Nothingness — K.P. Yohannan

Hey, good to see you. Wow, have a good evening. Nice to have you tonight, and as Dave Carroll said, I also want to say welcome to all the friends of the Sermon Index. What an incredible ministry the Lord raised up.

Greg, where are you? Would you stand for me? I know he's too shy, but when I saw him, I said, camera, focus on him. I told him, he looked very holy and saintly. Greg, blessings on you, thanks. You know, of course, the Lord used him to launch, I think, along with whoever else he embraced as his friends, the Sermon Index.

I call it an incredible journey that he undertook to touch the world, especially the people of God, with things that really matters, and I think he was in India for a few days, and I met with him, and I told my staff here, seldom do I run into someone that is so authentic and genuine in their faith and their lifestyle.

The two things are not easily mixed, and so we had lunch here today, and I talked to him. You know, I said, you know, the good thing about you is that you live quite humble, but please know that the whole world know you.

Do pray for the ministry of Sermon Index. You know, the early days of my life, when I joined Operation Mobilization, in 1966, toward the end of that year, George Worwell had a huge impact on my life, but then what he did, he introduced Alan Redpath and A .W. Tosser and significant numbers of God's people I will never, ever meet in my life personally, but he said, you better listen to them.

Read their books, and my formative years of my life, growing in the Lord, all these great men of God had huge impact and share in my growing up spiritually. So I know what they are doing is very, very significant, and this afternoon, we were talking about Roy Hurson.

I mean, when I went out to serve the Lord when I was barely 17, two books that was given to me. One was True Discipleship by William Macdonald and Calvary Road by Roy Hurson, and I carried those two books with me all these years of my life, and of course, we were talking about what an impact Roy Hurson had on the lives of people, and on that, Calvary Road book is in 80 languages, and continued to make huge impact.

And again, in that book, it talks about true revival. Now, those of you who are new to us tonight, as David Carroll mentioned, I will tell this to you, 30 to 30, 40 years ago, Gospel for Asia, the movement that we are part of, actually started with a Tuesday night prayer meeting.

My wife, Gisela, shared some stories tonight, and when the Lord called us, I was passing a church in Dallas, and when he said, I want you to walk away from all these things to give you life on the behalf of a world that never heard my name, we didn't know what to do except start praying.

So we have what he called a holy tradition, good tradition. So Tuesday nights, we, around the world, wherever our people are, thousands of people are gathering for prayer from seven to nine, then first Friday of the month, we meet all night here for prayer and around the world.

And if you have nothing else to do, which you may walk away from a bunch of things, join us by streaming also. And those of you that join us by streaming, thank you for being part of us, and I encourage you to think about November 5th, that is this next month coming up, you will be able to tune in and be part of the all-night prayer meeting.

Moses Asks, “Who Am I?” in Exodus 3

Again, you don't have to stay all night long, but you can be here for two hours with us, and that'll be a huge encouragement. All right, next 10 minutes or 15 minutes or so, would you turn your Bibles to the book of Exodus, chapter three.

In some ways, this is a preparation for our evening of prayer. Exodus chapter three, verse 11. I'm sure you are quite familiar with the story of Moses and all the other details that goes with it, but in this particular verse, we read like this.

But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Just simple question, who am I? And of course, you know, the beginning of book of Exodus is that Moses saw his call and wanted to help his people, and he killed one of those Egyptians, and then he gets in trouble, he runs for his life, and 40 years in the wilderness, taking care of dumb sheep, and finally, God shows up in the burning bush, and the Lord says, take off your shoes, your sandals, your brook and stock, whatever you're wearing, and then God speaks to him, and then, of course, he tells him this significant statement.

If you are looking at chapter three, verse seven, then the Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

So, I have come down. The creator of the universe, the almighty God says, I have come down, but then he turns around and says, in verse 10, so now, go. I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people of Israelites out of Egypt.

If God is coming down, why he need Moses? Interesting thing, isn't it? Reading in some of the writings of A .W. Chaucer, he said this statement. Every Christian should be looking to the Lord for something to do in the kingdom of God, and everyone ought to be asking God to honor him or her with a job too big for him.

Personal Weakness and Dependence on God

This afternoon was quite an interesting time for me. I am good in telling my problems, I think. My people know about it. If you don't know me, welcome to this class. I sent two significant letters out to two of my friends that love us and know us in the ministry.

So, after I signed the letters, and it's supposed to go by federal experts, and I talked to my secretary and said, did that go? She said, yeah, then she asked the question. You don't know the whole background, I don't want to tell you either.

What happened, between the time of my signing the letters to go, and my asking the question, I was flooded with doubts and confusion. I was sitting in my chair saying, is this the right thing to do, I don't know.

But I prayed for several weeks, and I sensed that the Lord was in it. And I said, oh man, I don't know, I don't know. Then, I had to remind me again, it is not by might, not by power, not by the letter I write, not by the telephone calls I make, it is not what I can make things happen.

I just don't know what to do, I'm lost and helpless. And it has to be God. And I'm so glad she said, it's already gone. Because I was so tempted to say, maybe you should hold it down. You know, I was trembling on the inside.

Now, someday you may find out the magnitude of this decision that we are dealing with, but I just want to tell you that 43 years of serving the Lord, I've seen so much of miracles, unbelievable, I can write a book with 1 ,000 pages of things I have seen God has done.

But, of all these years, this afternoon, stood trembling in my room, scared to death, saying that, I just don't know. And I think, in serving God, my brothers and sisters, when we can interpret the ways of God and what he asked us to do for our personal life, victory over sin, struggles, depression, anxiety, worry and care about the future, or finances, or our children, or ministry, whatever the Lord calls us to.

