Shane Idleman addresses the critical issue of pornography in his sermon 'The Peril and Power of Porn,' emphasizing the alarming statistics and the spiritual dangers associated with it. He highlights the need for the church to confront difficult topics and encourages parents to be aware of their children's exposure to explicit content. Idleman balances the seriousness of sin with the hope of redemption, urging individuals to take extreme measures to combat addiction and seek accountability. He draws from Proverbs to illustrate the destructive nature of immorality and calls for a return to godly paths, emphasizing that true freedom comes through Christ. The sermon serves as a wake-up call for both individuals and the church community to address this pervasive issue with urgency and compassion.

The message this morning is the peril and power of porn. And I will let you know up front, a disclaimer, I guess you could say, is if you need to maybe not, maybe take your children out, that's okay. I'm doing the PG version, very, you know, the softest I can get. And we do have a side room here, it's an overflow room if you want to go in there. Or if you don't feel comfortable, I completely understand, we try to post it on Facebook. We also released it in our electronic bulletin, letting people know. However, I think the church needs to be the place where we talk about difficult things. We talk about challenging things. And I am, I think one of the things that amazes me most about this subject is that parents have no clue. My little Johnny at 11? No. Oh yeah. If he's going to school and his friends have a phone, be careful. It's that simple. And I had to try to get all of this in in one message, but I might have to break it up into two parts because I'm talking about the peril and power of it based on Proverbs. We're doing a series in Proverbs, so I didn't just pull this out of the hat. We're in Proverbs chapter 5. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to chapter 5. But I don't know if I'll get through this, and I want to give people hope. So I'm thinking about doing part 2, breaking free. Breaking free of the power of pornography. And every man in this room should be signed up to go to December, on December 1st, we're having a men's gathering right here, free, no excuses. I think, well, it's $5 if you want lunch. We decided to put a little monetary value on that. I'm talking about the life of Samson, and it's going to touch a lot on that as well, so sign up for December 1st. And I'm hoping to get through a lot of this today, but if not, we'll do part 2. And I want you to think about doing something maybe you haven't done before. Grab some, grab a CD on your way out, and give it to a young adult. Or give it to somebody who you think might be suffering and challenged in this area. And even share it on Facebook, share it, get it out there. Because I will tell you this, this week has been both sobering and sickening. And I didn't know that was possible. But when you start to look at, and I didn't look at images, obviously, but looking at the statistics, it's horrifying. But I want to encourage hope. And if you weren't here last week, make sure you listened to the message last week on hope. Even if you were here, rewind it, listen again. And I want to encourage you, the kids, young adults, even adults can break free of this. And my goal is to balance grace and hope with the seriousness of sin. See, that's one of the hardest jobs of a pastor, to be honest with you. That's why you'll have certain people gravitate towards one side, right? We all know the churches, we all label them, including this one, soft on sin, you know, hard chain. And there's these churches, soft on, you know, and trying to find that balance of grace and mercy, but the seriousness of sin. And getting away from that balance will make the church either fearful, and, oh, it's always hard, and I can never measure up, or so soft that you never conquer sin, you never deal with sin. And it's hard to find that balance. So I'm going to try. So prayer, pray for this service and the next. But I like what to fight the new drug said, and I actually pulled some secular websites from this for this message. It says we are the first generation. We are the first generation to be completely bombarded with graphic sexual material every time we get online. What other time in human history has there been unlimited access to this type of stuff? Have you ever thought about that? Just a phone and a click away. So here's some mind blowing pornography stats. Number one, porn sites. Did you know this? I didn't know any of this until I researched this. Porn sites receive more regular traffic than Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter combined. I don't want to make an illustration, but if 10 of you stood and four sat down and six stayed standing, that's the problem with porn in the church. Six out of 10. And it's not just men. It's a growing trend with women. People who admit to having extramarital affairs were over 300% more likely to admit consuming porn than those who have never had an affair. This is just amazing. I don't, I don't, some of this I don't even want to share. Child porn is one of the fastest growing online businesses and is hosted on servers located in all 50 states. And I'm reading this going, isn't this illegal? What on God's green earth is wrong with us? And let me put a number on the screen if we have it handy. What is that? 4.6 billion? 