In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the challenges and complexities of mission work. He shares his personal experience of landing in Madras airport and being overwhelmed by the difficulties faced in doing God's work. The speaker highlights the importance of accepting inconveniences and pain in order to fulfill God's mission. He also emphasizes the significance of prayer and fasting, citing examples from the book of Acts where the early Christians turned to prayer in times of trouble. The speaker encourages listeners to take mission work seriously and to prioritize prayer in their own lives.

That song was really, really neat. I think it will become a hit. Yeah, it is, the words are very powerful and came from his heart, so I'm so grateful. A couple of small matters. Somehow, a few friends misunderstood the name I said this afternoon. I did not say Bill Hybels, I said Paul Billheimer. I never read a book by Bill Hybels, I just heard his name, that's all. So, I just want to clarify that. Good, see, when I came to Texas in 1974, for two weeks, no matter what I said, nobody understood me, they asked me, what did you say, could you repeat that? That only in the end, my friend, Richard Schaefer from Pennsylvania said, oh, KP, you speak English. They speak Texan. It was my thinking to share with you tonight a message, the Lord's work done in the Lord's way. This is a talk I gave to our staff. We have 140 plus people serve the Lord in Dallas. A lot of them come from Calvary Chapel Fellowships because they're a part of it. We've been doing the Lord's work for nearly 30 years, but you know, about 20 years, 25 years, things plateaus unless we are desperately careful. And we become more dependent on money and budget and computer printouts and ideas and conferences and all those things, so our senior leaders met on the mission field for planning for the next two, three years, and the meeting started. This happened not yesterday, but yesterday. This is actually July 30th, 2002, I got it here. And so as the prayer meeting started, before our, you know, about 18 people, senior most leaders gathered from all the 10 countries who make decisions for the movement, I am part of the leadership team, and one of our brothers, you know, had a word from the Lord, and it was very sobering and the Lord said, I'm very happy and very thrilled and excited over your commitment to me and to work and what you're doing and the result. And you are here now to plan larger possibilities and all, I mean, he just said a whole bunch of things. And then he said, but I'm sad. And all of us were totally in shock. Then it was not just a general message, but then he spoke to some of us individually, thoughts that we never shared with anybody else, only the Lord could know. And the Lord said, the work has become more important to you than me. And that broke all of us, and we canceled our computer printouts and major agendas, and the next few days we were just on our face, praying and waiting upon God for the Lord to tell us what he wanted us to do. And this message is born out of that, that I shared with over 500 of our leaders around the world. And I didn't think it was going to be in print, but it came out in print, because it was not done for a book. But strange enough, I think they did some 20,000 copies, and it all vanished before we knew it. Some leaders are ordering 1,000 copies at a time for their movement and church and all that. The reason I said that to you, my brothers and sisters, is, you know, having served the Lord now some 40 years, I have come to the understanding more and more what Pastor Chuck Smith has been saying forever is the truth. He doesn't need my certificate to prove that he is right, but we need to make sure what we do is in the strength of the Lord. Christian work can be very glamorous. We stand before other people, we write books, and we proclaim our testimonies and write reports, and lots of sincere, wonderful people are praying for us, supporting us, and we are in front of people, whether we are standing there or not. Flesh likes that a lot. And if we are not careful, we will end up serving the house of God and miss the Lord of the house. And especially for us in the movement here, I mean, I was just thinking sitting here, it is, this is a phenomenon, this is a miracle that, you know, there can be a call for missionary conference, and so many people show up, and then people stay for prayer. You know, this is nothing less than a miracle, that a movement of this magnitude grew so fast, and then without anybody pushing and pumping and fighting and doing any kind of agendas, the burden for missions and the lost souls are born naturally on the hearts of pastors and then congregations, and many of you have gone on your own to places that no one has gone before. A line from Strat Rock, I think. And the Lord is gracious, and, but you know, this is a burden I have for our work, that is, someday we will stand before the Lord and we will not find out that it was all done in the energy of the flesh, and it will all turn into a pinch of ash, and the question always, which you hear often from Pastor Brian Brodison and Pastor Jack Smith and Don McClure and so many people, let's depend on the Lord and continue the journey, and the best work, what God does often, nobody will ever know. And Judson's life is an example for that. Have