It's a blessing to be here with you
this morning and just a privilege.
I, you know, I have with me from
our ministry Mike Johnson.
Mike, you want to stand real quick and
so I can embarrass him that way.
So we came up from Dallas to be
at the Synod for the ADOTs and so
it's just a blessing to be here.
I was actually got to hear Father Dan
Sher yesterday a couple times and I was
actually really encouraged.
I think, you know, this is the right
guy and I actually got to first meet
him in the General, or sorry, we call
it a General Assembly at our church, Provincial
Assembly, and I got to hear him share
then about church planning and so I was
just, when I realized that he was, you
know, this was his church that was sharing
it, I was actually quite excited.
So thank you for the privilege of being
allowed to share the Word of God with
you.
And so just a little bit about who
I serve with, Believers Church and Gospel for
Asia.
So basically what happened is how we came
about is we actually started out as a
mission organization by the name of Gospel for
Asia.
Our founder is an Indian man by the
name of K.P. Ohanian and basically served
as a missionary, came to the U.S.
to get a seminary education, and when God
called him, you know, afresh to give his
heart for the sake of the lost, he
wanted to go back to Asia to plant
churches in places where the gospel had never
been preached before.
But instead God said, look, you need to
stay here and there's all these missionaries that
you know that are Asian birth and, you
know, they're not Westerners and they don't have
access to Western support, so why don't you
help them in their ministries?
Like one of them was literally selling his
own blood in order to finance his ministry.
And so he started doing that.
By God's grace, the ministry grew and we
eventually changed from a support organization to actually
church planting ourselves, training our own missionaries, sending
them out.
And, you know, we had seminaries throughout Asia
and by God's grace we end up starting
what's now known as Believers Church.
And at this point in time, by God's
grace, we have over 50 seminaries throughout Asia
and all of our missionaries from the beginning
have always been indigenous.
So it's Indians reaching India, Nepalis reaching Nepal,
so on and so forth.
And by God's grace, we're seeing over 10
churches planted every single day right now.
And the vast majority of those in places
where prior to our missionaries getting there, they'd
never heard of Jesus before.
I remember a number of years back, this
is probably about a dozen years ago, it
was in the city of Hyderabad, which is
a really well-known city.
The English had been there for 200 years
or whatever.
And we went to this village that was
just 15 miles outside of the city limits.
And the first Christian ever to step foot
there had only gotten there two months before
us.
And so you're talking like in India alone,
half a million villages still waiting for a
Christian missionary, somebody to share the love of
Christ with them, as we do, as in
word and in deed.
And so for us, the context of my
world is a world where there's still two
billion people waiting to hear about Jesus for
the first time.
I know a lot of Christians think the
whole world has been reached with the gospel,
and that is so far from the truth.
There's still so much of the world waiting
to hear about Jesus for the very first
time.
And in fact, they estimate somewhere around 80
,000 people die every single day in places
where they've never even heard of Jesus before.
And since Jesus is the only way, that's
not good news.
And so our passion as a ministry, as
a church, is how do we get that
gospel to these people before it's too late,
and do everything we can to see that
happen.
And I'm sure Father Dan would like this,
and we found the only way to do
that is to plant churches.
And it's the vehicle, the mechanism God's given
us to reach people with the gospel.
It's where disciples are made.
It's where ministry is done.
It is the root of all ministry.
Obviously Christ is, but from the human capacity.
And so primarily if you would turn to
1 Thessalonians, we'll be looking at 1 Thessalonians.
And so for me, with the Word of
God, there's two aspects.
One is we learn of God.
We get to know Him.
We see what He's like, and He speaks
to us through His Word.
It's a living Word.
And with that is we also understand how
we should live our lives in light of
it.
It doesn't do us any good to be
hearers of the Word, but not doers of
the Word.
And so for me, as we look at
1 Thessalonians, I really want to put this
in the context of my world.
You know, Fr.
Dan was teaching yesterday, and he was talking
about church planting.
