Jerry was finally alone in his office.  After another jam-packed day at the office, he was exhausted but pleased.  His hard work was paying off.  His management team was near the top in the company, his most recent project was a big success, and people were patting him on the back left and right.  Before turning off the lights, Jerry decided he had time for a quick reward.  He shut his office door and sat down at his computer.  He moved the mouse a few times, and then, -- click, click, click -- images of women, posing erotically, smiled back in seeming agreement - you deserve this...

          Jerry has it all.  He's a rising star in his company, has a nice home and a great family and they go to church.  Jennifer is beautiful and loving and their two children are as good as they come.  Yet somehow, something moves Jerry to retreat into this fantasy world several times a week.  He's living his life in seductive secrecy, for he's become addicted to cybersex, and his thirst for Internet pornography seems unquenchable.  And Jennifer's found a nifty chat room, one she's not telling Jerry about.  And neither is Jerry telling her...

          I wonder how many Jerrys and Jennifers are out there, doing well on the outside, but heavily influenced by pornography in private.  Certain magazines used to cost two bucks and were found in the back of certain stores or were mailed to your house in brown paper wrappers.  But now it's more accessible than ever, and it's worse than ever, masquerading as harmless pleasure while degrading to everyone in just about every way.  Every home with an Internet access is only a few clicks away from images our Lord would find offensive and from Satan, not God.  God's good gifts are getting trashed again.  As Paul wrote in our text, "They have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more."

          Jerrys and Jennifers are getting tangled everywhere in our society.  It's mostly Jerrys, but more and more Jennifers are finding places that prey on sinful desires.  Jerry and Jennifer could be Christian as well as non-Christian, because it's a problem that crosses all barriers.  Studies have shown that about 3% of American men, women and youth are addicted to some kind of drug, and their addiction affects 10 other people around them.  How many men, women and youth are addicted to sexually explicit materials?  Some believe it's another 2% and it's growing each year.  Many laud this kind of sex because supposedly it hurts no one.  And yet, such obsessions bring continual lust for more.  It's Satan's battleground for our souls.

          Like obscene words, obscene images are hotly debated today, defended as a matter of taste or freedom of expression, and often called harmless, something for puritans to condemn.  Some will say a painting in the Brooklyn Museum of Art of a nude female Jesus on a cross is worse, or a movie defending cannibalism even worse.  But the demeaning of Christian symbols is old hat, and seen by very few.  The Internet, however, brings everything imaginable into our homes, the good and useful, as well as the evil and destructive.  Playboy is no longer the culprit, because the sewer of worse garbage is growing fuller every day.

          It's not just a matter of turning off the switch, or tossing the magazine, either.  We first must recognize it for what it is - an evil that destroys.  Pornography is so available that many no longer consider it a problem.  And it's big business, with high stakes!  Between 1996 and 1999, Internet revenues from this increased from 50 million to 2 billion - a forty-fold increase in three years!  Book, video, cable, movie and magazine sales number in the dozens of billions.  Founders of cable and satellite TV services who once pledged to remain free of porno, today receive most of their profits from it.  Satan is very much alive and well-entrenched in this business!  But Paul says to us, "You, however, did not come to know Christ that way."

          While much attention is given to protecting children from pornography, the real problem is with adults and older youth.  This stuff is as addictive to the lonely and confused as crack is to kids on the streets.  A few hits and it feels so good you're hooked.  When it's so available, the hooks go deeper.  Christians are as tangled in this as non-Christians, even some clergy.  Focus on the Family has a pastoral care hotline to help clergy and their family with personal problems.  In August of 1999, 11% of the calls were related to sexual addiction.  The following year, also in August, worried calls about this from pastors had grown to 20%.  Pornography is just a click away, as available as your credit card, as easy as ordering flowers.

          Most of us know when an activity is right or wrong, because we have a conscience.  However, consciences can be trained and dulled to accept evil.  A young woman I once knew was about to be married when she discovered her fiance had been frequenting a massage parlor.  When she confronted him about it, he didn't see it as a problem!  Men in his family had been doing it for years and he truly did not know such activity would be objectionable to his Christian wife.  After he found out, he never went again.  It can be the same with sexually explicit images.  If a boy or girl grows up with such images around the house, how will he or she understand it's wrong and harmful?

          This whole topic is uncomfortable to hear in church.  And yet the church must speak up!  We dare not put our head in the sand on this, because it's getting into our homes and ruining lives.  We may not be willing or able to picket adult book stores or theaters (though that's still a good way to take a public stand), but we can certainly stand against porno in our homes, offices, and personal lives.  And if we ourselves are struggling with an unhealthy and guilty attitude involving sexual images, we'd better admit it and a take steps to stop it before it stops our faith or our marriage.

          People who struggle with this often feel lonely or isolated.  They want intimacy, but are lured into a false intimacy that brings more isolation.  There is no fulfillment in pornography, nor can we justify it for any reason.  We American Christians have developed a concept that says we should be able to have what we want, and that if we devote ourselves to God, He will bless us.  We think we have a right to get what we want.  But we must seek what we want through the filter of God's Word.  We get drawn in by the gimmicks and pleasures, especially the one that says, "Hey, you've worked hard, you deserve it!"  That's rationalization, and we must be careful who is speaking those words.  Paul says, "You, however, did not come to know Christ that way."

          So how does one get disentangled?  Is there a self-help program leading to "recovery"?  The good news is that there is help for struggling people, but the bad news is that it takes work.  It also takes repentance and decision.  It all begins with repentance, humbly turning to God for help.  Christians may feel they can pray their way through this problem, but most of us can't.  We need repentance and a decision to change.  People only change when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.

          But decision must be followed by action.  No recovery can come without the power of God.  We essentially learn a behavior from repetition, and so we un-learn the bad things and repeat the good until we learn it.  That's part of why people decide to give up something or change a behavior during Lent.  This year I've pledged that every day for 50 days I'll start with Bible and prayer, no matter what, before the paper or breakfast.  It's a small step, but a positive one that will bring a benefit.  God brings a blessing when we seek His will and power to change for the better.  That's the essence of repentance, and one of the purposes of Lent.

          But no recovery or change can come without the grace of God.  He can and does work miracles to move us to change.  Yet He refuses to treat us like puppets.  We have a brain and a will that can reason and make decisions.  Our will can be molded to His will.  We have a soul that comes from God, and if in this season of Lent we turn to Him in humility, if we repent of our arrogance and remove whatever stumbling blocks we've placed in our paths, He can and will bless us with deliverance.

          Deliverance comes from God, through Jesus Christ.  Christ died for our sins and grants forgiveness to all who come in faith.  He gives us power to change by the Holy Spirit.  Evil can't stand up to faith, and in Christ, we can confront evil successfully.

          Self-help groups give some human support, but with divine support, they're 100% better.  Personal determination is good, but without God it will fail.  Like Paul said in Romans 7: "I do not understand what I do...  What I hate, I do...  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out...  What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:15, 18, 24-25)  Thanks be to God we don't have to fix this problem by ourselves - Christ has fixed it for us!  He died to rescue us and now He lives to empower us.  We're not in this alone - we're not isolated.  God is by our side and will show us a better way.  May we all pray for God to be with us as we confront the evils around us in what we see.  Amen.

Copyright © 2001 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.