Missions and Testimony by K. P. Yohannan — K.P. Yohannan

Good morning. Nice to meet you. Thank you. I pray for you that the blessing of the Lord has come with your words. Dear God, our Father in heaven, we thank you that we can gather here this morning. We thank you that you have awakened us again, that the sun may shine and that we may meet each other, but above all you.

We thank you, Lord, for your love and your faith in us. We thank you that you want to be our Lord. We thank you that we may follow you in our lives. And if we struggle with that, or if we are in conflict with ourselves, or if we want to, or if we can, or if we are in doubt, or if we may not want to, or if we are insecure, or if we are lacking confidence, we lay it all down at the feet of the cross.

Because you have come, Lord Jesus, and died on the cross to save us, because we could not save ourselves. Help us, Lord, to believe that our hearts, our eyes, our ears will open for the word that this brother will speak in a moment.

Blessed Brother Johan, with the words of now, that it will touch our hearts and challenge us to go, to go into the world. Because the world, your gospel, needs you so much, Lord, we pray for a holy spirit for Brother Johan.

Brother Johan, the blessing of the Lord is with you. Amen.

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, good morning. Good morning. So, how many of you are aged between...

How many of you are aged between... Sixteen and twenty. Sixteen and twenty, put your hand up.

Okay, how many under age sixteen? And how many are younger than sixteen? Are you? Wow. Like you. They are about the same age as me. Okay, once again, all those who are in high school,. Okay, here high school is what, ten or twelve?

Middle school, it's from twelve to about eighteen you can be in high school, I think. Okay, right.

Okay, all those who are eighteen and older.

Everyone who is eighteen or older, put your hand up. Oh good, thank you. This is a complicated group.

This is a complicated group. Anyone heard the story of Adoniram Jetson?

Has anyone heard the story of Adoniram Jetson? Good.

There is one person in the corner. He doesn't belong to the youth. Okay, Adoniram Jetson was the first American missionary that would leave America to go to India and Burma.

Adoniram Jetson was the first American who left America and went to India. Where else did he go? Burma. Myanmar. Myanmar. Myanmar, Burma. And that was in 1810. That's before I was born.

But what happened, he fell in love with a girl during that time.

That's a big problem. He didn't know what to do.

Because many people make decisions to do something for God. Hey, don't worry about the camera, let him go.

Because many people make decisions to do something for God.

So he had to deal with this emotional battle.

So he had to deal with this emotional battle. To go or not to go. To go or not to go. Many of you like that. Many of you like that. We all are like that.

We get attached to something. We get attached to something. And we give up something. You fall in love with someone. All night you are talking. All night, all night. On the telephone, on the telephone.

And you spend a lot of money. After six months, you fall in love with someone else. And the first one is gone. It happens here, no? But then, Jetson talked to this girl. Her name was Nancy. And she was born to a multi-millionaire.

Her name John Hasseltine. And Jetson asked if he could marry his daughter and take her to the mission field. And thank God, John Hasseltine, he himself was a believer in Christ. He said, ask her. So young man Adoniram Jetson talked to Nancy.

But when Adoniram asked permission to marry his daughter, he wrote a letter. This is what he wrote to John, the father. Sir, I now ask this question. Whether are you willing to part with your daughter early next spring to see her no more in this world?

Would you be willing to let her depart from America and be subjected to hardship and suffering? She will suffer horrible illness and deal with terrible climate. She will be persecuted and may end up in a violent death.

Sir, would you be willing to let her go? Believing that soon you will see her in heaven with others. That she will receive a crown of glory. Would you let her go that she will become the means.

To save eternal souls? That's what the father said. You ask her, and the father answered, ask her yourself. And this is what Nancy said to Adoniram Jetson. I have already decided to give up all the comforts and luxuries in America.

I will no longer have friends, no family members, no foods,.

My comfortable mansion. I will have no female companions. I have already made up my mind. I will go with you. They got married. They left for India. Their first baby, Roger, died. They buried them in a foreign land.

Then went on to Burma. There he suffered much persecution. He was imprisoned. And his constant suffering and illness was his companion. One time he was 17 months in prison. After he was released, his beloved wife Nancy died.

