This sermon by Joshua Daniel focuses on the challenges and blessings of persecution for righteousness' sake, emphasizing the need for steadfast faith and dedication to God even in the face of opposition. Through biblical examples like Paul's missionary journey, the message highlights the transformative power of true conversion and the impact of sharing the gospel in various spheres of life. Joshua Daniel encourages believers to prioritize spiritual growth and genuine faith over worldly distractions, urging them to be diligent in their Christian walk and witness.

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. As you know, I believe, the Beatitudes, where Jesus said, Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. And what did he add? For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5, 10, and 11. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. So, you know, in certain places of the world, they say, Brother, we hardly know anything about persecution here. Now, that leads to spiritual impoverishment also. Not that we invite persecution, not that we court it, but it gives us a quality. Just imagine if some of you had been in Chinese prisons, or prisons in Tibet, for 10 years. Just imagine what your quality would be, of faith, of leaning on God, of daily looking to him for strength and renewal, when you did not even know the date and the time in your darkened cell, with no expectation of release. What kind of quality would you have then? So, when the gospel began to spread, the Lord allowed a lot of persecution. We shall look a little into it this evening. Let us turn to the first missionary journey of Paul, 13th chapter of Acts. 13th chapter of Acts and 48 to 52. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. This was Antioch in Pisidia. Now that was one of those regions in modern Turkey. Now, as you well know, the earliest churches were in, missionary churches were in Turkey. And they were just wiped out. You know, when complacence and the love of the world comes in and the hearts grow cold, prayer begins to wane. Then, if there is a fanatic wave of persecution, it carries and all before it wipes out. So, when there are just ruins in Ephesus, and no semblance, no even a little mark or sign of some of these early churches, it is very sad. So, my dear friends, when you're laughed at, when you're scoffed at, or when you're beaten, I meet a lot of people in these retreats. Threatened with death, nearly killed, a lot of people, disowned, turned out of their houses, mothers with little children. One mother said, I came to these meetings and I was baptized and my husband sent word to the bus station, if you go to those meetings, don't come back home. And this heathen woman, who had turned to the Lord Jesus, she came and moreover, she was baptized too. And she said to me, when I go home, I don't know what to expect. I may be totally excluded and turned out of the place. Yes, I have seen people turned out, fugitives from their own people and families, but steadfast in their faith and in their love. You see, when everything comes easy to us, we don't very well value spiritual things. That's what I'm terribly afraid, that we are slowly settling down to a place where the word of God has become commonplace. We've heard it many times and we have lost that hunger for righteousness. That is a serious state of critical illness. You know, all of us have our duties and I tell you, I don't believe in any Christian being a lazy fellow or a lazy person. And when I come across Christian homes where the garden is well kept and oh, I rejoice. I say, you're being very diligent, but of course, we don't worship the carpet or the garden. But we rejoice that we can work hard and not be a bunch of lazy people. But let me tell you, somehow the heart has become cold. When things increase, that's how it is. When things decrease, every new thing which comes into the house requires some special attention. I remember in a judge's home in Germany, there was a beautiful grand piano, just a glistening beauty, kept dust free. But of course, they did pay a lot of attention to it. You know, I don't like to see any pianos with scratches on them and ill-kept, out of tune, and so on and so forth. But it took a lot of attention to keep it spotless clean. Likewise, of course, that's a valuable asset. It helps with our singing. But there are a lot of other things that take up our time, our thought. And you know, when you call a repairman in, how much it costs. Some repairmen cost $70 an hour, besides the parts. So, on and on it goes, accumulation of things. You know, folks, we don't seem to have it out here. But in England, you will always find, generally we used to find, a scraper before the door. Before you enter, you make sure that all the mud and the dirt is scraped off. And you don't dare use the carpet of the good lady as a doormat. You know, some people don't even know that when they go into a house, they first need to use the doormat properly. Badly brought up people, you see. They don't even know that, because they should not dirty the good friend's carpet. Whatever it is, carpets need attention, gardens need attention. And what about your hairdo? One friend of mine, my host in Ireland, he complained to me bitterly against his mother. He said, look at my mother, she spent so much for her hairdo. This man was a missionary-hearted man who wanted to channel all his money into missionary work, if it was possible. And when he heard me preach, he said, he was a businessman, and he said, I'm going to give not one-tenth, but one-fifth of my time to God. He did not know that his days were