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We Talk About the P-Word (Part 1) - FF S2 E3
9 Plays10 hours ago
This subject is sometimes taboo, but our fatherhood panel courageously discusses their own battles with the P-word and seek to give some encouragement to someone out there who is struggling in this area. If you feel alone, if you think you're addicted, if you just can't figure out where to go first to win this battle - come listen and find some hope in this first part of our discussion about lust and *shhh* the "P-word".
(If you are failing in your battle against lust, reach out to us. We want to help you.)
Check out PreacherDad.com
Email us: Dads@PreacherDad.com
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Transcript
Introduction & Issue Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
But this is a subject that um I believe 90% of American Christian men are struggling with.
00:00:10
Speaker
Everybody hits it different. um But it does hit everybody. For me, I remember the the very first encounter ever had with it was when I was in the third grade.
00:00:24
Speaker
I remember falling to my knees and just praying, Lord, I cannot break this on my own. I need your help. And that is a prayer that he has been faithful to answer.
Fatherhood Friday & Content Warning
00:00:40
Speaker
Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to Fatherhood Friday brought to you by the Preacher Dad podcast. My name is Jared. I am the Preacher Dad, and we've got a great episode for you today that I hope that you will find some great deal of encouragement from. And that the Lord will lift you up and give you some hope.
00:00:58
Speaker
I'm going to tell you the title in a second. But I want to give you a little bit of a parental warning. If you've got little ones listening in, you maybe want to stop this episode for a minute and do some more research. Read the description, man. Come on.
00:01:13
Speaker
But this episode today... You ready? It's about the P word. And you we all know what P word is. And we are going to dive into that subject and hopefully give you some some some of the things that have helped us, some of the things that we've wrestled through in our own lives. So sit back, relax, and dive in with us to this very important subject.
00:01:42
Speaker
Before we do that, I want to quickly remind you that our podcast today is brought to you by Cornerstone Fellowship. Cornerstone Fellowship is a small church just north of Timbsboro, Georgia.
00:01:53
Speaker
And we would love to fellowship with you, to point you to Jesus. And I encourage you to come and check us out if you're in the area. Or you can also see us online. You can find us at cornerstonefellowship-ga.org. That's
00:02:15
Speaker
And come and check us out there. And we would love to just love you and point you to Christ. So without any further delay, let's start Fatherhood Friday.
Co-host Introductions & Issue Sensitivity
00:02:33
Speaker
Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to Fatherhood Friday. We are glad you're here with us today. I've got my co-host with us today. we have Nate Eisner.
00:02:44
Speaker
And back from the dead is Tony Russell. Finally back to join us and we're so glad he's here. Matt Stewart could be with us. He might pop in a little bit later. I am Jared and I'm the Preacher Dad and you found Fatherhood Friday.
00:02:59
Speaker
And honestly, we are ah pleased to be able to share this episode with you today. If you clicked on this, then you know that we are going to talk about a subject that is maybe a little tender.
00:03:14
Speaker
for you and I know for us to some degree, but this is a subject that I believe 90% of American Christian men are struggling with.
00:03:26
Speaker
And before we go any further, I want to just give a quick parental guidance suggested. This episode will be at least PG, if not PG-13, Today so if you don't want your children to hear about the subject I encourage you to go ahead and just pause and wait till they go to bed Maybe later or something like that.
Cultural Impact of Pornography
00:03:50
Speaker
So the subject we're addressing In this episode, of course is porn pornography is something that has pervaded our culture Especially in America in a way that is epidemic.
00:04:05
Speaker
It is um Hard to describe the level of depravity that is available in just a a moment of time. It doesn't take any hardly any effort anymore. It used to be, you know, I had to hide a swimsuit catalog under my shirt, you know, and sneak it into my house somehow. This is a lot easier now for men to be led astray and and ensnared
00:04:38
Speaker
And, you know, i I don't know about
Jared's Personal Recovery Journey
00:04:41
Speaker
you guys. I'm going to give everybody a chance to share a little bit about their journey before we start talking about, you know, some things that have maybe helped us.
