothers or sisters. For the person suffering guilt, the fact that they had either sex with a sister or brother is doubly heightened. Or he or she had sex by touching or looking at each other s private parts. This guilt is the most outstanding guilt that the young person feels. At the time the temptation was exciting and strange, and even arousing, and all those things are normal for families staying in very close proximity, i.e. like sharing the same bed as a brother or sister. In the old days everyone shared the same bed sometimes two or three or even four to the one bed, and times things happened, like having a grope at a sister sleeping, or feeling a brothers privates, as he sleeps. Those things happen to more people than you could ever imagine, it was common place in Ireland, for whole families to share the one bed, and for a young man just coming into puberty waking up with an erection, was and is no strange thing, it is natural to every boy ever created. And sometime lying beside a sister that young man moved his erection against his sister, or even a mother, getting pleasure from his act, and then he feels terrible guilt from what he just done. These things happened to lots and lots of young men growing up and I have prayed with numerous men who felt guilty about these things, men in their 60 s and 70 s and they are suffering guilt from their actions, and haven t forgiven themselves or asked God to forgive them, thinking that what they did was to terrible for forgiveness. There are many numerous ways we have sinned in our youth, and sex sin is the most common, especially in large families. This is not something a person needs to crucify themselves over; these things happened to millions all over the world, so you are not on your own in committing these sins, with siblings or relatives or friends or even strangers. Scripture says; all have sinned; not just you! Romans yes all have sinned; all fall short of God s glorious ideal; yet now God declares us not guilty of offending him, if we trust in Christ Jesus who in his kindness freely takes away our sins. Yes all have sinned, including you and me, but there is more exciting news here in this scripture for those who suffer from guilt. Did you read those words of God and did you see that God declares us not guilty of offending him. Who does sin offend? Sin offends God, and God says he himself and no other declares you, that s you who are reading this, not guilty of offending him. In effect he has taken away your guilt from you freely, that means you don t have to pay for your guilt, you are declared not guilty by God! Sometimes we may feel the need to make amendment to the person we sinned with, and sometimes it is not a very wise thing to do, as it could cause unbelievable damage to us and to our families and to the other person and their family; and the evil of social services could be

6 brought into a family and they will destroy that family and all around them, that is one guaranteed fact. I believe Satan uses Social services as a willing evil. I know that sometimes they have actually helped people but in the most they are destroyers of family life, and I for one would advise never go down that road, unless there is absolutely no alternative. I believe in what God s word tells us, to forget the past! If you really want to make amends then send them this book and my book The loving gift of Guilt. Through Jesus they can receive healing, if they do as the book says. There is no better gift to give someone whom you know or think is living in guilt than this and my other book; these books will bring healing to them through Jesus, and could possibly draw them closer to God. Never do anything without the Holy Spirits advice. Refusing to forgive someone or even ourselves is wrong. Scripture tells us that if we refuse to forgive someone we will go to the torture chamber, unbelievable as it sounds, but this is true. Matthew-614- your heavenly father will forgive you if you forgive those who sinned against you; but if you refuse to forgive them, he will not forgive you. If God refuses to forgive someone where will they go when they die? Jesus is stating here in this scripture a terrible truth. If you refuse to forgive anyone who sinned against you; then you are the one who will not be forgiven when you die and stand before God. You may say this is unfair, after all look at what they done on me, but God does not look at things from a human perspective. If Jesus said; I can t forgive the person reading this after all look at what they done on me! where would that leave you? You have to understand the enormity of forgiveness to know how serious God takes forgiveness. God sacrificed his Son Jesus on Calvary to forgive you your terrible sins, he killed his only Son and had him scourged and whipped and crucified, a horrible lingering painful death on a cross, just so you could come before him and receive forgiveness for your many sins, and now you have the audacity to come before God and pray, and still refuse to forgive those who sinned against you. You are scoffing at God refusing to accept his love and mercy by refusing to forgive someone who hurt you; and you are doing the same thing when you refuse to forgive yourself. By refusing to forgive yourself you are basically saying to Jesus, you never done enough for me to get rid of my sins, go back on the cross and do it all over again just for me personally, it wasn t enough what you done for me. Your youthful sins were covered by Jesus death on the cross, he died for those sins you committed, and now he says forgive yourself as I have forgiven you. To refuse to forgive is a terrible serious thing, I cannot emphasise it enough, I can t think of words to describe how terrible this sin is and it is a sin, refusing to forgive those for whom Christ died. Stop letting Satan control your feelings, and emotions for that is where unforgiveness is laying, in your feelings and emotions. If you are a Christian read Matthew this is the story of a man who owed the king a lot of money and the king demanded his money back but the man asked for time to pay back what he owed; the king gave him time to pay back; then the man met another man who owed him a little sum of money and he grabbed him by the throat and demanded his money back and when the man couldn t pay he had him thrown into prison. The man s friends told the king who had the man arrested and threw him in prison into the torture chamber.

