Ron + Hope: Unfiltered - The Destruction of Porn

Foreign.

Hello, guys. Here we are again. Ron and Hope. Unfiltered. What is it, Ron?

Real. I messed your phone up. Real raw, relevant. Did I get it right? Did I do it in the right order? Is it the right order? Real, raw, relevant. Okay, you got it. She always makes fun of me.

No, I do not make fun of you.

Go ahead.

Anyway, guys, listen. We have an extremely important podcast today. We're going where some people refuse to trod.

It's touchy. It's one of those things that if you don't pull it out of darkness into the light, it just never gets dealt with. And the problem is, it's nuclear.

It is.

It's destructive. It's like carrying around plutonium. But the thing is, even in any setting, but especially a Christian setting, it's almost like you're trying to find the vocabulary and the words to talk about it in a way where it grabs a hold of people, but it's not offensive. But we've got somebody here today. I think, that's going to really, really help us. Won't you introduce her?

One of my sweet friends that the Lord just brought into my life last year, actually, when my book launched. And her name is Brittany Delamora. And we have just become such wonderful. So welcome, Brittany. Brittany, we are so happy that you are here.

Thank you for being with us, Brittany.

Look how beautiful she is. You wouldn't even dream that you're pregnant, about to birth another child.

We're not going to tell anybody. You've got five fans running on you right now because you're so hot.

I know.

We're not going to tell anybody.

You got people fanning you like this.

We won't say that. Put the fan on. I'm like. I feel like I'm menopause. Hot flashes over here.

Listen, Brittany, thank you for being here. And we are just gonna dive in to the subject of porn, and, you know the effects that that has on people. And, you know, so many people have asked us in ministry this question, is porn okay if you're married inside of marriage? And, you know, I just look at people when they ask that question, but they legitimately want to know, well, is it okay in marriage?

But let me quantify that. And then I want to give Brittany as much time as you can to speak. Hope and I have been doing marriage conferences for over two decades, and we've had a ministerial fellowship for over two decades. And what I have seen is, with the rise of the Internet in the mid-90s, with porn becoming more. I hate to Use the word mainstream. Since that has happened, I see this generation seems to be asking that question more. My generation and my dad's generation wanted to hide it at all costs. But what I see this generation is, and it's very dangerous. They're like, well, I'm not going to hide it, but I'm going to integrate it to be a part of my life. Because if we're married, what does it matter? And I just like to get your thoughts on that and many other things that you may want to bring to light today.

Well, first, let's let her explain why we even have her talking about this.

Such a good question. Like, why are you bringing this random pregnant girl?

Yeah, why is this beautiful little beady pregnant girl sitting here going to be our ex girl? What did she possibly say about the topic? Tell us, Brittany.

So I was actually in the porn industry for seven years of my life. I got into that industry when I was 18 years old. I came from a family that there was just a lot of rejection, a lot of verbal, a lot of emotional abuse. And so I was just looking for love in all the wrong places. My search landed me in the porn industry because not only was I getting a firm there, but it also paid pretty well. So I was like, perfect, I could get away from home. I was 18 years old and I started off. And when I first started in the industry, it was like a rush. I think that sin is almost always pleasurable for a moment until it's like it no longer fulfills you. And so while I was in that industry, I became a full blown drug addict. I was using heroin, crystal meth, cocaine just to get me through a scene. Because it is truly a soul sucking industry. And it doesn't just seem suck the souls dry of the performers, but it sucks the souls dry of those who watch it, who entertain it. Because the wages of sin is death. And so you're slowly killing your soul by performing in porn. You're killing your soul by watching pornography. Any sin, right? And so yeah, I was able to get out of the porn industry because at my three and a half year mark of being in the business, I was like, just so I couldn't get ahold of any heroin. And I was detoxing and I just was like, grandma, I need your help. Could you please, you know, come pick me up? And after I detoxed, I found out that my grandpa had been going to church. I received a bible, I went with him to church, received a bible, didn't go back to church, but made Jesus My Lord and savior. That day, the devil was not happy about my decision. So he knew men were my weakness. This time around, he sends a pimp into my life who gets me back into the porn industry for about another three years. But I had my Bible and I started reading my Bible. And the Holy Spirit led me out of the relationship with the pimp. He, like, counseled me and showed me how to get away. And then I was reading a verse, Revelation chapter 2, verse 20 through 23. And it says that I have this thing against you. You tolerate that woman named Jezebel. She leads my people into sexual immorality. I've given her time to repent. And if she doesn't repent, I'll cast her and her children into a sickbed. Now, mind you, when I read this verse, I'm actually on an airplane on my way to film what would become my very last porn scene. And that scripture really, like, it was like the truth of God came over me. But then the grace of God came over me. And the Holy Spirit just told me, brittany, this isn't the life that I have for you. The life that I have for you will overflow with so much love, so much joy, so much peace. And if you would just quit the porn industry today, I would bless your life like no man ever could. And so I made that my very last scene. I went and told everybody on about Jesus and how he had a better life in store for us. I thought it was a little crazy, but that's okay. Crazy for Jesus. And so, yeah, now it's been 10 years I've been out of the industry. I'm married. My husband and I, we lead a ministry, Love Always Ministries, helping people get set free from porn. We also help entertainers who want to leave the industry get out. And so I'm married, have one daughter and another one on the way.