00:04:51
Speaker
But I know that for myself, i have not spoken too publicly about this as of yet, but I am a recovering pornography addict.
00:05:04
Speaker
And at one point in my life, it was... ah entirely, definitely a complete addiction. And I'm still, you know, you're always in recovery. i I sort of feel at least that's what they told us in the support group I eventually got ah to be a part of. But I can remember just from some of my earliest days, just struggling with not just lust, but also material that I would be able to get my hands on that would inflame that lust even more. You know, a guy doesn't really need pictures.
00:05:36
Speaker
His lust is pretty strong as ah as a teenager without any help. But, um you know, gradually it got to the point where, and I, you know, would struggle off and on and, you know, have seasons of victory and then fall down again and and fail.
00:05:57
Speaker
And, you know, the pornography that I would consume got gradually more and more hard. And those of you that are dealing with pornography understand usually what I mean when I say that.
00:06:11
Speaker
And I got married and I, of course, like most men, I thought, well, this would be a lot easier once I actually have sex. but And that's not true because what i one thing I did learn um in this journey is that my addiction to pornography is not as closely tied to my sexual drive as I thought it was.
00:06:38
Speaker
And this need or this drive for porn is um actually deeper than that. And that surprised me. I thought, well, if i my sexual drive is met, surely I'm, and that's too true to a degree. It's not as, it's easier to resist temptation when my sexual drives are, you know,
00:07:01
Speaker
ah abated. Well, I don't know what the word would be, but when my sexual drive is not as strong, it's easier to resist. But, you know, I've had moments where I've had intimacy with my wife and the very next day I struggle, I fall again and look at pornography hardcore.
00:07:21
Speaker
So I guess I say all that to say, even as a married man, I got to the point where pornography was boring. And I began to have conversations with real people.
00:07:38
Speaker
And at some point in there, I sort of felt like I hit rock bottom and I was like, what in the world am I doing?
00:07:47
Speaker
And I went to my wife and confessed it to her. And I took the hard, honestly, a very hard step to reach out to someone that I felt was safe because the At that time, of course, I was a pastor and didn't feel I could reach out to anybody in the church and confess this sin I didn't know who I could reach out to. I felt very alone.
00:08:14
Speaker
And I reached out to someone I felt was safe, and he put me in touch with someone he knew that was helping Christian men deal with pornography addictions. but So I reached out to that person, and I made myself vulnerable to a group of men that were all dealing with the same thing.
00:08:32
Speaker
And through all of that, they were very understanding and patient and kind and helped me to begin a journey of understanding my addiction and also begin to understand how to overcome um those struggles. And it's not like I'm completely free of it. It's not like, you know, well, that was, I don't do that anymore.
00:08:59
Speaker
Well, You know, alcoholics will tell you, hey, you're only one moment away from falling off the wagon. The Bible says, ye that stand, take heed lest you fall.
00:09:10
Speaker
None of us are are completely ah safe from ever falling again on this side of heaven. um But that was just, the that was the start for me. And I think there may be somebody out there listening to this message right now, listening to this podcast.
00:09:30
Speaker
and you don't know what to do, and you're ashamed of yourself, and you need to find a way out of this hole, and you feel very alone. And part of the purpose of this podcast episode today is to help you feel like you're not alone, to help you know and realize you are not alone.
00:09:50
Speaker
And there's a lot of us Christian men out here who love Jesus with all of our heart. who have are dealing with this problem, have dealt with it and continue to deal with it.
00:10:03
Speaker
So you're not alone and you need to know that and you need to know that there is hope to be had. But there's hard choices also you have to make. But guys, that's just a little bit about, you know, my story to some degree.
00:10:18
Speaker
And I wonder if one of you would be willing to share a little bit about your journey in this area.
Co-hosts' Early Exposure Experiences
00:10:27
Speaker
Don't both of you speak at once. Calm down. Easy.
00:10:33
Speaker
This is a it's certainly one of those issues where every every person has their own unique um encounter and battle that goes on with There's a lot of overlapping themes, especially inside of just masculinity generally, that help us be able to relate to one another.
