SEXUAL CHAOS:
THE PROBLEM OF PORNOGRAPHY
I Thessalonians 4:1-8
S: Pornography
C: Sexual purity
Pr: PORNOGRAPHY IS SEXUAL CHAOS.
KW: Answers
TS: We will find in our study answers to four questions about pornography that should be asked by the church.
Type: Propositional
The ____ question we must ask is…
I. WHAT IS PORNOGRAPHY?
II. WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS?
III. WHAT DOES GOD HAVE TO SAY?
IV. WHAT CAN WE DO?
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Confess and abandon your sin.
• Guard your heart.
• Value what you have been given.
• Stay in Scripture.
• Be accountable.
Version: ESV
RMBC 09 October 05 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Sex
An 8-year-old girl went to her dad, who was working in the yard. She asked him, "Daddy, what is sex?"
The father was surprised that she would ask such a question, but decided that if she was old enough to ask the question, then she was old enough to get a straight answer. He proceeded to tell her all about the ’birds and the bees’. When he finished explaining, the little girl was looking at him with her mouth hanging open. The father asked her, "Why did you ask this question?"
The little girl replied, "Mom told me to tell you that dinner would be ready in just a couple of secs."
Well, this is further proof that….
1. The topic of sex is rather mysterious.
It is mysterious because over the centuries men have been trying to figure out women.
The opposite is true as well for women have been trying to figure out men.
You will forgive me of my prejudice, but I think the women got the easier job (I think we are rather easy to figure out).
Even though we don’t always do so well in understanding the opposite sex, we are to understand this important fact.
Sexuality is designed by God.
I mean (please pardon me for saying so) but I think sexuality is crazy.
I have often marveled at this, because who would have thought this up.
What we can do, though, is this…
2. We can state unequivocally that sexuality is intrinsically good (Genesis 1:27-28).
Note how the Genesis account describes this…
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
We have been made in the image of God.
Man is made in the image of God.
Woman is made in the image of God.
Gender, somehow, someway, is in the image of God.
He has made us sexual.
And note this as well…
He has blessed it.
God designed it for our joy.
ILL Sex: Kessler 4 times
When Gerald Kessler’s cat had kittens, it brought the inevitable question from his six-year-old son: where do babies come from?
Seeing this as an opportunity to have a discussion with his son, the youngest of their four children, he plunged into an explanation of the how and why of birth from beginning to end. His son’s eyes got bigger as the information started to sink in.
Feeling reasonably confident that he had done a father’s duty well, he asked if he had any questions. Looking bewildered, the son asked, "Dad, did you and Mom do that?"
When he answered yes, there was a moment of silence before he asked, in astonishment, "Four times?"
The biblical command is to be fruitful and multiply.
But in God’s system and design of sexuality, it is terribly inefficient.
So, if it doesn’t work, you are to keep trying.
You don’t do it just once and quit.
But as you move into Genesis 2, there is a framework to God’s design.
Sexuality is designed to be enjoyed within the boundaries of marriage.
Sexual activity belongs to marriage, and nowhere else.
So when sexual activity occurs outside the marriage relationship, there are going to be problems.
3. When sexuality is abused, we have problems.
Within marriage, sexuality finds its perfect design.
Outside of marriage, sexual activity runs into continual problems, because it misses out on the true joy, peace and satisfaction it is designed to have.
Shakespeare, in the tragedy of Hamlet, notes the distortion of lust as opposed to God-designed love…
ILL Sex: Hamlet
So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed
And prey on garbage
Hamlet 1.5.55-57, Ghost to Hamlet
Garbage is an appropriate term to describe our topic today.
Pornography is an example of sexuality outside of God’s design of marriage.
And instead of bringing peace and contentment, it always feeds discontentment.
For…
4. PORNOGRAPHY IS SEXUAL CHAOS.
Please note that the Bible does not condemn the human body.
God does not condemn sex.
He does not condemn its enjoyment.
But God does condemn our obsession with it.
The Bible is clear on its condemnation of our perversions of sexuality.
So…
5. We will find in our study answers to four questions about pornography that should be asked by the church.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first question we must ask is WHAT IS PORNOGRAPHY?
Literally, the word pornography finds its roots in the Greek of the New Testament.
Porn describes that which is sexually immoral.
Graph describes that which is written.
If you take a look in an English dictionary, pornography will be defined by that which is obscene.
But I wish to declare to you today that what is labeled as pornography today is much more than that.
1. It is more than obscene.
When I was a young boy, my first introduction to pornography was a magazine called Playboy.
But during the last 20 years, pornography has gone way beyond the printed page.
