Participants:
Series Code: NP
Program Code: NP191109A
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00:09 >> Let's pray. Dear heavenly Father, 00:12 here we are, another Sabbath, and we just want to thank you 00:15 for that. 00:16 Thank you for carrying us through the week. You know, we've had assignments 00:20 or many things that have come our way, but you've protected us. 00:23 You've blessed us and been with us, so at this time, I just ask that you be with us 00:28 during our time of worship that we may get to know you better 00:33 as we sing through the songs and through the word that we hear. In Jesus' name, amen. 00:39 Good morning, and happy Sabbath! Happy Sabbath! 00:43 I would just like to invite you to stand as we sing 00:46 our first song, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." 04:50 Amen! Amen. You may be seated. 05:22 Our God is a mighty God, and he is the fortress. He's the mighty fortress 05:28 that we can run to and that we can hide. You know, sometimes Satan might 05:32 assail us, but through God's strength, we have his comfort. 05:36 He is there for us, so join us as we sing "Before the Throne of God 05:41 Above." 12:43 You know, there's some times that we step out of God's circle of influence, and, you know, 12:49 but he still has mercy on us. He still forgives us, and he sometimes says, 12:54 well, he does always say, "Come onto me all who are burdened and heaven laden, 12:59 and I will give you rest," so if you have a burden today or you have a praise 13:04 that you'd like to bring to God, I just invite you to bring them forward 13:08 to the foot of the Cross. So please stand as we sing the third verse. 15:23 >> Let's pray. God, it is your love, love divine, 15:32 that gives us existence. It is your love that gives us persistence, 15:40 but, oh, God, we are up against a resistance unlike anything we have ever seen ever. 15:53 Now, this is very touchy, Father. Just cut through the clutter 16:00 so that we hear only your voice, and that includes me. In Jesus' name, we pray. 16:06 Amen. 16:07 The problem is, we have a problem 16:11 that some people think isn't a problem, which is the problem. 16:15 Let me show you a magazine cover. 16:17 This is the back cover, okay? I'll put it up here. 16:20 This is the back cover of a Departures magazine 16:24 published exclusively for American Express platinum 16:26 card members, and this came from a friend of mine. 16:30 And those of you in the orchestra, you can just look up maybe on the screen. 16:33 You can see it. Now, pull the camera in. Okay, so it's 16:36 just a back cover ad. You can see it. It's a chic young woman. 16:41 She's suggestively clad. She has some binoculars in her hands, 16:46 suggesting that she's looking away from whatever room she's in to a high-rise across the way. 16:52 There is a chic-looking young man as well, well-dressed, suave. 17:00 This is an ad for the Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas. Theres no writing on this 17:07 except up in the corner up here. And what does the writing say? Can you see it where you are? 17:12 "Just the right amount of wrong." Amazing, isn't it? 17:20 "Just the right amount of wrong." You don't have to be 17:26 a rocket scientist to pick up what's the subplot to this line, and that is, look it, 17:31 come to Las Vegas. You're not going to be excessive, 17:35 just the right amount of wrong. Wow. You know, the thing about sugar 17:41 and sex is that not only do they both start with the same letter, 17:47 but they are both addictive, enjoyably, by the way, addictive. 17:58 Just the right amount of wrong. I wonder how much that would be. 18:04 Welcome to this short session entitled... 18:07 We'll put it on the screen for you. 18:09 The title of this session, "A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Better 18:13 Sexual Health: Taming Your Tiger." 18:18 Let's start with the tiger, and then we'll get 18:20 to the taming. 18:22 There's a website called Fight the New Drug, and at that website, 18:25 I came across the stunning statistics about pornography, and I want to run them by you. 18:32 The opening to the stats is this paragraph on the screen, and, by the way, 18:35 don't worry about a study guide because you have all of this in a study guide. 18:38 You don't even have to take any notes, but here's that opening paragraph, 18:41 "It's no secret that porn has become mainstream entertainment in our society. 18:46 From popular porn sites putting up billboards in New York City's Times Square to sites like 18:50 BuzzFeed normalizing porn with viral videos, it feels like porn is taking over. 18:55 Porn is plastered on social media sites like Instagram, and it's too easy to see on 19:01 Twitter considering the Twitterverse is home to an estimated 19:04 10 plus million porn accounts." Then from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation 19:12 come these 13 factoids. I'm going to run them by you, okay? 19:15 I put three of them on the screen because they're that significant. 