If I could only choose ONE “Hook” that has more people ensnared in this world than anything else, it might be our cell phones today- but dig a little deeper and that cell phone has become a vehicle that is causing marriages to go off a cliff, young people to feel angry and hopeless, and men to have no power of God in their lives. The cell phone has allowed pornography to become a secret on demand 24 7 accessibility and many are starting to see just how destructive it is. LUST is something that is never satisfied and we can have that with money, food, relationships and more. But pornography is like heroin to the brain and it hooks us in adolescence and most never learn how to be free of it – or WHY they would want to be free. I am writing this as a FREE man- 100% free since February 2021, but only 80% free from 2001 at age 26 until then. And prior to that I was a lifelong porn addict since 3rd grade. IT could have destroyed my life. It almost did. And it is destroying MANY MANY MANY today. And many are starting to realize it.
It is single-handedly destroying the church. The church is supposed to – and has been- the moral compass for the world and for Americans and kept evils at bay. BUT a sexualized church is a powerless one. The problems you see in America are a DIRECT result from a church that is secretly in sexual sin and offers this world no hope- instead, it offers nothing but hypocrisy and secrecy. 70% of men in an evangelical church have a secret porn problem. 40% of Pastors as well.
PORN is destroying MOST men today, many women, marriages, and more, and most have no clue it is a problem. Just like you might not think you are addicted to coffee until you go 3 days without it. The brain scans of people who watch porn are full of as many holes and as damaged as those that regularly do cocaine or crack. It destroys everything in it’s path – true intimacy in marriage, it makes men passive, it makes the church neutralized so this world can march toward hell unopposed, and GOD says it’s wrong PERIOD. It will destroy you.
BUT here is the thing – until you understand the Love of God and WHY He would seem to put boundaries on your life, you will see this as cruel and oppressive.
The idea that God is there to punish you doesn’t help you recover – the more you can understand God’s Grace the less you will be about performance. We naturally hide from God when we sin- that is what Adam did and so we do the same thing. Shame and guilt make us feel we have to earn and crawl our way back. We need to instead live an exposed life – and keep running to JESUS knowing HE IS FOR US.
We need to RUN TO GOD – no matter what we are doing or did- instead of RUNNING from God.
But think of the Bible- who was Jesus the harshest on? The same Pharisees who thought they deserved something from God. The same Pharisees who thought they were better than anyone. The same Pharisees who said, “Thank God I am not like so and so.”
God would be FOR the Pharisees if they would ever humble themselves and see their need for God. God the Father is truly for the Prodigal Son- the one who comes to his senses and just wants to be home with the Father.
The elder brother who was in the Father’s House- but didn’t KNOW the Father’s heart – that son couldn’t experience that grace because he thought all his service made him better.
God loves you – period. And knowing He loves you if you look at porn or not is hard for us to accept – but it will produce in you the RIGHT motive. You simply will not want to break the Father’s Heart. It sounds counter-intuitive but when you truly understand that God loves you whether you don’t sin or sell your inheritance on SIN and go hog wild in that pig pen – you don’t want to sin. You embrace God’s love for you and that catapults you over the sin that has held you captive for so long.
God isn’t mean or nasty to have rules not to look at porn- JESUS said LUST IS ADULTERY – but they are there because when we break them it destroys us, it destroys relationships, it will lead to us ever wanting the forbidden. Lust NEVER satisfies.
God doesn’t want us to experience that. He is not trying to punish us when we sin- He is more trying to protect us from wrecking our lives. And ultimately our eternal destiny – the wages of sin is death. Sin has a penalty – HELL- but JESUS Christ took that punishment off of us and we can be SAVED from the penalty of our sin by Jesus’ atonement on the CROSS – we can be saved from the power of sin over us as we renew our minds DAILY and face life head-on and live an exposed LIFE – and when we die we leave this world and are saved forever from the very presence of sin.
Porn- and other sins especially of a sexual nature – lies and it tries to meet a false substitute for legitimate needs we have- the need for attention, acceptance, significance, adventure, respect, being wanted, etc.
Don’t focus on NOT sinning – don’t focus on stopping porn- focus on loving God- knowing the Real Jesus of the Bible– and seeing what deep down longings and needs and desires porn is trying to meet in your life. And God uses imperfect people in our recovery to meet many of those needs and soon will have you meet those needs in others.
Jesus is the living water- if you drink the biblical Jesus and enjoy God and seek and find Him the thirst for sin will be less and less.
Porn is a mirage offering a drink of putrid filthy poisoned water that will only make you thirstier – if it doesn’t kill you first.
To the woman at the well, JESUS answered her and said, Whosever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:13-14)
Jesus offers living abundant real water- if any man thirst Jesus says let him come to Jesus and drink!
IF I can help you further in this, email me MikethePharmacistCo@gmail.com
MikethePharmacist