Epic Missions Conference

Good morning to you. It's good to see you guys. Many of you guys know that a few weeks ago, we began a new series of studies on Easter Sunday.

Actually, we started on Good Friday and then we looked at Easter Sunday, one called Epic Reality and then last week we looked at a message entitled Epic Life. Now, the whole premise of the series is the fact that many times as Christians, we approach Easter as a day on the calendar and man, we come out wearing our Sunday best. Hey, listen, I wore a suit on Easter, okay? That's like a miracle.

You know, I wear suits on like maybe Easter and I'm doing a wedding today. Maybe at a funeral, maybe. But anyways, so we kind of dress up, man.

It's a big event and rightly so, man. It is the biggest event that's ever taken place in the history of the universe and that is that Jesus Christ died upon a cross, was buried and on the third day, he conquered death and hell as he rose again from that borrowed grave that he had and man, he is alive and he lives. But here's where the problem comes.

The problem comes is that many times, we look at the resurrection as a mere event. We believe it as a fact, as a reality, but it is more than that. You see, it is more than just a fact to be believed.

Tied and tethered to it is a life that is to be lived. For you see, the resurrection is one that has huge implications upon our lives as believers. Jesus, Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Galatians chapter 2 said, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I that live, but it is Christ that lives within me. Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus said, I am the resurrection and the life. So you see, there's a life that's attached to the resurrection of Jesus.

And that's what we've been looking at here on our weekend services. Last week, we looked at a message titled Epic Life. And here today, we have a very special guest speaker.

And here's a guy that has been living the epic life. And he's going to be looking at a message that we've entitled for him. He didn't entitle this message.

He didn't title this message. We did it for him. But anyways, it's called Epic Missions.

Now, if there's ever been a guy that's been on a mission, is the guy that you're about to hear from here today. Here's a guy that I've, as long as I've been a Christian, I've been hearing about him because he's very close to the Calvary Chapel movement. And in fact, he's, I believe he's part of it.

But what the Lord has done through Gospel for Asia has just been an incredible work. I mean, you cannot examine it apart from the Holy Spirit doing the work through KP and through his wonderful staff that he has. I mean, the impact that they've had.

And I've been listening to KP throughout the years in the conferences and just to hear the stories of what God has done. You know, if I, and I said this yesterday, but if I didn't know that he was a man of integrity and a man of character, I would have thought for sure that some of these stories are just, they're just so bizarre, so big. You know, some people say, you know, two people got saved, you know, three people got saved, 5,000 people got saved, five people got saved.

Sometimes KP will come with stories like 10,000 people, you know, there's an opportunity to reach 250,000 people ready to hear the gospel. And I'm like, you know, it's staggering. You know, if, you know, if I was a Cuban on the street, I would have said, oh, you're just lying, you know, and, you know, you're talking guayabas, you know, and all the rest.

So, but man, it's just been amazing. The fruit that, that God has brought through KP and through the ministry of Gospel for Asia, literally the work that's happening over there is just staggering. And it is my privilege to introduce to you this morning.

And I believe he's going to challenge us all. Would you please give a rowdy Miami welcome to Pastor KP Yohanni. Good morning.

Yesterday evening, I was introduced to this very special blend of Cuban-American coffee. And any time I'm invited to come back here, I would do it just for that. It's the best coffee in the whole world, I think.

So I can't wait for this service to be over, get my second cup. It's good to be here, hearing so much about this church. Of course, you know, we are part of Calvary Fellowship, and although we are not planting churches in the United States, our work is in the most unreached nations like China and India and Tibet and Bhutan and Afghanistan and Muslim countries.

And we have some 15,000 missionaries full-time preaching the gospel. These are non-American missionaries, although we do have significant numbers of young people traveling overseas with us. But these are people from their own countries we call native missionaries trained and sent out to preach the gospel.

After three years of their training, we have 50-plus Bible colleges scattered throughout these many nations. And our U.S. headquarters is in Dallas, Texas, where some people believe God lives there. Mostly because Southern Baptists are there.

And anyway, David Carroll, my colleague, and I, we came to Miami yesterday and here and go back this evening to Dallas. We have some 105 families that serve the Lord with us, our headquarters in Dallas. So I travel about 10 times of the year away from the United States to many nations we serve the Lord, being with the missionaries and all that.

