A Mighty Minority — K.P. Yohannan

The Book of Acts as a Living Model for Missions

If you are writing a title for my teaching tonight, it's all about missions by the way, but I want to call it a mighty minority. That's what I'm calling it. Now, Book of Acts is so significant because this is where we see the first generation Christian, the church, in action.

It covers some 30 years of history, obviously, but there is life and movement and action and verb and all the excitement in the world and suspense. I mean, you can make 10 ,000 movies out of this if you want to.

It is so fantastic. I went to seminary in Dallas and learned five and a half years and got my degrees and all those things. I remember one of the books I had to study was Book of Acts, but it was all about history, all about the Greek and the tense and all this stuff and all kinds of stuff.

By the time they finished teaching Book of Acts, I said, what on earth is this? But the Lord would ask me to go back and read the Book of Acts, not for getting a degree, but to see life in it. And my life was revolutionized.

And you see, we always need absolutes. If you do not know law, saying you should not steal, you should not do this thing, how do you know what you should do, what you should not do? The same way, there are absolutes through life, living examples God gave to you and gave to me that we can say, wow, this means this.

And this is how I can imitate, I can follow. And that's the reason why I like the Book of Acts very much. You know, brothers and sisters, there's a false thinking that God's heroes are some special breed of people, some superstars.

Ordinary Believers Who Turn the World Upside Down

Those who are, you know, having the high IQs and special look and certain caste they come from or background. When you read this book, you will find it is not like that. The weak, the simple, the nobodies, the common folks that came into this relationship with Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, they became revolutionaries as a matter of fact.

And you read in the Book of Acts, chapter 17, verse 6, this fantastic verse. These, those who have turned the world upside down, they have come here also. Now in Philip's translation says, these world revolutionaries have come here also.

Think about it, in the words of Keith Green, a dear friend who now is with the Lord, God is calling us to be just all out crazy for Jesus. There's nothing, what people call normal is the way we should be living.

We are outrageous, wacko, crazy people, not dumb, stupid, I don't mean that way. But there's something about our way of life. They turned the world upside down not because they were famous and rich and smart and good looking and movie stars.

No, they had such impact upon the generation in their workplace, in the marketplace, in all circumstances just by the way of life. It was so contagious. And I believe even today, that is the kind of life I think the Lord is calling us for.

Counting the Cost of Following Christ

And this will not happen without paying the price and making some choices. God never commits himself at random to anyone. He waits for us to respond and willing to count the cost. Jesus could never save the world without embracing the cross and going after the cross.

That's what the Bible says. We want to be like Jesus, world revolutionaries, impact our children, our grandchildren, our society, just by saying nice spiritual words and knowing all the doctrines. It never happens, it's a way of life.

And often, we do not want that because it costs us something. Namely, giving up our self-centeredness. But for the joy that is there when we make those choices is outrageous. Now, starting from book of Acts chapter 1.

Continuing Jesus’ Mission to the Ends of the Earth

In the very chapter 1, we find the first verse about things Jesus began to do and to teach and all those things. Now, the journey must continue. Jesus began and then he is asking us to continue the journey.

Fulfill the suffering of Christ, Paul said, through his life and his commitment. Now, here is the thing. In Matthew 28 verse 18, Jesus said to the disciples, All authority is given to me, now ye fellows go.

I am with you. I mean, think about these weak little people. Thomas was one of those fellows. You remember the doubting Thomas? He came to India to my village. As a matter of fact, when I was studying in seminary, they handed over this big, huge church history book.

And I was flipping through that and I found under the church planting era of India, the name of my own village, N-I-R-A-N-A-M, Niranam. That is where I was born, a tiny little village in the southern part of India.

He came to India in AD 52, planted seven churches, and one of those churches happened to be three kilometers from where I was born and raised. You know what, that makes me a better Christian. I mean, today I go to Philippines or China or India or Burma, anywhere.

I go to the airport and get on those 747 jets and zoom. Here I go, you know, I mean, a few hours I'm landing on the other side of the globe. But it was not so for Thomas. Ask the Christian who paid him to travel like that.

What was his salary? What life insurance? Who told him, I will stand by you? I mean, you think about those things. In the end, after planting those churches, he was murdered by Hindu Brahmins in Chennai for preaching the gospel.

He laid down his life. What motivated him to offer his life as a living sacrifice? It was an encounter with the living Christ. And those who know the Lord will want to continue to run the race no matter where they are.

