If we follow the church calendar, last Sunday would have been Epiphany Sunday, where we recognize the visit of the Magi to the infant Baby Jesus. These men came from the East following a star. This star led them first to King Herod, and then on to Bethlehem where they found the King of Kings and worshiped Him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Now we could spend the rest of our time here this morning debating about the specifics of the Magi, or Wise Men. Were there 3 or 12? Did they come from different nations or one singular nation? Did they follow a star or a planet?

Perhaps we would all be a bit more intelligent if we had that kind of a message this morning, but I am more concerned about our hearts than our heads this morning. On this weekend, where we remember a man that gave his life for justice and equality, I want us to remember that 2,000 years before his time; there was an infant baby, born in a lowly manger that did the same thing. These Magi, or Wise Men, came to worship the King of Kings. We do know that they were not of Jewish descent, and we know that God used them in His plan; as he directed them home by way of a different route. This in turn allowed Mary and Joseph enough time to bring Jesus to Egypt before King Herod could find this king who was to usurp his rule.

These Magi did something pretty incredible that I don’t want to forget. In the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew it states:

Beginning with verse 9: After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down to worship him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

The actions of these men from the east did something that changed the course of history. Their worship of this child told the world that this newborn messiah was not simply for the Jewish nation, but He was for all of the world. Their worship expanded God’s family to the entirety of the known world. This Savior born to Mary was not just for the people of that time and that place, but this baby, Emmanuel , God with us, was born for each of us as well. He was born for those that have gone before us, and He was born for the generations that will follow us as well.

Perhaps we have focused all along on the wrong thing. We are quick to have our children memorize the gifts that the Magi brought to baby Jesus, but we have forgotten to talk about their worship, and the fact that Jesus came as a Savior for the world instead of just for us. What does the term, “Savior of the world” mean for us today?

It means that we are all connected. It says in the 139th Psalm that God created our inmost being, that, He knit us together in our mother’s womb. I don’t think David was simply talking about himself, but all of humanity. And if we go back even further to the creation of man in the book of Genesis we hear these words, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

These verses aren’t just for us in America. These verses aren’t just for us with wealth. These verses aren’t just for those that have grown up in the church. They are for the world!

This past summer, on our way to Uganda, we had an unexpected delay in Washington D.C., and I was so grateful as it afforded us enough time to tour the Holocaust Museum. Are there others here that have gotten to share in that experience? Well I believe I can speak for all of us and attest to the fact that it is a powerful and moving experience.

I was speechless as we left this memorial. And as I absorbed the stories that were shared within during our long flights to Africa, I was filled with a great sense of shame. “How could the Christians of the world allow this to happen?,” I kept asking myself. And then I thought of the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994 that much of the world simply ignored. We could look at Serbia, the killing fields of Cambodia, at what is currently happening in North Africa or Central Africa,and the Savior of the world cries another tear.

We are connected, not in the gifts that the Magi brought to Jesus, but we are connected in the suffering that Christ endured on behalf of all of us. We are all connected, not in the material things that keep us distracted, but in the fact that we all wear skin.

Now I have never been accused of being overly patriotic. And it is not because that I am not grateful for my freedoms, but it is because I worship the Savior of the world, not the Savior of America, and I think that Dr. King would not want us to only demand equal rights for our nation, but for equal rights around the world–for the child stuck in a brothel in New Delhi, or the child soldier being forced to kill in the name of some revolution that only promises more destruction.

Jesus did not come to lead us to earthly riches, but He came to this earth to lead us to the cross. We are blessed when we suffer for the Kingdom. We are blessed when we join the rest of our family in their suffering as well.

Going back to the Gospel of Matthew, I want to look at one of the first teachings of Jesus, His sermon on the mount found in Matthew 5. I am going to read this passage from The Message, a contemporary translation of the Bible, and as I read these words to you, I want you to think about what the Savior of the world means for you this morning.

I fully believe that there are days that we simply need to revel in the fact that God loves us, cares for us. But today, I want us to think about the fact that we have been blessed through the cross, so that we can in turn be a blessing to the world.

You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are –no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.
You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full’, you find yourselves cared for.
You’re blessed when you get your inside world – your mind and heart –put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.
You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.
Not only that – count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens – give a cheer, even! – for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

We, in this place, are a blessed people. May we leave this sanctuary knowing that our blessings, just like Christ , are meant for the world.

How does the fact that we worship the Savior of the World change us? How does it impact the way in which we worship? How does it impact the way in which we communicate with one another? How does it impact the way we spend our time, or our finances?

Perhaps, the fact that we worship the Savior of the World changes nothing in our lives, or perhaps it changes everything!

The Magi came to worship this Savior of the World, and then God instructed them to go home by way of a different route. Maybe God is saying the same things to us this very day. Maybe He is saying that now that we have had an encountered this Savior for ourselves, that we too, must journey down a new path.

What will you do with this Savior? Better yet, what will you allow this Savior to do with you?

Michael Warneke <> January 17, 2012

As always it is a pleasure and a blessing when I have the opportunity to share my heart with you on Sunday mornings. I hope and pray that you were able to find reason to be thankful and grateful for your lives over this past weekend.

As this year has continued to move quickly, I find it almost odd to say that we now find ourselves in the first week of Advent. We quickly move from the theme of thanksgiving and gratitude to that of preparation.

The Worship Team has chosen the theme of “waiting for peace” for Advent this year at Central. And this morning I have the privilege of discussing the idea of waiting for peace in our lives. Before even realizing it, God had placed this topic on my heart many months ago on our team’s plane ride to London over this past summer’s mission trip. I enjoy travel for so many reasons, but one of them is the opportunity to dig into the stack of must read books that my life seems too busy to enjoy during the day to day activities of my work and our family.

The book I happened to unpack on this long flight was entitled Permission to Speak Freely, by a bold and straightforward cheerleader and critic of the church, Anne Jackson. It was both a sobering and challenging read, as she urged the church to speak of our struggles, our joys, our fears, and the grace present in our lives in an honest and sometimes uncomfortable way. But more than anything, the book was about confession. As many of you know, I grew up in the Catholic Church, and formal confession was a part of my earlier practice of the faith. But this is not the kind of confession that Anne was calling her readers to, it was a real, honest, and community based confession that allows us to heal, and allows others the ability to move out of the darkness they are hiding in, into the light of God’s grace.

Now I know that when many of you heard the word confession, that you may already be tuning me out. The problem with confession is two-fold. For one it actually takes time to look inwardly, to slow down, and to simply be present long enough to recognize the sin in our lives. And second, it takes the courage to remove our masks and recognize ourselves as sinners in the first place.

