In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of having a genuine relationship with Jesus and living a life of love. He expresses doubt about someone's salvation if they claim to be born again but show no concern for those who do not know Jesus. The speaker highlights the significance of missions and the impact that can be made through the grace of God. He encourages believers to deny themselves, carry their cross, and follow Jesus' example of saying no to their own desires in order to fulfill God's call.

I know you came this evening for the Indian food, and Thai food, and Chinese food, you know. I'm sure you enjoyed it. Some of us travel a lot to conferences and meetings, and I was just thinking this evening during the time of worship, what a blessing and privilege for us to have Terry and Nancy leading in worship. It's one thing to perform, it's another thing to take us before the Lord. And their lives, we are blessed, we are really blessed. And I realized I left my wallet in my hotel room, because I was thinking I would want to buy these music CDs they have. So if you didn't bring your wallet, you still can buy and send your money to them later. That's what I'm hoping to do. It's another way of stealing things, you know. Then too, I was thinking about this conference, you know, I mean, what is the Bible all about? When you condense the whole thing, and the bottom line, they say in America, it is Jesus, His cross, and redemption. And what is more significant than gathering like this? And you know, Jesus turned the whole world upside down and conquered the world through a handful of disciples. And throughout the centuries, this has always been true. And so to have this many people here for a missions conference, it's very, very significant. And never underestimate the possibilities that is within you, because of His grace, to see multiplied millions impacted. Not only they come to know the Lord, but they will become His disciples. Pastor John Michaels and our relationship with him and the fellowship here is significant. I do not know how many of you know this. He usually comes to Dallas at least once a year or so. We have pastors that come from all over the United States, sometimes 20, 30, or 15. And he teaches them about going overseas and doing biblical teaching, inductive study method. And I think by the grace of God, through his effort, hundreds of pastors and teachers travel to many, many nations and still do. And only heaven will tell the story, one day we will get there, the impact of John Michaels' life and his commitment to missions. And to put together something like this, and all the arrangement, the money spent, and the food, it is not simple, it's very complex. And Pastor John, really appreciate your effort and your commitment to do that. The Lord bless you. And then I see Pastor Ken Otis and Bob Cardwell, two great pastors, but missionary leaders really. And so I was saying to someone today, I don't know why I came to this conference knowing that these two are here. But what a blessing to know them and serve the Lord alongside with them. And I want to say this to you. I've been serving the Lord for 40 years now. My journey began when I was barely 17. And I'm, as you can imagine, my life is committed to the Lord and reaching the lost world. And now when you get older, one thing you look for is the coming of the Lord. The day you can see Him face to face and make life a little easier, I must tell you that. And over the years, my life changed on the inside a lot. People, when they think about me, they think about world evangelism and being a missionary leader and on and on like that. But if you were to ask me, what is your greatest burden that you carry on your heart? I would say the greatest burden I carry on my heart, it is with the body of Christ around the world. In this that the majority that call themselves Christians, I do not believe they know the Lord. And my concern is for people to really have an encounter with the living Christ. And all what they do will be the result of the Lord's grace in their life and knowing the Lord. And I have authored more than 225 books over these years. And several titles are in hundreds of thousands copies in print. And one of them is over two million copies in print. But about four years ago, during a week of prayer and waiting upon the Lord, some mysterious way the Lord spoke to my heart to spend my time seeking His face and studying and teach a subject that I never did before on a subject on godliness and how that can be realized through understanding, surrender and submission, both vertically and horizontally. It took me two years of prayer and seeking the Lord's face and testing things in my own life to see if this is real. Then after two years, I took time to teach that to over 500 of my senior leaders from around the world. And the dramatic change that took place in their lives, we hardly could believe it. And later when those CDs came to the United States, our staff, we got some 160 people in Dallas at our home office and then others in Canada and Europe. And as these CDs were circulated, testimonies came in how the Lord impacted their life and huge transformation began to take place. So then my colleagues like David Carroll, who was one of my senior leaders here, a man who really knows the Lord and I'm blessed to serve the Lord with him. And through their