This week has been a fascinating week.
If you have been involved in the challenge, you know, we've been doing all these different things and there's been so many kind of fun moments throughout this week where you just kind of get together and you, you laugh.
I'll give you one.
You know, we, we plan all this stuff out literally months and months and months in advance.
We don't always see how things are going to work together.
And, uh, we have, we did this, this food challenge, you know, in this Matthew 25 on Monday.
It was to go without lunch and then, uh, skip lunch.
And then for dinner, you just choose to have rice and beans.
Well, we didn't coordinate.
We didn't realize that that night was going to fall on a night that we were going to have a banquet, which we did Monday night.
We had a leadership banquet in this very room.
And, uh, we realized we were going to serve this big Italian dinner and it was going to be awesome.
We had sent out invitations, Italian dinner, and then we realized.
That falls exactly on the night we're supposed to have rice and beans.
And so we had a crisis.
We had to make a decision.
We said, look, we said rice and beans.
We're going to send a note out to the leaders and go, Hey, we changed the menu.
And so we came in here and there were just trays of rice and beans that you got on your way in.
And we had this banquet with rice and beans and it was memorable and it was awesome.
And it was amazing how God orchestrated that.
And then I think the next day or a couple of days later, uh, it was to sleep on the floor.
And I told you, I'm going to do this.
So Lisa and I, we slept on our living room floor and, and, uh, because we don't have, we have wood floors.
And so we have a carpet in there and And the next day I woke up and I'm like, wow, things are hurting.
Okay.
And so then I went to lunch with a friend and then some other friends showed up and all of us were just complaining about the, you know, the crook in our necks and the sore in the arm and all the sleep and all this kind of stuff.
And so many things like that were so fun throughout this week.
But there was a purpose behind all of that.
And, uh, the purpose was to get us.
To today and to get us to, uh, something we knew was coming.
And I am so excited to have you here today because I'm excited.
To have a special guest with us today.
And, uh, I'm just going to call him Rusty.
I'll just say that much.
He'll tell you his last name and give you some explanation for that.
I'll skip all that.
But let me tell you a little bit about Rusty.
Rusty actually grew up in Arizona.
Rusty went to Marcos de Niza High School.
He's a native of Arizona.
But after, after graduating high school, he went to, um, a Nazarene College in Chicago.
And he got his degree there and just kind of pursued the heart of a pastor, but kind of felt God pulling on him to work with the homeless.
And so he began that journey working with the homeless.
And then he got involved in this organization, which, uh, you're probably hearing about called world vision.
And so for the past quite a few years, um, has.
Uh, 11 or 12 years, whatever it's been, uh, been on staff with World Vision.
And, uh, so we invited Rusty from Chicago to come talk to us about what he's going to share with us today.
Now, I just want you to know he's a married man.
He and his wife, Alyssa have a little boy, Ira, um, like a year old little boy.
And anyway, all that's to say church, I think you're going to be super blessed.
Now here's what's going to happen.
I've invited him to come up and share some stuff and I'm going to come back up and share some stuff.
And, uh, we just have an exciting morning in store.
So, hey, Church, will you welcome to Central, Rusty from Chicago.
Thank you, sir.
All right.
Well, it's good.
It is really good to be here today for so many reasons.
But first, my name is Rusty Funk.
And every time I meet people for the first time, they ask me two questions.
In fact, someone asked me these two questions in the lobby just a few minutes ago.
And so I'm just gonna answer them for you.
So you don't have to ask me after service.
Yes, that is my real name.
Thank you, mom and dad.
That's my real name, Rusty Funk is my real name.
And two, no, I do not play in a band.
No, I don't play the guitar.
I'm not a DJ.
No, I have zero musical talent whatsoever.
If you're worshiping in this section, you probably heard how little musical talent I had.
I know it's a waste of a musical name on, on just a normal guy with no talent.
So I apologize to disappoint you there, but I'm just gonna get that out of the way.
In all seriousness though, it is an honor to be here.
I'm very excited.
All of us at World Vision are excited.
There are multiple reasons why we've been praying for this day and why we're excited.
Uh, the top three, I just want to name before we dive in today.
The first is, I know you don't know me yet, but I've been getting to know you from afar.
