Lost in a World of Selfishness

...complicated, complex congregation I've ever been to. The diversity, the missions involvement that you have, I told my colleague David Carroll sitting next to me, it's unheard of. It takes a pastor, a shepherd whose heart is large as the world and unselfish to do something like this.

And I congratulate you and amazed by your heart. And obviously the congregation take the nature of the shepherd and you do very well. And the people who serve here, creating all these images and videos, it's amazing.

If you are worried about my beard, Duck Dynasty paid me a lot of money to promote their image. It is strange, maybe because of my DNA, there is so much mission. I feel at home here, really.

The only thing that constrains me is having to look at my watch because he got another service, so I want to make sure I end on time. The pastor made a very, very significant... By the way, you understand my English? When I first came to America, that is in 1974 to W.A. Criswell College in Dallas, for whatever I did, for two weeks people asked me, what did you say? Can you please repeat that? And about two weeks went by of frustration when a colleague of mine from Pennsylvania was in college with me, he said, oh KP, just don't worry about it. You speak English and they speak English.

And they speak Texan. And that settled my problem. The statement the pastor made, mission is not what you do, what we do, but what we are.

It's a very, very significant statement. I'd like you to look at one Bible verse for our discussion this morning. This is in 1 John, chapter 2, verse 6. Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.

In the Living Bible it reads like this. Anyone who says he's a Christian should live as Christ did. I don't think there's any nation on planet Earth or ever will be with such tremendous amount of freedom and opportunity, unhindered, to exercise spirituality and do whatever you want to do.

And follow Christ. It may surprise you to know that 99% of all the Christian literature, including Bibles produced in the world for the total budget spent for that, it is in English language. Dallas, Texas, where we have our U.S. Home Office, about 10 years ago I counted, there are more than 14 full-time Christian radio stations.

What a blessing. 24 hours you can hear anything you want to hear. The most conservative, John MacArthur to Chuck Smith to, you know, J. R. R. Martin and all that.

Then you can have the weird ones who will say, send me your $25 and I'll send you the secret formula and the oil to put on your bald head and hair will grow back. You think I'm joking. No, it's true.

You can hear the most conservative old hymns and the contemporary Christian music and the slow worship songs. Also you can hear the rock Christian blows your brains out. You don't know what they're talking about.

The question is this. Do we lack information about the Lordship of Christ and the reality of the lost world? What is it that we are lacking that holds us back from being like Christ in our generation? Or have we created a Christ of our convenience, as Paul said, if you follow Him and smile at us, no problem, everything's okay, your sins are forgiven and I'm coming back to give you a mansion in heaven, live as you want and all I'm here is to help you. Is this the Christ of the New Testament? Or there's more to that in knowing and following Christ? No, I don't think as pastor said, promote a lot of works so that he can be a good Christian.

No. But being a follower of Christ should take us away from ourselves to his heart. And Jesus came to die for us, to save us from sin and domination in hell, more so to deliver us and save us from ourselves.

And that's the reason why Paul continually will say a statement like, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, but it's not me, it's not I, but he lives in me. Christ is an outside entity, he's not outsider, he's inside me, my earthen vessel, all my being, my thoughts, my dreams, ambitions, all I want to do, whatever, the reason is now I yielded my entire being for him to walk and live here on earth for this brief period of time. And I will forget some years ago, there in Dallas, I was sitting in my comfortable office and doing my writing and my wife Gisela came by and handed me a letter and said, you may want to read this thing and then she quickly said this, oh by the way, don't speed read, that made me angry.

Which means I'm reading stuff through it without even thinking about it. Well, she walked away and I was trying to figure out what the letter is about. When I finished reading the letter, I was no more sitting on my chair, I was on my knees weeping.

No, it was not a letter from her saying that you're right, I'm leaving you, no, nothing like that. No, it was a letter from one of our missionaries that we were working with, near one of those holy rivers, where multiplied millions of people travel for miles to take a dip in the water, believing that will be the reason and the way to find forgiveness for their sins. And this evening, this young brother, the native missionary, working in the community, after all day's work when he was coming home, he saw a young woman sitting by the bank of the river, just weeping uncontrollably and pounding upon her chest.