Oh, my goodness.

Only God. Yes, only God. That's a God story. And number one, we celebrate that. We celebrate you. We celebrate your journey. I just. I want to ask you. I know what I tell people. I know what I counsel people. But someone who would be much more well versed in the details and in the ugliness of the not so nice side of the industry. We. What would your first advice be to a person not participating in it, but watching it, viewing it, and it is a part of their lifestyle? What would you say? And they're sitting there probably like you. They're like, man, this can't be all God's got. And I come home every day And I do the same thing, or I'm up in the middle of the night watching this, don't even like what I'm doing. What would you say is the first 1, 2, 3 steps to a journey out of that?

And especially a Christian person, you know, Christian people are plagued, and then you have to hide it, and that more shame and condemnation.

Well, the statistics are insane because they say that 70% of men in church watch porn, 30% of women in church watch porn, and 50% of pastors and leaders currently serving in church watch porn. And so the first thing I would just want to encourage you with is you're not alone. It's not an isolated incident. And I think that because so many pastors and leaders are battling, it's part of the reason why maybe your church has been silent about it. And so you feel like I'm the only one in my church that's struggling. But I guarantee you, you are not the only one that's in your church that's struggling. And we need to be transparent because transparency always silences the enemy. And so until you step out and you step seek out accountability and you humble yourself, that's what it's going to take. You can't walk in pride, you can't walk in shame, you can't walk in fear. Like, you just have to walk in humility, and you have to get accountability, and you have to ask for help. And as you start to ask for help, God is going to bring you that help. And also I would ask you, like, what does your time with the Lord look like? You should be seeking him on a daily basis, praying, worshiping, reading your word, going on a fast, because some things don't break off, but through prayer and fasting. And so you need God to be your strength. Strength. In this season, my husband and I also just created a really great course that's called Search. And we have one for men and one for women. Search how to Stop Watching Porn. It's available on our website, and we're just giving you all the tools. There's seven different lessons. And if you apply the teachings to your life and you take the quizzes at the end, it's going to help you examine your heart to find out what is the root. Because oftentimes, like, porn is the fruit, but hurt is the root. So what happened to you that you're watching pornography? Why are you turning to it? Were you rejected in a relationship? Did somebody break your heart? And so you find comfort in porn? Like, maybe you were sexually, you were taken advantage of sexually. And so this is all, you know, like, and you're continuing the abuse by watching pornography. Like, there's always a root. So getting to know the root and our course will help you do that too. So it's on our website, loveawaysministries.com if you want to take that course on too.

I love it.

These podcasts, we've never taken them in a hyper spiritual dimension. We've actually been kind of designed to let them see Ron and Hope instead of pastors Run and Hope. That's kind of what they're designed for. So I want to be careful that I don't go too far in the spiritual realm. But is there not at sometimes also maybe the need for some type of deliverance? Because my understanding of the Bible is that sexual sins are a work of the flesh, but it can degenerate into perversions and perversions. As far as I understand, the Bible gets more over into perverted spirits and things like that. And I do believe that there are occasions where through natural tools and through boundaries and other things, you can walk a journey out toward freedom. But then there's some other people that have gotten so twisted in it that sometimes it literally, there needs to be something broken off of their life by the power of God. I just want to know if you want to speak to that.

