In this sermon, Brother K. P. U. Hannan discusses his journey as a servant of the Lord and his deep concern for the body of Christ in these last days. He emphasizes the temptation and pull of the world that can call believers away from their love and obedience to Jesus. He highlights the importance of loving Christ and obeying his commandments. The sermon also references the book of Revelation and the perspective it gives on the church and God's eternal kingdom.

It was Jesus Christ who said, If you love me, you'll obey my commandments. It all starts with loving Christ, as we see next on the Road to Reality. Gospel for Asia now presents the Road to Reality with Brother K.P. Yohannan. This is your host, Richard Bews. Here we are again. As Paul II's letter to Timothy, chapter 3, we're told that in the last days men will be lovers of themselves. Well, we see that lived out in our day and age. A couple of years ago, at our Renewing Your Passion conference, the Lord impacted many lives, and today we're pleased to bring you one of many messages delivered at the conference. K.P. takes us now that golden chapter of Revelation 4 and encourages us away from self-centered living and towards loving and obeying Jesus. I've been serving the Lord now some 40 years. My journey began quite young. Over the years, as the Lord placed this call upon my life to see the most unreached reach of the gospel, and I continue to live for that, like I dream about it all night long and work for it all day long and travel no less than 300,000 air miles a year, speaking and sharing and talking around the world. But I must tell you, over these past 10, 15 years or so, at least 10 years, my heart began to feel a very deep burden and concern for the body of Christ at large, both here in the United States and overseas and in my own native land of India and wherever. That is, somehow, these last days, there is going to be greater temptation and pull of the world to call us away from our beloved, the one who gave his life for us, and blood was the price he paid to purchase us. But as Paul said, he said, I am so afraid and scared that just as Satan beguiled Eve, deceived her, so he will seek to rob your tender affection you have toward the Lord. The enticement of the world and the voices we hear from all around us is constantly calling us to walk away from him, take our focused attention from him and put it on something else. It could be the things of the world, friends or comfort or ease, take care of yourself. And I don't know how to explain this to you. Go to a typical Christian bookstore, you'll find the thousands of titles released constantly and millions of dollars are spent for this and most of it talk about one thing, how to take care of ourselves. So little do we read about forsaking all, dying to self, embracing the cross and understanding the grace of God as the Bible teaches it and walking with him. And so I pray, Lord, that the brother says that we live with people like you, that somehow we will have a small part in encouraging you to follow him and keep the Lord before you more than anything else. I'd like you to turn your Bibles to the book of Revelation, chapter four. Now here we read about this interesting statement where the Lord Jesus Christ is saying to John, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this that you'll find in the very first verse, the last part of the verse. John had no clue or understanding the real state of the church or what is going on by his own reasoning or horizontal understanding. Nor did he know what was going to happen in the years to come. And the Lord is calling him saying, I will give you insight to the real state of the situation, what's going on. Come up here. Often the Lord's call for us, he's calling us saying, come away, walk away and come up and see things from my perspective and you will be able to respond to it the way I want to respond to it and live the way I want you to live if you will do that. This is quite interesting, you'll find in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 27 about Moses. The man who was destined to be sitting on the throne and had everything going for him and quite well established and he walks away from all this stuff. And then the scripture says, Moses left all those luxuries, comfort, promises, everything of Egypt because he saw him who is invisible. That's a strange statement. How do you see someone you cannot see? Abraham, with all the comfortable circumstances and established family situation, it's like in America they say every six years people move from one city to next city and all that but those days they didn't do that like in some European countries or in India or some Asian nations, people live in one place forever. We build those houses to last for 300-400 years but here we build them for 20 days. Not really. But Abraham now walks away from all these things. We don't read about how he did it exactly until you come to the book of Hebrews, it says, Abraham saw a city that has foundations and the builder and maker is God therefore he regarded himself as a stranger and pilgrim on this earth and he lived in tents. He saw something that nobody else could see, a place where God himself built with his hand which will not perish in time. Having God's perspective and the way God sees things changes us to live a life totally different from anyone else. Now, Jesus came and died on the cross to forgive our sins and take us to heaven. We all believe in that but more than that, he came also to deliver us from our own self-centeredness and help us to live the way he would live right now if he was living in this generation. So we read in 1 John, as he was in the world so are we now in this world. It is Jesus, his heart, his life