Little later, their little daughter Maria now dies. He must dig the graves and bury them. Before him lays the prospect of more illness, more persecution, more diseases. Behind him years of loneliness and suffering.

Many Americans came as missionaries, young people during this time, but they all left very fast.

Many wrote to him and cried, come back! Don't stay in Burma. But he said, how can I do it? Millions of these people, they are my people.

They must hear about Jesus. I came here for that. And Jesus came here to suffer. And he died. And I follow in his footsteps. And he continued to serve with horrible pain and agony in his skinny body. And he continued to witness.

His devotion to life, to Christ and the mission, became the reason for over a million people, Burmese, come to Christ. In many places he would witness publicly. And there were many places where people would openly ask him this question.

And there were people who went to Jetson and they asked him, are you the Jesus man? We hear from people that there is a hell. And we don't know how we will get there. We don't know how we will escape from there.

How can we escape from hell?

And Jetson would give them gospel tracts. And they would weep. They give their heart to Christ. I've been to Burma many times. Today we have over 500 congregations, our own mission. And even today the Burmese people attribute the Christian faith to this one man.

That is the real life of a missionary. Now this morning the subject I'm given to talk about is command to go. Now, you heard so much talk about these kind of things, I imagine. And you think, somebody very special has to do it.

A Young Call to Missionary Service

See, I was barely 17 when Jesus called me to speak for him. From the tiny village of India. I didn't know English. I didn't know Hindi. This language I had to learn later. I spoke my native language. I didn't wear these kind of clothes.

We just got a wrap around little dhoti. And no shoes and socks.

It's quite a different life. I was born and raised on the bank of a river.

Our transportation, not bicycle and cars and aeroplanes, it was canoes. That's where in a tiny church I heard about things like I'm telling you. That there are people living in North India by millions that never heard Jesus' name.

And I said to myself, what can I do? I'm a small boy. I don't have education. I have no money. I know nothing. But then they said, God is not looking for able people. God isn't looking for big people.

He's looking for small people. Willing people. Willing to do whatever. And I said to myself, what can I do? And in my village there was an evangelist. I was a tiny boy. He was a tall man. And I watched him often going around giving gospel tracts to people.

So one day I told him, can you teach me how to do what you're doing? He said, yeah you can, come with me.

He had a bag like this. He excited like this.

And it was filled with gospel tracts. And booklets. And he would go from house to house. And he would stop at a house. He said, hello, anybody here? And then a lady would come out. Or a man would come out.

Or a little boy would come out. And then he would take the tract from his pocket. And then he would give it to me. Then he said, give it to them. That's what I used to do. Then he would tell them, this is about peace with God.

This is about Jesus. Then he would say, can I say a prayer for you? They always said yes. I'm telling you my story. And then he would pray. He always had his hands up. Oh God, thank you for bringing us here.

Thank you for the sister. Thank you for her family. Thank you for the children. Dear Jesus, please help them to understand you. Bless them Jesus. Amen.

That's all he would do. Then he would say, I will see you later. Sometimes people would give us coffee and tea also. That was very nice. After a few weeks, he gave me one of these bags. He said, now you carry it.

When we go to house, then he stand there. He says, now you do it. I was scared to death. I would give it to them. I would give it to the people.

And I didn't know how to say things. From one house to the next one, he would tell me things. Then one day he said, now you pray. I never did that. He said, don't worry. You just talk to God. You talk to him just like you're talking to me.

I did that for the whole summer. That was the beginning. I was a very shy person. In school,.

When the teacher asked something, I would tremble. But now, I began to learn to talk about Jesus. You see, you may be very young. Twelve years old. Sixteen years old. The main thing is your heart. But here is the thing.

Serving Jesus Through Every Vocation

What is the greatest profession on earth? Being a psychiatrist. It's a good profession. You know, I like psychology. Did you read Carl Jung? Not yet, no. Oh, don't. I read all about it. He's one of the famous psychologists from Sicily.

He's a good one.

