A Touch of Love — K.P. Yohannan

Good evening. Well, I'm in California. Just got back from India a couple of days ago. So if you travel like this, you know, the thing called jet lag. So I woke up a while ago and said, I am in San Diego.

It's been a good evening. I think the time of worship was quite significant. You know, it's always a blessing to be part of worship where people are actually worshiping the Lord, not performing. And I think it's been very, very good.

And the sister who sang that song from whatever experience she had with the Lord is quite significant. I think he affirmed that. So I've been here quite a few times. And the pastor is a dear friend. We love him and appreciate him.

And of course, I thought he was teaching in Chicago. Now I found out he's fishing. But, you know, I spent a few months of the year traveling, speaking here in the United States and in places like this.

But about 10 times a year, I travel away to many nations that we have our missionaries and serve in the Lord and spend about 300 ,000 air miles a year traveling. So that kind of tells you I do have a wonderful wife that love the Lord and two children, Danny and Sarah, both born and raised here.

But they finished their studies and went off to serve the Lord on the mission field. And they both are married and have three little grandchildren. And it's a joy to serve him as a family. And you understand my English?

Thank you. That's good. So I want to spend these few minutes this evening just to talk to you. You do have a brilliant, wonderful teacher of God's word here and several pastors. So my attempt this evening is just to have a conversation with you and talk to you about some practical things that will make sense.

As you know, it's one thing to know spiritual things is another thing to actually walk in it. And we are told not to be just hearers of the word, but doers of the word. For many unfortunate reasons, Christianity at large, it seems spirituality is just knowing information.

And people are reading and studying, for example, this evening you heard the announcement about family, you know, your husband, wife, and the raising children. I mean, we are given unbelievable amount of information as to how to be something that we are told about or we read about.

Yet the journey to actually become that individual, it is not an easy road. I remember some years ago when I was speaking in California in some church after the meeting, a lady came to me and said, would you please lay your hand on me and pray for me?

And I said, lady, would you please tell me what is that you want me to pray for? Then she responded saying that, you know, my problem is I have a demon of smoke inside me. Would you please cast it out?

Well, I never encountered anything like that in my entire life. So I kind of said, well, this is interesting. I said, lady, I can cast out demons, but I cannot cast out flesh. And I think it confused her.

You see, we blame the devil for everything under the sun. You know, the devil did it to me and he tempted me and this and that and the whole thing. And I think the whole time the devil is saying, don't blame me for stuff that I have no clue about.

And often we don't realize the worst enemy that we have to deal with is not the devil and the demons. Although they are bad and mean, I agree. It is our own self-centeredness. Ever learning, but never coming to the place of saying not to ourselves that we may seek the face of God.

You know, I was just about to leave for Frankfurt Airport just a couple of days ago. I was in Bombay and a telephone call came on my cell phone from New Zealand. A radio station did, you know, they said, would you please talk to us for a few minutes?

I said, I'd be glad to, of course, you know, the airport, you know, all the noise going on. And I was trying to listen to what they're trying to say. They said, we'd just like to talk to you about the recent flood that just took place in Pakistan and what is going on.

Of course, you know, we were right in the middle of that because we have work in Pakistan, missionaries and churches. And so I tried to respond to their questions about Pakistan. Then I said, you know, I just finished talking to one of our senior leaders coordinating the work in the flood relief and ministry in Pakistan.

And I said, you know, the thing was, while he was talking to me about it, he just broke down. He couldn't talk anymore. And overcome by emotions when he said, just found out over 1 ,800 people died within hours.

Over 3 million children, they do not know what they're going to do with it. 70 of the entire crops in the country completely destroyed. People are desperate. And they do not know the Lord. There is no hope.

I want to ask you a question. Didn't you read about it? Didn't you see about it? Well, the problem is that with our iPhones and computers and laptops and stuff, we are Google searching not to find out what is going on in the world where multiplied millions are dying and plunging into eternity.

We are consumed about which is the latest stuff we can buy, cheaper or better, or the vacation, all that. None of those things are bad. But the problem is if Christ will walk on this earth today in San Diego, live where we live, I think his heart will be going out to find out where people are hurting and dying with the father's love.

