A Culture Of Compassion - Julius Rwotlonyo & Eddie Mwesigye

[Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh hello family and welcome to church today my name is jacqueline and i am our total graduate and my name is james skinner and i serve here at watoto as the team leader for global support hi i'm ronald from otoro hey everybody my name is lucky hi my name is daisy and my name is elana i am so thankful for my sponsor i thank god for school i am so thankful for i'm thankful for my mom she's the best and we are thankful for friends thank you for loving water [Music] if this is the first time you're joining us you're so welcome we're so excited to have you here we'd love to hear from you so why don't you send us a quick email to connect withoutchurch.com parents we have not forgotten about you we have teaching materials tailor-made for your children so visit our website watertochurch.com forward slash kids for your little ones and watautochurch.com forward slash youth and young adults for your teenagers in just a few moments we're going to be led in worship by the watote worship academy i'm so excited about this through the academy these young students are being equipped and discipled to become the next generation of worship leaders and they're going to grow up and they're going to serve their local church but today we get to be a part of that it's so exciting but before we meet them we've got a special message from some of our really good friends from around the world family my name is anna and i'm the country director of watoda germany in switzerland i'm so glad to be part of the watoto family and miss you all i send you all the best greetings from germany and sunshine and hope you all well stay safe and be best bye hi guatota family greetings from the water to office in brazil hi i'm lauren hamlin country director with watoto canada from all of your watota family here we love you and may god richly bless you hey my name is paul and i sent you greetings from the vatoto netherlands office today is going to be a great day i'm jonathan and i'm tara and with toto family we want to bring you warm greetings from everybody in the uk this morning hello from watoto usa hello from the bototo norway office hello from the total asia [Music] from office country hello from uganda this is the uganda support office and we want to welcome you to our total weekend enjoy the celebration [Applause] [Music] today are you ready to worship jesus come on put your arms together like this [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] more [Music] here [Music] know [Music] [Music] all right [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] amen we are so glad that you chose to worship jesus with us today my name is raymond and i'm paradox worship academy psalm 113 verse 7 says the lord raises the poor from the dead and takes the helpless from the ashes and you know what that's what god has done in my life i didn't have the privilege to grow up with both of my parents [Music] i was abandoned as a child and left the trash but just like god says that he has a plan for us god never led his hand to go away from me i was rescued and brought to a total which has been my family my home for the last 19 years friends maybe a story similar to mine or perhaps life has got you wondering if god really cares about you i am here to remind you that god loves you he has a special plan for your life he says that he will never leave you neither will he forsake you he is a good father and a good shepherd to us so join with me even after sing this song and let's leave the name of jesus [Music] i shall [Music] [Music] i will sit together through every [Music] [Music] the lord is [Music] i shall [Music] me forever [Music] the lord is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] i shall [Music] hush [Music] i will dwell with you [Music] forever [Music] i will dwell with you [Music] forever [Music] forever [Music] forever [Music] here forever [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is we're watching [Music] [Applause] jesus i am surrounded [Music] is [Music] let us [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] you see [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is i am you so much our young adults from our total worship academy for leading us in such a great worship experience that last song just reminds me of the scripture that says behold what manner of love that the father our father god has lavished on us by calling us children of god sons and daughters and that's who we are and because you're a child of god he cares about you he cares about your needs all you need to do is to ask and you will receive is to seek and you will find and is to knock at heaven's door your father's door in heaven and he will answer your prayers wow great worship experience well if you're joining us online or on air we want to welcome you to our totoro church service and today is a special weekend where we get to focus on the work that we do in caring for community now before we hear the message today i'm really excited that our founders and team leaders pastors gary and marilyn skinner have a special message for us well welcome to water to church online i know we're gonna have a great service and i'm glad that you decided to be a part of it welcome it was almost 37 years ago that gary and i moved to kampala to begin with toto and the last three decades has been a journey of faith it's been a journey of miracles god has been so good to us we've seen tens of thousands of people transformed by the power of the good news by the power of jesus christ but we've also seen an entire nation transformed as those transformed lives went into their community with the culture and the character of jesus christ wow you know what with toto we love to say church is not an event you go to it's a family you belong to and today we have a global family a family all around the world so we want to welcome you if you've joined us today from australia from north america south america europe wherever you've joined us from we are so glad that you are part of our family it's been an amazing 37 years we've watched god do some terrific things as he's helped water church become the kind of church that he's called us to be he's called us to reach out to the most vulnerable in our community and give them hope to preach the gospel and transform their lives and so we've been able to rescue over 5 000 little boys and girls who were orphaned as a result of tragedy in their lives we've been able to go up to gulu and reach out to that war-torn community and reach boys and girls who are forced to be child soldiers help them regain their lives we've gone up into juba south sudan into that war-torn nation and we're a part of rebuilding that beautiful city and that nation and of course we're reaching out to the most vulnerable women in our community who are