Sunday sermon by Pastor Rajesh Mathew, 26 July 2020 

Deuteronomy 11:14- 14 then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 

Luke 1:28- 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; [a]blessed are you among women!” 

• The favour is God is raining upon my family, my home, my children, and my realm. 
• The favour of God is like a rain. Yes, we have been speaking about God’s favour and I won’t stop till you all have received the blessing of His favour and until you have been swept off by the rain of His favour. Let the favour of God fall like a rain upon you. 
• The rain spoken in this verse is the rain of favour. When there is rain, the land releases its fruit and life and freshness, the every form of dryness leaves. 
• There is a rain prior to the sowing and there is a rain in the harvest season just before it is time to gather the harvest, referred to as the latter rains. The Lord is sending this latter rain. Don’t stand there holding an umbrella. 
• There is favour when you start and favour when you end. Favour to plant and favour to harvest. 

Some of you are receiving a new anointing, some will experience the fire of the Holy Spirit, some of who are tired are becoming fresh and some are getting out of their dryness. 

The latter rain is to complete that which God already started in you. 

Favour is a silent catalyst that sponsors celebration 

• You shall be highly favoured. May you catch this insight. 
• Silent catalyst for water (H2O) - 1 molecule of oxygen and two molecules of hydrogen. As a catalyst, platinum has to be applied only then water is formed. IVF needs the sperm and ovum and a third party. That environment is created for the cells to fuse and become a baby. The favour of God is like that third party. 

The greater one is stooping down for you. God’s favour is smiling at you. 

• When God says Yes, no man can say No. 

God’s favour will distinguish you 

• Both the youth and old people, need God’s favour. 
• Joseph was filled with favour and Godly wisdom. When Stephanos was speaking to the church, he said that in the midst of envious counterparts Joseph had favour from God. 
• In the midst of the people who are standing up against the church, the Lord’s favour will come upon you to lift you. Both men and women, rich and poor, young and old, need the favour of God. 
• There is a solution to your problem. 

God is not mad at you. He is smiling at you. He is rejoicing in you. 

• Let the favour of God remove every kind of affliction from your body. 
• Pastor says, “Of all the things that I read in the scriptures, I really want to walk in the favour of God.” 
• Mary is called the HIGHLY favoured one. 

The Word favour also means to be provided with advantages. 

• You should have that kind of a picture about you. 
• The angel appeared to Mary and said you are advantageous. You have been singled out. The angel did not go to the temple or to Herod’s palace but the angel chose to go to Maria and say, “you are highly favoured” 

Let the Holy Spirit give you an understanding that you are special and have been chosen by God. He has set you apart and He has singled you out to glorify God. 

• You need to know that “He likes you. “He loves you”. “He is crazy about you”. He is watching out for you. He has got your back. He is building a mansion for you? He is coming back to get you! Aren’t you special?? 
• It is the superior looking to the inferior and saying you are special, I love you, I got you. 
• I might be a nobody but HE is a somebody. We have a special privilege. Lot of believers don’t even believe that they are favoured. 

There are only two classes of people. Those that HE favours and those that HE bypasses. 

• God is giving you the opportunity to hear about God’s favour. 
• The angels visited the shepherds and sang Glory to God in the highest and peace to His people on earth. They chose to visit poor shepherds to announce the coming of the King of Kings. 
• I am not placing a premium on illiteracy. All I am saying is have a baptised brain. That’s all! 
• God has kept something special and unique over you and your life. If you did not have God’s favour, how did you find Jesus? How did you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit? How did you realise that you are purchased by the Blood of Jesus? How did you become a part of the Body of Christ if you are not favoured? How many times has the Holy Spirit spoken to you? If God’s favour is not upon how would the Lord have given you a pastor like me?! 
• It is because of this favour that you have received an initial touch of that latter rain. The Lord is sending you the latter day rains so you can gather your harvest. 

The prophetic declaration is like a volcano ready to erupt. 

Job 10:12- You have granted me life and favour, And Your care has preserved my spirit. 

• In Luke 4, Jesus preaches about the favourable year of the Lord. He says a few things and asks a few questions. There were many widows in Elijah’s time but it was the widow of Zarephath who was chosen. There were many lepers during Naman’s time, but HE chose 

Namaan. I am a special people, a Holy nation, a Chosen Generation. He chose you out of the many millions. 

• Mary, you are not in the class that everybody else is in. You are a people who have been sealed by the Blood mark of Jesus. Only because of His favour, you can go to the throne room of God. 
• Without fear, you can grow in the favour and the blessing of God. You can go into the Kings’ chamber. When you call upon the Name of Jesus, the presence of God will come upon you. 

Despite having fallen several times, He has called you back because of His favour. He has shown mercy 

Favour means God extending his kindness to you 

• When you realise this, you will humble yourself. You will realise that it is not who you are. But it is His favour. I am highly favoured of the Lord! There should be a different image of yourself in this season. 
• To become a prophet, a revivalist, a pastor, a worship leader, a preacher for the glory of God. 