00:10:55
Speaker
um But Everybody hits it different. um But it does hit everybody. the For me, I remember the the very first encounter I ever had with it was when I was in the third grade.
00:11:10
Speaker
was on a school bus and we were driving home and there was no nobody on the school bus was doing anything particularly wrong. But one of the bus stops we were at, some somebody had thrown away an old collection and it had blown out of the trash can into their into their gutter.
00:11:26
Speaker
And they had a couple of magazines that were just bare open in the the middle of their gutter. And of course, we would have to stop have the stop sign on that corner. So everybody in the bus would go over to the side of the bus that had the best advantage and take a look. And that was that was it. that was That's your first experience.
00:11:46
Speaker
um When I worked as a youth counselor at ah at ah a Christian camp, I was focused. predominantly on third through fifth grade boys.
00:11:57
Speaker
And it was it was a struggle there where some of these third through fifth grade boys, they had experiences being caught up with, you know, that it being passed around at school. This is before cell phones were even dominant. Even now with cell phones, its I mean, literally everybody with a so cell phone has had access to it.
00:12:20
Speaker
Do you know, Tony, the average person male is exposed to pornography. The average age is six years old. I'm not surprised by that at all. When they're first ex exposed.
00:12:36
Speaker
And a lot of times it's by family, older brothers, older relatives that are participating in it and not paying attention to the surroundings. But I i throw all that out there to say, wherever you're at, whatever your exposure, wherever your entry point is, um,
00:12:53
Speaker
You're not some filthy giant degenerate because this is something that got its hooks into you. it's It's one of the most potent and sophisticated attacks Satan has against men generally because it's so closely related to one of the most beautiful gifts you have as a man.
00:13:14
Speaker
in In the union that you get to have with your wife to be able to exemplify you know Christ's union with the church. That is meant to be an incredibly special and meaningful thing. And of course, Satan, you know being the the corrupter and perverter of all things good, this is one of those things that he has expressed in into humanity that is is oh is a very dark, degenerate thing, but it's a corruption of one of the most beautiful things.
00:13:49
Speaker
Um, and as far as this particular topic goes, I've, I've been in groups with other men in, uh, in other people trying to discuss, where, where did I first
Struggles of Single vs. Married Men
00:13:59
Speaker
fall? How do I get out of it? What's the next step forward?
00:14:02
Speaker
Um, there's, there's a different battle between young men who are not married, who are trying to figure out how to preserve themselves versus men who have been married for decades and are trying to figure out how to preserve themselves.
00:14:15
Speaker
You may not have the same solution set, um, But there is a way forward. There is victory. But there's there's something fundamental about this particular struggle that every single man identifies with. It's one of those things where as soon as we decided this was the topic we were going to talk about tonight, immediately gets tense and awkward.
00:14:37
Speaker
Like, okay, like, ah how degenerate do I need to expose that I am? Like, the... The whole point is that this is this is ah an area that we ought to be able to relate with one another. And, you know, the Bible tells us to confess our sins with one to one another.
00:14:55
Speaker
This is one of those things that Christian men ought to do way more of. This is one of those things where one of the universal steps in healing is being able to expose that you need healing.
00:15:09
Speaker
the ye yeah a lot A lot of men... A lot of good godly Christian men. They get so isolated because they get stuck in this particular silo.
00:15:21
Speaker
um They they pull themselves out of ministry. They pull themselves out of fellowship with brothers. They pull themselves out of connectivity because they they have this idea that they're the only one that their struggle is somehow the most unique thing and that they they have a special lack of spiritual durability.
00:15:43
Speaker
that makes them unqualified and that makes them unworthy of being inside of of the body that God intended them for. That's part of the design of the sin. That's part of what it's meant to do as a sin is to try to corrupt your mind and making you think that way.
00:16:00
Speaker
That's not the way God sees you. That's not the way that God, even even as a Christian who's fallen in sin, God doesn't see you as a reprobate who can't ever come back. God sees you as needing grace and forgiveness.
