Do We Really Believe What We Say We Believe — K.P. Yohannan

Following Christ Through Suffering and the Cross

First Peter chapter 2 verse 21. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. If you read the following verses, which I'm not going to read, it talks about he committed nausea and all those things.

And come to verse 24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. Knowing all about being spiritual, understanding all theology, read the thousands of Christian books that are available on every subject, buy a new CD every week with new songs and new music, go to every seminar that is available, the counseling sessions.

None of those things will make you a radical follower of Jesus that will not make you like Jesus. The thing that will make you like Christ is your willingness, my willingness to embrace the cross, accept suffering and walk on the most rigid narrow road and walk, become doers of the word.

Otherwise, we will remain like those people that day. Jesus, don't you know me? I went to church every Sunday. I prayed for the sick. They even got healed and I gave money. I did everything. I went to every seminar.

I was a very nice, wonderful American. Jesus says, I'm sorry, I just don't know you. You don't know me? No, you knew all the answers. You said the right words. Everybody thought you are the most spiritual person walking on earth.

You even did wonderful spiritual gymnastics. You worshipped, but it was all product of the flesh. It was all for yourself. You did it. When I was in mainland China some time ago, the Chinese brothers pulled out a bunch of color photographs and showed me of baptism service taking place in the middle of the night in icy waters for hundreds of new converts.

And they said, we must do it like this because daytime, if you did it, we'll be arrested and go to jail. Something that shocked me more than that was when they said, Brother KP, we have congregations all over mainland China, 500, 700 ,000 members, underground churches.

And they said, we are lucky if you have two Bibles to the name of the entire congregation. I said, I didn't hear you. Can you repeat that? Explain that? They said, we just don't have Bibles. So we tear the Bibles.

The couple of Bibles you have 20 pages, 30 pages, give it to families. They can take it home, copy it by hand, bring it back. Then they keep circulating that. They heard, they hear radio, shortwave radio broadcast, Bible being read, and they copy that.

For 1 .3 billion people in mainland China, not one Christian bookstore. You go to here, just walk out from your church, go out there, there's a door, Christian bookstore. In Dallas, Texas, where we are, 12 Christian radio stations.

For 1 .2 billion people in Indian subcontinent, there's not one Christian radio station. What I'm telling you, my brothers and sisters, is that it is wonderful to have knowledge, information, worship, freedom, and all those things.

But I tell you, unless you are deliberately careful, don't follow the crowd, choose the narrow road, embrace the cross, be real in your walk with Him. It's all be just playing games. The plastic, jellyfish, superficial Christianity.

You are okay. I am okay. I'm better than them. Everybody's bad. I am just doing the right thing. I tell you what, we need to be very careful these last days because in America, the popular teaching is, take care of yourself.

Believing the Bible, Hell, and the Urgency of Mission

How can you and I, and I say this to you, love and grace in my heart, I'm not beating upon you and biting your nose off, nothing like that. I just, I'm brother in the kingdom. I'm just asking you, do you believe this Bible?

You say, yes. Do you believe in hell? Do you believe Jesus is the only way for man to be saved? Well, Jesus talked about a man who died and went to hell. From there, he cried out. He said, please, please, just all I want is a drop of water.

I am tormented here in incredible agony. And I tell you, that man will cry for a billion trillion years. All he want finally is not water, but I just want to die and be over with it. Let me die. And there will come the answer.

You will never die. You will never die. That is the fate of multiplied millions today on the way to hell, on planet earth. Nearly 3 billion people that never heard the name Jesus, even for one time. And you and I say, my Jesus, I love thee.

I know thou art mine. For thee, all the follies or sin I have resigned. Oh Jesus, I love you more than life itself. Do we really love him? And I say this to you, because the more we love the Lord, the more we understand him, the more we will become like him.

Not like somebody next door or some preacher or some church out there. We'll become like him. What did Jesus do? He deliberately chose the cross. He suffered. The learned obedience through suffering. If you and I believed in the Bible, believed in hell, something else will happen to us.

