Christ's Call - Part 1

I've got two children, Danny and Masada, 20-year-old boy and 17-year-old girl. From the day they were born, my prayer was, Lord, please save them and call them to be your workers. When they finished the high school, they both took the flight and went out to the mission field, now serving God in India. My son is in a place where I was beaten up and stoned and persecuted numerous times. And I said, Lord, if he must be killed and martyred on the mission field, I'll be the first one to jump up and down, thank you for the privilege you gave us to give our life for you. American Christians, my brother, my sister, are you godly enough to keep the alarm clock, to wake you up, to weep over the lost world, to fast before the lost world and for God? I know those are strong words. Unless you are sensitive to the Lord, you can easily misunderstand. I'm here to put you on a guilt trip or a condemnation trip. We have a problem in America, in our church. We misunderstand obedience for legalism and bondage. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, a day soon coming, you will regret and repent. Too late it will be over the wasted life we spent for ourselves here. The world out there that do not know Jesus, and our priority number one, number one must be, Lord, I love you. As a result of that, I give all to touch the lost world. The amazing thing is the opportunity you have as a fellowship. And I have an illusion. I know you people, some of you drive from the end of the world to get to this church. And the reason you do that is because the word of God is taught here. When you realize in America, we have one ordained minister for every 200 people. In northern Bihar, 22 million people without one missionary, one Christian. That many people that never heard the name Jesus. In Afghanistan, 17 million people, the entire nation, not one church in the entire nation of Afghanistan. Turkey, with some 44 million people, maybe less than 200 Christians in the entire country. India, where I come from, we have one billion people population. What is the population of America you have? 250 million, that's right. I mean, just imagine how many times big the nation of India is. And half of India, about 500 million people, still waits to hear the message of salvation for the first time. And I've been, one year I traveled 200,000 air miles speaking to God's people in America. At the end of my trip, I decided I would never again travel and speak. Because I saw that Christianity is so filled with shallowness, and plastic, and lukewarm, it was just, feed me, help me, take care of my religion. And information has become spirituality for more people. Just think about the number of Christian books you have. Think about the number of tapes you purchase. I mean, by the time I finish speaking, they will have cooked out 200 audio tapes that you will be getting. You pay for it, I don't know what you do with it. But, I mean, the amount of, I mean, just look at your church. Just one little church here. I mean, it's not little, but it's big enough, but the bookstore, the tape, the program, the ladies' meeting, men's meeting, kids' meeting, all kind of, I mean, you are bombarded with information. You get enough spiritual information in one week, that all in China and India, people don't get in five years. When I was in mainland China some time ago, the Chinese brothers showed me photographs of baptism service taking place in the middle of the night, in the icy waters, because if they are caught publicly, they will go to prison and be killed. And something more shocking, they told me, was that, Brother KP, we have thousands of churches all over mainland China, and those congregations are lucky if they have two Bibles to the name of the entire congregation. I said, repeat that, please. They would say the same thing. I said, what do you guys do? Oh, they said, we get a Bible, and we are so glad, we tear the pages, ten pages to one family, twenty pages to the next family, twenty pages to the next family, they take it home, they copy it, they bring it back, then they swap it. Keep on circulating. And they hear the shortwave radio, Bible read through a transcendental radio broadcast, they copy the Bible. You realize, 1.3 billion people in the entire nation, there's not one Christian bookstore. In Dallas, where we are, there are over twelve full-time Christian radio stations, every day, bombarding the gospel of all kinds, and here you've got seven or eight of them, one you could plug into your church here. But I'm telling you, do you realize, that if you came to the church for six months, you are qualified to be a theologian, a Bible school teacher, or an average Christian here. You know so much. How blessed we are. But let's not fool ourselves, because you've got people coming here, large numbers, you've got a nice building, let's not fool ourselves, that don't mean we are impacting the world. I tell you what, many years ago, I went through a crisis in my life. The crisis was this, I wish I could believe there is no hell. You say, well KP, that sounds strange. Why is that? Because I was so getting desperate. If hell is real, I must do something more than what I was doing with my life. And I want to believe there is some other way to heaven, than through Jesus, after all, hell is not real. But I tell you what, I went through the Bible, just like you read, and came to the conclusion, hell is real. There is a place, and hell is not for a vacation, for two years, ten years, like you put prisoners for murdering, for ten years, twenty years, no sir, hell is for ever. And after ten billion trillion years, those in hell will scream, say, I want to die, I want to die, that's all. Not even for a drop of water, they just want to die. And the answer comes again, and again, and again, you shall never die, you will never die. That is the fate of multiplied billions on planet earth. And you and I say, Jesus, I love you. And I tell you what, if we can believe what we say we believe, with our lips, it will revolutionize our life, it will turn our lives upside down. When I say I went through this crisis of faith in my life, that is not a joke. And finally I said to myself, this is serious. And then with that, something else happened. I realized, I ain't going to be here for a very long time. That's American talk. Now, so that you will not think this guy is telling stories, even teach or preach, let's look at a Bible verse. Book of Psalms, 103, verse 15. And as I read this thing, I want you to look at it closely and seriously. Psalm 103, verse 15. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourished like a flower of the field. And the wind blows over it, and it is gone. And its place remembers it no more. That means, your life, it's not talking about some other, you know, guys living in England or Germany or India or the U.S. I'm talking about you. Man, your life is like grass, that you see out there. It comes up in the morning, your life, and flourished like a flower. You look wonderfully pretty, nice makeup on you, and go to the special place, get your hair cut, cost you $25, $30, or $30,000. And you make your nose big or small. I mean, you are 100 years old, but you look 20. You know, the so-called American midlife crisis, I don't know what that is. Get a new car, new fashions, all these things, a new house, everything. I mean, you are never satisfied with stuff to make you look nice and acceptable and all the stuff. I mean, it all looks nice, but you know what? The wind and says it's gone. Well, OK. OK. It is gone. But the sad thing is this, man, and its place remembers it no more. The house you lived in, the car you drive, all the clothes you purchased, all the diamond ring, all the fancy stuff, and, I mean, the antique you collect, and the house, the business, and the bank account, and none of that stuff will remember you. You are gone. And life goes on, and the trees still live on, the building still be there, but you are not here. But how we need to realize we are headed toward eternity, and that is not a thousand miles away from now. It is next minute.