Letting Go of the Past

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Letting Go of the Past

• St. Augustine SS Class

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Letting go of past sins/mistakes

• Immorality
• Sexual sins
• Losing our temper/reaction to others
• Immoral lifestyle (stealing, cheating, etc)
• Wrong Decisions or Missed Opportunities
• Marriage/Relationships
• Jobs
• Place we live
• Wasted time
• Not studying resulting in failure
• Not working toward our desired career
• Neglecting God and church activities

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Regret is a step in the right direction

• 2 Corinthians 79-11 - Now I rejoice, not that
  you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to
  repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly
  manner, that you might suffer loss from us in
  nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance
  leading to salvation, not to be regretted but
  the sorrow of the world produces death. For
  observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a
  godly manner What diligence it produced in you,
  what clearing of yourselves, what indignation,
  what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what
  vindication! In all things you proved yourselves
  to be clear in this matter.

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Regret should come with hope

• Luke 747 - Therefore I say to you, her sins,
  which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.
  But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves
  little.
• Blessed is he who admits his sins works to
  correct his mistakes
• Those that receive compassion will show
  compassion to others
• I wasted my life in pleasures and lusts and the
  day has past by me and vanished (Litanies of the
  Vespers Prayer).
• 1 John 110 - If we say that we have not sinned,
  we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

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The Lord is merciful

• Psalm 1038-15 - The LORD is merciful and
  gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
  He will not always strive with us, Nor will He
  keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us
  according to our sins, Nor punished us according
  to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high
  above the earth, So great is His mercy toward
  those who fear Him As far as the east is from
  the west, So far has He removed our
  transgressions from us. As a father pities his
  children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him.
  For He knows our frame He remembers that we are
  dust. As for man, his days are like grass As a
  flower of the field, so he flourishes.

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Examples

• Sinful woman caught in adulteryJohn 87 - He who
  is without sin among you, let him throw a stone
  at her first.
• St. Paul1 Cor 159-10 - For I am the least of
  the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an
  apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
  But by the grace of God I am what I am.
• Prodigal SonLuke 15 21 - And the son said to
  him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in
  your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called
  your son.

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Examples

• King David2 Samuel 127-13 - Then Nathan said to
  David, You are the man! Thus says the LORD God
  of Israel I anointed you king over Israel, and
  I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you
  your masters house and your masters wives into
  your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel
  and Judah. And if that had been too little, I
  also would have given you much more! Why have you
  despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil
  in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite
  with the sword you have taken his wife to be
  your wife, and have killed him with the sword of
  the people of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword
  shall never depart from your house, because you
  have despised Me, and have taken the wife of
  Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the
  LORD Behold, I will raise up adversity against
  you from your own house and I will take your
  wives before your eyes and give them to your
  neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the
  sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I
  will do this thing before all Israel, before the
  sun. So David said to Nathan, I have sinned
  against the LORD.

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Examples

• Right hand thiefLuke 2340-43 - But the other,
  answering, rebuked him, saying, Do you not even
  fear God, seeing you are under the same
  condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
  receive the due reward of our deeds but this Man
  has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus,
  Lord, remember me when You come into Your
  kingdom. And Jesus said to him, Assuredly, I
  say to you, today you will be with Me in
  Paradise.

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Examples

• St. AugustineToo late, have I loved You, O
  Beauty so ancient and so new, too late have I
  loved You! You were with me, and I was not with
  You I was abroad, running after those beauties
  which You have made. Those things which could
  have no being but in You, have kept me away from
  You. You have called, You have cried out, and
  have pierced my deafness. You have enlightened,
  You have shone forth, and my blindness is
  dispelled. I have tasted You, and am hungry of
  You. You have touched me, and I am afire with the
  desire of Your embraces.

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Examples

• St. Moses the BlackHowever, the Devil fought him
  intensively with his old habits of excessive
  eating, drinking, and fornication. He informed
  St. Esidorous about everything which came upon
  him in his fight with the Enemy. He comforted him
  and taught him how to overcome the snares of the
  Devil. It was told about him, that when the
  elders of the Monastery slept, he used to go
  round to their cells and take their water pots
  and fill them with water, which he brought from a
  well at a far distance from the monastery. After
  many years in spiritual struggle, the Devil
  envied him, and struck him with a sore on his
  foot which made him sick and bed-ridden. When he
  knew that this was from the Devil, he increased
  in his asceticism and worship, until his body
  became as a burnt wood. God looked to his
  patience, healed his illness, and removed all his
  pains.