And again, Jesus telling in verse 8, chapter 1, verse 8. By the way, I'm just going through different chapters, so just stay with me. When you receive the power, he said, you know, you wait. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power.

And you will become my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost, the ends of the earth. Now here's the thing that I want to say to you. If Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will have a holy go to someone else.

The Holy Spirit’s Power Is for Exalting Jesus

You know, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, if you are baptized in the Holy Spirit, don't look for goosebumps. You know, I'm tired of this false gospel that some people are preaching. You know, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will fall down, you'll scream, you'll crawl like a snake and bark.

I don't know this stuff. But I'm telling you, Jesus said this. When he comes, he will take the things of mine and he will reveal them to you. He will never talk about himself. When a preacher or a pastor or anyone anywhere glorify the Holy Spirit, promote the Holy Spirit, all about this, all about that.

And Jesus is left out, you can be sure this guy is off the wall. California talk. Because the job of the Holy Spirit is to lift up Jesus. And the power is given not to feel nice, good feelings about it, although that is wonderful.

I remember the time I was baptized in the Holy Spirit many years ago back in India. All alone, praying in the room. And I tell you, I was so filled with his grace and love in there. And I said, Lord, stop it, I can't handle it anymore.

If Jesus asked me to jump off from a ten-story building, I would have done it. I loved him so much, I couldn't stop loving him. That was the result of my being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Not jumping up and down, screaming and crawling like a snake.

And I'm telling you, my brothers and sisters, if the disciples needed the power of the Holy Spirit, after being taught three and a half years by Jesus himself, God himself, you tell me how much you and I need the Holy Spirit.

It is our birthright. Please remember that. And he is waiting and willing to give you the power, the Holy Spirit. You know, by the way, I was asking the Lord to give me power to preach the gospel. I was not praying for tongues.

Although I spoke in tongues that I never learned before, which was not my orientation. But for me, that's what happened. But I'm telling you that the call of the Lord upon our life is to demonstrate Jesus to others through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is a revolutionary concept and a revolutionary life. I remember my wife in Germany, as a young girl, came to know the Lord. After a couple of years, 13 or 14 at that time, she was baptized in the Holy Spirit.

A Holy Spirit–Driven Burden for the Lost

And I tell you what, that changed her life so much as a young girl studying in Germany. She would go on the streets and witness to people. And while she was in high school, she led over 20 young people to Christ and started a Bible study for those lost German young people that came to know Jesus Christ.

She was so moved with the burden for the lost. While she was born in a very high affluent, nice German family, they want her to learn the graces of the high society, the dancing, all those stuff. She said to her mom and dad, Jesus called me to be a missionary.

I cannot drink this stuff. I cannot be part of any of those things. And you know what she did? She took an American Indian, a South American Indian coin, and put a hole, drilled a hole through that, and put a string and tied it around her neck.

Every morning she stood before the mirror. She sees the American Indian head, the coin, which reminded her, you are called to be a missionary to serve God. And her sister, two girls, every month her parents give both the same amount of money.

Her sister would go and spend the money on buying a new dress, and this and that, all kind of trinkets. But Gisela, a young 14-year-old girl, 15-year-old girl, 16-year-old girl, she would take that money and never spend it on chocolate and chewing gums and all kind of funny stuff.

She would collect the money, eventually would send it to Wycliffe Missionary working in South America. That was a journey she made as a result of knowing Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm telling you, some individual who say, I know Jesus and have no concern to pray for some people out there, I have great trouble in understanding them.

I'm not saying we are all called to be preachers and, you know, miracle workers. I'm not saying that. But, you know, the ministry that you and I have may be different, but there needs to be that concern for others that do not know the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pentecost, Gospel Preaching, and the Unity of the Body

And so, we move to the book of Acts chapter 2. Find these people again. Now there you have this Holy Spirit coming upon the people and what a wonderful event to witness and watch. And then you will find the preaching take place.

Verse 41, you can read the whole chapter by way tonight. Don't go to bed, just stay and read the Bible. And you will find 3 ,000 people. What an incredible thing to happen. In the midst of all the difficulties, Peter of all the people who denied Jesus, I don't know this man you're talking about.

Now he stands up with a whole bunch of others and preaching the gospel. He was no more alone. There's unity. Others standing with him. You know, my brothers and sisters, the body of Christ, we work as a unit.

There is tremendous power when there is unity. You know, every morning, my wife and I, with my son and his wife and my daughter, after breakfast, we sit together and we pray, specifically for things that the Lord has given to us.

