This sermon by Joshua Daniel emphasizes the spiritual warfare Christians face, urging believers to advance in their faith and not be entangled by worldly distractions. He highlights the importance of obedience to God's word, seeking first the kingdom of God, and avoiding entrapments that hinder spiritual progress. The message calls for a deep repentance, a focus on eternal values over worldly pursuits, and a prayer for deliverance from defeatism to become conquerors in Christ.

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. You know, when I hear Christian congregations sing, onward Christian soldiers, and then also, stand up, stand up for Jesus, his soldiers of the cross, and so on, I say, how little these folks know about warfare. They're singing, but they scarcely know anything at all about the dangers, about the wounds, about the privations, about the sacrifices that are just so normal in warfare. So, when I come to the words of Scripture, which tell us that we are waging a warfare and should not be, therefore, entangled with the affairs of this life, entangled, that word seems to picture to me something of a person who is fast in the grips of tentacles of an octopus. Now, I really have little idea as to how strong such a grip can be, and how utterly futile it would be to struggle against the mighty tentacles of a huge octopus. Well, entangled again. Now, there is a real attempt, isn't it? Don't you see it? The device of the devil to just get us into a stalemate, or into a state of no progress. You can't imagine that. You know, my dear friends, I have been characterized by a deep sense of impatience. I don't commend that virtue to you, but I get impatient over lack of progress. If there is no onward thrust, oh, it gets me into a real state of, what shall I say, unrest. I find rest in advance. I find joy in spiritual warfare. And I feel that the Christian life is designed for that. That is the norm. You see, the best form of defense is offense. How many of you know that? I don't know. How can you, you see, when somebody is trying to advance against you, and your counterattack is such that you're like an army advancing? Now, any attempt to overthrow you is going to peter out, because you're in the full thrust of a full-fledged advance. Now, that is the Christian life. It is a life of advance. You know, in every stage of life, there are lessons to learn. And I want to tell you, if you are no team player, you are not a Christian, I fear. You know, Christians are just automatically team players. And if one team member fails in a crucial game, what happens? One team member, you're counting on him. Well, I don't know whether I'm talking to people who have ever played games seriously. There is something. You know, I am very disappointed with sports today. This is an aside. But because sports and games today are full of cheating and unsportsmanlike behavior. You know, the beautiful thing about sport is you clap for your opponent. When he has made a move which outwits you, you say, boy, this fellow can make circles around me. I thought I was some player, but here is somebody who will put me in my place. You applaud that excellence in others. Now, I don't see that very much amongst Christians. I don't understand this at all. They don't know that they are in a war. They don't know that they have to depend upon their flank. You see, if you are outflanked from the sides, what happens? You have to keep somebody who knows how to defend your spearhead. You're spearheading and the force is advancing and your flanks are exposed. What happens? Any enemy can just cut through your flank and separate your advance from the base, the supply. You're defeated. You're cut off. So, some people like to be cut off that way because they're so impractical. They know nothing about Christian warfare. They don't want to advance, and they're not disappointed that they are stimmied that their advance just doesn't take place. What do you do with such people? You must show them the door. You must show them the door and tell them, listen, you had better get your moorings right. You better repent, and because you have not repented deeply, you do not know how to amend. You don't know how to advance. You don't know the elementary steps of denying yourself, taking up the cross daily, and following the master. So, I find that many Christians are just a disorganized rabble. They don't know what is warfare. They're not prepared to make any sacrifices, and they talk about being Christian soldiers, and they will sing at the top of their voices, Onward, Christian soldiers. There can be nothing going forwards with people like that. If it is one step onward, it will be ten steps backward. So, my dear friends, now here we shall begin at 2 Timothy, second chapter, and the fourth verse. You know, friends, I believe that a Christian testimony requires that a man should pay his bills on time, and this business of people defaulting is a serious