In this sermon, K.P. Johannon emphasizes the need for true discipleship and a genuine encounter with the real Christ of the New Testament. He challenges believers to examine their born-again experience and question whether it has led to personal sacrifice, separation from the world, and a hatred for sin. Johannon calls for a change in thinking and a reality check, urging Christians to live out their faith in a way that impacts the millions of people who do not know Christ. He references Luke 14:26, where Jesus calls his followers to love him more than their own family and even their own lives in order to be true disciples.

Looking forward to an eternity with God, next on the Road to Reality. I do not know what you are praying for, what you are thinking about, but I think we are looking on the face of some dark, difficult days before us. Don't get nervous. Hey, listen, 100 years from now, you are not going to be living in your house and drive the car and look at those expensive diamond rings or whatever else you got. Don't worry about that. You'll be gone before you know it. But the most important thing you must keep in mind, as a follower of Christ, you are destined for the throne to be with your Lord. From Gospel for Asia, this is the Road to Reality. I'm Richard Bewes, and it's excellent to have you with us. Today, we'll be joined in the studio by Brother K.P. Yohannan. The Lord has laid something on his heart that he'd like to share with us all about discipleship. What does it really mean to follow Christ, and what are we going to do with the rest of our lives? Keep those questions in mind as you join us now for the Road to Reality. Here's K.P., continuing our series called to Discipleship. I think it is time for some serious soul-searching. What kind of born-again experience have we had if it calls for almost no personal sacrifice, produced virtually no separation from the world, and breeds practically no hatred for sin? Now, here's a question. How can we claim to be born from above, where there's no evidence of this new nature? We call ourselves citizens of heaven, yet our hearts are caught up in earthly treasures. We sing, we are the people of God, but we are entertained by the worst of devil's children. We claim to be dead to the world, yet we are more interested in temporal fashions than eternal souls. Something is wrong with our salvation experience. Bad fruits means bad roots. My dear brothers and sisters, I am deeply concerned, may I say I'm troubled also, the condition of Christendom and the way we have lost or missed the reality of following Christ. And maybe the crisis that we are now faced with, the strong, our security, the dollar is eroding and everything around us is kind of falling apart. And I think some ways it is a reminder from the Lord that this world is not our home. We are here for a very short time. Lift up your eyes and and see the time is running out. Nothing here is significant. Following Christ and be His completely, representing Him in our generation the way we ought to represent Him is the only significant thing that we must think about and worry about and commit ourselves to. Jesus called His disciples, we read that in Mark's gospel chapter 1 saying, come and follow me. He didn't say follow a whole bunch of other people or doctrines and this and that, but follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And Christ is all about redemption, salvation, rescuing the world that is going to hell. And He says, I want you to be my agent, my representative. Well, easily somebody can misunderstand now saying, well, you know, we follow Christ so we don't have to follow any man and listen to anybody. And so, brother KP, you are now preaching and teaching and I'm hearing you saying all these things over the radio. Why I must listen to you? Yeah, good question. Here it is. Remember, one of our greatest problem today in Christianity, it is that we have thousands of prophets, but not genuine prophets. We have thousands of shepherds, but not real shepherds. And they are hired people by men and women who want to be entertained. They pay them a salary, they write books, they talk about stuff over the radio or in a church behind the pulpit, things what people want to hear. But true shepherds will call people to repentance, to turn away from sin and die to self so they can once again be Christ-like in our generation, not for their own sake and their reward in eternity, but to see a desperately dying world hear the name Jesus and they too will have the opportunity to become followers of Christ. Early in my life, that is some nearly 40 years ago, an older brother gave me a little book to read named True Discipleship, authored by William Macdonald. And I carried that little book with me ever since. And first time in that book, I read the story about C.T. Studd, someone who was born and raised in an affluent home, had everything going for him. He was a sportsman. He was a believer also. But a day came in his life, he realized his Christianity was all about himself. He was just like anybody else, the evangelical so-called Bible-believing Christians who lived for themselves, plastic, superficial, self-centered Christianity. But everything changed. He walked away from his millions, took all the money and sent it to missions and caring for the poor and needy. In the end, would get married to his fiancée, the girl he was engaged to, then leave for the mission field and give his life for the sake of the lost world. And all that happened when he read this brief article written by someone who