Send the Message - Session 6 — K.P. Yohannan

I know you came this evening for the Indian food, and Thai food, and Chinese food, you know. I'm sure you enjoyed it. Some of us travel a lot to conferences and meetings, and I was just thinking this evening during the time of worship, you know, what a blessing and privilege for us to have Terry and Nancy leading in worship.

It's one thing to perform, it's another thing to take us before the Lord, and their lives, we are blessed. We are really blessed. And I realized I left my wallet in my hotel room because I was thinking I will want to buy these music CDs they have.

So if you didn't bring your wallet, you still can buy and send your money to them later. That's what I'm hoping to do. It's another way of stealing things, you know. Then too, I was thinking about this conference, you know, I mean, what is the Bible all about?

Jesus, His Cross, and Redemption

When you condense the whole thing in the bottom line, they say in America, it is Jesus, his cross, and redemption. And what is more significant than gathering like this? And you know, Jesus turned the whole world upside down and conquered the world through a handful of disciples.

And throughout the centuries, this has always been true. And so to have this many people here for a missions conference, it's very, very significant. And never underestimate the possibilities that is within you because of his grace, to see multiplied millions impacted.

Not only they come to know the Lord, but they will become his disciples. Pastor John Michaels and and our relationship with him and the fellowship here is significant. I do not know how many of you know this.

He usually comes to Dallas at least once a year or so. We have pastors that come from all over the United States, sometimes 20, 30, or 15. And he teaches them about going overseas and doing biblical teaching, inductive study method.

And I think by the grace of God, through his effort, hundreds of pastors and teachers traveled to many, many nations and still do. And only heaven will tell the story one day when we get there, the impact of John Michaels' life and his commitment to missions.

And to put up, put together something like this and all the arrangement, the money spent, and the food, and it is not simple. It's very complex. And Pastor John really appreciate your effort and your commitment to do that.

The Lord bless you. And then I, you know, see Pastor Ken Otis and Bob Cardwell, you know, two great pastors, but missionary leaders, really. And so I was saying to someone today, I don't know why I came to this conference, knowing that these two are here.

But what a blessing to know them and, and serve the Lord alongside with them. And I want to say this to you. You know, I've been serving the Lord for 40 years now. My journey began when I was barely 17.

And I'm, you know, as you can imagine, you know, my life is committed to the Lord and reaching the lost world. And, and now when you get older, one thing you look for is the coming of the Lord, the day you can see him face to face and make life a little easier.

I must tell you that. And over the years, you know, my life, you know, changed on the inside a lot. People, when they think about me, they think about world evangelism and being a missionary leader and on and on like that.

And, but if you were to ask me, what is your greatest burden that you carry on your heart? I would say, you know, the greatest burden I carry on my heart, it is for the body of Christ around the world.

Genuine Salvation and Knowing the Living Christ

In this that the majority that call themselves Christians, I do not believe they know the Lord. And my concern is for people to really have an encounter with the living Christ. And all what they do will be the result of the Lord's grace in their life and knowing the Lord.

And I have authored more than 225 books over these years. And several titles are hundreds of thousands copies in print. And one of them is over 2 million copies in print. But about four years ago, during a week of prayer and waiting upon the Lord, some mysterious way the Lord spoke to my heart to spend my time seeking his face and studying and and teach a subject that I never did before on a subject on godliness and how that can be realized through understanding surrender and submission, both vertically and horizontally.

It took me two years of prayer and seeking the Lord's face and testing things in my own life to see this is real. Then after two years, I took time to teach that to over 500 of my senior leaders from around the world.

And the dramatic change that took place in their lives, we hardly could believe it. And later when those CDs came to the United States, our staff, we got some 160 people in Dallas at a home office, and then others in Canada and Europe.

And as these CDs were circulated, you know, testimonies came in how the Lord impacted their life and huge transformation began to take place. So then my colleagues like David Carroll, because you know, one of my senior leaders here, and a man who really knows the Lord, and I'm blessed to serve the Lord with him, and through their engagement said, you know, we need to put this in writing and get it out in a book so that the body of Christ can be blessed.