It has moved from magazines to videos to the Internet.
It is so easy to access.
And here is the key issue.
2. It is the celebration of what is sexually immoral.
Let me give you some startling statistics about this celebration in our culture.
• A recent George Barna poll revealed there is no discernable difference in pornography use between those who regularly attend church and those who don’t.
• Further, Sex in America: a Definitive Survey, states that 41% of all men, including conservative Protestants had an encounter with sexually explicit material or sex clubs in the past twelve months.
• A 1996 Promise Keepers survey established that over 50% of the men attending a particular Promise Keeper’s gathering were involved with pornography within one week of attending the event.
• 51% of pastors admit that looking at internet pornography is their biggest temptation. (Christianity Today, December 2002)
• The U.S. Customs Service estimates that there are more than 100,000 websites offering child pornography - which is illegal, worldwide (Red Herring Magazine, 1/18/02)
• According to the Justice Department, in 1998 there were 28,000 X-rated websites, generating $925 million in revenue. Only three years later, there are 280,000 X- rated websites, generating over $10-20 billion in revenue (The Wall Street Journal 26 Nov. 2001).
• The primary pornography consumer group is boys between ages 12-17.
Pornography is a trap that ensnares men from all walks of life.
But it is not just a man’s issue.
Women must also deal with what they allow to fill their minds as well.
So…
II. The second question we must ask is WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS?
First, we must note that…
1. It has addictive qualities.
ILL Sex: Hybels letter
Bill Hybels received this letter:
I am an emotional invalid. My addiction to pornography paralyzes my spiritual life, perverts my view of the world, distorts my social life, and destroys any possibility of God using me, and I just can’t stop. Lust eats me up, yet it doesn’t satisfy. Pornography promises me everything; it produces nothing.
We know from science that pornography gives a person an adrenaline rush.
When the endorphins are released in the brain, they’re two hundred times more potent than morphine, and they’re more addictive than cocaine.
They give an enormous sense of well-being that is absolutely false.
Note the warning of Augustine, a fourth century Christian who was a slave to sexual immorality before he became a believer.
He said…
ILL Sex: Augustine
Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity.
Pornography is so habit forming.
You have to keep looking.
There is always one more picture to turn to.
There is always one more video to watch.
There is always one more website to click on.
You will never have enough.
This sinful habit will give you more than you are bargaining for (pardon the cliché).
It leads to a sickening dependency which always requires more.
It leads to depression – feelings of loneliness, shame, fear, and anxiety.
It leads to disillusionment, defilement and deceit.
Sin begets sin, and it becomes a stepping stone to even more evil matters.
For…
2. It ruins relationships.
If you are stuck in pornography, you are robbing yourself of relationships and friendships that could grow and become important to you.
Instead, you end up living in a fantasy world that cannot and will not meet your needs.
ILL Sex: Brooks
In his book, The Centerfold Syndrome, Gary Brooks explains that pornography erodes a man’s ability to relate to a woman in an intimate and honest way because it ‘pays scant attention to [his] needs for sensuality and intimacy while exalting [his] sexual needs.’
You see, pornography completely robs our ability to enter into lasting and satisfying relationships.
And if you are married…
3. It degrades marriage.
I have seen this.
I have had wives in my office in tears, and husbands trying to excuse their sin by saying it doesn’t mean anything.
That is a lie.
It does mean, at the very least, your marriage is in trouble.
For when an image of a woman without clothes creates sexual excitement, it disconnects you from your spouse.
It puts up a wall where you are to exclusively find closeness and oneness.
As C. S. Lewis stated…
ILL Sex: C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity
You must not isolate [sexual] pleasure and try to get it by itself any more than you ought to try to get the pleasures of taste without swallowing and digesting, by chewing things and spitting them out again.
Your sexuality is to be fully given to your spouse exclusively.
Intimacy is not achieved with a person on piece of paper, or on a piece of film or on a computer screen.
It is designed for the marriage relationship and cheap imitations are not to be entertained or tolerated.
Even more, though, we must recognize that pornography is very, very dangerous.
For…
4. It leads to violence.
Pedophilia is never an accident.
Almost all cases of sexual abuse of children find their source in pornography.
Sexual violence of all kinds finds its roots in porn.
Rape, torture, and even bestiality have pornographic roots.
Pornography is never safe.
It is always dangerous.
And we should never tolerate it in our lives.
So now we come to…
III. The third question we must ask is WHAT DOES GOD HAVE TO SAY? (I Thessalonians 4:1-8)
Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
1. Sexuality is sacred.
It is a good thing.
It is a holy thing.
It is meant for marriage.
