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Are you two ready to boom bop or pow? Welcome to the Point Taken Podcast.
This is the Point Taken Podcast. Can you give me a glass of water, please? No.
I was asking her a question. No, thank you. It's the only podcast where we make and take spiritual and biblical questions and we chat them up. To my right here is Anna Lastname. And to her right is Pastor Josiah Shiffman.
Yes. How's it going? Life's good, man. Guys, we're going to be talking about some stuff today. We're going to be hanging out, having a good conversation about something that's so, so, so, so important.
But before we get into that, I've got a question for you guys, okay? Ready. A little icebreaker. Let's get this conversation rolling. If you could have one superpower. Love these questions. Of all the superpowers, you could pick one.
Now, you know, there obviously have to be some ground rules. You can't, you know... So no flying? No, no, no. You said ground rules. Okay. Ground rules. I really want to check that joke because that's my job, but I actually appreciated that one.
Up top. You can't go crazy. Like, you can't be Superman and have all the powers. You just have to have one power.
You can't have the power of invulnerability. That's what my comic book said when I was a little kid. I'm like, that's the dumbest superpower. I mean, it's not fair. Well, what do you mean? Invulnerable to all things.
It literally, on my book, it said, it had like three pages. Like, you know, for Hulk it might have four pages. For like, I was going to say Aquaman because I'm thinking of Frank Caliendo. But it might have like a paragraph.
But it said one of his superpowers was invulnerability. Less cheating. That's lame.
Okay, okay. But let me say this. If you have invulnerability but don't have the super strength to match it, then it's worthless. I understand what you mean. Then you're only invulnerable to stuff like fire or whatever.
But anything with force behind it, you're still getting smacked. Okay. Alright. So this is a good question. We're talking some real world.
Okay. But not real world. You want to go first? Yes. The problem is my analytical line will need plenty of ground rules.
You want me to just give my initial answer? You can give your initial answer. And then I will be like the little kid when you're playing guns. And I'll say...
I'll change the rules. Yeah, it's like you're taking off my hide and seek shield.
No, I have special armor, dude. Can you not see it? That was me, by the way.
I was that kid. You were that kid. Whenever you're found in hide and seek. I wasn't even playing. So the obvious answer for a family of four. The obvious answer is teleportation. Oh, yeah. For vehicles.
Sell them all. Gas. So it's a pure financial thing. Okay, but are you...
Okay. But that's a pure financial thing. And yes, I'm like Nightcrawler. I can touch them and they can transport with me. Don't try that stuff with me. Okay, but Nightcrawler also can't teleport very far distances.
Yeah, I can. Okay. And if you remember... He can only go where he can see.
No, he fixed that. Do you not remember X-Men 3? He fixed it. Oh, he did in like the movies? Yeah, she helped him figure it out.
Yeah, I guess I don't know about that much.
Well, there's only 47 X-Men movies, so I don't know how you figured it out yet. Yeah, my bad.
That's okay. I was about to say I was going off the comics, which I was, but I don't know if the comics fixed that or changed that. I don't remember. And I don't know, actually.
Don't even comment it. Don't tell me if I'm right. Okay. So that would be my initial one. Now, as far as what would be... Reading minds would not be cool to me. That would be...
I do not want to know what people are doing. I wouldn't last. Especially if they're thinking something mean about you and you're just like, wow, you're rude. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
I don't have the strength for mind reading. I don't want to know.
But if I could combine one, well, I won't. Flight, if I could fly quickly.
Okay. As opposed to flying slowly? Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, what superheroes fly slowly? Today.
Because you see Superman. If I could fly to the top of a mountain, like today. Yeah. If I could...
Go really fast. You have super speed with flying.
What I could see, that would be incredible to me. But teleportation would be number one for me. Flying would be number two.
We're obviously going based off, yeah, if he does flying at high velocities, that doesn't work in real life. Because you would face a lot of force coming up against you and your neck and your spine and your eyes and all that.
We're not even thinking about that. All the Josiahs in the chat. We're thinking in perfect reality. Okay. What about you, Anna?
Super speed. I love that. Like being able to get things done quickly. Man. Like if I could do all of my day's work in like five minutes and then just be done. Oh! Big on super speed. Okay.
I kind of forgot one. Okay. Super speed. Does that include super reading fast? Like you can... I would say speed, yeah. You could do anything quickly. You could retain the information that you... Dude, that would be nice.
That's different. I'll tell you this.
I will tell you this. In the comics currently, starting I think right after the new 52 for the nerds, the Flash comics went into the fact if you have super speed, you also have super thought. Your processing speeds are just as fast in order to keep up with it.
I would do that. Hers might be better than mine.
That's a pretty good one. Because I'm thinking like instead of having to wait to get stuff done, you just do it boom, boom, boom, boom.
That's pretty cool. Boom, boom, boom. You guys went really practical and I really, really respect that. Okay, what is... However. No, no, no. There's no however. Hunter's like, mine's not practical. Mine's just awesome.
