Sunday Sermon by Pastor Rajesh Mathew, 18 June 2023 

Luke 12:32- “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Today is the Father’s Day. How many of you will thank the Lord for your fathers? There are 4 types of fathers in the Bible: 

1. God the Father- If you have received Jesus as your Lord and Saviour in your heart, then God becomes your Father. You have a Father in heaven 
2. Biological father - The father who gave birth to you, your natural father. 3. Spiritual father- The one who has facilitated your birth in Christ. The father of the church where you are planted and where he builds you up in Christ 
3. The devil as the father. 

John 8:44- 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 

• The father of lies is the one who comes to kill, steal, and destroy. When we became born again, we divorced that relationship with the devil. The Heavenly Father adopted us, owned us and placed us within His church and GOD wants to release His blessing. 
• There is a fatherly blessing that heaven is going to release over you. Are you ready to take it!? 

Genesis 1:27-28- 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that [a]moves on the earth.” 

• God created Adam and Eve and the first thing He did was He blessed them. Our Father is a Father who blesses.

A fatherly blessing will come over your life. I will release what God has placed in my spirit.

• The first thing the Lord did was bless them. There is Blessing and there are Blessings • Blessings may refer to children and family life, good businesses, jobs, good results, good houses, nice cars – all these are blessings. God has not asked you to go behind blessings but to be blessed by the Father.

When the fatherly blessing comes from God, blessings will follow. What you need is the blessing and not blessings!

Blessing means

• God's power to make you successful.
• It is God's help and ability coming upon you.
• The ability and help you require to become what God wants you to become is a blessing. • The ability for you to succeed and win 
• The ability for you to be fruitful and for your fruit to remain and multiply. God is taking you into a season of multiplication.

Your anointings and giftings will multiply and increase in a manner that your blessings will not be destroyed.

Just imagine that there is a 40 stored building. You can either go up that building by stairs or by lift. Blessing is the lift. There is no stress or strain involved. There is no tension. There is wholeness and confidence. You only need to get into that lift and you will just move up. The Father’s blessing is not you sweating, toiling and losing sleep but it is the Lord just taking you forward. If you climb stairs, you will sweat, may even have a heart attack, have increased BP etc. but the lift is easy. It is fast and you can stay calm with the fan on. 

The Father’s blessing is coming upon you to take you where you need to reach.

• Did Jesus get stressed about feeding the 5000? Was Peter tense about paying taxes? Just receive this word, and you will walk in such a great grace as this.

You need to understand that God wants to bless you, even through your biological father and through your spiritual father.

• All these three ways are a part of God’s plan and purpose to help you. 

Malachi 4:6- And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” 

• God desires a relationship. In the OT, if there was a strong relationship between the father and the children, the curses would be considered broken. 
• Through the death of Jesus on the Cross, we have a relationship with the heavenly father and we have a relationship with Him. if you stay close t Him, honour that relationship and connect with Him, n curse can stand against you. the blessing of the Death of Jesus on the Cross will manifest through your life.

God even wants your biological father and spiritual father to bless you.

• God has placed a blessing for you in their hearts. Your father may not pray, maybe an unbeliever. It doesn't matter! Within him is a blessing placed for you. 

HOW DO YOU TAKE THAT BLESSING?

• Go home, sit next to your father, and tell him, ‘I don't need the house, no car, no money, not a job, not your property, I just need you!’ I just need you, appa. Then the Blessing within your dad will be released. Bigger than any blessing is my dad for me and there you will be blessed. What will follow are the various manifestations of that blessing. But most people desire only 

blessings.

• In the Garden of Eden, there was no poverty. There was no disease. Then what did God bless them for? We think the blessing is to be rich, disease free. Eden was already all that and more. Yet the Lord blessed them.