And all of a sudden, I realized, my goodness, this is a burden I've been carrying for people to know the Lord. And finally, a couple of months ago, this book was released called Touching Godliness Through Submission.

And I think they printed 5 ,000 copies. They ran out, I think, within six weeks. Some people are ordering 200 copies, 100 copies, and giving it to people. And I would encourage you to get a copy of that.

I don't know how much it cost. I don't get any of this money, by the way. They steal all my money. No, I mean, whatever you give for the book, it all goes to the Lord's work. And if you don't have any money for a book like that, you know, please get one.

And I think they will give it to you, whatever. If they don't, you tell me. All of us are on a journey. And I think the potential you have to know the Lord intimately, and for the Lord to use your life to see fruit that lasts for eternity, you have no understanding possibly how significant it is.

What hinders us from realizing that and being Christ once again walking around on earth in our mortal body, it is our lack of honesty and uprightness. We began the journey well, but as we get going, we read these books and hear teachings and we find out moral Christianity and godly Christianity and what it means to be spiritual.

Instead of understanding about the road to reality through honesty and openness, we start pretending. And the more we pretend spirituality, the more we become ineffective and dark on the inside. And so if you feel discouraged or if you feel like, you know, I've been hearing this kind of preaching and teaching and about missions and all that, I just don't see where I'm going and there's nothing within me, something has to happen.

Or if you hear some goofy teaching, they will say because some demon inside you and somebody has to cast it out. Don't believe all those lies. It is not that. It is easy to cast out demons, but it is not that easy to cast out the flesh.

And so learn to be honest with the Lord and with yourself and keep walking because this is a long journey and God is faithful and he is not discouraged about you or about me. But I think it's a mistake for people to make that the whole world is going to hell and we have to do something about it because we got money and health and wealth and airplane tickets.

We can travel here and there and or use our resources to make the changes. I think it's a significant mistake to make. We will be converting, reverting back to the old covenant. God is in trouble. We have to do something and so we perform.

But I must say this to you after 40 years of serving God, I still believe firmly God is ever more deeply concerned about my inner life reality and my knowing him so he can do his work that will last for eternity.

And if that be the case, we have every reason to be encouraged and have the hope to continue the journey. A friend of mine wrote these statements in one of his books. Listen to these words, it's kind of gripping.

The Cost of a Cheap Gospel

The American church is experiencing a crisis. For years, we have preached a cheap gospel and peddled a soft savior. We have taught salvation without self-denial and crowns without the cross. We have catered to the unsaved and compromise of the world.

Now we are paying the price. Our salvation message has dishonored God and deceived men. Our faulty seeds have produced a flaky harvest. What a pitiful crop we are reaping. As Americans, we believe, as American believers, we spend hours watching television but minutes watching in prayer.

We are hungry for the sports page but our little taste for the word. We spend more money on pet food than on foreign missions. We love to feast but hate to fast. We welcome God's blessings but we are weary of his burdens.

Is this what Jesus died for? Is this our new life? In him? Stop for a moment and think. Anyone who spends more time playing video games than seeking God in prayer has no right to call Jesus Lord. Anyone who takes delight in today's perverted soap operas is serving another God.

Anyone who cannot die to sports for a season is worshiping idols. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Because friendship with the world is hatred toward God. You find that in 1 John chapter 2 verse 15 and James chapter 4 verse 4.

We call ourselves citizens of heaven yet our hearts are caught up in the earthly treasures. We sing we are the people of God but we are entertained by the worst of the devil's children. We claim to be dead to the world yet we are more interested in the temporal fashions than in eternal souls.

Something is wrong with our salvation experience. Bad fruits mean bad roots. We say just confess Jesus as Lord and you are in. He says if anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

We say just come to the altar it will all take just a minute. He says make every effort to enter through the narrow gate because many I tell you will try to enter and will not be able to. Who do you think is right?

In a conference like this my temptation or my wish is to keep on talking about India and China and Albania and Europe and Russia and all that and I think you are well informed but I want to encourage you as an individual knowing that you are here because you care about the Lord and you are here not because somebody beat you up and say come or I'll kill you or offered you a lot of money.