7 Matthew-6-34-then the angry king sent the man to the torture chamber until he paid every last penny due. So shall my father do to you, if you refuse to truly forgive your brothers? Who said these words? It was Jesus himself. And if Jesus gave this warning then we had better take heed of it or we will be thrown into the same torture chamber. You don t have the right to hold unforgiveness against anyone no matter what they done, because Jesus forgave you the many, many sins you committed against him! This means even the person who sinned has to forgive themselves, you are in enough torture as it is, so for God s sake and yours, forgive yourself right now; stop letting the devil torment you with feelings of guilt. Remember that guilt is a feeling and forgiveness is a decision. Forgiveness is a choice you have to make, guilt is a feeling you feel, it s in your emotions and it s removed by choice a decision you make, not a feeling you feel. You are not allowed by God to withhold forgiveness from anyone, and in fact you are not even allowed to hold it against yourself, you must love your neighbour as you love yourself, was a command that God gave and we all know that commandment, we grew up with it being taught in school. Ireland in a terrible time If as a young man or woman growing up in Ireland during the troubles, there is a possibility that you may have taken someone s life or terribly injured them, you also have to ask God for forgiveness and then you need to forgive yourself, if you belonged to a paramilitary group then you also need to repent of Idolatry, the putting a country before God. You cannot replace the life you took, and you cannot fix the bodies you have maimed, you cannot go back into the past and change things. St Paul said, This one thing I do, forget the past and look ahead. This applies to all youthful sins, sexual or otherwise! Philippians-3-13 no dear brothers, I am still not all I should be but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing; Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. If God is telling you to forget the past what should do? Forget it; refuse to allow it to crucify you with guilt. By the way! Paul killed Christians before he himself became one. If you have become a Christian since you sinned in your youthful days, then you are not the same person who sinned those sins, you become a new creation, with a new nature. 2-corinthians when someone becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun. God is telling you to forget the past, and concentrating on the new creation that you have become, because you have joined together with Christ Jesus as one person. {In the spirit that is} 1-Corinthians-6-17 if you give yourself to the lord you and Christ are joined together as one person. Living in the past does not give God any glory and does not help you either. If you are now a Christian then you have been chosen to glorify God through Jesus Christ who paid for our sins and faults and failings. Did you know that God swapped your sins for Jesus goodness? 2- Corinthians for God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God s goodness into us. Those youthful sins were exchanged by God for his own goodness, he took all the rotten youthful and adult sins poured them into Jesus body, and then using that emptiness inside us, he poured his own goodness into us. If you are not a Christian reading this, then you could

8 have the same thing happen for you, all you need to do is ask Jesus into your heart as your lord and saviour and he will save you, you will have a heavenly future, with all sins past present and future removed, and swapped by God for his own goodness. The only thing crippling you now is guilt and that is an emotion a feeling, and God poured your guilt into Jesus body and swapped it for his own goodness. This was not an emotion or feeling but a decision of unconditional love, to swap your guilty sins for God s own goodness, isn t it time you let go of guilt? Stop letting Satan push you around, tell him to get lost, to get away from you, he is a liar and no truth in him. Stop accepting his guilt, and condemnation. God on the other hand speaks only truth, and he says you re forgiven and your sins exchanged with Jesus. Who do you chose to believe, God or the Devil? The choice my friend is up to you entirely and no one else. God says you re forgiven; Satan says you re guilty, who do you accept as lord. The burden of youthful sins need never burden you down, you can now rebuke Satan the Devil and you can begin to praise God for giving you freedom from sin and guilt. Today my friend is the beginning of your life in Jesus, or will you remain in torment with Satan as company. Who will you chose? The answer lies in your heart; which do you choose, God s word or Satan s lies? Amen