string(7) "m-66998" Burnt Hickory Baptist Church

Sermons

← back to list

May 16, 2021

The Heart of Compassion

The Heart of Compassion

Passage: Luke

Speaker: Peter Abungu

Series: Stand Alone Message

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: ministry, evangelism, gospel, missions, africa, kenya, feeding the hungry, saving the lost, why should i give to missions, kenya news, mission trip to afric, kibera kenya, kibera kenya slums

It’s a special Sunday at Burnt Hickory where we get to celebrate our relationship with Peter, our mission partner from Kenya, as well as surprise him with a financial gift that will establish our footprint for generations in Kibera. Burnt Hickory has been generously giving towards the Kenya Ministry Center, and God has blessed that gift in the form of being able to purchase the land, build the center, and even furnish this church plant and missions headquarters in Kenya. Peter has been our mission partner in Kibera Kenya for over 10 years. He serves as the founder and Director of Swahiba Networks, and has a heart to reach out to marginalized, underprivileged, and destitute communities living in the slums of rural Kenya. By supporting Swahiba, we are taking part in mentoring, evangelizing, and discipling these communities for Christ.

Well, we couldn't be more excited than we are today to have Mr. Peter Abungu with us, can you guys give him a hand this morning! The second time's the charm, the first time didn't work out a couple of weeks ago due to a little COVID situation. But everybody's healed now. And we're all good. Well, about two months ago, actually, we came, and we challenged this church to really think and pray and see what it would look like for us to make a generational difference in the life of Peter's ministry and in the Kibera slums, where we've been partnered with for over 10 years now, this is our actually our 10-year anniversary there. And we just asked you to think about it and to pray and to see where your family would be and making an investment. So many of you over the years have been involved already, through praying for ministries that are happening there. A lot of you have gone on trips with us to go serve in Kenya, as well as send your kids. Because man, I sure can remember that first time when everybody hated on us for going, I mean, I didn't say that out loud, did I? I'm sorry, ah, for when everybody really wasn't too excited. But then they went, Wow, this is incredible. But listen, we are absolutely excited this morning just to share with Peter and to share with this church what God has done, and not only kind of look back, but also look forward into the future of what God's going to do.

So, Peter, we have a couple of gifts today. Number one, we have a gift from our church. And then in just a moment, I'm going to invite the Stephens family up. And then they have a gift from pastors to pastors, Pastor Mike's ministry, as well. But here's what I want to do. You know, a while back, we started dreaming about what it would look like for Peter to have a resource center in Kibera. Right now, he rents a facility about 700 square feet in a neighborhood between two families. And it's a little townhouse. And it's working. Because there's 1000s of people that are involved with Peter’s ministry. But we just started dreaming God, what would it look like for us to come behind something like this, to plant something to elevate our investment and our partnership with Peter. So, we asked you guys to give. But what we didn't realize when we started dreaming about this, that this is a really large deal. And it's an expensive deal. And so over the time that we started thinking about this, man, the numbers started coming in. And I would love to say that there were people of faith. But there comes a time when you start going, oh no, this is a lot of money. But church, listen, we asked you to give, we asked you to come behind this project and here's what I want to do today. Peter just wants you to stand up today because on behalf of Burnt Hickory, and on behalf of all of these guys that have given towards this project today, I'm going to present you with a check today for ministry for $451,000.00 today.

Man, you know what? I'd love to just say that I thought it was going to happen. But I was hoping it was going to happen. And you guys did it. Amen. You guys did it. And listen, Peter had no idea this was coming today. We even talked yesterday on my back deck about just maybe we have some seed money to really plant the vision for this thing coming. And we were like walking through questions on what can we talk about to let them give and I'm like, are we live in a lie here? I don't really know. But listen, gosh, you guys did it. And you guys have given faithfully. And Peter on behalf of this church. God bless you guys, and what is going to happen in the next generations to come. Amen. But listen, we're not done. Because this is just some of it up. So, when we started talking about this program, and talking about what this can look like, we knew that it was going to be a lot. And then the Stephens family came to us and said, Hey, we have some resources that Mike had in his Pastor to Pastor training funds, and then you guys gave in lieu of flowers and a memorial to Mike after he passed away and then other people that he had just blessed in his community gave incredibly in his name, and we're going to talk about that in just a minute, but I want you to check out this video before we do that.

