Men and Porn

but this morning we're going to focus onum a topic where Satan is reallyattacking the church the World HealthOrganization has declared thatpornography is a public em HealthEmergency even in the secular Worldpornography is viewed as a as a publichealth emergency and I want to say todaythat it's a spiritual emergency in ourchurch as well it's a spiritualemergency and if we do not address thisif we do not talk about it if we do notturn to God in Repentance and Faith thenwe are going to lose our families andwe're going to lose our men and ouryoung women as well because it isbecoming a pervasive problem throughoutour church here in the west um as webegin our our service this morning as weopen the word of God I invite you to Bowyour heads with me I will ask for thepresence of the Holy Spirit dear fatheruh we live in a world where uh LordSatan knows how to tempt us Lord heknows what s to press he knows what towhisper when we're tired or discouragedand exhausted father he knows um how toattack us he knows how to attack Us inpublic and in private and so todayFather we lift our eyes to you for weknow not what else to do and we'reasking father that your words will comeloud and clear through to us the goodnews that you have sent us Jesus Christas Savior to give us victory over thispervasive sin so father I ask that youspeak through me and for me today openour hearts father may we be willing tolisten may we be willing to betransformed through the through therenewing of our minds and of ourthinking in the name of Jesus I askamen so um are any of you familiar withthis guy here Ted Bundy he was awell-known American criminal lived from46 to 89 he had kind of Rockstar looksvery handsome man and um he wasimprisoned uh um and ultimately he diedinisfor um The Assault on many women andwhen he was interviewed as to what whatled him down this path in life uh hegave an interview and he discussed thepoint that as as a young man he wascompulsively involved in the use ofimmorality and um this is a quote fromthat interview he says until you reachthe point where the pornography onlygoes so far you reach that jumping offpoint where you begin to wonder if maybeactually doing it will give you thatwhich is beyond just reading about it orlooking atit Ted Bundy was at that jumping offpoint for 2years he watched he read he filled hismind withimmorality and he was at that jumpingoff point for two years before he didecided to act out upon what was insidehis mind before he waited two years atthat jumping off point before he startedhis assaults on women and ongirls so let's talk about the scale ofthe problem within the Christian churchthis is a a survey conducted by um Pewresearch and um they were looking at thelevels of addiction to to uh immoralityamong Christian men and uh this is whatthey found this from Barner researchgroup 77% of Christian men age 18 to 30look at immorality on the internet atleastmonthly 36% Christian men aged 18 to 30watch it on aular dailybasis 32% admit that they're addicted toit and another 12% think that they maybeare addicted toit when you look at slightly older menmen aged 31 to 49 these are professingEvangelical men uh this isn't lookingAdventist per se but it's Evangelicalmen in North America among the sllyolder age range 70% of men looked at itwhilst at work in the past 3months 64% view it at leastmonthly and 18% admit to being addictedto immorality and another 8% think thatthey may be these are I don't know whatyou think about these statistics but ummy sense among Adventists is that we'renot much different to The Widerpopulation I don't think we're that muchdifferent and certainly if you look atthe younger age Rangers and boys age 12up to the age of 18 you're probablygoing to see even higher uses ofInternet immorality than what we find uphere among married Christian men inNorth America 55% admitted to looking atit at leastmonthly 35% admitted to an extra maritalAffair and among the world's uh theworld's most popular porn site if youtake a look at the statistics among thetop uh the world's most popular porniteI won't mention it from the pulpit it'samong the top five most popular websitesin the world above Amazon above yuu yYouTube um one of the top five sites inthe world deals with this kind ofmaterial according to their web page in2017 there were 28.5 billion hits in2017 that's a lot of hits there were56,000 hits per minute on just one siteand there are hundreds of thousands ofsites like this but on the biggest onethere were 56,000 hits per minute 75%were male and 25% were female and thatfemale percentage is rising all the timeuh young women are becoming increasinglyinvolved with this kind of activity aswell as youngmen This truly is a a huge problem forus today we're going to look uh at whatis the problem with this how does itaffect us before we look at what thegospel might say to this problem um uhbut the first thing we would say is thisthat uh internet immorality is addictivenow I think we all know thisinstinctively but I want to discuss thismorning why is it addictive what is itabout it that actually turns this