Yeah, okay. So I was just sharing with my husband how, you know, when we got together, like, I had gone through this year of healing and when my husband and I started dating, I was like a 14 year old all over again. Like, even holding his hand made me nervous. Like our wedding night, I was so nervous. Here I am not realizing he's thinking, oh, she's a pro. But I'm thinking I forgot what I was doing. And so the scripture that came to my mind was in the book of Acts when they were. When they were casting out the woman that was fortune telling, they cast out that evil spirit and then she no longer knew how to fortune tell. And I believe the same is true with the spirit of perversion. Because when I first came to church, my mind was riddled with lust. I couldn't look at a male preacher on stage without my mind going to places that I didn't want. And so I spent a lot of time practicing what the Bible says to cast thoughts down. And the Holy Spirit taught me what that looked like practically. And so for me, anytime a thought of perversion, lust, anything, like cursing, slander, anything that I didn't want to think about, that would pop into my Head that I knew was not a pure thought, I would say, I rebuke this thought in the name of Jesus. I am not going to think about that. If I felt like there was like a spirit of lust attached, I rebuke the spirit of lust in the name of Jesus. And then I would start to focus on things that are noble, praiseworthy and true. So I'd start worshiping, I'd start just praising God for delivering me. And I'd also ask for forgiveness for that thought as well, because I wanted to take stance of humility. And so, yeah, I do believe that there's a place for deliverance. My deliverance came through spending time with God, through fasting, and through me intentionally casting those thoughts out. But you can certainly ask for prayers for deliverance. But remember, your house needs to be ready. Like you need to be ready for that deliverance because you don't want to be attacked furthermore, and so you need to make sure that you're preparing your heart and your soul by seeking the Lord on a daily basis if you're going to go in and ask for a deliverance.

Brittany, it really is a choice. Yeah, it's a mindset.

The word that came to my mind as she was talking is she was highly intentional.

Yes, it's a choice.

You are highly intentional. And I know a lot of people that want to be free, come here and set me free. And the fact is, it was something inside of you that pursued freedom. And that's where ultimate freedom comes from. It's not external and it didn't come through the laying on of hands, really, that can be a start. That can be an initiator. But to purge your soul through traumatic experiences, it is on you to trace God on that level.

I mean, whether it's porn, whether it's drugs, whether it's unforgiveness, it is all a choice and it's all a godly pursuit. It is setting your mind on things above where Christ is. It's not. I got a choice. Every thought that I have, every desire that I have, I have a choice whether I'm going to act on it or not. And that's work that doesn't happen overnight. Like you said, it was a process for you. Talk about that. How long did it take you really.

How long did it take before you could walk in a building and be okay? And those thoughts were no longer a part of your normal process?

So, okay, so it probably took like four months before I saw progress right where I was like, oh, okay, these, these thoughts aren't coming. But mind you, I was intentional every single time a thought came in. And I was also fasting every month. Like, it just happened. When I first started going to church, they were doing a fast. So I was like, well, I'm just going to keep this up. Every month I go on like a week long fast, a two week long fast. And I also did not have any social media because I had just left the porn industry and I went from making $30,000 a month to $11 an hour. I had to humble myself so I couldn't afford the Internet and so I had no distractions. Like all the time that ext that I had, I was really just spending time with God. And I was a single woman. I did take one year off of dating. And so I do feel like by the end of that year, like, I was like, okay, I'm actually ready to be in a relationship. Like, I feel like my heart's been purified. My mind isn't going haywire. I don't think about porn, I don't think about using drugs. And so, yeah, I'd say for me to feel like I was fully healed, it took about a year.

I'm going to come at it from the man's side. Hope and I, may I share a tad bit of your testimony? You wrote it in your book, but I still wanted to ask you. Hope, at age 15, went through a traumatic experience where she was raped. And me, I was a holiness boy. When I say holiness boy, I mean everything was wrong in the church I grew up in. Everything, you know, so everything that I did that I indulged in, it was always hidden. It was always in darkness. I had a good friend, we played football together. And his dad at that time, you know, you had reel to reel and VHS. This was the 80s.

You're dating us.