We agree on things. We talk about things. Why don't you start doing that? You'll be amazed and surprised what God will do. In a fellowship like this, don't be a spectator saying, oh, thank God they're taking care of my kids.

Thank God they're taking care of my teenagers. Hey, listen, plug your life into something with some commitment. It may cost you something, but it's worth. My brothers and sisters, you know, in the years past when I was living in North India, am I talking too fast?

All right. When I get excited, I talk too fast. I have to be careful. In the years past when I was in North India, in the wintertime, you know, December, January, it's very cold, no heat, nothing, and it just, you know, you shiver through the night.

But what we used to do, we get one of these iron balls, and we put coal in it, you know, this large black coal in it, and we start fire. And this thing really catch fire. It all turn kind of blue flame in the end.

And through the whole night, the thing keep our room warm for little fellows like me those days, you know, weighing 70 pounds. I ate too many hamburgers in America. Now, but you know what? Think about your life like one of those black big chunk of coal.

You can stay out or you can stay in. Why don't you walk into the fire? It will change you. It will give you warmth. The struggles and pain and agony and concerns and suspicions and all the stuff that you're dealing with will melt away.

You will find others are going the same struggles. They care about you. And we come together for the purpose of Jesus, not for self-centered reasons. And try that out. You'll be amazed how God will move in you and through you.

Witnessing Through Persecution and Miracles

I remember the story from Himachal Pradesh that some time ago it happened. Some of our brothers went out to do some open air preaching, and bunch of people began to stone them. And it was really getting difficult.

I mean, I'd been stoned. Stoned not on drugs, by the way. I'm talking about real. You're really throwing stones. And honestly, I ran many times as they were throwing rocks at me. And now I remember if I could run like that now, I could win the gold medal in Olympics.

And these brothers, they had no way to escape. And one brother spoke up as loud as he could. Please, just give us five minutes, that's all. Then you can kill us. Then they all stopped. He got up on a higher ground on a piece of stone, something like that, and he began to tell about Jesus.

You know what happened? The five minutes extended to 30 minutes, and 21 people on the street weeping, coming forward, kneeling before them, asking forgiveness. And they want to know more about Jesus. Sometime we run away on the face of difficulty saying that they're going to reject me, they're going to throw me out, they're going to kill me if I give a tract what they will do to me.

Hey, listen, don't be afraid. Jesus said, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. And give your life away and see what God will do with that. And this is absolutely beautiful. All right, let's go to Chapter 3.

You know the chapter. Since Pastor Steve talked through this whole book 10 ,000 times, I don't want to read through all this. In Chapter 3, we read about the healing of the crippled beggar. This guy was sitting there begging for alms, and of course, you know, Peter and John says, you know, we don't have any money to give to you, but in the name of Jesus, you get up and walk.

They had more faith. But I tell you what, it really happened. It really happened. We see about 15 churches planted every single day on the mission field right now. 15 churches every day. A great number of these churches are planted by some incredible miracle that takes place.

Absolutely amazing. You know, some stories I'm a little nervous to tell Americans because they think this is really wacko. It can't be really true, you know. But God is still in the business of touching the lives of people and changing them forever.

Praying for the Sick and Ministering in Jesus’ Name

In Punjab, some of the brothers were preaching the gospel one evening and a bunch of extremist radicals, they brought a man to them, bound up in large chains, and said, this man is mad. He's mentally deranged.

He's demon possessed. Ask you people, talk about, would you please pray for this man so he can be healed. And of course, you know, our brothers looked at the situation and said, oh, dear me, what are we going to do?

And it's an amazing thing, the reality of Christ's presence. And he sincerely believed this is true. And as he was going to pray for this demon possessed man, the Lord whispered to him, I will show myself mighty tonight.

And he laid a hand on this man, the whole hell broke loose. This man snapped all the chains. He was not demon possessed. He was a normal human being. And he asked him, these radical anti-Christians, to make a mockery of Christ's name, put him, chained him, and wrap him up in these chains and brought to the preacher so that he will pray and then they will declare, you see, you see what these people have done?

This is a normal human being. To make a mockery of the name of Jesus. But as he stretched his hand, the whole thing, the guy really got completely wacko. And then they realized what was going on. Then this brother took the microphone and said, you see, we had no knowledge what you guys were doing.

Of course, the whole crowd became totally crazy. And then these fellows who brought them said, please forgive us. Do something about it. Do something about it. Then our brother said, you know what? If all your gods, any of your gods, all of them together can set this man free and heal him, I will stop preaching and go after your god.