Through watching service after service to meeting with Pastors Cal, and Lisa, and Paul, and John, and Allison, and Zoe.
There's just so many beautiful leaders here.
And I just want to let you know that I have the honor of speaking at a number of churches per year across the country for World Vision.
Y'all got something special here.
There is a humble service and Holy Spirit movement in this church.
And just hold on to what you got here.
It is a beautiful thing.
Number one.
Number two.
Uh, like Pastor Cal said, I get to share about something today that, that God brought to our lives at World Vision a few years ago that turned everything upside down and it turned our hearts inside out just as humans, just as followers of Jesus, not even as, as, as part of the World Vision staff team.
And as if those two reasons weren't enough to feel really personally excited to be here today, like Pastor Cal said, I'm actually from Arizona, born and raised here.
I've lived in Chicago for the last 20 years, but this is coming home in a lot of ways.
And if we had more time today, I could tell you sermons based around the fact that I grew up as a Phoenix Suns fan.
I think we've got a picture of my awkward self.
I thought I was going to be the NBA, like Kevin Johnson, Charles Barkley, Dan Marley.
That was my goal in life was to be in the NBA.
Um, another sermon for another day would be how I met my wife in high school at Marcos Teneza and we went, uh, to many a dances together and I'm pretty sure we have an awkward picture of me forcing her to wear a son's jersey at a high school dance.
That's the middle picture there.
That's me on the left.
The first picture there, I know, you probably could see what my dad saw right away.
That kid is not making it to the NBA.
Like, you gotta stay in school, son.
Or I could tell you a sermon about the farthest picture, where my wife and I have been on a long journey of trying to be parents, and even though we live in Chicago, Miraculously, our son came very early here in Arizona, and was born in June of 2021.
And as we've recovered from that, we stayed here for a number of months.
And his first experience as a little human in this world was to watch the Phoenix Suns lose to the Milwaukee Bucks in the summer of 2021.
And it's like, son, this is your first lesson on being a Phoenix fan.
We are the best at almost being the best.
We are really great at almost being great.
We get to the semi finals and the finals a lot, but we just never, you know, Alright, I'm done.
Anyways, it is an honor.
I could keep going.
So many personal moments, uh, that make this weekend very special for me.
But, to dive in today, if I were to title the portion of my message today, I would probably call it the Upside Down Kingdom of God.
And you may be thinking, well, that's kind of a weird name.
And if you like dad jokes like me, you'd be like, well, that's an upside down name, isn't it?
And hey, I know, I know God's kingdom is right side up and our world is upside down, but hear me out here.
I think scripture and theologians would back me up in saying this simple but profound thing, at least for my own life.
That the Bible we believe in and the God we serve and the Jesus we chase after, everything about the Bible we believe in, the God we serve and the Jesus we chase after, is upside down from this world we live in.
Let me say it one more time.
Everything about the Bible we believe in, the God we serve, and the Jesus we chase after is upside down from this broken world we live in.
And what I should have done on that slide is put, and that is why it's so beautiful.
His kingdom is just beautifully different than the world we live in.
A couple, a couple highlights for you.
SportsCenter top ten, if you will.
We follow a king who washes our feet.
Doesn't make sense.
We follow a teacher who uses examples like the Good Samaritan or turning the other cheek.
We follow a coach who drafts short people to slay giants and calls stutterers to be his public speakers.
We follow a CEO who chooses outcasts and failures to be on the senior leadership team.
We follow a priest who lifts up the worst of sinners, points to them as a pillar of morality, pointing to their humility and their repentance.
We follow a preacher who preaches jubilee.
That jubilee does not make sense to our world.
We follow a father who gives strength to the weak and elevates the humble.
We follow a shepherd.
who leaves the 99 just to go and get the one.
Do you see it, Central?
Everything about the Bible we believe in, the God we serve, and the Jesus we chase after, it's upside down from this world we live in, and that is why His kingdom is so beautiful.
The challenge is for me, and I'm not sure if it is for you, that I tend to like, see the upside down things in Scripture, but keep them at arm's length.
Because it just doesn't make sense to the world I live in.
And for me personally, I do that.
I think because the most upside down thing of all is the hardest thing for me to accept that this first step and the most upside down thing for me is really accepting the fact that God loves and chooses me.
