In this sermon, the speaker shares a story of a missionary who faced great difficulties and suffering while working among a people group in India. The missionary initially had enthusiasm and hope for leading these people to Christ, but soon realized the challenges of the mission field. He prayed to be sent somewhere else, but God spoke to him and said he could go, but He would have to stay in the worst place on Earth during winter. The speaker emphasizes that as Christians, we are called to live as Christ did and to embrace suffering and sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel.

We don't see that very much in Canada or in the Western world at all, but there are parts of the world where the church is rising and growing. And one of the very exciting missionary movements in the world today is Gospel for Asia. I am delighted that Dr. K. P. Johanan is here to speak to us today. I have heard of him for many years. First, when I got hold of a copy of a book, Revolution in World Missions, which K. P. wrote, which is now sold over two million copies all over the world. And K. P. is the founder and president of Gospel for Asia. Founded it in 1979, so 30 years ago. They currently have 14,000 missionaries, mainly Asian missionaries, working in 11 Asian countries, the Indian subcontinent, and some of the surrounding countries, especially to the east of there. And of those 14,000 missionaries, 9,000 of them are church planters. That is their full-time work. And they have planted over 30,000 churches. I mean, these figures are huge. Very often, North India has been one of the toughest places in the world. Many of them have come from the south to the north in order to evangelize. And they also operate over 60 Bible schools. Currently, with 7,000 students, they are normally there for about three years. 2,000 will be graduating this year. And those 2,000 students, many of them will go into GFA church planting ministries. And at the end of this service, as we do during the Global Outreach Conference, we will take up another offering. If you're visiting us this morning, let it pass you by, unless God touches your heart this afternoon, rather. We don't do this all the time. But we want to invest in the cost in having identified another area that is unevangelized, where there are no churches. We want to invest in the process of putting people into those areas, not just to plant a church, but to plant a group of churches that will infiltrate and minister to that whole area. You can't put a timeline on how long it's going to take. You can't put a cost on how much that will cost in each area, because the variations are great. But we are going to give everything that you give in an offering at the end of this service for that purpose of working in what are currently unevangelized areas, new areas, to take the gospel, plant churches. And as they are planted and begin to grow, they become self-supporting, but they need seed money to begin the process. And we're able to help them with that. GFA also broadcasts and uses the media widely. KP himself has a radio program that is heard every day by literally millions of folks across India and also on 400 stations in North America. And from that, he has written numerous books. I've never met anybody in my life who's written 230 books, but KP has done so. And he and his wife, Gisela, live near Dallas, though he is in India much of the year, makes about 10 trips every year. And he's here with a colleague, David Carroll. David, it's good to have you here as well. David will be saying something right at the end of the service today as well. And Pat Emmerich, who directs the Canadian Office of Gospel for Asia. I think there's some other members of the GFA team from Canada here. If there are, just put your hand up. Let's see who you are. There they are. There's a few hands going up around here who work with Gospel for Asia here in Canada, doing a good work on this home base in facilitating that ministry there. We also want to welcome those missionaries and mission agency staff who are here with the exhibit in the tent outside. We had 20 last Sunday. We have 24 exhibits this Sunday. Would you just stand up as well, you folks who are involved in that, just so we can welcome you. Mend them up in the balcony there. Good to have you with us. Thank you so much for investing time. And I trust you'll all go and visit that exhibition and get a hamburger and whatever else is out there after this service as well. I have never met KP Ohana until today, though I have looked forward to doing so very much. And I'm delighted he's able to minister to us. Would you please welcome Dr. KP Ohana. Good afternoon. It's good to be here. I've been to Canada many, many, many times. Usually always I end up coming during your winter time. It's ice and snow. It's the worst place to go on planet Earth during the winter time. And I understand this is summer for you, whereas for some of us it is again 40 degrees, means you are freezing. But I really appreciate your passion, Dr. Charles Price and the leadership here inviting me here to share with you. I hope you understand my English by now. If not, please ask the Lord for grace. I want to read for you a Bible verse. This is in 1st John, chapter 2. 