This sermon by Joshua Daniel emphasizes the importance of disentangling oneself from worldly affairs to fully please God and engage in spiritual warfare. Drawing from Joshua's example, the message highlights the need for obedience, courage, and unwavering commitment to God's Word for success in life's battles. It challenges believers to prioritize meditating on God's Word, seeking His wisdom, and making real sacrifices in the spiritual journey.

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. We shall begin at 2nd Timothy, 2nd chapter, and the 4th verse. No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. My dear people, so, must we not quickly get out of these entanglements? Yes, we must. I don't know. We have created a system by which has eliminated the use of faith, or we think we have. You see, are you insured? The first question, are you insured? You see, I was a fellow who never believed in insurance, never needed to have insurance, of course, because there was nothing to insure. So I was in a happy position, very well. But then when the time came when you had to show your insurance card, first step, well, your insurance card must be valid, and it must not have expired, of course. And so you have a situation where you're hemmed in by a system. And therefore you feel, well, all the time you appear to be a step behind the system. And what is the system asking? You do this and you gain so much. You do that and you gain so much. And on and on and on it goes. Okay, where is the time for you to meditate on God's word? Now, it's very important at this point to look at what God told Joshua. If you would please turn to Joshua, the first chapter. Now, as he takes over from Moses, what did Joshua need? He needed all the encouragement in the world, of course. He was going to step into the shoes of one of those mighty men who walked so close to God. And now, how can you fill the shoes of Moses? How can you fill such shoes? You would need some extra equipment, wouldn't you? Now, what is this equipment? Well, let's read from seventh verse. Joshua, first chapter. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law. First step, obedience, which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Turn not from it to the right hand or the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. Just think of that. There should be complete adherence. No turning to the right or left. No concessions made to the world or to fearful circumstances. Turn not to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. Eighth verse. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make your way prosperous, and thou shalt have good success. Now, entering a new territory, which was occupied by enemies, required great wisdom and an assurance of success. Otherwise, what would happen? You would just be engulfed by all those that were already in occupancy. So, folks, what do we see here? Then thou shalt have good success. What is meditating on God's word to do with success in warfare or in strategy, in war strategy? Is this a book which is going to give you war strategy? No, that's where we are very misled by the world. Who is the writer of this book? Is there any failure with him? No. Does he know the end from the beginning? Yes. Does he know every aspect of the equation? Yes. And you are told, meditate therein both day and night. Make this the book of your strategy, and you're safe. You'll have all the success you need or can cope with. My dear friends, look at our system. Does it permit you to do that? Does it promote such activity? No. Our system is the very opposite of what the Bible teaches. You see, you go home after a retreat, what happens? Oh, you have a pile of letters to answer. You've got so many bills to pay. And then your callers have left messages which you must answer. Oh, there is a pile of work waiting for you. And there is an inner urge. Now listen. You need to digest what you have heard. You need to pray through. You know, some of these words have gotten out of use. One of those words which we used to employ again and again was pray through. Pray through. My dear friends, I might tell you, if you go to the field of sport, you won't see a fellow quitting in the middle of the race, athletics, or in a game, 90 minutes game. You don't see a fellow saying, hey, I'm finished now. Oh, I am bushed. I can't play anymore. No. His eye is on the clock. Hey, there are just 10 minutes more to go. And I've got to do my thing. I've got to make my moves. You're working against the clock. Take a researcher. It's the same. Take a banker. It's the same. Take a spiritual fellow or a religious fellow. It's the opposite. What do you think of that? Do you want 10,000 such fellows sitting and warming the pews? No, you don't need any of them. Send them home. They're a bunch of quitters. There's a bunch of fellows who are looking for congenial company. All they want to do is go around saying, hello, friend, hello, hello. Chatterboxes. You can do without those chatterboxes. Folks, we can't get real. And we can't get anything accomplished. These are very basic things. Going to the Lord for his wisdom. What will thou have me to do? Show me your will. It may not be appealing to me. It may be contrary to all my plans. But I will do it. Show me your will. Oh, my