Be My Witnesses
Today, today, we want to share with you for the next few minutes, just some of our trip to Africa, we're coming back from Uganda, we've been back, we traveled 42 hours straight to be home with you guys. And so we are just this morning for the first time feeling like normal people again. And so man, we're glad that we can share it with you. But we do have a few pictures that we want to show is that okay, everybody? So it's gonna be like, kind of show and tell with Gramma when you go to grandma's house and she's got the projector out and they like, Yeah.
We want to share just a little bit of what we went through what we experienced and what we got to be a part of. And we want you to know that it wasn't just us. But you were a part of that too. As I don't know if you know this, but we were able to provide a conference for over 1000 pastors, we got a picture for that. But over 1000 pastors in mercy city, we helped make that happen. We covered their costs of travel, we covered the cost of the conference, we covered the cost of their lodging, we covered the cost of everything that we covered the cost. And so thank you so much for your generosity, and being a part of that. Good. Okay, so the first day, we got to be a part of compassion. This is a compassion site housed at a local church. We're going to talk more about this this afternoon. But it was actually the day of the African child. And so there was all this extra stuff that we got to see. And we spent the whole day with these kids. And they were amazed. It was so cute. They actually because they had special guests coming they considered a special guests. They they put together a parade for the parade. It was incredible. We've got you know, later but that was that was day number one. And then what we did was we jumped forward to the conference that we told you about. And they did a what they call it a gatekeepers event where everything that happens in the cities, the towns, the villages in Africa, goes through a gatekeeper or like, like the mayor, or somebody who is, you know, kind of not not that officially in charge, but basically has these were pastors who are leading churches over 500 or more within their community. And so we got to spend two days in fact, pouring into them, and was pretty, pretty awesome.Yeah. So this is a picture from the front of the conference they had planned on. So they have a network, which is how next level network which we're a part of, we got connected with their it's called pastors discipleship network, it's actually a network of over 15,000 15,000, pastors and leaders. And so they were we provided through next level, this conference that we could support 1000 pastors. So it was and that's what you sold it. That's what you sold into. It was like 500 couples, so it was tell them what happened. That's what I was getting there. Oh, I'm glad I have my own mic that's all together very often. So we get there and Pastor Richmond who you're gonna meet in a few minutes, but he's like, Okay, I had some people upset. Because we could only bring 1000 pastors. So he said, so I hope you're not mad. But I actually said that we would do this again next year. And we were like, okay, all right. But it was really cool. So the day this day, Pastor Richmond shared with us that an extra about 210. Pastors, they just showed up. So we were actually about 12 110. pastors and leaders who were in this it was a big tent. So we had our first tent meeting. It wasIt was hot. And so what we were able to do is actually, we were able to each teach breakout sessions. So pastor Matt and I were able to teach about 400 pastors over those two days, about building specifically asked us to talk about building teams because that's, that's one of our strengths, staff. Building that was that. And then this is the freedom experience that we lead the pastors through freedom, which you guys know if you've been here for very long, we were able to do free there was awesome. It was awesome, awesome. So we pray for all these people we got to pray for and be a part of everything that they were doing. It was just, it was really powerful. The whole time we had 14 of us and then 35 prayer team from their ministry. Yeah, we're able to pray for probably an hour and a half just praying. It was awesome. It was awesome. It was sweaty, and you know, they didn't have any AC in that time, everybody. Oh, Jesus.Okay, next slide. So, so one of the things one of the highlights for me was pastor Richmond walking us around the property at pastor discipleship network, which is an incredible story. But he was he was telling us about it. In fact, the the pastors that they have, again, they have about 15,000 churches that they oversee, currently, and are helping equip, but he said, more than 75% of these pastors don't have the equivalent of, you know, like middle school beyond education. And so the fact of them responding to a call, but having no formal training, was really in his heart to begin. And so what they're doing is they're building a Bible college, and they found this land that nobody else wanted. And they decided to buy it, okay, and just a complete miracle of God on how they bought it. But he took us to this tree and this tree, I cannot pronounce the name of it. So I'm not going to try. But specifically this tree culturally, for them. It symbolizes a curse that is on the land, okay. And so culturally, if you're going to build on this land, you would remove this tree, but you will also make a sacrifice, the sacrifice of an animal sacrifice of something, you know, along those lines. And he told us specifically, because of the size of their building project, culturally, they would make a child sacrifice, which obviously, they're not going to do because they're believers. But I love what he did. He said, You know what, and if you were able to look really closely, you can see on the sides of these trees, where witch doctors have literally cast spells and made curses, but then what they do is they nail it, or attach it to the tree, so that the curse will stand and he said, You know what, we're going to leave it to show the community the power of Jesus Christ, and the power of the gospel. And that fired me up, man, because because it's like, it's like, tell me it can't happen. Tell me it can't happen. Let me show you the power of my god, man. And this is this was my walk away. It was my favorite part. I was like, Yeah, we got to leave some trees up in Lincoln. To do this and show the culture, the truth of God's word is that we're not backing down, but that God can do significant and powerful things. The fact that some of y'all are here, and you're worshiping God, the way that you're worshiping God is a cultural miracle. Because people said it can't happen. It can't do it. But God said otherwise. And that was that was my favorite. So this tree is my favorite part of the trip. Somy favorite part, we had an opportunity to do a sisterhood breakout. And so this was one of two rooms that we were able to be in. And this is at the end of the breakout. But if you had walked in there at the beginning of the breakout, it was a very different atmosphere. The women were very cold. They were very isolated. Something that they told us is they've never seen a husband and wife teach together in their culture. And that's all we took was couples. Yeah. And Pastor Matt and Pastor Sarah preach together on the main stage, we all did our breakouts together. And they were like, the marriages there are very transactional. And so us going in there in that way was like, they didn't really know how to receive us. So we went in and we were kind of like, they were kind of like heckling us a little bit. The women were, and we were like, Okay, we've got to be prepared for this. So we were praying, leading into it. And we brought, I think we brought 600 sisterhood necklaces. If you were at sisterhood. This year. You got a sisterhood necklace, but we thought let's bring them all a gift. And so we brought these necklaces. And I tell you what, if the atmosphere in the room didn't shift, these women were so overwhelmed that they received a gift. They were all taking them out of their packages and putting them on like immediately they were we couldn't get them to be quiet. They were smiling all the sudden, they were like you would have thought we just gave him a million dollars. Yeah. And then we had them stand together and link arms because we were talking about being You're part of a sisterhood. And they begin to pray for each other. And we have a, I have a video, I'll post it on my on my Instagram, but we have a video and it's loud than just praying for one another, coming together and believing for one another in Unity. I mean from it was an hour session. And it was like a totally different room of women. It was amazing. So that was my favorite part, just to see that little act of kindness and generosity, how it completely changed the atmosphere of the room. And I really, truly believe of their hearts. So it was awesome.
