Take Up Your Cross - Part 2 — K.P. Yohannan

In many areas of the country, it's harvest time for farmers, but did you also realize that there's a spiritual harvest taking place right now as well? See how the Lord can use you to bring others to Him next on The Road to Reality.

From Gospel for Asia comes another edition of The Road to Reality with Brother KP O 'Hannan. Welcome to our broadcast. In Acts chapter 1, we're encouraged to be witnesses for Christ in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Witnesses to the Ends of the Earth

You know, many of us might be pretty good about reaching our own neighborhood, Jerusalem, but what about the ends of the earth? Today, we're going to be encouraged to look at our own zip code and beyond.

There's a lost and dying world all around us, and God can use us to point them to Christ. For the details, here's Brother KP.

The Urgency of the Spiritual Harvest

I am from a home where our people are rice farmers. Harvest time, once a year in our place. And you know what happens when the harvest time comes in American language? My people are like the chicken with the head cut off.

Panic time. They are talking about a vacation, or breakfast, or lunch, or long sleeping hours, or going here and there, seeing friends, or visiting relatives, none of those things. It is 24 hours on the go.

We have to get the job done. It is panic time, for harvest is a fixed time. You wait for two weeks, it is destroyed. You know, when I say this war time, it is not peace time, I'm thinking about the verse in Acts 17, verse 6, about those people, the early Christians, they said, wow, they are here also.

What a crazy bunch of people. Those who turn the world upside down have come here also. These who turn the world upside down, Philip says, the world revolutionaries have come here also. You and I ought to be such people, they will say, what is wrong with his head?

He has gone bananas. He's nuts. He's crazy. Yes, when you and I follow Christ, when people see us, they will say, oh, he's coming. I'm going to take off, because they know you're going to confront them with your life, with your commitment, with your fasting, with your prayer.

When was the last time, mom, your son or your daughter asked, mom, I want to ask you something. How come you don't eat food? This particular day, every week, it's like you pick Tuesday, Wednesday, just one week.

You just don't eat nothing. Are you sick? Trying to lose weight? No, son, it is so that in Afghanistan, 19 million people live there without one church, one missionary, the whole nation on the way to hell.

My dear boy, the Lord put upon my heart to pray and fast this day or the week for the sake of those people in Afghanistan. Dad, when was the last time your son said, dad, why are you like this? How come you're so stingy?

How come you are so paranoid? How come you are not like that? And he said, son, you want the answer? Come with me. Let's sit down and talk about it. You had your head down, you raised your head, tears running down, said, dad, did they say something wrong?

No, son. I'm glad you asked some. The truth is this. I just heard and I read there are 5 million people live on the streets of Bombay, the largest slum of the world, 100 ,000 children walking around who not knowing who their parents are.

40 million people in Turkey with less than 40 Christians in the entire nation. My son, I love to buy the car like your friend's dad. I love to buy the 10 room house like somebody else. I have the money.

I could do it, son. I'd like to buy the fancy clothes that somebody else wear. Dan, John, Mark, it's not daddy's mean and ugly. When you sleep, son, daddy's not sleeping sometimes. I'm on my knees praying for God to call you and your brother to serve God.

I'm taking every money I can and looking at it and say, what this can do for eternity for people that never heard Christ. And suddenly it is not that I'm trying to be rude or cruel. I'm just thinking about a few years from now.

What does it matter? Son, forgive me. I just love you. I'm not angry. And your son says, dad, I'm sorry. I didn't understand you. I don't mean bad, dad. Son, that's fine. And then you see the little boy making decisions.

He's not coming up to say, oh, daddy, the newest CD is out there. $15. Is daddy the finest CD ever released? No, he's saying, daddy, I don't want the Christmas present this year, daddy. Why? Daddy, just write a piece of paper and say, happy Christmas, my son.

