Sunday sermon by Pastor Rajesh Mathew, 17 September 2023 

Revelation 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. 

From last Friday till today, the Jewish people are celebrating their New Year. Rosh Hashana. Happy Rosh Hashana. According to the Bible, this is prophetic for us. Every feast and every day of the Jews is a prophetic aspect for those of us who believe in Jesus. 

• This is the 5784th year as per Hebrew calendar. 
• The number 5 reflects GRACE.
• One decade is communicated by the word ‘Pey’ in Hebrew.
• From 5780 to 5789 is one decade. Pey signifies your words. What comes out of your mouth. • The number 4 is communicated by the Hebrew word Dallat means open door. 

5784 is the month of open doors 

Dallat means 3 things 

1. Door
2. Lift me up- This is the season where we will be lifted up by the Lord. The Holy Spirit will do so. 3. Poor- Poor in the spirit- This refers to Humility. Be humble and God will lift you up. Worship Him in His presence and not look at the mobile phones.

If you are poor in finances but if you are willing to humble yourself before God He will open doors. The Holy Spirit is ready to make you walk through open doors if you are ready to humble yourself before God.

Not one door but many doors. The doors that God opens are good doors. 

• The promise that God has spoken to you will come to pass. He will fulfil. 
• Heavens have kept certain surprise blessings over your life. This is a prophetic 

John 10:9- 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 

• Jesus says I am the Door. You need to first walk through the door of Jesus before you see any other door open. To heaven there is only one door, and that is only Jesus, the Door. If you walk through the door of Jesus, all others doors open. Jesus is the only door of salvation. 
• May divine doors be opened- Door of healing, door of deliverance and blessinga will be opened to you. 

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 

• Behold I am keeping an open before you. Take it and receive it prophetically if you have received Jesus as your Lord. 
• If certain doors open, some doors must close. Closed doors are doors of pain. if you are going through a process and you are not seeing anything. There is expectation but not seeing anything, then it is a closed door. 
• The wise virgins were full of oil. They had oil in their vessel and also some extra oil. However, the foolish virgins saw doors closed. The Word says that the doors closed over them.

When the Lord comes if you have oil, there is happiness and if you have some extra oil, you will be lifted up when Jesus comes. The closed doors are doors of pain.

2 Kings 4:4- 4 And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.” 

- The word says that you need to shut the door in expectation.

• The Holy Spirit is writing this to 7 churches. Don't think there were only 7 churches on the earth. There were many more churches but those churches were not known by the Lord. This was a message from the Lord for the churches that He knew. There are many churches on the earth but steeped only in rituals. The Lord doesn’t know them. But if you believe in Jesus and have been redeemed by the Blood of Jesus, and have surrendered to the Lord, your background, family name, denomination etc is not important. If you are a part of the Body of Christ the Lord will make you a part of His plan. 5 churches of the 7 were spiritually dead. One of these was about to die (it was on a ventilator); it needed Oxygen supply continually. They needed to be encouraged continuously. But there was one church that was alive, the Philadelphia church. I am alive in Jesus Christ! 
• The Holy Spirit is speaking to this church. Philadelphia means brotherly love. Some churches have signs and miracles and I believe in it. But the living church is the church where one can find God's love. Not just testimonies, not just preaching but God’s love. Do you love God? Do you love one another? Let your love for God grow and increase.
• By this all men will know that you are my disciples that you love ye one another. • Philadelphia church has life but it was not perfect. Please don't go around looking for the perfect church. You will not find one. No church including this one is perfect. It had issues. But the Lord is speaking to this church and saying “I have kept an open door”

God has kept some Massive doors. Doors of deliverance, the door of miracles, the door of supernatural provisions, the door of miraculous encounters or that of mighty revelations of the Holy Spirit. 

• It might be a marital door. Supernatural marital doors will be opened. You have your bio on matrimony.com, but nothing is happening for years. If God gave Eve to Adam, God is able to give you and your generations what they need. 
• In this season, God will open a door of marriage. The Holy Spirit is saying this to someone who desires to be married but has not happened. 