now in my earthen vessel I feel it, I live for him, I walk with him, I hear from him, I act on those things that he would want me to act on the way he want me to do that. In 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18 it's a very interesting verse if you are looking at your Bible you may want to mark that Bible verse it's quite a fascinating verse. It says, Beholding us in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being changed or transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord the Spirit. That's when we look at the Bible it is the mirror Book of James says that. As you look in the mirror we see his face. I mean when he got up this morning obviously he may have gone to the bathroom he is supposed to do that and looked in the mirror when he looked in the mirror did he see my face? Hope not. I didn't see your face. I saw my face. But the scripture, the Bible it says when we look into the scripture, the mirror the word of God we see the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Pharisees as you know studied the Bible memorized it, dissected it wrote commentaries on it and Jesus, you know you fellows you think by doing that you will have life but the problem is this they testify of me but you will not want to come to me so it is possible to spend your life studying and studying and researching memorizing all the theology and miss the Lord himself. You can find what you want if you go and look for it but if you are looking for what God is talking about the whole Bible you see the face of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit is to help us see his face in the world then transform us from within so that our nature will change and we become more like him. Someone said one look at self and ten look at Jesus will keep you going. But let us not come to the place where conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit is misunderstood as legalism and the scripture is very clear about that but knowing the Lord and learning about him and understanding him will change me to become not self centered but others centered but becoming like Jesus is not just a small matter I will do this for Jesus no, it is much more than that it is saying Lord my hands, my ears my tongue my resources my wife, my children my decisions my dreams, my ambitions my honor, my reputation Lord it's all about you what you want me to do and I will do whatever you say Lord and if that be the case the Jesus or the New Testament you will find saying constantly I do nothing of my own I seek nothing for myself I am all about laying down my life for others I came to seek and to save someone who would spend all night long praying the man Jesus agonizing all night long and next day walk around healing the sick and caring for the poor wiping the tears nothing about himself but about others to be like Christ is to say no to self in this world of ours we are constantly encouraged to live for ourselves that's our natural inclination God's desire is that we move away from self-centered living and instead be focused on the needs of others. Brother K.P. will be right back but first we'd like just to take a minute of your time to tell you about a book that K.P. wrote a while back that would serve as a great companion to this study it's called Revolution in World Missions. I loved reading it myself as K.P. was encouraging us to let go of self-centeredness and to be more eternally minded today I couldn't help but think of that book that's the direction K.P. takes in Revolution in World Missions God has used that book in countless lives. You can order your free copy by going to gfauk.org and please do tell us if God uses it to bring about a change of direction for you that would really make our day here just go to gfauk.org and ask to receive Revolution in World Missions it's our free gift to you now here once again is K.P. You ever read the scripture that says Jesus learned obedience through suffering you know the scripture, there's a bible verse like that King James also is like that NIV, any translation you read Jesus, God on earth learned obedience and he learned obedience through suffering? What do you mean? Well, just a few hours he was abused and beaten and ridiculed and they put him on the cross and he died so he was to learn obedience on the cross, for what? Listen to me from the day he was born for thirty years then another three and a half years on a daily basis he embraced the cross saying not to himself dying to whatever he wanted and wished as a man not my will but your will and he grew in understanding of dying slowly daily and learning finally to the place father if there's some other way that would be wonderful but here I am I choose to lay down my very life your will not mine godliness and being like Christ never comes in two days and three days and one month and four days or two years it is a life a life of learning and growing constantly but what concerns me the most often our Christianity that we are accustomed to we are brainwashed with books and television preachers and music and whatever it makes us constantly think about our self so that we rather weep over our son or daughter who is going astray we fast and pray for that little kid who is in trouble but when you see on the television over a million people displaced in a cyclone over 100,000 children walking on the streets crying mummy, daddy but they can't find them when you find out the crisis of millions that are dying and going into Christless eternity we watch those things and we say can't believe these dumb people are doing it again what's wrong with these people what's wrong with the government don't they care life goes on as always but there are some and some of you I suspect after you saw that news