This sermon emphasizes the importance of sacrificial service and radical commitment to God's mission, sharing powerful stories of missionaries facing persecution and spreading the Gospel in challenging regions like Nepal and India. The speaker urges the congregation to prioritize prayer, fasting, and supporting native missionaries, highlighting the impact of personal sacrifice and obedience in advancing God's kingdom amidst global need and suffering.

What a joy to be here with you today. And I always look forward to coming to California. I suppose the main reason is the in-and-out hamburger shop. I honestly believe that's the best thing happened for California. We have emailed them a whole bunch of times asking them to come to Dallas, Texas and threatened them, and now they are willing to think about it, I heard. Professor Tim was very gracious and kind to take us to the in-and-out burger place last night, and really it happened, may the Lord bless him. John Beers, my colleague and co-worker, we left Dallas yesterday to be here. And, of course, before coming to the States, Dave for us today, as a matter of fact, had landed here before that I was in New Zealand and Australia for two weeks of intense travel. And during a prayer meeting, I was sharing about Nepal, what God is doing there. A Hindu nation, on the law, still they have this. If you baptize a Hindu, the punishment is six years imprisonment. And many of our missionaries suffered a whole lot. Right now we are one in prison for many, many years. And the country went through a huge revolution, as you know. The king and the entire family got butchered, and then, of course, things changed. And now the red-hot communist Maoist became a huge threat to the country. The new king resigned and stepped down, and they declared the country is going to be a secular government. And they are rewriting the constitution, and I told the people in New Zealand, our office there and the staff, we need to be really praying that God will intervene, that they will change the law on the book. Meanwhile, in India, the Hindu radical fundamentalists are going to Nepal trying to persuade the lawmakers to make it more tougher for Christian work in Nepal. And we've been working there for years. Think about it, in the midst of huge persecution problems, we have over 200 churches planted among the most unreached. And one of the key is that since the Maoists began to cause so much trouble for the government and the king, they left us alone. And our missionaries had more freedom to preach the gospel. And then the huge miracle, I was telling during the prayer meeting time, is that we are able to broadcast the gospel on 16 FM radio stations. Now think about it, they belong to the government. India, with 1.2 billion people, so far we don't have the freedom to air the gospel over the radio. They won't allow us. So we are airing the gospel from outside of India and these nations in 92 languages. And over a million people write to us a year asking for more information about the Lord. So I was so excited about what's going on in Nepal. And then we are going to add more radio stations if they are willing to let us do. You know, it was so wonderful. And I said, now we are going to divide into small groups and we are going to pray. And then I stepped down, I missed one step. And I just fell down and twisted my ankle. And the whole church could hear the sound. And it was a horrible pain. But the Lord was gracious and I survived with the wheelchairs and all those things. And I didn't want to cancel coming here. And tonight I'll be back in Dallas and tomorrow catching another flight to Sri Lanka and India for a week before coming back to Florida. Of course, you know, our U.S. headquarters for our mission is in Dallas, Texas. Some 120 people work behind the scenes like John Beers. He's in leadership. And my wife is in Dallas at the time. That's where our home, my two children born in Dallas, by the way, and finished their studies here. And the Lord called them to leave America and they are on the mission for the last 10 years. And what a blessing it is. And somebody asked me, where is my home? I said, the suitcase. You know, because kids are gone, so my wife also travels a little bit here and there with us. You know what, Gisela and I, that's her name, we talked about this. We miss each other quite a bit. But we made a calculated decision. As M.E. Carmichael said, we have moments, only few seconds to work, but eternity to rejoice. And it's a calculated decision. And I told my wife, if you feel this is too much, what we are doing, please let me know. But she's more crazy than I am. But I tell you something. When you recognize the time is so brief, and then, you know, in 1974 I came to America to Dallas to go to seminary, and within a few years time I was becoming like an American. You know, that means when I first came to America, I thought hot dog was dog meat. Literally, I will touch it. But then I learned my lessons well. And in a few years time, you know, library to my name, and thousands of books I may never read, but look wonderful. 70 neckties, all from Europe, because I spent some time there. And then, you know, clothes I bought from most expensive places, which is not a bad thing, by the way. But it took me about half hour to get dressed often because I read a book, Color Me Beautiful. Some of you men, look, you are lost. Ask your wife. Indian, from the streets of India, eight years of weeping over the lost and perishing Indians, seeing the poverty and the struggle having come to this nation, materialism began to kill me. I was in seminary, pastoring a church. Spoke the right language. But all of a sudden I found my eyes were dry. I couldn't cry anymore. My heart was cold. I was deep into theology and preaching and teaching. And then I realized, I'm no more becoming like Christ, I'm becoming what I want to be. And that's when I prayed nearly 30 years ago, kneeling down in my study and said, Lord, my heart is gone. I don't know what to do. Would you take eternity and stand on my eyes? And that was before Gospel for Asia. You know, my brothers and sisters, I'm here with you knowing this is one of the finest churches with some of the most godly leadership and a teaching pastor. Why should I pretend to be here to teach or preach? Because you have it all. And the truth of the matter is, the Lord allowed me to come here with the kindness of the leadership to share with you some practical things that should help us to understand ways of the Lord. You know, what we don't understand, you can see all the pictures in the world, you can hear all the stories in the world, read all the books in the world, and be brainwashed with information about the lost world, such as 2 billion people still wait to hear the name Jesus. 