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Letting go of past circumstances

• Failures
• Failing to accomplish a goal or get a desired job
  or degree
• Being passed over for promotion
• Abuse/Ridicule
• Physical or emotional abuse
• Not being accepted by peers
• Circumstances
• Dysfunctional family/divorce
• Public embarrassment
• Other hardships

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Letting go of past circumstances

• These circumstances can take a heavy emotional
  toll
• Why does God allow us to pass through such
  hardships? We live in a sinful world.

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Letting go of past circumstances

• John 91-3 - Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man
  who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked
  Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his
  parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered,
  "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but
  that the works of God should be revealed in him.

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Examples

• JosephGenesis 3723-24 - So it came to pass,
  when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they
  stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many
  colors that was on him. Then they took him and
  cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty there
  was no water in it.
• Years laterGenesis 5020 - But as for you, you
  meant evil against me but God meant it for good,
  in order to bring it about as it is this day, to
  save many people alive.

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Examples

• St. PachomiusBorn to a pagan family, forced to
  worship pagan gods in his youth, and drafted into
  the Roman army against his will at the age of 20.
  
• He emerged from it all as a great monk who
  founded the coenobitic style of monasticism
• O God, Creator of heaven and earth, cast on me an
  eye of pity deliver me from my miseries teach
  me the true way of pleasing You, and it shall be
  the whole employment, and most earnest study of
  my life to serve You, and to do Your will.

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How can all these circumstances affect us?

• Relationships with others
• Self esteem and identity
• Turn from God or see Him as our enemy
• Fearing the future
• Apathy and hatred toward others and the world
• Wanting to be isolated from others
• Not wanting to take risks for fear of failure

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How to overcome the nightmares of the past?

• 2 Corinthians 517Therefore, if anyone is in
  Christ, he is a new creation old things have
  passed away behold, all things have become new.
• We are not doomed to repeat the cycle again and
  again.

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We CAN confess our sins

• 1 John 19 - If we confess our sins, He is
  faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
  cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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We CAN stop committing habitual sins

• Galatians 516 - I say then Walk in the Spirit,
  and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
• The danger of being desensitized
• Feel that they are beyond my ability to stop or
  that they are normal

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We CAN accept the forgiveness of God

• Psalm 321-2 - Blessed is he whose transgression
  is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the
  man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,
  And in whose spirit there is no deceit.
• While God will always forgive, those we have
  wronged will not necessarily forgive us.
• Romans 1218 - If it is possible, as much as
  depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
• Dont dwell on our sins too much

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We CAN forgive those have wronged us

• Colossians 313 - bearing with one another, and
  forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint
  against another even as Christ forgave you, so
  you also must do.

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We CAN have restored confidence in ourselves

• Godly sorrow produces repentance, but worldly
  sorrow leads to despair.
• The devil seeks to take genuine guilt and sorrow
  for our sins and turn them into overwhelming
  agony from which we lose all hope.
• Revelation 1210 - Then I heard a loud voice
  saying in heaven, Now salvation, and strength,
  and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His
  Christ have come, for the accuser of our
  brethren, who accused them before our God day and
  night, has been cast down.

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We CAN have restored confidence in ourselves

• When we learn the goodness and graciousness of
  God we will learn to accept His forgiveness.
• Consider how many sins we commit against Him each
  day that we are completely unaware of, but He
  still accepts us.

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We CAN stop fearing the future

• Isaiah 4110 - Fear not, for I am with you Be
  not dismayed, for I am your God. I will
  strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will
  uphold you with My righteous right hand.
• Fear of repeating the pattern again

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We CAN redeem the lost time

• Ephesians 515-21 - See then that you walk
  circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,
  redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
  Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what
  the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with
  wine, in which is dissipation but be filled with
  the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and
  hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
  melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks
  always for all things to God the Father in the
  name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one
  another in the fear of God.

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We CAN be healed

• 2 Chronicles 714 - if My people who are called
  by My name will humble themselves, and pray and
  seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways,
  then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive
  their sin and heal their land.
• We still must deal with the consequences

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Conclusion

• Regret Sins or circumstances out of our control
• Examples of many who have suffered such things
• God is greater than our sin or painful experience
• Jeremiah 2911 - For I know the thoughts that I
  think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of
  peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a
  hope.
• Healing comes through prayer and faith