We recently surveyed 8,000 Desiring God readers. Our study found that ongoing pornography use is not only dreadfully common, but increasingly higher among younger adults. More than 15% of Christian men over age sixty admitted to ongoing use. It was more than 20% for men in their fifties, 25% for men in their forties, and 30% for men in their thirties. But nearly 50% of self-professing Christian men, ages 18–29, acknowledged ongoing use of porn. (The survey found a similar trend among women, but in lesser proportions: 10% of females, ages 18–29; 5% in their thirties; increasingly less for forties, fifties, and sixty-plus.).

In less than three minutes, Trip Lee offers three truths to any Christian struggling with porn. He reminds viewers of God’s good news, the seriousness of pornography, and the benefit of involving other believers to help us fight it.

The following is a lightly edited transcript.

Pornography has been something that has been on my heart a lot for many years as I have thought about my music and writing. I know how much of an epidemic it is among young men.

It has come to the point where if I talk to a young man about his life, I am not at all surprised to hear that there is a struggle with porn. I would be shocked if I met a young man who hasn’t struggled with it at some point, because it is just so easily accessible and damaging to our souls.

“If we want to kill sin, we have to expose it. We have to bring other people in and confess sin regularly.” Twitter Tweet Share on Facebook

When I talk to young men who are struggling with it, often what you get, if it is a Christian who really wants to honor Jesus, is this deep despair — because it is a unique sin. It is unique to other sexual sins, because you don’t have to go anywhere to indulge in it. You don’t have to make a long series of bad decisions to fall into it. There is often this kind of despair from men imprisoned by their sin.

The first thing that I want to do is remind them of the gracious gospel of Jesus. You could have looked at porn every day for the last 500 days and Jesus has not run out of grace. That same cross that you heard about the first time is the same cross that can forgive you now.

The second thing I want to do is press into their hearts the seriousness of sin. I don’t want them to think that, just because it is our eyes on a computer screen or because we’re engaging in it alone, it is less serious. It is very serious, mainly because of the God you are sinning against. It’s also serious because you are sinning against the people you’re watching, the way it is going to affect your life and your relationship with Jesus, your future marriage if you are not married yet, and your marriage if you are married — all of those reasons.

The third thing I want to encourage is to be open about that sin. The biggest mistake so many people make because of embarrassment and, though we wouldn’t want to admit it, our love of sin is we don’t want to expose ourselves to other people. When we refuse to expose sin, we are really saying, “Instead of killing sin, I am going to coddle it. Instead of fighting sin, I am going to protect it. I am going to leave it over here in the dark where it can keep surviving and keep growing and go deeper into my heart.” If we want to kill sin, we have to expose it. We have to bring other people in and confess sin regularly.

Those are the main things. I want to remind you of the gospel. I want to remind you how serious that sin is. I want to remind you of the benefit of having other believers in your life to help you fight it.