80,000 people die every single day and plunge into hell and forever. And all this stuff you can hear. But you will continue to live your life the same way. And spend your money the same way. And for the sake of soothing your guilty conscience, maybe you may give your money or go to Mexico or different things. But that is not the way Christ is. The way Christ is when he saw the multitude he was broken up with such pain. In John's Gospel chapter 4 he lost his very appetite by the confrontation he had with one woman that is lost without the Father. And that woman's life became the window for him to see the multitudes that are perishing. And then he cries out saying, lift up your eyes disciples and see what I see. Because they are worried about hamburger and french fries and food and all kinds of stuff. They are worried about eating their food. They are worried about Christ eating his food. But he said, I lost my appetite. Think about it. When was the last time your wife or your husband or your children said to you, what happened to you? You are hungry? You are eating? I mean you have been missing meals so many times. Something wrong? Then you respond. Well, the truth of the matter is, remember a few days ago we were watching what happened in Bangladesh, 100,000 people died overnight and thousands of kids on the streets and millions displaced. And it just breaks my heart. I made a decision to fast for 3-4 days and pray for these people and experience the pain Christ experienced for the lost and dying millions. Please, for kindness sake, understand me. I am not here to get anything from you or put you on any kind of guilt trip. We have come to the place in church that obedience has come to the place of being misunderstood as legalism. But Jesus said, unless you love me more than father, son, daughter, even your very life, you cannot be mine. These are verses we don't want to talk about maybe. I don't want to talk about it. But when the Lord dealt with my heart, I realized He was asking me for surgery without anesthesia. He said, you raised the dragon, you got a slave, I will enforce you, you can choose. And I tell you, it was not easy. My brothers and sisters, what the Lord did in my own, this brief walk, I remember sitting in my study, writing some notes with my mon blank, a pen, who wants to spend $350 for a stupid little fountain pen? Because I was in Germany, it was my great joy, because I always loved fountain pens. I remember writing with this thing, and the Lord just spoke to me, I said, son, 100 years from now, who is going to use this pen? I said, what? I just asked you a question. Then He let me think about everything I was living for. And I added 100 years from my age and found out I'm dead! I'm gone! Nothing I take with me. I better commit my life and every fiber of my being so radical that nothing in the world should hold me back from giving all to Him and loving Him and living for the cause. And I won't recommend you to sell your house and car and wife and kids and all those stuff. I'm not promoting any of that stuff. But this is what I'm telling you. We've got a problem of information becoming godliness. Information will never make it godly. As a matter of fact, I tell you what, Christ died on the cross not to forgive our sin alone and take us to heaven, but to set us free from our own self-centeredness. Because only then we can see Christ using our earthen vessels to change this lost world. And I so badly wanted to do my own way of things for God. And the Lord said to me, listen, why don't you become a servant, a slave, so that instead of you just going to some mission field on your own, trying to do something, let your life become the reason for thousands of my servants go to the mission field. It was a whole new revelation, new understanding. You say, what are you talking about? I'm talking with over a million people. They will not allow Americans to come or Europeans to be missionaries there to preach, baptize and transfer. As a matter of fact, the 1040 window region, restricted, mostly closed, we take people overseas by the way, we do, we challenge them to do that for a few months or whatever, but I'm talking about how do you reach half of the country that never heard the name Jesus? I remember the early days when they heard the name Jesus, the most common answer, very polite, nice people, they said, you know, I've been living here for 20, 30, 40 years, no one by that name lives here. You go to the next village, you may find them there. Literally. This is actually true. And how do you reach these people? This is where the Lord began to show us the very beginning and end our lives with brothers and sisters on the mission field. Indians and Nepalis and Bhutanese and Burmese and Thailand people and Chinese and pray for them and help them to get the job done. As a matter of fact, today we have 16,000 full-time well-trained missionaries on the field. Over these years we have seen 24,000 churches planted among people close to 60 new fellowships, churches born on the mission field. You say, that's unbelievable. You better believe it. You want to go with me? Please, we'll buy a ticket and go. And you'll be surprised to see what God is doing. Such as this man wrote from Nepal, listened to a radio broadcast, Sir, I hear if I believe in your Jesus my sins can be forgiven. Then can we all join you? A missionary was sent to a beautiful church now in the community. From the end of Bhutan, a place that is not even on the map. Literally, we looked for it. This guy wrote, I heard about Jesus over the radio and I was laying on my mat in my hut as paralyzed for years. I prayed to Jesus. I don't know what happened. I got up. This book you talk about, this book, two missionaries worked seven days to get to the community. Now there's a church. We can't build churches in Bhutan, but a house we built and inside they worship. This is unbelievable what is happening today. Did you know in India nearly 300 million people of the population, the untouchables, the Dalits, you heard about them? The worst slavery that was in America or England. It is in India. 