smartphones Archives - Make No Provision

God’s Will? Abstain from Sexual Immorality | 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

by Alan Sharpe November 18, 2022 Leave a Comment

Sermon on 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8: “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.”

by Alan Sharpe November 18, 2022 Leave a Comment

Have you ever wanted to know God’s will for your life? Have you ever wondered what job you should take, where you should live, who you should marry, what school you should attend? Have you ever had difficulty discerning the Lord’s will? Have you ever found out that it’s a challenge to know, to appreciate, to understand, to get a clear yes or no from the Lord concerning his will for your life? I have good news for you. I’m going to show you God’s will for your life today. This is categorically, unequivocally, 100% God’s known will for your life today.

Turn the New Testament book of First Thessalonians, chapter four. Paul says:

Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality

Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality
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Temptation

10 Lies You Tell Yourself (and Believe) When You View Porn

by Alan Sharpe November 5, 2022 Leave a Comment

I sinned sexually, repeatedly, because I lied to myself. I lied so often that I eventually believed my lies.

by Alan Sharpe November 5, 2022 Leave a Comment

illustration of a wooden marionette with long nose; liar concept

I viewed porn for the first time when I was 11 years old and for the last time when I was 61. That’s 50 years of sinning against God, 30 of them as a Christian. I sinned repeatedly because I lied to myself. I lied so often that I eventually believed my lies. But that all changed on November 4, 2021, when I purposed before God to never look at anything wicked ever again, and to never masturbate ever again. Here I am, 366 days later, living what I purposed back then. I have a year of victory under my belt (excuse the metaphor) partly because I no longer believe those lies I told myself. Here they are. See if you tell any of them to yourself.

Lie #1: God Doesn’t See
When I view pornographic images and videos, I tell myself that God doesn’t see. I sin in secret. But God does see.

Lie #2: It’s Not Adultery
Jesus says that I commit adultery when I look at a woman to lust after her. But I lie to myself. “I don’t commit adultery unless I do the physical act,” I assure myself. But I am

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Prevention

101 Biblical Ways to Resist Sexual Temptation

by Alan Sharpe October 13, 2022 Leave a Comment

If you want to resist unwanted sexual urges and overcome sexual temptation, here are 101 ways from the Bible (including the Bible) to overcome sexual temptation.

by Alan Sharpe October 13, 2022 Leave a Comment

If you are a Christian and if you are even remotely healthy, you face sexual temptation on occasion. If you want to resist these urges so that you do not fall into sin, here are some biblical ways to overcome sexual temptation (including the Bible).

1. Count the Cost
Sexual sin comes at a price, in this life and in the next. For one thing, adulterers and the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom (Galatians 5:19-21). That’s the eternal cost—your soul, punished forever, in the lake of fire. But there’s also a price to pay in this life if you give in to sexual temptation. Think sexually transmitted diseases. Unwanted pregnancy. Divorce. Loss of custody of your kids. Getting fired. Scandal. Loss of your testimony. Jail time. Your name on the Sexual Offender Registry.

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Prevention

Sexual Purity Is Inconvenient, Costly, and Awesome | Matthew 18:8

by Alan Sharpe July 19, 2022 Leave a Comment

What inconvenience or daily annoyance are you facing to avoid pornography, to avoid sexual temptation, to walk a holy walk?

by Alan Sharpe July 19, 2022 Leave a Comment

exual Purity Is Annoying, Inconvenient, Costly and Awesome | Matthew 18:8

If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire.
Matthew 18:8

If you want to be free of pornography, you must pay the price. Sexual purity doesn’t come cheap. Freedom from sexual sin can’t be purchased with church attendance or a 12-step recovery program. If you want to be free of the grip of porn and masturbation, you have to pay, and pay dearly.

Sanctification is costly. That’s what Jesus teaches. If your hand or foot causes you to sin, you cut it off and cast it from you. That’s the high price you must pay to avoid sinning. You must be willing to go through life with just one hand or just one foot in order to avoid sin and to please your Lord.

Jesus is speaking in hyperbole (extravagant exaggeration), of course, to drive home His po

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Temptation

When Did You Pluck Out Your Eye? | Matthew 5:29

by Alan Sharpe July 15, 2022 Leave a Comment

If you want to get victory over pornography, you must discover and deal with your triggers. You likely have dozens.

by Alan Sharpe July 15, 2022 Leave a Comment

When Did You Pluck Out Your Eye? | Matthew 5:29

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.
Matthew 5:29

When is the last time you plucked out your right eye and cast it away from you? I am not being sarcastic. I am asking you in earnest because this principle is one of the keys to conquering pornography, lust, sexual temptation and sexual immorality in your life. The path to sexual purity requires knowing and conquering your triggers.

When Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you,” He was speaking in the context of adultery. He had just said, “whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Then he gave the remedy. If your right eye causes you to sin by lusting after women, then pluck it out and cast it away from you.

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Accountability

Porn Is a Snare Because It’s Anonymous

by Alan Sharpe May 12, 2022 Leave a Comment

Part of the reason you are drawn back to your habitual sin is not your fault. If pornography was only available in public, you would be sexually pure.

by Alan Sharpe May 12, 2022 Leave a Comment

This post is part three of a three-part series. Pornography is a snare because it is:
Available | Affordable | Anonymous

If you have been struggling with pornography for anywhere close to as long as I did as a Christian man (30 years), the primary cause of your habitual sin is readily explained—you haven’t been caught. Pornography is powerful precisely because it’s private. It’s the sin you do in secret that no one knows about. Not your spouse. Not your kids. Not your work colleagues. Not your brothers in the Lord. Not your church leaders. You are ensnared in porn because it’s anonymous.</

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Prevention

10 Steps I Take to Abstain from Pornography Daily, Biblically

by Alan Sharpe April 28, 2022 Leave a Comment

I eventually got 24 hours of freedom from porn and masturbation. That turned into a week. Then a month. Then multiple months. You can, too.

by Alan Sharpe April 28, 2022 Leave a Comment

I looked at pornography for the first time at age 11 and for the last time at age 61. November 2021 is when I got serious about kicking my filthy habit and forsaking my wicked sin. Gaining victory in this area of my life required 10 painful steps. Your results may vary, but if you take these 10 steps you may gain victory as well. Here they are.

I confessed my sin to my wife and begged for her forgiveness. I admitted to her that my repeated viewing of porn was repeated adultery against her.
I got rid of all outright pornography and everything even borderline inappropriate from my office and home, including anything found on my PC, laptop and other electronic devices.
I installed porn-blocking and accountability software (Covenant Eyes) on all my electronic devices: work desktop, work laptop, tablet, phone. It takes screenshots of my activity and emails them to my accountability partner daily.

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Consequences

Viewing Porn on Your Phone? Expect to Get Burned. | Proverbs 6:27-29

by Alan Sharpe March 25, 2022 Leave a Comment

If your phone causes you to sin by helping you look at porn, trade it in for a model that can’t access the internet. You’ll avoid fire in this life, and fire in the life to come.

by Alan Sharpe March 25, 2022 Leave a Comment

Viewing Porn on Your Phone? Expect to Get Burned. | Proverbs 6:27-29

“Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be seared? So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; whoever touches her shall not be innocent.”
Proverbs 6:27-29

Alaska Airlines flight 751 from New Orleans to Seattle was at cruise altitude when a passenger’s Samsung Galaxy A21 phone overheated and began sparking. The flight crew used fire extinguishers to quench the flames. The pilot diverted immediately to the nearest airport. And the passengers and crew evacuated the aircraft on slides because the interior of the cabin was hazy from smoke.

Wouldn’t it be handy if your phone caught fire every time you looked at porn on the device? That would be a guaranteed deterrent, wouldn’t it, a sparking, smoldering, overheating hunk of metal and plastic in your hand whenever you viewed pornographic images and videos? But that’s the problem with porn. You can view it freely and anonym

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Prevention

Want to Avoid Porn? Avoid Her Door. | Proverbs 5:8

by Alan Sharpe March 23, 2022 Leave a Comment

Short of throwing all of my electronic devices into a dumpster, the only proven way I know of to not go near the online door of pornography is porn-blocking & accountability software. It protects me from the immoral woman. And it protects me from another sexually immoral person I know—me.

by Alan Sharpe March 23, 2022 Leave a Comment

To Quit Porn, Avoid Her Door | Proverbs 5:8

“Do not go near the door of her house.”
Proverbs 5:8

The primary problem with pornography is proximity. Porn is easy to view because it’s easy to find. It’s always just a few clicks or swipes away, often free of charge. This wasn’t always the case. When I was a teen, the only way to get your hands on hardcore porn was to meet a man in a dark alley off Times Square or to visit a bookstore in Amsterdam. Today, hardcore pornography is right in your pocket. If you want to conquer your habitual sin of looking at porn, you must solve your proximity problem.

This is the advice that Solomon has for his son. To avoid the immoral woman, says Solomon, “do not go near the door of her house.” That is, to avoid the seductress, the woman whose steps lead you down to death and hell, don’t go near the door of her house. The house of the immoral woman, of course, is where she practices her trade. It’s where you find the bedroom and the bed where she and her clients

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Lust

Are You a Slave Without a Master? | Titus 3:3

by Alan Sharpe March 3, 2022 Leave a Comment

No one bought you in a slave market. No one owns you. No one commands you to sin sexually.

by Alan Sharpe March 3, 2022 Leave a Comment

Are You a Slave Without a Master? | Titus 3:3

“For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.”
Titus 3:3

Do you consider yourself powerless over pornography? Do you look at your masturbation habit and consider it a compulsive behavior that you are unable to manage? Do you, in short, believe that you are a slave to sexual immorality? If you believe these things about yourself, then you believe the first lie of the Celebrate Recovery 12 Steps: “We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.”