you ever heard about Mr. Gunner from Australia, the guy who was giving gospel tracts? Some of you heard the story. You know, he gave to thousands of people, but he never knew one person even coming to Christ, but then just before he dies, he will find out the dozens of missionaries on the mission field and thousands of people that may have come to Christ through one lonely life, that quietly, humbly serve the Lord. Now, you are thinking now, now tell us what it cost. It cost you nothing. You can pick up, you know, if you have copies on the table, which I do not know, if you don't have it, if you can, please write to me and say, I'd like to get a copy of the book you talked about. My email address is very simple, kp.gfa.org, or you can go to our website and ask for it, tell them I set free, and they will send it to you. I think they will. They must. I will command them to obey me. No, but this will be an encouragement to you, that's what. I just, last two, three days, did fast reading the latest book by Pastor Chuck Smith on prayer, and Pastor Brian Broderson's book on, you know, the servants of the Lord. It was quite enlightening and very much beneficial, if you get a copy of that also, that you would want to read. All right. Now, I want to read to you a couple of, small poems here. I didn't write it. A.B. Simpson wrote these words. A hundred thousand souls a day are passing one by one away in Christless eternity and gloom without one ray of hope or light, but the future dark as endless night, they are passing to their doom. Stare me, oh, stare me, Lord. I care not how, but stare my heart in passion for the world. Stare me to give, to go, but most to pray. Stare till the blood-red banner be unfurled over lands that still in heathen darkness lie, over deserts where no cross is lifted high. One night I had a strange dream some years ago, and the dream was like the tract M.E. Carmichael wrote, The Cry of the Blood, of endless number of people, masses just going over the cliff, saying, we are lost, we are lost, and it is too late, it is too late. And then I will search out to see if there's a verse like that, and found out there's a verse in Jeremiah that says, the harvest is past, and the summer has ended, but we are not saved. And in my dream, I was weeping, and I woke up finding all my bedsheet completely wet, and I knew I didn't do anything else except it was weeping. He got the message. And I sat on my bed, saying, I'm completely sold out to the Lord. My gifts are given to the Lord. I didn't take a vacation anywhere, and 24 hours, this is all I do. And I have no other agendas. Why He must bother me with a dream like that? Am I not doing enough? But you know, the Lord has a way of talking to us quietly. And it was not condemnation or putting guilt on me, but that verse came to my mind from Corinthians, if a man judge himself, from Corinthians 11. And I said, I said, what am I supposed to judge me about? And all of a sudden, I realized that a lot of stuff I was doing that people thought was so huge and spiritual and everything it was mechanical. I was doing the right thing. And I talked about people going to hell and talked about missionary suffering and all these different things. And it became a matter of fact for me anymore. And I said, Lord, please baptize me with passion for the lost souls. And I must confess to you that there are times His burden that He gave was sometimes difficult for me to handle. And I was genuinely tempted to pray I can't, and I can't carry this burden. And somehow I resigned a few times in my mind and walked away. But then I thank God for God's grace that I never came to Him and said, take this burden away from me. I don't want to do it anymore. In a moment like this, that is so diverse, so huge. I mean, all of us sitting here now in a crowd like this, you say, how are you doing? I'm fine. And we pray together, sing together. But you know, in reality, each one of us, we are alone. You realize it or not, you live alone and you die alone. And you stand before the Lord alone. And maybe I'm a little older. That's the reason I say this to myself because I have to be responsible for my walk with the Lord and do what I do in the light of what He asked me to do. But one thing for sure, if Jesus died for the whole world, as we heard said to us tonight, quoting from Pastor Chuck Smith, till the whole world hears, if He's the only way, I believe you have and I have this privilege of doing something, even writing an email or praying or whatever, something, going, sending. Please let it not be somebody coming in, pestering you and begging and pleading and challenging and all this stuff to make you do something. Let it be that you take the little light, that spark of that burden, that voice the Lord speaks to you with. Sometime you never know it happens and don't let it die. Find it and then go after it. It's like you are finding a company that if you give $100 investing in something, they say you get a million dollars after one year. I don't know if anyone do that or not. But if something like that, you will sell everything you have to go after to invest as much as you have because the dividends, the return is so high. I can assure you, a million years from now, you will have no regret and I can absolutely promise that. If you have a regret, you tell me then. For anything you do for His glory to reach