Yeah, this was early 80s when this would happen. But all the football team would want to go spend the night at this guy's house after the game. And they'd want to drink beer and they'd want to get drunk and they would watch his dad's movie. His dad sold it on the black market. And I told him that was when I was a freshman. By the time I graduated high school, I was just. I mean, I had so many reels of this stuff playing over and over in my head. And then when I was a freshman in college, I got saved and I was really, really concerned because I felt a call into ministry. But I didn't want to be a hypocrite. I didn't want to be a guy who get up and preach one thing and then go home and be a different person. And hypocrisy. I'm a very principled person nature. I'm a person of deep conviction. And I would tell God, I'm scared to go into the ministry because I know the standard I'll be held to, but yet I know this thing that I'm dealing with. And just to throw this out there and maybe let you comment, because I want you to talk more than us today. My journey, because I got married immediately when I graduated college, graduated one week, married her the next week, started a church the next week, and went in with that fear. I went in with that concern. I don't want that thing to come back around and revisit me. Because Bible school was kind of like a bubble. It kind of couldn't get to you. But now I'm married and I'm out. And now it had access to me and I had access to it. And we're coming into the age of the Internet once we got married. And I remember when I would go around and preach and when I would go around and travel, literally the Bible says, make no provision for the flesh, I knew that it wasn't totally broken from my life. So I would literally, when I was on the way to a hotel, I would call the people at the desk and say, what room do you have me in? They say, room 213. I'd say, take the TV out.

Wow.

Take the TV out of the room. And the reason my journey was you have to starve the craving.

Yeah.

You have to remove yourself from access and you have to starve the craving. And that worked for me because over time, not allowing myself access to it, it began to weaken. It's just like anything you feed it, it strengthens. You starve it, you weaken it. Would you say that that was a Ron journey or something that many men could follow?

No, I think that's something many men could follow. I think that you were very intentional as well about safeguarding your journey. And I can really relate to that as well, because when I left the porn industry the first time around, I kept all my social media account, my stage name, and so it was like, even though it was like a pimp, that brought me back, the temptation was still there. And so the second time that I left, I knew that if I was going to make this work, I needed to safeguard my life. And so that was the first thing I did before I realized I couldn't afford the Internet. Was I deleted all of my social media accounts that were under my stage name. I changed my phone number because I didn't want my agents or other performers to be able to call me or even I was sporting and all that. So I didn't want clients to call me. Like, I wanted to just disappear. And I didn't tell anybody that I was retiring. And I would. I did that because I knew that if I announced that I was retiring, people would start calling. And then, same thing with, like, my battle with drugs. Like, when I became a Christian, I knew that there were certain family members, houses that I couldn't go to because there would be pills on the microwave and I'd be tempted. And so, yeah, like, avoiding temptation at all costs, like, recognizing where there's a trap and staying away from it. And if you want to get set free from. That's another thing. If you know that your phone with Internet is a temptation or your laptop is a temptation, you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get set free. And if you think like, well, you know, I need this, you know, for work, well, then do you have accountability? Do you have an accountability software? Like, what are you doing to protect yourself? Because to me, I feel like we have to work out our own salvation, is what the Bible says. And, like, it's not worth it for me to fall into sin. I love that Jesus says, if your right hand causes you sin, cut it off. So what does that mean? Throw your phone away, get rid of it. Do whatever you have to do to protect yourself.

I mean, I want to get up and run around the room and shout amen. Because that's exactly the way I feel right there. Me and Hope, we can go in each other's phone at any time. We can look at anything at any time. We stay accountable for any searches that we've had or anything at any time. And one of the first telltale signs to me is when nobody wants them to get in their phone. That is a red flag immediately when that's going on. Especially to me if it's a guy. And so I would say this, and I'm talking too much, but, I mean, I have a history here, too, and I'm passionate about it because I deal with people that are plagued with it all the time and don't want to be. Don't want to be, but don't know how to get out. But one of the things that I noticed about you, I said the word intentionality. One of the things about me, I knew, and, you know, people say well, Pastor Ron, I'm so disappointed. You mean you weren't delivered from it? Well, I don't know, because I never tried to put myself in a position.

Right.

In other words, I tried to remove every access to it. Now my wife is my boundary.

Yeah.

So I tell ladies at the marriage conference, I said, if you want your husband to bring you into this, then when he confesses his struggle, you can't let your jaw drop and you lay into him. Because I said, if you do, it's the last thing he's ever going to tell you.

Right.

