6. Enjoy the pleasures of purity more than the pleasures of porn.
Eighteenth-century preacher Thomas Chalmers, in his classic sermon “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” demonstrated how the greatest power in killing a sinful desire is not just by harping on the sinful desire but on replacing it with a new and greater holy desire.
The promise of experiencing sinful lustful pleasures at almost any moment via your Internet connection is hard to argue with, unless you replace it with a superior pleasure, then it becomes easy. Jesus said it is the pure in heart that will see God (Mt. 5:8), and the Psalmist tells us that in the presence of God are infinite pleasures (Ps. 16:11).
In view of this reality, the desire to see God who gives eternal pleasure far outweighs temporal lustful desire. It’s insane to settle for a mud puddle of pleasure when you have an ocean of pleasure awaiting you in the presence of the Triune God.
7. Avoid accountability groups and link up with believers radically focused on encouraging one another in the Gospel of grace.
Accountability groups kill, but gospel-driven community gives life. Well, maybe this is a bit of an overstatement against accountability groups, but the point is that often accountability groups turn into focusing on sin rather than experiencing the gospel of grace.
Men’s groups I’ve been apart of in the past tended to focus more on the experiences of failure the week before, not the event of God’s grace in the death and resurrection of Christ 2,000 years ago. Don’t get me wrong; Christian relationships should engage in confession of sin (Ja. 5:16), but they are also meant for encouragement in grace.
The author of Hebrews reveals that the key to not being hardened to the deceitfulness of sin is daily encouragement, not an excessive concentration on sin (Heb. 3:13). The use of accountability software between brothers to keep one away from online pornography is helpful, but grace-oriented encouragement between brothers is best.
Read Page 4 >>