the lost world because I believe the number one concern on the Lord's heart, it is the people that are slipping away without knowing Him into eternity. And the church, we are commissioned and commanded by the head, the brain of the body to us saying, be my hands, be my feet, be my mouth, be my resources. It is the disobedience of our lives as the body that hinders us from reaching this world, especially in harvest time. This is harvest time. I was just talking to one of my dear brothers. Sometimes you hear missional reports, you do not know what is going on. But then you hear from people who are absolutely godly and authentic and he was telling me, which I'm totally floored by that. You know, Iran, with all the crazy stuff we hear, God is moving. Thousands of people are turning to the Lord. And just a while ago in one place, over 100 Iranians gave their lives to the Lord, all from Muslim backgrounds. Now this dear brother of mine was a pastor from Calvary Chapel, is reaching out with the 5,000 CDs, teaching materials and books and stuff to help these believers to become strong. You think about that. I think about, we don't talk about our Muslim ministry. We have 180 brothers that we are trained well so far on the mission field, working on the Muslims. And I remember one brother who was opposed and rejected and persecuted by the mullah in the community, Muslim priest. And our brother didn't think he can survive there. One morning, this guy comes and knock at the door of our brother and he opens and find this guy standing there and kind of sheepish looking and kind of humble. He said, would you please come and pray to your Jesus for my son? The story unfolds. The mullahs, the priest's son, only son was dying and he had some terrible illness. And he had a dream that night, if he would go and call this Christian preacher and he would pray for him and the boy will be healed. And that's what our brother did. And the Lord healed the boy. Praise the Lord. As a result, quite a few people came to know the Lord and got baptized and the church was born. And you talk about, I mean, we have a huge burden for the Muslim countries and we pray earnestly, we do everything we can. We have five radio broadcasts exclusively for Muslim nations, including Afghanistan. And the response is not that great. But I'm telling you more and more and more and more, we are hearing from people in all these countries, Bangladesh and Pakistan and many, many places in India, Muslims are privately, secretly receiving Christ and following the Lord. Harvest is taking place. All this chaos going on with Iraq and all this Al-Qaeda and all weird stuff. I said, Lord, what are you doing? And somehow I hear him say, just wait. I mean, you think about the possibly millions of Bibles got into Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. And think about the amount of teaching and God's word going forth in all directions. And many of you are involved with it. This is harvest time taking place. Nepal, a country where it was forbidden to preach the gospel to a Hindu. If you baptize that person, you will go to prison for six years. Prem Padan, who went to be with the Lord, spent over 10 years in prisons. But every prison he went, he led people to Christ and started Bible study. In there, they were tired of putting him in prison, let him out. And I used to go there with Operation Mobilization. We were scared about publicly doing anything in the country. But today, you realize the first time in the history of Nepal, they declared Nepal to be a secular government. And in history, first time they said, December 25th will be Christmas holiday First time in history they declared Christianity is a religion they now accept. This is, you talk about harvest. And by the grace of God, we have 295, some strong godly churches that have been established and two Bible colleges. And I mentioned earlier, I'm just saying that because this is harvest time. Nearly 300 million untouchables in the land of India where you have 1.2 billion people. People who lived in slavery for 3000 years are crying out saying, we are sick and tired of this caste system. We are going to be Buddhist or Islam or Christians. But I'm telling you, greatest majority of the leaders are telling their people, go and become Christians. And this is nothing short of a miracle what is taking place. You look at any nation, what is going on? You think, you know, nothing's happening. I'm telling you, what we do in our world is so tiny, but then you take the whole spectrum of what God is doing, the amount of stuff that's happening in our world today. We have 103 languages radio broadcast, over a million people write to us a year saying, tell us more about this Jesus. This is a huge phenomenon. The reason I'm saying that to you, now look around you. Look around the number of people on the mission field. Look around the pastor sitting here. Look around people here who are saying, I'm thinking about going to the mission field. I know many of you are supporting brothers in India, in Nepal, native missionaries, where you cannot possibly maybe go and live there long term. It is both going and sending. I mean, this is just not be so blind about it. But then what I'm encouraging you, listen, if you invested this much in the kingdom, your prayer, your resources, your going, whatever, hey, why don't you think about stretching it