In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the urgency of the harvest and the importance of sharing the love of God with those who are lost. He shares a story of Jesus encountering a woman at a well and realizing the vast number of people who do not know God. The speaker encourages listeners, especially young people, to make life decisions in light of eternity. He references 2 Timothy 4:6 where Paul speaks about finishing the race and receiving the crown of righteousness. The speaker also highlights the need for believers to prioritize prayer, the word of God, and missions over worldly pursuits. He challenges listeners to examine their priorities and ensure that they are truly following Jesus.

Good evening, so nice to be here. Really, I mean that I'm so grateful for the leadership inviting me to come to this conference and the worship tonight, and the brother who was leading in worship, I don't know him personally, but a sense, sincere pure heart and all the people with him, it was really nice. And it's so refreshing to watch young people worship the Lord, they mean it, and you are in good company. And if you are part of Calvary Chapel, anywhere, and I must say this to you because someone like me who travels all over the world and talks to people all the time, I travel about 300,000 air miles a year traveling and speaking, and I must tell you, if you are part of Calvary Chapel movement, you simply do not know how blessed you are. The teaching of the scripture, faithful exposition, teaching God's word, which is more significant than anything else you can think of, and the church is going through, in my thinking, dark ages, especially with the shallow, materialistic prosperity gospel, and all the weird stuff going on, knocking, falling down, screaming, snake, rats, and everything else, it has all to do with leaving the Bible. And people are going after experiences based on the present crisis or need they have. I remember a lady coming to me in one of the meetings and said, will you please pray for me? And I said, please tell me what is it you want me to pray for? She said, well, I got a demon of smoke inside me, can you cast the demon out? I mean, only in America, things like that happens, I think. So I said, dear lady, I can cast out demons, but I cannot cast out the flesh. And poor devil get blamed for everything else under the sun. And I wonder when all these millions and millions of demons have their yearly conference with their head, you know, Satan, and must be a whole lot of complaining going on. You know, there's a whole bunch of Christians blaming us for everything else. We are not responsible for these things. And, you know, your worst enemy is not the devil. The devil is bad, I'm not on his side. But please believe me, please believe me, we don't know this more than we realize our worst enemy is our own selves and deadness. And just as Adam and Eve had a choice between the two trees, God never make you godly and spiritual, He can't. He offers you the choice, saying not to self and not to the world, and not to sin. You can fast all you want, pray all you want, but until you come to the place of saying, you know, I don't belong to myself, I'm a thief, stolen my life away from God. And Jesus, you know, paid the price on the cross and no more my own, and reckon yourself as dead and make a choice. If that means saying goodbye to a girlfriend or boyfriend or relationship or music or money or materialism or whatever, once you make the choice, you'll be surprised the reality sets in and you'll find a world of godliness that you never knew before. And so I encourage you to keep studying God's word and be faithful to your church and to follow the instruction of the elders. And, you know, most of you are young people here, yet you are placed in significant leadership position and never take this privilege for granted. You know, there's a thousand people standing in line to take your place. If you walk away, God will find someone else, but walk in humility and fear and trembling and serve God, because this is an awesome privilege the Lord gave you to have influence over so many people. So I say these things to you with great respect and regard for you, and my prayers will always be with you in this regard. And again, the best decisions you make in life, my brothers and sisters, is based on the future, not the present, not the present. People who make decisions based on here and now, not understanding what life is all about, they will make decisions and regret continually. So the life decisions you make, and especially young people, this is more important to keep in mind, should be in the light of eternity. In 2 Timothy, if you turn your Bibles to chapter four, this significant passage, 2 Timothy chapter four, verse six. Paul speaks these very powerful words. For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. This gives you the clue. As to the powerful motivation, incentive, the impetus that will make us to run the race and not to give up. And I encourage you to read through the second Corinthians, the letter of second Corinthians. You know, when people accused Paul about, you know, you're just a phony and you're a power hungry man and you misuse your authority and you speak so big and big teachings, but you don't do this and all kinds of stuff they accused him of. And Paul writes back, he could have explained the number of people raised from the dead and the sick got healed and taken to the heavens and saw things that no man can utter. And he could have said, you know, these stupid foolish people, they don't know who I am. I'm going to just tell them what I saw in heaven. And on and on he could have, but he refused. Unlike most