I mean, you can imagine. This is a real story. In the end, this brother would pray, and the Lord heals the man. That was the beginning of one of the churches in the community. You tell me about Jesus being alive.

He is not dead. You know what? The other day, my colleague, David Carroll, and myself, we were in some American airline flight. And by the grace of David Carroll, we got bumped up to first class. And I was quite happy.

I was working on my notes and everything. Sitting next to me is this lady. She was sneezing and, you know, wiping her nose. And I turned to her and said, you seem to be not doing so well. She said, yeah, I'm sick.

I've got a cold. And then I found out she's a high-powered lawyer, travels all over the world and all kind of stuff. And I said, let me pray for you. She said, would you? And she kept her eyes open like a monkey all the time.

I laid my hand on her and prayed for her, saying, Lord Jesus, you are our savior. I preached the gospel through praying for her. Lord, would you just touch her and heal her? As she was leaving the plane, she said, I feel so good.

I said, I will send you some materials to read. And I got her address so I can send her some gospel tracts and stuff. Obviously, she doesn't know the Lord. Wherever you may be, in the bus, in the train, standing to buy hamburger at In-N-Out or Burger King or wherever, or supermarket, your neighbor, when you run into people, those who look sad and gloomy and sick, listen.

Those are opportunities God is giving you to minister in the name of Jesus. You don't need to know all the Bible like Pastor Steve Mays to pray for a sick person. Jesus Christ is the one who heals people, not you.

I remember when my daughter, she was so tiny, two, three years old one night, she was screaming on the top of her lung in her room. And of course, Dallas, my wife and I ran to her room and found her chest in terrible pain, crawled up on her bed.

And we realized, 2 o 'clock in the morning, what do you do? The little girl is hurting so bad. And I said to her, you know, we'll pray for you. Jesus will heal you. And Gisela and I, we laid hands on little Sarah and said, Lord, you are the one who promised you will hear our prayer.

And you died on the cross for our sins. And you are able to heal us, Lord. Would you touch her and heal her? Instantly, she stopped crying. I'm not saying any sickness, any time you pray, instantly everything will be healed.

I'm not saying that to you. There are some times I get a headache, I take aspirin. I pray all the prayers in the world and nothing happens. Jesus says, you got aspirin, take a couple of aspirins. Doctors and nurses are God's gift to us in medicine.

But what I'm telling you, with or without medicine, why don't you first trust in the Lord? Let Him be the real physician. Let Him be the real doctor. Your dependence is not on any of this stuff. God will use all this stuff.

Listen, you want to be a revolutionary, impact through your way of life, start praying for sick people or wherever you find in Jesus' name. And watch and see how the Lord will do wonderful things in their life.

And so when you read the book of Acts, read about a crippled man, let it not be just a story to read, but let it be something for us to learn and follow. Now, in chapter 4, you'll find, you know, these people are in big trouble.

The Name of Jesus as the Answer to Human Need

They are brought before Sanhedrin, Peter and John. You know why they are in trouble? He said, you fellows, stop talking about this Jesus, your Jesus. Stop it. We are tired of it. We don't want to hear it anymore.

Well, I wonder why they are so upset about Jesus. There is something about that name. Isn't that true? There is something wonderful about that name. And you know, the beautiful thing is this. The answer to all problems people have, it is Jesus, it is Jesus, it is Jesus.

You know, this morning I talked about the Bridge of Hope, taking care of the children. Did you know 23 of all the food grains in India are eaten and destroyed by rats? R-A-T-S. When you talk about food grains, rice, beans, wheat, 23 destroyed by rats.

You say, why don't they kill the stupid rats? Well, I am asking the same question. You want to know the answer? Go with me to India, to Bikaner, Rajasthan, to a large Hindu temple with compound walls.

In the temple compound, you will find a couple of million rats crawling all over the place. Then I will show you people coming, rich, famous, educated, crawling among these rats, not hurting them, hoping some white rat will crawl on them.

And then I will show you truckloads of grain brought and dumping into the compound for the rats to have a wonderful seven-course meal. You say, what? They are worshipped as gods. The 300 million people's travesty of life and poverty and illiteracy and brutality and the terrible life they go through.

The 400 million backward caste. You can take the whole of America and dump it into India. You will never have the answer to their poverty, their problems. The real answer is Jesus changing the lives of people.