encouragement said, you know, we need to put this in writing and get it out in a book so that the body of Christ can be blessed. And all of a sudden I realized, my goodness, this is a burden I've been carrying for people to know the Lord. And finally, a couple of months ago, this book was released called Touching Godliness Through Submission. And I think they printed 5,000 copies. They ran out, I think, within six weeks. Some people are ordering 200 copies, 100 copies, and giving it to people. And I would encourage you to get a copy of that. I don't know how much it costs. I don't get any of these monies, by the way. They steal all my money. No, I mean, whatever you give for the book, it all goes to the Lord's work. And if you don't have any money for a book like that, please get one. And I think they will give it to you, whatever. If they don't, you tell me. All of us are on a journey. And I think the potential you have to know the Lord intimately and for the Lord to use your life to see fruit that lasts for eternity, you have no understanding, possibly, of how significant it is. What hinders us from realizing that and being Christ once again walking around on earth in our mortal body, it is our lack of honesty and uprightness. We began the journey well, but as we got going, we read these books and hear teachings, and we find out moral Christianity and godly Christianity and what it means to be spiritual. Instead of understanding about the road to reality through honesty and openness, we start pretending. And the more we pretend spirituality, the more we become ineffective and dark on the inside. And so, if you feel discouraged or if you feel like, you know, I've been hearing this kind of preaching and teaching and about missions and all that, I just don't see where I'm going and there's nothing within me, something has to happen. Or if you hear some goofy teaching, they will say there's some demon inside you and somebody has to cast it out. Don't believe all those lies. It is not that. It is easy to cast out demons, but it is not that easy to cast out the flesh. And so, learn to be honest with the Lord and with yourself and keep walking because this is a long journey. And God is faithful and he's not discouraged about you or about me. But I think it's a mistake for people to make that the whole world is going to hell and we have to do something about it because we've got money and health and wealth and airplane tickets. We can travel here and there or use our resources to make the changes. I think it's a significant mistake to make. We'll be converting, reverting back to the old covenant. God is in trouble. We have to do something and so we perform. But I must say this to you, after 40 years of serving God, I still believe firmly God is ever more deeply concerned about my inner life reality and my knowing him so he can do his work that will last for eternity. And if that be the case, we have every reason to be encouraged and have the hope to continue the journey. A friend of mine wrote these statements in one of his books. Listen to these words, it's kind of gripping. The American church is experiencing a crisis. For years, we have preached a cheap gospel and peddled a soft savior. We have taught salvation without self-denial and crowns without the cross. We have catered to the unsaved and compromised to the world. Now we are paying the price. Our salvation message has dishonored God and deceived men. Our faulty seeds have produced a flaky harvest. What a pitiful crop we are reaping. As Americans, we believe, as American believers, we spend hours watching television but minutes watching in prayer. We are hungry for the sports page but have little taste for the word. We spend more money on pet food than on foreign missions. We love to feast but hate to fast. We welcome God's blessings but we are weary of His burdens. Is this what Jesus died for? Is this our new life in Him? Stop for a moment and think. Anyone who spends more time playing video games than seeking God in prayer has no right to call Jesus Lord. Anyone who takes delight in today's perverted soap operas is serving another God. Anyone who cannot die to sports for a season is worshipping idols. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Because friendship with the world is hatred toward God. We find that in 1 John 2 verse 15 and James 4 verse 4. We call ourselves citizens of heaven yet our hearts are caught up in the earthly treasures. We sing, we are the people of God but we are entertained by the worst of the devil's children. We claim to be dead to the world yet we are more interested in the temporal fashions than in eternal souls. Something is wrong with our salvation experience. Bad fruits mean bad roots. We say, just confess Jesus as Lord and you are in. He says, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. We say, just come to the altar, it will all take just a minute. He says, make every effort to enter through the narrow gate because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Who do you think is right? At a conference like this, my temptation or my wish is to keep on talking about India and China and Albania and Europe and Russia and all that and I think you are well informed. But I want to encourage you as an individual, knowing that you are here because you care about the Lord and you are here not because somebody beat you up and say, come