C.T. Studd and the Cost of World Evangelization

You heard about C .T. Studd? Anybody heard of Reddy's life? Born in England to a millionaire, world famous cricketer. In America, you don't have crickets, do you? We have crickets. We kill them. But it's a game, sports.

Born again, baptized, evangelical Christian. Somebody gave me a gospel tract, gospel note of Jesus. Atheist, man who mock at the very idea of Jesus and God you talk about. And this man wrote, if I believed what you say you believe, faith in God determines the destiny of human beings.

If need be, I will crawl on broken glass all over the world until the last minute of my life and cry out this gospel. Husband, wife, children, hobbies, job, ambitions, desires, all will become secondary compared to the task of reaching this world with this good news.

Who wrote it? Not a preacher, not KP. This atheist wrote that. When C .T. Studd read that thing, he said to himself, this is funny, shocking. This man who says, if he believed what I say I believe, what he will do is this.

No more evangelical, self-centered, please me, bless me religion. He was convicted. He took his millions, sent to mission work all over the world. Kept 600 pounds in his bank, English pounds, because he was engaged.

Now he thought he would get married and go off to the mission field. His fiancee said to him, Charlie, what did Jesus say to you? He said, to forsake all and follow me. She said, then why are you keeping 600 pounds in the bank?

The last 600 English pounds he took, sent it to William Booth of Salvation Army in London. Then later got married, went off to the mission field to die in a young age, Charles Studd. I ask you, when was the last time when you saw 100 ,000 people died in Rwanda overnight?

200 ,000 in Bangladesh in the typhoon? 17 million people in Afghanistan without one church, one Christian. 22 million North and Bihar without one missionary. Over 100 ,000 die every day and plunge into hell every day.

When was the last time you wept, you prayed, you fasted? You'd rather go for diet systems and exercise machines rather than fast and pray for the lost world? You realize half of the world go to bed with empty stomach every day?

You realize that 100 ,000 children walk on Bombay streets not knowing who their parents are? You realize nearly 3 billion people live on planet earth that never heard the name Jesus? And I say, Jesus, I love you.

And I don't want him to break my heart because I want to be taking care of myself. Is it a strange gospel? No, sir. I lived like that too one time, long, long time ago. I had a library I was building up with Evangelical Sound, wonderful library, thousands of books.

From Religious Knowledge to a Broken Heart

Books I may never read but look nice. Newsweek, Time Magazine. I mean, people walked into a house in Dallas, they saw in this nice, wonderful living room with nice furniture, this sports magazine. I hate sports.

Fishing magazine, I don't know what that stuff is. But it looked nice. People thought this guy is smart when they saw this expensive leather-bound book sitting on my shelf. I mean, Shakespeare, I hate that stuff.

But it looked nice being American. But you know what? With all my preaching, all my teaching, a seminary student while in the ministry, I can't cry anymore. I was just like you. They talked about hell.

It didn't touch me. It didn't bother me at all. I was buying the best clothes I can buy for Neiman Marcus and other places. It didn't bother me until one day the Lord began to speak to me and said, son, you don't know me.

This is not what I said. Oh no, I didn't hear any voice through my ceiling but I was reading the New Testament, the book you read, where he said, unless you love me more than father, mother, son, daughter, even your own very life, you cannot be my disciple.

Oh, if I were to make up those words, you know what some people say to me in America? This guy, where is he from? He's off the wall. He is here to put us on a condemnation trip, guilt trip, beat us up, get our money, what?

Get him out of this place or crucify him. They crucified him because he said those words.

Thank you for listening to Road to Reality with K .P. Yohannan and the Radio Ministry of Gospel for Asia. We'll return to Brother K .P. in just a moment. Today's broadcast, entitled Do We Really Believe What We Say We Believe?, is a message by K .P. Yohannan, founder and president of Gospel for Asia.

We'd like to send you a free copy of Brother K .P.'s most popular book, Revolution in World Missions. Simply visit our website at gospelforasia .org or call us at 866-WIN-ASIA. We'd love to send you a copy.

And now, back to Brother K .P.