intoan addiction uh particularly for menbecause of its addictive nature viewerstend to you need an ever increasingdosage over time in order to feel thesame level of enjoyment and they oftenseek out more extreme forms to maintainthe same level of excitement as theybecome um immune to what they'vepreviously been watching now like any umwhen you engage in an activity thatgives you pleasure um we all have heardof dopamine yes when when you go for awalk when you um when you look at a barof chocolate or even think about a barof chocolate um if if if you walk downthe streets in England I was oncewalking down the streets in England andI've been overseas for 5 years and Ihadn't had a bag of you know Englishfish and chips uh bathed in salt andvegan and I was walking down the streetand suddenly my nose was arrested quiteliterally my nose went back like this Ismelt something thought what is thatsmell and it triggered this amazing doprush in my brain then I realized it'ssalt and vinegar there's a fish and chipshop in the neighborhood and I followedmy nose and there indeed was thepromised land there was a fish and chipshop um and my boy went back to toEngland over Christmas we went he wentback to visit his grandparents and on adaily basis he was going to the chipshop with my dad and eating curry sauceand mushy peas and chips salt baked andsalt and vinegar this really is goodstuff but the point is that God hasgiven us brains that release a chemicalthat that reward us when something goodhappens when you go go for a walk whenyou play a game of of of tennis when youdo something that's healthy for you um Idon't get dopamine OV eating broccolithere's something wrong with my brainbut we all have a dopamine rust when wedo something that's good for us okay butthere's more to the brain than justdopamine see our brain is hardwired tomotivate us to do things that are goodfor us and as researchers have lookedinto the the the the brain that controlsthis this behavior that that regulatesthis Behavior there are actually twoparts of the reward system of the brainthere is the liking system and there isthe wanting system I took about thoseone at a time the liking system uh whenyou do something that's enjoyable yourbrain lights up when you share a kissyou experience a natural healthy rewardyou win a game if you're watching SuperBowl and you're following let's say theEagles and Eagles score a touchdown youhave this release of dopamine into yourbrain uh and you cheer for a few secondsbut if you would to be cheering 2 dayslater people would think there'ssomething wrong with you wouldn't theyand why do you stop cheering wellbecause when you have that Rush ofdopamine in the brain the brain releasesa chemical called kreb CB what kreb doesit acts like a set of breaks on the rushof dopamine so you have the rush ofpleasure and the brain recognizes thatyou have this Rush of pleasure and so itreleases this chemical into yourbloodstream that actually slows it downthat's why when you score a touchdownyou may cheer for 30 seconds but thenyou go back to normal again you don'tkeep cheering and cheering and cheeringyou have that that high of pleasure butthen it fades away very very quicklyit's not because you've lost pleasure inthe touchdown it's because your brain isactually regulating your sense ofpleasure now the challenge is that ifyou watch internetimmorality your brain produces more andmore of this chemical crebcrb and what this does is it numbs yourresponse to any kind of pleasure it actsit kind of numbs your brain your brainis saturated in this chemical and so itdulls your enjoyment of anything whichis why those who are addict to this kindof immorality they end up feeling boreddetached or depressed that nothing givesthem a sense of pleasure anymore now thewanting system in your in your brain isactually bigger than the liking systemand this causes the wanting part of yourbrain um there are chemicals in therewhich help your brain to rewire itselfin response to extreme pleasure with thehelp of a protein that is called Deltafos B the wanting system builds newbrain connections so you can remember anexperience and you can repeat it laterit's called the wanting system becauseas your brain rewires itself you startto Crave that what that pleasurableexperience and the more the experienceis is repeated the stronger those neuralPathways become within your brain Deltaphosphere is sometimes called themolecular switch for addiction becauseit reinforces cravings and if it buildsup enough in the brain it can switch ongenes that leave you more vulnerable toaddiction Now Delta do Delta fosbdoesn't just remember you help youremember the pleasurable experience italso forms connections to detailsassociated with those experiences thoseuh those associations are called cuesand they are found everywhere if you'readdicted to alcohol and you and you walkdown the street and you see an advertfor oh I don't know Guinness beer it'sgoing to trigger a lot of memories inyour mind it's going to crave a desirefor beer if if you're if you'restruggling with tobacco and you justwalk by a bar on a Friday