I want to say thank you so much, first of all, because of this meeting and the network of Swahiba, that has been so much of a big help to us as pastors. I want to thank Swahiba so much, courtesy of Peter Abungu, who really as a good and a kind heart for God, and so committed to see this community change for the good and for God. One of the things that has happened through this relationship is that we have grown close, something that is so special is the teams that over and over again, bring into the pastors to train us to teach us to bring materials to us. And Mike, the pastor who has been coming with three teams. Wow, it is so wonderful. It was hard to catch, it was so personal, and we are so much blessed. But since the time I joined the group of priests, pastors’ network, that was started by Pastor Peter, I have seen a lot of good things happen in my life. First, I've been encouraged to know that the work that I'm doing is not an easy thing. But when God is put first, then everything else is possible. As I walk in Kibera, as I work with the youth, and as I work with adults, the things that we've learned here, many men of God have come to be a blessing to us, especially Pastor Mike, that teachings that we've received from them along the time has really helped us to deal with the people who are in Kibera.

Nowadays, I'm preaching a sound doctrine in my church. And in fact, they are admiring when I'm preaching, in fact, the three of them are mentoring now, they want to become like me, the way I'm preaching the gospel. And it helped me a lot. I pray that God may empower you, again, and give you strength to continue teaching us and empowering us for this gospel, so that we can go outside there and start preaching the sound doctrine. And we cannot give much back but just to say thank you, and to pray for the people that stand with us that believe in us that want to see us grow, and become a better people, for the community, and to really bring the Word of God out and to empower people. May the Lord bless this team of pastors, and may the Lord bless those who are standing with us. And even those who come to facilitate the kind of learning that we receive every time. We just want to say thank you, thank you, big time. Amen.

So along with the gift that this church is presenting, Peter this morning, I want to invite the Stephens family to come up and be with me. But would you guys just do me a big favor and would you guys give them an incredible, incredible Burnt Hickory thank you for being with us this morning.

Thank you all so much. We're excited. We're honored. We're humbled to be here today, in honor of my dad.

He loved Kenya so much. He hated traveling. He hated being away from here, this church, he hated being away from home. But of all the mission trips that he went on, he just kept going back to Kenya over and over because he loved the people. He loved training pastors, he loved to mentor and minister to the people down there. And we're just overwhelmed to be here. And it's just been cool over the last few months, I've been able to kind of look through some of the books that he read, and the devotions that he had and the things that he underlined and highlighted. And then occasionally he would star some things. And I was actually reading my devotional yesterday, and dad has the same devotional that I do. And he starred this one sentence in that devotional from yesterday and it says, "We forget that we have not only been blessed to be recipients of God's grace, but we have been called to be tools of that grace in the lives of others. And, to me, that just sums up my dad's life. And it sums up your life where God has led you, Peter, and we are so thankful for the ministry that you've grown and the relationship that we have with you. And we're just humbled to be able to be here. And we just want to thank everyone that gave in honor of my dad. And we're so blessed that when we were able to dissolve his Pastors of Pastors, they asked us to give to something of similar nature. And we know for a fact that dad would not want that money to go anywhere else. And so, Peter, we thank you for what you've done. And we are so excited to see what God's going to do through this ministry center. And so, we have a check for you for $59,000.

Amen. Well, bless y'all. I know, it's been a long day today of doing this with us. But we are so excited to see this go towards where Mike's heart is and thank you all for being with us. Can we give them a hand one more time for being with us today?