And I know if I were to poll the audience, we would probably all raise our hand and say, Hey, I know God loves me.
He likes me.
He chooses me.
We probably would cognitively agree with that.
But I need to confess today that I, I struggle with that almost on a daily basis.
Cause you know what?
I see the real me, the me that you don't see.
I dwell on my past failures, I dwell on my current failures, my sin, my destruction, my struggles, my shortcomings.
And if I'm being honest, each morning when I wake up, and I look in the mirror, not just the physical mirror, but the introspective mirror, my self doubt often doesn't like what I see in myself.
So how could God like it and choose me?
A few years ago, a spiritual mentor of mine had me do a prayer practice for the first time that changed my life, and I tried to do it weekly, if not daily.
It's just a quick prayer, individual listening exercise that has really helped me anchor my own identity in Christ and nothing else, not in the name of self doubt or what the world says about me.
So if you would, humor me a 60 second prayer exercise here.
So whether you're online or here in person, if you could bow your heads and close your eyes, just for a few seconds here.
With every head bowed and eye closed, right now in the privacy of your own mind, I just want you to think about the things you don't like about yourself.
Your shortcomings, your embarrassments, your failures, both the public ones and the hidden ones, just, just hold them in the privacy of your mind.
Now with your eyes closed, I want you to picture Jesus pulling up a chair and sitting right in front of you, face to face with you.
And with your physical eyes remaining closed, I need you to find the eyes of Jesus.
Find his eyes and look him in the eyes and hold them and hear him say these words to you this morning.
I see you.
I choose you.
I love you.
My child, please stop thinking about your failures and your shortcomings.
They do not define you.
Please stop dwelling on what the world labels you because I label you, my beloved.
I died and rose again for you, and I love everything about you, everything.
In fact, I would leave the 99th sheet over and over again just to be with you.
I got you.
It's gonna be okay.
You can open your eyes.
Essentially, when we can first truly accept what I think is the most upside down thing of all, that, that God loves us.
And that, that is our identity.
None of our own self doubt, none of what the world labels, no, no education, no degree.
Our identity is in Christ alone.
That is the freedom of a life in Jesus.
It just brings joy.
And out of that salvation, out of that freedom, all he does is he asks us to pass that love on to others while we're here, to build his upside down kingdom, to help him in this.
And, again, if you're like me, I know this is a message that has a lot of if you're like me statements, because it's a message I need to keep hearing.
If you're like me, that's step one.
of just accepting the fact that he loves me and he chooses me, that's hard enough.
And then when it comes to like building this kingdom, I typically say things like, well, I'm not a pastor, I'm not a preacher, I'm not a missionary, I'm not a this, I'm not a that, I'm not a this, I don't have that degree, I don't have this education, I don't have that experience.
I've come to learn that God does not like I am not statements.
Because to everyone he says, I know you're not, but I am.
And I have equipped you to go and build my kingdom, regardless of the education or those skills you think you do or don't have, we are all called to help build this upside down kingdom of God here on earth while we're here.
And if you were to stick with this analogy, I know this analogy of building a kingdom and builders, uh, it probably gets problematic at some point, but if you were just to stick with this analogy, you could look at scripture as like the building plans.
What are we supposed to do after that saving grace?
Freed by grace.
What are we supposed to do?
How can we share that with others?
And I, we could choose a number of passages to go into today, but we're gonna say in Matthew 25, the, the verse that pal Pastor Cal preached on last week, the verse that a lot of you lived out, uh, in the, in the days between last Sunday and this Sunday.
And we're gonna dive into it in just a quick side note, pastor Cal, pastor Cal's message from last week was incredible.
So you haven't.
Watch it, go back and watch it.
He, he talked a lot about how empathy is a choice, it's an action, and it is an action that we need to take to model the life of Christ.
And out of empathy, we need to then take action.
And as we read Matthew 25, verses 31 through 40, I want to build on that specifically and point out two of what I'll call, like, the pillars, two of the many pillars of this upside down kingdom of God, and just some action plans of what we can do out of this love of Jesus.
So, we're gonna read it, starting in verse 31.
When the Son of Man comes in His glory, all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne.
All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate people, one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on His left.
Then the King will say to those on the right, Y'all come on in, you who are blessed by my Father.