afternoon andyou see people going in there for happyhour it will trigger an intense urge anddesire to go in and to have a drink andto have a cigarette and the same withinternet um immorality as well forsomeone who uses internet immorality thewhole world seems like a collection ofcues and triggers that drag your mindback to your addiction gradually theneural Pathways become so sensitized youcan barely get out of bed withouttriggers going off in your mind draggingyou back to theInternet so wait didn't we say that krebdulls thenerves and Delta fosb makes them lesssensitive so what's going on hereactually this this um this creates thisthis Paradox in the mind of theaddict at the same time that the userwants it more and more he actually likesit less andless the more you want it the less youlike it the more you are drawn to it theless pleasure you find within It Thistruly is a horrendous addiction the nextthing we'd say about the impact of thiskind of immorality is it leaves youlonely and isolated internet immoralitypromises immediate satisfaction endlessexcitement and easyintimacy but in the end it robs you ofall three the more you consume the moreyou withdraw emotionally from thosearound you the more social isolated youtend to become it becomes um verydifficult to engage in a normal humanrelationship and the resultingloneliness and isolation just fuels theneed for more internetimmorality another thing that it does toyou is it devastates your wife I'mspeaking here to menparticularly um let's let's cut to thechase watching inet immorality iscommittingadultery that's what it is it'scommitting adultery it's a breach of theseventh commandment and a wife has everybiblical right to divorce her husbandwho watches internetpornography okay it's a simple as thatif a man watches it on the internet he'scommitting adultery but when a wifediscovers that her husband is isaddicted to this kind of Internetimmorality they go through the wholerange of emotions that a wife willexperience who discovers that a husbandhas been having an affair women reportfeeling rejection humiliationabandonment isolation anger jealousybitterness anger and shame even if thewoman does not believe that watching itonline is actually the same as cheatingon her she will still experience a deepsense of loss of betrayal and an ongoingmistrust within the marriage and becausethe internet use involves secrecy andshame isolation and lying to yourspouse um this introduces um fracturesinto a marriage which are very very hardto recoverfrom and leading on from that we saythat internet immorality kills loveStudies have shown that um very very fewwomen view Internet immorality as anacceptable thing for their husband thestudies show that it destroysrelationships and it destroysmarriages viewing it online makes a manmore critical of his wife in every waypossible and he becomes less satisfiedwith her in every way possible real loverequires a real commitment to a realperson and internet immorality makes itvery hard if not impossible for a man tolove a real wifethe next factor that uh next impact ofporn is that it actually destroysfamilies it undermines the trust therespect the love and the communicationthat are at the core of a healthysociety and beyond that it corrodesSociety in a terrible way you see asInternet immorality has grown inpopularity it has become harder anddarker um a teenage boy might start outwith eroticmaterial and then he may move move on tosoftcore material then he may move on tohardcore material then he may move on tomaterial involves scenes of sedommasochism and uh assault and violenceand then you may move on to areas suchas what is known as pedo sadism theassault and rape of of infants onlinewhich is a reality in our world todayand because of the way that the wantingthe liking system in the brains work inour brains work um the once you startdown this path it's very very hard topull back because you keep having to godarker and darker and darker to get thesame level ofenjoyment it truly is something thatdevast that degrades and corrodesSociety what we now see online arescripts that involve the degradation theabuse and the humiliation of femaleschildren and infants in ways that we donot even want to thinkabout uh an impact on youngmen is it causes chronicEd now um it used to be that when menhit a certain age let's say 45 or 50they start having problems with Ednowadays we are seeing an epidemic ofyoung men in their 20s withEd and uh the fact is that they'vewatched they've consumed so muchinternet immorality that they can nolonger respond to a real woman and whenthey get married they discover they'reactuallyimpotent and um this is a real problemfor marriages for young marriages todayuh for a bride to discover that herhusband has Ed isn't the best of news umand if you look at internet messageboards these these days you will findthey're flooded with young mencomplaining about Ed in their late 20sand some of them in their late teens andum the problem is they know thatsomething is wrong with their organ butthey forget that this is the organ wherethere is theproblem finally we