or I'll kill you or offer you a lot of money. I think you are here because you are very serious about following the Lord. And so I want to encourage you to press further into knowing the Lord. In the light of what I just read for you, I don't think you need to be convinced anymore. If you think for a minute, the Christianity that we are living in today in our nation here. And somebody asked me, what is the problems or the kind of problems we are dealing with overseas? I said, you know, it used to be the Hindus and Muslims and the persecution. But now we have a new problem we have to deal with. The American television preachers coming to these nations with the plastic prosperity. Bless me, God, claim it and name it and get it and keep it. And it's causing a huge amount of damage for the young Christians and especially young pastors in many of these nations. And I don't know what we are going to face within the days to come here. But whatever happens is going to be good. Because you know what the Lord is seeking to do. I got a T-shirt this morning when I came here. Large size and I'm not large, but I pretend to be large. But on the back of the T-shirt has this neat statement. The scripture from Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16, verse 24. You want to turn your Bibles to that? It's a very significant portion of scripture. Jesus talked about, I believe, keep in mind world evangelism. But he talked about disciples who will want to follow him. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16, verse 24. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for me will find it. Christianity and following the Lord is an all out commitment. Not to bunch of doctrines or denominations. But an all out commitment to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he calls you and calls me saying, come and follow me. And I must tell you, the road is very narrow. And he said that. And unless you and I are willing to hear his call. Saying forsake all, deny yourself, be mine. Come away from the sin and the wickedness of the world. Many will hear it, but they will not want to pay the price. The Savior, our Lord, is not looking for men and women who will give their spare time and weekends and their retirement age and then do everything to please themselves and give an hour of Sunday morning or two weeks special mission trip to some field to say I did something for God. No, I think he is looking for people who recognize every minute of their life, every day, 24 hours, their entire life, their entire being belong to Christ and everything about them is dictated, directed by one thing. I am not my own, I belong to Christ. Blood was the price he paid to purchase me. I have no right on my own life. And as you study the mission history, you will find it is not the masses and the billions of dollars that created impact upon these generations behind us, but it was a few lives like Amy Carmichael or Jetson or Hudson Taylor or men and women that you never heard about but they were true saints who walked with God although they had nothing of the world and the reason was they knew Jesus and they heard his call and decided to say no to self and sin and yes to him that propelled them to action to go to the end of the world. Whether they were living at home in America or China or India, anywhere, their hearts were so completely surrendered to Christ. They prayed and gave and went and did everything they knew because of the love they had for Jesus and that's all there was. H.A. Evan Hopping said this statement which is quite significant. He looks today, that is Christ, as he has ever looked, not for crowds drifting aimlessly in his track, but for individual men and women whose undying allegiance will spring from their having recognized that he wants those who are prepared to follow the path of self-renunciation which he, that is Christ himself, trod before them. Nothing less than unconditional surrender could be a fitting response to Christ's death on the cross and he did that for us. We sing those words, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. But how often we forget the implications of those words. And Jesus did make stringent demands upon those that want to follow him. I want to mention a few of them tonight in the light of the challenge we face in our generation and see how we can apply this to our life. One, Jesus said, love me more than anyone, anything, your own life. In Luke chapter 14 verse 26 he finds, if anyone wants to come after me and follow me, he said, he must love me more than father, mother, son, daughter. You know what, I wish he put a full stop there. You read on, you'll find, he must love me, she must love me more than his own self and life. That bothers me. Self-preservation, we will give up everything and all things but please, just this little life of mine, I want to keep it. And Jesus said, yeah, you can keep it, but you can lose it. You want to be mine? Give it away. You know that song often we sing, we hear, very emotional, very meaningful, my Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine, for thee all the follies of sin I resign. Remember that? For thee all the follies of sin I resign. A lot of people say, you know what, I don't want to do any sin because it's bad. It's bad for you. There's a hell waiting for you. Daddy will be upset if he found out this. Mommy will be sad. Yeah, all good