Mine is literally just for the enjoyment for me. And y 'all know who Beast Boy is? Of course. That's... I don't know. Teen Titans? Changeling? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're an old Doom Patrol fan. Teen Titans we have...
The green guy?
Yeah. The little green guy, yeah. But the only people who call him green guy is people who don't appreciate the show. Yeah. I didn't like the show growing up. Do you agree? My brother did, but I didn't care for it.
Yeah, yeah. Garfield. Garfield Logan.
Yeah, he... I like... If you have a son, you need to name him Garfield. No. Can you do that, please? You have a son. You could have named him Garfield. My son Garfield will love Mondays. No, because you always say, love me, feed me, never leave me.
I do. Oh, yes. I say that all the time. Yeah.
Love me, feed me. But I would be... I could change into any animal because the experience of being... Okay. Thank you for catching me.
I could be my persona. Are you thinking back to two weeks ago, the episode? I don't know. Yeah, this is a callback to a previous episode where they guard themselves. We did an episode on furries, and this is Hunter explaining his inner darkest thoughts, and he's using Teen Titans to do it.
You're going to hold the phone and show me a picture of Hunter.
What's funny is I didn't even plan that because this actually is what I want to be. I'm just looking at her. Right before I started to say what I thought of it.
It's like when I said, I'll go to a Grizzlies game with him.
Oh, my gosh. Yeah, just lock ties with her and I'm like, oh, it's not funny.
No, okay. But just think about it, man. You can fly if you can change into any animal. You can fly. Now, the speed problem, sure.
I mean, hawks can fly pretty quick. Right.
They can fly pretty quick. You can be multiple different sizes, so I can change my size. I can breathe underwater and swim real fast. I can go be really, really quick on land. Right. I can literally get anything I wanted to done as these different animals, and I could experience it.
And part of it was how awesome would it be to lounge around as an animal as opposed to. You know how comfy those things get? You know what I'm saying? The animals. If I were to turn into a cat and lay out in the sun, dude, are you kidding me?
Come on. All right. Now, I think it's really easy. I think it's so easy to judge. I feel like it's really easy to sit in your position and make the weird face instead of opening your mind to the possibilities of what could be in this fantasy world.
Where you could literally. All of those examples until the last one.
I could be a panther, dude. Hunter just wants to be pet like a little kitty cat and have his belly rubbed.
No, I just wanted to experience things from a different perspective. I want to bring my little box to school.
Your example of a superpower was to turn into a cat so you can bathe in the sun. That's an extra thing.
That's an extra thing. I'm just saying like. Get things done as an animal, he says.
Yeah, you can get things done. You can fight, dude. You can do anything. But I can fly. I can swim. I can run. I can climb. All right. Let me try to be understanding. Let me try to be understanding. I just threw that in there because I thought.
You could be a shark. You're scuba diving.
I get it. If you were a shark, would you attack a swimmer? 100%. You would have to or you would starve to death. Yeah, you never watched.
Oh, a swimmer. Yeah, not a seal. A person. No, I would take one limb and then let them live so that they can tell their story. What is. Okay. Remember that surfing movie? The Christian surfing movie? Oh, yeah.
I would make so many of those as a shark. Bethany and Hamilton. They made that movie. I'd be like. Then I'd go away.
And then they'd be like. Oh, my God. I just survived this. I think it's a very interesting point of view. I can tell Hunter's been thinking about this for a long time.
Well, you know, your brother is upset with me because his favorite power would be the green lantern ring.
But what is. Okay. What is. Yeah. But if you lose the ring, it's over.
Well, you can create anything you want, like with your mind. You can fly. You can go underwater. Martian Manhunter can overcome that, though. For sure. It happened. For sure. Now, let me just say this.
I might have said that that one and the Beast Boy power were two of my top contenders, just in usefulness from day to day. And he said Green Lantern was way better. And he's made fun of me ever since.
But I liked the experience of being able to do everything as like you'd feel your muscles would be different.
Like if you needed to run really fast, you'd turn into a cheetah.
Yeah. And you wouldn't just be able to fly. You'd be able to, like, feel what it's like to have those different muscle groups and be that. I thought that was cool. All right. It's so easy to hate, dude.
Not hate. Not hate. It's so easy to judge, but it's so hard to open your mind to what things can be like. Not hate. What is it?
It's interesting. Have you thought through all the other possibilities?
That's what it is. I thought through all the other ones, but I thought this one is just so not so cool. I like it, too. It's so cool. All right, buddy. Don't ever do that to me. Don't ever do that to me on our podcast when we're friends.
I'm so sorry. I can't believe I just said that. I'm so sorry. I just did that. Yeah. I apologize sincerely. Before this topic came up, there was respect between us. You know what?
Okay. Let me try to help you here. Can you... Okay, so you would still have your mind no matter what. Yeah. Okay. Would you then have the diet of whatever the animal was?
Well, I could just change back into a human whenever I wanted to. Yeah. He's like Beast Boy. I mean, I wouldn't have to eat. Beast Boy didn't eat the stuff like that. Beast Boy wanted to eat tofu because he just really...
Bad tasting food.
