SUNDAY SERMON BY Pastor Rajesh Mathew, 18 Jan 2026 

Ezekiel 48:35- All the way around shall be eighteen thousand cubits; and the name of the city from that day shall be: “THE[a] LORD IS THERE.” 

Psalms 78:23- "Yet He had commanded the clouds above, And opened the doors of heaven 

He Lord is there. The Lord is with us. The Lord is there. He is ‘JEHOVAH SHAMMAH’, means He is not an absentee God. Not an absentee father, I am there with you. The Holy Spirit is saying this - The God who revealed himself in the Temple as Shammah God in the Old testament, in the New Testament He lives inside you, He is with you. Your body is the temple of the Holy spirit. Your God will not forsake you. Wherever two or more are gathered, God is there in your midst. He is not going to leave you alone in the midst of your situations.

Isaiah 43:1-2- But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: 

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; 

I have called you by your name; 

You are Mine. 

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; 

And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. 

When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, 

Nor shall the flame scorch you 

• I will be with you in the midst of the fire and the water. You will not burn in the midst of the fire. You will not drown in the waters because HE is with you. This one promise is enough for you to rejoice and be glad in the Lord. 
• He is not an absentee God. He will take you across to the other side. The Holy Spirit is saying this to His church.
• Though I walk through the waters, I will not drown. Some of you are stuck in certain situations but today if you know that God is with you, you will not remain stuck there, He will bring you to the other side. You will come out of that fire.

Psalms 46:1-3- God is our refuge and strength, 

A[a] very present help in trouble. 

2 Therefore we will not fear, 

Even though the earth be removed, 

And though the mountains be carried into the [b]midst of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and be troubled, 

Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah 

• Some friends leave you when you are in difficulties. But God doesn’t day that. He says I am your very present help in times of trouble. He is your best friend. His presence will show up for you even if storms come, even if waves rage against you, he will not leave you amidst that.

Psalms 34:19- Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers himout of them all.

• Many are the afflictions of the righteous but HE shall deliver us from them all, even if they are innumerable and uncountable. If problem outnumbered you, He will stand with you and deliver you from them all. 

In 2026, by the end of this year, He will deliver you from ALL your afflictions. 

• How old you are doesn’t matter, you have to know that the Lord is with you. • Before you get to that point in your life, God has already reached there. Even before you reach that point in future, the Lord has reached there. Now you may be 20, and you may be thinking how your life will be when you are 40 years old, but know this, God will be there at your 40th year waiting for you. You may be 40 years old, wondering how things will be at 60, God will be there before you at your 60th waiting for you. You may be 60 and wondering how life will be at 80, let me assure God would have gone before you and will be waiting for you at 80! A god who reaches your days before even you get there.
• A God who is present not absentee. Even if there is nobody with you when you are old, God will be there with you. Not only in my youth, or in my middle age, even in your old age, the Lord is there. 

Psalms 91:15-16- He will call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honour him. 

• If God is with you, not only will He deliver you and honour you but with long life He will satisfy you. He will hold you in your difficulties and save you. With LOOOOONNG Life He will satisfy you! 

If this Scripture becomes a revelation, He will satisfy you with LOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNG life! 

• Verse 15- Trouble means in adversity, anguish, distress, in a tight spot. When you are feeling stuck, in pain, God says I will be you.

Prophecy from the Holy Spirit- God will bring you from a place where you couldn't stop crying to a place you can't stop laughing.

• Jehovah Shammah is my strength. The Joy of the Lord is my strength.

Last week, I was telling the Lord, I have no good thing in me, I am not smart enough. I have not even passed B.Com. But the Lord said, you are PhD- Prophecy, Healing and Deliverance (PHD) 

• God will be with you. He will satisfy you with long life, good health and long life and honour.

He will bring you to a wealthy place, from a place is adversity to a wide place, from a tight spot to a wide spot.

• God told Moses I will be with you. I am the Jehovah Shammah God. After Moses, in Joshua's time, God said thrice in the scriptures, ‘as I was with Moses so I will be with you’. Today Look at your children and declare that the Lord who is with me with be with my children, he will deliver them and honour them and with long life He will satisfy them.
• Our God is such a wonderful Saviour. He is so magnanimous, so loving! Jesus is the King of Kings. He is so magnanimous.
• He is the king of kings yet he says that I will make you also kings and priests. He says I am not insecure- I will make my children kings and priests.

John 14:12- 12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 

• Jesus says I want you to do greater things than what I did! We don’t think like that, we want to best in class, we want to be the best at work, we want to be the best in everything but Jesus says, I want you to be the best! 

Wright brothers were bicycle repair men. Their father told them that if you are trying to build an aircraft that tries to defy gravity, you will rot in hell. He placed limitations on them but God doesn't place limitations. God is magnanimous. May you see great victories in your life. 

• Jesus doesn’t lie. 

Numbers 23:19- “God is not a man, that He should lie, 

Nor a son of man, that He should repent. 

Has He said, and will He not do? 

Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? 

• He is God by Himself. What He said He will do. Do not believe the lies of the enemy. He will to change His Word. He will not lie to us.