He says that his translator becomes a good psychiatrist. He always makes jokes like this because I'm a doctor and will become a psychiatrist. That's the explanation. You know what Charles Spurgeon told his son?

My son, if God calls you.

To serve Him, do not go down and down and down and become the king of England. Don't humiliate yourself by wanting to become the king of England.

Because the greatest privilege on earth is to witness and serve Jesus. Does that mean that someone cannot become a doctor? Or a teacher? Or an engineer? Or a politician? No! Those are all.

Our vocations. My son-in-law is a medical doctor. But he's 24 hours telling people about Jesus. And we live on earth without little time and we work to meet our needs. But a heart's longing is for one thing.

That is to serve Jesus.

Why? Now, I've got a ring on my hand. It's made of pure gold. This is the ring of the bishop of the church. Because I'm the metropolitan or the bishop of my church.

You are the bishop of the church. You are the bishop?

Because I'm the bishop of the church.

We have 2 .7 million people in our church. And we have many bishops. And this reason I wear that also. When you come to Asia, I don't wear these clothes. I have different clothes. Are you surprised? I'm a bit surprised.

Wow, I should say it more often. But then, when I was made the bishop, this like the wedding, I am married to my church. I will die for my church. And this when I got married to my wife. And this is my Bible.

And this is my shirt. This is my shoes. Birkenstock. But let me ask you this. I told you I was 17 when I left my home. Now I'm a little older. Now I'm a little older. But I want to ask you one question.

The Eternal Value of Following Jesus

You know how old you are. But 100 years from today, what will you take with you? The house you will own? The ornaments you will own? The car you will want to drive? All the clothes you acquired? All the education degrees and papers you have?

Answer that for yourself. I tell you to answer that very fast. Think about your great-great-grandparents.

Think about your great-great-great-grandparents. I never saw them myself. My grandparents, I never saw them.

They died. And my parents, of course they died. Nothing is permanent here. And think about Jesus. When he came to this earth, he lived 33 and a half years here. What did he take with him? Nothing. Even his clothes, somebody took it away.

So it will be yours. It is your life. But what did Jesus take with him? He saw you. He saw me. For the joy that was set before him, he went to the cross.

To save us. Because that would give him joy in the future. And he tells you,.

Come and follow me.

I will make you fishers of men. As the father sent me,.

So send I you. You don't need to be superstar to do that. You just need to have a heart. But what kind of heart is that?

A heart that loves Jesus. How much you love him?

With the little life you have. You may not understand all about it. But then you can say to him, Jesus, I want to follow you. I want to be yours. Whatever you want me to do, please give me the strength.

Counting the Cost of Discipleship

I want to read to you a bible passage. If you have a bible, please look at it. In the gospel of Saint Luke. Chapter 14. Verses 25 to 33. Luke 14. My doctor will read it carefully. And you please look in your bible.

Luke 14 from verse 25. Does everyone have that? It says, And many men followed him. And as he turned around, he said to them, If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

And whoever does not wear his cross and follows me, cannot be a disciple of me. For whoever of you wants to build a tower, will not first sit down to calculate the costs, whether he has the means to complete the work.

If not, perhaps, when he has laid the foundation and is not able to complete it, all who see it will start to despise him and say, This man began to build, but he was not able to complete the work. Or which king, who goes into war to fight with another king, will not first sit down to consult whether he is in power to meet with ten thousand men who will draw up twenty thousand men against him.

And if not, he will send, if the other is still far away, a company to ask what the terms of peace are. So can each of you who does not leave everything behind not be a disciple of me.

Those are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ to you. If you can read, if you can understand it, it is to you who live in the Netherlands, those who live in India, those who live in the first century, those who live in this century, to Americans and English, to Russians and Albanians, to Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, to young and old, especially to the young.

Do you see what is happening there? A big crowd following him. There is a lot of people here. Look around you. How many are sitting here? But here is a question. He is talking to you. And he is saying, out of this multitude, out of all the churches in the Netherlands, do you care to follow Jesus?

Multitudes will not. When I gave my life to Christ, there were hundreds of young people like me. But I only know one or two that left home. And still walking with Jesus. You have to make that decision for yourself.