And daddy, take the money for the bicycle or this or that, whatever else, and send it to Albania, Mongolia, Bhutan, Burma, India, to Gospel of Asia, to the missionary. And daddy, do something that they will hear the name Jesus at least one time before they land in hell or they be spared because they hear the name Jesus.

Is this radical? Is this far out of the wall, as Americans, Californians would say? No, this is very normal Christianity. You want to know what normal Christianity is? You read the New Testament and you try to explain some of the Bible verses.

The Cost of Radical Discipleship

Time will not permit it. I must rush here. I thank God for my brother. And I don't say those words lightly. A few men that I came to know and walked with, although brief, the time span, a man that genuinely cared about the Lord and wanted to see the lost world reach the gospel.

The very fact he would let me come and speak to you this morning, it's amazing. I'm more than grateful for his large heart and love to let me do this. When he was in India, he taught our brothers, one of the training centers, some 200 young people that were in this boot camp in the most difficult, raw, you don't want to even walk there, such difficult region.

And he was there teaching those brothers from God's word. And they said they want him to come back every year. Thank you for sending him. Just after he left and after a few weeks time, we had the students go two by two in the most unreached areas for preaching the gospel.

And when you talk about unreached area, these are very hostile, anti-Christian community. They are not waiting to say, wow, what are you going to say? No, they are waiting some time with a determination to kill you for bringing another faith.

Two of the brothers landed in a Hindu community to preach the gospel. And they were beaten up without mercy. So severely, one brother ended up in the hospital. And they said on the telephone, he's between life and death.

We don't know if he's going to make it. And God answered prayer. He began to recover. You know what his request was? He didn't say, those rats, I will never again go to that place. His first request, brother, I want to go back to those people that tried to kill me and take my life.

Jesus loves them. I want to go and lay down my life if that's what it takes to reach those people for Jesus Christ. That is normal Christian life. That is reaching the ethnos. That is fulfilling the heart desire of Jesus.

That is as he was in the world. So am I now in this world walking in his footsteps. For he set this example before me of not luxury, comfort, ease, feed me, take care of me. No, of suffering, the cross, the pain, the agony, the loneliness, the fasting, the longing of prayer, the giving up of a vacation, the giving up of the friendship and the secret sins and the ugliness and the lust.

Holiness, Self-Denial, and the Cross

And I say this to you. Something completely different from my normal message. Unless you experience holiness in the area of sex life, your thought life, purity in the innermost being, secondly, a detachment from materialism, you can study all the Bible you want until the world end.

You will never know the Lord of glory of the Bible. You will be just another hireling knowing everything in the head. But your heart is no more with him. Painful words, hard words. Maybe I'm saying to one person or two person here.

Those who are here, let him hear. I must say this to you.

Well, this is a good time for personal reflection and if need be, a turnaround from sin and self to Christ. K .P. Ohannon will return in just a moment with more. Brother K .P. has written quite a number of books, one of them being Revolution in World Missions.

Just as we're encouraged in today's message to move away from self-centeredness to be more eternally minded, this book will challenge you with more of the same. It's our free gift to you as a way of thanking you for listening in today.

Just stop by WinAsia .org and receive your copy of Revolution in World Missions. Once again, that web address is WinAsia .org. Let's get back into the message now, shall we? Here's Brother K .P. once again.

Reaching the 1040 Window

As we face the days that are before us, the coming of the Lord is near. My heart is more and more burdened every day for one thing. Lord, how are we going to reach this generation? The 1040 window. The Hindu block, one billion people.

The Muslim block, one billion people. The Buddhist block, millions. And the Islam block, nearly three billion people living in the window called 1040 window in Asia, where Americans and Europeans cannot get in as missionaries.

But does that mean we divorce ourselves from the lost world and walk and live such a way everything is okay? No, sir. Ask in the book of Esther. Listen, you live in this palace. You live in this comfort.

You live in this freedom. You live in this luxury. You know what? Every time I come back to America, I am absolutely thrilled with the peace, with the freedom. These people just don't know what a privilege they have to worship God.