G. K. Chesterton was once asked what was wrong with the world. He simply replied, “The problem with the world is me.” He understood what the apostle Paul meant when he said he was the worst sinner of all in 1 Timothy 1:15. Anne Jackson wrote that, “I’m struggling to believe this as well because if the greatest tragedy of my life isn’t my sin, then the greatest joy will never be my rescue from it.” Let me read that last line for you one more time: “if the greatest tragedy of my life isn’t my sin, then the greatest joy will never be my rescue from it.”

As Abby read the words to us earlier from Paul’s letter to the Romans (Romans 7:7-25), we are reminded that we are all sinners, and how we have the desire to do good, but so often cannot carry it out. We all have struggles, sin that permeates our lives, and we can help one another heal in community when we are a confessing people.

Before I move any further I want for us to make a distinction between confession and admission.  Admission is the simple act of sharing something that’s wrong to get it off our chest. Confession on the other hand, is the beginning of true transformation.

Anne writes in her book, “When you confess something that’s shattered in your life, something you’ve kept hidden, you’re acknowledging that you need the Cross. You need God’s grace, and you’re willing to allow it to find you as you seek the truth.” But a difficult scenario takes place in our hearts, and theologian Scott Hahn sums this up nicely: “The more we need confession, the less we seem to want it.”

Whether it is a deep laden sense of guilt or shame, the possibility of our legacy being tarnished, or simply the fear of being worthy of restoration, something within us keeps us from laying bear our souls in this place, the church, where we should have the ability to be most real. This community in which we worship and live, should be the safest place to remove our masks while we wait for that true peace within ourselves.

One of Anne’s chapters was entitled, The Gift of Going Second. And I absolutely love the concept of how when we can find the courage to confess something, even to just one person, the long-term effects of that confession can move others into rediscovering their faith and their freedom.  When we confess our struggles and our pain we allow others to stand with us in our vulnerability and recognize that we are all sinners, and that God’s grace is in reach of all of our lives.

My prayer for our church during this Advent season, and far into the future, is that we would not only learn to share our faith with one another, as we practiced during our Unbinding Your Heart series, but that we would learn to confess our struggles as well. I hope that we can create a safe environment, free of judgment to share our struggles, to pursue the Cross together, and to be restored alongside one another.

So as we prepare ourselves for Advent and the coming of Christ’s birth, I am going to ask you this morning, I am going to challenge you this morning to be real with God. Peace within does not coexist with our hidden sins; it is directly attached to the grace with which God replaces the sin in our lives. It is only through the recognition or our brokenness that we are made complete in God.

So much of our talk of Christmas is around the idea of giving gifts to others. Perhaps this Christmas the greatest gift that you could give to a loved one, a family member, or a complete stranger is the Gift of Going Second.

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I want to close with the reading of a written prayer this morning. Abby and I were able to take some of the youth to a Toby Mac concert a few weeks back, and Toby read this prayer as an intro to one of his songs, and it really struck a chord with me. So as I close this message I want to use this time to confess my own selfishness to our community.

It’s a devotional that a pastor in Franklin, Scotty Smith, shared on his Blog.

A Prayer about Loving to Be First
I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
3 John 9-10
Dear Jesus,

Being chronicled, by name, in the Scriptures as someone who loved to be first, is a sobering proposition.

Though I grieve Diotrephes’ destructive impact in the church, I don’t stand in judgment of him.

Please convict me and free me from the ways I, too, love to be first.
In my marriage—when I’m more concerned about my needs than my spouse’s heart; when I hear but don’t really listen; when I pout more than I pursue; when I’m more aware of what disappoints me than what delights my spouse.

In my friendships—when I respond to their calls, but don’t really pursue my friends; when I talk about my stuff more than I stay current with their stories; when I love to be remembered more than I’m faithful to pray for my friends.

In my vocation—when colleagues sense I’m more preoccupied with my schedule and success than committed to love and serve as a member of a team; when staying busy takes precedent over giving presence; when I want things to be done more than I want people to feel loved.

In the general population—when I navigate through life with little eye contact and don’t work hard to remember names; when my driving clearly says, “Get out of the way. Me first”; when I push my shopping-cart in the grocery store like a madman on a mission, grabbing items and speeding-up to get to the shortest check-out line first; when I get impatient with waiters and store clerks.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. You didn’t consider your equality with God something to be held onto selfishly. You didn’t love to be first. Rather, you emptied yourself of your glory by taking the nature of a servant. You served us by your life and by your death on the cross. Now you live to serve us, as advocate, intercessor and Bridegroom.

I am convicted and humbled afresh, by your lavish and selfless love. Restore my first love for you, that my love for being first will decrease, and die a thousand deaths. So very Amen, I pray, in your matchless and merciful name.

November 28, 2011 <> Mike Warneke

I have been tasked this morning to speak on the topic of stewardship as we approach commitment Sunday, where we all pledge our giving for the coming year. I have to be honest, as this is not a topic I was overly excited to share about. One of those reasons is that messages on money are often tuned out by the congregation, or they have an easier opportunity to offend, and secondly I don’t always feel like a good steward of all that God has given to me to protect and distribute.

In a world where the line between the “haves and have nots” grows ever wider it seems difficult to make sense of our roles in the global community. We are called to be generous, we all know that, we are called to be loving, we all know that, but how can we shed new light on the fact that we belong to the richest society to ever live on the face of this planet, but yet we are still surrounded by those who do not have their basic needs met. I hope through the examination of scriptures from the Old and New Testament we can learn a bit more about ourselves and the economy that God calls us to, that is drastically different from what the world tries to force upon us.

Before we get much further, I want to point out that money is not something we are often comfortable talking about with friends, and certainly not in church. However it was a topic that was all too familiar to the prophets and to Christ himself. Money has the power to deceive and lead us astray in a very convincing and often unassuming fashion. There is much danger walking the line between our devotion to God and our need for money to survive. So if the God we serve was all too happy to address the difficulties His people of old struggled with, and Jesus pointed to this numerous times as well, than it should be no surprise that financial issues can often tear apart families and even entire congregations.

It is often the lack of money or the abundance of money that leads to war, conflict, or issues of entitlement that cut us off from experiencing true community. So as much as there is a real need to talk about tithing, and giving to the church a 10% portion of our income, I want to go a bit beyond that and focus on redefining our relationship with money as a whole. To close my message today I am going to show you a short clip about regrets, and I can’t help but think that many of our regrets are linked to finances, or how we can allow money to sour friendships with family, friends, and even God.

The first scripture passage that I want to turn to today is in the gospel of Matthew, and it most likely does not come up on stewardship Sunday’s very often, but I find it very challenging in my own life and how it relates to the financial environment of my family.

Matthew 16:13-20 states: 13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is? 14They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah: and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15”But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of John, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

The question that I want to ask you this morning in light of this passage from Matthew is this; “Who does your money say that the Son of Man is?” I think that it is very easy for us to pledge our love for God with our lips, but harder to do so with our lives. Our actions show our true devotion, and our finances, whether we like it or not, will point to our priorities. If you put your bills in a large pile, and analyzed your budget and your credit card statements what would they say about your relationship with God and your relationship with others around you? I know for a fact that our credit card statements would reveal that we are more devoted to going out to eat than we are to feeding the hungry. That we are much more devoted to clothing ourselves than we are to clothing the naked. Who do you say God is, by the way that you spend your money?

