Restrain Sexual Desires Series

AM Sermon preached at Central Christian Church March 4, 2007

God’s Top Ten (7th commandment) Restrain Sexual Desires

AFTER COMMUNION SHOW VIDEO CLIP “BA_ADDICTION” ---IN SHARED VIDEO FILE--- WHILE I’M GETTING THINGS READY ON THE STAGE…

AFTER CLIP SHOW SERIES SLIDE---IT’LL AUTOMATICALLY ADVANCE TO A SERMON TITLE SLIDE THEN ON TO A BLANK SLIDE… {For those reading this at Sermon Central---this was a video clip that had you thinking a guy was going to admit to being addicted to pron but who instead admits to being addicted to scrapbooking}

I’ll tell you what I saw that video clip and thought I have to use it for two reasons---1) my daughter works at Archievers (for you guys who don’t know—that’s a scrap booking store) and 2) I thought we could all use a good laugh here at the start of my message because some of the things you’re going to hear today may make you feel like crying. You see I pretty well figured that everyone watching that clip would think that those two guys were going to admit to being addicted to pornography. And pornography is only one among many sexual sins which this seventh commandment addresses. And let me tell you something---we need to hear what’s being said about this seventh commandment this morning. We need to hear it if we’re young and impressionable concerning our sexuality. We need to hear it if we’re married or single. We need to hear today’s message if we’re parents with kids at home. We need to hear it if we’re college aged and living on our own. Grandparents- you need to hear this message. The future of many marriages are at stake. Lives are at stake. Souls are at stake. You see, battle lines have been drawn and the enemy is advancing---and we dare not slumber or take this matter lightly.

Now some of you may be thinking----whoa now---slow down there man and take a deep breath---things can’t be all that bad, can they? I want you all to know that of all the commandments I’ve written sermons on so far in this series---this has been the hardest one for me to pull together. You see, today’s topic is so intensely personal. And I know that some of what I’m going to say today will embarrass some of you. Some of you will be angered by my words. Some of you will feel guilty. Some of you will write me off as being old-fashioned and out of date---and you’ll close your heart and mind only to leave this place a little more callous about your sin. Some, however, will leave this place a little wiser---a little stronger and a little better prepared to do spiritual battle in the war for sexual purity.

Just how bad is it out there? And what really are we up against? Well, let me share with you some of the information I gleaned from 17 pages of fairly up to date statistics. [SLIDE 4] I learned first of all that sex is the #1 topic searched on the internet. Now I wasn’t really surprised to learn that---but the number of pornographic sites did surprise me. [SLIDE 5] I found that in 1998 there were 14 million pornographic websites. Five years later that number had grown to 260 million. The next year that number jumped from 260 to 372 million. If that rate of growth continues through the end of this year---when 2007 comes to an end there will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 million pornographic websites out there. And we’ve got a whole generation coming up---many to be married soon who have been gathering strange, unholy and unhealthy ideas about sex from the net---incredibly sad is that the [SLIDE 6] largest consumers of internet pornography are young people in the 12-17 year age bracket. [SLIDE 7] Folks 2.5 BILLION pornographic emails are sent everyday over the web. And while many people operate under the assumption that porn is a guy problem---the truth is [SLIDE 8] there are growing numbers of both men and women who are becoming addicted to internet porn. I don’t know about you [SLIDE 9] but it makes me wonder ---what’s next?

Besides the internet sexual immorality is being promoted via the adult movie industry. [SLIDE 10] Here in America we’re producing 11,000 new porn films every year and Americans are renting 800 million adult videos & DVDs annually. [SLIDE 11] HALF of all hotel guests watch pornographic movies. [SLIDE 12] And PORN accounts for 70% of the in-room revenue raised by hotels. ARE YOU BEGINNING TO GET THE PICTURE? [SLIDE 13] Cable networks provide pay per view services for those who don’t feel like they have to sneak off to a hotel to watch adult programming. [SLIDE 14] It wasn’t all that long ago that MTV launched a new channel---the LOGO channel which has been designed to appeal to and promote the homosexual lifestyle. [SLIDE 15] And in America the number of couples cohabitating went from about ½ million in 1960 to over 5 million by the year 2000. I’m not sure what that number is today. By the way I’ve got to say this about cohabitating---besides the fact it’s a sin---society has sold us a totally lame idea. Here’s what I’m talking about [SLIDE 16] in our culture people often speak of cohabitating---that is living together before marriage—in terms of a test drive. They say ---well now you wouldn’t go out and buy a car without taking it for a test drive first, would you? So doesn’t it just make sense to have a trial run before you commit to marriage?” [SLIDE 17] Now the idea of taking the relationship for a test run sounds pretty good when you think in terms of being the driver…but that’s where the analogy breaks down. [SLIDE 18] The idea of the test drive doesn’t sound so good when you think of yourself as the car. Get real. Cars don’t have feelings. They don’t have a soul---so if you take them back after a test spin---they feel nothing. But dumping people because you decided to look for a different model—that’s a whole different matter.