I have a wife and two kids, and my children are both raised here in the United States. But finishing their school, they committed their life to serve the Lord overseas. Now, do you understand my English? That helps immensely.

I just want to test that. If you are someone between the age of 16 and 25 or 27, something like that, I would encourage you to please take a copy of this. Parents, if you have kids of that age, get one of these.

It's a one-year school or discipleship we have in Dallas. And if you want to kick out your kids, please do think about using this opportunity. And they will come back to you totally changed and impacted with a radical life following Christ.

And I want to encourage you to get a copy of that. Now, you know, I had my imaginations, honestly, about this church, knowing it's one of the fastest growing church and your radio station and all that. So I kind of tried to figure this out.

Now, what the pastor looked like. So I had a 60, 55, 60 year old man, you know, kind of all these imaginations. So when I came here yesterday and ran into him, I said, I can't believe this.

He's a young teenager and found out he's incredibly young and heard all the stories of God's ways in his life and his family. I'm absolutely amazed. And my encouragement to you, it is that you will continue to walk with the Lord, all of you, because this is a significant work of God, what is happening here.

And you're part of it. And I do not want to take my time to teach through a passage of the scripture as such, because you've been taught exceptionally well here. There's no question about that.

So what I say is kind of a way of application. Things that I hope will help you to do, like, you know, here's a bridge, you walk on it and get there. And that's my encouragement.

And I pray that the Lord will help us so. So if you have Bibles, if you'll please turn your Bibles to the Book of Philippians. These are the statements of Paul.

In chapter 3, verse 10, he says this statement. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. Now, who want that? I mean, we are TV preachers offering you, give your money and you will get a million tomorrow.

And send your money and I will send you the special oil you put on your bald head and hair. You think I'm making it up? I really heard that many years ago and I killed the radio. And, you know, this is something that we avoid as much as possible.

Any inconveniences, any difficulties, any call for sacrifice. But Paul said, this is I want to do. But I want to know Christ.

And then there's a similar verse in 1 John chapter 2, verse 6. 1 John chapter 2, verse 6. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. In the Living Bible, the fire of Christ version, it says anyone who says he's a Christian. Should live as Christ did.

Now, reading those verses and hearing about it, sometimes, you know, we don't think what does that mean? And I remember one time taking my pencil and going through the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Trying to see the man Christ, how he lived before his father. Because the book of Hebrews says Christ is my forerunner.

The one who went before me and I must follow in his footsteps. And so as I look through the four Gospels, trying to see how he lived, I realized he lived a life totally consumed with two things. One, living before the father, doing nothing of his own, only what the father wanted him to do.

Second, living perpetually, constantly, continually to see others come to know the father. The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost. Now, my brothers and sisters, your pastor said this to you before and last night he said this again.

If God's intention for saving us was to take us to heaven, the moment we give our life to Christ, finished. You're dead. You go to heaven.

But he's here and he's with you and he left you and left me here. For what? To continue, carry on the burden that he carried on his heart for the lost world. Resurrection.

Wow, what a powerful presentation. And he'd been taught well. Some years ago in Dallas, where we have our missions office, my wife came to me with a letter in her hand and gave it to me and said, you want to read this? And then of course, you know, then she said, oh, don't speed read, you know.

And she walked away and I was sitting on my comfortable chair and I read the letter. But when I finished reading it, I was no more sitting on my chair. I was on my knees weeping.

You say, what did she write? She could leave you or kill you or what? No, none of those things. That letter came from one of our missionaries from North India living and serving by River Ganges. This is a river where Hindus by tens of thousands and millions come and go into this dirty, polluted, rotten waters, washing themselves for the forgiveness of sins.

And that's what they believe in. This river came from gods and for that purpose. So that particular season of their celebration, thirty five million people came from all over the country going into the river.

Taking a dip for the forgiveness of sins and this missionary, after all they saw labor witnessing, he was coming home that evening when he saw a young woman sitting by the bank of the River Ganges and weeping and pounding upon a chest. By the culture and customs of India, you will know something happened to that lady that's worse than death itself. So he goes to her and said, what happened? Why are you crying like this? And she responds, that is the content of the letter.

She said, my husband is very ill. He's sick. He can't work anymore.

We are terribly poor. And my sins are so many that nobody knows about. To find solution to the problems of my home and the forgiveness for my sins, I have given the best offering I can give to goddess Ganges.

