Dr Paul Allen

A young adult ministry leader from a Texas megachurch recently shared five ways believers can battle against the temptation of “secret” sexual sins, such as porn, lust, and masturbation.  JD Rodgers of Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas, who serves as the young adults' creative director of The Porch Ministry, warned a primarily young adult audience about the perils of sexual freedom, labeling it “one of the biggest rip-offs or scams that the world sells us.”  In a sermon titled “Battling Sexual Sin,” Rodgers began by reminding the audience that they were instructed in last week’s sermon to write on a card the thing that makes them most shameful and to submit it to the ministry. Rodgers recalled how when The Porch leaders reviewed the "thousands upon thousands" of cards, a lot of them mentioned struggles with lust, pornography addiction, homosexuality and "past sexual perversion."  He then listed five steps that all start with the letter “R” that young a...

Well, the short answer is I don’t know. I don’t know whether your protracted sexual sin will have the effect of preventing you from being restored to repentance. I hope the fact that I don’t know will sound to you both sobering and hopeful. Sobering, because it is possible to sin oneself into a condition of being unable to repent. But hopeful, because in Christ Jesus, the worst of sins will be forgiven if there are authentic repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Let me try to help by giving the bigger picture of the book of Hebrews. Good Beginnings This book is written precisely to help people who have made a great beginning in the Christian life. The author describes it in Hebrews 10:32–34 : But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the pl...

Few people set out in life thinking, “Down the road, I plan to destroy my life and relationships by plunging myself into sexual sin.” It’s not that simple or sudden. Instead, sexual sin takes its victims through multi-faceted paths of deception and allurement. That’s what makes it so successful. As Solomon correctly observed, “Many are the victims she has cast down, and numerous are all her slain” (Prov. 7:26). Proverbs 7 is a sobering play-by-play of the slide into sexual sin. From it , we can make a few observations to prepare ourselves accordingly. Sexual temptation has many ruthless and clever tactics. We mustn’t think that sexual sin will dance in front of us like a pink elephant holding a sign which says, “Follow me into the predatory pit of sexual sin!” It’s more clever than that. Proverbs 7:10-21 play  out a scary scenario of the adulteress vs. the simpleton. She systematically tests his resolve. She is persistent, but not overbearing. She is evil but adv...

For the last twenty years, thousands of men from across America struggling with sexual sin have come to our intensive counseling workshop. Over half were pastors and missionaries. I wish our experience was unique. Several years ago, a seminary professor told me, “We no longer ask our entering students if they are struggling with pornography ; we assume every student is struggling. The question we ask is, ‘How serious is the struggle?’” One missions agency told me that 80% of their applicants voluntarily indicate a struggle with pornography, resulting in staff shortages on the field. Pornography is just one level of sin — a form of visual sex, or heart adultery . Physical adultery includes an affair, multiple affairs, prostitution, and homosexuality. Other sexual behaviors within the ministry are such heinous “unfruitful works of darkness . . . it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret” ( Ephesians 5:11–12 ). To face the crisis, we must correctly understand...

I was again overcome by the story of David’s sin against Uriah (murder) and Bathsheba (adultery) and God’s response in 2 Samuel 11–12. David acknowledges that the one who has done such a thing deserves to die (2 Samuel 12:5), but in the end Nathan says, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die” ( 12:13 ). This is amazing grace. God passes over the sin and takes away the penalty of death. Although the sin is taken away and the death sentence removed, Nathan says, “Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall die” ( 12:14 ). In spite of forgiveness, some “penalty” for the sin remains. Disciplinary Consequences I put  penalty  in quotes because I think we must distinguish consequences of forgiven sin (verse 13) from consequences of unforgiven sin . The latter are properly called penalties. The former we should probably call “disciplinary consequences.” That is, they are related to the ...

The hideous hypocrisy that lay discreetly stashed in the attic of AshleyMadison.com’s online vault was unceremoniously exposed last week. This outing of 28 million male and 5 million female adulterers has made a lot of people hot under the lipstick stained collar. Furtive liaisons that “weren’t hurting anybody” have now left a swathe of casualties in their wake. And now that their trust in the sanctity of Internet privacy has been shattered, these poor philanderers and home wreckers have to grow used to the scarlet letter on their reputation, now that everybody knows who they really are. What could they have done differently to avoid getting caught? There is only one way to not get caught in adultery: don’t commit adultery. Hebrews 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. God’s observation of our lives has no blind spot. But the Bible gives us practical wisdom on how to avoid committing adultery....