4.6 billion hours of porn were consumed in 2016 on the world's largest porn site. Epidemic? Problem? You think so? And I was going to share the top three searches on this website and I don't think I'm going to because it's perversion. It has to do with family members, relatives, homosexuality. The top three searches. What that is, that means somebody goes onto it and they search for the topic that interests them. However, the porn industry is simply supplying what people are demanding. No demand, no supply. So I believe, obviously this is going to be a problem from here on out, but I believe that Christians can be set free. I believe that Christians can make a difference. I also believe that the greater the darkness, the brighter the light. So there's tremendous hope. And that's even, I even told Christine, she does the media back there, thank you so much for all you do. And Luke and Jake all back there. But I didn't want to just have that image of porn up on the screen the whole sermon. I wanted this to kind of sink in. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. So if the Son sets you free, you'll be free indeed, focusing on the power of Scripture. But throughout Scripture, let's be honest for a minute, throughout Scripture adultery, especially spiritual adultery, was the downfall of the nation and was the downfall of many, many people. Now most of you know, but maybe the younger adults don't know exactly, adultery is, God has given us the gift of sex. It's a gift of God. So it doesn't have to be bad. You know, it's a gift of God. And just like fire, it's wonderful in the fireplace. But you start that fire in the living room floor and your house is coming down. So adultery, God has given sex within the boundaries of marriage in a covenant relationship for man and woman. Anything outside of that, you give your heart, your affections to someone outside of that covenant relationship, you are committing adultery, adultery. It's close to idolatry. In my mind I get them confused, but it's the same thing. Now spiritual adultery is giving God our heart, God's Lord of all, but then we cheat on God. How do you do that? He who loves the world. So God, I love you on Sunday, but the world has my heart Monday through Saturday. It's spiritual adultery, it's seeking after other gods. God's not the burning compassion, the passion, the consuming fire of your heart anymore. You'll go to church, you might even read the Bible if you're motivated, but there's cheating on God, spiritual adultery. Does that make sense? And here's the problem, pornography is subtle because it appears that no one is really getting hurt. I've talked to so many men, but Shane, nobody's getting hurt. You know what? I'm going to skip ahead to this real quick. I was worshiping right there and all this just came to me and I'm just going to write it down. It does hurt. It will cost you a great deal. It will cost you intimacy with your spouse. It will cost you a strong devotional life. It'll cost you a vibrant prayer life. It'll cost you a deep and abiding relationship with Christ. It will cost you a powerful filling of the Holy Spirit. It will cost you joy, peace, and love. It will cost you everything. There's a cost. And that's why I believe the majority of the church is dead. There's no passion for God because their passions have been given elsewhere and been given to someone else. So a couple things before we get to Proverbs. Adultery begins in the heart. See, we forget that we can actually cheat on our spouse up here. Shane. Well, okay, don't trust me. Trust Jesus, Matthew 528 NIV. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Now, throughout the message, I'm going to give some encouraging thoughts. The encouraging thought is this. Being tempted is not sin. Even Jesus, Hebrews says, was tempted at all points like we are, yet he was without sin. So being tempted, you see something online. Okay, my mind can either go there, and we'll leave it at that. You know what that means. My mind can either go there or I can hit delete. I can flee. I can say, no, I'm not going there. Yes, the temptation is pulling me, but I'm not choosing to act upon it. There's a difference there. So you're like, oh, Shane, what's wrong with me? I'm being tempted. Well, welcome to the world. Welcome to this human body. So it's always what we do with temptation that tilts the scale. Now, there's something interesting about sexual temptation. The Bible says often, fight the good fight. You stand, you hold your ground, you fight. With this, it says you get out of the room. When you see Delilah, don't have a conversation. Potiphar's wife, how close can I stay to the fire? Oh, Lord, I'm really struggling right now, but I'm just going to stay and struggle with the sin right there. He says, you just flee. You get out of the room. You flee sexual immorality. So in God's eyes, we are committing adultery if it's happening in the mind. And it's an interesting word in the Greek. We get the word actually pornography. I don't know if you know from a word, pornea or pornea, depending on how you want to pronounce it. It's a Greek word that means any illicit sex outside of marriage. And that's where the word pornography comes from. So even the secular side recognizes this. I already said this earlier, but let me say it again. It removes intimacy from the marriage and it gives the devil a place in your home. Without a shadow