Day 10: Don’t Stop Serving Jesus
My oldest son is ten years old. He loves sports, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, riding his bike, and wrestling with his dad. I loved these same things when I was ten.
It’s also the age I was first exposed to pornography.
I won’t go into the specifics, but I can say this: over twenty-five years later I still remember the angle of her head and the way she positioned her arm.
Like me, most men can remember their first exposure to pornography. Author Jared C. Wilson notes that this “is part of the pernicious evil of pornography. You can’t un-see the depravity that changes you” (The Prodigal Church, 203).
For some men—quite tragically—their first exposure opens a faucet that never turns off; sometimes it pours, sometimes it trickles, but always and steadily the pollution runs. These men are no longer ten years old and love Ninja Turtles. Now they have a job, a family, a thirty-year mortgage—and a struggle with porn.
As a pastor in a local church, sometimes these men end up in my office looking for help. What should I tell them? What should I tell you?
Well, there are many things I’d love to tell you. If fact, there are many more things I’d love to say to you than I can fit in this video series.
Do you remember what I said on the first day about these videos?
I had this disclaimer: If you have been into pornography every day for the last year, or you’ve been into pornography on and off for the last decade, then let’s not pretend that a little video series is going to change everything about everything. It won’t. That’s the disclaimer.
But then I also mentioned my hope: If there were to be a change, if the Christian message of hope called the gospel would become in your life something weighty and glorious and there were a decisive shift toward purity and wholeness, then that change would have to begin somewhere. I’m hoping that these videos spark the jumpstart of your struggle against pornography.
If you’re currently leading a ministry and your sexual sin is to such an extent that it disqualifies you from public Christian ministry, then you need to step down from that ministry. You just do.
But, whatever you do, DON’T STOP SERVING JESUS! DON’T STOP FOLLOWING JESUS! Just because you might need time away from public ministry doesn’t mean you stop serving altogether. Your serving may look different and be less visible, but keep fighting; keep struggling against sexual sin and helping others do the same.
I’ll close with two final diagnostic questions. They are the same ones I began with.
Diagnostic Questions:
If you were to move from a passive struggle with pornography to a proactive struggle against it, how would your life need to change?
If these videos do spark a change in your life, a year from now what are 3 ways your life would be better?
Thank you for watching these videos. If you’ve found them helpful, be sure to share them with your friends and church leadership. May God bless you and cause his face to shine upon you.
Previous Videos:
Thank you for watching these videos. If you’ve found them helpful, be sure to share them with your friends and church leadership. To go deeper on each of these strategies (and a dozen other strategies), check out my book Struggle Against Porn: 29 Diagnostics for Your Head and Heart.