Take your inheritance, the kingdom of God prepared for you since the creation of the world.
For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat.
. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.
I was a stranger and you invited me in.
I needed a clo and you clothed me.
I was sick and you looked after me.
I was a prison.
I was in prison and you came to visit me.
Then the righteous, as they're walking in, they're gonna be scratching their head saying, Lord, do not remember any of that.
When did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink?
You were a stranger and we invited you in.
Definitely don't remember you needing clothes and giving you and clothing you.
When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?
Then the king will reply, truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
Amen.
Now again, as Cal reminded us last week, this passage is part of the Olivet Discourse.
And I just love how whether a part of that discourse or really a part of any of the teachings or stories or parables of Jesus, he always gives us answers that are literally the opposite of what we expect, right?
Some could say that they're upside down from what we expect.
They caught, catch us off guard.
Think about the imagery of this story he's telling right now.
The imagery of a king who's letting people into their kingdom.
I'm not a historian, but I'm pretty sure no king in history has said anything other than power, money, land, troops.
That's how you get into my kingdom.
And in this model, he goes the opposite direction.
And I think one of these things, the first pillar of this upside down kingdom he's pointing out to us in this scripture, it's kind of obvious, but we're called to restore the broken circumstances of the world.
We're called to do something in a tangible way for those who are hurting, and not just those who are hurting, but seeking out those who are hurting so deeply and just terrifying circumstances and pain all over the world.
It's pretty clear in Matthew 25 in the last scriptures.
There's a do goodness that we're called to do out of this love of Jesus.
But if we're not careful, we only kind of notice this first pillar of the upset on kingdom, this kind of action of what we're doing.
And we forget to look for the more subtle, but yet I'd argue just as powerful second pillar that he's pointing out in this scripture, central, did you know this, the intentionality or what, what Jesus did when he called the people who are hungry and thirsty?
The people who are experiencing homelessness in that moment, the people who are hurting, the people who have the least in the, in this world, what he did when he called them his brothers and sisters, what he was doing is he was affirming their inherent dignity.
You know how important that is?
You see, Jesus knows that we as Christians, no matter how good our hearts, no matter how empathetic we try to be and how we try to do good for others and share the love of Jesus, he knows that we live in this world that is filled with lies and sin and evil.
And one of the lies that this world tells us seeps into our head when we're doing good as Christians and we're doing mission work.
And that lie is this, the world says that when people have less, they are less.
If you want to get real for a second.
The world then tells us if we have more, we are more in the eyes of God.
It mistakenly ties our identity to our circumstances and throughout all of scripture, if you may examine the how Jesus did his work, not just what he did, but if you imagine the how, he's flipping that upside down and he's tearing down that lie and he's reminding us that Christians, when you're doing good, when you're serving those who may have less than you, don't forget that they are my family, my kin.
That I care just as much about those children as your children.
That they are just as smart, beautiful, and powerful as you are.
Do not mistake identity with circumstances.
I know that's subtle, but it changes everything.
And when we have the courage to not just restore the circumstances out of the love of Jesus in our heart, not just to do good, but we have the courage to do it in a way That tears down that lie, that tells the world, no, the people we are serving are actually beautiful children of God, made in His image.
When we, when we have the courage to do things in innovative ways like that, that don't put us as the hero of the story who are helping, but those who are being helped are actually the heroes of the story.
When we do it like that, the whole world is changed, but it also changes our life.
And I'm a talker, and I'm a storyteller.
I got dozens of stories where God has used beautiful people in my life to remind me of this truth about not just broken circumstances, but making sure we affirm the inherent dignity of the people we're serving.
But I only got time for one story.
So I'm gonna tell you the story of how I met my friend Julian.
I first met Julian back in 2012.
It was a setting very similar to this at Central.
I was just sitting in a seat, probably similar to yours right now, and I was sitting next to my wife.
A person got on stage and invited us in to sponsor a kid with World Vision that day and they were like, it's only 39 a month and my wife and I looked at each other, I think she's on my right, and we said, yeah, let's do it.
So we went and lobbied that afternoon after service got out and we actually sponsored two kids that day.
One was Samu from Ethiopia and the other was Julian from Rwanda.
And then about six months later, I got the chance to go to Rwanda and meet Julian.