The Door that the Lord opens is MASSIVE and UNSHUTTABLE (no one can shut it) 

Some people are insecure. God has opened a door of business for you but you are scared. You are now worried about Nipah virus. Earlier because of COVID your business was badly hit. But do not worry. The door that the Lord has opened no one can shut.

Doors will open 

Doors can be opened in different ways. You can kick your door open with your feet.

• The Jordan parted when the people of God placed their feet into the water. When you place feet into something, supernaturally the door will be opened. You can kick open the doors. • The second way you can open the door is with keys. There is a sophistication when you open the key. You can be neat and smart when you open your door with keys.

What is the key? It is the WORD of God. 

Luke 11:52- 52 “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.” 

Many people put away the key of knowledge. But the Key is His Word.

Amy the Holy Spirit give you revelations of His Word. May the door of revelation be opened. The key of God’s Word. You need to Listen, Meditate and Retain the Word of God. 

• Kids eat corn and it doesn’t digest because it was assimilated as part of the children’s body. The system hasn’t received it. Similarly, the Word needs to be assimilated into your system. Retain the Word in your heart. Only when you retain the Word, you will see its fruit. It should become a part of you. Even when you are woken up in the middle of the night, you should be able to say, HE will open doors! 

God’s Word ought to be retained. That is what is called resident revelation.

• When the Word is not resident, the results are temporary. If you need to open the door, you need the Word that is needed to open it.
• Jesus saves, Jesus heals, Jesus delivers. We hear this but when we face battles in our lives, we forget this truth. That is because the Word of God is not resident in them. Therefore, results are temporary. They heard about Favour but forgot soon. So even the favour they experience is limited.
• You need to have a revelation of the Word in you or else fear will grip you. I am not doubtful that God will supply my needs because I know His Word inside. Because I know in my spirit and in my heart the resident revelation that God will supply my needs. I know that word that He will provide for me. So, I am not afraid to give or to sow! It is the same thing with healing. Some people believe strongly that God heals. So, no matter what report the doctor gives, they will still walk in healing.
• The prison doors of the apostles were opened. Not just their own door but even the doors of the adjacent prisons were thrown open. Paul and Silas worshipped.

Your worship and prayer will open the doors. 

• Your clapping of hands and worship in spirit and in truth; your songs and prayer in tongues will open doors. May miraculous doors open your life.

Abraham and Sarah had a promise but they hadn’t seen it come to pass for a very long time. • But when it was time for the promise to be fulfilled, they had an encounter with Melchizedek, the High Priest.

• When it is time for your promise to be fulfilled, you will have an encounter with Jesus Christ. God will orchestrate an encounter for you. 
• Four chapters later, in Genesis 18, when Abraham and Sarah were under the Terebinth trees of Mamre. Jesus came that way with two angels. Abraham invited them home. 

Jesus will never come uninvited. You need to open your mouth and invite Jesus Home. • Are you calling Jesus into your home? If you do, His presence will come. 

This is the key point- No matter how long you have seen your shut door, your service to God must be in proportion to your wait. Longer the wait, longer the shut door, longer should your service unto the Lord be. Your faith should be more than your wait.

• 89-year-old Sarah was willing to prepare a good meal for the Lord herself. Are you ready to serve the Lord even during the wait?

Revelation 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. 

• I know your works, the Lord says. You cannot just be a floater, a spectator, a fan or a supporter and expect doors to open. You must be willing to serve the Lord and work for God. “I know your works”, the Lord says. In whatever way, will you work for Him? If there is a blessing if I just
• It is not important if you claim to be a fan of the pastor, or that you follow him on Instagram, but if you are surrendered to serve Him, that will open a door for you.
• What I am seeing now in churches is that it has become difficult to find people to serve the Lord. People need to be paid to worship Him nowadays. They need to be paid to play drums in church, they negotiate their charges. They go and drum in four different places on a Sunday. “If you won’t pay we won’t play.” But here we are blessed with willing people who serve God freely. Every single minister of the Lord here is like that. May you experience the blessing of your service upon you and your generations.