My only child, my six month old baby boy, I just threw him into the river. Paragraph. He writes, I sat beside her and explained to her, but God didn't make you poor.

He loves you. Your sins are forgiven. Jesus died for you.

He explained to her from God's word what Jesus did for her. All she must do is to believe. Responding to his explanation, she wiped her tears and looked in his eyes and said the statement.

But why didn't you come to me half hour sooner? I didn't have to kill my child. It is too late. It is too late.

And she went back weeping again. That literally is the fate of nearly 2 billion people. A country like India with 1.2 billion people.

Half of the nation never heard Jesus came to this earth. He lived and he died and he was buried. He rose again and they still live in despair and darkness without hope.

Afghanistan, some 18 million people in the entire nation. It is reported maybe less than 2,000 Christians, not one single church. And every single day some 180,000 people die from that part of the world and plunge into eternity without hope.

For they never heard about my Jesus and your Jesus. Now you say, Brother KP, what am I supposed to do with my life? What do you want me to do? I want you to understand. The more you and I get to know Jesus, we can't help but experience the broken heart and the pain of the lost world.

Now you say, well, it sounds like I'm not very spiritual. There's just a few people like you and our pastor and a few others. I don't know.

Well, you know what? The real problem is all of us are on this journey learning and growing. And you are given God's grace. But here's the problem.

Like the lady that came to me in California in one of the churches. And after the service said, Pastor, would you please pray for me? I said, Lady, what can I pray for you about? She said, I got a demon of smoke inside me. Would you lay your hand on my head and cast the demon out? It was on a cow chapel, by the way.

It don't happen things like that. I said, Lady, you know what? I can cast out demons, but not the flesh. You see, with all the information and teaching and learning and books and consultations and conferences, we are saturated with information about godliness.

Yet, we are not becoming like Christ. The reason is not the poor devil. We blame the devil for everything.

And the devil says, I have nothing to do with it. It's you are the problem. Now, I came to America in 1974 to go to college.

And having the responsibility to pastor a church in Dallas during the seminary days. But you know, America does strange things to aliens. Before I knew it, within a few years time, I was totally into becoming like an American.

Seventy expensive neckties, all imported from Europe. Most expensive suits. Books in my library that I may never read, but look wonderful.

It took me half hour to get dressed. The color coordination. I analyzed my skin and found out I was winter.

And one day the Lord spoke to my heart as I was reading the scripture. He said, Son, half of the world go to bed with empty stomach and naked bodies. Half of the nation where you were born and raised never heard my name.

What are you doing with your life? And I found that prayer was just the sake of others hear my prayer. And I found out that I heard all this news about all over the world. But it never broke my heart.

There was no tears in my eyes. And that's when I repented. And said, Oh God, I'm lost.

Extremely self-centered. And I don't care about people that are going to eternity without you. The enemy was not the devil, but my self-centeredness.

Of course, I mentioned to you about our commitment to send missionaries and reach the lost world. And I remember the story about a couple of our missionaries. They both are Muslim converts from Islamic faith.

Went to a Bible college, got their training. They went to the mission field to work among the Muslims. And very difficult people to win to the Lord.

Kind of very difficult. And these brothers led a few people to the Lord. And teach them discipleship during the nights and daytime.

Still do evangelism. One day us, Hussain and Salsal, these brothers were going about their ministry. A group of men met them.

And the leader of the gang said, Oh, so you are here to tell about Jesus. And our brothers thought they were friends. They want to know about Jesus.

But the story changes. The leader of the gang pulled out a dagger, a long knife. And stabbed in the heart of Hussain, our missionary.

And he fell in a pool of blood. Salsal grabbed hold of him. They stabbed him six times.

Believing they both are dead, these men fled. Hussain died on the spot. Leaving his wife and two young children behind.

And Salsal, it took many months for him to recover in the hospital. Hearing about the news, her father from a distant village, a radical Muslim. Traveled to meet his daughter.

And said, My daughter, thank God that devil is dead. Talking about his son-in-law. Now you come home with my grandchildren.

I will take care of you. To this, this young daughter responded. Now to you, my sisters and mothers and grandmothers, young girls.

Think about it. In an alien, strange community. Hostile circumstances.

Dark and painful future. Humanly speaking, this young girl said, My father, you don't understand. That Jesus, my husband, loved.