But think about it, my coming to the Netherlands, David Carroll, my colleague, we both left America. We went to the airport and caught a Lufthansa flight and flew 10 hours to Frankfurt. And from Frankfurt we took a flight to Dusseldorf.

Then two girls picked us up, one and a half hours in the car. Suppose I didn't leave Dallas, Texas. Suppose I didn't leave India two weeks ago. Would I be here talking to you? You will not see this handsome face?

You will not see this best beard in the whole world? See, unless you leave something, you cannot get somewhere. This is a problem with a lot of young people. They want the world. And then also have this God.

That's a struggle we all have. As a matter of fact, I thought about not coming here. I have a thousand other things going. Can I get out of it? But then I thought about the commitment I made. And I felt this is what I must do.

So I said goodbye to my wife. Goodbye to my children. And I'm here. The same way, right now, when you are hearing the call of Christ, how do you hear God's call? Is He speaking to you through a loudspeaker?

No. Inside you, there is a little light. Small light. Small feeling. Some longing. I want to live for Jesus. I want to follow Him. Sometimes, it is a strong feeling. I make my stand. Let others do what they want.

I follow Jesus. And you make that decision. And your parents will say, What happened to her? What happened to him? He is crazy. People don't understand it. But you know who you are. Hey, I tell you something else.

You live with a lot of people now. But finally, when you die, you die alone. Think about it. There is no one with you.

Even when they are standing close to you,.

A hundred people in the house, you alone are there. That is the reason why it is good to choose Jesus.

In this walk alone. And that is what Jesus did.

If anyone wants to come after me, he must love me more than anything. Love me more than father, mother, son and daughter. He didn't stop there. I wish he did stop there. He said, even your own very life.

What does that mean? We all have ambitions. You have all dreams. Something you value the most. You must walk away from it. For Jesus sake. He becomes everything. There was a girl born near Stuttgart, Germany in 1915.

Gisela’s Choice to Give Her Life to Missions

Her father was a world-renowned engineer. Her mother, the bank president, the two sisters in the family, her older sister became a psychiatrist. They both went to school. Had the same education. They were sent for special education in Switzerland.

And when they were young girls, the older one was 13 years old the younger one was 11 years old. They went to a church meeting. There they heard about following Jesus. They both went forward and gave their life to Christ.

That very day, this young girl, the younger one, felt the rest of my life I want to serve Jesus. Not only she gave her life to Christ, she said, Jesus come into my heart. I want to be serving you. So both girls went through their school.

Both went to college. But there's a difference. The older daughter chose to live as a normal person. Learning all the graces of dancing and behaviors of their culture. And very fashionable dressing. Both girls got the same kind of money every month.

The older one would buy new dress and whatever jewelry, everything for her. But the younger one would collect all the money. And she liked chocolate. But even that she refused to spend money on.

And at the end of the month she takes all the money.

And send it to a missionary in South America working with the Wycliffe. As a 14 year old girl she said to herself, I know I'm going to be a missionary. But I must remind myself about it. I don't want to lose it.

I don't want to become like my sister. I don't want to become like anybody else.

And you know what she did?

She took an American Indian coin from South America. And on the coin she made a hole. And she made a string and she started wearing it. And she says, every time she stood in front of the mirror she sees the coin.

That all American Indian coin reminded her that she, her life belonged to Christ and to the mission world. And when she finished her studies she couldn't wait until the last examination. She said to her parents, I'm leaving.

I'm going to Iran. Iran. Afghanistan. India. Indonesia. And they thought she went mad. And already her people began to say something is wrong with her because she was not dating anyone. Her sister had dozens of boys.

Not at one time.

So they said, something is wrong with her. But often she was alone with her Bible in her room, reading, praying. When her friends are enjoying their life,.

During college days she was alone out on the street talking to people about Jesus.

And in the dormitory she was living in, the girls who were living with her.

Would bring magazines and books and pictures and talk about stuff. But she refused to even look at them. The first year she led 25 young people to Christ. She started a Bible study. That was her life.

