Invest Your Life in the Harvest, Part One — K.P. Yohannan

Next, on The Road to Reality, Brother KP O 'Hannan brings us a true-life story of the delivering power of God from the mission field. Stay with us. Welcome to The Road to Reality, the radio ministry of Gospel for Asia.

Our speaker is the president of Gospel for Asia, Brother KP O 'Hannan. Now, as Christians, we believe that Jesus came to heal, to preach the gospel, to deliver the demon-possessed. But it's good to have reminders of this truth and to be challenged afresh to make sure that our priorities in this life are correct, and that's what the next 25 minutes are reserved for.

If you've got a Bible nearby, join us. We're in Matthew chapter 7. Here's Brother KP O 'Hannan now for this message entitled, Invest in the Harvest.

Obedience Through Suffering

I want to share with you some thoughts. Hopefully they will become an encouragement to you and also some things that the Lord may kind of give you as practical steps to do. Sometimes we make a terrible, terrible mistake thinking that if we know all the things in our head and have goosebumps and feel good about spiritual things, we become godly.

It never happens. It is by our obedience through suffering that we become like Jesus. And that is a problem. So tonight I hope there are some things that we look at from the scripture will help you to think in these terms.

Jesus' Compassion for the Harassed and Helpless

The gospel of Matthew, we look at this couple of verses. In the gospel of Matthew chapter 9, verse 35, Matthew chapter 9, verse 35, Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

When he saw the crowds or multitudes, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Then in chapter 10, verse 16, Jesus says, I'm sending you out like sheep among bulls. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

The Cost of Following Christ

Then of course, toward the end of the chapter, Jesus makes this very strong statements, which he made many times. Verse 37 on simply says, if anyone, if you want to be a follower of Christ, he says, you have to love him more than father, mother, son, daughter, even one's own life.

It's an absolute statement. You cannot be his follower unless we take this serious. Now to understand that verse, you see verse 36, Matthew 9, when he saw the multitudes or crowds, he had compassion on them.

Now think about it. I used to keep a diary, writing my journal, started in 1966. But then, you know, along the way I could, you know, I mean, too many other things in life, you know, I never kept up with it.

But only when I look at the old pages of this notebook, I say, wow, I can remember this. I can believe it really happened that I went there. You see what I'm saying to you? But since I stopped keeping the journal, I don't remember very many things, you know, but here's the key.

Although I never kept the journal, yet there are incidents, sharp, painful, bleeding, awful experience that etched onto my brain and heart that I cannot forget it. You too, the same. You don't need diary to remember those things.

Jesus' Compassion as a Model for His Disciples

Decades after this incident, now here Jesus and his disciples, they were going around and throughout the villages and towns and healing people, this and that. But decades later, Matthew, when he writes the experience he had with Jesus, something jumps out and grabs him by the throat and shakes him and he cannot get it off it.

What was that? He saw Jesus being so overcome by emotion. He says he was moved with compassion. What happened? Maybe Jesus just collapsed and buried his face in his hand, just start sobbing. Or he just sat there with deep pain that he could talk for a while.

It's like I remember when my mother died in 1990 at the age of 84. For three days, I hardly could eat or drink or sleep or rest. I was absolutely gone. It's the most, I never want to live through anything like that again.

Matthew, when he writes, he saw something happens to Jesus. Now, here's the thing. Jesus didn't have a seminary or Bible college to train his disciples. You see, the first thing Jesus did when he saw them, called them, he said, come and follow me.

I will make you rich and famous. Come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men. For this, Jesus came into the world, that is to seek and to save that which was lost. To the extent, he said, one soul worth more than the whole wide world.

All the wealth of the United States will not come near the cost of one individual that is dying and going to hell. It is so serious. In John's gospel chapter 4, one lady Jesus was talking to that did not know the Father's love and going toward eternity, destroyed his very appetite.

When the disciples said, please eat, he said, I lost my appetite. I can't eat anymore. They misunderstood that somebody brought him food to eat. But he says, look, lift up your eyes and see the harvest.

Not talking about wheat and maize and rice and corn. And no, he's talking about people like that woman that are dying. Harvest is a fixed time. My people are rice farmers back in India. The harvest time comes, my people are like the chicken with the head cut off.

There's no rest and no vacation, no extra time, no fancy dress, nothing. It is 24 hours immersed in bringing the harvest. Otherwise, it will perish as soon as the rain comes. My brothers and sisters, what is Jesus all about?

Christ's Sacrifice and the Mission of His Followers

The lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. He came and suffered and died to save you, to save me. For God so loved the world, every individual on planet Earth. Jesus looks upon that individual and he's still hurt and weep.

Question is this. The invitation Jesus gave his disciples as they traveled with him, he was training them as they observed his life, watched him, his response, his reactions, how he dealt with the life on Earth.

When everything is over, he will say to them, now go as the father sent me, I am sending you. You realize when you got born again, if the purpose is to be going to heaven, then like Elijah, he should have just taken you and transferred you from here to heaven.