And he's like, well, where do you see
the message of church planting?
He's like, this whole book.
And so for me, it's like, where do
you see the context of missions?
It's like, this whole book.
Which basically means, as well, as a missionary,
you see a missions message in like every
passage.
But for me, the context of my world,
you know, I was thinking about as we
were driving up from the Synod up to,
we stayed with George and Paulette, Ivy, last
night.
And I was just thinking, like, wow, there's
another church.
Wow, another church.
Like, wow, I mean, it'd be great to
be able to meet, you know, this, and
we could partner with people, whatever else, and
just, you know, Mike made a comment, like,
wow, there's so many churches.
But I was, you know, sadly, and it
kind of instantly, my mind started wandering.
And I can't tell you how many times
I've been in Asia, and you will drive,
and you get in a car, and you
just, you'll drive.
And the first thing you notice is that
you never lose sight of people.
There's just people everywhere, always.
Continuous stream of people, and alongside the road,
and whatever else.
And, but then, you begin to realize, I
have not seen one sign of Christianity.
I've not seen one church building, one cross.
I've not seen anything.
And you can drive for hours upon hours,
and you never see anything that is Christian,
because there is no Christianity there.
And I remember, I was in northern India
talking to a missionary.
He said, oh, yeah.
I said, are there any churches nearby?
He goes, oh, yeah.
We actually have one really nearby here.
He said, it's 20 kilometers in that direction.
And we have another one that's 35 kilometers
in that direction.
And like, in his mindset, you know, so
that's about 15 miles, I think, and, you
know, about 25 miles.
He's like, oh, it's so close.
And, you know, too, like in the name
of Jesus, we think, you know, like here,
it's so common that it's a swear word.
You know, people just use a swear word.
But literally for us, and I've experienced this,
but it's a very common thing for our
missionaries.
You go to a village, and you go,
and you ask them, do you know Jesus?
And they look at you, maybe scratch your
head and think, and say, well, I know
everybody in my village, and your friend doesn't
live here.
And maybe if you go down to the
next village, you know, you might find him
down there.
And we kind of laugh at that, but
can you think of a sadder reality?
I mean, like they, Jesus died for them,
gave their lives for them, and they have
no idea that he ever walked the face
of the earth.
And, you know, even like, I mean, like,
you know, talking about Christian workers and things
like that, you know, Father Dan and I
were discussing, should I vest up or not,
and, you know, this morning and everything else
like that, and, you know, the aspect of
clerical collars, and, you know, and he was
talking about how when we get in, as
a church, if we lose our sight of
mission, we turn inward, and we start dividing
over things.
And for me, like, my experience with, you
know, clerical collar or vestments, I remember we
had one of our leaders visit us to
stay in my house, and I said, you
know, is there anything that I can actually
get you personally?
And I said, I really want to do
this.
I know you're not supposed to receive any
personal gifts, but can I get you something?
And he thought about it, and he said,
well, can you please, he said, if you
want to get me something, what would be
really helpful, he said, can you please get
me a clerical collar?
And he said, if I'm wearing a clerical
collar, they're much less likely to kill me
where I labor.
And he said, where I'm going out, I'm
dealing with insurgents and all these people, and
if I wear a clerical collar, they'll think
of me as a holy man, and they'll
be a lot slower to shoot me.
And another brother, I was talking, you know,
on the mission field, we wear cassocks, you
know, like vestments.
And one of my brothers, or one of
our leaders, a good friend of mine, when
we first switched to wearing cassocks, you know,
as normal, I said, well, how do you
like it?
And he said, I really don't like it
that much.
He said, it's super hot, and, you know,
I don't really like wearing this.
He said, but the amazing thing is that
I can get my guys out of jail
real quickly now.
He said, I would show up just dressed
as a normal, you know, normal person, and
it would take me three days before I'd
get them to even pay attention.
But he said, now I show up in
a cassock, and I can usually get my
guys out in three hours, because they respect
me, they see me.
