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  FULLY COMMITTED TO JESUS CHRIST (GERMAN)
  by K.P. Yohannan
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Summary: K.P. Yohannan emphasizes the importance of fully committing to
Jesus Christ through daily sacrifices and a focus on reaching the lost.

Duration: 1:06:38 Topics: "Jesus Christ"
Scripture References: Matthew 28:19, John 3:16

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DESCRIPTION
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In this sermon, the speaker shares two stories that highlight the impact
of sharing the gospel through films and supporting missionaries. The
first story involves a man who donated a large sum of money to provide
films and projectors to missionaries, resulting in around 100,000 people
coming to Christ each month. The speaker emphasizes the importance of
using resources for the mission field rather than personal gain. The
second story involves an old grandma who sacrificially supports a
missionary, demonstrating the value of living a simple and unselfish
lifestyle. The speaker encourages listeners to consider the needs of
those who have never heard the name of Jesus and to actively participate
in sending missionaries and sharing the gospel.

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CONTENT
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It's very nice to be here with you this day. And a lot of people are
praying for this evening, our meeting. And thank you, Pastor, for
allowing me to be here.

And although he said no time limit, I'm sure we will end sometime soon.
And although he said no time limit, I'm sure we will end sometime soon.
I am deeply convinced that nothing happens in our life that is just an
accident.

God plans everything. Some of the most significant encounters we have,
it's not organized that large, it is very insignificant. When I was 16,
I went to attend a missionary conference.

That was the first time I left my home, as a matter of fact. And I grew
up in a small village in the very extreme southern part of India. And I
left my home to attend this meeting, which is a day's journey by train.

And it was during that meeting that I heard about North India, about
people that never heard the name Jesus. And it was this one sentence I
heard became the reason for my committing my entire life for serving the
Lord. And one sentence was said there that became very important to me,
so that I would devote my life to serving the Lord.

I was 16 years old at that time. Now I am 48, that's a long time ago.
And the Lord will talk to us this evening, I believe.

In the book of Hebrews chapter 12, verse 3, we are asked to consider
Jesus who endured the cross. And so the reason is that we will not lose
our heart, we don't get discouraged. And always I should be considering
thinking about Jesus.

And once I am able to do that, then all things become easy. And the
cross was not imposed upon Jesus. He chose it.

Jesus said, nobody is making me to lay my life down. But I chose it. And
he says, now you come after me, Jesus says, and then you take your cross
also.

And nobody liked the cross much. Because it is inconvenient and it is
difficult. And my self-centeredness fights against the call to embrace
the cross.

I do not know about Germany, but in America everybody wants microwave
Christian life. An instant Christian. You press the button, everything
happens.

But the call of Christ is a daily taking the cross, paying the price,
and going on on a narrow road. I speak on the behalf of my Lord,
especially in the area of reaching the lost world. And I think the
greatest hindrance we have today that keeps us from reaching the world
is our own self.

It is not building or money or programs that we lack. It is somehow we
all are seeking always to protect our own selves. We are holding the
bread in our pocket.

We are taking care of ourselves. It is not given in the hands of Jesus.
If you give it, he will take and break it.

And billions can be reached with the gospel. Some time ago I got a
telephone call from a man from a distant city. And I live in Texas and
he is from a different state.

And he said, Brother K.P., can I talk to you? I said, yes, yes. And he
started crying. I could hear him on the telephone.

And then he said, I just finished reading your book. And he said, I am
so deeply gripped. And he said, Brother K.P., I am 60 some years old.

And in a few years my life will be over. And as I read your book, I
realized of multiplied millions of people all over the world that never
heard Jesus name, I am going to hell. And then he cried again.

I am holding on to my telephone. And I said, I am glad he is making the
call, not me. And he said, Brother K.P., I am thinking this thought.

When I stand before the throne, I want to see millions of people from
every tribe, every nation, every kindred. And I want my life to be used
to see them come to Jesus. He said, can you tell me how I can do it? I
said, yes.

At that time, in our mission headquarters, we were praying for God to
provide funds to buy 100 films and projectors and generators. At that
time, in our mission headquarters, we were praying for God to provide
funds to buy 100 films and projectors and generators. And I told him
about 300, 400 million people that don't read and write.

And by showing the film, we can tell them about Jesus. He said, how much
will it cost? I said, about a quarter of a million dollars. He said,
okay, I will pray.

And he hung up the telephone. And I said to myself, why are you going to
pray? If you got the money, you better send it. And I said to myself,
why are you going to pray? If you got the money, you better send it.

I said, fine. A week later, he called me again. He said, Buddha K.P. I
said, yes.