The Narrow Road as the Way of Life

You think Jesus already told disciples? You are mistaken. He had hundreds and hundreds of them. And the very moment he said, hey fellows, I am not promising you prosperity, a new city every week, nice house, better clothes, great future, healthy bodies, peace, comfort, nice American life.

I promise you the cross. Give up and come with me and die. They said, wow, what did he say? They all walked away from him and a few remained. You read in the original text with sorrow. He says, aren't you going to leave me also?

And Peter said, where are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life. When majority saw the cross, the suffering, the inconveniences, the fasting, the prayer, the narrow road as the end of all, a few people saw that the way of life.

And I tell you, when the Lord began to speak to my heart, I say this no matter where I go, I prayed a very simple prayer that afternoon kneeling beside my bed. I said, Jesus, take eternity and stamp on my eyes.

It was no more Greek and Hebrew and philosophy and psychology and new music. And I know it was, I asked him, oh Lord, I want you to change my heart that I will be set free from the selfish self-centered, please me, bless me, religion.

I want to know you. And Jesus, and Jesus answered that prayer. He began to break my heart for the lost world. And I started weeping nonstop, almost for two weeks. People thought I got eye disease because when I saw India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, when I read about people going to hell, it was no more how I'm going to make me feel better.

Everything changed. I got rid of all the clothes I had, except a few shirts and a couple of ties and a couple of jackets. Rest was sold or given away. Brand new cars were gone. My house was gone. Life insurance, check account, everything, everything changed.

Not that I am promoting you to do these things. That is not the issue here. You see, one of our native missionary was working in Rajasthan in the northwest of India. A Hindu man came and got a gospel tract while they were preaching.

A Gospel Tract and the Birth of a Church

You know what a gospel tract is? It's for spiritual loss, you know, it is in the Hindi language. This Hindu man in his late 50s, a Brahmin landlord, very rich. He had cancer in his body. Not to bring shame to his family, he was running away to commit suicide.

After having written the suicide note, he was on the way to kill himself. And on the way, he got this gospel tract. And on the street, there he read for the first time in his life on planet earth, that Jesus died for him, that God came into this world, that he didn't have to die and go to hell.

First time. Just listen, process that. To live 50 years and never to hear the name Jesus. And he said to himself, this is unbelievable, that I don't have to die. My sins are forgiven. Jesus died for me.

All I must do is believe in him. And there was a prayer. He could pray the end of that tract. And on the street, this man prayed the prayer to a God he never prayed before. And peace came into his heart.

He felt something happened to him. He didn't kill himself. He ran back home to Kota, to the Rajasthan region where he came from. And then he went to the doctors, said, can you check me again, doctor? They said, you got cancer.

You are dying. He said, please, doctor, would you? They checked him up, down, inside, everywhere possible. They said, are you the same person? You are totally healed. Nothing wrong with you. What did you take?

The guy pulled out the booklet he got from our native mission. He said, doctor, this healed me. And the doctor said, we knew you had cancer. Now we know you are off your mind. But you know what that man said to our missionaries?

After that, he went to our mission station, said, I got plenty of money. I'm a Hindu Brahmin. I'm the head of my village. Would you please come and make all my people Christians? How naive, how innocent.

He just didn't know how it work. Two of our missionaries went with him, began to preach the gospel. Within a few months, a glorious church was established. Land was given. Money was given by that man to build the church.

Now there's a church like here, worshiping Jesus Christ. You know how that began? With one little gospel tract. You know how much a tract worth? Costs less than the chewing gum you chew during the church service or while you work or drive.

Confronting Materialism and Self-Centered Living

You realize Americans can't stop chewing? The dirtiest polluted waters in America is maximum luxury for more than half of the world. Come with me to Bombastree and show you millions drinking from the sewage that comes right out of toilets.

And we install millions of dollars worth of equipments to make our water better. What's wrong with us? I'm not saying you should have filters and clean your water. That's not the issue. But we are just super human beings God brought from heaven.