No. Yeah. I guess. He just didn't want to eat anything of animals. The one draw you have is you would have the ability to have incredible senses. Yeah. Swimming, flying, running, jumping.
You could be a dolphin and have sonar.
So there is some draw there. I think it's pretty cool.
There is some draw there. It's cooler now than it was. Practicality is not one of them. I could literally be a fly on the wall. Oh, man. That would be so useful. That's all I'm saying. That would just allow me to be super nosy and I don't need to be nosy.
But I have the option. So it would be a fulfillment of your temptation? With that one power... Yes.
With that one power... For sure. I could do anything basically that anybody else wants to do.
In a half square mile radius because a fly can't go much further than that. Yeah.
Or I could be like a bird and get to my destination. Boom. Fly.
But most times if a bird comes in a room, most people will notice. Yeah. Because they're like, oh my gosh, there's a bird. Person. Try to open all the doors. Fly. Doesn't matter. I could do anything. But I'm just saying.
Hunter can be anything he wants to be. I can be anything I want to be. If you turned to a bee and your stinger got cut off, would you die or could you turn back real quick?
That's an awesome question. I really lied to that question. Because they die when they sting. Some of them do. So I probably just wouldn't do that.
But what if you were being attacked? Then I would turn into a hornet. Let's say you were a fly. Or I would turn into a flipping rhino. If you die as the animal, are you dead? Well, yeah. So if you're a fly and you get, like, windshield.
I guess I wouldn't want to turn into a fly on the interstate then, I guess. No, not interstate.
Farm Road, June through August sunset. When you make the curve to go on Walnut Grove.
Why would I be a fly in the road when I could be literally in the jungle? Why would you avoid the question?
The question was, if you die as an animal, are you dead as a person? Yeah. It'd have to be. Okay.
That's a problem. I know which curve you're talking about. You could still die as a teleporter. You could teleport and something could be where you think you're trying to teleport. And then you just all of a sudden, oh, now my mass has changed inside of another object.
And I'm split in two. What's more likely, that or if you're a fly on the wall, you get swatted? No. I killed 13 flies at the church last Monday. No, the teleportation is definitely a bigger risk. Because I do want people to be proud of me.
I killed 13 flies at the church last Monday.
Instead of making lessons for the people at this building, he went around swatting flies. How can I belittle Hunter in our next podcast?
You want me to turn that into an analogy, Spirit, so I can figure it out? Yeah. Lickety split. Man, this is taking a turn for the worse. Yeah. Okay. I just want to know why there were 13 flies. Even Nick.
I almost just called him Evan. Even Nick was complaining about it. Wow. What would your power be, Nick?
Until we get you a microphone, I'm asking you. This is really a whole lot of hate for someone who hasn't thought about it. I agree. Just real quick. I haven't thought about it. We've been doing this for 45 minutes.
This episode is already 45 minutes long. Okay. Nick didn't answer. No. Nick didn't answer. He just wanted to hate. Next week. Let's go ahead and get into our topic. All right. Let's go. All right, guys.
Something we, as a society, struggle with a whole lot. All right. As a society, this is very prominent and is very dangerous. And it affects way more than what you would think. Obviously, let's go ahead and throw our disclaimer in there.
If you are a child, maybe don't watch this episode. If you have children around, here's your warning. Okay. I'm going to give you a couple seconds.
And if you haven't seen by the title, most likely. Yeah.
There we go. Don't watch it. Sometimes autoplay plays the next one. You don't even look at the title. I don't have autoplay set.
Pornography. We're going to be talking about pornography today. But you notice she laughed? Yeah. I couldn't figure out why. Immature. Immature.
She's a child. Pretty much. Remember her comment about guys never grow up? Yeah.
She made fun of me for being a child the way she laughed. Pornography, guys. Here's the big thing that is very worrisome to me. Accessibility to pornography, I don't know about around the world, honestly.
But especially in this country, is insane. Is insane. We have kids pre-puberty that have seen things that they never, ever should have seen. Just because they have a phone. Or they have somebody else's phone.
And it's just like there's no, there is no wall there. Other than the parents themselves. To stop these kids from seeing these things. Hannah, you said you had some things to say about.
Well, I was watching a podcast, like I was telling you guys earlier. It was earlier on in the week. And it was a podcast by Allie Beth Stuckey. And she had a guy on there who was talking about how pornography actually affects the brain.
And there was a study done. And this was in Germany. I'm not sure how long ago it was. But it's on Live Science. You can, you know, Google it. And it talks about how these two researchers from Germany placed 64 men in an MRI machine.
And exposed them to explicit images versus neutral images. And this is like, this is what was crazy to me. It says, on average, outside of the lab, the men watched about 4 hours of pornography a week.
With some respondents watching nearly 20 hours a week. With some, not at all. And so it said the avid porn watchers showed lower activation of reward circuitry in the brain. And that's just as suggested by lower blood flow to certain areas of the brain.
In response to those images. And so you have these kids who are being introduced to this explicit material at such a young age. That they start viewing it. And then start, you know, trying things out or whatever.