say that it leads toviolence against women and childrenstudy after study has shown as in thecase of Ted Bundy as a classic examplethat the users of Internet immorality oror printed immorality are much morelikely to use [ __ ] drugs and alcohol tocoers women into certain acts multipleStudies have shown that any kind ofimmorality when when it's consumedincreases aggressive behavior towardswomen encourages men to cherish violentfantasies and then they actually end upand they end up committing those violentassaults if you have a wife if you havea daughter if you have a sister or aniece or a granddaughter you wantSociety to have nothing to do withinternetimmorality we have men walking aroundlike Ted Bundy who are ticking timebombs ticking time bombs and uh just Imean just as a state of what's happeningin our society there was a girl whoescaped did you see the news two daysago in Wisconsin she escaped she wasimprisoned by a man who had captured hershe was 13 years old and um and uh he hekilled her parents a couple of monthsago who held her captive and she escapedby the grace of God two days ago and sherushed out into the streets I think inMilwaukee it was and uh she came up to awoman and pleaded for helphelp and the person who told me thestory they said if I had a daughter Iwould tell her that if she was in thatsituation never go and ask a man forhelp go and ask a woman for help it's asad commentary on our society when ateenage girl fleeing a capter may not bewell advised to go up to an averageregular random guy on the street and askfor help because you don't know what hein turn is going to do to you this isthe state where our society has ended upin terms of the spiritual realityof Internetimmorality porn is an addictive but itis a cherished sin while that sinremains unconfessed and unrepented of itwill keep us out of Heaven just assurely as Moses striking that rock thatone sin of Moses kept him out of thepromised land and Adam and Eve umdisobeyed God and they ate the fruit ofthe tree and that one mistake cost themParadise internet immorality is a sinand if unconfessed unrepented of willkeep us out of the Promised Land thereis no acceptable use of this kind ofmaterial in the Christian worldview itis simply it simply cannot happen um andunless we repent of it um it will keepus out of the promisedland it's not very uh it's not a very umwarm start to a sermon is it let's admitthis um this is a serious matter and uhyou know if if you engage in any kind ofministry around people who are addictedto this kind of material material youwill know the human Devastation thatthis material leaves in its wake uhthere are some people today I think umbrother Steve neckles here can me raiseyour hand for Stephen uh Stephen workswith addiction Ministries for the LakeUnion and uh he knows from years ofexperience and ministering to peoplewith addictive behaviors the devastationthat it can leave in its it can leave inits track so what is the the the gospelfor people who are addicted to internetimmorality how do we respond um to thisparticular problem well the first thingwe would say is this recognize your needofhelp folks it's a sin and unless werepent of it we are losing eternal lifeno matter how often we come to church nomatter how much TI we return as long aswe cherish that that unconfessed sin itwill keep us out of the kingdom of Godthe first thing we say is this recognizeyour desperate need of help Jesus talkedabout it in this way in The Sermon onthe Mount he said you've heard that itwas said to those of old you shall notcommit adultery but I say to you thatwhoever looks at a woman to Lust For Herhas already committed adultery with herin his heart According To Jesus there isno acceptable use of Internet immoralityall internet immorality when you consumeit is a sin and unless confessed andrepented of will keep you out of theEternal kingdom ofGod but the second point is this firstrecognize your desperate need for helpand secondly is this understand thatdespite your use of Internet pornographyGod loves you and he wants to save youdespite your use of immorality God stillloves you despite the debasement of yourmind he still loves you despite what youmay what um despite your viewing habitsand the fact that every time you clickyou're actually fueling a demand formore girls to be sucked into the systemof evil despite all that you do Godstill loves us and he wants to save eachone of us very famous verses for God soloved every porn user that he gave hisonly begotten son that whichever pornuser believeth in him should not perishbut have everlasting life for God didnot send his son into the world tocondemn porn users but that porn usersmight him might through him be savedit's a beautiful promise that God stillloves those who are addicted to internetimmorality the third stage of what thegospel means in this to men caught up inthis pentious sin is to confess our sinbefore our heavenly father and to claimGod's promise to us in 1 John1:9 but this is a beautiful Psalm thatspeaks to this problem Psalm 103 it saysthe Lord is merciful and gracious to porusers he is