On Sunday, Pastor John Cremeans gave a tough message about the popular myths of pornography and the words of wisdom from Proverbs that bust those myths. The facts are that revenues from the porn industry are greater than that of all of the major television networks combined. It can be found almost anywhere today, including your house. Gone are the days of having to sneak into adult bookstores or cruising Red Light Districts. Now, temptation lurks just a keystroke away in the privacy of your own home.
The myths that are not uncommon in our culture today:- Porn can spice up my marriage – The might be true for a short while but ultimately leads to objectification and selfishness. My favorite quote from John, “Your wife is not the fridge! You just don’t go and help yourself every time you get hungry.”
- Porn doesn’t hurt anyone – Sex is a great thing (do I hear an Amen?) made by God for our enjoyment as He designed it to be. The impact of porn on the innocent spouse is just as destructive as a physical affair. A true definition of sexual purity really is no gratification from anyone or anything oustide of marriage. The problem is we often try to see how close to the edge we can go.
- I can control it (my appetite for porn) – Can you really? If you struggle with it, why haven’t you stopped already? The enemy knows you and your weakness and uses it to keep you living a life of secrecy and shame, that way you cannot be effecitive for Christ.
Addiction of any kind needs confession, prayer, and support from others to be overcome. But sexual addiction is different and the Bible is clear, first you must RUN! Don’t even try to resist, because you can’t – just run away! You must know your limitations. For some that means things like R rated movies or ‘soft porn’ in the form of Victoria’s Secret catelogs.
From an internet perspecitive, do not mess around. There is no reason not to have web filter and accountability software installed. You don’t even have to spend a dime. You can get a free version right from XXXCHURCH.COM. You can get both mac and pc versions and set it up to report on any questionable web activity to an accountability partner. Sure you can keep playing games and keep trying to see how close to the edge you can go, but you will get burned. Jeff Ream used the Casting Crowns song “Slow Fade” at the end of John’s message on Sunday. It is a very powerful song tells the story well. You can watch it in this video or click play below. It is a tough clip to watch, but I love the way the it starts with the tragic ending and then works backwards to show how it happened. It didn’t happen in one event or even one day. It was a slow fade. So what are you going to do about it?