So by the time that they get in some type of committed relationship. The smaller acts aren't, don't have as much weight. As much reward to them. And so that's when they start getting into like the deeper, deeper stuff.
But also with the kids being exposed to it. I don't know for y 'all. But I was exposed to it at like 10 to 12. And it was actually, I spent the night over at a friend's house. And we stayed up late like watching TV in her game room.
And she knew this is when direct TV, you know, was a thing. And like you could have the parental controls and whatever. And so she actually knew the passcode to her mom's, you know, parental control. And so she did it.
And then she pulled it up. And like I can still vividly see that image. I saw it once. And I could vividly see that image. And then after that, like that piqued my curiosity. And then I started going online.
I was actually telling my husband this the other day. I'm like how stupid. And he just shows like how like childish I was. I Googled or I just put in like the search bar porn .com. And Donovan was like that is such a kid thing to like search for.
But I said no. I mean and it did. It really spiked that curiosity. And it's because I was exposed to that at such a young age. Then I wanted to know more. And then I ended up getting involved in like some other stuff later down the road.
And it was just like I was 10 to 12. Right. And it just shows how well, you know, this was back. Well, how old am I? You know, like almost, you know, however long ago. Like 15 years ago plus. And now these kids have cell phones that they carry around in their pockets.
They don't need no code for pay-per-view. No, like TikTok. You can see stuff on TikTok. Okay, like YouTube. You can look up one of.
Oh, crap. What's her name? Nicki Minaj's videos. And that's like softcore porn. And I'm just like. And these kids are just able to look at it. They play that at the bowling alley. No, they do not play that song at the bowling alley.
Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Yes, they do. And our camera guy can attest.
We would go bowling like every. Was it Sunday? Yeah. Yeah. On Sunday nights, we got this group. We just get really into random hobbies and like go really hard at it. Yeah. And so we got into bowling for a minute.
And so they had this like deal on Sunday nights. They ended up getting to know us and stuff. And we'd go. They'd cut off all the lights. They'd put the projectors up. And it would just be all these videos of these rap songs and hip-hop artists.
And I was just like. Where. There's no music. It's just butt. It's just like. It's softcore. I was like. You're trying to bowl. And then it's like. You have to look past a bunch of butts to see the strike that I just made.
It's always a strike. How can you focus on the strike?
Yeah. I was just like. Easy. But that's my point is. It's so accessible to these kids now even more than it was for us. Well, because like back in our day and before. You know, I said like our day like we're super old.
Like the dads or the uncles had, you know, the playboys. And that's how you would find it. And then you were really protected by that. But we grew up in the age of like always having the computer. We grew up in the computer era.
And so we always had that access online. My mom and I were actually talking about this at lunch today. And she had said like when, you know, computers and stuff came out. My brother was on the computer.
And she just typed in like baseball. And it would pop up pornographic images. She's like, oh, my gosh. And this was in the 90s. And she's like, what the heck is going on? And she's like, okay. He's not using that.
He's only playing these pre-approved computer games. But it's like. And these parents. And, you know, like different strokes for different folks. Whatever. But these kids have TikTok accounts. And they are children.
Do you see something? You saw the TikTok that I sent in the group message. That was, you know, for you about the furries. Did you ever watch it? Oh, yeah. But that's the thing. That stuff is on TikTok for these kids to see.
And it's not being. I had a big, big, big problem with TikTok for the longest time until they fixed this. And I don't even know if it's all the way fixed. But when TikTok first became a thing. I very heavily boycotted it.
Because, you know, I would. You'd still see TikTok even if you didn't have it. Because every other social media platform. They were just regurgitating what was on that. Yeah. And I was just like, why is it that every single TikTok I see is some underage girl doing something very inappropriate?
Like, why is this 14-year-old girl doing that? Where's her dad? Where's her mom? Where's that girl? Not there. They don't know. I was just like, what is this? I was like, why are we as a country supporting these children sexualizing themselves?
It's like disgust. It pissed me off. I was like, why would you have TikTok? Like, what's the point? Is it just to watch little girls dance? And until they, you know, it seems at least that that has been changed to a degree.
I was like, man. And that kind of goes into it's not just the blatant pornography. Like that you would see if you went to porn .com. Everything. As a child. Everything is so sexualized. And I just think back, like, because, you know, sex sells.
Yeah. And so everything you see here and everything that is allowed on TV now and stuff is so much worse and different and like desensitizes people. It's normalized.
And I think one of the biggest problems, like, okay, up to this point, we've only talked about kids. Right. Watching kids, kids, kids. Because it's become so normalized, it starts with the parents. Yes.
It starts with the adults. Pornography is something that at one point most men struggled with. And it's still, men are still far worse at it than women. But it's much more common for women now than it would have been 20 years ago because it's been normalized.
You know, I was talking with somebody not that long ago. And he was just like, Josiah, I was just taught that sex is how adults play. Right. Kids play with toys, just adults play with sex. Anytime, what would have been, whenever you're dealing with a society moving away from God, it can happen so fast that what would have been unthought of 20 years ago is normal now.