And I mean, just think about that.
That's like your context for, you know, clerical
collar or vestment or not is, you know,
will I get shot or not?
Can I get my guys out of jail?
And so for me, that is the Christianity
that I live and breathe in.
And that's my brothers, you know, and sisters
that I interact with, their lives.
And so when we look at 1 Thessalonians
in, you know, chapter 2, you know, it's
interesting because we have three different passages here.
We have, you know, you look at Micah,
you look at Matthew 23, and you look
at 1 Thessalonians, especially with 1 Thessalonians and
Matthew chapter 23, you see this contrast of
life, of ministry.
In Matthew 23, you see people who are
in ministry, but their whole focus is self.
Their whole focus is getting tension, getting love,
getting respect for people to think well of
them and, you know, to have authority.
But in 1 Thessalonians, you see this completely
different thing.
You see a minister whose whole life is
about serving.
His whole life is about laying down his
life.
He basically, he's reached that place of Galatians
2.22 where he's crucified with Christ and
his life is no longer his own.
And, you know, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2,
you know, Paul lays this out.
He says, for you remember, brothers, our labor
and toil, we work night and day that
we might not be a burden to any
of you.
You know, as opposed to the Pharisees where
they said, you know, they do as they
tell you, but don't do as they do
because they don't practice what they preach.
They put heavy burdens on men, but they
won't lift a single finger to help them.
And I think as we, you know, as
believers, we have to ask the question, you
know, especially as Westerners, it's kind of inbred
in us to compare ourselves to others.
And it's really easy to ask, okay, how
am I doing Christianity?
Am I doing it right?
Am I doing it well?
Am I really imitating Christ?
And the natural easy thing for us to
do is to say, well, okay, let me
look at some liberal Christians.
Let me look at people, you know, those
people, they don't really know Christ.
They're not really following Jesus.
You know, they're just completely living for the
world and, you know, their doctrine, they're just
basically in step with the world and everything
else.
But, you know, me, I have this good
doctrine and I'm, you know, I'm going to
church, I read my Bible and everything else.
Or else we look at secular, you know,
we look at the world around us and
say, well, yeah, compared to my neighbor, I'm
doing really well.
But really, we shouldn't have an expectation of
our neighbor who doesn't know Christ to live
anything like him.
I remember when I first became a believer,
you know, I just started just reading Christian
biographies, just started to bow.
I'm like, this is so awesome.
It's like the heroes of the faith.
And like, yeah, this is what I want
to imitate.
This is who I want to follow.
And we have to look at ourselves and
ask this, are we actually setting our hearts
and minds on imitating people?
Paul said, imitate me as I imitate Christ.
And, you know, Paul encourages the Thessalonians in
saying, you became imitators of the churches of
God and Christ Jesus that are in Judea,
for you suffered the same things from your
own countrymen as they did from the Jews.
And, you know, for us, you know, for
me, I'm always challenged by my brothers and
sisters on the mission field.
And, you know, for the life that they
live, because, you know, I think for me,
they're people that we want to imitate.
They're people that I, you know, if I
can just live my life as they do.
You know, it's when we, you know, with
our missionaries, we have, like I said, we
have over 50 Bible colleges throughout Asia, and
we train our missionaries for three years.
And when we send them out, they're sent
out with what's called a one-way ticket,
meaning we lay hands on them, our leaders
do, pray for them, and send them out
to say, you know, dig a grave to
where you're going.
And if death is the price that you
have to pay, then so do it in
order to follow Jesus.
When we baptize our believers, the first thing
they hear as they come out of the
water is, be faithful unto death, saying it's
better to die than to disobey.
I remember I was talking to one of
our leaders in northern India, and, you know,
we're a missionary sponsorship organization as a mission
organization, Gospel for Asia.
So kind of like, if you're familiar with
compassion and you can sponsor a child with
us, we have missionaries, encourage people to sponsor
missionaries.