And man what an experience that was. But here's the reality of this and why we're sharing this because we believe that it's our responsibility, not just to show you pictures, but really begin to introduce you to opportunities to have very similar journey as God calls you or leads you into it. And so one of the things that we really did and took inventory of while we were away was okay, this is what God has done in us over the last 10 years is we're moving forward. So what does the next decade look like for mercy City Church? Okay, what does it look like? For you? What does it look like for us? What does it look like for Seward? What does it look like now for mercy city at City impact? What does it look like for our future locations? What does it look like for the young people that we're raising up that are going to be leading future locations for us? What does that look like? And so God really began to burst some dreams and our heart. And so that's what we want to talk to you about today. Is that, okay? I'm gonna preach a message, we're gonna preach a message called, be my witnesses. Let's pray. Father, we love you. We're so grateful for the wonderful opportunity we have today to be in your presence. We don't take it lightly. God, it's a big deal. And so we pray today that by the power of your Spirit, you would lead us and guide us that you would show us Jesus in a more real clear and powerful way than we've ever seen him before. Because we know it's upon revelation of who Jesus is that you build an established church. So we say build it, establish it, do it in and through us in a way that only you can in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Hey, man, come on one more time, everybody. Jesus, he's worthy. He's worthy. He's worthy. So, as I said, What does it look like as we move forward? X chapter number one, I want to share this portion of Scripture. Verse number eight says this, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. You'll be you'll be my witnesses. Let's see if this will work. No, we're struggling today. Everybody. That's okay. You say you, you say me, you will be my witnesses, who's witnesses, witnesses of Jesus Christ, telling people everywhere in Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Some say ends of the earth, of the earth ends of the earth. How many of y'all know that the end of the earth Earth is not the city line or county line here in Lincoln or Lancaster or Seward. That's not the ends of the earth. I'm gonna go into more detail of what exactly that looks like even next week, as we continue this mini series be My witnesses moving forward. But I want us to get this understanding that we, those of us who are in Christ, those of us who are empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are called to be His witnesses, somebody say me. I'm called to be as witness everywhere I go. So in light of the scripture, and on the heels of, you know, the opportunity that we just experienced last week, like I said, we left and we had some feelings rolling around in our hearts that first day, we had this compassion encounter, where we went to this church, and we saw these 300 young people that were learning about Jesus that we, we saw them being fed, we saw them being taught, we saw them being clothed, we saw what compassion was accomplishing there at this site, and we thought, oh, my gosh, even for me, I grew up among the poorest of the poor in the United States. And even for me, I thought, Wow, I'm feeling guilty. And so we began to have this wrestling match that was taking place on the inside of us. And I was like, okay, am I feeling guilty? Am I feeling convicted? Am I feeling what am I? I'm feeling like I could probably do more. I'm feeling like, maybe I should do more. I'm feeling like maybe I've let my eyes be fixed too much on me. And we began to wrestle. But the bottom line is this, those of us who are in Christ, we are not guilty. The Bible tells us there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. However, while we're not guilty, there is a sense of responsibility that we need to step up and take. And so that's what I want to talk to you about for a minute is, I don't want us to look at these videos, I don't want us to look at these pictures. I don't want us to hear these stories. And I want to I don't want us to feel guilty. I want us to begin to ask the Lord, okay, what is my responsibility? Because for all of us, it's going to be different, what our responsibility is, there's a responsibility that we have to take. And it's not a guilt. It's a sense of conviction that we lean into, by the power of the Holy Spirit. One thing that Pastor Matt Keller said to us at dinner, because someone was talking about how they felt guilty. He said, Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, we can't feel guilty. But we do need to know that with the lottery win that we had the birth lottery, we were born into the wealthiest country in the world. We were born into a place with all the opportunity at our fingertips where somebody who comes from nothing could make something out of their lives. With that comes a sense of responsibility. So what is our responsibility, we've got to view it through this lens I who am in Christ can be a witness, but what's my responsibility?