00:16:13
Speaker
the same as we all do. There's nothing unique about that. There's nothing disparaging about that, but you gotta come face to face with it or you're not moving forward.
00:16:25
Speaker
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00:17:13
Speaker
Hey man, Nate, what are some of your thoughts? What's your journey? Well, I've been sitting here typing the whole time, listening to y'all, and I have been listening. um Am I coming through all right? We're having some issues with my ah connectivity beforehand. Am I coming through a loud and clear?
00:17:30
Speaker
Your audio sounds fine. OK, good. Yeah, so I've got a bunch of thoughts here. um I have an equal amount of scripture verses for my thoughts, and so I don't know how far.
00:17:42
Speaker
i mean, I know we're we're talking about this being a potentially two part episode, so I can save some of this for later. um i guess I can just start by sharing my story. um So i don't remember the exact moment um actually i do now that i think about it i can remember the first time i searched it out but my um i'd say the first time that i really got into straight up pornography was at the age of 13. at least i believe it was around that early age 13 14 12 somewhere
Nate's Personal Struggle & Recovery
00:18:12
Speaker
in that somewhere within those three years and um and it was a downward spiral from there and that that was honestly almost a daily thing until um
00:18:24
Speaker
for about seven years, I would say. um You know, it was a, it was like, just like y'all have expressed, I mean, it's it's a, um it's a struggle that every man is going to go through. Now, I have some thoughts on terminology that gets thrown around in the church, words like struggle um and all that kind of stuff. I have some interesting perspectives there, some things that have helped me over the years. But um that was a what I would say was part of my identity for about seven years. I'm trying to think, do want to go into, make let me let me go back a little bit further, because for me, it actually started ah before it was full-blown pornography. I don't know how to explain it so,
00:19:18
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we haven't really gotten into some serious details here, but I will say I'll throw this out there. Sorry, I'm kind of rambling now. get gra grabbing my thoughts together in my head, but I'm going to use the word Nickelodeon. All right.
00:19:31
Speaker
So, yes, the SpongeBob Network. OK, so we don't need to talk about conspiracies. We have a whole episode on conspiracy theories. But um I will tell you right now from a young age, the imagery that was shown on Nickelodeon. with the slime and the pie and all that stuff is inherently of sexual nature and that is something that got me from a young age before i even knew what it was and before i ever searched out pornography or even knew what to search out i loved watching that content and i was there was something in me that knew it was wrong and i did it secretly so from a young age
00:20:17
Speaker
on an iPad, and ah this is probably first time I've talked about this publicly. I've shared this with with my wife before, but from a young age, I remember being on my iPad searching out Nickelodeon commercials because there it did something in me that got exciting, but it was enough that I felt embarrassed about it to where I would delete browser history.
00:20:37
Speaker
And so I began to develop those habits from a very young age, and Once you hit high school and you start running with some different friends in the wrong crowd and stuff becomes more readily available, you have more information, it was a downward spiral from there. And so that is, i want to throw that out there because we've talked about stuff in the past on previous episodes, triggers that might come up. Tony, I think you had mentioned a um a story about Fortnite and having to put away Fortnite for a season yeah with your kids because of some, you know, cartoon characters that had come up on the platform that were
00:21:13
Speaker
suggestive enough that it was worth taking precaution on. And I just want to say that something as seemingly insignificant as the imagery that's portrayed on a children's network was enough to spark um an area of lust inside of me.
00:21:31
Speaker
And I think there's something inherently spiritual about that. Again, we don't need to get into the conspiracy side of that, but there's plenty of um that's definitely a rabbit hole you can go down. um you know, with Nickelodeon, but um that's where it started going through high school. It was the you know, I'm probably not any different than any other guy with this.
00:21:52
Speaker
its Aside from the fact that I'm a Gen Z Gen Zier, so I had unbelievable access, you know, through technology, which is a horrible thing. um But ah yeah, so the story where it broke off for me, I. Let's see.