You know, as we've dreamed on this project, and as we've kind of cast a vision towards this project, and it continued to grow, here's the reality. And here's where you just know, when God is in the middle of something, when we looked at land, we knew that it was going to be a lot, just is what it is. And then when we looked at what a facility on the land that we've been able to find and hopefully be able to purchase, we had some initial drawings made and some dreaming done. And here's the thing, church, the total of the land, and the building that would be used for all the needs that Peter has expressed. And just kind of our vision talking came up to $490,000. And so, catch this, if you add on top of that the furnishings that are needed to furnish this building, it comes out to just over about 500 to $510,000. And that is exactly what we have presented Peter with here today. How incredible is that? Incredible. Amazing. And I don't know about you, but I don't get to do this a whole lot. So, I'm a little excited about kind of how God has been in the middle of this and how over 480 different families have given towards this project. And that's incredible. But Peter, let's talk just for a minute before you open the word for us. Tell us a little bit about who you are and a little bit about what is Swahiba ministries, because there's a lot of new people that are here. They're like, who is this guy? And why are we this excited? Tell us a little bit about who you are?

Well, I am a man saved by the grace of God. I was brought up in a family of 11 children. If you understand soccer, that is a soccer team minus resolve. And my dad loved us. My dad was a minister of the gospel. And he was a preacher, man. So, he was gone a lot on preaching itinerary. And when I was 14, my mom died in a car accident. Correct. And that was a very difficult season four my life. And then when I turned 19, I lost my dad. And it was not until a gentleman by the name of Collin Piper, God brought him from the UK. God brought him into my life to sponsor me through college, gave me a chance to go to Bible school in the UK and went back to Kenya in 2002. September, to launch a youth ministry in the slums of Kibera.

Now tell us a little bit about that ministry from just give us the short version from 2002. until now, what is it that Swahiba does? And what's kind of the goal of Swahiba ministries?

Yeah, Swahiba was born out of my experience as a teenager. When I was struggling as a teenager, I needed to find someone who could come and walk alongside of me and help me understand the challenges I was going through. And when I was waiting for calling, it was three months before going back home, and I was really asking God, where are you sending me? What would you want me to do? I knew I was going back to Kenya. But my specific assignment was not clear. So, I get this chance to wait for calling at Clifton College in Bristol in the UK. And it was running late. And so, I picked up a Christian youth magazine. And there had been a team that had gone to Kenya from the UK, and they had gone to Kibera slums. And they had encountered a 14-year-old boy who was asking the same questions that I was asking when I was 14. He had lost both of his parents to HIV and AIDS, and he was going through struggles. And when I read that article, it resonated so deeply with my heart that I knew that that was the place where I had to go. I'd never been to Kibera at the heart of it. So, I packed my bags went back home, and of September 2002, landed in Kibera slum with about 1 million people living in four miles radius with no amenities.

So, what does ministry look like in the kind of the mid-range of Swahiba like the year 2010 through today? What does it look like?

So, I typically went out fast, you know, my desire to go into Kibera slums was purely to share the gospel, evangelize young people, and disciple them, and walk with them through the challenges they're facing. But as we did that, we quickly realized that we had to meet temporal needs in order to share eternal truth. And so, one of the things that we've done, we've tied the gospel alongside with the sandwich to effectively and strategically reach the community that we serve. So, through that, we've been able to do that through the purity programs that this church, one awesomely supports. And we have 1100 girls on the program, the need is huge, but God has given us the Grace with that. And then, through the First Priority Club, discipleship, evangelism and discipleship clubs, we've been able to reach 1700. Right now, we have 1700 students in schools within the slums on that discipleship program. Amen.

Now, so you've got 1100 girls in a girl's purity program. We've got 1700 students in a First Priority Club meeting after school being discipled trained as leaders, what is this ministry center now going to do for you? What is that going to do for ministry?