And if we throw the picture on the screen, you'll see that Julian, uh, her, her mom and her baby brother on that picture, this was before the translator got there, so I was trying to explain to Julian what stickers were, and stickers translate.
That's beautiful.
Julian's the one right next to me with the sticker on her forehead, the beautiful six year old girl.
And in this picture, we're sitting there in Julian's 10 by 10 mud hut of a house, and, and I just need to tell you that what looks to be a happy and healthy six year old girl, Her circumstances, I've been around the world many a times, and I've never seen poverty this harsh.
I'll just put it that way.
That's probably the best way to say it.
And we're sitting there in the 10x10 mud hut of a house, and trying to make conversation, and through the translator, I asked Julian what turned out to be a dumb question.
I asked her how she liked school.
Immediately, that beautiful smile you were just looking at turned into a look of embarrassment, and she deflected to her mom.
Her mom shot me in those mama eyes, like why would you ask something like that?
And luckily, her mom had some grace on me and explained to me.
She explained to me that Julian couldn't go to school.
That her mama and baby brother every day had to walk four miles, one direction, fill up their jerry can with muddy water that was so bad that it was killing 50% of the babies in the village before age five.
Take that water, 40 pounds of water, back four miles.
That route, both directions, twice a day, was one of the most dangerous routes where women and children often got attacked and kidnapped.
It was their daily struggle to do that walk for water and look for food on the way home.
Go to school.
You can't go to school.
It was their daily struggle to survive.
But over the next few years, because of my child's sponsorship of Julian and the hundreds of others from that same church who sponsored kids in the same village, I got to see the upside down kingdom being built, not just in the circumstances being restored, but that inherent dignity of the people of this village in Rwanda be affirmed.
Check it out.
Less than two years after sponsoring Julian, World Vision puts this water well 95 yards from her house, 95 yards.
If you know anything about global development, water change is everything, like everything.
A couple, a couple of quick things.
One is Julian gets to go to school for the first time in her life at eight years old.
Second is they get to learn about sanitation and hygiene and washing their hands.
Hospitals are open.
Churches are thriving.
No one even knew the pandemic was coming multiple years later, but they would be ready for it.
And they had no problems.
They knew how to do it all.
Another thing is we always forget in these situations.
We need to help the children, and then also we're at the same time helping the parents.
We always forget about the mamas, but Julian's mom, for the first time in her life, now that Julian can go to school because there's clean water, the trickle effect, she can now try to earn a living for her babies.
Talk about a dignifying experience as a parent, finally be able to provide a better life for your babies.
So our sponsorship dollars continued to fund things like job education programs, and Julian's mom went and got trained on how to be a milk harvester.
Which is you partner with a local dairy, goats, and cows, and you harvest the milk.
Julian's mom started earning some income, but the World Vision staff in Rwanda saw that the circumstances were changing.
Water, school, hospitals, churches, jobs.
But the inherent dignity of the people of this village was still not being affirmed.
One of the ways that was happening is Julian's mom and her other colleagues would take that milk they harvest, go sell it at a local city center, and because it wasn't bottled in the same way and pasteurized in the exact same way, people were ripping them off to the tune of 10 cents on the dollar, manipulating their understanding of the market, saying because it wasn't done this way, we have to sell it at this price.
Their dignity wasn't being affirmed.
So what World Vision's sponsorship program did is, they built this milk collection center.
And gave it to the local Anglican church, and it's still running to this day.
So now Julian's mom can go with her hard work, get a fair price for her milk in the city center.
Six years later, I got to go back to Rwanda for a second time and meet Julian again, and sit in that same house, but in front of a whole new young woman.
You see it in her eyes.
You see it in her mom's eyes.
Circumstances, yes, but the inherent dignity, God has birthed in this young woman an identity that is coming to life and as if she could remember, as if she did remember my dumb question from six years earlier, the first thing she said is, Rusty, I'm doing great in school.
She talked about her plans to go to college and what she wanted for her career, and she's thinking about being a doctor and all this, and y'all, I'm not a sweater, so I was like, why am I sweating?
Sorry, I'm not a crier, but in that moment, I started crying, and I was like, why am I sweating from my eyes?
To hear Julia talk about her future, it clicked for me.