He said, I just sent a check for 235,000 dollars. Can you get those
films in the hand? I said, yeah, we will do it. Within a couple of
months, we had the films and projectors in the hands of all the
missionaries.

A year went by. We did a study from the mission field. Every month,
around 100,000 people come to Christ just by watching these films on the
mission field.

What a tremendous privilege the Lord gave him. I know this man very
well. Now, since that experience, he could have done thousands of things
with it.

New house, better car, all kinds of things. But he chose to do something
different. Let me tell you another story.

I was in Victoria, Texas, a small town, to speak. And one old grandma
began to support one missionary. And I didn't know nothing much about
her.

After a few years, a letter came to her office. Buddha K.P. I am very
sorry, I cannot support my missionary anymore. The electric bill and the
water bill increased.

I live alone in my house. And I cannot send the $10 anymore, which I was
sending every month. But I will pray for the missionary.

And someone from the office brought the letter to me. I was so touched
by that. I called her on the telephone.

And I said, this is Buddha K.P. calling. And she said, oh, Buddha K.P.,
so nice to hear your voice. And I said, thank you for your letter.

Be happy. And I said, we want to send you some money if you ever need
any help. And I didn't know that grandma was living alone.

A few weeks went by. Another letter comes. Dear Buddha K.P. I was
praying.

And I realized soon I will go and be with Jesus. And I am so sad that I
cannot support my missionary anymore. And now I have decided to cancel
my telephone so I can continue to support that missionary.

And now I am crying. I didn't want her to do that. But you know what? A
few months from the time she wrote that card, she died and went to be
with the Lord.

I am not just talking about money. It is a choice you make daily, do
badly, to embrace the cross. There was a time, nearly 20 years ago, I
lived for myself.

I was preaching, I was pastoring a church in America and going to
seminary and doing good things. And I was preaching four times a week to
my congregation. I was studying so deep Greek, Hebrew, the whole.

It was really nice. I preached about missions and all these different
things. But it was all knowledge.

And in the end the Lord began to deal with my heart. And I said, Lord,
change my heart. Take eternity and stamp on my eyes.

I wanted to live my life in the light of eternity. And I now saw Bible
verses like this where Jesus said, come, take up your cross. It became
practical.

And he said, love me more than your own very life. I have a wife and two
children. I love them.

I care about them. I love the ministry. And Jesus said, love me more
than your wife, your son, your daughter.

That will be okay. But more than my life, there is a little problem.
Because I care about myself.

And the Lord began to change my heart. And until then I used to buy a
deodorant soap made in England that was sold in the United States. It
cost $1.50 per bar, each bar.

It's nice. I was using it all the time. I like nice things.

But when the Lord changed my heart, now I'm thinking about 500,000
villages of India that never heard the name Jesus. And I realized hell
is real. Hell is real.

And you know, I remember, with that understanding, I decided not to buy
that deodorant soap anymore, but buy a $0.35, a cheaper brand name
called Ivory. It won't make me spiritual. It has nothing to do with
that.

Poverty and having less material things never make anybody spiritual. It
was choices I made. The rest of the money could go to print gospel
tracts.

We have some 10,000 missionaries on the field. These are native
missionaries in different countries. In the northwest of India, one of
our evangelistic team was working on the streets.

A Hindu man came and got a gospel tract. It's like a little booklet,
like four spiritual laws. And this man is in his 50s from a Hindu
Brahmin family also a landlord, very, very rich.

He had cancer in his body and he was running away from his house to
commit suicide. It was on the way to kill himself that he got this
gospel tract from our missionaries. On the street he began to read this.

God came into this world to die for me. Jesus loves me. My sins can be
forgiven.

He can make me well. For the first time in this man's life he is reading
about a God he never heard about before. And there was a prayer he could
pray in the end of the booklet.

And he prayed to Jesus. He felt something happening in his body. Such
peace came into his heart.

He didn't commit suicide. He went back home, went to the hospital and
said, Doctor, please check me. Baba, I want to check you.

You got cancer. There is nothing we can do for you. He said, no, no, no.

Doctor, you please check me. So they checked him up. They said, what did
he take? You are totally cured.

You are not sick anymore. And he pulled the booklet out of his pocket.
Doctor, this one healed me.

They thought he went cuckoo. He was so overjoyed. With the address on
the booklet he contacted our mission station.

He explained to our brothers what happened to him. And they opened the
Bible and told him more about Jesus. And he started to weep.

In the end he said, Oh, I know this Jesus is my God. And then he
responded, He said, I am a landlord. I am the head of my village.

Can you come and make all my people Christians? How little he
understood. So innocent, so naive. Two of our Bible school graduates
went to his village.

