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Thank you.
What a privilege to be here this morning amongst all of you and to hear what God is doing in this part of the world, through this church and through this great pastor that you all have.
It's all about the Lord, not about us.
And how he uses us insignificant people for his glory and what a privilege it is for us to be involved in what he puts us.
I'm so thankful to be around these great servants who are serving the Lord in different parts of this country and beyond.
And what a moment for us, me and my wife Susan, to be here in this particular time of the year when this church is celebrating its missions just gives me a little taste of what heaven is going to be like.
From all tribe tongues, nations, people gathering together around the throne of this great and awesome and mighty God, worshipping him, singing praises to him.
What a day it's going to be like.
We are so thankful for that.
And we have thoroughly enjoyed the sweet fellowship of God's people over here.
Some great people that came to our lives when this church sent a few folks in our part of the world in India, and what moments we've enjoyed together, serving together in that great, great and needy land.
And I'm praying and I'm hoping that this relationship is going to grow intense and stronger in the years and times to come if he tarries and if he gives us life.
One of the things that I learned from my father growing up was his expression of how he puts homolytics.
He said, sam, whenever you stand up to preach, remember these five S's.
And that's what I'm going to do this morning.
The four S's.
Stand up.
Speak up.
Shut up and sit down.
I so vividly remember another tip that he gave me, the five B's, rather, five B's.
Be brief, brother.
Be brief.
And that's what I'm going to try and do this morning, being brief.
And I'm trying to share with you what God has laid in my heart for this church and also how he is going to talk to all of us through what he has given me.
I come from a country which is now the most populous country in the world.
It has overtaken China with 1.4 billion people living in our part of the world.
In India, overtaken China, which now has about 1.3 billion people.
There's a lot of people over there.
And all those of you who've been to India, you know what I'm talking about when I come over here.
We drove through Atlanta.
Sure enough, there are a bunch of cars over there.
And they say it's also crowd.
And I'm looking at where is the crowd?
Not a single car is unscratched in India because everybody takes up that little bit of.
Little bit of inch that is available over here.
The difference is you respect other people's spaces, and that's a good thing.
The first time I was here, I was driving on the road.
In fact, I was being driven along, and I'm sitting over there and there's nobody coming in.
The driver stops, looks and goes.
And he does the same thing.
After a while, it was so irritating.
And so I had to ask him, I said, why do you stop?
He looks up at me and he says, you see that sign?
Stop?
I said, yeah, but there's nobody coming.
He says, doesn't matter.
Even if you drive in the middle of the night, you come across one of those stop signs.
You stop, okay.
And in my head, I said, wow.
They follow all the traffic rules.
And I go back to India.
Sure enough.
Did you ever come across any stop signs in India?
You did.
And as a very good law abiding citizen of the country, I see a stop sign for sure.
And I stopped in India, a bunch of cars honking at me, get out of my way.
And I said, wow, I'm back in India.
Doesn't make any sense.
Over there, we do have the median in the road.
It's just decorating the road.
You just get out and go.
I came across the expression Holy cow.
I was around a bunch of kids, and kids, they're talking, and one of them yelled, holy cow.
And I said, excuse me, is cow holy here as wEll?
I said, well, I come from the country where cow is really, really holy, because the cow is revered, it's worshipped.
We don't get any beef in that part of the world.
So unfortunately, for those of you contemplating coming down to India, you will have to forego your beef for a while.
You'll just have to become either vegetarians or chicken Terrians.
But I do worship my cow.
The best way you can worship a cow is on a plate, right?
Oh, that poor people over there do not know what they're missing out on.
It's just amazing.
It's just amazing how God works everything together.
But the best part is over.
We have a bunch of people over there.
Who loves the same Lord as a bunch of people that I get to meet when I'm here states, we worship the same Lord, the same God who sent his beloved Son to die for us on the cross, who healed us from this deadly disease called sin by paying the price that God demanded for the remissions of our sins.
And we rejoice.
This morning we celebrate because he's not a God on the cross.
He died.
And on the third day, he rose again, and he's alive today.
And that's the reason we worship God.
He has ears, he hears, he has eyes, and he sees.
He's got hands, and they work for us, and God's hands work for us.
No power on earth can stop it.
We praise God for that God.
And if there's someone sitting over here and someone listening to us far away, you do not have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the time to do it and taste and see that the Lord is good.
This morning I want to share with you from the Book of Mark, chapter 14.
Mark, chapter 14.
And I would like to read from verse three to verse nine in my Indian accent.
And I hope you're going to pardon me for the mistakes.
I just am so amazed how English is spoken so differently in the United States.
It's just like in India.
We have 26 different languages, and all languages are different.
But then we, me and my wife Susan, come over and we find English is also spoken in so many other languages.