Now that is a tough question to answer, and I don’t want you to jump the gun to feeling guilty or quite proud of how your money is spent, but I want us this morning to take some time to step back from our busy lives and process the relationship that each of us has with money. We are called to live in freedom with Christ, and one of those ways is through the bondage that financial responsibility or financial temptation can place on our lives. Here are a few questions I would like us to ponder together this morning. Find that quiet happy place and really give some thought to your lives regarding the following questions:

Do you stress about money?
Do the issues of money create walls in your family relationships?
Do you tell yourself the little lie that, “If only I had this much more money, than I could be content?”
Are you harboring any bitterness or anger towards others over issues of lending or feeling taken advantage of?
Do you give to the tables of others, more than to the feast in your own home?
Are you giving sacrificially or out of your own abundance?
Do you own all of your stuff, or does all of your stuff own you?
If only I won the lottery, then I would be happy to give more to others?

Okay I will stop with the questions for a bit, but the reason for this self examination is that I am convinced the lure of money is one of the greatest stumbling blocks to our faith, that create barriers between us and God, and us and our neighbors. The prophet Zechariah is not afraid to address the issues of power and money with a boldness that only a prophet could get away with. In Zechariah 11:5 it states, “Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished (speaking about slaves and masters). Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich.’” As Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove points out in his book God’s Economy, “the demonic power of money, according to the prophet, is that it reduces people to property that can be bought and sold. Then, what’s worse, it convinces the oppressors that God has blessed them.”

Entitlement is an ugly word. But in the land of water parks and flat panel TV’s it is easy to become blinded to what most of the world deals with just to survive. If we are honest with ourselves we are living among a nation of kings and queens. Yes there is poverty here in Evansville, but how many of you drove yourselves to church today? We often hide in the shadows of entitlement justifying our spending or the amount of our possessions by falsely comparing ourselves to those in Hollywood or those who earn an NFL salary, instead of the 2 billion people who live on less than 1$ a day.

I struggle to understand the economy of the world, because I will never be able to bridge that gap from the wealth of America to the struggle to survive that is so common in Uganda. But the beauty is that we are all invited to live the same abundant life that God calls us to. But this abundant life is not what the commercials and Hollywood would have you believe, it is instead a certain kind of freedom that only makes sense in light of the cross. This abundant life is freedom from the poverty that says some people are worthless and the freedom from the wealth that tempts us to forget about God. We are all called to this abundant life that is completely separate from a paycheck, or a 4 car garage, or even a roof over our head.

The reason I love God’s economy so much is because we not only get to receive God’s blessings, but we are called to then distribute them as well. God never asks us to do something or to give something that has not first been given to us. The only reason that I can forgive, is because I have first been forgiven. The only reason that I can love, is that I have first been loved. The only reason that I can give sacrificially is because Jesus has already given His all sacrificially for each one of us.

I want to close this morning with another conversation of Christ with his disciples and specifically once again that of Peter. Following the resurrection Jesus talks with Peter and has the following conversation. John 21:15-19, “15When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” 16Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” 17The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!’”

Are you willing to follow God into the unknown and leave the power of money in your past? When Jesus asks you if you love him, can you respond with a resounding yes with your lips, and have the proof to back it up by the generosity of your giving?

“Do you love me?” Jesus asks. He doesn’t respond that if you love him you will feed yourselves and build enough storehouses so you will never go without. Our love for God is lived out by how well we care for those in need around us. “Do you love me?” From this day forward may the way we handle money answer God with a resounding YES!

September 29, 2011 <> Michael Warneke

As some of you know, I had the privilege of traveling back to Uganda late last month and getting back to the states on the 7th of August. It was another journey of my life that will take quite some time to fully digest, as God continues to bring forth lessons of wisdom and growth as I think back on my time with the beautiful people of Uganda.

Each time I travel to this part of the world it becomes harder and harder to leave. Partly it is because of the joy-filled little children that we serve; partly because of the freedom that is found in living out unobstructed purpose without the distractions and responsibilities of home life; and partly because I long to be immersed in the true community that I find is so easily accessible there. Although I was certainly ready to see my wife and kids by the end of my trip, in some ways I wish I could have snapped my fingers and magically brought Abby and the boys to Kampala.

I certainly had some unique opportunities on this trip that I won’t soon forget, and I want to share some of them with you this morning along with the spiritual impact that they have thus far had on my faith. I first want to focus on the theme of community, and how refreshing it is to live with a common focus and purpose on these trips with Sweet Sleep. It is such grace to be united with other believers for the good of the orphaned and disadvantaged children that we are serving.

I want to list some verses for you on community from Acts 2 and 1 Thessalonians 2 that will lead us into some of the blessings I experienced during this journey to Africa and back.
Acts 2:42-44
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
1 Thessalonians 2:6-13
6 We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.
As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, 7 but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. 8 We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. 9 Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.
10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. 11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
The word of God was hopefully at work in us while we served, but I learned in concrete ways just how much the word of God is rooted in these incredible children. On Wednesday afternoon of our first week we had the honor of traveling back to Blessed Hope Champions Academy where we had served with Sweet Sleep the previous year. It was so wonderful to see so many familiar faces and to hear the shouts of “Uncle Mike” from many of the kids that I had made a special connection with. What I did not expect was what happened just a few seconds off of the bus. A young boy by the name of Joseph, who last year had drawn countless pictures for my son Gideon, walked up to me without any lead-in and asked me how Gideon was doing. He not only remembered me, but he remembered the name of my son, and here is the reason why. Before we left that evening Joseph found me and placed this very letter in my hand, it stated:
Dear Gideon,
How are you? Back to the pen holder, I am fine. I pray for you every day and may the good almighty
Lord bless you. I am in primary seven. From your faithfully loving friend,
Nyanzi Joseph

That is a form of community I never thought possible. My son may live through his entire adolescence and not have a more faithfully loving friend than an orphaned child in Uganda that he has never even met, but is praying blessings over his life every single day. I try to make the grace-filled decision when I am in Uganda to live by Paul’s words to share not only the Gospel but my life as well, and these are some of the results. Other results are the friendship / brotherhood that I have found in my friend Jonathan in whom I hope and pray our lives are intertwined in love and service for the rest of our lives. When we are willing to open up our lives, community happens. When we are willing to be vulnerable, community happens. When we are willing to love not just with our words, but our very lives, community happens. And sometimes community takes on new forms that we never thought possible, as it has become with Joseph and Gideon.