preachers today and some other people say, you know, look at me and our church and how we have done, how great a building we have, what budget we have, how large my church is and all these degrees and fancy stuff. Paul will tell them about the suffering he faced, the agony he faced, the shipwreck, the nakedness, the hard labor working with his hand to make living and buy a ticket to go and preach the gospel, imprisonment, beaten, abused and hungry and forsaken and loneliness. And then he says, this is my record. And my brothers and sisters, you cannot separate godliness and knowing God from the cross and the choices you make against your own flesh and your wish and your dreams. And most Christians will walk through life with a mediocre life. And their ambition is to get married, to have a house, to have a car, make sure they look decent, they talk right and live through life based on here and now. They cannot imagine of having a life that stands out and be counted for God. And the reason I'm saying this to you and I say this to you not just as a message, I deal with over 15,000 missionaries in 11 nations, 7,000 young people in some 54 Bible colleges. I am passionately involved and committed to young generation. But I'm telling you the key to everything about what I'm telling you is leaders. People like you who will take life serious and the call of God serious, not simply saying, I know all the Bible, I know all the doctrines. You know, the Pharisees had all the doctrines right. If you know that, they were correct. They knew the Bible, they memorized it, they taught it, they explained it. There are commentaries on it. But Jesus, these fellows are all going to hell. And then he turned the prostitutes and drunkards and the dumb, the stupid people. He said, you're going to heaven. Well, that's my fireflies vision. Don't quote me in all these things I'm telling you. But the reason is this. You see, while on one hand we embrace the truth and the scripture and all this stuff and our lives are divorced from reality, it may look wonderful, but on the inside, the reality is gone. And God is very concerned about the authentic life that we live and that's what it's all about. Information, knowledge will never help you to understand God. And the choices you make and I make, it is going to help us. And that's the reason I am so excited tonight that many of you here tonight, you're going to go back to your church, your community, wherever you come from, your congregation and those in people I pray will follow you and say, you know, I want to be like him. I want to be like her. They don't understand all the stuff, but something about you, the stamp of God and the godliness that they can sense, they can feel and that's what I am after. Now, when you look at the scripture, you will find the answer to the question, Paul, tell me, you were born and raised in a very rich, affluent family. You had everything going for you. You had the best of education, PhD on all kind of subjects. You were in the ruling community. You were powerful. You had everything going for you. Not only that, unlike some, you know, rascals who live in wretched sin, you lived a perfect life. Righteous. And you were full of zeal and religiously you were on the top. And now, you met Christ and Paul, you had all kind of means to climb ladders and make a name for you and use your history and say this and that, all these things, but Paul, you chose a very difficult road. And I can see that by reading Book of Acts and 2 Corinthians in your letters and I can see it. But Paul, what actually gave you this motivation to choose this hard, difficult, narrow road? Paul, you had the opportunity to get married like Peter and everybody else, you talked about it, Paul, but you chose to embrace the loneliness, this intense pain, and never become a burden on anybody else. You wouldn't take money from people that would not receive your teaching. Paul, what is it? What made you do that? And I think, Paul, if you'll come and talk to us and say, well, you really want to know? Here, Paul, please tell us. He will say, read my last letter and you read those verses I just read for you. So, as he faced all the temptations and battles, everything you can imagine, I am sure Paul faced it, but he kept going like a laser beam. He kept his focus, never would give up, no matter what. And the reason is, it is like someone who run the race, they see the finishing line. They see who is standing on the other side and he kept his eyes on him. And this is so significant. That is, every day of his life, he said to himself, I'm running the race, this journey will not be very long, it will soon be over and I'm going to see him face to face. And that longing of the heart kept him firm. I started the race when I was barely 17. Now I'm 58 and I must tell you, the older I get, the longing gets deeper and deeper and emotional feeling for me someday to see my Lord face to face. And that gives me the ability to say, no to 10 million things that may come against me and I still do face the temptations, the problems and the pull of the ground like anybody else. I ask you to consider this. And that will give you the ability to think about the future, not simply about the present. Now, a friend of mine wrote these words about the condition of our church that we live with. It may not be true about your church, but it's worth listening to these words. 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 the crown without the cross. We have catered to the unsaved and compromise of the world. Now we are paying the price. Our instant salvation message is a 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. Are hungry for sports page, but have little taste for the word. Spend more money on pet food than on foreign missions. Love to feast, but hate to fast. Welcome God's blessings, but 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 games, video games, than serving God, 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 worshiping idols. