Sunday Sermon by Pastor Rajesh mathew

Esther 7:3- 3 Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.

• As we have been hearing from the Lord, this last month of the year, the 12th month is also a month of prayer.
• When queen Esther came in front of the king she said, if it pleases the King, first before placing her request. Request is not a priority if she doesn't please the king. • The devil had tried to all he could against Esther’s family and her clan. This was her last resort. She did not impulsively ask the king what she wanted but she said “if it please you”.

Prayer is to please the Lord.

Jesus doesn't answer you first. He first looks at you. HIS eyes are on you! Tell Him, “If it pleases you, Lord, then grant my request.”

• In the 12th month, let this be your focus- pleasing God.
• Jesus says in the Book of John, ‘I always do that which pleases the Father”. • This morning, let the Holy Spirit help you understand this truth

No prayer will go unanswered if you say “Lord I want to please you”.

Ezra's 6:15- 15 Now the temple was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

• In the Gregorian calendar, it is the month of February. But Biblically, it is the 12th month or the month of Adar. THAT was the month where the work of the house of the temple of God was finished.

The Holy Spirit says- December is going to be the month of certain works coming to completion. The 12th month is a month of completion. You will finish what God has started in your life.

Let’s look at the life of Joseph.

Genesis 40:23- 23 Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him. • The butler not just forgot him but he forgat him. However, when it was time for prophecies over Joseph’s life to be fulfilled, God made it happen. When the very people we thought were meant to help us fulfil the plan of God forget you, do not worry; God Himself will make it happen.

• Forgat means disappeared from your existence.

This month, those that are meant to remember you, will do so. The HOLY spirit will stir them to stand up and show up for you.

• Sometimes we expect people to help us. But they forget. People sometimes only remember the bad and not the good. God must have made the butler forget. May be Joseph would have ended up as the assistant of the butler, but God will not share His glory with anybody. God created us for His glory or for His pleasure.

Revelations 4:11- “You are worthy, [a]O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they [b]exist and were created.” • Everything that you have is to glorify God. Tell Him, “If it brings You pleasure and brings You glory, then bless me with a good house, a good job, ministry etc.” Everything is for His pleasure. Our worship or prayer is not to please ourselves but to please God.

• In mark 5, we see 3 categories of prayer

1. The devil's prayer

• He also knows the importance of territory. In Gadarenes, there was a person possessed by demons. Jesus asks his name and he responds “legion”. He beseeched and prayed that Jesus would not send him out of that region
• In Acts 4, the apostles and disciples prayed together. The prayer affected the place. Pray in the living room, bedroom and the chair you sit on. Demonic strongholds will be broken in that place.
• Let certain houses and regions become free this morning in Jesus name. The devil says I am legion. We are 6000. He starts with “I” and then says "we". There are many of us. The demons try to frustrate you. You find that any which way you turn, you are attacked. Whether it is through financial lack, ill-health, feelings of loneliness, depression, making your children devoid of blessing etc!

In all the ways that the demons are acting against you and your family, this morning we command the bondage to go.

2. The prayer of people

• The people of that town also prayed. They said, “Lord you leave this country”. Jesus heard the devil’s prayer and the prayer of the people. But HE did not answer the prayer of his disciples. The Lord wanted to make this demon possessed man an evangelist to 11 towns.
• A greater glory is coming. You may not be having the freedom in any place at the moment, But God will fulfil what He has intended for you.
• The fulfilment was to see him as a minister to 11 villages. The 12th month is a month of completion.

Esther 9: 1-2- Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, the time came for the king’s command and his decree to be executed. On the day that the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, the opposite occurred, in

that the Jews themselves overpowered those who hated them. 2 The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And no one could withstand them, because fear of them fell upon all people.

• Contrary to the enemy's hope, the Jews gained victory over the enemies. The enemy's plans were thwarted.
• Because I pray to Jesus, because I trust the Lord, every plan of the devil will be destroyed. You won’t die. Whatever is trying to destroy you, let the strength and power of God's word descend upon you to prevail. HE will turn things around in favour for you.
• When I stepped out for God, somebody had said that in 6 months all this spiritual craze will leave. “Lord it is for your pleasure that I survive.”

Esther 9:15- 15 And the Jews who were in [a]Shushan gathered together again on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men at Shushan; but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

The month of complete victory. The month of destroying the devil fully!

• Their loves had rest from their enemies. Rest is such a good word. 12th month is a month of rest. Are you tired of battling? Not RUST, just REST.
• The rest that come from Jesus. In this the month of Adar, the 12th month of the year, may the Lord fill you with divine rest.

December is the month of receiving rest from GOD.

Esther 9: 22- 22 as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of sending presents to one another and gifts to the poor.

Sorrow means the state of prolonged pain or continuous contradictions.

The Holy Spirit is saying that the people of God will move from sorrow to joy. This monthHe will wipe away every tear.

Isaiah 53:3-4- He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.

• He carried our sorrows. By His stripes we are healed. Look at the Lord! He took away all our sorrows. The highest forms of sorrow is to think that everybody is against you. The devil will make you think like that.
• Joseph almost lost everything. People have taken advantage of every great person in the Bible. Be ready to be a door mat sometimes. People will use you and throw you. But there is a God who will not forget you. God is sending His presence and peace over you. You look to Jesus.
• Forgat is not for 6 months. It is forever!!

Esther 9:17- 17 This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. And on the fourteenth of [a]the month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness. The church will open up. When you do come, come with a sacrifice. Sacrifice means to pay a price. See the effects of the Word happen in your life. Test the Lord in this. God will do great things for you.

It is said that only 7% of the pastors in the world give. The rest are planning retirement. It is also said that 70% of Christians never win a soul to the Lord.

Give your love, give out your gifts. Be kind-hearted. Be good to people.

Esther prays in chapter 5 and in chapter 6, the king feels sleepless and he gets someone to read the Book of Records. This book keeps a record of things here on the earth. God is wanting to look at the book of records. There will be things written in the book about your life here on earth. “David, you slept with someone else wife and killed that man”. In 2 Samuel 12, we find prophet Nathan meeting David and exposing his sin. And David writes Psalm 51 in response to that. He says, “against You alone have I sinned oh God.”

Luke 15: 18-19- 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”

• The prodigal son came to the father and said I have sinned against you and against heaven. There is a book of records. It will be opened in your life time. • Esther did not pray to change the King’s heart but for him to open the book of records

Make sure you do the right things. Be deliberately kind. Even when people take advantage of you, be genuinely kind. Don’t oppress one another. Don’t malign somebody else

.

Exodus 23: 2- 2 You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.

Verses 7- 7 Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked.

Verse 9- 9 “Also you shall not oppress a [a]stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 6:18-19- 18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, 19 to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.

Live with that consciousness. Remember there is a Book of Records.

Esther 6:4- 4 So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

• Don't badmouth pastors. Pastoring is the last phase of parenting. Pastors teach you life, not just the Word of God.

Verses 4 and 5- The king’s servants said to him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” So Haman came in, and the king asked him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?” Now Haman thought in his heart, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?”

• Just before Mordecai was supposed to be hanged, God had met the king. God is always ahead of the devil. Let anybody conspire against you. That's why no matter what challenges come against your life, don’t panic or fear. Stay in faith and the promise of GOD.

God is always a step ahead before every conspiracy of the enemy.

• God has kept few things for my freedom. When church opens, come with a sacrifice. What prayer and fasting cannot do, sacrifice can do. That will activate His blessings upon your life.