See Jesus (Dutch)

Well, there's a songbook. Oh, it is. All right.

Well, thank you, dear brother, for those good words. And... I'm glad you are here. So, let me see.

If you heard me speak last night, or today, would you raise your hand? Well, quite a few new brothers and sisters are here. And this evening I got rice, which is good news. This evening I got rice, which is good news.

It is a very special gathering here. And I also called my wife and my secretary to tell her what a great gathering it is here in the Netherlands. I told my wife, the translator for me, That's a 27-year-old psychiatric patient.

Now, he's a wonderful doctor. Thank you. This morning I mentioned about brothers and sisters, missionaries in India and Nepal and Pakistan, many countries serving God.

And it was such a joy to meet with quite a few brothers and sisters this afternoon that know about Gospel for Asia. They've been praying for us, and they are part of this journey. And I would ask you to please go to our website and learn more about what is going on.

And someday when we get to heaven, we'll meet so many people, millions, that made their way to heaven because of our life here on earth right now. There are missionaries that are going, there are those who are sending them to go. And ask the Lord to give you a burden for people that do not know the Lord.

And if you'd like to know about how to link your life with one of those missionaries on the mission field, you can still go to a table out there, in the kitchen there, or in the dining room, and get one of these cards. And when you sign up to pray and support one of these native missionaries, it's about $30 a month you do. Then two or three other people join with you to support that same missionary.

And when you sign this card and give it to us, you can actually get the card where we profile all the details about the missionary. And once in a while you hear from the mission field what God is doing through them. And we are praying someday that we will have possibly an office in the Netherlands.

And our conviction is that the Lord gives us the opportunity to know Him, and also at the same time to make Him known. It's all about Jesus. So I encourage you to visit our table tonight or tomorrow.

Let's read a couple of verses from the Bible. A couple of verses from the scripture, Hebrews chapter 12. Verse 1 and 2. It's our invitation to see the Lord clearly.

It's about imitation, about following, and about seeing the Lord clearly. Hebrews 12, verses 1 and 2. Could you read verse 4? Read 3 and 4. This invitation to see the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says, we are in a race.

And it says, look at Him. Consider Him. So that you will not give up.

There's another passage of scripture in 2 Corinthians. Chapter 3, verse 18. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18.

Please read it. And then chapter 4, verse 1. It is something you and I are called to do. Here we are told, look to Christ who is the order and the finisher of our faith.

The tremendous amount of opposition, temptation for us to give up the faith. And so when I've been talking to you about the invitation Christ gave, follow me. The question is, how do you do that? And the opposition we have from Satan and the world itself is to keep us from Christ.

And the opposition we have from Satan and the world itself is to keep us from Christ. So we have to make a choice continually to keep the Lord before us. How do we do that? Fundamentally God's word.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 3. It says, beholding in the mirror we see a face. What is the mirror? James says God's word. So when you read the Bible, what do you see? A lot of people are seeing their needs fulfilled.

America is a very strange place for many things. When I first went to America, that was in 1974. That's before he was born.

That's 14 years before I was born. I went to a restaurant and asked the waitress, the name of her food. She said, hot dog.

I ran away. I asked her, do you, in America people eat dog meat? I didn't know what a hot dog was. Then I drank something.

I threw up. It was Dr. Pepper. Americans tried to kill me.

But I survived. But then I began to learn about the church. A German actually did a research and got his PhD about American church growth.

He did a research about church growth. 85% of the growth of the church actually people going from one church to the other church. It is like a supermarket.

You go around, you pick what you want. You like the preacher. Then you stay there.

After six months he will preach something difficult. Then you are gone. You go to another church.

Music. And the question people often ask is what can I receive in that church? And there are thousands of choices. Based on their needs met.

What was the call of Christ? To follow Him. They had to give up all. It was not for them, but for Him.

And the prosperity gospel, why did it become so popular? I am not saying God will not bless His people. But is that the reason for us to follow Christ? Forgiveness of sin is important. Escaping hell is important.

Going to heaven is important. But what about recognizing He made us and we are not our own. And God does comfort us with His Word.

He gives us peace. He meets our needs. But when you read the Bible our longing must be to see the face of Jesus.

And it says here the whole of the Bible the Holy Spirit changes us from within to be like the one we see in the mirror, the face of Jesus. When you got up this morning you looked in the mirror. Did you see my face? If you did, you need to talk to Him.