slow to anger and aboundingin Mercy he will not always strive withus nor will he keep his anger forever hehas not dealt with us according to oursins nor punished us according to ouriniquities for as the heavens are highabove the Earth so great is his Mercytowards those who fear Him as far as theEast and is from the West so far he hashe removed uh has he removed ourtransgressions from us as a father pieshis children so the Lord pies those whofear Him for he knows our frame heremembers that we are dust it's abeautiful passage from the Psalmsreminding us that even in in the midstof our sins in the debasement of ourminds God is still merciful and graciousand he pies us for he knows that we arebut dust the third the fourth thing wemight say the gospel is this to look infaith to Jesus who died in your placefor your sins of sexual immoralitybearing your sin of pornography on yourbehalf when we see Jesus died for thesins of the world we tend to say thoughmaybe those are the nice sins thesocially acceptable sins but no Jesusdied for every porn addict as well for Idelivered to you first of all that whichI also received that Christ died for ourporn sins according to the scripturesand that he was buried and that he roseagain the third day according to thescriptures Jesus died on our behalfto pay the penalty for the sins ofInternetimmorality fifthly claim God's promiseof power to overcome your sin ofInternet immorality this is an importantpoint we are not lost and helpless we'renot tossed On by The Winds of Misfortunewe cannot simply say this is who I amand God's going to have to save me as Iam no God invites us to becomeOvercomers of sin in our lives he hebelieves that he he's built us withneurop plasticity so that our minds canliterally be reformed our neuralPathways can be recreated and the oldneural Pathways can be overridden byholy and Sanctified neural Pathways andso God's claim God's promise of power toovercome the sin of immorality you findit there in Isaiah 4110 do not be afraidfor I am with you do not be dismayed forI am your God I will strengthen you yayI will help you I will uphold you withmy righteous righthand the next thing that the go thegospel promises us or we find um we moveon from spiritual to more practicalthings is this confess if you're amarried man confess your sin to yourspouse now your my your wife may alreadysuspect that you have aproblem she may not have confronted youabout it but she may suspect that youhave a problem from your tell tailBehavior the fact that you're Moody thefact that you're withdrawn for longperiods of time that they're reasonablephysical demands and secretive Behaviorbut your wife may already suspect it butif you're a husband I want to say to youtoday confess to your wifeunreservedly and never impute any blameto her it is never the wife's fault whenthe husband consumes internet immoralityit is never her fault be grateful for awife who is patient to put up with yourcorrupted behavior and your debased mindpraise God for a wife who will stand byyou and never blame your wife because itis never the wife's fault be willing toprovide your wife with the time and thespace that she needs as she comes toterms with the reality of yoursinfulness and be ready to activelyparticipate in marriage counseling ifshe so desires guys if you confess toyour wife it is a devastating thing toto confess to and your wife will gothrough the range of emotions that awoman that discovers her husband hasbeen committing adultery the same kindof emotional response and you need togive your wife time and space andsupport for her to come to Toms with thereality of what has been going on in themarriage so confess your sin to yourspouse next is recognize that you'readdicted porn is a sin but it is a sinwith a with a neurobiological basis youare addicted to pornography and as aresult of it sin has dominion over youthis isn't just a sin that comes andgoes in your life this is a sin thatactually has dominion over your mind itcontrols your thinking as those neurneural Pathways have been created overthe years as the Delta fce B kicks in inyour brain and creates that thoseaddictive and Pathways in your brainyour brain is literally been rewired soyou are chemically driven to watch tolook at these things yes it is a sin butit is also has a neurobiologicalcomponent and this addiction hasdominion over us resulting in compulsivesinful and riskybehaviors and so as a practical stepassess your level ofaddiction now um there are variousonline assessment tools that you canlookup um you can assess your level ofaddiction to alcohol or to tobaccoonline you can do the same thing forinternetimmorality uh you may sit down with yourwife and you may do it together or shemay just watch you as you go through thequestions um there are um psychologistsand therapists who actually help peoplethey do an assessment of the level ofaddiction because The Addictivebehaviors and the characteristics ofInternet immorality addiction are verysimilar to other addictive behaviors aswell and so you can have an assessmentof the level ofaddiction seek appropriateaccountability