00:22:11
Speaker
ah So i met my wife when when she was 13. I was 15 and we're high school sweethearts and dated throughout high school. um I definitely went through seasons where it was worse than others throughout that time.
00:22:26
Speaker
um Probably was not ready to have a girlfriend, but by God's grace, he he preserved our relationship. However, there was a time that she did break up with me for completely unrelated reasons.
00:22:40
Speaker
um And we were we were broken up for about nine months. And in those nine months was about the worst it was ever it ever was. um That was probably the worst of it for me. um I was running with.
00:22:52
Speaker
Some people were probably not the greatest influences in the world and was probably the lowest point in my life. And I remember I was living in a camper trailer.
00:23:06
Speaker
That I was renting and there was a night that I knew it was the last time I was going to do it. And I remember falling to my knees and just praying, Lord, i cannot break this on my own. I need your help.
00:23:21
Speaker
And that is a prayer that he has been faithful to answer. Now, I want to be clear. In James, it says, if any man says that he has no sin, he is a liar and the truth is not in him. I am not saying that today, Nathan Eisner does not have lustful thoughts or that temptations do not enter my mind or I do not come in contact with things and maybe don't turn away as ah as quickly as I should. But I'm telling you right now that I was delivered in 2020 and that was the last time I ever visited a porn site. The last time I ever sought it out on my own. um
00:23:56
Speaker
Like I said it does not mean that you know there are moments of struggle. It does not mean I don't have to keep my guard up, Jared, like you said. um You know, you had mentioned, you know, being one step away, you know, I still have all the same inclinations and the bent towards sin and hell that everybody else does.
00:24:15
Speaker
But um but that is that is my story. And I think in recent years, written I probably don't want to get into it on this one, but it's interesting, Jared, because you had mentioned thinking about, trying to think how I want to tie this in, but You didn mentioned how when you get married, you now have the ability to have sex that you think it's going to get better.
00:24:38
Speaker
um That was not the case for for me in they in the same and much of a different way because when we first got married, and it's still something we're working through, um sex was near impossible ah for various medical reasons.
00:24:53
Speaker
And so despite that, the Lord still was faithful to to at least my experience. um And I know that's not the case for everybody. I know some people have have it much harder than I do in that sense. And it seems to be more of a struggle, um not in a judgmental way. I do have thoughts and verses to share and in some some things that I have used umt throughout the years that I think could be potentially some help.
00:25:20
Speaker
um I don't know when we want to get into those things. Well, I think I think that you have, ah you know, you've hit on kind of a ah big key here, and that is that we can't fix ourselves and we can't somehow try hard enough to I'm just going to have the willpower to stop. You have to cry out to God.
00:25:42
Speaker
I'll throw a verse out there that kind of is is not necessarily the answer, but I think will definitely
Scriptural Guidance & Seeking Help
00:25:50
Speaker
fall in line. I've got a million tabs open here. Here it is. It's 1 Corinthians 6, 18. When it says flee,
00:25:56
Speaker
And that is the word right there, flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. But that word flee there, and if I had time to do the Greek word study and all that thats fun stuff, we could get into all that. But um the word flee there literally means to run, get away, and get out of there. You are not strong enough to fight this. You have got to remove yourself from it. And that has been a major The major thing is not giving myself access or, you know, in the moments where I'm vulnerable, addressing that it's vulnerable and that I'm in a situation that I cannot handle and I need to remove myself from it.
00:26:37
Speaker
um I think the military term would be tactical retreat. Yes, that's a great, that's a great word. Great, great term. So you're not giving up the fight just to run away from this particular battle.
00:26:51
Speaker
You're not going to you're not so ah you not giving up ah you're not really giving up ground to the enemy by running away and letting the Lord fight in your place. um you know I'm not strong enough.
00:27:04
Speaker
And I think as men, we don't like to admit that we're weak. yeah We don't like to admit I can't do something. And so we want to say, the gospel I'm just going to try harder. I'm going to do this. and i love my family too much and my Lord too much. I'm going to do this. I'm going to try harder.