I love him. The people that he loved and served, I love them. I cannot come home.

I must continue the journey here. And raise my children to take the place of my husband. And continue to preach the gospel.

Question. Not to intimidate you. Not to make you feel dumb or stupid.

I will ask you the question. If you were in her place, what would be your answer? This is nothing less than the call of Christ upon our life as his followers. If anyone want to come after me, let him, let her deny themselves.

And love me more than life itself. This is the kind of commitment that takes to shake this community. Shake this nation.

Shake this world. And see multiplied millions come into the kingdom. And someday when you get to heaven, it's going to be the best thing you can witness and enjoy.

One of the problems I live with in my life is discouragement. You say, What? I do go through sometimes very difficult times. I just want to give up everything and run away and hide somewhere.

And let somebody else do my job. And it's not easy. And last week, it was one of those days, I said, Oh man, this is not easy.

I traveled, went over 300,000 or more air miles just speaking. And I'm not trying to paint a terrible picture about my life, but it's not easy. But you know what happens? Once in a while when I go through this kind of circumstances, the Lord does something to pull me up.

It was one of those days just last week, early morning. I get this telephone call from Himachal Pradesh where the place called Dharamsala. You heard about Dalai Lama? The Buddhist Pope? He lives in Dharamsala when they got kicked out from Tibet.

And four of our young people, after finishing their Bible college, went there to plant a church. It's one of the most difficult place to be. There's no church as such.

They spent whole month praying, asking God to give them understanding. Then they took many days of total fast, asking God to give them grace. And they went out, start witnessing and talking to people about Christ.

And I just heard last week, they baptized the first 12 converts in Dharamsala. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Then I was hearing about this amazing story about this dear brother in Punjab, the land of the Sikhs. Going about trying to plant a church in a community and nothing happens.

One day he saw this one family that looked so sad and gloomy, like donkey-faced. Like somebody died. And he said, what happened? You look so sad.

He said, our buffalo is sick. Well, you know, some of these communities, they make their living by selling the milk from the cow or buffalo or goat or whatever. And they said, we did everything we know, but our animal is dying and we don't know what to do.

And he said to himself, wow, what an opportunity. And he said, Lord, if you ever heal an animal, this is the best chance you have. And he said, you know what, I pray to Jesus for your buffalo and Jesus can help you.

And he went and laid hand on the sick, dying buffalo. And he said, Lord, for your name's sake, that they may believe in you, Lord. Would you please do something and heal this animal? Before he could finish his prayer, the buffalo jumped up.

And of course, you can imagine the shock. The whole family gave their life to Christ and they joined families. And the first church was planted and the church was constructed.

And we named the church the Buffalo Church. It's amazing. And if you go to our website, you'll read stories after stories of what's going on.

Some 16 churches are planted every single day among people that never heard the name Jesus. You know what it takes? Just someone go and tell, Jesus died for you on the cross. He shed his blood and he was buried and he rose again.

He's alive and real. Believe in him and you will be saved. That's all it takes.

A few months ago in our leaders meeting, I heard about 29 villages, communities in one part of the mission field. You're talking about some 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 people in each community. All 29 of them, along with their leaders of the community, decided they want to follow Christ.

And I said, I want to go. They are so desperate to see that. And I just heard a few weeks ago, the first 200 people were baptized in one village.

This is awesome what's happening. And sometimes baptism services consist of 600, 800 people that came to Christ and want to follow the Lord. This is truly harvest time.

Now, hearing about all these stories, how do we respond to it? How can I be involved and engage my life in this? I want to make four applications. One, the most significant things God does, he does it through the prayers and faith of his people. Ezekiel 22 in the Old Testament, God said, I'm looking for a man, a woman to stand in the gap before me on the behalf of perishing multitudes.

Then God says, but I couldn't find anyone and they are destroyed. May I ask you as a first application, would you commit yourself for prayer? You say, what do you mean? Well, pray. When you look at the television and radio and magazines and Internet, whatever, when you read about Afghanistan, Bhutan and Turkey and Cuba and Mexico and whatever news, listen, don't be like anybody else and say, oh, these people are dumb, what are they doing? No, let that become your prayer letter.