didn't believe in God, an atheist, who mocked at the idea about God, wrote these words. Let me read it for you. If I firmly believed as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of irreligion in this life influences destiny in another, then irreligion would mean to me everything. I would cast away earthly enjoyments as draws, earthly cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity. Irreligion would be my first waking thought and my last image before sleep sang me into unconsciousness. I should labor in its cause alone. I would take thought for the more of eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained for heaven worth a life of suffering. Earthly consequence would never stay my hand or seal my lips. Earth, its joys and its griefs would occupy no moment of my thoughts. I would strive to look upon eternity alone and on immortal souls around me, soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable. I would go forth to the world and preach to it in season and out of season, and my text would be, What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? C.T. Studd, reading this article written by this atheist, was gripped with this reality, this question. What on earth am I doing with my life, this brief life here on earth, living for myself? And he realized that the call of Christ on his life was no less than the call of communists upon their followers. And my brothers and sisters, I do not know what you are praying for, what you are thinking about, but I think we are looking on the face of some dark, difficult days before us. Don't get nervous. Hey listen, 100 years from now, you are not going to be living in your house and drive the car and look at those expensive diamond rings or whatever else you got. Don't worry about that. You'll be gone before you know it. But the most important thing you must keep in mind, as a follower of Christ, you are destined for the throne, to be with your Lord, an eternity, where after 10 billion trillion years, it will not be even the beginning. And now, here on earth, we are in a classroom in which the Lord is seeking to make us more like himself. And the problem often in Christianity today, we are so preoccupied with the materialism and comfort and entertainment, we simply cannot see beyond now. And the churches and the pulpits and preachers often, they tell us to take care of ourselves first. Be comfortable. Don't worry about suffering on the cross, forsaking sin and repenting and turning away. All those things are old-fashioned teachings. Hence, a world out there dying and going to hell, while the church is sleeping in the light. And those were the kind of challenge that Keith Green, this radical disciple of Christ, he sang and he preached and he died and now he is in heaven. Listen to the words of one of his songs. Keith Green wrote this, Do you see? Do you see all the people sinking down? Don't you care? Don't you care? Are you going to let them drown? How can you be so numb not to care if they come? You close your eyes and pretend the job is done. Oh, bless me, Lord. Bless me, Lord. You know it is all I ever hear. No one aches, no one hurts, no one even sheds a tear. But he cries, he weeps, he pleads, and he cares for your needs. And you just lay back and keep soaking it in. Oh, can you see? It is such sin. Hey, some terrific encouragement from Keith Green and this is the road to reality. Brother K.P. Yohannan will have the rest of his message for us in just a tick. Part of Christ's call on our lives is to share the redemptive love of Jesus with others. This call to share about Christ shaped both K.P. Yohannan's life and the ministry of Gospel for Asia. You'll be encouraged by reading the story in his book, Revolution in World Missions. Thousands of readers have contacted us to let them know how the Lord used them in their walks with the Lord. You can get the book free from our website roadtoreality.org.uk. With more now about the reality of following Christ, here's K.P. once again. Well, I'm not trying to get you come under a whole bunch of guilt and condemnation, and I'm not trying to get some money out of you. No, none of this nonsense. I've been following my Lord for nearly 40 years, and my brothers and sisters, I'm crying out for a reality and a change in our thinking so that in these last days, the multiplied millions of people that do not know Christ around the world will come to know Him through our life, our sacrifice, our prayers, our going, our giving, but all that happens because of our encounter with the real Christ of the New Testament. Now, what are the kind of things Christ is calling us for? One of the things he said in Luke chapter 14 verse 26, you want to follow me, Christ said. In that case, you must love me more than father, mother, son, daughter, even your own life. If you can't, you cannot be my disciple. When was the last time somebody told you, yeah, yeah, you can call yourself a Christian or whatever you want, but you cannot be the follower of Christ unless you love Him more than your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your husband, your wife, and your job, your money, and even your own very life. Just recently, during this huge crisis of persecution in the state of Orissa in India, I imagine you heard about it, over 1000 homes of Christians were completely destroyed by anti-Christian radical fanatics. Six of our believers are brutally murdered, they cut them into pieces with swords, and thousands upon thousands of believers, they had to run away into forests and jungles for safety. The