And he'll be on his knees weeping and walking and doing everything he can to touch and change lives. My problem is that I'm too much preoccupied with my own self-centeredness, my own life. Please understand, I don't have any agenda to collect some money from you or put you on a guilt trip and bring condemnation on you and then go to the next place and do the same.

That's not it. But my dear brothers and sisters, we need to understand this as we say, as we read in 2 Corinthians 5, Since one died for all, that is Jesus, he died for you on the cross. Now you found your life in him.

It says, therefore, you do not, I do not want to live for myself. We must live for him who died for us. Some years ago I was in Nagpur in the central part of India at a pastor's conference where we have these dear brothers gather for a week of seeking God's face.

And I met this young man some years prior to that, a handsome looking young person who actually came from an upper caste Hindu family. And when he gave his life to Christ, his parents simply booted him out.

He had to walk away with the clothes on his back. He ended up at a Bible college and got his training, then went to the mission field. I knew him. But this time when I saw him, there was a deep scar on his forehead.

It looked like something horrible happened. And of course, whoever did the stitching, they did what I call a Mickey Mouse job. It's just gone bulging out and all that. And I was so curious. I said, what happened to you?

Before he will answer, the senior pastor standing next to him said, well, he will not tell you the whole story. I will tell you the story. Then he tells a story. This young man, having finished his studies, went to a mission field and started preaching the gospel.

A few people came to Christ and he would gather them to teach the Bible Sunday mornings and try to continue reach more people for Christ. And one Sunday morning, a group of men came in a jeep with weapons in their hand, chains and iron rods and knives.

And as these young believers, 10, 15 believers witnessing, they began to beat up this young brother. And left him in a pool of blood, saying that we are going to come back. And if we find you here, we'll bury you.

With those words, they got in their vehicle and they left. Hearing about this, the area leader of our mission told him, brother, maybe this is not the best place for you to be here. They will come back.

And this is deadly serious. And we recommend you move to another mission field and continue your ministry there. We will try to find a way to take care of the people here. To this, he responded as he was recovering from the beatings he received and the hospital.

And he responded saying, you know what? Whatever you tell me, I will do. But may I request you, would you please allow me to continue here? Most probably, they will come back. And then he said, you know, when I was sent to this mission field, I was told that this is a one-way ticket.

When you get there, know that if this is the place, you must lay down your life. Keep in mind, heaven is a much better place than the mission field. You wait there in heaven for us and we will come and see you later.

He said, those were the words spoken to me when I left my place and came here to serve God. And if they come back to kill me, I have no problem. My life is not my own. It's all given over to him. I will be very happy to continue and be here because my life is not my own.

Now, obviously, you didn't hear that kind of call or I didn't. This particular brother received the call. But here is the principle. That is, he saw his life not so important. It reminds me of Paul's life in Acts 20 when people say, oh, Paul, you don't want to go there.

They're going to beat you up and cause problems for you and you'll be abused. He said, no problem. I do not consider my life dear to myself. All I want is just please him and do what he tells me to do.

Christianity is a call from Christ to come, die, and live. If you seek to find your life, even in spiritual things, you're studying and reading and this and that, it is all to accumulate more information and be a better husband, better wife, and better parents, and better this and that.

But we don't realize that as we know him, we are called to continue, live a life of abandonment and embracing death so that others may find life through our life on earth. And I say this to you, it's been 43 years since the Lord called me to follow him.

Life has not been easy. It's a daily choice to say no to myself and yes to him for the sake of fulfilling his heart's desire for a world that still waits and desperately waits in darkness not knowing what the answer is.

And Pakistan, when I heard this dear brother telling the story and choking up, you know what I said to myself? Lord, I have a long way to go. I heard the story. I know what's going on. But I was so preoccupied with so many things that I dint the pain and the tears.

And I said, Lord, I'm sorry. Help me to understand you better. So you may be thinking, wow, he said so many things but didn't read the Bible passage yet. Well, I'll give you one. Luke's Gospel chapter 12.

That's a long enough chapter. But you know the story about the parable of the rich fool. The man was blessed. He has plenty of money and his field was doing well. And now his problem is that he didn't have money but he had too much.

And so he said, well, you know what I'm going to do is I'm going to store it up and say to myself, take it easy. Do well. And God said, you know, you fool. This very night your life will be demanded from you.

Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? Then Jesus continued to talk about, he says, don't worry about all kind of stuff here. Your clothes and food and, I mean, I may add our language here, the car and the new fashions and, you know, the Nike Air and whatever else, all the stuff.

Don't worry about these things. Life is more than all this. Anyone here heard about the name Keith Green? Keith Green? Some of the spiritual people heard his name. When I came to America, you know, in 1974, those early years, Keith Green, of course, you know, he went to be with the Lord.

A powerful young man who knew the Lord and served him. I mean, he was a musician. He wrote many, many songs and I will not attempt to sing any of them tonight for you. But listen to the words of this one of the songs he wrote.

Do you see? Do you see all the people sinking down? Don't you care? Don't you care? Are you going to let them drown? How can you be so numb not to care if they come? You close your eyes and pretend the job is done.

Oh, bless me, Lord. Bless me, Lord. You know, it is all I ever hear. No one ache. No one hurt. No one even shed one tear. It's all about us. You know, in my own life journey, I remember when I came to this country in 1974.

America is an amazing place, by the way. When I first came to America, when somebody said hot dog, I really believed Americans eat dog meat. We have hot rice, hot curry, and in America, hot dog. It took me a while really to be convinced.

It was not, you know, dog that you are eating. Strange things happens to aliens when they come here. For the first two weeks, I was completely spaced out, not on drugs, but the way people looked, the clothes, the highways, the cars.

I mean, it was an incredible place to land. You know, I remember those times. But, you know, you get used to things so fast. I was in college and later went to Germany and got married and all those things.

I was called to pastor church there in Dallas. But to cut a long story short, within the first early years of my life, I found myself wanting to become like others, Americans. You know, the first time I had Dr. Pepper, I threw up.

I really did. I said, I can't believe people drink this stuff here. But then I got used to it. I liked it, as a matter of fact. And when I came to the green room today, I found out they had a bottle of Dr. Pepper.

Whoever told them that, I don't know. But then, you know, having married to a girl from Germany, her parents have a good heart to share the resources with their daughter and their son-in-law. So I didn't have to buy anything on credit from the early days.

Whatever I wanted to buy, you just pay cash and buy it. And life was quite easy. Finally, I found myself with a library in my home with books, thousands of books. I may never read, but they look wonderful.

Sports, I have no clue about what people do with sports here. But I had sports magazines. And, you know, Kmart and JCPenney was not good enough. I had to buy my clothes from Neiman Marcus. And it took me often half an hour to dress myself, because I read a book called Color Me Beautiful.

And analyzed my skin and found out, you know, summer, autumn, spring and all that. And I was, you know, I mean, I was preaching several times a week and lost in the world of information, learning, studying.

And keep in mind, eight years prior to my coming to this country, I lived on the streets of India and Nepal, these nations, and weeping my eyes out, preaching and sharing, getting beaten up and abused for preaching the gospel.

But now, within a few short years, my heart changed. And I found I can't cry anymore. I preached over missions. I was very good in teaching the Bible and praying the best prayers. But my heart was cold.

And one day, the Lord, in his mercy, said to me, Son, look at your library, seven most expensive leather-bound Bibles sitting on the shelves. And he said, half of the world have never seen one page of the Bible.

What are you doing with your life? You have cassettes after cassettes of music with the best stereo systems you can get. But, son, there are 13 Christian radio stations in Dallas, 24 hours airing anything you want.

There's not one radio station talking about me for 1 .5 billion people in the Indian subcontinent. Son, how much more stuff you need before you understand my heart is aching and hurting for the lost world.

Then I looked at my closet, the clothes and the material things I was accumulating. And it was no big news, but I knew that half of the world go to bed with empty stomach and naked bodies. Please understand, it was not guilt and condemnation and putting me down, but I realized, oh, Lord, how short my life is.

Well, one of the strangest things happened during that time. That week, I remember I was sitting in my comfortable, soft leather chair and my desk writing something with my favorite pen that I got when I was in Europe called Montblanc.

I grew up writing with a real pen, the ink pen, not disposable. Of course, now I do use disposable also. I get it free from the hotel, motel room. One of the reasons I like to go to motels, you know, I can steal everything there.