of doubt, you're going to see a lot more arguments and a lot less love. Because adultery is taking place up here. The spirit is quenched in grief. It robs you of joy and peace. There's barrenness. And I want to make this clear. I was highlighting it and wanted to make sure I remember this. An extreme attack. I would say this is an extreme attack from the enemy, is it not? Think about this. All the kids, teenagers, here's a phone with unlimited internet access. And we think they're just that disciplined. Were you? So there's an extreme attack. Here's my point. An extreme attack from the enemy on this will take an extreme defense. I'm just telling you up front, you will have to get extreme. As God is my witness, you will have to hit this head on and get extreme. And I've shared this before and of course it fits here, but there's something we use at home called Covenant Eyes. So every website I view, every search I make is email to my wife once a week. You would be amazed at how many men said, bro, I'm not doing that. You don't want it bad enough. Of course you're not doing it. You're playing with the devil and you enjoy it. Now you have to use wisdom. If there's a very jealous spouse and you're struggling, then you know, you might need to go to somebody and get some help. And I tell people this all the time, it's wonderful to be transparent. It's wonderful to have accountability like I just described, but that's not the answer. There has to be a radical devotion, discipline to follow Jesus Christ. That's the cure. But then these other things are definitely safeguards. There's nothing wrong with safeguards. There's nothing wrong. And the elders here, elders here, they know, they have permission. They can go and ask my wife anytime, how is the marriage? How is he doing in this area? Do I say, oh no, don't do that. Bring it on. There should be full transparency because the enemy loves darkness. That's where he's going to grow. He's going to grow. The sin is going to grow in that area. And I think this is what's probably most frustrating for me is so many people do not want to take extreme measures. I think it's because they enjoy it a little bit more than they let on. They're sorry I got caught, but they're not repentant. Because true repentance will say, I'm killing this. I know people that have actually got rid of phones and went back to old school. Flip phones. No internet. And they are so joy filled. They are, oh, Shane, oh, I don't know how I ever got trapped into that. Because see, they see their trigger. They see, why would you willingly walk into the enemy's camp? Why? It's been, I don't know if I should be too transparent, but I'll just, I'll just throw it out there. It's been a year since I went to the gym. I went yesterday and I was like, I remember why I don't go to the gym now. My Lord. It's 11 o'clock in the afternoon. It should be slow. But see, are you placing yourself in areas where it's going to fuel that? Extreme. Oh, that guy's extreme. Yeah. We live in extreme times. The enemy's after my marriage and my children. And he's after yours. How bad do you want it? He's not playing patty cake. He's not playing, you know, marbles and these, he's after your soul. He's after your family. He's after your testimony. I will tell you right now that I know the number one work of the enemy, the number one goal without a shadow of doubt in his work against me is to take this church down. That's the devil's number one goal. I know it. Oh, come on. Are you sure? Oh Lord. And I bet he's brought a little minions with him. He's not everywhere. He's not omnipresent. And so it's a demonic realm. So you have to extreme, extreme defense. There's people they'll say, Hey, just pray for me. I'm struggling right now. And it just released the enemy. You don't have me anymore. I just confessed it. I released it. But see, what we try to do is no, I got this. I got, I'm not telling anybody. They think I'm super Christian. An extreme attack. God has really put this in my heart. An extreme attack takes extreme defense. Shane, that's nice. But do you have scripture? Well, let's look to Jesus again. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perished than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Mild little Jesus said that. Well, it's interesting. I looked up this word cause and it means to provoke, to trigger, to induce, to inspire, or to motivate. If something you're doing is provoking, triggering, inducing, inspiring, or motivating you to sin, remove it. Plain and simple. But your defense attorney within you have one of those two, right? The defense attorney we've talked to. He's inside here. He's inside here. It's called the flesh. But Shane, you don't have to get that carried away. But not that. And I ask people, I tell them, how bad do you want it? How bad do you want it? Well, Shane, that seems a little extreme. Then you're walking right into the enemy's camp. You want to do something. Well, it's not real funny, but just Google what bathing suits were 100 years ago. Bathing suits at the beach. Now, we don't have to get into what's now, right? What are they wearing now? And God has created us. God has created men to be visual. See, it's a gift. It's a gift. You should look at your spouse and be visually attracted. That's a God-given gift. Fire in the fireplace. But if you struggle with sin, this sin, and you love going to Santa Monica Beach, there's a lot of G-strings down