So we kind of looked at this as a leveling up for us personally, like there's a maturity that has to happen, because our responsibility when we were 18, or 19, was more limited in what we could do. But we realized now that as we're older, as we have more resources, as we're leading a church, as we have are leading a church, we have an opportunity to do something with the responsibility that we have. And so our new mature view will stir this sense of responsibility, it will lead us to an opportunity. And we really believe that this conviction that we're feeling should lead us to a new opportunity. So I want us to think about investing in the lives of others and making an investment, this verse here in Matthew 2540, it talks about the when we do something for the least of these, we do it unto Him. And there was nothing more prevalent to us that we were ministering to the least of these, but we can't get our eyes limited on just that international view or that global view. But we have to do both and right, it's at home. And it's there. It's the least of these here in Lincoln, people who can't do anything for us people who have no opportunity, you know, we think we have an opportunity to invest in the lives of people. A lot of times what we do is we look for people who can do something for us, right? Well, I'm gonna make this investment because if I invest in this person, then they can do something for me and benefit me so beautiful for all of us to be a part of Yeah. And why we don't want you to overlook it as it comes through year after year after year after year. Yeah, we saw this some of our old timers didn't get connected yesterday. And we're wondering Okay, well, we always do serve, we're always a part of it. We're always, no, no, it's an opportunity for us to lay ourselves aside and say, You know what, we're not looking for anything in return. This is an opportunity for us to serve into the community and be a part of something that's greater.And we were really challenged just how we're sowing into the next generation, next gen ministry, how we're investing in kids, how we're investing in teenagers, and knowing that the Bible talks about, I'm not going to read this for time sake, but that one plants, one waters, and one brings the increase, okay. And one of the most amazing things we got to see, while we were at the compassion, Awesome, we got to see all the seeds sown, and the fruit of that seed that was sown. So we got to see these kids, who we have an opportunity to sponsor who we have an opportunity to invest in their lives. But all throughout the week, we met adults who were compassion kids, we met pastors, we met leaders, our safari driver, his wife, our host, his wife, our interpreter, his wife, our our host, and his wife were actually sponsored by the same family. And the woman was praying for them over and over, that they would stay connected, they ended up getting married, named their daughter after their compassion sponsor. We just saw these over and over and over again, we saw the investment that we can make in these kids. And then the people the way that they take advantage of the sponsorship and the way that that can impact their life. And so we want to tell you guys more about compassion. But we have a video that we're actually going to show and it highlights one of these adults who was actually pastor Richmond, who hosted the conference, he helped highlight his story as a compassion because he's the overseer of these 15,000 churches, and his churches, the church that I got to minister in on Sunday morning when we were there. So let's take a look at this video. Y'all meet pastor Richmond.
When I was eight years old, my father was taken away from us. And by that I mean he was murdered. Nothing was the same for me. News began to come to our doorstep. From our landlord, we got word that we couldn't stay in the house that we stayed anymore, because we couldn't afford it. My mother had no job. My father was the only breadwinner. We moved from where we stayed to a place coordinate Goroka sank, which is one of Uganda's largest slums. And then I was introduced to our new home, which was a 12 by 12 room. I looked up on the roof, it was a tin roof that had holes in it. I've been to places where, when it rains, people are happy, they get excited. But for me growing up whenever it rained. That was a night that would stay standing, gets little buckets placed just where the holes in the roof are, and wait until morning. A reality hit me that day. This was life. I remember when my mom said to us, there was no money for food. That ushered us into a place where we were now going to begin to go to the street to fend for food. Hunger began to sit in lack of water. I was a kid I didn't have time to be a child anymore. As I lived like this on a daily basis. Poverty began to speak to me as a child, I felt I was nothing. I didn't matter. Nobody cared to know my name. I think the best way I could describe who I was what I felt, is the word hopless. My mother in tears, approached one of her friends just to share with her friend and her friend shared with her about compassion, compassion, staff members immediately came to our home. I remember them coming with just files to to get details of who we were, what our story was. I got a news that a young lady Heather she was 15 years old, a teenager she had decided to sponsor me. I cannot find the words to describe the joy that fueled our home. When we got the news. Richmond you've got a sponsor, which means you can now go back to school. It means food will be given to us because of you. I began to walk into that reality that Ash it in me an opportunity to rekindle this hop that was taken away. Heather began to write to me to hear words like which one I love you which one I'm praying for you. They began to bring healing into places that were destroyed by voices and poverty and my self image. I remember my day, June the third 1996, I worked for it to accept the Lord Jesus in my heart, I began to feel wow, I have been released from poverty. I have been released. God began to call you to grow the leadership within me. And then I felt fallen called to pursue pastoral ministry. I began the pastor's discipleship platform, a ministry that exists to train and equip pastors, and I spend a lot of my life training and equipping pastors in the Word of God. Looking back into my life and thinking where I am right now and what I'm doing. I don't think any of this would have been possible without compassion, compassion works. Everything that was placed within the program has helped build me to who I am right now. Poverty is not just the lack of money, the lack of material food and water. Poverty is in its deep. I credit a lot of how I feel now about myself to those letters that I received from my sponsor. My name is Richmond, one there. And I was released from poverty in Jesus name.