By the alarm clock, not to wake you up to go to work, but wake you up one in the morning so you can spend two hours on your knees weeping over the world map. Get the book Operation World that tells you how to pray for different countries of the world. Write ten names of people that do not know the Lord, your relatives, your uncles and aunts in Cuba, here, there, everywhere.

People work with you and pray that they will come to know the Lord and you be the one praying. And by the way, you can take one day of the week for fasting and pray. Of course, physically you are not able to do it, don't worry about it.

But if you fast one day and pray for the lost world and the burden of the Lord, and if you die, you please let me know. Second application, the greatest enemy of godliness and being used by God, it is our love for ourselves. When God convicted my heart 30 years ago, my closet jam-packed with clothes.

And I said to my wife, I want to keep just two jackets, a couple of ties, a couple of shoes, and a few trousers, six or seven shirts. I found I can get dressed within one minute. This is one of my two jackets still.

Do I look bad? Thank you. Somebody gave me one of these recently. I don't have to tie nothing, it saves time, I can pray that much more time.

Life, keep it simple. Don't let American materialism that tells you new fashion, new clothes, and new this. Hey listen, we should be clean and wholesome, buy quality clothes and have clean living.

But don't give yourself over to materialism. Your life is cluttered with stuff in the house you don't need. You are four people in the house, you don't need 20 sets of plates and cups and spoons.

You don't need 10 diamond rings. My brother, you don't need a brand new car, lay a hand on your old car, it will run again. Listen, use your money just to meet your needs and exchange it to change the world.

I can tell you story after story of hundreds of people that have come to Christ by reading one gospel. I used to chew gum all the time like a cow. But then one day, many many years ago, some 20-25 years ago, I said, what am I doing? I can take this chewing gum money and each penny will print a gospel tract.

And I'm not against chewing gum, if you chew gum, please do. People give me chewing gum, I chew gum. There's nothing wrong with that.

But look at your life and what you do in the light of... Oh by the way, America is a place you don't ask the women how old they are. Don't do it! You'll be killed! But I asked Pastor Pedro how old he was. He told me his age because he's a man.

You know how old you are? Take your driver's license, look at it. Add 100 years to your percent age. What happened to your house? The materialism, the reputation, the car, and all the stuff that you are dreaming about.

It all means nothing. Please believe me. I guarantee you, 100 years from now, you will not be living here.

There is something far more significant. Eternity. And live your life in the light of that.

Simplify and exchange all, not because of guilt or having... You know, I have friends who are multimillionaires. It's not being poor that makes you spiritual. But they live soberly and handle their resources for the sake of the lost world.

That's what I'm talking about. Number three. If God is calling you to serve Him, get a one-way ticket.

Heaven is a much better place. When we send our missionaries out, some 2,000 per year to the mission field, we tell them one sentence. You got a one-way ticket.

Get to the mission field. If you get killed there, remember, heaven is a better place. Wait there for us, and we'll come and see you later.

And I have now lost more than 11 or 12 brothers that died on the field. They were brutally murdered for preaching the gospel. And their wives and children are taken care of by the mission.

And the children are growing up. And someday we will meet those brothers in heaven along with the souls they won to the Lord. And it's worth giving your life.

As a family, you should be praying, Lord, call my son, my daughter, or my children to serve you. And make that your goal. And that should be ambition.

If God is calling you to serve Him somewhere, you contact us. We can always help you. There's a room for you, place for you.

Number four. How do you engage your life in Bhutan, Burma, India, Nepal, and Afghanistan? These places where people harvest is taking place. Well, one of the best things I can recommend you to do.

That's what we are doing. That is praying and linking our lives with what we call native missionaries. Like the ones I told you about.

That are preaching the gospel. You say, Brother KP, what does that mean? You see, Romans 10 says, All those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But, how can they call on Him, believe in Him, if they've never heard it? But then the question, how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they go to preach unless someone sends them? It is going and sending.

So, I am challenging you. Would you please pray about becoming the sender of one of those missionaries in any of these nations? And we have hundreds and hundreds of brothers and sisters who are trained, launching out to the unreached areas. And I'm asking you, if the Lord would have you, would you decide to pray and help some of these missionaries? Now, what does that mean? It's very simple.

It takes about $30 a month for us to help assist one of these missionaries to go to the mission field. My wife and I began to do that, supporting four missionaries many years ago. And all these dear brothers, usually within the first year, end up planting a church.