It's not just about what we do, but it's about how we do it.
And it's a beautiful, beautiful moment.
It changed my life.
And I've told this story dozens of times since this second trip to Rwanda.
But this is the first time I get to not end this story here.
Because in January of 2023, just six, seven months ago, I got to go back to Rwanda for the third time.
And I need you to, need you to meet almost 17 year old Julia, who's now in high school.
Still at the top of her class volunteering at her local church helping her mom.
They're in a different house now She's got plans for college and she's doing it We're not the heroes in this story Y'all this the same beautiful upside down love of God that That delights in us.
Everybody's sitting in this room right now, the same upside down love of God, that actually loves you and chooses you despite what you know about yourself and what you think about yourself.
The same upside down love of God that calls us all to help build this kingdom and not just restore the circumstances but do it in a way that affirms the dignity of the people we're serving.
The same upside down love of God is now calling central church to do something a little upside down.
Something that has never been done before for three specific villages in Malawi.
Mbenchera, Dindi, and Kapan are rural villages in southern Malawi.
And in these villages, many families live in small thatched roof mud huts.
They have similar circumstances, different countries than where Julian is, but some similarities.
Lack of water, education, child protection is a huge issue in Malawi.
These are some of the poorest people you're ever going to meet.
But you need to hear me today, Central, that the people of these villages in Malawi, they are not less just because they have less.
God loves them as much as he loves us.
He has put just as much beauty, power, and strength in their lives as he has in ours.
They're just waiting for some folks to come alongside and help restore those circumstances and like Julian, affirm that inherent dignity.
Central, today, I'm asking each and every one of us to become a child sponsor.
To step up and say yes to sponsoring one or maybe even two or three of the nearly 3000 kids in these three villages waiting for years to be sponsored.
I'm telling you that decision will change your life and it will change the life of that child and their family.
Now, for years, we have partnered with churches all over the U.
S.
in a similar fashion by connecting that church with kids at the individual level where individuals can sponsor the whole community.
At this church, sponsors a community and you watch that community break the bonds of poverty over the years.
It's a beautiful journey.
And typically, how we would do that is a little bit of how I've sponsored our first two kids.
We'd ask you to go in the lobby and in the lobby, you see this beautiful display of clothes pins and string, and on the string and clothespins, you see these picture folders.
And these folders would have the face of the child, their name, their age, you could open up, you could read about them, and we would spend 20, 30, 40, however long you want picking the child you want to sponsor that day.
But for the last few years, we've been praying big prayers at World Vision that God would not let us rest.
Not just in innovation around how we restore the circumstances, but what about that second part, God?
Push us.
To radically affirm the inherent dignity of the people we serve in a way that doesn't just affirm it to them that they are children of God, but tells the rest of the world that they are children of God and they are not less just because they have less.
And he birthed an idea that did just that.
An idea that turned our whole world upside down and even as just individual humans, our hearts inside out.
He let us ask a question that would change everything and that is this.
What else could we do from the very first starting point of the relationship?
That powerful moment of where the relationship starts between a sponsor and a child.
What we could, at that moment, what else could we do to radically proclaim the inherent dignity of the kids we serve to them and to the world?
What would it look like if for the first time in history, we flipped this thing on its head and said they are empowered to choose us?
Let me be filled with kindness and compassion for the one.
The one for whom you love and gave your son.
For humanity, increase my love.
So help me to love with open arms like you do.
If I could spend just a few moments with you, I want to have a pastoral heart to heart, a pastor to church.
One of the things that I struggle with personally In my life is I feel like God has blessed us in so many ways, my family.
And I picture, you know, uh, and I'm just going to say this, just take this for what it's worth.
We give, uh, generously.
I'm just going to say that and, and just trust me.
We, we give generously, but deep down inside, I can't help but wonder if God looks at that and says, are you going to stop there?
Are you going to stop there?
That, that's going to be the line.
You know, most of us would not say we're rich.
Most of us would not say, you know, hey, we have it.
We have it, you know, we have it all.
Most of us would say, yeah, I'm just trying to take care of my own.
If you were to look on a global scale, however, maybe the way God looks at the world, He would separate those who have a lot from those who have so little.
And I know which camp I would land in, and I honestly know which camp you would land in.
