Loosed for the Master's Use - Part 1 — Joshua Daniel

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 a 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.

God’s Independence and His Use of Ordinary Vessels

When Paul addressed people in Athens, which was, of course, the seat of culture and knowledge and wisdom at that time, he said, God hath not need of anything. Acts 17 and verse 24 and 25. And temples made with hands.

Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth.

Now, my dear friends, so that is the general truth. What does God need of? Does he need Joshua Daniel? Can he do without us? Sure. But it is amazing that in the portion of Scripture that you just read, in the 21st chapter of Matthew, the Lord Jesus said in the second verse, go on to the village over against you, and straightway you shall find an ass tied and a colt with her.

Lose them and bring them unto me. And if any man say aught to you, ye shall say, The Lord has need of them. And straightway he will send them. The Lord has need of this donkey. And now, friends, this prophecy of Scripture needed to be fulfilled.

The Prophecy of the Triumphal Entry

In Zechariah, the ninth chapter and the ninth verse, it says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king cometh unto you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the fold of an ass.

Think of this. Zechariah saw the triumphal entry of Jesus, not with earthly eyes, but with the prophetic insight. The king cometh. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! You see, folks, not to know the time of their visitation.

See, this was the prophecy, and it was fulfilled prior to the death of Jesus upon the cross. But the people of the Jews could not recognize it, even to this day. This is the fulfillment of the prophecy.

The Donkey Loosed for Jesus’ Use

You see, the Bible says that the prophecy may be fulfilled. If you turn to Luke 19th chapter, you will find the same triumphal entry into Jerusalem mentioned here. 29th verse,. And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphag, and at the mount called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, Go ye into the village over against you, and at the entering in you shall find a cold tide, wherein never man sat.

Lose him, and bring him hither. Lose him, and bring him hither. Now, how many of us are like the unloosed, tethered, bound donkeys that have never been at the disposal of Jesus? When I look through history and the great men of God, one of them was John Bunyan.

John Bunyan: A Troubled Man Made Useful

John Bunyan was thrown into the prison, and he had a blind daughter. And poor John Bunyan's heart was so much with that little girl. But when he was thrown into prison, what for? Just addressing a conventicle, an unrecognized gathering.

You see, after all, America came out of that kind of oppression, which there was in England. You can only preach in the church, and only a cleric was authorized to do so. But here was a tinker, a John Bunyan, who began to preach, and he had been a terrible fellow.

On one occasion, he got up on the top of the steeple of the big church, and he threatened to jump from there. And he got them all into a kind of great anxiety. He was such a naughty fellow. And one of the worst characters looked at him one day and said to him, when she saw him swearing, and so foul-mouthed, she rebuked him.

One of the worst characters in the place. And God chose that donkey. And when he wrote his book, Pilgrim's Progress, in prison, mark you, it became one of the greatest books in the English language, with a circulation only next to the Bible, which it held for many years.

A donkey. But he needed to be loosed. Loosed from a foul tongue. You know, my dear friends, sometimes we find that people are not just loosed, they don't want to be loosed, they want to be bound. Now what a terrible thing that this tongue of ours, that can be used so wonderfully to speak for Jesus, to express his love, to sing those beautiful hymns, that this tongue should become a kind of tongue which is at cross purposes.

The Heart Revealed by the Tongue

Now in Matthew 12, the Lord Jesus speaks about this. From the 33rd verse. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by its fruit.

O generation of vipers, how can you being evils speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Now you see, what is the symptom? You know the tongue and what it speaks is a symptom.

Symptom of what? Of a heart condition. When lies come out. Heart condition. When proud words come out. Heart condition. When disrespectful or impolite words come out. Heart condition. Make the tree good, then the fruit will be good.

It's the heart condition. And Jesus says you generation of vipers, how can good things come out of you? Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So my dear friends, it's the heart speaking.

So some people are never loosed from their loose tongues. They are never loosed from that kind of negative spirit. How does that help anybody? If I am going to be negative and devoid of love and hope, how does it help you?

You know when anybody would sit with my mother for a few minutes, she would be so positive. She would not speak evil of anybody. And one would feel lifted. And that in her old age and weakness, she still maintained that testimony.