162 million child laborers, little kids, 4, 5, 6 year old kids starting to work from morning till night making 8, 9 cents for the whole day's labor. Do you have kids? I have two. Think about your little boy and girl half naked working to make a few cents. You know who are these kids? The children of the untouchables. You see, what is it that I am so consumed about my children, their welfare, their health and wealth and education? Is God so partial that he has no feeling for 100,000 children wandering on the streets of Bombay not knowing who their parents are? He cares. And he weeps. But the problem is not his. The problem is mine that I cannot become like him because I am consumed with my own affair even in spiritual things. And I remember the Lord speaking in my heart, Son, 7 expensive leather-bound Bibles sitting on your shelf when half of the world have never seen one page of the Bible. What is it all about? And I began to weep. What is it called us for? And I tell you, in the mission field, literally thousands are coming to Christ almost every hour but there is a price paid. You go to the website and simply take some time. Don't look for your movies to rent. Look at the websites like GFA.org or any and see every day thousands are butchered, murdered for the sake of Christ There is not a week go by I don't hear about 10-12 of our missionaries beaten, abused, bones broken. One of our missionaries who baptized over 100 people early morning he was going on his bicycle to ministry. A group of men caught them in Bihar. You know what they did? They stripped him naked and took a razor blade and went all over his body left him to die on the roadside. Two missionaries went to the northeast to welcome the Muslims. They won 18 or 19 people to the Lord baptized and one morning these two brothers were going about their evangelism ministry when they met a group of men and the leader of the gang stepped forward, took a long dagger and stabbed him, his wife and two kids behind and Salsal, his co-worker they stabbed him six times he recovered after many months. You know, my sisters, listen to this. This young wife, the wife of this missionary who was murdered she is a Muslim convert her parents are not Christians she was alone with her husband and two kids in a strange mission field. She had said, my daughter, thank God the devil is dead now you come home with me with my grandchildren. Now, the answer to this anger there my father, I can't I love these people I love Jesus I will raise my children to take the place of my husband and they must serve the Lord. And that shocked this father who is a Muslim in two weeks time she led him to the Lord Jesus Christ I can't I can tell you all the events and stories that are going on unbelievable but please understand it is not because some magical powers or some super brains it is because behind it are individuals who made a choice my life is not my own it is his and that's also about however that interpreted in my own life if you do that I tell you when we stand before the Lord it is not just you and me and our little families but millions and no man can number multitudes and we will dance forever and I tell you that is what our destiny is and I pray that this earth the things of the world and friendships and whatever else whatever let us be radicals now for me when the Lord told us to do this one of the greatest joy was saying Lord I will do that little did I know when I made that surrender that what it meant was I was linking my life with brothers and sisters that the Lord will use to see so many come to know the Lord one of the mission fields I was in and we have a Bible college there we have 54 Bible colleges with over 7,000 students in all these 10 countries by the way we graduate over 2,000 these are not Americans these are people from their own countries who go to the unreached people groups in their country or the near country whatever is unbelievable and this one young man went to the place this particular mission field is so difficult and demon possessed people and sick people and opposition and all that this dear brother was going about ministering and one day he saw this family sitting so sad and gloomy like somebody died in their home and he said what happened they said well our buffalo we milk the buffalo and sell the milk and make a living but our buffalo is dying we don't know what to do and he quietly said Lord this is the only chance please do something about it and he laid hand on this dying buffalo and he prayed before he could finish the prayer that buffalo jumped up and he shocked the family he ended up giving all their lives to the Lord more people came to the Lord and he baptized over a period of many months of over 120, 140 people and the church was built and we will not forget what God did we named the church the buffalo church it's a cool idea how do we translate all this you know there are several things I would recommend to you one we all pray but did you know there is a study being released about our country Christians in America average believer pray less than 8 minutes a day and ministers pray less than 12 minutes a day I am not talking about this church obviously but I just ask you when was the last time you spent an hour or two with the Lord when was the last time the burden He shared with you because intimacy with Him so much you called into the workplace and said I can't come home today I am sick they said you are sick well I can tell you I just can't work I am sick you are sick and broken up by Christ when you walked on earth and you are His but you will never never know this with all the theology and preaching and consultations and counsels unless you be His to be with Him let Him tell you His burdens my recommendation to you which I make to our