I think you are here because you are very serious about following the Lord and so I would encourage you to press further into knowing the Lord in the light of what I just read for you. I don't think you need to be convinced anymore if you think for a minute the Christianity that we are living in today in our nation here and somebody asked me what is the problems or the kind of problems we are dealing with overseas?

Prosperity Teaching and Missions

I said you know it used to be the Hindus and Muslims and the persecution but now we have a new problem we have to deal with. The American television preachers coming to these nations with the plastic prosperity bless me God claim it and name it and get it and keep it and it's causing huge amount of damage for the young Christians and especially young pastors in many of these nations and I don't know what we are going to face within the days to come here but whatever happens is going to be good.

Because you know what the Lord is seeking to do. I got a t-shirt this morning when I came here large size and I'm not large but I pretend to be large but on the back of the t-shirt has this neat statement the scripture from Matthew's gospel chapter 16 verse 24.

You want to turn your bibles to that? It's a very significant portion of scripture. Jesus talked about I believe keep in mind world evangelism but he talked about disciples who will want to follow him.

Matthew's gospel chapter 16 verse 24. Then Jesus said to his disciples if anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Following Jesus Through Unconditional Surrender

Christianity and following the Lord is an all-out commitment not to bunch of doctrines or denominations but an all-out commitment to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he calls you and calls me saying come and follow me and I must tell you the road is very narrow and he said that and unless you and I are willing to hear his call saying forsake all deny yourself be mine come away from the sin and the wickedness of the world many will hear it but they will not want to pay the price.

The Savior our Lord is not looking for men and women who will give their spare time and weekends and their retirement age and then do everything to please themselves and give an hour of Sunday morning or two weeks you know a special mission trip to some field to say I did something for God.

No I think he's looking for people who recognize every minute of their life every day 24 hours their entire life their entire being belong to Christ and everything about them is dictated directed by one thing I am not my own I belong to Christ.

Blood was the price he paid to purchase me. I have no right on my own life and as you study the mission history you will find it is not the masses and the billions of dollars that created impact upon these generations behind us but it was a few lives like M .E. Carmichael or Jetson or Hudson Taylor or men and women that you never heard about but they were true saints who walked with God although they had nothing of the world and the reason was they knew Jesus and their heart is called and decided to say no to self and sin and yes to him but propelled them to action to go to the end of the world whether they were living at home in America or China or India anywhere their hearts were so completely surrendered to Christ they prayed and gave and went and did everything they knew because of the love they had for Jesus and that's all there was.

H .A. Evan Hopping said this statement which is quite significant he looks today that is Christ as he has ever looked not for crowds drifting aimlessly in his track but for individual men and women whose undying allegiance will spring from their having recognized that he wants those who are prepared to follow the path of self renunciation which he that is Christ himself trod before them.

Nothing less than unconditional surrender could be a fitting response to Christ death on the cross. And he did that for us. You know we sing those words love so amazing so divine demands my soul my life my all.

But how often we forget the implications of those words and Jesus and Jesus did make stringent demands upon those that want to follow him. I want to mention a few of them tonight in the light of the challenge we face in our generation and see how we can apply this to our life.

Loving Jesus More Than Family or Self

One Jesus said love me more than anyone anything your own life. In Luke chapter 14 verse 26 he find if anyone want to come after me and follow me he said he must love me more than father mother son daughter.

You know what I wish he put a full stop there you read on you'll find he must love me. She must love me more than his own self and life that bothers me. Self-preservation. We will give up everything in all things.

But please just this little life of mine. I want to keep it. And Jesus. Yeah you can keep it but you can lose it. You want to be mine give it away. You know that song often we sing we hear them the very emotional very meaningful my Jesus.

I love thee. I know thou art mine. For thee all the follies of sin I resign. Remember that for thee all the follies of sin I resign. A lot of people say you know what. I don't want to do any sin because it's bad.

It's bad for you. There's a hell waiting for you. Daddy will be upset if he found out this mummy will be sad. Yeah all good reasons. But you know what we hate sin. Not because sin is bad it is bad. But we do so because it grieve my lord and my savior.

