This sermon by Joshua Daniel emphasizes the importance of being stirred by the Holy Spirit to fulfill God's calling, drawing parallels to the story of Cyrus in the book of Ezra who was moved to build the house of God. The message challenges listeners to prioritize spiritual pursuits over materialism, highlighting the need for sacrificial commitment in spreading the good news of Jesus Christ to all nations, even in the face of crises and opposition.

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. From small villages to large cities, in many parts of the globe, through revival meetings, literature, radio, internet, and television, Joshua Daniel has been tirelessly laboring, trusting God to supply all that is needed. Wherever this message has gone out, broken relationships have been restored, sickness healed, ill-gotten money returned, and thieves turn into givers. We now invite you to watch and receive the invaluable blessing that God has for you. Let us turn to the book of Ezra, the first chapter. And the second verse does set Cyrus, king of Persia. The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him. And let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, which is in Jerusalem. The first verse says the Lord turned up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all the kingdom, and put it also in writing. So, dear friends, we see here this heathen king, how the Lord touched his heart, stirred him. You know, my friends, the spirit of God wants to quicken our dull spirits. Materialism makes us very dull in our spiritual perceptions. It is only, what must I get? What must I buy? What is around amongst all these trinkets on display? Well, when God's spirit stirs you, it's very different. The magnitude of your endeavors, your goals become vastly different. Vastly different. You know, unfortunately today, we have small selfish minds. I don't have enough. What did the Lord Jesus Christ have when he was born in that manger? What did he have? The king of glory, the creator of the universe, emptying himself, and he tells us that Christ set before us this example, that we should walk in his footsteps. Well, we were also born with hardly a stitch on our bodies. Were you born with all your clothing and finery? No, no, no. We came empty, and we shall return empty, except what we do for God. That is the only enduring part of our stay on earth, whether it is short or long. All the rest, suppose a fire breaks down from some gas leak or something in your house, how much of it will be left behind when you return a couple of hours from now? Some of our houses are so constructed that hardly anything can be retrieved. But yet, we put all our stake, you know, we bet all our money, we put it all in things that are so combustible. Now, that doesn't make much sense to me, because I wouldn't like to see all my work burnt up. No, no, no. That would be a sad day. You know, I've been in floods, I've been in difficulties, calamities, you may call them. But any situation can be retrieved when the Lord is with us. Now think of a temple that was completely devastated and destroyed by his predecessor, by Nebuchadnezzar. And here Cyrus wakes up one day and says, hey, God has given me all these kingdoms. And there is something deeply stirring in my spirit that I should build the house of God. He's the living God. Now, isn't it strange that we are no Cyrus's? We are not born, most of us at least, not in heathenism. And we profess Christ. And yet there isn't that strong stirring in our souls. Isn't that strange? And when that stirring came, did he procrastinate? Did he put it off? Did he dither? Did he say, well, there seems to be a fine charitable proposition. I will attend to it by and by, probably after I retire. You know, there are many people who talk that way. Now, how would you like your surgeon, you're rushed into the operation theater. And every moment is precious to our death. And the surgeon is totally ill-prepared. And so the man is either inebriate or he's drunk, you know. And he says, well, by and by, I'll think of it. What would you say? You would sue the man right away. You're the cause for my wife's death or my mother's death. What's the good of having a man like you as a surgeon around here? And when you're on duty and you cannot even answer the call in an emergency. Well, my dear friends, if some of you are unaware of the emergent situation in our world today, either you're a totally insensitive person or an absolutely ignorant person. You know, I see ourselves as passing through one of the greatest crises in history. If you study history, the history of Central Asia and even Europe, you will find that when Islamic rage was aroused and they went on a rampage or out to conquer, generally nothing held them back. Nothing could hold them back. It was like trying to hold an avalanche. They swept across the continents, pillaging, killing, plundering wherever they went. That's history. And when we talk of the prospects of an Islamic bomb and the equipment to send those missiles afar off, and when anybody says, hey, this is where we should call a stop. You know, there's a lot of historical wisdom in such a move. And somebody who does not say, let us stop this, is not even historically correct or sound or educated. All right. One of our main burdens is this. We have not accomplished our task quite apart from any threat or any grave happening. What was your assignment and my assignment? Take this good news to every creature. Take this good news to every creature. Now, when my grandfather turned to the Lord Jesus in that remote part of the country and had so much wealth around him, you see, what meaning does it make? Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. You know, in the gospel, there is love. That's the key motivator. There is the love of the cross, which cannot be put away, which cannot be silenced. The love of the cross. OK. To think that from such a remote area, my dad was called after the call of my grandfather from heathenism, and they took the call of Jesus to heart when there was enough to distract them by way of money or wealth. That shows me the power of the cross. From the time I met the Savior and the love of the cross broke my pride. You know, I couldn't shut away. I could not shoo away this urgent call. To take this good news to every creature, it seemed totally impossible. But in this age of IT, information technology, you know, in a moment's time, the greatest news or the latest news can girdle the globe. But we have no news to give. We have no love with which to send it. We are not in the business of retrieving an apparently lost situation. We are simply not in that business of saving the lost. So, while we are thankful for every little effort which is put forward, yet, my dear friends, think of this emperor of such renown, suddenly being moved by the Holy Spirit. His spirit being moved within him stirred, and he said, Come on, who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. Who is the God? You know, as an accompaniment to this call, he also said in the fourth verse, Whosoever remaineth here in Babylon, in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold. With gold, with goods, with beasts, beside the free will offering for the house of God that is to be built. You know, very practical, really. You know, everything about the Good News is a practical thing. It's not a Sunday morning thing. It may be that God has given to us the resurrection morning to come together as the early church and to remember the love of the Lord and to worship him. Now, this has been established for us as a stimulus, as a kind of starting point. So, the Sunday morning ought to stir you up, get you going, and move you into true momentum. That Sunday morning, my Lord is risen. I can't be sitting around twiddling my thumbs, eating my own pie. My Lord is risen. I can't be as dead as a doornail when my Lord is risen. You see, that is the response, that is the church, that is a part of our being. You see, it is not some organized type of shoving or pushing which is administered gently. It is the power of the resurrection. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory. See, if you want to silence that voice, now, of course, being an emperor in Babylon, in that great transcontinental kingdom, there was nobody to silence Cyrus. Today, there are many who would want to silence you. They might tell you, oh, you're getting over-enthusiastic about all this stuff. There are better things to do, you know. What are the better things to do? Play games? Yes, I played a lot of games. But we must not forget a game is a game. Life is more than a game. Bringing up children is more than a game. Building up your home is more than a game. But, you know, we think it's like a game which is all over in two or three hours and you're shouting yourself hoarse over some ball which is running in the right direction. Now, here, Cyrus was not playing a game. He was fitting into the niche that God had for him. All right, if you want to spend your life playing games, you will have to give an account of it to God. Oh, my dear friends, when I played my games, I played them with all my heart. But when it came to playing for Jesus, it meant playing at a different level. The commitment was different. I thought my commitment to games was wonderful, complete with practice and hard work. But when it came to Jesus, the commitment became of a completely different level. My dear friends, so he said, come on, some of you probably if you are not able to just pull up your roots and go to Jerusalem to get the job accomplished. All right then, make sure that the people who are going are well provided with gold, silver, beasts, everything that is needful for the temple. You know, a friend of mine, a missionary, when he came over on follow, the mission insisted, you must go and see this old lady. All right. And she said, I cannot understand, ma'am, how it is that the mission insists that I should see you. Well, she said. All these years I have given to the Lord, but you don't have much. So she opened the window and said, now all those houses on that street are mine. And what does an old body like me do with all that property? I give it to the Lord. This man was amazed. He was amazed. Here is a good old friend of mine, a wonderful man of great sacrifice. So friends, you will find that some of the people who made sacrifices to send the good news into China, into some of the remotest places, Sudan and so on. Were people of real sacrifice. Let us pray. We want to carry this blessing of the stirrings which the Holy Spirit gives in a broken spirit to the very last breath. Yes, Lord. To the very last breath. I want to carry this broken spirit and hold fast to it. So let all these dear people have that broken spirit and you will be with them. And you will guide them. So help us in Jesus' holy name. Amen. If you would like to share, please do let us know. You can email us at post at lefi.org or visit our website at www.lefi.org. Our mailing address is L-E-F-I-P-O Box 14, South Lyons, Michigan, 48178. You can also call us at 248-486-6326. Until we meet again next week, may God bless you.