They began to preach the Gospel. First week 25, 30 people gave their
lives to Christ. Today there is a good, strong church in that village.

The man gave the land, the money, everything to build the church. His
entire family worshipping Jesus. How did that all start? On a Gospel
tract.

Cost less than the money you and I pay for a chewing gum. So small. A
church planted in a village.

See, you and I are born again believers unless you are careful you live
so earth bound. You live like anybody else by sight. But we are called
to live by faith.

We see Jesus the one who goes before us. That is a kind of life that
says not my will but Father what you want me to do. It is a daily choice
my brothers and sisters.

One of the things that motivates me to live for Jesus and to walk in
this road is to say not to say the things I want. It is the
understanding my life is very short. There is a nice Bible verse in
Psalm 90 verse 12 In German language it is much better than in English.

So teach us to number our days that we may present to thee a heart of
wisdom. Do you want me to have the translation? Yes. Yes, you got a good
German Bible there? Denken, dass wir sterben müssen auf dass wir klug
werden.

I was asking Ruth today that Bible verse in German Help us to remember
that we must die that we may know how to live. Do we remember that? And
Psalm 103 says our life is like grass that comes up in the morning and
the evening like a flower it goes like that. And we must live daily
knowing that someday we will see Jesus face to face.

And I encourage you to make every decision you make in the light of
eternity. And that decision will involve in saying no to my own desires.
In the northeast of India we have a school where we train Islam converts
to do ministry among the Muslims.

We don't publicize about the school. Two young people finished their
training and went to work among Muslims. And Hussein and Salsal Hussein
was married with two little children.

And they started preaching the gospel to the Muslims. Quite a few people
they led to Jesus. During the night they called these converts and teach
them from the Bible.

And one day Hussein and Salsal they were going to the ministry in the
morning. A group of men met them on the road. And the leader said Oh!
You are Hussein and Salsal you came to tell us about your God Jesus.

And the leader of this group said Oh! You are Hussein and you tell us
about your God. And they said Yeah! Yeah! We love you and we love Jesus
and we want to know about Jesus. And the leader pulled out a dagger that
long from his clothes and stabbed in the heart of Hussein.

And he fell in a pool of blood. And his colleague Salsal was weeping and
grabbing hold of him. They stabbed him six times.

Believing that both are dead these men fled. But Hussein died on the
spot. And somebody found Salsal and took him to the hospital.

It took many months for him to recover. Hearing about the incident that
Hussein's father-in-law his wife's father a Muslim himself from a
distant village came to see his daughter. She hated them because she
became a Christian.

And this is what the father said. Thank God my daughter the devil is
dead now you can come home with me. Come home with my grandchildren.

And this is what the daughter said. Father you don't understand. The
Jesus my husband loved I love him also.

The people he loved and died for I love them. I cannot come home. I must
stay here to continue tell them about Jesus.

He could feel this out. It makes no sense. He stayed on with her.

What would you do? If you were in her shoes what would you do? Let us
not make it a preaching some information this evening. Loving him more
than life itself. This world is not our home.

We are just passing through here. And we must continue to shake off
everything that makes us to become earth bound like others. And one of
the key is to keep our hearts focused on the lost and dying millions
around us.

And just recently as a matter of fact I left India two days ago to come
to Germany. And I was talking to one of our leaders who went to Bhutan.
We have a school in the Bhutan border training Bhutanese to go and
preach the gospel in Bhutan.

They don't allow any churches officially in Bhutan. It's a closed
country. And our leader is a Bhutanese.

Last year he walked continually more than three weeks visiting places.
And his feet began to bleed. But his longing is to see the country come
to Christ.

And we have fourteen house churches established in Bhutan now. And he
was telling about one church. This young Bhutani went to our school.

And then he married this young girl who also became a Christian. They
went to a place where absolutely no Christian at all. They never heard
that name.

And there's a powerful witch doctor who controlled the entire region.
And he felt Jesus sent him to preach there. But tremendous opposition.

He said, Jesus, I don't know what to do. And the only thing he knew what
to do is to pray. So he and his wife began to fast and pray.

Eating one day of the week. Now you need to process this in your head.
Because you eat breakfast.

You eat lunch. Then you have cake. Then you have coffee.

Three o'clock cake. And coffee. And evening.

Sausage and bread. That's German, eh? I like all those things. None of
you look really suffering here.

And they, my leader told me, Brother K.P., poor dumb, fasting and prayer
became kind of a normal thinking in their life. Out of seven days per
week, just one day they eat and the other days fast. That was the
beginning of the ministry.