I am one who walked and traveled years all over this country of India, my native land. I'm telling you, I'm still convinced the number one answer is Jesus. We cannot ignore the poverty. We cannot walk away from the suffering children.

Gospel Compassion in the Midst of Poverty and Disaster

We must go after them. But if Jesus is not there, you know, it's an interesting thing. The tsunami took place, you know, the tsunami a year ago. And we sent about $9 million worth of medicine and food to Sri Lanka to help the people there.

And we start building houses and taking care of 3 ,000 kids, the product of tsunami and all these different things. And all of a sudden, I get telephone calls from BBC in London, Chicago Tribune, and Philadelphia newspapers and all kind of radio stations from Australia and different.

You know all they want to know? Why on earth are you people exploiting these poor suffering people in the midst of their problems by preaching Jesus? And one lady, she was on the telephone, she was really angry with me.

It is illegal, it is bad, it is wrong. And she went on his English accent, you know. I mean, I said, I thought you are a reporter. And she used some very big words to attack me for I was telling people about Jesus.

And I said to her, Madam, may I ask you a question? She said, yeah. She was so mad. I said, see, I'm a psychiatrist. You came to me, of course, you know, you are in England and well-fed and taken care of and live in a mansion with air-conditioned buildings and beautiful, nice circumstances and nice car and everything in the world you got.

You got plenty of money. But you are ruined emotionally. And you are on the verge of committing suicide. And I, being a reputable psychiatrist, you come to me for counselling. And you come and sit on the sofa and look at you.

I know exactly what you should do. I know the answer. But then I said to myself, well, this poor lady is a basket case. She is so ruined emotionally. If I tell her to do something that's taking advantage of her weakness and emotionally devastated time in her life.

So I decide not to tell you anything. I said, lady, please go home and get well. Then come back and I'll tell you the answer. I said, if I do something like that, what would you say to me? There was silence.

I said, you know what? You sit in London and I just came from having walked and wept in Sri Lanka, in India, among tens of thousands of tsunami victims. I said, I saw people who made a decision to commit suicide.

And the last minute, our people met these people and talked to them. And when they offered rice and beans and clothes and drinking water and tents, some of them refused. We don't want it. And then they find out they didn't want it because that night they were going to kill themselves and their remaining children.

And as they began to talk to them, read Bible verses, pray for them, every one of those people found hope in Jesus Christ. I remember meeting one widow, a beautiful, beautiful young lady, 23, 24 year old, incredibly beautiful lady, carrying a tiny baby in her arms, tiny little thing wrapped in kind of dirty clothes.

The baby was born a week after the tsunami. And our pastor said to me, yesterday we met her. When we offered food, she refused. Knowing she is sick and weak and tired and hungry, we sat down and began to talk to her, read Bible verse and book of Psalms, and prayed for her.

And finally she said, thank you for telling me about your God, about Jesus. Somehow, something happening in my heart. Then she said, tonight I was going to kill my baby and end my life. Thank you for telling me about Jesus.

Then she took the food, then she took the clothes, and the following day, I see her with the little baby. There is some hope in their eyes. You know, we still serve among the tsunami victims. We care for the poor and needy.

But I'm telling you, America is full of so-called Christian organizations that are crying out to help the poor and needy in the name of Christianity, yet they do not promote Jesus, never tell people He is the ultimate, the only answer.

I'm telling you, Jesus remains the real answer to the problems of the world today. And, you know, I just came from India, I told you this morning, I was in Delhi before coming here, and some of my brothers were telling me they were in a prayer meeting, and a lady began to scream and shout, forms coming out of her mouth, you know, crawling on the floor, I mean, manifesting all kinds of demons.

Spiritual Warfare and the Authority of Jesus’ Name

And eight, nine people tried to hold her down. They couldn't. She was so powerful, the powers of demons in her. And the pastor was telling me, he simply went to her and said, in Jesus' name, you leave her alone.

She belonged to Jesus. Instantly, all the demons left. Hallelujah. And then she said, what happened to me? What happened to me? What happened to me? You know, I don't know about you, a lot of problems we deal with.

We sometimes think it is visible. It is not. Our battle is not against flesh and blood. It is against principalities and the powers of darkness. Worry, and care, and depression, and agony, and fear, and anxiety, anger, bitterness.

When these things are playing, you know, with your brain, and your brain becomes a, you know, like a ping pong ball, and the demon just beating you up. Listen. Stop just and say, in Jesus' name, leave me alone.