Yeah. But today, what would have been unthought of two years ago can become normalized in two years. Isn't that crazy? That's all it takes. Anytime we reject God's design for something, there is no stop gap.
Yes. There is no limit to where it will go. There's none. Zero. There's no stop. When people say, so hold on. So when we as a society say that sex is whatever makes us feel good. Right. Yeah. Whatever makes us feel good.
You have to accept that for everybody. If it's about what makes humans feel good, then it's about what makes humans feel good. So if you reject God's design for whatever makes anyone feel good, and there's no consistent stop to any of that.
God's design for sex. The other side is equally true though. There's still, it's not as common as before, but there's still some Christian homes or at least religious homes that won't use the S word sex.
Right. They won't speak about it. They won't talk about it. It's almost a curse word. It's dirty. It's dirty. Okay. It's dirty. I don't even like using that phrase when referring to sex. No, it's not.
It's not. Yeah. Sex is a God created thing in the bounds that he created it. Right. In the bounds he created. One man, one woman in union with God. Marriage. Right. He designed it for that purpose. We are not allowed to call what God created bad or dirty.
But any other variation of that is a deviation from its original design. And if you accept any deviation, you have to accept any deviation. So it starts with us being pure in heart and mind. It starts with us rejecting that.
It starts with us not looking at that. It starts with us not searching after that. Not seeing sex as something to fulfill my needs. But something that has a design and a purpose behind it. So it's easy for us to look in shock at what the world does with sex and marriage.
But we shouldn't be that shocked when we treat sex and marriage with such contempt for so long. We can divorce whenever we want. Yeah. We can divorce whenever we want. We can watch whenever we want. That's a private sin.
When we treat it like that, we should not be shocked at how our children treat it.
Man, we as a culture and a society have just been groomed, man.
I mean, there are... Okay, think about this for a minute. This is a post-Christian nation. Some people call it a Christian nation. It's a post-Christian nation. Correct. We are still blessed with some of the residual effects of being a Christian nation.
There are countries on this planet, Islamic countries, where all pornography is banned and outlawed. Now, while I don't believe government should legislate morality, that's another point, because they see the danger in what that does.
The United States is the number one importer of pornography on the planet. That's disgusting. On the planet. The United States is not even close to the number one population country on the planet. That's disgusting.
You follow me on that? When we trivialize things that God designed and make it fit our wants, our needs, our desires, my, me, me, me, me, there's no stopgap to what happens when God removes His hand of blessing on that.
We have to treat it not as something icky and dirty because we're too afraid to talk to our children about it. You can't do that. But also, it's not about you. If I had to have one phrase for the church to cry out, and not teach to the world, but teach to themselves first and then to the world, it would be the phrase, it's not about you.
That would probably be the phrase. Yeah, it's just, it's all, it's all selfish. But, um, like doing some research on this topic, and reading scripture, um, I'll read this one verse that I found. It just shows me that God loves His children, and He has these commands in place to protect us.
Um, so this is, this is 1 Corinthians, sorry, 1 Corinthians 6, chapter 6, verse 18. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside of the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body.
Do you not know your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit? Who is in you whom you have received, God? You're not your own, you're bought at a price. Um, and so, it's like God sees that within marriage, um, between, you know, a man and a woman, like through, um, you know, like a covenant between the two of them.
Or the three of them. Um, it's safe, and that is blessed by God, but when it is outside of those parameters, like you were saying, and it has no stop gap, like, it's just, it can just, it can do whatever.
But God was protecting us, so He put those parameters in place. That's exactly right.
Brother Jeremiah last week in a sermon said, there's actually no such thing as falling into a sin. Yep. Because it's not a free fall, it's a slow slide.
Yeah, you choose to do that.
Jesus showed us that by showing it's always a matter of the heart first. Because what did Jesus say? Yes, the law says you shall not commit adultery.
But if you've lusted a woman, you've committed sin in your heart.
Right, and of course, I've done that. When you've lusted in your heart. Now, why would Jesus put it that way? Because that was always the intention of God's law, because it's always a heart matter you have to check first.
What's the solution to that? Well, Jesus tells us, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. So, treasure up things in heaven, not on things on earth. Because whatever you're pouring into your heart will come out.
Isn't that crazy? So, to show how important this is and how drastic that is, in, I think it's 1 Thessalonians, Paul is giving a list of attributes that show your sanctification. And this is what he says.
For this is the will of God. If you ever had someone say, I wish I knew what God's will in my life was, listen to that one. This is the will of God, your sanctification. So, God's will for your life is that you're sanctified to be made more holy, more and more conformed to him.
That's God's goal for Hunter's life, for Anna's life, for my life. And we should fulfill that goal, but every day, what's it say? We offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. You know why? How many times can you sacrifice a goat?
Once. But we live when we sacrifice ourselves to God. So, every day we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. All right, well, how do we do that? This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality.