1st John, chapter 2, verse 6. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. In the living Bible, this verse reads like this. Anyone who says he's a Christian should live as Christ did. I'm sure you agree sometimes it is easy for us to read Bible portions like this or read books about it, hear sermons on various subjects. Yet experience in the reality of this kind of scripture portions remains. Like sometime maybe in the future I will understand it and some experience I will have all of a sudden and I will get into a deeper understanding of it. So we kind of miss the opportunity to make choices, to enter into this reality. In simple words, you and I are called by the Father to live as Christ would in this generation. And quite intriguing to hear from my brother about this moving thing. I never heard anything like this in my life before, but sound quite absolutely fascinating. You know, usually when people talk about God's blessing, they say I got a promotion and I'm able to move to a bigger house and God did this and that. But Christ, example for us, he's left the glory of heaven and everything there and came down to earth to the pit of suffering and nothingness and suffered throughout his life. And so let me say a word here. If you are seeking to experience Christ's life, it's a good opportunity. Think about downsizing or moving to one of these places where our brother talked about. But you see, it takes suffering in the flesh for us to live as Christ lived on earth. I remember meeting one of our missionaries who was sent to work among a people group called missing people, some 2 million people way up in the northeast of India, the delta between Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. And when he was sent there from southern India, traveling to this mission field after his seminary education, he found life to be quite difficult and hard. The first few months, it was full of enthusiasm and excitement with the hope that these people are going to be led to Christ and things are going to happen. But he realized the mission field became very tough for many, many reasons. The sheer physical suffering, inconveniences and the food and all kinds of difficulties. For example, he was telling me when he got there, he realized if some people invited you and treat you as a special guest, the drink they offer you is they take this humongous worms and squish it and make juice out of it and give it to you. Now you know why you are not a missionary there. Life became so difficult. Discouragement sets in and he now thinks about somehow some way to get away from this extremely primitive people that didn't have any understanding about normal life or anything like that. So he began to pray, saying, Lord, please let me go somewhere else. I'm not made for this place. And anywhere else, please send me. And he keep praying, but no answer comes for weeks. And finally one day, as he was again crying out to God, the Lord spoke to him. And this is what he said, finally I could hear him. These words, you can go. I give you the permission to go wherever you want to go. But I will have to stay back, for these are my people. That broke him and he fell on his face and said, Lord, I don't want to leave this place either. I will stay. My life is not my own. Whether food or no food, or suffering or death, I am all yours. That's all that matters. And he will continue to serve there with tremendous amount of inconveniences and suffering. But today you go there, I invite you, you will find some 98 strong churches, daily broadcast in their native language and a Bible school. And all that happened because it was no more for him, a missionary, seeing the need and the challenge and the opportunity, doing something, giving some money, seeing the poverty and the suffering, oh my goodness, I'm blessed so much, I'm healthy and strong, I better do something. No, it was no more like that. It was a total transformation of him recognizing, my earthen vessel, my life is no more mine. It belongs to him completely and totally. And it was Christ himself now says, my people. And for this, he could say it. See, my brothers and sisters, often in a gathering like this, a very well known church like this, when you have huge amount of money collected and taken up and numbers are given to you, you as an individual can easily think, thank God I'm part of this huge church that makes such impact around the world. Please understand, this church is made up of people like you. But the fundamental question, where are you in your understanding about Christ and his heart? You see, there's a difference between the old covenant and new covenant. Basically this, the old covenant, it is God's call for obedience. Do this, don't do this, do this, do this