But I remember sitting down and writing with my fountain pen and you wouldn't believe, who would want to pay $600 for a pen? You say, somebody dumb did it. The weird thing, see, we are looking for God to speak to us when somebody is preaching a great sermon.

True, he will. I mean, during singing, yeah. But sometimes he speaks in ways that we never even imagined. I am not a spooky, charismatic weirdo. I'm a normal individual who reads God's word and tries to follow him and walk with him.

I'm not looking for signs and wonders, any of those things. Although I have seen so many, you know, God doing wonderful things. I remember that afternoon, I was doing something, writing. It's a strange thing.

It's as though Christ himself walked up to the table and began this conversation. It's just out of nowhere. So you like your pen? I cannot respond. Yeah, I do. Next thing I heard, so clear in my heart.

So, who is going to use it 100 years from now? I literally looked at this pen and I could hear the same question again. So, who is going to use it 100 years from now? And now I realized what the Lord was trying to tell me.

And that was the turning point in many ways when I fell on my face and said, Lord, I'm drunk with self. Change my heart, dear Lord. Help me weep. All the spiritual talk and all the books and all the stuff, it's all about me, not about you.

And I say this to you, my precious brother and my sister, God is not after your house and your money and try to get you to do this and that. For me, it was a journey of saying, Lord, this is it. And I told my wife, Gisela, I just want to keep a couple of pants and a couple of pairs of shoes and a couple of ties.

And thank God I don't have to wear those ties anymore. And I said, let's once again be His completely. And I say this to you because 80 ,000 people die every single day, especially in the 1040 window region that never, ever heard the name Jesus.

And if I don't care about it, if you will not care about it, who will? And the privilege the Lord gave me, and I say this with all my heart, it is to link my life with brothers and sisters that said, like that young brother from Nagpur, I will go and lay down my life.

And when they introduced me saying that we got some 16 ,000 brothers and sisters scattered through our destinations, reaching the lost. As a matter of fact, just a week ago, I was talking to one of our brothers from Andhra Pradesh, and he was gone for a whole week traveling to different places.

I said, so Lucas, how did things go? He said, oh, just wanted to know. We just baptized 380 people this week. I said, really? He said, yeah, a lot more, but that's all I could do. They keep doing it. And the number of people turning to Christ from places that never had the gospel before and responding to him, it is harvest time.

And I was saying, Lord, thank you for the privilege you gave me to link my life with these men and women that are going out and preaching the gospel. Romans 10 says, how will they call on him if they never heard his name?

But how can they hear our Lord's name? Unless somebody go and tell them, Jesus died for you, he was buried, he rose again, repent and believe in him, your sins can be forgiven, there's a whole new world waits for you, and then heaven.

But how can they hear that unless somebody go? The last question, how will they go unless someone send them? So when God calls you to go and share the gospel and tell someone, please understand, it's a precious call.

Then God calls us also to help others to go to China, to Bhutan, to Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, and African nations, wherever, we must grab that as a huge opportunity. Say, Lord, I cannot go and live in India or in Bangladesh, but Lord, I'm so glad that I can link my life in prayer and sending these missionaries to reach the lost world.

So, 100 years from now, what does it matter? Let me conclude with this story that may be the closest thing to my heart. People ask me about where I was born and raised, I usually tell them, well, southern part of India, but if you really want to know the circumstances, the place I grew up, you need to go and watch the oldest Tarzan black and white movie you can find.

I wore these clothes after I left my home. I grew up in this tiny village. We are six brothers in my family. I'm the youngest. And my parents knew the Lord, but my mother was deeply devout to the Lord.

A very short, fragile little woman, five feet, two inches tall, very small frame. The earliest memory of my mother, every morning she would wake up 3, 4 in the morning and she would spend about two hours or more on her knees praying.

I still can almost see her. She has little head covering she'll put while she's praying. And then she would wake up the whole family for our morning family prayer. And I was growing up, I would hear her repeat this Bible verse a thousand times.

Psalm 73 verse 25. Whom have I in heaven but you, and on earth I deserve no one and nothing beside you. I used to think, what's wrong with my mother? And I saw her often reading a Bible. No other book she had.

And when I finished my high school, because she led me to the Lord when I was 80 years old, when I finished my high school, I felt the Lord wanted me to go to the mission field. So I remember one afternoon, when my parents were both there, I said, if you would allow me, I'd like to go to serve Christ.

