Breaking Down The Cycle Part 1

Voice over Internet sweeping our culture fantasies replace reality and families are being destroyed daily today to break the cycle of sexual addiction and swim against the rising tide of immorality available at the click of a mouse from the Moody Church in Chicago this running to win with Dr. Erwin Lussier is clear. Teaching helps us make it across the finish line pastor Luther it's tough to avoid the onslaught of sex these days. Sordid affairs filled the newscasts and divorces skyrocketing.

Many are living on a merry-go-round and they can't seem to get off. You know, Dave, and I don't believe that it's possible for many to get off without help, I say to all who are listening today. If you find yourself in those situations don't travel alone.

Get help befriend people, let them help you and pray for you and then of course become discipled. That's really why my wife and I wrote a book entitled life-changing Bible verses you should know it's really a list of 30 or 40 topics that have to do with Christian doctrine. Living the Christian life issues that all of us face two or three pages on each of these subjects.

I think it will be a great blessing to you and it will also bless others for a gift of any amount.

It can be yours. Here's what you do go to RTW offer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337 and now for some words of hope.

Many people today struggle with compulsive obsessive behaviors. Some people may be obsessed with cleanliness or money, some with drugs, some with gambling, some with alcohol, some with pornography since about 70% of all pornography falls into the hands of children. It should not be surprising that a young man whom we shall call apt got hooked at the age of 13 when he saw his father's magazine. He continued this throughout college and into his marriage and he says I lived like a double agent for the CI a I led to lives.

I thought I could never get caught but God was on my trail in world day he was that man who could function very well in school and in business, and even in his family, but world be had to be hidden.

Why is it that pornography is so serious in our society today, but according to James Dobson at least 50% of Christian men struggle at some level with pornography and the reason that the statistics are that high and may be even higher because we were not born with an innate love of gambling or alcohol that's acquired that we are sexual beings with strong unrelenting sexual desires. So naturally we will gravitate to that which seems to fulfill those desires.

But there's another reason, of course, and that is its availability.

Today we live in an era of the likes of which we have ever seen in history we have movies we have television we have videotapes and now we have the Internet last night Rebecca and I were at a meeting with the concerned women for America and we heard for brief lectures and a woman gave a lecture as to what she is doing to try to produce legislation so the child pornography and obscenity might be prosecuted, which never happened during the Clinton era, but what she said was was was startling and frightening. The kind of stuff that is on the Internet today. Some of the most degrading some of the most perverted things, the names of which I will not tension to you this morning and my heart is been so heavy that I need to say to you that if you have the Internet in your home you have.

You have a virtual sewer that is running through your house and you know every house we've ever had has a sewer but we paid no attention to it. It was no problem until it backed up and then we knew all about it in the very same way the Internet may not be a problem until until children access it. Did you know that children are becoming pedophiles at the age of 10 and 11 getting on the Internet. Seeing this terrible material and then acting it out today in America. While we sit here hundreds of children will discover new kinds of pornography on the Internet woman wrote to me and said her 16-year-old son began to access pornography within days try to act out what it is that he saw and he sitting in jail today. The story can be repeated. Thousands and thousands of times down to say this to you parents if you have the Internet in your home.

We here at the Moody church.

We have a blockage system for all of our computers here at the church and were thinking about other ways to to be able to use the Internet, yes, but also to have strict accountability but listen to me if you have children in your home and you do not have a blocking system on your Internet you are possibly exposing to those those children something that will destroy them utterly and eventually send them to hell. And if you don't have enough money for a blocking system. Would you come and talk to any member of us is the pastoral staff and will make sure that you get enough money to have a blockage system, you cannot. You cannot allow this. Did you know that City Hall here in Chicago has blocking system for all of their employees because too many of them were accessing pornography. Did you also know that the libraries do not because of the ACLU's single yes everybody should be able to access kiddie porn.

Whatever else is on the entry we're living in a day and age when families need to wake up. They need to be able to put in place rules and guidance systems because your children are targeted to be destroyed. Of course there are other kinds of sexual difficulties and obsessions.

There is voyeurism, serial relationships, prostitution, pedophilia, and the list goes on before we go to the scriptural answer and thank God there is an answer and were going to get to that answer, but just take a moment to tour the mind of an addict. Often times the long torturous journey begins by curiosity and exploitation, often in a dysfunctional home and so to cover the pain to cover the emptiness to cover that sense of of destruction and loneliness. There may be a turning to drink to gambling to cocaine or to sexual relationships or to pornography and the personhood begins always thinks I'll just try it once and I can control the consequences all just satisfy my curiosity. The problem is that they trip a series of dominoes like a person walking in the dark not knowing that there's a bucket of water on the floor and they trip these dominoes and pretty soon the one line of dominoes goes this way and another that way. And suddenly there in a whole new that they can't get rid of in the long shameful, torturous private journey has begun.

