Muskoka Bible Centre is hosting a Men’s Breakaway conference in Ontario. Peter Mahaffey, Assistant Minister of Grace Fellowship Church and part of Strength to Fight and part of Strength to Fight, is one of the two speakers this weekend. I’ll be live blogging the sessions (or at least many of them!).
Peter Mahaffey ministers to those who struggle with using pornography, and he is presenting on this difficult subject now.
~9:55 The church has been deeply influenced by a pornified culture, a comment Peter made after listing a harrowing list of statistics about young persons viewing pornography.
9:58 Sex has become a means of entertainment, but in reality pornography is a destructive force of society. It will destroy you, those you love, and your relationships.
God is for sex and sexuality; God intended sex to be good (Gen 1).
9:59 Genesis 1’s “very good” includes our sexuality. God has created sex, and it is good. God is the creator and designer of it. God never condemns sex—Song of Solomon illustrates how God wants us to enjoy and delight of it.
10:01 Sex is to be narrow, to be enjoyed only in a marriage covenant. Statistics bear this out, as married couples tend to have a more enjoyable sex life than those who sleep around.
10:02 Pornography is a perfect example of how our sexuality has been corrupted. What makes consumption of pornography so evil is this: it is willful rebellion against God.
~10:04 David is an adulterer and murdered, yet David says in Psalm 51:4 that “against you [God] and you only have I sinned.” Every time we disregard God’s command is to disregard him.
10:06 Viewing pornography is against God, a sense of thievery. Persons in such films are made in the image of God, and we have no right to consume such material.
10:07 Pornography is not only evil because it is sin against God, but it also is destructive to those who perform in such films. Peter quotes a performer and cites statistics to illustrate his point, although I do not feel comfortable relating the material here.
10:09 Porn is also evil because it is destructive to the individual and the society as a whole. Viewing pornography contributes to “rape culture,” a culture that tolerates violent sexual behavior. The average age of boys who see porn is about 9, and about 88% of the top viewed porn videos involve aggressive and abusive scenes.
10:15 Peter recounts stories of very young persons consuming pornography, even the story of 13 year old being viewed a sex offender.
10:16 Porn can also destroy marriage, intimacy, and sex It allows a person to separate sex from love. Husbands become frustrated because they desire their wives to act like they see in pornography.
10:20 Porn destroys your mind too (Rom 1). Sin always leads to more perverted sin. It’s the same with porn. Sin takes you further and further (I think Peter quoted Sam Alberry here).
1 Thess 4:3–8: Porn is not God’s will for your life. Pornography is: “This your your body taken for me”—the opposite of the Gospel.
10:25 1 Cor 6:9–11 chronicles believers who lived sexually immoral lives. Corinth was like Las Vegas. But God altered their character and destiny when Jesus Christ intervened.
“It’s never too late, as you long as you have breath; it’s never too late to have your destiny altered for eternity.” Jesus has died for sin.
10:27 If you don’t struggle with porn now, keep going strong and help others. If you are still fighting, keep fighting by the Spirit of God. If you are numbed to sexual sin, repent and confess your sin to a brother, taking steps to overcome it. Still others may need to embrace Jesus as saviour.
Peter ends on a note of hope from Psalms 103:10–13:
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children.
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