Repentance, acceptance enable loving ministry, Kay Warren says
By Kelli Cottrell

Going to battle “HIV is an evil virus. ... This evil is so pervasive, the enemy is so enormous, but if we link arms together in the Spirit and name of God as the Church of Jesus Christ it will be something we do to speed up the return of the King. Let’s go into battle for the lives of people and the King,” Kay Warren told participants at the Disturbing Voices HIV/AIDS Conference Nov. 30. Photo by Allison Cox

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (PD) — The world is not looking for good talkers, but good lovers, Kay Warren told an audience of close to 1,700 at the Disturbing Voices HIV/AIDS Conference at Saddleback Church on Nov. 30.

Warren relayed four things it takes to become better lovers of our neighbors as prescribed by Jesus as the second greatest commandment: repentance, acceptance, presence, and endurance.

After traveling to Africa and visiting with AIDS patients, Warren confessed she needed to repent of her sin of prejudice.
 
“Most of us are in complete denial of our prejudices,” Warren said. “When [the enormity of AIDS] began to crash in on me, my next emotion I had to deal with was repentance. Not just bad attitudes. It was sin. I had to deal with it.”

Then came the acceptance, she said.

“Does anyone here want their life to be up on the jumbo screen?” she asked, motioning to the two large TV screens on each side of the Saddleback worship center. “No, because we know the depth of our sin and we would be humiliated. But God already knows and accepts us. “

And he asks us to do the same thing, knowing each person has sin in his or her life too, she added.

“If we want to be about loving our neighbors we have to start with repentance and then acceptance,” Warren said.

Once you move through those two issues, you then begin being the hands and feet of Christ, Warren explained.

Many times we “rush past the ache in someone’s soul. Frequently we rush past pain. That’s not the way Jesus treated us,” Warren said. “God brought his Son into the world when he saw the brokenness and despair.”

If we take God into our own lives and receive his spirit, we “become containers of him and wherever we go we take him with us,” she said.

“This is my task and your task,” Warren said of bringing Christ’s presence into the lives of those with HIV/AIDS. “We have to put flesh on him. By my actions I make him visible.”

She recounted a recent trip where she worked in Mother Teresa’s home for the dying in Calcutta, India.

“It was hard,” she said tearfully. “But Jesus is asking, ‘Will you sit next to someone who is dying? Will you be my presence in that moment?’”

Warren asked: Before you offer your talents, gifts, or abilities, will you offer your caring presence?

The fight against AIDS is not easy, she warned.

“God didn’t invite us to a picnic but a battle,” she said. “It’s part of evil, and we are fighting against death. HIV is an evil virus. It exists because there is evil in this world. It’s a different level of sacrifice to fight this battle.”

She encouraged those starting an AIDS ministry at their church to “have the strength to not wave the white flag when we get weary or wounded during the battle. It’s easy to get tired or fatigued. Overcome evil with good.”

Warren reminded conference participants that we have to fight together.

“This evil is so pervasive, the enemy is so enormous, but if we link arms together in the Spirit and name of God as the Church of Jesus Christ it will be something we do to speed up the return of the King.

“Let’s go into battle for the lives of people and the King.”