and embracing a little more of the burden as the Lord give you grace. And I'm telling you, you will not die by doing that. If you die, you please let me know. But here's the thing, I want to go back to the book of Acts and continue our journey, which we began a few more minutes. Because I know our prayer is coming up. And I mentioned this to you, which I hope you take it serious, that what Jesus accomplished, the work of redemption, it did not happen by him sitting in heaven and sending angels to earth and preaching great sermons. He did it through his suffering and his death on the cross. And he overcame him who are power over death by his death on the cross. But Christ's suffering is not just the cross. In Peter it says, he suffered for us leaving this example that we may follow in his footsteps. You know, often missionaries and Christian workers and people who are concerned for the lost world think the devil is our enemy. The devil is our enemy, but the poor devil get blamed for everything under the sun. But I'm telling you, often our worst enemy is our own self, trying to protect our own self. I never forget the time when my son went to Nepal to serve the Lord with some of our missionaries there. I mean, the boy, you know, was born and raised in the United States and finishes high school, then went to India to our seminary and want to serve the Lord there. And I'm happy he did that at the age of 18. And they are still there serving God. And he married a girl from Pastor Damien Kyle's church, who also went to our seminary and went to Nepal to serve God. And the strange thing is that I remember when our leaders asked my son, Danny, if he will go with them to some seven days walk to get to a place to see some ministry, because that Sunday they were baptizing 30 Brahmins in that particular place. And seven days walk? Well, you think it is a joke? It is not. Because the seven days walk, you walk with a cane through narrow ledge and cliff down there. And the stories are there. It's very dangerous. And I only got one son. And, you know, my leader communicates, we are so happy Danny want to go with us. And I got that thing and I sat there and I cursed the leader in my mind. I said, what's wrong with him? Has he no concern for my son? He's only my only son. What if he falls? He has no experience to climb mountains and walk those dangerous paths. And this is disastrous. And I sat there murmuring and complaining and saying, what kind of heartless people my leaders are. I did all that thing and I'm not making it up. And, you know, the Lord heard all those things. And in the end, he said, hey, look at you. Isn't that strange? You've been challenging everybody in the world to go and die for me and get a one-way ticket and dig a grave and rest in peace there. And all these wonderful things, you know, isn't that strange? You know, again, when the Lord speaks, it's never, never like the devil comes and pokes you and make you dumb. And it's just kind of interesting conversation. Have you ever talked to the Lord and then you wait for him to talk back to you? Try that, it works. Sometimes it is funny. It really is. You know, from Stanley Jones, I picked up this habit by reading his writings because he was a great missionary to India, Dr. Stanley Jones. And, you know, this thing called listening post that is every night before he go to sleep, he said he would sit quietly and say, Lord, help me to walk through the whole day. And he talked to me. And then he listened. And I tried it out. In the early days, nothing worked. It was really not interesting. But as I listened more, it was quite refreshing. And the last thing I do before I go to bed, I sit on my bed like cross, like Indians do. You know, not yoga, that's not it, no. You know, all this new stuff going on here, emerging this, that, and all that. I'm not doing that. And some years ago, I started this. And I said, Lord, I just want you to help me walk through the whole day. And would you just talk to me about how it was, things I thought in my mind, and how I responded to people, the telephone conversations. And when I smiled at people and said wonderful things, in my heart, I hated them. And, you know, so refreshing. And I would sit. And often I hear him say, you did well. You represented me so well. I'm glad you talked to him and talked to her like that. And sometimes he says, you know, I'm a little sad about the way you handled that. And you didn't represent me well. And then I say, Lord, thank you for your kindness to me. And I'm so sorry for what happened. And I will do better tomorrow. It's quite interesting. I encourage you to talk to him during the whole day, and see how he will respond. It is fascinating. And the Holy Spirit is alive and well. And he will talk. And when the Lord told me about this, my complaining, murmuring, and I realized how much I needed to die to myself and my love for my son. And I preached about Abraham, how many millions of sermons, not millions, just a few. You know, his son's sacrifice and all these different things. And, you know, finally I said, Lord, now I see how far I have to go. I'm so careful to protect my life, my son, my life. And I'm holding it so close. And I release him to you, whatever you want. And I found peace. And that's last time I complained about my son going to mission field, wherever it was, many dangerous places he went since