Well, I took him, one of our missionaries,
because I knew the missionary worked in his
area, his diocese where he worked.
And I said, do you know this brother?
And he started laughing.
He's like, yeah, I know this guy.
He's super timid.
He said, can you believe it?
He actually cried the first time he was
beaten.
You know, and, you know, he was laughing,
but just think about that.
Like, for him, that's his context.
Like, oh, yeah, the first time he was
beaten.
You know, it's like how many of us
have actually been beaten for preaching the gospel?
And would we, you know, imagine a Christianity
where that is just so normal.
You can actually laugh because one of your
brothers actually cried the first time.
And for most of these brothers, what ends
up happening, they say, you know what?
I was afraid of being beaten, but the
first time it happened, I realized it wasn't
that big of a deal.
And now I'm more convinced than ever that
these people need to hear about Jesus.
And so they become like Paul in that
they begin to labor even more diligently in
faith and in prayer and in sharing the
gospel.
I remember another missionary I sponsored, he's in
the state of Bhutan, can't share his name,
but he was showing a film on the
life of Jesus in a village.
And he got arrested for that because you're
not supposed to share the gospel in Bhutan.
Went to prison and severe asthma.
And he's in this prison.
You know, Bhutan is in the Himalayas, so
it's high altitude.
So at night, it gets so cold.
And all he had for bedding, or all
he had for bedding, he had a board
and a blanket.
And Father Peter, who's a good friend of
mine who oversees him, it was his, we
called him Vicar General, he was the head
of the diocese at the time.
He said, well, what do you need?
He said, well, another blanket would be good,
but can you bring gospel tracts and more
Bibles?
He said, these people never heard of Jesus,
and they can't arrest me anymore for sharing
the gospel.
I mean, that was his priority.
Think about that.
I mean, like he's in prison, his asthma
is dry.
He didn't even think to ask for an
inhaler or whatever to help him or whatever
because he was more focused on these people
getting to hear about Jesus.
And for us, this is just like every
normal day life for my brothers and sisters
like this.
And they just go out sharing the gospel
because they realize these people have never heard
of Jesus.
And with Paul, the same thing.
He's talking about people hindering him.
His context is like, the gospel has not
gone here.
These people don't know.
They've never heard.
And I love the ACNA, the Anglican Church's
passion for church planning.
I love Father Dan's passion for it.
Because for me, if you think about it,
we can do everything as well as anything
else.
I mean, we can be perfect in teaching
the Bible.
We can be perfect in our liturgy, in
everything that we do, our theology.
But if we don't lift up our eyes
and see a world that's waiting to hear
the gospel, we will never fulfill the Great
Commission.
If we don't, if the church doesn't make
it its priority to reach the unreached, I
mean, if you think about like the unreached
world, there aren't Christians in it.
So who's going to go?
It's not like you can say, oh yeah,
I'm just going to reach the guy next
door to me and then I'll reach the
unreached.
I mean, you guys need to be fervent
and passionate about reaching the kula.
Did I say that right?
With the gospel.
But you have to realize, as a Christian
that lives in a world where there's people
unreached, we need to lift up our eyes
and see that they're waiting.
And it's amazing because what God's doing, you
know, Paul goes on to talk about, he
says, you are witnesses.
God also, how holy and righteous and blameless
was our conduct.
For you know how like a father with
his children, we exhorted each one of you
and encouraged you and charged you to walk
in a manner worthy of God, who calls
you into his own kingdom and glory.
I mean, God is saving so many people.
And he says, and we also thank God
constantly for this, that when you received the
word of God, which you heard from us,
you accepted it not as the word of
men, but as what it really is, the
word of God, which is at work in
you believers.
And so often, you know, God is testifying
to his word and it's amazing how God's
just, I mean, people are coming to know
Jesus like never before.
They said, we're seeing 10 churches planted every
single day.
And it's not because we're some great church
or some great organization.
It's because God is moving in a powerful
way to save Asia right now.