Americans or special people in Germany and this and that. You be nice people. Finally when you die, I want to have you to be in heaven with me, a special place. Oh how God must open our eyes to see reality of the lost world.

You know what? There was a time many years ago, 18 -19 years ago in America. I was buying deodorant soap imported from Europe for this brown dark Indian. Deceived by demons. And when the Lord broke my heart, I repented for such selfishness.

I changed to ivory. Yes 35 cents ivory man. Instead of a $1 .50 imported soap from England. Why did I do that? So I would become super spiritual wonderful brother KP. Nonsense. If poverty and having no shampoo and no soap and makeup is being spiritual.

You go to Bangladesh in Africa. I just came from Africa. They are more spiritual. That's not true. I have friends who are multi-millionaires who walk with God, serve God, give their money to reach the lost world.

I'm not promoting you live on the street and have no makeup on your face. That's not the issue. But you know why I changed from the expensive deodorant soap to ivory? 35 cents to a $1 .50. That means 200 more people will hear the name Jesus for the first time.

I didn't have to have expensive imported soap. I used to go to a place during those days, $12 to get a haircut. That was too much. Then when the Lord broke my heart, I switched to an army place where they butchered my head for $3.

I mean, what happened was everything I did, everything. I thought about taking a vacation many times. I never did it. I'm not against vacation. Please go for vacation. Go to India. You know, I mean, you work so hard during the year.

Get all your money. Then you go for Grand Canyon. Look into that pit and then spend all your money and use a credit card. Come home. Then you work again and you're so tired by now you have to work to get well.

You realize the hardest, hardest working American, your life is maximum luxury for people by millions who live on the streets in Bangladesh, in Africa and on and on and on. And you are not an American, a German, Russian.

You belong to Jesus. Please don't write me off thinking that I have an agenda. I have no agenda. All agenda, only thing I have is that you become radically real and God brought you here for that purpose.

Living by Faith and Taking Responsibility for the Lost

And you know, that change took place in my heart that many years ago. I'm still on the same road, not by power, not by might, not by my reasoning, nor by His grace. And I challenge you, my brothers and sisters, take Bible verses not to interpret, explain and figure this out, but to live by.

You know, I wish this clock would stop. It won't. The same Charles Studd, C .T. Studd said, some wants to live within the sound of the church bell, but I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.

That must be our commitment. You know, I just don't know how to communicate in words. My English is weak also, but I feel in my heart, especially after spending a week in South Africa with 4 ,000 mission leaders from all over the world.

We were talking about nearly 3 billion people that never heard the name Jesus and on the way to hell. How are we going to reach them? And today, my brothers and sisters, you can do something about it.

I can do something about it. They don't have to perish like that if we will take our responsibility, our place. Let me make a few recommendations very quickly. One is this. You get a world map put in your house.

If you can't find one, call us. We will send you one. We are making a very beautiful world map that fits in any house. You can color coordinate whatever you want to do with the thing. Let the world dominate your home because for God so loved the world.

Let radio, TV, whatever news you get become prayer letter for you. Hey, listen, become a radical. My children grew up in America, both finished high school here, straight top students. From the time they were born, they saw world map and they grew with that.

And when they finished the high school, I didn't tell them go to the mission field. They could get in usually almost any university or college in America with full scholarship. They chose to go to the mission field.

Right now, they both are on the mission field, studying in a Bible school to serve God. I didn't have to give them ski trip and hot dog trips and all kind of nonsense to make them spiritual. They saw their parents fasting, walking with God without beating upon them.

They saw tears in our eyes. They saw the brokenness in our heart and on our face. And they saw the reality. Parents, the answer to your children is not bunch of new CDs and music and counseling Sundays and your pastor.

The answer is you giving up materialism and ungodly, selfish living and walk with God. And they will say,.

A Call to Radical Commitment

I want this life. That is the way to do it. Has the Lord touched your heart through this message? If so, we'd love to give you KP O 'Hannon's book, Revolution in World Missions for free. This book has transformed thousands of people's lives and it can change yours too.

To order your free copy with no obligation, visit gfa .org slash free book. That's gfa .org slash free book.