The Sins of My Youth
Pastor Harold Warner
It was over twelve years ago that our nation cringed at President Bill Clinton’s admission that he had an “inappropriate” relationship with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Since then, her name has because almost a byword for lewd behavior, and she remains the stock in trade for comics everywhere.
I don’t know what she’s doing today, but it does raise a question: How would you like to be known and remembered for the rest of your life for something you did when you were 21?
I’ve been asked how things are different today for young people than 30-plus years ago, when I was young(er).
Now, this is not one of those boring or condescending, when-I-was-your-age speeches (definitely a turn-off) – nor am I insinuating that we didn’t have our own problems, or that somehow our generation was pure.
But this is a valid question that demands an honest answer. And my honest answer must be that today we are seeing more and more young people’s lives destroyed by sin at earlier and earlier ages.
Things that were more or less unheard of when we were young are commonplace today, leading young people into deeper and deeper bondage. But having said that, our confidence remains that “where sin abounds, grace does much more abound” (Romans 5:20).
The Bible is very honest about both the perils and the possibilities of youth. If we are serious about seeing revival touch the next generation then these are things that we must carefully consider.
Psalm 25 is a very important passage for youth, because it is very personal and revealing, and its aim is to help and give hope to those whose lives have been ruined by sin.
The thing that really captured my attention about this particular psalm is that it highlights a very real and dangerous snare.
We can’t dodge the fact that sin’s destruction is real and not exaggerated. This is not something we’re making up so that we can manipulate young people into coming to church.
No, it is painfully true! Sin can sabotage a life; it can ruin a testimony; it can cause a marriage to implode; and as a result of sin we may even forfeit an opportunity to be used by God.
What drew me to this passage in particular is David’s prayer in verse 7: “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions.”
Not just sin or even sins in general, but David deliberately singles out the “sins of my youth.”
David is now well into his adult years, but this prayer is obviously triggered by the sting of things that happened when he was young.
Did you know that you can do things when you’re young that stay with you the rest of your life?
We know that sin is sin, whether at 6, or 16, or 60. Why then does David single out the “sins of my youth”?
I think it is due to the ability of these specific sins to stamp your identity and label you for the rest of your life. While people thankfully outgrow things, and not everything we go through ends up being permanent – we’re still talking about a very real snare.
The notorious serial killer, Ted Bundy, was executed in 1989. His warped and savage behavior was responsible for the deaths of as many as fifty young girls and women. Shortly before his death he asked for and was interviewed by Dr. James Dobson.
He wasn’t trying to excuse his behavior or justify himself, but he clearly told Dr. Dobson that where this sinful behavior really started to gain control of his life was when he began to increasingly engage in pornography.
This is not to say that every person exposed to pornography becomes a serial killer. But that the sin of pornography has the ability to stamp your life is a fact that can’t be ignored.
In 2008 a book was released called Hooked - New Science on How Casual Sex is Affecting Our Children.
It was written by two M.D.’s, Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr. and Freda McKissic Bush, who talk about the “third risk” of casual sex (the first two being pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases).
They wrote: “A wealth of new data declares plainly that sex involves the entire person: physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and in every other way. The physical ramifications of non-marital sex should not be ignored (STD’s and pregnancy) and neither should the emotional effects.
“But the emotional effect is not just a feeling; it arises from the way one’s brain is molded or is damaged by bad experiences and how this affects every area of our lives including future decisions by becoming hardwired to repeat destructive behavior.”
Their research of the human brain argues that the brain is not set in stone, but rather it is moldable, especially when we are young. The hardwiring of the human brain is affected by your actions, especially in the sexual arena.
Again these doctors wrote: “Modern neuroscience research has uncovered startling new information about how sex affects our brains. The effect of sex on our brains can have all sorts of consequences.
“We do know that sex can literally change a person’s brain, influencing the thought process and affecting future decisions.”
David may not have had access to scientific research and data, but he expresses a very common sentiment when he prays “remember not the sins of my youth.”
This is why the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the best news of your life, because it sets before you the promise of a miraculous dimension.
A friend of mine in Australia, Greg Farrell, was involved in the construction of his church building.