It's going to be fun and phenomenal. Just the last couple of months in Kenya schools have been closed because of COVID. So, one of the things we did, which was safer for kids or students to come to our office for discipleship, and we developed a manual that is excellent that we work with. And, we have a very small space, and dividing them into small groups of five, using the space that we have, we had to get kids arriving at the lab at 8am in the morning living at 10am. And every two hours until 4pm in the day, and we had 100% attendance because we provided a cup of tea and bread. What this ministry center is going to do is going to allow us to have more space that is not limited to time having as an office in between people's homes means that you can only be so loud, you can only have so many people and only for a limited amount of time. So, one of the prayers that have been answered is over time, we've had young girls or women who live in the slums, whose husbands have abdicated their responsibilities of taking care of their families come to us and say I need to leave my child here to go and find something else to do for the day, otherwise, we will go hungry. So those families, we give them food baskets, but the best thing that would happen to us would be for us to now have a space within our center that they would safely leave their children and we would minister to the children as the women find something to do with their hands and by extension be able to extend our ministry not only to those children, but also to their mothers. During the day we would use the facility for pastors training. In the evening the students would come for discipleship sessions, over the weekends we would plant a church. And my desire is that we plant a church that is a sending church, that will be a place where we would disciple, train, and then send other pastors from our church to go plant churches.

Amen. So, in five years from now or three years from now, we could see just an incredible multi-generational ministry beginning from having this physical location.

This is a really a God thing. This is a God thing. I landed in Kenya in 2002 September, to think that God would allow us to have such a tremendous facility based on the drawings that we have on our 20th anniversary and be able to launch that as a celebration. It's just phenomenal. And our desire is that when we launch, we will launch with a church plant and various ministries or programs that would allow us to reach that community very effectively for the kingdom of God. Amen. Amen.

Well, church I'm excited today that this is just the beginning. Excited today to hear the word from Peter. Peter would you just pray just a prayer. of thanks. Over this whole morning, and then I'm going to get out of the way and let you bring the word to us, Amen.

Let's pray. Father in the name of the Lord Jesus, we thank you because you are a good God. You're a good good Father. Thank you, Lord, that You would pick up people like us, Lord, you would use our people like us, in spite of us. Lord, we thank you because Your is amazing. Lord, we thank You for what the cross represents for us. That today Jesus is sitting on the throne in heaven and the tomb in the Middle East is empty. Lord, we thank You for what your blood represents, that You've cleansed us that You've called us out of darkness into Your marvelous light. Lord, we want to worship You today. Thank You for Your goodness, thank You for all the provisions that You've made. Lord, we pray that You continuously give us a grace to remain faithful to remain focused on You, and Lord to wait expectantly, Lord for You, Lord, as we serve may You receive glory and honor. In Jesus name. Amen.

All right. So back in Kenya when someone greets you, in church, you respond by saying amen. And you say Amen. Okay? So, if I say praise the Lord, all of you are going to shout a big Amen. Okay? Shall we try? Let's do it. Praise the Lord. That's very good. I think we can even do better. Praise the Lord. Fantastic, it's really cool. I need to take all of you with me back to Kenya when I go back. Receive greetings from my beautiful wife every time I go away and go back my wife gets even more beautiful. I can't wait for tomorrow. And I have awesome children. In fact, I'm careful about talking about my children, because when I'm done, most people don't feel good about their children. God has blessed me with some amazing kids. My son Barnabas James is 14. And he loves to play instruments. He is learned to play guitar. He has learned to play the keyboard; drums and he is learning to play saxophone right now. Yeah, he is gifted. And he's learned all that from YouTube. He's a YouTube student. Then, Joy is full of joy. She's 12. She's a writer, she would write notes and leave them by the lights, and she just writes poems. And she's begun to write her first book. So, I'm excited to see where God takes her with that. Then Abigail is 6. Yeah, she's a justice seeker. Yeah, she will tell you. In fact, if I want to know what's going on, I'll just ask Abigail, how are you guys doing? Tell me what's going on. And she's going to lay it out. She is amazing. We've been so wonderfully blessed. My wife, Julie and I, over the last 15 years, you know, to have such amazing children and to raise them up. It's a privilege that God has granted to us.