In Genesis, we see that Joseph was in the place of great power. He was the Prime Minister of Egypt and as responsible for changing the situation of the country. He was highly respected by Pharaoh too. Despite all this, when Jacob came, Joseph knelt before him and said bless me and my generations. You may be rich, you may be the one bringing honour to your family, and you may have got that visa but Jacob knew and so did Joseph that the greater thing is the blessing.

Ask your father to bless you

Genesis 27:27- 27 And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said: “Surely, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. 

• You need to get first get close for the blessing. He went close, kissed him, blessed him and said so. Isaac has wells, livestock, maid and menservants, gold and silver. He did not take all this and give it to his son. He spoke and blessed him. it is not about taking a signature on the will.
• Esau got everything else, the goats, sheep, the estate, the real estate. But Jacob got his blessing. Jacob left with nothing but just one rod in his hand and the blessing of his father. When Jacob returned, he came back with blessings.
• Some people go to the pastor to pray and all he says is ‘God bless you’, and you wonder, is that it!? You wonder if he will not help you. But no, everything is there in that blessing.

Your eyes should not be on things but only on the blessing.

• Blessing is generational. You may not be able to pass on your BMW to every generation but if you have the father’s blessing, it will attract BMWs to all generations.

Some of you are going to enter the lift!

There was a man of God in Singapore. He was praying and the Holy Spirit took him to the heavens, he saw Abraham there and he says that contrary to the mental picture he had of Abraham (maybe as an old, white-bearded man), he was actually young looking! That man of God came back to earth and he started looking younger. He is 60 years old but looked much younger. If the Father’s blessing comes upon you, your youth will be renewed, the generations will walk in the blessing of God.

Heaven has 3 lifts for you to get to where you need to get to: 

1. The Blessing in our relation with the Heavenly father 
2. The Blessing in our relationship with our natural father
3. The blessing in our relationship with our spiritual father.

All these three are needed to get to your destiny.

Genesis 27:12- 12 Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.” 

• Jacobs is worried here, what if I am found to be a deceiver? What if Isaac found out that he is not Esau and only pretending to be Esau? Deception could not stop the blessing. The curse cannot stop the blessing! 

What is a curse? Curse is the power or spiritual force that brings failure into your life. You can't expand beyond a limit. It stops you from going beyond a point. The Father’s blessing can break that.

• The pastor is not important but what is important is that you understand the light and the value within the Word of God. Understand the value of the Fatherly blessing. In that is your and your generation’s blessing, take it by faith. 
• Sit with your father. Ask your father for his blessing. That blessing will travel with you. Know that your father has a blessing. Wherever you go you will see that blessing come with you. • Some people come to me asking me to pray for them to get their visas. I sometimes feel like asking them how can you be so sure that they will get blessed by going abroad by not getting 

blessed here first. It is not the place that blesses you, it is the blessing that blesses you. I am not against anybody going abroad. 

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO THIS FATHER’S DAY?

1. Understand that there is a blessing within your father 
2. Pray for your father every day 

• That will connect you to your father. The grim and serious father will suddenly begin to smile at you. Some of you may have lost your fathers and they may not be alive anymore. Don’t be saddened. Find one person who can give the value, and love that you would have given your father. God will see that and do something miraculously 

3. You need to decide that you will make your father’s life easy 

• This Word is for both men and women. I will take my father to the doc. I will iron his clothes, I will serve my dad from my heart. If you do that, certain blessings will come your way through that.
• Luke 15, we read about the prodigal son. He did not want the father. He only wanted the wealth, he wanted the blessings. He couldn’t wait for his father to pass on and took his inheritance. He also took a curse with him, he lost everything and became empty. He came to his senses and returned to the Father and he was restored.

If the curse comes, you will be a failure everywhere. If the blessing comes you will be a successful person, wherever you go.

Genesis 49:3-4- “Reuben, you are my firstborn, My might and the beginning of my strength, The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. 4 Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed; Then you defiled it— He went up to my couch. 