Then you need to talk to my translator. So when you read God's Word you see the Lord Jesus Christ. But what keeps us from seeing Him? You read that in chapter 3. A veil on our face of materialism.

Pride and arrogance. Self-centeredness. Unwillingness to give up what we want.

Sins and burdens that hold us down. If any man claims himself from these things, the Bible says So when we long for one thing to be like Jesus the Holy Spirit is there to work. Why did the Holy Spirit come? To give us goosebumps? Or make us go crazy? Jesus said when He came He took things of mine and showed them to you.

And for Him we are willing to do anything. He is the reason for living. Some years ago one of our staff from the United States went to the mission field and met this young man.

He was one of the young people studying at the Bible school. And he came from a radical, fanatical religion that hated Christ and Christianity. And when he was studying in college he heard about the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ and he gave his life to Him.

And he told his parents about it. They kicked him out of the house. He had to walk away from the clothes he was wearing, nothing else.

And he ended up in a Bible school. So this staff person asked about his faith. Are you not sad that you lost everything? You lost your parents.

You lost your sister. You lost your future wealth. And education.

And your education. Are you not sad? And he answered I am very sad. But if I must choose again I rather have Jesus than anything and everything in this world.

You know there is a song like that in English. I rather have Jesus than anything. He saw Jesus.

He became the pearl of great price. And my brothers and sisters I just got one message. The Lord Jesus Christ.

For Him we are. Willing to give up everything and whatever it means. But the question is do we see Him clearly? And each one of us must answer that for ourselves.

I don't know if you heard the name Francis Chan. He is a very dear friend to me. A couple of years ago he went to India with his wife and children.

And he said Brother K.P. I am coming there I would like to see you. I said Francis I am going to Orissa would you please you will have time to come? He said yes. So he with his wife and children came to attend a week long service in Orissa.

We had some 10,000 to 12,000 people in that gathering. It was a gathering of all the believers they come once a year for this convention. And so he was ministering God's word.

Then he said I would like to meet some of these people. So he will have some translators and people who will help him to communicate with them in the native language. So he spent hours talking to them.

Then he would say things like this. I cannot believe. And he was talking about people he met.

You see just before that we had the persecution. Of the churches we planted. Of 1,000 homes of these believers that were destroyed by the anti-Christian fanatics.

And one brother said they killed my wife in front of me. And some of them showed him the wounds on their bodies. The scars.

Because they will not deny Christ. Option was given you deny your Jesus or this is what we are going to do to you. He said he never saw anything like this.

No God gave them grace during the persecution. The question I ask myself if someone wants to kill my wife my children because I love Jesus. How would I respond? In myself I wish I can tell you oh no problem let them kill me.

I don't have that courage. But the simple believers having come from such darkness worshipping strange Gods they now love Him. They understood the meaning of Jesus and His cross.

And they will not deny Him. And today think about the Christians in Iraq and the Syrian Christians thousands of them are laying down their lives. You know there are people who say oh nothing it's not like that.

It is very serious. They believe in Jesus and see Him more valuable than their life. And that's what Paul said.

We do not give up because we see Jesus. I want to encourage you to pursue the Lord Jesus Christ. Long to become like Him.

Trials and difficulties will always be there but in the midst of that if He is before you you can survive. Look at the book of Acts 30 years of church history in chapter 16 we find Paul and his coworkers in prison. He is beaten up and abused.

But singing praising God I will say Paul what is wrong with you? I am hurting and it is difficult but Paul would say I want to enter into the suffering of Christ that I may know Him. Some of you can't even spend a day without eating and drinking. Forget about fasting for a week.

Our Christianity sometimes is so weak we can't think about the suffering in this journey with Christ. But I can tell you this Jesus said if anyone wants to follow me let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me. Love me more than father, mother, son, daughter even your own very life.

