Today I want to talk about dopamine fix and a debased mind out of Romans 1
To give you a quick overview
Romans 1 talks about the fact that if we go our own way
Turning away from God it all begins with suppressing the truth. We don't want to hear the truth. We're gonna suppress the truth
Well suppressing the truth then actually leads to a confused mind
Which then leads to worshiping idols and images in our life and then God gives us over to vile passions
God gives us over to unnatural passions and then at the end
Leading to which is the end of the journey, which is death in verse 28 in Romans 1
We read this and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge
God gave them over to a debased mind. Now this word debased is a
auto
auto chemos in the Greek and it's the idea of the
deterioration of the mind or the weakening of the mind and
What I'm going to talk about today is that's literally
Biologically
Neuroscientifically true that as we suppress truth, we have futility in thinking we start allowing
Images to guide us. We worship images in our life
It's going to lead to a debased mind. It's actually literally leading to your mind
Atrophy and the truth is that the most powerful sex organ in your body is actually your brain
more
Biological impact upon us from casual sex is becoming more and more
Clear. So in other words as he talks about the unnatural passions of sexuality
That were in our last episode and you should you should listen to that to give you a preview to this message
It's really true that if we continue to indulge in
Sexual areas that are unnatural that are outside of God's kingdom way. It's going to start to destroy your mind and now
Neuroscientific theory and neuroscientific studies are showing this to be absolutely true and at least a depression
it leads to
Despair and in many cases actually leads to suicide
So there have been studies and in the book that I'm referencing my studies from is a book called hook
And in the book called hook the authors
Three doctors are talking about the hookup culture and what it does to our brains three things
That they found that are in in this book number one boys and girls
Who had sex were more likely to be depressed and suicidal?
number two
Those who had sex with multiple partners before marriage had difficulty bonding with one partner after marriage and
Then number three those who chose to only have sex with their marriage partner were more well-adjusted
Less depressed and more able to adapt to life struggles than those who had sex with multiple people
So what I'm going to do today in this episode is just try to help us understand a little bit of the neuro
Anatomy and the chemistry of the brain how your brain works, and so I'm going to use some
big words
And I'll try to go slow as I read these and explain what?
These neuroscience and doctors have found to be true the prefrontal cortex
Here is important in control and judgment
It's what separates us from the animal kingdom our decision-making abilities
three-dimensional
Esoteric ability
Existential ability to understand life understand things is unique to human beings and is determined by the pre
frontal cortex
We also have nucleus occupants
These play a central role in the reward circuit of our brains
We also have ventral tegmental area called the VTA
This is a dopamine-rich
nucleus
Where dopamine is produced?
dr. Hilton writes
when a stimulus from the cortex
comes into the brain stem the VTA
Causes dopamine to be released from the ends of the nerve cells
where it crosses a synaptic cleft that's the space between the nerve cells and
Binds to receptors on the pleasure cells in the nucleus occupants now. This is going to I think become more clear
or as I explain it more as we move along.
There are five primary chemicals released
through sexual arousal and responsive.
The most significant being dopamine.
This is a chemical in your brain.
The chemical of reward-driven behavior.
Every type of reward that has been studied
increases the level of dopamine transmission in the brain.
Now, let me just say this.
The chemical dopamine is morally neutral.
It's spiritually neutral, it's just a fact
that God has given us dopamine as a reward system.
So dopamine can be a really, really good thing.
I mean, dopamine is what causes us
to take the risk to go to college after high school.
Dopamine is the chemical released in our brain
that gives us the ability to take risk.
The risk of starting a company.
The risk of starting a ministry.
The risk of marrying someone.
The risk of becoming a father or mother.
That's all dopamine-driven.
So that's a good part of the neurochemicals
in the brain called dopamine.
And it's dopamine that makes great athletes.
I mean, if you don't have dopamine,
you're not gonna do anything.
We'll be just sitting around on a couch doing nothing
if we didn't have dopamine.
So dopamine is a God-given chemical of risk-taking.