struggling to raise their children so desperate that's the kind of church god wants us to be i'm glad you're a part of it but we could have never done that if it wasn't for our family of sponsors all around the world and we want to thank you so much for your faithfulness it's been challenging times that we've lived in these past few months with this global pandemic but our sponsors have stuck with us that's how we know that you're a family so on behalf of the thousands of children the thousands of women the communities that have been in distress we want to say a heartfelt thank you so much we're continuing with our series today transforming culture jesus said that we were to go into all the world and we were to make disciples of the nations teaching them to obey everything that he commanded us he wants us to transform nations by developing the culture and the character of christ and we're to live that out and today we're going to talk about transforming culture by becoming a culture of compassion you know the shortest verse in the bible it's in john 11 35 simply says this jesus wept do you know why jesus cried because he came to the home of his friend lazarus and lazarus had died and the family was going through trauma and when jesus saw their trauma their pain he wept that's the heart of jesus that's the heart of god the bible also tells us jesus when he saw the crowds he was moved with compassion because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd that's jesus that's who he is we sing a song at watatha church about the compassion of god he's gracious he's he's slow to anger he's full of compassion he's good to all he's compassionate to all that he made that's god and whatever god is like he wants us to be and so today we want to talk about that being moved by the plight of people around us developing a culture of compassion that helps us also to be good to other people i'm glad you decided to join us today welcome we're going to have a great service god bless you thank you so much pastor gary and marilyn for sharing those words of encouragement it's always great to hear from you we love you so so much now today is a very very special weekend here at watoto where we get to celebrate what we do in caring for community and i'm going to have a conversation with eddie and it's going to be awesome by the way eddie and i went to the same high school that's right went to the same faculty at university macquarie university and now we get to serve jesus here at watoto it's such a joy to serve with you some exciting things happening here at watoto eddie yeah absolutely last week two of our choirs returned home from the usa and brazil and it's such a joy to have our children back thank you all family for praying and giving towards our children and talking about the children this evening at 7 00 p.m we are going to have a concert by our total children's wires now not this it is pre-recorded but it is anointed and it's going to be on all our platforms on our tour church online on our facebook platform but also you can watch this concert live at 7pm on family tv you are going to be blessed tell somebody about it that's right it's going to be powerful so we are carrying on our series culture transformation and today we want to talk about a very important culture and that is a culture of compassion god is a god of compassion you can see that all through the bible in fact god required the children of israel to be compassionate if they were going to be blessed they were to take care of the foreigners who were living in their land they were to take care of the orphans and the widows and when they did that god would bless them jesus when he was on earth he was moved with compassion when he saw people in suffering he cared about them biblical compassion is actually love and mercy in action where one steps out of their way so they can help another in a time of need and we've all experienced compassion in one way or another either from a friend or family member relative it could have even been your teacher or even a stranger and you know how that act of compassion changed your life either directly or indirectly i think of my own story my dad was orphaned at a very young age but it took relatives that came alongside him to educate him and today he's a professor and i'm so thankful that he extended that compassion by raising us to be incredible children and so we are so thankful for this gift of compassion in community the unfortunate thing eddie is that today this culture of compassion is being eroded very slowly in community in society more and more people are self-centered and selfish they don't want to care about other people but we also see a number of people who are taking advantage of the vulnerable instead of caring for them but we need to change this we need to embrace genuine compassion this culture of compassion so we can build a healthy community because the culture of biblical compassion changes lives and i want to read the story quickly eddie and we're going to jump into it it's a popular story found in luke chapter 10 where jesus gives a parable of the good samaritan i'm going to read from verse 25 and here's what it says on one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test jesus he said teacher what must i do to inherit eternal life jesus responded by asking him what is written in the law and how do you read it how do you interpret it this teacher of the law answered and said love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself jesus replied and said you have answered correctly do this and you will leave but this expert in the law wanted to justify himself so he asked jesus and who is my neighbor very important question in reply jesus said a man was going down from jerusalem to jericho when he was attacked by robbers they stripped him of his clothes bit him and went away leaving him half dead a priest happened to be going down the same road and when he saw the man he passed by on the other side so too a levite when he came to the place and saw him he also passed by on the other side bare samaritan as he traveled came where the man was and when he saw him he took pity on him he went to him and bandaged his wounds pouring oil and wine then he put the man on his own donkey and he brought him to an inn and took care of him the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper look after him he said and when i return i will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have then jesus asked which of these do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers the expert in the law replied the one who had mercy on him the one who exercised compassion jesus told him go and do likewise what an amazing story yeah that's a very powerful story and jules you know as we talk about culture transformation in this story i see jesus changing the culture of the people in the day because the context