19:18 Here they are. Number one, 64 percent of young people ages 19:21 13 to 24, that would be the Gen Z generation, 64 percent of them 19:27 actively seek out pornography weekly or more often. Here's factoid number two. 19:33 A study of 14 to 19-year-olds found that females... This is not 19:37 just a male addiction. Females are addicted as well, and it's not 19:40 just a young addiction. The old are addicted as well. Come on. 19:43 It's an equal-opportunity addiction. A study of 14 to 19-year-olds 19:47 found that females who consume pornographic videos were at a significantly greater 19:51 likelihood of being victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault. 19:55 A Swedish study of 18-year-old males found that frequent consumers of pornography 20:00 were significantly more likely to have sold and bought sex than other boys of the same age. 20:08 Factoid number four: A 2015 meta-analysis of 22 studies from seven countries 20:12 found that internationally, the consumption of pornography was significantly associated 20:16 with increases in verbal and physical aggression among males and females alike. 20:22 Go figure. Factoid number five: Porn sites receive more regular traffic 20:26 than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined each month. Here's number six. 20:32 Thirty-five percent of all Internet downloads are porn-related. 20:36 Here comes number seven. The teen porn category has topped porn site searches 20:40 for the last 6 years in a row. Here's number eight. This is so significant, I'll pop 20:48 it up on the screen for you. At least 30 percent of all data transferred across the Internet 20:53 is porn-related, e-mails, searches, everything, 30 percent of it, 20:57 1/3 of it, porn. Here comes number nine. Recorded child sexual 21:07 exploitation... Let me hit the pause button right there. 21:09 Record child sexual exploitation means that the child is on the other side of the camera 21:14 and the child is being sexually assaulted on camera, okay? Recorded child 21:23 sexual exploitation, known as child porn, is one of the fastest-growing 21:27 online businesses. Factoid 10: 624,000 plus child porn traders 21:33 have been discovered online in the US alone. Guess what? 21:38 You're not surprised at this. Number 11: Porn is a global estimated $97-billion-a-year 21:44 industry with about 12 billion of that coming from the USA. Now, the last two numbers 21:49 are so unbelievable, I'm going to run them by you. Here comes number 12. 21:53 In 2018 alone, more than 5,000,517,000 hours of porn were consumed on the world's 22:02 single-largest porn site, so there are thousands of other sites, but just this one site. 22:10 And finally, number 13, the world's largest free porn site also received 22:16 over 33,500,000,000 site visits during 2018 alone. Do you know what the population 22:23 of the human race is? It's 7 billion. Divide 7 billion into 33.5. 22:28 Almost five visits for every man, woman and child alive on this planet today, 22:33 five visits each to view porn. How did that ad go? "Just the right amount 22:45 of wrong." Thirty-three-point-five billion visits to the world's largest 22:50 free porn site, is that just the right amount of wrong? 22:54 Who decides these numbers? Look, when it comes to sex, seriously, 23:01 how much is the right amount? You help me out. How much is the right amount 23:04 when it comes to sex? I think of the young Gen Z'er. Well, he wasn't a Gen Z'er, 23:12 but he's within the age of Gen Z'ers, somewhere, I'm figuring, between 18 and 27 years of age. 23:18 He was a slave, and his master's wife came to him offering him freedom 23:22 in exchange for just a little sex. Just the right amount of wrong, 23:28 boy, and you're free. You know what he did? He fled. 23:36 Joseph fled. I think of a Gen X'er because that's what he'd be 23:42 if he were alive today. I think of this Gen X'er who had everything he wanted. 23:46 He had money. He had power. He had fame, 23:48 but when he happened to spot a woman bathing in the nude, and I don't think 23:51 it was on the Internet either. When he sees her, he goes into a crash-and-burn moral fall 23:58 that is still being felt today. You know the difference between those two boys? 24:06 Joseph fled, but David fed, and for the rest of their lives, they were tagged 24:16 with that difference. Wow. "Just the right 24:22 amount of wrong." Joseph fled, David fed, and that's how pornography 24:26 becomes the killer addiction that it is today. You say, "It hasn't killed me. 24:30 I'm still here." Yeah, you are, but it's not over until it's over. 24:41 The problem is, we have a problem that some people don't think is a problem, 24:45 which is the problem. Most Gen Z'er porn addicts thought it was only 24:50 a pleasurable form of entertainment, no kidding. I saw this. 24:54 So this site shows Twitter, tweets, okay? They fuzz out the face. 25:00 You can tell the gender. They fuzz out the name, so there's no identity 25:04 being shared, and I'm listening to these tweeters extolling their love, 25:12 their love for porn, and I'm saying, "You can't be serious," 25:18 but then, oh, why are we surprised? Video games are replete 25:21 with sexually alluring female characters. Nice to see one of those pop up 25:26 at about 2 in the morning, and virtual reality means that you can do it without doing it. 25:34 What a world, only to learn too late the woeful effects of that addiction. 