reasons, but you know what, we hate sin, not because sin is bad, it is bad, but we do so because it grieves my Lord and my Savior. There is such horrible ineffectiveness in the lives of Christians and missionaries because there is such dichotomy in their life. The struggle with sin never ceased. They spend more time repenting every day of sins they commit. People can see or they don't see, and they never made a reconciliation saying that, I am dead to sin. Not that we become perfect angels overnight, but I am not the person I was last week. And keep moving toward becoming more like the Lord Jesus Christ. And the motivation for us to find that inner reality and godliness, it never comes through self-realization of fighting with the flesh and say, I'm not going to look at that TV program, I'm going to read this thing, I have disciplined myself. No, I think it comes through the understanding of how my Lord thinks about it. That which He hates, I hate. It is because of Him. I said not to a whole bunch of things. I'd like to do a lot of things, but I know that's not what He wants. There's a scripture in the book of Psalms, you know, the psalmist prayed, Lord, search my heart and help me know what is out there and lead me to the way, the path of righteousness. In the living Bible read like this, Lord, please help me understand what is on the inside in my heart. And please let me know if there's anything within me that make you sad. And I think the reason why the Lord said, you must love me more than anything else, because He knew unless the disciples, after three and a half years come to the place of understanding who He is and love Him for who He is, they're not going to make it. You know, there's a tradition. I did not know this is exactly the way to happen, but the tradition is that Peter was in prison along with his wife and they both were going to be killed for their faith. And of course, you know, the tradition Peter was crucified upside down because he didn't want to be crucified the way Christ was crucified, which was his request. But as they took his wife out of the prison, it says, he said to her, my wife, remember how much he loved us. And so what kept these people going to the end of the world? Like Thomas coming to India, laying down his life in AD 52. The question, what happened to his wife? What happened to his children? You are making a mistake if you think that Christ's disciples were all monks, that they didn't have any family or children. Obviously, Peter had a mother-in-law. You cannot have a mother-in-law without a wife. If you didn't figure that out, now you know. So I'm not saying, if God calls you, abandon your wife and kids and walk anywhere and this and that. But what I'm saying, what about the soldiers that we are sending to Iraq and Kuwait and nations sending all over the world? And there's no problem about them leaving everything and business and their professions and walking away. But when it comes to the challenge of reaching the lost world and walking away from everything for six months or a year or two years, we are so programmed here. Your family first, God second. By the way, I got a wife and two kids and I love them. So please don't misunderstand me. But what I'm trying to tell you is this. Whatever the Lord calls us to do, the courage we get to walk away from it. If God calls you, I mean, David Carroll, my colleague here, he was in California. He had his own company as a CPA and his business. And some 16, 17 years ago he read one of my books. And he says that ruined his entire life. And, of course, he gave up his business and sold his business, sold his house and his parents and relatives said, you are absolutely mad out of your brains to give up the dream to make a few millions and have a great life and realize American dream. But he walked away from all and came to Texas of all the places in the world. And you ask him, David Carroll, why on earth you would give up a dream like that and such a promising future? His answer is very simple. I know him too well. He said, well, it's all Jesus. I love him. That's all there is. And my brothers and sisters, whatever the Lord is calling you to do, I would say, think about him. Some of you may be sitting here, I don't know, one of you, two of you, maybe got a few million dollars in the bank. By the way, spend it as soon as you can. And maybe the Lord, you know, you are a medical doctor and the Lord has been saying to you, you know, why don't you walk away from this life here you have and sell this mansion and slow down and trim down and walk away for a couple of years to some other country and give you a life. And you are holding on to it saying that next year, next year. You know what? You will never do it. The need will always be there and greater. What will give you the impetus, the joy to do something when the Lord calls you to do it is to focus on him and walk after him and think about after a few years running into him and seeing him face to face. And that is the reason why the Lord insists that we put him first in our life. One of our people from the Dallas office go into the mission field, ran into a student in one of our Bible colleges is a Hindu Brahmin young man who, while he was studying in college, gave his life to Christ and his parents threw him out. And he has a sister and he had to leave home with the clothes on his back and they called the