Captivated

Last Sunday, I spoke to my sister’s Sunday School class regarding the ministry of Scarlet Hope. I have been a part of this ministry for a little over a year now. It’s a very difficult ministry, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is very powerful and God is doing amazing things in the strip clubs throughout Louisville.

When I was considering what I wanted to share, I kept going back to how the women (and men) in the sex industry are captives – captives to sin, captives to money, captives to their messy pasts, captives to a whole host of lies. And, on top of that, they are blind captives. Most of them don’t even see that they’re enslaved to an industry that will devour them nor do they see their need for Christ. The women want out, but they think their answer lies in money or self-improvement or love or (fill in the blank). They are spiritually dead. That may sound harsh, but it is how Scripture describes all people without Christ. I used to be dead too, but God made me alive in Jesus Christ.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:1-7

You see with God there are only two types of people: people with Christ (spiritually alive) and people without Christ (spiritually dead). There aren’t good people and bad people. There aren’t moral people and immoral people. There are just people alive to God and people dead to God. This is why God has called some of us, His daughters, to enter some of the darkest places in this city. He has more daughters that need to be awakened in the strip clubs of Louisville and He wants to make them alive in Christ and include them in His people (John 10:16). God has called us to this. Why else would we expose ourselves to things we would rather not see and engage with people who sometimes want little to do with us? It is the urgent call of Jesus Christ that beckons us out of our comfortable lives to join Him in the darkness where He is working, where He wants to shine His light through us. God calls us to expose the darkness, but how do we do that? Only by shining the light of Christ. We do not have light in and of ourselves, it is Christ in us that make the difference. He alone can reveal what has been hidden. He alone is the truth that exposes lies. He alone can reach the heart of those trapped in the messiness of life and sin. He alone can bring the dead to life.

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,
    “Awake, O sleeper,
        and arise from the dead,
    and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:11-14

There are another set of captives I would like to discuss. These are men not too different from the men I see in the strip clubs. In the past several days, I have read (well really I’ve been bombarded by) several articles about the prevailing problem of pornography among men (including solid Christian men) from the various biblical writers and speakers I follow (Piper, Moore, Mohler). I am so burdened and broken by this growing and ever-present reality. The urgency is so great. I know that I have brothers in Christ (though I don’t know who they are; I just know I have them) who are in this fight and some may feel they are in a losing battle. They are captives.

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Colossians 2:8

Porn viewers are not really different from the men in the clubs I serve in. It’s the same idol of the heart manifested in different ways – one being more public than the other. Both essentially see women as objects to be used rather than created in the image of God, and both are slaves to the gods of sex and lust. And my heart breaks for them. For those in Christ, they have been set free, but they have subjected themselves to again to the slavery of sin (Galatians 5:1). They have made themselves prisons that only the power of the gospel can break.

    Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
        prisoners in affliction and in irons,
    for they had rebelled against the words of God,
        and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
    So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;
        they fell down, with none to help.
    Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
        and he delivered them from their distress.
    He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
        and burst their bonds apart.
    Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
        for his wondrous works to the children of man!
   For he shatters the doors of bronze
        and cuts in two the bars of iron. Psalm 107:10-16

I know what it’s like to be a captive. I had built my own prison of lies and shame and guilt that at the heart level is no different than those who view porn (choosing to treasure something over Christ). But the Lord, in His grace, exposed my hidden sins and set me free (Psalm 107:17-22). Only Christ can do this. So if you are struggling (with porn or any other hidden sin), please reach out to a brother or sister in Christ. Expose the darkness. Only then will freedom and healing be found (James 5:16).