00:27:22
Speaker
And that really is kind of a a downward spiral. And we have to be able to say, I can't do it. I need help. And one thing for me in my in my life, you know, I used to,
00:27:37
Speaker
say to myself, I shouldn't need other people. It should be enough. Jesus should be enough for me. And it should be enough that Jesus delivers me from this ah the sin, this habitual sin. not that i Not that i thought that he would deliver me from ever lusting or ever having ah you know inappropriate thoughts, but that ah that he would deliver me from his this habitual sin, Jesus should be enough.
00:28:10
Speaker
And while I do believe that Jesus is more than powerful enough to deliver us, just like he did for you, there are also sometimes when God works through his people and he works through the um the brothers that we have in the fight and that it's not wrong for me to seek out accountability and for me to seek out someone to help me and i need to be able to have a place where i expose these sins to the light because i found that if if you bring them to the light they lose their strength heat very very quickly and that's that's true with a lot of things besides just lust but that is that is key
00:28:55
Speaker
bringing it to the light absolutely and you know i think that Guys, Christian men need a place, a safe place two to come and expose the sin to the light because it is very hard in the church because, I mean, people, drug addicts get more compassion than pornography addicts.
00:29:18
Speaker
um You know, if you say that you're, if if a man were to stand up in church and say in front of everybody, I've just been struggling with an addiction to pornography and you know I've been masturbating at home a lot and I just need y'all to pray for me.
00:29:34
Speaker
There'd be people that would never talk to him again. He would maybe, depending on the congregation, be driven out of the church because you're too dirty for us. That's disgusting, how dare you? But there's no place, even in a men's group, very often there's no place for him to be able to go and not be shamed and
Church's Role & Community Support
00:29:52
Speaker
looked down upon. But if that same man were to stand up and say,
00:29:55
Speaker
I've been a drug addict since I was 16 years old and I just really need you to pray for me because I want to be delivered from this, but it's just so hard. I need you guys to help me. Please help me. What can I do to be free? There'd be hugs and oh, praise the Lord that you've come to seek help from Jesus. And, you know, we need to get away from that culture in the Christian society. We need to be able to, and I'm not saying that men should stand up and talk about masturbation in front of all the kids in the church. But I'm saying that men need to have a place where they're safe enough to say, guys, I blew it last night.
00:30:29
Speaker
Or, you know, that i've I've really been struggling with this. We need to be able to ah have a place safe enough to be able to bring those sins to the light because keeping them in the closets and in the darkness is part of their power.
00:30:48
Speaker
Anyway, kind of. Diving into some preaching yeah here. I think that speaks to to just how different our culture is from when the church was first initiated um in America. We're so separated to the point where the fact that, you know, we have a weekly service that's mostly observational and not interactive and we've lost the community.
00:31:15
Speaker
um You don't feel as confident and comfortable opening up to other guys. And, you know, we've talked about this before, about, ah you know, the the camaraderie that the four of us have um and how thankful we are. you know, if we, if not one person ever listened to this podcast, we'd probably still be having these conversations. And, you know, that is something that I wish every Christian man had because it is so valuable.
00:31:41
Speaker
um And I think that's really what Jesus had in mind when, when he instituted his church. um And I think it's, you know, to your, your point there, Jared, I think that's something that um we've kind of lost in America and just in the West in general, being so individual um as a as a culture. And i yeah I'm not suggesting that we have and move into a big commune, but Joby Martin talks a lot about having your four mat carriers. Like you got to have four guys in your corner men.
00:32:17
Speaker
the four friends are carry you to Jesus. And so if you ain't got them, you got to go find them. And that's on us to find them. If they're not going find you, you got to find them.
00:32:28
Speaker
I think there's another element to that too. um And this is a very half-baked idea, but I think that there's something pretty important
Addressing Misunderstandings
00:32:38
Speaker
worth talking about in here. But I think that when it comes to men's lust, that's seen as an incredible evil.
00:32:47
Speaker
that is is a real display of the weakness of men. But there's no discussion at all over women's lust as though it's the thing that doesn't exist. And it's even allowed to pervasively be a part of of Christian culture.