priest to conduct the ceremony, cleansing the house, which declares that that son is no more alive. He's dead as far as they are concerned. So while he was now studying in our Bible college, preparing himself to serve the Lord, this individual asked him, are you not sad that you lost everything you have, your wealth and your parents and your sister? And he answered, he said, you know, I'm very sad. I often think about my dad and mom and my sister. I cannot go home. And then he paused and said, but if I must do it again, I will choose Jesus over everything. And I'm glad I know him. And I pray that my parents, my family will come to know the Lord. And I think that's only an illustration example of what love can do when you follow the Lord. His call upon your life will never become difficult for you to do it because there's a greater power. You know, the story of Jacob in the Old Testament. We all talk bad about him. And he's a nice guy. I mean, Jacob. And, you know, I mean, he was quite an interesting character. He cheated his older brother, got the birthright. And of course, you know, he got in trouble. He had run away from home. And Jacob, you know, means meaning a deceiver. But he ended up with twice the crook he was, Laban. And so he, you know, he sees his girl, you know, Rachel, the most gorgeous, beautiful creature walked on earth as far as he was concerned. And he fell in love with her and he wanted to marry her. And so, you know, Laban says, yeah, sure. No problem. I will give my daughter to you. But dowry there you had to pay. And the dowry is you had to work seven years for my daughter. He said, no problem. So he worked seven years. And so the grand, wonderful, glorious, fantastic day on earth came for him to get married. So he gets married. And next morning he wakes up and find it wasn't Rachel. It was the other girl. And the one that he didn't like, Rachel's sister. And so he gets mad. And he comes to Laban and says, what are you doing to me? And he says, son, calm down. No problem. What do you mean no problem? I got the wrong one. Well, son, you know, this is the way we do things here. I mean, you want Rachel? Yeah, you can have her also. Yeah, you can. Yeah, seven more years you had to work. Fourteen years he worked like a slave for this girl. And the Bible says it was like a day because he loved Rachel. And our brothers and sisters, in your commitment to follow the Lord and serve the Lord and whatever you do, may I ask you to keep this as your supreme priority to know the Lord. Read the Bible, study the Bible, not to find more help to develop your life and make things better for you and make more money or create new decisions. Rather, read the Bible to see Jesus and his nature, his character. And see the man, Jesus, not God. He was God and he is. But see him in the Gospels and how he walked and how he prayed and how he conducted himself and how he sought nothing for himself. He sought no honor from any man and how humble and submissive and broken he was. And think about it. How he walked and then you follow him and his submission to his father. And that makes all the difference in the world. The second thing Jesus said, many things. If anyone wants to come after me, follow me. He must pick up his cross daily and follow me. Matthew's Gospel chapter 16 verse 24, that verse again. It is a deliberate choosing of the cross. Denying ourself. You know, a lot of people get mixed up with self-denial with denying self. Self-denial is you give up In-N-Out hamburger and french fries. Or Thai food or don't go to movies or don't do this, don't do that. Or ski trip and all that, whatever. But denying self is a choice we make for complete submission to the Lordship of Christ. Incidentally when I talked about my book, of all the books I have written. I think this is the most significant book I have written. That's the reason I told you the number of books I have written. And the reason is this. The entire message of the book is this. Come to the place of absolute submission to the Lord. If that be the case, your submission to your authority here on earth will change radically. It will reflect that. Well, I will not want to talk about that. But you know the scriptures that says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 14 and 15. If you will please turn to those words, it's a significant verse. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 14 and 15. For Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all. And therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves. But for him who died for them and was raised again. You know I remember meeting a couple many years ago in Chicago. That felt the Lord was calling them to go to the mission field. Wherever they were called to go. I don't remember the details. But I was, you know, I'm not one sending all Americans overseas. That is not my main focus. But anytime I run into somebody who says the Lord called me to go to China, India, you know, Albania, anywhere. I do everything under the sun to encourage them to get out of the country. I remember, you know, while I was in a meeting, four medical doctors, young people came to me and said they read my book. And they were so happy to find out now they can make millions and send to us. And so we can reach the lost world. But they said all that after saying they felt the Lord was calling them all to go to Africa as