and don't do this. Curses and blessings are promised for obedience or disobedience. It is fairly objective. But when it comes to the new covenant, it is no more reading the Bible and say, Oh, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I don't want to do this for many, many reasons. But the new covenant is not that. It is we are called to be partakers of his nature. That means Christ's life. Now we live in our earthen vessel. But this often is not possible because we don't understand throughout Christ's life. It says in Peter, he suffered for us, leaving this example that we may follow in his footsteps. It is not the suffering of the cross and the blood, the nails. No, it is throughout his life. He said no to himself and he embraced Christ. So, these are interesting conveniences. You know, when I was barely 17, way back in India, working with Operation Mobilization, I heard about Oswald J. Smith. I read the book Passion for Souls. And People's Church always remained a huge, huge, bright example for church around the world. And then, of course, you know, when I found out Dr. Charles Price, the pastor here, who come from the background of Capernaum, whose writings had huge impact on my life for years and years. So, you got tremendous history behind you from a great man of God, Oswald J. Smith. Then you have one of the finest, most godly pastor teacher that you can look for in the world in your pastor here. But let me ask you a question. Are you somehow now living with the shadow of the past and being content with the kind of teaching you receive? Or is there a place where you are new and fresh and radically committed to Christ and his lordship so that in this generation, some two billion people that wait to hear his name will have a chance to hear. Not because you just need more money. Not because you say, I'm going to do this and that. Rather, your very life is so saturated with his life and passion. Nobody can help but be contaminated and influenced by your life. I remember reading a letter from one of our missionaries who work by River Ganges, which we just heard a minute ago, the telephone conversation between the pastor and the brother there. River Ganges, of course, you know, Hindus believe, and I was surprised to hear that, which is true. Some 50,000 people come every day going into this dirty, polluted, rotten waters, washing themselves for the forgiveness of sin. And I remember reading this letter from one of our missionaries who worked in that region. One day he was coming home after all days witnessing that evening as he was coming home, he saw a young woman sitting by the bank of the river, weeping uncontrollably and pounding upon her chest. Knowing something happened so horrible to make her do that, this our missionary went and asked her, what happened to you? Why are you crying so much? And she simply said, you see, we are poor, very poor people. My husband is sick. He's very ill. He can't work anymore. And my sins are so many that nobody knows about. To find forgiveness for my sins and solution to the problems of my home, I have given the best offering I can give to River Ganges. My only child, my six-month-old baby boy, I just threw him into the river. And he writes in his letter, I sat beside her and explained to her, your sins are forgiven 2,000 years ago. Jesus died on the cross. All you have to do is to believe. God is not against you. He didn't make you poor. And he explained God's word to her. And hearing all these things, he writes in the end, she wiped her tears, looked straight into my eyes and said these words, but why didn't you come to me half hour sooner? I didn't have to kill my child. It is too late. It is too late. And I think this is only a picture of multiplied millions, both here and there and everywhere that do not know the Lord. And I think the more you understand the life of Christ and enter into that life, not standing outside, you will find automatically your heart beats and with joy to continue pour your life out without saying, oh, man alive. I have to do this and that. No. I remember taking the pencil and reading through the four Gospels one time to see the man Jesus. Yeah, I mean, I love Jesus. He's my God. He's my Lord. But I want to follow him as a man. So I read through the four Gospels and underlined the raw man that walked on earth. And I remember coming to John's Gospel, chapter 14, where just like me, sometime I had to deal with he was hungry, he was thirsty, he was desperate, he was weary, he was tired, worn out, sits there by the well and the disciples goes off to buy hamburger and French fries. Maybe they went to Tim Hortons and and they come back with food in their hand saying, Jesus, please eat. And Jesus responds back to them. You read there in that passage, he says, I have food to eat that you have no knowledge of. Now, in American phrase, you call it a real bummer. So they will have a consultation. They said, what is this? You mean we went off to buy this food and did someone bring