then. But, you know, the reason I'm saying it to you, accepting suffering in the flesh is not somebody beating you up. It is not going without food and clothes and, you know, nice hamburger or French fries. It is, it's much more than that. Did you know that one missionary, one denomination, major denomination in the United States, they put out an article, 80% of their missionaries are leaving the mission field within two to three years of the time they send them out. Attrition. And they lost billions over the history. And number one reason for missionaries leaving the mission field is not persecution. It is not opposition. It is a lack of money. It is relationship problems with other people. Now think about that. Obviously, you don't have that problem, I know. But this is a serious thing. Why it is? Because someone who is, I mean, you are dealing with a national missionary, a native missionary. I mean, you know, there's always going to be the complexity of language barrier, cultural barrier, especially, you know, Americans are very loud mouthed. You know that. You know, I mean, you speak your mind. And in some cultures, it just don't work that well. And then you understand that, you know, the brother is hurt and you, in your mind, like a judge, a lawyer, you rationalize the whole thing. I told him the truth. What is wrong with him? That's the way the Bible says. But then truth kills without love. And then the question is, are you willing to go to that little brother who may be semi-naked or fragile, hardly speak English and say, brother, I'm very sorry. I did wrong. I sinned. My attitude was not loving. That is accepting suffering in the flesh. And you can take this interpretation any way you want. As a matter of fact, I'm the one who had to repent almost, you know, 100 times a day because something go wrong and I get upset and I had to go back. And, you know, the other day I was talking to my secretary and she did something that was maybe not the best thing. I, you know, said the truth. I want to be right. And but, you know, later the Lord said, you know, it was not me. And I had to call her on the telephone. I said, I'm calling to ask you for forgiveness. And you think my flesh like that? You're kidding. It's my flesh hates doing things like that. And then I can fast and pray all I want, but demons got best of me because I am not willing to die to myself so that God can do his work. And in the book of Acts, you cannot read any chapter without running into people faced with problems and difficulties and suffering. And they paid the price. And sometime it is basically physical suffering. Sometime it is misunderstanding, whatever else. Being on the mission field, being, you know what? Somebody said, I know who said it, George Woodward. The hardest mission field in the world is to live in the United States and support and pray to see the lost world come to know God and live by faith. It is not easy. The worst place to live on earth and have godliness is America. The noise, the pull from every side, and you have to say no to everything constantly. You go to the shopping center, they're just calling with a million temptations. You have to close your eyes and walk through it and walk away from it. This all drains our life. But especially on the mission field, this is a reality we should accept. I never forget, you know, I landed at Madras airport. By the way, if you know what I'm talking about, you know, chapter four, chapter five, chapter seven, chapter 12, chapter 16, Book of Acts, I'm talking about difficulties in doing God's work and opposition from the enemy. And it's a real thing. You make a decision to get involved in world missions. I'm telling you, you are set up as number one target of the enemy. And you experience that. But the more we press into the battle, the more we'll face that. And I remember landing there in Chennai airport and there was a brother who was supposed to, I was supposed to meet one of our, you know, brothers who are on the mission field, overseeing quite a lot of work in that part of the country. And so I was quite excited, looking forward to seeing him. So I came out from the airport and walk across the street. And as I was doing that, I saw him walking toward me from the parking lot. And he was maybe, I don't know, 100 yards away from me. And I just saw him and I overcame my emotion, just start weeping. I mean, I had no reason just to weep like that. All of a sudden, something stared with me. I just began to cry. And the more he came closer, the more I realized this guy lost 30, 40 pounds since I saw him last time. He's now skin and bones, wearing a dhoti and a shirt, but look like he's sick and dying. But this guy has always this incredible smile on his face. So he came with a smile. I said, what happened to you? You look, you look so sick. And the clothes he was wearing was not clean either. And with this incredible smile, he said, so death worketh in us and life for them. I said, what are you talking about? Then he said, oh, don't worry about it. I'm not dying. He said, I've been on the road for the last 30, 40 days, every day on this, you know, government bumpy bus. I mean, have you ever ridden in a Indian public transport? Go. Chickens and goats and pigs and anything you can carry. It's a 50 seat bus. You've got 500 people in there and some on the top. I'm not kidding. And he'd been