Not too long ago, a man sat across from my desk and confessed his struggle with pornography. I asked him, "What was it that first peeked your interest in porn?" I was expecting the typical answers of, "One day I was on the computer and came across a porn site." or "I was over at my friend's house when we were kids and he showed me his dads stash of magazines." That's what I expected. I was not prepared for his response. His response floored me. I dropped my jaw in disbelief.
He said, "One Sunday, my pastor was talking about the subject of porn, and I got interested. I wanted to see what he was talking about. I was hooked. Thus, the destructive patterns began almost immediately.
I read a statistic that said, “Adult bookstores outnumber McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. by a margin of at least 3-1.” That blew my mind. It compelled me to include it in our current “NAKED TRUTH” sermon series. So, I spoke about PORN this past week at church ... I had to.
One of the biggest areas men deal with is the arena of lust and pornography. Porn numbs and leaves us wounded and bleeding. Not just us, but all those in its wake.
Paul Harvey shared a story of how the Eskimo kills the wolf. The way Eskimos kill wolves is ingenious. They will coat the blade of a sharp hunting knife with blood. The blood will freeze on the blade. Then the blade will be coated again, frozen, and repeated till the blade is completely hidden by the frozen blood. The hilt of the knife is then planted, with the blade sticking up.
When a wolf smells the blood, he will begin to lick the lethal popsicle. As he proceeds, the blood melts and eventually exposing the sharp edge. The lust for more blood drives the animal to lick faster and faster, never realizing he is now licking his own blood. In the end, the wolf bleeds to death on the snow and the Eskimo has his prey.
What an excellent image of what pornography and lust will do to you. Order this week's message called, “Confronting the Elephant in the Room” by contacting Linda at ljenks@victorychurch.ws
This is a rare case of being introduced to pornography, and obviously should not stop any church from being afraid of this subject.
Saying that, I think it is not only a good idea, but mandatory a church provide some type of support for men struggling with these issues.
Sunday morning may not be the venue, but there should be a small group available as this is one of the Devil's greatest snags for men.
As long as we don't address it, the Devil will continue his stronghold.
It is up to us, the church, to counter the attack.
Posted by: Tony Galati | March 06, 2011 at 04:03 PM
I just started coming to Victory. My husband and I are completely new to church, we've never belonged to a church and have only been a handful of times in our lives, and it was mostly with friends when we were kids. Our first visit was when you started talking about the Naked Truth and I really respect that you are tackling the tough issues and talking about things that I thought were "taboo" in church. Thank you so much! It's making a difference in our lives.
Posted by: Lora Bledsoe | March 06, 2011 at 06:30 PM
That's Harvey, all right*************
Always hoist on his own Pekard******************
Posted by: barefoot shoes | May 20, 2011 at 10:19 PM