There are a few more things that I want to share with you, and two of them are images of grace, and I hope that I can paint the pictures for you properly. With my extra week in Kampala I was given the opportunity to shed a little of my Mzungu skin and blend in a bit more with my surroundings. I had another honor of going back to Africa Greater Life, where I served my first summer in 2009. I got to see many of the precious kids that made such an impact on me that first year and in some ways became my Africa. One such boy, another Joseph lived at AGL with his grandmother, Pascazia, and I was saddened to learn that she was sick. To say that she was sick does not do the scene in which I saw justice. I went to visit and pray with this once vibrant women I had met two years earlier who was now a mere 65 pounds. She lay alone in a room lying on a foam mat covered in a few sheets and many flies. As we prayed together and I shared with her that I had come back once again to check on her grandson, I couldn’t help but think of the millions of other African saints that have met this same end. And do you know the words that came to her frail lips, words of gratitude for the love that I have shown to Joseph. They were not words of fear, of anger, of pity, they were weak whispered words of thanks, and I have never felt more unworthy of gratitude in my whole life.

Another story took place later the next evening on Friday night. We were running a bit late to pick up some jewelry, from an incredible women by the name of Rose, and due to our tardiness we were now going to pick up the items at her home. Rose lives in Acholi Village, a large hill that has been donated by the king of Uganda to serve as a place of housing for the countless widows and their families from Northern Uganda that seek out the capital city of Kampala as a place of refuge. We arrived just after dusk, and the streets were bustling with activity as people returned from Kampala City and their various jobs. I cannot begin to describe the noises, smells and images of this slum community, but one site that caught my attention and was burned into my heart was that of a young couple, most likely in their early 20’s, who were walking the waste filled streets hand in hand, on what seemed like a date, as if they were taking a moon-lit walk on their favorite beach. Yes, I thought to myself, God lives even here.

And this verse is what came to mind in light of both of these images; 2 Corinthians 4:16, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” This life in which we live, and the value we so often put on our stuff is nothing in comparison to the relationship we have with those around us, and certainly nothing in comparison to our relationship with God, and all that is waiting for us when this life comes to an end. Both Joseph’s grandmother and this young couple seemed to live in the reality that outward appearances seemed insignificant in comparison to what was taking place on the inside of our lives.

The last thing I want to share with you this morning is on the topic of vision. My second week in Kampala was aimed at trying to bring Fields of Dreams to reality. Fields of Dreams is a non-profit Tyler White and I have been piecing together for the past year aimed at empowering the disadvantaged children of Uganda through the vehicles of soccer and education. At every meeting with government officials or people in the world of soccer, I heard the common response of gratitude. Over and over again people were thanking me for this vision for their people.

The word vision itself must have been uttered over 200 times that week, and it all started on Sunday morning as I worshiped beside some incredibly passionate followers of Christ for about 4 ½ hours. One of the things the pastor said that morning was that he wouldn’t lead a church without vision, and each Sunday he has his congregation hold up their individual vision books so he can pray over them. I was reminded of my first flight back from Uganda in 2009 as I prayed for what God wanted to do in my life in response to my new found love affair with this country so far away from my own. It is amazing how far he has brought me in just 2 short years, as I witness Fields of Dreams slowly coming to life. When we open our lives to God and realize, just like in the scripture that Amy read for us, that God’s word is at work in those who believe, we find that we are all called to be visionaries for God.

I am reading a book right now by Kyle Idleman, called Not a Fan., and although I am only in the early chapters I want to share a short passage from this book that challenges me to move from belief to action. This book is based on the idea that most everyone one of us plays the role of a fan of God, but very few of us are true followers. The quote reads as follows: “So in case someone left it out or forgot to mention it when they explained what it meant to be a Christian, let me be clear: There is no forgiveness without repentance. There is no salvation without surrender. There is no life without death. There is no believing without committing.” And this morning I am going to add that there is no purpose without vision!

Kyle is trying to tell us, warn us even, that the Christian road is not an easy one. I am reminded of Aslan, from C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series. When young Lucy Pevensie first meets Aslan she asks him if he is a safe lion, and his response is that he is not a safe lion, but she will come to find that he is a good lion. Life with God is not risk-free, it is not a free ticket from pain, suffering or persecution. Instead it is an invitation to endure those very things while being covered with the grace bought through Christ’s death on a cross. With every good thing from God, there is a part of the equation that we must step up and be responsible for in the end, and purpose is one of those good things that I often find myself struggling with upon my return from these trips to Uganda.

I don’t always feel the same purpose I do surrounded by orphans that I do as I am collecting attendance sheets in the sanctuary, or responding to countless emails. What I am coming to learn though, is that if I have a greater vision for God that I can focus on, than purpose can be found in even the most mundane activities. If I open myself up to “God’s word at work in me,” and listen for his guidance than purpose is found. If I am willing to turn over the control of my future plans to the greatest planner in history, than purpose is cemented in the vision we receive from God’s leading Spirit.

So my prayer for all of us this morning is that we would be willing to share our lives along with the gospel to begin to see the fruit of community pop up in the most unlikely of ways in this fractured world in which we live. That we would be able to focus on the internal gifts of God, rather than the brokenness that so often encompasses the hate, violence and loneliness in the world. And lastly may we be a people of vision, dreaming big dreams for God and those vulnerable masses that were created in his image, because in the end, without vision people perish.

Before I end my message I wanted to share that I learned by way of email that Pascazia passed away over the weekend. Joseph and his younger siblings last remaining link to their family is now gone, and they now only have their Father in heaven and the other people at Africa Greater Life to lean on for support. Pascazia was one of the women that made much of the beaded jewelry that I sell for Ekisa Designs and her beautiful portrait is visible at the top of this post thanks to the beautiful photo taken by Kathryn Campbell on our first trip together to Uganda. Pascazia was a woman of gratitude, a woman of faith, and certainly a woman who held closely to the hope found in the cross.

August 22, 2011 <> Michael Warneke

Before I get to my heart, let’s start with God’s heart for his people in Paul’s letter to Rome:

Romans 12:9-21 “9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people in low positions. Do not be conceited.
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “it is mine to avenge; I will repay”, says the Lord. 20On the contrary: “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.
21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

I hope and pray that this scripture passage can be pertinent for all of us here on how to live in community with one another, and how to love with pure and sincere hearts. I want to talk with you this morning about some of my current struggles and failures on how I am not living out this scripture very well.

Now unlike many of you who grew up in the Methodist Church, I am still getting used to the idea of having multiple meetings each and every week. And in fact I had a retreat for our Shalom Zone yesterday that I helped facilitate for about 5 hours. I don’t mind a passion-filled, productive meeting, but I often struggle with the talking instead of doing aspect of this many meetings. And I came to a real place of exhaustion last night.