25:41 A writer named Denny Burk, boy, did he hit the nail on the head. I put the words on the screen. 25:45 I hope you...And by the way, you have all of this in the study guide. 25:48 I'm quoting him now, "A growing number of young men are convinced that their sexual 25:53 responses have been sabotages because their brains were virtually marinated in porn 25:59 when they were adolescents. Their generation has consumed explicit content in quantities 26:04 and varieties never before possible on devices designation to deliver content swiftly 26:09 and privately all at an age when their brains were more plastic, 26:13 more prone to permanent change than in later life." You know what nobody is talking 26:18 about around here? Everybody talks about what Gen Z and mental health, 26:23 but nobody is talking about the linkage between pornography usage and mental health. 26:28 And guess what? There's a linkage. You go to the website sometime 26:34 endsexualexploitation.org. You'll see it above these quotes coming now. 26:39 Speaking of children and adolescents because that's what we're dealing with now, 26:42 it's down to the kids. One study, 9 years old, addiction. 26:46 Okay, on the screen. A study of sexually reactive children and adolescents... 26:49 They have a psychological term for them, SRCA. A study of these found that 26:55 those who had used pornography compared to those who did not use pornography 26:59 were more likely to engage in a prominent pattern of lying, a persistent pattern of theft 27:04 and stealing. They were more likely to be truant, which means skip school. 27:09 They were more likely to frequently con or manipulate others. 27:12 They were more likely to engage in arson, fire setting behaviors, and then 27:15 you see the dot, dot, dot. That's called an ellipses. You know why it's there? 27:18 Because the sexual behavior is so deviant that I said, "I'm not even putting that 27:22 on the screen for us." Children and adolescents, even our children. 27:31 You know what? I don't suppose this is rocket science to jump 27:34 to the conclusion that there is somebody in this universe seeking to destroy the human 27:38 race one child, one boy, one girl, one teen, one young adult, 27:44 one adult, one aging adult, one man, one woman at a time, one at a time, and we sit here 27:54 as if nothing is happening. This is entertainment, buddy. This is how I get my kicks. 27:59 Are you serious? 28:04 And by the way, mom and dad, I'm sorry just to tell you. You may have the fastest 28:14 Internet speed in your neighborhood, but do you have any idea what 28:18 your children are using it for? Parents are waking up today and saying, "My Lord. 28:25 I never knew." Too late! Gotcha! 28:33 Speaking of mental health, loneliness is endemic with this generation. 28:36 Guess why? On the screen, the results of a study 28:39 revealed that the association between loneliness and viewing pornography 28:42 was positive and significant. In other words, when loneliness goes up, pornography goes up. 28:45 When pornography goes down, loneliness goes down. They're positive correlated. 28:53 Survey data of 1,247 participants seeking help for pornography use revealed 28:58 that those who viewed pornography were more likely to experience loneliness, 29:02 and that those who were experiencing loneliness were more likely to view pornography. 29:05 Does that sound like a vicious trap to you? Either way you go, he wins. 29:15 Oh, by the way, a 2014 study, the brain scans of 64 pornography users 29:21 found that increased pornography use is linked to decreased brain matter 29:25 in the areas of the brain associated with motivation and decision-making 29:29 and contributed to impaired impulse control and desensitization 29:32 to sexual reward. Here's the brain on pornography, just "Chkk. Chkk. Chkk. Chkk." 29:40 Gone. Gone. I thought this was entertainment. 29:47 It's just an innocent video game, please. It's just a download. 29:51 I'll get rid of it. It's no wonder researchers in observing college students, 29:59 792 of them in this study, found that higher pornography use is associated 30:03 with less self-worth and more depressive symptoms, which is the very heart 30:08 of mental health. Wow. Here's one more. 30:13 A 2015 study from Cambridge University found that compulsive sexual behavior is characterized 30:17 for the need for more extreme content over time in order to achieve the same level 30:23 of arousal. Please put the sentence on the screen for us. 30:27 Mental health is under bombardment thanks to pornography. 30:33 My Lord. Let me repeat what I just stated. 