Sex and the Supremacy of Christ: An Invitation

From Gospel Translations

Downtown Minneapolis hotel receptionists are being blown away by phone calls from around the country asking, "Are you taking reservations for the Sex and the Supremacy of Christ Conference?" One young non-religious hotel employee said, “I never thought I would hear the word 'sex' and 'Christ' in the same sentence.”

Maybe that is reason enough for Desiring God to put on this conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center on September 24-26. Christ belongs in the same sentence with every reality in the universe. One reason is that “in him all things hold together”—including the power of God-ordained sexuality (Colossians 1:17). Another is that “all things were created through him and for him”—including sexuality. It exists for him, that is, to reflect his glory (Colossians 1:16). The way we handle our sexuality is meant to magnify the worth of Christ. It is meant to show that he is supreme.

For many in our culture, especially men, the giant Jupiter among the planets of our emotional solar system is sex. When the spectacularly larger sun of Christ’s supremacy is rejected as the center of the solar system of our lives, all the planets go out of orbit.

What a chaos results! We see it on all sides in our culture. But when Christ is restored as supreme to the blazing center of the solar system of our lives, all the planets come back into orbit—including the giant Jupiter.

My prayer is that hundreds of you who belong to Bethlehem will register for the conference and attend all the sessions. It will cost you something. These conferences are not cheap to run, though we try not to be lavish. But I believe it will be worth your investment. It will help us as a church to be on the same page if hundreds of us come and hear what these remarkable speakers will say about sexuality and Christ in our day. Our aim is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things—including sexuality. I hope that you will come and go deeper in your understanding of what that means.

The conference begins Friday night and runs all day Saturday and ends with worship Sunday morning. That Sunday Morning worship service is only for registered participants. For those of you who do not come to the conference, C. J. Mahaney, one of the conference speakers, will speak at the Sunday morning services downtown, and David Livingston will speak at the Saturday evening service downtown. There will be no North services. This is owing to other activities of Northwestern College that require us to be away.

If you believe it would honor God, I invite you to pray with me that he would bring 3,000 people to this conference. I believe it has the potential for great exaltation and great liberation. They go together. That is the thesis of the conference. The exaltation of Christ to the supreme place in our affections will be the liberation of our minds and bodies from the dominating power of lust—whatever kind is typical for women and whatever kind is typical for men. Plus some very atypical forms. We believe that the supremacy of Christ will sever the power of the sinful sexual desire. Would you pray for that, and come to experience the fullness of that?

I am deeply thankful for the dozens (hundreds?) of you that pitch in to help make a conference like this happen. Pray with all your heart that God would do more for the exaltation of Christ, and the liberation of his people, and the confrontation of our culture than we could have dreamed.

With high expectation for Christ’s honor and your joy,

Pastor John