traveling constantly from place to place, encouraging brothers and teaching God's word. And now he's, you know, I just couldn't stop crying. I realized that's what Paul said in his ministry. What we read in the book of Acts, he accepted the inconveniences, the difficulties and the pain to do God's work. And brothers and sisters, may I humbly say this to you? Mission work is quite complex and it is not that simple. If you think you can just memorize some Bible verses and get a map and, you know, pack your backpack and go somewhere and come back as a missionary, it don't work like that. It's terribly complex. Please take it more serious. And you need to do more research and study and understanding and be willing to pay the price. And I'm not saying you should not go because the difficulty is not, God will give you tremendous amount of grace. And the stories of many of the brothers I know on the mission field, and even Judson's story, which I told you, and Hudson Taylor and Amy Carmichael. And, you know, it takes patience and commitment and some commitment on your part to suffer for the Lord. May all of us, not one person be left out from this crowd and say, you know, I didn't want a part of, no, you are a part of it. And find out what the Lord wanted to do. And I tell you, you will be the happiest dude on earth. You know, I am 57 now. The reason I'm saying 57, how many more years I have on earth if the Lord didn't come back next week or next month? And I'm so happy that the Lord called me when I was 16. And I'm so happy that I walked away from my home to North India. I'm so happy that I'm serving my Christ. And I have no regrets. You don't have to be like me, going to India or China or Bhutan or Burma to do that. The Lord has you where you are. But the question, what is your priority in life? If the priority is Christ and the lost world, what is stopping you from getting involved? Now, you ask the Lord, he will give you grace because he's always happy about people who are honest. Okay, let me move on, just a few more minutes. You'll find throughout the book of Acts, another key element of their turning the world upside down was their commitment for prayer and fasting. I mean, you can read that in chapter four, you can read that in chapter 12. And I mean, throughout the book, anytime they had problem, they didn't go to the government for picketing and this and that. They just met for prayer. You know, in 1974, I came to America and was going to seminary in Dallas and pastoring a church and all those things. But a time came after three, four years, my heart was getting fairly cold and didn't know what to do. And it was waiting and talking to the Lord that changed everything. But then I was too clever, too smart with my understanding about missions to plan and figure out what to do. And I said to myself, no, it cannot be done. And we started a prayer meeting in my home. I called my friends and said, you know, the television, I threw it out and put a world map. And we would just start every Tuesday night, seven to nine or longer, we would just pray. And every Friday, first Friday of the month, we'll meet all night, evening till early morning hours, just praying. And I said, we are just going to wait upon God and pray for him to tell us what to do. Now, John Hyde, this foreign missionary comes to India, to Punjab. Years ago, he went by boat. Now I climb on a Lufthansa flight. I'm in India before you know it. And we have over 100 Calvary Chapel pastors go to the mission field every year with us. I mean, what a luxury they have. They go to Los Angeles or anywhere and get on this flight. And before they wake up, you know, they are on the other side of the world. For John Hyde, it was weeks and months of journey. You ever been on a ship? You know what the seasickness is? You throw up like a woman who just got pregnant. And I did that enough times, three months on the ship. But I'm telling you, he came with all the ideas and plans and determination to evangelize the poor heathens of India. And he worked and worked and worked and worked. Hey, that sound good. But nothing happened. In the end, he stopped. Said, I'm going to pray. One hour, two hours, three hours, four hours, five hours, six hours, seven hours. Praying, praying. And his name was changed from John Hyde to Praying Hyde. Get hold of a little book and read about him. Today, we have a revival going on in Punjab. And it never stopped. The life of prayer and suffering of missionary John Hyde. It was prayer that brought about a revival in that part of the world. What I'm saying this to you, my brothers and sisters, you know, I remember Ranji, Bihar is known as the graveyard of missions. And we have a Bible college there. And this young brother from a tribal background, when I say tribal, you have to imagine, they are not wearing any shoes and socks and little wraparound, you know, tribals. And he got born again and came to a Bible school and had three year training. And he went to the mission field. And the first lady he talked to was a Hindu priestess who was laying paralyzed in their house. And she was feared, feared by a lot of people because she had so much power, even to kill people through her voodoo. And she was, you know, the main such in the community. But she was now sick and laying in her bed. And this brother was maybe not that clever. Innocent enough, the first person