numbered, and that he was going to be shortly called home to heaven. But that was how he was, laboring for revival. Now, my dear friends, so when we see them in Antioch, in Pisidia, just see how the Gentiles, while the Jews resented Paul, and the 45th verse, please, 44 and 45, 13 chapter of Acts, and the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. And when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. You know, folks, we should rejoice when people are brought to Jesus, only when there is only a shallow kind of, what is called, come forward, may sign on the dotted line, and people do it so many times. You know, one of our good friends, Reverend John Branch, he said to me, there are people who come to my door begging, and they tell me, you know, I have been converted six times. You see, how many times they signed on the dotted line, I don't know. But you know, true conversion should mean a total change from darkness to light. From hidden sin to confession, from uncleanness to holy living. Now, if that is not there, what are we trying to do? We are trying to give them a coat of paint. A coat of paint does not make a Christian. Or we are trying to give them a label, a church label. This man belongs to this church, or something. No, that's not what is really needed. My little children for whom I travail again in birth, till the image of Christ is formed in you. You see, people should see Jesus in our lives. Now, when the Bible speaks of our adorning the gospel, I am really amazed. Is my life to adorn the gospel? Is it going to beautify the gospel much further? But that's what the Bible says. Oh, what a marvelous thing this is. So, here there was a mighty wave of blessing, and there were many people who were infuriated. They said, what's all this crowd about? Listening to the message saying Christ is the Savior of the world. And so, did Paul give up because of their fanatic opposition? No. 49th verse, and the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. So, this is but natural. This should happen. When one person gets converted in a workplace, it is very noticeable. You know, in one area, a workman, you know, a fellow who had to work very hard indeed in a rough kind of job, retreading old tires, worn out tires, and giving them a retread. And when this man was struggling in that fashion, and I knew he could not do it all through his life, the Lord touched him. He was converted. I said to him, now I see a lot of communists gathering people, workmen, at their lunch break. And the hammer and sickle, the red flag, unfolds. And these fellows seem to be indoctrinating a lot of work people around these little companies. You had better go at lunch break and preach Christ. Now, you know, unfortunately, some people think they have become highly respectable when they become Christians. You know, they feel it is a ladder, a social climber's ladder. I asked some of those fellows, hey, what was your granddad? Tell me. And how much did he earn? How many university degrees did he have? He worked out in the fields and raised your father. Well, you know, many societies were just agricultural societies. Well, people, when the gospel came, they studied, they climbed the ladder. It was a social climber's ladder. And that's all they thought about. So we are so respectable these days that we can't do any of these dirty jobs. I said to him, listen, you better go and sit with those workmen at lunch break and begin to preach to them the word of God. And he did it. First, he was hesitant. Then I rebuked him. And he went and began to do this. Immediately, those companies felt the impact of the gospel. Their workmen began to work so well, their production climbed, their quality increased. And those bosses said, hey, what's happening here? How is this thing to be accounted for? And so I said, OK, if you want to have any special retreat for these work people, you see, who were leaning towards communism before or whatever, heathen fellows, gather them. Their bosses would come also. We want to hear simply because the gospel transformed those companies, my dear people. Now, if this does not happen, then, of course, the people think, oh, well, we are Muslims. We are Buddhists. We are something else. And you are we are free thinkers. And you fellows talk about Jesus Christ and you go to church. We don't. That's all the difference there is between us. Oh, nonsense. There should be a world of difference between us. Let us pray. Oh, loving Father. How my lack of faith can hinder your works. How my lack of faith can weaken so many people. How alarmed we get and how we panic over very trifling things. We don't say our heavenly Father knoweth. He commanded me to be a witness. He commanded me to give the gospel. He is able to take care of the rest. The safety and security concerns are in his hands. He is equal to all these things. Now, Father, we see a situation so akin to those times when the early disciples had to labor in the face of so much opposition. Now, today, though they cannot publicly stone us or throw us out of the city, yet there is a subtle form of repression and persecution, putting its head up in various quarters. Please help us to be true to you, Lord Jesus. We can be very faithful at this time and prove you to be the living Savior. We ask in Jesus' almighty name. Amen. 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 problem or concern you would like to share, please do let us know. You can email us at host at lefi.org or visit our website at www.lefi.org. Our mailing address is lefi.org. You can also call us at 248-486-6326. Until we meet again next week, may God bless you.