If we can interpret all those things within the limit of our framework, again, I remind myself, it will remain my work, not his work. When God had impressed upon Moses' heart that he was the one to deliver the people, if he had the mindset that he had after 40 years of this being alone, and broken, and emptied, to the place, you know, in Book of Acts, we read Moses about him, he was a brilliant orator, well-trained, but he came to the place and said, Lord, I cannot even talk, please find someone else to do the job.

40 years prior to that, he was all able, and skilled, and all the talents, and all the money, and all the circumstances, he can make it happen. But then Lord said, you know, I have to let the people suffer for nearly another 40 years, because you are not ready, you have to go.

It is one thing to take care of dumb sheep, they go astray all the time, but then take care of your father-in-law's sheep, that is not a very good situation. But finally he came to the place, said, Lord, I cannot talk, I don't have the ability.

And then the scripture says, if you read there, God got mad at him, and said, okay, Aaron will go with you. So here we understand, after 40 years of this brokenness, and being emptied of his self-sufficiency, if Moses said, God, I just couldn't wait for you to talk to me about it, I'm ready.

I think it will take another 40 years. But the response is, I just can't do it. I can't talk, I'm scared to death. And brothers and sisters, these few days here, our people are here for talking about revival, and all these different, very wholesome aspirations that we have for our life and the church, and whatever is going on.

But I think on an individual basis, as individuals and families, I think the Lord's work continues in the same way, that is, he seeks to bring us to the place of nothingness, so he can be everything. Why he didn't choose Saul, the man he handpicked, he was a giant himself.

God Uses the Weak to Accomplish His Purposes

I usually call Nathan our giant here, among our staff. Today, when I saw Greg, I said, Nathan, you are the midget. But then, why didn't God pick the brothers of David, who were tall and strong and able, well-trained?

The clue, I guess, is this, when the giant said, David, you little rascal, that's my interpretation. You come to me to fight with me, I'm gonna just tear you apart and cut you into pieces and give it to birds.

He said, yeah, I know. You come to me with all your might, but I come to you with nothing in myself. I come to you in the name of the Lord. Why God picked Gideon, of all the people, among the people of God?

I mean, they were desperate, crying out, God, save us, and then he goes and pick Gideon, the guy who's hiding himself, and when the angel appears, said, me? Maybe you're talking about somebody else. I'm not strong, I'm not able, I'm scared to the, can't you see what I'm doing, hiding away?

And then, of course, he got 320 ,000 people coming out to fight with him, big army, and the Lord said, it's not gonna work. When it's all done, they will say, it is by our might, our prayer, our fasting, our strength, our learning the scriptures, our theology, our radical views, and being extreme on the right in the political views, we made it happen.

That's not gonna work. Then he find 300 people, less than 1%, facing a Himalaya-size crisis, and I think tonight, as often, we as a people of God, a community, I call Gospel of Asia, our people, we are the community of Christ, and we gather for prayer, and the reason we do that is, one, to declare to the Lord that we can't make it our own.

We can't. You know, there are parents, because my wife and I raised two children, Danny and Sarah, and of course, they grew up, they ran off from us, got married, and they have children, three little critters, call them, they're cute little kids.

You should see them. Somebody asked me, so now you're a grandfather, what do you think about them? I said, I don't feel nothing, but that's not true. I look at their pictures, and look at this, I can't believe they are real creatures.

Raising Children Through Prayerful Dependence

But you know, those of you who are here, parents and grandparents, and those of you are watching, one of the crisis we all deal with is that, what on earth are we going to raise our children in godly ways?

You can have homeschooling, you can have the best of books about how to raise your children, how to be a good wife, how to be a good husband. Please understand me, I've been in Western culture for more than 30 years, so I'm not naive.

But I'm telling you, with all the teachings going on, all the how-to-do things, you will fail miserably until you as a dad and mom, you come to the place, in the middle of the night, you fall on your face and say, God, I am totally helpless.

Please, oh God, you are the one who can raise these children. And you don't engage in the flesh, and the indoctrination of the Western theology, and the psychology, and walk away into the deep nights of waiting, weeping, and praying, and seeking God.

And the children, when they grow up, they will say, somewhere, somewhere in the world, it was not the theology and the homeschooling, and the discipline that made us what we are, but the gentle, humble, broken walk that we witnessed in my dad, in my mom.

And I say this to you, we are living in a culture where we are constantly bombarded to take sides of this political party, that party, this theology, this new teaching, this, that. Listen, anyone who come to know God, they'll come to the place of nothingness and emptiness, and that is where God begins to work.

Prayer as a Declaration of Dependence

So Paul said, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that when all is said and done, nobody will say, wow, he did it, she did it. So for me, as we go to the Lord and pray tonight, with the prayer request and different things that we share tonight, as we usually do, I'm the reminder, one, that I cannot make it happen.

Whatever I'm dealing with, there's nothing in me that can make it happen. And God will make sure, in eternity, nothing on the flesh of what I do will remain. Second, reminds me that my dependence is on the Lord, and he's the one to do it, and he's able, and he waits.

Prayer for Grace and Humble Dependence

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this evening, the joy of gathering like this as your sons and daughters. What an incredible joy, oh Lord, to know that we belong to you. And tonight, I pray that you lead us and guide us in this time of prayer, and may our hearts be drawn close to you, oh Lord, and that the things we say in prayer, Lord, will be because of your burden, your concern, and our recognition that you, you alone, oh Lord, will do all the work, and we are only channels.

Thank you for your grace. Bless your people, those who are here, and those who are watching us so far away from us. May your grace abound. Thank you. Father, we say this to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.