And, uh, I can't help but wonder if God, I'm just telling you my own struggle.
If God says you could have done so much more, you could have done, I gave you the resources to do so much more this past week.
And we experienced this challenge, which many of us did.
It was so good for us.
I got to put myself in other people's place.
It was so good for me, for us.
It didn't do anything to change the world.
It just did something for us.
It's the beginning of changing the world.
So this whole idea of child sponsorship is something that's been on my heart and my mind truly for decades.
Because we have been so focused in North Africa, which is so strongly Muslim, we've not been able to do this.
And in recent years, we've rethought this and said, we've got to broaden our focus.
We have to do more.
And so that's when this whole idea of, got birthed, where we could go to a country that's very Muslim, but it's also got a Christian influence that allows World Vision to come in and create the program that takes care of children.
If you've been around this church for any amount of time, you know, there's a couple of verses that are kind of the bedrock verses of this church.
You know, Luke, Luke nine 23, the whole idea of, you know, got to die to yourself and, you know, follow Jesus.
The other one would be Philippians two, three, and four.
It'll come up on the screen.
I want you to just stare at these words with me.
Do nothing out of conceit rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others.
So we have a saying around here, there's more to life than me because we live in a culture that's convinced us that all that matters is what matters to us.
And it's an upside down value to the kingdom.
The kingdom says, we don't live like that.
We learn how to put other people's needs above our own.
So bottom line church is, um, I am asking you as your pastor to consider sponsoring a child.
I give you my word.
We're in, we're doing it.
We're in.
And, uh, We really believe that we can change the world, that Central can change the world.
We can make a huge difference.
And I know that some of this, you might feel like, wow, this is getting sprung on me.
I get that.
But I think, you know, in your heart, whether you have the capacity and the will to sponsor a child and, and, and, and you, and you might be going like, well, how long do I have to sponsor them?
That's between you and God, honestly.
It's between you and God.
You know, Rusty told the story of staying with this girl, you know, through her graduation.
They age out of this program, just so you know.
But, but here's the deal.
I, I don't want, you know, we talked empathy last year.
If you voluntarily put yourself, you're not forced, you're not coerced.
Don't feel forced and don't feel coerced.
But, but when you say, I'm going to put myself in somebody else, I'm going to make a difference to somebody.
Just like I want to make a difference for my kids and just like I want to make a difference to our grandkids, I want to make a difference to somebody else's kids.
And, uh, I don't have to.
No one's got a gun to my head.
I want to.
And so, the idea being that you say, I'll take this on.
And all I'm going to ask you is if you really have no intention of fulfilling a commitment.
And again, how long?
I don't know.
Start with a year.
That, uh, for a year, will you sponsor?
You know, there's no way I could afford, you know, that amount.
Yeah.
Okay.
I think you might be able to Hey, here's what it's gonna happen in just a few moments when we dismiss the service We're gonna invite you to go out in the lobby.
I told you last week get ready because we're Possibly gonna take your picture remember this I ended the message get ready I'm gonna explain to you what's gonna happen if you want to do this Then we want to invite you to go out there in the lobby and get your picture taken.
And I want you to know that tonight my wife, Lisa, uh, Paul, our senior exec couple of people from our video team, we're going to jump on an airplane tonight and we're going to fly to Malawi.
And I'm going to take your picture that you took here.
I'm going to take your picture.
And I'm going to put you in front of some kids in a village, one of three villages in Malawi.
I'm going to watch them choose you.
And I want them to be my sponsor.
I want them.
And then next week, barring no disaster coming home, we're going to have a reveal party.
I'm going to bring back...
From Malawi, uh, report.
And we're going to connect you with the kid that chose you.
So I got a busy week.
All right.
I have a dream for us as a church.
This is ambitious.
I don't know what we're capable of, but I know central is much larger than you ever think it is because we only come to a service.
This is all we see, but we've been praying and dreaming about sponsoring 900 kids.
I don't know if we can do it.
I don't know.
I know we can, you know, I know we can, but that's the dream that 900 children in Malawi will be taken care of by this church.
And again, you might feel I can't change the world.
Oh, I promise you, you can change the world for one child if you just make a decision.
So I'm gonna invite Rusty back up here.
