{"id":31288,"date":"2022-09-10T15:24:27","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/why-the-church-desperately-needs-gods-intervention\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:24:27","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:24:27","slug":"why-the-church-desperately-needs-gods-intervention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/why-the-church-desperately-needs-gods-intervention\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Church Desperately Needs God’s Intervention"},"content":{"rendered":"
Manuel Del Moral photo – Unsplash <\/p>\n

By Rosie Makinney<\/em><\/p>\n

Some moms are soccer moms. Others are ballet moms. I am an aikido mom. Over the past five years, I have schlepped my son down to the dojo over five hundred times. <\/p>\n

For those of you who haven\u2019t heard of aikido, let me explain. Aikido is a Japanese non-aggressive martial art that teaches you how to defend yourself using the momentum of your opponent\u2019s attack to defeat them. It\u2019s also seriously cool. <\/p>\n

A master of aikido appears to have almost superhero powers. Through calm, barely perceptible moves, attackers end up spinning in the air, pinned to the floor and disarmed. <\/p>\n

But what I particularly like about aikido, even more than the fact it wears my son out, is that it teaches him a valuable life lesson. Attacks will come. The trick is knowing how to redirect them to your advantage. <\/p>\n

There is no way around it. The porn situation in the church is a threat of Goliath proportions. <\/p>\n

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Josh McDowell Ministries commissioned the largest scientific study ever done on pornography in America among pastors, youth pastors, and churched youth and adults. Just listen to what he discovered: <\/p>\n

Nearly half of young adults say they come across porn at least once a week\u2014even when they aren’t seeking it out.<\/p>\n

Seven in 10 youth pastors have had at least one teen come to them for help in dealing with porn in the past 12 months.<\/p>\n

Several youth pastors (21%) and pastors (14%) admit they currently struggle with using porn, with 12% of youth pastors and 5% of pastors saying they are addicted to porn.<\/p>\n

The Church Needs God\u2019s Intervention<\/h3>\n

But even as the enemy attempts to use this plague of porn to kill, steal, and destroy, God is redirecting these attacks to our advantage and His glory. <\/p>\n

The epidemic that is currently devastating the body of Christ, will, I think, be the starting place of revival. It\u2019s the ultimate aikido move. <\/p>\n

Only evil this destructive, and of this magnitude, can bring the church back to a place of repentance and dependence. <\/p>\n

God is allowing us to pursue our fleshly desires to the point of self-destruction because He is about to do some serious house-cleaning. <\/p>\n

God is allowing our suffering to increase until we are purged of self-reliance and pride that keeps us far from Him. <\/p>\n

Whatever it takes to get our eyes off ourselves and back onto Him, He will allow. It is the modern-day equivalent of being pressed up against the Red Sea.<\/p>\n

By pushing the ancient Israelites right up against the surf\u2014with the full might of the Egyptian army bearing down on them\u2014God brought His people to a new level of dependence. <\/p>\n

A moment when they had to accept the truth: without God\u2019s intervention, they were done for. In terms of where porn is taking the church, without God\u2019s intervention, we too are goners. <\/p>\n

Just as there comes a point in every porn-invaded marriage when a wife is forced to deal with it, the same thing is happening in the marriage between Christ and His wife, the church. The pressure is building. Rapidly. <\/p>\n

Because of the mounting evidence linking porn use to a breakdown in family values, and a whole host of other negative public health issues, ignoring the porn issue in our country (and world!) is becoming increasingly problematic. <\/p>\n

Every day we remain silent is another day our families fall apart, another day we walk right past injustice and suffering on a monumental scale: <\/p>\n