I remember we had one missionary in Northern
India.
I'll just call his name Harry.
But Harry was basically a super timid, shy
guy.
I mean, you may be thinking, I don't
have what it takes to be a missionary.
This guy didn't have what it takes.
An introvert, you know, extreme and just didn't
know what to do.
He went back to a village and he's
like, I don't know what to do.
And he tried reaching out.
He tried sharing the gospel.
Just it didn't work.
He was, he was horrible at it.
So him and his wife decided to fast
and pray.
So they fast and prayed 40 days.
And towards the end of that 40 days,
a woman, you know, approaches him and said,
I heard you're praying and that you're a
praying man.
I have this sickness.
Will you pray for me?
And he prays for her.
And God heals her.
And the next, you know, and this word
gets out.
She gives her life to the Lord.
People can begin to get saved.
And next thing you know, you know, somebody
else is like, hey, you know, my, my,
my sister is possessed by an evil spirit.
Will you pray for her?
And he said, yeah, I'll pray for her.
And you know, she gets delivered.
And next thing you know, all of these
people are getting prayed for and delivered of
evil spirits.
And, and what's interesting is like they would
go to witch doctors and they'd have these,
these bands put on, you know, you know,
they'd be bound with these bands that basically
it's, it's, it's trying to bind good spirits
to them.
But they, for some, I don't, I don't
understand how it works, but basically it's, it's,
it helps these evil spirits be bound.
And so outside of, of Harry's church is
this cross.
And on this cross are dozens and dozens
of these bands where people have been set
free from demon possession.
People have been healed.
And it's just amazing.
We had one other brother, I'll, I'll, I'll
call him Hubert to make it easy.
Hubert went, he was in Northern India and
he'd gone to this area, super poor areas,
a village where basically these people had sold
everything they had.
They moved from their village as a village
to the city because they heard there were
jobs in the city.
Now, these are illiterate farmers.
I mean, they don't know, not only do
they not know how to work a computer,
they don't know what a computer is, right?
They don't know what a keyboard is or
anything.
And so they end up just squatting in
the, like basically creating a village outside of
this city.
And the only way for them to actually
make a living was to send their children
to beg.
And their water was this nasty, I mean,
the animals drank out of it, you know,
and, and defecated in it and everything else.
And that was their water source.
And there are all kinds of sickness and
everything.
So he goes in, he, you know, basically
starts sharing the love of Christ with them.
And they'd never in their life heard that
there was a God who loved them.
They never realized they were valued.
And so he ends up sharing, you know,
he gets them a well dug there, clean
water, they give their lives to the Lord,
churches planted, you know, just amazing thing.
Well, our leaders come and say, we need
you to move to another village.
And he was so disheartened, he almost quit.
And they said, you know, please just stick
it out.
So he goes to this village and it
was a group of people known as the
Benjaras, very backwards people, very low caste.
And he gets their same situation where they're
only, they're only water source.
And I actually visited this, this village.
It was a river, maybe about as wide
as this church and just dark brown mud.
And, you know, these people, because they were
told their whole lives that they were, they
weren't valuable.
I mean, for generations and generations, they're the
bottom of the caste system.
Their bottom basically told you are, your life
is worthless.
You're, you are nothing.
And they believed it.
And so they didn't have any love for
themselves, any sense of self-worth.
So they didn't, you know, open sewage running
through it.
They didn't even finish their, their houses because
they're kind of like, you know, we're basically
the same as cattle.
Why don't my children need, you know, my,
my children aren't worth putting a, you know,
finish, finishing the roof and everything else over
it.
But, but Hubert came in and he just
started loving these, these, these people.
And he got them, he saw they were
sick because of all the, the nasty water
they were drinking.
So he got them water filters and their,
their kids had no education, no access to
it.
So he got one of our Bridge of
Hope centers, these centers that we, we, it's
like a, it's like a child health centers
and education and food and things along those
lines.