In mainland China, when I was there, I remember these brothers telling me of baptism service in the icy waters in the middle of the night for the fear of going to prison. Think about Nepali brother who walked 60 miles to India to be baptized because he will end up in prison for six years.

The teaching, the blessing, the music, and the worship. I was jumping up and down in my heart when the worship was going on. I said, God, what a blessed opportunity. But, oh, that is not so for people over there.

The Burden of the Unreached

I always tell this story because I like to hear it for myself. Because that was a turning point in my life. Like the day I got saved, the day the Lord called me to serve Him, the day I got married. Kind of one of those days.

My wife came to me and said, you need to read this letter. And she gave the letter to me. And then always something she said, I just don't like one of those things. She says, by the way, please don't speed read.

I said, what's wrong with you? And I went back to my office and sat down in a nice comfortable chair and started reading the letter. When I finished reading the letter, I was no more sitting in my chair.

I was on my knees. That's literal. Tears running down. And I was praying. Letter came from a dear brother. A missionary, native missionary from Haridwar by river Ganges. 35 million people came from all over India.

Most of them by walk. 1 ,000, 2 ,000 miles barefooted walk to river Ganges. To go into this most dirty, polluted, stinking, rotten waters on planet earth. They washed themselves in the river, believing their sins can be forgiven by doing so.

They never heard about the blood of Christ that can wash their sins away. Kumbh Mela, it is called. That one week, 35 million Hindus going into the river. One of the native missionary working in the area.

He was coming home that evening. And he saw this young woman sitting by the bank of the river. Weeping uncontrollably, pounding upon her chest. In India, when that happens, it must tell you something happened worse than death itself.

So this missionary went to her and said, What happened? Why are you crying? What happened to you? She said, we are very poor. My husband is sick. He cannot work anymore. My sins are so many. To find forgiveness for my sins.

Solution to the problems of my home. I have given the best offering I can give to goddess Ganges river. My only child, 6 month old baby boy. I just threw him into the river. She went back howling, weeping again.

And he sat down beside her and said, But your sins are forgiven 2000 years ago. Jesus died for you. It's all paid for. All you need to do is just to believe. God is mad at you. He didn't make you poor.

He want to bless you. He explained all these bible verses. The next paragraph in the letter. As he was describing the whole event. She wiped her tears. Looked straight into my eyes. And said, But why didn't you come to me half hour sooner?

I didn't have to kill my child. It is too late, isn't it? It is too late. My brother, my sister. That is the desperation, the crisis, the agony. Of all 2 billion people living on planet earth. When you say, when I say, Jesus, you are Lord.

They are killing their babies. Because they never heard the name Jesus. And Jesus said, As the Father has sent me, so sent are you. Sent are you. What am I doing with it? What am I doing with it? I can continue to live for myself.

The Harvest and the Call to Go

For my feelings, my emotions. Or I can live for something more. That is Jesus. And for the lost world. Let me give you a couple of applications here quickly. One thing that touched my heart. Is the fact that, Through our close relationship with brothers and sisters like you.

Jesus said, The harvest is now. Don't you dare to say, Tomorrow, next month, next year. When I retire. Now is the harvest time. And Jesus said, I am sending you to reap a harvest that you didn't work for.

Others have done the hard work. And you are given the benefit to reap the harvest. And you know Romans 10 says, How will they hear? Unless somebody go and preach the gospel. How will someone go and preach?

Except they be sent by someone to go and preach the gospel. 11 years ago, I came to this fellowship. Our mission organization, Gospel for Asia. A small organization at that time. It began to grow. It began to grow.

And I remember those days. Now it is easy to believe in GFA and support all that. Because we are fairly well known. But at that time, we were just tiny people. Today, by the grace of God, we have missionaries scattered.

In 11 Asian nations. Winning millions to Jesus. Every single day. Nearly 6 churches are born on the mission field. Hallelujah. That I call harvest. That I call victory. You know what? As you are the center of the missionary.