I am tired. I have been working full time in the church for the past 8 ½ years and I am tired of dabbling in community. I am tired of dabbling in outreach. I am tired of dabbling in bringing God’s Kingdom to earth only to be pulled away to another meeting, or another task or deadline that has to be done. I am not sharing this for pity this morning, I am sharing this because perhaps there are others here that want a more rich experience with this thing called church as well. Perhaps there are others here this morning that instead of dabbling in the Kingdom Life want to live in it fully.

Now in re-writing this message last night, I couldn’t help but feel like Jerry Maguire writing his late night memo to the world of Sports Management and other Agents that got him a swift kick to the curb. So I hope this last minute change doesn’t mean that you won’t have me back here at Centenary in the future. This “memo” does not have all of the answers on living the Kingdom life for you, but it is a call for me, and perhaps you as well to slow down; to rediscover our passions, and to run after God better trained to finish the race that he has set before us.

I want to share with you a few things that I have been learning lately. The first is that although I think all of us in this room are living busier lives than we would like, this does not mean that we have to live hurried lives. Jesus often lived a busy life. He was constantly on the move and followed by large demanding crowds. But here is the thing, he sought out time alone in prayer, he shared meals with friends, he was busy, not hurried as he took his time to arrive at the grave of Lazarus before he raised him from the dead.

I want to share with you a story that I am pretty ashamed of, that only happened about a month or two ago. Currently at Central I am helping to lead our casual service, and I usually arrive around 8 a.m. to ensure that the worship space gets set-up for our worship team, and then I get ready for my other responsibilities. Well, I don’t know about you, but Sunday mornings in our homes are not always the smoothest. So I left a little bit late, and as I was driving down Read Street to get to my church I passed a man digging through a dumpster. I say I passed a man, because I am embarrassed to say I didn’t stop to seek out his needs. I was running late for “church,” so I could worship, and I could lead others in worship, that I ignored one of God’s children in need. I was a hurried man, and I missed out on the blessing that God had in store for me that day.

I miss Africa for two main reasons right now. One is that nothing happens on time because people are more worried about each other than they are the sacred clock, and the other reason is because of the pure joy that is evident in so many lives.

And joy has been something I have been struggling to maintain lately. Another thing that I often find myself dabbling in! How sad is that it. When I look at my family, my two sweet healthy boys, and my beautiful loving wife, and a loving savior, how dare I be without joy, and yet I find myself in the pit of despair all too often. My friends, joylessness is a sin; and I am afraid it is a sin that we let slide on a regular basis here in church-land. So much of my struggle with joy has been my “grass is always greener on the other side perspective,” and my ability to let my expectations of others affect my attitude and my focus.

When I look at life with an eternal perspective, I am able to allow things to dissipate without stealing my joy. I am able to focus on my own service and obedience to God, rather than on others faults and the expectations that they are not currently meeting. I am able to find peace in my sons little giggle and patience in his crying. I am able to live in the land of contentment instead of want. I am a blessed man, it is not hard to see if you spend just a few minutes in my shoes, and yet His grace alone should be sufficient. My correct focus steers my Joy while my incorrect focus steals it.

So it has been the combination of the lack of joy, living a hurried life, and lastly enduring the many yeses in my life that have lead me to this place of exhaustion. The last thing I want to talk about with you is simply to let your yes be yes and your no be no. One of the main reasons I found myself in the land of exhaustion last night is simply because I have said yes to things that I am not passionate about, that I do not care deeply about, and that I am not gifted for. So often in the church we think our obedience means that we have to say yes to every committee, sub-committee and request for our service, time or talents. My young life leader in high school, Brooks Kimmel, saw in me a kid that thought he could conquer the world through service and meeting the needs of everyone at the same time, and he forced me to say no on many occasions. I have needed his advice in my life recently!

Often times working in the church, we find ourselves saying yes out of necessity, because there was no one else to step to the plate. But I have come to the realization that one church ministry done well by a group of committed, passionate people far outweighs twenty outreach programs done by partially committed, somewhat interested warm bodies. What do you love to do? Do you love to sing? Do you love to fish? Do you love to listen to others and pray for their needs? Do you love to serve in the trenches?

Do these things, make these things your ministry, your gift to God.

Saying no to the wrong things frees us up to say yes to the right things. I am convinced that we are so over-committed at times that we miss out on things we have no knowledge of. As I think about these three areas of struggle that I am facing right now, they are most likely struggles that my boys will face as they grow into the men that God is calling them to be, and perhaps they are the very struggles that some of you in this place of worship are wrestling with right at this very moment.

May we learn to slow down in our busy lives and not be so dictated by our schedules that we miss out on the opportunities that God places in our midst to serve, to listen or to love. May we all learn to live the joyous life that God desires for us all, and may we learn that often times by saying no to things, we are sometimes in essences saying yes to God. My prayer for myself and for all of us this morning is that our love would be sincere. And if it is possible, as far as it depends on us, that we would live at peace with everyone.

June 20, 2011 <> Mike Warneke

Today I want to focus on “Finding the Fearless Life.” So much of what we do, or do not do for that matter is unknowingly dictated by our fears. The fear of being rejected, the fear of looking out of place, the fear of being seen as pious, prideful, shameful, ugly, or just plain dumb. I want you to think about what you are most afraid of and why?

With today being Pentecost Sunday, it only seems appropriate for us to focus this morning’s message on the Holy Spirit. For some reason it often seems like we leave the Holy Spirit on the sidelines when discussing God, Jesus, or the Trinity. But today is going to be different. I want us to find courage, to find a sense of boldness knowing that the Spirit is within us as believers, and because of that we can truly “Find the Fearless Life.”

I have a lot more fears than I am sometimes willing to admit. Now I am not talking about the healthy fear of clowns or snakes, but the kinds of fears that keep me from living the life God intended for me to live. I am talking about the kind of fears that make me hold tight to my possessions or the people in my life as if they are my true sustenance. I am talking about the kind of fear that keeps me from reaching out to others because I am afraid I won’t have the right words, or that I might be rejected or made fun of for mentioning Christ, or my church life. I am talking about the kind of fear, my biggest fear actually, that when I stand before God when this world is behind me, that I will have left His works for me undone. It is incredible how fear can sometimes paralyze us from action.

You don’t have to be an expert to help. Far too often the fear of not knowing the exact right answers keeps us from reaching out to others, it cuts us off from the rest of humanity.

I want to read you a quote today from a man by the name of Tertullian who was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa during the time of the early church, just a generation or two following Christ’s time on this earth. These are his words:

The Lord challenges us to suffer persecutions and to confess him. He wants those who belong to him to be brave and fearless. He himself shows how weakness of the flesh is overcome by courage of the Spirit. This is the testimony of the apostles and in particular of the representative, administrating Spirit. A Christian is fearless. (Tertullian)

I don’t know about you, but I don’t often describe Christians as fearless, or the church for that matter. The early church was an unstoppable force; can we say that about the church today? Can we say that about Central? Looking back in the book of Acts at how the early church cared for one another and stood in the face of persecution, it is not hard to see why Tertullian would have described Christians as fearless. Unfortunately, due in large part to our increased comfort levels and lack of real community, the fearless life is about as foreign to us as the technology of today would have been to the early church.