The first convert was the witch doctor. And he was baptized publicly.
Then those who were believers in the witchcraft.

And we should see the faces of these new converts. Such glow on their
face. Such incredible joy that life's beaming out.

But someone who was willing to pay the price. See, in Germany, even a
place like this, you have thousands of people who do not know Jesus.
Your neighbors.

People who work with you. Your family members. People from other
countries coming here.

What are you doing with it? When was the last time you made a list of
twenty, thirty people? And you said, I'm going to give up one week or
two days or three days meal and I'm going to fast and pray. See, it
takes someone to stand in the gap and pay the price. Anything you
accomplish will never come without a price.

And with that kind of agony and commitment you will see people come into
Christ. And my brother said to me, this Bhutani brother and his wife and
when all the opposition came, husband, wife made a decision. We will
never leave this place.

We must be killed. Our bodies must be buried here. And out of our life a
church will come up.

That was a commitment they made. My brothers and sisters, I pray that
somehow you will start taking this into your own very heart. I want to
give you a few practical applications.

You know, some years ago my wife came to me with a letter and this came
from the mission field. And she said, please read this. And then she
said, but please don't speed read it.

You sit down and read it slow. And so I went in my office and shut the
door and sat on my nice chair and began reading. When I finished reading
the letter I was not sitting on my chair anymore.

I was kneeling on the carpet by my chair and I was weeping. And this
letter came from one of our missionaries. He was working in Hardwar by
Ganges River.

That particular time 35 million people came from all over India to go
into River Ganges for holy wash. Hindus believe that sins can be
forgiven if they wash in the River Ganges. They believe River Ganges
came from heaven.

It is the most dirty polluted most horrible water I think in any river
in the world. They cremate thousands of bodies every month and they dump
the ashes and the half cremated bodies into the river. And this our
native missionary was witnessing for Jesus during that festival.

And all these people Hindus they are very sincere. They don't know
Jesus. Nobody ever told them.

So one evening as he was coming home he saw a young woman sitting by the
bank of the river. She was weeping and pounding upon her chest. By the
culture of India when someone is doing that it must tell you something
happened worse than death itself in the family.

So our missionary went to her. What happened? Why are you weeping? And
this is what she said. We are very poor people.

My husband is sick. He can't work anymore. And my sins are so much and
for the forgiveness of sin and for the solution of my family I have
given the best offering I can give to God of Ganges.

My only child my six month old baby boy I threw him into the river. And
she began to weep. And then our missionary explained to her but your
sins are forgiven.

Two thousand years ago Jesus died on the cross. God is not mad at you.
God is not mad at you.

He didn't make you poor. He is a devil against you. And he explained to
her the bible verses.

In the letter he wrote after I explained to her the gospel she wiped her
tears looked straight into my eyes and said but why didn't you come to
me half hour soon? I didn't have to kill my child. It is too late to do
this. The last sentence under the KP she went back crying again.

And then I prayed. Jesus even if no one go with me even if no one help
me no one will understand me that I offer my life to you once again.
Every fiber of my being everything I have and I will walk with you to
the last minute that more people like her will hear about you.

And today we have dozens of missionaries working in that area churches
planted but that is the reality of more than 2 billion people living in
this generation. What keeps us? It is our own service and deadness. My
house my clothes my children my wife my future my bank account my health
my exercise my vitamin pills and all this stuff.

And I must choose I must choose no to the things that I am grabbing hold
of. Keith Green was a close friend of mine. He is an American.

He is known as a radical Christian. And he he got in a small airplane
and had an accident and he went to heaven. And he was known for the
incredible words he wrote in the songs.

One of the songs is called Sleeping in the Light. It's about the church.
It's about us.

About this church. Your life. And a few words goes like this.

All I hear anymore is Lord bless me bless me bless me. No one aches. No
one hurts.

No one even shed one tear. All I hear is Lord bless me bless me. When I
went to China those Chinese brothers showed me one time a stack of color
photographs.

In the icy waters in the middle of the night with flashlights people
have been baptized. They said if we baptize that time we will go to
prison. Then they said something to me.

Father K.P. we have thousands of congregations all over China
underground church with 800 and 1000 members. And he said Father K.P. we
have thousands of congregations all over China underground church with
800 and 1000 members. And they said they are lucky if these
congregations have two Bibles to the name of the entire congregation.

I said what do you do? Oh they said the Bibles we get we take it we tear
20 pages and give it to one family 10 pages next family. And they copy
the Bible. And here Bible read over the short wave and we copy it.

What? Right? I am asking you. What right you have I have to have so many
Bibles when half of the world have never seen one page of the Bible.
Someday Someday when we stand before the Lord we will look back for the
wasted life so self-centered.