And started loving, loving them and demonstrating the
love of Christ and end up getting a
well there too.
And, and they came in and they're like,
well, your, your God healed us.
You know, they, they started, because they're getting
clean water, they're like, they, they, all this
sickness started going in, they're like, oh, your
God healed us.
Like, well, no, the clean water healed you.
They're like, yeah, but your God gave us
this clean water.
We want to believe in your God.
Can you tell us about him?
Who is this God?
So he started telling you about this, this
God who loved them, who gave his son
for them.
And, you know, and, and he's praying for
people.
God, you know, God was healing people, people
getting set free from demon possession.
And pretty soon almost the entire village came
to know Christ.
And you walk through and there's actually, you
know, the, the, the, the sew, you know,
open sewage is gone.
You know, the houses are built.
They actually, it's kind of funny, they graffiti
down their houses, like happy Christmas and things
like that.
And the gospel, you know, scripture passages and
stuff like that.
As you walk through the streets of this
village and, um, and just completely transformed.
And it was so transformed that nearby village
leaders are like going, what happened to these
people?
And so they asked, they approached, can you
come and can Jesus do in my village
what he did to your village?
Because we want whatever Jesus is doing to
happen to us.
So he goes, he starts sharing the gospel.
Next thing you know, he's planted five churches.
And when I went there, I went to
visit, um, our diocesan leader was with us.
And, um, and another village leader came because
he heard that the, the vicar general, the
diocesan leader was going to be there.
And he basically came to beg for a
missionary.
Will you please send a missionary to my
village?
And, and I, and I talked to Hubert
and he, Father Hubert, and he said, I've
got 25 villages just like this, but I
don't have any people to send it.
I can't, I can't handle the work myself.
And so, so they're laboring like Paul is.
And God is testifying as, you know, as
he did back in Paul's time.
And people are receiving the word of God,
just as we see in the book of
Acts.
You know, it doesn't mean it's easy.
As I shared, there's persecution, there's beating.
Uh, I remember being one of our prayer
meetings and, uh, when I, you know, when
it was in Southern India and this prayer
request about somebody dying came in, um, on
the mission field and, and we, we, we
get these requests all the time and, um,
you know, pray for the wife and the
children and, and everybody started crying.
And I was like, what's going on?
Well, it was, it was somebody that used
to work in that office and now they'd
given their life for the sake of the
gospel.
And so for me, you know, this is
the world we live in.
You know, you and I live in a
world where 80,000 people are dying every
day.
And I really, you know, I want to
challenge you.
You know, what is your life about?
Who are you imitating?
Who are you comparing your lifestyle to, you
know, with and to, you know, is, is
your life about souls or about your cell
phone?
Are you living for, you know, the word
or for the world?
You know, what is your life?
What are you accomplishing?
You know, with, with Paul, he ends this
passage and he's talking about the Thessalonians and
he's like, you are my joy and my
crown.
Can you, who can you say that about?
And I don't say this to condemn us,
but to make us think about this, because
before we know it, our life is going
to be over.
We're going to stand before Jesus.
And my question simply to you is, is
there going to be anybody with you as
a result of your life because of your
Christianity?
Because I want to see people around the
throne with you.
And so just to wrap this up into,
you know, encouragement and, you know, because the
reality is, is we are dealing with heaven
and hell.
We are dealing with people's eternities.
This isn't just about us, but this is
about 80,000 people dying every day.
And that's only those who have not heard
the gospel.
There's, there's tons of people around here who,
if they don't repent, if they don't believe
in Jesus, they're not going to be in
heaven.
And a lot of them, you know what?
They're good.
They're good people.
But they reject Jesus.
They reject God.
And if you reject God, you reject his
heaven.
And so we need to get out there.
And so, you know, I ask you this
question is, you know, do you have purpose
in your life?
Do you have a mission?
And is that purpose of your life?
What is your life about?
Is it about the world to come or
is it about this world?
Or are you just drifting?