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because the friendship with the world is hatred toward God. 1 John 2.15 and James 4.4. In reality, whose friends are we? Powerful words. Again, if this is something that you need to think about, I would say, don't be afraid. Now, who is our model? I mean, I was talking to somebody today, Sarah here, and I said to her, how much I love Pastor Chuck Smith and regard him like many as a father. And he will say to you, I'm glad you think about me like that and follow my instructions, but I follow Jesus. And that's what he does all the time. So who is our model? Jesus himself. But we say that with our lips, but do we understand the implications of that? You know, one time I took the pencil and went through the four gospels just looking for the man Jesus, not God Jesus. I worship him as Lord, he is my God, he is my savior. But I want to see the man Jesus, how he lived on earth, the choices he made. I ask you to do the same, you'll be surprised how he made painful choices against his own feelings and emotions for the sake of pleasing the father. It gives you encouragement. And sometimes it is quite refreshing. Now, how many times Jesus said statements like this, you know, you don't understand me. I seek nothing for myself. You want to make me the king, you're making a mistake. I'm here just for a few days and I'm walking away. I go to my father. I came for one reason, to seek and to save that which was lost. My home is not here. You know, there's a unbelievable, some, I'll tell you the name of the guy, but I won't. Wrote a book and the publishing house published it that Jesus was a multi-billionaire. He had the finest clothes and the most expensive mansions. And I wrote to the publisher and I said, you're totally off the wall. And he said, did you read the book? I said, I read that, I'm telling you. I said, would you please take this off or change the thing? Of course, you know, then I learned they stopped publishing that, I'm glad for that. But you know, look at Jesus. His focus was not here and now. And he said, I go to my father. And I came here for a time to lay down my life. And he said, as the father send me, so send I you. So what, I mean, tell me this, what or not are we doing in the Bible? What is the reason for all this? Have you ever thought about that? Jesus said to the Pharisees, you fellows, you go to the Bible and study it and memorize it and teach it, thinking that by doing so, you will find life. But they testify of me and you will not come to me. So what is this all about? The whole thing is telling us the life of Jesus. And we are asked not to obey all the Bible teachings and obey Jesus or no. You say that sound heresy. If you didn't know the rest, I agree with you. But we are called to be partakers of his nature. Mahatma Gandhiji, the father of my nation, he was kind of a disciple of Christ, literally obeyed the teachings of Christ, especially the Sermon on the Mount. And he booted out the English people by doing that. But he never became a follower of Christ. He was an outsider. So we are called to be partakers of his nature. That is, stop trying to live for Jesus. Let him be your life and everything will work out. But until you give up and I give up, he can't. So what is the job of the Holy Spirit? In 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, 2 Corinthians 3, 18, it says, as in a mirror, beholding his face, we are changed from inside to the image we see in the mirror. Now mirror is God's word. So the scripture says, as we study the scripture, we see whose face? Well, when you got up this morning, you looked in the mirror, did you see my face? If you did, we have to figure out where you're going to go. But when you looked in the mirror, you saw your wonderful, dirty face. But the mirror of God's word, it says, when you look into the mirror, you don't see my face, your face, nobody's face. You see the face of Jesus, his nature. And the Holy Spirit within us changes us to become like that image of our Lord. But it comes through making decisions. This is what Paul did. He said, when he called me, I made a decision not to consult the flesh and blood and walk out all kinds of stuff. I just wanted to follow him. No matter what, I just want to be like him. So it is good to say these statements, but how do you translate that into practical reality? It says in Hebrews chapter six, verse 20, Jesus is a forerunner, the one who runs before us and we are actually running behind him to be like him. Now, Jesus spent three and a half years teaching his disciples, right? He had a seminary or Bible college. Unlike our Bible college and seminaries, you know, all these, you know, higher criticism and stupid stuff people teach, you know. He was the teacher and the subject was himself and the classroom was real life events. That, I mean, that's what he did. And what was the teaching, the entire three and a half years of teaching in the end? This is the graduation sermon. Without me, you can do nothing. Without me, you can do nothing. Be mine. I want you to go and turn the world upside down. You are going to be the answer, but just wait for a few days until you have the power of the Holy Spirit. He will take the things of mine and he'll reveal those things to you. Unlike some people say, when Holy Spirit comes, he got goosebumps and run over the place like a chicken with the head cut off. No, the Holy Spirit, it