him something to eat while we were gone? Knowing their dilemma, Jesus says, my food is to do the will of him that send me and finishes what that's that's terribly complicated. He didn't eat. Now he says he ate God's will. Now, what on earth is that? You see, Jesus often took things that are tangible, things you can see and feel and teaches eternal truth. So it is one of those situations here. In simple terms, what Jesus is saying, listen, it's true. I'm hungry. I mean, physically, I'm just worn out. I need something to eat. So you are. And but while you were gone, I ran into this woman who is lost and undone, moving straight toward hell. And her face became a window for me to see multitudes like her that do not know the Father's love and the realization simply killed my very appetite. I'm no more hungry. The emotional anguish he faced impacted his very physical being. So he says, lift up your eyes and see the field. Don't say four months and then the harvest comes. Now it is time, not later. What is it, I ask you, that hinders us, hinder you and me from understanding this kind of passion and enter into it? What is it keeping us from waking up one in the morning with alarm clock, spreading the world map and weeping over the world with the burden he placed upon us? What is it that hindering us from saying my life on earth is so very brief, I better give up all this nonsense and wasting my life and time for the sake of him? Because eternity is the only real thing. What would stop some people, although they have a feeling about downsizing and moving into a bad neighborhood for the sake of him who came to this earth? What is hindering some that they feel the need to go to Afghanistan or Iran or Turkey or Mexico or somewhere? What is it holding us back that we cannot enter into the life of Christ and walk among people and be his completely? We blame the poor devil for all kinds of things. I don't think the devil is a good guy, but poor devil got blamed for a lot of things that he has nothing to do with anything. I remember one time in America, I was preaching in some church in California. A lady came to me and said, pastor, would you please pray for me? Lay your hand on me and pray for me. I said, madam, please tell me what is it you want me to pray for? She said, you know, I got a demon of smoke inside me. Would you please cast the demon out? I said, dear lady, I can cast out demons, but I can't cast out the flesh. And the reason I'm saying something like that to you is that we need to understand you cannot, I cannot be part of Christ's life for this lost world unless we are willing to come to the place and say, I'm no more my own dear Jesus, whatever yours and you want and make those choices. He will never force us to do that. I joined with Operation Mobilization, George Orwell's movement many, many years ago as a youngster. I was barely 17 at that time, having done my high school back in southern part of India and went off to North India for a couple of years. And one of the places we went was Rajasthan, a group of us. And I'll never forget of the few times I was beaten up along with others. Boondi, this particular place was one of those places we were beaten up really bad by radical anti-Christian fundamentalists. Our Bibles were burned and everything was destroyed. And they said, dogs, get out of this place or we will kill you. Of course, we left the place. I'm alive. And some years would go by. One young man who finished his Bible school felt the Lord was calling him to go to Boondi to plant a church. The name Boondi, the very sound make you scared because seven times our teams went there, all those seven times they were beaten up and abused. So when he said to the leaders, he wanted to go to Boondi, the leaders said, are you sure this is where you want to go? You are young, you are skinny and you are not strong. They will kill you before you get there. And he said, no, I prayed for a year. The Lord wanted me to go to Boondi. Of course, sure. He went off to Boondi, rented a small place for a few dollars a month and started going house to house and distributing tracts and doing the ministry. But one night while he was sleeping, a group of men, about 6,000 came and busted the door open and the tall Rajput with the turban on his head pulled this brother up by his leg like you hold up a chicken and said, you young fellow, why did you come here with your God? We have our gods. We don't need you here. We can tear you apart like a chicken. We do with the chicken. Get out of this place first thing tomorrow morning. Don't ever stay here any longer. And of course, they left him. And next morning he got so scared here, went back to the mission station and told this to the leaders and they said, well, we told you this might happen. And then he said, but the Lord told me to go there, but they are going to kill me. The senior most brother asked him a simple question. He said, son, did Jesus ask you to go to Boondi? He said, I know he did. Then he said, son, go