And so I had to come clean with her and bring her into the problem so that she could be my accountability. I find that the men thing in the men's ministry. Yeah. But there's ways for me to get to it and not call my accountability brother in the men's ministry. But when you. But when it's the person that you live with, that's a hard habit to hide because they become your accountability. You want to speak to that?

Well, I wanted to say, you know, we talked earlier about bringing porn into marriage. Let's talk about how that is still a no, no.

Yeah. Well, in the words of Jesus, I mean, he says that if you look at a woman lustfully in your heart, that you've already committed adultery, or if you look at a woman lustfully, you've already committed adultery in your. And so bringing porn into your marriage, you are looking at people lustfully. So you are, in the words of Jesus, committing adultery in your heart. And porn is a gateway. It's just like a drug. It triggers the same dopamine receptors as heroin and cocaine. And what do we know about those drugs? We know that you can only when you start using just a small amount, eventually you're going to need more and more and more because it doesn't fulfill you. And so, like, my husband and I have counseled people where they started off years ago, just watching your basic morally acceptable scenes, and they got deeper and deeper and deeper into it. Where, you know, they started then looking at bestiality and, you know, scenes with people being like. Whether it was real or just a reenactment of, like, women being raped. And, I mean, you start to just go deeper and deeper into this role, even getting into pedophilia. And I know that not everybody gets to that point, but it's like, do you even want to bring that into your marriage and have this gateway? And now also, you're creating insecurities in your marriage because you are now allowing yourself to compare yourself to people, Men comparing sizes, women comparing bodies. And I could never amount to her. And you're bringing in the spirit of comparison in your marriage, and that is not going to be good.

No. Brittany, another question that people have often asked women the insecurities of husbands watching porn, and then the husband saying, well, the only reason I watch is because you won't give me the kind of sex that I want.

No talk about that. That's such a blame game. Okay, so what porn does, is it. It makes you create unrealistic standards.

Right.

So good coming from an ex porn star. We are paid actors. Okay, say it again. Paid actors. We are paid actors.

It's not real. It's not real.

It's not real. It's not reality. It's a fantasy. We are being told what to say by directors, what positions to go into, all the things like lights, camera, action.

Cut.

That wasn't good enough. Do it again. It is acting. It is not reality whatsoever. And we have to act in order to get our paycheck. If we fail to pretend like we're not enjoy. If we don't pretend like we're enjoying it, we're not gonna get our paycheck. Right? So, like, let's just debunk that lie right now. And so what porn is now doing is you're watching these scenes. And maybe they were once morally accept, but now you're watching two guys with one girl, or you're watching somebody do anal or bdsm, people getting beat or something like that. And now you're creating an appetite for something that you were never designed to have an appetite for. Because what porn does is porn pushes the limits. Why? Because porn is like a drug. And so those morally acceptable scenes are no longer popular. People don't watch softcore anymore. They all watch triple X scenes. And the triple X scenes, the morally acceptable ones, are fulfilling people anymore. And so they've had to get deeper and deeper into the sin of pornography to fill the void that people are searching for. But it's not gonna kill you.

No, it never does. Only Jesus can satisfy the longings of our soul, our mind, our will, our emotions.

Yep, yep. I've also. Go ahead, go ahead.

If you're putting those unrealistic standards on your spouse and then blaming them for not wanting to meet your high level of. Of standard, that's kind of like in a. Within a standard of perversion, like, that's not on your wife, that's on you.

Yes.

You need to get healed. You need to get your mind healed. You need to get free from that. And you need, you need to really be healed and you need to get restored. You need to be restored. Like, I love what the Lord's restoration looks like. Because the Lord will restore you back to a place before you ever knew what porn was, before you were ever abused, before you were ever hurt. He truly restores the condition of your soul. And that's how like when me and my husband got married, it was like, oh, what am I doing? I totally, what do we do here? Because I was restored to innocence and purity. And you did that for you too.

Well, let me ask you this. The rise of the Internet and especially the smartphone, when I was growing up, you had to work for. You had to go buy the Playboy books and dig a hole in the ground, hide them or hide them in your tree house away from, you know, you had to work for it. And now it's just a click. I mean, tell Siri to go get it for you. And that's all you got to do. We had a rude awakening when our kids were about junior high age and we went on a beach trip and my kids, we had just allowed them to have their first phone. And then that night we got the phones and our kids actually came and told us about it. Our two boys, they were probably 12 and 14, well, they were 17 year old girls that they had met at the pool that day that started sending them nude pictures of themselves. We have been, for whatever reason, appealing to a younger crowd who may think that the sexting and the pics and the send me nudes and everything else that's going on is just kind of innocent. I also see that kind of stuff as a huge gateway and people don't classify that as pornographic, but I see that that is pornographic too.