But now she is leaving Germany. Her parents didn't understand. But her grandmother was a real believer. That Oma sounds very nice. The word Oma is very nice. And the old 90 year old woman told her granddaughter You must go.

Jesus is more important. She came to India. Her name is Gisela. Her older sister's name is Edith. A few years ago.

Edith got sick all of a sudden. But in a few months she died. Left all the riches.

All the jewelry. That Gisela young girl happened to be my wife. And we have two children. Both know Jesus. They are married. I have four grandchildren. They all are serving God. Two girls. Two decisions.

From the same family. Same resources. I ask you the question. What about you? I think I should conclude. No? Right? Since you said it, I'm going to close. But what do you do? There are several things I encourage you to do.

Making Jesus Lord and Joining the Work of Missions

One. In your own private heart make Jesus the Lord of all. How do you do that? You simply say Lord Jesus. I don't understand how. But I know this. You died for me on the cross. My body. My soul. My spirit.

It's all yours. Please Jesus. You be the Lord of my life. I want to follow you. And that's all. And you have to talk to him. And he's waiting for you. He's not angry with you. He loves you. But he's waiting that you respond to him.

Make him the Lord of everything you have. Second thing you should do.

Just like that evangelist in my village. Get involved with doing whatever he can do right now. Just like the young girl in Germany. Gisela. Do what you can. Don't waste your money. Don't live like others.

Think about people that need to hear Jesus. Even Gospel for Asia. Our table there. You can think about praying for and supporting someone in Nepal, India and other countries who are preaching the gospel.

Some of you together can become a sponsor of a missionary. And someday you may go there. But do what you can right now. Then start praying every day for missions.

Get the book Operation World that talks about different countries of the world.

Get gospel tracts and give it to people as the Lord guides you. And I think this book is in Dutch.

I'm sure it is. I think I saw it there.

And get this book. I read this book. This is published by people here I'm sure. It tells you practical things also. The third thing.

Missionary Training and Preparation for Service

When you finish your high school. Think about going for a year of training.

A doctor needs training. An engineer needs training. A teacher needs training. Jesus taught three years his disciples. And Gospel for Asia, the mission I work with, we have a one, two year training in America.

You can apply and you come to America. And we have young people do that. Recently we had a young man from New Zealand who came. And they spent one long year with us. It's a discipleship training center.

You learn about the whole world. You learn about discipleship. You learn to pray. And after one year, part of that we send you to the mission field. You can even go to the second year. Then you come back to your country.

Wherever God send you. This is important. So if you're interested, all you need to do is to go to gfa .org and look for discipleship.

And there it's cheaper than here. And we'll give you good food. And number four.

Boldly Sharing Faith and Persevering in God’s Love

Tell others about your commitment to the Lord. Encourage others to follow the Lord. Never be ashamed about Him. And then keep praying where the Lord will have you go. Finally. Many years ago you were born.

When you were born, you were a tiny little baby. You didn't have any clothes on even. Then you grew up. Slowly. You tried to stand up. You fell down. And you stood up. Then you tried to walk. And then you tried to run.

Then you go to school. And you're growing up. The same thing about call of God in your life. We continue to grow. Never give up. You will fall many times. Many problems. But you don't die. Get up. And keep walking.

Because God is on your side. God is not against you. Jesus said He is the Father. And that's important. He loves you more than you can imagine. He is never against you. And even when you do the worst thing, He still loves you the same.

It's difficult to understand that. John 17 says, The Father loves you as much as He loves Jesus. Stand with me for prayer. We're just going to have a minute of total silence. And I want you to consider the things I said.

And I want you to consider the invitation of Jesus. And I want you to talk to the Lord Jesus what you want to say to Him. And if you're interested in any of these things I told you about, you can talk to David Carroll, you can talk to me.

And you can go to our website and learn about the opportunity to go for the one year discipleship. Then launching out to serve God. Dear Lord Jesus, I want to thank you for this very special day. Thank you for these my precious young brothers and sisters.

Honor their commitment. Oh Lord, fill them with your love. All the temptations, all the works of demons, I pray Jesus, you break them off and give them victory. Please Lord, call many here to go to the whole world.

Even now use them. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Please be seated.