people here make one day of the week for fasting and prayer and get a world map there it is become a world Christian someone said not a world Christian when my kids were growing up in Dallas we had the world map by our dining table and every day we looked at this talked about different countries and prayed for the different countries we called operation world book you know what the kids did we never told them go to the mission field but when they finished their studies they ran off one to Nepal, one to India and they never want to come back what happened they understood the heart of God I'm not saying you have to run off to some country but prayer they said what am I going to pray for go to our website we can bury you with prayer you will believe it fantastic exercise and just fasting one day of the week you will not die if you die please let me know second application you know for me everything in me died I couldn't touch godliness anymore while I was in the ministry because of materialism and the Lord had to set me free that means different thing to different people I have friends who are multi-millionaires who are intensely walking with God touching the lost world but there are poor people who got nothing but greedy like the devil I'm not promoting selling your stuff and house and cars that's not what I'm saying but when half of the world go to bed with empty stomach and naked bodies let's not fool ourselves and be superficial about it how many more clothes you need to make you look nice how many more diamond rings you need to prove his love for you how many more new cars and trinkets we need to make us happy listen find happiness in suffering that you accept in the flesh why I say it I still fight this battle it is not over invest invest your life for things are not perish but please don't do it out of guilt or condemnation or need or whatever you seek the Lord don't be careless about it the next recommendation I have if the Lord is calling you to serve Him listen take the risk you will never be abandoned by Him ok, get a one way ticket you die, don't worry heaven is a much better place this is what we tell our missionaries when they go to the mission field by the way if you get killed on the mission field you wait there for us and we'll come and see you later exactly we tell them this because the persecution is so severe in many places now we live there but we can serve God in all kind of ways and we are even looking for people to work with us in Dallas, Texas skilled, unskilled anyone who want to serve God we will talk to you we need people in Canada we need people in Australia in all kind of places and we are looking for people with skills like television and all these we are planning to launch a television channel in the next two months we need people to come and help us in all these places and if you are one that got any kind of skill in these kind of areas media, please talk to us we'll buy you a one way ticket and throw your passport away and we will take care of you please don't worry about that and it will be a joyous and wonderful thing and a fellowship like this what a place for people to pray and help you as a matter of fact we are so happy we have a couple from this church that is going to be joining us this year and please I think it's Jonathan in his name and please pray for the family the last recommendation I have for you is that, you know my first choice was not to be in America or anywhere I just want to go to India or Nepal somewhere that's when the Lord said, listen do this and you can do more and that's when Gospel for Asia began there is a card given to you in the bulletin would you please pull it out and it is right there with you in the bulletin and be kind enough to look at this if you want to read it on the screen you can also what it is, simply this as I told you we have thousands of brothers and sisters in all these nations who speak the language live like their people with a passion burning for Jesus but they come from different backgrounds and this is where we can become Romans chapter 10 fulfillers that is, how will they go to preach except they be sent what I'm asking you would you pray and ask the Lord he'll give you the grace to help some of these native missionaries in Nepal, India, Bhutan any of those countries as a matter of fact, you're looking at the card this guy here on the card I know him personally but his parents literally threw him out of the house he came to the Bible college finished his 3 year study we sent him to the mission field he planned and saw for 5 churches in that state can you imagine you are given the privilege to be the sponsor of that missionary or hundreds like this dear brother what I'm asking you would you please help us we have literally hundreds of missionaries who are ready to go to the mission field my wife and I we can help 4 missionaries giving 30 dollars a month and each one of these missionaries God used them to establish churches on the mission field and you can do the same all you need to do is to fill this card your name and address and see how many missionaries you'd like to support we have a medical doctor who helps 50 missionaries a month he has more money than I have and if you don't know how you can help please do that all you need to do is sign this up and if you want to make the payments through a credit card and you know what we are going to do when you bring the card to the table we are going to give you your missionary or missionaries take home with you today start praying for them name and information, testimony they write you a couple of times a year and they become your family members for you to pray for them and when you go to the missionary I actually go to the mission field to the missionaries we don't take nothing out of that our staff raise their own support and we meet our needs like that so there are four things I pray that you consider and prayer evaluating your lifestyle seeking the Lord's call on your life but you can start today by saying Lord at least this I can do I can start helping some of these missionaries whatever the Lord asks you to do He will give you grace all I need to say Lord give me the strength and that is beautiful may the Lord speak to us Amen