beloved people. We don't want to win the war. That's all it is. We want to lie in the infirmary perpetually. Now, how do you win a war that way? You win nothing. So, our present generation has been yielding precious ground, which has been hard won by an earlier generation. By the dint of sacrifice and love and prayer. Can you think of those folks who would not be found missing on Sunday morning, though they had to go by oxcart or buggies, horse, buggies, a 20-mile journey through the snows? Can you think of them? Did they have all the gadgets that we have to get things heated up in no time, and this, that, and the other? No. Were there any emergency services by which, in the event of a breakdown, they would be rescued in time before they froze to death? No. You see, I still speak as a man who went through roads which were closed because of wintry conditions and danger, because there was a work to be done for Jesus. So, though the road was officially closed with barriers, we went through somehow. Yes, I was on the road when the fuel was gelling up and huge trucks lay on the sides of the roads. I had a work to do, and I could not afford to miss my engagements. Folks, a sense of commitment. I'm in a war. A friend of mine told me, an Australian friend, he said to me, Here was a soldier who said to the sergeant, I want a couple of days off. Why? I want to go get married. Hey, do you realize we are fighting a war here? We are fighting a war, man. No, we cannot give you any leave from the front. These are very normal sacrifices which any soldier makes. You know, friends, to cocoon ourselves with a form of Christianity where you feel, you know, you are cushioned on every side. What kind of stuff is that? And is that what you see in the Bible? Not at all. You know, my dear friends, I think the very first step to make any progress is to be real. You see, I couldn't bluff my professors when it came to an examination. One of my professors wrote on my paper, very superficial or some such remark, because he knew I was trying to bluff my way through. I didn't quite know the subject. And here I was, I couldn't hoodwink my professor. Now, whom are we trying to impress or hoodwink? So, what we see, my dear friends, in 2 Peter 2 and the 11th verse, you know, I can go on like this from my own experience, but I have to close now shortly. 1 Peter, sorry, 2 chapter and the 11th verse. Dearly beloved, as strangers and pilgrims, You see, Peter was addressing, of course, those disciples of that time. I would not dare address our congregations with these words. They just don't apply. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, war against the soul. So a war is on and the devil wants you at a standstill or preferably lying flat on your face, completely defeated. A war is on. We don't understand this, that a war is on. And you know, friends, the supreme sacrifices that were made at the time of war, of course, in a sense, America was never the battlefield, like France or Germany. What sacrifices people made and for years after the war, you know, over in East Germany, the communist part of Germany, till, of course, the late 80s, when I made certain trips into Germany, East Germany, to preach, I found that the people were being crushed, even for a little ration of meat. They stood in long lines in midwinter, bitter cold. They could not get a little meat. And by the time they would come up to the head of the line, it would be exhausted. Empty shelves, yes. Some of them went through great hardships, even after the war, under communism. Of course, the communists thought they are disciplining the people or teaching them a new lifestyle and so on and so forth. But whatever it is, my dear people, we too are engaged in a war. The kind of people that we need to be, our mindset, how is it, is our heart and mind fixed upon Jesus? Nothing between. Fixed. I like that word. My heart is fixed. Nothing will budge me. My heart is fixed. Life passes very quickly. And this is the only attitude that will make your life to count. Otherwise you'll lose it. Even if God gives you a hundred years, there will be years of futility. Nothing will be accomplished. This is the kind of mind that God gives his children. My master has called me to warfare. I will be faithful to him and disentangle myself from all those things that seem to smother me and choke me and bring me to a hopeless standstill state. That mind Jesus will give you. Let us pray. Let us tell the good Lord, Lord, the secrets which you gave your children. Oh, my father, let me not discard them like waste paper. We pray and ask you, fit us for this warfare at such a time as this. Let not your army be a shrinking, shirking army. We cannot see an army in retreat and in disarray. Please, father, make us real. Make us real. We beseech you, make us real. You only wanted those small group of 300 and the rest you sent home and you got yourself the victory. Please, father, hear our prayer. In Jesus' holy name, amen. May I reach heaven's joys of light and song, God of my own heart, whatever be. Still be my vision, O ruler, first in my heart. High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art. 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 PO Box 1072 Armidale WA 6992. Until we meet again next week, may God bless you.