So see Him in the midst of your difficulties I don't know what you are going through maybe your family difficulties maybe like that dear brother in India your relatives and family members don't care about you they just don't see Jesus the way you see Him it is not physical persecution but sometimes it is emotional and mental and you are alone in this journey maybe at your work people laugh at you they don't understand you but remember Jesus faced all suffering for us consider Him meditate on Him and the Lord give you strength but what happens when we fail that is a problem when I am doing well it is ok when I sin when I fail what do I do Jesus disciples Peter was a great leader Jesus disciples and especially Peter Peter was a great leader and you know the story he said I will never deny you I will never lie to you and then he denied Jesus and his heart was broken what use what use why should I try again how many times I said I will not do it but again and again and the pride and all the other stuff that we deal with and then the devil comes accuses us and he accuses us you did it you failed God hates you you are rejected and we feel and learn and live with this guilt and condemnation so it was with Peter he said to the disciples the co-workers I am going back to my old business so he did and there Jesus goes after him Jesus did not ask him anything if I were Jesus I would say something like this Peter what a crazy man you are I loved you so much I cared for you I forgave you what did you do to me you denied me and I will try to make him feel the worst sin on planet earth I never want to go after him but that is me I spent about 300,000 air miles a year traveling and speaking 300,000 air miles often I speak in the pastors Christian leaders there are few times deep into the night some places somebody wants to talk to me and someone will say I am a pastor caring for 2000 people I fell in sin nobody knows I am scared I am guilt ridden I don't know what to do where do I go when I was studying in Dallas in Texas someone I admired so much Dr.

Howard Hendricks teaching at the Dallas seminary I admired a certain professor he is one of the world renowned evangelical professors and one time he said this he had been teaching at the seminary for 40 some years and he kept a diary of his students the students who did PhD under his mentorship hundreds of people some of them great businessmen and pastors and teachers all kind of things then I remember correctly he said in 40 years of his keeping the log only 10% survived still following Christ scary frightening I began serving my Lord when I was 17 now I am 25 well the truth is I am 65 other day I thought about it the hundreds of people that I worked with how many divorced how many broken lives how many no more walk with God my brothers and sisters this is a difficult road it's a narrow

road it's a dangerous race there will be many times you will fail recently I was in a meeting it was in Canada speaking to a group of people so there was a question answer time so a lady stood up and said you wrote so many books yeah I did and she described how wonderful her Christian life became by reading my books and she said you are a saint now not because of my beard so then she asked this question so you repent of any sins now I thought I didn't understand what she was saying then I figured it out and then when I figured out what she was asking she thought I was an angel walking on earth that I don't do any sins that I am perfect and then I said to her this is the truth 10 years ago every day I repented 100 times now I repent 1000 times the older I get the more I see my failures and

the pride and the secret sins and I am so frightened about the wickedness of my own heart and many times when I end up talking to people on the phone they see me as a Christian leader of course I am dealing with hundreds of leaders and sometimes I am giving them advice and all kind of stuff then I realized my words were not correct I was not saying what I said in the spirit of Christ there was anger and scolding and I am telling you do all kind of great things for God but my own heart is not right and then I said oh Lord I failed again please cleanse me daily repentance none of us are perfect we all fail but what do we do when we fail is God rejecting us no he is coming after us with his love with his mercy he never asked Peter he never asked Peter to tell him all the problems that he has

psychologists and psychiatrists they often do that not all they are going to analyze you and zoom in on the smallest things in your life but the problem is that they can not put it together I love watches I have a watch 60 years old not this one and sometimes I tinker with it one time I opened one of my old watch I opened it up that was the last time I opened it I could not put it back together don't let yourself become your psychiatrist don't let the demons become the one to analyze and kill you internally you have failed I have failed and we sin not because we want to but we are living in a fallen world I am not promoting you to live in sin but 1 John 1 verse 8 and 9 says very clearly we have no sin we deceive ourselves but when the Holy Spirit convinces us where do we go? the blood

Jesus the cross and we are cleansed that is what happened to Peter Jesus asked him one question Peter do you love me? do you see me? and he said Lord you know I love you there was no question asked in the gospel of Luke chapter 15 we read about God the Father that is what Jesus was trying to say and the Pharisees and the people in his time believed that God is a cruel mean angry person to give them a better understanding he describes about the father and two sons the older son is a righteous full time Christian worker and he is doing everything right but the younger boy he is a little crazy and takes his money and runs away then he wastes everything he is like a tramp or a beggar now and he ends up as a beggar what made the father to give him all the money for him to leave home it was