They were searching for lumber for the project, and they visited a location where a guy had loads of timber.
He told Greg that people making furniture wanted timber that was “perfect.”
“If people were more forgiving,” he added, “then all this wood would be gone!” Aha! The light goes on! Scripture says in Psalm130:3,4: “Lord, if You kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? But You offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear You.”
The Living Bible simply says, “But You forgive! What an awesome thing this is!”
This is why after saying “remember not the sins of my youth,” David goes on to say, “According to Your mercy remember me, for Your goodness' sake, O Lord.”
Can you see it? Forget the sins of my youth, but remember me. Remember me through the lens of Your mercies!
God’s plan for dealing with sin of any kind – but especially the sins of our youth – is the miracle of forgiveness purchased through Christ’s atoning death on the Cross.
Why bring this up in relation to revival and the next generation? I’ll tell you.
It seems some have made it a kind of hobby or pastime to rail on church kids. Yeah, they’re all rebels; they’re all playing games with God; they’re not saved.
I am not naïve. I know these kinds of kids certainly do exist.
My feeling, however, is that a far greater number of kids in the church are struggling with the lack of a sense or experience of God’s great mercy and forgiveness!
They are more aware of their sins than they are of God’s mercy and forgiveness.
November 15, 1970 in a Sunday night church service in Prescott, Arizona, a long-haired hippie bowed his knee and asked Jesus Christ to come into his heart. That young man was me. On the ignorance scale of Christianity I was right near the top.
I knew next to nothing about what I had actually done (or, better put: about what had happened to me).
What I can remember, and what stayed with me so powerfully, was such a real sense of feeling clean.
I couldn’t explain it, and I definitely couldn’t have given you a theological explanation of justification, propitiation, redemption, reconciliation, or sanctification… but I knew I felt clean!
I had been forgiven by God! Hallelujah! This is why David continues in Psalm 25:11: “For Your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.” What he’s describing is a supernatural spiritual dimension.
It parallels what Isaiah had said in Isaiah 43:25: "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.”
Real forgiveness is not based on our deserving it; it is based on God’s own character and grace: “for My name’s sake.”
According to Jeremiah, this is the heart of the new covenant: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah; not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Some of the best news for sinners (that’s you and me) is that God forgives sin – and when He does, it is erased from the eternal record!
I am afraid one reason we are not seeing revival among young people is that people and parents are not preaching, living, enjoying and communicating the new covenant!
Instead, we’re preaching to them a kind of moralistic message to be good kids and don’t get into any real big trouble. That’s not the Gospel, and that’s not the seed of revival that the next generation needs to experience and make their own.
Forget my sins, but remember me! This is the divine romance that lies at the heart of the wonder of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The religious people of their time assaulted the disciples with the criticism: Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and sinners [such scum]? Jesus told them it was because “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:31,32). There is no better news on this planet!
The good news of the Gospel tells us that Jesus has paid the price for our sins through His death on the Cross and has made forgiveness available through faith in His blood to whoever will believe and call on his Name.
In the early days of the American West, travelers in wagon trains making their way across the prairies were often horrified to see a wildfire coming their way, destroying everything in its path. Many a wagon train and many lives were lost in those terrible fires.
Finally, someone got smart. When a fire was spotted in the distance, someone would set a back fire to burn off a few acres behind the wagon train. They pulled everything back onto that burned-over plot of ground. When the onrushing fire reached them, it went right around them in search of fuel to burn, and the people were safe.
Oh, beloved, that sacred piece of ground for you and me is Calvary!
That is where the fire of God’s righteous judgment fell on Jesus our Substitute, and when we stand on that ground we are safe, we are saved, we are forgiven!
We must pray with passion, and preach the Gospel with conviction to the next generation, so that they too might experience this wonderful Savior Jesus Christ.
God’s answer for the young people of any generation is still discipleship. In the same context David says: “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day” (Psalm 25:4,5).
This goes beyond David’s desperation over the sins of his youth to express his heart’s desire and determined direction.
You see, what forgiveness frees us to discover and experience is not just a religious inclination, but a desire to follow Jesus’ call to discipleship and abundant living.
“Follow Me!” This is what we need to be declaring to this generation and to those which are still to come.