Now, there's a whole list after that. But the first thing that you abstain from sexual immorality, ironically, the Greek word for sexual immorality is? Pornia. Pornia. Now, that covers about 7 or 8 different sins, which we've talked about some of them before, of which I would put money on that everyone in this room, myself included, and everyone that will listen to this, is guilty of one of those variations of it.
The will of God for our life is our sanctification. The first thing he lists is not reading your Bible and doing devotional, which, of course, is not what I'm saying is not important. The first thing he says is that you abstain from sexual immorality.
Why? Because that is one of the easiest ways. It's one of the easiest ways to get your heart and your mind associated on something else. Hunter, don't let me hijack this too much, but I'll prove it like this.
For those of you who are still caught in the mindset, by the way, I don't believe you actually believe this, but who pretend to say sex is just physical, it doesn't have any other effects besides that.
Well, I know a lot of people. Pornography does have an effect on you. It absolutely does. But forget that for a minute. I'll prove to you that sex is not just physical. Everyone who's listening to this would agree that physical assault should be tried by law.
But I'd be willing to bet that everyone listening to this believes sexual assault should be a harsher crime than regular physical assault. Well, why? If sex is just physical, he injured your body, he injured your body, why are they not equal?
It's because we all know sex is more than just physical. There's an emotional and intimate part of that that has been taken. And we all know that. Sex is not just physical. It's far more than that. God had designed for that.
And when we trivialize that, did I say that word right? Trivialize. Thank you. We shouldn't be shocked at the results. So I would just encourage all Christians out there, this is an area that we have got to do better at.
We look far too much like the world in this. Far too much. And it's marriage and divorce. It's divorce. It's pornography. It's I have a new girlfriend, a new boyfriend every other month. It's missionary dating.
It's far more. It's a mockery. It's a mockery. This is an area we look far too much like the world. The way we dress. We have got to do a much better job about that. And this is a constant drumbeat of sanctification.
No matter where you're looking at in the Bible, this is a constant drumbeat of how you show a changed life and a continued process of a changed life.
And I would just encourage the modern day Christian to take a look at your culture and what is around you. And I want you to see the blatant evil in everyday things, man. It's hard for me not to see strategy in what I see out there, man.
Because, you know, you'll look out and on billboards, on magazines, on TV commercials, on everything, everybody is half naked all the time.
Hey, man, I'm going to tell you something about that. This is going to sound silly, but I'm being totally serious. I was playing a game on my phone, a game. And the ad that kept coming up every time I tried to go to the next level or whatever was atrocious.
I deleted the game. After like three or four weeks of this, which I shouldn't even think of that long, I'm like, all right, if this is going to keep showing up here while I'm trying to play Scrabble or whatever it was, some stupid game or whatever, then I'm not going to play the game.
I'm talking about an ad for a game on my phone. It's insane.
I want to encourage the man listening to this. Do you remember when that was different? When you weren't so desensitized? Well, no, even then. I'm just saying, like, I want you to be self-aware, but, like, introspective.
You get what I'm saying? Remember when you saw something like that and it was a big deal? And now it's something you see every day and it's whatever?
It's like, ugh. Well, and that's the point that they were making in that study that I was talking about. These guys who viewed up to 20 hours a week, which is, like, crazy to me. I couldn't, like, what do you do?
I don't know. Anyway, so I'm just like, well, shut up. I'm just saying, like, how can you watch, like, what? You obviously do nothing else after you get home from work, you know what I mean? But that's what they were saying is that those who were avid porn watchers had, like, lower responses to that because when you are sexually aroused like that, you secrete dopamine, which, you know, gets all your hormones going and all of that stuff, and the more you're exposed to that, the less dopamine is produced.
And then you have to have, like, more and more. It's kind of like a drug. You know, like, you eventually stop feeling the effects of it, and then you have to increase it. Right, and so it's just, it's crazy to me.
But like you said, you get desensitized to it. It's like, even stuff with me, I mean, granted, like, you know, I was never a teenage boy, so I can't relate to you guys unless I identify as them. I just make up something like that.
Sorry. Anyway, but, like, I didn't have that perspective, but I remember even when we went on, like, this last youth trip, like, if I go to the beach with my husband, like, I'm just going to wear, like, a one-piece bathing suit, and, like, I might wear shorts over it or whatever, but, like, I'm usually modest.
And so I wore, like, that same thing, but because we were with, like, teenage boys on the youth trip, I wore a T-shirt over it, like, with shorts and stuff because I know that for teenage boys, you know, if you see something like that, it can really get you going.
But like you said, you just become desensitized to that now that you're, like, in your mid to late 20s. You're still in your late 20s for, like, a couple more weeks.
Yeah, a couple more weeks. I'm actually exactly mid -20s, yeah. Congratulations. Yeah, thanks. But, yeah, I just... Well, I just, I look back and I mourn it because, yeah, to an extent, as you grow older, as a guy or a girl or whatever, as you grow older, certain things do just become less and less naturally.
But even, I just, this is a funny story. I actually remember because I felt so guilty after it happened. I didn't do anything wrong. You remember there was a show, there was a show on TV called Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders?