Could you turn with me to the book of Luke, if you have your Bible. Chapter 10. If you're there say, Amen. If you're not there, say oh my. Alright, we're going to start at verse 25. This is what the Scripture says, Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' He said to Him, 'What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?' So, he answered and said, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself?' And he said to Him, 'You have answered rightly, do this, and you will live.' But he wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?' Then Jesus answered and said, 'A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among the thieves, and stripped him of his clothing, wounded him than departed, leaving him half dead. By chance, a certain priest came down the road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed came where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion. So, he went to him, bandaged him, bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil, and wine. And he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the innkeeper and said to him; Take care of him and whatsoever you spend, when I come again, I will repay.' Then Jesus asking the lawyer said, 'So which of these three do you think was a neighbor to him who fell among the thieves.' And he said, 'He who showed mercy on him.' Then Jesus said to him, 'Go, and do likewise."

Turn with me to the book of Matthew 9:35. We are just going to read a couple of verses there. Matthew 9:35 it says this, "Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness, and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were wary, and scattered like sheep with no shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is truly plenty, but the laborers are few, therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." I want to talk about the heart of compassion. This church is an ornament of that. That you have not only seen photos from Africa or parts of the world, or Kibera, you've not only heard the stories, you've not only come, but you have engaged in a generational matter, through your generous and faithful giving. In order to have a heart for; we need to have a heart of. And a heart for what? A heart of compassion. What is compassion? Compassion as defined in the dictionary says, "It's a sympathetic consciousness of others distress together with a desire to solve them." Compassion is passion, with a heart. Compassion is not a feeling. It's not a feeling, but a commitment to get involved with a hurting people. Compassion moves me to action and puts feet to my feeling. Compassion is love in action. Compassion is a doing word. So, when Jesus is talking to this lawyer, you would have known better not to ask Jesus such a question, because Jesus really threw him a curveball. Because this was a Jew, asking Jesus about who is my neighbor, then Jesus gives him a classic example, that are a Jew and a Samaritan. And I think it blew his mind. When compassion is associated with God, the Father, here are a couple of things that I want you to know that is full of compassion. Jesus was moved with compassion. To be godly is to be full of compassion. If you are full of compassion, you will be moved by compassion.

Jesus was moved by compassion, and every time he saw a situation, that gripped his heart. The first thing that we see in Scripture is He says, He had compassion, then He acted. He had compassion, then there was action. He had compassion. He just didn't say, Go, be warmly fed, be warm, be a well fed and go in peace. He didn't say that. When he had compassion, there was action that came with it. The ministry of Jesus was marked by compassion. Matthew 14:14 says, "Jesus was moved with compassion, and he healed the sick." Matthew 14:16 says, "He had compassion on them, and he fed them. His disciples wanted him to send them away, it's late. We don't know where we're going to get food. Jesus said, 'Look, these people have been here three days. We need to find something and feed them." So, He fed them. Look at Luke 7:14, it says, "Jesus had compassion on the widow of Nain and raised her son from the dead." This was a widow in the Middle East, if you're a widow, and you've lost your son, the only son you have, you are in a difficult place, because women did not work. It was men who worked, and they brought the bread home. So, this is a woman, if you're widowed, it means you've lost your husband. Now you've lost your son. So, your source of income is completely cut off. And when Jesus saw this woman in our continent, and all the people that were walking with her as they wailed and cried, and there's so much sadness, Scripture says he had compassion. When Jesus had compassion on this woman of Nain, He not only hugged her and wished her well, He went to the coffin, He touched the son who was dead, and He raised him back to life.

Compassion proceeds miracles in the Gospel, when there was a move of compassion that was released of miracles, could it be that we should pray for compassion, as much as we pray for revival that God will continuously move our heart? Do you know what you've done as a church? You have moved us from this small facility that we had, that is rented, that we cannot put any signs on, we're going to have a facility that we can put The Ministry Center on it, and as people walk by, and people with needs and people who need ministry, they'll be able to see the signage and come in and receive ministry. That's what you've done through, your compassionate giving. 1 John 3:17 says, "But whosoever hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in Him?" Bowels of compassion. Now, a friend from this community had an experience with bowels movement, serious one over the last couple of hours, in 24 hours. And when the bowels move, let's just say that when there's action on the inside, when there is movement on the inside, there is action on the outside.

