"The problem with porn": Lust and Chastity (7DS 4/7)

The fourth in a series on the Seven Deadly Sins

March 11, 2007
Third Sunday of Lent
from Isaiah 55:1-9 and 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

"A little carnal knowledge is a dangerous thing –
it'll eat a hole in the brain." – Michael W. Smith


My sermon outline:

• Recap of intro: Lenten series on 7 deadly sins. I read this past week that "sin breeds sin", and that’s why these are deadly, cuz they lead to more sins.

• Goal being to help you become victorious over them. If you do struggle with one or more of them it means you’re human and you’re in the right place. My prayer for us all is that we would allow ourselves to be led by God to examine our lives, our habits and our priorities, and that we would allow God’s spirit to work within us, purifying us of those things in our lives that do not lead to Life, but instead lead to destruction.

• We started 3 weeks ago with gluttony, the sin of overindulgence, countered by faith and by self-control. Then we talked about sloth, identifying the mantra of the sloth as "I’ll get around to it later," lifting up attitude plus action, enthusiasm partnered with discipline and accountability as counters to sloth. Last week we looked at envy, ("It’s not fair"), pointing out that envy is osteoporosis to the body, and that its counter virtue is love, and we celebrated the power of Christ to overcome as we broke bread together in Holy Communion.

• Today’s deadly sin of focus is LUST. (people joke, although Bishop William Willimon writes that it’s really the least of the DS cuz even animals can be prone to it, but they aren’t envious or greedy or proud or wrathful...)

• Jesus actually speaks about lust in Matthew 5:27-28: "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart." – Matthew 5:27-28

• Over years Christians turned this into the stereotypical Puritanical attitude that sex is bad. NOT TRUE. Sex is created by God, however like so many things, it is easily perverted into sin. Sin is the perversion of something good.

• Song by Christian singer-songwriter Michael W. Smith, in the mid-nineties: "A little carnal knowledge is a dangerous thing – it'll eat a hole in the brain." – Michael W. Smith.

• Some stats on pornography (I got these from www.xxxchurch.com):

worldwide porn industry: $57 billion a year,
$12 billion in U.S.

Greater than Exxon’s 2006 profits
Greater than ABC+CBS+NBC
Greater than pro basketball+baseball+football
Avg. first exposure to internet porn is at 11 years
largest number of consumers 12-17 years
40 million adults regularly view porn

Probably more than one person in this room viewed internet pornography in the past week.

• It is a problem, and it can be broken. If you are trapped, you are not alone or unusual or freaky or bad, you’re human, and you can get out. There are computer helps, you can find an accountability partner, I will help you.

• Porn is one common manifestation of lust; others include various kinds of abuse and assault. Fornication and adultery. I can think of no better way to say it that MWS: it’ll eat a hole in the brain.

• Fortunately there’s a way out: you may have heard the joke how do you get to Carnegie Hall? (practice practice practice). As sin breeds sin, life breeds life. Feed the good wolf. Run, don’t walk away from sins of body (1 Corinthians 6). There’s only one thing that satisfies (Isaiah 55)

• Psalm 119:9: "How can a young person stay pure? By feeding on your word."

• Psalm 119:11: "I have hidden your word in my heart, that I may not sin against you."

Be Thou My Vision #451


- Pastor Kerry
This Sunday: 65 in worship. Sunday of Daylight Saving Time. Getting warmer!