of this story is so amazing we must understand the relationship between the jews and the samaritans they never got along they never loved each other and here jesus tells a story of a samaritan who was an enemy to the jew who stepped across racial barriers and loved his enemy jesus was teaching the jews then and teaching all of us that we must respond to the pain of the people around us no matter who they are you know it's very easy to care for the people that we love but what about your enemy in this place jesus is saying it doesn't matter who that person is friend or enemy we must respond with compassion whenever anybody is in pain that's right now there are lots of things that we can learn from from this amazing story but the first thing is compassion responds to pain you see friends pain is personal pain is real and right now you could be going through pain or you have just come out of pain and the truth of life is we all experience pain because we live in a broken world but what makes us go through the pains in this life is people around us who respond to us with compassion you say jules as i am a young man um i lost my parents at the age of seven years and i went from family to family and i went through a painful experience as um i was abused physically verbally but in the same season the people who came alongside me to take care of me they saw my pain and responded with compassion and they took care of me until when i was at university and i am where i am today because god worked through people to respond with compassion to my pain because compassion is so important to alleviate the pains of the people around us compassion responds to pain and this is our story as well total church we say we care for community and i'm reminded about how our total child care ministry started in the in the 90s uganda in the 80s was hit by hiv aids and leaving lots of children were parentless they'll be found on the streets begging for food to leave and god spoke to our team leaders gary and marilyn and he told them take care of my children and god used many verses but two verses are so critical to the work that we're doing to care for the vulnerable and the first one is james 1 27 that says religion that our father accepts as pure and faultless is this to look after orphans and widows in the distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world that's the first one and the second one is this is in psalm 68 and verse 5 and 6 and says a father to the fatherless a defender of widows is god in his holy dwelling and god sets the lonely in families wow god loves the orphan and the widow that's right and he uses his people to do this work of caring for them and so far as we're talking we have had the privilege of caring for over 5000 boys and girls through child care but also gone alongside vulnerable women about 5 000 women as well and today i just want to brag about our turtle family thank you so much for caring for the needy in the communities you know recently we have been hit by the coveted pandemic and many church members have cared for church folk but also members of the community because compassion responds to the pain and i want to encourage you to look out for people in pain in your community and take care of them yeah compassion truly responds to pain like you have said eddie that's very powerful the other thing i see in this story eddie is that compassionate only responds to pain but also goes the extra mile wow it goes the extra mile what did this good samaritan do he stopped went down did care for the pain of this man that was hit by robbers but then he didn't stop there this man couldn't walk he picked up this man put him on his donkey went the extra mile of taking him to a safe place paid for the safe place and even paid for the treatment and he didn't stop there he said i'm gonna pass by he followed up he went the extra mile to make sure that this man was doing great you know what i get from that eddie that compassion is not about handouts that's right it's about giving a hand up wow when god called us to plant a church in gulu and uh i remember marilyn particularly went up and met with some of the district leaders in gulu and so she said to them we were wanting to come as plant a church and be involved in the healing of gulu town which was just coming out of the lra war and one of the leaders turned to marilyn and said i hope you're not going to be like all these other organizations that come here give us blankets and sweets take pictures and they are gone because compassion is not about handouts and we said no we are actually coming to be a part of the community we are going to establish a church and be part of the life in gulu because compassion goes the extra mile wow what do we do with the vulnerable children and orphans that god gives into our hands we don't just rescue them from difficulty from pain like you said but we take the extra mile of raising them to believe us we give them the best food that they could get offer them a great housing we put them in families like you said and then not only that we give them the best education that they could ever afford why so that they become great leaders that would transform our nation we go the extra mile it's not just about food and clothes what do we do with the women that god allows us to reach out to we do this through a total neighborhood we embrace them tell them they are loved but we go the extra mile we empower them train them literacy skills we find out their giftings and train them to do things with their hands so that they can begin to be productive themselves and then we engage with them i think of the story of two ladies resting and justine who are in bunga one of the communities here who came through a total neighborhood and they received this love this compassion but guess what today they are extending that compassion right in their communities they're caring for 60 other women wow that's amazing because you know what compassion goes the extra mile you said it we do it through our small groups they get from their pockets to care for community biblical compassion my friends changes lives that's right and it's a culture we need to embrace our society we shouldn't just do things as random acts of compassion just to ease our conscience that we've done something no we gotta commit to see that the people we care for actually have their dignity restored actually become productive people because compassion goes the extra mile so a culture of compassion is a way of life that changes community wow that is so awesome now we've said two things so far that compassion responds to pain secondly compassion goes the extra mile to help and lastly compassion will be rewarded absolutely both in this life and in eternity now we don't practice compassion to be rewarded but it's inevitable whenever you are compassionate god will reward you because when you are