there. Come on, let's be honest. This is Idleman Unplugged this morning. Another area I don't know if I should be transparent in, but a few of us went as a church last year, and I said, we're not doing that again. At least I'm not going. Especially as a church, what we're exposing our kids to, we need to be careful. You don't have to walk around and go, we can never go to the beach. Of course, but there's better choices. There's much better choices that we can make. So again, temptation isn't sin. Surrendering to it is. Shane, when are you getting to Proverbs 5 right now? My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Lend your ear to my understanding that you may preserve discretion. This is so important. Some of the people who've been around a long time, have you ever preserved anything? Fruit? Diane, you have, huh? Fruit? My mom used to do it all the time. Preserves. They preserve something. They keep it fresh. They keep it whole. So preserve discretion. Discreet, being discreet. And your lips. Discretion here is really to know, to knowledge. And your lips, you may keep the knowledge. For the lips of an immoral woman drip with honey. That's something you always have to remember. The lips of an immoral woman drip with honey. It doesn't say bad breath. There's a longing for the flesh. The immorality speaks to something inside of us. It calls us. It tastes good. It looks good. And her mouth is smoother than oil. You know what that means, right? That's why we always encourage people, do not go to the opposite sex with your marriage problems. Because if I was your spouse, I would love you. I would respect you. I can't believe she doesn't cook for you every night. I would go to Frederick's a Hollywood monthly. Oh, if I was your spouse, see? Smooth. And it's alluring in her eyes. It's pulling. It's alluring. And it's hard because I have a pretty strong stance in this area. Some of you know, but because of that, I'm called arrogant, unapproachable. No, I just don't want to build close relationships with people I could be attracted to. And vice versa, correct? That's just wisdom. That's preserving discretion. So it drips like honey. It's smoother. Adultery will call you. Pornography calls. It doesn't show you the end result. It shows you. It presents the enticement, the bait. So I'm going to share a few things. And if I don't get through them or want to talk more on this, I'll do it next week. But number one, you need to go back. I need to go back to the old paths. I'm so sure of this message as any other message I've given. God just downloaded all week. And when I start crying, when I start feeling just the pain of what this has caused, I know that it's going to help a lot of people. Go back to the old paths. You know this verse, Jeremiah 6.16. I'm actually going to quote from a Bible that is a paraphrase. It's called dynamic equivalence. It's in translations. It's an NLT. It's not a study Bible, but it is just a different perspective. Jeremiah 6.16. This is what the Lord says. I don't know if I have it up there or not. Stop at the crossroads and look around. Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old godly way. So some of you right now, I believe you're at a crossroads. Shane, six out of ten? Come on. I'm speaking to a lot of people on Facebook right now, YouTube later, radio later. Here right now, a lot of people. You're at crossroads. I've got to make some tough decisions. I've got to make some changes in my life, Shane. So what is the answer? You go back to the old way. You go back to the godly path that God has set in motion. Walk in it. Travel its paths. And you will find rest for your soul. But you reply, no, that's not the road we want. Jeremiah is written to God's people in this context. Let me read the context. Jeremiah 5.3. We're going to go before this. Oh, Lord, are not your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive your correction. They have made their faces harder than rock. They have refused to return. How shall what? How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by those that are what? Not God's. Here we go. You got to love the Bible. This passage. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and they assembled themselves by troops in the harlot's houses. Here's my favorite verse out of this chapter. They were like well-fed lusty stallions. Have you ever seen a lustful horse? He's comparing the people that everyone neighing after his neighbor's wife. If you don't know what that is, ask somebody after the service. So it's this image of God filling them, blessing them with the fullness of food and blessings. And from that fullness, did they seek God? No, they were like lustful stallions seeking after other wives, other spouses. And God says, I am not pleased with that. Shall I not punish them for these things, says the Lord? And shall I not avenge myself on such a nation as this? So now you know the context of what we just read. So he said, I'm offering hope to the people. See, I love God. He doesn't just rebuke and rebuke. He says, I'm offering you hope. Here's your hope. Go back to the old path. Get back on the right track and you will find rest for your soul. But the context is adultery, spiritual and physical. It's amazing. Now, if you know me, you know I probably couldn't leave this alone too long about fed to the full. One of the biggest things I've ever learned from fasting is this. Food will increase sexual