hindrance to the gospel. You know, people say, hey, we built this beautiful structure. What do you think of my church? We owe the bank just one and a half million. What, you owe the bank so much? And then, what is your thrust then? Get the money. You know, as a matter of fact, one pastor told me in Indiana, a very godly brother whom I loved very much, he said, the church is voting me out because they feel I can't raise the funds. So, they wanted a fundraiser, not a preacher of God's word. Huh? They wanted some kind of guy who would just focus on money, and after all, that's the least thing that you can think of when you stand in the pulpit. It's the eternal souls of men, souls that are going to be lost eternally, good church people who warm the seats on Sundays and who have had the unfortunate experience of sitting under your preaching. You know, it is not any longer something which has eternity in view. You know, when you take eternity out of your thinking, you're finished. I can tell you that. You have taken eternity out of your thinking. You have put such a low ceiling upon your life. All the time, your head will keep banging against the ceiling. See, now what is the outlook today? The outlook today is not an in-look. The outlook today is not an upward look. The outlook today is not the whitened harvest fields. The outlook today is my wallet. My wallet is my outlook. Can you think of a person whose whole outlook is the wallet? What do you mean? Where are you going? Are you going where that wallet will buy anything? Where are you going? You're going where that wallet is irrelevant, and you make that wallet the centerpiece of your life. What happens to you? You're finished. I can tell you that. I can give it to you in writing. Now, displacing Jesus by the wallet, does it make any sense? Displacing the word of God by worldly values. You see? Now, what is a wallet? It's a worldly value, and worldly values are so dominant, they are tyrannical. They terrorize you. They will turn you into a blood pressure patient. They will turn you into a living corpse. That's it. Worldly values. And now, my dear friends, one thing I had learned, and I had seen it in practice, and I knew that it works. Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Now, therefore, am I ever going to be the ultimate provider? Do you think that station that is given to me to perform? Impossible. I can never be the ultimate provider. I don't have to go and consult somebody and say, how can I be the ultimate provider? No. You know, that's where faith is so central. Faith. When you obey God's word, you're acting by faith. God says, don't get entangled with all the rubbish around you. Don't go into scrounging in the garbage heap. All right. When you obey the Lord, what are you doing? Oh, you're conserving in every way possible. You conserve your health. You conserve your vitality. You conserve your thinking. You conserve your time. You conserve your money. Simply by obeying God's word and making Jesus the centerpiece, you put the ultimate provider in his place, and you have taken the back seat and say, come on, I certainly hope you will be able to say you are the better driver. We can be so foolish, you know. We think, oh no, I'm the better driver. Huh? You take the back seat while I take the wheel. No, my dear friends. So, what is creating a stalemate? Why this entanglement? Why this feeling of being choked? You know, folks, it's a terrible feeling, it must be, when a person feels he is getting asphyxiated or being choked. You know, one or two people have told me how when their husbands tried to choke them by their throats, they cried out and, police, police. Well, sometimes you can't even cry, you know. My dear people. So, must we not quickly get out of these entanglements? Yes, we must. Let us pray. Oh, Lord, we beseech you. Teach us, Father, teach us, we pray, how to be obedient to the light which you give to us. Save us from this modern superficiality, this thin veneer that is so misleading. All this kind of smokescreen cannot hide the fact that we are not performing. Lord, in this battle, you have promised to make us more than conquerors. And here we find ourselves, sulking and cringing and mourning and licking our little wounds. Oh, save us, Lord, from this attitude of defeatism. Deliver us, we beseech you. This blood-bought people may be a conquering people. Hear our prayer that the world may not be given any opportunity to try to bully us. And we may get out of that habit of being bullied by the world. Please, Father, hear our prayer. In Jesus' holy name. Amen. I'm free from the guilt of the past. I'm free from the guilt of tomorrow. I'm free from the guilt of the past. For I've traded my shackles for a glorious song. I'm free, praise the Lord, free at last. For I've traded my shackles for a glorious song. I'm free, praise the Lord, free at last. I'm free, praise the Lord, free at last. I'm free, praise the Lord, free at last.