You go in one part of this country, and English is spoken totally differently than how it is spoken over here in this part of the world.
Well, one time I was in this church, and I was thanking everybody and especially wanted to thank this one couple who had housed me for the whole month.
And that was my first time.
And I stood up and I thanked Byron and I thanked Nancy for putting up with me for about a month.
They took great care of me, and I told them, I've never seen a more homely person than Nancy.
Now, if you come to India and if you call a woman homely, that's a title of honor.
How am I supposed to know that this is what you do if you call someone homely over here?
And in that church, nobody said a word.
I could see a few raised eyebrows, and I thought maybe my English people didn't understand.
And so I restressed it again.
I said, nancy is a very homely person.
Still no response.
And I thought maybe I messed know.
And after the service, Byron comes running over to me, says, we never call a woman homely here.
I said, oops, I will never do that.
That was it.
They never called me again in their house.
Reading from verse three onwards of Chapter 14 of the Book of Mark, and being in Bethany in the house of Simon the Leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of Spike nerd.
How do you say that?
Spike nerd.
Very precious.
And she break the box and poured it on his head.
And there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste of the ointment made for?
It might have been sold for more than 300 pence and would have been given to the poor.
And they murmured against her and Jesus said, let her alone.
Why trouble ye her?
She has wrought a good work on me.
For you have the poor with you always.
And whensoever you will, you may do them good.
But me ye have not always.
She hath done what she could.
She's come aforehand to anoint my body to the bearing.
Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
I just want to bring out three important facts that I learned out of this.
Here is this young lady who has a very valuable, expensive box of ointment.
And I've heard people say that it possibly costed a whole year's wages of a person and that was that.
Very expensive.
How she got it, nobody knows.
Maybe she inherited it, but it was the most precious, valuable thing that she kept for herself.
What she was going to do, nobody knows.
But when she sees Jesus, she's so amazed at what Jesus is teaching and preaching, she's amazed at what he does, raising up the dead, healing the sick, doing things that has never ever been done ever before.
She sits down and she thinks, what can I do for him who does so many wonderful, amazing things?
Even her life, her life was touched by him.
And she looks and she finds this most valuable possession that she had and she brings it and offers it all to the Lord.
She teaches me the first of the three things, do what you can.
The second of the three things, do all that you can.
Lastly, but not the least, do it now.
Do what you can.
I just thank the Lord for this great country of yours which has flooded the whole nations of the world with missionaries with the gospel of good news Jesus saves.
Many decades ago when this great country, one of the churches from here, sent a man called William Carey in India.
Just comes down over there and did some wonderful things.
Never, ever thought that that would end up in being such a big and a vast thing for the Lord.
By the way, did you know it was him and his group of people who came down to India and created a language which now has become the national language of India?
Hindi.
Hindi was not something that existed, Pastor Bo in India as a gift from the missionaries.
And they didn't stop there.
They went on and started translating God's book into our languages.
They translated into Hindi.
Who knows?
Eternity will reveal that I'm standing before all of you who has been blessed and perhaps Saved by what these men started in India.
The gospel given to us in our language.
And when we go out to different places, I really like to go to some old cemeteries and like to see those names of those people who have been buried over there.
And I'm just amazed at some of the names, the English names, the American names.
Men and women who came down to India, who laid down their lives and are buried over there years ago.
Perhaps hardly anybody remembers them, but heaven remembers them in 19 hundreds.
In 18 hundreds.
I've seen those plaques over there, over the bodies of those people leaving the comforts of a country like America.
Coming down to a country where there's hardly any roads, hardly any electricity, mosquitoes all around, malaria, typhoids, you name it, it's all over there.
Why would a person want to go there unless he has a message?
She has a message to tell them.
We are so thankful to God for these great men and women who are willing to do what they could this morning.
I want to put this question straight before you.
What are you doing for the Lord, folks, if you do not do something, if you do not stand for something, you will fall for everything.
Unfortunately, that is the plight of the Church in United States of America.
What are you doing?
Stand up and do something for the Lord.
The Lord said she did what she could.
Great men and women of God did what they could.
Going on further.
Verse number three.
And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having the alabaster box of ointment.
Spike.
Nerd.
Very precious.
She break it upon him and she poured it on his head.
It's very interesting what she did.
This ointment was way too expensive.
But she didn't care about it.
She broke it and poured it on the head of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So much so that everything started dripping from his head to the toe.
The room filled up with beautiful aroma.
And the smell that was on Jesus was now on her.
Sometimes I sit and think what I would have done with that box of oinTment.
It's very expensive.
I would have come in definitely.
I'd like to offer Jesus the best that I can.
I would come in and open the box lid, possibly go into the kitchen, get one of the best spoons possible and take a spoon.
Anoint the Lord Jesus in the name of the Father, of the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Put the lid back.