Before I could finish my sentence, she jumped up from the bench she was sitting on and said, Go! I mean, it startled me. It's like I was an accident or she hated me. Either one. And with their blessing, I went off to North India with a youth group for learning and serving God.

And after two years, when I came back, I remember my mother said, I want to tell you a story that you do not know. And she was cooking in the kitchen, and I was sitting there. She said, do you remember the day you came and said you want to go and serve Christ?

And I said, you must go. I said, yeah, I do remember. She said, what you do not know, I prayed all my life that one of my sons would go and serve Christ. But one by one, they went for farming and business and all that, and when you were born and growing up timid, shy, skinny, I kind of lost all my hope that it's not going to happen.

But then she said, I decided to pray. Three and a half years, every Friday, my mother fasted, asking for one thing, asking, Lord, just one of my sons, before I die, call him to serve you. And she was not thinking about me either.

And the day you came and said you want to go, I knew the Lord answered my prayer. Well, now she was 84 in 1990, and I was on the way to Seoul, Korea, and I heard when I was in Bombay that my mother was still ill, taken to the hospital, and canceled my trip.

And that weekend, early morning, my mother passed away. She was never sick, actually. She had some heart condition that developed when she was, you know, that age. And funeral take place, and I need to go back to America, and so all my brothers and I, we met.

My father passed away early in 74, so we had this meeting, talk about our mother. And everyone was curious how much money our mother left in the bank. You see, according to our culture, when father passes away, mother becomes the boss.

And she has six sons, and they all take care of her, and, you know, they're fairly well-to-do people. But we never saw her spending the money. So by our calculation, especially, you know, one of my brothers said, you know, there must be a whole lot of money sitting in the bank somewhere, because we didn't see her spending any money, but she had all this money.

And one of my brothers, answering to that question or that curiosity, he pulled up this old notebook, and he said, I found this under the pillow of our mother's bed. And then I was terribly curious. What on earth?

And he started going through the pages. He said, well, all I can tell you, there's not a penny in the bank or anywhere. And one of my brothers said, well, what happened to all the money? Then he said, well, all I can tell you is that pages after pages, scribblings of our mother, names of young people studying in Bible schools, people on the mission field, and against their names, the amount of money she was sending every month, but never telling anyone.

And I broke down and started weeping. Not because there was no money in the bank. See, two years prior to her death, when I was in India, when I went to see her, she was wearing what we call blouse, was torn from here to here and stitched.

And I was so angry. I said, Mother, what madness caught into your head? The whole world will think that we don't care about you. You're putting shame and clout on our face and head. Can't you stop doing it?

Get some decent clothes. You know, I was quite upset. And she smiled, this incredible smile, bright eyes. She said, My little boy, you don't understand anything. Someday you will, my son. And it was as though she walked back to the room with her arms around me saying, My son, now you know the story.

Yes, I could have purchased a brand new dress every month. Anything I wanted. But I chose to live this life so that others may hear the gospel. But that's not the end of the story. The last thing she left with us, her will, so to say, went like this.

When I'm dead and gone, the only thing I will leave behind is my earrings and the 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 the money to preach the gospel among people that never heard my Jesus name.

I want to meet them also in heaven. I do not know about you. Look at your driver's license. You can hide it wherever you want to, but you know, in another hundred years, I'm not here. When was the last time you looked at your driver's license and said, It's all shadows.

What am I doing with my life? Following Christ is not something that makes you the most happiest person in the world. It may make you someone who will say, I embrace the cross. Well, how do you apply all this?

There are four things I will tell you. One, there's a study done in the United States about Christians a year ago, two years ago. Average believers in America pray less than eight minutes a day and preachers less than 12 minutes a day.

Yet, the way you impact this world, change your children's future. Change this nation. It is not by power and money and programs and agendas, but rather on our knees. Please, I plead with you, get to know the Lord, and you will not unless you spend time with Him.

You see, if our prayer and fasting is just for us, we may not understand what Christ is all about either. Wherever I go, I tell people, get a world map. There's a 1040 window thing, what you're talking about are some two billion people that wait to hear the gospel, and how do we impact this world.

You can go to our website, gfa .org, get prayer requests about Pakistan, India, these nations that keep you praying for days without end. Just take one day of the week for fasting, along with your prayer life.