Don’t minister for the money but for the love you have for Jesus and your hunger to serve Him. 

• If what is meant to cut your head only knocks off your cap, then it is fine! If you serve your Lord, heaven will open doors for you. Many have still not decided to serve God. It has been years of going to church but still indecisive.

It is a decision to be indecisive. 

• Many are still indecisive. You have decided to not decide, Elijah cried out and said, how long will you falter between two opinions? If Baal is God, serve Him, if Jehovah is God, serve Him. Decide, Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth and The Life and no one can go to Father except by me.

Inactivity will kill productivity 

• Serve God. Don’t sit idle. Do what the Lord tells you Do what will build the church and the Kingdom of God. Do what is effective for God. There are open doors when you serve God. • Jacob worked for Laban, his father-in-law for 14 years. He says to his wife, “You know how I served your father passionately, day and night.” Will you work day and night for your Heavenly Father?

Not just serve Him on Sundays or on weekends but every single day, Serve Him all 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. May the Lord raise some of you up to serve Him passionately, every day.

Jeremiah 48:10- 10 Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.

The work of God is not an ambition. It is a vision. 

• The work of the Lord should not be done deceitfully. Be straightforward. Some people work with their right hand and destroy that very thing with their left hand. They appreciate the sermon in the church and outside they criticise. God hates Mixture. You ought to be straightforward. 
• The tree in the Garden of Eden was the tree of knowledge of both good and evil. It was a mix and God forbade them to eat from it. God doesn’t like mixture. 

You are either hot or cold. Therefore, if you are lukewarm, I will spit you out, says the Lord. On Sundays you are piping hot and on other days you are lukewarm. God’s work must be done with a fire of the Holy Spirit. May the fire of God be upon you while you serve Him. May the Holy Spirit deposit a fire inside of you. May you be on fire for God. 

Revelations 3:8- “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. 

So, if you want open doors, you need to

1. “I HAVE SEEN YOUR WORKS” - WORK FOR JESUS
2. “NO ONE CAN SHUT IT”- The Word says, I have kept before a door, let no man shut it. This implies that men will try to shut the door. If God chooses you, the devil will attack you, but none of His plans will succeed. There is divine preservation in Christ.

If nobody bothers you, it means you are a nobody. 

God's choice is the devil's target. 

• Down let your heart become tired when you see the shut door. Don't stop believing in God. In the midst of your enemies, God will prepare a table for you 

God told Joshua I will be with you just as I was with Moses, no one can stand before you. Take it and receive it as a prophecy. No matter who comes or rises against you, they can do you no harm, the Grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit will keep you.

Enemies are not permitted to stop you but are allowed to watch you enjoy at the table that the Lord prepares for you. 

3. “YOU HAVE LITTLE STRENGTH” 

God picks up such people, who know they have little strength. 

There was a woman who was bent over for 18 years she could not lift herself up. The Lord did a miracle for her. You are not able to walk straight on your own, you are not able to move forward on your own. The Holy Spirit is saying this to someone –“I know you have little strength. But I will release my grace upon you to walk forward. You are unable to lift yourself up but I will lift up.” 

He is the glory and the lifter of your head. God is releasing a grace upon your life. 

Romans 9:16- 16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 16 So it is God who decides to show mercy. 

• It is the Mercy that God shows. 
• There are people with degrees and degrees and yet they have decreased and decreased. But people with strength and no degree, have only increased. Why? It is His mercy and His grace. Out of His fulness you have received Grace upon grace 
• Our attitude must be like this- Lord you help me. I cannot handle this. I need You, I am surrendered to you. I am dependant on you! 

In Ezekiel 37, the Lord asks Ezekiel- can these bones live? He replies, Lord I don’t know, only You know. I am surrendered. That is what is little strength, I can’t win this battle. Please come down and help me Lord. If this dependence has come into your life, there is a door that the Lord has opened in front of you.

God is knocking at your door. God doesn’t want your offering and donation. He wants you! He needs You! 

God needs me. I have little strength but Lord, I surrender myself to you. 

HE WILL OPEN DOORS