missionaries. I said, look, we don't need your money. If the Lord called you to go and serve the Lord overseas with your life, you better obey that. And God has more money elsewhere he can give it to us. You better pack your suitcase and go. I think they were surprised by that. But what I'm saying this to you is this young couple, I was so happy to hear their story. But then they kept talking and they kept talking. And I found out they didn't want to go overseas. And the reason was they said, what about our health, our medical insurance, our retirement? And if we get sick, what happens? How are we going to do it? And they had 10 million, 20,000 questions. And I heard all that and I said to myself, they're not going to make it. If Jesus thought about all the problems he must face as he came to earth, he would never have made it. No way. He knew everything that was going to happen. But here, I mean, this is one of the tragedy of the church today. Look like pastors and mission pastors are promoting. We can reach the whole world through a two-week trip to Nepal, India or Afghanistan or some place. And young kids who had no clue about brokenness or suffering or the cross. And they raise their money through whatever means. And the backpack and M&M's and their soft drinks and whatever else. And their lotion to wash their hands so no germs will attack them. And their mosquito spray and all this stuff. And they get over there and two weeks they walk around and a whole bunch of people come and look at them. And they say a bunch of prayers and come back and say, we got 100,000 people came to Christ. And I'm telling you, we send young people overseas. I'm excited for the possibility of hundreds of thousands of American young people going overseas. But I'm telling you something. True missionary work calls for laying down our life for emotional and physical suffering if we want to reach the lost world. And the cross, we don't want to talk about. As a matter of fact, it is a missing jewel in American Christianity. We cannot talk about the cross. We cannot talk about the suffering. And this is a simple fact. But you read the New Testament. I challenge you to do that. And find out, can you ever experience any depth of godliness without the cross operating in our life. You will not find it. When people accuse Paul about how mean and bad he was and all kind of nonsense. The church at Corinth, he writes 2nd Corinthians. You read that letter, you'll be amazed. He is not saying, you guys, you're off the wall. Don't you know I'm a great apostle? Don't you know how many letters are wrote? Don't you know how many sermons are preached? Don't you know how many churches are planted? No. He simply says, you want to know if I'm authentic? When he described in chapter 4 and chapter 6 of the suffering, the shipwreck, the pain, the hunger, the loneliness, the rejection, and the tears. And one time he said, I almost lost my mind. The burden he carried. The agony. I'm telling you my brothers and sisters, a day is coming and I think we need to understand this. And now better we understand it. That is, commit yourself to carry the cross by denying yourself. But KP, what do you mean by that? I would recommend to you to think about buying an alarm clock to begin with. I have three or four of them. And what do you do? You try this because your day is full of busyness and telephone calls or whatever else you are part of. And why don't you turn the alarm clock on to come on to wake you up like two in the morning or three in the morning? And is this silence in the house? Nobody is talking and nobody is bothering you? Why don't you go to the bathroom and wash your face and then go to the living room? And don't lay on your lazy chair. But, you know, think about kneeling by your chair if there's no problem with your knees. And spend time with the Lord. And get a world map. And start looking at the world. And today I heard about somebody here. I know who it is. They keep their computer on for information to come in from different countries of the world. You know, what is going on in different nations. And as they see these things, they take that as a prayer request and start praying for the nations. And you start maybe with one hour. And then ask the Lord to give you the grace to increase that. And then I would encourage you to start at least one day of the week to fast. And pray. It is again something people don't understand how serious it is. Jesus fasted 40 days. And the Bible teaches a lot about it. If you don't know about it, get the book called God's Chosen Fast by Arthur Wallace. That's the name of the author. Arthur Wallace. It's a paperback book. By the way, American Christian bookshops hardly sell any more good books. It's one of the curse that we have to deliver. I mean, I've been to bookshops just for the sake of finding out what they're putting out. You know what I'm learning? The publishing house giving 10 million dollars to a Christian author to write 5 books. And they tell him what to write. I can tell you names and all this stuff. It is, I mean, you just don't know what's going on sometimes. Most of the books you're buying from bookshops are useless. They have nothing to offer for godliness or repentance or knowing God. And ladies, my sisters, stop reading Christian novels. They are sin. They're hurting you. So you gave up the wicked sex novels. Now they're giving you