Becoming a Stress Reliever Rather Than a Stress Giver

You know my dear friends, under stress, what comes out is a real test. Oh you are stressed out with your books or with your exams or with something, some adversity that has come up, the difficult times and so on and so forth.

But is it a help that you broadcast it? Should you be a stress giver or a stress reliever? Now you know a donkey has generally a very dangerous kick about it. A horse too. And you should be very careful not to get behind a horse or a donkey because its kick is so vicious, dangerous to life itself.

And then when a donkey decides to express itself, boy, a donkey does not require a loudspeaker at all. You could hear it, you would hear it at the other end of the town almost. So it brays so loudly. So my dear friends, are we going to have loose donkeys at Jesus' feet?

We heard you will find me at Jesus' feet. Meaning, I am at the Lord's disposal. I am here to carry out His command. Just think of that. All the people that go at this Easter season, do they go searching for Easter eggs or do they search for a new nature?

You see, it's always something to swallow. You know? I really don't know what is the tradition behind this great adventure of searching for Easter eggs. Has somebody hid some gold in those eggs or what?

I don't understand. But many of them turn out to be rotten eggs after Easter. You know, one has to be very careful when you come out of a service, when you come out of a worship, because the devil wants to put you to the test.

You know? A man said to me or wrote to me, my wife and I started fighting soon after the service and we carried on the fight in the long coach ride. And when we went home, we were still continuing the fight.

You know, the devil wants to just make you know, all right, this Easter time, you're not loosed. You're not loosed. My dear friends, do you want to add to the gloom on earth? There's enough gloom. There are enough people who say, oh, I can't do this, I can't do that.

All right. Or you want to say, I can do all things through Christ to strengtheneth me. I will be at the disposal of the Lord Jesus and surely he can do something with me. Yes. That's what we have to be at this time.

Joseph’s Example of Overcoming Crisis

You know, I feel very sad that we seem to be ill-equipped or at least I seem to be ill-equipped to emulate a Joseph. I preached about Joseph and how at a time of grave crisis, when many nations were without food, here was Joseph who foresaw and foretold the situation.

You see, there's a lot of difference between foreseeing a situation. Some of us may be very good at predicting, oh, this is going to happen, the next terrible thing is going to happen. Okay. Our media is full of predictions of all sorts and many of them are very disheartening predictions.

But did Joseph come up with another of those predictions? No. He said, but God has shown Pharaoh this thing in order to stall the situation, in order to circumvent, checkmate the situation, to overcome the situation.

See, Easter is all about overcoming and the first thing that we have to overcome is that nature, the donkey that remains unridden by Jesus, the donkey that is not loosed for Jesus' use. Now, just think of those donkeys that were there.

Praising God for His Mighty Works

Well, who would ever look at those donkeys? The Lord has need of this donkey and to see when the Lord entered Jerusalem in the 19th chapter of Luke, 35th verse, and they brought him to Jesus and they cast their garments upon the colt and they set Jesus thereon and as he went they spread out their clothes in the way and when he was come nigh even to the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loved voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.

You know, it's amazing that many people have got some beautiful things to say about the Lord's deliverances. Strangers! And when they come up and recount some of the things that have happened to them, it's most miraculous.

Prayer to Be Loosed for the Master’s Use

Let us pray. Let us tell God. When it comes to lifting my neighbor, I seem to be blind, I seem to be lame. Forgive me. Joseph was able to lift so many of other nations besides Egypt. Oh Lord, help me.

I may have nothing in my pocket but what I need is to be loosed, loving Father. You rode upon that humble donkey. Oh Lord, we pray and ask you, Jesus, ride on us, ride on us. We would be so privileged to be as that donkey loosed for the master has had need of him.

Lord, how can it be said you have need of us? We are such ordinary people with so little to put at your feet. But we have heard the song, you will find me at Jesus' feet. Have mercy upon people who are bound by their thoughts, bound by other habits or practices or hidden sins.

Please, Father, make us a people who show forth your glory in Jesus' holy name. Amen.

This program is brought to you by the Layman's Evangelical Fellowship International, a non-denominational 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.

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Until we meet again next week, may God bless you.