When something like that happens culturally, it must tell you something worse than death itself. She's dealing with. He writes in the letter, I went and sat beside her and asked her the reason for such pain.

She responded, My husband is very sick and he can't work anymore. We are so desperately poor. And my sins are so many that no one knows what.

And gods are angry with us. To find forgiveness for my sins and solution to the problems of my home, I have given the best offering I can give. The river goddess.

My only little boy, six month old baby boy, I just threw him into the waters. Paragraph. He writes, I explained to her about the Lord Jesus Christ.

That God didn't make them poor. He's not mad at them. That he's not the order of sickness and pain.

That her sins are forgiven 2,000 years ago. Because Jesus died on the cross, all she need to do is to believe in him. After hearing the Bible verses and explanation, he writes, She looked into my eyes and simply said these words, But why didn't you come to me half hour sooner? I didn't have to kill my little child.

It is too late, isn't it? It is too late. And for me, someone who've been involved in missions, all night long I dream about it and all day long I work about it. And for it.

And for me it was one of those incidents that happens in your life. There's no guilt and condemnation and what a bad person you are, no. It was God allowing me to see through that letter, the reality of not just one woman, but multiplied millions that are dying without hearing about Jesus and their eternity and their loss forever.

And the question to me was that, do I understand it? And I said, Lord, this is all my life is about. But in our journey, as pastor said, it can end up becoming bicycles and money and helping some children flying all over the world with air tickets and living in hotels and talk about we are doing missions. But is it really something you do because you understand in a few years life is over and this is the only worthwhile thing to do.

For Jesus came not to live a wonderful life on earth, have a nice air-conditioned home, a good car, good health, and walk on and leave a legacy that he did something great. No, he came literally to suffer throughout this life, embracing, inviting, going after, inconveniences. Do you think Jesus as a man liked to fast? Let me ask you another question.

Hey, by the way, anything I say to you, for the sake of kindness, don't say to yourself, who is this Indian? Where is he coming from? What do you want from us? Nothing. But all I ask you, do you like to fast? Three days just drinking water? A week long? 40 days? You are asking me the question? Answer is very simple. No, I don't.

I know you are happy that I said that. But what would Jesus would spend 40 days preparing himself to go into the most intense battle and suffering and physical, mental, emotional agony and despair. Why he would do that? This is a choice he made for the joy that was set before him, a world out there, like you see the woman in the Gospel of John chapter 4, I will not permit you to read all the passage, it's famous, you are taught well.

Disciples went off to buy a hamburger and french fries. That is in Greek. They came back here, their guru, their master sitting by the river, sorry, by the well.

And they said, this is weird. He is actually talking to a woman? Culturally, he is not supposed to do that? He is the boss, they won't deal with that. But quickly said, master, here is food, please eat.

Because they are hungry, they won't eat you. Jesus said, oh, don't worry, I have food to eat that you have not. That's a bummer.

I mean, he was hungry and did someone bring him something to eat? Jesus said, no, you don't understand. My food is to do the will of him that sent me and finish his work. What on earth he is talking about? You don't need Greek and Hebrew for that.

Think about it. Jesus says, when you went off to buy food, then I am desperately hungry and drained. But it so happened, when you were gone, I happened to talk to this lady who is lost and on the way to eternity.

And her face became the window for me to see the reality of the lost world that literally consumed, destroyed, eliminated, killed my physical appetite. And if only you are able to lift up your eyes from your little world of your family, your clothes, your ambitions, your dreams, your health and wealth and well-being, reputation, honor, whatever else you are living with, while making a fantastic impression on others, you are a great person. Listen, if only you can walk away and look away.

You see nearly 2 billion people, 500,000 villages, 42,000, 42 million widows, women, abused, rejected, ostracized. 62 million children, child laborers. Some 14,000 young girls sold into sex business every year from Nepal and the neighboring nations.

What a nation we are living in, how blessed we are to know all this information. But may I ask you as I rush to the conclusion of this, when was the last time after watching the crisis in Burma that over 100,000 people died overnight in that cyclone or in Bangladesh? Or what's happening in the Muslim countries? When was the last time it broke your heart that you couldn't sleep, you stayed up all night with the world map weeping before God for the lost and dying millions? You see that was Jesus, that is Jesus. And He looks today for men and women whose fields His heart.