There is such horrible ineffectiveness in the lives of Christians and missionaries because there is such dichotomy in their life. The struggle with sin never ceased. They spend more time repenting every day.

Or since they come in people can see or they don't see. And they never made a reconciliation saying that I am dead to sin. Not that we become perfect angels overnight. But I am not the person I was last week.

And keep moving toward becoming more like the lord Jesus Christ. And the motivation for us to find that inner reality and godliness. It never comes through self-realization of fighting with the flesh and say I'm not going to look at that tv program.

I'm going to read this thing. I have disciplined myself. No I think it comes through the understanding of how my lord thinks about it. That which he hate I hate it is because of him. I said not to a whole bunch of things.

I'd like to do a lot of things but I know that's not what he wants. There's a scripture in the book of psalms you know the psalmist prayed lord search my heart and help me know what is out there and lead me to the way the path of righteousness in the living bible.

Read like this lord please help me understand what is on the inside and my heart. And please let me know if there's anything within me that make you sad. And I think the reason why the lord said you must love me more than anything else because he knew unless the disciples after three and a half years come to the place of understanding who he is and love him for who he is they're going to make it.

You know there's a tradition I do not know this is exactly the way to happen. But the the tradition is that Peter was in prison along with his wife and they both were going to be killed for their faith.

And of course you know the tradition Peter was crucified upside down because he didn't want to be crucified the way christ was crucified which was his request. But as they took his wife out of the prison it says he said to her my wife remember how much he loved us.

And so what kept these people going to the end of the world. Like Thomas coming to India laying down his life in AD 52. The question what happened his wife what happened his children. You you are making a mistake if you think that christ disciples were all monks that they didn't have any family or children and obviously Peter had a mother-in-law.

You cannot have a mother-in-law without a wife if you didn't figure that out now you know. So I am not saying if god calls you abandon your wife and kids and walk anywhere and this and that. But what I'm saying what about the soldiers that we are sending to Iraq and Kuwait and and nations sending all over the world and there is no problem about them leaving everything and business and their their professions and walking away.

But when it comes to the challenge of reaching the lost world and walking away from everything for a six months or a year or two years we are so programmed here your family first god second by the way I got a wife and two kids and I love them.

So please don't misunderstand me. But what I'm trying to tell you is this whatever the lord calls us to do the courage we get to walk away from it. If god calls you I mean David Carroll my colleague here you know he was in California um um you know he had his own company as a CPA and his business and some 16 17 years ago he read one of my books and um you know he says that ruined his entire life.

And um and you know of course you know I mean he gave up his business and sold his business all his house and you know and his parents and relatives said you you are absolutely mad out of your brains you know to give up the dream to make a few millions and have a great life and realize American dream.

But he walked away from all and came to Texas of all the places in the world. And you ask him David Carroll why you're not you would give up a dream like that and such a promising future. His answer is very simple.

I know him too. Well he say well it's all Jesus I love him. That's all there is. And my brothers and sisters whatever the lord is calling you to do I would say think about him. Some of you may be sitting here I didn't know one of you two of you maybe he got few million dollars in the bank by the way spend it as soon as he can.

And and maybe the lord you know you are a medical doctor and the lord has been saying to you you know why don't you walk away from this life here you have and sell this mansion and and and slow down and and trim down and and walk away for a couple of years to some other country or and give you a life.

And you're holding on to it saying that next year next year you know what you will never do it the need will always be there and greater. What will give you the impetus the joy to do something. When the lord calls you to do it is to focus on him and walk after him and think about after a few years running into him and seeing him face to face.

And that is the reason why the lord insists that we putting first in our life one of our people from the dallas office go into the mission field ran into a student in one of our bible colleges is a hindu brahman young man who while he was studying in college gave his life to christ and his parents threw him out and he has a sister and he had to leave home with the clothes on his back.

And they call the priest to conduct the ceremony cleansing the house which declares that that son is no more alive. He's dead as far as they're concerned. So while he was now studying in our bible college preparing himself to serve the lord uh this individual asked him are you not sad that you lost everything you have your you know wealth and your parents and your sister.