compassionate you are sowing seeds of love and they become fruitful at the end of the day you will be rewarded and matthew 25 illustrates this uh principle of compassion being rewarded in matthew 25 34 and this what matthew says then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father take your inheritance the kingdom 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 i needed clothes and you clothed me i was sick and you looked after me i was in prison and you came to visit me then the righteous those who are compassionate in this life will answer him lord when did we see you hungry and feed you all thirsty and give you something to drink when did we see you as a stranger and invite you in or in need of clothes and clothed you when did we see you sick or in prison and we came and visited you then verse 40. the king will reply truly whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did to me come on so every time we saw a seed of compassion in a life that is in pain we are actually doing it to jesus and he will reward us in this life and in eternity and i don't know about you but i'm so excited every time i see one of our boys and girls growing up becoming a productive citizen and a responsible christian i'm reminded of little afraid i call him little because i remember him as a little boy i traveled with him on choir 13 in 2004 in north america and he used to say when i grow up i want to be a pilot a pilot you want to become a pilot right to delfred has graduated as a pilot come on he is a responsible christian and productive citizen and then um choir 17 i think we traveled to australia asia and new zealand there was a young man called fred erisa he loved football a lot we used to play football and he was uncle fled he was called him uncle fled uncle fred and um he wanted to become a lawyer today fred is one of uh of the lawyers in our city in kampala he is a responsible christian and productive citizen yeah and we as were told we are saying we are receiving the rewards of compassion in this life but remember this my friend you will be rewarded for your compassion in eternity by jesus and himself amen but the greatest act of compassion was demonstrated by god our father and god our father can never ask us to do something he's never done and we can never outgive god god demonstrates his love for us in this while we were enemies he sent jesus to die for us you see friends jesus lived a life we should have lived and he died at death we should have died and today my brother my sister wherever you are jesus is calling you to himself he has already paid the penalty for your sin and he wants you to come back home come back into the arms of your creator your father he loves you so much i want to pray for you because i know you need to come to jesus and receive forgiveness and salvation now if you believe in your heart that you want to give your life to jesus i want you to pray this prayer right now wherever you are say lord jesus today i invite you into my heart forgive me of my sins i choose to follow you every day of my life in jesus name i do pray amen amen if you prayed that prayer the bible says you are a child of god welcome to the family of god and we would love to connect with you please click the link on the message section below because we want to get in touch with you now if you're watching online or you're listening in on air or watching on tv you can also write to us on this email connect at totalchurch.com and one of us will make sure we get in touch with you because we want to make sure that you are part of god's family welcome once again wow that was awesome eddie i also add to the welcome and say hey you are now a part of the family of god congratulations and i want to challenge the rest of us let's embrace this biblical culture of compassion compassion changes lives so we've come to that part of our service where we get to exercise generosity we get to give and whenever we give we're saying god will love you but also we are saying hey god we want to extend your love we want to extend your compassion to the communities around us and so get your tithes get your offerings ready and we're going to give in just a moment but i would like to pray for you as you get ready to give now dear father i want to thank you so much for the gifts that we're going to give to you our offerings we thank you that you take our offerings and use them to multiply your compassion now i pray with you bless everyone that's giving but also bless the work that we do as watoto in jesus name amen you can give using mobile money direct bank transfer or any banking agent within your community but also if you live close to any of our celebration points you can simply walk over and slip your cash offering into one of the gift boxes now for those using mobile money let me walk you through the steps you would take for mtn dial star 165 star 3 hash and the merchant code is 148 775 that is star 165 star three hash and the merchant code is one four eight seven seven five and for airtel you dial star one eight five star four star nine hash and the business number is seven hundred thousand that is seven followed by five zeros again it's star 185 star four star nine hash and the business number is seven followed by five zeros for more giving options check out our website watotachurch.com forward slash give but you can also use your phone to scan the qr code which will take you straight to the different giving options and for your water child sponsorship dial star 165 star four star for hash then enter the merchant code wccm in capital letters again that is star 165 star 4 star for hash the merchant code is wccm in capital letters now as a reference type the sponsor's full name only fill in the amount to be paid and finally fill in your mtn mobile money pin thank you for your generosity [Music] the maker [Music] will never be defeated i will make [Music] it will hold my soul we need [Music] always is [Applause] completed [Music] will never [Music] with right through [Music] take me right through it [Music] you'll never [Music] is [Music] i know [Music] [Applause] of the lord it will hold my soul within the child thank you for joining us for church today we hope you've been blessed if you'd like to catch up on some previous sermons or to find out more information on giving options visit our website at www.watotochurch.com for prayer and counseling please call the number you see on your screen or send us an email to connect at twitterchurch.com and remember the watoto children's choir are performing tonight on air and online at 7 pm sharp don't miss it that's right james i'll be watching i hope to see you there have a great week [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Watoto Church

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Length: 54min 27sec (3267 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 26 2020