love you are saying why God you let this happen to me he knew that is what it takes for us to find him so in the end the son says this is what I am going to do I am going to go back home that is what he does the father asks no questions just embraces him and that is what Jesus is and tonight if you are living with guilt and condemnation I ask you to see him consider him who loves you who gave his life for you and he forgives the key to everything in our failure is seeing the Lord Jesus Christ oh I can go on all night talk about it but then in your life and my life are we able to see Jesus heart and his face and his feelings and emotions when we think about our world seeing the world through his eyes that is what he told the disciples in the gospel of John chapter 4 he said you don't see

what I see look through my eyes and you will do the right thing yesterday I talked about this partially I mentioned to you about two brothers who were in the mission field how brother Hussein was murdered I told you about her father now coming from a distant village and pleading with her to come home with his grandchild I told you about the response of this young girl father you don't understand that Jesus my husband loved I love him the people that he loved father I love them I cannot come home I must raise my son to take my husband's place that shocked the man and he continued to stay with her and in the first two weeks she led him to the Lord Jesus Christ he became a follower of Christ her pain and suffering her loneliness and difficulties she could think about Jesus and she says I

knew someday I will see him I will meet my husband it is all worth it because of Jesus tonight I want to ask you the question we so easily sing all to Jesus I surrender all to him I freely give all I give openly and without holding back it is so easy for me to sing that another song my Jesus I love thee I know you are mine for you all the follies and sins I resign Jesus if ever I loved you think about those words wherever you may be wherever you are in your journey I ask you to make that commitment to him take your eyes off other people from your own self your failures and struggles your dreams and ambitions you do not know what the future is but you can be sure Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever and he will guide you with his counsel you may have a thousand questions in my

native language there is a word called otomuli you did it well that word means one medicine for all ills one medicine whatever the problems what all the sickness one medicine you do not need ten pills only one the Lord Jesus Christ I can assure you of that in this journey of mine how many places I have been to recently one of the missionaries was telling me the story about the work in the leper colony this old lady who was forgotten forsaken by her family because she contracted leprosy because she contracted leprosy when you become a leper you lose your caste you lose your riches you become outcast you wander on the streets you beg to make a living you are at the mercy of others you are at the mercy of others and she ended up in this leper colony there she heard about Jesus from our

sisters of compassion and described to her how Jesus touched the lepers how he embraced them explained to her all will die with great health or sickness but there is a beautiful day coming you will have a new body and this missionary was describing to me about her giving her life to Christ how this woman gave her life to Christ and when she was baptized she came out of the water like an angel and now she is in the church she claps her hands but she has no fingers just her stumps and she cannot close her eyes and she cannot close her eyes but tears come out of her eyes when she prays to Jesus and then she said I cannot wait for the day that I will meet him and that I will receive a new body recently someone said this when we all get to heaven we are all going to be 30 or 33 years old and

the reason they think because Jesus died at the age of 33 it could be true I was very handsome when I was 30 you should see my photograph like a movie star when we see him we shall be like him don't stop don't let anyone stop you the two things I want to tell you if you ever gave your life to Christ if you are tired in this journey pick up the courage it is not very long he is coming back secondly if you do not know him tonight is your invitation he is the fairest among the ten thousand he died for you heaven is a real place hell is a real place you are made for him say Jesus here I am your intellectual you may not understand all about it I don't but the bible says taste and see the Lord is good you cannot know him until you trust him and by faith you do that and tonight I want us to

close our eyes for a minute of prayer wherever you may be there is no magic in closing your eyes but it gives you the privacy of being alone with Christ I ask you tonight to make this fresh commitment to trust him maybe you are not struggling with any problem maybe you are so successful everything is going well and you are content and satisfied can you see Jesus through the blessings whatever hindering you don't let it anymore and as we spend this minute in silent prayer if your decision is saying Lord here I am either you can kneel where you are or you can stand whatever you want to do do something that tells you that you are making this decision I ask you take a minute for silent prayer and respond to him Lord Jesus we want to thank you tonight for your grace and mercy Lord Jesus we

want to thank you for your grace and mercy thank you for my brothers and sisters and those that made that special commitment to you tonight Lord whether we are sitting or standing or kneeling you know our hearts please create such hunger in us Lord that we long after you thank you for loving us thank you for giving your life for us help us to return with our life and all that we are to you Lord and help us Lord to give you back our own life our heart, all that we are and we love you Lord for your forgiveness and your grace Lord I pray that we will see you on this journey of life more and more thank you for your grace in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord Amen the Lord bless you if you want to share something or if you want to say a word of encouragement or encouragement or if you want to

leave after the song