And then there's a withdrawal from meaningful relationships. I don't mean to withdraw from relationships because these people will function well they will function in banks and hospitals and Sunday school classes. USA Today Pastor Luther who are you talking about we talk about some addict who's on South State Street know my friend just look around. This is who I'm talking about. Look up here. This is who were talking about potentially all of us must recognize that, but the problem that were discussing here today is is a problem that pervades society. It pervades our churches, and all of us have the potential for failure. Many of you know who you are as I'm speaking to you today with deep sense of shame and commitment were to be talking about that that is to say, commitment to some particular obsession then them protecting and sustaining this pleasure becomes all-consuming rationalizations kick in. A person who visits prostitutes as well. I really do love my wife. He thinks child molesters, they begin to say well it doesn't really hurt the child were just exploring various possibilities and all of this is rationalized pornography is that while everybody's doing it. I mean this is this is common it can be bad and then the cycle begins and there's that cycle of obsession with the euphoria that rapid heart deeply. The sense of elation.

The feeling now that one is being carried along by a river, just like a piece of driftwood going along the stream that something bigger is here.

There's a whole new world that continually opens up so you go through the cycle of saying okay, I won't and then doing it.

I won't. And then you do it until finally you give up and simply say it's all hopeless.

I'm just going to do whatever I have to do and protect it as best I can. There's no more flight left. Isn't it amazing. I grew up in a home where my parents warned me about the power of sin. All of us need to be warned again and again because the thing that it that addictions teach us is this that sin takes us farther than we intended to go keeps us longer than we intended to stay and costs us more than we thought we'd pay a where do we go from here. You know that this is a series of messages titled restoring the soul healing in an age of brokenness and today we come to this message which is breaking the cycle breaking the cycle hope and help and healing. But you know the way to do it is not by just condemnation and preaching against certain things because of all that we were to do is to increase the guilt and the self-condemnation and the shame if that's all that we did, we probably would not help people at all. And I'll tell you why, because that does not get down to the level of the appetite. The level of the desire. You can preach, and you can hear, and you can go out unchanged. I learned a lot from the letters that are sent me and many of you write to me. Some of you have written to me since the series began. One person said Pastor Luther and and he speaking as someone who struggled with pornography, but thank God, is coming out of that to a sense of victory. He said I want you to know that there are many of us here at the Moody church.

We listen to your words, but we don't hear what you say. While we listen to the words but we don't hear what you say because were all in denial what I'm doing isn't so bad I can handle it on my own. Where do we turn over what I like to do today is to give you three steps and these are different than the outline that is listed in your bulletin but you'll be able to remember this one very very easily. I'll tell you where were going that will begin the journey and will be with it until the and first of all I'm going to give you something to believe. Secondly, I'm going to give you something to do and thirdly something to share that simple enough and clear enough is that not something to believe something to do and something to share. First of all, something to believe now I want you to know that when I came to this, I struggled what passages of Scripture to use, not because there aren't passages on these kinds of topics, but because the New Testament is full of them. I thought about Romans six, but I chose the words of Jesus. Instead, two passages that Jesus gave to us. Our blessed Savior.

The first one is that John chapter 8 John chapter 8, you may turn to that. What is it that I am asking you to believe.

It says in verse 31 of John chapter 8 to the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. They answered him, we are Abraham's descendents and have never been slaves of anyone. How do you say that we shall be set free. They were talking about physical slavery as a nation. Jesus replied, I tell you the truth. Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the sun set you free.

You will be free indeed.

When I ask you to believe something I'm asking you first of all to believe something about slavery.

Jesus said if you commit sin. That is if you are constantly setting. If you are under sin's dominion. You are really a slave to sin. Slaves don't wake up in the morning until their master. What to do. Then once I want you to do this and that. No, it's the master who says I want you today to obey me what you want me to do sin want you to buy that magazine.

I want you to get that video want you to go cruising to find a prostitute. Whatever it is, what happens is this sin is in control and in all that a slave can do is say yes master. Here I am, I am here today to do your bidding. Whatever it is that you ask. I'll do read a book on sexual addiction where it says that the addict really has no choice now. He does have a choice but in this particular area. He may not.