Even spiritual things we are self-centered. Jesus came to save us from
our sin but that's not the end of it. His greatest job is to set us free
from ourselves and deadness.

This is how we can reach the lost world. May the Lord give you the grace
to make right decisions. These are the practical applications.

One you get a world map and put in your house put nice borders around it
color coordination whatever stuff you do. For God so loved the world.
When you hear radio, TV, newspaper whatever news around the world make
that prayer letter for you.

When our children were so little I used to teach them at the dining
table because we have a map they are mapping. I said son that is
Afghanistan. 17 million people live there.

No church in the entire country. Danny would you like to pray for
Afghanistan? And next day we talk about another country. They grew up
with the world in their heart.

And I have a shower curtain in our house in Dallas. It's made a world
map. You take a shower pray for Burma, Bhutan, Afghanistan whatever.

And I encourage you to get a world map. And take one day of the week to
pray for some country in the world. Secondly I recommend you to simplify
your life as Jesus directed you.

I cannot dictate to you what you should have what you should not have
none of those things. But all I can tell you is this 100 years from now
nothing really matters. Nothing really matters.

Today Pastor Wolfgang was driving me around and showing me old farm
houses. 100 year old 200 year old 400 year old people who built it.
Worked so hard where are they? Somewhere a tree is growing.

Somewhere some nails are being made. Somewhere the materials are being
made for the coffin. And that's for you.

And that's for me. How stupid we are that we live just for now. And our
Christianity is just for us.

We don't understand what Jesus is about. Half of the world goes to bed
with an empty stomach every single day. And we must become authentic
simply by your life.

And let Jesus tell you that what you should do. For me it was a
different story. it will be a different story.

I used to get a haircut 20 years ago it cost me 12 dollars in Dallas,
Texas. And when Jesus touched my heart I went to a place and paid 3
dollars. They betrayed my hair and it looked terrible.

But who cares about my hair. Why? Because I wanted to make sure that
every penny I can save will go to mission field. And some people that
came through second world war in Germany they are grabbing and holding
everything they can.

You will not take it with you. Young people learn from this. Life is not
forever here.

Don't let materialism destroy your life. Live simple. Third practical
thing to do.

The people that never heard the name Jesus live in India Bhutan
Bangladesh the Muslims the Buddhists. You may never go there to live.
But if you are unselfish in your lifestyle you can go.

How? Jesus said I am sending you to a mighty harvest. Romans 10 says how
will they hear the gospel unless the missionary go? How can they go
unless someone send them? So someone to go others to send that
missionary. And today we have 4,000 plus young people studying in 31
schools.

And soon they will be out on the mission field. Right now there are
hundreds waiting to go to the mission field. Giving all they have.

Like the missionary in Bhutan. Like the team that witnessed the Hindu
man. And you know what? You can become a sender of one of those
missionaries.

And by faith. You say Brother KP I cannot go and live in Bhutan or India
but I will pray for one or more of those missionaries and I will stand
with them as they go and preach the gospel. And we have a few
missionaries like this with us.

On the back is the name the testimony the whole details. And there is a
card here you can fill out. And when you say I want to pray and be a
sender of one of those missionaries we will give this to you tonight
take home with you.

You can start praying for a missionary today. Put a refrigerator in the
Bible wherever. And you give about 100 marks a month then go for the
support of the missionary.

And when they plant a church it becomes self-supporting. Like that man
who said I want to stand before Jesus with so many people. You can do
the same.

It is a life of faith. And there are people in United States I know they
support 50 even 80 100 missionaries. Maybe you can support 2 or 3
missionaries.

Very practical but real. And every penny you give go to the mission
field. Nobody take anything out here.

And fourth application if the Lord is calling you to go yourself
somewhere obey Him. Obey Him. It is a one-way ticket but heaven is a
much better place than earth anyway.

One of our missionary who went to the mission field he was so scared.
This is the same place I was beaten up when I was a young man. And they
the Hindu fanatics said they are going to kill him.

He told our leaders and our senior most leader told this young brother
son heaven is a much better place. If they kill you you wait in heaven
for us. We will come later.

That is truth. And tonight I pray that what you heard you will take it
and say Lord what must I do with my life? It is my prayer that you say
Lord what do you want me to do with my life? And the cross is never
imposed upon you. Consider Jesus for the joy that was set before Him.

Beyond the cross the joy it is worth paying the price. It is. We wish
you God's blessing for your further life.

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Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/25/SID25613.mp3
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/kp-yohannan/fully-committed-to-jesus-christ-german/
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