Don’t we all, if we are truly honest long for a fearless life? Don’t we wish we could be a bit more bold and confident in our faith and our beliefs, so we could joyously share with those around us God’s saving grace and comforting presence? Don’t we all wish that we could courageously come before God and before men knowing that we have nothing to fear, or to hide?
I want you to close your eyes for me this morning as I paint you into a scene. Remember that fear I had you think of earlier this morning? I want you to picture yourselves in the middle of it right now. Perhaps it is losing a loved one, or a job, or your reputation. Perhaps it is someone finding out your secret shame and struggles, or it could even be the fear of what you are currently facing in your life. Picture yourself in the midst of this fear all alone, without family, without friends, without the support of those that you have learned to lean on. Let the fear wash over you, stand in it, breathe it in.
Stay in that place of fear while I read you these words from the Gospel of John:

John 14:15-21 New International Version (NIV)
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Friends we are not orphans, we are never alone. God has sent the Holy Spirit to live in us, and to work through us the saving grace found in the life and death of Jesus the Christ. I want us to be a people of action. I want us to run after God with abandon. I want to trade in my fear for the courage found in a life linked to the Holy Spirit.

I want to share with you one last quote this morning, and it is from a book entitled Forgotten God, by Francis Chan, and I find his words both challenging and comforting because his words are my own, and perhaps they will resonate with you this morning as well.

As for me I am tired of talking about what we are going to do. I am sick of talking about helping people, of brainstorming and conferencing about ways we can be radical and make sacrifices. I don’t want to merely talk anymore. Life is too short. I don’t want to speak about Jesus: I want to know Jesus. I want to be Jesus to people. I don’t want to just write [or talk] about the Holy Spirit; I want to experience His presence in my life in a profound way. (Forgotten God, pg. 153)

My prayer for all of us, is that we invite the Holy Spirit to not just fill our worship spaces, but to fill our very lives as well, with a fearless determination to live lives worthy of the cross?

June 13, 2011 <> Mike Warneke

I work at a great church, and I feel like we are trying to live out community in some great ways, and have some room to grow in others. One of our church goals is Radical Generosity, which I most definitely agree with, but it is one that is so hard to define, and practically live out. Our church, like many others in this part of Western Christianity spends a bulk of its finances on maintaining our building and keeping our staff paid. These are not bad things, but it leaves little wiggle room for “true” radical generosity.

I hope and pray to live out radical generosity, but this is one of my weaknesses. There are very few things, possessions that is, in my life, or the life of my family that I have a death grip on. But my problem is with acquiring. I feel like I am pretty generous in some regards, but if I am constantly acquiring more books, or other stuff, I am kind of killing my generosity. To replace what I have given kind of snuffs out the act of giving to begin with.

If we are people of faith, we are automatically called to give. But at the same time we are called to give responsibly, without ignorance of the affects of our giving. Sometimes our generosity can be a detriment to a family or community. For example, if I bring with me thousands of soccer balls to Uganda this summer and hand them out left and right, my generosity is most likely putting someone who sells soccer balls in Uganda out of business. My generosity has had a radical effect in ways that were certainly not intended.

As I think about the topic of generosity I can’t help but think that we are called, to give more than we receive; to empower others more than we consume ourselves; to help others live sustainable lives at the sake of our own comfort and wants. A lot of this discussion begins when we sit down in front of the mirror and take the time to truly distinguish our wants from our needs. Because when we continue to feed our wants at such an unhealthy rate, we are directly stealing from the true needs of others.

One of my favorite and most difficult quotes to swallow is from Mother Teresa and she said these very convicting words, “It’s the greatest poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”

Radical generosity means we look at the world differently, it means that we look at our finances differently, it means we look at our time differently, and ultimately it means that we look at life differently. I have a long ways to go, but I hope that some of you will join me in the pursuit of living radically generous lives so that while our needs can be met, our wants can be set aside for the needs of others!

May 3, 2011 <> Michael Warneke

This is a pretty incredible week for us as Christians. During the Holy Week that we enter into today we move from honoring a Lord, as our children helped us experience this morning, to finding a Savior. This coming week for us needs to be an internal quest so we don’t make the same mistakes as those that welcomed Christ in with shouts of joy and praise only to nail him to a tree a few days later.

This coming week needs to be an examination of our hearts, so we carry the weight of the cross with us throughout our daily lives. This coming week needs to be a break from the normalcy of our lives as we stand in awe of the sacrifice poured out over our lives so that we could live under the umbrella of God’s grace.

Because this week should be a break from our normal lives, I also wanted our Palm Sunday service to be a break from our normal worship. I am going to ask you to participate in ways that might make you feel a bit uncomfortable, but in the end, I believe they will bring you closer to understanding just how incredible God’s love is for his children!

I am trusting that many of you this morning know a little bit about the last week of Jesus’ life. He was welcomed into Jerusalem like a King, but he soon made enemies with his teachings and unwillingness to shrink into the shadows of the city. As Jesus challenged the teachers of the Jewish law, they plotted against him.

We move from praise to plotting pretty quickly, and not only from the teachers of the law, but from those closest to Jesus as well.

I want to read a few short verses for you from the Gospel of Matthew, as the disciples and Jesus prepare for the Passover meal, we are privy to the actions of one of Jesus’ closest followers.
Matthew 26:14-16 (New American Standard Bible)
14Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests
15and said, “What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?” And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him.
16From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.

Are we so different than Judas in our own lives? Are we that far from praise and cursing, sometimes in the same breath? So I must ask you this morning some hard questions. What is your price of betrayal? How often we put the most important relationship of our lives on the shelf for the sake of simple leisure. Perhaps it is for love, or lust, or maybe your betrayal has more twists and turns to it. Maybe you have gotten so good at your betrayal that you don’t even recognize it any more.

I have a confession to make this morning. It is something that has been eating away at me for exactly a week. Last Sunday morning, as I was driving to help get things prepped for this service I saw something on Read Street, and yet I kept driving. Just three short blocks from our church I passed a man digging through a dumpster, and I chose to drive by to fulfill my duties at church. I ignored God’s creation in order to worship God. So often our betrayal of God is more about our inaction than it is about our wrongful actions.

So what is your price of betrayal? John Piper wrote the following words in his book God is the Gospel:

The critical question for our generation – and for every generation – is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?

Is that not the ultimate betrayal? To look the greatest gift in the world in his bloodied and beaten face and settle instead for the silly and mundane things of this world.

We are all guilty of betrayal. We all have the blood of Jesus on our hands. It is by both our inaction and action that we lead Jesus to the cross. We, you, me, all of us, we are Judas Iscariot! Let that sink in this morning.

