In April XXXchurch & Connect Church of Cherry Hill in NJ are launching a sexual addiction recovery group in the South Jersey area. This cooperative project is coming together because the leadership at Connect correctly understands the gravity of the porndemic issue we face both inside and outside the church and sees this opportunity as a chance to deal directly with the problem. XXXchurch has been attacking this issue for over ten years and only recently has the established church started to catch on and come along side in the fight. Unfortunately, churches like Connect are still the rarity and by in large many churches are not doing anything to really address the sexual crisis in America today. The reason I say all this is to bring up another issue. Even though the organizational church may finally be wakening up to this problem we as the church body need to do the same. In other words even if we raise awareness, provide accountability tools, and initiate recovery measures nothing will be accomplished unless those in the grips of sexual addiction decide to do something to escape it. Unfortunately many will continue to live in their life of slavery because they believe the excuses they create to avoid facing down the monster inside. I want to address three of the common excuses we hear from people who refuse to aggressively address their sexual addiction. This is a 3 part post so today I’m only going to talk about excuse #1 … It’s no big deal!
There are many both inside and outside the church who falsely believe that sexual addiction, particularly porn addiction, is not a big deal or a real problem. Now of course for those who don’t have a faith in Christ this is a difficult objection to tackle since they are coming from a completely different view of “healthy sexuality” than the Bible. For those people I would just say that if porn or sex is negatively affecting your marriage, your job, or other relationships then it is obvious that you have a problem that needs to be addressed. However, for the Christian who mistakenly thinks that porn is just their “little vice” but isn’t really a big issue I would point to the story of Achan in Joshua (that’s in the Bible – Joshua 7:1-26).
Without going into great detail, Achan stole loot from the conquered city of Jericho against God’s strict orders. Consequently when Israel went to fight their next enemy, the small town of Ai which was far weaker than the aforementioned Jericho, they got their tails kicked. Joshua who led Israel was in total dismay. He couldn’t understand why the God who promised success in all things allowed him and the nation of Israel to suffer such a colossal failure at the hands of such an inferior opponent. The reason was that there was sin in the camp of Israel. Achan’s choice & possession of the accursed items was a form of rebellion and idolatry that tainted everything. It wasn’t much … it was only one man … yet that single act of disobedience caused Israel an unthinkable defeat.
God could not bless His people as long as they had the sin of rebellion in their camp. In the end, in order for Joshua and Israel to move forward in victory Achan and his family had to be put to death. Now that may seem harsh but the truth is this principle still applies. God can not bless your efforts if you have the sin of rebellion and idolatry in your camp. You may think that your little porn issue isn’t really a big deal but God sees it as idolatry in that you are putting your worship of sex above your worship of God. Additionally, your sin is not just a momentary failure of weakness but an ongoing and habitual act of rebellion. In other words, you know it’s wrong but you refuse to do anything about it … that’s plain and simple rebellion. You need to address the sin in your camp if you ever want to move forward in victory and have God bless your efforts and confirm your divine calling and purpose. You need to put it to death.