appetites, especially the wrong foods. Talking with people, reading books, that animalistic nature is fed. The more alcohol, meat, you're feeding that animalistic nature. We will crave more of what we feed. That's why I talk often about fasting. Fasting silences the voice of the flesh. Getting ready for January, something I've been doing. It's not hard, but it is hard. I'm going all day. I'm not eating until at night. And it's been a tremendous blessing. All week preparing this sermon. The flesh isn't as loud. It's quieted. Around 9 a.m., around 12 a.m. or 12 p.m., around 3 p.m., you say, shut up. Shut up, flesh. You're starved. And there's a lot to this, guys, and that's why I have the book out there again, Feasting and Fasting. I've never seen lust increase in someone who's fasting. It decreases. It kills the pull of the flesh, the lust of the flesh. Gordon Cove said this, a missionary, fasting arrests the appetite of sex because food feeds all desires and appetites of the flesh, and fasting starves them. A luxurious diet and habitual overfeeding produce an unbalanced animalism. You might say, man, that's hardcore, but it's true. I've committed to you to tell you the truth. It's true. Try a steak in a big IPA and see what happens versus a sweet potato and a salad. There's a big difference there because you're full on the wrong things and on the cravings. Because, see, when we eat the things we know we shouldn't, do you think that stars the flesh or empowers it? I don't know about you, but the more I cave into chocolate, the more I cave into this wrong food, the more I start Panda Express, In-N-Out, McDonald's, Burger King, I'm feeding this, and it's hard to control the lust of the flesh because you're feeding the very thing you're trying to fight. I won't give you any amens even though we know it's all true. Conviction is a gift from God to return to the old paths. Conviction, if you're being convicted, it's a gift from God. Thank God for it. I was just talking with Phil and Carrie this morning, too. People shouldn't leave here feeling condemned and beat up, but it's good to leave feeling convicted, challenged. I need to change some things. I need to get back on the right path. I would love to meet any of you who's made a major change in your life without being convicted. You just wake up, you know what? For the fun of it, I'm going to start doing this today. There's a conviction there, is there not? Number two, stop, stop making excuses. You have to see the death in it. Remember I gave this analogy a few weeks ago, I think, from Steve Schell, where he was fasting, but there was this chocolate cake in the refrigerator. He said, I'm not going to have that chocolate cake. And what happens after a few hours? Come on, we all know. Does it call your name? Maybe it's just me, but if I know my daughter makes some brownies, I wake up throughout the night. It's like, I don't wake up to eat broccoli and marinated asparagus. There's something there, but the chocolate cake, and he goes and he goes for it, but then he turns it around and it says there's been some mice poison added to the cake. Or you could say dog droppings was added to this cake. Oh, get it out of here, throw the cake in the trash. So what was once appealing and couldn't be resisted is now being thrown in the trash. Why? Because they saw the death in it. You see the death in this. You see the death in what it's going to cause. I think I'm actually going to disconnect YouTube on our TV. Amen. Just this week I was watching with the kids and some girl dropped an F-bomb on YouTube. I said, what was that? I thought this was a kid's program. And I will not be the most popular person in the house that day. Stop making excuses, see the death in it. America's pornography epidemic will continue to pervert with the ultimate goal of destroying. And what I want to say loudly and clearly to men is what the Bible says, act like men. Act like men. I'm tired of weak, passive men who don't want to do anything spiritually and do not want to fight for their families, do not want to fight for the relationship with Jesus Christ. The Bible says act like men, step up. If that convicts you, you might need to be convicted. God's called you to lead and to guide and to die for your family if necessary. What you need to do is kill your porn habit and tell your ungodly friends to hit the road, Jack. Don't come back. No more, no more, no more. That's a man of God. What kind of man of God compromises all the time? No spine, no boldness, just coward being pushed over. Friends making pornography to work. Look at this, you'll look at this. Oh yeah, isn't that funny? No, you take a stand. I know it's hard. I worked in construction in a water district where they would bring magazines to work and after the first week they knew don't even bring it to shame because I would just tear them apart. Don't bring me that garbage because you just have no love life at home. What, what, what, what? I don't want to see that. Stand up and if you fall, fall forward. I'm not telling him, I hope I'm not giving the impression that you should just walk around perfect. Unless you can walk on water, you will not get through the rest of this life perfectly, but we will die trying. We will die trying. Put stuff on your, put, put, put, put software on your computer. Do you ever leave your phone out? Spouse can check it whenever. Use a computer that's in the house, central. Avoid places that's going