Keep it within me or not want to give it all to the Lord.
Here is this lady who gave it all.
Did not want to keep it.
Do what you can.
Do all that you can.
I don't know if you have heard anything about these four young people back in India, years ago, from the south of India.
Burning with a desire to go into the part of that country which had not received the gospel yet.
And these four men, just freshly out of this college, Bible College, had that heart overflowing with the good news of the gospel.
And wanted to share it with people.
Had everything but had empty pockets.
They were about 3000 miles apart.
They decided, we will walk.
We will walk and reach the land of Rajasthan to share the good news of God.
One of them was married with a ten month old baby.
And all come together and try to discuss about how their walk would be planned.
And they said, what happens if someone dies on the way?
The unanimous decision was, if somebody dies on the way, we'll bury them there and the rest of the crew will march on.
Such was their desire to reach that land with the gospel.
They were not holding back.
One of them was my father.
On the day of their graduation, Brother Bill Bright, the director of the then India Campus crusade for Christ came to know about the crazy decision of these four young men.
And he said, you don't, please don't walk.
I will buy your tickets.
So he bought their train tickets and they reach the land of Rajasthan.
They end up in a city called Kota.
On the 14th day of their arrival to Kota, they all decide to go out and start talking about the Lord Jesus Christ to the people.
And something that my dad was so fond of sharing, even till the day of his death.
He said the warm welcome that I received was these iron crowbars coming and hitting them.
The very first blow came, landed on his body.
And that knocked my father out.
Was unconscious on the street, body all bloodied up, black and blue.
The mob left him for dead.
Went after the others.
And he says the very next thing that I remembered was in the hospital when I opened my eyes, asking who brought me here.
That did not dampen his desire to talk about the good news to others.
And I praise God for men like them who are willing to go full out nothing holding back to reach one more person with the greatest news that the world has ever heard or the world will ever hear.
Jesus saves.
What are you doing?
And if you are doing something, are you doing all that you can?
I want you to think about it.
Do what you can.
Do all that you can.
And the third one is, do it now.
Now is the time.
Listen to verse eight, where Jesus says, she hath done what she could.
She has come aforehand to anoint my body to the burial.
Now, that seems a little strange.
Have you ever thought about it?
Here is this young girl who has given her most valued possession to the Lord.
And Jesus turns around and makes a comment that looks superficially, at least, very derogatory.
She has come to anoint me for my burial.
Like I said, I enjoy the American meals.
We had a great time yesterday, last evening with this dear couple, Mike and Gwen.
And that was the second time we had me and my wife had this crab legs ever in our life that was so good.
In fact, they also taught us how to eat food with tools.
That was really nice.
I was so fascinated using my tools while we eat.
It was so good.
Imagine.
Let's imagine.
Let's put on our thinking caps at the moment.
You call me, and we enjoy that wonderful beef and everything on the table and all that and full.
And then I stand up and I thank you all.
And I say, now, will you please go ahead and prepare my coffin?
Prepare me for my death.
That's insulting, isn't it?
That's embarrassing.
Is Jesus insulting this woman?
No, he is not.
He never does It.
Jesus never passes any derogatory comments.
You know, if you read the Book of Luke, chapter 24.
Let's head out there for a moment.
And you will find over there that a week later, exactly after a week later, Jesus was dead.
And verse one says, now, upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the Sepulchre, bringing these women.
They came to the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared and certain others with them.
And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
And they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, these women had come, according to the Jewish traditions.
They came over to embalm the body of their beloved dead.
They could not do it because Jesus from the cross straight away, was taken for his burial.
They could not do it.
And on the third day, these women decided to go and do the traditions.
Ladies, you are late.
Because that girl did that a week ago, something that was very important.
This girl with the Alabaster box did that.
She did not wait for another week.
She did it right there and right then.
That's why I say, do it now.
Do it now.
Tomorrow might be too late.
I praise God for those wonderful testimonies that we have about those great men and women of God who have lived their lives, their yester years, not thinking about what they would do tomorrow or not thinking about what they would do next week.
But they were prompt in doing what they could right then and there.
It pleased the Lord to call my father home two years ago to glory.
He would always call me as his pastor.
And it was a difficult role to fit in because he has always been my pastor.
He, in fact, has been my Bible college.
He has taught me things that I would never, ever otherwise learned from anywhere.
In my times of difficult situations, I would go to him and seek his advice.
And that was a different kind of a relationship that me and my dad enjoyed.
But when the Lord called him home, he wanted me to do his funeral, which was, again, a very difficult thing here.
Just about grieving, the going away of your own father.
But at the same time, you really want to do what you can for this body.
The last chance, what you're supposed to do as a pastor.
And I'm standing before the open grave, and I look around, there are a bunch of people standing over there.