30:39 Somebody is seeking to destroy the human race one child at a time, 30:43 and I am absolutely convinced. I tell you the truth. I am convinced that this 30:49 has become, pornography, his numero uno weapon to take the human race down, 31:02 and that's why this little pastor can't ignore sex. I got an anonymous note 31:06 turned in this last week on a Contact Card, and that's the nice thing about 31:08 Connect Cards. You can send the notes in anonymously, 31:11 and I still get them, and this note said, referring to the fact 31:18 that we were having today's sermon on sexual health, this note said, 31:21 "I'll tell you what, this makes inviting new people to church awkward and impossible, 31:26 not even a little bit," meaning, "Oh, this is very awkward, and I can never bring my friends 31:31 to church now." Okay. I hate to tell you, 31:36 but your friends are immersed to this culture. The last line of this, 31:43 "Why the obsession with sex in the pulpit this season?" Obsession with sex? 31:51 Do you guys ever think about sex? Don't move your head. 31:53 The cameras are here. Don't move your head. 32:00 Oh, boy. Oh, guys, come on. I'm just a little pastor, 32:07 but I cannot stand by and watch an entire generation taken out. >> Amen. 32:12 >> I just can't. I just cant, so I speak about sex, and guess what? 32:17 So did Jesus. You open your Bible to Luke, chapter 5. 32:20 All the people that were there for this moment that, when they witness this moment, 32:24 they would never be the same again the rest of their lives, and they remembered it until 32:27 their final breath on Earth. I promise you. Luke, chapter 5. 32:31 I'm in the New International Version. Drop down to verse 17. 32:35 One day, Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. 32:40 They had come from every village of Galilee and from all over Judea and Jerusalem, 32:45 and the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Isn't that beautiful? 32:50 The power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. There are some of you here 32:54 today, and I say this with a heart that cares for you. There are some of you today 33:02 who are sexually sick. You know it. You know it, 33:08 but I have good news for you. Come on. Don't bail out now. 33:14 The power of the Lord is with Jesus to heal the sick. >> Amen. 33:22 >> You came the right day, buddy, girl, elder sir. You came the right day. 33:31 There's good news for you. You're about to see it happen in front of your eyes. 33:35 This is unbelievable. Come on. Let's go. 33:37 Verse 18. So some men came carrying a paralyzed man. 33:41 Now, the gospel of John says he has four buddies, and they're each taking a corner 33:46 of this mat, so this mature is going to dip him down, and they have their shriveled 33:50 friend who now is paralyzed, and when you're paralyzed and your muscles aren't being 33:54 activated, you shrivel. So this friend is shriveled, and they come. 33:58 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mature and tried to take him into the 34:01 house to lay him before Jesus. Now, hit the pause button right there. 34:05 Do you know why this man is paralyzed? A powerful book called 34:08 "Desire of Ages" just draws the veil aside. Let me just run a few lines 34:12 about this man on the screen for you. This paralytic had lost all hope 34:16 of recovery. His disease was the result of a life of sin. 34:20 Whatever this sin is, it has caused his disease. Keep reading. 34:24 His hope fell when he remembered how the disease had been brought upon him. 34:29 He knows whatever he was doing, that's what has caused this physical debilitation. 34:35 Keep reading. "Yet, it was not physical restoration he desired 34:39 so much as relief from the burden of sin." Now, what do we know? 34:44 What we know is that specific actions this man had taken in his past, this young man, 34:49 had resulted in this disease. Number two, we also know that he knows that his past 34:54 actions were sinful. Hence, this consuming guilt... The power of an addiction 34:59 is the guilt it creates. That's what kills you. It's the guilt, this consuming 35:05 guilt that he has long borne. This man has an STD, a sin-transmitted disease, 35:13 that we can pretty clearly conclude it was a sexually-transmitted disease. 35:19 Repeat behavior, repeat behavior. He wasn't robbing banks. 35:24 Something he did took him down. He was desperate to be healed. Some of you would give anything 35:31 in the world for your addiction to be broken right now. 35:34 Well, right now is the right time. 35:36 You watch what Jesus is going to do for you. 35:40 You've tried to set yourself free for months. 