to trigger it all the time. Come on, this isn't, this isn't rocket science, and I'm not a rocket scientist. This is very clear. How bad do we want it? But Proverbs 5, 4, but in the end, in the end, an immoral woman is bitter as wormwood. Sharp as a two-edged sword, her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of hell. Lest you ponder her path of life, her ways are unstable and you do not know them. And right at this point, when I wrote this down this week, I remember Proverbs 9. Stolen, stolen water is what? Sweet. Bread eaten in secret is pleasant, but he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell. The Bible speaks pretty strongly about this area. It says here, don't ponder, don't contemplate, flee sexual immorality, see the death in it. Beginning in the 1970s, Ted Bundy was one of America's most brutal serial killers. His crime covered seven states. He escaped from jail twice before being executed by the electric chair in 1989. He was 42 years old. He said, I've lived in prison a long time now, and I've met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence just like me, and without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography. Without question, without exception, deeply influenced and consumed by addiction to pornography. Why? Because it's a fire outside the fireplace. That's why many men are angry. Pornography fuels anger, especially in the believer, because you know you're in a spot you don't want to be. You know you're somewhere where you don't want to be. What about Ariel Castro? Do you remember him? What perversion from the pits, from the pit and the depth of hell. In 2013, he was exposed for kidnapping three women and holding them for 10 years. He admitted that a deep addiction to God's Word, pornography, fed his perversion. He eventually committed suicide in prison. His idol promised pleasure but brought death and destruction. In the end, she was bitter like wormwood. She opened up, hell opened up her mouth and swallowed widely in these people going down in the depths as the picture paints. And if anybody says, Shane, this is too hard. I'm just, what the Bible says. The Bible doesn't paint some picture of walking through a garden and enjoying the roses. And well, if you think about it, you might want to avoid the immoral woman. But we can easily fill in here the immoral man, can we not? It's on both sides. For the believer, this type of thing kills the fruit of the Spirit. And that's, I want to just shoot you the God honest truth, tell you the truth that it will kill your walk with the Lord. You won't be filled with the Spirit of God. But again, in the midst of deep darkness, there is great light, great hope. And like I mentioned earlier, I won't be able to get through everything. So I want to close with this. Because I think some of you need to hear it or be reminded of it. Some of you were here and I had the privilege of speaking at Jerry McHale's funeral yesterday, Memorial Service. And I talked about profound moments. There are profound moments in all of our lives. You know what profound is, right? Life changing, life altering. And I think this can be a profound moment in the lives of some of you. Some of you have been addicted for so long, you can't remember, you've tried to quit so much. Actually, I want to go back to that, this might help. We got this email this week, I listened to your revival sermon. And that day God answered my prayers, God broke my addiction and gifted me with the Holy Spirit that night. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was not something that I could break in my own strength. I tried countless times. Does that sound familiar? And people say, Shane, but what about demonic attacks? Well, hopefully we'll get to that, maybe next week. But he said, I tried countless times, but it was only through my first fast, serious prayer and being broken before God that I was able to break it. And see, there's always, it came from Nebraska. See, that full surrender, that brokenness. Many times we don't surrender everything, do we? Say, okay, God, I can't do that again. Well, make these changes that Shane just listed. Oh, no, I don't want to get that serious. Well, then you will continue to fall and fall and fall again. Because God offers a solution, it's up to us to take it. Anyway, back to profound moments, life changing moments. I want to talk briefly maybe to the person who is trapped in this, and maybe they don't know Christ. They've never surrendered their life, and there's life changing moments. Paul experienced Christ on the road to Damascus. The demoniac who was filled with demons experienced Christ. The Roman guard experienced the work of God. You can go, how many examples do we have throughout the Bible of people having profound moments and experiences of God's work? Experiencing the risen Savior and being changed, being transformed. So, number one, you have to see your need. Romans 3.23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I know we think highly of ourselves, but the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Number two, you have to see the cost. You have to see the magnitude of your sin. I did. For the wages of sin is what? Death. It's separation from God. And then finally, the hope. Romans 5.8, God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for you. Even in your addiction, even in your bondage, even in some of your cases rejecting God, blaspheming