This sermon by Joshua Daniel emphasizes the importance of having a seeking heart, drawing parallels from the Christmas story where various characters sought Jesus. It highlights the dangers of jealousy and the need for self-reflection to seek God diligently. The message encourages active seeking of God, urgency in spiritual matters, and the contrast between drifting aimlessly and purposefully seeking God for transformation and blessings.

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 means, 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 turned into givers. We now invite you to watch and receive the invaluable blessing that God has for you. Now dear friends, we notice that in the Christmas happening, there is one stream which runs which is common to most of these principal characters. And what is that? They had a seeking heart. Now if all the balls with which you play get lost, do you ever hear of such a thing? You pursue that ball, where did it go? You get it out. You know, I used to play tennis up in the mountains, and sometimes the ball used to go into the bushes or down into the valley behind the tennis court. Oh, people would run and retrieve the ball. Now, seeking. In Matthew, the second chapter, we see the wise men knocking at the palace. And they asked a strange question. You see, they were not satisfied that the king was in residence there, King Herod. They said, where is the king? Second verse, where is he that is born King of the Jews? Just imagine, if you go and ask the king, hey, you know, where is the king? He'll say, I'm the king. What are you asking? Strange for you to come here and say, no, no, no, no. Someone far greater than you is born. You're not the person whom we are looking for. My, you can imagine into what a ridge this would have caused Herod to fly into. You know, to say, who are these fellows anyway, coming to my door and saying, we're not looking for you, we are looking for a king, a much greater king than yourself. But folks, this man said, OK, if this is so, and if the scriptures say he was born in Bethlehem, go and seek diligently for the young child. He doesn't want to seek. Eighth verse, he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, go and when you have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also. No, no, no, no. What had arisen in his heart was a great spirit of jealousy. My dear friends, I often wonder why I was never afflicted with this disease of jealousy. I was one of the poorest boys in the class. I did not go to school in a big car like some of my friends and teammates. They had their cars back then when cars were few. And only the very rich owned cars, not ordinary fellows, you see. But somehow God gave me a contented heart. And later, when I went into college, I didn't look at all the wonderful fellows, the brilliant fellows, rich. In those days, there were the ruling princes. You see, they were called rajas. That is, they ruled little pieces of land. Wealthy fellows. I never sought their friendship. I never looked at them. I had very little. I had an old bicycle, which sometimes did not require any bell. You know, all bicycles have a bell to say, Hey, I'm coming. Get out of my way. But, you know, my bicycle made enough noise in itself. Bees, bees, bees, whatever noise it made. You know, it was so old. But I didn't look at the beautiful new bicycles which other fellows had. No, I never. This is a great affliction. And many people don't know their hearts. This is sad. You know, there must be at least some point in our lives when we say, Hey, I'd better figure this out. What is my heart? Why is it this way? I don't want to do this, but here I am. Why am I talking like this? Why am I acting like this? Why are my thoughts tending that way? No, Herod did not think at all. He did not at all size up his own heart condition. Now, how many people would you think at this Christmas time will look at Jesus and say, Hey, if the King of Kings came into this world with such simplicity. In fact, born into almost want. I never wanted or needed. I never lacked, rather. The things which he lacked. And yet. If the King of Kings humbled himself in seeking me out. That's why I always say, How did you come to save a wretch like me? Yes, I can see how wretched my heart really is. You know, my dear friends, lapping up evil old memories. You know, I suddenly caught myself mulling over some old memories. I said, Hey, what is this? So that all nature is still there somewhere. My mind was bringing up some old things which were rotten, wicked. I said, What's this? Where is this? Be wholly sanctified. So my dear friends, we can size up ourselves in the presence of God. But that comes with seeking, you know. Now think of all the things that we seek. Many children are taught to play games. How many games do they play? This season is a soccer season. You know, when you're brought up in the tropics, Oh, you can play a game all the year round. Except in the monsoon time. So I was used to playing a variety of games. No particular season. I could play them any time I pleased. See, all right. When we play games, in a game, what are we really doing? What are we focused on? We're not focused on the spectators. We're not focused on the people selling popcorn, things like that, you know. What are we focused on? We're focused on the ball. Seeking the ball. That's it. Any game, or most games that I know, is a pursuit of a ball. Getting that ball into the right place. That's a game. So we are taught in a game to seek something, to pursue something. All right. Why can't we seek Jesus? Now, so we see at Christmas time people seeking Jesus. But here was this man, when he could not get his way, what did he do? He killed all the children below the age of two. Not just boys. All the children, he said, none of them. Nobody around Bethlehem. No child. Whether it's a boy or girl, I want him out of the way. I am the king here. You know, my dear friends, that same attitude can be in your heart. I'm the boss here. You know that phrase, I must live my life. Why are you nagging me? I must live my