Overcoming Pornography

Irene Pepperberg, a visiting professor of animal behavior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is teaching a parrot how to surf the Internet. "Parrots are very social creatures," she says, but people who own them "leave them alone eight or nine hours a day." She says that leads to boredom and stress, and that leads to behavioral problems. She is developing special bird-enabled software, "InterPet Explorer", to make it easier for the animals to find sites of interest, such as those showing wildlife and music, or perhaps even chat rooms populated only by animals.

-That’s all I need - my dog, Snuggles, coming up to me and saying “Dad, can you punch in the credit card number. I found some rawhide chew bones on the Internet that will help me reduce stress and boredom”. Or, “Can we take a walk. I met a bull dog in an internet chat room and he just lives right down the street.”

-But stress and boredom have led to behavioral problems in humans as well. Satan has geared modern technology to offer internet sites and videos and DVDs that fit with his perfect plan of offering alternatives to God’s peace and love and joy. Satan’s plan is to get all men entangled in some form of pornography.

-No longer does a man or young man need to go into some seedy adult bookstore to view x-rated materials, the so-called adult entertainment industry now pumps the stuff right into our homes. This morning I want to talk about the dangers of and freedom from pornography.

-Uncomfortable topic – It was very late in the week before I had this message topic nailed down- I felt no peace trying to figure out what God wanted me to talk about – nothing seemed right. Then I literally felt a strong impression to “look in my Men’s Group folder on my computer for the topic I want you to speak on”. (By the way, I hope my saying that I believe I received an impression from God is a turn off for you – we have no problem talking about the strong impressions Satan gives us – What Christian or Christian leader would deny that Satan gives us strong impressions in the form of temptations – for instance - “go look on the internet for pornography” – why would we have a problem in believing that God gives us strong impressions?)

-Anyway, because of this impression I went into my Men’s Group folder on my computer and looked through many topics and finally I found some material we had discussed in the past on pornography. I had always felt it was only proper to talk about pornography. in the context of a men’s group but God seemed to be making it clear to me that He wanted me to talk about it this Sunday morning.

It is impossible to fully equip men or teenage young men without addressing this subject. We will address this topic more next Sunday night at our video seminar., “Every Young Man’s Battle” by Steve Arteburn. We invite all the men to come and if you have a teenage son - please bring him. Teenage boys, I really encourage you to come.

Perhaps the most enslaving aspect of the sin of pornography is secrecy. SO that is why the Lord wanted me to bring it out into the open this morning.

-Did you know that some of the best business minds in the country are working really hard to get you and your sons hooked on pornography. Some have called it - The Mainstreaming of Pornography – 60 Minutes did a story on this last Sunday night.

Consider these facts:

*Sales of sexual films in hotel rooms, homes, and online has become a $10 billion industry, according to Forrester Research of Cambridge, Mass.

*General Motors, the world’s largest company, now sells more graphic sex films through its DirecTV subsidiary than does Hustler pornographer Larry Flynt, according to distributors of the films

*EchoStar Communications Corp., the No. 2 satellite provider, makes more money selling sex films than Playboy does with its magazines, cable, and Internet businesses, records from the companies show.

The sex business in America is estimated to be a $13 billion-a-year industry. It is estimated that 60% of all web sites are pornographic and that Americans spent $220 million in 2002 at fee-based adult web sites. By the year 2005, the amount is expected to reach $320 million. There are many free sites that are designed to get you hooked to become a paying customer.

-I don’t know that it is “Every Young Man’s Battle” but 90% of born-again Christians have said that they have had problems in relating to God or to other people because of shame and guilt over pornography.

-You may not have a problem with pornography – but other secret sins? –shopping; debt spending; overeating