So one of the things that Pastor Richmond said continually to us as we were there, he said that if we can impact the life of one pastor, we can change the world. And that's his vision. That's his vision for the network. But what stirred in me after seeing both extremes was what if that pastor is a six year old boy, waiting for a response? It's my turn, though. What if What if it's, what if that pastor's wife is a three year old little girl. And we've got to be honest with you. And we want to publicly repent. Because we've been so consumed with what God is doing in Lincoln, that we we've overlooked what God's doing in the world. And we have not led you as well as we should have led you or could have led you. Our view has been small, and it's been close. And we want you to know that that's not going to be the case anymore. We're going to stay very much focused at home. And we're going to move forward and advance the kingdom of heaven, in Nebraska and beyond, as we're called. But there's going to be a new international view as well. And it's going to focus on all of God's people and all of God's children, because there is a maturity that's come to our house. And with that maturity, a sense of responsibility. So we're going to show I think that's just forget it. Okay, we want to show you, we got, we've got one more video to show you. We had to ask ourselves, what's our responsibility. And we we believe that we have to lead the way we found out when we were at the compassion site, and they're all housed through local churches. And that's one thing that we love so much, is you cannot sponsor a compassion child unless they are a part of a local church. So they get them brought into these churches where they go every Saturday we call them projects, they call them projects. So the project that we were at had, I think, 57 kiddos that weren't sponsored. So among our group, we took 12. And so pastor Matt and I took we felt led to take four kids. And the coolest thing was the first one, we got to meet him. He's a 20 year old who was sponsored, but their sponsor had to stop for some reason. So for the last two years of his sponsorship, we get to sponsor him. We got to meet him, we got to go to his home and meet his mom. And so we want to show you guys a video of our experience.
Incredible we're here at the first compassion site. Which is so exciting.
Mesearch from Uganda. I really appreciate for these people who have come to visit us in our home. And I want to share with you the dream, though that I have at heart.
So a little bit I asked Mesesh, all the way over. He is finishing high school. Correct. You want to tell us you're finishing high school and then you're on to finishing high
school is now a dream of changing University.school is now a dream of changing University.
He wants to go into aviation. He's never been on a plane, but has plans to work at the airport. Correct. While attending classes.
I think I'll first work at the airport. Assume that you move on payroll. He
also he also told me that you have been a part of the church that we've spent the day at for how long was 17years during that project? 23
years. He and his mother both give their lives to Jesus. They're right, wow. Yeah. So they're both a part of the church, because of the connection through the project. You guys were so excited about the sash, the opportunity to meet him and his mother come to their home and visit today. And the reality is we've had the opportunity to partner with him as he continues to make next next steps, continuing to finish up high school and then on to university. Again, he wants to be a pilot and so mercy City Church, we're coming alongside him. And we're going to help by the grace of God see that happen? Thank you. Come on. Everybody. Tell the people of Mercy City Church, Jesus.
Come on everybody. So we just want to share with you kind of our action steps now moving forward, obviously, you're going to have an opportunity to sponsor a child today, we got the names of three of our sponsor kids are four with with me such we got to meet them. But when we got home, we actually got our packet for our girls, we've got three little girls. And while we were there, I saw this cute little girl and she she just looked like you know what I own this place. And so I was I took a couple pictures of her because I was like, I'm gonna take this child and bring it back home with me. She's so cute. Not really. What are you feeling? I mean, I wouldn't let her do that. But we were looking at our one of our children. And I realized that was the little girl. Well, there she is. So this is one of our kids. Her name's gift, gift, and we're able to sponsor her. And what that looks like is you it's $43 a month and it provides all their school fees and food, and you can pay an extra $7 a month to cover some more of their medical costs. So total, if you choose is $50 a month per child. The coolest thing is the intentionality of compassion. They go into their homes, we have opportunity. We can see her medical records, we can see everything that's going on with them. They're very organized. 2.3 million kids are sponsored through compassion. And they know they are connected to a local church. All of them are connected to the local church. And so it was really cool to see. They have an app that you write letters through now you send pictures through now. And the thing that we love too is you can send them birthday gifts. You can send them Christmas gifts, you can send a family gift, and they'll go into their home and now see what the need is and then the compassion team will go and buy whatever they need. So pastor Sarah was telling us she was in one of the homes of their kids that they sponsor and the mom was saying thank you for the table, thank you for the table. And she was like, I don't know what she's talking about. But it turned out they were eating on the floor. And the compassion team went in and saw that they could use a kitchen table. So with the family gifts, they sent for Christmas, and they provided them with the kitchen table, from their sponsors. And so it's just so intentional. And we loved seeing how they do everything for the families. So what we did was there were those 57 opportunities at the project we were at. And we thought, well, we're doing compassion Sunday, when we get back, how cool would it be if we got packets from that? site. And so not only did they give us those packets, but they gave us several more of children in different sites that are within 25 miles of that specific site. So if we were to ever want to go on a trip together, say, as a church, and meet the children, that God's leading us to sponsor, we could be a part of that, and so could our kids. Again, this is not for us to feel guilty. But it's just to ask the Lord, what's our responsibility of this? And so we're gonna pray to close. And we would love for you just to consider, Lord, what's my responsibility in this? Is it to pray about it? Is it to sponsor a child, a sponsor to maybe minor gone out of the house now, and some of the sponsor for like what we chose to do. Or maybe you're a teenager, and you're believing for God, to do something significant, and you just like the 15 year old Heather, that sponsored young Richmond one Dara, who is now literally changing the continent of Africa. However you decide, if you want more information, we've got information tables in the lobby, you can pick up your packets, you can talk to the team out there in the directive in everything. And again, you just download the app and communicate with your young people. But let's pray. Let's ask God, what might our responsibility be Father, we love you. We're so grateful for the way that you've expanded our world today. Father, it's a good thing. When we step outside of ourselves, it's a good thing when we lift our eyes, beyond our current circumstance or situation. Father, as the American church we've become so adept in looking at ourselves, our circumstance, our situation and thinking, Woe is me. God, what an opportunity you've provided us, in partnership with Compassion International, to look beyond our situation to look beyond Lincoln to look beyond Seward to look beyond Nebraska, to look beyond the United States. Choosing to trust you lean into you. So God help us answer the question today. What's our responsibility? In Jesus name, Amen.
