Soul Winning Success - Pornography in the Church

Pastor Daniel Gouveia
Intro Verses
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Matthew 5:8 NKJV
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10 NIV
Create for me a pure heart, O God. Renew a resolute spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10 NET
We can overcome. Yes; fully, entirely. Jesus died to make a way of escape for us, that we might overcome every fault, resist every temptation, and sit down at last with him in his throne.
Ellen White, Review and Herald, September 4, 1883, par. 9.
Pastor David Dean Testimony
How Christ made me free from Porn
1. I confessed to Jesus that I loved the sin and found pleasure in it
2. I acknowledged that I was convicted and that I should get out of it
3. I admitted that I had zero power to do this myself
- at this point the Holy Spirit assured me I’d get free
4. I amped up my devotional time with Christ (in scripture and my prayer moments) I prayed incessantly for the Holy Spirit to take over my life
5. I kept serving God and allowed that to be my accountability…”how can I do x if I’m serving God?”
6. I got rid of everything that was a direct temptation towards porn and self abuse
7. I memorized numerous scriptures that I repeated in my head when I was tempted (see below)
8. I would brace myself for temptations and pray and quote scripture and fight with all of my effort, depending on Christ
9. I would not condemn myself when I failed again, I would get up and keep going
10. I learned not to make vows or empty promises that, “I will never do this again”. I just pushed forward.
11. I would turn away from looking at women, pictures, photos, billboards, commercials, news stories and shows that triggered me
12. After I was no longer watching or looking at porn, the battle was mostly mental and I had to resist thinking about unholy thoughts and still quote scripture and pray a lot to keep my mind settled in Christ
13. I realized it was going to take a long time to get fully free so I didn’t fool myself that it was going to be a short battle (Stockdale Paradox)
14. I finally came to the conclusion (only a few years ago) that porn is dehumanizing and degrading to human beings and that helped me to find disgust with it even after I already had freedom
15. I speak and teach openly about my past addiction and minister to others about this topic and that helps with accountability... it keeps what is past, in the past. It allows me to be reminded of and to rehearse the power of Christ…That He (and not I) can overcome all sin in my life. It also helps those who are struggling to know that our church is safe and that I’m a safe pastor (by God’s grace).
Resources:
Blazinggrace.org
Newfreedomtolove.org
Covenanteyes.com
Joinfortify.com
Thefreedomfight.org
“For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back: sends the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides. And this harem, once admitted, works against his ever getting out and really uniting with a real woman. For the harem is always accessible, always subservient, calls for no sacrifices or adjustments, and can be endowed with erotic and psychological attractions which no real woman can rival. Among those shadowy brides he is always adored, always the perfect lover: no demand is made on his unselfishness, no mortification ever imposed on his vanity. In the end, they become merely the medium through which he increasingly adores himself . . . . And it is not only the faculty of love which is thus sterilized, forced back on itself, but also the faculty of imagination.
The true exercise of imagination, in my view, is (a) To help us to understand other people (b) To respond to, and, some of us, to produce, art. But it has also a bad use: to provide for us, in shadowy form, a substitute for virtues, successes, distinctions etc. which ought to be sought outside in the real world-e.g. picturing all I’d do if I were rich instead of earning and saving. Masturbation involves this abuse of imagination in erotic matters (which I think bad in itself) and thereby encourages a similar abuse of it in all spheres. After all, almost the main work of life is to come out of our selves, out of the little, dark prison we are all born in. Masturbation is to be avoided as all things are to be avoided which retard this process. The danger is that of coming to love the prison.”
― C.S. Lewis
Pastor Antonio Correa
Reach out to him if you have any further questions.
Contact
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[@AileenGollayan]

I just want to add on the psychological effect of pornography. It takes away attraction from your wife because you drawn your attraction to what you’re seeing in the porn.