“A Covenant With My Eyes”

I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl – Job 31:1

Sex. There now that I have your attention. When I was in high school (back in the mid 70s - the earth had just cooled), the school newspaper editor started out his column like that once. Of course his column had absolutely nothing to do with sex, but that “joke” burned its way into my brain, obviously. Problem is it’s no joking matter anymore.

Pornography. Okay the older of you readers out there just turned away in partial shame and embarrassment. The younger readers may have just said, “Now he’s talking!!!” Porn is pervasive in our culture anymore. It started out as “dirty books” and “dirty magazines” and those movies that played after midnight. Now it’s everywhere. I remember seeing the movie “Porky’s” and watching jaw agape at the explicit (then I think it was “graphic,” but it’s tame in comparison to nowadays) sex scene in that poor excuse for a movie. Did I get a thrill at it? Of course, I was a young hormone machine back then. I still remember the “actress” – Kim Catrall – she of Sex and the City fame, that’s how deep into the recesses of my brain that scene went. Males respond to visual stimuli, and visual images like that burn their way into male memory cells. Kim Catrall is a lousy actress. I’d never pay any of my hard earned money to see anything she’s starring in, but her in “Porky’s,” I’ll never forget, try as I might.

Porn is everywhere. There was an episode of “Friends” where Chandler gets caught by his intended, Monica, “humoring himself” in front of the TV. (Nervous tittering) He was watching porn as he tends to do. He quickly changes the channel to a Discovery Channel show on sharks. (haha) Monica thinks sharks are what excite Chandler sexually (snort, chuckle). So in her love for him, she rents some shark documentaries to get him in the mood one night (guffaw, honk). She’s obviously very uncomfortable but is ready to indulge a bestial perversion of her fiancé (hysterical laughter). Good Lord. That is humor in our culture today. Men and women interacting with each other on a bestial level out of their misunderstood love for each other, but OHHH, Whew! “He was just watching PORN!”

This problem has been around for a long time, the internet has just made it quicker (like everything else!) to access. Hollywood, to give it due credit, once recognized it AS A PROBLEM before ingraining it their own movies (Porky’s, etc.). Back in the late 70’s there was a not so good movie with George C. Scott called “Hardcore.” Scott was a wrapped way too tight father (A strict Calvinist so it was all his fault, anyway), whose daughter disappears on a church outing. Seems daughter rebels from daddy by becoming a porn star. A very riveting scene when George C. sees his daughter in a porno flick, starts kicking the chair in front of him and screams hysterically “TURN IT OFF!”

I still see those Porn Star bumper stickers on cars every once in awhile. Nothing to be proud of my friends. That receptacle on the movie or computer screen is somebody’s daughter, absolutely the Lord’s daughter (“TURN IT OFF!”). Porn is an addiction according to those in recovery. Do I have an addiction to it? Not really, not like some addicts I know, but I have no idea why that is. I’m not about to say, “I’m more righteous than them.”

“Realllllyy???” sez Satan, “Ouueee, I just love a challenge!”

No challenge from me, you creep. I fully admit I could fall just as hard for your lies as the next guy. I’ve just been blessed such that this particular lie hasn’t deeply affected me (yet?). But do I stare at women joggers along the road? Yes. Do I give second looks to women “who forgot to finish getting dressed that morning?” Yes. So, in my own slight way, I engage in the secret lie that is porn. Do I engage in internet porn after finishing posts like this? No. Do I buy Playboy’s or Hustlers? No. Do I watch porn flicks? No. Does that make me any better of a man for just casually drooling at hard bodies bolting down the road? No. Does the fact I struggle to see the beauty of a new mother with baby and pregnancy weight attached to her hips, but have no problem feeling lusty towards bronzed hard bodies make me lesser of a man? Yes.

Porn is killing our society and we stand back and watch it happen. I remember our own daughter’s high skrool graduation ceremony. At one point in a speech full of the usual valedictory type platitudes, the valedictorian spoke about he and his friends spending the afternoon after skrool watching “X files,” and it wasn’t about Mulder and Scully. The valedictorian in his Salutation!!! Talking about porn. It ruined the whole bloody ceremony for me. God forbid he would have said anything religious, but “Hey, ‘X Files’ now that’s funny!”

