This sermon by Joshua Daniel emphasizes the transformative power of encountering Jesus Christ, leading to deliverance from sin and restoration in various aspects of life. It highlights the importance of proclaiming Christ and facing opposition with courage and faith, even in the midst of envy and persecution. The narrative follows the missionary journeys of Paul and Barnabas, showcasing their resilience in spreading the word of God despite challenges, including being stoned and facing opposition. The sermon concludes with a call to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, seeking revival and restoration in missionary endeavors.

Welcome to the Lord's Challenge with Joshua Daniel. The Layman's Evangelical Fellowship International is a ministry reaching people from all walks of life since 1935. After a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ at the age of 16, Joshua Daniel has been declaring the marvelous deliverance from sin, which is freely given to all those who turn to the loving Savior. Wherever this message has gone out, broken relationships have been restored, sickness healed, ill-gotten money returned, and thieves turned into givers. We now invite you to watch and receive the invaluable blessing that God has for you. If you turn to the 13th chapter of Acts, and here in the 13th chapter, know there were in the church that was in Antioch certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and Simeon, that was called Niger, and Lucius, and Cyrene, and Manium, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul, and they ministered to the Lord and fasted. The Holy Ghost said, Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called. So, as these missionaries proceeded, they went on to Antioch from there. And there, in Antioch, in the synagogue, they had to convince those people, now listen, Jesus Christ is the culmination of all the prophecies. Concerning the Messiah, and they declared Christ. But, you know, there were those that would not believe the 39th verse. And by him, all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. So, the Gentiles wanted the word of God. Heathen men are begging us, please come, please come. You know, I promised the people in the Hebrides that I would, the leaders there, that I would go once again to the Hebrides, a promise which I could not keep till today. But anyway, relatively, Hebrides, the islands northwest of Scotland, are fine, you know, they are backward in their own way, but they are pretty comfortable places. I have rather chosen to go to dangerous places. Now, here in the 44th verse, the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. Just think of that, a whole city being drawn, not by glossy advertisements, you see, or a great big choir. As a matter of fact, these days, I don't quite understand the music of young people. Well, you can't fault me for that. You can't fault the young people either. But I do find it tough. You see, I'm used to the old classical music and the wonderful old hymns. But there are still some meaningful words which are sung in the idiom which young people on the street understand. All right, it is a fault of mine if I cannot communicate with the young people on the street. Paul had no difficulty. The whole city gathered, you see. And 45th verse, and when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. Mark you, friends. All right, envy when they saw their apparent success and the multitudes. Now, you know, envy is something which you have to guard against. In the materialistic society in which we live today, envy is there, sister against sister, brother against brother. What for? You have got 20 billion? Fine, praise God. May God give you the gracious wisdom, his wisdom, how to use the 20 billion. Praise God. How does it hurt me? You see, friends, this business of envy, you know, as I started preaching as a very young fellow, and I was bunched or placarded with other great preachers. I saw that one preacher, renowned preacher, was pretty upset that I was also one of the speakers that were selected to address the youth. All right, I have had to face that. That showed me how I could die to self. I said, okay, let me be insulted. Let me be pushed out of the platform. Fine, though I was listed as one of the main speakers. You see, I have seen envy in Christian work. I don't understand this. To me, if God uses you 10 times more than he has ever used me, I will say hallelujah. Praise be to God that he is using you. My dear friends, the glory goes to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. But you see, what was the upshot of all this? 49th verse, the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their cause. Well, did they question and say, hey, what has happened to our success? You know, today the success syndrome means plenty of dollars in the pocket. What rubbish! What absolute rubbish! Is that success? No. The success that you should have is victory over earthly possessions, victory over money and materialism. Now, my dear friends, here they were expelled and did this fall to blaming one another. Hey, we should have possibly gone slow and soft-pedaled all their sins. You know, we went directly and spoke the truth. You know, folks, tailoring the message and cutting and amending the truth to suit people and their fancy. My dear people, where are we? That cannot be truth that will be amended to suit your convenience and mine. That's not truth. My dear folks, now they were expelled from those halls. Did they fall to self-pity? No. All right. They came to Iconium. Second verse, 14th chapter, second verse. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren. Long time, therefore, abode they, speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. You see, God was working in Iconium, the next place to which they went. But these enemies came there to stir up trouble. But the multitude of the city was divided, and part held with the Jews and part with the apostles. And when there was an assault made, both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews, with their rulers, to use them despitefully and told them, they were aware of it and fled unto Lystra. Expelled in one place, then fleeing. My, doesn't look very dignified, does it? You know, in a few places, they want to receive me with bouquets, expensive bouquets. I said, what? The early disciples were received with stones. When did I deteriorate to this degree that you receive me with bouquets? You see, my dear friends, you know, amending truth, bypassing the word of God is dangerous. When thou comest to the altar, and there rememberest that your brother has ought against you, leave there your gift. First go to your brother. First go to your brother. Put things right with your brother. You see, we do not do those things which God orders us to do. And with the consequence that we live a kind of goody-goody lives, no great fruit, no revival, no friends, no, there should be an end to that kind of fruitlessness. You can make it tonight. You can make it now. Lord, I refuse to be a toy in the hands of Satan, to be manipulated and played with so that my years are spent in fruitlessness. No, my friends, you can be very strict with yourself. You know, there is a thing called tough love. The trouble is when it comes to dealing with ourselves and our inward condition, we soft-peddle. There's no tough love, no honesty. But here again, there was such an attempt made to stone them. In the next place, Lystra, so they fled from that place. But in Lystra, there was a great miracle wrought on a man who had been a cripple. And of course, immediately, the priests of Jupiter, the Greek priests, decided the gods themselves have come down to us. And so, they were about to sacrifice to and acclaim them as gods, as Jupiter and Mercurius. Fourteenth verse, when Barnabas and Paul heard of, they rent their clothes and ran in among the people crying, sirs, why do you do these things? We also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God. Now, what was the upshot of their ministry in Lystra? They stoned Paul so that they said, he's dead now, let us drag his body out of the city gates. That's what exactly they did. My dear friends, this is the beginning of the missionary works, the first missionary journeys of Paul, stoned, left as dead. But did the Christians leave Paul in that condition? No, they stood around him. And when they stood around him, Paul arose. And did Paul say, hey, I'm never going to enter this city again. I'll get stoned again. No, he went to that city. Twenty, verse 20, how be it as the disciples stood around about him? He rose up and came into the city. And next day, he departed with Barnabas to die. My dear friends, what marks will you give yourself for your missionary endeavors? I will give myself pretty poor marks. I don't know any of this kind of suffering which Paul went through. And he didn't spend his life licking those wounds. We have suffered few wounds, if at all. And let us not waste our days licking our wounds. On the contrary, let us look at our Savior, who suffered such indignity, was stripped of his clothing, and nailed to the cross with the mocking inscription, are we walking in his footsteps? Let's pray. Loving Father, above everything else, I want to walk in your footsteps, whatever it may cost. Lord Jesus, there is so little glory for you today. In the midst of this babble of voices, let us hear the voice of God. All this I did for you. What have you done for me? I plead with you that each one of us will be revived and so restored in our hearts that we will not seek the Broadway or the success syndrome of the world, but rather walk in your footsteps. So help us, we pray, to discharge our missionary duty in this short life of ours. We beseech you in Jesus' name. Amen. I go to the rock, I go to the rock of my salvation. Go to the stone that the builder rejected. Run to the mountains and the mountain stands by me. The earth all around me, sinking sand. On crest the solid rock I stand. When I need a shelter, when I need a friend, I go to the rock. I go to the rock. I go to the rock. I go to the rock. The earth all around me, sinking sand. On crest the solid rock I stand. When I need a shelter, when I need a friend, I go to the rock. This program is brought to you by the Layman's Evangelical Fellowship International, an interdenominational missionary and prayer group working for revival around the globe. We invite every lay person to become God's ally in changing his or her corner of the world. Please write, and if you have a prayer request or concern you would like to share, please do let us know. You can email us at post at lefi.org, or visit our website at lefi.org. Our mailing address is LEFI P.O. Box 1072 Armidale WA 6992. Until we meet again next week, may God bless you.