Oh, I actually love that show. You remember that? When I was a kid, I thought that was the dumbest idea for a show because I was a kid and I said... This is stupid. They made a girl's show about football stuff.
I was like... That girl's trying out for a cheerleading team. Because I didn't understand that it could be a guy's show, you know, for that because I was just thinking, like, this is stupid, man. Why would anybody ever watch this?
Every time I saw it on the Guide, because you'd have the Guide and you wouldn't see the show on the top corner. You would just see what it was. And so there was a thing on there where you could flip the channels.
And so you could see everything on the channels. And one time it was that. It was the opening and it was the opening and they tied their little bra strap or whatever. And I remember seeing that. I said, oh, no.
I remember I felt so guilty because I was like, why wasn't I thinking about what I was doing? Because, you know, I was saying... And I'll just remember, you know, as a little kid, just that was so shocking and so jarring, you know, because it was just so blatant, you know, because they were obviously trying to be that way.
Being sexual. Right. And I was just like, what am I? You want to know a fun fact? You want to know a fun fact really quick? Nowadays I've seen Game of Thrones and I think, oh, my God. Yeah, I've never watched it.
That's why I think it's so important.
Same way. When the Bible says be innocent as far as doing evil. Be as infants. That's why whenever if there's ever a whiff of that, I'm fast forwarding. Not because I'm married to my wife. She's watching it with me.
Not because... You don't want to see that. When someone says I can't handle that. No, it's because I want to be innocent of evil. Correct. And it starts with my heart and my mind. Long before it ever starts.
That's where it starts.
That's what my dad would always say. He'd say, we don't let the devil get a foothold. And before, when I was a kid, I didn't understand. I said, foothold, because that's a foothold. I was like, foothold?
What the heck is he talking about? Like, all right, I get it. You don't want the devil to be involved in your life. But as I grew up, I was like, oh, a foothold. You know what I'm saying? And so he's just like, because it only takes just a little bit.
And now back to that, you know, Dallas Cowboys thing. I think that was so jarring to me that I remember as a 25-year-old man now, looking back at me as a kid, the feeling I had of, oh, no. Oh, what's going on?
To now, that is just commonplace. That is the most appropriate advertising I see today. You want to know a fun fact?
What? I actually watched that show on the maternity leave. That's so awesome. It was pretty good. I liked it. Yeah, that's funny. I mean, granted, I watched it. And then, like, so I would have it on. And Donovan would come home from working all day.
And then I would, like, I felt weird watching it when he, like, because with me, I'm just like, it's all about the dancing and, you know, like all that stuff and seeing who gets cut. But, like, when my husband's there, I'm like, I feel a little weird about this.
Like, I don't want him to be there and have that there.
I just wonder how many men just remember that feeling. Because it's been so long since they've had any type of innocence.
So, speaking of that, a couple of Christmases ago, I was on Pinterest. And I'd clicked on something. And you know, like, how on certain apps, like, you can click on a picture and it's, like, a search by.
And it lets you search by the picture. Apparently, I hit that button on, like, whatever picture I was looking at. I don't even remember. And it pulled up an image of this man who had one of his appendages out.
And I remember, like, freaking out. I was like, oh, my gosh. And Donovan's like, what? I'm like, just get it off. Get it off. I was like, I don't know why it popped up like this. I don't know. Please, please just get it off.
And he's like, what were you looking at? I was like, I wasn't looking at anything. I said, do you think if I was looking at something. Oh, Pinterest, huh? I was like, do you think if I was looking at something, I would be reacting like this?
Always rushing home to get on Pinterest.
Like, do you think, though, if I was actually, like, looking at that, I would tell you, please get this off.
Please get this off. I said, no, I would have hit that from you. Husbands, if your wives have Pinterest, this is what they're doing. But that's my point.
I didn't even know that stuff existed on Pinterest before that happened. I'm just like, what the heck? I'm like, it is everywhere. Spotify. Do you remember, like, some months ago where these kids, this kid accidentally, like, entered, I don't remember, like, it was, like, a period in, like, a couple of other symbols.
Well, they entered in, like, a period in a couple of other symbols, and it pulled up pornography on Spotify. And these parents were livid. Do you remember hearing about that? I have a couple.
I'm not going to say on here because I wouldn't give. When I was a school teacher, there was several apps like that.
It just, like, blows my mind. I'm just like, I never would have thought that that would have been on there.
I think, as Christian men, we should pray that God give us the feeling Hunter's talking about again for those small things.
I know exactly what he thought. Well, even like you said with the Christian women. There are women who struggle with that. Oh, absolutely. Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Yes, many.
I know many. I do too. I think we would do ourselves far better, and the kingdom of God better, to take Jesus' advice, and yes, there was sarcasm advised in there. Yeah. We'd do better to take Jesus' advice.
Yeah, sure. If your right hand offends you, cuts it off. Because I'd rather you enter heaven lame than go into hell with both feet, you know, that kind of stuff. I think we would do far better to distance ourselves from certain things that we could avoid.