life. You know, we have gotten hold of some of these clichés. And everybody is throwing them around. I must live my life. But don't you know that your life impacts a lot of people? Either you're a giver of life or a killer of life. Either you bring hope or despair into the hearts of people. Now here is this man. He goes and kills all the children. He didn't care whether it was a boy or girl. Obviously, when Jesus was born, they were looking for a king and not for a queen. The wise men. But he was not going to be deterred. Seeking. Now what happens to seekers? You know, there are some people who say, I'm seeking, seeking, seeking. There is no end to, you know, if a scientist says, oh, yes, there's a thing called electricity. I will seek it. Michael Faraday didn't say that. If I can't find it, I'll quit. No. A scientist seeks something. A student seeks what? Oh, I want graduation. Yesterday, I had a picture of mine taken with another person. Two of us sat down and he stood up because he was graduating. From what? I said, from heart rehab. Even from heart rehab, you must graduate. Which means he did his, whatever the machines he had to walk on or pedal. And he did it well and he was given a certificate. So when you go to school, you wait until graduation. You don't walk out and say, hey, I have graduated. I'm fine, Jack. No, you say you wait until you get your graduation. Mark you, I had to wait because they won't graduate me that easily being a bad student. You see, folks? Now, so a student graduates, a scientist pursues. Is it only when it comes to eternal life? It's only when it comes to dealing with the real cancer in your heart that you don't seek? That you don't want to graduate ever? I'll live and die with this cancer, whatever it is? No, certainly not. So you see in the Christmas story, embedded in the Christmas story, this intrinsic thing, seeking. See, most people are namby-pamby when it comes to seeking eternal things. I remember a young fellow who, after hearing a little talk of my mother's on prayer, said, I must meet God today. So after that meeting, he went out into the college grounds, university grounds or whatever, and he said, I must meet God today. That's it. Well, you don't go home and knock at the door and say, oh, maybe my mother is sleeping or my mother doesn't want to open the door. I'll walk away. When you knock, you have wanted open. When you seek, you must find. When you ask, do you ever go and ask for a quarter pounder? Do you say, hey, the ordinary stuff will not do for me. What I need is a quarter pounder to wrap up my belly with fat. Well, and then, do you drive off from the window? No. You wait there. Hey, where's my order? Where's my quarter pounder? And until you get it and grab it, you won't drive away. But how many people just drive away from church? A man said to me one day, how true what you said. I started fighting with my wife right on the doorsteps of the prayer hall, and I continued it as we got into the bus. You know, we can spend all our time arguing, fighting, disagreeing. It's a very fashionable thing to say I disagree. Some people seem to agree to disagree. So continually, what you see in their lives is I disagree, I disagree. Like a sore thumb, you know, sticking out all the time. And that's quite a fashion. It has become a national disease. So nobody agrees with anybody. And therefore, it's all a matter of discussion and debate all the time. Even when soldiers are dying on the front, you're debating here whether to send them supplies or not. What kind of administration will you produce? Now that's what's happening to this country. Everything's timid. Everything deadlocked. But we see in the lives of these wise men, they pursued the matter. What about the shepherds? Did they say tomorrow we'll do it? Let us go now. If the now goes out of your life, your life will go. Come now, let us reason together. God says, though your sins be as carlet, they shall be as snow. They shall be as wool. Come now. It is a now. It is not, oh, let's see, if this works, fine. If it doesn't work, fine. Even marriage. If it works, fine. If it doesn't work, fine. What is fine about a marriage that doesn't work? Nothing. Nothing but heartache. Nothing but tears. But that's the kind of logic we have people adopting today everywhere. If it works, fine. If it doesn't work, fine. Now, you can't take now out of the good news. There should be a certain amount of urgency about it. Life is a very short experience. You know, in two months' time, I'm going to be 18, right? I'm going to really reach the point of real youth. I'm going to be 80. But you say youth does not have a body? You see? Anyway, you may not quite see the point, but I'm going to be 80. What has happened? When did I become 80? I can't figure that out. How did the years pass? What did I do with my years? I let them just go, say, cutting birthday cakes year after year and eating them and saying, oh, it's finer every year. No. Life is such a short experience. Let us go now and see this thing which has come to pass. Now, tell me. Would you have gone and you had invested everything in that little flock and there you were keeping your flock from the wolves? Would you have said, hey, let us go now. Can't wait till the morning. I must seek this savior. My dear friends, the essential ingredients of Christmas, if we don't imbibe and adopt and take it in and practice, we are just people who warm the seats and allow drift to become the policy of our lives. Drifting. Just drifting. How wonderful. I thank God that he gives us a seeking heart to worship him, to find him. Let us pray. Loving Father, we do not want to follow a policy of drift. We can't be drifting with every wind that blows. Temper, an uncontrollable mind, pride, with every draft that comes through the cracks. Do not allow us to be drifting, drifting. Give to us that seeking, finding, rejoicing, praising hearts. So help us, good Father, in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Email us at Our mailing address is You can also call us at Until we meet again next week, may God bless you.