back to Boondi. The Lord called you go back there. Yes, you will face some problems and difficulty. They may come and beat you up and bunch of things. And there's a small chance they may kill you also. But if that happens, son, remember, heaven is a much better place than Boondi. You wait in heaven for us and we'll come and see you later. And he knelt down, they laid hand on him, prayed and he went back to Boondi. Sure enough, they came back to him and said, now you are going to make us murderers. Why on earth you came back? After hearing their mighty speech and threats, he simply and calm and sober said to these men, the sooner you do your job, it is better for me. I have no reason to be here. I'd rather be in heaven, but I am not going to leave this place. Jesus sent me here and I will have to stay. Yes, he did face some difficulties and problems, but about three years or so goes by and I get a telephone call in the United States. I said, yeah, it's me. Brother, we want you to come to Boondi. I said, what? It's the last place I want to go. He said, no, no, no, no. We just finished constructing our church. We want you to come and inaugurate the church. The story changes. I flew to Delhi, went to Kota, went on to Boondi and Sunday morning. You really want to see heaven on the face of people? You go to that church the way it happened then. People's face glow with Christ's love and his glory. First generation Christians, over a hundred people, adults and children, all worshiping God. I taught God's word, weeping through the whole service and then it was over. He said, this is the man who said he will tear me like a chicken. And on and on. But here's the thing. What made the difference? It was not poor people in Boondi need my help. It was not I got money. I need to give more money to these suffering people. It was not Christ did so much for me. I have to do something for him now. It was the grain. The seed was willing to fall and die to all and bring forth fruit. And my dear brothers and sisters, this journey may not be easy. Time will not permit me to tell part of the lessons I must learn through brokenness regarding this. But having come to America to go to seminary, then soon pastoring a church in Dallas, Texas, I was caught up in a world of wanting to become like any American. Materialism, comfort and ease. And sometimes it took me half hour to figure out what color I was going to wear, the coordination, because I read a book called Color Me Beautiful. I didn't know the summer, winter, autumn, spring. Some of you men look like you are lost. Ask your wife. And out of 70 neckties, I had to agonize which one is going to match which. I was not doing anything wrong and sinful. But all the eight, nine years of my life on the streets of Nepal and India and those nations, how I wept and cried and prayed all night. But now it is all in the past. And I remember one day, after two years of my life like that, I was sitting in my own private study with books in my library. I may never read, but it impressed a lot of people. And I remember writing something, I don't know what it was, using my fountain pen, Mont Blanc. Whoever wanted to spend $600 to buy a fountain pen, I did it when I was in Germany, before coming to America. The strange thing happened. I am not a spooky person, please believe me. I am not looking for lights and sounds and nothing like that. It was a strange thing as the Christ himself walked to the table and just stood beside me and asked me a question. So, you like that pen, don't you? I said, I do, this is my pen, I love it. And the next thing, so, who is going to use it 100 years from now? I said, what? He said, oh, I just asked the question, who is going to use it 100 years from now? I am not making this story up. I looked at the pen and I put it down and took it up and I realized he is speaking again. I looked at my closet, my land, my house, my new cars and all the stuff and what I was living for. And the Lord said, this is all for nothing, isn't it? And I had to repent, repent bitterly for two weeks almost. Not for any immorality or drunkenness or drugs or lying and deceiving. No, it was of self-centeredness, even in spiritual matters. I didn't understand it all and another step, another door, opportunity for me to say, Lord, I seek my own forgiveness. People ask me about where I was born and raised, I tell them, you don't want to know. If you really want to know, go and look at the oldest Tarzan movie, black and white movie you can find. But I had the privilege to have a godly mother who raised her six boys, I am the youngest. The memory of my mother growing up as a little boy, she would wake up about four in the morning, no later than that she would spend a couple of hours in prayer and then wake up the whole family for family prayer. And I would hear her quoting this Bible verse a million times, Psalm 73 verse 25, Whom have I in heaven but you and on earth I deserve no one beside you. Her prayer was, Lord, call one of my sons to go