soft novels with the same feelings you get. Why you go after this stuff? Dying to self, giving up. It's not just simply say, this is bad. But saying, you know, I'm not my own. This is the end of it. And I embrace the pain, the inconvenience that comes from it. And then there are people. I mean, right now, the economic crunch coming upon the nation. And I tell you, I don't know what's going to go into this. But don't get scared. If you have nothing left, you will not die. I mean, this, I, so, hallelujah. I mean, I can tell you this. I mean, some 30 years ago, when I was living in Dallas. And this is no joke. I sometimes spent half hour trying to figure out which jacket I was going to wear and which tie. I had 70 plus neckties from Europe. And I was color coordinating the whole crazy, stupid stuff. And then when the Lord convicted my heart. And I realized that I didn't understand the way of the cross. Which I knew for 8 years of my life on the mission field. But then I came to America. And I was backsliding into materialism. When I was in pastorate and going to seminary. But that's when I said, Lord, this is it. I repented. And I said, I cannot please myself. I'm not my own. And I said to my wife, a couple of ties. Just a few trousers and six, seven shirts. And all the rest, sell or go, salvage army, whatever. You know what? Now, for me, it takes two seconds to get dressed. And I have a couple of ties. And, you know, it's a curse anyway to wear a tie. But I'm glad I didn't wear one here. But, you know, some people's lives are so burdened down because of their material things. You have become a slave. Maybe not you, but lots of people have become slaves to maintain this keyboard. And this and that and clothes. My God, what a headache. Get rid of all this stuff. Keep two ties. Couple of shoes. You know, I got a new thing here. Somebody bought this for me. And I don't have to worry about tying anything. What I'm trying to tell you is this. Keep your life simple. When Jesus said, unless you forsake all and follow me, I cannot dictate to you about your house, your car and watch. That's not my business. But, please remember, I tell you a secret. Hundred years from now, you are not going to be using any of that stuff. Go ahead, if you want to clap, no problem. I need to run here. But rich young man came to Jesus and said, Lord, I want to follow you. The Lord said, yeah, good idea. I want you to follow me. But here's a problem. You have to forsake your riches. And he said, I have to? Well, you know, all the rich people came to Jesus, to everyone. He didn't say that. But Jesus knew very well, there's no way he's going to make it. Because he loved himself too much. And his wealth and possessions gave him meaning and worth. And many people who are called by God to go for six months to the mission field. Or support missionaries. Or print a million Bibles for people who don't have Bibles. Or help children that are dying on the streets. They can't do it because they are drunk and possessed with their own life. And Jesus says, you want to be mine? The only way to do that is give up. And deny yourself. Which, by the way, causes pain. If you think 40 years of my journey to serve God. That I met God and everything changed. And I'm happy, spiritually high. I tell you, you are making a mistake. I had to repent 10 million times every year. I'm still horribly tempted. For wealth, for this and that. And I struggle like anyone else. And there's not a single day I don't have to run to the cross 15, 20, 30 times repenting. Over things I want. And my mind began to rationalize. They did it, they did it, they did it. Why not? And in the end I had to say no to myself. Which my flesh says, why are you killing me again? And I had to get out of me and talk back to the flesh. And it says in Peter, He suffered for us leaving this example that we may follow in His footsteps. That is not talking about the cross, the nail and the blood. Throughout Christ's life on earth. To fulfill the call of redemption. He had to say no to himself, what he wanted. And said yes to the Father. So this is the week of conference on world missions. But I tell you what, you may have only realized 5% of the potential there is for you to know God. And be used by Him in the light of eternity. But you will never make it until you come to the place and say, Lord, I'm willing to accept the suffering. I'm going to get the alarm clock. I'm going to turn it on. And I'm going to pray. I'm going to fast. Which your flesh hates. There are people who just think they can become spiritual and effective for God. By memorizing Bible verses. Which I do too. But I'm telling you that is not going to be the trick. I hope you understand that. Number three. Jesus said, you want to follow me? John 13, he said, a new commandment I give you. Love one another as I have loved you. You know what, Jesus taught a whole bunch of things. But a very few things he said. My commandment. As a matter of fact, this is exclusive. If you want to know the commandment of Jesus. Here it is. Love others as I have loved you. Bill Heimer in his classic book, Love Covers All. Said this. More people went to hell. Due to the disunity and the lack of love among God's people. Do you know this? Some mission organizations have done studies and I read about it. The number one reason for missionaries that went to the mission field. That lost