is not just the Spirit, it's a Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, he will give you a holy go. He will go to the whole world. You will become my witnesses. And those disciples who heard the thing, they were set on fire with two things. One, absolute passion for the risen Christ. Even if he cut my head off, I cannot deny him. He is my Lord. Second, passion for the lost and dying millions for those Jesus died. That is basic theology. That is a discipleship. You don't need Hebrew and Greek and all. I study all those. I studied it too. I'm not against these things, but... So here's the thing. Life is very simple. You keep it simple. Let me say this, Christian life following Christ is very simple. Don't make it complicated. Jesus never made it complicated. He loved his father and only did what the father told him. But what the father told him, you'll find him praying all night long. All day long, he's going from village to village teaching. One time he walked 80 kilometers just to minister to one woman. He wept for the lost and dying multitude. In the gospel of John chapter four, you find when the disciples went to buy hamburger and french fries from in and out. That is in the Bible. No. And you know, they come back, you know this American woman story. When they came back, they saw him talking to this woman culturally. You're not supposed to do stuff like that. And they said, good night. He's talking to a woman. But it says, they didn't say nothing because he's the boss. So they changed the subject and they said, master, please eat. Oh, I mean, these guys were selfish also because they were hungry. According to the culture, they could not eat their food until their boss eat, the master eat. And so Jesus then responds and say, yeah, you know what? I have food to eat that you have no clue about. In American language, we call it a real bummer. And so they have a conference. Did someone bring him something to eat? And Jesus says, you don't understand. Lift up your eyes and look and see what I see. You say four months, then the harvest comes. But I tell you, it is right now. What is he talking about? He's not talking about rice and corn and maize and you know, beans and no. He's saying while you fellows went off to buy food, I'm so grateful you did that. But so happened, this lady came to draw water and I start talking to her. And all of a sudden I realized, I'm looking at one individual who is lost for eternity in hell without the father's love. But then I realized there are multitudes like her who do not know my father. And her face became a window for me to see the largeness of the picture, the harvest. And the realization and the lostness and the cry and the desperation of people around me simply killed my very appetite and I can't eat. My food is to do the will of him that send me and finish his work. And I'm sending you to reap a harvest where you have not done any work. Others have done the work and you are given the permission to enter into their field and reap the harvest. Now, my brother, my sister, that is authentic Christianity of following Christ. And if you say you know Christ and your heart is not gripped with the things that concerns him, you are making mockery of Christ and the New Testament. Because those who heard those words and followed him, except one, they all lost their life. Thomas, the one who was the doubting disciple, the so-called doubting man, he traveled leaving his wife and kids and the whole family all the way to India in AD 52 to preach the gospel and be the first missionary and be martyred and his tomb is still there. And so did all the disciples. So you find the book of Acts. I went to seminary and studied five and a half years and they taught me book of Acts. And I regret or waste the time also. They taught me this and that and grammar and Greek and dumb stupid things, but they never taught me that the way to do this is lay down your life, say not to self and be willing to give all for the sake of reaching the lost world. That was never told. And my brothers and sisters, I'm telling you, as you and I follow Christ, we need to understand Jesus is all about the cross and the redemption of mankind. And people are going to eternity without knowing the Lord. I never forget a letter came from one of our missionaries living in North India. And I was sitting in my office in Dallas and read the letter when I finished reading the letter, I was no more sitting on my comfortable chair. I was on my knees weeping. And the letter was about 35 million people coming to dip themselves in the river Ganges during that season. These sincere, devout, religious Hindus, lawyers, doctors, poor people, beggars, lame, crippled, they walk sometime 1,000 miles, 2,000 miles to get to the river, the holy river for a dip in the water because they believe that is how they get forgiveness of sin. And this one missionary from morning till night, he will be talking to people that comes to the festival and distribute tracts. And one day when he was coming home after the ministry, he saw a young woman sitting by the bank of the river, weeping uncontrollably and pounding upon a chest. According to the Indian customs, when a woman does that, you must know something happened to her worse than death itself. So our missionary goes to this woman and this letter, he writes the whole story. He sat beside her and said, what makes you so sad? Why are you crying? Whatever happened to you? In the midst of sobbing and crying and weeping, this woman speak these words. My husband is so sick, he cannot work anymore. We are so poor people. 