35:42 You vowed you would never return to your habit and you would 35:44 never return to your addiction, but as the research has shown, 35:47 your addiction is like a dark warlord that hovers over you, 35:49 clamoring for more debase, more deadly porn for the sake 35:52 of greater sexual high, and if you are as helpless 35:56 and as hopeless as this paralytic, good news. 36:02 By the way, for him, if Jesus doesn't work, 36:06 it's over. He knows it. 36:13 Verse 19: So when they could not find a way to do this, to get this man to Jesus, 36:19 because of the crowd... Mark says the house is absolutely 36:22 like a can of sardines. It's just packed to gills inside, 36:26 and it's also spilling into the outer yard, so there's no... "Excuse me. 36:30 Excuse me. Excuse me. Hey, we need to see Jesus. Excuse me!" 36:34 Nobody is listening! They're all galvanized, focused on the young 36:39 teacher healer inside, and "Desire of Ages" tells us it was the paralytic's idea. 36:45 He said, "Hey, guys, the roof. The roof." They were flat homes back then, 36:52 and you could get to the top of... Because in the summer, 36:54 you need the cool breezes, so they go up to the roof. Yeah, 36:58 and there are tiles on the roof. The tiles are made of dried mud filled with fats 37:03 and sticks and stuff like that, so they say, "Okay, guys. Let's go. 37:07 One, two, three. Come on!" They put him down, and they begin to rip those tiles out. 37:12 I would like to have been inside that space when a hand comes down, 37:16 and the whole place goes, "Bah!" and Jesus...There's no attention now for him. 37:21 Everybody is looking up as that hole gets bigger and, "What is going on here? 37:25 Are you watching this?" Bigger, bigger. Then, a beam of sunlight 37:29 blinding everybody, and then the dust that comes when you break dry mud 37:35 over your eyes, and everybody's rapid eye movement now, and then there's a shadow 37:41 in that sunlight, and something is coming down. What is coming down is not 37:48 on an electric winch. It's four guys with their buddy. It's shaped like a V. 37:53 He's caught in that crack, and it comes down... 38:03 ...right in front of Jesus, and this desperate man turns his head, 38:14 and he's looking straight into the eyes of this stranger. There's something warm 38:23 in those eyes. There is something deeply compassionate 38:27 and gentle and strong, and as he looks into those eyes, it's almost as if the eyes 38:34 are saying, "I know why you're here. I know why you're here, and you 38:40 came to the right place." They lower him. That's what happens here 38:47 in verse 19. They went up on the roof and lowered him on his mature 38:49 through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus, 38:52 and when Jesus first -- oh, I love this. When Jesus saw their faith, 38:55 he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." Wow! 39:04 Friend, your sexual sins, your sexual past... Do you know 39:08 that you are now forgiven? Oh, come on, Jesus. You need to at least grill 39:10 the guy. Find out what was it that he was doing. 39:14 What was he doing to cause this? You don't just say you're forgiven! 39:18 Ask him questions. That's what the Pharisees did. They've already written this guy 39:21 off as a wretch. "There's no room for you in the church!" 39:25 but in Jesus' church, there's plenty of room for you. >> Amen. 39:29 >> Amen. >> Plenty of room for you. Friend, your sins are forgiven. 39:38 Not a word about his past. What is there about Jesus with sexual sin? 39:41 I mean, isn't he incredible? He's teaching one early morning in the temple, 39:46 and the board of elders comes and dumps a woman at his feet, and they announce, with a loud 39:50 voice so the whole crowd hears, "By the way, we just caught this woman in bed with a man 39:53 who is not her husband." "Nah, nah, nah!" "What do you say?" 39:59 Not a word. Hey girl, what were you thinking of when you were doing this? 40:04 Did you understand the consequences? Not a word! 40:07 Do you know what he says? I'll put it on the screen because he's saying these same 40:10 words to the paralytic, "Neither do I condemn you. Now, go and leave 40:14 your life of sin behind." That's what he says. You came to the right place, 40:18 buddy. You came to the right place, friend. 40:23 Your sins are forgiven. They're gone. I would have loved to have seen 40:30 the paralytic's face when that dawned on him. He didn't come for healing. 40:36 He only came for forgiveness. He was willing to die, but he needed to know 40:41 that their God of the universe loves him and would forgive him, and he got it. 40:46 Friend, your sins are forgiven. Oh, "Desire of Ages" captures this moment, on the screen. 40:51 In simple faith, the paralytic accepted the words of Jesus that fell like music on his ear, 40:58 as it says in the previous sentence. He accepted the word as 41:00 the boon, as the assurance, as the promise of new life. I just gave it to you. 41:05 You have new life. Keep reading. He urged no further request, 41:09 but he lay in blissful silence, looking into that face that just forgave him, 41:20 too happy for words. The light of heaven irradiated his countenance, 41:24 and the people looked with awe upon the scene. Guess what, ladies 41:30 and gentlemen? Before our very eyes, right now, a sexual sinner got healed, 41:36 and we were watching it. That's how simple it is. You don't have to go somewhere. 41:41 You don't have to meet somebody. You don't have to do something. You need healing? 41:46 You tell me. I read your heart. I read your heart. 