To God be the glory!

Would you believe that the majority of all internet pornography use occurs

right here in the workplace?

Statistics say that 70% of all internet porn traffic occurs during

the 9-to-5 workday.

According to IDC, a source of global market intelligence,

30-40% of internet use in the workplace is

unrelated to business.

The Nelson net-rating system has determined that

21% of all adult sites are accessed

from work.

Meanwhile, 70% of employees surveyed by the NFO Worldwide,

admit to viewing or sending

adult oriented email

at work.

For the next several minutes, I want to talk to you about the subject of

internet pornography.

You know, this is one of those uncomfortable subjects that we don't

like to talk about, we don't like to preach about.

But, it's a very real issue

and it's doing tremendous destruction

both to people's lives and to their marriages.

You know, the Lord addressed this subject in the Bible in Matthew 5:28,

when he said:

"But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already

committed adultery with her

in his heart.

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 perish,

than for your whole body to be cast into hell."

The Lord warned us, but even still

it's an issue in the world

and it's even an issue in the church. I don't have statistics for the Lord's

church specifically,

but I want you to listen to these statistics involving religious people.

In December of 2000, the National Coalition to Protect Children and Families

surveyed five "Christian" campuses to

see how the next generation of believers was doing

with regard to sexual purity.

48% of males admitted to current porn use

and 68% of males said that they intentionally viewed a

sexually explicit site

at the school.

A 1996 Promise Keeper survey at one of their stadium

events,

revealed that over 50% of the men in attendance were involved

with pornography

within one week

of attending the event.

A CNN article dated April 6, 2007, states that

"70% of Christians

admitted to struggling with porn

in their daily lives."

Now, what am I saying?

I'm simply saying that this is a real problem

for religious people.

Now, someone might say, "Well, it's different in the Lord's church."

And I wish I could say that that's true.

I could, but I never would do this because I would not want to betray people's

confidence, but

I could give you a list of Christians that I've known who've struggled with

this issue.

I've had Christian men come to me over the years and say,

"I'm really struggling with this. Will you help me?"

You see, this is a problem

even in the Lord's church.

And so, sometimes, there are Christians who will attend worship on Sunday morning,

and then they go home to their computers and

they engage in this secret sin.

You know, I guess pornography has always been around in some form, but

in recent years it's become a greater problem because of the internet.

You see, there used to be this sort of built-in deterrent,

because you had to go somewhere to get it. You had to go to a store to buy a

magazine or

to rent a video. And,

there was a possibility that someone might see you.

But now with the internet, people can view pornography in the privacy of their

home

totally anonymously.

In fact, someone has said that the three "A's" of the internet have caused the

porn industry to explode with growth.

Those three "A's" are: accessibility,

affordability,

and anonymity.

And, we might add the word "addiction" and make it four "A's". Those four things have

made the pornography industry reach record numbers in our country and in the

world.

I read that every second $3,075.64

is being spent on pornography.

Every second,

28,258 internet users are viewing

pornography.

Every second,

372 internet users are typing adult search terms

into search engines.

Every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is created in the

United States.

In fact, the revenue for the pornography industry is larger than the revenues of the top

technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, ebay,

Yahoo, Apple, Netflix, and EarthLink.

According to InternetFilterReview.com, their 2003

statistics state that

the sex industry brings in $57 billion in revenue per year

worldwide.

12 billion of that is in the United States. Now, that is more than the

combined revenues

of all of the professional football,

baseball, and basketball franchises,

or the combined revenues of ABC, CBS,

and NBC.

2.5 of the 12 billion is related to the internet porn industry.

Where are we

as a country?

Varner Research Group did a survey in 2003, that revealed that:

"38% of adults believed that it is 'morally acceptable'

to look at pictures of nudity

or explicit sexual behavior."

"59% of adults believe that it is 'morally acceptable' to have

sexual thoughts or fantasies. 38% of adults believe there is

nothing wrong

with pornography use."

Now, how does it happen? How do people get into the use of pornography?

How do people first get exposed to it, and hooked on pornography?

Well, we might say that the first part of this is natural.

Males are naturally stimulated by sight.

You know, this is just the way God made us. But of course, that doesn't make

pornography right. It doesn't make lusting right. There's a proper outlet

for this and it's the marriage relationship.