For example, if you notice that you are putting 30 hours a week, I'm making up the time, into Netflix and whatever, and that, what you're choosing to watch on Netflix, has plenty of godless material that you choose to partake in, and then you spend zero minutes a week praying with your children, wives praying with your husband, opening the Bible at the dinner table, why would you ever be surprised?
It's like the definition of insanity. That what's always in your heart and mind is that which is evil. And we don't need to think that we are so strong, that we can constantly dump garbage into our heart, and gold come out, because Jesus says, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
That's for all of us, though. And look, in whatever realm that is, in whatever doesn't really matter the route that is, we should seek to be innocent of evil. So, for example, we're watching the Super Bowl at church this year, which I think is awesome, that's a great community thing.
We'll be turning off the halftime show this year. We did that as a youth group. Yeah, because last year, two years ago, whatever it was, we didn't, and then I look up at the screen, I'm like, are you kidding me?
And I don't want my first thought to be, because the kids are in here. I want to be, because we're in here. So, I called up to the sound booth, I said, cut that off. What is that? If we all had that mindset more.
And notice, I'm not talking about separating yourself from the world, the Bible says, be in the world, not of the world. I'm talking about living in a holy way, where others can see the light that you're shining is different.
Right, well, it talks about the fruit that you bear. And if people see that you're not, it's like, what are you doing?
You want me to make myself look like an idiot for a minute? Would that help you, make you feel good? That'd make me feel so good. Yeah, sure. You know how long when I heard that, or love bears all things.
All right, you already know where this is going. No, you don't. Okay, I'll just have to say it. My grandmother had a little picture frame. It said 1 Corinthians 13, love bears all things. And it was bears.
So, I, for, we came down from Nashville for years. Love bears all things. And I read it as love bears comma all things. So, you love bears. Love bears all things. I was like, why is there not a comma there?
I was in high school. Oh, yeah. Before I realized, love bears all things. Now that picture frame, I love that. It was a pun, and it out-punned me for years. Wow. That may be why I am the way I am today.
Years. Yeah.
It's okay. You were today years old when you figured that out. Going back, though, on the scripture, you know, talking about, like, I forgot how many times it mentioned sexual immorality, especially in the New Testament, specifically.
But, you know, we always talk about, like, scripture is not a rule book of what you can't do. It's God saying, don't do this, but do this instead. He's giving us an out for our sin. And to me, that's just such a, just so much grace and mercy that he gives to us.
That's what it reminds me.
Because he knows it will protect us. I believe it was 1 John chapter 5, if there's a chapter 5 in 1 John. There is. Yeah. 1 John chapter 5, when it speaks about, you know, my statutes or his statutes are not a burden.
You know what I'm saying? Because that's an easy trap for even Christians to believe, is that following God, the rule book is the burden and is difficult. But the reality of this life in this world is that you are a slave.
Period. To whom you are a slave is the real question. You are either a slave to yourself and your desires, your wants, your feelings, your emotions, your needs, your nature, or you are freed from that, your natural state of being.
But you read in Ephesians 2 is to serve the ruler of the atmospheric domain. And you're freed from that into servitude of Christ. A willing servitude. A willing servitude of Christ.
Which is not a burden. It is a freedom. One of the greatest lies Satan could ever tell is that if you obey God, you will be unhappy in your sin. But what's amazing is, as we wrap up here, what's amazing is, the more you obey, and I can testify to this, I can testify to this, in the area of sexual morality and pornography, in many areas, the more you obey God, the more you love what you used to hate and hate what you used to love.
Yeah. Hate. If you ever were taught the Bible says don't hate, that's a lie. The Bible tells you to hate. It just tells you the things you're supposed to hate. You pray that God lets you... You pray God gives you the power to hate that.
So, the lie of you'll be unhappy if you obey God is so untrue. You, for the joy that lay before him, he sold all he had and bought that field with the treasure buried in it.
It's never easy to go against your nature. It's never easy to do what you don't want to do.
But the more you do it, the more you love that and hate the sin that remains.
You'll be happy in that. Guys, we're going to go ahead and close out this podcast for today. If you struggle with this pornography, please feel free to reach out to us. We've all been there, man. Listenpointtaken at gmail .com.
Strike up a dialogue. Let's talk about it. And if you don't have that accountability, you don't have that support, please just let us know and reach out. That's right. And get yourself a little bit of help.
And local pastors and churches, please don't be afraid to talk about issues that your people are dealing with. Yes. Like pornography.
In real time from the pulpit. It is not a sin to mention sin. Yeah. Look at that. Whoa. Truth. Now, if we didn't cover things that you wanted us to cover, if we covered things you didn't want us to cover, anything about covers, drop a comment on this video.
If you have any topics, anything you want us to talk about, if you have any videos or TikToks that you want us to react to, please send them to our email at listenpointtaken at gmail .com. Drop a comment in the video.
You can also find us on Instagram, listenpointtakenchristianpodcast. You can always DM us there as well. But until next time, guys. Deuces.
Yeah, I used to try to paint my nails black, and my dad was like, you're not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to be an emu. I'm like, dad, it's emo! You know what? It's emo, dad, and it's not a phase.