I love this guy, he took this small crazy private plane and went to heaven. I wish he was alive and still with us, his name Keith Green. I do not know if any of you know him.

I don't sing like him but I like what he sang. In one of his fantastic songs he wrote these words, Do you see, do you see all the people sinking down? Don't you care, don't you care? Are you going to let them drown? How can you be so numb not to care if they come? You close your eyes and pretend the job is done. Oh bless me Lord, bless me Lord.

You know it's all I ever hear, no one hurt, no one ache, no one even sheds one tear. When I first came to this country, America is an amazing, amazing place especially for aliens. I thought hot dog was dog meat, literally.

I'm not kidding. And somebody gave me Dr. Pepper to drink at a Bible study at First Baptist Church and I threw up. And I looked at the can, it read Dr. Pepper.

I said, Americans are trying to assassinate me. Now I am an addict. Now I came here just for a few years and ended up, without me even knowing, with my Bible college, Greek, Hebrew philosophy and all this stuff and being a pastor also, I wanted to become like Americans.

Learn to eat chips and salsa and Dr. Pepper. Now I began buying clothes at Kmart and finally would end up with Neiman Marcus. Had my own library with books I may never read but looked great on the shelf.

Couple of years would go by, one afternoon my private study, a really strange thing happened. I looked at my shelves with all the books, seven expensive leather bound Bibles sitting there. And someone asked me this very simple question that I would hear very loud with my own heart.

Son, half of the world have never seen one page of the Bible yet. What are you doing with your life? It took me those days, sometime half hour to dress myself because I read a book, color me beautiful. Analyze my skin and I found I was winter.

And I would buy clothes perfectly match my colors. Now some of you men look like you are lost. Ask your wife, she will educate you.

When half of the world go to bed with empty stomach and naked bodies and millions perish without having ever heard Jesus died for them. I was lost in the world of selfishness, evangelicalism, perfect prayers, talking about missions but I could never cry. And that's what led me to repentance, not guilt.

That is the beginning of the beginning of Gospel of Asia today. We serve in 14 countries, established 12,000 congregations, some 14,000 missionaries on the field. Every single day no less than 1515 churches planted among people that never heard Christ.

No, it didn't happen because of my genius. No, it happened I was one of those people that died. Gave up all for the sake of the lost world.

For Jesus is that. Most probably I learned to follow the Lord more than anyone else from my own mother. Having been born and raised in a tiny village in the extreme southern tip of India, where Thomas, Christ's disciple, came to preach in AD 52 and planted seven churches.

And one of those churches happened to be about three kilometers from where I was born and raised. That should make me a better Christian, I imagine. But when I was eight years old, my mother led me to the Lord.

And when I finished my high school, I remember going to my parents and asked if they would allow me, I'd like to go serve God. She was sitting by the dining table on a bench before I could finish my sentence. She jumped up and said, go.

And I was so shocked, I thought I was an accident or she hated me. I'm the youngest of six boys that my mother had. I would leave my home 2,000 miles away, working with a young people's team for discipleship and serving God for two years.

When I came back home, now more skinny and tired and worn out, beaten, abused several times by anti-Christian fundamentalists. And I never forget, she said, I will tell you a story that you may not know. She was cooking in the kitchen and she said, come sit down.

I sat beside her, she said, you remember the day you came and said you'd like to go to serve Christ? Mother, I remember that very well. She said, but this you do not know. I prayed all my life that one of my six boys will go and serve God.

But one by one, they all went into business, farming and other things. And I kind of lost my hope. When you were growing up, timid, shy, withdrawn, I lost my hope completely.

That's when I decided to fast and pray. Every Friday, complete fast for three and a half years without telling any human being. She fasted.

And the day when you came and said I knew, God answered my prayer. In 1990, I was flying to Seoul, South Korea to speak at a conference in the United States. When I heard my mother was taken ill and taken to the hospital, she was 84.

So I cancelled my trip from Bombay and went down south. That weekend at the age of 84, August 6th, my mother passed away. The saddest days of my entire being on earth.