Within a few years time, they become self-supporting. And we don't have to give them any money because the church would support them. And that's what we are asking people to do.

There's a little card like this. It is given to you. It is in your bulletin, I think.

If you look at it, you'll find it. Yeah, this is it. Look at that guy there.

I know him. He's from Punjab. The first time I met him, he had a turban on his head.

And he gave his life to Christ. As a young man, his parents actually booted him out of the house. Threw him out with the clothes on his back.

He walked away. Came to a Bible college and finished his studies. Went out to serve God.

And so far, he planted five churches in that state of Punjab. And think about it. It's you, given the privilege by the Lord, to be the prayer partner and supporter of the missionary.

To go to the mission field. That's what I'm telling you about. And all you need to do is to fill out this card.

Name and address and how many missionaries you'd like to support. We have a medical doctor in Fort Bend, Indiana who supports, I think, 50 or more native missionaries. And he told me, Brother KP, as a surgeon, I go to the hospital.

But I do it every single day thinking that, oh my, my money can go to support and send out missionaries. Winning tens of thousands to Christ. And someday I will meet them in heaven.

And he has more money than I have. Thank God for that. I'm glad.

But you could support one missionary or two or three or four or whatever number. I'm telling you, it cannot be, it must not be out of guilt or condemnation or force. No.

It must be because it's a privilege to link our life with Christ's passion and his burden. And that's what I'll tell you. There are people who say, unless you send your money, we are going out of business.

I have to go off there. I usually talk back to the television set. Please go off there.

Don't bug me. No. This has to be because we understand what Jesus is all about.

And as the song goes, for thee, all the folly, so sin I resign. My Jesus, my dear Jesus, if I ever love thee. And those are the reason that you respond to him, whatever he says.

Fasting, praying, going, giving, whatever. And may the Lord give you the grace to figure this out. And if I had a choice, I would lock the door, wouldn't let you out.

But that's not the way Jesus does. So, by the way, when you bring the card, actually we give you the real missionary that you are praying for and supporting. And you do it as long as you can.

When a day comes, you can't, or whatever reason, if that happens, and we will find somebody else to support that missionary. And that's what we do. And we have testimonies by thousands that tells, we began to do this, our lives are immensely blessed.

Our children knowing the Lord and have a purpose, you know, to live and serve him. And as the Lord gives a great, by the way, any money you send to support the missionaries, every penny you send over to the missionary field, nothing is taken out for any administrative cost or anything like that. But you know what? I was barely 17 when the Lord called me to leave my home, travel 2,000 miles to go to North India to serve him.

It's been now some 40 plus years serving my Lord. And my greatest longing now is to see him face to face. Because I know there's going to be lots of people around the throne.

Because the privilege he gave me to live for him now and serve him. Let that be your privilege and our privilege in this life. And may the Lord speak to us.

Amen. If you have been encouraged and challenged this morning, I want to just tell you about a couple of materials that we have at the back table. For a little while, we're running short last night.

They almost wiped us out. So if I tell you about these materials, but you don't find them back there, don't riot. Instead, go to our website, GFA.org. You can get all the material from there.

We'll send it to you for the same price or free. It's all available, suggested donations. So anyway, if we run out, just sorry, it'll be one more step.

Go online and you'll get the material there. The first book that Brother KP wrote is this one. It's called Revolution and World Missions.

It's an excellent book. It tells you about 16,000 native missionaries giving their lives to tell their own people about the Lord Jesus Christ. We gave out this book free to some of you who got copies a couple weeks ago.

And if you didn't get a copy, I encourage you, please get one. We have a few at the back table. You can get one free if you would like to do that.

Just tell them that you'd like a free book and they will give it. If you insist on paying for it, we ask a suggested donation of about $3. That helps us cover the cost of the book.

But whatever you would do, I just encourage you get a copy of the book. We get dozens of testimonies every week in our office. People who write in say that book is just tremendous, changed my life.

Another book that Brother KP wrote is called The Road to Reality. There it is right there. Okay, good.

I didn't know if they were happening behind me, but they are. I got this book about 20 years ago. I was living in California with my wife.

I was a CPA, which means cut, paste, and attach. We had an office there. I had this goal I wanted to make and save a million dollars and live off the interest of the million dollars and retire early with my wife and go travel.