extreme religious fundamentalists, they want to make sure Christians are all killed. It is some kind of ethnic cleansing. And I began to hear story after story of so many of our simple first generation believers, when they were asked, deny your Christ, burn your Bible, come back to your old faith, we will spare you. And they said, we rather lose our home, our clothes, and our very lives. We cannot deny this Jesus who set us free and gave us hope. A few weeks ago, I had to send some communication to the government officials saying our senior leader in the state of Orissa, his life is in danger. And I said, please give protection. And of course, they responded saying, well, we will do what we can, but it is not safe for your man to be there. And this godly man, our leader responded, you know what, these are my sheep, I cannot forsake them. If I die, I will die. And heaven is a much better place anyway. And he made that commitment, not because somebody told him, I'm going to pay you some money, so you be there, and this is that. No, nothing. It's just simply, he understood the reality of following Christ means loving him more than our own very life. You heard this song, maybe you sang this. My Jesus, I love thee. I know thou art mine. For thee, all the follies of sin I resign. My precious redeemer, my savior art thou. If ever I loved thee, it is Jesus, and on and on. You know, what beautiful, meaningful words. But did you hear that? For thee, all the follies of sin I resign. Jesus, it is because of you, not because somebody thinks it's a terrible thing that I do, or it's a bad thing for my health. No, Jesus, I don't want to make you sad. I remember about running into one of our students on the mission field. When he came to Christ, his family rejected him. He lost everything. His family inheritance, his relationship with his family, his dad and mom, and his only sister. Because of Christ, he lost all. He couldn't go back home. When the question was asked to this young man, are you not sad that you lost everything in life and even your own family members because of your commitment to Christ? He responded, I am very sad. I cry. I hurt. Then he paused and said, if I must do it all over again and make choices, I will choose Jesus over anything and everything. And this is the kind of call my brothers and sisters, Christ is calling us with and for, saying, love me more than anything and all things. Reminds me of that verse in Psalm 73 verse 25, Whom have I in heaven but you and on earth? I desire no one and nothing beside you. I long to see a revolution take place among God's people all over this nation. A revolution of love, commitment and radical discipleship. I am encouraged in all my tribals here and there I run into young people who are dissatisfied and sick and tired of this superficial, take care of me, please me religion. No, they want something more. Jesus, the authentic Jesus of the New Testament. And that is one of the reasons why here at Gospel for Asia, we made a decision to start what we call Road to Reality Internship. Road to Reality Internship. It's a year long program. We invite 15, 20 young people to come. If they finish their high school or want to take a year away from their job or college, we ask them to come and be with us. We have 150, 160 people here that are truly serving God behind the scene and their families, their children. And these young people live here and they observe, they watch, they learn what it means to follow Christ by looking and learning and imitating. But also they are taught from the scripture. Part of the year we take them overseas to some countries to see the reality of the lost world and how the church now live and serve in the midst of persecution. Now, if you are someone who is interested to spend a year of your life for this special internship and parents, you have some children that you want to get rid of. Hey, send them to us for a year. I assure you they will go back their lives completely transformed and changed for the glory of God. Even this morning I was talking to a bunch of young people here who are here for the internship. Some of them were saying our lives are completely changed. We are no more the same. What a joy just to see the glow in their eyes and the joy and the fulfillment because of the reality they found in Christ. May the Lord use your life, your family to know Him. May the Lord use these words to touch your heart and cause such hunger on the inside for you to come close to Christ and be His so completely. And may the Lord use your life to touch a world out there, some 2 billion people that wait to hear the name of our Lord. That through your life, your sacrifice, your praise, your authenticity, that they too will come to know this Jesus. The Lord's blessings be upon you. Amen. Yes, you're listening to Brother K.P. Yohanan on the Road to Reality. So, moments ago, K.P. spoke of the Gospel for Asia School of Discipleship. If you've a gap year coming soon, would you pray about joining our U.S. staff for a year? As K.P. said, many young people have been greatly impacted by the Lord through this. One such person said, the year has spurred me to move from knowing about God to living that knowledge. See what the Lord can do in and through you in one year. You'll find a great deal of information about our School of Discipleship at roadtoreality.org.uk. That's our website, roadtoreality.org.uk. The Road to Reality is brought to you by Gospel for Asia, where we love to share the good news of Jesus Christ with those who have never heard His name.