We want to share just a little bit of what we went through what we experienced and what we got to be a part of. And we want you to know that it wasn't just us. But you were a part of that too. As I don't know if you know this, but we were able to provide a conference for over 1000 pastors, we got a picture for that. But over 1000 pastors in mercy city, we helped make that happen. We covered their costs of travel, we covered the cost of the conference, we covered the cost of their lodging, we covered the cost of everything that we covered the cost. And so thank you so much for your generosity, and being a part of that. Good. Okay, so the first day, we got to be a part of compassion. This is a compassion site housed at a local church. We're going to talk more about this this afternoon. But it was actually the day of the African child. And so there was all this extra stuff that we got to see. And we spent the whole day with these kids. And they were amazed. It was so cute. They actually because they had special guests coming they considered a special guests. They they put together a parade for the parade. It was incredible. We've got you know, later but that was that was day number one. And then what we did was we jumped forward to the conference that we told you about. And they did a what they call it a gatekeepers event where everything that happens in the cities, the towns, the villages in Africa, goes through a gatekeeper or like, like the mayor, or somebody who is, you know, kind of not not that officially in charge, but basically has these were pastors who are leading churches over 500 or more within their community. And so we got to spend two days in fact, pouring into them, and was pretty, pretty awesome.Yeah. So this is a picture from the front of the conference they had planned on. So they have a network, which is how next level network which we're a part of, we got connected with their it's called pastors discipleship network, it's actually a network of over 15,000 15,000, pastors and leaders. And so they were we provided through next level, this conference that we could support 1000 pastors. So it was and that's what you sold it. That's what you sold into. It was like 500 couples, so it was tell them what happened. That's what I was getting there. Oh, I'm glad I have my own mic that's all together very often. So we get there and Pastor Richmond who you're gonna meet in a few minutes, but he's like, Okay, I had some people upset. Because we could only bring 1000 pastors. So he said, so I hope you're not mad. But I actually said that we would do this again next year. And we were like, okay, all right. But it was really cool. So the day this day, Pastor Richmond shared with us that an extra about 210. Pastors, they just showed up. So we were actually about 12 110. pastors and leaders who were in this it was a big tent. So we had our first tent meeting. It wasIt was hot. And so what we were able to do is actually, we were able to each teach breakout sessions. So pastor Matt and I were able to teach about 400 pastors over those two days, about building specifically asked us to talk about building teams because that's, that's one of our strengths, staff. Building that was that. And then this is the freedom experience that we lead the pastors through freedom, which you guys know if you've been here for very long, we were able to do free there was awesome. It was awesome, awesome. So we pray for all these people we got to pray for and be a part of everything that they were doing. It was just, it was really powerful. The whole time we had 14 of us and then 35 prayer team from their ministry. Yeah, we're able to pray for probably an hour and a half just praying. It was awesome. It was awesome. It was sweaty, and you know, they didn't have any AC in that time, everybody. Oh, Jesus.Okay, next slide. So, so one of the things one of the highlights for me was pastor Richmond walking us around the property at pastor discipleship network, which is an incredible story. But he was he was telling us about it. In fact, the the pastors that they have, again, they have about 15,000 churches that they oversee, currently, and are helping equip, but he said, more than 75% of these pastors don't have the equivalent of, you know, like middle school beyond education. And so the fact of them responding to a call, but having no formal training, was really in his heart to begin. And so what they're doing is they're building a Bible college, and they found this land that nobody else wanted. And they decided to buy it, okay, and just a complete miracle of God on how they bought it. But he took us to this tree and this tree, I cannot pronounce the name of it. So I'm not going to try. But specifically this tree culturally, for them. It symbolizes a curse that is on the land, okay. And so culturally, if you're going to build on this land, you would remove this tree, but you will also make a sacrifice, the sacrifice of an animal sacrifice of something, you know, along those lines. And he told us specifically, because of the size of their building project, culturally, they would make a child sacrifice, which obviously, they're not going to do because they're believers. But I love what he did. He said, You know what, and if you were able to look really closely, you can see on the sides of these trees, where witch doctors have literally cast spells and made curses, but then what they do is they nail it, or attach it to the tree, so that the curse will stand and he said, You know what, we're going to leave it to show the community the power of Jesus Christ, and the power of the gospel. And that fired me up, man, because because it's like, it's like, tell me it can't happen. Tell me it can't happen. Let me show you the power of my god, man. And this is this was my walk away. It was my favorite part. I was like, Yeah, we got to leave some trees up in Lincoln. To do this and show the culture, the truth of God's word is that we're not backing down, but that God can do significant and powerful things. The fact that some of y'all are here, and you're worshiping God, the way that you're worshiping God is a cultural miracle. Because people said it can't happen. It can't do it. But God said otherwise. And that was that was my favorite. So this tree is my favorite part of the trip. Somy favorite part, we had an opportunity to do a sisterhood breakout. And so this was one of two rooms that we were able to be in. And this is at the end of the breakout. But if you had walked in there at the beginning of the breakout, it was a very different atmosphere. The women were very cold. They were very isolated. Something that they told us is they've never seen a husband and wife teach together in their culture. And that's all we took was couples. Yeah. And Pastor Matt and Pastor Sarah preach together on the main stage, we all did our breakouts together. And they were like, the marriages there are very transactional. And so us going in there in that way was like, they didn't really know how to receive us. So we went in and we were kind of like, they were kind of like heckling us a little bit. The women were, and we were like, Okay, we've got to be prepared for this. So we were praying, leading into it. And we brought, I think we brought 600 sisterhood necklaces. If you were at sisterhood. This year. You got a sisterhood necklace, but we thought let's bring them all a gift. And so we brought these necklaces. And I tell you what, if the atmosphere in the room didn't shift, these women were so overwhelmed that they received a gift. They were all taking them out of their packages and putting them on like immediately they were we couldn't get them to be quiet. They were smiling all the sudden, they were like you would have thought we just gave him a million dollars. Yeah. And then we had them stand together and link arms because we were talking about being You're part of a sisterhood. And they begin to pray for each other. And we have a, I have a video, I'll post it on my on my Instagram, but we have a video and it's loud than just praying for one another, coming together and believing for one another in Unity. I mean from it was an hour session. And it was like a totally different room of women. It was amazing. So that was my favorite part, just to see that little act of kindness and generosity, how it completely changed the atmosphere of the room. And I really, truly believe of their hearts. So it was awesome.