and serve you. But she never told this to any of her sons. One by one, her sons went into business and farming and all these different things and she tells, when I was born and growing up, timid, shy, withdrawn, skinny, you don't believe that, she kind of lost her hope. And she began to pray every Friday, full fast, every Friday, saying, Lord, please call one of my sons to serve you before I die, I want to see it. Three and a half years my mother prayed like that without telling anyone. When I finished my high school, I remember the day I told her, if they allow me, you know, of course my mother led me to the Lord when I was eight years old, if they allow me, I'd like to go to serve the Lord. Before I could finish my question, she jumped up from the bench she was sitting on and said, go! I thought she hated me. I was a mistake. But I did not know any of those things. Only after two years of my life in North India, when I went back home, my mother told me the story of her prayer and fast. In 1980, at the age of 84, my mother went to be with the Lord. And I remember, my brothers, we all gathered in the room, my father went to be with the Lord earlier. We began to talk about our mother. One of my brothers, who is kind of interested in money more than anything else, said, how much money did our mother leave in the bank? The sons would give her anything she wanted, you know, and quite a lot of money she had, but we never saw her spending any money. And one of my brothers, answering the question, said, you know, I found this notebook under the pillow of our mother's bed. So we were curious, what is in there? And he flipped the pages and he said, well, there are names, dozens of names of people who are in Bible colleges and on mission field everywhere, and the money she was sending them, against the names, she wrote those amounts. And then he said, as far as I know, there is nothing in the bank. And I broke down and began to weep. Not because there was no money in the bank, because I remember two years prior to that, when I went to see my mother, I got mad at her for wearing a cloth, a blouse that is stitched from here to here, hand-stitched, really Mickey Mouse job. I was so angry, I said, mother, what madness got into your head? Don't you care about your sons, the shame you put on us? The whole world will think we don't care about your mother, you can buy a new dress every month if you want, why do you do this to us? And I was so furious, you know, preachers can get mad. After all my madness and anger, I remember this incredible gentle smile, she said, my little boy, you don't understand, someday you will. Sitting in the room, it was as though she walked back in the room, saying, my son, yeah, I could have bought a brand new dress every month if I wanted, but I made a choice, my son, to live in the light of eternity. And my resources, my money, all went to win souls. And the last thing she left with her sons reads like this, when I am dead and gone, the only thing I will leave behind, it is my earrings, my wedding ring, and the gold chain my husband gave me when he married me at the age of 19. I want you to sell these items and give the money to preach the gospel among people that never heard my Jesus name, I want to meet them also in heaven. You think my mother is sitting in heaven and saying, oh man, what a dumb thing I did. I don't think so. I am not here to ask you to give more money for any cause or me or anything like that, but I am deeply concerned about the day you will stand before the Lord and look back over the years you spent as his follower. And what was it you lived for? I am not calling you for some new things to do, I am calling you to abandon your life and completely and totally for him and him alone. And then he will take it and break it and distribute it, whatever he does, it will be for the sake of a lost world. Four things I recommend at the end. One, take one day of the week for fasting and prayer, get a world map, the book Operation World. If you add a few more days for fasting and prayer for the lost world, if you die, please let me know. You will not. Second, simplify your life. Don't let material things become the reason for joy and happiness. Your worst enemy is the things of the world. Please be cautious and evaluate your life. Let the Lord direct you, not someone else. Number three, if the Lord is calling you to serve him somewhere in the world, anywhere, please don't stay, go. Parents, do pray that one of your children, at least one, will go and serve God as my mother did. Number four, give so that others can go. Give, not because you are so much, because it's a privilege. And may the Lord make us more like him. May he create such hunger on the inside, that we will seek him not for anything, but for himself. And that would be the beginning of a wonderful journey. I can't wait for the day I will see him face to face. It's been worth following him 40 years of my life, serving him. I have no regrets. May the Lord speak to us.