My father went to be with the Lord earlier. The funeral would take place and all six of us brothers would meet in the house, in the room, to talk about our mother's will and her wishes. One of the brothers asked the question, Anyone know how much money our mother left in the bank? Because all her sons fairly well to do would give her anything she wanted.

And the farm, everything is quite a lot of income. But we never saw her spending any money. So the conclusion, it has to be somewhere in the bank.

One of my brothers pulled out a notebook and held it up and said, I found this under the pillow of our mother's bed. And we were terribly curious what on earth is in that. And he turned the pages and said, pages after pages, the scribbling of our mother's handwriting, names of young people, mission field and Bible schools, where they are living and serving and studying.

Against each name, the amount of money she is sending to these people forever. And no one knew about it. And then he concluded, as far as I know, there is nothing in the bank.

It's all gone. All the sudden, without any warning, I just broke down and began to cry. No, not because there was no money in the bank.

It was because two years prior to that date, I was home in my village to visit my mother. And I got so angry with her at that time. I said, Mother, what's wrong with you? What's madness going in your head? You are putting cow dung on our head and shame on our face.

Look at you, the clothes you are wearing. It's old and worn and torn. See, in my society, it's a shame culture.

If sons don't take care of the parents, we are looked upon as horrible creatures. Evil people. And she, this incredible smile, she was four feet, five inches tall, very small frame.

She looked at me with this smile and said, You little boy understand nothing. Someday you'll understand. It was as though sitting in the room, she walked back into the room and put her arm around me, whispering in my ear, My son, I could have purchased a new dress every month, just like many of my friends.

But I saw something beyond the present. Now you know the story, son. Don't stop.

The will she left with us. When I'm dead and gone, the only thing I will leave behind is my wedding ring, the earring, and the gold chain my husband gave me when he married me at the age of 19. Sell these items and give the money to preach the gospel among people that never heard Jesus' name.

I want to meet them also in heaven. And she was passionate about reaching the lost while she never left my village, our community. What was the reason? It was she was in love with Jesus, longed for the day to see him, but not alone with the multitudes that will find their way to heaven.

Because she lived very quiet, very simple, but absolutely deliberate, a gentle, humble walk. The warmest memory of my mother, every single morning, I remember as a small boy growing up, she would be up three in the morning, or two, or four, next three hours minimum, she's alone in the middle prayer room on her knees with a shawl on her head, praying. And I wondered what on earth she did, but then I grew up and understood she was being with him, that she loved so much.

If you people in this church think being Americans with all the money and facilities, the cars you drove with, and all the nice things you do, no, that is not what it's all about, that you give it away and do something. No, it's more than that. It is when you see him, are you going to be surprised? Jesus, I didn't know you looked like this, because you did not live like this.

You look like him now. And only you can make the decision. But for me, in this journey of following the Lord, has several serious implications, practical applications.

One, if you are not doing it as the Lord guides you, you take the steps to suffer it. Spend time in prayer. Not just two seconds for your grandchildren, no, it's more than that.

Get a world map. Get information. Write the names of people that do not know the Lord.

And don't be satisfied until you enter into his presence. Could be an hour or two. Take one day of the week of fasting and prayer.

Think about taking a season just to be with him in silence and solitude and alone. I know right now a dear brother of mine in the ministry who is spending two full days in total silence alone just to be with Christ. Have you been with him? Have you heard him? Do you know him? Have you ever heard anything difficult and painful that he will want you to do? Have you ever heard him? Get to know him.

Second, as I mentioned, when the world is so desperately lost, how can you and I live with our eyes closed? No, we got enough clothes. We got enough food. No, but let the Lord guide you about that.

I wrote a whole book about it. Wrote reality. If you want to pick up a copy, please steal that if you don't have the money.

And let the Lord guide you as to how you must live your life. And actually you can impact the world my mother did. Number three, if the Lord calls you to give his life somewhere, you are a medical doctor, you are a nurse, you are a professional, you can go away to serve somewhere.

You can see something, come back, you know, drinking bottled water and being safe. No, go for six months. Go for a year.

Go for two years. If you can go longer, throw your passport away when you get there and never come back here. You want me to help you? I'll be very happy.

