Lust Makeover Series

Introduction:

A. The story is told of a man who was driving from Miami to Ft Lauderdale.

1. He needed to use the restroom, so he pulled into one of those rest areas on the side of the road.

2. He went into the bathroom and took the second stall, since the first one was taken.

3. Suddenly, he heard a voice from the other stall say, “Hi there, how is it going?”

4. The man thought to himself, “Okay, I am not the type to strike up conversations with strangers in bathrooms on the side of the road. But he didn't know what to do, so he finally said: “Not bad.”

5. Then the voice said: “So, what are you doing?”

6. The man thought to himself, “This is getting a bit weird.” But then he nervously replied, “Well, I'm going to Ft Lauderdale.”

7. Then the man heard the person in the next stall say, “Look, I'll call you back. Every time I ask you a question, this idiot in the next stall keeps answering me!!!”

B. Just like that conversation in the bathroom, the subject of today’s sermon might make us all a little uncomfortable.

1. As you know, we are in a series called “Extreme Makeover – God Edition” and we’re asking these questions:

a. Is profound life-change possible?

b. Can a person escape bondage to behaviors that destroy life and really become a new person?

2. We’ve been answering these questions with a big, faith-filled, “Yes!”

3. So far in our series, we have already looked at some truly enslaving things – like bitterness, anger, anxiety, and alcohol and drug addiction. If you missed those sermon’s they are available on CD and on our website.

4. Today we are going to tackle one of the most enslaving and destructive things of all – sexual addiction – particularly bondage to pornography.

5. Today we are looking for a lust makeover.

6. I must tell you that I like what I do for a living. I like being a preacher, teacher and spiritual shepherd.

7. Most of the time I enjoy preparing and preaching sermons, but this is a hard sermon to enjoy working on or preaching.

8. I wish it were a subject that we didn’t need to address, but it is one that we must address and regularly.

9. Let’s try to answer a number of important questions about this subject.

I. What Is Pornography?

A. Pornography is defined as “the commercial exploitation of sex, designed to stimulate sexual excitement.”

1. A simpler and more spiritual definition given by a preacher named Rick Atchley is: “The demonic union of the spirit of greed with the spirit of lust.”

2. And in this light, for the Christian, there can be no distinguishing between what some call softcore porn and hardcore porn, because they both take the spirit of greed and the spirit of lust, and with Satan’s influence, they bring them together.

B. Sexual temptation and addiction are not new problems.

1. The strongest man in the Bible, Samson, had a problem with this.

2. The smartest man in the Bible, King Solomon, was lead astray by these things.

3. And the man described as a man after God’s own heart, King David, took a big fall into sexual sin.

4. But even though sexual temptation and addiction are not new problems, it is hard to imagine a time when the marriage of the spirit of greed and the spirit of lust was more pervasive.

5. I can say that in my lifetime, right now, in this culture, the acceptance of the sin of lust has never been greater.

6. And behind this increasing wickedness is the exponential growth of the pornography industry.

C. Here are just a few of the disturbing facts.

1. Pornography is a 15 to 20 Billion dollar a year industry, just in this country.

2. To put that in perspective – that is more money than the revenue from the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball combined.

3. There are more porn outlets today than there are McDonalds.

4. Eleven thousand hardcore videos are produced annually in this country.

5. There are 200 thousand porn websites on the internet, and 200 new ones are added daily.

6. 50% of all search engine requests are for porn.

7. Here’s something scary – 25% of porn websites use popular names in their title bars such as “Barbie, Disney, Nintendo, Toys, and Games” so as to attract unsuspecting viewers.

8. One site I read about uses “the White House” in its name and some unsuspecting teachers have treated their on-line classrooms to a tragic surprise.

9. Organized crime controls about 85% of the commercial porn industry.

10. Surprisingly, the fastest growing user demographic of porn is women ages 25-50.