she will go and witness is a lady. And she said, I've been praying to all my deities. Nothing is happening. If your Jesus can heal me, then I will serve him and I'll believe in him. And this brother never prayed for a sick person because this is first experience in the mission field. He said, Lord Jesus, this is my best opportunity. Would you please do something with this woman? And he prayed for the lady and Manjula, the lady got healed. And she was the first convert, then 20 of others with her. Time will go by. This dear brother planted five churches, which is, I mean, this is not a norm. This is almost exception. So I call back our leader and said, is it true this brother planted five churches and he's handing over to people and it's a real thing? He said, it's a real thing. I said, is there a special secret he has? We want to market it. He said, you know, I really don't know. This brother is humble, he's just serving God. And so anyway, I said, you know, Simon, if he can please find out, let me know. I'm quite curious. A week later, he calls me. He says, yeah, yeah, I found out his secret. He said, now we found out, even when he was going to Bible school, he was spending no less than three hours in prayer early morning hours. He was on his knees beside his bed. He went to the mission field, increase his prayer time. That's all we know. What do you mean prayer time? I think it is total dependence upon the Lord and trusting him to do the work. I know another brother who went to the mission field. He worked for six months, no fruit. Then he decided to fast for 40 days, praying for the Lord to go before him. It took him one month to baptize over 60 people after that. I'm not saying there is no fruit on the mission field for you because he don't pray. Judson had to wait years. And so William Carey and all that, but I'm telling you, we are not dealing with Republicans and Congress and communists. We are dealing with demons and powers of darkness. And the work of God continued and grew in the book of Acts. It has to do with their commitment to be on their knees and praying and seeking God's face. Now, how do you apply this? I would encourage you, if you are a husband and wife, why don't you start a prayer meeting in your home any day of the week and call some friends, not for watching movies and this and that, but give them a piece of cake or coffee or whatever. Then you get the book, Operation World. There's a book, Operation World, by Patrick Johnstone that has so much information about every country in the world. And you, I mean, I tell you what, this, I command you that you go and get a book called Operation World. If you cannot find one, please let me know, I'll get you one. Because, I mean, every country in the world, missionary is working. What is happening there? What's the population? What religion? And what to pray for? How to pray for? And then you get these three, four friends together. Then you read them some information, like National Geographic. And then get some pictures. You want pictures? Contact us, we'll send you any kind of pictures. And then you put it on your DVD or whatever else. And you can contact missionary, I mean, there's so many missionaries sitting here. You can contact Wycliffe and you can Wy-Wam and O-M. And then, I mean, this is an incredible world that we are living in missions. And Google the website and browse and get anything you want in the world. And, man alive, it's just unbelievable. And then you share with them. And then you make up your prayer request. And say, can we pray for these 10 items today? And, I mean, first of all, their eyes will go googly. But they never heard anything like that. There's a church in Dallas that I went for a prayer meeting. The church has over 16,000 people. They called for a missionary prayer meeting. You know how many people showed up? Seven people. A study that was released last year. Average believers in America pray less than eight minutes a day. And pastors, less than 12 minutes a day. I didn't do the study. I don't know if it's true or not. But what I'm telling you, people don't know the reality of just praying and talking to God. And devil hates when you pray. Because he knows his world is going to be coming unglued. And so then get more people. And get your kids to pray. And, you know, if you have little kids, like two-year-old, three-year-old, you know, get them sit in the, you come to Dallas. Hey, by the way, if you want to know how to conduct little prayer meetings, I have a little tract I wrote, how to conduct prayer meetings. And I'll send it to you free. So many things free tonight. So you just contact me. You can get it free also. But, you know, in Dallas, we got 100 families and their children. We got 89-some little kids. Our prayer meeting Tuesday night starts with 15, 20 minutes of worship. Then 15 minutes of sharing from God's Word, 20 minutes. And then we pray. And the little kids, I mean, you're talking about little five-year-old, six-year-old kids with a pencil and pen sitting there, hearing the prayer because they're writing. One day I was praying with a little girl. She was seven or eight. And she has notebook. I said, what are you doing here? And she, uncle, you want to see this? Good night. Page after page after page about Afghanistan and Bhutan and Burma and this and that and radio broadcasts and names of people she's