I just want to encourage, you know, God
has a call on every single one of
your lives to make a difference for his
kingdom.
Many are called, but few are chosen, Jesus
said.
But those that are chosen or those that
weren't chosen, I should say, are the ones
that were too busy living for this world.
That was the only difference in the parable
that he shared.
And I want to encourage you, my brothers
and sisters, whatever direction your life is heading
right now, can you please make sure that
the direction of your life is about eternity,
is about the souls of men and women,
is about the gospel.
And the word of God.
You know, I met, like I said, I
met Father Dan, absolutely lovely guy.
You know, to be honest, I've loved every
Anglican priest I've met so far, which I
don't know if that means I haven't met
too many.
But I know he's passionate.
I know this is something that's close to
his heart.
And, you know, whatever your mission of your
life is, have it be part of the
mission of this church.
You know, God has planted this church here
to reach this area.
You are in this church, which means part
of the purpose of your life is the
purpose that this church has, because you are
this church.
It's not this building.
It's not Father Dan.
It's you.
And I want to encourage you, be passionate
about it.
You have my permission.
Just be zealous.
That's exactly what Paul is.
And Paul said, I worked night and day.
One passion, one goal, the gospel.
You know, even his work.
You know, he worked with his hands so
that he could, you know, finance his gospel
work.
You know, be that way.
See, that's what your job is about.
You're there to reach those people and to
finance the kingdom.
I really want to encourage you to, so
I'm going to grab this real quick, is
to, you know, ask you the question, how
much is prayer a regular part of your
life?
Praying for people who've never heard the gospel.
You know, I encourage you, if you don't
have a list already, you know, come up
with at least three people in your life,
in your life now, that need to know
Jesus and pray for them every single day.
Make it your job, your mission, to be
Christ's witness in their life and pray that
they'll come to know Jesus and that the
Lord will use you for that purpose.
And I also want to encourage you, you
know, is to get a world map and
put it in your home and use this
as a reminder of 80,000 people dying
every day.
Because like I said, you know, the unreached
world, it's not next door to any Christian.
We're all responsible.
We're all called to reach it.
And so, you know, get this up when
you hear news, use it as not as
like, oh, you know, now I'm mad at
Trump, but when you hear news about North
Korea, realize there are millions upon millions of
people who are without the gospel and that
is the most persecuted church in the world.
And pray, you know, use that to spur
you on to pray for the, you know,
those who need to hear about Jesus and
those who are suffering because of his gospel.
But make prayer a regular part of your
life.
And then also one of the things we
always encourage people to do and, you know,
is to consider sponsoring, you know, a missionary.
You know, like all of our missionaries, they're
indigenous.
I mean, they're on the ground and I've
been telling you their stories.
But for $30 a month in your prayers,
you can come alongside one of these guys
and help them reach it, or guys or
girls, and reach a village that otherwise will
never get to hear the gospel.
And so, you know, for me, please understand,
I'm not here to get money from you.
You know, I don't make anything from this.
You know, I live on a missionary's wage.
I mean, literally, I have a lot of
weeks where I don't have any food in
the house.
And I'm like scraping, like the other weekend,
my dinner was peanut butter and granola because
that's all I had in my cupboard.
And so I don't, you know, I don't
get anything from this.
I'm not here to get anything from you.
But I do this because I want to
see, you know, fruit abound to your account.
I want to see you reach people with
the gospel.
And this is the most fruitful thing I
know somebody can do, is to partner with
one of these national brothers or sisters.
Because typically they're going to reach at least
five villages with the gospel.
And they're going to see, you know, hundreds
of people who've never heard of Jesus before
become believers in Christ.
And so, you know, so you can partner
with them.
Those you can sponsor.
We have these profiles back there.
You don't need any money or anything like
that today.
But you just go out and you pick
out a missionary or five or ten or
whatever, and you can, you know, start reaching
people who've never heard of Jesus before.
And then lastly, I want to encourage you,
you know, this sermon is a seed.