He's going to kind of explain what needs to happen, how this works.
Because across five campuses in an online community, we gotta make sure we're coordinated because when we come back next week, we're gonna have a reveal where you're gonna meet the child that chose you.
And, uh, it's gonna be very, very special.
We gotta coordinate it because we have multiple campuses in an online community.
So, Rusty, there you are.
Come on up here.
And then he'll kind of tell you where we're going from here.
Yeah, 900 photos is a lot to coordinate, um, and just so you all know, what we're going to be doing in this choosing party that happens this week that Cal, Lisa, and Paul, and others will be at is that we're going to select the most, the 900 kids in that community who have been waiting the longest to be sponsored.
They're going to be invited in.
And they're going to have a hard time understanding what's going on, because they thought they've been waiting years to be sponsored.
And then they're going to realize in that moment, they get to walk into that tent and choose their sponsor that day.
And I've been there.
The empowerment is crazy.
But that vision of 900 is so complicated that I just want you to know my wife and I are in.
My wife and my son are coming to the next service.
We're signing up in a lobby in between.
It'll be our seventh sponsor shop.
But we couldn't not be a part of this incredible first time event in Malawi.
So, uh, next steps.
If everyone were to just take out your phone real quick here, in person or online.
Uh, three steps is link, info, photo to get the link on your phone to sign up.
Uh, you simply need to scan the QR code that the service host is going to display on the screen afterwards.
Or if you're at one of our in person locations, you can also sign it, uh, scan it ahead of time on the card that you got when you walked in, open your camera app, you scan the QR code.
You now have the link on your phone.
That's step one.
Step two is you fill out your basic information in that link, and I'm not going to walk you through that verbally.
I don't want to take that much time to do that.
You, it's kind of intuitive, but I will call it the first question because someone asked me during the other service, what happens if I want to sponsor more than one kid?
What does that look like?
Well, you, that first question says how many kids do you want to sponsor?
And if you do want to sponsor more than one, we just print your photo twice and we just spread it out over the hours.
And so that another kid will choose you after the first child that does.
Um, so that's fill out your information.
Number two.
Number three is.
Take the most epic photo you've ever taken in your entire life.
And if you're online, there's a special way to do that online in your instructions and your service host, and the link will direct you towards that.
If you're at one of our in person locations, you can go into the lobby right after church and at those photo rings in the backdrop, they make us look better with those rings, and it's pretty awesome.
Uh, they'll take your photo there, and that photo then will be uploaded to Cal and Lisa's backpack to take to Malawi tonight.
And we do have a deadline at 6 tonight, because we've got to load them up for their flight this evening, in that sense.
Uh, and if you have any problems...
If your smartphone isn't being that smart today, if you don't know how to do the link, the photo booths are the best way to go because we have volunteers there with iPads that can do the sign up for you if your phone's not working.
So last thing I'll say before I'll close this out is I've been to a couple of choosing parties in person and they have the kids walk into those tents and they choose.
And it is a empowering moment of just choice and power and dignity.
But then they have the kids go to a different tent and they write to you why they chose you.
And sometimes those reasonings are hilarious, to be honest.
And sometimes the reasoning is spiritual.
But all the time, a kid writing to us, the first interaction we're going to have is next week when you open that envelope, and you see the kid that chose you, they're going to tell you why they chose you.
That's a beautiful spiritual moment.
So right now, I'm gonna close this in prayer.
Pray for all of us, but then also pray for the 900 kids that are, we want to wake up tomorrow morning with an invite to a party that's gonna change their life.
God, we just give you all the glory.
We thank you for your son, Jesus, for his death on the cross and his resurrection for your love that invades our hearts, despite our own self-doubt.
Despite our sin.
You forgive us God.
We're just grateful for that.
We thank you for the fact that you empower us to share your love while we're here, that, that life is not just waiting for heaven, but we can help build your kingdom here on earth.
We thank you for the gift of empathy and action.
And God, I'm just praying in advance that you do a special work for that child in Malawi that has been waiting for years that now gets to come to a choosing party, from that person in this room right now that is waiting to be affirmed in their own inherent dignity by a child choosing us.
God, just do something that we don't even understand in the next couple weeks.
Do something around the world that we can only give credit to you for.
In your name we pray.
Amen.