41:49 Tell me in your heart you want healing. I read it. 41:53 Friend, you're forgiven. My, my. Is there a sexual sinner here 42:02 who needs to hear that voice? Is there an addicted sinner here who needs to hear that voice? 42:09 Oh, yes, we do. We need to hear that. Last line is outrageous. 42:15 Oh, wondrous love of Christ, stooping to heal the guilty and the afflicted, divinity 42:21 sorrowing over and soothing the ills of suffering humanity! Oh, marvelous power 42:26 thus displayed to the children of men and women! Who can doubt 42:30 the message of salvation? Who can slight the mercies of a compassionate Redeemer? 42:37 What do you need to bring to Jesus today? I got great news. 42:41 You don't have to bring a thing to him. You just bring to him 42:43 your desperate need. That's all he needs. He needs to know 42:48 that you need him. That's all he asks. There's no quid pro quo. 42:56 Against you, you only... Oh, God, have I sinned. That's David, heartbroken after 43:02 he crashed and burned. Purge me with discipline. I'll be cleaned. 43:06 Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Create a clean heart in me, 43:11 oh, God, and renew a right spirit within me. That's David. 43:15 Even after you fed, you can pray, and that prayer brings the salvation of the king 43:22 of kings to your doorstep. Wow. Is that good news or what? 43:30 Huh? No, I'm serious. Is it good news? 43:35 Yeah. Take out your Connect Card, please. 43:40 It's right there, attached. Pastor Ben just talked about it a moment ago. 43:42 It's right here. The front of the card, the guests, 43:46 we're always glad to have you. You put in as much information you'd like on the front, 43:48 but go to the back of the card. My next step today is... Three little boxes. 43:53 Three little boxes. Box number one, I joyfully accept the cleansing forgiveness 43:57 Jesus offers for all sexual sin and sinners. Yeah, me too. 44:03 I'll put a check mark there. You and me, we'll do that. All right. 44:06 Box number two, I would like a DIY, do-it-yourself, 44:09 guide to overcoming pornographic addiction. Put a check mark there 44:13 if you would like that. Now, I have good news for you. As soon as you put the check 44:16 mark there, I want you to look right above the perforated line. 44:19 It's right here. Nobody is going to mail it to you. 44:22 Nobody is going to ask your name. Nobody is going to call you up. 44:24 You're going to have it right here. You see it right there? 44:26 Let's fill it in. Then, you take it home. You now have a DIY 44:30 guide to how to overcome pornographic addiction. There are five steps, maybe six. 44:36 We'll see. Five steps for sure. Here we go. 44:39 Step number one, jot it down, please. Admit your problem. 44:42 Just write the word in, problem. That's it. Admit your problem. 44:45 Listen, until you face it yourself... What did Paul say in Roman 7? 44:47 Oh, what I want to do, I don't do. What I don't want to do, 44:51 I just keep doing. I have a problem! Oh, wretched man who will 44:53 deliver me from this body of death. You have a problem. 44:56 Just admit it. It's okay. Be honest. 44:59 Healing for porn addicts will never come without the admission of the problem. 45:07 So number one, admit it to yourself. Number two, admit it to God. 45:10 Say, "God, I can't do it. I've tried a thousand times. I can't do it." 45:15 That's step number one. Step number two, confess your sin. 45:18 Oh, this one is good. Confess your sin. First of all, 45:21 confess your sin to Jesus. Oh, I love these words. Please put them up. 45:23 First John, chapter one, verses seven and nine, "And the blood of Jesus, his son 45:28 purifies us from all sin." Do you know what? When Jesus died on Calvary, 45:32 he earned the right to wipe clean every sin ever committed by the human race 45:38 in the history of the world, and your little sins and my little sins were included 45:42 in that, wiped clean. Put that back up, please. "And the blood of Jesus, 45:48 his Son, purifies us from all sin." Now, go on to verse nine, 45:50 "If we confess our sins"... Let's read this out loud together. 45:54 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins 46:01 and purify us from all unrighteousness." All unrighteousness, yeah. 46:11 Isn't that something? Confess it to Jesus. Oh, this next one 46:15 is a little more awkward, but the research is in when it comes to pornographic addiction. 46:20 You've got to tell somebody. You cannot keep it secret. You are dying because 46:25 you're keeping it secret. You have to talk to somebody. Not unusual. 46:30 James, chapter five, look at this. James, chapter five, verse 16, 46:33 "Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other 46:36 so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." 46:40 Tell somebody. It's got to be somebody you trust, of course it is. 46:44 It could be a roommate. It could be an associate on the job. 46:48 It can be somebody. It could be a pastor. It could be a teacher. 