And Brother KP came to the little Calvary Chapel I was going to, and I picked up this book and it just ruined my life. Trashed my American dream. And I realized for the first time, though, that I was made not for time, not for this world, but for the next one.

I'm just like you. We're made for eternity. And how we invest our life here can impact whether the world hears the gospel or whether it doesn't.

It's an excellent book. I highly recommend it. It talks about simplifying your life.

It's very practical examples of how to walk with the Lord in simplicity, as he's talked about a little bit this morning. Excellent book. Available at the back table.

Suggested donation is $8,000. It's only $8. I'm just helping you simplify.

Okay, another book that Brother KP wrote. It's been out maybe two years. It's an excellent book.

It actually replaced Road to Reality as my second favorite book except for the Bible. It's called Touching Godliness. And I think if I were to ask, can I see a show of hands of any of you who want to walk with the Lord more intimately, you want to know the Lord more closely, probably every hand would go up.

Every hand did go up, I think. This book has been for me kind of a bridge to help me walk more closely with the Lord. It talks about the order that God has set out for the universe, the order and the structure, and how when we live within the order and the structure, we're in authority, we're under authority.

When we know that and we live in that, that the blessing of God necessarily follows that. You can't help it. God pursues you to bless you.

It's an excellent book. I encourage you to get a copy. I don't think I have any at the table.

We were wiped out last night, but go to the website. It's called Touching Godliness. You'll see it there, and you can get a copy.

There's another book, brand new book, called Destined to Soar. This book's been out less than two months, 37 short chapters. It encourages you to come up higher where the air is crisp and clean.

Again, live a simple life in the light of eternity. Excellent, excellent book. We're getting rave reviews already from this book.

We have some DVDs in the back. Two of the DVDs are Brother KP sharing, like he did this morning, sharing his passion, sharing his heart with different fellowships in the country. We have another one that's a documentary on the mission field.

They're at the back table as well. Again, go to our website, gfa.org. Excellent place to get information. Excellent place to get any of these resources that we may not have for you at the back table.

Just a couple of things with regard to Native missionary sponsorship. As Brother KP said, all you need to do today if you would like to help a missionary is just fill out the card. We had some people last night say, I don't have a checkbook.

I didn't bring any money. That's okay. We trust you.

Just fill out the card, and we'll give you today your Native missionary. It takes about a dollar a day, about $30 a month, in your prayers to help one of these brothers. So I wanted you just to understand that each one of these brothers who goes out will usually plant a church in the first year of his ministry.

Statistically, that's what we see. So if the Lord is moving your heart to do this, as Brother KP said, if God's put it there, it is a very effective way that you're able to actually plant a church halfway around the world in a place where you may never visit in this life. But one day when we see the Lord face-to-face, he will say, Well done, good and faithful servant.

Pastor Pedro, thank you for the privilege to come and share here. Thank you all for the privilege you've given us. Well, we thank the Lord for KP and for Gospel for Asia.

You know, here's the bottom line as it relates to missions and world missions. There's a big world that's out there, and many times here in our lives we just become sheltered because of, you know, it's just the way life is. It's not like, oh, we're evil people and all the rest.

But many times we fail to realize how big the world really is and how desperate the need for the Bible and the Gospel to go forth in some of these places. I mean, we do take a lot for granted here, you know, as far as Christian books and Bibles and resources and everything else. And as KP said, what can we do? You know, there are opportunities for us to be able to go out on a mission field.

You know, Miami is a strategic city where it's really the gateway to Latin America, you know, Central America, South America, Cuba's right there, you know. And for us, we can take missions trips down there and be very effective in the sense that, you know, many of us, you know, you drop me in Cuba and then I'm already, I'm speaking their language. In fact, one guy told me one time in Cuba, don't let them catch you here without a passport because they'll think you're one of us.

And so again, there's a connection there. But a place like India, you know, it's hard for us to even consider going out there to take a short-term missions trip because it takes about a week to get there, okay, because it's so far. And then you get there and it's expensive to get there.

And then the first week you're there, you're sick because of the food you ate and now it's not jiving with your stomach. And then you're there for about two days and they take you to the Taj Mahal and you go, wow. And then you leave, you know, and you say hi to a few people out there and they're blessed because of your presence and all the rest.