And and he answered he said you know i'm very sad. I often think about my dad and mom and my sister i cannot go home. And then he paused and said but if i must do it again i will choose jesus over everything.

And i'm glad i know him and i pray that my parents my family will come to know the lord. And i think that's only an illustration example of what love can do when you follow the lord his call upon your life will never become difficult for you to do it because there's a greater power.

Knowing Jesus Through Scripture and Submission

You know the story of jacob in the old testament we all talk bad about him and he's a nice guy. I jacob and you know i mean he was quite an interesting character. He cheated his older brother got the birthright.

And of course you know he got in trouble. He had run away from home and jacob you know means meaning a deceiver. But he ended up with twice the crook. He was laban. And so he you know he sees his girl uh you know rachel the most gorgeous beautiful creature walked on earth as far as he was concerned and he fell in love with her and he wanted to marry her.

And so um you know laban says um yeah sure. No problem i will give my daughter to you. But dowry there you had to pay and the dowry is you had to work seven years. Um for my daughter he said no problem.

So he worked seven years. And so the grand wonderful glorious fantastic day on earth came for him to get married. So he gets married. And next morning he wakes up and find it wasn't rachel it was the other girl and the one that he didn't like rachel's sister.

And so he gets mad. And he comes layman's what are you done to me and says son calm down. No problem. What do you mean. No problem. I got the wrong one. Well son when i mean you know this is the way we do things here.

I mean you want rachel. Yeah. You can have her also. Yeah. You can. Yeah seven more years you have to work 14 years. He worked like a slave for this girl. And the bible says it was like a day because he loved rachel and our brothers and sisters in your commitment to follow the lord and serve the lord and whatever you do may i ask you to keep this as your supreme priority to know the lord.

Read the bible study the bible not to find more help to develop your life and and make things better for you and make more money or create new decisions. Rather read the bible to see jesus and his nature his character and see the man jesus not god.

He was god and he is. But see him in the gospels and how he walked and how he prayed and how he conducted himself and how he sought nothing for himself. He sought no honor from any man. And how humble and submissive and broken he was.

And think about it how he walked. And then you follow him and his submission to his father. And that makes all the difference in the world. The second thing jesus said many things. If anyone wanted to come after me follow me he must pick up his cross daily and follow me matthew's gospel chapter 16 verse 24.

Denying Self and Carrying the Cross

That verse again it is a deliberate choosing of the cross. Denying ourself. You know a lot of people get mixed up with self-denial with denying self. Self-denial is you give up in and out hamburger and french fries or thai food.

Or or don't go to movies and or don't do this don't do that. And you know or you know a ski trip and all that whatever. But denying self. It is a choice we made for complete submission to the lordship of christ.

Incidentally when i talked about my book of all the books i have written i think this is the most significant book i have written. That's the reason i told you the number of books i have written and the reason is this the entire message of the book is this come to the place of absolute submission to the lord.

If that be the case your submission to your authority here on earth will change radically it will reflect that. Well i will not want to talk about that. But you know the scriptures that says in second corinthians chapter 5 verse 14 and 15 if you will please turn to those words.

It's a significant verse. Second corinthians chapter 5 verse 14 and 15 for christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died and he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

You know i remember meeting a couple many years ago in chicago that felt the lord was calling them to go to the mission field wherever they were called to go. I don't remember the details but i was you know i'm not one sending all americans overseas.

That is not my main focus. But anytime i run into somebody who says the lord called me to go to china india. You know i've been anywhere i do everything under the sun to encourage them to get out of the country.

I remember you know while i was in a meeting for medical doctors saying people came to me and said they read my book and they were so happy to find out. Now they can make millions and send to us and so we can reach the lost world.

But they said all that after saying they felt the lord was calling them all to go to africa as missionaries. I said look we don't need your money. If the lord called you to go and serve the lord overseas with your life you better obey that and god has more money elsewhere he can give it to us.