I need to be clear here because there is hope. As will see in this message but I'm simply saying that that in terms of the commitment to sin, he is pushed along I've given you the illustration in a different context of a little boy at Marshall Fields, who is in one of his little carts and he was angry and crying and turning his little steering will to the right, but he was going to the left because his steering wheel was disconnected from anything that mattered was his mother who was controlling where he was going. The very same way senses do this and we say no I'm not going to but you go in that direction anyway. But notice the contrast Jesus said them picking up on this idea of slavery, says the slave doesn't live in the house forever, perhaps thinking of the Old Testament story of Hagar your member who was put out as the slave woman and and Isaac, though, is the son he gets to stay in the home doesn't take Jesus said the slave does not live in the house forever, but the sun does, and if the son the Lord Jesus Christ set you free. As a son or as a daughter. Why, then, indeed, you are free freedom plus Jesus is saying that the key to low longer being a slave of sin is to be a son or daughter. Now today I am speaking to sons and daughters. I'm assuming that you are a son or a daughter, even though there are dozens, maybe even hundreds listening to this message never trusted Christ as Savior because that's the first step.

But you see, the reason that son ship is so important is it gives us our dignity back. It gives us our dignity. It gives us also privileges privileges. In other words, what we can do is we now have the authority to no longer be subject to the slavery of sin because were sons and daughters of the old essay that pastor Luther I am a son or a daughter of the Almighty, and I am still living like a slave. Yes, that certainly is possible, but my point is it is unnecessary you bought a lie.

If you think that there is no hope because the sun is stronger than the slavery. What a wonderful passage of Scripture we read together today from Romans chapter 6 sin need no longer have dominion over you, you are no longer slaves to sin. Why did Paul say that he says that when Jesus died on the cross isn't just that Jesus died for us blessed, though, that is, but that we died with Jesus and he who is dead is freed from sin. The power of slavery, the obligation to slavery is over in Jesus, but so many people so many people discover that that they are still slaves and you know why it's because they go on unwilling to deal with her slavery and then you know why because they lack desperation because only desperate people are really delivered this past week we are discussing this message as a staff at our staff meeting on the staff member said that someone whom some of us knows a professor and a leading evangelical seminary gives a testimony of being really addicted to pornography and the thing that changed them.

That will come up was when he began to realize that the next step in the domino system for him was to visit prostitutes when he began thinking about doing that. He finally said, you know, I better do something. Up until that time, his sin was manageable. You know he could handle it but he wouldn't allow himself to cross that line and it wasn't enough to simply say no I'm gonna draw a line here because I won't do that. No, because you're not in charge.

Thank you. Sin is and if it's the next domino as you allow these dominoes in your life to fall. It'll be the next thing you will end up doing is you're already doing things you promised yourself that you would never do. So he had to go back to the root deal with it and not only did God free him, but he is a marvelous ministry today and at one time has preached from this pulpit in the last few years as a delivered man so what do I want you to believe.

I want you to believe that Jesus the son is stronger than slavery. What you see yourself as a son and a daughter of the Almighty want you to know that you have a sense of dignity that the thoughts that you have about yourself as being so unlovable are not God's thoughts about you. They are your thoughts, not his. He loves you.

He cares about you and your fully and completely redeemable in the most thorough way imaginable. The sun makes us free indeed my friend today everything that you have heard is true completely true, but at the same time we cannot fight these battles alone if you're not a member of the church. If you're not part of the group. If you don't have friends who can pray for you and guide you will soon discover that the temptation to return to your former life becomes very great and sometimes almost impossible to resist. My wife and I have written a book entitled life-changing Bible verses you should know one of the many topics we discussed is renewing the mind that something that is absolutely important it were going to overcome temptation and by the way. Temptation is another one of the topics. I think that this book will be a great blessing for you and to you. It actually covers a number of different topics.

All of them briefly but it introduces you to the doctrine and Christian living. For a gift of any amount. It can be yours. Here's what you do go to RTW offer.com and I want to pause to thank the many of you who support this ministry because as you frequently hear me say together. We are making a difference asked for the book, life-changing Bible verses you should know. Go to RTW offer.com or if you prefer you can call us right now at 1-888-218-9337.

Let me give you that phone number again 1-888-218-9337 you can write to us running to win 1635 N. LaSalle Boulevard Chicago, IL 60614 running to win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life, breaking the cycle of moral failure is a process not an event. The cure requires three things. Something to believe something to do and something to share. Next time we focus on what each of us must do in order to be free to join us. Thanks for listening for Dr. Erwin Linzer this is Dave McAllister running to win is sponsored by the teacher