WHAT SHOULD WE DO WHEN WE KNOW GOD IS WITH US? 

• Rejoice, be grateful to God. Ungrateful people are not bad, they are evil. When you have a God like this, you can’t be ungrateful. Be grateful, be thankful, Thank you Jesus.

Success is harder to manage than failure. 

• Therefore, you should learn to walk humbly before God to acknowledge that He is mighty, is Great, He is Present with us, He is El Shaddai. Nothing can take His place.

You should know how to tread softly because a swollen head will make your crown to fall down.

• When God is with you, walk humbly before God. A man on an average breathes about 22000 times. What if that breathing stops. You need to know that even every breath that you take is His grace. Be thankful.

Daniel 4:25- They shall drive you from men, your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you eat grass like oxen. They shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses".

• The kingdom of men God will take and give to whoever He wants. • Walk softly. Is it your business, is it your smartness, is it your looks, thank the Lord? Lift your voice to Jesus. 
• He is not a God who forgets us. Whatever you do for Him, He will never forget. 

He is not only a Promise Keeper, He is also a Secret Keeper. Our God doesn't gossip. 

Hebrews 13:5-6- Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say: 

“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” 

• Jesus will never leave me, He will never forsake me. So that we will boldlysay, ‘the Lord is my Helper’. I will not fear what can man do to men! Say this boldly, loudly and confidently! 

Psalms 78:23- Yet He had commanded the clouds above, 

And opened the doors of heaven, 

• If He is with you and if He is your Helper, He will command certain things and when He commands, doors will open. If there is no one to talk to you ad if there is no one to help you, God says ‘I am your appa, your amma, I am Jehovah Shammah” and the Doors of heaven will open over you.

The doors that were closed till 2025, those doors will open early in 2026. He will command. 

• If He is with us, our body posture must change.

Don't think you are less than what you are facing. It may be fire or water. May you have a posture of confidence. A confidence in God's Presence and in His Holy Spirit.

• What is shut, God will open. If a door is shut, you cannot move forward. You will feel that it is a kind of a block.

God says what you cannot do for yourself, He can do for you. You believe and you receive.

• Why does God open the door? So that only He gets the glory. He won’t share his Glory with another. It is not your uncle, your boss or any other person. God will now allow a situation where He is not getting the glory.

Isaiah 43:6- I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ 

And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ 

Bring My sons from afar, 

And My daughters from the ends of the earth— 

• God says He will command what is holding back your inheritance to be released. The good things God has for you—whether ministry, blessing, or inheritance—are being released by His command. 
• The devil deceives us into looking to people instead of to God. In the Garden of Eden, the devil told Eve that eating the fruit would open her eyes. Their eyes were opened, but the result was that they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. 
• When we seek refuge in anything other than God, we may experience temporary openings but miss eternal purposes. What God opens will last. If you keep your eyes on God, the door He opens will remain open until you reach your destiny. 

Why does God keep it open? 

God keeps the door open upon those who hold on to His Word even when you are weak. You cannot take only that which you like to hear but the whole Word. 

Revelations 3:7-8- 7 “And to the [a]angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”: 8 “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, [b]and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 

• Jesus is saying to the church in Philadelphia- “you watched over my Word. You have not denied my Name. Do not deny His Name even if your strength was little.” • You should hold on His Word. You should not compromise on His Word. Live a life according to the Word of God. 

John 8:31- 31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 

• If you stand in His Word, you truly are his disciples. 

John 15:7-f you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you[a] will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 

• You have chosen to live according to the Word. 

What is the reason for doors to open?

1. They kept the Word. They had to live according to the Word though they have a little strength.
2. They have not forgotten My Name. You have not denied my Name. Wherever you, you are a child of God. Some people say that they are children of God only in church but not outside church or in the society.

Jehovah Shammah was revealed there. For these two reasons Doors open! 

Mathew 3:16- 16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and [a]He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 

Acts 16:25-26- 25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 

3. They had gratitude to God. You did not stop clapping and worshipping God even in your jail.
4. They were preoccupied to fulfil God’s desire.

Isaiah 45:1-2- “Thus says the Lord to His anointed, 

To Cyrus, whose right hand I have [a]held— 

To subdue nations before him 

And loose the armor of kings, 

To open before him the double doors, 

So that the gates will not be shut: 

2 ‘I will go before you 

And[b] make the [c]crooked places straight; 

I will break in pieces the gates of bronze 

And cut the bars of iron. 

• God has held your right Hand and no door should stay shut before you. • Why did God hold Cyrus' right hand? 

Isaiah 44:28- Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, 

And he shall perform all My pleasure, 

Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” 

And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” 

• God held Cyrus’s Hand because God was certain that Cyrus would do all that He want him to do for MY temple. I will be preoccupied with the desire of God's heart. God was pleased with that decision of Cyrus.
• Learn to honour the House of God. Learn to love the House of God. When you do that, God’s hand will hold your right hand and His hand will keep the door open. • Do not treat this place carelessly, or come here to network or flirt. Come with a heart to worship God. This is a place where sinners and the sick can find healing, where people can be filled with the Holy Spirit, and where we are prepared for the coming of Jesus Christ.