God, even in all that, Christ still died. The cross is still hanging. The cross is still hanging. Throughout 2,000 years of church history, the cross stood as a beacon of light pointing people the truth and saying, because of the sin of mankind, I died on that cross. Just look to the cross and be saved. Look and be saved. I remember reading about the conversion of Charles Spurgeon who walked into a church on a stormy day and the elder that was filling in, all he said was, look, look to the cross. Look to the cross and be saved. It is that simple. There's a song, the simple gospel, and it's that simple. Turn and believe. If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One profound moment that I like reading about is John Newton. If you don't know who John Newton is, he was a very wicked, wicked man. He would buy people and sell them. If they died, he would just throw them off the ship. Beat, tortured them, wicked. And John Newton had a profound moment on a slave ship. He saw his wretchedness, he saw his need, and he cried out to Almighty God. And thank God he did. Because now we sing the lyrics he wrote, amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I was lost, but now I found I was blind, but now I see. You see, it was grace that taught my heart to fear. To what? To fear God. And it was grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed. If you are struggling, look to God's grace. See Christ on the cross paying that sin for you. Willpower is not going to cut it. You're not going to leave. Oh boy, Shane made some good points. Starting tonight, starting tonight, when that immoral woman begins to call from the computer, the phone, when she begins to call, if I just, if I just hunker down. Then you look to God's grace. God, you died for this. Please set me free. Take this away. And while you're at it, don't go on the computer. Take a drive, put on worship music. Here's the thing with every temptation, give it a few minutes and it's gone. Resist the devil and he will flee. Many people, often they mess up when it comes to regard to temptation because temptation works like a peak. It's getting harder and harder and harder. And once it hits that crescendo, you grab it and you take it and you fall. That's when we fall at that hardest moment. But if you just look to Christ, put on worship, it's hard to read Psalm and go on your computer. One or the other will prevail. But that's my encouragement. Look to the cross. As the worship team's coming up, I'm going to pray in just a minute. That is so powerful. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Amazing grace. Something we're going to try to do is in the prayer room, we're going to pray with you. But I'm not connecting with a lot of the new families. So I'm going to be there as well, but I'm mainly going to try to meet with and pray with some of the newer families. So if you're up in the balcony, you're here and I haven't met you before, or it's been a long time we haven't talked, I want to encourage you, just come next door to the prayer room. We'd love to pray with you. We're still going to have the prayer team over there. We'd love to pray for you. And I want to just throw this out there. We know, if you don't necessarily struggle with this sin, praise God for that, but we know people who are. If you have children, if you have grandchildren, it's coming in like a flood. Pop-ups on Google. Pop-ups on Walmart. Pop-ups on Kmart. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. You put in the wrong name. Uh-oh, here comes you know what. The only way we're going to see a difference in our families is when our prayer becomes a cry. When your prayer becomes a cry. I thought God was going to let me out of this. I was right there this morning, and I just, I found out there's about 340 or 350 kids in our database for kids ministry next door. And I thought, as they're growing up, what percentage of these little girls and boys you see running around are going to be sex trafficked or pulled into the point? It's right there, right next door. Right next door on our watch. You don't think this is important? Walk next door. Look at the five-year-old. Look at the eight-year-old. Look at the little children. And the statistics are increasing, not decreasing. I don't want to alarm anyone and tell you what percentage of 350 kids is going to end up in the porn industry, but it's not pretty. If you take five percent, that is a dozen kids next door are going to be exploited or make their own choice. Guys, if that doesn't break your heart, I took the wrong job. We will not see change until that prayer becomes a cry. The next time when you're choosing to look at something, remember, they used to be a little girl. I would say, God, don't make me share this today. I saw it. I saw them next door. I saw them running outside, playing. Innocence is being robbed at a very young age. Our school system wants to teach sex to kindergartners. It's perversion. It's filthy. My concern is until our prayer is a cry, God will not move. After the service, just go next door. Just watch the kids running and playing. And I saw where they're going to be in 10 years. If somebody doesn't stand in the gap and pray, because I believe, Lord, not on our watch. I truly believe from the bottom of my heart, I'm not just saying this, I'm saying that we can pray that out of our children's ministry and ministry in other churches, in our own family, our own grandkids.