And I want to encourage you to water
it.
And I want to encourage you to begin
to invest your heart and your mind, to
lift up your eyes to a world that
is waiting for the gospel.
Revolution World Missions is a book.
It's always free.
We do actually sign up for it because
we just want to discourage people just from
grabbing a book that they'll never read.
But basically, it really brings home this world
that I'm telling you about of 80,000
people dying every day, of missionaries laying down
their lives for the sake of the gospel
home.
When I read this book, it was over
20 years ago, and I was busy doing
everything in my church.
There was, the doors were open, you know,
I was there.
When I read this book, I realized I
have what I refer to now as a
Christianized version of self-centered.
I was doing all the right stuff, but
the reality was my Christianity was all about
me, and my heart did not break over
people dying without Jesus and going to hell.
And this book turned my world upside down,
and it's the reason I'm in missions today.
So I really want to encourage you to
get this book.
Second book we have, it's also free, No
Longer a Slumdog.
I mentioned these Dalits are the bottom of
the caste system.
Has anybody seen No Longer a Slumdog, that
movie?
Well, the slum where it starts off, and
we actually have a Bridge of Hope Center.
We have one of these places where we
help children.
We have churches planted in that slum.
You know, in India alone, there's 62 million
children that are living on the streets, 62
million.
And so this book basically helps you, you
know, take you to that world and understand
life as these people.
And basically tells a story.
We're this hardcore evangelical, like all we do
is preach the gospel, plant churches, make disciples.
But we ended up going on a journey,
and we realized that wasn't the whole gospel.
Christ cared about people.
He met their needs.
He saw their suffering, and he always responded.
And so this will help open up that
world.
And then last book is if maybe the
most powerful book we have is Touching Godliness.
And, you know, in my, you know, our
founder, KP O'Hannon, he's a close personal
friend of mine.
And he's made the statement a number of
times that in his life, he's only met
maybe a dozen people who really, really know
the Lord.
And I could never figure out what he
meant by that.
And then he wrote this book and understood
what he meant.
And basically, if you are at that place
where you're like, you know, I want to
live a life that is close and intimate
with Jesus, but I have no idea how
to do that, I really want to encourage
you to get this book.
You know, you can take it, you know,
if you suggest a donation, there is none.
But if you want to, you know, give
a donation for that, whatever, that's great.
Like I said, I'm not here to get
anything from you.
I've got the maps as well.
And so, you know, you know, just to
summarize this up and I've gone over, sorry,
but the reality is, I don't like talking
about this stuff because when I'm talking about
people dying and going to hell, that is
real for me.
That is my world.
And, you know, I go to India, people
are like, you must love it.
You must love India.
And I like to be honest, I hate
India because it needs Jesus.
The suffering there is unbelievable.
It's incomprehensible to us.
But I know it's amazing because you go
to these slums and you see these people.
And, you know, they wake up not knowing
if they're going to be able to get
a job that day in order to feed
their families.
And they look at their kids and it
depresses them because their kids are starving and
that's their life and they know that's their
kids' lives.
And think about it, that is the closest
to heaven they will ever experience.
And then they're gone.
You and I live in a world that
people desperately need Jesus.
They desperately need the gospel.
And God's entrusted us with that.
And I want to encourage you, my brothers
and sisters, this life is short.
Don't live for yourself like the Pharisees.
Make this gospel, make this kingdom your night
and day passion, what you live for, what
you do with your life.
When you stand before Jesus, you will never
regret it.
You won't make, you know, you'll never look
and go, well, you know, I wish I
would have gone out to that nice restaurant
instead of, you know, giving that money to
help those poor people.
When you stand before Jesus, you won't be
thinking that.
But I just want to encourage you.
And I'm not saying you have to do
it.
I'm not saying you can't have fun, you
can't have a life.
But really, you know in your heart of
hearts what your life is all about.
And I just want to encourage you, live
for Jesus.
The time is short.
Thank you.