Destruction
By Design - Part 3
August 24, 2025
40M+ Americans are regular porn users.
$275B industry - bigger than NFL + NBA + MLB combined ($35B).
47% of families say porn is a problem in their home.
+300% higher risk of marital infidelity with porn use.
Age 11 = average first exposure.
94% of kids see porn by age 14.
What God designed for intimacy, porn distorts into idolatry.
“14But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. 15Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.” James 1:14-15 (CSB)
What starts as curiosity often becomes a cage.
“3For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality (porneía) 4that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 (CSB)
The Problem: Why Porn Is Destroying Us.
1. It rewires your brain like drugs.
Dopamine hit → rewires your cravings like cocaine. Cambridge University: Researchers compared porn addicts’ brain scans to cocaine addicts’—the patterns were almost identical.
2. It corrupts how you see people.
Porn takes covenant love and swaps it for consumer lust.
People → products. Men who consume porn regularly report lower satisfaction with real-life intimacy, while women report feeling objectified and devalued by partners who consume porn. (Journal of Sex Research, 2017).
3. It poisons your relationships.
56% of divorces cite “obsessive pornography use” as a major contributing factor (American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers).
4. It drives isolation and paralyzes you with shame.
75% of Christian men; 33% of Christian women report struggling with porn regularly, yet the majority never confess it because of shame. (Barna Group, The Porn Phenomenon).
Isolation is where addiction thrives. Shame always tries to shut down the pursuit of God.
5. It destroys society
Sin always corrodes more than just you. Porn isn’t just a private struggle—it fuels global exploitation. Billions of dollars fund trafficking, abuse, and violence.
What feels “personal” is actually partnering with an industry of destruction.
The Progression
Permission → Perception → Programming → Paralysis → Death
“There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.” Proverbs 14:12 (CSB)
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23 (CSB)
Porn promises freedom but chains you to death. Jesus took death to the cross and broke the chains to secure your freedom.
“3For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, 4that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God. 6This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. 7For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness. 8Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you His Holy Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 (CSB)
The Pathway to Freedom
Repent - Turn from sin to the Savior
Replace - Fill that space with God’s truth
Renew - Pursue holiness God’s way
Regroup - You don’t fight alone - thebayouchurch.org/by-design
Remember - You are ROYALTY
Reborn - Step out of death into life
“1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2 (CSB)
Additional Verses:
- 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5
- 1 Corinthians 6:18-20
- Matthew 5:28-29
- Colossians 3:5
- Galatians 5:16
- Proverbs 5:3-5
- Job 31:1
- Romans 8:1
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