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 Goddess Ganges, the river God. My only child, my six month old baby boy, I just threw him into the river. Paragraph, he writes, I sat beside her, explained to her that Jesus died for her. Her sins are forgiven. All she need to do was simply ask. And God is not her enemy. God did not make her poor. He loves her. As he explained all the scripture portions and everything, finally, he writes, she wiped her tears, looked straight into my eyes and simply said, but why didn't you come to me half hour sooner? I didn't have to kill my child. It is too late, isn't it? It is too late. And she went back crying again. That is the fate and the longing and the despair and the agony of 2 billion people living on planet earth. When was the last time you spent a day agonizing for the lost souls? When was the last time you sought out information so you can pray for some of these countries? And I'm saying this to you, please understand me. I have no agenda to get something out of you and run from here. I love you so much, but I'm telling you, this is a time as we saw the words on the song, it is dark hour. It is a desperate hour. It take militant, committed, radical people to make change in our generation. It is not going to come by memorizing and quoting Bible verses. It's going to come by dying yourself and giving all for the sake of him who died on the cross. And without this, we will not accomplish this. And you have to make some choices because I'm terribly concerned that you go back as a leader of a youth movement and you play games and do the same thing all the dumb young people are doing, going after those music and those movies, those bingo games, those weekends, you do whatever you want to do. No, you need to be that kind of leader who can say, follow me as I follow Christ. And following Christ is never a simple superficial task, but it is a painful task and keep that in mind. Again, I'm not promoting legalism and work of the flesh. No, I'm saying because Jesus is living in us, we must be able to do that. Now, Jesus is my model. Now, you look at the life of Christ. I mean, people read books about finding God's will. You know, I mean, I just want to know God's will. So here's a formula, one, two, three, four, five, six, or books, you know, I mean, there's so many books on the market about all kinds of subjects. You read all the books, then you become unspiritual. And then the truth of the matter is this. You know, how many of you are married? Raise your hand, tell the truth. Good. Okay, how many of you are thinking of getting married? Raise your hand. Oh, there you go. You know what, when you fall in love with someone, if you're still living with your parents, they will cancel the telephone line because it is not $20 a month bill, it is $2,000. And you know about that. You lived through that. You just can't find enough time. And people take off from their work just to be with their boy or girlfriend or whatever, fiance, you know, however, I mean, you know the stories. And please listen to me. Average Christians in America pray less than eight minutes a day, the study shows. And pastors pray less than 12 minutes a day. And I don't want to raise your hand. When was the last time you spent some time in prayer you couldn't get up because the agony, the pain was so much that you couldn't walk away. It was spiritual warfare. And God said, Abraham is my friend. I cannot keep my secret from him. Are you a friend of God? Are you the friend of God that he can whisper to you and say, my son, my daughter, I am in agony. I'm concerned about this. I'm worried about this. My heart ache for this. Would you stand in the gap for me? In the book of Ezekiel, chapter 22, God said, I looked all over the land. There are thousands of prophets and preachers and pastors and youth pastors and musicians, but I'm looking for one person to stand in the gap before me for the sake of the land that they may not be destroyed, but I cannot find one person. I'm asking you, are you a professional person who go from conference to conference, from books to book, to learn the tricks of the trade, or are you one that stands before God and minister to God? You are more concerned about ministering to him than ministering to the people. If you minister to him, if you wait before him, as Jesus did, you will know what to say. A day is like thousand years with God and thousand years like a day. It don't take super intellectual, smart looking people to do God's work. It take someone who is willing to know what it means to wait before the face of God and hear from him. You say, but KP, this all sounds so good. I read books on prayer and all that. I'll tell you what you need to do. Start spending at least half hour a day in prayer and don't lay on your bed with your feet up before God. Why don't you kneel? You know, I am sure Holy Spirit can knock people down. I'm not against it, but I cannot understand as an Asian, how can you lay on your back and stick your feet before God? You don't do that to a president or the country or anything like that. Why don't you fall on your face, Baba? And then worship God and repent. And so I encourage you to bring your body to discipline also, to kneel and to pray. Of course, you got a bad knee, then don't worry about that, God understand. But, you know, and you say, well, that's a lot of time, but you know what? You read the scripture, there are plenty of prayers in the Bible and prayer is basically conversation. You know, I mean, I have a little booklet. I sent it to free for anyone. It costs money, but I told you it's free. You just ask for it, learning to pray. It is something for now 40 years of journeying with my Lord. This is something I learned that I'm praying all the time. I'm talking to the Lord all the time. When people call