But he didn't. He left you here for a purpose, left me here for a purpose. That is people left and right going toward eternity without the Lord. And we must be like Jesus today with his compassion, with his burden.

Now the disciples are not saying, when we saw the multitude, we were so moved with compassion, we can rest and sleep and we gave up. No, he, but they must learn this. So it is with us. Jesus said, they are harassed and helpless like sheep without shepherd.

Now, if you look at chapter eight, beginning and on read, we will not do that tonight. You will find incidents of Jesus running into demon possessed people, lepers, desperate people, crowds, multitudes.

A Missionary's Compassionate Ministry

I remember reading the story of one of our native missionaries. We have 14 ,000 of these missionaries scattered throughout 10 Asian nations. And I mean, there are hundreds of stories. And I remember this classic story.

One of the brothers wrote, he was in the marketplace, distributing gospel tract and witnessing. You know, we have 54 Bible colleges. Every year we graduate over 2000 young people after three years of studies.

And we send the mission field among people that never had a church before. These people, listen, never heard the name Jesus. Hard to believe. Stoned Hindu and Muslim community. So he was out there witnessing and telling people every day about the Lord and reading on the Bible, preaching open air and all these things.

And weeks went by. And one day as he was walking through the crowds and distributing tracts, he felt somebody pulling on his shirt, just pulling, keep on pulling. And he said, what is going on? He turned around.

Here is so a young boy, maybe six or seven year old, a little fellow, skin and bones so full of grief. And his eyes sunk in the skull and just keep pulling this missionary. And he won't let go. And the missionary felt there is something about the boy that he will, he wanted me to go with him.

So he kept walking with him. They walked through the streets, the winding roads, and finally they end up in the outskirts of the village. And there the missionary sees something he never expected. A little mud hut in front of the mud hut.

A woman sits there like a dead person. No life. So in despair near their little hut, a huge tree on which a man is tied up with chains, totally naked. Now the boy speaks in Hindi. Please help my father.

Please help my father. You see what happened? This boy's father was so demon possessed with hundreds of demons that he could snatch chains and ropes and whatever. Finally the village people came and chained him up like you would do the elephant onto this tree.

So he will be safe there. He was so dangerous. And people come and put rice and dal and different things in. And with a stick they will push it near the tree so he can eat. He was worse than being an animal.

The woman sitting there is his wife. This little boy is his son. The boy as he walked after the missionary heard that Jesus can heal. Jesus said the captive is free. And this little boy realized maybe this man can do it.

He didn't know what it's all about. And the missionary said Lord I've been talking about you to these people. How many people like this Lord you touched and healed? Please Lord would you do a miracle?

And he knew it is too dangerous to go to the man and get near him. Yet he claimed the blood of the Lord and trusting him. He went over and laid a hand on this man who was chained up and prayed for him and instantly he was healed.

And the first thing he said where am I? What happened to me? Where am I? And what happened to me? And he gave his life to the Lord. His wife gave her life to the Lord. The little boy gave his life to the Lord.

His relatives gave their life to the Lord. The first church was planted in that village and they're growing and more people are coming to Christ. Hallelujah.

Well wow. It's good to be reminded of God's power and grace isn't it? Well there's much more to come in the next few minutes. You're listening to The Road to Reality with Brother K .P. O 'Hanlon founder and director of Gospel for Asia.

If you're unfamiliar with the mission work of Gospel for Asia please stop by our website at gospelforasia .org. There you can order a free copy of Brother K .P.'s life story called Revolution in World Missions.

Again the website address gospelforasia .org or call us 866-WIN-ASIA. That's 866-WIN-ASIA. And now back to Brother K .P.

The Spiritual Darkness and Need of India

Please understand you have no clue what amazing freedom and liberty we have in this nation. In India with over a billion people they worship 300 million gods and goddesses all powerful demons and their lives are in darkness.

They're crying out for hope but nobody answers. They never heard Jesus died for them and they're desperate and like the little boy once they hear the story they open their heart and it is absolutely amazing.

Today the harvest is ripe than ever before in the history of the world. Now I'm struggling in my mind to make it tangible and and touchable for you this evening. My mother-in-law she's a German. I don't know if you meet very many if there are some usually when I shake hands with someone if it's a German or lady German I would I will say you are German and you come from German and you know why their bones are so big like elephant.

I mean you you you shake their hand you your bones it breaks and my mother-in-law was born in Stuttgart Germany and she ran a bank for over 20 years. A stout strong German lady tall and and she knew the Lord.

I mean you know it's wonderful thing a few months before her 90th birthday she was still climbing apple trees and cherry trees to pluck fruits. I mean you talk about being strong and she she was supporting some of our native missionaries.

I don't know how many three or four native missionaries and just a couple of months before her 90th birthday telephone call comes from Germany to my wife saying that her mother is ill. She never been sick hardly ever.

She went to the hospital and the doctor did all the tests and said oh my goodness it's too late. Her cancer on inside very much advanced and about 10 days before her 90th birthday she died. She died in hope.