But it's a fact that men are naturally stimulated by sight.

And many times, women don't really get this.

In the book,

"Every Young Man's Battle," the authors write:

"Women seldom understand this because they aren't sexually stimulated

in the same way.

Their ignitions are tied to touch and relationship.

They view this aspect of our sexuality as shallow..."

One of the authors' wives even said, she said, "When I first heard how men are,

it seemed so wild and unlike anything I could imagine...

I had a hard time believing it

and occasionally even wondered if they were making it up."

They continue in in the book:

"Because women can't relate,

they have little mercy on us and rarely choose to dress

modestly."

Hopefully, that's not the case with Christian women.

Now, what does all of this have to do with pornography?

Well, some people have taken this built-in desire that God gave us

and they have perverted it.

They have twisted it into something that God never intended.

And it's what we call

pornography.

The word "pornography" comes from two Greek words.

One is the word for "prostitute"

and the other is the word for "I write" or "I record."

And so, it refers to a written or illustrated depiction

of prostitution.

Now, when are people first exposed to pornography?

Now some people have said that they were first exposed to pornography

in the form of magazines that they found under their dad's bed.

In the book that I mentioned "Every Young Man's Battle,"

one of the authors states that

he first saw pornography in the form of posters of nude women

in his grandfather's shop.

Now these days, many are first exposed to it on the internet.

In 2003, the average age at which children were first exposed to porn,

via the internet,

was 11 years old. I suspect it might be younger than that now.

Also, the largest consumer of internet pornography

is the 12- to 17-year age group.

Now, at first when a person

first sees pornography,

it's very shocking to them.

They're surprised, but over time

that dwindles.

On the show "Good Morning America," recently there was a segment about

babies that are still in the mother's womb.

And they exposed these babies to a loud noise. And they said that at first the

babies would jump because they were startled.

But, as they continued to expose the child to the noise,

the child became used to it and and the shock faded.

And a similar thing happens to us with regard to the issue that we're discussing.

At first there's shock,

but then it diminishes.

One porn user stated,

he said, "Once you become addicted to it...

you look for more potent,

more explicit, more graphic kinds of material..."

He said like an addiction, "... you keep craving something which is harder

and gives you a greater sense of excitement

until you reach the point where the pornography only goes so far--

that jumping off point

where you begin to think

maybe actually doing it

will give you that which is just beyond reading about it and looking at it."

You know, when you think about the sin involved in pornography

and it's addictive nature

and the fact that it's so easily accessible,

you realize that we really need to take precautions with regard to our children.

What about at your house?

What about the internet in your home?

At my house, we use a program called "Safe Eyes" that filters internet pornography.

It blocks inappropriate sites and

it will also email me if someone tries to access an inappropriate site. And

sometimes the

kids complain about the program because it can be inconvenient in

certain ways.

But it's worth it!

And of course, we also have to be careful about the television.

The average teenager spends three to four hours per day watching television. And

statistics say that 83% of the programming most frequently

watched by adolescents

contains at least some sexual content.

39 million homes receive the adult channels in scrambled form,

while the number of children with potential exposure to such images

is about 29 million.

Christian men,

don't let it ever be said that your son was exposed to pornography

because of you.

You know, it's a sin to have those adult channels, to purchase those things.

It's a sin, too,to buy those dirty magazines.

It's a sin to go to those websites. You

can't go to heaven like that.

And certainly,

you don't want to risk the souls of your children.

And if you have the the movie channels such as HBO or Showtime

beware. In fact, I say get rid of them. Don't put that temptation

in front of your kids.

Now, I want to talk for just a few minutes about the effects of internet

pornography.

Now in this discussion, we're going to examine four different categories of effects.

We're going to talk about physical effects,

marital effects,

financial effects,

and, most importantly,

the spiritual effects. Now first,

the physical.

You know, there are a number of different physical effects of pornography.

But one of them is that

it makes you want more. You see, people aren't satisfied with just one image

they want two. And the need is to see more and it grows more risque and more

daring and it takes more to satisfy you.

A second physical effect

is that it makes you want an outlet.

At some point, the viewer desires more than to just view pornography.

Which oftentimes leads him to other sins.