me, I live on the telephone. Basically from all over the world, 24 hours telephone rings. And of course, I turn it off in the middle of the night so I can sleep. But when people are talking to me, it was always like an endless tape going on in my head. In the middle of conversation, I'm saying, Lord, what do you want me to say? And I'm so amazed. My logic, my reason tells me to do something, but the Lord says, no, that's not what I want. This is what you should tell him. And he's so amazing. God is real, he still speaks. And you have to, like a tune, a shortwave radio or television, you have to spend time listening and your heart get quiet. And you know, the early church fathers, I've been reading a lots of books on desert fathers and these, you know, St. Francis, you know, and Assisi and Augustine, all those things, you know, I mean, you know, it's amazing. Some of these people would wait days fasting and praying before God. And they were seeking God, not something from God. And you develop a habit to spend 15 minutes and 20 minutes and then ask the Lord to give you wisdom. And he'll give you the burden. He'll give you the list of people to pray for. Your youth group, every individual, the Lord brings your life. That's a spiritual warfare. Many of these young people come from broken homes. They're abused, they're hurt, and demons could hold on their brains. They can't break free from habits. No matter what you do, it takes spiritual warfare. And that takes commitment like Paul, praying day and night, agonizing for others. And this is what Jesus was all about. Why do you think Son of God must spend all night in prayer? Here we spend more time with committees, agonizing on decisions rather than praying and waiting before God. I remember in Nagpur, India, our senior leaders had a meeting which they have several times to make mega decisions about ministries and all those things. And right in the middle of the second, third day meeting, the Holy Spirit spoke to one of our leaders and said, you know what? You people are spending so much time agonizing over my work and I'm waiting here for you to talk to me. And that brought such repentance and tears and they spent next few days only praying. And the decisions they made had huge significance for the kingdom after that. So I'm encouraging you to follow in the footsteps of your master that you read in the scripture. Obviously, I got 38 points and you're gonna stay here all night if I continue, but I need to wrap it up by saying to you this. If you take the call of God serious, which I believe you do, otherwise he will not be here. But none of us have arrived. Paul said, I keep running the race. No matter what I said so far this afternoon or this evening, please listen to me. Never be discouraged about where you are. The very fact you are here tells me you are here because the Lord has something significant for you to know and then continue run the race. And God is never disappointed in you. He is not mad at you. He is not going to throw you out. He loves you so much, even if you did the dumbest thing in the whole world. The issue is this. He waits and waits and waits until to the last second saying that he will come back to me. She will understand me. So you have all the encouragement in the world to say, I'm going to keep running the race. And when you say, Lord, I'm sorry for the things I did and the way I acted, he forgives and he forgets it completely as though it never happened. I want you to know there's no one here that can say, I lived perfect. There are people who been looking at sites that you should not be looking at. Books you should not be reading. Listen to music you should not be listening to. Friendship that you should never have maintained. And the Lord knows all that, but don't kill yourself saying that, I'm hopeless, I'm gonna get out of the battle. No, tonight you are here because he knows all about you and he says to you, I'm here on your behalf. And when the prodigal son came home to the father, the father never said, now tell me all the list of the dumb things you did. No, he simply said, I'm so glad you're home. Let me tell you, I love you. That is the father. And so I want you to understand you have and I have tremendous hope as we look forward to the days to come. Well, I need to close here by just telling you one little story. People ask me, who influenced your life the most in your life and who are the people? Of course, Chuck Smith is one of the names and then George Worwer. But I always say, you know what? The most significant influence in my life to tell you the truth is my own mother. And I grew up in the remote, tiny, dark village in Southern part of India. I never wore shoes and socks and trousers and fancy clothes like you wear now, I wear now. Until I was 16, I wore this wraparound clothes, walked barefooted and Adam and Eve, God made, he never gave them shoes. They were more holy, more spiritual. In any case, when I was eight years old, my godly mother led me to the Lord. And I have five brothers. I'm the youngest in the family. And the memory of my mother, as a young boy, she quoted this Bible verse a million times. Psalm 73, verse 25. Whom have I in heaven but you and on earth I desire no one beside you. And I said to myself, what on earth is my mother saying? That's all she kept saying. I never saw her reading any book except the Bible. Early morning she would wake up at four in the morning or earlier and would spend a couple hours in prayer. Then she'd wake up the whole family for family prayer. And you know, her prayer was quietly, Lord, call one of my sons to serve you and be a missionary. And one by one, her sons went to business and farming and all those things. And