The Temporary Nature of Earthly Possessions

She left behind her a beautiful large garden and property very nice huge house. House full of nice things. Jewelry so much. Clothes plenty. They always believed in having the best in life. I want to ask you a simple question.

What did she take with her? How she loved her garden, the house. She could change her dress almost every week because it's all fantastic life. She went away from this earth just as she came. I will tell you about another lady that some of you heard about in the extreme southern tip of India.

A five foot two three inches tall a skinny fragile little woman. Who never read anything in her life except her Bible. Her favorite Bible verse that she recited a million times throughout her life. Whom have I in heaven but you and on earth I deserve no one beside you.

She would wake up early morning and spend two three hours on her knees praying and crying out to God. She never went to university. She never had fancy clothes. Most of her life she walked barefoot because that's how people lived and walked there.

She never traveled outside of her tiny little village but she began to pray. Three and a half years every Friday fasting crying out to God. Dear God call one of my sons. I have six boys call one of them to be a missionary.

I want to see that happen before I die. And her youngest son heard the call of God and went out to serve him. He was beaten, abused, persecuted, ended up in hospitals and paid a heavy price. And then at the age of 84 with a heart problem she will die and a week before she died she almost knew exactly what day she is going to walk away from this earth.

Sacrificial Giving for the Unreached

And after her death her sons would talk about her life to find out without telling any human being all her resources. She was quietly without telling anyone sending every month to support dozens of dozens of missionaries throughout North India and Bible school students.

And her sons thought she saved up a huge amount of money in the bank to find out she left nothing and the last will she left with the sons. When I'm dead and gone the only thing I will leave behind is my earrings, my wedding ring and the gold chain my husband gave me at the age of 19 when he married me.

I wanted to sell these items and give that money to preach the gospel among people that never heard my Jesus name. I want to meet them also in heaven. And then that little fragile village woman happened to be my mother and I am the youngest son the Lord called to serve him.

The two mothers, my mother-in-law left enough money and property behind that she could have supported 500 missionaries every month for all her life and one more generation to come. But she chose to do the little.

There's another woman who didn't have much who was misunderstood by her children that she was wearing all the clothes and didn't want to spend the money on nice things. But she saw something that nobody saw.

Living for Eternal Treasure

Eternity. I'm trying to make it so you can touch it tonight. That is my brother, my sister. 100 years from now you are not going to be sitting here. You are not going to be living in that house. You are not going to be driving that car.

You're not going to be looking for that. You don't believe that? All right, all right, all right, all right. Okay, okay. Just wait 100 years. How desperately foolish, foolish and stupid we are to think our home is here on earth.

It is not. My brothers and sisters, young people, listen to me, listen to me. It's a matter of very short time. So Jesus said, live for things that will not perish. What will not perish? It is the lives of people.

It is souls of men and women and especially in a time in our generation over two billion people that do not know Jesus name and they're crying out saying, tell us how to be saved. Some of our missionaries were sent to Tripura, one of the area where people used to be headhunters.

Planting Churches Among Tribal Communities

You know what that means? Just cut your head off and make you hamburger. The warring tribes in that area. We send our missionaries out there to plant churches. When they reach there, they found out people are so, I mean, they are not headhunters at this time.

They come from that tribal background. No kids go to school, abject poverty, sickness. It's such a depraved condition. Our missionaries began to start little schools for the kids. Would you believe if I tell you four or five year old little children come into our school totally naked?

They are no clothes to wear. Unthinkable. So our brothers started 50 schools in that region. Little makeshift buildings, 100 students in a school, some schools 50 students, some schools 200 students. 11 months went by.

Now here, listen to this. Within 11 months, 37 churches were planted in that region. 37 churches. Hallelujah. You know what happened? These kids would come home and start singing. Jesus loves me. This I know for the, what are you singing?

We teach them English with some Bible verses. And the parents are so curious that the little kids are speaking English. And then they came to our mission and said, first time in history, someone loves us.

You are God. Can you tell us about him?

They opened their hearts. Well, it's so tough to break away from a message such as this, but we'll bring you the second half on our next program. Promise. This is The Road to Reality with Brother K .P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia.

We've been listening to Brother K .P.'s message, Invest in the Harvest. And I'm pleased to tell you that Brother K .P.'s new book is now available. It's called Against the Wind. You know, we all face obstacles in life, be it sickness or disappointment.

In this eye-opening book, K .P. Yohannan challenges you to consider how you're running the race God has set before you, your own unique race. And like the Apostle Paul, you can learn what it takes to be able to say, I have fought the good fight.

I've finished the race. I have kept the faith. You can order Against the Wind for just $15 through our website store at gospelforasia .org or call us toll free 866-WIN-ASIA. Again, you can get more information through our website gospelforasia .org or call us at 866-WIN-ASIA.

The Road to Reality is sponsored by Gospel for Asia. Join us next week for the conclusion of this message called Invest in the Harvest. Until then, may the Lord bless and strengthen you.