This sermon by Joshua Daniel focuses on the importance of cleansing the temple, which represents our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. It emphasizes the need to remove commercialism and worldly distractions that hinder our spiritual growth, urging believers to have a single focus on God. The message highlights the transformation from being local and selfish to becoming global and selfless through the love of Christ, urging a deep reflection on personal obedience and commitment to God's will.

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. If you turn to John, the second chapter, please, you will see what happened right after the first miracle which Jesus did from the twelfth verse. After this he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples, and they continued there not many days. And the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that had sold oxen and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money's city. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drew them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables, and said unto them, that sold doves, take these things hence, make not my father's house a house of merchandise. So, John records this event right at the beginning of Jesus' life. We shall come also to the close of his life, and what he did in Jerusalem at the close of his life. Now, take these things hence, make not my father's house a house of merchandise. You know, somehow, commercialism has taken a throttle hold, you know, of religion. Commercialism, how to make money even through religion. So, you will find wealthy temples, wealthy mosques, where even armaments are stored, and terrorists nurtured. And you will find the same in Christian churches, not all. There are too many churches today which are closing down, and being sold to Hindus, Muslims, and whatever, to turn them into mosques, and temples, and so on. Oh yes, I remember a church here in Ohio where I preached. The pastor was paid so little, and his poor wife had a nervous breakdown. You know, they wanted their pastor also to find some way of livelihood. Well, that's good. Paul did it. He entered into his tent making in Corinth, but sometimes it is hardly possible to do that, especially when the work of God becomes extensive. 24 hours a day is hardly sufficient for me, and at the end of the week I feel ashamed sometimes that I have turned out so little work. And you know how some of you work so hard in your places of work, and if your employers may even think that you had not delivered enough by way of productivity. Well, you know, folks, the Lord Jesus cleanses the temple. Now, you are the temple. I am the temple. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, says God. So, the attack is on the temple. The focus is on the temple, the devil's attack is upon the temple. You know, John Bunyan, the writer, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, and I do trust you know that the Pilgrim's Progress was written during the time when he was imprisoned, 12 years. Why? For preaching in unauthorized meetings. It was against the law in England, and he was in prison, and he wrote his great book, which, until very recently, it was the book which had the highest circulation and stood only next to the Bible. I don't know if the Pilgrim's Progress is out there. I don't think any bookstore should exist without talking Pilgrim's Progress. However, you know, folks, cleansing begins with us. He called the eye, the eye gate. John Bunyan did. How important is the eye gate? You know, you're turning over the pages of a magazine. Don't treat it as a simple matter. Depends what kind of magazine it is. I find today that you can get a lot of pornography out of a day newspaper, which is an awful thing. But you know, my dear friends, if your eye gate is going to be open to all this kind of wickedness and vanity, oh, you're never going to be a satisfied person. You're going to say, hey, look at this beautiful mansion. I don't have a mansion like that. Oh, look at this wonderful new dress, the latest fall fashion. Oh, I must get this dress. I must find the money to buy it. You know, vanity, just pure vanity. And so on and on and on and on it can go. But that is the delight of some people. Now, why didn't the Lord Jesus Christ take this delight? Hey, here are people selling all these fine animals for sacrifice in the temple. Oh, here are all these travelers coming in from various parts. And they have the bank right here. They can change their money right here. Why didn't the Lord Jesus Christ think in terms of convenience? You know, oh, I should appreciate these people for taking the trouble, coming in here and making it easier for us to get all these offerings for the temple. No, the Lord Jesus Christ did not look on it like that. Some people, you know, make the excuse, you know, if I earn a lot of money, I can give a lot of money. Let me tell you that never happens. Never happens. The more money you get, the less you give. You know, how many people follow William Colgate? You see, he started with one-tenth and went on to nine-tenths. But how many people are there like that? According to Bible law is according as God has prospered you. How many people are there who give to God according to what God has given? All this is his. He gave it. It is his anyway. We don't see that attitude, you know, we see the attitude of the mighty. Who says, hey, let me carefully separate exactly to the penny. My one-tenth or my offering and give it to God. That's all a money ridden miserly feeling. That's all the eye gate takes in. Where is the money? Where do you get more money? Now, when Jesus saw this kind of commercialism right in the temple, what did he do? He made a scourge of small cards away out of this place quick. Not a minute here. This is not the place for you. Of course, you can't reason with sheep and goats or, you know, you can't reason with them. This is no place for you gentlemen and ladies. You better depart. You know, dear friends, he needed a scourge. And sometimes a scourge can serve also for the back parts of stubborn people. Out you go. He cleansed the temple. You know, my dear friends, if your eye be single. Your whole body will be pure, Jesus said. If your eye is clean and pure, you know, if there is no covetousness in your eyes. How wonderful it would be. William Carey would look on the map and say, all these are heathen. All these are heathen. And it seems he would weep, whereas the people in his church could not understand him. They said, hey, when God wants to convert the heathen, he will do it his own way. Now, that kind of attitude has remained with many, many people. But what did God teach me? God taught me to put almost everything into the gospel. Now, I didn't find it hard to do so, folks. Please know, I did seem like giving a pound of my flesh. Not at all. The Lord helped me from my youth to give the very best. But when I look at what God did, I can only think of my sins of omission. Where, where, in which part of my life did I miss God's will? Where did I fail to do less than what he wanted me to do? Where did my slow obedience hinder the cause of Jesus? That is my concern today. You know, when I look at so many quarters, I can't keep up. I don't even, I can't even give you the current news. In so many corners, our brothers and sisters are laboring and reaching out to souls. Mark you me, my dear people, when I started, it was largely a very localized kind of scene. Localized. You must know that there is something in us which is very local. You see, our country, our village, our town, our people, our race, we're just a bunch of local folks. That's all we are. And when the Lord Jesus takes you, he makes you a global person to love all people. And another thing is, when the Lord Jesus Christ takes you, you're a very selfish person. Don't forget that. My health, my money, my property, my degree, my job, my people, my town, my language. My, my, my, my, that's all you are. Just a local person. That's all you are. But when Jesus comes, John 3, 16 gets into you. It gets into your blood. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. That whosoever, God so loved the world. Somehow, let me tell you this fact. It took a long time for this to sink into me, to get into me. And even today, I suspect it has not gotten wholly into me. God so loved the world. Had it not been for Calvary, if that gets into you, what a dynamic person you will be. Had it not been for Jesus. You know, friends, those values that have come into the world through Jesus, if you take them out, you will have just a savage bunch of people eating one another. Back to cannibalism. You don't know to what depths greed can bring you. Greedy people. You know, sometimes I wonder, hey, the gospel was taken, they say, by Thomas across the world to India. It came to India before it came to Europe. Or parts of Europe. No, no, it did come to Europe with the apostles, of course. Now I am thinking of England. I am thinking of other parts of the world. Well, I say, what did these Indian fellows do with the gospel? What did they do? Nothing. Now I can see that same kind of selfishness running through many Indian hearts. The same thing. I say, hey, you're not going to stop me. You're not going to have me sit around with you eating your goodies. I have a work to do for Jesus. 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? Hear our prayer in Jesus' holy 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 P.O. Box 14, South Lyon, Michigan, 48178. You can also call us at 248-486-6326. Until we meet again next week, may God bless you.