One thing... maybe two.

So a couple of weeks ago at Church I offered to be the key speaker for the youth group. The question I was presented with was "If there was only one thing you could tell the youth, what would it be?" Well I thought about it and prayed about it, and my one thing went from forgiveness to being baptized for the right reasons. But I realized that I still wanted to share my one things about forgiveness as well that kind of ties in to being baptized for the right reasons.

So quick summary of the first "One Thing"
I grew up in the Church. And all of them used scare tactics to manipulate their members into doing what they wanted of them. (Mostly involving giving money to the church) It influenced me and I ended up having a very big fear of hell. So I got baptized. (Please remember this is the condensed version.)
So My one thing was don't get baptized being afraid of hell, because that foundation for a relationship with Christ will NOT last.

So for my second "One Thing" I wanted to say something similar. While growing up I herd many variations of people telling me to do what they wanted or I would go to hell as I mentioned previously.
"Give us money or you're going to hell"
"Don't put that quarter in the slot machine or your going to hell"
"If you drink you're going to hell"
"If you have sex you're going to hell and will hate yourself"
"If you don't push your beliefs on people who don't want to hear it, they're going to hell and it's all your fault"

Get the picture? Good. Cause I want to tell you that it's not true. While, yes these are sins and you should try your hardest NOT to do these things, God is bigger than all of that and it doesn't mean your going to hell or that you should hate yourself. People make mistakes, people sin. And it's such an amazing thing that we have a loving God who is willing and able to forgive us those sins. All we have to do is believe in His Son and ask for forgiveness. And once you're forgiven there is NO reason to feel guilt or shame any longer. It's over. It's done. You've been forgiven. It's time to move on. God has forgiven you, it's time to forgive yourself.