Escaping the Porn Trap | Think Ahead | Part 2

Craig Groeschel (0:00)

The first time I saw pornography, I was in the fifth grade.

I was over at my buddy Stephen's house, and he found his dad's stash of Playboy magazines, probably 75 or so of them, in a big trunk.

And Stephen and I in the fifth grade memorized the pictures.

The second time I saw pornography, I was in the seventh grade, and I was babysitting for a couple, and in the living room, this wasn't entirely unusual at the time, but in the living room, they had Playboy magazines sitting out on the coffee table. And so in my rush of excitement as a seventh grader, I put the kids to bed at about 7 p.m.

and I started memorizing those photos. The third time, I saw pornography, I was in the 10th grade, and I found two penthouse magazines and kept them hidden for some time until the guilt kind of overcame me and I threw them away.

What's really, really hard to believe is I remember three things. Number one, as a fifth grader, I remember the rush, the thrill, the excitement of seeing something that was forbidden and yet something that I wanted to see. The second thing I remember, if I wanted to and I don't want to, but over four decades later, if I tried, I could actually recall some of those images that I saw.

The third thing is I remember the confusion. I remember the simultaneous excitement and shame and guilt that I felt as I looked. Now, back then, pornography was really difficult to come by. Today, as you know, you give your 12-year-old a mobile device, and essentially, you're giving your kid porn in their pocket.

Why did I say 12-year-old? Because according to Common Sense Media, 12 is the average age that a child will see pornography for the first time. And unfortunately, that problem sticks with a lot of people.

If you're feeling a little bit uncomfortable now, and I should have skipped this week at church, you're not alone, because studies show about 69% of men and 40% of women will view porn this year in the US.

So, the bad news is, chances are, at some point, you're going to be tempted to look at someone, something, lustfully. Not if, but when. The good news is that our God is faithful. And no matter how you are tempted, our God will always give you a way out. I want to show you the promise in his word. Scripture says, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, that there is no temptation that's overtaken you, except what is common to mankind. So, if you're tempted to look at something, think about something, the temptation is not actually a sin. It's what you do with the temptation. If you're tempted, even Jesus was tempted. The Bible says there's no temptation that's overtaken, except what's common to other people. But here's the good news. Our God is faithful. And this is his promise to you. He will not let you ever be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted to lust or in any way tempted to sin against God, Scripture says he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. I came to bring some good news that God is gonna give some of you a way out to find freedom by the power of Jesus. We're talking about quitting porn, and the title of today's message is Escaping the Porn Trap. With that, I feel like we should pray. What do you say? God, I thank you so much that you are a gracious God, that your son was tempted in every way that we are, yet he did not sin, and because of your grace, your power, your goodness through him, you always give us a way out.

So God, I ask in the name that is above all names, the name of Jesus, that you would do a healing work, that you would set people free, that we would know the truth, because we know the truth sets us free. We pray this in the name of Jesus, and everybody said?

Well, we are in a message series called Think Ahead, based on an idea of a book that I recently published. All the content we're covering in the weekends is different from what's in the book. And on the weekends, we're looking at six different people from the Bible, and we're gonna see how they would think ahead and make some pre-decisions to decide ahead of time to do what's right to honor God. Today, the person we're gonna look at is Job from the Old Testament. Now, whenever we think about Job, what do you tend to think about? You think about the guy that suffered, right? If you ever think about Job, you tend to think about, oh my gosh, he went through so much, and he did. But there's a lot more to his story that you may not realize. He was a very, very successful man. He had integrity. He was God-honoring in so many different ways, and the devil got permission to attack him, and the devil did. The devil attacked his possessions, his family, and his health, and he had some friends that you don't want. You know, some of you got friends that you're glad you have, and you got some other friends going, I think I could upgrade you. He had some of the upgradable ones. These friends said, hey, the reason why you're suffering, the reason why you're going through all this stuff is God's allowing it because you've been bad. You sinned, and you brought this on yourself. Job kind of listened to it for a while, but after a while, I said, you know what, you're just wrong. And in Job 31, he offered a very real defense against the accusations toward his character. And let me tell you a few of the things he said. Job said, hey, I don't lie, I haven't deceived people. He said, I've been generous to the widows and the orphans. He said, I've never turned away a stranger. And he goes through a long detailed list of all the things he's done right and the things that he did not do wrong.