Enough!

Rick Stedman declared war on porn from Adventure Christian Church this morning and called on men everywhere to put on their armor and go to war against this insidious killer of society. The money spent (see below) on this excrement could change the world for Christ’s sake! Come on fellas, this is “Every Man’s Battle,” so grab your figurative rifle and let’s stop this monster before it eats us all! First, Praise God for making you a man. Gives thanks to Him for the blessing of your wife or friends and family. Make a covenant with your eyes to always be righteous in His eyes. Remember that’s somebody’s daughter (TURN IT OFF!). And then do your part in this war:

Pornography – How to Help Those We Love
Job 31:1

“Porn is a 13-billion dollar a year industry in the USA alone. World-wide, it’s a 57-billion dollar industry. It’s USA market earns more than the NBA, the NFL, and MLB combined!!!”

This sermon will help us to help those we love.

1. We have a vicious enemy! (1 Peter 5:8)
- “Your enemy the Devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
- Satan’s goals:
a. To destroy our family
b. To destroy our marriages
c. To destroy our Friendships
d. To destroy our witness (Bat sez, “How else to better neutralize Christians?!?!”)
e. To destroy our happiness
f. To destroy our ETERNITY

2. Our enemy’s top tactics:
#1: Lies (John 8:44, Genesis 3:4)
#2: Darkness (John 3:19-21, Eph 5:8-12)

3. Our enemy’s top weapons: (Eph 5:1-6; Col 3:5)
- Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, sloth – The so-called seven deadly sins. They are general categories for all sin
- Today’s #1 weapon: PORN!
“Flee from sexual immorality.” (1 Cor 6:18)
· Sexual immorality = porneia.
· Porneia < classic Greek: to sell, especially slaves. It came to mean sex for sale, or immorality.

4. The pornography lies:
1. Lie: If I look, it will thrill me.
Truth: If I look, it will kill me.
· It will kill my purity
· It will kill my ability to share intimacy
· It will kill my marriage and family
· It will kill my joy.

2. Lie: If I look, it won’t hurt anybody.
Truth: If I look, it will hurt everybody.
· It will hurt me.
· It will hurt those I love
· It will hurt the innocent (somebody’s daughter)
· It will hurt the Lord (and grieve the Spirit)

5. How to defeat the enemy and this weapon:
1. Ask Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior. (Heb 2:14-15)
2. Repent. (Acts 2:38)
3. Confess to another person. (James 5:16)
4. Covenant – commit! (Job 31:1)
5. Be accountable to a trusted friend. (Gal 6:2)
6. Resist Temptation. (James 4:7) (Bat sez “Run away if that’s what’s required!”)
7. Fill your mind with whatever is true, pure, …. (Phil 4:8)

Do you struggle with Porn? If so, here are some resources that may help you in this battle:

Ministry Support Groups: (How do I get out of this slavery?)

· “Every Man’s Battle” Study Group (call Adventure at 771-5683 x 1172 to sign up)
· Men’s Ministry (771-5683 x1172)
· Women’s Ministry (771-5683 x1123)
· Family Ministry (771-5683 x1125)
· Recovery Adventure/Celebrate Recovery (771-5683 x1125)

Internet/Movie/TV blocking aids: (How do I keep this filth out?)

· www.cleanfilms.com
· www.pluggedinonline.com
· www.pkfamily.com
· www.integrity.com
· www.covenanteyes.com
· www.cybersitter.org
· www.hedge.org
· www.cleanweb.net
· www.xxxchurch.com

(I’ll grant that last website makes you think twice before going there, but it’s ministry is toward the porn addicted. The “xxx” part makes it reachable in internet searches for porn from addicts who want to change. Hey! You know - "The Lord moves in mysterious ways!")

Books to strengthen believers: (How do I keep strong?)

· “Every Man’s Battle” by Steve Arterburn
· “Think Before You Look” by Daniel Henderson
· “Porn Generation” by Ben Shapiro
· “An Affair of the Mind” by Laurie Hall