From The Podcast Episode
This week on the podcast, our guest, Mike, shares his transparent testimony with us about how a childhood tragedy and a chance stumble upon pornographic magazines kicked off a decades-long battle with grief and addiction. In this authentic and sincere conversation, Mike opens up about how he believed he was alone and unique in his struggle and even felt betrayed when he attempted to seek help, but he ultimately found freedom in Christ. His story is a great reminder that The Noble Man Knows He’s in a Purity Battle, and we can be victorious.
“There truly is hope for this addiction, and there is true freedom.”
Themes to Listen For:
- You are not alone – that is a lie the enemy wants you to believe.
- Sin progresses if we don’t seek help. Addictive behavior and repetitive patterns form, and it will become more graphic, more real, and more live.
- Know your triggers. When and where are you vulnerable? Don’t stay there when you trip and stumble, share it.
- Realize we can’t do it on our own. When we live in isolation we get into stinking thinking. We need help.
- He wants us to be in community. Sometimes it just takes picking up the phone.
- The church needs safe places for men to battle.
- No matter your experience with the church, Christ will never fail you.
Resources to Help:
Every Man’s Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time by Fred Stoeker
Promises to Stand On:
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. (v. 6-7)
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (v. 1)
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
