Hello Dear Listeners, welcome to overcoming temptations. My name is Oyisi Okatahi. Today our topic is titled: Avoid Pornography. So what is pornography, is the act of viewing sexual acts either from books, magazines, television, internet and so on. Especially with the internet, many people even Christians are addicted to pornography. An online website convenanteyes says that from their survey 64% of Christian men and 15% of Christian women admit they watch porn programmes at least once a month. Married couples, pastors and many others struggle with pornography. Statistics also show that 1 out of every 8 search on the internet is for pornography. 90% of boys are exposed to pornography before they are 18 years, so this is a serious issue. Today if you go to the internet to do something decent, you will see all sort of advertisement for sex or relationships and the temptation is there to click, everything has a sexual appeal, even if they want to sell a toothpick they will use a half naked woman. So it takes only the grace of God to overcome. pornography like marijuana, cocaine or caffeine is very addictive, once you start it is difficult to stop and you desire to get deeper and deeper.
See what the bible say in Job 31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman. Generally more men are involved in pornography than women. However both men and women need to make a covenant with their eyes not to be lustful. I watched a documentary that showed how pornography has destroyed many homes. This certain man began checking pornography website on the internet, his wife was not aware of this. Whenever he slept with this wife he would expect the same things he watched on the porn websites, eventually his wife could not satisfy all his fantasies and she did not look like the women he saw on the internet. So he identified a colleague at his place of work who was also married, but she looked like one of the women on the pornography sites. He began to get close to her and eventually started dating her and living in adultery. He divorced his wife who already had two children for him to marry this other woman, she could not divorce her husband, so eventually the man lost his family and gained nothing, it all started with pornography.
Let me share three steps that can help you overcome pornography.
- Grace- just ask God for grace, pray about it, there are things that the flesh find difficult to overcome but we are able to do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us.
- Accountability- pornography thrives in secrecy, so you need to expose it. Confide in someone who is spiritually matured about your weakness, tell you wife or husband about it, talk to your pastor about it, you need to expose it to kill it.
- Cut off the source- if the internet is your source of pornography then disconnect your phone or house from internet, yes you may loose other benefits from the internet, but it does not matter, your soul is more important. If it is TV stop watching that programme, remove it from your subscription or cancel the subscription.
May our Lord grant you the grace to overcome in Jesus name.