A lot of lot of them.
There were a lot of people who are online watching and witnessing.
And I could see many of them literally in their tears, crying, sobbing, breaking down, as they could not come to terms with the going away of this great man of God.
And I'm standing over there, and I'm thinking, how can this be possible?
Here is a man who came to Rajasthan trying to make his ends meet.
There were times he was hungry.
There were times there were enemies pouncing on him.
There was time when a few folks came over to him and said, if you do not stop doing what you are doing, we are going to cut you into eight pieces and spread all the pieces of parts of your body in eight different directions of the city of Jaipur.
To which my dad replied, he said, you know what?
You just cut my body into 16 pieces.
And if you have ears to hear, every piece of my body would be screaming.
At the top of its voice, Jesus saves.
Jesus saves.
Do what you can.
And on his 75th birthday, he stood up and he was giving his testimony in the small Thanksgiving meeting that we had arranged.
And he said years ago, folks, there were many people who were there after my life who want to cut me into different pieces.
I'm still looking for them.
He never waited for tomorrow.
He knew his time was short and he went ahead and did what he could.
And the result was there to see for the next generation who was standing there at the funeral of his own father, of his own pastor.
And I prayed, Lord, if you could use me even a fraction of how you use that man, I would be honored.
And I said, lord, you take me to places.
If you want me to go to the jail, I will go.
By the way, there is no church in the jail in Jaipur.
Brother Bo.
2000 people over there.
And if the anticonversion law takes me over there, that's what I plan to do.
Talk about my Lord Jesus Christ, brag about him, telling those people there's no hope but Jesus and Jesus alone.
Our visits to United States folks has taught us a few things.
As difficult as the land of India is and as thankful we are to God for this great country that has flooded the nations with great missionaries into all the parts of the globe.
Each time me and Susan, as we land here, as we come over here and look around, we find folks that your country right now is in dire need of missionaries.
This country is now raising a generation who does not know anything about the Lord Jesus Christ, who does not know anything about the good news.
It is now very quickly turning into a pagan nation.
My heart goes out because how fast it has become.
And my heart is saddened to see the plight of the church which is carved a comfortable zone and is seated so comfortably while people perish without ever hearing the good news of salvation.
What are you doing for your own people, for your own children, for your neighbors, for the people that you work with?
They need Jesus.
They need to hear the gospel.
Do what you can, do all that you can and do it now.
Do it now.
If there's someone sitting over here who doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you've heard the Gospel time and again, you've been coming to this church a number of times.
But perhaps you're wondering, well, I'll do it in a later time.
This could be our last time.
There may be no later time available.
And I've seen that folks.
I've seen that my heart goes out to the announcement that was made.
There are churches over here which hasn't had any baptisms for the last six, 7810 or more years in the United States.
Wow.
When you have everything so easy over here, you talk of persecution which is not here at all.
I've heard about from a few folks how they were persecuted up in Ohio.
And I said, how?
Tell me about it.
They said, we went out door to door and we were sharing this Piece of paper, tracked handing it out and we've had a few people come and slam the door at us.
I was persecuted.
I said folks, you do not know what persecution is.
That is not persecution at all.
As I speak today, right now there are thousands and thousands of believers and pastors in the jail.
Not for any misdeeds or misconduct.
They are in the jails not only over in India but other parts of the world as well.
I can only talk about India because I come from there because of this anti conversion law.
You and I cannot go and share the Gospel to anybody without if the magistrate is not witnessing it.
And if you violate that law, six years of rigorous imprisonment and thousands of people are in the jail.
Many have lost their lives.
Folks, I'm not talking, I'm not glorifying these people.
But all I'm trying to tell you is bragging about the Lord Jesus Christ.
How the Gospel came to us, how God's Word was translated and given it to us and we hold it dear to our lives.
Baptism is a matter of life and death for us over there.
Of course, baptism is only the outward expression of what has happened to you inside.
But that outward expression is costly not only to the person who is taking baptism, but also to the giver, the pastor over there.
I've been threatened.
That's the outward expression of you saying goodbye to the world, goodbye to the worldliness, goodbye to the gods of the world.
And turning and saying, Lord, there is no one better, no one bigger, no one awesome than you.
And I will follow you.
That is costly.
That will be costly.
What are you doing?
Do what you can.
Do all that you can.
Do it now.
Father, we are so thankful to you for your word.
We are nothing.
We have nothing except it be given to us through your word.
And as I in my limited capacity have placed this word before your children, now you take it, O Lord.
Multiply it.
Break the hearts of the people.
May there be surrender, may there be rejoicing.
For in your name we ask.
Amen.
Thanks again for listening.
And be sure to check back next week for another episode in the meantime, you can visit us@willowridgechurch.org or by searching for Willowridge Church on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.