There is no way there can be bowels of compassion within you, and you don't act. If the bowels move, there's going to be action. If the bowels of this church has moved and there has been action, Praise the Lord! Good students. Matthew 9:37 says, the harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few." In fact, the Message Bible says there are no hands, there are no hands of harvest, no hands of harvest. When we harvest, it doesn't matter whether you are harvesting corn of fruit or whatever kind of produce that you're harvesting from your farm, you have got to engage your hands and your hands would get dirty. And that's what this church is doing. And I'm challenging you to go further engage your family, your community, your neighborhood, your city, your nation and the world. Get your hands dirty, be moved with compassion, as the bowels of compassion, let it move. So that action may continually be seen on the other side. More laborers are needed at harvest than at sewing because the harvest is always more than what was originally sown. So, as you continue to plant, the seed you planted through you're giving, we're going to see generational impact because of the seeds that you planted. We've been called to reap. But reaping will not happen until a seed has been planted. Jesus was a seed that was planted. And look at what the grace of God has done through his redemption the cross for us. Jesus told the lawyer, you know the law, now go do it. Because that guy was trying to circle and Jesus looked back and said, Okay, I'm going to put it back at your feet. So, you can deal with it. So, He asked him, who among the two, do you think was a neighbor? He was smart enough to give the right answer. And he said the one who helped the man who had been really hurt by the thieves. And then Jesus told him; go into the same. Hallelujah. It's not enough to know the Word. We are called to do the Word. If you're being arrested for being compassionate, for being a compassionate person, is there enough evidence to convict you? Today, if they arrest you for being compassionate, is there enough evidence for you to be convicted? Luke 10:30 says, "wounded him leaving him half dead." They wounded the man. They left him half dead. But if you're half dead, it also means you're half alive. And if you're a half alive, God can make you whole again. Amen.

Three people here in this illustration, excuse me with Jesus: there's a priest, the Levite and the Samaritan. The priest walked by carelessly, the Levite came close. He was concerned and he said, Oh, that is so sad. Oh, that must be really hard. Oh, I hope he finds help. I'll pray for him. But the Samaritan who has donkeys, that was the Lexus of those days, got off his donkey, came down to a position of humility, got down and began to minister to a man that had been wounded and was half dead. Did you notice that actually, there was a risk for the Samaritan that he could have actually been attacked as well by the robbers? But he was willing to risk his life because bowels of compassion had moved within him. And so, there was action on the outside.

I want to bring a couple of points as we drew to a close, and number one: compassion comes to where people are. He came off his donkey, as he realized that he needed to minister to this gentleman. 1 Corinthians 9:19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all that I might win the more." This is Paul writing that I have become this and that and so many other things that I might win more for the kingdom of God. Jesus used the Samaritans to teach a lesson to the two Jews. It rocked their world when Jesus called the Samaritan, good because the Jewish people there is no way they would have considered to have used the same word, Good and Samaritan in the same sentence.

Point number three: Compassion has vision instead of sight. Compassion has vision instead of sight. Sight sees what you are. Visual sees what you can be. The Samaritan looked through the redemptive eyes of God. Paul, when people looked at him, they looked at him as a murderer, but God saw an apostle. Jacob when God looked at him, many people and his father-in-law, probably at him as a conman or a trickster, but God saw a nation. Compassion enables us to see like God sees. I C U. I C U. Intensive Compassionate Unit. When you walk into a hospital, and you go into an ICU section. You see so many people working together, intentionally focused on making that one sick person get better. God is calling us to have intensive compassion, compassion unit. I see where you are; broken, hurting, down and out. God is seeing you. God is seeing you no matter what you're going through. He is seeing you and is calling you. Point number four: Compassion considers our two C's compassion. Where could I be if God did not have compassion on me? Where could I be? Where could you be? Where could we all be? Romans 5:8 says, "While we were still sinners, God demonstrated his own love to us by sending Jesus to die on the cross." He did not wait for us to be good or better people. In our very state of sin, He sent Jesus to die for us. His love and forgiveness, His grace and mercy. God has been too good for us to sit on the sidelines. God has been too good for us to sit on the sidelines. Let's get up and give our compassion feet. Just like the Samaritan. Hallelujah.