If physically you are not able to do it, don't worry about it, but I can assure you, if you can take a day of the week to fast and pray, and by the way, that will not kill you. If you die, please let me know.

I can assure you. Because so much is going on in the world that God is calling us for serious intercession and prayer. And I wish I had hours to talk to you about that one area, but please ask the Lord to give you grace.

And if you can sit 10 minutes a day, 15 minutes a day, half an hour a day, an hour a day, you will be amazed to find out it is incredibly more joyful than falling in love with a girl or a boy once you know the joy of being with him.

And then he tells you, my son, this is what I am hurting about, my burden. Would you pray? And he will talk to you. Second, life, please keep it simple. You know, materialism is the worst enemy of your soul.

How much more stuff you need before you are happy, never you will find enough. Learn to simplify your life. And my journey some 35 years ago when I told you, I decided to keep a couple of jackets and this one of those jackets.

When it gets old and worn out, I throw it away and get another one. And I'm not saying you shouldn't have 10 jackets. That's not the issue here. The issue is learn to understand I don't need all this stuff.

I can live simple. And then touch the lost world. The Lord gave me wisdom. I wrote a whole book about it. Wrote a reality. And the whole bunch of materials are there. And if you want to pick up any of those materials, you can pay for it.

Or if you want to steal, you can take all you want also. But they will have impact on your life. Number three, the third thing I recommend you to do is that some of you need to ask the Lord, Lord, what do you want me to do with the rest of my life?

And maybe the Lord is calling you to give up everything and serve Him somewhere. But then, if you are young people, children, we have a thing called school or discipleship. Can you die to yourself for one year?

It's a one-year school or discipleship for young people having finished high school. And they come and be with us and their lives are totally radically altered during the year of learning and growing in the Lord.

We have some 140 some people on our staff in Dallas, Texas. It's a community where they come and live. They have their housing and everything. And then part of the time, they end up going to the mission field.

As a matter of fact, two young people are leaving for a long time, hopefully some years, this Wednesday overseas. And of course, that is not the number one thing we do. The fourth application I want to ask you to do is this.

I think it's true, 99 of people here, you aren't going to go overseas, China, India, to live there. But today, we have some 60 Bible colleges scattered throughout the nations training thousands of young people from these nations.

And when they finish their three-year training, we send them out to plant churches among people that never had a church before. But we need people to pray for them and help them. Believe it or not, with as little as $30 a month, you can help send out one of those native missionaries, national missionaries, to work among people that never had the gospel before.

My mother is the classic example. And I am certain, today she's with the Lord saying, it was worth the journey. Praying and helping those missionaries to preach the gospel. And you say, Brother KP, how do I do it?

What do you want me to do? Well, the Lord is speaking in your heart to be part of something like this. May I encourage you, when you go out, stop at the table and get this card. It's a blue stripe. It simply says, yes, I want to help.

I will help native missionaries reach their own people for Jesus. I understand it takes about, you know, it takes more than $30, but you become part of the two or three people who together do it. Starting now, I will prayerfully help sponsor one or two or three, whatever number of missionaries, $30 a month.

And you can do that with a credit card, whatever also on the back of it. And you don't have to give any money tonight, although we appreciate if you want to do that. And when you bring this card filled out, you actually get the real native missionary, that brother or sister, serving God on the mission field.

By the way, every single day, we see nearly 17 churches planted on the mission field among people that never had the gospel before through these native missionaries. And you help them as long as you can.

Usually within a year or two, they have a church planted. And within a few years, they become self-supporting. It is not a welfare thing you do, but then you can support more missionaries. I know a medical doctor who support, I don't know, 50 missionaries or so.

And he told me, he said, KP, I go to hospital as a surgeon. Every day saying, God, this profession he gave me, so I can send missionaries to the mission field. I mean, he has more money than I have. But maybe you can support one missionary or two or three or ten, whatever.

But I can assure you, 100 years from now, you will have no regret for linking your life through prayer, going, giving, sharing, whatever you do. And I say, may the Lord give you understanding as you seek his face.

When I came to America, I heard this guy, this man on television, his name is George Burns, I think his name. He had this cigar in his mouth. I liked his look. But I liked more the little song he usually sings, and often he did it.