Yeah, it absolutely is. Because you're sending sexually explicit images to one another and that is, you are dabbling in porn when you do that. That's actually, it reminds me when I was like 13 or 14 and they had the AOL instant chats and we used to send stuff like that to one another. And it seems so harmless when I was 14 years old, but it wasn't. What it was doing was conditioning me to get into deeper and darker things. And that's part of the reason why it was so easy for me to get into the porn industry. Because I had exposed myself and created an appetite for things that a 14 year old just wasn't designed to have an appetite for.

It's waking love before it's time. Scripture talks about it now. Brittany you and I both have talked about this just in our casual time. And you were telling me about several instances where the porn industry will actually give you drugs or give you injections. So we were talking about how it's fake. And so many people don't believe that. They think it is really real. And these people are superhuman. Yeah, yeah. And so it is that fake that they even give you medicine to perform. Correct.

Okay. So it's much like Viagra, but stronger. Men can actually inject themselves so that they can last longer and stay erect longer. And they do this because sometimes you're on set for like an hour. Because like I said, it's not real. It's fantasy. And so you have to, like, cut the scenes are getting cut this and that. And so the only way that they can last that long is by literally putting a needle into their, you know, penis. And that's how they stay erect. So, yeah, it's not reality. So even comparing yourself to, like, man, this guy's lasting so long in the porn scene, it's not real. It's not real.

Yeah. I just am so grateful that, you know, that we're open to being real.

We always have.

And that you have just. That's so brave, Brittany, to, you know, take something so tabooish and something that you want to put behind you and move for. You don't want to be associated with that, but you let God use it and just talk. So open about it because you've seen that you really can be free, that God can really take that. And you're so passionate. Tell us what you offer to people who want to be free.

Yeah. So if you want to be free from porn, you can head over to our website. It's lovealwaysministries.com Like I said, we have our search course, how to stop watching porn. We also have a book that's called A Call to Purity. This book is available on our website or on Amazon. And this book, it's like a call to purity. You think, no sex before marriage, but it's really the word. Purity means to be uncontaminated. And blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So this is a book that's really going to help you to dive deep within the issues of your heart. Maybe. Like, I share a lot about my healing journey over that year that I took off and getting healed with God. And then there's things such as, like, gossip, who you're surrounding yourself with, and all the things that are going to, like, contaminate your heart and Then we help you so that you can set yourself up so that you can have a pure heart. Because when you have a pure heart, your actions will be pure. And so if you can get healed in your heart, like pornography isn't going to be something that's going to be that for you. And then if you are single, you said you had a young audience. We have a free singles course for you on our website. Just go check our website out.

Loveawaysministries.com lovealwaysministries.com if somebody lands on your.

Website, they're going to get instructions one way or the other in ways that they can get.

And you know, and we have a program here at the church called Healing the Heart. And it's a 10 week program. We have phase one, phase two, you can go to our website, myredemption. And we have that. We do it virtually and we do it in person. It's a whole 10 weeks that I teach. So if anybody's listening and you know, we have a lot of resources for you. I mean, years ago you didn't know where to go. No one talk about this. And Brittany has tons. We have some. And then there's another advertiser that we have called Talkspace, which I'm so excited about Talkspace, because, you know, a lot of people say, well, I don't want to go to counseling because I don't.

Have anybody to talk to.

Or they say, I don't want to go to the one here in my city because I don't want them to know my business.

Or I don't want to go to a pastor at the church.

Yes. Because then they may tell their sister or it's going to get out or whatever. But talk space is so important because you can share anything. These are people who you don't know. They are licensed counselors, licensed, trained counselors. And so anything, everybody's struggle is unique, right? Whether it's porn, whether it's a food addiction, whether it's bitterness or unforgiveness and you know, alcoholic or drug addict, everybody. I tell people, I got issues, you got issues, all God's children's got issues. So just because you have an issue, you know, you're not the one that's standing out. And all along we all are on the same journey of life trying to get to the image of Jesus, trying to become more like Jesus.