46:52 It could be somebody. It can be your RA. It can be somebody you 46:56 trust who believes and understands confidentiality, but you have to go on record 47:02 acknowledging it because you won't change otherwise. You've played this game 47:05 too long. Confess your sins to Jesus. Confess them to somebody else. 47:10 Okay. Oh, and by the way, you see the double asterisk right there? 47:15 Drop down, and you'll see Adventist Recovery Ministries "The Journey to Wholeness." 47:20 We have going on almost every night of the week help groups, 47:25 12-step groups, sexual addiction groups all over this little village and campus. 47:33 If you're interested in having a group that will love you because everybody is struggling 47:38 in the group, and you can be accepted. You see a phone number there? 47:43 It's at the Lake Union Conference office. You just call that number. 47:46 There will be a friendly secretary who will answer that phone, 47:49 and they will probably put you in touch with Harlene Smith. She's director of Adventist 47:54 Recovery Ministries. Come on. Go to counseling and testing. 47:59 Go to somebody. Confess to somebody and get the help you seek. 48:03 Okay. There are five steps for sure. Here comes step number three, 48:06 surrender your will and your body. That's easy. 48:09 Surrender your will and your body. What? 48:11 Don't you know? Paul says, "You don't know that you body is the temple 48:13 of the Holy Spirit?" You were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God 48:17 in your body. The body belongs to God. So, God, 48:20 I'm giving you back my body. Oh, God, I also want to give you my will. 48:24 "Choose you this day whom you will serve," Joshua says. You got to choose. 48:27 "But my will has been so screwed up. God, I give my will to you. 48:30 Receive this as my choice to receive your help." That's all it takes. 48:36 All right. Step number four, worship your savior. 48:38 You've got to begin worshipping Jesus. This same Jesus who calls 48:41 you friend would love to connect with you every day. There are a couple verses 48:45 to tell you about praying three times a day. There's a verse 48:48 about going through the word. Number five, consecrate your life. 48:52 Consecrate your life. Jesus says, "If anyone wants to come after me, 48:56 let her deny herself. Let him deny himself. Take up the Cross. 48:58 Come on follow me, boy. Come on, girl. Follow me. Stay with me now. 49:01 I have something for you. I'm leading you now. Obey me. Follow me." 49:08 Now, those are the five steps, but there's one more step I'm feeling like we need to include. 49:13 Number six, maybe, turn in your device. Oh, Dwight, 49:19 you can't be serious. Well, I'm telling you what. You know what Jesus said 49:24 in the Sermon on the Mount? This was really gutsy. This was a radical teaching. 49:28 In Matthew, chapter five, he says, "Listen, if your eye is bothering you, if you got 49:31 a problem with the eye, pluck it out, your right eye." He says, "By the way, 49:34 if you're having a problem with your right hand, cut it off." Now, he's not talking about 49:38 self-mutilation. He's just saying, "You got to take radical action. 49:41 You got to cut some stuff out." Now, there's an app you can get for iOS called xBlock. 49:49 Yeah. Some of you know Xbox by heart. I heard that 49:55 little twitter going on. Okay, xBlock, xBlock. Twenty-nine ninety-nine! 50:00 I know nothing about it except you now have an app that will monitor your iOS. 50:07 There's probably something equivalent in Android. That way, nothing pornographic 50:13 is allowed in because of that app. You're taking your phone 50:16 into control. That's what you're doing. If you could give your phone 50:20 to somebody, if you could just buy a little phone that doesn't have any ability 50:24 to bring in Internet, you say, "Dwight, that's just impossible," so here's 50:31 what we're going to do. I didn't do this before, but I want to do it right now. 50:35 In the moment we have now, if you have a phone that you need to have God bless, 50:47 God touch it, God seal it, God protect it, I'm going to invite you 50:57 to come up out of your pew where you're sitting right now and come to this front. 50:59 I want you to put your phone right here on a stair, and I want to have a prayer 51:03 with you. I'm serious. If you have a phone that you'd 51:07 like to dedicate fully to God from this day forth, nobody is going to take 51:12 that phone away from you. It's going to be right here. If you're in the orchestra 51:16 behind me, if you're sitting in the front, in the balcony, you're watching online 51:20 and you can't do this, you just take your phone out and you put it down, 51:24 and you say, "Jesus, I'm giving this to you. I need you to seal it 51:33 and protect me. Amen." This physical action will tell your heart that you're serious 51:44 about what your feet and hands are about to do. So I'm going to invite you 51:47 right now. Come on. We're not going to sing a song. 51:49 We're not going to sing some altar call. This is not, but if you have 51:52 a phone and you want to put that phone before God and say, "God, I give this to you," 52:00 then come forward. Just come forward. If you're in the back end 52:06 of the balcony where a lot of our teens sit, come on. 52:11 Bring that phone down. Bring that phone down. Stay here because I don't want 52:15 to have to figure out who these belong to. Stay right there. 