The devil has no shortage of tools for destroying lives. And in today’s culture, one of his most effective tools is a distorted view of sexuality. The wreckage of such a view is everywhere: A marriage is broken by infidelity. A child is abused by a relative. A pastor is forced from his ministry due to a pornography addiction. A college student thinks back on her one-night stand with deep regret and a wounded heart. Such scenes are all too common. Perhaps no other human desire has been so distorted by our culture as sex. To borrow an illustration from C. S. Lewis, sexual desire has become like a piano key that is played at all the wrong times. Though God designed it for beautiful melodies, it has instead soured the music.
But there is good news. There is hope, because the gospel of Christ has the power to bind up every broken heart and heal every wound. The Word of God tells us that Jesus died to reconcile the sexually broken to himself. At the cross, he poured out his blood to make them whole again and to purify them from every transgression. As members of Christ’s church, we have been entrusted with this ministry of reconciliation, and we know that the gates of hell cannot prevail against us. We have been called by the Spirit to speak prophetically to our culture and to preach forgiveness to the sexually broken. Our goal for this book is to encourage and equip believers to fulfill that mission.
In April 2014, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention hosted its first annual Leadership Summit in Nashville, Tennessee. Its focus was “The Gospel and Human Sexuality.” The ebook contains several lectures and sermons that were delivered at that event.