It's also a God-given chemical that looks for reward
when we do take risk.
It's the reward system of the brain, dopamine,
that can also be very destructive if it's not disciplined,
leading into pornography, casual sex, excessive drinking
from the high one gets from doing risky things.
Now, this is especially true with men.
I mean, you don't usually arrest women
for doing drag racing on a major highway
at two o'clock in the morning.
That's usually men.
We men have a greater tendency
toward risk-taking behaviors for sure.
Well, pornography has the power of releasing dopamine.
So whenever we see anything that brings sexual arousal,
that feeling that you get, this is male or female,
but I'm speaking a lot toward men
because we're the ones who struggle the most
in the area of pornography, is the chemical release,
the feeling you have, I've gotta have more,
I've gotta have more, I wanna see more,
I wanna see, I wanna experience more, that's dopamine.
That's that chemical in the prefrontal cortex being released
and it is the same addictive nature.
This is really important.
It has the same addictive nature
as cocaine, amphetamines, and meth.
So you've met people who are meth addicts.
You may have met some people that struggle
with cocaine or heroin.
It's that same release, same chemical release
that goes with those illegal drugs.
So this is actually a legal drug
that's released in your brain that can be hugely addictive.
Dopamine has been called
the novel chemical drug of the brain.
Dopamine has been called
the novel chemical drug of the brain.
And the reason is, is because it needs more novelty
to continue to give the same high that you had before.
So if you're not careful,
and let's just take examples of looking at,
I don't know, women in bathing suits,
and you get turned on by that,
and that turn on is the chemical dopamine
in your prefrontal cortex.
So then you click on a little bit more
to see a little bit more,
and then the next day a little bit more,
and then the next week a little bit more,
that's how dopamine works.
That's actually the way cocaine works too,
that you need more stimulus to get the same high
that you did before.
And what happens, literally, physically happens
in the prefrontal cortex is the release of dopamine,
the dopamine fix that happens,
the high that comes through looking at stuff like this,
it builds a ditch.
It actually digs a ditch in your prefrontal cortex,
and then it becomes extremely difficult to quit
because the dopamine is used to being released.
It's now got almost like a riverbed
that the streams of the dopamine chemical
can flow in your prefrontal cortex,
and literally, physically, you can see on studies
this ditch that's been dug in people's prefrontal cortex.
Research in the United States has shown
that 66% of men and 41% of women
consume pornography on a monthly basis.
An estimated 50% of all internet traffic is related to sex.
The Huffington Post reports that the average age
that kids are being exposed to pornography.
is now 11 years old.
I know Focus and the family, in a recent study,
they had said nine years old.
Porn today is way more interesting than porn in the past
because of what experts say is unending novelty.
There is this term called the Cooleridge effect.
This idea is that a novel drug in our brain, being dopamine,
dopamine needs more and more novel experiences
to reach the same levels of release.
A person can see more novel bodies in 20 minutes
with the click of the mouse
than their parents saw in a lifetime.
So you don't think the porn industry knows this.
They totally know this.
And so erotic imagery triggering dopamine in your brain
is very, very addictive.
And here's the part that's kind of scary
if you think about it.
It rewires your brain.
It actually rewires your brain
and it actually atrophies your brain.
Physically, we can show in neuroscientific studies
that actually your brain shrinks
with constant release of dopamine
because you weren't created to have these dopamine fixes
and these dopamine highs
at the rate that we're experiencing it today.
In other words, it's leading to a debased mind.
That's what the scriptures say.
Isn't it amazing how the scriptures way ahead
have shown us that these things are true?
Arousal addiction, which is a term used in these studies,
is associated with ADHD, social anxiety,
depression, performance anxiety, OCD, and suicide.
A dopamine surge results in a binge mechanism
which kicks in the molecular switch called delta-fos-B,
which accumulates leading to cravings for more.
The best example I can think of
is how when you're hungry, you eat.
And for people who have struggled with their weight,
when depression comes, they tend to eat more.
