Video from Core Christanity
I Am Struggling with Porn, What Do I Do?
"Pastor Adriel takes a Facebook question about a man struggling with pornography. If you or someone you know is struggling with porn, please watch as Pastor Adriel shares his pastoral guidance on this important subject. We all have questions about the Bible and the Christian life. Call us with your questions during our live show Monday-Friday 11:30 am PT, 1:30pm CT at 833-843-2673. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and click on the Bell to be notified when we go live or release new clips." from the video introduction.
Adriel Sanchez is pastor of North Park Presbyterian Church, a congregation in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). In addition to his pastoral responsibilities, he also serves the broader church as a host on the Core Christianity radio program. He and his wife Ysabel live in San Diego with their four children.
There are many of you out there struggling with the addictive besetting sin of pornography, both men and women. Many are Christians.
Pornography deceives and is no doubt a favored tool of the spiritual dark forces that attack us. Yet it is our choices to sin sexually and mentally that lead us down these rabbit holes. The sexualized depictions of human beings promise the viewer many things it cannot deliver. Our eyes have gone blind and our souls are numbed from our frequent exposure to the medium. Pervasive and continuous consumption of pornography dulls the mind much like any drug. Most consumers of flesh-colored crack as some porn producers call it delightedly give themselves over to the falsehoods subsequently losing their ability to sort truth from fiction. Sin has a compounding effect on our souls, our values, and our conscience. Normal becomes the cry of the person drowning in sin.
The moral basis for sexuality beyond pleasure and consent is now sadly unacceptable, and too prudish to be taken seriously. Pornography has become inescapable therefore, it must be permissible. Our secular culture bound up as it is with pride and personal preference over all things has led us into a cultural climate of good being called evil and evil being called good.
Viewers of pornography, then, place themselves imaginatively within the scene. There is a kind of “empathy” at work in such viewership, a self-identification that happens between ourselves and the subjects being depicted on the screen.
Confession and repentance are absolutely necessary for our renewal and forgiveness. This comes as part of our relationship with Christ. We are restored by grace, set free from the bondage of our sins. At the cross of Christ, every human life finds a worth that is inestimable as Christ thought of remembering every human life from the beginning to the end. Christ has died for all (2 Cor. 5:14–15)! A Christ-like life bound up in the thinking of Christ through scripture will look at all others with holy reverence, with a fear and trembling that is the result of our salvation The lives of those who make and consume pornography are made in the image of Jesus Christ. All of us must reach out to our fellow travelers to aid and assist in any way we can.
1 John 1:9 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This is part of our daily toolbox of scriptures that we use to communicate with Christ and the Person of the Holy Spirit.
1 John 2:12 12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.
Pastor Sanchez points out that we are forgiven not because we earn it or deserve it but because of God's glory, because of his name' sake.
Jeremiah 14:7 7 Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.
Pastor Sanchez also reminds us that even when we tend to hide or isolate we must do the opposite if possible. The pandemic has made this more difficult but keep trying. For those that struggle with pornography do what you know to do. Get off the internet completely if you must, use software to block yourself, and have a friend put in the passwords and not reveal them to you. Life is short and you have much to do to be the salt and light. You need to put these sins behind you.
Find a friend, find a church, and don't give up looking, you need to talk to another Christian.
Find a counselor in your area or set up a virtual appointment.
Lord please put theses sins to death in those afflicted! Amen