And man what an experience that was. But here's the reality of this and why we're sharing this because we believe that it's our responsibility, not just to show you pictures, but really begin to introduce you to opportunities to have very similar journey as God calls you or leads you into it. And so one of the things that we really did and took inventory of while we were away was okay, this is what God has done in us over the last 10 years is we're moving forward. So what does the next decade look like for mercy City Church? Okay, what does it look like? For you? What does it look like for us? What does it look like for Seward? What does it look like now for mercy city at City impact? What does it look like for our future locations? What does it look like for the young people that we're raising up that are going to be leading future locations for us? What does that look like? And so God really began to burst some dreams and our heart. And so that's what we want to talk to you about today. Is that, okay? I'm gonna preach a message, we're gonna preach a message called, be my witnesses. Let's pray. Father, we love you. We're so grateful for the wonderful opportunity we have today to be in your presence. We don't take it lightly. God, it's a big deal. And so we pray today that by the power of your Spirit, you would lead us and guide us that you would show us Jesus in a more real clear and powerful way than we've ever seen him before. Because we know it's upon revelation of who Jesus is that you build an established church. So we say build it, establish it, do it in and through us in a way that only you can in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Hey, man, come on one more time, everybody. Jesus, he's worthy. He's worthy. He's worthy. So, as I said, What does it look like as we move forward? X chapter number one, I want to share this portion of Scripture. Verse number eight says this, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. You'll be you'll be my witnesses. Let's see if this will work. No, we're struggling today. Everybody. That's okay. You say you, you say me, you will be my witnesses, who's witnesses, witnesses of Jesus Christ, telling people everywhere in Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Some say ends of the earth, of the earth ends of the earth. How many of y'all know that the end of the earth Earth is not the city line or county line here in Lincoln or Lancaster or Seward. That's not the ends of the earth. I'm gonna go into more detail of what exactly that looks like even next week, as we continue this mini series be My witnesses moving forward. But I want us to get this understanding that we, those of us who are in Christ, those of us who are empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are called to be His witnesses, somebody say me. I'm called to be as witness everywhere I go. So in light of the scripture, and on the heels of, you know, the opportunity that we just experienced last week, like I said, we left and we had some feelings rolling around in our hearts that first day, we had this compassion encounter, where we went to this church, and we saw these 300 young people that were learning about Jesus that we, we saw them being fed, we saw them being taught, we saw them being clothed, we saw what compassion was accomplishing there at this site, and we thought, oh, my gosh, even for me, I grew up among the poorest of the poor in the United States. And even for me, I thought, Wow, I'm feeling guilty. And so we began to have this wrestling match that was taking place on the inside of us. And I was like, okay, am I feeling guilty? Am I feeling convicted? Am I feeling what am I? I'm feeling like I could probably do more. I'm feeling like, maybe I should do more. I'm feeling like maybe I've let my eyes be fixed too much on me. And we began to wrestle. But the bottom line is this, those of us who are in Christ, we are not guilty. The Bible tells us there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. However, while we're not guilty, there is a sense of responsibility that we need to step up and take. And so that's what I want to talk to you about for a minute is, I don't want us to look at these videos, I don't want us to look at these pictures. I don't want us to hear these stories. And I want to I don't want us to feel guilty. I want us to begin to ask the Lord, okay, what is my responsibility? Because for all of us, it's going to be different, what our responsibility is, there's a responsibility that we have to take. And it's not a guilt. It's a sense of conviction that we lean into, by the power of the Holy Spirit. One thing that Pastor Matt Keller said to us at dinner, because someone was talking about how they felt guilty. He said, Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, we can't feel guilty. But we do need to know that with the lottery win that we had the birth lottery, we were born into the wealthiest country in the world. We were born into a place with all the opportunity at our fingertips where somebody who comes from nothing could make something out of their lives. With that comes a sense of responsibility. So what is our responsibility, we've got to view it through this lens I who am in Christ can be a witness, but what's my responsibility?