Celebrate Recovery bills itself as a “Christ-centered, 12 step recovery program for anyone struggling with hurt, pain or addiction of any kind.” The movement is filled with sincere Christian leaders who mean

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Lust

You Can’t Hide. But You Can Run. | 2 Timothy 2:22

by Alan Sharpe January 28, 2022 Leave a Comment

You win the battle against pornography with your mind. When tempted by sexual thoughts, don’t fight. Flee.

by Alan Sharpe January 28, 2022 Leave a Comment

You Can't Hide. But You Can Run. | 2 Timothy 2:22

“Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” 2 Timothy 2:22

How do you run away from something in your mind? If you are on a cruise and the captain commands you to flee to the lifeboats, you know what to do and where to run. If you are on a hike and your guide commands you to run away from a rattlesnake on the path in front of you, your feet intuitively know what to do. But how do you flee from a thought, or a desire, something like lust? Two ways.

The first way to flee sexual lust and sexual temptation is with prevention. Draw up a list from experience of the people, places and things that excite your sexual lust. I’m talking about the immodest waitresses at that restaurant downtown. The porn websites whose names I won’t mention. Those dodgy apps on your smartphone. Flee youthful lusts by fleeing these people, places and things before you even come into contact with them

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Prevention

Struggling to Quit Porn? Where is Your Limp? | Matthew 18:8

by Alan Sharpe January 19, 2022 Leave a Comment

Subtracting every source of sexual temptation from your life is worth it. You may start walking with a limp, but it’s worth it.

by Alan Sharpe January 19, 2022 Leave a Comment

Struggling to Quit Porn? Where is Your Limp? | Matthew 18:8

“If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire.” Matthew 18:8 NKJV

If your smartphone causes you to sin, should you keep it? No. Smash it to pieces, incinerate what remains, then scatter the ashes. If watching movies on Hulu triggers your lust and causes you to sin, should you keep watching? No. Cancel your subscription. If scrolling through youtube.com causes you to sin, should you keep visiting the site? No. Block it with porn-blocking software.

Getting victory over pornography is an exercise in subtraction. Whenever you discover that something, or someone, or somewhere causes you to sin by looking at porn, listening to porn, or reading porn, you subtract it from your life. And then you take preventive measures so that you never use that thing or meet that person or visit that place again.

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Obedience

I Ditched My Smartphone to Conquer Porn | Matthew 5:27-30

by Alan Sharpe January 13, 2022 Leave a Comment

Given the choice between gouging out my right eye or ditching my smartphone to quit porn, I went with the phone. Obedience comes at a cost. But I’m happy to pay.

by Alan Sharpe January 13, 2022 Leave a Comment

In November 2021, I finally gave up trying to control my compulsive habit of using my smartphone to view pornography. I replaced my Samsung S10 smartphone with a Jethro SC490 feature phone, a so-called “dumbphone” designed for seniors. The transition has been difficult, painful and inconvenient, but I have never been happier. Here’s why and how I made the move, and why I’m never going back.

Why I gave up my smartphone

I have been a Christian since the summer of 1991. I was converted at the age of 31. One of the defining moments of my conversion was the deliverance I received from my alcoholism. God took away my desire to drink, a Class A Miracle that I rank right up there with Moses parting the Red Sea. I have not touched a drop of alcohol since that day in June of 1991 when God saved me from the bottle without me even asking.

Today, I know that having alcohol in my home is a foolish idea. I

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Prevention

Pluck Out Your Right Eye Online: Part 2 of 3 | Matthew 5:27-28

by Alan Sharpe December 20, 2021 Leave a Comment

Jesus says you are to pluck out your right eye and cast it from you if that eye causes you to commit sexual sin. Here’s how to do this online.

by Alan Sharpe December 20, 2021 Leave a Comment

Jesus says you are to pluck out your right eye and cast it from you if that eye causes you to commit sexual sin (Matthew 5:27-28). Here’s how to do this online.