I don’t want to leave you in that place this morning so I am going to read another passage from the Gospel’s, and this time I am going to look at John and read to you Jesus’ reaction to our betrayal. Using the Message I want to start in Chapter 13, verse 1.
John 13:1-17 (The Message)
1-2 Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. It was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal.
3-6Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, you wash my feet?”
7Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.”
8Peter persisted, “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!”
Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.”
9″Master!” said Peter. “Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!”
10-12Jesus said, “If you’ve had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you’re clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene. So now you’re clean. But not every one of you.” (He knew who was betraying him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you.”) After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table.
12-17Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.

That is Jesus’ response to betrayal. It is not anger, it is not jealousy, it is not even sadness, but instead it is a love that none of us in this space can fully grasp.

The washing of the disciples’ feet is a beautiful act of servant hood, but when experienced through the eyes of Judas it is pure grace. Can’t you just picture the piercing eyes of Christ as he lovingly washes the feet of Judas? And that is the same response that Jesus has for us as well. While we were still sinners Christ died for us all!

Do you get it? Do you understand that kind of love, that kind of beautiful, mysterious, vulnerable love?

I would imagine if I asked you to think of someone who betrayed you in your past, your first thoughts would be of anger, resentment, or even revenge. But Jesus, God made flesh, does not have the heart of a sinner. Jesus looked upon Judas and literally poured mercy on his mud-caked feet. And that is exactly what Jesus is offering to you this morning, undeserved mercy.

And why have we been so loved? It is so we can attempt to share that same love and mercy with others in our lives. I can’t help but think that Jesus’ words to his disciples in the Upper Room were partly for the sake of Judas. “What I have done, you do also.” He was calling his dear friends and followers to be servants to the world, but also to one another. He was preparing his followers to forgive, to love, and to show mercy to Judas, just as Jesus had done, and yet we know that Judas did not give them that opportunity.

But we, my friends, have the honor of following in the footsteps of Christ, and sharing the grace we have been given with the world. Jesus did not journey to the cross, so that we could hoard the love and mercy that he poured upon us for ourselves.

There is a price of betrayal, and it has been paid for in full by the blood of Jesus the Christ!

April 18, 2011 <> Mike Warneke

John 3:1-17
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” 4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. 10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

I come to you this morning with a heavy heart, or a burdened heart if you will. As I have come to love this church and the people who make up Central over these past two years, I can’t help but yearn to see a transformed people chasing after Christ with abandoned hearts.

I think that we often come to church myself included, and have certain expectations for the message. Often we want to be entertained, we want to laugh, or we seek to find encouragement. I think so many of us are so used to being entertained by the world around us, by television, by our iPhones and all of the other gadgets that we surround ourselves with, that we sometimes miss out on the call of God. An entertaining message often allows us to leave happy, but it doesn’t always allow us to leave changed. My prayer for our time together this morning, is not so much that we would leave happy, but that we would leave changed, conformed more to the nature and attitude of Christ.

As I read through the scripture lesson for today, I couldn’t help but feel a burden for Central. If we are to be born again of the Spirit of God, than surely it is for a new purpose. I think we can so easily focus on the last two verses from this passage that we forget to think through what a born again life should look like. We are sometimes so overwhelmed by the grace of God; we forget that we are going to have to stand before the face of God.

I want us to think back to just a few short moments ago when Linda was sitting on the steps with those wonderful little children. For me it seems like just yesterday that Abel was born. I am sure you can blink and the children of this church are practically full grown. Now I want you to think back, a little longer perhaps for some of you, to the miracle of birth. Do you remember as I do of being fully in awe of the miracle of the entire birthing process; of all of the little things working out perfectly to allow a little life to be sustained inside a mother’s womb? Now I don’t know about you, but I would think that the God that we all serve and honor would want this second birth to be just as miraculous. Please don’t pass off Jesus’ chosen words as a random comparison. To be born again in the Spirit should and is a miraculous transformation that leads to new life.

And perhaps your response this morning is very similar to that of Nicodemus, and you wonder, “How can this be?” A new birth from above does not make sense without the knowledge of Jesus as Savior and the Holy Spirit as our Comforter and our Guide. And I must make note of verse 17, it is in our hands to choose if we will live a new life born of the Spirit or will we choose our own condemnation by choosing to live outside the light of Christ.

The choice is in our hands, and I pray that this morning those of you that are still considering a life with Christ might be drawn ever closer to the wonderful mystery and grace found in a life born anew.

Now I don’t know about you but I get pretty excited when I think about a new birth in Christ, about being born anew to live anew. I think about all of the possibilities that God can and will do through my life, if I simply allow him access. When a new child is born into this world, they are surrounded by the dreams of the parents, the grandparents and even the siblings. We have these grand dreams and hopes for them, and I can’t help but think that God has the same in mind for us as we are born anew in the Spirit.

But here is the kicker, God doesn’t want our leftovers, he wants our lives.

Our Wednesday Small group is currently studying the book, Crazy Love by Francis Chan. In this book he is challenging the readers to become overwhelmed by the relentless love of God, but he is also calling the church to stand up and truly be the church. Francis makes it very clear how often our focus is on the temporary instead of the eternal. This new birth in the Spirit helps not only gives us a new life, but new eyes as well, to see the eternal things above those things in this world that will fade with time.

What scares me most are the people who are lukewarm and just don’t care. I think that if I did a poll of the readers of this book [Crazy Love], many of you would say, “Yeah, I am definitely lukewarm at times, but I’m not really at a place to give more to God.” Many of us believe we have as much of God as we want right now, a reasonable portion of God among all the other things in our lives. Most of our thoughts are centered on the money we want to make, the school we want to attend, the body we aspire to have, the spouse we want to marry, the kind of person we want to become… But the fact is that nothing should concern us more than our relationship with God; it’s about eternity, and nothing compares with that. God is not someone who can be tacked on to our lives.
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love page 94

We have to find in this new birth a new way of living as well. Our lives should be changed, our faith should be something that we rely on daily, because we are living lives that are hinged on our faith, we are living lives that simply couldn’t function without God’s guidance.

Walking in genuine intimacy and full surrender to God requires great faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Back when I was in Bible college, a professor asked our class, “What are you doing right now that requires faith?” That question affected me deeply because at the time I could think of nothing in my life that required faith. I probably wouldn’t be living very differently if I didn’t believe in God; my life was neither ordered nor affected by my faith like I assumed it was. Furthermore, when I looked around, I realized I was surrounded by people who lived the same way I did.
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love page 122

What in your life requires faith? That is another key to this new birth, this new life, we are born anew and our lives need to reflect this in the way we rely on our faith. This is an especially difficult challenge in our culture when we are surrounded by such great material comfort, when our storehouses are full and our retirement is secure.

Are you putting yourself in situation where you have to completely rely on your faith in God? We often suffer from the poverty of having too much. We surround ourselves with so much noise, and with so many things that we often are simply giving God our crumbs instead of our all.