reflect honestly on whattriggers your use of Internet immoralityand how you access it recognize when thetriggers happen and find healthy ways toremove the triggers for instance goingfor a walk playing a gang of ping pongor listening to some uplifting music andif possible remove those triggers andthose access points from your life getrid of them from your home such as cutoff your internet access at home find asuitable online accountability programsuch as Covenant eyes or X3 watch oraccountable to you and uh you know thereare there are many groups out theremostly run by byevangelicals um there are many groupsout there that provide the these theseaccountability mechanisms among men umsometimes a man will not want to beaccountable to his wifebecause if he confesses a failure hesees the devastation in his wife's eyesand so for many men it's very helpful tobe be part of an accountability groupwhere they can be with other men who canprovide accountability can providetestimonies of of Victory who can praywith each other who will encourage oneanother and with programs such asCovenant eyes I haven't put it on theboard here but custo um programs such asCovenant eyes you can set up yourcomputer so that your accountabilitypartner literally sees everything thatyou see and there is no hiding from thisand then you have a weekly um interviewwith that person and they that you talkabout what's been going on in your mindsand the the last question is generallyum in the last half hour have you beencompletely honest withme it's important that we recognize thatthis is a sin that has such a hold on usthat's very very hard in and of Our OwnStrength to gain Victory by ourselvesfinding a support group is an importantpart of the therapeutic process so I putit up there actively participate in aChristian supportgroup um I think it's a truism of lifethat as men getolder we have many acquaintances butfewer and fewer friends would you agreewith that as men get older we have manyacquaintances but few true friends andit's very hard for men to find somebodythey can really open up to someone whowill listen to them someone who will sitat the kitchen table while maybe theybreak down in tears and feel there's alevel of trust and confidentiality theremany men simply do not have that kind offriend they don't know where they canturn as a result they keep going back tothe internet immorality it's theirprivate sin it's their hidden sin it'stheir cherished sin but that's the onlyplace where they experience anyintimacy and so finding a support groupis is very is a very important part ofthe healing process for guys who arecaught up in the Sin of inocentimmorality and and um I would encourageyou um yousee you see in the um the bulletin hereyou have uh local resources for helpwith internet immorality on the backthere you'll see a list of names um oneof them is Steve eckl at the frontthere's Bill Wells there's Brooks PayneI see Brooks you're in the congregationyou want raise your hand for us there heis back there he's wearing yellow todayhe's a revolutionary from France and umthe yellow vest movement and welcomeBrooks today um Brooks and Steven havemany years experience helping men gaingain victory over this particularproblem um this is printed out here notso that we can be just thrown out athome these resources are printed outnames and email addresses in thiscommunity of men who can help you umfind access to an accountability groupthey do meet in beran Springs and menare finding Victory um over thisparticular addiction and at the back ofthe church as you leave today we have aninformation sheetum on the various um men'saccountability groups that exist inBaran Springs there one phone call awayand uh if you're interested they're outon the Deacon's desk if you pick one upit doesn't mean that you have anaddiction it means you may have a sonwho is an ad addicted you a husband whois addicted a grandson a nephew or justa friend who you know may benefit fromthis material and so seek appropriateaccountability actively participate in aChristian support group and perhaps mostimportantlynever give up hope we are not innocentvictims we're not um products we're notjust um driven by our genetics in thisGod has given us a conscience he givesus the gift of the Holy Spirit he speaksto our hearts and he promises us Victoryif we turn to him asking for hisforgiveness and the empowerment of hisholy spirit never give up hope theApostle Paul put it this way I beseechyou therefore Brethren by the mercies ofGod that you present your bodies aLiving Sacrifice holy acceptable to Godwhich is your reasonable service and donot be conformed to this world but betransformed by the renew of your mindthat you may prove what is that good andacceptable and perfect will of God wecan rewire our brains it is possiblemany men have succeeded and if you aretrapped today in in the pit of internetaddiction do not give up hope we serve amighty savior who is has the authorityand the power to lift us out of that pitlike a recovering alcoholic a recoveringpornoholic will always have a strugglewith temptation but as the