And there it is to be honored and enjoyed.
Men have to be careful when it comes to sex.
We know this.
We know we are visually stimulated.
This is why the “Look but don’t touch” philosophy is inadequate.
It is not good enough.
We have to be careful and disciplined with our looking.
And ladies, we need to ask for your help.
Please do not take advantage of how God has made us.
Do not dress provocatively so has to gather more attention than is needed.
This is why the biblical command is to be modest.
You see…
2. Purity is to be our goal.
I like how Randy Alcorn has put it…
ILL Purity: Randy Alcorn in The Purity Principle
Purity is safe. Impurity is risky. Purity always helps us. Impurity always hurts us. Purity is always smart; impurity is always stupid.
APPLICATION:
IV. The fourth question we must ask is WHAT CAN WE DO?
If you know that you are trapped in the sin of pornography, you need to…
1. Confess and abandon your sin.
It is a big deal!
Do not let anyone talk you into saying this is normal.
Sin is never normal.
It is always an aberration of God’s design and it is to be outrightly rejected and forsaken.
Second…
2. Guard your heart (Proverbs 4:23).
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Men, keep your eyes away from Playboy, Penthouse, Maxim and anything like it.
Keep your eyes away from the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
Keep your eyes away from websites that show women uncovered.
Guard your heart!
Ladies, keep your eyes away from Playgirl and anything like it.
Be careful to not give undue attention to romance novels or women’s magazines that feed you ungodly advice about marriage and sex.
Guard your heart!
If you need to, set up proper “firewalls” on your computer (some suggestions are given).
For what starts out as a thought in your mind will bloom into action if you will allow it to grow.
Our minds become obsessed with fantasy over reality.
So guard your heart!
Along with this…
3. Value what you have been given.
Guard against comparisons.
The pictures are never real.
They are fantasy, not reality.
And if you have a spouse, recognize that this is the person given to you by the Lord to meet your needs physically, mentally and emotionally.
There is no excuse to go somewhere else.
Value this person.
Communicate honestly.
Be verbally intimate with them.
Focus on reality, and not fantasy.
And…
4. Stay in Scripture.
Heed God’s word.
It is the way to purity.
Seek God wholeheartedly.
Make Him your treasure.
Hide God’s word in your heart, for it is protection for your heart.
Finally…
5. Be accountable.
If you are struggling, don’t face the problem alone.
Find an accountability partner you can trust.
And if you can’t seem to find one, come and see me.
We will find our way through it.
Pornography is a social problem.
It is a moral problem.
It is a spiritual problem.
Perhaps it is your problem today.
If it is, you cannot afford to ignore it.
Confess it, and find the grace and mercy God offers to bring healing to your hearts and souls.
RESOURCES YOU CAN USE:
Internet Sites:
www.pureonline.com
www.purerestoration.com
www.avenueresource.com
www.desertstream.com
www.enough.org
http://pureintimacy.org/
http://XXXchurch.com
Filtered Internet or Email:
www.integrity.com
www.fln.org/TGIF
Books:
Every Young Man’s Battle by Stephen Arterburn (WaterBrook)
Every Woman’s Battle by Shannon Ethridge (WaterBrook)
False Intimacy by Harry Schaumburg (NavPress)
An Affair of the Mind by Laurie Hall (Tyndale)
Christians in the Wake of the Sexual Revolution by Randy Alcorn (Multnomah)
The Purity Principle by Randy Alcorn (Multnomah)
Eros Defiled by John White (IVP)
Beneath the Surface by Bob Reccord (Broadman)
Christians in a Sex Crazed Culture by Bill Hybels (Victor)
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Let’s confess the sin of pornography when we have allowed it into our lives – we are settling for cheap imitations instead of the reality God wants us to honor and enjoy.
Let’s celebrate God’s great design of sexuality – He thought it up (amazingly) so that we might be fruitful and multiply, fully engaged in His world as His image.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
RESOURCES:
Books:
The Purity Principle by Randy Alcorn
Sermoncentral:
Constant Safeguards by John Harvey
A Blueprint for Purity by Jeff Hughes
The Curse of Pornography by Jesse Norris
There’s Nothing Soft About Porn by David Moore
Articles:
Pornography Addiction: A Stronghold Inside Church Walls Too by Editors of Religion Today, 20 Jul 2001
The Sin that so Easily Entangles by Bill Hybels, Moody, April 1989.
The Power of Porn, Editorial, Christianity Today, February 7, 1986
Laurie Hall: An Affair of the Mind by Richard Land, www.pastors.com
pornography vs. intimacy by Jim Watkins, http://watkins.gospelcom.net/porn.htm