Favour can also bring stigma 

• There is stigma attached to your faith. 
• Mary said, “I am pregnant by the Holy Spirit”. What would people have thought??? 
• When you say that Jesus is alive and He is coming to get me the second time, people might tell you that you are talking nonsense in the age of intellectualism. 
• It may be a joke for others but for you it is a conviction, you know you are under the favour of God. 

You are not exempt from trouble just because you have favour. But that trouble won’t destroy you. 

Psalms 41:11- By this I know that You are well pleased with me, Because my enemy does not triumph over me. 

• You may have enemies but let them not touch you. 

The Lord is saying to somebody that you are struggling with this disease for 5 years, God is releasing that favour to live for the next 50 years. 

• That disease will not destroy you. 

Psalm 31:7- I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy, For You have considered my trouble; You have known my soul in [a]adversities, 

• Thou has known me in the times of my trouble. I have considered that, the Lord says. 
• You are not alone in your troubles. Even though you walk through the valley of shadow of death, HE is with you and you shall fear no evil. 

There are some people that God can trust with trouble. 

• That is what the Lord said about Job. ”I know him devil. I know him. No matter what he goes through, he will not deny me. He will not allow the spirit of mammon to touch him”. 
• The four people (Daniel and his friends) are those that he could trust with trouble. 

Some He can trust with a blessing and some He can trust with troubles. 

• Some people disappear once they get a blessing. Don’t be like that! 
• In Luke 2, when the three wise men saw the baby infant, they bent down their knees and worshipped. When you see Jesus, and worship Him, He will not send you the way you came but through another way. Jesus will do something mighty for me. 
• This is the time of God’s favour to increase you 
• There is a time and season for everything under the sun. You must understand the seasons. 

In Psalms 102, David days that this is the set time of favour. 

• Psalm 102 is a song amidst affliction. There is Favour in the midst of affliction. 

Charles Dickens says this is the best of times and the worst of times. Yes, it is worst of times in the world, but for Children of God there are good times, even now. 

• For the first three months, the baby Moses did not cry but the moment he started crying, the parents understood that the season had changed and that they needed to leave this child in a basket and let him go. The cries were heard. If they had kept him with them for some more time, there would be a problem. Because they let him go at the right time, God allowed pharaoh’s daughter to pick this child up and everything began to fall into its place. 

If a child that was left in Nile River reached the palace, where would we who are released into the river of Life (of the Holy Spirit) reach?! 

I am in the river of the Holy Spirit. 

Zechariah 10:1- Ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain. The Lord will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, Grass in the field for everyone. 

• Ask for rain in the time of latter rain. 

Why should you pray specifically in this season? 

• You have to personally ask. If you don’t ask, you won’t get it. According to what the prophets of God have declared, you should pray, ask God and believe. 

How should you ask? 

• There are flashing clouds before the rains. Lightning and thunder before the rain. Those are scary noises. It could be new channels, doctors reports, so many deaths, so many on ventilators etc. these are scary noises and scary images 
• Sometimes when lightning strikes the houses shake. The world is shaking. First world countries are being shaken. Big businesses are being shaken, health care and financial 

institutions are being shaken. All industries are shaken. In the midst of that The LORD is saying, I will rain the rain for favour upon you. 

• For those who pray to me, God will send forth his rain for you. 
• People are advised to sit inside the house when there is lightning and thunder. That is what is happening now. All of you are sitting inside your homes in the lockdown. Sit right there, pray and worship and after this the Lord will send forth His rain of favour. 
• After World War II, everyone thought that everything is over. However, Japan came up Germany came out of it. You will not be destroyed by this pandemic. God’s favour, His life, His love, will see you through. 

The rain doesn’t bring down the grass from heaven along with it! Someone should have planted the seeds here on earth before the rains. 

This is a prophetic declaration over somebody. Somebody has sown a seed. Somebody has initiated a start-up. God is saying that you will reap of the seeds sown by others. 

1. Seeds sown by others: God is giving you something that someone else has sown. 

You are reaping its benefits. 2. Seeds sown by you but forgotten: Some seeds you had sown but have long 

forgotten about it. Some seeds of desire to serve the Lord or to travel abroad or to study abroad. You have forgotten it. You think, how can I go abroad now? 3. Seeds being sown newly: Now there are seeds that you are newly sowing. Sow in 

prayer. 

• Keep praying, start praying, pray in the midst of trouble, in the midst of lightning and thunder. 
• Jacob is wrestling with divinity in the brook of Jabok. 
• The angel dislocates the socket of his thigh. It must have been painful. But Jacob did not give up. He prayed, he clung to God and said I will not let you go if you don’t bless me. 
• There is a pain, there is lightning and thunder. In the midst of that if you hold onto Him, in that very place, he will make you an Israel. 

In the time of the latter rain, ASK. 

The rain of favour is falling ☺