But really, how effective was the trip? It cost thousands of dollars and all the rest. And then we think, okay, so how do we make a difference over there? Well, my philosophy has always been there are parts of the world that I will never really significantly physically be able to make an impact, you know, by going out there and doing stuff. But what I can do is send resources.

And one of the things that I have always done is find out where the Lord is working and then get behind these people and support them. Now, of all the ministries that I have seen, Gospel for Asia is one of the most effective in that part of the world. I don't know if KP shared it this morning.

I was running around doing some stuff, but he did last night. They plant about 16 to 17 churches a day. That's the average.

They're planting that many churches a day. These guys have got it dialed in. They're training up missionaries.

A friend of mine, Skip Heisick, he's one of our board members here, spoke at their graduation. And there was over a thousand pastors that were graduating ready to go out into the mission field that is India. And India is a huge mission field.

God loves those people. He died for those people. And he wants to reach those people.

And this is an incredible organization that is doing it. So, again, and I'm saying this for you to feel the freedom to say, hey, I can trust that every penny of whatever you guys support is going to go onto the mission field. It's not like, oh, we take a little bit for admin, we take a little bit to print books.

Every penny that you give to support a missionary is going to go to that actual missionary. So be confident of that. And at the very least, find out some information there so you can at least pray.

Because prayer is huge. Prayer changes things. Prayer will impact.

So, man, my heart and the thing that I wanted to see happen here is for all of us to get challenged to a real world that's beyond this world and beyond our current world here in a city like Miami, where many times we can forget that there's a world that's in desperate need for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's part of what the resurrection life is all about. We are to die to ourselves that we would then come alive to the epic life that God has created us for.

We are not here for the here and now of this world, but we are living for the then and there of eternity. And God wants to use us in the short window that we've got. And it is short.

We're here for 70 years, and that's average. And it could be more, and it can be less. And it's the kind of thing that life is passing quick.

I was talking to George, and every once in a while, someone that we know goes home to be with the Lord, and we say, Hey, how old were they? And today George told me they were in their 60s. They were very young. And I was like, Man, when we were little kids, and we said someone was in their 60s, it may as well have been 150.

Because we're little kids, you think you're here for forever. But now from our vantage point, 60 years old, man, you're still in the youth group, and you're still young. And again, life is fast.

We're here for a moment. May we use every breath that goes into our lungs to bring glory to God because that's what we were designed to do. And my prayer is that all of us would be challenged and stretched.

And I pray that it would impact your life, that you would understand that though we have KP and Gospel for Asia doing stuff in Asia, we have a real mission field in our own backyard. You have people in your workplace that are lost. You have people in your families that are lost.

You have people that you see every week at Starbucks that are lost. You have people in la peluqueria that you go to that are lost, the barbershop that are lost. You know, sports leagues that are lost.

When you go drop off your kids at school and the parents that are there, some of them are lost. But Pedro, my kids go to Christian school. Some of them are lost.

Just because they go to Christian school doesn't mean they know the Lord. So may God use us all that we would understand that we are living in a very real mission field, that every single time we drive out of these gates that we would understand that we are heading out into a world that God wants to use us to impact. Amen? Amen.

Let's all stand and let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your love for us. And God, as we sing this song here, Lord, God, may we meditate upon, Lord, what we've learned.

And God, that you would challenge us, God, to the degree, Lord, that it would move us to action. God, I thank you for KP. And God, I pray for the mission that you've got him on.

I pray for a special prayer for his family of blessing. And I pray that, God, you would be with his wife and with his children and grandchildren, Lord, protect them. And God, I pray that you would have a protection over all the missionaries, Lord, the thousands of them, Lord, that are out doing your work.

And God, I pray for their services, Lord, this week. God, as they are just riding bike and getting there and all the rest, Lord, I just pray for blessing. And God, I pray that your kingdom, God, would be expanded this week, Lord, through those missionaries, God, in Asia, Lord.

And God, I just pray that this coming season, Lord, would be the most fruitful that Gospel for Asia has ever had, Lord, in all their years of ministry. God, I pray, Lord, that you would just continue to bust open the doors for the gospel to go forth in that country, Lord. And I just pray for mass revival, Lord, that many would come to their senses, Lord, that their eyes would be opened, that the scales would fall, Lord, and, God, that lives would be set free.

So, Lord, we love you, we thank you, God. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen.

May the Lord bless you and may he keep you. See you next week.