Being born in the spirit anew means we have a different source of life. We change from the realization that our parents or even ourselves sustain us, guide us and care for us, to the ultimate understanding that God is our one and only true sustainer. And so often in the teachings of the church I think we can get so focused on the don’ts of our faith that we don’t learn how to risk, how to love, how to rely on faith and how to forgive with the passion that is only found in this new birth through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

From his book Radical, David Platt writes,

When we gather at the building, we learn to be good. Being good is defined by what we avoid in the world. We are holy because of what we don’t participate in (and at this point we may be the only organization in the world defining success by what we don’t do). We live decent lives in decent homes with decent jobs and decent families as decent citizens. We are decent church members with little more impact on the world than we had before we were saved. Though thousands may join us, ultimately we have turned a deaf ear to billions who haven’t even heard his name. “
- David Platt, Radical page 105

I don’t know about you, but that quote by David Platt stings a little bit. What true, eternal impact are we having on the world? This new life we are given through the spirit is one that should be changing the world through love, peace, and forgiveness. Because of our faith, we should be taking great risks for God that will have an eternal impact on our families, our communities and our world. We are ultimately called to be disciples and because we are disciples it is our job to lead others to Christ as well through our lives, our words, our risks, and obedience to all that Christ calls us too.

I want to share one more quote with you from David Platt, on what a born anew life does not look like!

We take Jesus’ command in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations, and we say, “That means other people.” But we look at Jesus’ command in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, “ and we say, “Now, that means me.” We take Jesus’ promise in Acts 1:8 that the Spirit will lead us to the ends of the earth, and we say, “That means some people.” But we take Jesus’ promise in John 10:10 that we will have abundant life, and we say, “That means me.” In the process we have unnecessarily (and unbiblically) drawn a line of distinction, assigning the obligations of Christianity to a few while keeping the privileges of Christianity for us all. (REPEAT LAST LINE)
- David Platt, Radical page 73

It is not our jobs as born again believers to take some of Jesus’ words to heart, while others we simply ignore or rationalize away as not being for us. We are all obligated, if we call ourselves Christian men and women to live lives that wreak of the Spirit of God. We are to have the aroma of Christ. People are supposed to smell the love of Christ on us from around the corner. I want us to look at one last passage from scripture to give us some insight into the born again life.
Mark 12:28-34 (New International Version, ©2011)
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” 32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

I am currently reading a book entitled Free to Be Bound, by a wonderful author and true disciple Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and he comments on this passage from Mark with the following words.

Jesus takes this quote to love your neighbor from a part of Leviticus where the people of God are reminded of their obligation to take care of the poor and the strangers in their land. He says that this social vision is inseparable from true worship. You can’t say that you love God and not love your neighbor. A church that doesn’t make a difference in the real world is no church at all.
- Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Free to Be Bound page 154

Now I don’t know about you, but I want to be a part of a church that is changing the world. I want to be a part of a born again people who know that this message of Good News is not just for themselves but a gift that they are privileged enough to share with the world. I want to be a part of God’s people that are dreaming together, that are serving together, that are loving and forgiving together.

And this kind of living is so hard to do on our own. That is why God gave us the gift of the church to begin with, so we as brothers and sisters can live these things out together in community; so that we can rely on one another for accountability, for strength, for vision, and for the encouragement to seek out the born again life.

I want Central to be such a church, but it then becomes the responsibility of each of us to live lives that cannot be separated from our faith. It becomes the responsibility of each of us to help our children grow in passion and truth for the Lord. It becomes the responsibility of each of us to love and forgive with joy because we know what it is to live in love and to live in grace. It becomes the responsibility of each of us to take great risks for God relying only on our faith and His grace to see us through.

This is what I want “us” to be, and I pray over the course of this Lenten season that we will grow closer to who God is calling “Central” to become. Amen.

March 20, 2011 <> Michael Warneke

My wife, Abby, and I recently had the privilege of seeing 127 Hours this past week, and I must say that four days later it is still on my mind. The film, by Danny Boyle, does a remarkable job of recreating the true account of Aron Ralston and his incredible struggle for survival  in Bluejohn Canyon, Utah. In May of 2003, Aron was rock climbing and mountaineering in the Bluejohn Canyon when a boulder slipped and pinned Aron’s right arm for five days. After the excruciating physical and emotional trauma of isolation, physical pain, and starvation, Aron makes the decision that saves his life, to break his own arm just above his trapped wrist, and over the course of an hour I cannot begin to imagine,  he severs off his right arm, the skin, tendons, arteries, and the nerves. Following a heroic 17 1/2 mile journey to freedom he is rescued and continues to climb and mountaineer to this day.

As incredible as this story is, as is the performance of James Franco in the film, it was the dialogue that got me thinking the most. In a way of staying sane while trapped in the canyon, Aron uses his digital camera and video camera to document his thoughts and feelings, as well as messages for his family and loved ones. The words that spoke to me the most, and this is complete ad lib I must confess, are when Aron discusses how this boulder has been waiting for him his entire life. All of his prideful and selfish decisions have lead him to this very moment in his life’s journey, where he was trapped, alone, with no one having the slight hint of his whereabouts.

I am going to change gears here a bit and talk about an awesome little book by Mike Foster and Judd Wilhite entitled, Deadly Viper Character Assassins. This is an incredible little read on issues of character and integrity, and guarding ourselves against the pitfalls of life that ruin careers, marriages, and even lives. In the first chapter, Character Creep, they go on to emphasize that it is all about managing the small things in your life. Most people don’t wake up one day and say to themselves, “I want to ruin my marriage today.” No, it is the small decisions and flirtations overtime that go unchecked and unnoticed by others, until you find yourself in bed with a co-worker or friend from the past. It is the ridiculous amount of times you have had a few drinks and gotten behind the wheel making it to your destination safely, but it only takes one second, one moment to take the innocent life of another.

I am not perfect, far from it, but I am trying to be successful in the little things. I am attempting to be victorious in the mundane day to day activities of life and relationship, so that in the end my journey is where I desire it to be. Just as Aron Ralston’s decisions found him alone in Bluejohn Canyon, your own decisions, the tiny minutia of life, have lead you to where you are today. You may be just where you wanted to be, or you may feel trapped, alone, and scared. The beauty is, I doubt that you have to cut off your right arm to start on your journey to freedom; most likely it is a matter of changing your day to day decisions. Decisions to forgive and not hate; decisions to be generous with your time and your love, and not cling to all that is “yours;” decisions to be a man or woman of integrity and character, and not be oblivious to the effect your actions have on the world around you.

I want to end with a quote by Frederick Buechner that I had the honor of sharing at my grandpa’s funeral nearly 7 years ago. “Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”

Enjoy the grace that is life, and may your everyday decisions lead you down the path that leads to life eternal.

February 10, 2011 <> Michael Warneke