piece on television the next few days your children are asking the question what happened to daddy he looked so gloomy mummy he used to sit with us for morning breakfast and dinner now he's not eating anymore and mummy is he mad at you or mad at us what did he do and finally the mother says my son my daughter you really want to know what happened to daddy yeah well you remember three days ago we saw the story from Burma the cyclone you remember we saw the bloodshed taking place in Sri Lanka and what's happened in Iraq yeah well that night when we were going to bed daddy was crying and his heart is deeply in pain that night he got up about one in the morning and he was not in bed and four in the morning I found him in our living room with his face in his hand weeping and was praying for these people and he decided not to eat for next three four days but fast and pray and that's what happened daddy some years will go by now those children grow up they are teenagers and in their 20s and 30s and their lives are so radically impacted with the reality of this Christ who gave his life not only for us but for the whole world and their lives are so in tune with the living Christ and someday when somebody asks how on earth you chose this narrow road what happened to you they will say well the story goes back 20 years ago and they relate to the story of the dad please I beg of you not to take these words as a way to put you on a guilt trip or put you in a place where we have some agenda to get some money out of you none of those things God will always do his work whether we do something or not he has his agendas all figured out but it's a privilege for us to be part of what he's doing but I'm more concerned about my understanding of him how my heart can change and become like him listen to these words from my friend writing about the state of our church this is about American church so if you are from other country you can put your country's name in this place 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 compromised of the world and now we are paying the price our instant salvation message has dishonored God and confused men our faulty seeds have produced a flaky harvest what a pitiful crop we are reaping as American believers we spend more hours watching television but minutes watching in prayer did you know there's a study released not too long ago average believer in our nation here spend just an eight minutes a day in prayer and past days pray less than 12 minutes a day it may not be about you or your pastor but it's kind of a general survey it goes on 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 video games than seeking God in prayer has no right to call Jesus Lord anyone who takes delight in today's perverted soap operas is serving another God anyone who cannot die to sports for a season is worshipping idols is a dangerous statement in this country if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him because friendship with the world is hatred toward God in reality whose friends are we it is time for some serious soul searching what kind of born again experience have we had if it calls for almost no personal sacrifice produces virtually no suppression from the world and breathes practically no hatred for sin how can we claim to be born from above where is the evidence of our new life nature we call ourselves citizens of heaven yet our hearts are caught up in earthly treasures we sing we are the people of God but we are entertained by the worst of the devil's children we claim to be death to the world yet we are more interested in temporal fashions than in eternal souls something is wrong with our salvation experience bad fruits means bad roots we say Jesus we say just confess Jesus as Lord and you are in he says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of my father in heaven we say just pray this prayer and it is done he says if anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take his cross daily and follow me we say just come to the altar it will only take a minute he says make every effort to enter through the narrow door because many I tell you will try to enter and will not be able to the question is who do you think is right we'll leave you to think over that question this is the road to reality a ministry of gospel for Asia K.P. Yohanan is our teacher and we've just heard part of a message he gave at our most recent Renewing Your Passion conference in Dallas maybe after listening today the Lord has stirred your heart and encouraged you to get involved in reaching those that need to hear his good news we'd love to suggest a few ways you can do that if you would visit our website at roadtoreality.org.uk or call us on 01904 643233 here's an opportunity to be a blessing to others in South Asian culture most widows are viewed unfortunately as a curse and shunned from society they're sometimes ignored by relatives too I also think of the abandoned children of Asia who face similar conditions they often have to fend for themselves without food and shelter at our website roadtoreality.org.uk we can tell you how you can ensure that they are taken care of and shown the love of Christ again we're at roadtoreality.org.uk or if it's easier just call our number 01904 643233 that's 01904 643233 and you can get short timely messages from K.P.Yohannan and Gospel for Asia on Twitter at GFA underscore UK or join us on Facebook under Gospel for Asia UK next week on The Road to Reality Brother K.P. will have the rest of his message called It Starts with Loving Him we invite you back for that The Road to Reality now is brought to you by Gospel for Asia it's been wonderful to have you with us it's me now Richard Bewes saying goodbye and let's meet again God bless you always