52:20 Keep your eye on it. There's no little hole that's going to open up 52:22 and just suck all those in, but just do this. Just do this for yourself. 52:26 Put it right there. Yeah, bless you, and you're not doing this for me. 52:31 You're not joining the church by doing this. You're telling Jesus, 52:35 "I need you to own this thing. I need you to control this thing. 52:38 I need you to do what I can't do on my own. Please, just do it, Jesus." 52:44 Jesus is saying, "You go, girl. You go, boy, Yeah, I can do that. 52:50 Yeah, I can handle this." 53:01 That's beautiful. Yeah. There's nothing wrong 53:08 with the technology, folks. God invented it. It's what the enemy has done 53:17 in co-opting the technology. That's what he's done. He's co-opted it, and he says, 53:20 "This is mine now, and I'll use it for me," but you're saying, 53:24 "No, it's not yours, Satan. This is mine, and I've given it to Jesus, 53:29 and he is putting his blessing on this, and anything in here, he's going to give me 53:33 the courage to cut loose." 53:35 Anything in here, Jesus will take it. 53:39 Is there anybody else? 53:43 There's no magic. This is giving you a chance to say something to your mind 53:50 that you've wanted to say but haven't been able to say. And how about everybody else 53:58 sitting in this space right now? Would you like to say with these who have come forward, 54:03 "You know what? I want to consecrate my laptop. I want to consecrate my TV. 54:08 I want to consecrate my phone. I want to consecrate my mind and my body to the Lord, Jesus, 54:14 who bought me with his blood." 54:15 If you stand up, you're saying, "I'm consecrating 54:18 all that to you, Jesus. I'm giving it all to you. 54:20 You bought me. You own me, and I am yours, 54:23 King Jesus, and one day, I'm going to see you 54:25 face-to-face, and I'm going to 54:28 bow at your feet and say, 'You set me free. 54:31 You set me free,' and I'll never go back to that taskmaster. 54:36 That dark warlord, I will never go back by your grace." Amen. 54:41 Let's pray. Oh, God. Oh, God. 54:45 Here they are. Here we are. We're all here. 54:50 We got phones in our hip pocket right now, but we're here because we saw 54:57 Jesus heal a man who was helpless and hopeless, and some of us are helpless and 55:04 hopeless right now, dear God. Please heal me. Heal me. 55:10 Call me friend. Tell me you love me. Tell me you'll never leave me 55:17 after all I've done. Tell me you're washing it away. You're turning it as white 55:25 as snow. It's no longer there between you and me. 55:30 Tell me, Jesus, that when you say, "Friend, your sins are forgiven," 55:35 you mean forgiven, gone. Oh, Jesus. I don't want to go back. 55:42 These six steps, Jesus, give me the courage to follow them. This isn't going to happen 55:47 overnight. This is going to be a full-on battle, 55:52 but, Jesus, you have defeated the enemy, and we may defeat that same 55:58 dragon by the blood of the lamb, and so I choose to join these soldiers 56:05 who have determined that, by the grace of God, the blood of Prince Emmanuel's banner, 56:12 we will stand, wholly devoted to him, and so we all stand. 56:20 Seal this moment. Keep our hearts happy. Keep a song in our souls. 56:27 We have every reason to go home with a spring in our step, but tomorrow morning, 56:31 Father, Father, Father, tomorrow morning, please, this daily prayer, 56:35 this daily worship. We pick a gospel, but just one story a day of Jesus, 56:41 we've got to have it tomorrow morning, Father, please, and one day, 56:48 we'll all be together again, and we'll see the Jesus, strong eyes, 56:55 gentle, compassionate, manly and Godly. We'll see his eyes, 57:02 and he'll say, "Well done. Hey, boy, girl, well done. I am so proud of you. 57:11 Welcome home. I'm so glad you're here." 57:17 I want to take an extra moment to thank you 57:19 for joining us in worship today. It's by the continued support 57:21 from viewers like you that we're able to bring you this program. 57:24 Today, I want to invite you, though, to share with us how 57:26 this ministry has blessed you. I get inspiring notes, e-mails 57:30 from viewers literally all over the world telling me, "Look, 57:33 Dwight, God has been blessing me this way. He's been doing this." 57:35 I would love to hear from you as well. 57:37 Just visit our website. You know it, newperceptions.tv, 57:41 and click on the contact link at the top of the page. 57:44 Send me a note. Let me know what God has been 57:46 doing right now in your life. 57:48 Once again, thank you for being with us today. I hope you'll join us right here 57:52 next time, and until then, may the God of grace journey with you every step of the 57:57 way. 58:00 ♪♪ ♪♪ 58:19 ♪♪ |
Revised 2024-01-24