This sermon by Joshua Daniel emphasizes the importance of inner purity and genuine transformation rather than external appearances or religious rituals. He highlights the need for a sincere heart, free from pride and selfishness, that prioritizes true prayer and righteousness. Drawing from biblical teachings, he warns against hypocrisy and the danger of turning sacred places into dens of thieves, urging believers to seek inner cleansing and a deeper relationship with God.

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. How terrible it is that at this late hour in history, that attitude, that old current of selfishness still runs in our veins. God is very good. God has healed me. Your God has done this for me. God has done that for me. So I will sit around and luxuriate. You know, friends, that is very native to human nature, that kind of shallowness, that kind of selfishness. We just don't think of the neighbor. Thou shalt love your neighbor as yourself. So if you turn to Matthew chapter 23, you will find the Lord Jesus Christ rebuking the Pharisees. And he said to them, twenty-fourth verse, please, you blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, a warning, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. What is this? These are the teachers, these are the leaders of thought. And the Lord Jesus Christ said, you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter. You know, sometimes when you sit in a restaurant and the plate is put before you with the fork and the knife. You know, folks, I see some speck of dirt. I say, please get me another fork. Yes, we want the inside cleaned. We want the inside of the plate cleaned. But, you know, the emphasis today is all on the outside. How big is the place? How beautiful is the place? And, you know, if there are many rich people in the church, then there are some people who will go there saying, oh, there are some big people there. It's a grave temptation, but that's how it goes. Big people, probably I can make use of their influence or I can sell my Amway products. You see, there are some people who would like to come to a church to sell their Amway products. You know how far this has gone? Recently, I rebuked one of our evangelists at one of our big centers. His wife had gotten into selling Amway products. Nice way to make a little money. I said, listen, we don't do such things. So, here is the Lord Jesus telling these Pharisees, warranty, for you make only the outside clean. Nice, beautiful, glittering outside. My, I have no respect for such things. I have a revulsion for that. What is an outward show? What are your thoughts? What are your motives? What is really driving you? What is the measure and depth of your pride? You know, proud people are very ugly people. You can't live with them. Just ugly people. And God says, I know a proud, God knoweth a proud man, how far off. Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to God. You see, how do you know pride? How do you measure pride? You know how you measure pride? Just the fact. Get a proud person to say, I'm sorry. You will be drawing water from a rock. Get a proud person to acknowledge, I am wrong and make confession. Oh, you're drawing a spring from a desert. It is pride. And here were these teachers and leaders. What was in their heart? Extortion. How to make more money? How to grab? My dear friends, our whole life and outlook has to become different. Peter, I will make you a fisher of men. That is what Jesus does. And you are a master over your base nature. Your base nature, your small mind, your little particularities. You see, this is how I should, you should do it because my grandmother always did it like this. What nonsense is this? Your grandmother lived her life and she has finished her life. And now you have got to have a wider mind than granny. Learn all the good things, but just as confine yourself to some narrow mold. My, no, that is human nature. That's how we are. But when we come into the hands of Jesus, we become so flexible, so beautiful. You want me to learn something better? Fine. Something which will make me more like Jesus? Fine. Something which will make me more fruitful and effective? Fine. I am willing to break the old mold that God can do a new thing. You see, folks, so the Lord Jesus Christ said, 26th verse, thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Inside, inside, it has all to do with the inside. You know, sometimes you never know the inside. People cover up so carefully, but isn't that great deceit and deception? Why, why, what have I to cover up? There is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, said Jesus. Then what is the point of my trying to cover up something? No, that's not the way. The Lord Jesus says, clean the inside, that the outside of them may be clean also. So, now we go to the 19th chapter of Luke, 41. And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it. He beheld the city and wept over it. Think of that. You see, we only look at the gleaming towers of these cities. We look only at the beautiful mansions and say, what a building that is. Now that is before the tornado hit, of course. Once the tornado hits, that becomes a different kind of building altogether, if it stands at all. You know, that's how many of our big houses are now built. However, Jesus looked at the future of this troubled city, the city that crucified him. What a long history Jesus looked at, and he wept over that city. Now, we are far from that, aren't we? Somebody told me something today which made me very sad. Canada, next door to us, apparently has 10 members of parliament, either from Pakistan or India. 