praying for. I said, I can't believe this. No wonder these kids are growing up in the ways of God. You want to see your kids grow up in the ways of God? Put them in the prayer meeting. Let them scribble and pray and all. Don't worry about it. They're doing all other stuff, but something is going on while that prayer meeting going on. And then, you know, in your church, if you're a pastor, you know, call for a missionary prayer meeting. Please don't preach that night. You've got enough time preaching. Just will be a prayer meeting. And start an all-night prayer meeting like we do first Friday of every month. We start about eight in the evening and goes till four, five, six in the morning around the world, not just in America. This is a, you know, we are legalistic in some things. It's a good one. But I'm saying this to you. You know, the shortest route I know to get things done, please believe me, I'm telling the truth, it is to pray. Until this day, we have never sent out a letter from our office saying, please help us, we need money, we are desperate, crisis, emergency, underline this and that. We don't do that. You know, we had to build a building in Dallas and our leaders prayed for two years or so and all five of them felt the Lord was in it. I said, fine. And we had $100,000 in the bank, nothing else. And the thing would cost, you know, eight, nine, $10 million, something like that. And the contractor said, where is your money? He said, the Lord will send it. Which Lord? He said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But can you get a letter from the bank? I said, okay. So we told the bank, I think, you know, David Carl, my colleague, one of our leaders is here. And I think he was an associate pastor for Calvary Chapel and we stole him to come and work with us 16 years ago. He's a CPA too. Anyway, so the bank gave him a letter and we were happy for that. But we felt the Lord would provide the money without us, you know, borrowing money. And I sent a letter out to our people and say, you know, there's something the Lord told us to do and would you pray with us? And then I put a stupid disclaimer. This is not a plea for money. If the Lord speaks to you, do something about it, but this is for you to pray for us. You know, when the building finished, we had $100,000 left over. I can tell you, I felt such a burden that I will not say this to you to make an impression on you. The days of fasting and waiting upon God to see that battle be won was not easy, but he was faithful. Whatever you are dealing with, I'm encouraging you, follow the pattern in the book of Acts. They turned the world upside down, not because they had money or education or great plans or superstars. They were simple, humble people that prayed and depended on the Lord and God is still looking for people like that and you are picked by name to be one of those people. May the Lord continue to lead us and guide us and I'm so, so blessed to think that out of this conference, out of our gathering here, only God knows what all will happen. Parents, pray every single day that at least one of your child will go and serve the Lord anywhere, somewhere full time. Pray they will get saved, that's number one prayer. That the day my wife got pregnant, the day, maybe a few days later, I start praying and she start praying that the children the Lord gives to us, they will come to know him and serve him and the day he was born, my dining, now I could see his face and pray for him and how many nights when the little fellow this tall, you know, laying on the bed, I knelt beside him and prayed and sometimes my tears fell on him, crying out to God that he will know him and serve him. I never told my children, my wife and I, you should go and serve God, you should be a missionary, nothing, no. We simply just prayed and trusted him and they on their own, when they finished their high school said, we want to go and serve God. I said, you do it, otherwise I'm gonna kill you, no. But it's, so whatever is before you, please, when you get to the mission field, organize serious prayer times. If you don't have a habit of praying long a time, I'm not dictating to you hours in the Sunday, Lord give you grace. I started with 15 minutes, some years ago, then I increased. But I cannot tell you, a joy or simply just sitting before him and letting him be God, and I'm just a servant. There's no greater joy than letting him be the Lord and I couldn't do it unless I spent time with him. And may the Lord use this movement like Moravian movement. They lost out in some ways because they were sending everybody to be missionaries overseas and there was no serious teaching of God's word and establishing the local body and making disciples, but we got both. And I pray that we will not miss it and go forward. Lord, I want to thank you for this evening and my dear, dear brothers and sisters, and pray, Lord, that we will follow you close. For God so loved the world. Jesus, continue to give us your passion for the lost. Break our hearts with the things that break your heart, we pray as Bob years prayed long ago. And take eternity and stamp on our eyes. We repeat that prayer after that missionary. Lord, lead your people that we will continue to march forward until the whole world will hear our Lord Jesus died for them and he's alive and he saves. Thank you for your grace. In Jesus name, amen.