Excerpt: God’s first line of defense against sexual temptation is to flee from it!
- God’s Word instructs us to flee from sexual immorality, not see how close we can get without giving into temptation.
- 1 Corinthians 6:18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.
- It’s such a slippery slope. For me it started with an image of a cheerleader on Sports Illustrated website when I was looking at scores from the weekend’s games. I should have run right then.
- Job 31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman.
- Job made a decision. It was a firm decision. He wasn’t wishy washy about it.
- In our highly sexualized culture you’ll need to think ahead and be strategic
- Avoid apps on your phone that you know lead to temptation - tic tok, instagram, YouTube - anything that will trap you if you’re not careful
- Put Net Nanny or Covenant Eyes or a similar program on your phone
- Don’t keep your phone with you in your room at night
- Don’t have a computer in a room with your door closed
- When traveling - tell the front desk to cancel pay per view in your room
- Pornography is a distortion of God’s gift of sex within the marriage relationship. It will distort your expectations and set you up for a lifetime of disappointment and hurt.
- It’s not real. It’s a facade.
- Many of the women in porn are using drugs/alcohol just to get through the scene
- It will give you the impression that women are always in the mood, will always desire you. That’s not the real world. It will set up unhealthy expectations for your marriage and frustration when they’re not met.
- It’s unlikely your wife is going to look like they do
- It’s unlikely you’re going to look like they do
- Makes sex look like it’s all about getting what I want when in reality it should be about giving my wife what she wants
- If you’re thinking the temptation will be gone once you’re married and can fulfill your sexual desires with your wife, it won’t.
- The devil will look for an opportune time to bring it back - maybe you and your wife are in conflict, she’s dealing with an illness, you have a newborn in the home - The bible says he’s prowling around like a lion. He’s strategic.
- Our first strategy should be to flee, but we should also link up with other Christian men who can help us fight this battle.
- Ecclesiastes 4:12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
- Matthew 23:12 But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
- It takes humility to call in other men to help you with this.
- Only a fool would go into battle alone when he has the opportunity to have reinforcements. This is a battle of life and death - emotional death, relational death
- God is not holding out on us and his grace is bigger than failures we’ve made in this area.
- This is an area where so many people feel like God is being stingy or holding back on us. Nothing could be further from the truth. God has our best interest in mind. His boundaries are always for our good. If you think you’re missing out, here’s what you’re missing out on: guilt, shame, distorted view of sex, wounds that are going to affect your sex life in your marriage, contributing to sex trafficking - that’s what you’re missing out on if you stay away from porn.
- We’ve turned sex into an idol. We’ve taken a good thing, a gift God has given us...
