“What’s the one piece of advice you would give
to someone struggling with porn addiction?”
Gerry Breshears is a professor of theology at Western Seminary in Portland. He is a pastor to pastors with a heart for troubled people as well of co-author of four books.
Connect with Gerry
Website: www.breshears.net
Website: www.WesternSeminary.edu
Twitter: @gbreshears
Check out all the “One Thing” video interviews here.
Transcript
Stephen: Hi guys. Steve here with Belt of Truth Ministries. I’m on the line with Gerry Breshears. Gerry is a professor of theology at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. He’s a pastor to pastors with a heart for troubled people, as well as a co-author of four books. So, Gerry, thanks for joining us today. What’s the one piece of advice that you would give to somebody struggling with porn addiction?
Gerry: Well, it’s a very real struggle. There are a couple of things that make me think here. One is the understanding that Jesus is completely committed to the idea of helping us move toward faithfulness. So there’s basically pistus, which is faith or pure, and porneo, which is defiled sexual activity of all different kinds. His goal is to move us toward pistus, toward faithfulness, toward wholeness, toward purity. And frankly, it feels really good.
When I’m working with guys – and not just guys, women too – who are struggling with pornography and just the compulsiveness that that ties into, one of the things I try to remember is if you had a powerful regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, if you’ve gotten that new heart that comes through the work of the Holy Spirit, your deepest desires are for cleanliness. And as much as the desire is to get back into the porn because it provides a short-term thrill… It takes away the tension briefly. It really does give you a relief to do porn stuff. But then it’s like diving in a cesspool. You get dirty. So one of the things I try to think through is remembering that Jesus wants to help us move toward purity, toward cleanliness. And if you’ve got that new heart cleanliness feels good. And [inaudible – 02:07] easy to get there. But here’s what I try to think through: I am going to be most happy when I am pure because my desires are to be like Jesus, to be pure, to be pistus. So what I ask people when the wave comes and it feels like, “Man, I’ve just got to do it. I can’t live without it,” almost, is to stop and think. And that actually takes a bit to stop and think, prayer, got to Jesus, remembering that he wants to help, if possible, community, text a friend. Don’t do it by yourself. Satan’s agenda is to disconnect you from God [inaudible – 02:51], disconnect you from friends. They’ll laugh at you. And then when you’re connecting with Jesus, is then stop and think what will make me most happy, because my belief is that because Jesus helps us because you have that new heart, because you have the power of the Holy Spirit, that if we stop and think [inaudible – 03:14], in community and do what will make me most deeply happy, I’ll almost always do the right thing. But the porn thing is I’ve got to have it, have it right now. And you don’t connect with Jesus. You don’t connect with the community. You think what will get me through the next few minutes. And you dive in a cesspool. And I don’t want people to have to deal with a dirty cesspool. Jesus wants you to be clean. He wants you to be pistus. He wants you to be pure. And he will help. And with the power of Jesus, [inaudible – 03:45] desires of my new heart. There’s a lot of freedom [inaudible]. That’s my primary advice.
Stephen: Yeah, that’s awesome. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Thank you for sharing that.
Gerry: [crosstalk – 03:58] better if you to go Titus, chapter 3, verses 3 through 8. You’ll find a lot of those [inaudible] talking about.
Stephen: Awesome, yeah, I would encourage anyone watching to check that out, Titus, chapter 3. Gerry, where can people find out more about you and your ministry?
Gerry: Well, I’m pretty active on Facebook. I started a couple of brewhahas here lately with some theological questions. And we have some pretty active dialogs going on there. I work on Western Seminary. We’ve got on active website here at Western. And a long email, gbreshears@westernseminary.edu. And I love to help people find purity.
Stephen: Awesome. We’ll put all that information in the show notes. Thank you again for your time. I love what you’re doing. Any chance I get to hear you talk, I’m always there because I just love your heart and the way you communicate what sometimes can be hard truths for people to get. I just think you’ve got a real gift of communicating them in caring and easy to understand ways, which is getting more and more rare these days, unfortunately.
Gerry: Yeah, I’ve given your book to a lot of different people, Steve, thanks.
Stephen: Oh, thank you. I appreciate your time. And thanks again, Gerry.
Gerry: God bless.