They're hungry all the time, they eat more,
and they start to gain weight.
Well, in the same way, your body is longing for something.
And you remember the feeling of satisfaction
and the feeling of the high that comes
with looking at pornography or actual sexual behavior
with the opposite of the same sex.
That's a dopamine high, that's a dopamine fix,
and it becomes addictive in our bodies.
Now, here's what's interesting about the studies.
There's another chemical.
And this chemical is oxytocin.
Oxytocin is a neurochemical that is critical
in understanding how the brain works with sex.
Oxytocin is active in both genders.
It is called the bonding chemical,
and it's especially strong in women.
And what this is, men and women,
is that as dopamine is released through sexual arousal,
so is oxytocin.
And oxytocin is set up by God to bring a bonding,
an intimacy with that person that you're having sex with,
and a bonding that creates a longing to be with that person.
It's called the trust neurochemical.
And this is God's design.
That's why it's so important that a man or woman
who are in love and they get married,
when they have sexual relations,
oxytocin being released, especially in the female,
creates a bonding with that person.
Well, the chemical in men is still oxytocin,
but also it's another chemical called vasopressin.
Vasopressin is the bonding agent in men.
So why is that important?
Because under God's design,
the sexual relationship done God's way creates bonds.
It creates intimacy.
It creates a trust and a love for that other person.
And that's a beautiful thing.
The term that's been used is long-term connectiveness.
There's a long-term connectiveness
that comes through a relationship
that has oxytocin, vasopressin,
and dopamine being released into our bloodstream.
It's a beautiful connection.
Well, imagine that we're constantly breaking the bond.
So in other words,
that doesn't happen the same way with pornography
because there's no connectivity.
There's no work involved in the relationship
that would release a bonding agent
of oxytocin and vasopressin.
So what we're doing is we're actually breaking God's design
through pornography.
We're breaking God's design.
by having multiple sex partners. We're breaking God's design by having a multitudinal sexual
encounter with different people, because you're going against the nature of God's Kingdom
way with vasopressin and oxytocin in our lives. So, it's leading to what we would call a depraved
mind, that's what Paul calls it, a debased mind, a depraved mind. And so, men and women
I want to challenge you, if you're caught in the hookup culture, if you're caught in
the throes of pornography, you've got to rewire your brain. You can, there is hope to rewire
your brain. It's super difficult though, it is hard, and that's where we need others in
our life to hold us accountable, but it is possible. This is also the way Paul described
it, he said, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies, or I'm going to say you present your brains, as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable
to God, which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this world, do not
let dopamine rewire your brain, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In other words,
rewire your mind in the kingdom way, that you may prove what is that which is good,
acceptable, and the perfect will of God. God is a supernatural God. We have a God that
has power from the Holy Spirit to change us. I know probably hundreds of people now in
my life who have had porn addictions, who have come out of the hookup culture, who are
now walking in freedom, and walking in the joy of sex, the way God meant it to be, and
the pleasure for which it meant it to be, and the bonding for which it was meant to
be. I want to challenge you to renew your mind, and to begin the new journey of getting
set free from these chemical addictions that can come. And I pray that as you learn to
understand the power of the gospel, that you can't do it. I mean, let me go back to Romans
1, 16 and 17. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation
for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. For in it, meaning
the power of the gospel, the righteousness of God is released, or revealed, from faith
to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. I want you to note something
in verse 17, it says, revealed from faith to faith. So, there is a faith, that salvation
faith, but then there's a faith that's a sanctifying faith. That's the daily power.
That's daily realizing, hey, I can't change. I don't have the power to change. But God,
would you come in your great exchange, I give you my flesh, I give you my sin, I give you
my addictions. Lord, would you come and now empower me with your righteousness. Would
you impart to me your righteousness that I can begin to rewire my brain and walk in
all the joy for which sex was created. Joy with that person that I'm in love with, that
I'm married to. And that's really what it's all about, folks. That's the rewiring of the
brain, and it's also the freedom that's possible through the power of the gospel. God bless
you.