If your smartphone causes you to sin, smash it into a thousand pieces and fling the fragments into several dumpsters across town. Then buy a dumb phone that gives you zero access to the internet (recovering heroin addicts don’t carry heroin in their pockets)
Install an internet porn filter, such as Covenant Eyes, on all your devices (desktop, laptop, tablet, phone) so that you can’t access pornographic websites or apps anymore
Delete your Facebook account if it causes you to look at inappropriate images and videos
Delete your Twitter account if it causes you to watch porn
Delete your Instagram account if it causes you to gape at women
Delete your TikTok account if it tempts you to think sexually immoral thoughts about the women who post there
Use the Site Blocking feature in Covenant Eyes (or the internet fil
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Lust

Your Pornography Problem? You. | Mark 7:20-23

by Alan Sharpe December 14, 2021 Leave a Comment

Your challenge isn’t primarily adult websites, immodestly dressed women, Netflix or your smartphone. It’s you. You are your porn problem.

by Alan Sharpe December 14, 2021 Leave a Comment

If you have a problem with the sins of pornography or masturbation, don’t look only to outward solutions to your sin. Your challenge is not primarily adult websites, immodestly dressed women, magazine racks, or your smartphone. Your challenge isn’t them. It’s you. You are your porn problem.

You discover this truth about yourself from Jesus. The religious leaders of His day thought defilement came from without. Jesus set them straight. He told them:

“What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”
Mark 7:20-23

Notice the sexual sins: adulteries, fornications (sexual immorality), lewdness. Almost 25% of the sins that Jesus lists are sexual sins. And they h

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Lust

What Have You Left Behind? | Genesis 39:12

by Alan Sharpe December 10, 2021 Leave a Comment

Victory over sexual sin means forsaking your sin by leaving something behind. You know what that something is.

by Alan Sharpe December 10, 2021 Leave a Comment

If you want to conquer pornography, masturbation or any other sexual sin, expect to leave something behind. A life of sexual purity looks different from one of habitual sexual sin. Just consider the life of Joseph.

After Joseph arrives in Egypt as a slave, he becomes master of the household of Potiphar, the captain of the guard of the pharaoh of Egypt. Potiphar has a wife who notices that Joseph is “handsome in form and appearance” (Gen 39:6). She lusts after Joseph and invites him to have sex with her. Joseph refuses. She persists, day after day, but Joseph consistently refuses her invitations to sin against God. But, one day, she takes things further:

“But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house were inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, ‘Lie with me.’ But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.”
Genesis 39:11-12

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Obedience

Heaven with a Flip Phone or Hell with a Smartphone. Your Choice. | Mark 9:47-48

by Alan Sharpe November 15, 2021 Leave a Comment

If your smartphone causes you to sin, why have you not plucked it out of your life? Why have you not replaced it with a dumb phone, a feature phone or a retro flip phone that cannot access the internet? Why are you not obeying Jesus?

by Alan Sharpe November 15, 2021 Leave a Comment

Jesus teaches that avoiding sins that start with your eyes requires you to take drastic and permanent measures. If you look at women to lust after them, for example, you commit adultery. Jesus says the way to prevent this sin is to tackle it at the source—your eyes:

“And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire—where “Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”
Mark 9:47-48

Jesus is not saying that you should literally pluck out your eye. He is telling you that you must remove from your life anything that causes you to sin. For example, if you are old school and still have so-called adult magazines kicking around your garage, and if those magazines cause you to sin (their primary purpose, after all), get rid of the magazines. If you can’t watch soaps, sitcoms and movies wit

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Obedience

Quitting Free Porn Will Cost You Plenty if You Quit Biblically | Matthew 5:27-29

by Alan Sharpe November 13, 2021 Leave a Comment

The sure way to quit watching pornography is to quit biblically, starting with obedience to the explicit commands of Jesus. Just prepare yourself for the consequences. Your obedience will cost you plenty.

by Alan Sharpe November 13, 2021 Leave a Comment

The irony of pornography is that you can watch it for free but you have to pay dearly in order to stop watching. Getting out of the grip of pornography takes effort, and comes at a price that many Christian men seem unwilling to pay. I present as Exhibit A the clear command of Jesus on the subject of lusting at women with your eyes. Jesus says:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 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.”
Matthew 5:27-29

If you want to be free from your bondage to pornography, you must pluck out your right eye and cast it from you. In other words, you must rid yourself of anything valuable and

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Prevention

How to Pluck Out Your Right Eye to Overcome Porn | Matthew 5:27-29

by Alan Sharpe November 9, 2021 Leave a Comment

Obeying Jesus means plucking out anything of value in your life that causes you to watch pornography. This will hurt. A lot. But the effort is worth it when your soul is at stake.

by Alan Sharpe November 9, 2021 Leave a Comment

Winning the battle against pornography requires drastic, costly action. You must attack the enemy at the source. And that means making many sacrifices in your life that put you out of step with the majority of Christian men. But no matter. Your eternal destiny is at stake. So get moving.

I am referring, of course, to the clear teaching of Jesus about what you must do to conquer sexual sin that involves your eyes. Here is what Jesus commands you:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 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.”
Matthew 5:27-29

In practical terms, obe

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