So we kind of looked at this as a leveling up for us personally, like there's a maturity that has to happen, because our responsibility when we were 18, or 19, was more limited in what we could do. But we realized now that as we're older, as we have more resources, as we're leading a church, as we have are leading a church, we have an opportunity to do something with the responsibility that we have. And so our new mature view will stir this sense of responsibility, it will lead us to an opportunity. And we really believe that this conviction that we're feeling should lead us to a new opportunity. So I want us to think about investing in the lives of others and making an investment, this verse here in Matthew 2540, it talks about the when we do something for the least of these, we do it unto Him. And there was nothing more prevalent to us that we were ministering to the least of these, but we can't get our eyes limited on just that international view or that global view. But we have to do both and right, it's at home. And it's there. It's the least of these here in Lincoln, people who can't do anything for us people who have no opportunity, you know, we think we have an opportunity to invest in the lives of people. A lot of times what we do is we look for people who can do something for us, right? Well, I'm gonna make this investment because if I invest in this person, then they can do something for me and benefit me so beautiful for all of us to be a part of Yeah. And why we don't want you to overlook it as it comes through year after year after year after year. Yeah, we saw this some of our old timers didn't get connected yesterday. And we're wondering Okay, well, we always do serve, we're always a part of it. We're always, no, no, it's an opportunity for us to lay ourselves aside and say, You know what, we're not looking for anything in return. This is an opportunity for us to serve into the community and be a part of something that's greater.And we were really challenged just how we're sowing into the next generation, next gen ministry, how we're investing in kids, how we're investing in teenagers, and knowing that the Bible talks about, I'm not going to read this for time sake, but that one plants, one waters, and one brings the increase, okay. And one of the most amazing things we got to see, while we were at the compassion, Awesome, we got to see all the seeds sown, and the fruit of that seed that was sown. So we got to see these kids, who we have an opportunity to sponsor who we have an opportunity to invest in their lives. But all throughout the week, we met adults who were compassion kids, we met pastors, we met leaders, our safari driver, his wife, our host, his wife, our interpreter, his wife, our our host, and his wife were actually sponsored by the same family. And the woman was praying for them over and over, that they would stay connected, they ended up getting married, named their daughter after their compassion sponsor. We just saw these over and over and over again, we saw the investment that we can make in these kids. And then the people the way that they take advantage of the sponsorship and the way that that can impact their life. And so we want to tell you guys more about compassion. But we have a video that we're actually going to show and it highlights one of these adults who was actually pastor Richmond, who hosted the conference, he helped highlight his story as a compassion because he's the overseer of these 15,000 churches, and his churches, the church that I got to minister in on Sunday morning when we were there. So let's take a look at this video. Y'all meet pastor Richmond.
When I was eight years old, my father was taken away from us. And by that I mean he was murdered. Nothing was the same for me. News began to come to our doorstep. From our landlord, we got word that we couldn't stay in the house that we stayed anymore, because we couldn't afford it. My mother had no job. My father was the only breadwinner. We moved from where we stayed to a place coordinate Goroka sank, which is one of Uganda's largest slums. And then I was introduced to our new home, which was a 12 by 12 room. I looked up on the roof, it was a tin roof that had holes in it. I've been to places where, when it rains, people are happy, they get excited. But for me growing up whenever it rained. That was a night that would stay standing, gets little buckets placed just where the holes in the roof are, and wait until morning. A reality hit me that day. This was life. I remember when my mom said to us, there was no money for food. That ushered us into a place where we were now going to begin to go to the street to fend for food. Hunger began to sit in lack of water. I was a kid I didn't have time to be a child anymore. As I lived like this on a daily basis. Poverty began to speak to me as a child, I felt I was nothing. I didn't matter. Nobody cared to know my name. I think the best way I could describe who I was what I felt, is the word hopless. My mother in tears, approached one of her friends just to share with her friend and her friend shared with her about compassion, compassion, staff members immediately came to our home. I remember them coming with just files to to get details of who we were, what our story was. I got a news that a young lady Heather she was 15 years old, a teenager she had decided to sponsor me. I cannot find the words to describe the joy that fueled our home. When we got the news. Richmond you've got a sponsor, which means you can now go back to school. It means food will be given to us because of you. I began to walk into that reality that Ash it in me an opportunity to rekindle this hop that was taken away. Heather began to write to me to hear words like which one I love you which one I'm praying for you. They began to bring healing into places that were destroyed by voices and poverty and my self image. I remember my day, June the third 1996, I worked for it to accept the Lord Jesus in my heart, I began to feel wow, I have been released from poverty. I have been released. God began to call you to grow the leadership within me. And then I felt fallen called to pursue pastoral ministry. I began the pastor's discipleship platform, a ministry that exists to train and equip pastors, and I spend a lot of my life training and equipping pastors in the Word of God. Looking back into my life and thinking where I am right now and what I'm doing. I don't think any of this would have been possible without compassion, compassion works. Everything that was placed within the program has helped build me to who I am right now. Poverty is not just the lack of money, the lack of material food and water. Poverty is in its deep. I credit a lot of how I feel now about myself to those letters that I received from my sponsor. My name is Richmond, one there. And I was released from poverty in Jesus name.
So one of the things that Pastor Richmond said continually to us as we were there, he said that if we can impact the life of one pastor, we can change the world. And that's his vision. That's his vision for the network. But what stirred in me after seeing both extremes was what if that pastor is a six year old boy, waiting for a response? It's my turn, though. What if What if it's, what if that pastor's wife is a three year old little girl. And we've got to be honest with you. And we want to publicly repent. Because we've been so consumed with what God is doing in Lincoln, that we we've overlooked what God's doing in the world. And we have not led you as well as we should have led you or could have led you. Our view has been small, and it's been close. And we want you to know that that's not going to be the case anymore. We're going to stay very much focused at home. And we're going to move forward and advance the kingdom of heaven, in Nebraska and beyond, as we're called. But there's going to be a new international view as well. And it's going to focus on all of God's people and all of God's children, because there is a maturity that's come to our house. And with that maturity, a sense of responsibility. So we're going to show I think that's just forget it. Okay, we want to show you, we got, we've got one more video to show you. We had to ask ourselves, what's our responsibility. And we we believe that we have to lead the way we found out when we were at the compassion site, and they're all housed through local churches. And that's one thing that we love so much, is you cannot sponsor a compassion child unless they are a part of a local church. So they get them brought into these churches where they go every Saturday we call them projects, they call them projects. So the project that we were at had, I think, 57 kiddos that weren't sponsored. So among our group, we took 12. And so pastor Matt and I took we felt led to take four kids. And the coolest thing was the first one, we got to meet him. He's a 20 year old who was sponsored, but their sponsor had to stop for some reason. So for the last two years of his sponsorship, we get to sponsor him. We got to meet him, we got to go to his home and meet his mom. And so we want to show you guys a video of our experience.