days and theweeks pass by you will find that God'spromise of brain renewal will come trueas your brain develops new healthyGod-fearing and Sanctified neuralPathways your use of porn has burned sinbearing chemical Pathways into yourbrain but through the gift ofneuroplasticity God will renew ourthinking and that renewal can begintoday so what do we say in conclusiontodayfirstly there's a beautiful promise fromHebrews 4:14-16 says seeing then that we have agreat high priest who has passed throughthe heavens Jesus the son of God let ushold fast our confession for we do nothave a high priest who cannot sympathizewith our weaknesses but he was in allpoints tempted as we are yet without sinLet Us therefore come boldly to thethrone of grace that we may obtain mercyand find Grace to help in our time ofneed what a beautiful promise yes wehave a high priest who is tempted in allways as we are yet is and was withoutsin he knows what it is to be a manwalking on planet Earth and in his namewe can come before our heavenly fatherthat we may obtain mercy and Grace tohelp in our time of need there's nomention there of condemnation there's nomention there of pointing the finger atthe repentant sinner we serve a God whoDelights to forgive his children whenthey turn to him in Repentance and askfor the grace to overcome this besettingsin secondly this is my favorite quotefrom the from the writings of the spiritof Prophecy um I actually have itprinted out in my Bible and um it's abeautiful quote says the greatest wantof the world is the want of men men whowill not be bought or sold men who intheir innermost souls are true andhonest men who do not call fear to callSin By Its Right name men whose conscienis Du true to duty is the needle to thepole men who will stand for the rightthrough the heavens full can you sayAmen that is the kind of men that God islooking for today it is possible to bethat kind of man we have the stories ofthe Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacoband David all of whom fell into sin andall of whom were restored through thegrace of God and we can be thosePatriarchs in our generation today butthe quote goes on like this the nextparagraph says this but such a characteris not the result ofaccident it is not due to special favorsor the endowments of Providence likesome men are not just blessed by God tohave ability to overcome this and somemen are cursed by God with an inabilitythat is not the case rather a noblecharacter is the result ofself-discipline of the subjugation ofthe lower to the higher nature thesurrender of self for the service oflove to God and to man that when we giveour lives over to the service of thosearound us us to those in need and to thesurrender of service to God and love toGod we find that we become less focusedon ourselves and our needs forgratification so one of the ways toovercome this internet addiction thatmany men experience today is to look forways to serve those less fortunate thanourselves if you're tempted on aSaturday night to watch internetpornography make it a habit to doHospital visitation on Saturday nightokay engage in service to man and womenuh this isn't gender specific hereobviously the surrender of self for theservice of love to God and man findopportunities to serve others andexpress God's grace that he's given toyou in service to those around you andthat is part of the process ofsanctification that God wishes for allof ustoday and finally bepractical don't just sit here today andgo home and dine on the preacher's fleshnow um make a call today I put those upon the screen these are God-fearing menin this community who can help if youknow of somebody who needs help give oneof these men a call and talk with themabout the situation they have helpedmany men in the baring area to gainVictory and by God's grace if you oranybody you know is experiencing thesame problem they will also find Victorythrough the power of Jesus Christ Alonemake a call today write somebody anemail don't just sit and stew in thatsin um but start the process of healingtoday it is a sin that is addictive butJesus Christ is able to overcome any ofthese sins uh through the grace that hegives each one of us so today men it's aday of religiousliberty do not say that you do not havethe Liberty to overcome thissin do not say today that you arecontrolled by your genes or controlledby the Delta fos be in your brain wehave religious liberty in America usethat Liberty that God has granted you togain victory over this besetting sin andif you've never done so make a call talkto you heavenly father about it reachout to someone who can help who is readyto help who is willing to help who willwalk with you through what will be adifficultJourney but the journey is worthwhile itwill be the restoration of your mind therestoration of your marriage therestoration of your heart the ability tolive a healthy and a wholesome life theabil to be a man of Faith as God hascalled you to be so men don't sit onyour don't just sit and do nothing aboutthis stand up for God and see what hemay do for you is my prayer for hisname's sake amen