Let's pray. Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we give You glory. We give You honor we give You praise. Your name, Lord is more than enough for us. We delight in who You are. We give You praise for Your faithfulness, has being so clearly demonstrated. Through that which You've done. It is good. It's marvelous in our sight. And we give praise and honor to You. You're so awesome. You give us the grace to be compassionate. You give us the grace for those of us that need to reach out and be compassionate to others or receive compassion. You're wonderful. You're gracious, you're merciful. In Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. As we move into our invitation today, it goes so many different directions. First of all, if you need to give your life to Christ, I can't think of a better time today. Because what you just heard that we have a compassionate God, that doesn't wait for us to get fixed, and then come to Him. He offers us salvation and a cleansing and forgiveness and a new life. For in these next moments in invitation. I'll be standing around off to the side over here, they'll be pastors that are available. Or maybe you just want to click on that next steps app, and somebody will reach back out to you this week. But maybe today, you just need to see how is it Lord are You calling me to be compassionate in our home in our city, and our neighborhood and my work and my school. Maybe that's what you need these next few minutes for or maybe you to join this church need to make an official, move from dating to making it real right? To say this is where I belong. This is where I want to plant. This is where our family is. I'm a little bit partial, but I don't think you're going to find a better one. Lord, walk with us today. In this next moment of invitation. As You press into our lives what our next steps should be Jesus. It's in your name, Amen. Let's stand and sing.

 

Follow Along with the Message

The Heart of Compassion

May 16, 2021

Luke 10:25–37
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied, “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘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.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 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, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 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.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Matthew 9:35–38
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

In order to have a heart , we need to have a heart .

What is compassion?

A consciousness of others’ distress together with a to solve the problem.

1. Passion with

2. Not a feeling but a to get involved with a people

3. Moves me to and puts to my feelings

4. in action — it’s a verb (a doing word)

When compassion is associated with God the Father:

1. He is of compassion

2. Jesus was with compassion

3. To be godly is to be of compassion

If you are of compassion, you will be by compassion.

The ministry of Jesus was by compassion.

Jesus was with compassion and healed their sick (Matthew 14:14)

He had compassion on them and them (Matthew 14:16)

Jesus had compassion on the widow of Nain and her son from the dead (Luke 7:13–15)

Compassion preceded in the Gospels.

When there was a of compassion, there was a of miracles.

1 John 3:17 (KJV)
But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

If your move on the inside, there will be on the outside.

Matthew 9:37
“The harvest is plenty but the laborers are few…”

The Message: "There are no harvest hands."

It’s not enough to know the . We are called to the Word.

Question

If you are being arrested for being compassionate, is there enough evidence to you?

Luke 10:30
…wounded him leaving him half-dead.

The man was . He was also .

Whatever is half-alive in your life, God can make again.

Three People

1. Priest (walked by) -

2. Levite (came close) - , but that alone is not enough

3. Samaritan (action) - he was

Key Points

1. Compassion comes to where people .

1 Corinthians 9:19
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more.

2. Compassion breaks down and builds bridges.

It rocked their world when Jesus called the Samaritan “ ”

3. Compassion has instead of .

sees what you are; sees what you can be.

Compassion enables you to like God

ICU:

4. Compassion considers how it compassion.

Get up and give compassion just like the Samaritan.

Additional Notes

Email (To Send Copy of Notes)