when I was born and growing up skinny and shy and timid, and she kind of lost her hope completely that I would make anything good out of my life. I remember when having finished the high school, one day I told my parents, if they would allow me, I'd like to go and serve God. And the moment I said it before I could finish my statement, my mother, who was sitting on a bench, she jumped up and said, go. And you have to keep this mind. I never knew she was praying any prayer like that. I never knew that. And when she said that, I thought I was an accident or she didn't want me or she hated me. That's not the truth. So I went off to serve the Lord. After two years, when I came back home to see my parents, that's when she told me the story. She gave up hope that any of her sons would be missionaries. Then she decided to spend every Friday complete fast. And she did that for three and a half years fasting. Lord, before I die, please call one of my son to serve you. And she said, son, the day you came and said, I knew God answered my prayer. And I remember, I was on the way to Seoul, Korea at the age of 84. 84 years, my mother was at that time in 80. And I heard in Mumbai, when I reached there, my mother was ill. She never been sick actually, but she had some heart problem. She was taken to the hospital. And I went to the hospital that week and my mother passed away. And the saddest, most painful time in my entire life, I can remember. She was my best friend, my prayer partner. And I was deeply, deeply hurt. After the funeral take place, I met with my brothers to talk about our mother. And we children, all of us thought my mother stored up a lot of money in the bank because according to our customs, my father passed away earlier, he was a believer. And her son's fairly well to do people would give her money whether she asked or not. So, but we never saw her spending any money. So if you don't spend money, what happens? You're keeping the bank. So, you know, we honestly believe there must be huge amount of money sitting in the bank somewhere. So one of my brother asked, anybody know where all the money is? And answering the question, another brother said, you know, I found this old notebook under the pillow of our mother's bed. And then he flipped through the pages and he said, as far as I can tell you, there's not a single penny in the bank. And somebody among the brothers said, what happened to all the money? The guy who asked is a greedy one, by the way. And I was not the one who asked. And then he said, you know, in her handwriting, names of dozens of young people studying in Bible schools, people on the mission field in many parts of the country, and against the names, the amount of money she was sending to them without telling one human being and none of us knew. The moment he said that, I broke down and started to weep, not because there was no money in the bank. Two years prior to that, when I was in India to visit my mother, I saw her wearing a blouse from ear to ear torn and hand stitched. In my culture, if the children don't take care of their parents, you are an infidel. The community will think terrible about you, especially if children are well-to-do people, financially stable people. And I said to my mother in very angry voice, mother, what madness got into your head? You are putting cow dung on our face. You're bringing disgrace to your children. Mother, can't you buy a new dress? You have all the money in the world. And I remember, I mean, this, my mother, you know, as a short woman, very fragile, but incredible smile. Always she had that. She smiled and she looked at me and said, you little fellow don't understand nothing. Someday you will understand. And she kept smiling and I got more angry. As I sat in the room, when we discovered what she did, it was as though my mother walked back into the room, put her arm around me, whispering in my ear, my son, now you understand. I could have purchased a new dress every month. I could have lived like all my friends. And I'm sure many of them thought I am dumb. I don't care. But my son, I saw something that nobody could see maybe. Time will come to an end. Eternity is more real. And I exchanged every penny and my wish, what I want, so that gospel can be preached. The last thing my mother left with us, in her own words, went like this. When I'm dead and gone, the only thing I will leave behind is my wedding ring, my earrings, and the gold chain my husband gave me at the age of 18 when he married me. 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 in heaven now with Jesus having huge regret? I don't think so. I don't think so. And I'm so glad for the example and the life she lived. And I ask you in the name of my Lord, go back to your responsibility, to your church, and live this life of Jesus. And someday, someday, someone like me, somewhere standing behind a pulpit, somewhere, a son, a daughter, a young man, young woman, will say, I remember him. I remember her. Please understand this. Jesus said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And I plead with you to see him clearly and walk with him. How I may bring this to conclusion, just a few applications. One, as I said earlier, commit yourself for a life of prayer. The Lord give you grace. Make sure at least one day of the week you're fasting and praying and the Lord give you the burden. Don't do it because of legalism or bondage or force, but it's a privilege. Get a world map and understand what's going on in the world. You can get map from us also if you want. Get the book Operation World and learn about the countries. And take news report as prayer request and learn to do that. If you don't have family prayer meeting, meet with