• These lines are being spoken by Jacob when all his children and grandchildren come and stand before him. From these scriptures, we understand that your Father can withhold your blessings. The father says to Reubens you will be without honour. Reuben was the oldest of the twelve. He created problems for his father.
• When you read the bible as per Bible historians, nobody significant has come out of Reuben tribe. Because the father withheld the blessing. Not one made it to the 40th floor. When we read the Bible, the people from the tribe of Reuben were the ones creating the most trouble for Moses. But the spiritual father Moses, says this 

Deuteronomy 33:6- “Let Reuben live, and not die, Nor let his men be few.” 

• The generations of Reuben are standing before Moses but he sees Reuben. He pronounces a blessing and breaks off that curse. 
• This morning look to Jesus. Especially those who are burdened that the fathers have cursed them I release that prophetic word over to you! Take it and be free from every curse! 

HOW DO YOU REVERSE A CURSE?

Identify the curse, repent if it is possible and allow a spiritual authority to speak the blessing over you.

• There is only one commandment of the ten that comes with a blessing and that is to honour your father and mother so that all may go well with you.
• Joseph knelt before his father Isac. He was the Prime Minister yet he knelt before the father. I have told my parents to just bless me and that will do for me. I don’t need anything else. I make them bless my children. I told my spiritual father to just bless me. 
• When I came to the Lord, people told me that earlier I was on a drug trip and now I was on a spiritual trip and that after 6 months, I would come right back. But it’s been 30 years and I have not left the Lord. Do you know why? It is because I have a blessing behind me! • May you be blessed, may your fruit remain and may it multiply for the glory of God 

Genesis 9:1- God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 

• God blessed Noah and his sons. Two generations were blessed- He said, ‘Be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth.
• Noah had overcome sinfulness, opposition, and floods and remained in that boat. He came out but he did not win over the wine. He got drunk by the wine and lay down naked.

Children should know how to handle the weaknesses of their fathers. No father is perfect, neither your spiritual father is nor is your natural father.

• If your father is not a terrorist or a child abuser, you need to know how to cover your father's weakness. If he is then you will need to speak to the concerned authorities in love and in prayer. You should know how to in love cover your father’s weakness. Noah wasn't both of these. Yet Ham tried to expose him. 

Genesis 29: 25- And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 26 And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. 

• We see in the scripture above that Noah did not curse Ham but he cursed his next generation Canaan. 

Fathers open doors to the next generation.

• Ham made a mistake and his generation was suffering. May your generations become free in Christ Jesus. The curses and bondages that are tying you up knowingly or unknowingly, be broken this day.

In my life, I need to journey with my father.

• Maybe you earn 1 crore a month from your job. Maybe your father earns only 15k. But still, you need to learn to kneel before him as Joseph did. You need to journey with your father.

Luke 12:32- “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

• He is pleased to give you the kingdom. My Heavenly Father will give me His kingdom. Romans 14:7- The kingdom is the righteousness, leave and joy in the Holy Spirit.
• Righteousness means you are aware that Christ gives you His righteousness freely and you are conscious that it is not your works. A constant sinner identity means that you are not in His kingdom! If you are forgiven by the Blood of Jesus, you are righteousness conscious.

You can have 24x7, peace and joy in your life if you are in the kingdom. If not, you are in a religion. You don’t have a relationship with Jesus.

• In some countries, the government will take care of everything, your children’s education and infrastructure is great, the government takes care of old people, those without jobs are taken care of by the State and there are countries like that. And in the Kingdom of God, the Lord will take care. You stay whole and at peace, and the Father will take care. No need for any tension. Even in your old age, the Lord will take care of you. Don’t lose your peace, and don’t be burdened. I will take care of you, says the Lord.

If you are in the kingdom, the King of Kings will take care of you. Don’t be tensed, don’t be pained or weighed down.

• Some people are half in the kingdom and half outside the kingdom. We are like the people who are half inside the bus and half outside it. We are waiting to jump out! If you have the chance don’t jump out. Stand firm in the kingdom, the Blessing is in the kingdom of the Father.

Jesus!!!