10 members. What are those fellows going to bring to Canada? Unless they are very special people, are they going to bring their mantra tantra? You know, that's a word which you had better learn. You see, mantra is in English, tantra is in English. You see, these are borrowings from Indian languages. Mantra tantra, that is, all kinds of dissembling, magic and dissembling. What are they going to bring to Canada? It made me very sad. One street in New York, where I once lived, many respectable people, quiet, lovely residential street, now apparently is full of Indian fellows, business fellows, and all their dealings are done in cash, tax cheats. Now, is that any addition? Is that any blessing to New York City? No. Heathen men who have brought their idolatry, and they have brought their greed, they have brought their tax cheating, they have brought everything with them, which will destroy a country. My dear friends, listen, this is a time, wherever you are, as a student, or somebody who is working, or even visiting, if you are going to be the salt of the earth, you say, why? Why is this? Why don't you receive my check? Why only cash? Are you paying your taxes? Otherwise, I will go somewhere else and buy. You don't expect me to come back to your shop again. You see, we have to stand for some righteousness. Now, Jesus looked on Jerusalem, and wept over Jerusalem. You see, and then, forty-fifth verse, and he went into the temple and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. My house is a house of prayer. You know, my dear friends, that the newspapers in America have been full of the wrong dealings of church people, priests, the court cases, the child molestations, and also of some of the well-known preachers. What a sorrow! What a sorrow! So, while these men are setting back the clock by their wickedness, what are we doing? Are we adding to the momentum of revival, or are we decelerating like a jammed brick? What are we doing? Here, the Lord Jesus said, My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. Please notice, he said, My house is the house of prayer. Sometimes we have to carefully distinguish between prayers and prayer. There are so many prayers which are said, which are just chants. You know, you give it to a parrot and make it, teach it to say it, and you say it, there's no difference whatever. It is a chant. Now, what does God want your chants for? Where is your heart? You know, folks, we must be very careful that our prayers do not chill up the place. You know, a humble prayer always warms the place. But some people pray prayers. It's not prayer. It is saying prayers. Just something, some chant. If it comes from your heart, oh, what a blessing it would be. You will edify others. Be very careful, dear people. We can turn the house of God into a den of thieves, pretenders, people who are putting on a nice religious show, not a clean vessel whom God can use, meat for the master's use. Now, we don't want to be found in such a state. Let us pray. Let us tell God, Lord, I want to be clean inside. I don't want you to throw me out of the place. Say, hey, you made my house a den of thieves. And what a danger there is to do so. Cleanse me, Lord. Cleanse me, precious Lord. We humble ourselves before you. We are even as these Pharisees and scribes. Where are our tears for the nations? Where is the cleansing inside? Oh, my father, my father, when nations are going down the drain, when unrighteous people become lawmakers. Father, where is our answer? Where is your answer? Are we not going to see the tide turning at all? Are these dear people just going to say, hey, I hardly have $10 in my pocket. What am I really worth? I am worth nothing. I don't count at all. I am as driftwood. Save us, Lord. It's not our money. It is not our bank balance that makes us to have power with God. It is how clean we are inside. And then we will be saved from all this localizing which takes place. Hear our prayer. In Jesus' holy name. Amen. We are Fellowship International, an interdenominational missionary and prayer group working for revival around the globe. We invite every layperson to become God's ally in changing his or her corner of the world. Please write, and if you have a problem 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 www.lefi.org. Our mailing address is L-E-F-I-P-O-B-O-X-14-S-L-M-I-C-H-4-8-1-7-8. You can also call us at 248-486-6326. Until we meet again next week, may God bless you.