your family, your children, your parents, and your family, have daily devotion as a family. Start prayer meeting with the young people, serious prayer meeting. And the second thing I'll ask you, please think about simplifying your life. You know, one of the thing we don't understand, even if you have money, even if people give you lots of things as a gift, the more material things you accumulate, the less you'll be able to spend time with God because you have to take care of all these stupid things. If you've got only five shirts, you don't have to wash 10 shirts and wait before the washing machine and dryer. I used to have 17 neckties. When God convicted my heart 30 years ago, I kept two ties and got the rest. So I have no problem. When I had to wear a tie, I had two ties, this one or that one. No problem. And out of four or five trousers I have, I don't have to organize 15 trousers. I just can pick any one. Very simple. I got only one tennis shoes. When that wears out, I can get another one. It's very simple. I got a car made in 1962. Bug. It runs wonderful. And people tell me, you have to get a brand new car. I say, I don't drive so far. Car is just take me a little fragile body from one place to another place, not to live in it. Keep your life simple. Don't go for shopping unless you have need to buy something. The devil will tempt you with all kind of lies and you without even knowing, saying this is on sale, you buy it, no, it is on sale. They are making still money on you. Don't be deceived by material things. Simplify your life, ask the Lord, give you direction, okay? I cannot tell you, I have friends who are multimillionaires. They live for God and they serve God. They invest their resources for God. I'm not against billionaires and millionaires. God gives different people different things to do. You should not compare this to that and judgmental. No, I'm not telling you that. But for you, as Paul said, Timothy, for you, my brother, my sister, you make right choices. The third thing I'll ask you to do as a leader of the ministry, wherever you are, Gospel of Asia, we have what you call a one year school of discipleship. It is a radical thing. We are offering to 15, 20 young people to come. They must have finished their high school before they come to us. One year they spend with us in Dallas and their lives are totally changed and they go back to the church or to wherever, college, whatever, and we are blessed. And so if you have some young people, the serious young people who want to spend a year with us, out of that two, three, four weeks of the time, they go overseas also. So this whole new thing we are doing for a few years now to be a blessing to the body of Christ. So please go to our website and learn about it and you'll be able to take advantage of that. Another thing I will ask you to do, GFA's youth project for youth groups, we have special projects starting this summer, all kind of things, including going to the overseas countries and all kind of things. Please get the information and link up with us. We like to be a blessing to you and work with you any way we can. And finally, I would ask you, if you will think about it, you know, we have over 10,000 church planters in 10 Asian countries. They planned no less than 10 churches a day among people that never heard the gospel. And we have hundreds of missionaries from Bhutan, Pakistan, India, China, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh and all that, that have been trained and we are sending to the mission field. But often we are not able to do that because our hands are tied. The scripture says, how will they go except they be sent? What do you mean by that? Well, it takes someone to pray for them and help them financially to get to the mission field, to establish a church, and then they become self-supporting. And there's a card given to you, I think, on your chair or wherever. It simply says how you can help one of these missionaries or many missionaries. It's just about $30 a month. And when you sponsor one of these missionaries, from the table, you can get your missionary's profile, testimony, and you'll hear about the missionary, what is going on, what to pray for every year, a couple of times, I think, or more. And it's a beautiful thing to do. My wife and I began to support four native missionaries and each of those missionaries planted at least one church in the first year they went to the mission field. It's a privilege. And again, I'm just simply telling you, there's an opportunity. And if the Lord give you the peace and the grace to do that, I would say, please do that. And practical ways to do something. And then you can take this concept, by the way, you may be already doing that, to your youth group and have them as a youth group, you know, start supporting missionaries and pray for things like that. Again, look for opportunities. Don't wait for something to come to you to get plugged in, because this is how we invest our life for the Lord. Shall we pray? Dear Jesus, thank you for the privilege you gave us to gather like this. And I shared with my dear, dear brothers and sisters what I felt you wanted me to say. Please, dear Lord, take my feeble words that are yours and may it bring forth fruit, fruit that will remain. And I thank you for the hearts here tonight, tender and open. Want to love you and follow you. Please, dear master, give them assurance of your love and your grace and your mercy. May our hearts be touched and be broken continually with the things that breaks your heart. Worship you tonight and love you so much. So much we love you, Lord, for what you have done for us. In Christ's name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.