Don't attack my mind. I belong to Jesus. And if there's some sin in your life, confess it, and you'll be amazed. You'll be amazed. I mean, I tell you, talk, A .W. Chaucer wrote this book, I Talk to the Devil.

I tell you what, I talk to the devil, I don't know how many million times. The devil is a liar. You belong to Jesus, and the name of Jesus is good enough for you. You try this, and we see this always in what?

In Jesus' name, you have the victory. In Jesus' name, you have the authority, and don't walk away from it. No wonder why people hate the name Jesus. The devil hate the name Jesus. This is your name. This is your privilege, because you belong to him.

And I hope you take that serious. All right, our time is running. Chapter 5, we have this situation with a husband and wife, you know, not being very upright, you know, Ananas and Sapphira, and, you know, people were giving money to the work of God, and they were kind of being talked about, and they realized, my goodness, we need to get some credit, so let's do this.

Honesty, Holiness, and the Example of Ananias and Sapphira

So they played games with God, in the modern language. And in the end, they both lose their life. You know, God is more concerned about honesty than great performance and a lot of external impressions we make on people.

As a matter of fact, the definition of holiness, I tell you, is honesty. You know, remember, the two thieves on the cross, one guy pretended. The other guy said, Lord, I deserve this stuff. This is me.

And he walked into paradise with the Son of God. The other one lost it. Did you know, Judas and Peter both did the same stupid thing? Denied their Lord. They both did it. But one committed suicide, and the other ended up being the greatest apostle.

What was the difference? Judas' faith was insincere, while Peter's faith was weak, not insincere. My brothers and sisters, God will work with the worst kind if they are honest with Him. But God cannot help people who are dishonest.

Honest Repentance and Personal Transformation

I remember the early days of my life in the United States, falling into materialism, going after all the good stuff of this country. And my church, I was pastoring. They thought I was the greatest thing that ever happened to their church.

People were getting saved and being baptized. I was marrying people, burying people, all kinds of stuff. It was a very busy life. And I memorized a lot of Peter Marshall's prayers and added my statements, and my prayers were outrageously wonderful.

In my seminary, my professors thought I was the best student, and I was. But I was dying on the inside. And finally, I remember sitting in my room, not on the fancy, nice leather chair, but on the carpet, like a little Indian boy.

And I remember saying these words to Jesus, Lord, I am lost. I don't know what to tell you. My heart is cold. I can't cry anymore. And I know all the stuff in my head. Everybody thinks I'm wonderful. But Lord, I don't know you anymore.

Is there anything you can do to help and change my heart? If you ever heard a grown-up person praying simple words like a little prayer for kids, you now heard it. And I sat there in helplessness, just didn't know what to do.

I was lost. Like a little kid among 100 ,000 people having lost touch with their parents, running around screaming, Mommy and Mommy and Daddy and Daddy. I was like that. You know what? Jesus came into the room one afternoon, and he began to talk to me.

My life was completely changed. That was before Gospel of Asia began. My brothers and sisters, you can study all the books in the world, memorize all the answers in the world. I tell you what, that will be all in your head.

It will help maybe, but please learn to come before the Lord and be open and honest. You want to raise your children in godly ways? Be honest with them. Don't pretend. They will never become like what you teach, but they become what you are.

When my son was in Nepal, somebody asked him, you were born in America and had all the wonderful opportunities in the world. Why on earth you made a decision to be a missionary and come to Nepal? And he never told this to me, by the way.

Some other people that talked to him and heard this said this to me. His answer was, well, obviously the Lord called me, but everything goes back to one thing. Whatever my mommy and daddy were teaching and talking to other people, I saw them leaving behind the doors.

They never told me to go and be a missionary, never asked for it, but we couldn't resist. My sister and I, I couldn't resist this Jesus because I saw in my parents. Honestly, I feel so bad often because I don't think I'm a good father.

I failed a thousand times and a thousand ways, and I wish I could go back and do things differently, a lot of things, but even my failures, my sin, my lack, my children saw I was not covering up. Times I punished him in anger.

I would go and say, I'm so grieved that I did it wrong. Forgive me, my son. He saw my getting angry with my wife, but they would always find out I asked her forgiveness. They always saw my struggles, my sorrows, my failures, but I didn't pretend.

God’s Grace Through Failure: Peter and Jacob

I'm not saying I never pretended. I'm sure a thousand times I failed that I did not know about, but my brothers and sisters, God is not disappointed about our failures. As a matter of fact, I am now convinced failures, our falling in sin, God allows.