Especially young people. Number four, finally as I conclude, we have right now literally thousands of precious sisters who are well trained in the Bible schools who are reaching out to people that never heard the name Jesus. I wish I had time to tell you story after story.

Just recently I heard about a dear brother who's been working in one area. Over a thousand families came to the Lord. The entire village now believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Five years of his labor in the community. Would it be possible that you can pray and help one of those brothers and sisters reaching out to the poor and the needed. And my time is running out.

And I wish, do we have three minutes pastor to show? We just want to conclude with a three minutes picture that shows you how we are doing it and how you can be involved doing that. If you will, when you go out, get a card like this and sign up and get the missionary, you will reach the unreached and planned churches. And any money you send, every penny goes there.

And right after the picture, they will come up and tell you about the materials you can get. Just want to take a minute or two and just let you know we have a couple of resources out at the table and want to put into your hands free. If you don't like these materials, I think they will impact your life.

But if they don't, please write to us and we will refund your money. First one is Revolution World Missions. It's a book that Brother KP wrote many years ago but still the flagship book of our ministry.

It talks about 14,500 national missionaries literally giving their lives to tell their own people about Jesus Christ. We get dozens of testimonies in our office. Every month people write in or call in and say, wow, I picked up that book and the Lord used it to just really rock my life.

So that book's available. We have four tables out in the lobby or three tables, sorry. And it will be available free out there.

The second book actually is his newest book called No Longer a Slumdog. This book talks about 72,000 Bridge of Hope children that we have in our Bridge of Hope program, children at risk. The book is packed with stories of children that are living and that it's filled with the good news of how Jesus is changing lives and how these children are then infecting their families with the gospel.

Whole villages are coming to Jesus Christ. That book is also free and it's out at the tables as well. Brother KP referenced this book.

It's called The Road to Reality. I first picked this book up about 24 years ago. I was going to a church in California where I lived with my wife and Brother KP came and spoke at that church and at the time I was a CPA.

I wanted to make and save a million dollars and start early. That was my goal. I picked up a copy of this book and it ruined my life in a good way.

I read the book and I told my wife we need to reach the lost world with our lives. What are we doing? We sold our business and raised our support and went off to GFA to serve there. That book is available out in the area for a suggested donation of $8.

Touching Godliness is also a book that will help you. It will be a bridge, I think, to help you walk intimately and passionately with Christ. It's another book that Brother KP has written and we get many, many reviews about.

People's lives are very touched by this book. It's available out at the table also. We have a movie called Veil of Tears and it's the clip you just saw.

It's not really a clip from the movie but the three-minute video you just saw, Redeemed from a Life of Shame. There are millions and millions of women in Asia who are so poorly treated and the Lord is reaching them in just massive numbers. There's the largest unreached people group in the world but God is reaching down and He's touching them.

We did a 90-minute documentary about the women in Asia and it's this movie here. It's called Veil of Tears. It was shown in movie theaters actually just a few, maybe 24 or so, coast to coast.

It wasn't really meant to be a movie production but when we showed it in movie theaters it actually began to sell out several places it was shown. So we have that video out there. It's at one of the tables and you can pick up a copy.

It's available for a suggested donation of about $8. We have a school of discipleship program for young people ages 18 to 27. If you have a young person you'd like to send to Texas, we would love to have them come and we'll take them for a year.

We'll send them to Asia for part of that time and they'll get to see people paying such a price to preach the gospel to their own people there. We have information out at the tables about that and I just wanted to share one more thing. As Brother KP said, if you would like to help a native missionary there'll be a card at one of the three locations where we have the books.

You simply fill out the card. It takes about a dollar a day in your prayers. You simply fill out a card.

You don't need a check today or any payment today but it's just a commitment that yes, I will take a missionary with me today and I will commit to pray for and financially help this brother or this sister go into a village and tell people about Jesus Christ. Every penny that you give goes to the mission field, to your missionary. We don't take anything back to run our office.

I'm one of the probably 100 staff that we have there and other 65 school of discipleship students. We raise our own support so that we don't cost the ministry anything and we can send every penny you give to the mission field. So if the Lord leads you to do that, the cards will be on the table and you can take advantage of that.