Incredible we're here at the first compassion site. Which is so exciting.
Mesearch from Uganda. I really appreciate for these people who have come to visit us in our home. And I want to share with you the dream, though that I have at heart.
So a little bit I asked Mesesh, all the way over. He is finishing high school. Correct. You want to tell us you're finishing high school and then you're on to finishing high
school is now a dream of changing University.school is now a dream of changing University.
He wants to go into aviation. He's never been on a plane, but has plans to work at the airport. Correct. While attending classes.
I think I'll first work at the airport. Assume that you move on payroll. He
also he also told me that you have been a part of the church that we've spent the day at for how long was 17years during that project? 23
years. He and his mother both give their lives to Jesus. They're right, wow. Yeah. So they're both a part of the church, because of the connection through the project. You guys were so excited about the sash, the opportunity to meet him and his mother come to their home and visit today. And the reality is we've had the opportunity to partner with him as he continues to make next next steps, continuing to finish up high school and then on to university. Again, he wants to be a pilot and so mercy City Church, we're coming alongside him. And we're going to help by the grace of God see that happen? Thank you. Come on. Everybody. Tell the people of Mercy City Church, Jesus.
Come on everybody. So we just want to share with you kind of our action steps now moving forward, obviously, you're going to have an opportunity to sponsor a child today, we got the names of three of our sponsor kids are four with with me such we got to meet them. But when we got home, we actually got our packet for our girls, we've got three little girls. And while we were there, I saw this cute little girl and she she just looked like you know what I own this place. And so I was I took a couple pictures of her because I was like, I'm gonna take this child and bring it back home with me. She's so cute. Not really. What are you feeling? I mean, I wouldn't let her do that. But we were looking at our one of our children. And I realized that was the little girl. Well, there she is. So this is one of our kids. Her name's gift, gift, and we're able to sponsor her. And what that looks like is you it's $43 a month and it provides all their school fees and food, and you can pay an extra $7 a month to cover some more of their medical costs. So total, if you choose is $50 a month per child. The coolest thing is the intentionality of compassion. They go into their homes, we have opportunity. We can see her medical records, we can see everything that's going on with them. They're very organized. 2.3 million kids are sponsored through compassion. And they know they are connected to a local church. All of them are connected to the local church. And so it was really cool to see. They have an app that you write letters through now you send pictures through now. And the thing that we love too is you can send them birthday gifts. You can send them Christmas gifts, you can send a family gift, and they'll go into their home and now see what the need is and then the compassion team will go and buy whatever they need. So pastor Sarah was telling us she was in one of the homes of their kids that they sponsor and the mom was saying thank you for the table, thank you for the table. And she was like, I don't know what she's talking about. But it turned out they were eating on the floor. And the compassion team went in and saw that they could use a kitchen table. So with the family gifts, they sent for Christmas, and they provided them with the kitchen table, from their sponsors. And so it's just so intentional. And we loved seeing how they do everything for the families. So what we did was there were those 57 opportunities at the project we were at. And we thought, well, we're doing compassion Sunday, when we get back, how cool would it be if we got packets from that? site. And so not only did they give us those packets, but they gave us several more of children in different sites that are within 25 miles of that specific site. So if we were to ever want to go on a trip together, say, as a church, and meet the children, that God's leading us to sponsor, we could be a part of that, and so could our kids. Again, this is not for us to feel guilty. But it's just to ask the Lord, what's our responsibility of this? And so we're gonna pray to close. And we would love for you just to consider, Lord, what's my responsibility in this? Is it to pray about it? Is it to sponsor a child, a sponsor to maybe minor gone out of the house now, and some of the sponsor for like what we chose to do. Or maybe you're a teenager, and you're believing for God, to do something significant, and you just like the 15 year old Heather, that sponsored young Richmond one Dara, who is now literally changing the continent of Africa. However you decide, if you want more information, we've got information tables in the lobby, you can pick up your packets, you can talk to the team out there in the directive in everything. And again, you just download the app and communicate with your young people. But let's pray. Let's ask God, what might our responsibility be Father, we love you. We're so grateful for the way that you've expanded our world today. Father, it's a good thing. When we step outside of ourselves, it's a good thing when we lift our eyes, beyond our current circumstance or situation. Father, as the American church we've become so adept in looking at ourselves, our circumstance, our situation and thinking, Woe is me. God, what an opportunity you've provided us, in partnership with Compassion International, to look beyond our situation to look beyond Lincoln to look beyond Seward to look beyond Nebraska, to look beyond the United States. Choosing to trust you lean into you. So God help us answer the question today. What's our responsibility? In Jesus name, Amen.
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Posted in Acts 1, Witnesses, Compassion, International, Responsibility, Conviction, Opportunity, Matthew 25:40, Investment, Sowing Seeds, Harvest
Posted in Acts 1, Witnesses, Compassion, International, Responsibility, Conviction, Opportunity, Matthew 25:40, Investment, Sowing Seeds, Harvest
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