out, attrition. And one denomination lost. Multiplied millions every year. And the number one reason was not lack of money. Or sickness. Or sex. Or any other reason. The number one reason was disunity among the missionaries. Relationship problems. Now think about all the divisions we have in the body. We are fighting and dividing among ourselves. Based on insignificant likes and dislikes. I mean it's amazing. If I say, why don't you all have a bottle of beer. I mean order some beer. Everybody have a beer. What? This guy is lost. He is antichrist. He went to Germany and Switzerland and some of these Scandinavian countries. And I've been there many times. And preaching in a mega full gospel church. And go home for dinner with the pastor. And he got about 20,000 bottles. And asked for orange juice of course. I mean what I'm telling to you. I mean these are. So there are so many things. That today we are finding reason to fight and divide. Rather than focusing on the reality of the lost world. And committing ourselves to see that love is more significant. I'm not saying you compromise with sin and false doctrines. That's not what I'm saying. But are we dividing among ourselves? Fighting over serious issues? No. I think it has a lot to do often with leaders. Those who want to have all the people follow them. I don't want to spend more time on this thing. But I'm saying something to you. That is please help us. Those who are trying to reach the lost world. And how we can help us is your relationship with your family. And brothers and sisters in the body. The whole body of Christ is so powerful. That you are sharing. You are living the life of love. Really becomes a reason for people to believe you. Not just your doctrines. Number four. I got three minutes and wrap it up. Here it is. Jesus said. Come and follow me. And I will make you fishes of men. I say this. And it's not a dogmatic doctrine. But I often said this. I personally have serious doubt about someone's genuine salvation. If they say they are born again. And say Jesus is Lord. And that person has no concern. No feeling. For people all around them. In their generation. That do not know this Jesus. And they go into hell. 150,000 people die every single day. And plunge into eternity. How can a follower of Christ be silent? And self-centered? And not praying. Not giving. Not going. Because one soul worth more than the whole world. And after that individual end up in hell. They are screaming throughout eternity. Not for escape from hell. But for death. And they will never find it. You study the Bible. Read it. And you will be amazed to find out. Jesus talked more about hell and domination and judgment than about heaven. And do we talk about it? We don't. I was at a church. A mega church. I took the catalog of the teaching materials. Thousands of sermons. I scanned through the whole teaching. To find out hardly two messages. Over ten years on the reality of hell. And people go into hell. And our call for us to follow the Lord. To see these people rescued. It is not a joke. It's dead serious. And the followers of Christ. Jesus calls us to commit our life for world evangelism. You heard much about it during this conference time. And I know you are here because you understand something about it. But as I started saying to you. When you get a little older. A lot of other stuff becomes insignificant. And I have this dream. That someday when I see the Lord face to face. It will not be just my wife and my four children. And grandchildren. But there will be multiplied millions upon millions. That found their way to heaven. From all these different tribals. Groups and language groups. And people groups and nations. And then I will know all things as they are. To recognize that my feeble life. And my dying to self. And walking away from whatever I have to. And crying alone and going to sleep often. And millions of miles on my speedometer. It was worth it all. For now I know. I walked with him. And no regrets. Find your place in world evangelism. There are booths all over here. Significant ministries that you can trust. Whatever you do. Don't put it off. For next year's conference. Let us pray. Lord, thank you for giving us another opportunity to think about you. And talk about your call. And we know our flesh hates it. And the average Christianity don't endorse it. But we know that there is a world out there that is so desperately lost and waiting. And Lord, we know that you are desperately waiting for us to come to you. To be changed by you. To become your honest and authentic disciples. And Lord, I know that how often I feel so small. And a failure. Not able to do the things I know I should do. But Lord, I know this is a journey. And all my brothers and sisters. We are learning and growing. I pray that tonight you will strengthen those who are weak and feeble. And pray there be some that are struggling with sin and battling with whatever. And Lord, I pray that you give them a clear revelation of who you are. And Lord, I pray that your grace and your grace will set them free. And tonight we give you praise and honor, Lord. Because you died on the cross. And your precious blood you shed to purchase us. And we are not our own, we are yours. And now Lord, I pray that you continue to work on the inside of our hearts. That we may know you better. And be used by you for your glory. In Jesus name, Amen.