You better pack your suitcase and go. I think they were surprised by that. But what i'm saying this to you is this young couple i was so happy about to hear their story. But then they kept talking and they kept talking and i found out they didn't want to go overseas and and the reason was they said what about our health our medical insurance our retirement and if you get sick what happens.

How are we going to do this. And they had 10 million 20 000 questions and i heard all that and i said to myself they're not going to make it. If jesus thought about all the problems he must face as he came to earth he would never have made it no way he knew everything that was going to happen.

The Cross, Suffering, and Authentic Missionary Work

But here i mean this is one of the tragedy of the church today. Look like pastors and mission pastors are promoting we can reach the whole world through a two weeks trip to nepal india or afghanistan or some place.

And young kids who had no clue about brokenness or suffering or the cross. And they raise their money through whatever means and the backpack and m &ms and their soft drinks and whatever else. And you know their lotion to wash their hands so no germs will attack them and the mosquitoes break and all this stuff.

And and they get over there. And two weeks they walk around and you know whole bunch of people come and look at them and you know they say a bunch of praise and come back and say we got 100 000 people came to christ.

And i'm telling you this is and i'm we we send young people overseas. I'm excited for the possibility of hundreds of thousands american young people going overseas. But i'm telling you something true missionary work calls for laying down our life for emotional and physical suffering.

If we want to reach the lost world and the cross we don't want to talk about as a matter of fact it is a missing jewel in american christianity. We cannot talk about the cross. We cannot talk about the suffering.

And this is a simple fact. But you read the new testament. I challenge you to do that and find out can you ever experience any depth of godliness without the cross operating in our life. You will not find it.

When people accuse paul about how mean and bad he was and all kind of nonsense. The church according he writes. Second core indians you read the letter you'll be amazed. He is not saying you guys you're off the wall.

Don't you know i'm a great apostle. Don't you know how many letters are wrote. Don't you know how many sermons are preached. Don't you know how many churches are planted. No he simply says you want to know if i'm authentic then he described in chapter four and chapter six of the suffering the shipwreck the pain the hunger the loneliness the rejection and the tears.

And one time he said i almost lost my mind the burden he carried the agony. I'm telling you my brothers and sisters a day is coming and i think we need to understand this and now better we understand it.

That is commit yourself to carry the cross by denying yourself. But kp what do you mean by that. I will recommend you to think about buying an alarm clock to begin with i have three or four of them. And what do you do.

You try this because your day is full of busyness and telephone calls or whatever else you are part of. And why don't you turn the alarm clock on to come on to you know wake you up like two in the morning or three in the morning.

Um you know and and and is this you know silence in the house as nobody's talking and nobody's bothering you. Why don't you go to the bathroom and wash your face um and then go to the living room and and and and don't don't lay on your lazy chair.

But um you know think about kneeling by your chair if there's no problem with your knees and um and and spend time with the lord and get a world map and start looking at the world. And um and and today there's i heard about somebody here.

Um i i know who it is. You know they keep their um their compute on um uh for information to come in from different countries of the world you know water is going on different nations. And as they see these things they take that as prayer request and start praying for the nations.

And you start maybe with one hour you know. And then uh as the lord give you the grace increase that. And then i would encourage you to start at least one day of the week to fast um and and pray it is again something people don't understand how serious it is.

Jesus fasted 40 days and the bible teaches a lot about it. If you don't know about it get a book called god's chosen fast by arthur wallace. That's the name of the author arthur wallace. It's a paperback book.

By the way american christian bookshops hardly sell any more good books. It's one of the curse that we have to deliver. And i mean i've been to bookshops just for the sake of finding out what they're putting out.

You know what i'm learning the publishing house giving 10 million dollars to a christian author to write five books and they tell him what to write. I can tell you names and all this stuff. It is i mean you just don't know what's going on.

Sometimes most of the books you're buying from bookshops are useless. They have nothing to offer for godliness or repentance or knowing god. And ladies my sisters stop reading christian novels. They are sin.

They're hurting you. So you gave up the wicked sex novels. Now they are giving you soft novels with the same feelings you why you go after this stuff dying to self giving up. It's not just simply say this is bad but saying you know i am not my own.