Issues are not terminal, they're not a life sentence. They can be overcome. And Talkspace offers help.

Yes, it does. And you know, it's so Important that you have somewhere to go, because you know you have to get it out. You have to purge yourself of these things before you can get healed. So go to talkspace.com, put in the code, promo code, ronandhope at the signup, and you'll get a big discount. It's like $100 off your whole session. Tons of individual counselors. You can tell them what your issues are, and then they will pair you with a specialist. And they're licensed counselors, completely private. And it's just so important that you have somewhere to go. So I'm thankful for talkspace.

Amen. Amen. I have one other question before we start, you know, moving, rounding it up, and I'd actually like to pray for people before we get off this today. You know what? As I look at this problem, I usually take my time and I speak to men, but it has been my experience as a pastor. I don't do the counseling anymore, but there was a time where me and Hope were the only staff members. We did every. And when I noticed that young ladies had crossed over into some type of promiscuity, sexual perversion, porn industry, prostitution, things like that, it was almost inevitable. It was one of two things. There was some type of childhood abuse or molestation, or there was a deep, deep. This is what I call it, father wound. A deep fatherless.

Something missing.

Something missing. So with the men, it's, you know, one set of issues that lead them down that road. But maybe to the young girl who now we're finding out, the millennial generation, they're saying, is the first technically fatherless generation. And I think we have belittled how much the absence of a father impacts a child. And I just wondered to the 13, the 14 year old who looks around and all they see is mama and all they see is kids, but they have never had that fatherly influence or may have been wounded, may have been wounded by a walkout father, what would you say to them?

Yeah, I would just encourage you because there's so much healing and so much freedom in Jesus. And I can 100% relate to you. When I was 18, I found out that the dad that raised me wasn't my biological father. And that was really rough for me. And also, like, having him as my. The one that. My father that raised me, like, he was always there for me as a friend, but not necessarily a father. Like, there was no discipline. There was no. Like, I could basically get away with murder. And I know that's how he expressed his love at that time. Like, that's all he knew. But I felt like I didn't have that father figure in my life. And so when I really started to seek God and I started to just read the Bible and worship and pray on a daily basis, I started to discover that God has the perfect love of a father. Like, even if you were blessed with the greatest earthly father, God's love is still greater than that. And so there is so much healing and so much freedom in him. And so I would just encourage you to really develop a close knit relationship with the Lord. God will give you the strength to forgive the father that wasn't there for you, or maybe the father that abused you. It's all going to come from his love, and you're gonna find so much freedom and so much healing in your relationship with him.

Amen. Brittany, would you pray? I know there's got to be people listening. You know, this will be on here for a very long time. And, you know, it may not be today, but it could be next month or even next year. Somebody's gonna come across this podcast who's really been struggling or who wants a way out or who might have been abused. Just ask the Lord, you know, to touch these people and, and to encourage them that there is a way out. Would you just lead us in prayer?

Of course, Father. We come before you in the name of Jesus. And I just thank you so much, Lord, for every single person that is listening to this podcast, Lord. And I pray, God, that you would pour out your spirit upon them, God. Let them encounter the God of comfort, the God of healing, the God of freedom, the God of victory, Lord. And I just pray victory over every single battle that they are facing today, Lord, if they are struggling to stop watching, watching porn, God, we speak your victory. We speak your freedom over them, Lord. I pray, God, that they would be intentional as well as they get into your presence, that you would just download into them, God, all the things that they need, all the wisdom that they need to be able to overcome this battle with you, Lord. And I pray for a deep healing for every single person that is listening, Lord, that whatever they've been through in life, God, you know exactly what, what they've gone through, God. But you are our healer and you can heal their hearts and heal their souls. So we pray for full freedom, full restoration, Lord. And we just pray, God, that after today that they would just hunger and thirst for your presence, that they would hunger and thirst for righteousness. And we know, God, that in their hunger and thirst for you, that they will truly be filled and everything else will fade away. Lord, we love you so much. God we thank you for what you're doing. In Jesus name amen.

Amen. Brittany thank you. I love you. You are just the sweetest light. And just tell your hubby we love him. Thank you for everything you do. Tell him one more time. Where to to get information about you and your ministry.

Yes you can go tolovealwaysministries.com awesome.

God bless you Ron and Hope. Unfiltered, real, raw and relevant.