00:33:02
Speaker
um i've I've seen this in churches that I've been in where, you know, before you're sitting through your Sunday school class, the conversation they're having is about, you know, what weird romance show is the new trend of the day they're watching together. Yeah.
00:33:15
Speaker
um And it's, of course, you know, like Love Island or something like that, where it's all about, you know, one degenerate woman and 20 degenerate men who come in and try to sexually perform for her in a way that, you know appeals to her in every possible way.
00:33:30
Speaker
No thought of condemnation at all, that that would in any way be an inappropriate way for them to find themselves entertained. That's not uncommon. and And part of that is this, you know,
00:33:45
Speaker
kind of in a broader way, part of the whole like me too nonsense mindset where that, you know, every woman is a victim of every man, but no, no man has ever, or no, no woman has ever been able to commit any sort of serious crime in the same category to the point where it's, it's an excusable aspect of the life that women live. And they, you know, she, she wants to work out with a particular trainer because, you know, he's sexually exciting.
00:34:10
Speaker
That's fine. She should have the right to do that. She's a Christian woman married with kids. doesn't matter. As long as she doesn't go all the way, it's fine. and that's ah That's a right she has because he's wronged her in some kind of a capacity.
00:34:21
Speaker
And the the problem is that men imbibe this too. Men take that same mindset that if I have some sort of sexual desire or need or something and it's not being met, then I'm i'm evil.
00:34:34
Speaker
No, you're evil because you're meeting it in a degenerate way, not because the desire is there. The desire is actually part of God's leadership. in the way that you're designed and created, and it's supposed to fuel you to something.
00:34:47
Speaker
It's supposed to be a part of the way you make your decisions in your life. It's supposed to be who you are as a man. It's a part of you. it's ah It's a gift to humanity that you have that type of of thought process, worldview, mindset, when it's baptized in Christ.
00:35:05
Speaker
Whenever you allow it to be satisfied through your flesh, then of course, yes, it turns into something degenerate, but it's not I think that men generally go after the wrong root of the problem. They think, oh, I've lusted.
00:35:15
Speaker
I have this desire for women. No, legitimately, women are the most beautiful thing that God ever made. They are the crowning piece of his creation. um It's okay that men feel this way. That is what men are supposed to feel because men are part of the stewardship of God's creation.
00:35:35
Speaker
You're supposed to find a woman and make her feel that way. that She's the most beautiful thing that God ever made. Well, let's go back to Genesis 1, Tony. I mean, yeah you know, God said, be fruitful and multiply. And and yeah man's desire for woman is part of the fulfillment of that instruction. A man desires a woman and goes to woo her and she surrenders to him. She gives in to him and children come about as a result. And that is godly. It's good.
00:36:05
Speaker
And we celebrate that. But that is, I think, going back to what you said early on. um that That is why Satan wants to pervert this part of us so desperately.
00:36:17
Speaker
He wants to take this part of us that is truly God-given and beautiful and twist it and pervert it and turn it into something that holds us in incredible shame and unbelievable bondage because we need it to be baptized. We need it to be redeemed. Yes. And our sex drives are are godly and good when they are given unto him and controlled by the Spirit.
00:36:44
Speaker
Yes. Yes.
Closing Encouragement & Engagement
00:36:47
Speaker
All right, folks, that's all we have time for today. But I hope that you'll join us on the next episode where we continue this very, very important and vital conversation. So please join us next time. And we look forward to hearing from you. You can leave a comment on this video or on the podcast, wherever you're listening.
00:37:06
Speaker
Hopefully we didn't get any yeah any strikes on our video because of the subject matter. But we would love to see your comments or you can email us. at dads at preacherdad.com. Send your emails, your questions, your comments.
00:37:22
Speaker
You can send them to dads, D-A-D-S, at preacherdad.com. Thanks so much for listening, folks. We would love it if you would like and subscribe. If you would just give us some love, we would appreciate that.
00:37:36
Speaker
God bless you, and we hope to see you next time on Fatherhood Friday.